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Questioning Halo's popularity.
Wonder_Hippie
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Let me hedge this heavily opinionated question: everybody here would most likely refer to me as a Sony fanboy. I don't really care, box me as you please, but I own every Sony gaming console, and tend to favor Sony in the consumer electronics market, such as my LCD display and surround sound system. That said, on with the show.
Why is it that Halo 3 is affixed at the forefront of the general, collective psyche of the gaming population? Did I miss something? I owned an XBox for a bit, and enjoyed some good 'ole Halo 1+2 across the network in my dorm with all the popped-collar frat boy assholes that watch G4 and drink shitty beer from plastic cups, but only because that was all there was to do. I would have favored WoW, HL2, and even some tasty Socom 2 had my school's craptastic network allowed few open ports besides the basic IE ones for browsing.
Seriously, what's so compelling about this series? I'll give it that it was one of the earlier games that made a multiplayer FPS on a console viable, but what else? The story reeks of banality and macguffins (Little Shop of Horrors, anybody? Damned giant plants) and is conveyed more like a SciFi movie of the week than a qualified narrative. The single player gameplay in both 1 and 2 is pretty standard FPS stuff, with the addition of ambidexterity in the second iteration, nothing new there. The multiplayer suffers from a serious imbalance in weaponry in the first one, and is only slightly tweaked in the second. Graphics? Sure they're purdy, but the lack of variety in the visuals and the levels themselves leaves one wanting. It's a bit like F.E.A.R. in that respect, I suppose. "What the fuck does this asshole want with office buildings?!"
Seriously, I'm at a loss when it comes to this franchise. Halo 2 did some new things with their concept, expanding on the same-old-same-old approach to levels and such, and balancing the multiplayer just a smidge more, but what is everybody expecting out of 3? In the shadow of games like R:FoM, R6:V, and GRAW, what the hell else is there? Resistance gives us a touch of innovation in the way of weapons and grenades, but still trods us through the hackneyed world of the FPS; R6 does, like it always has, exactly what it wants to do with relative realism and perspective; GRAW basically builds on that with a futuristic setting and a different approach to squad control. I hear about BioShock and wonder what's going to seperate that from the masses, and recall some of the most engaging experiences in gaming with older FPS's like Deus Ex and System Shock 1+2, but bemoan the popularity of such middle-of-the-road shooters like Halo.
What the hell am I missing?
Why is it that Halo 3 is affixed at the forefront of the general, collective psyche of the gaming population? Did I miss something? I owned an XBox for a bit, and enjoyed some good 'ole Halo 1+2 across the network in my dorm with all the popped-collar frat boy assholes that watch G4 and drink shitty beer from plastic cups, but only because that was all there was to do. I would have favored WoW, HL2, and even some tasty Socom 2 had my school's craptastic network allowed few open ports besides the basic IE ones for browsing.
Seriously, what's so compelling about this series? I'll give it that it was one of the earlier games that made a multiplayer FPS on a console viable, but what else? The story reeks of banality and macguffins (Little Shop of Horrors, anybody? Damned giant plants) and is conveyed more like a SciFi movie of the week than a qualified narrative. The single player gameplay in both 1 and 2 is pretty standard FPS stuff, with the addition of ambidexterity in the second iteration, nothing new there. The multiplayer suffers from a serious imbalance in weaponry in the first one, and is only slightly tweaked in the second. Graphics? Sure they're purdy, but the lack of variety in the visuals and the levels themselves leaves one wanting. It's a bit like F.E.A.R. in that respect, I suppose. "What the fuck does this asshole want with office buildings?!"
Seriously, I'm at a loss when it comes to this franchise. Halo 2 did some new things with their concept, expanding on the same-old-same-old approach to levels and such, and balancing the multiplayer just a smidge more, but what is everybody expecting out of 3? In the shadow of games like R:FoM, R6:V, and GRAW, what the hell else is there? Resistance gives us a touch of innovation in the way of weapons and grenades, but still trods us through the hackneyed world of the FPS; R6 does, like it always has, exactly what it wants to do with relative realism and perspective; GRAW basically builds on that with a futuristic setting and a different approach to squad control. I hear about BioShock and wonder what's going to seperate that from the masses, and recall some of the most engaging experiences in gaming with older FPS's like Deus Ex and System Shock 1+2, but bemoan the popularity of such middle-of-the-road shooters like Halo.
What the hell am I missing?
