GTA: San Andreas

Originally Posted by: Axl_RoseSO hows blood gulch differnt? The caves still there? The bases still the same? What about the start postions? It was really anooyinh that you always started at the bases!!

The spawn area is still around the bases but it has a much larger radius. The bases are larger and a bit more complex. I've only played there a couple times (zanzibar is the most popular map here) but I've never found the caves, so I doubt they're still there.

Can you still have stealthy games instead of fast action ones?

Yeah. Snipers at blood gultch still requires ninja-like skills. The lack of the caves doesn't hurt this at all, extra stuff like big rocks around the tele point make up for them.

The warthog? That still cool? In halo if you shot the worthog the driver lost health.. that bugged me because the bullets were hiiting the car not tha player! Do you still lose health this way?

I've never really payed too much attention to that because usually what happens to vehicles is they either get hijacked or stuck with a nade. I'm pretty sure they did change it so damage between people and their vehicles was separated. The warthog is about the same as the original, except for the improved model. The ghost model was really improved. It also now has an alternate fire 'boost' option where it diverts power from the weaponry to the engines so you go much faster (at the expense of being unable to fire while boosting).

Originally Posted by: HammurabiYeah. Snipers at blood gultch still requires ninja-like skills. The lack of the caves doesn't hurt this at all, extra stuff like big rocks around the tele point make up for them.

One of my buddies...man, we all hated playing Halo against him...he was a MONSTER with the sniper rifle. He would grab that thing and waste everyone for, like, the next ten minutes.

TELL ME EVEN MORE!!!

Its monday morning in the UK... Halo 2 comes out on thursday morning!!

So is the new blood gulch better?

What characters can you go in the multplayer? Are there any powerups that make it unfair? We used to tuen off the oversheild but the old invisiblity was annoying because its unfair who gets it! Can you turn off the powerups? They kinda ruin the stealth appraoch by making things unfair and unpredictable!

Is this zanzibar good for just 2 on 2 link up? How big is zanzibar? Any level as big as the ice one in halo two? in other words takes several minutes to walk all the way through?
How about damnation? Any level as cool as that?

Finally... is halo 2 really better? Or in a few months are we all gona say I prefer the simpler halo 1!

Originally Posted by: Axl_RoseSo is the new blood gulch better?

Depends on your personal preference. Some people might not like the changed bases and the banshees, but I do. It's a great feeling ripping someone out of those (and it's easier than trying to outgun them).

What characters can you go in the multplayer? Are there any powerups that make it unfair? We used to tuen off the oversheild but the old invisiblity was annoying because its unfair who gets it! Can you turn off the powerups? They kinda ruin the stealth appraoch by making things unfair and unpredictable!

You can either play as the traditional Spartan or Covenant elite (you're actually a Covenant Avatar, but you don't know what those are until the second covenant cutscene). All parts of the uniform and the shoulder decal are customizable. You can color all the parts of the armor any color you want, although I would recommend something more neutral grey/fleshy than highly visible colors (such as white). I honestly have no idea if overshields and camo 'jammas can be turned off because I'm the only person here who doesn't like them.

Is this zanzibar good for just 2 on 2 link up? How big is zanzibar? Any level as big as the ice one in halo two? in other words takes several minutes to walk all the way through?
How about damnation? Any level as cool as that?

Zanzibar feels a little thin with 4 players and it's pretty messy with 8 players. It's a very flexible map. Do a google search for it and you'll be able to find all kinds of screenshots. Many reviews of this map say that the combat is mostly kept to the beach on this map and the base is neglected, but you'll find this isn't the case as soon as the people playing get a good understanding of the map. For example, where the ghost and turret are. If both are active and neither one is controlled by your team you're pretty well bent over.

Halo 2 does have some big maps but they're very well designed. You never have to walk for several minutes looking for someone. Halo 2 multiplayer doesn't seem to have those boring moments possible in the original Halo.

I don't know what map is closest to Damnation. To be honest I never really figured that map out. I'm always lost there. As far as the design goes yes, there are asymetrical maps in Halo 2.

Finally... is halo 2 really better? Or in a few months are we all gona say I prefer the simpler halo 1!

Halo 2 makes Halo look pretty bad. I don't think anybody is going to go back to the original.

Halo 2 also put a lot more emphasis on the single-player game. Halo original's single player was pretty much added as a quick afterthought to the mulitplayer engine.

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonOne of my buddies...man, we all hated playing Halo against him...he was a MONSTER with the sniper rifle. He would grab that thing and waste everyone for, like, the next ten minutes.

Then you're really screwed. The plasma-based sniper added in Halo 2 deals pretty similar damage to the original sniper rifle (head=dead, 2bodyshots=dead), but it only has a two round magazine. However, those two shots can be fired as quickly as you can pull the trigger. This means that if you're an accurate sniper you can kill just about anything before it has time to react even if you only clip the subject with the first shot. It also makes it a formidable close-range weapon.

The plasma sniper rifle isn't good if you have bad aim because, as I mentioned before, you get only two shots before zooming out and reloading (and most likely getting countersniped).

Personally, I think Microsoft should just blow up.

Depends what part of Microsoft. They're still a few notches above Apple, which only has one good thing going for them (their kick ass 30 inch cinema monitors).

Depends on the user and the specific computer more than the os. OSX/Panther is a good operating system. However, so is XP. I've been using this computer for every conceivable purpose for the last two years and I have never had any stability problems. Besides, even if you think XP is inefficient and sucky, it takes all of five seconds to swap the old explorer.exe out for a low-weight shell.

As far as the hardware goes there's not really any difference between companies, only users. If you treat your computer right nothing is going to die on you. I've never had hardware problems with PCs. However, a friend of mine has accidentally destroyed two mac computers in a row (a laptop and desktop). It's all about knowing your ass from your elbow.

Macs are good computers. Their designers are innovative and have helped evolve the PC more than most people, even many mac users, realize. However, it's easy to get a better computer than what they offer for less than they sell them for. Any good PC with an Athlon 64-based (FX-51, SK8N, SK8V, etc) motherboard and decent RAM will, even with a single slower processor, outdo a G5 in every application except Photoshop (Adobe and Mac are lovers) and cost about a thousand $$ less. Mac isn't cost efficient right now. As they expand their market I'm sure they'll start being even more affordable for their quality than their competition, but that'll be after they make their dual processor systems more efficient.

i have xbox, no ps2 so no san adreas for me, halo 2 cme out today but I'm not all that excited about it. what I'm excited about is need for speed underground 2 coming out next week. My guitar might get lonely after that game comes out. sure blowing the hell out of something might give you an adrenaline rush but nothing beats hitting the Nitrous when you're going 180 mph :)

Originally Posted by: HammurabiDepends what part of Microsoft.

Mainly their entertainment division for buying out Bungie and turning what should have been great PC games into XBox exclusives and then eventually releasing them for PC as crappy ports.

They make good operating systems though. I love my XP.

Well I'll be selling my ps2! Only had it a week. Got it for san andreas but I dont rate it highly. just feels the same as the other ones really. And on a Ps2 the graphics and rubbish compared to my PC games.

I watched some halo 2 movies, the game looks awesome!

Theres only one problem for me these days. I have a concience. And at 21 I cant justify spending a fair bit of my free time "playing games"!! I remember one day last summer I played one xbox game, Big Mutha Truckers, ALL DAY!!
The next day I felt totally stupid for spending a day of my life infront of a screen!!!

Kriss