@ScubaSteveDE: Dont feed the troll

smuckers is good

What is this? This isn't what Halo would have been conceived as if it were to suffer the fate of becoming a MMO. It would be a MMOFPS, not an RPG.

And it sure as shit wouldn't look like WoW. I call shenanigans. SHENANIGANS, I SAY!

xAnarChisTx

It doesn't exactly look very compelling, visually I mean. And a mana bar? Laaaame. I would LOOOOOVE a REAL Halo MMO.

SavidDaunders

Man this would be awesome.

KStrike155

I'd try it. Hell it might even be fun.

Kankel

i'd play it, but only if it was an FPSMMORPG

D3lphiki

This looks insanely fake.

Yet I am completely in love with those Spartan laser-swords. Zzzzhhhm!

James

dude if it were April and this were EGM..... Id call this one the joke.

ShaggyB

I would dearly love a halo MMOFPS or at least something interesting, but this just looks generic and crap. Glad it never saw release.

Pyro-Dude

This would have been a bad idea. Halo + MMO =.... why even try a math problem like that?

hagridore

Is it just me or do those screens look like World of Warcraft with a Master Chief avatar?

OtherAdam

I'm glad they cancelled it but I do wish the industry would drop this fascination with MMOs. I can understand that maybe they see it as a potential cash cow, if they can hit WoW levels of business, but I can't understand why most consumers are so keen on MMO-erising (sorry, made up word) franchises. Surely, we've realised by now that the current MMO game mechanic is flawed.

Luckyjim

thank god this was cancelled

vuhal

@dsectric, Melee Is Best: In his defense I think he meant "Halo isn't a good game, it's just that a lot of 12 year olds love it [which is why it's so popular]", not "Halo isn't a good game, only 12 year olds love it."

Stupid comment either way though.

Đipic

Hahaha space planet

Sunjammer

It looks horrible lol

Taheen

Seeing as there aren't any many scifi MMOs I'd try this and hope it had more content the SW:G

Final

I flatly refuse to believe this, only the fact it's coming from gamasutra lends any credence to it.

Zsinj

Looks like it'd be a mod for WoW to me.

cametall

I look at these and immediately little lights go off in my head that just scream "fake." Where, exactly, did this images come from?

Also, I'd totally play this fake MMO.

theuglyteradon

@AdeptVoice:

Fair point admittedly, but this is a Microsoft owned IP that I'm fairly sure would turn a profit. I can't see them turning their back on an opportunity like this.

Dragonzigg

@Archaenon: It looks to me like they just mashed together graphics from WoW and Guild Wars and said "Yeah, that's good enough"...

Granted, it is concept art.

Perrsun

This has FAKE written all over it.

MASOCHIST187

@ScubaSteveDE:
These are the type of comments that should result in banning. Such ignorance.

Melee Is Best

This is a hoax. How do I know? Captain Planet is in the second picture.

DavidinMN

(triple-checks the calendar just to make sure it's not somehow April 1st)

I just can not bring myself to believe this.

Sandvich

@Sandldan: ag_unitfames I believe, I don't know the style, ABF or something like that.

This would have been an absolutely horrible idea. I don't think there is anyway to really make Halo an MMO. What would they have done for classes and armor? Everyone would just want the Spartan armor, or Elite armor. And there's only so many ways that can be dressed up.

This may be completely incoherent, I just got off work, yes I am a Vampire.

ausmara

@ScubaSteveDE: "Just 12 year olds" is a bold claim... Ever heard of this elusive word called "opinion"? Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it's a mediocre/childish game

dsectric

Wouldn't they rather make it like Planetside and not a fantasy RPG? Planetside I guess just didn't seem profitable enough.

RYAMATSU

Holy Fuck! Where did this come from. Microsoft actually canned a Halo game? I thought they only made them?

Quicksilver4648

@ScubaSteveDE: I love Halo and I'm 27...

Halo MMO is just not really a good idea, attaching the IP to an MMO would add very little. You'd have to seriously hamfist the license to get it to fit into an MMO's gameplay

NecronomiconUK

I like that the character seems to be on a planet called "space Planet"

Guild_Navigator

It's funny cause a halo mmo would actually work.

