Gears of War coming to PC!

[Harrison]

The attraction is in the different style of gaming consoles are suited to compared to PCs. For certain games like FPS and strategy, the level of accurate control or concentration is better on a PC, but for other styles like racing, platform, adventure most would much rather relax on the couch with a controller, playing a game on a HDTV than sitting at a desk.

The other big advantage of consoles is the plug in and play nature. No installing and setting up. Many people prefer that.

Personally I like gaming on either. Depends on the game and what type of controls suit it.

[Sharingan]

Never understood the hype around this game, myself ... or Halo's, for that matter. It's a shooter. You shoot things, run around a bit, shoot some more things. Been there, done that.

I'm sure it's oodles of fun, but seeing some people worshipping it like some divine gift makes me roll me eyes.

[Harrison]

Have you played the original Halo? It did do things better at the time than any other first person shooter.

The difference was in the way it was executed and the atmosphere created. The enemy AI was much more believable, with them not just sticking to their spot waiting to be shot, but moving around and spreading out from their starting points, with more being dropped into the combat zone from the air. And hearing them talking to each other, making you imagine they are working out strategies to get you worked quite well too.

I think games like Half Life 2 improved on many aspects since this time, but they are quite different games and do hold up on there own for different reasons.

Halo was also one of the first games that changed how weapons were handled. Before this in most games you could just collect all of the weapons and switch between them, but in Halo you could only hold two weapons at once and had to discard one in order to pick up another. This is something that has since been adopted by many other games.

[FOL]

I would have to agree about halo, I have finished about 30+ times. Damn fine game. The funniest thing was that bungie, hated porting it to PC saying "It was never intended for PC". I think they were trying to hide the fact that halo on Xbox sucked, the framerate would struggle in places. It like "HELLO", you cant make a game the hardware cant handle.

[Sharingan]

Have you played the original Halo? It did do things better at the time than any other first person shooter.

I've only played the first level really. Thought it looked nice enough, but didn't think the gameplay was as revolutionary as people claimed it to be at the time. Maybe I wasn't impressed because I'm generally not that much into FPS/TPS games.

[Harrison]

I definitely think you need to be into FPS to truly enjoy any game in the genre.

Although I was disappointed with the first level of Halo myself as I had already played the E3 preview a long time before and that was much better. In the original E3 version the game started with you in a drop ship surrounded by the other soldiers, but instead of crashing and finding yourself alone it began with you all being dropped into the location and working alongside the rest of the troops fighting the enemy. Changing that for the final version disappointed me quite a lot. Although obviously you do get to fight alongside others soon enough as you move through the game.

[Demon Cleaner]

I definitely think you need to be into FPS to truly enjoy any game in the genre.

Right, and for me, that's not the case. I like seeing them as I think FPS games are to most beautiful when it comes to high end graphics. But I don't like the gameplay.

[Harrison]

Even games like Farcry or Half Life 2?

Farcry is still my favourite FPS to date as it added so much to the genre. You actually felt like you were on tropical islands creeping through undergrowth towards the enemy or cruising through the water in a gun boat. It also contained a lot of variety and was a huge game.

You were not just in one type of environment, and each section was big in it's own right. The section on the ship, the tree top research facility, the underground labs and tunnels, the hangers and outside areas of the bases. All amazing and well designed.

My favourite area had to be the part with three small islands, where you could use the gun boats to travel around between them, as well as the jeeps on each. I replayed the one section many times, it was so enjoyable. I can[t wait for the sequel and that might be the game that forces me to upgrade my graphics card from my current 7800GT.

And Half Life 2 was just as good, with a great story and amazing environments. It's only downfall was being slightly too linear, but the sections of that game, especially the prison were simply amazing.