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Halo 2 Ready to Ship
Thanks to pdawerks who alerted us to the post on the Bungie site stating that Halo 2 is ready to ship. It's filled with typical Bungie humor. "If you create a clan, do it because you intend to use it, and enjoy the camaraderie that Clan membership brings. We have systems in place to deal with "dead" or unused Clans. Unpleasant, pointy systems that reek of rust and blood and horror. Think Silent Hill meets Autocomplete."
Whilst many will not know, Bungie originally started out life as a Mac developer... until Bungie sold out to MS, in the ultimate act of treason for many Mac users :)
Even still, I hope Halo 2 makes it off the XBox onto the Mac and the PC. The first one was great, and Bungie make great looking games with a great plot.
-- james
about time! you can call me ethan from ctrl+alt+del
Opportunities of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity. - Linda Ravenhill
Can't wait to jack one of them Covenant tanks - not to mention the ability to shank someone with the sword.
Woohoo!
I'll stick with Doom 3. How many "demonic aliens are taking over and I am the only surviving space marine who can save Earth from the horror" FPS games can our nerves take (in the dark, no less)? I'll stick with the original.
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77 77 77 2e 6d 65 6c 76 69 6e 73 2e 63 6f 6d
about the team behind Halo 2
l
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/halo.htm
It's a good read if you're into the game!
-- james
It better have system link. Xbox Live can go somewhere and die.
Looks like they're on-time with this release date. That's a refreshing change from the usual cycle of pushbacks we've been seeing lately in the PC market (and to a lesser extent in consoles). Not that they're totally innocent-- they've pushed this one back, what, three times?
Let's hope it meets the expectations of the fans.
I just hope this game is as good as I imagine it will be. Fable was a huge dissapointment for me. I was waiting for it since last christmas, and was sick of it in a week. No where near as epic as I expected. Though I don't really see how they could mess up Halo 2, I am quit sure it is possible. Let's just all pray to the god of Halo.
Unless your system is an Xbox I doubt it will run it and if it is, I see no issue in getting it to run. ;)
Autocomplete sounds misleading...that'd be where they add bots to your clan until you've got enough to beat someone else.
Perhaps they mean the Outlook "Autoarchive" or Windows "Disk Cleanup" features...
Bungie Software was a small games house and publisher located in Chicago. Microsoft bought them out a couple of years ago (except the Myth franchaise which was bought by Take2 interactive).
For all intents and purposes, Bungie doesn't exist anymore. Microsoft bought it for Halo to have a big game to promote its XBox. 'Bungie' soon became nothing more than another office on the Microsoft Campus, as its Chicago offices were shut down and staff moved. As far as I know, most of the Bungie people quit then or have since.
So no, Bungie has gone, and is now just a brandname used by a department of Microsoft's games devision.
Although people still play their games (see http://source.bungie.org , http://myth.bungie.org , http://playmyth.net , http://projectmagma.net , http://mariusnet.com ).
Will a Red vs Blue series foolow? It had better be better than the previous one.
here comes the duke nuken forever jokes in 3... 2... 1..
First Doom III beats it to the shelf. Then Halo 2. Will Half-Life 2 really ever come out?
:-)
Half-Life 2's in a pretty similar situation to how Halo 2 is now - the developers think they are done with it, and are waiting for final bug-finding and testing from the publishers.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was some announcement of Half-Life 2 going Gold pretty soon, followed shortly afterwards by Halo 2.
I'm really hoping Halo 2 makes its way to the PC eventually. I don't buy many games, and when I do it's mainly for the modding potential, so a games console would be a bit pointless for me (especially as I don't have a telly to connect it to) - although having waited the best part of two years for the PC port of the original Halo I suppose I better sit tight.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
so when does it come out for PC?..... If the Xbox is just a PC it shouldn't take that much....
Loading Please Wait....
this is sooooo offtopic! i mean we're here to talk about important stuff like Halo 2 you space nerd!
Oh boy!
I mean, this genre hasnt been filled to the brim with clones. In this one, you shoot aliens. I think.
No, I'm not a halo fan. I played it a few times and I just didnt see it. Perhaps I was missing something, but it felt like just about every other FPS out there, and was nothing very special to me.
I mean, yeah, it was pretty and had good animation, but that alone doesnt make a good game.
So whats the deal? Why all the fandom surrounding what, to me, seems like just another FPS clone?
no
Just like Fable, hopefully Halo2 will ast a little longer...
