I don't quite get why people hate Halo

[MiracleOfSound]

I don't get why everyone uses the reactionary retort "they hate it because it's popular" on this forum.

Sure, there are reasons to like Halo, but more than enough reasons to dislike it, too, and none of those reasons involved popularity for me.

It seems to be a standard fanboy response to harp on someone hating the popularity of a game even when that someone has already laid out the actual reasons the game is dissatisfying. In a way, I'd say that that's some form of elitism by itself.

You have a point, but I have yet to see one person lay out some actual real reasons on this thread as to why it's so bad. All I've seen so far are the usual 'generic' or 'boring' or 'crap' remarks.

 

[Daniel_Rosamilia]

because each one is a poorly written, boring, generic shooter with a lackluster cast of characters that ruined the FPS genre... well just to do a summary I could write a couple pages about why it's bad but for the sake of time I'll leave it at that...

You have nnja'd me completely.
And congrats on reaching 1000 posts!

 

[Bat Vader]

I just dont get why people hate Halo so much. Can anyone clue me in on why?

Everyone has their own opinions on what they like or dislike. Not everyone is going to like what you like. You may not like the Modern Warfare multi-player but other people do.

I like the the Modern Warfare multi-player better than the Halo 3 multi-player because I can end up dead last and still get experience points. In Halo I have to be in the top 3 to earn experience points. In all honesty I find Team Fortress 2 much better than either the Halo multi-player or Modern Warfare 2 multi-player.

 

[Meggiepants]

I don't get why everyone uses the reactionary retort "they hate it because it's popular" on this forum.

Sure, there are reasons to like Halo, but more than enough reasons to dislike it, too, and none of those reasons involved popularity for me.

It seems to be a standard fanboy response to harp on someone hating the popularity of a game even when that someone has already laid out the actual reasons the game is dissatisfying. In a way, I'd say that that's some form of elitism by itself.

I've bolded a couple of key words in your response here. I am one of the posters who suggested some people hate Halo because it's popular to hate Halo. But the key word is Hate, not dislike or that they were dissatisfied.

I mentioned my sister hating Halo who has never even played the game and does not own a console. But she's really good at knowing what she's supposed to hate. She also hates Nickelback, and I'm fairly certain she's never listened to them.

I don't think popularity is why some people might dislike the game Halo, or find it uninteresting. I personally was not interested in the game until they came out with a 4 player co-op campaign. I only said this because some people seem to disproportionately hate Halo.

To have hatred for any game seems suspect to me. Hate should be reserved for things in life that really deeply affect you in a negative way. How can a video game do this? I can't honestly say I hate any video game. Nor, as I said before, do I looove Halo. It's fun, but hardly among my favorite games.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

It was ok, but the overhype and people treating it like it was a gift from god brought it from ok to crap game because I was expecting it to be the greatest thing ever... and... well, meh...

I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by Halo 3 when I first played it at release. It was my first introduction to the series and I was expecting something mind blowing, but instead I got a fun, technically sound shooter with some bright colours and a great soundtrack.

And funnily enough, it's one of those rare games that's gotten more fun with each playthrough. No idea why.

I'm the opposite there... Halo 1 I never finished due to it's stupidity at one part of the campaign. Halo 2 I finished, but it has zero replay value. Halo 3... well... I played it once at a Halo night type thing (figure it would be more fun to play games with other people than to sit around my house alone and play them), and we were all pretty bored of Halo 3 after an hour or two...

 

[TheRocketeer]

I've said it before. Let me say it again.

Let's not talk about Halo. Let's talk about grapes.

Does anyone here seriously dislike grapes? I mean, I think it's safe to say that people that really dislike grapes are a small minority, but there probably are just as few people who would go on an Internet forum and post "Hay guiz I am A-#1 fan of all grapes WHO'S WITH ME?!"

But then one day, the supermarket is overrun with people buying grapes. They can't keep grapes on the shelves. Grapes are all people at work will talk about, talking about all different kinds, sizes, and serving methods. There are new grape sodas, I<3grape t-shirts, grape-themed bands forming, and cliques divided by how people like to eat grapes.

Some people only eat green grapes, and they get hated on by the people who only drink grape juice, who are looked down upon by the dudes who consider themselves connoisseurs of grapes and seek out rare or expensive grapes, and all of those groups are in contrast to the competitive grape eaters who see how many they can eat in one sitting or how many they can fit in their mouth at once. There are intense debates on the 'true' way to eat them, whether you should pick them off the stems beforehand or one-by-one as you eat them, or if you should skin them as you eat them or just pop them in.

