Bungie says - we "screwed up" Halo 2

Author: Wil Harris
Published: 25th January 2007
Comments (24) Stumble
Bungie says - we "screwed up" Halo 2

Master Chief - badder and better in part three.

Bungie, the dev team that made Halo 2, has told UK mag Edge that they "screwed up" Halo 2, and that "Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways".

Wow.

Explaining the situation to reporters, Chris Butcher, who was the technical lead programmer on the game, said that the team simply ran out of time when it came to the final few weeks of polish. He told Edge:

""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...

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."

It's pretty crazy to think of the team that has delivered such a stunningly successful game, and critically well received at that, as being so gutted about the final state of the game. Butcher even goes so far as to say that "I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer."

That's a sentiment obviously not shared by many, since Halo 2 is the most popular game ever on Xbox Live.

You can check out the full story over at Edge - it's well worth reading. Take a look, then let us know of your thoughts on Halo 2, and anticipation for Halo 3, over in the forums.
Quote DarkLord7854 25th January 2007, 15:05
Haha.. awesome :)
Quote Phil Rhodes 25th January 2007, 15:37
Halo is utterly nondescript.

Halo cost me Oni 2, which could have been fantastic.

It is not to be forgiven.

Phil
Quote TheSaladMan 25th January 2007, 15:56
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Rhodes
Halo cost me Oni 2, which could have been fantastic.

Damn right, after they've finished with Halo 3 they'd better get started on a next gen Oni, I loved that game.
Quote Veles 25th January 2007, 16:00
Well Halo 2 was awful, I liked the multiplayer, but the single player campaign was pretty dire compared to what they showed us before. It's good they've finally came out and admitted it wasn't up to scratch.
Quote Vash-HT 25th January 2007, 16:36
I am happy they admitted it, I loved Myth and Myth 2, adn I wish there was a chance for a new Myth game, but even if that happened it'd prolly be on the 360 only. I played Halo 1 a lot with my friends who were obsessed with it, and I was never impressed. Halo 2 wasn't much better imo, the only thing i really lked was the addition of vehicles that could actually be destroyed.


BTW, you say Halo 2 is still the most popular Live game, but I thought Gears was now the most played Live game? I swear i read something about it on gamespot a while back about it surpassing Halo 2 in terms of number of people playing.
Quote Snaek 25th January 2007, 16:59
This gives me hope for Halo 3.
Quote Breach 25th January 2007, 17:10
I think it is courageous that they can admit that they were not happy with their product and are in tune in some ways with Halo fans who criticized the game a bit. Hopefully that will be fuel for Halo 3 to be the best ever.
Quote Stuey 25th January 2007, 17:23
Way back when, they did mention their time constraints in Halo 1. That's how they justified the Library level and repeating levels. It was a fantastic game though. I don't have an Xbox so no Halo 2 for me =(.

In recognizing their faults, they might correct them the third time around.
Quote samkiller42 25th January 2007, 17:36
I thought Halo 2 was brilliant, short, but brilliant, it had new skills within, eg, dual wielding, however, despite having 15/16 levels and 14/15 (cant remember) playing levels they were way way too short. The campaign levels were to small and you hardly did anything in them. What would be good for bungie to do is have Halo 3 on 2 disks, Disk one is non stop campaign, with huge landscapes and masses of destruction and mindless slaughter or Grunts, with Disk too devoted to Multiplayer, and more mindless destruction. However, i think it is good for a company to admit a flaw in something, well done Bungie, and good luck with Halo 3.

