13th November 2004, 12:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 13th November 2004, 1:19 AM by Dark Jaguar.)
That is to say, Weltall, I now have Silent Hill 1. Honestly, so far I like it much better than SH2. If this game turns out to be very good, I will give the rest of the series another chance.
ABF, I have The Longest Journey and Planescape: Torment. Actually, I couldn't find the second one except in a bundle with a game called Soulbringer. I have only JUST started Planescape, but it seems pretty promising. The main character isn't a stereotypical badarse as his appearence just SCREAMS. He's just a confused zombie from the looks of it right now. I shall now see if Gabe... Tycho... whoever the original RPG fan of Penny Arcade is... is someone I agree with in his statement "...but I will say now that the best game EVER is Planescape: Torment, glad to lay that out there...".
Now, my mom has currently confiscated Longest Journey at this point (she's been stuck for days on a single puzzle it seems), so I think I will focus totally on Silent Hill as she has expressed an interest in playing a survival horror game and she likes psychological stuff more than pure physical danger, so she'll likely steal Silent Hill away from me next time I see her... Or maybe I should stop telling her about every little thing I get...
Oh, and I also now have Halo 2, in a metal box. Thanks to my brother as well as a ridiculous number of my friend's strange obsession, I was more or less DRAGGED to one of the odd conventions around Tulsa. Specifically, I was at one of the malls here, with a total of two stores selling the game the place was more or less packed. (Glad it wasn't a BIG mall :D.) Indeed, a certain Penny Arcade really DID grab the experience. It seemed like a frickin' pep rally it did. One side was constantly shouting at volumes that drowned out my MP3 player (at NOTHING I might add, nothing was even happening, they just cheered randomly and en mass), and another section appeared to be full of Halo cheerleaders or something. Fortunatly, no one was in costume. Last thing I need to see is someone cutting off their hair to get that Cortona look JUST right (only to find out upon getting the game that a HOLOGRAM seems to have grown her hair out in this game).
<img src="http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041108l.jpg">
So anyway, the game itself. Soon as I get home, I SLEEP. I'm just glad I had brought my gameboy to that spectacle.
I wake up to start up the game. I play the campaign and proceed to get pretty enthralled by the MUCH improved story. The first one's story really was just a standard "an evil enemy planet is on the way to crush your evil not enemy planet, because they don't like you for an undisclosed reason, only there is a one ring that is evil and must be destroyed and then ZOMBIES". Seriously, those who haven't played Halo 1, that IS the story exactly. Oh, and the aliens with their energy shields and plasma rifles are NO MATCH for the might of the human wielded shotgun :D.
The second one's story actually explains pretty much everything to the point where the first one's depth is pretty much made to exist VIA this game. There's actually a real STORY to it that, well, is interesting. It's got all the religious undertones of FFX actually, so if you happen to be a Catholic living in the era of the holy wars, you MIGHT be offended by the alien representation of you. Also, you are a heretic. Just accept that and burn for it. They don't really mention WHY the aliens got all mad at the humans honestly (I still think that they were friends during that first meeting but then the aliens heard a George Carlin comedy routine and the hatred began).
The Master Chief (aka, the demon) still has a pretty much terrible and uninteresting personality... The OTHER character though, you'll see, really has something going on the personal story side of things. (Actually, in this weird transripts of what are apparently transmissions, I get the impression that there's a significant other in the Master Chief's life, possibly someone he fights for I guess, but Solid Snake he is NOT. His real name, John, is still a lot better than that really over the top almost Engrish name he goes by in combat...
The single player ALMOST fixes the MAJOR problem Halo 1 had. Halo 1, you repeated the same parts of a stage over and over until you were pretty much sick of it and just wanted to turn the system off (and I did pretty often out of sheer boredom). When I say an area repeats itself, I mean pretty much the entire structual layout of a room and the tunnels leading from it to the next are just copied and pasted with a couple different enemies here and there over and over. The worst example was a snow level where you went from one constantly repeating area type to ANOTHER constantly repeating area type. Then, to add insult to injury, when you finally get out of that level, you later return to that very SAME level, only BACKWARDS! OH JOY! I nearly threw my controller upon realizing NOTHING had changed except enemy placement! At least I managed to steal a banshee from an enemy normally programmed to jump into it from WAY far away (killing it with a well tossed grenade and DASHING there before another can get inside was VERY satisfying) so I could just fly to the way points of the level and get it all over with.
