Halo 3: ODST preview

Halo 1 was kinda cool at first, then after a few levels I just got sick of it.

To be perfectly honest, if it had been some game I had never heard of and tried it, I probably would have liked it more.

But the people saying "WOW you need to get this game NOW!!11" ruined it. Definitely way over hyped. I guess if you had never played games on a PC you'd be way more impressed.

Best part was the squad-mates comments.
 
It just shows how people want and expect very different things in fps. Halo blew me away on release. I had no idea single player fps could be that involved and gameplay and challenge wise it slayed anything i'd played up to that point - which included every fps since Wolfenstein. Halo 2 dropped the ball but no. 3 picked it up and now we have the most difficult and balanced single player/co-op fps around. Each to their own.

I have high hopes for ODST's co-op modes and hope a slower, more vulnerable squad dynamic will make for an interesting twist on the gun ho, keep the momentum going Halo 3 meta game. I don't buy this 'Halo is going tactical' stuff, though. It seems that many people equate slow with being tactical. 'Ooh, I get to sit in a bush and watch people walk by, how tactical'. The only tactical fps I can think of are the early SWAT games that let you plan out routes of attack before hand and try and synchronise them them when the mission starts. All the others that strive at realism and boast tactical depth are simply slow games that ask you do all the other stuff other fps require, but really slowly. zzzzzzzz
 
I believe I bought Half Life 2 before I bought Halo, so ...

Anyway, I liked Goldeneye 007 so much more than Halo. But I've never really said anything bad about Halo, only that I don't really care for it.

Haven't tried anything except Halo1, for the record.
 
Warbie said:
Halo blew me away on release. I had no idea single player fps could be that involved and gameplay and challenge wise it slayed anything i'd played up to that point - which included every fps since Wolfenstein.
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This is why I can't take you seriously.
 
Kyorisu said:
This is why I can't take you seriously.
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Let's face it, up to that point fps required little more than point and click to complete (Golden Eye being a notable exception). Maybe the occasional key hunt. Suddenly there was a game that focused on prioritising targets, managing shields, quickly picking and swapping between weapon combos, vehicles, and with a heavy focus on situational awareness and making lots of critical split second decisions. If you weren't practiced in any of these you died in seconds. If you were, you could speed run from start to finish in a death dealing melee/nade/ranged dance without falling once. I find it difficult to take people seriously who can't see the obvious gulf in complexity of this over what we had been given in Quake/Unreal/Halflife etc. Sure, some of these games were superior (vastly when it comes to HL) in other areas, but when it came down to pure gameplay mechanics and challenge, Halo slayed them. Halo also doesn't get enough credit for how well in integrates vehicles into fps combat. Go from Halo to one of the Battlefield games and it's immediately apparent how clunky and less seamless the addition of vehicles seems. They feel as much a part of the fps experience as the gun you're holding in Halo - they feel like separate mini games in almost everything else. Halo 3 expanded on this with the addition of equipment, customising difficulty levels and gameplay with skulls, and the awesome co-op meta game, foundry and theater modes. Every fps should have a forge and theater mode equivalent.

So yeah, maybe not for everyone, but for some people Halo offers a great deal that other fps don't.
 
Warbie said:
Let's face it, up to that point fps required little more than point and click to complete (Golden Eye being a notable exception). Maybe the occasional key hunt. Suddenly there was a game that focused on prioritising targets, managing shields, quickly picking and swapping between weapon combos, vehicles, and with a heavy focus on situational awareness and making lots of critical split second decisions. If you weren't practiced in any of these you died in seconds. If you were, you could speed run from start to finish in a death dealing melee/nade/ranged dance without falling once. I find it difficult to take people seriously who can't see the obvious gulf in complexity of this over what we had been given in Quake/Unreal/Halflife etc. Sure, some of these games were superior (vastly when it comes to HL) in other areas, but when it came down to pure gameplay mechanics and challenge, Halo slayed them. Halo also doesn't get enough credit for how well in integrates vehicles into fps combat. Go from Halo to one of the Battlefield games and it's immediately apparent how clunky and less seamless the addition of vehicles seems. They feel as much a part of the fps experience as the gun you're holding in Halo - they feel like separate mini games in almost everything else. Halo 3 expanded on this with the addition of equipment, customising difficulty levels and gameplay with skulls, and the awesome co-op meta game, foundry and theater modes. Every fps should have a forge and theater mode equivalent.

