More on Halo: Reach

[yankeefan19]

Not everybody likes single player games. I don't play single player at all, ever. Therefore, all games must be judged on their multiplayer experience alone.

And not everybody plays multiplayer. In fact I'm willing to say that more people play single player. However, I believe the games should be reviewed based on both, as people that don't have the ability to play online multiplayer would want to know about single player.

 

[snowman6251]

I'm currently playing through Enslaved and I like it a lot. Its nice knowing that a good single player campaign can still get made today when publishers think all we want is more Call of Duty.

You know what the worst part of in Enslaved is? Shooting things.

I like shooters but there are way too many out there right now and they all focus too much on multiplayer. I read a review for Medal of Honor claiming that the campaign was about 5 hours. 5 hours for 60 bucks? That's fucking outrageous, yet they can do it because multiplayer is the main focus. I like multiplayer and I like that there are games that specialize in it but we need some kick ass campaigns too.

 

[Dogstile]

Its likely been said, but fuck it, i'm to lazy to read and i have a full English dinner awaiting me. Jorge (the one with a mum) was actually saying "ma'am". I had to turn on the subtitles to notice this.

Now onto the bangers and mash.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Not everybody likes single player games. I don't play single player at all, ever. Therefore, all games must be judged on their multiplayer experience alone.

And not everybody plays multiplayer. In fact I'm willing to say that more people play single player. However, I believe the games should be reviewed based on both, as people that don't have the ability to play online multiplayer would want to know about single player.

I'm with you, actually. I was stating the inverse of Yahtzee's take on multiplayer to show how silly it sounds. I understand not taking an interest in multiplayer, but I am continually baffled by his stance of 'it's not relevant to me, therefore it's irrelevant' regarding multiplayer.

 

[Shihan2]

Ok, call me a fanboy, because I probably am, but he's already stated that he hasn't followed the series and this is a fan game. Bungie would've been happy not having to do another Halo if people had shut up about it. The Spartans aren't meant to be relatable, and they were trained to die if need be to give a significant advantage to their team members, all of which is covered in those wonderful little books that I'm sure Yahtzee refuses to read. I'm not saying Halo Reach was perfect, it's far from, but I think Yahtzee is letting his own personal experience(or lack thereof) and feelings get in his review. I thought Halo 3 was the pinnacle of the series and has since gone downhill. It would've been a lot better if they'd gone with ODST's or Marines, because most people I've talked with are tired of playing as Spartans. They've been predictable since before Halo 3 when the first book series came out. I hope this isn't the last in the franchise since I'd like to see something done outside the Spartan story arcs, and maybe it'll be fresher since it won't be Bungie's child anymore. Maybe something along the lines of playing a Marine from his first deployment out of boot and taking us through a career we can choose depending on what our preferred play style is.

 

[Evil the White]

Master Chief being secretly gay is old news. Like Dumbledore and Gordon Freeman.

 

[Amnestic]

"Cortana was the ghost of his dead aunt."

Amusingly accurate, actually.

 

[Wolcik]

Spartans going to Kamikaze school XD
... and it's not fat - it's buffed XD

 

[kael013]

Yahtzee did you actually READ that "ancillary media", because it also explains away the floaty movement feel and the first half of the book makes the whole "mum" thing completely false. Next time make use of all the facts there, just taking the ones that support your argument shows narrow-mindedness.
As for the article, I agree with you about Reach's campaign. However, the gameplay has evolved over the years, it's just that for Reach they went back to halo 1's formula with some refinements from the other games. And what is it with you and saying that every game needs a boss fight? And did you even look at Firefight? Or Forge?
Honestly though, you didn't need to write an article about this. Everyone knows how you feel about Halo (you made it abundantly clear in the Turok review) so we all know you're just trying to get traffic figures and to make us to act like little gibbering morons in the forums.

 

[Artemus_Cain]

Yeah, I'm not going to buy it either. I also don't like Bungie's "No idiots allowed" policy which bans achievment points from drooling imbiciles like myself who can only play on easy. Well fuck you to Halo, it's not my fault you give more than half of the bad guys greneade launchers, and I'm handed a crappy pistol and an assault rifle with poor aiming.

 

[NotSoNimble]

Oh Halo fans, will you do anything for cultural acceptance like twisting the words of a harsh game critic to say that he enjoyed the game?

" it's basically inoffensive. It'll certainly pass the time and it even has a few fleeting impressive moments"

Yep.

