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This topic has moved here: Subject: Why Halo beats Halo 3
  • Subject: Why Halo beats Halo 3
Subject: Why Halo beats Halo 3

I like it because it somewhat limits your options in multiplayer. you have options of attack, it just means that you can take damage from falling, and freeze, giving the enemy an advantage. The health packs force you to think, and allow you to fight longer after your shields are gone.

  • 03.03.2008 8:10 AM PDT

Posted by: An average gamer
Well, I started playing Halo 1 today (after I've beaten Halo 2 & 3), and so far I don't really like it. I am managing to overlook the terrible graphics, but I hate trying to find health packs, I hate the atrocious aim of my allies, I hate their terrible IQ, and I absolutely despise not being able to jump from high places and survive.

This is after the first two levels of the game, and I will play the others, but I simply can't say I agree that this game is better than any of the others. So far I still believe that Halo 3 takes the top crown.

Well, it's hard to get into a 6 year-old game after the event. In 6 year's time halo 3 will seem pretty awful too.

  • 03.03.2008 8:49 AM PDT
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I dont think you can really say one halo game is better than another,
i think you have to take them all as a trilogy and take into consideration that they
all offer different gameplay and features.

  • 03.03.2008 10:08 AM PDT
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Posted by: RhythmKiller
Well, it's hard to get into a 6 year-old game after the event. In 6 year's time halo 3 will seem pretty awful too.
Agreed, and in my opinion Halo 3 seems mediocre the way it is now compared to Halo back in 2001. And what's wrong with health packs?

New FPS cliché that's been frequent throughout shooters the past few years I could do without: Regenerating health. It's not a bad design per se and nixing health in favor of pacing is fine, but it's really been overused and there are more games with some form of regenerating health or another than I can count with my fingers, using them for better or worse, most of the time for worse or for mediocrity.

It has always at least made sense in a game like the Halo series, where the context behind your super human prowess is the fact that you're a genetically-enhanced soldier with super high-tech armor with energy shields and, I don't know, some kind of built-in medical device to heal you when your shields are down or something, I could at least use my imagination.

But Gears of War? Yeah, you're like a steroid-popping linebacker roadie-running and chainsawing Locust, but how does your health regenerate (don't get me started on how you can simply pick up your team mates from the ground after they suffer fatal wounds and magically heal them)?

It's absurd, but even more absurd is Call of Duty 2 through Call of Duty 4, which have a health regenerating system as well. It's so absurd that people say the games are realistic (whether or not they're confusing authenticity with realism because they think they're fighting with real weapons in believable fictionized/non-fictionized settings or that the game play and physics are realistic). I'm not even going to begin the list of things that aren't realistic, except the glaring disappointment that I felt when I realized it would be another shooter with a health regeneration system. To be fair, realistically, there's no such thing as visible health bars and the healing effects of medical devices are nowhere near as immediate as depicted in most shooters, but I'll save my rants on realism in games for a different discussion.

Originally, games like the Halo series were about nixing health packs for pacing, as I mentioned before, but now it just seems to be an excuse for lazy game design, seriously. I mean, it sucks when you have low health and you have a bunch of enemies to confront, but sometimes games are made even harder with the use of health regeneration, and for worse instead of better. (It appears to be lazy game design to me when I am in a level I can't get past because health regeneration gives the designers an excuse to put me in a spot where there are thousands of -blam!-s/terrorists who can kill me in an instant that takes tedious, repetitive labor to get past.)

Wow, I got carried away. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, there's nothing wrong with progress, but there's nothing wrong with some tradition either, knamean?

  • 03.03.2008 1:07 PM PDT
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I think that one thing I liked more about Halo CE over Halo 3 was its story. if you've only played the first couple of missions, you're not going to get very much of it, and if you've already played Halo 2 or 3, that will have spoiled some plot elements as well.

  • 03.03.2008 9:22 PM PDT

Kill or be Killed

very well put person 2 spaces above

  • 03.04.2008 6:06 PM PDT
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Got to agree with you on this one.Halo 1 was so much fun to explore and halo 3 was so cramped.

  • 03.05.2008 6:39 PM PDT
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Two Betrayals is my favorite campaign level. I dunno why. I guess it's because it's basically AotCR but at night-time.

