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XBox (Games)

A Negative Review of Halo 2 110

Posted by Zonk from the out-of-context-out-of-mind dept.
KaiEl writes "An avalanche of glowing reviews has already made Halo 2 the second-highest ranked game of all time on GameRankings.com. Looking for an alternative viewpoint? The Video Game Ombudsman has gathered the bad points from nine separate Halo 2 reviews into the only negative review of Halo 2 you're ever likely to read. Useful as a cautionary tale about out-of-context quoting and as a reference manual for rampant Microsoft haters who might want to make the Halo 2 argument a little less one-sided."
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A Negative Review of Halo 2 More

A Negative Review of Halo 2

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  • Rampant Microsoft Haters (Score:4, Funny)

    by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @10:49AM (#10777072) Journal
    On Slashdot?

    Next thing, you'll try telling me that the Earth is round.
    • Strangely though, XBox-lovers may not necessarily mean Microsoft-haters. And the like or dislike of a game is a personal opinion.

      XBox Nation has a middling review of Halo 2, although they've given it the obvious 10 out of 10.

      I'm not that surprised - Secretly, I'm waiting for GTA:SA on the XBOX myself, not the new chief on the box and I've blogged thus [blogspot.com].



  • Here's a not-so-great review [somethingawful.com] of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

    • Oh yeah, something awful is a credible source. Amusing, yes (I like the game btw) but not really a credible source to review anything.
    • Just to clarify, this review of GTA:SA is a joke.

      From the something awful site:

      "This is a good thing because each and every single "TruthMedia" review in this section is complete and total bullshit created solely to generate flame mail from Internet citizens who, for some pathetic reason, have attached their egos to a movie, band, or game company. The sheer intensity that some people exhibit while defending whatever silly movie or band just boggles our minds, so this section of the site was created to
    • I haven't played GTA:SA, yet, but I have to say, that entire gaming style doesn't excite me anymore. It was fun in GTA3. Vice City was cool, too. But isn't it a little played out?

      And no online support?!?! Come one. It doesn't take a rocket scientest (just a computer one) to do this. In GTA, you can just walk around the city, and rape, pilage, and murder to your little hearts content. However, no one ever attacks YOU out of the blue. Imagine a massivly networked came of GTA. You'd never know who i

      • The PS2 is already choking on GTA as-is. Besides, none of the 2d GTAs were fun in MP, the problem is that a large city and a few players don't go together well and missions are disabled for obvious reasons.
        • MMOGTA? No problem on the 'few players' bit.
        • I was in the beta for Monster Hunter and found it fairly enjoyable. It was mission based and had small groups of players in a somewhat smaller environment. The differences aside, missions specifically geared towards online multiplayer could be done in a fun way.

          Don't have everyone join the same city - have a lobby where players team up and go on missions together. Sure, you don't have the single player missions enabled but multiplayer missions are possible. Of course, it would really add quite a bit of work

      • And no online support?!?! Come one. It doesn't take a rocket scientest (just a computer one) to do this.

        Thank god they didn't.

        If you want Online gaming go get an Xbox. Some of us don't want to deal with all the immature little brats that populate most online titles. Even worse, the online segments of practically every online game fall into one of two categories; Either the game has depth and length but only hardcore players with no lives or jobs get to see all of it, or the game is broken up into little
      • Um...you haven't played GTA:SA yet hm? If you had you'd realize that there ARE people who attack you out of the blue and you CAN get knocked upside the head with a baseball bat. Suprisingly it's not a rehash of VC, but it's VC with everything feature added in that people complained about VC lacking. The AI is far more complicated and the world has even more to do. While it's no online game (it's a PS2 for goodness sakes), there is a two player option in the game (haven't played far enough in the single
      • You should play some Ultima Online, or muds with PKing. Those guys are the pros of online vandalism, that would make those GTAs pimps go away, crying for their mamas.
      • You'd never know who in the city was AI or another real person.
        Yes you would. Characters controlled by real people don't ever walk, especially on sidewalks.
    • I didn't read any of the Replies to this thread and I have never heard of somethingawful, so I thought it was a legitamate review (before I clicked on the link, I assumed it was the same thing as the Halo review). I read the review, suprised at how the reviewer let his own personal gaming preferences influence his review. I even thought about sending him an email, but to be fair, I clicked on TruthMedia [Reviews] to see how he reviewed other games. Thats when I saw it was all fake. So they almost got me
  • It's the Fahrenheit 9/11 of the Halo world.

