This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Halo 2 Reviews
Related Links Top of the: day, week, month.
Remember to say hello to your bank teller.
Remember to say hello to your bank teller.
Not Credible Sources (Score:4, Insightful)
I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I just don't get the big selling point behind Halo- do people just like it for the action? I mean the story was interesting, but the levels definately were not.
Again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two basic reasons why Halo is so popular.
1) All those people that own X-boxes, but have never seriously gamed on a computer got thier first real exposure to an FPS game.
2) Even before X-box live, LAN action exposed these same people to FPS multiplayer gaming.
This is simply Quake for another generation of people that missed the first round 5 years previously. (The Quake brand *still* has huge draw, even after two mis-matched (although excellently executed) sequels, and many people are hoping that the next one fixes the Doom 3 multiplayer problem (i.e. that it sucks)).
Halo is simply another Quake, but for a different set of people.
Not as good as the oldies.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:One thing that's always bugged me ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:All our hopes are on Halo 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
I normally consider posts like these trolls, but I have to agree in this case. Some of Halo was pretty nice, but it was balanced by all the backtracking, by all the bland interior levels, and by a complete lack of consistency. Overall I don't see what's all that different about it than a lot of other mediocre sci-fi shooters.
Standards for FPS's on consoles are different, and lower. I think Xbox owners were also just happy as hell to have an FPS that looked as good as Halo did (for a console FPS), and that was good for a launch game. It's definitely way, way overrated though, and if the first game had come out at this point in the system's lifespan I doubt it'd make the same sort of splash. Of course, now it's got almost this mythical quality to it, so of course you get reviewers giving it 9s and 10s because hell, it's practically the same game, so people are going to have to love it just as much, right?
Well, I own an Xbox, and Halo 2 is not at the top of my wish list. FPS's belong on PC's anyway, with proper controls and higher detail levels (required for recognizing and then sniping distant enemies). Nuts to Bungie.
WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:3, Insightful)
MS is killing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Yawn...... (Score:2, Insightful)
My console is connected to my 80 inch projection TV. I laugh at your puny 21" monitor. Who cares if your resolution is 1600x1200 and you have a mouse? I guarantee that you FPS games are way more fun on my system than yours!
Re:Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Games like Counter-Strike and Natural Selection DO exist. There's a reason that CS is still the #1 multiplayer fps, no matter what your stereotypes of the game may be it kicks the living snot out of every other multiplayer fps. Keep in mind I am judging the game on its own merits, and not taking into account the attitudes and mannerisms of its players, which may vary.
Oh, yeah, so Halo 1 couldn't hold a candle to CS or NS or even UT2k4 or Tribes 2. Based on that, I don't have high expecations of Halo 2, but I wont pass judgement until I play it. Maybe because my expecations are low, it will beat those expecations and make a good impression.
Oh, the reason people played Halo 1? My guess is they are mostly young kids who didn't already have the Goldeneye experience. Or they were people who didn't have fast Internet connections and didn't have the internet multiplayer fps experience to compare it to. So when a goldeneye with a new theme, better graphics and expanded multiplayer showed up they were wowed away because they had not yet experienced something which you and me have had for over 6 years.
Never having played either myself.... (Score:4, Insightful)
sad but true (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact is, HALO/HALO2 is great for people who are console-addicts but is just "another game" for us pc gamers. FPS games on consoles are behind their time compared to on the pc platform.
Imagine if BattleField 1942 came out first on the console with the same multiplayer experience, then Halo next to it would appear as "just another game". Currently, is there a game on xbox that is same genre as halo? Exactly, none.
On PC, you have BF1942, UT2004, MODS for UT2004, HL, MODS for hl, q3, MODS for q3... This is why halo sucks for us. We have so many choices of fps action because of modifications. They make the game last and give us a wide choice of different gameplays.
On Console, you got HALO, it remains HALO and always will be HALO. If on console you had Half Life (and think there is if not mistakeN0, it would remain Half Life, Not Day of Defeat.
Re:Emphasis on AGAIN (Score:4, Insightful)
and halo 2 is that - DONE AGAIN, but if possible, even shorter.
seriously: WHAT CREATIVE THERE WAS IN HALO 1?
weapons? no.
vehicles? seen before.
enemies? boring.
coop gameplay? hell, doom had that(but halo's pc port didn't).
graphics? just average.
outdoor sequences? non-revolutionary.
indoor sequences? flat walls reminding me of '97.
