DF Retro Extra: Halo 2 - Revisiting E3 2003's Impossible Xbox Demo! 

I was 19 when it was announced lol

15

I was 19 too, lol.

I was 11.

I was 34

It looks just like the dual weapons in Halo Custom Edition. Neat!

@@roflBeck It's interesting you mention that; the Brutes are just reskinned Spartan bipeds (they share death animations with the player and Marines from the original game) and the Brute Shot appears to be firing regular plasma rifle projectiles instead. The Battle Rifle is also wearing the Assault Rifle's reload animation and lacks its ammunition counter, suggesting to me it's just a reskinned MA5B in this build, limited to semiauto and given a headshot modifier. Those were all tricks modders would use to implement Brutes and various other Halo 2 mechanics in the first game via Custom Edition.

The 1 shot battle rifle in that demo has a melee combo that eventually get cut

Now go watch that cutscene in Halo 2 Anniversary. It may be Blur CGI, but they made it look as good as even the top blockbuster movies

Shut up Spawn Wave, no one wants to hear you. Go back to your channel

Same. 10 year old me was watching it over and over trying to figure out if it was a secret level to unlock or something lol

Spawn Wave and i was so dissappointed ig wasnt i the final game. I played every level hoping it would come, then i beat the game and realized i would never play it.

Spawn Wave Too bad the final game was shit. 😞

Tony MO - To me, it highlights how much the industry has raised its standards or expectations. Even if the graphics were modern, a couple of gameplay innovation reveals like these wouldn't barely even get people clapping today. I think that pushes devs and platforms to have to up the ante - not in the game dev side where most are already beyond maxed out for budget and staff, but on the presentation side. In many ways, I think that sucks. We get excited, but are often left down. Devs are distracted from the game and can take a bunch of heat if they go too big or too small. Honestly, the whole industry is paradoxically in a better place than ever while also being in one of the hardest and harshest environments

E3 famous for it`s bulls*** tech demos

Mykel Hardin nothing will ever best the joy of getting 16 people together in the same building for a LAN party. That's magic that online play just can't deliver.

I imagine if you asked this to a bunch of soldiers who have deployed they'd say "Yo!" There's a reason we were miffed when Microsoft insisted on online connections for Xbox One.

Modern gaming just feels so restrictive. Games are always trying to conform with the current fad, so you never REALLY have any choice about what kind of game you actually want to play. Then you have all this corporatized bullshit that not only makes the game and its content less accessible, but it breaks your fucking immersion because you can’t play something without seeing pricetags pasted over everything. I miss the days when you could pick whatever kind of game you wanted, when the game industry recognized there were different niches/tastes of consumers and gave us more variety. I also miss the days when there were no paywalls, no ads to buy shit, no developers harassing me after I already bought their fucking product. The 6th generation was the “age of freedom” for gamers, meanwhile everything nowadays is anti-consumer and I fucking hate it.

Believe made me want Halo 3 as a kid. I never played the first two (they were rated M after all and I was like 8 when 3 came out) but I remember seeing ads for Halo 3 and just thinking that it was the greatest thing ever. Somehow I convinced my parents to let me get it (I showed them some parts of it and they said it didn’t look all that bad) and it is to this day one of, if not, my favorite games. Just goes to show how good this series was back in the day.

the believe campaign was false advertising

georgebaggy how? Halo 5 was the real false advertisement.

They were both false advertisement. The Halo 3 Believe campaign depicted a bunch of epic shit that never happened in the game. The difference was Halo 3 still had a great story, even if it was completely different from the one advertized.

Bruh Believe campaign are a bunch of interviews of old people on how they remembered the war. See "REMEMBERED". So you wanted Halo 3 to take place after the war. No Master Chief nothing.

Grow up

The golden age of the gaming industry

When E3 was about actual games and not SJW infested politics/agendas and microtransactions. It was _still_ really cringey though. That will never change.

Ha!Look..a Greek fella...Ti kaneis aderfe Ioanni?

At that point I'd never even played a video game and I feel so much nostalgia for this demo. Maybe it's the bad animation, video quality, and over-the-top flair at the E3 booths

It makes sense that ODST is set during Halo 2 then lol

When I first watched Joe play the ODST reveal it was as if the stencil engine was still resurrected in New Mombasa. Add a couple of Shadow transports and Covenant artillery on Costal Highway and it wouldve fit with the H2 E3 trailer perfectly.

