Halo being the most overrated franchise, how does it manage to sell consoles?

I love FPS, as a PC gamer FPS is one of the first genres I got into...well before story driven fantasy RPGs existed. Every single highly acclaimed FPS game such as Half Life 2, F.E.A.R., Bioshock, Stalker, Crysis - I can appreciate the superb shooting mechanics. There is however one FPS I simply cannot see what the fuss is about. That would be Halo. Now I'm not saying all of them were bad, infact Halo Reach and ODST were very fun to play however deserves no where near the critical acclaim they got. I can understand Halo 1 being so popular since the gameplay and graphics were ahead of its time back then, Halo 2 simply rode the popularity and fulfilled the need of gamers. Here's where I cannot understand, Halo 3 was by far one of the ugliest looking games back in 2007 especially when there were games like Crysis. From a gameplay perspective, this was also released after superb titles like Half Life 2 and F.E.A.R., in no way was Halo 3's shooting as solid as the two previously mentioned games. Yet it still received critical acclaim. The campaign was as short as a call of duty campaign, the storyline was pretty bland - something about an alien invasion, rings... whatever.The shooting was weak. What I don't understand is, clearly Halo is outdated in every single criteria, whether it be graphics - Crysis, storyline - Bioshock, shooting mechanics - F.E.A.R., it does nothing right yet people still defend it to their deaths.

If Halo 3 or the latest halo games were called something else, it would be something like this; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(video_game)

Halo is indeed overrated but theres more overrated franchise.

GTA is by far most overrated franchise ever. all mediocre games praise like greatest thing since slice bread. terrible driving, shooting, boring missions, boring characters. series is just incredibly dull and bland.

Halo 3 is a better multiplayer game than any of the games you mentioned. That's why it was more popular. It really is not a grand mystery.

Agreed. Its just from a shooting perspective, modern even non-AAA games like Wolfenstein, Doom, Bioshock Infinite all shit on Halo in terms of shooting mechanics

TLDR

half life sucks, stalker sucks, the first two bioshocks suck and crysis super sucks. halo destroys them all in every category. Of course you like the worst Halo. ODST was trash. cry more

Xbox games are so awesome and you are so jelly that you wasted all that money on a PC that doesn't have the games you like and now you are bitter that you can only access Halo with Halo 5 Forge. I get it.

No idea what you're on about, just finished doom - such a fun fps game. Absolutely incredible yet that's not even a AAA game... Off to play deus ex mankind divided at 60fps 1440p maxed

As a PC gamer I think it is not overrated, just not for you. I prefer my System Shocks and Half Life games over it but if someone prefers Halo then why not.

Overrated? They're still pretty solid games, even under 343 they're better than most other games on the market for what they offer.

well. i take Halo over wolf new order (not great RTCW) and bioshock infinite any day.

infact bioshock infinite is among the worst FPS ever. its shooting suck, its level design absolutely suck, story terrible, elizabeth annoying side kick. overall waste of time

I can't say Halo is overrated cause I do enjoy the games and I like the gameplay. My biggest problem is I really cut my teeth on console multiplayer FPS games with Rainbow 6 Vegas and COD4(hardcore game modes). Trying to go from those games to Halo is beyond frustrating enemies feel too spongy people jumping and floating around every where. It's a totally different animal. But that doesn't mean Halo is overrated. I just didn't start with Halo, had I, I could be the total opposite and be all Halo is the best and COD/RB6 type games blow.

@ghosts4ever: Bioshock Infinite according to your nonsensical rant, is "in fact" one of the worst FPS ever. It's one thing to not like a game it's another when you are simply speaking out of your ass.

They were't always bad. Its really only until 343 took over that they have really sucked

So because you don't like Halo it's somehow the most over-rated? I hated Halo 5 but most of the others were excellent. Also, if you're suggesting FPS on PC are much better that's no longer true. PC used to be the home of FPS but hasn't been for a very long time. Just about every FPS now is multiplat so I don't know what your point is other than to just have a dig at a very popular console franchise because you can.

