Computer Games, What's been waggling your joysticks Options

[The Phantom]

Yes, all of that rubbish about it revolutionising FPS games is rubbish (although I don't know about the techy stuff) but it is one of the most rounded and polished games I've ever played.  It has a great storyline, excellent gameplay and enemy AI, good soundtrack, interesting characters and backstory, good combination of stealth and all out action.  If you can name me another game which marries so many GOOD elements together then please do so.  And I don't personally think original half-life compares.  It may have been the Halo of its day (or maybe halo is the half-life of its day) but side by side halo is MUCH better.

Sorry, I love Halo too much and I'm very excited.  I don't mean to offend anyone who dislikes Halo, but it is better than any other game ever created 

another game which marries great gameplay elements, AI, soundtrack, story etc.. is Metal Gear Solid/2, not to everyones taste but a superbly crafted game, admittedly some stupidly long cut scenes but a fab game all the same.
* gets ready for barrage of anti MGS comments *

I'm not sure you can really compare Halo to the original Half Life because of the fact Half Life was released quite a while before Halo, and comparing various aspects simply isn't fair because game technology moves on and new games take advantage of that. You really do have to look at how the so called benchmark games change things, it is a true compliment to Half Life that even several years down the line new FPS titles are STILL being compared to it and Valve/Sierra are probably sitting there laughing saying 'yeah such and such is better but it took them five or six years to get there' and now you'll have Half Life 2 which really is going to piss over that whole genre again.

If you do really love Halo, then honestly good for you, play and enjoy.

[Jubei]

I have yet to see this compliment levelled at any game that deserves it.

Really? You are very unlucky not to have played a good game then , or perhaps they just don't appeal to your particular tastes

As for Metal Gear Solid, I confess I did love the original on the Playstation, but when i played the MGS2 on the Xbox I got bored really quickly and gave up. And as for people still comparing new games to half life, iits because there hasn't been a game which has caused quite the same stir, except for halo, in the FPS market since Half-Life. There have been better games, just not that much better.

Also, as someone else said, I don't want this to turn into an xbox Vs. PS bashing or anything. Halo just suits the way I want to play a game perfectly and just because something is hyped, doesn't mean it HAS to dissapoint (although Doom 3 definately backs that argument up!!!)

This post has been edited by Jubei: Nov 1 2004, 03:56 PM

[whitey]

Really?  You are very unlucky not to have played a good game then  , or perhaps they just don't appeal to your particular tastes 

I've played plenty of good games just none with a remotely decent story. Games don't need good stories to be successful but games which rely on their story to be good have always been unsuccessful.
Agreed that San Andreas is shaping up okay so far but only as a very derivative Singleton/Dickerson knock off, which is part of the problem of in game storylines.

[Jubei]

I agree, games don't NEED a good storyline to be succesful, and games that rely SOLELY on storyline obviously have inherant weaknesses, but that doesn't mean there aren't any games that deserve the compliment to be levelled at them - thats a far more confusing sentance to write than I would have expected...

I would say Shenmue is a good example, if a little longwinded. I AM still waiting for the conclusion mr Suzuki!

[Excelsior]

I think Starcraft managed it on both the storyline and gameplay fronts. A very, very well done story (including backstory in the manual) and whilst not perhaps the most sophisticated RTS game the whole three sided thing was cleverly done. Plus it did its own multiplayer pretty early, and pretty well, which helped longevity. One of very few games I've actually ended up dreaming about.

[rebelstar]

I've played plenty of good games just none with a remotely decent story. Games don't need good stories to be successful but games which rely on their story to be good have always been unsuccessful.
Agreed that San Andreas is shaping up okay so far but only as a very derivative Singleton/Dickerson knock off, which is part of the problem of in game storylines.

Video game in derivative storyline shocker!


It's all relative, really. I don't expect (or necessarily want) an in-depth storyline - if the game's good, and fun to play, who cares if the backstory's hack or even non existent? I guarantee that Manic Miner - The Novel would be pretty crap.

[whitey]

It's all relative, really. I don't expect (or necessarily want) an in-depth storyline - if the game's good, and fun to play, who cares if the backstory's hack or even non existent? I guarantee that Manic Miner - The Novel would be pretty crap.

Nor do I, but as a writer I find it really frustrating to hear people say 'the storyline was great' when referring to something which, had it been a film, would have made me demand my money back and burn the cinema to the ground. Max Payne is probably the best example of this. Every time the game skipped into 'comic' mode I found myself choking back vomit only to then read reviews praising the game for it's 'gripping' story.

