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Halo Anniversary |OT| It All Comes Full Circle

I disagree.

Some textures look like they are straight photographs, much of the content was produced for other games in the series, awkward intrusions of new styles for no apparent reason, illogical additions of detail, and completely lost the character of the original.

These are just a few of the things I have to say about it with my limited time with it.

I disagree with your disagree. Let's agree to disagree.
 

cluto

Member
I disagree.

Some textures look like they are straight photographs, much of the content was produced for other games in the series, awkward intrusions of new styles for no apparent reason, illogical additions of detail, and completely lost the character of the original.

These are just a few of the things I have to say about it with my limited time with it.

To be fair, the character and style of "Halo" was lost with Halo 2. The overly-saturated and plastic-y art style is pretty consistent among H2, H3, ODST, and Reach, and now Anniversary has this same style. "Modernized for the modern Halo fan."
 
What if we got a remake of Halo 2 like CEA, but we had the option of using the halo 1 weapon sandbox?

So you want a remake, that's not a remake at all?

At this point, just remake the Halo 2 campaign with the same 'exactly as it was' mantra as this game, and release map packs that bring the final map count for Reach up to EVERY SINGLE MAP ever released for EVER Halo game.

:D


I disagree.

Some textures look like they are straight photographs, much of the content was produced for other games in the series, awkward intrusions of new styles for no apparent reason, illogical additions of detail, and completely lost the character of the original.

These are just a few of the things I have to say about it with my limited time with it.

I don't think the game holds up compared to Reach, but it's better than you're making it out to be.

The 'character' of the original was stark and minimalist due to hardware limitations and lack of experience with the original Xbox hardware.

The 'plastic' look of Halo 2 was a result of trying to force normal maps on hardware that wasn't designed for it. See Riddick and Doom 3. Chaos Theory was better.

Halo 3 is gorgeous on all fronts, stylistically and technically. Likewise for Reach, albeit it's much murkier than any of the other Halo games.


In other news, the playlists with 85% bloom, bleed-through damage, revised armor-lock and the rest of the AAs are fucking fantastic. The 'Anniversary' named playlists are fucking garbage.
 

Monocle

Member
I mean I think it's the best looking Halo game! And it's SO BEAUTIFUL in silent cartographer
I have issues with the style and color palette, but yeah, I know what you're saying. Levels like Truth and Reconciliation and The Silent Cartographer really show off how significantly graphics have improved since Halo CE's initial release.
 

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
While I don't own this, I was kind enough to have a fellow gaffer pass me a download code for the classic maps.

Wow...I like reach I play if often but man playing in the new playlist with classic maps and play styles just reminding how much Armor Abilities fucked up Halo. I honestly never thought this till now, have played and loved Reach MP.

Anyone else have this feeling?
 
While I don't own this, I was kind enough to have a fellow gaffer pass me a download code for the classic maps.

Wow...I like reach I play if often but man playing in the new playlist with classic maps and play styles just reminding how much Armor Abilities fucked up Halo. I honestly never thought this till now, have played and loved Reach MP.

Anyone else have this feeling?

Actually, I felt the opposite.

I just posted a few minutes ago how much I dislike the 'Anniversary' playlists, but love the playlists with 85% bloom, bleed-through, revised armor-lock and the rest of the AAs.

I've put hundreds of hours into every Halo game, had pretty much the same 1.5 K/D for all of them, and Reach is definitely the one I have the most fun with. That that's despite having the worst maps out of the box.
 
Yes, armor abilities ruined halo.

Sigh.

There's always SOMETHING that ruined Halo.

Dual-wielding ruined Halo!

Equipment ruined Halo!

Armor abilities ruined Halo!

Each Halo has it's own flavor. The core mechanics and systems in place are the same. The shooting/grenade/melee trifecta is as strong as ever. The armor abilities just add new tactical wrinkles and variations to the ways battles play out. None of them are over-powered, all of them are easily countered, and choosing one immediately precludes you from the advantages of the other, so there's an opportunity cost to every decision.

It's fine. The problem with Reach multiplayer WAS the map quality, the inconsistency of bloom at 100%, and the movement speed. Two of those three issues have been addressed.


So did they downgrade the pistol? Haven't picked it up yet but I was wondering.

Nope. Still broken in the campaign and in the 'Anniversary' named gametypes.
 
Broken!? I think not :) Love the 3 shot kills.

It's pretty much been confirmed at this point that the damage-modeling for the pistol was the result of an unintended glitch at the end of development.

But hey, if you think that a pistol that is universally effective at all ranges and renders every weapon outside of power-weapons pointless isn't broken, more power to you. :p
 
It's pretty much been confirmed at this point that the damage-modeling for the pistol was the result of an unintended glitch at the end of development.

