narcogen's picture

Archived community forum thread. Because all of the old forum posts are listed on a single page, you may see memory errors; if so, try reloading the page. To make new posts, go up one level to the new community forum and click "create new topic".

Comments

Earendil's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

Reclaimer wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 1:07 pm:

: : could someone refresh me with text on why people think
: : that guilty sparks thinks we are forrunners?
: :
: : Earendil
:
: What 343 says in his referrence to "human history" is:
:
: "You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a
: record of all of our lost time! Human history, is it?
: Fascinating. Oh how I will enjoy every moment of its
: categorization! And to think that you would destroy this
: installation. As well as this record. I am shocked. Almost
: too shocked for words."
:
: The "human history" he's talking about isn't the time
: between the start of Two Betrayals and the middle of The
: Maw. The computer of the PoA couldn't track MC, but 343
: could have. So, the lost time must be human history.
: Because 343 was in the PoA computer he knew what we called
: "the lost time" and that's why he asked (as in with a
: question) "Human history, is it?"

this doesn't explain to me why 343 thinks we (MC) are forrunners. it only seems to point out that 343 knows (or should know) that we are human.

Earndil

Oh! They have the internet on computers now! - Homer J Simpson

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

Reclaimer wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 4:07 pm:

: The computer of the PoA couldn't track MC, but 343
: could have. So, the lost time must be human history.

The data on the Computer of the POA would of been erased due to the Cole Protocol so the covenant could not get the co-ordinates of Earth, the only reason 343 found any information was because the Master Chief plugs Cortana back into the POA's computer and 343 gets it all from her databanks.. Hence Cortana says, "He’s in MY databanks".

343 knows what Cortana knows... scary stuff!!

c0ld

c0ld

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

c0ld vengeance wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 6:32 pm:

:"He's in MY databanks".

correction

"He's in my data-arrays, a local tab."

c0ld

c0ld

demonelite's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

I know this may be wrong but I think the Forrunners look like the MC.

In Two Betrayls 343 seems shocked that the MC dose not know what Halo can do, also 343 says "Last time YOU asked me would I do it given the choice, I have had a lot of time to ponder this but the answer is yes" or something to that effect, but 343 implies that they have met before.

Could this be a part of a story arc on Bungies part if so come oh Halo 2, 3, 4!!!

DemonElite

Reclaimer's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

c0ld vengeance wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 6:32 pm:

: Reclaimer wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 4:07 pm:
:
: : The computer of the PoA couldn't track MC, but 343
: : could have. So, the lost time must be human history.
:
: The data on the Computer of the POA would of been erased
: due to the Cole Protocol so the covenant could not get the
: co-ordinates of Earth, the only reason 343 found any
: information was because the Master Chief plugs Cortana back
: into the POA's computer and 343 gets it all from her
: databanks.. Hence Cortana says, "He’s in MY databanks".
:
: 343 knows what Cortana knows... scary stuff!!
:
: c0ld

It wasn't necessary for all the parts of the PoA's hard drive to be erased. Cole Protocol only specifies that navigational data be erased. Knowing about King Tut, Leonardo de Vinci, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King Jr. would not help the Covenant get to Earth so it wouldn't need to be purged. Besides if 343 knew what Cortana knew he would have gotten the comm channels working again.

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

Reclaimer wrote on Thursday, 11/7/2002 - 7:37 pm:

: Reclaimer wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 4:07 pm:

: Besides if 343 knew what Cortana knew he would have gotten the comm
: channels working again.

Depends if they where f**ked or not, besides what would he of done with them?

c0ld

c0ld

Reclaimer's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

c0ld vengeance wrote on Thursday, 11/7/2002 - 10:16 pm:

: Reclaimer wrote on Thursday, 11/7/2002 - 7:37 pm:
:
: : Reclaimer wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 4:07 pm:
:
: : Besides if 343 knew what Cortana knew he would have
: gotten the comm
: : channels working again.
:
: Depends if they where f**ked or not, besides what would he
: of done with them?
:
: c0ld

Tried to get MC to give him Cortana and the Index.

