HALO 2' S RUMOUR CONTROL DEPARTMENT GOES INTO OVERDRIVE

Bungie bust Halo 2' s most popular and most idiotic rumours on official website

11:07 While we prepare to unleash the final part of our essential Halo 2 coverage, those cheeky fellas over at Bungie have been obliterating the most popular and, frankly, most mental rumours surrounding their upcoming FPS epic.

The first rumour quashed is the possibility of Halo 2 appearing on other systems. Let' s be honest. This was a very silly rumour.

In terms of the much vaunted multiplayer component Bungie have confirmed that the upper ceiling for Live and System Link players is 16, which allows for " a nice balance of performance, graphics and gameplay" . Excitingly, four-player Live splitscreen play has finally been confirmed, although the co-op mode will remain two-player splitscreen only and online coop remains unconfirmed. You won' t find AI bots in multiplayer matches either.

The issue of dual-wielding weapons has been cleared up. You' ll only be able to dual-wield weapons you could feasibly hold in one hand, so forget those dreams of slinging two rocket launchers over your shoulders.

A rumoured Halo 1.5 Live version of the first game with expanded features has also been denied, and the best news for our wallets is that the exciting Bungie.net stat-tracking and community features will be free and not subscription based.

One area that was explicitly ignored by Bungie was the storyline of the Campaign Mode. Will they be able to keep it under wraps before the game' s November 11 release?

The site' s forums have predictably gone mad with even more outlandish speculation. Head on over to Bungie.net to check it out for yourself, and remember to head back here soon for the final part of our unmissable Halo 2 coverage: an exclusive Q&A with Bungie studio manager Pete Parsons!


Graeme Boyd