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XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Halo 2 Update On Monday 60

Posted by Zonk from the because-i-know-you're-still-playing-it dept.
hollismb writes "Bungie has released all the details and set a date for the upcoming Halo 2 AutoUpdate, which includes a list of fixes to cheating and glitches. The update will also include changes to weapon balance, and you can look for it on Xbox Live on Monday, April 18th."
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Halo 2 Update On Monday More

Halo 2 Update On Monday

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  • Sounds like a whole new game...kinda. Resetting the leaderboards sounds good (to me, at least). Now we just need some new maps!
    • Yeah...resetting the leader boards is a good idea.

      My problem is that I played A LOT up until about 2 months ago. I was able to achieve a decently high level. Now I can't go on without getting cremated. Not fun...I probably need to drop down at least 5 or 6 levels.

      So...I look forward to going back to being a level 1 guy...so I can kill SOMEBODY.
      • A lot of the people around your level have probably chosen to stop playing until these updates come out, as well, leaving only the very hardcore and the cheaters. I've noticed this -- when doing Matchmaking with my clan, we'll get our asses handed to us in Clan matches almost always, because the people playing clan matches are really 10 levels above us. If they don't win by superior skills, they win by cheating.

        That's true in non-clan matchmaking as well, and has been for the last month. People who ra

  • I can't believe this. I hope they won't fix ghosting... :) Seriously, it's about time to reset the stats.

  • What we've been waiting for? (Score:3, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Saturday April 16, 2005 @12:07PM (#12255637)
    Hopefully, there are some new recipes in it. I mean, Master Chef is great and all, but souffle's only go so far.
  • I didn't think they allowed what are essentially "patches" to fix bugs over Live. Does Bungie get a pass because they are owned by MS? Or is there precedent for this. I don't play on Live nor do I own Halo2, so I don't know all the politics.
    • This is simply bringing the XBox in line with the tried and true practices of PC multiplayer. The makers of games from Command and Conquer to CounterStrike: Source release patches to *improve* their multiplayer balance over time.

      Even StarCraft, lauded for its balance, has had no less than twelve significant patches since its release.
    • Yeah, they patch games all the time over Xbox Live. This isn't just a Bungie thing either. Pretty much every UBISoft game over Xbox Live has received some sort of patch to fix online bugs, glitches, and cheating. The resistance is to patching single play portions of games over Xbox Live.
    • patches for xbox live games are allowed I think.

      patches through the network to non-live games are not, I think.

    • They are only supposed to fix the Live components. Repeatedly in the article, they mentioned 'this will not affect the single player campaign.'

      They can UPGRADE single player games, but not patch them. (Ninja Gaiden for example)

  • I can't believe it's not sooner! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jZnat ( 793348 ) on Saturday April 16, 2005 @12:39PM (#12255853) Homepage Journal
    Personally, I have been avoiding Halo 2 and its online play until this update came. I was sick of trying to compete with the endless cheaters; I was sick of getting suspended for exploring these cheats in unranked games (i.e. looking for new bugs); I was sick of the hostility caused by this, and I was definitely sick of its overall huge effect it had on gameplay and enjoyability.

    w00t with me as we go back to Halo 2 this Monday!

    • Re:I can't believe it's not sooner! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by theVP ( 835556 ) on Monday April 18, 2005 @12:08PM (#12271011)
      Here's an idea for you: Don't explore cheats? In order to explore cheats, you eventually will cheat. It doesn't matter if the game is ranked or not. If it is unranked, does that mean that it isn't a game anymore? And does a software company have to lock you out of cheating YOURSELF in order for you to enjoy a game? Since when were they responsible for your lack of self-control? Of course they're hostile with you. They're hostile with everyone who cheats. Kind word of advice: with the new patch, you would be wise to not try any of that anymore...

  • A basteon dies (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro@gmaDALIil.com minus painter> on Saturday April 16, 2005 @01:06PM (#12256079) Journal
    One of the main reasons i love console Games is the total lack of patches .
    When you buy a game for a console you expect a finished , polished product that you don't need to worry about lock-ups or crashs or anything , now im aware some slip out and they are rare (most of them dont hinder gameplay but give us something amusing to do when were bored, ala jumping through the level and walking around in nothing).
    This is one of the many things i love about console games , let us hope this trend does not continue...
    • I don't know when the last time you played Halo 2 online, but it was analogue to a PC online game's initial release. Seriously, without this update, Halo 2 was simply still in a public alpha: ridden with bugs and usability problems.

      Now it would have been nice if they could've forseen these problems back in dev, but many of these issues were created by the mass community of players with the added online medium to alleviate the issues. Sure, the bugs still existed back in dev, but some were simply created

      • Re:A basteon dies (Score:4, Interesting)

        by SetupWeasel ( 54062 ) on Saturday April 16, 2005 @02:58PM (#12256784) Homepage
        That's not an excuse. We are talking about a company that bans players for replacing their broxen drives. Weapon balancing is one thing, cheating is another. If cheating occurs in the game without modification, they needed better and more thorough play testing. If people are modifying the game, they should check for that and ban them like they did with the console modifications.

        Fact is that Bungie was going to have to release Halo 2 this past Christmas to get the big sales. They probably cut short that part of the development.
        • Um, any multiplayer online game is going to need patches. Unless you're in development for 10 years, there's no way you can anticipate every cheat or exploit. The fact that patches are possible is actually a good thing. If they were patching the single player game, I'd be worried. But for multiplayer balancing, it's a VERY good thing. Hell, Blizzard is still patching Starcraft, and it's not because they didn't test it properly. So long as xbox games hold the same philosophy (which they have, so calm the f d
          • Plus the cheats are non-obvoius. They never took action against people who pulled flags through walls because that was a minor geometry glitch that was based more on giving the flag a wider and more powerful "pickup radius" than other objects. They're not taking action against people who fly up on top of the maps using weird jumps or hide the objective by "surfing" on a Banshee.

