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XBox (Games) Microsoft

Halo 2 Released 550

Posted by michael from the dark-dark-dark-dark dept.
mjxg writes "Halo 2 has finally hit the shelves for hardcore fans. VNUnet speaks about the long lines and the 12:01am release that many stores participated in. Many people obtained the Limited Collector's Edition. Eventually we'll get word of the final first day sales to see if Halo 2 can top the sales charts for the year, or possibly become the most popular console game in history. It is already estimated to top the all-time opening day entertainment sales charts."
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Halo 2 Released More

Halo 2 Released

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  • Can't talk now (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:55PM (#10767443)
    playing Halo 2.

  • Oh really (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:55PM (#10767444)
    They're making a sequel to Halo? I hadn't noticed

  • pffft ... FPS on a console (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:55PM (#10767445)
    It ain't the real deal without a mouse & keyboard. That's like having sex with a blow-up doll ... (or so I've heard)
    • Get an adapter [cliffracer.com]

      Then you too, Anonymous Coward, can enjoy the fine benefits of keyboard/mouse on xbox! -Cyc


    • True.

      I'm really tempted to buy this [lik-sang.com], and then an xbox, and then halo, just to see how well it actually works.

    • Re:pffft ... FPS on a console (Score:4, Funny)

      by hine_uk ( 783556 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:06PM (#10767577)
      except with a blow up doll you do the screwing - at the end of halo 2 you just feel screwed

      • Modded Funny? hah, try Informative (Score:5, Interesting)

        by fracai ( 796392 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @02:17PM (#10768346)
        The ending is so unsatisfying you'll be screaming for Halo 3 before your controller hits the floor.
        The most blatant plug for a sequel I've ever seen.

        I doubt too many here will catch the reference but the first thing that popped into my head when I saw "pfft" was: "The colony has been wiped out. Phhht! Just like that."

        Phhht indeed! Gone are the hallowed Bungie days of lore which held an interesting and engaging storyline high on the list of gaming interests. I guess Bungie has truly abandoned their roots for multiplayer driven, rather than story driven, games.

        Aleph One, you are my savior.

        Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed playing Halo and I'm sure the multiplayer is fantastic. It's just sad to see Halo storyline turn into Halo 2.
    • I can deal with the lack of a keyboard and mouse, and as others have said you CAN use them on an XBox. What I cant deal with is the dumbed down interface and low res graphics.

    • Yeah.. (Score:3, Funny)

      by paranode ( 671698 )
      ... because the first Halo sucked sooo much ass on the console.
    • Before I am modded to the bowels of hell, I just want to say that, while many slashdotters' only expierience with FPS games has been with a keyboard and mouse, this doesn't mean that a dual joystick controller is nessessarily inferior.

      The advantages of keyboard and mouse are as follows:
      Can move mouse to shoot anywhere on the screen easily.

      This is good, yes. But consider the disadvantages for a moment.

      1) Out of mousemat error.
      Sooner or later, your going run out of mousemat when your turning and will have to lift the mouse back onto the pad to continue. Meaning you'll simply stop turning while your doing this. On a DJC, you just tilt the right analouge stick right or left for continuous turning.

      2) Out of fingers error.
      With a keyboard and mouse, you aim with the mouse, meaning one hand, and all its fingers, can only access, 2-3 buttons.(Scrollwheels help with this a lot though) Usually these are shoot,change weapon and other. Meanwhile your other fingers, usually 2-3, are stuck on WASD for moving. If you want to crouch, reload, zoom, jump or perhaps change weapon reverse, you will need to do some keyboard gymnastics, look down, or (horror of horrors) stop moving to press other buttons. On a DJC, one thumb is used for movement, the other for aiming. Flipper pads mean four buttons are easily reachable by two more fingers, and the dpad and other buttons are acessable by a nimble other if required. Bottom line. You can keep moving while you perform on the fly weapon maitainance. DJC has a lot more buffer space for out of fingers errors.

      3) Mouse Error, Error.
      Most comupter mice are fairly cheap anyaway. Mice get junk in the wheels. Even optical mice glitch from time to time. Buttons sometimes get stuck, and of course hands may slip or be jostled from time to time. The average DJC is of a higher quaility than the average mouse and suffers far less from any of these problems.

      4) Keyboard limitations
      Open up a text editor. Press and hold E. Without letting go hold C. Now while holding, tap U. See the problem? Now try W,D and E. E will not register. Try WAQ. There are umpteen other combinations. Keyboards can't handle many multiple keydown combinations. DJC can.

