StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Link to the video.

It looks cool; yet, I'm unimpressed. It's just going to be the same recycled gameplay we've all become familiar with. I've played and been a fan of Halo 1, 2, and 3, but stopped caring about the story and characters after that.

The only thing that would cause me to become interested in this game is some kind of addition that would make gameplay more dynamic. For example: notice all the different Spartans in the trailer? It would be awesome if there were different classes to choose from.

I'm not expecting anything like that though.

It's a big shame; ODST was disappointing because they did NOTHING with the gameplay, even given the different character. Sure, if Reach was a bit more tactical and actually used an FPS idea post 2001 it might be good; but this is Bungie.

I mean, can you at least hide? Do you have real superpowers yet? Are the levels less linear? Did they fix bunnyhopping? Is there any penetration? Campaign built for co-op? Loadouts or perks?

I watched the 360 trailers yesterday actually, and I'm blown away by the complete recycle of 'meaningless trailers 100% unrelated to the game' and 'pandering you-are-so-tough-and-maverick' plot.

After playing ODST I have more faith that Bioshock 2 will actually be innovative and fun than the latest Bungie title doing either. I'm not horribly interested in playing Halo 3 for a third time.

Stark wrote:I watched the 360 trailers yesterday actually, and I'm blown away by the complete recycle of 'meaningless trailers 100% unrelated to the game' and 'pandering you-are-so-tough-and-maverick' plot.

I think that the series might have become less popular if it became less pandering.

That's really their own fault for doing nothing but pander to their base for a decade. After ODST the bulk of the market seems pretty disillusioned with the whole Halo IP, so they've got a choice between trying to make a real game to bring back the crowd or just make the same game again-again and get fixed sales.

I'll let you guys criticize the gameplay and whatnot. I'll talk about the stuff revealed:

You're a lieutenant? No Spartan was made an officer except for Kurt, who was off in secret training the S-IIIs. And presumably this guy outranks you? WTF?

Also, commanding officer spartan had to read your file to find out about your skillset? Wouldn't he, you know, already know your skillset since you were all trained together and whatnot?

And when are the Spartans ever based on REACH anyways? Red Team orbital-dived in, and by then the Covenant were already on the ground. No way would the Spartans be set up in a little base camp like that.

So... I am interested to see how they deal with this stuff.

Look, I loved the Russian so trained from infancy he has an accent. And the supercharger one guy has on his armour. And the high-visibility helmetless woman.

It's all very standard 'you-are-a-tough-guy' stuff'. Like I said to JSF earlier, the SPARTANs went from the quiet, professional, distant and 'iconic' Master Chief to the Dirty Dozen in one trailer. I mean a guy with a skull sharpening a kukri on his armour? Come the fuck on.

What is with the First-person shot of the protagonist handling their helmet before putting it back on? That's getting old Bungie.

JonB wrote:What is with the First-person shot of the protagonist handling their helmet before putting it back on? That's getting old Bungie.

That just gave me a thought: what if the new guy is Master Chief? Maybe they are doing the helmet holding thing without a face reveal for a reason.

General Zod wrote:After playing ODST I have more faith that Bioshock 2 will actually be innovative and fun than the latest Bungie title doing either.

Bioshock 2 has its soundtrack on vinyl. It is gauranteed to be game of the year.

Singer wrote:That just gave me a thought: what if the new guy is Master Chief? Maybe they are doing the helmet holding thing without a face reveal for a reason.

Apparently the character you play is a lieutenant, so no. He could get demoted though, I suppose.

I'll repeat the things I said when Stark complained about ODST-Bungie made a good game that got a lot of good hype and forever doomed them to make that game over and over again. By now, messing with the established formula would create a shit storm that would make the No Mutants Allowed whining look like a mere cowpie hitting a boxfan.

You can call it pandering to the base. But as far as Microsoft, the IP owner is concerned, this is money in the bank. They don't have to try to be creative, they can just harvest dollars freely because their fans are already invested so deeply. They are going to run this fucking thing into the ground so hard it will never fly again, if they have their way with it. And since they own it lock stock and barrel, there's nobody who can stop them.

Ow wants to stop them? It's just a hilarious waste of potential that'll be outsold by CoD. They definayely have a locked-in fanbase and no ideas.

