Ahhhh, Halo 2.

Full disclosure: I am not a Bungie fanboy, but Bungie’s Marathon games and the original Halo remain to this day the only FPSes that I played through to the end because I cared about the story. I also cared pretty deeply about the story in I Love Bees. I am loving Joint Ops for Windows and would play Rainbox Six 3 on Windows over Xbox any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Bear in mind my heavy bias for PC FPSes as you read this.

First of all, the Chicago event last night took place in a movie theater. When we got inside, we were given a DVD with all of the “I Love Bees” audio clips, credits, some “making of” information, which was a classy touch. We were also given a raffle ticket.

Inside, Halo 2 was set up on 5 Xboxes and TV screens. 4 of the Xboxes were system-linked for a local LAN 8-player game, while the 5th, middle Xbox was hooked up to the other three “training exercises” in Austin, New York, and San Francisco via Xbox Live. This was also the system that was projected on to the big screen.

Playtime was raffled off, as were 5 “prize packs” which included Halo 2 Limited Edition, the Plantronics Halo 2 headset, Xbox Live Starter kit, and 12 months of Xbox Live. These prizes are being sent out next week, so don’t fret that some people are playing (the legal, English version of) Halo 2 already.

I didn’t win a prize pack, but I did win some time on the system link. This game unequivocally lives up to the hype and then some. There will be ZERO disappointments next week.

Let me get the obvious stuff out of the way - the graphics and sound are the best of any console FPS, period. Frame rate was high and fluid and the controls are the ones you know and love from the original (if slightly more responsive). As with everything, the controls are very (but not totally) customizable - you have a variety of preset gamepad layouts to choose from, you can disable inverted look controls, and you can even set sensitivity sliders for the thumbsticks.

I played in a (non-team) Slayer match. (That’s what every other game calls “deathmatch”, for those not in the know.) Some of the subtle things were quite incredible - dual wielding, for example, is all you hoped it would be and more. John Woo should be jumping for joy. In my short time playing, I got pretty handy with a run-and-gun technique with a submachinegun and a pistol - spraying bullets from my right hand while closing the gap to my enemy, then finishing him/her off with a few shots to the head from my left from up-close. Of course, dual plasma rifles aren’t too shabby either… and I consider it a personal point of pride that I’ve destroyed opponents with the Covenant sword before the rest of the free world gets a chance to. The maps are well-designed and the speed of the game is perfectly tuned to be andrenalin-pumping but not cartoony… think Goldeneye for N64 with killer graphics and far more interesting weapons and you’re starting to get the idea. The HUD is great and is tailored to the incredible variety of game types. For example, in CTF it shows you where the enemy flag is and where your base is without being too obtrusive.

Speaking of game types, this isn’t your father’s CTF (at least not with the options we used). Instead of both teams hunting opposing flags that require capture and return to your own base, the CTF we played had one team on offense (i.e. get the flag and return it) and one team on defense. The offensive team won a point if they capped the flag and returned it to their base - the defensive team won a point if the offensive team failed to do so within a set time. Once a point is awarded, the teams switch roles (offense/defense) and the teams play again until one team has 3 points. Sort of a mix of regular CTF and the Unreal Tournament series’ “Assault” game mode. SO sweet. The other game modes are crazy - in addition to the free-for-all “Slayer” and this new-style CTF, there was also “Team Slayer” (not limited to two teams - I watched a 2x2x2x2 game last night), “King of the Hill”, “Team King of the Hill” (also not limited to 2 teams), “Oddball” (a game mode from Marathon in which you try to hang on to a skull-shaped ball for as long as possible and the first person to accumulate 2 minutes with the ball wins; the only problem is that when you have the ball, you show up on everyone’s radar and your only offensive option is punching), “Team Oddball” (again more than 2 teams are allowed), and probably several more that we didn’t see (for fear of plot exposure, we obviously didn’t get to play Co-op, though it was on the menu). Of course there are subcategories of the Slayer and Team Slayer modes called “Swords” and “Rockets”. I’ll let you figure out which weapons you’re limited to in those modes.

Perhaps most impressive of all are the overwhelmingly incredible Xbox Live features. This may be old hat to people who have read all of the press releases and gaming site/magazine articles, but I hadn’t - and the Xbox Live options BLEW ME AWAY. If this game doesn’t sell a bajillion Xbox owners on the service, then I’ll let CF blast me repeatedly with a Covenant carbine.

Where to start… there is a “Party” system, which allows you to grab a few of your buddies and move around from game to game as a block. Bungie calls this the “virtual couch”, because it allows you to stay in the same games and on the same teams as your friends with zero effort, just as if you were all sitting on the same couch. One person is designated the party leader, and they make the choices regarding which games to join (or what options to host with) and the other members of the party are automagically brought along in tow. It’s so goddamn cool it practically hurts. The matchmaking options for individuals and clans, the clan support in general for that matter, the avatar customization, it’s just simply breathtaking. The absolutely ginormous number of stats that are tracked in-game (and ultimately, on Bungie.net) will make your head spin. In fact, after November 9 I encourage you to go to Bungie.net regularly to see how many times Coldforged has killed me via tragic Warthog “accident”… (CF, you do realize that you’re the designated driver given my, uh, limited PGR2 skills, right?) All this plus the regular Xbox Live features like hassle-free voice chat, friends lists, etc. is almost too good to be true.

I was a bit too caught up in the excitement to give a more in-depth preview than this, but suffice it to say I’m sure that the stuff I didn’t see (single-player, co-op, all of the customization options for controls, displays, and multiplayer game types, under the covers of the Live features) can only make me more excited about this game.

This is it - this is the pinnacle of online FPS gaming on any platform, including Windows. It’s so easy to set up exactly to your tastes, it’s such a snap to get in to games with your friends, your clans, others of your skill level, and of course the content is beyond your wildest expectations. It’s not as good as you thought it’d be, it’s not as good as you hoped it’d be, it’s BETTER. Bungie has anticipated features that you didn’t even know you wanted and overdelivered on everything you could have possibly dreamed of.

If you’ve ever enjoyed an action-oriented video game, then pre-order this game now. If you don’t have an Xbox, then get one. If you don’t have Xbox Live, then sign up today. The gamer in you will thank me later.