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[PooBone]

Everything is better with a friend, especially terrible maps.

Coop doesn't exist on the PC version, so all I had to keep me company was that goddamned lightbulb. And he loves the place.


343 Guilty Spark is still the best Flood level in the series, though H3's Floodgate comes really close. 343GS did have something of a repetition problem (like most of the game), but in terms of atmosphere, setting, foreshadowing, and tension, it's really unmatched. Later Flood levels kinda fall into a routine of throwing the Flood in your face early on and never really building up to the big onslaught effectively. Yeah, you can never recreate the big shock, but it's kinda annoying to see the lack of subtlety that followed.

The Covenant ship that comes sailing in at the end of The Storm might as well have had "FLOOD FLOOD FLOOD" scrawled across its hull.

Two Betrayals.

 

[PooBone]

There's so many places that could make a great Firefight map where great battles took place in the original Halo: CE...My guesses...

- The beach of Silent Cartographer
- The first area of Truth & Reconciliation
- A number of battlefields from Assault on the Control Room/Two Betrayals would qualify

I like this sort of thinking/discussion.

The grav lift area (either inside the ship or outside) from Truth and Reconciliation would make sense. But like I said earlier, the first building you reach in "Halo" with the dropships all around you (They're tryin ta flank us!) would be a good one too.

 

[Ubersnug]

Don't know if it's been posted already, but 343I has released a podcast about the E3 halo announcements.

http://halo.xbox.com/Content/assets/en-us/Podcast/343Sparkast_004.mp3

 

[Magni]

If you get Anniversary and own Reach, you'll be able to transfer the new maps to play with your Reach disk. Not the same thing but pretty handy.

I've been abroad since January and will be until late August, so I haven't bought the map packs. I thought Anniversary would get me back into Reach MP since I'd understood it to be just like ODST, but if I have to buy all the maps (I'm guessing they haven't gone free or down in price) as well to have a good experience... there's tons of other games I'll have to catch up on.

How many map packs (and their price) have I missed by the way? Me leaving my Xbox coinciding with HaloGAF leaving the Gaming side didn't help my keeping up with the news =/

 

[PooBone]

I've been abroad since January and will be until late August, so I haven't bought the map packs. I thought Anniversary would get me back into Reach MP since I'd understood it to be just like ODST, but if I have to buy all the maps (I'm guessing they haven't gone free or down in price) as well to have a good experience... there's tons of other games I'll have to catch up on.

How many map packs (and their price) have I missed by the way? Me leaving my Xbox coinciding with HaloGAF leaving the Gaming side didn't help my keeping up with the news =/

Two packs, I think they're both $10.

Why did you assume Anniversary would be just like ODST? The thing was just announced Monday.

 

[Magni]

Two packs, I think they're both $10.

Why did you assume Anniversary would be just like ODST? The thing was just announced Monday.

I don't know, as soon as Reach was announced I had guessed we would see something like ODST halfway down the road to 343's Halo, to keep interest in the franchise high (and make money!):
-a small SP expansion (either a Reach side-story (Blue Team's role in the battle), or a CE remake) on one disk
-all of the previous Reach maps, and a new map pack, to reinvigorate and reunify the Reach MP player base, on another

It just seemed logical to me.

Now of course, the CEmake comes six months before the (expected) halfway point, and a year before the point where ODST was released.

Slightly OT: How has the DLC been handled in Reach so far in terms splitting the playlists? And are the maps any good?

 

[PooBone]

I don't know, as soon as Reach was announced I had guessed we would see something like ODST halfway down the road to 343's Halo, to keep interest in the franchise high (and make money!):
-a small SP expansion (either a Reach side-story (Blue Team's role in the battle), or a CE remake) on one disk
-all of the previous Reach maps, and a new map pack, to reinvigorate and reunify the Reach MP player base, on another

It just seemed logical to me.

Now of course, the CEmake comes six months before the (expected) halfway point, and a year before the point where ODST was released.

