Torch their tents and drive them into the river; its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s Skirmish, we laugh at the Michael Jackson MMO, cry over the Little Big Planet 2 delay, gripe (again) about the delayed multilayer for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, pump our fists over the release date for Marvel vs Capcom 3, and shake our heads at last week’s GoG.com stunt.
First up in the main course this week, we discuss the departure of Cammie Dunaway from Nintendo and what that means for Big N as they gear up for some brutal holiday competition. Next up, with Halo: Reach now in the hands of gamers everywhere, we discuss our impressions of the game, and the franchise as a whole.
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to eager anticipation for the 3DS, awesome new vids of Mega Man Universe in action, and raises a glass to word of the Angry Video Game Nerd movie!
If you’ve got a comment on the show, sound off below, if you’ve got a Battle Cry you want to share, click here and sound off on the latest topic-started post! Stay sharp.
Cant see the video, it shows “Video not found or access denied”
I think you’re just a bunch of Nintendo fanboys.
In regards to the multiplayer (personal opinion mind you) I think the appeal to it is that it is one of the few shooters out there that takes actual skill. In Halo, you either suck or you pwn, no leeway like Call of Duty where you can basically spray and pray all the time. Yes, you can do that occasionally in Halo but only if the person already has no shield. If you take a break from Halo for a while you will suck when you come back. A game like COD is always the same, and always means you can shoot anywhere and get a kill. Halo, you need precision and skill which takes dedication.
But, while Halo is a skilled game, it is also fun and zany with a variety of gametypes. To me, it fills that nice balance of true skill yet insanely fun. Cmon, Infection and Headhunter show what I mean. How funny is it in a team headhunter game where 10 skulls fly from the dead carcass of your enemy? Good times…
I think the reason why Nintendo has been so short on 1st party games lately is probably because they have secretly shifted alot of them towards working on games for their 3DS and next gen home console. I think depending on whether Nintendo releases the 3DS this year or the next we could possibly even see their home console as early as next year.
History has shown Nintendo generally releases a new home console in the latter half of the years that they release a handheld early on in. So if the 3DS hits in Japan late this year then probably no next gen home console until 2012, but if the 3DS comes early next year I will be anticipating an E3 unveiling of a next gen Nintendo home console set for a later release in the year.
I’m not a fanboy in any way. I have all three major consoles plus a gaming PC. However, what makes Nintendo so great? Mario and Zelda have done nothing major or new to improve their franchise. Their first-party titles are not as great anymore. Also… yes I’m a Halo fan, but I play it for the campaign. MP is just a very small bonus becasue I’m a Battlefield guy.
Did Halo: Reach meet or surpass your expectations?
By expectations what do you mean? I mean I am in the same boat as Brent and Tony. I played the first 2 on xbox and I even bought a 360 for Halo3 even though I didn’t have much hope I bought into the hype… Then I traded my 360 back in a few weeks later and upgraded my PC. Then laughed at the 60$ DLC disc that was ODST… Honestly I believe it was the Halo franchise as a whole that turned me into a PS3 fanboy.
So if by “My expectations” you mean “Incredibly low and almost non existent when it comes to delivering a game I care about” then it totally met my expectations. My buddy came to town this weekend and I played about 5 hours of the campaign before quitting. We also played Online for a few hours and I really tried to enjoy it. Sadly… No dice. So yeah it was exactly what I expected…. We could not play co-op though as he only had the 4gb 360… WTF is with that nonsense… Would have liked to comment on that as I hear good things but for some reason MS again screwed it’s gamers out of something as simple as split screen…
Anyway Game on Axeheads and don’t let my rant alter your opinion if you enjoy the game and franchise. I just will never get it.
So back to playing BC2 and waiting for another good shooter to arrive.
Edit: Also Epic Mickey and DKC returns on wii this year look to be ok.
I’ll start off by saying that I was a huge Halo fan from the first time I played the first one. Enthralled by the story, and I know you guys don’t think much of the story-telling in the game, but I assure you this is coming from a gamer who really appreciates good writing. Not to say that Halo has had some of the best writing, but I digress.
Coming off of Halo 2 I was really excited to play the third one and to experience what would happen. To be honest I was slightly disappointed but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. For the next couple of years I played the multiplayer portion of the game a lot, and enjoyed pretty much every moment.
Having said that, I was looking forward to big things from Reach when it was announced. Something new, something fresh and exciting but to still be in-line with what fans have loved about the gameplay and mythology of the series. It saddened me when the game was slowly approaching that I had no desire to play it or even be interested in it’s story.
Close to the release of Reach I had stopped playing the Halo 3 multiplayer all-together. The game that I once thought of as my go-to for a great multiplayer experience had also shown a new face. Unfortunately, Halo multiplayer is over-run by obsessive egotistical players, and I don’t mean to sound angry. I’ve met some cool people on there, and all games will have bad apples when playing socially with hundreds of thousands of people, but the fact is that Halo has become (and essentially has been) a multiplayer fuelled game. You can make the same case for other shooters on the market, but I’m trying to make a point about Halo specifically.
All Reach did was feed the appetites of hungry-crazed people who wanted more of the same. I was really excited and Bungie could have done something really awesome with this. They in turn just put some butter on an old piece of bread that we’ve been chewing on for years. Some who don’t like change don’t mind this, but It’s definitely come off as a cop-out. Brent, you said it best. You mentioned that the franchise has been riding a hype train and has been lucky with it’s success. That is definitely true to a degree.
Sorry for the rant. Again, this is all coming from a once loyal Halo fan who expected something more of substance rather than a massive shoe-shine. Over the years, the hype and sales of this title definitely cloud the game’s plateau. It’s clear to some people, and some people don’t care I’m sure, but that’s my opinion.
LOL the beginning is epic Love the show guys.
EBC just gets better every week! hands down the intro is one of my favorites!
I love hearing your opinion on Halo, all the other podcasts are glorifying it, so it’s good to see a different perspective!
Now let’s be honest, for almost 4 years people kept saying: “Nintendo is going down”, “Nintendo is gonna fail”, “Nintendo will be in trouble”, etc , and yet, every month they charted on top.
And now they didn’t chart on top for a couple of months and people keep saying the same argument, like they are not swimming in a pool of money…
THEY JUST INVENTED 3d WITHOUT GLASSES THAT WORKS!!!! I think that says something about the amount of money they have.
Ironically I have the same complains Brent has about Halo, but applied to God of War. I recently played the first two and I had to force myself to finish them, because I wanted to see what was so great about them…I still dont get it.
