Halo 3!

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Asher hates Marathon because that was back when Bungie was a Mac developer and made interesting and innovative games.

Since when did I hate Marathon?

Why do you constantly lie and make **** up? It's even funnier because while I was banned, you repeatedly accused me of making stuff up when you've done it REPEATEDLY in this thread. It's ridiculously stupid because just a post ago I said Marathon was great.

So desperate, Aggie...so sad...

Halo itself looked to be an innovative and interesting game before Micro**** bought Bungie out

Oh boo ****ing hoo. It was either Microsoft or Sony -- both were in a bidding war. Turns out making games for MacOS isn't good for business. And Microsoft RUINED HALO!!!! Of course, I'm sure Halo fans agree with you. Isn't it more likely you are a bitter Mac "loyalist" upset with the loss of the Mac's only decent exclusive game franchise? Considering your amazing history of rhetoric, lies, and one-man campaigns against MS, your perspective is abundantly clear.

And "Micro****"? Jesus, how old are you?

Anyway, how to tell if you have a 65nm CPU: http://forums.xbox.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=15804553

[Wiglaf]

Why can't they just put it on the box? "This CPU is less likely to die in a year than all the others" would be helpful.

[Wiglaf]

Oh boo ****ing hoo. It was either Microsoft or Sony -- both were in a bidding war. Turns out making games for MacOS isn't good for business. And Microsoft RUINED HALO!!!! Of course, I'm sure Halo fans agree with you. Isn't it more likely you, and Wiggy, are bitter Mac "loyalist" upset with the loss of the Mac's only decent exclusive game franchise?

I do not own a Mac anymore. Look, the point that is impossible to argue with is that Halo 3 is not that big a leap from the previous Halo games. Part of the reason for Bungie being so lame now might be that they are controlled by a company hell bent on sticking to a simple run and gun formula that any twelve year old can enjoy on XBL. Thinking shooters aren't as good for business, I guess.

Whatever the reason, just admit that the hype over Halo 3 is a little silly and let's move on.

[Asher]

The hype over Halo 3 is less silly than your campaign against it.

And far less silly than Agathon's "Micro**** killed my baby" campaign.

[Wiglaf]

So the hype is still a little silly? We have a breakthrough

[Asher]

Maybe this article will shed some light on what is a perplexing mystery for you:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_spotlight/article/0,2777,DRMN_23960_5708956,00.html

FIVE WAYS HALO HAS REDEFINED GAMING

By Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News
September 28, 2007

Believe.

It's been the rallying cry for Halo 3's ad campaign, but it's also Microsoft's mantra about the power and promise of the most hotly anticipated video game of the year.

Microsoft believes.

It believes that the final video game in their Halo trilogy won't just make gaming history, but also entertainment history. They aimed not just to top Halo 2's $125 million launch-day record, but also to eclipse the $155 million payday that Spider-Man 3 earned in its opening weekend.

After all, merely toppling gaming sales records has become old hat: Halo made sales history when the game launched in 2001, and Halo 2 eclipsed those records when it launched in 2004. And since then, gamers have spent more than 5 billion hours playing the game online.

Those Halo trilogy sales figures are a sign of something larger, a following that goes beyond just gaming and reaches into comics, movies, toys and books.

This Halo zeitgeist, like the game itself, is a thing greater than the sum of its parts, the product of myriad things including apt storytelling, refined technology and good timing.

Frank O'Connor - content manager for Bungie, the Halo developers owned by Microsoft - guides us through some of the ingredients that helped Halo transcend its medium:

Iconic character

Now that the Master Chief's visage

is all over Mountain Dew bottles, it's

understandable that everyone would think he's the hero of the franchise. Wrong, says Bungie. The hero is you, the gamer. The

Master Chief is tomorrow's Everyman, a gold-visored anonymous representation

of everything we wish we could be.

"It's not about the character, it's about

the way he enables you," O'Connor

says. "You never see his face. When

you look at his face you see

your face."

