The Inevitable Halo 3 Thread

[Miasma]

I guess bungie is being spun off.

[schild]

They've run out of old ideas.

[Johny Cee]

They've run out of old ideas.

Halo was the result of polishing old ideas.

I don't think it's possible to argue that Marathon or Myth were not incredibly innovative.  Even Pathways into Darkness, the first FPS-RPG, and Oni, third person shooter/fighter, couldn't be called retreads despite mediocre execution.

If anything,  it gets the Bungie founders out from under Microsoft's thumb,  where they would have been tasked with churning out iterations of Halo for the next decade.

[Moaner]

I hope this means we get a new Myth one of these days.  I think Take 2 still owns the rights though.

[Surlyboi]

I had already read Ringworld and pretty much ignored any story elements that nagged me in Halo.  It was harder to ignore in Halo 2, but not impossible since I had already played Advent Rising.

Ringworld !=Halo. Two different constructs entirely.

Halo is much closer to the Orbitals in Iain M Banks' Culture novels.

[Yegolev]

I was mostly joking but I'd love to hear the list of differences between the Halo and the Ringworld.

[Surlyboi]

Taken from wikipedia's description of orbitals:

Banks has described Orbitals as looking like "a god's bracelet" hanging in outer space. Orbitals are ribbon-like hoops of a super-strong material (see also unobtainium) reinforced and joined with force fields. An Orbital is similar to a ringworld but is much smaller and does not enclose its primary star within itself, instead orbiting the star in a more conventional manner, making it much more intrinsically stable than a ringworld. Many different civilizations are known to use Orbitals sized according to the preferences of the builders; the Culture's Orbitals are approximately ten million kilometres in circumference and have widths varying between one thousand and six thousand kilometres, giving them a surface area of between 20 and 120 times that of the Earth.

A lot of Bungie guys, especially Jason Jones are fans of Banks' works. I'd suggest picking up "Consider Phlebas", or the better "Use of Weapons" if you can find a copy. Good stuff.

[Yegolev]

I'm not really a reader.  Thanks for the info, though, I had forgotten about the Halo not circling the sun for some reason.

[Riggswolfe]

I guess bungie is being spun off.

From reading that it sounded like MS handled the whole situation very smoothly. It basically sounded like Bungie was leaving one way or the other, probably for more freedom, and MS said "cool, tell you what, we'll keep a stake in the company and the rights to Halo but other than that best wishes."

I'm sure Sony would have firebombed their offices if they were in the same situation.

[Moaner]

I was mostly joking but I'd love to hear the list of differences between the Halo and the Ringworld.

I have played and beat Halo 1 and 2 and am currently on the last mission of 3.  I also just read Ringworld this summer :)

The only real similarities between the two are big inhabitable space rings and ancient mysterious architecture.  Halo is a big interactive action movie.  It plays out like Rambo in 2400.  MC races from objective to objective mowing down Covenant, a race of religious fanatics who believe the Halos are the pathway to their salvation, and Flood, a spore that turns flesh into horribly pissed off zombies.  The Flood remains a mystery for most of the series and I’m not going to post spoilers, but they are an integral part of the story.  In summary, MC is trying to stop the Covenant from firing the Halos and causing massive damage to the known universe while the Flood seemingly wants everyone dead.

I’m assuming most here have read Ringworld.  It is much less action packed and focuses more on the social interactions between 3 races, their influence on each other, and getting the fuck off of a giant space ring.  Ringworld has a much more fleshed out back-story and is more introspective than action.  Also, there are no zombies, just crazed primitive people.

That’s my take on it anyways.  I’m by no means good at literary analysis though.

[Sky]

So the MC is the antichrist, mowing down the true believers? Someone should twist Pat Robertson's panties with that one.

[Moaner]

So the MC is the antichrist, mowing down the true believers? Someone should twist Pat Robertson's panties with that one.

Yes actually.  Well, in the eyes of the Covenant anyways.  They even refer to him as "The Demon" in Halo3.  It's great.

[Venkman]

I hope this means we get a new Myth one of these days.  I think Take 2 still owns the rights though.

I want both Myth and Oni back. The latter's death is my only non-MMO axe to grind.

And I love how this release talks about the freedom for Bungie "to embark on a path to become an independent company". You meant to say re-become a creative self-driven group with powerful enough ideas to get purchased (again) right? ;)

[Yegolev]

So the MC is the antichrist, mowing down the true believers? Someone should twist Pat Robertson's panties with that one.

But Pat hates aliens as well, so it's OK in the end.

I forgot that the Halos were also weapons.  I seem to have forgotten a lot about it.  Probably because it was dull.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

I have been playing a lot more Halo 3 recently and I am liking it more. I like it much more than 1 and 2. The multi-player stuff is pretty fun but the pace is unbearable sometimes.

[Yegolev]

As in slow?

[schild]

I went back to UT2k4 the other night. After over 100 hours of TF2, UT feels slow.

I'm a sad panda. TF2 just set the bar and it is fucking high.

[Pennilenko]

I went back to UT2k4 the other night. After over 100 hours of TF2, UT feels slow.

I'm a sad panda. TF2 just set the bar and it is fucking high.

I cant even get into any of my shooters anymore. Damn TF2, Damn it to hell.

[Shavnir]

Oh god it was a mistake to buy TF2 the weekend before midterm week. :(

[ahoythematey]

I guess none of you played Quake3Fortress.  It was just as fast as TF2, if not more so.

What an awesome game.

As for Halo 3: I wouldn't mind playing it if I didn't see it's advertising in every fucking place I go to, and I'm not too keen on participating with the xbox live crowd.  Fuck them, they give online gaming a bad image.


...well, they make the bad image worse anyways.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Halo 3 has some silliness in it man. The assault rifle needs to be toned down and the melee issue needs to be resolved. And for God sakes make team Shotty/Sniper and team rockets show up less....It is freaking annoying.

[Cory Jacobs]

They changed the Shotty Snipers bug, but its still a broken game. It's always been a broken game. Doesn't take away from the fun factor.  And on a side note Hammer where the hell have you been?

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Cory: at home, working and playing 360.

Man I am starting to enjoy Halo more and more. I enjoy just messing around with the ai in single player, they behave really cool. I know there are better games, but I do have fun playing it.