Slashdot Mirror
Halo 2 Released
mjxg writes "Halo 2 has finally hit the shelves for hardcore fans. VNUnet speaks about the long lines and the 12:01am release that many stores participated in. Many people obtained the Limited Collector's Edition. Eventually we'll get word of the final first day sales to see if Halo 2 can top the sales charts for the year, or possibly become the most popular console game in history. It is already estimated to top the all-time opening day entertainment sales charts."
playing Halo 2.
They're making a sequel to Halo? I hadn't noticed
It ain't the real deal without a mouse & keyboard. That's like having sex with a blow-up doll ... (or so I've heard)
I just grabbed mine at lunch. Thankfully the office is close to the EB in the Eaton Centre (Toronto, Canada).
All told it took 9 mins from getting in line to leaving the store, but just wait until the after-school crowd gets in on things...
I would not be surprised if this is the best selling game in history.
Dashboard Widgets
Can someone let me in on the whole Halo 2 / French thing? I keep hearing the jokes, but what's it all about?
guess that internet pre-release wont hurt sales figures so drastically after all
Got mine at 2am after a fine burger at the local diner.
4:30 am hit, and sleep was needed. Now the only rough part is fighting it out with my housemate vs. GTA. Thank Bungie for co-op mode.
-Z
French version of the game leaked after the game went gold. Many kiddies have been playing said version, sans English.
Awww, there is only one beer left and it's Barts.....
Well, good. Now after hearing for months and months about how good Halo 2 is we'll finally get to, you know, actually hear from people who've played it.
When all of these sources start giving it the highest or nearly highest scores possible, it does make you think that this is the real deal.
And yes, you clown who is about to hit reply and rant about marketing guys twisting arms of magazine editors who live from their adverts, that might be part of it but I doubt that could have infected all of the reviewers out there.
2 days until we get it here [in the UK]
I had an imaginary sig once, he said I was a loser and ran off.
WOW! I am going to order through your link right now!!! I really want support you!!! I would have mod'd you up if I had mod points!
7 NZ /justinshoreco-20/ref=nosim/"
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008J
justinshoreco-20 That is bullshit, man.
KARMA TAG! You're it.
The first pirate version to be leaked was the French version.
Gotta wait two more days over here in the UK. /grumbles
I called the 800 number for EB Games to check on my order.
"Thank you for calling EB Games. If you are calling about your Halo 2 order, all shipments are being made on time and tracking numbers are available on the web site. For any other assistance, please hold for the next available representative."
Bad thing though....my order page hasn't been updated. If it's not here tomorrow like it's supposed to be, I'm going to go after somebody. :-)
The French version of Halo 2 was leaked a couple of days ago (joining Doom 3 in the "pirated before it hits the shelves" section).
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
I don't understand how people can play the first game. FPS control without a keyboard and mouse is... difficult to say the least. And even with the PC version of Halo, it just seems like a watered down version of tribes to me. Hopefully Halo 2 is drastically improved (so I actually have something to do with my friends over at their house)
If they would have made this game it would have saved me a few bucks...
Unlike a movie, where someone can spoil it for you... what's the big deal?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
From what i've heard, the 'leaked' bootleg version of Halo 2 that was on the net is a copy/image of the version released for France, so all the menus and dialog are in french.
Three percent of my employer's staff (well, three out of about one hundred) took vacation today in order to play Halo 2 all night.
Now that's intense.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Well, I hope they improved the AI. ;)
In Halo (at least in the PC version) the enemies were only - somewhat - decent, while your marine buddies were cannonfodder for the most time. Oh well, since you loose them all from mission to mission, over and over again, it probably doesn't matter.
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
Then you too, Anonymous Coward, can enjoy the fine benefits of keyboard/mouse on xbox! -Cyc
/.'s 10 Millionth
Maybe I played this game on the wrong day but I just didn't get it. It looked good from the outset. It had elements that reminded me of games I love like Deus Ex and Half Life. But then I got into the "Halo" world and started to get chased by a bunch of Smurfs. All of the cute little animals making noises like squeaky toys. I felt bad shooting them actually.
Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard disk?
Last night my roomate and a bunch of people from the ajoining appartment went and stood in line at the mall for a few hours before the release just so they could have it back by as soon after midnight as they could get rung up at the store. I must say I haven't played much Halo but I was impressed at the improvements I did notice, and, goddamn, the levels are absolutely MASSIVE in that game!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I bought it last night, got up at 4am to play it, pop it in the drive and get a DIRTY DISC ERROR. So now I cant play the damn thing. any ideas or thoughts or anyone else having this problem?
I barely heard about that game and all of a sudden it was one of the special features on the news yesterday evening... WTF ?! I have a feeling that some MAJOR cash was spent to promote this game... Seems to me that this was an averagely popular game... not anything like a Grand Theft Auto beater or something like that popularity-wise...
Maybe i don't spend enough time reading game-hyping sites on the net...
100% of statistics are wrong.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be the biggest selling game in history (well, until the next GTA game). Halo 2 has no chance simple because there's at least five times as many PS2 owners out there as Xbox owners.
By the way, GTA:SA has 'broken box office records' in the UK - in it's opening weekend it sold 26million pounds worth of units - beating Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the film) into second place.
but I'm still playing Unreal Tournament (99). I typically stick to a first person shooter, until a significantly better one comes out (I played quake 1, all the way up until UT came out). Further, I usually skip the 'story' modes, preferring to fight against human players. Maybe I'm getting old, but thats MHO. Playing Halo on the X-Box was a pain. Even with a large screen TV, having four players splitting the screen was horrible. Nevertheless, once you can seriously lan party these consoles, that may be the day which I leave the PC for an FPS.
:-) I figure it will get more clicks than via my own website. Unfortunately I haven't been able to lure the fanatical gamers and techs to my own site. Maybe I should offer dating tips. Yeah, that might do it. ;-)
In other news, hits to geek website http://slashdot.org is down 80% on the day...
Doh!
They probably paid for the slashdot "news" story too. Sure would be nice if stories themselves could be mod'd down off the front page.
Fire away.
So Halo 2 is out...
Yep...
Who wants to go play Unreal Tournament '04? =D
or possibly become the most popular console game in history
Hello! GTA San Andreas came out two weeks ago. Different systems and all, but considering that Sony have a near monopoly with the PS2, shouldn't a simple law of averages dictate that your above statement is a troll.
Disclaimer.
I thought Halo was good. My only (minor) nag was the duplicated levels. However My favourite FPS is still red faction. Not that I'm a huge fan of FPS games in general. In short, I'm the kind of person that sits around getting continually frustrated for half an hour while 10 years olds with nothing better to do gloat over how much better they are than me in a fragmatch.
May the Maths Be with you!
I'm tired of hearing about it.
In the French version, you surrender to the enemies instead of shooting them.
Had two guys take off the whole day of work today because they wanted to go wait in line for the game to come out. OBSESS MUCH?
Huh, its $6.00 more there than at lik-sang, and its still sold-out.
What I want to know, from the hard-core xbox players who think the analog pads are ok, is, would you consider it cheating if people brought a Smart Joy + keyboard + mouse to a halo party? I definately would be tempted to do so if I owned it, since I think it would only be fair to play an FPS the way FPSs are meant to be played.
Morphing Software
Finally, living in a different timezone has an advantage, I bought my copy of Halo 2 roughly 28 hours ago!
At first I wondered why the troll-to-serious-comment ratio was so high on this article. Then I realized that anyone who actually cares about Halo 2 is playing their new game, not reading Slashdot. This story is like having an online discussion of Christianity at 9am on Easter Sunday.
Damnable French always trying to sabotage the American economy due to their envious nature of us... :P
Kudoz to the makers of the ILoveBees ARG (= Halo 2 grassroots marketing campaign).
