Halo 2 Mac Download Full Version Free Updated

Halo 2 Mac Download Full Version Free

Ask any child what he (or she!) wants to exist when he grows upwards and every last ane of the piddling terrors gives the same answer: cybernetic space marine. Blame Halo for inspiring a new generation of glorified pest exterminators. The game that sold a few meg Xboxes is still the best first-person shooter you lot can play from the comfort of your La-Z-Male child, and its even better with a few (or a dozen) like-minded wannabe-space-marine friends. Dead-on controls, an epic story, and deviously smart enemies well, smart for alien bugs at to the lowest degree are just a small part of Halo'south greatness.

Ultimate moment: The Silent Cartographer level has to be one of our favorites in any game, ever. It kicks off with a Normandy-like beach invasion, followed by general tear-assing around in a Warthog jeep with your rowdy marine pals, and then its a bully mix of indoor and outdoor action, culminating in a showdown with a i-hit-and-youre-dead bract-wielding alien. But for the expert snipers out in that location, beating Halo on the Legendary difficulty setting is the ultimate bragging right.

Spin Control:

This follow-up to the hit sci-fi offset-person shooter is by far the most of import game in the history of Xbox, and Microsoft and developer Bungie know it. And then it's no surprise that everyone involved wants to take the time to go it right. "We're sorry to disappoint Halo fans--merely making this game as expert as nosotros maybe can is our paramount concern," reads an declaration on Bungie's website. "Our ultimate goal is to make Halo 2 a great game; when the game comes out next yr, we think you'll agree we made the right choice (on the delay)."

Prognosis: Locked and loaded...we remember

Ane concern: Microsoft claims Halo 2 volition be out early on side by side twelvemonth, but Bungie will just say 2004. Both parties even tried to convince us they never "officially announced" the 2003 engagement (they did, and we accept the press releases to prove it). But lest we forget, Bungie delivered the first Halo under the unbreakable borderline of the Xbox arrangement launch. And we hear that game turned out pretty good.

Jones' response brings us right to the vivid news: The Bungie team is spending those xiii months doting and so feverishly on every piece of the Halo 2 puzzle-- from the intricacies of its galaxy-spanning story right downwardly to the textured knitting on each space marine'due south T-shirt--that this sequel will surely wallop its predecessor in every way. This ain't Halo 1.5, the rumored Halo ane rehash tweaked with online play. (Bungie says that the pseudo-sequel was pure make-believe and "wishful thinking" on the part of eager-beaver journalists.) Halo 2 volition pack twice equally many vehicles, including troop carriers and more than flying machines. Information technology volition feature destructible environments and missions ready in low gravity. Information technology will evangelize full-blown online battles between an ground forces of armor-suited Master Chiefs and conflicting Elites.

It's sequel with so much more of...well, everything that tidying it all up with a tag line is tricky. Jones ceases concentration on the design process for a sec and tries: "I think the game is gonna exist...," he stares at the conference room table in Bungie's Redmond, Launder., headquarters, searching for the words, "it's gonna be even more than Halo 1 was." He looks upwardly and smiles. "It's like Halo one only on fire. And wrapped in bacon."

"Cool places to go that aren't Earth..."

The Bungie guys call it a "shield ship." It'south a troop transport the size of a city cake, and it's descending on a patch of hilly turf opposite an alien bunker. Squads of space marines march from the principal hatch and prep for an alien assault the instant the send touches downwards. A few troopers hop on the back of all-terrain four-wheelers--i of Halo two'due south many new vehicles --and nil up a hillside. These guys are snipers, and when they reach the hilltop they dismount and have upward positions.

Then everything happens at in one case. Enemy Grunts, Jackals and Elites--the various races of the troublemaking alien alliance known equally the Covenant--pour from their bunker and begin diggings at the marines. Some marines dash headlong into the fight. Others encompass their compadres from behind copse and rocks. Explosions erupt. Glowing volleys from rapid-fire energy weapons criss-cross the terrain. The snipers on the hillsides take beads on targets. Everyone works together. It's similar a bona-fide war machine attack forcefulness.

