Halo
 

Without wanting to start a ruckus (I nearly put this on Shaun's PS3 thread which would have killed it) what is the obsession with Halo?

Admittedly I've not played Halo 2, but played Halo 1 a couple of years back and found it to be a mediocre tedious FPS with nothing new to offer. Did I miss something or is it just the case that I've played far better ones on a PC and the majority of people who play it haven't? I found the gameplay on it a bit crap to be honest :(

This isn't an XBox slagfest, I'd sincerely like to know what floats your boat.

Got me thinking about it after the post on Shaun's PS3 thread about Halo 3. Still looks mediocre to me but with improved eye candy (albeit not that exciting).

I think Far Cry was the last interesting FPS I played :(

Halo is probably my favourite game. I loved it as a single player. At the time the gfx were superb and the size of the areas fantastic. The difficulty for me was spot on and the storyline really drew me in. The best bit was though starting the Co-op mode with a mate. We would be up far too late on the premise of.... just one more level!

Halo 2 Xbox live .... nuff said.

Single player is a bit on the boring side ( although I like the story ) but when you take it on live it was awsome. Only since Gears of War release last Friday has Halo 2 been bumped off the top spot for hours played on live.

Did you / have you played (m)any PC FPS games? Stuff like online Battlefield 1942 for example?

I thought Halo was a poor copy of Unreal :(

Agreed Hanslow. I've played Halo 1, and Halo 2. Quite enjoyed the first one (it wasn't great but the story was ok), but the second was just boring.

Same with Gears of War. I played that for 2 days before I got terminally bored with it. It's very pretty (if you ignore the bugs), but the story is superficial at best. Very disappointed with that one...

There were a few things that made halo the game it was.

1. Two weapon slots.
Basically every other FPS before it have 8 or 9 slots for weapons, you were carrying around an arms factory on your back. Halo limited it to 2 weapons and you had to make your choices wisely. Projectile weapons for flood - Energy weapons for covenant.

2. Non scripted AI.
Before Halo, FPS used to have enemies appearing in the same numbers as the same locations doing the same thing. Halo has some of the best enemy AI ever seen, and certainly the best at that point in time. Halo on Legendary is still on eof the toughest gaming expereinces.

3.Rechargable shields
This made the quicksave curse a thing fo the past, no longer were you pressing "F5" every 30 seconds, if the heat got oo much you could back off and buy some time, and not be left with one shots worth of health left.

4. Vehicles
The Warthog was a revelation, in terms of control and usefullness,

It was an amazing game. Halo 2 less so, it didnt have the impact and the arbiter was the most pointless exercise in videogame history.

Interesting points Pete :thumb:

The weapons thing I didn't really notice, but then I used to save all my best weapons on 9 slot type games, and end up killing nearly everything with a pistol :D

I've got to admit, I never noticed the AI at all :( I've still yet to see a game that surpassed the original Half-Life AI. Never before been as impressed as I was when waiting behind a crate when I'd shot at some marine's only to stand up to pop a shot off at him and found he'd ran up some steps down a corridor to come out behind and above me and shoot me in the back ;)

Can't remember the shields at all so can't really comment!

The driving was fun to a point, but as in Far Cry, HL2, etc. I didn't feel it actually added much to the game but just allowed you to cover ground quicker.

Spent far to many hours on Live with Halo2, still do to this day. It's one of the few games you can still go on at any time of day and be guaranteed to get a live game...

Damn that plasma sword though....

I'm with on this Hanslow, I got Halo as part of a package on the day of release of the original Xbox. Had loads of mates round wanting to play it on co-op but it got SOOOO repetitive going round ever repeating rooms going up a tower eventually no one wanted to play it anymore.
Couldn't face more of the same with Halo 2 and never tried online gaming till I had the 360. Although I played the multiplayer maps on split screen and they felt really slow and boring compared to Team Fortress and CS.
Agree with Pete though, the Warhog was fecking brilliant to drive and having a mate on the back of it shooting away was great.

I've loved my PC FPS's and never thought you could get away with one on a console not having a keyboard and mouse.

And then I played Halo. Superb. Then Halo 2 - more of the same but with some spot on tweaks as already mentioned.

Cannot wait for Halo 3 - looks AWESOME :D

Halo 1 & 2 are without doubt 2 of my all-time favourite games

Must admit i was a little disapointed with the single player on Halo 2 (think this was because they were forced to rush it) but the Live multiplayer more than makes up for this!

Just something about it, got lots of important things spot on, not all you can put a finger on and say its great because of a) b) and c)

bit like goldeneye on the N64, just something about it felt right

On Halo 1/2 i think the gameplay is excellent, the range of enemies are great, all with their own behaviour/trates, the difficulty is spot on, normal is comfortable, legendry is stupidly hard (which it should be!) weapons are top notch, & as mentioned only carrying 2 at a time really makes you think

plus i find the stroyline very engaging too...

I'll back you as well Hanslow. I got bored with it a couple of levels in and binned it.

From the multiplayer perspective I know HALO2 is one of the most played games on LIVE, so perhaps some of the massive acclaim its garnered over the years (not from me) is down to the multiplayer game ?

I've never got the multiplayer games, they just bore the pants off me. Give me a decent FPS with a good story line anyday. Half Life, Deus Ex etc.

It's just the same old boring story, capture the flag and the numerous variations and then start again.

Heads up
 

There is an Ad set to screen for Halo 3 on channel 4 at 10.45pm Friday 15th December :cool:

Halo 2 was awful in single player, it just seemed very pedestrian and I came to it from the frenetic TimeSplitters 2 - which I still think is my favourite FPS.

Halo 2 was the reason I got an XBox - I needn't have bothered really, but I bough PGR2 out of the bargain bucket at the same time and played that more than Halo 2.

Will still get Halo 3 though, I think I've been suckered in by the hype...

Halo 2 has just been overtaken as the most played online game by Gears Of War - another game that promised so much and delivered so little...