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[Jared Goodwin]

(something about one-shot sniper kills)

Eh? Headshots?

I think he's referring to the annoying sniper Jackals.

Personally, I'd like to see a playtested and well thought-out Legendary mode for the campaign this time around. Too often Legendary in Halo 2 wasn't hard, but just annoyingly cheap. In Halo, Legendary meant that you'd have great spontaneous (or maybe not) moments just trying to get from point to point. I have fond memories of fighting over the cafeteria on the Pillar of Autumn, first picking off the grunts, then isolating and overwhelming or outsmarting the elites one by one.

Contrast this with the second dropship on the...uh...station with the MAC gun (whose name escapes me), from the first stage of Halo 2. Yeah, the first time you see the yellow elite and his badass bodyguard in the last wave is a heartstopper, but limited arsenal plus the wave after wave of elite between this and the last save point mean that you're in for lots of frustration. This isn't the only moment like this; the far-off Jackal snipers in ruined buildings and the too-powerful Covenant dropship guns give Outskirts some death-from-the-clear-blue-sky moments, and one of the Arbiter vs. Brute firefights (with the Brutes firing at you from cover from across a chasm, two or three firefights after you rescue some Hunters from a cell) is ridiculous for one-hit-kills even with the Hunter backup you're given. It isn't that these situations are impossible; it's just that they're either frustrating only-dodgable-if-you-know-ahead-of-time instadeath, or very difficult firefights that badly need splitting into more feasible chunks.

It doesn't help that the puppet's strings start to become obvious on Legendary. I was lucky enough to pick up a sword from a white Elite once when defending the MAC gun station, so I got the bright idea of using it to try and eliminate an isolated red elite. I didn't get shot up coming in, but I didn't get the back strike. I hit him with the sword, and it didn't kill him, but his counterattack with the butt of his plasma gun did kill me in one hit. *sigh*

I didn't mean for that to turn into a big Halo 2-bashing rant. Oh well.

 

[Uno Ill Nino]

4-PLAYER CO-OP. You read right. Give me system-link/live 4-player co-op capabilities. Brute Force did this eons ago as did Rainbow Six 3. Get with the times and make it happen.

No more matchmaking. Give us the option to set up games the way we want and have it count for something if we want it to. No more limited playlists, dammit. If we want to play a game of 8on8 CTF on Lockout for rank, LET US.

Map editor. You can say "We don't want half-assed maps out there watering down the experience" all you want but your maps are not the end-all-be-all products you think they are. I would love to make a map that mirrors the retail store I work at. I'd also like to make a map that resembles some of the paintball fields I've played on. Get over yourselves and let us do it. Besides, if you're not going to support the flagship title with new maps, you may as well let us do it ourselves.

More balanced weapons. Specifically the plasma pistol/battle rifle combo is annoying as fuck. It doesn't take much skill to take advantage of and if you argue that the p.pistol/h.pistol combo from Halo 1 was just as bad, you are wrong. Changing weapons was much slower and the combo was not nearly as potent.

Give me all those things and I'll pre-order a copy. As it is, I don't think I'm going to even keep my copy of Halo 2 LE and that pains me to say.

 

[raYne]

Squad commands are a good idea, especially after playing through Republic Commando. However, I sort of like the implied individuality that comes with not being able to command the marines.

Things like you pulling up in your Warthog to pick up a marines and blowing your horn 50 times only to have him stand there and look at you like you're an idiot :lol.
However they should've had audio clips for such situations.

"I like being alive Chief.. I think I'll stay here."
"Me?... Oh.. Uh... I'm covering this area... yeah..."
etc.

Or a marine with a Rocket Launcher charging ahead full steam by himself taking on the Covenent alone and refusing to either wait for you or accept your ride. :lol

I think he's referring to the annoying sniper Jackals.

Heh, I didn't even remember about that since after I played through Legendary once I never touched that difficulty again. Still, it makes sense that on that high a level that the snipers would go for headshots... hence one hit kills.

Someone suggested visor interactions. As stated before, something along the lines of environmental effects and the like would be great, but I'd pass on the visor effects (motion tracking, infra-red etc) leave that for Metroid and the like. That said, bring back the nightvision on the Sniper Rifle!

