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Halo 2 Online Preservation Effort Ends
A couple weeks ago, we discussed news that some dedicated Halo 2 fans were keeping the game's multiplayer alive after support for online play was dropped. Now, a few days shy of a month after support ended, the last users have been knocked off the server.
"[A user named] Apache N4SIR outlasted everyone. 'May 11th @ 0158hrs I was FORCEFULLY REMOVED!!' he wrote on the forums at Bungie.net. 'I thought I'd be the one turning off the lights but that was done for me. Good night everyone, my Elite needs a rest.' His last comrade in arms, Agent Windex, was still signed on, as spotted by Kotaku at 4 p.m. US Pacific Time on May 10, but their adventure, which began on April 15, ended after Windex announced 21 minutes later that he had been removed from play and Apache N4SIR suffered a similar fate hours later, as he described in his post."
Counterstrike. I seriously doubt it will decommision in my lifetime
XBConnect is pretty sweet.
Allowed playing of the Original Halo online before Xboxlive existed.
Also allowed for playing of Halo 2 online well before the official release date
Not to mention all the modded Halo versions that can only be played online via a VPN
VPN allowed for much more freedom with regards to game choices and banning of cheating players.
Once again the community compiled something more useful than the locked down mainstream service.
Halo 2 was released in 2004, its now 2010. Thats almost 6 years. Don't know of many (if any) console games that have had that much online support made for them. I don't feel thats really screwing over your loyal customers as have some of the longest online multiplayer support. And there is a time for a business to have to cut legacy support.
I'm still playing Halo's online multiplayer on my PC and that's a Microsoft/Bungie game.
What makes consoles so special?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
First they take multiplayer away after 6 yrs, next it will be DRM disabling of single player after 6 yrs... then 5... 4.... 3.... or whenever the sequal comes out. Slippery slope, and I'm sure some kid will say "Come on that game is 2 yrs old and they have a sequal they have to stop support someday!". No, they didn't, they designed the game so multiplayer support could be shut-off and use that as an excuse.
Here's an idea then if thats how you look at these things. Don't buy consoles. Buy PC only games. Sure they can remove these functions as well, but as with hacks and cracks and whatever else you can think of, people can and will find a way to get around these problems when they are on a computer. That way you'll never had to really worry about these issues as they only become minor setbacks and never total problems.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
There is a difference between peer to peer lan play, and an online system with pickup games.
I run a battlenet server for local diablo2 and warcraft3 players that has about 15 people online at any given time. this is great considering that the local isp offers 5mb links between local users but only has about 10mb shared for all of us to use.
We also have a few quake servers and are running a jedi outcast server that gets some frequent use.
Try that without a full-blown dedicated server.
That's why no serious PC gamer seriously considers MW2 for purchase.
The sky is not falling. The beauty of PCs is you don't need anyone's permission to do what you want with your hardware. Multiplayer gaming where the customers are in control is not going away.
i mean, for all its faults, you can still play diablo 1 online without any issues with blizzard. yet, halo, itself a very popular game today, got its multiplayer support dropped.
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