(oni was boring too after the start)
btw.. what of the old bungie is left besides the name? their next non-fps? dream on guy, like microsoft would have them do anything else than the big hit series.
or to put it on a different note.. have you played any games besides bungies games? because it doesn't really sound so.
Re:Boring? (Score:4, Insightful)
HL and UT were shitty games on PS2, and Halo was a shitty game on PC. It's not often that a game makes a good trip cross platforms, and it definitely wasn't the case with Halo.
Re:What is all the fuss about (Score:2, Insightful)
I've tried playing FPSs or games with FPS elements on various consoles before (Hitman, that old James Bond game, Metal Gear Solid), I can't get to grips with 'mouse look' using buttons or a thumb joystick. It's just not going to happen.
I had much the same reaction when I played GTA3 on the PC (without having played it on the PS2). I thought that the controls were too 'basic', but having played it on the PS2, it is a completely different game, and enormous fun. It's also great fun to watch someone else play - which is a first for me.
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:5, Insightful)
See my other post on this subject.
Metroid Prime is another great example of this. It took all the fun out of FPS gaming by slowing the game down, crippled the AI and added in auto-aim, and replaced big levels with levels that require endless backtracking across jumping puzzles to keys and switches. In short, it was just a typical platform jumping game from a first-person perspective.
Metroid Prime is NOT meant to be played as an FPS or "typical platform jumping game". If you did, you're missing the whole point of the game and, dare I say, the entire Metroid series (if you've even played any of the others, which I doubt).
Re:What do you guys think? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hard to say. I do know that just about everyone who's tried to convince me to buy an XBox has done so by touting Halo as the best thing since sliced bread.
I don't own an XBox yet.
At any rate, i'd like the XBox a whole lot more if the "must-buy" list was bigger than just Halo and a small number of other games.
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:4, Insightful)
I was an old school Quake player (clan Deimos rules!), and I was in college when Halo came out. Halo had that same spark that Quake did: you could play it with your friends over a network and have a crapload of fun doing it. Except this time around, people could do it on their couches with a console.
Seriously, IMHO that opened up a whole new dimension to things, since non-nerds are much more likely to get into a long-ass CTF match together on a couch rather than holed up with their own box. None of my non-nerd friends (including an ec major, a gov major, and a jock) have a machine even close to being able to handle HLII right now.
I'm not even planning on spending the $1000 I'd need to to play HLII/QuakeDoom on my machine since my need for a fun networked game is satisfied by Halo. So for some of us, Halo is the next Quake even more so than Quake itself.
Re:Emphasis on AGAIN (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone made an XBOX game that didn't completely suck?
Seriously though, you're right on. Halo 1 might have been impressive if it hadn't been delayed for how many years because Bungie sold out. Might. As I said the other day [slashdot.org], Doom 1 was revolutionary; everything in the FPS realm has been incremental improvements and regurgitation since.
XBOX fans are just excited because there's hype don't have much else to be excited about. (Funny, sad story: once back when all these consoles were new and sparkly, I talked to a kid in a game shop who had picked Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, and now XBOX. Ouch.)
Re:Of course! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Emphasis on AGAIN (Score:1, Insightful)
This was in Marathon too.
I think that Bungie was trying to be faithful to the style and level-design of Marathon. The problem is that mid-90s maze-style levels just feel dated and unfun nowdays.
The other problem is that Marathon was massively over-rated by Mac Types because it was Mac Only. Sure the backstory and terminals were amazing. But the gameplay itself was nothing all that interesting or unique.
Re:Over at GE we have... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Emphasis on AGAIN (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Looks like Slashdotters Loves Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure someone will reply to you saying that it doesn't matter who makes it, if it's a good quality thing... blah blah blah.
My personal opinion regarding Halo is almost exactly the same as yours and the parent's. Halo to me seemed like more of the same, with boring uninspired gameplay that somehow became hugely popular based solely on hype. (And yes, I've played it on both PC and Xbox).
