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Halo 3 Beta Impressions
Yesterday in New York City Microsoft held an invite-only preview of the Halo 3 Beta, and passed out early Beta keys to a group of game journalists. The result is a barrage of coverage about this most-anticipated title. Notable features beyond basic previews include Dan Hsu's take on the game, Dean Takahashi's 'I got my butt kicked' perspective, the San Jose Merc's interview with Bungie Community Lead Brian Jarrad, CVG's hosting of the official Beta Movie, and Joystiq's interview with Frank O'Connor, Bungie's writing lead. From the 1up preview: "It's unmistakably Halo gameplay, despite the rearranged controls (which feel natural after 10 minutes), and all of the additions fit perfectly into the multiplayer universe we've come to love. The interface has been overhauled and is even easier to use, and you now have such niceties as being able to change your control layout at any point on any screen. While the visuals are rich and beautiful, it's the audio that's really impressed us so far. The rumbling throttle of unleashing dual SMGs makes them feel incredibly powerful, and the Spartan Laser tearing past your head is as scary as you'd imagine. Audio cues are more important than ever, and the better your sound system the more next-gen this will feel." More coverage below.
Halo3 three will include a variety of "Chair Weapons":
* A Wooden Chair in which you can break and stab and lacerate people
* A Ikea Chair in which the recipient simply throws the left over peices at any attacker
* An Executive Leather Chair in which the attacker simply places their opponent in the chair and spins it, until the opponent passes out.
* And the classic "Operator Chair" which is simply picked up and thrown.
The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. - HGTTG
Now, instead of hearing 12 year olds scream in joy when they frag me, I will here their shrill wails in 5.1
Oh joyous day.
The Halo 3 beta will be running with mostly Halo 2 assets, at least at first. Saves download bandwidth.
I sure hope they release some larger textures to at least test the engine with later, though.
You know, I'm really sick of this particular criticism of console FPS games. The game was designed around a controller. It plays perfectly fine with it. Everyone else playing is using the same input device, there is no need for a keyboard / mouse. Remember the first time you ever used a keyboard / mouse to play an FPS? I'll bet it didn't seem intuitive at all, but with practice you got used to it, and then, proficient with it. Console FPS' are the same way now. Once you've sat down and played a while you don't even think about it. Lately I've been playing a lot of FPS titles on my 360 (Battlefield 2: MC, Call of Duty 2 / 3, Halo 2) and I don't even notice the controller.
PC gamers really, really need to stop this particular line of eliteism. A gamer is a gamer whether or not he is playing HL2 on a PC or Bioshock on his Xbox 360.
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
But I have played Gears of War. Quite a bit, it's almost my favorite game now. How does Halo compare to Gears?
It is a beta after all. If you criticize things to try to make it better you will never be banned. If you bash and criticize to troll the other players then I would hope pretty quick.
If you play Halo and the only thing you can say the whole time is "this game sucks" then why play? There are so many other great games why waste your time?
Swi
Don't forget RE4. On the PC it just wouldn't play half as well as on the Cube. The game was designed for the controller and it's done to near perfection when the PC port is ment to be terrible to the point of unplayable.
For the sake of questioning your logic. Is someone playing solitaire a gamer or not? Because your logic seems to imply -any- game playing makes you a gamer. Where as IMO a gamer is someone who invests some time in games and is involved in the future. The same way anyone can spend time on a PC, but most -real- geeks invest a massive amount of time in the community and on their PCs (which is usually the same thing in effect).
I like muppets.
It's just the new Goldeneye. As with the old one, it sold a lot on consoles and PC users didn't understand. A lot of people just don't play PC games and aren't exposed to FPSes, so when one comes along on consoles it's interesting. Look at PCs, circa 1993-95 they were coming out the wazoo and everything was exciting. People actually cared about games like Ken's Labyrinth. Same thing here except in the context of consoles. Still, hopefully the consoles will still have some original games and it won't be all 99% FPS/RTS/CRPG like on PC... which, incidentally, is why consoles are seeing a surge in popularity and PC gaming is declining nowadays.
Even with the facts behind you, you do not account for the "Frat Boy" market. Halo 3 will be a smash hit on name recognition alone.
