Bungie owns up to Halo 2's flaws

by David Dreger { Jan 24th 2007 at 12:15PM }

Edge Online posted an interview with Bungie, where various team members discuss Halo 3, the development process and other aspects of the team's infrastructure. One thing has seemingly stood out from the article, though, and that is their view on Halo 2. The comments from Technical Lead Chris Butcher seem to be generating the most buzz. He feels that the team miscalculated on Halo 2 and that the multiplayer should have been exponentially better than what was released on the disc. He even goes so far as to say that he can't even play Halo 2, and uses that as a springboard to illustrate that Halo 3 will not fall into the same trap. Bungie has been known to be hyper critical of their own work in the past. While their opinions may be a little on the extreme side, if it motivates them to make Halo 3 the best it can be, then everybody wins. So, what do you think? Was Halo 2 really that bad? It still set the standard of how party matchmaking should be done, right?

To have a look at the rest of the interview, which touches on many things other than what was wrong with Halo 2, click the "Read" link.

[Thanks, KilgoreTrout]

Tags: Bungie, Finish the Fight, FinishTheFight, halo 2, Halo 3, Halo2, Halo3, Matchmaking, Microsoft games Studios, MicrosoftGamesStudios, Multiplayer, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox360, XboxLive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mike @ Jan 24th 2007 12:28PM

halo 2 was great, and did set a matchmaking standard (which nobody seems to meet nowadays), but halo 2 lacked alot of impoirtant stuff. The gametypes needed much more customization. You needed to be able to select exactly which weapons are on the map, and where. Including an option to turn of gernades. Vehicle selection was at its worst, a step down from halo PC. + they needed to allow on the fly game mode set-ups, not having to have them pre-made before hand.

Halo 2 was a great starting point, and I think if they improve upon that they can have the best halo game ever.

let us customze everything from weapon placement, to weapon strength to vehicle damage on/off. Also, we need a public game browser instead of just join friends public games (although I thought I read they are doing that).

Idealy, a gametype maker and map maker would the ultimate delight, but I dont see that happening.

J.Goodwin @ Jan 24th 2007 12:27PM

Halo2 may be fun, but it's definitely broken as well.

The number of exploits that there's just no way of fixing at this point is massive, and to a lot of people, there's not much interest in participating in a cheat fest.

Arno @ Jan 24th 2007 1:08PM

The singleplayer blew chunks. I don't care much for multiplayer.

KilgoreTrout XL @ Jan 24th 2007 1:28PM

Since I think there's no better multiplayer experience on any platform, anywhere, it makes me want to check out Halo 3 that much more.

So yes, I think they're being way to critical of themselves. But it looks like we'll be reap the benefits of that criticism.

As an aside, I've yet to recieve an invite to the beta in my gmail inbox, so I'm feeling better and better about that crackdown preorder.

h0mi @ Jan 24th 2007 1:53PM

I just hope they improved matchmaking in BTB... give me the choice to opt out of maps or specific games.

moore @ Jan 24th 2007 2:50PM

Cool. i'm not a big halo fan myself (I dont own either one) but it's nice tosee devs being candid about flaws in their stuff.

Toph @ Jan 24th 2007 2:59PM

I personally loved it, though that's not to say it was perfect. But the whole Halo 2 online experience definitely served as a testing ground for Xbox Live on 360. Think about all the features that H2 had that were later built into XBL--text messaging, voice messaging, gamer pictures (though they were more like icons in H2), online integration, etc. H2 wasn't the first to do such things, but the implementation was definitely influential.

Edge of Blade @ Jan 24th 2007 3:16PM

The best thing that Halo 2 did was to give players LOTS of options, forcing them to use play lists with a variety of games (so not every game was MLG or snipers), and establish the party system.

I would be fine if Bungie declined to use a browser list again because after playing other games online, I understand the importance of play lists, even if they mess with your traditional way of thinking about games. It makes sure a game is no more than a minute away, it gives me players on par with my skills in most cases, and it let me bring and keep my friends together.

If Bungie MUST use a server browser, keep it separate from Matchmaking. Every game should follow Halo 2's matchmaking system, at least up to the point you start actually playing, and maybe add a browser from there.

And, if Bungie sees fit, give us a dedicated server mode, so we can run our boxes as dedicated servers.

JRock3x8 - 2o2p @ Jan 24th 2007 6:30PM

halo 2 was the best multiplyaer game of its time. if bungie thinks they can do better, i will not stand in their way.

george @ Jan 24th 2007 4:28PM

I like the Halo2 matchmaking system so much more that Halo for PC. In Halo for PC all I wanted to do was go around and team kill people, be an ass, and see how many people I could piss off and how many servers I could be banned from. With Halo 2 I actually enjoy playing competitively.