Elitist1945
Member
My favorite Halo game, even if I only played it when MCC came out.
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Halo 3 was ahead of its time
- Thread starter Cranzor
- Start date
I mean, your argument is that halo5 didnt lack content, and you support your argument with an unpopular forge gametype and warzone.
As a consumer I don't care how many hours it takes to make a particular component, that's for the developers to hash out. I DO care about the value proposition of the products I buy.
Before you even consider the perceived quality of individual gamemodes, the argument that breakout and Warzone offset all of the modes and features that are absent at H5s launch falls woefully flat in comparison to what H3 had to offer at launch.
They certainly aren't being "punished" for having a vision. They are being "punished" because their offering is less that what was expected of them.
Personally, I feel like if H5 launched with an H3 quality UI, forge, theater (that actually tracks your POV and works in campaign), dev- made btb, classic firefight, local MP support and ALL of the missing gametypes INSTEAD of warzone and Breakout, the game would have been better recieved. If Warzone and BTB then launched a month later, 343 would have been CHAMPIONED for figuring out how to bring their new vision without sacrificing the things people expect from a halo game.
343 didn't have their priorities straight. And we are witnessing the market response to that.
I'm sorry but "making new games" doesnt justify throwing out the things people love - then relying on UGC to add them back in after swallowing criticsm that your games offering is too light.
Man, what I would give just to have theater mode in Destiny 2. I remember playing on Valhalla and was in a battle with someone down by the "cave" where the stream goes through. I was chasing this guy around the rock and I just couldn't find him. Next thing I know he's shooting me in the back. Went back and watched the whole thing in theater and he had done a grenade jump up onto the rock and just toyed with me.
Enter The 36 Chambers
Member
Features were amazing at the time.
Shame about the game/gunplay
Shame about the game/gunplay
Okay, here is the reason why I took longer to reply to this. The video that you posted is not a good represantation, because of multiple reasons:
- Vetoed is not shooting at an enemy.
- Vetoed is shooting at a range larger than the H3 BR's effective range unzoomed. Meaning, at that range, the reticule of the BR would not be red anymore.
- Because the reticule of the BR is not red anymore, you are missing out on some of the aim assist and bullet magnetism. Both of these are not that high when compared to other games, but they are still there.
These are all factors that all have to be considered, because in the real scenario, you are still shooting an enemy and not at the wall.
I've made a quick and rubbish video. The results are pretty much the same, except that in the effective BR range, there is not a single bullet that will miss the target. I'm sure I could have shot the dummy account 100+ times at that range and there wouldn't be a single bullet hitting the wall. This is what I meant with overblown.
While it is disappointing, I think it's also fairly understandable. It was their last Halo game that they had to make and after it shipped, the franchise was also completely transfered over to 343i at some point.
But you are only listing 1 feature in your examples. We are searching for 2007 games that were as feature rich as Halo 3 was.
I mean, those features are still nice, no question, but having 1 feature vs. multiple features is not the same.
QuantumSquid
Member
I miss the glory days of Halo 3 when it was the most popular game on Xbox Live. There was something so special about that era.
One of the big reasons Halo 3 was number 1 was because we lacked choices.
What were our choices for a great multiplayer experience? Halo 3, Call of Duty? Battlefield was gimped (besides BC2). Other games just didn't have the level of polish of CoD and Halo.
Now we have so many choices. Battlefield with 64 player matches, Overwatch, Halo 5, Call of Duty, Doom, Titanfall, Destiny etc.
ughkingdom
Member
In a way that's true, but 2007 was no slouch of a year. And 2008 introduced even more games for us to forget Halo 3 for but we still didn't.
That being said, everything about Halo 3 was amazing to me except the controls. The input lag on aiming was weird and clunky, coming from Halo 2 which felt so much smoother. I tried so hard to get into it because the content was amazing, but I was never able to click with the way the aiming changed. I heard the MCC fixed that though with the FPS increase so I'm excited to try that sometime.
We did. Still doesn't negate the fact that BTB, Forge, File Share, Post Game Carnage Report, Campaign Scoring/Timing, Campaign Theater and several game modes and other stuff that I probably forgot was missing on launch.
Breakout: Nothing about Breakout is new, except for the Forge maps that anybody could have done. You can play Breakout in Halo 3, aswell. Just do Neutral Flag, set lifes to 1 per round, set rounds to a number of your choice and you have Breakout.
Warzone: Not true, because 343i issued a statement that Warzone was actually the most populated playlist.
Nobody is ignoring anything. You are just not accepting the fact that Halo 3 had more features and more content on launch.
Forge and Custom Game Browser? Yeah.
