It WAS considered innovative because it was one of the first mainstream console FPS games that didn't absolutely suck. The recharging shield and SF setting probably didn't hurt, either.
To call Halo innovative now?... That would be nuts. It's like calling "Dynasty Warriors Xtreme Whatever 12" (not an actual name, but you get my point) innovative.
As for me, I prefer Black, Urban Chaos and Project Snowblind.
Nobody ever listens when the forge is brought up; show me another console FPS with a system similar to the forge and a theatre mode for making machinima and I will agree that Halo 3 isn't innovative. Until then the naysayers are just riding the anti-halo bandwagon.
This. Exactly this.
I don't know about a "theatre" mode but I can name two games with something greater than forge: Far Cry 1 and 2. In all honesty, forge is a piece of shit. I don't see why anybody would even mention it.
Before anyone says anything more I would just like to post this to show you the majority of the people that called Halo "innovative...."
"omg ur such an idoit evry1 knoz 360 is bettar enjoi ur NO GAEMZ" "rune-blam!- sucks more than wii and 360 combine all of humanity go it rite, me n him iz tight now, mad respakt" "arbiduck u just a m$ n niinten-ho fanboy, preaching how much better your consoles are!1"
This is worst than 4Chan. I can't even read this really. Its like they just tried to type then had an overdose on stupidity. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that since I found this on Bungie.net, that these people would probably say Halo is "innovative and the best." Here's the link if you actually don't believe me about the quotes.
Whether or not Halo is innovative isn't important to me. I don't care if a game doesn't do anything new as long as it's fun (e.g, XIII, Wind Waker, Skies of Arcadia... etc). Halo is extraordinarily repetetive, and it feels like you're controlling a tank rather than a badass space marine. Yeah, his armor's heavy, I know. But still.
It WAS considered innovative because it was one of the first mainstream console FPS games that didn't absolutely suck. The recharging shield and SF setting probably didn't hurt, either.
To call Halo innovative now?... That would be nuts. It's like calling "Dynasty Warriors Xtreme Whatever 12" (not an actual name, but you get my point) innovative.
As for me, I prefer Black, Urban Chaos and Project Snowblind.
Nobody ever listens when the forge is brought up; show me another console FPS with a system similar to the forge and a theatre mode for making machinima and I will agree that Halo 3 isn't innovative. Until then the naysayers are just riding the anti-halo bandwagon.
This. Exactly this.
The Theater mode is nothing new to gaming.
Quake 3 did it back in 99. Maybe other games did it even earlier. I do know Quake 2 had demo playback support. Not sure if it had advanced camera abilities though.
Observe what you get when you use Quake III to set up 3rd person cameras and the like: Automn Nights The Pledge
Mercanary57: Before anyone says anything more I would just like to post this to show you the majority of the people that called Halo "innovative...."
"omg ur such an idoit evry1 knoz 360 is bettar enjoi ur NO GAEMZ" "rune-blam!- sucks more than wii and 360 combine all of humanity go it rite, me n him iz tight now, mad respakt" "arbiduck u just a m$ n niinten-ho fanboy, preaching how much better your consoles are!1"
This is worst than 4Chan. I can't even read this really. Its like they just tried to type then had an overdose on stupidity. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that since I found this on Bungie.net, that these people would probably say Halo is "innovative and the best." Here's the link if you actually don't believe me about the quotes.
l Ancient l: halo 1 started all this space marine stuff
Actually, you'll find that was Warhammer which dates from the mid-80's.
Halo was one of the first FPS games to focus not only on the shooting aliens thing, but also the whole story and character development. Most FPS's before Halo were mainly "here's a gun, go shoot something", whereas Halo spawned an entire series of novels (six books plus a comic and a graphic novel), plus the sequels, and even viral marketing (i.e. the I Love Bees and Iris advertising campaigns for Halo 2 and 3 respectively). Plot was developed and you are immersed in a world where you care about what happens to characters (especially in Halo 3) and you want to know the whole story, rather than just being the Master Chief shoting aliens in space. It worked past that and was innovative in that Halo was about more than fighting. Plus the AI were actually very impressive for the time and allied soldiers (at least in my experience) were useful rather than just dying after 5 seconds like most FPS's
Mercanary57: Before anyone says anything more I would just like to post this to show you the majority of the people that called Halo "innovative...."
