For all the naysayers

Games Other Halo
1

I see a lot of the complaints have died off but for the naysayers let me remind you of what Halo has done for gaming, and helped out gaming as a whole. Although some of these features may have been implemented in games before Halo, Halo did it beautifully. So beautiful, in fact, that other games had to follow because there was no way to get around it…

First is melee…melee in other first person shooters was a weapon within itself. To get to it you literally had to switch through weapons to get to it. Halo was one of the first FPS on console that made melee useful.

A sub-note to this is Halo limited you to two weapons, before that, games like Turok and Duke Nukem had an array of weapons at your disposal to use whenever you wanted.

Second, and this is a big one… rechargeable health… go play any FPS game, or almost any action based game for that matter that is made before '01, and you’d have health packs littered around the map, and even if you didn’t (Rainbow Six), your health didn’t recharge as quickly or usefully as it did in Halo. Now it’s staple of almost any action game even if it isn’t a FPS (Gears of War) or a puzzle action game (Mirrors Edge).

Third, is how Halo 2 would create match by taking the best connection and hosting a match and streaming other players to that host to play a game. Before this, and even after (Call of duty 3) you had to find the host yourself with a map that is already selected by the host and just play that way. With Halo 2 you would hop into a match with the person with the best connection, the servers would choose a match then you all would play a game. Now all games do that…

Lastly, is how the controls are setup. Before this almost all games that were FPS were being dominated by the PC market, other than Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. The controls were so intuitive and smooth, even with vehicles that it made a lasting impact on games.

So when you hear about Halo adding in armor modifications, or Spartan points don’t complain. Remember that these games have long periods of time in between each release. If Halo 2 and Halo Reach came out in between a span of two years you’d probably see the progression we do now, even without Call of Duty. Just because Halo is that type of game that tries to take leaps and bounds above itself to make everything even more fun and enjoyable. Remember that call of duty didn’t create everything, and for some things that it did do right, I commend them. I’ve been a fan of that series for about as long has Halo (got into Call of Duty with Call of Duty 2, not MW2, Call of Duty 2).

2

> I see a lot of the complaints have died off but for the naysayers let me remind you of what Halo has done for gaming, and helped out gaming as a whole. Although some of these features may have been implemented in games before Halo, Halo did it beautifully. So beautiful, in fact, that other games had to follow because there was no way to get around it…
>
> First is melee…melee in other first person shooters was a weapon within itself. To get to it you literally had to switch through weapons to get to it. Halo was one of the first FPS on console that made melee useful. And once you got to it, it was useless compared to Halos melee.
>
> A sub-note to this is Halo limited you to two weapons, before that, games like Turok and Duke Nukem had an array of weapons at your disposal to use whenever you wanted.
>
> Second, and this is a big one… rechargeable health… go play any FPS game, or almost any action based game for that matter that is made before '01, and you’d have health packs littered around the map, and even if you didn’t (Rainbow Six), your health didn’t recharge as quickly or usefully as it did in Halo. Now it’s staple of almost any action game even if it isn’t a FPS (Gears of War) or a puzzle action game (Mirrors Edge).
>
> Third, is how Halo 2 would create match by taking the best connection and hosting a match and streaming other players to that host to play a game. Before this, and even after (Call of duty 3) you had to find the host yourself with a map that is already selected by the host and just play that way. With Halo 2 you would hop into a match with the person with the best connection, the servers would choose a match then you all would play a game. Now all games do that…
>
>
> Lastly, is how the controls are setup. Before this almost all games that were FPS were being dominated by the PC market, other than Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. The controls were so intuitive and smooth, even with vehicles that it made a lasting impact on games.
>
>
> So when you hear about Halo adding in armor modifications, or Spartan points don’t complain. Remember that these games have long periods of time in between each release. If Halo 2 and Halo Reach came out in between a span of two years you’d probably see the progression we do now, even without Call of Duty. Just because Halo is that type of game that tries to take leaps and bounds above itself to make everything even more fun and enjoyable. Remember that call of duty didn’t create everything, and for some things that it did do right, I commend them. I’ve been a fan of that series for about as long has Halo (got into Call of Duty with Call of Duty 2, not MW2, Call of Duty 2).