The simply thing MIA here is Principal Chief, Halo'due south walking-tank main character who really is an regular army of one. Don't worry--he'll prove up eventually, once the level is fully designed. But anyone who's played the original game'south Silent Cartographer beach boxing (think Saving Private Ryan with rayguns and supersonic troop characters) knows that the battleground we just described is Master Chief's ultimate playground. And information technology's the kind of large-scale, teamwork-oriented commotion that Bungie plans to evolve for Halo 2'south single-actor experience. "We had a ton of things in Halo 1 that we tried," says Blueprint Pb Jaime Griesemer, "and one of the things that actually worked was when you lot fought alongside your marines. And now...we're going to focus on it a lot more than. I'm non talking virtually ordering your squad around or anything like that, just y'all're going to be fighting alongside marines and against organized aliens a lot more in Halo 2."

The shield-send skirmish we just watched is actually a Bungie test level that'll wind upwards highly modified in the concluding Halo 2 product. We dunno where the battle fits into Halo two'south overall plot. And even if we did, we wouldn't tell you. Why spoil the story of a game that'southward still more than a year away? Just if you've seen Halo 2's wowie-zowie teaser trailer (and if yous haven't, go to www.xbox.com and spotter it now, soldier!), you already know the Covenant bring their war against humanity straight to our neck of the galactic 'hood: Globe. That's where Halo two kicks off, although the trailer isn't the game's opening picture palace.

A brief period has passed since Halo i'south finale, in which nosotros saw Primary Chief obliterate the enigmatic Halo ring-world. He had just crushed a Covenant force and an regular army of mushball space mutants known as The Overflowing. Now he's returned to Earth with Cortana--the chatty female A.I. construct built into the noggin of his newly upgraded armor--to detect the planet on the brink of a "goddamned apocalypse," quoth the trailer.

The Covenant have wiped out every last homo-colony world. Globe is all that'south left. Master Principal and Cortana's mission is clear: Hightail it planetside to back up Earth's forces and repel the alien blitz.

Sounds like more than enough mission for one game, right? Well, that ain't the half of information technology. "There's going to be lots of absurd places to get that aren't Earth," Bungie boss jones says. So far, we've seen concepts for a level fix in a hydroponic plant; on an orbiting space outpost; and on a mining station floating in the upper wisps of a gas giant, where hurricane-force gales make it tough just to walk, let alone massacre Covenant bad guys. 1 mission'south assault a moon (we're not sure if it's Globe'southward or some other world's), complete with weak gravity that drops the game'due south hyper-realistic physics into slow-mo. We watched Master Master leap three times his acme to reach a secret door to the Covenant'southward moon base. The kick from his rifle even slowed his descent when he fired downward while falling. Bungie is working on moon-buggy-style vehicles, which'll take stratospheric jumps in the depression lunar gravity. And but think of all the low-One thousand tricks you'll be able to effort in multiplayer... Simply we'll get to network play later.

"Take the war to the Covenant..."

At some bespeak in Halo 2, the Covenant's set on on our home planet comes to a close. Just don't await the end-game credits to roll when it happens. Instead, Master Principal and Cortana will zero deep into the heart of Covenant territory, attacking the source of the enemy's ability. "We're definitely going to take the war to the Covenant in this one," Jones says. The climactic battle that follows volition bring a measure of closure to the Halo saga, something that was missing from the first game. "In Halo 1, you faced disaster after disaster," Jones says, "and by the end of the game you hadn't really gotten anywhere except saving the galaxy three unlike ways. Ultimately, humanity was in the same place as when the game started."

