This also in from ConsoleWire: The NPD Group has just released information on the top-selling Xbox titles.

NeoBob pointed out to us that awhile back the promised Jason Jones Interview went online at the Bungie.net Truth and Reconciliation site.

Louis Wu has reported another Halo review over at HBO. This one's by Phil at XboxGate, yet another Xbox site we didn't even know existed until now.

As for Halo, well, they liked it:

Marcus Lai at Gaming Age has put up an Special about how well Halo lived up to the promise of its first tech demo more than three years ago, and the verdict is that it has, and very well indeed:

Maps of Halo's multiplayer levels are up at Truth and Reconciliation. Overhead views of maps, lots of helpful hints. Hurray! Head on over if you've got nothin' else to do like me! There's also some new human vehicle concept art. Thanks HBO for that last tip.

Kudos to Rabbit who pointed out that IMG has interviewed Bungie's Alex Seropian. Seropian discusses the significance of the Oni team's involvement as well as Bungie's transition to console games. Of course, IMG had to inquire about Halo for the Mac:

Jason at Xbox365 has written a short review of the Halo prequel novel, The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund.

Unfortunately, he seems to be laboring under a serious delusion-- namely, that Bungie's game was based on Nylund's book, rather than the reverse:

Icrontic, the web site that's already taken their Xbox apart in hopes of hacking it up to do neat things, has posted an Xbox vs. GameCube opinion piece. The result? Nintendo by a nose:

One of the things cited as refreshing, if not actually innovative, about Halo is the fact that it doesn't depend on the usual key-door-boss sequence that has plagued the shooter genre since Doom. It seems not everyone feels the same:

Battleground: Halo spotted an interesting tidbit in the latest issue of PC Zone:

Our guess is that Halo for the PC will be out next autumn, probably to coincide with the announcement of Halo 2, which is already being worked on and a cert to arrive on Xbox first yet again.

Before you get all excited, this statement has no credibility. Don't believe it simply because it's in a printed magazine; they're very often wrong.

Voodoo Extreme's poll asking for your pick for console game of the year has ended and Halo absolutely swept the competition with 47% (1928) of the votes.

There is now a new poll asking which game has the best graphics of 2001. Halo is winning with 23% (1098) of the votes, but Return To Castle Wolfenstein is only 88 votes behind. Go vote, and vote often!

Wondering about the Jason Jones Q&A that was expected to be online this week? The bungie.net website has updated with this information:

There is a nifty screenshot over at Marathon Open Source that shows the Warthog from Halo rendered within Marathon. Funny, I don't remember it being those colors.

The Game Of The Year Awards have begun over at GameSpy and they are allowing you and me to vote for our favorite games. As far as this community is concerned, Oni is a candidate in PC action, Myth III in PC strategy, and Halo in Xbox game of the year.