Halo 2

Many gamers even credit Halo CE with single-handedly propping up the Microsoft Xbox's image and sales through its first generation of games. Articles about Sri Lanka`s current defence status. While Halo 2 has won many awards and raked in colossal profits, debate has risen over the merits of such success, especially when faced with comparisons to the immense impact on the console market that the first Halo had. Statistics on Civilians Affected by War in Northeast 1974-2004 A Full Report in 11 pages. The update also fixes a teleporter glitch on the map, Relic. A cease-fire was declared in 2002, but renewed violence in late 2005 led to fears of a renewed civil war. Any players who are detected using modified content would be automatically banned from Matchmaking on Xbox Live. It is estimated that the war has left 65,000 people dead since 1983 and caused great harm to the population and economy of the country.

Modified versions of the downloadable maps would allow people to use cheats such as 'autoaim' and 'automatic reload' during matches on Xbox Live. Since 1983, there has been on-and-off civil war, mostly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the LTTE, who want to create an independent Tamil Eelam state in the northeast of the island. The update added a detection tool that would automatically detect and ban 'modders' using modified content on their Xboxes. The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is an ongoing conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils on the island-nation of Sri Lanka. Another update was added in July, 2005 (a week or so after the release of the map pack). See Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. For further information on the map packs and their contents, see the list of downloadable maps. While Islam and Christianity (including 6% Catholics and 1% Protestants) represent 8% and 7% of the population respectively.

The Map Pack disk (below) was also released on that date. Buddhism (69%) and Hinduism (15.5%) are the dominant religions. On the 5th, 5 new maps were made available in a pack for $11.99, and were similarly made free to download on August 30th. Smaller minorities include (mostly Sunni) Muslims (7%), mostly of mixed Arab, Persian, Tamil and Sinhalese origins and Malay descent, Burghers of mixed European descent (1%) and the Wanniyala-Aetto or Veddahs, the few remaining descendants of earlier cultures. Two of these were immediately free to download (the "Bonus Pack"), while the other two (the "Killtacular Pack") had a charge attached (US$5.99, £2.99) until July the 5th (in actuality, late June), when they too became free to download. All three languages are used in education and administration. Four maps were made available to download on Monday, April 25th, 2005. English, the link language in the present constitution, is spoken competently by about 10% of the population, and is widely understood.

Halo 2 also supports downloadable content, with Bungie making various new multiplayer maps available. Both Sinhala and Tamil are official languages. This brings Halo 2 up to Version 1.1. Tamils comprise two communities: Native Tamils and more recent immigrants from India called as Indian Origin Tamils. A full list of changes can be seen here. Tamils constitute 18%, are predominantly Hindu, and live mostly in the north, east and central provinces. The battle rifle is now more accurate. About 74% of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese, most of them Buddhist, mostly following the Theravada tradition.

For example, the melee attacks and grenades are now far more powerful. Assimilation and intermixing has produced a group of people who are marginaly different from each other irrespective of current racial claims. 30-50, reducing the number of players who play matchmaking at that level), slimmed down split-screen HUD information, and rebalanced various weapons to promote use of single-wield weapons, grenades, and melee attacks. Racial identities in Sri Lanka do not represent the genetic heritage. In response to these complaints, Bungie released an automatic update for Halo 2 (a mandatory patch) on Monday, April 18th, 2005, which fixed many of the various bugs and cheats in the game (though some inevitably persist, most of the time among the MM levels i.e. In December 2005, Sri Lanka received its first international credit rating with Fitch Ratings assigning it a BB- (a rating held by Brazil and Indonesia among others). Users exploited bugs in the game and vulnerabilities of the network to win ranked games and thus increase their matchmaking rank. A September 2005 IMF report called for an end to 'fiscal domination' of monetary policy and more independence for the Central Bank so that inflation could be contained.

