30 year old gamer here - with over 2 decades of gaming experience and a number of systems. Look - I am 3/4 the way through Halo 2 and well - I'm UNimpressed. It's a freaking REHASH of the first game - even on Legendary. FMV cutscenes are choppy and still have aliasing issues. Look at the faces during the FMV's of Halo 2 and then watch a FMV from NG - NO FREAKING COMPARISON. I have had 2 stutters (albeit slight ones) during H2 and NONE during NG. There are jaggies (very noticeable on anything flat - oh wait, that's 90% of the game) and even the fire is still so-so. Why do people feel the need to say that this game and its predecessor are the END ALL BE ALL gaming experience and write about it non-stop in every X-Box rag? It's not THAT freaking great. Sure - it tells a cool story and multi is sweet - but COME ON - it has NONE of the FINESSE and POLISH of Ninja Gaiden. I am SICK TO DEATH of how EVERYONE is sucking it's C & B and yet NG gets no props. Anyone else concur?

because its a GRAPHICS and POLISH issue - not TYPE of game.

quote Hyde00101110

30 year old gamer here - with over 2 decades of gaming experience and a number of systems. Look - I am 3/4 the way through Halo 2 and well - I'm UNimpressed. It's a freaking REHASH of the first game - even on Legendary. FMV cutscenes are choppy and still have aliasing issues. Look at the faces during the FMV's of Halo 2 and then watch a FMV from NG - NO FREAKING COMPARISON. I have had 2 stutters (albeit slight ones) during H2 and NONE during NG. There are jaggies (very noticeable on anything flat - oh wait, that's 90% of the game) and even the fire is still so-so. Why do people feel the need to say that this game and its predecessor are the END ALL BE ALL gaming experience and write about it non-stop in every X-Box rag? It's not THAT freaking great. Sure - it tells a cool story and multi is sweet - but COME ON - it has NONE of the FINESSE and POLISH of Ninja Gaiden. I am SICK TO DEATH of how EVERYONE is sucking it's C & B and yet NG gets no props. Anyone else concur?

im with u all the way on this one hyde. halo 1 is a brilliant game and in my opinion better than halo2 in most regards(not including multiplayer).it just has a great feel to it. Anyone who is stupid enough to say halo2 has better polish and finesse than ninja gaiden needs a slap in the face to snap them out of the dream they are in. Ninja gaiden is a masterpiece of a game and is not given enough credit where its needed. those who say halo2 has better graphics are just kidding themselves.Anyone who decides to flame me for being a ng fanboy can stop right there i have ng,h1 and h2 and enjoy them all.

quote Droid

*hits himself on the head* Oops, my bad. I'd have to say the Halo 2 has much better graphics then Ninja Gaiden from what I've seen. But I have to admit, sometimes Halo 2 could look real choppy from faraway. So, I guess I'd have to say Ninja Gaiden is more polish..if that's what you mean by polish. Overral though, I'd have to say Halo 2, no doubt.

I love both halo 2 and NG but NG has much better graphics than halo 2.

I think both games are about equal in the graphics department. But look at the sheer mass of Halo 2's levels. Almost every map in Halo 2 dwarfs the size of Ninja Gaidens whole world. I'm amazed at how polished Halo 2 is with levels as massive as they are, because it's a hell of alot harder to polish a game with such a HUGE world to work with.

Your definitly right about that but the cinimatics in NG are better.

