Halo 3...

[Blotus]

So I'm going to be getting it at midnight here (11:00 ET) and probably playing throughout the night and the following day. Who's down for some online co-op?

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

I should be. FUCK YEAH SEAKING

Dunno that I'm down for the midnight launch, but I've taken Tuesday and Wednesday off work and am going to be getting my Halo on something fierce.

(I love being an adult! I can do whatever the hell I want!)

[Tessian]

Pre-ordered with Amazon and free 2 day shipping so I should get it Tuesday (I did with Bioshock)... definitely down for co-opness

Thank god I haven't tried to get off work Wednesday for it

[SineSwiper]

Meh. Give me a FPS with plot.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

GTFO Sine, you've got no clue.

[Lox]

I'm still trying to decide whether to get it or not right away.

I am still playing through Gears on Hardcore and GH3/Rock Band are right around the corner. Argh!!!

[Zeus]

I'll try and be up for something Tuesday night. Year-end coming up...

[Blotus]

GH3 won't be out until the end of October and Rock Band the end of November. You've got plenty of Halo time.

[Flip]

Yeah man, GH3 will keep me busy enough until the GoW game for the PSP and eventually Crisis Core... some good stuff rolling for every system this time of year!

[Lox]

The sad thing is that I don't know how much time I'm going to have in October gaming because of school and work so the first chance I have to play Halo might be the end of October. I want to cry!!!

I'll probably end up breaking down and buying the stupid game anyway though. haha

[Kupek]

Meh. Give me a FPS with plot.

Classic Sine.

[Blotus]

I insist you all watch this vidoc now! It's about saved films and (more importantly) the variety that Forge will add to the game.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/11917

[Oracle]

Ugh... Halo. After years of walking into my friends' places with Halo or Halo2 on the TV non-stop, I think my enthusiasm for the series has been numbed.

Dunno if I'll get it.

[SineSwiper]

Ugh... Halo. After years of walking into my friends' places with Halo or Halo2 on the TV non-stop, I think my enthusiasm for the series has been numbed.

Dunno if I'll get it.

At least it's not Counterstrike. The computer arcade I used to hang out would have people play all kinds of games, from StarCraft to Duke Nukem 3D to Quake. When Counterstrike came out, nothing but boring fucking Counterstrike. I'd visit the arcade 2-3 years later, still Counterstrike.

The game literally killed my favorite arcade.

[Nev]

I hate fucking Halo. I was OK with it at first, but the way people regard it as the God of console shooters saddens and confuses me. I'll still take a good game of Goldeneye 64 over any of the Halo variants.

[Blotus]

I'll still take a good game of Goldeneye 64 over any of the Halo variants.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Nev]

Sarcastic, or no? Since you posted this in defense of Halo, I'll assume that's an "at" instead of a "with" as far as laughing goes.

Go play your futuristic, generic thriller with the other generic gamers! Back in your cage, Blotus! Bad gamer!

[Blotus]

I was laughing at you. Have fun aiming with those face buttons or by holding R and aiming with your moving stick.

[Nev]

I am the aim-master at Goldeneye, but no one will ever know it any longer.

Halo's controls suck too. Controllers are terrible for FPS games compared to somethink like mouselook or a custom PC controller...

[bovine]

I was laughing at you. Have fun aiming with those face buttons or by holding R and aiming with your moving stick.

dude, you can totally use a "turok" control style which lets you aim with the analog and move with the face buttons which (although backwards from your usual dual analog setup) is more conducive to the genre.

[Chris]

I am the aim-master at Goldeneye, but no one will ever know it any longer.

Halo's controls suck too. Controllers are terrible for FPS games compared to somethink like mouselook or a custom PC controller...

huh? So a pc controller is better than a console controller? um........sorry but......wha?

I can understand Mouselook and the like being easier and better but a pc contoller is going to do the same fucking this as a console controller.

[Blotus]

I was laughing at you. Have fun aiming with those face buttons or by holding R and aiming with your moving stick.

dude, you can totally use a "turok" control style which lets you aim with the analog and move with the face buttons which (although backwards from your usual dual analog setup) is more conducive to the genre.

I'd totally keep that in mind if I ever planned on buying a N64 again... but I have Ocarina on a Gamecube disc, so what would be the point.

[Chris]

I was laughing at you. Have fun aiming with those face buttons or by holding R and aiming with your moving stick.

dude, you can totally use a "turok" control style which lets you aim with the analog and move with the face buttons which (although backwards from your usual dual analog setup) is more conducive to the genre.

I'd totally keep that in mind if I ever planned on buying a N64 again... but I have Ocarina on a Gamecube disc, so what would be the point.

magical potatoes.....what other point could there be....other than maybe tacos

[RentCavalier]

I will get Persona 3 and Bioshock before I get Halo 3. I mean, EVERYONE will have it--I'll just play their versions.

