OT: No talk about Halo 2?

[HornedFrog Purple]

Surprising.

I have to go pick this thing up at midnight for the nephews. I liked the first one. Chances are I will not get a chance to play it for a month or two while they own the xbox. But that's ok, the old geezer is enjoying the heck out of Rome: Total War.

Anyone picking it up?

[FBPro]

I was kinda surprised by this as well. Son is going to get it at 12:01.

[Kodos]

Honestly, I was underwhelmed by the first one. I didn't get all that far into it before setting it aside and never coming back to it. Maybe it was all the hype, but I just wasn't amazed by the game like many were.

[Coop]

I was thinking about picking it up at 12, but I have a test tomorrow and if i buy it tonight Ill be up till 7am playing :). Kodos I agree that the single player was weak, well I take that back the second half was weak. But the heart of Halo is the multiplayer/co-op. I'm getting Xbox live just for Halo2.

P.S. Half Life 2 will be a lot better than Halo 2. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[The_herd]

I ordered from amazon. Hopefully I'll have it in a couple days.

Gamespot posted their review yesterday, it got a 9.6. The downside is the single player game can be finished in 10 hours. The upside is they said it has the best MP component on a console game to date and rivals any PC shooter in that area.

[Senator]

HFP - Rome - Total War - give me a write up review. I downloaded the demo and thought it was ok.

As for Halo 2 - I never even played the first one.

[Rich1033]

Im thinking about it. Are the stores opening at midnight just for the preorders? With over 1.5 million preoders, Id hate to make a trip only to find it is soldout.

[HornedFrog Purple]

HFP - Rome - Total War - give me a write up review. I downloaded the demo and thought it was ok.

I am loving this game. I have played all the Total War series starting with Shogun.

Think playing an advanced version of Risk and getting to play out the battles. But it is not a tedious version of Risk. You can automate a lot of the empire managing if you want to.

If you like any of the Civ series, you'll love this one because you can play out the battles (you also can just sim them). There is nothing like watching a thousand pixelated warriors mauling each other on the screen. The music is great too.

It is pretty much the best of both worlds. If you want to empire manage you can, if you want to have some hellacious on screen slobberknockers you can, or you can do both.

I haven't bought a computer game in a while besides a sports sim, but this is my game of the year.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Which stores will be open for people to pick it up?

[HornedFrog Purple]

Im thinking about it. Are the stores opening at midnight just for the preorders? With over 1.5 million preoders, Id hate to make a trip only to find it is soldout.

The ebgames I am getting mine from said they would have some copies for walk-ins. It seems that most people who preordered there ordered the special edition. I guess it depends.

[Senator]

Yeah, other than text sims, I don't have any games on the PC.

But this sounds pretty cool. I have never played the Total War or the Civ series. But the tutorial on the demo made it seem like it was not just too labor intensive, and the graphics were amazing.

I guess I will get it. Some of my co-workers are jazzed about EQ2 and want me to play, but I am having trouble getting excited about it, and the 12 bucks a months does not sound too fun either.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Don't get EQ2. I have a friend at work who played EQ1 and played it so much he burned out playing it. He kept the account for a few months afterwards and finally just gave up. He said it was a massive time/money sink. He said they call it Evercrack. :D

[Calis]

I actually managed to get a copy of Halo 2 Friday night and have been playing it a bunch this weekend.

I'd never even played the first until a couple weeks ago, but the buzz of this one made me cave in when I had the opportunity to buy it early. I'm a sucker like that.

If you liked the first one, you'll love this one. It's not a major overhaul of the game at all, but it did add some nifty little things. If you thought the first was bleh, you won't be overwhelmed by this one either though.

Had a blast playing it coop all weekend though, think the game really shines there, and I'm sure in multiplayer also, but haven't got a chance to really get into that.

[Rich1033]

Which stores will be open for people to pick it up?
It will depend on the store. One told me they only had enough for preorders while another said they will have a few extra.

[kingnebwsu]

I'm getting it in less than 2.5 hours. It's one of the most amazing games I've played. The single-player level diversity is amazing, and the multiplayer is really well done. I really hope they support it with FREE downloadable maps on Xbox Live.

I'll be off all next weekend playing it :)

[tucker342]

getting it in the morning:)

[TargetPractice6]

I never got through the Library in the first one. One of the worst levels I've played in any video game. Ever. I liked the game for the must part up until tha point though.

