Just as Bungie had promised last week, Microsoft has announced that Halo 2 has gone gold. When Bungie announced they had submitted an RC copy of Halo 2 to Microsoft we all knew that the game was ready. How? Well the title of the Bungie announcement read, Halo 2 Done and Dusted and then the developer claimed that most of the people taking part in the game had already left for short holidays before the launch.
With this announcement it is certain that the game will meet its scheduled ship date of November 9.
Microsoft's announcement also included details of how the game will ship which, as we found out, will ship simultaneously over three days to 27 countries in eight languages. Halo 2 will be available on November 9 throughout North and South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The sequel to the award-winning Halo: Combat Evolved, will be available in France, Belgium and Switzerland on November 10, as well as in Japan and the rest of Europe on November 11. Halo 2 is being localized in eight languages including English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (traditional), Spanish, French, German and Italian.
In Halo 2, the action picks up where the first game ended. Master Chief, with the help of a small group of marines, has destroyed the religious artifact and artificial world known as Halo, and is making his way back to Earth. Upon arrival, he and the last surviving Earth forces will mount a titanic final struggle against the marauding Covenant armada.
Pushing the Xbox hardware to its very limits, Halo 2 will expand on everything that made the original game great, plus add a wealth of technological and gameplay advances. Significantly improved graphics, enhanced artificial intelligence (AI), an advanced real-time lighting engine and destructible interactive environments are just a small part of Halo 2's evolution of design and technology. Every improvement in Halo 2 is designed to take gameplay to a new level - and in the end, to tell a more compelling story.
Utilizing Xbox Live, Halo 2 will deliver online multiplayer capabilities. Whether playing with a clan on a new multiplayer map, boarding a friend's Warthog, dogfighting in Banshees or checking player stats, Halo 2 will bring the social experience to a higher level via Xbox Live.