[Tessian]

I am the aim-master at Goldeneye, but no one will ever know it any longer.

Halo's controls suck too. Controllers are terrible for FPS games compared to somethink like mouselook or a custom PC controller...

Sigh... we had to argue with Sine on this before he bought a 360... now you too?

I used to be 100% PC gamer and, like you, thought that FPS could only be played with a mouse and keyboard. Well after owning a 360 since January and playing games like Gears of War, R6 Vegas, Bioshock, etc I can easily tell you that FPS are just as good, if not a little better, on consoles than PC's. As long as the game was designed initially to be on a console the controls work great. It's more streamlined (don't have 104 keys to do 5 things) and the only other thing you need is a little aim assisting which, as Bioshock showed, can be added to a degree that it does not cheapen the game or make things too easy.

Statements like you're making are ignorant anymore-- go play Bioshock, Gears, etc on a 360 for a few weeks and THEN tell me it still sucks. I only say a few weeks because there is a first time learning curve, but once you're past that it's stellar.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Halo's controls suck too. Controllers are terrible for FPS games compared to somethink like mouselook or a custom PC controller...

Not this shit again.

You're wrong. Get out of this thread.

[Chris]

Halo's controls suck too. Controllers are terrible for FPS games compared to somethink like mouselook or a custom PC controller...

Not this shit again.

You're wrong. Get out of this thread.

I just love the fact that he said......A contoller is inferior to a custome PC controller....um.......wha?

[SineSwiper]

Statements like you're making are ignorant anymore-- go play Bioshock, Gears, etc on a 360 for a few weeks and THEN tell me it still sucks. I only say a few weeks because there is a first time learning curve, but once you're past that it's stellar.

I'm not totally disagreeing with you, but while I think console FPS are making good strides to make the aiming a lot better with better controls and auto-aiming, it's still not faster than a mouse. That's not to say I would totally avoid a console FPS because of that, but if Halo 3 came out for both PC and console, the PC version would win the multiplayer games, because you can point, shoot, point, shoot, point, shoot much faster with a mouse than you can with a thumbstick.

Now, I think Nev's reasoning for not buying Halo 3 is baseless, though. The genre is popular enough on console to justify that FPSs work on consoles. I'm probably not buying Halo 3 because I haven't played the other two, and I would likely be murdered on the deathmatchs by 14-year-old kids who play 12 hours a day, so what the hell is the point of playing it? (The guy at GameStop didn't seem to understand why I wasn't buying the game; damn salesmen. Shut up and ring up my wares!)

I'm more looking forward to the Orange Box. Never had a chance of finishing HL1; never played HF2; and I would love to play Portal.

[Blotus]

You do know HL1 is not in the box, right? Unless you're talking about HL2 Episode 1, which is.

Such a good value. I'd love to get it after Christmas.

[Tessian]

Damn Sine... you been living under a rock?

I would hazard a guess, without pulling up sources, that Halo 2 had THE biggest MP following of any game. Halo itself defined the Xbox in the beginning so to say a FPS can't stand on its own on a console is stupid. As for PC vs Xbox... I hate to admit it but anymore if a game's coming out on both I go for the Xbox version. Reason being that it's simpler and more fun (I HATE myself for saying that... it's easier to pop in a disc than to ensure my graphic settings are tuned right and I don't have problems, etc) I think achievements and the Live system add a lot to a game.

As for why you don't want to buy Halo 3-- forget that. I played Halo 1 and 2 only a good bit during "Halo Nights" that my club at college would do with 16 player Halo. I bought Halo for PC and never even finished it... the game itself isn't hard to pick up and with 4 player co-op Halo 3 it's easy to play with friends to get warmed up first. If you're worried about the story, like I was, then read this nice IGN article that caught me up.

Now your HL1-2 issue pisses me off... how dare you Half Life 1 you can skip and just read the storyline for... but Half Life 2 you can still buy for $20 on Steam and play through. As Lotus said Orange Box will only have Episodes 1-2 of HL2 which you won't want to play without having finished HL2 first. Hell, while you're on Steam pre-order Orange box and get into the TF2 beta. I would but I haven't decided which system to buy it for...

[SineSwiper]

I miss WeaponsFactory. I wish I could find a TF type game with so much weapons and stuff you could do. Most TF games I have seen stick with the traditional TF elements and don't really expand on it. They are still fun, but I miss the nurse sentry gun, the three-staged sentry gun (with rocket launcher upgrade at level 3), etc.

However, the class descriptions look promising. Better detail than most TFs I've played.

[kali o.]

I won't be down for Halo 3...I don't have the time and I doubt it'll be my type of game (I'm still waiting for a game that re-captures the awesomeness of BF1942).