uberscythe's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

If the forerunners were humans (or human ancestors, or predeccesors, or whatever), then why would they build Halo to destroy the flood? If they set it off then they would kill themselves, and if they are as greedy as 343 then they wouldn't bother about all the other life in the galaxy. And get this: if 343 was the monitor of the installation that the forerunners built, then wouldn't he have seen them some time?
Aren't all the spartans cyborgs, i.e. robot/people hybrids? Would MC survive halo's blast? Very confusing. I'm confused.
uber

uber

narcogen's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

Well... according to 343GS, MC is susceptible to Flood infection. Therefore he's edible. Therefore, we assume the Halo's blast will kill him, too-- otherwise it doesn't work well :)

uberscythe wrote on Tuesday, 11/26/2002 - 1:25 am:

: If the forerunners were humans (or human ancestors, or
: predeccesors, or whatever), then why would they build Halo
: to destroy the flood? If they set it off then they would
: kill themselves, and if they are as greedy as 343 then they
: wouldn't bother about all the other life in the galaxy. And
: get this: if 343 was the monitor of the installation that
: the forerunners built, then wouldn't he have seen them some
: time?
: Aren't all the spartans cyborgs, i.e. robot/people
: hybrids? Would MC survive halo's blast? Very confusing. I'm
: confused.
: uber



Narcogen


Rampant for over se7en years.



Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

MC isn't a cyborg. If you read FoR you'll see that he is augmented with drugs and medical procedures, he only has a nueral interface implanted so that he can interface with his suit. He's human, albeit the perfect specimen. He's not the strongest, the fastest, or the smartest, he's the luckiest.

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

MC's suit isnt JUST metal. if u read the manuel it is very complex, it has a layer of crystal, and a whole bunch of diff. layers

Earendil wrote on Tuesday, 11/5/2002 - 2:35 pm:

:
: :
: : OMG.. humans are robots?
:
: Yes Narc, Welcome to the 21st century.
: :
:
: :
: :
: : The telling point is, how does 343GS *know* what
: "class"
: : the MC's armor is, unless he recognizes it specifically
: as a
: : Forerunner technology?
:
: well, I doubt there is a stamp on the shield/armor saying
: "Made by Earth". Shield, and to a degree, armor(metal) can
: only be made out of only so many things in this universe.
: the technology surrounding them is how they are built, and
: how strong they are. all 343 has to do is look at the kind
: of metal in MC's armor and figure out that it isn't as
: strong as "level 12" armor.
:
: same goes for shield, it's probably the same basic
: principle, or at least *was* a basic principal at one time
: in the forrunners past, and 343 being the historian that he
: is would know this. all he has to do is compare the
: strength. also(and don't quote me on this) 343 doesn't give
: MC his little talk about armor until we actually do battle
: with the flood.
:
: a prime example of better forrunners shield would be the
: bots. even though flood kick their ass in melee, it is
: pretty hard to take out a bot with human weapons (excluding
: RL and 2 point blank shot gun rounds). where as the MC would
: go down in about 1/2-1/4 the hits from a human weapon.
: :
: : He doesn't say that your armor is too weak, he says
: : something specific. Almost as if an alien came down to
: : Earth, took a look at the Saturday Night Special in a
: cop's
: : hand and said, "gee, guy, you really ought to be using
: a
: : Beretta 9mm instead of that clumsy old Saturday Night
: : Special." You'd have to wonder HOW he knew what a
: Saturday
: : Night Special is.
: :
: he doesn't name the level of your armor though. he only
: says, after we do battle with the flood, that we need at
: least level 12 if we want to be effective. maybe level 12 is
: immune to melee attacks (we're not going to take into
: account that the damn flood get there hands on covy
: weapons).
:
: : This is one of the main points of evidence people point
: to
: : for a connection between Humans and the Forerunners.
:
: I would agree that this is very important.
:
: :
: : Of course, some of the battle suit's tech-- such as
: the
: : shields-- were stolen from the Covenant.
: :
: : But the Covenant don't seem to ring a bell with 343GS
: *at
: : all*. He calls them "the other race", and never refers
: to
: : them by any other name.
: :
: yeah...but then 343 thinks that the covies released the
: flood, something the forrunners would probably never do.
:
: : If the Forerunners were ancestors of Covenant, why
: : wouldn't GS recognize them?
:
: GS has a one track mind :)
: :
:
: : Also, when 343 takes
: : : the Index away from MC at the end of the Library he
: : says
: : : "Your organic form renders you weak to the Index's
: : power"
: : : (or something to that effect) and because 343 thinks
: MC
: : is a
: : : Forerunner they must have been organic, not robotic.
:
:
: now see it's THAT conversation that makes me think that
: 343 doesn't think we are forrunners, I'm not exactly sure
: why people think this. 343GS orders us around, takes stuff
: from us, and then tries to kill us. if he at one point
: thinks we are forrunners, he most definitely doesn't by the
: end (he makes a reference to us and human history on the
: PoA).
:
: could someone refresh me with text on why people think
: that guilty sparks thinks we are forrunners?
:
: Earendil