Slightly OT: How has the DLC been handled in Reach so far in terms splitting the playlists? And are the maps any good?

I think the new maps are very good for the most part. Between the two packs, there's 5 MP maps and 1 firefight map. They have a few DLC playlists, I think there's one that encompasses all the DLC, and one for the newest pack only. Someone else may know more details though, I play Reach pretty casually and haven't popped it in since I got LA Noire.

 

[The Lamonster]

Do we know which maps they're remaking yet?

 

[Genesis Knight]

I was playing the new maps last night, love them. I think the second pack (Defiant) is $8 right?

 

[PooBone]

Do we know which maps they're remaking yet?

Not all of them. We know Blood Gulch is NOT getting remade. They are remaking Beaver Creek, Hang Em High, and Damnation. Not sure about the other three, (I'm hoping for Prisoner) and we don't know what the Firefight map is.

 

[Genesis Knight]

Not all of them. We know Blood Gulch is NOT getting remade. They are remaking Beaver Creek, Hang Em High, and Damnation. Not sure about the other three, (I'm hoping for Prisoner) and we don't know what the Firefight map is.

They said they're doing a PC map, and an HBO member matched screens from the trailer pretty exactly to Timberland from Halo PC.

 

[Mr Vociferous]

There's so many places that could make a great Firefight map where great battles took place in the original Halo: CE...My guesses...

- The beach of Silent Cartographer
- The first area of Truth & Reconciliation
- A number of battlefields from Assault on the Control Room/Two Betrayals would qualify

Halo: CE was very, very Firefight friendly. I'd use "chock full," but that simply does not do it justice.

Two Betrayals.

<3

 

[Biscuits]

Both. Outside of two levels, the single player was terrible. Much of the "epic" action took place in cutscenes. It was bookended by three terrible levels with Sierra 117 in the front and Cortana and Halo at the end. The storyline was completely ruined with the voice over interrupting quasi-cutscenes with Cortana and Gravemind.

The multiplayer was just bland and boring. Assault rifle starts ruined half the playlists. The BR was completely random with its terrible hit detection due to spread and the poor netcode. The maps were atrocious and playlist management was an embarrassment.

Halo: Combat Evolved didn't have the multiplayer issues simply because it was played at LANs mostly. But its single player was wrapped in this mysterious minimalist story that slowly unfolded over the course of the game. There was a surreal mystery to the entire campaign. It was somewhat present in Halo 2, especially during the Arbiter levels. But it's completely non-existent in Halo 3.

The enemy encounters, while more mundane and "scripted" in Halo exhibited more creativity than anything in Halo 3. Encounters like in Two Betrayals and the dynamic battles between the flood and Covenant are all missing in subsequent sequels. It's more than a nostalgia trip down memory lane. Halo is still one of the tightest designed first person shooters on consoles. It appears Bungie got caught up in their hype too much entering Halo 3's devleopement.

Definitely agree with this from a campaign point of view. I really have confidence in 343 in bringing back that mysteriousness to Halo that got me into the universe in the first place, especially after that trailer.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Two packs, I think they're both $10.

Why did you assume Anniversary would be just like ODST? The thing was just announced Monday.

Prior to announcement, it's what I assumed as well.

ODST was a new campaign, and the Halo 3 MP suite.

I thought, this would be a remade Halo 1 campaign, and the Reach MP suite.

Instead, it's a new campaign, and seven MP maps. The reasons are clear, to keep Reach selling and keep map packs selling. ODST came out two years after Halo 3, and this hits one year after Reach. But it's a strange package.

 

[FourDoor]

Prior to announcement, it's what I assumed as well.

ODST was a new campaign, and the Halo 3 MP suite.

I thought, this would be a remade Halo 1 campaign, and the Reach MP suite.

Instead, it's a new campaign, and seven MP maps. The reasons are clear, to keep Reach selling and keep map packs selling. ODST came out two years after Halo 3, and this hits one year after Reach. But it's a strange package.

