Halo 3

The hype machine is in full gear on this one and the mainstream press is slobbering over themselves parroting whatever MS's PR department says about it.

And they are saying some pretty entertaining stuff such as the launch will be bigger than Spiderman 3. MS reports 1 000 000 preoders for the game.

I remember the last Halo and noting to myself, wow, yet another FPS. I can't see what the big deal is with these other than a lack of decent FPS's for XBox and 360. I also recall Halo 1 was the same for the Mac and that James Bond one for PS2.

Halo franchise = 40% Multiplayer + 50% Hype + 10% Singleplayer

DArtagnan said:

Halo franchise = 40% Multiplayer + 50% Hype + 10% Singleplayer

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hehe .... Tom Chick certainly thinks so ... use that equation when weighing all the 90%+ reviews this week.

All I know is that I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the PC version of Halo 2 a couple of months ago ... really crap.

Halo 1 for the PC was a joke too so I've never really bothered to take an interest in either Halo 2 or Halo 3.

Halo 1 was averige at best. The series raises no interest in me.

While I thought Halo 1 was a fun game when played while spreadeagled on the living room sofa, it couldn't compare to my favorite shooters. To put it mildly, console controls and shooters are not a natural combination; it's not a genre I'd buy for consoles (the only one I ever bought was the super cool Wolf3D for SNES - Halo was hubby's game), just like I don't buy fighting games for the PC (not after Toshinden 1... though, being fair, I shouldn't have bought Toshinden 2 for PSOne, either: the series is simply bad). While watching hubby play Halo was fun, I found it tedious when playing it myself.
Perhaps the hype results from what Lucky said, there are no decent shooters for consoles.

It seems to me to be just the fact that it's the latest successor to the biggest FPS on console ever, the one that launched the pc vs console FPS debate in the first place. Or maybe I'm all wet on that, I have a terrible memory this late at night.

I generally just cant get into the FPS on console thing. It's just not intrinsically suited to it, it's like hammering in a nail with a piece of steel pipe. But with that caveat damning the the entire genre as a whole for me personally, I'd have to say that the original Halo did have some fun stuff at times, like the vehicles for example. Played it a few times MP, while it was fun, not much more than any other shooter. Console shooter, that is.

To me, it's an emergency FPS unit for company when conversation dries up, or boredom sets in.

I didnt even finish the SP campaign so I might have missed out on more, but part of the reason I didnt finish it is because aiming is so frustrating at times. You need to like snap and flick it to be really good at it, which i obviously am not.

My local newspaper made Halo 3 its cover story today complete with four color graphics.

How much money do you got to spend to make local rags pretend advertising is the top news of the day?

Halo 1 was the first big Mac FPS wasn't it? I've been watching the "goodbye" ads for Halo 2 and I must say the graphics stink. I stil ldon't know what the appeal of that game was.

One of the cheats they use is the faces - there aren't any. As long as you can strap helmets on your characters your faces can't look dated.

Sorry for being jaded - it was just a shocker seeing it in the newsrack coming out of the bowling alley 20 minutes ago.

Lucky Day said:

Halo 1 was the first big Mac FPS wasn't it? I've been watching the "goodbye" ads for Halo 2 and I must say the graphics stink. I stil ldon't know what the appeal of that game was.

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Bungie was right there alongside id in terms of shooters - Pathway into Darkness was '93, and then the landmark shooter Marathon was 94. That is probably the one you are thinking of - it had Windows folks (OK, DOS) drooling ...

And Halo was supposed to be Mac & PC before it got pulled.

I found the single player campaign in Halo 1 to be quite fun, I haven't played Halo 2 yet due to the Vista only deal, I'm still hoping they'll come out with a patch to let it run on XP.

No, they're not great games by PC standards, but I don't understand why everyone seems to feel the need to constantly put them down.

JDR13 said:

No, they're not great games by PC standards, but I don't understand why everyone seems to feel the need to constantly put them down.

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Well, they are acclaimed as:
- Amongst the greatest games of all times.
- Amongst the *very* top FPS of all times.

And I have yet to find anything in my playing Halo 1 on Mac & PC and Halo 2 on PC that would qualify them for either.

txa1265 said:

Well, they are acclaimed as:
- Amongst the greatest games of all times.
- Amongst the *very* top FPS of all times.

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Nonsense.

People like us know damn well that only console review sites or Microsoft ass kissers would say things that ignorant. Besides, I'm pretty sure those 2 statements are talking about console games only, not all platforms.

If not, then they need to lay off the drugs. Seriously though, I'd be willing to bet anything that Microsoft had a personal hand in those reviews, money talks.

txa1265 said:

And I have yet to find anything in my playing Halo 1 on Mac & PC and Halo 2 on PC that would qualify them for either.

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I totally agree.

Just curious, why would you bother playing both the Mac and the PC versions?

JDR13 said:

Just curious, why would you bother playing both the Mac and the PC versions?

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Leapfrogging technology ... I had a better PC laptop, then got a better Mac laptop. I always try to support Mac gaming, so ...

... no good reason, actually, but you'd be amazed how many games I have for both Mac and PC.

JDR13 said:

I found the single player campaign in Halo 1 to be quite fun, I haven't played Halo 2 yet due to the Vista only deal, I'm still hoping they'll come out with a patch to let it run on XP.

No, they're not great games by PC standards, but I don't understand why everyone seems to feel the need to constantly put them down.

