Halo series

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Maybe Microsoft is trying to pull what they did with Windows Vista with how they tried to get more people to buy it by porting Halo 2  (3 years after its initial release) exclusive to that OS. Of course, Windows 8 has been out for a while, now, and Halo 3 is pretty old already (almost 6 years) by video game standards. It'd make more sense for them to port Halo 4 to the PC instead, or hell, even Halo: Reach (that's a game that's actually worth getting).

[Foggle]

I assume the fact that they waited until now to make this port might mean that it could contain both ODST and Reach as well as 3, but who knows.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I assume the fact that they waited until now to make this port might mean that it could contain both ODST and Reach as well as 3, but who knows.

That'd actually be the most sensible thing to do. Actually, it'd be pretty damn cool if Microsoft made a Halo PC collection of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (or the original PC release, I'm not picky), Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach, and made it available on Steam....but, that's actually a good idea, and its Microsoft....so, basically it'll never happen.

[Foggle]

That'd be awesome! I'd definitely buy a PC port of Anniversary or Reach. There's no way Halo 4 will be coming out on PC for at least another 3 years though... gotta' keep that exclusive at least until the 360 dies.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Eh, Its just as well. Halo 4 pretty much convinced me that I can finally drop the series and I won't be missing much. Its not bad, its just that 343i went way too far out of their way to try and make a Bungie Halo game, and as good of a job as they did at it, the game still feels like an imitation Bungie game, and thus its not as fun as actual Bungie-made Halo games. This was a hugely missed opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction. After all, Bungie had done its thing, and clearly they left the frachise because they knew that more of the same would get pretty tiring, so they had pretty much made the perfect Halo game with Reach, and aside from the original, I doubt that any other Halo game they could have made could possibly top that. The best thing for the franchise was to do something different, but we instead got more of the same, but only it felt like less....if that makes any sense.

At any rate, I would definitely buy the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved, if it ever got released on Steam. But once again, thanks to Microsoft, nothing cool like that would ever happen (I could still order the physical game from online, though). I'd also get Halo: Reach on the PC despite already owning the game, if it were ever released on the PC AND if I actually had a PC that could even run it if it were.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I've really had no desire to play it after Reach.

My friend that's a huge Halo fan already traded 4 in, too. He said he's pretty much finished with the series now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, you aren't missing much. Honestly, I actually think that I even prefer Halo 3 over 4 as well. The game just didn't click with me, and felt like a huge step back from Reach, in terms of its campaign mode (I still haven't touched its multiplayer, yet).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I decided to once again list my rankings of all of the Halo games (except for Halo Wars, which I've never played), but based ONLY on their campaign modes, as in this case I want to keep it simple and leave their multiplayer our of the picture.

1. Halo: Reach

I think it's great. It has the best enemy AI of the series, really big, open levels with tons of room for strategy while avoiding repetitive environments, and it has replay value at least as high as Combat Evolved. I also feel that unlike every other Halo game, which each have at least one absolutely horrid level, there isn't a single bad level in Reach.

2. Halo: Combat Evolved

This is still my personal favorite Halo game if we include the multiplayer, but it dropped down to my second favorite in terms of the campaign mode. If it weren't for "The Library," it would probably manage to tie with Reach, but I will say that it does have 3 of the best Halo levels ever made, which include "The Silent Cartographer," "Assault On The Control Room," and "Two Betrayals."

3. Halo 3: ODST

Despite its faults, I actually really enjoyed this one. The hub world really wasn't needed, but the main levels are all fun, and to me they distill all of the good elements of Halo 3 into one really short but really fun and consistently good package.

4. Halo 3

This one is a mixed bag. On the one hand, levels like "Crow's Nest" and "The Storm" are really good, and "The Ark" as well as "The Covenant" are two of the best Halo levels ever. On the other hand, "Cortana" is the second worst halo level next to "The Library" (with its only saving grace being that it's much shorter than "The Library"). And between that, we have really average levels like "Sierra 117" and "Tsavo Highway," so overall I find this to be a pretty inconsistent package, but still with more positive than negative elements.

