K&AJones

For those still playing Halo 2 and future players as well Bungie is do some major "combat" upgrades to help add more balance in certain situations. It's pretty well explained here...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04...s_6122355.html


Kenny J. - Buzz Starhopper

Calico

Grenades that kill......ahhh, that'll be nice.

Giantrobo

I'll still get my ass handed to me on LIVE but at least now I can dare to dream of some kills. Now, back to Republic Commando where I can actually get decent scores.

KingSmoth

Sounds good, though I will miss the sword flying.

RoQuEr

anyone else annoyed by the ads in this forum?

edstein

Yes, but, someone has to pay the bills.

On the Halo 2 issue, any word on the price for the extra maps in June?

xmiyux

April 28th 2 maps will be up for free download. The same day 2 other maps will be up to purchase online for 5.99

Then June 28th (i believe) you have 2 options. You can buy the other 5 maps online for 11.99 or purchase the disc in store with all 9 maps and extra stuff for 19.99

Most likely you will also be able to rent the disc in june as well if you don't want to buy it.

Michael Corvin

Glad to see Bungie fixing the unbalances of the game. I am throwing a Halo Lan party in a couple of weeks and was seriously thinking of making it a Halo 1 night, due to the unbalanced nature of Halo 2.

I played last night dropping grenades like crazy at the feet of opponents only to die myself while they walk away. I'm glad they addressed this one.

I haven't had any people use the sword glitch on me.

I know I read that the "pass through wall" glitch was unfixable. I wonder what changed their minds?

Lastly, good to hear about the melee attacks. I lived and died by these in the first game, so needless to say I melee too often in H2 and end up being the one to die.

All looks good for the close combat players, with fixes to the grenades and melee. I'm looking forward to it.

There have been rumblings of reseting the stats as well. Is that going down?

Xander

What they said in the Weekly Update was that they were resetting the leaderboards. Is that the same thing as resetting everyone's stats? There seems to be some confusion on that. I thought it meant they were resetting everyone's stats. God, for once, Monday cannot get here fast enough for me.

JM

For all of the problems with H2, Halo is way more unbalanced than H2. However, in practice, Halo ends up playing like it is more balanced because everyone just starts using the pistol once they realize that is really all that is needed on most levels. Also, the respawning in Halo is ridiculously bad. On many levels, it will respawn in the same spot where you just died at the hands of three enemies ... and then do it again after you die again. H2 is much, much better about respawning you in a clear location.

BeanDip0001

wow i bet this update is going to screw a lot of the online punks up. with the changing of things. how nice that will be for a day or two. then back to online punks as normal.

BeanDip0001

no i love em i love ads they are my friend when i have no one else to talk to i come here and talk to the flashing ads. one ad even ask me the other day since i was such a nice guy if it could hook me up with a hot set of nachos. how nice the ads are around here.

Michael Corvin

I'm not looking forward to this. Are my stats that great? Nah. at level 10/11 on all but the 1 on 1 mode.

This means, come monday, I could be playing someone what was a level 32 now that they are reset to level 1. I might give it a week or so before I hop on if that is the case, weed out some of those people.

Xanager

The update comes Monday, but I don't think they're going to be resetting the stats for a little while. Quoted from the Weekly Update:

"After the AU is released, will the Halo 2 leaderboards be reset?

Yes, though not immediately. Our current plans are to reset the existing leaderboards within the next few weeks, once the AU and the first wave of maps has been released. We can't yet say with 100% certainty when that date will be, but we will give as much notice as possible once we have a confirmed date. For now, plan on this happening within a few weeks."

victant

Ouch!!

BeanDip0001

awesome i never thought the rankings were worth anything anyway. for the people that care about though man that has to suck.

SteelgearX

I kinda understand why they reset the stats. Just think of it as a new season of Halo 2. It gives rookies the chance to come up. Also some of the top ranked people that maybe don't play anymore won't take up a spot. Also gives people a good reason to go back and play again.

Giantrobo

dont forget the cheaters who didn't deserve their ranking.....

joseywales

So Steelgear, do you think that you may pick it up again? I thought that you were a pretty good player and was defintely one of the better drivers of the warthog...

The Bus

I played some Halo 2 last night and am just getting tired of being stuck with idiots. I won't bother to talk about the experience but let's just say in an hour of play I experienced everything that makes me hate the game (six quitters on my team during a Big Team Battle, loud music, profanity, general idiocy).

But now there's this update, and I am happy.

BeanDip0001

that's why there are custom games. unless they make some system to weed out online punks i can't see it getting any better.

Michael Corvin

The update isn't going to change any of what you experienced. Best way to avoid all of that is to play after 11pm. I only get punks maybe one match a month this way. I get mostly compliments in the post game screen.

fujishig

Maybe this has been explained before, but the 29.99 expansion pack: won't it just be some content you put on your HD? Won't most people just rent it, or borrow it from a friend?

DJ_Longfellow

Yep, its $20 also....it will just have ALL the maps on it and some BONUS content about making the maps or something like that.

I'm sure it just D/L's the maps the HD. I'm wondering if you can transfer maps via memory card also.

I know some people may just rent it.....but some want the maps as the come available, so it would be pointless to spend $20 after already paying for earlier maps.

DamingR

First of all, the expansion pack is only going to be $19.99


Second of all, I just dl'ed the patch and played about 5 games of rumble pit. Wow, what a difference. In some ways it seems like an all-new game.

You are no longer victim to your spawn point, becuase you have some grenades, which balances out the SMG. You can throw grenades and really hurt people.

The magnum seems quite a bit suckier, i.e., I probably won't dual wield it anymore.

The melee is definitely better, especially with larger weapons. The SMG still isn't a one-hit affair, though, unless you get a really good head shot.

The bottom line is that this change makes the battle rifle an even better weapon! To me, the BR is now the default best weapon in the game.