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
Cause it had great AI, great atmosphere, great everything.
Except the damn library levels.
You're right. Nothing about the game was particularly spectacular, except this: It was fucking fun. Isn't that what counts?
Even Bungie will agree with you on the repeating levels, since they had to re-use some environments in order to meet the Xbox launch date. But if you think the AI is bad, you're just plain wrong. Halo is universally regarded as having some of the best FPS AI, possibly even the best ever. Try playing on something other than easy.
Yeah I liked it until that level with the swarm of little crab aliens where every room was the same. I spent two days lost in there. It's like their level designers weren't even trying.
What is is Halo 2... some new kind of wiki or blog site?
People keep telling me that I should put my girlfriend infront of Sims if I want to do some hacking on the computer, that way (according to them) she will be occupied playing the sims for hours and hours, funny enough this doesnt seem to work. However, me and my g/f played Halo1 for loads of hours coop, so this is my chance to get some hacking done.
:(
Oh wait, coop, anyone got any sugestions to keep me hacking while the chance of playing halo2 coop is starring me straight in the face with a wartorn girlfriend screaming "Comeon you bastards" at the top of her lungs while dodging bullets and throwing grenades?
Oh well, I guess this is just another change of totally neglecting work that needs to be done.
That would be the Library, which most people agree is the worst level. It's also one of the hardest on Elite.
Will a Red vs Blue series foolow?
Rooster Teeth Productions already announced that they've started working on RvB season 3. I mean, it's called RvB: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, and the action is taking place largely on Blood Gulch when it left off. Thus, the next RvB season is probably not using Halo 2. Even if they weren't limited to Blood Gulch (not that they haven't used other maps), they still probably have to figure out all the nuances of Halo 2 that weren't the same in Halo 1 before making movies with it.
Fetch Text URL - Firefox Extension
Half-life 2 and Doom 3 do not compete with Halo 2, they're PC games and Halo 2 is Xbox-only.
Poster doesnt like the game, and is asking people why they do.
He isnt mindlessly bashing it.
Crackhead halo fanboy mods dont like people disagreeing with them.
Greate, Halo 2 is released, but the big question is: does it include a playable demo of duke nukem forever on the CD ?
Halo 2 is Xbox-only until the PC version is released anyway...
0...-1...-2...-3...forever.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
WTF.
This post gets an "insightful," yet my statement on simply not liking it is modded as a troll?
*rolls eyes*
Yeah, thanks mods.
Frankly, I felt the game was an overly repetative FPS with facy guns and pretty animation. It didnt hook for me, and I still dont see the appeal of it.
no
When, exactly, did this "fun" come into play?
Was it before or after the 20 rooms in a row that looked the same? I mean, yeah it was pretty.. but I _still_ didnt find halo much fun.
To me it just felt like another FPS with some extra, obviously unfinished polishing on it.
no
Anybody remember the game Marathon? Looking back, it seems that a lot of Halo is based off of this game. I remember playing that game for hours trying to get to the end of the next level.
I found the "Any" key.
Great, the MS Office paperclip is runnig the clans now..
My friend won't buy any new XBox or PC games until this one comes out. He's been waiting for it all summer.
He plays the original HALO on multiplayer with either myself or his brother-in-law on an 8' wide, 6' tall wall using a Dell projector -- FOR HOURS ON END. I stopped playing with him about 3 months ago, because he knew where every dude was coming from, and the exact moment the AI would do this or that. He'd played it that much.
I've never seen a game with such replay value, or is my friend just a HALO nut?
At least, when HALO 2 does come out, I'll be able to see it in all it's Dolby DTS and 8' x 6' glory. It's a beautiful game -- unless you're still watching my friend play the levels he knows by heart 1 year after it's been released.
IronChefMorimoto
Yup, the atmosphere and story where what made it for me. Awesome game and I also recommend reading the books (one plays 'before' Halo one [Halo: The Flood] depicts the same story as the game and one plays just after it, in between of Halo and Halo 2 to be exact).
Oh and I hated the Library!
I wont make a fool of myself in front of all the gamerz by asking in the games shop for Halo2 like I did last christmas! Cool!
