@Strangelove: I stated that Halo (not 2, 3) was a paltry FPS compared to its PC peers, and was only popular because it was an adequate console FPS. To argue differently is to have very little knowledge of the PC FPS market. Subsequent Halo versions have been better, but the franchise is hyped far beyond its actual quality.

@Moonshadow101: If you're not a fanboy, why the hell would you be bothered by my disrespect for the Halo franchise? I didn't say Halo wasn't a "good game", just that it was lackluster, especially when compared to the PC FPSs of the time. Also, by your argument I assume you would consider Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to be the greatest album of all time simply because millions of people bought it? Quantity != quantity. Doesn't take divine intervention to understand that.

AtomicPlayboy

For the morons calling it a Starcraft rip off there is a very good reason for it to seem like that. Starcraft was a Halo ripoff!!! Back when Halo was still a rts Bunige split, and part of the team went off to make starcraft, all they did was change some shit around but at its core it was still Halo.

Kickers

*coughZERGcough*

zimzombie

@AtomicPlayboy: "Legions of fanboys"

Yes, Halo is considered a good game because millions of people think it's a good game.

You must be some sort of god-damned scientist. I suppose your favorite game is validated not by people, but by god? I can't imagine any non-divine source of favor that could elevate something in a way that fans don't.

Moonshadow101

If they include The Flood there's no way we can consider this game canon.

Kenny

That's awesome, and they should.

@AtomicPlayboy:

That's such an old, stupid, generic argument to make. You can't have a Halo thread without some moron coming in and saying this every single goddamn time.

I play the very vast majority of my games on PC, FPS is my favorite genre, and Halo is a phenomenal franchise. Crysis and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are the only PC-exclusive FPSs worth playing (that I can think of off the top of my head) in the last 4 years.

Strangelove

@art_zombie: Theme was probably a poor choice of words on my part. What I meant was the 3 races depicted in SC are all based on archetypes common place to the sci-fi genre. While SC may be the most famous of RTS games to bring the 3 together, that by no means equates others that do the same, a copy of SC.

TurinTurambar

Why are they not making a PC port of this? Do they not like money?

Spyke72

I don't think anyone would argue that Starcraft was all that original in its themes and presentation (Warhammer 40k, Robotech, Aliens, etc. were obvious sources), but that's not the point: Starcraft was (and is) a superlative game because of its perfect balance and innovative RTS mechanics. The same cannot be said for Halo, which was not only derivative of common sci-fi themes, but was a completely lackluster FPS to boot, offering nothing near the game play of its PC peers.
Yet another Halo game will excel simply because a.) it has legions of fanboys b.) it has mainstream media visibility, and c.) you can play it on an XBox.

AtomicPlayboy

@ZetaCrossfire:
Wow. Good laugh.
Seriously though, I'm as big of a halo fan as the rest but this fall is to sick for it to even be close. I can't wait to play it but I would bank on Fallout 3 for GOTY. RE5 and Force Unleashed have a good chance as well.

LosCakes

Nah, I bet this comment was basically saying "shut up, the game is complete enough without them."

--just my pessimistic 2 cents

beckerist

oh yeah, (again)

with all of the commander there is actually six playable races in Halowars.

no the flood is not one of them.

the covenant can use engineers to repair and build

it plays like a real halo game

EnragedTemplar

oh yeah, spartans can jack vehicals, use them against the enemy, elephants are like mobile barracks and can spawn infantry in limited numbers.

the flood assimilate your units instead of killing them

the elite commander mentioned in my ubove post is acutally an older arbiter.

EnragedTemplar

@Does Not Equal:
They cant set it after the flood appearance cause that would make everyone say HEY WAHT THE FUCK WHERES MAH MASTER CHIEF HERO?And then they would be obliged to put him in turning the game into a steaming pile of feces :(

vig0r

My friends older brother IS beta testing the game and he laid out the whole story so far, SPOILERS:

You start out as the UNSC ship spirit of fire and are tasked with taking back the farming planet of harvest, this is where things get sktechy, some how u end up following a large Covenant crusier, u jump through its splipspace rupture and follow it. When your ship returns to normal space you are billion of lightyears beyond explored space, and you encounter a shield, a foreruner shield world. It is enteriely flood infested because the coveneant are trying to claim it for themselves, seeing how there is a whole fleet of forerunner ships on the surface. Inside is enourmous, and is powered by an internal sun. Defeat the covenant and flood, and you end the game by detonating the sun and destroying the whole structure.