ODST fulfilled on that promise imo. It also improved the enemies like Drones having different ranks, and highest rank drones being able to walk on the ground. Or the two hunters types reconciling the different fuel rod guns in Halo 1 and Halo 2.

Good news

ODST RESURECTED THE STENCIL GRAPHIC FEIEDLITY FOR YEARS TO COME!

DigitalSlurm same here

*salutes Major Let Down

Man...me too

I never saw this presentation and took the game for what it was, and i loved it ! E3 always put your expectations too far and you can't feel anything but disappointement when the game is released, even though the game was a masterpiece .

same here, he gets back to earth... and I was like here it comes... and then it didn't... I STILL want to play this level, it still looks soo good... and I don't just mean the graphics, I mean the level layout and scripting looks far superior to the final version.

For a second I thought u meant to watch THIS video lmao

But e3 is in the summer time.....

Ditched when the game out the next day and for every dlc launch

Ted Thomas You’re full of shit, E3 was in the summer. Fishing for comment eh?

Mr. Blunt e3 is early june, A lot of people still have school during that time

I really didn't like the Arbiter levels that much, but I enjoyed the story of it. The color palette wasn't very pleasing to my colorblind eyes on most of the Arbiter levels, which as an 11 year old, I remember that fondly. I love the story though, gosh dang it was so good in my opinion.

ODST's campaign was better, overall. Still, LOVED Delta Halo.

Nicolaus Camp I’m sorry Halo 1 had the best campaign. You must have very dull taste to consider Halo 2 the best campaign. It’s widespread knowledge(not opinion) that Halo 2 has a terrible and disappointing campaign. It’s average multiplayer is what saved it from being completely forgettable.

@@Mr.Honest247 "widespread knowledge" you are an idiot. It is the best campaign and the only reason it had any criticism was because of its cliffhanger ending. Halo ce campaign was amazing also, perhaps the best story but level design and the story of the arbiter in h2 was epic

Mr. Blunt Lmaoo you’re funny as shit. Halo 2s multiplayer was epic staying up all night doing custom games on 4 player split screen with the big screen tv back then. Technology wasn’t that advanced and even then, developers like bungie always have a vision for a game that breaks the hardware limits even for PCs. It’s not their fault that the Xbox wasn’t as powerful as their vision. With that being said the campaign was overall still very epic and close to if not on the same level of CE. What CE had over H2 was better friendly Ai ( both games enemy AI were great) and it felt more Like a war rather than infiltration, ( silent cartographer ) that’s mission alone was epic on its on just dropping off the pelican and storming the beach decimating the covenant. H2 still had its fair share of open field missions ( delta halo ) and the one where you fly the banshee ass the arbiter to kill the heretic. It only seemed linear because it started off as tight spaces and opened up to an aerial combat mission and closed out in well thought out increasingly tight combat sequence. With that being said I’m gonna play mcc. Seeya!

Same here. I started gaming with Doom 2 when I was just 2 years old (until I had nightmares and my mom got rid of the game haha), but after that, the next big game I remember is Halo. I was 8 when the first game came out and my neighbor got it. I fell in love the first time I played it. Fast forward to now and I've read every book and always look forward to the next game/book. Can't wait for Halo 6 even if 4 and 5 were disappointing for most.

sgtcoffman I started playing Halo CE when I was 13, and waited Halo 2 as a Messiah. I found Halo 4 very good for story and graphics, Halo 5 was not impressing imho, except for the finale.

and thats where we differ. I actually really despise Halo 4 compared to Halo 5. I was extremely impressed with the graphics on Halo 4. The fact that the 360 could handle that blew my damn mind. The story was good, but everytime I play it, I just.... don't have fun. I can play through Halo 5's mostly spotty story and have a great time and I think it actually all falls onto the gameplay. Halo 4 was a stepping stone in game mechanics. If they would have taken the fairly rock solid story of Halo 4 and put it together with Halo 5 rock solid mechanics, we would be sitting really really well. The story that was promised through Hunt the Truth was looking to be amazing and one of the best marketing campaigns of all time, only to be retconned out and never spoken about again in game. For once though, game mechanics take the cake for me. I need to have fun when I play a game and in Halo 4, I cannot think of a single level that I enjoyed, especially the final level. Flying the longswords should have been cool, but instead, if you were playing with friends, it was atrocious. If even one person died, almost everyone else was guaranteed to die because of the screen shake when the longsword exploded. Not to mention the inexcusable final boss fight. It could have ended the fight like that maybe, but we didn't even get a chance to try to fight the Didact. I could honestly talk about what I like and dislike about the Halo franchise of late for probably hours, but despite all of its shortcomings, I still love the franchise.

