Nobody forced 343 to release a TU which is why im so very grateful they did release one. As a fan who likes the TU that is, I know im not alone in that sentiment.
I have nothing against 343 releasing a TU for the game. But they didn't put the manpower and time behind it that a TU deserves. They're freaking
Microsoft.
Their TU should have been bugfixes FIRST, and gameplay additions later. Instead they decided to upsell Windows Phone and DLC first, and gameplay additions second. If they thought bloom was wrong, the solution was to change the DMR's RoF, not allow people to fire the DMR faster than it's previous optimal speed. And if you're going to let the DMR fire faster optimally, CHANGE THE REST OF THE SANDBOX to compensate. Halo 2 1.1 was a dramatic change, but Bungie also touched a majority of the sandbox when they did it. They didn't just make the BR spreadless and call it a day. They adjusted the melee damages of just about everything, changed the BR, changed the grenades, fixed glitches like sword flying and flag pulling, and even improved splitscreen by reducing screen clutter.
Changing 3 weapons (Pistol, NR, DMR) and not changing ANYTHING else was silly. Bleedthrough was advertised as a separable feature to enhance Team Classic which was fine, then they have forced it into the rest of Reach and even proudly proclaimed that the shield feedback didn't even matter. We went from a developer that was able to write an entire GDC presentation on the balance implications of changing the Sniper Rifle's firing rate by .2 seconds to one that just seemed to be trying to act like the cool uncle to forum blowhards while telling the other side of the fanbase that they weren't taking their game away (and still are) while leaving them a total of 2 playlists. I remain convinced that if fall damage and PP stun had not been cut, we would have been stuck with those in mainline Reach as well. Would people have been fine with you being able to jump off the top of Spire or Sword Base with no fall stun and be able to not move off your spawn in Invasion because two elites are walkstunning you with PPs that they spawn with?
And then we end up with insufferable design decisions like the TU pistol - which was able to kill you in 4 shots versus the DMR, which made it more useful than a shotgun at close range. Then they do their little cute update where the pistol now kills in 5 shots but the 4th shot still leaves your shields on. Why not adjust the damage so the freaking thing pops your shields on the 4th shot? That would make tons more sense, but no, we end up with two weapons that are supposed to have the same damage, kill in the same number of shots, but one actually tells you that you're about to die and the other one is all SURPRISE BITCH, YOU DEAD. They're trying to make all these changes to justify cramming bleedthrough into Reach when they just need to drop the idea and save bleedthrough for Halo 4 if they want it so damn badly, because Halo 4 would actually be designed around the mechanic.
The AL and Camo changes are for the sake of change. It's still a "pause button" in their own terms, so if it doesn't work in a playlist they need to just delete it from that playlist instead of trying this middling solution. The AL drain is neglible and a waste of a grenade or sniper round. The camo change was also laughable, it reduced the distance you can crouch walk with it by a few feet. Once again, if it was deemed to be breaking a playlist, it should have been deleted from the playlist. When something didn't work out in previous games, where possible Bungie just said "well shit, that didn't work out" and deleted it. They listened to the fanbase and gave you an entire playlist without AL in Squad Slayer (and most of their new lists had no AL). Then 343 starts
reintroducing AL into everything because now they've attached a goddamn achievement to it to sell more DLC.
At some point 343 needs to decide if they're a startup studio or the AAA gathering of developers that they keep pimping out. You can't tell me Halo 4 is going to be fine (it will be) because they're an AAA studio and then tell me they're still learning game design with their decisions for Reach. If they would have just RoF locked the DMR and Pistol, I would have been sad that people just dug in their heels and refused to learn the new mechanic but at least the entire sandbox would have remained intact. Instead we end up with a weapon that either breaks some of the sandbox (85%) or most of the sandbox (zero bloom). Shit, the NR was obviously entirely designed around bloom and they couldn't even bother to make it's setting separate, any change they make to the DMR carries over to the NR for some unfathomable reason. You didn't see Bungie make the carbine and pistol zero-spread in 2 when they did it to the BR. And then 343 goes and throws the LAN community under the bus, which would allow them to go as far as changing vehicles and they touched
none of them, and the original Reach disc maps and DLC do not (and apparently never will) show up in Anniversary Classic, so what was the point of breaking LAN just to let you use the Halo 1 pistol on all of those maps? The H1P should have been a weapon only on the Anniversary maps, then they could have used Megalo to spawn you with it without torching LAN over selling more DLC.
And before someone says I think Bungie is perfect, I do not. The Halo 2 BR change was a mistake. Changing the Arena from ratings position to win/loss made it boostable again, and was a bad decision. Making the majority of Halo 3 DLC required was a huge mistake, as a lot of people I know just started maining CoD after they could only play 2-3 lists in Halo 3 and never came back. The Drop Shield was a horrible idea, and Evade should have never been on Spartans (or at least not allow them to launch themselves across maps with it).
I want Microsoft to back their games like it's their goddamn flagship (because it is). If they're just going to get caught looking ahead to Halo 4, you have no business patching the game done by another developer unless you're going to dedicate as much time and money as you can. It's why I'm just going to wait for Halo 2 Anniversary or Crackdown 3 or whatever is to get Halo 4's DLC because they're just going to release it and then obviously be looking forward to Halo 5. The TU should have been global from the word go and implemented across all modes. Even if they were to properly make all of MM TU tomorrow, you still have to deal with switching when you go to Firefight (and if Firefight Versus ever comes back)
This opinion post (C)2012 Gawker Media / Wall of Text Incorporated
Oh well
