LOTD.
Pull up! I can hold it! Eject! I can— *BOOOM*!
But there's no reason to fret. I'm sure the Incom engineers didn't get the T-65 right on the first try. But I think the moral of the story is don't build your X-Wing out of wood.
This review (warning: language) pretty much sums up my thoughts on the Halo franchise. I mean, sure, they're OK shooters, but not nearly worth the hype. If you really want an amazing and ground-breaking FPS experience, just play Half-Life 2 again (or HL2 Episode 2, which comes out tomorrow). And the part about the friendly AI in the Warthogs has been echoed other places (language warning; Link courtesy Alert Reader Mr. Pickles).
I guess the main reason Halo has gotten so much attention is that it was really the first console game to take full advantage of online multiplayer. But that was nothing new to us PC gamers who had been playing online for ten years, using programs like Kali to simulate an IPX network over TCP/IP, and blowing the crap out of each other in DOOM and Descent. Oh, yay. A game that allows you to kill your friends or other people around the world? Pardon me if I don't faint.
A coworker, aka cow-orker halo fanatic, made statements during lunch yesterday, one declarative and the other interrogative.
ReplyDeleteThe first, "My roommates [they rent rooms in his house] consider themselves too old to play Halo 3".
The second, "How do I get people that don't want to play Halo 3, to play Halo 3?"
My answer, "You don't". "What makes halo 3 special?"
Him: "the storyline is so much better than halo 2 and it is in HD!!"
Me: "But didn't Half-life have a story line and multi-player and resolution support beyond 1920x1200?"
Him: "But this is HALO 3!"
At this point I gave up. I've seen it running on a system at Fry's Electronics the other day, I wasn't impressed.
-thebluefox
The striking aspect about Halo was it's ability to be a shooter on a console and not be incredibly frustrating. When I first played Halo on Xbox (thanks Dave!) it was a revelation. I could actually move and shoot at the same time! And the gampad's sticks were impressively fluid and responsive.
ReplyDeleteWhile I loved Halo, I mostly concur with Joe's assesment (can't read the linked review at work). I liked it, but I really don't see how it compares to PC games like HL2 or--judging from what I've heard/read about it--Crysis (of whatever is the next installment in the Far Cry series).
While I only have limited experience with FPSs, I don't see how one can truly replicate the FPS experience on the console. The PC is the best environment for an FPS.
Dedicated console gamers are not unlike dedicated myspace users. They will tell you "You gotta have one!" And when you ask them "why?" they always respond with "You gotta have one!" While I don't detest consoles, I gave up on reasoning with dedicated console gamers a long time ago. I just smile to myself that my system can do more.
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