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New Halo 2 Live content coming!?

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Bungie.net : Top Story

Next week, we’re going to have a major announcement about the details of our new maps.

Picked this one up from Kotaku. Very intriguing. There was the story last week about a Korean web-site referring to a Halo 2 X-Pack but now the powers-that-be at Bungie have spoken and given us a glimpse at what’s coming, in addition to the cheat/glitch/bugs that currently plague Xbox Live matches. Glad to see they are being proactive about kicking the a-holes that cheat right in the nads.

Now, on to the speculation (This was posted on the 18th, so hopefully they’ll be available by the weekend?) …

My wish list for maps from the first Halo are Hang ’em High, Prisoner, and Boarding Action (which is great for sniper battles). I personally think they’ll release at least 6 maps, with 3 of them from the original game and 3 brand-spanking-new ones. We’ll see.

I don’t think they’ll be adding any additional content (i.e. a REAL ending) but I would have no problem if they did. I think with all the glitch/bug/cheat fixes they had to do and the new maps that are in the works, I would imagine that’s a lot of work. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Either way, I’m pretty excited about all this!

Some thoughts

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Animal CrossingAfter spending most of the week playing with WordPress, I’m finally able to do some real blogging.

I’ve been playing two games this week – Halo 2 and Animal Crossing. Guess which one I’m playing with my two-year-old? She loves when I catch fish and always cracks up when I get an old shoe or a tin can. “You have to go to the dump, daddy!” She didn’t particularly like me getting stung by the bees I rudely awoke by shaking their tree. “What’s wrong with his eye?” There has been some recent mentions of Animal Crossing lately: there’s the kid that proposed to his girlfriend via Animal Crossing’s in-game mail service. How cute. Jane at Game Girl Advance mentions playing AC with the animals asking her about how her ex-boyfriend was doing. Freaky.

It is weird how our Animal Crossing town, “pooptown” (I know, how original), continued down its virtual path even though my wife and I hadn’t played for over seven months. There were a couple pooptowners who hadn’t talked to my wife’s character for almost two years. But they happily lived their lives, oblivous to our abscence. Didn’t anyone send out a search party? Wasn’t anyone worried that tony and bella hadn’t been heard of in months? And the police officers? Don’t go there. Those lazy bums didn’t seem to notice were gone. But that creepy fat guy in the station still follows us around like a hawk.

When I had some time to game by myself, I popped Halo 2 in and played some Live matches and jumped back into the single player game. Earlier, I had read the analysis and review over at 7hr33 and as I read I kept thinking, “yup, uh huh” and, “exactly”. One quote in particular stuck out:

Though the weapons are supposed to be more balanced than in the first, they invariably end up feeling rather impotent and bland, and the weapons that most teams scramble over each other to get at are the sword and the rocket launcher, leaving those unequipped or unwilling to use them with no truly effective countermeasure (ie. a powerful, universally distributed mid-range rifle, etc.).

This is so true. I played on Live last night with some friends and it continually dawned on me that I was always looking for the rocket launcher/energy sword/shot gun. As soon as I spawned I knew exactly where I could go to upgrade my SMG. 7hr33 refers to the “the chaotic hail of bullets” (or bullet spam, if you will). So true. A fire-fight usually becomes a “I hope I pulled the triggers first”. Nothing is more frustrating that getting your bullet spam on with someone and a third party enters the fray and picks up the scraps. That’s not skill, that’s luck. One thing Halo taught me was patience. Take your time, pick your shots, go for the head, ease on back if you’re losing the upper-hand. One thing Halo 2 is teaching me is to run and find other people fighting with each other so I can have some easy pickings. Strategy and skill has been dumbed down in Halo 2, which is unfortunate, because it was done so well in Halo.

And I am really becoming disenchanted with Halo 2 on Live. It’s the same frigging three games, over and over. Assualt on Burial Mounds, Team Slayer on Coagulation, one flag CTF on Zanzibar. It’s becoming less and less fun. It’s still good for an occasional Rumble Pit, but unless I’m playing with friends, I doubt I’ll be playing on Live as much as I used to.

Playing the single player missions are still enjoyable, I’m having fun. I still think Halo 2 is a great game, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not a great game.

Some more light reading.

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Today we are going to look at couple articles with differing points of view on the direction Nintendo is heading. The first comes from the venerable hardware site, Tom’s Hardware. (NB: I love Tom’s Hardware, a great place for hardware reviews. I haven’t read much in their video game section, but I’ll be keeping my eye on it now.)

Titled “Why is Nintendo Ignoring American Men?”, Christiaan Allebest (Tom Hardware’s video game editor) talks specifically of the future of the DS but talks about Nintendo in general. He, like many others, feel like Nintendo is ignoring the “mature” audience of us American men, video gamers who were brought up on Nintendo. After complaining about the lack of DS games that would appeal to the male gamer, Christiaan closes with

Nintendo needs to reach out to older American gamers, not with the gloved, 3-fingered hand of Mario and his balloon animal friends, but with titles that deal specifically with what fascinates American males most: shooting things, blowing $%#@& up, and scantily-clad ladies.

