It probably sounds silly, but I powered up my old floppy disk version of Space Hulk a couple of days ago. The sight alone of the EA logo made me physically sick, and so I hit CTRL+F9 to quit out of DOSBox right away.

jamyskis

Mate, your irrational hatred of a corporate entity is not healthy. I think you need to get some help.

[QUOTE="bogaty"]

There are so many to choose from. I really do hate most mainstream games as I find them simplistic and annoyingly repetative.

Ones that spring to mind right off the bat are:

GTA series

Diablo series

Any of the "build a base and tankrush" games like Warcraft, Starcraft, Command and Conquer, etc.

Mindless, close range run and gun online shooters like Quake, CS: Source, Call of Duty, and the like

tsb247

That eliminates most games, so what do you like?

I'm guessing he could have saved himself a lot of time by just saying "I hate all games except World of Warcraft"

the squelching noise when you ran over soldiers with your Harvester in Dune 2

Maybe you should do some research before you complain, it might make you feel better:

cosair 2GB DDR2
eVGA 8800GTS 320
AMD X2 6000+
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI
Thermaltake 500W PSU

= $646 (inc. rebates) from Newegg to upgrade to a kick ass system.

A brand new xbox 360 with 1 controller and no games = $400

Thats a only a $246 difference, given that 360 games cost more and you can do so much more with a PC, I don't really see what the problem is?

Acutally, the problem is the cost of purchasing Windows Vista if you acutally want to game with DX10...

I find forlornness to be the scariest element in a game. Even if it's rife with baddies, a game that truly makes you feel alone is the one that will make you turn on the lights, even before the one with the most chills or shocking moments. Examples: - Doom 1 & 2 - Diablo - Quake - The Dig - System Shock 2 - Half-Life - Clive Barker's Undying - Silent Hill series That's all my brain is coming up with at the moment. Anyone else have any other examples of games that highlight desolation/isolation?JN_Fenrir

Haha yeah doom 2 - when i was young and playing it i can remmeber being freaked out by the sounds of the spider masterminds walking around because you could hear them through most of the level and they were huge and kicked ass.

[QUOTE="djtim_3000"]I disagree with the AI being spectacular. To me it seemed pretty standard type AI, it didnt stand out and make you think clever computer like half-life._Memento_

And yes the weapons were well balanced - but you could also interperate that as boring.

How do you figure? I loved the fact that every weapon retained its usefulness throughout the game, whereas in most shooters before it, it was always about getting the bigger, badder weapon. Halo helped get rid of that tired old cliche that plagued most shooters before it where you'd start out with the pistol, then get the rifle in level two, get the machinegun in level 3 etc.

GoldenEye is a perfect example of a great console shooter - well designed and interesting levels, awesome multiplayer, intuitive control scheme, excellent pick-up-and-play (timetrials!), and great unlockable content - this was back when PC FPS's were more or less eye candy with a great feel but no real gameplay above the typical fps run and gun type stuff.

Halo had almost everything you mentioned.

When Halo came out, while it was new on console it had already been done on PC (again im not ripping on consoles or halo its just it still seems like an average game with a crazy following).

First of all, as I previous mentioned, I don't remember any other single player FPS experience before Halo where you had those kind of massive outdoor battles.

And I'd also like to point out to some of the innovative features that Halo introduced which I mentioned in my previous post; sure they're not the most revolutionary thing ever, but they still helped make the game that much more intense and most shooters nowadays copy those features so I wouldn't say that Halo had no influence on the FPS genre.

Yes, Halo has a crazy following, moreso than it deserves I think. It's definitely overrated to some extent(saying Halo is the best game ever or best shooter ever is silly), but it's anything but a mediocre/average game. It's an outstanding shooter. Period.