      OK, the disadvantage of DJCs will no doubt be blasted endlessly at me. Less precision, etc, etc.
      But consider for a moment? Is a game filled with head shot hunting, rail driver packing, KBM gurus more or less fun than a game filled with DJC toting, ultra mobile, shotgun blasting, upclose and personal players?

      And before you knock DJC, Try it out!! They're dirt cheap now, and are available anywhere. I know some will never budge from dogma, but if enough people follow me, then maybe I'll get more joypad support in Linux from now on.

      • I'm sorry, but points (1) and (3) are just not valid. I never move my mouse enough to have to pick it back up since the sensitivity is so high usually, and I've seen quite a bit more junky console controllers that are worn out then I have warn out *optical* mice.

        (2) is only valid if you play like an idiot. I can do quite a bit with my mouse and keyboard, to the point where a xbox controlls clearly has less buttons I can use at once. My mouse has 5 buttons on it, one of which is the wheel that has 3 actions (click, scrollup, and scrolldown), so that is in effect 7 buttons on my mouse, plus the movement of the mouse itself. On the keyboard I can use the sides of my hands to hit other keys as well as my other fingers. I play with the arrow keys and can hit or hold control or shift with the left side of my left hand and still use my pinky or ringfinger to hit enter or the single-quote key, while using my pointer or thumb to hit keys on the number pad.

        (4) I dont think is an issue for games either since its all in how you control the keyboard. It is not the same to compare a text editor to a game, since they access the keyboard in a different way. I've never ran into a limitation with holding down many keys and mouse buttons at once while playing Quake or RTCW, and I often have every single key on my entire keyboard used for something, although many of the keys off to the left are just quick-chats.

      • Re:No, A Dual Joystick Controller Really Is Better (Score:5, Insightful)

        by nrlightfoot ( 607666 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @02:54PM (#10768724) Homepage
        1)Apparently you have a rather old computer, as anyone with a modern computer would have an optical mouse and thus not need a mousepad. This may explain your affinity for consoles. If you run out of room with an optical mouse, you probably just need to clear some dirty dishes of your desk.

        2)With a mouse my aiming hand can also press up to 4 buttons at one time, while aiming. While your control pad only allows you to press one button while aiming, and you have to stop aiming briefly to reload, change grenade type, switch weapons, hit someone, turn on a flashlight, or jump. Meanwhile your hand moving your character only ever has access to two other buttons, while my keyboard hand, which at last count had 5 fingers not 2-3 (woodshop accident?) in fact my left hand has access to 27 buttons, although I havent had to program more than 18 more easily reached keys for any game i've played. This leaves me with 24 keys, 4 of which are devoted to movement, thus I have 20 keys to do what I want with to your 10, although with the game interface simplification required to support the limited interface of a DJC, I probably won't be using 10 of my buttons when Halo 2 comes out for pc. I've never noticed an issue with a keyboard not accepting commands in a game because I'm pressing too many buttons.

        3)if you're going to spend $200 on a nice grapics card you probably spent $30-40 on a nice optical mouse too, and I've never noticed an optical mouse glitch. And of course my mouse is made by Microsoft, who at last check, also make the X-box, and my keyboard. Enough said about quality

        4)Never noticed the keyboard being overloaded in games, thus it isn't a problem, but it might be helped by a usb keyboard if it becomes an issue.

        Well, I did try out a DJC, last night on Halo 2 until 3 am, and having played Halo on a pc before, I can say that I would be twice the player I was last night back on a proper keyboard and mouse interface. DJC controls are just awfull and frustrating when compared to the venerable mouse and keyboard combination

      • Re:No, A Dual Joystick Controller Really Is Better (Score:4, Insightful)

        by SendBot ( 29932 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @03:58PM (#10769432) Homepage Journal
        Okay, this is too much to ignore. I have many times enjoyed the FPS console experience, especially with goldeneye back in the day. I think the [PS2] controls for GTA are among the best I've ever experienced, and I have a great deal of experience in PC FPS with my peak of performance during the Q3A and CS heydays.

        But the parent comment is just simply incorrect on all numbered points:

        1. If you run out of mousepad, try increasing sensitivity and learn the skill of picking up your mouse during play. It's not that hard and it comes naturally.