    //Still thought the movie had a good message
  • Funny how marketing will pump up games to a god like status that people will blindly follow. When the game is actually released it never seems to be as good as the marketing make it look. It's a setup for disappointment everytime. Halo 2 is subject to the eyes of the beholder problem. Take drinking beer for example as marketing. If I have enough beer, almost any girl is hot. Apply that to Halo 2 and you have one ugly girl under all that marketing.
    • Yeah... However, people invest so much emotion in this kind of thing, that even if it sucked donkey-balls, they wouldn't admit it.

      How, I got to use 'donkey-balls' in a sentence. That should be worth something.

    • Re:Marketing Hype Strikes Again (Score:4, Insightful)

      by brkello ( 642429 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @11:57AM (#10777854)
      Funny how marketing will pump up games to a god like status that people will blindly follow. When the game is actually released it never seems to be as good as the marketing make it look. It's a setup for disappointment everytime. Halo 2 is subject to the eyes of the beholder problem. Take drinking beer for example as marketing. If I have enough beer, almost any girl is hot. Apply that to Halo 2 and you have one ugly girl under all that marketing.

      Here is the simple solution. Don't listen to the hype. Don't read the site to see what new features are going to be added...don't watch the E3 videos, don't read the reviews. When you play a game based on no assumptions, you can just enjoy the game (or not) and you don't have any expectation that need to be met or exceeded. Just don't buy in...if you do, well, you get what you deserve. I'm sorry that marketing makes things look good...that is kind of what it supposed to do. As a consumer, it's your job to read through the lines. If a mass of people can't do that, then they can only blame themselves.
      • I definatly agree with not listening to hype. I tend to ignore it for most part. I do like to look at tech specs for stuff, but if you know what your comparing it against it's not really subject to hype. I feel sorry for the fools that blindly follow the marketing puppet masters. You end up with people who say they love a game for no reason at all. Reminds me of "The Wizard of Oz" where someone wanted a brain... maybe these sheep need brains?

    • If I have enough beer, almost any girl is hot.

      This is slashdot. You don't need the beer. Statistically speaking, every girl is hot.
    • It's worse than that, man. I actually previewed Halo 2 at the end of I love bees. When one of my friends found out, he immediately asked me, "Was it awesome? Did it totally kick ass?" I told him that it looked like a solid FPS for a modern system. My friend went frantic, asking me all kinds of questions to get me to reveal the "awesome" in the game. He wants so bad for this to be the next big thing that a lack of enthusiasm on my part was painful. When you get people to invest themselves in a game li

  • As I posted a few articles back... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @10:52AM (#10777102)
    The Slashdot prime directive is:

    If it's mainstream, we hate it.

    HALO is popular? I hate it. I think it's boring. Millions of people watch network TV? All the shows are crap. Thousands go to a Britney Spears concert? She sounds like a banshee. 90% of the people use Windows? God I hate Windows, it crashes all the time.

    See how it works? Now that you know the prime directive you can mentally discard all the messages that fit this mold and find the *real* conversation in the thread hidden underneath... good luck!

    Now let's try to fill this discussion up with better comments than "HALO 2 *does* suck," ok? We can make the world a better place.

    • Re:As I posted a few articles back... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by empaler ( 130732 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @11:00AM (#10777187) Journal
      /. is main stream.

      If you would at least read the summary, by the way, you'd notice these words:
      Useful as a cautionary tale about out-of-context quoting (..)

      You could even go as far as to RTFA which has the title:
      "Eliminate the Positive (or "The Only Negative Review of Halo 2 You're Ever Likely To Read")

      Add the ability to abstract thought into the reading of these things and you might detect some attempts at making people laugh and/or smile.
    • What about google? Ha! Foiled!
      • God, I hate Google. It always finds what I'm looking for. Where's the thrill of the hunt? The excitement of exploring unknown documents?

