By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
pearljammer on 23 April 2009
Edit Thread
Jereel Hunter said:
pearljammer said:
Jereel Hunter said:

But nowhere near Halo. It released on a system with a vast userbase, and wasn't a fraction as popular for a reason.

Bold: I'm with you there. But regardless, it refutes your point. Now it's just a matter of comparison and TS is most definately at least half as good as what Halo was. Hell, TS2 (2002) was nearly as good as it, arguably better. The FPS genre, and even console shooters, would have been fine without Halo. Halo simply raised the standard on console FPS's and greatly aided in popularizing them. That's a great feat, don't get me wrong, but for what it actually revolutionized is greatly overstated.

Italicized: Popularity is hardly a measure of quality. There may be a correlation, especially for games as popular as Halo was, but it isn't a good measure at all for games that don't necessarily sell well. Disgaea, for example, is a fantastic game but had very poor sales.

I'm not saying the genre wouldn't have been fine, but the OP asked if it's the reason we have many of the games we do today - I would say it's a definate yes. There were no doubt good console FPS prior, and there would have been after, but Halo was a catalyst for the current generation where FPS games are king. Sales determine who other companies copy, and companies copy what makes money first and foremost. My only point was that Halo's success has certainly been the reason for much of what we see in console FPSs today. You need look no further than attempted Halo copies like Haze to see that.

I can understand where you're coming from there and to a certain extent, agree with you. I was simply replying to your statement, implying there were no comparatively good console shooters at the time.

Anyhow, more on topic. The OP asked if Halo is the reason we have many of the good games we have today. On that note, I'm not convinced that we would not have had Bioshock, Half-Life 2, Portal, COD4, etc if it weren't for Halo. There certainly are some we probably would have been without, like Killzone, but I'm not sure there are many.