The update itself doesn't seem to be quite large at all, and as of this writing, it has become available even at my undisclosed location. After successfully downloading the update, you'll see the number "1.1" in the lower right-hand corner of Halo 2's main menu screen. This disappears once you login to Live and reappears when you logout.

Roppongi Hills-- a noted gaijin hangout in Tokyo-- will host an Xbox 2 press event next month, prior to E3, according to Computer and Video Games. The invite-only event on May 13 will feature a viewing of the MTV broadcast scheduled for that date. Thanks BDGamer.

Aside from bringing in Frodo and the Killers (there's a band name--Ed.) it appears that Microsoft's MTelevised launch for the Xbox's successor is going to leave a lot to the imagination, with more details to be fleshed out at the later pre-E3 event and then still more at E3 itself; at least, so says corporate VP Peter Moore to GameSpot. Thanks Eurogamer.

Littlebigman pointed out GameSpot's latest Rumor Control column, that sports purported images of the Xbox 360's controllers that seem consistent with the partials seen at ourcolony.net. (Mini-editorial: For all the ribbing Microsoft took for the original "Duke" Xbox controllers, I grew to like them, not for their bulk, but for their button layout. The diamond of the XYAB buttons follow the natural angle of your thumb while holding the controller, and are tightly spaced so that you can switch to different buttons quickly. The S-controller, originally developed for the Japanese market, is much more svelte and moves the white and black buttons around, which annoyed me. On the new controllers, they are apparently long gone. But the real problem was how widely spaced the XYAB diamond was, and its aligment-- at ninety degrees from your body, which meant that aligning your thumb so that it is equidistant fromthe buttons jabs your elbow into your rib cage. Not smart, with or without wires-- Ed.)

Xbox365 today has a press release that US registration for the World Cyber Games 2005 championship tourney is due to open April 15 at us.worldcybergames.com. At the time of this writing, the site was not yet up. Halo 2 is one of the WCG events.

The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) has announced that their Halo 2 Xbox tournament is changing format from 5x5 to 4x4, due to "overwhelming support" for that format. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.

SketchFactor has posted the summary of the latest Humpday Challenge-- after a short hiatus following their humiliation against typical Japanese Halo players, Bungie rewrote the rules (they now pick one of the gametypes and actually practice as a team beforehand) and rebounded with a solid victory over Art Vand3lay, flechette, goatrope, Ducain, Sorahn, and Jphan7om of High Impact Halo. Ducain posted the story at HIH and Phan7om posted in the HBO forum (thanks Louis Wu).