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Halo |OT12| Last One Out, Get the Lights

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
KOTH(FFA throwback) should not be available on Haven nor Adrift because what. the. fuck.

Douchebags just lobbing nades, jetpacks overhead, boltshots, list goes on. There is little to no breathing room on these maps. Very not fun.
 
They phoned it in with the pulse grenades, imo. Both mechanically and visually.
They're fine in multiplayer just because they're a great denial tool and strip shields quickly, but yeah in single player they're in abundance and they just completely suck to use against the AI.
 
The problem with Spartan Ops is that it doesn't have as much obvious replay. Its fun to replay missions as they can and do play out differently, but without scoring, skulls, or a changeup in objectives it gets old quickly.

There's nothing here to keep you playing for hours on end like Firefight. I'll play a week's worth of missions once or twice and then I want to move on. 343 needs to give players a reason to replay missions - and not just by dangling some XP carrot. Some dynamism to enemy composition and objectives would help, as well as balancing encounters to the number of players.

This explains so much.
Didn't have fun with the previous games versus modes, and couldn't get into it. This is the first Halo that has held my attention because, outside of other changes, the movement and firing itself just looks, feels, and sounds great. That goes a long way. Choosing your starting loadout and personal ordnance are the other two touches that change the way I approach the game. Other stuff like flinch or global ordnance can be altered without losing the fun, so I won't mind if 343 changes those.
 

Ramirez

Member
Reach's FF was just as shitty as SpOps. Though, I am arguing with people who probably grinded Gruntpocalypse on Corvette for 12 hours a day.
 

Vire

Member
The problem with Spartan Ops is that it doesn't have as much obvious replay. Its fun to replay missions as they can and do play out differently, but without scoring, skulls, or a changeup in objectives it gets old quickly.

There's nothing here to keep you playing for hours on end like Firefight. I'll play a week's worth of missions once or twice and then I want to move on. 343 needs to give players a reason to replay missions - and not just by dangling some XP carrot. Some dynamism to enemy composition and objectives would help, as well as balancing encounters to the number of players.

Optional Objectives would be really great.

But lord knows that ain't happening.
 

Tawpgun

Member
Reach's FF was just as shitty as SpOps. Though, I am arguing with people who probably grinded Gruntpocalypse on Corvette for 12 hours a day.

The road to inheritor is made with grunt corpses.

EDIT: Speaking of inheritor, the number ranks kinda suck.

It was fine when they actually stood for skill. But for EXP ranks? I know its a picky superficial thing, but military ranks/cool symbols seemed better than SR 56!
 
I think they're ok (sometimes) for the simple fact that it could take someone several days to get the challenge. Of course, that all completely hinges on how difficult the challenge actually is. In this case it should definitely be a daily (the 16 headshots one).

Otherwise you're guaranteeing that all weeklies have to be grinders (which I personally hate). I do understand that's kind of the point of weekly/monthly challenges, but I do consider that if made difficult enough, there can be some value to the "get X amount of Y in a single game" type of weekly challenge.

For me those are by definition, daily challenges. Weekly challenges should always be something that you progress toward over a number of days, not something you do in a single match.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
you know the scene in home alone when the mom is on an airplane and kicks back to enjoy her flight, then she bolts upright and screams "KEVIN" because she realizes she forgot macaulay culkin

343 probably did the same thing with screenshot functionality

Look whatcha did ya little jerk
 
Optional Objectives would be really great.

But lord knows that ain't happening.
Seems like they've tried that a bit with the achievement to keep the marines alive, in both spartan ops and campaign, but I'm just not interested in leveraging my fun against the smarts of game's allied AI. No thanks.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
Reach's FF was just as shitty as SpOps. Though, I am arguing with people who probably grinded Gruntpocalypse on Corvette for 12 hours a day.
This is true. Reach FF is just as mindnumbing as Spartan Ops.
What made ODST FF fun probably had mostly to do with the fact that you didn't spawn with a BR or DMR. You couldn't just take pot-shots at enemies from a mile away. You have a pistol, yes, but it's only really good to headshot grunts and jackals here and there. To take down Brutes and the like you had to scavenge for enemy weapons pushing you out of your defensive area. Add to that the limited amount of resupplies and you get a mode which is a lot more tense. Plus, Hammer Brutes in ODST FF are probably some of the most entertaining enemies to fight in any Halo.

I wish Bungie (and now 343) had just taken it to the next level. Allow us to build defenses, make us fight Scarabs, increase the scale,
improve the netcode
, that kind of stuff.
 

willow ve

Member
Seems like they've tried that a bit with the achievement to keep the marines alive, in both spartan ops and campaign, but I'm just not interested in leveraging my fun against the smarts of game's allied AI. No thanks.

Not to mention, if you miss that week where there was an achievement, it's back to the stone ages of ODST where you have to depend on meeting players on a forum, decide on a time for everyone to play, and then add them to friends list, etc.... Why you can't just have matchmaking for all episodes is lunacy.
 

