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[eso76]

If it doesn't support sys-link co-op, then I highly doubt that online co-op is in the cards...

Unless they did so that ppl couldn't use xbox-connect for co op...but what's the point ?
Last week someone posted a screenshot with the co op option under the 'system link menu' but it seems that trying to choose it only results in a message sounding something like "you must have two players on the same xbox console for co op" and switches to split screen. The message doesn't mention xbox live either. Well, from what i've been told.

 

[COCKLES]

As nice as Halo 2 is. Riddick ownz Master Chief graphically.*

*allegedly of course.

 

[dark10x]

As nice as Halo 2 is. Riddick ownz Master Chief graphically.*

*allegedly of course.

If Riddick wasn't the most pixelated looking character on the system, I might agree...

 

[TeTr1C]

I'm not going to school on Nov. 9th...getting it at midnight and staying home ALL day to play it. I can't wait.

 

[Lakitu]

I'm not going on November 11th (no college that day) AND 12th

 

[cool_dude_2049]

I'm not going to school on Nov. 9th...getting it at midnight and staying home ALL day to play it. I can't wait.



^^^^^likewise my friend

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Halo 2 releases Nov. 9th.

I don't work on Nov. 9th.

Coinkidink? I think not.

 

[Joe]

thats awesome you could just be playing the game by yourself and all of a sudden your friend happens to go on and just jumps right into your game.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

The interface sounds like a bit of a nightmare for splitscreen games. First person to log in gets top half of the screen if there is 3 of you.... That sucks, being that in halo 1 i Used to supply one of the xboxs for link games, top spot was always assured for me. Not so now.

 

[Uno Ill Nino]

I work until 4 on the 8th. I'm going home, playing Halo 1 for a while, then picking up my buddy from his job at 10 and we're going to the midnight madness thing. From there, he and I will go to his place and play Halo 2 all day on the 9th AND all day on the 10th. Then we'll finally be ready to go back to work on the 11th...........maybe.

 

[dark10x]

The interface sounds like a bit of a nightmare for splitscreen games. First person to log in gets top half of the screen if there is 3 of you.... That sucks, being that in halo 1 i Used to supply one of the xboxs for link games, top spot was always assured for me. Not so now.

Is that true?

I've heard that, with three people, the game divides the screen into three equal squares now with a single blank square where player 4 would normally be.

 

[SyNapSe]

I took vacation on the 10th, 11th, and 12th. I still have 2 weeks of vacation left, so I figured.. what the hell.

 

[Ramirez]

Hmm I only have Two classes on Tuesdays anyways,and the package won't arrive til like 4:30 so I'll definitely go to class to pass the time

 

[shpankey]

Is that true?

I've heard that, with three people, the game divides the screen into three equal squares now with a single blank square where player 4 would normally be.

that would be stupid. besides, halo 1 did not do that, it used the half of the screen for 1 person then split the other half for the other 2 people.

 

[dark10x]

that would be stupid. besides, halo 1 did not do that, it used the half of the screen for 1 person then split the other half for the other 2 people.

I know Halo 1 did not do that, but people have said that this has changed with Halo 2. Surely there are options, though...

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Is that true?

I've heard that, with three people, the game divides the screen into three equal squares now with a single blank square where player 4 would normally be.

I've had it described like this, when 3 players are playing, whoevers profile signed in first gets the top screen, then, if anyone quits, the 2 remaining players get a half screen, if 1 more player quits it switches to fullscreen for last player.

Yeah, I've been whoring halo info as much as possible lately and the deal is that the whole host thing is not so important now, as in when one person quits, the game just moves to the next person. so for system link if you have 4 xbox and the hosts xbox powers off the game is now hosted by the next person down the line.

 

[Joe]

the first controller port always gets the top half and the next two split the bottom half, its always been like that. the only change is if someone quits the bottom changes from 2 quarter screens to 1 half screen which is pretty cool.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

the first controller port always gets the top half and the next two split the bottom half, its always been like that. the only change is if someone quits the bottom changes from 2 quarter screens to 1 half screen which is pretty cool.

No, first to sign in gets the top half now regardless of port.

 

[Bristow]

I've got a question maybe one of you can answer for me. I haven't been keeping track on alot of the details surfacing lately about Halo 2 and I'm wondering if Xbox Live will feature dedicated servers for the game?

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I've got a question maybe one of you can answer for me. I haven't been keeping track on alot of the details surfacing lately about Halo 2 and I'm wondering if Xbox Live will feature dedicated servers for the game?

I don't think any live game features dedicated servers....

that said

that the whole host thing is not so important now, as in when one person quits, the game just moves to the next person. so for system link/live if you have 4 xbox and the hosts xbox powers off the game is now hosted by the next person down the line.

 

[Date of Lies]

Haha, I think some people will be very dissapointed with Halo 2's ending.

 

[eso76]

True, the first to sign in gets the upper half, but it's better like this if you ask me. We used to switch ports all the time ("i want to have the bigger screen ! i want to have the bottom left screen" and everyone HAD to use their own pad).
I don't know if someone already told you, but in widescreen mode you can have vertical split screen.

 

[Blimblim]

I've got a question maybe one of you can answer for me. I haven't been keeping track on alot of the details surfacing lately about Halo 2 and I'm wondering if Xbox Live will feature dedicated servers for the game?

I got to interview Cameron Payne of MGS a couple of months ago and I asked him about this. As far as he could tell (he's not a technical guy) Halo 2 does not use a classic Client / Server setup so there is no true host. He was not sure how all this worked so I really don't know much more.
We got to play a 10 people deathmatch where everyone had a 512/128 DSL link and it worked very nicely (this was private beta 4). Not perfect but very playable, and that is quite impressive considering the link quality (french DSL = 60 ms ping to the ISP)

 

[shpankey]

Haha, I think some people will be very dissapointed with Halo 2's ending.

what do you mean? how have you played it already?

