At the Halo Story Page, Mnemesis interviewed Bungie's Joe Staten on the Halo storyline, setting to rest some old debates, such as who really released the Flood, where the other SPARTANs are and whether or not it's important, the relationship between the Forerunners and the Flood, and time travel. Joe also adds some information about the HSP Timeline. A must-read.
As usual there was more gaming news than we could keep up with over the weekend. Here's a rundown:
The new-look Halo 2 Cortana isn't that happy with her new role in the overall scheme of things in today's Halo Babies comic. There's also a new fan art update. Thanks mrsmiley.
Bungie does care about its fans: the proof is in the Flood pudding that is Sacred Icon, a level that is Halo 2's Library in all but name. Is it an improvement over the original? Find out in the latest installment of Rampancy's Halo 2 Impressions covering Sacred Icon.
(And before anyone else asks, yes, we know we've so far skipped The Arbiter and The Oracle in this series; those are coming --Ed.)
First of all, let's get this straight. This level isn't called The Library, but it might as well be. You don't actually reach the structure on Installation 05 that houses the Index, the one that's called The Library by Tartarus and Commander Keyes, until the very end of the next level, Quarantine Zone. However, that level is a mix of indoor and outdoor environments with a bunch of vehicles thrown in and friendly Covenant troops alongside while you battle both the Flood and the installation's defensive systems.
TeamXbox has an editorial up on how Bungie implemented stat-tracking, leaderboards, and RSS feeds for Halo 2, and why more gaming companies don't use XML.
HBO's Halo 2 Cutscene Library has reached the start of High Charity. (You know, that level where you say "oh no, I have to go BACK through that, but against Flood?" --Ed.)
The guys at TeamXbox have delivered Bungie their first major defeat from a wholly external group in a Humpday Challenge; read all about the suffering at Bungie.net.
Jillybean joins the Halo Story Page team; not surprising since the excellent writeup she posted on Halo 2's plot in the HBO forum.
Frankie has put up a new update on how Halo 2 has been doing on Xbox Live, numerically speaking, and it's impressive: Halo 2 is the #1 game by far on the service, dwarfing its nearest competitor by a factor of 10, according to Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, Xbox Live's Director of Programming.
There are also a few more sobering items, like the fact that Game Viewer data is being used to catch-- and ban-- cheaters.
Now that everyone is back from vacation, the gaming world is moving and shaking again. Here's a look around at items relating to Bungie, Halo, or the Xbox:
...might still win Game of the Year from several places, but that didn't earn Halo 2 any kudos from Game Tunnel, a site purporting to offer the "independent underground" view of gaming with their top 10 Independent Game of the Year writeup. Here's how they introduce their list:
For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2, you are about to see a different piece of gaming than you are used to.Â
Sector7 is indicating that the Rumble Pit stats might have been reset. Interesting...