[kingfc22]

Going to get it tomorrow. I have a bunch of co-workers who beta-tested it and they say it is very fun. I can't wait. :)

[ISiddiqui]

I'm hoping there is better level design. The library level in Halo 1 was brutal... and just because of design... ugh.

[sterlingice]

I was thinking about picking it up at 12, but I have a test tomorrow and if i buy it tonight Ill be up till 7am playing :).
From the Gamespot review, that's about all it sounds like it takes to beat the single player (~10 hours).

SI

[dawgfan]

Just pre-ordered it (as well as Half Life 2) and will be picking it up in a little over 2 hours. Looking forward to a day's worth of shoot-em-up with the single player missions (a fringe benefit of being unemployed I guess...) and then picking up broadband, Xbox Live and playing a bunch of multiplayer games in the next few weeks.

[TLK]

just played it for an hour or so.... looks exactly the same as the first, and plays pretty much the same....

[kingnebwsu]

It's fan-fricking-tastic. If you're not planning on playing online, then it may not wow you that much. But it's wow'ing me. If you're bored, check out hxxp://www.bungie.net/stats to see what things they're doing with stats. It's ridiculous. I played like 30 games tonight, and I can see where I got kills, where I was killed and with what weapon, what routes I ran with the flag, how many medals I earned and for what, a map showing all of the action from the game, a close-up of any part of the map, etc. It's wow. Even if you're not into it, just check out their site and see what they've done. This is truly revolutionary and it's so so cool.

I'm quite proud because my roommate and I are ranked 61st and 62nd out of 67342 players in just under 6 hours! GO US!!! We only played for 4 of those hours, so imagine if we had been playing straight since midnight ;)

Halo 2 is exceptional if you plan on playing extensively online or system link. So so cool. Gonna sleep now and play more in the morning (afternoon). :)

[dawgfan]

Jeebus - I don't know what everyone else's experience was, but picking up my copy at midnight was a huge clusterfuck. I pre-paid yesterday at the local EB and was told those that fully purchased the game would get to pick up their copies first. So I show up at 11:40 to find a huge line of fanboys already there. No biggie I thought - I'm pre-paid and get to go first, and since it's pre-paid it should move real fast.

Nope.

They make 2 lines, for those fully pre-paid and those that put down a partial deposit or hadn't paid yet. They slowly let in a stream from both lines into the store (unlike what they'd told me earlier in the day), and instead of just simply showing your receipt and being handed your game, they had to run everything through their computers again and you had to sign a slip (I bought mine with an ATM card earlier in the day, so I'm not sure why I needed to sign anything). The actual transaction process took about a minute, and with a line of of at least 200 people (and probably more) you can imagine how slow it was. I picked up my copy at about 1:15AM.

Here's how it should've worked:
- Tell everyone that pre-pays in full that they get to pick up their copies first, but they have to bring their receipt with them;
- Let the pre-paid people in first, run them through the store, mark their receipt with a hi-liter, hand them their game and they're done - this would've been about 10 times faster;
- Then let the people that hadn't fully paid come in and place their purchases after all the pre-paids had been served

Haven't played it yet, but I'm looking forward to a full afternoon of shooting Covenant aliens.

[SackAttack]

My EB let the pre-pays, full or partial, in first, with the non-pays getting a chance after all the preorders were processed. They passed out flyers to the pre-pays and the flyers had a number in the upper right corner. They took groups of 10. Flyers 1-10, 11-20, etc.

Opened the doors at 5 after 12, and I was outta there by a little after 1 (I was #92).

[Coop]

Been playing for about 2 hours and the single player is pretty damn good. It starts off really slow but once the first level is complete the game really picks up. I used the free 2 month of xbox live so if anybody wants to add me my tag is Coop421

[ShaefIllini]

My Halo2 buying experience was pretty bad. I went to the EB on campus at about 1140, and the line was about a block long. I got number 277. There were no separate lines for full prepay/partial pay. Needless to say, I got back to my apartment a little bit before 4. Hasn't stopped me from playing for about 7 hours though...

[SackAttack]

So why have none of you fruits who've picked up Halo 2 responded to my volunteer thread to help me put the online multiplayer through its paces so I can get this review finished? :p

[Rich1033]

I didnt preorder. I just walked into Meijers at about 12:15 am, stood in line for 2 minutes, then walked out with the game. Looks like everyone went to EB and Gamespot and forgot about the other stores.

