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MIT Hacks Harvard For Halo, Game Prompts Lots of Sick Days
yonari writes "Early on the morning before the Halo 3 release, John Harvard donned a Mjolnir helmet and a beaver emblem, and carried an assault rifle on his left shoulder, apparently acquired from the UNSC Engineering Division." The Washington Post also points out that a lot of folks took sick days on Tuesday as a consequence of the game's release. "Some local workers won't have to skip out on the office to play the game. At some companies that offer video games as a break room activity, Halo 3 was pre-ordered months ago. The Motley Fool, the Alexandria investment advisory firm, is expecting its copy of the game to arrive from Amazon.com soon. Same for Platinum Solutions, a Reston software consulting firm."
Couple of my friends at work skipped work yesterday to play all day. Then came in for about six hours today and stood around and talked about it for five of those hours. Too bad there's a horrible support issue I have to deal with right now, I was still at work Monday night when it was released, and I'm still at work now when I'm supposed to be playing at a friend's house. Oh, woe is me and horrible timing.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
So, how many people are going to misread this that MIT hacked Harvard College (which is just across Cambridge) to get a copy of the game (which may or may not be legal)?
I am all for creative titles to create interest, and I know the pranks are called hacks, but this one is just a little too misleading.
Now MIT hacking an illegal share at Harvard (which is of course exempt from RIAA lawsuits [and therefore I assume game and MPAA by association], according to recent articles here, so they can get away with it...) in order to get the game early - THAT would be good reading. And maybe be counted as extra credit in a class.
It's called Halotosis.
Those with bad breath have halitosis halotosis, and this is characterized by a lack of people willing to play multiplay on the same Xbox.
of hacking at MIT.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
Wait, what? Doom's story is exactly this: "A gate to hell opens on Mars and demons appear. Kill them". And Halo's story: "Humans are at war against the Covenant, a conglomeration of several alien races following a religious prophecy that requires them to activate and fire the different halos spread around the galaxy/universe. Firing those halos will kill all sentient life in the galaxy, but they don't know it. The installations were setup by the Forerunners to destroy the Flood, a parasitic alien race that consumes all life forms. You are Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117, and you're thrown into the mix." Depending on the game, either you're trying to get off of a halo installation after crash landing and in the process learn about the Flood and what the halo installations do (Halo 1), stopping the Covenant from activating the rest of the installations and destroying all life in the galaxy while finding out why the Covenant are fighting the humans (Forerunner technology on Earth that can activate all of the halo installations) and at the same time converting a portion of the Covenant (the Elites) to the humans' side (Halo 2), or finishing that fight (Halo 3 -- Halo 2 stopped halfway through). Sure sounds the same as "kill the demons from hell, on Mars" to me.
Say what you will about the graphics, physics, multiplayer, fanboys, or whatever else, but I don't think anybody familiar with Bungie's work can say that they don't write a compelling and interesting story with a rich history and fully-populated world. See Marathon, for example.
Putting aside the misleading title, and the lack of understanding of why people wait for hours in line at midnight to get the first copy (I picked mine up like a normal human the day after at best buy, I'm a fan, not psychotic). That's just awsome. Very realistic looking, blending in and looking like was part of the statue. That had to take a lot of effort and coordination. Nicely done!
There's one main reason, and that's multiplayer. You get used to the physics in time, and once that's over with, you're left with a multiplayer game where there's always people willing to play, with fairly good balance, a diverse variety of tactically interesting situations, some of which are unique to the series, and a pace that is considerably less intense (hence, to some, more enjoyable) than its PC counterparts. A well-produced piece of pulp sci-fi fluff rounds out a competent single-player campaign that does a good job of showing off the sorts of mechanics that become significant in multiplayer.
I don't like it myself, but that's mainly because it's impossible to play it without being called a faggot by a nine-year-old, not because of any particular flaw in the game's design.
...but is it art?
First off you're missing that Halo doesn't take place on Mars, and doesn't consist of teleporter accidents that cause demons to appear on Mars. The graphics compared to other games of the time, where decent enough, although dark scenes where used WAY too much to hide the lack of detail. The physics engine was very decent in 2, compared to others of the time and even today, sure it didn't have the grav-gun of HL:2 but it was satisfactory.