 

[The Guivre]

Boss battles I could accept, after awhile, but try to get a little less scripted feeling.

Ongoing raging battle over large expanses of relatively even terrain that just don't peter out if you stand there and wait for them to thin eachother out. That would certainly help with the feel of you being in anything other than a canyon or a set of alleys all the time. Remember, planets tend to have plateaus and plains.

More driving time. Most of the time it feels like you really only use the warthog or ghost to get around the block or something. In the Scorpian portions, I'm not really sure what to liken it to.. not quite a rail shooter but something similar. Put those vehicles in the open not barreling down a street or through some ancient tunnels. Kinda give it a feel like the hedgerows of WWII.

Squad commands = me caring more if the marines live or not

Also, give me a reason to keep the marines alive rather than just using them like cannon fodder. Like maybe if you save a trapped squad, later in the game they'll show up and help you out. Where as if you don't save them, well then you're on your own. I've never really gotten the feeling that marines made Master Chief's life easier except when they're manning a turret for him.

And since everyone likes adding more playable characters.. maybe we could play a level or two as Sgt. Johnson? I know we'd all like that.

 

[Gorgie]

Oh yeah, faster vehicles. You guys reminded me how boring some sections are in SP because you have to run in tank that feels slower than your walk speed. Also, the warthog can stop hugging the ground, and take off when driving over a hill. I remember in Halo 1 we have warthog dueling contents where we collide in mid air, and also during regualar matches, if a vehicle flipped, and the driver landed it, the room was in awe. Now with roll cage garbage, another aspect of skill was gone.

The reason race (rally) never made a return is that the Warthog is just not fun to drive anymore, and Bungie found this out during internal testing, but just "patched" the problem instead of ripping out the rotting foundation like they should have.

-----------------------------------

For SP alien snipers, I say they should be one hit kills, BUT no more appearing on the roof of buildings. Snipers should always be in place when I enter an area, and no more pop up after a triggered event, to me, that's fair. One reason SP Halo was fun was the aliens appeared on battle, or acted, like they just got on Halo so they haven't had time to set up defences, and that they don't know that a superhuman cyborg is coming. They were caught off guard.

In Halo 2, instead of capturing the sponteanity of combat happening when one least expects it, we get Shooting Gallery Evolved. People can complain about RE4, but Halo 2 was a much worse offender of this. I mean the Covies just landed on Earth, and already, they know exactly where the Chief is headed, and set up traps of doom, waiting for the chief. Instead of fighting off skirmishs in Halo, I'm CLEARING ROOMS of enemies, then moving on to next one. Instead of Halo 2, we got Serious Sam Bumpmapped without the variety , humor, or fun.

 

[Ramirez]

I'd like them to make the multiplayer not suck. Perhaps look at what they did with Halo 1 for inspiration.

Read:Im a noob and I need my Pistol that doubles as a sniper rifle :lol

 

[jkooXL]

A lot of very valid, CONSISTENT complaints here people. BUNGIE ARE YOU LISTENING??

Halo 2 was nowhere near the game that Halo: CE was, make us proud with Halo 3!!!

They need to return to the source in a lot of ways, the physics, graphics, balance, difficulty, level design, all these things much better in the first game!! Such a balanced polished gem of a game, Halo 2 feels like a duct-taped together hack job.

And now with the completely lame hand holding of the coolest enemy ever, ALONG with the grunts and hunters, who the hell are we going to be fighting in the third game?? MORE FLOOD, boring AI robots and brutes and jackals only? WTF??? Shooting grunts in the face while they scream and try to flee is almost my favorite thing in the world second only to punching out a pissed off elite in the face during an intense firefight after my bad ass assault machine gun (not that weak pea-shooter in the 2nd game) runs out of ammo.

Are you really going to take all these things away from me forever Bungie? At least I and my close friends take solace in the fact that they can never take the first game away from us, we just keep playing it again and again.

 

[Ramirez]

Halo:CE feels so slow and archaic after playing 2,I'd like some of what you are smoking.

 

[Nerevar]

Yes, that's a good idea, about the d-pad, I'd love to see different type of sensors, and also to make it seem like you're in that helmet that Master Chief is wearing, like breathing, and when a water drop drops onto your visor it should have an effect.

please, the last thing we need is for Halo to turn into a Metroid rip-off. Different "visors" is dumb - mapping it to something like squad commands could work though.

