Final Solution Xbox has posted some scans of the Halo disc, as well as some really useful advice for playing the game, like Don't piss off Covenant Elites. Spotted by Louis Wu over at HBO.

Once again, the Xbox preorders available from Amazon.com sold out within minutes; the Xbox page at Amazon now lists November 15, the launch date, as the next opportunity to order.

IE Magazine (Interactive Entertainment) is running an interview with Ed Fries from Microsoft's gaming division. In addition to a couple of tidbits I didn't know, like the fact that Fries started with MS in 1985 as an intern, there's a short mention of Halo and other Xbox launch titles:

We recently came off a preview tour with game editors, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for our launch lineup over not just how well these games played, but with the variety of titles weТll have ready around launch. Halo plays like youТre in the middle of a science fiction novelЦitТs destined to be a hit in the action category; NFL Fever 2002 is giving television a run for its money it looks so real; and Oddworld: MunchТs Oddysee has great characters in Abe and Munch and massive environments that can only generated with the Xbox hard drive.

He also talks about a few Xbox features I wasn't aware of-- like the fact that you can apparently copy music tracks off of a CD to play in the background while you play Xbox titles like Amped and Project Gotham Racing. I suppose that's done in WMA rather than MP3 format, right, Ed? Thanks to Jeremy at XboxAddict who first spotted the item.

TeamXbox posted an interview with J Allard yesterday from the Xbox Unleashed event in New York. On the subject of online play, which comes to the Xbox next summer:

We are definitely ready for next summer. The first group of gamers to adopt the online play will be the really hardcore gamers. When Unreal Championship comes out, they've been working on that for 2 years, built from the ground up for Xbox, it will be ideally the premier online title, and that will be a total frenzy. We'll probably have 5-6 online enabled for summer, and then add another 12-15 over the year, so for Christmas 2002, we'll have about 20 online titles.

No mention of Halo specifically, but it's hard to believe that online play won't come to Halo in some form or another by next summer.

Microsoft may not break even on the Xbox gaming console until 2004, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, quoted yesterday in an article at Reuters.

We believe that Xbox could lose around ($1 billion) ... before breaking even in (fiscal 2004) if the product is reasonably successful, she said in a note to clients.

Such a large shortfall is expected despite the fact that the Xbox will debut at a price $100 more than its nearest competitor; by far the most expensive console that will be available this holiday season.

In addition, the estimates on the number of units available at launch has dropped from the originally announced figure of 600,000 to about half that number.

The item was originally spotted by Byron Hinson at ActiveXbox.

Gaming Age has put up an article describing their first impressions of playing Halo. It's generally complimentary, although their response to the game's opening wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as most fans' reactions to the intro movies posted awhile back:

Halo appears very much like your standard FPS at first glance, but after some play time the game's beauty and high production values shine through. The first level, which takes place on a rather boring looking space carrier is not what I would call a good representation of the game's visuals. Upon entering the very next scene, which is set on the alien wilderness covered surface of Halo, the graphics jump up a bit higher high on the scale.

The article is, however, universally complimentary about Halo's sound and soundtrack, calling it beautifully orchestrated . Louis Wu at HBO spotted it at TeamXbox.

Allenthar wrote a nice post in our forum about his experience at the Xbox Odyssey event in San Fransisco on the 4th of this month. It focuses mostly on playing impressions and combat events rather than story spoilers, but he does warn that reading it might take away from the first experience of playing the game, so beware.

Unlike some others who have played, he didn't mind the splitscreen modes:

Simply put, Halo looks great and any worries you may have had should be completely dispelled. On another note, I was afraid that Halo would look poor because of the low resolution of the ordinary television. I played for about half of the time on a 18 or so television and even with four players you could still see everything you needed to fight effectively.

There's a very interesting anecdote about some camping techniques near the end of the post; it's worth a read just for that alone.

What do columnists for Advertising Age know about the console gaming market?

Not much. Even Bob Garfield, writing for the AdReview site, admits he doesn't know much about gaming, so when discussing the recent Xbox campaign by McCann-Erickson, he delved into gaming message boards to find out what prospective customers were looking for.

Apparently he didn't visit us here, because this was his reaction:

If you ever want to get depressed verging on suicidal, spend an hour on gamer message boards. These people -- this next generation -- are what psychologists call absolute freakin' morons.

While such boards sometimes lack a certain grace-- as well proper grammar-- this seems unjustifiably harsh. Although noticing that one gamer quoted misspelled the word bigger might make one inclined to agree with the author.

TeamXbox has posted a link to a RealPlayer edition of the Xbox commercial featuring Halo gameplay footage that is expected to air starting November 11. There's a article about the campaign at adreview as well. And as some fans feared might happen, AdReview has misinterpreted the slogan Combat Evolved to be part of the game's title, referring to it as Halo Combat Evolved .

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.