Frankie at Bungie.net has posted up what looks like the first part of a multipart series called the Bungie Guide to Game Modes; the first looks at what must be Frankie's favorite mode, Swords. This one is particularly interesting in that it lets drop a minor bit of info about Campaign mode, in that it seems Plasma Swords still will evaporate after some period of time in that mode, in contrast to multiplayer.

Over at HBO, mnemesis posted that the Bungie Store is now accepting preorders for three Halo 2 figures: the Brute, the Master Chief, and the Warthog. Stock should ship after November 9. Each figure is $14.99.

The response of the Bungie fan community, and indeed much of the online gaming community, has been one of sympathy and support for those at Bungie affected by the French-language copies of Halo 2 that are now circling the world ahead of their official release date, in defiance of international copyright laws, and allowing users to consume expensively-produced entertainment content without paying anything to get it.

However, some, of course, have expressed slightly different sentiments, which is desireable and understandable. Such an outpouring of support for Bungie would mean nothing were it not sincere and well-considered, something impossible to generate if the possibility of differing opinions did not exist.

Unfortunately, many of these expressions of doubt, anger, jubilation and skepticism-- as well as some of the expressions of support-- are not based on careful consideration, knowledge of the market or the law, or any basic insights into human behavior; and many are just appeals to humanity's baser instincts, or to rank paranoia.

So I thought I'd take a moment to address some of them in the latest Narc's Retort.

Brannen Boren (of Boren's Syndrome fame) updated his blog on Saturday and included a note about Halo 2:

Looking forward to the release of Halo 2. As the "Keeper of the Halo Story Bible," I reviewed the Halo 2 script for continuity and setting sensibility, and submitted a list of suggestions before I left Microsoft, but I didn't get to stick around long enough to see whether they acted on those suggestions. I played the multiplayer for Halo 2 some time ago, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the story for the campaign differs from the original script I read.

Original script? Wonder if that will ever be published...

Weekly Update: October 15th, 2004

You ever have one of those weeks? You know, the kind of week where you try to start your car, and it explodes in your face because the mob wired it to blow up and hurl your broken body across the street and through the plate glass window of the local acid factory? Well that was kinda like my week this week, but with the following metaphorical caveat — my broken, glass filled, acid-ruined body became a perfect fertile bed for a glorious, colorful display of flowers.

What is Frankie going on about this time? The horrible leak of the French PAL build of the game, and the impressive, wonderful, heartening reaction from our fans — who have been closing forum threads, slapping posters on the wrists and even reporting folks who broke the law. Community sites are all over it, and the big sites have been helping too, so a HUGE thanks to all of you guys.

Whoever did this is a criminal, plain and simple, but this isn't a pulpit from which to spew a sermon. Suffice it to say that stealing a traceable, Live Aware video game isn't the smartest thing you could do. But the way our community rallied to our support yesterday and the day before was incredibly gratifying. And a note to otherwise regular folks who might be tempted to download a copy — don't. It's really not worth the risk. Fines of up to $100,000 and all sorts of other legal remedies can be assessed against even individual downloaders.

You know, we're not Metallica. The cost of this is emotional, not fiscal (jerks would just hack and pirate the game on Nov 9th anyway). Bungie is mostly concerned that this event is going to ruin the plot of the game for the 99.9999999999% of fans who buy the game on November 9th. As you know, we've spent three tortuous years preventing story leaks, hoarding screenshots — not because we want to — but because they'll reveal twists and surprises. Now a few jerks have ruined that for everyone. It's one thing to sneakily pirate software — quite another to yell spoilers from the rooftops. As Napoleon Dynamite would say, "IDIOTS!"

Anyway, I'm making myself vomit with my combination of preachy outrage and quilted two-ply, absorbent love. Back to the matter at hand — the Bungie locomotive. Let's call it more of a monorail right now, since about 80% of the office is in Hawaii (if they're smart) or in Rainhole, Alaska (if they're married).

This week was another out of the office week. I accompanied ten copies of Halo 2 to San Francisco so that they could be reviewed over a period of nearly a week by gathered luminaries from various gaming, entertainment and technology publications from all over the US.

