pimpy wrote on Wednesday, 01/2/2002 - 7:31 am:

: I had a chance to sit down over Christmas and play on my
: friend's X-Box a bit more. After a few hours of fragging in
: a 4-player Halo game I have to admit that the maps left a
: lot to be desired. Where was the strategy?
:
: The teleporters were more a gimic than anything else and
: on Sidewinder I found that the sniper rifle/rocket launcher
: combo while using the teleporters was a joke to say the
: least. The tank was by far the most enjoyable aspect of the
: vehicles and its control was perfect. I would honestly
: purchase an X-Box controller for the PC version of Halo if a
: driver was released for it just to operate the vehicles.
: (Note: We all know that nothing compares to keyboard+mouse
: for the first person parts of the game though.)

It took me a (very long) while to get used to controls, however once I did, I don't see any huge advantage of keyboard and mouse. Sure it's familiar, but the controller does pretty much the same thing. Left hand moves, right hand looks, turns, shoots and everything else. I never have a problem, and I can do anything I want with it. I never think "If I had a keyboard and mouse I would do better." I will agree that operating the vehicles are difficult to use at the beginning but are actually very intuitive and let you do what you want.
:
: After playing a majority of the maps I found that I hated
: the teleporters entirely. They were cheesy and only added to
: the knowledge advantage that some of us had early on. I mean
: what is the point of climbing up to your own sniper nest
: just to warp to the center of the map and grab a rocket
: launcher? Shouldn't the strategy of it be to actually work
: to get to the center and control a weapon such as that?

I don't like the teleporters much either, but mainly because the game is so realistic, and teleporters are not. However I actually liked Bungie's placement of weapons. To me, the rocket launcher is not all powerful. You can fire two shots before you have to reload for an incredibly long time, and it is very easy to miss. It might be that you haven't had enough practice against the rocket launcher in Halo. It is not like Unreal Tournament at all. Rockets are pretty much useless in the open against other people, because the target is small and it's hard to get splash damage. If you notice, thats where Bungie placed the rocket launchers, in the middle of nowhere.

: In the end I guess I was expecting a more net-centric feel
: and ended up with the cheapened console version instead. The
: maps are entirely too small to handle all of the vehicles at
: one time and the the tanks are too strong overall. Perhaps
: if the map had more areas to battle and chokepoints, etc. it
: might not be as bad. But the majority of the time it was a
: race for the tanks and rocket launcher and whoever
: controlled them ended up with a win. The only good maps
: that were fun for us were Battle Creek and Hang 'Em High.

Again the rocket launcher is not all powerful, and it is very easy to kill a tank with one guy. A sniper will kick a tanks butt every time. Also a tanks shot is almost linear, a shot it rarely has. Only when the forces are used in tandem are they very powerful. I have to agree that the maps with vehicles are a bit small, but I usually play with just the Warthog.

: For now I will blame the limited number of players for the
: X-Box version of Halo for its faults, but if the computer
: version of Halo does not support at least a 32 player server
: I will be greatly upset. The maps could be fun, but random
: spawning locations, teleporting cheapness and lack of
: vehicle strategies left me very discouraged. I think the
: only really fun game that we played with so few players was
: 2v2 Team Race on Blood Gultch.
:
: Sincerely,
Pimpy™

I love Halo multiplayer a lot. There are something I dont care for (teleporters) but usually they can be worked around (weapon customization). 4x4 CTF with jeeps are just great. It's not supposed to be like, or play like Unreal tournament.

-Capt Crunch

How many people were you playing with?

It sounds like you didn't have that many...

pimpy wrote on Wednesday, 01/2/2002 - 7:31 am:

: I had a chance to sit down over Christmas and play on my
: friend's X-Box a bit more. After a few hours of fragging in
: a 4-player Halo game I have to admit that the maps left a
: lot to be desired. Where was the strategy?
:
: The teleporters were more a gimic than anything else and
: on Sidewinder I found that the sniper rifle/rocket launcher
: combo while using the teleporters was a joke to say the
: least. The tank was by far the most enjoyable aspect of the
: vehicles and its control was perfect. I would honestly
: purchase an X-Box controller for the PC version of Halo if a
: driver was released for it just to operate the vehicles.
: (Note: We all know that nothing compares to keyboard+mouse
: for the first person parts of the game though.)
:
: After playing a majority of the maps I found that I hated
: the teleporters entirely. They were cheesy and only added to
: the knowledge advantage that some of us had early on. I mean
: what is the point of climbing up to your own sniper nest
: just to warp to the center of the map and grab a rocket
: launcher? Shouldn't the strategy of it be to actually work
: to get to the center and control a weapon such as that?
:
: In the end I guess I was expecting a more net-centric feel
: and ended up with the cheapened console version instead. The
: maps are entirely too small to handle all of the vehicles at
: one time and the the tanks are too strong overall. Perhaps
: if the map had more areas to battle and chokepoints, etc. it
: might not be as bad. But the majority of the time it was a
: race for the tanks and rocket launcher and whoever
: controlled them ended up with a win. The only good maps
: that were fun for us were Battle Creek and Hang 'Em High.
:
: For now I will blame the limited number of players for the
: X-Box version of Halo for its faults, but if the computer
: version of Halo does not support at least a 32 player server
: I will be greatly upset. The maps could be fun, but random
: spawning locations, teleporting cheapness and lack of
: vehicle strategies left me very discouraged. I think the
: only really fun game that we played with so few players was
: 2v2 Team Race on Blood Gultch.
:
: Sincerely,
Pimpy™

It is your opinion that the keyboard/mouse is better than the controller. No Offense, but you should state that it is your opinion that the keyboard/mouse is better than the controler. Because clearly there is no real winner between the 2, it's an advantage/disadvantage thing.

I prefer a mouse as well. On the default settings, I can't maneuver the players at all. On "Legacy", it is OK. IMO the biggest advantage of the mouse is the fine movement for aiming. The analog stick while zooming is just to jumpy.

I can't seem to get more than 4 people playing split screen either. I wish I knew enough people with it to have an LAN party, but no dice thus far. It will be so much easier when it's out for the PC.

Anyone know if they plan to release more maps when MS comes out with their high bandwidth network? They could be dled to the HD?

Don't get a TV tuner or video encoder card for playing your XBox on a monitor!

I thought it was a great idea too ("hey, I can record gameplay!"), but what I found was that the video encoding added around 300-500ms of lag between the XBox and the monitor. Halo was barely playable, Gotham was not playable at all, and I imagine a game like DOA3 would just be a write off.

Granted, this was a USB unit (Eskape Labs' MyTV product), so that lag might've been coming from the USB connection. But I imagine the internal cards might also have that problem--if you buy one, make sure you can return it.

I would instead suggest a dedicated signal-to-VGA upconverter or XBox VGA adapter. I have one from ViewSonic bookmarked at home, I'll post a link to it later this evening.

Cheers,
rex

I know the Dreamcast and PS2 have VGA cables that allow them to output to higher resolution VGA and not simply convert the ntsc signal to vga (like for running linux on either box). The gamecube also has a VGA cable but I'm not sure if the output is higher resolution. Now the big question is if the xbox is technically able to output VGA or are we stuck with a ntsc to vga solution, which would SUCK! According to anandtech, a Conexant video encoder chip handles the video output so can this chip handle VGA output?

if you use any of these options, do you get the same resolution that the TV would give you, or is it at a higher resolution?

Putting my word in on das iPod....

I got mine for Christmas...and am Very Very Happy (tm). This is by far the best mp3 player I've ever seen. Ever. It's so damn easy to use...I just carry it in my pocket, and reach down without even taking it out of my pocket to start, stop, change volume, what have you...and the sound is great. It's like a soundtrack to life :D. And it holds a frick-ton of mu-zak. More than you'd ever need for listening to...who has 20 gigs of music, anyway? Besides, it's just as easy to change tracks in or out...firewire rocks. I am definetly in love.

Theocracity

Kalis wrote on Friday, 01/11/2002 - 10:08 am:

: : href="http://www.anandtech.com/audio/showdoc.html?i=1575">click
: this
:
: can't believe i pressed the enter key that easily...
:
: oh, and iPod does connect to PCs now not just Macs. No
: linux yet but i'm sure it's coming.