Ask a Halo fanboy anything! Removing common misconceptions.

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Jabberwock xeno

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Post removed due to the entire thing not showing up correctly (perhaps it was too long?)

Here's a .txt file of it, if you want to see it:

http://www.mediafire.com/?qljdj2qy12wj8x1

I realize that this probably looks very suspicious, but I have no other way to show the post, it seems I hit a character limit of some kind.
 

BlindMessiah94

The 94th Blind Messiah
Nov 12, 2009
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I played Halo, and the sequels. Never enjoyed them. Never saw what all the fuss was about. Much prefer FPS like Unreal Tournament.

It's a personal preference thing. I will never hate on a game "simply because it's popular". I don't like a game because I don't like it. Everyone else...they are welcome to play it.

[small]even if I don't understand why they like it....[/small]
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Why the love for Master Chief and Cortana, honestly?

I mean, really. They aren't terribly great characters. At least you play as Master Chief, and he's silent outside of cutscenes, so he gets kinda Gordon Freeman-ized.

Why Cortana? Outside of the obvious "is a chick" factor.
 

Corkydog

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I don't really have a question, but I will say that while I like the series, I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.

So, I dunno, do you have a response to that?
 

Jabberwock xeno

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Onyx Oblivion said:
Why the love for Master Chief and Cortana, honestly?

I mean, really. They aren't terribly great characters. At least you play as Master Chief, and he;s silent outside of cutscenes, so he gets kinda Gordon Freeman-ized.

Why Cortana? Outside of the obvious "is a chick" factor.
Well, that depends.

I don't think anybody really cares for them if they just play the games to play them.

Master cheif if your sterotypical silent hero, Cortana is your un silent helper, much like Link and Navi, up to the color scheme.


Now, this, like many other ideas people seem to have about halo, changes if you consider the other media.

Where the games don't really give you any story unless you look for it a la easter eggs or small things scattered around, the books give both chareters much more depth.

Master chief actually has a personality there, he has a name, he has friends.

Cortana is arguably the charter with the most depth in the entire series, to the point where I cannot even properly explain it without you having read them.

In the level "cortana" in Halo 3, I literally got the chills because her corrupt dialog due to the gravemind played so much into the book's events.
 

HassEsser

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Corkydog said:
I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.
I disagree. The Flood was the best part of Halo CE and I really didn't like how they didn't appear in Halo 2 or 3.

Otherwise, Halo CE and Halo 2 were great, but Halo 3 fucking sucked; the story was insanely boring, and the multiplayer was the same copy-pasted ranking system you see in every single game nowadays.
 

Spud of Doom

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Onyx Oblivion said:
Why the love for Master Chief and Cortana, honestly?

I mean, really. They aren't terribly great characters. At least you play as Master Chief, and he;s silent outside of cutscenes, so he gets kinda Gordon Freeman-ized.

Why Cortana? Outside of the obvious "is a chick" factor.
I don't think the appeal of the series is in character depth. Those two in particular don't really develop a whole lot (considering one is silent and the other is utility AI, although Cortana fills in a bit later in the series), but perhaps people like Keyes, Johnson and maybe the Arbiter have a bit more meat to them. As for why people love them, I would imagine the same reasons people love any main characters. Why do people love Link? Mario?
 

Jabberwock xeno

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Corkydog said:
I don't really have a question, but I will say that while I like the series, I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.

So, I dunno, do you have a response to that?
Gameplay wise, the flood is a pain, I don't dissagre, but thats kind of the point, they are supposed to give you that "OH SHIT OH SHIT RUN RUN RUN" type feel.

You said their "gross" environment. I think that's supposed to discourage you, they are supposed to feel icky.

Canoncially, as far as the books, they are VERY intersting, thought this has to do more with the Gravemind more than the normal flood forms.

Though there was very cool piece written from the prespective of an infection form, you got a feel for their thought process.
 

ScoopMeister

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Corkydog said:
I don't really have a question, but I will say that while I like the series, I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.

So, I dunno, do you have a response to that?
I always really liked the Flood fights, but then again, I'm wierd.
HassEsser said:
Corkydog said:
I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.
I disagree. The Flood was the best part of Halo CE and I really didn't like how they didn't appear in Halo 2 or 3.

Otherwise, Halo CE and Halo 2 were great, but Halo 3 fucking sucked; the story was insanely boring, and the multiplayer was the same copy-pasted ranking system you see in every single game nowadays.
Erm... did you sleep through most of 2 and 3 or something? They were one of the main elements of all three games in the trilogy.

Also, I have a question: Why is Halo so friggin' awesome?
 

Jabberwock xeno

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ScoopMeister said:
Corkydog said:
I don't really have a question, but I will say that while I like the series, I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.

