Halo 2 Conspiracy Theory

I thought this was interesting,

Found here,

http://www.freewebs.com/microsoftscammedme/

 

I remember seeing that somewhere. I didn't read it then, but I just did now. It's true. The content was stripped out, but that's what happens a lot. The focus was earth, which subconciously I remembered when playing as the Arbiter. I didn't realize it until now. The final game isn't that bad.

I remember reading that it was a fight for earth's survival. Guess not. Halo 2 beta anyone? :smt030

 

It makes sense in a way - not sure if the "greedy evil bad kowaii Microsoft" was the reason things got dumped, but definately compared to the E3 and other demos shown, the game was heavily reworked. I was actually thinking about this the other day, looking at the store display where I work with the tagline, "Earth will never be the same." You're right. Never again will it briefly have an alien ship land and then leave. :angry I agree - there definately should have been something more.

Maybe it's too much to hope for a Halo 2 Director's Cut?

 

think we will see the day when publishers will release two separate versions for a given game - one short regular version and one extended collector's version? :smt022

I hope not...

 

I think someone's just pissed because it's nt a great game. Bungies fault, not MS. Why the hell would MS intervine to make it worse.

 

don't know , but maybe MS decided for them the release date , or maybe they just decided to change the story to make a way for a third one , this third one would help alot for the release of xbox 2 , don't you think?

bussiness is bussiness..... i could be wrong though, im just saying options.

who knows?

 

they don't really care if the game is bad or not , they just know it will sell alot because of the hype , and this is the most important thing for them.

don't think great game always do great sales , just think of beyond good and evil, its a pretty good game , with great critics , but the game didn't sell. why? well , there's marketing issues. now Ubisoft is uncertain about the future of this new serie... it was suposed to be a trilogy , and now we are uncertain about the second game. Still, Beyond good and evil pretty good , and it's not the reason why ubi is uncertain to make another game for this new serie , its because it didn't sell well.


so , to return to the subject , microsoft know it will sell alot , because its Halo 2! so they can cut everything to make a way for the third one . why a third one? because its halo and it sells pretty well! in fact , its the most succesfull game on xbox , and it helped allot. So why would they refuse a third halo? or why would they make the story end in the second halo, they know they can still make cash.
It can be good or bad , the most important thing is this: Selling! still, Great games sells well, but not always. there's also games that are bad but sell good.

 

Yeah, Like the original Halo :smt043

Sorry, I couldn't resist ^_^

 

That's just bull shit. There's plenty of games that were htped to hell, came out, were shit so didn't sell (Driver 3, Kill Zone etc.) It's always a better business plan to make a good game. Regardless of any other factors.

 

Bungie has also stated, many, many times that Halo 2 is the end of the franchise.

Also, the main point. A BAD HALO WOULD KILL THE FRANCHISE

So please please stop hating Microsoft becuase Halo 2 let you down.

 

haha, in some areas doom3 has better graphics, but it still has the same old contrived drivel for gameplay that the original doom had

HL2 is full of innovation and creativity. And the water effects are second to none.

 

Halo 2 isn't shit. I resent that people consider it as such. No way in hell is it the best game ever, but it isn't shit. Pisses me off, like when people say FIFA or Madden is shit. Bungie took a lot of time and effort to make this, and they made a good game. It has problems, but at the end of the day, its fun. (waits to get flamed...)

It's definately true, Halo 2's campaign is good deal different than what was originally planned. There is no way Halo 2 is the end of the franchise. If that's what Bungie has planned, MS will buy them out or force them to do it. With that amount of cash on the line, Halo 3 is coming out.

There was one theory that some of the stripped out content would be available for download, to tie together Halo 2's ending. Sounds plausible to me, though I'd think MS would want to charge an extra $50 for Halo 3.

Halo 2 hardly let me down. I bought it just to buy it. Wasn't expecting an amazing experience, and I got more than what I expected. Halo 1 was a generic FPS, with good multiplayer. Halo 2 is much less generic, with a stronger story, great sound effects, and much better multiplayer.

 

Who said it was shit?

 

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that Halo 2 is the end of the franchise - Bungie has repeatedly stated that they will neither confirm nor deny a Halo 3 being in the works, which is a lot of effort to go to if a franchise has ended. For another thing, with the disappointing ending that Halo 2 left everyone with, it would be absolutely ridiculous for Bungie to not finish the series.

Let's steer away from the Microsoft-hating for a second and look at this logically. Halo, as a launch title for the Xbox, outsold all the other launch titles, and was constantly one of the highest selling games for the system. Unlike Splinter Cell or Dead Or Alive 3, Microsoft never sent Halo to the Platinum Greatest Hits collection, not because it wasn't popular enough, but because it was such a consistent seller that they could sell it at nearly the origina retail price, and people would buy it. So Microsoft's aquisition of Bungie was definately proven to be a good idea for the company, as they had a wonderful cash cow on hand here.
Now we arrive at Halo 2. While the original Halo's ending definately hinted at the possibility of a sequel, it could have also stood just fine on its own - Halo destroyed, Flood gone, yay. However, due either to Bungie's wanting to continue the story, Microsoft's wanting to turn a successful game into a successful franchise, or a bit of both, Halo 2 was announced and created. The game was hyped all to hell and back, and when the dust settled on release day, the game had generated more revenue by far than the biggest weekend blockbuster movies ever. Halo 2 absolutely blew away Spider-Man, Titanic, The Phantom Menace, all of the top grossing movies. Yet the game feels absolutely unfinished. The ending isn't anywhere close to what you could call an ambiguous stopping point - the gamer is left wanting to know what the hell happens next, and some of us even cursed the TV, Bungie, Microsoft with the most horrible voodoo hex imaginable when we realized that, in essence, we only got half a game, one that cuts to the credits when things start getting good.
Simply put, with the money that has so far been flowing like water from the name Halo, coupled with the fact that the second game unarguably ended prematurely, and it would be absolutely ridiculous for Microsoft and Bungie to not push forward with another Halo - they have both the financial incentive (with the ridiculous amounts of money generated by Halo 2) and the story incentive (finish the goddamn thing). Plus, even though they are still named Bungie, the company is a part of Microsoft's Games division, and if Microsoft says, "Make Halo 3" they have to comply. And what better way to sell the XBox Next than with the next Halo as a launch title?