Half-Life 2's in a pretty similar situation to how Halo 2 is now
Sorry, you're incorrect. Half-Life 2 is the keystone of a huge legal battle between creator Valve and publisher Vivendi Universal Games (VUG). Microsoft and Bungie are not engaged in a legal battle over the release of Halo 2. Microsoft is not withholding the release of Halo 2 as a punitive action againt Bungie, as VUG is doing with Half-Life 2. The situtations are not comparable. If you want to see Half-Life 2 in stores, email VUG and tell them so.
http://xkcd.com/386/
multiplayer.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
On the subject of overly repetative FPS what about game that you walk from one room to the next. When you enter a room, all the lights go out and some zombies crawl out of the woodwork.
Doom 3 didn`t appeal to me with its fancy guns and pretty animations.
That said I like halo, something about the way you put your life into the hands of someone who isn`t old enough to drive, and yet you hop into their warthog and wait to be blasted about 200 foot into the air by a stray rocket...
makes me smile, but then I'm easily pleased.
CJC
I, too, was waiting for Halo to have some modding potential. Then, as you mentioned, they took forever to get the game out to PC, then waited forever for an SDK, which they promised... And I flat out gave up on it.
The single player was neat. I had some issues with it, but overall it was fun, and worthwhile, and there was enough content there to justify the game, even if the multiplayer didn't exist, I think.
But it's the multiplayer and modding community that keep long term interest in a game going, and I'm positive that MS has no interest in that.
Halo2 will follow Halo1. It will be fun, and cool , and all that, then suddenly it will be forgotten.
Yeah, it is really easy getting lost in there, though they made it rather easy as they did not open up the ENTIRE level which sort of helped (I shudder thinking that all the doors would have worked).
But still, playing the game on Elite is fun, maybe I should play it once more before the second one comes out.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Half-life 2 and Doom 3 do not compete with Halo 2, they're PC games and Halo 2 is Xbox-only.
Yes, I'm quite sure that no gamer would ever have to choose between Halo 2 and Doom 3 or Half-Life 2, since as you have astutely pointed out they currently run on different hardware. I mean, we all know that saying that all three are competing for limited gaming money is just impossible, right? Oh, to be as rich as you apparently are, never to worry about things like 'budget' and 'cost'. It must be nice to only have to worry about what system a game runs on when determining whether to purchase it.
How on Earth could anyone think that a FPS would be in competition with two other FPSs?
http://xkcd.com/386/
Well, some. Some are points that Yolegoman brought up, like the shield/health system.
You only have a few, (what, ten?) points of health, but over that you have an energy shield that will recharge given a few minutes of not taking any damage. This made charging into firefights a risky thing. You always had to be careful of how much health and shield you had. And if you had any tactics, you'd make sure you decently chipped away your opponent's health before taking them on. Of course, in close different weapons were better, so if you had the right ones you knew your chances going in.
And the weapons themselves, a nice selection with one firmly in each of the basic groups (machinegun, shotgun, pistol, sniper, rocket, energy-weapon, enemy-seeking) and all had their disadvantages and advantages. Yes, just like any other FPS. But you could only carry two at a time. This goes back to the tactics involved in your personal style of play.
I know mouse/keyboard purists will tear me apart, but having a decent controller (Yeah, I dig the XBox one. The old one, at that.) to play a game like this on is fun. It actually got the 'fudge-factor' right. The "precision" that everyone whines about losing? Screw that. If you can't manuver that joystick to where you want it, you're just not trying or have some kind of mental/physical disability. Okay, not really, but note that mouse/keyboard purists are in the minority of console game players right now, even if it is a very vocal minority.
But what I'm betting is the most important factor for Halo's success... Was the fact that it was system-link only.
Absolutely nothing beats having fifteen friends divided between two rooms shouting and whispering plots. Then looking at the single player/coop? Solid plot, good characterization, excellent music... What more do you want in a single player game? Sure you have Unreal2k4, but that's just this year. And there's a few others, but they don't have 'everything' that Halo had. Just parts. Halo, to the fans, was everything that they had been asking for in a FPS. The question isn't why did they like it. It's what was NOT to like about it? (Aside from a few occassions of monotonous level design.)
Though, Halo was missing one thing for me. It didn't allow you to toss grenades or shoot rockets through teleporters like Duke Nukem 3d did. C'mon. That was good stuff.
it's like slow and it's telling you all the stuff you did in the first one then the music kicks in and and the chief comes out and gets a gun the earf is on fire and chief is like fuck this im jumping and HE JUMPS PUT OF TEH SPACESHIP with angels singing and he lands on the bad guys and that annoying ai lady is like GO GET EM TIGER! WILDCAT IS ON TEH SPOKE!!!~`1 and theres less polys but rawkin bumb mappings you can view this on a special MICROSOFT xbox disk that comes with EB games store.