iPlayiOS not mine. I prefer Gears of War any day. Halo has boring weaponry throughout all races, crappy vehicles with even worse weaponry, and a protagonist, who‘s suit has to exchange even simple gadgets...and often enough large scale enviroment not looking like a warzone at all...Boring.

Sunny Frisch Gears is also good, just not as good. Sorry you missed out on the glory days. I'd belittle Halo too if I missed out - fortunately for me, I didn't.

Klager yeah.... no! Look at the mess of destiny 1 & 2 and be glad they aren't anywhere near halo any more.

Klager R I P Xboner

Mikey C they are with Activision which is why destiny is ass

Klager because they went full Destiny that's why. Well i agree anyway because Destiny tries so hard to be the official successor of Halo but its not because instead it does mostly everything most Halo fans despise and most of the key of the Halo games either left to venture into other studios or went back to Microsoft which is funny because Bungie was sick of tired of making Halo and now most of the key people went back.

Glad to see Staten working on Halo lore again.

Me too

legend!

Noctury I believe you mean ICONTHICC

heretic!

It wasn't/isn't a demo. It was a video they made. Bungie spilled the beans on their own incompetence in the dvd released in the collector's edition.

Its a real demo, only its a demo specifically made for E3. Meaning if you do anything that was not on the script, you will get bug-central.

RazgrizOne Have you ever watched the dvd that came with the collector's edition of Halo 2? They state very plainly that it was only a video. It was not a playable demo then, or now.

RazgrizOne The only truth to saying it was a demo is that it was a demonstration. The guy they had holding a controller was doing absolutely nothing but acting.

Where exactly in that video did they state it was a recording? And if it truly was, why did they record several variants? Why not just one? To keep up the illusion?

Is Halo 2 online broken or something?

The Arabian sometimes

The Arabian they are gonna update the game because of Xbox One X and so they will also improve it in general

CEROSER the One X enhancements are the secondary goal here. the whole collection is being redone. completely new matchmaking system, completely new main menu and a completely new net code.

Just bought an x and im waiting for the update before i buy mcc

SO DO YOU

DJHeroMasta but it’s an M rated game?

Poever Hahaha? Are you serious? Those ratings didn't mean a damn thing. We setup LAN matches for almost every family event. That ESRB rating was straight up bullshit. Should've be "T". I still play it from time to time on my Original Halo Edition Xbox.

Poever your parents didn't let you play M rated games? You really missed out on alot...

Halo and childhood? What are you kids doing here?

We're all kids! Just kids with bills.

Story of my life

Mr. SEA Halo 2 is Legendary.

@@Comkill117 true.

referral madness Did you play Reach at it's launch?! I was 21 at the time and I remember it being Hated and everyone saying how BUNGIE "Ruined" Halo. The Theme repeats but the developer has changed. Maybe you just aren't a Real fan of the Series and cannot Adapt with it.

cMARVEL360 honestly yeah everyone says the same thing

cMARVEL360 - lol the big change was a sort of “**** you* to Microsoft when Reach first dropped. Honestly though, Reach was such a great Halo game. Not on the level of greatness of Halo 2 and Halo 3 but damn near.

bballskiller Halo 1 was the true masterpiece. Everything after was disgusting.

You couldn’t be more wrong. The triple shot burst for a headshottable laser accurate weapon is what made the BR so OP and the most overused weapon in the game, especially in Multiplayer. Imagine if the BE was only single shot like the demo, no ez kills for people who can’t aim and pull the trigger at the right moment. This is why I loved halo reach DMR way more. Bungie learned so much by that point, especially for multiplayer balance, which the game almost hinges on. Yea halo 2 balance was destroyed by this BR, I hated it then and still do in all its boring crappy iterations afterwards. Rant mode: off

She said it :D

You’re on.

"In."

“You’re on.”

Always gives me chills.

