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  • Subject: Third Hands-on Halo 2 Update
Subject: Third Hands-on Halo 2 Update
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Hey everyone. For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the crazy kids that won the Mountain Dew contest and got to play Halo 2. I wrote two updates earlier, they can be found in the "Mountain Dew Deadline Extended' topic under News, or compiled and proof-read at http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/bdaiber_mountaindew.html.I'm sorry for anyone who was looking forward to my third update from last week. I went on a vacation, and didn't have time to squeeze it in before I left. Anyway, better late then never I suppose. On with the update.

Vehicles

Warthog - The only fast means of transportation we had for the flag carrier was the passenger seat of the Warthog. Our particular model of Warthog was outfitted with a rocket launcher in the back. The rate of fire on the rocket launcher in the back is just a bit slower than the rocket launcher from Halo. The controls for steering the Warthog have not been changed. Also, two new features have been added for the driver. Pulling the R trigger sounds a horn, which you can use to distract, taunt, or annoy your opponents and teammates alike. With the new 3D sound system, which I'll talk about in a moment, sometimes it can even let you know where someone is. The other feature is an E-brake. Pulling the L trigger causes the brake lights in the back to light up, and brings the warthog to a stop. The brake doesn't seem very useful, because this Warthog is much tamer than it's Halo brethern. The new Warthog does a lot less skidding around, and drives much more like an actual vehicle. Old Warthog driving veterans are going to have to adjust to the new Warthog. It still catches crazy air, though. The vehicle damage on the Warthog is pretty sweet as well. You can tell they put a lot of work into the vehicle damage, and it pays off. It seems like every surface on the vehicle is ready to react to a bullet. Even the turret on the back is capable of being destroyed. There wasn't a whole lot of change in the way the Warthog drove when damaged. I didn't actually notice any at all, but then again, I kept my Warthog out of harms way. Someone from my crew said he thought it drove different damaged, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. One interesting change is the damage you take inside the Warthog. While driving one time, I drove head on into a rocket. I had about half of my shield damaged, and the Warthog flipped up. It wasn't until the second rocket hit that I died. It was interesting. Either way, I think that the new Warthog is a fair change from the old one. (And vehicle damage kicks ass)

Ghost - my old archnemisis. I really hated this vehicle in the first game. I always thought it was so cheap, since it couldn't blow up, and it hovered, and it's plasma bullets stunned people, and it was fast, and since the person on it was usually running me over as I spawned. Well, it's still fast, it still hovers, and it's ammo still stuns, but now it blows up. And not only does it blow up, but it looks spectacular when it happens. In all seriousness, this Ghost is a lot like it's predecessor. It handles the same, and losing a wing or two didn't seem to affect its flight too much. It has some cool new visual effects... pulsing energy spasms where you lose a wing, and a nice glow underneath. Pulling the L trigger causes you to streak forward in turbo mode, and pretty much lose all turning, maneuvering, and shooting capacity. An interesting note... Ghosts did not automatically kill a player if they got run over. The faster you were moving, the more damage you did with the Ghost. There were a few times I got clipped by a Ghost and lived through it. A turbo Ghost killed everytime. The durability of the Ghost isn't as great as that of the Warthog. One or two explosions would render a ghost unusable, while the warthog would take 4 or 5. The new Ghost has been somewhat toned down and balanced in Halo 2, but I don't think I'll ever get over my hatred for it.