Halo doesn't sell systems anymore. If you'd do some research, you can see sales of Halo games dropped significantly from the days of Halo 3. Now they're lucky to sell a couple million compared to over 8 million in 2007. COD surplanted Halo as the defacto Xbox shooter years ago. Halo is not that big anymore.

I'd say it's rated pretty fairly. Halo 4 was largely panned for the MP, and rightly so (though it wasn't terrible). It definitely peaked with Halo 3, but Halo 5 has been a great step in the right direction in terms of the MP -- though the SP was largely meh.

Not to mention, Halo pretty much carried 'Console FPS' torch alone all these years and showed that FPS can work on Consoles too. What else is there? Killzone?

Halo's not the best when stacked up against PC shooters, but as far as console shooters go it's the best of the bunch by far. Halo 5 is pretty awesome.

Halo is definitely not an overrated shooter. People have different taste than you, and a lot of people are still playing Halo 5.

I don't think you need to tell us that you play PC games, we get it.

Crap posting.

I think some Halo games are overrated, but you can't deny what Halo did to the genre on consoles.

Marketing is a powerful tool.

Iphone has had worse specs than Android phones for years yet they still fly off of shelves. Marketing runs the world.

Halo 1 was just that good. The entire series runs off the back of Halo 1, it's the game that drew people to the xbox. The first one.

When Halo 1 dropped it was a big deal and people played it for years, it was a cross platform success as in Nintendo, PC and Sony fans liked Halo 1. That game garnered a good 15 years of good will for the name, I'd still play Halo 1 it was so much fun. Probably spent a good 100 hours myself playing lan with friends, would go back and play it again if I could it just captured the essence of fun in the game mechanics.

It's like Half-life, we've only really gotten 2 full games and the last one was a decade ago but the games still get brought up all the time and people still want a 3rd one. Halo essentially is synonymous with groundbreaking fps, each iteration may be worse and I may have put down Halo 3 after 4 hours of being bored but that doesn't change the fact that the name itself will go down in infamy, everyone knows Halo. Everyone knows Halo more than Gears of War or God of War. Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Sonic, Halo. Same strata of name recognition, everytime a game with the name Halo comes out people are going to notice.

@GhostHawk196:

I'm sure plenty of peeps feel like that with other games. I think you had to have grown with Halo to truly appreciate it for what it is. I did and it's still easily one of my favorite fps games of ALL TIME! The story, the universe, everything about Halo I just love and the SPARTAN super soldier thing is just a wicked awesome idea! If you can't have fun with that then you're crazy! Or you must've grown up playing a different fps game which is understandable.

Halo is too good.

Halo is good for children and people new to the genre, a real fps may be overwhelming.

Its like saying Star Wars is an overrated movie series. The opinion won't stop people from flocking to it.

The "Halo is overrated" soapbox. Hello 2003-2010, nice to see you again.

Oh and GhostHawk, paragraphs would help make your OP a lot more digestible to reader... just sayin' ;)

Halo is very fairly rated. It's got great physics and controls, and requires more thought and strategy than your average COD or Battlefield. Halo 4 and 5 are a step backwards, and that's well known.

Overall though, it's a 9/10 franchise. Very good

I disagree, Halo has distinct core gameplay that shines and that's ultimately what's carried it all this time. The lore certainly helps, but it's the signature gameplay that is its strength. The thing is even after playing numerous new shooters like DOOM and Overwatch, I just kept going back to Halo 5 because of the satisfying gameplay. And I don't just mean mechanics, if you look at things like weapon variety and balance, it's off the charts in Halo 5.

There's so many different weapon variations as well as the game doing large and small scale battles quite well. Arena feels very different than WZ, it's more up close and personal. Halo does large and small scale battles well and offers a huge variety of vehicles. If I compare Overwatch to Halo 5, the game feels limited in its scope. At the end of the day there are the players' preferences obviously, a lot of people don't like Halo and that's fine.....but from a content, scope, value, technical, etc perspectives, Halo is a beast.