[The Phantom]

Also, as someone else said, I don't want this to turn into an xbox Vs. PS bashing or anything.  Halo just suits the way I want to play a game perfectly and just because something is hyped, doesn't mean it HAS to dissapoint (although Doom 3 definately backs that argument up!!!)

No I don't think that because something is hyped it HAS to dissapoint(although I also agree that Doom 3 backs that arguement up) and I don't think that Halo is a dissapointment, it's just that to me a little too much has been made of it, but hey that's just me.

[Lee]

This week I 'ave mainly been playing...

Rome:Total War and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic on my PC, and on my mates PS2, Star Wars Battlefront.

Next on the agenda is X-Men Legends, yum!

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

I agree, Halo is good there is no denying that, but I'm sorry it is not THAT good.  It hasn't reshaped FPS in the way some people go on about.  I was watching an interview with some of the team involved in making Halo and they were bragging about this and that and claiming things like 'for the first time you can drive vehicles in a FPS game' ??? er... pretty sure that was possible before Halo, for one, Red Faction springs to mind.

I'm very puzzled. I really must be missing something with Halo, because I thought it was absolutely dreadful. I've been playing it recently, and to begin with, I thought "it's a reasonably good game but it's nothing worth shouting about". Now, each time I play it, it gets worse.

The biggest flaw of the game has to be the level design. While the outdoor areas are reasonably fun, there's not enough of them, and the indoor areas are absolutely horrendous. They've quite literally just copied and pasted the same rooms and used them over and over again. I got to a level called the "Library" or something, and it has to be the worst level I've ever seen in a game. It's so utterly boring. They've pretty much modelled one floor of the place, and then just repeated it loads of times. So many times in the game I've gotten lost or confused because I've gone into a room and thought "haven't I just been in here?" to realise that the room is literally identical to one i'd just left. They don't even make much of an attempt to disguise it, by moving details around a bit.

As for the enemies... The covenant are supposed to be a "fearsome" race, yet most of them do nothing but running around with their arms in the air shrieking in comedy voices. How are you supposed to take them seriously? The fact that everything alien was all stupid bright colours didn't help either.

I really can't think of any good reason to recommend Halo to anyone. In its day, the vehicles were quite good, but it's so rare to actually find one that it's not something to get excited about.

I thought Doom 3 was repetitive, but Halo is so much more so...

This post has been edited by Nonus Aequilibrium: Nov 2 2004, 06:21 PM

[pick-puff-pickle]

This week I have returned to the miond blowing extravaganza which was...Final Fantasy Seven. I realise that this was a game where you either loved it or hated it. Personally for me it is a game of joy and love and fluffy things

[Jubei]

I bought Full Spectrum Warrior today and although I've only done the training and Level 1 it seems to be shaping up quite well. I had to stop playing to go to work. Don't you hate it when the real world intrudes on the virtual?

[fried_gold]

I bought Full Spectrum Warrior today and although I've only done the training and Level 1 it seems to be shaping up quite well.  I had to stop playing to go to work.  Don't you hate it when the real world intrudes on the virtual?

But.. the random battles.. AAAAAGHH. I must admit though, VII is the one that makes you care most about the characters.

[ShArK]

At the moment im addicted to Raven Shield..

And like most cant wait for Halo 2 and Half-Life 2..also im a big Ghost recon Fan so GR2 looks awsom and will be on my Crimbo list!

ShArK

[War Bastard]

San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Metroid Prime 2. You'd think all those sequals would be a bad thing...
I have to say I'm looking forward to Halo 2. Looking forward is an understatement, I've been obssessing over it. At the best of times I'm a rabid Halo fanboy, I'd be happy if they just released Halo with new levels and xbox live support. But I'm also really looking forward to Half-Life 2. I've already paid for the silver package on steam...who needs a box anyway... Still Counter-Strike: Source is pretty cool but I'm not really into it, everyone else is too good and I'm quite bad. I just hope my PC doesn't melt under the strain of HL2 if it can even run it at all.

On top of San Andreas I've been playing a bit of Pandora Tomorrow's multiplayer. I have a love/hate thing going on with Splinter Cell single player, I geep wanting it to be more Metal Gear Solid, but the multiplayer is fantastic, providing you play with nice friendly people who talk. Luckily a lot of my friends have Live so there's always someone you know you can play with.

This post has been edited by War Bastard: Nov 2 2004, 09:16 PM