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Subject: Some things bungie should fix for Halo 2
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All points taken from http://freespace.virgin.net/bad.cyborg/Annoyances.html

Lack of widescreen support
Halo doesn't seem to support 16:9 properly. A circle such as the pistol scope comes out squashed, suggesting that the 16:9 picture is merely being obtained by squashing the Y axis from a standard 4:3 output. That's utterly unwatchable to me. I'm sure this is nothing to do with my TV, because DOA3 and Sega GT2002 fill 16:9 with no such image distortion.

This major flaw has meant that the best I can do (if I want an image going right across my widescreen) is use a manual 'zooming' mode my TV happens to have. But that still leave some squashing, and also cuts off the top and bottom which includes part of the ammo display and motion tracker. Also, that zooming mode is not even available when using the RGB scart, hence I have to use S-VHS or something. All in all then, my standard Halo viewing experience is some way below what it could so easily have been.

Am I the only one who cares about having an unsquashed widescreen experience? Or do developers think "Oh hell, we needn't bother with that, just squash the 4:3 output and they'll be happy enough". Judging from the demos I regularly stick into my XBox, it seems to me that the majority of games fail to support widescreen properly, yet DOA3 and a few others seem to demonstrate that it's perfectly possible. So PLEASE Bungie, for Halo 2 can you fix this?

Auto-aiming can't be fully turned off
In Halo, even with auto-aiming set to 'off', there's still a tendency of the gun to be auto-jiggled to some degree, which is really annoying. It disturbs my aim, breaks the realism (because I'm inexplicably having to fight to control the gun), and makes it harder to pistol-snipe a particular enemy within a distant group. You notice the auto-jiggling most when an enemy is moving across your line of fire. Their motion tends to take your aim with it.

I can't think why Bungie did this, unless it's simply a bug nobody noticed. But how could they possibly have missed it after all that testing? Bizarre.

Gap between Heroic and Lengendary is too big
There's such a huge gap between Heroic and Legendary. With the latter, the alien rate of fire jumps to 'murderous' and although I can cope with it on a good day, it's generally not much fun because I have to spend half my time hiding and waiting for my shields to recover. This means that there isn't a difficulty level where I can properly optimize my enjoyment. Instead, it's more a case of choosing between "too easy" or "too hard and/or unenjoyable".

For Halo 2, I wish they'd add a level in between, simply by reducing the alien rate of fire you get on Legendary.

Enemy placements and timings are predictable
Although Bungie excellently dispensed with many 'standard' FPS traits, thereby making for a much more intelligent experience, there's at least one bad old aspect that's still with us. Namely, you soon get to know where and when to expect things, and as such, you can prepare in advance (weapon choice, avenue of approach etc.). This works against realism and suspense. I don't WANT to be able to learn a 'pattern'. I'd like to see things made things less predictable, and hence more replayable.

For example, when the alien dropships land in the first section of level 2, you know exactly where they're going to land, which potentially means that you can easily dispatch the entire enemy contingent by running around to the landing spots ready to blast the Elites before they've even had time to hit the ground. Now think how much more interesting and replayable things would be if those ships came down in randomized locations and with more randomized timing. Each play would be much more like that first time, when you didn't know what was coming next. That's what I want.

Driving is in third person
A big reason I like the first-person nature of an FPS game is that I can really feel like I'm there. You get engrossed in the action. So in Halo, it's annoying that when you jump into a vehicle, the illusion gets broken as you're rudely jerked into a third-person perspective. Third-person also makes for less engaging action. Imagine how much more fun it would be in the Banshee or Warthog, to have a proper first-person view.

Lack of option to turn music off
Although I think Halo's music is superb and not at all the irritant I usually fear from a game, I'd still like the option of silence during normal play, which for me adds to the realism and feeling of isolation in another world.

I may be some sort of mutant purist, but I generally wouldn't even buy a game unless I knew you could turn the music off. And no, I'm not against music; you can hit me with some Joy Division or Comsat Angels any day of the week ta very much (ok those names might date me, but you can't stay young hip and funky forever). But if I'm soldiering out on alien worlds and my life hangs in the balance, do I really want the equivalent of a Walkman blaring into my earpiece, obscuring the sounds of the enemy? No, I do not.

