unforum

[DM]

[Halo 2] [SPEC/SPOILERS] Halo 2 NOT Over? - The Facts

[ThaJinx]

Wow, interesting theory.

A few plot specs in response:
I think most of the beekeepers here are absolutely positive that the ILB "artifact" and its EMP are what drew the Covenant to Earth in the first place, even though it wasn't explained as such in the game. Everyone is spec'ing that the ship that Master Chief stows away on at the end is the "Ark" that 343 Guilty Spark refers to, being a logical allegory to Noah's Ark, a massive ship which was used to survive God's Flood.

The allegory makes sense, but I honestly don't think that it's correct. If it was, then there'd be absolutely no reason for the Prophet to take it to Earth; he could activate the 6 remaining rings as soon as he boarded. Instead, I think it's fairly obvious that the Ark is the artifact described in ilovebees; the smash-cut to Earth immediately after 343 GS is asked the location of the Ark and he doesn't answer, I think, is very strong support of this idea, as is the fact that Cortana didn't seem to know how or why the Covenant had found or come to Earth either, being that the Artifact was not reported and held in secret by high ranking Navy personel. True, having the artifact as the Ark doesn't carry the direct allegory of being a ship, but I don't believe that that weakens the allegorical connection; directly linking things object for object is kind of...unoriginal, and almost certainly below Bungie's standards.

It's at this point at Halo 2's closing that it's blatantly obvious that the story's not over, which most assuredly means that another game is coming. Whether it's an expansion as you've speculated or a new incarnation as Halo 3 I won't pretend to know, but I will say that another Halo adventure is probably inescapable.

[DM]

[TridenT]

[WhiteGulls]

Hey, DM - can you provide a link for the mag cover? I'd like to see this one...

[thunderclap8]

also any idea what magazine it is? the lack of details once again point me to the 'far-fetched rumor' column.

[Kojubat]

This magazine has been discussed at halo.bungie.org.

Essentially, the ad line is for a multiplayer guide by the magazine.

[Nola]

If you look at the select level screen once you've completed the game, there is what seems to be enough space for one more level. This could be one gigantic DLC level to let the MC "finish what he started".

[DreamOfTheRood]

They're making another Halo game. It will be for the NextBox.

[IcyMidnight]

Soundtrack

[Motoss]

There is not another single player mission on the disc. The disk has been cracked, its entire contents looked over. There is not another level that goes in the slot. Besides, there is always "what looks like a spot for another _______" in every game for some reason or another...

[DM]

The magazine was XBOX World, I don't have a link to the magazine cover anymore, but if it was an advert for a multiplayer guide-it wasn't advertised well. The way I read it, was that it wasn't news of a continuation of an article within the magazine, but an article ABOUT the continuation of Halo 2.

The soundtrack, yeah, I just read a newspaper article about it, but it still confuses me as to where they would get the other music from. In the article, it says other work by the "Sound Team" at Bungie. This could be anything, music from the origional Halo, or even sound effects-though I doubt anybody would buy a CD entitled "Sound effects from the Halo universe".

And as for the controller ports, if you still have your XBOX manual, look at the controller section. It's entitled "Expansion Ports", and in my manual at least, it says the ports are multi-functional, from expansion packs for games, or extra memory for save games.

As for what HBO said about it, that is the magazine I looked at, and I am quite peeved at XBOXWorld, to put it mildly. Still, I hope that what Bungie said about "worrying about a good story" was true.

[Cherry Cotton]

[ABoxInABox]

I don't think we'll be seeing Halo 3 anytime soon. If you look here, it looks like they are doing an update. There's even a mention of a deadline, which I think is the Feb 9th thing. If they are updating it, I think it'll either be a campaign extension, a general update, and/or we'll see some extra multiplayer stuff.

[ubersaurus]

Bungie technically made halo 2 in about a year and a half, since they didn't actually have any work done on it until after E3 2003. They're the masters of speeding through a game's programming, apparently, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to make a Halo 3 in this time frame.

Did anyone else note that Mercy told the Chief that "this time, none of you will survive"? Or something like that, I can't remember verbatim-either way, it was implied that the humans as we know them survived the last firing of the ring, and that the prophets hold that against them. Then there's the whole thing where the prophets refuse to allow the humans to join the covenant, despite the Elites' view that they were incredibly tenacious, strategic, and resourceful fighters, despite inferior technology. Add that to the fact that only a human can act as Reclaimer, and it adds credence to my view of humans being descended from Forerunners, which leads me to the conclusion that the prophets must consider humans "unworthy forerunners" or something that were left behind, and deserve to be exterminated.