Halo 3: ODST

[rated pg]

Oh come on guys. This game is just proof that fanboys will always buy a game as long as it has the word "Halo" on it no matter how rubbish it may be. By any means I'm not saying this is a bad game, I'm just saying if any other game had recycled as much as this one did, people would have been up in arms about it (think L4D for a second). Why should this be treated any differently, apart from the fact that the fan base is rather huge for some unknown reason. The graphics are out dated and despite multiplayer being a blast, it is very quickly being filled with those annoying 12 year old biys from the previous games. I'm quite disappointed. Finally, OP you can break it down whatever way you want, but who are you trying to convince that you haven't been ripped-off... Us or you?

Mostly other people, just tired of fanboys of other consoles bashing without the facts. The fact of the matter is it's a great package and that many other games this generation have proven that lackluster graphics are not a deal-breaker (and the graphics don't suck, just the resolution). And actually, the only stuff 'recycled' was the second disc (everything except the new maps) which are a good value for those who haven't picked them up yet, and the graphics engine which still looks and runs fine.

Are you referring to Left 4 Dead 1 or 2? And if you're referring to 2, most of the outcry seems based around the fact a sequel is this soon but I think Valve has demonstrated a clear progression with the new special infected and uncommon infected, as well as weapons.

I think this should be in user reviews...

but I haven't got it, am not planning to either.

Didn't really consider this a review myself, more a "ok if you haven't bought it, here's why you should. And before you start pointless internet flame wars, here's the facts".

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

I'm just pretty peeved and its people who love (as in won't play anything else) this game that give 360 owners a bad name.

I thought it was the XBL community in general. They truly do suck, and I apologise for them.

OT: I believe that the way I am going about it best. I have a friend who gets all the games out there. All I have to do is try it at is. If I like it, he's already told me without prompting he'd let me borrow it, so I can just play, finish and return it, without having to pay a thing. Truly mine is the best way.

 

[LaBambaMan]

But the single player isn't the only part of the ODST disc. It's also got the new Firefight mode, and the new maps for that as well. So the only way to really feel ripped off is if you were only buying this for the single player, and honestly that lesson should have been learned with Halo 3's relatively short campaign.

This is a problem, though. Expansion pack or not, if I buy a game with a single player mode I expect it to be fulfilling and be worth the $70 price tag(even without the maps it would have been close to $70, as is the average price of a video game these days). If I want to buy a game for it's multiplayer functions, i'm going to buy a MMORPG of some sort(not that I would, I have a little more pride than that).

It's fine and dandy that Halo has a popular multiplayer, but you should sacrifice the single player campaign of a game to pander to the multiplayer "must be teh bestest evar!" idiots who don't dare venture outside for fear of that glowing death ball in the sky. As Yahtzee said, why would you want to pay for a game that only seems half finished?

Ok but I'm sure you wouldn't say your opinion is the majority; that multiplayer is only important to MMO players. Certainly COD4, Halo 3, Killzone 2, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and a great many other games (mostly shooters) have demonstrated that (and especially L4D and TF2 have terrible/no singleplayer). I don't think the single player was sacrificed; just simply that they had it in their minds the story they wanted to tell and that this was an expansion pack so the focus on this game would be the multiplayer.

Not at all, my opinion is the dying minority in gaming. Team Fortress 2 is a bit of a different beast, though, as it was designed pretty much to be nothing but a multiplayer game. Granted, i'm not a big fan of TF2 and don't understand the gaming community's near zealous love of it.

But the problem still stands in that they keep making games with a shitty excuse of a single player campaign to shill out another multi-player game for $60. Why not just release the ODST weapons, character models, and maps as DLC? There's no need to flood the market with another Halo game if all you're going to do is aim to please the multi-player community.

And on a near unrelated subject, I hate the ODST commercials. They're 30 seconds, but tell us nothing about the actual game. They don't talk about new features or anything. Not that they really need to, I suppose, since Halo fans were bound to gobble it up like the homeless with a good bowl of soup.

 

[Ramses the Third]

it's 60

 

[Sassafrass]

You should help the Halo trolls who come here to voice their hate on the game.

OT: Seen a ViDoc of it (not sure what one it was) and I am definitely considering picking up when it drops in price over here. The gameplay looks good, the graphics look good and the fact it also comes with all the Halo 3 DLC map packs as well make it worth the £40-50 it costs over here.

