Well, it would have been much more appropriate to stop at the Bungie-like number of seven with the roundups, but today real life is intervening, so here is part eight:

• Ben "Grzesik" Gresik won the Bungie Baldathon contest at Halo Babies by default-- he was the only entrant. He won a Halo 2 calendar and other schwag.
• Utopian Gamer and Slashdot and Voodoo Extreme and many other sites are pushing the spurious rumor that Halo 2's end-credits say "Coming February 9" if you complete the game on legendary. This has been denied.
• Major League Gaming forumgoers are reviewing Halo 2.
• It was Florida all over again... again as GameSpy kept the Halo 2 vs Half-Life 2 poll open long enough for Vivendi to finally actually let people play Half-Life 2; as a result the Black Mesa crowd edged the Master Chief and his fans by a mere 629 votes. Editor's Note: We're waiting to hear from the Supreme Court on a recount.
• Slashdot is soliciting questions for an interview with Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins of Penny Arcade. Sometimes they do comics that sometimes mention Halo.
• The Associated Press is covering the recent changes Microsoft has been making to keep modified Xboxes off Xbox Live.

There may be a lapse in news coverage near the end of this week as Halo 2 has finally arrived, just in time for me to spend three days in London on business. Stay tuned.