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Halo |OT5| Believe, Again

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Risen

Member
I have to say, these enhancements like faster recharge and grenade pickup kind of irk me. They may not always come into play during an encounter, but they can introduce uncertainty in some longer encounters.

For instance, let's say a guy throws both of his grenades at me, and he starts to retreat through a path on which I know there are no grenade spawns. I should be able to chase him safely, only sometimes, he'll have a perk which will let him pick up a dropped grenade, and he'll catch me off guard. Or similarly, if I chase and trap a guy who is weak, I know his shields are down, only sometimes, he'll have a perk which will have let them already recharge, catching me off guard again. And these are just two examples.

Each one of these relatively small tweaks work together to make a game that is inconsistent overall. I had the same gripe with Call of Duty 4, which is ultimately why I chose to play it less and Halo more.

To me, AAs in Reach are more tolerable, because they function consistently, and you can visually detect which AA a player is using.

I marked in bold where you went wrong.
 

Except that you'll purchase the game and probably play the living shit out of it.

Pretty sure you'll be able to tweak settings to replicate classic gameplay.

Yes, but the majority of matchmaking is going to be Halo 4, and most of us are going to spend most of our time playing matchmaking. So you really do have to accept the new game, or just don't play it.

I'm sure their will be a "classic" playlist, but those never actually replicate past games very well.
 

Ryaaan14

Banned
I don't understand why people keep using this argument. Who cares what a supersoldier can do? I want good gameplay.

But when you invest the MP suite in the fiction, and provide fictional justifications for gameplay elements, it invites those kind of questions. Each of the packages shown at E3 have fictional justifications behind them. I'm really curious how the one about grenades will be written.

I'm fine with this stuff since it's all about the gameplay, but it does present certain challenges when you need to justify it all in a fictional context.

Well, I imagine most people think that most design decisions should have grounding within the fiction to some degree; and I think this is important as well, but usually just for more important things within the universe.

The grenade and sprint stuff, I could go either way; whatever is better for gameplay.

The problem comes when people suggest decisions about the gameplay are made due to elements in the fiction.

Fictional justifications don't harm anyone.

Fiction shouldn't even be mentioned when moaning about gameplay elements, just seems like one more thing to drag into the mud.

Holy SHIT guys.

Can't a man make a joke around here?
 

daedalius

Member
I have to say, these enhancements like faster recharge and grenade pickup kind of irk me. They may not always come into play during an encounter, but they can introduce uncertainty in some longer encounters.

For instance, let's say a guy throws both of his grenades at me, and he starts to retreat through a path on which I know there are no grenade spawns. I should be able to chase him safely, only sometimes, he'll have a perk which will let him pick up a dropped grenade, and he'll catch me off guard. Or similarly, if I chase and trap a guy who is weak, I know his shields are down, only sometimes, he'll have a perk which will have let them already recharge, catching me off guard again. And these are just two examples.

Each one of these relatively small tweaks work together to make a game that is inconsistent overall. I had the same gripe with Call of Duty 4, which is ultimately why I chose to play it less and Halo more.

To me, AAs in Reach are more tolerable, because they function consistently, and you can visually detect which AA a player is using.

Tactical Packages and Armor abilities aren't the same thing.
 

Louis Wu

Member
Would you consider the previous Halo games boring in that case?
Nope - but I don't play most of 'em any more. (Reach and Halo 3 both have features that make it hard to know exactly what the other player is going to do. Halo 2 and Halo were fantastic in their day - but I don't play the MP for either one any more.)
 

BigShow36

Member
When are you guys going to accept that the basic stripped down Halo gameplay is never returning? Time to accept it for what it is and move on. :p

It will return eventually, although it may not be under the title of "Halo."

Gaming, like many other social and cultural themes, goes through cycles which are usually circular. Goldeneye started my love of console FPS's because of its beautiful simplicity that grabbed the attention of everyone. There was depth to the game and you were rewarded for your individual ability. The skill-ceiling seemed infinite. After that, there were a bunch of new FPS trying to cash in, each one getting more and more cluttered and ridiculous than the last. I, along with many other gamers, lost interest in FPS games because they all missed that fundamental aspect that made Goldeney so compelling.