Bungie won't tell us much about Master Master's encounters on the Covenant'south abode turf--other than that it'll be nothing similar the alien homeworld in the PC/PS2 shooter Half-Life. We do know Halo two will reveal a lot more about the aliens and the motives behind their intergalactic assault and battery on humanity. "I think they were so mysterious in the start game that people saw the Covenant as very apartment,"

Jones says, "or they just came across as the stupid cliché of an alien race that ruthlessly attacks mankind. Nobody knew virtually their social construction or anything, simply I had hoped people would give us credit and realize there's more to the Covenant than what we showed. Nosotros're actually expanding on them in Halo 2. There'south a whole agglomeration of the story we still take left to tell, and that's going to be a lot of fun." Revelations come in the class of new conflicting races, primary among them the Prophets (see folio 220) and the Brutes (encounter right), with more alien enemies to be revealed later. Some revelations will fifty-fifty come from the original Halo--at least once the sequel shows you what to look for. "All through Halo 1, nosotros were putting in the hooks for Halo 2," Griesemer admits. He'due south referring to the first game's mysterious piffling details, such as the scattered symbols on Halo and the funky history lessons from 343 Guilty Spark. "Almost zero in Halo was random," he says. "I retrieve a lot of people are going to play Halo 2 so go back and play Halo i and see a lot of things they didn't see before."

"Much more complicated engagements..."

Conversation with Jason Jones about sequels--any kind of sequels, even the moving-picture show multifariousness--and he'll tell you exactly how not to do them. "When you talk about the the bad transition from the second Alien movie to Alien3,1 recall we all know what happened there," Jones says. "Alien 3 was just a dissimilar pic, correct? And that's what you don't want to practice. Likewise, nosotros don't want to make a different game. Why eliminate the reasons people played our first game?"

That's why Bungie isn't fiddling with Halo's fundamentals. Principal Chief can notwithstanding carry simply two weapons at a time. He notwithstanding possesses superhuman forcefulness. He still has a rechargeable strength-field shield and flashlight. His armor has been upgraded this fourth dimension around, only he's all the same pretty much the same dark-green guy from the first game. "We're non going to give him whatever more superpowers," Griesemer says. "He won't walk on walls or fly. But we'll definitely give him augmentations. He'll take some tools."

Bungie didn't inkling us in on what those "tools" might be yet, but we did glimpse a few of Master's enhanced skills (come across page 224 for a consummate rundown). He'south tin can at present peer effectually corners and lean forward over ledges to check out a scene before he dives into it. (He won't be able to shoot or lob grenades, only the enemy A.I. tin't see him, either.) The Chief's melee set on is beefed-upwardly, besides. Time your button presses right and he'll cord together a combo of up to iii skull-crunching smacks with his gun.

But the Bungie guys are saving most of their tweaks for the Master Chief's alien enemies and marine allies. We're not just talking virtually their look, although Covenant and marine graphic symbol models come in a much greater variety this time. (Different types of marines, for example, volition haul around their own special backpacks and wear unique body armor.) The bigger bargain here is the A.I., which volition potentially brand the already darn-smart enemies and marines from the first game seem like loftier-school ROTC dropouts. "We gave a demo on Halo's A.I. at a game developers briefing," Griesemer says. "We gave away every secret, and so nosotros realized, 'Hey, we gotta brand a sequel. Nosotros need a bunch of new secrets!' That's what we've been working on lately."

What they've settled on is a scheme that makes all figurer-controlled characters more flexible in any situation. They'll have a larger diversity of behaviors and interact more than realistically with each other. "In Halo 1, the marines knew they had friends effectually, but they but used that information passively," says Chris Butcher, i of Bungie's technical leads. "In Halo 2, 1 of the marines will finish reloading his weapon, look at his four buddies and say, 'Accuse!' The i with the set on rifle will immediately commencement suppressive fire white the 2 with shotguns charge across the beach and the guy with the rocket launcher watches the sky for Banshees.

