September 10, 2004 - Halo 2 is just two months away. Think about that. We've been waiting two years for this game, since it was first revealed at Microsoft's X02 event in August 2002. Now it's nearly upon us. While the single-player must remain a secret for the time being, Bungie has finally decided to bust open the multiplayer treasure chest and let us run our hands through its riches. Back at E3 I told you that it was awesome. Guess what, it's even more awesome now.
The Beta build played was in its final stages. Having lasted roughly two months, the Beta had some 7000 Microsoft employees worldwide using the real Xbox Live network (as opposed to a test network). This wasn't just about tuning the game to make it as enjoyable as possible, the Beta was also a stress test for Halo 2 on Live. Bungie is dedicated to providing the best possible experience. I know that sounds like a standard line, but these guys really are trying to make the best Xbox Live game out there.
With the Beta now closing, Bungie is entering the final stages and Halo 2 is getting close to completion. While the Beta features a lot of placeholder UI and demonstrates only three different game types (Slayer, Capture the Flag, and Assault) and five maps, it still offers a pretty good idea of what Halo 2 will offer online.
Kicking Things Off...
One nice touch, before I get into the meat of online, is the ability to customize your character. You can choose either a Spartan or Covenant Elite skin, but neither has any physical difference. After that you have numerous color choices for primary and secondary regions and two highlight colors. You wanna be the pink Elite with brown trim? Go for it. There are also different symbols and background patterns you can mixs and match and color as you see fit. This symbol becomes your emblem and is shown over your head and next to your name, making it even easier to notice specific players during a game.
To understand the experience of playing Halo 2 online, you really need to first understand the unique way Bungie is handling the online experience. There are two ways to play online, either in unranked "arranged" games or in ranked "matchmade" games. No matter which game you choose, there is no way to choose who hosts. Even in an arranged game you've created, there's no guarantee you'll be the host. That's because Xbox Live figures out which player would make the best host for the entire group and chalks them up behind the scenes. Should that host (who won't even know they are hosting) quit, Halo 2 instantly switches to the next best host. This means that you can enter a game and just keep playing and playing and playing even as others bail out.
That's a pretty awesome idea, but does create one small problem -- a lack of dedicated servers. Bungie isn't certain if they will make dedicated servers for arranged games, but there will definitely be none for matchmade games for reasons that will become quite apparent as we delve into that aspect of Halo 2 multiplayer.
Halo 2 supports 16 players online and includes unprecedented four-player split-screen support. The Beta, however, only offered two-player split-screen. While this isn't the hefty 24 or 32-player battles we all once envisioned, it's still nice to see 16-players online killing one another and the option for four-players on one box is really ridiculous. I'm not sure how well that will actually run, since it forces the Xbox to render the game four times at once and has to be online with a dozen additional players. Hopefully four-player split-screen runs like a dandy.
Arranged Games
If you're the type who likes to be in control of what you play and who you play with, than arranged games, which are unranked, are the way to go for you. You choose the gametype you wanna play -- be it Slayer, Capture the Flag, or any of the other game modes -- and set the seemingly unending parameters to make the perfect match. Just like the original Halo you can make for some really interesting matches, selecting the type of weapons players start with, what weapons are available in a match, what vehicles you have, and numerous other game rule variables.
Page 1 of 7 | Next Page >>
The level of customization is really impressive. There's just no room for complaint, even in the Beta, in terms of being able to make your own game. I suppose some will bitch that these game's are unranked, so if you are a rankings whore, you're not gonna care for arranged games whatsoever.
Once you have your game set, you can go ahead and invite your friends and have a party. Once a match is finished you are taken back to the game lobby, your friend's intact. You can change parameters if you want or just kick it again.
