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Bungie Staff Admit Halo 2 'A Shadow Of What It Could Have Been'

darkzero.co.uk — In a lengthy - and highly informative - eight page interview published in the latest issue of Edge magazine, Bungie revealed many aspect of their thoughts on the Halo franchise and what they expect from Halo 3.

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zdonit 1 year 314 days ago, made popular 1 year 314 days ago

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KyotoWolf, on 10/12/2007, -55/+11Halo-Is-A-Rubbish-Game

and yes i have an Xxob and ive played it and it sucks....
- KyotoWolf, on 10/12/2007, -47/+3not the Xxob.... Halo
- latova, on 10/12/2007, -11/+39No game out there currently matches the mutliplayer component of halo 2. The party system, matchmaking, stats, etc. The games been out for a while and nothings come near it.
- vbr2, on 10/12/2007, -19/+13@KyotoWolf
  
  you probably think so cause you suck
- glock22ownr, on 10/12/2007, -18/+6KyotoWolf:
  
  What kind of crack are you smoking man? Halo is an awesome game! Please pass the hookah over here I want to get that high too.... if Halo sucks what game do you think is better?
- VaporBro, on 10/26/2007, -8/+18@ glock22ownr...
  
  First off, "What kind of crack are you smoking"? Rethink this question for a second. It wouldn't matter if there were 12 different types of crack; crack is crack. You should have said "Are you smoking crack?". Second, you don't smoke crack in a hookah. You smoke shisha in a hookah (a mixture of molasses and tobacco). And then you asked him to pass the hookah so you could get high...
  
  What kind of crack are you smoking?
- stockjones, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Bring back the greatness that was Tribes and quit with this walk, run strafe folly.
- Wonotch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Rarely does a day go by when i don't dream of a new TRUE, WORTHY Tribes game. One can hope...
- latova, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@jimmygoon: Theres no matchmaking system or anything like that for xbc.
RoadDoggFL, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Hmm, might wanna look for some scans on this...
- KlayBorg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Do edge (one of the best videogame magazines in the world) a favor and BUY a copy. Seriously, it is a brilliant magazine and often has all the exclusive interviews and previews.
- judgeFire, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@KlayBorg
  
  Seconded. When any blogspam blurb passes for a review these days, Edge is even more worth buying. It's simply *good*.
- RoadDoggFL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Edge delivers to Hawaii?
ShadowMagic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7im glad their taking a longer time with halo 3 to get it perfect...and hey if they thought halo 2 is "far less than it could and should be in many ways" i cant wait for halo 3
- sifelltneytandi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Of course they're going to say this. Quite a few people were disappointed in part two, so it's in their best interests to say "Yeah, we agree, and we'll do better next time!" instead of just ignoring it or, worse, disagreeing and therefore leading people to believe that the third wouldn't be any better than the second.
  
  I don't get the Halo thing. It's not the best FPS I've ever played, or close. I haven't played much multiplayer, so maybe that's what I'm missing. The campaign bores me.
- zybch, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5I don't 'get it' either. It wasn't anything special really.
deltaz, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Well, at least if they do leave something big out of Halo 3, they can put it back in with auto updates/ the marketplace.
- yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4that would be LAME and completely the wrong message we would want to send developers.
  
  "it's ok, ship it broken, we can fix it later in a patch"
  
  NO, BAD DELTAZ!
Kinser, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Here is hopeing the solve the cheating issues over XBL with Halo 3 ;)

Halo 2 matchmaking is difficult to play anymore because of the vast number of
people forcing host and being piss poor hosts. Honestly you'd think some of them are
running dial up on their boxes.

At any rate...
- KlayBorg, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1The problems that you have with connection, is just unfortunate, as halo 2 has a system where everyone is equal, and they do not just ignore those who are not in the same country as you. Therefore you get a bad connection
guitarh3ro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Bungie can take as long as they need for Halo 3, because I'd rather have a perfect game that I had to wait a long time for than have a mediocre game that came out quickly.

Halo 2 was an amazing game. Bungie really could have done a better job, but honestly it's great the way it is. Hopefully Halo 3 will just blow our minds and blow Halo 2 out of the water!

Also, here's hoping that every map will be back from Halo: CE and Halo 2, as well as a ton of new ones.
- RoadDoggFL, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Everybody said Bungie should take their time to make Halo 2 perfect and what we got was a piece of crap. Bungie works best when rushed, Halo 3 could've come out last Fall.
aahpandasrun, on 10/12/2007, -10/+10Unreal Tournament 2004 is superior in terms of quantity and quality of multiplayer levels, customizability, weapon design, gameplay, and vehicles.
- estvir, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7In your opinion, anyway.
  
