- MagicGibl3t
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- Exalted Legendary Member
Posted by: Recon Number 54
Even FiOS connections (with 15 Mbit down and 2 Mbit up) cannot compare to a 100Mbit LAN.
Recon's right, but don't let that statement mislead you; distance between online gamers is the aspect of the internet that is the biggest cause of poor online gaming experiences. Greater distance between Xbox's = increased distance for signals to travel, which translates into a higher ping time. (With Halo:CE on Xbox Connect: the distance between the crosshairs of your pistol and a sprite moving in the direction of your crosshairs that you need to actually hit the sprite with a shot is directly proportional to your ping time.)
With that said, playing a LAN game in a small house with a hypothetical router/hub/switch capable of only .5 Mb/s transfer rates would still provide a better, lag/free experience than playing an online game with players spread across America, even with INFINITE bandwidth capabilities between every machine, even if they were directly linked with virtually zero traffic congestion -- simply because the distance the signals have to travel is smaller.
This is why I'm always praising Bungie for the job they've done with their netcode for Halo 2, which accounts much better for the descrepancies between what a person see's on their screens and what the the game, as a whole, registers (notice how you never have to lead the character with your crosshairs). I still think it's the best FPS online simply because of the way Bungie was able to minimize the noticable effects of high pings.
Anyway, main point -- distance plays a larger factor than bandwidth restrictions, and Halo:CE, was not built not built with the efficient and clever netcode that Halo 2 has, and will always suck for online play unless the game itself were completely redone (as everyone has been saying).