Halo Timeline

[Zydrate]

A welcome sacrifice. District 9 was a damn good movie.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Yeesh Halo Wars, what an abysmally shitty end for Ensemble. RIP guys.

it was the Decadence of an Age of Empires...

 

[Nouw]

Awww... no mention of some Halo books...

Pretty good though.

What...No mention of the Marathon games???

Halo timeline as the title suggests

 

[Tucker154]

Yeesh Halo Wars, what an abysmally shitty end for Ensemble. RIP guys.

I'll be honest, they did a decent job of it. Halo wars is one of the most fun pick up and play RTS's i've played

If you ask me, it was insultingly simple. Not to mention that the console can't do rts controls for shit. There a trillion better rts's out there, all of Ensemble's previous, better games included.

No shit it was simple!It was on a console!Lol

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Yeesh Halo Wars, what an abysmally shitty end for Ensemble. RIP guys.

I'll be honest, they did a decent job of it. Halo wars is one of the most fun pick up and play RTS's i've played

If you ask me, it was insultingly simple. Not to mention that the console can't do rts controls for shit. There a trillion better rts's out there, all of Ensemble's previous, better games included.

No shit it was simple!It was on a console!Lol

I'm still trying to figure out why people thought it was a good idea...
It's like having a grand strategy on an etch-a-sketch.

 

[Irridium]

Awww... no mention of some Halo books...

Pretty good though.

What...No mention of the Marathon games???

Halo timeline as the title suggests

Bungie has dropped hints every now and then that Marathon and Halo may take place in the same universe. Of course that could just be subtle referencing, who knows.

 

[Nouw]

Awww... no mention of some Halo books...

Pretty good though.

What...No mention of the Marathon games???

Halo timeline as the title suggests

Bungie has dropped hints every now and then that Marathon and Halo may take place in the same universe. Of course that could just be subtle referencing, who knows.

Could be. I bet the Escapist Staff knew though, but didn't include it to confuse people.

 

[ecoho]

Yeesh Halo Wars, what an abysmally shitty end for Ensemble. RIP guys.

I'll be honest, they did a decent job of it. Halo wars is one of the most fun pick up and play RTS's i've played

If you ask me, it was insultingly simple. Not to mention that the console can't do rts controls for shit. There a trillion better rts's out there, all of Ensemble's previous, better games included.

Insultingly simple? Pray tell, how does a game being simple insult you?

Ensemble has made some good RTS games. Between the lack of any real economy or diplomacy, nor a detailed combat system, it's simply quite dull. If it weren't for the production value, it's about as deep as a movie-based video game. It's like Microsoft expected the game to sell and do well with critics. The trully mindboggling thing is that it did.

In conclusion, I suppose that it isn't really the game that's insulting (although it is VERY sad that Halo Wars was Ensembles last farewall), but rather it's reception.

An RTS dont need economics nor diplomacy. Just look at the C&C games, Warcraft and Starcraft.
No Economics no diplomacy just pure combat and tactics.

Those games aren't combat and tactics. Men of War is combat and tactics. Those games are rock paper scissors, micro, and build orders. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not interesting or deep enough to hold my interest.

But Halo Wars isn't just doing a bad job holding your interest, its downright insulting?

Yes, but as I said above it's more the reception that's insulting. It's insulting that a game like Halo Wars can exist, not only be made by a great Ensemble Studios but be their final farewell, and that there are critics that can give it an 8.4 with a straight face. The world is a wrong, worrying, and downright insulting place.

ok for a console RTS it was pretty dam good. That being said i think if they would of made it for the PC and 360 it would have done alot better.

 

[Aphex Demon]

They forgot to put the part at the end saying "Around 1 Million People play Halo: Reach for 12 hours straight"

Lol.

 

[Nikolaz72]

id say you missed one date. "the offical day halo was stolen from the PC"..
yeah, im still a bit bitter about that.

*grumble*

It was never stolen from the PC it was SUPPOSED to be made for Mac. They announced it at a mac conference and the original director used to develope games for mac! I dont know where people get this stupid PC thing from.

 

[zwober]

id say you missed one date. "the offical day halo was stolen from the PC"..
yeah, im still a bit bitter about that.

