- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
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."