My xbox took a dive last year, so I don't have one, but a neighbor picked his copy up today and I plan on leaving work a little early to give it a run through :)

Has anybody here played it yet, and how do you like it? It only came out this morning at 12:01 AM :D

Beauty. First this, and in a week Half Life 2!

They're predicting $100M in sales worldwide in the first day. It only cost $30M to produce. Incredible. Two guys at my office picked up their copies at lunch and are leaving at 3pm to go play. Ridiculous.

I'm waiting for GT4.

They're predicting $100M in sales worldwide in the first day. It only cost $30M to produce. Incredible. Two guys at my office picked up their copies at lunch and are leaving at 3pm to go play. Ridiculous.

I'm waiting for GT4.Yeah the hype for this game is out of this world, but it's likely to be one of those cases where it's not overhyped. The first game pretty much was a good as everybody said :)

I'm still plugging away at GTA: San Andreas. Well, that and I don't have an X-box or a PC fast enough to run Half Life 2.

I am hearing so much about this game. What about it is so great?

I am hearing so much about this game. What about it is so great?I don't know the differences between it and Halo 2, since I've not kept up with them, but the great thing about Halo - and by all accounts H2 should take these and run with it - is that it was just a reall great first person shooter. For me the thing that separated it from the pack was the huge inclusion of vehicles. Unreal Tournament 2004 has vehicles in it now, but when Halo came out not many FPS games did, and certainly not in the way this did. In Halo you could take control of a big dune buggy, and a friend could sit in the passenger seat, and another one man the turret. So you can drive around nuts while your buddy (or the friendly AI) is gunning.

It also had flying craft. The game meshed interior and exterior environments well. Some of it's inside, but much of it is outside in huge impressive environments. Picture Doom3's opposite, and that is Halo.I'm still plugging away at GTA: San Andreas.I bet that's the bee's knee. I liked GTA3 a lot. Then I got vice city and LOVED it. Man, I couldn't believe how much better it was (because I tried GTA3 after, and couldn't play it - it was not nearly as good). I hope GTA:SA comes out for the PC soon, but I think it really is best on consoles. I'm done with this generation though, I'll buy an XBOX 2 when it comes out.

I bet that's the bee's knee. I liked GTA3 a lot. Then I got vice city and LOVED it. Man, I couldn't believe how much better it was (because I tried GTA3 after, and couldn't play it - it was not nearly as good). I hope GTA:SA comes out for the PC soon, but I think it really is best on consoles. I'm done with this generation though, I'll buy an XBOX 2 when it comes out.

I played both GTA3 and Vice City through to completion, and I liked both of them a lot. My opinion is that the series' biggest shortcoming has been play control and bug issues - walls you walk through, not being able to get the guy to face the right way, the aiming system, the AI, etc. It was a lot better in Vice City than in GTA3, and it's a lot better in San Andreas than in Vice City. The AI for allies, bystanders, enemies, etc. just seems tighter and makes more sense, and it's usually easier to point yourself in the right direction while shooting (except when you're really really close to something, you often shoot into the air instead of at it). This alone would be enough to make the game a lot better.

I love the self-proclaimed "G-Funk Era" (the setting of this game), Snoop, Dre, Tupac, Ice Cube (who voices a character in the game), etc., so that's a lot of fun. It doesn't have as much energy as Vice City and the music is just a little bit less awesome, overall. The story is a lot tighter (though I haven't gotten very far), and your character is the most clearly defined of the three "heroes." So, that's good.

Sometimes, though the game just breaks through and becomes totally awesome for these shining, brilliant moments. The map is huge and contains large areas of forest and hilly terrain - you can have high speed chases with the cops that just go on for miles and miles and miles. Last night, I was riding a Harley through the woods with the FBI chasing me and Free Bird blaring on the radio - it was sublime.