*grumble*

It was never stolen from the PC it was SUPPOSED to be made for Mac. They announced it at a mac conference and the original director used to develope games for mac! I dont know where people get this stupid PC thing from.

for me it was mostly from pc-news magazines as pcgamer i think, so im guessing thats why one alwasy assumed it would be for the pc aswell. not to be rude to the mac´s but if it could run on that - it would run on anything. and it kinda did, i guess. my memory is a bit fuzzy, but was there a Mac-port for the first or second Halo ? - or did ms decide to keep it for Xbox/PC?

still, i remember the first gameplay/teaser vid i saw for Halo, and it really felt.. well, Starship troopers mixed with USC-Marines and a ton of fun. when i played the first halo and encounterd the little purple whack-heads, i was more then a bit dissapointed. out with the real-ness i felt from the first few vids - and enter some silly mechaturtle thing.

 

[Nikolaz72]

id say you missed one date. "the offical day halo was stolen from the PC"..
yeah, im still a bit bitter about that.

*grumble*

It was never stolen from the PC it was SUPPOSED to be made for Mac. They announced it at a mac conference and the original director used to develope games for mac! I dont know where people get this stupid PC thing from.

for me it was mostly from pc-news magazines as pcgamer i think, so im guessing thats why one alwasy assumed it would be for the pc aswell. not to be rude to the mac´s but if it could run on that - it would run on anything. and it kinda did, i guess. my memory is a bit fuzzy, but was there a Mac-port for the first or second Halo ? - or did ms decide to keep it for Xbox/PC?

still, i remember the first gameplay/teaser vid i saw for Halo, and it really felt.. well, Starship troopers mixed with USC-Marines and a ton of fun. when i played the first halo and encounterd the little purple whack-heads, i was more then a bit dissapointed. out with the real-ness i felt from the first few vids - and enter some silly mechaturtle thing.

The first video shown at the Mac Conference was to prove what you could do with the mac graphics back in the early year thousand switch and a couple of years before, what they put forward was amazing and did even beat the PC games in terms of graphics at the time of the demo. Bungie was making HALO for MAC but Microsoft bought them over to make games exclusively for Xbox AKA no PC at all. Its like MS killed two flies with a single swing. They delayed Videogames comming to mac by several years and they gained a new flagship for their comming console.

 

[zwober]

They delayed Videogames comming to mac by several years and they gained a new flagship for their comming console.

thats a bit odd tho, isint it ? having halo as a flagship might have been good for Mac, (i cant keep a straight face when writing mac - still feels as im supporting mothers against canada or something) but would halo itself be such a huge franchice today if MS didint buy it ?

what i mean is, even tho none of us may like it, the xbox would have been the key factor that helped spread Halo into this huge, well - Thing - that it is today. could it have done the same on a mac ? yes, a mac already has a player-base and fans supporting every thing that apple releases, but would it have been the same amount of money and love that Halo got through the Xbox in those first few years ?

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Yeesh Halo Wars, what an abysmally shitty end for Ensemble. RIP guys.

I'll be honest, they did a decent job of it. Halo wars is one of the most fun pick up and play RTS's i've played

If you ask me, it was insultingly simple. Not to mention that the console can't do rts controls for shit. There a trillion better rts's out there, all of Ensemble's previous, better games included.

Insultingly simple? Pray tell, how does a game being simple insult you?

Ensemble has made some good RTS games. Between the lack of any real economy or diplomacy, nor a detailed combat system, it's simply quite dull. If it weren't for the production value, it's about as deep as a movie-based video game. It's like Microsoft expected the game to sell and do well with critics. The trully mindboggling thing is that it did.

In conclusion, I suppose that it isn't really the game that's insulting (although it is VERY sad that Halo Wars was Ensembles last farewall), but rather it's reception.

An RTS dont need economics nor diplomacy. Just look at the C&C games, Warcraft and Starcraft.
No Economics no diplomacy just pure combat and tactics.

Those games aren't combat and tactics. Men of War is combat and tactics. Those games are rock paper scissors, micro, and build orders. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not interesting or deep enough to hold my interest.

But Halo Wars isn't just doing a bad job holding your interest, its downright insulting?