"omg ur such an idoit evry1 knoz 360 is bettar enjoi ur NO GAEMZ" "rune-blam!- sucks more than wii and 360 combine all of humanity go it rite, me n him iz tight now, mad respakt" "arbiduck u just a m$ n niinten-ho fanboy, preaching how much better your consoles are!1"
This is worst than 4Chan. I can't even read this really. Its like they just tried to type then had an overdose on stupidity. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that since I found this on Bungie.net, that these people would probably say Halo is "innovative and the best." Here's the link if you actually don't believe me about the quotes.
Halo was one of the first FPS games to focus not only on the shooting aliens thing, but also the whole story and character development. Most FPS's before Halo were mainly "here's a gun, go shoot something", whereas Halo spawned an entire series of novels (six books plus a comic and a graphic novel), plus the sequels, and even viral marketing (i.e. the I Love Bees and Iris advertising campaigns for Halo 2 and 3 respectively). Plot was developed and you are immersed in a world where you care about what happens to characters (especially in Halo 3) and you want to know the whole story, rather than just being the Master Chief shoting aliens in space. It worked past that and was innovative in that Halo was about more than fighting. Plus the AI were actually very impressive for the time and allied soldiers (at least in my experience) were useful rather than just dying after 5 seconds like most FPS's
Half-Life came out BEFORE Halo. Also Aliens VS Predator did the Aliens thing before Halo.
There were novels written based off of Doom.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault had some decent AI for its time. Then again good AI is hardly innovative, it's just the natural evolution of artificial intelligence.
I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Kevin7557: I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Regarding Halo: Combat Evolved:
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
I don't think that Halo 2 was very innovative. It didn't really change anything and seemed to try and copy other FPS of the time which were set in urban environments. From what I gather it did have an innovative online match-making service.
ganpondorodf: Whether or not Halo is innovative isn't important to me. I don't care if a game doesn't do anything new as long as it's fun (e.g, XIII, Wind Waker, Skies of Arcadia... etc). Halo is extraordinarily repetetive, and it feels like you're controlling a tank rather than a badass space marine. Yeah, his armor's heavy, I know. But still.
It feels slow because it runs at around 30 fps as opposed to the PC games which you could quite easily run at 60 fps and above.
It's multiplayer was totally revolutionary and the matchmaking system that Bungie uses continues to be the best out there to this day IMO. That's going to be the Halo legacy.
Kevin7557: I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Regarding Halo: Combat Evolved:
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
I don't think that Halo 2 was very innovative. It didn't really change anything and seemed to try and copy other FPS of the time which were set in urban environments. From what I gather it did have an innovative online match-making service.
It had guns! Wait no... Uhm... There was a main character who was clad in head-to-toe armour! No, no that doesn't work either... It was in SPAAAAAAAACE!! ...I'm not getting anywhere here...
I supopose the online thing really was the only innovative thing about it... Although, come to think of it, that was a logical step for gaming anyway... It's not like we really NEEDED Halo for that idea to come about.
Kevin7557: I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Regarding Halo: Combat Evolved:
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
I don't think that Halo 2 was very innovative. It didn't really change anything and seemed to try and copy other FPS of the time which were set in urban environments. From what I gather it did have an innovative online match-making service.
Almost everything in that list is wrong.
You can't just say almost everything on the list is wrong without at least giving a few examples!
Feel free to contradict my points with examples, if you can.
EDIT: I know you're going to trawl through wikipedia and other websites to try and find each one. Yes Regenerating health is not new blah blah blah, but it was in commercial console FPS games. Even if you did contradict each one it wouldn't show that Halo is not innovate. Halo managed to bring all of these subtle changes together in a complete console FPS package.
raxiv: If there was this question, report it for deletion. Thanks!
I go over the internet, and people keep talking about Halo being innovative [like in the other Innovative FPS thread]. I think it is worth a seperate thread to talk about it.
