- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
The definitve Anti-4 player co-op list:
-There is simply too much going on. If you have ever played 2 player co op on halo in The Silent Cartographer, you know all about slowdown. The xbox doesn’t have enough power to be able to have 4 players on one box, and if it was stretched over system link, there is too much information being sent. think about it. all the new features you are excited about, such as really advanced AI and destructible environments, everything that happens has to sync up with the host, and it has to be sent faster than you can see. Highly unlikely, especially considering what 4 well placed Spartans could do to the covie AI. You could make an argument that three years later, Bungie knows how to squeeze much more power out of the xbox, but i say they use this power for the level of detail in the world.
-Not enough to do. And there is no way in hell they can just magically add more enemies. look at the above info, and factor in even more AI to handle. More enemies turns halo 2 from a game into an interactive powerpoint, meaning the framerate is about 4. Think perfect Dark with 12 simulates. That would be about how smooth the game would turn out.
-The level design would have to be the best ever seen in a video game to be
A: Challenging
B: Engaging
C: Competitive
While you and your dumb buddies might just want to run warthogs into each other in a new environment, Bungie is all about the quality of games. To make a level that could be fun with 1, 2, 3, or 4 people, all with different skill levels, is an enormous task. You would have to pace it so some guy doesn’t decide he is point man and takes off. Somehow, i think it would be extremely difficult to do. imagine this: You are the halo legend, capable of never even being hit throughout your entire Halo career, you have two buddies who are able to beat the game on heroic with each others help, and you have your 8 year old brother who often toss the controller and laughs when the grunts run with their arms over their heads. that alone sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? the odds that 4 people are playing with equal skill levels in astronomical, so this is an acceptable test group. simply put, there is no way in hell that everyone here can have a good time. You are much better off having an intimate halo experience with your closest pal, then buying into the whole “More=Better!” craze that has recently hit gaming.
In theory, bungie is capable of crafting levels that could be fun for 4 players of different skills. However, it would require much more resources and time if they wanted to make it fun everyone. what that means in layman is it would take a lot longer, unless this was a goal from the very beginning. So if the 4 person design was already incorporated, they might find a way around the hardware issues, and have great levels. If four players was not part of the design plan, its too late. they couldn’t do it without pushing the release date back.
Conclusion: Xbox cannot handle more than 2 people with all the improvements, and system link cannot transfer all the AI data fast enough. There is too many players to even be fun without a dramatically different approach to level design. There there is simply to much firepower on your part making the enemies a breeze, and no way to add enemies without conflicting even more with the xbox processing power. Lastly, there may be simply too many players with too wide a skill gap to be fun.
After all that, i should say that against all odds, i like the idea of co op. Maybe on the Xbox Next, we can get all the Ram we need to make this dream come true. for all you people who know a little bit about computers, consider this: The xbox has 64 megabytes of ram. if you had that on a computer and tried to bring it to a lan, they wouldn’t even let you in the door. the next xbox will probably have 256 megabytes, plus more efficient processors, so if there is a halo3, many of my points will be invalid. why don’t we wait for 4 player co op until it is sure that there would be no hardware issues at all, and then bungie could resolve any level design issues. After all, halo 2 cant do everything, or else the sequel cant offer something new.
However, I would like to propose this: another difficulty level. Legendary got too easy for me. Today I got bored at a friends house, sat down and beat the first three levels on legendary in about 3 hours, and I don’t consider myself to be that good. I think another difficulty level for single player, and then one more exclusively for co op would go a long way. Make the co op difficulty so hard that two players are absolutely necessary. That would be a lot better than taking something that is kind of hard and dividing the challenge by half.
Lastly, there was one post in this thread I feel I must respond to in a very special way:
”my freind has a freind that works with ign and he played halo 2 already and he said that they might make a type of legendary were it is almost impossible to beat. That u might need 3 to 4 players. only the best of th ebest of the best can beat it”
-LeeTard34.
Further evidence that the internet needs an equivalent of a DMV. Take a written exam, get a learners permit, than when you master the grammar and IQ portion, you can get your very own internet license! That sounds way better than letting and random leetard log on at the virtual cafe and post -blam!- posts until he can post no more. I’m sick of people like you wasting my bandwidth with poorly conceived and constructed lies designed to waste my time. Log in on the flood forum and never return. For people like you, may I suggest this game: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/puzzle/theguygame/index.html ? Its got boobs and stuff, that’s all you need to know. Kudos though for the idea of a difficulty for co op.
Sorry if that was redundant or incomprehensible at parts. It's midnight, and i want to post this before there are too many replies and it gets put way back where no one reads. I'll review and edit it tommorrow.
umm, no. i like 4-player co-op, conflict desert storm 2 was great on 4 player co-op and any one else who has it or played it should know that. halo 2 would be the ultimate if it had 4-player co-op.