We got to pokin’ again, and found 4 unnoticed Halo reviews. None of these are dated (they’re not even listed in the news sections of the sites in question)… but hey, we know they’re from the last few weeks, right? Xbox Gaming rated Halo 98%, Xbox Gamers said 9.9/10, Xbox City thought it was a 4.8/5, and Xbox Xtreme gave it 9.5/10. We’ve added these to our Reviews page.

What th… Matt Soell finally gives it up and explains his two-year-old comment about wall-hugging hippos… and you’re left with a NEW question! (They were proximity mines, that never made it into the game… or did they?)

Cesar Berardini, of TeamXbox, dropped us a note telling us that Amazon.com had informed him that Halo was not available:

We’ve recently learned from our supplier that the item you requested to be notified about, HALO, will not be available in the foreseeable future.

Whoa – a huge reseller like Amazon can’t get more… does this mean they didn’t print enough?

Pallor writes to say that a local radio station in Nashville, 102.5 WQZQ, is running a contest – they’re giving away an Xbox a day until December 25. (They’re calling it ‘Putting the Xbox in Xmas’.) Since WQZQ is part of the Dickie Brother Broadcasting Network, there might be a radio station in YOUR town that is hosting a similar giveaway… (I couldn’t find a linke to Dickie Brother Broadcasting anywhere on WQZQ’s site, so you’ll just have to do your own hunting.)

Two new Halo reviews out there: The Armchair Empire gave Halo a 9/10 (citing framerate drops and a ‘B-movie science fiction’ plot), while GameOver gave it a 97%, even though they had a problem with a protagonist who could flip a tank over with his bare hands, but not kill instantly with a melee attack. We’ve added both of these to our Reviews page. Thanks to Narcogen, at Rampancy.net, for the heads-up.

Thanks to Acrappa, who noted on Rampancy.net that IGN Xbox has put up a PDF Halo Guide for its Insiders. This is just the previously posted Halo Walkthrough, packaged up as a PDF document – in fact, the HTML version (available to all, not just insiders) has screenshots the PDF version doesn’t have. Still, the search function is pretty nice… As a side note, IGN has reported that Thursday evening, for about 24 hours, they’ll unlock the Insider site and let folks look around – they’re hoping that the taste of what’s available will get you to want to subscribe. Whether this tactic works or not, realize that you’ll have 24 hours to grab whatever content you’ve heard about in the past that you haven’t been able to see…

We received a wet-looking Halo logo from Rob Cox – we’ve added it to our Logos collection.

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews, curator of the JunkYard, points out that VoodooExtreme is hosting a new poll: ‘Your pick for 2001 console game of the year?’ Currently, Halo has 690 of 1591 votes (or 43%, handily outdistancing the second-place Grand Theft Auto 3, with 15%). If you haven’t voted, make sure you do!

The sharp eyes of mnemesis are STILL working – he caught a new job listing on Bungie’s corporate site.

3D Animator

Bungie is seeking a skilled character animator to join our quest for world domination.

Responsibilities:

• Create realistic animations for a variety of characters that meet Bungie?s quality, originality and creative standards, all within tight technical requirements.
• Maintain a consistency of animation with regards to appearance, style, timing and other related aspects from one character to another.
• Assist with other aspects of art production, such as modeling and texturing.

Requirements and application procedure are listed, as well. Hmm… is the Phoenix team looking for new blood, or is this for a NEW project?

The Unicycle? Matt Soell alludes to an intriguing tidbit in this forum post…

There have been a couple of print articles waiting for their respective issues to be off the shelves – since they now are, we’re posting them: Here’s a 2-page Halo review from the November 2001 issue of Game Informer (Halo got a 9.5):

• Page 1 (224K)
• Page 2 (215K)

And here’s last month’s Official Xbox Magazine review (Halo also got a 9.5):

• Page 0 (252K)
• Page 1 (215K)
• Page 2 (245K)
• Page 3 (237K)
• Page 4 (220K)

More when we remember!

German Halo site Halo Orbit is running another Wallpaper competition – the winner will be showcased on their site for a full month. Check out the details (in German) here!

Jason O’Brien has created a new image for use in an upcoming Fan Fiction story – we’ve added it to our Miscellaneous Art collection.

Microsoft is trumpeting its half-a-million-units-sold news far and wide – Reuters sent out this picture of a Microsoft Employee playing Halo (on a pretty nice TV) to accompany it. Thanks to mnemesis for noticing it…

Thanks to Uriel, who sent in the full 12-page Halo article from last month’s GameStar magazine (in german). It’s finally off the shelves, so we’ve archived it.

Page 1 (170K) Page 2 (246K) Page 3 (270K) Page 4 (265K) Page 5 (267K) Page 6 (299K)

Page 7 (325K) Page 8 (307K) Page 9 (314K) Page 10 (335K) Page 11 (267K) Page 12 (302K)

There are a few other articles we’ll be putting up soon… Update: Thanks to MakeMineRed, who pointed out there are some serious spoilers on page 7 – even for folks who don’t read German. Careful…

Oops… Chris Butcher sheds light on one potentially annoying behavior in this behind-the-scenes look at the development process. (Personally, I would have thought it would be hilarious… once.)

Another one we missed – thanks, No7orious! 123 Xbox put up their Halo review last week – they thought that cutscenes weren’t very good, and that the falling animation (when you fall off a cliff) was ‘dorky’, but loved the rest of the game. Overall rating: 9.8. We’ve added it to our Reviews page (which needs a navigation tool, and soon…).

There’s been forum speculation that Microsoft might try to stomp on the ‘competition’ for MS’s upcoming online services provided by GameSpy Arcade and Xbox Gateway. Seems they’re taking the high road on this one – a recent addition to the Xbox FAQ for the Xbox Retail site asks

I’ve heard that utilities have been developed that allow Xbox Systemlink games to be played over the Internet. Is this true? What should I tell my customers?

The answer (in part) reads

It’s amazing and exciting to see the lengths that gamers will go to in order to take their Xbox games online. The GameSpy arcade efforts are a strong indication that people want online console game experiences. Additionally, these efforts showcase the superiority of Xbox because it was built from the ground up to provide people with the next generation of exciting online game play.

It goes on to explain how the MS service will be far more secure and scalable when it comes online. This is a refreshing reaction from a corporation known for their ruthless responses to perceived threats. Thanks to TeamXbox for the heads-up.

You’ve gotta love statistics – even when everyone uses the same numbers, they look different. IGN GameCube (in an ironically-titled article called ‘The Numbers Don’t Lie‘) is reporting that in the week following the release of the GameCube, the GC outsold the Xbox 469,000 to 186,000 units. (Halo, with 97,000 units, was nearly tripled by Luigi’s Mansion, at 257,000 units.) IGN Xbox, on the other hand, points out that the Xbox had a 3-day headstart on sales… and its total sales up to the 24th (the same ending date as cube.ign.com is using) are 556,000 units. This jibes nicely with Rampancy.net’s numbers – they reported last week that CSFB (the same firm IGN got numbers from) published a report showing Microsoft sold 370,000 units in the first 2 days – 370,000 plus 186,000 equals 556,000. (This also suggests that Halo’s total sales in the first 10 days are closer to 275,000 units, since 176,000 sold in the first weekend.) Thanks to No7orious for noticing this discrepancy first.

Jason O’Brien sends in a new image for our Miscellaneous Art collection – minor spoilers exist. Interesting vision, though…