They presented the story incredibly well (and managed to get F O U R times on slashdot)
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
Shooting Grunts is a little pathetic, and I can even feel sorry for the Hunters, since you basically kill them by hitting them in their soft parts. But I definitely don't feel bad about shooting the mindless hordes of the Flood.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Dating tips or free iPods. Free iPods seem to draw them all out. ;)
KARMA TAG! You're it.
...trackers everywhere are buckling under the pressure after the Halo 2 release. Microsoft Game Publishing and Bungie Studios couldn't be reached for comment.
... and why do I curse them?
Cuz now I either need to wait for a working X-Box emulator - or need to buy or rent an actual X-Box to play the game ^^;
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
I dont know about you all.. but Ive been a halo zombie at work all day today.. I only got a couple hours of sleep last night and programming, unless its programming the movements of master chief, is the farthest thing from my mind today at work.
I waited in line with a friend so he could get his copy. I didn't think there'd be such a frenzy for this game. I believe there were 200 or so people from Blacksburg over at the mall...I was surprised that this game has such a following (I'm not a console-FPS gamer), but when I saw the people huddled around the big screen enjoying it I understood a bit why.
But as much as Halo 2 craze is about, I don't think anything will ever compare to The Wizard-inducing Mario Mania...
a lousy Halo 2 pin..
I showed up at 11:30am and there were 400-500 people at my EB.. nuts! I had a good time talking to the guys around me for the next 2 hours. M$ representatives were there handing out goodies for all us nerds. The biggest thing they gave out was giant Halo 2 boxes which looked like garbage being given away as gifts. After they had run out of those, they distributed a Halo 2 pin to all us unfortunates...
After trading gaming tags with other guys in line (read: all male crowd), I went home and fired it up. I was hoping my lik-sang adapter mouse/keyboard adapter would be in already but it will be a while until then..
My initial impressions after 2 hours: I like it so far BUT there is nothing really new in the single player game aside from the dual weapon thing. It feels like a bit of an add-on so far but that's not a bad thing because the first one was fun.
So enjoy it when you can folks...
I haven't gotten mine! :-( I can't get enough people to sign up for something. It doesn't help that the free ipod folks stopped offering the no-cost subscription options like the stamps deal they had going. Now it actually costs you some $$. Marketing is such a pain. ;-)
How many of the people standing in line endless hours for this game voted last Tuesday?
--- Ban humanity.
Its now only a matter of time for a torrent to be posted. I honistly expected it sooner.
If you like to shoot and kill Halo2 is just the same old not mucho different than Halo1 . I prefer UT2004 over halo.
Wait a week ... there will be another scheme ... err, marketing method ... to sucker those people out to your site. :)
KARMA TAG! You're it.
BUT QUEUING UP AT MIDNIGHT FOR A GAME???
Sorry people, but that's just a little TOO creepy for me...
Sure, I may drift down to my local computer store at lunchtime within the first couple of weeks of Half-Life 2 coming out but there's no way I'm queueing in the rain at midnight like some corporate-controlled mindless robot.
It's JUST entertainment, it's JUST a game, please get a life and some perspective on reality - in other parts of the world, people queue for food & medical supplies to avoid dying. Queuing for a game, DVD, CD, concert ticket, etc. is just a little sick in comparison.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Haven't you noticed yet? They say that about *every* video game that comes out. And movie. And book. And election. This is nothing new...
-- Bemjamin Franklin
You people suck and you deserve everything you're gonna get!
Bitches.
Lets say everyone with an xbox picks one up. IT'll still sell less then GTA San andreas. why? because it's one of the few Xbox games worht getting, so theres a rush for it. But once it gets to a certain saturation, thats it. It's can't exceed the xbox install base for sales so it's can't exceed the total sales of GTA, btu ti could get to saturation of the market faster.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
This is Microsoft History 2004. Other consoles don't exist. This is the best-selling XBOX game in history, and therefore the best-selling console game in history.
If you say it enough times, it's true, right?
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Wait till Half-life 2 comes out next week (nov 16). Whatever record Halo2 has set will sure to be smashed by the end of next week.
When all else fails, run.
"I'm still playing Unreal Tournament (99)."
Same in my house. UT (classic) is the LAN FPS of choice to this day. It runs great on the older hardware, and the Bots are interesting as opposed to fodder. It's simply fun.
Not to say we don't want to try UT 2004 and others, but for general FPS play UT Classic is, well, classic. Maybe when Xboxen are dirt cheap on closeout in 2 years, pick up used Halo 2 copies, and we can network a few together with dedicated screens....
Personally, I loved Halo, but it took a while because I used to be 100% FPS for the PC, but Halo wasn't that far off (I particularly enjoyed not having to worry about not having a good graphics card, much less tweaking the settings to get maximum FPS at the risk of quality). I think Halo 2 will be what CounterStrike was for the PC, if for anything because of its online multiplayer. With online scoreboards, rankings, and clan capability, this is going to be quite the game.
Katamari Damacy sure is awesome... But once you've made the moon and unlocked the three eternal levels, there's not much to go back to.
:/
I didn't feel compelled to get all of the presents or comets.
It is sort of relaxing to bust out an eternal level and just roll around picking stuff up at leisure.
Gotta give 'em credit for trying though, eh!
BEAR!!!
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
All of the people who like Halo 2 must be too busy playing it to check the Slashdot story about it.
Sure, if you open it up to all those categories, but if you look at just its market segment, I think you'll find the results suprising: For games released by Microsoft for the Xbox platform that are FPSs and feature the Master Chief, it blows away all previous records!
Best
Game
Ever
Legend of Grand Solid Halo-Life 2 Prime : Sims in the World of Evequest.
I swear, I know a guy at BestBuy (I HAVE DEE CONNECTIONS MAAAN!!) and he says that such a game exists and that it was leaked in Indonesia.
Anyone got a torent?
I would hope not. I can't do much more than run in circles using one of those analog thumb joysticks. I feet like such a gimp trying to play Mario on the N64.
Knights of the Grand Solid Halo-Life 2
:)
right?
-- the cake is a lie
I can shoot smurfs!!! Gotta get me this game!!!
Millions call in sick today to work. Turns out a 'flood' of sickness has struck working america. Might be time to call in master chief on this one.
Your mammas flamebait.
I bought it last night just after midnight. The line wasn't that long...
:)
I played the first level. It seems like they're trying too hard to me. They're going for this overly grandiose and epic feel, and it just doesn't fit.
But I still enjoyed what i've played so far, and i'll certainly finish it
I'd like to see the covenant have a bit more personality...not just horrible villains, but they seem to just keep with the villanous mindset.
And the elites all sound like Gov Arnie! It's hilarious....
Good, I was hoping I could speak out somewhere about this. HBO's forums were not accessible. I need to release my opinion on this, as not doing so would create some sort of cancerous growth within me. That and I just had my third double espresso...
I never pre-ordered Halo 2. I just think the idea of pre-ordering a game is ridiculous, as real shortages almost never appear. So I sat here counting down the time last night all the time while being accosted. "Oh, I bet you can't wait for the nerd convention!" "Hug the first guy dressed as Master Chief!" My local video game retailer (Rhymes with "GameStop") was opening at "12:01" to sell the game. Now, I'm sort of in the middle of nowhere, so I didn't expect a lot of crowds as there were other ritzier stores also selling the game probably with like chips and soda and balloons. But this store was about half a mile away so I could deal with not having the fanfare. At about 11:30 I decided I would swing by the parking lot to see if there was a line, and, if not, get some groceries from the supermarket.
