Word on the street is that Bungie has suffered their first loss in the Humpday Challenge since they started-- to the Bungie.net admins. There's no writeup at Bungie.net yet (surprise, surprise) but hopefully more details will surface soon.
GameSpy has a two-page feature up called The Numbers Never Lie about the Halo 2 statistics system.
Bungie.net's Stats Overview is the place to go and start your calculations on how to game the system that Bungie.net will use for calculating player ranks. Let the whining begin!
The phenomenon that was the I Love Bees ARG, or Alternate Reality Game, well and truly wrapped up this weekend. Players who followed through to its conclusion (some of them, anyway) were treated to a "training session" where they got to see Halo 2 pre-release, and some won copies of the game. Others received commemorative DVDs with the content of the audio drama on it, as well as other things.
Bungie.net is back up, but Halo 2 stats are, understandably, not yet available. Here's what Bungie.net is displaying right now on the Stats page:
Halo 2 Xbox Live game statistics are not currently available to you or your mom. We hope to have them available soon.
We hope your mom is available soon, too.
Twenty lucky Xbox Live subscribers are going to get a change to play Halo 2 this week, as well as get a tour of Bungie Studios and lunch with Pete Parsons this Thursday, November 4. Xbox.com has the complete list of winners.
If you live in the Seattle area and qualify, you could win a pass to play Halo 2 on Thursday, November 4. Check Major Nelson's blog, Random Thoughts for details.
According to synide at MLG, they are offering a new feature called MLG-TV; a selection of video-on-demand streams showing various tourney wrapup videos. Thanks Fusion at Sector 7.
Dolbex sends word that the first annual MLG Season Championship has begun. Of particular interest to us are the Halo Brackets which have updated scores from the first day.
Xbox.com has added two more parts to their Halo 2 Readiness Guide. Part 2 is on the Haloverse, and Part 3 includes tips from beta testers on playing the game.
According to this thread at GameSpot, SpikeTV is doing a new show called The Ultimate Gamer. Residents of Southern California who want to try out are urged to attend a casting call today, October 12, at 15:00 at MTV Networks, 2600 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA, and bring a photo of your living room and another of your house. Don't know if this is the real deal or not, but it might be.
Wouldn't you like to be Matt "Zyos" Leto? We bet lots of people would. In the past year, he's won $55,0000 in Halo tournaments at the tender age of twenty. There's an interview and video intervew at GameSpot (video for Complete members only).
Visit http://www.slurpee.com/ for information on how you can win a copy of Halo 2, perhaps go to the Spike TV Video Game Awards or even visit Bungie Studios. The contest is being sponsored by 7-Eleven, Mountain Dew and Microsoft.
Be in Times Square in New York at the ESPN Zone restaurant on November 4th and you could be one of only 50 randomly-selected people who get to play Halo 2, the final version, before anybody else. Check MLG for details. Thanks Dolbex.
Finn of the Halo Story Page asks in the HBO forum if anyone is willing to try and complete all of Halo 2's levels for the first time around (solo or coop) only on Legendary. Any takers? This inspired our new poll, so take a look and vote.