Flood do make an appearence in multiplayer, they are like animals in most RTS games, small packs litter the maps. but so do sentinals.
For the Covenant and UNSC, there is three options per side, for the unsc there is a infantry commander, heavy weapons and armor guy, and a air commander each with there own bonuses. The covenant have a elite commander who can turn all of his elites invisible for 1 min, (they become visible 2 sec after they attack. A brute commander who gives his brutes "enrage" abilites, and melee bonuses. and finally a prophet with general all around bonuses and a glassing ability (think DoW orbital strike)

EnragedTemplar

@Maldron:

:( trying to make a negative word like regardless negativer as in irregardless makes me a sad panda :(

vig0r

@Swift_:
Yeah, and Starcraft invented all that stuff... Everything you mentioned has been a staple of science fiction for decades and was in use long before video games or home computers ever existed. Nearly every game that's ever been made has borrowed from something that came before it.

notoriousEIC

halo wars is not really a starcraft rip off cause all the sides come from the fps... you can't really change that concept in the rts so what can you really do about it, if they are similar starcraft races?

G_the_fresh

@CockroachMan: Damnit! That was the first thing that came to mind... Unless a 4th is added or something very different about how the game is played in comparison to other RTSs I'm gonna call shanninigans and claim Starcraft with Spartans.

@TurinTurambar: No, no, not the themes. The armies of A) humans, B) elegant/sci-fi/advanced alien race and C) mindless Alien-esque hivemind. It didn't have to be Starcraft copy, but Starcraft came first and this draws just too many distinctions.

art_zombie

The flood wouild be really cool. You start off with only Pure forms as there's very few creatures to infect but you can reappropriate units you destroy for your own armies.

Plus it would be super sweet to have a squadron of creepers transform into the hulk things as an anti-vehicle measure then revert to the spiker things to take out infantry.

Burguois doesn't have a sign saying "Dead Ninja Storage" outside his house

@Maldron: You make a good point, but you used "irregardless." -50 points

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having a playable race that you can only command to rush forward and swarm.

wanion

Halo = lulz

3 races far to similar to SC = lulz

Console RTS = epic lulz

Halo Wars = I'll lol my way to SC2 arrival date.

Project Thanatos

Couldn't be a little bit over powered? After all, the flood is essentially... you know... Zombies. You kill the enemy, they become yours to control; one of yours die, it just gets back up to fight. But it would be cool to control 100's of little spore creatures.

Quicksilver4648

SC for consoles only good = instabuy from me

sc00t420

@Dirk Dorkelson: No kidding. I was on the planet where you have to defend the troops against Rachni attacks at most 2 or 3 planets after I finished Noveria. It was very much a "Hmph, so much for that decision" moment.

Numerous

If Halo Wars should be ignored because it is a copy of various themes found in Starcraft, shouldn't most games in the industry be ignored since they copy themes from fantasy and sci-fi stories of our youth? That argument doesn't hold all the much water.

TurinTurambar

@kommanderk: I can't see how it would work during the main campaign, but as an option in multiplayer or in a non-canonized campaign mode, it can only add to the game's value - if balance is achieved, that is.

And yes, it would have affectively become StarCraft at that point. But didn't we know this since Halo: Combat Evolved?

Anarchist_Gamer

@Swift_:

Blizzard completely ripped off the entire mechanics behind Dune and C&C for Warcraft. Whats your point here?

CCCombobreaker

@Swift_: Starcraft is a massive ripoff of Warhammer 40K. That doesn't mean it's bad, because everything rips off everything else, it's the way the world works.

Placentasaurus

Yeah. Come to think of it, once the flood are in the picture it does resemble Starcraft incredibly - you've got your Terrans, Zerg, Protoss...

But that doesn't mean it will be any less fun.

Does the chicken taste better than the egg?

It doesn't matter which came first. It's the incubation, treatment and subjection that counts.

sir_carrot

@Nik in NOLA: Having played all three games, and having played Halo 1 before Half life (pfft shame on me yadda yadda), I loved 343 Guilty Spark. I was pretty young at the time and had not played a lot of FPS'.
I just loved the whole sudden plot-twist.

I'd have to agree with you on H2 & H3 however. Man the flood parts in them were boring. But H1>H2>H3 imo.

okrangerbob

I see no reason for them not to have the flood, especially if they decide to make an expansion.

Pezdispenser

Looking forward to it. Ill be picking it up day 1, but I hope they release a PC version in the future. Large scale battles just aren't possible with RTS games on the 360 and Ps3.

CCCombobreaker

I don't really know anything about Halo lore, but couldn't this be a race that BECOMES the Flood in the future? Just a thought.

chuffhoncho

Oh wow.. Why is it I always cringe whenever I hear anything about Halo..

cipherinthesnow

My Halo Wars is being made by Blizzard and better include heroes.