Well, there's a line. There were about 100-150 people all single-file, wrapping around the corner of the shopping center. What surprised me is that they were almost all kids. I'm not saying "kids" like how old people say it (i.e. 'under 40'), I'm talking about 18 and under boys, many not accompanied by their parents but rather a hoodie and a pack of Camels trying to stay warm in the November cold. From talking with others in the line I find out most of the crowd got there by 8pm, with a few bringing chairs and camping out at 5:30pm earlier. They had been sitting there for six HOURS. Purely unnecessary, as you will soon find out.
At about 11:40 one of the frightened employees came out and told us to form two lines. One would go to the right and was reserved for "VIPs" -- that is, people who had pre-ordered and paid in full. Anyone that did not order or pay in full can form a new line to the left.
Well, the line on the left was me and about 4 other guys. By 11:45 I was leaning against the window of the store, about a yard away from the entrace. One of the VIPs who had been there since 5:30 as it turns out, was a Mom from Maryland (next state over, lots of people coming from Maryland) who was there with her children and apparently all her children's friends. She was talking about Halo 2 and Marathon and a bunch of games you don't hear outside of Penny Arcade's front page, in general. Then she handed out Mountain Dews. (Now, as "cool" as this "cool mom" is, I still don't understand why so many schoolkids were out here so late -- at best I can hope there was a strict 1/2am curfew for them. I really hope none of them got a "sick day" the next day).
At 12:02 or so, the doors opened, they let in about 20 VIPs who formed a line to the right of the store. The line on the left, my line, further split itself into two -- partial preorders and no preorders. I was now 2nd in line. Apprently, I wasn't the only one having no pre-orders because the credit card systems were incredibly slow. I can imagine there were thousands and thousands of requests suddenly coming in to the processing centers here in Delaware (Hello, MBNA/BankOne/Chase cardholders!). At 12:06, I had the "Limited Edition" version in hand ($5 for a neat-looking case and a DVD with filler isn't highway robbery). By 12:10 I was home. I dusted off my Xbox and played for the next three hours.
Like any true geek, the first thing I did was configure my player and options.
Disclaimers: Mild game-quality, non-plot spoilers ahead!
And here I ask the question, were Bungie's QA testers on Quaaludes??? For serious. I saw more build/clipping/texture errors in the first 10 minutes of Halo 2 than I ever saw building levels on UnrealEd. Models popping in and out of focus (What's this, the N64 version?). Brushes/BSP errors. Textures "flickering" to and from the background. Textures switching from "hi" to "medium" quality (mipmapping, I believ
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Anyone who enjoys running around and killing would vote Republican anyway. Unless the enemies in Halo2 involve ducks!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
From Amazon UK:-
Dear Customer
Regarding your order for "Halo 2", I wanted to give you an update
on the status of this title.
We have contacted the manufacturer, and they have informed us that
The release date of this title has been delayed. They now expect this
video game will be available on the 11th of November, 2004, however
please know this may be subject to further delays.
We will keep this title on order for you unless you prefer to
cancel. As soon as we are able to obtain copies, we will dispatch your
order to you. We will also do our best to keep you informed of any
new developments as soon as we hear of them.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause
you. Unfortunately, release dates are often subject to change with
very little notice from manufacturer. If you prefer to cancel your order
you may do so using the "Your Account" link on our homepage.
Thanks for your patience, and we look forward to hearing from you if
we may be of any assistance.
Warmest regards,
Customer Service Department
Amazon.co.uk
Is how it makes sense to post this story today, as anyone who remotely cares, is likely playing the game right now, and will continue doing so for the next 24-96 hours.
You aren't in the right mindset.
Imagine this:
You rushed out and bought an xbox cuz 'it's teh most powerful' a couple years ago
You drooled like a dork over the shiny green metal effect because Shiny == Gameplay
You've had nothing worth playing for your console for the last two years, even the stuff you did play had better versions on the home computers
You look like an idiot to all your friends who have been playing AAA games non-stop over the past few years while you stood around talking shit about you weren't jealous cuz your console is 'teh most powerful'
The more you salivate over Halo 2 the more you emotionally compensate for being stupid enough to buy an xbox in the first place.
Why exactly does Microsoft deserve any congratulations, here? Virtually every single aspect of Halo's graphics, gameplay, and storyline were thought up in 1999 and 2000, by Bungie, while the XBox was still on the drawing board, before Microsoft had any part of it. It was going to be released on the Mac first, then on the PC. Bungie was probably THIS CLOSE to a beta, or at least an alpha, and Microsoft exploded the whole thing and wasted months and months re-writing the whole thing for the XBox.
Why look, Here's one of the original trailers, from 2000, 100% Microsoft-free. There's even a rocket warthog. Just ONE MONTH after that trailer was shown at E3, Microsoft bought the whole thing.
I really do think MS has done nothing but fuck up everything. Mod me down all you want, but I really think Microsoft realised the XBox was going to fail, utterly, without Halo. It's a great game, but Microsoft didn't friggin' make it. Let's congratulate them for making Virtual PC too. And Windows.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
I know this is a bit off-topic but...
Halo is a "great game" because everything behaves as you expect it to. There are few suprises in physical behavior.
I've never played SOCOM, but I understand that things behave as they would in the natural world.
"Splinter Cell" is very enjoyable, but you can't pick up an enemy weapon. Why the hell not? Because you don't want to fire untested weapons? I got shot by it, that's a pretty good test!
The "Rainbow Six" games also do not offer the ability to pick up enemy weapons... or shoot out lights... or turn out lights... or dive and roll... or shoot gangsta-style, even though your enemies can... or shoot around a corner... even though your enemies can. If you want to shoot, you must be completely exposed... you cannot lay prone, even though your enemy can. WHAT THE HELL?
"GTA 3+" are great because even though the physics are bordering on the unreal, they are consistent... and you can run over everything and drive a tank, and an Apache Helicopter with missiles... and a motorcycle, and the mission order is not completely restricted. I really want San Andreas on the PC. You can pick up enemy weapons and cash.
"Rune" is a great game (on the PC) because you can pick up enemy weapons... and heads... and arms... While the world is not destructible, it's a blast to sever your coworkers with a dwarven axe.
Goddamit! That should've been "M I STER CHEF"!!
I fail it completely!
Amen brother. I don't quite get the idea of why being one of the first to see/play/experience something is such a draw for some people. It doesn't really make sense. Is there more entertainment from playing a game the first day it is released? Are movies better on opening weekend? Well, this is Slashdot, so maybe it isn't the best place to ask. This is the site where people get modded up for giving tips on how to choose a movie theater based on the fact that they are showing the new Star Wars Trailer . Sheesh. And this is the same site where people complain about consumerism and Freedom, yet they are blind, drooling fools when it comes to things like this.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Between hearing 'Halo 2 is/isnot the shizznit' and 'George Lucas really screwed up Star Wars' my ears are atarting to bleed.
You guys gotta learn to live and love and let others be. (Yer worse than them damn politicians a few weeks ago)
My name's Matey-O and I approved this message.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
You are a wanker. Expecting Microsoft to hand out food and medication in Iraq is like expecting the U.S. Government to hand out food and medication in the U.S.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
By the way, the original original original trailer was shown in 1999 during Steve Jobs's keynote at Macworld. While it was being shown, that trailer was rendered, in real time, using OpenGL, on a Macintosh. It looks virtually identical to the gameplay of the 2001 XBox version. I'm still trying to find the original movie...
Take off every sig. For great justice.
And down goes my grades for the entire semester.... d'oh!
Yeah, that greedy Bill Gates should get off his bum and form some kind of Foundation, or something. Sheesh!
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
WTF does the war in Iraq have to do with Halo?