But hey, if you think that a pistol that is universally effective at all ranges and renders every weapon outside of power-weapons pointless isn't broken, more power to you. :p

Broken or not it made Halo 1 a hell of a lot more fun than it would have been without it. Sometimes unintended glitches are the best things ever. :p

EDIT: I do think that the 4 shot BR found the sweet spot in terms of kill times but I still have fond memories of the Halo 1 Pistol. It made every other weapon pointless, but thats fine by me because it was more fun to use than the other weapons.
 
The pistol is way OP but I still use the AR a fair bit in halo CE, it's great for grunt sweep ups and against jackels on harder levels, also the covie plasma rifle feels strong, halo 2 and onwards made that weapon so weak in most situations especially reach that I never really used it.

PP is godly too.
 
Broken or not it made Halo 1 a hell of a lot more fun than it would have been without it. Sometimes unintended glitches are the best things ever. :p

EDIT: I do think that the 4 shot BR found the sweet spot in terms of kill times but I still have fond memories of the Halo 1 Pistol. It made every other weapon pointless, but thats fine by me because it was more fun to use than the other weapons.

I'm still hoping for Halo 4 to start players with an AR and a 5-shot DMR, and have a 4-shot BR with a lower scope as a pick-up weapon on the map that players have to earn. Sacrifice range and accuracy for power and rate-of-fire.
 

feel

Member
While I don't own this, I was kind enough to have a fellow gaffer pass me a download code for the classic maps.

Wow...I like reach I play if often but man playing in the new playlist with classic maps and play styles just reminding how much Armor Abilities fucked up Halo. I honestly never thought this till now, have played and loved Reach MP.

Anyone else have this feeling?

yep
 
All skulls get! it's a shame some of them were not in more hidden places, still a few areas in maps which are not used much at all and would have been nice spots for skulls.
 

Ecrofirt

Member
I just want to pop in here to say that I am in fucking love all over again.

The game has a tendency to start up with the old textures on my system for whatever reason, and I'm usually having such a fun time that I don't even notice. In fact, I played through half of Silent Cartographer without even thinking about it. Then I was on the beach and I decided to see what it looked like on the original Xbox, and I was stunned that I had played in old-texture mode the whole time. I was having such a kick ass time I never paid attention to the graphics.

THAT says something about the quality of Halo.

All hail Halo.
 

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
The upgraded particle effects with the AR are just godly with indoor areas. It's really mesmerizing to watch.
 

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
I used the rocket launcher.

I got frustrated with how out of practice I was with grenade jumping (I was a whiz at it in Halo 2, could skip through most of the maps thanks to it, although the jumping physics were different) and I just wound up grabbing an overshield outside the security center and rocket jumping myself over there after a few tries. Helps if you turn mid-air and "aim" your jump abit. I contemplated trying to use the warthog to get up there as I could make it inside where you actually hit the switch.
 

TOM T 117

Neo Member
Actually, I felt the opposite.

I just posted a few minutes ago how much I dislike the 'Anniversary' playlists, but love the playlists with 85% bloom, bleed-through, revised armor-lock and the rest of the AAs.

I've put hundreds of hours into every Halo game, had pretty much the same 1.5 K/D for all of them, and Reach is definitely the one I have the most fun with. That that's despite having the worst maps out of the box.
I am a little frustrated by my inability to play 85% settings on a frequent basis. At the moment Anniversary Squad is basically identical to Anniversary Classic, as the majority of voting options and votes go towards Annv. gametypes (at least in my experiences so far). I understand 343 want to raise awareness about the work they have done on creating a more classic experience, but I wish it wasn't at the expense of the refined core Reach experience.
 

ZZMitch

Member
Just picked this up, super excited to play.

I was only about 10 when I first played Halo CE, can't wait to get into it again!
 
It's so weird. I'm a huge Halo fan, but I can't find a way to justify purchasing this. Maybe when it's on sale for at least $20, but I don't think I could ever go higher.
 

blamite

Member
It's so weird. I'm a huge Halo fan, but I can't find a way to justify purchasing this. Maybe when it's on sale for at least $20, but I don't think I could ever go higher.
It's weird, I'm also a huge Halo fan, but I'm finding it hard to justify the fact that I skipped Skyrim for this. I would definitely wait if I was you.
 
It's pretty much been confirmed at this point that the damage-modeling for the pistol was the result of an unintended glitch at the end of development.

But hey, if you think that a pistol that is universally effective at all ranges and renders every weapon outside of power-weapons pointless isn't broken, more power to you. :p

This is not true at all - the damage model for the pistol was a result of Jason Jones being a better game designer than you. Listen to the Sparkast with the guest appearance by Jaime Griesemer some time.
 
Just finished my first run on Heroic. God damn. What a campaign. So much nostalgia. All the weapons still feel so good to fire. The enemies are still fun to fight. You still want to explore. It's crazy.

I remembered like every single part of the campaign except the outdoor portion of Keyes. Totally forgot about it. Must not have played it a lot back in the day. Damn though if they didn't nail the eerie feeling.

Found the Terminals very interest. Spoilers ahead.
So it appears the Librarian/Lifegiver is dead, but the Didact is still alive? Also, found it interesting that the Gravemind spoke directly to Keyes like that. So does the Flood take on the knowledge of those it consumes as inferred, or is that just a scare tactic Gravemind was using on Keyes to give in?
 
Holy shit Legendary is kicking my ass. I'm stuck in a section on Truth & Reconciliation where I think I'm gonna have to just restart the whole mission over. Been playing it for probably six hours total over the last two or three days while making no progress.
 

Nutter

Member
I'm still hoping for Halo 4 to start players with an AR and a 5-shot DMR, and have a 4-shot BR with a lower scope as a pick-up weapon on the map that players have to earn. Sacrifice range and accuracy for power and rate-of-fire.

ObamaHellNo.jpg


Give me faster kill times, and more headshot capable weapons at start.
 
This is not true at all - the damage model for the pistol was a result of Jason Jones being a better game designer than you. Listen to the Sparkast with the guest appearance by Jaime Griesemer some time.

What did he say?

I've heard like six different accounts of what happened with the pistol from Bungie employees, and the only common thread is that the implications for multiplayer weren't intended.
 
ObamaHellNo.jpg


Give me faster kill times, and more headshot capable weapons at start.

I think the game you're looking for is Call of Duty. That game has incredibly fast kill times, and every starting weapon is headshot capable.




...Seriously though, the DMR is a headshot capable weapon. As a starting weapon it shouldn't be THE MOST EFFECTIVE headshot weapon. Better headshot weapons should be available on the map, be it a new BR, the sniper rifle, or what have you.
 
DMR's scope ruins a lot of BTB maps. No more 3x zoom.

If the 3x zoom weapon is a 5-shot kill, and a stronger, more valuable weapon exists that is only 2x scope, then you'll have people using the starting weapon to defend against snipers and pester at range, but it likely won't be scoring KILLS at long range.

It allows players to defend themselves from spawn, but forces them to earn a better, for effective killing weapon.
 

Lima

Member
Just finished up the rest of the achievements. Was a really fun and cool experience. Except maybe for "Look after the little guys".

That was just stupid and really had to be done in coop. Other than that it was a pretty solid list. Probably my favorite one out of all halo titles.
 
Reach online is amazing with AR/Pistol starts, halo to me is best played like this instead of spawning with death star rifle guns like the BR.
 

zethren

Banned
Reach ruined the trifecta. Its armor abilities/grenades/melee/weapon in that order (in terms of power).

The game can still be played without armor abilities, and you don't miss out on anything if you do play without them. There are even playlists that don't include them, or simply something like sprinting which may be one of the least intrusive AAs and even then everyone has it.

I don't think AAs ruined Reach or Halo, but I do agree that it affected the balance of the golden tripod. It's a golden table, now. It's obvious that when you add something new there are always balancing issues, but I think all things considered it turned out fine. I don't have much of an issue with them, but then again I've always been more hardcore about the Halo campaigns (and since ODST, Firefight) than I've ever been about competitive multiplayer.
 
It's pretty much been confirmed at this point that the damage-modeling for the pistol was the result of an unintended glitch at the end of development.

But hey, if you think that a pistol that is universally effective at all ranges and renders every weapon outside of power-weapons pointless isn't broken, more power to you. :p

Well that's not true. The pistol being a 3sk was absolutely a conscious design decision made by Bungie, it just happened very late in development.

DMR's scope ruins a lot of BTB maps. No more 3x zoom.

Well if maps were actually designed around the sandbox/mechanics of Reach, then it would have been fine, but alas, the maps were not really designed that way, and in the case of BTB, maps weren't designed at all.
 
But hey, if you think that a pistol that is universally effective at all ranges and renders every weapon outside of power-weapons pointless isn't broken, more power to you. :p
WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE NEEDLER

All the weapons in CE had use, and a lot of things in that game were absurdly powerful. It's just once they started introducing redundant weaponry that the effective set of weapons start thinning out. It wasn't broken within CE's environment, it just served its purpose of being the most versatile weapon.
 

ElRenoRaven

Member
From most accounts Jason Jones near the end decided the pistol was too weak so he coded it to automatically increase the strength of the pistol over what values they entered for it by a certain amount. Hence the pistol that it ended up with was born. The way he did it prevented them from reverting the change too due to them not figuring out what he had done till too late.

Most times people won't say who did it but others have said it was Jason Jones who did it. Personally I felt it was fine. I didn't use it very often and always was able to do well. I do agree with others that the sandbox started having problems when they started duplicating weapons for the same roles. That's when it became a nightmare to balance. That's one reason I really hope to god that with Halo 4 they can prune a lot of the weapons that do nothing but serve as a duplicate for a roles. Go back to basics if you will. Sometimes more weapons for the sake of more weapons isn't always better.
 
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