Mr. Titan over at Planet Halo is wondering if Bungie and/or Microsoft should make Halo 4 - Not will they, but should they? Mr. Titan makes his case, but is flat out wrong on one topic.

Mr. Titan claims there are numerous ways to turn the story into a 4th edition and points out that greed and an instant, several million unit cash cow is a wise business move. Excellent points. However, Mr. Titan spends a substantial section of the article discussing innovation as a major factor in the should question. And even claims that Halo 3 lacks any real innovation when compared to Halo 2:

Gameplay-wise, with the exception of dual-wielding, Bungie has not innovated (if you even want to call dual-wielding innovative) much in the Halo games. And between Halo 2 and Halo 3, it seems that all they did was rebalance the game, add some new weapons, vehicles, and equipment, and make some other minor tweaks. Halo 3 is still a very fun, balanced, and smooth game that I like a lot, but it doesn’t really try to do anything new, and a lot of times while playing the game, I feel like I’ve been there and done that already in Halo 2. With the constant innovation in the crowded first-person shooter genre, Bungie will have to change up Halo 4’s gameplay in order to stay atop the genre and keep long time Halo fans entertained.

Give a read to that last sentence one more time:

Bungie will have to change up Halo 4’s gameplay in order to stay atop the genre and keep long time Halo fans entertained.

Is that a joke? Mr. Titan you even played Halo 3?

Halo 3 is the biggest selling game ever. And you’re right - the gameplay is virtually identical to Halo 2. Which is incredible proof that gameplay does NOT need to be changed in order for gamers to open up their wallets.

So how did Bungie/Microsoft do it? How’d they create this monster of a game without innovating in regards to gameplay?

They created the new “Gold Standard” of all games (not just FPS) by adding insanely addictive and useful features like Forge, Theater, File Share and Campaign Scoring.

Come on Mr. Titan… There are people out there spending more time building custom suicide maps in Forge than playing the campaign or multiplayer modes. Features like that STICK - and will be copied by everyone in the years to come. Halo 3’s Forge and File Share have struck a chord with all of the social media fans on MySpace and FaceBook who love sharing pics and watching videos of friends.

Or you can add a way to take cover like Gears of War / Rainbow 6 Vegas - and nothing else.

I’ll take Halo 3 and all if its goodies any day of the week.

photo by kla4067