Mr. Blonde warned us all on the halo.bungie.org forums that xbox.ign.com posted a new Halo preview today.

There are a few things odd about it-- it lists the number of players as 8, even though we've been told up to now that network play would be for up to 16 players distributed over up to 4 boxes. Of course, it also lists the ESRB rating as T which we also know is wrong.

It's an odd mix-- it looks like this is really an update to an older preview, as it contains some stuff about Bungie's three-stage development process that looks like it was written quite awhile ago. It does contain this bit of exposition on the opening of the game, though:

The actual first level of the game features you as one of the elite Marines on the Pillar of Autumn assisting the other marines to fight off boarding parties of Covenant soldiers. It is total chaos; Covenant soldiers are boarding and slaughtering the crew. You must reinforce the other Marines while preparations are made to abandon the ship. All of this is happening in the midst of massive fire fights with upwards of 25 to 30 characters on the screen at a time. Once the ship is destroyed, you land on Halo and begin a makeshift guerrilla war against the alien force.

This would be easy and all if the humans weren't scattered all over this 10,000-mile wide ring and you have to search out survivors of the crash as well as other Marines all while fighting off a force that outnumbers you by a very large amount. Trying to survive and seek out the other humans who landed with you is the goal of the game. As you make your way along the giant interior of Halo you will come across fellow Marines and crewmen who will help you out. All the while you will be discovering some very shocking secrets about Halo, which turn out to be some extremely cool plot twists.

Interestingly, Halo will support both 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and force feedback, according to the article.