And it's debateable whether or not a 'bad Halo' would kill the franchise - from where I'm sitting, I've seen bad Zeldas, bad Marios, horrible Grand Theft Autos, but at then end of the day, the slavering fanboys or the mainstream gamers that don't know any better will come back for more. Why do you think 3DO made so many Army Men titles? It wasn't just for the hell of it - it's because idiots actually bought them.

Although there is a good point - we shouldn't hate Microsoft just because Halo 2 was a disappointment - that's Bungie's fault. However, if there was a situation where, say, Halo 2 was twice as long and Microsoft said, "No, cut this in half, release the first part and optimize the second one for XBox Next", then it would be Microsoft who is to blame for the inferior product. However, we can't really say one way or another, and holding either the developer or the publisher responsible for the letdown that was Halo 2 is jumping the gun a bit.

Although I do hold Bungie responsible for their awful texture work in the game. There's no excuse for stuff like that in a game that was in development for four years.

 

Sorry, I misinterpreted your posts, Funk-Star. :smt045 :smt083

You know what this is exactly like? Anyone remember the Soul Revear controversy? Where people felt they were cheated, and it turned out Crystal Dynamics had cut the "second half" (which they claimed was around 2 or 3 levels) to make a sequel? Supposedly, Eidos forced them to do it (I'm guessing), but CD said it was because the second part wasn't up to snuff.

I wouldn't be surprised. I must admit, fighting on Earth is a lot better than fighting on Halo. Even though some people may think the Earth level was shit (like the fellow who made the conspiracy theory), I thought it was the best part of the game.

With Xbox Next slated (supposedly) for release in 2005, this move would make a hell of a lot of sense.

And yes, the textures are seriously screwey. The bump mapping is nice, but there's points where it is up to a second late in mapping! I wouldn't say it's a game-killer or anything like that, and I do think the graphics are pretty decent, what with the no load times 'n stuff...but you gotta wonder...

Also, anyone remember the "snow" warthog and the other variants? Makes you wonder if the game was a good deal different...

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm talking about when I complain about Halo 2 is the textures. Sure, the gameplay isn't affected at all, but the general presentation of both the cutscenes (which not only have the delayed bump-mapping problem, but also look very jerky and not too smooth) and the in-game texture management is very sloppy.

And I remember the Soul Reaver thing very well, oh yes. Play through Soul Reaver - To Be Continued. Well dammit. Watching eagerly as Soul Reaver 2 is announced on Dreamcast, cancelled, revived on PS2, and released. Snatching up a copy and playing through it - To Be Concluded. GOD DAMMIT!
I know that Soul Reaver was the one that had a lot of things stripped out of it (Dumah's level, the Cathedral, etc.) but Soul Reaver 2 was the one that really felt unfinished - not in terms of polish, as the game was amazing, but in gameplay length. As soon as I beat Halo 2 I was reminded of the way I felt at the end of SR2. Not happy. :angry

Part of me still hopes CD/Silicon Knights will pick up Soul Reaver and put back in the axed levels and rerelease it, maybe running on the Soul Reaver 2 or Defiance engine, but that's highly unplausable. :smt009

 

Also, I remember this as being one of the biig pre-release screens:


Anyone ever find this cutscene in-game?

 

pretty sure thats on the dvd but its not on the game and also isnt that a weapon thats not in the game ? im sure there was a sticky one that bounced or something...

 

Excuse me , but you are totally wrong on this . First, Driver 3 sell well. Second, there's plenty of games that were hyped to hell, came out , and sell pretty well. ETM is one of this exemple , apart from the story , there's nothing good in this software , the combats are repetitve as hell, the bullet time isn't great , you don't need the bullet time in the game, you have plenty and plenty of bugs , unplayable shooting and driving scenes , bad graphics , and a feel of still-in-developement game with alot of things missing. And you know what? it selled pretty well, and was on the top of the charts for a long time. Why? because it was hyped.

i can make you other exemples too, but this one is pretty good imo.

this is a good plan , sure. but more and more compagnies are just hyping the game , and butching it to make it fit to the anounced release date. This seems to be a good plan too when you watch the succes of somes tittles like driver 3 and ETM , to return to these exemples.

exact, no one.

no one said halo 2 was shit. but it was and it is again alot hyped.

Mmmm... i wouldn't say that , Micro$oft is Micro$oft you know?

exact.

 

You ruin you're entire argument and credibility by saying "Micro$oft".

Games change all the time - sometimes beyond recognition, deal with it. Don't go nit-picking little discrepancies in the hope of unravelling a big misery. "oh, I saw this screen 7 months ago and it isn't in the game - MS must have cut it out"

If, and indeed if there ever was a Halo 3 do you think it's just going to re use parts missing from Halo 2?

This is just silly.