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Although I won't argue that the original HALO and HALO 2 are superb games, are they really as good as people say they are? I've always felt that HALO was so popular simply because there was little else to play on XBOX. If HALO had come out on Playstation 2, it probably would not have done nearly as well simply because there are so many other games for that system. People who only owned an XBOX didn't really have any other games in the same league to compare it to, and so it immediately became the product to judge all others by. The lack of titles, both qualitatively and quantitatively, on XBOX unquestionably spurred it's sales. But might it not also have affected the games perception as a whole? Don't get me wrong, I love these games, but in my mind they're not the phenomenom that the rest of the world says they are.
Dear diary: Today I stuffed some dolls full of dead rats I put in the blender.
I thought it was released a few weeks ago../ 125237&tid=211&tid=127
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/14
$55 for a game is a bit much for anyone's budget it would seem to me. I still haven't played Halo 1 and am patiently waiting for one of the fanboys to sell me their's for $45 cheaper than what they paid for it. I'm sure I'll enjoy Halo today for $10 just as much as the folks who paid $50 did a year ago. Wait a few months and you can get great games for $10-15. You just can't be impatient and have to rush out and buy them.
I am not expecting Microsoft or any other corrupt corporation to do anything else other than milk the rest of humankind for as much money as possible.
However, I am making an observation that people queuing to be milked of their money is just a little wierd...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
For games released by Microsoft for the Xbox platform that are FPSs and feature the Master Chief, it blows away all previous records!
It might do. We don't know yet.
... for only a few minutes lastnight... Went by my local EB and it was nuts... then i saw that Toys R Us was open as well. They started selling them at 12:01, and by 12:03 I was out the door with Halo 2 in hand. It was a warm and fuzzy feeling.
... because the first Halo sucked sooo much ass on the console.
I remember getting to play a Sega Genesis and it's launch titles when it came out and thinking: gosh, this is really mediocre (not that I didn't have a blast with Revenge of Shinobi, but that's because I did goofy things like try and beat it w/o using ninja stars :D). It was still a let down after reading all those glowing reviews. So why the great reviews? Simple, this is a major event in video gaming, regardless of how good the actual game is. If you're a Magazine publisher then you darned well better hype events like this to keep interest in gaming (and your magazine) high. Without this hype the industry risks short term slumps. The movie industry figured this crap out a decade or two ago. That's why you see so many quote whores and media outlets pushing summer movies. It's about keeping people interested in the industry as a whole.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
So when does the linux version come out?
One of the advantages of a console (at least to console players) is that every player is using exactly the same hardware, right down to the controller (and third party controllers are all basically the same, aside from the small differences in size and "feel"). I would consider this device cheating unless everyone had one.
only Halo...2.
(my account of last night's release)
honnold.org - sometimes-rock band, all the time awesome forum
From what I can gather, there was a leaked version of Halo (from a beta or something).
The dialogue for the characters was in French and some people played through it.
That's about all I can gather.
XeeRz,
Jason.
THSsMCHshrtrTHN160chrs -- And I don't even like to SMS!
Halo was annoying because the game entirely green, blue, and brown. Hurts the eyes after awhile, you know?
So, has Halo 2 added support for the color "red"?
sup
You can't tell me there are many other games out there that you can do something like this for. These days, you are lucky if the game contains a few easter eggs or other secrets to find, much less an environment that looks as if it actually existed for some other reason than just for the hero to walk around in and kick butt. Or a story line that is more than "You Tarzan, you kick bad guy ass. Here is bad guy. Kick ass." Halo's story was fleshed out before they even began work on the first game. They've got the history for the universe down to the point where the "Halo" story is like a blurp compaired to the bulk.
The truth is, this game will become very popular. It's already on it's way to break the record for day one sales (which you would have noticed if you actually read the blurp.) And while it might not be the best selling of all time, it's definately going to be a highlight of this year and possibly several years after this one (assuming a PC port.)
Check out the fun of line camping for this near Virginia Tech:= 1100010063
http://www.78west.com/cgi-bin/blah/Blah.pl?b=42,m
Hopefully Half Life 2 will allow for the same sort of geek fun.
Before I am modded to the bowels of hell, I just want to say that, while many slashdotters' only expierience with FPS games has been with a keyboard and mouse, this doesn't mean that a dual joystick controller is nessessarily inferior.
The advantages of keyboard and mouse are as follows:
Can move mouse to shoot anywhere on the screen easily.
This is good, yes. But consider the disadvantages for a moment.
1) Out of mousemat error.
Sooner or later, your going run out of mousemat when your turning and will have to lift the mouse back onto the pad to continue. Meaning you'll simply stop turning while your doing this. On a DJC, you just tilt the right analouge stick right or left for continuous turning.
2) Out of fingers error.
With a keyboard and mouse, you aim with the mouse, meaning one hand, and all its fingers, can only access, 2-3 buttons.(Scrollwheels help with this a lot though) Usually these are shoot,change weapon and other. Meanwhile your other fingers, usually 2-3, are stuck on WASD for moving. If you want to crouch, reload, zoom, jump or perhaps change weapon reverse, you will need to do some keyboard gymnastics, look down, or (horror of horrors) stop moving to press other buttons. On a DJC, one thumb is used for movement, the other for aiming. Flipper pads mean four buttons are easily reachable by two more fingers, and the dpad and other buttons are acessable by a nimble other if required. Bottom line. You can keep moving while you perform on the fly weapon maitainance. DJC has a lot more buffer space for out of fingers errors.
3) Mouse Error, Error.
Most comupter mice are fairly cheap anyaway. Mice get junk in the wheels. Even optical mice glitch from time to time. Buttons sometimes get stuck, and of course hands may slip or be jostled from time to time. The average DJC is of a higher quaility than the average mouse and suffers far less from any of these problems.
4) Keyboard limitations
Open up a text editor. Press and hold E. Without letting go hold C. Now while holding, tap U. See the problem? Now try W,D and E. E will not register. Try WAQ. There are umpteen other combinations. Keyboards can't handle many multiple keydown combinations. DJC can.
OK, the disadvantage of DJCs will no doubt be blasted endlessly at me. Less precision, etc, etc.
But consider for a moment? Is a game filled with head shot hunting, rail driver packing, KBM gurus more or less fun than a game filled with DJC toting, ultra mobile, shotgun blasting, upclose and personal players?
And before you knock DJC, Try it out!! They're dirt cheap now, and are available anywhere. I know some will never budge from dogma, but if enough people follow me, then maybe I'll get more joypad support in Linux from now on.
May the Maths Be with you!
If you like to shoot and kill you should be in Fallujha, your country needs you! That's allright, you Halo-playing slackers will get drafted soon enough!
The local team won the world series after a number of years... Its starting to calm down now a little.
Uh no. The original Marathon had possibly the greatest plot ever for a video game.
Nothing they've done since then is in anyway remarkable.
Meh, finished it like 3 days ago. The ending battle was crap, which wasn't even with the human character. Cliff-hanger ending, I assume so that the next release will sell well and they can make more mullah. Lucky I didn't buy it.
So that's what happened to my team. Bastards could have waited 'til a Friday to release it...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
So is it ok to have turbo buttons on the 3rd party joysticks, and programmable joysticks that let you code a short series of button presses to a single button, but its not ok to let a player use a mouse? What about a trackball? Do they make joysticks with trackballs in place of the analog sticks or anything?
Morphing Software
i'm wondering if the simple fact that more copies of halo2 wound up in the ebs of the world than, say, gta means that there will be more sales.
a friend of mine is a store manager at a place like that. when i asked him about the gta release, he just shrugged his shoulders... he didn't get enough copies. the hype was the same, but he sold out in a day. halo2? he had over 200 copies waiting in a box. for a store that's probably only about 400 sq feet, that's a bunch of copies, eh?
