First of all i have to say this, i did not like the original Halo. I thought it was boring, repetetive, and, while quite the bit of eye candy, it just didn't hold up to what i consider 'good'
My brother convinced me to buy the second installment of the game for linking alone. This was, in my opinion, the only thing Halo had going for it, and since we have seperate xboxes in seperate rooms, nobody can yell 'you cheating bastard you're looking at my screen,'
Also, i do NOT like console based FPS games. I hate the clumsy controll joystick crap, i hate the jerky movements, i hate scrolling through weapons when you can define keys for EVERYTHING on a PC, and, basicly, i miss my friggin mouse.
All this to say i'm probably the biggest critic this game could ask for and, well, i'm out of excuses.
One of the first things i evaluate about a game, unintentionally though it may be, is the soundtrack. I realized i was going to fall in love with Castlevania Symphony of the night, FF7, FF6, FF Tactics, DOA Ultimate, Morrowind, and many other games simply because of the opening theme. Halo's first installment had a unique one, but nothing that really grabbed me. Halo 2 however, on sheer audio alone, has yet to dissapoint. The theme, while simply a re-vamped version of the original Halo it's differences are gentle and dynamic at the same time. Something you really have to hear to believe. All they did in some spots is add a piano in the background, but it's little things like this that make a theme, and this one can consider itself made.
Also worth noting is the voice acting. It's quite a bit better and, while this dosn't really matter to me that much, there are some real name actors that lend their services to this game, as well as some bands i recognised. This dosn't really do much for me as i can apreciate good acting weather or not i know who it is, and reguardless of if i've heard the musicians before or not. I guess it just shows the creators were willing to go the extra mile to ensure people would apreciate what they created.
There's also the issue of sound itself. Halo had great audio, there's no question, but i had invested in a nice little 6 channel sound setup for my room, and, while i was impressed by how Halo used it, i wasn't blown away. Halo 2, on the other hand, feels like you're in the middle of a Star Wars movie. Bullets and Plasma don't just move allong the speakers in my room, they really to whiz right by my head. Cheesy as it may sound i really did find myself moving my head in an effort to dodge enemy fire, something i don't think i've done since playing DOOM. There's also parts where you are no longer in an indoor environment, and the audio has some REAL fun here. No oxygen means sound has no medium to travel in, so basicly the only thing that you hear is whatever vibrations make your suit vibrate. This means some things would make no sound untill they whized by you, hit you, shook you, or you just wouldn't hear them at all. I believe Doom 3 tried to incorporate this, but not as well as this game did. It sounds EXACTLY like you'd expect pure vibration based sound to feel.
The graphics didn't impress me... at first... then after a while i started to notice some things. Enemies have always made a neon splattered mess in Halo, it was one of the more interesting things about that game, but now they splatter... i dunno... better is the best way to describe it. The drawing distance seems to be incresed, and everything that should be reflective is VERY reflective, not just shiny. Also worth noting is the animation. I remember one particular jaw-droping bit of in game animation that just made my jaw drop. You walk into a large room where marines and covenant are having it out. Nothing new at first, but then I hear these incredably loud noises. For a while i keep looking around to see what the hell is exploding, never thinking to look up. When i finaly did, i saw that, not only were there massive amounds of characters kicking eachothers ass where i was, but there was an incredable space battle going on just over my head. Absolutly stunning, and i'm sure there's much more where that came from.
Another nice thing is that the game really dosn't hold back. It assumes you've played the original and, after some very brief ingame training, they let you get right into blowing shit up. They also don't hold back on the weapons. About 75% of the avialible weapons (just a guess by the way) are included in the first level alone. This inclueds a new automatic rifle with several different automatic firing settings and a scope. Oh, did i mention you can now weild two weapons at once? You have to toss one before you can lob a gernade at a group of twitchy aliens, but it's definatly fun and a very good improvement on the old combat system.
One thing i noticed was absense of med kits, that's because you don't need them. Also missing was your health meeter; you don't have one. After the shield is gone there's two hits left: The plasma hitting your armor, and your ass hitting the dirt. While the game says your new suit fills up it's shield faster, it actually seemed slower to me, and it seemed to take less damage to drain it as well. Kind of a bummer, but it should make multiplayer more interesting.
I guess that's it. I'll check up on the online multiplayer later tonight, but the single player missions alone should give you reason enough to give this thing a shot, especially with so much praise from someone who was more then doubtfull about being pleased with the game. I also bought the collectors edition cause i'm a sucker for those stupid things. you should SEE the crap i have. I'll let you know if there's anything of interest there as well.