I played the multiplayer. (4x, 42inch tv) Felt slow and boring.
no
The appeal for me was coop. Sit down with a buddy on the couch, infront of the TV and play the coop levels. A total blast.
Sure, you can network PCs up, or play online, but it isn't as fun (for me) as playing with someone sitting right there next to you./p?
I'd really be doing a disservice if I didn't mention the editable gametypes. Talk about allowing maximum replayability.
Two of my favorites:
RocketRace:
Blood Gulch, max laps, random flag spawn, warthogs, max shields, infinite grendades, rockets only.
AssFlag:
Assault, single flag, three minute periods, all vehicles.
That the warthogs didn't explode really added to it. I hope you can turn vehicle damage on and off in 2.
He's just a Halo nut and probably an addict too. People have been like this with FPS games ever since Wolf3D and Doom hit the scene. It goes beyond FPS games though as I'm still addicted to the original Civilization - I can't install it as I lose my spare time and sleep to it. As far as FPS addictions go, Quake 2 was the one that consumed my life for the longest, but that followed on from innumerable hours playing Wolf3D, Ultima Underworld, Doom, Doom 2, Heretic, Hexen, Quake, etc. Personally I didn't find the original Halo all that great: the campaign or story mode lasted less than a week and then it was just another deathmatch game. I'm glad I only rented it.
Well of course not everybody will like it, but multiplayer Halo is a LOT of fun in the right company, especially with 8 or more players over System Link. You don't run as fast as in Counter-Strike, but that doesn't make it bad, just different. Multiplayer is the main reason Halo has such a large following today. The single player game was OK; it was the best thing out on the XBox for a while at the beginning, so it's what people played. The repetition is bad, but the combat itself is fun and has a lot of depth because good variety and balance in the weaponry. Bungie is specifically avoiding repetition in Halo 2 levels, so that particular problem of Halo 1 has been addressed. I'm hoping the story is better too; Halo 1's story was good for an FPS but there's so much more potential there. With Halo 2's xbox live support, 8-16 player games will be available 24 hours a day in your living room, so it won't be a big deal involving transporting XBoxes and TVs to experience the coolness of larger Halo games.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
I, too, was waiting for Halo to have some modding potential. Then, as you mentioned, they took forever to get the game out to PC, then waited forever for an SDK, which they promised... And I flat out gave up on it.
The SDK got released, but it's for a multiplayer-only, Gearbox-sponsored version of Halo PC ('Halo CE', for 'Custom Edition'), and is dependent on software I can't afford (3DSMax, although there have been efforts to get it to work with the free GMax).
I'd really been hoping for the ability to build new single-player maps - in the full game the AI's great, the vehicles are great, the graphics and sound are great, but the mapping's either excellent or plain awful. Of course, it looks like that's never going to happen now, and Halo PC will soon be forgotten, like you said.
Apparently there's been very little uptake of Halo CE, so with so few potential players and a technically limited platform for modification, it probably won't be long until Gearbox has to drop it completely.
A game with lots of potential, but sadly impossible to take any further...
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Is Autocomplete a game I've never heard of, or a reference to the feature in some computer programs? If the latter, the joke needs a little work.
VU has the legal, contractual right to delay release of HL2. They have not, at this time availed themselves of this right. Your statement above is both wrong and libellous. Congratulations.
And I had to pawn off my Xbox for rent money...
"What I cary in this box is your utter subjugation."
When this is released on PC, how will it be any different than Unreal Tournament 2k4 (particularly onslought mode)? UT2k4's multiplayer is ridiculously fun, AND supports up to 32 people (depending on the server and game type) in some cases. It has vehicles, tons of maps, is easily modded.. It must be a console gamer thing, because as far as FPS is concerned, PC gamers have been there and done that many times over already.
> I don't have a telly to connect it to
Get this: http://www.x2vga.com/. It hooks your Xbox to your monitor, and does all the 420/1080/3270 transversioneering. It works great!
You could try spending TIME with your girlfriend instead....
Oh wait, this is Slashdot... proper response: Your inflatable girlfriend doesn't mind the amount of time you spend hacking between 'dates'.
too much politics. it used to be about the n00bness.
I've never seen a game with such replay value, or is my friend just a HALO nut?
In single-player, he's probably a nut. However, I've recently restarted the game with a new profile in order to try it in harder modes: I've only beaten it in normal. Playing in the max mode (Legendary IIRC) was too much for me: I couldn't even get off the ship!