Unintentionally getting into Warthog
A major annoyance during fighting is that if you happen to be too close to the Warthog when you hit the Reload button, you instead end up getting into the Warthog. At which point the Covenant shoots you to ribbons as you sit dumbly in the passenger seat, waiting for what seems like an eternity before you can get out again. The correct reaction at this point is: "Arrrggh!" Thus far I've managed to refrain from kicking my TV screen in, but it can only be a matter of time.

This flaw also means that you can't easily use the Warthog for cover. But why wasn't this spotted during testing? It wouldn't have been hard to fix. Bungie could have simply arranged that to get into the Warthog, you'd have to keep the button down for longer than normal, or something.

Unwelcome twist
In the second half of the game we're pretty much robbed of the initial promise of getting to whup the Covenant. Instead it becomes primarily a fight against the far less interesting Flood, with the Covenant only appearing intermittently from then on. This was quite a let down for me. Admittedly the storyline was imaginative and everything, but it was hard to take much joy in whupping the mindless Flood. They were just getting in the way of the original fight. It was a twist I could've done without.

So I say to Bungie: enough with the the infernal zombies already! If I see any gurgling green mutants in Halo 2, I'll scream.

Silly stunt drive at the end
For me, the culmination of the game was spoilt by the inclusion of a silly stunt-course Warthog drive at the end. It's as if all the intelligence of design was thrown out of the window at the last moment. Let's face it, you'd have a pretty hard time explaining away what amounts to a Warthog stunt course on board the ship. It's just too unrealistic.

As well as that, towards the end you have to take a huge leap across a chasm, and it's a fickle business whether you happen to land right side up, or flip and die. Sometimes you die even if you do land the right way up. But random chance is no test of skill; it's just an annoyance.

Marines aren't that bright
Don't get me wrong, I think the Marines add tremendously to the game, and their speech programming is superb. But they're also pretty hopeless in various ways, making talk of 'Marine AI' seem wildly over the top. So let's take a look at the flipside.

For one thing, and perhaps the most annoying, they let themselves get run over at the drop of a hat. When you're pulling up to them in the Warthog, sometimes they'll rediculously dive for cover when you're not even heading for them, and other times they'll actually dive into the Warthog's path. It's often hard to pull away in the Warthog, because Marines don't stand clear. Brush them and they crumple. And then some bozo will say "What were you thinking?" or something. Arrrgh! What I was thinking was "Get out of the way, dummy!"

As for combat skills, on any level above Normal a Marine is barely a match even for a Grunt. They rarely fire in any sort of aggressive manner, or get around to actually putting down an enemy (which is agonizing when you're waiting to reload and you can quite plainly see that an Elite only needs one more bullet). Nor do they grasp the concept of cover. In fact, it seems to me that they spend half of their time rolling around like Chinese acrobats, rather than doing anything useful, like firing. As the Elites close in, you want to shout to your Marines "Use the trigger, dammit!"; but no, they just fire the occasional burst and proceed to get annihilated.

And when they do get around to firing, they're just as likely to shoot fellow Marines in the back. You can see this at first hand, up on the plateau in the rockslide megabattle. Just stand at the back and watch your Marines cut each other to pieces. And it's no wonder, the way they keep moving in and out of each other's lines of fire. But it's not just single shots in the back; it can be whole bursts, one after another, as if the shooter is clinically blind. It would be quite amusing, if you weren't putting your life on the line to save these bozos.

And then there's the grenade reaction business. If they react at all to an incoming glowing blue ball, they'll probably still hang around inside the blast radius, even the guy who raised the alert! And why do they dive to the ground when it's just Master Chief lobbing a grenade at the enemy? Heck, I'm not that bad, surely.

Marines also sometimes run around making a racket or shooting, when you're trying to be stealthy. Now that's really annoying.









[Edited on 5/29/2004 1:15:56 PM]

  • 05.29.2004 1:14 PM PDT
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And don't even get me started on the business of Marines jumping into Ghosts and running me over! Heck, nowadays I just shoot them before they can get any speed up. Ooops! Sorry! (Actually, a less drastic measure is to grenade unused Ghosts beforehand, so they're turned over and Marines can't get into them).

It's also annoying (and unrealistic) that you can't brush past them. They're immovable objects, sometimes blocking your path or preventing you from taking cover quickly enough.

