First, let's acknowledge that I'm not trying to tear down Halo as much as just express why I don't like it.
We'll follow that up with your very hostile attack on Borderlands.
And then we'll be able to fully understand why you have a rep of negative 43.

it was the launch title for the xbox, so MS gave it a HUGE marketing budget. also, it really brought FPS populairty to consoles (even if there were better on PC or even on consoles like PS2)

not sure how you could not understand how those two points equate to hype... trust me, they DO!


i was very anti-halo, in the beginning, because i was not happy about MS's jump into the console market. ive since gotten over it :)

I am a PC gamer with a PS3. Halo series died when they made 3. *Goes back to Killzone*

Same here... for me it wasn't really because of the game or the platform... it was Halo that told me in no uncertain terms that *I* suck at console FPS. I can't aim well with my thumb and I always get the buttons confused. On PC, however I'm fearless.

Oddly, I'm pretty solid on console action titles like GOW and Psychonauts, but suck rocks if the same title is on a PC... even with a controller. Go figure.

This, the promotional materials do absolutely nothing but make Halo 4 look good. There's not even any lines to "read between" and find anything seriously negative (I mean, unless you just hate shooters on console, then yeah, nothing they would have done would have pleased you).

It's been awhile since I preordered a Halo game, but I think Halo 4 will be a preorder, they've done a good job and it'll be the first Halo game where Waypoint existed beforehand (afaik), so that should be interesting as well.
Halo is what launched XBox as a "thing", there was no American console market player and MS came in and proved that very American centered titles could move consoles, Halo was that proof. Halo created console players out of people who never in a million years would have bought a Sega, Sony, or Nintendo console suddenly wanted an XBox... to play Halo. You can point to over a dozen characters that have moved Nintendo along over the years, with MS you only need to point at Master Chief. I'd guess that's a little bit good and a little bit bad, but it is most definitely a "thing":)

The CoD and BF series are dead average. The PC FPS market is in a huge slump in general because there are no titles which are considered good enough. CS:GO is simply the latest instalment in mediocrity. Hell, it's been a month since it was launched and it's barely getting half of the players that CS 1.6 is still getting (and these are only Steam numbers)? PC titles need longevity to be successful. GO is a failure, as are your standard CoDs, BFs whatevers.

The PC online gaming market is about RTS, MMO and MOBA. That being said, I'd love to see a title which would revitalise the FPS market.

Halo on the PC died long before that... when Microsoft yanked it from being a PC-exclusive back in 1999, bought Bungie the company, made the game XBOX-only, and then took 2 more years to release it to PC.. at which point, nobody cared.

Yes, I'm still bitter. Technically marking the end of the PC "golden age" IMHO.

If they want another successful PC shooter they need to stop emulating what console already does: a locked down, standard experience, with servers outside your control.

They need skin and mod support, they need an active community of server admins, they need clans, built in niceties, etc.

Because really, if you're just going to put a console shooter on PC all you've really added are better graphics and a mouse (keyboard is not an improvement, mouse is, but fuck the keyboard, seriously).

So, FWIW, I agree with you, on my PC I find myself mostly just playing MOBA games, the only things that take advantage of the PC.

RTS has been languishing for awhile now too, AoE Online is basically old style RTS, which is charming enough I guess, but I've played those RTSes, I played Starcraft (so really, I could not give a shit about SC2), I want something good, the last good RTS I played was Dawn of War: The Dark Crusade. It's been awhile... There's no console equivalent for RTS so I'm just gonna say, people don't care about RTS, or companies don't care about the RTS market... duno which, but it sucks right now.
It was gonna be a Mac game, only when complaining about Halo do I ever hear PC gamers claim a Mac is the same as a PC.

Not the same... better. But I can understand the frustration. :)

From Wikipedia...

"On July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Halo would be released for Mac OS and Windows simultaneously."

The point remains... Microsoft "denied" desktop gamers what was arguably the crowning achievement of action gaming at the end of the 20th century.

Why exactly the blame always placed on MS? MS made PC gaming for gamers, you can thank them for most of the gaming you do have. Because no other non-console platform ever came half as close. DirectX may suck ass in a lot of ways but we literally wouldn't have half the ecosystem we do have just on PC without it.

Beyond that, all hate for MS? They didn't exactly do a hostile take over Bungie afaik. Bungie sold you out, not MS, MS just took an awesome game and launched a console empire while everyone stood by and mocked them (not that the first XBox didn't have tons of warts, but we all know MS rarely gets the first revision right).

Bungie denied and screwed over desktop gamers, not MS. IMO the tradeoff was worth it, we got a whole new gaming ecosystem out of it. You see, I don't solely identify myself as a particular type of gamer. Gamers game, I bought a GameCube just so I could play Metroid Prime, I had no other reason for buying it at the time (though it turns out it was Nintendo's best non-handheld system by far, at least personally).

No, I don't have every platform imaginable, more due to lack of time than money or desire to enjoy them all, but Halo was still there for the taking. XBoxes were down to 100 bucks just 3 years after launch (or so). There's really no reason PC Gamers were "denied" outside of stubbornness.

Yeah, this.
What the PC FPS market needs is another Half-Life. Great single player campaign, awesome multiplayer, easy to use level editor, modding, etc, etc.
We don't need another console-ported FPS with an intended 2 year lifespan.

e: I cannot agree with SC2 though :P
The game is fantastic and thus far the pro feedback regarding HotS has also been overwhelmingly positive, so really looking forward to that.
You should really try it. Download the starter edition and play the first few levels. The campaign is a ton of fun (the single best SP RTS experience that I've ever had) and the MP is awesome. Even me - someone who doesn't play RTS - plays a few quick matches every once in a blue moon.

I'm really into Halo 4 and I havent been excited for a Halo game since 3. REad all the comvics and books as well and I think its good they are focusing more on the story in this one than just basically dropping the single player which probably would have generated a lot of money as well. Probably the first halo game i will rpeorder, the new direction has hooked my and I dont think microsoft would allow this game to be bad.

I totally agree with you.

The PC needs another Counter Strike, and this time to be done right, so all CS 1.6 and CSS players could switch to it.

How is the new one, btw?