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is much better than regular Dungeons & Dragons.
sup
8.2
A master programmer passed a novice programmer one day. The master noted the novice's preoccupation with a hand-held computer game. "Excuse me", he said, "may I examine it?"
The novice bolted to attention and handed the device to the master. "I see that the device claims to have three levels of play: Easy, Medium, and Hard", said the master. "Yet every such device has another level of play, where the device seeks not to conquer the human, nor to be conquered by the human."
"Pray, great master," implored the novice, "how does one find this mysterious setting?"
The master dropped the device to the ground and crushed it under foot. And suddenly the novice was enlightened.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Thank god, the most hyped game finally gets released, now I can finally get past this and see some really pertinent advertising, maybe for Depends, or maybe some tampon advertising, or maybe the next overpriced pile o' garbage from some dumb arsed company that relies on the masses of less intelligent beings to help pay for their new vacation island purchase, etc.......
If firefighters fight fire and crime fighters fight crime, what do Freedom fighters fight?
tanks, guns, bombs, shooting, army guys, etc
sup
no i would not mind one bit, because i would still hand you your ass.
Please don't read my sig.
I'd say what's more interesting is that this game is selling so well on the 2nd/3rd place console (depending on who's counting where). If you told me that, say, Sonic & Tails on Game Gear was expected to break huge records, I'd be pretty impressed.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Depending on how serious the event is, turbo and macro buttons might also be considered cheating in multiplayer.
The best answer to this whole thread is that everyone involved in a multiplayer game should agree beforehand on the conditions under which the game is played. Choosing to use a console carries the implicit assumption that everyone's hardware has similar performance and available controls, and that everyone is doing essentially the same thing (with varying degrees of skill) while playing the game.
I've played hours of GTA, Half-life, Unreal, and pretty much any other big-time game out there. I use keyboard and mouse for some, but still prefer the Joystick. I find that Halo is by far the greatest game ever created. It is the only game that years later I haven't got sick of playing it at all. The co-op and the online play is the best part about it. I think what defines the best game is how much fun it is to play, but that could just be me.
And for all of you that think GTA is going sell more, thats because people thought PS2 was going to blow away xbox, and now they are stuck with a worse system, and no Halo.
The ending is so unsatisfying you'll be screaming for Halo 3 before your controller hits the floor.
The most blatant plug for a sequel I've ever seen.
I doubt too many here will catch the reference but the first thing that popped into my head when I saw "pfft" was: "The colony has been wiped out. Phhht! Just like that."
Phhht indeed! Gone are the hallowed Bungie days of lore which held an interesting and engaging storyline high on the list of gaming interests. I guess Bungie has truly abandoned their roots for multiplayer driven, rather than story driven, games.
Aleph One, you are my savior.
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed playing Halo and I'm sure the multiplayer is fantastic. It's just sad to see Halo storyline turn into Halo 2.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
Thats true, I guess it should be pre-agreed upon what is allowed. Personally, I think the radar Halo has is cheating and should always be disabled. It reminds me too much of the Quake2 ratbot, which was definately cheating. (plus if players from opposite teams can see your corner of the screen, thats cheating, so you need a long ethernet cable and at least two xboxes and two TVs of course)
Morphing Software
If you have a modded Xbox there is a fairly high (relative to before, when people were almost never banned) probability you will be banned if you go on Xbox Live even when the chip isn't enabled.
The people most at risk are those who have installed larger hard drives. How Xbox Live detects if an Xbox has a chip is still unknown. One theory is that if you installed a hardrive after first installing Xbox Live, you will be banned.
People who have replaced their DVD drive are also at risk of being banned, even if you have never used a modchip. My personal theory on this is that people who have been banned for other reasons, cheating, going on live with the modchip on, are aquiring the eeproms of other peoples Xbox's (before selling them the xbox). As these people(who's eeprom was stolen) try to go on Live the system notices there are two people with the same eeprom and both get banned.
Beware used Xboxes.
If you want to be completely safe buy another Xbox or play over a tunneling service (there will be plenty of competition with so many banned people).
No one seems to be mentioning Metroid, which is generally considered to be a superior game to Halo.
A really long advert for Red vs Blue.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/197771.asp
I thought this game could not live up to the hype, but if you ignore the hype there is an amazing well crafted peice of work. I was expecting a better more rounded Halo 1, but the plot is now completely central and for that i am very greatful.
,tough cookies, play on a Keyboard Mouse adaptor if you want, playing on a controller is more comfortable as i dont have sit straight rigid in front of a computer. Halo 2 copes with aiming well, with help from autoaim. Some games are hindered without a keyboard and mouse, but halo dosnt feel crippled by it. fps' are not about how well you can aim a mouse and track an enemies head. If you want to do that you can play desktop wack a mole.
I noticed the mipmapping problems as well, though i cant say it bothered me sooo much, as it is in the cutscenes more than the gameplay, though i was still a bit miffed as to why it was so apparent. I im very happy that Bungie have decided to have all the cutcenes rendered ingame, i am fed up with low quality video (coghs *EA*) that is just only useful for skipping. There could be more vehicular levels, and more levels in general, but then again quality over quantity. I cant say the games is on the level of Deus Ex, but it is a must buy for all FPS fans.
To all those bitching about it being on a console
I prefer a fps to be elegant and atmosphereic. It is a breath of fresh air to have a game that does not have menus and menus crammed full of inventory, and a soldier who can carry 12 guns in his trousers. If Halo could be played with no HUD at all and with amo represented on guns, and sheild on the inner arms or whatever i feel it would be even more (like the 10 second widescreen bits at the start of a "level")
*************SPOILER ALERT************
The ending left me unhappy and impressed in equal measure. You know the end will come but your hoping it wont. Before the credits you get a hero going into battle battle, patrioticky sort of ending. You lay about for the credits, then BAM! one hell of a twist comes. Its one of those "how could i be so blind" sort of moments. i can compare it to the Codec messages at the end of the Metal Gear Solids.
All in all, any true FPS fan (who dosnt have preconceptions about how a FPS should be) will love this. Bungie has done a great deal right here so big props to them.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How accurate is that list though? I've seen other articles with figures of 10.5 M for GTA3 and 11.5 M for GTA3:VC. But GTA 3 isn't even on the list and the total for VC is 3 million less than other sources say.
I admit I don't own an XBox and have never played Halo single-player before.
But I've played it multiplayer before (8 players), and it doesn't impress me. Quake and Q3 impressed me. Counterstrike and the original UT impressed me. Even Deus Ex multiplayer impressed me more (skill upgrades, etc.).
But Halo doesn't impress me.
Halo is just your typical FPS game w/ fairly-open spaces; whoopee, Tribes and Delta Force did that forever ago on the PC.
Halo just seems like an FPS for people too dumb or too poor to use a PC instead.
Whatever. Enjoy your lack of keyboard + mouse control, generic "doomed space marine," average graphics, postage-stamp-sized corner-of-the-screen view ports (so that 4 people can play on 1 TV and not have the resolution to see WTF is going on in their "corner of the TV". I've always hated playing 4 player split-screen for that reason though, even Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on N64), and so forth.
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
FYI, the power connector for the DVD-rom is real funky. A standard player probably won't work (I got mine from a discard unit).
I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.
I don't have Live (and have no plans to get it - I already have more than enough procrastination fodder like Slashdot too easily accessible), and I don't have any mates who'd want to play multiplayer. Since I've read reviews that say the one-player game can be completed in 10 hours or so (as opposed to the solid week of GTA:SA I just spent completing the main missions - and that was still only 65% of the game), with a cliffhanger non-ending at that, is Halo 2 going to be worth rushing out to get on its UK release, or should I wait and pick it up used on eBay?
You must think in Russian.
