Halo 3 Trailer

zip · Post by **zip** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:03 am

hdlsa wrote:I think it was more than hype that made it the best selling game on xbox.

It was the fact that getting Halo with your Xbox counts as a sale of Halo

Kalexon · Post by **Kalexon** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:33 am

True, but still, the game itself has to count for something. There were still those who bought Halo after they got an Xbox because they heard about how great it was, plus there were people who bought Halo for the Mac/PC a couple years after it came out for Xbox (I was one of those people)

zip · Post by **zip** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:22 pm

Kalexon wrote:True, but still, the game itself has to count for something. There were still those who bought Halo after they got an Xbox because they heard about how great it was, plus there were people who bought Halo for the Mac/PC a couple years after it came out for Xbox (I was one of those people)

So was I, and it was certainly very good.. but not revolutionary by any means.

Kalexon · Post by **Kalexon** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:25 pm

No, it wasn't. But really what can you do with an FPS? I mean a combination FPS/RTS has already been done with Gaints: Citzen Kabuto, FPS/RPG has been done with Deus Ex, so really what could you do with an FPS thats revolutionary?

zip · Post by **zip** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:43 pm

Kalexon wrote:No, it wasn't. But really what can you do with an FPS? I mean a combination FPS/RTS has already been done with Gaints: Citzen Kabuto, FPS/RPG has been done with Deus Ex, so really what could you do with an FPS thats revolutionary?

CTF was revolutionary, vehicles were revolutionary, team based combat was revolutionary. Heck, being able to aim up and down was revolutionary too.
Prey's portal and gravitational tricks could be considered revolutionary even..
FPSs may be stagnating right now, but there is plenty of innovation left in the genre.

Lugaruman100 · Post by **Lugaruman100** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:41 pm

hdlsa wrote:I think it was more than hype that made it the best selling game on xbox.

It is as a fact.

Post by **David** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:57 pm

Halo straddled the divide between casual and hardcore gamers extremely well, so that it hooked the hardcore audience, who then spread it to their more casual friends. The recharging shield, two-weapon system, and simple vehicle controls made it fairly easy to play, but the grenades and melee attacks ensured that the player did not feel too restricted.

I personally was not a big fan of Halo because they replaced the god-like disembodied rampant AI of the original trilogy with a flying transparent naked blue chick, and replaced the satisfyingly gooey alien deaths with weird pseudo-ragdolls that are not so much fun, and removed the secondary fire from all of the weapons. If I hadn't played the originals so much, I probably would have liked it a lot more. It was nice that Bungie kept the bizarre and amusing teammate dialogue that made the BOB's in Marathon interesting, that was my favorite part of Halo also.

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:01 pm

Halo multiplayer (on the PC) was a joke. One hit kill with the pistol, the gun you start out with? Please. I guess that's what happens with console ports. Since aiming with joysticks is nearly impossible, they didn't realize that the pistol would turn into one of the best weapons in the game. You can also unload your pistol on a Banshee and down it in about one clip, even if it's almost on the other side of the map.

My verdict? Good for casual gamers... Definitely not designed for people who can actually aim.

I do understand where MacWiggy and other disgruntled Mac users are coming from. I remember vividly following Halo's development with some of my friends in elementary school, since 7th grade, back when we were diehard Mac users. It was supposed to be an epic game to put all other games to shame. The FPS to end all FPS - absolutely revolutionary. In fact, my yearbook page in the eight grade consists largely of Halo logos and teaser pics, much to my shame. That's how excited I was.

Then Microsoft, the evilest and most foul of all corporations (my feelings at the time - Mac zealots understand) bought Bungie, a Mac studio. The company that was going to deliver the holy grail of games to Mac users.

Long story short, this incredibly hyped game ended up not coming out on Mac until after my friend and I went to college... and the game was crap. While it had revolutionary graphics when we were in seventh grade, for a Doom 3/HL2/Far Cry era game, they were extremely dated. In fact, Quake 3, a game I was playing while Halo was first being hyped in 1999 almost has better graphics! Anyways, the gameplay was bad, the levels lame and repetetive, it had a total of like 6 different bad guys, etc.

Yeah, Halo was disapointing. The reason it was so popular is because it was Microsoft's flagship game for the Xbox. In fact, most Xboxes shipped with the game, and to be fair, it probably was the best game on Xbox at the time (out of the miniscule game selection - let's face it, Microsoft was a newcomer in the console market). However, it certainly it was a flop on the PC game market. To this day, you can find more people playing Quake 3 from 1999 than Halo.

End of rant.

»StaffShock« · Post by **»StaffShock«** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:24 pm

Jeff wrote:Halo multiplayer (on the PC) was a joke. One hit kill with the pistol, the gun you start out with? Please. I guess that's what happens with console ports. Since aiming with joysticks is nearly impossible, they didn't realize that the pistol would turn into one of the best weapons in the game. You can also unload your pistol on a Banshee and down it in about one clip, even if it's almost on the other side of the map.

Uh... I dunno what you were playing, but it takes three shots to the head to take down a guy, and a lot more than a clip to get a banshee. You were either playing a modded game, or playing with no shields...

Post by **Jeff** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:36 pm

Let me experiment - it's been a while.

MacWiggy · Post by **MacWiggy** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:38 am

For Mac multiplayer you want Battlefield 1942. It's not as easy to control as Halo, but it's more targeted for the hardcore gamer, which apparently Jeff is.

Renegade_Turner · Post by **Renegade_Turner** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:00 pm

I'm definitely not a hardcore FPS gamer. I suck at FPS games. And strategy games. And everything else. I don't get how some people get so good at games. Must be too much time playing them.