Xbox365 has posted links to several images from a Japanese site, where they've dissected their Xbox and taken a few pictures.

FunXbox has posted a positively glowing review of Halo on their site. Here's an excerpt:

The level of detail in the sprites, environments, and objects is simply astonishing. The screenshots you have been seeing for the past year aren't lying, the graphics in halo explode past any and all of the graphical boundries we have seen in shooters over the past decade. Stepping out of the aircraft into the giant world of halo is like opening your eyes for the first time. You will be reminded of the awesome detail and visually captivating graphics when you turn on your flashlight, jump in your vehicle, rip through the skies in your aircraft, or even when you fire your weapon, pulling down the trigger treats you to an amazing array of lights, colors, and textures.

They give Halo a total score of 9.8. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for the heads-up.

Voting for Game of the Year in 11 categories, including Xbox Game of the Year, starts now and runs through December 23 at GameSpy. Signing up for a GameSpy IDis required.

We missed TechTV's (very positive) review of the Xbox, posted back on Launch Day:

The Xbox is the most powerful game console ever. That's not to say it's necessarily the best gaming console available; factors other than raw power come into play when deciding which console to buy. When people familiar with Sony and Nintendo's next-generation gaming consoles pick up an Xbox controller, they will notice a marked difference in the graphics quality and processing power of this machine.

It's divided into four sections: Introduction, hardware, fast, but not perfect , and reality.

Jack Mathews at Shacknews now has an Xbox and a GameCube, and so to start off a new round of fla... I mean, discussions, he's posted a few positive impressions of titles for each console to start off:

Halo - Surprisingly very fun, especially the indoor combat. The enemies are extremely fun to fight against, the health system is great, infinite respawns at checkpoints are nice. The controls (once I could invert the lookaround) are pretty damn nice.

Not really sure why that starts with surprisingly unless he never really enjoyed reinstalling Windows 98SE. But then again, later on in the article he calls Super Monkey Ball a great party game so perhaps normal human beings aren't competent to even guess what he considers fun .

Xbox365 reports there are no plans to launch the MS console in China.

Psyrixx posts his story of Xbox acquisition.

The new Bungie.net site runs on (surprise, surprise) Microsoft's IIS software and Windows 2000. Cortana, g0t r00t?

It was long suspected.

The detailed environments in Halo push the Xbox's graphics hardware to the limit, as evidenced by the slight framerate problems right up until release. The VGA adapter for the Xbox went AWOL, and Microsoft updated the Xbox FAQ to indicate that connecting the Xbox to a monitor wasn't possible.

Put together, it suggested that perhaps Halo would be producing output at a resolution appropriate for a standard TV-- 640x480-- even if connected to another device.

And now we know it's true. Matt Soell has responded to a thread in the HBO forum about some display problems experienced by someone using a Sony Wega KV36-XBR400 with the Xbox HD AV Pack.

Matt had this to say:

Both Jason and Joseph are out recuperating from illness and/or surgery, but I asked Marty and Jay about this. Neither one had a definite answer, but we're all 99% sure that Halo outputs the same resolution (640x480) all the time. Not sure why the picture would seem more or less aliased at any given time, because I don't think we change resolutions or anything else during gameplay that would cause that.

I'm sure the picture still looks better on an HDTV than a standard one, but it looks like even if you have one, or the mysterious VGA adapter reappeared, you'd still be using the 640x480 resolution. Question is, what does that mean for Halo on the Macintosh and the PC? And what illness and/or surgery has befallen Jason and/or Joseph?

A few more Xbox Launch stories have cropped up:

ConsoleDomain has reported that while most people at the NYC launch party were able to get their hands on an Xbox if they wanted one, that supply is now constrained.

GameSpy has a feature on the Xbox Launch, including a report from the Times Square event and an interview with Don Coyner, Microsoft Xbox's Head of Marketing for North America.

