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:

We've made the multiplayer easy to get into with a ranking system, which doesn't allow veterans to pick off new players in unfair matches. You can play against people all over the world that are on the same skill level, which makes this game fun no matter what level of player you are.

Does Halo 2 on XBL mark the return of the comet?