Halo 2

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

Bungie actually explained it:

 

No, those textures popping in are part of the small price you pay for no loading times. Since they use the game-engine, we are loading geometry and textures from all over the game, different levels, scenarios and creatures, as well as dialog and music. We could have made it into video, and streamed it from the disk, but then there would have been loading times. We felt this was much better for the gameplay experience.

 

I can definately stand a few glitches here and there if it means no loadtimes.

 

My thoughts on the ending:

Am I the only one who actually LIKED it? The game revolves around the fate of the universe..and they didn't want to blow up another ship to destroy the ring. (Cortana said she could, but that would have been too similar to Halo) If it means waiting for a third Halo to see the end to it, I don't mind. The Campaign has been an awesome experience, and the gameplay's only kept improving since the first. Now to start on MP..

[BX 0]

Something to make all of your dicks hard:

 

The theater I work at has recieved permission from the investors to go ahead and set up four Halo 2-equipped XBox's in four of our largest theaters. We will then charge 5 bucks, and hold a massive tournament one night a month. 16 people each round, four people playing split screen in each theater, hooked up on XBox Live, first to 25 kills wins the round. After four rounds of 16, the best four will each get a theater to themselves, as they battle on Live in a 20 minute deathmatch. Winner gets $100, theater gets a SHITLOAD of profit from admission & concessions, and everyone gets the opportunity to play Halo 2 on a theater screen with in 18-speaker Surround Sound.

 

If that doesn't get you hard, then you are dead, and thus hard anyway.

[Fökai 0]

I've wondered why there are theatres that don't take advantage of these types of ideas. Eliminating the movie reel from the equation, which eats away at most of the admission/concession profits, would allow them to make a killing at least once a month.

[Guest MikeSC]

Sorry, Diablo, but that ending was weak. Real weak.

 

Fortunately, the game is amazing in spite of it.

-=Mike

[Anya 0]

I just beat it a second time. Yay,I got the hidden map.

[Guest Flyboy]

This is without a doubt, the best game to play online.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Sorry, Diablo, but that ending was weak. Real weak.

 

Fortunately, the game is amazing in spite of it.

-=Mike

Second that. My friend and I were pissed off after staying up all night co-oping on Heroic. I'm debating if I even want to struggle through Legendary to see if there's a little different ending (a la Halo).

[iggymcfly 0]

Wow, this thread's only a page and a half? I was expecting 10 or 20 at least. I don't actually have Halo 2 myself, but I'm living in the dorms, so I've played it a decent amount, and we can play over the LAN whenever without having to worry about paying for X-Box Live.

 

I'll agree that the online multiplayer is definitely what separates it from other games, but the single-player's pretty damn good too. It flows a lot better than most games, and you can just get lost inside it without coming out all the time with loading screens, going into a menu to start a new level every ten minutes, etc. And there are plenty of tight parts in the actual game, I'd say they're much better than the cut-scenes.

 

One thing I will say though is that if you're playing it on a lower difficulty than Heroic to start with, you're cheating yourself. Finding creative ways to overcome the difficulty factor is a huge part of what makes it interesting, so I'm sure if you just mow down enemies on a lower level, it might seem kind of pointless.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Sorry, Diablo, but that ending was weak. Real weak.

 

Fortunately, the game is amazing in spite of it.

    -=Mike

The ending is actually very neat if you've played and invested time in the story of Bungie's Marathon, a nice plot-heavy thinking man's shooter that almost nobody played because all anyone cared about was Doom II and it was primarily a Mac game, making it's audience smaller.

 

Anyway, in Marathon AI's tend to have a problem whereupon they take in too much information from being in such large networks and go crazy. Not just a little crazy, but super duper batshit "I know how the universe will end and I'm going to get out of here before it does" insane.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

Sorry, Diablo, but that ending was weak. Real weak.

 

Fortunately, the game is amazing in spite of it.

    -=Mike

The ending is actually very neat if you've played and invested time in the story of Bungie's Marathon, a nice plot-heavy thinking man's shooter that almost nobody played because all anyone cared about was Doom II and it was primarily a Mac game, making it's audience smaller.

 

Anyway, in Marathon AI's tend to have a problem whereupon they take in too much information from being in such large networks and go crazy. Not just a little crazy, but super duper batshit "I know how the universe will end and I'm going to get out of here before it does" insane.

I need to find that game, then. I've heard of it..but never been able to get a copy.

 

Halo novel spoilers:

There are two different types of AI. "Dumb" AI, which are just a set of processes, and the "Smart" AI, like Cortana. The smart AI are only capable of living a few years (seven, I think), because they're much, much more capable. Cortana is likely the best they've produced.

 

Cortana has asorbed both Forerunner knowledge (Halo), and Covenant knowledge .(From the ship Ascendant Justice, which they captured between Halo 1 and 2, and helped get them back to earth)

 

I don't think Cortana's insane..but who knows what all that knowledge has done?

[Red Baron 0]

anyone watched the movie after the credits?

 

That creature where the arbitor and Master Chief were starts to make his way up the covenant base, and it gets to a certain point, where Cortana is, as the creature is going to tell Cortana about everything that'll lead up to the next Halo game

[iliketurtles 0]

So is the game worth buying for 50 bucks?

[The Dames 0]

I'd have paid 100.

 

Dames

[TheBigSwigg 0]

Hey Dames, do you drive the warthog the way you drive your car in real life?

[Fökai 0]

It took me forever to reach Lev. 8 on Rumble Pit, although I've been recently racking up victories.

 

By the way, I absolutely LOATHE the Ascension map on Rumble Pit. I'm all for Lockout (my personal favorite) and Ivory Tower.

 

You folks are all invited to join my party whenever I'm online - our house of Halo freaks dig Big Team Battles over Rumble Pit (we have 3 guys and 2 Xboxes), but we're disappointed when we have weak teammates.

[Guest Flyboy]

Definitely not as bad as some people made the ending to be.. I like the cliffhanger and all, but geez. Bam. It's over. Well, then.