Excellent Bungie Article

[Wondermonkey]

From Edge Magazine. Here's a sample:

Butcher has a much more specific, prosaic theory for what made Halo great – and, it turns out, what disappoints him so bitterly about Halo 2. “We had about four to five weeks to polish Halo at the end. No more than that. And that last five per cent is responsible for 30 per cent of the success of the game, or more. That’s the period in which we really had a perfect storm. The team was all there, everything was working great, the Xbox hardware was finally there and good, and we just were able to relentlessly execute on that. The entire game came together within that four- to six-week period.

“One of the things that stuns me when I think about it, and I can’t believe this is true – we had none of that for Halo 2. Take that polish period and completely get rid of it. We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it. Even the multiplayer experience for Halo 2 is a pale shadow of what it could and should have been if we had gotten the timing of our schedule right. It’s astounding to me. I f*cking cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it. And that’s why I know Halo 3 is going to be so much better.”

Read the whole thing here, with some cool pics.

[GoatMother]

brutally honest.. I've always wanted Halo:CE on live. Loved playing it on xbox-connect back in the day.

[Fragmintz]

I hope that all the Beta testing and extra polishing will make Halo 3 the PS3 killer that it is looking to be.

[Wondermonkey]

I wish Edge was easier to get here, because they go steps beyond the fanboy rags that most magazines have turned into. I'm tired of reading letters from xXAsSaSin_TeaBagGinSXx and all his friends about what makes him pwn at games. Gamers got older and for some reason, the reading level went down. Nintendo Power was better written than half of this crap out there.

[/rant]

Yes, I too hope they polish the hell out of Master Chief's visor and come back fighting.

[ZoomZoom71]

FANTASTIC ARTICLE!! There's no doubt about that. Kind of inspiring, in some odd way.

[Quo]

to a game developer who gets it.

Kinda scary if he things H2 isn't up to snuff... the game is still tops in terms of interface, matchmaking... years later now. I've said it a millions times, but M$ needs to mandate that ALL online multiplayer games have similar interfaces. Just have Bungie create a suite of tools, and charge developers to use them.

[KEEZY]

Awesome article. That's wild to think of what Halo 2 could have been.

Zoom, it really is inspiring. I also can't figure out exactly why, but it is.

[D_Litch]

Originally Posted by Quo

to a game developer who gets it.

Kinda scary if he things H2 isn't up to snuff... the game is still tops in terms of interface, matchmaking... years later now. I've said it a millions times, but M$ needs to mandate that ALL online multiplayer games have similar interfaces. Just have Bungie create a suite of tools, and charge developers to use them.

No need. The guy who designed H2's matchmaking system started his own company. They can just hire him.

[Wondermonkey]

If you're thinking of Alexander Seropian, the founder who left and created Stubbs, I believe he left before Halo 2.

[D_Litch]

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey2k

If you're thinking of Alexander Seropian, the founder who left and created Stubbs, I believe he left before Halo 2.

No, not him. This guy left recently. I'll search....

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by Quo

Kinda scary if he things H2 isn't up to snuff... the game is still tops in terms of interface, matchmaking... years later now. I've said it a millions times, but M$ needs to mandate that ALL online multiplayer games have similar interfaces. Just have Bungie create a suite of tools, and charge developers to use them.

Agreed, and we've chatted on this before, they need to implement it across the board. And who knows, with what sounds like the strides they are making in the updated Matchmaking for 3, it may just become the new standard. That would be nice.

[KEEZY]

I think D Litch is talking about the guy/company who is making the new maps for Halo 2.