Then Halo came out and it was the next great FPS on consoles. It was fun, its was smooth, it was simple, and above all it rewarded skill-based play. Once again, the skill-ceiling was infinite; it gave players something to strive for and measure against. Rather than force variability through coded randomness and an overload of superficial features, it allowed the players to make each game unique.

Now, just like before, FPS games are getting more and more ridiculous. They trade in the elegant simplicity of skill-based gameplay, which is the true origin of depth and variability, for the quick one-off of feel-good hand-holding. Eventually, gamers will grow tired of the sugar high of shallow FPS gameplay and abandon the genre. Until, that is, another company comes along and figures it out and the cycle begins again.
 

CyReN

Member
MLG to have PV?

It's possible.

You can't go into Halo 4 with this mentality:

NzBES.jpg


It's a new game, treat it like that, people forget that the game is meant for casual people. As long as 343i can give the "hardcore" community options to build off their game there will be no issues. That was a big fault in Reach (bloom, maps etc). I think they learned a lot from what Bungie didn't do.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Reasonable explanations:
Cortana fashioned Chief a few modified weapons based on existing schematics from what parts they could scavenge. DMR could be in the event that Chief has to deal with some targets from long-range, since they're using some bigger vistas on Requiem, after all.

Alternatively: they came from the Infinity using similar reasoning and we don't even have access to them until the Infinity lands.

Picking up more grenades is possible, but much like dual-wielding weapons as an ODST, handling rogue elements would be difficult to track for the player because the HUD works off of the "expendable but mass-produced" armor tech that the Spartan IIIs used.

Alternatively: since the same doesn't apply in campaign, it could simply be the Infinity's holodeck pulling an Assassin's Creed and it's either a bug or they're trying to train Spartans not to rely too heavily on stray grenades (unless they're a grenadier specifically).

More likely explanations:
This DMR is actually a skunkworks variant produced in [location either referencing Marathon or an obscure portmanteau of Romantic-language words], using a variety of [technobabble] that made them incredibly rare, restricting access to only those who were proficient enough to use them. Now that the armory's been destroyed and Cortana's located access codes by means of [either ONI semantics or REDACTED], Chief is able to use them.

Grenades: fuck it, something about armor gyros, thrusters, magnetic parts, something something trust us.
0IT3M.gif
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Sadly Halo 4's movement speed is still pretty damn slow.

Hoping they give it a bump from what we saw at E3.
Yeah, I guess you're right. Disable sprint and it's back to a snail pace. Bump movement speed up to 110% or 120%, and it should be fine. At least the default jump height looks good!
 

Trey

Member
Goldeneye...There was depth to the game and you were rewarded for your individual ability. The skill-ceiling seemed infinite.

You're gonna have to explain this one to me. I loved Goldeneye as much as the next person but I went back and played that game a few years ago and the auto aim was ridiculous.
 

BigShow36

Member
You're gonna have to explain this one to me. I loved Goldeneye as much as the next person but I went back and played that game a few years ago and the auto aim was ridiculous.

I played with it off. And back in the day it was still pretty challenging for most players on the OG 64 controllers, even with AA on.

License to Kill, Pistols Only. GG.
 

daedalius

Member
Yeah, I guess you're right. Disable sprint and it's back to a snail pace. Bump movement speed up to 110% or 120%, and it should be fine. At least the default jump height looks good!

I must be watching a different video from everyone else; movement speed looks just as fast if not faster than H2/H3 (and I put them together because the speed is extremely similar), with no inertia like Reach.

Kill times might be slower since the weapons aren't tuned, but that carbine sure kills people fast (not to mention Ellis said it was currently god-tier in tuning)

It's possible.

You can't go into Halo 4 with this mentality:

NzBES.jpg

Been talking to Cursed Lemon again?
 

