There are those that said this day would never come.


You know the rest.

Announced over at HBO, this band of merry men have tackled Halo 2 in record time.  For a look at the entire run in all its astounding glory, check out the link below.  If you find yourself without the time to ingest it all in one sitting, they've burned some extra seconds to segment it for you.  Well played.

Halo 2 Best Time (Legendary Difficulty) 1:30:29

Segmented by Level

One-of-a-kind soda machine from the offices we call home is being auctioned for the Make A Wish foundation.


We're auctioning our Halo 2 Mountain Dew soda machine. The fully-operational soda station has been at Bungie since the Halo 2 Dew promotion and we're ready to send it to a new home. The send-off will include a bunch of Bungie staffers signing and doodling on the box. Check out the auction and bid here.

Our friends over at Halo.Bungie.Org are kicking off a contest to give away FOUR brand new limited edition Halo Zunes. Visit their contest page for more details! And hurry, there isn't much time!

On June 15th the brand new Halo Zune is being released exclusively through Gamestop retailers around the country. It's a cool device that features custom Halo design stylings and comes pre-loaded with an array of Halo materials including concept art and paintings from Halo 3 (over 120 total pieces of Halo-related artwork). In addition, each device also comes loaded with an exclusive Red vs. Blue episode, many of their classic episodes and a variety of Halo trailers and VIDOCs from past and present.  There's a lot to like on there for Halo fans!

Now you could buy on one 6/15 for the bargain MSRP of $249.99 OR you can head over to Halo.Bungie.Org and win one for free!

You're going to have to work for it though - in order to win, you'll have to create either an awesome Halo song parody, original song, Halo 3 montage video or Halo machinima style video. You can get the full rules and requirements over at the HBO contest page.

We're thrilled to be able to provide the prizes for this cool contest but please be aware that Bungie Studios is not responsible for the program itself. Any questions or issues you have with the Zune Contest should be directed their way.

The Bungie Team will be looking forward to seeing and hearing some awesome community content in the weeks ahead. We'll be sure to share the best of the best with all of you.

Good luck and have fun!

Bungie isn't the only team with a Banhammer. The Xbox Live team has infinitely more powerful tools that obviously span beyond just the Halo games. Be warned that using hacked consoles will get you a one-way ticket to Banville - no matter which game you play.

We are continually fighting the good fight to keep modders and jerks out of the Halo 2 online population (and now Halo 3) but we can all sleep easier at night knowing that the Xbox Live team has their own group of agents working towards the betterment of the online community.

Major Nelson and Gamerscoreblog posted reminders today that people who log onto Live using modified consoles are being dealt with. As more and more people pour into the Halo 3 Beta, please take this warning to heart. Using modified content and hacked boxes is against the Terms of Use for Xbox Live and doing so will result in your console being permanently banned from the service. Forever. For all games.

If you get an error message "Status Code: Z: 8015 - 190D" it means you are done playing Xbox Live on that console. Congrats.

To all of the upstanding members of the Live community - we salute you and look forward to fun times throughout the Halo 3 Beta and beyond.

SketchFactor writes:

Tonight is the night for the long awaited Halo 2 Xbox Live Matchmaking Playlist update and ranking reset. Tombstone and Desolation will be required for some of the playlists and if you purchased them before Monday, 5/7, you will need to download them again before you can play online. Both maps will become free in early July.

It took a little longer than we would have liked but we're happy to announce that later tonight the new maps will finally be integrated into the Halo 2 Xbox Live matchmaking playlists. As you know by now, the original map release didn't go as smooth as we had hoped due to some billing and download issues and then a few wrinkles with the maps themselves. Over the past two weeks those problems were all addressed - everyone should be able to download the maps just fine and the geometry issues that were discovered in Tombstone have been addressed.

As a result of this map "repair", everyone who purchased the maps prior to Monday 5/7 will need to download them again. This is required if you want to play the maps online - only the new versions will work in Matchmaking and they are not compatible with the older versions for custom games or offilne play. You will not, I repeat, you will NOT be billed a second time if you already purchased the maps. However, do keep in mind that each purchase is tied to a single Xbox console. If you downloaded it on your Xbox 1 the first time and try to download it again on your Xbox 360, you will be charged again. Or, if you were one of the few who found the billing loop-hole the first time and weren't charged, you will be charged this time.

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.

We've been bracing you for this for a little while now but we're also resetting all Halo 2 online rankings tonight as part of this update. In light of the new maps, changes we've made to some banhammer functionality and a desire to regroup the population to better facilitate game matches, we are wiping the slate clean. Naturally this will cause joy for some and outrage for others. Hey, it's "just a number", right? And the people who were legitimate high level players should have no problem quickly ascending the ranks once again.

