Halo 2 Feb 9th Speculation

bongo69 writes "It would seem Bungie is at it again. If you complete HALO 2 on legendary the credits display the message "Coming February 9th". What could this mean? Could this be a new HALO game announcement, perhaps for Xbox 2, or just some downloadable content?"

Site seems slow Text

Halo 3 In 2005?!
Yes, with the release of Halo 2 comes the Halo 3 release date and how fast it's coming will suprise even you. *WARNING - SPOILERS INSIDE*

*PLEASE NOTE THAT SPOILERS ARE CONTAINED INSIDE THIS ARTICLE FROM HALO 2 (most notably the legendary ending)*

After beating Halo 2 on legendary, at first you may seem disappointed. There's no different ending, no extras to be seen, and no true unlockables (the level you unlock can also be unlocked on Heroic). Yet, if you pay close enough attention to the credits, you may find what will be an important easter egg that'll blow you're mind... On the bottom of the credits, at the very end, you'll find an interesting tid-bit of information... "Coming February 9th". Now, what could this mean?

This may mean a 2005 release date, but with just 3 months left this seems doubtful (but definitely in the realms of possibility). This is more likely a release date for 2006.

Other possibilities include that February 9th could be the official announcement of Bungie's next project or the first wave of downloadable content for Halo 2. Bungie has expressed that Halo 3 will not be its next project yet this released date does leave some speculation...

Also, more hints of a sequel come from the Halo 2 soundtrack, titled "Vol. 1". You would expect another volume to come out but with all the music from Halo 2 already on the disc this hints at the Halo 3 soundtrack.

Will Halo 3 come out in a mere 3 months, or possibly another year? What does the date mean, is Halo 3 finally here? One thing is for sure, the only way you'll know is on February 9th, when something special from Bungie is sure to come.

Re:Site seems slow Text

If that means 2005 it's definitely downloadable content. erhaps they're trying to get more people on Live by delivering an essentially incomplete game that allows you to download the rest from Live (maybe even for a fee). Might convince a few more people to get Live. Other games might have come under fire for being incomplete but the H2 reviews still gave perfect scores so it seems to work for them.

Coming Feb 9th

It's quite clearly the date of the planned Bungie staff outing to Amsterdam's red light district...

*waves goodbye to dignity and karma*

Console Patriotism is bad m'kay

God!! Let's face it. Halo 2 was the most hyped game the world has ever seen.
Never before has so much bulls*it, been spread around so such, for such a long time, by so many, for so little.

Not that Halo 2 wasn't an alright game. I thought it was quite good, except for the getting lost bits. Nonetheless, the sheer amount of Hype surrounding it could never have been matched by ANY game. I wrote a journal entry about this [slashdot.org]. Time to plug it. To sum it up, console patriotism, is bad m'kay.

First ILOVEBEES, now this. It would be better if Halo 2/3 just appeared in a puff of smoke and people enjoyed it for what it is, A Good game, rather than be dissappointed when the game fails to live up to the unmatchable hype.

Re:Console Patriotism is bad m'kay

Halo 2 didn't have an entire movie [imdb.com] made just to hype it up; unlike Super Mario Brothers 3.

Undoubtedly

It's the second coming of Christ... Or the birthday of the Bungie-Microsoft love-child.

Or, just another annoying marketing technique developed by Bungie.

-phixxr

Probably not Halo 3...

Considering they had to delay Halo 2, it's a bit unlikely Halo 3 will come out Feb 9th 2005. Also, I think they set up a cliffhanger on purpose; to help XBox 2 sales. If it launches with Xbox 2, it's unlikely to come at any Feb 9th because consoles typically launch during Christmas. I'd say this is either an announcement for the next game, or maybe just a very large XBox Live Halo 2 tournament set up by Bungie.

Screenshots

I'm going to need undoctored screenshots to even begin to believe this, not that I care at all about Halo 2, I personally think it to be a poor man's UT2004.

But the credits in Halo 2 are not rendered in real-time, they're a Bink Video file, and there is only ONE credits file on the Disc. I think this wishful thinking by people who were simply dissapointed with what was essentially, Halo 1.5

Re:Screenshots

You could always try finishing it on Legendary.

or are you poor man's game player ?