There are some really awesome games you can set up. My favorite among them all, however, is Swords and 'Nades. This lovely offering limits weapons only to Energy Swords and grenades. That's all anyone has. Let's face it, the Elite's Sword is all anyone will want to use for the first hour they have Halo 2. This makes for some awesome slayer brawls where players meet in congested areas and just slash the crap out of one another. Thanks to the improved lock-on attack, anyone with even moderate skill will be nailing one-hit kills and knocking their opponent's carcasses across the room. What fun.
Matchmade Games
Matchmade games, I think, will be where most players spend their time. Now, what you're about to read may upset you at first, so don't get your panties in a bunch yet, just relax, read, comprehend, and ponder before you start cursing out Bungie. Matchmade (or ranked) games give you very little control over any aspect of game set-up. You cannot choose the parameters for a game, such as weapons allowed or any of the rules. And you can't choose whom you play against. Aside from a very general selection of what type of game to play, it's all out of your control and this is the only way to be ranked.
Bungie did this to try and limit cheaters. Some ranking whores will set up games with friends and pad their scores with bogus kills or set unfair rules. That won't happen with Halo 2. Bungie's taking rankings very seriously, perhaps more seriously than most gamers really care for, but that does take a lot of the game set-up control out of your hands.
There are three types of matchmade games currently planned. You can choose to play in a Free-For-All match, which is basically different slayer games, a small team match, which offers 2-4 players teams to compete in different games, or a large team game. Once that choice is out of the way, you are at the mercy of the servers, which will match you against other players of a similar ranking (who also offer the best possible connection speed) and then choose randomly from between 4-7 different playlists.
Playlists are all of the different rule variations and Bungie will create and modify playlists on a regular basis. You won't know what type of game you are getting into until you're in the lobby waiting for the game to begin. You may end up with a multi-flag CTF game allowing for only pistols or you could get a team slayer game allowing for all weapons plus the Covenant Wraith, which is basically a tank. You just won't know what you're getting into. That can be exhilarating and keep things very interesting, but it can also be frustrating.
One problem I ran into was that I would just end up with games I didn't want to play. I got tired of rocket launcher only slayer after the third time. Sure it's fun, but I don't want to be limited in my weapon selection that often. While that can get annoying, the good news is that Bungie is gonna keep close tabs on the playlists to see what people like and don't like and adjust them regularly. There will also be some special playlist days. One weekend may end up being a one-on-one spectacular, or you may get something special come Christmas Day.
Halo 2 will use an ELO system, similar to what we've seen in Ubisoft games (though hopefully not as suspect), but the nice thing is that you will always be matched with those that will give you a decent challenge but won't instantly smoke you. The better you get, the tougher your opponents and if you never get good, you will still have a challenge playing against other less experienced players with rankings similar to your own.
<< Previous Page | Page 2 of 7 | Next Page >>
Each of the different game types will have their own level, so you can be level 10 in Free-For-All games, but level 2 in Team Games and opponents will be found based on the different levels in each realm. So for me, that's great because I am much better in team games than in slayer matches.
There are lots of nifty little stats kept and you can check your rankings on Bungie.net. Thos Bungie kids are really going all out and turning Bungie.net into a truly interactive piece of the Halo 2 puzzle.
Party On, Dude!
If you're worried that you'll never be able to play with your friends in a ranked game, don't sweat it. Halo 2 introduces the idea of a party. Parties are small groups of people from your friends list or just those you happen to run into online. You can easily access your party menu, invite new people or even merge two parties. The party only lasts for your current game session so it's different than a clan. What this does is allow you to get people together quickly and stay together as you move from game to game.
Clans is a bit of a different deal and should have some affect on ranking, but Bungie is keeping quiet on this for now. Parties and clans aren't the same deal though, a party is just a way of keeping a group together on a single game session, your clan will be your way of life.
Speaking of parties and having buddies, one thing I really love is the teamwork found online with Halo 2. Slayer can be fun, sure, but I really am digging the team games a lot more. As you've read in our various hands-on of the E3 demo and Zanzibar, the teamwork required to excel at capture the flag adds and interesting element of strategy. Well, the other game types that use team play do the very same thing.