And to everyone bitching about the pistol - shutup. The first Halo was not balanced. At all. The pistol made every other weapon, save the rocket launcher, worthless. It was better for sniping than the goddamn sniper rifle! Stop crying about it and learn to play a game with at least halfway decent weapons balance (although the sniper is still pretty damn strong).

 

[Lakitu]

please, the last thing we need is for Halo to turn into a Metroid rip-off. Different "visors" is dumb - mapping it to something like squad commands could work though.

Since when does visor and visor effects etc belong to Metroid?

 

[Nerevar]

Since when does visor and visor effects etc belong to Metroid?

When I think of switching visors, I think of Metroid. I can't off the top of my head think of any other game that has done this - plus it is a vital gameplay mechanic of that game. I don't want them to put in visors because then it becomes a game of matching visors to situations (certain enemies can only be seen in certain visors, switches only seen in certain visors, etc), which is dumb. I think simple squad commands would be helpful though (hold this position, follow me, cover me, etc.)

 

[gollumsluvslave]

When I think of switching visors, I think of Metroid. I can't off the top of my head think of any other game that has done this - plus it is a vital gameplay mechanic of that game.

I was more thinking of Splinter Cell's imaging modes. The reason I mentioned it was that the D-Pad wasn't used, and the MC has infra-red, and thermal imaging modes in the novels. Just something that would add another dimension to the game, although I think squad commands would add more.

Ever since I played Splinter Cell, when I went back to Halo I simply thought "This is pretty unbelievable that this mad regenerating environment suit can't let me see in the dark, or see heat signatures etc"

 

[Nerevar]

Ever since I played Splinter Cell, when I went back to Halo I simply thought "This is pretty unbelievable that this mad regenerating environment suit can't let me see in the dark, or see heat signatures etc"

My issue with that though is that when developers start putting things like that in, level designers start building levels around those abilities. So you're going to get a level that's completely dark and you have to play through with the infra-red or enemies that are invisible but leave heat signatures, which I (personally) think is lame. I'd rather just focus on making a tighter experience overall.

 

[jkooXL]

Halo:CE feels so slow and archaic after playing 2,I'd like some of what you are smoking.

Yeah.... the pacing and level design in Halo 2 are so much better.... riiiight. Corridor crawling in the dark shooting zombies and robots is so fresh and new, how could you ever go back to huge epic battles on icy planes, desert plateaus and rolling mountain hills with intelligent pissed off lethal enemies...

Face it, Halo 2 is a turd compared to the first game. Not that it doesn't have its moments but they are few and far between, the game could have borrowed much more from the first game and been the stronger for it.

 

[MarkRyan]

Read:Im a noob and I need my Pistol that doubles as a sniper rifle :lol

You are amazing. Halo 2 is much more noob friendly than Halo 1.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Halo 2 has single player?

 

[duderon]

Read:Im a noob and I need my Pistol that doubles as a sniper rifle :lol

Pistol almost equals the BR, which brings us back to the argument of SMG vs BR start. I think you like SMG start more since you rush the power weapons and can own a lot easier than BR start. No mid-range fire to unzoom your sniper and sword > * closeup. Hence your contempt for Halo: CE

 

[Nerevar]

Pistol almost equals the BR, which brings us back to the argument of SMG vs BR start. I think you like SMG start more since you rush the power weapons and can own a lot easier than BR start. No mid-range fire to unzoom your sniper and sword > * closeup. Hence your contempt for Halo: CE

Mid-range? Either you have a hazy recollection or you sucked with the pistol. I remember getting 3-shot kills from across the map on hang 'em high with that weapon. It was better than every weapon in every scenario save 1 - close-up with the rocket launcher. Calling it a "midrange" weapon demonstrates your nostalgia-colored glasses.

Battle rifle is 10x more balanced due to the spread of the 3-bullets that prevents it from being a rapid-fire long-range sniper rifle (like the marine pistol in Halo 1). Thus, the BR is actually a midrange weapon. Now if they could only fix that plasma pistol lockon ....