A common complaint regarding Halo 2's online play has been the widespread cheating which occurred almost immediately upon the game's release. The tsunami helped stabilize the deterioration of macro-economic fundamentals as foreign debt relief and assistance from the International Monetary Fund strengthened both the external sector and fiscal operations. Halo 2 Soundtrack: Volume 2, will be available in Spring of 2006. But GDP growth, which had climbed to 6.4% by the first quarter of 2004 had fallen to 4.8% by the first quarter of 2005. The song Blow Me Away is considered the most popular of these contributions, however, Incubus's contributions better reflect the overall mood of the game. The December 26th Tsunami brought aidflows, and support from the IMF helped improve sentiment in the foreign exchange market. The bands Incubus, Breaking Benjamin, and Hoobastank also feature on the official soundtrack and to a certain extent, in the game. By December 2004, the country was heading for a balance of payments crisis, as the currency depreciated and reserves dwindled.

"Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix " is the signature theme tune for Halo 2. The expansionary fiscal policy, coupled with loose monetary policy eventually drove inflation up to 18% by January 2005, as measured by the Sri Lanka Consumer Price Index. Additional tracks were also provided by various outside musicians, such as Joe Satriani (for the remixed theme song, which includes new guitar solos). To finance the expanded budget deficit arising from a range of subsidies and a public sector recruitment drive, the government eventually had to print Rs 65 bn (US$ 650 mn) or around 3% of GDP. Steve Vai provided guitar backing for many tracks. In 2004 alone Sri Lanka spent approximately US$ 180 mn on a fuel subsidy, as fixing fuel prices was an election promise. The Halo 2 soundtrack was mostly composed by Martin O'Donnell, who had also composed the music of Halo. But this policy of subsidizing imported commodities like fuel, fertilizer and wheat, soon unravelled the fiscal sector.

The stage is set for the final battles of the Human-Covenant and Covenant civil wars in Halo 3. Its main theme to support the rural and suburban SMEs and protect the domestic economy from external influences, such as oil prices, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The game ends with a cliffhanger, with the last cutscene showing the Master Chief about to enter the battle to save Earth while Cortana meets Gravemind on High Charity for unknown reasons. The new government stopped the privatization of state enterprises, reforms of state utilities such as power and petroleum and embarked on an unprecedented subsidy program called the Rata Perata economic program. Meanwhile, the Forerunner vessel arrives near Earth, with the Master Chief on board. In April 2004, there was a sharp reversal in economic policy after the government headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe from the United National Party was defeated by a coalition made up of Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the left-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna called the United People's Freedom Alliance. However, a letter, found in the extra booklet in the special Limited Edition, from a member of an archaelogical dig on the planet Reach that has uncovered a large alien object suggests The Ark may be on Reach. The Colombo stock exchange reported the highest growth in Asia for 2003, and today Sri Lanka has the highest per capita income in South Asia.

However, the Halo and its counterparts across the galaxy are left on standby alert, awaiting a trigger signal from "The Ark", whose location is yet unknown, but is believed to be on Earth. Signs of recovery appeared after the government and the LTTE signed the 2002 ceasefire. Uniting the separatist faction of the Covenant on Delta Halo, and with the help of Sergeant Johnson, the Arbiter succeeds in preventing Tartarus from activating the installation. 2001 saw the first economic contraction in the country's history, due to a combination of power shortages, budgetary problems, the global slowdown, and continuing civil strife. However, at the end, Cortana not only fails to destroy High Charity, but she also chooses to answer the questions of Gravemind. The economy rebounded in 1997-2000, with average growth of 5.3%. This will destroy Delta Halo and High Charity, stopping Tartarus from activating it, while preventing the Flood's escape across the galaxy. The GDP grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% during the early 1990s, until a drought and a deteriorating security situation lowered growth to 3.8% in 1996.

The Master Chief stows away on board, but Cortana stays behind in order to detonate the In Amber Clad's engine reactors as a last resort. By 1996, plantation crops made up only 20% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while textiles and garments 63%. The only remaining High Prophet, Truth, escapes on a Forerunner vessel. While tea and rubber are still important, the most dynamic sectors are now food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, insurance, and banking. After capturing the In Amber Clad, the Flood, led by the Gravemind, arrive on the city and begin to try and capture it. From independence, till 1977, it was a strongly socialist economy but since then it has been increasingly pursuing privatization, market-oriented policies and export-oriented trade. The Master Chief finds himself upon the nearby Covenant Holy City, High Charity, a gargantuan space station, and pursues the remaining Prophets. Sri Lanka is historically famous for its cinnamon and tea (introduced by the British in the 19th century).

