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[PTTG??]

I endorse Halo being somewhere on this list, because it just had a flavor to it no other FPS before it had.

I'm going to  have to disagree with you there... what science fiction FPS in the last 50 years HASN'T been, effectively, "You are a Genetically Enhanced Cyborg Space Marine. Kill those Aliens!"?

[Virroken]

Was there really a "free" exploration type FPS before Halo? Half-life & derivatives don't count -- they're not console.

Aside from that, recharging shields, button solely for grenades, and vehicles make it unique.

[Puck]

There is only one FPS that really needs mentioning, and that's pretty much the first one of that genre, iirc. Everything else is just evolution. And of course, everybody knows that game is Wolfenstein 3D.  (catacombs 3d if you push it)

Too bad it's a bit hard to talk about a game that has adolf hitler wear a power armour and scream for eva braun when you kill him, when you don't want to touch anything even remotely political incorrect.  (looking at guiness here)

Was there really a "free" exploration type FPS before Halo? Half-life & derivatives don't count -- they're not console.

Aside from that, recharging shields, button solely for grenades, and vehicles make it unique.

Half life never was free exploration. It's pretty much linear. (So is Halo, it just gives you a pretty crappy illusion of freedom of movement). the only thing that made halo feel slightly different from other shooters was the recharging shield thingy. that thing was responsible for changing the flow in gameplay. it wasnt the fact that they mapped nades to a button (lol?) or that they implemented a vehicle with crappy controls.

Also, Halo shouldnt in fact count, either, for three reasons: It was just a console port, the xbox is in fact a crappy PC and the above reason I gave, namely wolfenstein 3d (which has it's console ports).

And if you look at PC games, which you should, when you talk about halo, there was outcast, iirc long before halo.

[Yanlin]

I endorse Halo being somewhere on this list, because it just had a flavor to it no other FPS before it had.

I'm going to  have to disagree with you there... what science fiction FPS in the last 50 years HASN'T been, effectively, "You are a Genetically Enhanced Cyborg Space Marine. Kill those Aliens!"?

You're not being fair. You just alienated any main characters that have any enhancements. Besides, does killing humans count? I'm sure there's one.

[Granite26]

Halo... Was a lot more approachable than previous FPS's for consoles.  The controls were smoother

[chaoticag]

Not to mention what everyone forgot to mention, the fact that halo used the second analog stick to aim, which has become common sense in today's consol FPS industry. That is what made it influential.

[Puck]

Not to mention what everyone forgot to mention, the fact that halo used the second analog stick to aim, which has become common sense in today's consol FPS industry. That is what made it influential.

Rainbow Six did it on the playstation one, three years ago. And I don't even think it was the first game that did that.
Also I think Goldeneye on the N64 could be played using 2 controllers and therefor sticks, but almost nobody played it that way.

So, no, there really is nothng special about halo, apart from the hype.

edit: really, the only thing that made halo different was the rechargable buffer above your normal hitpoints. I have to give them that, that's a nice addition that makes FPS more enjoyable in some situations (and pretty horribad in others, but that's besides the point). Its funny how such a small detail could possibly be the reason why the game deserves mentioning.

But altogether Halo always was mediocre to decent, at best. Just remember the endless, repetitive indoor areas.

[Virroken]

While we rip on Halo, can anyone name any FPS that did specific-thing-we-don't-like-about-Halo well? I think that I think Halo is the industry setter for a whole ton of features simply because I can't name a pre-Halo FPS that did it well.

Doom/DN3D, CS, and Goldeneye are the only major FPS titles I can come up with off the top of my head that come before Halo, and Halo has a lot of content / differences from anything before it. It might not necessarily be the most brilliant game ever, but it changed the genre.

tl;dr -- Halo is on the list for bringing a whole ton of stuff to the FPS genre that wasn't there before.

[Torak]

tl;dr -- Halo is on the list for bringing a whole ton of stuff to the FPS genre that wasn't there before.

Like what? The recharging shield is the only slightly different/unique feature that wasn't already done. Don't say manual '3d' aiming because medal of honor did that.

[Puck]

It's a shame, really. I for one am NOT ripping on halo. I'm just pointing out the obvious.

What halo did, what the others did not do before are two things. One has been mentioned already, the recharging shield thingy. (and this one is something they deserve some credit for; in a non-tactical shooter it really gives the gameplay what it needs.)

The other one was microsoft backup. Microsoft used halo to market the first xbox and it was a HUGE worldwide campaign, pretty much the biggest when it comes to videogame advertising. I kid you not, look at the numbers. In fact I'm 95% sure, up to that point NOBODY ever used more money and effort to market a videogame or the according console.

If there's something topping those numbers, it's the later halo parts, and that's it.

And it would be a shame really to acknowledge THAT. The game and the meat of it, is, like I mentioned, mediocre to decent at best. It's okay, it's a fun shooter, but it was hardly innovative or great or anything. Just because you didnt play the shooters that pulled the halo elements properly before halo did, doesnt mean they dont exist 

edit: just fyi, I grabbed a job at the local xbox presentation back in 2000something so I could be one of the first people in europe to play halo.
I was very interested to see what it was all about. I was very dissapointed to see, yet again, how easily people are sucked into the hype.

And this is all what's left now.

[Sowelu]

Halo pimped its vehicle physics pretty hard...sure, other games had them, but they didn't look that good and they weren't that -accessible- if that makes sense.  I've never been a Halo player, I just beat the single player campaign once like a couple years after it came out, but that's the FPS I've been the most excited about ever.

I think Halo was notable for bringing console FPSes into the mainstream.  Goldeneye was a very good game and great in multiplayer and it was first by a long shot, but it just didn't have the same kind of mass-market popularity.  Halo's success and aggressive mainstream marketing campaign, on the other hand, really opened up the genre to other games that wouldn't have sold as well if Halo hadn't broken that ground first.

Would some other game have done the same thing eventually?  Probably.  And it's as much marketing as anything else.  So meh.  But I still have to respect the game because of all the fawning I did over the preview movies.

[Puck]

Goldeneye was a very good game and great in multiplayer and it was first by a long shot, but it just didn't have the same kind of mass-market popularity.

It was very well received and every gamer worth his salt KNEW it AND loved it, and only a handful completed it on the hardest level, btw 

Anyway, it had easily a more noticeable impact on the gaming world.

Halo is a bit like Fable 2 if you allow me to quote peter molyneux : " It's a game for people who aren't gamers. "

Yeah, right. Halo dragged all the dirt from the street in, and now we're getting drowned in stupid games that play like shit but look hella awesome.

So much for making games accesible, that's something they could have skipped, in my book.

[Cheeetar]

Everyone is shouting about "CONSOLE ONLY LISTS GUYS!!!" but then I look at tetris and get confused.

[Yanlin]

NES is a console.

[Puck]

I bet the first tetris was written on some university "super"computer (what would count as a supercomputer back then  ) and if I recall correctly it was then ported to arcade machines long before it hit home systems.

I think that's the timeline for tetris, but it's just from the top of my head.