Mass Effect 1 – Mako Segments

Mass Effect’s first outing laid the foundation for what would end up becoming one of the most beloved sci-fi RPG trilogies of all time, but even those who swear by the franchise will tell you that the Mako segments are easily the game’s most off-putting mandatory sections. On paper, cruising across alien planets in a six-wheeled all-terrain tank sounds like a thrilling opportunity to explore strange landscapes and uncover hidden secrets. But in execution, the driving experience turns into a bumpy nightmare in the face of weird controls and awkward handling. The Mako handles like a bouncy toy through and through, ricocheting off the slightest hill and sliding around at every slope. It also doesn’t help that most planets you explore are barren with little variety between them and the enemy encounters presnet within. And when mission objectives force you into these segments repeatedly, it becomes painfully clear they were more ambitious than polished. They can break the narrative flow, drag the pacing down, and leave anyone dreading the next time the game says, “Time to deploy the Mako.”

Halo 7 will reportedly include the latter, but Halo Studios has yet to officially announce it, instead confirming “multiple” new Halo titles in the works. It’s worth noting that the leaker previously revealed that Halo: Combat Evolved was getting a Resident Evil-style remake before its official announcement, when others alleged it would be a one-to-one remaster.

In the meantime, Halo: Campaign Evolved is slated to arrive in 2026 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Alongside sprinting, it features four-player campaign co-op, three weapons from other entries in the series, and level changes, which haven’t sat well with original level designer Jamie Griesemer. On the flipside, however, co-creator Marcus Lehto thinks the remake looks “gorgeous.”

30. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

Perfection in a video game doesn’t come easy, but Polyphony Digital has come closer than most with several of its Gran Turismo titles. Despite cutting back on the number of cars, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is arguably the best of the bunch in terms of physics, AI, and sound (and even its visuals still hold up today). That’s before getting into the improvements with car shops, Gran Turismo Mode, and the long-awaited arrival of Formula One cars.

Mass Effect 2

The opening of Mass Effect 2 is as climactic as most other games’ endings. This sequel begins with the player controlling a limping Commander Shepard crawling through the carnage and destruction of an all-too familiar locale from the first game; the Normandy ship. What follows is a complete breakdown of everything we built up in the first game. What’s more, Shepard has to work with a mysterious group, Cerberus, to get back what was lost and fight the Reaper threat. Mass Effect 2 feels like The Empire Strikes Back of video games with how high the stakes have been raised and how dire things have gotten.

Halo 2

You could make a case for any Halo game featuring on this rundown – Halo 3 for its gameplay, Halo 4 for its writing and character development, Halo: Combat Evolved, where it all began. But Halo 2 gets the nod here because it has all those standout elements but additionally its easily the most varied in terms of locations visited, with each locale itself superbly designed. The introduction of Arbiter Thel ‘Vadamee as a playable character not only put new weapons into our hands, but greatly expanded Halo’s lore too, presenting deeper purpose underlining Covenant motivations.

]]> 600361 https://gamingbolt.com/15-greatest-xbox-games-of-all-time-2024-edition Mon, 03 Jun 2024 18:52:57 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=588267 Microsoft burst out of the gates with the original Xbox, boasting significantly more powerful hardware than its competition along with support for online gaming. The platform was brimming with a bunch of varied releases that broke new ground in more ways than one, and this feature will run down 15 of the best Xbox games of all time. 

Halo 2 

The original Halo was a driving force in creating a substantial market share against Sony and Nintendo, and expectations for the sequel were naturally high. Halo 2 delivered upon those expectations in spades, combining an adrenaline-pumping story with a comprehensive suite of multiplayer options making for an experience that keeps you hooked and doesn’t let go. Hundreds of thousands of fans would have fond memories of duking it out against friends, and Halo 2 might just be the defining Xbox experience for a majority of those fans.

Battle for Helm’s Deep – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

One of the most important battles in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Battle for Helm’s Deep is arguably the best in the films. Despite running on sixth-gen console hardware, the video game adaptation captured the desperation of fighting hordes of Uruk Hai, pushing ladders off the keep’s walls, and meeting them at the breached wall to stop their advance. The fight spills over into the courtyard, with a somewhat awkward but cinematic view.