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

Nadsman wrote on Wednesday, 12/4/2002 - 4:04 pm:

: MC's suit isnt JUST metal. if u read the manuel it is very
: complex, it has a layer of crystal, and a whole bunch of
: diff. layers
Maybe Level 12 armor would make MC immune to Halo's blast.

narcogen's picture

In reply to: Re: Forerunners? (spoilers)

uberscythe wrote on Wednesday, 12/4/2002 - 9:43 pm:

: Nadsman wrote on Wednesday, 12/4/2002 - 4:04 pm:
:
: : MC's suit isnt JUST metal. if u read the manuel it is
: very
: : complex, it has a layer of crystal, and a whole bunch
: of
: : diff. layers
: Maybe Level 12 armor would make MC immune to Halo's
: blast.

Could be, I suppose. But Cortana and 343 both seem pretty absolute about the fact that the Halo would destroy ALL sentient life-- no ifs, ands, or buts.

It would appear, then, that the role of Reclaimer is a suicide mission.

Which prompts a bigger question...

... if 343 thinks the MC is the "reclaimer" and that he has done this before (activated Halo)...

... how does 343 think the Reclaimer survived?

We KNOW it's not because he thinks MC is fully machine. He knows MC is organic. He doesn't let us take the Index to the Control Room ourselves because we are organic and therefore vulnerable to Flood infection.

Perhaps the real liar here is Cortana, who insinuates that the MC and the marines on the Halo would be killed by its pulse. Perhaps that's not true at all-- maybe the pulse spreads OUTWARD from Halo, killing everything ELSE, but wouldn't harm anyone actually on its surface (or in the Control Room, for that matter).

Not that this would matter to MC, since the pulse would surely kill everyone on Earth.



Narcogen


Rampant for over se7en years.



demonelite's picture

In reply to: Halo, Betrayals, Reclaimers

narcogen wrote on Wednesday, 12/4/2002 - 11:22 pm:

: Perhaps the real liar here is Cortana, who insinuates that
: the MC and the marines on the Halo would be killed by its
: pulse. Perhaps that's not true at all-- maybe the pulse
: spreads OUTWARD from Halo, killing everything ELSE, but
: wouldn't harm anyone actually on its surface (or in the
: Control Room, for that matter).

I was thinking about this the other day, in two betrayals you are betrayed by 343 GS only, could this be Bungies way of giving us a clue of what may happen in Halo 2, Cortana betrays the MC, can you ever trust that voice again?

DemonElite

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Halo, Betrayals, Reclaimers

WOW, I HAVE JUST WORKED OUT THE LOT OF HALO 2! In marathon the character you play as recites a poem describing a betrayel of some sought. It mentions a tree being ravished by the sky (Pillar of Autumn) and later it says 'My blood on her sword.' This could and i always thought did mean the covenant, however the she could be cortana. As any big halo fan should know cortana is the name of an ancient greek sword. Could it be that cortana attempts to kill MC?
Could she have found something out whilst in the core (the control room's computer) that a) scared her of MC b) Made her want to destroy the ring c)made her furious with the humans and made her wish to seek revenge?

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: THE LINKS: HALO 2'S STORY LINE. I KNOW!

BOB slayer wrote on Saturday, 12/7/2002 - 4:51 pm:

: WOW, I HAVE JUST WORKED OUT THE LOT OF HALO 2! In marathon
: the character you play as recites a poem describing a
: betrayel of some sought. It mentions a tree being ravished
: by the sky (Pillar of Autumn) and later it says 'My blood on
: her sword.' This could and i always thought did mean the
: covenant, however the she could be cortana. As any big halo
: fan should know cortana is the name of an ancient greek
: sword. Could it be that cortana attempts to kill MC?
: Could she have found something out whilst in the core (the
: control room's computer) that a) scared her of MC b) Made
: her want to destroy the ring c)made her furious with the
: humans and made her wish to seek revenge?