Ill admit ive spent countless hours with my bro discussing how the game would be bablanced by characters/classes, i know im sad arnt i? lol

But it could work, whether it would be a good game is another question. lol

tyddraig

There is a swarming of content that comes with the Halo universe beyond just the 3 games and I would really like to see that ultimately utilized by ip holders to expand upon the franchise (as opposed to take advantage of it and milk it like a dying cow). So, a Halo MMO if done right, would be worth playing, but WoW has a pretty strong stranglehold, so would it really be able to compete?

AndrewG009

I keep looking at that tree in the first image and thinking it looks like a watermelon. The textures are a bit cartoony.

Archaenon

@timebombtimmy: are you insane? it's over-hyped and an awful idea.

not aweful, but AWFUL!

shade-black

I don't think the Halo and MMO target markets lined up, basically.

elevenoverzero

@macr0planet: I agree Master Chief is the least interesting video game character.

taftsearlobe33

This is a creative joke, right?

MSUSteve

hah that health bar looks exactly like an addon in WoW does, could it have been perl unit frames?

Sandldan

@macr0planet: if you read the whole article it says:

"Seems the game was in development from 2006 to 2007, before being quietly cancelled without, obviously, ever being announced by Microsoft."

So yeah, it got canned just like the studio that was working on it. MS probably had it in their hands but didn't like it so they decided to drop it

fragilenin

That sounds so... awkward?
What kind of classes would they use?
What kind of loot would the mobs drop?
Finally I can understand why they have closed Ensemble.

Garo

@Dragonzigg:

Don't remember Mythic or Vanguard? Both were originally supposed to be MS MMOs. Mythic was outright canceled, and Vanguard got bought by Sony after it was released.

AdeptVoice

not a bad idea if you think about it. before halo was an fps it had the makings of a rts and even 3rd person shooter. an epic war in an mmo form. could be playable if it retained real time combat, and not wait for my gun to shoot ala SW:Galaxies.

timebombtimmy

*looks at second picture down*

Halo as a Wow clone with swords and magicky characters?

This is bullshit :D

hoster

ugh really? halo isnt that good of game... just 12 year olds love it for some reason...

ScubaSteveDE

No doubt this will end up in Microsofts hands. Interesting though, a Halo MMO. It has the stories and characters to back it up.

Halo doesn't sound so bad when they exclude Master Chief from it. It's just the whole 'master chief' thing that gets on my nerves.

macr0planet

Oh man that seems cool, was it intended for 360 or PC?

Kenny

probably because it was a horrible idea. halo being a mediocre FPS at best, would not work in a world flooded with mediocre MMO's.

uppitycracker

It looks kinda cute...for a lack of better words. I would have played it. ( The giant orange knives/swords? sold me instantly )

Archaenon

Damn, I would of been anxious to see this. Oh well.

Vitalz

wtf :S thats crazy

Rambonz

What's the betting this was rebooted and is development in another internal studio? I can't see Microsoft giving up if they were willing to commit once.

Dragonzigg

I am a huge Bungie/Halo fan and I think that is one of the worst ideas I have ever seen for a game.

How much can they milk the Halo cow before it becomes sour?

I would say they are getting close.

JustJake

Glad it was canned. It was a bad idea, one in which could fail. Halo is a action genre. MMO lend more to the RPG crowd. Action-RPG's only work in single-c0-0p atmospheres. As an MMO.. it would be death.

~19

Black_Ops_19

MMOs are loot driven. I cant see a wide variety of loot in a Halo game. And how would advancing levels work? You work through the Spartan program and become a spartan? Then you have a bunch of super humans running around and things become extremely unbalanced. Halo is not meant to be a game where you evolve over time during your play. You are pitted against seemingly insurmountable odds and have an awesome firefight to determine the winner. No leveling nessecary.

faralcane

@cyruspowers: rofl. I just noticed the name of the zone on the minimap.

cyruspowers

Halo MMO, that shit looks like garbage. No, really.