 

[mrmyth]

I'm playing as a super-strong character - I should be able to rip a LAAG off a 'Hog and carry it around. If you're gonna give me rooms full of hundreds of Flood, I should have a chaingun to deal with such a situation.


More Gauss 'Hogs.


No more dark corridors filled with shambling horrors. I have Carmack for that.


More huge outdoor environments, filled with every enemy in the game, kicking each other's asses until I lob a grenade in the mix and they notice me.

Speed blitz - Chief has to noticably slow down his reaction time to deal with regular humans. I'd like to be able to cut loose once in a while.

Tone down the gun on the Shadow, and give some real power to the peashooter on the back of the Spectre.

Squad commands, including the occasional called-in airstrike if the situation permits.

Goddammit, gimme my massive concussion grenade splash damage back!!

Flooded Brutes. (Be careful what you wish for.)

Traitorous human soldiers. (WTF was Ackerson up to? Why were there already human Flood on Delta Halo?)

Cortana should never be gone from the Chief. I'm sure High Charity could've held a copy.

To 'finish this fight'.

 

[Joe]

get rid of the plasma pistol or weaken it.

i absolutely REFUSE to use the plasma pistol/battle rifle combo because its beyond cheap.

 

[LukeSmith]

get rid of the plasma pistol or weaken it.

i absolutely REFUSE to use the plasma pistol/battle rifle combo because its beyond cheap.

Absolutely correct. The PP should be nerfed to have a timed lock-on system, even if the lock-on lasted the same duration of the RL, you can do significant damage in the time that shot charges and locks.

On other things in this thread:
Bots -- Halo is not for bots. The enemy AI is too smart and varied to bother trying to incorporate bots into the game. If you want to play the game against things, play on Xbox Live. Make friends, have Lan parties.

Ramirez: I agree with Duderon here, the reason you like SMG start in Halo 2 so much is it allows sniper sword and pretty much anyone with a second weapon in there hand to win immediately. It's a game of paper rock scissors, except you always lose.

Plus, you yourself admitted you didn't play much Halo:CE and only played with like 2 other dudes, so you never really got to scratch the surface of the game. It feels different now, parts of Halo: CE are vastly superior to Halo 2.

1. the physics, the grenades flipping the warthogs
2. the Banshee in Halo 2 controls better, but the control spawn system of the RL makes the banshee overpowered.
3. the spawn system in Halo: CE is so much better. Everything is on a timer, sure it leads to some hilarious set ups, with kids listening to dictaphones that are counting off the weapon timers in their heads, but it always created battles around the Rocket Respawn points and sniper respawn points.

Halo 2 is far more twitchy and faster, in part because of movement speed, jumping height, but most of all aided by the addition of dual wielding (I'd rather not see any of that a

Similarly, part of the reason you hate battle rifle start is because it is the most balanced and utilitarian weapon in the game -- but it can zap the effectiveness of a sniper rifle pretty easily. The sword, well the sword is counteracted by the BR, the PP/BR, whatever any number of combos. I originally thought that it should be nerf'd like I think the PP should be (run out of energy, et cetera) but now, I think the sword has its place.

The Halo CE pistol is the most unbalanced weapon I've ever seen in an FPS to start with. But, the purpose that it served was ultimately great. You could get yourself out of literally any jam with the pistol and it's TSK.

No squad command mapping to the D-pad, don't bungle up the controls with having to order marines around. I hate babysitting, and aside from random circumstances, the marines were smart enough.

Boss battles are not needed in Halo 3. The two in Halo 2 were fine, but the end (from a gameplay perspective) while memorable (the giant canyon) is nowhere near as memorable as the timed race out of The Pillar of Autumn in Halo: CE.

Halo 2 is better than Halo: CE in a lot of ways, and in a lot of ways Halo: CE is better than Halo 2.

I, like some of the other posters in this thread, would love to see the Plasma Pistol nerfed and I think the way I suggested would work best and not upset the balance of the game -- also, I don't think the PP should necessarily sap the OS in its current form. If they aren't going to nerf the targeting they should at least only make it eat half of your shields, or restore your shields to normal.

Anyone who just likes "Slayer" games in Halo 2 is really doing themselves a disservice. KOTH, Team Ball, 3 plots lockout, Shotgun CTF are all spectacular modes. Admittedly some of bungie's factory modes are TERRIBLE, rapid assault Burial, rapid CTF burial, CTF 1 flag Ivory, et cetera, so next time around I'd like to see them work with the gaming leagues to come up with better playlists.