I'll stick with my money.
I have a couple friends who worked at Bungie in the beginning and a smaller number who are still up there working for MS.
Don't kid yourself, it was the money.
Bungie wasn't in great financial shape, Take Two already had a partial financial interest (I guess you could call it partial ownership) due to the money they plowed in to make Oni. If MS hadn't bought Bungie, Take Two would likely own them right now.
Games are expensive now, and Bungie simply couldn't make the kind of games they wanted to without more capital. And filling their own pockets didn't hurt either.
The first Halo single-player kicks the crap out of most action movies IMHO. That's justification enough for me to pick up H2 at my local place where I'm on deposit on release day.
It may be that UT2k4's got better multiplayer, that's its whole reason for existing as the single-player is kinda lame. If H2 Live is only half as good as UT2k4, even without Onslaught I'd still get it.
Well...he isn't the only one.
I'm not sure if my friends like it, or hate it, when I say "Okay, when we go through this door, there will be 3 guys, first you go to the right and silently bash the grunt sleeping- then I'll take out the shade, and we can both work on the elite that will come up the stairs". But yes, I know just about every enemy location in the campaign side of the game.
There are a lot of Halo freaks out there. I will only put it in now for multi-player, but I spent more than my fair share of time on this game.
Maybe it's not good to be so obsessed with a game...but it is a really good game...
No reason to lie.
SourceForge needs that feature. Most SourceForge projects are empty. Projects that have neither activity nor code should be archived, just to declutter the open source world.
I should've added that he's beaten the single player about 5 times on Legendary. Sadly, I just wait to die and respawn if I play coop with him on that level.
IronChefMorimoto
Later I found out that a developer at the Halo 2 site mentioned that a new team member was like an "evil Lord British". I'm still not sure what he meant, but at least I, unlike many Halo fans, know who "Lord British" is. He is the just sovereign of Brittania in the Ultima series. More than that, "Lord British" is the alias of Richard Garriot, the originator of the Ultima series.
Perhaps Bungie's "evil Lord British" is a developer who has personalized himself within the Halo 2 game, but as a bad guy.
- - -
"The sixth sick shiek's sixth sheep's sick."
see subject.
---
you can use use cxbx if you have a geforce
The majority of Halo fans are console gamers. People that hadn't ever seen a real multiplayer FPS game before. Meanwhile PC gamers had 64 player deathmatch back in early 1997 with Quakeworld, and 16 player deathmatch in 1996 with Quake. Rewinding even earlier the PC gamer crowd was doing Doom multiplayer deathmatches back in 1994.
So when PC gamers express a less than steller attitude towards Halo, it is most likely because they have "been there and done that" for a long time now. FPS games have been a big selling point for PC gaming for a long time.
Halo doesn't show PC gamers anything that haven't already seen before.
I've recently moved and thus far, most of the people I've met have really no desire to play X-box. Yeah, I have a 65" HDTV and thought of buying an X-box, but I got to thinking about it and realized that I liked to play X-Box, but it was the multiplayer stuff that was fun...and funny especially after a couple rum runners.
Call me getting old, but I have a couple classic games I still like to play on the PC, but that's about it.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
I've been a customer of Bungie's since 1994. I've beta tested several of their releases and you can even find my name in the credits for the Marathon authoring tools Forge and Anvil.
Bungie left Mac/Windows development and sold to MS for one reason: money. Not only did MS offer them wheelbarrows full of ca$h, but the console market is larger than the computer game market. So short and long term revenue were ensured to increase. Then came Halo to seal that bargain.
Personally I prefer PC/Mac gaming to consoles. Especially for FPS games like Halo. I'm sorry, but aiming with a tiny joystick vs a mouse just doesn't cut it. But if you will notice, Halo PC was done by Gearbox, not Bungie. And the Mac version was a port of their port.
I'd love to see Halo2 for the PC and Mac, but only if it's a solid, refined release that isn't a hastily done port rushed out to milk a franchise.
Halo PC COULD have been a defining FPS game for computer gaming, instead, it was an also ran that was so buggy, you couldn't play it for 2 days online before you started to notice the severe networking problems, issues with weapon balancing and the horrible implementation of vehicles (indestructible, warping, etc).
I certainly won't be playing it on my XBox unless I can use a mouse and keyboard and should it ever be released for the PC or Mac, I'll have to resist the urge to go buy it (I'm weak and full of hope that is often unfounded) until 2 or 3 months have gone by and level headed non-fanboi reviews by end users (not those always rosy 'professional' reviews) hit the net.