        The least they could do is return thousands of pornography sites before listing any credible related material. At least then, I could justify researching for months instead of minutes.
    • And there's a good reason for it. Things in the mainstream are overdone.

      But lets talk Halo2. I won't be buying it. Forgetting the fact that I do not own an XBox the reason I won't buy it is that it's an FPS. I gave then up a long time ago when they became mainstram, because everyone and thier brother put them out.

      Halo 2 may be a great game. It may be the best FPS ever created. But FPSs probably stopped being original back with Quake. Wolfenstien "created" the genre, Doom made movement free form and
      • Everything from then on has been graphics updates, new weapons, new themes, but nothing really original.

        Off-the shelf Real Differences between Quake and Halo (not all original to Halo, but still...)

        Weapons that need to be reloaded

        "Attack with butt of weapon" as a universal option

        Stealth

        Vehicles

        A plot portrayed with cut-scenes instead of hard-to-read text.

        Regenerating shields
        and for Halo 2:

        Not knowing how dead you are

        Just one of those would make for a rather different game--and most of them did. A

        • You forgot co-op play.

          That's what made Halo. I don't like fps games but I loved the co-op in Halo. It's the best time two buddies can have.
        • Stealth

          There was stealth in Quake, just not against the AIs. If you walked, you didn't make noise, and that was key in some deathmatch games, especially cramped-quarters maps against a small number of players.

          So, stealth was viable in part of Quake gaming, arguably the most enjoyable part of Quake gaming, deathmatch.

          You forgot "Limited number of weapons in inventory" though, and that was, IMO, the coolest aspect of Halo... but I admit I was only able to play it for about 90 minutes before I got bored a
      • Things in the mainstream are overdone... I gave then up a long time ago when they became mainstream, because everyone and thier brother put them out.

        So, why're you on a website?

        Everyone and their brother (and their brother's hamster, and its intestinal bacteria) has put them out...
      • If you want to really disappoint yourself...

        Study 'film'. The art of film, the history of film.

        Find out how much of what you see in film, and on television is just a re-hash of something that has been done 1,000's of times before.

        Other than special effects, nothing really new has been done in film since about the 50's- or even the 40's.

      • I see your point about video game genres being repetitive, but what do you expect from gave developers. Not EVERY game can be revolutionary, as the defining points of the genre will remain the same in every game. You have guns, you shoot things. Halo 2 adds many great new things which haven't shown up in any other FPS as far I know. It has a great melee weapon. You have the ability to steal vehicles ala GTA style. You can dual-wield weapons of different types and mix n match to your hearts content.
    • Prime Directive Exemption #1: The iPod.

      For some reason that escapes the usual wrath.
    • Britney Spears...She sounds like a banshee.

      Looks unintentional, but good choice of words, considering this is a Halo story.

    • My question is why was Slashdot so over-excited enough about ilovebees.com to have several articles about it?

      I so far saw ZERO articles about any of the joke websites made for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Wow, a website to hype up an upcoming game. yeah, that's worth 4 articles.
      • I Love Bees developed the Halo plotline, and was a pretty involved project, wasn't it? Telephones ringing at GPS coordinates and whatnot?
      • I love bees also opened up the genre of Alternate Reality Games to the general public, using Halo 2 as a draw. As a result, it was the biggest game of it's kind yet created. It's story was complex and deeply engaging. It gave thousands of bored office workers a chance to talk to interesting people, and an excuse to do something rewarding and exciting once a week.

        If you actually visited the web site, the name Halo 2 never came up once. Although everyone knew what the game was supposed to promote, none
    • I used to really like this site, I think it was called Slashdot, then I found out millions of people visit it on a regular basis...oh crap!
    • The Slashdot prime directive is:

      If it's mainstream, we hate it.

      1. Shouldn't you be saying: "If it's mainstream we hates it, my precious?"

      2. I refute you in one word: Google.

  • heh (Score:1)

    by krist0 ( 313699 )
    Its kinda funny really how much you can take things out of context with a bit of agile snipping here and there.

    Halo 2 is a good target, you'd think it was the next coming of the party trick bloke from what you heard. I mean, people calling it game of the year before its even been released (ok, they might have a grabbed it off a torrent a bit early), wierd.