You know I agree with some of what you're saying. I was originally going to post something similar but figured the GP would get modded flamebait (which he should have been modded). But since you opened the discussion...
I'm a gamer that does both PC and console. I really hate this stupid debate. PC gamers should just stfu and play with their mouse and keyboard and console players should do the same and play with their thumb sticks. Halo was designed for the console* and so were the controls. However, to say both control schemes are equal is wrong. I know I'm much better with a mouse and keyboard and I know why. Since you can't exactly pick up the thumb stick and put it back in the middle when it goes over the edge its input is considerably different than a mouse. When you move a thumb stick to the far right your character spins around until you let go and the stick auto-centers itself. If you put your mouse on the right edge of your mouse pad then you look to the right a bit and that's that. You know how PC games usually have a key binding to turn left and right (yaw)? Well imagine if they added two more to look up and down (pitch). This is the control scheme that a console controller achieves**. Now notice how few PC gamers use these key bindings.
What I seem to notice on console*** is that people put their crosshair in a particular place and then use their left thumb stick to align the shot with the enemy player and only make minor adjustments with their right thumb stick. On PC I most certainly wouldn't do this. When it comes to close quarter combat it gets a lot more difficult to control as the accuracy just isn't there. As I said earlier I doubt any PC gamer would use four separate keys to control pitch and yaw. I also notice that most PC gamers tend to be at least casual console players while the reverse usually isn't true. I'd go deeper into the subject but I think you get the point.
You're free to disagree of course but that's how I see it. Both control schemes have pros and cons. For instance I hate picking my mouse up or what usually happens is it runs into my keyboard or computer case since my desk is small. That means I miss a kill or die or both. I also don't like playing ROMs on the PC that much, the controller was always better for those games. The playing field is not even and both PC and console gamers just need to accept that.
* Technically it was designed for the PC and Mac but I guess that's a bit too technical.
** Almost achieves anyway. Console controllers have to have active resistance on the thumb sticks so they auto-center which takes more getting used to.
*** I don't know any Halo gods so my observation may be wrong in the higher tiers of Halo gameplay.
No, we really, really do NOT need to stop explaining why it's impossible to play an FPS with a console controller.
Well that's just flat out wrong. This story is about people playing Halo. They were doing it with console controllers. Halo is an FPS. There for, playing an FPS on a controller is clearly possible. You might think a keyboard and mouse is better, that hardly means that using a controller is impossible.
Now lots of people play FPSs on consoles, and they seem to be enjoying themselves, so I don't think theres anything wrong with using a controller. I do think using a keyboard and mouse is better, if by better we mean provides faster response times. In any multiplayer game, where half the players were using K/M and half controllers, the K/M guys would win every time, all other things being equal.
On the other hand, I think controllers have some advantages over K/M. My consoles are all in my living room, and I play games sitting on my couch. I don't have a desk in front of my TV, so there's nowhere to put a K/M. Try balancing a keyboard on your lap and running you mouse on the cushion next to you. Comfortable? Thought not. I also prefer a thumbstick to WASD.
But really, why does it matter? As the OP said, why do we have to keep having this stupid argument? You like the K/M, dislike the controller. OP likes controllers. I'm happy with either. Why does each side feel the need to not only say "I like x" but to also insist "because y is inferior"? I feel like I'm back in the playground arguing about C64s and Spectrums.
Which you obviously do not know, because *you* *are* *not* *a* *gamer*. Deal with it.
AH, so you are the final arbiter of who is and isn't a gamer? Wow. Am I a gamer? I've been playing video games for twenty years, but I like some console FPSs, so I might fail your test. Perhaps you mean he isn't a PC gamer? Are PC gamers the one true gamer clan, to whom all others are inferior? Are those who are unwilling or unable to drop stupid amounts of cash on new graphics cards and processors supposed to keep quiet and never offer an opinion? Should they just kneel in supplication and reverence before their PC gaming overlords?
if you dislike us so much, as you say, then why the hell do you strive to be just like us?
I'm not even sure what this means? Where exactly did he say he was trying to be like you?
Oh, just FYI, the first time I played Doom, I used a joypad (yes PAD! not even a joystick), because I hated the keyboard and mouse so much. It was a lot easier back then, since there was no looking up or down. I didn't start using the K/M till quake came out.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
...When Epic already did it for them?