        2. Generally I only absolutely need my middle finger for forward/back movement at all times. My pinky is always available to any of the 3 keys I use with it. My ring finger can reach 4 extra buttons I use in addition to strafing. I use my index finger for 3 additional keys, though I can reach more. I also have a free thumb for spacebar action. And that's only my left hand. Compared to a DJ controller, I only have the trigger available to me while I keep my thumb on the joystick for movement. I can use the dpad, but not while moving. As for the right hand on a DJC, try pushing more than two buttons at the same time with your thumb, or two buttons opposite each other.

        3. If your mouse is crappy, that's more of a personal problem.

        4. This is just ignorant. Keyboards send a message for keyup and keydown. Text editors don't handle keyboard input the same way games do.

        The art of manually targeted headshot is completely abesnt with a DJ controller. And unless the gameplay compensates for it, the slow movement speed (where you'd use a mouse) with a DJ controller is just painful.

  • Just got mine (Score:3, Informative)

    by milkme123 ( 302350 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:55PM (#10767448)
    I just grabbed mine at lunch. Thankfully the office is close to the EB in the Eaton Centre (Toronto, Canada).

    All told it took 9 mins from getting in line to leaving the store, but just wait until the after-school crowd gets in on things...

  • Most Hyped Game Of All Time released (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well, good. Now after hearing for months and months about how good Halo 2 is we'll finally get to, you know, actually hear from people who've played it.

  • Other record: Best reviewed game ever? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:58PM (#10767479) Journal
    http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/562116.asp [gamerankings.com]

    When all of these sources start giving it the highest or nearly highest scores possible, it does make you think that this is the real deal.

    And yes, you clown who is about to hit reply and rant about marketing guys twisting arms of magazine editors who live from their adverts, that might be part of it but I doubt that could have infected all of the reviewers out there.

    • Re:Other record: Best reviewed game ever? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hine_uk ( 783556 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:09PM (#10767603)
      there is the "emporers new clothes" syndrome though. And I dont belive that halo is being reviewed fairly ala fable. Its a good game, not a great one.
    • Well it will be a good year cuz HL2 is only one percentage less than Halo 2. Part of that i think is becuase the lack of reviews for HL2. Halo V HL the consoles V PCs it will be fun. http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914642.asp
    • I have a different kind of record to propose...

      However, British Xbox gamers will have to wait for two days until 11 November, when the game will be unveiled in the UK, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

      No mention that the french version has been out for some time. I actually thought for a moment that they had forgotten, but they no have not !

      "With more than 1.5 million copies already pre-ordered,

      Notice the clever

  • Feh. November the 11th. (Score:3, Informative)

    by EnglishTim ( 9662 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:58PM (#10767493)
    Gotta wait two more days over here in the UK. /grumbles

  • Hopefully not as terrible as the first (Score:3, Insightful)

    by j235 ( 734628 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:59PM (#10767501)
    I don't understand how people can play the first game. FPS control without a keyboard and mouse is... difficult to say the least. And even with the PC version of Halo, it just seems like a watered down version of tribes to me. Hopefully Halo 2 is drastically improved (so I actually have something to do with my friends over at their house)
    • I wish the PC version was coming out today. The first Halo isn't sucking enough of my free time up. :)

    • Re:Hopefully not as terrible as the first (Score:5, Funny)

      by bleckywelcky ( 518520 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:22PM (#10767738)
      Penny Arcade put it well:

      http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3/ [penny-arcade.com]

      Halo has exposed a new set of people to FPS gaming: those that are not technically inclined enough to get a computer and play HL, Quake, Doom, etc. IE: your typical morons that run around pursuing degrees in communications, interpretive dance, and underwater basket weaving. It is only big because these people have not seen an FPS before. As far as FPSs are concerned, Halo is average - not that it's a bad game, but it's just a typical run-of-the-mill production. Sure, you can load it up and have a bit of fun, but it is not what Quake used to be, nor is it what Half Life has been for the past several years.
      • But on the lighter side, should there be a PC version that can network with these console llamas, well...

        Let the drive-by fragfest of FPS n00bs begin :-).
        • Microsoft will not allow the console players to interact with the PC players because they know that the console players would get their asses handed to them. And the end result would be that no one on a console would want to play online anymore.

