[Deepblue]

The Fall of Reach was completely kick-arse.

I hope Halo 3 has a story of that calibre.

[Mefustae]

I find it superior to HL.

I think the majority of people would disagree with you.

[Deepblue]

HL has better... physics??? Graphics? Digital characters?

I'll give you those, but when you get down to it, gameplay is where it counts.

[Mongoose]

To be perfectly honest, the only experience I've had of FPSes (besides Goldeneye for the 64 and one or two of the Bond games for PS1/2) was playing through the Doom 3 demo, which I only did to see if my system could handle the game.  (Results: inconclusive )  I've also played a little bit of Halo, too.  Honestly, though, I've never so much as seen Half-Life, Doom, or UT, and the only ten minutes I ever played Counterstrike had me gagging at the awfulness. At any rate, though, even with that limited experience, I could immediately see why so many FPS fans can't stand playing them on consoles.  I find the Halo series to be all-but-unplayable for me.  The stick placement just feels wrong, and none of the default control options work well for me.  After playing through the half-hour of that Doom 3 demo, I finally understood why the WASD+mouse is the best config for these games.  It just felt so natural.  With the possible exception of Goldeneye, no console FPS I've ever played has felt nearly so good.  (Another problem is my introduction to gaming through the Descent series; I just feel so limited in motion whenever I play a groundpounder. )  At any rate, I definitely know that, even if I was an FPS fan, I'd never have any desire whatsoever to attempt them on consoles, no matter what the benefits of having your friends in the same room as you are.  (That brings up another point:  consoles going online just seems so pointless; it defeats the entire purpose of having a console in the first place. )

[Deepblue]

Goldeneye feels terrible after Halo. Great gameplay still, but the controls are incredibly dated.

[Mefustae]

HL has better... physics??? Graphics? Digital characters?

I'll give you those, but when you get down to it, gameplay is where it counts.

HL2? You've got me there. But you're really going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that Halo is better than Half Life 1 in terms of gamplay?

Plus, given the major differences between the Xbox & N64 controllers, you can't really compare control schemes.

[WeatherOp]

There are Five FPS that I really like, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Rainbow Six(N64), Rogue Spear, Operation Flashpoint.

[StratComm]

The graphics of Goldeneye look dated compared to Halo, sure.  That should go without saying.  But the controls I find to be the exact opposite.  Everything in Halo makes your character superhuman, whereas goldeneye required finesse (and things like, you know, aiming) to make sure you didn't wind up in a firefight you couldn't win.  Sure the weapons didn't have a secondary or anything cool (gimiky) like that, but they didn't need them.

[Martinus]

HL has better... physics??? Graphics? Digital characters?

I'll give you those, but when you get down to it, gameplay is where it counts.

Mood, set-pieces, puzzles, level design, storyline, control system and it did them all first (not that it can claim it was even first in regards to most of these).

Goldeneye bored the hell out of me, mostly because I'd played HL and CS around then and they just blew it out of the water. After that I couldn't take any console's FPS controls seriously, it's like having your hands tied behind your back whilst you play. I played seven hours into Halo thinking 'it will get better, it will get better', Halo 2 did nothing at all for the series; playing as a cloakable character? Done that in far better style in Deus Ex with a big plasma sword and an aray of far more satisfying weapons.

[NGTM-1R]

The graphics of Goldeneye look dated compared to Halo, sure.  That should go without saying.  But the controls I find to be the exact opposite.  Everything in Halo makes your character superhuman, whereas goldeneye required finesse (and things like, you know, aiming) to make sure you didn't wind up in a firefight you couldn't win.  Sure the weapons didn't have a secondary or anything cool (gimiky) like that, but they didn't need them.

That's the ethos, though. In Halo, you ARE superhuman. In Goldeneye, you're not.

[Deepblue]

HL has better... physics??? Graphics? Digital characters?

I'll give you those, but when you get down to it, gameplay is where it counts.

Mood, set-pieces, puzzles, level design, storyline, control system and it did them all first (not that it can claim it was even first in regards to most of these).

Goldeneye bored the hell out of me, mostly because I'd played HL and CS around then and they just blew it out of the water. After that I couldn't take any console's FPS controls seriously, it's like having your hands tied behind your back whilst you play. I played seven hours into Halo thinking 'it will get better, it will get better', Halo 2 did nothing at all for the series; playing as a cloakable character? Done that in far better style in Deus Ex with a big plasma sword and an aray of far more satisfying weapons.

I was referring to HL2. Sorry.

Half-Life 1 is one of the greatest FPS's created in my mind.

[Grug]

Goob and aldo, go 'whack' yourselves!
Goddamn nazi-"grammer inquisition" indeed.