So, I dunno, do you have a response to that?
I always really liked the Flood fights, but then again, I'm wierd.
HassEsser said:
Corkydog said:
I hate the Flood. The Flood has always been the worst part of any of the games because I simply do not have fun fighting them or walking in their gross and simple environments.
I disagree. The Flood was the best part of Halo CE and I really didn't like how they didn't appear in Halo 2 or 3.

Otherwise, Halo CE and Halo 2 were great, but Halo 3 fucking sucked; the story was insanely boring, and the multiplayer was the same copy-pasted ranking system you see in every single game nowadays.
Erm... did you sleep through most of 2 and 3 or something? They were one of the main elements of all three games in the trilogy.

Also, I have a question: Why is Halo so friggin' awesome?
To the thing about the flood not being good for 2 and 3:

I actually didn't play the CE first, so I can't attest to how good they were there vs. Halo 2 because it has to due with the surprise.

In the 1st game, the flood came out of nowhere, you had no clue they were in the game.

Halo 2, it was kinda old. By 3, it was just a pain for many people.
 

Squilookle

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I must admit, I admire Halo's refusal to use Ironsights. Those things are the bane of my FPS existence lately.

My main reason for not liking Halo is because before the first one came out, it was pretty much standard for a console FPS to have bots in multiplayer. No matter who you were, where you were, how you played or what your internet setup was, there would ALWAYS be opponents you could play against in multiplayer. Then Halo came along and pretty much destroyed that, for no better reason than the devs thinking they 'wouldn't be good enough'. Now the market is flooded with games that have empty shells for multiplayer, and are not even worth playing unless you can find enough like-minded players online, or through system link. All this because everyone wanted to be just like Halo, and Halo basically said 'you don't need bots to get rave reviews'.

Now I ask you, as a self titled Halo fanboy- do you think my reason for disliking Halo is fair? And do you think the regenerating health popularised by Halo has had an overall beneficial or detrimental effect on modern shooters?
 

Silentwindofdoom

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I've got nothing particular to say about the game play elements of the Halo franchise, it's adequate. Things only got really atmospheric in halo 3 and ODST. I didn't really get into it until part 2. For me the appeal of the series is the lore, which is only scratched in the actual games, it left a lot of room for speculation and immersion.

Granted, my appreciation of Halo 2, 3 and ODST may come from having read all the authorized books out, which allowed me to play a part within a bigger universe than the average player does.

As for the flood, they are a pain in the behind in every game. You don't want to deal with them, which may be what Bungie wanted. I feel the same way about fast creepy crawlies in any other game (headcrabs and stuff), they're just not fun to fight, it's just a frantic experience.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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I came here expecting this to be made by Vrex360. Ah well.

As for me, well, I guess I could also help answer questions. After all, I'm the damn owner of the Halo Fans Group [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Halo-Fans]. So yeah.

[sub][sub]We're playing a game of Halo Reach tomorrow, 1PM Eastern US Time. So join the group, join the game, and have a the most damn fun you'll have in Reach![/sub][/sub]
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Onyx Oblivion said:
Why the love for Master Chief and Cortana, honestly?

I mean, really. They aren't terribly great characters. At least you play as Master Chief, and he's silent outside of cutscenes, so he gets kinda Gordon Freeman-ized.

Why Cortana? Outside of the obvious "is a chick" factor.
For me, its just refreshing to have a sentient AI that isn't hell-bent on killing you. Or the human race.
 

Jabberwock xeno

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Squilookle said:
I must admit, I admire Halo's refusal to use Ironsights. Those things are the bane of my FPS existence lately.

My main reason for not liking Halo is because before the first one came out, it was pretty much standard for a console FPS to have bots in multiplayer. No matter who you were, where you were, how you played or what your internet setup was, there would ALWAYS be opponents you could play against in multiplayer. Then Halo came along and pretty much destroyed that, for no better reason than the devs thinking they 'wouldn't be good enough'. Now the market is flooded with games that have empty shells for multiplayer, and are not even worth playing unless you can find enough like-minded players online, or through system link. All this because everyone wanted to be just like Halo, and Halo basically said 'you don't need bots to get rave reviews'.

Now I ask you, as a self titled Halo fanboy- do you think my reason is fair? And do you think the regenerating health popularised by Halo has had an overall beneficial or detrimental effect on modern shooters?
I think it was a fair reason at the time, yes.

I think that the reason for that is 3 fold:

- Console FPSs weren't really all that common
- Halo had many things that set apart of r other fps's at the time, vehcles escpalty would have been an challenge to work with for bots at the time
- Halo used very special and at the time, advanced AI. All the enemy races and experences (blue elite vs. red elite, for example) used separate AI in game.


As for regerating health, I think it's important to note that Halo actually doesn't use the same regenerating health model all the other FPS's do, among other things.

Firstly, Halo actually has a reason for why your health regerates: It's not your health.