My question is what FPS are you comparing it to? Because there aren't very many that top the original Halo on my list; Perfect Dark, UT GOTY, and that's about it. Story play usually isn't what sells FPS games, it's replay value, and specifically multiplayer value, which Halo excels in, especially with a 4 system link.
If i had one dollar for every brain you dont have, i would have $1.
You're assuming console players don't also play PC games. Maybe I'm unique, but I don't think so. Prior to playing Halo, I played plenty of FPS games on PC, from Wolf3d to Quake 3 (around the time of Halo 1's launch) and everything in between. I've backed off a lot on PC gaming since, but I've played a few more recent PC games (Far Cry, for example). What's to like about Halo?
- Unique (at the time) gameplay mechanics
- Shields that recharge if you take a break from the action, which lets you focus on tactics rather than finding health and armor pickups. Pretty much everybody's copied this mechanic now, but Halo did it first. (I'm sure you can dig up some obscure title that actually did it first, but Halo was the first popular game to use this approach)
- The ability to carry only two weapons at a time (plus grenades), so you had to think about what to bring since you couldn't keep your entire arsenal in a belt pocket. Do you pickup the sniper rifle and rocket launcher, leaving yourself open to close attacks? Or do you grab a shotgun and assault rifle, leaving yourself vulnerable to vehicles? That mechanic allowed for some interesting scenarios.
- Grenades thrown via a separate button. To be fair, TF1 did this first, but Halo did it better.
- Well-implemented and -integrated vehicular combat.
- A compelling and interesting story. Half-life did that first, but the story is different from Half-life. It's okay to like both.
- A fun console experience. Relaxing on a couch in front of a 50" HDTV with a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup beats being hunched over a keyboard and mouse in front of a 20" monitor with 2-channel stereo any day
- A great multiplayer experience. Halo 1 allowed you to network consoles together and play with your friends locally. Halo 2 finally took that experience online. Of course PC games have done this before, and better (though Halo 2/3's party system and hopper matching mechanism is one of the best out there), but when you put this together with the last point (couch, HDTV, surround sound) it is very compelling.
- Did I mention an excellent story? Bungie are masters of storytelling
- A great musical score. Marty O'Donnell is a musical genius
I totally understand that Halo, or FPS games on consoles in general, may not be to some people's tastes. That's fine, we all have our opinions. I'm just listing some reasons why I enjoy Halo.Halo involves two factions struggling over a titanic artifact that turns out to be a weapon of massive(possibly universal) destruction, a mutual threat that subsumes all life it contacts that said weapon is intended to defeat. It contains, you know, /dialog/. Recurring characters. Occasional surprising things. I can understand not thinking it's the bees knees, because the gameplay in the first two was pretty repetative in spurts(fight through identical corridor the eightieth-- ooh, look, more guys with bubble shields), but come on-- credit where credit's due here.
I've seen a few hundred "Can somebody please explain the appeal of blank" posts and usually just dismiss them as flaimbait. In fact, the "worst than Wolf3D" jab basically guarentees you are trolling. But since I am one of the people who picked up Halo3 on launch day I figure I may as well try to explain the appeal of it, for the benefit of anyone else reading if not you.
First, the Halo universe does have some depth to it. If you think Halo 2 had the same story as doom then you probably weren't paying attention. It would take too long to explain the story in depth, but I'm sure it's all on wikipedia anyway. Certainly I don't find the Halo games as engrossing as some of the great PC games (thinking of Halflife, Deux Ex, System Shock, and most recently Bioshock) but I would definately say it's above average. At the very least the story is not a negative point. Halo 3 in particular ties up nicely the plot of the first two games.
Secondly the gameplay: I am definately a keyboard/mouse kinda guy. I think a console controller is far inferior. That said, the Halo games basically set the standard for how FPS's should be played on consoles. In this sense the original Halo stands among games like Mario64 and Goldeneye for having great control schemes (for the time). Certainly a keyboard/mouse would be better, but I don't want to use those while sitting on my couch. For the equipment it has, the Halo games have as good control as you could ask for.
Moreover even after having played just about every fps I can think of on PC, I have never found a game that had vehicles that were as fun to drive as in Halo. Halflife 2 came close, and other games may have more realistic vehicle control, but the vehicles in the Halo series are just FUN. However Bungi accomplished that, they did it damn well.
