Halo 3!

[Bullet10k]

http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?link=Halo3Announcement

Looks good...

[Zheardok]

I wish I had an Xbox 360.

[Draveru]

ditto. this halo should be the best yet hopefully. To go off topic a little do you know that halo 2 for PC is going to require the new windows OS the real Vista.

Game: Halo 2 (PC)
Release Date: TBA
Halo 2 on the PC contains the original Halo 2 as well as the Multiplayer Map Pack and a level editor, and it requires Windows Vista.

dont believe me heres the page halo 2 PC vista statement (http://www.gamespot.com/search.html?type=11&stype=all&qs=halo+2&x=0&y=0)

[[UMC]Boron]

If any of you are members of fileplanet, they have the halo 3 trailer up for download. It's ~150mb.

Bungie and Microsoft are such cock teases, thats all I have to say about that.

[ilkman]

meh.

I'm tired of Halo. Is there any other enticement for Halo 3 besides eye candy? Seriously the first game was nothing more than an over-hyped FPS to sell a console. I will give them credit and applause because it worked quite well. The second iteration was, well I couldnt have cared less so I didnt follow the game.

I seriously never understood what made Halo so popular. It did nothing revolutionary that noone else had done before. I guess it is a class-A example of good marketing.

[Soulja]

Halo 2 was awesome on XBox, and I had a bunch of fun, but if they don't do anything to stop the modders, it's going to be ****ing retarded to play online. MS better have some kind of hack protection this time around, or it won't last two seconds for me.

[Draveru]

I guess it is a class-A example of good marketing.yeah thats what happens when you have a guy *cough cough Bill Gates* with at least 40billion dollars of networth backing a game huh.

[Nines]

I hope they learn from their mistakes with Halo 2, and make it more similar to the first Halo.

[ant1991331]

What mistakes were that in Halo2?

[Nines]

Too many changes from Halo 1.

The Scorpion's and the Warthog's handling was too 'stiff' in Halo 2, to mention one thing.
The game was also waaaaaaaay too short.
Halo 2 had 20 missions and Halo 1 had 10, yet Halo 1 took longer to finish, and had more replay value, imo.

[Kantham]

Bungie announces Halo 3, the third and final game in the Halo Trilogy. Halo 3 will be released for Microsoft's Xbox 360 in 2007.

So that's great they are making it a triology because this game grab one of these wave of imature crowd online, and the solo play is always repetitive.

[SkaarjMaster]

I will not be buying any game that requires Windows Bitshta!:(

[ilkman]

I will not be buying any game that requires Windows Bitshta!:(


Well, if they port it anything like they did withHalo 1, you wouldnt want to anyways.

With Halo 1 they didnt optimize it worth crap for PC. It had steep requirements and plenty of problems.

For Halo 2 I think they are just using Vistas naturally high requirements as an excuse to get away with the same type of crappy porting. Since you already have to have very high requirements to run Vista an optimal settings, then you should be able to run Halo 2 just fine as well.

And, yes, Vista can run on lower end systems with all the 'stuff' turned off, but if any of you think that you'll be able to run Halo 2 on those lower end systems, I wouldnt count on it.

[Daedalus]

yeah thats what happens when you have a guy *cough cough Bill Gates* with at least 40billion dollars of networth backing a game huh.

You know, seriously I think it's about time for the 13 year old crowd to stop hating on Gates. It's like you dipsh¡ts thinks he sits on all of this money and just sits there and goes "What pain and misery can I cause today?" I mean hell, the guy used to be a regular guy just like anyone of us, he just happened to create something that the world really liked.

And the money? He donates tons of it to charity. Not to mention Microsoft is fighting against telecom companies.

So the next time you decide to break out the "OMG M$" think again.

please note, this is coming from a mac user ever

[discreet]

i for one am looking forward to this. halo 2 was a lot of fun to play on xbox live with some friends.

[Draveru]

You know, seriously I think it's about time for the 13 year old crowd to stop hating on Gates. It's like you dipsh¡ts thinks he sits on all of this money and just sits there and goes "What pain and misery can I cause today?" I mean hell, the guy used to be a regular guy just like anyone of us, he just happened to create something that the world really liked.

