Is Halo Over rated? - Page 2

Sorry guys.... I wasn't a big fan of Halo offline, so I would chalk up the franchise as over-hyped if you're talking about the single-player aspect. I'm not a big fan of repetition and back-tracking. Don't get me wrong: I had no problems with the controls... working for gaming sites, you have to take what you get and adapt. I actually prefer the mouse/keyboard config, and typically, if I don't stay on top of my meager console control skills, I find myself owned online when up against the seasoned console pros.

With that said, the Halo games are best played with friends, not solo. It's a great multiplayer game, and as Envied pointed out, it is best when played on Xbox LIVE... this aspect of the Halo franchise deserves the attention it receives hands down. Years down the road, when you ask someone about the one game that set the standard for online console multiplayer, you'll no doubt hear Halo as your answer.

Dude, I've been playing pc games since I was 7 years old and have played Halo since it came out, so I know both sides. Honestly, I think the best parts about Halo are the co-op and the multiplayer. The biggest weakness on the PC is that there is NO GAME that allows you and a friend to play together easily without connecting through the internet. Halo is awesome because you and a friend can sit there and strategize side by side and its a blast. The only downside is that your limited to only 1 friend, where as in Halo 3 you can play with 3 friends and it's even more fun.
The multiplayer is top class. I've played multiplayer games on the PC and honestly, none compare to how much fun Halo is. Whether your going full speed in a fully loaded warthog and get sent flying by a rocket or sniping the flag carrier seconds before he scores, this is truly a one of a kind multiplayer experience.
As far as the controller, I can use that and a keyboard and mouse equally well. It takes practice and is a whole lot more fun to use than a keyboard w/ mouse. There is a lot more satisfaction out of it.
My question to you is, have you ever sat down with a group of friends on split-screen and played the multiplayer? Halo is one of the few games that are extreamly fun playing like this. Try it sometime, and see what your opinion is.

Are you kidding? Compared to PC Lan gaming - console multiplayer has always been a sad joke, an annoying miniscule-resolution split screen crippled caricature of what I and friend have been doing with PC's for 15 years. Only in the latest generation have they started to approach the capabilities of PC's when it comes to LAN gaming (now that they finally can actually DO it)... but still with (for most) the crippling control limitations of Console gamepads with regards to first person shooters.

Consoles are great, I've got all three of the new gen units... but not for shooters. They are so bad at FPS games compared to PC's as to be virtually unplayable to many of those used to PC shooters.

what pc game specifically are you talking about? also I meant EASILY. I don't know of any one of my friends that would be willing to lug their computer over for a LAN party, and I don't fancy buying a bunch of computers for them to use. The console is so much easier to use for multiplayer. Just have a friend bring over a console, game, a few controllers, and we have a good number of tv's in our house so there's no problem getting one, and boom instant halo party. I really could care less about the graphical cabalities if it means sacrificing the ease of use to play with my friends.

Yeah, Halo is definitely overrated. It's fun playing co-op with a friend, but that's about it. And multiplayer can be fun with a group of friends. I wouldn't want to play it solo though. And the sequels only got worse, I thought. I was a huge Marathon fan back in the day, and Halo recycles a lot of the elements from that. They may even have linked storylines and the same protagonist. But it's all just speculation until Bungie gives an official word. It would be dumb if they weren't related because then it just makes Halo seem even more lazy. But yeah, it definitely has some good points and it's innovative in some ways, but overall it's just overhyped and praised by people who don't know any better. If I never played a PC FPS, I might think it's the greatest game too. It could've and should've been a lot better. I like to put the blame on Microsoft, but who knows how the game would've turned out if it was released for PCs like it was originally intended.

consol gaming>PC gaming

Hmm I would have to disagree, mothhive... I think you're mixing up cause and effect. See, it's not consoles that produce illiterate retards, it's just that illiterate retards don't realize that PC gaming is better, so they choose to play on a console!

He he, that's a good point, but I do think mine is still valid, although "producing" may have been the wrong word to use. "Perpetuating" maybe, since using a console will not really make you dumber, but it definitely doesn't require anything other than a rudimentary intelligence to use. Better?

Every respectable game for the console is already on the PC

The only game which is not yet on the PC which is a AAA console title is GTA4 - which runs like complete dogshit on consoles.

