Halo and CoD are fun

[blankedboy]

Well of course they're fun. It's just that other games are a hell of a lot more fun. To me, anyways. I'd rather play CoD than do schoolwork, but I'd much rather play TF2 than CoD.

 

[The Long Road]

I remember the first time I played Halo 2 multiplayer. I had only played Halo PC multiplayer before, and I was used to the server select screen and trying to find CTF on Blood Gulch or Sidewinder. Halo 2, however, just threw me into Matchmaking and put me in a game of Slayer on Zanzibar. I immediately fell in love with the Matchmaking system. It opened up so many new possibilities for me. New gametypes, new maps, new opponents. There was so much variety that I never got bored. Oh, and Lockout. <3

When I first played the Halo 3 beta, I saw the potential for the best online multiplayer experience on the Xbox, and I think I was right to this day. There were a couple of instances in which I thought the game could really have improved, but most of the time I loved it. Matchmaking was smooth, custom games were quick and simple, DLC was high-quality, and the Theater was executed so well. My very favorite part was the maps: absolutely beautiful in design and aesthetics. Valhalla is still my standard for mid-size objective games, and Sandtrap is still my favorite large map. By the time Reach took my attention, I had nearly 21,000 lifetime kills in Halo 3.

However, I was disappointed by Reach's multiplayer. Plasma grenades are about as common as hen's teeth, and there is a complete dearth of anti-vehicle weapons. I mean, come on, one Plasma Launcher on Hemorrhage against 1 Wraith, 2 Warthogs, 3 Mongi (that's the correct plural in Halo), 1 Revenant, and 1 Ghost per team. The Plasma Launcher sucks in general, but on that map, it's like a band-aid on a broken leg. Plus, plasma grenades barely damage vehicles at all. I've stuck a Ghost with three plasma grenades before it exploded, and I've never destroyed a Warthog with them. Not only that, but I don't like the Armor Abilities. I just don't think it adds anything but a superficial layer of extra crap to multiplayer. The only good use of Abilities that I regularly see is the use of Jetpacks to allow base jumping from the top of Spire. Other complaints include the lack of more than 1 or 2 good large symmetrical map, super-fast Scorpion reload time, weapon recoil, kinda bland maps in general, and a few more that don't immediately come to mind. Oh well. I guess I'll say that the series multiplayer peaked with 3. I miss that game...

I guess I kinda got into CoD:MW2. I think I Prestiged 3 times. My favorite story is shooting someone in the head straight through a tree on Estate with the Barrett. Lucky, panicked no-scope, but I felt like a bamf afterwards.

 

[EllEzDee]

The story is very well written.

You see, Geralt, this is where i have to stop you. Halo 1 was a lot of fun, i remember staying up all night doing co-op on my friend's xbox trying to unlock the Legendary ending...sorry, i digress. Halo 1 was a lot of fun, but the story was a pile of cock. Halo 2 carried on the tradition of pile-of-cock story lines, and 3 had the cockest of the cock piles of a story line. Just like every popular thing in the world, attempting to keep up with the capitalistic demands of the publishers means that cuts need to be made somewhere, and the story line always seems like the best place to take the garden shears to.

 

[TheScottishFella]

snip

We still have people arguing on this? Aside from the controversy over "No Russian," it's been quite a long time since CoD was advertised as anything but a multiplayer experience. Just because something has a singleplayer mode doesn't mean that mode has to be the focus of the game, anymore than a bonus multiplayer mode had to be the focus back in the late '90s. Anybody who bought MW2 or any of the later CoD games expecting a singleplayer focused game was making a blind purchase, possibly based on CoD 1 and 2, but with no basis in the current reality or advertising of the series. If you want something singleplayer focused, those games are out there; CoD just isn't an example anymore, and hasn't been for quite some time.

Also, about the 10 hour campaign thing: 10 hours has always been the sweet spot for an FPS. There just isn't all that much a shooter can do to keep most people's attention for any longer than that. If you want to argue that a 10 hour game isn't worth $60, I'd agree with you, but I also think that no game is worth $60, regardless of length; the fact that most games are shorter than RPGs has no bearing on it.

Fair point, I suppose you are right. What worries me however is that in my eyes (I may be wrong and most likely am) that people think the way to success is a short as hell singleplayer and focus on multiplayer which ends terribly for them Medal of Honour, Homefront, etc of course I suppose Homefront is debatable I feel that CoD makes it seem if you only pay attention to multiplayer there is garunteed success which to me is idiotic why don't you do multiplayer but focus on something CoD can't supply, a decent length singleplayer because like WoW Multiplayer is for them and nothing is going to really dethrone them (except possibly Battlefield series but time will tell.) and all this seems to lead back to CoD.