I like blowing stuff up, just like the rest of us males, but I just can’t agree with this completely. There’s more to gaming that shooting and destruction. For me, I’ve got to think about who’s sitting next to me when I play. I have to be selective of what’s on the screen. The next article explains why.

From PC Magazine (WHAT!? PC Magazine? Bear with me, it’s worth it) we get this article by Jim Louderback, titled “For Families, Nintendo Slams Xbox”. He’s talking about his gaming experience with his son. From the article

Very few Xbox games so far have managed to hold our attention, though. The only one of note: Shrek 2 from THQ.

Shrek 2? That can’t be good. He continues

I’m using my Xbox less and less these days, and playing the GameCube more and more. I love console gaming, and I’m really glad my son does too. Someday we’ll be playing Madden NFL, Halo, and the rest. But not today.

Microsoft would love for the Xbox to become the center of home entertainment. But if the company can’t get its family-games situation together, that won’t happen. And based on what I’ve been playing, they have a long way to go. Without a family-game strategy, the Xbox will remain the province of older boys and men. My solution: Buy Nintendo.

There’s the key, at least in my case. Nintendo has always been my system of choice, and it grew up with me, for a while. People are always saying that Nintendo didn’t grow up enough and embrace us older gamers. But here’s the hitch – gamers like us have grown up. And now, some of us are getting married and having kids. I want some fun, gory games like the rest of us. Resident Evil owned me for weeks. But that’s not the kind of game I would sit down and play with my kids until they are much older.

“Mature” games are an important part of the spectrum of gaming. But Nintendo’s kid/family-oriented games are, too. Games like Paper Mario and Animal Crossing are currently influencing gamers that are as old as we were when we played Super Mario Brothers for the first time. I know after a kid turns 13 it’s all about playing Halo 2, but up to that point they should be playing games that are less serious and more about fun. Like it or not, Nintendo has the section of the market cornered. In the process, Nintendo is building another generation of gamers who know Mario and Luigi and don’t really care about Leon and Master Chief.

dallasobserver.com | Have Gun, Will Travel | 2005-01-06

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dallasobserver.com | Have Gun, Will Travel | 2005-01-06: I love Halo 2. I enjoy fragging and eviscerating as much as the next guy. But when I play, I don’t really think about the possibility of playing in tournaments or making money. I know money is out there, lots of people are playing in tournaments and making money, but I don’t have the skill (or even the dedication) to be that good. Nevertheless, there are people out there banking on their skills. In this article, it seems that Zyos, Matt Leto, is making quite a little chunk of change playing Halo 2. From the article:

“And the money keeps coming. Semmelhack says Zyos is looking at ‘mid-five figures’ in endorsements alone this year. And with MLG’s tournament purse of $250,000 in 2005, Matt Leto, college dropout, professional Halo player, should be a six-figure 22-year-old by year’s end.

‘I am lucky,’ he says. ‘But it takes a lot of skill, too.'”

It’s a good read (link from kotaku) and an interesting look into the burgeoning world of Major League Gaming.

I can always dream about playing in the big leagues. I still dream about playing football at The Ohio State University. But, alas, my dreams are just that. I am a peasant in the heirarchy of videogamers. It appears that Zyos is the King and Emperor.

Halo 2 multiplayer experience

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I’ve now had the opportunity to run the gamut of all the multiplayer options in Halo 2.

Co-op – Playing co-op can be great. Like the motto goes, it is fun to play together. Co-op is even better. The first Halo did co-op well and many people wanted Halo 2 to be co-opable (is that a word?) over Xbox Live, but it never came to pass. I didn’t really care if they did or not. It seems that four-person co-op was at least considered, as it lets you set up a four player co-op game but will prevent you from actually playing it. But I played with a buddy of mine and we played through the first couple of levels. I had only seen most of them once and they were all new to him, so it was pretty sweet to discover stuff at the same time. The team dynamic can be as good or as bad as you want it. I love sneaking around, clearing out a hall and the securing the other side so my teammate can make it through. Running over grunts with the Warthog while my teammate guns other baddies down is a riot. Nicely done.

Xbox Live – I’ve talked about this one before, it’s easy to say that Halo 2’s biggest draw for me will definitely be playing on Live. Its implementation is pretty slick and the EE geek in me really appreciates the time spent to ensure it runs so silky smooth over the internet. I tip my hat to them for that. Nevertheless, waiting for games is still a pain.

Xbox Live with guests – Playing with guests is both fun and a tad frustrating. Games take somewhat longer to find since you can only join practice (non-ranked) games, which is necessary for obvious reasons, but it’d be nice to set up your own game and have people join it until it fills. Right now you can make private games but you’ve got to invite people to them. And since I know no one yet on Live, that’s out of the question.

