Tony Hawk fan =Syed= won the Ford pickup with the built-in Xbox at the Xbox Unleashed competition in New York City. See his item at TeamXbox for details and photos.

TeamXbox is running a story about the broadcast advertising campaign for the Xbox that began running this month. It will focus on the console's various launch titles, including Halo, Oddworld, Amped, DoA 3, Project Gotham Racing and NFL Fever 2002.

On November 4, four teaser ads featuring the Xbox logo began running. On November 11, new ads apparently will show the games in action, as well, according to John O'Rourke, director of sales and marketing for Xbox at Microsoft:

The Xbox launch Nov. 15 marks a new era in digital entertainment where video games will come to life as never before, O'Rourke said. We knew the television advertising had to convey the electricity and intensity of Xbox games, and there was no way to do that other than featuring actual gameplay footage. We are proud of the ads and are confident that gamers are going to find them exhilarating, too.

The broadcast campaign supplements the Xbox Unleashed events, the traveling Xbox Odyssey show, and promotions involving national chains like Taco Bell.

Louis Wu at HBO spotted that xbox.ign.com has posted the second part of their Halo Multiplayer Guide. Just like the first part, right now it's visible only to IGNInsiders. This part describes Halo's 26 multiplayer game variations.

Game-Revolution has posted a rundown on the Xbox's launch titles in different categories. Naturally, Halo kicks off the Action category, and they liked the game a lot:

As a console first-person shooter, Halo's control has a slight learning curve, though it's negligible compared to other FPS's. Weapons are great and they each have a very distinct feel. The Alien Needler is the current office favorite, firing crystal shards that stick into an opponent only to explode moments after, causing spectacular collateral damage if used properly.

Halo is the Xbox's pride and joy. It's drenched in fun, laced with beauty and dipped in a vat of technological brilliance. If there's a shoo-in for launch, this is it.

They note that they didn't base their preview on final versions of the games, but it doesn't seem to matter much; there isn't much new information here, just more of the same almost unequivocal praise for the game-- including praise for the controls.

tanmeatloaf, or Sebastian, over at Xbox365 just got back from the Xbox Unleashed event in Los Angeles and has posted an article about his experiences there. Halo doesn't get mentioned much in the article itself except to say that despite earlier indications, Halo was available in the free play areas but not used in the competetion phases of the event. Later, in a response to a reader question about Halo, he wrote:

Halo rules. i played very little of it because i had the competition going on. then again, I did play a bucket load of it at e3. Don't worry though, all the problems with the framerates have been fixed, and it looks better than ever. I can't wait to get it in my house.

Considerably more digital ink is spent on his meeting Seamus Blackley and getting an opportunity to dis a prominent GameCube supporter, but you can check all that out yourself if you like.

UPDATE: This story from two days ago at xbox.ign.com that explained the structure of the Xbox Unleashed event also mentioned that Halo was not included in the competition because of the 'M' rating. There's no information on exactly why it was allowed in the free play area, then, or how access to it was policed, if at all.

A story at Wired News focusing on the Xbox Unleashed event is pointing out that production machines there are running 12 hours at a stretch without any crashes, and reiterates that the instability noticed in some kiosk machines were caused by faulty demo discs and not bad hardware.

Sam posted about his experiences playing Halo at a kiosk in a local mall over at HBO. Besides saying that the Xbox controller wasn't anywhere near as bad as suggested, he was impressed with Halo in most respects, especially the graphics:

Halo is like the Matrix. You cannot be told what Halo is. You have to experience it. Seriously. The cutscenes, the movies we've seen.... [They] pale beside the real thing. Debating getting an Xbox? Go check out Halo in action. It really does put the movies to shame.

Sam also noted that he didn't see any framerate drops during his play, and level loads were all less than three seconds.

Between October 30 and November 9, MSN.ca and eBay.ca are running a charity auction to benefit Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, according to a story at Xboxweb. There are two Xbox packages up for bid, both valued over $800. One is a snowboarding bundle that includes Amped, the other focuses on Oddworld. Neither includes Halo. The auction is open only to Canadians.

Although we don't normally report rumors, the ramifications of this one seemed minor enough that it shouldn't affect the majority of users either way.

ActiveXbox is reporting that an anonymous Electronics Boutique store told them all Link Cables for the Xbox have been recalled. Since it's basically just an ethernet cable, this shouldn't inconvenience anyone, even if it is true.

Microsoft today selected Activision's NBG EDV Handles & Verlags GMBH subsidiary to be a distribution partner for the Xbox video game system in Germany, according to a story today at TeamXbox.

Louis Wu posted a link to a CNN story over at HBO entitled Which new game console should you buy? Nine editors from GamePro.com give advice and make predictions about the Xbox and the GameCube, as well as the reigning king, the PlayStation 2.

Air Hendrix had this to say about Bungie's platform of choice:

The dark horse is certainly the Xbox, and if not for Microsoft's deep pockets, it'd be easy to call it the Dreamcast 2. But outstanding games like Halo make the Xbox a serious contender. If I had pick to the most-likely-to-fail, it'd be the Xbox, but I think it has a real chance, and its fortunes rest on how much gotta-play-it software Microsoft delivers in the next year or so.

Star Dingo went further, saying that Halo now sits at the very top of my MUST PLAY list, dethroning Star Wars and DOA3. We'll omit his admission that he'd commit unspeakable acts to do so. Oops.