Halo 2 = most reserved game in history

Thanks for the welcome guys!  It\'s good to see that all the regulars are still around.  I\'ve spent a lot of time on GA, but I still can\'t name you a single poster there.  Very few of them seem to have any personality.  But seeing all these names again brings back hours of stubborn arguments.  If I were a sensitive man, I\'d\'ve cried.

You post on GAF too?  What\'s your username there?  You\'re right though, few have personality and those who do are somehow places on some lofty pedastal above others.  It\'s odd.

Naw, I\'m just a lurker there.  I\'ve never been motivated to register.  I like it because it has a lot of industry types there, but never felt the urge to contribute.

Halo 2 Passes 1.5 Million Pre-Orders!

Guard your copy with your life!  



Press Release

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 19, 2004 — There hasn’t been this much anticipation for an otherworldly touchdown since Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. With three weeks to go before the game hits store shelves, pre-orders for “Halo® 2” – the highly anticipated Xbox® exclusive from Microsoft Game Studios – have eclipsed the 1.5 million mark in the United States. With phenomenal record-breaking video game pre-orders, “Halo 2” is poised to generate more revenue in 24 hours than day one sales of any full feature movie in entertainment history, including “Spider-man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Matrix: Reloaded.”
In the U.S., the anticipation builds to a fever pitch on Nov. 9 when thousands of shoppers line up to be among the first to get their hands on the action-packed thriller. The first copy of “Halo 2” will be distributed at a Midnight Madness event at the largest Toys “R” Us in the world located in Times Square, New York. Toys “R” Us Times Square will open its doors at 12 midnight on November 9, and deliver the first retail copy of the game to a lucky fan.

“The original ‘Halo’ is still a top ten title three years after it hit shelves, and the buzz for the sequel is off the charts,” said John Barbour, president, Toys “R” Us, U.S. “We can think of no more appropriate place to unveil ‘Halo 2’ than the site Xbox first launched–Toys “R” Us Times Square.”

More than 6,500 U.S. participating retailers*- including Gamestop, EB Games, Best Buy, Gamecrazy, Game Rush, Circuit City, Kmart Super Center stores and FYE, will open their doors at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9 to allow for sales of “Halo 2,” Xbox consoles and Xbox Live™ Starter Kits.

The global launch of “Halo 2” will also be marked by celebrations from November 9 through November 11 at more than 1,125 retail stores in cities around the world including London, Seoul, Toronto and Sydney. “Halo 2” will be translated into seven languages (Japanese, Korean, traditional Chinese, Spanish, French, German and Italian) and will be distributed in 27 countries.

“‘Halo 2’ is expected to be the biggest 24 hours for a video game title in retail history and is projected to bring in more revenue than any day one box office blockbuster movie in the United States,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of worldwide publishing and marketing for Xbox. “We call it the Halo 2 effect. We’ve even heard rumors of fan anticipation of the ‘Halo 2 flu’ on November 9.”

“Halo 2,” the follow up to the marquee Xbox title, “Halo: Combat Evolved,” was selected for the Toys “R” Us Joy List as one of the expected top sellers this holiday season. “Halo 2” utilizes Xbox Live to redefine online play, delivering superior online multiplayer capabilities, which allow gamers to engage with or against friends from around the world in an effort to save humankind.

Developed exclusively for Xbox by Bungie Studios, part of Microsoft Game Studios, the original “Halo” has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and spawned a legion of powerful devotees who participate in competitions, tournaments and game nights.

going to be alot of hurt feelings on november 10th

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

superdog is cool:cool:

After seeking out more impressions of Halo 2 I\'ve come to notice that people are starting to settle down and realize that it\'s not just Halo 1.5.  I\'m seeing more positive reactions the more they play it, much like Boz in the other thread.

Halo 2 is still my most aniticipated game this season...

My brother has it and he had the same reactions (too bad he lives about 1100 miles away!).  He and his friends weren\'t that blown away at first, but now, he said "It\'s the best FPS on a console (he\'s an old school TF type), and easily game of the year."  

He compared the polish of the game to PGR2.  Everything is slick and solid apparently.

The graphics aren\'t as good as riddick at first glance, but riddick isn\'t MP or as huge as H2.  He expected the MP graphics to be better, but the SP are "crazy".

He still has some gripes about the map design though.

When I asked about which was his favourite weapon, he couldn\'t give me a firm answer so hopefully there aren\'t the horrible imbalances that plagued Halo.

They\'ve also spent hours blowing shit up and playing with the physics (that are tremendously better this time around apparently).

Gee, I wouldn\'t mind playing this game...sometime.

All the guns give you a fair chance in a fight, the gap is definitely closed between the best and worst.  The big problem now though is the sword.  You can dominate with the sword on certain levels just as much as you could with the pistol in Halo 1.

As for the maps offered, they\'re much different from the ones in Halo 1.  Some I don\'t think I\'ll ever like but playing lastnight for hours some of them grow on you.  They just play out much different.  Their wasn\'t such a need to hold down a certain area, it\'s mostly run and gun.

From what little I\'ve seen of the Energy Sword, it is a monster. I refuse to believe Bungie just overlooked that balance issue. It\'s not even all that hard to find/retrieve in most maps save Zanzibar(and even with Zanzibar, it\'s debatable. People found simple ways of getting to it during E32k4 ). There has to be some way to avoid that quick as all hell lunge attack, there just has to be.

And the more I read about the game, the more impressed I am. I imagine that when I first play it on Nov. 9th, the changes will bother me a bit, but I\'ll gradually accept it as a much better game than the first(which it really is, I mean LIVE multiplayer alone puts it way above the first).

And then, there\'s the thought of DLC. Bungie said they\'d support the game through DLC in a big way. I imagine they weren\'t just talking about Multiplayer when they said that...

New missions? HMMM!...

You know what would be cool, Online Co-op mode!

Maybe in Halo 3.

What would be almost as cool and horribly easy to implement:

System-Link Co-op mode!

But, y\'know, Bungie hates us. So it\'s not in.

I mean Battlefield 1942 & Star Wars Battlefront have it, it is so concievable!

[Jumpman]

What up Watch!

Gamestop here on Guam has over 1,000 pre-orders and counting. They are calling all staff to be in at 12am November 9. It\'s gonna be hell.

oh btw, I just started playing Halo a few months ago, and it is a very fun multiplayer FPS. I haven\'t had this much fun with an FPS since Goldeneye on the n64.