Month: November 2004

Falcon Zero sent along a pair of Megabattle pics (first, second) composed on the recently-released Zanzibar mod for Halo CE. Awesome!

Shadow Panther writes to point out the Xbox Clan Registry (and specifically the Halo 2 Clan List) at Shadowpanther.net. If you’ve got a clan page, you should add yourself! (There’s a link that explains why a website is required for registration.)

Bentllama has updated his blog with some enthusiastic thoughts about the next couple of days, and some pretty cool pictures of Halo 2 ad stuff in Toronto. Check it out! Thanks, Ross.

New nilerogers.com content today – Never Surrender is now up in the Listening Station. Snippet is 1:29 long, 1.4 mb large, and is contributed by Rogers himself. Interesting dub mix. Thanks, sharpe.

There are dozens upon dozens of Halo 2-related stories out there today – here’s a sampling: Fresno Bee – Anticipation builds (Thanks, Will) New York Times – Microsoft’s invested Springfield (MO) News-Leader – Gamers hot for midnight USA Today – Halo as a cattle prod TheManRoom – Plantronics headset review Seattle Times – General excitement…

Framerate posted a Guide to Getting Ready for Halo 2 over on HaloPlanet – mostly it’s about how to hook your Xbox up to XBL, but there are also some tidbits about food and chairs in there. Give it a read!

Recoil was the first to point out that Halo 2 is at the very top of Gamerankings’ Overall Game Rank list – at this point, topped only by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. (When he wrote, last night, it was above even that – but has dropped recently with a few lower scores.)…

Red vs Blue is planning on releasing 3 episodes in the next 48 hours – WONGA. Episode 41 is up now (in both high and low res) – keep your eyes open for the rest.

Okay, 9 million people wrote to correct the one-line mention I made of the Gamepro review yesterday. I’m gonna cut and paste from one of the answers I sent, since I’m tired of writing this. Gamepro doesn’t give an overall one-digit ranking, so I went back to the Halo review from them to see how…

Kevin634 writes to point out a Halo 2-themed comic in the Toronto Daily Star. Hehe, that is SO my son right now. 😉

Former Bungie community flame-meister and current Bungie intern Shishka has offered a write-up of the recent Fall Foliage: Crisp Death LAN gathering held at Castle Wu. Last LAN party, though? Time will tell, I suppose. Check it out, and thanks to James Phelps for the notice.

The (massive) chat transcript of the Ilovebees PM Chat has been made available here. Get comfy and prepare for a long read, then hit that link! Thanks to Steve Patterson for the heads-up.

Bunch o’ rapid-fire news, to clear the inbox before the clock ticks over (and because I likely won’t be around to post more news before tomorrow):Eurogamer gives Halo 2 a 9/10 – 1 point above Halo (thanks, mad.max) Break Point offers another Zanzibar CE mirror Gamepro gives Halo 2 a 4.6/5 (thanks, BlazeFlare) Bungie.net gets…

And lest you think all there was to do was read about Halo 2 and look at tons of new media, the Custom Edition Halo 2 team has finally released Zanzibar CE – you can download it off EPGServers or HaloImpulse. It’s 22 mb. Thanks to a dozen people who all wrote within seconds of…

The Halo reviews have begun pouring in: IGN Has a review up for the common folk, with a HUGE list of Insider-only content. (Some of the video stuff isn’t there yet, it seems – check back soon.) 9.8 overall score. Thanks, Adur()n. Gamespot, as well, has a boatload of Complete content, and a 4-page review…

A couple of quick Halo CE bits – Kornman has released Tool++, a remade of the HEK’s TOOL with a GUI wrapper and some extra features (thanks, MaterGrief), and haloTV will be broadcasting live footage of the long-awaited Zanzibar CE mod tonight about 9:30 eastern (thanks, BJN1990).

Dark Bastion discovered that the way the EB Games midnight release is going to work is this: As you’re waiting outside the store, you’ll be given a flyer with a number on it; they’ll be calling folks into the store in batches of 10, by number. You might want to do your best to get…

Contests around the Halo community: mrsmiley points out the 2004 Bungie Baldathon – shave your head, send in pictures, win a shot at Halo schwag. And D_BRINGER told us about a Wallpaper contest at Halo S – winner gets a free gmail account. And though it’s not really online, it IS Halo-related, and a contest:…

Victor wrote in with details about Gamereactor’s Halo 2 review (Gamereactor is a Scandinavian gaming mag) – it got a 10/10, with the following pros and cons (thankfully translated by Victor):Pros: Amazing graphics, formidable sound and captivating game play in both single- and multiplayer. Cons: You must have good knowledge of the world of Halo…

Xbox.com also put up ‘Halo 2: Launch Party Time’ – part four of their readiness guide. Thanks again, John Rivas.