But honestly, regarding Slashdot's love of Xbox? I haven't the first idea. The hive mind around here dislikes Windows because of it's lack of innovation, the monopolistic business practices behind it, and the shoddy quality. The same holds true of Xbox. Microsoft's sole business strategy is to lose money like a sieve by buying up every big name in the gaming industry that they can get their hands on, until there's no more competition. Microsoft has created a machine that doesn't seem well fit to play games from an architectural point of view, and touts hugely overinflated specs that they used to convince people that Xbox was more powerful. (which is a highly inconclusive statement). And the gaming library on Xbox consists pretty much entirely of ports, be it from PC or other consoles. (but mostly from PC).
I personally haven't the slightest desire for an Xbox (speaking as a gamer), as its only claim to fame is Halo, which I honestly don't care a lick about. I don't have desire for an Xbox (speaking as a geek) because I highly disagree with the business practices behind the Xbox, and the future of the gaming industry if left unchecked.
Halo is good for an adrenaline rush... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hellsau, the master of puppets hits the hard spot (0:38) (or perhaps ministry, just one fix, at 0:22) maxed volume on a 5.1 surround sound system, drounding out blast after blast from the shotgun.
That's how halo is to be played. You get bored otherwise. It's a straight FPS shootem' up, like Serious Sam, but with vehicles, no smart remarks, and a sci-fi twist. You supply the smart remarks. The fun comes in when you add in violent, gory music to pure skill.
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:3, Insightful)
like... even if there's real things worth critique, like the game being fucking short, it doesn't really affect the 90+ score.
(well.. at least they've probably really played the game - it used to be that you couldn't be sure about even that when you read the pre-release-reviews..)
Re:Looks like Slashdotters Loves Microsoft (Score:1, Insightful)
Hopefully the sentences above lend credence to me saying, plain as day: You are severely misled, Microsoft _does_ innovate, at least where the xbox is concerned. Despite the original huge pos controller, they created a smaller s controller which is by far the easiest console controller I've ever dealt with. M$ 'innovated' by sticking with x86, some consider this a bad mistake, but it made the consoles considerably cheaper and easier to program on than their alternatives. M$ 'innovated' with an online subscription plan that simply blows its rivals out of the water. M$ innovated with detaching controller cables, something that has saved my boxes lives several times, considering I have a 4 year old daughter running around.
m$ has some incredibly smart people on it's staff, and it seems rather cruel for you to excuse their existence and ingenuity just because you dislike 'the man'.
I should be the last one saying this, because I almost feel hypocritical, but you should really take your blinders off and consider the xbox at it's real value.
Hopefully capitalism will reveal its head and many of these features and more will drive sony to create the best console yet.
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Looks like Slashdotters Loves Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft makes a point of hiring the smartest people it can get its hands on, and often just releases them in small groups to create whatever they want or can. They actually dedicate money and people to research and exploring new ideas.
Either way, the whole MS-Bungie thing does piss me off. I could've been playing Halo 2 a few years ago.
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the other reasons why most of the games people would look up are reviewed favorably is because comparatively reviewers have to wade through a tremendous amount of real crap. No matter what you may feel about the redundancy and lack of innovation of GTA: San Andreas, it is in no where near the same category of junk as Big Motha' Truckers. Likewise, Fifa may not be as hot as some of the top soccer games coming out of japan, but compared to Atari's Backyard Soccer series it's Pulitzer material. On the other hand, give them a truly mediocre game that you spent years working on, and they will crush it ruthlessly. The press can be quite cold sometimes... I've read more than one review of a project I've worked on where the reviewer complained of the lack of a feature that was actually there.
No matter what your personal opinions on the subject, Halo 2 is unarguably one of the most polished and destined to be one of the most enjoyed games of the year. Microsoft didn't buy that with their ads, Bungee bought that with their sweat. And good for them: Bungee has always released quality games and deserves success.
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been playing FPS games since the first time I got a copy of the three-floppy shareware of Doom back in 93. Sorry, my "street-cred" doesn't reach back the year before to Wolfenstein. I've played them all, from the early doom clones to the later quake clones and so on and so forth. For most of the 90s I was exclusively a pc gamer, since none of the consoles at the time interested me. But this latest generation did, and Halo is by far my favorite game on the consoles.