Halo reach met my expectations because i knew it would be out-dated and mediocre and it was. I agree with you Brent, i have no clue how people like it so much. Bland story, out-dated graphics, shallow character development and 10 year old gameplay mechanics. I don’t even know why mult-player is so popular. All you do is hold down the trigger and finish with a whack!!
why does halo garner so much hate from people. if you dont like the game, dont play it. halo reach is a quality title. much better than pretty much every fps out there. i’d like for someone to honestly name 5 fps’s that they think are better than the halo series.
Shane Satterfield and Tony Grice should get together and share Nintendo stories sometime. I come here every Monday expecting to be entertained by you guys but unless Brent is talking about God of War or Tony is talking about Mario 20, the show is negative. Daniel you keep it real and usually give the most fair take, the Dunnaway pun was fantastic by the way. I like Halo, and while I never have sworn by the series, I still believe it to be the game that got me back into gaming. I will say that I enjoy playing it online more than any other FPS due to the outrageous things that can happen when you play Big Team Battle with a group of friends. When it comes to Halo, I think what really sets it apart is the community. I play with the same 7 guys almost every time I hop online and I always have a story by the time we are done playing. Yes the gameplay hasn’t changed that much over ten years but neither has Super Mario, nor Zelda nor God of War. I like knowing what to expect, just in different situations and locations.
I think Daniel hit on one of the key reasons it’s so successful: it’s the only real “sci-fi” shooter on the market today. And true, you have titles like Gears of War and Killzone, which while set in a science-fiction universe, have a really rough, gritty kind of tone to them. Killzone feels more like WWII in the future and Gears of War, while being science-fiction, is really very grounded. Or under-grounded. Giant worms typically don’t come to mind when you say “sci-fi.” I think the last decent “true” sci-fi FPS that came out was, ironically, Star Wars Battlefront 2 or Star Wars Republic Commando(I don’t remember which launched first), and those were on the original Xbox. One could make a case for Section 8, but it didn’t get good reviews at all and didn’t enjoy much success. So while Battlefield and CoD are duking it out over in modern conflicts and WWII, Halo went and grabbed up the sci-fi section.
And I agree with Keith that it takes skill to play Halo multiplayer. Spraying and praying won’t get near as many kills as using a DMR or a Magnum and taking your time and actually aiming. And not many other FPS titles have matches like Infection, and hopefully, the return of Griffball, which are just plain fun. Which is why I’m playing video games in the first place: fun.
I think Halo will be around forever. Like Call od Duty is around. Nintendo will need to do something once the sales of Kinect and Move get in. I think Epic Battle Axe needs their own MMO or another game. i would buy that.
hey guys love the show it’s my first time posting on EBA hope u will accept me as an axehead. PEACE
Brett
Unreal Tournament
Counter Strike
Battlefield
Quake
Team Fortress
Resistance 2
Killzone 2
Medal of Honor
Call of Duty
Left 4 Dead
There are a few off the top of my head…
At least for the MP. As far as SP I could name a whole lot more.
It garners a lot of hate from me because I felt like I was led on by the hype. Bought into it. Hated it and felt ripped off by a mediocre game. Traded it all in for a fraction of what I paid and never looked back but that money lost is a sore spot for me. And all they hype and unrealistic expectations… If you enjoy it great but there are a ton of games out there. Halo is not better then them. Only better marketed.
Great show! Didn’t agree with certain things, but that’s what gaming is all about; there’s a little something for everybody.
Brent Adams, dead on. Asura’s Wrath should definitely be talked about. That earth-poking summon? Cracked me up to no end. And the guy screaming his lungs out, like, 20+ times…crying his member battle cry, letting his voice be heard “Kotiiiiiick!!!”
Ultimately, i think the game could turn out to be great. It gives the impression of being pretty fast paced and reminds me of how awesome would it be, for us, to have some kind of turbo charged Heavy Rain.
CRY HAVOC!
Regarding the Nintendo issue:
Come on, Brent. There’s a difference between what you wish is true and reality. Nintendo is coming down from a ludicrous lead over its competitors. Even a 25% decrease in Wii hardware sales will still, in the long run, post greater numbers than either MS or Sony. Yes, the gap is shrinking, but we’re talking a gap that’s the size of the Marianas Trench.
I really wish I could agree with you, considering I’ve been very critical of Nintendo ever since the second half of the N64′s life cycle, but your portrait of a bleak future for the big N is hyperbole based on some hard numbers and loose industry chatter.
In all probability, Cammie Dunaway simply got a job offer elsewhere that pays better than her current gig. I highly doubt she has any passion whatsoever for the gaming industry, so why not? The simplest answer is oftentimes the correct one.
I’m not thrilled about it, but this generation clearly belongs to Nintendo. They’ll continue to be more than competitive, if not dominant, through the holidays and there’s always the matter of the sales juggernaut that will be the 3DS. Even if they’re not as dominant in the next generation, they’ll still be highly profitable, as they’ve always been. Hell, they made a buck off of the freakin’ Gamecube!
However, should a Terminator-esque apocalypse befall Nintendo in the near future, let it not be said I’m a man without honor. I’ll fly over to California and buy you a pint.
Stay classy, AxeHeads!
I really don’t think you can say they shouldnt have announced a release date for LBP2. They definatly were planning to get it out in november, they made that pretty clear at E3. They just got feedback from gamers who played the beta. So we would better give credit for them listening to the feedback from the people who are going to be getting the game.
just a quick question guys.
The 100th podcast is fast approaching, any plans on anything special for the landmark???
Maybe have Kayser shave his head with a xbox 360 sign in it or sumthin like that???
Hey Brent
My overlords of omnipotence, my peasants of pestilence.
Hey, so……. In the new Michael MMO game, can I go on raids with friends and touch little boys?
What can I say guys, its halo. Halo has been the same to me ever since halo 2. Last halo I got was halo I got was halo 3, I seriously just feel each halo game, is more or less the same game as before, like all the call of duty games ever (same game different place)
I personally am not going to get it cause I already have halo 3, no need to upgrade unless everyone stops playing halo 3 and goes to reach. Then I might just get it if its on sale. Not paying full price for a recycled game.
About Halo – I still play that game only for single player/coop part. Really don ‘t care about it’s multiplayer because it is slow compared to Doom, UT, Quake multiplayer type games I have played since.. well since early 90ties.
