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:
- Date-sensitive beach signs on Zanzibar; thanks HBO.
- HBO Cutscene Library up to Metropolis.
- Utility for parsing Bungie stats RSS feeds into CSV files; thanks again HBO.
- Dark Horizons speculates about a Halo feature film. Thanks BDGamer.
- World of Warcraft wins GameSpot Game of the Year; Reader's Choice voting is open in several categories, including Xbox (action, racing, sports, RPG, overall).
- New release of open source Halo 2 editor ch2r. Thanks VerdaFolio.