Halo, what a waste of time?

[SoccerDude28]

Okay I am playing Halo Combat Evolved on the PC right now, and I have not a single clue why it got the reviews and the rave it did.

To be fair, there were some nice touches like riding vehicles and squads helping you out in combat. But the repetitive level design got me bored quickly, and I'm contemplating quitting the game when I am really close to the end. I mean what's up with room after room after room that look 100 % identical. And then you cross a section hoping to see something new, and then another bunch of rooms that look the same. Can't they at least spend time to vary the levels up a little?

And how about the weapons? Why can I only carry two weapons at a time? All the weapons feel pretty much the same and I didn't feel much variety between them at all. I dunno it is an average shooter at most compared to games like Half life or even quake and the original doom (I'm not comparing it to HL2 or its sequel or Far cry coz it was about 4 years old). Please explain to me what's all the hype about?

[Jake]

I said the same thing for a while, but play it on the Xbox with a friend. It's a great game deserving most of the respect it got. Halo 2 moreso.

[Thrik]

http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/halo-2/564044p1.html

".. in Halo, it was also important to ship more than five missions. It was unfortunately a matter of choosing whether to have that repetition, or settle with a much shorter game."

Have these people never heard of quality over quantity? The repetitive nature of the game is exactly what drove myself and many more totally insane.

[JimmyTheFish]

I said the same thing for a while, but play it on the Xbox with a friend. It's a great game deserving most of the respect it got. Halo 2 moreso.

I disagree. People always talk about how superior the XBox version is, but I found it to be the same bloody thing with unplayable controls, lower resolution, and terrible split screen multiplayer. What is the appeal of the XBox version, and what (besides the supposed performance issues) makes it superior?

[Savage Cabbage]

Ah, try a 42 inch plasma screen and 6.1 dolby digital from a real amp and not some gimp PC wannasound. Oh, HALO, you lovely thing.

But seriously, there really cant be any real difference unless you are actually playing on the above. It just creates an incredible booming visual experience when run through a home cinema. That is how Bungie intended it, i'm sure.

Just play the Flood level in the dark with the big screen and you will never doubt the game again.

[Roderick]

At one point I played the multiplayer splitscreen thing and it was a nice experience, as a shooter definitely the best at the time for any console. But then one week ago I watched a friend struggle through the singleplayer and I was bored to bits. I only saw a few snapshots but damn, it was all drab grey corridors and confusing, uninteresting architecture. One big uninteresting maze really. Halo got its status because of its multiplayer [support], but I doubt its singleplayer is really anything special.

[Savage Cabbage]

The singleplayer isnt the greatest FPS or game as a whole ever experienced, no. But to be fair to Bungie they did create an engaging and at times really intense title.

I once heard someone say that any game is enjoyable. It just depends on your frame of mind (surely a discussion all of its own).

I don't judge Halo as a console or PC game. Just as a game. There are sections that are very alike. Call that the architecture of the world, or lazy game design. but it also allows for time to let your imagination run free. Maybe I am on my own but when i play games - or read novels - i see more than the game/book has provided. I use the setting as a platform for which my mind drifts in a story or my ideas of an area or the situation expands.

I thoroughly enjoyed Halo - be that down to the game being excellent throughout or an aid to my imagination - I think is neither here nor there. I think the important thing is did you as a player come out of a game with a pleasurable experience.

Maybe we are becoming lazy as people and want our joy spoonfed to us. As a child it was my thoughts that propelled my playtime. No one enjoys a book the same way because we are forced to use the minds eye to see further. Why not the same with something visual. I do it. I see more in thought though. In what's behind a story. The possibility of how something came about.

Is anyone the same? Or is it irelevant? Can it be that Halo is the Emperors Clothing? gasp! No! Nay even!

[Roderick]

But that can't become an excuse for designers to just make big slabs of dull architecture "so the player can imagine a whole big beautiful world of his own!". Of course your mind can make something pretty out of it -out of anything. You can imagine something like tetris being a battle between a people and their religion; a god throwing down lighting in odd shapes. You know what I mean? It's up to you if you want to see more in it than is required, but to me, I would like to see things in games that I couldn't have imagined on my own. If I want to look at grey colonies I can just visit the nearest vinex suburb. But if I think about Psychonauts, now there's design that's adding something to my awareness of design. That's not about spoonfeeding and not wanting to think on your own, but it's about enriching yourself by looking into what makes a designer tick. And Bungie just seems to like metal gratings and substrata rock.

[baconian]

I'm not gonna get an xbox. If the only game currently on in worth getting is an average FPS, it's pointless. The technique of leaving a lot to the player's imagination is done particularly well in half-life 1&2. Although the graphics are top-notch, the whole story and setting is there in the background waiting for your imagination to fill it in.

I just hope PC psychonauts' interface is properly polished for the mouse&keyboard, cause it could work really well.

I was gonna write a more enthusiastic response here, but i read the Hunter S. Thompson story first. goddamn it.

[RLacey]

I just hope PC psychonauts' interface is properly polished for the mouse&keyboard, cause it could work really well.

Whilst I'm not saying that it's wrong to expect control changes with a port, I've always wondered what it is that PC gamers have against purchasing a cheap analogue gamepad. Console owners will happily buy a lightgun, after all...

[Kolzig]

Because keyboard&mouse is fUn!!

[Fairygdmther]

At one point I played the multiplayer splitscreen thing and it was a nice experience, as a shooter definitely the best at the time for any console. But then one week ago I watched a friend struggle through the singleplayer and I was bored to bits. I only saw a few snapshots but damn, it was all drab grey corridors and confusing, uninteresting architecture. One big uninteresting maze really. Halo got its status because of its multiplayer [support], but I doubt its singleplayer is really anything special.