Lastly, we are finally happy to confirm that Tombstone and Desolation will be available for free download in early July. We don't have the exact date locked but it will be around the first week. Stay tuned to Bungie.net for the final details.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support of Halo 2 and your patience as we've been working through some of these issues. 

The Blastacular Map Pack has been updated to fix bugs and superjumps before being deployed to Matchmaking. The two new maps for Halo 2, Desolation and Tombstone, have both been replaced with updated versions, with the geometry fixes added. You will need these to use them in Matchmaking. More new on that later this week.

As we promised in the Weekly Update this Friday past, the Blastacular map pack has been updated to remove the superjumps and invisible walls that would have caused no end of misery in Matchmaking. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you will have to download them again to overwrite your old map files with the new, corrected ones. These will be required to play in matchmaking. The “old” maps will continue to function until then, or until you try to match with someone using the updated maps. Simplest solution? Go get ‘em.

The new maps can be found by simply returning to the content download screen from the main menu in Halo 2, and repeating the process you already used to download them the first time. We know this is a pain. Sorry.

NOTE: You will not be charged again if you already bought these maps.

You will be charged if for some reason you were not charged last time.

Remember - the maps are tied to your console, not your Gamertag. If you try to download to another console, you will be charged again.

We do apologize for this inconvenience. For some of you it’s a minor irritation, for some of you it’s the end to a long and annoying ordeal. Either way, we thank you for your patience and your understanding.

The recent downloading problems with the Halo 2 "Blastacular" map pack have been (mostly) fixed. Details inside.

Hooray! Map download problems are fixed! If you were one of the (significant) number of people unable for a variety of reasons, to download the recent “Blastacular” map pack, a fix implemented last night should have worked for you. Firstly, our apologies. We realize this has been inconvenient and annoying.

As we’ve explained previously, the problem was caused by either trying to get the maps for free (don’t worry, you’re not in trouble), accidentally trying to download on a Silver and then Gold account, or by various incompatible age rating problems between 360 dashboard and the original Xbox. Almost everyone should now be able to download the maps now, and the bonus is that we can now accelerate the maps’ introduction into matchmaking.

We’ll have more news on this soon, and if you’re still having problems with either the map pack or with billing, then try the usual support numbers and contact info here: www.xbox.com since Bungie does not deal with Xbox Live billing matters. At least not until I get that Paypal account set up…

Originally we indicated that this week was our target for updating the Halo 2 Xbox Live matchmaking playlists and resetting all player rankings. We are holding this update while we investigate and fix some of the Xbox Live download problems that people have been reporting.

Originally we indicated that this week was our target for updating the Halo 2 Xbox Live matchmaking playlists and resetting all player rankings. We are holding this update while we investigate and fix some of the Xbox Live download problems that people have been reporting. The good news is that almost everyone who initially had issues downloading the maps should now be able to do so. However, there may be some people who are still unable to download the maps for a variety of reasons and we’re working with the Xbox Live team to narrow down the potential cause and implement the solution.

This playlist update and rank reset will probably occur next week, pending the outcome of our ongoing work with the Xbox Live team. In the meantime, you are of course able to enjoy both Tombstone and Desolation in online custom games and offline Splitscreen/System Link play. Please stay tuned to Bungie.net for the latest info. Apologies for the inconvenience.

The Halo 2 auto-update is now available. Read more for a refresher on Sketch's summary of it.

It's pretty early in the morning here, so I'll do what's easy and quote Frankie quoting Sketch. You can quote me on that. I'm not going to edit it for date content, so when he says "next week", that's now.

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As you know by now, we’re just over a week away from unleashing two brand new Halo 2 multiplayer maps upon the world. “Desolation”, a remake of the Halo 1 map Derelict, and Tombstone, a remake of the classic “Hang ‘em High”, are both being released on Xbox Live on Tuesday 4/17. For the bargain price of $4.00 you’ll be able to unleash a new can of whoop-ass on these completely re-imagined multiplayer arenas. We’ll have a lot more to say (and show) about each of these maps next week as part of our continuing coverage on Bungie.net.

However, before we can release the new maps, we need to release a new auto-update for Halo 2. My sources tell me this is likely happening at some point next week and there could be a small interruption in play while this update is being deployed.

The primary purpose of this update is simply to enable the game to recognize the new content but we’ve also taken the opportunity to enhance some of our existing Banhammer functionality. This will be transparent to our legitimate players but suffice it to say that we’ve got a few new bells and whistles under the hood that should hopefully further combat and deter cheaters and jerks who are still trying to ruin your fun online. They will know immediately that something has changed.

