First I would like to say that I do not play Halo 3, I own the game, but put it down less than a month later for other titles such as CoD 4. I am not a fanboy or anything like that, and I respect peoples opinions-for the most part. With that said here is why Halo: Combat Evolved, the 2001 Game of the Year winner, is the game that shaped modern video games.(Please note that .unless I say 'Halo 3' or 2 it is the original Halo, same goes for the Xbox, and Xbox 360).
First and foremost, it was the life and blood of the Xbox. If Halo was not a Xbox exclusive or if it was just on PC than the Xbox most likely would have failed. If it did not fail it would have barely made it, as it stands the Xbox was beaten by PS2 in every aspect-well every aspect except Halo. Without Halo the Xbox fails, the Game Cube is a flop and the PS2 is by far, bare-none, the best console. With that there is no reason for microsoft to make another console. So the Xbox 360 is never produced to compete with the PS3, and Nintendo pushes out the Wii. No Xbox 360, now it's obvious, go buy a PS3. Sony has no system that has the same type of games as on there PS3 to compete with. Now they do whatever they want, theres nothing to make them lower prices and no hurry for titles. As a result of no 360, there is no debate of which system is better (which is a major part in the community og gaming). Sales are less impressive because not everyone has PS3 and 360, Sony has no reason to make their console better and right probably does not have a online system like Xbox LIVE. And oh yes, online gaming would be no where near as big as it is now. Because no one ever even bought the Xbox, there was no Halo. On top of that who wants to play ona system with no great game? I would have traded mine in. With no having a Xbox to play LIVE and no Halo 2 to make LIVE great, PS3 probably does not have PS3 online (or whatever it's called). As a result the viseo game industry is significantly less than it is today. Would you have bought RSV, CoD 4, or GoW without online play? I would not have, and that is 3 very high selling games. So right now there would be no online play, no system wars and game sales far lower than what they really are. All because of no Halo.
2. Now we'll asume that somehow the Xbox does make it and there is online play. First off there is no Halo 3, no huge hype and really no reason to buy a 360. What game creators would want a exclusive on the 360? No one will buy it. And who would want a follow up to a bad system? No one. With no Halo, even if somehow the Xbox survives the 360 would not, and once again no system wars, and still the PS3 has close to no competition, it still might not have online play.
3. Think back to Halo, did you ever realize how much it's like modern day games? Well it really is, that would be because it was a major keystone in video games themselves. Regenerating health, a story driven plot, only a few weapons at one, and just the way it plays. All of it just like modern games. Quencidance? No it's not. Halo brought games into the new age with those things, and also by putting FPS's on consoles. Even today FPS's may only be on PC (at least the good ones). And even if there was online play, what games would you play? Halo transformed the genre while bringing it to consoles to become the most selling and popular genre there is.
4. There would be nothing to compare the FPS's to. Yea I know this is a bad point and meaningless, but still. There would be not 'this game is almost as good as halo' anymore and there would be goliath to try and topple.
The original Halo evolved more than just combat, it evolved the entire video game industry into what we know today. I'm sure there are other games that played roles like Halo in the industry, in fact I know there are, but Bungie deserves there credit on this one. So don't say Halo sucks, at least not when you mean Halo 3, say halo 3 sucks because without Halo you might not even play video games.
I'm open to questions, concerns, and comments on this, I'm sure I'll get alot of flak, so shoot.
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