Team Xbox 9.9

IGN 9.8

Gamespot 9.4

Gamespy 5/5

Theres some reviews and scores from some of the bigger gamesites

EGM gave it 10/10/10 as well...of course that' s EGM, lol. I' m really excited about this game and I' m glad that unlike Fable, this game appears to be living up to the hype.

Watch out, the soundtrack features horrible, horrible stuff from American " bands" like Incubus, Breaking Benjamin, and Hoobastank. The old Halo 1 composers return, and their stuff is good. But the American band' s music is horrible. Why is it such a fad among US developers to let bands come in and make some horrible contributions to a game? EA is the worst offender. Gotta love that hardcore rap in Tiger Woods' PGA Golf. Soooo appropriate for a golf game!

It' s true. A few bands contributed to Halo 2. But unlike EA, they didn' t drop tracks that were in their albums. They composed new instrumental tracks that were inspired by Halo (Since the bands who contributed are huge Halo fans themselves). http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/halo-2/563845p1.aspx Gamespy did an Interview with Nile Rodgers and he firmly stated that the music with be implemented within the original score seamlessly. Hell, the interviewer had a tough time figuring out who composed what, and he was the one who reviewed it!

Read the reviews. I know damn well that if the reviewers heard anything that felt out of place it would have been mentioned in their reviews (In some cases, would be enough to lower their scores a few points). There are nothing but praise in terms of music and sound effects.

PS: How can I hyper link like Mass X?

I' ve only read Gamespot' s review but it' s sounding like a solid game. I' m just a little worried about the story mode being a bit lack-luster and short. I don' t have X-Box live either so I might wait until I' ve some money if playing Halo 2 online is where it' s at.

Had you read the other reviews you' d realized that Gamespot is the ONLY site thus far who weren' t happy with the story. Everyone else loved it.

I think one of the others said they hate how it ends.

I' ve only read Gamespot' s review but it' s sounding like a solid game. I' m just a little worried about the story mode being a bit lack-luster and short.

I' m sorry, but you just have to expect this. I did. I mean, Halo' s story was nothing special, and could easily be beaten within 6-8 hours. I doubt Halo 2 would be much different, not with MS' s insane obsession with Live and multiplayer.

he firmly stated that the music with be implemented within the original score seamlessly.

Big difference between the music! As I was listening to the Halo 2 OST, I would check the titles and tracks every time a crappy sounding song came on, and sho' nuff it was Incubus or something like that. The bands provide (usually) guitar heavy cock-rock and the like which are really out of place in the Halo world. And not only that, there is singing!!! Ug. They are singing stuff like " Blow me away!!!" in the grunt-rock angry/gravel-y voice mode. It is awful. The tracks by Martin O' Donnell & Michael Salvatori are great, however.

The game needs customizable soundtracks.

Honestly though...how much longer do you want to spend on a FPS? I didn' t clock many more hours on Chronicles of Riddick and it' s still the best game I' ve played thus far. And like lotusson said...Gamespot is in the minority here. I' m going to have to wait and see for myself, but the early word is that the story if anything is decent.

As for the music thing...I' m a little worried. All of the bands Joe mentioned I hate, and I just can' t see their type of music fitting in with a game like Halo. I don' t mind the rock so much as the vocals. That sounds like it could end up pretty cheesy, which I hope is not the case. I' ll be posting some of my impressions of the game tomorrow night after I finish a few rounds online and play a little offline.

I am sure that the game will keep you so busy that you won' t even pay attention to the background music.

All of the reviews I read basically state that the flaws are so minor that they won' t be noticed by most people, so I wouldn' t sweat the small stuff.

All seem to agree that Halo 2 rocks!!!

And, just after midnight tonight - when I get my copy back home, I will begin the next step in the journey that is known as Halo 2...

It' s just like the excitement experienced at Christmas, just earlier!!!

It' s just like the excitement experienced at Christmas, just earlier!!!

Exactly! The kids and I are already ticking off the hours and minutes.

Honestly though...how much longer do you want to spend on a FPS? I didn' t clock many more hours on Chronicles of Riddick and it' s still the best game I' ve played thus far.

Amen. CoR might still be my GoY, although it' s neck and neck with GTA: SA right now. And as far as FPS length, I think 6-8 hours is a little short, but a game like Half-Life was too long for me. If it was great, I can see myself putting in 20 hours to the story mode, but even that might be pushing it. I' d be happy with like 12 hours for Halo 2, I guess.

I havn' t seen any reviews of it yet. And there is no need to. I' m getting it already. How can it be any worse than the first?

Have you read the interview? Have you read all the reviews? True, there are sung vocals. In The Soundtrack Album. But in the game itself, there are only the chants that people dig in the first.