This update will clear your online networking history which means that for a short period of time, the game won’t have any record of your ideal network capabilities which means you could experience some shaky games until things settle down. Basically over time the game learns what size games you can reliably host in order to give you the best possible experience but initially it’s not going to know if you’re on dial-up or a T1. This should return to a peaceful state of harmony after a few games. It’s also worth noting that the update will erase your “map cache” on your Xbox – this means that the first few games you play after the update could take a little longer than usual to load the maps since they’ll have to be freshly loaded into memory. This also means that the maps will need to be loaded from your Xbox game disc, so if you have a scratched or damaged disc, you could encounter some errors that you might have noticed before since the maps were previously already cached.

The point to all of this is just to let you know that longer load times and potential rocky games are expected and perfectly normal but everything will return to the way it was after you play a few games.

We are currently planning to update the Halo 2 matchmaking playlists the week following the map release (around 4/24). You’ll have some time to download the new maps but once the playlist update comes, please be aware that almost all playlists will require the new maps to play. You can of course play custom games and offline games as much as you want as soon as the maps are released, but on or around 4/24, you will need the new maps to enjoy the majority of the playlists offered in matchmaking. Lastly, in conjunction with a new auto-update, new maps and fresh playlists, we’re going to RESET ALL RANKINGS for Halo 2.

The last time we did a ranking reset was the release of the map pack and corresponding auto-update and we feel it’s right to do it again since the online landscape will be changing. This reset will also even the playing field in a world where the population has diminished somewhat and the majority of players are spread far across the level spectrum. It will pull everyone back together again and make it easier to get into games.

It’s awesome that we still have a steady group of people playing Halo 2 even today and we’re really looking forward to invigorating the online game one more time with new maps and a fresh ranking start before we look towards Halo 3. As always you can share your suggestions, requests and comments about matchmaking in our Optimatch forum here on Bungie.net. Thanks for your support and we’ll see you back on Xbox Live soon!

We're in the middle of upgrading the servers that receive game stats from the Xbox - processing of new stats may be delayed while we switch to the new system, and a few games might even fall through the cracks. (They'll still count for rank, just won't be visible on this site.) Sorry for any inconvenience.

(Follow link for update...)


We're in the middle of upgrading the servers that receive game stats from the Xbox - processing of new stats may be delayed while we switch to the new system, and a few games might even fall through the cracks. (They'll still count for rank, just won't be visible on this site.) Sorry for any inconvenience.

When we're done, we'll be running on shiny new servers that will also be running the Halo 3 beta and eventually Halo 3 itself.

Update 1: We're up and running on a brand new server. Tomorrow we'll bring a few more online for redundancy, but that's shouldn't affect anyone. To clarify, this was just a routine server upgrade, similar to when we upgraded the web servers a couple weeks ago, and isn't a hint of imminent changes in the beta status.  For those who asked, this is simply the server that receives stats uploads from the xbox for display on bungie.net, it doesn't literally "run" the game.

A Halo 2 enters its twilight years and Halo 3 looms on the horizon, we're embarking on a journey to determine which Halo multiplayer map is better than all the rest. Through a series of polls you can help us crown the ultimate killing ground in our Bungie.net "Map Battle."  Get to votin!

Halo has always been known for great multiplayer and it's not just due to the pistol or sword or any of the various means of destruction at your disposal. These tools are pointless if you don't have a good map to unleash them in.

Here at Bungie.net we're kicking off our first ever Halo "Map Battle" as we seek to determine which Halo multiplayer maps are truly the best of the best in the eyes of our fans.

Since our scientific poll system can only contain a maximum of 8 total entries, we've split the voting up across several different polls. We'll combine the highest scoring maps from Halo 1, Halo PC and Halo 2 into one final showdown to determine the overall winner.

It's time to step up and represent your favorite maps and rock the vote at the polls listed below. Check back soon for the next round of voting!

HALO MULTIPLAYER MAP BATTLE

Halo 1 MP Map Poll  (1of 2) -  VOTE HERE. 
Halo 1 MP Map Poll  (2 of 2) - VOTE HERE.

Halo 1 PC/Mac Map Poll - VOTE HERE.

Halo 2 MP Map Poll (1 of 3) - VOTE HERE.
Halo 2 MP Map Poll (2 of 3) - VOTE HERE.
Halo 2 MP Map Poll (3 of 3)  - VOTE HERE.

Next week we'll combine the top scoring maps into the 2nd round of voting on our way to the championship.

The Halo 2 playlist changes we mentioned in the past Weekly Update have gone live and you should now be able to choose Team SWAT from your Optimatch screen yet again. Rejoice!

Now that Team SWAT's back, it's only a matter of time before the pistol makes its triumphant return!

(Not really.)