The team has been holed up in an unmarked building for years, but now, the coders, programmers, artists, and designers who have been working on Halo 2 are stepping into the light.

　　In a post this afternoon on the developer's official site, Bungie.net, word has come that Halo 2 is complete.

　　"We are basically done making Halo 2" the post reads. "Seriously. Barring any unexpected shenanigans, Halo 2 is done and dusted, simultaneously, for every region it will be released in worldwide. Oh, and Parsons has been hitting the sushi again..."

　　"Parsons" refers to Peter Parsons, the former marketing exec at Microsoft who was put in charge of the Halo 2 project shortly after the Bungie team moved from its original home turf of Chicago to Redmond.

　　"It isn't literally the last update of course, since there's lots to do and say between now and November 9, but I can honestly say that there's no more updating on the progress of the game, since the game is done," the post continues. "Finished and shipped to a nebulous region known as RTC (release to certification) where it will be dumped from eight digital tapes onto a DVD and go through some final testing. Usually that's just a matter of routine, but we'll be watching our e-mail carefully through next week.

　　"Roger handed off the tapes in LA yesterday, and as I write this, Alta, the Bungie Princess, is picking some discs up at Seatac Airport. There are still many steps between now and the game's arrival on shelves, including the not-insignificant process of actually manufacturing millions of copies of the game."

　　GameSpot will update the Halo 2 story as it develops.