Anyway, Halo 2 still has SOME repetition, but it only did that a total of 4 times that I can remember, and the repetition lasted a LOT shorter. Generally, just when I was thinking "wait, this is just repeating itself again, like Halo 1!" the repetition would end.
Other than that, they actually did a pretty good job with single player. I kinda played it more for the story though, honestly I still consider objective based games to be far more fun, but this was enjoyable at the least. Actually, Halo 1's last level was the most fun with a REAL objective of using 4 grenades inside 4 vents and then a 7 minute or so escape run before da boom. Nothing like that here though... But, it does have bosses, and they are well done bosses.
Multiplayer however is where I have pretty much become obsessed. Not nearly as many weapons, and while very customizable, not as much so as Perfect Dark was (except in a few ways), but it really does contend with PD at this point in the multiplayer department. No simulants or bots, but who needs them? Humans are more fun anyway (not that adding bots wouldn't be appreciated by me, and hey maybe a later upgrade can add them). Plenty of game modes, and enough customizing of game rules to let you play pretty much any variation of the basic gametypes as you want. You still can't customize down to the level of specific weapon slots (still Goldeneye styled "weapon sets" you have to choose from, but there are enough of them to give you pretty much what you want, for now anyway. Vehicles can now be destroyed, and the rocket launcher can now actually target and track vehicles (not people though) with the rockets. It's fun to watch some banshee driver whirl around in horror as a missile chases them to the ends of the ringworld...
The levels are all pretty fun too. Two are remakes of the two favorites of Halo 1, but honestly, I hope a new download gives ALL the original levels. None of the new levels are really all that well done for a game of "rockets" or "shotguns" like in Halo 1 (Prisoner was always the best Rockets level, and Longest was always the best shotguns level). Either bring those to Halo 2 outright, or specially design a few close quarters levels for the game.
Health is different now. First off, the HUD no longer displays physical health. I'm not sure how that works now, but it only displays shield status. I think there is less physical health anyway, since you can now only take a VERY small number of hits when the shields are gone (this can be adjusted in the game settings though if you don't like that, except display). Also, there is NO medpac item in the game, at all. If you get physically hurt, you stay that way, so again, shields pretty much ARE your life. Just like the first, you always have shields (unless you use options to turn them off), and they recharge over time if you can find a hiding place. Now they recharge, once the recharge starts anyway, a LOT faster. So, once it starts you can pretty much rush out right then and it'll be full by the time you get in a battle... usually...
There are new weapons as well. The sword is pretty much the best melee weapon ever designed for a FPS. Namely, when that target cursor turns red, when you are within a few meters of the enemy, attack and you will automatically DASH straight to the enemy and cut them down. This is VERY effective, and the sword is currently considered to actually be overpowered because of this. It's now better than the shotgun for close range, since you can safely engage the dash and strike move just outside the shotgun's instant kill range. It is also great for stealth, if you sneak around and see someone below you, just target and DIVE at them with the special attack. Oh, and as many are finding out thanks to, well, your's truly, the sword dash lets you actually FLY at the enemy :D. Even if they are a level above you, if you jump and the height of your jump gets you close enough for the cursor to change red, just slice and boom, you DASH STRAIGHT UP INTO THE AIR and they die, then I hear them scream over the headset "what the hell?". The pistol has been totally nerfed. No longer does it have a 2X zoom function, and it is a lot weaker, so no 3 hit kills for good head shots. AT this point, rather than being one of the MOST used weapons as in the first, it has been delegated to the realm of the least used weapon, still pretty much useless in this game, the covenent weapon with the charge shot... The mauler wanna-be basically, except unlike the mauler it sucks. However, I have noticed one new weapon, the carbine, actually does pretty much the same thing as the pistol, and has essentially replaced it. They added a grenade launcher, but it's a bit underpowered considering it's a frickin' grenade launcher. Hopefully later they will beef it up. They added a covenant sniper rifle, but really it doesn't stand out that much. Aside from no reloads (but very quick overheating), there's really not much to seperate. Certainly at this point no one really cares which one they are using since they only have to fire slightly differently.