I agree that it is a bit of a strange package. From the podcast it noted that you can launch Campaign and Multiplayer from the same screen (which assumes its the same disk) in Halo CE.

So the Halo CE Aniv disk will have the 7 maps and will let you import your Reach maps onto the XBOX so you can play all the maps/playlists. I am assuming this import of Reach maps would include the FireFight maps as well but what about Reach's Campaign?.

What I would like to know is that if this import process from Reach will be a separate process than installing the full Halo Reach disk on to your XBOX. If it is a separate process then it looks like Reach will be taking up 2 instances on my XBOX which doesn't make sense.

And what I haven't seen any word of at all is can we import the Halo CE Aniv maps from the DISK on to the xbox so that it can be played through Reach without having to buy the maps as DLC...

 

[Genesis Knight]

What I got out of it is this:

1) Play remastered campaign and the new multiplayer/firefight off the Halo CE disk.
2) Redeem your included code to DL the maps and they will show up in Reach along with the rest of the maps.

 

[Blader]

Prior to announcement, it's what I assumed as well.

ODST was a new campaign, and the Halo 3 MP suite.

I thought, this would be a remade Halo 1 campaign, and the Reach MP suite.

Instead, it's a new campaign, and seven MP maps. The reasons are clear, to keep Reach selling and keep map packs selling. ODST came out two years after Halo 3, and this hits one year after Reach. But it's a strange package.

Aside from the graphics, what's new about it? I thought everything else about the campaign was being preserved.

 

[Genesis Knight]

New campaign, what? It's a texture and model pack running on top of the CE engine...

 

[thezerofire]

Luckily for you, Bungie has increased the effectiveness of running at people while using spray and pray automatic weapons in every Halo since the 1st one. That is the reason so many people still prefer the first one.

What the Halo CE pistol does is this: it turns the game into a hybrid of two different types of shooter games. One half is the Call Of Duty type of shooter where you spawn with a great all around precision weapon and you don't have to pick up any guns off the ground if you don't want to. The other half is your Quake style shooter where you really need to pick up the better weapons located throughout the map and it takes more bullets to kill someone than realistic type shooters. Mix those halves together and you have Halo CE, it is a combination that works. It is also a combination that hasn't really been seen since, which is why people still cling to the game and are mad about the lack of multiplayer in the remake.

so much I agree with

 

[JohnOfMars]

Does anyone know anything about the inclusion of Theatre mode?

 

[squidhands]

Aside from the graphics, what's new about it? I thought everything else about the campaign was being preserved.

Terminals and some sort of skull-type settings to make the game play differently, which alludes to possible campaign scoring. IWHBYD skull would be glorious. NEED MOAR FLIPYAP

That's all cool but it hardly counts as a 'new campaign'.

Very true. I am interested to see how the new graphical layer adds to the "new"-ness of it.

 

[Genesis Knight]

Terminals, and some sort of skull-type settings to make the game play differently, which alludes to possible campaign scoring. IWHBYD skull would be glorious. NEED MOAR FLIPYAP

That's all cool but it hardly counts as a 'new campaign'.

 

[PooBone]

Does anyone know anything about the inclusion of Theatre mode?

They haven't said anything about it, but that would be awesome.
I saw the main menu and there was no mention of theatre, for what it's worth.

 

[dc89]

Forgive me if this is old.

Source

Do we think that is genuine?

 

[Chinner]

it's old, and master chief looks like a toy.

 

[MNC]

If it's genuine, props for trying to recreate the original box.

Seems like a nice homage.

 

[dc89]

A nice homage. They left Bungie's name off the front cover!

 

[Zeouterlimits]

A nice homage. They left Bungie's name off the front cover!

It's genuine, but perhaps not final.

Yeah, it's an odd choice... I assume they'll get a mention on the back. Hell, even Saber aren't on that cover.

