Did I ever mention how much I hate the #$$%^@@$%%B% Flood
That said ,I am taking my time playing this game 
Declan
aka notticoyote
I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for boxing any spoilers. 
Seconded. I don’t have the game yet and am interested to hear peoples opinions of the game, but don’t want to read any spoilers, so thanks for being thoughtful!
Thanks, I’ll check that out. I’m playing on one of those wide aspect LCD projection TVs and it’s set to widescreen.
A couple other comments…
I had a great time dual wielding 2 of these. The problem is that it kicks up so if you just haul off on both triggers simultaneously, you won’t hit anything. I used alternating bursts and they worked great.
I agree with you on the shotgun. It used to be my favorite weapon, but now it seems underpowered - you have to get right up on top of an enemy for it to be effective.
The plasma pistol always sucked, but it still works against Sentinels.
I loved doing barrel rolls in the Banshee and the new Banshee bomb. I love the way they flip through the air now when you hit them with the tank.
I love the plasma sword. In coop mode, we beat each other up for a good 10 minutes because it was so much fun.
I LOVE jacking Ghosts!
The AI is a little trippy sometimes. “We could really use you on the gun”, says Sgt. Johnson as he drives right past you on the Warthog - then you have to catch him.
All in all, A+
Great job Bungie
sturmhauke, KOTOR is in a near tie with Halo as my favorite game of all time. I hate most FPS games with a passion. I’d much rather play Fallout or Planescape for the 10th time then pick up a new FPS. I played the original Castle Wolfenstein, Doom, Doom II, Hexen, Heretic, Quake, Quake II - all those Doom/Quake clones - and then I got bored - really, really bored. They were all the same (and Doom 3 reminded me again why I started hating them.) I picked up Halo with the XBOX because it was the “killer app” and was instantly hooked. The controls are easy, the camera control second to none, and it plays like a dream. Most of all, it’s FUN. Even if you aren’t into FPSs, you might find yourself hooked on this one.
Nope, go into your XBox setup before the game loads. Turn off “widescreen” and you’re back to top/bottom
I’m on Chapter 4 and think the game is ok though I think I may be liking Halo: CE better. I don’t think the graphics are a big improvement though I haven’t loaded up the original in a while. The textures definitely aren’t as good in Halo 2; look down at the grass or get close to the bark of a tree and you’ll see what I mean.
I forgot to mention, add me to your friend’s lists. I’m Miles OToole
I’m liking Halo 2 a lot better than the first one, but the only complaint I have is the zoom on the pistol has no crosshairs its just like a wide box. :mad:
well so far we have:
SalviaDivinorum (that’s me)
BRIOHAZARD
Ellis Dee
notticoyote
Miles OToole
i will send all you guys invites tonight. maybe we can get a clan going. i was wondering how important is capitalization when sending out invites i.e. NOTTICOYOTE instead of notticoyote?
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned the major difference between the old elites and the new ones:
In the first Halo the Elites said “wort- wort” , “Raaagghhh”, and"Gaaahhhh". In the past 3 years they’ve seemingly all been sent to finishing school, since now they all speak eloquent english. :dubious:
Go figure.
So who wants to start a clan?
Perhaps we can get some clan name suggestions?
Cecil’s Soldiers?
Most likely something more clever will be suggested.
Should probably avoid “dope” referencing names, in order to avoid being lumped in with all the “chronic killahs” the “4:20 foot soldiers” .
The xbox live crowd just loves their weed, it would seem.
That’s because the pistol was insanely overpowered in the first game. You could empty a whole clip from the assault gun into an alien and it would barely phase it. You could smack it in the head with the pistol butt and pop it once in the head and it would hit the ground - or you could sit back and snipe it from 1/2 mile away. Fun, but not very realistic. (Yeah, I missed it too, but then I found the plasma sword.)
That is not the pistol zoom, but a built-in Master-Chief zoom. That is why you zoom out after a pistol shot.
My only two complaints, so far are the delay in texture mapping in the cut scenes and
no plasma bomb on the banshee in multi-player, I was so hoping to drop a few of these on my son’s head in retaliation for all the ghost splattering he has inflicted in my over the past couple of years
Loving the game so far, but it’s going to take me awhile to get used to. Here are some of the things I’m not liking so far:
[ul]
[li]Graphics aren’t as good (except the model of the actual Master Chief, which you never see anyway)[/li][li]Destructable Warthog[/li][li]Dual Wield. It just seems a little over-indulgent in a “Serious Sam”-type, almost comedic way. It’s also causes so much recoil that you can’t hit anything, and disables your grenade. I’ll stick with one gun until the inevitable point where I need two.[/li][li]English-speaking covenant? They could’ve been more creative with this.[/li][li]Playing as covenant during the campaign? They could’ve worked this into the story a little more seamlessly, or even made it remotely make sense.[/li][li] Use Ghost Boost™!, Do Ghost Flips™! Drop Ghost Bombs™! Am I playing Pokemon or Halo?[/li][li]Objectives aren’t as clear. My friend and I found ourselves getting lost A LOT more in the first 4-5 boards of Halo 2 than we did in the entirery of the first game. Come to think of it, the story could be a little more clear too. Where are we? I thought we were on Earth, but now I think I might’ve been wrong because suddenly we were on a weird (space?) station, and then we were on another Halo. [/li][li]The HUD seems like a step back instead of a step forward. I like how the suit itself can zoom now but kind of useless since you can’t shoot in that mode unless your gun has a scope.[/li][/ul]
Barring those things, the game is great so far :D.
