14 gamers hold Xbox Live hostage

[CptStern]

When Microsoft finally discontinued Xbox Live support for Halo 2 on April 15, it was the end of an era. Gamers from around the world who spent inordinate amounts of time fragging each other in Halo 2's many levels were forced to say goodbye.

However, as most left for newer alternatives, some refused to let go just yet.

"Throughout the past week, a small group of dedicated Halo 2 players kept their Xbox's on so that they could enjoy the game for a while longer," Bungie Community member "Joe Campbell" wrote in a forum. He said even though Microsoft has turned off support for Halo 2, the players have been able to keep playing the game because they haven't turned their consoles off and maintained a constant connection to Xbox Live since April 15.

they should keep us updated as each gamer is knocked off xbox live when their consoles get RROD

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20003533-17.html

 

[Rizzo]

Meh.

Halo 2 sucks anyway so I don't care. PS3 ftw ffs zomg lol etc.

 

[Acepilotf14]

xbox 1 doesn't rrod, silly stern. It's a tough piece of equipment.

 

[CptStern]

I have 2 original xboxes in various states of disrepair



ya I couldnt come up with anything else

 

[<RJMC>]

what about make the live of the 360 compatible whit xbox1 games? after all xbox1 games are compatible whit 360 right?

 

[OmegaX]

That's dumb. You'd think it would just disconnect them when they shut the service off.

 

[Ravioli]

Wait wait wait, Microsoft can just "turn off" the multiplayer option of any game on their consoles if they want? I assume Sony can do the same on their playstations. I dont know how the hell console gamers are ok with this.

PC ftw

 

[CptStern]

no, they shut down the entire service not just the games ..the Live service for the original xbox. but ya multiplayer games at that point are absolutely worthless

 

[Barnz]

true heroes

 

[99.vikram]

true heroes

They should pull a collective An Hero.

 

[No Limit]

Wait wait wait, Microsoft can just "turn off" the multiplayer option of any game on their consoles if they want? I assume Sony can do the same on their playstations. I dont know how the hell console gamers are ok with this.

PC ftw

The exact same thing can be done on the PC. The server list has to come from some where.

 

[VirusType2]

When Microsoft finally discontinued Xbox Live support for Halo 2 on April 15, it was the end of an era.

They can play the Xbox [1] game "Halo 2" on the Xbox 360 or the PC, silly journalist.

They didn't discontinue it for Halo 2, they discontinued Live for the Xbox [1].

The exact same thing can be done on the PC. The server list has to come from some where.

True, but a lot of multiplayer PC games let a player host a game.

 

[Vegeta897]

You could play Halo 1 multiplayer online without xboxlive with the help of an app on your PC, I'm sure there is one for Halo 2.

 

[the cow says moo]

Halo 1 multiplayer online

I never had a chance to play online Halo 1 multiplayer, but I would definitely jump at the chance to play it now.

what about make the live of the 360 compatible whit xbox1 games? after all xbox1 games are compatible whit 360 right?

Only a few xbox games are compatible on the 360 and even fewer are playable online.

 

[VirusType2]

But Halo 2 is one of the Xbox games compatible with the 360. Not only that, but it is enhanced graphically when played on the 360.

the hardware in the 360 can do a lot of nifty stuff, and specifically in the cases of Halo and Halo 2, it can display the graphics in wide screen, at 720p, with full scene anti-aliasing. And it doesn't look kludgy, artifacty or smeary like an upscanning DVD player. The best way to describe it is that both games look like they're running on a PC at those resolutions.

Now, to reiterate, we didn't redo any of the old textures or geometry – this is simply the game you already own, running at a higher resolution. The results are not miraculous, but for owners of HDTVs (or VGA monitors with the appropriate cable) they are sweet.

Do they work on Live? Like we already explained, they work exactly as they did before – that means System Link and split-screen for Halo, but – of course - no Live play (just like before!) – and for Halo 2 – System Link, Xbox Live and split screen as before. And yes, your existing Gamertag and Live Account will work just fine. I should note that split screen in 720p has obvious benefits.

http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3900

Actually, this is Halo, but Halo 2 was done similarly.