  • Can someone explain what is so great about this game, or for that matter, Halo 1? I played it on the PC and it struck me as just a repetitive, bland, run-and-gun shooter with better-than-average graphics, a dull plot, and mediocre AI.

    Is the state of console games really so bad that this one, as moderately entertaining instead of godawful, is the best currently available?
    • Well, think of Halo 2 as a massively stripped down Marathon, with vehicles and online play. H2 is even closer to the Bungie FPS ideal than Halo, which I was happy to note.
    • Yeah, I've wondered the same thing a few times, even though I've only played a little bit (roommate had an X-box my senior year of college).

      I'd say a lot of it isn't that it's just a shooter; it's a well-made shooter designed for a console with great multiplayer, a good story (for a shooter, anyway), and great controls, that isn't a port of a game for PC.

      Take away the 'console' part or the 'not a port' part and you don't have much. But when was the last time you saw four guys (or girls, to avoid being an
    • From what I heard the only way to have fun with the first Halo was multiplayer, preferrably coop but competitive would work as well. At least when I asked a bunch of Halo fans what was so great about the game they told me to play it coop.
      Might have been the lack of coop modes in FPS games lately, only major coop game lately was Serious Sam and I thought that was pretty bad in SP, too.

    • Re:Explain, please? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by laard ( 35526 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @11:21AM (#10777459)
      People seem to love it or hate it... with the majority loving it.. Halo had a decent sci-fi plot and fun though sometimes repetitive action. But the probably the biggest accomplishment of the first game is this:

      It brought the LAN party to the masses.

      Joe Fratboy doesn't know squat about networking PCs and making sure each one has the same revision of the game and are all on the same subnet (or routed appropriately). But anybody can plug in an Xbox.

      Halo was also arguably one of the best FPS to grace a console. There were a few titles that shined before (such as Goldeneye 007 for N64) but Halo had for its time had great graphics, great sound, decent story, innovative enemy A.I. and an enjoyable multiplayer that was a blast with your friends. All those things may have been surpassed now, but remember the first game is now 3 years old.

      That being said, Halo 2 is the "second coming." There really are no drastic changes in the sequel. They simply took a good thing and they made it better. Tweaked the engine for better graphics, bump mapping and such. Larger more expansive level design. These sound like shallow things to the more critical slashdotter, but to the masses this is what they want. And don't forget the big addition that is probably responsible for selling a lot of units... online play.

      Basically Halo and now Halo 2 offer a fun single player campaign with good graphics and above average A.I. They take the experience of a LAN party and simplify it enough for average joes to be able to do it without tech supervision. They allow people to have fun together. And I haven't even mentioned Co-Op mode.

      Write me off as a fanboy, but you asked.
    • Is the state of console games really so bad that this one, as moderately entertaining instead of godawful, is the best currently available?

      No, there's a game called TimeSplitters 2, for all three consoles no less. I suggest you pick it up. Single player is alright, but it really shines in multiplayer.

  • Why is this news? (Score:2, Redundant)

    by Txiasaeia ( 581598 )
    Why is it so hard to believe that some people don't like Halo? I played it when it came out for the PC and for the life of me could not figure out why it was so popular. The enemies who would do sommersaults and talk like characters from Telletubbies were annoying. The weapons were boring. The plot was nothing original (no points taken off - very few sf games have an original plot).

    The only thing good that came out of Halo was Red vs. Blue. I'm honestly not trying to troll; I just really don't unders

    • "The only thing good that came out of Halo was Red vs. Blue"

      I thought that came out of the Nov. 2 election map, a mere few days before the official release.

    • It does a good job at providing atmosphere for an enjoyable co-op experience with the singleplayer storyline and it has enjoyable multiplayer.

      It has a good underlying structure for gameplay and a polish technically regarding graphics, sound, and cinematics that give off good vibes.

      For me, the reason it is such a great game revolves entirely around the co-op aspect, so I can see why you didn't enjoy the PC version, much.