I haven't played Halo 2 yet, but I loved Halo. When the Xbox first came out, I played it a bit with my old roommate, before he died. Then last summer I played the whole game with a friend in dual mode - what a blast that was! The parts that all looked alike were for me like a maze in an adv game, just keep going till you find what you want and go on, and kill some more aliens. The plot got kinda convoluted at times, but it was still a great FPS, and the picture was gorgeous, even if I don't have a 43" plasma TV, but just a fairly new 27" Sony flat screen. My favorite part was driving that jeep that kept overturning - we rammed that into anything we could! We drove it into buildings, and over huge boulders!

Oh, and Halo and Halo 2 are NOT the only good games for Xbox - don't be so jaded! If you don't want to put out the money for an Xbox, fine, but don't put down the many good games that there are for it.

FGM

[Jake]

I disagree. People always talk about how superior the XBox version is, but I found it to be the same bloody thing with unplayable controls, lower resolution, and terrible split screen multiplayer. What is the appeal of the XBox version, and what (besides the supposed performance issues) makes it superior?

Um, did you notice that I said to "play it with a friend." You loudly disagreed with half of my sentence and ignored the other half which answered your question.

[SoccerDude28]

Whilst I'm not saying that it's wrong to expect control changes with a port, I've always wondered what it is that PC gamers have against purchasing a cheap analogue gamepad. Console owners will happily buy a lightgun, after all...

I totally understand why a keyboard and mouse would be frustrating for a platformer, especially if there are combos. I mean it sucks to go look for E,C,EE to mean punch kick punch punch when you can click on the appropriate buttons on a gamepad. But any platformer that is ported to a PC should allow mapping of every aspect of the game to a controller seemlessly.

I finished playing POP:Warrior within a few months back, and I used a PC with a gamepad. I am very pleased with how Ubisoft supported mapping every single button on the PS2 and XBOX gamepads, to a PC gamepad. It really felt like playing the game on my PS2. I hope Tim Schaffer will take that into consideration in the PC version of the game.

[SoccerDude28]

I said the same thing for a while, but play it on the Xbox with a friend. It's a great game deserving most of the respect it got. Halo 2 moreso.

Yeah I bet that would be fun But I play games usually solely and I rarely play multi-player. My gf is not much into FPS'es

[Pappa]

Halo's single-player mode is excellent, because it's an excellent game. But, it's nothing compared to the awesomeness that is the co-op mode (or the various modes of regular multiplayer, co-op being slightly more awesome) and that is how the game is meant to be played. So yeah, single player mode with a friend!

[RLacey]

I finished playing POP:Warrior within a few months back, and I used a PC with a gamepad. I am very pleased with how Ubisoft supported mapping every single button on the PS2 and XBOX gamepads, to a PC gamepad. It really felt like playing the game on my PS2. I hope Tim Schaffer will take that into consideration in the PC version of the game.

You see, this is how I like these games - if they're designed for a pad then I don't want them forced onto keyboard and mouse (well, not unless they do it really well, like GTA or Beyond Good and Evil. Let's face it, gamepads are hardly expensive, and people don't seem to complain about upgrading every other part of their PC on a far more regular basis...

[Redwall]

And how about the weapons? Why can I only carry two weapons at a time? All the weapons feel pretty much the same and I didn't feel much variety between them at all.

While I agree Halo's level design is uninspired to say the least, I thought the weapons were among the most original in a "realistic" FPS, especially with the differences between the human and Covenant weapons.

Of course, the fact that carrying two pistols is generally the best weapon selection in the game is a bit odd...

[New_Order]

Personally I loved the fact that you could only carry 2 weapons at any given time. It added and extra level of strategy to the game. On top of that, I found Halo's weapons to be very well ballanced. I'm sick and tired of shooters where there is only one weapon of choice and whoever is holding that weapon is surely the victor. Halo effectively overcame this flaw twhich is present in way too many FPS. I do agree with you on the level design issues.

[pj-]

I disagree. People always talk about how superior the XBox version is, but I found it to be the same bloody thing with unplayable controls, lower resolution, and terrible split screen multiplayer. What is the appeal of the XBox version, and what (besides the supposed performance issues) makes it superior?

Absurd parts bolded.

What could you possibly have against halo's controls? The myriad of control layouts? The extreme precision and fluidity? Do those things bother you?

You must have achieved some level of enlightenment beyond everyone else on earth, because the controls are one of the most universally lauded (and copied) parts of the game.

What do you have against the multiplayer? The complete customizability of almost every detail? The 16 player support? The varied map selection?

[Spaff]

"The extreme precision and fluidity? "

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

NO.

[Pappa]

Personally I loved the fact that you could only carry 2 weapons at any given time. It added and extra level of strategy to the game.

I agree. It's all about which combination of weapons you have at any given time that makes all the difference.

[pj-]

"The extreme precision and fluidity? "

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

NO.

I wasn't specifically referring to the aiming being precise, even though it is about as good as it gets on consoles. I was talking about pressing a button and having it do what you expect, when you expect it. It may sound simple but a LOT of games get it wrong.

[baconian]

Oh, and Halo and Halo 2 are NOT the only good games for Xbox - don't be so jaded! If you don't want to put out the money for an Xbox, fine, but don't put down the many good games that there are for it.

FGM

I've got a cube and a ps2 and a pc, so is there anything else worth getting an xbox for? I can't think of anything right now.

[Pappa]

Ninja Gaiden!