 

[Vrex360]

Honestly, I find a lot of the criticism Halo and Call of Duty get to be unjustified. I get really sick of hearing Halo get called a 'grey, dull gritty realistic shooter' because clearly someone didn't even look past the boxart to play the actual game. Halo is vibrant and colorful and full of quirky self referential jokes. It's not the main selling point of the game, granted, but it's still there.

As it stands, Halo is a game I love to play. It's fun to play alone and experience the campaign, it's fun to play multiplayer with friends (and now there are a variety of ways to do this like multiplayer, forge or firefight... not to mention campaign co-op). Going through fun I've had playing it and the charm and nostalgic value I associate with it, it's probably my favorite game series of all time.
The story isn't half bad either. Sure it's not a masterpiece of literature and it can be reduced to a simple description, but then so can Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. All these movies have a very simple plot as a basis (evil empire, ring belongs to dark lord must be destroyed) but were fleshed out by presentation and storylines within the main storyline. Allowing for epic cinematic moments that follow along a plot that you can understand.

Halo has that as well. Multiple plot lines all centered around one central plot that everything gets involved in and it also ends in a way that ties most of those up. No, Halo might not be a timeless classic in terms of story telling but it's still good enough to keep the action going. Personal favorite for me in this regard being Halo 2.

I understand people not liking it because it's not their kind of thing but honestly, if the game series was nearly as bad and terrible to play as they proclaim it to be, it wouldn't have sold as much as it did. Similarly if the story didn't have any themes people liked or found appealing, there wouldn't be a considerable market for books and comics based on it.

Halo might not be the greatest and most innovative game ever made, but it's a far cry from being the worst game EVAR. Likewise, while the plot is kind of simple, it's enough to drive the action along. Halo is a good game series, a solid game series and a popular game series.

I don't demand people have to like it, I just wonder how irrational hate and rage can pile up whenever anyone speaks its name.

 

[Vibhor]

So tell me, how do you compare Half life 2 with Halo?

I love both games, but I do think that Half Life 2 is a better game than Halo...umm I don't know if there is a specific Halo game I should be comparing it to. Half Life 2 has better dialogue and the only environments I've ever seen that I felt like I was actually in them. Halo is a fun, colorful, actiony sort of space Sci fi FPS and Half Life 2 is a more intelligent, realistic (environments) FPS with a great Eastern European vibe to it all.

See, some people play games for story and characters. Of course Halo maybe fun but to those people it is nothing more than doom with Navy thingies instead of space marines.

Your opinion is different. If you are going to complain how other's opinion is different from yours and clashes together then please, go away.
Tell me, do you like Half life 2?

Yes, I do like Half Life 2.

So tell me, how do you compare Half life 2 with Halo?

Not to butt in to the conversation but I'd take Halo's campaign, multiplayer, or anything over Half Life's anyday.

I find them pretty similar too. They both have deep stories that are hard to get into. I for one forced myself through HL2 and dropped episode 1 halfway through from boredom. The physics puzzles were a nice change of pace but the thing I found pissed me off the most from a gameplay standpoint was the level design. Way too often was the correct path too unclear and it was too easy to get disoriented.

Ah there you are wrong mah boi.
You see, Half life is the grandfather of all story based games. It was the first FPS with a narrative instead of a wall of text.
That fact alone makes the story in the sequel better.
The story was criticized as being weak but it was not the story the game was lauded for but the narrative that keeps the player interested in the game. Half life 2 is more of an adventure game instead of FPS. The campaign of Halo may be more action packed and shit but in the end Half life 2 was the one with real innovation (but then it boils down to personal taste and preference) though I do agree on the multiplayer part. Halo was the game that revolutionized console multiplayer and that is indeed an accomplishment.

 

[tlozoot]

Seriously, every time I see some self-assured forum user pull up the generic 'bland and boring FPS shooter' line, I die a little inside. Have you seen how colourful and vibrant the Halo games are?

Though I don't hold that opinion of Halo, you do realize that they're not talking about the graphics, right?

Sorry, I typically see people treating Halo as of the same irk as the 'brown and gritty realistic' shooters. Looking back I see I didn't mention this in my initial post though. I still think that a lot of the bile thrown at Halo is a reflection on its popularity rather than the actual game itself.

 

[Haydyn]

Believe it or not, Halo is likely the most original shooter lumped into the category of "stale boring shooters". It revolutionzied the genre. Everybody wanted to be more like Halo, and that's why Halo gets dragged down with the crap. I've played CoD. Didn't care for it. It's just there. If you want a boring FPS that brags about how awesome realism is and has a new game come out every year, then ya, you are going to enjoy CoD. That's not even digging into all the glitches in CoD. I don't think I have ever seen a game that popular have so many bugs.

I joke about being a Halo fanboy, but I'm the first to admit it's flaws. I usually go months at a time never touching it, then I'll play it for about a month before putting it down. Now that I got most of the achievements, there's nothing to do but rank up. Halo is the ony shooter that I play. Not becasue I've been such a diehard fan. I didn't own any Halo game until 2 years ago. What Halo does have is a pretty decent storyline, fun gameplay, an interesting community, and it's not TOO realistic.

