- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Orbitron414
This is my story...so I hope you can understand why I have come to my conclusions.
I used to play alot of Atari when I was younger, I played games like Froger and Pitfall. I then graduated to Nintendo and played games like Mario Bros., Zelda and Simons quest, awesome games that really made you want to beat them. Along came N64 and Goldeneye. It was like holy**** I am actually in a three dimensional building blasting the *** out of my brothers and their friends. This was a new and very competitive concept, My skill with my weapon determines the outcome of victory.
Years later after I had given up gaming for the most part I one day went to my friends house who had an xbox. He mention that I should play a game called Halo with him. At first I sort of shrugged him off mentioning something like "what the *** is an xbox?". He insisted that we play, so I did. I was immediately captivated! I could not believe what I was experiencing. It was like Goldeneye times 100. There were about 6 of us playing this game 3v3 of course and it was just the most fun I had ever had with a gaming console. I was getting beat down, but it was fun none the less. I knew if I had this game I would get better and be the one handing out the *** whoopins.
So the next week I purchased an xbox and Halo and played the game religiously for months, months turned into a year. Every sunday me and my buddies would drag our tvs and xboxes to our friends house and play this game for hours on in, 12 hours at a time most of the time. The game was just so much damn fun to play, and addicting. I would practice my aiming skills and prepare for the up coming sunday. We did this for about a year strait!
One day I received an email form xbox confirming my request to be a beat tester for their new service named xbox live in which you could play online and communicate with others. I was obviously excited about this and a couple weeks later received my live starter kit. It was kind of weird the first time, there were people actually talking through this headset thingy. But that initial strange feeling subsides and you start trash talking with the best of them. It was cool talking and playing on live but the games were just garbage. I remember being in a game and talking to my teammates on how bad *** it would be to play Halo online. Then out of no where someone says "you can". I was like what? How?. He said xbconnect.com. You use their program on your computer to play others online. It was a good thing I got xbox live so I would find out about xbconnect :)
I told my buddies about xbc and they all were as surprised as me. We all bought computers and routers and everything we needed to be online with Halo. That was the end of our lan parties sadly. The competition online was fierce. We all thought we were the best in the world at Halo, It was a big wake up call. Not only were we not the best in the world but we were not even in the "know" as far as Halo combat tactics. Things like 3 shot kills, instant kills from the back, humping a corpse after a humiliating frag, things of this nature. We all quickly caught on and after years of playing Halo on xbc we became pretty formidable players. Always practicing to get better, and always having a blast with this game that is a masterpiece in every respect.
The anticipation of Halo 2 was extremely high. I tried to get as much info on this game as possible, always online and always on the look out for more tid bits. Watching the E3 demo was astonishing, the game looked so damn nice. I would finally be able to compete on xbox live with the game that would be the game of all games! I think that everybody that played Halo would agree that the biggest draw to the game is that "feeling" of actually being in the game. The sense that you really feel like your there in the game and in complete control of your facilities. Halo 2 was going to be the ultimate competition. Only the best would be victorious. Millions would experience what my friends and I have been experiencing for years. Unfortunately this would not be.
Everything that could have been done wrong with Halo 2 was done wrong. Its like a nightmare. The switching of physics engines was just the start. There was no longer that smooth feel for being in the game, the new physics engine eliminated that, everything is now glitchy and jumpy. The weapons were all toned down, the auto aim has been increased so that any kid can now frag someone with out much skill needed. The FOV has been shrinked and now you get a very closed in claustrophobic sort of vision in the game. Real time humping has been eliminated. Lunging melees has been introduced along with a giant noob stick. Everything that could have been done to make it easier for any average little kid to play this game was done, and it was done obviously for $$$. Halo 2 is just like every other average FPS and takes no skill to play, anybody can kill anybody and its just not a fun game to play period.
The genius behind the original award winning Halo physics engine Alex Seropian left Bungie along with other original Bungie developers to form wideload studios. Was this because the saw what was coming from the Microsoft Bungie merger? Did they see that Halo was going to become a giant noob friendly joke of a game to please the majority of kids? Perhaps. All I know is that shortly after Halo 2 was released my friends and I that have been playing Halo for years stopped playing xbox all together and have graduated to computer games like world of warcraft and call of duty. Games that take skill to play. With the release of xbox 360 I hope our interest with console play is revived, but in order for that to happen the games have to be good.
Bottom line: I loved the hell out of Halo 1, I feel the complete opposite about Halo 2.
Interesting story... I took the liberty of researching your part about the original Halo engine developer, and my search landed on H.B.O. There is an interview that can be found on this page which talks about the game that WideLoad studios that will use the Halo engine. I will include an interesting part from the interview below (interviewer italics, alex seropian bold):
MC: The PR says your first game will be based on the Halo engine.
AS: Yes - we have a license from Bungie.
MC: So my question is that means it's definitively not the Halo 2 engine, right?
AS: Right - the halo 2 engine wasn't available but - we're going in our own direction with it.
From this I gather that they were going to use the Halo 2 engine that everyone seems to despise... strange. It seems like the "hero" of the Halo 1 fans would have actually preferred the Halo 2 engine, if I am piecing this together correctly.
Hopefully somebody in these forums finds this interview interesting...