Today, Wednesday, April 14th, 2010, is the original Xbox Live’s last hoorah before it is blown into the sky like so many Warthogs. So if you want to give Halo 2 one last spin before the old girl is put to pasture, now’s the time. Unfortunately, I have to work for most of the day. But with any luck, I’ll find at least a little bit of time for the game that made Xbox Live. Can’t they kill Halo 3 instead?

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1UP is reporting the sad news that the original Xbox will cease to support Xbox Live on April 15th, 2010. Not a big deal in of itself, but it is disheartening that original Xbox titles will no longer be playable on Live, even if played on a 360. So, yes, that means no more Halo 2. Bungie is apparently planning a big send off. I just might have to put the old girl in the disc tray one last time. Microsoft gives a bunch of “greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community” BS, but there better be something more than friend-cap alterations to back this move up. It’s just sad to see the game that build Xbox Live put out to pasture.

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If you’ve been exposed to any form of electronic media in the past six months, you’ve probably heard of a little game called Halo 3: ODST, which tells the story of what happened on Earth following Master Chief’s departure in Halo 2. Or is it an expansion? That’s where a lot of the confusion comes in with Bungie’s experimental new title. They price it like a full game, and in theory, the concepts behind the game should generate an entirely new Halo experience, but at the same time, they rely quite heavily on Halo 3‘s assets and formulas throughout. The end result is a very fun Halo game that will likely satisfy some gamers with its proven techniques and disappoint others with its lack of innovations.

Before you even start the new campaign you’re greeted by some truly atmospheric tunes that set the game’s emotional bar throughout. But most of us probably didn’t fork over 60 hard earned dollars to listen to Marty O’Donnell’s menu score, so let’s move onto the campaign.

In classic Halo fashion, the game starts out with a brief cut-scene introducing us to all of our new allies before we’re thrown into the action. From the get-go, the light-hearted camaraderie of your Orbital Drop Shock Trooper squad is established, and it is made clear that you, as “The Rookie”, are not really a part of the group yet.

Keen eared gamers will notice that Firefly‘s Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin voice three of your five comrades, and Joss Whedon’s masterful space-western is a clear influence throughout ODST (does anybody else think Pelicans look awfully similar to Fireflies?). This is especially apparent in the romantic sub-plot between your squad leader, Buck, and Captain Veronica Dare, an Office of Naval Intelligence operative with her own secret mission. Their light on love, heavy on hate relationship reeks of Mal and Inara’s burning tensions, but unfortunately, ODST‘s character models and animations lack the subtlety to match the voice overs.

Like this, except Veronica's a blonde.

Surprisingly though, your allies’ character models are really the only things that don’t look great in this game. Considering it’s running off of Halo 3‘s 2007 engine, that’s pretty impressive. The satisfying visuals are probably due in part to the fantastic art direction of all Halo titles. The environments, enemies, weapons, and so on are all supremely crafted to give a distinct Halo look while getting tweaked enough to stay fresh and draw the eye.

The moon-lit city of New Mombasa that you’re dropped into aids in giving a very different vibe than past Halo games as well. And the lack of actual moon lighting also gives the developers an excuse to throw a night-vision mode in the game. While the basking, green glow and stark contour outlines of the night-vision mode do mesh with the environment pretty well without robbing it of its natural beauty, I have a bit of a pet peeve for visual filters. I just think it makes more sense to design a level that can be seen in the first place, without a filter that’s radically different from the initial view. But either way, the game looks good.

A different mood isn’t the only thing ODST‘s hub-world of New Mombasa offers though; it marks a radical departure from the traditional Halo structure, or any FPS’s structure for that matter. Rather than jumping into an action-packed assault mission with a clear objective like the intro levels of previous installments in the series, your trooper wakes up in his assault pod six hours after the drop is disrupted by the Prophet of Regret’s escape into slip-space. You blow the door to your pod and jump to the dark and barren streets of a city ravaged by war. The eerily unpopulated streets serve as a sort of open world, albeit a heavily restricted one, where you must search for your scattered squad-mates.

New Mombasa's an atmospheric place.

This illusion of non-linear structure (because you still have to find your squad-mates in a specific order) is very different from any previous Halo level. There are very few enemies roaming the streets and with a little bit of stealth, the player can avoid combat all together. That can be difficult though, considering you’ll undoubtedly want to search for the 30 audio-logs hidden throughout the world, which are often in close proximity to enemies. Now mind you, when I say that you’ll undoubtedly want to search for these bits of back story, I say so purely as an achievement whore. Taken in the light of story-telling, these audio-logs contribute to the terribly uninteresting story of a single New Mombasa citizen and her struggles in the volatile city earlier in the day. They really do feel utterly cliche and tacked on, much like the mindless “Glass this” phrases scrawled on the walls of buildings. Just because other games are doing these things doesn’t mean this one should.

