Bungie says - we "screwed up" Halo 2

Bungie, the dev team that made Halo 2, has told UK mag Edge that they "screwed up" Halo 2, and that "Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways".

Wow.

Explaining the situation to reporters, Chris Butcher, who was the technical lead programmer on the game, said that the team simply ran out of time when it came to the final few weeks of polish. He told Edge:

""We had about four to five weeks to polish Halo at the end. No more than that. And that last five per cent is responsible for 30 per cent of the success of the game, or more. That's the period in which we really had a perfect storm...

One of the things that stuns me when I think about it, and I can't believe this is true - we had none of that for Halo 2. Take that polish period and completely get rid of it. We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it."

It's pretty crazy to think of the team that has delivered such a stunningly successful game, and critically well received at that, as being so gutted about the final state of the game. Butcher even goes so far as to say that "I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer."

That's a sentiment obviously not shared by many, since Halo 2 is the most popular game ever on Xbox Live.

You can check out the full story over at Edge - it's well worth reading. Take a look, then let us know of your thoughts on Halo 2, and anticipation for Halo 3, over in the forums.