Hawkwings wrote: And when are the Spartans ever based on REACH anyways? Red Team orbital-dived in, and by then the Covenant were already on the ground. No way would the Spartans be set up in a little base camp like that.

They trained there, so... revisiting old haunts? You're assuming Bungie gives a shit about their story.

In a weird way, reminds me of "World of Warcraft if the nolstagics had their way."

Stark wrote:It's all very standard 'you-are-a-tough-guy' stuff'. Like I said to JSF earlier, the SPARTANs went from the quiet, professional, distant and 'iconic' Master Chief to the Dirty Dozen in one trailer. I mean a guy with a skull sharpening a kukri on his armour? Come the fuck on.

Sounds like they're not even using the actual Master Chief mythos and more of a... well, a fanboyed version of the SPARTAN idea. At least Call of Duty doesn't have novels that make the wank even worse (or the Gears of War novels), and we know how Ghost's story ends.

("Finishing The Fight" over at SpaceBattles was an intriguing Halo/Forgotten Realms crossover up until it took the Halo-novels wankage for canon and cranked it up to eleven.)

Vehrec wrote:I'll repeat the things I said when Stark complained about ODST-Bungie made a good game that got a lot of good hype and forever doomed them to make that game over and over again. By now, messing with the established formula would create a shit storm that would make the No Mutants Allowed whining look like a mere cowpie hitting a boxfan.

You can call it pandering to the base. But as far as Microsoft, the IP owner is concerned, this is money in the bank. They don't have to try to be creative, they can just harvest dollars freely because their fans are already invested so deeply. They are going to run this fucking thing into the ground so hard it will never fly again, if they have their way with it. And since they own it lock stock and barrel, there's nobody who can stop them.

They might get a rude surprise the next time around. A lot of people bought Halo 3 just because they liked Halo 1 and Halo 2. They were disappointed with Halo 3 in terms of freshness, but at least it took Halo 1's ending and Halo 2's gameplay to high definition (the recycling was already pretty obvious, but what can I say - high def). But when Halo 3 ODST came out, I think a lot of gamers said "what the fuck" and the franchise lost a lot of fan credibility. The thing is, this didn't necessarily show up in the sales because a lot of the fans bought it out of habit.

Even my boys, who were huge Halo fans (the original Halo was their very first videogame) and clamoured for me to buy Halo 3 ODST, were totally disillusioned by the game. We're talking about a couple of boys who virtually grew up with Halo, who had toys and posters and the whole nine yards, and who declared: "The Halo games suck now. Call of Duty is way better". That's a major defection. Yes, Microsoft got our money one more time for ODST, but as I said, that was out of habit. Once more: the game was such a disappointment that it completely turned off a couple of lifelong fans who were seriously invested in the franchise. You can't get a bigger failure than that.

Like Darth Wong's sons, I was a huge Halo fan as well (it was the first FPS I owned), but I really don't care for the franchise any more. I didn't buy ODST or Halo Wars and I doubt I'll be buying this game. I watched the trailer yesterday, and I didn't feel anything positive about the game. I barely paid attention to it actually, the whole "SPARTAN with skull painted on his helmet sharpening his knife" was what turned me off. That and the whole forced drama shit. I'm looking forward to the new MoH much more than a new Halo.

[R_H] wrote:Like Darth Wong's sons, I was a huge Halo fan as well (it was the first FPS I owned), but I really don't care for the franchise any more. I didn't buy ODST or Halo Wars and I doubt I'll be buying this game. I watched the trailer yesterday, and I didn't feel anything positive about the game. I barely paid attention to it actually, the whole "SPARTAN with skull painted on his helmet sharpening his knife" was what turned me off. That and the whole forced drama shit. I'm looking forward to the new MoH much more than a new Halo.

Part of the problem with high-drama commercials is the implicit claim that the game will convey some of this drama. If it doesn't deliver, then it's doubly disillusioning.

PS. I love how the trailer doesn't show anything but a movie cutscene, as if that's remotely interesting. THEY COULDN'T EVEN COME UP WITH A GODDAMNED NEW GROUND VEHICLE! I'M SO FUCKING SICK OF THOSE SHITTY WARTHOGS! Seriously, it was one thing to be stuck with those in Halo 1: you crashed your ship after all. But why the fuck don't humans have a greater variety of ground vehicles in subsequent games? Doesn't anyone at the studio realize what a truly shitty vehicle the Warthog is?