Sound - I really should have mentioned this sooner, but it's not something you think of right away. If you have a 5.1 setup, prepare to crap your pants. From what the Bungie Rep said, all the sounds were recorded in some 3D, 5.1, crazy method. All I know is, the sound is unrivaled. During some of the quiet time when we were in between photo sessions, and eating, and hobknobbing with the Microsoft and Bungie people (I met Alta), I got to play on around with some 1v1. This is where I really noticed the directional sound, because the other setup had its speakers turned off. When someone fired at me, I knew where to turn before the arrow appeared. I heard a grenade skip right across the path in front of me. I've never really taken notice to outstanding audio in a game before, but the audio really was impressive. Actually... I think this game hosts my favorite sound effect ever. After you shoot someone's shield's down with dual SMG's from up close, all the bullets that enter your victim make this wet flesh tearing sound, it's spine-tingling. Oh, and the blood that accompanies those bullets just sweetens the effect. (I'm really not a violent person. This was just really well done)

I was going to go into detail about the screen at the end of the match, but odds are its gonna change. It listed the team score and individual score and whatnot, over this blue and white background. It was actually kinda disappointing, I want something a little more like Perfect Dark, where it lists who you killed and how many times, as well as who killed you and how many times. The screen I saw listed the same info as the last one. And I think it was buggy. Because there was a match where I scored the flag twice, and I didn't have any game points. Hopefully, the final screen will show the polish the rest of the game had.

Glitches - The fun stuff. There were a few bugs that surfaced in our time there, and even though the Bungie Rep assured us this game was built from the ground up, a few older errors were still present.

No Fall Damage - Pretty self explainatory. No matter how high you jumped from, you'd be fine. I'm sure this will be changed for the final build. Or maybe not. Who knows with Bungie.

Walk through walls - In the build we played, the walls were simply graphic place holders, and there was no collision detection. You could walk through them, shoot through them, drive through them. We pretended they were solid, but I'm sure they will fill them in by November 9th. (Kidding) Actually, this was just the old glitch where you could enter a vehicle through a thin wall - like the power up gate in sidewinder. The Bungie Rep told me this glitch was already fixed in the Beta build.

Shin Melee - Any weapon, when swung at your opponents shins, immediatly killed them. After seeing this, the Bungie rep made me go around and get a few different weapons and strike a few different spots, and said he was going to talk to the programmers. I think that means that I found a bug in Halo 2. I should be in the credits, damn it. Got that Bungie? Game Play Tester/Bug Squasher/New Hotness - Bill Daiber (Not Kidding)

Unbreakable glass - I might have mentioned this before, but explosions did not break the glass in our build. Neither grenades or rockets would break the glass. Bullets and melees, on the other hand, worked fine. (Side note: the glass was dynamic, it didn't shatter all at once, but rather in the fragments it was hit.) The Bungie Rep said that this problem had already been addressed.

Trap Door - One of the times I was running to the flag, and it was in the open field, and it just fell right through the floor. The indicator kept moving farther and farther away, and the flag eventually returned itself after 30 seconds. This happened towards the end of our playtime, and I'm not sure if anyone told the Bungie Rep about it. It fell through at the bottom of a small incline, after it slid down the hill.

Invincibility - When around vehicles, explosions, and especially around exploding vehicles, your character would go flying, but you wouldn't take any damage. There was no set pattern, but a few times getting clipped by a Ghost or Warthog would push you 20 feet across a level, but you wouldn't take any damage. Same thing with explosions. One time, I was near a ghost and some exploding barrels, and when we all got hit by a rocket, and instead of dying, I was thrown into the air and almost out of the stage. I was right where the top wall met the sky, and although I tried, I couldn't walk out. I just stuttered a few times and slid down the wall. No one asked the Bungie Rep about this.

Missing glitches - No more double melee. I don't think the quick reloads trick worked. Also, Sorry to all the Red vs Blue fans (myself included), but when you look straight down, not only do you see your feet and legs (not kidding), but your character model is actually looking down. Hopefully Bungie will heed put this glitch back in, and maybe one day we'll see Red vs Blue 2.0. In the mean time, the new DVD is sweet. Buy it if you haven't already. Also the rocket glitch was fixed. To clarify, in Halo if you jumped and turned in air, then fired any weapon, most noticably the rocket launcher, the shots would travel in the direction you were originally facing during the jump. This was fixed, much to my buddy Kemmerer's delight.