Was I the only one who saw the standard "Here's is your weapon, go kill bad guys" scheme? I really don't have a clue why it is innovative!
to put it simply halo 1 is the star because it was the first FPS to get the perfect balance with guns grenades life and all other factors.
but all the other halo's seemed to go in the wrong direction and ended up being
Kevin7557: I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Regarding Halo: Combat Evolved:
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
I don't think that Halo 2 was very innovative. It didn't really change anything and seemed to try and copy other FPS of the time which were set in urban environments. From what I gather it did have an innovative online match-making service.
Almost everything in that list is wrong.
You can't just say almost everything on the list is wrong without at least giving a few examples!
Feel free to contradict my points with examples, if you can.
EDIT: I know you're going to trawl through wikipedia and other websites to try and find each one. Yes Regenerating health is not new blah blah blah, but it was in commercial console FPS games. Even if you did contradict each one it wouldn't show that Halo is not innovate. Halo managed to bring all of these subtle changes together in a complete console FPS package.
And now everyother game in existance can do it too!
Sorry, I'm generally just leaned against the FPS genre...
Kevin7557: I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Regarding Halo: Combat Evolved:
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
I don't think that Halo 2 was very innovative. It didn't really change anything and seemed to try and copy other FPS of the time which were set in urban environments. From what I gather it did have an innovative online match-making service.
When people are talking about innovation, they normally mean the genre in general. So, taking out the 'In a console' bits, that's not a very correct list.
FrankDux: It's multiplayer was totally revolutionary and the matchmaking system that Bungie uses continues to be the best out there to this day IMO. That's going to be the Halo legacy.
Right, time for me to weigh in with my 2 pennies. I still haven't played Halo 3, but I have played Halo CE and Halo 2 repeatedly. Therefore, I shall base my comments around them.
Halo CE, in my (important word coming up) opinion, is both a hugely fun game, and an incredibly important milestone in FPS development. Many valid points, such as weapon balancing, grenade-trigger, etc, have already been made, so I'll try not to repeat them. However, I would like to make a point which I think not enough people cover. Halo CE was a launch title for the Xbox. What does that mean exactly? It means that, up until that time, people's experiences of console FPS' were limited to things like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Perfectly awesome games, and both hugely influential in the FPS genre. However, with the dawn of the new generation of consoles, people wanted things to step up. The Xbox had a hard-drive, for crying out loud, and more processing power than a whole farm of N64's. People wanted things to get bigger, louder and more exciting. And Halo delivered that, right from day one. It stood up proudly and said 'This is what us new consoles can do! This is where console gaming is going! Outdoor levels the size of a small continent. Vehicles with fully integrated, realistic physics. AI that actually reacts to how you play. Set pieces more awe-inspiring than a hundred Sylvester Stallones going Rambo in Afghanistan. Hard-drive caching, meaning next-to-no loading in levels (and in Halo 2, none between levels either). Graphics so shiny you can wash and shave in them.' And outside all the technical mumbo-jumbo, there were all the gameplay choices that Bungie made that just worked. The health/shield combo, the fact you could only carry 2 guns, the grenade trigger... and to top it all, it had some truly epic moments. Like when you first crash on Halo, and have to fend off two banshees by yourself, with just an Assualt Rifle and a Pistol to do the job. Or the entire Assault On The Control Room level. Or any time a Pelican flew overhead, sometimes dropping off a Warthog on the way. Or the final part of the last level, when you're racing against time to get off the ship before it blows up. Those things were not run-of-the-mill. To a young gamer like me, playing his Xbox for the first time, they were fuckin' incredible. I still like to play CE every once in a while, to this day.