 

[Lakitu]

I read something by accident because some stupid asshole decided to post it on a message board when I was just browsing. I honestly hope it's not true otherwise I've just spoilt it. Who here has spoilt the game from themselves? Then I can PM you and ask if it's true, then you could give a yes or no. I don't want the game spoiled like that.

 

[Blimblim]

I read something by accident because some stupid asshole decided to post it on a message board when I was just browsing. I honestly hope it's not true otherwise I've just spoilt it. Who here has spoilt the game from themselves? Then I can PM you and ask if it's true, then you could give a yes or no. I don't want the game spoiled like that.

PM me if you want

 

[SyNapSe]

I read something by accident because some stupid asshole decided to post it on a message board when I was just browsing. I honestly hope it's not true otherwise I've just spoilt it. Who here has spoilt the game from themselves? Then I can PM you and ask if it's true, then you could give a yes or no. I don't want the game spoiled like that.

That really sucks. It's why I've cut my browsing down to this board alone, and I still had a close call when someone threw the Attract video in a thread saying it was the new official one.

 

[Bristow]

I've ran into a couple of spoilers too. If they're true, I don't see myself enjoying the single player campaign that much. Halo is all about the multiplayer anyway though, which I'm sure will be top notch.

 

[PhatSaqs]

French Halo 2 commercial:

http://minstrum.free.fr/halopub.mpeg

 

[dark10x]

Heh, that commercial has a bit from the very first Halo 2 trailer...only it is obviously from the final game. QUITE a downgrade. Who expected otherwise, though?

 

[PhatSaqs]

Heh, that commercial has a bit from the very first Halo 2 trailer...only it is obviously from the final game. QUITE a downgrade. Who expected otherwise, though?

Yeah I noticed that too

Here's an official store locator for midnight madness:
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/halo2/storelocator.htm

 

[Funky Papa]

That doesn't look too hot graphics wise :-|

 

[Ghost]

huh? whats downgraded?

Only bit that looked dodgy to me was the

Spoiler

Giant mech picking up the car had a wierd low res texture on his head

The rest looks great.

 

[StoOgE]

Yeah, Im hoping that my sarcasm detector is failing.. that commercial looked really good.

 

[Ramirez]

Bad graphics,wtf?

Looks awesome!

 

[Funky Papa]

Don't get me wrong, those graphics are good, but there I see some rough spots like the crappy explosions and some bad animation on that giant thing scene.

 

[raYne]

I'll give you the explosions, but they definitely don't represent the final game, see any other released movie), but bad animation on a giant robot? This isn't Gundam :lol

 

[eso76]

OXM states that Halo 2 does not support live co op mode.

 

[Ramirez]

Haha,owned.I never cared about that feature to begin with...

 

[Funky Papa]

I'll give you the explosions, but they definitely don't represent the final game, see any other released movie

Well, it does represent a fraction of the game

but bad animation on a giant robot?

The problem is not the robot animation but the way the truck gets ripped, it doesn't look realistic at all.

I am not worried about the game, it will be great without doubt, but when you are doing a TV ad you should put the great scenes, not the rough ones.

 

[dark10x]

huh? whats downgraded?

Only bit that looked dodgy to me was the

Spoiler

Giant mech picking up the car had a wierd low res texture on his head

The rest looks great.

They show Master Chief launch out of a space craft in that commercial...just like the very first Halo 2 trailer.

However, it looks considerably worse.

 

[Funky Papa]

Well, you can't compare a game with a tech demo.

 

[dark10x]

Well, you can't compare a game with a tech demo.

Oh, I know that...

However, that is the first I've seen of that original footage rendered in the final engine.

 

[Ramirez]

It shows it for like a 1/2 second and you can come to that good of a conclusion from that little snippet?Please.

 

[Mrbob]

Now online co-op!

Now I agree with that 9.7 score.

I would knock the game down a couple points too for not having online co-op, no matter how awesome it is!

I need this game! Can we warp to Nov 9?!

 

[eso76]

I haven't seen the ad, but...hmm...sources assure cutscenes look exactly the same as the tech demos shown 2 yrs ago.
The game itself doesn't though.

 

[cybamerc]

huh? whats downgraded?

Shaders and shadows. The X02 trailer featured a Doom 3 style renderer with unified per-pixel lighting and global shadows. Obviously it was mostly indoors so you couldn't tell what they had in mind for exterior levels but indoors stuff in the final game appears to be a mixture of per-pixel and per-vertex lighting just like Halo 1. And you no longer have global shadows. The X02 trailer and E3 2003 demo also featured stencil shadows. They were removed sometime after E3 2003 and instead Bungie experimented with shadow buffers. They too appear to be gone. Basically single player now looks like multiplayer as far as I can tell.

 

[jkooXL]

Anyone who thinks any of the lighting or ANYTHING about those graphics looks shitty is a crack smoking troll with an untrained eye. That looks fucking AMAZING.

 

[dark10x]

They were removed sometime after E3 2003 and instead Bungie experimented with shadow buffers. They too appear to be gone. Basically single player now looks like multiplayer as far as I can tell.

The vehicles and other moving objects were self-shadowed at E3 2004, though. I wonder if it is still present in the final build?

 

[raYne]

Well, it does represent a fraction of the game .... The problem is not the robot animation but the way the truck gets ripped, it doesn't look realistic at all.

Well this fraction looks like it's from an early build... just looking at it it doesn't look as "polished" as the rest of the commercial. Add to that it's the same scene with the questionable explosion and you see my conclusion.

..... when you are doing a TV ad you should put the great scenes, not the rough ones.

It's France... they shouldn't even get the game just for spite.