N64 goldeneye? Primitive compared to doom/duke nukem/quake, but definitely 4 player deatmatch FPS...
True. The two N64 games (Goldeneye and Perfect Dark both from the same developer) do in fact predate Halo, and they prove my point. Because of the N64's limited popularity, most gamers never got a chance to play either of them. Secondly, since its multiplayer lacked network support, many people who did get a chance to play one of these games did not get a chance to experience real multiplayer action.
The N64 games prove my point because they were extremely overhyped overrated games that were enjoyed almost exclusively by the console gamer crowd. Meanwhile PC gamers were not very impressed with a multiplayer FPS game that lacked network support... not to mention a truely 3D world. The N64 games were 2.5D in both physics and world level geometry.
I remember when Goldeneye was released in late 1997, and my console-only friends were overhyped about the game. I had been playing Quakeworld for almost a year. Quakeworld had a true 3D world, internet support, and mod support... I had been playing 64 player deathmatches, CTF, TF, and Rocket Arena. So when I saw a primitive 2.5D multiplayer FPS game that lacked network support, mouse support, etc... I was extremely uninterested in the game.
-User gspawn, forgotten password and too lazy to care.
As has had to be noted DOZENS of times all over the internet, Halo 2 is NOT ready to ship. They sent it to be certified, the last step before production, which is the step before shipping.
I would expect Slashdot readers to be above the masses in figuring that one out... 0.o
You guy baffle me.
/. that doesn't say something to the effect that "Linux rules, Micro$oft sucks."
/. lately is sickening....it's the same BS over and over again.
The title 2 stories up reads "Desktop Apps Ripe Turf for Open Source" and all of the replies are typically Microsoft bashing....blah, blah, blah...
You can't read a reply on
But....you get a story about Halo2 coming out and it's all praise!!! "Oh, Halo rules. I love Halo. Greatest game ever. Can't wait for it to come out for the PC."
WTF? Do you hate Microsoft or do you love them?
If you hate them so bad then why do you own an Xbox?
Why do want Halo to come out on the PC so bad? I thought all of you run Linux? Let's face it....99% run some sort of Microsoft OS, half of those copies are pirated but nonetheless, you run MS products.
Do you really hate Microsoft and Bill G.? If any of you were buddies with Bill back in the late 70's/early 80's you would have worshipped him and you would have thought he was a pioneer in the industry. But fast forward 25 years and your hero is the richest man on the planet and somehow you think he's the anti-Christ?
What happens if someday a corporate version of Linux has 99% of the market share? Will you then hate Linux and root for the underdog, Microsoft?
Stop bashing Microsoft for the sake of jumping on the bandwagon. Get out of the house, breath some fresh air and realize that open source can co-exist with commercial brands.
If everyproduct in the world was free then how would you ever get paid to be a developer? How would you make a living? Who can support the cost of creating new innovations?
Reading
Sure, sure. They're not withholding the game. That's why it's on store shelves, right? It may not be what they are claiming, but that is what is happening. Nice troll, btw, playing the 'libel' card. That one wouldn't even have worked if my comment was a press release. Good effort, though. My opinion may or may not be correct, but I do have the right to hold it and express it. It represents the truth, as far as I can tell. Valve has released the game to VUG but it is not on shelves, nor is it available to unlock on Steam even though the code has been preloaded for weeks. VUG controls the release of Half-Life 2. Valve has already released Counter-Strike: Source*. VUG has not released Half-Life 2, and they are in the middle of a legal battle with Valve. My conclusion is not unreasonable.
*Yes, you must purchase the Steam Half-Life package first, but then CS:S is immediately playable.
http://xkcd.com/386/
What the hell does that have to do with Halo 2?
I think the parent meant to say that sourceforge needs autocomplete to generate a ton of (missing) code for all of the pre-alpha projects! :)
Blue team has the flag.
Where did that grenade come from?
Red team-flag returned!
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
So maybe my machine isn't up to the task of playing this game, if I can't even scroll their webpage at more than one frame per second???
One of the selling points of Halo 2 is its Xbox Live support. I currently don't have XBL, because none of my games support them; will there be a 12-month subscription card bundled with Halo 2 similar to the XBL+Crimson Skies package that they're selling now?
Asking what Autocomplete is is legit, since it's contained in the summary. Some of the people moderating here are idiots. And I notice that nobody has supplied the answer. What. Is. Autocomplete?