And because of "Final Run" at the end had the BIGGEST battle any Halo game has ever featured before.

  • 03.09.2008 8:16 PM PDT
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Posted by: Vitamin Zawaz
Two Betrayals is my favorite campaign level. I dunno why. I guess it's because it's basically AotCR but at night-time.

And because of "Final Run" at the end had the BIGGEST battle any Halo game has ever featured before.
Well, it had the biggest battle that actually involved foot troops at least.... I think either the double scarab battle on the covenant and the tank battle at the end of the ark were both bigger. I must say, though, that is one thing that the Halo games in general seem to lack: a larger scale. After all, how cool would it have been to see the Master Chief and a bunch of marines charging out against a giant wave of covenant troops?

  • 03.10.2008 7:00 PM PDT

Taste my smoking hot Battle Rifle!!!

Join My Group: CustomPartyFridays 2(CPF)

the numbers did not go from 500,00 to 50,000. You must be thinking about Halo 2. The average number of players online each week on Halo 3 is about 400,000. And they couldn'yt have gone to Halo: CE. The only things i think Halo: CE had over Halo3 were the maps, and the sniper rifle.

  • 03.11.2008 3:36 PM PDT

donut...
...get me a sniper rifle

I agree with you 100%, If we had forge and more maps, maybe MM; Halo CE would be the best game EVER.

  • 03.26.2008 12:58 PM PDT

I keep getting banned since the mods are unfunny and suck at their jobs!

I'm going to re-install Halo onto my computer, since the free map pack for Halo 3 was a complete bust.

All I want is to use a pistol with a zoom again, and a health system that you can monitor 100% of the time. So I'm going back to mr. perfect in the series (since it has online play)

However, I have to do without co-op but I have the Xbox version for that.

  • 03.26.2008 3:05 PM PDT

I am a pharmaceutical scientist. I received my Masters degree in Pharmaceutics from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia in 2010, after working as a Pharmacist for 4 years. I currently work in King of Prussia, PA, and focus on the analytical chemistry of small molecule APIs. My clients include some of the most well known big pharma companies in the world.

Hahaha wow, this thread brings back some personal memories. I agree with a lot of what the OP says. The campaign is second to none, I replayed it over and over and over again. It never got old. Any level with snow falling down all around you is pretty sweet imo. Multiplayer on LAN was the greatest. My buddies and I would play Hang em High, Blood Gulch, Boarding Action and the like for hours on end. Had those maps been on Live, it would have definitely intensified the excitement.

I think the biggest thing Halo 1 had going for it was the fact that no one new what it was. I remember buying this game the day it came out only because the night before I saw a demo and almost crapped my pants in awe. So, while everyone was in line waiting for the store to open to pick up their XBC's, I made sure to pick up a copy. I think it's that first time you play a game while realizing that you're playing something special. H3 is great, but we knew what to expect, the surprise of the unknown is what blew people away with CE.

  • 03.26.2008 4:28 PM PDT

I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

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I don't contest you with the music, but I viscously deny your other points. I enjoyed Halo 1 Campaign, but some parts of it (getting lost on 343 Guilty Spark for the first couple of play-throughs). Also, the co-op is two player. Halo 3 is 4-player.
I also note you failed to mention campaign scoring and skulls. How can you overlook this is beyond me.
Halo 1 AI was... Bad. I once got run over by Sgt. Johnson in a ghost SEVEN times in a row. Also, the marines had a ridiculous habit of firing their guns once every seven seconds. Ammo conservation is one thing, but drunkenness is another. On top of that you couldn't switch weapons with marines which encouraged people to kill them and take that sniper rifle.
I like the new weapons. They are there to prevent certain armaments becoming too powerful and also to make different games feature a certain kind of combat.
As for your vehicles... The Warthog is the same old same old, fire support weapon wheels which doubles as a transport vehicle. The prowler, in comparison, is the same but with an extra seat which is good for objective games (believe it or not). The mongoose is an interesting addition, proving that vehicles aren't always the right way (unlike in Halo 1, where the Warthog dominated since the rockets were lamentably slow). How you can think the old ghost was any good is beyond me, and the tank was irritatingly overpowerful.
Also, it's time to adress the health system. In Halo you had health bars. This essentially forced people to scramble for the health packs and promoted a more conservative gameplay, slowing things down. Halo 2 got rid of that, and the pace picked up immediately.
As for Halo 1's maps... Aside from Chill out and Battle Creek I can't think of any good small sized maps.