A mysterious Flood creature called the Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief in separate directions to prevent The High Prophets from activating Delta Halo. See Endemic Birds of the Indian Subcontinent for more information. The Master Chief and the Arbiter meet upon the release of the Flood and the discovery of the Prophets' true objective: driven by their ancient religion, they seek to activate Delta Halo, which would cause the death of every sentient being in the galaxy. Sri Lanka is a centre of bird endemism. His first mission, to silence a heretic who doubts the Prophets' teachings, starts him on a path which will make him question his beliefs. The island has three biosphere reserves, Hurulu (established 1977), Sinharaja (established 1978), and Kanneliya-Dediyagala-Nakiyadeniya (KDN) (established 2004). Meanwhile, the fleet commander who led the Covenant forces in Halo is stripped of his rank, only to assume the role of the Arbiter, the greatest of the Covenant warriors. Several preserves have been established to protect some of Sri Lanka's remaining natural areas.

There, the Master Chief kills one of the Covenant's three High Prophet leaders, which ultimately triggers a civil war inside the Covenant. These forests have been largely cleared for agriculture, timber or grazing, and many of the dry evergreen forests have been degraded to thorn scrub, savanna, or thickets. It continues across another ring world, Installation-05, dubbed "Delta Halo", as the crew of the UNSC vessel In Amber Clad attempt to discover the reason for the Covenant's incursion. The Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests are a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion, which, like the neighboring East Deccan dry evergreen forests of India's Coromandel Coast, is characterized by evergreen trees, rather than the dry-season deciduous trees that predominate in most other tropical dry broadleaf forests. They then head to Earth where the Covenant attack the city of New Mombasa, repelled with the assistance of the Master Chief. The north and east are considerably drier, lying in the rain shadow of the central highlands. Master Chief finds and disarms the bomb with the help of Cortana, then sends it to one of the Covenant ships and detonates it. Both these tropical moist forest ecoregions are very similar to those of India's Western Ghats.

These boarding parties are carrying heavy explosives designed to take out the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) guns capable of destroying the Covenant flagships. At higher elevations they transition to the Sri Lanka montane rain forests. This ceremony is cut short when a Covenant flagship jumps out of slipspace and sends boarding parties towards the weapons platforms. The southwest, where the influence of the moisture-bearing southwest monsoon is strongest, is home to the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests. Halo 2 opens with an awards ceremony on the Cairo weapons platform orbiting Earth. Its forests are among the most floristically rich in Asia and for some faunal groups, it has the world's highest density of species diversity. Halo 2's addition of dual wielding will defeat most powerups if used correctly.. Sri Lanka is one of the world's bio-diversity hot-spots.

One common mistake for new players is to mix the overshield and the active camo: this creates a faint halo around the player, caused by the overshield, even though they have active camo. Other major cities include Jaffna, Galle, and Kandy. Gametype Settings: In some gametypes, the overshield and/or active camo are always active on one or all of the players, and if disabled, will recharge over time. The commercial capital is Colombo, but the administrative and legislative capital is at nearby Sri Jayewardanapura (Kotte). There are two types of powerups available in Halo 2 Multiplayer. The lowest gravitational field on Earth lies just off the coast of Sri Lanka. The player has a regenerating shield, but now has regenerating health as well. The climate is tropical, characterized by monsoons: the northeast monsoon lasts from December to March, the southwest June to October.

The damage system in Halo 2 is slightly different from that in Halo: Combat Evolved. Amongst these are Sri Pada and the highest point Pidurutalagala (also known as Mt Pedro), at 2,524 m. (see "Xbox Live updates"). The pear-shaped island consists mostly of flat-to-rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. Another common criticism is the dominance of dual-wielding weapons over single-wielding combined with grenades, although attempts have been made to address these issues with the April 18th automatic update, however these updates were inefficient on dealing with the power of dual wielding. According to temple records, this natural causeway was formerly complete, but was breached by a violent storm (probably a cyclone) in 1480. This primarily affects team games and one-on-one games; in free for alls, a player with a "power weapon" will become a priority target for the other players, meaning that the weapon will change hands frequently. Often referred to as Adam's Bridge, it is now mostly submerged, with only a chain of limestone shoals remaining above sea level.