Between GhostHawk196 and AppleBeatPc dude i think i lost a few brain cells those last few weeks .

Another day another weak shot at Xbox games by a cow in a hermit suit. I imagine this will become the new standard now that Sony has been fumbling it up lately.

Halo isn't my cup of tea either. I just can't get into the no ironsights, shielded player thing. And, it's not very revolutionary when it comes to gameplay. The aliens are kind of stupid too.

I've tried really hard to get into Halo games multiple times, but I just don't understand the appeal. And I'm a big fan of Xbox consoles, but Halo is just not my cup of tea.

Halo, GTA, and Uncharted are all overrated series. Whats your point?

Doesn't mean they are bad games by any means, just they seem to get far more hype than is necessary.

That's a nice opinion you have there.

I don't like Halo campaigns; they are mostly pretty poor, but Halo's multiplayer was mostly as good as it was ever gassed up to be. Never quite as strong as the heights of the arena shooter space or what Counter-Strike is, much less my love for Team Fortress 2, but Halo 2 was ace. Halo 3 and Reach are a few adjustments away from being great, otherwise were good shooters in their own right in the mp department, and 5 is mechanically the best the series has ever been (arguable on whether or not classic Halo's formula is better, but I like the game feel of 5). 4 sucks from a multiplayer standpoint, but 343 turned it around with 5's mp.

Plus Grand Theft Auto exists. It gets my pick for most overrated franchise by the countriest of country miles.

Halo 3 is a fantastic game! I will not let that be trashed on here. It had everything. An incredible single player, deep multplayer with tons of weapons, maps, and vehicles. Not to mention forge, theater mode, custom game browser, and fucking bungie.net

So many people on here talk out their asses and never actually experienced these games when they were first available. The only thing the tc can bring forward is graphics bc clearly he has merely seen the game and not played it to it potential.

Seriously, content and quality wise the only shooter of last gen that comes close to halo 3 is the orange box.

Did I miss anything?

Fanboy shit posting, nothing else to say.

Its a pure reaction thread. I don't believe any of TC's BS. I don't care if he has a $10,000 PC, he's a closet cow. And PS has been on the butt end of a lot recently.

Anytime someone makes a statement or thread with the premise "I cant understand why ____ is popular" its bullshit. I don't care for hip hop. I'd listen to just the Who for the rest of my life over all of hip hop. But I can certainly understand why others like it. Because entertainment is subjective. I don't get to decide what is "good or bad" for others. Go have a cry TC.

That's what this is really about LOL

We agreed on same thing for first time my friend?

Yes. no franchise can ever be more overrated as GTA.

Looking at your gamercard with such high numbers, and the fact that you say you are a PC gamer first, that tells me you have your priorities misplaced. Moderation in all things dear sir. Go experience something that doesn't involve computers and technology, for good measure and good health. :)

Campaign has always been so-so but the multiplayer has always been one of the best around.

Metal Gear Solid series is by far the most over-rated series.

Nah man, especially in today's gaming enviro Halo is rated pretty accurately by gamers if not under a bit due to 5's shit campaign but incredible mp.

You go do that...

Anyway, lol @ Halo being the most overrated franchise. Dumb thread.

I'm surprised that you're still allowed to make threads anymore because they are always about your hate of MS, but i guess you're the only cow here atm (where are all the hardcore cows gone lately?) and have to keep up the low standards of your fellow members :P

The Halo series are great, I played Halo for the first time when MCC came out and absolutely loved it, especially in co-op. The series shot straight into my top 10 easily and I've been a pc gamer since HL1. Halo is great fun.

A couple of them are buying XB1s apparently... there's even a thread about it. Lol.

@i_p_daily: half of their core junta are out buying Xboxes after sept 7th.

Talk about fair weather fanboys lol.