That would be the battle rifle and the covenant carbine, respectively. Anyone who says the thos weapons suck (which I read a lot) obviously doesn't know how to use them very well, because you can destroy people from a decent distance with a few well placed battle rifle shots to the forehead.
In fact, in most of the custom games I set up, the battle rifle is the starting weapon because it's so useful in most situations, aside from having a shotgun liberally inserted in your nostril from a foot or two away. It's an invaluable tool on larger maps like Coagulation (the new Blood Gulch), Headlong, and Burial Mounds, for example, where you'd otherwise start out in the middle of the field with an SMG, which'll normally get you killed pretty fast.
I did read the article. And the article says what I said. He's a Halo 1 champ, and at this point, just really good at Halo 2. I never said he'd suck at Halo 2, which would be really odd, just that he became a 'champion' (professionally) with Halo 1. Just pointing out the difference, and giving him more credit than that submission's title implies, since adding the Halo 1 part shows the longevity.
As far as I know, Zyos is a Halo Champion, and not yet a Halo 2 champion. He's arguably the best 'professional' Halo 1 player, but I've seen nothing regarding his Halo 2 skills. Obviously, they'll transfer over for the most part, but there are differences (lack of the original pistol, for example) that do significantly impact how one plays the game. I know plenty of people that aren't nearly as good at Halo 2 as they were at Halo 1 for that reason alone, so I thought I'd make the distinction about which game truly made him a 'champion'.
That's because CRTs have so much more contrast. Lower the contrast some, and maybe even raise up the brightness, and it'll help out your eyes a lot. Ever notice that movie modes on television sets are always a lot darker? That's why.
Yeah, I've been boycotting EA ever since the days of the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast. Not that it's stopped them. All this new stuff (UBISoft, the NFL deal) just adds fuel to an already big fire.
That Bungie.net's Halo 2 Stats are really cool. They don't always show every game you played, although most of the time things show up as they should. If only their website didn't suck, and I'd also like to be able to access those same stats from the game itself, which you can't do. The fact that there's an RSS feed for them is an even better added bonus, in that for those of us that can't actually hit Bungie.net from work (like me) you can have a stats page that'll go fetch the RSS for you so that you can rub the results in a co-worker's face the next day. Excellent.
I wish other game companies would do this as well, like UBISoft with their Tom Clancy line of games. It's also nice to be able to check your friend's stats to see how often they play, which weapons they use, and how they're fairing online, so that the next time you play them, you'll know that they have a tendency to run a certain route, or go straight for the shotgun, for example. An invaluable tool.
Nope, because when you think about it, the world gets better because the a-hole that ran you over goes to jail for manslaughter, and the world gets worse because two people died due to some a-hole driving too fast and not yeilding to pedestrians.
In my opinion, that's just retarded. Wouldn't at least some percentage of Google's population be required to use other search engines to compare results? One would think they'd be constantly comparing themselves to others in this fashion in order to keep ahead of their competitors, and that would account for at least a percentage or so.
Yeah, except Burnout 3 is an EA game, and we all know that EA doesn't really bow to anyone, including Microsoft, which is why their games' online set up sucks, because they had to have it their way.
Ah, memories. The two launch titles for the PS1 (yes, there were only two!) were Toshiden and Ridge Racer. Toshiden was a graphical masterpiece that played like Street Fighter, and also, um, sucked. Ridge Racer, on the other hand, was an amazing game, and an arcade perfect conversion to boot. It had only one track, that had a couple different branching paths (based on difficulty) and that was it. Nonetheless, the hardcore, broke college boys that we were, we'd race that damn track over and over and over again, trying to shave precious hundreds of seconds off our times and striving for the perfect lap (which was basically impossible to do two laps in a row).
The thing that you don't really notice is cool and original about Halo 2 until it's pointed out to you: The fact that your teamate AI's actually have conversations with eachother, while you're playing, and even coordinate attacks with eachother.
I, for one, would refuse the option of KB/M if it was presented to me on a console. First of all, because I don't like playing that way, and second of all, because I'd have to create some ridiculous setup in order to be able to play while sitting on the couch, which is one of the major differences between consoles and pcs anyway. I had enough of that keyboard crap with the Sega Dreamcast's online system, thank you very much.