But if that weren’t enough motivation to blow searching for the diaries off, perhaps frustratingly copy-pasted level design is. The hub world essentially looks the same no matter where you are, especially considering how dark everything is, so it can become confusing and frustrating to remember which nooks and crannies you’ve already searched. And because you have to press up on the D-pad to activate way point markers, I probably spent the first hour of the game even more frustrated with the terrible level design while searching for my objectives. I mean, really, why are way points not automatically displayed like in every previous Halo game?

But just because Bungie executed the hub-world poorly doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. I really did enjoy the Black Hawk Down-like search for my scattered allies, and the isolation of the city streets pairs with a fantastically film-Noir inspired score to give the game a real fresh feeling that holds a lot of potential. Where ODST really picks up though, is when the player, as The Rookie, finds the broken remnants of his squad-mates one by one. Upon discovering a bent sniper rifle or a helmet smashed through a monitor you get to relive that squad member’s memories through flashback missions. This level structure allows the player to play as every squad member at different parts of the day from the second the pods hit the ground to the game’s climax.

These flashback missions play in Halo‘s traditional linear style and tend to offer more thrills than the Rookie segments. There are some great vehicle-centric set-pieces as well as some good old run ‘n’ gun that make ODST a blast to play. One of my only quips with the actual gameplay is its total lack of deviation from the standard formula of its predecessors. Given how weak ODSTs are in comparison to the Master Chief, I find it disappointing that the gameplay wasn’t altered at all to emphasize team work, cover, or tactical thought. The same old style of play is encouraged, but all the enemies are tougher now and there are no regenerating shields to fall back on. I’m not sure if it was lazy development or if Bungie was just too afraid to branch out that far with the expectations of a typical Halo title burdening ODST, but I feel like the gameplay suffers because of it.

Spoiler: There's a Scarab.

I was also extremely let down by the total exclusion of Elites from the game. Considering the New Mombasa segments of Halo 2 featured Elite enemies rather than the much less interesting Brutes, I was incredibly surprised to see ODST populated solely by the gorilla-ish foes of Halo 3. One can only imagine how cool it would have been to have had the Elites and Brutes still fighting amongst each other in the city streets like with Metal Gear Solid 4‘s warring factions, where the player can choose sides or play the lone-wolf. I really can’t even articulate how much of a missed opportunity this is.

Another unfathomable exclusion is that of the iconic Battle Rifle weapon. The weapon roster is essentially the same as Halo 3, but with the BR and dual wielding removed. The omission of dual wielding has been explained as the ODSTs being weaker than the Master Chief, but that just doesn’t make a lot of sense when you can swing away with the Brute Hammer. They also remove the player’s ability to use equipment for some reason, despite the enemy’s ability to use it. These things just don’t make sense to me.

In compensation for what they removed, Bungie added a suppressed SMG with a scope and allegedly brought back Halo: Combat Evolved‘s pistol with a silencer thrown on for good measure. The SMG’s questionably high recoil makes it inferior to the SMGs of previous Halo titles in my opinion, and whoever propagated the return of the Halo 1 pistol is a liar. The new pistol is no where near as powerful as the fabled and legendary magnum from eight years ago. The only useful addition to the arsenal is a larger capacity for grenades, which are invaluable against groups of Brutes or Hunters who are suddenly more than minor obstacles.

Not this.

Luckily, The Rookie’s quest to unravel the mystery of his squad-mates’ whereabouts mixes with the action-packed flashbacks to keep us coming back for more until the very end. The interweaving story-arcs are really quite interesting and present a nice variety of mission-types in a plethora of different settings along the way. A Scorpion charge through the city and a Banshee escort in underground tunnels stand out as particularly strong points, but each and every level offers a good rush of fun. In fact, I was left wanting more after the credits rolled, but that’s probably just because the final mission doesn’t quite feel like a final mission. I’m not saying it’s Halo 2, but it’s definitely missing the epicness of Halo 1 or Halo 3.

As for the story, with the exception of the romantic sub-plot, which falls flat on its face, the main arc manages to keep pace with the fun gameplay. But there are a few spots that seem like they were over-looked, such as the absence of Elites, or the fact that the ODSTs are never once referred to as “Hell Jumpers” during the course of the campaign. And in the interest of not spoiling things, I’ll just say that there’s a very strange appearance of a new Covenant race which has never been seen before, and their presence is never really explained. I kept wondering to myself if they were mentioned in one of the Halo books that I hadn’t read, but even if they were, a player shouldn’t need such a comprehensive knowledge of the universe. The new aliens really do play a pretty big role with some city AI stuff too, and the nature of that was never made quite clear to me. These story blemishes just seemed very strange to me in such an otherwise enthralling package.

