f13.net

Yes, I know console shooters suck, but I thought I'd just get the discussion going for this one.

Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/halo2/review.html?q=1&tag=gs_hp_flashtop_story) 9.4



 Gamespy  (http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/halo-2/564301p1.html) 5/5 Stars



Ign (http://xbox.ign.com/articles/557/557509p1.html) 9.8 Overall



I won't be participating in midnight madness, so the the first feedback I'll be able to give won't be until Wednesday.  I never played the first Halo, but this one has me interested.  These reviews are knob-slobbing high, but I'll try to go in with moderate expections.  Only concern points for me are a short single player mode (these games always take longer for me to finish though), but the XBL experience should more than make up for it.

Even recognizing that review outlets can get caught up easily in hype just as players can - even when the reviews aren't bought outright - I've got this pre-ordered and I am considering a 20-minute drive in the dead of night to pick it up ASAP.

Palliative:  Compare the scores of the Doom3 reviews that came out just after release vs the ones that came out after the first week and consumers had a chance to decide on their own that it sucked dick, thank you much.  It's an interesting study in how reviews are contorted by expectations.

Also probably the fact that the reviewers most in bed with the publishers publish their reviews first.  I'll wait a week.

Yah, but Doom 3 just had suck written all over it even from just the screenshots. I'm suprised it got the reviews it did, you could smell the stench on that game after just a couple hours of play.

I won't be horribly suprised if this game ends up disappointing me.  I'm just encouraged. Let me have ungrounded optimism, damnit.

That would go against the site's charter. When in doubt, default=shite until proven otherwise. That being said, I think the game will be a middling one to the normal gamer, and will be the coming of robot Jesus for HALO nuts. Considering I don't own an X-Box I could care less.

The hardcore Halo people strike me as those who never played multiplayer FPS prior to Halo, hence their overzealous adulation.  Like any well-made deathmatch game, I'm certain it's quite a bit of fun, but that's a testament more to the power of playing games with other people.

Wouldn't be so sure about that.  One of Bungie's first games (and where the hype machine really revved up) was Marathon,  Mac only,  but probably one of the best early FPS games.  The story line was nuts,  and really instilled the drive to find more pieces to the puzzle.  The multiplayer was unreal.  

Cut my teeth playing a leaked beta of the game in the fall of '94.  One map (still one of the best maps I've ever seen,  Mars Needs Women!) no single player,  8 players,  realistic physics.  Amazing.  We played the one map all fall,  abusing the campus network and conference calling.  Nothing like talking to your 3 teammates,  while schooling some punks across campus.

When Bungie announced Halo at the Mac Expo,  there was a standing ovation.  Of course,  when MS bought them a year later you could hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth across the country.....

Let's not forget about Myth, either.  

I think if there's one thing that Bungie understands,  it's multiplayer.

I picked up my copy at midnight at Walmart(even Walmart is starting to recognize gamers more then just slapping games on the shelves).

First impressions have been great.  I hate adding to the hype of it all, because it tends to raise people's expectations.  But Halo2 is everything that Halo1 was, and tweaked for the better.  

Basically, every Marine weapon has a Covenant equivalent.  The Covenant seem alot more fleshed out, probably because(and I am speculating here), you will be playing as them in multiplayer(and maybe even singleplayer).  This was the original goal of Halo1, before Microsoft rushed Halo out the door.

Alot of small details are great.  The character  for multiplayer was nice, and makes for alot of unique tags/looks.  Great for teams.

Halo2(and to a smaller degree Halo1), does what I like alot in games like Half-Life.  The designers create alot of various types obstacles, some more creative then others, and they then plop them down all over maps in fun and varied patterns.  Never has it been more fun to use a variety of weapon-styles amid different terrain and obstacle-styles.  Halo2 does it as well, if not better then most.  Combine that with great physics, and you have alot of carefully crafted accidental interactions.  And that is what i look for the most in the games I play.

Best feature of all, of course, is the return of Co-op play.  That always puts a smile on my face, especially with a fun game like Halo.

When you do get the game, if you are patient enough, let the Welcome/Press Start screen play for 2-3min and then watch the demo loop that plays that shows off what you have store for you.

It'd alot of fun. Got it at midnight. Played it til 5am with a friend co-op. Lots of Holy shit moments. Much more challenging than the first one. Much more immersive. Good storyline. Fast and frantic gameplay.

If you haven't played it...

...you just don't know how shitty a controller can be.

Agreed.  FPS' and controllers do not mix and never will.  Metroid Prime I think is the only one I have played through the entire way, and the entire time I was thinking, "If they upped the difficulty and released this game on PC, it would be one of the best games I've ever played".

*sigh* Not sure why I preordered. I'm not too excited about it either. What about HL2? Will it run well on this? If I have to upgrade more than one of these I'll probably skip out on that too.