Dexyn

This looks eerily like a graphic replace for a certain other big-name MMO. The UI is almost identical, and the models/visual style in general is just...idk. Maybe these are just mock ups using WoWs engine or something? I'm just saying I see a troll shaman in there.

cyruspowers

I have a feeling Microsoft did not want this info leaked, even though it was canceled. Perhaps this was a big middle finger thrown at Microsoft from Ensemble. Now Microsoft gets to deal with the letters, E-mails and angry posts from the fat little war hogs who wont get their little space MMO.

JASONSPAZ

That's just... uhh... it's special, I think.

I don't know if it's real or not, and it'd be interesting to see how well it would turn out. We could use something that's not elves and dwarfs smacking around goblins. Sci-Fi MMORPG would be fun if it was completed right.

Xeneizes

why was it canceled? That's easy. "It's a Halo MMO" repeat that to yourself a few times, then think about the kind of people that play halo, then think about the kind of people that play MMOs. Then combine them. That's right, Obese, depressed, sexist, racist, MMO players. The end of life as we know it.

Swizzler121

@NecronomiconUK: Would Reggie's meatfists be sufficient?

And don't talk about hamfists. I'm getting hungry, and you're not helping. :P

xAnarChisTx

geez, wow mod much?

i cant imagine a game which lists the location of an area as "space planet" is even a build placeholder name.

underground_slacker

That second picture has WoW written all over it. The way the guy is standing, the layout of the enviroment, the cartoony animation, and the way that chick is doing her spell. Oh well.. Halo MMO wouldn't be a half bad idea as long as it was done right. I could see it working if they did it like Huxley was/is suppose to be.

dgchatterbox

I have a total fear of MMOs and yet I'd totally wanna try this out. I'd rather it be an FPS MMO though. I wonder how many XP you get for blowing up a hunter with a scorpion tank.

Salen

I have to say, I really would LOVE a Halo MMO, although only if it was like Guild Wars so there's only a one time fee. I don't have the money to be forking out £9 a month or whatever it is. I could get a phone line for pounds £11 a month!

NBoy

Did anybody check Gamesutra to make sure they weren't sourcing CheapAssGamer on this one?

TRT-X

Anyone startng an MMO now a days takes a HUGE gamble, nothing is going to stop WoW for some time to come. And if Warhammer MMO is not perfect on release like Conan was all F'ed up, it too will go down in flames.

Powie

That LOOKS fucking horrible. Who knows if it would have been any good. I think the MMO idea is not fulfilling its potential at all. I think MMO and I want something like what Resistance 2 is trying to do where there is basically a war. How about some huge, huge levels where there are 200 covenant guarding a base and 200 marines trying to storm it? Maybe the technology isn't ready but who wants to play wow with the halo universe?

phatcorns

... What am I looking at in screen 2? This is just wow with halo armor... is that a blue human looking female covenant behind him? Oh god...

Demonbird

@belo:

i was thinking pretty much the same thing, and since tabula rasa has bombed pretty bad, they may have decided to cancel it.

demonknightinuyasha

@Fuzzy Logic: Not at a bad idea.

Dexyn

@Swizzler121: Or a brilliant way to keep those people out of the gene pool.

Fuzzy Logic

This does look really fake..
It looks incredibly like WoW.

RagingAvatar

Ensemble closure now understood.

Lombax

@underground_slacker: I was just wondering if they have a 'space planet', do they have 'planet planet' or 'planet space'?

Even I could come up with a more imaginative placeholder than that.

hikaizer

@ScubaSteveDE: agreed. Halo is a good shooter that for some reason has been canonized among gamers as the example of gaming perfection. Frankly, I booted up Perfect Dark the other day on my N64... and it is so much better than Halo. Bots, disarming, secondary features on all guns, customizable characters... that game is perfection. Stupid Halo.

pashaveliki

Tabula Rasa with a Halo theme?

belo

To bad, i would have played it.

Cork2

@ Second image:

Oh, yer fucked, now! I gots mah BUTTAH KNIVES!

AntiheroKing

@Swizzler121: Oh gawd, that's just HORRIBLE to think about. Can't you just feel the rage of hearing every other jackass you meet spamming "BOOM HEADSHOT" and calling people sword-whores like it made the sun rise and set each day?

*shudder* I'm gonna go take a shower now.