When it comes to the value of Halo 3: ODST, it’s really a matter of perspective. The campaign only takes six hours to complete on Heroic, but it’s definitely worth playing again with up to three other friends. And the much-hyped Firefight mode, essentially Halo‘s take on Horde mode, is a blast if you have friends to play with. The mode pits up to five players against wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies on any of eight different maps (more if you count night-time variants). However, I find the lack of any sort of match-making service for the mode a very interesting oversight. I simply don’t know four other people with ODST, and playing Firefight alone isn’t a lot of fun, so I just don’t understand what Bungie’s thought process was here.

Firefight.

But at least in the absence of Firefight I can experience the full Halo 3 multiplayer package, all downloadable maps as well as three brand new ones included, on the game’s second disc. The value in this is really a matter of how you feel about Halo 3‘s multiplayer. If you really like it, and for some reason you haven’t already downloaded all the map packs, then this is a great bargain. If on the other hand, you think Modern Warfare made Halo‘s peer-to-peer based and less progressive multiplayer obsolete, then this probably isn’t for you.

So should you get Halo 3: ODST? I’d argue that if you liked previous games in the series, you’ll probably like this one as well. Its approach to story-telling is really interesting and commendable, and the gameplay is consistently fun too. The hub-world might be less than stellar, and it is kind of disappointing that the classic formula is adhered to so strictly, but when it’s said and done, this is a fun game, or expansion, or whatever. Personally, I feel like the premise would have worked better had it not been chained to the Halo name, but that’s through no fault of the rich and diverse universe of that franchise. Rather I feel like the fan expectations of a Halo title restrict it from growing into something unique and different. But hey, we’ve got what we’ve got, and that’s a slightly uneven but very fun Halo game. Plus, NATHAN FILLION!

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First up, the wild speculation that holds absolutely no bearing on your life in the foreseeable future. Rumors are flying that none other than Steven Spielberg is set to produce the in-limbo Halo movie. The sultan of sci-fi was reportedly “blown away” by Stuart Beattie’s screenplay, which is mostly based on the prequel novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach. While no directors are attached to the rumor, the idea of Spielberg lending any of his talents to a script based on the best Halo novel is just snazzy.

Too bad then that Microsoft had this to say. “We’re glad there’s still a lot of enthusiasm in the entertainment industry surrounding the idea of a Halo movie. That said, the Halo feature film remains on hold as we focus on projects like Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach.” So don’t expect to be seeing anything soon.

Then in slightly more relevant news, a “high-level source” within Microsoft has indicated that Halo 2 is keeping you from being the most popular guy on the internets. By that I mean that the grand-daddy of online console shooters is the reason why your friends list cuts off at 100. See, the original Xbox Live architecture was only designed to support up to 100 friends, and there’s still such an active online community for Halo 2 that Microsoft is reluctant to kill off the first incarnation of Xbox Live. However, it is believed that if there was “real vocal support” for the move, then Microsoft would go ahead. In my humble opinion, if a great game still has a strong and lively community, then it should be supported. Lord knows I play Halo 2 more than Halo 3. So tough luck popular people, you’ll just have to live without that 101st fake friend.

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That pretty much covers the only LANable games out there.

So as you may have inferred from the title of this snazzy little post, we here at InsaneBear recently had our first LAN of the summer. It was sort of a low-key and disorganized affair in comparison to what we usually do, but it was fun nonetheless. We thought we’d share some pictures of the good times and spread the good word about LANs.

"If you don't like LANs then you can get out!"

Things started out kind of slow with some people showing up late, so the five of us who were there for the first hour decided to play some Left 4 Dead. We just went through the No Mercy Campaign and switched off controllers whenever someone died. Highlights included a Tank punching me off of a sky scraper and not one, but two team members walking off the elevator ledge while everybody else was getting raped by Smokers.

"Sir, I require your assistance."

We came back to Left 4 Dead later in the night for some Survival mode too. That got pretty frantic, especially since most of the people there had never played the game before. Everybody seemed to take to the game pretty well, though. Guess you don’t need to know what a Hunter is to know that somebody should probably help you. I just wish we had enough copies of the game to try out some versus mode.

