Arwenel wrote:I suspect there are some Halo fans here -- is it playable on the PC, or just xbox, and how many games are there? I'm vaguely familiar with it, and a machinima series i've been watching has gotten me a little more interested in it.
I'm not a particularly big fan of Halo, but I've only played the first two, so I cannot speak to the quality of the later games. The series has a really interesting plot but the Covenant (the alien consortium at war with Earth) were kind of cartoonish in many ways, especially the goofy little aliens that look like lizard-Ewok crossbreeds (and sound like them too). I remember the game was pretty and the weapon selection was decent, but the level designer needed to made to play his/her creation 48 hours straight so that they could understand why needlessly endless mazes went out with Wolfenstein 3D in 92'.
Now my younger brother enjoys some of the later Halo games, but it's just not my cup of tea. Half Life 2 does the same job so very much better, although it is not really a perfect comparison.
Arwenel wrote:A couple weeks ago i was playing Dragon's Age: Origins pretty regularly, though i've lapsed a bit on it lately. It's a decent game, i suppose, but i couldn't help comparing it to others, and it didn't hold up too well. Of all the elite groups that you end up a part of in so many RPGs, the Grey Wardens are without doubt the worst: all drawback, no benefit. And i have some serious issues with the ending.
I played DA (whatever the original game was) for about 10 hours and to me it felt a bit like a Mass Effect mod with no frills. It was alright but I just couldn't get myself into it, and while playing it I kept thinking that I would really rather play Mass Effect.
If it works for ya', then go for it...seemed like a perfectly workable fantasy game to me, just not to my taste.
Rosie wrote:Ditto on Half-Life 2! My brother downloaded that recently and I've been enjoying watching him play it. It's a very creative game, and quite fun—if a bit intense at times.
See? Rosie gives her endorsement! You know it must be good!
Seriously though, you get 3 really great games in one package and nowadays you can probably walk out of the store with it for practically nothing just by batting your eyelashes at the guy behind the cash register. Well, perhaps that'll work for you. When I try they call the police.
EDIT: I'm nerdish with regards to video game sequels, so I will point out if you want to play Half Life 1 it's a wonderful, wonderful game although it's very dated by today's standards. A group of independent programmers got together about 10 years ago and decided to remake the whole game with the tech included in Half Life 2 and it felt like it would never get done. But they eventually finished Black Mesa Source last year and it was mind-blowingly awesome. I cannot recommend enough you're giving it a try if you're able to give it a whirl, although it's PC only and when last I played it was still a tad bit buggy.
Link is here. It's a totally free download, but be
very careful where you try to download from because some of the links are quite misleading. I suspect you'll find it was well worth it once you get it downloaded though!