Charles D. Clifford posted at HBO about an article on xbox.ign.com giving their impressions of Warthog driving in Halo. Simply put, they were impressed, and they'll be talking in more depth about why later:

Thanks to Syris for pointing out that EBGames.com will be supporting TeamXbox so that it can make a strong return.

TeamXbox has posted a note on their website saying that they cannot afford to keep the site running at this time. Here's a snip:

On November 2-3 in Los Angeles and New York, Microsoft will be holding an Xbox Unleashed (warning: Flash) event where players will be able to get their hands on the console and play some of the games. No word yet on which games exactly, or if Halo will be included. Thanks Xbox365 for the news report.

Subnova has reported that there's an Xbox giveaway program at Taco Bell-- one Xbox per store. There's more information on the program available, but be warned there's a Shockwave intro on it.

According to ActiveXbox, online video game rental service RedOctane will have all of the Xbox's launch titles available for rental on November 15th at a 7-day rental price of $6.95. The story goes on to say that:

Harry gave the heads-up to halo.bungie.org that Microsoft has started some newsgroups for the Xbox.

I have to admit I haven't delved into Usenet in quite awhile, but who knows, there might end up being some useful stuff there.

One of the groups is microsoft.public.games.halo.

We noticed over at ActiveXbox there was a link to a new FAQ at the official support site for the Xbox. Among the interesting items were these:

According to this BBC article, Microsoft announced the European launch date of the Xbox on Tuesday at a gala unveiling in Cannes, France at the home of designer Pierre Cardin.

The console will debut at a cost of £299 ($433). In comparison, Sony just lowered the price of the PlayStation 2 to to £199 ($288).

Microsoft is keen to avoid the problems Sony suffered with PS2 availability last year: