More on Halo: Reach

[menamebephil]

Okay. I have played multiplayer games with friends, really, REALLY shitty multiplayer games with friends, and always had an amazingly good time, because I was dicking around playing a shitty ps2 game with my mates. I have also played random online games of Call of Duty, and HATED it, because it just wasn't fun for me at all. I wasn't part of a community, and really I was playing online multiplayer in the worst possible way.

That, as far as I can tell, is why Yahtzee doesn't review multiplaer modes- because the gaming experience is suddenly ENTIRELY dependent on who you're playing with. You could be playing some golden masterpiece of fps history, but if you're playing capture the flag with a bunch of bunnyhopping braIn-dead fuckwads, odds are you're still going to put down the controller and go have a nice game of mah-jong instead. And on the other extreme, I've probably wasted more hours of my life than I care to recall playing four-player Snake on one keyboard.

I mean, that's just my opinion. Maybe a LAN killed his father or something.

 

[YodaUnleashed]

I largely agree with Yahtzee about all his criticisms of the game but despite all that I still love to play it with my friends and have a good time and that's the most important gaming experience to have.. In the end the game can be a re-hash of the same formula, with little change etc etc but it doesn't detract from it's fun factor if you enjoyed it already.

 

[Misho-]

On the contrary my shirt makes me look not fat. I don't really care one way or another what ZP says. I do follow his reviews and the slightest bit of positive means the game is good.

Lol denying much? I mean having the slighest bit of positive and thinking the game is good is like getting your name right in a test and thinking you got a 100%... or something...

FIrst off- welcome to the escapist

Secondly- no. I direcct more attention to education than to videogames. If it looks fun Ill try it out. I can't have fun on a test or try it out. Reviews are important to not waste money but shouldn't be used as the only opinion.

Thanks for the Welcome I've been browsing this site since early 2008 but just recently created an account to get to do the quizzes
And second yeah I agree with you now int he sense that reviews shouldn't be considered as an only option but still... A game isn't good because it just got 1 thing right or if the reviewer says he liked the Colors or something...

But I guess in HALO's case it really depends... If you got it then you are probably going to try and like it no matter what anyone says and I think that's ok.

 

[TetsuoKaneda]

You shouldn't judge Reach solely on its single player just like you shouldn't judge Bioshock 2 solely on its multiplayer.

Bioshock 2 only had multiplayer going for it...they should have just released the multiplayer as DLC for Bioshock and made Infinite a little faster. The story was essentially a less-difficult rehash of System Shock 2 with Sofia Lamb taking the place of The Many. Oh, and adding a little girl for pathos.

 

[spartan1077]

On the contrary my shirt makes me look not fat. I don't really care one way or another what ZP says. I do follow his reviews and the slightest bit of positive means the game is good.

Lol denying much? I mean having the slighest bit of positive and thinking the game is good is like getting your name right in a test and thinking you got a 100%... or something...

FIrst off- welcome to the escapist

Secondly- no. I direcct more attention to education than to videogames. If it looks fun Ill try it out. I can't have fun on a test or try it out. Reviews are important to not waste money but shouldn't be used as the only opinion.

Thanks for the Welcome I've been browsing this site since early 2008 but just recently created an account to get to do the quizzes
And second yeah I agree with you now int he sense that reviews shouldn't be considered as an only option but still... A game isn't good because it just got 1 thing right or if the reviewer says he liked the Colors or something...

But I guess in HALO's case it really depends... If you got it then you are probably going to try and like it no matter what anyone says and I think that's ok.

If I spent money on it, I play that many hours/dollar. So $16? 16 hours. and I try to like it with all my might.

 

[Kajin]

Technically, Spartan III's are suicide bombers. It was the entire reason they were created, to be a more expendable version of the regular Spartans. Sucks to be them, I guess.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

I couldn't agree more with Yahtzee about the Halo Reach storyline. The story was completely atrocious. There was no character development so you didn't care when any of them died, and there was very little explanation for what you were doing. It's obvious that the game was built for multiplayer and the single player was tacked on as an afterthought. Furthermore, they must have felt the need to dumb it down so the five to seven year old children that make up half of Bungie's consumer-base could follow the plot. Or rather, they eliminated the plot and reduced the single player to "go here, kill aliens, blow that thing up, go there, kill aliens, blow that other thing up." Not going to win an Oscar for best picture, that's for damn sure.