Everytime a Slashdot story goes up about a console FPS, it's always the same control scheme thing. No, a pad isn't as precise as a mouse, but it doesn't really matter, since it's still possible to get a perfect headshot in Halo 2 with a sniper rifle when someone's jumping down off a tower at you. I've done it several times, and it's not at all hard.
Same thing does for Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox, when even if you're running (which takes the auto-aim away, it's still possible to quickly turn and get a headshot halfway across the map if you're even halfway decent at the game. It's still analog control, and you get used to it to the point that you know exactly how much pressure to apply, and in what direction, in order to exactly hit your mark.
Some people aim just as well (or well enough, anyway) with their thumbs as other do with their whole forearm and wrist. Personally, I don't like the KB/M control scheme at all, whether it's technically better or not. But I know that's just my opinion.
I created a page to parse the XML for my stats on my site with a little help from my friend Kick the Donkey. The stats, for some reason, come oldest first, so we had to switch it to be reversed, showing the most recent game at the top. It's a lot cooler than having to check Bungie.net all the time, and has links that will take me straight to each specific game. Also, and more importantly, I can't check Bungie.net from work, where most of the guys I play with are, so this helps a lot with bragging-in-your-face rights the next day. All in all, pretty cool, and you can check it out at my site, here. Strange the number of games they picked to list in the XML file though. Not 30, not 35, but 34. Huh?
Who cares? They cut out the online portion and already stated that they'd release an online version sometime early next year. Why buy the initial version when another one is coming out soon with more features? It's like buying a pan-and-scan movie on VHS when you can wait two months for the widescreen DVD.
Most developers don't write to cache to the hard-drive, but that doesn't mean they don't write for it. You've forgotten custom soundtracks and content downloads. Most UBIsoft games (Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell), Ninja Gaiden, Links 2004, Rallisport Challenge 2, Project Gotham 2, ToCA Race Driver 2, Halo 2...
Those all use the hardrive, and I'm not talking about just game saves either. They allow you to download new content, and do custom soundtracks, and if most users didn't have an HD, those features simply wouldn't be there, if market history is anything to go by.
Segmenting the market makes the HD essentially an add-on, which have never been accepted well. Sony's HD was an add-on too, and has anyone noticed that the new PSTwo doesn't support it? That's because they've given up on developers actually using the damn thing.
Um, actually, not that many gamecube game take advantage of the link up. That example is exactly my point, or the Sony HD, which is used by, what, two games?
How about all the Xbox games that support custom soundtracks and content download? We'd see that number drastically drop.
...on the entire article. Will play PC games? What the hell for? Why would you go through all the coding and compatibility concerns for a market segment that would make you zero dollars? Money is makd off licensing and selling software, and allowing PC games to be played eliminate those dollars.
An HD and Non-HD version? Yeah right. Let's segment the console market, that's always a good idea. (See Sega CD, 32X, the PS2 HD, etc.) Developers wouldn't bother writing things to use the HD if they knew everyone didn't have one, or that it's just a small part of the market.
Xbox Live has content download as one of its main features, and this requires local storage. Releasing a stripped down version of Xbox 2 would eliminate that feature for most people, and we all know Xbox Live's features will carry over to the next Xbox, so I'd count that whole two-version deal out as well.
Overall, I find the article to be a bunch of crap, which makes sense considering the name of the site.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the game. Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, for example, had more content download (for free) than shipped with the actual game, pretty much. I guarentee that we'll be seeing many downloadable maps for Halo 2 as well. As for Prince of Persia, I'd guess there may be just a handful of these maps, not unlike Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, which just had two.
Now that you mention it, though, releasing Halo 2 in arcades would be a pretty cool move, as long as they had a whole system link thing going on. Not that you can't just do it at home, but still...
Slashdot Mirror
That would be the battle rifle and the covenant carbine, respectively. Anyone who says the thos weapons suck (which I read a lot) obviously doesn't know how to use them very well, because you can destroy people from a decent distance with a few well placed battle rifle shots to the forehead.