Much game time may be consumed attempting to seize the weapons in question from the opposition to shift the balance of power; in some cases it may not even be possible to do so. According to Hindu mythology, a land bridge to the Indian mainland, known as Rama's Bridge, was constructed during the time of Rama. Should a team acquire these weapons, it becomes more difficult for their opponents to score kills or attain objectives. It is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Many players feel that game strategies are too dependent upon controlling the "power weapons" in each map such as the Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, or Energy Sword, which leads to the overshadowing of the other weapons in the game. The island of Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal. Regular players have expressed concerns regarding the game balance of Halo 2.
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Bungie keeps these stats for several hundred games per player at a time, then games begin to be purged to save space, and they are used as evidence when banning suspected cheating players (see "Xbox Live Updates", below). Sri Lanka consists of 8 provinces:. For example: for each kill, the attacker and target's locations and the attacker's weapon are displayed, and the paths taken by flags in Capture the Flag games are shown. See also: Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2004. This presents an image of the level that was played from the player's choice various angles, superimposed with a summary of the crucial game events. At the close of 2005, deep political unease and suspicion remained between the two factions. If a player logs in with a Microsoft Passport, they can also access the "Gameviewer". But these hopes were dashed by almost immediate accusations of bias and favouritism on the part of international aid agencies from both sides.

Bungie.net records every single statistic that is displayed on-screen in the end-of-game "Postgame Carnage Report."(if mods were used in that game and were reported the game will not file correctly) Anyone can visit Bungie.net and look at any Xbox Live player's stats. There were high hopes that the devastating Tsunami of December 2004 would force the government and Tamil rebels into a new, lasting dialogue to address the serious effects of the disaster on Sri Lanka as a whole. Players may still choose to set up games for their own party to their own specification, and invite others into that game from their Friends and Clan lists, however these games are not made publicly available. The LTTE boycotted the election, thereby preventing thousands of Tamils from voting, and so Wickremasinghe from taking power, whose election promises included a Federal state to the North and East. Parties can also play in "Rumble Training" games, which is an unranked version of "Rumble Pit" If the Xbox console hosting the game drops out, the Xbox Live service automatically selects a new host from among the remaining players so the game can continue. His narrow victory was engineered by the the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who want Tamil Eelam to be an independent country. Players can create small "parties" with their friends and enter games together as teammates in Team based games. Rajapaksa offers less autonomy than Wickremasinghe to the northeast, home to most of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils.

The Xbox Live servers create games automatically from the pool of players that have chosen each playlist, choosing a game type and map automatically and selecting one player to serve as the game's host (it is a common belief that this person has a bit of an advantage over the other players, which can be true in some gametypes, leading to a method people use to get host called bridging). He was previously Prime Minister in 2000. Other playlists allow head-to-head play and matches between different clans. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was appointed the 22nd Prime Minister on November 21, 2005, to fill the post vacated by Rajapaksa. For example, the "Rumble Pit" playlist offers a variety of "every man for himself" game types, primarily Slayer or variations thereof; "Team Skirmish" offers a number of 4-on-4 team games, which are primarily objective-based games like Capture the Flag; "Big Team Battle" is similar to Team Skirmish but allows teams of up to 8 players. Rajapaksa took oath as President on November 19, 2005. Instead, players select "playlists" that are geared to different styles of play. The Election was held on November 17, 2005, and Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected the fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka with a 50.29% of valid votes, compared to Ranil Wickremesinghe's 48.43%.

