Xbox Live

I posted this submitted this earlier today to Evil Avatar but I haven’t posted here since I’ve been watching March Madness all evening. So I’ll just quote myself from EA’s site:

Bungie.net’s weekly update gives us the lowdown on the upcoming “expansion” pack. From the update:

• We’re releasing a total of nine new multiplayer maps.
• All nine maps will eventually be available as Live downloads and as a normal boxed game disc – available at retail for $19.99 (US).
• The release on Live will be staggered, some paid, some free!
  The first two maps are free and coming in a few short weeks. (late April)
• The same day the 2 free maps are released, 2 additional maps will be available for purchase.
• The remaining 5 maps will be made available as a paid download on the same day the retail package goes on sale.
• The retail disc will contain extras, including a documentary, a cool project from our cinematic and animation team, every Halo 2 update released so far and possily one or two other little treats.
• By late summer, ALL the maps will be available for free.

It goes on to describe some of the new maps and includes a FAQ for all your questions. I was a tad disappointed that there won’t be a Hang ’em High translation but the new stuff definitely looks spiffy. I’m holding judgement on the whole “purchase the new maps now” vs. “wait until late summer”. I think it’s gonna cause major headaches for match making. Get used to playing with the same people who will pay for the new maps.

I said originally I was holding judgement. The more I’ve thought about this, the less I like it. Halo 2 sold millions of copies of Halo 2. Let’s just say 5 million copies. At 50 bucks a pop, that’s a quarter of a billion dollars. Now, from my previous findings, the publisher and developer get about 20 bucks a pop. (MS and Bungie in this case). That works out 100 million dollars. Wrap your brain around that number a little bit before we move on. Good. Now, let’s pretend it cost Bungie and Microsoft 30 million dollars to develop, test, market, and produce Halo 2. Let’s say it has cost Bungie a million bucks to keep Bungie.net (and all the terrific stats they maintain) up and running. That leaves sixty-nine million dollars in their collective coffers. That is a lot of scratch. I would think they could dip into those reserves and throw us a bone with new maps. Do they really have to charge for this? I also see this as giving game developers a “safety net” for delivering games missing vital elements, knowing they can always go back and patch them, but that’s a different topic all together. What I’m trying to say is Halo 2 earned Bungie and Microsoft a HEALTHY little profit. Isn’t 19.99 a little steep to ask for an update that will eventually be freely available? And what about buying the maps on Live? How much will they cost us? I don’t want to have to pay to get things I initially thought would be free.

“But,” you might counter, “if you’re patient, all the maps will eventually be available for free.” Ahh, but there’s an interesting tid-bit in the FAQ for the upcoming expansion:

By late Summer, with the support of Mountain Dew, all the maps will be completely free.

So it’s not even Bungie fronting this offering, it’s Mountain Dew. One of the maps not highlighted, but was mentioned in the update, is named “Backwash”. Will this map contain some form of a Moutain, covered with a Dew? Some Mountain Dew ads, perhaps? We’ll have to wait and see.

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!

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!

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.