Halo 2 Expansion?

Gamespot has coverage of the appearance on an official Korean Xbox site of a "Halo 2 X-Pack". The possible expansion is another possible way for Bungie and Microsoft to get the heavily foreshadowed ending to fans of the series. From the article: "Such a Halo 2 expansion could be a twofold boon for Microsoft, adding another incentive for gamers to join its online service and squeezing further dollars from the nearly 7 million gamers who already have Halo 2."

Comments

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You could believe the blurb, or you could go to Bungie.net and read the latest "What's Update," which deals with this rumor. While not expressly saying so, Frankie (Bungie representative) implies that the rumored disc is the way Bungie/MS will be distributing the next set of downloadable content (bug fixes, cheat fixes, and some new multiplayer levels have all been (expressly) confirmed).

~UP

Clarification

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Too late, I realized that I left something out of the last sentence; I should have added "to non-Xbox Live subscribers" before the period. Sorry!

~UP

Halo 2: The Search for more Money

[Phoenixhunter]

After watching the making of Halo 2 (yep, shelled out extra for the CE) I've come to the realization that Bungie wasn't exactly thrilled about making a sequel. They wanted to do something different (Phoenix) and MS turned around and told them to work on something that would make money (Halo 2). They made it in less than 18 months and it really shows. Despite a larger budget, there just wasn't sufficient internal inspiriation to do much more than make a money maker.

Leaving off an end the way they did only enforces this belief. Would Da Vinci forget about finishing off the Mona Lisa? No, he'd get it done. Now we have an expansion on the way....pump pump pump.

yeah right`

[killercentipedes]

This is bullshit, ill have played H2 and the shortness was the first complaint. You could almost assume this is a ploy of MS. If they get away with expansions for H2 where is it going to stop.

Re:yeah right`

[TotalFusionOne]

Showing off our brain powers I see. MS is not some evil corperation that is trying to take over the world by invading our homes with expansion packs. They're a company, like any other, out to make money. Where will it stop? When they start making games that aren't fun.

Re:yeah right`

[altodarknight]

It is the common belief throughout the halo community that the disk will be distrubuted through OXM (official xbox magazine) for free, or for a $5 - 10 disk from retailers. Remember that all the content on the disk will be avaliable free on xbox live. And people could just use the free 2 month xbox live trials to download the content. The above solution is the doing of bungie, as they want to get the content to all halo 2 owners. Although they are owned by Microsoft, the are still a very community oriented game developer.

One born every minute.

[TotalFusionOne]

Anyone who reads the "Weekly update" section of Bungie's website knows what's going on here. The game multiplayer aspect of the game has a few bugs in it, and Bungie has been working for months on ways to fix those bugs without totally ruining gameplay. Why not quietly update their buggy product, give you a few new maps and multiplayer modes, and make YOU carry the costs?
Of course this is going to start a whole bunch of people discussing whether Bungie (or MS) should release products that aren't finished, or are "Buggy." And to those folks I say: Sod off. If we were to wait for every game to be absolutely perfect before shipping, we'd still be stuck waiting for our PS2 Viewtiful Joe demo discs!

Re:One born every minute.

[cgenman]

Plese tell me you're joking.

Many games have been pushed out the door unfinished. The Legacy of Kain is a famous example, as somewhere in the middle of development they realized they weren't going to make it and cut out huge chunks of game, including the ending, several levels, powerups, etc. In that case it was painfully obvious that they didn't finish in time, as their game constantly referred to a different number of things to do than you actually had, there were quite a few bugs, empty areas, etc. This was made all the worse by the fact that the game was really really good, and if they had convinced their publisher to give them 6 more months for content generation they could have had a staggeringly, legendarily good game.

Xenogears suffered a similar fate. At the time I was playing it, I felt that it was the best RPG ever made. I still feel that way, almost. It's half of the best RPG ever made. They go into excrutiating detail early on, creating a vast and rich world to really lose yourself in. The gameplay is great, they address all of the issues people talk about hating in standard RPG's... It's truly great. Then, about 50 hours in, they switch to "diarama - o - vision." A static picture appears on the screen, and text scrolls by. For about 10 hours. Occasionally this is broken up by largely unfinished gameplay sequences. I swear, this is the only game I've played on a console that had multiple save points within a single flow of text. It went from the greatest RPG ever made to the worst in the span of one cinematic. Eventually it regains its footing and actually finishes like it started, and the ending is great and satisfying despite some laughably bad voice acting. But by that point the experience is totally ruined.

As a less extreme example, the new KOTOR had an ending that just fell completely flat. It wasn't a content pull like in Legacy of Kane, it wasn't a stick-to-the-eye like Xenogears. It was just a rush job, with a much better and more satisfying ending being yanked for time, replaced by something half-arsed and roundly disappointing.

Unfinished games suck. They suck the enjoyment out of a title and they suck out the potential. In the example of Xenogears, it was pretty clear they just had bitten off something that was far, far too big for any reasonable budget of the time. Any publisher would have done the same, though any publisher should have pushed them to work on the important points of the plot first and shaped the degree of detail in the world that could be achieved realistically.

