Halo 3 - your opinion

The Tourist · Post by **The Tourist** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:16 pm

I don't know how much, if any, feedback this will provoke, but I was just curious to get a brief showing of hands (um, in written word form anyway.. ) of people on these here boards.

Halo 3; let down? Did it meet whatever expectations you had for it? Do you still want more? How do you feel of the changes, the added features, and the multiplayer experience?

(Oh, and seeing as Halo 3 isn't out on PC yet, please don't just come here with the usual mouse/keyboard control, and PC FPS guff... )

I'll post my view on it if anyone responds.

If you haven't cleared the game yet > watch out for spoilers
And if you have finished the fight > give spoiler warnings!

[thanks]

Ayoub · Post by **Ayoub** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:24 pm

It wasn't as good as Halo 2. There's my opinion.

Masser · Post by **Masser** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:41 pm

Without the hype it would have been much better. All I see in halo 3 is a mediocre shooter. Now if this was half life 2...

Warwolf Dash · Post by **Warwolf Dash** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:41 pm

HALO 3 FTW!!!! who cares about comp fps!! halo beat all others down!! halohalohalohalohalo

yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaw. time to go kill me some brutes!!

The Tourist · Post by **The Tourist** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:33 pm

Hey, masser, I have to love you because of your Firefly sig, but mediocre? Have you played 3? For me, Half-Life 2 is my 'best game ever', it really is. But comparisons between the two series' are unfair because they're so very different.

H-L is never hectic, is never as funny, is never as grandstandingly over spectacular. Halo is one of those games that I laugh at the most (in co-op, that is) simply because it's so much darn Fun. The Grunt's are the cutest 'badguys' ever (I so want a plush Grunt, but I don't think they're made.. ), with some of the funniest dialogue this side of Half-Life 2's; "It was wrong to shoot at you, I see that now!!" - and my favourite Grunt line ever; "Tell me a story, Arbiter!!".

The joy of tagging a Grunt with a plasma grenade, hearing him cry "Run away!!" as he runs - arms aloft - straight into the ranks of his fellow Covenant, to explode in a way that Havok would be proud of? No other FPS can give you that much fun. The audio is tuned to perfection, and there's so much going on.

The UNSC Marines also have genius dialogue (some voiced by Nathan Fillion who is Sergent 'Mal' and swears in Chinese, Alan Tudyk and even 'Jane' - who refers to his beloved assault rifle by name. Was it Vera? not certain). And the Theatre mode, by good sweet lordie the Theatre mode; was there ever a better feature in any game? It makes co-op even more of a joy.

Ayoub, if you check back and see this, could you clarify why you think 2 was better?

So, I do love the Halo series and especially 3. It tends to split opinion, but I think it gets a lot of unfair stick.

Ayoub · Post by **Ayoub** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:08 pm

Well, I love Halo 3, but, I don't know...its just something between me and Halo 2. If TES V came out as a superb game, I would never be able to love it more than Oblivion, just like some people love MW a lot more than OB...

Just my opinion though...I guess I had more "fun" with 2.

The Tourist · Post by **The Tourist** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:42 pm

Good point, Ayoub, as for me Oblivion pales in comparison to Morrowind.

I was just surprised because 2 is generally considered to be the worst (level design, lack of focus on the MC, too guitary soundtrack; all issues seen to in numero 3). And is, after all, the one that took away the Assault Rifle from the Master Chief... everyone was glad to see it back in the final installment. Though the expansion on the Covenant theme was very well done.

Darn. Now I want to play some Halo..

Masser · Post by **Masser** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:25 am

The Tourist wrote:Hey, masser, I have to love you because of your Firefly sig, but mediocre? Have you played 3? For me, Half-Life 2 is my 'best game ever', it really is. But comparisons between the two series' are unfair because they're so very different.