Sam
Quote Tyinsar 25th January 2007, 20:30
Quote:
Originally Posted by Breach
I think it is courageous that they can admit that they were not happy with their product and are in tune in some ways with Halo fans who criticized the game a bit. Hopefully that will be fuel for Halo 3 to be the best ever.
I can't decide if I agree with that first part or not. It may be a programmer's attempt to do an end run around his bosses and either will get us a better game next time or get him fired.- which is admittedly a courageous move but I'd feel better if the people setting the deadlines admitted the error - then again at least it's not Duke Nukem Whenever :)
Quote DXR_13KE 25th January 2007, 22:24
it is mighty brave for them to say this.
i hope Halo 3 rocks
Quote Gravemind123 25th January 2007, 22:54
Halo 3 had better have that phase they said Halo had that Halo 2 didn't...I have high hopes for Halo 3, I hope it lives up to them.
Quote saeghwin 25th January 2007, 23:06
Finally someone admits it! I grew tired of the multiplayer component and all of its flaws after about a week, while my friends continued to play it for months and months.

The single player, that's not even worth mentioning.
Quote ozstrike 25th January 2007, 23:26
The multiplayer is OK, purely because of the amount of people that play it. I thought the single player was terrible though, and never bothered to complete it.
Quote Generic42 26th January 2007, 01:29
Halo was a good game, Halo 2 was more like an expansion pack. It gave new features but no good story, no really new mechanics, but I deem it better than Halo 1 because the multiplayer was way more fun with more weapons and dual wielding. Halo 3 should be good, but what more can it really be other than better looking?

Think of Ratchet and Clank. (you may think it's lame but I love those games) It was good in #1, #2 owned everything, #3 was different but playable, #4 was odd short pointless and not worth it (thankfully I borrowed it before buying. Beat in one day) Halo seems to be much the same. Don't expect much after #3
Quote sinizterguy 26th January 2007, 12:02
Sounds more like they are hyping Halo 3 by saying how rubbish Halo 2 was (it still was very popular) and implying how much better Halo 3 is going be as they had the "time to polish it up".
Quote tuteja1986 27th January 2007, 08:47
Well if you would have seen the Halo 2 documentary on that was in the limited edition of Halo 2 you would see the anger and depression of not having enough time to finish the game or even test it. They had a scene where they were scrunching up paper of design they wanted in the game but never had the time to implement.
Quote ikra 27th January 2007, 15:34
see... halo 2 was a good game, halo 3 will be even better. But yes, i think they just wanted press... :D but the guys did well, so they will again this time.
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 27th January 2007, 16:42
so.... what about a refund then?
Quote ikra 27th January 2007, 20:00
lol... my thoughts exactly.. we can sue them :D
Quote Solidus 28th January 2007, 00:31
Id see his statements as nothing but clever marketing for Halo 3. Halo 2 is a sucess, you play it down as something you believed could have been made so much better and this creates hype for the next installment.

Just my 2 cents
Quote Vash-HT 29th January 2007, 19:06
I can't agree with anyone who believes this is just a marketing ploy. Halo was a huge success, but they didn't bash it later on to hype the 2nd game like this. Actually, I've never heard a company say things like this about their game to hype a sequel. I think they're being genuine with their statements about it. Then again, maybe I jsut htinkt hat because I agree with them about it.
Quote Fiber4now 31st January 2007, 02:35
So why did they not release it for PC and fix it? All this is is Hype for Halo 3 plain and simple If anyone does not think that every little piece of Halo 2 was not examined this way or that by in house game testers are out of their head. If you want a little taste of what is behind how they make a game, play Valves HL2 E1 on directors commentary almost every scene the directors tells you that they had to change this or that due to game testers criticizing that segment of the game when tested.
Quote sui_winbolo 31st January 2007, 04:31
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiber4now
So why did they not release it for PC and fix it? All this is is Hype for Halo 3 plain and simple If anyone does not think that every little piece of Halo 2 was not examined this way or that by in house game testers are out of their head. If you want a little taste of what is behind how they make a game, play Valves HL2 E1 on directors commentary almost every scene the directors tells you that they had to change this or that due to game testers criticizing that segment of the game when tested.

They.....are.....releasing...it...for...pc....
http://www.bungie.net/Games/Halo2Vista/
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