- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
BUNGIE, PLEASE READ THIS.
As a concerned consumer and hardcore player of Halo 2, but notsomuch Halo CE, I have to say, with unmitigated gratitude, thank you and well done.
When I heard about the changes, but did not come to bungie.net to find out about them, I will admit, I was shocked and frustrated that dual wielding was going to be 'toned down.' Why would you make Halo 2, with the super-new-awesome, much-anticipated ability to dual wield weaker than it actually is? After understanding why the changes were made, I am very grateful.
I speak for a very large majority, if not everyone, on the following points I am about to make:
1) The most important thing to the players are the grenades. I have thrown a grenade under so many people's feet only to see them distracted by the boom, turn to me with the PP/BR combo, and take me out, before any of my SMG bullets hit them. Encore for the changes. If I can kill someone with a frag grenade now, no matter how close I have to put it to them, I will be happy. Shortened detonations = brilliant. All the major things I had hoped for in the game with regard to grenades, you have done.
2) Melee. Fantastic. I hate not being able to kill a less-skilled player with two SMG's after I newly respawned with my single by meleeing him in the face several times before I die, and then, as he's standing there, looking over my body to see if I had any better weapon that he could take from me, someone snipes him to steal my kill. Bravo. Hopefully these changes will be extremly noticibly different, as beating someone down takes much skill.
3) I am glad the auto-accuracy of weapons will be turned down. Especially the pistol, although I would also prefer the BR to be toned down. The more skill involved with head-shotting, in my opinion, the better. It will continue to seperate good players from average players. Halo 2, unquestionably has the distinction of 'skill', moreso than Halo CE. With CE, you could just run around with your starting weapon (the pistol), chuck a few grenades, and be in the top 2, perhaps even win, if it was your first time playing. That should not be the case, and I am happy to see it come to completion in Halo 2, and now evenmoseso in the AU.
4) Thank you for toning down the SMG and Plasma Rifle combo. I could not understand, for the longest amount of time, for the life of me, why exactly someone could kill me with that combo more effectively than I could with a PP/SMG combo, after the PP hit, and I was at full shields. Thank you for changing this. Really. Thank you. This, I personally, am probably most happy at. Also, this is an extremely easy combo to complete on many, many levels. Thank you so much for toning this one down. Combos like the PP/BR are almost entirely too hard to get in many of the levels, (ex: midship, beaver creek, lockout,) and the player that does complete them should be rewarded for his tenaciousness in getting weapons fairly far away from each other. Moreover, I am glad the Magnum/SMG combo will also be taken down in power, (as I considered that one to be EXTREMELY over-powered, even rivaling the PP/Magnum in matters of sheer power capabilities).
5) Thank you for the resets. For all the complainers that worked 'so hard' to get that level 20, let me tell you, I suffer from extreme lag on XBOX live, because I am a college student at a small college with a 2.4 freq wireless network. If two people are downloading video on the entire campus, I feel it on live. I have to wait until 3 AM to play rated games. I have no trouble beating 20's regularly and easily, when I have no lag. I tell you this because I consider myself an expert at Halo 2, and can tell you that if you study the game, set up split-screens, sign in another profile and get a friend to play that profile, go up to each other with certain dual wielding combinations, see which ones kill the quickest, memorize how many carbine headshots it takes to kill someone, play weapon-specific gametypes with elite players, like snipers, rockets, etc etc, you can get insane good, even better than you are now. You can put time into being better, become better, show others that you're better, and brag to others that you're better, and earn that level 20 in less time than you would if you hadn't. That's what I'm going to do, and I do it not because I want to be the best on live, although I'm sure I could be if I had a good connection, but because I enjoy the game, and I enjoy being able to put a severe handicap on and beat out 10 players who've been playing Halo 2 every-day since Nov 9th by the margin of 10 or more kills, then joke about how bungie should make a 'no-possible way to win handicap'. Moreover, I just enjoy the game. I enjoy throwing grenades on corpses, and rocket launcher jumping beatdowns. I like killtaculars with a single clip on a human sniper and overkills with a sword. I think it's impressive.
I like having another shot to show people that i'm the best at Halo, period. I want that no. 1 spot in the leaderboards on rumble pit with my severe lag, even if it's just for five minutes before someone overtakes me. I want to be able to say, for however short a time it is, "I was once the best person in the nation at this particular video game." And while I might not have necessarily been, and that someone just didn't play an XBOX live game yet, and I played 200 and got 195 wins, enough to throw me into the no. 1 spot, I could still say it.
That's why I like the resets. Others might just want to brag about being no. 2565. I want no. 1. Others might just want to feel like they've accomplished SOMETHING. I want to say that I accomplished it all. Once I get to be no. 1, too, I'm going to just lay it down for someone else to take up, as well. I don't want it for an eternity. Just long enough to print out. I want that someone else to get my chance, and I want them to get that printed-out-sheet of paper. That's what I want. What do you want? Your little level 20 marker?
6) Thank you for the cheating fixes. Those are most appreciated. The glitch fixes are also appreciated.
7) This isn't so much for bungie as it is for everyone else. Alot of people really like sniping. That's fine. Good for you. Snipers are skilled at what they do. I don't consider myself a sniper, personally, although I'm very good with a sniper rifle. As the game stands, right now, on any skill level, expert (23 and above on rumble pit, for instance,) intermediate (11-22), and beginner (1-11), run to the sniper rifle, and try to get as many kills as possibly only using the sniper. Don't get the shotgun, don't get the sword. Then, get the sword or the shotgun, and run around, and try to kill as many people as you can. Then, get the SMG/Pistol combination, or the SMG/Plasma Rifle, or my favorite, the PP/Magnum combo, and run around and see how many people you can kill.
The snipers will have 15 kills when the game is over, the shotgun/sword users, if they're lucky, will have 10 kills, and the dual wielding guys will win. You don't win games by sniping, you win it mid-range. Moreover, dual wielders, as it stands, can also go somewhat long range. As long a range as the battle rifle will go, that is. Get an SMG/Magnum, and tap on the SMG until they get in range to use the magnum, then start capping away. Check out the statistics. So much talk and bashing goes on about the PP/BR combo from snipers and newbies. It's a great combo. Use it. Seriously. Whatever works, use it. Don't just hide out in your tower with your sniper or in the center room on lockout with your sword. You won't get kills. Seriously.
So could we please stop all the bragging about sniping, and could we start playing the game for kills instead of 'well, if you wouldn't use the PP/BR all the time,' talk, and just have fun playing the game?
[Edited on 4/17/2005]