Now, you can finally have MORE than two teams. Unfortunalty, the one place where I really wanted that functionality, capture the flag, isn't one of the gametypes that allows this. This is due to map design mind you, just like in PD where team numbers are limited to 4 in that gametype, but still 3 or 4 team capture the flag REALLY has a LOT going for it.
There is a new territory gametype. It's like king of the hill, only instead of a single territory, there are as many as like... I think 8 or so. Also, once you claim one, it STAYS on your team even if you leave until someone else claims it, and the more you have, the faster your time fills up. It's actually pretty hectic.
<img src="http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041110l.jpg">
I have already met all three of these people... The second was me... I get in the warthog with the bomb for a run on the enemy base, only to find the driver is driving DIRECTLY UP A FRICKIN' WALL. Apparently this person lost all sense of direction for a moment before finally reorienting and taking us straight into a rocket that WOULD have missed us because the user wasn't familiar with lock-on yet. The last describes pretty much all capture/bombing run gametypes thanks to a new rule (which can be turned off). Namely, when enabled this rule prevents anyone who is holding the bomb or flag from driving a vehicle or operating the weapons on one. They can and will only be the passanger while two others do the previous things. Well, in theory, in practice there's the driver and the bomb holder and the gun is... well look at that third panel.
There's more to say about the incricasies of it, but suffise it to say the game is very VERY fun and I've basically been obsessed.
Now for the REST of multiplayer. The matchmaking. Bungie did an almost perfect job here. Namely, like other recent XBox titles, this is Live "aware", which means in single player you can suddenly get an invite from another player which will politely show up in the corner while you battle. You can even check your friends list whenever you pause the game. The one bit of bad programming is, if for whatever reason, you get disconnected from the live service while playing single player, the GAME WILL SUDDENLY PAUSE AND TELL YOU THAT HAPPENED, and THEN it will quit back to the title screen! I mean, what the heck? It did that JUST before a checkpoint too and it was so frickin' annoying :D. Anyway, hopefully a later update will pretty much just put up a little icon in the corner out of the way to tell you that and LET YOU KEEP PLAYING. It sucks to finally be winning a certain part and suddenly have the system quit on you due to something that has no bearing on what you are doing. Oh yes, the multiplayer part has basically infiltrated the entire option menu. Even if you select split screen mode, you will still need to select a primary ID to "sign in" under for some reason, even though you are actually signing out of live. And the screen still presents a friends menu, even though it doesn't work in split screen anyway :D. In Live, it tricks you. You can go into options and change the mode from custom to matchmaking to whatever, and you can do just that, but then I see the option to switch to co-op, and I"m thinking cool, I can play co-op campaign over the internet. Nope, the second you try it the game tells you you can't do that. Why present the option I ask? The game just sits there because it doesn't have voice recognition.
Anyway, you can matchmake randomly just like in Warcraft 3. One button uses the previous settings you last used, and the other lets you specify a few things. You can only specify the BASIC type though, nothing specific, but there's a reason for that. These random matchups are actually the ladder system they have in the game. They are the only ranked games though. They basically keep it controlled like that for that reason. So, you can select "one on one", "team skirmish", and a bunch of others which have a few randomly selected gametype presets that it will use when it finds a match and gets enough people. Each basic type has it's own ladder. Your current overall rank is just the highest rank number you have in the various games (not cumulative, just the highest rank you have). Currently, I'm rank 5 overall thanks to my rank 5 in one on one. You rank up by beating a certain needed number of people IN A ROW. At first, just one will do. To get to level 5, I needed two wins in a row. Later it'll actually get TOUGH though, with like 10 or so wins in a row. Also, it always strives to match you up with people in your skill level (equal rank on that ladder). Or, failing that, just the closest it can find. Yep, just like WC3.
Oh yeah, might as well say it if it's not clear, yes this game is upgradable with new content and outright patches. In fact, the second I signed on I had to download an update to the game. I reallly have no idea what it did, probably just a few bug fixes. Seems MS may have went ahead and let companies release bug fixes for their games over Live.