Pretty much everything else... Content that didn't make it in time.
SpartanN92
Banned
Greatest game ever made.
ShutterMunster
Junior Member
Bungie has always been ahead of the curve on a lot of this stuff, which is what made Destiny's launch so puzzling. I think Reach is their best work but I lost hundreds if not thousands of hours to Halo 3. Still got that Cat helmet too.
I hope Bungie gets back to that level of excellence with Destiny 2.
I hope Bungie gets back to that level of excellence with Destiny 2.
halo 3 genuinely changed my life and is the reason i joined gaf. shoutouts to halo 3-era halogaf.
it's crazy how easy halo 3 made sharing stuff. it's a shame they kind of lost all of that with later releases and then also destiny. i thought the insane stat tracking and file sharing would stay with them forever.
are the archived halo 3/odst/reach stat sites available still?
it's crazy how easy halo 3 made sharing stuff. it's a shame they kind of lost all of that with later releases and then also destiny. i thought the insane stat tracking and file sharing would stay with them forever.
are the archived halo 3/odst/reach stat sites available still?
Caayn
Member
My favourite Halo game. As Gametrailers put it at the time "Halo 3 is like your girlfriends holiday suitcase, filled and bursting with content." (I don't remember the exact quote)
It's such a great game from the gameplay to the sheer amount of content it released with. Screwing around with friends on Sandtrap trying to get the Elephant to roll over. Playing through the campaign that was excellent for both singleplayer and co-op ( one didn't compromised the other *cough H5*). Having fun with mixing different dual wields and the variety of grenades. Looking back at cool moments that happened in both campaign *cough* H4 *cough* H5 *cough* and multiplayer through the theatre mode.
It's sad that H3 launched with more content than H4 and H5.
It's such a great game from the gameplay to the sheer amount of content it released with. Screwing around with friends on Sandtrap trying to get the Elephant to roll over. Playing through the campaign that was excellent for both singleplayer and co-op ( one didn't compromised the other *cough H5*). Having fun with mixing different dual wields and the variety of grenades. Looking back at cool moments that happened in both campaign *cough* H4 *cough* H5 *cough* and multiplayer through the theatre mode.
It's sad that H3 launched with more content than H4 and H5.
Bungie has them still at Halo.Bungie.net.
I was actually going through all my accounts and matches some week ago, to find out when I 1st met my now best friend in matchmaking. It was in July 2009. Memmories man.
I'd agree with you on the multiplayer features and customization aspects, such as Forge and stat-tracking and whatnot, but I still find the campaign to be one of the weakest out of the series. No real surprises, caving in and abandoning the Arbiter's storyline, the entirety of the level Cortana, a poor ending boss, etc. Idk, it was a nice package with a ton of content, but the single-player left a lot to be desired in my opinion.
The multiplayer is amazing though, I give you that.
The multiplayer is amazing though, I give you that.
Gnome Scat
Member
I have my best memories in gaming with Halo 3.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I really miss theater mode. Wish that feature was more standard in general.
Diddy Kong
Banned
The Bungie.net integration was amazing!
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
When I first played Halo 3 it was a Custom Game with friends. After the match I double checked the settings to make sure it was default because of how sluggish and floaty it felt. At that time it hit me hard, "Bungie made the game slower and more inconsistent than Halo 2."
However, I do appreciate Halo 3, blemishes and all, but damn if I wasn't disappointed by its gameplay after 3 years of waiting, then knowing this would be the main Halo game played for the next 3 years.
However, I do appreciate Halo 3, blemishes and all, but damn if I wasn't disappointed by its gameplay after 3 years of waiting, then knowing this would be the main Halo game played for the next 3 years.
This would be fine, if we never find ourself engaging enemies outside of Red Reticle Range. But it Halo, you find yourself engaging enemies at all different ranges. A good utility weapon- while most effective at mid range, would be suitable for combat at any range- provided the skill is there to use it.
Often, when we are in a BR battle, both players are knocked out of zoom. The victor of this 1v1 should be determined by who has the best shot w/o the assists. But in H3 randomness is thrown into the mix.
All the random bullet does is limit the impact of skill when using a gun outside of its RRR- the exact kinds of moments where you'd actually want skill to shine. (This is what makes no scopes exciting, or crossmap kills with the H5 magnum. )
The ramifications of this, when shooting at a real player instead of a wall, further highlights this issue- If I'm engaging a player outside of RRR, and I am skilled enough to remain on target DESPITE the lack of aim assist and magnetism, I should get the kill, it shouldn't be up to chance. Your video just proves that these moments are up to chance- that's definately not a good thing. Make spread static and you still limit effective range, yet kills outside of RRR would be 100% up to skill.
