Halo 2

[JsARCLIGHT]

For me Goldeneye was all about playing against your friends in the same room. I loathe online gaming because it removes the "friend" from "play with a friend". For all I know I'm playing against a super intelligent alpaca on the internet who keeps sending me 1337 Sp33K junk. I need to see another body across the way from me at a terminal or sitting next to me on the couch to have fun. To me the joy in multiplayer is the group activity.

Must be why I only play multiplayer at the office any more... plus my employees love me for it. I'm the only boss many of them have ever had that allowed them to play games at work... and sadly I'm the only boss most of them have killed... over and over and over and over.

[isamu]

the game is overrated and is AVERAGE at best! Turok the Dinosaur Hunter for the N64 and Powerslave for the Saturn are both much better games...and better looking too!

[Phyrox]

What's all this about Halo having a great story line?

I played through it with my friend last summer and it seemed pretty run of the mill to me.

I thought the zombie stuff (whatever they were called) sucked almost all the fun out of the game and the story.

Although truth be told, the non-spectacular storyline didn't affect my opinion of the game. I don't look to videogames for interesting or otherwise intriguing stories. That is what books are for (and some movies).

I liked Halo, but I can't see buying a system for it. But FPS have never been my favorite genre. Armored Core, Grand Theft Auto, and Gran Tourismo...those are deal makers.

Are there any semi-serious flight sims for consoles? I can't afford to keep my PC up with the latest games, so the best sims are out...but what I wouldn't give for a IL-2 type game on the consoles.

[eugimon]

got it today, played for a few hours.. the game is a blast.

is it the best FPS ever? no. half life 2 will probably be that, but it is the best console FPS. by far.

the graphics are astounding, game play seems well balanced (so far) but I wish the flight stuff handled a little differently... more like flight, less like a tank that floats. the stoy is fun and engaging, properly space operatic.

[mikeszekely]

the game is overrated and is AVERAGE at best! Turok the Dinosaur Hunter for the N64 and Powerslave for the Saturn are both much better games...and better looking too!

Bravo! Spoken like a true hater!

Sorry, Isamu, there's just no way I can take your opinion seriously when you're trying to tell me that a game as ugly as the N64 Turoks looks better than a game as gorgeous as Halo 2.

[Max Jenius]

I would like to know how PC FPS gamers can be described as being in the minority, remember when we compared Halo and Half-Life's sales records? Sure, HL had more time, but even when we divvy it up by year HL still outran Halo(Half-Life = >8 million, Halo > 3.53 million). You don't have to spend $500 on a part to play the most recent games either. Hell, MS just said that they jumped the gun stating that Halo 2 had sold over a million already.

I love my XBOX and Gamecube... but I love my PC more. The consoles do serve an important purpose in my gaming life though.

[mikeszekely]

For me Goldeneye was all about playing against your friends in the same room. I loathe online gaming because it removes the "friend" from "play with a friend". For all I know I'm playing against a super intelligent alpaca on the internet who keeps sending me 1337 Sp33K junk. I need to see another body across the way from me at a terminal or sitting next to me on the couch to have fun. To me the joy in multiplayer is the group activity.

Must be why I only play multiplayer at the office any more... plus my employees love me for it. I'm the only boss many of them have ever had that allowed them to play games at work... and sadly I'm the only boss most of them have killed... over and over and over and over.

But that's the brilliance of it! I'm not just logging into some server to get raped by some middle-schooler who does nothing but play Halo in their free time... I've got my best friend down in Virginia, two more local friends, plus three guys from work on my Live Friend List. Then, I only play with them. With voice chat enabled, you still have all the smack talk, plus the usual "So, how's your wife?" or "Do you want to get a beer after work tomorrow?" I kid you not, it's seriously as good as if they really were there with you.

[eugimon]

I would like to know how PC FPS gamers can be described as being in the minority, remember when we compared Halo and Half-Life's sales records? Sure, HL had more time, but even when we divvy it up by year HL still outran Halo. You don't have to spend $500 on a part to play the most recent games either. Hell, MS just said that they jumped the gun stating that Halo 2 had sold over a million already.

I love my XBOX and Gamecube... but I love my PC more. The consoles do serve an important purpose in my gaming life though.

