To read the previous three installments, click here (the links follow the article).

HALO 2: BUNGIE' S ORGY OF LOVE

Exclusive: Bungie studio manager Pete Parsons spills the beans...

17:24 In the fourth and final part of our essential Halo 2 coverage we take a tour of Bungie' s offices and grab studio manager Pete Parsons for an EXCLUSIVE interview!
Here' s the usual itinerary for a journalist' s visit to a developer: arrive, eat croissants, drink pulpy orange juice. Get shepherded into room, sit down, listen to speech telling you things you already know. Get game demoed to you, chuckle like a cynical hack when something goes wrong. Sit down with game while someone tells you which button to press and when. Get dragged away too quickly.

Don' t get us wrong. We absolutely love going to see developers in their natural habitat. It' s just that sometimes the whole affair is a little... patronising.

Which is why we were stunned when we strolled into Bungie' s Seattle HQ. There were no protracted speeches or introductions, just Pete Parsons, studio manager and genuinely nice bloke, saying hello and telling us to sit down and play Halo 2.

Bear in mind this isn' t some D-list developer hawking some crap-on-a-stick game. This is Bungie, possibly Microsoft' s most important developer, and they' re showing us Halo 2, one of the biggest videogame sequels in history. Like we said, stunning.

And it got better. Pete and a huge selection of other influential Bungie staffers wandered around the floor while we played, chatting with us, offering respectful tips and information on new features, and joining in whenever someone got up for a pee or a slice of pizza.

Later we got taken on a tour around Bungie' s actual office and rather than our guide very politely asked us not to look at certain things. For the record we saw lots of monitors showing an Earth-like environment under a blood-red sky that could be scenes from the Campaign Mode, some concept art showing off an absolutely huge enemy that looked a bit like a Brute but was about five times the size of a scale Master Chief, and lots of whiteboards saying stuff like ' Mike is a tool' .

Back downstairs we cornered Bungie studio manager Pete Parsons and wrestled him away from a Slayer match for a chat in the sunshine:

Could you tell us the whole storyline of the Campaign Mode and let us in on the twist?

Pete Parsons: Yeah, no problem! So Master Chief... no, seriously, we' re not talking about the storyline at all. We' ve let people know that the Covenant have reached Earth and that' s as far as we' re going at the moment. We spend a lot of time telling the story and fleshing out the characters and we want to give every Halo fan the opportunity to discover the storyline for themselves. That' s why we want to keep it quiet.

Okay so without any specifics, the first game had a genuinely strong storyline and a really atmospheric sense of narrative. Is that something you always set out to achieve?

Pete Parsons: Yes, and in Halo 2 we' ve worked a lot harder to do that. One of the coolest things to come out of the game is this really well thought-out Halo universe that runs through the first game, into the novels, and continues in Halo 2.

How excited are you about where the storyline of Halo 2 is taking the series?

Pete Parsons: Well, I see the game every day and I' m really excited about the storyline. I love it. I know people are going to like it. There are a few things that will blow people away. The primary thing for us was to expand the Halo universe, tell this rich story, add in a lot of new features, but still let people just jump in and become the Chief again, like they' re getting reacquainted with an old friend.

How intimidating was it returning to Halo and figuring out how you were going to push the game on?

Pete Parsons: Well, we' re hoping that all the little things we' ve added and tweaked come together to be one big orgy of love. We basically avoid questions like " how many weapons are there?" or " how many levels are there?" because we' ve done so many things across the board. The number one thing we want to do is have all these changes come together and tell the story in the best possible way.

The storyline and Campaign Mode are obviously areas you see as being essential. How important is the multiplayer aspect of Halo 2?

Pete Parsons: We spend most of our time working on the single player because we' re trying to tell the story first and foremost, but the multiplayer' s really important to us too. We were really surprised with how the multiplayer aspect of the first Halo took off and we wanted to make sure that when we took it to Live we recreated that same kind of living room experience but all around the world. So we' ve been working on it - and playing it - a lot.