Your lives just became meaningless
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Super Goat Weed
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Well cheers goat. I would of said the same. I have been playin it for the last week ... hmm the french verison so i could say much about the story just that I killed everything with a french accent ... sorry humans ... it was amazing it was great and u get to see ur legs!!!! When u went out the ship the sound when dodgy ... I was like shit my speakers are fucked up then I used my head and thought it and said "FUCKIN GREAT" I mean wow they really went for the detail! The marines are smart and so are the damn aliens they hide!!! And the hunters are hard to fuckin kill I mean i wasted all my ammo on one and it didnt die!! And this was on bloody easy. I had no idea when I was gonna die all i heard was beeping. I have to say I like the soundtrack it really setted the mood. And the voice was just dodgy hmm french!!! But I can still seee the wise cracks, there are some twists in the story which I wont say. I'm currenty on level 5! the first twist is probaly number 3 hmm I was kinda up and down with the idea but hmm it seems ok. Anyways gonna give it a try at least kids u may enjoy. It may be over hyped but it has a reason why it is!
perhaps ill give it a try but as far as online play goes nothing will replace Quake 2 IMO. the new realistic shooters are cool and nice looking but theres nothing like the ridiculous fast paced slaughering of newbs that end in scores of 204 to 13 (actual score from one of my games) or when u meet a worthy opponent in a duel that ends 10-11 (another actual score from an amazing battle that i faile to come out on top of). well sorry to trail so horribly off topic. plz continue
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Super Goat Weed
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oh yeah, so i did the online and it's friggin awesome. This game just dosn't stop amazing me. here's some of the notable online features:
You can send audio messages to other users
There are literally MILLIONS of game types
They worked out a method that has virtually no hunting for games and waiting in a loby.
They REALLY incorporated the headset. There's your standard team chat and all chat, but if you speak into the headset at anytime and someone has their character within earshot of you, they can hear you, and not over the headset, but over your actual speakers. It's quite cool
Having distructable vehicles and being able to steal them from other players 'GTA' style is fantastic online. It puts a whole new spin on the game.
In as long as i played there was NO lag at all, which is outstanding i think The only problems we had was when someone who was hosting a game shut off their console. Even then you just went to a loading screen for about 5 seconds while it set the game up on another host and you just pick up exactly where you left off.
You can SERIOUSLY customise your character. You can be either a covanant creature or the chief, and you can, as before, do your own color scheme, but here's where it gets cool. you design an emblem that appears in several places on your armor and also hovers over your head (only visible to team members in a team game) This makes it VERY easy to tell who is who in the game, and the options for symbol types are almost endless. I don't even think there's a way to duplicate it. I have yet to see someone even use the same symbol as someone else, so colors aren't even that important.
Anyway, i think that anybody who liked the link games in Halo 1 will love the online in halo 2. it's just as good and near perfect.
You can send audio messages to other users
There are literally MILLIONS of game types
They worked out a method that has virtually no hunting for games and waiting in a loby.
They REALLY incorporated the headset. There's your standard team chat and all chat, but if you speak into the headset at anytime and someone has their character within earshot of you, they can hear you, and not over the headset, but over your actual speakers. It's quite cool
Having distructable vehicles and being able to steal them from other players 'GTA' style is fantastic online. It puts a whole new spin on the game.
In as long as i played there was NO lag at all, which is outstanding i think The only problems we had was when someone who was hosting a game shut off their console. Even then you just went to a loading screen for about 5 seconds while it set the game up on another host and you just pick up exactly where you left off.
You can SERIOUSLY customise your character. You can be either a covanant creature or the chief, and you can, as before, do your own color scheme, but here's where it gets cool. you design an emblem that appears in several places on your armor and also hovers over your head (only visible to team members in a team game) This makes it VERY easy to tell who is who in the game, and the options for symbol types are almost endless. I don't even think there's a way to duplicate it. I have yet to see someone even use the same symbol as someone else, so colors aren't even that important.
Anyway, i think that anybody who liked the link games in Halo 1 will love the online in halo 2. it's just as good and near perfect.
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Masteroftheweb
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I played it earlier today... and while it is a good game, it's not worth buying an entire system over...
I like the story that I have seen and heard though, about the revolt of the covinat and shat, but it's not worth getting an x-box over. and the graphics really don't impress me that much... with alot of things, it looks like something from 5 years ago. esspecially the square throat on the covinate elite that you play as... but I like the dual perspective.
I still don't understand why the flood portion of the story too well
I like the story that I have seen and heard though, about the revolt of the covinat and shat, but it's not worth getting an x-box over. and the graphics really don't impress me that much... with alot of things, it looks like something from 5 years ago. esspecially the square throat on the covinate elite that you play as... but I like the dual perspective.
I still don't understand why the flood portion of the story too well
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Super Goat Weed
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Masteroftheweb
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Craig played it on Thursday, only have had a few games of Slayer with Shanti and Craig.
It's good, though Craig and I feel that letting the last person to log out of a game in multiplayer on the consol is just... foolish...since it's always Shanti. Who can obliterate my ass and have me spawning in 5 seconds...but can navigate the options screen.
On the shields meter you have to be joking if you think it fills up slower... seriously go and play a game of Halo and then Halo 2 and say that.
The dual weapon system is good, though I always forget to dump my weapon before i lob a grenade.
I thought the initiation tute was well incorporated and well done, the overall starting was quite good.