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It sucks because developers will make more of them and less of great games because theres much more profit in them. Its not a good thing that a game like Halo 3 sold more (record-sales) than any other game or movie in the history. It will mean less pc games, more console games and more of averige halo3 crap.
(EDIT: granted it might mean the opposite aka more money for the industry as whole including for better games)

Ive seen multiple comments allready on forums from people who are disappointed with the game. The 10/10 hype reviewers btw got lots of free stuff for the review (inc. deluxe edition naturally). Apperently the best way to make money in games industry is to create an averige shooter and then spend huge amounts of money on marketing and bribes.

I still remember when microsoft made really great games i.e the close combat series. Its so good that they are still making new versions today of that series. As for halo...to quote my fav of mine:

TBH, I've always felt that Halo's presentation was bland, generic, and completely second-tier.

Not to mention that there's absolutely nothing cool about a fucking space marine.

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A friend of mine who has never played any version of Halo asked what it brought to the table, other than graphics, that Doom didn't... and I really couldn't answer him except for the vehicles part, which isn't necessarily a plus.

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The marine armor is copied from paintball (hobby of mine):
http://www.jtusa.com/catalog/visionsystems/7918/

In som fruityloop contest (perhaps due to record sales?) halo is currently ranked as the 5th best game ever, all platforms included. As an old time gamer I could find awards like that as offensive if it wasnt a standard nowadays to invent golden apples for mediocre games.

Interesting video - Halo is the future of gaming:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/halo-is-the-future-of-gaming-303156.php

Oh God. I wouldn't have thought that this forum would succumb to the mindless Halo bashing. Actually, I think I should have.

I'm playing Halo 2 on PC currently, and frankly, it entertains me more than Half-Life (1 or 2) did. You know, different opinions? I've never bashed a game that got hyped to death and I didn't like. What's the point? Oh yeah, that old "the industry is dying because of this!" crap.

What does Halo have to offer?

- Story-driven single-player campaign
- Good multi-player
- Dual weapon wielding
- Fairly deep backstory for the genre
- Fun (debatable) physics and vehicles
- Some good (debatable) sequences

I should give up on this forum already. Too much inaccuracy and blatant opinion shoving.

I haven't really played any of the Halos, but I like some of the things that Halo 3 is offering, like the 4 player co-op. I hear that Halo 2 multi-player is good no?

There looks to be some very good shooters coming to PC such as Gears of War, UT3, Crysis. Shooters heaven atm.

edit: Oh, and Orange Box ofc.

No reason to get worked up over other people having different opinions, or approaches to their gaming critique.

It's never pleasant if you don't agree, because it does indeed seem like mindless bashing. But really, do you honestly think people are down on Halo 3 because it makes them feel good to put what other people like down? Truthfully, how many people are really like that.

Most of it has to do with a perception that what some of us enjoy is becoming increasingly rare, and what most of the world enjoys is becoming increasingly common.

It's only natural to react against being a minority and getting treated like you don't exist, and I see no need for you to leave the forum because of that. But, to each his own, naturally.

I wish it were simply difference of opinion. Instead, everything that gets hype has to get hyped down immediately. On top of that, it's all too common to see things claimed that just aren't factual, only to prove the point. I'm not getting worked up much; it's just... so unnecessary. Reading these opinions does me no good, because there are no valid reasons to support them other than that it annoyed the person that he had to see Halo PR again on his way home from the bowling alley. (Incidentally, if the numbers on Bungie's site are accurate, there have been almost 1.5 million unique Halo 3 players online in the last 24 hours. This necessarily makes it newsworthy.)

I mean, there's a difference in stating your opinion and the fine art of flamebaiting. In this case, it's probably unintentional, but the passion with which it is presented is strikingly similar.

There's no need to get into the whole question of how many people that enjoy putting other people down, but I think there are a lot, though. I'm not saying that's necessarily what's going down here. I think it's more annoyance over the fact that Halo is so popular, and it's sprouting all those doomsayers predicting the end of this or that and a future of bland, mediocre releases.

Yeah. It's fun to read them for a while, but then it all becomes exactly the same. So I think there must be something in human nature that's causing it.

Most of it has to do with a perception that what some of us enjoy is becoming increasingly rare, and what most of the world enjoys is becoming increasingly common.

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Well yeah. Video games are sexy now. Not for the unwashed nerd in his basement any more while the jocks are out banging their girlfriends. There's either big-budget or small-budget now, nothing in between. That's the reason everything has to be either niche or mainstream these days. It's said, but it doesn't make the mainstream low quality necessarily. After all, the mainstream is a pretty big place.

Jeez, look at me. I'm probably as far as from mainstream as I can be and I'm defending it. I must be losing my youth.

woges said:

I haven't really played any of the Halos, but I like some of the things that Halo 3 is offering, like the 4 player co-op. I hear that Halo 2 multi-player is good no?

There looks to be some very good shooters coming to PC such as Gears of War, UT3, Crysis. Shooters heaven atm.

edit: Oh, and Orange Box ofc.

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System shock 2 had 4-player co-op too but i think it more like ruined the immersion atleast for me. It was more enjoyable as singleplayer.

Team fortress 2 orange box is really great btw. Played it all night yesterday.

Most of it has to do with a perception that what some of us enjoy is becoming increasingly rare, and what most of the world enjoys is becoming increasingly common.

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Its like reading books for instance. I doubt anyone minds if general public likes reading donald duck-books. But som might find it amusing and make a few jokes about it if people would award it to be the greatest literature ever written.

People should not take halo-"bashing" seriously. Its all just fun and games.