          In highschool a friend of mine claimed that he was a master of some FPS (probably Quake or something from that era). Somehow it came about that he used the keyboard to look around (ie: he did not use the mouse). I was astounded and questioned his ability to use the

      • Re:Hopefully not as terrible as the first (Score:5, Interesting)

        by minister of funk ( 123188 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:41PM (#10767958)
        It is well put, but also ignoring a significant section of XBox culture-- that which used to ride the cutting edge of PC hardware but now has other priorities that take money away from hardware upgrades. The XBox is a nice fit for that segment of people because it's a one-time hardware investment with $30 additional controllers and $50 games.

        I enjoy the balance of Halo, and the vehicles. The graphics are immersive and the play paced very nicely. I enjoy the visuals in Halo, and the sound mix. It is unobtrusive and serves to suspend reality. I can no longer afford to upgrade my computer to play Half-Life 2 or Doom 3 (damn house... damn family... damn wife), but I can afford to stay up all night with my wife and kill Covenant and Flood troops! (she's as excited as I am for Halo 2, which is way cool!)

      • better link (Score:5, Informative)

        by Tired_Blood ( 582679 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @03:01PM (#10768786)
        Here's the correct and more permanent link [penny-arcade.com].

        (when they release a new comic tomorrow, this one will still refer to the correct one)
    • Once I got used to the controls, I preffered the controller to keyboard and mouse. The controller vibrates, gives you feedback, gives you analog controls to control your movement.

      I don't know why people thing mouse/keyboard is gods gift to gaming. The mousepad slides or the mouse moves off the edge, your finger accidentally hits the wrong key, and your game is over.

      The fact that every level wasnt a completely new "universe" didn't bother me. The enemy AI was the best I'd seen up to that point, and I wa

  • Grand Solid Halo-Life 2 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @12:59PM (#10767504)
    If they would have made this game it would have saved me a few bucks...

  • Gamers taking day off from work (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ewg ( 158266 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:01PM (#10767519)
    Three percent of my employer's staff (well, three out of about one hundred) took vacation today in order to play Halo 2 all night.

    Now that's intense.

    • Re:Gamers taking day off from work (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:10PM (#10767613)
      Three percent of my employer's staff (well, three out of about one hundred) took vacation today in order to play Halo 2 all night.

      Now that's intense.


      You misspelled 'incredibly dorky'.

      • Three percent of my employer's staff (well, three out of about one hundred) took vacation today in order to play Halo 2 all night. Now that's intense.

        You misspelled
        'incredibly dorky'.


        You mispelled, "On the list for next round of layoffs."
    • I have taken days off of work to go and do plenty of fun things. Camping, geocaching, drinking, have the satellite installer come and put a dish on my roof, wait for the UPS man so I can sign for the package.

      Man, that's intense.
  • Well, I hope they improved the AI.
    In Halo (at least in the PC version) the enemies were only - somewhat - decent, while your marine buddies were cannonfodder for the most time. Oh well, since you loose them all from mission to mission, over and over again, it probably doesn't matter. ;)

  • Dont hate me. I still dont get it. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DeepFried ( 644194 ) * on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:01PM (#10767525) Homepage
    Maybe I played this game on the wrong day but I just didn't get it. It looked good from the outset. It had elements that reminded me of games I love like Deus Ex and Half Life. But then I got into the "Halo" world and started to get chased by a bunch of Smurfs. All of the cute little animals making noises like squeaky toys. I felt bad shooting them actually.
    • Personally, I loved Halo, but it took a while because I used to be 100% FPS for the PC, but Halo wasn't that far off (I particularly enjoyed not having to worry about not having a good graphics card, much less tweaking the settings to get maximum FPS at the risk of quality). I think Halo 2 will be what CounterStrike was for the PC, if for anything because of its online multiplayer. With online scoreboards, rankings, and clan capability, this is going to be quite the game.
    • Is how it makes sense to post this story today, as anyone who remotely cares, is likely playing the game right now, and will continue doing so for the next 24-96 hours.

  • Last night my roomate and a bunch of people from the ajoining appartment went and stood in line at the mall for a few hours before the release just so they could have it back by as soon after midnight as they could get rung up at the store. I must say I haven't played much Halo but I was impressed at the improvements I did notice, and, goddamn, the levels are absolutely MASSIVE in that game!

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:02PM (#10767530)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:History? Not so much. (Score:5, Funny)

      by oGMo ( 379 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:17PM (#10767690)
      But I simply cannot understand the constant speculation that it might become the "most popular" or "bestselling" game in history.