AntiheroKing

No more Age of Empires? *Cries*

Rybo5000

@TRT-X:

[www.cheapassgamer.com]

Hope that'll open your eyes.

Veridis_Quo

@D3lphiki: I don't know why they wouldn't try and make it remain a FPS in the first place. Lots of gamers have already marveled at the idea of a massively multiplayer FPS, so why not try that instead?

What's that one that was announced recently? Massive Action Game? If THAT can be done, then by god it can be done with warthogs, ghosts, and spartans. THAT I would buy.

AntiheroKing

I believe Halo as an MMO could be a good game. Just not this one. It does not look good at all.

I would say Halo as an MMO would need to be a FPSMMO and take a look at Huxley.

Also I would say have all the Human player on one side. So all the people would get to be Marines. No Covenet why this way you all could help shape the future of the Halo world.

Different servers could be different planets. So every thing is fresh.

There would also be some squad moves so this MMO would have a lot going for it.

So this way it would be more then just killing there could be puzzles, mini games. Just different things like for a puzzle unlocking a blast dorr the Covenet closed you would have to do a little game so you could move on in to take them out.

BlackIceJoe

Wow that looks like WoW.

On a side note these new comment boxes are awesome!! :DD

technical_ta

As it says in the article, they are mockups - so why all the 'FAAAKE!' comments? Learn to read, ffs.

Lemming

I'm not a fan of the Halo franchise at all, but this doesn't look bad at all.

Schoolimangooli's backpack turns into a ham sandwich!

Shame it essentially looks like WoW with sci-fi clothing. If Halo is still getting the MMO treatment somewhere else I hope it turns out a lot more different to what's on show.

VastikRoot

Why was it canned? Because that is a freaking stupid idea, poorly executed.

Slothboy

@BlackIceJoe:
I agree on the Huxley aspect. Just finished reading an in-depth developer interview on it and if it comes out right it could be very unique and awesome.

Smidget

I would LOVE to see a Halo-MMO look more like PLANETSIDE...that would be AWESOME!

Vecha

@technical_ta: Yeah, it does look like WoW. For a Halo MMO to work, I think it would need to better reflect the Halo universe. I would like to see a skill based MMO. Where the best players naturally dominate, and teams of players could fight to control certain areas. It would be neat if players could develop certain proficiencies based on their play style. So that snipers could get better sniping skills (and equipment), assault players could get better armor and close-combat weapons, etc. But overall, I would like the game to be less about loot whoring and mob grinding and more about team strategy and skill on a huge scale. No one has ever made a successful MMO FPS before, but I think the elements I just described would be needed to make it succeed.

DugDawg

@Lemming: Um, because they could be fake mock-ups (as in, not genuine pre-production work from Ensemble).

James

A Halo MMO would be as strange and out of place as a Dynast Warriors game with depth.

SaanZ

Cool let's have Ensemble work on everything except what they SHOULD have been working on (AoE) and then put them through a blender.

Bravo, Microsoft.

Klaymen

@pharcotix:

ah c'mon i've heard worse...you haven't? seriously?

ET comes to mind.

The power glove?

Vecha

The first shot looks fine. The second shot looks stupid as hell. What the hell is that? It's....a Spartan w/o his helmet and 2 swords...? I guess? So lame.

Benjammn

LOL!

Oh my god I laughed pretty hard when I saw this. I'm sure it's a joke, no-one would make such a horrible game.

although;

Generic FPS + WoW = $$$

MikoKeZ

What's with the Negative Nancies?

It actually could have very well worked, granted they executed it properly (which they probably didn't, which is why it got cannned). But there's a lot of reason why it could have been a great game. I think people need to realize that hating a mainstream game is becoming, itself, mainstream. Too much Halo-hate.

Ion_Predator

one of the worst ideas i've ever heard...

pharcotix

@Thanatos:

It could be fun...

Vecha

@Sandvich: Hah, i was just about to write this. Like Sonic being in Smash Bros Melee

Thwick

MMO.. Halo.. Seriously?

Thanatos

That would have been amazing! Damn you, Microsoft! =(

HaydenTenno

@DavidinMN: Well, that explains the lack of pollution.