            Really they're only fixing two "cheats," one being the standby glitch (and, really, why would a company test for people pressi

      • I didnt say the patch wasn't needed , i am saying it shouldnt of been

    • Re:A basteon dies (Score:3, Insightful)

      by startled ( 144833 )
      One of the main reasons i love console Games is the total lack of patches .

      Online games will always require cheat fixes, balance tweaks, and so on. If it really bugs you, I recommend buying single-player games (Halo 2's single player is still fine and essentially unchanged with this patch).

      The only online games that don't get patches and tweaks after release are the ones that are unsupported, and hence remain buggy, cheat-ridden, and unbalanced.
      • Honestly ,I just think that is an excuse for a lack of testing.
        Cheats should be found with good testing and balance should also be achived-
        I dont think you understand me , i said it shouldn't be needed , not that it wasn't...
        And Dammed if i am going to accept a car that requires patches or any other complex piece of machinery or electronics and i dont see why software should get any special dispensation..
        Remembering the incident with the pentium and the faulty fpu , A procesor is as complex as any game in

        • Game Examples? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by DeadScreenSky ( 666442 )
          Please name a online multiplayer videogame that was fairly popular and didn't end up requiring a patch to fix something.

          No matter how extensive your testing unit (and MS certainly has that for Xbox games), having 100,000+ players at nearly all times for months banging around in a reasonably complex competitive videogame is going to find unforeseen glitches. Sure it would be wonderful if this kind of thing didn't happen, but that seems to be an enormously unreasonable expectation on your part.

          And why are y
          • jeesh , people i will say this for the last time , I am not saying that it wasn't needed I am saying it shouldn't be , and no im not being unresonible.
            Can you name any other thing in the world that you would pay for if you were near 100% sure that it was going to be found to be broken in some way(new not second hand).
            A procesor as i used in a previous example is every bit as complex , but how often do we hear about faulty units being shipped or quirks in the procesors computational units that need balancin
            • I hate to reply to myself but i need to add this..
              I am not blaming the developers , i am blaming Marketing and publishers who push these things out the door without proper testing.
            • Do you own a car? A house? When certain things are purchased, there is an assumption that there will be maintenance. Why should software be any different? Especially when it is costing you nothing to perform this maintenance? No matter how extensive pre-release testing is, things can be overlooked. These bugs are things that were only discovered after millions of hours of play testing. For a company to perform this much testing pre-release, there would be a substantial increase in development cost and
          • Magic Carpet 1 and 2.
            The rest of my list is from the same era.
            The problem I think is in the testing and release of todays games. Back in the 90's many games did not need patches to make the multiplayer playable(I will freely admit some did need patching). Balance should have been correct from the release, thats what testing is for in part.

  • Dear Microsoft, a request... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheHonestTruth ( 759975 ) on Saturday April 16, 2005 @09:18PM (#12258893) Journal
    [Yeah, like Bill et al read /.]

    Dear Division responsible for X-Box Live,
    I would sincerely appreciate it if you would implement a "foes" list. This past week I have encountered more and more players I never EVER want to play with again. Could you add a foes list (similar to the "friends" list) so that when matchmaking comes, I'm not paired with people I think ruin the experience? As these players continue to ruin the online experience, more and more people will add them to their foes list. As time goes by, the spoliers' matchmaking will be harder and hearder to satisfy, and the rest of us can actually enjoy the games we play. I think it is an effective way to segment those that choose to ruin the online experience from those that enjoy it. There will likely be abuses here and there, but overall I think people want to play games against people that aren't dicks. Adding a foes list to XBL is one way to ensure that your subscribers' experience isn't ruined. Thank you for your time.

    -truth

    • They won't do this, because of the same reasons they don't make playlists more specific, because it takes more time to find a match. exempting certain people from your availability would mean, for instance, if this "foe" was in a party of 4, you wouldn't be matched with any of them while this "foe" was with them. we can't get too picky. good idea though
      • we can't get too picky

        I understand. If it had happened once or twice, I would just chalk it up to me being grumpy. But I played team slayer the other night and one of my "teammates" at the start of the match said "watch this: I'm going to commit suicide" and he jumped into a hole and died. He repeated this two more times. Then he said "watch, I'm going to stand here the rest of the round and not do anything," which he did effectively leaving us with 3 players. My two other teammates, disgusted with this af

    • I have found that people I leave feedback on for screaming/cheating etc, I usually never see again. Except in clan matches. Also I WISH they would make it so you never go against the same team in a row! One time we went up against level 25s (we're ~12-14s) 4 times in a row. Needless to say, by the 4th match we just resorted to spinning around in circles.

  • Spawn System (Score:2, Insightful)

    by pbaer ( 833011 )
    I'm disapointed that they aren't improving the spawn system. It has to be the worst spawn system of any fps I've played.

    You spawn not away from people but away from people fighting. This means that you can spawn right to next to someone and be killed before you have a chance to do anything. This also means that in team games like CTF you can spawn way outside the base when the enemy is stealing your flag. Also there's no immunity timer so you can be chain spawn killed by a good sniper.

    • Well, the thing is that it balances out over the course of the game. Maybe if you're playing to five or ten kills, those couple bad spawns will hurt you, but the fact is that everying gets a few 'damn, that was the worst spawn ever' spawns pretty much every game. Sometimes, you'll get a great spawn, and sometimes, not. Better than always spawing in the same spot on an open map.

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