Movie Openings Are So Lame: "Halo: Reach" Pulls $200 Million on First Day of Release

According to Microsoft, Halo: Reach is the biggest entertainment launch this year based on U.S. sales figures, outperforming the openings of films Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3.

The swan song from studio Bungie tells the story of Noble Team, an elite group of Spartans who must defend the human planet Reach from an invasion by aliens called the Covenant.

More here.

That's pretty impressive, ain't it?

Reason on video games, especially that old chestnut about how these things are nothing but kill-kill-kill simulators what are breeding a race of desensitized super-predators that are destroying all that is good and decent in America.

Comments

[Old Mexican]

I am waiting for the release of MOH: Special Forces and COD: Black Ops, since I have a PS3

Reason on video games, especially that old chestnut about how these things are nothing but kill-kill-kill simulators what are breeding a race of desensitized super-predators that are destroying all that is good and decent in America.

Indeed - I drive through the streets thinking tactically after a good game of COD:MW2 instead of simply thinking about dutifully paying my taxes so rich bureaucrats can feed their children.

[Bingo]

I was going to pass on Blops since I already own MW2, but the r/c car IED, shooty knife, and the crossbow with explosive bolts sold me. I can only hope they manage to cram a ton of 80s action flick moments in the single player campaign.

[Old Mexican]

I am enthusiastic about it as well, Bingo...

[Ska]

BlackOps is developed by Treyarch, the guys who did CoD 2,3 and World at War. They make more interesting maps, and wise enough to avoid the things that have plagued MW2 and infuriated its fan base - things like commando, stopping power, juggernaught, and one man army. I was hesitant at the thought of picking up another CoD game after MW2 ended up being a hacked, glitch infested nightmare. But after seeing some videos of the new BlackOps, I can't lie, I'm kind of psyched for it.

[Rhayader]

That's funny, I always thought the Treyarch games licked taint. Infinity War all the way.

[Rhayader]

Also, Infinity Ward.

[Ska]

CoD 4 is IW's standout game. MW2 jumped the shark.

Treyarch's maps are much better. IW maps are like little rat traps - every map has hot routes and a few chokepoints. You don't decide where the action takes place - the map just dictates where the fighting is going to be. W@W has larger, more open maps with more sight lines. You have more options in those map types.

[Bingo]

Plus its got a shooty knife, rc car IED, exploding crossbow, a map where you fight while a Russian space rocket launches, face paint, customizable weapon decals, and attack dogs as a kill streak. It's like they stole Michael Bay's notebooks from middle school and assembled all the doodles into one game.

[Ska]

Dogs are straight from World at War.

The ballistic knife and the crossbow look sick though, as does that over-under shottie. Also, they have some interesting new free-for-all game types called wager matches. They're making the XP like a currency you can use to buy upgrades, personalization (like the camos, or different red dots for your optics), and to gamble in free-for-all matches.

[Bingo]

Don't forget the non-linear unlocks! It'll be cool to buy the gun you want when you have the cash for it (instead of grinding to level-whatever). Reminds me of Counter-Strike in a way.

[Ska]

Sweet, I didn't realize it worked that way. Be prepared for a lot of AKs and RPDs then.

[joshua corning]

I am waiting for the release of MOH: Special Forces and COD: Black Ops, since I have a PS3

I am looking forward to "The Last Guardian" My first person shooter fetish was bled dry with Quake and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I want a video game that does something completely different and creates an experience that is totally unique that immerses me into a different world.

[Tman]

The video game industry has become a major player next to other forms of entertainment over the last ten years to the point tht you see numbers like this regularly on release dates. Madden Football always rakes it in year after year, the Call of Duty series is well over the $500 million in sales level, and Halo won't be far behind.

I recently played Red Dead Redemption and can honestly say that paying $60 for 100 hours of incredibly immersive entertainment is way better than paying $10 for 2-3 hours of Hollywoods latest belchfest.

Red Dead had some moments in the game where you forgot you were actually playing a video game due to the storyline, the soundtrack, the characters, the dialog and the graphics themselves.

We've come a long way from Atari.

[tafurs delight]

not really a gamer, but is Red Dead Redemption the cowboy game? played it the other night & if it's the one i'm thinkin of it was pretty badass...
haven't really played much video games at all since the first Halo, which i loved, but thought they screwed it up in the sequel, never played any of the others...did anybody else find it the least bit ridiculous that the Covenant Elites, whose angry howls & growls & "raht raht raht"s were so fun in the original apparently got a crash course in elocution & spoke perfect English in Halo 2, but nobody in the game seemed to notice this?
"RRaaaahh Vahshmooli!"

[Tman]

Red Dead is the cowboy game, yes. You basically play the part of a Clint Eastwood-type character in late 1800's Southwest America and Mexico. It's a cool story and the details are unreal.

[Adonisus]

It's the early 20th century, actually. The era when the Federal Government was consolidating its power in the frontier and the West as we knew it was dying.

[Tman]

While I was playing it I realized that Red Dead's plot is sort of a libertarians nightmare of government over reach. And even after Marston settles his score with the Feds they still screw him over.

Game of the Year, as far as I'm concerned.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Ahhh but ((Spoiler Alert)) you can get revenge on your father's murderer once you take control of his son. For good measure, I made sure to murder the bastard's wife and brother. Can't be too careful. That's blowback as far as I'm concerned.

[Bingo]

The aliens are always more fun when you can project personality traits on them, that switch in Halo2 made no sense.

[flye]

Agree 100% on Red Dead. Best value for my entertainment dollars in the past several years.

[Rhayader]

Rockstar can make fun goddamn games. I'm hoping for something revolutionary when they get around to releasing another GTA game.

[Pro Libertate]

I like that they came out with a game with good guy options, which I generally prefer, anyway. My brother has this game for the PS3, and I'm expecting it as a birthday gift soon.

I'd be excited about KOTOR III, except that I'm not much of an MMO guy.

[flye]

I also like playing as a good guy, which is ironic given the content of the GTA series. It's more of a notion of degree -- for example I try my best in GTA not to run over pedestrians. And in RDR, whenever I get in a shootout with bad guys, I feel terrible when I accidentally shoot one of their horses.

[tafurs delight]

your heart is tender, like roast milkblood-soaked horseflesh, i agree in a Fable kind of way...say what you will, the 9Alignment system can teach the ethics of teh World in all its Law&Chaos;, Good, Eviiil & Neutrality...
& that game was awsome western...'hang on desperados, cigh-oats is messin ma livestock"...bitchin

[joshua corning]

Video games are the last and ultimate art form.

Also Halo would have done even better if it had been released on multiple platforms.

Other games which were released on multiple platforms have done better then Halo.

[Hugh Akston]

Shut the fuck up

[joshua corning]

No U

[Drax the Destroyer]

That's the price of dealing with Microsoft. The studio, Bungie, will be able to branch out now from what I understand, peddling their shiny new wares to the drooling masses(PS3 and Wii Owners).

[joshua corning]

The swan song from studio Bungie

Bungie recently left the fold of Microsoft. This is their last Microsoft release i believe. Their new publisher is Activision and they now function as an independent studio.

I am excited to see what they do in the future and excited that they will no longer be bound to one platform.

For those that don't know Bungie is the same developer that made the Marathon games and the Myth games.

[johnl]

Awesome! The Bungie guys are great (Marathon, Myth) and it was a sad day when MSFT bought them. Just as AAPL is inventing new ways to interact with a computer with a touch pad, ...

[Bingo]

Bungie's always been a very innovative company, I'm glad to see them get away from MSFT and grinding out Halo sequels.

[???]

Really? You think Activision is a better alternative to Microsoft?

[joshua corning]

You think Activision is a better alternative to Microsoft?

All things being equal I do not see a difference between the two but Bungie's relationship with Activision is different.

Microsoft owned Bungie. Activision will just be their publisher.

[johnl]

Only Adobe and Al Queda are worse than MSFT.

[Adonisus]

I'm suitably excited as well. There are very few developers that can make a great science fiction game like Bungie can.

They're actually developing an entirely new engine for their new IP from the groundup, so whatever they make will be quite unique.

[Alan Vanneman]

Well, judging from the illustration, "Halo: Reach" is totally not kill kill kill.

[joshua corning]

the illustration

That isn't an illustration. It is a screen shot of the game.

[Dumpster Baby]

That's even worse.

[Vogon Poet]

Halo, the most overrated video game franchise of all time. The story is an embarrassing mash-mash of stolen ideas and cliche third-hand characters. The single player is at best competent and at worst so repetitive it's mind numbing. The multiplayer is, I admit, really fun and well executed, but broke no new ground. I think it gets all this love because it's a decent shooter for the beer pong crowd who never really played pc fps games before. The goldeneye demographic.

[WWJGD]

Hey. Guy. Fuck you.

[Vogon Poet]

I respect halo - I don't think it's a bad game, I just think people have no perspective on it. Console gamers rate shooters on a different curve than pc gamers I guess. I did love Goldeneye.

But seriously, am I the only one that finds the Master Chief's motorcross helmet really annoying?

[joshua corning]

Console gamers rate shooters on a different curve than pc gamers I guess.

Halo was originally supposed to be a PC game until Microsoft bought the studio and put it exclusively on the Xbox.

I think most of your complaints can be reduced to "mouse > console controller".

A complaint that I share.

[Vogon Poet]

Don't forget the recycled story elements and characters. Also the (in Halo 1) horribly repetitive level design.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Recycled story elements? You mean the elements that almost all big blockbuster action movies and other action games "borrowed" from somewhere else? Jesus, who fucking cares? Go read a book if you want a story. That's what I do.

It's video game for chrissakes. And at this point, the "story" is just a distended tumor attached to the much meatier multiplayer component.

[???]

I think most of your complaints can be reduced to "mouse > console controller".

Meh. It's just got basic game mechanics. There's nothing special about it. It's just shoot this guy with the choice of these weapons. Look at a game like TF2 where there are so many different mechanics to deal with: rocket/demo jumping, teleporting, spies, medics, sentries. There are so many variations of things that can happen on a single map it's ridiculous.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think most of your complaints can be reduced to "mouse > console controller".

I remember when it was considered cheating in some quarters to use a mouse for FPS deathmatches.

*Goes back to his rocking chair, shotgun, lap blanket and mint julip on the porch.*

[Pro Libertate]

Goldeneye is being updated and re-released for the Wii.

[joshua corning]

Watch out...here come the fan boys looking for blood.

The video game culture is worse then the music culture.

"You must like the video games i like or you will die!!!"

[Crouton]

Nerd flame war! Shields up!

[Vogon Poet]

I'm equipping my +10 to charisma troll boots and +8 strength gauntlets of flame.

[Anonymous Coward]

Until you've survived a mage the ascension flamewar, you haven't seen true nerdrage.

I reject your reality paradigm as racist, evil, and wrong and replace it with my own!

[waffles]

Yep.

I loved Goldeneye. and then Halo, then Halo 2. by the time Halo 3 came out I was kinda past video games of that ilk. and my beer pong buddies and me all graduated.

[T]

No, it gets all this love because it's a fun game to play. That apparently didn't factor into your analysis.

And don't start with the pc > console crap. I have about as much patience for that as I do the gas vs. charcoal wars. STFU and play/cook, n00b.

[Vogon Poet]

Reread what I wrote and then try again. If you still care to flame away, stick to disagreeing with with what I actually said. Anyone that thinks that Halo is a 10 the same way a game like Ocarina of Time is a ten, well...you are just a silly, silly person.

[Rhayader]

Not in the same way, obviously - they're completely different games. But I don't think you can claim that one is objectively superior to the other. Totally different experiences.

[T]

My aesthetic judgment of a subjective experience is superior to yours! I'm right, and you are a fool! Neener neener neener!

That sum up your argument, or did I miss something?

[Vogon Poet]

No, it doesn't. I completely concede that tastes vary and we can all enjoy the style of games we like. However, my complaints about the campaign mode and characters are hardly subjective. Also, it's obvious that halo exploded in popularity due to the fortunate timing of it's release with online console gaming coming into it's own. It didn't introduce anything we hadn't seen on the PC before. These criticism are hardly limited to me. As I said, I think the multiplayer is well-executed and fun. Perhaps the beer pong comment was a bit troll-ish, but it's not like I said "Moar like GALO haw haw". Try again.

[joshua corning]

And don't start with the pc > console crap

This is not PC > console crap.

I love the console control for all sorts of games. Driving, and platformers come to mind.

But on the same token a mouse for first person shooter is always better then a console controller.

I am not saying PC shooters are better then Console shooter. I am saying console shooters would be better to play with a mouse.

[joshua corning]

I should also note FPSs that are cross platform multiplayer Mouse(PC) users consistently kick the ass of console players....simply because the mouse is a more precise tool for that type of game.

[Vermont Gun Owner]

The only type of game that I find more fun to play with a mouse are RTS's. I recognize that you can aim more precisely in a FPS with a mouse, but I much prefer pulling a trigger on my controller and using joysticks for movement.

[Rhayader]

I couldn't care less about the campaign crap. Halo has always been at the forefront of online multiplayer for consoles, and is still fun as shit.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Looks too much like Zardoz for me to be interested. Yes, Zardoz.

[joshua corning]

I think its scifi roots are more closely tied to "Starship Troopers". The book not the movie.

[Kolohe]

Heck Red vs Blue is better than 90% of the stuff Hollywood puts out.

[Brandybuck]

Let me make a wild guess: The movie lacks plot and substance, totally devoid of character development. But lots of special effects and explosions.

[Rhayader]

What movie?

[Episiarch]

Borderlands is the shit. Why would I play a FPS that doesn't have random drops?