Foundation, KOTH Everyone's Invisisble is NOT a good gametype.

 

[teh_pwn]

keyboard and mouse

 

[jetjevons]

I think he's referring to the annoying sniper Jackals.

Personally, I'd like to see a playtested and well thought-out Legendary mode for the campaign this time around. Too often Legendary in Halo 2 wasn't hard, but just annoyingly cheap. In Halo, Legendary meant that you'd have great spontaneous (or maybe not) moments just trying to get from point to point. I have fond memories of fighting over the cafeteria on the Pillar of Autumn, first picking off the grunts, then isolating and overwhelming or outsmarting the elites one by one.

Contrast this with the second dropship on the...uh...station with the MAC gun (whose name escapes me), from the first stage of Halo 2. Yeah, the first time you see the yellow elite and his badass bodyguard in the last wave is a heartstopper, but limited arsenal plus the wave after wave of elite between this and the last save point mean that you're in for lots of frustration. This isn't the only moment like this; the far-off Jackal snipers in ruined buildings and the too-powerful Covenant dropship guns give Outskirts some death-from-the-clear-blue-sky moments, and one of the Arbiter vs. Brute firefights (with the Brutes firing at you from cover from across a chasm, two or three firefights after you rescue some Hunters from a cell) is ridiculous for one-hit-kills even with the Hunter backup you're given. It isn't that these situations are impossible; it's just that they're either frustrating only-dodgable-if-you-know-ahead-of-time instadeath, or very difficult firefights that badly need splitting into more feasible chunks.

It doesn't help that the puppet's strings start to become obvious on Legendary. I was lucky enough to pick up a sword from a white Elite once when defending the MAC gun station, so I got the bright idea of using it to try and eliminate an isolated red elite. I didn't get shot up coming in, but I didn't get the back strike. I hit him with the sword, and it didn't kill him, but his counterattack with the butt of his plasma gun did kill me in one hit. *sigh*

I didn't mean for that to turn into a big Halo 2-bashing rant. Oh well.

A gree with this person. Legendary is broke in Halo 2. It's not that it's too hard, it's just trail and error. It's no fun. I still play Halo 1 for co-op Legendary.

 

[duderon]

Mid-range? Either you have a hazy recollection or you sucked with the pistol. I remember getting 3-shot kills from across the map on hang 'em high with that weapon. It was better than every weapon in every scenario save 1 - close-up with the rocket launcher. Calling it a "midrange" weapon demonstrates your nostalgia-colored glasses.

I was talking about BR not the pistol. This is why i brought up the SMG vs. BR start argument.

 

[Ramirez]

You are amazing. Halo 2 is much more noob friendly than Halo 1.

Right...

And I hate BR start because the game turns into a BR only game,you don't even worry about the other shit because it's useless!I can play a few games,but after a while it just becomes so stale.You can say the BR takes skill,but with BR start it usually comes down to whoever sees who first with skilled players.

But alot of my dislike for it comes from the maps we play,Lockout/Midship/Ivory Tower just suck ass with BR start,but as I've stated many times,on the larger maps it would be ok,simply because of the distance a sniper can get on you.In the smaller maps very rarely will a sniper ever dominate you.

 

[duderon]

Right...

And I hate BR start because the game turns into a BR only game,you don't even worry about the other shit because it's useless!I can play a few games,but after a while it just becomes so stale.You can say the BR takes skill,but with BR start it usually comes down to whoever sees who first with skilled players.

But alot of my dislike for it comes from the maps we play,Lockout/Midship/Ivory Tower just suck ass with BR start,but as I've stated many times,on the larger maps it would be ok,simply because of the distance a sniper can get on you.In the smaller maps very rarely will a sniper ever dominate you.

Exactly. It lessens the power of the sniper, sword, etc. This gives the game much more balance than say midship where your best hope is to grab another plasma rifle and hope the sword guy isn't anywhere near you. Without a BR spawn the power weapons are too powerful, although they are still very powerful in MLG games. The sniper is still a great weapon in FFA, you just have to get more sneaky with it. Rockets are still powerful except the victim actually has a chance if they are clever, and the sword is still critical to hold in team games. It does take skill and grenades become a much larger factor with the BR, which is a good thing. So yes, it is harder to use the power weapons but they can still turn a game.