Marines are also as dumb as Grunts when it comes to deductive reasoning. I've seen things like the following. A Marine takes a few shots at a closing Grunt, the Grunt runs three feet away to the other side of a tree, and the Marine now starts looking around and says "They must be around here somewhere!" Er... sure buddy, sure.

Although I greatly admire the voice programming for the Marines (nowhere better experienced than in rockslide megabattling up on the plateau), you do also hear some nonsense. In particular, calls of "I'm going after them" are always followed by a complete lack of going after anything. "OK I'm waiting..." I say; but do they move? No. All talk and no action. And sometimes when you single-handedly see off a whole cohort of the enemy, some bozo at the back will boast something like "Who's the man?". Well, that would be me actually. Another good one is when I'm battling out front up on the plateau in the rockslide megabattle. After three or four minutes of intense fighting, if I move back to the Marines one of them will say something like "The cavalry has arrived!" Well, the calvalry has been here getting plastered on your behalf for quite some while now, knucklehead; are you deaf or what?

Overall, when they're so hopeless, it becomes harder to care about keeping them alive, weakening one of the key aspects of the game. But like I said at the start, they still add a great deal.

  • 05.29.2004 1:15 PM PDT
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*sniff sniff* Don't worry Marty. We still love you.

  • 05.29.2004 1:23 PM PDT
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-I wish it had true widescreen support to. Just an FYI, I guess you just didn't notice, but DOA does not have true wide screen support.

-Accidently getting into vehicles has been fixed. You now how to hold X so reloading won't interfere

-The "Auto Aiming" you see is because controllers are not that accurate. I think you would be truely surprised to see how much harder it is with out it. There is an easy way to tell. Try fighting your own teammates (your own friends, not people online, thats just messed up!). It is much much harder to aim at them. I think you dont come close to realizing what its doing 90% of the time because it is so natural. Yes there are times when it has messed me up (focusing on a different enemy than I want) but I still prefer it. As I said, try fighting your teammates.

-Legendary difficulty should not be touched, heroic, okay, but Legendary is fabulous for Co-op

-1st person driving would suck. The point of 3rd person is so you can see rockets and grenades, an artificial way of simulating that 6th sense the MC would have in combat (my take at least). The only reason its not like that for normal play is because aiming is horrid (remember Halo was supposed to be 3rd person at first)

-The final drive in the last level is awesome. Period.

-Music is fabulous, but I suppose the option to turn it off is okay...

-I like the twist as most people do...

I think thats all I have to say about that.

  • 05.29.2004 1:25 PM PDT
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i think they have fixed the "accidentally jumping into warthogs" problem... now, instead of just pressing X, you have to hold it to get in... kinda like picking up weapons...

edit: oops, he beat me to it ^^^

[Edited on 5/29/2004 1:27:56 PM]

  • 05.29.2004 1:27 PM PDT
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Ok stop complaining halo made a great game alot of the things you said will be fixed by the enhanced AI as for the flood they are coming back they are key to the plot and halo can't be halo with out them and yes they to will be smarter so no worries there bungie knows how much the library sucked and they promised to make no more levels like that as for the last level I agree with you there they should have come up with a more clever idea then get out of the ship before it explodes which seems to end all action movies and games either that or kill the really big boss. The marines will have a sense of cover in halo 2 not only that they will create cover by flipping over cars and such they will work as a team and the ODSTs will be even cooler. As for hitting x near a warthog it was annoying but something I could deal with and I would never turn the halo music off because it rocked.

  • 05.29.2004 1:36 PM PDT
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Yeah, what he said

  • 05.29.2004 1:40 PM PDT
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OK, OK some of those things are some problems, but guess what, IT'S ONLY A GAME! It is fun and enjoyable. It doesn't have to be sooo realistic, if you want something realistic go join the Army. HALO ROCKS!

  • 05.29.2004 1:44 PM PDT
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Another thing you might want to try is getting the High Definition AV pack for XBOX, you know, with component cables, thats the best way, I mean damn man, you just CANT use the normal red white and yellow plugs on a HDTV, its just cruel....
If you don't know what I'm talking about throw away your tv, get a plain old little 27" sharp and play on that.

