Halo 3

[adosmaerc]

There are tons of reasons that Halo 3 is a great game. I'm not a fanboy myself but I'm at least able to analyze and realize why people are so obsessed.

The graphics are dandy, and the sounds are great.

I was never big on the campaign in FPS's, heck, I don't even own and xBox, but I know that the story is deep and makes sense, and the fact the religion is involved just gets gamers who normally don't dwell on that kind of stuff hooked because they've never really thought a game could be so correct in its ideals.

But the main thing is the multiplayer. Yeah you may think that is just like all of the other FPS multiplayers, or maybe not but I've seen a lot call it generic. The controls are simple, and tweaked to perfection. Timing is involved, which makes kills more exciting when you least don't expect to win. Theres a variety of weapons and vehicles. The energy sword and the gravity hammer aren't generic. Especially the energy swords mechanics. They make the kills more exciting, and one on one battles can seem like epic battles of epic proportions, until of course the another player comes and kills you from behind mid-epic battle, which just adds the to chaos. The obnoxious ways in which you can kill your pals is fantastic, especially watching the replays of a sticky kill, or a spike nade chuck at the shield wall as someone chases you. Double kill with a spartan laser? Thank you very much.

The fact that you can change the multiplayer physics is sweet, and the game modes are great to customize and can help spawn new games (football out of king of the hill or assault?).

The vehicles are crazy good too. Fun to splatter with or nuke with the clapper (I called the wraith that before I learned it's real name)

Pretty much the hype revolves around the multiplayer, and i for one love it.

 

[Ydna]

There is just one small problem with what you said, you never really get to see things from the point of view of the covenant save in Halo 2. In every single real life example of extremism it is a means to an end (a very earthly one) not the end itself. If this was not the case we would have already engaged in a full scale nuclear war a very long time ago. When you look at modern terrorism/extremism it is not too hard to figure out where some of it actually comes from because the leaders themselves don't just wake up one day and say "I think I am going to start a Holy War." to suggest that pointing out this failure on the part of Halo is "Armchair critquing" is laughable at best. Especially since there is indeed a way to craft a story in which you have a case for causing that kind of destruction that does not turn out to be so damn cheesy. (See Mass Effect.)

I think you're overcomplicating it. I'm simply trying to point out that just because we can't relate to their goals, doesn't make the Covenant or their leaders unrealistic. It's not importantt hat we don't have things laid out to us from the Covenant POV int he first game, it was only the backstory that I'm talking about (ie why the Covenant do what they do). In the second game I thought it was great writing myself. Although I know a lot of dolts around me just got confused and dismissed it as interrupting their blowingstufup. I didn't mean to call it "armchair critquing"...I actually meant LITERALLY sitting in your armchair, meaning you're safe in your home, not being undergoing anything that would make you want to kill other people. Know what I mean?

However, I should mention that there have indeed been examples of "the means to an end being the end itself" that you may be forgetting about. Remember what happened last time Haleys comet came around? Giant mass suicides in at least two separate occult groups? That's the exact same thing. Those people weren't nuts, they were just led in a weird direction...(okay, maybe some of them were schitzo or something, but certainly not all). You and I say it was the "wrong" direction, but I'm trying to see things from their point of view, to a point, and respect those differences. It was a direction we can't comprehend because it doesn't make sense to us alleged sane folk.

But mass destruction on any scale is pretty cheesy no matter how you shake it. That was probably the reason for the Covenant being "religious" over a different guiding force. It was part of their society that they were The Saved and others were Evil. I don't have to cite examples of that in this day and age (and I'm not referring to muslims). I do understand if somebody disagrees with those concepts as a baseline for plot, but it's certainly far from a universally-accepted, nonsubjective point of view.

Thoughts? (Great discussion this thread!)

 

[dehawaiiansupaman]

All got to say is that the game for a time was fun. Halo 1 was great to me, it was slightly better than other games I played before and had a good selection of weapons that only had a few problems. Halo 2 was okay, nowhere near as good as the first with its weapons and the ending made me want to smash the disk. Halo 3, with all the hype and insane promotions (Game Fuel?), it was just not enough. The begining was fun and it seemed different than the others for a time but the last few levels were just new faces on old designs and the enemies were just more of the mindless idiots from before.