I can't see how anyone would ever think that FPS belongs in the domain of consoles... there are just WAY more FPS for the PC, and tons of thriving communities. console only FPS players are tourists at best...

[Drad]

I think the Halo series is good. Overrated a bit, sure. But still good. It finally brought a fun, easily accessible, good quality FPS to the console masses. They appreciate that, which is why it's so popular. Is it as good as it's made out to be? I don't think so, personally. There are other FPS games that I would play instead of Halo, but that's my own preference. The Halo series deserves most of the credit it gets, though. I think of it as the current-day GoldenEye.

Jump in and rock, without a PC. That's why it works.

[Max Jenius]

Nothing against Halo or XBOX, but I have been voice chatting w/ my buds for a while... and yes... it is cool.

Public servers can be annoying, but that's what mute is for!

[mikeszekely]

I would like to know how PC FPS gamers can be described as being in the minority, remember when we compared Halo and Half-Life's sales records? Sure, HL had more time, but even when we divvy it up by year HL still outran Halo. You don't have to spend $500 on a part to play the most recent games either. Hell, MS just said that they jumped the gun stating that Halo 2 had sold over a million already.

I love my XBOX and Gamecube... but I love my PC more. The consoles do serve an important purpose in my gaming life though.

I didn't say that PC FPS gamers are a minority... I said that PC gamers period are a minority. Most of the money in the videogame industry is in consoles.

I have no idea how many copies of Half-Life were sold, but the original Halo sold 4 million copies in the US.

Microsoft may have jumped the gun announcing those sales figures, but I wouldn't be suprised if they're correct. Remember, $22,000 in one day at my store. We're lucky if we top $10,000 on Black Friday. And that's just one store. And yes, that seriously was mostly Halo 2. I sold maybe three copies of Everquest II, one copy of San Andreas, a used copy of Madden 2004, a Yu-Gi-Oh game for the GBA, and few Halo 2 strat guides, and something between 200 and 300 copies of Halo 2.

[Gaijin]

For me Goldeneye was all about playing against your friends in the same room. I loathe online gaming because it removes the "friend" from "play with a friend". For all I know I'm playing against a super intelligent alpaca on the internet who keeps sending me 1337 Sp33K junk. I need to see another body across the way from me at a terminal or sitting next to me on the couch to have fun. To me the joy in multiplayer is the group activity.

Must be why I only play multiplayer at the office any more... plus my employees love me for it. I'm the only boss many of them have ever had that allowed them to play games at work... and sadly I'm the only boss most of them have killed... over and over and over and over. 

But that's the brilliance of it! I'm not just logging into some server to get raped by some middle-schooler who does nothing but play Halo in their free time... I've got my best friend down in Virginia, two more local friends, plus three guys from work on my Live Friend List. Then, I only play with them. With voice chat enabled, you still have all the smack talk, plus the usual "So, how's your wife?" or "Do you want to get a beer after work tomorrow?" I kid you not, it's seriously as good as if they really were there with you.

Before voice chat we played PSO with Cell phones...

[mikeszekely]

Nothing against Halo or XBOX, but I have been voice chatting w/ my buds for a while... and yes... it is cool.

Public servers can be annoying, but that's what mute is for!

I'm not pretending that voice chat was invented with Xbox Live. I keep mentioning it because without it, it wouldn't really matter if I was playing a friend, stranger, or a bot.

I am saying that Halo 2's online play has that combination of things... the TV in the living room, voice, and the same game and same friends you'd be playing with if everyone really was in your living room... that really make it almost as good as if your friend really were there.

[Max Jenius]

I would like to know how PC FPS gamers can be described as being in the minority, remember when we compared Halo and Half-Life's sales records? Sure, HL had more time, but even when we divvy it up by year HL still outran Halo. You don't have to spend $500 on a part to play the most recent games either. Hell, MS just said that they jumped the gun stating that Halo 2 had sold over a million already.

I love my XBOX and Gamecube... but I love my PC more. The consoles do serve an important purpose in my gaming life though.

I didn't say that PC FPS gamers are a minority... I said that PC gamers period are a minority. Most of the money in the videogame industry is in consoles.

I have no idea how many copies of Half-Life were sold, but the original Halo sold 4 million copies in the US.