The other way to play is custom game. Unlike every other game out there, no room selection is possible. Instead, it's people selection. You have to invite people INTO the custom game. So far, that's a pretty easy thing to do. Just select from the friends list or recently played list. In fact, I've felt VERY linked to just about everyone thanks to this Live system. Custom games are, by default, "open", meaning anyone can pop in. That is, if you select a friend or recent play, if they are in an open game, you can just join them outright. Thanks to this, games fill up fast so I always leave mine open. Also, you can take any of these parties you have built up and go into the matchmaker. To prevent cheating on the ladders, ALL people in your parties will be on YOUR team. Anyway, I was playing against my brother when suddenly one of my friends just randomly showed up IN the game. This is a real nice community experience. Kill kill kill, wait a sec, who are you? Oh, you are YOU! Hey there! Note this is for free for all, in a team based thing, to keep sides even, someone joining has to wait to switch out with someone, and again, you can always close it if you don't want that. I do think they should have a partial option though, so like, let's say you want people to be able to join into the room, but not the game itself in play. Right now, it's all or none. In fact, if they don't "hide" themselves with that option, you can pretty much see exactly what your friends are doing. It's relaxing when playing single player during some frustrating part when you can take a look and see some friend is also playing single player, and you can see what level they are on and if they are going co-op :D. Did I mention the whole Live setup really gives you a sense of community? It's not really clear until you actually experience it yourself though. It's just a really good setup.
Clans are also here. You can only be a member of one at a time, to prevent every single individual from having their own clan (so far that hasn't worked :D). The member limit is 100. You can assign various abilities to each member. That's about it for them. Each character can have a color alteration specific to their profile (but this is overridden by team colors in team games, for obvious reasons), and also an emblem emblazened on their shoulders. The emblem has a decent level of customization. I have a simplistic version of the one that looks like the Metroid Screw Attack icon. They allow a little artistic flair to keep everyone from looking the same. Oh and, before you think about it, ALL the colors stand out completly...
About the headset. Well, it's a headset. In the rooms, you just talk to whoever. You can tell if someone has the headset by a little icon, so that way you don't end up talking to someone who can't ever respond. In the games, there are two ways. Press the white button and you use the walkie talkie. It'll let you talk until it detects silence for about a second. The walkie talkie will let you communicate with your entire team in team play, and every single player in free for all. The other way is proximity. If you are within hearing distance, everything you say can be heard by that person. This includes using the walkie talkie. Keep that in mind if you are sneaking around and want to inform someone of that. You may want to wisper to people you are standing next to (volume is determined by proximity with this method). Oh, there is voice masking for the one or two peopel out there who have a privacy issue, or just don't like the sound of their own voice :D. It only has one mode, but honestly the special kid's toy styled voice masks of other games always sucked anyway. The one mode this has is not annoying in the least and so far I have yet to be annoyed by the sound of it. It's like "just one of the humans" sorta weird monotone voice thing, that's all.
Overall, Halo 2 is certainly something I do NOT consider a mistake to buy.
Someone: What an odd statement...
DJ: Huh, yeah you're right... What I mean is the single player, while pretty fun and with a good story, still really isn't enough to make this a must buy by any means (this means you ABF), but the multplayer, as of now, is just so very rich and just plain fun that it alone IS worth buying the game ((this means pretty much everyone who's ever enjoyed a good "frag fest" as the children call it these days).
Yes, it has it's problems, but I'm pretty confident all my littler wishes will be answered in updates and content drops. One big concern is multiplayer music. Honestly, Halo and Halo 2, whatever else you may say, have some of the BEST FPS music I've ever heard, especially the second. Some even compaires with some of the better RPG music I love. Certainly not the usual junk you hear in FPS games. To have multiplayer battles totally silent on the music front in light of this is a crime really. They didn't even add in custom soundtrack option, and so at this point I STILL don't have a single XBox game that uses that feature. It's not like that option would require sending the music over the net for others to listen to, it'd be a personal setting. Hopefully this too is something they can add in a later update.
Anyway, I started off saying I got the games Weltall and ABF said are "must haves" since their tastes and my own seem to be pretty similar, and suddenly went into a full review of Halo 2... Wow...