Derd

They uploaded a flickr set full of images: [www.flickr.com]

noelix

I'd bet anything the studio assembled from Ensemble's ashes is still doing this...

It looks odd. Melee and magic in Halo? Why?

sanctusmortis

i seriously need to check out the beta of this when it comes out. that or just buy the game on principal

soldier148

@Vecha: That would very much have been a game made of Awesome. Planetside was made of Awesome at one point, until it started to show that the game was going nowhere when it comes to new content such as bases and other big stuff.

Tieowbeijas

[www.flickr.com]
More pictures ftw. Still looks weird as hell. :S

Benjammn

@Kenny:
This is the main thing that seems unfeasible with the idea, to me.

I mean - the majority of Halo fans have to be on the 360, right? Have all of the titles even made it to the PC yet? But the 360 already has a paid-for subscription to do online gaming, so a lot of users might feel hard done by if they were asked for a second subscription from the same company just to play one MMO. So maybe if Live was flagging and nobody was buying Gold accounts it might make sense for MS to try and get numbers back up by introducing an MMO on Live, but I don't get the impression that that's the case... and it's got to be a more troublesome and involved venture than just running servers for deathmatch.

And if it were a PC title, would there be enough people willing to play it, when the majority of the Halo fanbase are probably 360 users?

Bichatse

@sanctusmortis: It looks more like guns and telepathic powers.

Ion_Predator

@Thwick: FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEE

there would be more buzz about this and others talking about it.

xxBetaMaxxx

That first picture looks -too- much like WoW for me.. well, WoW with some Addons.

Bar at the top with the icons? FuBar
The unit frame (picture+health)? Looks almost exactly like the default AG Unit Frame layout.. even the textures!
Chat frame ... same as a borderless WoW chat frame.

Either they wrote an engine that works with WoW Addons, or I'm starting to see why it got cancelled.

bejitt

Master Chief and mining for gold dont really go together.

SPitFyRe666

ghey, the whole concept is stupid.

mby a halo mmo fps "would" be kinda cool if it was done right(kinda like Huxley, when is that comming out?) but the screens look ghey and outdated.

SPitFyRe666

Why do MS always cancel the MMO's? First, True Fantasy Live Online, now this.

Facepalm.

GViper

Something this bad merits all manner of 'ROFLCOPTER, LMAONADE, etc". Ah, it's been a funny day.

Enkur

eww it looks like WoW. if they made an MMO id hope it would be an action shooter MMO not same lame 3rd person WOW clone.

sirpilf

The mockup frame uses the PitBull and FuBar addons for WoW. This amuses me greatly.

Danin

@taftsearlobe33: He's kinda supposed to be faceless and emotionless. The point is, he's you when you play him and has whatever emoitons you bring in at the time, with the occasional quip to make yourself feel more BA. So if you find him uninteresting, what does that say about youself? :)

fearing

Honestly, it's probably best that it wasn't made, I can't imagine this being good.

tobybologna

@hoster:

The pictures must be fake. because IT IS Wow, just photoshopped a Masterchief in.

krokounleashed

so basically MS failed

TheNocturnalSun

@ScubaSteveDE: really? I'm 30 and I love it. It's probably tied with Zelda as my favorite series.

fearing

is this a joke? seems rather april foolish. september foolish rather.

kayven

I love Halo, but I am soooo glad they canned this before ever announcing it.

fearing

wow (pun intended). Thank the Gods this was canceled. These screens are NOT what a halo game should look like. Least as a Halo fan that's what I think. Seems like a transparent cash grab.

Puff

@TheNocturnalSun: OH YOU GOT THEM

NPlace

@uppitycracker: Sorry, but Halo is not a mediocre FPS. It just isn't. It gave us the console FPS as we know it, it's sold incredibly well, the last two games have been case studies in supporting your game after launch, and the gameplay is tightened to perfection. I don't think it would make a good MMO, but Halo is a great FPS. Lay off the haterade.

NPlace

@kayven: Yeah I'm wondering the same thing it's like Ha(y)Wow.

Nisori

I'm pretty sure that the reason that this game was canned was because the people in charge came to their senses when they realized that the vast majority of the player population would just deck out their characters in Spartan armor and give them names such as M45t0r CH33F or Mister Beef. That kind of game would get boring fast, not to mention nightmarishly annoying.