CoD, otoh, is just a pile of glitches, bugs, and realism that gets shitted out every year. I have a friend who was banned and his record erased just because somebody he pisses off reported him as a glitcher. Those guys in the 501 kill game? All banned. And for what? Exposing a bug? They have all these bans happening, but they still can't fix their damn games. My friend was a huge CoD fanboy, but when they erased his stuff, he jumped on the Halo bandwagon. It was funny to watch.

 

[SEPECAT]

It occurs to me that I should probably post my own thoughts regarding the original topic. I enjoyed Halo 2 so much because it was so colorful. And I thought the Mark VI suit was the coolest looking thing ever when I first played it. I'm probably one of the only people who enjoyed the Arbiter as a character and playing as him. I think it's because I had about as much attachment to him as I did the Chief, having started with Halo 2, not 1. I really liked the design of the enemies (particularly in Reach) and their whole class structure. And I love the Halo 2 map Lockout, for the hundreds of hours my friends and I must have played there.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I like them. I haven't played any Halos since 3 or any CODs before 3, but I love them. Tons of fun with friends.

 

[CheckD3]

I very much enjoy multiplayer on the CoD and Halo games. I got lost playing Halo Reach for a month before I could break out, same with MW2, and I still love both games

The stories aren't horrible, they aren't special or super fantastic, but they're fun and entertaining when you feel like playing by yourself or with just a friend next to you

They also help the medium by attracting players through friends showing friends showing friends, who in turn use these games as jumping off points for many other games they might like

 

[Spartan448]

-snip-

-snippedy snip snip-quote]

Nah, cheers. Prefer my BFBC2 to any infantry shooter by default. Like big maps, vehicles and all that jazz

Then Halo Custom Edition is just for you! The maps are HUGE (good luck getting across Coldsnap in a Warthog before the game is halfway done), there are PLENTY of vechicles that aren't in the Vanilla game (Longsword C-S-70 fighters, Rocket Warthogs, Halcyon-Class Cruisers in some maps, THE F-ING SCARAB (for those of you who know what it is) (me like!). So yeah, if you like big maps and vehicles, you'd LOVE Halo Custom Edition!

 

[Kajt]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, along with Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield 2, is one of the best first person shooters I have ever played. I loved both the singleplayer and multiplayer. The multiplayer is one of few which I can honestly say I'm pretty good at, and play without raging.

Call of Duty: World at War is also a very good game. It's multiplayer might not be as good as it's predecessor's, but it makes up for it this by having co-op campaign and and a zombie survival game mode which me and my friends enjoyed greatly.

I did not enjoy the following games in the series as much, though. But I feel like that has been discussed far too much on this forum already, so let's skip that...

The only Halo game I own is the most recent one, Halo: Reach. I've played Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3/ODST with my friends, though. They're fun games, but I can't stand them for longer periods of time. Certain things about them just really annoy me.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Halo 2

Unfortunately, you have picked what is quite possibly the WORST of the Halo games as an example. Halo Wars was better. And I've played all the Halo games, so I think I would know about that.

Funny, I've played Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars and some ODST and I thought 2 was the 2nd best (1 was the best IMO). But clearly I must be mistaken, as what you have stated is so obviously a fact and in no way an opinion... 3 was pretty bland and I don't remember much of ODST, Halo Wars was just boring.

I actually don't hate CoD because I think it's boring, I hate it because once a game reaches a certain level of popularity, it can be re-released later with enhancements and people still buy it, thus justifying being a sellout and stifling innovation and creativity.

Maybe it sounds over-the-top, but it really does feel like most of the AAA games these days are mostly just pretty and not really packing in the innovation department.

 

[Spartan448]

Halo 2

Unfortunately, you have picked what is quite possibly the WORST of the Halo games as an example. Halo Wars was better. And I've played all the Halo games, so I think I would know about that.

Funny, I've played Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars and some ODST and I thought 2 was the 2nd best (1 was the best IMO). But clearly I must be mistaken, as what you have stated is so obviously a fact and in no way an opinion... 3 was pretty bland and I don't remember much of ODST, Halo Wars was just boring.

I actually don't hate CoD because I think it's boring, I hate it because once a game reaches a certain level of popularity, it can be re-released later with enhancements and people still buy it, thus justifying being a sellout and stifling innovation and creativity.

Maybe it sounds over-the-top, but it really does feel like most of the AAA games these days are mostly just pretty and not really packing in the innovation department.

I'm tired of everyone saying that I'm trying to state a fact that may or may not be false. If you read my post carefully, I said "I THINK I know what I'm talking about", not "I know exactly what I'm talking about and anything I say is fact and you are never right lololololoolololololol". I dislike those kinds of people. My satement, again, was just a matter of opinion.

