Myth Village is reporting that Norton has updated the Anti-Virus definitions and Myth III no longer reads as being infected with the nimda virus. The updated definitions are available at Symantec.

The winners of the Taco Bell Xbox giveaway are being announced as they are confirmed over at Xbox.com. If you don't see your name on the list, don't worry, just keep watching the site for updates. (Thanks Subnova)

ax pointed out in the community forum that Planet GameCube is reporting that Nintendo is allowing retailers to sell the GameCube as soon as it arrives in stores. Apparently the FYE stores in Connecticut are already selling the new system, which wasn't originally going to be made available until November 18.

If you have pre-ordered the GameCube, you may wish to call the store you purchased it from because if they have received the shipment, you will be able to start gaming a few days earlier.

Tobin pointed out on RHL that Lex from Survivor Africa has listed Marathon as his favorite computer game in his biography.

Butch sent word to Subnova that his Mac OS X Hotline client, Frogblast, has reached 1.0 status and is now available to the public. I have been using the client since its initial beta six months ago and can tell you that it's far superior to BigRedH's official client.

Check out the Frogblast website for more information and then download it at Subnova. Be sure to stop by RHL once you're all setup.

While perusing through the IGN Xbox forum, I came across a thread that claims Halo got a 9.7 out of 10 score from IGN Xbox. Oddworld apparently got a 7.4, but the real kicker is that Metal Gear Solid 2, Halo's prime competetor for game of the year, got a 9.7, too.

I definitely look forward to reading these reviews when they are made public on Monday.

TeamXbox's new FAQ is so cool it gets its own server: http://faq.teamxbox.com/. It covers questions about where to buy an Xbox, about the hardware and the games.

If you thought that PlanetXbox was drooling over the graphic detail in Halo, think again; epic science fiction isn't apparently really their bag. Today they've reviewed Dead Or Alive 3, and here's what they have to say:

Developed by Team Ninja exclusively for the Xbox, Dead or Alive 3 is the single most technically (read: graphically) impressive game in the system's initial lineup. Madden 2002? Whatever. Halo? Please. In the arena of graphical prowess Dead or Alive 3 blows everything else away. In fact, I'm not exaggerating when I say that DoA3 has the best real-time graphics yet seen in a video game.

Well, everybody has to have priorities, I suppose. And it's just the nature of escapism to want to act out virtually activities you'll never have an opportunity to enjoy in real life. I'm sure I'll never have a chance to single-handedly wage war against an alien race on an ancient artifact in deep space, and, well... the PlanetXbox staff prefers to admire the female form through the lens of their television sets.

Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2 will compete on even terms this holiday season; at least in terms of price.

GameSpot is reporting that in an interview with Reuters, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Kaz Harai said that Sony will increase production but not drop prices. We're very comfortable with the [$299] price point, Harai said. That puts two of this year's console competitors on an even financial footing, although the advantage for installed base and number of game titles goes to Sony, even if the Xbox has more powerful hardware.

Sony plans to increase production of the console to meet holiday season demand, from about 1.8M units per month to 2M units per month. When Microsoft posted the official list of launch titles, Ed Fries of Microsoft commented that Flextronics last Friday produced 27,000 units in one day. Operating at six days per week for about a month, that translates to about 648,000 units per month, about one-third of Sony's current production level. All in all, it may be much easier to find the PS2 this year than the Xbox-- and when you do find it, it will be at the same price and have more games to choose from. In order for customers to choose the Xbox over the PS2, there will have to be other factors involved-- like an overriding desire to play Halo.

Only Nintendo is attempting to compete on price this season, undercutting their competitors by $100 by pricing their upcoming GameCube at $199.

Worldwide, Sony has shipped 19M PlayStation 2 consoles, and it expects that by March of next year it will have shipped 10M in the United States.

Harry pointed out that since the Bungie Store reopened in July there's been an opportunity to join Bungie's mailing list register to win the Juan Ramirez Covenant Elite statue. 3of9 added, however, that said registration page hasn't worked in some time. In fact, as of this writing, the Register link on the Bungie Store page generates a page not found error at this URL: https://shop.ecompanystore.com/bungie/BNG_newCustomer.asp

Eric Trautmann from Microsoft has posted in our forum about his involvement with Eric Nylund's Halo prequel novelization, The Fall of Reach . In the course of his post, he talked a bit about the movie rumors going around:

First: there is currently NO movie discussion; we've been approached, but we've declined until Jason and Bungie team can devote some attention to it. Right now, before pulling them into a project of that kind of scope, I'd rather sit back and let them bask in the praise and glory they richly deserve.

Trautmann was coyly evasive about whether a possible film would focus on the timeframe of The Fall of Reach , Halo itself, or afterwards.

Found an interesting story over at IMG about Adam Thayer, who is unofficially developing drivers for the Voodoo 3, 4, and 5 cards under Mac OS X. Since 3dfx went out of business last year, there haven't been any updates to the drivers at all, which means that Voodoo cards do not accelerate OS X. Thayer is trying to remedy this unfortunate situation by first creating functional drivers for the Voodoo3 and then move on to the other cards. After this, he plans on achieving OpenGL support with his drivers.

Keep an eye out at Thayer's website for updates; this should be very interesting to watch unfold.

The importance of this is that Myth III will be soon released as a Carbonized application and it is believed that the OS X version will run superior to the OS 9 version. Options for Voodoo3-owning Mac users are getting a new video card or rebooting into OS 9 every time they want to play Myth III. However, if these drivers are successful in their aims, Voodoo cards will be functional under OS X and users will be able to play Myth III just fine without any additional steps other than launching the application.

We're not sure exactly what it will be used for, but Ferrex pointed out to us on RHL today that there was a statue of a Covenant Elite on the Bungie Webcam today. Perhaps it might eventually be a contest or tournament prize, like the Trow statues used in the past.

The site isn't loading for us here at R.net headquarters at the moment, but it's been mentioned both at HBO and now at TeamXbox that the Halo manual includes a reference to the following URL: http://www.seventhcolumn.org.

We haven't seen it yet, but apparently that URL was displaying a numeral 7 and Don't make us kick your ass in Latin (NON FACETE NOBIS CALCITRARE VESTRVM PERINÆVM).

Aside from the obvious 7 reference, it's unclear yet what, if any, the significance of seventhcolumn.org is; the name itself is registered to Yeoren (Max Hoberman), Bungie's webmaster.