- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Frogwart
[color=white]With all the bees madness flitting aroung in everyone's heads the last few days, I thought I'd investigate one particular aspect of the phenomenon: the supposed early release date of August 24th.
Now I don't know what it would take for Bungie to complete Halo 2 at this point (that would include getting the game copied for the millions of customers who've reserved it, processing those copies and shipping them to the stores, etc.), but in looking at the most recent update (which is why I'm posting this here, and in other similar threads), there are things that could be read as hints about an early release.
Take all this with a grain of salt, or just ignore it. Your choice.
(The italics and bold lettering that follows is mine.)[/color]
[color=blue]It's been a busy, busy week. So busy in fact, and so crunchtacular, (Yes, the studio's probably been in crunch mode for a long while, please continue) that basically nobody is really available to chat this week. (Nobody at all? This would suggest the extreme, or in Marty's words from the Halo credits: "Last crunch!")
...lots going on in the studio, and I've been playing through a very nice-looking build of the game. (A complete build?)
(The following hints and their meanings should be obvious.)
The skyboxes are often fixed later in the polishing process and a bunch of the placeholders have had big holes in the center for a long time...placeholders are becoming rarer and rarer. There's even a placeholder sound. A startling, yet melodic tinkle accompanies any footstep on an undefined texture...I kinda miss the tinkle on multiplayer maps, (should we take this to mean that there are no more placeholder sounds in MP?)...Marty also let me hear one of the new pieces of finished music...
I've actually been playing more and more of the single player campaign, but last night, playing multiplayer, through my own crappy connection, I noticed nothing. No slowdown, no lag and no garbled voices. It was like playing on a LAN. Wonders never cease. I hope that's typical of how it will be in the retail game. (Think on this. The implication is that both Campaign and MP are complete, or very close to it--close enough for an August 24th release?)
Adrian's bug-fixing has reached something of a crescendo.
"Every week we get closer to finishing, which means that every week the bugs I'm fixing are less and less critical." (Close to the end of all debugging?)
Chris Carney: Steve "Land of " Cotton and I have been spending our waking moments trying to finish up all of new content by next Friday (i.e. content complete). (Would next Friday be a certain milestone, or a deadline--a date to be done by?)
Included in this last mad dash (LAST?) is some familiar lands, and yes, I can not be more specific. In addition, we are going through all of our maps to try and finalize any outstanding game play elements, and are also deeply involved in polishing the art in the environments to a fine glossy sheen. The amount of "polishing" seems to imply the game is very close to completed.[/color]
[color=white]Of course, this is entirely speculation and should be taken as such.
If you let it heighten your hopes, don't blame me. I'm just grasping at straws.
It's a nice thought (I like to think), and maybe it is another subtle hint w/r/t the ilovebees thing, maybe not.
Here's one more thing to chew on: What if August 24th is the date Halo 2 goes gold (into production)? They have a lot of discs to make....
Thanks for reading....[/color]
that Frogwart guy sure is a sharp one!
bungie is being very very sneaky about all this but i don't see why! what's the point!? to piss us off?! well whatever they're doin, they're damn good at it!
[Edited on 7/25/2004 1:50:56 AM]