And the money? He donates tons of it to charity. Not to mention Microsoft is fighting against telecom companies.

So the next time you decide to break out the "OMG M$" think again.

please note, this is coming from a mac user everfor one I'm not 13 I'm 20 and I'm not hating on old bill, I wish I was bill. That freaking mastermind man. I mean look at the Xbox 360 (I know he isnt just sitting on his money) he takes a huge hit off that. I think I heard that he dont really make that much money off of the system. Its more of a tax write off. I think he had to pay in taxes of about 4 billion I think it was one year. So thanks for the system Gates you da man. :D

[pwnghetti & leetballs]

I think a lot of people bash the Halo series simply because it's so popular and mainstream. There is really nothing wrong with it, it's good polished gameplay that's easy to pick up and have fun with, especially when played with friends.

[LHABulldog6]

I've played Halo on PC and XBox, and somehow, it's awesomeness completely escapes me. I really fail to see what aspects set it apart from any number of superior FPS games on the market for PC or console. The story and gameplay seemed pretty generic/. If the first game hadn't been a launch title, there's no way it could've gained this much momentum. It bugs me to see something like Halo become a mega hit, while games like Advent Rising (****ing sweet) are gathering dust in a warehouse.

I'm not bashing it because it's Microsoft, or any other equally asanine reason, it really just isn't that spectacular. Just from what I've seen so far, I'm convinced; the 360 isn't the start of the next generation, it's the end of the current one. Personally, the Wii has me positively salivating in anticipation. <3

[ant1991331]

Too many changes from Halo 1.

The Scorpion's and the Warthog's handling was too 'stiff' in Halo 2, to mention one thing.
The game was also waaaaaaaay too short.
Halo 2 had 20 missions and Halo 1 had 10, yet Halo 1 took longer to finish, and had more replay value, imo.
Meh, I barely noticed the difference to vehicles in Halo 2, and Halo 2 took longer to finish.....to me...

[Draveru]

I've played Halo on PC and XBox, and somehow, it's awesomeness completely escapes me. I really fail to see what aspects set it apart from any number of superior FPS games on the market for PC or console. The story and gameplay seemed pretty generic/.imo its probably so popular becuase its so simple to play, and yet it runs so smooth. For ex the whole time I played Halo 1, and 2 I didnt experiance any lag of any kind except on halo2 during cut scenes but that was CUT SCENES not gameplay so thats why its so popular.

[JaFO]

ditto. this halo should be the best yet hopefully. To go off topic a little do you know that halo 2 for PC is going to require the new windows OS the real Vista.
...
Did you expect anything else ?
It's sold by MS
They already made a mappack that was XP-exclusive ...
So yet another bs-excuse to get people to use their next bloated OS is perfectly predictable.

// ---
As for the reason Halo has for being popular ?
There was no choice when it got started, so it the marketing ensured that the average gamer didn't stop to think if anything else might be out there (and some thought it was 'good' because Bungie had made a game for the Mac).

After that it had sufficient momentum to keep on rolling and MS's marketing made sure that Halo remained in the news.
Kind of like why people choose to play CS ... it's popular because it's popular already.

[N1ghtmare]

I think a lot of people bash the Halo series simply because it's so popular and mainstream. There is really nothing wrong with it, it's good polished gameplay that's easy to pick up and have fun with, especially when played with friends.

It's not that it's mainstream. It's that *some* of its fans run around shrieking stuff like "WOW is the best game eva. except for HALO. HALO is best game. Even better than the that Half-Life 2 BS". Yes, that is a real quote I overheard someone saying.

[Evoken]

Looks verry good to me

[Evil_Cope]

Nightmare']It's not that it's mainstream. It's that *some* of its fans run around shrieking stuff like "WOW is the best game eva. except for HALO. HALO is best game. Even better than the that Half-Life 2 BS". Yes, that is a real quote I overheard someone saying.

