Halo 2 Anticipation Thread: Hype Vs. Reality

[cella]

9th November if memory serves

Thats right bastards! Tommorow morning I will be playing Hala 2! Getting everybody everybody dressed and ready for the stores 6am opening!

[Spatial]

Thats right bastards! Tommorow morning I will be playing Hala 2!

Good for you. Everyone else will be playing Halo 2

[Concept]

Considering that in the immediate future I'll only be getting to play the single-player mode of this, Gamespot's relative mauling (although you wouldn't know it by the score they gave) of the campaign mode has me worried.

Every other review I've read claims Halo 2 has a superb narrative, yet they're adament it's fairly weak overall.

[buster_broon]

my halo 2 special tin was posted from vg+ yesterday

looks like they broke the curfew

not bother - will get it sooner

[Kerraig UK]

well i've done it on heroic and think the story is pretty weak, but the gameplay is absolute tops. I have a limited edition tin by the way (now) so i can talk about it as much as I want cant I?

[jman]

Eurogamer have just reviewed the single player and gave it a 9 although they said it had its good and bad moments.

[Uli]

yeah, too bad, most of the reviews mention the disappointing storyline of the game, which is a massive letdown considering Bungie always said they wanted to lay an emphasis on great storytelling!

taking the weak story, some AI problems and mixed presentation, it's pretty obvious now that Halo 2 unfourtunately wont live up to my (already reduced) expectations.

[JammyD]

Yeah, I trust Eurogamer, think like I'll be sleeping in Friday morning then. So I'll be able to play it in one sitting, obviously.

[Kerraig UK]

yeah, too bad, most of the reviews mention the disappointing storyline of the game, which is a massive letdown considering Bungie always said they wanted to lay an emphasis on great storytelling!

taking the weak story, some AI problems and mixed presentation, it's pretty obvious now that Halo 2 unfourtunately wont live up to my (already reduced) expectations.

there really arent any AI problems dude. On top of that the gameplay is about as far advanced as you could possible imagine considering its on the same platform as the first. really, what bungi have done here is incredible.

There are some minor dissapointments for sure. i wanted the campaign to be longer for one, but its still by far the greatest game i've ever played.

[Commander Marklar]

I **** myself playing this when an Elite worked his way around and over some, er, obstacles (no spoilers here) towards my co-op player, only to stand over him blasting him in the head, jump down towards him when dead and come after me. My kid can't play for toffee like, I kept screaming at him "Look at that Elite!!!11!" to no avail.

No gameplay problems here, from what I've played. I ain't seen the whole lot mind (first two stages, up to that Star Wars different story/angle thing other players will know what I mean...) but what I have ROCKS.

Thank you!

[Uli]

I **** myself playing this when an Elite worked his way around and over some, er, obstacles (no spoilers here) towards my co-op player, only to stand over him blasting him in the head, jump down towards him when dead and come after me. My kid can't play for toffee like, I kept screaming at him "Look at that Elite!!!11!" to no avail.

No gameplay problems here, from what I've played. I ain't seen the whole lot mind (first two stages, up to that Star Wars different story/angle thing other players will know what I mean...) but what I have ROCKS.

Thank you!

sounds good, please post some more impressions that help to build up/maintain encouragement regarding the game's quality!

i need it!!!

[Concept]

I **** myself playing this when an Elite worked his way around and over some, er, obstacles (no spoilers here) towards my co-op player, only to stand over him blasting him in the head, jump down towards him when dead and come after me. My kid can't play for toffee like, I kept screaming at him "Look at that Elite!!!11!" to no avail.

No gameplay problems here, from what I've played. I ain't seen the whole lot mind (first two stages, up to that Star Wars different story/angle thing other players will know what I mean...) but what I have ROCKS.

Thank you!

Sounds great.

The router business for Xbox Live was putting me off initially, but I'm interested in Halo 2's multiplayer from reading reviews, and I feel I'll be missing out without it. In other words, I've rearranged my room to place my modem directly next to the Xbox so I can quickly hook it up to my connection without much fuss.

Xbox Live here I come.

[Len]

Well mine arrived this morning and I'm at work, boo-f@cking-hoo!

6pm can't come soon enough!

[Alf-Life]

Expectation vs Reality (a Halo 2 thread)

I just thought I'd start this read to ask about people's thoughts on Halo 2 (and Fable, I guess).
Also, how does expectation (/hype) come into play when you/NTSC-uk review a game? Do you ignore it all and rate the game on what it is, or do you hope for what could have been? What about trailers and even (E3) demos? Surely they come into play when they show, for example, MC witnessing the invasion of Earth, and then in the demo taking part in it, complete with medics, wounded marines and air-strikes called in on Covenant artillery?

With Halo 2, I believed 2 things:

(1.) There'd be no Halo 3, so Halo 2 would wrap things up. Jason Jones even said in Edge that he couldn't wait for people to go back and play Halo after Halo 2 with 'new eyes'.
(2.) There would be a Covenant invasion of Earth.

However, I also heard about some Moon base? Whatever happened to that? Did that become Cairo Station?
I also heard someone say that Bungie.net had a FAQ where it stated that:
4 levels would be set on Halo (indeed a chunk of the same one, installion 04), 4 would be on the Moon and then 8 would be on Earth.
(Although I also heard mention later of those that did appear; "A Gas Giant" or the Covenant Homeworld (but wasn't High Charity just a city, not a world?)).

Thoughts?

[anephric]

That Halo 2 E3 demo is akin to George Lucas showing an amazing teaser trailer for Attack of the Clones with all the best bits of the original trilogy mimetically melded together in loveliness, only for the final product (years later) to have a naff puppet on a stick going "nerk" and Hayden Christensen spitting at people's shoes.

I downloaded the demo footage the other day to watch it again, just so I could gnash my teeth some more. Gnash gnash.

I don't feel it's unreasonable to be disappointed by Halo 2 based on the criteria you adduce: this isn't intangible Molyneux hype 'em up vapourtalk - Bungie showed us Halo 2 W.I.P... only to have the final product be essentially nothing like it.

If they knew they couldn't come close to the E3 level of play, why not say so? Er, because hype and sales would be damaged?

I should really stop talking 'bout Halo 2 - it really makes me angry to have 2 years of expectation be burst like a Frenchman punishing his son by mercilessly slaughtering his merry red balloon.