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First Impressions of Halo 3
1up and EGM have had some time in the last month with the next iteration of Microsoft's Halo series. Several folks at the site have put up their impressions of the current build of the game, including some multiplayer feelings from EGM editor-in-chief Dan Hsu, a bunch of nice crunchy details from Mark Macdonald, a nostalgia-laiden look at the game from Luke Smith, and a potpourri of details from Crispin Boyer. From Luke's writeup: "Maybe it was the first shooter I played that had some substance? Maybe it was that my best friend bought me a copy of the game for my birthday and I didn't even have the console yet. Maybe it was all of the traveling to play in Halo tournaments on weekends in college, but somewhere between Halo: Combat Evolved's release and now, Halo became my Mario. It is the game that made me care about video games like I did when I was 10."
"Maybe it was the first shooter I played that had some substance"
Some how the above quote makes me think he's a fanboy and not someone we should be listening to. FPS games have substance before halo and if anything lost a lot of it's substance in the Halo generation.
I like muppets.
At least that'll be the case if you buy the super-dooper collector's edition of Halo 3. Granted, the internet isn't a 100% reliable source of information but apparetly the replica helmet you get with this edition will be cat-sized. So presumably we can look forward to Halo 3 hitting the news with reports of cat owners having to take their sweltering animals to the vets after cramming the helmets onto their moggy heads and being unable to get them off again.
Than most console FPSs. For starters I was only into computer gaming until I got a playstation, then I had a fall out of gaming altogether. I bought PS2 at launch, bought GTA3 and all that, but it just never stuck with me. Then I got a taste of Halo at a friends and it was over from there. It turned into my new mario or zelda. Halo 3 is the one true game that I'm looking forward to and I think whatever bungie does following halo will be at the same caliber and possibly better.
How is halo the 360 "Savior?" The system is doing okay, it has decent line up for when the PS3 hits, It is going to do better than last time.
You mad
You know, I liked Golden eye and PD as much as the next guy. For gods sake though, why can't we move on. Golden Eye was good, but it is not the ultimate FPS, I enjoyed jet force gemini way more than Golden eye, for both single and MP, limited as it was.
Halo was fun, it was fluid and it was a good time at a party. The story was good for an FPS and it has a fairly well thought out plot. It Did have substance, so does HL, SS, SS2,Deus Ex, so do enumerable games in the genre. Why the hell do we have to act like a bunch of music snobs who sit around discussing what music/band/sound/bs is better instead of just going out and enjoying every bit of it that we like, why do we have to shove our opinions about what game is the "ultimate" experience.
Hell why an old PC? all of those run fine on my current one?
You mad
You obviously havnt played Half Life 2 or if you have seem to be confusing it with something else.
Finding various scientists and assauling a tower?
The game spans roughly 14 chapters, ranging from fighting in a zombie invested rebel township to running through giant insect infected beaches.
In no part of the game do you have to find 'various scientists'. I believe what you may be refering to is the section of the game where you have to drive through City 17's sewers and water ways in order to meet Eli Vance after a failed teleportation. You could make the argument that this section is an unneccesary, and a waste of time, or that it is a interesting section of gameplay that helps immerse the player in the artistic universe of the game. Either way, that section is only an hour tops if you are exceptionally slow, and so refering to this as "all it was" is just misleading.
How can you say "I found that to be the worst FPS (single-player wise)"? Half Life 2 was one of the most critically acclaimed single player games of all time (for the PC), if you take the time to read www.metacritic.com you will find little to no mention of the multiplayer aspect.
As for only a level to play around with the gravity gun. A) you have the gravity gun for about half the game. B) The game is not split into levels put chapters, i can only assume you are talking about the brief 5 minute section you first get the gravity gun. If all you could find from 15+ hours of gaming was "finding various scientists, then assaulting a tower. Oh, and a level to play around with the Gravity gun" then i suggest you need to replay the game in order to make a better assesment.
What you are saying is baseless waffle, however, the post you are replying to that was labelled "trolling" has some grounding in fact, namely, based from current previews Halo 3 looks extremely similar to the previous games with a few new weapons and 1 new vehicle. The argument that we should withheld judgement as this is in the early stages is irrelevent and senseless, as if people were saying "It looks AWESOME!" no one would be saying wait till the finished product comes out. That is the point of a preview, you comment on the available information.
Half Life 2 may have some flaws, but if you are going to criticize it at least make it relevant to the game, not just spray whatever you can remember from screenshots.
Small and tight vs. large and open. I don't really see why you're making this comparison. What gameplay is Gears of War sacrificing? Are they not laying out a map and then adjusting the detail to suit as always? If some comparison has to be made between the companies, I think Halo 3 vs. UT2007 would make more sense since that's sure to have some larger open environments for Onslaught and such. Gears is tight by design, not because it's encumbered by flashy graphics. The company can, and does, approach both kinds of gameplay. Gears has dynamic loading so just because what's onscreen won't be huge open fields, but (imho) satisfying mid-sized 'arenas', it doesn't mean the maps are small overall (and therefore not immersive?).
That said, I fully expect Halo 3 to take Halo 2 to the next level and give us all more Halo goodness. I expect to see both of these blockbuster titles to be very good at what they do.
Halo is the best he could come up with?
No: Medal of Honor series (started the whole WW2 game being popular), FEAR, SOCOM, Ghost Recon series (cept for #2), Splinter Cell series, Max Payne(s), Half-life, countless others, etc???