Fudgepuppy
Banned
Not to mention that the game looked good back then, and still does. I think it definitely has a much cleaner and visually pleasing look than Halo 4 and 5.
The amount of stats they used to offer is amazing. It's absolutely insane that I can find the exact spots I died....in a match that happened nearly 10 years ago.
These days you have a hard time finding just population numbers.
Your not wrong. But the industry has changed so much since Halo 3. I'm looking at the games released in 2007, and some amazing games released, but no great multiplayer ones besides Halo and COD.
Notable multiplayer games in that year: enemy territories: quake wars (what a disappointment), Advanced Warfighter 2, and Orange Box. 2008 didn't really offer that much better. Gears 2 suffered online problems for months, Bad Company 1 was a mediocre BF title, etc.
Now a days we have Rainbow 6 Siege, Garden Warfare, Gears 4, GTA Online, and more on top of the ones I've already listed.
And all these games are updated regularly with free online content.
There's so many quality, polished games to play now a days, with party systems and a smooth online interface. 2007 didn't have that. In a way, it's amazing. I reminisce about 2006-2010 too sometimes, about how gaming was better back then. But now more than ever, we have so many choices (Especially as console owners).
And I agree with you on Halo 3 controls. Great game except for 1.) Jaggies 2.) Movement. Especially after playing MW, the whole movement scheme felt really off.
Deputy Moonman
Member
Ain't that the truth. Halo 3 was packed with all the cool features like theater and forge, but there was nothing about the gameplay nor the multiplayer maps that set the world on fire. Horrible BR spread and wonky melee system. I would have traded all the features for a more solid matchmaking experience.
Rocket splash damage was lowered in Halo 3 (along with the lock on being removed). As for EMP on the plasma pistol it can be argued it was a bit to much, but I would argue it was somewhat needed.
dibella360
Banned
Still the best halo game
I never really noticed the gunplay was so bad until the MCC. It's pretty shocking playing something like Halo 2 with hit-scan and then switching to Halo 3, it feels pretty damn terrible. A couple of weeks in I would always vote for Halo 2 and 4 over 3.
Counter-strike had map editor, recordings of the game, vibrant professional gaming scene and even added spectator mode which I think wasn't in Halo 3? You could play any map eitherway so there was no need for additional playlists. There were many servers up with CPL rulesets for example. And then some servers with more wacky settings like adjusted gravity for casual fun. Anyone could host their own server and set the settings accordingly. And for filesharing, you were playing on PC so in-game sharing wasn't really needed. No stat tracking unfortunately, or atleast I don't remember.
Maybe my first reply to this thread felt too confrontational, not my intention. Halo has done much good for professional competitive gaming especially on console side, I think Halo 2 was first competitive game seen on television even? But there were esports stars like Fatal1ty even back on 2002 who appeared on TV to talk about this "new" booming thing where people get paid to play games =) Since the OP was wondering if word Esports was thrown around already in 2007. One of the earliest uses of ”electronic Sports" or ”eSports" dates back to 1999 press release of the Online Gamers Association's launch. Where esports were already compared to traditional sports.
And about community engagement, I think offering mod tools and especially in the case of Counter-Strike hiring a modder for a full time job is nice example of that. Still what Bungie did is really awesome, not arguing against that nor do I want to dismiss it. Halo 3 was packed with nice features that still aren't industry standard.
They offered very open platform and tools. They didn't sponsor or orgazine their own events atleast much I think back then. But your claim that game developer who's game is played yearly in tournaments with prize pools of several hundred-thousands of dollars isn't aware of this happening is ridicilous. Just like now it was mostly hardware and peripheral manufactures like Intel and Razer that sponsored these events. Even in 2001 there was 150k dollar prize pool in CPL Counter-Strike tournament. I really don't know how you could pretend that Valve wasn't aware of this. And it wasn't only Counter-Strike, games like Quake were popular esports games too. So I don't know what else you wanted them to do, esports scene was already there, especially around their game.
no. there was not.
Only for fire teams, not for your whole PVP team.
As already said neither BUngie nor 343 were able to recreate the range of features of Halo 3 in a game in the same quality
Yeah... seems like nostalgia has made people forget that Halo 3 had major flaws. Going back to it today, the BR spread is just as ridiculous and frustrating as it was in 2007, and the netcode is freaking horrendous. The game had an enormous amount of bells and whistles with Forge, Theater, file sharing, customization options up the wazoo, etc. but the actual core gamplay (the guns + melee + grenades + movement) was a major step backwards from Halo 2.