Quick Time Events

There was a time when Quick Time Events or QTES were in nearly everything. What was it about hitting the right button at the right time that felt so exhilarating? Maybe it was the minimal effort to do cool things, but entire franchises leaned on them, from shooters and cinematic adventures to hack-and-slash titles.

Nowadays, however, they’re rare, most likely due to oversaturation. Despite being present in the original, Resident Evil 4 Remake removed them and added new mechanics like knife parries. Like a Dragon: Ishin! has them for certain attacks and climatic battles, but it is a remake of a 2014 title. While they won’t go away entirely – who knows with the next Dark Pictures Anthology title – QTEs aren’t as favored as direct control over gameplay scenarios.

WARNING: There are spoilers ahead for all Halo games.

STEPPING OUT ON THE RING FOR THE FIRST TIME (HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED)

It makes sense to start with this one. For millions of people out there, this is the moment that defines Halo, and it’s easy to see even now why this is such an iconic moment. After fighting your way through mazy corridors and cramped rooms aboard the Pillar of Autumn in Combat Evolved’s first mission, you then crash land on the mysterious Halo ring. And that moment when you first step out of the escape pod and lay your eyes on the majestic and alien beauty of the landscape and the ring that curves into the horizon in the distance- that’s a magical moment that will never be topped.

In 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved graced our Xboxs as what would quickly be known as one of the best launch titles of all time. Seeing that the Xbox’s chief competitor, the PlayStation 2, was somewhat underpowered compared to Microsoft’s behemoth console, Halo was the perfect excuse for Bungie and Microsoft to really show off the power and capability of the Xbox – and that they did. Not only was the first game in the series a more than competent shooter that featured vehicles, a wide array of fun weapons, and a compelling multiplayer mode, but it was also a graphical showcase for the Xbox. With the PS2 being somewhat underpowered and the GameCube not really utilizing its potential with most of its games, this game really made the Xbox ecosystem stand out with its highly detailed character models and environments. Real-time reflections and shadows were rudimentary, and often mixed with fake ones, but they were convincing for the time among the lush, expansive environments and compelling aesthetic created by Bungie’s lead artists. The different alien factions all differed greatly in their general look as well as the technology they used, so that was reflected in their visual presentation to a huge degree. The game ran well, played well, and looked great, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that it was remastered and re-released on the 360 and PC ten years later with some enhanced graphics and improved lighting and textures. This remastered “anniversary” version of Halo would allow players to switch back and forth between the old graphics and the new ones at any time, which was a nice touch, and also included support for the Kinect (remember that?). All in all, either version still looks good today by all reasonable standards, mostly thanks to the original artistic direction.

3 short years after the first game was released, we got Halo 2 on the same console. While the Xbox’s limits had been on full display for a while by this point, Bungie still had more than enough know-how and experience with the platform by then to really make a game that looked noticeably better than its predecessor. Halo 2 would serve as the pinnacle Halo experience up to that point, as it had basically everything that made the first game great but now with the extra 3 years, Bungie was able to iron out many of the original’s rough edges, as well as provide a robust multiplayer mode that looked indistinguishably as good as the campaign. Halo 2 would not merely be more of the same with some refinement though. The physics and graphics engine were both overhauled which allowed for several new techniques including “shadow volume” that would quickly become a mainstream way of casting real-time shadows from in-game environments. Doom 3 would also implement the same technique to an even greater effect, but that was after Halo 2 popularized it. Real-time reflections on armor and metal surfaces were also more pronounced as a result of the overhaul and it ultimately added up to one of the better looking games of its time as a result.

Halo 3 was sure to follow, and follow it did. This game would have the enormous benefit of being a game on new hardware, but also not quite needing to be a launch title, so Bungie had a bit more time to really crank out as much goodness as they could from the Xbox 360. Here we see yet again, a complete overhaul of the graphics engine. Bungie went with their own in-house development toolset and it really paid off with better lighting, depth of field effects, and a subtle motion blur that added a heightened sense of realism. While some of the techniques under the hood did require the game to render at an odd 1152×640 resolution, that was technically upscaled to a stable 1080pby the 360, making it a very sharp-looking game.