[bovine]

As Lotus said Orange Box will only have Episodes 1-2 of HL2 which you won't want to play without having finished HL2 first.

let's get our orange box ignorance out of the way from here-on-in. Orange box contains:HL2, HL2 episode 1 and 2, Portal, and TF2. I already own HL2 and episode 1, so I'm going to buy it for the 360 so I don't have to buy 2 games over again for the same system and also for the achievements.

I'm not a ravenous halo fan, but the many refinements and extras promised in this iteration totally go above and beyond your average fps these days. So in closing, you've gotta be bitch-crazy to not buy this game. The end.

EDIT
last paragraph is talking about halo, you must be crazy not to buy halo 3.

[Blotus]

No more non-Halo business in this topic.

[kali o.]

Eh...I changed my mind. The game is apparently pulling in near 10 outta 10's everywhere. I guess I need to pick it up.

*sigh* Too many games....

[Tessian]

That's right Kali, be a bigger corporate whore than the rest of us

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

I'm probably not buying Halo 3 because I haven't played the other two, and I would likely be murdered on the deathmatchs by 14-year-old kids who play 12 hours a day, so what the hell is the point of playing it?

Heh — I <i>have</i> played the other two, over and over again, and I know that even with that experience I am going to be slaughtered by racist, homophobic 14 year-old North American boys. Thank goodness I mostly play multiplayer locally.

[Oracle]

I'm probably not buying Halo 3 because I haven't played the other two, and I would likely be murdered on the deathmatchs by 14-year-old kids who play 12 hours a day, so what the hell is the point of playing it?

Heh — I <i>have</i> played the other two, over and over again, and I know that even with that experience I am going to be slaughtered by racist, homophobic 14 year-old North American boys. Thank goodness I mostly play multiplayer locally.

If I buy the game, Im going to be avoiding Live if I can. If I do ever hit up Live, it will be with people I know.

I can't stand retards in voice chat. I put up with enough of that in Ventrilo playing Dark Age of Camelot.

[Blotus]

You can always NOT use voice chat.

[Oracle]

You can always NOT use voice chat.

And be at a disadvantage? Never.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Picking it up in two and a half hours.

WOOOOOOOOOO

[Tessian]

Is anyone who plans on picking it up on midnight have JOBS? Or are you planning on calling out sick tomorrow?

My copy has already shipped from Amazon and it's planned to be here tomorrow. I wish I could take off Wednesday though

[bovine]

I have a lame part-time job and I go to school, I don't work until 2pm tomorrow, I don't mind having work as a halo-intermission.

[Blotus]

Is anyone who plans on picking it up on midnight have JOBS? Or are you planning on calling out sick tomorrow?

I make my own schedule, so I picked it up at midnight, came in here to work at 4am, and I plan going home in about an hour, 8am, to continue playing.

So I'll be around for most of today. Get the fuck on Live, kids. I want to play some co-op.

[Tessian]

God damnit BL... some of us can't flex our hours THAT much...

I'll be ditching out early, maybe around 4pm EST... assuming Fedex delivers the bitch today, but can't see why not since it was received at my local facility last night and I got Bioshock on its release day...

Anyone else half expecting Live to crash tonight?

[SineSwiper]

Nobody got this excited over Quake or Unreal or any of the other FPS similar to Halo. Is it because it's on a console? What's the appeal?

[Lox]

Nobody got this excited over Quake or Unreal or any of the other FPS similar to Halo. Is it because it's on a console? What's the appeal?

Partially, I think it has to do with 4-player co-op. That's a pretty cool feature, imo.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

I didn't do the midnight opening. I didn't need to to get it before you guys. Go go living in the future!

I did take a couple of days off work for it. I picked it up at 8 AM this morning, collected my cousin (a uni student, so he makes his own hours) and camped out at another friend's house who also took the day off. We played three-player co-op pretty much non-stop from about 10 AM till we beat it around 7 PM. So, so awesome. And so much more awesome in co-op than single player, too: we played heroic and it was a little easy with the three of us, but it's just so nice to have company while you're fighting to save the galaxy .

It's not jaw-droppingly beautiful in the way Gears was, but it is about a million times more epic and dynamic than Gears or pretty much any other shooter. There's one fight against <font color="white">a couple of scarabs that demonstrated this perfectly: you've got footsoldiers running around, dudes in vehicles, the two scarabs stomping around, and the three of us trying to kill them completely independantly; Sven riding around on a mongoose with a rocket-marine riding sidesaddle, Jeff firing rockets at another one's legs himself, and me flying around in one of the new human flying things trying to get eject in such a way that I land on top of one. Far out. Madness</font>!

[Zeus]

This whole "responsibility" thing means I have to wait 'til tonight to pick it up. I'll see if any of ya'll are online for some co-op.

BTW, there are some freebies for Gold members this week, like a theme, gamerpics, and videos (coming out between today and Friday, my last day of Gold :-). Make sure you grab them, they're only available 'til Sunday

[Blotus]

I think you get those extras from the bonus disc anyway.