very tricky Bungie

i'm not sure whether to be upset or overjoyed at the news that came out earlier this week regarding my favorite multiplayer game of all time, Halo 3 - i think i'm somewhere in between (but leaning toward overjoyed with just a hint of cheezed-off).

remember, oh, a week or two back when i posted on Bungie coming out and saying they were probably not going to have online co-op for Halo 3, that maybe they'd be able to release a patch later that would allow for it? and how i ranted about games nowadays that have ANY sort of offline co-op had BETTER include online co-op?

well it turns out there IS going to be online co-op. for up to 4 freakin' players!

the first player, the one that forms the party, plays as Master Chief. any others that join him play as Brutes that are on the side of the Chief - at least for the majority of the game i guess (one of them is the Arbiter, who you played as half the time in Halo 2).

yeah, just out of the blue this week the news comes out of some showing of the game Bungie was doing in Amsterdam and they're like "oh yeah, the 4-player co-op, it's leading to all-new scenarios of gameplay and it's been fantastic!"

...

what the hell?!? you just publicly said a few weeks ago that you didn't even think you'd have online co-op ready for launch, and NOW all of the sudden it's there and it's for 4 players? uh, do you have an explanation for this? (for the record, i heard no explanation given).

so, while i'm happy - no, overjoyed - that they included NOT ONLY online co-op, but 4 freakin' player online co-op, the news is somewhat soured by the news a few weeks ago that there probably wasn't going to be any and then Bungie not offering up an explanation as to what happened in those magical weeks.

the news might further be soured by the fact that no one i know that will buy this game will buy it at the time of release... but i'm hoping for some online co-op maybe early next year?

i call Master Chief.

- kawitchate