 

[docsamurai]

In fact I don't feel like arguing but for whatever reason reading this gave me the inexplicable urge to see Christina Ricci naked.
It took me about 5 full minutes to trace back how the hell my mind wandered far enough to get to that point (longer than the google search to find her in the first place) but I just thought I'd share.
Fanboys bore me and responding to fanboys is an even greater waste of time, though I'm responding to the response with my own random ramblings so I guess I win (though to be fair I'm sick in bed so theres shit else for me to do).

 

[Flishiz]

Well there is a point for multiplayer, but I do have to posit that there are some games that are worth multiplayer alone, albeit not at normal retail price. One game that I played to death, Black Hawk Down for the PS2, had a relatively uneventful single player, but the multiplayer was one of the best that I'd ever seen in an FPS, because it was so delightfully simple and basic that there was nothing to it but fun, and it really lasted for years. Though if I go on again there probably will be less than three servers running so there's no point...

 

[Sennz0r]

Yahtzee should have played with subtitles on. I know Jorge pronounces it "mom" but that's just his accent - he's saying "ma'am."

Anyhoo, I guess Reach can join Half-Life 2 at the Mediocrity Table, eh?

I noticed that too, but what was Jorge's comment on "been hers half my life" about then? That would certainly imply she was his mother, or at least the person who looked after him half his life.

Interesting though, you think the pronunciation was off, while I think the subtitles are wrong

 

[sunburst]

Co-op is one thing, but that's basically just single player with a ball and chain (and if you've never gotten that impression of co-op, it's because you're the ball and chain).

Can someone explain this to me? I don't get it.

None of the Halo difficulties are challenging enough that you need two people to succeed and the hardest settings tend to send you both back to the last checkpoint whenever either of you dies so it becomes a game of the superior player trying to complete the objectives before their partner wanders his uncoordinated ass right into the path of some sniper fire. The bottom line is that if you've never noticed your friend obliviously driving you both off a cliff then you're the "ball and chain" that's constantly getting in their way.

 

[sandeamon312]

Yahtzee should have played with subtitles on. I know Jorge pronounces it "mom" but that's just his accent - he's saying "ma'am."

Anyhoo, I guess Reach can join Half-Life 2 at the Mediocrity Table, eh?

I noticed that too, but what was Jorge's comment about "been hers half my life" about then? That would certainly imply she was his mother, or at least the person who looked after him half his life.

Interesting though, you think the pronunciation was off, while I think the subtitles are wrong

Jorge was a Spartan 2 and they have all spent most of their lives with her.

 

[HentMas]

BLASPHEMY!!! MY SHIRT IS AWESOME AND YOU KNOW IT!!!

and well, i agree with everything that was said from yahtzee

YAY YATZEE!!!!

 

[Alleged_Alec]

Yahtzee should have played with subtitles on. I know Jorge pronounces it "mom" but that's just his accent - he's saying "ma'am."

Anyhoo, I guess Reach can join Half-Life 2 at the Mediocrity Table, eh?

I noticed that too, but what was Jorge's comment on "been hers half my life" about then? That would certainly imply she was his mother, or at least the person who looked after him half his life.

Interesting though, you think the pronunciation was off, while I think the subtitles are wrong

Spartan two's have been trained from the moment they turned eight, or somewhere around that age under the strict supervision and guidance of dr. Halsey and a team of experts.
The relation between the two's and Halsey is rather strange. On one hand, she's the closest thing any of them has to a mother figure. On the other hand, they are highly trained soldiers who, as has been mentioned before, trained to even give up their own life if necessary.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Yahtzee is just so tired and predictable. I'm sick of hearing him blather on about how multiplayer doesn't matter. It sure as hell seems to matter to a lot of other people.

I've grown so tone deaf to Yahtzee's profanity-laced ramblings that they start to sound something like...

Then why do you keep watching/reading and then commenting? Glutton for punishment, much?

Anyway, I thought that was an accurate and pretty funny portrayal of Reach. From other comments about the dramatic power of the game, and considering the potential for it (Thermopylae with you as Leonidas...), I was largely disappointed.

 

[kael013]

Yahtzee did you actually READ that "ancillary media", because it also explains away the floaty movement feel and the first half of the book makes the whole "mum" thing completely false. Next time make use of all the facts there, just taking the ones that support your argument shows narrow-mindedness.

No one should have to read a novel to understand the plot of a video game...or a movie or whatever. Singular works of fiction should stand on their own, otherwise it all just becomes a closed, fanboy-centric loop.

That wasn't the point I was trying to make. I was pointing out the idiocy of using one fact from a source to back up your argument, when another fact a couple chapters later blows your argument out of the water.

As for your point, I agree with you. But how do you slip power armor specs into a "save the galaxy' story, especially when the pc starts the game in the power armor? The fact that he's in it already kind of says that he knows how it works.