 

[Spandexpanda]

Playing four player split-screen on MW on shipment with Hardcore and Old-School game modes with unlimited score and time is unreasonably fun. Many a night I've spent kicking ass and taking names with my friends.

Similarly with Halo 3 and Reach. Split-Screen multi really is just mindlessly enjoyable. Which is my definition of a good game. Something which a few friends can pick up an play together, not too complicated, not too simple. Both games are fairly well balanced, weapons and maps wise, and both games present an enjoyably experience for a casual gaming sesh. A few beers, a couch with a few friends and a game of split screen COD is one of my favourite things to do. Can't beat it.

Also, Reach is fantastically pretty. It sets my drawing sense a-tingling.

 

[Coldster]

Good for you, but I still hate the fuck out of the obsession with realism they inspire.

Your're kiding me right? Halo has players jumping meters into the air, it takes a ton of bullets to bring down another player, and just about everything about it revolves around non realism. To be specific: look at the human guns, they don't look like any gun that exists today and they are varied to serve a simple purpose: this gun is automatic, this gun is semi automatic, this gun is a rocket luancher. See what I'm getting at? Super powerful space marine? Those don't exist in real life, neither do aliens, or spaceships, or plasma weapons, or basically everything else in the game.

However if your talking about CoD then I'm with you on that 100% (although it's just supposed to be fun)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that you are entitled to your own opinion and I'm not trying to get you to admit Halo is good becuase everyone has different likes and dislikes. Agree to disagree right?

I hate Halo for its incredibly fucking boring gameplay, plot, and characters.

Regarding the latter two, I'm bothered that they don't exist. In Just Cause 2 it's perfectly alright because the game is fucking crazy and awesome and not a macho quasifascist shitpile with pretensions to complexity. Halo wastes shitloads of time on cutscenes which could easily be filled with repetitive gameplay.

Yeah but like Just Cause 2, Halo has a story that isn't shown completely through gameplay, it's mostly showed through the cutscenes. Not, every game can be like Half Life 2 and thus the next best thing is cutscenes (which I remind you are good considering that it breaks up the gameplay at the right moments i.e. when all enemies are dead and you move to a specific spot on the map). Sure cutscenes are almost never good but Halo makes them decent by actually having the characters talk in when written sentences when most of the game they are silent.

Also, I'm getting the message that somehow you think cetain games that can have a story and don't emphasise on it *cough* Just Cause 2 *cough* but for others *cough* Halo *cough* the moment they make a original story as an important part of the game it's automatically bad. Square Enix is perfectly capable of coming up with a story and some insanely well detailed cutscenes (although they probably shouldn't because then it would end up like FFXIII and ruin Just Cause for what it stands for).

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Halo 2

Unfortunately, you have picked what is quite possibly the WORST of the Halo games as an example. Halo Wars was better. And I've played all the Halo games, so I think I would know about that.

Funny, I've played Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars and some ODST and I thought 2 was the 2nd best (1 was the best IMO). But clearly I must be mistaken, as what you have stated is so obviously a fact and in no way an opinion... 3 was pretty bland and I don't remember much of ODST, Halo Wars was just boring.

I actually don't hate CoD because I think it's boring, I hate it because once a game reaches a certain level of popularity, it can be re-released later with enhancements and people still buy it, thus justifying being a sellout and stifling innovation and creativity.

Maybe it sounds over-the-top, but it really does feel like most of the AAA games these days are mostly just pretty and not really packing in the innovation department.

I'm tired of everyone saying that I'm trying to state a fact that may or may not be false. If you read my post carefully, I said "I THINK I know what I'm talking about", not "I know exactly what I'm talking about and anything I say is fact and you are never right lololololoolololololol". I dislike those kinds of people. My satement, again, was just a matter of opinion.

I'm sorry you aren't very patient, I have a theory that virtues are things that people attain as they go through life, instead of simply having them naturally.

Anyways,

And I've played all the Halo games, so I think I would know about that.

Forgive me if I'm incorrect, but you're using condescension and mild sarcasm here, implying that you believe you are obviously correct, no?

Perhaps comments like those are what lead people to give you the responses that cause you to get irritated? Food for thought, I suppose.

 

[Spartan448]

Halo 2

think

.

Key word there

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Halo 2

think

.

Key word there

I've noticed it's very difficult to win arguments with people who ignore me, mostly because no matter how logical my argument, they're too full of their own argument to listen.

And I've played all the Halo games, so I think I would know about that.

The word think by itself implies that, but this statement as a whole, very much implies a belief that thinking otherwise shows a lack of experience with the franchise and as such implies you consider it to be factual.

Just want to let you know, if you aren't going to actually respond to what I say and yet continue to quote my posts, I'm just going to ignore you.