Halo 3 - The Final Word

In anticipation of Halo 3's release later this month, EGM and the folks at 1up have been creating a veritable altar to the Halo deities over at the website. This edifice has tons of information on the two previous Halo games, commentary from numerous Halo-literate folks on the subject, as well as weightier articles like a preview of the co-op mode (four players, mind), a primer on the story if you've missed something, and a breakdown of the good and bad in Halo 3 . Yes, there are even some things they don't like about the game. From the co-op breakdown: "The Achievements offered tantalizing hints of the game's structure, features and techniques, a welcome morsel of information for the faithful to contemplate and speculate about. The co-op news was greeted with even more warmth, because it put to rest ill-founded rumors that Bungie was planning to deliver a half-completed game. On the contrary; up to four players will be able to take control of the Master Chief, the Arbiter and two Elite warriors, N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham. (Don't bother trying to pronounce their names; just appreciate the promise of joining up with three friends to conquer the game.) And somewhere in the middle, these two topics are connected by something even more intriguing. Halo's co-op game and its Gamerscore-grinding intersect at a point enigmatically referred to in the game's Achievements as the 'Meta-game.'"

Re:The Final Word on Halo...

[OmegaBlac]

I agree. Time and time again every time Halo-mania pops up I cannot bring myself to get excited by this particular franchise. Maybe it is due to me being a PC gamer for most of my life. I felt the same way when Goldeneye was the king of console FPS. I thought that game was absolutely horrible looking and the multiplayer portion was laughable. I just don't see anything special about this series. I've played Halo 1 & 2 in Co-op. It was ok, but nothing I haven't seen on the PC. Deathmatch in Halo 1 & 2 was boring--UT, Quake, and Counterstrike on the PC are more exciting. I found the single player mode in Halo 1 & 2 to be outright dull. Storyline is not a masterpiece as Halo fanboys make it out to be. Halo fans tend to reply that you need to read the novels to appreciate the whole Halo universe, but that stuff needs to be in the game. Graphics are not groundbreaking. The music soundtrack is practically the only part of the Halo series that I have enjoyed so far. I tend to side with those that believe that this franchise is over-hyped, not innovative, not evolutionary (despite the combat evolved tag that was apart of the title of the original), and definitely should never be in any Top 10 games of all time list. Anywhere.

Enough!

[nutshell42]

No Online Co-Op For Halo 3 At Launch [slashdot.org]
Online Co-Op For Halo 3 Launch Confirmed [slashdot.org]
Halo 3 Preorders Top 1 Million, Marketing Begins [slashdot.org]
Halo 3 Almost Done [slashdot.org]
Halo 3 Has Gone Gold [slashdot.org]
A Look At Halo 3's $10 Million Ad Campaign [slashdot.org]
Halo 3 - The Final Word [slashdot.org]

This whole thing is turning into the bastard child of Vista and the iPhone. And this list doesn't even include the articles (about the 360 and ilovebees) that were about Halo but didn't have Halo 3 in the topic. Despite this we still have two news posts about Halo 3 *marketing*, two about it going gold and one correcting an incorrect earlier /. article (I think that was a first).

Did /. ever push any other game like this?

Re:Oh, how times have changed

[Blakey Rat]

Two points:

Try Starseige Tribes on the PC. It's a multiplayer game circa 1997 which was ahead of its time by a WIDE margin, but it also shares the more slow-paced approach that Marathon and Halo both have.

Secondly: People on Slashdot aren't anti-Halo, they're anti-mainstream. Anything popular, they hate. Don't believe it, it's all just posing to look cool on the Internet.