Gameplay Quirks

One of the major gameplay variations within Halo 2 results due to the BXR. While a player should always attempt to effectively use all of the possibilities at his disposal to achieve victory BXR has grown beyond any conceivable limits. While I was playing a quite a bit the past few weeks in preparation for MLG Dallas I realized the fact that gameplay is funnelled into very few possibilities. Come face to face with an opponent and your options are either smack BXB or BXR them. While the BXB (H2 Double Melee) is typically much easier to land and much more reliable (due to the fact that H2 auto-corrects for user-error in reticule alignment by lunging) the BXR will kill faster if successfully landed. In the event of a face to face fight simply shooting your opponent with your BR is pointless due to the fact that he runs much faster then you while you run backwards, and with his lunge he will be able to land a melee.

The face to face fight in Halo 1 has many more levels of variance allowing for user choice. When conronted face to face with an opponent one player may attempt to spin his opponent and 3 or 4 shot them with the pistol, or they may assault rifle melee them, or double melee them and let the grenade kill them, or melee them one time headshot them, or shoot them twice and melee them. This variation allows for a player to quickly assess the situation, their position, and weapon set and decide on the best course of action for victory. In Halo 2 however as I witnessed at MLG the majority of the players in a face to face fight simply go into auto-pilot and their muscle memory takes over jamming down BXR.

While I have no problem with the BXR's ability to kill I do have a problem with the lack of risk for the reward it offers. If a player were to attempt a high damage maneuver such as a double melee in H1 they were faced with the risk of being damaged by their own grenade. This balancing factor is used throughout genres of videogames. Fighting games use a similar principle for high-damage maneuvers by making them more high-risk, which can leave the player attempting them vulnerable for a small moment if they are unsuccessful.

On another note I find it somewhat humerous how MLG has eliminated the most drastic change in Halo 2, dual wielding. I'm sure the Bungie brainstorming sessions thought that dual-wielding was going to be the next cool thing and be fantastic. Whereas in reality it resulted in dumb gameplay where users simply smash down their triggers. I actually like using dual wield magnum right hand and SMG left hand in Midship FFA matches just because it makes people feel stupid when they get killed by a dual wielder.

While I had a fun time at MLG in reality the most fun I had was saturday evening and night lanning with Yoda (who let us stay at his house), Exile, DSmooth, and the rest of my teammates TXAggie Optimus, Prince & DatBoyCold. While we played 4v4 Friday night and Saturday morning I don't think any of us really enjoyed ourselves nearly as much as we did when we played 2v2 H1, regardless of the outcome of the games.

Finish The Fight

Today Bungie released the announcement trailer for Halo 3. While the video showed absolutely no gameplay or in-game footage it did fulfill its intended purpose: build anticipation. The footage and location rendering looks extremely sharp and the effects are very smooth. There is essentially no action until about a minute into it when the masterchief graces the screen with his presence.

The most exciting part of the trailer itself is the fact that the chief was holding an Assault Rifle, Halo 1 style. Every advertisement and poster I remember for Halo: Combat Evolved had the masterchief holding the AR. The only question I have is whether or not he has a pistol in his back pocket ^_^. Atleast someone is reading my blog, wink wink, nudge nudge. Here are a few images of chief with the assault rifle, the High-resolution one is from Bungie's site, and the other two I captured myself from the video.



The music throughout the trailer sounds very familiar, with the overtones of the piano in a style reminiscent of Final Fantasy. It does however fit with the previous feel of the musical overtones of the Halo genre.

I don't really like the way the new "3" logo looks, it appears washed out and doesn't have the 3D effect of the "2" logo in the Halo 2 trailer. However the release of the trailer is pretty cool, I can't wait to see some gameplay.






-Oh I forgot the cardinal rule to blogging - post numerous links to sites of importance such as Bungie.net and the trailer announcement.

Network Protocol

By design Halo: Combat Evolved was inherently not a major multiplayer game. The main original selling point of Halo was the exciting graphics and the artificial worlds created on the new Xbox platform. The average initial player most likely ran through the campaign mode and enjoyed every minute of it as Bungie managed to keep you on the edge of your seat through much of the game. However it was quickly discovered how much fun a player could have competing against his own friends in the multiplayer mode. This multiplayer mode was not designed to be played over the internet, which is quite obvious through the network design. However the desire to compete against new competitors on the internet was just too great and soon services such as Gamespy and Xbox Connect were offering the ability to play Halo online. Unfortunately playing H1 online requies a very fast internet connection (especially for the host) and a small round trip latency (or ping, ICMP Echo Request/Response).