Wow . . . I must say that your deductions are QUITE impressive. I just got the game and am working my way through it right now, so everything's still fresh in my mind. Just thinking about all of this gives me the chills. Can you imagine ? From what I've seen, every single aspect of this game is PERFECT. The people at Bungie would have had to breathe, eat, and sleep Halo for the past 4-6 years. But what is the Marathon or whatever ? I want to read the whole thing, but I don't know what you're talking about.

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: THE LINKS: HALO 2'S STORY LINE. I KNOW!

About twenty years ago Larry Niven wrote a book called Ringworld, nothing like it had ever been told before, the concept was ground breaking. Now lets fastforward to present. The game is clearly based of the book, however roughly it might be.
Here are some similarities:
The control room is as described in the book, a massive holographic display.
The first caves on Halo you go into, if you make a visual map it goes under the water you see below you when first starting, it really is intended to be a pump room from what I see.
The buildings resemble the architecture described in the book.
And lastly, the race the built it remains hidden in the book as well as in the game.
From my own observations the forerunners are the creators of the human race. Over years of evolution they finally evolved into humans on earth while their ancestors, the forerunners, built halo instead of living on earth. The forerunners are still around but not in the numbers they used to be.
The covenant were probably slaves or subjects to the forerunners given the insignias on the back of the gold elites. They know that the humans are descended from the forerunners and are seeking revenge after the forerunners lost their grip on the covenant. And the rest I leave for you to decide...

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Halo, Betrayals, Reclaimers

You all wouldn't believe what I just found out. Take a look at this.

"You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill flood, it kills their food. Humans, covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. The only way to stop the flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do; wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life ..."

Notice the part where it says "Halo doesn't kill flood, it kills their food." So wherever it was posted that Halo blasted outward, that MUST be correct. It must do JUST that. But now there rises another question; Why wouldn't it destroy itself also ? You know it would't just to save a forerunner life. The only conclusion I can come to is that the forerunner want the flood to suffer from starvation.

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Discovery

Anyone ever pay attention to 343 Guilty Spark when he's talking in the Library? Well if you did then you'd remember him saying "Well you are human." or something to that affect (altough he does call you human). He also asks why you have such ineffective weapons to combat the flood as if you had prior expierence with the flood and you should have known that these weapons wouldn't be effective. He also asks you if you'd like to upgrade to Mark 12 battle suit from your Mark 2(Which as we all know is a Mark 5 by Human standards).

Now let's look at all this, 343 obviously thinks you're familiar with the flood (this might be because you resemble the Forerunner) he also calls you human and he couldn't possibly know that because he hasn't met any other humans and he hasn't tapped into the PoA database yet, where 343GS makes the comment about human history, "You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history, is it? Fascinating." This is implying that Human history is the piece of the timeline lost after the Halos were used. How do I know the Halos were used before? From yet another quote "Last time, you asked me, if it was my choice, would I do it? Having considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed." Considering that he still wants you to activate Halo's defences you can say that his original answer was "yes.". Finally, since the MC is asked if he wanted to upgrade his suit to a Mark 12 then it stands to reason that the Forerunner might have actually been human. This also explains why the covenant are out to wipe us out. Humans are the Forerunner, just not as evolved, the Covenant probably rever the Forerunner as gods, why else would Halo have such religious significance? And if this is true then the Covenant might think we, as a race, are disgracing the name(s) of their gods, due to our uncanny likeness, and they are taking it upon themselves to purge this blasphemy from the universe.

Anonymous's picture

This'll be a strange request, but because my Myth 2 CD's finally gotten scratched to the point of noticable file damage, I'm wondering if anyone could be generous enough to share the "small install" file. It clocks in at 35,297,658 bytes ("33.6 MB"). Without it, Myth 2 won't work.

That's it. Just "small install".

Please email me if you can help with this -- sta7ic@neonshadow.net -- becuase I really want to get back to blasting ghasts to bouncy grey pieces.

Thanks,
-Sta7ic Matt

Earendil's picture

In reply to: Myth II File Needed...

Email address?

Earendil

Oh! They have the internet on computers now! - Homer J Simpson

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Myth II File Needed...

Earendil wrote on Friday, 11/8/2002 - 9:06 pm:

: Email address?
:
: Earendil

Anonymous's picture

has anyone seen Haliens on the HBO website?