I enjoyed Halo 2 a lot more than half-life 2. *shrug*

[discreet]

I enjoyed Halo 2 a lot more than half-life 2. *shrug*

so did i. half-life 2 was a fun game, but it didn't have any multiplayer unless you count counter-strike. i had more fun playing online with xbox live with my friends, where everyone had a headset and could communicate. it was pretty sweet. it did get old after a while though.

but then again, counter-strike got old before half-life 2 even came out.

[Evil_Cope]

so did i. half-life 2 was a fun game, but it didn't have any multiplayer unless you count counter-strike. i had more fun playing online with xbox live with my friends, where everyone had a headset and could communicate. it was pretty sweet. it did get old after a while though.

but then again, counter-strike got old before half-life 2 even came out.
I didn't really get that far in HL2, to be perfectly honest. I was never a fan of the original, so it's not overly suprising. I just got a certain way in, and decided that though *reasonably* pretty, in places, it was just basically more of the same. Which, if you liked Half-life 1, is awesome, i'm sure. For me? not so enthralling.

Halo 2 (not played much of the first, really) just seemed to be more interesting, as far as pure gameplay mechanics went. The weapons were nice and unique, and allowed for very varied gameplay. Plus the enamy AI was, generally, downright superb. Offered interesting, varied, and frequently amusing fights throughout.
Plus, nothing's so amusing as making midget-like people with funny voices run quivering in sheer terror. :tup:

[Sir_Brizz]

The weapons were nice and unique, and allowed for very varied gameplay.
I honestly can't believe you just said that...

[N1ghtmare]

If you didn't get that far in HL2, your missing A LOT. Ggun, antlions, carmagnets...

[Balton]

Nightmare']If you didn't get that far in HL2, your missing A LOT. Ggun, antlions, carmagnets...


and seemingly never ending boat rides.... yeah. :o

[N1ghtmare]

The boat 'ride' isn't that long. Not too far into it do you get a machine gun attachment and take down a copter. If you haven't gotten past that, well...

[Daedalus]

Nightmare']The boat 'ride' isn't that long. Not too far into it do you get a machine gun attachment and take down a copter. If you haven't gotten past that, well...

I love HL2, I've played the SP a couple times through, but goddamn dude if you don't think the vehicle parts are long and drawn out...ugh. I couldn't stand them and now I actually skip the chapters because they've become so tedious. Sure it was cool the first time through but once you've played it through and you just want to get to the end parts of the game, they're a monstrous pain in the ass.

[Draveru]

I feel shameful now I havent played HL2 only about 10min on my friends comp before he left for the Air Force. Back to topic, I hope they use at least most of the elements that made halo1 into this new one. By the looks of it they already have to graphics down like a mofo, now all they need is good halo1 mechanics.

[MrSmiles]

Of the 3 mainstream games (Counter strike, World of WarCraft, and Halo) i've only played Halo and Halo 2, i see no reason to get CS because from what i've heard it's all hackers or 8 year olds, as for world of warcraft, i'm not going to pay them every month to play it, i've got something that would be worth the money every month.

[Airmoran]

I dunno, from my experience, CS has far less lamers than Halo 2.

Hell, all Xbox Live games, save maybe PGR2, is just an excuse to listen to kids talk big about their penises. CS tends to be clean of stupidity most of the time. And when you do hit a pocket of idiots, there's absolutely no reason not to find another server.

[Evil_Cope]

I honestly can't believe you just said that...


Unique when compared to each other, not to other games and so on.

I personally find that both being able to hold such a limited number of weapons at any one time, and the relative lack of overlap in weapon-function, (and therefor avoidance of redundancy in certain weapons) massively improves the feeling of diversity in gameplay, when compared to many of its competitors. including half-life 2.

The shere gameplay mechanics of the intereacting between the various weapons, and the sheilds, and so on, just simply makes the game feel a lot more engaging. Let alone when you factor in the different, and believable behaviour of the various creatures and allies in the game, and their interaction with both you, and the game world. I loved playing as the arbiter, for example, for the chance to arm the squads of Grunts with decent guns, giving them an actual fighting chance, or trying to get them to mount up on Ghosts (they're pretty good if you can get them on vehicles) Plus, it's like watching midgits on hoverbikes, how can you not love that? :lol:

on the level of pure gameplay, i don't think Half-life 2 has anything aproaching this. It has some impressive set-pieces, but not so much on the actual, pure and abstract gameplay.

