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Thread: E3 Hands-On Impressions of Halo 2: Part One

  1. Yield E3 Hands-On Impressions of Halo 2: Part One


    Our assignment: Infiltrate the exclusive Halo 2 demo theaters by any means necessary.

    Armed only with a “name” which I won’t drop here, Ted and I stormed our way into the press-only area of Microsoft’s E3 booth in a quest to find and play the fabled Halo 2 multiplayer demo. Or at the very least, we were hopeful we’d get some serious eyes-on time with the game that only people with “invitations” and “connections” were able to play.

    Why not? We felt like we were on top of the world after using our media badges to cut in front of the massive line of people waiting patiently for their turn to watch the Half-Life 2 demonstration. Now it was time to see how far a name and a business card with an authentic phone number could get us.

    You see, when you’re given a “name” to drop, you’re basically handed a tiny fragment of true VIP status and treatment. One just has to be willing to be bounced from PR person-to-person until you’re given to someone willing to deal with the “problem” that two lost (puppy dog eyed) journalists create.

    We were quickly led back to the holy shrine that is the Halo 2 demo theater, which was surprisingly close to the hordes of people willing to kill to play the demo. Ted and I were cautioned that since we didn’t have an invitation, we might only get to watch--but we were OK with this (having also been told so the day before).

    And who should roll up to get in line, but comedian Sinbad and his posse of kids! I’m not sure who they were exactly, but I’d hazard to guess one or two of them were really his kids and the other(s) were just friends. Either way, they turned out to be formidable Halo players.

    The Coolest Friend in the F*cking World
    Our progress thus was largely thanks to Ted’s smoothness and dedication. He’s much better at talking himself into things than I am. Perhaps a side effect of being good looking and still possessing all of his hearing, which at the roar of E3 is a very good thing.

    Once the previous session let out and they started letting in the VIP’s and invitees, Ted and I tried and failed miserably to follow them, all cool like. Apparently after someone as big as Sinbad is, a bright red headed gamer from Oregon stands out. Stopped! But wait, what’s this? One person from our venue can play? “Oh, well… hmm… oh, yeah thanks Ted. Of course I’ll play. Damn right I’ll play.”

    And so we were lead back into the inner sanctum, and who should be sitting one very comfortable chair (really, if you know which type of chair it is, let me know) down from me but Sinbad himself?



    Thus the Mayhem Begins Anew
    I found myself in a small room, on one wall hung two large flat panel TVs, facing these screens were eight more TVs, four to each side. Each set up with its own 2.1 sound system (unless my eyes betray me I’d say they were using speakers from Microsoft’s upcoming first party 5.1 surround sound system). In each controller was a memory card with a label that told you what your name was in the game. Very helpful indeed.

    Download video clip (2.3MB): Halo_demo_booth.AVI

    But, for the moment we were facing away from these beautiful flat screen TVs, looking up at the two big screens as the guys from Bungie started giving their talk about what we’d be playing today. They basically ran though the same stuff they did during the Microsoft press conference, but with added attention to gameplay details. (Such as how we’d be picking up our second one-handed gun, and the best way to get the flag out of the other team’s base.)

    That’s right. We played single flag Capture the Flag mode (the map was Zanzibar): there’s only one flag and it’s located in the middle of the base, and it’s the job of the “attacking” team to get in and get back out to a certain spot on the beach with it. After three minutes the teams would reverse roles. It was 5-on-5 (the eight TVs along the wall, and the two mounted on the opposite wall). Finally, they told us that if we needed to make any changes to our controller setup, all we had to do was press start while playing. Yup, you can now change your controller setup on the fly.

    Halo 2 Takes Its First TNL Virgins
    What struck me hardest were the changes to the heads up display. The weekly developer updates over at Bungie.net made it sound like there had been major changes to the way information was displayed to players, but in fact I only noticed three very minor ones.

    First, there are no longer health bars. (However, this like everything else design related, is still up for internal Bungie debate.) Instead, when your shields pop you can survive a further two or three hits before you die. In my hour of playing, I never noticed this change affecting how I played the game. In fact I dare say that if you weren’t looking for it, you’d never notice it yourself.

    Marty O’Donnel explained to me that this change was discussed and implemented because of the way so many of us played Halo 1. Think about how whenever you got hurt, you’d slow down and wait for your shields to recharge. The only change to the shield system were the new special effects seen when they pop and reactivate. Both are visible in first person to you, and in third person to all the hungry sob's waiting to kill you.

    The second change to the HUD is the removal of the text messages that used to appear under/next to your crosshairs whenever your gun ran out of ammo, or if you had thrown your last grenade. These and a few others have been replaced with icons. The icons were so obvious and clear that I never needed to refer to the reference card located on the countertop in front of me.

    Finally, Bungie seems to have added both a clock to timed assault games (or perhaps my memory fails me, either way be kind), and a message that the flag is contested or, better put, not where it should be. But enough with the HUD, you want to know how the game played--don’t you?