Part of this team atmosphere helped shape the way voice chat works online. There are two types of chate in Halo 2. There's proximity voice, which means that anyone around you (friend or foe) can hear you talking, screaming, or breathing heavily. Why you are breathing heavily, I don't wanna know. There's also Broadcast Voice, which is activated by pressing the White Button or up on the D-Pad (this may change in the final build). This lets you communicate directly with everyone on your team. While I've never been a big fan of using the White button or pressing a button in the middle of an action game to talk to folks, it makes sense in the context of the game. While it may not be ideal, it should work pretty well online.
One of Bungie's goals is creating a sense of community among players. Rather than feeling like gamers are playing across the world, they want everyone to feel that they are playing with a buddy on the couch, or at worst in LAN play. I think that's gonna happen. At least a lot of the annoying instances found in Live games are being squashed here so as long as the interface is smoothed out, most gamers will be quite pleased.
Slayer
The most obvious mode and the one that I've played the most of in the first Halo. Slayer is simply a kill or be killed, first one to a set number of kills wins the match game. There are variations, of course, including team slayer and you can actually create as many teams as you like. So if you want eight teams or two or one team of five against a team of two, you can do that. The goal doesn't change however, you are still out there to waste your opponent by whatever means necessary.
Recently at Game Stars Live, one of our esteemed (or was he just steamed?) editors, Mark Ryan Sallee played a very crap-ass version of Slayer mode. All of his concerns can be forgotten. The true slayer mode is now in Halo 2 and the spawn points are just fine. Team slayer works just dandy and it's pretty cool to have multiple teams out there causing mayhem. The maps are so much better than the first Halo. I don't care if you love Halo, the multiplayer was not that great and about half the maps were just okay. The five maps I've played are all solid and slayer works very well on each.
<< Previous Page | Page 3 of 7 | Next Page >>
The different playlists have some rather obvious affects on slayer mode. Clearly playing Swords and 'Nades is gonna make a big difference over playing with sniper rifles and rocket launchers. I can understand some dismay over having to play in select playlists to be ranked, but I think it will keep games interesting and should help spice things up. The customization of multiplayer was one of the great pieces of Halo and that's going to translate well into Halo 2.
One difference you will quickly notice is that there are far fewer warp zones and now power-ups. There is some talk of possibly adding power-ups to arranged games and even some matchmade playlists, but I really could care less. Halo 2 is such a better game without the power-ups. It's much more about skill than getting some camouflage. Fights in Halo often centered around certain power-ups, and battles in Halo 2 feel more open without them.
I am generally more a fan of team games, but I actually like free-for-all slayer more than the team version. With quick re-spawns, the teamwork really doesn't exist for team slayer, so it's really not much different from a free-for-all, except that you have to be careful not to kill your teammates. Screw that, make everyone a target please.
Slayer gets a thumbs up for sure. It's fun and pretty mindless, but really just about everything you could want from the mode. Well, that's one game type down, how will the others stack up?
Capture the Flag
Single-flag CTF remains great and I think will be my favorite of all the modes. At least it's looking that way. I don't know what more can be written about this mode since we've had numerous hands-on with the E3 build, all of them discussing the merits of CTF.
The nice thing about the Beta is that there's more than just single-flag CTF. There's a few different variations, including multiple flag CTF. While the Beta only allowed us to play two teams for this, Bungie is likely to open this up to allow up to eight teams, each with a flag. That would be completely nuts.
The multiple flag CTF is just your standard Capture the Flag game where each team has a base and a flag. There is no offensive and defensive times, instead you have to work at both defending your base and capturing your enemy's flag. This requires teamwork, like single-flag CTF, but isn't quite as intense. Yes, it's good ol' classic CTF (with numerous rules and weapon variant possibilities), but it is a bit more scattered since you have to worry about offense and defense. Good for bigger teams, but not the best choice for a six or eight-player match.
