- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I would like to share my oppinion about timers being put on all of Halo 2's Xbox Live matchmaking games. I feel as if it detracts from the overall experience, especially in Head to Head games. Often times, if one player is winning, even narrowly, with time winding down, he will just hide until the timer goes off, getting the victory, but leaving the losing party involved feeling cheated. His/her mentallity would be: "This person didn't kill me 25 times before I killed them 25 times - they jumped off to an early lead, then avoided me the remainder of the game." It just feels unnecessary.
I also feel that Big Team Matches should have lesser or nonexistant game length restraints. One of the best aspects of the original Halo was to be able to get a big group of people over to some place to have a LAN party, get a 6 vs 6 CTF on Blood Gulch going, and play a solid, hour-long game - and it would be pure bliss the entire time. If you died, you still felt as if you could make a difference in the overall game because there was much more game to be played. When somebody killed you, often times this would spark a rivalry, and you would respawn, determined to get them back. Throughout the game, in additon to the team vs team rivalry, lots of mini-rivalries like this were happening. Everybody hoped Halo 2 on Xbox Live would emulate that Halo One LAN experience, and it has largly suceeded, except in this sense.
When it boils down to it, six ten-minute long games are not nearly as fun as one one-hour long game. I find myself constantly facing new opponets, so those Halo One style rivalries are extremely short-lived. Halo 2 on Xbox Live has done an excellent job of matching me up with other players of equal skill, but I'm just not playing against them long enough.
I would strongly recommend this as change to be made to upcoming Matchmaking settings. The great folks at Bungie may or may not have a logical explaination for the current settings, but right now, I just don't get it.