WIll HL2 Opening Day Match This?!

[Gray Fox]

Yes, and the Matrix sequels and Starwars prequels were both torn apart by the movie critics. Halo 2 is getting BETTER ratings than the original (according to gamerankings.com).

Halo 1 was head and shoulders above any other FPS when it came out in 2001, console or otherwise. Halo's two-weapon system, grenades, and recharging shield were all great concepts, and its general art design, AI, physics, co-op support, plot, main character, and vehicle integration were all superb(I bet you can't a better designed vehicle than the Halo 1 warthog in ANY of todays FPS's)
Yes, some of the levels were repetitious, but that didn't take away too much from the overall quality of the game.

About the first thing you are completly right.

About halo 1 beeing head and shoulders above any other FPS when it came out in 2001, console or otherwise. Well what can I say I'm glad you liked it, but I must disagree on a lot of points with you.

2 weapon system sucked ass, there was no way you could knwo what came ahead so there was no strategic think or planning involved, it was just damn irritating, why do you think in halo2 you can cary more guns.

grenades and the recharging system were really good :cheers: :thumbs:

The vehicle design was great, beatiful, the handling(low grav) sucked, but vehicles have sucked in every fps till date :imu: :imu:

main character beeing cool, yup ms is for me one of the cooles main characters till date

Plot was thin as hell, but they managed to keep the tension and creating the feeling that you wanted to find out more.

the design of the levels was by far the most boring and worst I have ever seen, in hl and op4 there was always some interseting thing to do soem cool way to get from point a to b, it had one of the best leveldesigns ever.

enemies in hl could be though but none of them ever got irritating like in halo and far cry

co-op owned, yup it did

But frankly perfect dark still stands head and shoulder above the compettion in the fps console field.

and you know people can say what they want about how cool the main character of hl1 was or the story, personally i didn't like both, but the level design was sooooo incredible, it managed to keep me intersted for a long time, there was always somthing intersting to do, and the fights were awsome, and the AI don't even get me started on that one,and that is where halo1 failed miserably( exept the AI).

 

[Steelwind]

Sounds to me like you're one of those 'console' gamers.

Carry on, go play halo.

I'm just a....gamer. I will go play Halo thank you, and laugh the entire time as you arrogantly miss out on some of the best games of our time.

 

[johnmedz]

halo will only do well among the american audience mostly. i know xbox isnt very popular in many countries yet computers are international. HL2 support is international and thus, i believe the sales will be higher for half life 2

 

[Steelwind]

oh come on the ai in halo wasn't that gr8 felt like the same ai as in halflife and the gfx well they weren't gr8 either yeah gr8 for a console but still! i bought a xbox 1 day before it came out only for halo and it was no way worth spending 400 quid on it just to play that completed it once never did it again why cos it's one of those games that piss u off so u turn it off then go back to it in a few days time then get pissed of with it again etc etc etc just finished halo 2 and well everyone i know who has completed it said it wasn't as good as they thought it could be and i totaly agree i've even more cert that hl2 will be a far better game! just giveing my 2 handed weapons and cutting the story short at the end when it just kinnda gets good is not good enough only took me like a few hours playing it then it just stoped at the end which is not how a game should be made! there is not one level on halo 2 which i would wanna play again! not one!!!!

Allow me to introduce you to a new friend. Mr. period. . He's a nice guy, you should get to know him.

 

[vorinoch]

I don't have anything against console games or console FPSs in the least... I played and loved Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Metroid Prime, etc. But when I got around to grabbing a friend's XBox and loaded up Halo for the first time, (and again when it came out on PC) I was really... underwhelmed. I guess I just didn't get it. The level design was linear (not to say that others like HL and GE weren't but the flow of the levels prevented it from bugging you, unlike Halo) the controls were oddly floaty, the DM was pretty cookie-cutter, I never felt engaged, I never connected to anything that was going on.

I'm sure Halo2 will be a "good" game in the sense that Halo was a good game, but it's just not my cup of tea. When HalfLife 2 comes out, I'm going to fail all of my classes, get fired from my job, and get dumped. Halo never had the ability to grip me the way HL did, and still does.