[The_herd]

I didnt preorder. I just walked into Meijers at about 12:15 am, stood in line for 2 minutes, then walked out with the game. Looks like everyone went to EB and Gamespot and forgot about the other stores.

Walmart was the same way here. A friend went to EB and said the line went outside the Mall. Walmart had 4 people in line and only 3 of them were asking for Halo 2.

[hukarez]

Just picked this game up today from Circuit City. They gave me a free watch with it, which kind of surprised me.

[ISiddiqui]

Well at least you'll know what time you should go to bed as it wizzes right by as you play another level ;).

[hukarez]

Oddly enough, I've had this game for the past 4 hours now, and I haven't even opened it up yet. This has been a really strange week for me, apparently.

On the other hand, I'm debating whether or not to try out this "Live" thing. I was thinking about just going for the gusto and signing up and stuff, but was doing a bit of research into alternates for XBox Communicator Headsets.

There doesn't seem to be much 3rd party headsets for the XBox...or perhaps, I haven't been searching hard enough. (I can't stand the 1 earpiece thing. Call me traditional, or antiquated, I suppose.)

[SackAttack]

hukarez, any headset with a traditional plug-in piece can be used, doesn't have to be designed for Xbox. what you need, though, is the "puck" that comes with the Xbox Communicator. If you don't have that, nothing will work for you. But once you have that, you can use virtually anything.

[hukarez]

hukarez, any headset with a traditional plug-in piece can be used, doesn't have to be designed for Xbox. what you need, though, is the "puck" that comes with the Xbox Communicator. If you don't have that, nothing will work for you. But once you have that, you can use virtually anything.
That "puck" essentially being packaged with an authentic XBox Live Communicator, I'm guessing.

I have a headset that I bought for my PC awhile ago - 2 nifty separate jacks for both microphone and speakers. I'm guessing the "puck" features these jacks as well? I couldn't quite get a good look at the image of it from the website...

[INDalltheway]

I went into EB today without a preorder, and easily picked it up in 10 minutes. My friends and myself just got done with a couple hours of multiplayer. Good day, I would say.

[SackAttack]

That "puck" essentially being packaged with an authentic XBox Live Communicator, I'm guessing.

Correct. As fragile as the XBLC is, though, folks who buy an official replacement windup with extra "pucks." So you might be able to snag the puck on the cheap on ebay.

I have a headset that I bought for my PC awhile ago - 2 nifty separate jacks for both microphone and speakers. I'm guessing the "puck" features these jacks as well? I couldn't quite get a good look at the image of it from the website...

One of them, yes. Most Xbox Live games these days feature the ability to play the voice chat through TV speakers, allowing you to hear what's going on, so there's no need for a speaker jack...but you still need the puck and a microphone in order to speak yourself.

[hukarez]

but you still need the puck and a microphone in order to speak yourself.
Or to "defend" myself. ;) Either way, I'll see how it goes. I understand there's a wireless version out there too...but I'll check out eBay. I kind of like the headset I have for my PC...and if there's a way I can keep the other ear from being nekkid, I think I'll be fine. Of course, I'll probably start tomorrow...though, I'll probably open up the game right now and give it a round or two before hitting the sack.

Thanks for the heads up!

[SackAttack]

Yup.

[bamcgee]

Wow - played multiplayer last night with some buddies halfway across the country. They were playing split-screen, but it was like they were in my living room. Good times - great maps, balanced gameplay. I was wondering when Xbox live would pay off, and here it is.

[hukarez]

I got a few plays in with the game early this morning, before I left for work...and I officially suck at console FPS. I guess I'm just used to a keyboard mouse interface... :o

Guess I'll have to practice a bit more using the controller before I attempt any type of online interaction.

[ShaefIllini]

Well, I just finished the campaign mode, and while I have some complaints, I thought it was an excellent game...now I'm just going to be sucked into the multiplayer for a while.

[SackAttack]

I got a few plays in with the game early this morning, before I left for work...and I officially suck at console FPS. I guess I'm just used to a keyboard mouse interface... :o

Guess I'll have to practice a bit more using the controller before I attempt any type of online interaction.

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=82&products_id=5438

Don't say I never did nothin' for ya.

[ShaefIllini]

I'm already hooked to the multiplayer. It is excellent. I am going to enjoy this game for a while.

