Jereel Hunter said:
Well, a FPS where you could hop into vehicles and use gunners was pretty new. Especially combined with 4 player split screen. Halo took the best ideas and merged them all, without sacrificing anything. Combined with the vast number of multiplayer options and a really deep immersive storyline.... It was quite a game. And while PC had great FPS, it didn't have ANYTHING with all of that, so bringing it to a console was even more impressive. It just showed that FPS could not only exist on consoles, but deliver an experience as good as a PC FPS. (And even give added bonuses like split screen, which PCs can't give) |
Halo didn't add as much as you imply really. The title did bring some nice ideas but those started out headed to PC (as Halo was intended as a PC title until MS saw the potential to make it a core title for the Xbox and purchased Bungie and diverted development to the Xbox). So in fact the new ideas came directly from ongoing PC development, they just got diverted to another platform.
Split screen could easily be done on a PC (and some games did so) however it clearly suits a console environment better than a PC (not technically of course, more down to sitting on couch with a buddy vs squeezing around a monitor). In fact, if I wanted to get prissy I could point out a PC can do anything a console game could technically and things a console couldn't (remembering a PC can be extended anyway you want, consoles cant).
Vehicles were arriving in general in FPS at that time and beacame the 'next big thing' for a while as a result. But Halo did not invent that mechanic.
I'm not knocking Halo, but anyone who is console centric and thinking it totally took FPS to a new level or invented a whole new set of mechanics simply isn't aware of the PC FPS legacy of the genre and the far bigger impact titlels like Half Life and Battlefied 1942 made on the genre both offline and online.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...