Due to the fact that Halo operates on a Synchronous networking model there can be a large amount of lag due to the round trip flow of information. While two xbox's are playing Halo they are both operating in a deterministic world evolving by their actions predicated upon one another. The joining player's actions are carried out immediately and are rendered in relation to the Server (host) xbox. While the joining players reticule may be showing the location his bullets should be landing due to the round trip latency his bullets will be landing at a slightly later time within the game. Add in character motion and your bullets will lagging behind the player you are shooting. This can cause an unfair advantage for the host xbox and create problems effectively fighting for the client xbox. This problem can appear even more severe in up-close bombat with weapons such as a shotgun or plasma rifle. However with skill and planning the latency issue can often be overcome. Over medium to long distances (red base to blue base on Hang 'em High) a player can estimate the lag he is experiencing (based on current bullet lag pattern) and adjust to shoot and kill effectively. I feel the ability to learn and understand how much a player is lagging is a very important fact which allows experienced players to compete with lag. Due to the fact that the player can understand how much they are lagging, they are able to compensate for the lag.

Halo 2 is not based on a synchronous networking model. While Halo 2 is still based on a client/server model there is a very large amount of predictions produced in real time, in game. The client relays information about what they are doing; throwing grenades, shooting, running, jumping, and that information is then processed by the server and that information then given out to all of the other clients. As a client views another character running their xbox makes predictions of their future behavior based on their current behavior. If the player is running in a certain direction then it can be predicted that he will continue running in that direction for a certain amount of time. The prediction made is a few hundred milliseconds. The pitfalls of this mechanic can be seen in game when you may see a player running in a certain direction then suddenly jerk into another direction. The player changed his heading while you were predicting his next position, and when you (the client) received the updated version of his position (from the server) your xbox compensated for his position. Another memorable example of this behavior is the rising elevator in Ivory Tower. Your xbox creates a prediction of the behavior of the elevator as you step onto it, and as the server updates the actual position to you it can often effect your velocity throwing you into the ceiling.

Another design characteristic of Halo 2 is the fact that only the server can create destructive elements and award kills and so forth within the game. While you throw a grenade your xbox (in your first person) renders your arm pulling the grenade and throwing it, as well as creating the sound of you pulling the pin. This information is relayed to the server and the server confirms this information, relaying to everyone in the game including yourself, thus creating the grenade flying from your hand. Examples of this behavior can be experienced during a laggy game, where you will throw a grenade (created in your first person render) but the grenade isn't created in the world. Or you will snipe an opponent but you won't receive the "you sniped ______" message for an amount of time.

While this model is designed to create an atmosphere for a large number of xbox's playing over a great distance it creates one major problem: the inability to learn and predict the behavior of lag. Very often it may appear that all of your battle rifle bullets are striking your opponent, but for some reason you are unable to kill them. This is due to the prediction of opponent movement and behavior by your xbox and the latency with the server confirmation. The best way to really experience this behavior is to pull host when you often are unable to pull host. One game not long after the update (after I had reaquainted myself with the BR behavior) I pulled host in a double team game on Ascension. I had a BR at big base and began shooting an opponent that was about halfway between the needler (above the OS) and and the end of the bridge coming from Banshee. Remarkably I put this player down in 4-shots to the head. I was shocked by the effectiveness of my Battle Rifle and was amazed with the ease I could kill opponents. I was able to kill opponents who were fighting my teammate who was at small base simply with my BR. Now in exactly similiar circumstances when I am not host it is much harder to kill opponents from these distances. Very often it will appear as if my bullets are striking them exactly the same as before, but for some reason they appear to have no effect on them. This is the result of the networking protocol model within Halo 2, my shots are being displayed as being accurately placed, but their effectiveness is nullified due to the lag. I am unable to predict the lag and correct for the difference.

In reality it can be understood that the network model for Halo 2 was designed to allow players to play one another on Xbox Live with much higher latency then they were able to play in Halo 1 (where lag over LAN can be noticeable). However while this model is successful in the goal of allowing a large pool of possible opponents, it often sadly reduces the chances of victory exclusively to the xbox who is the host. This can be argued for Halo 1 as well, where I would often beat an opponent by 10 or 12 kills when I knew that if we were lanning I would likely beat them by 20 or 30. However the ability to adjust for the lag allowed me to effectively defend myself and present a useful offense. This abilily however is negated online in Halo 2.

Bizarro-World

This post goes against everything I've written thus far about Halo 2. The Bungie team did learn a few things from Halo 1 and in some areas were able to help improve the gameplay through useful upgrades.

Xbox Live - The greatest improvement to the Halo gaming universe is the addition of Xbox Live. While the possibility of Live support didn't exist on the release of Halo: Combat Evolved and the internet connections to use it effectively were also lacking this is a great improvement none the less. The amount of games the average player is able to play on Xbox Live and the experience gained is incredible. The convenience and the ease of playing on Live is unparalleled. Strategies can be learned and honed, friendships cultivated, and skills perfected. Without a doubt the addition of Xbox Live to Halo 2 is the greatest possible improvement.

VOICE! Another useful and integral part of gameplay is the ability to use a mic. Voice chat allows for better teamwork with teammates, and improved gameplay overall. The usefulness of a mic when teaching someone a strategy or showing them something new is phenomenal.

The addition of customizable character symbols also helps improve gameplay and add to teamwork. The symbols and and the current state of your teammates such as red for being shot, or yellow for shooting help a player understand the dynamic of the current game.

Dead X symbols are also very useful and help alleviate the confusion that can result when you don't know the status of your teammates. Both the visual X marker and the X marker in the scoreboard (holding back) are extremely useful. The scoreboard organization is also very helpful allowing characters to stay up to date on their progress and their overall team progress towards victory.

Impovements to the HUD are also very useful. The display of team score in the bottom right corner along with the gametype and time remaining are useful on the fly. On screen display who is dying, who has the flag, and other information is great as well. A few of the problems that I have with the HUD the behavior of the shield and the radar. I don't know how Bungie was unable to find an applicable way to arrange the shield as to not require a blank radar circle to remain with radar turned off. I also like the improvements of onscreen flag status, however I don't really like the way the "no ammo" or "low ammo" looks. For some reason it just looks like Bungie was attempting to emulate some type of "Apple hipster" look with these symbols. I prefer the block font "No Ammo" in Halo 1 which appeared to be less cartoonistic and more FPS death and destruction type game.

One great improvement in gameplay resulted from the necessity to hold X to pick up both the flag and the ball. This was one of the major problems I always had with Halo 1 that I wish could have been changed. Having the ball forced into your hands when fighting was quite annoying and the Bungie team was a little shortsighted on the original behavior. Not that you could blame them they didn't have the wealth of experience and knowledge of the Halo universe when they were making the first, however they did when making the second.

While I think the increase in post-game information such as Medals, hit percentage, headshots, suicides, and person vs. person statistics are fantastic I don't exactly understand how players are sorted. In Halo 1 it was very obvious who had the highest score, and if there was a tie these two players would be sorted secondly by kills second, and by number of deaths third. In Halo 2 I have been unable to figure out how players who tie in kills are sorted. It doesn't appear to be done by deaths, assists, hit percentage, or suicides. I don't know if it has something to do with who spawned first (aka host or closer to host) or some other arbitrary fact that had nothing to do with the game. Not that this impacts the game heavily I just think it is stupid if two players both had 15 kills and one has 3 deaths and the other ranks above him with 8 deaths, odd.

That's about all that I can think of, most of these improvements don't impact the game too heavily, they just help streamline the game at times. If anybody has any ideas on things they feel have been improved between the two games I'd love to hear them in the comments.

Failures For Gods

I've already discussed my belief that Halo was an accident in creation by the Bungie staff, I think there is a mental misconception that Bungie creates with absolute perfection. Short article on a few things I've noticed.

I've seen footage that is 4 years old of my friends playing Halo of them using strictly Assault Rifles. CTF Hang Em High, Damnation TS, everything. When they recorded the games (onto a VHS through the VCR) they thought they were really good, like they were about as good as people would get at Halo. It wouldn't surprise me if following all the testing before the H1 release if Bungie thought that is what the best players would play like as well: running around like idiots tapping their AR's scraping off their opponents shields.

I remember reading one of the weekly updates a little while before the November 9th release of H2, I remember it saying something to the effect of "the needler is new and improved, you'll actually want to pick it up!" What is beyond me is the type of gaming that was going on in the Bungie offices for the needler to be a useful weapon. I had abandoned hope of ever using the needler in a serious game about 15 minutes after midnight that evening. If you were honestly killing people with needlers then they must be HORRIBLE at the game, and the fact that those people created it is scary.

Does anyone remember how crappy the BR was before the 1.1 update? I can't understand how that the 10 foot spread of the bullets was envisioned as a sufficnet weapon for effective gaming. I guess the image of good gameplay they had in mind was everyone running around holding plasma rifle/needler dual-wield like idiots.

Why is it that my character routinely gets blown across the map by grenades when I die but guns only move like 2 1/2 inches when a grenade blows up next to them? I don't know, maybe for some reason guns can't be moved by explosions but a huge spartan metal armored suit is extremely susceptible. If that isn't a continuity design flaw then I don't know what is.



Are my articles too long? Cause I figured there would be alot more people with something to say about the oddball spawn part of my last article. I don't know, maybe it's only a big deal to me.