But Halo 2? We're talking about a guarenteed million seller here. Any publisher would have ponied up the extra 6 months for that, as a good reception for Halo 2 would guarentee another insane sales bonanza for Halo 3. The bloody thing made 200 million in presales. But Microsoft isn't any publisher: Microsoft is a publisher with a system to sell. If Microsoft is really dumping the Xbox for the Ybox this upcoming Christmas, they have a major problem on their hands if their in-house publisher releases a system-selling game for the wrong system. Hence, buggy, unbalanced, or even unfinished, they had to get it out the door. Which is a crying shame really, and will really hurt their Halo 3 sales. The moment they realized that Halo 2 was going to ship either late or unfinished, they should have switched the bungee people over to XBox 2 development right away, and had them work on porting what they had done and finishing what they hadn't done. It would have sold a lot more systems than Halo 3 is now capable of.

Don't be so impatient. No publisher or game development company wants to wait until absolutely every little detail is perfect before putting something in a box, but it should least bloody well be finished. Given the choice between a bad experience now and a perfect experience in 6 months, go with the perfect experience. With so many great games out anything less isn't worth your time.

Re:One born every minute.

[TotalFusionOne]

I completely agree. Also, if you remember correctly, when the game was launched the matchmaking system would take up to five minutes to decide who should play with who. It took very quick thinking on Bungies part to get that resolved in less than a week. Which brings me back to my original point: Halo 2 was released with acceptable flaws. It wasn't as buggy as, say, Dakatana when released, but it wasn't released perfect either. And as gamers we should be graceful enough to accept flaws without crying "Foul!"

Straight from the horse's mouth...

[Wraithfighter]

http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=wee klywhatsmar18

"Next week, we're going to have a major announcement about the details of our new maps. Right now, there are some dates, details and ideas out there that are actually wrong, so please take everything you read between now and then with a grain of salt. We can't talk about how and when the new maps will be released, we'll leave that to the smart folks who actually do all the logistical work for this stuff - marketing and PR, but we can tell you this much - our entire plan is designed to make new content available for everybody, those with Xbox Live and those without Xbox Live. We hope in the end, everyone will be satisfied."

If they do do an expansion, it'll probably throw in a few new weapons (we are missing the flamethrower, after all), a new campaign, some rebalancing, and hopefully the ability to dual wield swords!

Yeah, I know its redundant, since one sword is deadly enough, but TWO ENERGY SWORDS!

Re:Halo 2: The Search for more Money

[altodarknight]

This isn't true, if you watch the Limited Edition DVD and another interview that was released shortly after E3 2002, they started work on halo 2 almost straight after the release of halo 1, which took a little time to work out it was a money train. They said they wanted to tell more of the story. They didn't leave off the end, they couldn't fit it in. They wanted to tell the story as well as possible and to do this, the needed more content than could be created by the release date and could fit on the disk. The expansion isn't really an expansion, it is a way of distributing the downloadable content and game fixes to those who don't have xbox live.

Oh Goody!

[willynate]

Now I can shoot the same four enemies over and over in different repetitive hallways.

Re:Halo 2 expansion

[Meagermanx]

Actually, I liked the original Halo more. Dual Wielding didn't come in handy most of the time, because you couldn't throw sticky grenades, the most useful weapon in the game (well, at least in multiplayer ;).
Also, the levels and storyline didn't pack as much of a punch. Remember the night level where you first met the fludd? Remember how you were like "What the hell are those little freaks?!?!" Halo 2 didn't have that moody feel. All it's levels were more focused on tactical combat, and the storyline was just rambling and kind of confusing.
The sword is probably the greatest thing about Halo 2, but I'm not sure it quite makes up for nerfing the pistol.
Of course, I like Diablo more than Diablo 2, so don't listen to me. ;)

Re:YASHA

[rufo]

Don't have many friends, do you? Don't have a Live subscription eh?

Halo 2 will be a constant fixture in my/my friends' Xbox for years to come. At least, until Halo 3 comes out :-) Not for the single player campaign (which was good, but nothing truly remarkable), but for the multiplayer, which is (I do firmly believe) the finest console FPS experience made to date (with the arguable exception of Halo 1).

Lastly, according to Bungie, it's not stated but hinted that the Halo X-Pack disk will have the downloadable content that Live subscribers will get for free. This way if you don't subscribe to Live you won't be left out in the cold. You could also sign up for a free trial or borrow a friend's Live account but this will mean you don't have to.

Re:Halo 2 expansion

[pbranes]

I have to disagree with you on your assesment of halo 1 levels. Remember the last few levels, especially the library? The library has to be the worst level design in history. Then the one right after it was just running through an earlier level in reverse. Its obvious that the game was rushed out the door and level design took a back seat to other matters.

fixing the graphics?

[Harlockjds]

are they going to fix the nasty texture and graphics pop in? i hadn't seen scenes get drawn during gameplay like that since the c64.

Re:Halo 2: The Search for more Money

[SetupWeasel]

Now we have leet-speak grammar nazis? Only on Slashdot!

Re:Call me a purist . . .

[drxray]

I'd say the slowness WAS the novelty of Halo. It made it accessible to console players and non-FPS gamers (while putting off experienced players). The vehicles were also nice - you can't play VCTF in Doom...

My Roomate Disappears.

[Threatis]

Great, Another reason for my roomate to not come out of his room for three weeks.

And everyone who runs out and buys it...

[Winterblink]

... just further affirms to the game industry that it's totally ok to half-ass the ending to a game so it can be shuffled out the door early. Don't help them set the precedence that they can make more money by selling the finishing touches later that should have been included in the first place.