balanced? far from it 😛 in a 16 player game, I will come top 3 every time, just because of the SMGs... and that's with a 100+ ping to Americans 😛
with H1, you couldn't just run out in the open with your pistol, you'd get picked off. it was also shit at close range.... there was no one dominating gun on H1, although the pistol was a favourite of many pros.
Today's rant topic will be divided into 2 sections. the first shall be focused on "hate" and a magazine article that recently has sparked my annoyance and turned it into a burning inferno.
the second shall be about the hype created by Bungie, and what was actually given to us.
thank you for your time
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Today I recieved my copy of Gamepro magazine, to which I've subscribed to for 8 years. Recently a lot of the older staffers have left, and the overall look of the magazine has changed.(note this isn't the actual point of my rant, but somethign to be aware of).
anyway so I was reading this part 2 article about how over hyped halo 2 is.
http://gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox/games/features/39489.shtml
and although valid points were made, by hte end of the article, I was ...rather grumpy.
for instance "the story was something out of a B-rated sci-fi movie script."
or
"But the fact is Halo 2 doesn't do anything better than what's already been around--if you have a PC, for great story pick up System Shock 2; for great levels and A.I. pick up Half-Life; for "emergent" gameplay Deus Ex; for great multiplayer Team Fortress, UT 2004, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Battlefield 1942 (Desert Combat). Heck, for consoles pick up Golden Eye on N64 for great single-player. My point is there's simply better out there. "
rant part 2.
When I first heard about halo 2, and saw some screen shots of the original space station scene, I was mildy interested. I then began to buy the novels, got an X-box for a x-mas gift back last year, and then in june, finally got halo. I was suprised when I saw that it came packaged with the space station cinema trailer, and the E3 2003 new mombasa demo.
I saw images of (in no specific order), "the apocalypse, giant explosions, kick ass gameplay, earth getting the shit kicked out of it, master chief planning on taking out a carrier with a battle rifle, the battle for earth itself, giant tower cities, intense AI combat scenes, frag hucking marines, ODST's, and general covenant ass kicking.
when halo 2 arrived, I saw a great many things, justn ot all of the one's I wanted to see. Instead of a massive invasion of earth, we saw a relatively small battle group of 15 ships. instead of fire sweaping across earth, we saw a few relatively small explosions, and ground forces who only landed on one part of the entire planet.
The ODST's were limited to only 1 breif section of the game, the giant tower of new mombasa was replaced with a a run down city outskirts reminescint of fallujiah(with not nearly enough back allys), and a giant bridge. The only part that even resembled the giant tower, was the last, brief section of metropolis.
I felt a little jipped. I love halo 2 to death, and I loved alot of the things about it, but Bungie got everyone all hyped up over Earth's final hour, when they focused about elites(who despite being called Sangehelli IN THE DAMN COVENANT MANUAL are called Elites) the , another halo( no suprise there), and the flood(yet again no real suprise)
HOLY S***. THIS IS BETTER THAN A F***ING MOVIE!!
currently on chapter 3