A few things we want to address now that Halo 2 is being played by 200 billion people online.... Lag: Not a problem in general, but lots of people will run into it from time to time, especially in custom games. Try joining a different match. Sometimes the gameplay runs fine but messages (like “You killed EGM Shoe”) show up late—don’t wait for them, just keep on killin’. Also, don’t worry about who the party leader is in custom games; Halo 2 will figure out who has the fastest connection and use that player as the server. Screen cutoff: Those of you running the game in progressive-scan mode (480p) may have noticed your view is cut off a bit on the sides—if you’re connected to Xbox Live (use the free two-month trial if you have to), you will get an auto-update that fixes this. Errors: If you get a map loading error, it’s mostly likely a problem with your DVD drive or a dirty/scratched game disc. Bungie is working on a solution where at least you won’t have to turn your system off and on again every time this happens.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly.