I’d rather spend that hour and then enjoy the lifespan of the game using the ideal control method.
I’m really keen to see how Halo Wars will control, but I’m skeptical that any gamepad-based system can ever be as effective as keyboard and mouse.
I don’t think it has to be “as effective as keyboard and mouse” as long as it works in context, which is exactly the way I feel about console FPS games. I still play Halo 1 on the Xbox in 4 player LAN games. The controls aren’t as “effective” as keyboard and mouse, but everyone playing has the same limitation and the game is very well designed around the limitations of the console controller, so it still manages to be a superb game. If they pull off the RTS equivalent of that with Halo Wars, it’ll be an awesome game too.
I don’t disagree; I reviewed the original Halo for the first issue of OXM and was pleasantly surprised at how well it controlled. But a mouse is still better - given the choice.
They just need to come out with giant sized touch pads, an uber version of the DS touchscreen.
A mouse may be better but I can never get my friends to play LAN PC FPS games against me because I spank them so badly that the games aren’t fun for anyone. The console controllers in Halo force a slower game speed where they can actually keep up. So in that specific case they are infinitely more fun for LAN play than mice!
Again, “meh”. I wish you well and hope it works/sells well, but I won’t be playing it. Maybe you’ll be the “breakthrough” rts that halo was to fps’ on consoles (and halo is still better on a PC IMHO).
The first few times I picked up a controller to play HALO I got spanked (usually still do when I bother to fire up the xbox) and I’d spent far too many years playing QuakeWorld/TF, counterstrike etc. on the PC at that point.
Don’t worry, Ensemble, I’ll be playing it so much you’ll never miss Ranulf!
Same here, but after playing a few times I got into the groove of it and now I win consistently against the Halo-playing friends who spanked me at first, but I usually beat them like 25 to 18 instead of 25 to -10 or so in Quake Whatever, so everybody has more fun.
If they release it for the PC, I’ll buy it. If not, then that’s one less sale. shrug
- Alan
Once I got used to the controls on BFME2 360 I enjoyed it more than the PC version. Maybe it was just the novelty of RTS on a console. I will be buying this game day 1.
Well, I’ll buy 2 then.
Game looks gorgeous. And I never realized Gary Whitta was from OXM… You learn something new everyday… Any advice on getting into gaming journalism? A passion of mine, in all reality.
Either way, Xemu, give a heads up to your guys: BR’s weren’t around at this time… AR’s were…
That’s huge for me. Seems like every PC game I play that my first thought while playing isn’t on the game content itself but is rather “how’s the framerate? Too slow? Need to back out and change some options? Really fast? Wonder if I can bump up some sliders? Damn, I need to restart the game for changes to take effect?” etc.
I’m pretty certain that they know what is up with the rifles, as I’ve heard that specific issue come up in discussion. I can’t say as I know what the answer is (or that I’d be allowed to answer it publically if I did) but I do know they’re very much in tune with that level of micro-detail about the world and seem confident in what we’ve presented…
I’m not “from” OXM, I did the Halo review for them and that was it.
OMG HE ISNT BUYING IT ON CONSOLE I WILL BUY 2 EAT THAT LOLOL!!!111
Seriously, enjoy it on the console, but ridiculing those who won’t buy it because they’d rather play it on the ideal platform for RTS games is retarded.
If we do our job right, I think people’s notion that the PC is the ideal platform for RTSes will change. I know there were a lot of skeptics internal here to the studio that have really changed their tune and now find playing with the controller preferable (including some very hardcore PC RTS players).
I don’t expect anyone to really believe that until they get their hands on the game, but we’re not shooting for anything less. :)
Dear Lord you’re right, that music was freakin’ boring as sin, not a patch on the true Halo music, which is pretty much the opposite, music which really stands out as being superb.
Trailer didn’t do a lot for me though. Better than Blur’s Warhammer Online trailer, but that was never going to be hard. Trailer didn’t really do much of anything, except clone well known Halo units such that you could see you’d have lots. There was no real feeling to the trailer, no attachment to anything within it, it just showed that humans and the covanent will be fighting again, but this time they’ll be doing it in larger numbers… and those Spartan voices were disappointingly normal.
I can’t really stand FPS games on consoles. I know I can do everything better and faster with a mouse, so a console FPS just feels like me Vs. the interface. I’m very interested to see how a console only RTS plays though.
I thought the trailer was fantastic. The music wasn’t quite up to the standard of the full blown Halo main theme, but it wasn’t that bad. The only issues I had with the trailer were the comical gasp that the marine in the warthog makes when he hears the other marine being killed through the comm and, if we’re really nit picking, when they showed the scene with multiple warthogs driving from a top-down view they weren’t moving very realistically.
Actually, the “RTS on console vs. PC” thing isn’t even the heart the issue for me. Mostly it’s that I don’t want to buy a $500 worth of specialized hardware just to play a handful of games.
- Alan