We're getting a new Gears Of War game. While this wasn't unpredictable at all, it does raise the question of quality. It seems all too common these days developers would rather stick to sequels, pumping out expansion packs at $60 a pop and then raking in the cash with DLC. But it only continues to push the boundaries, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight. This follows a pattern that was set by Halo, Microsoft is more than ready to continue development on series' long after the original developers think the time has come to let the franchise die and move on.
In Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, Master Chief became a more nuanced, human character.
In spite of the Halo series’ struggles, 343 deserves praise for adding nuance and characterisation to the ever-beating heart of Halo - The Master Chief. Playing through Infinite, it's abundantly clear that the events of the current and previous trilogies have irrevocably changed the iconic hero. He’s no longer the ‘blank slate’ that was previously presented by Bungie. He’s a fatigued, damaged and fallible protagonist, and one who is meandering through currents of grief, while reveling in his newfound agency. Giving the Chief a compelling and meaningful voice was no small feat, and 343 should be proud of that victory.
This article completely misses part of the appeal of the original iteration of character in the original game trilogy. It was the Chief and Cortana vs an entire alien collective. The blank slate Bungie displayed in their games was genius, he was an mysterious hero a wide audience could identify with because he wasn't as clearly defined as most characters.
The books added a lot of lore and backstory but most Halo players just want a fun game with exposition that doesn't get in the way of gameplay, it's why the Cortana level in Halo 3 was derided.
Not every character has to be a damaged soyboy, a soldier has to suck it up and do his duty.
A lot of people give the 343 version of Master Chief a lot of slack.
But Fundamentally he is still the same character, he just has a couple more dialogues. He has not changed in terms of attitude.
"Not every character has to be a damaged soyboy, a soldier has to suck it up and do his duty."
And that's what he has done at the end of the day, he did his duty. Watch his partner die, and was ready to destroy the weapon in Halo infinite....he is still the same soilder that everyone remembers
Halo Infintes one was a nice balance between both.
The 343i Master Chief has is based on the books. However, in Halo 4-Infinite, the Master Chief overtime become. gradually becomes more willing to show some emotion.
"However, in Halo 4-Infinite, the Master Chief overtime become. gradually becomes more willing to show some emotion."
Which is awesome! I love how Master Chief become more John and less soldier.
GB: "Nailing an experience's length is easier said and done, and one way or another, these games left a little to be desired on that front."
I always have a problem with games that should have been longer when lasting 8-10 hours.
Here's a question I ask all the time when ppl say that.
How many times have you replayed the story of a great game like Tlou2, GOW, Final Fantasy remake, GTA, Zelda, or any other 20 hours plus game? and usually, the answer varies between 0 and rarely 1.
So what's the point of having great 30 hours plus games if you will never replay them because of level, section, grinding dragging too long?
I agree I’m not sure how people find the time to play all these games. 20 plus hour games are great but for me 8 to 10 is the sweet spot. Those games take to long to finish specially when you have a backlog of games waiting to be played. Plus 20 plus hour games always have downtime and unnecessary side quests that can be boring too much fodder imo.
Being on your phone is one thing you can access websites like this everywhere on your phone or mobile gaming. But games you have to find the time to play them. Which is why I don’t understand why so many people want like ten games it seems In a month.
I think you're missing the point a bit.
A game can be 8-10 hours long and use that time really well, but it can also only start to get good far into the playthrough and leave the player feeling short-changed.
Hotline Miami is only 4-5 hours long but it's extremely well paced and time well spent. But if only got really good towards the end, I'd want it to be longer.
You just look at trophies and se that around 20% or less actually finish their games.
I've replayed all those games except GTA and Breath of Wild because I can never finish them.
The Last of Us 2 i've replayed 4 times. God of War (2018) 2 times, Final Fantasy Remake 3 time (technically Intergrade twice since went on Steam and I wanted 100% achievements), and if we do want to bring in Zelda I've played Ocarina of Time probably 4 to 6 times a few times on N64, another time on 3DS, and twice on virtual console Wii and Wii U.
I am sure I'm not alone in replaying long games and honestly it's like I'm finished within a week or two and that with balancing responsibilities and a social life. Shorter games take even less time.
Without mentioning Skyrim.. I've got two platinum trophies for Persona 5 and am playing it on game pass right now. Beat FF7R on normal twice and hard once and will play it again before the next one. Non story games- MHW I've made characters on PC/Xbox/PS with at least 600 hours on each platform. I don't care to play a mediocre games that are 8 hours long. The reason my backlog is so long isn't because that many good games are released each year it is because I replay the best ones over and over. Same deal with audio books. I've gone through book series multiple times every time a new one is coming out.
Disagree with Days Gone - yeah it took a while to really get going, but I appreciated it when I was done. Jumping right in at 4-5 hrs or whatever would've made the rest feel less impactful. RDR2 and Mankind Divided felt just right too, I wouldn't change them at all.
What needed less time was AC Valhalla. I was more than ready to be done with that by the time it was 2/3 over. Just too much useless stuff, and I hated the Asgard sections.
It’s a law of nature that eventually, every long-running game franchise will have a particular entry that gets dinged for straying too far from what made it so fun in the first place. Your Super Mario Sunshine, your Dragon Age II, Assassin’s Creed III, and so on. Whether or not that opinion changes more favorably over time, the initial specter of negativity will forever hover it. Microsoft’s Halo is no exception, except that negative specter hasn’t hovered over one particular game, but one whole studio.
MS is just shifting support over to the next console that should be announced next year
Lol, it's not only Microsoft... Still, they do need to learn when to let a series end gracefully. Halo 3 should have been the end to the Halo series, not saying Reach wasn't good, but now they're talking about making 3 more games? At a certain point it IS just milking it and there's no denying that whether you like a series or not.
No but you sure are
its the state of the console industry right now. Too much reliance on market research on new ips, and way too worried about presenting some epic cutscene heavy plot that probably wont make any sense.
Why cant they learn from dark souls? From software did something they were passionate about, didnt waste millions of dollars on voice acting and other silliness, didnt slap us all in the face with a story but still had one (most gamers dont even care about story, but many do).
The problem isn't whether a game after many iterations should keep pumping out sequels....
The problem is when the central premise and characters no longer have anything meaningful to say. It's like books or movies......don't make a sequel unless you aim to be better than the original.
Often that means that the sequel is lucky to be as good as the original.
With MGS...it's not going to get better than great. Same applies to Halo.
What's worse is that many games come out with world or universe saving story lines - how do you follow up saving the universe like in Halo? I thought ODDT was a great example of how to do a one off follow up.
Reach was anti-climatic from day 1! Still fun, but was never going to be as good as the other Halo titles. (fps...not that rts abomination)