So yeah, maybe not for everyone, but for some people Halo offers a great deal that other fps don't.
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You're giving this game way too much credit. Halo to me was a game that tried to combine all these different game mechanics such as vehicles and the recharging shields etc yet failed on the most basic of requirments. That of level design. Sure, some of the outdoor parts were nice for the time, but the indoor sections were just copy and paste of the same rooms and corridors which continued throughout all the games. Then to recieve this level of recognition when many FPS have far superior level design just pisses me off.
 
I really dunno why they got rid of the original Halo 1 system in the first place, it made sense IMO, shield that recharges, if shield is taken down, you start losing actual health.
 
stemot said:
yet failed on the most basic of requirments. That of level design. Sure, some of the outdoor parts were nice for the time, but the indoor sections were just copy and paste of the same rooms and corridors which continued throughout all the games.
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This was true for some sections of certain levels (library was terrible from start to finish), but on the whole this has been exaggerated to silly proportions. Most of the game is very well designed and varied in look and theme. I can't think of a fps from that time with vastly superior level design, but could name a huge bunch with generic, no brainer combat. For what it's worth, other than the library level, I wasn't once bothered by the level design while playing Halo. The combat in HL2, however, bothered me from start to finish, yet plenty have people have no problem with that either. Horses for courses.
 
I liked the level design of all the Halo games, except for two or three segments in levels perhaps. I can say the same for most the games I've played. Thinking on it, I can think of numerous games I've played that have cut and paste level design... it's only if that certain environmental art style doesn't appeal to me that I call out on it but that's going to be different for everyone, stemot, and the people that do give Halo praise obviously like what they play. I don't know what's to difficult to understand there. You don't like it and that's fair, why care what others think? Different strokes for different folks and all that.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub5e...?t=90725&page=29&feature=player_embedded#t=88

Not long now :)


This month's Edge mentions the new hub and spoke approach ODST is taking to mission structure. The missions themselves will still be linear - it's not at all free roaming like GTA or Far Cry 2 - but each area (the spokes) will be larger than before and radiate from a considerably larger central hub. Hopefully this'll provide a few more options in tackling objectives and groups of covenant, as well as benefiting the co-op game in giving us more room to breath (I found Halo 3 was excellent for 2 player co-op, but too cramped for 4). Health is back, along with health packs, there's a new stamina bar (which sounds similar to a regenerating shield to me), and visors, which highlight waypoints/enemies/objectives etc (we may be getting these at the expense of the motion tracker). Gameplay wise, ODST doesn't appear to vary greatly from what we're used to, but the changes do suggest a little more emphasis on planning and moving as a team.

It's a very good time for co-op fans.
 
Wait wait wait. So let me get this straight. Not only is health back, but the motion tracker is gone as well? This might just be actually tactical!
 
That live-action video is f*cking great IMO!

Does anyone know what language the song is in? Almost sounds like Icelandic to me?
 
If anyone finds the song in the ODST trailer available seperately, please send me the info!

Thanks, it's quite beautiful and I just can't stop replaying the video over and over to hear it.
 
It's in Hungarian. Saw it yesterday, pretty cool video. Gamespot or some other generic games site showed it on release as well as some cool new footage of a new level in the campaign. Really excited about this. Firefight is looking sweet.
 
I read some interviews with regards to the trailer, apparently they had intended the persons to be speaking Russian, but issues arose, this was partially because they feel that since Russia, specifically the Spetsnaz, has the harshest training in the entire world, it would more appropriately reflect the ODSTs, rather than say, using Americans.
 
the cow says moo said:
This game might be alright. Hopefully all of the 5 year olds will stick with Halo 3 multiplayer due to ODST being more strategic.
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NOT A CHANCE.

Xbox live should lock you out of an M-rated game if your voice doesn't reach a certain decibel.
 
Right, it would be pitch or frequency. I agree with his idea though. Kids screaming in my ear is not my idea of a good time.

Video was cool, BTW
 
Also, I was right, whilst the speech is Hungarian, the song itself in the background is Gaelic :D
 
Just pre-ordered :D

I wonder when the Halo: Reach MP beta will start, and how "different" it will be from the other Halos. I wouldn't imagine it being too different.
 
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