      If you know anyone who's into Home Theater (HT) and has an XBOX + Halo 2 I would highl
    • A lot of people who didn't like the game experienced it on the PC. It was an ok PC game but by the time it was ported to PC it was already old. It really shined on the console because it did what consoles hadn't done before. To summarize my previous post above, it brought the LAN party to the masses [slashdot.org]

  • The Ending (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RomSteady ( 533144 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @11:15AM (#10777373) Homepage Journal
    I picked up the game at midnight, went home, got a good night's sleep, and since I took the 9th off from work in order to beat the game, started the game around 11:00am.

    I beat it at 5:30pm. I loved the entire game...except for that ENDING.

    Mein Gott, it's one thing to have a cliffhanger ending when you know that you'll only have to wait a few months for resolution. It's another when you know you'll have to wait for an additional 3-4 YEARS.

    Especially since the end boss battle is a bit anticlimatic. I didn't even get in the killing shot...my AI teammates did.
    • Just one comment about the end boss. Given the fact that he kills you in one hit, is a fast mofo and can take more damage than a tank on Normal (once my AI buddies pinned him against the wall with swords... then he threw them off the platform), I'd say you should turn up the difficulty if it was anticlimatic. Oh and did you know that if you wait/fight long enough, AI buddies AND enemies will join the fight turning it into an unescapable deathmatch pit. Very cool if you hide on the side and take pot shots. A

  • Halo 2 vs GTA:SA (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dusabre ( 176445 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @11:32AM (#10777588) Homepage
    Linear campaign - open-ended campaign
    Less weapons - More weapons
    Less than 10 vehicles - 200 vehicles
    Microsoft/Bungie - Rockstar
    Dedicated soundtrack - Rage Against The Machine, Cypress Hill and Dr Dre.
    Sexy aliens - Girlfriends
    Green armour - More clothes than Final Fantasy X:2. And tattoos. And haircuts.
    Excellent multiplayer - Fun multiplayer
    Great graphics - Good graphics
    6 hours gameplay single player at least - 40-50 hours at least
    No sex - loadsa a sex
    Warthog racing - Monster truck racing
    No stats increase - Starts increase

    Just my initial notes

    • Re:Halo 2 vs GTA:SA (Score:2, Insightful)

      by n0wak ( 631202 )
      Nothing wrong with dedicated, original-scores. I'd rather have those than licensed crap (though it depends on context). However, Halo's soundtrack features..... HOOBASTANK. -1000 Crap
    • I'd like to know the cheat for unlocking multiplayer in GTA:SA.
      • Instead of having single player rampages, like Vice City, they made them multi-player. so the multi-player is very limited in SA. You have to stay on the same screen, and can't even get into different cars. Also, in most cases it is timed. The only way that I've seen where it isn't timed is if you do the one at your girlfriend's house.
    • Linear campaign - open-ended campaign
      With a linear campaighn you know where to go next.

      Less weapons - More weapons
      All weapons are unique and well thought out in halo 2, I don't know how it's in GTA:SA

      Less than 10 vehicles - 200 vehicles
      Again, the're all truly unique, each one requiring different strategies. I know they mostly work the same in GTA:SA

      Microsoft/Bungie - Rockstar
      Whats wrong with bungie (or rockstar, I don't get the point you're trying to make)

      Dedicated soundtrack - Rage Against The Machine,
    • Scifi First Person Shooter - Modern Action Game oh, and, Won't destroy your console - will destroy your console
    • You forgot the most important difference for a lot of people:

      Xbox-only - PS2-only

      (That pretty much decides it for a bunch of us)
    • Apples and Oranges. Seriously.

  • Here's my Halo 2 review (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Yet another 3D shoot-em-up. Wake me up when there's something new. Mod me down if you wish, but can you honestly say that there's anything new in this game over all the other 3D shoot-em-ups save for different graphics, different sounds, and some type of thin plot?
  • I've been saying it all along..Halo 2 is nothing compared to when Half-Life 2 will be released. The Halo kids will be bowing in awe of the might that is HL2. ;) I heard Halo 2 was going to be a huge game...but it disappointed me when it's gameplay was almost identical to Halo's... IMHO, Halo 2 is a repackaged and recycled Halo 1, deep-fried and soaked in seaquins to make it appeal to the pathetically un-educated Xbox audience.
  • I've enjoyed the game so far, and some pretyt interesting parts to the game, but as some have said there are some big beefs.