Insofar as a complete package of single player game, NG is by far better IMO. I loved that game and the replay value is still really good...I just wish there was some way to do live! multiplayer or something. The halo2 multiplayer makes it a far more entertaining game tho

ninja gaiden is really sweet, but so is halo 2! i would say that ninja gaiden right when it came out was better than halo 2 right when it came out. but ninja gaiden isnt as great anymore

Halo 2 in general fell a little below my expectations. I just got an xbox a few weeks ago, and I bought Halo and Halo 2 first. I played thru Halo 1 twice before even touching halo 2. And i don't have xbox live. So my opnion was solely based on single player and a little offline multi play. In spots Halo kinda slowed down and there weren't many enemies you were just looking for where to go(on normal and hard) which i thought sucked. They seemed to speed it up a bit more in Halo 2 and there aren't as many dry spots, but the story(ending) is horrible. Both were good games, but i don't feel either should get quite the amount of attention they are getting. Good games of course, and the best FPS games out there, but still have problems, the one i dislike the most is sometimes the lack knowledge as to where to go, which slows the game down. Yes i know theres a little icon showing you, but it doesn't appear until your right on top of it anyway, and theres no map, it could be better.

Graphically though, Bungie cleverly disguises the graphics in halo for most up-close objects with that shiny finish. Nothing really looks real, but it still looks good. For the other stuff, namely trees, you can see the graphics are really not that great, but of course they knew you wouldn't be stopping to admire the trees. And the ground(natural), grass, stone, dirt, are really only distinguished by different coloring and not much else. The ground(man-made) like metal in the ships and stuff, benefit from that shiny type of finish making it brighter and glossier so you can't really look for detailed graphics. If you take the time to look, Halo's graphics don't seem to be all as great or complicated as some might say. But it does work for the atmosphere and feel of the game, meaning it does look good for the situation/style.
I think Ninja Gaiden was going for something different in style, but indeed it does have better graphics from a realism point of view and not really from an aesthetics point of view. More detailed coloring and realistic detail not hidden by a shiny/gloss-like finish. And much harder to accomplish. NG gets the win here. Can't comment on gameplay cuz i don't have NG yet(christmas is coming though), but being a solely single player game i think i can safely assume its better there too. I really(having no broadband and no way to get it) dislike the fact that most of Halo's efforts are online, when ANY console game should put offline FIRST. Which is where Halo 2 did dissapoint quite a lot of people. For those with BB its overlooked, when IMO it shouldn't be, as i said offline comes first for console games and Bungie should be pushed to fix it, and not know instead they can add new multiplayer and people will still buy.

As for props for NG, i can tell you this: my friends and I have had PS2 since release day, and have always talked about getting an XBox but really never did until now, cuz there just wasn't enough original games, anything it had(minus halo, 1 game) PS2 had so it wasn't worth it. BUT, now, alongside the names of Halo and Halo 2, i hear Ninja Gaiden, as the only reason for hardcore gamers to own an xbox when you already have a PS2. Its got its props from my experience and is VERY well known and recognized. Its a 'system-seller' right up there with Halo as a REASON to buy an xbox given you already own another system. As Final Fantasy and GTA is for PS2, or Zelda and Metroid is for GameCube. For most i know, it along with halo is the deciding factor as to whether or not to spend all this money getting a new system when you already have one.
So now that XBox has a whole THREE system-selling quality games you can't get anywhere else, a lot of friends are now buying xbox.
Graphics don't matter, i feel fine about PS2's graphics, for most people other than ordinary 'casual' half hour a day video gamers, theres more to it than that and xbox doesn't appeal to them for that reason alone. It sells specifically for games like this and Halo, otherwise theres two more options out there with far greater libraries of original games you could go with and still have the mainstream multi-platform games. They're not only original and exclusive for xbox, but they are revolutionary and the best in their respective genres. Meaning anybody that likes the genre will want those games, and both are mainstream(FPS and Action/Adventure) genres, and that means a lot of people have a reason to buy an XBox. THATS the props, look at the number of xboxs sold and figure MOST of them sold to REAL gamers were due to one out of two names, or maybe both in my case: Halo, and Ninja Gaiden.

i personnaly found ninja guiden boring, so i say halo2 > ninja guiden

I got both of these games,Halo2 =9/10 Nija Gaiden=10/10.I really enjoyed both games but Iam stearing towards NG more cause you feel more of a badass.