HALO II!!!

[Archon]

I would say that this thread deserves resurrecting, seeing as it the release is only about a month away, as opposed to 6.

I am really looking forward to dual wielding. I havent seen this concept used since Goldeneye for N64. This one should be much better, because you use two separate triggers so you can control which gun you want to shoot with, and you can have two different kinds of gun, for different tactics. A good one would be the submachine gun/plasma pistol combination. Use the charged plasma pistol to take off their shields and then finish them with the smg.

I am also looking forward to the new battle rifle. It looks like they made it to be all the late pistol should have been. It has a lot more ammo I think, can fire three round bursts or single shots (depending on if you are zoomed or not), and has a good melee attack like the late assault rifle. This should make it an extremely good weapon.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Well, I'm pretty excited about Halo II.  I haven't played on XBOX Live since I left the States, but I'll be back in time for it.  I got on XBOX Live for multiplayer Splinter Cell.  I'm staying for Halo II.  

Reports from people who have played either call it a vast improvement on the original or just more of the same.  Seems pretty widely varied.  I'll let you all know what I think once I pick it up...

[Archon]

I dont see how it could be more of the same, it has so many additions. Dual wielding, combination melee, interactive environment, boarding among other things should make it a big improvement over the last. One of the things that was great about the last Halo was that they took some concepts that FPS' had tried before, and they made them actually practical. People had tried vehicles in FPS, but they were never pulled off like they should have been. Grenades were usually a separate weapon, so you couldnt use them and a gun without switching in between. Also, you usually had to hold down a button for a minute to tell how much power you wanted to throw with. Halo made the grenade practical, and an integral part of the game. Melee attacks had been used before, but Halo actually made them do a lot of damage so that they were worth actually getting up close for. MY point is that I am betting that they will pull the new features off well, and that will make it a much better game than the first.

[Entsuropi]

Archon.

Try playing Tribes.

[Archon]

Isn't that only for the computer? I like FPS games for consoles much better than for the computer, mostly because of the controls. I seem to be the only one who likes a game controller over mouse and keyboard, but I think it is much easier to control.

[Onion of Death]

I played Tribes a long time ago. Isn't it free? If so, I'll have to pick myself up a copy one of these days.

[Entsuropi]

When the overwhelming majority of FPS's are for the PC, how can you make such sweeping statements as you have above without actually playing FPS's on the PC?

And in reality, Halo was a deep failure. It had a good first few levels, but the rest of the game was horrible. The multiplayer co-op is decent for the first few levels, most of which were in the PC demo. And the other multiplayer modes are just terrible. The weapons are unbalanced for both single player and multiplayer, the vehicles are silly and the level design is abysmal.  When compared to other PC games, Halo fails on every level. It only worked on the Xbox due to a lack of other games of the same type, and its hype. Halo 2 is the same game with a few tricks and gimmicks.

Bring on half life 2, thats all I say. And before you ask, I got a Xbox soon after release with Halo, so I know what I am talking about on that score.

[Archon]

I heard that Halo was terrible for the computer.

I disagree about the unbalanced weapons, beside the needler, every weapon is decent. Trust me, I have been playing for a decent amount of time, and I have taken on people with shotguns close range with the plasma pistol, as well as people with the sniper rifle long range with the assault rifle. Every weapon has its perks if you look for them.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Tribes was an EXCELLENT multiplayer game.  It's the only game I ever joined a clan in.  Great stuff.

And Entropy, you're right about single-player Halo.  After about half-way through the game, the levels get tediously repetitive.  I still have nightmares about the boredom-inducing library.  Multiplayer made up for it though.  That, and the final ending sequence on the Warthog.  Did not see that coming.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Heh, I'm with ya there Dr. P. I sort of liked the Warthog end. I found it a bit obtrusive, but it was a different kind of fun.

[Archon]

I liked the single player actually. The library wasnt the best level, but even that one I liked for the visuals. I liked how they designed the level because a lot of its features were useful either as cover or high ground when you got into a fight. Another thing that I liked about it was that when you beat it on Legendary it was actually like you accomplished something, it wasnt so easy.

[Skar]

I played HALO pretty regularly for the last two years.  Someone always had an X-Box and someone always had HALO.  You just haven't played until you've played with 15 green berets all in a single conference room wih four projectors going at once and guys standing around waiting for someone to lose so they could take his place.

It was a blast. I've played many FPSs on the PC as well.  At first I hated HALO because of the frustration of switching to the controller from the mouse keyboard combination but it was the only thing around so I stuck with it.

Having made the transition I can say I really liked HALO.  The levels were hard in singleplayer and fun to play in multiplayer.

And frankly the vehicles worked great.  They had a good range of vehicle types and the bloody things were fun to drive.  Yet they didn't give an unstoppable advantage to the driver.

Halo Rocked.

Halo II will be better, I'm sure of it.  

[Archon]

Yeah that was one of the things that I really liked about the vehicles in Halo, they weren't unfairly good. They were easy to drive, but a lot of the time they could be considered a liability, you have to use strategy to make them good. Like using them to block warp points, or using the warthogs to block the entrances to the bases in Blood Gulch, it is part of the strategy. You can use them as battlewagons, but you have to know what you are doing to avoid getting killed by someone with a rocket launcher or a pistol.