[MikeVic]

I got a few plays in with the game early this morning, before I left for work...and I officially suck at console FPS. I guess I'm just used to a keyboard mouse interface... :o

Guess I'll have to practice a bit more using the controller before I attempt any type of online interaction.

That's why I also don't like console FPS. I'll play any computer FPS, but I suck on the console ones.

[sterlingice]

http://news.com.com/Is+Microsoft+using+Halo+2+to+thwart+Xbox+hackers/2100-1043_3-5449160.html

What's new:
Xbox Live users say they've been banned from their boxes after trying to play "Halo 2" on modified consoles. Bottom line:
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/ne/guts/highimpact.gifConsole makers have long used any means available to thwart illegal copying of games. Critics say a modded Xbox can yield online cheating that ruins the gaming experience for paying customers.

SI

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

My brother went to school (hs) this morning and came back saying that all the school down toi the teachers and custodians were talking / had HALO2.
Am I the only one on Earth who doesn't see what all the fuss is about/ have not played any HALO ?

[MizzouRah]

My brother went to school (hs) this morning and came back saying that all the school down toi the teachers and custodians were talking / had HALO2.
Am I the only one on Earth who doesn't see what all the fuss is about/ have not played any HALO ?

You just might be. :D

IGN gave it a 9.8 and said it's THE BEST Xbox game to date. "If you have an Xbox and don't have Halo 2, you're an idiot." is what IGN is saying. :)

Soon it will be mine!!!!! Muuuhhaaaaaaa...


Todd

[cartman]

Just picked it up at Sam's Club for $36.88.

No lines
No fuss
No muss
Great Price

cartman is happy

[MikeVic]

My brother went to school (hs) this morning and came back saying that all the school down toi the teachers and custodians were talking / had HALO2.
Am I the only one on Earth who doesn't see what all the fuss is about/ have not played any HALO ?

It's a decent FPS, but it's not my favourite. No FPS on console is. Add the split-screen during multiplayer and I don't enjoy playing it much. These people have clearly not played Counterstrike, any Battlefield, or even Unreal Tournament on computer. :D

[Sublime 2]

Eww...so I pre-ordered Halo 2 like 4 months ago and i got last wed or something. But i'm at college and i had it sent home. I went home for the weekend looking forward to play lots of Halo 2 unfortunately my xbox dvd drive is shot either taht or the laser. So i ordered a new DVD drive and have to wait another week for that to come in. I just keep staring at the Halo 2 box....

luckily all my friends at home have boxes and the game so we played a lot anyways...but i still acn't play at school which blows gopher balls.

[dawgfan]

Anyone else a little surprised at how the game ends? I guess it's a major hint that they'll be doing a Halo 3, but it seemed quite abrupt to me, unlike the nice resolution of the first one.

[ShaefIllini]

The more I think about the ending of the game, the more I dislike it. What was resolved??? Also, I was shocked that the last battle was as easy as it was.

[rjolley]

The more I think about the ending of the game, the more I dislike it. What was resolved??? Also, I was shocked that the last battle was as easy as it was. Yeah, I agree with both of you. The ending was quite anti-climatic. And, while we all knew Halo 3 would be coming, did they have to leave it that wide open? (Spoiler removed) I guess they could be leaving it open for a movie....

Sorry about that, if anyone read it...

[dawgfan]

The more I think about the ending of the game, the more I dislike it. What was resolved??? Also, I was shocked that the last battle was as easy as it was.

Yeah, I guess that's part of why the ending seemed so abrupt - I just didn't have the sense from the last battle that this was obviously the grand finale.

Oh well, my favorite part about Halo was the multiplayer, so I'm hoping that holds true for Halo 2 also. If not, there's always Half Life 2...

[sterlingice]

A friend of mine dubbed it "Halo: Reloaded" because of the ending.

SI

[Turd Ferguson]

I'm really enjoying the multiplayer despite my terrible connection speed.... I play online under the tag JBR12 so if you want to add me Im always looking for games.

[hukarez]

So are there any incredibly horrible players out there? I wouldn't mind teaming up - that way, I wouldn't feel as bad. You guys can look me up sometime (boocake), I guarantee I'll probably have the highest 'Death' totals at the end of a session.

[Turd Ferguson]

Well the thing is every player starts at level 1 and plays against people close to their level... so if you suck you just stay level 1 forever....

[kingnebwsu]

I want to create new gamertags every month so I always start at level 1 and whoop up on rookies ;)

[Sublime 2]

BU JPro
anytime