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."
Can someone let me in on the whole Halo 2 / French thing? I keep hearing the jokes, but what's it all about?
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.
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
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?
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.
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...
If you plan on having Halo 2 LAN parties [...] Halo 2 will support 16 linked Xbox video game systems!
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http://www.xbox.com/en-us/halo2/readinessguide.ht
Once I got used to the controls, I preffered the controller to keyboard and mouse. The controller vibrates, gives you feedback, gives you analog controls to control your movement.
I don't know why people thing mouse/keyboard is gods gift to gaming. The mousepad slides or the mouse moves off the edge, your finger accidentally hits the wrong key, and your game is over.
The fact that every level wasnt a completely new "universe" didn't bother me. The enemy AI was the best I'd seen up to that point, and I was having a blast chasing down squealing covenant grunts.
Of course, then theres the multiplayer game, which is the best multiplayer experience I've had.
The PC version of Halo is pure shit, I won't deny that. A bad porting job and nothing really new added. But the XBox version was great. It was well done and hit its target dead-on.
BTW, PC gamer vs console gamer is a moronic and tired topic for a flamewar. If you don't like it, save your cash for Half Life 2.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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
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.
$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.
It is well put, but also ignoring a significant section of XBox culture-- that which used to ride the cutting edge of PC hardware but now has other priorities that take money away from hardware upgrades. The XBox is a nice fit for that segment of people because it's a one-time hardware investment with $30 additional controllers and $50 games.
I enjoy the balance of Halo, and the vehicles. The graphics are immersive and the play paced very nicely. I enjoy the visuals in Halo, and the sound mix. It is unobtrusive and serves to suspend reality. I can no longer afford to upgrade my computer to play Half-Life 2 or Doom 3 (damn house... damn family... damn wife), but I can afford to stay up all night with my wife and kill Covenant and Flood troops! (she's as excited as I am for Halo 2, which is way cool!)
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!
No my super duper optical mouse wont track on the woodgrain of my desk, for whatever reason.
So I bought one of those amazing high tech ratpadz because it supposedly would make me the best fragg0r evar!!!!11!!!
I don't like sitting at a desk with keyboard and mouse. I do that all day at work. At home I like to kick back on the couch with beer and controller. Keyboard and mouse make wandering around in Doom 3 feel like I'm still at work.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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
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).
Ahhh, so your preference is due to a personal psychological block, not due to the quality of control as you first implied. Thanks for the insightful update.
Apples and Oranges. After Microsoft bought Bungie, Halo was designed to be played with the Xbox controller; not just the interface and button mappings, but the game play and speed as well. I tried playing Halo on the PC, with a keyboard and mouse, and it seemed to lose something in the translation. Now, if the subject were, say, Counter Strike or Rainbow Six on the Xbox, then you might have a point.
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
Microsoft will not allow the console players to interact with the PC players because they know that the console players would get their asses handed to them. And the end result would be that no one on a console would want to play online anymore.
... the short and sweet of it was that I obliterated him without a trace. I think I might have jumped into some lava at some point, but otherwise the score was around 100 to 1 after 10 or 15 minutes.
In highschool a friend of mine claimed that he was a master of some FPS (probably Quake or something from that era). Somehow it came about that he used the keyboard to look around (ie: he did not use the mouse). I was astounded and questioned his ability to use the keyboard versus using the mouse to look around. He assured me that he liked the keyboard more and was just as proficient as anyone with a mouse. I continued doubting him and the end result was a challenge for a head to head competition. Now, I'm not the best FPS player out there, but I am good enough to have fun. So, we loaded up two computers at his house
The same goes for those clunky non-intuitive console controllers. Ever watch people try to aim a gun in Halo or GTA3? It's pretty funny.