 

[anomalousstuff]

i personally dont give a shit which one draws more. I am HL2 all the way and i really dont care what anyone thinks. I will play halo 2 , but i guarantee that half-life will last me 10x longer. I mean i bet i have played the first half-life threw like 20+ times and i still enjoy it everytime dated graphics and all. Plus HL had modablility and Halo doesnt . Huge difference in games i really dont know why people are trying to compare its gay.

 

[benpatient]

um...2 million preorders doesn't equal 2 million sales...it just means that 2 million people put 5 or 15 dollars down on the game at EB or somewhere. Hell, i "preordered" HL2 over a year ago at EB, and they still have 15 of my dollars sitting in the bank. But I won't be buying HL2 at EB because I've already prePURCHASED it on Steam.

if enough Halo2 Preordering people got online at 7 AM the day that Halo 2 came out and saw how many people had ALREADY beaten the game, they might have decided to wait and rent it and put their 15 dollar pre-pay into a different game, which EB loves to let you do, by the way.

"Preorder" doesn't really equal "sale" any more than "preload" does.

although I'm sure that Halo 2 will sell well.

 

[Vinnie_NL]

Huge difference in games i really dont know why people are trying to compare its gay.

And that 2 different weapons will be perfecty moddable in the Source engine. Wait, I've got a better idea. Make a complet Halo mod for HL2, with better graphics and gameplay than the original Halo. And about the copyright thing, here is a Halo mod already for BF Vietnam and Bungie hasn't said anything about that too.

 

[Gekko]

Allow me to introduce you to a new friend. Mr. period. . He's a nice guy, you should get to know him.

Mr. Period

 

[Sharrd]

lets see, 2 million presells * $50 a game = $100 million. It could do it then I suppose.

But technically, these "copies" won't be sold on release day; they'll only get unlocked.

 

[ShaithEatery]

they won't make all that money on opening day because they already have the money of all those who preordered (and the ati vouchers could become a factor =\)

 

[Sharrd]

Woo! A guy said exactly the same thing as I did in a post just after mine!

 

[Varsity]

I somehow really doubt HL2 has been preloaded 2 million times. Even the survey stats only have 900,000 unique results.

They had ~900,000 the last time too. The result counter just stops at that number. :s

 

[PvtRyan]

They had ~900,000 the last time too. The result counter just stops at that number. :s

Imagine it's true, then they used about 7 petabytes of data transfer :E

I don't believe it however.

 

[Dougy]

There realy is no point arguing, there is nothing long term in Halo 2 within a year the only players will be those couple dozen clans who dont bother to move to another game.

Half life 2 on the other hand..... after people have played it over and over and over... they will simply look at the dozens of top mods for both MP and SP.

there realy is NO arguing with the above two points.

Lets see who wins the following points, please note to argue with these points you need to..

A. be over 16
B. be a PC gamer as well as a console player
C. look at the facts, not opinions.

Mods: HL2
Gfx: HL2
MP: HL2 (technicaly css but its got thousands of players 24/7) plus you dont pay to play.
SP: HL2 (every review has said that halo 2 has got a short repetative and annoying SP game)
Engine: HL2/source
Developer: HL2 (its valve, bungie realy does not have a chance in hell of beating valve... free mods... community support... inviting guys to the office... hiring gamers to mod the game... steam for free etc..)

There realy is not one single fualt in those points.

 

[Daegan]

Maybe not but Halo 2 will go the way of all those movie blockbusters it is being compared to. It sells great the first week and after that noone cares about it until it hits the bargain bin. Half-life 2 products, just like half-life will still be purchased five years from now because the game has a huge mod scence and thus longevity.

With any other game that'd be the case.

But you are aware that Halo stayed the biggest selling game for Xbox ever since Xbox came out, right?

 

[Steelwind]

There realy is no point arguing, there is nothing long term in Halo 2 within a year the only players will be those couple dozen clans who dont bother to move to another game.