Punkateer

@CockroachMan: No, you don't get it dude. This is the first, and the best RTS ever!

Kinda like Halo is the first, the best and the only FPS ever!

What can this game do that starcraft (or starcraft 2) can't do?

Oh, right play on xbox.

Baka_Survivor

Am I the only person who liked the Halo games but didn't really like the Flood all that much? I thought that of the three potential factions this game, the only really interesting one is the Covenant, with their multiple species, fanatical religion, etc. The Flood are too mindless and all-destroying, where as the humans in the Halo universe are creepily authoritarian and militaristic, sort of in a Starship Troopers kind of way.

Having the Flood in a game set 20 years before Halo will feel sort of like it did when I ran into Rachni in Mass Effect that were on a planet other than Noveria. It was sort of like, "Oh, I guess that world-altering choice I made wasn't such a big deal."

Dirk Dorkelson

Ugh I hope not. The Flood was the absolute worst part of the Halo series. Any stage where you're using Marines vs the Covanent is great and borders on amazing. Any stage with the Flood turned into checkpoint races in the best case scenario. They got in the way of a perfectly good space war and trashed the series. Halo's strongest points were larger battles against opposing forces, not one person alone in a corridor against some cheap Half-Life knockoffs.

Nik in NOLA

If Halo had started as an RTS, it would have been the most blatant Starcraft ripoff on the planet. Future-teched humans, purple aliens with energy swords, and a parasitic swarming race...
I hope that the community will forgive me if I call Halo the most unoriginal franchise on the planet. How it isn't vulnerable to plagiarism litigation is beyond me.

Swift_

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: "I'm not a big Halo fan, but I would like to check this game out, and Ensemble's usually very good at delivering on their promises. "

Took the words right out of my mouth. I couldn't agree more. Hearing mainly postive comments and thoughts on this game has warranted some adjustments on my "scale of giving a crap"

::grabs chart and moves taped arrow sign::

From...
"meh" anticipation
up to...
"::raised eyebrow with a smirk:: anticipation".

That's saying alot being as that I've never really gotten into RTS's or beat Halo3 on Heroic yet...(just on Normal)

caleb

Oh come off it! Just take a step back for one second and enjoy the fact that the flood kick ass and would be awesome to play as. Being a fan-boy is great an all, (I know I'm guilty of it too) but just enjoy the game now, squabble about plot holes etc, later. Or, preferably never if you could. Whichever is easier.

s1L3nt_n18t

Personally I don't think the Flood lends itself very well to a RTS sure they could be used as a enemy you need to keep but the Flood making buildings and building Units just doesn't seem to fit. It would work great in that you would run into them during the campaign missions but it doesn't really make sense to have them playable.

Reibooi

I think that's taking a leap from what was said. I think it's much more likely that the Flood will show up in the campaign about half-way through, but you don't get to play as them.

That's my guess... What would you do for buildings and vehicles and so on?

thefais

@Maldron: So set it after the Flood's appearance and the plot hole is fixed. Making the game internally anachronistic on purpose shows poor planning.

Does Not Equal

@Maldron: Too true!

Gameplay should never be sacrificed for story. I think Yahtzee from ZP said that in the CoD4 review.

okrangerbob

@TRT-X:

Haha sorry. Story is major important to me too, but I really don't look for story in Real Time Strategies, though maybe I should be? I dunno.

Yes story is important but it sucks when a story is so greatly executed but the gameplay isn't.

okrangerbob

@kommanderk: I duno. I could see them doing something where the Flood attack out of nowhere, causing so much damage and loss of life that no one gets to report it. Then they wait, and bide their time until the events of Halo 1.

Or maybe we get to see them wipe out the fore-runners. There's a lot of ways to include the Flood.

Aerokii

I'm still pretty skeptical about a console RTS game being able to compete with a PC one. I'd be a whole lot more excited about this if it was also slated for a PC release if only on Ensemble's previous track record.

magnakaiser

@TRT-X: *smacks you back*

Gameplay and story are not connected elements, as much as we might like them to be. If an element makes the game fun to play, it makes it fun to play, irregardless of whether or not it fits into the story.

Maldron

I just assumed it would. The races already parallel Starcraft pretty well. Yes I see your "in before" :-p

catapult37

@okrangerbob: Who cares whether it fits in the story...

*smack*

BAD GAMER!

