Halo 3

[danth]

But will this change your highest skill level in each catagory (ie. Lone Wolves or Team Slayer) and/or your rank (ie. Colonel)? I don't want to rebuild my Lone Wolves ranking back up to 40 again!

It won't change your rank or skill levels. But if you and your buddies pick a language that nobody else uses, then matchmaking will most likely hook you all up in the same games. The only problem is, your achievements will be listed in whatever language you used when you got them. You still get the points (and the sword) though.

I'd also like to do some ranked Team Slayer if we could get four good players together. It might be one way to reach level 50. I'm stuck at 40 in Lone Wolves.

Edited January 17, 2008 by danth

[protostar8]

It won't change your rank or skill levels. But if you and your buddies pick a language that nobody else uses, then matchmaking will most likely hook you all up in the same games. The only problem is, your achievements will be listed in whatever language you used when you got them. You still get the points (and the sword) though.

I'd also like to do some ranked Team Slayer if we could get four good players together. It might be one way to reach level 50. I'm stuck at 40 in Lone Wolves.

In case anyone wants to add me, my gamertag is protostar888 on xbox live. I really only get to play some on the weekends thanks to college being a ton of work this semester, but I was one of the best back in the early to middle Halo 2 days and I'm decent at Halo 3 (at least the clan I was part of used to be great when we played together).

[wolfx]

We are ODST.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV-LJMMPwqw...player_embedded

[eugimon]

the game has mal and six in it... I'm there!

[Einherjar]

"Regular soldiers"

[CoryHolmes]

Say what you will about the concept of Halo live-action and the general quality of game-to-movies so far, but that ODST and the Halo 3 short films for that game just rocked. Totally and completely rocked.

[Hikuro]

Hey has anyone picked up any of the Halo 3 figures? .......I thought they looked cool but I'm noticing that twice now I've gotten a figure that's been assembled either poorly or incorrectly. My First EOD figure had his left wrist glued or something into his forearm and it snapped right off. Also that same arm had the socket joint broken so he couldn't bend at the elbow.

I exchanged it, for another one today, and that was ALSO defective as his right buttcheek is placed wrong...they put his buttcheek infront and not behind so he's all weird looking....course stupid me for NOT noticing as I was more fixated on the first problems I had. Crrraaaaapppp!!! And they don't have anymore EOD's.

I contacted the manufacture, and I'm sure I wont get anything from it. But I mean really? WTF ever happened to Quality Control?!

[Max Jenius]

My gripe with Halo is that I'd been playing FPS games for yearrrrsssss & whenever I played Halo it just felt like it should have been titled "First Person Shooter" and come in a white box. It's so generic to me.

[gerwalk25]

Hey has anyone picked up any of the Halo 3 figures? .......I thought they looked cool but I'm noticing that twice now I've gotten a figure that's been assembled either poorly or incorrectly. My First EOD figure had his left wrist glued or something into his forearm and it snapped right off. Also that same arm had the socket joint broken so he couldn't bend at the elbow.

I exchanged it, for another one today, and that was ALSO defective as his right buttcheek is placed wrong...they put his buttcheek infront and not behind so he's all weird looking....course stupid me for NOT noticing as I was more fixated on the first problems I had. Crrraaaaapppp!!! And they don't have anymore EOD's.

I contacted the manufacture, and I'm sure I wont get anything from it. But I mean really? WTF ever happened to Quality Control?!

I picked up a White Hayabusa and Sgt. Johnson. My Hayabusa has a loose right hip joint but it's nothing to complain about. Sgt. Johnson I didn't know about until recently when I saw it at Gamestop. His joints are tight and looks great overall. He kinda looks like Ernie Hudson, my pick as Johnson for a Halo film!

[kaiotheforsaken]

My gripe with Halo is that I'd been playing FPS games for yearrrrsssss & whenever I played Halo it just felt like it should have been titled "First Person Shooter" and come in a white box. It's so generic to me.

This x100000, I really never saw what all the fuss was about.

[eugimon]

This x100000, I really never saw what all the fuss was about.

It was the first console FPS with a decent control scheme and while it's not the best it's a solid well balanced shooter... in the console world that makes it gold.

[shiroikaze]

It was the first console FPS with a decent control scheme and while it's not the best it's a solid well balanced shooter... in the console world that makes it gold.

I never really thought much of Halo's story (the narrative is kinda lacklustre but the world portrayed is very interesting--to me at least).