Whatever it is, it's not a release date

Bungie dosen't do release dates, they put software out 'when it's done'. Feb. 9th has got to be something else, if it's anything

Unlock the ending now? or ilivebees?

Maybe there is content in Halo2 that will be unlocked then? Anyone try setting theri xbox system date to feb 10 2005 and beating it again? or possibly its something ilovebees.com related?

Love this sort of speculation

An end screen says February 9... so they speculate it means Halo 3 February 9 2006. Except no game company ever gives such an exact date years in advance. They know that deadlines slip and change.

Another bit of "evidence" is the Halo 2 soundtrack being labelled vol. 1. Which means that Halo 3 is coming out because there has to be a vol. 2 which has to have Halo 3 music. I could poke holes in that but I think you'll do fine by yourselves.

Oh yeah, Tupac is coming back in 2003, exactly 7 years after his death.

February 9 could mean additional content for Halo 2 in 2005 or could mean a wonderful new game coming out then...

Re:Love this sort of speculation

I find it interesting that people even speculate on whether or not there will be a Halo 3. Of course there will be ...Halo 3 is a license to print money.

I think the most likely meaning of the "coming february 9th" bit is the announcement of Halo 3 for the Xbox 2. Winning the console wars means getting more of your boxes in people's homes than the other guys, so there's got to be a hook that makes you say "I have to have an Xbox 2!!" What could be better for them than the sequel to the most pre-ordered game of all time?

2/9

Great, that was going to be my first day back to work thanks to WoW, EQ2, and Halo 2....

Feb 9th is Mid-week

Feb 9 2005 = Wednesday
Feb 9 2006 = Thursday
Feb 9 2007 = Friday

Most likely a Friday... Nothing gets released MIDWEEK!!!! LOL

Wow... Can't wait!!!! Roll on 2007!!!!

Re:Feb 9th is Mid-week

Nah man, you just stumbled on the secret:

Feb 9 2005 = Wednesday
Feb 9 2006 = Thursday
Feb 9 2007 = Friday

As in "Bungie put a date at the end of the credits. WTF?"

Re:

Sounds like someone at bungie's been spending too many late nights on John Titor [johntitor.com]

Halo 3: Fight Against Mozilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_9 [wikipedia.org]

Feb 9, 2004 - Mozilla Firefox: Browser renamed from Firebird to Firefox

Birthday

It must be because it's my Birthday.

25 * 10^-2 centuries young

no here

Halo Source

Ravi

Watch the Making Of...

Documentary, and you will see that they had a complete story arc. (and for those who haven't beaten the game, don't keep reading this). Originally they were going to fight on earth, go back to a halo, and then go back to earth to resolve the game. Thats it, bing, nothing, no Halo 3.

Instead, they ran out of time, they were pushing in so many different directions, that they just had to simplify things. So I would not be surprised if they cut the last two levels from the game, since they were not finished, only to plan on releasing them 4 months later, which would be plenty of time to finish the levels themselves, now that the engine was complete.

It could also just be the planned release of new multiplayer maps.

All halo 2 needs is about two more maps to wrap things up, maybe three so it doesn't feel rushed. But I am glad it ended how it did, because each level felt finished and polished, and I would have rather that had, instead of the Halo 1 "10 minute race to the end" that felt like it was made up just to fill space.

Seriously People, this one's easy

Okay, so think about it. How long was Halo 2 delayed? What exactly do you think they were doing the whole time- optimizing the cutscenes?

I think they were working on a sequel to be released shortly after Halo 2, maybe Halo 2 vol. 2 or something like that.

I mean think about the Matrix sequels, those got a little delayed, and then released just a few months apart because of the cliffhanger ending. Bungie's probably just doing the same thing.

Alternate theory is that they still didn't have enough time, but Microsoft was putting the pressure on for a pre-christmas/pre-xbox2 release date, so they gave us what they had finished now, and are giving us the rest in 3 months.

Halo 2 Ending

I'm an anti-microsoft person so I don't own an X-Box or Halo. However, everone that has beat Halo 2 tells me that the ending is Master Chief getting all hyped up for the final battle followed by the credits rolling. I'm assuming that the date displayed is when the update containing the final mission(s) will be available on Live.

