Although Halo 2 has lost Xbox Live support, a small group of people are trying to make it last as long as possible.
Throughout the past week, a small group of dedicated Halo 2 players kept their xboxes on so that they could enjoy the game for a while long. (As long as we don’t turn off our xboxes, or lose connection, we can stay online. Our xboxes have been on for nearly 19 days straight!) Each day the amount of people decreased, at a rapid rate.
Down to just five people, who knows how much longer they can keep this up. According to them, Bungie will be sending Halo: Reach Beta keys to reward their dedication. The last live stream has finally cut out so unfortunately there is no way to follow them other than the Bungie Forums.
If there were any inclinations left in your system to play Halo 2 over Xbox Live one more time, you better get on the ball. The original Xbox Live from last generation will be completely shut down tomorrow, so today is your last chance.
I had many a great time on the original Xbox Live, from being in the first wave of the Beta to playing Unreal Tournament on the public launch day to leaving work early to get my copy of Halo 2 and kick some ass. The service has really grown since the early days and I’m looking forward to seeing what Microsoft can pull off without the old limitations.
While I won’t be firing up Halo 2, I’ll pour one out for our lost homies.
For all you Halo fans out there, this is badass. Bungie will be adding the cutscenes from Halo 2 in HD to their site for your viewing pleasure. Here is the link to the archives. Be sure to follow all the instructions listed; it seems a little confusing. Bungie will be adding more soon enough. Check back for updates.
Yes folks, today is officially Bungie Day throughout the world. Celebrate with your Halo lords by fragging a couple friends online in Halo 2 for either the Xbox or PC.
As a special gift, Bungie is putting up some special Bungie Day gamer pictures and a theme for FREE on the Xbox Live Marketplace on the Xbox 360. You read that right… FREE.
Make sure you grab these pretty quick, though. Once midnight hits, these puppies are gone forever. As in never available again. As in pray your Xbox 360 doesn’t die if you enjoy these because you won’t be able to download them again.
As we all know, the Halo 2 Blastacular Map pack did not download the way it should have. Bungie has released a statement saying that in order to have any kind of matchmaking in Halo 2, you must have the new maps in order to do so. The lesson here is that even though this content is marked as optional, it is necessary to have the new maps to play ranked matches. This will force gamers to make a huge choice if they wish to continue playing Halo 2 in a ranked manner. Here is an excerpt from Bungie:
Tonight’s update means that both new maps will be REQUIRED in order to participate in some of our matchmaking playlists. However, we are keeping several playlists in their oldschool state so if you don’t have the new maps you will still have some options. Here’s the breakdown of what will be available after this update:
Rumble Pit - Unranked - New Maps Required
Double Team - Ranked
Team Slayer - Ranked - New Maps Required
Team Skirmish - Ranked - New Maps Required
Team Training - Unranked
Team Snipers - Ranked - New Maps Required
Team Hardcore - Ranked
Team SWAT - Unranked - New Maps Required
Big Team Battle - Unranked
Of course you can continue to play custom games with or without the new maps as much as you’d like.
Bungie released a statement to say that all the incompatibility between the xbox and xbox360 has been fixed. Another possible scenario is people on a silver account trying to download as if they were on a gold account. Either way, the map pack is up and ready to be downloaded problem free. Unfortunately, the map pack is not free, you still gotta pay.
Frankie posted his usual weekly update on Bungie.net on Friday, addressing some of the issues brought up this week in the community.
Here at Loot Ninja, we reported on the major issues a lot of Xbox 360 owners were dealing with when trying to purchase the Halo 2 Blastacular Map Pack. Frankie sheds some light on the issue:
Some people have reported on various forums that there was initially a glitch in the billing system that allowed people to download the Blastacular maps for free. This bug was quickly fixed but anyone who still attempts to circumvent the billing system will actually end up locking themselves out of the maps entirely with no way to download them. The Xbox Live team is pursuing a fix to enable downloads again for these vagabonds, ne’er-do-wells and hooligans.
In a few other cases, the problem is caused by a kind of disconnect between this generation of Xbox Live and last, as far as age ratings are concerned. Basically the system thinks you’re too young, even if you’re not. Those problems are being fixed as we speak. Again, the reason this has been a less than perfect transition has an awful lot to do with insisting that the maps are made available to both 360 and olde Xbox owners. It has never really been done before, so we apologize for our teething troubles.
The new Halo 2 maps may not work all that well, but they still look pretty. I’m still debating on these. I’ll probably pass as I don’t play Halo 2 much anymore. I do miss all the racial slurs from the 12 year olds though…
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