What makes Halo special. (An argument you have probably never heard)

[Pimppeter2]

Le snip

Each to his own. I found Halo fun because of the reasons that you found it boring. I liked memorizing the spots of my enemy and creating a path that would push me to my objective. Though I would be lying if I said that I never did some of the same things that you said you did.

I also played COD 4 on veteran, excluding that sniper mission where you shoot the guy in the arm and then escape, but that was only because I forgot to pick up a machine gun before the "last stand" part, and I would be damned if I did that whole thing again.

I'm not saying I didn't find COD 4 fun or challenging. (Wasn't as good as COD2 thats for sure). But as I said, each to his own.

 

[SantoUno]

snipped greatly

Good article, I like how someone has the guts to offer their views on halo without fear of the usual dickweeds coming to say how cheap it is.

I say this again and again, but I feel that Halo has the best FPS gameplay because the combat mechanics are smooth and easily acccesible.

• In most other FPSs you have to hold a seperate button to run faster, otherwise you just stroll like a twat. But in Halo, you run at the same speed in any direction.
  
  In Halo you are always pointing your gun where you want to shoot at, so it's easy as pulling your trigger to hit your target, while in otehr games you have to waste half a second and bring your gun up to actually hit your god damn target. This has caused me to die lots of times in MW.
  
  Halo's jumps can actually be used well in combat, such as to avoid grenade splash damage. In all others it's just used to get over obstacles, absolutely useless in combat.
  
  Throwing a grenade in Halo is also as easy as firing, while in other games you have to either switch to grenades or grab your grenade and then throw it, fucking annoying.

There are more things I can list but I just wanted to give my reason why I consider Halo as my favorite FPS series and why it ahs the best mechanics.

 

[MR T3D]

I have to say i agree with the long-ass OP here, its total bull that CoD games have generally garbage friendly AI, expecting me as private smith to do everything, they just take pot-shots and never actually do damage..
at least halo has reasons for its game mechanics, such as yeah, your allies suck, that's why humanity is losing, now go do some bad ass shit, and then CoD puts you as 'just a soldier' and in its more recent instalments, I feel I'm needed even more, and that's just stupid, especially if i'm part of the SAS, and new guy at that.
though they did get the SAS AI right for some parts of some missions, but those bits are quite scripted, which sucks.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Again, if you prefer your FPS experience to be watered down that far, fair enough.
But, at that point, there is no reason to have those fancy graphics or anything.
There are plenty of flash games which will accommodate your memorization and path finding fetish.

That is my dissatisfaction. The other games I have played have had so much more content, so much better design, so many more interesting puzzles and features, that Halo just seems like a distillation. The bare bones of an FPS, but with none of the meat. And that is simply disappointing, coming off of Deus Ex and Half Life and such. Halo isn't bad; it is just flavorless.

Haha.

You could take into account that I'm not an avid FPS player. So maybe my RTS and RPG parts have a weird liking to the series.

Halo definitely isn't the greatest series, but I liked it enough to buy it.

 

[Pimppeter2]

All those things apply to something which is arguably much better: Half Life.
Then you can add longer breadth of play, more interesting weapons, and many many other things which are icing on the bare bones of FPS play.

I fear for my life typing this, seeing as I am on the Escapist.

I've never played Half Life

I was never a shooter fan, and Half life Ep 2 came out in the dark time I like to call "The Oblivion Period".

However I'm hoping to pick it up this Christmas. I don't think it will fail to impress me.

 

[Sentient6]

None of the Halo games are bad, but they are not really good either. Halo1 was a big step for console shooters, but not shooters in general. Halo 3 - well, it's like Yahtzee said - it's average, and the only remarkable thing about it how far it's stuck up it's own ass. (the man sure has a way with words...).

 

[Callisto49]

Halo is my absolute favourite video game series. Not only do I own all the games, but I've read all the books and comics as well.

I'm not really sure why I love it so much, it's just something I'm drawn to. It seems that whenever I'm playing something new, I subconsciously compare its structure and story to Halo, even if they have nothing in common!

I guess that's just testament to how much I like it.

 

[QuickDEMOL1SHER]

I.............. I love you.

 

[SantoUno]

All those things apply to something which is arguably much better: Half Life.
Then you can add longer breadth of play, more interesting weapons, and many many other things which are icing on the bare bones of FPS play.

I'm currently playing Half Life 2 at last, and I feel that your statement is partially true and untrue. Aiming in HL feels a little clunky and "rangeless" to me, it's hard for me to try and aim at an enemy with the pistol and ensure that my bullets will actually hit. I haven't acquired any grenades left. And yes I think fastrunning is awesome but the jumps themselves don't help out in combat at all.

Oh but don't you think it's ridiculous to have to switch to your crowbar to melee anything? I sure find it annoying.

And although I was hooked the beginning nearly bored me. HL really doesn't do much to try and get the player hooked at the start. It takes way too long to actually start doing anything like getting past obstacles using the physics-based objects, actually engaging enemies, and what your overall goal is.

Anyways, that's just my first impression on Half Life 2, and this is supposed to be about Halo so I'll drop it.

 

[MR T3D]

I have to say i agree with the long-ass OP here, its total bull that CoD games have generally garbage friendly AI, expecting me as private smith to do everything, they just take pot-shots and never actually do damage..
at least halo has reasons for its game mechanics, such as yeah, your allies suck, that's why humanity is losing, now go do some bad ass shit, and then CoD puts you as 'just a soldier' and in its more recent instalments, I feel I'm needed even more, and that's just stupid, especially if i'm part of the SAS, and new guy at that.
though they did get the SAS AI right for some parts of some missions, but those bits are quite scripted, which sucks.

So, wait, if in COD4, you were say....a lower ranking official, say a squad leader, suddenly everything would be fine, because your allies are SUPPOSED to suck?

That is a horrid reasoning process I might add.
Marines and such are trained for a long time to do their job, and yet the ones we get can't drive vehicles worth a damn. How is that any better than the micromanaging that COD4 implies?

It isn't. The AI issues in both are unacceptable, and that rationalization is simply silly.

no, because we know humans are roughly equal, therefore there shouldn't be an imbalance in AI from friend to foe. if i were some sort of advisor for a hasty-trained force, then there's something to excuse friendly AI being worse than the hostile.
yeah, halo's AI suck at driving, but whatever, i like to drive anyway. and i'd rather there be a rationalization, albeit silly, over a wall-banger.

 

[Dr.Sean]

It sucks because it isn't on the PC. Why are consoles suddenly getting the good exclusives when we get shitty games from everyone but Bioware and VALVe?