Yes, i didn't give HL2 what i'd call a fair chance. But then, i did play it enough to know i couldn't be bothered to play any further, personally. Also, bare in mind that several of my housemates have played the game heavily, and i've watched large chunks of it. I know most of what i missed out on. :) The ol' squeezy-toy/pet bugs thing looked like a cool gimmick, the grappler was interesting enough in a "reminds me of jedi knight" kind of way, and the huge robot(Dog?), to borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, "Made me happy in my girlparts". But it just bored me to actually play. *shrugs*

Half-life 2 is a great game. But if you hated the first, i personally think there's a good chance the second won't change your mind automatically. You may well find you are playing a game that is simply very much like one you've already decided you didn't want to play. Also, needs more midgits.

[KillStreak]

meh.

I'm tired of Halo. Is there any other enticement for Halo 3 besides eye candy? Seriously the first game was nothing more than an over-hyped FPS to sell a console. I will give them credit and applause because it worked quite well. The second iteration was, well I couldnt have cared less so I didnt follow the game.

I seriously never understood what made Halo so popular. It did nothing revolutionary that noone else had done before. I guess it is a class-A example of good marketing.

I know exactly where your coming from.....



**** halo, halo 2, and halo 3.

[Sijik]

I hated HL1, but oddly enough enjoyed HL2...
--
From what I've gathered, what people liked the most about Halo1 was the ability to kill anyone from accross the map with 2 pistol shots.
Halo2 removed that, so now almost everyone hates it. My guess is that Halo3's sucess will depend almost entirely on whether or not the pistol is the ultimate insta-kill weapon again.

[Airmoran]

Well, it's not just that, yeah they got rid of the pistol's strengths (which is a good thing for online play), but they replaced the pistol with lock-on rocket launchers and that goddamn sword.

The pistol required some practice and judgement to use it right, and even when you do, it's not necessarily THE ultimate weapon. But that damned energy sword; It takes maybe 5 seconds worth of practice and you're set.

[Sijik]

Well, I can't even remember the number of times I've been easily offed while trying to use the sword, so it's not nearly as easy as people make it out to be. I've gotten more reliable kills with the Battle Rifle. It only takes one or two people on the server who know how to counter the sword, or who are accurate at all with the BR, and it essentially becomes worthless. At least that's my experience with it.
Anyway, I think it's good ot have a weapon or two that a newbie can use, because once you're in a server full of snipers and campers, and a "cheap, n00bish" sword lunge is the only way you can get a frag at all, that just might be enough to keep that person playng long enough to learnt he otehr guns, and eventually even how to counter the sword, lke last-second twitch-shot shotgun blasts, for one...
Being one of those newbies, the opportunity ot get a couple frags a match by using the sword is enough to let me put up with all the campers/snipers for at least a few rounds. It's never enough to let me all out dominate people who're' experienced, it just allows me to actually have fun. And for that I think it's invaluable.

[Sir_Brizz]

Halo is so popular because, regardless of your opinion, it is absolutely the best First Person Shooter ever released on the console. That doesn't mean it's Earth, Wind, Water and Fire, but in the console world that was quite an achievement.

[GotBeer?]

I played Halo on PC. It was an OK game, nothing special, but not "omg crap" either.

I loved the first Half-Life, and have played through single player several times. HL2 was OK. The only times I even really had trouble (aside from starting the game, frakkin' Steam) was on the rooftops with those speed-demon monsters and staying on the bridge supports while being chased by the gunship (apparently, my lousy balance extends in-game). The end was unbelievably easy. I mean, is it even possible to die after receiving the souped-up gravity gun?

[Kantham]

Halo is so popular because, regardless of your opinion, it is absolutely the best First Person Shooter ever released on the console. That doesn't mean it's Earth, Wind, Water and Fire, but in the console world that was quite an achievement.

It gets the kiddy crowd in the game for sure, it's the easiest FPS game ever.
And it's extremely unbalanced.

