According to Reuters, 70% of preorder customers at Electronics Boutique ordered Halo with their Xbox, compared to 61% for DoA3 and 27% for Oddworld. Thanks Marcus Lai from Gaming Age who posted the story.

Gaming Age is reporting that EBGames has already shipped some of its preordered Xboxes, two days before the official launch date and attendant ceremonies in Times Square. Marcus Lai from Gaming Age got his Bravo Pack on the 13th.

And, as we all know, EBGames' Bravo Pack includes Bungie's Halo, as well as DoA3 and Oddworld.

Jason Bergman at ShackNews posted a short item today after talking to a local retailer:

I spoke with an independent retailer this afternoon who told me that even though it launches on Thursday, they still don't know how many Xbox units they'll be receiving. As he is sure they won't get many, he said that their plan for the holiday season is to focus on the Playstation 2. This isn't too surprising of course - Sony screwed over small retailers with the PS2 release last year, but it's never good to hear that independent stores have such a hard time with system launches.

While a launch itself doesn't make or break a console-- it certainly didn't in the case of the PS2, it isn't great news for the Xbox to have retailers depending on the Sony hardware this season. After all, last year the PS2, while it had supply problems, had no real competition. There was no new Nintendo hardware, the Xbox was still a year off, and the Dreamcast was already foundering by then.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates opened the Comdex trade show yesterday, and got a chance to hawk some upcoming products. Furthermore, Gates looked a few more miles down the road ahead, according to this story at Xbox365:

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates opened the big COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas by predicting that computer technology will soon overcome many of its current limitations. In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the productivity improvement that we provided in the '90s, he was quoted as saying. Gates also took the opportunity to plug the tablet PC his company plans to launch late next year as well as the Xbox video game console it will launch later this week.

Not sure exactly how the Xbox video game console fits into increasing productivity, but there you have it.

Louis Wu has posted an item at HBO that Flawless Cowboy (aka Case) made a forum post about the Halo review at Gaming Age.

The review itself is positive, and makes a good counterpoint to PlanetXbox's, which termed Halo disappointing . G-A makes the case that Halo is indeed revolutionary, or at least atypical:

Halo is not your typical first person shooter. In fact, I actually prefer to not even call it a FPS at all. You play from a first person point of view, pick up weapons and kill enemies, but that's where the similarities to your run-of-the-mill FPS ends. Halo is strictly a story driven action/adventure game that incorporates some of the better FPS elements into it. The game most easily comparable would be Half-Life, but even that just pales to the overall scope and vision of Halo.

G-A gave Halo an A (superlative) rating.

Remember that IGN subscription service, the one that gets the best articles as an exclusive first (assuming they aren't mirrored or posted somewhere else)?

Well, this month IGN will be giving away three consoles: a Sony PS2, a Nintendo GC, and an Xbox.

It's also possible to become an Insider for free through American Express Blue or Columbia House. Caveat emptor.

GameSpot is running a story saying that Microsoft has confirmed that their DVD player won't be capable of using progressive scan:

The company would not elaborate on the specific reasons behind the exclusion of progressive-scan, but judging from previous comments from Microsoft executives, the feature was, at one point, under consideration for inclusion in the Xbox. Supported by newer digital high-definition televisions, progressive-scan writes one full frame of video in a single pass--as opposed to the double pass used for the regular interlaced method--which results in a clearer DVD image quality.

The article speculates that cost may have been an issue in the decision. There are several comments attached to the story indicating that the story is old, but this is the first story I've seen that specifically cites Microsoft as a source of the information.

The winners of the Taco Bell Xbox giveaway are being announced as they are confirmed over at Xbox.com. If you don't see your name on the list, don't worry, just keep watching the site for updates. (Thanks Subnova)

While they called the graphics undeniably pretty and loaded with all sorts of eye candy , PlanetXbox has been less than completely pleased with Halo as a complete package in its latest review:

Since finishing Halo a week ago, I've had a hard time deciding how to review it. On one hand, Halo is a darned good game -- it's ambitious, has some great action and an engaging story. If you pre-ordered an Xbox months ago, Halo should absolutely be in your shopping cart when you wheel your new Xbox out of the store.