Lezard

@NPlace: and that is where we completely disagree. halo did nothing special, except take the concept of a mediocre FPS and put it on a console. thats about all it did well, the translation from PC to console. the story mode was cool the first time you played through it, the multiplayer was decently structured but just not up to par. there was never any FEEL to the game. you know when you play something like COD4, and when you move, the camera moves with it, so its almost like you can feel everything you do? or when you shoot, you can almost feel your gun jumping up from the muzzle rise? halo never got even CLOSE to matching that level of feel to the game. the only reason it sold so well, was because it was something console gamers had never really experienced. just because something sells incredibly well, doesnt mean that its revolutionary by any means, much less anything better than second rate. you make it accessible enough for everyone, you can bet everyone will buy it. by the time 2 and 3 had come along, they already had such a big frat boy following, of course they'll sell like its the greatest thing to ever grace the earth.

but hey, to each his own.

uppitycracker

Well Halo WAS supposed to be an mmo way back in 1999... Its funny that people seem to forget this when they go "lol halo mmo".

Rexter

Do not want. At all.

"Yes, lets take Halo characters and drop them into a clone of Azeroth, that will make us a lot of money!"

Some people have no shame. I hope it died with Ensemble.

Wii-Tard

I would actually try that game out. Halo 3 is a shit game but the Halo universe is pretty cool so an MMO of it (if done right) would be really awesome. I can just imagine the rocket launcher being like a legendary weapon like the legendary weapons in WoW.

Sykoh

Halo is the stupidest franchise of the decade for this very reason.

What is there, like 4 different Halo games in stages of development? An RTS and an MMO are the result of some douche seeing a IP doing nothing and wanting to use its brandname to sell units.

What this douche doesn't realise is that Halo 4 is the ONLY natural progression that the series should take, and not some completely irrelevant game with Halo themes and skins.

marmidukestank

This would have been INCREDIBLE.

LastFace

Sounds like a bad idea that was only getting worse as time passed.

TheGavel

well it would be interesting I think it would been a really disaster but you never know it could be really good...lets just pray that kotor 3 is not going to be bad since its a mmo

DespisedMC

Why does it look like a re-skinned WoW?

F3ngles

@DespisedMC: Well if you think about it KOTOR already has what some would consider to be MMO elements, so im sure Bioware aren't going to have too much problems translating the core game to an MMO.

And cross your fingers, get your rabbits feet, pray to your deity, and simply have faith in Bioware.

SLoth_112

@hikaizer:

rumor has it the expansion would include "planet in space", a risky choice i know.

underground_slacker

Thank you Microsoft for canceling this. May the Halo MMO reside in the Pit of Vaporware and never resurface.

SLoth_112

A Halo MMO would be so BAD. There's nothing, nothing, NOTHING that would make that a good idea.

hoopesk2

@Luckyjim:

Way to give a huge blanket statement and give no backup to your argument. In what way is the game mechanic "flawed"?

Kujen

The reason why this disappoints me?

Halo is the only SF gaming IP with enough of a pre-existing fan base to pull a WoW for a SF game (which, I still consider to be a solid 2/3rds of the secret to WoW's success). Even if I didn't like playing it, it might get people think that, hey, you know SF and MMOs do mix well.

Slatz_Grobnik

@fearing: The problem is, Bungie tried to have it both ways. Empty vessel characters can not really have a personality. No talking, minimal cutscenes, etc. Take a look at Samus, Gordon Freeman, Link, etc. However, it can greatly limit story telling, because the plot can only be advanced by things happening to the player, or things the player does during gameplay. Cutscenes can't have the character run off and do his own thing, because that breaks the illusion. You'll notice that in Zelda, in all the cutscenes Link is in, all he does is watch something happen, yet is unable to do anything about it, or he is knocked around a bit by a boss before he is either captured or a fight starts.

Bungie tried to make MC an empty vessel, and simultaneously gave him a life all his own. All that does is create a bland character.

Tiber

@uppitycracker:

To each his own...

Indeed.

I myself find the "tacked on" nature of the arial dimension in COD to be immersion shattering. Ruins the "feel", know what I mean?