CyReN

Member
I must be watching a different video from everyone else; movement speed looks just as fast if not faster than H2/H3 (and I put them together because the speed is extremely similar), with no inertia like Reach.



Been talking to Cursed Lemon again?

Haven't talked to him about H4 since before E3 to be honest lol. He wants the game to be good as anybody does.
 

Reave

Member
Thinking about picking up ODST for $10 today. It's the only Halo game I haven't played yet, but is it good or should I pass?

Kinda need some impressions.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
The problem comes when people suggest decisions about the gameplay are made due to elements in the fiction.

Fictional justifications don't harm anyone.

Fiction shouldn't even be mentioned when moaning about gameplay elements, just seems like one more thing to drag into the mud.

Fiction is written AROUND MP. At no point does fiction drive MP gameplay decisions. Ever.
 
I played with it off. And back in the day it was still pretty challenging for most players on the OG 64 controllers, even with AA on.

License to Kill, Pistols Only. GG.
I loved GE as much as the next guy but you can't say that it was some bastion of skilled FPS play, especially in instagib Doom pistol mode. Anything you liked out of that you can get significantly more out of even Reach's SWAT.

Thinking about picking up ODST for $10 today. It's the only Halo game I haven't played yet, but is it good or should I pass?

Kinda need some impressions.
It is the best Halo campaign since CE, and it has what I'd consider the best soundtrack in the entire series. Passing it up at $10 would be criminal.
 

Louis Wu

Member
Then Halo came out and it was the next great FPS on consoles. It was fun, its was smooth, it was simple, and above all it rewarded skill-based play.
See, here's the thing - Halo rewarded ALL play, not just skill-based play. It was satisfying to EVERYONE who played it. (That was Jason Jones' overriding goal in his vision - to make you feel victorious when you played. I think he was pretty successful.)

Competitive players look back with nostalgia and say "that game was made for us" - when in fact it appealed to EVERYONE. The fact that more features have been added down the road to attempt to make 'everyone' be a larger group than it was before doesn't change the fact that non-competitive players (or less-competitive players, not sure how to characterize the majority) got just as much satisfaction out of playing the first game as competitive players did... we felt it was made for US, just as you did.

Bungie (and 343 after them) went out of their way to add features for many subgroups of their audience - they worked with MLG starting with Halo 3, they worked with machinima makers starting with Halo 2 - but neither company ever forgot that their primary audience was one that enjoyed variety. They continue to add controls to allow you to TURN OFF that variety (witness the MLG playlist) - but the simple fact is, the majority of matchmaking is aimed at the majority of the playerbase... a group that LIKES AAs, that will LIKE tactical packages, that LIKES a bit of randomness in their games.

That's just the way it is. :(

Edit: holy shit at CyReN's post - get out of my head, CyReN.
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
It's possible.

You can't go into Halo 4 with this mentality:

NzBES.jpg


It's a new game, treat it like that, people forget that the game is meant for casual people. As long as 343i can give the "hardcore" community options to build off their game there will be no issues. That was a big fault in Reach (bloom, maps etc). I think they learned a lot from what Bungie didn't do.
:lol

I'm really just joking. Every now and then I do have concern over something but all in all I think most(if not all) of the things being added are simply looking to add to and evolve the sandbox.
 

FyreWulff

Member
For me, it's more about the whole package. Personally, I like Macs more than PCs - I like them enough that I'm willing to pay the premium Apple asks for 'em. (I use both, on a daily basis, so it's not really like it's a matter of "I want what I know" - it's more "I want what works better for me".)

I couldn't care less if someone else says "nope, not worth it for me" - I'm not an Apple evangelist, just a user. :)

The next game I'm releasing is dual Win/Mac - and future games after that for a Mac version too. Know why? Mac users have a much higher ratio of actually paying:pirating.

<3 Mac owners
 
See, here's the thing - Halo rewarded ALL play, not just skill-based play. It was satisfying to EVERYONE who played it. (That was Jason Jones' overriding goal in his vision - to make you feel victorious when you played. I think he was pretty successful.)