Assault
This new game mode will seem a bit familiar to Counter-Strike fans. There are a few different versions of Assault, but the best seems to be Neutral Assault. There are two teams (with the possibility that this mode could allow for more teams) and a bomb in a central location on the map. Your goal is to grab the bomb and plant it in the detonation zone. Once panted, the bomb will take about 10 seconds to pop. Of course, the other team will be trying to stop you and grab the bomb for themselves,
This is a bit different than CTF. For one thing, when you grab the bomb you can't use any weapon (secondary or otherwise) and will need your teammates to escort you if you hope to live. Once you set the bomb, it can still be diffused by the other team, though this takes a few seconds. So the game instantly switches to one of protection. Your opponent will storm, because they have no other choice if they hope to diffuse the bomb. It creates some nice mayhem and the Ivory Tower map offers a really nice design for Assault.
One strange thing that isn't readily apparent is how the countdown system works when time is running out in a match. Once the game time hits five seconds, it will stop so long as there is someone near the bomb. Rather than have the game end in a tie, so long as either team is near or holding the bomb, time stops at five seconds and does not resume until either the game is won or no one is near the bomb again. This can drag some matches out an extra five or ten minutes and is a bit confounding at first. Most of us thought it was a bug, but it's not. It's just the way Assault currently works.
<< Previous Page | Page 4 of 7 | Next Page >>
Assault really does have a different feel than CTF. Partly because Neutral Assault offers up a single bomb that is in play for everybody. You kill the guy carrying the bomb and you can run in and grab it and continue to the objective. There are some rather obvious camping points though, as players on both teams benefit from guarding the bomb spawn point and the detonation zone. This focuses action in two spots, which some players won't like, but it's still quite a bit of fun. Another thumbs up.
That's three modes down and unfortunately the only modes I was allowed to play in my visit to Bungie. News of some other back-assward modes have surfaced recently, such as Headhunter, where you try and collect the heads of your victims, but there aren't many significant details on these. Just know that there's more than these three modes available for online play, but even if there weren't, Halo 2 looks like it will offer plenty action for the Xbox Live crowd.
Weapons
Sadly, none of your fighting is going to be done with your bare fists. This isn't Splinter Cell after all and so weapons, both new and old, are in order. The Beta build has about a ten to a dozen different weapons with some other weapons still in hiding. A few of these are pretty familiar. By now you've read about and seen the submachine gun in action, heard us talk prolifically about the beauty of the rocket launcher, and witnessed the brilliance of the Energy Sword in some of our Halo 2 video. But there are a few weapons we haven't talked about yet that I finally had a chance to check out.
There was a lot of speculation that the pistol, the uber-powerful multiplayer weapon from Halo, would somehow be absent from the sequel. Not so. Instead, the pistol has been remade and renamed as the Magnum. The Magnum is slightly less powerful and has no zoom, making it more of just a sidearm than a true death dealer. You can still use it to great affect, but it's not going to be your only choice in multiplayer anymore. In fact, it probably won't be your first or even second choice.
The gun you'll really love is the Brute Shot, which is a Covenant grenade launcher. This is quite different than the rocket launcher, because it chucks out a grenade, which has an arc, as opposed to a rocket launcher, which fires in a line. This makes it a bit more difficult to hit moving targets, but it's a very powerful and cool-looking weapon. I'd hate to think about encountering it in single-player. There is still a single-player campaign, right Bungie?
The Covenant beam rifle is a real gem with multiple levels of zoom, this is basically another version of the sniper rifle, except it's so cool even liberals think it should be street legal. You'll also have access to the Covenant carbine, the equivalent of the Spartan assault rifle. Not a bad weapon at all.
One of the mistakes of Halo was that the Covenant weapons tended to suck ass. That's been rectified for 2. There is a really nice balance between the two sides so that you can pretty much pick up any weapon and do some damage provided you have skill. I suppose that's a necessity, since you matchmade games will often place you into different rule sets that may force you to use specific weapons.
