Gears of War 2, Halo 3, Forza Motorsport 3... Killzone 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Resistance 2... These six games all have something in common; they're console exclusives. They have proven that they sell very well in their own way, ranging from 2 million sales on day one, to around 10 million in a few months. These six games are also sequels or prequels from previous well-known games to the gaming community.
What makes these exclusives any better than other exclusives or multiplatform games? What differentiates an exclusive game on one console to another? How does an exclusive gain so much hype and sell so well at launch? The answers to these three questions vary from fanboy to fanboy, usually being "because it has better graphics", or "because Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 is the best" (also, these things are commonly said by these fanboys even before a game is released).
In this article, the comparison between two games that are not even out yet will be made. Before we decide which two games we will see go face to face, lets take a look at the above list of those six games. Which two games on both consoles really, and I mean REALLY, stand out? Since this article is mostly based on unbiased opinions and facts, the obvious answer would be Halo 3. Sure, you might say it's an opinionated answer, but the Halo series is definitely one of the most played and most successful series on the Xbox consoles.
As for the PlayStation 3, we need to pick a game that has also lots of players and has been a successful series since its first game. Of course, Uncharted was quite successful, and its sequel even more, but if I am to compare a FPS with another game, that game has to be a FPS as well, just to make this comparison fair. Today, I will take the Resistance series. Are you still expecting a biased article? Don't worry, there is no biased information in here at all. You can call us Microsoft or Sony fanboys for all I care, if it makes you happy...
As I've said before, I'm going to compare two games that have no release date at all, no screenshots, no videos, nothing (Hell, one of them hasn't even been confirmed yet). Right now, I will compare Halo: Reach and Resistance 3 on three different aspects that might make up your decision on which console to buy this Christmas, if you haven't got one already.
Let's start off with expected sales, since recently, that's what most people care about these days. Taking a look at statistics, Halo: Combat evolved came out in mid-November 2001 and from there to early April of the next year, 1 million units had been sold to Xbox consumers. As of early November 2005, 5 million copies had been sold. Tell me that's not successful. I agree, it wasn't the perfect game, but it sold so well around the world that a sequel just had to be made, thus Bungie gave us Halo 2. In four years, Halo 2 sold 8.46 million copies over the globe, 3/4 of those being sold only in the US, which shows where this game is more popular and successful. Halo 3 alone, from its launch date until today, has sold over 10.30 million copies worldwide. If that's not successful, I don't know what is. Just to add icing to the cake, Halo 3 ODST sold around 3.13 million copies in less than a month (let's not mention Halo Wars' sales...).
While not being too big on sales, PS3 games have had not so much luck since the console has been out. With 3.63 million and 1.68 million sales for Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 respectively, Insomniac Games had the right to be disappointed about the sales. Though the PS3 gaming community is smaller than the Xbox 360's, the numbers are not really surprisingly low, at least for Resistance: Fall of Man, which was a launch title. There wasn't as many sales for Resistance 2, god knows why (disappointed PS3 owners?), but that doesn't stop Insomniac from making a sequel to boosts its sales, which could look real good for the PS3.
The winner here is definitely the Halo series. Resistance: Fall of Man was a very good launch title, but could not compare to Halo even after being out for only 3 years. It could however probably beat the first Halo's sales, but after seeing what Halo 3 has achieved in its own sales, there's no denying that Halo: Reach will sell a lot more than Resistance 3.
Let's take a look at what single player will offer, in terms of story and a bit of gameplay. Leaving us with quite a cliff hanger at the end of Halo 3 in Legendary mode, Xbox 360 gamers were quite excited to know what would happen next in the Halo series. Unfortunately, the trilogy had to end right there. Luckily for Halo fans, Halo: Reach was announced a bit after Halo 3: ODST. Anyone who has read the first book called Halo: The Fall of Reach will know that Reach was a military planet where they used to train Spartan soldiers to send in combat and stealth missions. Back then, there was more than only one Spartan; there was a whole bunch. They teamed up together and took part in these missions to fight against the covenant.
Without spoiling too much, the book does end very well, and with the book being years before the first Halo signifies that Halo: Reach will definitely be a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Creating a co-operative mode with Halo: Reach would be easy as pie. If there were many Spartans back then, it would be safe to say that co-op would feature four Spartans fighting together and using stealth mechanics and team work to complete objectives. It could also be the first game in the Halo series where we will see the Master Chief's real face, since he was sent to planet Reach for his transformation. Not a lot can be said about the story, but speculations can be made. As for the gameplay, if Bungie uses the same engine as Halo 3, we will probably see the same thing as before, only with a new color palette and differently looking levels.
People who have played through Resistance 2's single player will know that there just had to be a threequel added to the series, it was definitely hinted. Not a lot can be said about the story without spoiling the end, though, only that this guy has this thing that he got from this other guy and he does this one thing that he's not supposed to do... Who knows what time period you'll play this time? I personally would love to see maybe a present setting, rather than staying in the past in the World Wars. New guns, interesting story (since Aliens will start taking over Earth, or Mars, or create portals on Mars to go to other planets resembling Earth... these are still speculations), anything is pretty much possible once you've got Alien things in your game. Gameplay could change a lot in terms of graphics and the way you may navigate through levels, or how the bosses are varied.
Though you have to finish Resistance 2's campaign mode to understand what I'm talking about, the story does seem to get really, really interesting in the end, which just screams out: "TRILOGY ALERT". Halo: Reach just sounds a lot more interesting for Halo fans, but from what we've seen from ODST's gameplay, it hasn't changed much from Halo 3. Let's give this point to Resistance 3 for the effort it took in making a great looking game with a really surprising ending. Halo 3 had its own well executed ending as well, but Halo: Reach is a prequel and does not follow Halo 3's storyline; it goes back.
What about multiplayer? Halo's evolution in the Xbox Live community has grown significantly, sporting up thousands and thousands of players online every day. There will always be a multiplayer match being played somewhere around the world until Xbox Live goes down or Microsoft and Bungie decide not to let users play Halo 3 on Live anymore, which will not happen anytime soon. As well as having so many players to play with and against online, the game itself is just fun. What keeps people playing Halo 3 is its addictive multiplayer matches and the goal to get the highest rank in Halo 3. It's definitely a beast of a multiplayer game, and only a few other games do almost as good as Halo does.
Having 60 players in one match is already an achievement for a video game developer. Imagine having a hundred, or even two hundred. We're definitely capable of doing something like this, maybe not in this generation of video games, but if Resistance 3 comes out on the PS4, there could be possibilities. Kind of like MAG, which already supports 250 players on one map, though this game concentrates on multiplayer matches only. Having other modes than just deathmatch would be interesting to see in Resistance 3.
Resistance 2's multiplayer does feature a whole lot of people online in one match, but MAG still does better than this. Resistance 2's multiplayer modes are not as varied as Halo 3's, featuring such modes as deathmatch, team deathmatch and a capture the flag variant. Halo 3 wins in this category for being extra fun for lots of people and very populated all the time.
Unsurprisingly for many people, Halo: Reach finishes this fight. It'll have good sales like always, its story will be reminiscing for a lot of Halo fans, and its multiplayer will stay golden since Combat Evolved. Resistance 3 will surely sell but just not as much, the story might be very interesting so I have no idea what's in store for us, and its multiplayer will include a lot of players. If you own both consoles, and both Halo: Reach and Resistance 3 come out, buy both. That's all I can say for now.
This has been a message from EPiC FUiL.
