The Halo 2 with unboxed spoilers thread (Hop on in if you've beat the game.)

[Waenara]

@velveeta

And explain i love bees to me. I know it’s a phone game set in the Halo universe, but that’s about it. What do you mean that the count-down has restarted?

Well, I really don’t know that much about it. I’ve mainly heard about it from my younger brother (he’s nuts about Halo and has been participating on some Halo messageboards).

Here’s the Wikipedia entry on “I Love Bees”. Some quotes:

It is believed by many in the Halo and ARG communities that this is a publicity stunt by Bungie, to build up hype for Halo 2, in a manner similar to the game The Beast (http://www.cloudmakers.org) which surrounded the movie A.I… Indeed, as Microsoft were behind that first game, there has been speculation that Apiary is a sort of sequel (http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/index.php?title=XBox_Connection).

Bungie has had a history of doing these sorts of puzzles for upcoming games. To “announce” Halo, Bungie (or rather, a Bungie employee named Nathan Bitner, now supposedly in the army) released a series of emails later called the “Cortana Letters”, in which a character from Halo talks about her reality. As with the Cortana Letters, I Love Bees makes heavy references to both Halo, Halo 2, and an older Bungie game called Marathon.

A counter NOTE: this is the countdown I mentioned in my first post to something being “Wide Awake and Physical” expired, and a series of GPS co-ordinates and, later, times appeared on the Links Page (http://www.ilovebees.com/links.html) of I Love Bees. People going to those co-ordinates at those times have discovered that payphones exist at those areas, and that something is calling these phones at those locations.

If the person answers correctly, that “axon” (as the AI calls it) goes “hot”. When 2 to 12 “axons” go “hot” in an area, a small wave file is put up for download.

These waves are a story comparable to the radio drama War of the Worlds, with heavy Halo references.

However, my brother apparently got the “re-started countdown” story he told me completely wrong, as Wikipedia says:

Again there is a countdown on the site, but it is a 500 year countdown. The time is believed to count down to the day the Covenant invades Earth in Halo 2.

Lesson learned: check out these rumors before posting, instead of listening to a 14-year-old fanboy.

[RickJay]

@velveeta

It’s not clear, but it’s implied that she was created specifically to interface with the Master Chiefs armor.

That does not match with the events of Halo 1; when loaded into the Master Cheif’s armor, Cortana expresses surprise that his systems are similar to the systems that run the “Pillar of Autumn.” She wouldn’t say that if she was already familiar with Spartan systems - she’s pretty clearly a shipboard AI.

Perhaps the books contradict this, but the games are the central source and the topic of discussion here.

[Cisco]

Has anyone beat it on legendary yet? I’m at the final boss (Tartarus?) and having a good bit of grief with him. I’m approaching 3 hours on what should be a 5 minute fight.

[velveeta]

@RickJay

Perhaps the books contradict this, but the games are the central source and the topic of discussion here.

Yes, they do, but since it appears that I’ve offended you in some way, I guess I’ll just go back to lurking.

And, Cisco, you have to hit him with plasma fire or dual needlers until his shields go down, then you can take him out with a brute shot or the sword. The shotgun works too.

[Cisco]

@velveeta

And, Cisco, you have to hit him with plasma fire or dual needlers until his shields go down, then you can take him out with a brute shot or the sword. The shotgun works too.

Eh, had no problem doing this Co-op on Normal difficulty. Single player Legendary was a different story :).

I figured out the pattern after awhile though. Three snipes from Sgt. Johnson and his shields go down for a second. Run in and nail him with the shotgun twice, then jump up to the next level because the first round of Brutes are coming. Let you Elites fight off a few and when they’re all dead there should be 2-3 Brutes left. Snipe them with the (Carbine?) gun and then jump down and nail Tartarus two more times. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Took me maybe 100 tries.

I was pretty dissapointed with the Legendary ending. The cutscene was no different if memory serves me correctly and I didn’t see anything about February 9th, though now that I read closer I see that it was supposedly hidden at the bottom of the credits. I was expecting it to flash across the whole screen.

[mouthbreather]

@Cisco

Anyway - sorry about that - from what I saw, it almost looked like Cortana was up to no good.

That was my thought as well.

[Declan]

@RickJay

Perhaps the books contradict this, but the games are the central source and the topic of discussion here.

[SPOILER]in the second novelization , after the fall of reach. The bomber that the master chief flys out of the pillar of autumm, stays insystem , meets up with the surviving members of the marines that survived the destruction of Halo 1.

Capturing a covenant vessel , they slipstream back to reach ,and meet up with the originator of the spartan project ,that lady doctor, who upgrades the MC’s armor , and provides a second AI for the Master Chief.[/SPOILER]

So , it comes down to what microsoft really wants to do , sooner or later someones gonna start thinkin movies either live , CGI or cartoon,I personally pretty much avoid getting into the canon trap.

Declan

[Cisco]

@Declan

sooner or later someones gonna start thinkin movies either live , CGI

I’m really hoping CGI, though it probably won’t do as well, leading to the lack of a sequel.

[Amp]

So, any speculation as to how Sargeant Johnson survived the destruction of the first Halo? I know he tells someone it is classified in the beginning of the game but I can’t think of anyway he could have survived.

[velveeta]

@Amp

So, any speculation as to how Sargeant Johnson survived the destruction of the first Halo? I know he tells someone it is classified in the beginning of the game but I can’t think of anyway he could have survived.

I can only give you the book answer which is pretty cheesy. Apparently, he’s been over exposed to high yield plasma - the kind released by Covie plasma grenades - and his nervous system is so out of whack that the Flood don’t want him.
Of course, the game isn’t really following the books so much. Bungie will probably come up with some other explanation if there is a 3rd game.