My problem is playing GTA:San Andreas at the same time. Every now and then in GTA I think I can start rolling the cars and pedestrians up into a big ball.
--- Ban humanity.
Many people obtained the Limited Collector's Edition.
Suckers.
"Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
Now half of my CS class will disappear for the rest of the semester!
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
I wouldn't consider it cheating, especially since Halo on the Xbox is optimized for the Xbox controller with its dual analog sticks, shoulder triggers, and the other buttons, and it'd take a bit of configuring I'd imagine to bring the adapter/keyboard/mouse combo up to the control comfort that a PC-homed keyboard/mouse FPSer would expect...
...unless they were to try to do complex macroing with their keyboard setup (i.e. going beyond a 1-to-1 mapping of key to action). That'd be in the same vein as using macros or "turbo" on any other controller.
The bestselling games in history sold, not a million, but millions and tens of millions of copies.
Parker Brothers has sold over two hundred million copies of Monopoly in 65 years. Not the same kind of game, but geeze...
Here's the correct and more permanent link.
(when they release a new comic tomorrow, this one will still refer to the correct one)
This is not my sig.
400-500 people? Yeesh. I just dropped by my local Futureshop here in North York at lunch time, and there was no line, just a big display with any number of copies of Halo 2, and a big flatscreen for playing.
I can't believe anyone would actually line up for a game or try to get it at 12:01am the day of just to be first. It's a video game, whoop-de-fucking-doo.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be the biggest selling game in history (well, until the next GTA game).
I don't think so. Mario and Luigi are still the kings of video game retail records. I don't think anyone will ever be able to match Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers (which has sold 40+ million copies worldwide). Thanks to the Guinness Book of World Records.
H2 and GTA:SA may make alot of money, but they won't top the plumber brothers' sales records.
Indeed. It's not even the most popular game distributed by Microsoft--not by a long shot.
The clear winner has to be Solitaire. A copy is sold with nearly every computer, and it's the only thing to do with a computer at work after you've finished reading Slashdot.
~Idarubicin
Nothing is more painful to read/hear than legions of Xbox or PS2 fanboys fight over which game is better, especially giving the miniscule differences in IGN's 9.9 and 9.8 ratings for them. (GTA got a 9.9! Halo 2 just got 0wnd! ... Whatever.) Not to mention that the games are separate genres...
But that said, there are also countless intelligent reasons why people like either more than the other, or why they can't choose between them, or why neither one is worth their time.
So if you're curious about some of those intelligent explanations, mod this up and others will respond to it. If you don't care or think this is a stupid idea, ignore it or mod it down...
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you want to take a peek at the game manual, check it out at Bungie's site here: http://bungie.net/images/games/halo2/support/halo2 manual_EN.pdf
So you admit its better.
:p)
I find it great that people who are obsessed with Halo hate UT. They say its too fast for them.
Makes you wonder if these kids were confused by the "square peg, round hole" concept in kindergarten.
(I'm going to regret making that round hole comment after someone makes a yo momma joke...
I've played both versions of Halo (a number of my friends have the XBox version, I have the PC version) and there is very little difference in controlability. By comparison, we have the GBA port of Doom 2, whose controls were ... inadequate at best compared to the PC version.
Why the difference? You have a much more limited input set to work with on a console controller. Halo was built with console limits in mind, and thus works fairly well. Doom 2 - and many other PC FPS games, are not. They also tend to take "one man death machine with enough firepower to outfit a squad of U.S. Marines" approach, which further aggravates the limited button issue.
But I think there's another part of this. Namely, people are used to one type of controls and may not like the learning curve involved in going to the other. The controls are logically very similar, but are arranged differently. Far easier to claim the console is unsuited to FPS - especially with the above issues - than to take the ego hit of having to relearn something you've already polished.
I've got news guys - you don't need a mouse to aim in a PC FPS. I was running and gunning in Quake II with a keyboard only setup while everyone else in the office used a mouse to aim. And would regularly hit with railgun snapshots. With auto-aim disabled if Q2 even had it. I could evade and get off flank shots without taking a hit, maybe even break contact entirely if a fight went against me. Why? Because I could sustain a very high turning rate with the keyboard. A mouse might be able to hit a higher turning rate for a short time, but it can't sustain it.
Most of you will want to say that keyboard aim sucks - and you're right. Aiming with the turn/pitch keys was rough, so I'd use the move keys to help nudge the sights where they needed to be. Aim/turn with the right hand, so I didn't have far to reach if I needed to use the mouse. Move and tweak with the left. (Hmm, that sounds awfully similar to a console controler.) My point? Input set limitations aside, each setup has different strengths. Mose/keyboard is superior at longer ranges, especially now that game engines can handle larger open spaces with more action going on. But I have yet to see a mouse/keyboard match what dual sticks (or the logical equivalent) can do up close. It's just a matter of knowing what your setup can do.
X-Box is cool but when does the PC version come out?
Couple Halo 2 with an XBox price drop and you just might see the gap in installed userbases narrow quite a bit. The first game sold a *lot* of XBoxes, we all know someone who bought one just to play Halo.
Even though I was drawn in mightly to the iLoveBees thing, I don't own an XBox and one gae alone is not going to do it for me - especially when the new XBox is coming out next year!
Either I wait for Halo 2 to come out on other platforms next year, or I wait for a new console next year to play Halo 2 on (I imagine the next XBox is probably also going to have this Halo 2 as a launch title). But I can wait, it's not that long and there are a huger number of other great games coming out to spend my time on.
I think it will boost XBox sales to some extent, but not nearly enough to come close to making up an order of magnitude gap the PS2 has. So GTA probably will sell quite a few more copies.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I just strolled into Best Buy and there were dozens, if not hundreds, of copies of Halo 2 on the shelves. Many, many copies of the "limited edition" were still there too. If this is such a huge game then why is it that at the same Best Buy on the release date of GTA: SA there were none to be found?
Gotta wonder if the pre-orders that MS has been touting is just the orders that got shipped out to all the stores or if it's actual numbers of consumer purchased units.
I doubt that Halo 2 will come close to a third of the sales expected of GTA: SA. The first weeks' sales of GTA: SA were expected to have topped 4.5 million units. Halo 2 might get somewhere near that number after it has been out for while. There will probably be a huge dropoff in sales after the release date.
Heck, Halo hasn't sold much more than 3 million copies worldwide as of last year, otherwise there would have been talk about it, and it has been out for nearly 3 years now.
I think Carl Rove works in Microsoft's marketing department.
Hey, it worked for W!
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
>But then I got into the "Halo" world and started to get chased by a bunch of Smurfs.
>All of the cute little animals making noises like squeaky toys. I felt bad shooting them actually.
Hey, wait a minute - I thought shooting smurfs was a GOOD thing.
Cute depends on who you ask - I always thought they were horribly irritating, and somehow the idea of a FPS where you run around shooting smurfs really appeals to me...
Besides, anything with a gun shooting at ME instantly loses the descriptor "cute".
Just my $0.02.
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
In just a week you are going to have an XBox - and no Half Life 2.
There's always a bigger dog...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
From what I understand about the device mentioned here, it allows a lot of customization, but not turbo or macros in any way. You use a normal keyboard/mouse from your computer, and the device can map keys to buttons and remember your settings and such, and control things like the "dead zone" for the mouse (the area which the analog stick ignores so it doesnt respond to jitter). To me, its no different than the existing joystick in a much better form facter. You can't do anything unusual other then move the mouse around at a high rate of speed that would probably be near impossible to duplicate with the just a thumb and an analog stick. Not that the stick's hardware couldn't do the same motions, it would just be very difficult to move your thumb fast enough to keep up with how fast you can move your hand holding onto a mouse.