They'll really picket each other's back and coordinate their actions for maximum effect." Other flashes of Halo 2 A.I. luminescence: Marines will knock over tables and apply them for cover. (Such defensive moves won't be part of a pre-planned script--the troopers will really think to exercise this.) Marines pinned downwardly by enemy fire might phone call for a Warthog to salvage their bacon. Marines will point out a sniper for an ally to grenade. Whatever of these scenarios can and volition happen in Halo 2. "Instead of just communicating what they are doing at that moment," Butcher says, "marines'll be communicating intentions and making requests."

Your A.I. comrades complete the illusion of being living, breathing, thinking killing machines by getting a lot blabbier. Bungie is building on the first game's marine-conversation system, making it so your fellow soldiers will take more to say to you and each other. Allow'south rewind to the large shield send battle at this article's outset for an case. Say that, instead of following the chief attack force abroad from the transport, y'all mosey up on a colina and stumble upon i of the snipers. "If you hang out with him, he'll have these actually cool things to say every bit he'south popping off targets," says Cinematic Lead Joseph Staten, who, incidentally, provides the voice for the chickenhearted pipsqueak alien grunts. "That'due south something totally off the path and it's not crucial to get there, but we're edifice in that content knowing that the actor might go there. We actually desire to have that level of detail that you lot may or may never see." Depending on which manner you walk in a level, you might find marines who point you in the direction of a pitched battle, or who warn y'all about snipers while they hunker downward, or who are just afraid to get any farther until you lot come up and lend your firepower. "We just desire to ready situations where the story isn't mission-disquisitional, but it'due south definitely calculation something special to your experience because the characters in the world are communicating to yous," Staten says.

Of course, lifelike brainy marines deserve lifelike brainy opponents, so Bungie has souped up the Covenant'southward I.Q., too. "In Halo 1, our A.I. was virtually shooting people and non getting shot, and that was all it really focused on," says Butcher. "Now our A.I. will understand and move through their environment in ways that they never could before. You've got guys climbing. You've got guys ducking under objects or jumping over them." It makes for enemies who breathing like animals. The Aristocracy soldiers will be more lithe and leopard-similar, jackals will behave more similar birds. Life will be anything but a solar day at the zoo for Master Chief and his marine allies. Enemies know to switch on their flashlights and chase for you in darkness. They'll understand how to fight in low-gravity environments. They'll talk to each other more (and nigh of them volition speak English this time) and coordinate attacks. Every bit tenacious as the first game's bad guys were, Halo 2's enemies volition make you fight even harder for every inch of basis. "Y'all're going to have much more than complicated engagements that are going to take longer," Butcher says.

Even the simple things expect interesting...

"I think nosotros're probably the first sequel in history that's not bragging most having higher polygon counts," says Design Lead Griesemer. "In fact, the Master Chief is actually made from a little bit fewer polys than the Halo i Primary, but he looks 10 times meliorate because we're using bump maps in such an intelligent way."

Bump mapping--the rendering hocus pocus powering much of Halo 2'south advanced new visual vibe--is a magic discussion with Bungie, considering it'due south letting the team achieve an amazing level of detail in the sequel's environments and on its characters and objects. Bump mapping'south tech-nerd definition is that it's an Xbox-friendly rendering process that overlays a map of three-dimensional details--treads on a tire, buckles on gear, gouges on trunk armor--onto a polygonal model's flat skin. If you think of a 3D model such as a vehicle or character every bit a simple shape hacked out of wood, then bump mapping is the procedure of sculpting out all the fine details.

Bungie's artists are sculpting everything with bump maps in Halo two, and it works beautifully. Simply look at the screens and watch the trailer. "That'southward ingame content," Butcher says. "It's the visual bar we are confident nosotros can reach with the same frame-rate smoothness as in Halo 1." Unlike the start game, in which bump mapping was added late in development and used only on environments and structures, Halo 2 has been bump-enhanced from the go-go. Everything in the game, including marines, weapons and retouched Halo i models, will be sculpted for maximum visual impact.

"Chief Chief doesn't look like a little featherweight polygonal mesh," says Art Lead Marcus Lehto. "He looks like a 400-pound cybernetic character who is gonna kick your ass. It's much more believable."