Barton 2500+
512 RAM
GeForce FX 5200

You preordered because it actually IS fun. I run Counterstrike: Source on a P4-2.8ghz, 1024 DDR333, and a 5200 Ultra. Your computer *should* be fine.

Buy new video cards. 5200 are kinda low of the middle range right now...and the new geforces 6600s are coming out at 200 bucks on the low end right now. I found that with a better video card I was matching or outperforming PCs that had better cpus but lesser vid cards.

Why? What? Who gives a shit? I can run everything I want to play. I stopped caring about my computer's penis a long time ago.

Nothing to do with your computers penis, I have a budget system and found that having a better than average vid card has made up for a slower cpu and only 512meg RAM.

If I was that annoying I wouldve laughed and told you that you must have a 1gig or ram and a x660 GF card with a AMD 64 CPU NOW YOU LOSER!

kthxbye!

Not enough caffiene this morning?

Halo 2 pwns 99% of movies ever made on the first day. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20041109/tc_nm/media_microsoft_halo_dc) Slated to do $100 million today. 1.5 million pre-orders which is $75 million right there. Estimated to sell 10 million units or ~$500 million (that puts it above every movie ever made except Titanic). Halo 1 sold 5 million units.


Knock knock. Hollywood? Yes, you are now officially back seat drivers to video games.


Edited to remove excessive uses of the word "which".

Lol, was just watching the news and they're about to do a "Halo 2 Hands On Preview". WTF? It's MSNBC and all, but still..Pretty strange, especially after doing coverage on Fallujah and Arafat.

Anyways, I picked it up. I'll be on XBL tonight. I'll just get HL2 as well if it's worth it. Wasn't planning on buying 2 FPS's, but oh well. BTW, thx for the advice.

I got a chance to play at lunch today and loved it.  Its nice to just make some minor control adjustments, customize the avator, and go.  Really beautiful game, with smooth framerates.

Re: controllers, I use the Madcat microcon (about 20% smaller than the S-type) and love it.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I prefer the gamepad to kb/m.  Dual wield especially really works well with the two triggers. Aiming is - strictly speaking - less refined, but the reticle is wider so it works out.

Amen brother.

The point of the comment was that people who apparently never played the game seem to have some strong opinions about it (and about those who play it).

So,  I take it Bungee's happy.

Saw a Halo 2 presentation from an E3 or two back (downloaded from Fileplanet).  Definately looked very emmersive and good, albeit somewhat scripted on rails.   The crowd was "OMG"ing through the whole reel - sometimes presentation is key.  I bet the replay value isn't all that great, but there's always multiplayer for that.

About all the controller comments:

Trying to play an FPS on Gamecube or PS2 is a pain. Doing it on the XBox controller is fine. Those trigger buttons work really well. Using one stick to move and one to aim is also a breeze.

I just cant do it. I hate it. The whole time I play, all I can think is, wow, I WISH I was using Mouse/Keyboard. It makes me feel like a retard at the wrong olympics.

Behold the power of marketing and retarded fratboys. The sequel to a mediocre game becoming the next coming of Jesus.

Agreed, the dual stick thing drives me up a wall. I played HALO for about an hour before I almost threw the controller at the TV in disgust. My brain is about 40x ahead of my reactions using that thing. Console games are only useful for one thing now in my view, and that thing is sports.

This is a very acurate description.

I see the thing I want to kill, then I have to spiral around it for a while, getting the cursor to not overshoot my target, then pull the trigger.  I find that it's almost easier to get the cursor at the right level, and then just strafe around till he's in my sights.  Can't seem to do both at once.

The game seems hard to me.  Maybe that's because I'm a pussy.  And maybe that's because I can't get those analog sticks to do what I want.

Someone mentioned a keyboard/mouse alternative to the xbox?  Any enterprising EE's wanna give it a go?


EDIT:  Lik-Sang already has one for 30 bucks. (http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?products_id=5438)  The question now is do I want to invest an extra 20 bucks for another laser mouse and keyboard.  Maybe just a number pad so I don't have to haul my big ass keyboard everywhere.

I wonder if I even want to use this on XBL.  Would that be considered cheating?

I have played Halo, and my comment was a personal observation rather than some kind of challenge to the validity of it's "fun multiplayer".  Pardon me if I don't find playing the four thousandth incarnation of pretty-graphics deathmatch the thrill that it used to be.  I stand behind my opinion that a lot of Halo 1's hardcore devotees seem to be people that haven't really followed a multiplayer FPS prior to it.  I've been shoulder deep in the shit since Duke3D, or Doom2 if we want to include LAN.

I remember when they used to let us use lightguns, by krickey.

Wow. Way to be condescending to people who like a game you don't.

FPSs on consoles, especially Halo, have one major thing going for them: letting friends get together and have fun smack-talking and beating each other up, with minimul setup time or system requirements.  

You can get alot of people playing that would otherwise not be joining you on a LAN.  And I find this a subtle way to get them interested in LAN gaming.  I personally love LAN gaming far more, but Halo/console-FPSs are the only way I can often get certain people playing a similiar experience.

In comparison I wonder how many units HalfLife 2 will sell on its first day?

# HL2 units sold > 0 & < Halo 2

Shocker.

This game is not robot jesus, it is however, very well made and fun.  

The audio and visuals are top notch.  The story is great so far (OMG sympathy for the enemy).  And the variety in gameplay so far is superb.

I really suck at the controls, but I'm getting better.  I would buy that adapter thing, but I'm also buying WoW this month and I'm on a gaming budget (plus I'm not sure I'd want to unplug my mouse + keyboard everytime I wanted to play Halo2. I think I lost my usb converter too for the mouse.. ). Plus, I'm never any good at these types of games.

I've yet to play the multiplayer.  I hope to remedy that tonight if anyone's on.  

I'd say it's worth the purchase.

Duh. I realise this it just maybe an interesting comparison to make between the top console release and PC release of the year. Maybe its an unfortunate comparison but Im sure those that love to predict the end of PC gaming will highlight it.

The question remains - will they count the sales through Steam? I doubt it.

Edit: Also, the free ones that came with ATI Video cards.

Thats a good question, Im sure vivendi won't want to release the Steam numbers. Valve probably will though.

Wake me when the reviewers of Halo 2 stop slinging around perfect 10s like they are going out of style. And if this game is the second coming, orgasm inducing, transcendental experience that everyone is reviewing it to be, let me sleep and remain ignorant.

I have an issue with this game.

The gun models take up to much of screen.  I attribute this to not being high enough resolution (running CS at 800x600 vs. 1024x960).

Anyone else notice this?  I'm starting to use the pistol more and more just so I can see what's going on.

Hmm...After playing a little, all I can say so far is that it wasn't really worth my money. Maybe I'm too enamored with GTA atm, but I'm not really seeing it. It's a great FPS and all (albeit with shitty controls), but that's it. I would have been better off waiting on HL2 (and I am) -- Better platform, more features. I guess if the Xbox was all I had I'd be pretty happy though.

I'll take misinterpretation for $300, Alex.

I do not look down on those that enjoy Halo, seeing as I'm certain that playing Halo2 multiplayer would be something I myself would enjoy.  Once again, my point is that I don't feel the game is some kind of second coming of Robot Jesus, and instead think of it as a decent FPS that can compete with many of the others for a person's playtime.

Huhwhat?



Which of those, exactly, is the one that wasn't condescending?

So far the game is underwhelming. I think my problem is that after I played the original Halo, which I loved, I got a PC and got into PC FPS games. Having just finished the single player portion of the Call of Duty expansion last week, Halo by comparison just feels kinda tame and simplistic. It's still fun, but it just doesn't have that "oh god this is GREAT" feel I had playing the original.

Call of Duty....*gag*

Call of Duty isn't one of the best PC FPS's, but it isn't that far below Halo 2 imo. Halo 2 is better in more ways than one, but the action and pacing, at least so far, actually reminds me of Call of Duty a bit. Stand it up to other PC FPS games though, and at best, it's only equal to them (excluding graphics).

for some reason Halo 2 is making me want to go back and finish Far Cry.

Kids these days ... they have no taste. :P

2 notes:

1.  Apparently "Save and you will begin from your last checkpoint." Turned into "Save and you will begin from the beginning of the level." when I shut off my xbox.

2.  I love the way the ghosts fly.  I couldn't drive that warthog for a shit, but that ghost is smooth sailing.

I'm willing to bet that Half-Life 2 sells more units combined, being designed and released on the PC first, and then brought to the XBox.

Perhaps overzealous is an unfair word, so I apologize if I have somehow offended your delicate sensibilities.  Congratulations, you get a gold star for pointing out my bad choice in words!  Slap that shit on the fridge so your parents can see when they get home from work.

I cannot believe I am still trying to defend myself on this matter, which is probably a sign of a serious character flaw, but here goes: You can love Halo1 like it's digital sex, and I think that is super.  In fact, I wish I could feel that way about the game, because I haven't felt that way about a FPS in a long-fucking-time.  However, I have chatted with many people who were introduced to the multiplayer-centric FPS "genre" through Halo, probably because this is the post-PSX generation of games and everything about them is now hip and popular.  Furthermore, I have overheard a lot of people during my frequent visits to gamestores and other nerdish-geekesque establishments that generally speak along the lines of "Timesplitters2, what the fuck?  That game is dogshit, play Halo man." or "Halo is the greatest game ever, fuck faggot mario and his gay sunshine."  I wish it were hyperbole, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Piece this together with my opinion of Halo1, based on the amount of time I played solo and multiplayer, and my conclusion remains thus: the game has fun multiplayer, but so do dozens of other FPS games out there, most of which I played on and off at some time or another.  While your experience may have been "LEETGAMEILOVEBUNGIE!!!!11", mine was not.

