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CaptHawkeye wrote:

Stark wrote: Hawx, I remember when the Halo trailer was used to show their battles and AI and shit, and yet was obviously scripted. Bungie has lied about Halo since day one; blaming evil Microsoft for demanding results is backwards.

If anything this was a case of the publisher saving the developer by cracking the whip. Microsoft basically saved them from their own laziness. Let's be honest, if it wasn't for the Xbox and Microsoft, Halo probably would have been a broken, forgettable shooter for the PC that fell in with Bungie's background of disorganized, spastic titles like Oni and Myth.

Erm what was wrong wrong with Myth? I found it and the sequel to be some of the better games I've ever played. The third one was owned or developed by someone else and didn't have anywhere near the same feel or ability to grab attention. Oni I agree.

The more I read about Bungie's work ethics, the more apt CaptHawkeye's comparison to those responsible for Duke Nukem Forever seems.

The more I read about Bungie's work ethic, the more aghast I am that these clowns somehow managed to turn a generic, mediocre milsf shooter into a franchise with multiple sequels and spin-off material in other media. Fuck, how did they tie their shoes?

Block wrote: Erm what was wrong wrong with Myth? I found it and the sequel to be some of the better games I've ever played. The third one was owned or developed by someone else and didn't have anywhere near the same feel or ability to grab attention. Oni I agree.

Myth? You know. That game that could delete your hard drive if you tried to uninstall it?

Kingmaker wrote:The more I read about Bungie's work ethic, the more aghast I am that these clowns somehow managed to turn a generic, mediocre milsf shooter into a franchise with multiple sequels and spin-off material in other media. Fuck, how did they tie their shoes?

They learned their lesson after Halo 2. After that hey have had multiple milestone dates set where they no longer allow new proposals, no longer allow new features to be worked on, no longer allow new code to be added except to fix existing bugs, etc.

I think they realized that had Halo 2 been their first xbox game without Microsoft's backup and the sequel coattail effect they'd all be out of jobs.

The morale of the whole Halo story was that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Combat Evolved's multiplayer is what turned it into a cult hit, and that was an afterthought thrown in on a whim, with the pistol's inclusion (which made the multi what it was) an outright accident.

CaptHawkeye wrote:

Block wrote: Erm what was wrong wrong with Myth? I found it and the sequel to be some of the better games I've ever played. The third one was owned or developed by someone else and didn't have anywhere near the same feel or ability to grab attention. Oni I agree.

Myth? You know. That game that could delete your hard drive if you tried to uninstall it?

First off, I agree with Block 100% on Myth. I can't really comment on Oni, because despite owning (bundled in some Take2 pack) I've never actually got around to playing it.

CaptHawkeye, that was Myth II and only occurred if you had the game installed to the root of the drive IIRC (not excusable or acceptable), and it did cost them money and was one of the leading factors of them selling off IP and eventually getting bought by MS.

Which just proves my point? Thanks for playing?

CaptHawkeye wrote:Which just proves my point? Thanks for playing?

That doesn't make it a spastic and disorganized title, just means someone was lazy in QC of the programming. The product itself was extremely well done.

someone was lazy in QC of the programming. The product itself was extremely well done.

Would you care to try again?

Kingmaker wrote:

someone was lazy in QC of the programming. The product itself was extremely well done.

Would you care to try again?

No. There is a difference between one bug, a big one yes, and a poorly put together product. The game itself was EXTREMELY well done. The gameplay, storytelling, graphics, etc. were all top notch for it's time and the story and its execution is actually still one of the better ones to this day. There was a bug, and it was a really bad one, that does not mean the game design, etc. was lazy or anything else.

So a product that can cause serious harm to your computer for performing a totally by-the-numbers process is not poorly put together? Do tell.

I liked Halo CE. Fun game and the story was enough to keep me moderately entertained.

I kind of liked Halo II, but the ending blew goat, and everything past the giant plant monster was boring and repetitive. The Arbiter levels were fun, and the MC parts till the plant monster showed up were decent.

I dug Halo III up until they started making the Coventant Prophet's motivation go from "religious nutters" to "just plain nutters with funny hats that are surrounded by heavilly armed furries". The ending was nice with the whole MC/Cortana "wake me if you need me" bit, but the box lied. This wasn't about finishing the fight, this was about blatantly setting shit up for sequals. Anyone that didn't catch that much is a flaming dumbass. If they'd have had MC/Cortana rescued and returned to earth they could've had a good closure point, but leaving them drifting in space just screamed "Wait a few years and they'll be back, nerds".

I tried playing ODST at a fiend's house, and thought it sucked. Even the multi was terrible, and it's actually pretty hard to fuck up multi these days, yet Bungie did it.

I didn't even bother with Reach once I learned that the only thing it would have to do with the book (which was a decent read for a videogame tie-in), was the name.

But because I'm a sucker for MC/Cortana I'm gonna play this one. Fuck, even if it blows goats while and requires an add-on for the controller that allows bill Gates to punch me in the nuts, at least it'll give me an excuse to buy another 360.

I loved the ending to Halo 3. Come on, MC and Cortana returning to Earth to get the whole parade with huge celebration would have been massively cliche. The ending they gave us was a downer ending and I liked it. MC and Cortana were marooned in space, with everyone thinking they were dead. No pats on the back no medals, nothing for saving humanity except all the loneliness in the universe. The mystery of their future of what became of them forever lost.

