Halo and Halo 2 news for today:
TeamXbox is spreading word that they've fleshed out the details surrounding an OXM-sourced rumor that a new version of Halo 2 they call Halo 2.5 will be an Xbox 2 launch title, and that it will support HDTV, possibly at higher resolutions than the current iteration, as well as "all the stuff people expected from Halo 2 but didn’t make the cut" in the words of TeamXbox's "trusted sources".
Editor's Note: Treat this one with the same suspicion you reserve for rumors of Democratic presidential victories. What the rumor does have going for it is the idea that Halo 2 was programmed with the specs of the Xbox 2 already in mind, explaining why the game doesn't always perform that well on the first generation hardware, and why Halo 2 was released in this uncomfortable gap near the end of the first-gen's demise and the launch of the new 'box. However, we're betting that if there's no really significant new content, a lot of gamers will balk at buying the same game twice in such a short span of time. And if it does contain significant new content, it will just confirm some gamers' suspicion that the Halo 2 they were sold was an incomplete game.
HBO's note on this rumor is also worth reading. Incidentally, we think this rumor is more like a bit of underdone potato than undigested beef --Ed.
In other news:
me and my cousin have found a new glitch. if you throw a grenade the right distance away from a machien gun turret, then the grenade will explode and destroy the turret but the rod in witch the turret was siting on will still be there. Go up to the rod and an imadinary useable turret will be there and you can still use it. (note that the if the grenade is to close then it won't work, also if the frenade is to far away then it won't destroy the turret). You have to get it just right, or it won't work.
Louis Wu, with help from Devin Olsen, Gil27 and others, is documenting a so-called Spectator Mode glitch in Halo 2 that allows players to enter a "spectator mode" of sorts, rendering the player invisible and invincible and allowing for instant travel across maps. Gil27 produced a Bungie.net Game Viewer image showing the exploit in action; the map diagram shows a flag capture from a place on the map where there is no flag. Devin Olsen also produced some videos of the glitch before it was demonstrated to be exploitable in multiplayer. The glitch is being publicized so that players are aware that it exists and to help Bungie police or patch it.
Halo 2 tops GameSpy's list of top ten Xbox games, and is a nominee for Game of the Year overall. It also won special Xbox awards for best use of Xbox Live and Best (and Worst) ending.
At GameSpot, the results were more confusing; Halo 2 won Best Multiplayer Game, but astoundingly lost out for best music to Katamari Damarcy, for music that is described as a male voice humming appearing "as a rousing mambo-influenced piece that sounds as though it were remixed by a dance-club DJ." (I hope Marty doesn't take GameSpot that seriously. After this, I don't, if I ever did --Ed.) Then it lost out on sound effects to Metal Gear Solid 3. Original Game Mechanic seems clearly an ill-conceived category from the start, as Halo 2's Xbox Live matchmaking system (which isn't really a gameplay mechanic at all) lost out to the implementation of mental powers in Psi Ops. (First notice I've seen of this game --Ed.)
And, last but not least, Metal Gear Solid again snipes Halo 2, taking away the award for best Story with a plotline set "in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis" where Boss and her five "Cobras" defect to the Soviet Union. (Perhaps they felt the game was educational --Ed.)
..but not ride the elevator. Dark Helmet finds a way to get outside the underwater elevator in Regret.
Major Nelson's collected some glowing sales stats for the Xbox, along with comparison points for the PlayStation 2. Among them are the fact that the Xbox increased its market share from 24% in 2003 to 37% in 2004, compared to the PlayStation 2's drop from 51% to 45% over the same period, and that Xbox software sales increased 77% year over year, compared to only 1% for the PlayStation 2. Of course, numbers like these also can prompt one to think.
SPOnG today reports that updated Xbox 2 developer kits are shipping to developers. Like the old kits, the new ones are based on Macintosh G5 computer. The new kits feature R500 graphics cards and are planned to replace the older kits over a span of two months.
According to Voodoo Extreme, Halo 2 was the #1 best-selling console title in November. Oh, and the #2 title? Halo 2's Limited Edition. GTA San Andreas, despite the huge installed base of the PlayStation, ranked third.
Team 7hr33, consisting of Daniel "Finn" Barbour of the Halo Story Page, Richard "Shovelface" Nickel and Rob-Roy "M3" Schmidt have put up their review of Halo 2, titled Page of Woah|Woe, or, How I learned to stop worrying and criticize Halo 2.
Jason Carl at Xbox.com has put up an article on the use of the Covenant Ghost vehicle in Halo 2. Thanks Dolbex at MLG.
Obviously showing off in front of the Frag Dollz took away whatever humility Bungie might have developed as a result of being beaten by the forum mods; triumphant in the latest Humpday Challenge against OXM, the egos run rampant.