A few days ago I finished Halo 2 (Xbox) for what I believe is the 6th time, however this time I went through it on my Xbox 360 in all its 720p, full screen anti-aliasing, wide screen glory. First and foremost for a game based on such old tech, it looked really gorgeous all things considered. While I noticed less of an overall quality increase than I did with Fable: The Lost Chapters, the game was certainly crisper, and wide screen is just such a natural extension for this great game. Objects (like enemies) in the distance were still very blurry, sadly, but upscaling can only do so much.
The only annoying problem with Halo 2 on the Xbox 360 was the known graphical ghosting issue that often occurred, especially towards the last third of the game. It seems that when you look at certain 2-D backgrounds, particularly those flat background images on Delta Halo, the image may leave a residual "ghost" image on the screen. Sometimes this image was minor and you could easily ignore it, other times, it was so damn noticeable that it actually obscured your regular vision. The only solution right now, unless they can fix that in a future emulator update, is to return to the Dashboard and restart Halo 2 again. A simple fix, but annoying since it kills momentum.
I'm also not sure
if I was just very rusty or what, but Halo 2 on Heroic seemed a whole lot harder than I remembered it. I don't think that Microsoft did any balancing or AI changes within the emulator, so I'm guessing it was just me, but when a simple Drone needs 4 bursts from my Battle Rifle to die... and that damned Check Point system...Despite the ghosting issue, my own rusty-ness, and the traditional console designer's hard-on over an inferior archaic save system, Halo 2 is still a blast to play. It's a sold shooter gameplay-wise with great enemy AI, combat variety, and sheer excitement.
With all the visual enhancements that the Xbox 360 is capable of bringing to Halo 2, I just want Halo 3 that much more...
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