Third the graphics. I freely conceed that Halo 2 had shitacular graphics compared to computer games of the same time. After all Halflife 2 was released at the same time and was far prettier on a high-end (for the time) PC. However Halo 2 did have some of the best graphics for the xbox at the time, and for that console generation on the whole (off the top of my head I can only think of RE4 on the GC having undeniably superior graphics) For Halo 3 that is much less of an issue - the graphics are great. They aren't as gritty as Gears of War or as atmospheric as Bioshock, but they are not meant to be. They're rich, colorful and detailed, and the draw distance is impressive.
Finally I will end with the main point of Halo - MULTIPLAYER. Completely disregarding the story, the graphics, or the lack of mouse control, you still have one of the funnest multiplayer games around. Sitting in front of a big tv and playing with a few friends is an experience that cannot easily be matched on the PC, and is definately not matched by any other console game. It's like a Counterstrike LAN party but you don't have to lug a computer all over the place. In a word: awesome.
God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?
Well, first thing's first. Here we're discussing Halo 3, which the astute reader may notice is not Halo 2. Nigel's Law says that Halo 3 is one better.
Second, have you played the game? I never got the chance to play the demo, and I haven't been able to play the full game yet either because the roomie's completely addicted and has parked his ass in front of my TV for the past 24 hours, but I've heard that most people who've played either one fell in love with this iteration of the series. My roomate is a case in point - he hated the first one, hated the second one even more, and loves this one enough to buy a 360 for it. It's a little more interesting graphically than the other two, and the gameplay looks pretty damn good to me - a good balance between speed and tactics, though probably a little heavier on the tactics.
Your brain is not a computer.
I hide in my apartment for a month, because I can't stand everyone telling me one thousand reasons why I should like it on a daily basis, and then receiving their ridicule when I reveal I don't particularly care for it.
I hate Master Chief as much as I hate Santa Claus. And Jesus.
I really liked Halo 1. Can remember many of the levels very well, played it through a bunch of times and played multiplayer with friends locally many, many times.
I also liked Halo 2. Story wasn't perfect, but some decent settings and some new things (dual-wielding, etc) that really added to the game. Have played it through a few times, played absolutely shitloads of games locally with friends and a few hundred games on Live which I got this year. I like some of the multiplayer maps (e.g., Lockout) so much that it would concern my girlfriend if she knew.
I got Halo 3 on the day it launched and have started playing the campaign. We had a few people playing online to test out the multiplayer on opening night and it was pretty decent - no less fun than Halo 2. A few "This isn't like Lockout?!" complaints, but we all gradually came around due to some hilarity with the Gravity Hammer, bubble shield, flares, etc. One friend has bought a 360 today so he can get in on the action.
The graphics aren't the best shown by a FPS, no, but are very, very good. The map designs, IMO, are up there with say Half-Life 2 which I was really impressed by - terrain, lighting, everything looks excellent. The characters are great, though not quite Gears of War (in which the characters were awesome). The atmosphere is fun. Everything comes together really well - the fluidity is far superior to other FPSs IMO - everything is to scale as opposed to some of those FPS where you feel too close to the ground, or you don't seem to jump more than 15cm. The audio is really good. Grunts saying stuff about how they're going to work together to kill you, or marines complaining about you stealing their kill (as in the previous versions) are good fun.
As a product, the value for money for someone like me and many others is exceptional - I'll play through the campaign a few times solo, maybe a couple of times co-op. Then I'll play with friends locally or on Live once every week or so. Then a few hundred games on Live in match-making. Plus muck around with Forge, and try out the Theater mode which is really interesting.
I'd be interested to see an honest breakdown of Halo-haters into categories:
- an Xbox vs PS thing
- tied to Microsoft
- console vs PC
- mouse/kb vs controller sticks
- simply didn't like it
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
personally i think halo is a cool series but people are just so into it it is crazy. People lining up at midnight and playing it all night is just a little bit over the edge for me even though that will probably happen to me when sc2 comes out. I think it is cool but don't think it is groundbreaking on any level. It was intended to be a cool FPS and it was the best xbox game made and probably generated the most money. Especially on live people are jerks when they play, its not everyone but a lot of people take to seriously and i'm glad it finally came out cause for the last 3 days all i have heard non-stop is people talking about halo. The game is cool but nothing amazing personally i think bioshock was cooler because it had the lightning and the cool textures. Halo has an ok enviornment but bioshock brought it to whole new level.