As for the weapons we've seen lots of previously, I have to say I'm starting to love the assault rifle. It has a zoom, which is helpful, but also fires only in short bursts, which is gonna help a lot of noobies with their aim, since they won't be able to fire as wildly as they'll want to. Ah, but it's the Elite Energy Sword that really owns me. I just love that thing and the Beta build makes it much easier to lock onto enemies. If only there was the ability to parry someone with a sword to create some more intimate sword battles. Instead it's more of a contest on who can pull the trigger faster. Nothing wrong with that, especially when you're the one with the quicker finger.
<< Previous Page | Page 5 of 7 | Next Page >>
Vehicles
Halo didn't exactly offer a bevy of vehicles to roll in, but the experience of driving a Warthog was so great, we were all too giddy to really care that there wasn't much else to hop into. Well, you will have plenty to drive and fly in Halo 2 and the Beta offers some, but apparently not all, of the vehicles you'll be piloting.
The Warthog, as was stated at E3, is a little easier to manage now but bad drivers will still bash into walls and flip it over by accident. At E3 we saw that the Warthog came equipped with a rocket launcher, but turns out that is completely optional. In setting up a game, you can choose if you want a rocket launcher or if you want the more standard machinegun from Halo. Pretty nifty.
Like the Warthog, the Ghost is also easier to handle and some tuning has made the speed burst a little more manageable. I was able to mow down four enemies in a row at one point, a lovely road rage sort of feeling. I then was jacked out of my Ghost (which also seems better tuned in the Beta) and that pretty much humiliated me. Still it was a good run while it lasted.
The Banshee, which you could not pilot in the first, is now up for grabs and has a boost and the ability to barrel roll. It's a little strange at first, but you'll get used to it. Banshee's can be a real bitch in certain levels, particularly Lockout, which is a series of narrow open-air walkways. You can jack that too, presumably, though I didn't see anyone figure that one out since Banshees tend to be airborne until they are shot out of the sky.
While all those vehicles are fine and dandy for the average folk, I prefer the bruiser vehicles -- the Scorpion and the Covenant Wraith. The Scorpion has been modified for Halo 2 and just looks a lot more bad ass. You remain vulnerable in the drivers seat for both sniper shots and a tank-jacking. While the Beta build was still a little buggy for this, you can jump onto the side of the Scorpion (or Wraith for that matter) and either shoot at the driver or toss in a grenade. It's a damn sweet site when it works. I'm sure later builds of Halo 2 have this working smoothly as it basically only happened correctly once during all my playtime. It is a damn fine thing to witness though and will be cause for some incredible cheers on Live. There's not better jacking in my eyes than the ol' grenade toss into the cockpit. Beautiful.
The Wraith is the Covenant war tank and it is slower than a dead snail. I mean, it is damn slow. Even when you use the boost. This is not a vehicle for getting anywhere quickly and likely was original intended for use by the Covenant post office. So why use it at all? Power, baby. This sucker is about as mighty as they come, and while still vulnerable to a jacking, if you get in position you can lay waste to enemies from afar, particularly enemy vehicles. This isn't for everybody, but I know it's gonna be the favorite of at least one person out of every sixteen playing online and I suppose that's all you really need.
Maps
Lastly, we arrive at the maps. Halo 2 has an undisclosed number of total maps, but it's safe to assume it will be at least ten and likely more than a dozen, with downloadable maps certain to follow. The Beta comes with five maps, each one impressive for different reasons.
Zanzibar makes a reappearance and I am certain everyone is absolutely sick of seeing and hearing about this map. I have to say, though, that this is probably the best of the maps available. It's intricate, interactive, and works great for CTF. But no more on Zanzibar, there is a Zanzibar ban from this moment on. A Zanzibar code of silence, if you will.