I noticed that they splattered better too Ben.
It's good, though Craig and I feel that letting the last person to log out of a game in multiplayer on the consol is just... foolish...since it's always Shanti. Who can obliterate my ass and have me spawning in 5 seconds...but can navigate the options screen.
On the shields meter you have to be joking if you think it fills up slower... seriously go and play a game of Halo and then Halo 2 and say that.
The dual weapon system is good, though I always forget to dump my weapon before i lob a grenade.
I thought the initiation tute was well incorporated and well done, the overall starting was quite good.
I noticed that they splattered better too Ben.
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Super Goat Weed
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Mik
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lies.
this game is bullshit.
Halo is a marketing ploy not a game. I HATED halo from the bottom of my soul, it was an awful game and it's only redeeming features where the fact that the half-life Xbox port was rubbish (HL was 4 years old by this stage) and you had vechiles. And the Vechiles where poor, it took me 10 minutes to learn how to drive the damn thing and it was a terrible to control.
Halo 2 hasn't got one orignal idea in the entire fucking thing, they stole everything from everyone else, they hacked the half life intro, stole the character concept from doom and several of the scenes where only missing starship troopers theme tune.
I watched this game being play down at my local LAN center (watched because I refused to play) it got rave reviews by people I already knew where total idiots, shit one them tried to tell me FFX-2 was a step forward for the RPG genre only last week. The one guy who's opinon I would seriously seek gave it a 'meh, I completed it already' (note: this was the day after the game was released).
The whole game is jsut ... no damn it. Look at it this way, halo is only good because it has 0 fps competition on the Xbox, They have it on the Pc's down at the Lan place and it's been played like twice in the 8 months the place has been open and is the only game to never have gotten an interal league started. We did a test of Halo2, I noticed this one lil kid playing it hadn't shot anything at all and was gun butting most of the creatures and I stumbled upon something you can get away with not shooting for stupid amounts of time. A guy stood still for 60 seconds (not firing) and he was still able to defeat all twelve of the enemies firing at him.
as for multiplayer .. bah consoles are consoles and will never beat PC's at online FPS's until control pads are better.
Dude who came in made and interesting point how does he reload a smg with one hand and still fire with the other ?
this game is bullshit.
Halo is a marketing ploy not a game. I HATED halo from the bottom of my soul, it was an awful game and it's only redeeming features where the fact that the half-life Xbox port was rubbish (HL was 4 years old by this stage) and you had vechiles. And the Vechiles where poor, it took me 10 minutes to learn how to drive the damn thing and it was a terrible to control.
Halo 2 hasn't got one orignal idea in the entire fucking thing, they stole everything from everyone else, they hacked the half life intro, stole the character concept from doom and several of the scenes where only missing starship troopers theme tune.
I watched this game being play down at my local LAN center (watched because I refused to play) it got rave reviews by people I already knew where total idiots, shit one them tried to tell me FFX-2 was a step forward for the RPG genre only last week. The one guy who's opinon I would seriously seek gave it a 'meh, I completed it already' (note: this was the day after the game was released).
The whole game is jsut ... no damn it. Look at it this way, halo is only good because it has 0 fps competition on the Xbox, They have it on the Pc's down at the Lan place and it's been played like twice in the 8 months the place has been open and is the only game to never have gotten an interal league started. We did a test of Halo2, I noticed this one lil kid playing it hadn't shot anything at all and was gun butting most of the creatures and I stumbled upon something you can get away with not shooting for stupid amounts of time. A guy stood still for 60 seconds (not firing) and he was still able to defeat all twelve of the enemies firing at him.
as for multiplayer .. bah consoles are consoles and will never beat PC's at online FPS's until control pads are better.
Dude who came in made and interesting point how does he reload a smg with one hand and still fire with the other ?
Last edited by Mik on Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
*claps*
i can finally say that i have played this game and will retch in disgust everytime i hear its nmae mentioned from now on.
i can finally say that i have played this game and will retch in disgust everytime i hear its nmae mentioned from now on.
Last edited by Massacre on Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Until Doom 3 comes out on the X-box and kicks Halo 2's ass.Lastwolf wrote:The whole game is just ... no damn it. Look at it this way, halo is only good because it has 0 fps competition on the Xbox
My unlce said the Monsters in Halo 1 looked fake. and had Like a rip off of Star wars characters.(the ememies at least) After H1 he doesn't seem to interested in this over hyped FPS. Just like the hype destroyed devil may cry 2.
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Masteroftheweb
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Lastwolf wrote:The one guy who's opinon I would seriously seek gave it a 'meh, I completed it already' (note: this was the day after the game was released).
yeah, my friend beat it the 2nd day he had it, he's happy he only rented it
very carefullyLastwolf wrote:Dude who came in made and interesting point how does he reload a smg with one hand and still fire with the other ?
the only reason I some what like it, is that it IS the best fps... on console...
other than that... I'm not really impressed
Last edited by Masteroftheweb on Mon Nov 15, 2004 6:08 am, edited 1 time in total.