In fact, in most of the custom games I set up, the battle rifle is the starting weapon because it's so useful in most situations, aside from having a shotgun liberally inserted in your nostril from a foot or two away. It's an invaluable tool on larger maps like Coagulation (the new Blood Gulch), Headlong, and Burial Mounds, for example, where you'd otherwise start out in the middle of the field with an SMG, which'll normally get you killed pretty fast.
I did read the article. And the article says what I said. He's a Halo 1 champ, and at this point, just really good at Halo 2. I never said he'd suck at Halo 2, which would be really odd, just that he became a 'champion' (professionally) with Halo 1. Just pointing out the difference, and giving him more credit than that submission's title implies, since adding the Halo 1 part shows the longevity.
As far as I know, Zyos is a Halo Champion, and not yet a Halo 2 champion. He's arguably the best 'professional' Halo 1 player, but I've seen nothing regarding his Halo 2 skills. Obviously, they'll transfer over for the most part, but there are differences (lack of the original pistol, for example) that do significantly impact how one plays the game. I know plenty of people that aren't nearly as good at Halo 2 as they were at Halo 1 for that reason alone, so I thought I'd make the distinction about which game truly made him a 'champion'.
That's because CRTs have so much more contrast. Lower the contrast some, and maybe even raise up the brightness, and it'll help out your eyes a lot. Ever notice that movie modes on television sets are always a lot darker? That's why.
Yeah, I've been boycotting EA ever since the days of the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast. Not that it's stopped them. All this new stuff (UBISoft, the NFL deal) just adds fuel to an already big fire.
From Penny Arcade to EA:
PA: How do you respond to rumors that you are the fucking devil?
EA: EA does not comment on rumors.
The best is when you're playing online with someone, and they actually say "You got pwned', pronounced as 'Powned'. Seriously.
That Bungie.net's Halo 2 Stats are really cool. They don't always show every game you played, although most of the time things show up as they should. If only their website didn't suck, and I'd also like to be able to access those same stats from the game itself, which you can't do. The fact that there's an RSS feed for them is an even better added bonus, in that for those of us that can't actually hit Bungie.net from work (like me) you can have a stats page that'll go fetch the RSS for you so that you can rub the results in a co-worker's face the next day. Excellent.
I wish other game companies would do this as well, like UBISoft with their Tom Clancy line of games. It's also nice to be able to check your friend's stats to see how often they play, which weapons they use, and how they're fairing online, so that the next time you play them, you'll know that they have a tendency to run a certain route, or go straight for the shotgun, for example. An invaluable tool.
Nope, because when you think about it, the world gets better because the a-hole that ran you over goes to jail for manslaughter, and the world gets worse because two people died due to some a-hole driving too fast and not yeilding to pedestrians.
In my opinion, that's just retarded. Wouldn't at least some percentage of Google's population be required to use other search engines to compare results? One would think they'd be constantly comparing themselves to others in this fashion in order to keep ahead of their competitors, and that would account for at least a percentage or so.
Oh crap, here comes the keyboard/mouse debate again. Yes, yes, we all know. Please spare us.
Yeah, except Burnout 3 is an EA game, and we all know that EA doesn't really bow to anyone, including Microsoft, which is why their games' online set up sucks, because they had to have it their way.
Ah, memories. The two launch titles for the PS1 (yes, there were only two!) were Toshiden and Ridge Racer. Toshiden was a graphical masterpiece that played like Street Fighter, and also, um, sucked. Ridge Racer, on the other hand, was an amazing game, and an arcade perfect conversion to boot. It had only one track, that had a couple different branching paths (based on difficulty) and that was it. Nonetheless, the hardcore, broke college boys that we were, we'd race that damn track over and over and over again, trying to shave precious hundreds of seconds off our times and striving for the perfect lap (which was basically impossible to do two laps in a row).
The thing that you don't really notice is cool and original about Halo 2 until it's pointed out to you: The fact that your teamate AI's actually have conversations with eachother, while you're playing, and even coordinate attacks with eachother.