      This is Microsoft History 2004. Other consoles don't exist. This is the best-selling XBOX game in history, and therefore the best-selling console game in history.

      If you say it enough times, it's true, right?

    • Microsoft??? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by eobanb ( 823187 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:30PM (#10767811) Homepage

      Why exactly does Microsoft deserve any congratulations, here? Virtually every single aspect of Halo's graphics, gameplay, and storyline were thought up in 1999 and 2000, by Bungie, while the XBox was still on the drawing board, before Microsoft had any part of it. It was going to be released on the Mac first, then on the PC. Bungie was probably THIS CLOSE to a beta, or at least an alpha, and Microsoft exploded the whole thing and wasted months and months re-writing the whole thing for the XBox.

      Why look, Here's one of the original trailers, from 2000 [bungie.org], 100% Microsoft-free. There's even a rocket warthog. Just ONE MONTH after that trailer was shown at E3, Microsoft bought the whole thing.

      I really do think MS has done nothing but fuck up everything. Mod me down all you want, but I really think Microsoft realised the XBox was going to fail, utterly, without Halo. It's a great game, but Microsoft didn't friggin' make it. Let's congratulate them for making Virtual PC too. And Windows.

  • In Other News... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Smitty825 ( 114634 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:03PM (#10767541) Homepage Journal
    In other news, hits to geek website http://slashdot.org [slashdot.org] is down 80% on the day...
    • Umm [lazylightning.org], was that before or after the story about movieblogging hit the front page causing a flood of hits to my mobile picture gallery linked from the moblog story from last week?
  • or possibly become the most popular console game in history

    Hello! GTA San Andreas came out two weeks ago. Different systems and all, but considering that Sony have a near monopoly with the PS2, shouldn't a simple law of averages dictate that your above statement is a troll.

    Disclaimer.
    I thought Halo was good. My only (minor) nag was the duplicated levels. However My favourite FPS is still red faction. Not that I'm a huge fan of FPS games in general. In short, I'm the kind of person that sits around gettin

  • Lack of serious comments (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:08PM (#10767595)
    At first I wondered why the troll-to-serious-comment ratio was so high on this article. Then I realized that anyone who actually cares about Halo 2 is playing their new game, not reading Slashdot. This story is like having an online discussion of Christianity at 9am on Easter Sunday.
    • Right, because there's no chance that any of us might be at work. I can get away with visiting Slashdot periodically, but I think bringing the Xbox in might get my fingers smacked.

  • Curse this ILoveBees ARG... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CharonX ( 522492 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:08PM (#10767599) Journal
    Kudoz to the makers of the ILoveBees ARG (= Halo 2 grassroots marketing campaign).
    They presented the story incredibly well (and managed to get F [slashdot.org] O [slashdot.org] U [slashdot.org] R [slashdot.org] times on slashdot)
    • ... and why do I curse them?
      Cuz now I either need to wait for a working X-Box emulator [caustik.com] - or need to buy or rent an actual X-Box to play the game ^^;
    • The whole ilovebees project was done incredibly well, with a very compelling storyline and above-average voice talent and directing. (Begin rant) My only compaint, and it is in no way a fault of 4orty2wo Entertainment [4orty2wo.com], is the way the NYC meetup was handled.

      MS or Bungie or *someone* made some errors, and I'm not just saying it because it didn't work out how I wanted it to (ok, maybe a little of that). Complaints: would it have killed them to add another 4 Xbox machines? Then maybe everyone could have had
  • ...trackers everywhere are buckling under the pressure after the Halo 2 release. Microsoft Game Publishing and Bungie Studios couldn't be reached for comment.

  • I waited in line with a friend so he could get his copy. I didn't think there'd be such a frenzy for this game. I believe there were 200 or so people from Blacksburg over at the mall...I was surprised that this game has such a following (I'm not a console-FPS gamer), but when I saw the people huddled around the big screen enjoying it I understood a bit why.

    But as much as Halo 2 craze is about, I don't think anything will ever compare to The Wizard-inducing Mario Mania...

  • waited in line for 2 1/2 hours and all I got was.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HyperHyper ( 519220 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:11PM (#10767634)
    a lousy Halo 2 pin..

    I showed up at 11:30am and there were 400-500 people at my EB.. nuts! I had a good time talking to the guys around me for the next 2 hours. M$ representatives were there handing out goodies for all us nerds. The biggest thing they gave out was giant Halo 2 boxes which looked like garbage being given away as gifts. After they had run out of those, they distributed a Halo 2 pin to all us unfortunates...

