You knew it was coming. I'm tired of all of the bullshit Halo hating going on right now, so I've dug up my old capture card, dusted off the ol' Xbox, and fired up Halo 2. The results (large 1360x480, side-by-side screens) can be found below. Feel free to use these liberally around the internet, combating idiocy and fanboyism wherever it may rear its ugly head.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7968/10ch8.jpg
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/199/71682269qx0.jpg
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6384/32096615wx1.jpg
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/839/78207988fz2.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4457/93844960xb8.jpg
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/249/96179109vj8.jpg
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/108/75746285vb2.jpg
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5172/82520292he2.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8631/49672508do7.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/9470/80040407jf7.jpg


http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/311/24bx9.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7671/11ui5.jpg
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7657/12cc2.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/6386/13ks5.jpg
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8045/14pp3.jpg
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/1081/15xn8.jpg
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/636/16bm4.jpg
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/492/17wy3.jpg
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/1853/18gi0.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/9928/19zp5.jpg
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/2060/20bw5.jpg
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/8894/21mp9.jpg
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6162/23kl5.jpg

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. More to come when it's not 2:30AM. =)

And for anyone who asks, the Halo 2 shots are straight-from-component (just like the Halo 3 shots), uncompressed, and not deinterlaced. Those are the conditions under which the Halo 3 video was shot, and thus, are the conditions that the Halo 2 screenshots were taken. The Halo 2 shots even the the benefit of being uncompressed screen grabs straight from the source, whereas the Halo 3 stuff has the shit compressed out of it.

Anyway, more later. Must sleep.

They look great Drew. I was tossing and turning at 2:30am while you were hard at work.

Nice pics Drew. I've a;ready spread the word to some of the smaller forums I visit

The comparison shots really bring out the difference the time of day makes...

Good work Drew.

They also directly contrast the new and old HUD. The new one is superior in every way.

Thanks again Drew.

Just watching it boot up gets me all fuzzy inside.

I think pretty much everyone agrees that the new HUD rules, which is cool.

Yes indeed new HUD is so icky its tasty.

I'm interested to see what they are going to do with the Health bar. I dont think it will stay there. But i like the idea of it being completely detached from the radar so the radar can completely disappear when it is turned off.

Well done, Drew.


I think it will stay there for several reasons, most notably the polish being applied to it and its animations when the player is being shot. I talk about this in my walkthrough of the leak you guys can find here.

Alright, here are the last of the shots. I think that these ones show much more of a profound difference than the last ones. If a mod could upate the first post with these links, that'd be great. Thanks. =)

http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/311/24bx9.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7671/11ui5.jpg
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7657/12cc2.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/6386/13ks5.jpg
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8045/14pp3.jpg
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/1081/15xn8.jpg
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/636/16bm4.jpg
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/492/17wy3.jpg
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/1853/18gi0.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/9928/19zp5.jpg
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/2060/20bw5.jpg
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/8894/21mp9.jpg
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6162/23kl5.jpg

BTW, just read the walkthrough. Great job Voc!

Af first, I noticed that the walls are whiter. I figured that that could just be because of the change in time of day. But then I noticed that pavement has been restored (notice the area between the fan and the main building). The place was in sort of a ruined condition for the Halo2 map. We know why this is, plotwise: it was a place where the covenant stormed the humans who were still holed up in there. All these maps have a place in the story.

Now, this base that had been, for many Marines, a place of last resort, has been rebuilt and renamed (in their honor? maybe). The big question begged by the reconstruction of this power plant is who rebuilt it? Is it a sign that mankind is rebuilding after defeat of their enemies, or is it a public works project by the Covenant? Could they be trying to improve the planet's ability to sustain life for possible settlement by increasing the output of the station (as opposed to their usual tactic of just glassing the planet)?

I think you're on to something. If you notice in Halo 2, all of the remakes of the maps from Halo 1 have deteriorated. And I mean, all of them. Find me one that doesn't look like it's been aged and weathered. And, from what we've seen of Halo 3, the maps are in better condition. Something small and very subtle, but if it that's what it turns out to be, holy shit.

Good Point. And for those smartasses out there who want to bring up Longest-Elongation, those aren't the same map at all. At most one could say that Elongation was merely inspired by Longest.

Even Elongation was deteriorated, with fires, broken electrical circuits, smashed wall panels, and some grimy base textures, whereas Longest was spotless. It's deteriorated much less so than other remakes, but still deteriorated to some extent.

true, true...