While we were there, we grilled the Bungie rep on a lot of different topics. Obviously, he wasn't allowed to answer all our questions. He told us that there would be up to 16 XBox's for System Link. He also said that Multiplayer options were going to be a lot more customizable. This tied into our questions about powerups, and he said right now he thinks there is an option to turn them on or off. He couldn't confirm a lot, but this is what he did say, on July 24th (for all you bee conspiracists) "You'll know A LOT in a month."

  • 08.08.2004 9:14 PM PDT
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That's almost exactly what he said word for word. Anyway... I don't remember all the questions that were asked, but if someone asks the question, I'm sure I'll remember how he answered it. I payed very close attention to what he had to say. You can fire your questions to AIM name: BDaiber .

I think that pretty much wraps things up. It was an awesome experience, and I hope some of you enjoyed the updates. Just remember, that these are just the words of some dumb college kid that you probably don't know. In all honesty, I don't have the vocabulary to do this game justice. I can tell you about the features, but the incredible experience of playing the game surpasses my ability to communicate it to you with words. The whole time we played, it was as intense and enthralling as any video game I've ever played. And it was only 4v4. On one map. With a few strangers. For a few measly hours. But they were the best hours I've spent in front of a TV in a long time.

I welcome any questions anyone has.

  • 08.08.2004 9:24 PM PDT
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you mean august 24th...not july?

oh and btw...awesome update!!!

[Edited on 8/8/2004 9:38:21 PM]

  • 08.08.2004 9:38 PM PDT
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Thanks for the update. Did the Bungie Rep say anything about bots? Will they be available?

  • 08.08.2004 9:42 PM PDT
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Bots aren't very fun to play with

  • 08.08.2004 9:44 PM PDT
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how do we know u are for real? all that stuff u said ive already heard, prove u are those guys that went

  • 08.08.2004 9:44 PM PDT
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that was most definitely smurf. oh ya, one question, about how fast could you tear someone up at close range with the SMG?

  • 08.08.2004 9:46 PM PDT
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Yeah, but I don't have live and can't get it. I still want to be able to play the multiplayer games without having a bunch of people over and connecting xboxes

  • 08.08.2004 9:46 PM PDT
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The rep said this "You'll know A LOT in a month." on July 24th

  • 08.08.2004 9:59 PM PDT
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yeah i got that finally after askin him on aim...stupid me

  • 08.08.2004 10:01 PM PDT
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j

[Edited on 8/8/2004 10:02:14 PM]

  • 08.08.2004 10:01 PM PDT
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You got what after asking him on AIM?

  • 08.08.2004 10:02 PM PDT
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That the Bungie Rep said that we are in for alot or somthing. C'mon i don't need to baby you because you don't read the post at all.

  • 08.08.2004 10:04 PM PDT
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Sorry. But did the rep actually say July 24th or was it a mistake by the author of this thread who actually meant August 24th?

[Edited on 8/8/2004 10:07:12 PM]

  • 08.08.2004 10:06 PM PDT
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i'll explain to you as it was explained to me....the guys got to play on july 24th...and the rep told them that in a month (which would be august 24th) you will know A LOT.

  • 08.08.2004 10:08 PM PDT
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He said on July the 24th, to watch out for the 24th of august

  • 08.08.2004 10:10 PM PDT
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Posted by: Ziewl
i'll explain to you as it was explained to me....the guys got to play on july 24th...and the rep told them that in a month (which would be august 24th) you will know A LOT.


Oh okay, I misread his post. Damned commas in the wrong places. Now I can't wait until August 24th, again.

By the way, thanks for clearing that up Ziewl.

[Edited on 8/8/2004 10:14:43 PM]

  • 08.08.2004 10:13 PM PDT
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Meaning that when as one of my friends belives that there will be an indepth look at everything Halo 2 related in the next issue of Xbox Mag.

  • 08.08.2004 10:15 PM PDT
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Or something

  • 08.08.2004 10:15 PM PDT
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Um... a lot of these questions were answered in my first two updates. go to http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/bdaiber_mountaindew.html To clarify, We played Halo 2 on July 24th. On that day, the bungie rep said "You'll know A LOT in a month." or something extremely close to that.