Anyway, that's that. Now then, I'm going to bed...
ABF, I have The Longest Journey and Planescape: Torment. Actually, I couldn't find the second one except in a bundle with a game called Soulbringer. I have only JUST started Planescape, but it seems pretty promising. The main character isn't a stereotypical badarse as his appearence just SCREAMS. He's just a confused zombie from the looks of it right now. I shall now see if Gabe... Tycho... whoever the original RPG fan of Penny Arcade is... is someone I agree with in his statement "...but I will say now that the best game EVER is Planescape: Torment, glad to lay that out there...".
Now, my mom has currently confiscated Longest Journey at this point (she's been stuck for days on a single puzzle it seems), so I think I will focus totally on Silent Hill as she has expressed an interest in playing a survival horror game and she likes psychological stuff more than pure physical danger, so she'll likely steal Silent Hill away from me next time I see her... Or maybe I should stop telling her about every little thing I get...
Oh, and I also now have Halo 2, in a metal box. Thanks to my brother as well as a ridiculous number of my friend's strange obsession, I was more or less DRAGGED to one of the odd conventions around Tulsa. Specifically, I was at one of the malls here, with a total of two stores selling the game the place was more or less packed. (Glad it wasn't a BIG mall :D.) Indeed, a certain Penny Arcade really DID grab the experience. It seemed like a frickin' pep rally it did. One side was constantly shouting at volumes that drowned out my MP3 player (at NOTHING I might add, nothing was even happening, they just cheered randomly and en mass), and another section appeared to be full of Halo cheerleaders or something. Fortunatly, no one was in costume. Last thing I need to see is someone cutting off their hair to get that Cortona look JUST right (only to find out upon getting the game that a HOLOGRAM seems to have grown her hair out in this game).
<img src="http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041108l.jpg">
So anyway, the game itself. Soon as I get home, I SLEEP. I'm just glad I had brought my gameboy to that spectacle.
I wake up to start up the game. I play the campaign and proceed to get pretty enthralled by the MUCH improved story. The first one's story really was just a standard "an evil enemy planet is on the way to crush your evil not enemy planet, because they don't like you for an undisclosed reason, only there is a one ring that is evil and must be destroyed and then ZOMBIES". Seriously, those who haven't played Halo 1, that IS the story exactly. Oh, and the aliens with their energy shields and plasma rifles are NO MATCH for the might of the human wielded shotgun :D.
The second one's story actually explains pretty much everything to the point where the first one's depth is pretty much made to exist VIA this game. There's actually a real STORY to it that, well, is interesting. It's got all the religious undertones of FFX actually, so if you happen to be a Catholic living in the era of the holy wars, you MIGHT be offended by the alien representation of you. Also, you are a heretic. Just accept that and burn for it. They don't really mention WHY the aliens got all mad at the humans honestly (I still think that they were friends during that first meeting but then the aliens heard a George Carlin comedy routine and the hatred began).
The Master Chief (aka, the demon) still has a pretty much terrible and uninteresting personality... The OTHER character though, you'll see, really has something going on the personal story side of things. (Actually, in this weird transripts of what are apparently transmissions, I get the impression that there's a significant other in the Master Chief's life, possibly someone he fights for I guess, but Solid Snake he is NOT. His real name, John, is still a lot better than that really over the top almost Engrish name he goes by in combat...
The single player ALMOST fixes the MAJOR problem Halo 1 had. Halo 1, you repeated the same parts of a stage over and over until you were pretty much sick of it and just wanted to turn the system off (and I did pretty often out of sheer boredom). When I say an area repeats itself, I mean pretty much the entire structual layout of a room and the tunnels leading from it to the next are just copied and pasted with a couple different enemies here and there over and over. The worst example was a snow level where you went from one constantly repeating area type to ANOTHER constantly repeating area type. Then, to add insult to injury, when you finally get out of that level, you later return to that very SAME level, only BACKWARDS! OH JOY! I nearly threw my controller upon realizing NOTHING had changed except enemy placement! At least I managed to steal a banshee from an enemy normally programmed to jump into it from WAY far away (killing it with a well tossed grenade and DASHING there before another can get inside was VERY satisfying) so I could just fly to the way points of the level and get it all over with.