Even if I cared about Halo enough to take a day off, my 360 is on the fritz. It sounds like a bad bearing in one of the fans, and death rattle aside, I have a feeling it would overheat within minutes if I even tried to play anything. One more month until GH3.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Love your sig.
Actually, being a mouse/keyboard guy myself, I think the metroid prime series is the best approximation of FPS on console (and I haven't yet played 3, which is supposed to be by far the best). Have you played MP 3? I'm just curious as I haven't heard anyone compare the three control schemes (mouse/keyboard, dual analogue, Wiimote)?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Well met. Thanks for the complement about my sig.
;)
Actually I have played a fair bit of MP3 on a friends wii and thought it was great. I plan to pick up a wii around christmas when the new smash bros comes out and I will definitely be picking up MP3.
I'm a big fan of the first two metroid primes as well. From what I played, the 3rd controlled wonderfully. It was a bit different - I'd say it's more intuitive than a controller by far, but still not quite up to keyboard/mouse. That may just be because I have the most experience with keyboard/mouse though. What I can definitely say for sure is that the wiimote is easier to get used to than a gamepad-style controller; the learning curve for the wiimote is definitely simpler.
Whether the wiimote is better than a mouse for a fps I cannot say; my experience over the last 2 decades makes me a bit too biased towards the mouse
God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I taking as many sick days here at RIT as I possibly can.
Two things:
First: I say "not paying attention" to mean neglecting doing something that someone should be doing (namely being cognizant of what's going on) not failing to do something that requires effort. In this sense I meant to say that anyone thinking that Halo 2 and Doom have the same story must be being willfully ignorant - not that they are failing to notice some nuanced plot point.
Two: I would bet good money that there are MORE cut scenes in the MGS games than in the Halo games used to explain the story. I don't see that as a bad thing - I think the MGS games are amazing and I own them all (even Twin Snakes). But using MGS as an example of a game that does not "cram (the story) in the middle of the game slowing things down" is a very poor choice; IMO some of the cutscenes in the MGS games rival those of Xenosaga! (Seeing metal gear ray and revolver ocelot for the first time in MGS2 comes to mind.)
God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?
I still don't get what makes Halo so spectacular. I'm being dead serious. Every post tells how a different part of the game is unusually great, and mostly acknowledge the rest as decent/moderately good. I'll buy that it's an overall good game, but I really don't see why it's worthy of all this hype.
I've observed that most explanations come in one of these two forms.
They acknowledge the story was moderately good, but the multiplayer is what REALLY sets it apart from the rest, and the graphics are so-so.
Thats tough for many PC gamers to swallow. Dual wield and sticky grenades are neat, but I'm sorry, Tribes stomped it. These posts must come from players with very little multiplayer PC game experience. I'd even rank the original Team Fortress as better multiplayer than any Halo. Savage too. Halo is just a fun, _simple_ deathmatch / ctf game. It has basic multiplayer FPS elements, with the exception of a few vehicles, and the shield thing that could make one-on-one duels last longer than in most games of the genre. Those elements were not unique to Halo, see Tribes.
The other form exclaims Halo's AWESOME story, but admits it wasn't a very pretty game. I think these types of posts come from people at lest somewhat experienced with PC games. They think that having any background story at all, especially the decent one Halo apparently has, puts it a notch above most popular PC FPS titles. If they have anything good to say about the multiplayer, it's unclear if they ever ventured past the weak deathmatch modes offered by popular PC single/multi player FPS games. I agree, Halo is better than most cobbled together DM/CTF PC counterparts, but it stops there.
In conclusion, Halo seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator of FPS gamer through several different means, thus it garners a very wide audience that favors it for wildly different reasons. This would explain the greatly differing opinions on it's greatness. However, unless some solid evidence is given to explain why Halo is truly unique and worthy of all the hype it's getting, I'm putting it right up there with the likes of popular boy bands of the 90's and Britney Spears. Popular, not Great.
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Go ahead, mod this flamebait; I bet you can't do it without a guilty conscience though.