I love how everyone on GAF ignored these when they were posted. Someone else mind posting a few more?

There are currently 56 Guests viewing this thread. I think a few people saw them. Cesar over at TeamXbox also took some of your images and posted them in his "Base" without a citation or mentioning of where or whom he got them from. He's a bitch.

Drew finally beat my Most Users Online record. Damn it.

Somebody should start a TeamXbox thread making sure that everybody knows to give credit to Drew. I'd do it myself, but I don't have a TXB account.

I left Cesar a comment on his Base entry, but I don't think a whole thread is needed.

Drew, I never say this to men. But I love you, please have my babies.

On a serious note, I love the lighting on Last Resort even more when compared to Zanzibar. It really shows off the effort put into it.

Haha.

Thanks for all of the support, guys, but I'd rather have the site as a whole get credit for it. After all, the shots wouldn't even exist if it weren't for H3DA and these forums. I do appreciate it, though. =)

Are you sure? We could go all Mossad on his ass and have him, his family, his friends, and anybody who's ever had remote contact with him assassinated if you want.

Hey, the offer's on the table.

Respect the line and take a number.

Well done, Drew. You're going to come in extremely handy over the next few months.

I'd rather you spend your resources infiltrating Bungie HQ.


Thanks. =)

Thats more KGB than Mossad. The Mossad is quite awesome though, we discussed them in my Concepts class. We we're talking about how when the Iranians got Russian radar systems durring the Cold War to moniter Israeli airspace. They just discided they wanted to know how it works, so they sent a team to kill all the guards, dissasemble the radar, and return it to Israel. They were sucessful, so sucessful infact. That our government wanted to use the radar after the Israelis' were done. But they rejected, a week later they returned to Iran, stole another Russian radar, and gave it to us.

You want KGB? I can get KGB...

If we're goin' KGB. We need to photoshop him/her out of any picture they have ever been in. *Starts talking in Yakov Smirnoff.*

Drew, by the power invested in me I proclaim you Photo Master of All Things Halo for The 21st Century.

Not really. All you need is a little time and the right hardware.

I don't think you have that power. I think we need Voc in here.

So now i'm starting to get pissed. Someone here decided to put your pictures together in a movie, with no credit to Drew at all. I was sure to post who the true master is.

I posted a stern dressing down...and some other guy named "Claze" did too.

I admit it, I stole them all! Muahahaha. Take that Drew! No one will ever know they were your pictures. EVER!

Well, feel free to rip him up all you want. That was a horrible video. =/

Also,


='(

nevermind

Check post #33 in this thread and the comments immediately following it.

These aren't comparisons, but check it out:







Halo 2 my ass.

It still baffles me people still say it's Halo 2.5 or some shit. They're comparing your perfectly captured, high resolution stills to crappy resolution, standard definition shots taken from a leaked beta build of the game, and even so it looks leagues better than Halo 2.

Are you Israeli? I want to join the Mossad, but first I have to do my 3 years in the IDF.

Not Israeli, but I've learned a lot of cool stuff from my AP Euro History teacher and Mossad was one of them. Brutally efficiant group, and I hear you have to be pure blood Jewish in order to even be considered.

But enough about that, that's a topic for somewheres else.

MOAR PICTURES













=D

I LOVE how Spartans have an almost hand drawn look. However they're rendering them this time, it's super effective at imparting a feeling like straight up concept art (one of the places Halo looks the coolest in my opinion) and I think it looks gorgeous.

Coagulation looks like it's actually more advanced than Blood Gultch. Other than that I would agree.

That's an interesting note. It could negate my theory, or it could be a nod to the makers of RvB whose story, originally, if I'm remembering correctly, was based on a human civil war between halo 1 and 2. The enlargement of the bases could be suggestive of improvements made by both sides of the war as it drags on. The change in geography, though, is harder to figure out.

Maybe I'm full of crap.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6162/23kl5.jpg

That's my favorite comparison screenshot, Halo 3 looks amazing compared to Halo 2 in that pic...

I never noticed, but I like the change they made at the end of the Sniper rifle's barrel.

Yeah. It is a different model, so I suppose they have to make some changes.

The barrel end now looks like what I think of when I picture a high power sniper rifle. Like the cutting-edge Barrett M-107 semi-automatic 50 Caliber sniper rifle.



When one of those monstrosities rips through a man at 2700 feet per second, it's not pretty.