…Just a few quick notes to update what I’ve written about the Halo 2 leak.

Apparently, the version that was stolen was the French PAL Build of the game (i.e. the text and speech are in French and it runs on European TVs). It was in a binary format that is used to author DVD discs. So, the original ripped data most likely came off of an assembly line that was manufacturing French Halo 2. I doubt it was actually in France, although that would be sickeningly ironic. Whoever stole the data then went ahead and raped the game by removing some apparently important stuff from it so that it would fit on a standard burnable DVD disc. What’s left is a version of Halo 2 that is playable on modded XBoxes and is also Live Aware. That’s the kicker.

Imagine the average semi 1337 |\/|4Z73|2 0v 477 teh (0|\/|p3\/\/73|2z, who just downloaded his “pre-release” copy of Halo 2. He pops it in his uber cool, blue-led, tricked out, modded XBox and begins to fire up a rousing game of “Swords” on XBox Live. It works! Huzzah! So now he’s one of maybe three hundred people on Live playing an illegal French build of Halo 2. Inconspicuous? I think not. Microsoft has stated clearly that they are not above prosecuting individuals for downloading Halo 2, so Live is out of the question. All that’s left is the single player mode. And, quite frankly, as much as I love Halo and want to play Halo 2, I wouldn’t risk jail time or a $100,000 lawsuit just to play it three weeks early.

From Unfiction:

French version? How the hell do you play CTF with two white flags!?”

Wort, wort, wort.

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