As more people started pouring in we had to audible to a game with greater numbers, and after much debate we settled on a classic–Halo 2. We played some Slayer, some Classic CTF, some Assault, and that’s probably about it. It wasn’t the fever-pitched experience of Halo 2 LANs past, as we were working with seven people (there was an eighth guy, but for some reason he came to a LAN and didn’t want to play any video games) and we didn’t take proper measures to balance the talent on the teams. The long and short of it is that I dominated every game by a pretty wide margin. I mean, I am pretty awesome and all, but things are usually a little more even. The highlight was probably a game of Classic CTF on Burial Mound, in which I came to the realization that it’s “the body part map.” “The Ribs,” “The Purple Nips,” I don’t even want to think of where this could go if I really started thinking about it…But yeah, since I didn’t get any pictures of any Halo rounds, enjoy this photo of people fighting over a bag of Crazy Core Skittles, aka, Crack-Coated Candy.

"My crack!"

Sometime after that near-death experience, everybody took a break for some pizza rolls and gathered around the smallest TV in the house to finish watching a bootleg copy of The Hangover, which had been playing in the background of the Halo games. And don’t worry, everybody there had already paid to see it in theaters, some people twice, so we’re not scumbags who just steal our entertainment. Well, most of the time, at least. But anyways, The Hangover. Funny movie. I wouldn’t say it’s as good as some of Todd Phillips’ previous work, like Old School, but it’s definitely good. And that’s why we watched it. And now I’m having trouble remembering if this happened before Halo or after. We might have started it in Left 4 Dead and then finished it with a break and then moved to Halo…but yeah, since I can’t remember, have a picture!

Just three wolves, in the desert...

I’m getting really blurry on the details of time and people and all that stuff right now, so we’ll just say some people started leaving after The Hangover and then the remaining participants enjoyed some Gears of War 2 Horde mode. I want to say we did ten rounds or so on River, and highlights included Tim repeatedly bitching that he’d lost his Lancer, me dying as I tried to get a picture of some chainsaw action, discussions on how satisfactory the gore in that game is, and Bloodmounts doing what Bloodmounts do. Gears was definitely fun, and I wish we’d done more of it (next LAN maybe?).

"Sawin' makes me feel good."

And I think things sort of came to a close after that, probably sometime around 3 AM. That’s actually pretty early, considering most of our LANs end when the birds start chirping and we realize we’ve been rambling on about various gaming topics for hours after the games ended. So yeah, all and all, it was a pretty fun LAN. Not as organized as I would have liked, but it was a good first effort. We’ll fill you fine readers in on all the action for the next one, and hopefully we’ll have some more shots of actual gameplay. But until then, enjoy some of our very photogenic regulars.

Tim.

Ian.

Ryan. Yes, that Ryan.

Either Eric, twin brother of Sean, or Sean, twin brother of Eric.

Either Sean, twin brother of Eric, or Eric, twin brother of Sean.

And by popular demand…

Me flexing.

The all seeing eye of Socrates.

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A common emotional reaction in video games.

So amid all the chaos that was GDC 2009, I managed to read a really great article on GameSpot about the societal impact of video games. One line stood out to me more than any other: “(Will) Wright also mentioned an experience he had with Lionhead’s Black & White, where he beat up his god creature ‘just to see what would happen.’ With the creature eventually bloodied and crying, Wright said that he legitimately felt pangs of guilt, an emotion that he couldn’t have gotten from other forms of media, such as movies.”

This anecdote got me to thinking about the unique situation video games are in compared to other story telling mediums. Why is it that I’ve never cried in empathy at the end of a game but I’ve shouted in triumph? How come I don’t really care about my video game comrades’ life stories but I feel a sense of duty to them as their leader? Well, what video games have that film and literature don’t is interactivity. And with that comes some unique pros and cons. But what’s most important about it is the fact that emotion in video games is not sympathy or empathy directed towards others, but the player’s own feelings. We don’t feel bad for the character who lost his friends in battle, we feel bad because we lost our friends in battle. That my friends, is the ultimate exclusive because video games can have emotions that no other medium can.

Now, before I get on my high horse and preach the righteousness of video games, there’s a whole history of terrible story telling we have to account for. Sure, a good portion of our industry’s history hasn’t actually been devoted to telling a story that’s anything more than a reason to move forward, but the games that have tried to manipulate our emotions haven’t exactly done the greatest job ever. Just last month the InsaneBear community was discussing how trivial and pathetic the romance in Mass Effect is. And I don’t think Rockstar intended for me to be apathetic when Kate got gunned down in Grand Theft Auto IV. Even the best examples of story-telling in games come up short in comparison to other mediums. Final Fantasy may cut it in our world, but there’s a reason all the movie spin-offs have failed miserably. It would seem that what’s generally regarded as the best accounts of story-telling in video games tend to be passive cut-scenes that remove our unique ability to interact, but when these cut-scene stories are put up against other passive mediums, their shallow and cheesy nature is revealed. And the games that do value player choice seem to be missing the mark in a bad way.

