[Deepblue]

Story is not exactly the same as Halo 1. Halo 2 has you starting out defending Earth from Covenant forces, but things change. Quickly. Unfortunately some would say, however, I thought the "shift" in perspective was effective and more fun than a certain other game made it.

[deftonesmx17]

Anyone check out black for Xbox and PS2 lately???  WOW that game looks fun..

I tried it on the xbox, its not that fun at all, its somewhat pathetic if you ask me.................then again I think most every EA game is pathetic

[Deepblue]

Black was hyped as the "everything killer" (because the "Halo killer" Killzone fell on its face) yet still fell on its face because it has really, really retarded AI and about 6 hours of campaign with no multiplayer and is riddled with bugs.

Typical EA game.

[Nix]

Oh, and if you want a game with a story, I STRONGLY suggest you get a copy of Tribes Vengeance.  Its story is UNBELIEVABLE...  I actually had to play the game twice to get the full effect of what was happening.  Its got Decent AI, good graphics, and you can run it with high detail and 1024 res on a geforce 6600 card...

Irrational knows how to do a proper modification of the Unreal engine, unlike Ion Storm (Yes, including Deus Ex 1) and irrational really tries to put good stories into thier games, but I simply did not feel near as involved as I did with System Shock 2.  The story is good, yes, and it's got a decent amount of content to get through (first run players shouldnt be able to complete this game in a weekend, unlike FEAR..) but it felt lacking, even for an Irrational game.  Good voice-acting and fancy graphics do not make a story, oh no.   Even the old and crusty System Shock 1 IMO has a better story than most games out today, unfortunately the corporate greed story has been beaten to death in just about any media form you look at today. 

I think they hoped too hard for it to be the next online tribes game, and hardcore Tribes players dismissed it for some reason or another.  I wouldn't know because I missed out on the Tribes bandwagon back in the day.  All I know is when you login to the servers at night, theres relatively few servers available to play on, and plans for a patch were canned by Sierra due to low sales.  Irrational basically had to throw up it's hands and give up on it.  All this, and SWAT 4 gets an expansion pack! 

Untill I see as much heart and soul that has went into such masterpieces as System Shock 1&2, Deus Ex 1, and Freespace 1&2, I refuse to move on and be sucked into the all flash and no content state that is the modern gaming scene. 

[Janos]

Black was hyped as the "everything killer" (because the "Halo killer" Killzone fell on its face) yet still fell on its face because it has really, really retarded AI and about 6 hours of campaign with no multiplayer and is riddled with bugs.

Typical EA game.

hey you ain't be ****tin' on Sims 2 round here or otherwise i will make a HLP simshouse and post pictures of a pixelated computer men humping each other and the people will point and laugh at you how could you possible live with yourself after that

[Turnsky]

Black was hyped as the "everything killer" (because the "Halo killer" Killzone fell on its face) yet still fell on its face because it has really, really retarded AI and about 6 hours of campaign with no multiplayer and is riddled with bugs.

Typical EA game.

hey you ain't be ****tin' on Sims 2 round here or otherwise i will make a HLP simshouse and post pictures of a pixelated computer men humping each other and the people will point and laugh at you how could you possible live with yourself after that

Let's face it, folks, EA's really a pain when it comes to games, including the Sims series of games, i can remember when i could count them on one hand. nowadays you need a freakin' abacus just to keep up.
and yes, i do find it sad that a person would buy, and play a game involving you having a virtual life, i found the sims like watching dead grass grow, utterly pointless in the end, mind you, that's what EA's all about, these days, their company mantra might as well be "we make utterly pointless games"  westwood was the only thing good going for them. 

[Nix]

NFSU & 2 weren't bad comparing them against Midnight Club 2 which was boring IMO.  NFSU and U2 were made by Black Box IIRC, Canadian branch of EA.  Cali-based EA can go to hell, even if it IS HQ for the publisher, swallowing up great studios such as Westwood and the shutting down of Looking Glass. 

