Halo 2 vs. Half Life 2

[alan8325]

With my preferences in games, I think I will like HL2 more than Halo2, although i'm sure I'll find Halo2 to be fun as well.

In regard to which game will sell more, it will probably be Halo2 because it's more popular with casual gamers. All my friends don't play games that much, but play Halo deathmatches all the time and are eagerly awaiting Halo2. When asked about Half-Life, they don't even know what it is!

 

[Capello]

HL2 > Halo2 and any system game, nothing can have as good as graphics, cause the cards in the system sucks

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

Halo 2 doesnt excite me too much. Looks to be the same ole Halo with a couple new weapons and some new options. Whoopity doo. I'll still play it, but I doubt I'll buy it until it comes out for computer.

Half-Life 2 on the other hand... well, I'm sort of biased I guess. I mean we ARE on a forum hosted by HALFLIFE2.net eh?

 

[Warbie]

HL2 > Halo2 and any system game, nothing can have as good as graphics, cause the cards in the system sucks

And we all know it's gfx that makes a good game :/

 

[NateDogX]

Halo 2 preorders just passed the 1.5 million unit mark in the USA alone. Any idea where HL2 stands?

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

You can't compare sales figures between PC and console games.

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

More people are always going to own consoles. Consoles are the lazy gamer's PC. No need to update cards, memory, cpu, and all that hoohah. Every game that comes out is compatible, every peripheral will work without installing tons of software. Mothers can buy their kiddies a console without worrying how much RAM that new game will need, or whether that GFX card she bought little Johnny will have T&L Rendering and support specularized whoopitys.

But PC's will always have cutting edge games, perhaps less players, but that doesnt matter when you've still got thousands of players online at once. Kind of makes you wonder how many console gamers are playing at once eh?

 

[NateDogX]

I'd venture to say that the number of Xbox Live players will compete with online PC gamers one of these days, definitely once the Xbox 2 streets. Obviously sales can't be compared nor can graphics or anything of that sort. So what can be compared? Story, creative vision, all very subjective things so there really can be no clear winner if you ask me.

 

[Warbie]

Consoles are the lazy gamer's PC.

Statements like this can really piss me off at times - apart from being complete bollox, it's obvious trolling.

It's also where I stopped reading your post.

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

I meant that quote in no offense, how about I put it this way, "Consoles are the everyday person's PC gaming rig." Better?


Btw, I own consoles, so if I meant it in offense, I guess I should take offense to myself... :|

 

[mEthklLr0110]

so i've played halo, beaten it several times on both pc and xbox, beaten half-life multiple times. the thing i can't stand about the first halo is spilit screen multiplayer, its so n64 goldeneye and old school. "screen-peeking" as my fellow gamers and i call it was abundant and made it almost nearly impossible to play a 4-player deathmatch fairly. enter half life and its many mods, this is where i left console multiplayer for good to enjoy the fruits of such greats as counter-strike, CoD, starcraft, unreal tournament. all which are great games and overshadow the original halo multiplayer by leaps and bounds. And to think that we were all playing online before halo even came out.
halo is for casual gamers who pick up a controller every month or so...


because if they were a true gamer they would have already forgotten about halo 2 and moved on the half-life 2 as their soul source for gaming greatness. I'm not saying that halo 2 is necessarily going to be a bad game, however what im saying is it may turn roughly 50% of the fools who are stuck in this "halo/halo2 is the best game ever made," and show them the true greatness of online gaming.

when looking at the facts does halo 2 really revolutionize the genre that some game in history has not already done or has been doing. examples please!! sure halo is deemed as a "social" activity, but to even enjoy some of its new features you have to play online.... without your buddy next to you, or with you what ever it may be your still playing online against real people, so i believe this rules out a game as being social since most of us play online because it is social.

huh...sigh...i've been gaming for nearly fifteen years, i think now its safe to say that my generation can be called the video game generation as i grew up on games like pong, super mario bros..etc. I've played every majororly released console/game in video game history, except for the failures ie jaguar and sega saturn. i would have to say that i have a lot of credibilitly, i still own every nintendo console ever made. anyways in short everyone is entitled to their opinions, i feel both halo 2 and half life 2 will be great games, the latter of the two being the second coming of christ as many on these forums have referred to half life 2 as being.

lets face it half life 2 could quite possibly change the way we play fps, heck the first one did and has been the precedent since it came out, many people here on these very forums including myself will find and point out the influences found in each fps shooter that has come out since half life.

theres my two cents, huh back to blazing! later kiddys.