    For starters, there are graphical hicups in the cut scenes, where the textures or even the models take a second to load. There is no excuse for letting that through, and really gets annoying. The AI around allied vehicles kind of stinks too. It takes some time to get into a vehicle if the AI is controlling it, and if you are the shooter, sometimes it's movements stink. I've also had i
  • a reference manual for rampant Microsoft haters

    First of all: I hate Microsoft's software. They purposefully don't use or support open standards. But the XBox doesn't need to support open standards, so who cares? And I use their keyboards and mice because I think they're good products.

    Second: I like Halo 2. I already beat the game, and everything that the reviewers disliked about the campaign was true. It's short (~10 hours of playtime), repetitive, there are recurring graphical glitches, and the endi

    • Like giving me a checkpoint as my warthog was flying off the side of a cliff. I had to restart the level because the checkpoint was just me and my partner dying over and over.

      "Here we are back ag... AAAAAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!!"

      "So, this is what Heaven is... AAAAUUGGGHHHHH!!"

      "So, anything new this ti-- AAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!"

      "I have a new novel in my po--- AAAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!"

      "Pocket, I figure I can re- AAUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!"

      "Read a few words every ti- AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!"

      "Time, until the player hi- AAAAUUUUGGGGGG
      • That's pretty much how it went down. Although there was a marine riding shotty, and I think he killed a grunt just before we went over.

        "Get up so I can kill you ag...AAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!"

        "SUH-WING batta batta batta ba...AAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!11!oneone!!"

        "Can't touch thi...AAAAUAUUUUUGUGUGGHGGHHH!H!!!"

  • My Two Cents (Score:5, Informative)

    by Overdrive_SS ( 243510 ) <{moc.oohay} {ta} {SS_evirdrevO}> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @12:21PM (#10778139)
    Ok, let me say up front I never thought Halo was that amazing. It was missing things that I had grown used to in games like Perfect Dark, but I did enjoy playing multiplayer Halo with some friends and co-op. My friend got Halo 2 yesterday so I went over to play some multiplayer.

    Ok, I'll start with what I liked:

    The vehicles are more fun.
    The banshee and ghost have a boost now.
    The ghost has a gun that can actually kill someone as opposed to just stunning them long enough to run them over(though running them over is still far more fun)
    Some jeeps have a cannon instead of the machine gun.
    Vehicles can be detroyed and damaged, but they respawn.
    You can jump higher.
    The way Master Chief looks can be customized more.
    You can play as the lizard thing(I never pay attention to the names) None of us used him yet so I can't comment on if that changes game play dynamics or not.
    The rocket launcher can't be outrun quite as easily.
    You can always zoom, though weapons without a zoom automatically retract if you fire while zoomed(It is like binocs embedded in your visor)
    Dual weapons.
    More than two teams.
    It tracks more stats such as hit percentage and who killed who.

    Ok, now dislikes:

    It seems to take an hour to kill anyone.
    Most of the weapons seem weak. Even saw a friend take a direct hit from a rocket with no overshield and survive.
    The sword(lightsaber) is too powerful in close quarters. One direct hit and you die and it gives you super human speed when you are close to your target.
    He throws grenades like a sissy girl.
    When you melee you lose one of your dual weapons.
    In order to throw a grenade you toss down one of your dual wepaons. (Why not put the second weapon away for a moment instead?)
    If you have two weapons and you could dual wield them, you have to toss one down and then pick it up to dual wield instead of just switching to dual wield.
    Can't play Xbox live in a rated room unless everyone has a Live account.
    Picking your profile before multiplayer is a one at a time ordeal instead of everyone choosing at the same time.(Not sure how that got ruined from Halo 1, but it is horrible and slow and you have to do it log off as well.)
    No fall damage
    Still only two team multiplayer ctf.(though it seemed like you could play more. Maybe we just missed the option.)
    Still doesn't track favorite weapons. Doesn't track where you shot most often though it does tell you how many head shots you had.
    It added "catch phrases" to let you know how your enemy killed you. (You were assassinated means someone meleed you from behind), but they don't seem very funny or original.
    Still no bots.
    To play 16 player on live you have to have friends to invite or everyone has to have a live account.