Why single player appeals to me? Mostly the same thing why every sci-fi book, movie, TV series or game appeals to me. I just love almost every sci-fi story even for someone it seems so generic etc and I think it’s not just me who are into single player scifi shooters/rpgs/strategies. And also I agree with Daniel that there isn’t really so much space sci-fi shooters in market.
Yup! I have to agree with all 3 epic leaders! What Daniel says is a point I give him credit for… there’s nothing to really compete with Halo…
Tho I have to agree with Brent and Tony that I never got into it… I did play Halo 1 back in the day nonstop at a friends house but after that – I played halo 2 but was done within a few min. played halo 3 done within a few minutes now I had bought Halo reach and guess what… Its putting me back to modern warfare cuz the pace is too slow for me as well.
I dont suck at the game – I did have a lot of fun online – but I never got into this kind of genre… I made a lot of friends playing online – doin some coop and stompin some people online with deathmatches etc. I laughed my ass off occassionaly! But that’s about it.
Killzone 3 is waaaaay different than this… me being a lucky dude, I have played killzone 3 in 3d a couple of days ago in Sony’s Room299 and Killzone is really a more realistic shooter ofcourse!!!
I like halo for the online for what it is – mechanics – explosions – fun weaponry and all that jazz but thats about it! Dont care about mastah chef
or any of the storyline or dumb characters…
And MJ STILL IS AN ICON
PEACE
It was the opposite for me with Halo. I played the first game years after it had come out and absolutely loved it. The campaign was beautifully paced, the story arc wonderful. The way the game had been designed around the Xbox controller, the innovations in controls, the superb visuals and audio design, seamless integration of vehicles and on-foot combat, weapon balance etc, all wonderful. It’s one of the few titles I can replay happily on higher difficulties, the AI and setpieces are just that good.
Halo 2 had a very disappointing campaign, as did Halo 3. I didn’t care about the multiplayer, I didn’t play the multiplayer.
ODST was much smaller scale and I really enjoyed it. It was a like Firefly crew reunion too, and it was great finally seeing the covenant engineers from the books in-game.
Reach has a great first two thirds, then kinda gets less amazing. A fitting farewell for the series, but obviously no longer holds the same magic as the original. I’m playing multiplayer now and with a group of friends, the team based modes are great fun, and since H3 Bungie has done some amazing work with community and content.
But to each their own, I can completely understand how Tony (who is, let’s face it, a Call of Duty enthusiast) would not enjoy the MP of Halo so much because of the different pace and focus.
Brent sounds like a massive God of War fanboy, while I have not been able to enjoy the series since the magnificent original.
If you never enjoyed Halo games, Reach will certainly not change that. I disliked Resistance 1 and 2, as well as Killzone 2, so obviously Resistance 3 and Killzone 3 won’t sway me differently, no matter how much 3D support they offer me. If it’s mediocre and unimaginative, it’s mediocre and unimaginative.
I have to question tho how Brent can’t stomach the cutscene dialogue in Reach, but apparently doesn’t have a problem with the overacted, overly serious sillyness in God of War 3 or Killzone 2.
I categoricly disagree with all three Epicpodcasters.
The story, though not the most incredible story ever, is actually what drives me to play Halo SP. The events in Reach are fine paced and keeps me drawn in. Some moments truelly come without you realizing it. (without giving any spoilers). Sudden, quick and sad. Yes some of the writing in the game is kinda cliché, but its at least more easy to follow then that mess that was MW 2.
Also the 3 didnt talk about Firefight. Yes its Horde mode, but the moment that you find yourself against a group of 8 Hunters, with the 2 of you, you feel really nervous and on edge.
On top of that, the killbox requires Skill to shoot, just like Keith said, and I said in my MBC. other contemperary shooters are mostly area damaged based. So if you are slightly off someones head its still a hit.
Nice side effect of that, is that you don’t die right away when you spawn, like it often happens in MW, MW2 etc. Of course you can still be spawnkilled, but in limited ways.
That you don’t like the game, doesn’t make it mediocre. Its just not your thing. I dont like God Of War, but that doesnt make it mediocre.
I just always liked Halo, not in the fanboy kinda way. I certainly don’t think its the best game EVA, but a real good and solid shooter with a nice story that at least myself, managed to get me hooked every time.
I love all that “black or white – attitude” of the internet. Everyone, who says something good about a console or a game is a “fanboy”. Everyone, who criticizes any exclusive on a console is a “hater”.
I’m still hoping that most people will get a brain soon or later, but I think we will have to cope with it.
Halo Reach did reach my expectations – the Halo games are and has always been mediocre at best.
I am very happy however with the influence Halo 1 had. While it of course did next to no actual innovation – there where other double stick-ed shooters before it, and they did not exactly invent multiplayer… What Halo did do was show that you can market a shooter mainly for consoles and still have it be extremely popular. Halo started it, COD4 proved that it works not only for Halo, and since then, almost all shooters have been primarily marketed at consoles.
Ever since that first game, the Halo franchise has survived because of their marketing, and their extremely loyal and vocal fanbase. Being basically the only “Nintendo shooter” (bright almost cartoon-like graphics) also helps.
Hi.. I just got into halo reach, never liked the other halo games and the single player in reach is zzzzz. But i do enjoy the multiplayer godt a more old school feel to it with weapon spawns and health. And its FUN to have duels with other players that last longer then 1-2 sec bullet spray. It reminds me of old pc games like quake 2 and Doom 3 witch was alot of fun in multiplayer.
But yes halo should not be hyped that mutch, and i dont understand the high review score it gets.
If people really wanted to know if nintendo was doing well or heading for a fall, it would be pretty easy. Just look at all the gameing shops and stores that take trade in consoles as well as sites where you can sell them. If the number shows signs of steady but constant increase of units being brought to stores and sites.
Then nintendo has problems in both midterm and longterm (not so much in short term). Due to new units just not selling that much anymore.
Yes the 3DS will give some boost, but after a year or two it will fall into the same trap. As apple, windows 7, google, android etc will beat them if a pretty damn big stick.
As for halo. I can only say let halo just be halo, the same way you let an 80′a action film be an 80′s action film. As that’s what they are to video games.
I agree, with absolutly nothing Brent said! Come on man how can say the dialog in Halo Reach any worse than in God of War? It has stupid and melodramatic dialog as well, but I never heard you complain about that. And it seemed as though you wanted to hate this game judging from what you said about it. If you have that mentallity that I’m going to hate this game! Then you’re going to hate it no matter how good it really is. Bungie made this game for their fans and if you ask me it delivered more than any game in recent memory. But if you never got into Halo then this is not gonna change that. And if you don’t like it, then that’s fine by me, but don’t say that it’s the most overhyped game ever! Or Halo ****ing sucks! Just ignore it plz? It’s starting to get a bit annoying.
