What Makes Halo So Popular, Part Deux: Touch My Gun

For the record, Granite, I'm merely posting your comment for reference. The first post was too old to make commenting on it useful. I didn't realize that I was moderating comments on posts older than 10 days and, silly me, forgot to enter my email address so I'd get a notification when moderation was needed.

So here is the beginning of this.


Jordan
Didn't even come back here to check on this.

I do know the Halo story. I am aware of the storyline that unfolds in the campaign, and I've listened to I Love Bees multiple times. I haven't visited the novels/graphic novels/etc. because I:
a) Don't care enough to waste money on that stuff regardless of franchise
b) Rarely consider it to be canon, since it only takes one game developer to sweep all the sidestory information into oblivion.

Also, how are we debating the story? You cannot debate a piece of fiction. We're talking about which stories we prefer...and frankly, the Halo story doesn't shine in my eyes.

And as for Samus,

Samus is not a supersoldier. Samus is a woman in a technologically advanced space suit given to her by an alien race who took her in after her parents were slaughtered by an evil race known to humanity as Space Pirates (presumably not what their race is actually called...they don't speak English though, so the equivalent is probably gutteral noises and screeches).

Also, Samus Aran is unique because she was the first female video game heroine. And she isn't your typical sexual tension bound woman from all other video games. She operates alone, lives in solitude, and forms no emotional attachments. She is more badass than some male video game leads.

Don't ever speak ill of Samus Aran. Metroid's story is awesome, and the world is fantastic (it is like playing Myst with a gun).

@Liam

I'm still convinced that the story in Half-Life is much better. The plight of humanity seems much more real to me, because instead of it happening in the far distant future where our technology kicks ass and we have energy shields and all that, it takes place in an era reasonably close to the present, where mankind has been forced into the role of inferior race and is living in squallor in the derelict buildings of their once glorious civilization.

Also, I've always liked the fact that Gordon Freeman doesn't talk. It makes it so that he doesn't say anything stupid that you can laugh at later (no Masters of Unlocking, Jill Sandwiches or Doing Barrel Rolls in this game). Plus, it increases the immersion for me (especially because my name rhymes with Gordon, I can be delusional and put myself in his shoes).

I've always preferred the gritty dystopian future to the flashy technological future. It just doesn't seem like humanity will constantly be on an upward rise technologically. At some point, I cannot help but wonder if we'll do something stupid, screw something up, and kill ourselves. Half-Life appeals to me story-wise because of all future alien invasions, it is the road less travelled. Seldom do you see alien overlords restricting reproduction of humans in some sort of bizarre eugenics project from space.



Halo
You say you like the story but buying into extra story (ie novels) is a waste of money? How does that even make sense?

These novels are cannon. Bungie, the games creator says its cannon. I'm pretty sure Microsoft owns most of the rights to the game, so they would have to be pretty stupid to fuck up the story. Granted, 'Ensemble Studios' is making 'Halo Wars' for Microsoft, but they have worked fairly closely with Bungie to make sure the story is still cannon. If Microsoft was to produce a game that wasn't in Bungie's Halo cannon, there would be millions of pissed off fans and the game would likely to be a huge flop. I don't think Microsoft is that stupid.

I never did speak ill of Samus. I love Metroid & am currently trying to get my hand on the SNES Metroid game.

Lets go through Halo. John is a six year old child, one of 150 who have been carefully selected for a top secret ONI (Office of Navel Intelligence) project. These children are replaced with flash clones, which quickly die due to organ failure (a drawback of flash cloning). From these 150 kids, 75 will get the chance to become a Spartan. These children are trained, physically & mentally, and pushed beyond the limits of normal adults.

On the night they are stolen from their homes, these 6 year-olds are asked parachute out of a drop ship in the pitch black of night. As their training progresses, they go up against UNSC marines who literally beat them if they get captured. They receive biological augmentations when they are about 15 (I think) to increase their strength, speed, vision, etc. where only about half of them survive. On their first real mission, they don't have any special armor yet proceed to break into a secret insurrection base a kidnap the rebel commander.

This Spartan project was created to fight the human rebellion, but they were later refocused to fight the Covenant after first contact. Then comes the armor, then the shields.... (PS. John's old home planet gets glassed by the alien bastards). We haven't even got into the Covenant back story.

So that's a quick summery of the Halo premise. There is a great back story like with our pal Samus. And she isn't the first female video game heroine. I would like to point out that Mrs. Pac-man was probably the first; maybe not as bad-ass, but first. I would argue that Chiefy is more bad-ass than Samus (who would be a close second). But what does sex have to do with being bad-ass, Granite? Just because Samus is female, she gets extra points when she does the same tasks?

Master Chief is also pretty emotion-less, but not completely. From Super Metroid, Samus never has a chance to form relations. IMO, the emotional relations MC has helps build character and makes the game feel more alive; after all, he still is human. He doesn't talk in-game, but in cut scenes he speaks as not too look like a vegetable.

No Jordan, we can't debate story. We can however, express opinions & highlight key elements. I like Metroid (only played SNES but love it), HL, and Halo. If the latter doesn't shine in your eyes, well frankly, that's your loss.




Half Life 2
I'm sorry Granite, but I side with Liam on this one. I love the HL series, but what you say doesn't entirely make sense to me. 500 years in the future is too far, and space travel & energy shields (not on UNSC space ships) is too much? How do you explain the gravity gun, or the portals? HL takes place much closer to our time and these things are far more unrealistic.

HL2 is still a great puzzle-based FPS and Halo is still a great Action-based FPS. Either way you wanna slice it, they are both awesome games, its just too bad you don't share that view.


PS. What ever happened to Danger (or whoever it was) adding me to XBL?

And The Oscar Goes To…..

Last night we had another work party. What these gatherings usually involve is food (happened to be wings this time round) and gaming.

With our department being down to my boss (full time programmer), myself and one other co-op, we get to do some semi-interesting things.

For example, after delicious jello, we came back to the office & began to play VCR Clue. Most of you are thinking “WTF is VCR Clue?!” Well, I’ll tell you; it’s the game of clue played with a VCR.

I’m willing to bet most of you have never heard of this (as had I), so I’ll help date it; its so old that they not only released it on VHS, but they also released it on BETA tape as well.

Having never played Clue, this game was surprisingly fun, even though we have rips of the video from youTube, so it was more like “USB Flash Drive in an Xbox 360 Clue.”


Also last night, I showed my coworkers the trailer for the next Oscar-Winning-Video-Game-If-It-Was-A-Movie, “Left 4 Dead.” I mentioned it in a comment on one of Granites’ recent posts, but no one seems to pay attention to me. Go watch the blood trailer!

After wards, we played (one of us, not me) the demo. It was beyond incredible! The graphics are a little glitchy (hopefully just the demo), but the action, suspense, & overall game play are just mind boggling good.

Granted, it won’t match Portal for its sheer god-like abilities, but it’s an extremely well done multiplayer experience. Meant to be a 4 player co-op, you can expand it to be a 4v4 (the opposing team playing the infected) game, with its dynamic AI filling in the gaps.

All of that said, Valve has set the bar ludicrously high with Half-Life 2, and appears to have surpassed itself once again.

note: I can’t see a zombie movie being Oscar worthy. So maybe the game isn’t as good as HL2.