It's appeal lay in the fact that it does what it does extremely well. It is a very polished game, and plays exceedingly well on xbox. It can appeal to PC gamers and console gamers alike because it's very well done. To claim that only non-pc players would like it, or to imply that it's somehow FPS gaming on training wheels, is simply granting yourself far too much credit as a gamer. As if somehow you know the "real deal" while the rest of the sheep just follow trends. Bullshit. People recognize a good game when they see it, and therein lay its popularity.
And before you spend too much time on your PC gamer high horse, remember that PC games caught on in popularity well after console games (atari, intellivision, and later, nintendo). Any attempt to see PC gaming as a precursor to the more "childish" console gaming just shows a lack of understanding about the history of videogames.
Re:You want an honest review? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, that attitude will certainly help your reputation of having an unbiased viewpoint, and give you a leg up in your pursuit of "journalistic integrity" as your site puts it.
Perhaps you might consider venting your frustration as an independent game reviewer at "the industry" rather than at Microsoft? Scapegoating Microsoft on Slashdot might be popular, and might win you moderation points, but it is the industry at large which you should be protesting.
Re:You guys need to get a clue. (Score:2, Insightful)
As someone else said, this is the Quake of the console crowd. PC gamers won't find Halo or Halo 2 spectacular by any stretch of the imagination cause they've done this BEFORE, years ago.
The way this plays, makes me wish MS had never bought out Bungie. Halo was supposed to be the end-all FPS/RTS combo, like Battlezone/Battlezone II but better. Then MS bought them and all the RTS features had to go...
The minimum expected for a PC FPS game is along the level of DooM 3 or Half-Life 2. And I guarantee you that if either of those appear on the XBOX, they'll be there in a severly diminished graphical capacity.
Re:Looks like Slashdotters Loves Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
And? Hate to break this to you Junior, but every corporation will do that. If I were a stockholder, I would accept nothing less. Now I'll give you that MS engaged in any number of illegal or questionable business practices that I would not approve of as a shareholder. But know what: none of that will stop me from enjoying the hell out of Halo 2.
What a complete and total yawn. Please keep this thread alive with all the reasons Halo 2 isn't news while the rest of us are having fun. If Sony and Microsoft trying to "destroy" each other means I have to make the hard choice of playing GTA: San Andreas vs. Halo 2 every day this month, thank you corporate behemoths.
You make it sound as though every purchase of Halo will inevtiably lead to a world without videogame evolution. Yet you offer no evidence except that MS takes a loss on each console, just like Sony and Nintendo. Show me someone who won two console wars in a row and I'll start to get concerned.
Re:Recycled mediocrity (Score:1, Insightful)
No, but alot of its fanbase were those people, but Halo is a solid, great FPS even by PC standards (although the PC port was a little lacking
Anybody who played Doom, Quake, Descent, Quake, Tribes, UT, or any other classic fps were left shouting "WHY are they expecting me to play an FPS with these two stupid sticks?"
I'd rather play a game with two sticks, that had story, then play a game whose story could be summed up into 2 sentances (less in some cases) Sure, the sticks were annoying at first, but all ya had to do is turn the sensitivity up to 10 and it worked almost as good as a mouse/keyboard (if not better)
I can't understand why H2 is getting great reviews
Good game = Good review. Simple equation. Sure, you can use some cop-out like "The reviews were payed off!!1", but I know some people with leaked versions that love it.
in the same way that I just can't fathom how Dubya got 58 million votes.
He got 58 million votes because 58 million people wanted him as president. Unfortunantly, other people's opinions don't always conform to our own, just accept it.
Re:I think what it was... (Score:2, Insightful)
culture whores needed something to grasp to
Culture Whores? WTF is that? Sounds like you coined it just to make yourself feel special.
but everyone who is a gamer, realizes how lifeless it is
The editors at Gamespot,IGN and GameSpy will be surprised to learn they're not "gamers".
and that holds true with the second
Somehow I doubt you've played it, yet, like a true elitist, you feel your free to pass judgement.
Allow me to come to some of my own conclusions: If Bungie had not been bought by MS and if Halo was released for the GC or PS2, you and the rest of your fellow haters would be...well, you get the point.
Re:Not soo good... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Again? (Score:2, Insightful)
No, Halo is awesome because it's a console game. It's not a pretentious PC shooter that requires me to spend upwards of an hour to gather my clan together for some multiplayer fun just so I can assure myself some half-decent gameplay. It also doesn't mean I have to get everyone to lug their computers to one central location for some social gaming. It's a great game that only requires me to turn the damned XBox on, and it doesn't require me to take gaming beyond the casual level!
