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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."
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)
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.
If they would have made this game it would have saved me a few bucks...
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.
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 +++
You misspelled 'incredibly dorky'.
Most people don't feel bad until after they complete the thing. You've gotten the feeling of being screwed without even playing. Some might say you've already won the game.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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...
How many of the people standing in line endless hours for this game voted last Tuesday?
--- Ban humanity.
Knights of the Grand Solid Halo-Life 2
:)
right?
-- the cake is a lie
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.
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.
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!
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