Bungie "We screwed Up on Halo2..."

[NEONKNIGHT]

Bungie on Halo 2: "We screwed up"

...…and exactly why it means Halo 3 will nothing short of epic

Ask your friends about the greatest sequels of all time and a few names are immediately going to spring to mind; Street Fighter II. The Empire Strikes Back. Resident Evil 2. The Godfather part II. Halo 2...

Ask a Bungie staffer however, and you might not find the developer’s own green armour-clad hero anywhere on that list.

It’s fair to say that despite numerous glowing reviews, and fans worldwide raving about the awesome Xbox Live multiplayer, the Master Chief’s single player campaign in Halo 2 didn’t really live up to the hype. That cliff-hanger ending is likely to go down in the videogame history books for all the wrong reasons. And Bungie’s technical lead, Chris Butcher, pulls no punches in his assessment of the game. Commenting in an article from the January edition of Edge Magazine, the New Zealander was discussing how disappointed he was with Bungie’s sequel;

“We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 so far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it.�

It’s a problem he attributes to the rush at the end of the development cycle, comparing it to the development of the first. “We had about four to five weeks to polish Halo at the end. No more than that. And that last five per cent is responsible for 30 per cent of the success of the game, or more. That’s the period in which we really had a perfect storm. The team was all there, everything was working great, the Xbox hardware was finally there and good, and we just were able to relentlessly execute on that. The entire game came together within that four- to six-week period…we had none of that for Halo 2.�

This opinion is echoed by many other Bungie staff throughout the article; but the root cause is their quest for perfection, rather than a failing on the developer’s part. And the lessons learned from Halo 2 have been weeded out for the trilogy’s conclusion; no 'platform' to launch, no definitive deadline to worry about. The finished article will be done when it’s as polished as Bungie wants.

This is why Halo’s central gameplay theme of ’30 seconds of fun and repeat’ is going to be prevalent throughout the third and final act.

Bungie Staffer Jaime Greisemer offered another tantalising hint at the article’s close. “Even now, you can go into the most primitive, poorly-polished encounter in any of the levels that are actually populated, and it feels better than the way you remember how awesome Halo was. On that first level there’s a moment when you’re in combat in an epic encounter, and also you can see over a ridge to another epic combat waiting for you to arrive at it. You can do something more amazing over there that you can see being set up for your arrival…in Halo, there was a lot of smoke and mirrors to make it feel better, but it was not epic combat, really. Now when you play Halo 3, it is.�

Even with the current ‘spring’ release forecasting the Master Chief return sometime before July, the next few months are going to be focused on getting that all-important gameplay running smooth. According to Bungie’s latest weekly update, the full single player game is up and running in playable form, from start to finish and includes the vital word; ‘fun’.

“…fun it is.� States Bungie's Frankie. “I am starting to limit how often I play because if you’re enjoying yourself, you’re probably not working. And we’re swamped.�

The update details how Bungie is road-testing the build, playing through the levels and fixing frame rates, lighting effects and the like. “Pretty much every level is not only in the build, and for want of a better word, populated, but that the levels actually flow together pretty well,� he continues. “It’s playable enough now, from end to end, that we’ve started testing properly for difficulty and length. Performance is all over the place of course, from build to build. There’s seldom any visible reason why the build is suddenly really framey, or conversely, buttery smooth. It’s best to ask a grown-up before picking which version to play – although we do make alternate builds for alternating reasons – one might be to test frame rate, one some specific lighting function, another shader effects. An engineer is often the best person to explain which build is going to be “fun.�

Its sounds promising; could it be that this year will mark the release of another all time greatest sequel in the form of Halo3?

Source here: http://www.oxm.co.uk/articles/news/1..._we_screwed_up

[TheBlueRaja]

Halo never really excited me as a player - i'd much rather have a GT4 or a PGR3 and keep the FPS for the PC.

Consoles just don't cut the FPS mustard.

[Rob]

It's the game rather than the game type that's important. Not having played Halo 2, I can't say whether or not that was any good. But the original Halo on XBox astounded me. The flood still gives me nightmares, and that was in easy mode

If a future game exceeds the original then it would be something special.

[TheBlueRaja]

Originally Posted by Rob

It's the game rather than the game type that's important. Not having played Halo 2, I can't say whether or not that was any good. But the original Halo on XBox astounded me. The flood still gives me nightmares, and that was in easy mode

If a future game exceeds the original then it would be something special.

Like i said - Halo never really exited me as a player.

[Slyder]

I must of played a different version of Halo 2.

I actually enjoyed it and now Bungie are saying bad things about it.

As for consoles and fps - sure they suck, but there are just a handful of games which work and in most casses work better then the pc ports.

You ever tried playing Goldeneye on an N64 emulator with a pad. Cant beat the real thing.

[TheBlueRaja]

Originally Posted by Slyder

I must of played a different version of Halo 2.

I actually enjoyed it and now Bungie are saying bad things about it.

As for consoles and fps - sure they suck, but there are just a handful of games which work and in most casses work better then the pc ports.

You ever tried playing Goldeneye on an N64 emulator with a pad. Cant beat the real thing.

Actually, i stand corrected - i didn't play it on an emulator, i used to own the real thing - and Goldeneye was class even with the controller.

Halo 2 wasn't.

[Damien]

Goldeneye, One game that will always remain with you

[Matt D]

Originally Posted by Rob

It's the game rather than the game type that's important. Not having played Halo 2, I can't say whether or not that was any good. But the original Halo on XBox astounded me. The flood still gives me nightmares, and that was in easy mode

If a future game exceeds the original then it would be something special.

Halo 1 was indeed excellent.


Halo 2.... brilliant multiplayer, but the single player "story mode", seemed....lacking something. And the ending sucked.

[Downloads]

I agree, Halo 2 single player wasn't great. Halo 2 is the best FPS online game bar none. And stats prove it i should imagine.

[TheBlueRaja]

LOL - So you never played Counter Strike then...

[Downloads]

LOL - yes

[TheBlueRaja]

So you think then statistically - Halo or Halo 2 (even both combined if you wish) online is a bigger game than Counter strike?

[Downloads]

I seem to remember reading a report a while back that Halo 2 had the most amount of people playing it online and had racked up the most amount of games online of any game. I think i remember reading that it didn't include mmorpgs though. Could be wrong though. Either way don't get stressed dude.

[Damien]

Counter-Strike was excellent. I hope they make a 360 version

[Downloads]

Deffinitely is an excellent game, would love it to come to the 360 too. But this year looking at all the games i want is going to be expensive enough as it is!