Oh, wait... that sounds like... nevermind; there's new stuff at Halo Babies. Sparkie has submitted a new fan comic as well as 4 more pieces of fan art to Halo Babies. There's also a new desktop by nrek and new forum avatars. And according to mrsmiley, more is on the way tomorrow.

Stuntmutt horns in on Halo Babies territory during Gruntsbane's absence. The result is inexplicable... I hope. Because if not, I expect I'll be hearing the explanation shortly. Luckily it will be cushioned by beer.

UPDATE: Okay, now I got the joke, and I wish I hadn't.

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.

Gabe and Tycho seem to have the same opinion of Halo 2 as Halo 1: they love multiplayer and hate the campaign:

I havent talked about Halo 2 yet but thats because Ive been playing it every night. For me its a lot like Halo 1 in that I lost interest in the single player campaign almost immediately but Ill be addicted to the multiplayer for months. Tycho beat the entire game and he assures me that Im not missing anything. In fact when I asked him about the ending he swore and kicked over a chair. I dont really care about that though as what I was looking for out of Halo 2 was an improved multiplayer experience. The addition of Live play along with new weapons, levels, modes, abilities and the possibility of DLC is enough to make me happy with my purchase.

They are playing online as the Halo 2 clan Team Inferno.

Because they know there's really nothing else to do this week, Red vs Blue is releasing a total of three episodes this week. First up, episode #41 is on the Videos page.

[image:8460 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Matt Soell of Wideload Games took the time to add a few comments to the release of information last week about Wideload's first game, Stubbs the Zombie in 'Rebel Without a Pulse'. The first addition is that the game is planned for the Xbox, Macs and PCs. Wideload is doing the Xbox version internally, and is working with Aspyr's development teams for the Mac and PC versions. Even so, they are planning (Editor's Note: not promising, let's get that clear right now) to release the game for all three platforms at the same time.

The second tidbit was in answer to my question about why Wideload chose to place so much emphasis on humor, an element that while always part of Bungie games, rarely took center stage. According to Matt:

Most games take themselves too seriously; we decided to go in the opposite direction. It's an outgrowth of an old impulse: to make the games we'd like to play.

You can always find more information here at Rampancy either about Wideload Games or about Stubbs the Zombie.

Today's Penny Arcade looks over the smoldering ruins of IGN's review of Killzone, a PS2 shooter once billed as a "Halo killer". While hostile to what they called the "repetetive" nature of Halo 1's campaign, Gabe and Tycho have warmed to Halo 1's multiplayer and to the promise of Halo 2. They had this to say about the hype around Killzone now that the game is out:

If Killzone was hyped, perhaps even over-hyped as you appear to claim, well, you can't point at Bob and say it was all Bob's doing. That's something everybody did. On the other hand, I was there when they announced it as well, and it seemed at the time like a good vessel for the hopes of that system. But Halo Killer? Be serious. There's only one Halo killer, and I'll tell you this much: it's not on the PS2.

Gee... wonder what game they are talking about there?

Apparently fearing that the release of Halo 2 would mean the end of the Weekly Updates, as well as the trepiditious Mister Chief, a special Mister Chief site has been opened to keep him alive and in the public eye. Thanks again Louis Wu at HBO.

We've mostly been ignoring IGN's Countdown To Halo series, starting from the moment when one intrepid author described how he obtained most of his information about Halo 2 while sitting on the toilet. Let's hope he hasn't formed any lasting associations with the game from that experience, the way that description formed lasting associations with IGN in our minds.

However, the latest part, pointed out to us by c0ld vengeance, hits much nearer to home-- or rather, to the heart-- as it describes how to keep your loved ones at bay while you retreat from Real Life long enough to savor the unique goodness that is Halo 2 that they may be unable to appreciate themselves. It offers five excuses you can give for why you can't engage in any activity other than playing Halo 2, starting from November 9 until... whenever.

Crack the code in today's Penny Arcade to find out what game they think is really good. Thanks Louis Wu and KP.

However, be sure to read the news post, too, because there's some more about Halo in there:

I will tell you what my favorite thing about Halo 2 Multiplayer is. There are things that anyone would like, as holding two needlers and unloading them is sort of its own reward. Of course, it's nice to have the same power to create your own gametypes that you've enjoyed at home taken online with bountiful new options. Customizing your character - Elite or Spartan, with insignias you create with an in-game tool - that's appreciated, certainly. Not my favorite thing.

It's not whiskers on kittens or brown paper packages tied up with string, either. Read the news post to find out what.

Not sure how long this has been going on, but DailyGame.net has a column written by Duke Controller (that is, an Xbox controller). The edition from October 18 covers... its... trip to San Fransisco to play Halo 2.

No spoilers, but there is some controller porn. Or something.