Keep the flaming to a minimum, please :\ HATE FREE ZONE.

I actually liked Halo PC (Halo Mac in my case) much more than I liked Halo2. The multiplayer was way better. I don't understand why people hated on Halo PC other than the fact that it took forever to come out. I had hours of fun playing the multiplayer in that game.

Anyway, I don't think many people hate on the first Halo that much, unless they're also hating on the console. Console zealots (hi Zeal) can just get out., honestly.

As far as FF8 goes, I just didn't enjoy the atmosphere the game presented. I thought Squall was kind of a jackass. I too did NOT like the orphanage scene. I thought it hackneyed and trite. It seemed like something I would have written in as a pre-pubescent, which is a very bad sign.

I felt the orphanage was just a way of skipping out of having to write any kind of pasts for the characters (outside Rinoa).
As teenagers, the characters felt depressingly flat and cookie cutter at times (a quirk does not give someone a personality).
I liked the idea of a Final Fantasy game with a main theme of love, lord knows there's been some engaging romances and almost romances in previous games. But the central relationship felt so forced and plastic because Squall really was an unlikeable twat and Rinoa a neglect-loving doll, the perfect japanese fantasy woman.

I admit enjoying the game most of the time as I played it, and it had some magnificent and truly beautiful setpieces and scenes, but once it was done, I pondered what had taken place, and found myself a lot more disappointed than what I'd have liked. And no, I didn't mind Junction or any of the other gameplay related niggles people have with the title.

For some reason I never see a lot of discussion about Ogre Battle games. The battle system was a kind of auto/turned-based idea, while the actual movement of units was in, more or less, real time. The stories and the actual gameplay was fun, but whenever I try to get someone to play it, or when I ask someone if they've heard of the series I usually get a "Didn't really bother with it" or "Never heard of it" responses.

Ogre battle was a quick card game, kind of taken off the old Magic The Gathering Idea, still a decent game though