[N1ghtmare]

best First Person Shooter ever released on the console

What about 007 Goldeneye for the N64?

[TossMonkey]

Halo 2 was a very good game, probably better than Halo 1. Play through it now and you'll be reminded of how stupidly repetitive Halo really was, Halo 2 had lots of variety level-wise and most people complain it was too short rather than too crap.

As for Half-Life 2, if you haven't completed it then you can just go home. HL2 is the biznatch, bi0tches.

[Sir_Brizz]

Nightmare']What about 007 Goldeneye for the N64?
007 was good, but it still had painfully difficult controls.

[neilthecellist]

Oh dear, 007.

I'll be hoping that Halo3 reaches the PC at some point, obviously for HaloUT/Project Spartan 7 (Unreal Tournament 2004/2007 mod).

[Kantham]

007 was good, but it still had painfully difficult controls.


This game still rocks.
Much better than those crapy SP *cough* tribe vengance*cough* around.

[Daedalus]

what exactly happened to Tribes Vengeance? Did it suck? Like I LOVED Tribes 2 and played it religiously.

[Kantham]

The game crash sadly on a stupid video and i decided to just give up, i mean, you get like -40 FPS, meaning that the screen move every 1 minutes. No kidding. Latest patch didn't help either.

It was very good at first but now it's very crap, it's the worse game i have played online with the worse community around it.
not to mention that the editor is a pure b1tch. :(

[neilthecellist]

I concur. Tribes: V sucked on my brother's 5700 Ultra, and the game isn't that good anyway. Just read the user reviews for it.

[Airmoran]

IMO, I liked it. The multiplayer didn't quite take off. Althought it was fun, it's rather limited for a Tribes game and contained none of the appeal Tribes 1/2 had.

Singleplayer, on the other hand, is fun for tribe vets. It's a bit unfortunate that they chose to ignore most of the backstory set up by Starsiege, but the story was still more than the usual "kill bad guys times 20" plots you see elsewhere.

Either way, I'd check out the game for the singleplayer. Besides, it's probably the last time you'll see the Starsiege universe.

[[V]endetta]

I welcome the old Halo weapons to Halo 3.

[Vers Vlees]

Normally I dont give a **** about the HALO series. No mouse on console is no FPS for me.
however I did enjoy both HALO 1 and 2 simply because it had a COOP mode! It was a lot of fun and I hope HALO 3 will have a splitscreen coop too

[ant1991331]

Normally I dont give a **** about the HALO series. No mouse on console is no FPS for me.
however I did enjoy both HALO 1 and 2 simply because it had a COOP mode! It was a lot of fun and I hope HALO 3 will have a splitscreen coop too
Yeah, i kinda guess it would, hopefuly a 4-way COOP game, that'll rock.

[Vers Vlees]

I wish more console FPS games would have splitscreen coops. Alright its not always handy but great fun playing together. I wished most PC FPS games had a coop mode.

[Quaglax]

An old friend of mine was a nut about Halo and Halo 2, he played it religiously but I couldnt STAND it! I agree with the guy who said its just a product of good marketing, there is nothing in Halo that hasnt been done before by much better games.

[Sir_Brizz]

An old friend of mine was a nut about Halo and Halo 2, he played it religiously but I couldnt STAND it! I agree with the guy who said its just a product of good marketing, there is nothing in Halo that hasnt been done before by much better games.
On console?

[neilthecellist]

I'd assume so, if he means PC, then I'll be appalled.

[Evil_Cope]

An old friend of mine was a nut about Halo and Halo 2, he played it religiously but I couldnt STAND it! I agree with the guy who said its just a product of good marketing, there is nothing in Halo that hasnt been done before by much better games.


Accessable melee attacks without changing weapon? Ditto grenades(which are usefull?) Ai that fights tactically, using terrain as a matter of the ai itself, not complex set scenario pathnoding? Ai that exhibits real-world behaviour, like panicing when you take out their larger unit? NPC's that assist you, and aren't three shades of useless? Vehicles?


If you could point out the FPS that did all these things so long before HALO 1, please do, i could use a good shooter. :-)

[ilkman]

On console?

