Anyone here play Black for the PS2/Xbox?

[bluemonkey1]

Well clearly you don't know much about the huge variety in FPS games.  So is Counterstrike run and gun?

 

Anyways reasons for Halo's greatness:

 

-Amazing plot.

-Very, very intelligent enemies.

-Great art direction - just look at the different factions of the Covenant and the architecture.

-Split screen co-op play?!?

-Massive environments.

-Awesome, dramatic levels.

-Teammates who you cared about.

-Great voice acting.

-4 player split screen at a steady frame rate.

-The vehicles controlled brilliantly.

-Tons of great innovations like the gun limit, shields system, the invisible elites with swords, etc.

 

I could go on for hours.  You don't like FPS so you don't get it.  That's cool.  But you wouldn't find me trying to say all sports games were alike.

[Conn]

I disagree, Bluemonkey. Halo isn't a [i]bad[/i] game, but it wasn't able to hold my attention. I think the main reason it has popularity is because it revolutionised the console FPS with the dual-analog control which became the standard, and so it sort of has nostalgia.

[bluemonkey1]

Me and my mates still play Halo co-op to this day.  We don't touch co-op on Halo 2.

[a1]

Really? There was nothing special about the original Halo? How about the vehicles (all of which controlled very well), the fact that you only carry 2 guns at a time, having grenades handy without having to scroll through your weapons, and the fact that it controlled better than any other FPS?

 

Personally, I thought Halo 2 was a huge letdown. The single player was crap next to the first, and I didn't like online play. The first is a different story. Running over weapons and swapping nearly instantly was a great concept. In other FPS you stick with your best weapon, and never swap because it is too difficult to pull up the scroll wheel or find it by scrolling through on the d-pad. In Halo you can swap between 2 weapons with the touch of a button, and you'll never be sticking with your most powerful weapon. This is mainly because there was no most powerful weapon. They were all balanced and worked better for different situations. I like Red Faction too, but Halo is just as good a game.

[Michael D]

[QUOTE=IronKnux]
Well when is a first person shooter not repetetive? And what makes Halo stand out, anyway? And don't say online play.[/QUOTE]

 

 

But to answer your first question, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.  They were two examples of FPSes mixing things up with a wide variety of weapons, mission objectives, enviornments, and different styles of FPS gameplay (some sections with guns a blazin' and other stealthy, quiet sections).

 

And about Halo, I won't say online, because I actually never played Halo online. Halo did everything that the aforementioned games did, but what I loved in particular were two things; the AI and the controls.

 

Halo's AI was so well-designed with its completely unscripted behavior of the enemies.  Even when you play a level for the 50th time, the enemy AI is completely unpredictable and acts intelligently in each situation, making each encounter unique, despite the fact that you're just blasting away.

 

And then there were those controls. The analog sticks' response to moving and aiming is so natural and precise, and the button layout was perfect and easy to remember, even after a long time of not playing.  And if you somehow didn't find the set-up to your liking, you could customize most every aspect to your specific liking.

 

That's what makes Halo, as well as Perfect Dark and Goldeneye, good FPSes and because Black lacks those elements, it's a bad one.      

[IronKnux]

Regardless of the AI in any FPS game, it's the same thing. Even if Halo had horrible AI, you'd be doing the same thing you've been doing since Doom 1: shooting things. I'm not sure if anyone else thinks the same but to me the best (and redeeming) part of a FPS is atmosphere; Halo did nothing for me in terms of intensity and dramaticism. There's nothing spectacular about Halo's story as some people claim. I was nearly bored to tears with Halo's generic sci-fi jargon. I played through it until I reached the end and just said... wait, what? I kept hoping something would happen. Ok, aliens, big weapon, shoddy voice work... good story? Not at all.

Everything just reeks of blah. The first time you see the sky its pretty cool, what with the halo rising up above you... but then you look down and the landscape is plagued by smeared textures and triangular rocks. Aliens are a jumbled mess of colors, and the Flood are just waddling brown things with tentacles. They weren't even trying in terms of weaponry... the only real weapons you have are the assault rifle, pistol, shotgun, sniper, and RPG launcher. Alien weapons are just boring variations, and half of them aren't even useful. Vehicles are bland looking and control clumsily, landscapes are just big open spaces with aliens rushing at you or an endless mess of hallways. Am I missing something here? I don't get it.

[a1]

All the intensity in Halo came from the score, not the story. It was probably the best videogame score I've ever heard. I agree that the story really wasn't all that special. I'm not a big fan of scifi anyway, so it was even less so for me, but I thought it was worked in nicely, and none of the cutscenes were overly long.

 

As far as the weapons go I'd also agree with you that most of them aren't that unique. Games like Timesplitters and Red Faction have far more varied and unique weapons. What Halo did is take all of the standard weapons and perfect them. It has the best sniper rifle out of any game ever; it had  a perfect scope, and sacrificed poor short range with great power. The pistol is also the best I've seen, and melee attacks in Halo are still the best out of any game out there.

[IronKnux]

In terms of sniping, Halo has the upper hand, if only because it displayed red circles when it was on your target. Don't get me wrong; Halo isn't bad, I just didn't find it as thrilling as others did.

In terms of FPS, I'd have to go with Republic Commando. Maybe I'm speaking from my Star Wars bias, but I loved this game. Awesome weaponry, a killer premise (play through the life of a Commando; even learn about childhood!), John Williams score, unique environments ripped straight from the movies, and squad manuevers that actually work when utilized correctly. On the melee subject, Republic Commnando has this won hands down; you get a hand knife deployed by pressing B (or circle). Sniping in RC is just as good as Halo, only with better zoom.

[Conn]

[QUOTE=a]Really? There was nothing special about the original Halo? How about the vehicles (all of which controlled very well), the fact that you only carry 2 guns at a time, having grenades handy without having to scroll through your weapons, and the fact that it controlled better than any other FPS? [/QUOTE]

Yes, okay, Halo revolutionised FPSes. I get it.

[a1]

[QUOTE=Conn]

Yes, okay, Halo revolutionised FPSes. I get it.[/QUOTE]

I'm not some Halo fanboy or anything. I no longer have an Xbox, or Halo, so I'm clearly not in love with the game. I just think you're underrating it by quite a bit.