I don't mean to turn this into a huge argument but i'd like to thank everybody for their opinions. It's helped my make up my mind that the whole Halo thing is completely crazy. The first game is slightly above average but only if you don't compare it to anything else and the second game is comparativly rubbish (esp on the PC) but the third game is going to be brought and played by every xbox player and his dog but only because people want to find out what happens in the end. And if Master Chief is supposed to be a jesus like figure how come he doesnt even get a real name? Also, what's with the repetitive level design (as one poster pointed out) - i vaguely remember a level about the Flood and around every corner there was another corner that looked exactly the same, even doom had more in-level variety.

If Microsoft could make a mp3 player (forget about the zune) and market the thing as well as they did they with Halo, the iPod wouldnt stand a chance.

First of all, to fully appreciate the game, you should've played it on the Xbox back when it came out. There was something about the PC version that just made the game seem kinda...mediocre. It's not just the lack of co-op, the game just didn't feel that good.

But anyways, Halo single player was just fantastic for its time despite the repetitive level design. The real highlight for me was the amazing outdoor battles, especially on the Assault on The Control Room and Two Betrayal levels, where you had to deal with several ghosts, banshees, wraiths, covenant ground troops....it was the most intense stuff I've seen in a shooter for its time. I really can't think of any other shooter before it that offered that kind of experience. And plus, everything else (aside from the repetitive level design) was simply perfect, like the AI (which was by far the best for its time), the well designed and well balanced(in the single player) weapons, the excellent story, vehicles (still fairly new in shooters at that time). Plus, it brought(or atleast popularized) quite a few features that most shooters nowadays tend to use like the recharging health, being able to throw grenades while still holding your gun, melee attacks integrated into the regular weapons etc.

Split-screen multiplayer was quite a bit of fun as well.

BTW, Halo 2 pretty much sucks.

_Memento_

I played the game on xbox when it first came out (never played it on PC). And yes it was great fun, the co-op, the warthog, and the big battles especially.

I disagree with the AI being spectacular. To me it seemed pretty standard type AI, it didnt stand out and make you think clever computer like half-life. And yes the weapons were well balanced - but you could also interperate that as boring.

GoldenEye is a perfect example of a great console shooter - well designed and interesting levels, awesome multiplayer, intuitive control scheme, excellent pick-up-and-play (timetrials!), and great unlockable content - this was back when PC FPS's were more or less eye candy with a great feel but no real gameplay above the typical fps run and gun type stuff.

When Halo came out, while it was new on console it had already been done on PC (again im not ripping on consoles or halo its just it still seems like an average game with a crazy following).

What makes Halo great is the story. Not just because it's an epic tale but how much symbolism is in the games, the commercials, the trailers, the websites, and the novels. Halo is actually a pretty religious game if you choose to interpret it that way. Imo, no other game has a story as deep. In fact, if you look across forums on the net, you can see countless threads where people are arguing about how Halo is going to end and what little things in the games and books mean in the big scheme of things. I don't think I've seen hardly as many thread discussing how good of a shooter Halo is compared to how good the plot is.

Also, the guys at Bungie and Microsoft have done an excellent marketing campaign for Halo 3. They've done little things like their Halo "servers" and things on their web sites to give clues as to what's going on in the Halo Universe and how the story is gonna unfold. They know they have a killer story. Also, the reason why so many were disappointed with H2 is because the story blew. Everyone wanted to find out what was going to happen but they just ended in a cliffhanger.

O yea, Halo is truely meant for consoles. I have the first one on PC and it feels and controls nowhere as good as it does on the Xbox. Also, the second one for PC I heard is pretty bad because they waited so long to release it and by the time they did release it, it was outdated already.

eastsidehucker

The story? As far as i can rememeber the story was as generic sci-fi as you can get. Am I wrong - i can't rememeber it so it can't have been that good. I can still rememeber the plots of good books I have read and good games i have played from before I played Halo. Although i never played Halo 2, but most people said the story sucked anyway - so back to more or less my original point - why the overhyped fanboy religious type excitement over Halo 3? :)