 

[Ramirez]

Whatever,you'll never turn me on to this type of game mode.Like I said,might as well take every other weapon and throw them out the window and name it Halo:Battle Rifle Evolved.

 

[LukeSmith]

Whatever,you'll never turn me on to this type of game mode.Like I said,might as well take every other weapon and throw them out the window and name it Halo:Battle Rifle Evolved.

Instead of say, Halo 2: Sword and Sniper Evolved


Duderon 1
Ramirez 0

If only that were the score when you guys square off in-game.
DUDEROWNED

 

[Ramirez]

You got his hopes up in that first part of your post! :lol

 

[duderon]

Just imagine if Ramirez were to help make the next halo. The title...

Halo: Ramirez sword-sniper, everyone else pea shooter Edition

 

[Ramirez]

I could kill you with one PP and my fists and you with the RL!

 

[duderon]

I could kill you with one PP and my fists and you with the RL!

I could kill you with a needler and you with the sword-snipe if you weren't facing me too

 

[ToyMachine228]

I hope they put the Shotgun cocking back into Halo 3...In Halo: CE, some of my most badass moments involved me hiding behind a corner, reloading my shotgun, cocking it, and then charging back around. In Halo 2, there was no cocking of the shotgun. Nothing major, but just something cool I'd like to see.

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Speaking of the shotgun, how about fixing that to the way it was in Halo 1, instead having players rely on luck to make the difference between killing and be killed.

 

[Pudding Tame]

Get rid of the invisible walls and not being able to jack vehicles in certain places.

Probably what irked me most about single player, in Halo you could go anyplace with anything. Halo 2 as soon as you get to the Metropolis tunnel with a banshee, invisible wall.
Hop on a banshee in the tunnel, it explodes for absolutly no reason. This is not an improvement, it's a pretty fricken huge regression from the first game.

And how long did the rest of try to hijack banshees on Regret before realizing that you couldn't. They turned off the coolest / most hyped new feature in the game during a situation where it would have been awesome to have it.

The biggest problem I have with these two issues is that it takes you out of the game world and slaps you in the face while doing it. I hope these will be addressed in Halo 3.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Good to see so many great comments on this thread.

I've been torn by Halo 2 because while there are many distinct features that make the game better than Halo, there are some issues, some of which are very minor, that make the game less fun to play.

At the heart of my problem is that Halo 2 does not feel like the tactical shooter that Halo often was (especially in Legendary SP). In the first game, every bullet from every weapon counted (the bullet-hose that the BR was aside). It took exactly seven needles to get an explostion from the needler, no more, no less. In Halo 2, the clip is bigger, and each 'shot' fires TWO needles. How many until an explosion? I have no idea. I'm not even sure they explode anymore. Guys just kind of fall over half the time. Bungie says the Needler is better, but for my money the one in the first Halo was more fun to use, and that's just more important.

In this game, the pistol is only useful rapid fie, the SMG is a monster hose, the plasma rifle fires two shot bursts, the battle riffle three. The net effect is that many battles turn into spray-fests rather than closely controlled firing.

I've never read this particular complaint elsewhere, but it's bugged me from day one. When you melee, the camera jerks around with the movememt. Swat with the plasma rifle, and you do this sudden jerk up and down. I find this incredibly distracting and unnecessary.

 

[mrmyth]

I dunno,, the only weapon changes I'd make are

- BR selectable fire rate (3 shot normal, one shot medium distance)

- Needlers back to seven needle explosion. Hell, do we even get multiple explosions anymore?

- Brute shot rounds have impact of Halo1 concussion grenades. No way in hell those big ass monkeys carry such a nerfed weapon.

- fast locking, fast moving Plasma charge shot, but only mediocre tracking that gets worse over distance

- bring back the AR in the form of a chaingun or let me remove the LAAGs from that back of the 'Hogs. I'll take it even if it makes me move slower.

- no Sword lockons. Sword is one-hit-kill no matter the difficulty. Charge decreases with use in multiplayer.