At the same time, I can't help but feel a little disappointed -- Halo is hardly the revolutionary game it's been hyped up to be. It contains some truly brilliant moments, but along with feeling like a PC game trapped in a console's body, it also contains a frustrating amount of uninspired, repetitive gameplay that may well have you yelling at your TV.

While the review takes care not to give away anything about the story, the reviewer does suggest that some may have issues with the direction the story eventually takes. Interesting. What could it mean? The review goes on:

While I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more than two races represented within the Covenant, it should be noted that there are other threats in the game that (purposefully) haven't been mentioned in previews or shown in screenshots. I won't give away any spoilers here; suffice it to say that they're not in short supply...and many may find them eerily reminiscent of another popular game...

Normally I'd expect a remark like that to fuel some rampant speculation; however, I suspect a large number of us are going to know in a few days time, which will bring us the difficult tasks of how to manage spoiler information for those who won't have their hands on an Xbox for a few weeks (like me) or are waiting for the Mac/PC version of Halo, as about half our readers are, according to the most recent poll.

The Xbox commercials are now all over television screens, including Halo's commercial. Within 90 minutes, I caught the Oddworld commercial two or three times and Dead Or Alive 3's commercial once on Fox. Shortly after, I saw the Halo commercial on The WB. Of course it was only a matter of time before these commercials became available online, and well, now they have.

TeamXbox has got the first four Xbox commercials available for download on their site in ASF format. If you are looking for the Halo commercial in MPG format, then you can thank Kayas for sending a 320x240 version to HBO, who has in turn uploaded it to their Mac.com server. Get downloadin'; it's good!

Reprisal at RHL pointed us to a CNN story about the Xbox's launch this week at Comdex, focusing on the interesting relationship between the upcoming console and the company behind it:

The Xbox console is, like many teen-agers, embarrassed to be seen with its parents. In its $500 million worldwide advertising blitz, Microsoft's name will appear in tiny type, if at all.

If the software maker is mentioned, it'll be to appeal to gamers' parents, says John O'Rourke, the company's director of games marketing.

Microsoft's chief Xbox officer, Robbie Bach, is quoted as saying the Xbox is expected to provide Microsoft with a foundation in the home on which to build in the future.

As noticed by Louis Wu at HBO, there's another GameSpotting article about Halo, this one focusing on multiplayer. The game's been quite popular in their offices:

Everyone fought for control of the warthog jeeps. Since no one was allied with anyone else, the machine gun turret on the back went completely to waste, as we all simply tried to run each other over. Sometimes two warthog drivers would begin running into each other like a miniature demolition derby. Whoever got flipped would then get run over, adding injury to insult.

The article is written by Joe Fielder, who also wrote GameSpot's Halo Review.

TeamXbox's new FAQ is so cool it gets its own server: http://faq.teamxbox.com/. It covers questions about where to buy an Xbox, about the hardware and the games.

Despite minor complaints about framerate issues, and the lack of bots, GS liked Halo plenty. Interesting, in fact, that most of the other reviews haven't carped about the missing bots that much.

But aside from that, the review gushes from the get-go and doesn't stop:

Even if you bear in mind the company's well-earned reputation for creating excellent games for the Mac and PC, Bungie's epic Xbox first-person shooter is of such a staggeringly high level of quality that you can't help but be surprised. 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. Those who've spent the last few years looking for a first-person shooter as good as Rare's GoldenEye 007 or Valve's Half-Life will be happy to hear they need look no longer.

Of course, nobody ever praised Half Life for unseating the king of story shooters, Marathon, but then again not everybody has the benefit of perspective.

Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO who spotted the item.

HBO's own Louis Wu has posted that IGN's Halo review is out-- although most of us won't be able to see it for awhile. It's at IGN and is Insider Only at the moment.