  Personally, I'd take HL2DM or DoD and others would take Q3 or ET.
Aseir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I actually made a post on Bungie.net not too long ago detailing what I felt went wrong with Halo 2's multiplayer aspects. It was the most popular thread on Bungie for a while and has over 600 replies. You can take a look if you want to get a view from a lot of people on what they felt went wrong or people who feel quite the opposite and think that everything is peachy with Halo 2.
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=9615671
- shlemielo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Great posts on the thread. Some of those replies had me laughing -- I really wanted to reach through the monitor and smack the 'tards.
  
  I actually LANed Halo 1 2v2 for about 3 hours tonight, and it was blissful. Halo 1 is a game that makes you feel like you could always be just a *little* bit better each time you play it, and that makes me keep coming back to it, even after 7 years or so.
- shlemielo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Just read some more of the thread--seems like everyone who was anti-pistol and pro-locking rockets came off sounding like a 12 year old.
tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i just hope the PC port is at least decent this time around whenever they get around to it.
- grgt1994, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1IMHO, that was the biggest mistake with Halo2 - no PC release. My guess would be they do the same with Halo3. Microsoft likes it as a console sales driver.
- grgt1994, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I assume that by digging me down, you agree with Microsoft's strategy of not releasing on PC. Weird.
mikeoh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The ending of Halo 2 was completely unsatisfying. I didnt have a bit of closure compared to the first Halo. It just felt like a shill for the 3rd Halo game.

Atleast Bungie said Halo 3 would be the end of the trilogy so maybe they will end up the storyline but I doubt it considering the amount of money the Halo franchise is making.
- m3mn0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They can always spin off the brand and go with a different genre of games. So H3 might be the last FPS, but it won't be the last Halo game.
  
  As a matter of fact, I remember seeing a trailer for this RTS game based on the Halo universe. YouTube it...
- jggr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is a RTS coming, but the FPS future for this game is supposed to end at Halo3. In the RTS, there will be units of Spartans. And as we all know, the Master Cheif is the last of the Spartans in the story line, so the RTS should take place before the FPS games. Although, when I read that, I wondered what Halo would be like with no Flood. But then again, how good will the Flood be in an RTS? The Zerg they ain't. They're more like Zombies... Not very tactical, but they'd be a fun wildcard to have to deal with.
  
  YouTube Halo Wars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bLjqxYlZVM
  
  Kick-ass video... Completely rendered, no game play, but kick-ass none-the-less.
  
  /I agree that the end of H2 was crap. Never been so disappointed with an ending before. I mean they ended the game with the Arbiter. WTF?
- ByteGuerilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah that would be Halo Wars. RTS set at the beginning of the Covenant War. Spartan-IIs, Warthogs, and Pelicans, oh my! We may even get to see the Master Chief on his first battle :)
kolobcreek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yeah no *****. It was made as a multiplayer game with very little emphasis on solo game play or story line.
You really alianate you fan base when you put out screwup games to meet the Christmas dead line.
walter909, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1all they need to do is make all the textures hi res for halo one and two and pack it with halo3..imagine .. the trilogy remastered in hi def....oh wait..
HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Kinda sounds like a conversation I had with some friends about it two days ago.

Jason Jones didn't want anything to do with Halo 2, he wasn't involved in the project (he says) until the very end, when he came in in this "fixit" period to try to improve it. He apparently did this after MS cancelled his Castle Siege game.

From what I understand, Jones doesn't want anything to do with Halo 3 either, he's staying out of it. He was down in L.A. much of the time working on the movie project. If Jones isn't involved with Halo 3 except for the last couple weeks, will it suffer the same ways that Halo 2 did?

With all the other Bungie guys gone, like Seropian, Evans and such and Jones out, Halo 3 is kind of an unknown.
- ahuxley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Thats what I think so many young Bungie fans fail to get at any level.
  Mac Bungie is over, not many ppl are left.
  Halo Bungie is just another MS product now.
VaporBro, on 10/26/2007, -1/+1Am I the only one who loved Halo 2? I am a total fan of Halo 2 multiplayer. Hell I'm even wearing a Halo 2 shirt right now (Just noticed it halfway through reading the comments. Funny coincidence).

This article gives me great hope for Halo 3.
truegodofwar, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Dual weilding took all the fun out of the game. Instead of using the grenade for tricky corners and strategic kills, now we just blast away at each other until someone dies. It's so stupid.
- VaporBro, on 10/26/2007, -2/+3You know...you can still throw grenades for strategic kills...even if dual weilding. If you are dual weilding and want to throw a grenade; just mellee attack. This will force you to drop one of your guns. Now all you have to do is THROW A STRATEGIC GRENADE.
  
  I think I know why people don't like Halo 2...Cause they SUCKED at it.
- truegodofwar, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2STFU, u don't think i know that noob? It's just gay to use a grenade, cause it drops your weapon and then u have to hunt around on the ground to get it again. It's just so lame.
- jggr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Complex movemnets are tough for the simple minded, eh? :P
  
  And the dual wielding was a great addition to the game. it gives you the choice to be either a gunslinger for fun, or something a little more tactical.
  Some might even call that balanced.
DBiz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Should read: Halo, a shadow of what people hype it to be.
Wonotch, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Here's whats wrong with Halo 2: No keyboard and mouse.
PurpleSfinx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The only huge problem with Halo 2's multiplayer was the sword. That stupid, overpowered sword. Rubbish weapon. It would have worked if it was more like Counter Strike, but Halo 2 is a high health FPS, and you have time to get close to someone easily.