Hi guys, great show and enjoyed (wut?) DK’s puns!
Firstly, i’d like to stress that i’m not a big fan of Halo. I played the 1st one and quite enjoyed it back in the days, played the 2nd and 3rd one and i finished it with a *meh* feeling. I couldn’t get attached to Master Chief as a character. He looks badass, does badass things, but I personally never got to love this character. I also played ODST in co-op and who would’ve thought it… it actually managed to alienate myself from the characters and the Halo-world even more and the only fun part of it was the fact that i was sitting next to my friend doing all kinds of DK-moneyshizzle puns while jumping around shooting things.
I might give Reach a shot someday in the hopes of finally getting what Halo is about… hope makes living worth it right? *hopes for a mansion full of games and playmates and a copy of Mass Errect 7*
Anyhow, there is no denying it that Halo has had it’s impact on the modern day shooters, though i have to argue here and say that only the first Halo did, because the sequals kind of offered the same thing. I’d say GoldenEye and Quake had a bigger impact on shooters and multiplayer, but that’s just me probably.
The controversy with Halo for me, is that it can be considered a child and a grandad of shooters at the same time. A child because *now* I believe it’s one of those games that’s not complex enough and is very easy to pick up… a grandad, because it had it’s glorious past and teached lots of children how to live, but it’s methods are somewhat past-time now. That’s what i feel about Halo as a franchise anyhow.
On an other note… i’d like to see what Bungie has to offer that’s not Halo related, as i believe they announced a new IP. Was there any news on that actually? I don’t recall reading anything of it… but then again, i’m expecting something Halo-like. Perhaps a game called Ha-loo… an english toilet shooter? Sure seems like a new genre-defining thing!
Anyhow, i respect people’s oppinion on Halo, because i believe everyone should have an own oppinion and should define for themselves what they like and what they don’t. I take it you noticed i didn’t like Halo all that much as I personally just don’t dig it… but hey, Dinosaurs love tabasco and that’s all that matters to me really.
Greets from Neverland and you should totally check out my new MMO! *cough*
You havn’t played Cod competetive have you? on the PC?
vCod , Cod2 and Cod4, highly competetive games on the PC, exists on lots of lans and online tournaments where teams like dignitas etc play.
Public play in cod is as nooby as it gets, remove it all, insert a league mode like promod, pamode with ready up features and its right there with Counter-Strike.
Halo is a joke..
I’ve watched EBC on Gametrailers for a few months now. Just wanted to register to let you know that this episode will be my last.
Get some decent reasons to hate on Reach, instead of “Oh it’s Halo I don’t like Halo because people like Halo and this game is called Halo.”
It’s been fun, but not really that fun. Keep up the mediocre work.
Opinion of Halo Reach
I’m not most hardcore halo fan having not played halo 1 or 2 but I have found the multiplayer of reach to be a ton of fun and very refreshing after been bored by the same recycled multiplayer from the call of duty series, it definately feels that more focus was put in to the mutliplayer than single player.
I couldn’t help but feel let down by the single player, although the gameplay was good it still felt like I was doing a lot of the same things I did back in halo 3 apart from the space mission perhaps. I was expecting a little more in terms of story in the campaign, I was just left with the feeling that the whole campaign was just one big fetch quest to retrieve an item that I won’t mention so not to spoil the game for anyone who hasn’t played the finished the campaign.
Overall a very good, well polished game but with most of the entertainment to be found in the multiplayer.
@jinxster the fact that you put resistance2 on your list just shows what kind of person you are. i bought resistance 2 for $15, played it for 20 minutes, and went back and returned it and bought 3d dot game hero’s. the game blows.
You forgot Killzone
I must say, gentlemen, I have to thank you. Thank you SO MUCH for being OBJECTIVE! I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to come to a gaming website and have objective opinions on gaming news and reviews. There are a few sites that don’t tell it like it is due to fanboyism. I won’t tell you which ones. Let’s just say one of them starts with “G” and ends in “amespot”.
I just caught your podcast on Gametrailers, and I was inspired to come to EBA and sign up. What you guys had to say was bang on. I think Nintendo will “survive” the holiday season with titles such as Goldeneye, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Epic Mickey. I agree, it WILL be rough around the edges for them at the end of this year for said reasons. But there is a lot to look forward to in 2011 for Nintendo fans: Zelda, 3DS, and rumor control on the Wii successor.
Halo IS overrated. I like the games, just finished Reach last week. However, the campaign, I agree completely, leaves a lot to be desired. Even the multiplayer tends to be cut-and-dry of what we’ve seen from the previous titles. It failed to “evolve” the Halo experience, in my opinion. Great game, but what does it bring to the table that already hasn’t been seen/done before in the game? I think they just doctored it up some.
I’ll save my comments on the other games for another time.
Thanks again for the good video, guys!
I’m having issues too, DL it every week and watch on my TV but this week the download constantly breaks, and is corrupted, having to DL it from gametrailers.
i’m not trying to say this as a fanboy, cause i honestly play more uncharted2 multiplayer than halo, this is just the way i see things. halo garners more hate than any other franchise i can think of. why? why do people feel the need to actually “hate” this series. so what if it hasn’t evolved much over the years. has god of war ever changed anything gameplay wise between any of thier games? no. then why do people offer that series a pass. or the same can be said about zelda or many other great franchises. they just mix up the same formula. no one can honestly argue that halo hasn’t contributed epic things to gameing. look at the forge and the theatre mode. those things are enormous. now games are starting to follow suit. uncharted2 has a theatre mode now. black ops is includeing a theatre mode. i’v had more fun messing around in the forge with my friends on halo more than any of the matchmaking types. the folks at bungie didnt change the gameplay because they felt they didnt have to. they decided to instead focus their innovation on features. features which are now becomeing an industry standard. but the point is, it’s a great franchise. and it does not deserve the amount of hate that is brought upon it.
Guys (and thx for that great podcast),
Halo is not an awesome game, just a great coop and multiplayer game that became a cultural event. Eveyone buys Halo to play with other people, it’s a common ground for everyone.
However, Bungie created the “unfied lobby system” that we can find in Halo 2, 3 and Reach. That lobby allows the player to switch the gaemtypes or options when they want it without breaking any conversation or having to watch a boring loading screen. The real problem is that game devs tried to copy Halo (radar, auto-aim and much more crap), but never nailed what made Halo… just Halo. Since 2004, how many game offered a similar “so cool and accessible lobby system”?