Microsoft may have jumped the gun announcing those sales figures, but I wouldn't be suprised if they're correct. Remember, $22,000 in one day at my store. We're lucky if we top $10,000 on Black Friday. And that's just one store. And yes, that seriously was mostly Halo 2. I sold maybe three copies of Everquest II, one copy of San Andreas, a used copy of Madden 2004, a Yu-Gi-Oh game for the GBA, and few Halo 2 strat guides, and something between 200 and 300 copies of Halo 2.

Ohhhh ok...

Because I was about to say... for the FPS PC will reign. I dunno about as a whole, though I do see more PCs than Xboxes... then again; I'm on a college campus.

Still... nobody answered my question about what makes Halo awesome. I heard the repetitiveness gets old... that's about it.

I've seen some vids of it... but still... meh...

Having your friends there is one thing that is very valuable... however... it is nice to have the whole screen to yourself. That was one of the things I HATED about Goldeneye... I mean hell; the game was choppy already! I used to be totally into Goldeneye, but then I tried Quake and it was alllllll downhill from there. Sure, I'd play DOOM and Wolf3d... but Quake... wow. Oh yeah... what's this Id bashing anyway? Doom 3 rocked the house.... it totally sucked me in.

[The_Major]

Okie Dokie, time for my thoughts on halo and halo 2.

When Halo was first released, i was in the era of bandwagonism where "Microsoft is t3h Suck! and by relation so does this Xbox thing and all they do is buy out companies to make games yadda yadda yadda" soo i wasnt exactly first in line to purchase halo hell i didnt have an xbox. but after about a year my microsoft hatred died down and i got an Xbox and copy of halo for christmas, and so after the ceramonial "Rounding up of the paper for the trash man" i proceded to hook it all up and play.

my decision was "why the hell did i hate this so much? God im a idiot"

i loved the game, it was the first FPS i had played sence the days of GoldenEye and Perfect dark.

To me this game was awsome, though the story lacked a little i loved the chaos and mayhem that was had in multiplayer and coop campaign.

Then after some time the first Halo book came out Fall Of Reach, ofcource i bought the book, liked it alot, thought it definatly added too and improved the halo universe and added a bit more depth to the game. same with the second Book The Flood, and First Strike. they all answerd the how and why questions that i had wonderd about through out the game. Now ive picked up halo 2, the first and only game i have ever picked up durring a special sales event (when gamestop opend back up at 12:01 AM) and though i havent gotten that far into the game, i love how it mixes verry smoothly with the books, things like the prophets look almost exactly like the way i imagened they would.

Now things like this may be a Meh kind of a subject to some people but when things like this Games books sequels and what not, all mesh togeather so smoothly and add that much more depth and feeling, that That is a real Turn on for me in the would of Media and a reason why i like this franchise so much.

Now on to things like the uber hyping and over ratedness i place that blame soly on the fans and at the same time have to salute bungie. if you look, bungie ran a next to nothing Advertising campain, the most that was ever seen were screens and articles in gaming magazines. Now why is this good?

well all this hype and expectation is based soly on the runaway imagination of the fanbase, leaving bungie to tell in articles what's what. Meaning that if the game is under par with a poor fans expectations that poor fan has no one to blame but himself, as bungie didnt ramp up all this hype fans did. Genius in the business world.

now while im sure some of you get what i just said, ill bet there are some of you out there scratching your head going "what the hell is this moron ranting about?!" and thats okay i know i dont make much sence at times, and that has been pointed out to me on many occasions. (along with crappy spelling, Go Public Schools! )

Now as for the game its self I am quite happy with Halo 2, with the new assortment of weapons like the Covie carbine and sniper rifle the plasma sword (i love this weapon and always wanted to use it in the first Halo) along with the SMG duel wield ability (Goin old west style with 2 pistols) and the lock on ability for the Jackhammer Rocket launcher. I also really dig the Two Intertwining Story lines for the Master Chief and the Arbiter and while it is not a new concept (See Front Mission 4 and some other games i cant think of now) it is something that snaps in just right and is a very nice touch. and besides who wouldnt like going around Beating on things as an elite!

Overall I really like this game and series. it comes across as verry Movie-esque or Feature-esque if you prefer. wich as i said earlier is a real Hook for me.