And the whole point here is that such believability doesn't come at the expense of the game's operation. "Nosotros wanted to be able to accept the large-scale battles we had in Halo ane," Griesemer says, "and we couldn't therefore just triple the poly counts on everybody. The crash-land mapping helps us make the game expect and so much meliorate while non demanding anything more of the Xbox." Griesemer adds that the sequel will have even more characters on the battlefield this time.

Many Bungie guys we talked to guesstimate that Halo two's visuals are an order of magnitude better than the kickoff game. That boost isn't just from the bump mapping's pumped-up particular: Half the pizazz comes from the sequel's avant-garde new real-fourth dimension engine for creating light and shadow, which reacts more realistically to bump maps than to ordinary textures. Watch Master Chief descend in a wire-mesh lift and you'll see shadows dance around everything in the scene as he passes each floor. When the hangar airlock doors rumble open up in the trailer, you see harsh sunlight, reflected from the Earth exterior, bathe the scene and wash out weaker light sources. (Bungie calls such splashes of overpowering light the "flower effect.") "Fifty-fifty the actually uncomplicated things await interesting," says Straten. Bungie'southward artists are creating textures with this new lighting model in mind, whereas in Halo 1 the lighting engine came in fits and starts, and the artists never really got the hang of it. Now it'south letting them achieve the subtlest of details, such as the manner every model in the game casts shadows on itself besides equally its surround. "There's a lot of lighting things that our engine is doing," says Lehto, "but cocky-shadowing is probably the nigh important affair that you might non fifty-fifty notice. It's so subtle, but it's so cool."

Y'all don't really capeesh the sequel's lighting effects until the lights get out completely. Information technology's a situation you could find yourself in frequently, since that Principal Primary has the ability to shoot out lights and skulk in the shadows this time. Imagine hearing a crash-land in the night, cutting loose with your boxing rifle and seeing a dozen Covenant enemies strobe-lit by your muzzle wink, their shadows writhing on the walls as they scurry for comprehend. "It's really absurd just running guys over in the dark," says Graphics Developer Adrian Perez, "and watching the headlight from your vehicle cast this long shadow behind the bad guy right before you lot hit them." Simply don't get the idea that Halo 2'southward enhanced use of light and shadow is going to drastically change the feel of the game. By no means will most of Main Main's new haunts be dim and creepy. "Nosotros're definitely non doing this to fix just a horrific tone," Griesemer says, "and we're not irresolute it into a stealth game. Halo 2 is still alt about fighting and shooting and killing. But, yeah, players take this swell resource of beingness able to hide in the shadows at present, and nosotros're going to use it in some interesting ways."

"Re-creating Halo'southward single-player experience among players on the Net..."

Halo i was the first Bungie game in five years that didn't accept Internet play. Yous tin tell the team hates that--they hate it with all their might--peculiarly because the game was originally designed for online. Microsoft's gaming network just wasn't set up when Halo launched in late 2001, then players had to settle for separate-screen or linked-system multiplayer play. Information technology was still ludicrously fun, just not the kind of experience Bungie wanted. "We've just been drooling to come dorsum to team Cyberspace multiplayer," says Jones.

Fast forward to Halo 2'southward launch a year from now. Xbox Alive, Microsoft's broadband-gaming network, will be a year old with its kinks ironed out. Bungie will be able to cease drooling and we can beginning: Halo 2 volition characteristic online battles between Master Chief characters on one side and Covenant Aristocracy soldiers on the other. The plan is for online to support at to the lowest degree 12 to 16 players. It'll be nil less than the total online war Bungie originally envisioned. "The matter we're excited about bringing to Xbox Live is recreating Halo's single-role player feel--with all the weapons, vehicles and explosions--among a agglomeration of players on the Internet." All of Halo l's multiplayer modes, including Capture the Flag, Oddball, etc., volition return, except at present with the added oomph of flying vehicles, way more weaponry, and real-time strate-gizing and trash talking via the Xbox Communicator headset microphone.