 

[Smack500]

I dont think the consoles will pass pcs as far is the number of online gamers until they stop charging a monthly fee. I know alot of people who would play consoles online but have better things to do with their money. I mean I dont know about all of you, but I am already dishing out to much money on a month to month basis.

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

I personally think Halo was a milestone for console gaming. Never was such a well done and in depth FPS game made for consoles. It can only be compared to Goldeneye in my opinion. More than likely Halo revolutionized console FPS gaming. Did it hold a candle to the best PC FPS games though? In some respects yes, in others not really.

For PC users, Halo meant nothing other than a cool console game being released and finally an FPS that was worth it's salt for a console.

For console users, Halo was God. I personally liked the game, and still play it once and a while. Whenever I get tired of CS: S, I go back to my console and play a quick game of Madden, or become Master Chief and hose some Covenent.


Will Halo 2 have as much of an impact? I dont know. What it looks like to me is Halo, with more weapons and some new gameplay modes. Graphics look similar, gameplay looks the same... I guess it depends on whether people will be looking for a new experience, or a nostalgic one. I personally go for the new experience... but that's just me.

 

[She]

i liked metroid prime alot.. but halo.. i can not understand why halo was such a ""amazing"" game.. it really sucked.

 

[Smack500]

I agree, halo was a fairly good game to pc users, but great/one of the best ever for console fans. I know for a fact aroung 70%+ of console fans do not, and have not gamed on pcs. They dont know barely anything about pc games like half-life and so many others.

Halo was really one of their first good fps they had ( not forgetting golden eye, and others, also big hits), so it was one of the best games to them. Now I admit alot of pc gamers liked halo, But most of you know no pc gamer went hype on it like the console boys did.

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

Ah yes, and remember when Halo was going to originally be a PC game? Strange that.

 

[Smack500]

seriously who here thinks that if halo was released to pc like it was suppose to have, it would have been as hyped and would have sold as many copies ??? (besides halo fan boys)

 

[mEthklLr0110]

huh? then shouldn't we throw out the console gamers opinion, because in short they have not played enough pc to render them an opinion on the fps genre.

 

[Killa_TJH]

I'm telling you guys that Halo2 isn't really all that great. I have seen people play it first hand and its really not all that different than the first Halo. I really wasn't impressed. The only new features are dual weilding and graphics enhancements. Nothing really that innovative. I got bored of it after 30 mins.

HL2 on the other hand is totally innovative and will revolutionize online and offline gameplay as we know it. When I saw CS:Source, I almost pissed my ****ing pants due to its realism and detail. Truly innovative.

 

[Warbie]

I meant that quote in no offense, how about I put it this way, "Consoles are the everyday person's PC gaming rig." Better?


Btw, I own consoles, so if I meant it in offense, I guess I should take offense to myself... :|

No - it's my bad. I've been grumpy all day.

 

[mEthklLr0110]

star wars jedi academy came out roughly the same time as halo on the pc, that game would have destroyed halo in the game play and story aspect. in fact im quite disapointed it did not get game of the year, reason it was released on xbox to the masses who ate it up.

 

[Killa_TJH]

There is no comparison as to which game will sell more. It's Halo2 hands down. Bungie is targeting a different audience, not to mention that there are alot more console gamers than there are hardcore PC gamers due to the fact that consoles are much more mainstream.

But as far as gameplay goes, HL2 OWNS HALO2. Trust me.

 

[SnowBall]

There is no comparison as to which game will sell more. It's Halo2 hands down. Bungie is targeting a different audience, not to mention that there are alot more console gamers than there are hardcore PC gamers due to the fact that consoles are much more mainstream.

But as far as gameplay goes, HL2 OWNS HALO2. Trust me.

HL2 is going to the XBOX as well.

 

[mEthklLr0110]

this thread isn't for which game will sell more

 

[Smack500]

also people keep saying console games can easily outsell pc games because theres so many more console gamers. But didnt the sims sell more games then any games before it (consoles, pc, or both), and I think this was said before it was released to consoles.

