The agony of the late adopter

edited August 2003 in Gaming

Comments

  • edited December 1969
    So, earlier this week one of my housemates rolled in with an Xbox under his arm. This is a great windfall for me of course, but! I've got some cognitive dissonance because a) I'd always planned to get Halo if we got an Xbox, but b) the PC version is sort of imminent. I'm pretty sure I'll get the PC version eventually if its Internet multiplayer is solid. The question is, do I get the Xbox version, and if so, do I get it _now_?

    On the one hand, it would be nice to experience Halo first under the best conditions. There's the possibility that the PC version will have been fixed up a bit compared to the Xbox version, and I'll probably be building a new gaming PC for Doom 3, HL 2, etc. which will boost the graphics. Plus of course there's the superior control scheme on the PC.

    On the other hand, I know the only way I'm going to get to do any Halo 1-on-1 or coop with my housemates is if I get the Xbox version. And doing my first run of the singleplayer game as a coop would be ideal, if the coop mode is solid. Is it? And does the 1-on-1 play have longevity?

    (BTW tunnelling for Internet play is not a factor, as we just don't have the bandwidth for that.)

    Anything else I should weigh in the balance?

    And while I'm asking stuff... any other cool coop games on the Xbox?

    (Meanwhile I'm deep into MechAssault and JSRF. Good times.)

  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter

    Please, don't even delay, GET HALO FOR XBOX.

    Target and some other stores are routinely selling Halo at much less than the going $49 rate. I picked up my second copy for $30 a few weeks back. Check your local sunday flyers.

    You are going to LOVE coop.
  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter

    Don't beat around the bush, man, what do you REALLY think? :-)

    Time to do some comparison shopping...

  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter

    You also need (yes NEED) to get MidtownMadness 3, which I have been playing on XBox Live with a bunch of Geezers. (Free, you should come play too!) It's a blast -- detailed maps of Paris and D.C., fun games and infinitely bashable cars.

    Look for "golux13" whenever you get signed on to Live.
  • edited December 1969
    Now why didn't you say something before now?

    My Live subscription has been sitting around unused since I tried the lagfest that was Unreal Championship and gave up on Live games ever being fun.

    _/ C's Site o' Fun!
  • edited December 1969
    Re: Now why didn't you say something before now?

    Well, hell, Carch... come play MM3 with us. Check us most any night (though more frequently Mon/Wed/Fri for some reason), starting around 7pm Pacific/9 Central.


    Blobs of Glup
  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter
    Please, don't even delay, GET HALO FOR XBOX.

    Target and some other stores are routinely selling Halo at much
    less than the going $49 rate. I picked up my second copy for $30
    a few weeks back. Check your local sunday flyers.

    You are going to LOVE coop.
    Welp, Fry's had a sale about a week ago and I picked it up. Most excellent. Finished singleplayer on Normal and I'm a couple of levels away from finishing it on Heroic now; may take a breather before Legendary. :-)

    Unfortunately no co-op so far, since SCII came out and is sucking up most of my housemates' Xbox time, but I may get one of them to hog around on Silent Cartographer with me one of these days...

  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter
    Welp, Fry's had a sale about a week ago and I picked it up. Most
    excellent. Finished singleplayer on Normal and I'm a couple of
    levels away from finishing it on Heroic now; may take a breather
    before Legendary. :-)

    Unfortunately no co-op so far, since SCII came out and is
    sucking up most of my housemates' Xbox time, but I may get one
    of them to hog around on Silent Cartographer with me one of
    these days...
    Legendary is truly that... legendary. It's one tough mofo, and really shows how Butcher, of Myth fame, is very adept at AI programming.

    What's funny is I've played it for so long now, trying to better my times on certain levels or sub-levels, that I absolutely fly through normal.
  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter

    Hi,

    To answer your question on more cool coop games, there really aren't enough. However, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance for xbox is totally awesome, and Dark Alliance 2 comes out next month. And, the second one looks to be the bomb. Also coming out soon is D&D Heroes, which has coop up to 4 people, but I'm not sure how great that game promises to be.

    Hope I helped some,

    Adam>

    So, earlier this week one of my housemates rolled in with an
    Xbox under his arm. This is a great windfall for me of course,
    but! I've got some cognitive dissonance because a) I'd always
    planned to get Halo if we got an Xbox, but b) the PC version is
    sort of imminent. I'm pretty sure I'll get the PC version
    eventually if its Internet multiplayer is solid. The question
    is, do I get the Xbox version, and if so, do I get it _now_?

    On the one hand, it would be nice to experience Halo first under
    the best conditions. There's the possibility that the PC version
    will have been fixed up a bit compared to the Xbox version, and
    I'll probably be building a new gaming PC for Doom 3, HL 2, etc.
    which will boost the graphics. Plus of course there's the
    superior control scheme on the PC.

    On the other hand, I know the only way I'm going to get to do
    any Halo 1-on-1 or coop with my housemates is if I get the Xbox
    version. And doing my first run of the singleplayer game as a
    coop would be ideal, if the coop mode is solid. Is it? And does
    the 1-on-1 play have longevity?

    (BTW tunnelling for Internet play is not a factor, as we just
    don't have the bandwidth for that.)

    Anything else I should weigh in the balance?

    And while I'm asking stuff... any other cool coop games on the
    Xbox?

    (Meanwhile I'm deep into MechAssault and JSRF. Good times.)
  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter
    Legendary is truly that... legendary. It's one tough mofo, and
    really shows how Butcher, of Myth fame, is very adept at AI
    programming.
    I agree, Legendary is cool! I was going to give it a whirl before hitting the sack, just so I could chuckle at getting destroyed, but I started moving through it fairly briskly and stayed up to play. It's a real challenge even after having played through the game twice before, but not unreasonable (except... well I'll get to that).

    It's a little unfortunate that "stress testing" the game has brought out a couple of things that bug me, which I will now complain about.

    One minor issue is that the up/down sensitivity of the aim stick is significantly too slow. I wish that the vertical sens could be adjusted independently of the horizontal sens. But I'll deal.

    The major issue, and I knew this was coming, is that the checkpoint system has finally managed to piss me off. My Legendary adventures hit a brick wall at the beginning of Into the Belly of the Beast, because I'm stuck with a bad checkpoint there.

    I thought the beginning-of-level ckpt had already happened, so I felt free to indulge my paranoia and pick up the active camo at the beginning. Then, whoops!, there's the ckpt. For the next 3 hours, I think, I tried that damn fight sequence over and over, and I've concluded that it's basically impossible unless I leave the active camo untouched for a while. Since I hadn't done a save-and-quit earlier in the Truth and Reconciliation chapter, I guess I'll have to start the chapter over again from the beginning. Not that playing more Halo is a horrible thing, but I'd sure like the choice to be left up to me. It'll probably take me a while before I achieve the mental state needed to restart that chapter and try again. :-)

  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter
    For the next 3
    hours, I think, I tried that damn fight sequence over and over,
    OK maybe it wasn't 3 hours. :-) (Remembered that I started later than I thought.) It was a horribly long time though.
  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter
    OK maybe it wasn't 3 hours. :-) (Remembered that I started later
    than I thought.) It was a horribly long time though.
    "She turned me into a Newt!!......Well, I got better."

    Heh...

    That could be a thesis topic...

    The Time Dilation Factor of Gaming Time vs. Real Time

    I just think them up...someone else can write it...

    ;-)

    McGyver
  • edited December 1969
    Re: The agony of the late adopter
    That could be a thesis topic...

    The Time Dilation Factor of Gaming Time vs. Real Time

    I just think them up...someone else can write it...
    I'll provide the case studies.

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