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Bungie: 1b Online Halo 3 Matches Played
Halo house Bungie has announced a major milestone for the blockbuster Halo 3.
After over a year of availability, the game has hosted over 1 billion online matches on Xbox Live, the developer said.
What put Halo 3 over the billion mark was a four-person, three minute, 19 second Infection match on the Foundry map. Total matchmaking time equaled over 2 trillion seconds, or 64,109 years of playtime.
By comparison, Halo 2 for the original Xbox currently boasts 798 million total matches played.
"We're in awe of the success Halo 3 has been met with, but we're not done yet. Stick around and stay tuned, there's definitely more to come," read Bungie's website.
Later this year, the studio plans to release Halo 3: ODST, which puts players in the boots of a less-than-Spartan "Orbital Drop Shock Trooper."
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
I'm proud to say I never played a one of them. I am a little too passive in my playing of FPSs to enjoy deathmatching with the kids on Live.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
If have enough mates with a copy, you shouldn't miss out on Halo 3 online. Hell, I'll give you a game on it.
I went back to single-player recently and, c'mon, it wasn't all that bad, that is if we completely ignore the Flood level. But the scarabs?
People expected too much out of the (single player) Halo sequels and Bungie didn't quite live up to the expectation. But the Halo single-player is a lot better than a hell of a lot of shooters out there which I won't name.
Saint,
I agree with you. I think the Halo franchise is held to an impossible standard. If you campare Halo to most FPSs on consoles it really shows you how well Bungie did both the campaign (4 player online/system link coop) and MP. I'm not saying it beats everything by a long shot, but other than a few exceptions, Halo IMO is the best packaged FPS on the 360 (can't speak of PS3 since I've never played it).
"I'm not saying it beats everything by a long shot, but other than a few exceptions"
Which ones would those be, because I'd love to try them? FarCry2 - it came very close and was exceptionally good but I won't still be playing it 12 months down the line. COD:WaW - tried it for the first time yesterday and hated the WW2-on-speed-and-steroids kind of gameplay. Not to mention the undisguised and shoddy film-apeing. FEAR 2 - yeah, it's pretty good but too easy. The only one I am yet to try is COD4, but I'm dreading the COD 'sheen' will ruin it once again.
I haven't really thought about it this way but Halo is hands down the best FPS I have played. Not the best game mind you, not by a long shot, but the best FPS certainly.
Well, as far a packaged FPS is concerned, I think it's the best hands-down. The best post-release support, frequent updates to matchmaking playlists, multiple auto-updates (the ones that addressed weapons balance, weapon placement, grenade and melee damage levels, etc...you know what I'm talking about), DLC, I could go on and on. The photo and video system is amazing (soon we'll be able to upload our videos to Bungie.net too and download them like we can the photos). I like being able to share that stuff with friends, forge is great if that is your thing. I enjoyed the campaign especially with friends. The campaign scoring is great (CoD4 borrowed that a bit) and the skulls are always fun to mess around with. I probably could go on and on.
Hmm, there's certain aspects of other FPSs that I think were done better. I think Bungie could have done a better job with rewarding you with leveling with more than just a number (and rank). CoD4's multiplayer leveling system I think was much more rewarding (I don't know if that type of perk system would really work in Halo though). The campaign was pretty good in CoD4, I don't know if I'd say better but very good.
If I'd have to name a few FPSs that I felt were up there with Halo (not going to say better/worse) would be.
( ) = what I liked about the game that I thought did a comparable job when put up against Halo in that area.
1) CoD4 (MP leveling system, campaign) (if you haven't played it you owe it to yourself to at least play the campaign, bummer no co-op though...)
2) Bioshock (campaign, atmosphere, story, didn’t have MP)
3) Gears (campaign, coop campaign, hated the MP)
4) Chronicles of Riddick (xbox 1) (campaign, RPG elements, stealth elements, didn’t have MP)
5) Rainbow Six Vegas (either 360 version) (coop campaign, tactical elements)
6) Ghost Recon (either 360 version) (campaign, tactical elements)
Those are all shooters from the first perspective but they are different in a way that they can't be directly compared to Halo, but I enjoyed them nearly as much. I really liked Far Cry 2 until I got frustrated with the fast-travel system, the lack of a check-point system, and I didn’t like the equipment management system (having to set my primary/secondary/special equipment boxes I didn’t like only being able to have a sniper or an assault rifle at any given time). And the random attacks by the morons in the Jeeps got annoying after a while. I did love the atmosphere of the game though, the feeling of really being in an open environment in Africa and the variety of the locales were great, too.
I also didn’t really like CoDWaW either. I really liked CoD4, but not WaW.
I guess I personally can’t say I like any FPS overall more than Halo, but some had aspects that definitely challenged Halo in their respective areas.
edit: Sorry post so long.
Actually, thanks for reminding me of Bioshock. It was so unique that I didn’t think of it as an FPS, which I suppose it was. The mechanics weren’t robust enough for MP though and it would have ruined the brilliant atmosphere.
