Matt Soell dropped in to reassure folks about the upcoming Halo Launch Party:

I’m 90% done with a FAQ which I intend to post along with details of how to RSVP. Expect something online in the next couple days. But don’t get too worried in the interim.

Good to hear!

Wow – the demand for the Halo Theme distributed by Microsoft is huge – and for those who can’t get it from Skeletor’s web page, Funky J has made it available via Hotline – details can be found in this forum post. Again – even in its stripped-out form, it’s full of goodies, including a high-quality M60 round sound (all you CS fanatics, take note) and some Craig Mullins artwork.

Ruzhyo points out an article at IGN Xbox: you get to pick what you think are the top three games of 2001 (released or not) – the top 25 will be announced on November 12. Go make sure Halo is there!

Anonymous Coward finds an online version of the Scientific American article mentioned yesterday. No need for scanning… thanks, AC! (Warning – this is REAL science.)

Daniel alerts us to the cover story in the current Scientific American; it should be interesting to Halo fans:

It describes a ring shaped area within/around the Milky Way galaxy which appears to be the only area containing planets capable of supporting any advanced life. The most interesting quote mentions that if an alien race were looking for a new home, Earth would be near the top on a pretty short list.

Anyone want to scan this for us?

Eric Trautmann confirms that great effort was made to keep Halo spoilers out of ‘The Fall of Reach’, the Eric Nylund prequel due out next week. You can safely read it without worrying about ruining your gaming experience. Thanks, Eric!

We’ve added the two desktop images from the Halo theme mentioned earlier – one of them has Craig Mullins artwork in it. You’ll find them both in our Wallpaper section.

Paul Roberts points out a Microsoft Quiz on Windows XP. Get 100% (or cheat) and you can download an exclusive Halo Theme for Windows… Update: Skeletor has extracted all the Halo stuff and re-zipped it, for the benefit of Mac users… very cool!

charleya continues the crunching mania, churning out 306 units for the Halo SETI Marines this week. Int_21 puts in a very respectable 190… but can’t keep up. Watch out for Bjlake, though – almost doubling your output in a week is pretty impressive! How are you doing? Check the 7 day stats page to see!

New, very oddly-sized desktop image in our Wallpaper section – check it out.

Ryan ‘Mhaddy’ Matthews writes to let us know that all of the new Gamespot movies (and the one free IGN movie) have been mirrored at the Junkyard – check the downloads page. If you’re having trouble with the original sources, this should be a boon to you!

Bob can’t drive? It’s true! Well, for Warthogs, anyway. Chris Butcher explains. Update: no Bob-driven Scorpions, either. There goes my platoon…

Omniscient takes a break from writing Fan Fiction to send in a new desktop image for our Wallpaper collection. Nice artwork, and nice sentiment!

JoKeR has finished up the basic outline of his Halo Marine model – he’s still tweaking, but it’s mostly done. It’s based on the old-style Marine, not the new… but it’s pretty slick in any case.) Check it out in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Thanks to Ruzhyo, who pointed out a new poll at IGN Xbox – What game are you most excited about? (Based on recent information, of course…) Halo is currently well in the lead… if you haven’t voted, go make sure it stays there!

Acidburn sends word that we’ve been lax about mentioning Bungie.de, a German Bungie fansite (the Halo section is the only part online at the moment). There was a news mention a few months ago (they’d mirrored a Halo movie in July), but we apologize for not paying more attention to the rest of the site. Go take a look!

Marty to win that new Game Music Grammy? Matt says it could happen and it couldn’t happen to a nicer old fella. Matt also says there are several new pieces of Halo Swag in development for the revitalized Bungie Store. Go, Go, Go!

TeamXbox.com to ride again! Thanks to the support of EBgames.com TeamXbox is due to make a comeback. Check their site for more info. Thanks to tarehart for the heads up.

Bob don’t drive! According to an Xbox IGN article on the driving aspects of Halo the NPCs don’t drive. Here’s the beef:

But if you decide that you’re NPC gunner isn’t getting the job done and you’re in a place where you can afford to be stationary, you, as the Mark V Master Chief, can hop out of the driver’s seat, hit the X button to kindly ask your Marine buddy to move and take over the turret yourself. Same thing if you decide to take over the passenger seat yourself and ride shotgun. The catch is, the NPCs don’t drive, and really as talented as they are, you wouldn’t want them to. So they simply stand next to the Jeep and watch you get busy.

I don’t think I’ll be the only person disappointed by this if true. Thanks to Harry “Could drive but isn’t allowed to” Al-Shakarchi for the heads up earlier this morning.

Kudos to Blizzard for spotting eight new Halo movies over at IGN. Check his forum post for the details. UPDATE Charles D. Clifford noted these movies first on our forum. Sorry Charles.