In Halo 2, Xbox Live players do not choose to host public games, and they do not get to specify individual maps and options to search for. Mahinda Rajapaksa was nominated the SLFP candidate and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe UNP candidate. The game software then uses a service like GameSpy to advertise the game to the world at large; other players choose which game to join based upon criteria such as the map and game options each host is offering as well as the ping times they are able to receive. In August 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that Presidential Elections would be held in November 2005, resolving a long-running dispute on the length of President Kumaratunga's term. Traditionally, one player sets his or her computer or console up as a game server (or host), specifying the game type and map and configuring other settings. Elections were held on April 02 and the new Parliament convened on April 23 and elected Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister. Halo 2's Xbox Live mode offers a unique and, some would say, innovative approach to online gaming that is intended to alleviate some of the problems that have plagued online first-person shooters in the past. Parliament was dissolved on February 07, 2004 by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via the Xbox Live online service, in addition to the original's support for split-screen and System Link multiplayer. Since its independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Of the preset variations present in the original game, only Race is missing. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws. All of these modes can be twisted and changed in many unpredictable ways, resulting in incredibly varied multiplayer gameplay. The president may summon, suspend, or end a legislative session and dissolve parliament any time after it has served for one year. They are:. The primary modification is that the party that receives the largest number of valid votes in each constituency gains a unique "bonus seat" (see Hickman, 1999).

There are varying modes, several of which have returned from the original Halo game. Members are elected by universal (adult) suffrage based on a modified proportional representation system by district to a six-year term. The Legendary difficulty also allows skilled players to find hidden "skulls", which activate special abilities. The Sri Lankan Parliament is a unicameral 225-member legislature. An increase in difficulty will result in an increase in the health of opponents, an increase in their accuracy, a reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage, and a reduction of health in the player. The President's deputy is the Prime Minister, who leads the ruling party in Parliament. There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary, the latter of which has been described as "suicide" by the game's developers. The President appoints and heads a Cabinet of Ministers responsible to Parliament.

Additionally, the story line while playing as the Arbiter changes to one of fighting an internal faction within the Covenant, with the elites, hunters and grunts forming one team and the brutes, jackals, prophets and drones forming the other. The incumbent may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of Parliament, with the agreement by the Supreme Court. Another possibility is that the Arbiter was designed to be less of a battering ram than the Master Chief, which subsequently requires different tactics. The President is responsible to Parliament for the exercise of duties in accordance with the Constitution and laws. His shield is also weaker than the Master Chief's. The President of the Republic is directly elected for a six-year term and serves as Head of State, Head of Government and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Aside from variations caused simply by switching sides in the conflict, most notably The Arbiter is different from Master Chief in that his armor lacks a flashlight and is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that will drop if the player attacks or is shot. It was rumored that the LTTE themselves did the killing.

Some of these episodes require the player to compete as a Covenant Elite called The Arbiter, while some, but not the majority are still played as the Master Chief. In December 2005, following a brutal gang rape and murder of a Tamil woman (Ilayathambi Tharsini)(such incidents have happened before, including Krishanti Kumaraswamy), restive civilian groups likely encouraged and controlled by the LTTE carried out a series of attacks against Government forces in the North and East, and some unknown forces assassinated a pro-LTTE Tamil politician on Christmas eve in a Catholic church. When playing in this mode the player(s) must complete a series of episodes. It has been alleged that only 17% of the relief aid has been spent on what it was intended for. This mode follows the story to the Halo series and is the second of the three games (the third and final part of the series is still not published). Several Sinhala nationalist groups in the South challenged this pact and the Supreme Court declared that some articles of the pact were unconstitutional. The game is playable in campaign mode either single-player or cooperative. On June 24, 2005, the Government signed the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), a legal instrument for the Government to share aid with the LTTE.

Since Halo 2 was a successful killer app for the Xbox and its Live online service, Microsoft took advantage of Halo 2 to ban modded (modified) Xboxes from the network when they tried to log on for online gaming. Over 40,000 people died on the island and many more are still missing. It also won "Game of the Year 2004" at GPhoria, among other awards (Best Boss Battle, etc.), including different award shows.. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake off the western coast of Sumatra created tsunamis that washed over the Eastern and Southern coasts of Sri Lanka. Some observers saw this as another milestone in the emerging dominance of the video game industry; a few years earlier, the video game industry had surpassed the movie industry in total revenues for the first time and had never relinquished its lead since then. In April 2004, the Government of Ranil Wickramasinghe was ousted from Parliament and a coalition including several Sinhala nationalist groups opposed to negotiations with LTTE came to power. According to a contemporary Wired Magazine issue, Halo 2 had a more profitable opening day than did the then-highest-grossing Hollywood film, "Muffin-Man. No significant progress has been made to date.