Halo ODST was an interesting game. It started out as a rather beefy expansion to Halo 3, but ultimately ended up being its own standalone release given the sheer amount of content that it contained. Given that this was only a couple years since Halo 3 launched, graphically it had more in common with it’d predecessor than not, making it the first game in the series that didn’t look like a massive improvement from the previous one. Which isn’t to say it was underwhelming in that department, just nothing to write home about in 2009. Outside of some interesting visual flair thrown in for flashback sequences, it was largely just a slightly more refined version of the look of 3.

The final Halo game to be developed by Bungie was Halo: Reach. The game had a lot of callback visual cues that more than successfully elicited plenty of nostalgia for long-time Halo fans despite Master Chief not even being the main character. The graphics were largely unchanged from 3. Much like ODST, Reach already had a solid foundation on which to build a great looking game, and it didn’t disappoint. The large battles, lush backdrops, and nice variety of locations does feel a bit limited by the 360 at times in Reach, but the occasional framerate stutter was not much more than a minor flaw in an otherwise gorgeous game.

Halo 4 was a landmark game in the series for myriad reasons, but most notably was the fact that Bungie would have basically nothing to do with it. By this time, the former Halo developer had split from Microsoft and gone multiplatform and were working on their upcoming original shooter Destiny. The Halo series would finally change hands with 343 Industries at the helm. While the game was primarily designed for the aging Xbox 360, it was also 2012, which means Microsoft’s next console was also kept in mind for a future enhanced release. While the slight tick up from Halo 3 was noticeable, the biggest changes seemed to come from a totally different artistic vision rather than technical improvements. Halo 4 was a game that still “felt” like Halo ultimately, but it also had a slightly darker tone to its visuals. Master Chief looks more weathered, his armor seems bulkier, and he’s just more imposing overall. Other characters’ facial expressions were brimming with subtle movements and emotive performances, which made them some of the best in the generation – across all platforms. 343 were handed such a finely-tuned playbook on how to make a Halo game, that they were able to really stretch beyond what most thought was doable on an Xbox 360 with global illumination, ambient occlusion, and image-based lighting that all basically added up to a very impressive illumination and shadow system that made some environments look positively next gen. As impressive as it was, it was really just a preamble to what the next game had in store. Halo 4 would also get that very logical Xbox One release a couple years later with some minor enhancements and a smoother frame-rate. This was in 2014, which was a perfect time to whet the appetites of Halo fans as they were eagerly awaiting the 5th mainline installment.

By this time Halo had done almost everything it could do. It had maxed out the capabilities of two console generations and seen enhanced PC and next gen versions get released. Even though many still considered the series the best its genre had to offer, it still had to share much more of the stage with Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Bungie’s new game Destiny. Among the things Halo 5 tried to stand out was its aiming to be the best looking first-person shooter to date, and while it didn’t slam dunk that goal as hard as it did with past entries, it certainly satisfied the eyeballs of those who played it. Gone were the vast majority of the baked in fake lighting effects of the past two generations, and gone were the majority of other tricks Bungie had to implement to make the previous games look better than they actually were. Halo 5 backed off a tad from the slightly drearier look of 4, and somewhat tiptoed back into the look of the older games with more green, lush, outdoor locations, and highly realistic water. Halo 5 did hang on to all the advancements in detail of character models that show wear and tear on various pieces of armor, though. 343 also wisely chose to continue valuing the frame-rate over resolution, and with the seamless dynamic resolution of Halo 5 in place, the game could go from 1080p while you’re walking around and taking in the atmosphere, to 720p during an intense firefight, and right back up without you ever even noticing a thing. The PC version would need to do this less of course, depending on the rig, but both the Xbox One and PC version of the game looked great.

Now, all of these games are playable on PC, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X in their ultimate forms. The most drastic improvements can be found in the Halo: Master Chief Collection which contains all of the games we’ve mentioned here before Halo 5. Depending on the game and the hardware you’re using, the games vary in how much of an upgrade they are, but even the most conservative version of the Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One is a sight to behold with much higher resolutions and rock-solid frame rates. While the collection launched in a somewhat rocky state, and that rightly impacted its reputation for a while, playing it today with all of the current updates and patches is far and away the best way to experience these games.

With Halo Infinite on the way, and 343 surely understanding that we’ll be paying close attention to its graphics, we are likely in for yet another visual stunner from the flashy, science fiction franchise that reinvented its genre all those years ago.