- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
BEWARE: Long but potentially entertaining post. Not for the short of attention span!
So the folks at Bungie have been teasing us about Halo 2 LIVE features for a while now. It's supposed to be ground-breaking, innovative, redefine the way you view LIVE and such.
I had a brain fart the other day when I considered how the current crop of Xbox LIVE games handle lobbies.
The best versus the adequate: PGR2, MGP2, MM3 and RS3 where you can see 'real time' progress of the current game from the lobby, join a game in progress and hear/talk to people in the lobby/game while waiting compared to GR/GR:IT, Mech Assault and Top Spin where you get minimal information about a game's progress(timer only), less then practical manner to choose your character/vehicle(no pictures to help selecting your Mech) or a lobby that isn't even really a lobby(a la Top Spin).
Here's where the brain fart starts to smell ripe. MM3 has a free roam mode where you find a 'free roam' lobby then just drive around in the city looking for people(cars) and shoot the manure with them while doing so. I think this would be an excellent idea if taken a step further...
What if Halo 2 organizes lobbies into zones or for better terms, multiplayer maps, without any game type boundaries.
Imagine, you load Halo 2, sign on to LIVE and you're greeted to a third person view of your custom trimmed Spartan rotating slowly in the LIVE interface on a dark blue background. Options are available to edit your Spartan, sign out or simply start. You select start and the Spartan model switches to the regular view with the HUD and a series of icons, similar to what you would see as described in the novels. On th HUD you can see 30 or so different hosted 'zones'. No extra text, mind you, just icons representing each zone. You select the zone, Cortana echoes the name of the zone in your helmet speakers and then you're transported of to, for example, Blood Gulch.
You spawn on the opposite side of one of the bases. You come around to the side facing the valley and on the opposite end gulch, you see two Spartans. Speaker icons are flashing over their heads, but LIVE sound proximity prevents you from hearing what they're saying. So, you hop in the nearby Hog and motor your way over. About a third of the way there, you hear Cortana say, "Players incoming". You figure she's referring to the Spartans you're approaching and don't give it a second thought. As you get closer, you can hear the other player's conversation. One Spartan gestures at you then disappears. The other Spartan tells you that his friend just left to join a clan match elsewhere.
You chat for a bit and then you hear footsteps behind you. You spin around to see two more Spartans approaching on foot from your original spawn location. One gives you the same waving gesture and says "Hi!", the other walks up and hits you with the butt of his rifle. [Stay with me on this. Imagine.] The second Spartan stands in front of you and says, "We just joined the zone as you were pulling away in the Hog. Didn't you hear us yelling for you to stop and give us a ride?" "No, I couldn't hear anything over the engine!" you reply, "Gee, that must have been like a minute long hike...heh heh... Sorry about that!"
So the three of you start talking about all that's good about Halo 2. The Spartan that slugged you shows off his custom MJLONIR colours and team emblem. The first Spartan recounts stories from a fragfest the night before. The fourth Spartan just stands quietly to one side looking around and taking it all in.
Another player announcement from Cortana and this time you scan the valley carefully. There to one side of the canyon, you see several Spartans appear in quick succession(similar to how you would see a team appear at a spawn point in RS3, one big dollop at once). Unknown to you there was a Host nestled in the shadows of the outcroppings. You see several speaker icons flash at once, then just one icon and then one Spartan hustles over to the Ghost and makes her way towards you.
As she gets closer you hear the telltale sound of the Ghost boosting. You look quickly at your three new friends and yell, "Heads up!" and sprint away from the Ghost's path. As you do this you swear you could hear the Ghost pilot chuckling under her breath. Two of the three remaining Spartans had also dove clear, but the tough SOB who whacked you earlier stood his ground. He had timed the Ghost's boost to the second it returned to normal speed, side stepped it and just as the pilot was coasting into a turn to face your group, jacked the pilot out of the seat.
The fallen Spartan, now laughing quite loudly introduces herself and asks if the four of you would like to join her and her friends for a few CTF matches on Zanzibar. You and the two Spartans on foot agree. The tough SOB Spartan, still in the Ghost, eases the craft forward and levels the plasma cannons at the party crasher. You remember how well he took to you leaving him and his buddy behind and you wait to see him pass judgment on the newcomer.
You watch as he dismounts the Ghost, walks over to the newcomer and whacks her in the visor with his rifle. "Sure, where do we sign up?" he says. You immediately send friend requests your four new buds. With one person on the Ghost and three in the Hog, with one more doing a damn fine job balancing on the roll cage, you make your way back to the larger group and prep for the CTF match.
So, we do away with the boring text interface lobby and plop players in the game environments directly. People can practically live out the Red vs Blue episodes everyday meeting new players in the actual maps. All the fun videos you've seen people make using LAN setups could be done on LIVE. Just how many Spartan's can you stack on top of each other? How far does the Warthog fly on a sunny day using plasma grenades?
That would be the ultimate LIVE lobby experience. A LIVE sandbox with all the tools of the game but just for meeting, greeting and trying crazy stuff out.
Please Bungie, throw me a frickin' bone!