Then of course 343 decided they didn't have anything better to do than ruin the one good thing Bungie ever wrote, 3's finale. Don't get me wrong we all totally knew this was going to happen. Microsoft was not going to sit on a series like Halo and do nothing with it. I had just hoped what they would do would be more along the lines of spin off or prequel stuff.

Well, they could've done something really smart and "unique" and done something like "The Arbiter Chronicles" or whatever, and have MC Crash land onto a halo installation that is all but abandoned, then have him wander about ODST style finding pieces of elite armor or wandering inside a library literally reading about arbiters of the past and then you zoom into that story as MC reads it/downloads it/whatever.

That would be cool. But then he pushes a button and WHOOPS That was the "release the flood" button.

It just didn't strike me that Bungie wanted to continue MC's story at all. What was he going to fight that he hadn't already? Aliens? Robots? The Thing? The Flood are gone, the Covenant is disbanded, he's a loooong way from any civilization we know about.

But nah i'm sure 343 will find some way to shoe in some ridiculous foe. If it's the Forerunner i'll piss myself laughing.

CaptHawkeye wrote:It just didn't strike me that Bungie wanted to continue MC's story at all. What was he going to fight that he hadn't already? Aliens? Robots? The Thing? The Flood are gone, the Covenant is disbanded, he's a loooong way from any civilization we know about.

But nah i'm sure 343 will find some way to shoe in some ridiculous foe. If it's the Forerunner i'll piss myself laughing.

Obviously, he's going to fight the Reapers.
...actually, some kind of Forerunner-based enemy might be fun. We already know their civilization was made up of idiots, might as well have some other galaxy-threatening threat penned up in an easily escapable prison...

CaptHawkeye wrote:It just didn't strike me that Bungie wanted to continue MC's story at all. What was he going to fight that he hadn't already? Aliens? Robots? The Thing? The Flood are gone, the Covenant is disbanded, he's a loooong way from any civilization we know about.

But nah i'm sure 343 will find some way to shoe in some ridiculous foe. If it's the Forerunner i'll piss myself laughing.

I wouldn't be so quick to discount the ability of 343 just yet. I'm going to keep using the example of ODST and throw out that while it was mostly window dressing for more Halo 3 levels, the core concept was a pretty radical departure for the series, and they may just expand upon that. Now that I think on it, I'll go ahead and say that I am mildly interested and will hold out hope that this will be...something...good?

Clearly, he's going to fight the UNSC. They're the only thing left that he hasn't fucked up.

CaptHawkeye wrote:It just didn't strike me that Bungie wanted to continue MC's story at all. What was he going to fight that he hadn't already? Aliens? Robots? The Thing? The Flood are gone, the Covenant is disbanded, he's a loooong way from any civilization we know about.

But nah i'm sure 343 will find some way to shoe in some ridiculous foe. If it's the Forerunner i'll piss myself laughing.

Maybe something extra-dimensional, if that big thing is a gate.

Honestly, I'm hoping they do something with those EVA boosters from the trailer. Some real three-dimensional Zero-G combat could be fun if done right.

CaptHawkeye wrote:If it's the Forerunner i'll piss myself laughing.

The antagonist could be the last of the Precursors which appears at the climax of Cryptum, though I guess that depends on what Greg Bear does with his next two books. Or not, really.

SAMAS wrote:Honestly, I'm hoping they do something with those EVA boosters from the trailer. Some real three-dimensional Zero-G combat could be fun if done right.

Dude that'd require a modicum of imagination on their part. Are you crazy?

Halo 2 I never got into; Halo 3 was actually quite good. It was essentially a wrap up of the final battle and it did have good elements; Truth's death was VERY satisfying and the ending actually was fairly conclusive (the covenant and flood are defeated forever, there is finally peace) and it felt like a hard earned victory. Also, from what I gathered Truth always believed in the religion; he simply believed that while the Humans were the forerunner's heirs they were too weak to deserve their destiny, which is seen is the "you are weak and god's must be strong" line. Halo Reach was very good; The thing that stood out was B312's sacrifice and the tragic irony that she died unaware of how much her sacrifice helped save humanity (yes I know the gender is up to the player but I played as a girl and in my mind she's female).

Darth Yan wrote:Halo 2 I never got into; Halo 3 was actually quite good. It was essentially a wrap up of the final battle and it did have good elements; Truth's death was VERY satisfying and the ending actually was fairly conclusive (the covenant and flood are defeated forever, there is finally peace) and it felt like a hard earned victory. Also, from what I gathered Truth always believed in the religion; he simply believed that while the Humans were the forerunner's heirs they were too weak to deserve their destiny, which is seen is the "you are weak and god's must be strong" line. Halo Reach was very good; The thing that stood out was B312's sacrifice and the tragic irony that she died unaware of how much her sacrifice helped save humanity (yes I know the gender is up to the player but I played as a girl and in my mind she's female).

....are you fucking kidding me? Halo 3 was shit. Halo Reach improved somewhat, but failed again by being another, though slightly less shitty, piece of shit.

I don't understand how anyone can think Halo 3 and Reach were the weakest games in the series when they finally did away with Bungie's patented level repetition, illogical balancing, corridor strolling, and the Flood. Reach even started emulating features of more modern FPS games and finally started giving the SPARTANs super powers.