Some say the fact that you jump like a paraplegic adds to the "reaslistic" feel of being weighed down by 100s of pounds of military hardware...I think it just removes the option for interesting arial combat - something Halo does amazingly well, being equalled in this regard only by Unreal.

The fact that you have a jump button, but are only able to jump higher than ankle height when standing in front of an obstacle the designers have deemed "jumpable", to me, is "below par".

But hey, its sold a shit ton right? Oh yeah,
"just because something sells incredibly well doesnt mean that its anything better than second rate"

As for your comment:
"you know when you play something like COD4, and when you move, the camera moves with it, so its almost like you can feel everything you do?"

To my mind this has been a feature of FPS games since Wolfenstein...Your point is?

Wildheart

Halo may not have been revolutionary, but it was definitely evolutionary. First and foremost, Halo invented the health system that's become the standard for first-person shooters. It's system, with shields that quickly regenerate if you can go a few seconds without getting shot, is in most A-list first person shooters these days, including Crysis, Gears of War and even Call of Duty IV.

To call it a "mediocre FPS at best" is ridiculous. Halo 3's singleplayer game is more than solid. While the campaign isn't as good as Crysis, Call of Duty IV or Bioshock, it probably has more replay value then the latter two of those games. The 2-4 player co-op, above-average AI, scoring system and hidden skulls (which let toggle options like enemies having super shields, ridiculous grenade throwing skills, or making it so you can only regenerate health by melee-attacking enemies) make the game easily worth playing more than once.

Halo's multiplayer, on the other hand, is absolutely top-notch. There's a reason the series has had the kind of staying power that it has, and is neck-in-neck in popularity with Call of Duty IV on Xbox Live. The weapons are satisfyingly powerful (The Battle Rifle and Assault Rifle feel pitch perfect, and the Spartan Laser and gravity hammer are ridiculously fun to use. Vehicles are incorporated perfectly into the multiplayer, and are generally fairly well-balanced with infantry, with the possible exception of the banshee.

You criticize Halo for not having the intense, gritty "feel" of Call of Duty IV, which is kind of silly. First off, Call of Duty IV probably nails, for lack of a better phrase, "intense grittiness" better than any other FPS ever. If Halo is a poor game for failing to feel equally "real," then so is every other First Person Shooter ever made. Second, Halo was never really going for that kind of feel; Halo has always had a kind of smoothness and slight bounciness about it that works in it's own way. It may be vastly different from Call of Duty IV, but Halo 3 is an excellent game in it's own right, and CoD4 owes the Halo series a good deal.

Ninj4Joe

That is ridiculous. If they do an MMO at all, then they should definitely steer away from the letters "R", "P", and "G". Instead, they should run full force towards the letters "F", "P", and "S".

Painting over a lame WoW framework with a different I.P. brush gets a big "Nay" vote from me.

Poohead-1

Who would play this? It's like having an MMO for Duke Nukem.

It just doesn't feel right to have an MMO about a strictly FPS game.
I also have mixed feeling about the Halo RTS.

Striker5005

@Tiber: Maybe he's not a COMPLETELY empty vessel character. Not everyone has to do it the way Zelda does it. If you play through the games, he is basically you. They just give him a few lines to make you feel a bit more like a bad ass last of your kind soldier from the future. If you go and read the books, then yes you can get more info on the actual character your playing, but when you play the game that character is you, the emotions come from you, they don't tell you how to think about the enemies your killing or the jobs you have to do. I don't think it's that they try to have it both ways, just they are taking a different approach to it than some others. Valve could be accused of trying to have it both ways just differently with Gordon Freeman, by doing things such as giving him a name. In Zelda, Link's name isn't really Link, it's whatever you name him, that's his name and that's what everyone calls you.

fearing

@fearing: @fearing: Hmm that ended up somewhere it shouldn't have.

