Halo's Future

[Professor S]

I know that feelings on this forum toward the Halo franchise are mixed, but I'm not here to discuss whether or not Halo is in fact a good or bad game. To be honest, there is not argument: Halo is a great franchise with tight gameplay, flawless presentation, brilliant AI and a strong universe surrounding it. Whether or not an FPS has done the same things as Halo or not is irrelevant.

Halo and Halo 2 were great games from an objective observation, and they essentially made the FPS mainstream (actually, Halo remains probably the only real mainstrem FPS). To argue about Halo's quality and influence is to waste breath, IMO. Nuff said.

This thread is about how you'd like to see an already great, but seemingly stalling, franchise be revitialized. And the inclusion of a flamethrower ain't it.

1) Weapons - Let's get future, here. Microwave emitters, GAUSS rifles, Smart Bazookas, whatever. Lets get creative, but also keep with the realism that has been so important in drawing the player into the universe. Unreal and other FPS games have always had very creative weapons, but they've always been too "fantastic" for a real world based game like Halo, in which the single player experience is still so vital.

2) Open it up - Halo has always endorsed the tight, claustrohobic idea of FPS gameplay. It might be interesting to open it up a bit, with larger battles, over bigger areas, in conflicts that you might or might not need to help win. Maybe you just need to get through. Call of Duty was GREAT at that type of gameplay, and I'd like to see Halo adopt some of it.

3) Vehicles - GO SPACE! Lets get some 3D flight sim going, or maybe even a little strategy with larger Cap ships.

What are you're thoughts?