As for Halo 2. It didn't have all the original 'WOW' factor of the first one. Few sequels do. However, what it lacked in terms of innovation, it made up for with plenty of polish, some truly awe-inspiring set-pieces, and an attention to detail that would shame most games. Think, for example, about how detailed the vehicle damage was. You shoot a Warthog in the windscreen, that windscreen smashed. You shoot a hub-cap, off it pops. Or the dual-wielding mechanic, which was pretty unheard of on consoles. Or the little things, like how polished the rocket-launcher's lock-on feature was. And again, some of the set-pieces were incredible. The first time you see that huge Scarab, and it walks right over you. Then you dive onto its back from atop a bridge, and have to fucking slaughter every last mother's son onboard! Or that entire level which takes place on a station hanging from a cable. And you then cut that cable, and the entire thing goes into free-fall. As in, proper free-fall. You can chase it with a banshee if you so choose. And the game was so, so pretty, and had even huger levels than before. Delta Halo anyone? You look out and see this giant structure about a mile off, in the middle of a lake. Then you're told that that's your objective. Now that is an epic slog every time I play it. In fact, in general the game was just huge. Whenever it wasn't sending giant fuck-off dropships overhead full of covenant, it was chucking extra Wraith tanks at you, or chucking extra Scarabs at you, or giving you a Scorpion tank and getting you to blast everything to Holy Hell. And then of course, there's the wonders that Halo 2 did for online console multiplayer (as in, it pretty much wrote the book).
Now, I've babbled and ranted for quite long enough, so I'll finish simply by saying that some of my best gaming experiences ever have been from playng Halo/Halo 2, both campaign and (especially) multiplayer. I hope one day to save up, buy a 360, and finish the trilogy. As it is, I've got rent to pay, and college courses to attend.
Kevin7557: I was told by everyone that halo 1 and 2 were the best games ever ext. I got them and it was like they're good but not that good. I mean Comon it is a good game but inovative it is not. It is only inovative to those who havn't played a fps. Wow when could we start doing this. Ahhhh N64 time. Umm everything it does really have been done before. it had an epic story. Ummm yeah I can name plenty of games that did that. It had regenerating health. And!? Well.... It had a wide variety of enimies. So does metroid series and those came before and are way more indepth story wise. Well it had different colored blood. Okay you have me there that was good but still not origional. I could alter the blood color in early RE games. Sorry folks it is a good game not the best and it isn't that Innovative. Origional Maybe, Inovative NO. And there is a differents.
Regarding Halo: Combat Evolved:
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
I don't think that Halo 2 was very innovative. It didn't really change anything and seemed to try and copy other FPS of the time which were set in urban environments. From what I gather it did have an innovative online match-making service.
Almost everything in that list is wrong.
You can't just say almost everything on the list is wrong without at least giving a few examples!
Feel free to contradict my points with examples, if you can.
EDIT: I know you're going to trawl through wikipedia and other websites to try and find each one. Yes Regenerating health is not new blah blah blah, but it was in commercial console FPS games. Even if you did contradict each one it wouldn't show that Halo is not innovate. Halo managed to bring all of these subtle changes together in a complete console FPS package.
I'm only going to name a few because I can't be bothered to deal with such a ludicrous list made by someone obviously new to the genre. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. Nope wrong the original Medal of Honors did that on console before Halo was a twinkle in Bungie's eye.
-The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. Rainbow Six did it way before.
-Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. Bollocks it wasn't even that good. The Marines from Half-Life were far better.
And don't be so whiny did Halo do some things new to consoles? Sure but it isn't that fuckin great so don't become a baby about it.
l Ancient l: halo 1 started all this space marine stuff
lol, I'm pretty sure 40K started it, actually no, they ripped everything remotely sci-fi from aliens... and dune... and terminator... and everything... but I'm off topic
I don't see personally how its innovative, I think it's pretty rich to call any mainstream genre like FPS or RTS innovative, especially something as dull and repetitive as Halo, it didn't really do anything new, it was just hype from xbox fanboys who were jealous that they didn't get the best console ever made (PS2) choosing the option with fewer games, worse controllers and heftiest price. You can tell how poor halo is when you play it on a PC, nothing about it is really interesting, the only reason it was considered so amazing is that every other xbox game was so poor. I noticed one person said
The more open levels, slick aiming and seamless integration of vehicles made Halo:CE a tour de force in the FPS genre when it was released. Its brilliant graphics, (at the time), certainly helped its cause. All these factors made it head and shoulders the best FPS of the last console generation.
I ask... AM I THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD THAT PLAYED "TIMESPLITTERS: FUTURE PERFECT", THE GREATEST CONSOLE FPS THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!?! it had better graphics, open maps and more weapons. Why would I want to drive when I'm playing FPS? I want to SHOOT them. That's the POINT of FPS. And for the record, timesplitters had vehicles too so HA.