Anyway, Halo 2 still has SOME repetition, but it only did that a total of 4 times that I can remember, and the repetition lasted a LOT shorter. Generally, just when I was thinking "wait, this is just repeating itself again, like Halo 1!" the repetition would end.
Other than that, they actually did a pretty good job with single player. I kinda played it more for the story though, honestly I still consider objective based games to be far more fun, but this was enjoyable at the least. Actually, Halo 1's last level was the most fun with a REAL objective of using 4 grenades inside 4 vents and then a 7 minute or so escape run before da boom. Nothing like that here though... But, it does have bosses, and they are well done bosses.
Multiplayer however is where I have pretty much become obsessed. Not nearly as many weapons, and while very customizable, not as much so as Perfect Dark was (except in a few ways), but it really does contend with PD at this point in the multiplayer department. No simulants or bots, but who needs them? Humans are more fun anyway (not that adding bots wouldn't be appreciated by me, and hey maybe a later upgrade can add them). Plenty of game modes, and enough customizing of game rules to let you play pretty much any variation of the basic gametypes as you want. You still can't customize down to the level of specific weapon slots (still Goldeneye styled "weapon sets" you have to choose from, but there are enough of them to give you pretty much what you want, for now anyway. Vehicles can now be destroyed, and the rocket launcher can now actually target and track vehicles (not people though) with the rockets. It's fun to watch some banshee driver whirl around in horror as a missile chases them to the ends of the ringworld...
The levels are all pretty fun too. Two are remakes of the two favorites of Halo 1, but honestly, I hope a new download gives ALL the original levels. None of the new levels are really all that well done for a game of "rockets" or "shotguns" like in Halo 1 (Prisoner was always the best Rockets level, and Longest was always the best shotguns level). Either bring those to Halo 2 outright, or specially design a few close quarters levels for the game.
Health is different now. First off, the HUD no longer displays physical health. I'm not sure how that works now, but it only displays shield status. I think there is less physical health anyway, since you can now only take a VERY small number of hits when the shields are gone (this can be adjusted in the game settings though if you don't like that, except display). Also, there is NO medpac item in the game, at all. If you get physically hurt, you stay that way, so again, shields pretty much ARE your life. Just like the first, you always have shields (unless you use options to turn them off), and they recharge over time if you can find a hiding place. Now they recharge, once the recharge starts anyway, a LOT faster. So, once it starts you can pretty much rush out right then and it'll be full by the time you get in a battle... usually...
There are new weapons as well. The sword is pretty much the best melee weapon ever designed for a FPS. Namely, when that target cursor turns red, when you are within a few meters of the enemy, attack and you will automatically DASH straight to the enemy and cut them down. This is VERY effective, and the sword is currently considered to actually be overpowered because of this. It's now better than the shotgun for close range, since you can safely engage the dash and strike move just outside the shotgun's instant kill range. It is also great for stealth, if you sneak around and see someone below you, just target and DIVE at them with the special attack. Oh, and as many are finding out thanks to, well, your's truly, the sword dash lets you actually FLY at the enemy :D. Even if they are a level above you, if you jump and the height of your jump gets you close enough for the cursor to change red, just slice and boom, you DASH STRAIGHT UP INTO THE AIR and they die, then I hear them scream over the headset "what the hell?". The pistol has been totally nerfed. No longer does it have a 2X zoom function, and it is a lot weaker, so no 3 hit kills for good head shots. AT this point, rather than being one of the MOST used weapons as in the first, it has been delegated to the realm of the least used weapon, still pretty much useless in this game, the covenent weapon with the charge shot... The mauler wanna-be basically, except unlike the mauler it sucks. However, I have noticed one new weapon, the carbine, actually does pretty much the same thing as the pistol, and has essentially replaced it. They added a grenade launcher, but it's a bit underpowered considering it's a frickin' grenade launcher. Hopefully later they will beef it up. They added a covenant sniper rifle, but really it doesn't stand out that much. Aside from no reloads (but very quick overheating), there's really not much to seperate. Certainly at this point no one really cares which one they are using since they only have to fire slightly differently.