I, for one, would refuse the option of KB/M if it was presented to me on a console. First of all, because I don't like playing that way, and second of all, because I'd have to create some ridiculous setup in order to be able to play while sitting on the couch, which is one of the major differences between consoles and pcs anyway. I had enough of that keyboard crap with the Sega Dreamcast's online system, thank you very much.
Everytime a Slashdot story goes up about a console FPS, it's always the same control scheme thing. No, a pad isn't as precise as a mouse, but it doesn't really matter, since it's still possible to get a perfect headshot in Halo 2 with a sniper rifle when someone's jumping down off a tower at you. I've done it several times, and it's not at all hard.
Same thing does for Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox, when even if you're running (which takes the auto-aim away, it's still possible to quickly turn and get a headshot halfway across the map if you're even halfway decent at the game. It's still analog control, and you get used to it to the point that you know exactly how much pressure to apply, and in what direction, in order to exactly hit your mark.
Some people aim just as well (or well enough, anyway) with their thumbs as other do with their whole forearm and wrist. Personally, I don't like the KB/M control scheme at all, whether it's technically better or not. But I know that's just my opinion.
I created a page to parse the XML for my stats on my site with a little help from my friend Kick the Donkey. The stats, for some reason, come oldest first, so we had to switch it to be reversed, showing the most recent game at the top. It's a lot cooler than having to check Bungie.net all the time, and has links that will take me straight to each specific game. Also, and more importantly, I can't check Bungie.net from work, where most of the guys I play with are, so this helps a lot with bragging-in-your-face rights the next day. All in all, pretty cool, and you can check it out at my site, here. Strange the number of games they picked to list in the XML file though. Not 30, not 35, but 34. Huh?
Who cares? They cut out the online portion and already stated that they'd release an online version sometime early next year. Why buy the initial version when another one is coming out soon with more features? It's like buying a pan-and-scan movie on VHS when you can wait two months for the widescreen DVD.
Most developers don't write to cache to the hard-drive, but that doesn't mean they don't write for it. You've forgotten custom soundtracks and content downloads. Most UBIsoft games (Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell), Ninja Gaiden, Links 2004, Rallisport Challenge 2, Project Gotham 2, ToCA Race Driver 2, Halo 2...
Those all use the hardrive, and I'm not talking about just game saves either. They allow you to download new content, and do custom soundtracks, and if most users didn't have an HD, those features simply wouldn't be there, if market history is anything to go by.
Segmenting the market makes the HD essentially an add-on, which have never been accepted well. Sony's HD was an add-on too, and has anyone noticed that the new PSTwo doesn't support it? That's because they've given up on developers actually using the damn thing.
Um, actually, not that many gamecube game take advantage of the link up. That example is exactly my point, or the Sony HD, which is used by, what, two games? How about all the Xbox games that support custom soundtracks and content download? We'd see that number drastically drop.
...on the entire article. Will play PC games? What the hell for? Why would you go through all the coding and compatibility concerns for a market segment that would make you zero dollars? Money is makd off licensing and selling software, and allowing PC games to be played eliminate those dollars.
An HD and Non-HD version? Yeah right. Let's segment the console market, that's always a good idea. (See Sega CD, 32X, the PS2 HD, etc.) Developers wouldn't bother writing things to use the HD if they knew everyone didn't have one, or that it's just a small part of the market.
Xbox Live has content download as one of its main features, and this requires local storage. Releasing a stripped down version of Xbox 2 would eliminate that feature for most people, and we all know Xbox Live's features will carry over to the next Xbox, so I'd count that whole two-version deal out as well.
Overall, I find the article to be a bunch of crap, which makes sense considering the name of the site.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the game. Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, for example, had more content download (for free) than shipped with the actual game, pretty much. I guarentee that we'll be seeing many downloadable maps for Halo 2 as well. As for Prince of Persia, I'd guess there may be just a handful of these maps, not unlike Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, which just had two.
Here we go again with this...
Yeah, but who really wants to be a zombie?
Now that you mention it, though, releasing Halo 2 in arcades would be a pretty cool move, as long as they had a whole system link thing going on. Not that you can't just do it at home, but still...