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crazyotto
10-05-2002, 08:20 AM
from: http://www.xboxactive.com/morenews.php?p=1561

This might be old news for most of us but it was the last paragraph about Live...

News: Halo2 Features
Posted: 2002-10-04 08:44:45


In a recent interview with Stuart Bishop of Bungie many new features of Halo 2 were revealed. Bellow is a list of Master Chief goodness for those of us, like my self that can’t wait to take on the Covenant once more.

The game starts on Earth, which is being attacked by the entire Covenant fleet.

You'll learn a lot more about their culture and why they seem to hate humanity so much.

A lot of the plot focuses on the relationship between the Elites and the Prophets, a race that did not appear in Halo.

The Covenant is named for the pact between those two races, the Elite serve as the military, while the Prophets are the political and religious leaders of the Covenant.

The main change between Halo and Halo 2 is that the threat to Earth, to the survival of humanity, takes a much more prominent role and serves as the main crux of the game.

Bungie has gone from a static lighting model to a dynamic and global lighting system.

Instead of the rigid and unchanging environments that characterized Halo, Halo 2 will have environments that have motion and life to them.

We can move large objects around, we can turn lights on and off, we can even destroy large chunks of the environment, and the lighting will still work correctly.

In Halo 2 the lighting is the same for everything, so the characters, scenery and environment all look like they’re part of the same whole.

Bungie is making lots of other changes to the engine, but their not ready to talk about the rest of them yet.

In Halo 2 the AI will have a much greater awareness of their environment. They will be able to adapt to it, and more importantly, they will be able to actively manipulate the environment to serve their ends. They'll knock over objects to create cover, they'll climb walls and leap between floors to get into a better position, they'll even destroy the cover the player is hiding behind to force him into the open.

Other games have done some of these things through scripting, but in Halo 2 these options will be available to all the AI at any time.

The Master Chief is getting an armor upgrade for Halo 2.

Battle Rifle, the evolution of the old Assault Rifle that shoots a bit more accurately (and a bit more slowly) and has an optical scope.

Sub-Machine Gun, with a collapsible stock and an optional silencer for stealthier players.

In Halo 2 Bungie is adding special advanced features that let someone who has practiced driving do much more complicated moves than other drivers would be able to pull off.

Squad-oriented online game that pits Human Spartans against Covenant Elites in real battlefield situations (no flags or balls, just real military objectives)

Halo 2 multiplayer will allow you to play as either Human or Covenant, with all the weapons and vehicles included.

It's tough to make a good team game with less than 12-16 players, but Bungie will know more once the networking is done.

Bungie is still working on their community plan. There are features of Xbox Live that don't even exist yet that they intend to take advantage of, so we should have more details as they get closer to shipping.

P-Rock
10-05-2002, 09:40 AM
Yeah, this was posted before, in a more detailed post, and with pics! :eek:

Still, its cool that you would get this info for us. So thanks.