More Halo 2 complaints from weird Halo CE fans...

Halo 2 whining

I've never seen this article before, so I know I'm a little late to comment. But I'm going to. Live with it. I think all this moping stems from "all my cheap tricks from the original don't work in the sequel. Wah."

Is Halo 2 broken? No. Does Halo 2 leave room for improvement? Yes.

My semi-counter-arguments:

1. "The weapon spawn system." I don't have a problem with this. It isn't impossible to kill someone with a "power weapon". In the Beam-Rifle-on-Colossus example on this article (which has since been fixed), the user mentions the truth in how a team can hang onto the sniper rifle. The main problem here, as far as sniping is concerned, is that it needs to be harder in Halo 2. No swipe trick. Breathing movement. If sniping wasn't so easy in Halo 2, this wouldn't be an issue. Rocket Launchers have extremely limited ammunition, so they aren't a problem. Bungie actually did a good job with non-dual weapons and balancing (except the sniper rifle).

2. "Nerf the vehicles next time." I don't agree. The only vehicle I have a problem with is the Banshee. It can be extremely difficult to take down. You can shoot someone out of a Warthog or Ghost, or stick any other vehicle fairly easily. An entire team can shoot at a banshee all game long and it won't go down. That's just ridiculous. I know it is possible to take them down easier, but it shouldn't be a mystery.

3. "Two guns are not ALWAYS better." Sure they are. It just sucks when you don't have two of them. I personally don't care about the downfalls of dual weilding. Something as simple as having an SMG and a Plasma Rifle can raise your odds against someone with a stronger weapon. Shoot and beat down. Duh. If you only have one gun, I hope your "sticking" is up to par. It's tricky, but you can jump over someone and assassinate them as well.

4. The Plasma Pistol is the best weapon in Halo 2. Is it? What you really mean is that the "Noob combo" sucks. But it is easier to avoid than sniping. The Plasma pistol may "seek" but it isn't extreme. It doesn't go around corners or anything. Plus it makes for a good beat down tool. If you are getting combo'd too much, you need to work on your "stealth". Hang out with DemolitionNinja and you'll see what I mean.

5. Matchmaking and the Host. Sometimes a problem, especially if one or more of the players don't have enough bandwidth. It happens. That's part of playing online. The only time it is a real concern is when the playlists involve close-range, one-hit-kill weapons. Aka the Sword and the Shotgun. The shotgun's effectiveness seems to vary per game. One round, you get a Kill Frenzy, the next you can't get that many kills total. Against what the article claims, Microsoft could put out some servers for this purpose. Custom, unranked games could use the Xboxes for hosting. Ranked/tournament games could use the servers (at the expense of possibly waiting longer for a match to start). Or weirdos could dedicate their own 360s as servers (as in Counterstrike). There's options, but I can live with "the way it is."

See my "Halo 2, the best and worst FPS of all time" post for reasons why Halo CE doesn't compare to Halo 2.