Redford

aka Cabbie
Or it could be that Halo simply doesn't have the following that it used to, or the staying power.

Anyone who thinks this game's population is low because they chased the CoD crowd is delusional. Halo's design simply doesn't translate to what the majority of gamers want today. Not that it matters really, just play the game or don't, it's not going to change into the Halo of 2004 or 2007.

I came to grips with that months ago, I feel like some of you lied to yourself, thinking this was gonna be the return to the old fashioned Halo, when everything was right in front of you showing you it was going to be vastly different. Maybe that's why I'm not as upset? I dunno.

IMO, the only things they would need to keep to retain their new and old casual base would be personal ordnance, all the armor, and and all the worthless medals, especially the dumb-fun ones with vehicle stunts. None of the other stuff is necessary for their enjoyment and mucking about trying to checklist CoD only came up with broken killcams and JiP.

I like to think that AA's frustrate a casual at least a fraction as much as it does me when used against them, especially since the only good ones in this game (AC and jetpack) lend themselves pretty well to the griefers on Waypoint. So AA's could have been cut and I don't think it would have mattered much as long as personal ordnance was there to give everyone their fun with the guns, which are all pretty balanced.
 

Karl2177

Member
Or it could be that Halo simply doesn't have the following that it used to, or the staying power.

Anyone who thinks this game's population is low because they chased the CoD crowd is delusional. Halo's design simply doesn't translate to what the majority of gamers want today. Not that it matters really, just play the game or don't, it's not going to change into the Halo of 2004 or 2007.

I came to grips with that months ago, I feel like some of you lied to yourself, thinking this was gonna be the return to the old fashioned Halo, when everything was right in front of you showing you it was going to be vastly different. Maybe that's why I'm not as upset? I dunno.
So why is the population so low, oh Great Ramirez?
 

Trey

Member
In terms of raw fun the first time, my favorite Halo modes would probably go ODST Firefight, CE campaign, Halo 2 multiplayer. In that order.

So why is the population so low, oh Great Ramirez?

He answered that question in the first and third sentences.
 
In an FPS? Who did then? Those are more the big name games. Thats the order.
SiN Episodes had a horde-type survival wave mode before Gears 2. So did Max Payne 2. Those are the only ones that come to mind though.

Bungie's Marathon actually.

It had a survival type mode.

But Horde popularized it, and thats what really matters in the end.
That was added in by Freeverse for the port, it wasn't in the original game. Still came before Gears 2's though.
 

Ramirez

Member
This is true. Reach FF is just as mindnumbing as Spartan Ops.
What made ODST FF fun probably had mostly to do with the fact that you didn't spawn with a BR or DMR. You couldn't just take pot-shots at enemies from a mile away. You have a pistol, yes, but it's only really good to headshot grunts and jackals here and there. To take down Brutes and the like you had to scavenge for enemy weapons pushing you out of your defensive area. Add to that the limited amount of resupplies and you get a mode which is a lot more tense. Plus, Hammer Brutes in ODST FF are probably some of the most entertaining enemies to fight in any Halo.

I wish Bungie (and now 343) had just taken it to the next level. Allow us to build defenses, make us fight Scarabs, increase the scale,
improve the netcode
, that kind of stuff.

I agree ODST was more fun. No AA's to cheese, no sprint, no infinite ammo, lower movement speeds, etc.

That said, it was still boring after one trip around all of the maps, and I probably wouldn't have done it if it weren't for the achievements linked to them.

SpOps is the right direction to take, although I don't think they can reach the scale they need to make it enjoyable in an episodic delivery. I feel like it almost needs to be its own game, drastically different from your standard Halo campaign. There needs to be varied objectives, not push the button and shoot a wave of enemies. That is always going to be stale, in SpOps or FF.

I've thrown this idea out there a bunch of times, but I would really like to see missions be fast paced and crazy like the L4D games. Constantly pushing through the level, trying to complete objectives without dying, some of the Covenant could be player controlled just like the special zombies in L4D. I'm not asking for a zombie Halo game, but just something with that outline. Sitting down in one space for 15 minutes is boring, and you're never going to make it fun in a re-playable fashion.

The netcode is the most disappointing part, does the AI play some role in it? I know the AI in other co-op games is pretty brain dead, Horde especially, you just see Locusts running circles with no real rhyme or reason. Not a networking guy, so I really have no clue.

So why is the population so low, oh Great Ramirez?

I answered it in the first sentence of the post you quoted. At least read my post if you're going to quote me.
 
Meh at those weekly challenges. I prefer ones that mix up the gameplay and provide some variety in matchmaking. 80 kills with a precision loadout weapon? That's like daring people to breathe.

Again, this explains so much.

it all makes sense now. You're a crazy person.
Ok. I find your flavor of sanity to be misguided.
 