Halo is the multiplay FPS for regular people. It may not be as sophisticated as hardcore gamers would like, but it's polished, easy to play, and fun. That's all that matters.
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:1, Insightful)
Halo Myths: What PC Users Don't Get about Halo (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok here are some (4) dirty little secrets/myths that explain why there is a disconnect.
1) The PC version of Halo is worse than the Xbox version. Why you say? The PC version has multiplayer while the Xbox version doesn't. Well for starters, Halo plays slower and looks worse on all but the absolutely highest end PCs. I'm talking you better have at least a 3GHZ P4 and ATI 9800+ level card, or the damn game just looks worse. I can't explain why. It might have something to do with the "fuzzing" on the TV set. But water looks better, smoother. It's more pixilated on the PC somehow. Also, it just runs choppier on the PC with all but the best hardware.
2) This one will upset a bunch of PC gamers, but playing on a console is better. Now I'm not talking better in that you can move around 3 ms faster with analogue controllers. You probably cannot. But it's more enjoyable. There is an entire added level of emersion that Halo balances in just right with the rumble/feedback on the controllers (that just "gets in the way" for hard-core PC enthusiasts that just want the highest kill counts). These are the same guys that turn off every bell/whistle graphic addon/detail to eek out frame rate. Well that may be good for kill counts, but it sucks for telling a story. The PC lacks that visceral element that is brought to bear better with analogue controllers for our analogue wet wear. This is the single thing that PC gamers don't get, because sitting in front of the PC, psychologically (and controller wise) loses an extreme level of immersion. Your home theatre system is designed to suck you into the movie, and it does a way better job than the PC at getting you "in the game."
3) Next myth is that the levels were all repetitive, hallway lamers. Some were. No doubt. But there were super out door, open-ended terrains where you could take any of a million paths. Where you could sniper banshee pilots before they take off to get a plane you shouldn't have been able to get. Take a tank. Take in a team. Sneak in. Kill everyone. The outdoor battles were epic.
Repetitive levels dont suck totally. Not every damn battle has to be some outside completely open ended thing. That's not to say Bungie should be forgiven for endless repetition, but there is an immersive "sh*t I'm lost" factor when you're going through a maze. I find that realistic. Heck, you get into some alien base, you know nothing about it, it looks all the same, youre panicy, that's not necessarily a bad thing. You shouldn't always know where you're going. That's part of the panic/fun of going through it the first time. For the same reasons backtracking through the same level at a different time of day is kind of a cool idea. The open air battle scene in Halo, when you come back at night was very cool. Again, that's not to say I want to go through (now) boring Doom/Quake mazes ad nausium, but there is something to varying the environments and keeping you off balance, that adds to the balance of the game.
4) That people that like Halo are all console lamers that have no clue about PC games. True for some, not for others. The console is a different kind of experience. And in a way it's akin to switching operating systems. What stops you from switching and saying one platform sucks while another doesn't is often a function of muscle memory and habit. Let's face it, we don't like to change (particularly when we're good in one environment), and so getting proficient using the analog controller and starting as square 1 for PC gamers is a downer. I know I hated playing FPS on a console after having gotten good on the keyboard/mouse. But
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:2, Insightful)
Listing Nintendo and Sony is hardly a relevant example to this particulary story -- Sony and (especially) Nintendo would kill to have Halo(2) on their respective platforms.
Re:Halo Myths: What PC Users Don't Get about Halo (Score:2, Insightful)
5) Most PC gamers never played Halo all the way through. Anyone that says the story sucks or wasn't that great is probably a good candidate for this. Now I'm not saying Halo's story was on par for the Godfather or anything like that, but for an FPS, there really was no cohesive equal. The Flood twist in the middle was suspensful, surprising, creepy stuff. This myth kind of falls back to myths 1, 2 and 3.
Because Halo was worse on the PC, and because the PC is not as immersive, and because the first level of Halo is one of those boring hallway levels and really a training level, a lot of PC gamers never played through it. And even if they played through it on the Xbox, they drop out at some point in one of the hallway levels before they got to those golden open air levels.