Horns are really just a broken halo.
Here are two screenshots, one from Halo 2, one from Halo 3:6 .jpg. jpg
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1353/117891277
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/472/1085785669
It certainly looks like they've improved the graphics since H2.
More environmental detail, less blocky characters, more vibrant colours.
So I guess the complainers must have seen an overcompressed YouTube
variant only.
Okay... look at this halo 3 gameplay trailer : http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=19430&ty pe=wmv and tell me why the hell the player is unable to hit most targets that are a couple of meters away and only slowly moving? At one point he even shoots around in confusion because he can't track the enemy at a sufficient speed. I realise the game has been designed with this in mind (e.g. missing a lot, forgiving collision detection, wide area weapons) but it just takes the point away from fps. The nice thing about keyboard/mouse control is the smoothness with which the two devices combine their motion (other than the curled up fingers and the resulting pain from the wsad keys... a technical hurdle that could easily be solved with a special device for your keyboard hand sporting a couple of buttons and an intuitive direction control). Take a look at some counterstrike demos and appreciate the difference.
TFC? Ha! The original TeamFortress (the Quake mod, not the Half-Life mod) had two buttons for grenades, as each class had two grenade types. Kids these days, thinking TFC was the origin of TeamFortress. The 'C' stands for "Classic" for a reason, you know.
Call of Duty (2003) was two years after Halo 1 (2001). I have no idea what Iron Grip is. As best I can tell, it's a mod for Half-Life 2 which automatically puts it after the launch of Halo 1. Other games had melee (Quake, Doom, Half-Life), but you had to switch weapons rather than just hit a button to attack.
True, but most older games tended towards checkpoints too far apart, and requiring user intervention to actually save (if you aren't paying attention, tough crap. It's another two hours to the next save point). Halo made it automatic.
I'm surprised the original poster didn't point out probably the biggest innovation in Halo 1 that has been copied over and over since -- regenerating shields. Without your shields, 1-2 shots will kill you, so you shields are essentially the same thing as health in Doom, Quake, Half-Life, etc. The difference is that rather than having to hunt around for pickups to regenerate, you just have to hide. Totally changes the dynamic for multiplayer games, because it forces you into tactical situations. Previously, you'd think, "I'm low on health and there's no way I'll find enough to keep me alive for a few more kills. Therefore, I'll just rush the next guy I see in order to do some damage before I'm taken out." Halo changed that to, "Do I hide and regen my armor, or do I attack and prevent my enemy from regenerating his armor?"
Actually if you read the interviews linked the guys from Bungie said no assets were used from previous games (certainly not Halo 2). Not even the maps/story were used from previous games (even the butchered stuff from the end of Halo 2).
It wouldn't have made much sense to use the previous assets anyway. They're going from 480p to 1080i. You think blurry textures on a 50" HDTV running at 1080i would be acceptable?
I know your trolling, but I'd just like to point out these fun facts:
r -hit-4-million-244018.php
M an#Critical_Reception
o n
3 Million PS3s sold -- not copies of Resistance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3
3 to 4 million copies of Gears of War sold
http://kotaku.com/gaming/neogaf/rumor-gears-of-wa
I haven't played it, but apparently Resistance is a good game which was well received:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance:_Fall_of_
Unfortunately for your argument, Gears was much moreso:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War#Recepti
http://brandonbloom.name
The deal with Halo is that playing Halo with 4 friends is pretty easy (all you need are 4 controllers), and it's a lot easier to have a 16-person Halo party than to have a 16-person LAN party. While $PC_FPS_OF_CHOICE has better graphics and possibly better controls (people can fight K/M vs. controller all day if they want), it's so much more fun to blast the guy sitting next to you than a guy over the network.
The thing that a lot of hardcore gamers don't realize is that casual gamers like "party games". I can play Halo with my friend/apartmentmate/whoever, but I can't play Doom or Counterstrike with them right next to me.
Here's a question: How much time have you spent playing FPS's on a PC? I'm willing to bet it's more than a few hours. So if you've been playing CS for the past 6 years, do you really think it's legit to compare that to a couple hours with a controller? Seriously?
Halo did to FPS what WoW did to MMO's. It took what everyone else did, polished it, simplified it, and brought it to the masses.