It does have the best art design in the series though. Halo 4 and 5 have a ton of visual noise in comparison.
Map design also went backwards. Blackout was a terrible fucking map.
But yep, art design was amazing. ODST gets a special shoutout. God level soundtrack, great level design, missions, firefight, and the multiplayer maps it launched with were made well.
People didn't forget. We just wish we weren't starting over in terms of features that SHOULD be standard at this point.
Iva Demilcol
Member
There are so many games that would benefit a lot of having a theater mode and file share and those modes are not even standard yet...
My entire point (and probably Bungie's too) was that the random spread in Halo 3 was a precaution, so that the BR wouldn't dominate at all distances.The whole Halo 3 BR spread topic is overblown in my eyes and the fact that people were not even willing to lead their shots and were constantly blaming it on spread is yet an other example.
And I just can't agree that a utility weapon should be suitable at any range. If that was the case, we would still play BR starts in H5, but we are in fact playing Magnum starts for a reason. Weapons with too much effective range are destroying maps, as currently seen with H5 BTB BR starts. You will also see this being the case, once they are adding the H3 Forge Playlist to Halo 5, just like it could have been seen in the Halo CE playlist.
All I know is that I want projectile based weapons back and that's where I will end the topic at.
I respect your opinion, but I also have my own opinion on this topic and nothing will change it.
Such a fantastic site to this date. Simple and clean.
ALLseeingEYE
Member
I love Halo 3, and still love playing it on Halo: MCC. To be honest though, I think Halo 3's greatest achievement, was just that it was an incredibly fun game to play. From start to finish, all the enemies (even the buggers were fun to fight, the Brutes were so fun to fight), the levels, and damn the weapons were good, varied, and plentiful. Best weapon set until Halo 5. The multiplayer was so damn good and fun. It was the game where almost all of those elements and features I always wanted in a Halo game came into play, and worked out.
All of the stuff you list are fun extras, great asides. They definitely added to the game, and made it an amazing package overall. Perhaps the only thing lacking was a custom game server browser. I guess it's disappointing that the only real innovations in the game were extras like that, but it didn't matter in the end. I'm very happy with the direction Halo 5 went, 343 is finally innovating on the gameplay and game mode aspect, and succeeding. Now if only 343 can avoid cutting giant chunks of the story this time, it would surely make things more coherent.
All of the stuff you list are fun extras, great asides. They definitely added to the game, and made it an amazing package overall. Perhaps the only thing lacking was a custom game server browser. I guess it's disappointing that the only real innovations in the game were extras like that, but it didn't matter in the end. I'm very happy with the direction Halo 5 went, 343 is finally innovating on the gameplay and game mode aspect, and succeeding. Now if only 343 can avoid cutting giant chunks of the story this time, it would surely make things more coherent.
MaverickHunterX
Member
Late but wonderfully said, OP
That is why 3 is the best one of all of them...
That is why 3 is the best one of all of them...
VanCityGamer
Member
Funny you should say that...exactly how I feel about Halo 2 as I'm playing through it right now in the MCC.
With the bolded, You are butchering my argument. The H5 BR in BTB is the antithesis of what I'm saying, because instead of a weapon that requires skill to use at range (H5 magnum), we get you a weapon that is too easy to use at range.
there is a difference between "effective at range" and being "suitable at range."
To your point, The H5 magnum is obviously not a long range weapon. It's effectively a close-mid ranged weapon. But if you are skilled, you can outplay a DMR user at long range. There is no randomness incorporated into the magnum to limit its range, they simply turn the assists off outside of RRR, and let skill take over. I'm H3, With two evenly skilled BR users the winner of a ranged 1v1 was whoever was luckiest.
The H3BRs effective range was already limited by the
- lack of aim assist outside of RRR
- lack of magnetism outside of RRR
- the existence of spread
- the need to lead your target.
Those things already keep the BR from dominating at range. Adding random spread on top of that just turned what should have been a reward for being skilled enough to overcome the weapons limitations, into a matter of pure luck.
Dusktildawn48
Member
Looking at my old stats, fuck I was good at that game. Easily my favorite game ever made, miss those times so much.
I'll never forget when 4 player online co-op was announced. It ended up being unbearably laggy, but I couldn't know that then!
I think my hype for Halo 2 beat my hype for Halo 3, but only by a smidge. Both games are legends in my mind, Halo 2 for PvP and Halo 3 for campaign + features.
I think my hype for Halo 2 beat my hype for Halo 3, but only by a smidge. Both games are legends in my mind, Halo 2 for PvP and Halo 3 for campaign + features.