Half life 2 on the other hand..... after people have played it over and over and over... they will simply look at the dozens of top mods for both MP and SP.

there realy is NO arguing with the above two points.

Lets see who wins the following points, please note to argue with these points you need to..

A. be over 16
B. be a PC gamer as well as a console player
C. look at the facts, not opinions.

Mods: HL2
Gfx: HL2
MP: HL2 (technicaly css but its got thousands of players 24/7) plus you dont pay to play.
SP: HL2 (every review has said that halo 2 has got a short repetative and annoying SP game)
Engine: HL2/source
Developer: HL2 (its valve, bungie realy does not have a chance in hell of beating valve... free mods... community support... inviting guys to the office... hiring gamers to mod the game... steam for free etc..)

There realy is not one single fualt in those points.

Except that the majority of it is subjective opinion. That's a pretty big flaw in your design. Halo 2 isn't going to disappear like the plane that flew into the Pentagon. Halo is still the most widely played mutliplayer game around. It has remained on the top seller's lists since it was released. It is the best selling Xbox game. What makes you think it faded away? Or even more, that Halo 2 will fade away? Ever heard of Xbox Live? New maps, gametypes, features, etc can be updated throughout the life of the game by Bungie.net and Microsoft. Not quite unlike Valve with Steam no?

Just because you didn't enjoy the story, doesn't mean no one else did either. I personally don't find Half-Life 2's story that much more compelling than Halo 2. In fact they are very similar, so how could you not like one but bestow your life to another? Aliens coming to earth, one man must lead a resistance to protect human life. Sound familiar? It's amazing how many people shrug off great games because they are on consoles. I'm sorry to say but that's where the market is, and that's where big name developers are starting to develop on. There are tons of great games on consoles, and anyone who insists on PC only is missing out on half of the greatest games created. Same goes for console gamers refusing to play PC games.

As far as technology goes, I've seen everything in Half-Life 2 in Halo 2, except the manipulator. Physics? Check. Normal maps? Check. Bump maps? Check. Specular maps? Check. Multiplayer? Check. A giant online community? Check. Are we seeing a pattern developing here? Why is it so hard for people to enjoy BOTH games? Holy shit, what a concept?! You mean I can like TWO games at once! It boggles my mind. Really.

 

[Llevar]

With any other game that'd be the case.

But you are aware that Halo stayed the biggest selling game for Xbox ever since Xbox came out, right?

Let me just reiterate. That was Halo, we are quite clearly talking about Halo 2 here and saying that a sequel will be great because the first product was great is, you know, not too wise.

 

[mrlangenakker]

halo 2 I've been told will have downloadable content
and for some reason I liked halo better than I did UT2004, probably from the lack of vechicle support in just standard deathmatch

 

[benpatient]

um...you've seen emulated in Halo 2 things that are in HL2...

I suppose you don't realize that DX 7 hardware has to emulate the things that you just listed, for the most part...

and call me a greedy bastard, but 480x440 (the approximate NTSC standard analog resolution) just doesn't yank my crank anymore. I won't even mention split-screen multiplayer. what's that in a 4 player match on 1 xbox...240x220 pixels per player. Shoot me in the face, please.

consoles have their uses...racing games and final fantasy-esque games come to mind, and fighting games and side scrollers...all of those game types work well at low resolutions and with handheld controllers.

and if you've played halo 2, you know that "Physics? Check." is somewhat misleading. Halo 2 would have great difficulty pulling off even the 03 E3 demo from HL2 where the peg holding those barrels is shot and they do the Plinko down the wall.

 

[YamatoTwinkie]

Let me just reiterate. That was Halo, we are quite clearly talking about Halo 2 here and saying that a sequel will be great because the first product was great is, you know, not too wise.

. . And saying a sequel will suck (for no apparent reason whatsoever) is also not exactly the wisest thing ever.

 

[Llevar]

. . And saying a sequel will suck (for no apparent reason whatsoever) is also not exactly the wisest thing ever.