Wonder_Hippie on
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Edit: Terrible topic, by the way. Just terrible.
on live that is.
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Some people just like it more than you. Why do you care? And for a lot of people, it's about more than just multiplayer. It's the continuation of a story in a world they care a lot about and have invested themselves in.
Also, around here, Deus Ex and System Shock have just as much street cred and popularity as Halo, so it's really a moot point.
A question mark.
Halo 1 was great and Halo 2 was so-so. I'm hoping 3 will restore balance to the force.
Edit: Your unlabeled edits do not scare me.
I love it.
Master Chief is going to die in H3... he is, it's inevitable.
People like what they like, even if it has serious flaws from a technical aspect. You can't quantify fun into a number, so live and let live.
P.S. i think halo is a fucking horrible FPS.
Another reason is that it (the first Halo) is just a well balanced shooter. It also has clean, sometimes interesting visuals and graphics.
I dunno, why do we have the man that we have as our current president? I guess folks just love mediocrity.
I appreciate your honesty, at least, but I'm not going for street cred. Everybody with an interest in gaming and a PC played those games, but that's because they were wonderful. I'm asking a sincere question, why is Halo so popular?
Also, Bungie in general rule. Stuff like ILB and this -
It became the new Golden Eye.
With a better story.
Also, because they like the series. Why are people excited for any other soon to be released game?
If you want the nitty gritty of it (all my opinion)
Bungie was massively respected for marathon at the time, and was long over due for a new FPS. You can't place enough value on that.
It was also the first console centric FPS in a while, and those generally don't do well.
Combine both with a console release and you have hype madness.
Apart from that read prior comment that different people think different things are fun.
I know a lot of quake/unreal/cs drop outs that think halo is great, it's noobed up and a lot easier to pick up and play, you don't have to spend months (or even years) to buck the skill curve. It really does appeal to people that just want to pick up a game and play it, and that's awsome few games do that well.
The thing is Halo isn't even that big of an FPS compared to a lot of PC titles. Yeah it's huge for a console, but it pales in comparison to player numbers, fan base (make that fanboy base), of PC centric shooters.
When Eight or Sixteen guys can get together and play the same game at the same time, against each other, without having to set up computers, it creates instant fun.
Halo was also the best game on the Xbox for a VERY long time. People develop tremendous loyalty to something when it's all they have.
In short, Halo 3 is highly anticipated because the first two games were indescribably awesome from a single and multiplayer perspective. Broken as they may or may not be, they're fun as all hell, easy to get into, and nice to look at.
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Split screen, co-op and online. Good split screen, co-op and online.
We don't play them more than on a bi or tri-monthly period anymore because we've moved on, but they're still just about tops when it comes to the console FPS genre.
Edit: There are four of us in the core group, we'd never dream of playing over live with eachother. That is dumb, get that shit outta my face ooaughh, ect...
Even if we're going to play online we all get together to do it.
Unless you're talking just about hours played online, but I don't see how that's really significant, at least compared to sales.
With Halo, he was able to play decently within a couple minutes and the controls were never a source of frustration for him. I figure there are a lot more people like my brother who rarely play games, and wants an easy-to-control game that's also fun. It doesn't hurt that the graphics are nice, the music is great and the story is ok.
Domestically?
Edit - Because I'm pretty sure Japanese games sell more than that on their first day.
Sorry that just bothers me and you've done it twice.
I hate to say this but the vast majority of people with a copy of a PC FPS didn't buy it. So the player base is always a lot larger then sales indicate.
This is expecially true with older games. Take Unreal Tournament 99, everybody I knew played it, but not a damn one of them bought it.
When you can prove this I'll believe it. Until then, I can do without your blanket statements.
I could've sworn I read that Dragon Quest VIII sold 3.2 in a day, but apparently it was 2.2 and over a week. :oops:
LOL
Downloaded pirate copies of games don't really go into some giant bean counter. But unless you're friends are some sort of anti pirate junkies a ton of people pirate the crap out of the game, especially older PC games. Hell a lot of those games are free ware now.
People download the hell out of them, so their sales numbers in no way indicate the actual amount of people that own/ed the game.
My thoughts too.
"LOL" is a terrible response to start off with. That's usually when I wish I could punch you in the teeth.
Anyways, you were making a different point with that statement than I thought you were. Wasn't clear at first.
talk of physical harm is a terrible way to start a response with
I'm sorry you didn't understand