To everyone caught up in the grape craze, it's a great time to be alive. Maybe you weren't into grapes before, and now you like them. Maybe you did like them, but now you appreciate them in a whole new way. Maybe you've always been a grape fanatic and you can tell everyone you bled Chardonnay before it was cool. The world is all orbs, petals, and nectar, and life rocks for you.

But if you were and still are just 'okay' with grapes, or, God help you, you never liked them and still don't, now you're just going to be sick to death of hearing about it. Having to be at school or work or on the Internet or watching TV or at the mall or the movies and everything is grapes, grapes, grapes, all the time, and you can just never get a break from it. Patience is tested, and wits are strained. Pretty soon, a noticeable gulf forms.

People who are ga-ga for grapes are bewildered by those who fail to see the light, and the uninfected screech vile invective at the deluded. People who earnestly enjoyed grapes before are now nauseated by the sight of them. Grape cultists are confused and angered by the people who don't share their passion, and lash out. Spiteful pariahs begin backing other horses, touting pomegranates or Valencia oranges as the new 'grape-killers.' (It never pans out, though.) People identify each other by their viewpoint, and the culinary world slowly polarizes into two camps with a barren no-mans-land set amid them, each with their hands gripping at the other's throat, the issue at the core all but incidental now to the sour, self-sustaining conflict around them.

Then nothing ever comes of it. After a few years, the age of the grape slowly goes from a boil, to a simmer, to a sweat. Nothing has really changed. Grapes are the same as they were since they were bred. But now there's a stigma with them that'll last for ages. It may well be another whole generation or more before people can just sit and watch the tube with a bowl of grapes or pass them by at the grocery store without instantly hearkening back in their mind to every last shred of pointless bitterness or mindless adulation.

But one day, grapes would just be to us like pepper. No one will have reservations or preconceptions about them anymore than we have about any other dirt-common foodstuff. Die-hards on either side are all but extinct, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone of a certain age who wasn't part of it, or at least remembers it. And they'll all look like a bunch of jackasses when 99% of the conclusions reached by their antecedents are 'not bad' and a shrug of the shoulders.

 

[crazyjay321]

Well it's because if you play Halo online most of your evening will consist of 12 year old screaming fag at you or singing.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

It was ok, but the overhype and people treating it like it was a gift from god brought it from ok to crap game because I was expecting it to be the greatest thing ever... and... well, meh...

I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by Halo 3 when I first played it at release. It was my first introduction to the series and I was expecting something mind blowing, but instead I got a fun, technically sound shooter with some bright colours and a great soundtrack.

And funnily enough, it's one of those rare games that's gotten more fun with each playthrough. No idea why.

I'm the opposite there... Halo 1 I never finished due to it's stupidity at one part of the campaign. Halo 2 I finished, but it has zero replay value. Halo 3... well... I played it once at a Halo night type thing (figure it would be more fun to play games with other people than to sit around my house alone and play them), and we were all pretty bored of Halo 3 after an hour or two...

I'm guessing the 'one part of the campaign' was the library level?

I almost quit the game during that monstrosity of a level but ended up ploughing through it eventually.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

It was ok, but the overhype and people treating it like it was a gift from god brought it from ok to crap game because I was expecting it to be the greatest thing ever... and... well, meh...

I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by Halo 3 when I first played it at release. It was my first introduction to the series and I was expecting something mind blowing, but instead I got a fun, technically sound shooter with some bright colours and a great soundtrack.

And funnily enough, it's one of those rare games that's gotten more fun with each playthrough. No idea why.

I'm the opposite there... Halo 1 I never finished due to it's stupidity at one part of the campaign. Halo 2 I finished, but it has zero replay value. Halo 3... well... I played it once at a Halo night type thing (figure it would be more fun to play games with other people than to sit around my house alone and play them), and we were all pretty bored of Halo 3 after an hour or two...

I'm guessing the 'one part of the campaign' was the library level?

I almost quit the game during that monstrosity of a level but ended up ploughing through it eventually.

Yep... after fighting the same enemies through the same hallways for about an hour, I just quit...

 

[Treefingers]

Because it's cool to hate it. It makes you look edgy and anti-mainstream.

 

[Nouw]

I love Halo!

They hated Halo because it was cool to hate it and they said they were milking it. 5 games isn't milking it. Is it?

 

[MR T3D]

Halo is a damn fun game.
Its the perfect (well, as reasonably close, better than others) console FPS, very, very solid core, good balance, and just generally excellent fun.
If i want a non-serious shooter, and that all I really want nowadays, then halo is perfect for that, and therefore me.
nothing wrong with the game, just the try-hards and people whom take it too seriously, but those are not the fault of the game.
Haters:
Y'all feel like you're 'better' than the masses by hating on the game. You make up other justifications, but this is, deep down, what you feel when you hate on it.
think about that, think long and hard about that.
goodnight.