I say this as a Halo 'fan'. By which I mean I am willing to shell out $60 for hundreds, if not thousands of hours of multiplayer. I take this to be a good investment. But I also enjoy good stories from games. With the cast line up they have for Fable 3, I'm hoping they'll have the decency to just make it a full fledged adventure game with a great storyline, rather than just failing miserably at trying to make it into an RPG. (It isn't an RPG if after ten hours everyone's character looks and plays exactly the same except for their clothes.)

Yahtzee apparently shells out $60 (or whatever the Australian equivalent is) to play a story for ten hours.

And your complaint is REPETITION? WHAT? You do know they are called 'Video GAMES', not 'interactive story-majigs'. A Game is something that is, by its nature, repetitive and objective based. There is no important back-story to why the New York Giants play the Philadelphia Eagles. Its the same game, with the same rules, on the same field, over and over and over again. It is the exact same principle that motivates people to play multiplayer online. How could you not get that? The thing that gets repetitive is the STORY AFTER YOU'VE BEATEN IT A SINGLE TIME. That's why I RENT THE GAMES I PLAY FOR STORY AND BUY THE MULTIPLAYER CENTERED GAMES.

If your excuse is that you only care about plot, fine. More power to you. I like a good story to and I'll come to you for your opinion because I generally find that I have agreed with it in the past. But as a VIDEO GAME critic you should at least understand what GAMES ARE and why people play them. Aside from that, keep up the good work.

 

[Something Amyss]

Predictable responses, but I'm not sure why people got the wrong impression. (OK I admit, I was a bit baffled by his Haze review initially, but whatever). But possibly the biggest revelation today, is that he liked Metal Gear Solid 3, so far as to say it's one of the best in the series. And I couldn't agree more.

EP covered that even. People live in a binary state of mind. Yes or no, agree or disagree, coke or pepsi. There are people who exist in a world of nuance and shades of gray, and they're the minority.

So by not hating it, Yahtzee was (To them) endorsing it, saying he liked it. To a lot of people, if you disagree you take the polar opposite view by default. Though it could be more Yahtzee's tendency to slam everything in ZP. By extension, people might take his lack of vitriol as approval. I'm hoping it's more that, but we live in a binary world, so I bet it's more a "tick yes or no" deal.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

It seems Bungie doesn't have the slightest clue on how a prequel is supposed to work. A prequel is supposed to take place before all the other entires in your series that means, at the very least, all the the characters don't know about anything the happened in the other entries in your series because, you know, it hasn't happened yet!!!
Of course I'm fundamentally against the very principle of prequels.

 

[Oliver Pink]

But as for competitive multiplayer, I'm sorry, I just don't see the appeal of playing the same maps over and over again to find out which one out of you is the best at whatever it is you're doing. That's not why I'm into gaming. Call me antisocial.

Sure, but you can't blame the game for that. Different games cater to different tastes.

The fact that one is not into competitive multiplayer gaming doesn't make games that focus on it bad, it just makes them games that don't belong in ones tastes. The game can still function properly, have solid and well-balanced gameplay, that sort of thing. I hate FIFA games, just go outside and play football yourself you lazy bum, but I can't call them bad games just for that.

I wouldn't use MMO's as examples either, I'd pick games like Unreal Tournament, Quake, Team Fortress 2 and most fighting games.

You raise a valid argument - but remember that EVERYONE can play Single Player because everyone is always themselves all the time. Not everyone has an internet connection, or money for a subscription, or friends or a decent phone line. Thus it is crucial for a game to be able to stand up on Single Player only, simply because there are plenty of people who will never see a multiplayer game segment, let alone play it regularly.

 

[Crumpet Man]

For those of you saying that Yahtzee doesn't pay attention to multiplayer because he doesn't like it, that's not true. It's because some people may not have internet and therefore can't access the multiplayer, while if you own the game you have single player no matter what.

 

[Cat Cloud]

I'm just glad I'm not the only person who deosn't care about multiplayer. Great article.

 

[Diver Down]

Yahtzee's job is to be funny, and bashing stuff is funny. I personally don't take any of his reviews seriously.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

But as for competitive multiplayer, I'm sorry, I just don't see the appeal of playing the same maps over and over again to find out which one out of you is the best at whatever it is you're doing. That's not why I'm into gaming. Call me antisocial.

Sure, but you can't blame the game for that. Different games cater to different tastes.

The fact that one is not into competitive multiplayer gaming doesn't make games that focus on it bad, it just makes them games that don't belong in ones tastes. The game can still function properly, have solid and well-balanced gameplay, that sort of thing. I hate FIFA games, just go outside and play football yourself you lazy bum, but I can't call them bad games just for that.

