Rampancy

GameDreamZ has a story up, rumoring that Halo 2 will have a multiplayer mode where Spartans face off against the Covenant in missions that will tie in to the single player story arc-- very similar to what many old school Bungie fans predicted (or rather hoped for) in the original game:

First up is the slickest of the news bits, Halo 2 will have an online mode called Covenant vs. Humans. As it sounds, this mode pits one side of players, playing Elites, against their opponents, the Spartans! Even more drool worthy, is the news that these online missions will tie in directly to the single player story. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but my own theory is that these online missions will move in tandem with the Chief's storyline. So gamers online will be fighting their way to the Covenant Cruiser in Mombassa as the Spartans, while the Elites try to halt their advance!

Of course, this might be nothing more than a scurrilous rumor. But if it's true, it's great news. Thanks to Break Point Halo for finding this.

This is just a note to everybody, since in the server logs over the past two days I've seen a lot of failed logins. In order for you to create an account and login, you have to use a valid e-mail address, because the system will use that to e-mail your password to you. We don't sell these addresses anywhere, and they are not displayed on the site, so they cannot be harvested by spammers. As you'll note, we don't sell advertising space here-- the only commercial activity is some sponsored links to Amazon, and you can just plain ignore those if you want.

Right now, the only significant advantage to having an account is that you can use your name on your forum posts (nonusers are just listed as "anonymous", as on Slashdot) and users also get a Blog, their own personal space for writing pretty much whatever they like (as long as it isn't abusive to other users or unconscionably profane. And yes, I end up being the determiner of what is profane and abusive, and even if I can't define it-- I, like the Supreme Court-- know it when I see it.

Registered users also can use Rampancy to send and receive private messages through the site to other site users, and can receive notifications by email when they receive private messages and when new stories are added to Rampancy; these functions are optional and entirely under user control.

At any rate, although those are the only restrictions currently placed on the Anonymous accounts; however, if necessary, in the future there may be more. I hope it's not necessary.

Under the headline "The Circle Is Complete", MacSoft has put up a page on Halo for the Mac, which will be released on December 11. In addition to the official release date, as well as information on the new maps and weapons (same as in PC Halo), the page has the Minimum and Recommended system requirements:

• Minimum: Macintosh computer with 800MHz G4/G5 or faster processor, Mac OS X v10.2.8 or higher, 256MB RAM, 32MB AGP Video Card (GeForce 2MX/ATI 7000 or better), 1.4GB hard disk space. Internet or LAN connection required for online play.
• Recommended: 1GHz G4/G5 or faster processor, Mac OS X v10.3, 512MB RAM, 64MB AGP Video Card (GeForce 4ti-ATI 9000 or better).

Andrew from Team XBO wrote to let us know that FTC9 is finally released and available for download for by members; all others get BitTorrent.