Nowhere did I say it would suck. What I said is that I believe it will lack longevity in that for the first little while the sales will be strong but will quickly flatten out whereas I believe that half-life 2 sales while initially not as strong as halo 2's will remain steady for longer due to the characteristics of the game such as extensibility and support for 3rd party development for the game. Halo 2 only has Bungie to work on keeping the game going. Half-life 2 has the whole mod community alongside valve ensuring that new copies of the game will get snagged up time and time again because people might play, get bored and leave the game, and then a great mod will come out that will spark their excitement only to find out that the lost the disks or no longer own the email steam is registered to. Mods themselves can attract huge sales for the company. Half-life was a bestseller on its own and then CS came along probably tripled valve's revenue from the game. Bungie are great developers and I have no doubt that Halo 2 is in many ways a great game but I don't believe it has what it takes to keep strong sales for the long term.

 

[Steelwind]

um...you've seen emulated in Halo 2 things that are in HL2...

I suppose you don't realize that DX 7 hardware has to emulate the things that you just listed, for the most part...

and call me a greedy bastard, but 480x440 (the approximate NTSC standard analog resolution) just doesn't yank my crank anymore. I won't even mention split-screen multiplayer. what's that in a 4 player match on 1 xbox...240x220 pixels per player. Shoot me in the face, please.

consoles have their uses...racing games and final fantasy-esque games come to mind, and fighting games and side scrollers...all of those game types work well at low resolutions and with handheld controllers.

and if you've played halo 2, you know that "Physics? Check." is somewhat misleading. Halo 2 would have great difficulty pulling off even the 03 E3 demo from HL2 where the peg holding those barrels is shot and they do the Plinko down the wall.

It's not emulated, and Xbox doesn't use DirectX 7. As far as physics goes, I've seen the same things in Halo 2 that I do in Half-Life 2. Except the manipulator. Ragdoll, moving crates, barrels, couches, etc.

 

[Top Secret]

-Halo 2 isn't going to disappear like the plane that flew into the Pentagon. Halo is still the most widely played mutliplayer game around.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAAH No. :|

-It has remained on the top seller's lists since it was released. It is the best selling Xbox game.

Yes.

-What makes you think it faded away? Or even more, that Halo 2 will fade away? Ever heard of Xbox Live? New maps, gametypes, features, etc can be updated throughout the life of the game by Bungie.net and Microsoft. Not quite unlike Valve with Steam no?

Quite differant. Valve will add content, yes. But why don't you open up steam, click on "Browse Games" Now click on the third tab on the right, that says "Third-Party Games" That tab, right there. Is the LIFE of Half-Life.

-Just because you didn't enjoy the story, doesn't mean no one else did either.

I found Halo's story to be quite awesome actually. Especially after reading all three books.

-I personally don't find Half-Life 2's story that much more compelling than Halo 2. In fact they are very similar, so how could you not like one but bestow your life to another? Aliens coming to earth, one man must lead a resistance to protect human life. Sound familiar?

I think the stories are quite differant. You just described every alien vs. human conflict story there ever was. So they're not that similar.

-It's amazing how many people shrug off great games because they are on consoles.

There's a reason for that. We don't do it just because we can you know. I played and beat Halo on the PC. I liked it a ton more on the PC than I did on the console. Was it because of Direct X 9? No. Was it because I could now use a mouse and keyboard? No. Why then? It just feels right to us. It's our groove baby.

-I'm sorry to say but that's where the market is, and that's where big name developers are starting to develop on. There are tons of great games on consoles, and anyone who insists on PC only is missing out on half of the greatest games created. Same goes for console gamers refusing to play PC games.

I think this is true to a certain extent. But not everyone can afford both.
Computers = Expensive as hell
Computer games = Price drops
Consoles = Cheap as hell
Console Games = Prices hardly ever drop
I think I could *maybe* afford both. But I'd rather get that Marui MP5k I've been eyeing.


-As far as technology goes, I've seen everything in Half-Life 2 in Halo 2, except the manipulator.

Physics? Check.

