WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
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User ID: 269
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
7d ago
Yeah, that was another thing that annoyed me about Halo, is the enemy AI went the wrong direction.
Since it keeps getting compared to Half-Life, I'll keep going. Half-Life introduces fairly dumb enemies, and then introduces smarter ones. You get to warm up on relatively dumb xeno-fauna, and then they throw marines at you, which talk, coordinate, dodge grenades, flush you out, flank you, etc. Now I know people have dissected how that worked and a lot of it was scripted to create the illusion of intelligent enemies. But it was still a really good illusion.
By contrast, Halo starts you off with really good enemy AI in the form of elites, and then halfway through the game swaps them out for retards that bum rush right at you. A sin doubly compounded by the fact that the game checkpoint saves, and you are consistently stuck in really annoying locked arenas fighting off boring hoards of flood. I positively loathed it.
For whatever reason, and I haven't played it recently enough to have a strong impression of why, Halo 2 and Halo 3 didn't seem as bad in this regard, even during the sections that were heavier on flood. Maybe the encounters were designed smarter, or at least less annoyingly. Maybe they changed the game mechanics to make it less annoying somehow. I think I remember Halo's health mechanic got dropped between games replaced almost entirely by shields? Whatever the reasons, after the flood appear in Halo 1, it's a far worse game for it.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
7d ago
I had to explain to a programmer coworker recently who John Carmack is. Made me feel so fucking old.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
7d ago
On its face value Halo is remarkably bleak and yet it also has something that I feel is sorely lacking in a lot of modern media. Sincerity.
As I've gotten older, and especially since having kids, I have found that I have less and less patience for deconstructionist takes, and subversion for subversion's sake. I don't want nihilism and moral ambiguity from my fiction. I get enough of that from studying history. What I want from my fiction is something to inspire and/or aspire to. Yes Halo is bleak, but it is also hopeful. And yes, I recognize that this sounds like a contradiction but it's not because what Halo's story is ultimately about is what do you do when faced with frightful odds or a seemingly hopeless situation? It's about what do you when your faith is shattered, and you find out that much of what you thought you knew about how the universe worked is revealed to have been a carefully crafted lie? It's about duty and loyalty. It's about the relationship between created and creator. It's that meme about "the masculine desire to perish in a heroic last stand" in video game form. It is all of these things, and I think that is why fans keep coming back to it.
At some point "sincerity" was rebranded "cringe" and caring about anything became a shameful public display. Or at least, certain demographics are condemned for caring about anything. Others get to have public meltdowns over trivial matters and are lauded.
But you and I, when we care about things it's "cringe". Even existential things like "Will my children inherit my nation, or be dispossessed?"
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
7d ago
Eh. In many ways I think Halo is overrated, and The LIbrary might be one of the worst FPS levels I have ever played in my entire life. That said, I think JeSuisCharlie accurately characterizes it's strengths. I actually haven't played a Halo game since I couch cooped Halo 3 when it came out. I meant to replay them recently, and then my XBox 360 died as soon as I took it out of storage. Alas.
I could probably spring for the Master Chief Collection on Steam whenever it's on one of it's frequent sales.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
10d ago
I haven't posted much on account of working 9-10 hour days and commuting 2-3 hours on top of it.
However I finally have an excuse to learn OpenGL for work. Every other time I've tried to learn OpenGL the last 20 years, work has reared it's ugly head and taken up too much of my headspace to make much progress. But not this time, oh no, this time work has me utterly immersed in it.
It's actually a funny story, but I probably shouldn't divulge it on a public forum. Alas.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
12d ago
Yes, you do understand this goes both ways? You understand democrats come off as Halloween villains to much of the country?
I'd go with actual living demons over Halloween villains, but to each their own.
In light of the over the top evil of the opposition, I'm fine with my chosen champion acting like a Crusader King.
What I love most about these baseless self serving assertions is that you won't be proven disastrously wrong for almost 100 years.
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