So this week Halo 3 was awarded the Edge Award for Interactive Innovation at the Edinburgh Festival.
Halo 3 was up against GTA IV, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy , Wii Fit and Portal. The article posted up on the Edge-Online website says:
“We hand out this accolade to the title released in the last 12 months that does most to further the creative culture of gaming – in other words, to mark out new directions for the form.”
Wonderful, so why in the hell did you give it to Halo 3?
Now, I am not saying that Halo 3 is useless, it definitely has it’s merits and it shows by being one of the most played games on Xbox Live but I cannot get over the fact that they just gave the award to Halo 2: Movie Maker Edition.
With games like Rock Band and Wii Fit changing the way that the world sees videogames and masterpieces like Portal changing the way that we think about games and narrative I find it difficult to accept that Halo 3 won the award simply taking a snot-nosed teenage teabag-fest, polishing it off and then adding some movie features. I love the movie features, they are great and they even added to the overall reasons that make the Halo 3 fun, but the best innovation of the year it is not.
It doesn’t matter how many people are playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live because they are all hardcore gamers and fans of the series, heck, most of them would still be playing it if it was nothing more than Halo 2 with a graphics update. There is no innovation happening there, Halo 3 hasn’t changed the way that we look at videogaming in anyway, its the same game that people were playing on the first Xbox, just with added features.
Halo 3 has done nothing to innovate and change the way that the world looks at gaming. It is just another mindless FPS game driven by nothing but fans of the series and a strong marketing campaign and the fact that it was chosen as the most innovative interactive game is a slap in the face to all those developers who wake up every day and try to change the way that we are going to play games in the years ahead.
I am actually honestly and completely disgusted.
source: N4G
Last Updated: August 12, 2008
Vamp
August 12, 2008 at 09:04
The only thing “inovative” about it was the insane, overly hyped marketing campaign.
Banana hammock
August 12, 2008 at 09:08
Hahaha what a joke, i agree 100%.
Innovation: Halo3 and GTA4 should not have even been nominated; as great as they are they are not at all innovative. Especially in the company of Wii Fit, Portal and Rock Band.
My vote would have gone to Portal.
j4nr1k
August 12, 2008 at 09:08
I think the map editor, and theatre mode is amazing.
I wish all games had that to get that OMG! Moments.
Syph1n
August 12, 2008 at 11:48
I COMPLETELY agree with them. We’ve been playing virtual gutars/drums for years already.. now shooting stuff.. Wonder why no one has ever thought of that..
baba
August 12, 2008 at 12:39
Money talks…
Strife Lives
August 12, 2008 at 12:42
wii fit. Rock band. Two games.same concept.booring and lame.seriously, if you think Halo3 should lose to poser games, then wow.Im shocked. When you want fake instruments go play that stuff,but Halo 3 happens to be a real. . . Videogame.I wonder if people are to busy waggling their wii motes or shredding fake guitars to see the difference.
doobiwan
August 12, 2008 at 14:16
You know you guys should really read the articles posted with these things because you all totally missed the point.
The award is for “ONLINE INNOVATION” not gameplay, not graphics. It got the award for things like the interactive Forge, file sharing, custom games and the lobby and party system that’s the best on the market.
Vg2
August 12, 2008 at 15:26
Then why was it competing with Wii Fit? or Portal? That doesn’t make sense to me 🙁 I read the source article, but I really think that Halo shouldn’t have won that… Well now that I think about it, it was either Halo 3 or Portal to win it, so I guess Halo 3 should have won it… And I don’t even like Halo… haha 😐
MaXiM
August 13, 2008 at 00:40
No. The Award clearly states ‘Interactive’. Interactive is not only ‘Online’ or the other games Like Mario Galaxy and WiiFit would never even be in the running… EVER. You can stick up for your XBOX game as much as you like, but it’s a bogus call giving this award to just another FPS with Online capabilities. It’s not Innovation at all.
Vamp
August 13, 2008 at 10:09
Actually not, doobi.
The award is for Interactive Innovation. They just said that they gave it to Halo3 BECAUSE of it’s online functionality.
doobiwan
August 13, 2008 at 10:18
Funny, LBP is apparently “ground breaking” and “awesome” but yet it features pretty much derivatives of the Halo 3 community features, so go figure that one.
(LBP has broader map templates, but the features are basically the same: User created map layouts, custom games. LBP It sure doesn’t support a 3D cinematic movie camera, nor does it support 24 player lobbies )
MaXiM
August 14, 2008 at 22:19
LBP is not a candidate. Hell it’s not even launched yet, so you can’t compare it to any game out or in the running for this award?
doobiwan
August 15, 2008 at 09:25
Sorry. my bad. Same difference 😉
Edinburgh Fan
August 25, 2008 at 21:27
I would agree that there really isn’t anything overly innovative about Halo 3. Great game and great visuals, but does it really stand out above any other FPS game out there?