If the host drops, another Xbox will take up the hosting of the game, supposedly with only a momentary pause, if any.
It is unknown if there will be any dedicated servers. There will definitely be no dedicated servers for games that are matchmade using XBL's matchmaking facilities.
16 players per game, up to 4 players per Xbox, splitscreen.
These are the options you can customize when playing Halo 2 online through XBL.
There is no relationship between the choice of player model (MC, Spartan) and team assignment, and no impact on gameplay.
Leading up to the impending media blitz that will no doubt be Halo 2's official marketing campaign (all the bee stuff aside) IGN has put up a six-page feature on what it was like to hunt for Halo 2 information through the relatively quiet period from the announcement in August 2002 until now.
One interesting point they mention is about the Weekly Updates, and how the major news sites... well... don't seem to like them much:
Thought PC Halo would never get patched again? Well you might think. But you weren't counting on the wonder that is Windows XP Service Pack 2 to create a remote crash possibility, did you? No. Well, after tomorrow it won't matter-- Bungie will release a hotfix for PC Halo to close this as-yet-unexploited hole.
Frankie is back to doing the CENSORED on the CENSORED in this week's update, hosted over in the Halo Planet forum.
In addition to the new Halo Babies strip, Gruntsbane has done five new strip backgrounds for use in making fan Halo Babies strips. There's also a video documenting mrsmiley's trip to MLG.
GameDaily has interviewed Bungie's Pete Parsons about (what else) Halo 2. Two concepts kept coming up; how Bungie has deepened and extended the single player story (and kept most of the story out of the press, so far) and how the multiplayer aspect is now fully realized and a separate experience both from multiplayer in Halo 1 and from the single player in Halo 2:
A very businesslike Weekly Update this week over in the Bungie.net forums. There's no censored in sight, but lots of information on how things are coming together: final art, animations, and dialogue. Check it out.
Halo Babies has a new strip up, writes mrsmiley, and they've also announced the winners of their avatar contest.
The Bungie Webmaster is back to ridicule some more of you. And by the looks of it, you deserve it.
Eric Trautmann of Halo Bible fame got married. Congratulations from Rampancy!