In conclusion, I'd like to point out the merits of H3. File share. It's the single most revolutionary thing in this game. the customisability is astounding. Want the ghost to move? Move it. Don't like the respawn? Move that! NONE of those things are available in other games (not even Timesplitters. Too clunky and unwieldy to create really good maps).

I can only conclude that your reaction to Halo 1 was better than reaction to Halo 3. Though this still confuses me I'll respect your opinion, but please, Oh God Oh God don't say COD 4 is better. That clunky mimicry of Rainbow Six Lockdown is sorrowful and brought tears to my eyes with its grenade spamming and spawnkilling.

  • 03.27.2008 6:28 AM PDT

Posted by: rac0000n
I enjoyed Halo 1 Campaign, but some parts of it (getting lost on 343 Guilty Spark for the first couple of play-throughs).

Getting lost is a little annoying, but I think that campaign was still better in Halo 1.
Also, the co-op is two player. Halo 3 is 4-player.
If I've got 4 people to play Halo, I'm certainly not going to be play campaign. So, for me, it wouldn't be an issue.
I also note you failed to mention campaign scoring and skulls. How can you overlook this is beyond me.
I don't understand how that would matter to anyone. I kinda wanted the new armor, but other than that, I didn't really care at all.
Halo 1 AI was... Bad.
I couldn't disagree with that.
On top of that you couldn't switch weapons with marines which encouraged people to kill them and take that sniper rifle.
It's a nice feature, but it's not something I notice when played the game originally. It might annoy me now.
I like the new weapons. They are there to prevent certain armaments becoming too powerful and also to make different games feature a certain kind of combat.
I don't like how dual wielding affected gameplay. I like the Battle Rifle, Carbine, and Beam Rifle. That's about it, and I don't think any of them are necessary when the pistol and sniper are available.
As for your vehicles... The Warthog is the same old same old, fire support weapon wheels which doubles as a transport vehicle. The prowler, in comparison, is the same but with an extra seat which is good for objective games (believe it or not).
I'm kinda indifferent toward the prowler. It seems kinda unnecessary to have all of these vehicle/weapon equivalents.
The mongoose is an interesting addition, proving that vehicles aren't always the right way (unlike in Halo 1, where the Warthog dominated since the rockets were lamentably slow).
I do like the mongoose, but I never had a problem with a warthog dominating. They weren't that hard to lead with the rockets, but it was difficult enough for it to be a satisfying kill. Grenades work pretty well at close range. Snipers worked as well.
How you can think the old ghost was any good is beyond me, and the tank was irritatingly overpowerful.
The ghost handled better. It went pretty fast without needing a boost. It was quieter. It didn't take damage. It had quite a powerful splatter ability. The plasma could stun. Which made it pretty easy to take down a tank, if properly executed. Two ghosts could almost always take down a tank. The tank could be taken down with a pistol, sniper, or rocket too. The time between shots fired on the tank was pretty high too.
Also, it's time to adress the health system. In Halo you had health bars. This essentially forced people to scramble for the health packs and promoted a more conservative gameplay, slowing things down. Halo 2 got rid of that, and the pace picked up immediately.
A more conservative play style isn't necessarily a bad thing; it forces people to put a little more thought into it. Fully recharging health gives a player no incentive to move. They can continue camping since the damage they receive is forgiven. It also makes it easier for players to have long streaks. Combine that with an infinite power energy sword, and you have quite a problem.
As for Halo 1's maps... Aside from Chill out and Battle Creek I can't think of any good small sized maps.
I like Wizard as well. While larger, Damnation, Prisoner, and Hang 'em High were designed in a way that allowed games with few people. They're fairly open, and the pistol was effective across them. Prisoner was on MLG's top 5 requested remakes, and Damnation was an honorable mention.
In conclusion, I'd like to point out the merits of H3. File share. It's the single most revolutionary thing in this game. the customisability is astounding. Want the ghost to move? Move it. Don't like the respawn? Move that!
These are nice features, and I do enjoy them, but when it comes down to actual core gameplay, they don't have much effect.