Incidentally I urge you to play timesplitters because clearly not enough people did... it is the most fun game I have ever played
Mr Scott: Because it is more sandbox than the last few actual sandbox games. The last few of Rockstar North's attempts are getting more contrived and more contrived, they're almost like choose your own adventure books, [which are a bad idea in the first place] I think the idea of a sandbox game is to find out how exactly 'I' would would go about doing things my way.
Also because I just smoked three guys online with a well-placed pineapple and a little help from a GRAVITY EMITTING HAMMER!
You're not actually trying to say that GTA IV wasn't set in an open world, right? Because if you are, there are just no words to describe that level of stupid... *facepalm*
An open world of predictable set-pieces perhaps.
Well of course they're predictable. It's all on earth and it's modeled after New York. There aren't going to be any ginormous black towers or any UFO's in people's back yards. You're criticizing the game for what the developers tried to do. The Grand Theft Auto series has always been set in worlds that have been inspired by real places.
daheikmeister: And if Halo 3 broke records when it came out, it must have been doing something right
Marketing. None of the games are exceptionally outstanding, but they're solid and had roughly infinity billion dollars in their advertising budgets.
Oh, and Halo one was slower paced than other FPS games at the time, (UTC, the Timesplitters series, PD if it still counts, were there any outstanding GC shooters? Oh, Metroid Prime.) Which opened up what was almost exclusively a twitchy bang bang run around genre to a new audience of slower people.
-Recharging health in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Console local co-op in an FPS hadn't been done before. -Omission of a lives system had not been in a console FPS before -Respawning in co-op mode had not been done in an FPS before. -Hot-Keyed grenades in a console FPS had not been done before. -Having no bosses in a console FPS had not been done before. -Cubic and bump mapping had not been done in a console FPS before. -The type of water shading used had not been done on a console fps before. -Seamless background loading had not been done in an FPS before. -Seamless vehicle interaction had not been done in a FPS before. -The two weapon limit had not been done in an FPS before. -Sticky grenades had not been done in a console FPS before. -The number of 3d characters on screen had not been matched on a console FPS before. -Seamless in-game flight had not been done in a console FPS before. -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. -The number of NPCs in a console FPS had not been seen before. -Such large levels had not been seen in a console FPS before. -The physics had not been implemented to the same extent in a console fps before. -16 person multi-player in a console fps had not been done before.
And here weee... Go.
1. I'll give you that one. It did still have health, though, which was nice, because it didn't turn any person into an immortal killing machine seated on the sniper rifle spawn. They'd have to get health packs, and that would make them vulnerable. 2. Perfect Dark had local Co-op. It even had local "Counter-op" Where Player 2 would be enemies and player 1 still had to complete the missions. 3. Lives? Were lives ever in FPS games? PD, Timesplitters, no lives. 4. Kay, so it's easier. 5. This is an interesting one, because with the addition of the grenades, the game lost the potential of secondary fire. In case you don't remember secondary fire, it was that repeatedly copied FPS convention from way back in the day which let you shoot grenades on a great number of weapons. 6. Medal of Honor was already listed. Also, having the same enemies repeated over and over isn't automatically a good thing. Sometimes it's a good idea to throw in a boss or a light puzzle or some exploration instead of fighting the same mobs of enemies in the same ship and hangar. 7. PC did it. Xbox had the power to do it, and Microsoft had the money to do it, so they did it. 8. " 9. It's only seamless if it doesn't stop the game. There was a several second stutter when the little loading word popped up. Loading screens between levels persisted, just like in every game. Also, GTAIII did the background loading with the exception of island travel. 10. You could count Project Eagle, but no. 11. R6 was mentioned. 12. Perfect Dark, proximity, timed, and remote mines stick to people. And they are so fun. 13. Engine/power issue. Xbox had the power, they did it. 14. Kay. 15. How complex is it? Please provide an example. 16. Xbox. Power. 17. " 18. " 19. Timesplitters had LAN for 16 people.