GRZ NGT TV

The funny thing is I’m the demo the dual smgs were actually one weapon and had no recoil whatsoever. If you look closely he picks them up at the same time rather than one at a time

Christian Young the same

I was 6 or 7 when I first played Halo 2. Good times

Happy birthday

Generally speaking halo 2 maps are pretty open except for a few exceptions, cairo station, sacred icon, the oracle, and high charity. Most other levels are bigger just due to sheer size, but what I think you're talking about is the effective playable area, not explore-able area. While H1 has some open missions, lets not talk about the corridor shooting of truth and reconcilliation, 343 guilty spark, keyes, the library and pillar of autumn. Out of H1 10 missions 6 have heavy indoor shooting sections, and 1 has heavy copy and pasting level design (the library), and 1 reused map (Two betrayals), 2 partially recycled maps (The maw and Keyes). I am not saying these maps aren't open, but they do have a lot of corridor shooting in them, except two betrayals. Halo 2 has a fair share of indoor fights, but halo 1 is just as guilty. What matters isn't the how open the levels are but the enjoyment factor you get from playing them. H2 has better graphics, there isn't an argument there, H1 was more colourful, but H2 had better geometry, lighting, effects, sound effects, textures and voice acting. H2's seemingly brown colour pallet is only really evident in Outskirts, metropolis and the arbiter. Halo 2 has 13 unique levels and 1 copy and paste type level (sacred icon), H1 has 7 unique levels, 1 copy paste level, 3 partially recycled levels, a total of ten. H2 has 6 open based vehicle levels, H1 has 4 open based vehicle levels, including the warthog run, that would be 5. In your opinion it may be true, but it isn't factually speaking.

its always the same shit, also today, ppl believe trailers and tech demos... atm some ppl really believe xbox4 games will look like the ue5 tech demo 🤣😂

That and the trailer with the bomb! At least that part more or less ended up in the game.

PC sells software and hardware without advertising. And E3 itself doesn't matter anymore.

Ehhhh...I dunno, this was the E3 where Half-Life 2 debuted. Doom 3 and Far Cry were also on the way. PS2 owners got Metal Gear Solid 3 as well. It was a good time for everyone.

I play most games @ 144fps with G-Sync, IPS and 1440p. But I wonder why the PC has no big reveals or shows like consoles since its as popular and has more player overall.

RAZOR yeah it just matters all year round....lol

Often times Microsoft's e3 announcement are for both PC and Xbox one.

Paulo Lameiras the mutiplayer is gold. Pipe down

Paulo Lameiras Fuck “not” in the game, the graphics and look in the final game were so terrible that I couldn’t give a shit if they put the level in.

Bryce McKenzie In what world? Halo 2 was pure garbage last I remembered. Unless you mean Halo 1...the true masterpiece.

Lol h2 multiplayer revolutionized multiplayer forever. H2 story was widely regarded best in the franchise. Only downsides are the difficulty balancing.

Mega Drive I think he’s talking about the first Killzone 2 trailer, it looked surreal, but the difference between that trailer and the final game was generations apart, he refers that Halo 2 final Is closer to his presentation than Killzone ever was.

Mega Drive But at least Sony got your 💰

Mega Drive The trailer used made devs die inside at the event, it was a early trailer meant for the publishers I think.

Mega Drive What's a Xbox?

While this is true keep in mind that this Halo 2 demo WAS a real demo running on Xbox dev hardware. The Killzone 2 2005 trailer, however, was never intended to be released to the public. Sony screwed Guerrilla Games over in that particular situation especially claiming it was a real game - when they basically had nothing at that point. Same happened with Evolution. THAT was a dark time for Sony.

I think I covered that in my DF Retro on Half-Life 2!

DigitalFoundry Really? Im going to check it now, thanks

Lost Montanelas The Gravity Gun looked so bad in that demo.

Indeed.

Cat Down The Road to Recovery

re hash to be fair I think part of why Halo’s popularity has been in decline is the past couple games have been ok at best. Halo 4&5 aren’t very good and MCC has a lot of bugs, though I’d get a PC version for sure since I love this series so much.

Don't mean to necro but, we now have up to Halo 3 on Steam, with ODST, 4 and even Infinite on their way

Wogle They went through hell trying to make this game, and this E3 demo was no different. The amount of effort they spent trying to get it working is amazing.