As for proving myself, I don't know. I could post the fourth picture in that series. I could get a picture of myself giving all the non-believers the finger with all the cool stuff they gave me, like T-shirts, hats, calendars, and a special Collectors Edition Halo 2 Tin Case promo item. Or, you could take my word for it.

Read the first two updates...

http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/bdaiber_mountaindew.html

  • 08.08.2004 10:19 PM PDT
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My Conversation with him.


Me: Are bots going to be in the final build.
BDaiber: no idea... i asked, but the bungie guy said he couldn't answer Me
Me: What version did you play was it the E32k4 beta or a updated version.
BDaiber: i don't know... if the version i played was different from the E3 version, it couldn't have been that different
Me: Are the rockets slower on the Rl and Rocket Hog?
BDaiber: i think the rocket hog rockets travel around the speed of the rockets from last gaMe
Me: do those have tracking? or is it just the handheld
BDaiber: i don't think they tracked
Me: O yeah was the xbox were they developers boxs or did you see if halo 2 was stored on the xbox or was there a disk
BDaiber: it was stored on the hard drive
BDaiber: no disk
BDaiber: the size of the file we played was 300 Megs
Me: The windows in this screenshot are those able to be shot closed like if you shoot the hinges can you shot them closed.
Me:
http://bungie.com/images/GaMes/Halo2/screenshots/H2_e304_gate assault.jpg
BDaiber: yup
Me: Thats cool how destructable was the scenery
BDaiber: some of it didn't explode at all


[Edited on 8/8/2004 10:24:30 PM]

  • 08.08.2004 10:23 PM PDT
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He does mean july, that way in "1 month" it is aug 24th.

  • 08.08.2004 10:27 PM PDT
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Yeah Bill, good update
I myself, have Beta Tested Halo 2, it sounds like the version you were playing was a little primative, and still in the works. For instance, The walls are all solid, and you can get hurt when you fall, but other than that, the vehicle descriptions were very good.
I don't know if you got to use All of the weapons, but my favoriate is the Covenant Carbine Rifle, it looks very similar to the Battle rifle and shoots single round bursts of plasma at a 2x zoom. even at a fast rate of fire, it dosen't overheat. the Carbine is semi-automatic and shoots green plasma. another of the guns i liked was the Beam rifle, similar to the Sniper Rifle, it has a 20 shot Battery, and has a kick-back.. no more double head shots. it zooms 5x then 10x. i dont know if you got the oppertunity to use the Brute Shot? it is a heavy artilary weapon, that shoots 4 charges one at a time. you aim at the ground infront of an enemy and the shot will bounce on the ground then hit the bad guy. If you're a good shot you can kill him in one kill, but usualy it takes 2 hits. The Brute Shot is my favoriate gun, besides Dual Wieldig a SMG and a Plasma Rifle.
You were also totally right about the 3D Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. you cannot Play Halo 2 without surround sound. Read Frankie's Weekly update for more info.
i have noticed that there was no M6D Pistol like from the first game. It may just be the Beta Test... But i doubt it. I think its gone. The only weapons that have stayed from the first game are the 8ga Shotgun, The Sniper Rifle, The Needler, The Plasma Rifle, And the Plasma Pistol. The Grenades Explode A lot better. the new plasma grenade looks like it has lightning in it, and it also seems to have a bigger blast radious. and you saw the fragment grenade in the 2003 E3 Demo.
Hope you enjoy my input. My Gamertag Is Roachski

  • 08.08.2004 11:42 PM PDT
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Ha... the part about the walls not being solid was a little joke. They were solid. That's sweet you are getting to beta test. Are you allowed to say what stages you tested on?

  • 08.09.2004 6:30 AM PDT
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BDaiber is for real as I can back up his story as I too was there. Hey B check your messages !!!

  • 08.10.2004 8:26 AM PDT