The overwhelming majority of people do not buy games because they want to experience a story. They buy games because they want to play the game, whether it is hijacking cars and shooting cops or throwing touchdown passes, it's about escaping your reality and doing something you can't otherwise do. No matter how good the story telling may be, most people will see it as nothing but an excuse for (or even interruption of) killing things. You can play through Half-Life 2 and not care or notice much about the story. You can do the same for just about anything else out there. If you chose not to make yourself aware of the story in Halo, then you should blame yourself, not the game.
Hell, you even said that the story should've been crammed in the front of the manual, "not crammed in the middle of the game slowing things down." Sounds to me like you think the story got in the way of killing.
The problem is you are living in a dorm expecting to go to sleep at 1am...
Shields that recharge if you take a break from the action, which lets you focus on tactics rather than finding health and armor pickups. Pretty much everybody's copied this mechanic now, but Halo did it first. (I'm sure you can dig up some obscure title that actually did it first, but Halo was the first popular game to use this approach)
What gameplay value do the the shields really provide? Longer one-on-one fights, more defensive play? Is it any different than what was provided with Tribes's free movement and health packs? We even had shields...
I wish I could find a fan of both Tribes and Halo to discuss this with. I know, apparently they're mutually exclusive. Damn, you all missed out.
The ability to carry only two weapons at a time (plus grenades), so you had to think about what to bring since you couldn't keep your entire arsenal in a belt pocket. Do you pickup the sniper rifle and rocket launcher, leaving yourself open to close attacks? Or do you grab a shotgun and assault rifle, leaving yourself vulnerable to vehicles? That mechanic allowed for some interesting scenarios.
*cough* Tribes *cough, cough*
Grenades thrown via a separate button. To be fair, TF1 did this first, but Halo did it better.
Well-implemented and -integrated vehicular combat.
Tribes again, and Tribes 2 *note: Tribes 2, with land vehicles, came out the same year as Halo 1, the original Tribes predating it by three years*
BTW: Who doesn't miss grenade timing in TF? (yes, the Quake one)
A compelling and interesting story. Half-life did that first, but the story is different from Half-life. It's okay to like both.
Wait, what the... ok, we're talking about the single player experience now.
Good story, are you saying it's comparable in quality to Half-life's?
Noted.
A fun console experience. Relaxing on a couch in front of a 50" HDTV with a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup beats being hunched over a keyboard and mouse in front of a 20" monitor with 2-channel stereo any day
I can't argue with that at all. Obviously this isn't unique to Halo, unless it's just the best game you've got on your system.
A great multiplayer experience. Halo 1 allowed you to network consoles together and play with your friends locally. Halo 2 finally took that experience online. Of course PC games have done this before, and better (though Halo 2/3's party system and hopper matching mechanism is one of the best out there), but when you put this together with the last point (couch, HDTV, surround sound) it is very compelling.
You have to be mistaken, you couldn't play Halo 1 online? Holy crap, are you serious? I couldn't believe you. I had to look that up, I couldn't remember. Why was this game hyped THEN?
You just made the logistics of networking XBoxen and their associated TV's sound way, way, way too easy.
So now, it all comes down to Live's party and matching system? What in the (excuse me, I'm getting very tired at this point) HELL is wrong with dedicated servers? I agree only with your last point regarding the couch, but again, that's not unique to Halo unless... duh duh dahhhhhh...
Did I mention an excellent story? Bungie are masters of storytelling
A great musical score. Marty O'Donnell is a musical genius
@-'-,->---
Sorry If I got too personal, or offended you in any way, but all
As a Halo-hater, I consider myself to be in three out of four of your categories. I think the 'console vs. PC' and 'mouse/kb vs. controller sticks' can almost be lumped together (for me, anyway), as that is my primary reason for FPS's on the PC. When Halo came along, it wasn't any better than other FPS's on the market. I felt that other games such as Rainbow Six, Delta Force, etc. had better physics, game play, and much better multi players (primarily due to online play). Halo 2 introduced internet game play, but the physics didn't change much, so the game just didn't appeal to me personally. What I find funny is that the in-game vehicle control is touted as a defining, trend-setting feature in online play... but whenever someone takes control of a vehicle, it almost guarantees instant death.
In my opinion (without playing #3), the Halo series is an overrated FPS due to poor game play, physics, movement, and controls. There are plenty of people who will disagree with me, but Halo just doesn't appeal as a platform-defining game.