Now, you can finally have MORE than two teams. Unfortunalty, the one place where I really wanted that functionality, capture the flag, isn't one of the gametypes that allows this. This is due to map design mind you, just like in PD where team numbers are limited to 4 in that gametype, but still 3 or 4 team capture the flag REALLY has a LOT going for it.
There is a new territory gametype. It's like king of the hill, only instead of a single territory, there are as many as like... I think 8 or so. Also, once you claim one, it STAYS on your team even if you leave until someone else claims it, and the more you have, the faster your time fills up. It's actually pretty hectic.
<img src="http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041110l.jpg">
I have already met all three of these people... The second was me... I get in the warthog with the bomb for a run on the enemy base, only to find the driver is driving DIRECTLY UP A FRICKIN' WALL. Apparently this person lost all sense of direction for a moment before finally reorienting and taking us straight into a rocket that WOULD have missed us because the user wasn't familiar with lock-on yet. The last describes pretty much all capture/bombing run gametypes thanks to a new rule (which can be turned off). Namely, when enabled this rule prevents anyone who is holding the bomb or flag from driving a vehicle or operating the weapons on one. They can and will only be the passanger while two others do the previous things. Well, in theory, in practice there's the driver and the bomb holder and the gun is... well look at that third panel.
There's more to say about the incricasies of it, but suffise it to say the game is very VERY fun and I've basically been obsessed.
Now for the REST of multiplayer. The matchmaking. Bungie did an almost perfect job here. Namely, like other recent XBox titles, this is Live "aware", which means in single player you can suddenly get an invite from another player which will politely show up in the corner while you battle. You can even check your friends list whenever you pause the game. The one bit of bad programming is, if for whatever reason, you get disconnected from the live service while playing single player, the GAME WILL SUDDENLY PAUSE AND TELL YOU THAT HAPPENED, and THEN it will quit back to the title screen! I mean, what the heck? It did that JUST before a checkpoint too and it was so frickin' annoying :D. Anyway, hopefully a later update will pretty much just put up a little icon in the corner out of the way to tell you that and LET YOU KEEP PLAYING. It sucks to finally be winning a certain part and suddenly have the system quit on you due to something that has no bearing on what you are doing. Oh yes, the multiplayer part has basically infiltrated the entire option menu. Even if you select split screen mode, you will still need to select a primary ID to "sign in" under for some reason, even though you are actually signing out of live. And the screen still presents a friends menu, even though it doesn't work in split screen anyway :D. In Live, it tricks you. You can go into options and change the mode from custom to matchmaking to whatever, and you can do just that, but then I see the option to switch to co-op, and I"m thinking cool, I can play co-op campaign over the internet. Nope, the second you try it the game tells you you can't do that. Why present the option I ask? The game just sits there because it doesn't have voice recognition.
Anyway, you can matchmake randomly just like in Warcraft 3. One button uses the previous settings you last used, and the other lets you specify a few things. You can only specify the BASIC type though, nothing specific, but there's a reason for that. These random matchups are actually the ladder system they have in the game. They are the only ranked games though. They basically keep it controlled like that for that reason. So, you can select "one on one", "team skirmish", and a bunch of others which have a few randomly selected gametype presets that it will use when it finds a match and gets enough people. Each basic type has it's own ladder. Your current overall rank is just the highest rank number you have in the various games (not cumulative, just the highest rank you have). Currently, I'm rank 5 overall thanks to my rank 5 in one on one. You rank up by beating a certain needed number of people IN A ROW. At first, just one will do. To get to level 5, I needed two wins in a row. Later it'll actually get TOUGH though, with like 10 or so wins in a row. Also, it always strives to match you up with people in your skill level (equal rank on that ladder). Or, failing that, just the closest it can find. Yep, just like WC3.
Oh yeah, might as well say it if it's not clear, yes this game is upgradable with new content and outright patches. In fact, the second I signed on I had to download an update to the game. I reallly have no idea what it did, probably just a few bug fixes. Seems MS may have went ahead and let companies release bug fixes for their games over Live.
