karajorma wrote: I've split and locked the topic cause quite frankly it was little more than a hijack/troll anyway.

I was rather hoping for a decent debate on the subject, but...oh well. Anyways, though, before somebody else comes along, I thought I might do you a favor by pointing out the internal contradictions in your arguments, among other things.

1.) The Banshee as an airborne vehicle. As any idiot who's played Battlefield Vietnam can tell you, it's impossible to put a jet aircraft or better in an FPS that's player controllable and make it any good. Map size prohibits it. But more to the point, it flies, and you admitted it to be at least a glider, which is an airborne vehicle. The Banshee is more analogous to a light attack helicopter than a jet, sure, I'll concede that. But it flies, and no amount of BSing can take that away.

2.) I always find complaints on level design in Halo amusing, personally. No, they're not terribly creative, I suppose, but they're quite functional. Perfection as the saying goes comes not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left you can afford to take away. And if you examine real constructed environments you start to see the method to the supposed madness pretty quick. You don't build something with fifty different rooms, you build it with fifty identical ones, and lest we forget, the Halos themselves are artificial structures. That canyon you're complaining about pretty much is a room connected to other rooms, literally, if you were paying attention to the story at all. (It also makes excellent sense in a defensive standpoint of defending the ring's firing and communication mechanisms to design it that way.)

Also, one of my major complaints in Halo 2 was the changed level design. Halo 1 captured the epic feel (and arguably the raw power that a MJOLNIR-armored SPARTAN-II represents) much better because of its less-cluttered levels that gave you tactical options. You could back off, flank to one side, go straight up the middle. The first is crucially important too. You could never have faced the numbers of enemies you do in Halo 1 at a single time in Halo 2, because the level design clutter made it too difficult to evade them and gain some breathing room, or even to simply dodge. The Library on Halo 1 gave you the option of always being able to take one step backward...which was crucially important to it. The Library on Halo 2, or rather "The Wall" was vastly more frustrating, because there was no retreat, no chance to stop for a moment and catch your breath/reload. Even the vehicular combat in Halo 2 was cramped, which was a dumbass idea if there ever was one.

But the extra clutter should have made it a better game by your logic. Right.

4.) Your complaint about fewer weapons contradicts your complaint about realism later on. Besides, where the hell are you going to carry them all, huh? Two was perhaps slightly too few, he should have had a sidearm available always as well, but considering the power of the 12.7mm pistol, the decision not to do that was a wise one.

5.) Noted above. However in another and very important point, the Master Chief is a genetically engineered partial cyborg supersoldier in powered armor that it would kill a normal human to attempt to use. There's a reason not everybody's wearing MJOLNIR armor, and it's damn good one. Fall of Reach describes what happens to a normal human who tries to put MJOLNIR armor on: the armor is too strong and too responsive for them, so that light movements become extaggerated. The marine who was unfortunate enough to test it had his arm broken by it from simply trying to swing his arm, which caused him to try and grab his arm with his other arm, and the motions cascaded until the armor killed him about a minute later by chest trauma after breaking pretty much every bone in his body.

So you don't see the Marines pistol-whipping anybody, and that makes perfect sense! But as for the MC doing it and killing them, any complaint about that is extremely goddamn silly. A MJOLNIR suit weighs nearly a ton and can flip a tank with its bare hands. Don't tell me you can't snap a neck or smash a skull with that kind of raw strength. The wonder isn't that the MC can kill people in melee so easily, but why he can't do it more easily. Getting hit by the Master Chief like he means it damn well ought to send you flying.

aldo wrote:Since when was 'realism' a valid defense for monotonous, repetitive levels in any game, let alone a sci-fi one?

karajorma wrote:Do you really think that this particular disease only exists on HLP? Mention that game on any forum (including this one) and people will line up to tell you it wasn't that special.

aldo wrote:Since when was 'realism' a valid defense for monotonous, repetitive levels in any game, let alone a sci-fi one?

aldo wrote:Pointing out a bad argument is not the same as arguing, y'know.

karajorma wrote:

aldo wrote:Pointing out a bad argument is not the same as arguing, y'know.

Actually given that you made the assertion that the levels were monotonous you are arguing. You're stating an opinion on the quality of the levels not a fact.