Morphing Software
Yeah yeah... ha ha ha. I guess you have never played a game of BF1942 where you are trying to fly your plane with a keyboard and mouse while the jerk chasing you is flying with some $150 wing commander pro joystick. It sucks, trust me. Having a controller advantage throws the game balance out of wack and makes it rediculously easy to wipe out the other players. Now pardon me while I go find a light gun for my pc.
Where can I get this in US? I want to buy this for my cats...
Actually, I am going to slightly revise my comment with a prediction that the next XBox launches with Halo 3 - continuing directly from the currnet one, which is why the ending is the way it is.
Or, possibly this Halo plus the next one together into one 20 hour long game. That makes more sense to me.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
which, on its first day had almost twice as many pre-orders already sold as Halo 2.
He had me rolling!
Your Console Control pad vs. my keyboard and mouse? HAHA.. I'f frag your ass 3 to 1 at LEAST. How long have you been playing FPS's? Since Halo 1, apparantly?
Seriously.. if you think a control pad beats a mouse and keyboard for FPS skill and precision, you REALLY need to wake up, kid.
You know.... I did debate on doing the whole midnight madness thing as I thought it was a bit too nerdy. But then I thought.. when am I going to be able to do this again? and you know what, the experience was extremely positive. I met a couple of cool guys, had some good conversations and laughed for about 2 hours as we swapped stories about MMORPGS, penny-arcade, xbox/ps2 trends and how people with kids are able to stand in line for 2 hours for a game. (one guy's wife was sure he was at the bar instead of at EB)
;)
I understand that lining up for a game may not be everyone's cup of tea (my GF didn't quite get why I was going to do it) but people should at least understand that people CAN be passionate about life and enjoy it. Heck, I don't get the whole fascination about reality TV or the American Idol trend but I do know that it does have positive benefits for the people doing it and watching it.
It's okay to think "whoop-de-fucking-doo" but it makes you sound a lot more intelligent and well rounded if you also say "so I looked at the negative side, let me point out some positive points. I may not agree with them but at least I might be able to understand someone else's perspective".
Regardless... I guess we have a difference of opinion on how we look at things so all I can say is "enjoy the game".. and hope you don't fall into my crosshairs.
l8r
An aimbot will make you a much better player than a mouse/keyboard ever will. Do you mind if I use one in our upcoming tournament?
> I'm really tempted to buy this, and then an xbox, and then halo, just to see how well it actually works.
Wouldn't it make more sense to buy an xbox, and then halo, and then this?
Can't keep the MS out of MSNBC.
Seriously, haven't you people had enough of the same old Sci-Fi FPS? What a waste of money.
The same argument could be made against just about anything. Some people are mad about video games (and certain ones in particular), others about film, others fine art. Who are you to criticize what people are passionate about?
Halo 1 still retails for $30.
Most people can be treated simply as cattle. I am not so arrogant as to believe I am someone who cannot be treated basically as an ornery bull, no match for corrals and cattle prods (the queen said she was going to ream us with a twenty inch cattle prod, and I'm still waiting) and though I make a lot of noise and am more dangerous than a *silly cow* I am not really any serious danger to the system. Dairy cows will line up to be milked, and so will we, because in return we get to go "experience" their media. You too can pay fifty bucks to be allowed to kill aliens with an energy sword. Am I the only one who didn't absolutely know that would be in a sequel before Halo 2 was even announced? In exchange for being good little consumers we receive entertainments almost behond comprehension, say, fifty years ago. And, it costs less (including the system) than dinner for four at a really good restaurant. Or dinner for one at a "world-class" restaurant :P
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're not too concerned with freedom, what we're being offered isn't too bad and most of us don't complain -- with even fewer actually doing something about their problem, even if it's boycotting it and not experiencing it at all. I don't like to take it on their first terms, though, and usually wait until they give me sort of what I want, for example I avoided Halo on the Xbox and played the buggy-as-hell PC version.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It took long enough but I've got it NOW so watch OUT!
-- "Life's not fair, but the root password helps."
Does anyone else notice the majority of people who are saying "Halo 2 isn't a GREAT game, it's just a good game" or something in that vein generally follow it up with some comment about how they have equal respect for Bioware and Square games.
/. doesn't think this new game is very good... might as well trade it in for Crystal Chronicles".
Note to self... I couldn't give a fuck what an RPG nerd thinks about an FPS title.
Wait a minute... I couldn't give a fuck what -anyone- thinks about the XBox or Halo 2. It's a damn fun game and there are quite a few damn fun games for the XBox... fuck this "lack of quality titles" stupidity. If you're too "cool" to like it, then don't weigh in with your two cents... because those of us who do like it aren't exactly going to be all "oh no, some loser on
Assholes.
bash-3.00$ uname -a
SunOS panda 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2
And above all, nobody is allowed to have any fun. Rules first, fun second.
The menus are all in english, only the animations and voice-overs are in french, and they are all subtitled in english.
The character taunts are in french and for obvious reasons are not subtitled but that doesn't affect gameplay.
Excellent game.
Not that I would know of course...
For the Xbox or the doll?
Hehe, I'm typing on a gates foundation computer now. Piece o' shit gateways. (These actual ones, they are a pain in the butt to work inside) But hey, they are great for this library though.
"waited in line for 2 1/2 hours and all I got was.. a lousy Halo 2 pin.."
At least you got that, you whiny bitch.
Some of my contacts say that Halo 2 re-flashes the BIOS on modded xboxes. Any other reports of this?
Heh, if there's one xbox game to put sneaky re-flashing capability on, this is it. Very cunning move, Microsoft.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Flash Halo2 Update: Apparently Halo 2 may play around with lots of files on the hard disks of modded xboxes too.
Reporting User Update: People's text while recounting this issue to me would no longer pass the lameness filter, based on content, typos, and caps. This is the most hilarious thing to happen yet today...
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Yes, none of us are above being milked by the capitalist system, including myself, and like anyone else, I like playing computer games, listening to music from a large CD collection and watching movies at the cineme and on DVD.
What I hate about the system is the fact that we the people have ultimate power of the corporations because we are the consumers and if we all stop consuming, that's it for them.
The fact that people queue for a computer game or queue hours for tickets to a Star Wars movie premier just strikes me as a really sad thing - almost as though the corporations have a captive audience who have no decision making powers of their own.
No product is so important that you must have it - I just wish people would not play into the corporate hands so easily...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
...you try to see how high you can launch a warthog with grenades?
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
The kind of joke only a gamer would get.
I disagree about the radar in Halo, maybe cause it's not actually radar. You would expect the cyborg's of halo to have excellent hearing, and that's what it is. I like the fact that if you're quiet and move carefully, your opponent's can't locate you. Conversly, if another player is right around the corner from you, and you're running and jumping around like a fool then they should definatly be able to hear where you are and blow you the hell up.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
I partially take back my previous response. Your post was still funny, but I didn't see that you were responding to someone else.
Oh dude, I hate that game!
Slashdot prime directive:
If it's mainstream, we hate it.
HALO is popular? I hate it. I think it's boring. Millions of people watch network TV? All the shows are crap. Thousands go to a Britney Spears concert? She sounds like a banshee. 90% of the people use Windows? God I hate Windows, it crashes all the time.
See how it works? Now that you know the prime directive you can mentally discard all the messages that fit this mold and find the *real* conversation in the thread hidden underneath... good luck!
Comment of the year
"When all of these sources start giving it the highest or nearly highest scores possible, it does make you think that this is the real deal."
While that may be true, I can tell you (because I have it in my hot little hands at this very moment) that it exceeds the original in nearly every aspect from a technical standpoint. Fact. The only things I can possibly complain about at the moment is texture loading during cut scenes. Beyond that, it tells a story as good as halflife did and looks 100x better (than the original). I posted some more detailed thoughts here.
