Honestly who isn't excited about the release date? Even the critics of the first Halo have to be itching to see if it will rule all others. I have no doubt it will and I'm sure you don't either. I predict metacritics average review will be a 99 or better
Posts: 24 | Location: Iowa | Registered: 08 July 2004
I dont buy into hype at all, though if there was one game that you could bet on being absolutely killer based on the developers track record (and there are actually two this year; the other being Half-Life 2), it would be Halo 2.
Posts: 335 | Location: Sydney, Australia | Registered: 14 May 2004
I'll take that bet. I think the over & under is at about 97. I expect no less than 70 reviews for that game (about the same number as for "Ninja Gaiden"), so it'll only take 2 or three people giving it an 80 to drop it below the 99. But it should be damned good!
Death to Videodrome... long live the new flesh!
Posts: 392 | Location: Santa Monica | Registered: 12 May 2004
I really have low expectations. Itll probably be the coolest most visceral gameplay experience EVER! But, I dont buy into hype. AT ALL!!! An over-hyped game is truly the worst possible thing that can happen. But, itll probably kick muiy ass-----boy, I hope "Fable" does too!
This is from one of my favorite sites: GameScience:
Halo 2 will be released in Japan on 11 November, just two days after the US release. The game will be released in three flavours:
Limited edition: Special metal case, including premium DVD, a special booklet and two months of Xbox Live subscription. 6800 yen. Limited to 30,000 copies. Limited edition Xbox Live bundle: As above, plus 12 months of Xbox Live subscription and Xbox Voice Communicator. 9500 yen. Limited to 5000 copies. Regular edition: Regular packaging, to be released after limited edition stocks run out. 6800 yen. _________
Why is it that the Japanese market always gets cool limited edition goodies, and we (in the US) don't get squat?? because we're a bunch of lemmings who will buy the damned game anyway? Probably... but it's probably gonna be so good we won't be able to resist in protest.
Death to Videodrome... long live the new flesh!
Posts: 392 | Location: Santa Monica | Registered: 12 May 2004
"I can honestly say that there's no more updating on the progress of the game, since the game is done. Finished and shipped to a nebulous region known as RTC (Release To Certification) where it will be dumped from eight digital tapes onto a DVD and go through some final testing. Usually that's just a matter of routine, but we'll be watching our email carefully through next week…
Roger handed off the tapes in LA yesterday, and as I write this, Alta, the Bungie Princess, is picking some discs up at Seatac Airport. And the office is eerily quiet – the calm broken intermittently by the rustle of a tumbleweed, or the rhythmic "barrrrrump" of a Parsons Sushi fart. Terrifying as it is to me, Parsons ordered Sushi for the celebratory lunch today.
There are still many steps between now and the game's arrival on shelves, including the not-insignificant process of actually manufacturing MILLIONS of copies of the game."
Only 38 days left.
Posts: 314 | Location: Cali | Registered: 14 May 2004
Just over a week ago, Bungie announced that Halo 2 was "basically done." Today came the now-anticlimactic announcement that the game is officially done. "Halo 2 has gone gold. We finished every line of code, every pixel of art, every frame of animation, every phoneme of dialog and every note of music," said Bungie in a statement. "We finished it when we said we would (when it was done) and shipped that baby right on time to make its November launch date."
For anyone unclear on what "going gold" actually means, the author of the Bungie statement broke it down in detail. "'Gone Gold' is a somewhat archaic expression, since the 'gold discs' are actually digital tapes and eventually silver discs," read the statement. "But it certainly feels golden. This basically means that the game has been shipped to retail manufacture. Somewhere in the world, a gigantic DVD pressing factory has started making Xbox game discs with the utterly complete version of Halo 2."
In fact, some of those discs are already in the hands of gamers--at Bungie. "We now have retail versions (test samples) here in the office. In fact, one sharp, and presumably jealous-eyed reader saw the following legend appear in his Live-linked MSN Instant Messenger window: "Anm8erJB is now playing HALO 2 on Xbox Live." Now THAT'S a tease."
Posts: 314 | Location: Cali | Registered: 14 May 2004
Apparently the single player is the largest letdown since "Fable". The ending is supposed to really suck!! And, the campaign can be beaten in 7 hours. Whoa, "Halo 2"'s hype-o-meter went down like 1,000,000 points!!
The first 13 Halo 2 reviews are in! A quick note to everyone in these forums: I've gotten a bunch of emails already about the EuroGamer "single player" review which is scored as a 90. When that site publishes their multiplayer review, I will, of course, add that to the mix and replace the single-player review (as multiplayer is the primary draw of the game).
So far, we're looking at a 98, which is currently the highest scoring game in the history of Xbox.
If you've got friends who are xbox owners who don't yet know about metacritic, please forward our Halo 2 page to them as I'm going to make sure it's the most updated page of its kind available. Thanks!
Death to Videodrome... long live the new flesh!
Posts: 392 | Location: Santa Monica | Registered: 12 May 2004
Where I come from, the fans wanted to lynch the Gamespot reviewer for the 9.4. They thought it was too low. They've never played the game. It made me sad.
I reserve the right to be entirely wrong.
Posts: 253 | Location: Kansas | Registered: 20 June 2004
