Deimos&trade of Subnova posted a link to Penny Arcade's review of Halo:

I have in my possession the massive Xbox, as well as the magically delicious Halo. I said before that I hoped to verify somewhat the extraordinary press that preceded the title, and as it happens, I can: Halo, as it turns out, is very good!

They weren't nuts about the controller, but found it better than some of the third party alternatives. But what really interested them was coop play:

[...] and it needs to be said, the inclusion of Co-op and the lack of excuses about it are well received by your hosts here at the Arcade. It's the best looking FPS probably ever, even on a humble television - there's a truly idiotic number of bump and environment maps on pretty much everything you can see. I don't see any reason to play it alone though, make a friend buy the controller (hell, make them buy the whole damn Xbox) and find out what is missing from most of today's releases.

So it looks like the Penny Arcade staff can go on both loving and hating the Xbox, and now in person.