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[lachesis]

I took off fri and monday off - as I've been working excessively long hours, and I've yearned to take a relaxing break - with my younger brothers wedding earlier in June, I bought a new place in July, fixed up the place and moved in Aug, and all hell broke loose at my workplace due to election/conventions - I felt like my entire summer was robbed and long gone. So, it was sort of a payback day for myself, and I was feeling really burnt out for all the stuff I was doing.

Anyhow, I've meant to finish Halo much much earlier - when I first bought the game and Xbox a month after its initial release - and it's been a couple of years. Well, it's been a couple of years since I've ever finished a game at all to be honest. However, eversince I got a new 60 inch HDTV, my gaming interest sparked up more than usual, and last weekend was just the right timing - I began playing Halo from where I left off and saw the ending by last night.

Now I feel like I understand what people are saying regarding this game being a great FPS, and all. It's my 3rd FPS to finish to the end - along side Doom and Golden Eye - and it was a real satisfying experience right to the end. Music, setting and all sorts of vehicles kept the game more interesting. Great shooting control schematics, and interesting storyline, plot-change and all (Flood, especially was quite scary - because they remind me of RE's red-heads - When I first saw them, I felt like not playing any further - but later with the aid of shotgun, I ended up prefering Flood rather than Elites).

Being a relatively FPS newbie, my clearing was done on Normal Difficulty setting. These days, I cower before anything remotely challenging on videogames (weak-sauce), but Normal setting's difficulty was just right amount of challenging w/o getting so frustrating.

There were a few frustrating things that I thought I would mention though - that some of the vehicle handling was a bit annoying - especially Warthog. (I didn't have much trouble with Ghosts and Banshees, nor tanks - but only with Warthog), and lack of audio option which selectabely turns voice up and sound effects down. Due to that, I feel like I missed out a lot of story by not being able to listen to the dialogs, as well as it was pretty hard for me to understand what that freaking Monitor was talking about with all that machine-like voice. Since English is not exactly my native language, it would have been nice to have variable audio and perhaps some subtitle function. Plus, a bit more weapon variety would have been nice too, but I guess that leads to the one of the most anticipated games of all time - Halo 2.

Now I can rest easy until Halo2 comes out - as I can get the game with no guilt of not finishing up the first one.

lachesis

 

[seismologist]

Do you think it's worth finishing?

I only made it to the snow level then I lost interest.
I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and it takes like an hour to move like 30 ft.
The AI is annoying to the point where it's not fun.

 

[Ghost]

i wouldnt play through Halo on legendary first time through, you need to know whats coming to even have a chance, Heroic or normal is where its at first time through.

 

[ced]

Do you think it's worth finishing?

I only made it to the snow level then I lost interest.
I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and it takes like an hour to move like 30 ft.
The AI is annoying to the point where it's not fun.

If it takes an hour to move 30 ft and is annoying to the point of no fun...WHY are you playing in legendary? Just start the level over in normal...

 

[seismologist]

maybe I'll try Heroic. I tried Normal and after playing on Legendary, Normal feels like you dont even have to stop. You just run and plow right through everyone without ever running out of ammo.

 

[ced]

maybe I'll try Heroic. I tried Normal and after playing on Legendary, Normal feels like you dont even have to stop. You just run and plow right through everyone without ever running out of ammo.

Heroic is great, but mind you it can get frustrating at parts.

I think one problem people have is using human weapons in heroic or legendary. Pick up a plasma pistol, or I hear the neddler is good, though I dont care for it.

 

[Cathcart]

The Warthog/Puma is my favorite vehicle in a game ever. I LOVE driving that thing. Occasionally at our LAN parties we'll play Snipers on Sidewinder and I usually end up driving the Warthog and dodging sniper fire while trying to take out anyone who's at ground level. Not that I ever win those games, but it's way more fun that way

 

[Mr. Lemming]

The Warthog/Puma is my favorite vehicle in a game ever. I LOVE driving that thing. Occasionally at our LAN parties we'll play Snipers on Sidewinder and I usually end up driving the Warthog and dodging sniper fire while trying to take out anyone who's at ground level. Not that I ever win those games, but it's way more fun that way

Yes!

It's even actually useful in 2v2 games when you have a sniper who can pick off the jerk jumping around trying to dodge you. Jeepomopo!

 

[IgeL]

and lack of audio option which selectabely turns voice up and sound effects down. Due to that, I feel like I missed out a lot of story by not being able to listen to the dialogs.

Indeed. I hope Bungie has fixed this for Halo 2 (i.e. provide an option to adjust sound effects, music, and voice separately). Does anyone know if this has been confirmed in the weekly updates? I can't remember any mention...

 

[keeblerdrow]

If you like the Warthog and don't play with more than 5 or 6 people, try this. I call it Rocket Rally

Basic Rally game (everyone races to one point, first one there gets a point, then it changes for everyone, you all race to that one)
Play to 25 points for great duels.
Free for all.

Rockets only
Infinite Grenades
Shields on
400% health
Warthogs only
Nav points and motion trackers on

Play it in Bloodgulch.


This gametype is great because it takes the emphasis completely off killing with weapons. In this type, it'll take 3 rockets to the face to kill someone, so shooting them isn't really an option. What it does, instead, is turn the focus to the Warthogs. The warthogs are life, they are how you score. Everyone has their own and sometimes the flags force you to abandon your warthog. When you do or when you die, it becomes your task to take someone's warthog from them. Since you can't outright kill them and you have infinite grenades and a few rockets, tipping or flipping them out of theirs is a good idea. Not killing them is also a good idea, cause dieing means they get reloaded on rockets. The only effective way to kill people in this type is to run them over but when you try that, they get a 'nade attempt on you and your precious. All the while, you need to be speeding around the gulch nabbing these flags.


It's way fun and highly recommended to those who play with people that are way suckier than them. The de-emphasis on killing means you annoy them less with their constant dying.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

. Everyone has their own and sometimes the flags force you to abandon your warthog.

You can hit every checkpoint on Blood Gulch without leaving your vehicle.

Rocket Race is very fun though. We usually go with teams though so there are "enforcers" you have to avoid and what not.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Indeed. I hope Bungie has fixed this for Halo 2 (i.e. provide an option to adjust sound effects, music, and voice separately). Does anyone know if this has been confirmed in the weekly updates? I can't remember any mention...

Not quite what you are looking for but here is a snippet from the February 6th update:

Mat Noguchi is up to something pretty special too. He just perfected a neat technique/tool/trick that allows the player to hear all the important game dialog in a completely natural way. No longer will you sprint by an event and miss a vital clue from an NPC (Non-Player-Character). We can't tell you exactly how it works, suffice it to say that when it happens, it'll make perfect sense.