As for FarCry, personally I think the tough-love of the saving/travelling system is what made the game for me. Crouching in the bush on a hill above a camp, on Hard difficulty, one syrette left, 6 bullets in the sniper rifle. You think “if I get this right I’ll get through 5 maybe 6 enemies before I have to go in” and you know what, you get nervous, at least I did. The reason it can make you nervous is because you last saved a solid 20 mins ago. A quicksave/quick travel system would have ruined that immersion – you could just run in and shoot like a maniac safe in the knowledge that you can just load up the game to 2 mins ago if you die. Where’s the fun in that?
Hmm, I think I know what I’ll be playing tonight .
Yeah, I agree Bioshock wasn't really an FPS, it was really just a game from the first person perspective but I wouldn't consider it a "shooter".
I know what you mean about Far Cry. There was a mission where I took a boat in all stealth like, sniped about 6-7 guys on the docs, ended up only have to fight a few guys after that. I crept in, interrogated some dude, then as I was leaving trying to get back to a safe house, I encountered a random jeep, I was hiding up on this hill behind this big rock and I must have strafed too much to the left and I fell off a cliff and died. I got through the whole mission nearly, spent about an hour being careful, and then died in a relative random way. I was so frustrated. And having to drive for so long between missions really wore on me. If I had more time I wouldn't mind, but with the 6 other games I bought during the holidays (Fallout, Fable, CoDWaW, just to name few) and the fact that I have 3 kids and a wife, I just didn't have time for it. But I do see your point about being more nervous cause you know what is at stake if you die.
Speaking of tonight, I'll be trying out my copy of Halo Wars for the first time. Been trying to whore some Halo 3 achievements but none of my friends have the new maps (darn MS and their extortion tactics, haven't released the new maps on the marketplace yet, are forcing you to buy the LE copy of Halo Wars if you want the new Halo 3 maps...lame).
Yeah, but frustrations like that happen in all games. My girlfriend deleted my entire Oblivion save files not so long ago - I think I blacked out a little from the pain of losing 120+ hours worth of Oblivioning. Not really relevant I need to share otherwise I might start crying again.
I think FarCry was special because it didn't make apologies for what it was. Yup, you have to drive for 5-10 mins to get to a mission, deal with it, it seemed to say, that's how it would be if you were there! It forced you into the character you were playing more that other games do. Of course it would have been a total waste if the envoronment, atmosphere and story weren't so consistently good and robust. The random jeeps thing was a little archaic and always reminded me of the JRPG staple. A lot of people found it to be a lazy shortcut to enliven the driving, and therefore annoying. I think having more guard-houses of varying sizes would have solved that problem. Mind, you I did enjoy sniping the drivers out of the cars from a mile away.
Very true (about the "this is how you'd pretty much need to do it in real life thing", I'm paraphrasing of course). If I had the time I would have liked to play it (Far Cry) more.
I had a lot of fun sometimes with the random Jeeps cause the driver sometimes would take a while to get out so I'd just turret him in the face as he just sat there.
You're right, and I think they nailed the atmosphere, environments, and story.
Sorry to hear about your Oblivion disaster, I think I would cry have cried, too.
darn double posts.
This is not hard to believe judging by the sheer size of the Halo community who constantly play games daily. Congrats to Bungie. I just wished the single player portion of the game was up to par with the multiplayer.
The same can be (and is being) said about Killzone2 and just about every other FPS ever made, but that won't stop them from clockin crazy multiplayer games. The focus on these games has really shifted to multiplayer anyway. Nowadays it seems like you need to get yourself an RPG for a good fulfilling storyline. Halo definitely has its moments but in terms of storytelling, I gotta go with Gears if we're sticking with shooters.
The strange thing about shooters is that many do a decent job of providing an interesting back story, but stumble at actually providing a good story within the game itself. Gears and Killzone are good examples of this as they create compelling universes and allude to interesting events, but then fail to flesh them out.
I actually think the Halo series does a slightly better job at storytelling. The fact that there are 6 novels supporting the three games shows that there is actually a fairly involved (if convoluted) story in the series. I say this in comparison to video game stories only - obviously, it doesn't hold up to other mediums.
I do agree that the FPS genre has shifted very heavily towards the multiplayer (including co-op) aspect as opposed to single player experiences.
Good point you guys have been making. Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock (developer of Galactic Civilisation series and publisher of Sins of a Solar Empire and Demigod) said that he wonders what people have to sacrifice in the Single Player and Sandbox mode to feature multiplayer. I understand that the genre he was referring to was GalCiv genre but I think it's relevant to almost every genre out there.
I also believe that he's right in everything he says on the matter and that it's a shame that games pump more into multiplayer and internet connectivity rather then the Single Player aspect. I'm trying to pull the link up now but I can't seem to find the forum he posted. Sorry guys.
? What the- oh, sorry I got lost. This is the dorks thread, I suppose. lol. Don't worry, I'm outta here.
Deeznuts, get back to defending KZ2 in the KZ2 verdict thread...^^
A moment of silent for the hundreds of millions of Spartans and Elites that died in order to achieve such milestone, RIP.