Some Halo-related and not-so-Halo-related news for today:

Achronos writes at Bungie.net that the playlist update is complete. Last week's update at Bungie.net detailed all the changes. The bottom line is, if you can still see playlists like Head to Head-- which has been deleted-- you're not seeing the changes, and you need to logout and then login to Xbox Live again.

A few items of note before the holiday break:

• Frankie reported the goings-on at Zero Hour on Bungie.net, including a 7th place, 7-kill Xbox Live performance.
• Coldforged has an Xbox 360 high definition FAQ that you might find useful.
• The Red Herring thinks the Xbox 360 will be good enough to knock Nintendo out of the console hardware business.
• Game Insider has a series of photos from launch lines at Best Buy.
• Kotaku has reports of one Xbox 360 that seems to be broken, crashing while playing PGR3 several times in a row with all default settings, and an Xbox 360 that is definitely broken as a result of an encounter with a sledgehammer.
• GamePro says Bill Gates is standing behind the Xbox 360. (If he stands behind the power adapter, no one will see him--Ed.)
• Nearly lost in all the Xbox 360 launch hubbub, Aspyr has shipped Stubbs the Zombie for Mac OS X.
• Voodoo Extreme is collecting reports of Xbox 360 problems and directing readers to the official support pages.

As of today I've been reinstalled in Rampancy's core after a short business trip to London and environs last week, the culmination (or at least the high point) of which was some Halo 2 play on XBL with Stuntmutt and c0ld vengeance. In the meantime, here are the most important items in the Halo/Xbox 360verse in that time:

Microsoft has listed all 200 or so games they say that the Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible with, as well as revealing that all such games, not just Halo and Halo 2, will be automatically upscaled to 720p. Microsoft's VP for the Xbox Product Group, Todd Holmdahl, also did a Q&A about the 360's backwards compatibility.

As mentioned earlier, the hard drive accessory is necessary for backwards compatibility, in order to store the "emulation profile" for the game you're trying to play. The hard drive comes preloaded with early versions of the profiles for Halo and Halo 2.

NOTE: Marty "the Elder" O'Donnell warns that this early version of the emulation profile for Halo and Halo 2 has serious problems with audio, and urges everyone to get the new version via XBL or Xbox.com before playing:

Without the update the audio will suck. Without the update you will think that your new Xbox 360 is broken.

Other profiles can be downloaded from XBL or installed from a CD, either one you burn yourself after downloading profiles from Xbox.com on your computer, or on a CD ordered from Microsoft.

Saved games will not be transferred from old Xboxes.

This week's Bungie Update mentions that texture pop-in on Halo 2 should be "slightly improved" due to the new box's DVD drive. Copies of Halo and/or Halo 2 running in emulation on Xbox 360s are compatible in network games with players running those games on original Xboxes. Halo 1 still doesn't support Xbox Live, and won't. The

Louis Wu at HBO passes on word from Dustin Kaufman that Hasmid Hamilton Camp, earlier known as Bob Camp and most recently known as the Prophet of Mercy in Halo 2, passed away of a heart attack in October of this year. Camp's wife, Rasjadah, passed away in 2002. They had six children and thirteen grandchildren.