As you know, gaming has it many debates on which is better. Resident Evil vs. Silent Hill. Quake vs. Doom. The Legend Of Zelda vs. Final Fantasy. Soul Calibur vs. Dead or Alive. And so on and so forth, but lately there has been one argument that to me doesn't make too much sense. I'm talking about Halo 3 vs. Call of Duty 4.
As soon as Call of Duty 4 was released, I saw many Halo enthusiasts instantly drop the game and start playing Call of Duty 4. They claim that they see no reason to ever go back to Halo 3 after they made the bandwagon jump to Call of Duty 4, but why?
I mean sure, everyone has their preferences, but why did all of a sudden Halo 3 get shunned? My friend Brian, who keep in mind, originally bought a 360 so he could get Halo 3, was one of the first people to abandon it once Call Of Duty 4 came around. My point is, I'm not sure why these games decided to get grouped together for the purpose of arguing over.
They are very different games. Call Of Duty 4 is your tactical, ultra realistic "shoot you in the pinky toe and die because the vibrations carry through your bodily fluids and which in turn rupture your vital organs" And Halo 3 is your ,sci-fi, far from real "die from a laser which can go through an over shield and 4 inches of metal. They are two completely different games, sharing only the fact that they are First Person Shooters and huge titles, among other miscellaneous similarities.
So why then have gamers been at each other’s neck about this issue? How I see things, this debate shouldn't really be going on, but yet it is. Why not argue over games with the same style and genre? Arguing over Counter-Strike vs. Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament vs. Halo 3 would make a lot more sense now wouldn't it? Those are arguments I could get into. Perhaps its because the Halo series have been blown out of proportion by media coverage and not to mention an underwhelming sequel, while Call of Duty 4 almost came out of nowhere, with only COD fans eargerly anticipating it. Now word of mouth has caught on about the game and its spreading.
I don't know about you, but I have enough love for Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3. I have to admit that lately I have been more into Call of Duty 4, especially on LIVE, but that’s because Call of Duty 4 doesn't allow split screen LANing or split screen via LIVE. A feature that Halo has had since Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. My Friends and I can LAN Halo 3 any time we want. So Call of Duty 4 takes precedence on live immediately.
And do you really want to play either Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 exclusively? Well recently my friend Brian, who was so against ever playing Halo 3 again, has started playing Halo 3 again. Shocking isn't it? Well not really. That’s the main issue that gets me with the Halo or Call of Duty zealots. When I ask them if they'll ever go back to Halo, they always swear that they'll never touch it again. These are the same people who weeks later you see on your friends list with "online in Halo 3" under their name. They come back they ALWAYS come back.
I think the majority of us need to use our time better and split it between more games. Sure, I might catch some flack for saying this, but I have enough love for both of these games. And besides, All Call of Duty 4 and no Halo 3 makes Samson a dull boy.
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I know most of us (or a few of us im not sure) never did like the Halo franchise so theres been numbers of us "bashing" it.
I mean, I got nothing against those who like Halo but I always thought the press it got was way too much for the type of FPS it was. Maybe Call of Duty made a good amount of Halo players realize what a reallyfun FPS is and could be.
As an avid gamer I look at it this way. What has Bungie done to Halo to vastly improve on the formula that we've been experiencing for years now? If you ask me, the answer is nothing at all.
You could easily argue that COD4 is just another realist FPS frag-fest in the same vein as Counterstrike, but it's so much more accessible to the average consumer.
COD4's online component is so well balanced, fun, and addicting. Halo 3 doesn't come close. COD4 is simply that good.
I agree with Tragic Hero. Halo is simply not an innovative FPS at all. Never has been, likely never will be.
Sure, the online aspects (and the new map editor and video features) are top notch, but the gameplay itself is so old it's painful.
CoD4, while not quite as tactical as a series such as Rainbow Six, manages to straddle that line between arcade/FPS fun and realistic that whets a lot of appetites (mine included). Plus, it offered up some sweet gameplay innovations such as wall permeability and perks to an already strong formula.
I do understand your point, however. I simply happen to dislike Halo. Sorry.
I just plain think that COD4 is more fun than Halo, which is why I havent touched Halo 3 since COD4 came out
While I tend towards CoD4 lately, I swap in Halo3/TF2 at regular intervals just to mix it up a bit.
king3vbo took the words out of my mouth.
Also, I originally came in here to comment on the Led Zeppelin reference in this blog’s title. Zeppelin fucking rocks!
Halo vs. Unreal? I have never seen make that argument lol, nor have I heard of Quake vs. Doom.. Doom has been in its own little world. The biggest argument Ive seen was Quake Vs. Unreal Tournament .. that being because those are the two largest MP DM games on the market.. and the arguments usually just bounce around personal prefrence.
