What are you most exited for in Halo 3:ODST

[MiracleOfSound]

Mothers in Gamestop trying to remember the name of it.

 

[tsolless]

Mothers in Gamestop trying to remember the name of it.

Ohhh, the amount of people that we have had coming in trying to return Halo Wars because they got the name wrong and got that instead of Halo 3.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Mothers in Gamestop trying to remember the name of it.

Ohhh, the amount of people that we have had coming in trying to return Halo Wars because they got the name wrong and got that instead of Halo 3.

You'll have some amount of fun when they're going 'Have you got Halo std?'

 

[Hyperactiveman]

I like the idea of playing horde in Halo... Also as Sargeant Johnson... And to have characters voiced by like half of the firefly cast.

Apart from that... nothing much really... the enemies are the same... the weapons are the same... campaign looks all right I guess.

 

[Lynx01]

There are too many people referencing the shithouse Starship Troopers movie instead of the book in this thread.

Heinlein pretty much innovated and popularised the modern concept of powered armour exoskeletons and mobile space infantry, which fought against a genocidal alien race.




It obviously means Halo 3 invented Starship Troopers.

 

[firemark]

You're not wrong though. Halo's story is quite lacking, and don't think that I'm just bashing it. I've played and own all three and have enjoyed it, but I don't think it's fair to compare it to Gears storyline. It just lacks in creativity, other than the average sci-fi writing.

 

[firemark]

There are too many people referencing the shithouse Starship Troopers movie instead of the book in this thread.

Heinlein pretty much innovated and popularised the modern concept of powered armour exoskeletons and mobile space infantry, which fought against a genocidal alien race.




It obviously means Halo 3 invented Starship Troopers.

You mean other than the fact that Starship Troopers came before Halo 3...

 

[Fauxity]

How about no?

Quit being so damn specific. I'm not saying Halo was taken word for word from other sources, I'm saying that, yeah, the general idea of it? Not so original. You're deliberately trying to word it as difficultly as possible to make it harder for me to come up with similar or identical stories, as well, which is not really very sports-man like.

Addendum to my original post if it will shut you up: Halo's plot is like the hashing together of every decently celebrated sci-fi anything in the last thirty or forty years.

EDIT: Alright, since I'm starting to be a dick, I'll admit: Halo's plot is not the reason I don't like Halo's story. It's the characters, mainly Master Chief. He's faceless, clichéd, and really, rather annoying. And if anyone can think of an argument against this, I'll listen and try to be civil in return.

Sorry. I'm kind of pig-headed. Don't like admitting I'm wrong.

I'll freely admit the idea of the faceless space marine is hardly an original concept: it pre-dates Halo by about 65 years and gets rehashed every decade or so. For me though, that doesn't make the Chief unlikable - I think his characterisation is well done, and we learn a lot about his personality by his relationship with Cortana.
Individual components of the story may not be original, but literary experts agree there's something like 200 stories total, and everything is basically one of those stories with different characters or a different setting. What's important is how a storyteller combines those story elements into a narrative. I personally feel Bungie did this well, and find it irritating when words like 'generic' and 'cliche' get thrown around, because no one I've asked can offer a single example of how the Halo story has been done before.
You can boil it down to "these factions are at war and the fate of the universe is at stake" but that tells you exactly jack and shit about what happens throughout the course of the game.

Okay. I doubt it's quite that many, but like I said, I was irritated, and I know there are a good deal of sources they probably used, and a lot of them might even have been unconscious.

Can you provide a source for the literary experts you referred to?

 

[Sixties Spidey]

The Campaign looks great. It actually has a lot more subtlety than the sequels had. The thing I liked about Halo 1 was that it unfolded like a movie should.

Of course, there is Firefight!

 

[HentMas]

well... i havent even looked at it, i was kind of dissapointed at 3...so yeah...

 

[ohgodalex]

I'm just looking forward to playing Halo some more. I enjoyed Halo 3, and I doubt that any changes in ODST will be significant enough to prevent me from loving it.

But I'm mostly looking forward to a Campaign marathon with my friends upon release.

 

[Arbitrary Cidin]

Well there's a pleasant surprise. I knew it was going to be disagreed with, but arguments on The Escapist often end up with two pompous jerks pretending they aren't mad until one gets on probation. I just feel that the theme was hacked off of Starship Troopers, just as the Starship Troopers theme was hacked off of a predecessor. There are of course differences. Really, I'd say that Starship Troopers is what would happen if the Elites turned into Ant Lions from Half Life 2. The point is that Halo isn't truly that original in it's plot... it's more of another episode of the Sci-Fi Future Wars genre... unfortunately there's not a lot of unique plots these days because all the ideas have been taken. It's kind of like that "Simpsons Did It" episode of South Park, but I digress. In any case, I'll address Amnestic in saying that the space Marine plot is indeed the thing that MAKES it typical. That and the "Aliens are different so we kill them" plot (even if they started it in most stories)

The most basic plot of Halo 1 is two warring factions which will not negotiate competing for control of a mysterious alien superweapon. The characters, setting, and plot twists build on this, which is reasonably original as far as I know.

If you remove the word "alien" it's basically a Metal Gear Solid game.

 

[Kermi]

Okay. I doubt it's quite that many, but like I said, I was irritated, and I know there are a good deal of sources they probably used, and a lot of them might even have been unconscious.

Can you provide a source for the literary experts you referred to?

The literary thing is a factoid I picked up at university a few years back, and I can't find any quick sources on it online. What I'm actually seeing is that the actual number of unique stories could be as low as 10-15 - but I think that depends on how shallow your criteria of unique is. If you want to go as basic as "there is a conflict which the protagonist must resolve" then there's basically only one story, told over and over again.

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

The fact that your not some super hero that everyone relies on and just an ODST?

 

[TheScarecrow]

The same happens with all the other popular games, like Resident evil, or Half-Life.

Really?
When was the last time you saw a thread on Half-Life or Resident Evil?
Because I can assure you, it doesn't happen nearly as often as threads about Halo.
I can't even remember the last time I saw a Half-Life/Resident Evil thread.

I don't mean literally those games, I mean like Portal, Half-Life Two, Team Fortress etc.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

The same happens with all the other popular games, like Resident evil, or Half-Life.

Really?
When was the last time you saw a thread on Half-Life or Resident Evil?
Because I can assure you, it doesn't happen nearly as often as threads about Halo.
I can't even remember the last time I saw a Half-Life/Resident Evil thread.

I don't mean literally those games, I mean like Portal, Half-Life Two, Team Fortress etc.

At the risk of mocking those unable to respond, Max is too "young" on the forums to remember the Valve Mafia that used to be dominant here... whose core, unfortunately, got banhammered into dust over outrage that Turbine won a popularity contest. When they were still around, there were a lot more of what I called "Valveolatry" posts here and to dare mention H*lo was to invite organised wrath.

So yes, it happens with other popular games. Don't worry; as happened with the other titles, the current spate of ODST threads will abate as the newness fades a bit and newer hot titles get released.

(I am, however, loving ODST to pieces right now myself.)

-- Steve