IT ROCKS

halo.bungie.org/movies.html

demonelite's picture

I have heard that there will be Halo action figures released soon. Personally I cant wait, I can restage my assault on the control room to the anoyance of all the people I work with!

Can anyone confirm this to me.

DemonElite

Anonymous's picture

I'm trying to get a little bit of experience in making web pages, with a few specific things I'd like to know how to do. I don't know what I all need to read into/learn to do them though.

Some of the things I would like to do:
From a web page form, I'd like to be able to enter in say, information for a news post, (the poster, the post), and have automated information appended to that post (the date and time). I'd want that news post to be entered into a file with a permanent id, and any posts after to get their own id as well, and also put on my site's home page. There would be a limited number of posts allowed on the page, after the quota had been filled, the bottom post would stay inside of the file where it had its permanent id, but disappear from my home page.

What could I use to do this with? PHP, XML, HTML? Could those three things combined do the above, or will I need something else?

I only am bringing up PHP because I see all the pages on Rampancy here ending in .php and Rampancy seems to have a rather excellent system for doing news posts (although I don't know how your posting is done).

I really know nothing about this subject and I haven't been very good at searching through google or books to help give me the idea of what I will need to get a hang of in order to do the above things. If I left any pertinent information on what I'm wanting out, please ask me to reiterate.

Thanks guys.
-Isolder

narcogen's picture

In reply to: WayOT. Questions About Web Pages..

Isolder wrote on Wednesday, 11/13/2002 - 5:42 pm:

: I'm trying to get a little bit of experience in making web
: pages, with a few specific things I'd like to know how to
: do. I don't know what I all need to read into/learn to do
: them though.
:
: Some of the things I would like to do:
: From a web page form, I'd like to be able to enter in say,
: information for a news post, (the poster, the post), and
: have automated information appended to that post (the date
: and time). I'd want that news post to be entered into a
: file with a permanent id, and any posts after to get their
: own id as well, and also put on my site's home page. There
: would be a limited number of posts allowed on the page,
: after the quota had been filled, the bottom post would stay
: inside of the file where it had its permanent id, but
: disappear from my home page.

We do exactly that here at Rampancy. There are a number of scripts written in a variety of languages (PHP, Perl, CGI, VB) that do this. Most can be found at sites like hotscripts.com. Many are quite good, and a number of them are free.

Most of these systems, however, don't actually put anything in files, but use a database, usually MySQL or PostgresSQL (both of which are also free for most purposes).

Most, but not all, of these systems require you to be running:

A UNIX or UNIX-like operating system (some also run on NT)
the Apache web server with a dynamically loading module for PHP and MySQL support (I suggest at a minimum version 4.1.2. Current is 4.2 but has issues with some scripts, and v. 4.0.6 has security problems).

:
: What could I use to do this with? PHP, XML, HTML? Could
: those three things combined do the above, or will I need
: something else?

PHP is a weakly typed, interpreted scripting language. Meaning, it has a vaguely C-like syntax, lets you use variables without declaring in advance what kind of data is in them, and is stored on the server as human-readable source code (not binary) and executes when a user accesses a page.

HTML is a markup language that describes content (and layout). In Rampancy's case, PHP instructions are executed that produce dynamic HTML. (It is possible to generate a few PHP lines inside HTML for certain functions; other, more complicated systems are written almost entirely in PHP and no .html files; the HTML markup is generated by the script. In Rampancy's case, about 90% of the HTML is in a single file called a "theme file" that describes how things should look-- header, footer, boxes, main page areas.

XML is a content description language-- it doesn't describe how anything should look, just what kind of information it is. Generally speaking, it's a midway step between plain ASCII text and HTML; a script called an XSLT translates from XML code to XHTML or HTML, rather like this:

21 Harding Street (text)
21 Harding Street (XML)
21 Harding Street (HTML)

.vcard and .vcal files used by applications like Palm Desktop or Entourage are examples of XML.

: I only am bringing up PHP because I see all the pages on
: Rampancy here ending in .php and Rampancy seems to have a
: rather excellent system for doing news posts (although I
: don't know how your posting is done).

Check out www.drupal.org and www.drop.org. Those are the sites associated with Drupal, a PHP-based content management system. This is the system Rampancy uses (although we use a modified version of the CVS release from last fall; the newer version, 4.0, is very nice and has some new features. We plan on upgrading here once we can port over some of our modifications.