fearing

@Tiber: Maybe he's not a COMPLETELY empty vessel character. Not everyone has to do it the way Zelda does it. If you play through the games, he is basically you. They just give him a few lines to make you feel a bit more like a bad ass last of your kind soldier from the future. If you go and read the books, then yes you can get more info on the actual character your playing, but when you play the game that character is you, the emotions come from you, they don't tell you how to think about the enemies your killing or the jobs you have to do. I don't think it's that they try to have it both ways, just they are taking a different approach to it than some others. Valve could be accused of trying to have it both ways just differently with Gordon Freeman, by doing things such as giving him a name. In Zelda, Link's name isn't really Link, it's whatever you name him, that's his name and that's what everyone calls you.

fearing

@Bichatse:

id imagine if it were on 360, you wouldnt need xbox live to play this. im not sure of any other mmorpgs and havent played any others but final fantasy xi, but you have to pay the 13 a month for it, but it doesnt require xbox live.

yourcitylovesyou

@fearing: No, they don't have to do it the way Zelda or others do it. I was simply listing those as examples on how to do it right.

However, if you want your character to be a proxy for the player, it's kind of all-or-nothing proposition.

By giving him a few lines that sound bad ass, they're not making the player seem sound like a bad ass, they're making MC sound like a bad ass. A better way to do that would have his comrades remark about how bad ass he is.

Did YOU feel like a bad ass watching the cutscene where MC takes a bomb into space, and uses it to destroy an enemy ship, or was that all MC?

I'm simply saying that there's no such thing as a partially empty character. The entire concept is that you are the character, and the character is you. Unless you have a second personality that periodically takes control of you for short periods of time, then MC is not like you. The character must be devoid of personality, because it's the player that decides what kind of person the character is.

Bungie tried to mix two different styles together, and to many, including myself, it fell flat. He had too much of a personality to be an empty vessel, but not enough of a personality to be a compelling normal character.

Tiber

I'm a big Halo fan, and what I would want out of any Halo title is vehicles with guns, humans with guns, aliens with guns, and robots with guns. Magic is definitely not something I want.

A whole Flickr set was purportedly released, and among the character designs was a chick using what looked suspiciously like magic.

Keep magic to WoW. Give me awesome guns with Halo.

FuturePants

People seem to forget that Halo was originally going to be an MMO, before Microsoft bought Bungie?

StanwayHeretic

While yes, a Halo MMO would be interesting, totally awesome and badass, other thoughts should be taken into account. Yes Ensemble got raped by Microsoft, however an MMO would most likely conflict with the established Halo universe. Story is the biggest conflict. What makes Master Chief so special if all of these level 100 Spartans are running around that could completely own his face? Plus, only oh so many Spartans were a part of the program. An MMO based in the Halo universe would have to be loosely based on the established trilogy if it is going to have any freedom whatsoever. Besides, we should all remember what happened with the Matrix MMO.

Cr1msonk1ng

that looks horrible, the textures look like they were taken from a winnie the pooh cartoon. halo is fps and should stay like that.

rodrigonetto

Hmmm... I'm also betting that M$ has another probably better dev working on it. I'm not sure the screen shot is representative of a World of Halo, I'd much rather have a Halo MMO that played out like Fallout 3.... hmmm.... now THAT sounds tasty!
Tim T of Kotakuite com

Kotakuite

@uppitycracker:
Agreed, Halo was a terrible FPS on PC. I just couldn't stand it at all. I never understood the appeal of it, poor feel to the game and bad uninspired weapons.
But hey, as long as Microsoft can keep pumping out their money franchise right?
Seriously, Halo 3 is more like a patched Halo 1 with updated graphics and weapon tweaks/balances. Its never actually progressed the franchise or the genre.

Tampeh

Microsoft has one policy when it comes to games. "If you can sell one game, make millions of versions of it with tons of updates so you can effectively own their souls"

Example: Halo, Gears of War, and the ass screwing they're doing with the TF2 Update.
(Which you can get the PC version for just twice the price..... Considering that there's going to have to be 3 Xbox updates you're saving money by giving your money to Valve instead of just giving it to M$ because they made the system. Valve isn't getting any money from that update, its all M$)

Das_ganon

@ScubaSteveDE: I bet $2 that you're a 12 year old.

Postlapsaria

Halo needs to get its single player better..... multiplayer rocks... we all know that....
work on single player halo (get it to call of duty 4 levels)... and it would be insane

JamPearl