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Thursday, September 13, 2018

Bethseda, Switch

The problem with that is Switch isn't marketed or treated as just a handheld. Microsoft was willing to put Banjo-Pilot on the GBA while the detail on Conker's tail was blowing our minds on Xbox, or an isometric view of Viva Pinata with flat 2D backgrounds and basic 3D critters on DS when the real visual feast was on 360.

The Switch is competing more directly with XBO and it's outselling it big time. It's not unreasonable to think that it could pass it in lifetime sales by Black Friday 2019. And with diminishing returns becoming more apparent every hardware gen, a system that's a notch above the 360 really isn't that far behind the XBO in the grand scheme of things.

Halo may not be the giant that it once was, but Halo pretty much redefined the FPS genre, and it was revolutionary for the time. Many of the mechanics that are staples in modern FPS games owe their existence to Halo, and mechanics that existed beforehand which Halo adopted were made popular by Halo.

I don't know how old you were when Halo 1-3 came out, but if you weren't around or were too young to remember, they were a big deal. I'm in my late 20s so these games came out when I was in middle/high school, and the impact they had on the gaming industry was measurable.

Master Chief is also iconic in a way that most FPS characters fail to be. He is immediately recognizable by anybody who sees him, and has a cool design. This is important in a time where most FPS characters are generic, forgettable nobodies. People loved Master Chief, and they still do — one of the reasons Halo 5's campaign is so poorly regarded is because he wasn't the main character. He's not replaceable by other Spartans, even if their armor is just as cool. Master Chief, and the game series he represents, will always have an important place in the history of gaming.

That being said, it would definitely be weird to have him in Smash (even though I would fucking love it) and I really don't see it happening.

Goldeneye was brilliant for the time, but it didn't impact the FPS genre nearly as much as Halo did, not by a longshot. Look at Halo and Goldeneye, and tell me which one's mechanics have transitioned into modern FPS games. Almost all of Halo's signature mechanics are still staples of FPS games, whereas Goldeneye and Perfect Dark feel extremely aged and outdated.

This, by the way, is coming from someone who was a HUGE fan of Goldeneye, and an even bigger fan of Perfect Dark. I love those games and I always will, but the impact that Halo had on the industry really can't be overstated; it was an absolute game changer.

Sure about the space thing but if Halo didnt exist Shooters would look nothing like they do today. Or the road to get here would be insanely different. Claiming Halo didn't have a massive effect on the gaming industry and the console/shooter genre as a whole is just ignorant.

Every single shooter that came out after halo wanted to be the "Halo killer", they revolutionized AI for the genre at the time, (Techniques that are still used today btw) and made console shooters an actual thing that are incredibly profitable and doable.

No they didnt invent them. But I already said that. They made it very mainstream, very appealing, and very accessible.

Remember Golden eye 64? Thats what console shooters were before Halo. Halo Changed it all.

Not really. Cloud is meant to represent Final Fantasy as a whole. Final Fantasy’s history is very tied with Nintendo, and Cloud happens to be the most recognizable character in the series. That’s why Sakurai picked him, but it was still a franchise that was had pretty massive connections with Nintendo.

We’ve got zero precedent that a series with literally NO connection to Nintendo can have much representation, if any. MGS comes the closest, and that still has history with the company and is more specific to Hideo Kojima asking Sakurai to make it happen.

I mean, Master Chief is Smash would be hilarious and amazing in its own right, but this whole narrative of Smash magically becoming about all video games with Cloud isn’t as true as people generally want to believe. It’s still rooted in Nintendo related IP from everything we’ve seen.

What a janky, dull crap game and controls with great quests, world building, dialogue, player choice, and replayability. New Vegas is 10x more intricate than anything Bethesda has released since Oblivion, but it looks like hot garbage now. Fallout 4 doesn't have a great story or choices or characters - but it plays great. The gunplay, the perks, the controls - it feels good. Only problem is how shallow the game is as far as player choice, dialogue options, and questlines go. The DLC changed my mind about the overall experience, but Fallout 4 isn't my favorite anything. Big as an ocean, deep as a puddle kind of game. Bethesda are also notorious for making unbalanced broke as fuck games that are just fun and immersive, not well designed and balanced. Skyrim still blows my mind with how unbalanced and shitty the overall game design is, but how fun and immersive it can be despite that.

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