An article at Wired is putting a slightly different twist on the console wars this shopping season. They say don't get the GameCube or the Xbox.. at least not yet:

Nate at TeamXbox is running a story about the Nov. 9 issue of Entertainment Weekly, where they ran a holiday shopping guide. And the Xbox took 34th place on the hottest gift list . Great, right?

Well.. until you read that they shared it with the GameCube... AND the PlayStation 2. Some people just can't decide. Or perhaps they just should have awarded the spot to generic gaming computer thingy .

Blockbuster announced on November 15 that it would offer one free five-day game rental to anyone presenting a receipt for a game console between December 1 and January 31.

CoreMagazine has reported that Canadian game rental chain VHQ will be offering free game rentals:

Cesar at TeamXbox is running a story that several readers have informed them that the Xbox has already sold out in several cities in North America. In some cases, this even includes second shipments to stores. There are reports from Futureshop, Best Buy, Circuit City, WalMart, Target and Toys'R'Us.

Serena at Xbox365 has reported that some places have been charging as much as one or two hundred dollars more than the MSRP for the Xbox, even in bundles with only one game, or none at all.

Xbox365 reports there are no plans to launch the MS console in China.

Psyrixx posts his story of Xbox acquisition.

Our very own Tobin has posted a story detailing his experiences purchasing an Xbox on launch day.

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.

TeamXbox has noted that EBGames.com is once again accepting Xbox preorders; but these orders are expected to ship on November 19th, and not on the official launch date of November 15.