Halo 3

By narcogen You know Captain Spark. The guy who records all those audio snippets from Halo games? Yeah, that's him. He's weighed in now with a review of Halo 3's campaign. He starts by getting two beefs of his chest (the over-aggressive Arbiter and the so-called "Cortana Moments") before getting to what...

By narcogen Halo plus real-time strategy plus gamepad controls may sound like a recipe for a franchise misfire, but Ensemble Studios has polished Halo Wars to the point of an immediately playable console title. While some may argue that, like first person shooters, RTS games should only be played on...

By narcogen On Tuesday Microsoft told Bungie they wouldn't be allowed to do that, either, and since Microsoft is Bungie's publisher for Halo games, and Microsoft owns the Halo intellectual property, and the announcement concerned Halo, Bungie had to do what Microsoft says, prompting Bungie pres...

By narcogen I thought, though, that if I dropped from Heroic to Normal, I might add Iron for some extra bonus points, try to be careful, and see if it actually felt more like an accomplishment. I can't really say it had any effect in the first level. I made it through Sierra 117 on Normal on the first attempt,...

By narcogen Apparently some readers disbelieve the rumor because it's "too early" for the announcement of another Halo game. SG replies that there's a difference between announcing game development and announcing a release date-- but in this case it really may be too early, as Halo 3 wasn't announc...

By narcogen HBO today points to an interesting blog entry by an English teacher in Korea, playing Halo 3 (apparently for the first time or nearly so) in Korean without English subtitles, and so without much insight into the story or what the player is supposed to do:

By narcogen Tribute and Wake Me When You Need Me are where Bungie gets to eat its emotional cake and have it, too. Tribute brings the UNSC martial themes and the Arbiter's themes together as Lord Hood honors the fallen-- including the Master Chief-- and the Elites return home.

By narcogen I also think bringing the Covenant on to your side against the Brutes made for an unnecessary plot element. The game is about Master Chief, and I think shifting part of the narrative onto secondary characters detracted from what I, as a gamer, wanted to experience: Master Chief kicking ali...

By Anonymous Additionally, I do not feel that Halo is the best example of art in the gaming universe, merely one that is very near to my heart in the same way that Star Wars is not very deep or even that complex of a story yet is captivating for millions of people.

By Anonymous HALO sales never peaked on release, like the games it leant it's name to. In fact they got off modest ground. The sales of HALO 1 swelled, and they swelled on the basis of word of mouth. Both single and multiplayer aspects contributed, but... To underestimate the impact that it's supremely regard...

By Anonymous You seem to be making my argument for me. I'm also not exactly sure how it is that having a balanced close quarters combat scenario discourages close play, since compared to Halo 3's simpler scenario, it is suggested that it encourages it.

Opinion: Re: You can't run but you can hide. Halo 3 is broken. - Rampancy

By narcogen Back onto the jumping I fail to see how the technique of leaping around people to evade and attack them is a point of contention though. Especially if the jump were made reasonable. HALO 3 is an odd beast. It goes from one acknowledgement of momentum to the other. Weight and momentum were account...

Re: You can't run but you can hide. Halo 3 is broken. - Rampancy

By ShadowOfTheVoid Regardless of whether they connect at random (like in Halo 2) or are guaranteed to hit (like in Halo 3), the very concept of the melee lunge is flawed. The best we could hope for in Halo 3 is that Bungie ditches the "who has more health" system and makes it to where if both players are weak enough t...

By narcogen This is the argument over Halo 2 all over again. When it was made over Halo 2, I suggested that while many things might be changed, that some of the essential parts of Halo 2's design that many fans of Halo 1 so objected to would very likely remain, because despite strenuous statements to the co...

Re: You can't run but you can hide. Halo 3 is broken. - Rampancy

By narcogen Halo 1 and Halo 2/3 play very differently. Halo 2 and 3 are obviously different from each other, but they play more similarly with each other than with Halo 1. Because different people will prefer different styles of play, there are strong contingents of players out there that love Halo 3 muc...

By Anonymous You call it good design? So was HALO 2 1.0 good design too? With it's 6 hit beat-downs? Is there anything Bungie does that you don't semantically excuse? Which beat down is best? HALO 1? HALO 2 ver 1.0? 1.2? HALO 3? Oh, there's a way to explain the genius of them all right? Not. To reiterate: The dens...

Re: You can't run but you can hide. Halo 3 is broken. - Rampancy

By VVV I think that the hardcore Halo faithful are still standing around waiting for another "Halo 1" to come around. The job of any gaming company is to make money. The original Halo sold basketloads - but Bungie needed to reach a broader audience. Halo 2 was wider open and now so is Halo 3. Quote:

By narcogen Whatever Bungie has decided to do (or perhaps they've yet to decide) I think it'll be a while before we find out. Bungie might leave the Chief out there and come back to him later, or else they might not. Maybe they will dive right into Halo 4, maybe they won't.

By narcogen Such as? I hardly think it's a perfect game. In fact, I've been accused of both nitpicking Halo 3 to death and being a Halo 3 apologist just in the few weeks since release. I just haven't begun my Halo 3 Impressions series yet to detail them because I need to "live with" the game for a bit longer, fi...

By Claude Errera That wasn't a snide quip - it was an honest opinion. We're not using the same words to mean the same thing, he and I; in order to have a dialogue, I'd have had to start by defining my terms. I don't have time for that. Huh. I'm fine if it ends here, personally. I don't need a non-Bungie Halo 4, myself.

By narcogen Somehow I don't think Bungie has done that or will do that.

By Anonymous I completely agree with the author of that article. Halo 3 sucks compared to H1. Halo 3 is nothing more than H2 with a shiny new coat of paint. Bungie said they were going to make H3 more like H1. What a crock of crap. Let's review: Here is the universal Halo Equation:

By Compton Oh how fun it is to delve into the age old "If Halo 1 would only have my children debate". As much as it usually bothers me to see this kind of argument I found myself looking at it from a different perspective. What if by advocating how amazing Halo 1 is over the other iterations people were actual...

By kapowaz Ultimately though, for me the most important question was whether or not Halo 3 was fun. I didn't enjoy Halo 2 multiplayer at all, so whatever it was they changed about Halo 3 that makes me keep coming back was obviously enough to negate the changes in style that has taken place since the origi...

By Anonymous The bottom line is that millions of people would not have any desire to play the game you describe and it would get about as many people playing as the paintball games do currently. The majority of people like having to choose 2 weapons that they are good with and having to adapt their strategy...

By Anonymous The job of any gaming company is to make money. The original Halo sold basketloads - but Bungie needed to reach a broader audience. Halo 2 was wider open and now so is Halo 3. Like it or not the evolution of Halo will evolve. For the most part, Halo 3 is a breath of fresh air to 99% of the Halo Nation that...

By narcogen Spoiler: Onyx is an artificial planet, a "shield world" constructed from Sentinels, it appeared normal from the outside, so that's not what we see at the end of Halo 3. It might be the Dyson Sphere the characters from Onyx enter at the end of the novel (assuming that's what happens).