No Online Co-Op For Halo 3 At Launch 128
CVG has the disappointing news, originally reported in the pages of EGM, that online co-op play will not be available when Halo 3 launches this September. In the game the second player would play the part of the Arbiter character, but fans will only be able to complete the campaign cooperatively via LAN or split-screen. Bungie stated the possibility still exists online co-op could be patched in at a later date, but significant hurdles stand in the way of the feature: "'We're not dumb,' says Bungie's Frank O'Conner. 'We know that people want it and we're trying to make it happen. I think the biggest problem for us for online co-op is that we have a situation where you can be in a Warthog with five troops, almost a mile away from the other player. That's a significant challenge. And there's lots of design things you could do to prevent that from happening, but they would make it not feel like Halo anymore. If we can make it happen in a way that works well, we will - and if it works badly, we won't.'"
well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Halo shouldn't have Co-op. (Score:1, Insightful)
Huge Disappointment (Score:2, Insightful)
They have been promising this since before 2 came out, just one of the many places where they dropped the ball on 2.
I don't understand why they can't just do they same thing they do in LAN Co-op.. when one player reaches a certain spot it "transports" the other player automatically to that point. That "felt like Halo" enough for 1 and 2...
Sounds more like poor excuses to me. Halo is flirting with solidifying itself as a source of undelivered promises. In-game "vaporware", one might speculate.
Well, yeah (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is Halo (Score:3, Insightful)
Teleport users together? LAN but not XBL??? (Score:2, Insightful)
well... (Score:5, Insightful)
would it be a travesty to do it improperly? Yes it would be. I would MUCH rather they spent time on polishing and tweaking the game rather than continually pounding away at a stone with a toothpick.
Re:Teleport users together? LAN but not XBL??? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean come one, people blame devs for network problems even when its just their shitty connection or their shitty hardware causing the problem. Do you somehow think console gamers will be any less bitchy about it?
My guess? Bandiwth or possibly a side effect of how they load the levels.
Re:I don't understand (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Halo shouldn't have Co-op. (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally I like their stance: We know you want it, but we're not going to just cram it in so we can say we tried. We'll do it right, or not at all.
Re:Teleport users together? LAN but not XBL??? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't understand why they can't just do they same thing they do in LAN Co-op.. when one player reaches a certain spot it "transports" the other player automatically to that point. That "felt like Halo" enough for 1 and 2...
Sounds more like poor excuses to me. Halo is flirting with solidifying itself as a source of undelivered promises. In-game "vaporware", one might speculate.
And I'd like to ask you, Mr. Loteck, just when and where did Bungie promise Halo 3 co-op? Or promise anything else which they haven't delivered? I certainly haven't seen backtracking on any announced features, the closest is our current discussion: online co-op; but Bungie never said they were putting it into the game. Until now, they've never even said to anyone they've wanted to. It's mostly been implicitly expected by the community. But when it comes to crunch time, and you're looking at the immense problem of implementing online co-op, and you've only got another month to figure out the problem before launch, I think the best, most honest way of going about this is announcing beforehand that no, co-op won't be available for launch, but yes, we'll still try and add it in later.
What did you want them to do? Wave a magic fairy wand and finish the development with their large supply of pixie dust? Or perhaps you'd have preferred they kept this nugget of information to themselves until game launch? So no, Halo is not 'solidifying itself as a source of undelivered promises', this is just one instance of one thing that you won't get in Halo 3 at launch, and you cry bloody mary over it.
Re:Well, then I won't be buying it. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Huge Disappointment (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm calling bullshit. Show me someplace where Bungie specificly said that they were 'promising' online coop. I really highly doubt they ever did, and it was just something the entire fanbase wished they could do instead of something they could actually do.
And I'm sorry that Halo 2 left you on a Half Life 2-esque cliffhanger and didn't have a 3 shot pistol in Multiplayer, but the rest of the world is still enjoying the hell out of Halo 2 as one of the most played Xbox Live titles ever and is eagerly anticipating Halo 3.