Ahh Goldeneye, I remember that game, oh yes. The multiplayer in that was gorgeous. Then the jump from that to Perfect Dark. "Oh ****, they can see over speed bumps!"
Perfect Dark was my next golden heart.

Then for a long while nothing.

Then Halo came along, one of the firsts of its kind, a good looking console game that plays near just as well as Goldeneye or Perfect Dark minus the spy gadget stuff. This is why Halo is so good, is because its a decent console game.

I'll be the first to admit that I bought HaloPC and installed, but it didn't hit the spot as well. The new maps and multiplayer were the only things to keep my interest for a while. But even then... on the PC there are better things available.

Halo kicks arse because on the console, its seemless and fun to play.
I just don't think it was meant to be at the hands of a mouse / keyboard duo.

Halo2 came along, the biggest thing about it was the continuation of the story. I was looking forward to a massive invasion of earth and many street battles alongside the marines. Especially going by all the trailers and clips they showed.

Then it releases, with no more than the first few levels at earth and no where near living up to the expectations of the previews. Then the cliffhanger, which to me was a bit of a kick in the balls. Halo2's story didn't feel like a true conclusion to me. When I saw chief arrive at earth I'm thinking "yes - finally those earth levels I've been waiting for", and bam. No deal.

To add to that, I miss the Assault Rifle. It was so much fun running into a room of grunts and opening up full auto on them. Compared to the rubber shooting SMG's... =/
The Battle Rifle is cool, but I miss the lust of the machine gun.

Then there's the whole mc's bashes do **** all now. Which kind of sucks.

But yeah, in the end I think Halo2 killed itself with overhype. I'm still dissapointed for not seeing the E3 level ingame, and ever will be...

[Mefustae]

But yeah, in the end I think Halo2 killed itself with overhype.

It is my dream that, someday, game companies will realise that taking their product and shoving it down their consumer's collective throats via mega-hyping said product - as seen with Halo 2 and HL2 to name a few - only serves to kill the game. I mean, think about it; every game hyped like this in the past few years has turned out to be stunningly average. Now compare that to the true classics - Goldeneye007, Half Life, Battlefield 1942, etc. - which were nowhere near as hyped, and yet still extremely enjoyable nowadays.

[aldo_14]

I think the majority of people would disagree with you.

The majority like Fifa Street, 50 Cent and Harry Potter games, that doesn't make them right.

I played and completed Halo.  Wasn't too impressed.  Got bored a few months back, and reinstalled it; started playing, and after about 20 minutes in, I quit and uninstalled.  It's just pish; Goldeneye was more fun (right down to kneecapping enemies with a silenced PPK in Severnya, or the magnificence of twin RPC-90s), Half Life 2 was more atmospheric, Call of Duty had more action, and all 3 of the previous had more convincing gunplay and weapons that were more fun than the fisher-price Halo collections.  Even HL2, whose weapons were gash compared to the other 2.  I can't think of a single redeeming factor for Halo; I'm sure it was polished for it's time, but by modern standards it's just generic rubbish.  Hell, Quake 4 is probably better than it, and I never even managed to convince myself to finish that game (christmas pressy).

[karajorma]

*slaps everyone for assuming that their personal choices are worth a damn*

Can't we just accept that some people like Halo and some people don't?

[aldo_14]

*slaps everyone for assuming that their personal choices are worth a damn*

Can't we just accept that some people like Halo and some people don't?

No!

[Flipside]

Halo was ok, I liked the 'Doom' feel of the Library, been a long time since I've had to fight a running battle against vastly superior numbers in a FPS. However, the rest of it was just like most other FPS games.

[Grug]

I think the problem is that haloPC is a port. You can't really compare Halo to other games on PC because its console.

I like it, but I also like other games on PC for better or worse. Halo belongs on the box though, not on PC.

[Roanoke]

What was all the fuss around HL? I thought both the original, OF and BS were unremarkable. Though OF was better.
The final boss in HL was shocking. He could kill a fully kitted Freeman with one shot, had that teleport weapon that took you to the most fecking annoying jumping section in a game ever ever ever and constant respwaning gang of mates to harass you.
Hate to side with the fanbuoy, but Halo was much better than HL. As was Golden Eye.

At least judging by the SNES version though, Lemmings 2 was way too easy. After finishing Lemmings and Oh no more Lemmings (the Mac versions too, which had excellent graphics and music), L2 felt like a walk in the park. It was a real pity, since all those extra skills they added in could have made for some very interesting levels.

Does your emulator have a little know game called King Arthur's World ? Try it. Like Lemmings, but with Knights. And rock-solid.

[Deepblue]

The Maw - end run. Best way to end the game. Ever.