    Anyways, it is about time for class. That is most of what I can think of off the top of my head. I am not impressed, but I am going to give it a chance still. I haven't played single or co-op so I can't comment on that.
    • To avoid trolling I'll add that all the points made below are my own opinion, agree or not with them. Second of all, let me say I enjoy immensly Halo 1. I still play it regularily with my friends. Ninety percent of the MP levels suck, but that doesn't matter when you can play CTF in bloodgulch. That's where it's at. I agree with some of the finer points here: - weapons. The game's lacking what made the first one enjoyable - a weapon that kills without a billion shots. Seriously. I think we might hav
    • I agree that melee causing you to drop a gun is weak, but tossing a grenade not so much.

      If you're in a fire fight and want to toss a nade are you gonna take the time to holster it first? If they're charging at you, wouldn't u rather ditch the gun to try and get the nade off soon as possible? In a way it makes it more realistic to me.

  • Great Game (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Amorpheus_MMS ( 653095 ) <amorpheus @ g m a i l . com> on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @12:50PM (#10778462)
    But not THAT great. That's the thing most "critics" around here are astounded by. As a big gamer it puzzles me how just yesterday it averaged 98% from 134 reviews. That put it right into the "second coming of Christ" category. I can see how Zelda: Ocarina Of Time got up there, but not Halo 2. It's not described as leaps and bounds better than the first, which many gamers outside of Xbox circles consider woefully overrated.

    • which many gamers outside of Xbox circles

      Now there in lies the issue. What this game rates at should matter not to someone who cant play it, regardless if they have a better game. People seem to think that this 98% its received is somehow mystically applied across the board, it isnt. Its a score, for Halo2, on the Xbox. Thats it. It cant be compared to something its owners can never play.

  • The new Gun sucks, give me back the pistol,
    takes forever to kill someone.
    cant drive with the flag in ctf, COME ON!
    cant run people over with a car, YOU FUCKING Bounce off.
    Every weapon feels weak.

    Things feel rubbery and have truer physics (yes that is a bad thing)

    But come on, its a sequal, couldnt they have made the game better?

  • Halo 2 shipped with progressive scan bug. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Trunks ( 35615 ) on Wednesday November 10, 2004 @01:25PM (#10778919)
    Apparently, when running in 480p the game overscans the HUD right off the screen on roughly 90-95% of all HDTVs on the market. Grenade
    info, Radar and Shield information are all lost from the left part of the display.

    There's a large discussion thread [bungie.net] about it on Bungie's forums.
  • Hey, didn't everyone say that Killzone wasn't going to be a Halo killer, because of basically all the things that were negative points in the Halo review?
    AI glitches, occassional graphical glitches, somewhat dissapointing story.
    Oh well, it's all about marketing and IGN reviews I guess.
  • I am not anti-mainstream.

    But, I have to say:

    In my opinion, Halo 1 sucked. It was difficult to play (even more so than most 3d FPS are with those damnable junky controllers that game systems have these days), the graphics sucked, the sound sucked, and the levels sucked even worse. It was like playing Doom 1, trying to imagine it was Doom 3.

    I've only seen Halo 2 in play in stores so far, but IMO, it's more of the same. Garbage.

  • Compared to UT2004... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wfolta ( 603698 ) on Thursday November 11, 2004 @01:11AM (#10785061)
    ... Halo2 hasn't really caught up.

    Fewer weapons, fewer weapons fire modes, fewer vehicles, fewer game types, no multiplayer bots, slow movement, (not quite) "destructible" vehicles...

    I'll be trying it out at a friend's, to see if destructible walls, etc, work well enough to justify scoring it as "surpasses UT2004" in at least one area.
  • I just picked the game up (pre ordered, but was sick) and haven't played a single minute yet... but drawing from what i've read of the reviews, previews, halo 1 impressions etc.. Game of the year is a bit far fetched... I don't think it's a bad game, actually I had a lot of fun in Halo 1 in Co Op mode with a friend on my projector, which removed the split screen headache since it was a 70ish inch display. But compared to FPS's on the PC, this game doesn't hold a candle... D3's graphics, to me, are much mu

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