Halo 2 Anniversary (confirmed as thing now)

I'm still waiting for MS to confirm this before believing anything

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Hella 2 Anniversary: Totes Windows 8

None the less I will be very happy if they decide to bring a new and improved Halo 2 with MP to either console or PC. Halo 2 was such a great era, and the multiplayer would probably bring in more players then halo 4 ever had. The game would be an instant financial success since Halo 2 was pretty much the pinnacle of Halo multiplayer imo.

A decade ago: Halo 2 is awful!
Now: Halo 2 is the best Halo ever made, best! I want to superbounce and exploit other game-breaking bugs! I hope they don't dumb it down!

This pattern seems to repeat whenever there's a discussion about older titles in a series. I suppose parts of the community move on and those that were introduced to the series by a later game will end up looking at it through rose-tinted goggles.

In regards to Downes' comment, that has to be the least believable retraction I've seen. Either way, that's quite the foot-in-mouth moment.

Nope, Halo 2 is still awful. I don't think it deserves a remastering. A re-imagining? Sure, if it's as good as 2003 BSG was to 1979 BSG. But a remaster? Pass. Assuming it's true, it will at least be exclusive to the current Xbox series. Knowning Microsoft's bone-headed marketing strategies, it will be stuck on Xbox One only.

^this TBQH. Halo 2 was my least favorite Halo the moment I first played it. Seriously, the first time I tried to start the single player I thought my game was broken because I didn't realize the slow moving blue bar was a loading screen. I seriously thought my fucking game was cut down or something because I had bought it from Wal-Mart.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Halo 2, but I'll still take Halo 1 any day.
E: I do like a lot of Halo 2's maps though. I think Terminal would be a fucking awesome 24 player conquest map in BF4.

I can infact agree the Halo 2's SP was complete shit (I've gone on several rants about it), however personally, id kill to have a barebones classic Halo multiplayer mode again. Halo 4 and reach are over done to shit with perks, weapon customization, etc. Hell weapon spawns are entirely absent in Halo 4, something in which Halo 2\3 MP maps were designed around. (No i do not count random ordnance drops weapon spawns).

No sprint, gameplay designed around equipment on the field and everyone starts with an AR or whatever is all I ask! Sounds like something they can make a playlist out of. BUT NOPE.

Halo 2's multi-player isn't classic Halo multiplayer, though. It's a completely different animal from the original game, and one which Bungie tried to bury with each subsequent entry but couldn't because too many people liked it. It was Bungie's Modern Warfare 2.

Halo multiplayer demands health bars, ridiculously high ammo caps, FOUR-hits to kill with melee, no lunge, and shorter range-caps on mid-range weapons as much as it demands no sprinting and the presence of equipment on the field. Also, there shouldn't be any concept of "power weapons" to the game. The shotgun, needler, and plasma pistol (Reach) are not god-damn fucking power weapons, Bungie you cunts.

Power weapons wouldn't arise as a concept if they hadn't more than doubled the arsenal of weapons between Halo 1 and Halo 2 (then subsequently quadrupled it in Halo 4). It blows my mind how games like BF4 will have over 100 guns and like 10 attachments that slightly alter how they work, but then Halo has 30 weapons with only 3 or 4 guns that everybody sticks with.

If you want that variety, it would make more sense to me to dial it back to Halo 1's weapon set, then give those weapons attachments like BF4, except with more meaningful attributes. Imagine Halo 1's spam-cannon assault rifle with attachments. You could put a heavy barrel to reduce the spread at the cost of recoil, or a laser sight to improve the accuracy of sustained fire.

Power weapons wouldn't arise as a concept if the pea-brained masses learned how to properly counter players using shotguns and needlers and plasma pistols (and sniper rifles and rocket launchers) instead of whining on the forums about it. Halo 1 didn't have any balancing issues (it really didn't, at least not on Xbox), but every game after it was positively overflowing with them. Vehicles were either cardboard boxes or unstoppable behemoths, the mid-ranger out-gunned the sniper rifle at sniper distances, rocket launcher was either too easy to use or straight-up useless, plasma pistol is only good for its overcharge or can kill you in 5 hits...the list goes on.

Halo does indeed have too many guns; instead of adding to the existing stack they should straight-up make a new, smaller stack. Stop replicating niches. I'm not interested in variety of weapons, I'm interested in variety of play. Halo 2+ is rock-paper-shotguns while Halo 1 was use "your head to use what you got." At least Halo 4 encourages more of the latter; a shame they went back to the regenerating health style and went with loadouts over pickups. It was so close.