Halo 3

[mmu1]

Halo is proof of what you can accomplish through marketing when you have the resources of a company like Microsoft behind it. That's pretty much it.

It's not that the games aren't pretty good, but you have to consider the fact that Halo 3 advertising had started almost a year before the game's release, and its final phase alone (the "Believe" campaign) has been reported to have cost around $10 million.

The push for Halo 2 wasn't as big, but still probably in the range usually reserved for major movie blockbusters, not video games, and the original Halo of course was part of the whole X-Box media blitz, as the platform's flagship title. Which, incidentally, was a position it achieved largely because most of the other early X-Box games were crap, not because Halo did anything spectacular.

(Much the same way, come to think of it, that earlier Bungie titles became over-hyped success stories, back when they were among the handful of decent games you could get for a Mac... So it's hard to tell, really, what came first, the hype or the MS advertising machine.)

 

[Banshee16]

I don't know.....I waved off shooters for a long time, because I felt so many were basically carbon copies of each other.....for years, all I purchased were adventure games, RPGs, and flight sims. Halo was one of the first "new" shooters I purchased, when it came out for PC, and I really enjoyed it. Actually having a story with a plot etc. Needing to use cover and stuff, instead of running around blowing stuff up like in Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Unreal Tournament, etc.

At the time, I thought that the original Halo was one of the first shooters to heavily involve vehicles. Maybe I'm wrong. All I know is it was fun, and it got me off my "no shooters" restrictions. I understand that there are some others, like Half-Life, which had excellent writing etc.

Halo 3 is pretty awesome so far, though I am finding it pretty short. I only started playing about 4 nights ago, and I'm already on chapter 8 of 9. Looking forward to multiplayer. The graphics are pretty good, the music and sound are awesome, and I've enjoyed the story so far.

Has anyone ever generated a list of EN Worlders with XBox Live accounts? It would be fun to get together with some others online for some multiplayer play.

Banshee

 

[Asmor]

One thing worth noting... Halo's vehicle controls are simple, intuitive, and absolutely unique. They're highly abstract, both for passengers and drivers.

For the driver, you don't worry about turning right and left. You just point the camera in the direction you want to go and hit the gas-- the game takes care of the actual turning of the wheels and such. If you get diverted by a little bump in the road, it quickly compensates.

For the passengers, there's no need to worry about compensating for the movement of the vehicle. For gunners in particular, as long as your reticle is still within the firing arc allowed to you, your reticle stays steady and pointing the same direction no matter how the vehicles bumps and turns. On a warthog, for example, if you're using the turret, the warthog you're on can be driving in circles but you're still always pointing the same direction.

 

[Vocenoctum]

One thing worth noting... Halo's vehicle controls are simple, intuitive, and absolutely unique. They're highly abstract, both for passengers and drivers.

Halo's vehicle combat is great fun. The most fun I've had driving in a FPS ever. Most FPS's involve tedious vehicle scene's that strive for "realism" and don't seem to understand that you're not playing with real controls.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I never played a game in the Halo series, because I've never heard anyone quantify its awesomeness in a way that even remotely justifies its popularity. "It does what it does very well" is the kneejerk response, which by itself is such a vague answer that it's devoid of worth.

I played Halo 3 for several hours last night online. Here is a short list of some of the things I did.

- found a quiet spot and sniped people in the head
- then I was sniped myself
- played in a "hammers only" team game (3/3) and bashed people
- flew a plane and shot people as they ran around below
- had air combat and blew him out of the sky
- was subsequently blown out of the sky by a heat seeking missile
- bashed someone's head in with a skull
- in a team game drove a warthog around while my team-mate killed people
- ran a few people over while on said warthog
- snuck through tunnels fighting in narrow corridors
- played in an invisible no-radar rocket launchers only game (okay not so great)
- jumped on and stole several vehicles as they drove by, knocking the drivers out
- ran up to a tank, stuffed a grenade in it, and ran off killing 2 opponents
- formed a tactical kill team with 2 others and surrounded and conquered
- killed 3 people in a 3:1 fight, one of whom was trying to run me down in a vehicle
- was assassinated from behind making my body fall into a grav lift where my dead corpse was thrown high up into the air
- stuck a grenade to an enemy; he killed me but then he died a few seconds later
- met and joked around with several people who were friends of a friend

At least some of this surely appeals to you? But, if not, I can't say that my money was wasted in any way! I'm really loving this game. That was just one night.