TRT-X

I'd like to see the Flood in the game. I'm not a big Halo fan, but I would like to check this game out, and Ensemble's usually very good at delivering on their promises. So here's hoping.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

@kommanderk:

Who cares whether it fits in the story, I think it would be an awesome addition to the gameplay. If you get to play as the Flood, its sealed the deal for me.

okrangerbob

@kommanderk: Well, you see, the Flood manage to open a Plothole in space-time and land on Earth 100 million years before the Halo Wars start.

It's sorta like the whole AvP thing, where somehow Aliens have been on Earth all along.

TRT-X

@Rurik: Who knows, I mean it looks like starcraft with those wraiths in the background and the zealots in the foreground of the picture.

Nirotu

so you play as lowly human marines, an advanced Utopian alien race, and a swarm minded race. How is this not a Starcraft 2 article?

Rurik

I'm still a little skeptical about Halo Wars. I like RTSs and everything but a Halo one might be a little too... generic?

Nirotu

i dont see how it could be flood, this takes place 20 years before the games, and they didnt know what the flood was yet.

kommanderk

That would a really cool gameplay shift. I would consider buying it if the Flood played completely different than the other races shown so far.

Lazlo

inb4 Starcraft rip-off

CockroachMan

... GOTY if it does

ZetaCrossfire

@AtomicPlayboy: Except that Thriller was a genuinely good album, Halo was a genuinely good game and you obviously have no damn taste at all.

Burguois doesn't have a sign saying "Dead Ninja Storage" outside his house

Doesn't that totally defy the rest of the Halo universe fiction? Wasn't the reveal of the Flood in the original Halo game the first instance of human/flood interaction?

I'm not deep into the halo fic so I can't say this is true for certain, but if they're trying to incorporate the Flood into the game without addressing this possible error in continuity... it makes me worry.

stranger

@okrangerbob: "H1>H2>H3 imo." I Definetly have to agree with that. I have High hopes for this although i likely won't be able to play it much. I hope this becomes the next command and conquer of it's day.

Barf#1

It'll be the zerg of Halo Wars if this happens. Flood Rush anyone?

Rutty

@AtomicPlayboy:
I'm fine if someone wants to say that Halo just isn't their cup of tea, but to discount the impact Halo had on the FPS genre (particularly on consoles) is being a bit ignorant. Before Halo, FPSs weren't particularly popular on consoles and no one had really figured out how to make them work. Halo simplified everything by limiting you to two weapons (which made swapping quick and easy) and put grenades on a dedicated button. That, along with regenerating health, is practically standard for every FPS made these days and a lot of 3rd person action games as well. There's a reason the series is as popular as it is... It plays well and millions of people enjoy it.

notoriousEIC

@Placentasaurus: 40k has a ton of wildly divergent races, not exact clones of the only three races in Starcraft as seen here.
@CCCombobreaker: I didn't say anything about mechanics, so I don't think I can help you find my point.

I'm just trying to say it's the blatancy that's most surprising. Everyone's played Starcraft. Even if the public didn't out them for the idea, why would anyone want to create something so similar? Don't get me wrong, Halo changed the landscape of gaming forever and I'm truly thankful for it.

Swift_

@Rutty: Well the flood can only really reproduce with the assistance of a host so there's very little chance of there being flood rushes as, at max, there would only be a few flood pure forms, which are the only forms the flood can take without there being a host to latch on to.

Burguois doesn't have a sign saying "Dead Ninja Storage" outside his house

No one wants to play as the Flood. They are purely cannon fodder - they exist in Halo for you to shoot at in large quantities.

kiigan

I don't think the majority of console RTS would even have heard of Starcraft so to them it will be plenty original. I've heard of starcraft but never played it, back them it was all about Total Annihilation for me.

The bottom line is that this is a Halo game with characthers, sights and sounds the halo fans will recognise - Hardly any of them will make the starcraft link.

As far as the story goes I also don't know how the Flood could be in it...they call came from Halo 1 right? Maybe there was another installation on Harvest which got opened? I'm sure as Bungie is over looking the story it will all make sence.

checkmybadself

@notoriousEIC: Not sure what you're getting at here, because you're simply reiterating the exact point I was making: that Halo is significant simply because it paved new ground for console FPS games.

AtomicPlayboy

Three playable races would make this a console version of Starcraft, and that can only be a good thing.

XbhaskarX

@kommanderk:

The only way it wouldn't be a plothole is if basically the Flood win in the game. It would explain why most of the Spartans are gone (I know that the books explain it but maybe that is the UNSC's story because they dont' really know).

Paradyme

@Rurik: Didn't starcraft rip of the warhammer table top?

Weepee