    After trading gaming tags with other guys in line (read: all male crowd), I went home and fired it up. I was hoping my lik-sang adapter mouse/keyboard adapter would be in already but it will be a while until then..

    My initial impressions after 2 hours: I like it so far BUT there is nothing really new in the single player game aside from the dual weapon thing. It feels like a bit of an add-on so far but that's not a bad thing because the first one was fun.

    So enjoy it when you can folks...

  • Here's the survey I want (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:12PM (#10767642) Journal
    How many of the people standing in line endless hours for this game voted last Tuesday?

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:15PM (#10767668)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Don't get me wrong, I'm just as big a geek as anyone else on here, a big fan of Unreal Tournament 2004 & Half-Life - yes, I'm even looking forward to Half-Life 2. BUT QUEUING UP AT MIDNIGHT FOR A GAME??? Sorry people, but that's just a little TOO creepy for me... Sure, I may drift down to my local computer store at lunchtime within the first couple of weeks of Half-Life 2 coming out but there's no way I'm queueing in the rain at midnight like some corporate-controlled mindless robot. It's JUST enter

      • Re:blind droolers (Score:4, Insightful)

        by NDPTAL85 ( 260093 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:40PM (#10767942)
        Why must something be comprehendable to you to be enjoyable? Everyone has different interests. Some folks get an adrenaline rush from being first. Others like the exclusivity from being first. Who cares, folks are having fun. You sound like you are bitter that everyone else hasn't given up the consumerist lifestyle as you aspire to. Oh wait a minute, aren't you using a computer with an internet connection that if you cancelled you could use the money to feed several third worlders for years to come?
    • >Sorry people, but that's just a little TOO creepy for me...

      Before Ticketmaster changed their policies way back when, my friends were always bugging me to come along with an all-night wait for tickets. It was almost never needed (in fact, if I trusted my memory more I'd say it was NEVER needed), but these little gatherings were little interesting psychological events. First and foremost, doing this is like pledging alleigance to the band/game/whatever. Its sort of the equivalant of going to Church wee

  • ? Top sellign game? (Score:2, Informative)

    by king-manic ( 409855 )
    Lets say everyone with an xbox picks one up. IT'll still sell less then GTA San andreas. why? because it's one of the few Xbox games worht getting, so theres a rush for it. But once it gets to a certain saturation, thats it. It's can't exceed the xbox install base for sales so it's can't exceed the total sales of GTA, btu ti could get to saturation of the market faster.
  • Wait till Half-life 2 comes out next week (nov 16). Whatever record Halo2 has set will sure to be smashed by the end of next week.

  • In related news.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Launch ( 66938 )
    Millions call in sick today to work. Turns out a 'flood' of sickness has struck working america. Might be time to call in master chief on this one.

  • Epic (Score:2)

    by nullset ( 39850 )
    I bought it last night just after midnight. The line wasn't that long...

    I played the first level. It seems like they're trying too hard to me. They're going for this overly grandiose and epic feel, and it just doesn't fit.

    But I still enjoyed what i've played so far, and i'll certainly finish it :)

    I'd like to see the covenant have a bit more personality...not just horrible villains, but they seem to just keep with the villanous mindset.

    And the elites all sound like Gov Arnie! It's hilarious....

  • Finally! (Score:5, Informative)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:27PM (#10767792)
    Good, I was hoping I could speak out somewhere about this. HBO's [bungie.org] forums were not accessible. I need to release my opinion on this, as not doing so would create some sort of cancerous growth within me. That and I just had my third double espresso...

    I never pre-ordered Halo 2. I just think the idea of pre-ordering a game is ridiculous, as real shortages almost never appear. So I sat here counting down the time last night all the time while being accosted. "Oh, I bet you can't wait for the nerd convention!" "Hug the first guy dressed as Master Chief!" My local video game retailer (Rhymes with "GameStop") was opening at "12:01" to sell the game. Now, I'm sort of in the middle of nowhere, so I didn't expect a lot of crowds as there were other ritzier stores also selling the game probably with like chips and soda and balloons. But this store was about half a mile away so I could deal with not having the fanfare. At about 11:30 I decided I would swing by the parking lot to see if there was a line, and, if not, get some groceries from the supermarket.