NONE
What game did something close from it? Modern Warfare, but really didn’t do something as great.
However, Halo isn’t such a great cultural event for everyone. If you guys are real veterans like me… Than Halo killed the FPS genre. Since Halo 2, radars are everywhere and so is auto-aim… and we can’t even turn it OFF. How dumb is that? Most game devs copied what was wrong about Halo and that’s a sign that most Game Devs actually are terribly lost in this industry and so is Microsoft by creating casual Avatars on a Hardcore paltform such as the 360.
Plus Halo always been a “steal kills” sort of game, because it never rewarded the actions of a players properly until Reach. Before it was all about the kills, what isn’t the only thing a player as to be great at to be a skilled player. And when the game only rewards kill, it pretty much screws up the Rank system, doesn’t it?
Halo: Reach however is the best Halo, but they still shot themselves in the foot. They brought back Forge World and Custom Games, but they gave so few Cr (credits) to unlock Armor pieces… who the hell would want to waste their time using Forge World and Custom Games when it’s going to take them weeks to get their new Armor in Matchmaking?
Bungie always been great at creating tools and always been terrible at designing stuff and anticipating what consequences their design would have on our culture. X-Box Live changed in 2004 and for worst. I would say.. Bungie is just lucky that Halo is such a popular title today.
When will we get more healthier games for our cultural development?
A lot of FPS gamers actually are in some sort of depression, honestly… it’s something we should worry about. Since 2004, multiplayer games are all about being more casual and that goes against what makes a FPS fun. Its, perfect to make a game more accessible, no easier – and most game dev are confused between both words.
There are games that are awesome, games that are bad, and others that are just there, Halo was all 3 of those, the first halo was awesome, it was new, it was fast, it was what modern first person shooters are now, the next halos, were the same as the first with some graphic enhancement, there was nothing new to keep the player interested (outside of multiplayer), ODST tried to change a little and again it was fairly good, but reach disappointed beyond belief, for it to be the final halo game, the end of the saga I was expecting something as epic as metal gear solid 4, it was good, it had a very interesting story, solid gameplay, great graphics and it ended in the best possible way, reach didn’t lived up to its name, for a game with such a huge community of fans, as much publicity as it had(not to the level of Mass Effect 2), it seems more like a multiplayer game with the campaign being a bonus feature for those who are into the halo universe.
I played the game and I believe that the game was better off being a Xbox live only game, no campaign whatsoever because it is in the multiplayer where they deliver the goods……..(insert bad DK pun here)…cry havoc and see you in your nightmares.
Halo 1 campain was new fresh and was interesting at the time. Halo 2 gave some great new gameplay mechanics and the story drew me in. It was a longer campain giving me more story to understand why I was doing the actions in the game. Halo 3 was overhyped. I liked it but the campaign was short. I expected the next big leap in gameplay. They were coming home to earth and the battle was going to be epic. Do you remember all those live action trailers with the diarama and all of the carnage on an open battlefield with Master Chief held up in the air by some elite. Bloody soldiers everywhere. Maybe even the flood massing around the battle. I was expecting some huge moment when all seemed to be lost Master Cheif was going to whip out some answer to the craziness. Instead I got some odd game with talking ghosts of cortona and other crap that just didnt feel right or intune with this 3 race’s climb to some finally. An anology would be like all three were playing king of the hill and hopefully the Chief would be at the top when it was all over. Where were my huge city landscapes with civilans being attacked by the flood and the Covenent. Cities being exploded all around me and maybe even pulling on heart strings that everyone was dieing and even being master chief you would feel helpless to stop it. Not knowing where to go and what to do. That should have been the end of the trilogy. Every other game you just did whatever Cortana told you to. Giving a player some choices right at the end and have a few multiple endings would have been icing on the cake.
Halo Reach asks me to get attached to so many different characters its just not feasible in such a short campaign. You think they would have learned from ODST. The same issue was present there too.
Multiplayer has a pace based on what youre doing. I like it because you dont have all THE CAMPERS LIKE Fing MW2 has. Its hard to camp when 1.) there is a constant radar and 2.) takes more than a few shots to take someone out. That is why I like Halo more than the COD or BBC2′s of the world.
As I said earlier, before Reach came out, for me Halo is mediocre at its best. So yes, I am with Brent and Tony. The most valid reason for this is the really bad story and dialogues. Playing through the Halo parts I often wished they would never let anybode talk. Whenever a cut scene came, It was like a torture for every reasoned grown-up mind (just like you said Brent, I feel the same way). But then, I think the target audience is consisting of 14-18 years old teenage guys with martial fantasies and as Brent said, it needs some time to evolve taste, so there is noone to blame. With my 30 years, I guess that I just grew out of it since a long while. I am just more demanding when it comes to non brain-offending dialogues and stories now. It’s ok, when games don’t even pretend to be serious and start to become ridiculous (see God Of War), but when someone takes onself to seriously (and Halo does it without question) BUT delievers something that is so bad that it hurts, it just turns me off.
Ok guys, I usually enjoy watching/listening to your podcasts, but the last 3 skirmishes you have been voicing your (negative) opinion on Halo (and Reach). And I will just say, I get it (got it after the first episode), you don’t like the game and you never did. Please move on and leave the game for what it is as you clearly have no idea what makes the game fun. I have a couple of games where I don’t get into them, but I usually don’t keep mentioning them, over and over again.
I don’t even think Halo is the best series ever, all I know is that it is the only game that allows 4 player system link/splitscreen story mode and I have a lot of fun playing it with friends at my place. And I happen to enjoy the gameplay in singleplayer as well. I hope you don’t ever have to mention Halo again, as clearly you don’t like talking about it anyway.
All the best to all of you,
armoredp…
Hey guys great show as always I look forward to your show every week.
Oh Halo Reach. I think Halo has and is a definitive niche of shooter style. As much as I don’t like agreeing with DK, I do also see that Halo is a space adventure FPS rather than a futuristic FPS with sci-fi, it has a different feeling universe from anything related to a space or futuristic FPS. I think the style is something that is most important though this kind of topic and is usually overlooked quite a bit.