 

[PooBone]

What sort of achievements would you all like to see? I'm hoping they have some wild ones like "Warthog jump to the top of the Island" or "Complete Assault on the Control Room" without using a vehicle." Or "Beat the game using nothing but the pistol on Legendary."

What's some other good ones?

 

[feel]

Killing all the enemies in those ATTCR rooms with the sleeping grunts and patrolling Elites without getting spotted.

 

[clav]

Drive the warthog as far as you can into the building on Silent Cartographer.

Shoot 343 Guilty Spark with 777 bullets.

In the first level, betray an army member upon receiving the pistol and force the friendly AI to turn against you.

Disobey Cortana's orders to wait for the LZ in the final level.

Glitch the game by staying in the Pelican on the Flood level.

 

[PooBone]

Drive the warthog as far as you can into the building on Silent Cartographer.

Shoot 343 Guilty Spark with 777 bullets.

In the first level, betray an army member upon receiving the pistol and force the friendly AI to turn against you.

Disobey Cortana's orders to wait for the LZ in the final level.

Glitch the game by staying in the Pelican on the Flood level.

Hop back in the pelican and Don't Assault the Control Room

Find the Meg.

Find the lonely marine.

 

[clav]

Heal me: Kill your co-op partner when your partner only has one health bar.

 

[MNC]

And ofcourse the food nipple grunt.

And REX!

 

[szaromir]

Ugh, this Master Chief model is such a joke. Why not just make a custom Reach multiplayer model instead, would be a much better result actually.

 

[PooBone]

Ugh, this Master Chief model is such a joke. Why not just make a custom Reach multiplayer model instead, would be a much better result actually.

Since the reveal, Frankie has said that the Master Chief model is already changed, but not in time for the trailer.

 

[The Lamonster]

Since the reveal, Frankie has said that the Master Chief model is already changed, but not in time for the trailer.

THANK GOD! Back to being excited about this game.

 

[statham]

THANK GOD! Back to being excited about this game.

thank god.

 

[szaromir]

Since the reveal, Frankie has said that the Master Chief model is already changed, but not in time for the trailer.

Good to know, but that boxart doesn't look much better TBH.

 

[PooBone]

One thing I'm anxious to hear: when you hit back to go to old graphics, will it go to old audio as well?

 

[Zeouterlimits]

One thing I'm anxious to hear: when you hit back to go to old graphics, will it go to old audio as well?

Agreed, I'd be much happier if this was the case.

 

[Slightly Live]

One thing I'm anxious to hear: when you hit back to go to old graphics, will it go to old audio as well?

Confirmed it won't.

 

[Trunchisholm]

Since the reveal, Frankie has said that the Master Chief model is already changed, but not in time for the trailer.

Good to know. The model used in the cover looks fine to me. I hope they're using that one as their main reference.

 

[TheOddOne]

Forgive me if this is old.

Source

Do we think that is genuine?

It does have the new Microsoft Game Studios logo, so maby?

 

[Manp]

Since the reveal, Frankie has said that the Master Chief model is already changed, but not in time for the trailer.

"yeah, we totally already changed that model no one likes... now if you excuse me i have to make a completely unrelated phone call"

 

[Jack Scofield]

Since the reveal, Frankie has said that the Master Chief model is already changed, but not in time for the trailer.

You would think that having your iconic character actually look like himself would be a high priority in time for announcement.

 

[clav]

Confirmed it won't.

This remake is sounding more disappointing by the day.

I really hope there's something ace about the multiplayer features that they said they would unveil more at PAX.

 

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

This remake is sounding more disappointing by the day.

I really hope there's something ace about the multiplayer features that they said they would unveil more at PAX.

What would be the point of toggling the audio. It's the identical music and effects, rerecorded.

 

[clav]

What would be the point of toggling the audio. It's the identical music and effects, rerecorded.

Someone mentioned that the AR doesn't sound the same.

 

[jgminto]

The design they used in the trailer kinda looks like the original reveal version of MC.