A Gaming Diary
Posts tagged halo
Halo 2 (360)
Sep 8th
With Halo 3 just around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to finally see the end of Halo 2′s single-player campaign. This means starting from the beginning again, unfortunately, so I’ve stuck it on Easy so I can blast through as quickly as possible.
On Easy it’s quite good fun, but nothing very special in raw gameplay terms. I’m not having to use any tactics, and instead I’m just running around blasting anyone who needs to be killed and running past anyone who doesn’t. I’m not quite invincible and have died carelessy a couple of times, but it’s one of those games where Easy really, really means easy.
Of course, all the great incidental stuff is the same on Easy as the other levels. The Convenant design, the character dialogue, the action-movie-cool set pieces, all present and correct.
Halo 3 Beta (360)
May 19th
Played a few more ranked games of Slayer and did very badly. Then tried out the team matches, but we only seemed to play Team Slayer. Everything else got veteod by the other people in the game. I didn’t do very well at all, but I did get to see the fabled third beta map, Valhalla.
Then a friend of mine came online and we played some unranked games of Slayer together. I did better there, but didn’t win anything.
Halo 3 Beta (360)
May 17th
I just won a game! Yes, a real game. I got up to 25 kills in Slayer on High Ground before anyone else. (The nearest person was on 22.) That’s probably never going to happen again, so I’ll let myself feel some fleeting glory.
That Rev Chap
SPARTAN – R37
Recruit – Grade 1
Games: 9
Last Played: 5/17/2007 4:04:28 PM
Total Kills: 69
Total Deaths: 129
Kill/Death Ratio: 0.5349
Total Assists: 44
Halo 3 Beta (360)
May 17th
It’s Halo 2, but with a lick of paint and couple of new bits of furniture.
This means two things -
1) It’s truly excellent.
2) I am rubbish at it.
Halo
Feb 17th
As Taito Legends was such a disappointment I decided to fall back to Halo. All the talk in the rllmuk thread about the game had left me itching to play it on Legendary difficulty again. Seems I’d finished a few levels already on that setting, so I started where I’d stopped, at the beginning of the level called Halo. Took me ages to reach the first checkpoint. Then ages more to reach the second. I haven’t reached the third yet.
But, oh, despite looking weirdly dark on my LCD TV, it was wonderful stuff. It really is gaming perfection. And it was the Needler that got me through to the second checkpoint. It’s got a reputation as a useless weapon, but it really, really isn’t.
Xbox 360
Dec 6th
What was I thinking? Of course I still need Halo 2!
In hasn’t suddenly become less fun. In fact, it’s become more fun. Why? Because it looks absolutely beautiful now. Somehow, it’s more vibrant. And it’s obviously clearer, now it’s running in a higher resolution. Clearer, means easier. I was definitely better today than I used to be. That could be because of the controller, it could be because I’ve been playing so many games over the last few days, but it’s probably because of the graphical upgrade.
It’s odd. It’s both an argument for and against the 360 being a new generation. “Look how good the 360 can even make old games look! It’s the next generation!” “But look how good Xbox games can be with just a few more pixels and some anti-aliasing! It looks almost as good as Perfect Dark Zero!” But, anyway, I don’t care which argument is correct, I’ll leave other people to argue about that.
When the 360 came out, I seem to remember saying something along the lines of “Halo 2 in a higher resolution and in widescreen is all I need to make it worth buying” and even with everything else that’s turned out to be great about the 360, I’m not sure I was so wrong.
The stats I thought had been wiped when I changed my Gamertag reappeared again as soon as I got online. I’ve now played 75 ranked games of Halo 2. And… drumroll please… I’ve just won my first game ever! Yes! I won a game! Of Halo 2! Online.
Played: 75 Won: 1
That’s what it says now on the Bungie site. I’m so proud.
Xbox 360
Dec 6th
Oh dear.
I’m trying to play Halo 2 and it’s not going to well.
First off, I got an error trying to download the update to the emulation code, but got that on a second try. Then it wouldn’t see my Live account, but a restart fixed that.
Then I tried to download the multiplayer maps. When I tried to go into the map dowloader my TV picture went mental and came up with an ‘invalid scan fequency’ message. So I had to turn off the console and restart.
I think I know what’s happening. I’m guessing the old Xbox Live interface you need to use for this sort of thing runs at 50Hz and my TV doesn’t do 720p at 50Hz, usefully. So I’ve gone into the 360 setup and set the console to run at 480p. (Looks very chunky in that resolution I must say.) Now I can download the maps. When that’s done I need to eject the disc, set my 360 back to 720p mode and then start Halo 2 again.
Why on earth they’ve set these old download screens to run at 50Hz (or whatever odd resolution and refresh rate they’re using) I really don’t know. Another thing Microsoft might want to think about fixing in an update. It really only goes to confirm that this backwards compatibility thing is something of an afterthought.
Still, I’m only testing it to see how it works. Perfect Dark Zero will do for my online killing needs now.
Halo 2
Nov 26th
So tonight was the big uk.games.video.xbox farewell to the Xbox, what with the 360 coming along on Friday.
It was great fun.
It just wasn’t really very organised.
In fact, it consisted of just myself and asktoby killing each other in very nasty ways.
But it was still great fun.
Even though I lost. Heavily. 25-3 when we played shotguns, though I wasn’t so bad with sniper rifles or rocket launchers.
So, just the two of us, but it was actually really good fun.
Highlight of the evening: being thrown across the map by a rocket hit and hitting my chin on a wall. Doesn’t sound like much, but it looked very, very painful.
Halo 2
Nov 10th
I was updating my card details on my Xbox Live account (the card I used ran out in September and I want everything set up properly for the 360 transfer next month) and while the Xbox was on for the first time in weeks I thought I might as well play some Halo 2.
Oh Lord, I’d forgotten how much fun it is. I mean, I’m not good. I normally come one place from the bottom in any match I play, seemingly. I’m a bit rubbish. But it’s still so much fun. SO. MUCH. FUN. IN CAPS AND EVERYTHING.
I even did a round on my least favourite map (the one with the train) with my least favourite weapons (sniper rifles) and I still had massive amounts of fun. It’s nothing complicated. I just do Quick Match Rumble Pit games which are generally just about running around shooting everyone else. I don’t do team games or anything with people I don’t know. I just run around the same old places doing the same old thing. Over and over again.
And it’s great.