5. Halo 4

This game is mostly consistent, for sure, but it's consistently average and underwhelming. I will say that the only 2 stand-out levels are "Reclaimer" and "Composer," and at that they are only good (or above average), rather than anything truly great. Also, "Dawn" is a glorified tutorial level, and "Midnight" is a pretty shitty final level, all things considered. The rest of the game is completely average, IMO. It plays it too safe for its own good, I suppose.

6. Halo 2

By far my least favorite Halo campaign mode. It's clear to me that Bungie was way too fixated on the multiplayer for this game, because they totally skimped on the main campaign's quality in this one. I'll say this much: Everything from the beginning of the game up until Metropolis is actually pretty good. After that, Master Chief has just one good level, and the rest of the game is complete shit. All of The Arbiter's levels suck, IMO, and the remaining 2 Master Chief levels are almost just as bad. Overall, this game just went really downhill after you leave the levels that take place on Earth. I have no idea why and how so many Halo fans consider this to be the best Halo game. I can understand liking its multiplayer the best, as that's clearly the game's only saving grace, but I think a lot of Halo fans convinced themselves that the campaign mode was also the best just to justify ranking this as their favorite Halo game. I at least like how Mythic Tyrant, a veteran Halo campaign mode player, is not fooled by this logic, and rightfully called the game out by saying that it's campaign mode sucks, and that in that regard, it's the weak-link in the series.

[Grave]

01. Halo Reach
02. Halo 3
03. Halo: Combat Evolved
04. Halo 2
05. Halo: ODST

I've yet to play Halo 4 so I can't speak about it. Halo 2, honestly, I want to rank it lower than ODST because I don't remember it at all, but I do remember having fun playing the game. I can't stand ODST, and this is probably my own fault because I didn't do any research whatsoever. I went into ODST thinking it's another game you can just plow through, and because it's a FPS I was not expecting to have to basically sneak around. That's not what I want to do in a Halo game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

went into ODST thinking it's another game you can just plow through, and because it's a FPS I was not expecting to have to basically sneak around. That's not what I want to do in a Halo game.

Huh? Since when did you have to sneak around in ODST? I played the game twice and NEVER had to do that, so I'm honestly baffled as to what you're talking about. I know for certain that it's not a stealth game. Honestly, it plays almost exactly like every other Halo game, with the only exception being that you would be wiser to shoot from a point of close cover more often than not, being that you can't take as much damage as a Spartan (unless you're playing on Normal or below, in which the game is pretty forgiving, regardless).

[Grave]

I seem to recall a level where the only weapon you have is a pistol I think, but they throw Big blues (their names escapes me right now) pretty much right near the start. Not much bullets either. I gave up on the game near the beginning so, yeah. I also seem to recall flying enemies with shields, so when I say sneak around, it certainly won't be wise to start a firefight in that situation either.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I seem to recall a level where the only weapon you have is a pistol I think, but they throw Big blues (their names escapes me right now) pretty much right near the start. Not much bullets either.

You do know that you can pick up more ammo and, even better yet, other weapons in Halo games (including this one), right?

I gave up on the game near the beginning so, yeah. I also seem to recall flying enemies with shields, so when I say sneak around, it certainly won't be wise to start a firefight in that situation either.

I'm trying to think of what you're talking about, but nothing's coming to mind. The only flying enemies I can think of are Drones and Engineers. As for Drones, you don't encounter them until much later into the game, and they certainly don't carry any shields. Engineers both have a shield and can shield other enemies, but you don't even fight them in ODST, so it can't possibly be them (besides, even if they were there, they actually can't even attack you themselves).

[Grave]

No kidding? Joking aside that was the problem. I couldn't find any ammo or guns for that matter, and what little guns that I did get was like firing pebbles at them blue things that I can't remember the name of. It's been years ago so "shrugs".

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

No kidding? Joking aside that was the problem. I couldn't find any ammo or guns for that matter, and what little guns that I did get was like firing pebbles at them blue things that I can't remember the name of. It's been years ago so "shrugs".

Well, I haven't played the game in a while, myself, so maybe I'm forgetting something, but I really don't recall anything like that happening to me. Perhaps one of these days I'll get to replaying the game and try to find out exactly what part of the game you're referring to.

Anyways, the last list I did was for my rankings of the Halo campaign modes, in general. Later on, I plan to do a list of my top 10 favorite Halo campaign mode levels.

[Daikun]

Composer fired from Bungie. No reason given.