unforum

[kazuma]

Somehow I automatically adjusted to dual wielded SMGs recoil... I love it!

[daboking]

if you are quick, you can sure drop the dual wield in a pinch, throw your your grenade, pick up the other gun and get to moving dual style again. You all can kick my butt, though, as I was one of the goof balls who ordered the mouse/keyboard connector. (One of the reasons I never got into Halo as much as others.... I was spoiled by PC FPS). Now having tried it, I can say that it does not respond close to a PC... in some ways a controller is easier.

[weephun]

Got my copy at 12 midnight (we won 2nd in the Halo1 tournament so we got to buy it 2nd), played until 8AM, short break for breakfast at McDonalds, continue playing until 3PM.

Yep, 15 straight hours of nothing but multiplayer. I haven't even started the Campaign My favorites: the particle beam rifle (covenant sniper) and the sword.

Wife and kids are gone from Thurs-Sun so I will hit the campaign then. I don't play games that I don't know exactly what's coming around my kids, I don't want to risk them seeing things I would rather they not.

Also, have you seen the details given on bungie.net about gameplay?? TONS of details, kills, hit %, # headshots, etc etc etc. All the way to a 3d map of the level showing who was killed where and a timeline of the game showing who killed who when. WOW!!! Check it out, here's an example: http://bungie.net/Stats/GameStats.aspx?gameID=580311&player=Frankie# (Frankie is one of the guys at Bungie).

[thebruce]

I'd say yeah, the dual wielding was about the one new addition that took the most time to get used to... they should have a button that will flip right/left hands... I like to have rapid fire on right, and 2ndary weapon on left, like the plasma pistol which charges. My right finger is much better at high speed firefights.

Here are some comments about gameplay for me:

Favourite weapons in order of favourites: dual brute plasma rifle, energy sword, plasma+SMG
- the SMG definitely has a difference now... reloading when dual'd up takes longer, so dual wielding two SMGs is dangerous, but a plasma and SMG guarantees good damage to anything that has a stronger resistance to one or the other, and a fairly constant attack rate since plasma burns out at a different time than a full clip unloading (if you're gunning madly without thinking and conserving, of course)
- SMG is VERY effective with short bursts. Played one on one, and when I started trying short bursts, I kept whooping my buddy in firefights and he couldn't figure out why

Gameplay time:
- didn't rest up on my sleep the day before, so I pushed as long as I could Tuesday after midnight - got 2 hours of campaign gamemplay before I was nodding off (while playing!), my buddy found that hilarious, me running into walls, or spinning in circles...
- slept, and slept in until around noon tuesday. my buddy missed his school class (college), and we were going to go out for breakfast... which we didn't... so we played a bit of 1 on 1 multiplayer to try it out. Then got some pizza around 1:30pm. Came back, ate, I continued my campaign fest aroudn 2:30, and he went to his next class.
- Played until 8:30pm, straight, nibbling on the pizza here and there, and needed a break - my eyes were litterally pounding in my head...
- went to Rogers, bought Friends season 8, X-Men 2 (been looking for a copy casually for a while), and rented Dawn of the Dead.
- came back and started up again at 10pm. Buddy called and asked if I'd finished it yet. Said I was about 8 hours in, he said to let him know, cuz people say it can take at least 10 hours to finish
- sure enough, just after midnight, 'the end' (more on that next). So, slightly over 10 hours of gameplay and I finished Halo 2 (on easy , but exploring and taking in the scenery... gimme a couple plays through, and I'll see if it's finishable in 6 hours like Halo 1 )

The flood:
- harder, definitely takes more to kill, not as densely populated... they are more intelligent, they can drive vehicles

Storyline (spoilers on the story layout and such, no story elements):

[Nola]

Message for The Bruce (game spoiler inside)

[CoffeeJedi]

[HalfMoon]

thebruce, could I impose on you for a full-plot synopsis of the campaign game? I don't have, and most likely will never buy, an xbox, and I have no illusions about getting spoiled long before I get to play the game on a PC. And honestly, I'm dying to know details. Pleeeeeeease?

[daboking]

coffeejedi, don't get me wrong, though... if you are a PC gamer, you will still prefer this (probably), just make sure to buy a memory card to save your settings on... the default presets are a 4 letter word, but it is completely customizable (wih memory card). I plan on experimenting to see if I can get my nostromo pad to work in place of keyboard. I, overall, am very happy with the adapter and do not feel I wasted my money, but a diehard console player who eats, lives, breathes halo may not like the readjusting to controls from what they are used to (unless you are a PC halo player ). I let some friends try it, and they opted to go back to the controller. I prefer the adapter, but I am still tweeking my settings as the mouse look around is not going as fast as I would prefer. If I make it faster, the targeting vibrates, even when still... I am confident I will get it working pretty close to what I am used to with COD, MOH, or even UT, though.

[CoffeeJedi]

[thebruce]

[Nova]

[daboking]

and the dual wield works fine... I hot keyed grenades to one button and fire to the other, so dual wield just uses both buttons (with automatics, this is especially great. The scroll button will change (when not in dual wield), and pressing it works for zoom. In many ways, it feels like PC now, except for mouse movement. I am sure you will like it, CJ.

[HalfMoon]

[Nola]

[water10]

Nothing against daboking or keyboard/mouse users, but I'm actually glad that the keyboard/mouse doesn't work very well! It's a matter of opinion if you prefer to play with gamepad or kb/mouse or which one represents "real life" better, but it's a fact that you can be a lot more accurate with a kb/mouse, and this would bring an unfair advantage to those people.

When I start to play Halo, I thought I could never get used to gamepads, after playing both Jedi Knights on PC! But now, even though I'm not as accurate as I am on a PC, I think it's tons of fun!!

Now, I don't care about ranking and stats. In fact, if I can, I'll only play unranked matches with friends, but kb/mouse could potentially kill the fun on the game, if only some people are using it ...