Competitive players look back with nostalgia and say "that game was made for us" - when in fact it appealed to EVERYONE. The fact that more features have been added down the road to attempt to make 'everyone' be a larger group than it was before doesn't change the fact that non-competitive players (or less-competitive players, not sure how to characterize the majority) got just as much satisfaction out of playing the first game as competitive players did... we felt it was made for US, just as you did.

Bungie (and 343 after them) went out of their way to add features for many subgroups of their audience - they worked with MLG starting with Halo 3, they worked with machinima makers starting with Halo 2 - but neither company ever forgot that their primary audience was one that enjoyed variety. They continue to add controls to allow you to TURN OFF that variety (witness the MLG playlist) - but the simple fact is, the majority of matchmaking is aimed at the majority of the playerbase... a group that LIKES AAs, that will LIKE tactical packages, that LIKES a bit of randomness in their games.

That's just the way it is. :(

Edit: holy shit at CyReN's post - get out of my head, CyReN.

I refuse to believe that anyone wants or likes randomness in a game, just different people have much different levels of annoyance or tolerance of it.
 

BigShow36

Member
See, here's the thing - Halo rewarded ALL play, not just skill-based play. It was satisfying to EVERYONE who played it. (That was Jason Jones' overriding goal in his vision - to make you feel victorious when you played. I think he was pretty successful.)

Competitive players look back with nostalgia and say "that game was made for us" - when in fact it appealed to EVERYONE. The fact that more features have been added down the road to attempt to make 'everyone' be a larger group than it was before doesn't change the fact that non-competitive players (or less-competitive players, not sure how to characterize the majority) got just as much satisfaction out of playing the first game as competitive players did... we felt it was made for US, just as you did.

Bungie (and 343 after them) went out of their way to add features for many subgroups of their audience - they worked with MLG starting with Halo 3, they worked with machinima makers starting with Halo 2 - but neither company ever forgot that their primary audience was one that enjoyed variety. They continue to add controls to allow you to TURN OFF that variety (witness the MLG playlist) - but the simple fact is, the majority of matchmaking is aimed at the majority of the playerbase... a group that LIKES AAs, that will LIKE tactical packages, that LIKES a bit of randomness in their games.

That's just the way it is. :(

I never claimed CE was made for competitive players. I am saying it was the most skill-based Halo game we've had, and from my experience was the most universally appealing.

It's impossible to say whether or not players prefer the randomness; they having nothing to compare it against. Just because people play matchmaking with those settings doesn't mean they wouldn't have loved a Halo game without them just as much, if not more. Bungie sacrificed the core integrity of the Halo games for some nebulous "majority," and I believe Halo would have been even more successful had they not.
 

CyReN

Member
Edit: holy shit at CyReN's post - get out of my head, CyReN.

I have always wondered, when people reference me in post do you actually go through the trouble of alt capping my name or just copy and paste it. I have no idea why I alt cap it besides I was 16 and thought it was cool many years ago and it stuck.

:lol

I'm really just joking
. Every now and then I do have concern over something but all in all I think most(if not all) of the things being added are simply looking to add to and evolve the sandbox.

Yea I know :D

Just haven't really voiced about it recently and wanted to say something about it.
 

Louis Wu

Member
I refuse to believe that anyone wants or likes randomness in a game, just different people have much different levels of annoyance or tolerance of it.
iJgVm3hmDXf8p.gif

You can not watch that and tell me you don't want randomness in your Haloz.

I know, that's not the randomness we were talking about. But it's a funny pic.

I have always wondered, when people reference me in post do you actually go through the trouble of alt capping my name or just copy and paste it. I have no idea why I alt cap it besides I was 16 and thought it was cool many years ago and it stuck.
I've typed it so many times in newsposts recently that alt-capping it is trivial. ;)
 
I refuse to believe that anyone wants or likes randomness in a game, just different people have much different levels of annoyance or tolerance of it.
I actually don't mind it a lot of the time, I play a lot of TF2 and most servers have random crits enabled. This is a random mechanic that swings battles in ways nothing in Halo ever has, and I don't care.