Well, shit. If you want to break it down like that, every FPS has had the same story as Doom. You could probably even break down any game at all that way.
I'm happy Halo3 is out because it helps collect the jerks in one spot.
Although it is almost funny in Shadowrun having an 100-lbs elf call your 800-lbs Troll a fag. ;)
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
So the guy has different tastes than you in video games and that means he is trolling? Christ, just accept the fact that not everyone loves Halo the way you do.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Wow okay so you have friends who have played enough that they can beat Halo 3 in 4.5 hours (actually Halo 3 I found is best played on the high difficulty levels since they made enemies total pushovers on the normal/easy ones...). Whooptee doo hell I can beat Ninja Gaiden for Xbox in 5 hours on anything below Hard as if that means the game doesn't have enough content.
Halo's multiplayer has set new standards for console FPS games. As for the "hype" being centered in by far the largest market for video games in the world, I fail to see how that is a shortcoming of the game or how it reflects on anything. Cups with a Halo logo is an even sillier thing to say and completely contradicts what you said earlier (not that you'd know), as the one big market that Halo isn't popular in is Japan, and if Japanese kids are fans of something you can be damn sure they'll be happy to have the corresponding character goods, whether it be a cup or a business card case or a ton of phone straps or whatever. Not that it's a bad thing, either.
Man they have a lunch box out there for Batman, too. You gonna rag on Batman for it?
Seriously if you could find more irrelevant and nonsensical arguments for why Halo is overrated please write them here because I'm always up for a laugh.
I like basketball!!1!
Xbox live solves the splitscreen and voice chat issues, and is better than anything the PC has at letting you play together with friends. I formed a party with 2 friends last night and it takes care of finding you games together. If you want to play team games it matches you up with other teams of similar skill. If you want FFA games, it will put you all in the same FFA game. You party up once and it finds you games together for the rest of your session.
I would like to apologize for making you read a sentence to figure out what the headline meant. To the best of our abilities, we shall not let this unfortunate occurrence happen again.
Sincerely,
krog
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=302933 (I'm too lazy to retype what I said to the first time this article was up yesterday.)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
no he wasn't lying, he beat it and then came over to another friends house were we played the co-op campaign until about 7am.
He didn't spoil the ending for us, but there is no way he lied to us, haha. Maybe he is just a good gamer? I know he helped us quite a bit doing the co-op campaign.
LMFAO you think the U.S. market is the largest in ANY FORM of video gaming? Damn you are out-date bro. Why do you think the new versions of consoles are being deputed in Europe and Asia first? WoW! Why do you think major game releases are doing a Worldwide release now? Because the European and Asian markets are larger now! they have much great penetration by the consoles and highspeed internet.
I guess we are the largest market if you are comparing North America, South America, Antartica, Australia, and Africa =)
I was going by countries. But even if you take all of Europe into account, the size of its market is similar but smaller than the US (look up proper numbers if you don't believe me, though if you have the right settings you can just look at this report: http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/fy2005b.pdf). Asia as a whole is an entirely different ball game, as Korea and China's console markets aren't exactly huge. They are utterly dwarfed by the PC market, and are crippled by piracy. Things are improving, but not at the rate that makes them major players yet by any stretch.
Anyway please ACTUALLY know what you're talking about if you reply. Because even if you interpret markets as Asia vs Europe vs North America, you're still wrong and I'm still right.
I like basketball!!1!
In Japan, they had to pass an act of parliament to prevent DragonQuest games from being released on a week day. Too many people were ditching from work or school to buy and play the game.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/whats_on/listings/article704332.ece
END COMMUNICATION
A compelling and interesting story. Half-life did that first, but the story is different from Half-life. It's okay to like both.
Actually, I believe Marathon (Also by Bungie) did it first.But did you read his post? Terrible graphics, pathetic sound, gameplay physics that make no sense, and the exact same story as Doom... one of the worst first person shooters ever made... Thats not an insightful critique; it's just a string of insults. In a story that is only slightly related to halo (I think the news here was the MIT hack itself) that usually means trolling. If he wasn't trolling then he should learn to write a bit more eloquently.
God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?
MP: 3 is the best console FPS control scheme out there, altho I have no real complaints playing Halo on Xbox.
