Uriel has created a new Halo 2 vid – it’s a bit over 4 megs, and currently it’s only hosted on the Psynjir Complex Hotline server. (You’ll find it in Files -> Halo2 -> Movies; it’s called ‘A Fall Too Far’.) Worth a look, though – and when demand for the Halo 2 trailer drops a bit, we’ll add it to some web mirrors.

Wondering where the MC gets his confidence from? Marcellus King figured it out…

The September issue of PC Gamer UK contained an article on the upcoming PC version of Halo – Griffon was kind enough to scan it for us last month. We needed to wait until it was no longer on the newsstands… but we’ve now added it to our Press Scans section. Enjoy!

Wow. Folks have noticed Halo 2 for sale elsewhere before… but Djoey154 found it at Amazon.co.uk. What blew me away was not that it was listed… but that its sales rank was 812. That’s considerably higher than several RELEASED games! (Genma Onimusha, for example, is at 878.) Behold The Power Of Cheese. (Release date, for those keeping track of companies to snicker at, is listed as November 28, 2003. I looked carefully, but there was no mention of the hour.)

Ask a silly question… (starts here.)

All I can say is… hehehe…

LAAG gun not cutting it for you? How about a nuke?

Okay, I’m doing this for my own sanity. Ever since the release of the Halo 2 screenshots a few weeks ago, there’s been quite a bit of discussion about the writing on the side of the assault rifle carried by the MC in this picture. (Here’s a very nice closeup, handily enhanced by Storm Singer.) I’m sick to death of seeing it misinterpreted as ‘RAT’ or ‘KAT’ in our forum, and in email – the english text reads ‘Kal 9.6 mm x 40’ – ‘Kal’ being short for the german ‘Kaliber’. This has been confirmed by Bungie, so please – no more rats. (We’ve even added it to our FAQ, to make life easier for those looking for the tru7h.) The chinese characters translate roughly to ‘Monkey King’, according to several different people on our forum… but nobody’s actually pinned down the significance of this yet. Hopefully, this information will allow me to get back to the very important work of cleaning my toenails without having to hear about RATs. Thanks.

You gotta love the hardcore fans… a couple of days ago, ElectricSheep said he thought the Admiral in the trailer sounded a lot like Pete Stacker (who provided the voice of Captain Keyes in Halo). dolbex, too, noticed this – and was bothered by it. Didn’t we kill Keyes? (I sorta remember putting a fist through his brain…) Today, Marty O’Donnell cleared up the mystery – yes, it’s Pete Stacker, but no, it’s not Keyes.

Also, yes Pete Stacker was hired as the voice of the Admiral (no name) but he has nothing to do with Captain Keyes. Although I was concerned about the potential for fan confusion, Joe had the basic attitude of “let them eat cake”, an attitude that shocks and appalls me. I guess he figured that only the most intense Halo fans would notice and Pete is a slam dunk when it comes to actors.

I must say, I’m shocked and appalled, as well – I say we storm the Bungie ramparts and chop off Joe’s head! Who’s with me? … Wait, that would mean no more Sin-O-MatiXXX goodness… never mind. Anyway, mystery solved, and kudos to those who pinned that voice down.

Do you live near Phoenix, AZ? Up for a Halo tournament with a top prize of $1000? Go read the details at CobaltNova. The short version: October 19, 13 and up, $30/person.

Yummy yummy trailer desktop art. In our Wallpaper section, thanks to Justin.

Friday’s Fan Fiction:

• HELLJUMPERS, part 4 and part 5, by Havok
• Cry for a Hero, part 10 (the finale), by el_halo_diablo
• The Shadows, part 3, by Glenny

Havok originally posted as Andreas. I’d like to respectfully request that fan fiction authors pick a posting name and stick to it – editing information after the fact is messy. Thanks!

The Halo 2 Trailer Transcript we posted recently has been updated with some input from Jay Weinland, Bungie Sound Gnome. Should be 100% accurate at this point… thanks, Jay!

Thought it was all scripted, eh? No in-game play, eh? Check out this multiplayer screen – a covenant warrior stalks the MC. Thanks to our spy in the field, Warbow.(j/k) Okay, okay… Apparently, not enough of you noticed the little (j/k) after that post – sure, it was in white text, and too small to be readable, but why let that stop you? This is just a doctored shot by Warbow – there isn’t really a multiplayer build out there (yet). There, happy, Dave? 🙂

Heh – head on over to Penny Arcade – looks like Tycho is apologizing for all the nasty things he said about Halo. (Well, actually, just that he’s not willing to judge Halo 2 by those nasty things.) Funny strip. Thanks to Zypper for the heads-up.

Boatloads of new mirrors for the Halo 2 Trailer – lots in Europe, more Hotline servers, and even though the main site for customsex’s new mpeg2 version died (from overdemand), a kind hotline server picked up the slack (and we’re adding a second hotline server as I write this). More mirrors for that large, popular version would be eagerly accepted – just drop us a line. For everything else, visit the Halo 2 Mirror List, or the Mirror List Mirror! From now on, when new mirrors come in, we’ll simply add them to the mirror list, without using valuable front page space to announce them. If you need a copy of this trailer, in ANY format, visit the mirror list.

customsex has converted the WMP9 video to MPEG2 format… and it’s gorgeous under QT6. It’s huge, though… and he had a bit of trouble with the aspect ratio, so if you grab it, be sure to reset the width to 600 pixels (keeping the height at 360). You’ll find the link on our Mirrors page. This is considerably larger than the large QT version… but almost the same image quality. Be warned, though – if you don’t have an MPEG2 decoder on your computer, you won’t be able to watch it, so don’t bother downloading it. Update: the aspect problem has been fixed. This one seems to be popular, though – mirrors are badly needed!

Take a break from the trailer madness to read a little Fan Fiction:

• The New Reach Campaigns, part 4, by Gasmask
• HELLJUMPERS, parts 2 and 3, by Havok
• The Shadows, part 2, by Glenny
• Shadows of Archon II, part 9, by Wado

We should stop posting now, so the page doesn’t take too long to load…

Two new international mirrors – Juegos Alkon, an Argentinian games site with a very fast connection (mirroring the large QT version) and DeadSwitch, a fast UK connection (mirroring the WMP9 version). Go get ’em! (They’ve been added to the Mirrors page.)

Assassin, from Computer Games in Romania, has sent word that they’ve re-encoded the high-quality QT version as an MPEG. Screensize is the same, filesize is 25.5 mb… quality is quite good. If you’re having trouble with QuickTime, but can’t get WMP9 to run on your system, this might be the way to go! (Server speed was quite impressive for me, too.) Also, Fileplanet added the two QuickTime versions this morning. All of these links are listed on the Mirrors page.