Deimos&trade of Subnova posted a link to Penny Arcade's review of Halo:

I have in my possession the massive Xbox, as well as the magically delicious Halo. I said before that I hoped to verify somewhat the extraordinary press that preceded the title, and as it happens, I can: Halo, as it turns out, is very good!

They weren't nuts about the controller, but found it better than some of the third party alternatives. But what really interested them was coop play:

[...] and it needs to be said, the inclusion of Co-op and the lack of excuses about it are well received by your hosts here at the Arcade. It's the best looking FPS probably ever, even on a humble television - there's a truly idiotic number of bump and environment maps on pretty much everything you can see. I don't see any reason to play it alone though, make a friend buy the controller (hell, make them buy the whole damn Xbox) and find out what is missing from most of today's releases.

So it looks like the Penny Arcade staff can go on both loving and hating the Xbox, and now in person.

HBO's own Louis Wu posted a note that IGN has put up a complete-- and I do mean COMPLETE-- walkthrough of Halo. As Louis notes, you can get around having to register with IGN to see it if you turn off javascript in your browser. Here's what they say in the introduction:

Halo is the best first person shooter ever made. It's not the first, it's not the most influential, it's simply the best. The combination of great control, amazing story, excellent enemy AI and slick level design adds up to a truly impressive game indeed. Is it the best launch game ever for a system? It would be hard to argue with Super Mario Bros. in this category, but Halo will have you rethinking this. It will have you rethinking a lot of things. Like which console you're going to buy this holiday season. Like whether or not you need to eat. Or sleep. Or do anything you should be doing. The single player game is a masterpiece, and the multi-player will keep you and fifteen of your closest friends warm for years to come.

If you don't want to know too much about the game before you play, don't read any further than that.

UPDATE: Harry pointed out that the walkthrough is detailed, but not complete; it only covers the first three missions or so.

Our very own Tobin has posted a story detailing his experiences purchasing an Xbox on launch day.

CoreMagazine has posted an Xbox Launch Guide. The first page includes a short description of Halo. Page two has a rundown on accessories.

Steve Gibson at Shacknews posted a personal tidbit about Halo as part of an Xbox launch coverage roundup:

I actually took a trip down to the local store the other day and played some more Halo. Making a couple other little kids cry by hogging the machine wasnt so bad... Anyways I dug it. It kept my interest and I only wanted to throw the controller about 3 times. Not bad for a FPS on a console. At least in the beginning of the game it seems pretty heavily story driven which was cool. No idea if that lasts through the entire game or not.

From other indications, though, I'd say that story focus does last that long...

fate noticed and Louis Wu posted at HBO that Firing Squad has a section on Halo in their Xbox Launch article.

Nij and The Shrike have posted their first impressions in HBO's forum.

Xbox.com's resident grrl gamer Jacqui Kramer loved Halo enough to quote Jane Austen. Thanks to Allenthar.

Lophan pointed out an article at Games First called Notes Scribbled In The Dark While Playing Halo .

Jason at Xbox365 has posted that the manuals for Microsoft's first party Xbox games (including Halo) are available online in PDF format.

Jason also posted a story about his out of the box impressions. He didn't play Halo, opting instead for Project Gotham Racing, and what he liked best was the audio capability:

The ability to rip your own virtual CD and have top toonz playing during a game cannot be underestimated. For years, gamers have had to put up with listening to dodgy tunes whilst fragging, nuking, beating or racing - no more! - If you are partial to Abba, Beethoven's 5th or Korn, no problem, rip a virtual CD, select which tunes you want to hear and Roberts your fathers brother (as they say in England).

There is also a page with some pictures of the Xbox launch party in Times Square, including one of Bill Himself playing on an Xbox. (I wonder, could they have hooked it up to the Jumbotron?)

TeamXbox also has a story on the Launch Party with more photos of Bill and others.

xbox.ign.com has an article on overnight vigil before the Los Angeles Xbox Launch Party.