  • 03.27.2008 3:58 PM PDT
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Well said Master Kim. I believe H1 on XBL would be the most popular Halo yet. People are yearning to use the single shot pistol and double-melee and backpack reload. H1 on XBC is just not the same, I just wish Bungie would dedicate a large team and resources to the recoding of H1. I would gladly pay upwards of $100 for this remake. I DO believe there is money in an H1 remake on XBL I just wish Bungie would understand that...

Sadly plays H3 online wishing it was H1 :(

  • 03.27.2008 7:47 PM PDT
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I agree. The campaign in Halo ce is way more enjoyable than the campaign in H2 and H3. Additionally, the Halo ce multiplayer actually took skill unlike H2 and even less in H3.

  • 03.27.2008 11:53 PM PDT

i cant tell u how many awesome gliches are in assault on the control room only... the h1 campain is way better then h3s. as for marine intelligence, h1 marines dont stay in the warthog when no ones gunning or driving while a wraiths shooting at them.ive gotten lost in 343 gs so many times i cant remember, but i do remember all the awesome crap i found. i walked and walked and walked until my friend and i couldnt tell where the 123 we were, but we found some cool 1234. h2-fine. h3-again? jesus. h1-hell yeah. wanna fall partly through the ground so we have "grunt vision"? (u can do that. its fun. :D) and the last lvls awesome.

[Edited on 03.28.2008 10:10 PM PDT]

  • 03.28.2008 10:04 PM PDT
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I hope you guys realise that comparing features in 2 games that are 7 years apart with a sequal in the middle is like me comparing my sock to an apple. Of course the later games are going to have more features, I would be pissed if halo 3 had less features than Halo: CE.

What can be discussed are the core gameplay elements between the 2 games. Range of weapons, maps, health system, etc. But saying "well halo 3 has the theater" is just plain wrong. When Halo: CE was realeased, xbox live wasn't even available, and you expect there to be features like forge, theater, 4 player co-op (2 player co-op was a great feature in Halo: CE), and much more.

So pretty much what I'm saying is to compare the core gameplay elements rather than features, because you're never going to convince someone that one game is better because it has more features especially since the other game is 7 years older.


I read a post that someone made saying that Halo: CE played more conservatively and halo 2 was played at a faster pace. I completely disagree. Halo: CE was played at a much MUCH faster pace than halo 2 or halo 3. The fact that the movespeed is faster, you can see a much wider range, the fact that all the weapons kill faster, plus all the maps were excellently designed so you were never too far from the action. If anything, the health system in halo 1 made gameplay much faster. If you got shot three times with the pistol (pretend the third shot was in the foot) so you're shield is down but not much health has been lost. You aren't going to try and hide, and sneak around trying to find a health pack. You're more inclined to fight because you see that you have a whole other bar of health that you can go through before you die.

In halo 2 and halo 3, you get your shields down, and then you have no clue if the next bullet will kill you. This forces people to hide, or stay in cover once their shields go down, even though it could be another 2 or 3 BR bursts to kill them. Plus, how many times did you see someone get shot, hide around the corner, pop back out, then hide again just so that their shields stay charged. The only time I saw that kind of play in Halo: CE was when I'm trying to throw the enemy's aim off by being unpredictable. It had nothing to do with how much health I have. I urge you to watch a 4v4 on both Halo: CE and then halo 2 or halo 3 and see which game is faster paced.

  • 03.29.2008 1:31 AM PDT

I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

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I hope you guys realise that comparing features in 2 games that are 7 years apart with a sequal in the middle is like me comparing my sock to an apple.
Of course I do. I find these threads lamentable also.
If you got shot three times with the pistol (pretend the third shot was in the foot) so you're shield is down but not much health has been lost. You aren't going to try and hide, and sneak around trying to find a health pack. You're more inclined to fight because you see that you have a whole other bar of health that you can go through before you die.
If there's two of them, you'll run like hell. In Halo CE me and my mates were always jealously hoarding the medkits so other players wouldn't be able to recover.
This forces people to hide, or stay in cover once their shields go down, even though it could be another 2 or 3 BR bursts to kill them.
My friend, I don't know whether you bothered playing team slayer above level 27, but... If your shield is down and you run out, you will die faster than a snowball in hell.
I urge you to watch a 4v4 on both Halo: CE and then halo 2 or halo 3 and see which game is faster paced.
I've played 4v4s in both games, and I protest that Halo 2 is faster.
The fact that the movespeed is faster
Ah, but you can jump much higher in Halo 2, allowing you to reach previously impossible shortcuts (Middle to Sniper tower, anyone?).