But I have to say, multiplayer is where it shines ridiculously bright.

Not to mention, physics and gameplay mechanics in Halo is hilariously gold, I never had so many laughs in a multiplayer FPS game outside of Team Fortress 2...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcQFqv61Wns)

Edited September 22, 2009 by shiroikaze

[kaiotheforsaken]

It was the first console FPS with a decent control scheme and while it's not the best it's a solid well balanced shooter... in the console world that makes it gold.

Valid points, I guess I had just been exposed to Half-Life (mainly) some years prior so I was a bit spoiled by PC gaming FPS games.

[bluemax151]

Hey has anyone picked up any of the Halo 3 figures? .......I thought they looked cool but I'm noticing that twice now I've gotten a figure that's been assembled either poorly or incorrectly. My First EOD figure had his left wrist glued or something into his forearm and it snapped right off. Also that same arm had the socket joint broken so he couldn't bend at the elbow.

I exchanged it, for another one today, and that was ALSO defective as his right buttcheek is placed wrong...they put his buttcheek infront and not behind so he's all weird looking....course stupid me for NOT noticing as I was more fixated on the first problems I had. Crrraaaaapppp!!! And they don't have anymore EOD's.

I contacted the manufacture, and I'm sure I wont get anything from it. But I mean really? WTF ever happened to Quality Control?!

I collect the Halo series myself. There are some serious issues with joints getting stuck on these figures. You can try using a heat gun/hair dryer, putting the figure in the freezer and/or letting the figure sit in warm/hot water and the joints may loosen and not break off. However you may mess up the wash that is applied to these figures a little bit.

I have had 2 Spartans and 2 drones (wings) suffer major breakages but the drones I managed to fix. I also have an ODST that his shoulder socket is warped but not broken. Not really a bad track record considering how many figures I have but not really the durability/QC you'd expect of a "toy".

I have to say for the most part I'm super impressed with the new Sgt. Avery Johnson figure. Way better articulation than I imagined it would have had although they curiously left out a few joints that would have helped the range of motion of the arms a lot.

[Noyhauser]

It was the first console FPS with a decent control scheme and while it's not the best it's a solid well balanced shooter... in the console world that makes it gold.

Actually I think it goes beyond that. Its more of a social gaming experience; It allows four people to play against each other competitively in the same room with a solid game experience, or even against a group of others online. Bungie built a game that has appeal to a wider array of casual gamers. Throughout college I played Halo with alot of my friends, few of which would play traditional FPSs. Stuff like Half Life or CS can't offer that in the same way, which is why I think Halo has a much greater popularity than other, more traditional FPS games.

[Hikuro]

I collect the Halo series myself. There are some serious issues with joints getting stuck on these figures. You can try using a heat gun/hair dryer, putting the figure in the freezer and/or letting the figure sit in warm/hot water and the joints may loosen and not break off. However you may mess up the wash that is applied to these figures a little bit.

I have had 2 Spartans and 2 drones (wings) suffer major breakages but the drones I managed to fix. I also have an ODST that his shoulder socket is warped but not broken. Not really a bad track record considering how many figures I have but not really the durability/QC you'd expect of a "toy".

I have to say for the most part I'm super impressed with the new Sgt. Avery Johnson figure. Way better articulation than I imagined it would have had although they curiously left out a few joints that would have helped the range of motion of the arms a lot.

Well while the joints on the 2nd figure I got are much better, the two left buttcheek issue isn't helpful. I contacted McFarlane about it and they pretty much told me to piss off.

[Noyhauser]

Well a friend and I finished ODST off last night... it was pretty good, though nothing too amazing. The changes are an interesting wrinkle to the game, they make the game significantly harder. You can't just take on everything anymore, a bit of stealth and planning are key. Some of the weapons have changed in their power; the silenced SMG is a pretty versatile gun, pistol is the underrated star of the game (headshots on grunts are ridiculously simple with it) while the Needler got a much needed upgrade and is one of the better weapons again (especially against brutes, not so much against the top tier enemies.)

Still my friend and I breezed through it in about seven hours on legendary with a fair bit of skulls on (Except Iron, though I doubt it would have been that much more of a challenge with it as we rarely died.) If you're a major or above in Halo3 it shouldn't be that difficult.

Firefight is pretty good too; I doubt I'll be going back to playing Nazi Zombies on COD anymore.