 

[Eon Blue]

If I were a mod, I'd ban whoever made another HL2 vs. anything thread. Then I'd go to their house and duct tape their fingers together.

It's a good thing I'm not, though.

 

[mEthklLr0110]

yeah but when you say hl2 is going to xbox, you almost wish they would just save it for xbox 2 so that the console gamer can get the full joy out of the game instead of a dumbed down version.

 

[Warbie]

its so n64 goldeneye and old school. "screen-peeking" as my fellow gamers and i call it was abundant and made it almost nearly impossible to play a 4-player deathmatch fairly'

I'm glad you mentioned this - as 'screen-peeking' can really add to some games. It's a feature i've enjoyed in titles from GE/PD to Halo and Mario Kart (and the main reason I prefer Mario Kart on the Snes to link up on the GBA. Not being see what your opponent is doing in battle mode really detracted from the experience a great deal - I believe it would have been the same for Golden Eye etc)

all which are great games and overshadow the original halo multiplayer by leaps and bounds.

Horses for courses. I can't stand UT or CoD - i'd take Halo co-op, or MP, with a few mates anytime.

because if they were a true gamer they would have already forgotten about halo 2 and moved on the half-life 2 as their soul source for gaming greatness. I'm not saying that halo 2 is necessarily going to be a bad game, however what im saying is it may turn roughly 50% of the fools who are stuck in this "halo/halo2 is the best game ever made," and show them the true greatness of online gaming.

I disagree here. I don't expect HL2 to have decent, challenging combat (would loved to be proven wrong, though) - which, let's face it, is a virtually non-existant feature in single player pc shooters (HL, CoD, MoH, Far Cry, Doom 3 - take your pick) Not that this is a big deal, though, HL never was about combat.

For single player shooters that actually require practise to master I still have to look to consoles (GE/PD Halo etc) While fun, every pc shooter i've played in the last few years has been finished in a week - and uninstalled.

I want Halo2 for the challenge (be it on my own, or with a friend in co-op), and HL2 for the immersion.

when looking at the facts does halo 2 really revolutionize the genre that some game in history has not already done or has been doing. examples please!!

Does Halo 2 need, or even attempt, to innovate in such a way? I don't think so - and neither would I want it to. More of the same would be very welcome. It's HL2 that needs to 'revolutionize the genre'

so i believe this rules out a game as being social since most of us play online because it is social.

I agree to some extent - but even playing with mates and using comms can't compare to the experience of being in the same room as them. Even a LAN party (everyone staring at their own screen with headphones on) feels far more isolated than sitting in the living room playing console games. PC gaming is far less social.

enter half life and its many mods, this is where i left console multiplayer for good to enjoy the fruits of such greats as counter-strike, CoD, starcraft, unreal tournament.

Each to their own. Even though i've been playing in various leagues and tournies for the last 5 years I still find multiplayer console gaming to be very appealing - mainly for the reasons mentioned above.

huh...sigh...i've been gaming for nearly fifteen years, i think now its safe to say that my generation can be called the video game generation as i grew up on games like pong, super mario bros..etc. I've played every majororly released console/game in video game history, except for the failures ie jaguar and sega saturn. i would have to say that i have a lot of credibilitly, i still own every nintendo console ever made. anyways in short everyone is entitled to their opinions, i feel both halo 2 and half life 2 will be great games, the latter of the two being the second coming of christ as many on these forums have referred to half life 2 as being.

It seems we've been gaming for a similar amout of time and have owned the same systems (except I bought a jaguar /o\ - best version of Doom, though ) HL2 is going to have to be the 'second coming' or there will be some very annoyed gamers out there - just 'good' won't be enough.

lets face it half life 2 could quite possibly change the way we play fps

I really hope HL2 is as good as we all hope

 

[ViolenceJack]

I'm glad you mentioned this - as 'screen-peeking' can really add to some games. It's a feature i've enjoyed in titles from GE/PD to Halo and Mario Kart (and the main reason I prefer Mario Kart on the Snes to link up on the GBA. Not being see what your opponent is doing in battle mode really detracted from the experience a great deal - I believe it would have been the same for Golden Eye etc)

How can you like this. It defeats the whole point in some cases. If you play any game at a LAN centre and your looking at an opponents screen they get very pissed off or at least dont like it. I mean imagine playing some really stealthy game and the enemy can clearly see what your doing it kind of defeats the objective. You could look at CS, its basicly a form or wall hacking but not as good. some guy is hiding behind some crate and you can see on his screen what do you do. Unleash into him through the crate.

