As I settled back into the day-to-day work routine at IGN to start 2024, it randomly occurred to me that Halo 2 will turn 20 years old later this year – specifically, on November 9. That got me reminiscing about one of my favorite games ever – and probably my single favorite multiplayer game ever – a little bit early, so I thought I’d put those thoughts to virtual paper and share them with you because, quite frankly, there’s never a bad time to talk about the glory days of Halo 2 multiplayer.

I’m so grateful I got to be in the right time and place in my life, professionally and personally, to have soaked up that experience to the absolute fullest. I was 24 with no spouse, kid, or dog, thus allowing me to spend most of my free time playing Halo 2 multiplayer on Xbox Live. My life is very different now, in an equally great way, and I wouldn’t wish it any differently. And as also been pointed out to me, in 2004 there was no Call of Duty as direct competition for your online gaming time, not to mention the lack of social media, smartphones, and Netflix. Halo 2 was The Thing™, but it would’ve earned the lion’s share of my attention even if those other things had existed back then.

If you were too young for Halo 2, I promise you it was THAT GOOD. Not just the game, which was incredible (more on that in a bit), but also the Xbox Live ecosystem. You could send game invites with voice messages, which was neat. Even better, party chat wasn’t a thing yet, so people COMMUNICATED in-game. Proximity chat was used as a complement to team chat. Meaning you could broadcast to just your team or to anyone around you, which had both fun and strategic applications. And its then-revolutionary “virtual couch” online lobby and matchmaking system was light years ahead of anything we’d seen on console or even PC, making it easy and fun to get games together with your friends. Not only was there not a single dud [map] in the entire lot, they were all truly awesome.

But of course, the most amazing online infrastructure in the world (which Halo 2 had!) wouldn’t have mattered much if the game wasn’t incredible. And holy cow did Halo 2 deliver in the multiplayer department. It took everything great about Halo 1’s multiplayer and built on it. More vehicles, improved physics, dual-wielded weapons, the ability to board (read: carjack) enemy vehicles, and a collection of maps that I would put against any online multiplayer shooter in history. Bungie’s map designers were absolutely in the zone for Halo 2: Lockout, Midship, Ivory Tower, Ascension, Zanzibar, Colossus, Burial Mounds, Waterworks, Foundation, and the phenomenal remakes of two great Halo 1 maps: Beaver Creek and the evolution of Blood Gulch, known in Halo 2 as Coagulation. Not only was there not a single dud in the entire lot of them, they were all truly awesome. That Bungie allowed easy customization of the maps in the form of tweaking weapons, vehicles, etc. allowed every Halo 2 match to be whatever you wanted it to be.

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Halo 2 in 2004 really was a perfect storm. In fact, if I could travel back in time to re-experience any gaming “eras” that are gone forever now, it would be the Halo 2 Era (i.e. the year between its launch and the Xbox 360 launch) and the Rock Band Era (2007-2009 or so – but that’s something to write about another day…). Yes, these games still exist and are still playable, but it isn’t and can never be the same. So happy early 20th anniversary, Halo 2, I don’t think there will ever be another multiplayer game like you.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

City of Heroes is making an official return as a fan server dedicated to keeping the superhero multiplayer game running has been granted an official license by publisher NCSOFT.

Revealed in a forum post, a representative of the fan server, titled Homecoming, announced their hard work paid off. City of Heroes was shut down more than a decade ago in November 2012, but fan servers kept players entertained and now its biggest has officially revived the massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

“We’d like to thank you all for your patience over the past few years, and we’re incredibly thrilled to announce that it’s paid off,” the post said. “NCSOFT has officially granted Homecoming a license to host City of Heroes.”

Aware fans would have many questions about the change, the post made the most important points clear: players accounts and characters are safe, new content will continue to be developed, and it will remain free and run through donations. More details will arrive in the coming months.

“Realise your comic book dreams in this MMORPG that is home to an entire universe of super-powered heroes and villains,” reads the game’s synopsis. “Build your own unique hero from millions of possible character combinations and venture into Paragon City to discover all the danger, wonder and excitement that await you.”

In our 8/10 review from 2004, when the game debuted, IGN said: “City of Heroes is fun. It’s exciting, it’s colourful, it’s cute, it’s brutal, and it’s a great realization of comic books in MMO form. It seems like a great place to start for those that have always found MMOs intimidating.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Surgeon Simulator and Lost Skies developer Bossa Studios has become the latest affected by the sweeping lay-offs hitting the video game industry.

As revealed by GI.biz, the UK developer laid off almost one third of all staff as 19 employees lost their jobs, caused by what co-founder Henrique Olifiers called a “perfect storm of events”. The lay-offs came at the end of 2023, with 40 employees remaining at the studio.

This “perfect storm” was, according to Olifiers, caused by the number of high profile triple-A games launching after September that took attention from smaller studios, increasing operational costs, and delayed funding decisions across the industry.

“Resulting from this blue moon situation, we had to make the difficult decision to reshape the studio to reflect the position we find ourselves in at the end of this year, focusing all our efforts now on Lost Skies,” he said. “This means we find ourselves in the heartbreaking position of having to let roughly one third of the studio go — amongst them, some of our closest colleagues.”

Olifiers pleaded for other studios to hire the laid off members where possible, though the entire video game industry is currently struggling with job losses.

Lay-offs in 2023 were among the worst in industry history, with myriad studios of all sizes affected. Dreams’ Media Molecule, Cyberpunk 2077’s CD Projekt Red, F1 Manager’s Frontier Developments, and Assassin’s Creed’s Ubisoft all suffered lay-offs. Destiny 2 developer Bungie was also affected, causing a “soul crushing” atmosphere at the studio that IGN learned about in an investigative report.

Colossal companies like Embracer, who owns the likes of Borderlands developer Gearbox Software and Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics, Fortnite publisher Epic Games, and Dungeons & Dragons owner Hasbro also saw sweeping job losses. Embracer laid off 5% of its workforce, amassing to 904 staff in total, Epic laid off 16%, or 830 employees, and Hasbro cut close to 20%, meaning around 1,100 staff.

Entire studios were also closed, including Embracer’s Campfire Cabal and Saints Row developer Volition Games, plus the studio behind TimeSplittlers Free Radical.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.