How do you think the hardcore Halo community will react to the Live multiplayer component?

Pete Parsons: It' s been nuts seeing these guys hauling their Xboxes and TVs around to play multiplayer Halo and that' s something we' re really proud of. Hopefully Live will be a reward for these guys and we' re really excited about the ways Halo 2 communities might spring up. That' s why we' ve worked so hard on the Clan and Party systems so you can still have that social experience with your friends and teammates. Of course, you can just get on there yourself and have a great time with other Halo fans.

Will newcomers to Halo multiplayer be able to get on there and have fun straight away, or do you think they' ll find it intimidating?

Pete Parsons: Definitely not. People who haven' t played too much multiplayer Halo in the past will be able to go on there and have a blast. The thing we' re all most pleased with about our ranking system is that newcomers will be able to get a really competitive game and still go onto Bungie.net to study their stats, while the experts will be able to rely on getting a really tough challenge every time they play.

Any plans for tournaments, national leagues, world championships, that kind of thing?

Pete Parsons: That' s something we' re looking at down the road. We' re already doing that kind of thing with system link Halo and the Live infrastructure will make it so much easier to arrange stuff like that.

Halo was a hugely important launch title for Xbox. Are you guys involved with whatever Microsoft has coming in the next generation of consoles?

Pete Parsons: We' re 100% committed to Halo 2 at the moment. We haven' t decided what we' re going to do next and we' re not going to think about it until we' re done.

Do you have any desires to do a totally different kind of game?

Pete Parsons: Oh yeah, definitely. Whenever you have a lot of talented guys working together like we' ve got here at Bungie there' s always lots of different influences and ideas floating around. There are a lot of different games we' d like to look at.

What do you play at home?

Pete Parsons: I really like Knights of the Old Republic; I think the guys over at BioWare are awesome. I had a lot of fun with Project Gotham Racing 2 and Pandora Tomorrow. Other than that it' s been solid Halo 2. We' ve been playing system link multiplayer for a long time now and we got the Live alpha code in January so we' ve been playing online with about 1,000 Microsoft employees. Now we' ve got the beta code it just keeps getting better and we can' t wait until everyone out there gets their hands on it.

You must have guys in the office who are phenomenal at Halo 2 multiplayer?

Pete Parsons: We' ve got some guys who are just amazing. I' m not one of them - I' m middle of the road at best! Even within the Microsoft employees on our beta test, we' ve got some of the best players in the world who give us great feedback, but we' re all constantly amazed at how good the real players out there are. I really think Halo 2, with all the new features and Live support, will really give them the chance to show off their skills.

So what' s down the road for Bungie?

Pete Parsons:We' re all going to get some sleep for a start, but because we' re involved with Xbox Live now and Bungie.net is a much richer site than it was before we are going to make sure we' re keeping that universe alive and fun and fresh. Then we' ll come back after taking a break and figure out what we' re going to do next.

Halo 2 ...The final word!

So what does all this disarming openness and overwhelming access mean? Well, the lasting impression of the day is that Bungie is assured. Not arrogant. Assured. They seem extremely confident that they don' t have to pull the wool over anyone' s eyes, and extremely confident that they' re working on a phenomenal game.

That confidence applies to the continuing elusiveness of any Campaign Mode storyline details. As the day progressed attempts to gleam any nugget of information became increasingly surreal as the whole Bungie team ducked the topic with admirable dexterity.

This is not a cause for concern. We sincerely doubt there is any conspiracy at work here, just an honest desire to keep the storyline boxfresh for every player to enjoy in its entirety.

And our verdict on the multiplayer stuff? Like we said back in part one of our coverage, at first glance it' s not all that different. It looks just as good as the original, and feels just as good as the original. After a while, though, we realised that Halo 2 was evolving something amazing into something... unbelievable. How does it feel? Perfect. Sublime. It feels like you were born to play it. The multiplayer, especially online, is going to take over your life, and we' ve got a feeling that the secretive Campaign Mode will hold surprises we couldn' t even dream of.