When the Sims 2 came out, for some reason, the kids at the LAN center I frequented were playing that more than they were playing CS or BFV.  I'd hear them say this more often than not: "Make them do it! Make them do whoppee" or whatever it was called.  Wow.. A game that gave players the choice to engage in sexual activity, in or out of wedlock, for the sake of pure pleasure or procreation, and how much flak has Maxis/EA recieved over it?  Compared to Rockstar's GTA:SA and it's "hidden" fully clothed and extremly stupid "sex" scenes?  At least in GTA:SA, you could skip that whole side-story if you wanted to as it's not required in order to finish the story, but in Sims 2, your characters Want and NEED it, so it's sorta required to complete the game.  Sure, it's a "life simulator" but when your character's wants and needs are "to make whoopee in public, and to make whoopee in the hot tub, and another one related to whoopee, all on the same page, what game is more suggestive?    One where it's part of your goal to keep your Sim happy, or the other where you have the choice to take part in the side story or not?
Hmm..
 

[Turnsky]

The problem is with many console FPS games these days, is that they don't have much in the way of actual, story, or plot, it seems only just recently, that many console game devs have realised that many gamers have a little more culture beyond just shooting stuff onna screen.

[Ransom]

The problem is with many console FPS games these days, is that they don't have much in the way of actual, story, or plot, it seems only just recently, that many console game devs have realised that many gamers have a little more culture beyond just shooting stuff onna screen.

I'd say that's a problem with most FPSes in general, not just console ones.

[Grug]

I also think its because it is hard to pull a good story off in a FPS genre.
FEAR had a pretty successfull attempt at it  with flash back cutscenes, interactive cutscenes and atmosphere.
Half Life 2 put you in the feet of the character the whole time but explained too little.
Halo used cutscenes and the ingame discussions with Cortana.
Halo2 used heaps of cutscenes, and few ingame discussions with Cortana.
Doom3 used few cutscenes and ingame radio discussions, mostly relying on atmosphere.
Quake4 had a similar make up as to Doom3, with a few more interactions with the characters.

Compare these to the story telling abilitys of say an RTS game such as Warcraft.
Warcraft 3 and Frozen throne use fully rendered cinematics for chapter intros / exits, and ingame custcenes while playing. I think one of the things Blizzard can do quite well is tell a story.

Or Homeworld 1, sure the story was an adaptation / rip off of Battlestar Galactica, but the atmosphere they managed to generate was spot on. Those first 3 missions from the game were always soft spot for me.

I think its just developers evolving their story  telling techniques as the years go on. Its not that they arn't trying. (well, most of them anyway) We just have to hope that the gaming industry keeps evolving rather than go EA mainstream...

[Prophet]

Or Homeworld 1, sure the story was an adaptation / rip off of Battlestar Galactica,

Now who actually thought that when HW came out? No one. And for a good reason. Homeworld has nothing in common with BSG, exept that you have a fleet in a hostile enviroment. It's like me going around saying the story of Freespace is an adaptation / rip off of Babylon 5.

[Turnsky]

The problem is with many console FPS games these days, is that they don't have much in the way of actual, story, or plot, it seems only just recently, that many console game devs have realised that many gamers have a little more culture beyond just shooting stuff onna screen.

I'd say that's a problem with most FPSes in general, not just console ones.

that's because there have been more FPS's on PC, than on a console, but yeah. a lot of games are all shiny and lovely to look at and ****, and they forget the fundamentals of entertainment. Eyecandy =! entertainment. Eyecandy is nice and all, but a story drives the game along.

[Grug]

Or Homeworld 1, sure the story was an adaptation / rip off of Battlestar Galactica,

Now who actually thought that when HW came out? No one. And for a good reason. Homeworld has nothing in common with BSG, exept that you have a fleet in a hostile enviroment. It's like me going around saying the story of Freespace is an adaptation / rip off of Babylon 5.

True, I never realized till recently.
It does have some similarities though.
A lone fleet, their homeworld destroyed, pursue a hope to find their homeworld across the galaxy. Constantly chased by a vastly superior empire.
Sound familiar?

But Homeworld was beautiful in every possible way, and I did love it.

[Ransom]

True, I never realized till recently.
It does have some similarities though.
A lone fleet, their homeworld destroyed, pursue a hope to find their homeworld across the galaxy. Constantly chased by a vastly superior empire.
Sound familiar?

That's not really a valid comparison to BSG. What you just described could describe tons of stories, and the whole homeland destroyed thing is a story that isn't exactly even limited to the science fiction genre.

[Janos]

True, I never realized till recently.
It does have some similarities though.
A lone fleet, their homeworld destroyed, pursue a hope to find their homeworld across the galaxy. Constantly chased by a vastly superior empire.
Sound familiar?

Oh, the Jews and exodus!
Crafty folks they are indeed, inserting their illuminatic imperialist-zionist-communist-fascistic agenda into everyday lives of unaware computer geeks.