Some people refer to this as "Screen hacking" using the term hacking as in cheating.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I disagree here. I don't expect HL2 to have decent, challenging combat (would loved to be proven wrong, though) - which, let's face it, is a virtually non-existant feature in single player pc shooters (HL, CoD, MoH, Far Cry, Doom 3 - take your pick) Not that this is a big deal, though, HL never was about combat.

I almost died reading this.

If by "challenging combat" you mean "hampered by an awful control system" then I agree, Halo wins. I didn't see anything else about it that made it more challenging than any of the other games you listed.

"HL never was about combat." - are you insane? Did you play the mysterious other version where Gordon skips around collecting flowers and helping little bunny rabbits? In my version, there was a hell of a lot of (challenging) combat.

It appears that you're holding Halo up to be the pinnacle of FPS gaming. Whereas it's really a fairly mediocre shooter, that does nothing that hasn't been done before and done better.

 

[Smack500]

FOR GODS SAKE, dont tell me your saying that halo is challenging. More challenging then half life 1, dues ex, and so many more great pc games. IM sorry but your mentally insane if this is what your saying. I dont have a xbox I borrow a friends, I herd all the mess about halo. So I rented halo, and borrowed the xbox about 3 months after it was released. I beat the single play on the hardest difficulty in less then half a day the first time I played it. THe next day me and my friend played co op, verry fun but didnt take long again. The rest of the week my friend was busy, so it just sat in my room until the day I had to return it.

Halo was fun I will give you that, Ill admit I will play halo 2 and enjoy that as well. But halo was not challenging at all, nor was it anything new or groundbreaking.

 

[Warbie]

FOR GODS SAKE, dont tell me your saying that halo is challenging. More challenging then half life 1, dues ex, and so many more great pc games. IM sorry but your mentally insane if this is what your saying. I dont have a xbox I borrow a friends, I herd all the mess about halo. So I rented halo, and borrowed it from a friend about 3 months after it was released. I beat the single play on the hardest difficulty in day the first time I played it. THe next day me and my friend played co op, verry fun but didnt take long again. The rest of the week my friend was busy, so it just sat in my room until the day I had to return it.

Halo was fun I will give you that, Ill admit I will play halo 2 and enjoy that as well. But halo was not challenging at all, nor was it anything new or groundbreaking.

I don't believe for one second you finished Halo (Xbox) on Legendary difficulty, on your own, in a day.

In comparison Deus Ex and Half Life 1 are childs play (even on the hardest difficulty settings - you couldn't really have picked 2 easier games) The only single player shooter as challenging as Halo I can think of is Golden Eye.

 

[Warbie]

I almost died reading this.

If by "challenging combat" you mean "hampered by an awful control system" then I agree, Halo wins. I didn't see anything else about it that made it more challenging than any of the other games you listed.

"HL never was about combat." - are you insane? Did you play the mysterious other version where Gordon skips around collecting flowers and helping little bunny rabbits? In my version, there was a hell of a lot of (challenging) combat.

It appears that you're holding Halo up to be the pinnacle of FPS gaming. Whereas it's really a fairly mediocre shooter, that does nothing that hasn't been done before and done better.

*puts on flame suit*

I disagree that Halo has an awful control system - never was I fighting the controls.

I also feel that HL was always more about the immersion and cinemtic experience than the fighting - which, imo, wasn't very special - but good enough (and no way near as demanding/challenging/exciting as GoldenEye)

I'm also not holding Halo as the pinacle of FPS - although I disagree that any fps has done was it does any better (especially on the pc)

Lastly, regardless of how that thread sounded, i'm not a console fanboy - spending most of my time playing clan matches and pc games.

 

[Smack500]

Why are there still people, that come on this board saying they never beat hl1 because they got stuck somewhere. I can find atleast 10 that have been posted in the last couple days.

Yet I can go to a halo board, and see dozens of children talking about how fun it was to play halo. There are some teens on this board, but it seems alot more teens/kids seem to hang out in halo boards.



