Rampancy

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.

• Halo Babies now has a Halo 2 clan online. If you want an invite, write to mrsmiley with your gamertag. Editor's Note: There is a Rampancy clan as well; but until my copy of Halo 2 arrives later this week, I can't issue invites; however, if you'd like an invitation sent me a private message through the site.
• GameFAQs has what seems to be a definitive answer on how to unlock Foundation. Warning: potential spoilers!
• Louis Wu at HBO writes to explain some recent small technical problems on the site; basically a combination of infrastructure put in place several years ago and spiraling popularity. Upgrades are forthcoming.
• More collections of Halo 2 links from HBO. (Guides, articles, comics).

Editor's Note: Looks like things are almost down to a nearly-manageable level now, and hopefully we'll soon return to posting items with more detail and starting to collate all the information that's been released. Oh, yeah... and play some Halo 2 ourselves.

Gabe and Tycho seem to have the same opinion of Halo 2 as Halo 1: they love multiplayer and hate the campaign:

I havent talked about Halo 2 yet but thats because Ive been playing it every night. For me its a lot like Halo 1 in that I lost interest in the single player campaign almost immediately but Ill be addicted to the multiplayer for months. Tycho beat the entire game and he assures me that Im not missing anything. In fact when I asked him about the ending he swore and kicked over a chair. I dont really care about that though as what I was looking for out of Halo 2 was an improved multiplayer experience. The addition of Live play along with new weapons, levels, modes, abilities and the possibility of DLC is enough to make me happy with my purchase.

They are playing online as the Halo 2 clan Team Inferno.

The Halo 2 juggernaut moves on into the first full weekend of XBL action. Here's the latest:

• 1UP has updated its Halo 2 Strategy Guide, which includes sections on Campaign and Multiplayer modes. Obviously one expects to see spoilers, especially in the Campaign section. Editor's Note: Their Campaign guide, for reasons passing understanding, is based on the Normal difficulty level, and as such probably will be little help at Heroic or Legendary. Plus, there seem to be some random inaccuracies; they list the Magnum's zoom capability as being "reduced" which to me seems a strange way of saying "nonexistent".
• GameSpot also has a Halo 2 campaign guide. Thanks KP and Louis Wu.
• Part Four of the Xbox.com Halo 2 Readiness guide tells you to pick your dirty underwear up off the floor before you play. Good advice.
• The HBO forum is back. Please mark spoilers.
• Bungie's SketchFactor has responded to some of the problems fans have noticed, including some interface-related problems and dirty disc errors, long matchmaking waitsand is working on a fix.
• Flashmeister BOLL reviews the SmartJoy FRAG. Thanks Louis Wu.
• The Bungie Weekly Updates are being transformed into reader Q & A sessions. SketchFactor has posted Q&A #1 for November 12, 2004 by Frankie. It includes this interesting phrase, in response to a question about Halo 2's surround sound:
  

  You have not seen the last of the audio content for Halo 2 however...

  Editor's Note: Downloadable updates?And, of course, the burning question on the mind of anyone who has finished the game: Will there be a Halo 3?
  

  As for Halo 3, Bungie is in the process of discussing and planning its next projects. No decisions have been announced at this time. Man, I even annoyed myself with that response.

• Maybe the Master Chief should write an autobiography; Random House notes that the Prima Strategy Guide for Halo 2 was their biggest seller since Clinton's autobiography.