But this is only one mans opinion. and i can only speak for my self.

anyway i hope you enjoyed my $0.02.....nah make that $0.25 worth of rant

[Max Jenius]

Hmmm... perhaps I shall borrow Halo 2 and give it further inspection.

Oh, and for the record; I have never felt hate towards M$... I love them. Bill Gates is my hero! Plus, I enjoy purchasing their products because its quality to me (Bitch about Windows all you want, but I take care of my sh!t ... so I don't have 99% of the problems people are complaining about).

[Jemstone]

the game is overrated and is AVERAGE at best! Turok the Dinosaur Hunter for the N64 and Powerslave for the Saturn are both much better games...and better looking too!

I hope you're joking. I think I've made it pretty clear in the past that I DESPISE the fact Microsoft jumepd into gaming and therefor don't support anything X-Box. Despite that I still have to give this game series the credit it's due. I'm making an exception for the X-Box only because of this game.

[batpinoy]

Anyone know where the outtakes are located on the collectors addition edition of HALO 2.

I took a brief look at the DVD menu but did not see any of the outtakes.

Peace,

[Hikuro]

Couldn't find it myself, but after watching 15 minutes of Behind the Scenes I started to think, "Game programers are freaks" 0_o no offense to those who are....but......the guys in Bungie seem like crack addicts.

[Feyd-Rautha]

i just wish they would get the contract for a mospeada game!!!

[mikeszekely]

Hmmm... perhaps I shall borrow Halo 2 and give it further inspection.

Oh, and for the record; I have never felt hate towards M$... I love them. Bill Gates is my hero! Plus, I enjoy purchasing their products because its quality to me (Bitch about Windows all you want, but I take care of my sh!t ... so I don't have 99% of the problems people are complaining about).

I like MS, too! I also take care of my system, and I think Windows XP kicks much ass!

I stopped using IE, though. I liked it, but it was directly to blame for letting in some of the spyware/malware that corrupted Windows and forced me to do a system restore. I tried disabling ActiveX, but soon got tired of warnings from IE that it might not be able to display a page properly and so on, so I eventually switched to Firefox, and haven't looked back since.

I was hesitant to buy an Xbox, because no American console has succeeded in the console market. I was afraid the Xbox was going to pull another Dreamcast. But, Halo and DoA3 were just too hard to resist. And I gotta give Microsoft a lot of credit. They've set up a user-friendly online system, and really captured the attention of the mainstream American gamer (and with the Japanese gaming industry on the decline, plus the rising dominance of non-Japanese developers like EA and Ubisoft, the American market has definately become more vital than the Japanese). Today, I have more Xbox games than any other console.

Anyway, I'm sure a lot of Halo's popularity is due to the multiplayer. It's not the mindless frag-fest that Unreal is, although not quite as stalk-and-shoot as Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. It was the kind of multiplayer that was easy to get into, and the kind where you'd often create moments to laugh about later (like the time I was driving the tank, and my friends were going to try to use the Warthog to attack me, but the driver panicked and backed over his teammate). But, if you don't like splitscreen gaming, it's just a fun console shooter, but probably nothing outstanding to the PC crowd.

And why is Halo 2 so good? Well, Bungie heard the complaints about the first one, and really worked hard to to fix things like the repetetive levels and to create more multiplayer maps. See now, if you have friends who want to play (again, don't play strangers), then you might try Halo 2 online.

[Hoptimus]

Ok I got mine at about 12:18 11/09/04

Went home and played on LIVE with my buddies for about 6 hours straight. Slept 4 hours and played another 4 before going to work. Played again last night for about 4 hours.

Havent tried the Single player yet.

Multiplayer in this game is great. No lag at all that I have seen. Fun battles. Swords only can be a blast.

The multiplayer alone is incredible and I cant wait to start the SP game. Maybe tonight.