So you've basically got graphics and physics improvements because the Xbox was the most powerful console at the time. Then you have vehicles and shields.
Someone said Halo was the first FPS with the sticks each controlling strafe and aim. They are wrong.
The fun of Halo, though, is that you can dick around so much in it. I've had more fun in Halo 1 fighting my teammate because he respawns next to me when the enemies are cleared. Oh, and have you ever played Warthog Wars? Go into Blood Gulch with only two people and each grab a hog. Then ram eachother. The moon physics are absurd. And that's fun. Then Halo 2 and 3 took away the invincible warthog moon physics.
You know what's innovative? Adding another dimension to games. Hail to the king, baby.
You got it all right here, Pietato. My mum does market research and she has microsoft as a client and it's true they're investing a huge amount of money in xbox and the games because they want to take over that niche. They want control over viewing on the tv and the computer, which is why they're throwing so much money at the xbox, to eliminate all the competitors (like in FPS, lol). I really hope they aren't reading this. So yes, halo is really just an innovative venture in marketing.
Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers timesplitters... so alone...
hebdomad: *sigh* Here is why halo is considered "innovative".
Halo 'combat evolved' introduced...
1. Two weapon slots (THAT IT!)
Allot of FPS allowed you to carry every single gun in the game, having only two weapon slots forced you to consider what weapons you wanted to keep and what was to be left behind. It forced strategy in the campaign and especially in multiplayer.
2. A dedicated button for grenades. Now this might not seem much, but games before halo had grenades as just another weapon. Giving a player a 'grenade' button made grenades a core part of game play. It made people think about using grenades with their weapons.
3. Dedicated 'melee' (bash) button. Games before had melee weapons, but making every weapon a melee weapon not only steam lined game play (not having to switch weapons) but also gave the player an instant answer to an opponent when they are up close. That and bashing things with your gun just felt good.
On another note, been able to bash things without using ammo is just so useful. I don't know how many times I've ran out of ammo in an FPS and had a bad guy in front of me, I could do nothing but scream and desperately reload as I was blasted back to the previous check point.
4. Seamlessly mixing vehicles with on foot action.
Just plain awesome. yes, its been done before, but HAVING an animation for getting in and out, just made it that much more impressive.
Halo 2
1. Dual Wielding.
This has been done before yes. But the way they did it. Having a dedicated buttons for reloading, firing and swamping them, independently from each other. It gave players a choice in what weapon they had and in what hand. And guess what? each weapon had its pros and cons. and dual wielding had its pros and cons as well.
2. The online party system.
Made xbox live what it is today, and took multilayer to the next level, this time you could go from game to game with friends while playing equally matched players.
Halo 3
1. Erhm.. not much really that has not been done before. Forge, the in game map editor is kinda fun, though its been done before. (far cry on the xbox ?)
2. Replay theatre? It has been done before, though it was done very well. Been able to share your experiences with other players has never been so easy
Other games (not all though)
Still don't have dedicated melee button. Still don't have good dual wielding mechanics. Still don't have seamless vehicle and on foot action.
I'm just going to comment on the dual wielding mechanic in Halo 2. Everyone says "it's so innovative cause you can fire one gun at a time. Blah blah blah", but I know for a fact that the Red Faction series gave players who were dual wielding the option of firing each gun with a separate button. It did not allow one to mix and match weapon pairs, but that is hardly a huge innovation.
Rajin Cajun: [quote="beddo" post="9.83162.1165120"] -Halo's complex enemy AI had not been seen before. Bollocks it wasn't even that good. The Marines from Half-Life were far better.
Not saying I agree with the things he says, but I really disagree with the marines from Half-Life being better. At least my experience was that they often was not able to run and shoot at the same time. They would often run right against me (not being very far away), giving me some time to shoot them, and then they would start aiming at me and shoot.
And I dont agree with halo starting the space marine stuff or having the first great story at all. Well, halo had a pretty good story. You didn't get so much involved withe the characters (care about them), but it was kind of interesting, and pretty well structured for the levels. But not in any way innovative (unless you call rings that can kill everything innovative).
Err. Sorry I've been told I need to work on that when talking to people before. It's just really difficult when I am tired.