Narcogen


Rampant for over se7en years.



shibby's picture

Plugging in your Communicator will not magically allow you to talk to the aliens in Halo. that was taken from the xbox communicator page. i think thats the funniest thing ive ever seen on xbox.com ...... i can see it now ...........grunt-"ill bite your knee caps off" me-"NO, ill bite YOUR knee caps off" :P

Anonymous's picture

I just thought I'd drop my thoughts on Xbox Live, after a few days of play. I've had a chance to play three of the Live games, and so, you may or may not be interested in hearing my impressions. Please forgive my post if it lacks in some way, since I didn't spend as much time on this as I would on anything intended to be "official" for a website or something.

One thing I need to say first is that Live is pretty new. That means that it's just starting out, and that certain features that were advertised for it are not wholly implemented. In fact, the implementation of Live (and how it operates) for each game is essentially different. Certain features (such as Optimatch and Quickmatch) are requirements for developers, but they aren't apparently required to create a central "lobby" area. This is not bungie.net.

You are also required to have a credit-card in order to sign up, in advance. You get a "free" year with the communications pack, but that doesn't mean you don't have to supply your CC information up front. And a check card (debit card) doesn't have the same protections as a credit-card, so make sure you don't go that simpler and less safe route unless you have to!

Live is renewed on a yearly basis, which means that, after the first year, they automatically bill you for another whole year. How much that is, isn't certain. But if you don't want to be charged, the answer is to cancel before your anniversary date. The Terms & Conditions state very clearly that they will not provide refunds... Not even on a pro-rated basis.

I've been (unofficially) told by some MS employees that they expect Live may be fleshed-out a little more once they've had a little time to see how things go. I hope so.

Don't let my reservations get you down though... Like I said: Live is new. Just like so many other things were once new. And regardless, it's still the best online console service out there. It's more consistent than what you'll find on the PS2 or GameCube, and it seems to have been designed for better growth and improvement than the others. The fact that it's relatively glitch-free in its current state, especially for a Microsoft product, says something. (And I'd much rather that they do things right in the first place, before adding tons of half-working features. Wouldn't you?)

---

Some quickie reviews:

MechAssault (aka, "MA")
The starter-game for the "Living". The single-player game has a moderately good story (compared vs. Bungie storylines) with some humor and interesting challenges.

Multiplayer is like... an arcade game. Really. It's pretty low-cal. In fact, I wouldn't even compare it to the difference between Diablo and D&D games. Fans of the Mech genre will be disappointed that you can't tailor your own mech layout (in single or multiplay), and that multiplayer is not objective-based. Essentially, multi is a romp in a semi-destructible environment. An FPS-game with a big, lumbering robot. Still, it has its own appeal, and after a game of GR, I'd find myself returning to MA for some lighter action.

One important thing to remember is that communication is always on, and that it is naturally transmitted to everyone in the game. To limit commo to your teammates, you have to press the black button. This is actually not too much of a problem, since game strategies tend to only get about as complicated as, "Concentrate fire on FunkyJ over there!" Again, this MechLITE. (If you want a real Mech game, then think about Steel Battalion.)

Live options are pretty limited at the current time. Once you finish a multiplayer game, everyone is dumped back to the Live menu. Which means that, if you desire to play with the same bunch, you have to go looking in a roundabout fashion for the guy who hosted last time. There are no provisions for contacting a friend who is active and online with Live, as far as I've seen.

---

Unreal Championship (aka, "UC")
Eye candy. If Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena floated your boat on personal computers (whether Mac or PC) then you'll be right at home, except for the lack of a mouse and keyboard. (This is a problem for me) It's very pretty, but it's still an FPS game. There's not much more to say than that. =)

The downside is that we may not have mods for it... unlike UT and Q3A. Mods are what made those games so much more playable over time, IMHO.

---

Ghost Recon (aka, "GR")
My favorite of the three. Really. No offense to anyone here, but this is more like what I originally envisioned Halo as being, years ago, when it was announced as a sort of squad-based tactical shooter. Hey... at least it's Live-eneabled, which is at least as much fun as a tunneled Halo game. (and usually more, due to lag issues)

You can walk/run, walk in a crouch, or crawl along the ground. The weapons loadouts are pretty well-balanced, and the environments are large. The single-player game could stand alone, by itself, but serves well to train you.