The divide with me is when you start having detailed stat tracking on every single thing you do on the website implying that you should be fully in control of the results.
 

daedalius

Member
I never claimed CE was made for competitive players. I am saying it was the most skill-based Halo game we've had, and from my experience was the most universally appealing.

It's impossible to say whether or not players prefer the randomness; they having nothing to compare it against. Just because people play matchmaking with those settings doesn't mean they wouldn't have loved a Halo game without them just as much, if not more. Bungie sacrificed the core integrity of the Halo games for some nebulous "majority," and I believe Halo would have been even more successful had they not.

Reach could have been a much better game if only for a few tweaks, but the TU was too little and too late for most I imagine, not to mention there are still plenty of issues.

Pretty much everyone complained about the things they should have changed in the beta to make it a better game, but they just never changed any of them (I guess we could have ended up with a 5sk 12 round DMR though, /nightmarefuel)

As for randomness, ever heard of a ultra-competitive game called League of Legends? Levels, armor, items, skills, etc etc.
 
I just want to be able to enjoy the base game, when I'm playing casual and competitive. Most of the times, Halo 3 was fun to play in both ways and I wasn't bothered by most equipment. Reach already changed in that regard and I'm 99% sure that I won't enjoy the base Halo 4 when I try to play competitive.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
<gif>
You can not watch that and tell me you don't want randomness in your Haloz.

I know, that's not the randomness we were talking about. But it's a funny pic.
Now imagine that but with a rocket launcher dropping right in front of the blue player out of nowhere and him killing both red guys.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Heh - some people will read your post and think "damn right - he gets it." I read your post and think "man, he wants to play a boring game."

One man's meat...

He wasn't asking for the game to return to a more stripped down form; by the definition you use of boring, every Halo game prior has been boring. I know you don't think that's the case. :p

I'm also concerned about a certain predictability to player abilities that will be lost with Halo 4. In prior games we knew everyone's base abilities - we all had the same. When picking up things like camo and overshield, we get visual feedback on the players that use them.

To a degree there's always been some guesswork involved with sizing up players in Halo. In 1 and 2, we didn't know what other weapon they'd pull out until they did so; that guy with a Needler might also be toting rockets. In Halo 3 we got to see secondary weapons strapped on backs and hips, but we couldn't tell if they were rocking a trip mine or drop shield as well. Reach did the same with AA's (while they had a visual signature, it's hard to size them up during combat until they're used).

Yet I too am uncomfortable with some of the packages announced. Things like a player you're fighting being able to recharge his shields faster than I really even adds more chance to how encounters play out. It's yet another set of X factors on top of weapons, grenades and armor abilities. I think it's reasonable to be worried about them, especially some of the specific examples. My worry about the ability for some players to recharge their shields faster than I does not mean I want to play a boring game.
 
I have to say, these enhancements like faster recharge and grenade pickup kind of irk me. They may not always come into play during an encounter, but they can introduce uncertainty in some longer encounters.

For instance, let's say a guy throws both of his grenades at me, and he starts to retreat through a path on which I know there are no grenade spawns. I should be able to chase him safely, only sometimes, he'll have a perk which will let him pick up a dropped grenade, and he'll catch me off guard. Or similarly, if I chase and trap a guy who is weak, I know his shields are down, only sometimes, he'll have a perk which will have let them already recharge, catching me off guard again. And these are just two examples.

Each one of these relatively small tweaks work together to make a game that is inconsistent overall. I had the same gripe with Call of Duty 4, which is ultimately why I chose to play it less and Halo more.

To me, AAs in Reach are more tolerable, because they function consistently, and you can visually detect which AA a player is using.
Um why would you chase a guy? You not suppose to do that. That leads to death by his/her teammates.
 
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