The series is okay but after Halo 1 it does seem to be more of an average game with a large piggy bank.

 

[shadow skill]

A few hundred people commiting mass suicide to go commune with aliens is orders of magnitude different from destroying an entire planet or even an entire universe. Once you get out of the realm where one charismatic individual is in control you start needing more relatively intelligent people to start managing things. Those kinds of people are virtually always interested in power over others therefore if there are no people left to rule over in the end their actions are pointless. Really it's like comparing a barfight that erupts because a guy look at you wrong to a full scale war.

That is what makes the story cheesy as hell the fact that villain basically has to be a complete moron for it to work. My concern really is not the foot soldiers who will buy into the official story they don't have to be smart in order to die my concern lies with the people who create the lie itself.

 

[AlexanderAstartes]

I liked Halo. I also enjoyed Halo 2 and 3, but not to the extent of fanatism. I don't really know how Halo grew to the scale it has...possibly the merciless ad campaign Microsoft gave it. I agree it is overhyped, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game, it just means there are people out there who like to obsess. I have the soundtrack (a gift but I have it none the less) and there are some moments in the story that feel suitably epic (usually due to the music). I'm waiting on Halo Wars, I think an RTS will be a nice break from the trend.

 

[ComradeJim270]

Disregarding fanboys (that's a whole different can of worms), people love (notice I said 'love', not 'like'... I 'liked' Halo 3, but I'll be the first one to tell you that it's over-rated) Halo because they don't know any better, or because they feel intimidated or overwhelmed by a lot of the better shooters. I know that sounds kind of mean, but in my experience, it's true. Most people I know who really like Halo are either not into PC gaming, or have explained to me that things like Half-Life 2 and such are too slow, or too complex, or too hard, etc. Halo is popular because it's VERY accessible.

We also have to keep in mind the role marketing has played... Halo has been shoved in people's faces in a way games rarely are. "FINISH THE FIGHT... FINISH THE FIGHT... FINISH THE FIGHT... FINISH THE FIGHT..." Some people started believing MS and Bungie when they hyped it up. Others didn't even play a lot of games until Halo was shoved in their face, and so they lack the experience to tell a mediocre game from a good one, or a good one from a great one.

Then there are the people who take reviewers' words as the gospel truth... don't get me started on that.

 

[Psuedointellectual]

I am greatly confused by the success that halo 3 has had. I mean I enjoy the game and I've spent time playing though both campaign and at least 10 hours of multiplayer. I am looking for a fanboy because I've heard everyone argue against the game. A lot of those complaints I agree with, but that's besides the point.
Can someone come here and rant for a paragraph or two on halo 3 so I can try to understand what you see in it

Okay, im going to make this real simple for you. People like Halo 3 becuase its simple, fun, and interesting. Explaining that any further is pointless.

/thread

 

[Knight Templar]

Hello, i think i can tell you why people like halo 3. put simply, it's FUN! yse there are small points of negativity in the game like, your allies arn't going to be atending a MESSA conference unless their a doormat, and if you don't pay attention the story can pass you by (or so i've heard i never had a proplem with it myself). But all the proplems pale in comparison to the the fun. The moron allies, just funny when you play with freinds. the cheesy lines ( i think theres only one but that "where should they go" thing is bad ennough) that makes it feel so good to shoot something. BUT to get the moast out of halo 3 you need Xbox Live. i think this is because Bungie went for a more mulitplayer type of experance. the good news is the MP is godly. the bad news is without Xbox Live its like half the game isnt there. I own Xbox Live so i have the whole experance, but without it i can see halo 3 as being a little blaze (please pertend the E has a little line above it i can't get my PC to put it there)

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Halo 3, with all the hype and insane promotions (Game Fuel?)

That was good stuff, disappointing that they stopped making it after the game came out.

Halo; the story's good, the visuals are pleasing, the multiplayer's great, the music is outstanding. There's a lot to love/like.

Why do people hate it? People can hate anything no matter how good it is. Did you know some people hate Coca-Cola, Cheez-Its, and dark chocolate?

 

[Nokterne]

People hate the Halo series because of its success.