I'm just judging them against one another based on how I feel about them now. I still think Halo 2 is probably the worst one, and that's WITHOUT having played it recently. But in a more general sense, no it's not "fair" to hold CE up to today's standards. I certainly wouldn't write angry letters to Id Software asking why the graphics in Doom were so rudimentary, you know? CE's campaign was amazing in its day. But I've played it (in Anniversary form) recently enough to know that in Reach's day, it's not actually as great as it used to be - and it makes me wonder why people are so hard on Reach, even its campaign, which is pretty damn good. (I actually think the ending of Reach's campaign is the best they ever did. Say what you will about not feeling the other characters' deaths - and I tend to agree - it's still poignant and sad living out Noble Six's last moments, just trying to go down fighting.)
Actually, I saw that on youtube and I was like OMFG SO TRUE! However, all games age. CE is possibly one of the best aging games however. Duke Nukem Forever. Enough has been said. I think part of the problem people have with CEs age besides the audio parts of the game were largely to do with hardware restrictions. When you look at it, it's evident that a lot of the firefight like situations are so stripped back when compared today because running multiple AI is a massive data user, and on software like the original xbox (and because it was just released nobody had had time to perfect engines etc for it. Look at the graphical improvements from halo 3, to ODST, to reach, to 4. All on the same console, whilst all of them ran at the limits of their engine) To judge a game based on very limiting hardware restrictions is a bit mean, but modern standards are quite mean. And yes, I agree with your fundamental point, that in its current form it would not pass as the best halo. Still blows the BF3, COD MW3, Black Ops, MW2, WaW, BF:BC2, DNF and so on out of the water though. Final Thought: Boats. Cut from reach. Possibly in 4?
IMO, Halo 3 had the most fun last level, but the cutscene at the end of Reach when you see the PoA taking off is really cool. Though I'm glad they out in the Lone Wolf mission, I didn't feel like it really added anything to the story. I personally enjoyed every aspect of Halo 2's campaign except for the ending, but Bungie was rushed pretty badly and they had to do something. If Halo 2 was delayed a little bit it would have been much better. I don't blame Microsoft, though. Bungie did have 3 years, which is more time than a lot of developers have these days. I hope Halo 4 has a warthog run at the end.
There have been an uncountable number of threads on B.net about this and the conclusion is always the same. The UNSC has space ships, why the **** would they need boats?
He didn't refuse to leave a vessel as it crashed, he deliberately crashed it. If anything, she was the curious one of the group. Her name is most likely a reference to "Curiosity killed the cat". Of course they'd make the player character some poorly characterised clichéd loner assassin who doesn't speak and can conveniently fly the top secret starfighter. If anything Emile was the gung-ho badass character who exists purely to die like a badass not even giving a **** to give you just a little bit more time. Heavy weapons, not explosives.
Battlefield 3 was crap? I guess it's your opinion, but.... I think boats would be cool. They could create some interesting custom games if nothing else
it was a pretty self explanatory level. ahah. i dont want boats in halo 4. no particular reason just ehhhh no.
Boats were in GTA San Andreas, possibly my favorite game ever. I'd be OK with some boats. But logically, there's really no reason for them to exist in the Halo universe.
A boat that functions like a nautical warthog would be ballzacks. You'd die instantly if you ever got out over water, and the shooting against other boats would be like two warthog gunners on completely flat ground. There's a reason they were cut in the first place. In other news there's a good chance the Precursors are the enemy in Halo 4. Left is a precursor, right is frames from an enemy sneak peek that have been spliced together.
Heck, masses of cut content made it into reach in one form or another. The larger scale battle at the start of the spire mission was going to be an entire missions segment originally. Forgeworld may have been designed with water vehicles in mind. The saddest cut from reach though is boarding enemies like hunters. gawd that was hot.
The precursors would make a good enemy. Tier 0 civilization (meaning smarter than Forerunner and has intergalactic space flight capability) and majorly pissed off at both humanity and anything forerunner (Ancient humans defeated their flood weapon, forunners fought them to "supposed" extinction) My guess as to how the Covenant will fit into it is there are probably still enclaves of Covenant who worship the Forerunner as gods and that is why they're there.
There's no reason to have boats, at least anything less than aircraft carriers. The boats in Longshore made for some cool minigames, though.