We were on earth.
Then, at the end of the first MC level, the Covenant ship does a hyperspace jump while still in the atmosphere, obliterating the city. Keyes’s daughter follows in her ship, and everyone pops out of hyperspace near the other Halo. MC goes down to secure the surface for a landing party that wishes to secure the Index. The Covenant do the same.
The things I like about the story are
[spoiler] The Covenant’s insistence on activating Halo, regardless of the fact that a big green Venus Flytrap that seems to know what it’s talking about telling them unequivocally NOT TO DO THAT.
I also really like the fact that the Covenant found Earth by accident and didn’t know so many humans would be there. That’s why they brought such a small fleet. Earth was prophesied to them somehow, but the presence of an inhabiting race was not. [/spoiler]
What I don’t like about the story is this:
The Monitors of the different Halo installations seem very intent on activating the rings. Granted, some Heretic has let Flood loose on the Covenant homeworld because he believes them to be messengers of divine testing or somesuch, but the Monitors just seem bloodthirsty, or so single-minded to the point where they see one Flood creature and think it necessary to wipe out the galaxy.
And, I would like to Mini-Pit ™ the people who think that the story makes no sense. Perhaps it’s a little heavy, but there is a definite storyline that’s pretty easy to follow if you listen to the dialogue and fit it into the story, rather than just overwhelming the supporting characters’ voices with your shotgun blasts. Jesus, people. It’s all there.
I’m pretty sure this is a problem with the slow speed of the DVD player and only 64 MB of RAM. A coworker has a modded XBOX that copies and runs the game from the harddrive and he doesn’t have the cut scene problems. The game is just pushing the limits of the XBOX.
I have to disagree with Cisco on the graphics. I think they are pretty amazing compared to any console game I’ve seen lately with the exception of Riddick. The key word being console. The graphics in DOOM 3 spank Halo 2 and make it its bitch - but it’s a PC game - and to me, that’s like comparing apples and oranges.
The normal mapping they used works well in most cases. The massive environments do cut down on the level of detail that can be achieved, but I’m still impressed with what they were able to do with them. If you put Halo and Halo 2 side by side, Halo 2 is far superior graphically.
And I like the exploding Warthog too. 
Hey, are you my alter-ego or something? That all sounds disturbingly familiar. I might pick it up then, but there’s also this problem of springing for Xbox Live. Is it just a game matching service, or is it essential for getting online with your Xbox? I already have cable modem service.
Improvements:
-
Getting rid of health paks. Great idea, because they are a pain in the ass to deal with on Legendary.
-
Improved graphics on characters, especially the flood.
-
Dual wielding should be interesting and I love the Energy sword. Dual wielding needlers is insane.
Screw-ups: -
Can’t dual wield unless you pick the gun up off the floor. You can’t dual wield two guns you already have in your inventory. THAT is ridiculous.
-
The shield charge status is smaller and less visible.
-
Can’t steer and fire the bomb on the phantom at the same time. Thats really annoying because generally one needs to steer AND aim.
-
I get the feeling that Bungie made what they thought would be good MP maps and then just fit them into the story line. It’s much easier to get lost in the sequel.
Eek, I was wondering why I wasn’t seeing any health packs. Then again, the way the new health system works, you don’t need them. I must say, I like the old system better and the new system seems like a step back instead of a step forward.
Out of curiosity, why were the health packs “a pain in the ass” on Legendary? I never noticed.
Other than the fact that there weren’t any? I kid, of course, but there really weren’t that many. 90% of my Legendary game was spent running around with near-zero health. Not that that stopped me, or anything. 
So, I officially suck at Halo 2. My buddies and I couldn’t manage Thursday, so we got together last night to christen the game. We had a rough time getting back in the swing of being Master Chief, being at least 6 months since we touched the first Halo. But we love the game, except for a couple problems that maybe you guys can help us with:
First off, coop is still only 2 player, and there are three of us. I really want to play the campaign coop, and am hoping my buddies will agree to try a rotating turns system, but I doubt it. This we need no clarification on.
I do not have Xbox live, neither does TEX. Jester does, because he is the host of our gaming, and we always play at his place. With the big screen and theater seating, it is affectionately known as “Man Town”. So we play under Jester’s account, which is Jester7677. The problems are this:
-
Guests do not have names. So all 3 of us have the same name: Jester7677. Can we fix this?
-
Guests apparently cannot play anything other than training grounds online. This is a problem because training ground matches apparently can only involve friends. As in, you can’t just pop online in a sea of other gamers and start a game. You have to send invites. This is annoying beyond description. Are we doing something wrong?
Assuming we can only play invite-only training ground matches, I’m calling upon you fellow dopers to help us out. Can we set you up as friends and send invites? (Trolling for XBox Live names here.) Unfortunately, these games are unranked and give you no stats, I’m assuming. We play on Friday nights. Sometimes Friday afternoons as well, schedules permitting.
If you’re willing, perhaps you could send friend invites to Jester7677 between now and Friday, mentioning me (Ellis) in the message, to save us time when we all get there. This Friday we’re planning sometime in the afternoon, and it would be a shame to get there without any friends. We felt like such losers last night. 
If you do, maybe mention your SDMB name as well; I recognize most of the posters in this thread. (Which is telling me I spend way too much time at the SDMB; I fondly remember not recognizing any names. It felt more like I had a life back then.)
Yea there is no “health” anymore. You can take a few shots with shields down, but not many. I thought managing health packs was a pita on legendary because you’d often have to make the decision to reload based on your health. Now health is a pure alive/dead situation.