 

[Dys]

It's successful and was used by a big, evil(?) corporation to properly enter into a new marketplace (consoles). It's also cool to hate, you gotta hate everything that's popular.

I fucking hate halo, it's games like halo that are killing the PC gaming platform. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is far better for the industry, and it's about a million times better.

 

[Fox242]

People hate it because it is a popular franchise and they want to look cool by not following the main stream. I'm not saying that's why all of the people that hate if is for for that reason, but that is why most people hate it. I mean, Halo 3 was a good game, but it wasn't the best (that honor belongs to both Halo:Combat Evolved, and Halo 2). Like MR T3D said, you aren't cool just because you hate what is mainstream for no reason.

 

[TelHybrid]

Because it's cool to hate it. It makes you look edgy and anti-mainstream.

Or in some cases, people hate it because they're simply sick of hearing about it.

 

[blaze2142]

I dont think anyone truly hates Halo, They just hate it for its popularity. Halo is the legendary first person shooter because Halo Combat Evolved was the game that set the standerd for all console shooters.

Swing and a miss. As far as setting the standard for console shooters the award goes to .... Goldeneye!

But yes it did improve on the formula.
And now there is a pretty standard formula.

I actually can't stand Halo, but not because it's popular or what not.
I can't stand it for it's single player, its story, I don't like the weapons, etc.
Plus I don't play many games online, especially over XBL so there's no reason for me to own it or play it.
That said I don't own COD either, though I think its a better game and have enjoyed it splitscreen at a friend's house on more than one occasion. I can't say the same for Halo.


I guess I prefer FPS on PC mostly. As far as these console versions go, they didn't really add anything all that innovative that Unreal Tournament didn't have, so I have trouble seeing them as being that big a deal.

That's just my opinion anyway, but I do see why some people like Halo. The gameplay is not bad and its got a big online community.
But I also don't have a hard time seeing why people hate it, because in all honesty I find the game to be pretty average.

*sigh*
Why yes Goldeneye was a great game and made a lot of people start to like first person shooters but it still had its flaws.(Although I am still waiting for the remake. They have remade almost everything but Goldeneye).
Anyway Halo CE defined future FPS's by making you to be able to hold only two guns at a time(remember those games where you could fit an entire arsenal in your pocket), Made throughing grenades its own button(before this you selected a grenade by scrolling down your list of weapons untill you reached grenades).
Halo CE also had an amazing story line(the other stories were not so good).

I doubt Rare will ever get the licensing to remake Goldeneye but here's hoping.
Besides, every game has its flaw, including Halo.
As far as being able to hold only two guns and making a button for grenades, I would hardly call that revolutionary seeing as how not every FPS follows that mentality, and not every one should.
Besides, it would have been pretty close to impossible on the N64 controller to have made grenades its own button since every button was already mapped.
I understand the 2 gun thing because they are going for "realism" but its also a game about aliens and super steroid space marines so there you go.

Like I said, just my opinion, and I see why people like it, and I know a lot of games rip off its ideas, but aside from implimenting a great online multiplayer system I don't agree with the term "revolutionary".

Well Rare did already remake the banjo-kazooie games so I guess I thought Goldeneye would be the next but it probibly wont happen.
Also I am sorry if my previous quote seemed offencive I didnt mean to be rude.

 

[TxMxRonin]

I don't quite get why people make the same five threads over and over again.

OT: Because we can. We're not all seventh grade girls who have to like what everybody else fucking likes. Ask yourself if you like it because you really do like it or because a large group does.

 

[Browbeat]

I have a difficult relationship with Halo, and the more I've talked to people about it, the more I've been able to pin it down to two major issues I have developed almost subconsciously.

Point #1: Halo does not express itself in the best medium as fiction. The image of Master Chief is powerful and recognizable, but without the fanbase, he is a faceless space marine (and not top-tier, at that... but I'm a 40K fan who likes to size-up various franchises). The universe Halo fiction portrays is intriguing, but in having to explore it through the guise of a shooter undermines the principle. The only Halo game I have responded to with pleasure has been Halo: Wars, and this is precisely because it pits together established (and new) Human and Covenant forces on a scale that relates to them favorably. Warthog vs. Ghost, Scarab vs. Vultures, Spartans vs. masses of grunts about to die, etc. It allows for cinematic story telling between missions where your forces contest the enemy in a true war-like fashion. I simply feel that there is no sense of scale to the Master Chief because in an FPS, you will OWN everything. No matter how powerful an opponent is or how insurmountable a challenge, the game's story driving vehicle has you surpassing it in heroic fashion. Entertaining, but not the best storytelling.

