Halo 3...just the same shit?

[Count Dooku]

Seeing how well Halo:CE and Halo 2 sold, I think Bungie is a tad too worried to change much. They probably figure their fans want more of the same...

[Darth Wong]

Honestly, at this point FPS games as a genre are about as innovative as the fucking Amish. The only distinction that any particular FPS game can draw for itself is a compelling story and interesting or interactive maps. That's all I'd hope for with Halo 3. Halo 2 was a minor improvement from Halo 1 in terms of graphics and gameplay and an almost insignificant one in terms of story and level design, which is why it was a disappointment.

I can't stand FPS games on consoles anyway, so there isn't much they could do in terms of gameplay that would appease me. But I thought the story was outstanding. Getting a look at the Covenant's society was really cool.

How about that idiotic "we planted a bomb on your ship and now you have to stop us from detonating it" plot device? It turns out that the look we got at Covenant society was more along the lines of "Hey, we can beat these guys after all because they're fucking retards". And then the Flood came back, which annoyed me to no end. I thought we'd left them behind after the first game, but noooooo ... it turns out that the fucking dumbshit "Forerunners" actually stored Flood specimens all over the goddamned galaxy. And of course, this means the Flood will figure prominently in the next game too. Yippee ...

[RazorOutlaw]

I pretty much felt the same way about The Flood. On one hand they were an interesting twist in the first game, and lead to a few nail biting situations. But by the end of my first run-through in HALO, I was pretty much sick of them. I hated how they were everywhere they weren't supposed to be, which is apt given their name. But all in all though, it was primarily how hard they were to put down that drove me crazy.

When they showed up in HALO 2 I almost stopped playing the game. It was just my burning desire to see the end of the game that kept pushing me forward.

[CaptHawkeye]

One thing I always despise about Bungie, and lots of other devs pull this shit too, is making many absurd promises and to the community about what their game will have. Anyone else remember Bungie's Halo 2 claims about things like kicking over tables, shooting out lights and basically giving you a Hitman style "play as you will" system? I remember when Halo 3 was announced they were bragging about things like massive explorable levels, Mercenaries style.

That being said, i'm still going to buy Halo 3. Yeah, it's Halo 1 again with prettier textures. At least maybe this time it will be closer to Combat Evolved in gameplay, story, and level design (Obviously not including shit like "the library".) instead of the clusterfuck that was H2. I like Halo's gameplay, I can feel it starting to get stale, but I still have enough want in me to play one more time.

After Halo 3, I am unlikely to play another typical-rail-shoot em up. Same thing with Xenosaga. I loved that series, but I had my fill of turn based combat at the end of Episode 3, and simply have no interest in finding anymore.