Marry me. OT: I agree with all of your points.

3

Halo did pioneer a lot of features that many other games would adopt (Theater mode may be another of those features). Still, that doesn’t automatically give Halo 4 a golden ticket to be awesome.

I’ve been burned by being blindly hyped for games before (see Call of Duty: Black Ops [in my defence, I was told that it would be different than previous games… freakin’ RC cars…]). I’m trying to be a little more critical of games before their release. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really excited for Halo 4, but a little skepticism doesn’t hurt.

4

So how do you propose that adding in say, armour perks will actually enhance the experience other than to draw in CoD fans? Where’s the need for them, did you play Halo 3 and think “Oh golly, wouldn’t it be awesome if we had armour perks?”. Did anyone really think that?

And don’t you think that if 343i really had a good reason to include them, they would say so out right to stop people from ranting on forums like this one?

The other Halo’s additions added to the experience, it made the game unique, special, and better than other games out there. How does any of the new features in Halo 4 do this exactly, with what we know at the moment? Can you think of a way? I certainly can’t.

5

> So how do you propose that adding in say, armour perks will actually enhance the experience other than to draw in CoD fans? Where’s the need for them, did you play Halo 3 and think “Oh golly, wouldn’t it be awesome if we had armour perks?”. Did anyone really think that?
>
> And don’t you think that if 343i really had a good reason to include them, they would say so out right to stop people from ranting on forums like this one?
>
> The other Halo’s additions added to the experience, it made the game unique, special, and better than other games out there. How does any of the new features in Halo 4 do this exactly, with what we know at the moment? Can you think of a way? I certainly can’t.

My friends thought for a while that wearing all EVA in Halo 3 gave you extra damage when inside a vehicle so yes.

6

DAmn right, halo pioneered so many features that it set the template for just about every other console shooter since. And now people are crying because its time for the ideas to flow in the other direction for once? Please.

7

> DAmn right, halo pioneered so many features that it set the template for just about every other console shooter since. And now people are crying because its time for the ideas to flow in the other direction for once? Please.

Exactly. The thing is, Call of Duty is innovative. They did the obvious thing were FPS were supposed to go. Have perks, and reward you for your kills. It makes the game addictive. But I think Halo has fallen behind somewhat.

8

@cortananirvana Call of Duty 4 maybe but all the recent CODs are just COD4 ripoffs

9

So Halo has gone from invonating the gaming world, to copying the games that orginally copied it (Halo CE). You couldn’t make it up

343: Taking the Extra mile backwards…

10

> So Halo has gone from invonating the gaming world, to copying the games that orginally copied it (Halo CE). You couldn’t make it up
>
> 343: Taking the Extra mile backwards…

Well once you have a game release once every 3 years, your going to get behind the curb. Bungie may have wanted perks to be in Reach in 2008 but we wouldn’t know that until 2010. You do know that firefight was planned for Halo 3 but didn’t make it in time. If that were true then everyone would’ve said “-Yoink!- zombies copied Halo 3’s firefight.”
The way I look at it, both are fun and innovative. If they can pull it off, why not put it in the game?

11

Yeah, it did all that, but it did it in the context of an arena shooter. We are losing the arena shooter aspect of Halo.

Also none of the additions to H4 are going to become industry standards like H1 and 2. Adding all these GIMMICKS is purely business.

12

> Yeah, it did all that, but it did it in the context of an arena shooter. We are losing the arena shooter aspect of Halo.
>
> Also none of the additions to H4 are going to become industry standards like H1 and 2. Adding all these GIMMICKS is purely business.

How else could Halo adapt? I don’t think you guys see that the arena shooter is an archaic concept, and 343i is changing Halo in ways they see fit while trying to somehow retain its original aspects. Do you see how these ideas would conflict? Halo has needed new life for a while now, and Halo’s old arena shooter roots are very hard to stick to while providing meaningful change. It seems 343 is trying, but of course some people will be upset about anything 343 changes because arena shooters are pretty much static in the innovation their gameplay allows.