<< Previous Page | Page 6 of 7 | Next Page >>
Midship. Let's get this out of the way. I'm not the biggest fan, but then I probably played this map the least. Set inside a Covenant ship, it's overly purple with sufficiently alien design, though it feels like you're battling inside Barney's stomach. Midship does have one really cool aspect, though. There's a suspended platform that tilts much like a see saw. Above this platform is a very powerful surprise, but to get it, you'll have to manipulate the physics of the see-saw. The best part of this isn't that you need to do some platforming to get a cool weapon, it's in watching your opponents jump around trying to figure out how to get up to the Brute Shot. It's pretty damn funny. I would just sit back and watch as someone jumped up and down desperately and then just chuck a stick grenade on their back and watch them pop. Then I'd run onto the platform and jump around like an idiot trying to figure out how to make it work.
Ivory tower is my second favorite of the maps and looks and feels like the courtyard and of an overpriced high-rise office building. With a water fountain, hover lift, and circular walkway, this map is really well-balanced for slayer and assault games. There's a lot of places to jump to and also to ambush people from, but the map itself is relatively compact forcing a lot of the action out into the open. Definitely one of the first maps you should try out on November 9.
Waterworks is the largest map by far in the Beta, almost too big, but is perfect for massive vehicle battles. Two strongholds are set on opposite ends with a large amount of open ground in-between. The large cavern offers places for sniping, for flying your banshee, and even room to drive a Wraith. I don't know that I'm a fan of this for free-for-all slayer, but CTF and assault are solid bets for this one. When you have sixteen players, you are gonna love it. When you have four, you are gonna wonder where the hell everyone is.
And finally, we have Lockout, which both frustrated and fascinated me. A series of walkways suspended above an endless drop, any mistimed jump will lead to your death. However, the narrow walkways lead to one very open platform where the action always collides. Try out Swords and 'Nades here and watch as Spartans leap across gaps only to be struck down in mid-air by an Elite. The frustration comes in sometimes falling to your death too easily, but there are some many places you can catch enemies unaware or gain ground with a daring leap, that it can also be a lot of fun.
Concerns
None. No, really. The multiplayer is pretty damn great, as I've said a few times. So long as the UI gets redone and the game can actually support the massive number of players clogging up the servers, this will be the best Xbox Live game out there. Bungie couldn't have done a better job.
Some folks may have concerns regarding the lack of dedicated servers, especially since online games tend to play like ass with more than ten players on a non-dedicated host. But Bungie has really been working at optimizing Live performance, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I think the matching system is a good idea, provided it works as expected.
The real concerns are all focused on the things we don't yet know. How will Clans work? What are the other weapons? How many more maps are there? Are they any good? Is the ranking system going to work or is Bungie about to pull a Ubisoft and give us broken rankings for the first three months of play? What about downloadable content? Is that gonna be premium or free content? What about the other modes that weren't shown to online journalists? All of these and more still linger, but as it stands, the multiplayer in Halo 2 is gonna rock. I still think it's the single-player that really matters, but in terms of online play, it looks like Bungie has done just about everything possible to ensure the best experience anyone could hope for online.
You will love Halo 2 multiplayer. It's really that simple. And if you don't, there's almost certainly something very, very wrong with you.
-- Hilary Goldstein
<< Previous Page | Page 7 of 7
PAYO MALO!!! traduce!!!!!
... Para los casquitos del live, que van a usarse y por duplicado: Voz de proximidad (te oyen los que estan cerca) y Voz de difusión al grupo (pulsando un botón difundes tu mensaje al equipo)!!!
![[oki]](/images/smilies/net_thumbsup.gif "Ok!")
![[burla2]](/images/smilies/nuevos/burla_ani1.gif "burla2")
![[fies]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/fiesta.gif "fiesta")
![[babas]](/images/smilies/babas.gif "Babeando")
![[+furioso]](/images/smilies/nuevos/furioso.gif "muy furioso")
![[tomaaa]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/tomaa.gif "toma")