Edited September 24, 2009 by Noyhauser

[eugimon]

I liked the campaign in ODST. It's not as tactical as an actual stealth type FPS or even COD but it's a nice change of pace from the regular Halo formula. Still, the non linear story telling was a great deal of fun and it was a blast having half the cast of Firefly as your squadmates.

[HappyPenguins]

Say what you will about the concept of Halo live-action and the general quality of game-to-movies so far, but that ODST and the Halo 3 short films for that game just rocked. Totally and completely rocked.

I agree, almost makes me sad the movie wasn't made :[

[Vic Mancini]

My gripe with Halo is that I'd been playing FPS games for yearrrrsssss & whenever I played Halo it just felt like it should have been titled "First Person Shooter" and come in a white box. It's so generic to me.

Not very many FPS games before Halo had:

#1 Strict limitations on the number of weapons you can carry.

- In almost all FPS games before Halo, and still most of them afterward, you can carry an unlimited number of weapons. Somehow your character sprints around while carrying a chainsaw, a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a gigantic laser bazooka, all at the same time. But not in Halo. In Halo you get to carry only two weapons. That's it. Limitations sometimes make for creative game play and strategy.

#2 Instant melee attacks and grenade tosses.

- In most FPS games you had to cumbersomely switch away from your firearm to your melee weapon or grenade. Not in Halo. Halo was the first game I saw that made it so easy to pistol whip or butt-end someone or throw a grenade the instant you needed to, and with such ease.

#3 No life bar.

- Instead of having a traditional life meter or health percentage indicator, Halo used a creative self-regenerating shield. What?...infinite life as long as you find cover for a few seconds?...way to suck the challenge out of the game, right? Wrong.

#4 Vehicles.

- Nobody back then was doing vehicles as well as Halo did.

#5 Checkpoints instead of save anywhere.

- Lots of games before Halo were using checkpoints instead of the save anywhere method, but checkpoints definitely weren't in vogue when Halo came out. Bungie made a bold decision to consciously go with checkpoints and it ended up making the game way more challenging and way more fun.

#6 Legendary mode.

- Maybe I didn't play enough FPS games back then, but I don't remember anything being as difficult as Legendary mode in Halo...(The only mode Halo should really be played on). ...Simultaneously frustrating as you get killed over and over again, and infinitely fulfilling when you finally pass that next checkpoint and can finally take a breath.

Because of these things, I thought Halo was very innovative at the time and the exact opposite of "generic". Not to mention the smooth controls and the great story/lore.

[VT 1010]

Not very many FPS games before Halo had:

#1 Strict limitations on the number of weapons you can carry.

- In almost all FPS games before Halo, and still most of them afterward, you can carry an unlimited number of weapons. Somehow your character sprints around while carrying a chainsaw, a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a gigantic laser bazooka, all at the same time. But not in Halo. In Halo you get to carry only two weapons. That's it. Limitations sometimes make for creative game play and strategy.

#2 Instant melee attacks and grenade tosses.

- In most FPS games you had to cumbersomely switch away from your firearm to your melee weapon or grenade. Not in Halo. Halo was the first game I saw that made it so easy to pistol whip or butt-end someone or throw a grenade the instant you needed to, and with such ease.

#3 No life bar.

- Instead of having a traditional life meter or health percentage indicator, Halo used a creative self-regenerating shield. What?...infinite life as long as you find cover for a few seconds?...way to suck the challenge out of the game, right? Wrong.

#4 Vehicles.

- Nobody back then was doing vehicles as well as Halo did.

#5 Checkpoints instead of save anywhere.

- Lots of games before Halo were using checkpoints instead of the save anywhere method, but checkpoints definitely weren't in vogue when Halo came out. Bungie made a bold decision to consciously go with checkpoints and it ended up making the game way more challenging and way more fun.

#6 Legendary mode.

- Maybe I didn't play enough FPS games back then, but I don't remember anything being as difficult as Legendary mode in Halo...(The only mode Halo should really be played on). ...Simultaneously frustrating as you get killed over and over again, and infinitely fulfilling when you finally pass that next checkpoint and can finally take a breath.

Because of these things, I thought Halo was very innovative at the time and the exact opposite of "generic". Not to mention the smooth controls and the great story/lore.

I completely agree, but you left out sound design, music, and (at the time) graphics. In addition, the co-op mode was another innovative feature.