The UNSC Marines also have genius dialogue (some voiced by Nathan Fillion who is Sergent 'Mal' and swears in Chinese, Alan Tudyk and even 'Jane' - who refers to his beloved assault rifle by name. Was it Vera? not certain). And the Theatre mode, by good sweet lordie the Theatre mode; was there ever a better feature in any game? It makes co-op even more of a joy.

Really? I didn't notice. Not to say Halo isn't fun, but it would have been better without all the hype. I just can't see it as as good as it was supposed to be, and that takes alot away from it. And it was Vera.

Sigurd · Post by **Sigurd** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:57 am

In my opinion, Halo 3 is the best game ever. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Oblivion, but I love Halo 3 more. Go ahead, disown me, but that's my opinion.

weka · Post by **weka** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:28 am

Sigurd wrote:I...Go ahead, disown me, but that's my opinion.

Don't tempt me!!

But I wouldn't really, I believe that Ob can be an "open" relationship!!

Masser · Post by **Masser** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:45 am

Sigurd wrote:In my opinion, Halo 3 is the best game ever. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Oblivion, but I love Halo 3 more. Go ahead, disown me, but that's my opinion.

You are disowned

.

The Tourist · Post by **The Tourist** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:02 am

Not to get too 'it's the best thing ever', but technically and by design I do believe Halo 3 to be a tighter game than Oblivion. The amount of playtesting right from the start of development that Bungie did - particularly on 3 - is astoundingly effective. If I was being really critical, cruel even. . .

- I'd say; Oblivion was released unfinished and needed patches and mods to finish it off. Halo 3 was finished the moment it shipped - and much of that was down to the testing.

If you like down-the-line action FPS's, then Halo's gameplay is probably the finest, smoothest engine out there, certainly on console. Whereas Oblivion just has so many fundamental drawbacks, (the technical issues made worse on 360), and its sheer breadth is also its greatest weakness (the lack of a guiding hand relative to the 'narrative' and even gameplay).

But then Oblivion could be the truest example of a Role-Player. And I couldn't put 200hrs into Halo 3 on Campaign (man would those 8hrs repeated get boring!).

weka · Post by **weka** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 6:56 am

The Tourist wrote:...If I was being really critical, cruel even. . . - I'd say; Oblivion was released unfinished and needed patches and mods to finish it off. Halo 3 was finished the moment it shipped - and much of that was down to the testing.....

But you answered yourself here really, in that it would seem (I've def never played it) that Halo3 is a fraction of the game that Ob is. It's the freedom of Ob that I love. I've never been good at doing what I'm told and games that just lead you down a set path just really don’t do it for me.

Raikarr · Post by **Raikarr** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:07 am

Halo 3 wasn't as good as Halo 2 which wasn't as good as Halo. Its Trilogy syndrome. It happens to movies, games, books, you name it. The only exception I know of is the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Daedra Prince · Post by **Daedra Prince** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:44 am

darthblaze99 wrote:HALO 3 FTW!!!! who cares about comp fps!! halo beat all others down!! halohalohalohalohalo

yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaw. time to go kill me some brutes!!

Masser · Post by **Masser** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:18 pm

"Throws a fishy stick to Daedra Prince" Great picture. I wonder if I could fit it into my avatar, if I could find a smaller picture. And Tourist, I think that for pure controls and shooter-ness, half life is the king. The humor and other stuff is unrelated to its controls, least in my opinion.

Ayoub · Post by **Ayoub** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:22 pm

Everyone knows MC doesn't have red blood...

Daedra Prince · Post by **Daedra Prince** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:28 pm

masser wrote:"Throws a fishy stick to Daedra Prince" Great picture. I wonder if I could fit it into my avatar, if I could find a smaller picture. And Tourist, I think that for pure controls and shooter-ness, half life is the king. The humor and other stuff is unrelated to its controls, least in my opinion.

"They're waiting for you Gordon... In the test chamber"

Still brings a chill to my spine.

Masser · Post by **Masser** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:12 pm

Other than TES, my favorite game of all time is Half Life 2. It is just perfect. The mystery with the G-Man starts to get a little annoying though. My comp isn't strong enough to run ep. 2, so I'm stuck with ep 1.

