This is why I love this board

[Cornholio857]

I'm not sure about the dual wielding. But I do know they have included the light sword. It was planned to be included in the original Xbox version anyways, so that's a welcome addition in my book.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

If you look at the first person shooter genere even from Wolfstein then to Doom then to Duke Nukem 3D and so on, each expanded and bought something new to the genere, slowly raising the bar higher. I am struggling to think of any modern console FPS that raises the bar higher than Goldeneye - a game that was pretty damn close to perfection.

To say they are all the same is perhaps an exaggeration, but to say they have improved is another matter.

The only two that come to mind that raise the bar higher than GoldenEye are Perfect Dark and Halo. Perfect Dark introduced Alternate Fire and AI Bots if I remember correctly. Halo gave us Vehicles and polished the gameplay up a bit more. I think Halo was the first FPS I played that gave you a flashlight and Grenades as secondary items that you didn't have to switch weapons to use.

Then there's the stuff from Valve. Team Fortress really made Multiplayer FPS's much more interesting with it's Class System and other RPG element. Portal is an interesting take on the FPS Gameplay mechanics by making more of a puzzle game than a shooter. And then there's Left 4 Dead, which is just awesome. These don't necessarily change much about the gameplay, but the scenarios they put you in make games that feel dramatically different from other FPS games.

[Genesis Knight]

There's no dual wielding because that wasn't added until Halo 2 and 3.

And for the record, Unreal had introduced alt fire in 1998, two years before perfect dark. There might have been other games before Unreal that had alt fire also, but I can't remember right now. And even Quake 1 had bots.

[Cornholio857]

There's no dual wielding because that wasn't added until Halo 2 and 3.

I know, sheath was wondering if they were going to include it in Halo Anniversary. Like him, I'm not quite sure. I do know they kept the original multiplayer maps and created updated ones based on the originals with new areas etc. So you get both new and old. Love me some Blood Gultch!

[Genesis Knight]

I know, sheath was wondering if they were going to include it in Halo Anniversary. Like him, I'm not quite sure. I do know they kept the original multiplayer maps and created updated ones based on the originals with new areas etc. So you get both new and old. Love me some Blood Gultch!

Well, I said that because Halo Anniversary is just Saber Interactive's new graphics layer on top of the original game engine. So if it's not in Halo 1, it's not in Halo Anniversary. The multiplayer aspect is essentially a Reach map pack. You don't need Reach to play the maps, and there will be game types where you can play with the original Pistol and such, but it is not a reinvented multiplayer mode. It is the Reach engine.

[Cornholio857]

Ahhh....the original pistol. I'll be getting plenty of head shots in multiplayer when it's released.

[sheath]

I still get pissed off when I think about an old friend head shotting me with that damned pistol when he couldn't even see my character due to the standard definition resolution and how far away he was. Because of this, you are both cheating bastards. Just sayin'.

[Genesis Knight]

It was a beautiful thing. Truly leveled the battlefield. In Halo:CE you were never afraid on shotguns or snipers or rockets - you spawned with the best weapon in the game! Then again, it only really worked because Halo 1 didn't have LIVE matchmaking, so you were only ever playing with your friends. I can only imagine the gnashing of teeth when we go against Teh Internets (c) with a 3-shot pistol.

[16-bit]

Halo:Combat Evolved really was a fantastic game. I can remember going to my friend's house every single day after school for at least a few months and playing a bunch of multilplayer matches. The map Hang 'em High with the Rockets weapon set was always my favorite.

As for CoD, I think it's getting old. I bought Black Ops because I have a pretty strong interest in the cold war, but the story and various choices with the presentation were pretty weak and I found myself wishing that I was playing MGS 3 more and more as the campaign mode went on. The multiplayer and Zombies were cool though.

[Obviously]

There's another person in this world that thinks the first halo was the best?! Mind = Blown.
Loved Halo:CE, Halo 2 was just weak, 3 was uninspired, and Reach was lame but entertaining.

You can count me in there too. I enjoyed the first Halo, could care less for the rest of the series.

The only two that come to mind that raise the bar higher than GoldenEye are Perfect Dark and Halo. Perfect Dark introduced Alternate Fire and AI Bots if I remember correctly. Halo gave us Vehicles and polished the gameplay up a bit more. I think Halo was the first FPS I played that gave you a flashlight and Grenades as secondary items that you didn't have to switch weapons to use.

Then there's the stuff from Valve. Team Fortress really made Multiplayer FPS's much more interesting with it's Class System and other RPG element. Portal is an interesting take on the FPS Gameplay mechanics by making more of a puzzle game than a shooter. And then there's Left 4 Dead, which is just awesome. These don't necessarily change much about the gameplay, but the scenarios they put you in make games that feel dramatically different from other FPS games.

I'd go further with Valve than the Multiplayer stuff. In the original Half-Life the well designed scripted sequences and uninterrupted in-game storytelling pretty much changed the way modern video games are designed. And it also had a flashlight before Halo.

Dynamix's Tribes and Tribes 2 also created some great team-based multiplayer gameplay and pioneered the use of vehicles.

Edit: Anyway yeah, it's not fair to say nothing has evolved since Goldenye though in recent years a lot of FPS games tend to be content to be carbon copies of one another with some exceptions, usually titles that skirt with other genres.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I used to piss everyone off in Hang'em high because I'd sit up top and snipe with the Pistol.

[Genesis Knight]

I don't get why there's such a large group of older fans who love Halo 1 so much but hate or don't care about the rest of the franchise. Here's what I think the other installments brought to the table:

Halo 2: Matchmaking over LIVE - join up with your friends around the country and take on a unending host of skilled human opponents any time of the day or night.
Halo 3: The Halo campaign experience with next-gen presentation and scope. An evolution of Halo 2 multiplayer with several years' worth of improvements, adjustments, and twists.
Halo Reach: Completely overhauled multiplayer gameplay and an epic new campaign as a series of Spartans very different from Master Chief.

And the spin-offs:

Halo Wars: A solid RTS experience from the Age of Empires team, delivered with panache on console controllers and Xbox LIVE.
Halo ODST: A more intimate campaign as the weaker human ODST soldiers for fans of the universe who want a different perspective. A very challenging and unpredictable survival mode in the form of Horde.

[sheath]

I played Halo 2 + 3 as well, I found them fine really. Halo 1 just stuck with me longer, and I only really liked the Coop campaign.

[Zebbe]

Military "simulators" = boring, pretentious crap.
Spaceship shooters = FUN!

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I don't like Halo 2 and 3 because of the changes in gameplay. In the original Halo if you fell off a relatively high ledge, you died, or at the very least took some heavy damage. In Halo 2 and 3 you can fall off rather high areas and not get hurt. What I tried of Reach seemed ok though.