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Master Chief Revisited
vituperation writes "1UP has a feature up today marking the first anniversary of Halo 2. It's brief, but it manages to cover the hype around its launch, how well Bungie has handled its problems, and how gamers feel about the game after a year. From the article: 'Creatively, though, Halo 2 has been a less clear-cut victory. It's a technical marvel, one of the most visually-impressive games on the market thanks to its solid graphic design and gimmicky tricks like normal mapping. Yet it's also jarringly buggy in places, which has created no end of trouble for those who want a fair multiplayer match.'"
Bungie's Anniversary Page has shots of Halo 1 and 2 on the XBox 360 in 720p (including comparisons with 480p) so you can see how good things can look.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Halo 2 may have flaws, but it's still gaming crack. Graphics and technology aside - the gameplay is really what sets Halo apart from other shooters. It's just so fluid, so damn smooth. It doesn't have the twitchiness of Counterstrike or the nonsense of Quake or its like. Yes, the modders and kiddies make you want to reach through the communicator and strangle someone.....but I keep going back, even a year later.
But on the other hand, a movie is 1.5 hours of entertainment; a video game (especially one with such a large MP component) is potentially hundreds of hours.
Or, put another way, if a movie ticket is 10 bucks for 1.5 hours, or about $6.6/hour, then playing Halo 2 for just under eight hours, which is about how long it takes for a good player to get through the single player, means you've made the same entertainment-to-dollars ratio.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I played the PC version of the first one, and I have to say it was pretty boring. I am not saying it wasn't a good game, only there are so many other shooters out there for PC that beat it. I agree with all those before me that say it is the lack of shooters for the system that made it big...PLUS! Many PC players today are actually scared of playing modern day shooters for some strange reason, and feal more comfortable playing console shooters. It is almost like they are intemidated. That and not being able to afford hardware to play PC shooters at a decent level. All these facts put together show why Halo did good in sales and popularity, and that makes it a winner.