There were many things worse about 2's campaign compared to 1:

- Rubbish ending, in terms of story *and* gameplay. Leaving us with a cliffhanger wouldn't be so bad if 3 came out sooner and on the same freakin' console! But it didn't, so the cliffhanger was just kinda dull. Also, the crazy timed warthog race - in fact, the whole The Maw level - at the end of Halo: Combat Evolved was my favourite part of any game, ever. They didn't have anything as fun like that in Halo 2, or at least, I didn't find the ending quite as fun.

- Playing as an elite: At least for me, this watered down the feeling of fighting for humanity. Maybe if you didn't take control of him until after he became friendly toward the humans it wouldn't have been so bad. But the way it is, it made me feel like I was reversing the good work I did earlier.

- Overall it had less drive to complete. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but, for the 2 above reasons and more, I didn't feel as compelled to push through and kill those ***** aliens.

Also, taking out the pistol was stupid. That was a great weapon and it took skill. Yeah you heard. I don't believe it was overpowered.

All of this and a few other smaller things make me agree with this guy, and hope that Halo 3 is more like Halo: Combat evolved than Halo 2. Luckily I believe them when they say they are making sure they take their time to get it perfect this time, and it's great to see them acknowledging that 2 could have been refined more.
- jggr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Agreed. Never did like the idea of playing as the Covenent. Whoever thought of that needs to be beaten with a wet towel (I don't want to hurt him, just learn him). I played the Arbiter levels once, and only once. No light, crappy CRAPPY stealth technology, and those freakin' hooves clicking.... (urge to kill rising)
  
  Also, you're one of the first people who said the Maw was their favorite chapter. I love that chapter. I'd play that over and over... The end run was way intense and very exciting.
  
  Either way, I only play H2 now when I'm bored of H1, but not bored of Halo. ;)
- PurpleSfinx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Whoever thought of that needs to be beaten with a wet towel (I don't want to hurt him, just learn him)."
  
  Heh heh.
  
  I guess what I should have pointed out in my post above was also that all of the things I pointed out should be fairly easy to fix for Halo 3 (for Bungie anyway), by refining and updating ideas from Halo 1 - except maybe the 'rubbish ending', which requires alot of creativity admittedly. But I'm sure Bungie can do it; like I said, the Halo: Combat Evolved ending was great fun.
- night141, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Meh, to each his own I guess.
  
  I enjoyed playing as the Covenant better than the MC levels.
- jsballardx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The thing that I missed from Halo 2 was how the levels are so narrow compared to the the first game. Halo had this real open feel like you're on an actual planet and H2 was all hallways and shootouts. That's what I miss most about Halo was just the openness (if that's a word) but H2 was fun to play it was just real streamlined. Make the game larger like Halo and it will be brilliant.
MrFlesh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Halo 2 a lot less than it should have been. Well that's it the last nail in the coffin! 360 wins cause halo 2 was less than it should have been . PS3 sucks because it didn't come in purple with a USB nerf missle launcher! 360 ROOOLZ.
Nick22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And yet despite it being a "shadow of what it could have been", Halo 2 is still wicked awsome fun :)
- spartan777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1halo 2 gets old fast. there are only a few good maps, lockdown being the one everyone plays 90% of the time. there weren't any decent alternate modes either. ctf had its moments, but was pretty boring.
  
  at its core fps gameplay, halo2 was good. it just didn't have anything beyond the basics.
BigDane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So they had what three years to develop halo 2 and they are still disappointed? If bungie would get their ***** together and were not so damn high and mighty (i am an admitted halo fanboy by the way) maybe they could develop a game in a year or two like every other developer.
- Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To be fair, Valve take their time and I personally have never been dissapointed with the results or wished they rushed it out quicker, so it's not like there's anything wrong with a three year release cycle. On the other hand, I do feel that Bungie could have done something better with Halo 2 given the time they had.
- grgt1994, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...
Nickbc87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I encourage everyone who hasn't already to play Halo for the PC. Seems like these days, it really gets overlooked.
zoziw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why do so many companies trash their previous product to build up their new one? All this tells me is that if Halo 3 experiences a slight delay they will ship it without polish and it won't be the game it could have been.

That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the product.
rude0197, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have no confidence that Halo 3 will meet expectations. The failure of the now off Halo movie, the on again off again relationship with Peter Jackson's storylines, and the need to push out 3 versions of packaging to grab some money is an issue. I fully expect a fun however painfully short game.
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Bungie Staff Admit Halo 2 'A Shadow Of What It Could Have Been'

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