That's one of the things I loved about Bungie way back in the day. Just how much they were into simulating physics in their games. Back in Myth: The Fallen Lords, lots of people used to experiment with the physics in that game as well. All of this back before it was common to have physics simulations in games (extremely rare back when Myth: TFL came out). Can't remember if they were also doing physics simulations in Marathon.
Regards,
SB
The physics in Halo games are special to that game, but yes, they exist and at a time when they weren't considered very important, the game was kind of revolutionary, I suppose.
By special I mean that they aren't fully realistic, but that's not their intention anyways, right? In the video that
@HTupolev has shared, you can see how the Warthogs are used as walls and it's incredible that they don't fall, because as I said the physics are well emulated overall (after the 7 minutes 50 seconds mark).
Another game that I liked for its physics when it came out is Oblivion.
You're sure you're not confusing Halo 2's pure gold zealots with the red+gold honour guards? Halo 2's zealots don't have a particularly high degree of flair compared with some of the more interesting elites, like the honour guards and councilors. Actually, their design is a relatively straight port of Halo 1's goldies into Halo 2's art style.
Halo 2 on legendary is a cheesefest. It throws some fairly infuriating shenanigans at the player, but they often don't feel like they're challenging me to actually come up with an interesting and reasonable attack plan and execute it with grace.
For instance, think jackal snipers. They kill instantly even if they shoot you in the foot, so (aside from tricking out of the map) you basically have to play a really janky game of whack-a-mole with memorized spawn patterns. Is that a hard process? Sort of, yeah. Is it an interesting challenge for Halo's sandbox? I wouldn't really so say.
Halo 1 has comparatively relaxed damage tables and more projectile. Such things contribute to it tending to be easier, but it encourages more active maneuvering and exciting action-reaction.
The trick is often to apply a lit bit of fighting in favour of a disadvantaged side. Enemies in a 3-way fight do an optimal job of destroying each other when they're more or less evenly matched.
I think they are the honour guards, yes, the ones with strident golden crests. I feared the ultras a little more for whatever reason despite their less colourful art, and this is confirmed in Halo Reach., where those ultras are so tough. But Halo Reach elites are the best overall, AI wise, so the challenge is even greater.
Now I can get the picture. I thought Halo 2 was harder to beat because of things like those you mention, although the combat in Halo 1 felt different when I completed Halo 2 first, back in the day. I completed Halo 1 on legendary afterwards, but followed guides and I still had Halo 2 fresh too, I remember following a guide at Gamefaqs (Halo 2 Legendary guide by tomrace) back then, because I had finished the game on Heroic already.
By sheer chance I found the name of those very tough elites in Halo 1. Had I to play nowadays on Legendary again, I am not so sure which game is harder to beat, maybe I will test that before Halo ODST is released...
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Special_Operations_Sangheili
Special Operations Sangheili
Co-op wise, there is no denying Halo 2 is harder to beat. The other day I was talking to a friend online and playing Halo 4 coop on Legendary and we talked about the fact that Halo 2 is so hard on legendary (co-op) because if one person dies, the players have to restart at the last checkpoint.
In fact that doesn't change in the Halo 2 anniversary edition at all... compared to the original Halo 2.