Every single physical simulation capable in Halo, is capable in Half-Life 2. Not the other way around. Halo 2 does NOT support ragdoll. It's simulated ragdoll much like Jedi Academy that doesn't use the same physical interactions as real physics.

-Normal maps? Check.

The normal maps are only present on cube mapping.

-Bump maps? Check.

Yep, great use of bumpmaps.

-Specular maps? Check.

Yep.

Now:

Shaders? Old cheaped DX7 shader tech, that emulates 8. The geforce tech in there is old now.

HDR? No.

Refraction? No.

Deformable Terrain? No.

Diffuse maps? No.

Radiosity? No.

I hate it when console gamers (Not labeling you as a console gamer) talk as if the graphics are cutting edge. They're not. It's 2 year old technology.




-Multiplayer? Check.

I've heard it's just laggy as shit.

-A giant online community? Check.

Where the hell did you get this from? The freakin' game just came out.

-Are we seeing a pattern developing here? Why is it so hard for people to enjoy BOTH games? Holy shit, what a concept?! You mean I can like TWO games at once! It boggles my mind. Really.
I'm not holding a thing against Halo 2. Not even for being a console game. All I'm saying is, I won't play it, till I'm playin' it on my PC.

It's not emulated, and Xbox doesn't use DirectX 7. As far as physics goes, I've seen the same things in Halo 2 that I do in Half-Life 2. Except the manipulator. Ragdoll, moving crates, barrels, couches, etc.

Everything I've seen done on the Xbox can be done with Directx 8. And it was cheated to get this. In the real world, the xbox goes DX 7.

 

[Cerpin]

Well, kudos to Bungie for making dx7 level technology look amazing then

 

[Steelwind]

If they can do what they did with DX7, then I'm more impressed with Halo 2's graphics than HL2.

 

[YamatoTwinkie]

Nowhere did I say it would suck. What I said is that I believe it will lack longevity in that for the first little while the sales will be strong but will quickly flatten out whereas I believe that half-life 2 sales while initially not as strong as halo 2's will remain steady for longer due to the characteristics of the game such as extensibility and support for 3rd party development for the game. Halo 2 only has Bungie to work on keeping the game going. Half-life 2 has the whole mod community alongside valve ensuring that new copies of the game will get snagged up time and time again because people might play, get bored and leave the game, and then a great mod will come out that will spark their excitement only to find out that the lost the disks or no longer own the email steam is registered to. Mods themselves can attract huge sales for the company. Half-life was a bestseller on its own and then CS came along probably tripled valve's revenue from the game. Bungie are great developers and I have no doubt that Halo 2 is in many ways a great game but I don't believe it has what it takes to keep strong sales for the long term.

While you didn't directly say "Halo2 sucks", you did compare it to "the shit that came after" Matrix 1.

You could have made the argument that more people will be playing Half-Life 2 than Halo 2 five years from now(due to mod support), which would have been fine with me. But instead, you said Halo2 was "destined for the bargain bin" after the first week of sales. Your opinion seemed to me to be based on no evidence whatsoever. I think both Halo2 and Half-Life2 will see strong sales throughout their product cycles. So far, both games seem to be better than their respective originals, and both originals had very good long-term sales too.

 

[Alau]

I'm going to be blunt here. No, HL2's launch day definetely won't match Halo2's.

Halo2 is developed for a console medium, which already gives it a huge advantage. Some people wont buy HL2 simply becuase of the fact that they wont be able to run it. Far more people play games on consoles than they do on PC.

Also, Halo2's marketing campaign obliterates HL2's nonexistence advertising.

But who cares? Better sales doesn't neccessarily point to a better game. I'll be playing Halo2 online as well as enjoying HL2's deep single-player come november 16th.

 

[Asuka]

Number of HL2 pre-loads so far = ~2 million
Number of Halo 2 pre-orders = 1.5 million
Number of HL2 retail pre-orders = unknown

According to those numbers I would say that yes it is possible. Although it won't seem as big because of all the Steam sales over retail sales.

Thats what i was thinking.