I know you're obviously trolling, but suck it

Yeah, I'm just going to lay it down. Console will always get **** on by PC's (don't use the "the 360 IS a PC!" argument, because it's not) and Keyboard/Mouse will always rape controllers. Someone on here mentioned that in order to be good at Halo with a controller, you have to deal with the character's inherent crappiness DUE to the use of a controller, since there's no really good way to do 360 turn-arounds and control gun spray, so there are hard-coded aim helpers, terrible sensitivity issues, and instead of actually aiming in Halo, you strafe your crosshair into the enemy and pray to **** christ that your bullets spank them in the brain. Hands down, Halo takes practically no skill, there's no proper bullet recoil (sure, the SMG's have inherent bullet spray, but nothing that you yourself can control) so it's pretty much point and shoot. As long as you can turn your camera to see someone on screen, you can hit them. The only skill that really comes into play is reaction time - you have to be ready to shoot when you strafe your crosshair into the enemy. In PC FPSes, you have to aim AND control your gun spray by moving the mouse to accomodate your gun recoil (with some exceptions of course, not every PC shooter is good, but I'll use CS 1.6 [NOT **** SOURCE] as an example). To me, that not only takes more skill, but means you have to be more precise as to WHERE you aim and HOW you aim. Also, maneuvering is important, in Halo you can pretty much just run around anywhere and get kills like hell (don't try to tell me otherwise, I played Halo 2 on XBL for 2 years until I eventually realized how much of a waste of time, money, and anger at how terrible of a game it was), in PC shooters, since you have much more control over character movement (and none of that crazy Halo **** inertia where every surface is made out of black ice and you slide like an unstoppable Mack truck doing 140 MPH with bald tires ON the aforementioned ice.) Obviously, console shooters are a great alternative for people who can't afford a decent gaming rig, or who want a more casual, less skill-intensive gaming environment, but I will always appreciate PC games much more than (newer) console games. On that note, I am very much a retro game fanatic - SNES, Genesis, NES, were all pure rape, and they don't make games nowadays NEARLY as good as they used to, but that's another forum topic ;-)

I have just finished a five hour session playing Halo 1 for the first time on PC - just to see what all the fuss was about. So I typed in "halo overrated" on Google and found this forum.
I understand that at the time, the graphics, sound, friendly AI was very good, maybe the multiplayer was great and maybe it was great because loads of people lost their FPS multiplayer cherry to Halo as it was a console only title at launch. But the reviewers who should have known better gave it stupid high marks. (Edge 10/10!!!??)

Other FPS games released at that time - in that era - were better
- Half Life - better gameplay and story.
- No one lives forever - better gameplay/atmosphere/story/humour.
- Unreal tournament - better gamplay and better multiplayer.
- System Shock 2 - better atmosphere and story. All games released at least a year before Halo. Even the N64 console had better FPS too - Perfect Dark - had a superior story, level design and gameplay. Enemy AI was as good too.

My main issue with Halo is that the level design borders on the woeful. The chapters in the single player campaign feel aimless. For instance, you are in the middle of a level and you see a checkpoint completed message, so that section of that level is done - and I did not know I did anything special, they don't have any urgency to them no sense of achievement.
When I first landed on the Halo orbital and you need to find the crashed ships you end up wandering around until you blunder onto the ships - there is no feeling of excitement or danger like you had with Perfect Dark or Half Life. Both those games kept you on the edge and when you died you had to start the section/level again. But in Halo you are respawned immediately at the start of the mini section, in effect you don't die, thus there is no penalty for any bad choices made and no danger - or excitement. On the Alien ship I was again wandering around the samey corridors until after going in circles I blundered into the spot I was supposed to be in the set off the next chain of events. Again other games listed above did all this better.

The tone of the game is aimless too. The bad guys are cartoon like, and they have nice day glo blood, they shoot cure weapons that would not look out of place in Star Wars, this is not a bad thing per se, but then the soldiers fighting next to you are going - "take that you bastard" (but not seriously) - but still - kiddies should be playing this then? or is this a PC only thing or what? Infact the game reminds me of another N64 classic Jet Force Gemini - a cartoon Star Wars alike third person shooter. However that game overcame it's terrible story and kiddy friendly foes with tight controls and superb level design and an epic soundtrack, along with secrets to uncover to keep you going - and the game was directly marketed for kids.
Halo has none of these hallmarks that I can see thus far so why not make the bad guys a bit more scary, more dangerous, they seem like Gremlins knock offs - but the tone does not fit - it all seems a bit off.

The Vehicle controls are good and fun and they were new in FPS's at the time but when I ran over the alien scum even that failed to be as satisfying as it should have been, The graphics for the time are great, but graphics do not make a great game on their own do they? Are there secrets to uncover in Halo? Secret rooms? Secret codes anything at all to make you want to play again? The Grenades effects worked well though. But again, other games of that era did those better too. And did anyone think the Master Chief was a bit floaty? I'll put that down to him being a cyborg then...

I will try ploughing on for another couple of hours, but really after reading the "plot" on wiki, what do I have to look forward to except a war of attrition until I can blunder into the next exit? I realise I have only played this for five hours or so but 10/10 this is not, nor was it ever.