FPS’s have branched off into so many styles, and I am not talking visual style, but rather gameplay style. We have the quake series, unreal series, rainbow six series, call of duty series, and halo series. All of these are paced different, have different weapon systems, move differently and in my opinion all play in completely different ways. Take a death match game or even better a capture the flag game from each and see how the tendencies from one game match up with another. Usually they don’t. Much like the variations of RPG’s and plethora of styles they are all sub-genres in their own right. Granted there are more subtle variations when compared to RPG’s but the end results are still very different. Personally I enjoyed each of these series but all for different reasons, but I don’t play modern warfare like its halo or rainbow six vegas anymore than I would play halo like it was any of the other games.
It just goes back to the old school differences of quake and unreal, any non FPS player would not know they are different but anyone that has played FPS’s and was any good will find that they are rooted in different places speed and accuracy vs dodging and things like shock combos.
Maybe I am just getting too old and the subtleties of games are no longer important or noticed. Maybe the old hardcore is lost in this new age of console masses. At any rate I will still be playing games as long ans my fingers work.
U guys fail. COD is like swimming in a pool with water wings.
The Halo is a sea too deep for some to swim in.
I think this video sums up what i think of halo reach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGX6bxQO9c8
its a decent review but its the truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGX6bxQO9c8
this review realy just sums it up for me
COD tournies and halo multiplayer are two different things. Try compairing COD tournies with Areana maybe, might return similar results. But calling halo a joke flat out will work too.
Brett
The co-op was amazing. The story had really cool set pieces and the online mp was at least on par with halo to me.
If that’s all you can come back with after I gave you double the amount of games you asked for then I don’t know what to tell u bro. Gamr on and enjoy reach
Fellow axeheads, I surely do hope that you’ve seen how Halo went downwards from the second game. Sure, Halo 3 was quite good in its MP section, and ODST had Firefight, but none of those games topped Halo 2, due to the fact that it was really enjoyable in both the SP and the MP sections of the game.
Halo 2 also had a large replay-value, and even made its way to the PC, which I think was awesome.
Halo: CE was a great game in both SP & MP, but Halo 2 had better graphics, more intensity, a better control-setup, and a smoother one at that.
But with Halo 3, I saw that the games were starting to roll downhill. Forge in Halo 3 was a good concept, but a tad small. Firefight in ODST was good, but almost too easy for the mediocre Halo gamers out there.
But when Reach combined a larger Forge, a map system where camping is really hard, armor abilities, and a much much more intense Firefight, I was surprised.
It flew beyond my expectations, and made its way into my cold-ass gamer heart. Now, I can’t say it’s my favourite game, but it is a good, solid FPS, which topped the two previous games. (And no, Halo Wars never even happened)
I do hope this tells you something about how the Halo franchise is a tad bit overhyped, but still good.
Just wanna say thanks to DK for the sweet name! I’ve been meaning to join EBA for a long time, but was having trouble finding an available name worthy of posting in these halls. I’m not sure how you thought of this bit of awesomeness but I will wear the title proudly as a tribute to your brilliance.
Halo, to me, just seems to be another Star Trek. I’m a nerd, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve just never been into aliens and plasma blasters and all that stuff. Halo has just come across to me as another generic Sci-Fi medium. Along with Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc (we’d be all day here folks, let’s face it)
I’ve only ever played Halo 3 and ODST, not planning on picking up Reach anytime soon. Halo just seemed to be always about hype, and the fact that it was Xbox 360′s primary game. Halo and Xbox are just so married with each other, and we’re seeing less and less of that around the industry with everything going multi-platform.
I guess I can respect Bungie for keeping that spirit alive for so long. But, just not for me, smiley face.
daniel said marvel vs capcom 3 is coming out between january-march 2001 listen for it what a buffoon
Its not hate, just opinion. I could tell you 5 games I like better but would they be ones you like better? Probably not. We all love games for different reasons.
I play games for the Single player campaign, great online multiplayer on the side is a great bonus. But there is nothing in Halo that keeps me on the edge of my seat.
It is by all means a great game I just prefer sci-fi games with a more realistic feel to them like Killzone 2. The feeling of movement you get with how the gun is held the fluidity of jumping and running as well as some good old fashioned recoil.
For the most part I am a person who only knew the Playstation brand of consoles and games. In 2008 I took a chance and got an original xbox with Halo to see if it would be worth getting a 360 (I was already interested in Gears at the time) Well, I fell in love with Halo. I bought a 360 and the rest of the original trilogy. Loved them all. Then came ODST. What a piece of garbage. I was so disappointed. I figured “oh well I’ll just wait for Reach.” I have to say once again I was disappointed. Was it better than ODST? Yes. (but what isn’t?) I just feel like there was no time put into the campaign and I have lost my love for Halo. If it wasn’t for Mass Effect and Gears of War I would just trade my 360 in for another PS3. I always tried to be impartial when it comes to the console war, but I just see Microsoft going really downhill.
I want sweet ass gog action…i never got into halo, i played the multiplayer of 2 with friends and it was solid but it wast’t that awesome, i dont understand how people get so crazy over it, either they love it so much they yell at you for not thinking its the greatest game ever or cussing you out for liking it at all. its a good game but i wouldn’t care either way.
Halo is extream overrated… It is really NOT bethere then other FPS. Yes it have a Epic world, we barely see in games… But it doesn’t mean the story is good.
Microsoft is selling the Hype, as sex sell on the web. And that is to kids, i might ad. So no wonder Halo can sell XD
In other words… Halo is a no brainer game, just as the good old Doom games. And that is what people like. There are really nothing els to it
I played the firs and second Halo, and I agree its not a bad game its just not a game that grabs me, like Star Wars KOTOR, Baldurs Gate or Mass Effect did.Its something I would play while waiting for other games that are more entertaining to me.So in my opinion its a good game but not a great game.
Good skirmish, although Dk’s halo pun was an all time low,even by his standards.XD. I felt the segment based on someone leaving Nintendo would have been better spent discussing Asura’s wrath. To the halo fans, the game is boring,I know that’s harsh but the word that comes up all the time around halo is generic. So purchase your halo t shirts,mugs and posters and action figure and keep it to yourself, all the millions of you.
I never actually played Halo: Reach, but that’s because I tried to purposely make it a point not to. As I had played the first two games, I noticed as the grunts went from not saying anything except garbled garbage to managing to choke out words in English while you slaughter them, (how does that work) that they were obviously dumbing it down a little. At the time, I chalked it up to them trying to appeal to a wider range of gamers and broadening their market.
Then the third Halo came out. Suddenly Master Chief understands the Grunts and it isn’t just when you’re making him hand their asses back to them anymore, they will scream out random shit for no apparent reason. I put the game down halfway through the fourth or fifth level and turned to my friend and asked him, “why did you buy this?” and convinced him why PS3 was superior in every conceivable way (he now plays PS3 exclusively).