Ayoub · Post by **Ayoub** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:24 pm

You have inspired me to buy Orange Box. I hope you're happy.

Logius · Post by **Logius** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:41 pm

A similar thread came up just after Halo 3's release, but considering most folks who are posting here weren't around when that happened and if you did pull that old thread up to continue it you'd probably be accused of necro-posting, I'm not complaining that you created another thread.

I'll just say now what I said then: Halo 3 was a very pretty game, and I'm glad for the improvements they made throughout the series. My only real gripe is that there weren't more levels. Parts 1 & 2 held my interest mostly because the diversity and number of levels in the games. H3 consisted of mostly backtracking through a level you'd been in two or three times already. For a game that was supposed to be a conclusion to a great series, it should have had more levels to it.

Masser · Post by **Masser** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 6:58 pm

Ayoub wrote:You have inspired me to buy Orange Box. I hope you're happy.

Very. It really is the deal of the century.

The Tourist · Post by **The Tourist** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:22 pm

weka wrote: But you answered yourself here really, in that it would seem (I've def never played it) that Halo3 is a fraction of the game that Ob is. It's the freedom of Ob that I love. I've never been good at doing what I'm told and games that just lead you down a set path just really don’t do it for me.

I prefer games that ship without bugs, and without the need to say 'oh, sorry guys - come up with your own stuff and then we'll keep launching add-ons because we were too lazy or drunk to finish it when we were supposed to'.

I'm being VERY harsh just to make the point, tho. Halo 3 reprosents a properly dev'd title, like a story (which Ob didn't have) it has lulls, peaks, pacing. That's what I like in a proper hi-concept game.

At this point I'll say that I am an FPS nut - to me they're the purest form of modern gaming. But the 'FP' of the FPS is very important, and if Oblivion had been just 3rd person or (gulp... ) isometric or somesuch, I wouldn't play it have as much as I have done.

Logius; I'd rather Bungie concentrated on the six or eight levels it had, rather than spin it out for another three or four and lose that focus - AND put the luanch date back another year or so... and no one wanted that. But yes, ideally if I spend £45 on a game (I got the spec-edition) I'd want a little more than 8hrs gameplay. But the multiplayer, co-op, and the Theatre mode all give it a pretty much infinite lifespan.

masser ; How could I compare the engines and control systems of Halo 3 and Orange Box/Xbox1 H-L2 to a PC version of Half-Life 2? I'm comparing Bungie's engine to Valves on 360 - and Valve's, as adequate as it is, just isn't tight enough, or smooth enough for targetting and movement. Console pads need a modicum of 'sticky' auto-targetting to let the action flow, and Halo has it down to a fine art. Whereas games that don't work-in balanced sticky targetting (Deus Ex:IW, last-gen Ghost Recons) for console pads, the flow of movement and play is hindered.

To put it into perspective; for me, H-L2 (not Ep1 or Ep2; they didn't have Dr Breen in it.. ) is up there with my most favoured, finest created works, one of the very, very few videogames that can be put up there with the 'proper' arts - it is intelligent, immersive, exciting, moving, poignant, humane, and humorous. [for moi, the following are examples, not carved in stone] You've got Ok Computer, Red Beard/Akahige, a Caspar David Friedrich painting, and you've got Half-Life 2.

So I do love it - but Bungie's system was designed from the ground up for a gaming console, so it'd make sense it had a superior control flow than something which was designed for the office-bound mediocrity of mouse + keyboard...

Bruffmeister · Post by **Bruffmeister** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:25 pm

COD4 is the best FPS ever I mean its just awesome

.

The Tourist · Post by **The Tourist** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:31 pm

Natch.. forgot to mention COD4. Correct, at least its multiplayer wipes the floor with Halo's, and the sprint function is a godsend. But its single-player is too loud and messy to be up there with the Half-Life's and Halo's.