Elros

Member
Ok ... 3 hours online on Halo 4 => 3 hours stucked at SR1 ... It's getting a little bit too long. Watching my friends getting online and having no issues is a bit frustrating.
 

Sai-kun

Banned
Still disappointed there are only 2 SpOps challenges again, but hey, at least they didn't cut it to 1 like I was expecting.

/snark!

hello halogaf
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Reach's FF was just as shitty as SpOps.
Yeah, but very few people are asking for Reach's FF to come back. Firefight 3.0 -- a true evolution of the formula -- is what I wanted to see.

Imagine if firefight could have taken a page from Gears 3 with the building of bases and fortifying. Using the same shit from Dominion.

God what a missed opportunity.

Use points to build up bases, buy vehicles/ordnance....
That's exactly what I was hoping for. Could have been glorious.

-Campaign is good
-Graphics are sick
-Weapons feel great for the most part
-Oddball and KotH are in their best iterations
-Truskill is working for the most part
- Vehicles feel great (though heavy vehicles are way too abundant in matchmaking).
- Movement is the best its been since Halo 2 (but still not as good as H2).
- Haven is the best new map since Halo 3.
 
Man, the population for this game has dipped so much in the last week alone, it seems like.

I seem to remember Reach's population dropping off quickly as well, but stabilizing for a bit before the CoD exodus. Reach had the advantage of a larger window between its release and CoD's that year. Aside from the ever-present black screen issue, it didn't have nearly as many functionality issues as Halo 4 (servers going down, JiP snafus, Waypoint/Bnet/fileshare flaws, disappearing loadouts, etc).

No, wait, that's my second least favourite thing. My actual least favourite thing is there are no fail conditions, no lives, no tension of any kind. You just bang your head against the wall until its over, which occasionally means respawning in the middle of packs of enemies on Legendary.

I like SpOps more than most here, but every time I fire it up I miss having any sense of urgency, disappointment, excitement, tension, frustration, triumph, etc. Those are the emotions I am after when playing a game and since SpOps doesn't seem to care if I'm winning or losing, I feel very little.

I'm just doing what the game wants me to do in all of the modes: go through the motions, fill bars, push buttons, and on to the next thing. And this is coming from someone that likes playing.
 

Ramirez

Member
Yeah, but very few people are asking for Reach's FF to come back. Firefight 3.0 -- a true evolution of the formula -- is what I wanted to see.

How would you evolve the formula of dropping players down into a singular level and fight waves of enemies? There's only so far you can take it.
 
I'm already fatigued at Halo 4, I can't imagine how tired it'll feel by 7 or something. Then again Assassin's Creed and COD get churned out yearly and people still gobble it up, Halo's got nothing to worry about for a long time.
 

OverHeat

« generous god »
I highly disagree. The series makes bank. No way it stops. A break might happen, but the series will continue unless MS has something huge to replace it with.
I was sarcastic....because of all the bitching going on around here. Some of you guys make it seem like this piece of software is no better then shit sometime.
 

Trey

Member
Spartans Ops should have been a community driven sandbox utilizing all the features of the Halo series. It should have allowed players to forge their own scenarios, build their own maps, set their settings (lives, starting weapons, etc). 343 could have still released their episodes with the CGI cutscene.
 

Tawpgun

Member
Before I dive into SpOps.... I want to say... WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF CLEARING COVANENT OUT OF THE SAME AREA OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. JESUS WHATS THE POINT OF DECURING ANY AREA IF IT BECOMES OVERUN AGAIN!?

ffs
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
Spartans Ops should have been a community driven sandbox utilizing all the features of the Halo series. It should have allowed players to forge their own scenarios, build their own maps, set their settings (lives, starting weapons, etc).
Customization in Halo 4?

1350534522034xgzpi.gif
 
Spartans Ops should have been a community driven sandbox utilizing all the features of the Halo series. It should have allowed players to forge their own scenarios, build their own maps, set their settings (lives, starting weapons, etc). 343 could have still released their episodes with the CGI cutscene.

I would expect more ambitious stuff in Halo 5.
 

TCKaos

Member
Before I dive into SpOps.... I want to say... WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF CLEARING COVANENT OUT OF THE SAME AREA OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. JESUS WHATS THE POINT OF DECURING ANY AREA IF IT BECOMES OVERUN AGAIN!?

ffs

It's got a payoff.

TrustUs™
 
Before I dive into SpOps.... I want to say... WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF CLEARING COVANENT OUT OF THE SAME AREA OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. JESUS WHATS THE POINT OF DECURING ANY AREA IF IT BECOMES OVERUN AGAIN!?

ffs

Castle has to be the most incompetent team of Spartans ever. Followed closely by Majestic and then Crimson when xxx420Bluntman69urMomxxx is playing SpOps at 3 AM.
 
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