There's a lot of dress-up and RPG element stuff added in, which is mostly really stupid and a waste of time, in my opinion. I call this sort of stuff "Donkey Kong-itis" after Donkey Kong 64, where something like 30% of the game actually involved completing the game, and the rest was all bells and whistles and non-sequiturs. It required you to play every level a whole mess of different times without advancing in order to find everything, collect everything, and get totally immersed and compulsive about it. I found that game to be lousy, a lot of people like that sort of thing. Of course, I can't stand the Sims, and it's really popular, so, to each his own. GTA, this side stuff is usually more fun than the missions, so I give the "completists" a wider birth, but at a certain point, when you kill a whole bunch of pedestrians and then spend twenty minutes trying on pants, well, it gets a little excessive.

Still, yeah, the game's awesome. Give it a try.

My xbox took a dive last year, so I don't have one, but a neighbor picked his copy up today and I plan on leaving work a little early to give it a run through :)

Has anybody here played it yet, and how do you like it? It only came out this morning at 12:01 AM :D

Beauty. First this, and in a week Half Life 2!

Me and a few buddies went and stood in line to get our copies last night at 12am. We played it from about 1am-8am this morning. There's only one thing i can say about it: IT F*CKING OWNS.

That is all.

yeah, I stood in line to get my copy.

I think there is an assprint in my couch now. I love halo2 man. Great game!

Well, he isn't buying it until later this week, so we occupied ourselves a bit with Halo 1 coop, but it's just not the same. I'd already finished that a while ago, and it seemed second-best. Still looking forward to H2 :tu:

I was tempted to get it and an xbox so I could play co-op with my roommates until I found out you can only play co-op split screen. So much for that idea. HaloPC sucked hard and I've heard they probably won't release Halo2 for the pc. :mad:

At least I'll have my hands on Half Life 2 within a couple of weeks :D

OK I guess yesterday was the big day, as we finally got our hands on it. My first impression is "decent". I can't say great, because after playing far cry, and then seeing the graphics on this, these look very dated to me. Of course that's because it's an old system, but they really do look a little tired.

Enhancements over the original seem mostly to just be dual wielding. According to the book there isn't much more in the way of vehicles. It's got some new weapons and bad guys, but for all intents and purposes I see this game as an expansion rather than a full on sequel. That may be because in the world of PCs, which I'm used to, a sequel generally carries technical innovations too (ie. better graphics).

We'll finish the game (I'm doing co-op), but there is definitely zero wow-factor that the first one had. I remember first driving around in the wart hog on Halo and having a lovely time, but in this I've yet to encounter anything that truly impresses me.

When I get home tonight- it'll all be about HalfLife2! :)

When I get home tonight- it'll all be about HalfLife2! :)NOW we're talking. I haven't bought it yet - do you know how it runs on a GF3 card? I've got 512 ram, and a 2500+ CPU, but my vid card is old. Doom3 BARELY runs on my system, but i heard that HL2 handles different rigs very well, though I've been fairly unable to find out real specifics on it.

You'll be able to run it but only with details set low and you'll miss out on a lot of the new eye candy due to having such an old card.

Agreed- that GF3 will run it but it won't be great. In comparing with friends who all have a 9800 Pro 128 like me- it looks like system ram is playing a role. I have 512 and they have a gig and performance takes a hit. Like far Cry (which rocked)- 1 gig RAM is getting to be pretty useful.

Ah yes, far cry - my system actually played that surprisingly acceptably. I really need a new vid card, but I also really don't want to spend the money on it right now :(

Speaking of halo 2, though, Skoorbaby was being a real devil last night and quite agitated and finally what caused her to settle down was being brought in front of the tv and she stared at it for about 20 min as I fed her (mom was out, so she's not used to that). She's too young to understand about guns and aliens :D

i know i'm in financial ruin...i know i should be saving every penny...and for the most part i've been a good little penguin....

but damnit if i didnt walk right into blockbust and buy Halo 2 right when it came out...my g/f thinks i'm borrowing if from a friend...tee hee hee.

OUT FRIGGIN STANDING!!!!! The first one was mind boggling, but Halo 2 just dominates all....i played for a combined total of 20 hours this past weekend. The game play is just unreal.

Friends of mine have already beat it. Then after I beat it on normal....its Heroic time!! i'm still working on the Heroic level in Halo 1...that stuff is no joke.

p.s. I was home by 2:30pm on Friday just to play it....one benefit of having a completly and uterly disorganized company is noone ever checks up on me. :claplow: