Support NeoGAF

[l Zealot l]

To be fair, the Elites without names in-game aren't much better even in past titles. The whole theme of allies in Halo is that they can't feel like bigger badasses than you at their peak - it's the reason Marines died by the thousands at your side in Combat Evolved and would never follow you for more than a single encounter or two in 3, Arbiter notwithstanding. The only time Elites specifically were consistently badass fighters were when they were during Arbiter missions in Halo 2. The big difference as enemies is that they were either relatively smart, slightly-better than you combatants (Combat Evolved, 2 in small engagements, Reach's lower ranks) or they had unbelievably OP advantages (2 on Legendary or in fights with multiple Elites, Reach's ranks beyond the Ultra, 4's constant Fuel Rod spamming).

Gameplay wise halo 4 Elites are terrible, I'm not sure if it was time/AI limitations but I think reach/CE Elites are ideal (maybe with slightly toned down evasive skills).
I understand what you mean with the allies theme, but in the recent books the Elites are not the same. Whilst no name elites die in the hundreds (same as no name humans, grunts etc) the race as a whole has taken a sharp decline in standards to the point that it was noticeably jarring for me to read glasslands. They seem individually stupid (to the point of becoming a generic "let's kill the humans for no apparent reason" alien race which coming from events in halo 3 doesn't really add up for me at least, but I guess that becomes a wider part of my problems with Traviss novels.), far from the proud tacticians in previous books.

Sorry if replies a bit short and all over the place, trying to write this at work.

 

[Orochinagis]

Don't buy it. I've had it for weeks and have literally only seen The Pit one time. Once. And it didn't get voted for. Tonight I backed out of lobbies (or played some) in 100+ games. Never once saw a single DLC map offered.

I've never even seen Vertigo.

The only way I could play The pit was in Ricochet, vertigo in other hand....

 

[Prinz Eugn]

Gameplay wise halo 4 Elites are terrible, I'm not sure if it was time/AI limitations but I think reach/CE Elites are ideal (maybe with slightly toned down evasive skills).
I understand what you mean with the allies theme, but in the recent books the Elites are not the same. Whilst no name elites die in the hundreds (same as no name humans, grunts etc) the race as a whole has taken a sharp decline in standards to the point that it was noticeably jarring for me to read glasslands. They seem individually stupid (to the point of becoming a generic "let's kill the humans for no apparent reason" alien race which coming from events in halo 3 doesn't really add up for me at least, but I guess that becomes a wider part of my problems with Traviss novels.), far from the proud tacticians in previous books.

Sorry if replies a bit short and all over the place, trying to write this at work.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanityIsSuperior

Which is sad re-reading bits of Fall of Reach where the Covenant seemed truly terrifying. 5 years later Humanity is super dominant... and super boring...

 

[Fuchsdh]

I want to buy Bullseye, just in general and so I can play in this playlist, but I'm scared about it going on sale soon

I doubt it's going to get discounted any time soon given MS's previous history. If you get it you'll see the Pit come up fairly frequently compared to other DLC, and we always try to run it on customs nights so if you join us for that you can get your money's worth.

 

[Ghazi]

I doubt it's going to get discounted any time soon given MS's previous history. If you get it you'll see the Pit come up fairly frequently compared to other DLC, and we always try to run it on customs nights so if you join us for that you can get your money's worth.

Don't buy it. I've had it for weeks and have literally only seen The Pit one time. Once. And it didn't get voted for. Tonight I backed out of lobbies (or played some) in 100+ games. Never once saw a single DLC map offered.

I've never even seen Vertigo.

I'll probably get its worth out of the cosmetics, but definitely out of customs I forgot about that, yeah. I'll pick it up tomorrow, then, so I can play it in customs for sure.

 

[l Zealot l]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanityIsSuperior

Which is sad re-reading bits of Fall of Reach where the Covenant seemed truly terrifying. 5 years later Humanity is super dominant... and super boring...

Yes, sad but true. In the older books when a Spartan stood toe to toe with an Elite It could go either way, I genuinely had to read on wondering what the outcome would be.

Infinity needs to be viciously destroyed in the most cataclysmic manner possible. It's a ridiculously overpowered war machine that time frame wise the UNSC shouldn't really have.

 

[Orochinagis]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanityIsSuperior

Which is sad re-reading bits of Fall of Reach where the Covenant seemed truly terrifying. 5 years later Humanity is super dominant... and super boring...

And making the powerful species their servants.

The writers needed a a new foe while saving old ones for future use, its a very cliche and lazy move to keep something alive while thinking a real direction for the franchise.

 

[II SHABUTIE II]

They need to severely discount or give away the DLC in this game for free. You never see it in game. There's only 200 people in the DLC playlist (and you have to have ALL DLC, not just the small maps).

That would be the best part about XB1 ports for H3 and H4. The games would surely come packed with all the DLC. Think about that, everyone on potential H2A, H3 port, and H4 port, would have all the DLC... It would be amazing.

 

[Shadders]

Halo 2 Legendary Cairo station is basically broken, isn't it?

Still, I suppose it's nice of them to put the hardest part of the game right at the start so all those zero-death people can get it out of the way early.

Halo 2 Heroic is harder than most of the other games' Legendary.

 

[User 73706]

OT(?), but I took a half-assed two-in-the-morning shot at an 80's/90's Halo cartoon:

Which is, in turn, because reasons.

 

[TheOddOne]

Helmets are safer, because there a pretty blue lady in it and it has a built in audio system (Which imports FLAC, MP3, MP4 and the obscure WMV).

Brought to you by the safety council for ageing super soldiers.

 

[YourExWife]

OT(?), but I took a half-assed two-in-the-morning shot at an 80's/90's Halo cartoon:

Like, totally tubular. Kowabunga dude.

 

[Shadders]

I'm just looking through the GameSpy casualty list, there's some real gems in there, games that will definitely still have strong communities. It's such a shame they've done this, I'm sure they could have sold the servers in some way.

Halo, Battlefield, Battlefront etc. all have big communities who'd be willing to chip in and pay for server maintenance.

 

[Nirvana]

Any news on this Halo 2 HD rerelase that was rumoured? Nothing would make me happier than that game being remade; Halo 2 is easily my favourite in the franchise.

I do hope they run the engine directly under it a la Halo CE if they do rerelease it, since it wouldn't feel the same without all the broken double shots and BXRing.

 

[Omni]

Any news on this Halo 2 HD rerelase that was rumoured? Nothing would make me happier than that game being remade; Halo 2 is easily my favourite in the franchise.

I do hope they run the engine directly under it a la Halo CE if they do rerelease it, since it wouldn't feel the same without all the broken double shots and BXRing.

No news. They haven't even denied it.

It's happening. Pretty damn obvious at this stage. But MS or 343i won't be saying a word until E3, you can count on that

 

[The Real Napsta]

Any Halo 2 HD edition would likely be a port of the PC version right? Or would they start over and port the Xbox version?

CEA was a Halo PC port so I'm leaning that way.

 

[Booties]

Halo 2 Legendary Cairo station is basically broken, isn't it?

Still, I suppose it's nice of them to put the hardest part of the game right at the start so all those zero-death people can get it out of the way early.

Halo 2 Heroic is harder than most of the other games' Legendary.

That part is tough, but I found the level as a whole to be much easier than the rest of the game. If you're playing it for the first time, then you will see much more broken fights as you progress especially against the Heretic and Regret.

No news. They haven't even denied it.

It's happening. Pretty damn obvious at this stage. But MS or 343i won't be saying a word until E3, you can count on that

Yeah, frankie isn't really saying no whenever it comes up in other threads.

They need to severely discount or give away the DLC in this game for free. You never see it in game. There's only 200 people in the DLC playlist (and you have to have ALL DLC, not just the small maps).

They need to do something. They are just wasting their own time making a DLC playlist for a few dozen people. If they made one map pack free, another discounted up to 50%, and the 3rd full price, then I would be MUCH more inclined to purchase them all. I only own Majestic b/c I heard the maps were smaller and The Pit because The Pit. I'm not even sure what the map packs are which shows how irrelevant the DLC can be to some people. Halo 4's DLC failed pretty badly because the people who do own the DLC, the hardcore fans and newcomers who bought the Season Pass/LE, all left because the game wasn't good at release and felt jipped. I think 343i would earn a lot of goodwill from the community and casual players if they had a big DLC sale. This would boost numbers and sales of future titles.

343 doesn't have the player's trust which blows. This will doom future titles. Wake up, do something now please.

 

[FyreWulff]

Any Halo 2 HD edition would likely be a port of the PC version right? Or would they start over and port the Xbox version?

CEA was a Halo PC port so I'm leaning that way.

I would guess any potential Bone version would be based off PC since the work to make it function at 60fps without issues has already been done. The PC version is also already set up to install itself in it's entirety as you play it, which would be a boon as well. An interesting and useless side note is Halo 2 is the only Halo that only ever ran on x86 processors natively; Halo 1, 3, Reach, ODST, 4, Wars and Spartan Assault have all run natively on PowerPC or have a native PowerPC version.

They need to severely discount or give away the DLC in this game for free. You never see it in game. There's only 200 people in the DLC playlist (and you have to have ALL DLC, not just the small maps).

All DLC playlists in 4 are essentially "have fun barely ever playing".

 

[Nirvana]

Regret.

God. The Regret fight is the absolute worst. So much RNG that you have to deal with. After watching a few speedrunners play through it I was glad to hear even they bitched about the fight.

I'd say Cairo isn't all that difficult. The two main fights where the Covenant come out of latched on ships is the only difficult part really, the rest of the level is just routing and always having a Plasma Pistol handy.

Hardest part is the sniper section in Delta Halo (or is it Regret?) You can get stuck in one position constantly if you don't use the sword jumping skip or get a bad checkpoint.

Having said all this I have played through it like 10-15 times on Legendary, so I guess my opinion is a bit skewed at this point.

 

[Dub117]

I would nearly frisbee titanfall if H2 classic multiplayer was confirmed at E3.

As much as I am enjoying Titanfall, I'll call in sick for work for H2A, no BS.

 

[Booties]

God. The Regret fight is the absolute worst. So much RNG that you have to deal with. After watching a few speedrunners play through it I was glad to hear even they bitched about the fight.

I'd say Cairo isn't all that difficult. The two main fights where the Covenant come out of latched on ships is the only difficult part really, the rest of the level is just routing and always having a Plasma Pistol handy.

Hardest part is the sniper section in Delta Halo (or is it Regret?) You can get stuck in one position constantly if you don't use the sword jumping skip or get a bad checkpoint.

Having said all this I have played through it like 10-15 times on Legendary, so I guess my opinion is a bit skewed at this point.

My least favorite parts of Halo 2 Legendary were fighting all those buggers in that ravine after you take out the snipers. I would get pinned down so easily and they'd swarm. Wish those enemies were so OP otherwise it would be a good addition. I always struggled with the first fight on the level where the Chief gets teleported to the covenant's world.

 

[Omni]

Oh yeah, Gravemind is a bitch on Legendary. Particularly that opening section... comes down to luck more than anything

Still my favourite level in the game though. Scenery and atmosphere was just beautiful. There's a point where you stumble across an area with Brutes that are murdering Grunts and there's a particular song that plays which gives you feels and you just feel sad for them

Grunts in H2 were so adorable. No idea if I'mma be able to relate to Halo 4's Covenant redesigns during the campaign. :lol /tangent

 

[Booties]

Oh yeah, Gravemind is a bitch on Legendary. Particularly that opening section... comes down to luck more than anything

Still my favourite level in the game though. Scenery and atmosphere was just beautiful. There's a point where you stumble across an area with Brutes that are murdering Grunts and there's a particular song that plays which gives you feels and you just feel sad for them

Grunts in H2 were so adorable. No idea if I'mma be able to relate to Halo 4's Covenant redesigns during the campaign. :lol /tangent

I think all the forgettable enemy designs in H4 were a good tell for how 'meh' I feel about the campaign in general.

E; below. I felt like I was fighting bad weapon and enemy design in Halo 4 legendary, not smart AI. The light rifle and boltshot were terrible againt Promethean Knights, who are a terrible enemy with bad AI and cheap gimmicks that can't be countered. Then you have eliets that dive every time you fire a bullet. Nothing about the enemies in H4 made sense.

 

[Nirvana]

My least favorite parts of Halo 2 Legendary were fighting all those buggers in that ravine after you take out the snipers. I would get pinned down so easily and they'd swarm. Wish those enemies were so OP otherwise it would be a good addition. I always struggled with the first fight on the level where the Chief gets teleported to the covenant's world.

Yeah the drones are definitely the worst part now that I think about it, especially the fact that if you leave one sniper alive they can push you out into the open and then you just die instantly.

Oh yeah, Gravemind is a bitch on Legendary. Particularly that opening section... comes down to luck more than anything

Still my favourite level in the game though. Scenery and atmosphere was just beautiful. There's a point where you stumble across an area with Brutes that are murdering Grunts and there's a particular song that plays which gives you feels and you just feel sad for them

Grunts in H2 were so adorable. No idea if I'mma be able to relate to Halo 4's Covenant redesigns during the campaign. :lol /tangent

I have a pretty solid way of dealing with that opening room, but it and the entire level are really difficult overall, despite my Legendary run being practically speedrun quality polished at this point after so many playthroughs. Conservation of ammo in that first room is a real bitch and the lift section is essentially over unless you kill those two brutes almost instantly when you drop down behind them. It's also my favourite level, I think it should be what 343 use as a template for level design. The big open spaces juxtaposed with the cramped hallway battles, the incredible variety of encounters with a huge amount of different enemies, the great use of music, the story elements playing out around you while Truth talks over the intercom; fuck what a fantastic level that was.

I enjoyed Halo 4's campaign a lot on the Legendary setting, it felt really good, but still lacked the challenge of Halo 2; as have all of the other campaigns since to be honest. Halo 3 was easy, ODST was woefully easy, Reach was mildly difficult and although I thought Halo 4 felt really fucking solid on Legendary, it wasn't particularly hard.

 

[Woorloog]

Oh yeah, Gravemind is a bitch on Legendary. Particularly that opening section... comes down to luck more than anything

Luck? Not really, rather it requires perfection. And slight luck too, because the spawns are random after all, but you can influence them...

Played Halo 3 a couple of days ago... it and Halo 4 feels so ridiculously easy compared to Halo 2.

Seriously, if i have one big complaint about Halo 4 campaign, it is that it is too easy even on Legendary. It shouldn't be cheap, but fair and tough. (Skulls do not make any more fair, they make it cheap. Never liked skulls for other than adding some fun, and fun skulls are too few...)

 

[User 73706]

Luck? Not really, rather it requires perfection. And slight luck too, because the spawns are random after all, but you can influence them...

Played Halo 3 a couple of days ago... it and Halo 4 feels so ridiculously easy compared to Halo 2.

Seriously, if i have one big complaint about Halo 4 campaign, it is that it is too easy even on Legendary. It shouldn't be cheap, but fair and tough. (Skulls do not make any more fair, they make it cheap. Never liked skulls for other than adding some fun, and fun skulls are too few...)

uhh

 

[Woorloog]

uhh

Eh, not primarily relying on luck?

Seriously, i try to avoid contradicting myself but when i write quickly and don't bother to re-read what i say... well, shit happens.

 

[l Zealot l]

As much as I am enjoying Titanfall, I'll call in sick for work for H2A, no BS.

Well... I took a week off work for halo 4. Back when I was young and gullible,

Spoiler

got the LE console and everything haha

. So that is on the cards for H2A.

Bit OT but I'm nearly gen 3 now and kinda bored. It's definitely fun but it doesn't have that halo-level grab to it.

 

[Fracas]

I just bought an Xbox One solely because of the possibility of a Halo 2 Anniversary.

Spoiler

and it was $150

Don't let me down, Microsoft.

 

[wwm0nkey]

I just bought an Xbox One solely because of the possibility of a Halo 2 Anniversary.

Spoiler

and it was $150

Don't let me down, Microsoft.

Have another one for that price?

 

[Exploratory]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=685665

The one thing Killzone did right. I really want someone at Xbox to make this happen for Halo.

 

[Fracas]

Have another one for that price?

Sadly not. Keep an eye on Amazon's listings though, warehouse deals consoles pop up for $280-$350 occasionally

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

uhh

Where's the confusion? randomrosso said "it comes down to luck more than anything" while Woorlog simply said it was "slight luck," disagreeing with rosso's emphasis on luck.

Eh, not primarily relying on luck?

Seriously, i try to avoid contradicting myself but when i write quickly and don't bother to re-read what i say... well, shit happens.

Your post was fine IMO.

 

[Tawpgun]

Hey someone hook me up with a Halo 4 Games on Demand code and I'll be able to play Halo 4 again.

Thanks.

 

[Chettlar]

No news. They haven't even denied it.

It's happening. Pretty damn obvious at this stage. But MS or 343i won't be saying a word until E3, you can count on that

Yup. Spencer expressly said that.

I kinda wish they wouldn't keep everything for E3.

God. The Regret fight is the absolute worst. So much RNG that you have to deal with. After watching a few speedrunners play through it I was glad to hear even they bitched about the fight.

I'd say Cairo isn't all that difficult. The two main fights where the Covenant come out of latched on ships is the only difficult part really, the rest of the level is just routing and always having a Plasma Pistol handy.

Hardest part is the sniper section in Delta Halo (or is it Regret?) You can get stuck in one position constantly if you don't use the sword jumping skip or get a bad checkpoint.

Having said all this I have played through it like 10-15 times on Legendary, so I guess my opinion is a bit skewed at this point.

Holy. Cow.

And I felt proud of myself for getting it done once. 0_0

 

[Tawpgun]

The rumors are strong that it's happening but it's disconcerting nothing substantial has leaked and nothing's been announced if it's supposed to come out this year.

Would be amazing if they kept it a sort of secret until e3

 

[User 73706]

Where's the confusion? randomrosso said "it comes down to luck more than anything" while Woorlog simply said it was "slight luck," disagreeing with rosso's emphasis on luck.

Your post was fine IMO.

 

[Chettlar]

The rumors are strong that it's happening but it's disconcerting nothing substantial has leaked and nothing's been announced if it's supposed to come out this year.

Would be amazing if they kept it a sort of secret until e3

Well, this really is in line with the Xbox One as far as leaks go.

The info about it was leaked plenty, but as far as imagery goes, we got nada. Which makes sense, since it's easier to just remember info than take a picture of it.

Still, I wish we'd get a Halo 4 barn-style multiplayer leak or something.

 

[Booties]

Seriously, 343 needs to do something about the DLC. Gain our trust back you dummies.

 

[Orochinagis]

Seriously, 343 needs to do something about the DLC. Gain our trust back you dummies.

buy the goty version?

 

[Syphon Filter]

Sadly not. Keep an eye on Amazon's listings though, warehouse deals consoles pop up for $280-$350 occasionally

wtf,it was a new xbox one?

 

[wwm0nkey]

I saw a few going for $400

 

[Poker Face]

I just bought an Xbox One solely because of the possibility of a Halo 2 Anniversary.

Spoiler

and it was $150

Don't let me down, Microsoft.

That's ridiculous lol.

 

[Orochinagis]

I saw a few going for $400

I saw it at $300 in mexico in a random store which is crazy cheap considering its overpriced here, no ones buy it anyway

 

[Mistel]

It's had a price drop over here I think already.

 

[Omni]

Yeah, I've seen a few Titanfall bundles for like $500 IIRC. The box usually retails at $600 here in Australia alone

 

[Devolution]

When are customs?

 

[Mistel]

When are customs?

Unless you wanted something more specific:

Not going to be around to host full-blown customs any time probably in the next two weeks, but we should get a group going for the Squad DLC list while it's going. Everyone wants to get their money's worth out of it anyhow.

Maybe. They were alright in Reach though... So I dunno. Maybe it just seemed worse because of the map I was playing on (the rocky one with the wraith that came in the third map pack)

And yess. I noticed that I had no AA while in the hill

There's a map in the game with a wraith? I don't even know the name of the map pack that is.

I'm not sure why the trait zone is set up like that unless it's to prevent regen fields from being used.

 

[Orochinagis]

There's a map in the game with a wraith? I don't even know the name of the map pack that is.
.

Hemorrage had scorpions but it were removed and added wraiths in some gametypes.

EDIT: Oh, Halo 4, I think its called Outcast, it spawns on the middle zone of the map

 

[l Zealot l]

Ricochet rebound this weekend only.
https://blogs.halowaypoint.com/en-u...ial-edition-playlist-ricochet-rebound-is-here
Not sure if already mentioned.