[Max Jenius]

Graphics? Maybe for consoles.

3 is the only thing on that list that I hadn't seen before or matters at all in my mind.

1 - Been done.

2 - Never had a problem, but been done.

3 - Now this, is interesting in an FPS. I actually liked that. Feels kinda weak, but really no different than med kits.

4 - As well? Ok. But it was bound to happen.

5 - Again, been done.

6 - Increased difficulty doesn't really make it unique.

Music is subjective. Half Life & System Shock 2 stand out to me. Co-Op had been done in SS2 as well. It's disturbingly rare though. I'm glad that Halo is pushin the dependably full co-op experience.

It's just not my cup of tea. Believe me, I wanted to like it. It's what everyone was playin!

[Vic Mancini]

Graphics? Maybe for consoles.

3 is the only thing on that list that I hadn't seen before or matters at all in my mind.

1 - Been done.

2 - Never had a problem, but been done.

3 - Now this, is interesting in an FPS. I actually liked that. Feels kinda weak, but really no different than med kits.

4 - As well? Ok. But it was bound to happen.

5 - Again, been done.

6 - Increased difficulty doesn't really make it unique.

Music is subjective. Half Life & System Shock 2 stand out to me. Co-Op had been done in SS2 as well. It's disturbingly rare though. I'm glad that Halo is pushin the dependably full co-op experience.

It's just not my cup of tea. Believe me, I wanted to like it. It's what everyone was playin!

Even if those things had "been done" before, they weren't popular. Bungie made some very bold choices for Halo. It was a very different game than most of the FPS's out there for those reasons. I don't care if you're not a fan of Halo, that's fine by me, but I don't agree with criticizing it for being "generic first person shooter" when it actually an extremely distintctive and non-generic game.

[Max Jenius]

Even if those things had "been done" before, they weren't popular. Bungie made some very bold choices for Halo. It was a very different game than most of the FPS's out there for those reasons. I don't care if you're not a fan of Halo, that's fine by me, but I don't agree with criticizing it for being "generic first person shooter" when it actually an extremely distintctive and non-generic game.

You see innovation, I see repetition. That's not to say Halo is the only game to ever do this, but this is a Halo thread. I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder, but I am allowed to call something generic when I had seen the conventions previously. I'm allowed to call it generic when I felt that it had little personality. These may have blown your mind when you saw them, but they bored me and I'm stickin to it.

[shiroikaze]

Though you can go pretty far with repetition though. If something has been done already, I see no wrong in reusing and/or improving the formula.

Also, I'm pretty sure Halo does have a life meter... and a generic box cover.

Out of curiousity, is there any pre-Halo game that toted all or most of those features?

Edited September 28, 2009 by shiroikaze

[Max Jenius]

Right, there's nothing outright wrong persay. Just bored me.

[shiroikaze]

Ignore/delete this post please. (goddammit, quote button is not edit button!)

Edited September 28, 2009 by shiroikaze

[Vic Mancini]

I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder, but I am allowed to call something generic when I had seen the conventions previously.

I think that's taking liberties with the usage of the term generic. Just because you've seen something once, or even a few times, before doesn't necessarily qualify it for the label of "generic". For something to be generic it has to represent most of the standard fare norms of the time. It has to be doing the things that most other games were doing before it...not things that one or two other games before it had sort of done.

For Halo to be the poster child of all generic FPS games it would've needed a standard life meter with med packs scattered around for you to pick up, the ability to collect and simultaneously carry all the usable weapons of the game, a standard method of switching to your melee weapon or grenades, the save anywhere feature, etc...etc... You get it.

[eugimon]

I think Halo gets a lot of flak because while the first game had some innovations the sequels didn't add as much to the genre. But that makes sense because the sequels all take place immediately following the conclusion of the previous game. But by the time Halo 3 rolled around pretty much everyone had stuff like drivable vehicles, smooth indoor/outdoor transitions, limited weapon selection... a story.

But considering the serial nature of the series, I really don't think it's fair to knock halo for not instituting big changes with every subsequent game.

[Hikuro]

I think the game is fine as it is. There isn't to much you can do to improve it, unless they do something innovating in REACH.

Buddy of mine finished co-op Normal with a friend of his on ODST, took 4 hours, that's pretty damn disappointing to me.

