Suggested by Akibahara

Very simple.

The fight is set in Rapture, both fighters get their weapons and fight to the death.

Who wins?

Suggested by Syncourt
JerkwithNoName also suggested this match but without the AMP. I’m thinking having the Colonel in his suit provides for a better match. In not, we’ll do another match without it.

Anyways, I think this makes for a fairly even fight. MC would have to have some heavy artillery in order to have a realistic chance at victory here. This fight takes place in a jungle setting with limited ammo – no reloads for either combatant.

Who wins?

Here we have what looks like to be a match that could endure for some time. For this scenario, MC is hunting down Mactavish. This is taking place in a wooded area of nearly 500 acres with various terrains available.

Soap is trying to reach an extraction point that both he and MC both know it’s location.

Who wins?

I typically don’t have too many thoughts when it comes to the end of an era for anything, as I believe change is good and it’s always good to get out of your comfort zone. For Halo 2 on Xbox live, that end arrives on April 15th, 2010. After that, Halo 2 will no longer be available to play on the service.

Personally, I think Halo 2 set a standard for how online multi-player matchmaking should be done. Step back for a moment from the all the hype that Master Chief gets as a character and instead look at what that game accomplished.

It helped to create a variety of balanced gameplay online. By having a ranking system based on the player skill level, you were only sometimes in matches where the other players were incredibly better than you. There were game types for everyone – I know Team Slayer is always a favorite as well as Rumble Pit. For me, it’s always been about the tactical games via Capture the Flag or Assault.

I fired up the Halo 2 disk and jumped back into those matches. At first there was a nostalgic feel to everything. It was a nice comforting feeling similar to that of seeing an old friend. Then the negatives started to rear their ugly heads. I was instantly placed into a Big Team Battle match with about 7 other players waiting…and we waited…and waited…it took an average of eight minutes for each match that I played in.

Then, I had forgotten about the convenient mute feature found in Halo 3, so I instead would just turn off my mic and just listen. Finally when we would finally get enough players, the game would start and it looked like a game from 2004. Very flat images, players lagging out and lurching all over the place. Seemed like it only took 3 shots from any weapon to get killed. I could still super jump, so I was happy about that.

After I played a few games (ok, about 50) I decided that it was best to leave it in the past and instead to remember the good times and so from that, I decide to compile my list of my favorite maps from Halo 2.

Perhaps Bungie will one day make a “Maptacular” special where they update all these maps…I know wishful thinking! Anyways, here is the list:

10.) Zanzibar

That gigantic wheel. The destructible columns where soo many times I perished trying to arm the bomb. Yes, I know they updated this for Halo 3, but there’s always something special about the original…

9.) Burial Mounds

This was a great map for Snipers, Capture the Flag and Assault. Also loved the super jumps I could pull off and easily pick off unknowing players as they walked by. Playing CTF on this map was insane. The warthog trick was the best. Soo many times you could rush the base, grab the flag and hop on the hood and ride away to victory. Assault was about impossible to find a winning strategy, but it was always fun. And of course Snipers – from the super jump spots to standing on top of the ‘bones’ on the map, that was a great arena to battle in.

8.) Lockout

A great map for Rumble Pit and CTF. Another map that Bungie has updated for Halo 3 (Blackout), but there was nothing more fun that doing a super jump to the top of the structure on Team Snipers and watching the other gamers in frustration trying to exact revenge…

7.) Containment

An excellent map for Team Snipers, Capture the Flag and Assault. For some reason, “Territories” was on this map way too much and was a part of the reason why this map fell out of favor. Otherwise, a great map to super jump and snipe on. Also, was a pretty easy map to get out of. I distinctly remember one sniping match where a guy on blue team super jumped next to me on my spot. We spent the entire game watching all the other players killing each other, and if someone from our own team tried to kill the other guy, we would betray them. Ah, the things you could never do in real life…

6.) Terminal

That effing train. That thing stopped me from scoring the flag hundreds of times. It also helped me win a few matches as well. Snipers was good on this map as well as Team Slayer. Nice balance, plenty of hiding places as well an open front area to rush in. So many matches on this map came down to the wire.

5.) Relic

This must’ve been a favorite map for modders and boosters. Seems like about every other game on this map would have some type of cheating taking place on it. One time I spent an entire match falling from one structure repeatedly as I was getting sniped after only about 1/2 second from spawning. When you did get a match that wasn’t being ruined by dicktards, it was a nice map for Team Snipers and CTF.

4.) Ascension

By far the best map for Rumble Pit and Slayer games. Capture the Flag played well on this map. Hell, even Team Snipers was great here. Another excellent map for super jumps. And at least on this map, you could find the super jumpers and take them out courtesy of the rockets or sniper. Once they took out the Banshee from the default map, it wasn’t as fun.

3.) Waterworks

Another well balanced map for Big Team Battle. Nice vehicle blend, weapon dispersion, and great locations to snipe from. This map also had the stalagmites that you could shoot and if you timed it right, could land on a victim, stop the flag from getting scored, or really piss off that idiot driving the wraith. This map would be a great candidate for an update.

2.) Coagulation

This is hallowed ground here. For those of you not familiar with the awesome machinima series “Red Vs Blue“, the main story takes place on this map and it’s predecessor, Blood Gulch. Besides being the backdrop of that essential piece of Halo lore, this map taught me the value of playing defense and calling out spots on the map with common names so that others in your team knew where the enemy was approaching from. A very under rated map for sniping, since there was soo much open ground it made you play with a different strategy from most sniper maps.

1.) Headlong

Easily the most fun and balanced map that has ever been produced by Bungie. This map is soo flexible that I challenge anyone to show me a map that can account for every game type possible, and still be balanced. A perfect blend of vehicles, obstacles, buildings, weapons, tactics and strategies makes this my all time favorite map for not just Halo 2, but for every other release since. Unless they update this map I doubt there will ever be another map that plays so well into every possible scenario.

Headlong, you will be missed.

Ok, let the bashing begin, anyone else have a favorite map from Halo 2 not included on the list? And if so, try to convince me why it should be on this list!

For this match, Master Chief is in New Mombasa, weeks before the Covenant attack. Altair has been following MC for three days and has one week to get his kill.

Who would win this match?

Suggested by just about everyone on this site except the Admin

Well folks, here we have it. The vaunted MC vs Xena post, easily the most requested match in FactPile history.

While this sets up to be entertaining, I hardly think that Xena has any chance. No matter her skill set, leather armor doesn’t do too well against bullets and energy swords…

Who wins?

Suggested by erik

In the spirit of always trying to introduce new characters to FactPile, we have for your reading review, Chapulin Colorado. I have to admit that previous to this request, I had never heard of this guy.

While I certainly appreciate the quirkiness of Colorado, this match won’t last very long.

What say you?

I know many will enjoy this image for what it represents…

Suggested by Zach

Appearing for the first time on factPile is Briareos Hecatonchires from the Appleseed franchise. As much as I would like to think that MC has a chance in this fight, I really don’t know he’d be able to gain an advantage to win.

What do you think?

Suggested by Hitman H94

Here he have an very equal match in the terms of training on both sides and experience in dealing with the other. While I think MC has a technological edge, Connor might have the toughness needed to outlast the Chief.

What say you?