But I can see that it's going to be impossible to persuade people otherwise, so I'll leave the debate. I don't want to aggrivate people because I think Halo 1 has had its day.

  • 03.29.2008 1:19 PM PDT
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Posted by: dtc ppwnage
halo one blows on my balls compared 2 halo 3 . halo 1 sux for multiplayer, halo 1 campaign= amazing halo 3 campaign= ok , halo 1 multiplayer =crap halo 3 multiplayer=sweet , halo 2 multiplayer = AMAZING!


multiplayer crap???

its the best one of them all.. maps = the best.. weapon set = the best.. glitches were crucial but not as game breaking as bxr/rrx...

  • 03.29.2008 3:56 PM PDT

50,000 in Halo 3? In what universe?

  • 03.29.2008 4:40 PM PDT
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@ racoon

First off, of course you will never change my opinion about which game is better, its clearly a matter of preference. Plus I know I can never change your opinion, I just like discussing Halo: CE which is why I visit this thread.

Now on to your post: (I'm not going to quote, it takes to long lol.

Hoarding around medkits? I dunno whenever I play with my friends its always laughable to waste time trying to grab the medkits. If i have low health, and a medkit isn't too far out of the way, then I'll grab it, but I won't go out of my way to get it. Plus, I would rarely run from a 2v1 scenario in Halo: CE, at the level I play it, it takes anywhere from 3 to 5 shots every time to kill someone. If there are 2 people shooting at me, I could be dead extremely quick making running useless. Plus if I stay and fight, I can try to strafe against their aiming, and land a 3-shot on one of them. I have won countless 2v1s against my friends, who are not even that bad, I know my friends have won 2v1s when they were the one. Mindless rambling aside, in general the players who go after the health packs all the time, are generally the players who are worse, because they don't understand that if their shield is down, even with that health pack, one shot to the head with the pistol still kills.

I don't understand what you mean by your second point, I know that if you run at an enemy with no shields you will die extremely fast. Its the fact that you can't see your health bar is what gets people more inclined to take cover even though they have still have a little shield left. Plus in halo 3 with the random BR spread, its not always guaranteed that aiming at the head will net you a headshot kill.

Well, if you think halo 2 is faster then I have no idea how to discuss that issue with you. It takes more than twice as long to kill someone in halo 2 than in Halo: CE. You move much slower in halo 2, and when you jump (i'll get to your point) you float in the air as if you're on the moon. I'm all for jumping higher, but that shouldn't mean that gravity works less lol.

Your point on jumping, like I just finished saying, you float up in the air. And that slows you down a lot. Now, I know that halo 2 had a bunch of shortcuts in terms of jumping, but that doesn't mean that Halo: CE didn't either (jumping on the doorways in priz?). The major difference is that those little jumps in Halo: CE were much tougher to pull off than in halo 2, but that added another dimention and depth to the game. Plus on top of that, you could nade weapons and powerups to yourself in Halo: CE, something that you can't do in halo 2.

Either way, I feel that Halo: CE has much more depth than any of the other games. Its one of those games that even though its 4 years old, I still feel I can be better at it, and still want to be better. There are still tricks that I can't do very well and there are still new things that I've discovered only recently.

On a side note: I do enjoy discussing, and I know that there is no way in hell that I can convince people who come here with a strong "Halo 3 > all" notion to see it otherwise. I just enjoy talking about Halo: CE because I feel that its a deeper game, and that there is more to talk about.

  • 03.29.2008 5:01 PM PDT
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I agree with LlamaKing. Halo CE has much more depth and staying power than H2 and H3. I missed it so much that I played XBC yesterday instead of H3. I got tired of the crap BR and I missed my single shot pistol, double-melee, backpack reload, and reliable weapons that work. Hit me up on XBC my name is Lurker_7 on XBC

  • 03.30.2008 6:39 AM PDT
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they should remake halo 1 with halo 3 graphics

and maybe equipment and stuff

  • 03.30.2008 12:00 PM PDT