Bungie Bids a Silly and Fond Farewell to Halo 2

[The Bandit]

This is a fucking travesty, and I'm not a Halo player.


<Filter game: Half-Life 1>
Hey, look. There are some 70-100 servers available for Half-Life 1 Deathmatch. And that doesn't even count mods.

When was Half-Life released? It was sometime before 2004. 2001? No...actually, 1998.

I have seen UNsuccessful games get longer support than that.

I don't care what people say about Halo 2 paving the way for online console gaming. It'd been happening much more successfully on PCs for years and years. And it was inevitable that this generation of consoles would be highly focused on online connectivity. Playstation 2 had it's PSN, Xbox had Live. The only difference between Xbox and the Dreamcast is that the Dreamcast was a little too early to the game while the Xbox came in at the perfect time.

Therefore, no props to Halo 2. I'm surprised people could mindlessly play it for that long without any real mod support.

I... What? Are you serious? Your first two sentences are lol inducing. How was online console gaming happening more successfully on PCs? The rest of your paragraph doesn't even make sense.

Halo 2 made what online console gaming is today. If you like PCs, fine. If you think they're better, fine. But this is a fact, and they DO get props for that. Your fanboyism doesn't change it.

And if you're going to argue, let's set a few ground rules: Don't come back telling me why online PC gaming is better. Don't come back telling me why online console gaming sucks. Don't tell me why Halo is a terrible game. Tell me how Halo 2 didn't make online console gaming what it is.

Spoiler alert, you can't.

Okay yes, major typos in my paragraph. My bad. What I meant to say was that online gaming in general has been done far more successfully on PC before Halo even existed. While Halo 2 might have been one of the first major successes as far as console online gaming goes, to me it's like one of those fools on IGN that always posts "First!". Congratulations, you were first, now can you add something decent with that?

Furthermore, I wouldn't say Halo 2 was the innovator here. Microsoft's Xbox Live was the innovator. Halo 2 just happened to be a popular game that many adopted. Halo 2 was the catalyst, not the overall industry-changing thing.

And for the record, I'm not a PC fanboy at all. If anything, I'm a PS3 fanboy. Yet I have not mentioned that once. I do not hate Microsoft, nor the Xbox. I'd take a Windows computer over a Mac any day. The 360 is a very capable machine and owns the PS3 over local multiplayer gaming by a long shot.

Nonetheless, Halo 2 isn't the industry changer you say it is. Xbox Live was, and Halo 2 was just a popular game for it.

(Note: Sorry if this response is just as poorly written as my previous, or if I make no sense. I rarely proof-read, and I think when I typed the earlier response my dog was barking at me and I was annoyed.)

I still disagree with you. Bungie's matchmaking system is what made Xbox Live so accessible and nearly every Live game after has adopted it. As I understand it, every Live game now uses "TrueSkill" which was adapted from Halo 2's ranking system (even if you can't see a number rank, it's there). Did you ever play an XBox Live game before Halo 2? They were awful. You could rarely find games, and if you could they were horrendously laggy. I don't know enough about Internet connections and all that jazz to know if Bungie did something different with the servers to make it easier, but Halo 2 was miles above other Live games.

Halo 2 wasn't just a popular game that everyone jumped on. It made Live easy, simple, and accessible. Microsoft invented the electricity, but Halo 2 was the fancy gadget that used the electricity.

And, I have to thank you for responding cordially to a completely dick post. I apologize for that.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I think Bungie did something similiar when they stopped supporting the Myth online servers, they were even online to say farewell to the players (there were only like 12 chatchannels or something ,way smaller company than it is now).

Tbh, it's good Halo 2 died. It marks the line where Bungie forgot about it roots and started not to care about Macintosh/PC gaming any longer . (Never played a single Halo game and only saw the halo demo btw. No one I know plays or has played it >_> )

 

[Weaver]

I more or less hate halo, but I steel feel that MS are a bunch of assholes for taking it offline.

 

[Pimppeter2]

I have seen UNsuccessful games get longer support than that.

Like the two mods above me said:

"They aren't pulling the plug on Halo 2, they're shutting down the original Xbox Live for technical reasons."