Which is not to say that everyone that plays Halo must like it. It's not a freak'n cult, although the fan base devotion seems that way at times. Just that there is a decent probability that people didn't give it a fair chance when they say the "story sucked."
Heck, when I watched the first 2-3 episodes of Farscape, I thought it sucked. After I watched the 7th I realized it was the best television program to ever air, period. (Well except that freak'n lame miniseries the put out that tried to cram 22 episodes into 2.5hours). Sometimes you have to let yourself get into the game a bit before you really appreciate it fully.
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:2, Insightful)
(besides all this, halo2 offers _nothing_ in the creativity department into gameplay)
You mean dual wielding is common on FPS? I know I could dualwield daggers on my MUDs, but this is the first FPS outside of the crappy gun on UT where I can dual wield(or even a few d&d based games, but those are not FPS).
How about bringing about a HUGE revolution on online gaming? I don't have facts, but I will presume that activity for Halo2 on Xbox live will far outnumber all xbox games put together, and blow the shit out of sonys bandaided online garbage.
Maybe the jacking the vehicles is something that's common in your fps, but I've never seen it.
Having not played the game, I can only base my response on what I read in the reviews, but I will bet my left nut that this game has at least one new thing in it.
You've obviously shown your complete and total ignorance if you think software that took 10s of thousands of man hours to create contains absolutely nothing new in it. This isn't specifically in defense of halo2; it's to point out that you should pay closer attention to the worthless trash your mouth is spewing.
Re:Hardware: What PC Users Don't Get... (Score:4, Insightful)
Hmmmm. Throw in $50 for Halo 2, and boom, for $250, all the lamers (me included, that's for sure) will be playing our fingers off--in my case up on a 60-inch rear projection monitor.
Oh, feel like driving for a while, or a little sports, swap the disc and keep on going...
Man oh man, this is the same discussion as TiVo versus a homebrew PVR...
All I can say is: To all of you out there that like doing your own dental work...I've got a teeth-cleaning appointment at my dentist's tomorrow.
The better for you to see my pearly whites come midnight...
Re:MOD -1 UNAMERICAN (Score:1, Insightful)
Ugh!
Re:Loooove (Score:1, Insightful)
You say no other console has online play.
*THATS MY POINT!!!* It flew right over your head!
Sure, sony has a bandaided POS online service, but I'd MUCH rather pay ~$5/month to have a reliable service with reliable downloads and actual functionality. Yeah, it's free! WHOOP-DE-FUCKING-DO. Look what you get for free.
I paid $70 for a 12 month subscription to live. Now outside of that breaking down to $5.83 a month, I got an awesome game that my entire family loves (Crimson Skies), as well as a headset. Personally, I don't use the headset. It's just a bunch of kids. I'd rather listen to the game.
Hack protection? Not interested. I don't care if my xbox gets hacked. 4-8? Are you nuts? I play crimson skies without lag on a normal cable modem with 12+ people every day. I'm consistently in the top 3, with no lag whatsoever. Just 16, yeah. Have you seen what it takes to run a decent 64 player ut server? 2+ghz amds, 1gb ram, oc3? Nope, Ill stick with *only* 16 players.
Bitch about the hardware if you want, I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, it runs linux and all my games. It's a damn fine media player with XBMC, and it's friggen cheap.
Re:Halo Myths: What PC Users Don't Get about Halo (Score:2, Insightful)
So first you generalize all PC gamers as frag and fps whores, then you try to argue that Halo offers more 'emersion' because of the rumble controller? Please.
And now since you can't come up with anything tangible your argument boils down to 'well tv's are better then monitors'. Sure, if you're playing halo in a cubicle that's designed for programming, perhaps the game's immersiveness will suffer. But who says that you have to play PC games on a crappy 15 inch workstation monitor? CounterStrike-Source is very immersive when I'm playing on my 50inch rear-projection HDTV home theatre system, thanks to shuttle and wireless mouse/keyboards. Environmental immersiveness is not a function of the platform, it's a function of the environment.