I agree with a lot of that, but where are you getting this stuff about Goldeneye being "2.5D" instead of 3D?
Bungie's site doesn't render well in Mozilla, I have to use Internet Explorer to view it correctly. I suspect that the effect is much the same with other browsers, I haven't checked the source to see what causes it though.
What machine are you refering to anyway? It's an Xbox game, unless you run an emulator...
Valve released a candidate to VU. Any publisher would be insane if they just let it hit the CD publishers, a run of say 100,000 with full materials and not care if there was a show stopper bug (can you say Frontier Developments?). In addition I would expect a minimum of 3 weeks between approved RC and it being boxed, ready to go.
My opinion may or may not be correct, but I do have the right to hold it and express it. It represents the truth, as far as I can tell
I am merely contesting your notion of truth. No need to be so prickly. I never deny people their opinions, but when they say their opinions are truth, then I'd say they have a Messiah complex. Read more by Jacob Bronowski and his opinion of people who belived they knew the truth 'with no test in reality'.
even though the code has been preloaded for weeks
some of the code has been preloaded for weeks. I'm on Steam too you know.
My conclusion is not unreasonable.
It is actually reaching a heck of a distance. I prefer to wait and look. In addition I also see that VU and Valve have a contract. Valve seems to have reneged on part of it and is trying to re-negotiate another part. Hey VU isn't an angel, but I do respect contractual obligations.
Finally - remember VU & Valve have no duty to release HL2 - it isn't like some basic human right to play HL2 - it's a game, untwist your underwear and relax. And look up the definition of 'libel' - a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression . Until your 'truth' becomes more than an opinion (and you said your truth is just that) then your comments were libel.
Valve released a candidate to VU.
Yes. In August. What's today's date, again?
I am merely contesting your notion of truth. No need to be so prickly.
Um. You accused me of libel. That makes me prickly.
some of the code has been preloaded for weeks. I'm on Steam too you know.
Yes, over a GB of code. I suppose it's only 1/4 finished or something, huh? You're acting as though the game hasn't been finished when Valve say it has. They have said they are simply waiting for the 'go' from VUG.
It is actually reaching a heck of a distance.
Let's see...game company has dispute with publisher....coders say game is ready to go pending publisher approval...over a month later, publisher has not given approval...boy, it sure is a stretch to think there's a non-code reason for that.
In addition I also see that VU and Valve have a contract. Valve seems to have reneged on part of it and is trying to re-negotiate another part. Hey VU isn't an angel, but I do respect contractual obligations.
That is a straw man. As I am not party to the lawsuit, I'm not going to comment on its validity. Either way, VUG is holding HL2 up. I don't care if Valve 'started it', I am merely stating that they are doing so. It is not in question whether HL2 is out yet, the only question is the reason it is being delayed.
Finally - remember VU & Valve have no duty to release HL2 - it isn't like some basic human right to play HL2 - it's a game, untwist your underwear and relax.
How many straw men do you need to set up in order to make your argument seem valid? I never said anyone had any sort of duty to do anything. I simply said that VUG is, in my opinion, withholding the release of HL2 punitively. I will either buy the game when it comes out, or not buy it if it never comes out. I don't have any personal stake in it at all. Never did I imply that I did. After you knocked your straw men down, my point still stands.
As for your 'libel' take, you are wrong. I did not defame or harm VUG in any way. Note that as long as I believe what I am saying about you or VUG or anyone else to be the truth, I am free to state it. If VUG would care to take me to court over a posting on slashdot, which as you very well know they wouldn't, I am confident that I would easily prevail. If you'd like, I can say a lot of really mean things about you so that you can claim libel. Then you can take me to court, since you're such a concerned citizen.
http://xkcd.com/386/
A candidate. Your understanding of software release terminology is feeble at best. Are you saying, you have firm knowledge that the candidate released to VU is of Release Quality and that VU can with all certainty bet the farm on it going gold?
Yes, over a GB of code
If D3 is anything to go by, the final RC will be of the order of 1.5G - 2.0G. Anyway, do you actually read the news items with the pre-loads? It has so far been audio and static texture data. I saw no mention of maps etc.
I suppose it's only 1/4 finished or something
Ahh, you have a crude command of rhetoric - this is I believe called a straw man - creation of a ludicrous postulate - putting the words into the mouth of the questioner and then attempting to use this 'straw man' as a target for ridicule. Note: the attempts to call later comments 'straw men' is I'm afraid incorrect.