Like me, I love quake much more because the speed of gameplay is much more chaotic than that of UT.
Most of these arguments are over personal prefrence, and someones idea of how much skill it really requires to play the game.. its fun having them but they only prove one thing in the end.. person a) prefers their type of game, just like person b) does.
Count me among those who don't play Halo at all. I was part of the 2847 kajillion sales of Halo 3, but I sold it back before long. I don't see how people can switch back and forth between the two, honestly. They're very different, correct, which would make playing one and then the other quite jarring, I'd expect.
in my awesome opinion, COD4 does the matchmaking thing leaps and bounds better, but halo 3 excels in custom games and support from microsoft ie: the matchmaking in halo although slow at times is really well thought out
I really think I played the CoD4 beta more than what I've played of Halo 3 online. I dunno, something changed from halo 2 that made me not like it as much, I'll still play halo 3 if i receive invites, but I won't venture into it alone.
CoD4 is balanced? It does matchmaking better?
Guess I was playing a different game, my copy had this crappy perk system that unbalanced in favor of new people and with 25 kills you could turn the very first you where given into a tool of destruction. Plus matchmaking was great, I loved it when all the rank 1's would end up on our team and all the 55's would end up together, balance indeed.
Halo 3 is just flat-out better and more fun in every single way, CoD4 is an utter failure in terms of a setting where everyone is on equal footing, weapons in Halo do what they're supposed to do, at close range a shotgun decimates, with no shields a headshot with the BR kills you, one shot with the snipe takes your shield, an assault rifle beats a BR at close range.
I only take issue with the melee system in Halo, its to weird, but its 10 times worse in CoD, I put 5 bullets into you and you don't die, you scratch my arm with your little toy knife and OH SHIT, I'm dead, REALISM MOTHERFUCKERS, I guess the knife is covered in shit or something.
And in Halo, when I get bored of regular vs types, I just hop into custom games and have some fun with tweaked mechanics, soccer, spartan golf, the american gladiators map, some amazing stuff there that keeps Halo from getting old.
What can I do in CoD? Frag people in a different way? Play hardcore? Its still the same SHIT with a new bow on top, but much like CoD4's single player but that's a story for another time.
To sum what I just said.
CoD4=Shit
Halo 3=Great.
Nanbu-
You might have had a decent point or two, had you (like so many internet exaggerators) had to take everything to an extreme and make a joke of your own argument.
Let's set aside the fact that you call a universally acclaimed game "shit" and that you fellate Halo 3 while knocking CoD's so-called lack of realism (irony, anyone?).
Your description of your experiences with melee in CoD really just sounds like every other person who sucks at the game bitching about things that don't reflect reality. Suuuuurrrre, you put five bullets in him. Riiiiight.
Many people who are playing Halo 3 have played either Halo 2 or all three Halo games, and are just waiting to kick the shit out of any noob who enters a multiplayer game. I think I can speak objectively about CoD's multiplayer balance, since I both a)just started playing the game in the last month and b)my only real shooter experience before this was Goldeneye for N64 and a little Gears of War. It's not as if I'm awesome at shooters. Still, I was able to get about a .7 ratio to start out in CoD, even with the supposed imbalance of teams and broken perk system.
The perk system doesn't matter that much at all. Once you get them, you're happy to have them, but a good player is a good player either way. It's not as if those who do prestige mode suddenly suck when they lose their perks.
From what I've heard and experienced, CoD 4 is just as fair and easy to learn as Halo 3 is, if not much more so.
I can't comment on Halo 3's matchmaking since I don't play it, but CoD is balanced just fine. If you suck at it, that's your problem. There are plenty of other new players who do well, and don't go running back to something they're more familiar with (ie Halo 3) when they can't immediately have a 2:1 kill/death ratio.
@Samson:
Well written Post. My opnion though will differ form yours simply because to me, personally, CoD4 is just such a polished and superior product over Halo 3.
It's ironic that you posted in your pic "Finish the Fight" as the one are that Halo 3 should of been better than Cod4, that being the story mode of the game was to me, the most disapointing.
I still have Halo3. Will I go back to it? I honestly don't know the answer to that. I do know I'll be playing CoD4 as much as possible.
Oh look! Another Halo vs. CoD 4 argument in a blog. Gee, I haven't seen one these in a while.
Remember guys. You can't like them both. It's time to stick to one and fuck everything else. Why!? Because that's what gamers do! Don't question it! We have to be negative about something all the time!
A new game is out? Fuck it! It sucks!
BLAGH!
I'm going back to eating my meatball soup. GOOD DAY!