Halo: Anniversary - The Halo 1 remake (fuck anyone who calls it "halo ce" remake)

[ODX]

...Halo 2 immediately threw me off balance with the low reticle position, and it has been awkward ever since. This isn't a case of "players need to adapt," it's a case of stupid, unnecessary design decision. I can't think of another shooter that does the same thing, and there's likely a reason for that.

Other games don't do it because they aren't Halo. Halo is innovative. Things like FP legs, more complex overlays (such as looking up/down) and multiple melee animations started (to what I can recall) in Halo 2. Same goes for the reticule placement, and I honestly think it was a great idea. It allows for a lower weapon origin that makes the gun look more like it's in your hands/against your shoulder (such as in Halo 3, which some of you may complain looked "stupid" but I honestly thought it looked great aesthetic-wise). It also allowed you to see more since the gun was lower and not covering so much of the screen.

Overall I just felt great paired along with Halo, and it's just another thing that makes Halo so unique among this slew of "Modern FPS games" these days.

[Warsaw]

Can't tell if trolling...

Clearly you have never played Tribes. Body parts rendered in first-person view is nothing new. Looking up and down has been around for almost two decades now and did not start with Halo. Multiple melee animations? Really? That kind of thing just comes with the technology advancements and is such a gimmick that it isn't even worth pointing out.

There are THREE things that Halo innovated:
1. Regenerating armour (which got mutilated into regenerating health all over the industry)
2. Limited weapon inventory (two guns, must manage strengths/weaknesses)
3. First-person shooter controls on console (copied by every other FPS on console ever since)

Everything else is a load of bologna. It doesn't make it look like it's in my hands, against my shoulder. It makes it look like it's in my hands, pressed under my arm-pit. If I'm staring straight ahead, I don't expect by gun to be pointing at crotch-level, thank you very much (not unless we get bonus points for nut-shots). We don't get to see more, because the FoV is still narrow, and all the guns just got bigger and bigger as the series progressed. But even then, guns obscuring the screen was never really an issue in any Halo game.

E: Fourth innovation: smooth combination of vehicle and infantry play.

[Bobblehob]

He isn't trolling, you are just worrying way way too much about this xP

[Warsaw]

Maybe I am, but it legitimately makes the game hard to play for me. It's not like it's some minor detail that makes it annoying to play (like hit-scan or aim assist; I'm completely OK with bloom), it's borderline game-breaking. Why have a low cross-hair that makes some players uncomfortable when you can have a centered one that everyone is used to? Gears is centered, Battlefield is centered, Half-Life is centered, Quake is centered, Unreal Tournament is centered, and Halo: Combat Evolved is centered. I don't hear any complaints about cross-hair placement in ANY of those games. Ever.

[Amit]

Call of Duty is centred.

[Warsaw]

Not sure if that's proving my point or trying to say that centered is bad. Either way, Call of Duty is the biggest multiplayer hit this side of World of Warcraft.

[t3h m00kz]

The low reticle pushes the combat horizon into a very cluttered section of screen real estate. Your weapon and its muzzle flash are totally in the way. That's why I walk around aiming at the ground, so I have an unobstructed view of the field. Of course, that puts me at a disadvantage when I have to quickly raise up to start fighting, but I could never get comfortable walking around with the crosshairs up and trying to look around my gun.

The only reason they do it is because their art direction wants you looking at more of the sky and less of the ground. So, they're better able to justify the time and money they put into the environments at the cost of my comfort playing their game. I don't appreciate it and Anniversary just reinforces my feelings on the subject.

I heard it was to prevent bullets from coming from the character's head.

either way I agree it's stupid and unnecessary, though I've grown used to it at this point.

[ejburke]

I was just watching some gameplay footage of Halo 2, 3, and Reach and the issue is really no more complicated than it makes me uncomfortable. It's like I'm being pinned to the ground or something. In fact, that's the feeling exactly.

That, in addition to the weapons creating blind spots to the immediate right of the reticle. And in addition to the "slow" feeling of that perspective shift.

Look, I'm no fan of CoD, but even I must admit it "feels" good. That's a big reason it's so popular, because it feels "right" to a large number of people. I haven't felt competent at a Halo game since Halo 1. I thought it was just because I was getting old and blind, but now I realize it's because they don't feel as good as they used to (in terms of infantry combat).

I feel like a fucking ninja playing Anniversary.

[Pooky]

Don't forget about the AI system Warsaw, which at the time was pretty amazing. I think Halo was the first to do 1 button grenades and melee, too.

But yeah, it's amazing just how much more fun this game is than its successors. Every time I notice some little detail I liked about Halo 1, I found myself thinking 'WHY DID THEY EVER CHANGE THAT?!'

Also, this is the only Halo game where an enemy with a sword elicits a reaction of 'aw FUCK a sword!' and not 'ooo, I get a sword!'

[ejburke]

Sword Elites were kind of scary in Reach, because of those cheap bloated-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt shields of theirs. But really, it didn't matter that they had a sword; they could whack you with a pez dispenser and it would kill you in that game.

By the way, I'm glad swords disappear. Versus the Flood, I'll take 360-degree shotgun/pistol sprees over skill-free auto-lunging with a sword. Actually, I'll take a shotgun that works over the unreliable "point blank blast might instakill or it might do fuck-all -- your guess is as good as mine" versions they've been peddling.