But what about the good examples? In my personal gaming history, there’s one emotionally charged moment that stands out above all others for me. I was at a rather large Halo 2 LAN with a group of closely-knit friends and we were playing one-bomb assault on Zanzibar against a team consisting of four players who shared the name “Dip”. It was positively the most evenly matched game I’ve ever played, and I remember it went on so long that other teams who’d finished the round were gathering around to watch us. I could feel my heart pounding in my head as I barked out orders to my mates. I could feel the adrenaline speeding through my veins with every test of our tactics. And I felt an absolute head-rush when we won that match. Not only was there the obvious sense of accomplishment that comes with most every game, but there was a gratification that I had lived up to my expectations as team leader too. And when we ultimately lost the competition later that night, I felt like I had let my friends down. Only a video game can tell the story of leadership and force the player to really feel the pressures that go with it. And while competitive and cooperative multi-player games certainly are the best examples of this so far, I see no reason why these same feelings couldn’t be conveyed with AI partners and enemies.

Another powerful example of strong emotion in video games comes with Fable II, in a segment where the player must choose whether or not to feed starving prisoners at the expense of his or her own experience points. Given that a prisoner had previously told me to lay low and not draw attention to myself, I thought it too risky to feed them when the guards left. But as seconds started dragging on (I think the game gives you like two minutes) I started to doubt myself. The pitiful cries of agony started to tug at me, and I had to keep justifying my actions to myself with the old “greater good” mantra. And the time kept crawling by at a snail’s pace, forcing me to watch these skin-and-bones prisoners struggle to even call for help. I was telling myself that by this point there wasn’t enough time left to make a difference. I didn’t necessarily feel guilty at the end, but I definitely felt like I had sacrificed those prisoners for a bigger cause. I don’t even know what I would have felt if I’d watched my experience points visibly drain away for two minutes so the prisoners could live. But what I do know is that a book or movie has never made me feel guilty or righteous (although I can think of one book that unjustifiably makes a whole lot of people feel guilty). These emotions are exclusive to our interactive medium.

The last example I’d like to bring up is the microwave tunnel in Metal Gear Solid 4. It’s baffling to think that Hideo Kojima can evoke such strong feelings by simply demanding that the player button mash for what seems like an eternity, but he does. The first time I played that sequence and saw Snake cooking before my eyes, I seriously wondered if it was the end. The never-before-seen split-screen story telling charged the scene with the gravity of everybody else’s dire situations while I continued to desperately bash on triangle, trying to steer Snake to safety. And then he started collapsing, his old and beaten body falling apart in front of me. Every time he hit the ground I was yelling, “Get up, you son of a bitch!” I tapped triangle faster and faster, but the button prompt kept telling me it wasn’t enough. In that brief sequence I wasn’t watching Snake’s story, I was Snake. I felt his struggle, and I completely doubted my life. I was amazed when I made it to the end of the hallway, octo-camo melting off of my wrinkled skin. How could a movie possibly make me feel like all my efforts might culminate in failure when I’m not investing any effort into a movie?

So what do all those personal experiences have in common? How are the responsibility of a leader and the fraternity of teamwork related to the guilt and doubts of sacrifice or the struggle of defying impossible odds? I would argue that they’re all emotions exclusive to interactive entertainment. I don’t see how anybody could justify feelings of guilt or accomplishment or pride or doubt in a movie or book. You can’t truly feel these things by observing someone else because they’re personal emotions that depend on your own actions. So maybe video games should stop trying to emulate Hollywood and focus on what’s unique to us. I want to see a game that makes me feel ashamed. I want to see a game that makes me feel vengeful. I want to see a game that makes me feel like a mentor. Pretty much, I just want games that capitalize on interactivity and present me with situations that make me feel my own emotions, not what I’m told to feel.

Based on all the examples I can think of, the best way to do that is to make the player responsible and accountable for their actions. Let their decisions effect the NPCs or other players around them. Don’t tell them what they should do or feel, just let them find their own way and suffer the consequences. And make sure no matter what, there’s no right or wrong (I’m looking at you Fallout 3 and your oh, so morally ambiguous Megaton choice). If I had to look into the near-future and predict one game that might come close to this, it’d probably be Bioware’s upcoming The Old Republic. Those guys have a history of good story-telling (at least plot-wise) in their games and the unpredictable environment of an MMO just might make for some magic. Let me know your guys’ thoughts on good and bad examples of story-telling in games, and what games you’re looking forward to.

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