Yes, but as I said above it's more the reception that's insulting. It's insulting that a game like Halo Wars can exist, not only be made by a great Ensemble Studios but be their final farewell, and that there are critics that can give it an 8.4 with a straight face. The world is a wrong, worrying, and downright insulting place.

ok for a console RTS it was pretty dam good. That being said i think if they would of made it for the PC and 360 it would have done alot better.

I find that lowering your standards so that something passes them is never a good idea.

 

[Nikolaz72]

They delayed Videogames comming to mac by several years and they gained a new flagship for their comming console.

thats a bit odd tho, isint it ? having halo as a flagship might have been good for Mac, (i cant keep a straight face when writing mac - still feels as im supporting mothers against canada or something) but would halo itself be such a huge franchice today if MS didint buy it ?

what i mean is, even tho none of us may like it, the xbox would have been the key factor that helped spread Halo into this huge, well - Thing - that it is today. could it have done the same on a mac ? yes, a mac already has a player-base and fans supporting every thing that apple releases, but would it have been the same amount of money and love that Halo got through the Xbox in those first few years ?

Now this is an interresting subject. Going back to change history. But lets look at the facts shall we, Bungie's reason for joining MS in the first place was as you said. Its their best chance to get big. Im just saying that the original plan was to prove that the Mac could be a gaming platform too and the leader/former leader of bungies original hobby was to transfer games from PC to mac alone or with a small group. I believe the reason he left is because microsoft ended up owning bungie more than he did?

 

[Sonic Doctor]

They delayed Videogames comming to mac by several years and they gained a new flagship for their comming console.

thats a bit odd tho, isint it ? having halo as a flagship might have been good for Mac, (i cant keep a straight face when writing mac - still feels as im supporting mothers against canada or something) but would halo itself be such a huge franchice today if MS didint buy it ?

what i mean is, even tho none of us may like it, the xbox would have been the key factor that helped spread Halo into this huge, well - Thing - that it is today. could it have done the same on a mac ? yes, a mac already has a player-base and fans supporting every thing that apple releases, but would it have been the same amount of money and love that Halo got through the Xbox in those first few years ?

Believe me, I went to an alternate universe where Halo was only released for Mac. Everybody I mentioned Halo to said, "What's Halo? Oh that shooter that nobody really bought because the majority of video and computer game players play games on PCs and consoles only."

That sums up my thoughts on the whole stolen from Mac thing about Halo.

My friend's sister got a Mac, because her college made one of the stupidest moves a college could make, it became a Mac only college. That was the worst piece of technology that I have ever tried to mess with. My friend had me help his sister install software on it. The worst design piece of crap I have ever seen. Tried to stall some kind of word processing software on it:
Me: Clicked the button to install.
Mac: Are you sure you want to install?
Me: Yes
Mac: Are you sure you want to install?
Me: Yeeessss
Mac: Are you sure you want to install?
Me: No I want you to make me coffee and a muffin!
Mac: Installing.

It had the stupidest set up for the CD drive. It was on the right side, but the button used to eject the disc was on the other side of the machine just above the keyboard. And the thing isn't even labeled eject. Took three minutes of mashing buttons on the thing before I hit the right one.

My laptop PC lasted me for 4 years before there was some problem with it that involved the battery, no other problems before that. My friend's sister's Mac lasted just barely a year, before it caved in on itself with some kind of catastrophic failure, and had to be taken back to the store that she got it from to be fixed, which was almost expensive enough that she would have been better off buying a new one, or the smart thing to do, spend the repair money on getting a laptop PC that would actually be reliable. I've known several other people that have had Macs and all my computers life spans have out paced theirs.

My first Desktop PC lasted at least 11 years, I believe I got it when I was 11 as a hand-me down from my brother. And over those years I made tweeks to it like finally up grading to XP and adding a good graphics card and RAM. It took it eleven years to encounter a virus that beat my anti-virus and destroyed the system, whatever it was totally fried the hard drive. The laptop I had for three years at the end of the Desktop's life, and one year after. I decided not to mess with the problem my laptop had, and just got a new Desktop about couple years ago. Sometime soon I will get a new laptop with Windows 7. My problem is that by the time I get the money to do that, Windows 7 will be obsolete. Every time I get a new computer, it is usually a year before the next one comes out.

