I was reading a few articles at Gamerscoreblog and came across one highlighting the process behind Halo 2 and its achievements. It was a pretty good read. Microsoft has a team working with Bungie on Halo 2 for Vista called Hired Gun. Click the link for more.
Here’s a highlight from the blog over at IGN:
Designing Achievements for Halo 2 for Windows Vista
The Xbox version of “Halo 2″ obviously predated the era of the Gamerscore, so this represents one of several compelling reasons to give “Halo 2″ another spin. For the team, designing fun and significant rewards in a game that is already well-established was a bit challenging. This was accomplished with the help of the talented staff at Bungie Studios and Hired Gun, with a watchful eye on the latest trends in the gaming community.
The achievements were designed with some fundamental goals in mind – keep the game fun, encourage beginners to join our “Halo 2″ community, and provide a new challenge with a few tough or interesting achievements for our most dedicated fans.
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:10 pm
I think it’s great that Bungie/Microsoft is injecting new life into this game. Sadly I don’t plan on buying Halo 2 for Vista, as I already own it for my Xbox, and once Halo 3 comes out I won’t want to go back. I love some of the achievements Hired Gun came up with, especially the concept that beating Campaign in Legendary gives you a title. The achievement I have been looking forward to the most this past year is “Beat Halo 3 on Legendary”, and if Halo 3 follows a similar achievement model to Halo 2 Vista, it would be awesome to have a little Legendary icon by my name in matchmaking.
March 24th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Why would it be so great to have a legendary icon by your name for matchmaking?!?!?! Honestly beating Halo: CE and Halo 2 on their hardest setting was not hard in the least. I breezed through it like it was on easy but thats me. Is it called Legendary in Halo CE?? I dont remember as I last played that one like 3 yrs ago.
March 25th, 2007 at 6:01 am
[quote comment="22885"]Why would it be so great to have a legendary icon by your name for matchmaking?!?!?! Honestly beating Halo: CE and Halo 2 on their hardest setting was not hard in the least. I breezed through it like it was on easy but thats me. Is it called Legendary in Halo CE?? I dont remember as I last played that one like 3 yrs ago.[/quote]
It’s called Legendary in both games - if you really beat it so easily, I can safely say you’re one of a minority who can.