My favorite part was: [quote]It's been a year since the launch of Halo 2 - how has the community evolved during that time? Not hugely. We've actually seen our overall traffic go DOWN, not up. [/quote] It's funny, because it's sad how Halo 2 is supposedly the "better" game, but Halo was always gaining, not losing fans.. Halo 2 is LOSING fans, which is why traffic is going down.. Not saying Halo 2 is a bad game.. In Halo CE, there was just much more things to learn.. Seeing as Halo CE took more skill to play, there were always things to improve on, this is why it was constantly gaining fans for 3 YEARS!!!! Halo 2 is losing fans after just a year.. hell, they have been losing fans since the release date. Halo 2 is getting boring for a lot of people.. it doesn't take skill to win a lot of the games, and the people who used to be rookies are realizing that THIS is no longer fun. When rookies or "noobs" as people call them, first start, the love the game, its not hard to play, and they can get kills, or even win games, by just running around and shooting, or just knowing the basic concept of the game itself.. But now, these rookies are getting better, and they are realizing all the horrible imbalances in the game... This is why Halo 2 is losing its fans, and losing traffic for the online community. Now, i just think it would be amazing if bungie decided to make Halo: Combat Evolved for XBox Live.. Now, I'm sure it may be hard to do, but i would garauntee that the sales for the XBox 360 would be even greater. It really should be a news flash for you Bungie. Halo 2 is losing a lot of its fans after just a year. Halo: Combat Evolved was gaining fans over a 3-4 year period. *FLASH* *FLASH* Now, one of the other things that annoys me about Halo 2 is the split screen. Why change it? Halo CE's Field of Vision for split screen was still quite amazing.. In Halo 2, you lose a lot of that FOV. Why change it so drastically? Another part i thought to be funny was the interview with the OXM guy. Of course he isn't going to say, nor would you post it so the Halo 2 community could see, that Halo CE is a better game. You make it sound as if he is joking about the pistol comment. I'm betting he is not. The pistol was the balancer of Halo.. Please, don't even say "the BR is the new pistol" because it's not. I remember the old days of Halo Combat Evolved, where a guy would start shooting me up with a pistol, even getting a 2-3 shot advantage, and me still being able to turn around and kill him because I'm better.. The guy shooting me didn't have a ridiculous amount of Auto Aim, nor did he have huge hitboxes working for him. It's sad that in Halo 2, when you start getting shot, your only choice is to run, and hope the guy will stop chasing you. Sure, you could throw grenades.. but when you realize he is shooting you, he already has 2 or 3 shots, going on his third or fourth when you turn the corner.. There really is nothing you can do.. at least when you play against the "hardcore" crowd. Let me list off the things that *I* beleive Halo 2 has topped Halo on. 1.XBox Live.. but that is just because XBL wasn't around when Halo was released. 2.Boarding Vehicles - This is a good idea. Hold on.... I'm trying to think. To hell with it, i can't think of anything else, if i do, I'll repost, or just edit. But onto what that guy from OXM said. He said the vehicles were better.... Now, I'd agree if the vehicles were balanced... Sure, they made new vehicles.. the warthog looks more flashy, and the ghost has a boost (insert "oos" and "aahs" here). But try throwing a grenade at a warthog or ghost.. guess what.. nothing really happens. Your only defense on a ghost now is to hope he is stupid, and gets in close enough (without using a boost) to let you board the vehicle. Many times, both of my grenades have actually hit the ghost when they exlpoded, but the ghost just shook a bit, and continued to kill me. In Halo CE, if you were to have ONE nade hit, it would FLIP the ghost over, knocking the driver out, allowing you to kill him, and take his ghost.. Same with the warthog. Many times, in Halo CE, they'd be getting away with the flag, but you throw a well placed grenade, and it flips the warthog over, allowing you to kill the driver, and the flag carrier. Not in Halo 2, the game that is supposed to be more balanced.. and "better".. you can actually STICK the warthog, but it will not but shake. Sure, having destructable vehicles was a good concept, but you went about it the wrong way, in my opinion. The vehicles have just as much health as the person/people in the vehicle. Meaning, if you were to shoot someone up until their shields are blinking, and then let it recharge, then that vehicle is also at full strength again. This is why the banshee is a huge problem as well. "Oh no, my shield is halfway down, let me fly away real fast and allow my shield to recharge, then go back".. this is the routine of the banshee. Another thing you changed that decreased balance was grenades. I'm not talking about the length you are able to throw one, i can deal with that. I'm talking about the power behind them, and the different abilities they had. Grenades in Halo CE weren't just used to kill people, they were also used to blow weapons away from the other team, and to yourself or your team. Another thing, and I'll leave on this. Why change the Weapon Spawn System (WSS)? I don't get it. Halo CE's WSS was perfect. Each person/team had the equal opportunity to know the EXACT respawn time of each weapon. This made the game more balanced, and less of a camping game. For instance in Damnation. Camo - 1 minute - Means that every minute the camo would spawn Overshield - 1 minute - Means that every minute the overshield would spawn Sniper - 30 seconds - Means that every 30 seconds the sniper would spawn Rocket - 2 minutes - Means that every 2 minutes the rocket would spawn These are the main weapons/powerups that people "timed".. This gave each team the equal opportunity to get these weapons, because each team knew they were going to be spawning. Now, in Damnation, the majority of the people liked to hold (not camp) the top room. But they constantly had to get the rocket and camo at least to win the game.. Meaning they couldn't just camp. But if we had Damnation in Halo 2, the settings would be different. The majority of the people would camp (not hold) the top room. Camp? Why? Because in Halo 2, the weapons don't respawn on a set timer like in Halo CE. The team who first gets the weapons is the only team to know the exact respawn times of these weapons. So now, not only does one team have the power weapons, they can have them the rest of the game, because they are the only ones who know when they will be respawning. Normally the team with the power weapons in Halo 2 have the lead. So now they can just camp up top, and wait for people to come after them, with no worries of them coming with equal weapons. Now, to go along with the grenade ability previously stated.. people used the timers and the grenades ability to blow weapons to themselves all in one package. They knew the rocket would be up, so they throw a grenade, and right as it spawns, the rocket blows to them. Now, in damnation, it is quite hard to blow the rocket to yourself if you are "holding" the top room. Most of the time, people had to drop down, and throw down some cover fire to get the rocket. It's amazing how everything in Halo Combat Evolved worked together. Was it really a fluke? Again, Halo Combat Evolved gained fans over a 3 year period because of how balanced it was/is, and how much skill it takes to play the game. Halo 2 is obviously losing fans.. and this started LESS than a year ago. So sure, people could claim that Halo 2 is the better game because it sold more copies.. but Halo 2 is losing fanbase after only a year, whereas Halo CE constantly gained fans.. Which is the better game? That's pure opinion of course. But from the looks of things, from the facts, it basically shows that people will play a game for a longer period of time if it challenges them. Meaning Halo 2 isn't a challenging game to play. - Kevin.