And they surprise-launched it on a Monday no less, those cruel bastards.
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And they surprise-launched it on a Monday no less, those cruel bastards.
Well, there went civilization as we know it. It was fun, kids. See you on the other side.
I’m guessing it’s a popular feature? Never played Halo my whole life.
The success of Halo, and Halo’s multiplayer, is essentially what made “online multiplayer shooter” the massive force it is today in gaming. It literally defined not only a genre and a control method, but massively shaped the following two decades of gaming.
It’s one of those cornerstone games, like Super Mario Bros, Dragon Quest, or TES Oblivion, which is both so massively popular and so radically different than what everyone else was doing that the industry itself literally pivots and changes to make more games just like it
Yeah Halo was popular but it by far wasn’t what made “online multiplayer shoot” the massive force it is today. Half-Life Deathmatch (1998) which lead to Counter-Strike (1999) had a much more far reaching affect for online shooters before Halo came out in 2001.
And then you could mention games like Quake multiplayer or even Golden Eye 007…
And while I was never into it, you can’t deny the effect that the Call of Duty series had on the FPS genre.
I’m talking specifically about twin-stick point-and-shoot console gaming, and the online multiplayer culture that came after it. Yes, Counter-Strike was huge in the PC community, as was Doom, as was Wolfenstein. They were also designed for keyboard-and-mouse, which made it, by definition, niche, and inaccessible to console gamers. In the fifth generation, everyone was experimenting with how to handle first person shooters, and the left stick usually handled movement and aiming. Halo was the first massively popular game that separated a stick for movement and a stick for aiming, and it was so effective that it became the standard for… Read more »
Don’t forget other mechanics that Halo popularised to make the perfect storm for being THE console shooter template: Regenerating shields (to make the imprecise combat with a gamepad less punishing/frustrating) A 2 weapon carry limit (to make weapon swaps require only 1 button on an input device with very limited buttons without having to navigate a menu which would slow down combat), but the ability to swap weapons out from the environment in order to keep variety. (which can cleverly add an extra layer of tactical decision making) And aim assist (a requirement for shooters to work with a gamepad).… Read more »
Halo took the twin sticks and somehow made it work where all others had failed. You fumbled at first, but then it slowly started to make sense. The game itself helped, with the regenerating shields and slower pace compared to its insane PC contemporaries, to compensate for the reduced movement and look speed. I hated it the first time I played it, just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t my Xbox, mind you. I did end up getting my own, and gave it another try, and felt it click. Ironically, my ex was hopeless at Halo until she changed the left… Read more »
I played all of those when they came out, and while most were fun, Halo was the only one among them that was worth staying up until 4am playing with your friends, instead of just dicking around.
I can’t delete my comment, so just treat this as invisible.
No love for Goldeneye?
Goldeneye was not only great, but console-defining, and one could make that argument that it was industry-defining. Goldeneye was a great title that made the FPS story-focused and goal-oriented, where the player had objectives and had to figure out how to accomplish them in methods that weren’t simply “find the key/switch, unlock the door, kill the bad guys and defeat the boss.” It was this mission-style gameplay, along with the four-person couch multiplayer matches, that made Goldeneye stand out above other FPS of the time, like DOOM and Quake. You could argue that as a pivot, but other games at… Read more »
Only on the consoles.
I say “the industry” as a whole. PC gaming *as a whole* is huge, it’s just one piece of the “gaming industry” pie – and not every person paying into that “PC Gaming” category has a computer capable of handling the newest shooter. A decent gaming PC could cost 1.5-3K in 1999 money. That’s like $3000-5000 today. Halo made PC-quality FPS portable to console, and OG Xboxes launched at $300. If you can’t wrap your mind around how making an entire genre of games accessible for a tenth of a cost is an industry breakthrough, then you don’t really understand… Read more »
Halo was X-box exclusive. It didn’t have the reach to become such a defining game.
Was not a fan, I thought the gameplay was to slow, this was way back on the original X-Box. Our pilots brought an Xbox to King S… airbase in Jordan where we playing tag against the Jordanian airforce. They were playing and I got in and was noobing it up. They had to go fly, left me there for a few hours, then I was killing them left, right and center. Have not touched the game since.
Very much so, yes. Halo’s multiplayer has basically been the primary driving force of Microsoft’s presence as a multiplayer platform ever since the first one came out back in 2001 with the original Xbox’s release.
Is that “Halo Infinite – Multiplayer” or “Halo – Infinite Multiplayer”?
Yes.
Oh well, there goes my work week *plays game all week*
This would be more meaningful if more than a dozen people had the new xbox!
More than a dozen people own a PC with Steam…
It’s not on *only* the new Series X/S. Playing it just fine on my One X.
some people vastly overestimate the popularity of this game
Heh. Heh-heh. Ha. Hah! Bwahahaha!!!
I think 270,000 concurrent players on Steam beg to differ… XD
And that’s not even counting those playing it on PC but not on Steam and those on console as well.
” I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out NOOB and were suddenly eliminated by an aimbot. I fear something terrible has happened.”
and then every other multiplayer FPS suddenly became empty and desolate wastelands
And Black Friday next week.
The economy is going to be shattered
ohh yeah. i need far less reason to take a sick day. whats that? an old mmo i play has a new current event? well im in. hey boss cant come into work today, not feelin so well.
It’s just another online game where you shoot at each other. No originality. Need something new, and different. Not the same old we seen that. We done that.
Seen the Simpsons episode: Lisa VS Malibu Stacy?
Lisa Simpson: it’s just the same stupid doll!
Waylon Smithers: …but she’s got a new hat!
If it sells it sells and if it sells it means a lot of people aren’t “done with that” 😉
I was being sarcastic, I wanted to see if anyone would take the bait. I prefer single player games. The more the merrier for those who enjoy multiplayer. Good distraction from all the crap going on though.
Huh, I must have lucked out that no one in my team called in sick. Note to self add questions of favourite games to recruitment and give a negative mark to FPS fans, maybe also to MMOs.
… I need to check if choice of games counts as equivalent to political or religious views, don’t want to get sued for discrimination.
“The holy trinity of Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo… for all their differences, stand united against the devil that is the PC.” Praise be to thee.
-The book of NOOB, 1:3
“In the name of Gaben, I smite thee!!”
– Of the crusades of the PC Master race… spoken to the Epic Playstore.
Could just as easily said “Minecraft 1.18.”
is that game THAT popular? I dont know a single person playing it :/
Not much of a suprise… it’s been in Game Pass’ “coming soon”, with a date, for a few months now.
Not a problem. All Halo players are underaged angsty teens so they don’t have jobs anyway.
So Phil Spencer is a super villain then? lol
As someone who has worked every flipping day of this mess…… it really irks me at how people who ‘chose’ not to work purely for the $$ they were given from unemployment, now gripe when they cant get their favorite item due to shortages… :T
Brilliant.
heres where having no interest in the halo series comes in handy
I’ve been (and am) a PC gamer for the most of my life, with rare exceptions of X360 and XBone (both had Halo, naturally)…
Thought I’ll give this game a pass, because… well.. one more Halo (and I have CoD and BF and maybe Apex… and Elite Dangerous and MSFS and no free time at all)..
Somehow tried Halo Infinite Multiplayer today… Just a couple of bto bootcamp matches…
It seems that I’ll will not be able to avoid buying this one.
Should be realistic about the limits of my force of will…
Thank goodness I have zero interest in Halo and even less interest in ANY multiplayer shooter. ^_^;;