[Panzer]

alriiiight.. i picked up my LE copy last night and played:

note the is basically an IMPRESSION of the few hours i played last night. you can delve into the game much more than i will and probably debunk most of my opinions, but oh well.

soo much crap that came with this game. I loved the big DO NOT SELL UNTIL 11/09/04 sticker on the case, i kept it. you get a slurpee coupon, some story booklet, and the manual is really well done too.

first impressions? basically more of the same. Chief does "float" more in this one. the graphic updates? textures on everything. some textures are there just to be there it looks to me. to look updated.

same enemies too. you get these annoying fly guys now tho and in the manual theres a pic of these new big ass guys i haven't seen yet.

the beginning story seems really cool, some kinda combination of star trek and starship troopers. i've only played up to where you get the Scorpion so the level i'm on has kinda a call of duty feel to it with the urban warefare and your buddies running around with you.

the graphics on the levels i've seen are awe inspiring, and staying true with halo tradition GROUND BREAKING. seeing the earth on the bridge of your ship and the armada of ships surrounding it raises the bar on console graphics. crossing the bridge with the scorpion.. you feel like this tiny soldier in a HUGE world, i've never seen such big architecture in a game since the air ship level in panzer dragoon orta. no other system can pull this off.

dual weapons is a nice new deadly feature, i also loved being in the low gravity environment on the first level, the sound muffled perfectly, really making you feel like you stepped out into space.

the cut scene graphics aren't the best, but better than most. i've noticed a few annoying glitchy things too like textures not loading and suddenly popping up but nonetheless better than most.

the only down side for me was the enemies, vehicles and. same 'ol covenant with little it better graphical detail and AI. same vehicles, nothing added. and basically the same weapons with a few upgrades.

the bottom line is ITS HALO 2. what i mean by that is its truely a sequel. it lived up to the hype for me so far. little things like being able to back out of the load window in an instant are just more inovations you'd expect. more stuff like the voices of your soldiers sound better, the rag doll physics and the realism of the explosion you get from the cannon on the scorpion are just little things that make you pause for a second. great job bungie. thanks too for the 2 free months of xbox online. i'll be jumping on tonite.

[fearyaks]

Mike & Major

Anyway you two could put spolier warnings in your posts about you know who? We've (my wife and I) have mostly been playing MP but we are working slowly on the campaign.

[Panzer]

thats pretty odd..

[mikeszekely]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/11/10/news_6112915.html

I knew I was busy yesterday...

Anyway, did some more online playing. Just like Halo 1, some of the maps are great, some aren't so great. It's fun that you can drive the Banshee and the Wraith in multi-player now. And it's really fun to drive vehicles into the fan on Zanzibar.

Oh, and another Halo-moment... I was using a Banshee to chase down one friend, and another comes up and tries to jack my ride! I bailed, so he could have it... then I shot him with a rocket launcher while he was climbing. As an added bonus, the explosion took out the guy I was chasing in the first place. Double kill!

[Gaijin]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/11/10/news_6112915.html

I knew I was busy yesterday...

Anyway, did some more online playing. Just like Halo 1, some of the maps are great, some aren't so great. It's fun that you can drive the Banshee and the Wraith in multi-player now. And it's really fun to drive vehicles into the fan on Zanzibar.

Oh, and another Halo-moment... I was using a Banshee to chase down one friend, and another comes up and tries to jack my ride! I bailed, so he could have it... then I shot him with a rocket launcher while he was climbing. As an added bonus, the explosion took out the guy I was chasing in the first place. Double kill!

Cool.

Picking up my copy this weekend. This has been a very expensive video game splurge lately...AC5 Bundle, Killzone, Halo 2, Neo Contra, and Metroid Prime/ MGS3 soon..

[eugimon]

no kidding, still have DS coming out at the end of the month.

[Blaine23]

I've always wondered though; What's the big deal with Halo? Can anyone shed some light? I mean... what makes it magical, you know?

Hmm.. what is the big deal with Halo?

I think I might have a clue on this one. I have a PS2, my buddy has a PS2 and X-box. Neither of us have played FPS games since Duke Nukem, Hexen, and Doom 2 were all the rage. We used to work in a small office and would Deathmatch via the network or over our ancient 9600 baud modems from home.

Anyway, both of now have way too much work, life, etc to get all that involved or keep up with PC gaming. The last game I tried to play an FPS on a friend's PC was Quake III and it was overcomplicated, the missions were annoying, I got bored with it real quick.

So at my buddy's house, he says, "Check out this Halo game - it's supposed to be great." We sat down, put it on multiplayer campaign and played for about 3 hours. It was tons of fun, on his big screen the split screens were no problem and we had a great time with it, so we played everytime I came over to chill.

