Many 30 second moments…

Halo: Combat Evolved (Halo 1) released on November 14, 2001. Three
years have passed (minus a day or two) and Halo2 has been the game de
jour for many Xbox owners. Heck, First Person Shooter (FPS) fans have
even bought Xboxes just to play Halo – the original was that good. But
does Halo 2 live up to the very high expectations placed on it by fans,
fuelled by the Microsoft marketing machine?

For me, right now, the short answer is no. Here’s why¦

On Co-operative gaming…

One of the cool things that my wife and I do together is play video games. Yep, we both enjoy them. I’m lucky, I guess.

Halo (the original) was one of the first for Xbox that we both could play the campaign game supportively, co-operatively. This is very important – as our First Person Shooter (FPS) skill levels differ, so we can both play to our strengths – covering each others weaknesses.

As well, there’s something cool about having a shared experience in a virtual world – something you can talk about over breakfast, plan strategy on the drive to buy groceries, whatever. It’s a way to share this predominantly male hobby with your significant other.

So, Halo is fun. Playing Halo campaign with your mate (especially if one of her favourite movies is Aliens) is more fun. Anticipating Halo 2, discussing it, reading about it, drooling at the screenshots – you got it – even funner(TM).

Then over the weekend, I’d read that Halo 2 will not support co-op campaign play over the system link, or internet.

Major Disappointment. We were looking forward to:

• Full Screen (2 Xboxen, 2 Monitors, 2 Halo)
• Voice communication with live headset
• Involving others via internet hosted games

Sigh – what will be included with the released version of Halo 2 will be co-op campaign mode playable on a single Xbox – same as the original. After all this development time, they’re basically giving us a slightly improved game, but no real benefit to those who enjoy
playing the game with others – rather than against others.

The competitive FPS folk out there will not really miss this feature, but as someone who does enjoy co-op gaming, Halo 2 is already disappointing. We’ll still buy it, still play it, and likely still love it, but this one feature would have made it gold.

Links to other Geocaching sites of interest

Terracaching – an alternative (splinter group) of cachers that are rabid about rating¦could be a good thing!
Brat&Testy Caching Forums – currently in beta¦children at play
Utopia Caching Software