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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.'"
In its first 24 hours, the game raked in $125 million dollars courtesy of 2.4 million copies sold. By comparison, Spider-man holds the current box-office record for biggest opening weekend take, having earned a comparatively paltry $114 million over three days.
Not to say anything bad, but this comaprison can't really be made. The last time I checked, movie tickets didn't cost $50 each.
The last time I checked, movie tickets didn't cost $50 each.
Microsoft's Halo 2* is rated ESRB::M, which corresponds to MPAA::R. When you factor in the ticket price, gasoline, popcorn, and babysitting for your kids, seeing a first-run theatrical release approaches 50 USD faster than you would think. Besides, because of the order of magnitude difference in play times between a video game and a movie, it's slightly more honest to compare a game to a theatrical trilogy (e.g. The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter 1-3, or Star Wars 4-6 or *gag* 1-3).
*Not to be confused with Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails.
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.
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.