Halo's a well-polished FPS game that ties together some elements of other FPS games nicely in one package with good graphics and solid gameplay. The controls are about as good as they can get for a FPS on a controller, but they're definately worse then keyboard/mouse. The game, when compared to the genre of FPS was overrated. When compared to other console FPS's it shines. Bungie succesfully brought PC FPS gaming to the console, and that's about it. (Although many would argue Goldeneye deserves the real credit there)
Re:I've never understood the obsession with Halo (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, there is plenty of evidence to support the statement. But mostly it's in the fact that most XBOXers are not die-hard gamers, though most die-hard gemers do have an XBox.
So while it's true that many hard core players like Halo, it's easily witnessed that most Halo fans are either new to gaming in general, or new to multiplayer deathmatch.
I've read statements repeatedly stating just this, I've witnessed it in person working around people who are avid Halo fans (but have never even SEEN Quake), and I've talked to a lot of people who bought an XBox simply because they believed the simple Microsoft hype claiming it was the "most powerful game machine on the planet".
So, in some respect, your thoughts on the quality of Halo may be justified feelings about the game, that does not remove the fact that most Halo fans are new gamers.
I'd go search for articles about the XBox Demographic (and indeed the same thing was written about the PS1 years back), but they're easy to find. Just hit Google up. It makes for interesting reading.
Why can one only use the mouse? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I think Halo 2 will be big.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:MOD -1 UNAMERICAN (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I think Halo 2 will be big.... (Score:2, Insightful)
There are a lot of things going for the original Halo that Slashdotters tend to miss in looking for ways to be clever. People remark that the level design is repetitive and bland. I have to agree in the case of the Library. The original intent was to have the player see long arching hallways instead of having to wait at blast doors to move from one room to the next. The Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals used the same map to show the devastation to the environment of Halo caused by the Flood. Additionally, many of the rooms were just unnecessarily similar but this was offset by the differenct tactical scenarios provided in each situation.
All in all, the level design was thoroughly enjoyable even though many of the maps were similar. I can't call myself a "hardcore" gamer but I've certainly played my fair share of popular PC fps games and just thinking how repetitive and uninspired some of the levels were, but not every single moment of a good game has to be completely new. Halo isn't any worse than those games in that respect. The repetitive level fodder serves as a backdrop for the more epic battles.
As I mentioned earlier, Halo has a lot going for it but one of the thing that makes Halo stand out from the crowd is how polished and restrained it is. The weapons are powerful but you can't carry the firepower of an entire infantry division. On the easier levels, it is simple to just blast your way through the entire game, but on Legendary the game takes on a completely different nature requiring you to think tactically. I think a lot of the complaints against Halo come from people who never played it on Legendary because it was too hard or having to backtrack because they ran out of ammo from just spraying rounds in every which direction.
Maybe Halo just isn't your cup of tea. Maybe you just automatically hate anything because it's popular. Maybe you've only played Halo on Easy on a PC. Whatever it is, you people are missing out on a truly great game.
Complete review of Halo 2 and this topic (Score:2, Insightful)
All arguments about the game come down to preference. There are plenty of valid arguments about why Halo(2) is fun/exciting and easy/crappy but they all depend on what YOU like in a game.
So shutup.
If you want some fun with less than the maximum amount of action possible in an FPS to make for a small learning curve, this is your game.
Re:Halo Myths: What PC Users Don't Get about Halo (Score:4, Insightful)
You, sir, have obviously never played Marathon. Now there was a story that got you involved, that sucked you in, chewed you up, and spit you out. Halo's story is but the barest shadow of Marathon's. (Almost literally, since they were both done by the same people.) Marathon is full of hope, struggle, mystery, betrayal, revenge, and ambiguity, and all of this was achieved without a single cutscene or line of recorded dialog more complex than, "Thank god it's you!"
Ahh, Bungie, how the mighty have fallen. Not to say that Halo isn't good, I enjoy it quite a bit, but I wonder if Bungie will ever manage to match their achievement in Marathon.
Re:Penny Arcade said the same thing (Score:3, Insightful)
1: Take image
2: Make 2 more identical copies of image and place together in strip
3: ???
4: Profit.
Re:Not Credible Sources (Score:3, Insightful)
My roommate was talking to some guy at Game Informer recently and he brought up that they were completely off the mark with a few games, as were the rest of the gaming mags. He explained it like this: they never put what they actually think about the game personally. They put what they think you'll think about the game. Maybe a lot of these Halo 2 scores are actually reviewers saying "wow, I'm sure everybody will love this, no need to add my opinion."