Bungie has other large plans for Halo 2 multiplayer that they're but not ready to conversation nigh. They know they want to enhance the cooperative style of the main campaign game, but they probably won't make it playable over the 'Cyberspace ("That's really hard to do," Jones says).

And they've heard all your gripes nigh the first game's lack of reckoner-controlled 'bot opponents for multiplayer. "Nosotros're thinking a lot about the 'bot question," Griesemer says. "We empathise at that place are people who play Halo who want to play multiplayer, merely they only accept two controllers and they're not online. We want to do something for them, but I don't know what information technology's going to be." Nosotros can't expect to find out. We can't expect to try online dogfighting in soaring new vehicles. Nosotros can't wait to try multiplayer battles in depression gravity. We tin can't wait to play as a Covenant Elite wielding a man shotgun. We just can't wait for Halo 2. And the funny thing is, neither can Bungie. "We do what we do because nosotros want to play our concluding product, too," Griesemer says. "Nobody has higher expectations than we do."

Ultimately, that's the numero-uno reason this sequel should plow out not bad. Every bit fun and polished as the beginning Halo was, most of the game came together in the last calendar month of development. Bungie has been working on Halo 2 since half dozen weeks subsequently they finished the first one, planning every little detail, making sure this sequel lives up to their original vision. "When Halo 2 is finished, it will ascertain the next generation of games on the Xbox," says Ed Fries, Microsoft'south VP of games publishing, "and it will ascertain what network play tin be on Xbox Live."

If that ain't good news, what is? Now what the hell are we going to do virtually that 13-month wait again? "I advise cryosleep," Griesemer says.

To say that Halo ii is already ane of the most successful game titles of all time is an understatement. Hovering only around two million units in pre-social club sales, the success of this impressive sequel is guaranteed. However, is the hype worth the cost? How much has changed from that familiar formula that we know and beloved? Volition rockets on prisoner always be fair? Let me attempt to answer these questions and more.

The graphics are hotter than ever, and the bump-mapping technology, which gives even unproblematic textures an illusion of depth and reality, looks even better than you could've imagined. With the ability to play in HDTV resolution, you tin get one hateful looking picture out of this game. Additionally, if you've got a widescreen Telly, you tin can split the screen vertically for co-op mode, giving each player a better view expanse. Backing up the visuals is Halo ii's audio, yet once again top notch with a more than kinetic, corybantic experience. The music has gotten the same treatment, and you tin even listen to two Halo 2 soundtracks exterior of the game.

Gameplay, it's all at that place, and it brought along a handbag of chips. The action is more than intense, more challenging. Dual-wielding brings a new tactic to the table, and the removal of the pistol scope for sake of the battle burglarize is a welcome change. No longer volition the pistol be dominant in multiplayer maps. As before, you'll notice an engaging storyline wrapped around this gameplay, and splendid design choices mean that there'southward nowhere near the same repetitiveness of the original.

Be prepared for even more story, and even more loftier quality vox acting, from such actors as Ron Perlman, Michelle Rodriguez, and Michael Wincott. I'll warn you though, the plot takes some twists that not everyone may like, and has an ending that may leave you feeling unfulfilled.

Star in a higher place all else is Halo 2'southward multiplayer component. Featuring Xbox Live connectivity, downloadable content, online clan support through Bungie.net, Halo ii lets you find a game with players virtually your level of gameplay, and lets you runway all of your gameplay statistics through their stat tracking website. Gone are the days where you'd need to search through a server list, replaced by party formation and matchmaking systems that make this an instant winner in my book. This is the political party game to crush.

All in all, Halo ii is a top notch game, through and through. It does have some weaknesses, but they're few and far between, and in some cases, would've seemed like design strengths in other titles I've reviewed. This is an unashamedly good game, and is worth more than retail price.