Halo2

[Len]

I know the stats have been mentioned but have just been getting my head round 'em during lunch. Totally stunning imo.

Go to check out the stats for any game of yr own or m8's and then choose game overview. It then proceeds to give you an overhead shot of the map with everyones kills/deaths listed and marked where they happened on it or you can choose to look at individual players. You can then choose up to 10(?) other views of the map all with the same stats on.

That was one game out of 100, 000's and more obviously been played all the time.

Impressive is not the word... 8)

[VR46]

yeah the stats are amazing, tried the CSS feed last night also.

[Prine]

i dont think i could have asked for a better sequel to halo.

At the moment im noticing the physics, i remember a hunter charging towards me, he had a few creates in his way, so i thought i was ok. But he knocks them out the way, and im ****ting myself (as i have hardly no ammo)

i was like "Whoa"

really love the physics, much improved

[007]

Oh yes, amazing on live. And the ranking system works PERFECTLY.

Already almost on level 6, and there's been alot of mass pwnage.

[Prine]

some one just summed it up for me:

yes, it still feels like halo, but there are so many subtle gameplay additions and they all work so damned well. the game is full of new pleasures -- jacking a banshee in mid-flight, leaping down on an enemy with your plasma sword drawn, plowing through elites with a plasma pistol/smg combo. you might not fully appreciate these additions until you try to go back to halo 1, which suddenly feels restrictive by comparison. the beauty of halo was in providing you with richly reactive battlefields and finely tuned mechanics, and then giving you plenty of breadth to improvise. halo 2 gives you more of those setpiece battles, more options, and more intensity without disrupting the balance. it often plays like an overwhelming succession of halo's best moments.

[anephric]

I liked the "immersion" of Halo - I felt part of a tangible campaign and there was a reasonably decent (if hackneyed) plot: I could at least follow it and it made me feel I was "going" somewhere.

You don't get anything like that in Halo 2 AND it adds insult to injury by fracturing an already weak narrative with its constant be-bopping to the Covenant side (which I hated).

[Smitty]

Halo 2 is, imo, a strictly multi-player classic. The glaring fact that the online MP is, without doubt, the best that exists on any console shines a rather unflattering light on the SP. In Campaign, the game wallows in the 'above average' category - not somewhere I'd really expected it to be.

This isn't down to the inevitable loss of the 'wow factor' - it's down to the SP game feeling more like an expansion pack than a sequel.

Fair enough. But I am curious, though. What would make it a feel more like a sequal to you, while still being identifiably a.....sequal to Halo? If that makes sense.

I've over at gaming-age and the comments are 90% plus positive. It's getting a very good, strong reaction.

[anephric]

Because it doesn't offer anything really "different" or "evolutionary" (2 guns, wow). The levels seem samey and restrictive and you can't (at least as far as I've played) go Warthog wanderin' etc as you can in the first.

[Smitty]

But doesn't the nature of the levels dicatate that? So you don't like the game because they aren't any open-air, free-roaming levels. Basically, it's not set on Halo, right?

What new ''evolutionary'' features would you have added to the FPS genre?

[JibberX]

This is a pointless discussion, seriously, GoldeEye Rogue Agent will be out shortly.

[anephric]

Not to the genre but this particular example? Some new vehicles? More (squad) control over your guys? A new enemy? La la la.

One of the best things about Halo was its open-air dynamic. I don't understand "hemming" everything in after that...

[Tom Salter]

Why is the first level just Pillar of Autumn Mk II? Jesus, this is weak. It's even got the same sirens and sound effects in the background. I hope this gets better soon, else it's back to the shop for it.

Even the multiplayer does NOTHING new. I've played better in Quake 3 mods 3 years ago.

[Tom Salter]

Just playing some more. The amount of enemies I've seen just sat there, doing nothing is incredible. They're assaulting a ship, not picking their arse!

[PeteJ]

Why does my online stats still say "no game played"? Been playing all afternoon

[John Beaulieu]

pete - you ain't playing ranked games ... thats how you get your level up etc