For those who haven’t checked in for a while, the Halo Launch Party got underway about 45 minutes ago at the Hotel Monaco in Chicago. I hope all that needed to be inside GOT inside… we’ve gotten no word from anyone there yet, but if news breaks, we’ll let you know! The Halo Launch Party Coverage page is accessible to a whole horde of HBO regulars at this point… they need to be our eyes and ears tonight.

Jeremy, from Xbox Addict, took a few pics at his local software boutique while playing – you can check ’em out in this thread on their forum. Thanks to TomeOne for the heads-up.

St. Killer drops a montage on us – a pretty scary fightscene, if it actually went down that way. 🙂 Check it out in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Gamespot’s Joe Fielder gives Halo a video review (80-90 MB download, also available in streaming formats) – word on the street is it’s full of spoilers. 🙁 Still – it’s out there.

There’s not much there yet… but in a few short hours, the Halo Launch Party will get underway in Chicago, and we’ve set up a page to handle the news and information. A bunch of HBO regulars will be there, and hopefully will get the chance to post their thoughts and observations as the night progresses. (The page will remain up, so that folks who don’t have a chance to post from the party can add their two bits after the fact – it’ll be a central repository for news and pictures from the event.) Bookmark the page!

IMPORTANT: At 2:41 am Chicago time, Matt Soell dropped into our forum to apologize for the RSVP snafu (and the limitations of reality in general). He’s not going to be able to respond to all of the RSVPs – but here are his general guidelines:

Bottom line: If you RSVPed two weeks ago, you are almost definitely in. If you RSVPed two days ago, or two hours ago, I guarantee nothing. If you didn’t RSVP, stay home.

It would be very much of a downer to be turned away at the door… so take this to heart.

Gamespy has put up their full Halo review… and they weren’t that imporessed. A solid title, but nothing special. Mostly, they were frustrated with what they saw as repetitive gameplay (“It’s like a videogame equivalent of Groundhog Day”). You can’t please everyone… Charles Clifford gets the first-spot nod.

IGN has put up their Halo review – unfortunately, it’s Insider-only. It makes some interesting points that the other reviews don’t make – but since most of them could be considered spoilers, I’ll refrain from quoting them. They also include some MAJOR spoilers – but clearly delineate them, and write them in white text on a white background, so the only way to read them is to WANT to read them. Thanks to Dan for the heads-up – read his post for the actual breakdown of their review.

In anticipation of the flood of full Halo Reviews (that is, reviews of the full game, as opposed to previews, or reviews of beta versions, or mentions in articles not solely devoted to Halo), we’ve created a Reviews page. You can find the first three full reviews there now. This page should give you easy access to what the gaming press thinks of Halo.

Gamespy’s put up their Xbox Holiday 2001 Buyer’s Guide… and Halo (of course) gets a nod. It’s not very long (6 paragraphs, and two are the same 🙂 ), but there’s a nice little multiplayer hints section, with some decent (if pretty basic) advice. Thanks to Charles Clifford for the first heads-up!

The full reviews continue – Gamespot has put theirs up. They gave it a 9.7…

Halo is a complete thrill ride from beginning to end, an experience perhaps best described as a 16-hour-plus version of the siege scene from the film Terminator 2.

Complaints? Framerate and lack of bots. (Pretty standard fare by now. 🙂 ) We’ll get a Reviews page up asap (thanks for the suggestion, Nij!). Thanks to Fo for the heads-up!

Halo makes it into USA today: a pretty big article about the ‘Battle of the boxes‘ suggests that “Hard-core players who like PC-style games probably already have put their money down for [an Xbox]”, and Halo “is like you’re playing a space marine from Aliens, except with a touch of humor.” They’re thinking it’s gonna be hard to find one on Launch Day… lots of HBO regulars hope they’re wrong. 🙂 Thanks to Lophan for the heads-up.

Volunteers needed: The Halo Launch Party tomorrow night in Chicago is a sold-out event (well, okay, the tickets are free, but the gap between how many can fit in the room and how many WANT to fit in the room is several hundred people)… but HBO has no official representative to cover it! If you’re planning on being there, think you’ll have net access during or after the event, and have reasonable writing skills, HBO wants to make YOU reporter for a day! Drop us a line at volunteers@bungie.org, and include a username/password combo you’d like to post with. We’ll set you up with an account so that you can post your impressions (or upload your candid pics) right from the show floor! This is your chance for fame and glory… or at least a permanent place in the HBO pantheon. Hurry – time is short! Update: Looks like we have enough volunteers at this time – thanks, all!

VoodooExtreme’s full Halo review has been posted. An overall score of 95% (lowest rating: 90% for Replay value and Stability). It is a nearly perfectly positive review:

After playing through Halo a couple times I can safely say with no repentance that it’s one of the most engrossing games I’ve ever played in my entire life.

[…]

Not many games with multiyear development cycles live up to fans? expectations, but I think that Halo is one of those rare exceptions. If you love sci-fi themed first person shooters, Halo is a must buy even if you have to wait for the PC or Mac version. If you have an Xbox, you must own Halo. It’s just that simple.

However, there were a couple of things listed in the ‘Cons’ summary: framerate stutters (yes, still) and ‘a somewhat anti-climactic ending’. (That’s actually not an uncommon complaint about Bungie games – Oni is the most recent example.) There are no major spoilers – Apache goes out of his way to keep the scope of the information limited to what’s already out there on the net. There are also two brand-new screens to go with the 5 released a few days ago (hi-res, and gorgeous). Go read this!

Seen over at TXB – MSN Games|Denmark has posted some pictures of an amazing gaming setup. That is one big screen…

Shockwave, of TeamXbox, has put up a 3 page, in-depth review of Halo, complete with 4 new video clips (major spoilers inside). It’s very, very positive. The game gets an overall 4.8 out of 5 – the score is broken down in great detail. Check it out… 6 more days!

Nice catch – Hyperium found a TechTV Halo review. Except for implying that Halo will not come out on a PC, it’s a decent review. They had some troubles with the controls… but nothing they couldn’t handle. One odd thing – the video clip enclosed (generic splitscreen coop play – no spoilers) at one point shows the two teammates in a jeep… and BOTH screens are in 3rd person mode. (There is no way to see what the gunner in the back is actually shooting at; the camera remains on him.) Several months ago, the gunner was first-person – either this has changed, or something was pretty screwy over at TechTV. Hmm…

Eric Trautmann stopped by the Rampancy.net forum to clarify a few details about ‘The Fall of Reach’, and the prospects for a Halo movie. Read the details for yourself!

Mr. Bunny has uncovered a couple of mainstream articles that mention Halo – the Washington Post, in a comparison of the Xbox, the GameCube, and the PS2, points to Halo as evidence that Microsoft is targeting older gamers, and the New York Times says Halo is “the most involving title” for the Xbox. Not bad, for mainstream press!

Djof has succumbed to Bungie fever, and created a nice desktop using the Bungie motto (and some nice compositing). Check it out in our Wallpaper section.