Greetings from rainy Langley outside of London, where I'm in town for a few days doing something almost, but not entirely, unrelated to Halo 2; something I hope to rectify in approximately 12 hours or so. In the meantime, of course, I returned to notice that the server logs had filled up the server's disk space, effectively closing the site; hopefully that won't happen again for... oh... at least another 24 hours or so. Rampancy is truly grateful for the upswing in interest since the release of Halo 2, and we are working diligently to make sure that the site can keep up with the increased traffic.

So, without much further ado about not much at all:

• Bungie has announced an XBL autoupdate for Halo 2 that will fix some HUD issues, some matchmaking delays, and unlock the Foundation multiplayer map for everybody. The update is only available through Live; if you don't have it, find a friend that does and take your Xbox to his or her house. If you don't have a friend who has Live... get one.
• Captain Luthan covers The Maw in the last part of the Junkyard's series on realism in Halo. Thanks Ryan "Mhaddy" Matthews.
• MLG readers have written in with what they love or hate (or, in some cases, love and hate) about Halo 2. Thanks dolbex.
• VerdaFolio has posted a spoiler-ridden list of hidden skulls in Halo 2. You've been warned...
• More updates from around the 'net collated at HBO by none other than Santa Cl... I mean, Louis Wu.
• Since I'm in the London area at the moment, it's only appropriate to mention that Stuntmutt, author of Halo comic One One Se7en, has put up a note about an inclusion of a version of the comic, drawn by BOLL, that appears on the Halo 2 Limited Edition DVD, with a link to instructions on how to find it. He's also done a writeup of his UK Halo 2 Launch day experience with c0ld vengeance.
• How Stuff Works has interviewed development lead Chris Butcher about Halo 2's AI; a very readable and worthwhile article without a lot of jargon.
• Penny Arcade turned six years old this week. Too bad they celebrated it with a comic about that other game.

I'm going to try and make it to the Apple Store opening in London tomorrow morning; if they have wireless access perhaps I'll be able to update from there.

UPDATE: A few more items before I go to breakfast:

• Sketch writes that your clan is not deleted. Whew!
• MereCatfish posts his UK Launch Day writeup.
• Forbes asks: GTA:SA or Halo 2?
• Halo 2 won the GameSpy Grudge against Half-Life 2.
• Bungie rolled over Clan HBO in the latest Humpday Challenge.