[T]

One of my coworkers told me I needed to check out Borderlands. Is it worth the cash?

I dunnp why I'm asking. I just got Bioshock 2, so I'm out of the loop for a while between that and finishing the add-ons for Fallout 3.

[Episiarch]

Borderlands has random drops. You can get weapons that defy rationality. It's awesome.

[T]

I'll put it on the list. In the meantime, I twiddle my thumbs waiting for my console to come back from MS for repair.

[Bingo]

When you kill bosses they pop like a pinata full of cash, guns, and ammo. It's really cool for co-op if you got some buddies with it.

[Ska]

Borderlands is the hack 'n slash equivalent of shooters. You roam around a fairly large world obliterating humanoids and aliens with all sorts of weapons. Don't expect a coherent story out of it though.

As Bingo points out the game is a lot better with a few of your friends playing online.

[JW]

When in the fuck is October 22 and Fallout 3: New Vegas going to get here?

I just picked up a new video card, so I'm fairly stoked.

[Vogon Poet]

Borderlands is 100% win. It's like a mashup of Diablo 2 with an FPS. Fallout 3 was amazing but I'm a little concerned for New Vegas. Development was contracted out to Obsidian this time instead of being done in-house.

[Bingo]

I'm more worried about it using the Gamebryo engine again. New Vegas automatically brings to mind New Reno from Fallout 2. Fallout 3 was a great game, but it never really captured some of the crazy shit that could happen in Fallout 2, particularly New Reno. Like inadvertently starting a city-wide gang war when someone shooting at you hits a prostitute and her pimp responds by indiscriminately firing a burst through a crowd of people.

http://www.madbrahmin.cz/ruzne/mashr/mashr1/95_new_reno.jpg

[Ska]

I've heard the same worries from some of my other friends. How bad can they fuck up the game? The engine is the same so that shouldn't be an issue. And the developer is most of the same people who did the original Fallout games, so the story element should feel desperate.

My favorite part of FO3 is the first time you play, and you walk out of that vault as level 2 scrub with no perks, low attributes, a baseball bat and a beaten up semi auto pistol. Then as you're walking to Springvale, a random encounter between some raiders and a trade caravan unfolds before you, and you hide behind a rock because you know you're dead if you try to start shooting at someone. At the same time you can't wait to see what happens, and what type of loot you might recover from the loser of the fight.

[Warty]

New Vegas is being done by a bunch of the people who did the original Fallouts, so I have high hopes. Bethesda made a really fun game, but it didn't have the spirit of the Fallout world.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, forgot about the new Fallout game. Hope it's great.

[Rhayader]

I checked out the Arena mode in Reach last night for the first time. That shit is badass, and I have a feeling I'll develop a crippling addiction.

[cynical]

Oh, you primitive console FPS gamers and your silly amusements. Those of us that have evolved past the hunter-gatherer phase are anxiously awaiting Civ 5. Although I hear Amnesia is good too.

[Ska]

Nothing like staying up until 3AM on a worknight telling yourself "just one more turn."

[T]

College, where you could play all night and stagger into your 8 am class with a coffee mug the size of a baby. Good time, good times.

These days I'm doing good to make it to 11 o'clock.

[joshua corning]

Those of us that have evolved past the hunter-gatherer phase are anxiously awaiting Civ 5.

Civilization came out in 1991...Doom was not released until 1993.

Many of us played Civilization before FPSs even existed.

[cynical]

Well, I was trying to suggest that shooters are appealing to our primitive hunter-gatherer genes due to their mechanics of fast-paced aim-and-kill, rather than alluding to the evolution of gaming itself. But I guess I failed.

[Spoonman.]

Civ V should be coming soon. I'm stoked.

[R C Dean]

Right now, I'm waiting for New Vegas, and filling the time with BioShock 2, which is going pretty well so far (my little sister is about to harvest her second corpse).

We're coming out of the Hungry Season for video games, but I'm not sure what else is coming out this fall. I will definitely pick up Dragon Age 2 when it drops, as well as its buddy Mass Effect 3), but I'm not sure what else.

I'm getting kind of old and slow for pure shooters (heresy, I know, but I didn't really enjoy Left 4 Dead 2), and gravitating more toward RPGs.

[joshua corning]

Pulls $200 Million on First Day of Release

I did a little math for World of Warcraft. They often advertise that they have 10 million subscribers.

It costs 15$ a month to play.

10 million x $15 x 12 months = $1.8 billion a year.

That is a shit load in revenues.

[TallDave]

kill-kill-kill simulators what are breeding a race of desensitized super-predators that are destroying all that is good and decent in America.

Honestly, I wanted to play video games even more after I heard that.