  • 05.29.2004 2:18 PM PDT
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Constructive criticism is good, and Im sure Bungie have fixed a lot of the problems. One thing first, I suggest you see a shrink or stop talking to the marines in Halo, it's only a game. I know this sounds a bit silly for a game like Halo but the Warthog now has a horn to honk so the marines move outta your way. Everyone else I think helped to reply to you.

PS one thought, maybe they don't want widescreen as it may make it a lil unfair on MP for those who don't have it, but I don't see why they can't have it on SP.

  • 05.29.2004 2:35 PM PDT
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"The "Auto Aiming" you see is because controllers are not that accurate. I think you would be truely surprised to see how much harder it is with out it. There is an easy way to tell. Try fighting your own teammates (your own friends, not people online, thats just messed up!). It is much much harder to aim at them. I think you dont come close to realizing what its doing 90% of the time because it is so natural. Yes there are times when it has messed me up (focusing on a different enemy than I want) but I still prefer it. As I said, try fighting your teammates.

-Legendary difficulty should not be touched, heroic, okay, but Legendary is fabulous for Co-op"

1. I manage just fine with auto aim turned off, and the fact that my aim gets moved irritates me because A. I don't need auto aim, I'm excellent without it, having completed the game on all difficulties (except Easy which I've never even tried) and B. I turned it off for a reason: I don't want it.

Perhaps the best solution would be to offer 3 options for auto aim

Full
Partial (like Halo offers when 'off')
None

2. The idea was that another difficulty setting is inserted between Heroic and Ledgendary. I wasn't suggesting that they scrap or change Ledgendary.

3. I don't like fighting the flood, I much prefer kicking the covenants ass. Each to their own I guess.

4. I doubt that randomising enemies and their positions would be too hard; Bungie already do it on a very small scale in Halo

5. As long as marines make use of their weapons this time, I'll consider it fixed.

it is really any surprise that the war is going badly when they can barely take out a grunt though?

6. It would be nice if marines didn't just park themselves in a key spot - I've had one stop in a underground door on the Halo level. He wouldn't move, so I had to shoot him to get him out of the way.

Don't get me wrong guys, Halo is a great game. I wouldn't have played it to death if I didn't enjoy it. I just happened to agree with some of these points.

  • 05.29.2004 3:03 PM PDT
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Good points in this thread. All of those things that you have said have annoyed me (except for the music maybe) and all of those things should be improved on in Halo 2 and probably will be.

  • 05.29.2004 3:15 PM PDT
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Most of those points either have been fixed or shouldn't be. That story is WAY out of date for what we know now. Lemme restate one of my old points:
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO HATE THE FLOOD.
They are vile, nasty, mindless, swarming everything you never want to fight.
You hate them because they are vile, nasty, mindless, swarming everything you never want to fight.
Bungie did a very, very good job of portraying the Flood.
I really think some poeople just don't "get" the whole idea behind them.

Also, there's way too much to cover, but another personal thought and I'll end:
The Warthog drive was my favorite part of the whole game. I backed up a save game to a memory card specifically so I could replay it when I wanted.

  • 05.29.2004 3:23 PM PDT

Wow.

If you were to apply that depth of thought to world hunger, or space travel, or cleaning your room, imagine what a wonderul world it would be....

You guys are beyond hardcore.

[Edited on 5/29/2004 3:27:14 PM]

  • 05.29.2004 3:26 PM PDT
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Wow.

If you were to apply that depth of thought to world hunger, or space travel, or cleaning your room, imagine what a wonderul world it would be....

You guys are beyond hardcore.


Guess what? I do spend some time thinking about the worlds problems, instead of being a jackass and going round making sarcastic remarks that serve no productive purpose. I don't see you going round posting anything better.

  • 05.29.2004 3:42 PM PDT
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I agree with the sentiment on the flood, you're not sposed to enjoy them. A good example of failure in execution is hunters. They're supposed to be scary, but they're not, on all difficulties they're like a little break from action, you can just bullfight them and let your shields recharge... But the flood, you're not meant to enjoy them :P Halo is broken into levels so that you can play what you want, and in my initial experience, I absolutely loved everything. After the fact, no I usually don't like fighting flood, but I got an Xbox on day one, and I had very little idea what to expect going into Halo... but it was awesome. This is why I'm so glad they've shown so little of Halo 2, I want to be surprised again, Ninja Gaiden had no surprises because they showed too much...