My guess

My guess would be is that it will be episodic content delievered over Live and perhaps on expansion disks. Bungie seems to want to push Live for all it is worth and actually finishing the story in Halo 2 through episodic content would be a great way to use Live, IMHO.

Why Not Just...

Set the ol' clock to 2/9/05 (or later) and THEn finish Legendary?

Yes, I know XBL servers wouldn't fall for it but it wouldn't be the first time a standalone game did something special based on the date.

GTRacer
- Need an Xbox, H2, broadband, XBL, and some Twinkies.

Coming February 9th:

The rest of the game. Seriously, Bungie has never made anything that sucked (okay, maybe that little RPG before Pathways into Darkness). The ending of Halo 2 sucks. It can't be the true ending. Not from Bungie. Oh no. So maybe we'll get to finish the game, eh? Hopefully Cortana goes rampant. Or Durandal shows up.

Add-on?

Let's see here...

4 months following the release date? I'll place bets on a large update (most likely a add-on or something, cause the XBox has that HD). As to whether or not its downloadable or a discount price title is unknown.

If it's not that, I'm willing to guess its a sequel announcement.

That was strange...

On seeing the title, my initial reaction was "Oh god, it's been delayed...". Then I remembered I physically have the game, and was playing it 5 minutes beforehand.

Feb. 9th in History

February 9th in History
1923: Soviet Aeroflot airlines established
1950: Senator Joseph McCarthy says the US State Department is infested with communists
1970: World's first nerve transplant, in Germany
1971: First British soldier killed in Northern Ireland
1989: Neo-Nazi groups outlawed in West Germany
1992: Fighting between government and guerrilla forces in Rwanda
1994: Israeli minister Shimon Perez signs accord with PLO's Yasser Arafat.

February 9th birthdays
1700: Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician
1909: Carmen Miranda, Brazilian actress.
1943: Joe Pesci, American actor.
1945: Mia Farrow, American film actress


It's pretty clear what's going on here - On February 9th, Joe Pesci will be outted as a Communist.

Halo 2 for PC?

Hmm? Could that be it?

DL content

Its got to be downloadable content. if you look on one of the recnet articles on bungie.net, they talk about how there will eventually be DLable multiplayer maps, and Frankie(the guy who wrote the article) has played some of them and "they rock!" -jordan

I just finished it on the SECRET legendary level..

..And right after the "Coming February 9th" it says in clear screaming red letters : DUKE NUKEM FOREVER.

I am told if I finish this game under the ultra secret Legendary level ; it will even mention what year they're meaning with that ! ;)

You can rule out....

February 9th being the release date of Halo 3, as this months Game Informer clearly states in their 'connect' section that Halo 3 is slated for inclusion in the Xbox 2 lineup, not Xbox.

I'd say that speculation of this date signifying the release of downloadable content is probably the best bet.

The most disturbing part of this

How do people have the time to beat Halo 2 - on legendary - in less than one week - and pay attention to the credits - and corroborate the information with countless others who have done the same!?

Check ILB

If you check ilovebees.com, you'll notice that the new countdown matches up with Feb 9th, 2553. So, there ya go.

Huh?

I beat the game on Legendary a couple of days ago and I saw absolutely nothing about "February 9th." And believe me, I was paying attention (after the "I Love Bees" thing I assumed Bungie would sneak a hidden message in there somewhere). Everyone else I've talked to who's actually beat the game on Legendary says the same thing. Until some independent verification appears (along with some details on how to actually get this alleged alternate credits sequence, since simply beating the game on Legendary doesn't do it), I'm calling this a hoax.

I'll tell you why

It'$ live content becau$e it will be ju$t after the 2 month time frame for the free account$ to expire, thu$ keep people paying. Gate$ i$ $mart!

The original Release date?

The original Release date they forgot to remove from the video? ;-)

Halo 2 PC

Could this possibly be the release date for Halo 2 PC?

Re:Sell my xbox

you can get all the content that should have been provided when you initially bought the game

Using this theory, all sequels are wastes since they're just more of the same story. Who are you to say when Bungie should split up the chapters of its story?

Re:Sell my xbox

You missed the bus, Mr.Dippy.

MMORPG's have been doing this since the 90s.

"Give us $50 for the game, and then it's ($8, $10, $15) a month to actually play the game. Oh, and bend over, and try not to scream too much, we forgot the KY."