retsamolah pointed out in #hbo channel that Frankie has posted at Bungie.net that Halo 2 has gone gold. Incidentally, the "they said it couldn't be done" line mirrors the voice over in the leaked theatrical trailer bootleg I won't link you to.
Sketch promises a video update later and mentions a lot of new media items in the Halo 2 page.
Visit http://www.slurpee.com/ for information on how you can win a copy of Halo 2, perhaps go to the Spike TV Video Game Awards or even visit Bungie Studios. The contest is being sponsored by 7-Eleven, Mountain Dew and Microsoft.
Be in Times Square in New York at the ESPN Zone restaurant on November 4th and you could be one of only 50 randomly-selected people who get to play Halo 2, the final version, before anybody else. Check MLG for details. Thanks Dolbex.
This week's Bungie update won't come until Monday, instead of on Friday as usual. Frankie mentions it at Bungie.net and explains it in the HBO forum, along with a peace offering of a new screenshot from the Ascencion multiplayer map. The gist of it is that this update will be in video format, and hosted at Bungie.net once they've got the server sufficiently prepped.
Finn of the Halo Story Page asks in the HBO forum if anyone is willing to try and complete all of Halo 2's levels for the first time around (solo or coop) only on Legendary. Any takers? This inspired our new poll, so take a look and vote.
The Covenant Beam Rifle has multiple levels of zoom, and is rougly equivalent to the human sniper rifle. It doesn't need reloading but can overheat, like other Covenant weapons.
It cannot be dual-wielded.
The recently-revealed Drone units may be using either this weapon or the Carbine to snipe at you in Halo 2.
Major Nelson points out the Wired article on Halo 2 is now available online at Wired's site. They talk to Pete Parsons, Joe Staten, Chris Carney, Lorraine and Rob McLees, Eric Arroyo, and, of course, Marty O'Donnell.
Some interesting facts:
Fun taunting Halo 2 fans shows up in today's Ctrl+Alt+Del cartoon; thanks goatrope who pointed it out.
The Listener points out that if you're looking for a place to preorder Halo 2, be careful when browsing at CompUSA. This page showed Halo 2 availalble for delivery-- at $1,109. I wonder who might pay that if it could actually be delivered today...
Aceman has posted in the Halo Planet forum a detailed summary of new information what's purporting to be a spoiler-ridden article on Halo 2's single-
Major Nelson has posted up photos of the package the new Plantronics Halo 2 edition Game Com in-ear headset comes in. It looks cool. The package says it is "ear-gonomic." That makes my head hurt just reading it.
Music 4 Games has interviewed Marty "The Elder" O'Donnell about the Halo 2 soundtrack. Here's what he had to say about what's different this time around, under the hood:
The big news in the latest weekly update by Frankie is that, barring any serious bugs, Bungie is essentially finished with Halo 2. They've sent the game out to be certified ready for production.
While short, this update is full of quite a bit of interesting information about clans, about XBL, and even a tidbit about single player:
This sketch of the Master Chief fighting a brute by reknowned artist Craig Mullins was spotted on a speed painting forum.