…and my first opinion was: How did we ever think this was good?
Not a complaint thread or anything. Just wondering what other people think of it. The last time I played CTF on Blood Gulch must have been at least ten years ago and I kind of can’t believe how bad it was now.
Granted there was lag and a huge drop out of players left us with just 4vs3 by the end. Yes the godlike Scorpions were on when we used to just play with Warthogs but…
Given that we once rented a hall to play a 32 player CTF tiered elimination thing I am sort of struggling to see what the huge appeal was back then.
I’m trying to justify to myself that when Halo: CE came out there wasn’t really anything else which offered large scale objective maps with such vehicle focused team gameplay. I mean we had basically graduated to Halo from Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Counterstrike. Has this come as a massive shock to anyone else or is it as you remember it?
My group of friends and I still play 8v8 Blood Gulch CTF from time to time and it’s still more fun than any other Halo game. So much teamwork needed to win.
Nostalgia is a cruel mistress. I only every played campaign back in CE so the campaign still brings back fond memories. When I switch graphics back to how it was originally released though I do have to wonder to myself what happened to all those years. The old graphics look so outdated. Doesn’t really seem that long ago I was playing CE to be honest.
Playing through the CE campaign I genuinely laughed when I turned on the old graphics. The story though is rock solid and all the better for the updates to the cutscenes. Some of the levels play way slower than you would get away with in modern gaming but it was still fun.
The multiplayer though just seemed fraught with issues that I don’t know why I didn’t think more of back then. Getting locked down inside the base for instance where you can’t step outside without getting obliterated and the enemy can’t get to your flag because everyone has a shotgun and a corner to hide in…
I’m sure without the tanks, with a full game and with no lag it would be more fun but it still felt crude at best…
Halo 1 is still a ton of fun when it’s played latency-free on the original Xbox where the pistol works and other funny glitches don’t happen. And having 8v8 on a big map like Blood Gultch or Sidewinder is extremely important.
The MCC port, with laggy online play and sub-8v8 competition involving quitters and no communication between teammates isn’t going to be fun at all.
And don’t discount the impact that having an actual LAN party has on the overall amount of fun. Online play is great, but I’ll always be sad that online play essentially killed the desire for people to try playing together at a single place. LAN parties always have, and always will, make gaming more fun.
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> Playing through the CE campaign I genuinely laughed when I turned on the old graphics. The story though is rock solid and all the better for the updates to the cutscenes. Some of the levels play way slower than you would get away with in modern gaming but it was still fun.
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> The multiplayer though just seemed fraught with issues that I don’t know why I didn’t think more of back then. Getting locked down inside the base for instance where you can’t step outside without getting obliterated and the enemy can’t get to your flag because everyone has a shotgun and a corner to hide in…
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> I’m sure without the tanks, with a full game and with no lag it would be more fun but it still felt crude at best…
I got 50-14’d on Derelict Team Slayer the other day. They camped us from up top and we would just spawn on bottom and die over and over.
My question: “Why don’t I ever remember this happening in Halo 1 before?”
The answer: “My pistol worked before - I could shoot people dead in 3 shots. I could get a double kill now, get my team out of this spot, and get back in the game.”
I don’t think it’s as much that the game has gotten old. It’s that the Halo MCC port of Halo 1 is terrible. If they ever fix it, it’s going to be a blast again.
The lag is a big issue sure but baserape happened regardless. You couldn’t really rage quit at a lan though so the game just carried on regardless. I genuinely recall rounds lasting hours as both teams held the other team’s flag in some hidden place and no one could score to win. Now either the current rules would just time the game out after a while or people would quit.
Playing at a LAN rather than online was a big part of the fun I know but we used to play on Xbox Connect (as shoddy as it was) and that was still good back then. One particularly bizarre party had eight of us playing on two consoles against a group of French guys doing exactly the same across the channel. There was still less lag than in MCC…