Halo 2 comes out Tuesday: IGN gives it 9.8/10...

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
umm

Quake, and HalfLife, had many many people playing years after their releases

and I know many people who prefer those games to ones that have come out sense

so yah, they are memorable/legendary, and have kept their fans as well as Civ2

Jon Miller

Beat me to it.

[Pythagoras]

Yes Halo 2 is not perfect, and some places have done many of these things already, but I have never played a FPS to fully capture war-like tactical situations like Halo 2. And the multiplayer has matured substantially over Halo (thank God). Now if they'd do something about that stupid energy sword...

[BustaMike]

Originally posted by Asher
From Bungie.net: bla bla bla bla

At least they're aware of it. Why don't they just make it so you can play whatever you wanted in a non-ranked game? That should keep their anti-cheating measures intact, and it would solve the problem of their online system sucking.

[bipolarbear]

Did anybody ever read the Halo books? Based purely on concept I'm sworn against them, especially after my first debacle with the Myst book. However I was wondering if you guys had read them, nad if so could you enlighten me a little about them?
What is the story? Main characters? How much of it plays into the game?

[Jaguar]

From what I understand, the important stuff from the books has absolutely nothing to do with the Halo 2 storyline.

[Verto]

Spoiler:

What do I do after I kill the Prophet, when I switch to the Elite? I am stuck in that room.

[Verto]

Nevermind.

The Reagan uber alles.

[Kuciwalker]

I found a bug!

Sometimes, in MP games, when you walk into glass windows, they break but don't make any noise.

[Nostromo]

Well I caved in and got it. Is it good? Hell yeah! Halo is back. Haven't finished the sp campaign yet, but its getting better and better. I can't begin to figure out how Lord Nuclear beat it in under four hours. Playing an elite is a nice change of pace. Btw, when you play an elite in mp, do you have the cloaking device? I wonder, what are the pistols good for? Next stop: mp.

[BustaMike]

I beat it on Legendary. No special ending, not even one tiny difference, WTF! Somehow I've got more multiplayer maps unlocked though, not sure how that happened.

[Asher]

Originally posted by nostromo
Well I caved in and got it. Is it good? Hell yeah! Halo is back. Haven't finished the sp campaign yet, but its getting better and better. I can't begin to figure out how Lord Nuclear beat it in under four hours. Playing an elite is a nice change of pace. Btw, when you play an elite in mp, do you have the cloaking device? I wonder, what are the pistols good for? Next stop: mp.

Nope, no cloaking in MP. No flashlight in MP either.

White button becomes the radio button for teamwork.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by BustaMike
I beat it on Legendary. No special ending, not even one tiny difference, WTF! Somehow I've got more multiplayer maps unlocked though, not sure how that happened.

Maybe that was your reward.

[Asher]

Originally posted by BustaMike
I beat it on Legendary. No special ending, not even one tiny difference, WTF! Somehow I've got more multiplayer maps unlocked though, not sure how that happened.

Really?

Do you mean Foundation?

[Asher]

November 17, 2004 - Thanks to the clamor of online gamers across the world, over the past week Bungie Studios isolated technical issues in Halo 2 and today announced they've fixed them. The team also gave gamers a little present.

The Halo 2 "Auto-update," available today -- or as soon as you log onto Xbox Live (and accept it) -- fixes two moderately significant issues in Halo 2, starting with 480p support. The fix eliminates the wide-screen clipping seen on their 480p wide screen HDTVs, which was a problem for many, but not all, wide-screen TV users.

Second, because of the way Bungie designed online matchmaking (automatically rather than manually), players have experienced long, annoying waiting times in Quickmatch and Optimatch games, resulting in players quitting before they even play a match. Bungie's fix normalizes this waiting time.

Third, Bungie felt that unlocking the Foundation multiplayer level (inspired by Bungie's earlier FPS, Marathon) was too difficult and obscure, so the Auto-Update will make it instantly accessible. Before, unlocking Foundation required players to complete the game and activate a "training event" on the final level. Now, it's instantly available.

To access the Auto-Update, players need an Xbox Live account. The update is not available via demo discs via any magazine. However, if you don't own an Xbox Live account, you're not entirely screwed. Using the two-month trial subscription enclosed with Halo 2, you can sign up for free, grab the Auto-Update, and then cancel the trial. You can borrow a friend's Live account, storing the update on a memory card, or you can bring your Xbox to any place with a broadband connection (a friend's house or an Internet café) to achieve the same result.

That's what the Auto-Update will give you. Looking into the future, Bungie is evaluating making changes to the some of the playlists. The team says its coming close to completing these changes with an upcoming update. We'll have news on that update as soon as Bungie says "boo."

[DrSpike]

Didn't take long.