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The latest Halo news, including previews, trends, strategies, tricks, exploits and much more!

GREAT SHOT, KID! DON’T GET COCKY!

It takes more than a hot hand on the stick to make it on the battlefields of Halo 2…especially when you’re a sniper, that breed of warrior everyone is trying to kill. You need to come from unexpected angles. You need a place to shoot from that’s hard to find, and easy to escape from. You need to take every advantage you can to stay alive, because every titanium-plated opponent on that field wants you dead. This month we’ll show you a few of the favorite places we use to take out those jerks on the other team. Grab your Sniper Rifle and get ready to explore some of the better places on the maps of Halo 2 to do that whole one-shot/one-kill thing. We’re goin’ to give them to you fast and dirty, so pay attention.

This first spot on Zanzibar is easy to get to, but very effective. Starting at the beach, turn left as you come through the sea wall and head over to the area called Camp Froman. You can move up the rocks along the base-side wall of Camp Froman and tuck yourself back into a corner. This gives you a nice field of fire on the entire area in front of the base, as well as the catwalk to where the Rocket Launcher is located. If you get into trouble, you can drop off to the side and hide in the rocks on the ground while your shields recharge.

The second sniper zone is located on the sea wall itself. Head over to the stairs on the beach side and crouch-jump up onto the section of the wall with the arches. Now crouchjump again onto that central section that runs perpendicular to the rest of that wall. Standing up here gives you a clear view of almost the entire level in a nice, panoramic 360-degree view. This means you can shoot almost anybody. It also means that anyone can shoot back at you, which is kind of a bummer. If you start to take fire, just drop off onto whatever part of the level puts the wall between you and your tormentor.

This one is easy, and very annoying to your opponents. See all that water in the ocean? Run into it until you can’t go any farther. Now turn around. If anyone comes onto the beach, shoot them dead. When they respawn and come back, do it again. Don’t get shot. Easy!

All right, this isn’t necessarily a hard-to-find or sneaky spot, but it is a combination of all elements coming together to help you achieve Zen-like killing. Head up onto the upper ledge of this tower in Ascension. Bring a Sniper Rifle and a Shotgun. Kill everyone.

You have to keep high situational awareness here so you know when to bust out the Shottie and deal with anyone trying to sneak up the ramp toward you. Always let your opponent walk around the corner and into your Shotgun. Flee when they pepper the area with grenades.

This place is more of a “trick” spot, so it can be hard to utilize effectively; you gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. Grab the Sniper Rifle and make sure that you have the Rocket Launcher (or that someone on your team is in possession of it). Hop in the Banshee and fly up to one of these tuning forks. Jump out (make sure you land on the fork, or you’ll plummet to your death like a noob!) and start racking up headshots. Keep in mind that once you run out of bullets for the Sniper Rifle, you’re done, so make those shots count.

If you are weird and biased against that side of the map, you can fly over to the other tower and park yourself in the nook above the topmost platform for some equally opportunistic killing.

Here’s a great spot in Colossus that you can get to from the main platforms overlooking the central area. Hop up onto the little ledge on the side of the platform and then crouchjump into the shadowy nook inside this pillar. From here you can control the central platforms around the gravlift as well as the top of the main ramp closest to you. These are all high traffic areas, and it will take your opponents a while to figure out where the frack you are. Start poppin’ some caps, son.

Here’s another Banshees-only spot, this time on Coagulation. Hop in one of those purple birds and fly yourself up to this niche on the sunny side of the map near blue base. Once again you’ll want to make sure that you or your teammates have the Rocket Launcher locked down so you don’t get blasted out of the sky. Rain death upon the antlike persons below until your clip runs dry. You’ll have to keep an extra-sharp eye out for counter snipers when you use this spot, as it’s easy to get taken down and you don’t have a lot of good escape options.

If you fly your Banshee over to the shady side of red base, you can eject over the sloping area of rock directly to the right of the base (if you are facing blue base). Not only does the shade make it hard for people to see you, but this spot isn’t used very often…so if you can get in place without being seen, you will be able to pull off two or three kills before the other team figures out your location.

There are lots of Banshee-friendly ledges in Headlong. The first one is located near the water, directly above the red sign on the sunny side of the map. This gives you a clear view of the central area between the buildings so you can pick your targets and let fly with the bullets.

The second ledge is located almost directly kitty-corner from the one above the red sign. It is to the right of the final piece of the road jutting out from the building. There’s even a nice, flat landing pad up there for your Banshee. Top o’ the world, Ma!

Head over to Burial Mounds, grab the Sniper Rifle and jump in that Ghost. Go for a nice cruise until you get to the wall near the hill where the Shotgun spawns. It’s right outside the tunnel leading into the back of the main base. Boost up onto the wall with the Ghost and hop out while walking forward. You’ll be highly exposed up here, but you can move laterally along the wall to avoid enemy fire or just drop down and run away to fight another day.

Don’t leave Burial Mounds yet, there’s more! Run over to the “ribs” sticking out of the ground. They are near the tunnel where the Plasma Sword is located. Crouch-jump up onto the shorter, crooked side of the central structure, then turn and jump into the middle. This gives a clear view of almost the entire level, and you can scope in on anyone camping out in the enemy base. Time to put some bullets in ’em.

There’s another great Banshee spot on Waterworks… if you can avoid getting blowed up by the Rocket Launcher while getting there. Grab the Sniper Rifle, then get in the Banshee and fly up to the top of the central structure. There are a number of ledges and overhangs that you can leap out on. The best one is probably the central beam, as it affords you a lot of lateral movement and hides you in the shadows a bit. Once again, when you run out of ammo, you’re done—but you should be able to rack up a few kills while you are up here, as it affords you a great view of a large majority of the map.

CLICK-CLICK-BOOM

Holy moley, Halo is coming to a gaming tabletop near you! Wizkids has recently announced an agreement with Bungie Studios and Microsoft to produce a new Halo collectible miniature game called Halo Actionclix. You will soon be able to click your friends to death with awesome miniature versions of your favorite characters and vehicles from the Halo universe, as well as see some preview content from Halo 3. You can spend your money on over 80 different figures as well various vehicles and a Starter Pack. In order to make the game play like the Halo we all know and love, Wizkids will be introducing a number of new play mechanics to its popular Clix game rules, including weapon swapping, respawns and vehicular combat. I wonder if they’ll also include standby cheaters and modders. Look forward to September, Halo lovers, and let the clicking begin!