"there's no way to upgrade Xbox Live in certain ways and keep compatibility with the original games. For example, the 100-person friends list limit. They can't increase that without breaking all those old games anyway. Sure, you can say it was a bad design, but how can you plan for "forever" when you're building something that has never been done before?"


Half Life still being played while Halo 2 isn't is not becuase it is better.



OT: Say what you want about their games, but Bungie is one hell of a company. They're the only company that really feels like they're gamers rather than "suits"

 

[tim98042]

i remember the first time i played halo 2 online, was sweet, i shall miss it fondly, great memories, thanks Halo2 + Bungie!!

 

[Mcface]

Goodnight sweet prince...

You shall be missed.

Killzone FTW? I still stay the most epic FPS was Black for PS2........The sequel.........PLEASE~!!!!!!

I had to comment... BLACK? REALLY?!

 

[Mcface]

Figures. You're a terrible game developer if you don't design your game to be playable at any time. Everlasting play is critical into turning a game into a classic.

Good riddance.

The hell it is.
Ever lasting play just leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you go back 10 years later and try to play it. "Man, this was a lot cooler when it first came out" is not how a game should be remembered. And nothing is stopping you from playing the game, you just cant online.

 

[zombiejoe]

I hated Halo 2. But I love Bungie with all of my heart. A bittersweet farewell to Halo 2 - for as much as I hated you, you were still family.

I love tha icon, so funny.
But how did you get that "very unhappy" thing?

Oh? What? Somthing called Halo 2? OH, OH, Ok...goodbye.
And as a goodbye message, a great quote from Dale Grible, who was probely quoting someone else.

"He wept, for there were no more worlds to counqer."

 

[Mordwyl]

Figures. You're a terrible game developer if you don't design your game to be playable at any time. Everlasting play is critical into turning a game into a classic.

Good riddance.

The hell it is.
Ever lasting play just leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you go back 10 years later and try to play it. "Man, this was a lot cooler when it first came out" is not how a game should be remembered. And nothing is stopping you from playing the game, you just cant online.

What things make Age of Empires, Starcraft, Counterstrike, Dark Omen, Dungeon Keeper and any 1998 and below game such classics?

Of course games are cooler when they're first released. If you can't use all the game's features ,ten years from now or not, you don't have the full game.

 

[VanityGirl]

There's also the requisite teabagging joke, that I won't reproduce here out of vanity and because it makes me feel dirty.

What don't you want to reproduce because of me? Is it weight gain? You've always hated me!


OT: I like Bungie, they do zany and fun things like it all the time and it's good for a laugh, unlike John's lack of reproducing because of me.

 

[Steambroom]

Halo 2 will be remembered in my heart, and will live on in future LAN-partys.

You are not forgotten..

 

[Azalin137]

Goodnight sweet prince...

You shall be missed.

Killzone FTW? I still stay the most epic FPS was Black for PS2........The sequel.........PLEASE~!!!!!!

I had to comment... BLACK? REALLY?!

Most who have played it would agree........I thought the game was great and needs a sequel bad

 

[duchaked]

it's too bad I never got extensively into the flow of things back in the original Xbox Live days with Halo 2

ugh always the PC users to be so smug
even the PS owners are respectable

 

[azncutthroat]

Farewell, Halo 2 and Xbox. Go rest in peace with fond memories of an era well played.

 

[Timotei]

Goodnight Sweet Prince. Rest well up in heaven with Jacko and Billy.

 

[Chipperz]

Halo 2 defined my Uni life. Adeiu, old friend.

Also, can we please just get blanket probations/suspensions on trolls on News threads? Reading through four pages of "It's because it's Microsoft!" "It's because it doesn't have dedicated servers!" and "It's crap because it's to do with Console gaming!" is getting old...

 

[xxnightlawxx]

Goodnight sweet prince...

You shall be missed.

Yea favorite halo...

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Hang on, does this mean that it's shut down for the PC version as well?

Part of the reason I got Halo 2 was for the multiplayer...

 

[Gaming King]

Pretty sad that Micro$oft is axing its own service like that? Why the hell didn't they just update the existing LIVE instead of replacing it on 360? Oh, right. Money. But the money is reduced by axing the original LIVE now. That's very un-Micro$oft. What the hell? Why are they doing this, it makes no sense now that I think about it.