Object fetishism

We love gadgets, gizmos and tech toys,

and Halo doesn't just show them to us but actually lets us play with them. From the all-terrain, chain-gun armed Warthog

personnel carrier, to energy swords, battle rifles and bubble shields, Halo is chock-full of goodies. "In Star Wars there's Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, but there's the X-Wings and light sabers and they're just as important.

We make really cool tools that people can have fun with, and our objects let you

do things. We put all of this stuff in the

game and say, 'Here's a big

environment - go and

explore it.' "

Artificial intelligence

It might sound like science fiction, but video

game characters have long had a mind of their

own. Video game artificial intelligence is essentially

a set of rules that characters use to make decisions

on the fly. Fans of the shooter say that one of the things that Halo does best is breathe life into its characters with complex AI. "The Xbox 360 lets us turn up the artificial intelligence. You never know what's going to happen in a game. It's never the same," O'Connor says. "I've seen Brutes decide to not use their shields to protect themselves, instead protecting the weaker Grunts because they think of themselves as

the heroes of the battle. When the Brutes

are about to die, they change their

behavior and become kamikazes

and charge you."

Killer app

The original Halo game launched on

the same day as the original Xbox,

proving that the upstart console from

Microsoft could game with the best of them. With its streamlined controls and subtle auto-aiming feature, it also proved that the traditional first-person shooter genre could be both accessible and interesting to casual gamers. Says O'Connor: "It wasn't that we did anything new. When Halo arrived it made first-person shooters approachable. We didn't invent anything; we innovated and expanded in many ways."

Epic story

With all of this talk about storytelling,

you might think that the Halo trilogy was

written by Faulkner or Hemingway. But it's

probably closer to something written by Lucas or

Heinlein. It would take several books to outline the story (they're out there) but essentially it revolves around an armor-clad supersoldier who's trying to save humanity from the Covenant aliens after landing on a planet shaped like a ring. But the Bungie team says it's not about what they've written, but what the gamers are allowed to

write themselves. They say they set out to craft a

narrative canvas on which gamers could find their

own stories in the nuance of battles. "It's your story

and you're controlling the narrative, you are

influencing the narrative," O'Connor says.

"You go back and watch what you did in

campaign and it's different every time.

Every single replay plays

differently."

[Wiglaf]

The article manages to make the claim that the Spartan death bringer with an energy shield fighting futuristic aliens is an everyman. Why? Because you never see his face. Very compelling

Also, anyone who says "Sometimes teh AI charges and sometimes it doesn't; therefore two campaign missions are never the same" should be shot.

[Asher]

I don't see how you can dismiss the article while viewing the undeniable popularity in Halo. People see something there, even if you are incapable of it.

[Wiglaf]

It's a fun brainless shooter particularly with friends. But do not quote articles that go on about how amazing it is that we never see the Master Chief's face, or how unique each mission is because the AI sometimes decides to do mildly different things.

[Asher]

There are TONS of fun brainless shooters with friends. Killzone was hyped up beyond belief back for the PS2, and it was a huge bomb. But it was a "fun brainless shooter with friends".

Methinks you need to look more closely.

[Wiglaf]

I guess. That is kind of hard to do since I don't own the game. I'll probably end up buying it eventually just to confirm my suspicions, which is kind of weird.

[Colonâ„¢]

WTF Asher. With that article you almost come over like someone who's never played a game other than Halo.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
WTF Asher. With that article you almost come over like someone who's never played a game other than Halo.

I didn't write the article? I do think it's a solid article to explain the mass popularity of the game. Many of the people who played it don't play a lot of other games, ironically.

[Colonâ„¢]

That may be true but the article's title is "FIVE WAYS HALO HAS REDEFINED GAMING" and many of the arguments it uses to support the case seem pretty clueless.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Agathon
Halo itself looked to be an innovative and interesting game before Micro**** bought Bungie out and turned it into yet another first person shooter, while getting rid of the multiplayer that was supposed to be the point of the original game.

which multiplayer option did they get rid of?