Think about it... Marathon was the start of all good FPS games. It made you have to aim and strafe to get your kill. Of course, games HAVE evolved from 2d graphic games like marathon. Halo: Combat Evolved made the xbox what it is today, basically, and Halo 2 helped the process. My point is: If Halo 3 was it's own game, made by a different developer, it probably wouldn't have been as hyped as Bungie's older games made it. Would it make the cut as 'The best game of the year'?
Well, I disagree with Marathon being the start of anything other than Bungie's FPS games, but that's not important. I feel that Halo 3 was anything other than Halo, it would still be a success. The solid and expansive multiplayer would be enough to make a name for itself. It would fail as a single player game, but that's not why people would play it. It would be like anything from the Unreal Tournament series (not to be confused with the Unreal series). It would be less popular, yes, but it would still be huge.
Well, halo 1 and 2 were basically a game everyone had, so you had to get halo 3. But, I still think that halo 3 would have gotten as many followers even without 1 and 2 because I myself never owned or played halo 1 or marathon, and yet I bought 2. I was just expecting another game, but man was I surprised.
Probably wouldn't get the votes for GOTY because the majority of voters never touched another game and are fan boys for halo. People would call it great though because of thearter's awesomeness, the balance of weapons + vehicles, the # of gametypes (Alot of games only have like 5), customizing a map the way you want (Not the best though), ect.
i feel yes it would, but not as quick. I'm sure the sales would be as high but it would take some time, mainly because people would have to realize its a great game and everybody knew the halo franchise were going to get better and better. Allot of people will agree with me, when i say halo 3 would win game of the year hands down and i see what your saying that many people are fan boys and will only play a halo game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QA621bPU18 i recently found that, its a great video of machinima showing what halo 3 would be like if it was made by nintendo, I'm not saying Nintendo arnt very good at making games but i can't see it being the same, halo is bungie claim to fame and they deserve it, they've made a great game and we thank them so much.
Character customization Large offline and online multi player Somewhat expansive map customization Great single player campaign Characters that you can get attached to Great difficulty levels to accommodate to beginners and hardcore players An expansive set of weapons and equipment Downloadable maps A slightly laggy online experience File sharing to show off your custom maps, pictures, and videos Theater mode and I'm sure I'm missing some other things, this is game of the year material no matter what company it's by. It would probably be just as popular no matter what. After you list the stuff that it offers, it totally shows up as something that would be on the high end of amazing gaming. I think I can say that not every game I know offers all of this.
It would have been less popular but more appreciated due to the fact that it wouldn't suffer from comparisons to halo 1 or halo 2. Sales wise halo 2 and halo 3 essentially sold themselves based on the previous game.