Given the previous 40K confession, I know that I have a bias towards strategy games, but shooters are meant to be immersive and action driven. Tacking on the pretense of an epic space saga into a corridor shooter with open-terrain vehicle sections seems like an odd fit. Besides, Halo's success lies in multiplayer, and Bungie excels at giving its fans what they crave, placing a much lesser emphasis on single-player polish...

... which brings up point #2:

Because of Halo's rabid popularity, it has advanced shooter gaming into a mainstream arena, where masses of guys (and girls!) will drove together to exchange obscenities and projectiles in public matches - with a smattering of split-screen. The public that starts their gaming careers with Halo, however, has a very particular set of expectations in gaming, and since they are the major spending power, more companies want to appease them and draw their dollars to their coffers... So more games adopt Halo sensibilities or are set up as comparisons to a series that didn't even foresee a sequel when it first hit the Xbox (Initially a PC title that got redeveloped as Microsoft's console flagship title). So, in a more-or-less direct fashion, Halo impacts many games released today... Primarily in the shooter market, of course, but the fact that more players jump on the popular bandwagon and leapfrog from Halo to MW to ODST to MW2 to... Reach Beta now, right?

Regardless, it isn't really the product that's at fault. It's what the adoring public makes the product out to be... I've been playing games for the better part of two decades, and I've seen elements of gameplay that Halo has convinced fans as being original implemented elsewhere... Not a problem in itself, but it's like band fanboys whining that someone's cover of a song is disrespectful of the original, or worse, that a cover IS an original work...

Perhaps I'm griping like a Grognard, but Halo has the potential to be something much greater than what it is now. It is an icon, and it is good at what it does. It simply isn't a game I enjoy, and there are many of my peers that are aggressive about convincing me otherwise...

So, while I enjoy the universe setting as expressed in Halo: Wars (and Bungie is no slouch at strategy games, as seen with some old-school Myth titles), I simply can't get on the shooter gravy boat without reminding myself that there are shooters more deserving of adoration than that four-letter franchise...

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I dont think anyone truly hates Halo, They just hate it for its popularity. Halo is the legendary first person shooter because Halo Combat Evolved was the game that set the standerd for all console shooters.

Swing and a miss. As far as setting the standard for console shooters the award goes to .... Goldeneye!

But yes it did improve on the formula.
And now there is a pretty standard formula.

I actually can't stand Halo, but not because it's popular or what not.
I can't stand it for it's single player, its story, I don't like the weapons, etc.
Plus I don't play many games online, especially over XBL so there's no reason for me to own it or play it.
That said I don't own COD either, though I think its a better game and have enjoyed it splitscreen at a friend's house on more than one occasion. I can't say the same for Halo.


I guess I prefer FPS on PC mostly. As far as these console versions go, they didn't really add anything all that innovative that Unreal Tournament didn't have, so I have trouble seeing them as being that big a deal.

That's just my opinion anyway, but I do see why some people like Halo. The gameplay is not bad and its got a big online community.
But I also don't have a hard time seeing why people hate it, because in all honesty I find the game to be pretty average.

*sigh*
Why yes Goldeneye was a great game and made a lot of people start to like first person shooters but it still had its flaws.(Although I am still waiting for the remake. They have remade almost everything but Goldeneye).
Anyway Halo CE defined future FPS's by making you to be able to hold only two guns at a time(remember those games where you could fit an entire arsenal in your pocket), Made throughing grenades its own button(before this you selected a grenade by scrolling down your list of weapons untill you reached grenades).
Halo CE also had an amazing story line(the other stories were not so good).

I doubt Rare will ever get the licensing to remake Goldeneye but here's hoping.
Besides, every game has its flaw, including Halo.
As far as being able to hold only two guns and making a button for grenades, I would hardly call that revolutionary seeing as how not every FPS follows that mentality, and not every one should.
Besides, it would have been pretty close to impossible on the N64 controller to have made grenades its own button since every button was already mapped.
I understand the 2 gun thing because they are going for "realism" but its also a game about aliens and super steroid space marines so there you go.

Like I said, just my opinion, and I see why people like it, and I know a lot of games rip off its ideas, but aside from implimenting a great online multiplayer system I don't agree with the term "revolutionary".

Well Rare did already remake the banjo-kazooie games so I guess I thought Goldeneye would be the next but it probibly wont happen.
Also I am sorry if my previous quote seemed offencive I didnt mean to be rude.

It's all right no need to apologize, its very easy for these thread to turn into flame wars and I probably wasn't being that polite either.

As for a Goldeneye remake that would be awesome, but I think the reason they chose to do a Perfect Dark Remake on the XBLA instead of Goldeneye was due to licensing issues if I'm not mistaken.