Multiplayer includes coop play vs. AI-controlled enemies. (But coop doesn't allow you to play the missions together... I think) You can also choose an FFA or team-oriented game. I tend to go for team-oriented stuff, myself. Tracking your friends is easy with name-markers. The big environments make for some good, tactical tension. I've come up against snipers who plinked myself and my buddies, and we didn't have much of a clue where he was. There is an indicator at the bottom center of the screen which tells you roughly where your enemies are (this can be turned off in multiplayer options) and whether they're within or without 40 meters of your position. Which didn't help too much against the aforementioned sniper, but this is still not a sniper-dominated game, some of you will be happy to hear.

The downside of this game is that it's a little limited by the interface. I didn't find the lack of a mouse and keyboard to be nearly the issue with GR that it was for UC, for some reason... It's something with the design, overall, and GR plays much more like Halo. The lower resolution that you'll get on your TV set might be an issue for a few of you who are migrating from personal computers... but at least we all play with the same myopia. On the flip-side of that, though, it's important to note that enemies (and friends) don't stick out like a sore thumb. Like images, painted on a back-drop. Which is a problem in so many tactical games out there. ("Shoot for the blob of pixels over there! You'll hit somebody!") That way, enemies and friendlies can fade into the environment. Especially if they stay low and don't move more than is necessary.

Once you jump onto Live, it can be slightly tougher to find a friend, in some ways, than with MechAssault. However, once you've found him, you're set. Everyone stays with the same group, after a game, unless he chooses to leave. (or the person hosting decides to quit) So you can find your buddies, after a fashion, and stick with 'em.

---

That's it. I hope that I don't seem too presumptuous for having posted this. But I wanted to share my thoughts, after spending my hard-earned money, with some of you. (Before you spend yours) Perhaps you'll disagree with me, and if so I'd like to hear why. I'd also like to hear your reviews of the other Live titles... though, if you haven't already figured it out, I'm not personally much of a sports buff.

On the single-player side of things, when you're sick of hearing ten year-olds squeak in your ear:

I recently grabbed Splinter Cell, which I find intriguing. It's too bad that this game isn't multiplayer-enabled, but you will be able to download extra content over Live, according to the packaging. Splinter Cell actually got a better score than Halo from OXM, and is listed as the best action title for this year. The dynamic lighting really does make things interesting.

I also preordered Steel Battalion. This will no doubt give my wallet some stretch-marks, but I'm seriously lusting after this gaming experience. And the announcement that SB's sequel will have Live support makes me even more excited. This game will either be the ultimate Xbox [single-player] experience, or it'll be the biggest lemon in the history of gaming.

~ Noctavis

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: First Impressions of Xbox Live (Your mileage may vary)

I really want my user name for Xbox live to be the one ive had for everything online, but the problem is I have to wait till March because I live in the UK.

Is there any way of securing a user name before I get XBL so no other person on the off chance can steal it?

c0ld

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Logon name

Right, it's the same with me. However, xbox live is already avaliable in the uk, go to xbox.com, set your country to uk or another eu country and subscribe for the test drive...welcome to the best on-line system I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Problem for me is while I know whewre do get the testdrive thing I don't have broadband - this is a problem.
Goodluck with your name.

narcogen's picture

In reply to: Re: Logon name

There are ways around XBL's broadband requirement if you want to spend a little money and put up with what might be less than top quality performance.

The Xbox only has an ethernet port-- which means you have to plug it into some kind of ethernet network. However, some devices-- such as Apple's airport-- have a v.90 modem included, and can share that connection across both wired and wireless networks. So, plug a hub into an Airport, your Xbox into the hub, and the Airport into a telephone line with a dialup connection configured, and voila-- XBL without broadband.

BOB slayer wrote on Wednesday, 12/18/2002 - 3:54 pm:

: Right, it's the same with me. However, xbox live is
: already avaliable in the uk, go to xbox.com, set your
: country to uk or another eu country and subscribe for the
: test drive...welcome to the best on-line system I've ever
: had the pleasure of playing. Problem for me is while I know
: whewre do get the testdrive thing I don't have broadband -
: this is a problem.
: Goodluck with your name.



Narcogen


Rampant for over se7en years.



Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Logon name

wahoo! Thankyou. Thankyou. Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyou. Thanks!
Now...where do you get this thing?