 

[Maestro]

the hardware in the 360 can do a lot of nifty stuff, and specifically in the cases of Halo and Halo 2, it can display the graphics in wide screen, at 720p, with full scene anti-aliasing. And it doesn't look kludgy, artifacty or smeary like an upscanning DVD player. The best way to describe it is that both games look like they're running on a PC at those resolutions.

Now, to reiterate, we didn't redo any of the old textures or geometry – this is simply the game you already own, running at a higher resolution. The results are not miraculous, but for owners of HDTVs (or VGA monitors with the appropriate cable) they are sweet.

Do they work on Live? Like we already explained, they work exactly as they did before – that means System Link and split-screen for Halo, but – of course - no Live play (just like before!) – and for Halo 2 – System Link, Xbox Live and split screen as before. And yes, your existing Gamertag and Live Account will work just fine. I should note that split screen in 720p has obvious benefits.

The exact same thing can be done on the PC. The server list has to come from some where.

http://www.mektek.net/mekmatch/ <---- fan-made matchmaking service entirely independent of Microshaft's ZoneMatch. The only change was a single registry entry, too. Considering how open the engines on most modern games are, it would be a trifling matter to do the same thing I should think.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

what about make the live of the 360 compatible whit xbox1 games? after all xbox1 games are compatible whit 360 right?

It's the Xbox1 Live code in the games that makes it incompatible.

For example, things like having more like 100 friends, fabled clan support, etc etc are all limited because Live for Xbox1 couldn't handle it. There was a whole bunch of legacy stuff MS needed to maintain and it limited what they could do with the newer version of Live.

Thus, they made the decision to ax it in favor of moving the platform forward. If gamers really want, you should still be able to do system link over Hamachi and such if you want to play the games online. Just, no matchmaking.

 

[VirusType2]

So wait, so you really can't play online on Halo2 if you play it on the 360? I thought they were just ditching live service for the Xbox. Granted, I'm not really paying attention to Xboxes, but I just want to correct myself from earlier, if that's the case.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Uhh.. I thought it was just the original Xbox Live(so it's not just Halo 2 that got axed, it's everything), and you could still play Halo 2 on the 360's Live.

 

[flamingdts]

I never knew this was even allowed. I could understand if companies stopped servicing a game as a whole, but taking out a huge component off the game as a whole?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

So wait, so you really can't play online on Halo2 if you play it on the 360? I thought they were just ditching live service for the Xbox. Granted, I'm not really paying attention to Xboxes, but I just want to correct myself from earlier, if that's the case.

Uhh.. I thought it was just the original Xbox Live(so it's not just Halo 2 that got axed, it's everything), and you could still play Halo 2 on the 360's Live.

Nope. 360 just emulates an Xbox anyways, and Halo 2 networking code references Xbox 1 Live... Therefore, it's gone for good, whether via 360 or not.

I never knew this was even allowed. I could understand if companies stopped servicing a game as a whole, but taking out a huge component off the game as a whole?

MS did give enough warning, and it's well within their right to cut off an old service so they can advance the platform. It's been almost 6 years since the game released, and almost 4 years since the Xbox has stopped being sold, so MS really kept the platform on as long as they could, but as I said, for technological (and budgetary) reasons, they need to stop supporting Xbox 1 Live. All good things must come to an end unfortunately!

 

[ríomhaire]

I never knew this was even allowed. I could understand if companies stopped servicing a game as a whole, but taking out a huge component off the game as a whole?

Yeah. For example it's impossible to get some of the endings for RE: Outbreak any more because they required playing online with other people, but Capcom turned off their servers.

If Valve went under and Steam shut down we'd have to find a workaround to play TF2 because the server browser and everything runs through Steam (though I've heard Valve have a purely offline version of Steam they will release if they shut down, but if they do I bet it'd have loads of bugs).

 

[VictimOfScience]

Their sad devotion to that ancient game has not helped conjure up an official extension to their online service. Poor bastards.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Oh well. It was a shitty game anyway.