I wouldn't use MMO's as examples either, I'd pick games like Unreal Tournament, Quake, Team Fortress 2 and most fighting games.

You raise a valid argument - but remember that EVERYONE can play Single Player because everyone is always themselves all the time. Not everyone has an internet connection, or money for a subscription, or friends or a decent phone line. Thus it is crucial for a game to be able to stand up on Single Player only, simply because there are plenty of people who will never see a multiplayer game segment, let alone play it regularly.

Everyone except those who don't have gaming consoles. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of people who own a console and play games regularly can afford those other things. If you look at my post above, you'll see that I only rent games for their story, but I buy titles like halo because they are a lasting investment. Games have been moving away from being story based because it's economics. Just look at the numbers, all the best selling games are the games people play for the multiplayer. The numbers suggest the actual facts, developers have relegated single player to secondary importance. You suggest this large market of people who will pay 60 bucks for ten hours of story. I don't know anyone like that, story games are 'renters'. Your economic presuppositions are all wrong. WoW, Starcraft, Halo, Call of Duty. All multiplayer centered games, all dominate the market.

 

[Tonythion]

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

As a Spartan-II, Jorge was kidnapped at a young age and replaced with a flash-grown clone. He would not know his mother and it definitely wouldn't be Dr. Halsey. Of course, this is backstory, so for people who're just into run'n'gun and don't enjoy reading (like you, or Yahtzee) it's certainly wasted.

And yes, their training regimens are remarkably like suicide bombers. Both Spartan-IIs and Spartan-IIIs are fully prepared to die for their cause.

Actually seeing as Jorge was a spartan II he would remember his mother. He was kidnapped at six, most people remember their mother at six years old. Chief and all of the spartan IIs were all very smart and very strong so I don't think they would forget, unless I missed reading something saying that they did in fact forget about their previous lives.

 

[aakibar]

I liked Reach. lets just get that out of the way

anywho

I agree the worst point of the game for me at least plot wise was when you go deep underground and theres this big thing and then you pick up what i am assuming is cortana, my biggest hate on the game is that i wanted to see that plot element devlopted more. Maybe its to much for a video game but it still would be cool. Maybe i need to succumb to reading the books.(god save me)

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

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

As a Spartan-II, Jorge was kidnapped at a young age and replaced with a flash-grown clone. He would not know his mother and it definitely wouldn't be Dr. Halsey. Of course, this is backstory, so for people who're just into run'n'gun and don't enjoy reading (like you, or Yahtzee) it's certainly wasted.

And yes, their training regimens are remarkably like suicide bombers. Both Spartan-IIs and Spartan-IIIs are fully prepared to die for their cause.

Actually seeing as Jorge was a spartan II he would remember his mother. He was kidnapped at six, most people remember their mother at six years old. Chief and all of the spartan IIs were all very smart and very strong so I don't think they would forget, unless I missed reading something saying that they did in fact forget about their previous lives.

Yes, they were kidnapped at six, but they were immediately drilled to forget their previous lives and they never saw their parents again, so they only remember it like a dream.

 

[Tonythion]

Actually seeing as Jorge was a spartan II he would remember his mother. He was kidnapped at six, most people remember their mother at six years old. Chief and all of the spartan IIs were all very smart and very strong so I don't think they would forget, unless I missed reading something saying that they did in fact forget about their previous lives.

Yes, they were kidnapped at six, but they were immediately drilled to forget their previous lives and they never saw their parents again, so they only remember it like a dream.

Really? I missed something, which book was this? Or did I miss it in the Dr's notes?

 

[Ghengis John]

"I liked it, but I can't like things. Much less Halo things. So in order to maintain the loyalty of my fans I must now back peddle like an otter prostitute."

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Actually seeing as Jorge was a spartan II he would remember his mother. He was kidnapped at six, most people remember their mother at six years old. Chief and all of the spartan IIs were all very smart and very strong so I don't think they would forget, unless I missed reading something saying that they did in fact forget about their previous lives.

Yes, they were kidnapped at six, but they were immediately drilled to forget their previous lives and they never saw their parents again, so they only remember it like a dream.

Really? I missed something, which book was this? Or did I miss it in the Dr's notes?

It was in the book Fall of Reach. They weren't specifically told to forget, but nothing of their previous lives is ever mentioned to them, so they forget. Also, the Chief mentions on one of the books that all he remembers of his previous life is like a dream