Just keep in mind a price drop is a ways off, this is a Halo game.

Ah, since this post I have come up with a plan. Trade in the games I don't play anymore and buy it in two days time. I'm trading in nine games for money of stuff. I think that may work.

 

[Clashero]

I hated Halo with a passion, but played ODST the other day at a Microsoft store and found it enjoyable. Nearly all problems I had with the previous games were gone: The pacing problems have been fixed, the controls feel more responsive, the colour palette has more breadth, the set pieces were very well done, the characters were likable and the gameplay is actually fun.

I still hate the first 3, though.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Seeing as I already have all the map packs for Halo 3, and the big game rush of the year is a month or 2 away, I'm going to skip ODST. That, and it looks too much like an expansion pack for my taste.

 

[General Vagueness]

I think the game looks alright, but in the videos I've seen, the animation looks as if it were done without motion capture...

It was, Bungie pride themselves on their animation done by hand; everything else is done by the physics part of the engine.

 

[Chicago Ted]

I love it, I think its great. Though I have two complaints.

1) Grenade throws seems to be off. When you throw a grenade you throw it higher and farther than you want it to. So many times I try to stick a brute but the grenade fly's over his head.

2) No elites. I was a little disappointed that elites were not in this game. (At least put them in firefight) At least the finally added the engineer.

There were elites... Just none of them were living...

 

[Pandalisk]

ODST is the reason i keep an xbox, i rarly play it but Xbox gets these Games that just cant be missed, short perhaps, but good none the less. i would of prefered it being expanded on as a entire game instead of an expansion pack.

 

[Britisheagle]

Oh come on guys. This game is just proof that fanboys will always buy a game as long as it has the word "Halo" on it no matter how rubbish it may be. By any means I'm not saying this is a bad game, I'm just saying if any other game had recycled as much as this one did, people would have been up in arms about it (think L4D for a second). Why should this be treated any differently, apart from the fact that the fan base is rather huge for some unknown reason. The graphics are out dated and despite multiplayer being a blast, it is very quickly being filled with those annoying 12 year old biys from the previous games. I'm quite disappointed. Finally, OP you can break it down whatever way you want, but who are you trying to convince that you haven't been ripped-off... Us or you?

Mostly other people, just tired of fanboys of other consoles bashing without the facts. The fact of the matter is it's a great package and that many other games this generation have proven that lackluster graphics are not a deal-breaker (and the graphics don't suck, just the resolution). And actually, the only stuff 'recycled' was the second disc (everything except the new maps) which are a good value for those who haven't picked them up yet, and the graphics engine which still looks and runs fine.

Are you referring to Left 4 Dead 1 or 2? And if you're referring to 2, most of the outcry seems based around the fact a sequel is this soon but I think Valve has demonstrated a clear progression with the new special infected and uncommon infected, as well as weapons.

Hmmm that was the heart of the problem but did read some of the threads both on here and other websites saying that most of the stuff could have come as dlc (L4D2). And I think this game could have been. Like you said, it still runs great. STILL. As in it has been used before. Why not just have it as DLC? Then people could chose to buy it or not? Then at least people would stop bitching about the campaign, which isn't too bad at all by the way, and just go for the extra maps. Oh and for the record, I'm a 360 kind of guy. Good computer and a 360. Thats all one needs.

 

[Britisheagle]

I'm just pretty peeved and its people who love (as in won't play anything else) this game that give 360 owners a bad name.

I thought it was the XBL community in general. They truly do suck, and I apologise for them.

OT: I believe that the way I am going about it best. I have a friend who gets all the games out there. All I have to do is try it at is. If I like it, he's already told me without prompting he'd let me borrow it, so I can just play, finish and return it, without having to pay a thing. Truly mine is the best way.

Yea fair point. But then again, I like to think I give XBL a good name. There are some games that have quite a good online community. They are hard to come by but they exist. And I'm sure they are better than this game.

 

[General Vagueness]

Everyone, the point of ODST is not multiplayer, that's just the thing people keep bringing up (MS, fans, reviewers, even people who don't like Halo) to justify the price. Whether it is in fact justified for you would be something you'd have to decide. Most of the work went into the campaign and that's what Bungie seems to be holding up and saying "look what I made!" about the most and I'd urge you give it a fair chance before writing the game off. That being said I know several people who think Halo has gone downhill and don't really like ODST's campaign but seem to be falling in love with Firefight.