Some time ago, I was getting really sick of playing First-Person Shooters and decided to give them up. In fact, the only reason I decided to buy Battlefield 3 was because most of my friends had it, and I only played through Modern Warfare 3 just recently because I felt like ending the trilogy.
But just last week a curious thought popped into my head:
"I want to play Halo."
I've never been big on the franchise, having grown up on Nintendo and playing Metroid Prime while the first few Halo titles came out. I remember the series being ludicrously popular, with fans and critics tossing it perfect scores and others calling it overrated and monotonous.
But for whatever reason, be it the poorly optimized Call of Duty and Battlefield games of 2013, or the desire to play something from yesteryear for the hell of it, I plowed through Halo Anniversary, playing once with the original aesthetic and again with the new graphics as rendered by the Halo Reach engine. I could just as easily have played through Painkiller, Doom 3 or even Metroid Prime 1, all of which I still have on their original platforms, but something drew me to Halo.
Then I think I understood what it was.
Halo was a giant, in fact it was the driving force in the industry for quite some time. Shooters all wanted to be like it, and obtain the same success and following.
But now, the series has been overshadowed by Call of Duty, which was originally a forgettable World War II shooter, which at the time was as common as blades of grass on a football field.
When Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor decided to become more modern age, they brought new mechanics and a fresh take on multiplayer, and brought the king down.
While the sales numbers for Halo Reach and Halo 4 are good, and future games will most likely bring loads of cash for Microsoft, I don't think the series will ever be able to reach the pinnacle where it was at.
Back then, I used to agonize over how much people liked Halo and wouldn't shut up about it.
But when people wouldn't stop wanking on Call of Duty and Battlefield, I looked back at the series and regretted my anger.
So I ask you:
Am I justified in my new opinion?
Does it seem possible that I might look at the current FPS frontrunners more generously if and when they no longer become popular?
And at what point exactly does this cross over into just "wearing nostalgia goggles"?
But just last week a curious thought popped into my head:
"I want to play Halo."
I've never been big on the franchise, having grown up on Nintendo and playing Metroid Prime while the first few Halo titles came out. I remember the series being ludicrously popular, with fans and critics tossing it perfect scores and others calling it overrated and monotonous.
But for whatever reason, be it the poorly optimized Call of Duty and Battlefield games of 2013, or the desire to play something from yesteryear for the hell of it, I plowed through Halo Anniversary, playing once with the original aesthetic and again with the new graphics as rendered by the Halo Reach engine. I could just as easily have played through Painkiller, Doom 3 or even Metroid Prime 1, all of which I still have on their original platforms, but something drew me to Halo.
Then I think I understood what it was.
Halo was a giant, in fact it was the driving force in the industry for quite some time. Shooters all wanted to be like it, and obtain the same success and following.
But now, the series has been overshadowed by Call of Duty, which was originally a forgettable World War II shooter, which at the time was as common as blades of grass on a football field.
When Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor decided to become more modern age, they brought new mechanics and a fresh take on multiplayer, and brought the king down.
While the sales numbers for Halo Reach and Halo 4 are good, and future games will most likely bring loads of cash for Microsoft, I don't think the series will ever be able to reach the pinnacle where it was at.
Back then, I used to agonize over how much people liked Halo and wouldn't shut up about it.
But when people wouldn't stop wanking on Call of Duty and Battlefield, I looked back at the series and regretted my anger.
So I ask you:
Am I justified in my new opinion?
Does it seem possible that I might look at the current FPS frontrunners more generously if and when they no longer become popular?
And at what point exactly does this cross over into just "wearing nostalgia goggles"?