Everyone who played seemed to have a good time. Everyone had LOTS of questions about plot twists, new characters etc. I had to help out once or twice when people got stuck, but mostly it was eerily quiet, as the journos sat around in our special E3 chairs, with wireless surround headphones on, in front of 30 inch widescreen sets (CRT for maximum awesomeness and maximum Teamster complaints — since they weigh 200 pounds.) Actually, widescreen is a very cool feature, since the multiplayer game can then split vertically (for two) giving each player a great deal of real estate in co-op or MP.

The event was long enough for people to finish the game on NORMAL difficulty level, but then go back and try HEROIC: "Wow, that was freakin' hard!" And then they tried LEGENDARY: "What is wrong with you people!?" We should note that nobody completed it on LEGENDARY or frankly, more than a couple of levels. LEGENDARY is a whole new sick twist on game difficulty. LEGENDARY includes bizarre stuff like perma-death for co-op players — meaning that you can't hopscotch like you can on other difficulty levels. Once a player dies on LEGENDARY, both players are hurled back to the last checkpoint. It's brutal. Also, that place where you encountered two grunts and a flowerpot on NORMAL? Well now they're Hunters, high-ranking, sword-carrying Elites, and they're all PMS-ing. Seriously, sticking your head around a corner on level two can get it shot clean off.

Multiplayer was a blast. Like we'd hoped, players spent a long time exploring new modes, and enjoying them. As suspected, Swords is a huge favorite, but we (I was only HELPING!) played a lot of Assault, Territories and Juggernaut. Folks love NinjaNaut — Juggernaut where the Jug is invisible, has triple overshields and is the only player with a motion detector — you don't event WANT to find him!

Nobody would tell us what they thought, so I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Special props to Mister X — who, having only 24 hours to visit, played the game as a speed run, and pulled in the fastest completion time — though he missed about half the game doing that, and Mister Z — who, being hardcore as all getout, completed it on Heroic — and in a pretty respectable time. Epic, considering that was his first time playing.

Anyhoo, this week was short (game is done folks) and a downer, sorry, so here's a sad picture to make you feel even worse

Today's new Halo Babies strip reminds us there are very few shopping days left before Halo 2 is released. mrsmiley also writes to let us know about their Halo Gamers Against Piracy campaign; read all about it and perhaps use their banner (as we have) to proclaim your site a supporter of Bungie against software piracy.

And as if that wasn't enough, they've got an interview with Junpei and Murph MacManus, makers of the MCandCortana comic.

XboxSolution is reporting the same story as everyone else-- that a French language version of Halo 2 has hit the Internet. However, they've chosen to headline the story Halo 2 Source Code Leaked on the Web, which, as far as we know, is NOT true; Shishka's FAQ denies that anyone has broken into Bungie, and that the leaked copy is the binary version of the shipping game, most likely lifted from a manufacturing plant.

As depressing as the Halo 2 leak is, if the source code had been stolen it could potentially be worse, as it might open up opportunities for those with modded Xboxes to reverse engineer Halo 2's network play and create ways to cheat, which in many ways would be even less fun than finding unintended spoilers in Halo forums.

SketchFactor has posted at Bungie.net, asking fans with information regarding the leak to email piracy@microsoft.com and to help minimizing spoilers by not publicly posting screens, links, information about the story, or descriptions.

UPDATE: Shishka has written a Piracy FAQ for Bungie.net as well. Seems like Shishka was born to FAQ.

Halo2.com relaunched recently, with a hidden message (one that helped decode a similar message on the newly-released desktop teaser) that's already been deciphered. In case you don't know the answer, we won't spoil it, as there's already been too many spoilers flying around since yesterday. However, you can see how it was solved in this thread on the Unfiction forums.

Mat "Shunji" Noguchi seems amused at the reaction to how tidy he keeps (or, rather, doesn't keep) his desk at Bungie, pointed out in the Video Update by Frankie as a "zone of entropy and horror". It seems that Shazam on the Bungie.net forum proposed a petition to make Mat clean up his desk, as it poses "a definte hazard to to his health and other team members", and would surely produce "new and highly lethal bacteria".

The last Bungie Weekly Update by Frankie, this one in video format and apparently subtitled "Sexy Girls Gone Wild Video Edition" is available for download. HBO has put up a mirror page; there are WMP9 and QuickTime versions, both in BitTorrent and in direct download formats.

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.