Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - On Indefinite Hiatus

@Balta666 it’s definitely not nostalgia for me since i was barely walking when halo 1 came out . the first halo is actually the last halo i even played . What makes it better than halo 2 for me is that halo 2 leaned too much towards the more grounded military type & at times felt like a game similar to COD with its smaller/linear corridor levels instead of the large sandbox levels of halo 1. Halo 2 had its moments of space magic , but it was a lot more present in the first game & the first game also had a strong atmosphere . thats a long on-going trend with a lot of franchises - the first game starts off with a strong foundation with a strong identity and atmosphere and then by the time the sequel comes around it loses some of its charm. i’m glad they went back to their roots somewhat with halo 3 along with bringing the assault rifle back. halo 1 & halo 3 are more similar than halo 2 is to either of them imo.

Another reason is that Halo 1 has amazing weapons - grenades, pistol, rifle, shotgun, alien weapons are all powerful & punchy and i love the 90s cheese it has with character dialogue (the covenant are hilarious) & it’s amazing sound effects & enemy ai . weapons also had their own animations when switching to them, it’s the little details i pay attention to that either halo 2 got rid of or watered down. halo 2 just has better graphics & gameplay , but lacks everything else imo. levels , guns, story , etc are weaker imo. the introduction of the flood in halo 1 can’t be matched

but yea it’s just my opinion. i wish more people appreciated halo 1 though.

@nomither6 yeah, for me the level design did not work as I was lost every single level apart from the one everyone complains (and ended up my favourite). I also disliked the covenant weapons and felt that I could never have enough human ones, cannot say is that different in the sequel but I found a few weapons I enjoyed (not sure if because they are new or the gameplay was improved).
And finally there is the truck... It just has no redeeming qualities and it is used way too much I am afraid.

@Balta666 the truck ??

edit - oh i just realized you were talking about the warthog. it’s used in halo 3 probably as much

@nomither6 yah, that thing. I will have nightmares about the final level because of it for years to come...

@Bob_Salat yeah the final level sucks but still think it’s overall better than halo 2. halo 2 reminds me of 343 halos

@Bob_Salat the mako is bad for sure but they generally do not ask much of you when you are riding it (mostly crossing some big open areas with lost of mountains). Said so the "mako" version of Andromeda is God tier!

So hope that you all have a good time with *Halo 2. If I was not so busy with ohter games atm I would have joined the fun. It would be cool to know more about how the game are holding up today btw.. Feel free to share the progress you are making.

Personally I kind of miss it 😅. When I replay FF VII for example I still look forward to the cutscenes even though they are quite low poly nowadays.

Regarding the sponginess of it I want to say is a balance thing as both you and the enemies have shields (not all but many), but there are a few weapons that are powerfully enough to deal with it fairly quick too.

@Balta666 ill toss a 2nd vote for Gears of War 3

@nintendobynature. What if we instead of just playing the gears games did a study of them? I can ohterwise state that I would likely be able to commit to play Gears 2 or 3 next month. So that is where my vote goes. Many thanks guys for provading me the opportunity to case a vote for the games.

@Bob_Salat. Congrats man it seems as you had a fun time with the game

@NintendoByNature @oliverp votes added! Not sure what a study of the series means exactly though 😅

@Bob_Salat that is great! Pretty much in line with my experience and thoughts by the end.

@Balta666 Well I think we could like study the tech and controls in the game for exemple. But will tbh not be to sad if Gears are not picked for next month.

Since I just finished one of my games, it's perfect timing to fire up spyro. Hopefully i can complete before indy comes out, because I'm pretty much dropping everything when it does.

Played through a couple levels to 100% so far. Controls take some getting used to, but the game looks beautiful. Like I may have mentioned a time or two in the past, I may have played this back during the ps1 era, but I don't remember much about it. Is the overall goal to free dragons? And collect gems? I'm guessing at some point you gain new abilities too?

@Bob_Salat 👍 vote added!

@NintendoByNature if I remember correctly you get to fly freely (like in the bonus stages) at some point but from what I have played so far it may well be by finishing the game first

So I have played about 2h the other day and well the only good thing I can say about it is that in that period of time I accomplished a 57% completion rate and therefore I should be able to see all stages in another hour or so... Because I cannot thing about another praise for it... It is the most dull experience in gaming I had in many many years. The fact your only objective is to find diamonds and dragons is repetitive and boring, the gameplay is both floaty and non responsive and I cannot understand how a game in the last 15 years still has mandatory reversed flying controls!!!!!! I refuse to play the flying special stages because of it. I may finish it because it is so short but I am definitely not looking forward to play it again I am afraid (p.s: I would be pissed if I bought this game back in the day for more than a fiver)