Okay off track rant is over.

---
Yeah, if Halo was released on only Mac, there probably would have only been one game, and it would have been forgotten about.

 

[ecoho]

Yeesh Halo Wars, what an abysmally shitty end for Ensemble. RIP guys.

I'll be honest, they did a decent job of it. Halo wars is one of the most fun pick up and play RTS's i've played

If you ask me, it was insultingly simple. Not to mention that the console can't do rts controls for shit. There a trillion better rts's out there, all of Ensemble's previous, better games included.

Insultingly simple? Pray tell, how does a game being simple insult you?

Ensemble has made some good RTS games. Between the lack of any real economy or diplomacy, nor a detailed combat system, it's simply quite dull. If it weren't for the production value, it's about as deep as a movie-based video game. It's like Microsoft expected the game to sell and do well with critics. The trully mindboggling thing is that it did.

In conclusion, I suppose that it isn't really the game that's insulting (although it is VERY sad that Halo Wars was Ensembles last farewall), but rather it's reception.

An RTS dont need economics nor diplomacy. Just look at the C&C games, Warcraft and Starcraft.
No Economics no diplomacy just pure combat and tactics.

Those games aren't combat and tactics. Men of War is combat and tactics. Those games are rock paper scissors, micro, and build orders. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not interesting or deep enough to hold my interest.

But Halo Wars isn't just doing a bad job holding your interest, its downright insulting?

Yes, but as I said above it's more the reception that's insulting. It's insulting that a game like Halo Wars can exist, not only be made by a great Ensemble Studios but be their final farewell, and that there are critics that can give it an 8.4 with a straight face. The world is a wrong, worrying, and downright insulting place.

ok for a console RTS it was pretty dam good. That being said i think if they would of made it for the PC and 360 it would have done alot better.

I find that lowering your standards so that something passes them is never a good idea.

i didnt lower my standards i just learned how to use the not to RTS friendly controler the game was good. if it would of been for the PC it would have worked alot better but it is still a dam good RTS.

 

[Korias]

All I can say is that Apache should have been Noble Six.

 

[Devil's Due]

Wait... is there a point to this, or is it a nostalgic send-off to a franchise that didn't live up to the standards of its competitors?

Don't know about you, but Halo surpassed all my standards for video games, except ODST. If you don't like the news article, don't read it man.

On topic, I miss RvB. Dang the ending made me sad. Hope they make a ninth season with Reach. It's just too amusing with those guys.

 

[zwober]

And over those years I made tweeks to it like finally up grading to XP and adding a good graphics card and RAM.

---
Yeah, if Halo was released on only Mac, there probably would have only been one game, and it would have been forgotten about.

well, thats the advantage of the PC atm, it can be upgraded. apples view on that is a bit harsh. "oh - so you want to use another serviceprovider then , do you ? - well, in that case, you have to jailbreak your phone, since we dont allow it straight from the bat!

ofc, the iphone is not related to the laptops/desktops of mac. but i still think its a valid point. however, it feels as if Apple is trying to control the market on parts for their computers, something that can be.. well, economically benefical, but at the same time, hazardous for the customerbase. however, i guess that most Mac-users are used to not being able to fix something easily.

im not so sure that Halo wouldent have been a flop on the mac, just because its mainly ported to the mac tho - i think it would have more to do with the way that the halo-franchise treated the pc after launch.

what im saying is, ms did something rather odd with Halo2, they almost forced on their new "games for windows life", something that didint (as i recall) work properly and Forced you to have that program running. today, thats not a problem, since we all are acustomed to Steam and gfwl to an extent, but it felt as if ms choice to bundle it with Halo2 was a poor one.

The lack of sales meant that we didint get to see Halo3 for the pc, nor any other Halo-game from then after. aaand ofc, with the release of the x360 - why would you even Want to own a stupid pc, right ?..

it would have been interresting to visit the alternative universe, where Bungie used the PC-platform as a Judas-system, letting them all find all the bugs before they released it for the mac. you know, like IDsoftware did with quake 3 Arena.