[the contract issues and VU holding HL2] I am merely stating that they are doing so
You have put supposition on top of postulation. You have no firm evidence that they are doing that. Again, you assert that your supposition is fact. I state that it is supposition.
Finally, about is being a game, you declare that as a straw man, well it would be if it was an argument in defence of VU actually delaying the game. It is, in fact a statement that games are not that important in the greta spectrum of life. If you want to take it as an argument that VU are not holding HL2 then I can't stop you but it is rather silly.
As for your 'libel' take, you are wrong. I did not defame or harm VUG in any way [..]If VUG would care to take me to court
Did you actually read the definition I posted? A libel is merely a statement that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression . It's legal actionability is... guess what? a straw man! Congratulations! You've finally used one!
I actually did submit that to the "Ask the presidents" thing, but I don't think it's going through - edited out at a high level, no doubt. Too bad as the whole presidential race is in dire need of a little levity!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
OK, lets agree. If VU holds the game, without comment on the suitability as an RC beyond the holiday season optimum (Dec 11th in case you were wondering) then they are holding onto it for leverage. They would be fools to release before as sales would be hit by things like Halo 2, and to release after would miss the market by miles.
Until then all else is speculation and nowhere near fact.
You have to play on separate TVs. Otherwise he can just look at your screen and see where you are.
I understand what a candidate is. I also understand that the Valve coders have said that the game has been ready to ship for a while. I suppose you know better than they do, however. I suppose their understanding must be as feeble as mine.
I have very firm evidence that HL2 is not in the stores. Your attempt to claim otherwise is ludicrous. Really, you must be an employee of VUG. No one else would go to such ludicrous lengths to defend them. Of course, I don't *know* that you are, so I'm not asserting it as fact. Too bad for you, there's no room for your favorite charge here.
You did indeed put words into my mouth, and yet again you do so. I never stated nor implied that games were of any special importance. You have stated twice now that they are not. You have stated this in apparent disagreement with me, when I never made such a statement in the first place. That is a classic example of a straw man argument.
I did read the definition that you posted, and I looked up the legal definition, which mandates the causing of harm. You declared my post to be libelous, but you were wrong. Then when I called you on it, you claim that the legal actionability is not at issue. Why then, did you use a legal term?
http://xkcd.com/386/
They have released no comment on the code since receiving it. They have not bothered to comment on possible release dates, except to kill any rumors of them. It is common practice to reveal release dates months in advance. HL2 has had several of them. It has not shipped on any of them. The latest rumor, November 23, has been denied by VUG. Valve will only comment that VUG has not given them permission to release the game via Steam. If VUG is really worried about making the holiday season, why are they releasing no information? Really, for you to declare that there is no possibility that VUG is holding up HL2 makes you seem either impossibly dense, or impossibly naive. Again, I said you seem that way, no need to pull out the 'l' word here either. As I've stated many, many times...it is my opinion that VUG is doing this because of their spat with Valve. What is not my opinion is that they are doing it. To say that it is normal business for the publisher to have a release candidate for months without even a tentative ship date is to show less understanding of the video game world than you claim I have. (especially when the game is expected to sell as well as HL2 is)
http://xkcd.com/386/
Ever wonder why you can't jump or fall in Goldeneye?
Man, firefox scrolls that webpage slowly...
(.10 on xp)
IE does ok.
He's talking about playing Coop with him. Not multiplayer. "Every dude" is in reference to the Covenant/Flood forces.
Or should I wait for a Halo 2 Bundle Pack?
You can't jump because they didn't include that function, and you can fall. Furthermore, explosions tended to throw enemies into the air.
I don't think you quite understand what the term 2.5D means. In early FPS games, you were basically running around a 2D map that was displayed in such a way that it appeared to be a 3D game. That, in an oversimplified nutshell, is why those games are sometimes referred to as 2.5D. Goldeneye doesn't have any of the limitations associated with 2.5D games, such as more than one space accessible to the player at the same X,Y coordinates (i.e. multiple story buildings). Moreover, Goldeneye obviously has 3D models, unlike any 2.5D FPS games.
If anybody with more knowledge on the subject of FPS game engines over the years wants to show off their knowledge, feel free.
Nope. I'm a PC gamer as well. A game doesn't have to be outstanding to be fun. Halo and Goldeneye are examples of this. If I could articulate exactly what makes these games fun, I would have a different job.