    Well, there's a line. There were about 100-150 people all single-file, wrapping around the corner of the shopping center. What surprised me is that they were almost all kids. I'm not saying "kids" like how old people say it (i.e. 'under 40'), I'm talking about 18 and under boys, many not accompanied by their parents but rather a hoodie and a pack of Camels trying to stay warm in the November cold. From talking with others in the line I find out most of the crowd got there by 8pm, with a few bringing chairs and camping out at 5:30pm earlier. They had been sitting there for six HOURS. Purely unnecessary, as you will soon find out.

    At about 11:40 one of the frightened employees came out and told us to form two lines. One would go to the right and was reserved for "VIPs" -- that is, people who had pre-ordered and paid in full. Anyone that did not order or pay in full can form a new line to the left.

    Well, the line on the left was me and about 4 other guys. By 11:45 I was leaning against the window of the store, about a yard away from the entrace. One of the VIPs who had been there since 5:30 as it turns out, was a Mom from Maryland (next state over, lots of people coming from Maryland) who was there with her children and apparently all her children's friends. She was talking about Halo 2 and Marathon and a bunch of games you don't hear outside of Penny Arcade's front page, in general. Then she handed out Mountain Dews. (Now, as "cool" as this "cool mom" is, I still don't understand why so many schoolkids were out here so late -- at best I can hope there was a strict 1/2am curfew for them. I really hope none of them got a "sick day" the next day).

    At 12:02 or so, the doors opened, they let in about 20 VIPs who formed a line to the right of the store. The line on the left, my line, further split itself into two -- partial preorders and no preorders. I was now 2nd in line. Apprently, I wasn't the only one having no pre-orders because the credit card systems were incredibly slow. I can imagine there were thousands and thousands of requests suddenly coming in to the processing centers here in Delaware (Hello, MBNA/BankOne/Chase cardholders!). At 12:06, I had the "Limited Edition" version in hand ($5 for a neat-looking case and a DVD with filler isn't highway robbery). By 12:10 I was home. I dusted off my Xbox and played for the next three hours.

    Like any true geek, the first thing I did was configure my player and options.

    Disclaimers: Mild game-quality, non-plot spoilers ahead!

    And here I ask the question, were Bungie's QA testers on Quaaludes??? For serious. I saw more build/clipping/texture errors in the first 10 minutes of Halo 2 than I ever saw building levels on UnrealEd. Models popping in and out of focus (What's this, the N64 version?). Brushes/BSP errors. Textures "flickering" to and from the background. Textures switching from "hi" to "medium" quality (mipmapping, I believ
  • Between hearing 'Halo 2 is/isnot the shizznit' and 'George Lucas really screwed up Star Wars' my ears are atarting to bleed.

    You guys gotta learn to live and love and let others be. (Yer worse than them damn politicians a few weeks ago)

    My name's Matey-O and I approved this message.

  • Is it really that good? (Score:3, Funny)

    by ThePolkapunk ( 826529 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:38PM (#10767914) Homepage
    Although I won't argue that the original HALO and HALO 2 are superb games, are they really as good as people say they are? I've always felt that HALO was so popular simply because there was little else to play on XBOX. If HALO had come out on Playstation 2, it probably would not have done nearly as well simply because there are so many other games for that system. People who only owned an XBOX didn't really have any other games in the same league to compare it to, and so it immediately became the product to judge all others by. The lack of titles, both qualitatively and quantitatively, on XBOX unquestionably spurred it's sales. But might it not also have affected the games perception as a whole? Don't get me wrong, I love these games, but in my mind they're not the phenomenom that the rest of the world says they are.

  • Why Rush to Buy Halo 2? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hagick ( 829614 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @01:40PM (#10767940)
    $55 for a game is a bit much for anyone's budget it would seem to me. I still haven't played Halo 1 and am patiently waiting for one of the fanboys to sell me their's for $45 cheaper than what they paid for it. I'm sure I'll enjoy Halo today for $10 just as much as the folks who paid $50 did a year ago. Wait a few months and you can get great games for $10-15. You just can't be impatient and have to rush out and buy them.

  • Bungie has the manual online (Score:3, Informative)

    by aderusha ( 32235 ) on Tuesday November 09, 2004 @03:34PM (#10769160) Homepage
    If you want to take a peek at the game manual, check it out at Bungie's site here: http://bungie.net/images/games/halo2/support/halo2 manual_EN.pdf [bungie.net]

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