1) Bad drivers are bad drivers in any game.
2) Don't get in a vehicle when the other team controls the rocket launcher.
Vehicles used well can be devastating, but there are counters to them, obviously.
Rated by the best implementation thus far of the 3 control interfaces(IMHO):
1) Keyboard + Mouse: Pretty much any that allows mouse sensitivity adjusting
2) Dual analog: Halo2/3/Shadowrun(Who all use the same input scheme), and R6:Vegas
3) Wiimote: Metroid Prime 3
KB/m just needs to allow sensitivity adjustment which is already provided for in pretty much all modern DX games.
Dual Analog needs sensitivity tuning so that the distance from the center results in an appropriate speed of acceleration, also, auto-aim and magnetic crosshair tuning balanced for ease-of-use against trivializing skill. It's all about the tuning, Dead rising crosshairs were pure crap, while the aforementioned games handle quite competently.
Wiimote I feel should be rated above Dual Analog, but MP3 really needed better turning sensitivity, takes too long to turn around. Make the far edges of the screen turn at a faster pace and leave the rest as is. As with the Dual Analog, tuning is crucial, and this game would easily put the Wiimote in 2nd for me with just a small tweak. I don't like the lock-on targeting, but I do like the lock-strafe that the button applies when there's no target under the crosshairs. I expect future Wii titles to hit the right feel.
And how, precisely, would you design a first person shooting game where the object was not to "kill the enemy before they fuck your shit up?"
Just curious.
The details are still a little hazy, but it involves kittens
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
I plan on ending my Windows usage with XP. I will not switch to Vista. Unfortunately Microsoft is using Halo 2 & 3 to try to boost the dismal sales of Vista by tying Halo to it. It's not worth the pain to me. I have a new server, new network lab, and a decent 2-year old PC. I'm not going to build a new PC just to run Vista. Fuck that. I'll buy a console first.
How exactly do you use a mouse and keyboard from a recliner, while still reclining? Also, since we were talking specifically about gaming, watching TV and movies or reading a book don't really matter.
Only if you have the right output equipment. S/PDIF is starting to become standard on many motherboards, but you have to have the right set of cables to convert from mini-jack to RCA, and your software has to play nice with digital output (DRM-aware apps will often refuse to play through digital outputs, for example). With a console like Xbox or Xbox 360, this is all built-in and you don't even have to think about it. Plug the cables in, flip the bit in the dash that indicates you have the correct capabilities, and go.
A 50" HDTV at 720p has approximately the same resolution as many 19" and 20" LCD monitors (1280x720 vs. 1280x1024). 1080p is 1920x1080. Obviously SDTV (480i) or EDTV (480p) will be nasty, but in terms of Halo it's not a problem -- the Xbox 360 plays Halo 1, 2, and 3, and will upscale them to whatever output you choose (720p, 1080i, 1080p). Halo 3 natively renders at 720p and halo 1 and 2 natively render at 480p, but the hardware scaler chip in the 360 is quite capable. A little bit of searching online should turn up comparison screenshots of Halo 1 and 2 running on Xbox and on 360, showing how the 360's upscaling and FSAA increase the games' visual quality.
That was a bit of hyperbole, but the point I was getting at was that you can either sit at a desk with a mouse and keyboard, or you can lounge on a couch. Lounging, by definition, is more comfortable than sitting, so why not lounge? Some researchers at Microsoft are playing with ways to make mice and keyboards usable without a desk (check out the Soap mouse, but we have a long way to go before you will comfortably be able to use a mouse and keyboard while lounging on a couch without some sort of lap desk thingy (which have never worked all that well for me).
It means he thought the game was crappy and wants to know what everyone who is participating in this circle jerk over it sees in it. I'm curious as well (though I don't consider it a crappy game as I've never played it).
And no, the story was definitely about Halo. Did you read the part about people taking sick days to play Halo? That had nothing to do with MIT or Harvard (except that some people connected with both universities probably took sick days as well).
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
Wish I had mod points. And kittens would have been replaced with mother-in-laws.