System Link – We had our first Halo 2 party with twelve people last night, and it is still my favorite way to enjoy Halo. I don’t play with a headset on Live, so I don’t know how the team dynamic works out there, but it sure is easier to lean over to your buddy and tell him where you are and what the strategy is. And of course there’s the up-close-and-personal trash talking. Nothing is better than shouting across the room talking that smack after your shotgun made spaghetti of their entrails. Good stuff!

It’s aLIVE!

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Cursed be Microsoft and their free two-month subscription. After convincing the wife that I’d only use the two free months, I signed up for Xbox Live and have already cut my teeth on a few rumble pit matches in Halo 2. Things are going good.

I’ve never really hated on Xbox Live, I’ve sort of watched/listened with a twinge of jealousy as people raved about how great online console gaming was. I guess the jealousy stemmed from Nintendo thumbing there nose at online gaming. But I never thought I’d actually take the plunge. I always figured it would be another time waster vying for my precious time. Well, after an hour of Halo 2 online, I can attest that it in fact is a time waster, but a dang fun one.

Bungie has been touting their matchmaking service, but good-night is it slow. It’s been said in countless other places: you wait five minutes to get into a game that lasts another five. Not exactly fun. But I must say, after two quick matches and two optimatches, everything within the game is pretty nice. I only noticed one little lag-induced jitter, otherwise it runs smooth as silk. The matching also seems to work according to design. In the two optimatches I played in, The disparity between first place and last (not counting the cats who bailed early) was usually only three or four kills. Not too bad.

If you see “I aint yer Pa” out there, it’s me, drop me a message. I’m sure I’ll be around again tomorrow.

Live Blogging – Halo 2 Style Continued

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Well, after an hour or so of playing, I must say it is rather tasty. The cutscenes are great, the story so far isn’t bad, I like what I see. Controls are extra tight, but I do have one major gripe. In Halo 1 I use the “Boxer” button configuration, where the L-trigger is used for melee attacks. In order to dual wield, you have to use the second trigger (the grenade button in default mode) to fire your second gun. If I wanted to use the Boxer configuration, I’d have to use the B button to fire the second gun. That defeats the purpose of being able to dual wield and aim at the same time. It will take some time to get used to the melee attack being the B button. That being said, dual wielding is BOSS. Very well done and extremely enjoyable.

Visually, Halo 2 is pretty dang polished. Everything looks like it did in Halo 1, only better. Sounds are spot on and the music evokes all the emotion of the first game.

I also got a chance to play a couple quick multiplayer games. The maps we player were uncomfortable at first but I’m sure that will change. I love Rocket Battles and they are done well again. I love the change they made to the fly-out path of the missile, it’s much more realistic. Attention to detail is important to me.

Alright, I could go on but I’ve got work tomorrow. I will resume the campaign and I look forward to our first Halo 2 party this weekend. I’m Audi.

Live Blogging – Halo 2 Style

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Well, after standing out in the cold for thirty minutes, Halo 2 is in my hands. I think I may be the first person to live blog a game (you know, like live blogging the debates). Luckily I conned a friend to go wait out in the cold with me. I must say that the Einsteins over at Game Crazy didn’t really plan to well for the midnight shoppers and were ill-prepared for the people that did show up. Finally, after waiting in the cold for an eternity, I was able to buy my copy (along with a free Game Crazy hat, what a sweet deal!) and we headed home.

I have expected to find a bad copy of Halo 2 in my case, but all seems in order. I also noticed a coupon for two free months of Xbox Live. Very very tempting. We shall see.

Well, off I go to save the world, again.

Lets play some games!

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I haven’t had much time to play many games this week, I played a little Fable Wednesday night and some Advance Wars last night (I finaly beat FF:TA!) so I’m looking forward to a little gaming. That should happen this weekend.

Finally, I’ll get some time to play some video games this weekend! We’re going to the in-laws house this weekend, to visit with Greta’s older brother and his family. Same guy we visited out west last month, so there will definitely be a lot of NCAA 2005. Her other brother will be there, too, so we’ll have some 3 players vs. the CPU. It’s always good fun. The girls will want to get in on the gaming, too, so we’ll play some Mario Kart and some Pac Man Vs. Should be a good weekend.

Spectator Mode on Xbox Live?

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I saw this tidbit over at Kotaku today, talking about a spectator mode on Xbox Live. I don’t have an Xbox Live account (I’ve thought about it numerous times) but this idea just doesn’t resonate with me.

For one thing, I work full time and have a 20 month old daughter. When I do get a free moment to play some video games, the last thing I would do is fire up the Xbox to watch someone else play. Just doesn’t sound like a good time to me.

Now, on the other hand, I can see where this is going – Xbox Live Leagues. There’s talk of a ticker of scores while you’re watching/playing. Again, I don’t think I’d tune in to watch an online match of NCAA 2005 when I can fire up ESPN and watch the real thing. But I know many people want professional gaming here in the USA and this could be the first step towards that.