13

> > So Halo has gone from invonating the gaming world, to copying the games that orginally copied it (Halo CE). You couldn’t make it up
> >
> > 343: Taking the Extra mile backwards…
>
> Well once you have a game release once every 3 years, your going to get behind the curb. Bungie may have wanted perks to be in Reach in 2008 but we wouldn’t know that until 2010. You do know that firefight was planned for Halo 3 but didn’t make it in time. If that were true then everyone would’ve said “-Yoink!- zombies copied Halo 3’s firefight.”
> The way I look at it, both are fun and innovative. If they can pull it off, why not put it in the game?

Here here, games always take ideas from each-other. As long as it’s successful it’s good. In the past, I have criticized CoD for copying other games but I now think differently. For almost every game takes ideas from each-other. Can you imagine every gaming company having to think up new ideas with it having to be successful?

14

halo = crouch
cod=crouch
Gears=crouch

halo= killing people
cod=killing people
gears=killing people

halo=having more than one weapon
cod=having more than one weapon
gears=having more than one weapon

halo= regenerating health
cod= regenerating health
gears= regenerating health

so all fps and tps have somethings in common. halo is trying to enhance the “perks” from Cod to make them balanced and useful in halo so they can wipe it in their face and go see look we made the your perks balanced, so -Yoink- you.

15

honestly i have no problem with people saying they dont like changes but when people say that 343 doesnt know how to make a game and that halo is just becoming another typical fps it really irritates me

16

Just because Halo had been groundbreaking in the past doesn’t warrant the assumption that every successive one will be, not to mention that the series hasn’t made a huge impact on the fps genre since Halo 2. No shooters adopted Halo 3’s equipment, or Halo Reach’s armor abilities. On top of all of that, Bungie takes credit for the breakthoughs in Halo CE and 2, not 343…343 has no pedigree, so they have to earn my trust. But they’re not announcing groundbreaking systems are they? Perks and Loadouts have been pioneered by COD and in COD they’re implemented in ways that are inherently imbalanced. In fact, these systems have NEVER been balanced in ANY videogame to this day. Halo 3 was completely balanced. The ability to select armor abilities in Reach broke the balance. Now Halo 4 has armor abilities, perks, and loadouts, and it’s planning on having all 3 of these systems balanced at the same time? Good Luck…because that would be groundbreaking.

17

I agree with you OP. Its sad that whenever grand threads come out like this the haters run and hide in a closet lol. These kind of threads NEVER get any attention.

Its like they want halo to fail or something. Adding perks and all that AS LONG AS THEY ARE BALANCED, is totally fine. Gears did some unique things, but refused to evolve and look what happened. A game with a promising future fell and is still falling.

343 Brought reach back from death with a simple TU, imagine how well they can balance an ENTIRE GAME that they have been working on since ODST came out. I have faith in 343. Im not blind at all but I can tell by their hard working attitudes and love of the franchise that things will be ok come nov. 6th.

18

> I agree with you OP. Its sad that whenever grand threads come out like this the haters run and hide in a closet lol. These kind of threads NEVER get any attention.
>
> Its like they want halo to fail or something. Adding perks and all that AS LONG AS THEY ARE BALANCED, is totally fine. Gears did some unique things, but refused to evolve and look what happened. A game with a promising future fell and is still falling.
>
> 343 Brought reach back from death with a simple TU, imagine how well they can balance an ENTIRE GAME that they have been working on since ODST came out. I have faith in 343. Im not blind at all but I can tell by their hard working attitudes and love of the franchise that things will be ok come nov. 6th.

I agree TsumiyaKuroneko(what does that mean? haha)
Like I’ve said before…perks are something that Halo could’ve had if it released a game every year. But since we only see it in 3 year intervals we see it catching up to “what could have been.” I’m sure a team member has mentioned perks at a roundtable discussion back in '06/early’07 but it’ll never see the light of day until '10, or 2012. By then people say it’ll have copied so and so…