System Failure's picture

Some people hide and let thier Marines do all the fighting and get killed. Those are the people eho always duck for cover. When fighting covies I don't hide, I santd out and geet shot at. But I don't really die cause of small arms fire. I have really good aim. I usally throught a grenade on the right person then take out a pistol and give head shots. I use my marines to cover me when i reload and to finish off the aliens i soften up. you should be nice to marines. They have it tough. They are fighting a losing battle, are weak and unshielded. In the level 343 Gs when you come back out of the structure there some marines. somtimes they say I knew him that was______ SO use marines as backup and gunners not the front line

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: Marines

System Failure wrote on Wednesday, 11/20/2002 - 9:37 pm:

: Some people hide and let thier Marines do all the fighting
: and get killed. Those are the people eho always duck for
: cover. When fighting covies I don't hide, I santd out and
: geet shot at. But I don't really die cause of small arms
: fire. I have really good aim. I usally throught a grenade on
: the right person then take out a pistol and give head shots.
: I use my marines to cover me when i reload and to finish off
: the aliens i soften up. you should be nice to marines. They
: have it tough. They are fighting a losing battle, are weak
: and unshielded. In the level 343 Gs when you come back out
: of the structure there some marines. somtimes they say I
: knew him that was______ SO use marines as backup and
: gunners not the front line

Thank you for that helpfull bit of infomation, I will sleep better tonight.

c0ld

c0ld

Ryan's picture

In reply to: Re: Marines

It was a bit of a wierd thing to say but he's got a good point.

Halo's marines might not be very good at fighting the Covenant (in keeping with the game's storyline) but they do have excellent A.I. and if you use them properly then they're very useful. On legendary they will die very quickly no matter what you do but on anything below that if you have five of them they can be almost as effective as you are on your own, especially if you keep the enemy's attention focused on you.

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Marines - Shield-ship skirmish

I really hope they do. If everybody that reads this send an email to bungie asking... pleading that they relise it then maybe, just maybe...

c0ld vengeance's picture

I just found a new lifeform in Halo

They can be found on Blood Gulch, all you have to do is stand still and listen...

I think the're called...... BIRDS!!!

...Why can we hear birds tweeting?!?

c0ld

c0ld

narcogen's picture

In reply to: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

Could be worse. Could be those damn loons from Marathon. :)

c0ld vengeance wrote on Wednesday, 11/27/2002 - 12:39 pm:

: I just found a new lifeform in Halo
:
: They can be found on Blood Gulch, all you have to do is
: stand still and listen...
:
: I think the're called...... BIRDS!!!
:
: ...Why can we hear birds tweeting?!?
:
: c0ld



Narcogen


Rampant for over se7en years.



Ryan's picture

In reply to: Re: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

Funny how in Halo's seas there's absolutely no fish! :)

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: Re: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

Ryan wrote on Thursday, 11/28/2002 - 11:26 am:

: Funny how in Halo's seas there's absolutely no fish! :)

But Halo does have small sea creatures, I know ive seen a picture somewhere...

c0ld

c0ld

Ryan's picture

In reply to: Re: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

c0ld vengeance wrote on Thursday, 11/28/2002 - 7:08 pm:

: But Halo does have small sea creatures, I know ive seen a
: picture somewhere...
:
: c0ld

Are you sure it wasn't from an earlier version of Halo? I've seen early shots with all kinds of indigenous creatures running around Halo tha didn't make it into the full game.

c0ld vengeance's picture

In reply to: Re: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

Positive. Anyone help me out with a link to a pic.. narc!?

There like, little shrimpy type wormy things. (thats the technical term)

c0ld

c0ld

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

Ya! I have seen thoes shrimpy things! Just go underwater on silent cartographer and stand still where your head is about a foot under and look up! they float near the surface :)

Ryan's picture

In reply to: Re: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

coolzmatt wrote on Sunday, 12/1/2002 - 10:27 pm:

: Ya! I have seen thoes shrimpy things! Just go underwater
: on silent cartographer and stand still where your head is
: about a foot under and look up! they float near the surface
: :)

Oh those things, I thought they were just little bits of seaweed and stuff in the water.

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: New lifeform on Halo!!!!!

Hello, can any one help me, the pillor of autom when captin lands the autom on the the ring world they give you 7-8 mins to get out on the warthog but the warthog tips up at the slitest bump, as any one got any ideas, plus the warthog is not fast enough any way if you know how to help me get out of the autom please email me at blackmasa@0800dial.com

Many many THANKS!!!!
:-)

Pages