Each game, you'd like to think they'd show you something new. Each game, they don't. And I don't think that the fanbase is a good enough reason for this shocking lack of creativity: I'm sure even the most hidebound fans would appreciate new vehicles, for example. They're not even trying.

Halo Wars was terrible in that respect. Even after Halo 2 you could imagine Warthogs and Scorpions were light, specialised or air-mobile vehicles and the real frontline stuff was somewhere else. Nope; warthog and scorpion are it, despite being retarded.

I wonder whether MW2 will be the new Halo Wars/ODST, in terms of a franchise's shark jump? (See the thread lack of dedicated servers.) Instead of MW3 being anticipated in the wake of RAWRsome, now (thanks to The Onion) it's a punchline. At least MW2 is distinctly different from its predecessor in multiplayer (for better or for worse), plus its co-op isn't just two-manning certain campaign missions (even while reusing the same maps for all three modes) and has more variety than ODST's "Firefight" mode.

I think it soured after Master Chief's story arc basically concluded. Right now there's just no character that can really stand and have people say, "This is Halo [for the new generation]." In fact, while of course it's not Bungie's fault that GameStop TV basically describes an ODST as "you have less armor than Master Chief, and therefore, a bigger challenge"... that's telling, isn't it? Both of the post-Halo 3 games in the setting have Master Chief solely as a background character off doing his own thing, while the protagonist of both Wars and ODST is... who is it, and why should I care?

Funny thing is, although the new Medal of Honor's protagonist is receiving 'standard' (by now) special forces wank in the press release and descriptions, they have the initial interest down pat. First, the BEARD... then, basing it so obviously on a real-life counterpart that the Internet does a 180 from unrelenting mockery to "oh shit he's real this is awesome!"... and not in a Rogue Warrior way.

Stark wrote: I watched the 360 trailers yesterday actually, and I'm blown away by the complete recycle of 'meaningless trailers 100% unrelated to the game' and 'pandering you-are-so-tough-and-maverick' plot.

Being part of a cinematic in the actual game, that statement doesn't really stand.

So you missed the irrelevant 'oh noes Reach attacked' teaser, which just like the ODST teasers tries to sell a game based on stuff that won't be in it? Next you'll say Bungie doesn't always do this and that they're not recycling their 'sell the IP and make a generic game' approach.

The video of Reach getting destroyed from orbit?


I just wonder if reach is actually going to have a up beat ending or not, the way they've built it up the covenant won that battle and the earths forces got crushed.

Or are they going to turn it into the wars Dunkirk?

Zac Naloen wrote:The video of Reach getting destroyed from orbit?


I just wonder if reach is actually going to have a up beat ending or not, the way they've built it up the covenant won that battle and the earths forces got crushed.

Or are they going to turn it into the wars Dunkirk?

Compared to the fluff on Reach, Dunkirk was an orderly withdrawal, with minimal losses of material and men. According to the fluff, 90% of the fleet gets toasted, the orbital guns are blown to pieces, and the survivors on the surface can be counted on both hands. I'm not sure how it's possible to make an upbeat ending out of it, let alone a serious game.

Is it just me or is the music even getting shittier too? Halo is one of the few games i've ever bothered to illegally download purchase the soundtrack for (the others being GoW 1 and 2,) but aside from the opening track, I thought ODST's music was completely underwhelming, and I can't even remember any of the music from Halo Wars. The track playing during that cutscene just didn't do it for me.

Darksider wrote:Is it just me or is the music even getting shittier too? Halo is one of the few games i've ever bothered to illegally download purchase the soundtrack for (the others being GoW 1 and 2,) but aside from the opening track, I thought ODST's music was completely underwhelming, and I can't even remember any of the music from Halo Wars. The track playing during that cutscene just didn't do it for me.

I agree. IMO, it was a shadow of itself, maybe Marty O'Donnell (or whatever the guy's name is) is no longer involved with the music. The accent thing is weird, I mean, the SPARTANs grew up together and a bunch of them have distinct accents? Interesting to see that they use cybernetic prosthetics.