Halo 2, where do i begin. For those who have not played the first game, here is a quick summary. The main character and the person you play is a Half Human/Half Cyborg genetically engineered super soldier, a Spartan Mark 2, called the Master Chief which reflects his rank. He and his entire regiment were on the human colony of Reach undergoing trials when it was attacked by a Covenant, the bad guys, fleet. A small frigate, called the Pillar of Autumn, escaped with the master chief and hade a blind hyperspace jump. This is where the story of Halo begins. When they come out of hyperspace, they have come across an artifical 'ring' world orbiting another world. The convenant fleet has already arrived, and shoot the Pillar of Autumn out of the sky and it crashes onto the ring world. Fighting ensues between Human and Covenant ground troops finally resulting in the destruction of halo when the Master Chief overloads the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors. This is where Halo 2 picks up from. The Master Chief has returned to Earth and is just getting sed to is new equipment when a small Covenant Strike Force attacks Earth. The graphics are astonishing and whie the cut scenes may come on in layers sometimes, the rest of the game makes up for this. There are more, larger levels in this installment and i think the addition of the more intelligent AI has made this game the most anticipated game of 2004.