Once I heard about the new Halos, they slowly began to make me more mad at the franchise, because I constantly find myself asking why? Why do they have to keep continuing this story line, or making a new beginning to an existing one? I thought they made books for that, if people were interested about the beginning so much. It seems to me like it has become less and less about the game and story itself, and more and more about the profit margin. In conclusion it seems as though the Halo franchise came from humble beginnings to trying to ass rape you in the back alley and run off with your money.
Hey epic axehead trio! Greetings from Sweden. Great show as always. I never thought that two things that I love most could work so well together in a podcast. Metal and video games. I could not be more happy when I heard The Leper Affinity in one of your “skirmish teasers” awhile ago. Keep up the good work!
So I have seen a lot of arguments about Halo and other FPS’s like CoD that I need to address and that I think aren’t valid enough. But please bare in mind that I have only played Halo: Combat Evolved on the PC and a little Halo 2 on Xbox. So please correct me if I’m wrong when I’m talking about Halo.
First of all, what I think Halo 1 did right was bringing a FPS with a great competetive ONLINE multiplayer to consoles. I played a lot of TimeSplitters when it came out for the PS2 and it came out a year before Halo 1. It had a redefined control scheme from Golden Eye for the N64 that worked very well with two analogue sticks. The campaign however, was terrible. Every level was; go from point A to B, get an object and then return it to point A. That was every level. But the fun about it was that you could play the campaign in split screen with A FRIEND. Something you couldn’t do in Golden Eye. Also, TimeSplitters had a really fun multiplayer which you could play four player split screen with 12 bots! There was even a map-editor so you could build your own campaign levels or multiplayer maps. The only reason I can think of, why TimeSplitter didn’t get so successful was because it didn’t have ONLINE multiplayer. That, I think was the key feature for halo 1.
The other reason was to have the “auto-rechargeable shield mechanic”. That put the FPS genre forward and was later evolved in Call of Duty 2 with “regaining health over time”. To say that Halo did nothing new to the FPS genre would be ignorant because the “regaining health over time” feature is a standard nowadays.
Something Halo 1 didn’t do new, was raising the bar when it comes to the singleplayer campaign. The game that did just that was the original Call of Duty which released one month after Halo. I think still to this day that Call of Duty have the best singleplayer experience in a FPS with big Hollywood-like set-pieces. Thinking about when you are the Russians and is about to retake Stalingrad gives me goosebumps every time. I had NEVER played anything like it before.
The multiplayer however was a little more dumb down version of Battlefield 1942 but still very fun.
After Halo 1 however, I don’t think the Halo franchise have pushed the FPS genre forward. It’s more of the same and Bungie is clearly sticking to something that works while Microsoft is marketing it like crazy.
I do think that the Call of Duty franchise raised the bar with big Hollywood-like set-pieces in the singleplayer and that CoD4: Modern Warefare pushed the multiplayer to the next level with the level-up system and perks. The rest after that is just milking the franchise, just like Halo.
The best thing about Halo series, which I could only find in Call of Duty 3, is the 4 player split screen online multiplayer. It’s really a shame there aren’t that many FPS games that have that. The CoD MW-MW2 series don’t even have system link, talk about a party let-down.
I am a HALO hater hahahaha. Well that had no point so heres my real thing why don’t you talk anything about PC gaming???
Like Civilization V what’s not a small title and i bet many people would be interested about it.
For me Halo 1 was an awesome game I really liked the game.
Halo 2 was great but it felt like they tried to enrich the story by adding main antagonist’s which were absent in the first game. Really there were no main Bad guy leaders except 343 guilty spark (The blue light bulb). Ever notice that they do that in a lot of sequels when there was some undeveloped story element in the original that really should have been developed in the first game.
Anyways Halo 2 was great, but the 2003 demo showed you defending Earth and the New Mombasa, but you are only there for a very short time which disappointed me.
Halo 3 again involved very little fighting on earth you go to earth then leave again to go to the halos and other parts of the galaxy.
I like OSDT because we get some time on earth which only took 3 games for me to get it!
Halo Reach is more of halo 2 caliber minus the cliffhanger which is pretty close to the originals awesomeness.
In my mind I rank the halo games as
1.HaloCE(2001)
2.Halo reach(2010)
3.Halo 2(2004)
4.Halo 3(2007)
5.Halo 3 ODST(2009)
Halo was basically the xbox game I grew up with half my life now I am almost 18. I always remember how the first halo just captured my imagination when I was a kid. My first shooting game was Goldeneye/Turok(N64), then Halo(xbox) when my older brothers first brought it home, Call of duty 1 was my third shooter game. I play games that are fun. But I like a good story, and Art and music. I got in at the ground floor of halo and rode with the series all the way threw series.
QFE
My Battle Cry goes out to Consumer Centred Expos! Eurogamer came by this weekend and showed us that not only the press get to see big names and big games. Its great to see fans given a dedicated place where they can play all the upcoming games and have a great time with their friends!
I went myself on Friday and get treated to previews of Infamous 2, Deus Ex 3, Killzone 3 in 3D, Socom on the Playstation move and Brink amongst other things.
Posted my impressions up on my blog too
http://charliemoritz.wordpress.com/
Brent: BEST. INTRO. EVAR! Seriously I laughed my ass off.
Warning: Wall of text
I posted a long winded comment on the front page article about how I felt about Halo in general. I am a huge fan of the series and have been there from the beginning, but this is my totally unbiased opinion on Reach.
On the front page, there is a pole asking if Halo “reached” my expecations. I can’t really answer yes or no, because Reach excels in someways, and doesn’t in others.
Let’s start with campaign. the story kind of sucked, unfortunately. I always wanted to be able to play the story of Reach’s invasion, but the direction Bungie took it wasn’t the best direction in my opinion. I know we all knew Reach was going to be annihilated, and we were going to get to see how it happens. This story could have been written 100′s of different ways with an epic plot. Instead, we are left with Noble team. 5 Characters right off the bat that I don’t even care about, nor do I get to know. If the plot was to experience each characters demise, ending with your own, then that’s a damn shame, because I never had any attachment to any of the characters at all. The twists at the end, along with the ending cutscene were pretty cool and nice to see, but in the end, you realize this game was just fan service. If you liked the trilogy, this is your chance to run around and defeat the covenant just one last time, but that’s about it.