Halo is a great game for a number of reasons -

#1 - The interface. Hands down the most important part of any game. Halo is intuitive enough for me to figure out how to move, shoot, switch weapons, target without a giant map. I was up and killing in a matter of minutes.

#2 - The graphics. PC games may be lightyears past Halo in terms of graphics, but this is easily the best looking FPS game I've played on a console.

#3 - Multiplayer. Any FPS will get real old playing by yourself. It's the nature of the beast. Fighting games, Sports games, and FPS's are best when you're kicking your best friend's butt. Halo's FPS is suprisingly not bad, even when playing on the same TV.

#4 - Theme. Space Marines appeal to all men. Is it exceptionally original? Nah. Do I care? Nah.

After we had fun at Halo we rented a few other FPS games, but all of them really just fell short in one category or another. None had that, "instantly familiar" vibe that Halo has. If you can take two 30 year old fogies, set 'em down in front of a type of game they aren't really into, and have them fragging in minutes, you've got a hit.

Of course, all of these reasons are kinda the reason hardcore PC gamers are like "huh?" when it comes to understanding Halo's popularity. By your very nature, you're more used to putting the time, money, and effort to play games that are technically better.

To Joe Six Pack, that sort of effort takes all the fun out of... playing a game.

[Panzer]

well put.

i went online last night, i'm very grateful for the 2 free months. some of the kids online are really good. jeezus, i got my butt handed to me.

[Zentrandude]

I agree that for the most part, a lot of games are better on the PC. However from a social and comfort aspect, I prefer my couch, my surround sound and my 60" RP-LCD over a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

you know you can connect your computer to your tv and sound system. then you just need a wireless keyboard and mouse/trackerball if the keyboard doesnt have a touchpad built in or you dont like it in games like me.

[mikeszekely]

I agree that for the most part, a lot of games are better on the PC.  However from a social and comfort aspect, I prefer my couch, my surround sound and my 60" RP-LCD over a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

you know you can connect your computer to your tv and sound system. then you just need a wireless keyboard and mouse/trackerball if the keyboard doesnt have a touchpad built in or you dont like it in games like me.

But again, the thing is, just as the hardcore PC crowd thinks that mouse and keyboard is the only way to go, console gamers are just used to our controllers.

Check this out, guys. You can go to Bungie's Website, click on "stats" at the bottom of the page, and then type in your Gamertag (for those without gamertags, mine's Pharaohman, if you want to have a look). You can see ever game you've played, who you played with, who won, etc. You can also click to see a map of who died and where. That's a pretty cool feature. Plus, once you get involved in clans, Bungie is provided each clan with it's own clan forum.

[mikeszekely]

Just finished the game. Don't really want to spoil anything, but where the original Halo had a conclusive ending to it's little story but room for sequels in the overarching war against the Covenant, Halo 2 just ends with a major cliffhanger. Now, I had fun with the game, sure, and it's by far my favorite game on Xbox Live now, but I felt the ending (or lack thereof) kind of cheapend the whole thing. Like it's less the sequel we've been waiting years for, and more of a stop-gap in between the original Halo and a Halo on next-gen hardware.

Fact: There will be a Halo 3.

Oh, the other thing is... after you beat it, you're supposed to get a certain something for the multiplayer. But I didn't get it. Weird.

[Gaijin]

Just finished the game. Don't really want to spoil anything, but where the original Halo had a conclusive ending to it's little story but room for sequels in the overarching war against the Covenant, Halo 2 just ends with a major cliffhanger. Now, I had fun with the game, sure, and it's by far my favorite game on Xbox Live now, but I felt the ending (or lack thereof) kind of cheapend the whole thing. Like it's less the sequel we've been waiting years for, and more of a stop-gap in between the original Halo and a Halo on next-gen hardware.

Fact: There will be a Halo 3.

Though supposedly Bungie is through with Halo...if this is true...who will take up the reigns? And most likely on the next gen console.

Almost finished with KZ so...Halo2 here I come.

[Pavlov's Cat]

Bought it, played it. Fishished it. It is far too short. For 52 dollars Norte Americano, I expected more.