[Max Jenius]

I think that's taking liberties with the usage of the term generic. Just because you've seen something once, or even a few times, before doesn't necessarily qualify it for the label of "generic". For something to be generic it has to represent most of the standard fare norms of the time. It has to be doing the things that most other games were doing before it...not things that one or two other games before it had sort of done.

For Halo to be the poster child of all generic FPS games it would've needed a standard life meter with med packs scattered around for you to pick up, the ability to collect and simultaneously carry all the usable weapons of the game, a standard method of switching to your melee weapon or grenades, the save anywhere feature, etc...etc... You get it.

There's nothing about Halo I find particularly distinctive, therefore I can call it generic. I didn't say poster-child. I said generic. There is a difference...

[mikeszekely]

Not very many FPS games before Halo had:

#1 Strict limitations on the number of weapons you can carry.

- In almost all FPS games before Halo, and still most of them afterward, you can carry an unlimited number of weapons. Somehow your character sprints around while carrying a chainsaw, a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a gigantic laser bazooka, all at the same time. But not in Halo. In Halo you get to carry only two weapons. That's it. Limitations sometimes make for creative game play and strategy.

#2 Instant melee attacks and grenade tosses.

- In most FPS games you had to cumbersomely switch away from your firearm to your melee weapon or grenade. Not in Halo. Halo was the first game I saw that made it so easy to pistol whip or butt-end someone or throw a grenade the instant you needed to, and with such ease.

#3 No life bar.

- Instead of having a traditional life meter or health percentage indicator, Halo used a creative self-regenerating shield. What?...infinite life as long as you find cover for a few seconds?...way to suck the challenge out of the game, right? Wrong.

#4 Vehicles.

- Nobody back then was doing vehicles as well as Halo did.

#5 Checkpoints instead of save anywhere.

- Lots of games before Halo were using checkpoints instead of the save anywhere method, but checkpoints definitely weren't in vogue when Halo came out. Bungie made a bold decision to consciously go with checkpoints and it ended up making the game way more challenging and way more fun.

#6 Legendary mode.

- Maybe I didn't play enough FPS games back then, but I don't remember anything being as difficult as Legendary mode in Halo...(The only mode Halo should really be played on). ...Simultaneously frustrating as you get killed over and over again, and infinitely fulfilling when you finally pass that next checkpoint and can finally take a breath.

Because of these things, I thought Halo was very innovative at the time and the exact opposite of "generic". Not to mention the smooth controls and the great story/lore.

I'll grant you that, while not necessarily originating these ideas, Halo may have popularized them. Heck, Halo (and Goldeneye before it) really brought FPS games to the console-playing masses, and I'll certainly give it credit where credit is due. The first Halo was one of the first games that I bought for my original Xbox (although it was actually DoA 3 that sold me on the console), and I did like it at the time.

Halo's problem isn't that it's always been generic, just that it feels generic now. Halo's problem is that Halo 3 isn't at all different than Halo 2, which wasn't really that different from the original. Meanwhile, other developers are taking pretty much everything off of your checklist, but trying to throw something else into the mix to differentiate themselves. Bioshock gave us so much atmosphere that the setting of Rapture deserves to be though of as a character (as well as giving us Plasmids). Call of Duty gave us intense scripted events that both reminded us that war is hell and made us feel like a part of a greater war, not a super-soldier single-handedly ruining the enemies' days. Crysis gave us nanosuits (with all the cloaking fun that goes along with it). F.E.A.R. gave us surprisingly engaging horror.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Halo isn't a bad game... it was even great in its time, but that time has passed and there happens to be better FPS games on the market now.

[shiroikaze]

Buddy of mine finished co-op Normal with a friend of his on ODST, took 4 hours, that's pretty damn disappointing to me.

You see, this is what I don't like particularly about Halo 3 (and ODST and other games)... 4 hours of singleplayer gameplay is farting absurd.

Edited September 28, 2009 by shiroikaze

[Hikuro]

indeed it is......that's something I dno't like. I was fairly surprised when I played Halo 3 on how quickly I had beaten it going "That's it?.....wwwwwwhhhhhhhhaaatttttt?" I think Bungie had more intention with multiplayer if anything else.

[Vic Mancini]

There's nothing about Halo I find particularly distinctive, therefore I can call it generic. I didn't say poster-child. I said generic. There is a difference...

I thought the poster child of being generic opinion was implied when you joked about how it should have been titled "Generic First Person Shooter" and come in a white box. Perhaps I misunderstood.