Story aside, the campaign is fun if you don’t get too caught up with what’s going on around you. The levels are great. Each one of them is good, and I like the unique feel to all of them. The Enemy AI is super good. The return of the Elite’s was done perfectly. They are a formidable and fun opponent and are even more cunning than in Combat evolved. Each enemy has it’s fun quirks and are normally enjoyable taking down. The Elite’s at the last part of the last level – freaking ridiculous, in a good way. With the higher difficulties matching the amount of players for Co-op, it’s a blast to play with friends. None of the levels make me feel bored or wish I could skip it. Compared to Halo 3 (which I thought had super boring levels), this is a good comeback for level design. I’ve already surpassed the amount of levels I’ve played in campaign for Reach than I did in Halo 3.
I think the major failing point of the campaign is based on two decisions Bungie made during development: A)Spartan customizability in campaign, and B)making it a character-based story.
At first, I thought it was neat to tie together each game mode with an avatar. Playing as my own spartan in Campaign sounded cool. But having a bunch of ridiculous looking spartans running around (Not just the player model, but Noble team itself) takes away from the serious tone of the story. I’ve always imagined spartans as weapons, not people. They all generally look the same, depending on what tasks they are completing and what armor generation they are assigned. I think that if Bungie chose to create a character group of spartans that more or less looked the same, with fewer visual clues to tell you who they are, the story would have actually been more powerful. This brings me to point B.
Overtime, I realized that Bungie doesn’t excel at creating stories around characters, but around the environment, events, and overall universe they are involved in. If we look back to Combat Evolved, you would find that it literally only has four characters. Chief, Cortana, Keyes, and 343 Guilty Spark. Chief barely talks, and neither does Keyes. Cortana has the questions, Guilty Spark has the answers. We weren’t drawn to the story because of the characters, but the environment they were in. Halo itself was the character. If Halo: Reach had put more emphasis on Reach actually being destroyed, in turn making “Reach” the character, I think we would have recieved a more compelling story. If Noble Team were replaced by a smaller team of spartans (Maybe three plus the player) that actually looked and acted as the weapons they are, I would have cared more. Maybe one of the running themes would be to get the player to realize that Spartans may be military weapons, but are still human in the end. THAT would have been interesting. Instead, we have a generic group of nobodies, all with varying personalities and accents that don’t make sense, that show the exact opposite behavior of the “Spartan” that we’ve come to know. I don’t want to play Halo: Breakfast Club.
Emile. The douchelord with the skull carving on his face. WORST CHARACTER EVER introduced to Halo. Spartans are supposed to be super soldiers trained for years; all they know is combat. Instead, we have some cocky asshole who speaks like he came from the hood. What gives? Who thought this up?
This iteration of Halo also takes the cake for the shittiest dialog of the series. Halo 3 was terrible. ODST followed in it’s footsteps. Reach took it to a whole new level.
Onto Multiplayer and other features. Amazing, with a few hiccups. The weapons have been tweaked/reestablished and balanced to that Halo perfection, great for both casual and competitive players. Armor abilities were introduced, including the much needed sprint, and made the game a lot more fun than I thought it would be. To be honest, I thought they would break the game.
Even on day one, the variety of playlists is great, and only will grow with time. If I want to take a break from Team Slayer, I can now join a friendly game of firefight and take down waves of Covies using jetpacks and rockets on matchmaking. Unfortunately the map selection is where it falters. There are only 8 full maps across all of the gametypes, excluding firefight and Bungie-made forge maps. All of them are also recognizable in campaign. None of them stand out. There is also a big problem with one-sidedness to the maps. Normallly one team has the advantage, which wasn’t really a problem in the other halo’s. I don’t think I should already feel like we need a map pack, but I do.
Customization is 10x better when I thought Halo 3 had set the bar. I create almost any gametype I want, with any rules. Run speed, weapons, fall damage, vehicles, etc. If I want to, I can go in the forge and make my own map for it all, and post it to Bungie.net for everyone to see. This kind of stuff is what has kept me involved in the Halo universe.
Some would say one of Halo’s cons would be that it doesn’t change enough. “The first game was innovative, but all the others just build on top of that slightly with little change”. This might be true in some respect, and is probably more apparent to someone not familiar with the series. But what Daniel said is true – Halo fills a niche, a pocket that has been relatively empty forevveeeer. Halo has always done it’s own thing, and does it well, and many people enjoy it. No one has successfully tried to rip it off. No one has ever come close to creating something nearly as unique or captivating as the the Halo FPS. It is the much needed, stand-alone arcade FPS, that covers all grounds from the needs of the casual and hardcore fanbase, plus all of the customization in between. I could fire up forge and let my 6 year old cousin go to town for hours. I could go across town to the MLG tournament and watch the pro’s. It attracts all age groups and touches on many interests.
The point is, if Halo were to “change” or “progress” like some people expected it to, it wouldn’t be Halo anymore. If Reach came out with a totally different, updated art style and color palette, complete with a totally retooled multiplayer, people would be pisssssssed. It’s seriously a true example of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Instead, they tweaked it. Tweaked it but didn’t lose that familiar feeling their fan base has been treated to for a decade. Don’t get me wrong though. If you’ve been a long time fan and played the hell out of these games, you know that the tweaking isn’t minimal. These games aren’t the same every time, or a product of laziness.
The only thing the brings Halo down as far as multiplayer goes is that it might put off some new players. Some people who have never played might buy this game just to see what the big deal is, only to get extremely pissed at the multiplayer and it’s difference to other FPS’s. If you’re a straight up CoD fan with no knowledge of Halo, of course you are going to have trouble adjusting to it’s slower play. But then again, it’s a spot that needs to be filled, and many people enjoy it. Bungie realizes that, and delivers through deliberately not changing things.
In the end, it all comes down to the individual. Some people aren’t going to enjoy Halo, and some are. This game is definitely overrated, but doesn’t just make sales from hype and easily swayed consumers. Tony gave me the impression that he thinks Halo is only a product of hype at this point. That at this point, it is “lucky” to be where it is because of money and marketing. Please answer me this, why would people still be playing Halo 2 and 3 years after it’s release, and still top the xbox live charts? Obviously, many, many, many people actually enjoy this game and series, and I am one of them. It has it’s issues, as mentioned above, but they are easy to overlook due to the sheer magnitude of the content in the game, the variety of games to play within it, and the constant support and updates from Bungie. It’s safe to say I’ll be playing this one for years to come.
I lol’d.
you hate EBC and love HALO.. nothing much to say else than GTFO!! and dont you ever mention that asshat Shane on this site ever again