Halo

[ZenLefty]

Anybody else play this game? A friend loaned it to me this weekend and I have to admit, it's pretty entertaining. It kind of reminds me of Starship Troopers, except the aliens are a lot more fickle and the characters have about as much depth as a Dodge truck commercial. But other than that, it's pretty fun to go shooting up aliens and sneaking around on a ring-shaped world with a sniper rifle. :D

[GOPisEvil]

1. I like Halo a lot!

My friend and I used to play the 2-player version. Much more fun that way! :D

It's a good way to kill off an evening. :D

[ZenLefty]

7. Multi-player seems pretty interesting here

I hate the fricking marines who follow me around like a large group of Abbot and Costellos. They never do what I want them to do. Bastards. (though they do say some funny things when I shoot them, accidentally or on purpose)

[GOPisEvil]

9. Those damned Marines!

Why can't they stay in a bunch and draw fire while I wander off and out-flank the aliens? Argh!

Multi-player can be fun, but until you get used to it, the split screen is strange. Also, you have to get to know how to read the little map thing so you know where your partner is.

[thebigidea]

2. my friends are addicted to the damn thing

on two HDTVs in seperate rooms... it drives me fucking nuts with boredom.

"Can we go yet, its getting late."

"one more game. just one more game."

Nothing like a video game to get supposedly grown adults questioning each other's masculinty.

[ZenLefty]

5. It definitely appeals to our Peter Pan lobe

There are just some parts of a person that will never grow up. If video games were to suddenly vanish tomorrow, all us grownup guys would be out playing cops and robbers in the streets.

[thebigidea]

8. oh, i know...

I used to be an insane video game addict until I lived with a roommate that slept for 14 hours a day and played video games for the remaining 10 hour shift.

The same game, the same level. Week after week.

Somehow the association stuck in my mind, and controllers now make me nauseous.

The words "blood gulch" make me break out in hives.

[Khephra]

3. I'll probably pick that up after I'm done with Max Payne 2

and Tron 2.0.

[okieinpain]

4. I've got some vacation time coming at the end of the month

I was hoping for half-life2, but I guess I might have to check out halo.

[meatloaf]

6. If you're in to video games on home consoles it doesn't get much

better than Halo.

First person shooters(FPSs) have become dominant in the world of video games, much they way fighers, ala street figher2 were a mere decade ago. There are still RPGs, Strategy SIMS, Sports, and other titles but FPSs have been getting priority for awhile now.

When there as well made as Halo though, it's hard to complain. With Half Life 2, and Halo 2 on the Horizon, the future looks bright for the genre.

[ZenLefty]

10. I haven't liked a FPS in a long time

I burned out on Doom II, which helped nurse me through a bitter divorce. But after a year or so, it just got too repetitive. My final game of Doom I was so bored and frustrated, I shot off all my ammo and just ran around the level with monsters in chase until they killed me. Lasted a long while, too.

[Occulus]

11. Doom3 is coming.....

And-

Oh. My. GOD. It looks fantastic. Better than anything mentioned in this thread, including Halo, Max Payne 2, Half Life 2, and all the rest. The graphics engine that powers Doom3 is literally revolutionary.

You know those CGI cinematics that so many games have- those movie cutscene where you can do nothing but sit and watch very pretty graphics that are so much better than the game itself? Well, in Doom3, the engine that drives the gameplay graphics is the same one that renders the cutscenes... in real time. The camera literally jumps out of the player's head, runs the cutscene, and then jumps back in, smoothly and seamlessly transitioning from cutscene to gameplay.

There's more. Doom3 also uses a physics engine that's second to none, allowing for particle effects on a level never seen before. Per-particle collisions allow a character to take a shot in the arm and have it affect only that arm, making enemies much harder to kill off. Additionally, Doom3 also uses very sophisticated ragdoll physics- if you kill off a zombie standing at the top of the stairs, for example, that zombie will convincingly tumble down the stairs.

However, the one thing that has always set id's games apart from the rest is the fact that they have always been solidly behind user-created maps using their games. From the original Doom, which was edited by the users with Doomcad, to Quake3 Arena and the Radiant editor, every popular id game from Doom on has also been treated as a palette for the user to create his own maps.

The editor for Doom3 will be no exception. In an interview with John Carmack and Todd Hollenshed (sp?), they claimed that the editor shipping with Doom3 will allow the user to not only create his own maps, but will also allow for full-length animations, movie style. It's entirely possible that this editor, along with the graphics and physics engines, will for the first time allow gamers to make short films using a game. One of the people I mentioned above used their editor and Maya in the same sentence, saying that theirs is "certainly much cheaper than Maya."

There's a video on the net taken from the E3 convention this year. It's rather large- 65 meg, I think, and totally eye-popping.

The video can be found here:

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/123889.shtml?r=5

as well as other places all over the net. Enjoy!

[Forkboy]

12. To hell with Halo!

go answer our damn NHL 2004 questions!!!

:)

[ZenLefty]

13. Well, where the heck are they?

I only look at the top ten threads around here, you know. :o

[ZenLefty]

14. I think you confused me with DrGonzo

I should be profoundly insulted about that. ;-)

[Forkboy]

15. Oh sorry

I get us hockey people confused sometimes :crazy:

Carry on with the Halo conversation....