It's the mjolnir's energy sheilds, which take damage, then have to recharge after damage. Your actually health is under that, which is the same model as the health bar that other games used before Halo.

It's more akin to an rpg where you have an "armor" bar, then a "health" bar, then to COD, for example.

I AM annoyed that every FPS ever nowdays other than Halo uses that COD model. The 1st bad company was a refreshing break from it.

I think that none of the 3 models, regenrating armor + health, just regen, or just health are the pancea way to go.

Some games work better with one, so if thats the case, then it should use it.

Personally, I feel that the best option would have there to be no measursable health at all, but inestaed have your charcter's injuries be simulated, and then was it reads that you would be dead, you die.
 

Netrigan

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I recently picked up Halo: Reach to give the series another shot, because I hadn't really played it since giving up about four missions into the first game.

Can't say it's really wowing me. So far, the story cutscenes have been uninvolving and uninteresting. Most shooters start off with a bang, Reach starts off with... soldiers fondly caressing their weapons before we all take an uneventful chopper flight to investigate *ahem* rebel activity in the region. I understand the concept of a slow-burn, but everyone knows what's about to happen, and they're giving me a shaggy dog mission.

Temporarily ditched the game after Crysis 2 came in the mail, largely because the combat in Halo reminds me so much of the original Unreal, with every enemy taking way too much damage before dying (regardless of how completely un-dangerous they are) and all the enemies hopping around. All feels sort of death-matchy, which I've never been fond of in single player.

But if I have to ask a question, I ask this one. Is there any way I can play with the default player controls *and* have single stick control of vehicles? The game seems determined not to give me separate player and vehicle control options, so I end up having to accelerate with the left stick and steer with the right, which I've never been forced to do in a game before. And is there anyway to listen to the game in English with English sub-titles? My hearing can be an iffy thing in the middle of a noisy game and I like to have sub-titles on.

Yup, my questions are about Halo's apparent lack of normal option choices, because, let's face it, Halo is about as far away from what I consider fun as a quality game can get.
 

Netrigan

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Wait, I have another question. Apart from the big reveal of The Flood in the first game, has the game really truly surprised players with something unexpected?

In reading reviews and threads about Reach, about the only three things of note (beyond it being a Greatest Hits package) was the armor power-ups, the brief space mission, and the tie-in to the original Halo at the end... two of which were pretty much endlessly discussed prior to the game's launch. The series seems to have found its niche in the first game and kept settings, weapons, enemies, and set-pieces very much in the comfort zone of the series.
 

Jabberwock xeno

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Netrigan said:
I recently picked up Halo: Reach to give the series another shot, because I hadn't really played it since giving up about four missions into the first game.

Can't say it's really wowing me. So far, the story cutscenes have been uninvolving and uninteresting. Most shooters start off with a bang, Reach starts off with... soldiers fondly caressing their weapons before we all take an uneventful chopper flight to investigate *ahem* rebel activity in the region. I understand the concept of a slow-burn, but everyone knows what's about to happen, and they're giving me a shaggy dog mission.

Temporarily ditched the game after Crysis 2 came in the mail, largely because the combat in Halo reminds me so much of the original Unreal, with every enemy taking way too much damage before dying (regardless of how completely un-dangerous they are) and all the enemies hopping around. All feels sort of death-matchy, which I've never been fond of in single player.

But if I have to ask a question, I ask this one. Is there any way I can play with the default player controls *and* have single stick control of vehicles? The game seems determined not to give me separate player and vehicle control options, so I end up having to accelerate with the left stick and steer with the right, which I've never been forced to do in a game before. And is there anyway to listen to the game in English with English sub-titles? My hearing can be an iffy thing in the middle of a noisy game and I like to have sub-titles on.

Yup, my questions are about Halo's apparent lack of normal option choices, because, let's face it, Halo is about as far away from what I consider fun as a quality game can get.
Single stick vehicle controls?

You mean not moving around the camera with the right thumbstick? I don't think so.

You have to remember Halo is a FPS, not a driving game.

Subtitles are in the audio video settings. As a rule, I always have subtitles on with everything, movies, games, etc

Netrigan said:
Wait, I have another question. Apart from the big reveal of The Flood in the first game, has the game really truly surprised players with something unexpected?

In reading reviews and threads about Reach, about the only three things of note (beyond it being a Greatest Hits package) was the armor power-ups, the brief space mission, and the tie-in to the original Halo at the end... two of which were pretty much endlessly discussed prior to the game's launch. The series seems to have found its niche in the first game and kept settings, weapons, enemies, and set-pieces very much in the comfort zone of the series.
As I said, I really got into the series with Halo 2, not CE.

As for the second part, the other big deal was the improved Forge mode, which I kid you not, had me dumbstruck the entire day it was announced, other people were worried about me because I was so happy.