The other way to play is custom game. Unlike every other game out there, no room selection is possible. Instead, it's people selection. You have to invite people INTO the custom game. So far, that's a pretty easy thing to do. Just select from the friends list or recently played list. In fact, I've felt VERY linked to just about everyone thanks to this Live system. Custom games are, by default, "open", meaning anyone can pop in. That is, if you select a friend or recent play, if they are in an open game, you can just join them outright. Thanks to this, games fill up fast so I always leave mine open. Also, you can take any of these parties you have built up and go into the matchmaker. To prevent cheating on the ladders, ALL people in your parties will be on YOUR team. Anyway, I was playing against my brother when suddenly one of my friends just randomly showed up IN the game. This is a real nice community experience. Kill kill kill, wait a sec, who are you? Oh, you are YOU! Hey there! Note this is for free for all, in a team based thing, to keep sides even, someone joining has to wait to switch out with someone, and again, you can always close it if you don't want that. I do think they should have a partial option though, so like, let's say you want people to be able to join into the room, but not the game itself in play. Right now, it's all or none. In fact, if they don't "hide" themselves with that option, you can pretty much see exactly what your friends are doing. It's relaxing when playing single player during some frustrating part when you can take a look and see some friend is also playing single player, and you can see what level they are on and if they are going co-op :D. Did I mention the whole Live setup really gives you a sense of community? It's not really clear until you actually experience it yourself though. It's just a really good setup.
Clans are also here. You can only be a member of one at a time, to prevent every single individual from having their own clan (so far that hasn't worked :D). The member limit is 100. You can assign various abilities to each member. That's about it for them. Each character can have a color alteration specific to their profile (but this is overridden by team colors in team games, for obvious reasons), and also an emblem emblazened on their shoulders. The emblem has a decent level of customization. I have a simplistic version of the one that looks like the Metroid Screw Attack icon. They allow a little artistic flair to keep everyone from looking the same. Oh and, before you think about it, ALL the colors stand out completly...
About the headset. Well, it's a headset. In the rooms, you just talk to whoever. You can tell if someone has the headset by a little icon, so that way you don't end up talking to someone who can't ever respond. In the games, there are two ways. Press the white button and you use the walkie talkie. It'll let you talk until it detects silence for about a second. The walkie talkie will let you communicate with your entire team in team play, and every single player in free for all. The other way is proximity. If you are within hearing distance, everything you say can be heard by that person. This includes using the walkie talkie. Keep that in mind if you are sneaking around and want to inform someone of that. You may want to wisper to people you are standing next to (volume is determined by proximity with this method). Oh, there is voice masking for the one or two peopel out there who have a privacy issue, or just don't like the sound of their own voice :D. It only has one mode, but honestly the special kid's toy styled voice masks of other games always sucked anyway. The one mode this has is not annoying in the least and so far I have yet to be annoyed by the sound of it. It's like "just one of the humans" sorta weird monotone voice thing, that's all.
Overall, Halo 2 is certainly something I do NOT consider a mistake to buy.
Someone: What an odd statement...
DJ: Huh, yeah you're right... What I mean is the single player, while pretty fun and with a good story, still really isn't enough to make this a must buy by any means (this means you ABF), but the multplayer, as of now, is just so very rich and just plain fun that it alone IS worth buying the game ((this means pretty much everyone who's ever enjoyed a good "frag fest" as the children call it these days).
Yes, it has it's problems, but I'm pretty confident all my littler wishes will be answered in updates and content drops. One big concern is multiplayer music. Honestly, Halo and Halo 2, whatever else you may say, have some of the BEST FPS music I've ever heard, especially the second. Some even compaires with some of the better RPG music I love. Certainly not the usual junk you hear in FPS games. To have multiplayer battles totally silent on the music front in light of this is a crime really. They didn't even add in custom soundtrack option, and so at this point I STILL don't have a single XBox game that uses that feature. It's not like that option would require sending the music over the net for others to listen to, it'd be a personal setting. Hopefully this too is something they can add in a later update.
Anyway, I started off saying I got the games Weltall and ABF said are "must haves" since their tastes and my own seem to be pretty similar, and suddenly went into a full review of Halo 2... Wow...
Anyway, that's that. Now then, I'm going to bed...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)