 

[silverstealth89]

hl2 is much better

 

[redrain85]

Mr. Period

The guys at Penny-Arcade are just bloody geniuses.

 

[dream431ca]

may I remind you that HL2 has made more money than Halo 2 and it's not even out yet?? want proof?? IGN or Gamespot said that 2 million people have already bought it off steam...and HL2 costs more than Halo 2 so...more money. I don't have a link to it..but I saw it on their website.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

of-course not, especially with steam and pre-purchases. PC gaming is an entirely different realm.

 

[Yogibbear]

-Halo 2 isn't going to disappear like the plane that flew into the Pentagon. Halo is still the most widely played mutliplayer game around.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAAH No. :|

-It has remained on the top seller's lists since it was released. It is the best selling Xbox game.

Yes.

-What makes you think it faded away? Or even more, that Halo 2 will fade away? Ever heard of Xbox Live? New maps, gametypes, features, etc can be updated throughout the life of the game by Bungie.net and Microsoft. Not quite unlike Valve with Steam no?

Quite differant. Valve will add content, yes. But why don't you open up steam, click on "Browse Games" Now click on the third tab on the right, that says "Third-Party Games" That tab, right there. Is the LIFE of Half-Life.

-Just because you didn't enjoy the story, doesn't mean no one else did either.

I found Halo's story to be quite awesome actually. Especially after reading all three books.

-I personally don't find Half-Life 2's story that much more compelling than Halo 2. In fact they are very similar, so how could you not like one but bestow your life to another? Aliens coming to earth, one man must lead a resistance to protect human life. Sound familiar?

I think the stories are quite differant. You just described every alien vs. human conflict story there ever was. So they're not that similar.

-It's amazing how many people shrug off great games because they are on consoles.

There's a reason for that. We don't do it just because we can you know. I played and beat Halo on the PC. I liked it a ton more on the PC than I did on the console. Was it because of Direct X 9? No. Was it because I could now use a mouse and keyboard? No. Why then? It just feels right to us. It's our groove baby.

-I'm sorry to say but that's where the market is, and that's where big name developers are starting to develop on. There are tons of great games on consoles, and anyone who insists on PC only is missing out on half of the greatest games created. Same goes for console gamers refusing to play PC games.

I think this is true to a certain extent. But not everyone can afford both.
Computers = Expensive as hell
Computer games = Price drops
Consoles = Cheap as hell
Console Games = Prices hardly ever drop
I think I could *maybe* afford both. But I'd rather get that Marui MP5k I've been eyeing.


-As far as technology goes, I've seen everything in Half-Life 2 in Halo 2, except the manipulator.

Physics? Check.

Every single physical simulation capable in Halo, is capable in Half-Life 2. Not the other way around. Halo 2 does NOT support ragdoll. It's simulated ragdoll much like Jedi Academy that doesn't use the same physical interactions as real physics.

-Normal maps? Check.

The normal maps are only present on cube mapping.

-Bump maps? Check.

Yep, great use of bumpmaps.

-Specular maps? Check.

Yep.

Now:

Shaders? Old cheaped DX7 shader tech, that emulates 8. The geforce tech in there is old now.

HDR? No.

Refraction? No.

Deformable Terrain? No.

Diffuse maps? No.

Radiosity? No.

I hate it when console gamers (Not labeling you as a console gamer) talk as if the graphics are cutting edge. They're not. It's 2 year old technology.




-Multiplayer? Check.

I've heard it's just laggy as shit.

-A giant online community? Check.

Where the hell did you get this from? The freakin' game just came out.

-Are we seeing a pattern developing here? Why is it so hard for people to enjoy BOTH games? Holy shit, what a concept?! You mean I can like TWO games at once! It boggles my mind. Really.
I'm not holding a thing against Halo 2. Not even for being a console game. All I'm saying is, I won't play it, till I'm playin' it on my PC.



Everything I've seen done on the Xbox can be done with Directx 8. And it was cheated to get this. In the real world, the xbox goes DX 7.

OMG! I love you!.......:cheers: