Bali has noticed a new Newsflash on Xbox.com – a story about the Halo 2 Launch Party, which will take place on November 8th at the Toys R Us in Times Square, in New York City. Special guest appearances, prizes for gamers, and some pre-release playtime for a limited number of lucky folks. Details at both Xbox.com and ToysRUs.com.

Sketch sends word that Halo 2 is Gold. This means it’s done, certified, in the box; time to start duplicating. There are far more details, if you’re into that kind of thing, over at B.net. The critical piece, though, is that it’s DONE.

Wow. It took way too long – but I’ve finally cleared out most of the Dialogue Databank queue – there are 157 new entries today, including an entirely new Multiplayer section (really clean – thanks, Captain Spark!). There are large swaths of new Jackal and Elite sounds, as well. Go see what you can find!

A brand-new cut from the Halo 2 soundtrack, by Breaking Benjamin, has been released on nilerodgers.com. Thanks go to WRATHofGOD, of halo-zone.com, for the heads-up. It’s still not clear how (or if) this is actually used in-game. Update: Although we’ve known about the 2-volume soundtrack, today it’s been officially announced by Sumthing Else Music Works. More details can be found at TeamXbox (thanks, MiD33) and DailyGame (thanks, GoogleAlerts).

Missed this yesterday – there was a story at TeamXbox about Team Compete, a group which is firing up a couple of leagues for Halo 2 competitive play. There’s an Open League, free to everyone with a XBL account, that will have a $2500 cach prize purse for their inaugural season… and a Pro League, which will require a fee for membership, but will have a $25,000 cash prize purse for the season. More details will be forthcoming, as the season gets closer (play will start on November 9). Thanks to HaloPlanet for the heads-up.

BOLL went to the trouble of importing a Halo 2 MC from Singapore – then he took it outside, and had a photo shoot. Luckily, there are no bikini shots.

Today’s One One Se7en was inspired by a forum conversation with Dave Candland, interface designer for the Halo 2 HUD. Poor MC…

We’ll start you off this Monday morning with 11 new pieces in the Fan Fiction section. Read with your coffee…

Couple of notes from Jonah yesterday – lots of stuff slipping through the cracks. First was an interview with Matt Leto, better known in the Halo community as Zyos, over at Gamespot. There’s a video interview that goes with it; streaming for the masses, 52.3 mb of QuickTime goodness for Complete members. Cool fact – in the past 12 months, Matt has won $55,000 in Halo tournaments. (He’s 20 years old!)

Ms Man has once again shown that there’s more to Halo than you knew. This time, he managed to get a Banshee outside AotCR. Completely outside the level. To the point where you’re looking at the map – as an enclosed space. And you’re not in it. The video is 4:36 long, and 16 mb in WMP9 format. We’ve mirrored it, and created a QuickTime version (16.9 mb). Thanks, Juggertrout, for pointing out another jawdropper.

DocOctavius stopped by the forum to point out the new Yayap.com Halo CE dedicated server, running ‘most of the best Halo CE maps in various gametypes’. The entire map collection can be downloaded from the website – if you haven’t played many of the Halo CE custom maps, here’s a chance to see a whole bunch in one place!

If you’re Canadian, go visit your local Blockbuster video; i fyou pre-purchase Halo 2 or Halo 2 LE before November 9th, you’re entered to win one of four life-sized Master Chief statues. Details on this Promotions page. (I could find no similar page for US-based Blockbusters.) Thanks, D_BRINGER.

Yaksha points out Sponsors vs Freeloaders Episode 2: Freeloaders Strike Back, a movie parodying the relationship between Red vs Blue sponsors and those who want hi-res versions of the videos without paying for them. It’s 9 minutes long, 12.7 mb large, in WMP9 format. There’s some explanation of what this is about (and links to the first episode) on their website.

Rocketwidget pointed out a couple of new images; one is a small screenshot that can be seen on the EB Games page devoted to Halo 2 LE (it’s a shot of the MC boarding a ghost being driven by a White Elite), and the second is over at GameWallpapers.com; it’s an ‘Exclusive for Registered Users’ image ($14.95/year), a preview can be seen here. He found both of these over at the Xbox365 forum.

Thanks a million to SketchFactor, who managed to find the pictures of last year’s finalists for the Bungie.net Halo-ween contest (the inspiration for our very own 343 Guilt O’ Lantern contest). You can see these – and maybe get some ideas – in our Guilt O’ Lantern section.

There’s a new video from Ms Man – a whole series of funky glitches and tricks. 12:44 long, 14 mb, WMP9 format. Some really cool stuff in there. You can find a link to it in this forum post – if bandwidth runs out, drop us a note, we’ll put up a copy.

The big news this weekend was a leaked commercial shown at an annual meeting of EB Games Store Managers, and filmed on the sly by one of the participants. Quality is AWFUL, but the content has been enough to galvanize Halo (and general Xbox) forums all over the web. It’s clearly not out there with the blessing of those who made it, so I’m not going to post a link on the front page, but there are literally dozens of posts on our own forum with links to this small video, and other sites have put up mirrors for it; if you want to see this, finding it should be trivial. If you’re one of those who thought that the new alien information in the most recent magazine articles was ‘Spoiler’ material, DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO. As far as I know, this was intended to be released to the public sometime in the next few weeks (close to the end of October). This is NOT the video Frankie alluded to in Friday’s Weekly Bungie Update – that is something totally different. If we get more info about this commercial, we’ll be sure to pass it along.

Dang. Fury Three has updated his around-the-net collection of Halo Lego links – there’s a lot of stuff out there! Check ’em out.

Blackstar noticed that his local EB Games was on the list of stores planning to open at midnight on the 9th – but calling the store itself gave him a different answer. Contacting EB Games directly yielded the info that stores can decide whether or not they’ll be open; your best bet is to call your store before heading out there.

IGN has decided to prepare for Halo 2 by posting Halo 2 content every day until release. The first article is ‘Ten Things To Do While Waiting for Halo 2‘. It’s pretty much as silly as it sounds. (There’s also an article about the Halo 2 soundtrack, but most of it is the explanation Marty posted on our forum, and then later again on The Marty Army chapter of the 7th Column.)