If we can assume that A) You like FPSs and B) You enjoyed Halo to some degree, then believing the reviews no longer becomes a question. It's a great game.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Ho hum. Microsoft sink money into SCO who then launch legal action against Linux when it started to threaten Windows. They then sink money into Bungie who then release Halo 2 on the same day as the launch of Firefox 1.0 which now threatens IE. What other depths will they sink to trying to suppress the news of Open Source successes?
:-D
Phillip.
PS
Property for sale in Nice, France
History? Soviet revisionist history maybe.
From the linked article: Pre-order sales reached 1.5 million, more than any other game in history. Oh really? Then how come I clearly recall Warcraft III having 4.5 million pre-orders, more than any other game in history. Looks like lots of other people remember it too.
No what really sucks is when you are using a Sidewinder ff joystick and get your ass handed to you by someone flying with a keyboard
For instance, while playing co-op I got hit with a grenade, which sent me and my partner flying off a cliff in the warthog. That's OK, we'll just restart at the last checkpoint...
Nope, turns out the game gave us a checkpoint in mid-air. We had to restart the level.
Also, in one of the levels, I died in a fight, and my partner continued fighting. As he headed up a ramp after killing everything, I spawned...off the ramp, and into the abyss below. There was plenty of room ON the ramp! More guys showed up a moment later, and my partner died shortly thereafter because I was dead and couldn't back him up.
And yes, I played from shortly after midnight until morning.
Nah, try saying "Counter-strike sucks", and even if it's mainstream people like it.
:)
Of course, you'll get extra point if you whine about how worse it keeps getting since version 0.7.
OK forget what I said. You're right
"It is only big because these people have not seen an FPS before."
Now see, that's where we part company. It's like saying that Halflife was an average FPS... If you ignore the story, depth and attention to detail. Which you can't. But somehow, people manage to put the blinders on in one case and not the other, insisting that Halo is nothing but another average FPS. All by itself, they're absolutely correct; Stripped of the outstanding story, dialogue and attention to detail Halo's no BFD. But then, you might as well not play anyway because you're divorsing critical aspects from the game itself.
And that's not even getting into the fact that you're attributing the entire bulk of the sales to console fanboys on the very machine where this is least likely to be the case. Certainly less so than the PS2 and Gamecube. Hell, I've been their since Maze3d back in the CGA days, and freakin ASCII before that. Quake. Tribes. Doom. Whatever. I've been there. And all things considering, the Halo franchise is a pretty high quality one. Not perfect, but nowhere near as average as you seem to believe. And I can actually say that because not only have I played all of those games, but I've owned the last Halo, and now this one.
Besides, tell me exactly what Quake used to be anyway? Run around, find the keys, have monsters pop out, wash, rince, repeat? Oh, shit loads of depth there. the only reason it was popular was because it was new and the n00bs had never played it before . Amazing how easy it is to turn that knife, huh? Care to see how many other games we can force that shoe onto??
You need a FREE iPod Nano
...does it run on Linux? Also, in Soviet Russia, does it run my Linux?
typical.. anonymous cowards...
anyways.. I guess I should clarify that expression I used was a play on words... I guess some people aren't up to date on pop culture. For the moron who posted the whiny b*tch comment, there used to be a t-shirt that says "My parents went on vacation and all they brought back was this t-shirt". Since then, the expression has changed and variations have emerged. I should have put a disclaimer on my email for the less educated (or at least a smiley). My apologies, I thought that intelligent people posted on slashdot. cya anon
Hyperhyper
Its not an aimbot in that it does all the aiming for you, but it does help compensate for when you almost have and want to keep a target.
Does this even matter? I'm sure all the warez kiddies got it ages ago.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
ah, my GPA continues it's slow descent /Call of Duty, Doom3, and CS: Source started it /Half-Life 2 will put it into the ground
I would definitely consider it cheating, since Xbox Halo has slight auto-aim because of the inherent inaccuracy of differential-movement thumbsticks, and you're taking advantage of the auto-aim without the penalty of the thumbstick.
However, you're probably just hurting yourself, since many of the other controls (thumbsticks, movement, etc.) are continuous, and you may be at a disadvantage on a keyboard/mouse combo. Besides, the auto-aim would only be cheating if you ignore the enhanced accuracy of the mouse - if you aim like a PC FPS, you're penalizing yourself by worrying about that, and if you aim considering auto-aim, there's no advantage to using a mouse.
Ttorrent. All that downloading and Halo 2 turns out to be just as shockingly average as the first one, with all the same problems. Still, at least they aren't going to be in the crowd who went out and payed good money for it. Those even poorer idiots.
Excellent sequel. Not a huge jump from the first. Really makes me want to call in sick the rest of the week and just play.
So... This game requires no skill whatsoever?
This is bizzare... Why can't you just plug a USB keyboard/Mouse into an XBOX? Or... does Microsoft discourage that?
It seems Suprnova.org, a very popular torrent file hosting service, has boycotted Halo 2 piracy once again.
When the French version was pirated a couple of weeks ago, Suprnova fiercly watched their newly submitted torrents and pulled each Halo 2 torrent submission in only a few minutes after its posting. Hunting a working Halo 2 torrent file was a three or four hour job. Most sites with the torrent actually had bogus ones that would give the user an error message instructing them to download from EliteTorrents.org. EliteTorrents requires a user create an account before they can download from them, but a new member has a rigid 12 hour waiting minimum before he/she can download anything recent.
This anecdote of Halo 2 piracy is a perfect example of why Bittorrent is another great concept but, in reality, falls short to censorship and gold-digging.
I say, fuck Suprnova and put that pirate hat on!
Dude dont waste your money this game sucks
The, (glossed over), drawback is that you can finish the single player mode in an afternoon.
;-)
I wouldn't know, I don't have an xbox. I'm still trying to get the Prince past himself, out of the Dungeons to rescue his bride.
GENERAL PUBLIC SIGNATURE (GPS) Any replies (derivatives) of this post must also use the GPS
is that he posted that from his mobile phone while standing in the line thats already starting to form
:)
for the 12:01am showing of SW EpIII on 5/19/2005.
He did mention he was a geek, right?
No it requires plenty of skill... as I said it is not an aimbot.
In other words you know joysticks are inferior for FPS games, but can't use a mouse and keyboard.
All of the cute little animals making noises like squeaky toys. I felt bad shooting them actually.
They didn't happen to be furry, brown, warlike little teddy-bear things, did they? That's it, I demand that Bungie reveal which one of the names in the Halo 2 credits is Lucas's alias!
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
I played it until the Library was mentioned. If I have to do that crap AGAIN, I'm going to go crazy. I will see what happens tomorrow.
admit it, your entire post was just an excuse to type out this one line:
"my GF didn't quite get why I was going to do it"
gloating is not nice.
You would've hoped that they could've had chief holding his primary weapon in his left hand for those of us who play southpaw. Makes things a bit confusing using the left trigger to fire the right-hand gun and vice-versa.
You were doing so well until you mentioned your GF.
You will die poor and alone. And your grave will rot away unattended.
I found it amusing!
Even if within four years she might well go rampant.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
or is it for the PC as well?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
To see the first Harry Potter movie. I was at the very front of the line, but it seemed a bit strange because almost everyone else in line was either a little kid or a parent.
That was OK, though. At least I found lots of people to discuss Pokemon with.
I doubt I'd fall into your crosshairs, the first one runs so poorly on my Mac unless I turn the shaders off (which then makes it look kinda crappy) that I've given up on it.
I've certainly spent enough hours of my life playing video games that I understand the enjoyment they provide, I just can't buy into lining up and getting so hyped up about a new release. I rate the playing higher than the getting, if you understand what I mean.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.