If you still think there is deliberate condescension on my part, Mesozoic, then that's your own fucking problem.  Have fun playing Halo2, which I'm guessing is a truly spectacular deathmatch game(since Bungie didn't have a hardware deadline this time around).  I myself am hoping a generous family member will impart me with it these coming holidays.

Mesozoic is not the only one who believes you were condescending, not once, but twice. Your ability to sidestep it is about equal to SirBruce's. Congrats.

Have I said there is anything wrong with Halo being one of your first FPS experiences?  I guess this is a place where somebody will be ostricized for, God forbid, not loving the first Halo.  While I had nothing against Halo fans, but merely against stupid and ignorant Halo fans (and every game has it's share really), you sure as hell are making me feel that I am in fact better than you.

Who gives a shit if he's condescending. Whether you're fanbois or not this is no place to bitch about being offended.

The condescending attitude was just a sideshow to the vitriol for a game he hasn't played and the people he hasn't met.

It is assuming that only people that have not played FPS will love Halo that is the condescending part. I shouldn't have to spell it out for you.

If its anything like CoD you would have to pay me to play it. That game was horrible. One of the funnier things was the blurb that went like 'You never fight alone' ..except all your teammates were 1. Completely uncontrollabe and would either die straight away or be completely invunrable depending on what the scripting called for.

The vast bulk of the missions were standard FPS fare...Run through the linear tunnels/path , kill all the bad guys and come back and kill some more..*snore*.

The few missions that weren't like this (aka Pegasus bridge) were so horribly overscripted (I mean christ they even had the old 'music you play when all the good guys are dieing in slomo' down pat) that it took any fun of losing yourself in the moment out of it.

The game felt like a chore to me, I've had much more immersive expierences playing ww2ol and the graphics are the suq compared to Call of Duty.

But it sold really well and won all sorts of Game of the Year awards...whee.

Best multiplayer console FPS ever:  Goldeneye 007 for the N64.  I can still see those maps like the back of my hand.  Golden Gun, Facility, two people trying to hold the bathroom against the other two...proximity mines, basement, rigging the whole place to explode in one chain reaction...greatest multi and single player console FPS I ever played.

I agree.  Spawn the golden gun in the bathroom, and have a free-for-all trying to get to it.  Usually everyone outside the bathroom would work together to get into the bathroom, against the one defender.  Once the defender was dead, it was then mad free-for-all chaos again, scrambling for the golden gun and room control.

Ah, yes, Goldeneye ... those were good times. I played that game in a different age too, when my social circle wasn't married with kids and actually had time to get together and play games ... what a concept.

Somehow this made me smile

Well, I got through a 8 player game last night. Two projectors, 2 xboxs, 8 people, 5 pizzas and tons of beers. While it was fun playing with friends and we had some good moments (one stands out : throw a grenade at the back of a warthog with 3 guys in it, warthog does a cartwheel with them still in it), it didn't really impress me. So we can dual wield guns now and there is some new weapons to choose. Big deal.

I wasn't a fan of Halo (for PC) and I highly doubt the sequel's single player will grab me.

Sorry, my inner cynic refuses to come out of hibernation for this one.

I am having a great time with the single player campaign. The combat is varied, fast and strategic, the environments are beautiful, and  is a great idea.

A buddy of mine and myself playing through Halo cooperatively and had a blast. I can easily see this being even better.

I don't understand how a game can have all these multiplayer options over the internet and not have an option to play Coop w/ a buddy via XBL.

All I want is to be able to enjoy some coop entertainment w/ my buddy who lives 30 mins away, without getting dressed for the cold and driving out there.  Let me stay stinky and in my blankets for God's sake.

They've had that option for computer games for years (Serious Sam comes to mind), and aren't these games designed on the same god damn platform?  The hardest thing I could think of (since they already have coop, and they already have net protocol) would be figuring out who's box to save/run it off of.

Just doesn't make sense to me.

Dev's -- If you are designing an XBox game that has coop and some form of XBL, please let use play Coop over XBL, please? Do it for the lazy ones.

I agree.  If they want more XBox Live subscriptions(and I'm sure they do), then XBox Live co-op sounds like a future must.

How many levels are there on the campaign.  I am only on the fourth one and I have put some time into it.  These levels are huge.

I think it is around 15 or so. I'm 9 levels in. I'm only playing it Coop for now to save all the "oh cool" moments for when I play with friends.