Perhaps it is a big improvement for FPS's on console, but its amazing how frequently the 'fanbois', and all the rest who bought into the hype, forget that fact when exclaming it as the "best game evar".

Edit*

I've been thinking and I do believe it is a matter of perspective.

Me, coming from being a solid PC gamer, scoff at the game because it is hyped into the stratosphere, and for me, I've been playing games that can do what Halo can for a long time now. I just dont get it.

If I were coming at this from a console gamers perspective, I would have had to endure FPS titles that were mediocre at best before Halo. So to a console gamer Halo was the game that saved FPS's for them, so naturally it would be "the best game evar".

[Evil_Cope]

Perhaps it is a big improvement for FPS's on console, but its amazing how frequently the 'fanbois', and all the rest who bought into the hype, forget that fact when exclaming it as the "best game evar".

Edit*

I've been thinking and I do believe it is a matter of perspective.

Me, coming from being a solid PC gamer, scoff at the game because it is hyped into the stratosphere, and for me, I've been playing games that can do what Halo can for a long time now. I just dont get it.

If I were coming at this from a console gamers perspective, I would have had to endure FPS titles that were mediocre at best before Halo. So to a console gamer Halo was the game that saved FPS's for them, so naturally it would be "the best game evar".

Seriously, i can't for the life of me think of any pre-halo FPS that involved Vehicles on a regular basis. (ignoring the quality of the AI, and the gameplay revolving around carefully choosing 2 weapons and so on, melee and grenades, etc)

It's far from the best game ever, and did very well off of both being one of the few killer aps in that time for the xbox, and the fact that it was so well received for multiplayer (bringing together people to try the game multiplayer, in theory, helping it get more exposure more quickly than a comparable Singleplayer title)

But i really can't think of any games that did most of the things it did, that came out before-hand.
Still, point out examples. I like retro gaming, and i really haven't had a good FPS in a while. :)

[ilkman]

I will admit that Halo was a good quality game. No doubt there.


I wonder though...

Would Halo be anywhere near as popular as it is without Microsofts coporate marketing machine and accompanying the launch of the xbox and xbox live?

What if they made it for a regular console already in circulation like the ps2? What if they had released it on PC like the original plan was before Microsoft bought Bungie?

How much of its actual success and popularity is due to it being a great game as apposed to people just buying into hype or jumping on the "whats popular" band-waggon?

[Evil_Cope]

I will admit that Halo was a good quality game. No doubt there.


I wonder though...

Would Halo be anywhere near as popular as it is without Microsofts coporate marketing machine and accompanying the launch of the xbox and xbox live?

What if they made it for a regular console already in circulation like the ps2? What if they had released it on PC like the original plan was before Microsoft bought Bungie?

How much of its actual success and popularity is due to it being a great game as apposed to people just buying into hype or jumping on the "whats popular" band-waggon?

Well, no, as i said, it wouldn't be so popular if it wasn't released just for the xbox, and when it was released. Because, frankly, it was the xbox's only Killer Ap of the time. It was un-contested, basically. In those circumstances, a game will get a lot of attention. I don't particularly recall much advertisement for it at all, really (the first one). As far as i understand it, it was the word of mouth factor, from people multi-playering it so much, holding halo-lan's , getting drunk and playing it with mates, etc, that gave it such a good reputation.

Then, you see, whenever anyone at the time would ask what's good on the xbox, they'd get pointed at Halo. If it was released for the Ps2 instead, well sure, it'd have got a lot less attention because it wouldn't have been so clearly the supirior. It would still have done well, though, because it's an innovative, well designed game.

But the fact that it got a good reputation because of the circumstances can't over-ride the fact that it was a very innovative game. No, you were not playing games that did it all, but better, before-hand. Not that i've ever heard of, at least. I wonder, would a lot of the people in this thread be claiming it did nothing new at all as loudly, if it had been for anything other than microsoft's xbox, or released on PC first? ;)

[KillStreak]

I cant say its the greatest for three reasons:

1. I didnt find anything so great about it.

2. Way too many people dislike it.

3. I'm sure there are plenty of games out there that have more active players than what H2 or Halo has.