What Are You Currently Playing? 5.05: You Are (Not) A Gamer

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

No, PS1 shooters like Medal Of Honor (possibly the sequel) were the first since it was the first controller with two sticks.

Those shooters used the 2nd stick in a completely different way, though. Just like with Goldeneye, you could use the 2nd stick to aim in a up or down rather than just being restricted to left or right, but you couldn't move while you were aiming with the 2nd stick (sort of like a Resident Evil game). Unless of course I'm remembering the original game wrong.

Halo was the first game to base its controls completely around dual analogue-control in the sense that the left stick was strictly for movement and the right stick was strictly for aiming, and you had to use both in tandem. It basically perfected that style of control for FPS games.

[Spark Of Spirit]

But didn't the original Timesplitters come out before Halo?

I'm not saying Halo didn't perfect console shooter controls, I just don't think it was the first that had them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

But didn't the original Timesplitters come out before Halo?

I'm not saying Halo didn't perfect console shooter controls, I just don't think it was the first that had them.

Honestly, I haven't played the original TS, so I don't know what kind of control-scheme it used. I do know that TS2 did it a bit differently than the standard controls, however, by having your aim automatically recenter itself if you weren't constantly holding the right analogue stick in the direction that you were aiming at. It certainly took a bit of getting used to for me.

[Foggle]

The PS2 port of Half-Life came out four days before Halo did, so I think that was actually the first game to have both analog sticks function like a keyboard/mouse do in 3D PC shooters.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I dunno, I recall playing twin stick shooters before Halo and wasn't too shocked when I got into Halo. It was just that Halo perfected them and every game after took closer after it.

[Foggle]

Halo was the first game to have off-hand grenades, at least... wasn't it?

But it was also the first game to have a two-weapon limit.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Halo was the first game to have off-hand grenades, at least... wasn't it?

Yes, this was one of the better improvements it brought.

But it was also the first game to have a two-weapon limit.

And probably the only game where it worked on a tactical level since it typically had ammo for every gun lying around. Games now tend to just give you two weapons and give you ammo for those two guns making it... pretty pointless and limiting.

[Kiddington]

Okay, so... Sticker Star is great. Why, exactly, don't people like this game?

The tepid reviews leave me befuddled.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Okay, so... Sticker Star is great. Why, exactly, don't people like this game?

The tepid reviews leave me befuddled.

It's not the same as PM and TTYD, it's hard, and the story isn't as original.

I don't get the hate myself, actually, I really liked it.

[gunswordfist]

But it was also the first game to have a two-weapon limit.

I want to punch Halo for making Max Payne 3 not have the world's best weapon switching like the first two Paynes had.

[Kiddington]

Okay, so... Sticker Star is great. Why, exactly, don't people like this game?

The tepid reviews leave me befuddled.

It's not the same as PM and TTYD, it's hard, and the story isn't as original.

I don't get the hate myself, actually, I really liked it.

I know, I really like it too. I'm only about a 1/4 of the way in, though, so I guess that could be subject to change... but so far, it's been enjoyable.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The thing about Halo's 2 weapon limit is that it forced you to make strategic decisions as to which weapons you wanted to take with you. The powerful Rocket Launcher would be good for making quick work of vehicles or tough enemies like high-ranking Elites or Hunters (or clusters of Grunts or Jackals), but it had extremely limited ammo and if you were just going to go through a bunch of regular skirmishes for a while, it wasn't worth taking with you. Having a pistol at your side was pretty much mandatory on the higher difficulties if you could find one and keep ammo for it as it was the only mid-ranged precision weapon in the first Halo. Having a plasma pistol was excellent for taking down the shields of Elites, but was only really useful if you had a regular pistol or a sniper rifle by your side so that you could immediately kill those Elites with a head shot. Having a plasma rifle was much preferred for Elites as that weapon absolutely destroyed their shields if you smartly peppered them with shots while strafing in and out of cover, and it also took down their health quite quickly as well. However, those weapons had limited battery power and could not be reloaded with additional ammo (though if you were fighting the Covenant with covenant weapons, chances are you'd find plenty more of those weapons dropped from the enemies that you killed). When it came to the Flood, it was always best to have a shotgun as your side as its the universal anti-Flood weapon, and luckily there was always plenty of shotgun ammo lying around in Flood-heavy levels. Basically, the weapons you needed to use depended on the enemy encounters and various situations you found yourself in. So, the 2-weapon limit forced you to choose wisely on what weapons to bring along with you for the upcoming encounters. Of course, the great thing about Halo 1 was that it left many of the weapons of fallen enemies in place once you killed them, even after you left that room, which meant that if you really needed to you could usually back-track to a an earlier room to get a really useful weapon if you found that you could really benefit from it in a later area of the level in which it wasn't available to you.

Actually, now that I think about it, one problem with Halo 4 that I found which REALLY ticks me off is that some weapons dropped from dead enemies automatically de-spawn as soon as they hit the ground. It seems to happen at random and you can't count on attaining a weapon from an enemy you kill as part of your strategy, which really kills a lot of the tactical potential of the game and makes certain situations potentially a lot harder than they need to be on higher difficulty settings if things don't work out in your favor.

A lot of other games have since implemented that 2-weapon limit just because Halo did it, and Halo was popular. Most other games that do it don't seem to get WHY it works in Halo, and exactly HOW they should handle only allowing players to carry 2 (or some limited amount) of weapons at once. As Desensitized said, Halo games often have ammo for most weapons lying around if you explore the level for them, so no matter which 2 weapons you pick, you can still usually find ammo for it if you need it. There are some exceptions to the rule, but in those cases you'll usually find ammo for weapons that you are better off using in certain areas anyways. If you get really good at any particular Halo game, though, you'll know how to wisely conserve your ammo for weapons where it is rare to find ammo for them and they can only hold a limited amount of ammo in the first place. That can really make your life a lot easier when you tackle the harder difficulties on a solo play-through.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yep, my favorite combo was the pistol and rocket launcher combo.  Sometimes I would drop one momentarily for an assault rifle for close encounters, but I found it interesting deciding what to go with using. But most games use it wrong and just program it so there are only two specific weapons you can use to get through certain levels and kill any variety.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

When I was playing on Legendary I barely had any use for the assault rifle. However that's when I learned just how overpowered the plasma rifle was if you knew how to use it properly. It became my main weapon for taking down Elites in HCE. The pistol was perfect for taking pot-shots to pick off Grunts and Jackals, which by themselves were no serious threat but in groups were extremely dangerous, especially when they were working with Elites. Thus, my main 2 weapons on Legendary to fight the Covenant were the pistol and the plasma rifle. I'd typically use the pistol to take out the Grunts and Jackals surrounding the Elites first, and then I'd move in closer with less fire trained on me, and take out the Elites with my plasma rifle. The pistol was also perfect to fight Hunters with as it would kill them in a single shot if you shot them in the back where they had no protective armor. Its extremely easy to get a Hunter to charge at you, side-step it, and then off it in a single shot. That strategy only works in Halo 1, though, as the plasma rifle's power was severely nerfed in the sequels, the pistol became useless until it could zoom in again in Halo 3: ODST, and Hunters could no longer be OHK'ed in any of the subsequent Halo games.

[gunswordfist]

Around 2 this morning, my baby brother and me finally beat Rayman Origins. Over the last 2 or 3 days we went through most of the levels. I gave up on that saw blade and pipes part on the last level so he tried by himself for like a million times then he finally beat it. Then we went on to beat the final boss and then beat the mess out of each other during the credits.

This'll likely be the last game I beat this year. I had a lot of fun on Rayman Origins.