    There are a couple of gameplay changes from Halo 1 (all of which are still being tuned), and more than a handful of brand-new spanking features:

    • You now have to hold X to get into a vehicle or pick up the flag. However, you can still quickly drop a flag by tapping either trigger.
    • Grenades bounce more, and in different ways than before. Prepare to relearn all your tossing skills.
    • You CAN dual wield a Sub Machine Gun with an Alien Plasma Rifle, but your aim goes to hell and back for both.
    • No flashlight was present in the multiplayer demo.
    • The Sub Machine Gun is powerful, and twice as much so in dual mode.
    • Press and hold Y to pick up a second one-handed gun for dual mode.
    • You can zoom-in with binoculars while using the SMG, but shooting instantly resets your view to normal.
    • Vehicle impacts are now physics based. If you’re bumped by a slow-moving vehicle you don’t die on the spot, but you do take some damage. Using a ghost+boost = “splatter” mode.
    • Death messages reflect new abilities and skills, i.e. “Zondaro Splattered Teddman.”
    • Turrets and the bunker walls surrounding them are destroyable by a well-placed missile or two.
    • Vehicles are rather sturdy despite now being damageable.
    • The Ghost controls better, has new turning physics and animations, shoots faster, and sports new special effects under the craft.
    • If you fire the Battle Rifle when not zoomed-in, it shoots three round bursts. Robocop style. This makes it very powerful, assuming you can get all three shots to hit.
    • The tattoos that players can put on their armor also appear as icons that hover above their heads. These are only visible to teammates. When a player also has the flag, a flag icon appears next to their tattoo icon.
    • A warning! icon appears under the crosshairs when the flag is not where it should be.
    • When you are close to the flag, indicators appear on the side of the screen to point to it.
    • The warthog appears to be a bit harder to flip now.
    • You can now see your legs, and covies can also see the standard Elite landing animation from a first person view.
    • You jump a bit higher, and in many ways the air game still feels as floaty as in the first game.


    Download video (3.0MB): Halo2_Battlerifle_kill.AVI

    Download video (1.9 MB): Halo2_pointblank_kill.AVI

    Download video (4.0 MB): Halo2_explosive_boxes.AVI

    And how does it feel with all these changes? Good. It’s like you never stopped playing Halo. Sure, the little details are different and only the needler, sniper rifle and shotgun made the trip… but it’s like you’ve just come home to a woman who’s only gotten better with age and care.

    The single flag CTF mode paired with the small Zanzibar map works surprisingly well, keeping the pace and action focused. The all too brief FULL HOUR we played let us see how much potential was still left in the first person shooter genre, and reminded us why we fell in love with Halo to begin with.



    -Zondaro

  2. The look of shock and horror on your face in the last image is totally priceless.

  3. man the videos are not working /but cool,and thanks for sharing with me this awesome info
    stay cool

  4. damn, now im itching to play. never shouldve read that

    lucky SOBs!

    that poster kicks ass, me want.

  5. Quote Originally Posted by DR.WIlL
    man the videos are not working /but cool,and thanks for sharing with me this awesome info
    The videos have been the victims of extreme popularity and bandwidth consumption.

    Instead, try downloading all the individual videos at a mirror site HERE.

    In addition, you can download all the video clips in one big joined file by clicking HERE.

    P.S. Don't forget to check out Part two of these Halo 2 impressions if you haven't yet.

  6. Quote Originally Posted by Glitch
    Is it true that you have to be 18+ to go to E3?
    Pretty much, unless you know somebody at an exhibitor (publisher/developer) who'll vouch for you and write a recommendation on your behalf. Or if you're related to anyone on E3 staff or on the Entertainment Software Association, that works too.

    For instance, I happened to see this in Nintendo's booth last year:


    They've been pretty loose on the age policy in years past, but I hear they're cracking down more these days.

  7. Quote Originally Posted by Teddman
    The videos have been the victims of extreme popularity and bandwidth consumption.

    Instead, try downloading all the individual videos at a mirror site HERE.

    In addition, you can download all the video clips in one big joined file by clicking HERE.

    P.S. Don't forget to check out Part two of these Halo 2 impressions if you haven't yet.
    thanks man. hey do you have any more pics or movies of halo 2?
    stay cool

  8. I think that was about the whole motherlode!

    Make sure to click on all the highlighted links in both articles to see all the images.

  9. Quote Originally Posted by Teddman
    so you're the one responsible for the olimario pic? nice.

  10. Yield

    Hey Teddman,in the point-blank-kill video,my buddy saw somthing in the video.
    Ok heres what he saw: At the end of the video,at around 4-5 seconds it shows around yellow-orange iteam,and we come to believe its a jackiel shield.(it looks alot like a shield)
    Well do you know any thing about this? Do you know what it is?
    Thanks.....
    stay cool

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