Also warbie, how come you keep on spitting out paragraph after paragraph talking about how console games are better in just about every genre, how much more fun they are, etc etc. Then you follow it up by 1 little sentence saying, Im not a console fanboy though I really spend most of my time on pc ...... You have done post similar to these, on several threads.

 

[BladeTurbo]

Both of them are going to be great games, but they cater to a different audience, somewhat. Although if I had an Xbox I would be getting Halo 2 for sure.

I say we leave the "argument" at that.

Halo 2 would be even better if it was released on PC too.

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

Halo was a good game in its own right. Amazing for console gamers, pretty good for PC gaming. The control seemed fluid enough for me to get past that first "OMG, I'm not using a keyboard and mouse... what do I DO?!" couple of hours I played it. It was nothing revolutionary in the way of PC FPS, the gameplay was fairly straight forward with a "shoot this, shoot that philosphy". Some situations that were put into the game (especially on the forementioned Legendary difficulty) were insanely difficult and harrowing experiences, but I hardly call throwing 100 enemies at you with bad AI compared to an easier difficulty with only 20 very revolutionary.

HL of course had the same "shoot this shoot that" gaming philosphy, but it had a wonderful sense of immersion that most other games didn't. HL's combat certainly was harrowing at times (surface tension, anyone?) and the AI was unparalelled at the time. The fact of the matter was that HL wasnt meant to be a game where 100s of enemies were sent at you to make it insanely impossible, it was meant to be a game that sucked you into the plot and made YOU Gordon Freeman.

So to a point Warbie, I agree with you on the fact that no, HL wasnt about the combat, it was about the story. What I dont agree on is that Halo had some sort of new gameplay. It used the tried and true age old strategy of "throw this at him, now this! Back all of this up with a thin, yet interesting enough plot that they'll keep playing... new creature... new weapon...." of gameplay, which worked. Bravo to Bungie for a console game well done, and Bravo to Valve for a PC game well done.

 

[Warbie]

How can you like this. It defeats the whole point in some cases. If you play any game at a LAN centre and your looking at an opponents screen they get very pissed off or at least dont like it. I mean imagine playing some really stealthy game and the enemy can clearly see what your doing it kind of defeats the objective. You could look at CS, its basicly a form or wall hacking but not as good. some guy is hiding behind some crate and you can see on his screen what do you do. Unleash into him through the crate.

Some people refer to this as "Screen hacking" using the term hacking as in cheating.

I completely agree - in some cases (namely the ones you mentioned, it does completely 'defeat the point')

In some games, though, it's a good feature (IMO)

(I like the resulting John Woo style shoot outs that having a radar and being able to see your opponents screen allow in GE. If either of those features were missing the game would be a far more boring sneakathon - not the action packed carnage we all know and love.

Think of the scene in Face Off - when the protagonist and badguy are on either side of the double mirror - before a cool pistol shoot out In these movies everyone always knows where their opponent is - there's no *annoying* headhsots in the back [ala Counter Strike] This is the type of gameplay being able to see your opponents screen can provide. Sorry - but that's the best way I can think to describe it.)

 

[Warbie]

So to a point Warbie, I agree with you on the fact that no, HL wasnt about the combat, it was about the story.

What I dont agree on is that Halo had some sort of new gameplay. It used the tried and true age old strategy of "throw this at him, now this! Back all of this up with a thin, yet interesting enough plot that they'll keep playing... new creature... new weapon...." of gameplay, which worked. Bravo to Bungie for a console game well done, and Bravo to Valve for a PC game well done.

That wasn't what I was trying to say. You're right that Halo adds nothing new - I just think it takes old fps gameplay (basically shoot everything that moves) added vehicles, co-op, and and made it more challenging. Halo is the ultimate 'old skool' shooter. imo, of course

Bravo to Bungie for a console game well done, and Bravo to Valve for a PC game well done.

Seems like we actually agree in the end \o/

 

[UmbrellaMaster]

Warbie you should play some UT2004 for some old school shooter action. It's so fun.

 

[Warbie]

Warbie you should play some UT2004 for some old school shooter action. It's so fun.

Not my cuppa tea m8

ET and CS:S have me glued to my keyboard these days.