Well now this is mildly embarrassing. Six years ago, Bungie showed off, and I guess I use that term loosely now, Halo 2 for the very first time. Let’s see… 2003, that would make me 17. Trivia! Anyhow, what Bungie showed was a complete hunk of nonsense. This is where you act surprised.
The game’s engineering lead, Chris Butcher, told not-CrunchGear that what Bungie showed that day was “smoke and mirrors.” That doesn’t mean it was done to purposefully mislead E3 attendees, and the larger gaming audience, but because that’s just how they rolled at the time, creating an engine that they didn’t know the Xbox couldn’t handle.
A case of biting off more than they could chew, as it were.
Not that Halo 2 turned out bad. We played it for hours and hours back in college, like a bunch of geeks. I was a sniper most of the time, and everybody hated my MAD ELITE SKILLZ. Then I’d cackle like a fool.
Hopefully I’ve succeeded in my goal of killing a few minutes of your day.