Secondly the gameplay: I am definately a keyboard/mouse kinda guy. I think a console controller is far inferior. That said, the Halo games basically set the standard for how FPS's should be played on consoles. In this sense the original Halo stands among games like Mario64 and Goldeneye for having great control schemes (for the time). Certainly a keyboard/mouse would be better, but I don't want to use those while sitting on my couch. For the equipment it has, the Halo games have as good control as you could ask for.
Eh. The reason I don't like Halo is that I've been playing realism games for too long (Counter Strike, Rainbow 6 series, WWIIOL, Day of Defeat, AA, and Red Orchestra)
Simply grabbing a machine gun and/or rocket launcher to kill someone to only respawn instantly does not do it for me and the fact that in the majority of the arcade FPS games that I cannot go prone drives me nuts.
I cannot play an FPS game that doesn't let you go prone. I don't know why, but it drives me nuts.
Otherwise... I hate the monkey jumping and RO, R6, and AA have pretty much done away with those kind of game play and its more stealth and ambush kind of deals and punishment for death. Halo on the other hand is the same formula and I will say that if you don't like realism shooters than its probably not a bad game. But again... I couldn't like it if I tried.
To be fair, I can't play Half-Life vanilla online either.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
The Covenant is not portrayed as totally evil or flat (or at least, not if you actually take a look at the story), although they are fairly unstoppable. Heaven forbid the villains of the piece be threatening. Starship Troopers had the bugs (talking the novel more than the movie here), Star Trek had the Borg, the (original, historical) Spartans had the Persians. This is common. Hell, look at the Galactic Empire or the forces of Sauron, from other 'epic' type storytelling examples. It isn't meant to be a gritty and realistic setup.
His name is not a 'superlative name', it's a rank. And a pretty reasonable for someone of his apparent specialty (infantry combat with a sprinkling of special ops and vehicular combat) and skill in that specialty (significant). Master Chief Petty Officer is, in fact, a US Navy rate, and the highest Enlisted rating (short of Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy) available, and it's pretty clear that the fictional military (UNSC) that's being dealt with is based heavily on the framework of the United States Navy (and the Marines, clearly enough, that operate in concert with them).
The insane AI concept is interesting, but not particularly deeply explored in the Halo games (whereas, in contrast, it was extensively explored in the first two Marathon games, the second of which actually was released for Windows 95, and then re-released for XBLA). As far as the couching of things in biblical terms, it makes sense if your enemies are a cohesive whole built around a set of very strong core beliefs. Those beliefs could be religious, scientific, economic or philosophical, but without the necessary frame of reference, any translation of their terms would be likely to end up with biblical connotations.
Your 'covenant = Islamofascist' take on things is interesting, but seems to be based at least as much on personal projection as on evidence. Clearly, then, if we look at a film about Jean d'Arc, it's all just playing to the fact that we're fighting so-called Islamofascists now, right?
Just because we are fighting an insurgent war where the other side tends to mostly be made up of adherents to a religion different than our own does not invalidate the use of religion as a driving force for a fictional group of militants in whatever time period or whatever scale.
Myself, I saw similarities between the Covenant and the Islamists, but then - I saw similarities between the Covenant and the United States of America (which is a Christian nation, in truth, separation of church and State and freedom of worship or no).
It's interesting that your two examples of everything being flat are both misplaced; it really deflates what otherwise has some interesting discussion involved.
Evolution ceases when stupidity can no longer be fatal.
Sure, The Library was pretty torturous (not helped by the fact that I hate fighting the Flood), but the outdoor maps were great IMO.
Finished Halo 3 campaign this morning. Stumbling across a few of the terminals along the way makes me wish they could've catered more for the highbrow audience that appreciated Deus Ex. I read through a site detailing the terminals from Marathon and it seemed intriguing. They could have definitely re-badged that aspect further in Halo (which, to be fair, already borrows quite heavily from Marathon).
I think they missed an opportunity for a defining enemy. Quake had the Shambler or Fiend. Doom had the Cyber Demon. Even the Hunters or Camo Sword Elites in Halo 1 were fairly intimidating. I don't mind the Brutes, but they needed something that you'd hear from a level away and build up a bit of fear.
I reckon Ars Technica's rating of VII is fair. I enjoyed the levels and the general story, but there was room for improvement. Once you add in the rest of the package, though, it's a comfortable 9/10 IMO.
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/11/10
That is one of my favorite Penny Arcade comics... after many an online deathmatch, it just seems so fitting