  • 05.29.2004 3:43 PM PDT
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I don't mind fighting the flood but i think what i like about the covenant is their class structure and the personalites of each race. Nothing is better than throwing a plasma at a grunt and him turning around back into his own teammates. The Flood have diversity but no personality, and yes i know that's how they are supposed to make you feel and i respect that, but the covenant are just better.

or when you tag a grunt and he says "Not again!!!"

[Edited on 5/29/2004 5:20:52 PM]

  • 05.29.2004 5:20 PM PDT

Posted by: AHaloPlayer
Guess what? I do spend some time thinking about the worlds problems, instead of being a jackass and going round making sarcastic remarks that serve no productive purpose. I don't see you going round posting anything better.


You haven't been looking in the right places.
Sorry if my sense of humor is lost on you, but I was making an (admittedly harsh) [color=green]JOKE.[/color]
Thanks for the insult.
Next time I want to add color to a thread you post in, I'll think twice.

[Edited on 5/29/2004 6:01:47 PM]

  • 05.29.2004 5:39 PM PDT
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The only thing I agree with you is the little Aimming Assistance... That thing takes away from the skill portian of the game for me. I also've run into people who litterly 100% rely on that thing to kill people, and when they do good they act as though their Halo Gods....

I wish that in at least multiplayer (-coop) that it be removed... So people can use real skill, and those that do won't be hindered by that foolish device... That was my only real problem with Halo (and I do mean only)

Personally, it only hindered me... I don't think it "helped" me at all with my aim...

[Edited on 5/29/2004 6:04:25 PM]

  • 05.29.2004 5:59 PM PDT
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Im sorry but i just somehow have NEVER heard of any auto-aim feature in Halo. All i can say is wtf are you talking about.

  • 05.29.2004 6:40 PM PDT
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Set yourt sensativity to 10 in Halo, go to a spot with a pistol/sniper rifle/rocket launcher, zoom in and slowly move the crosshairs passed a grunt that is moving... You'll notice the crosshairs dragging you toward the grunt... That is what we are talking about.

  • 05.29.2004 6:43 PM PDT
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Has anyone noticed how the warthog run in the end is unrealistic though? I mean, i dont think the pillar of autumn is THREE KILOMETRES long!! THREE!! theres no way its that big, also why is there no roof on that last part, is noone supposed to be there when it in space?
also, when you stop to wait for foehammer, is that little flimsy bridge the only thing holding half the PoA to the other half? i mean a grenade would break that bridge and half of the PoA would fly away! its kinda weird because in the beginning cinematic of the maw you cant see that bridge or any part of the warthog run, also, it doesnt look like its even a kilometre long!

  • 05.29.2004 7:06 PM PDT

Interesting observation.... Now think about doing that run in a destructible warthog....

  • 05.29.2004 8:04 PM PDT
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It is that big however all the other flaws you did point out succesfully.

  • 05.29.2004 8:13 PM PDT
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Is halo set in 2552? I think they would have ships that are 3000 meters long, its not only possible, its probable by that stage of the future.

The Jeep run at the end of Halo 1 was the most inspired, epic and original way to end a first person shooter I have ever seen, I never would have expected it, and it was truely brilliant. Massive jumps, a tocking timer, everything going to hell, thumping music and explosions. When I first played it, surround sound, it blew me away, I forgot about the library in a heartbeat.

Auto-aiming, I've never had a problem with it, at least I've never had to fight the aim, its not like glue, its just a slight change, it works extremely well.

Widescreen support is hard to do, Halo 1 had aenough to worry about before its rushed launch, get over it and remember that widescreens are the minority. Im pretty damn sure Halo 2 will support it.

All of your other complaints are wingey little wierd indescrepencies that nobody cares about. Heroic is perfect for a challenge, but still fun and possible. Legendary is meant to be almost impossible. The first 3 modes are evenly spaced, and legendary is a completely different mode, an ultra extreme. The transition from easy-normal-heroic is extremely well balanced, legendary isn;t meant to be evenly balanced with the rest, its meant as an ultra-insano challenge. Also, if you play it on anything but co-op of course your gonna spend half your time waiting for your sheilds to come back, play it on co-op, theres nothing else like it.

  • 05.29.2004 8:52 PM PDT

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