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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

Ajemsuhgao said:
Spawning in front of a group of enemies in Arena is not fun. It happened to me at least twice, and both times I would spawn directly across from them, and they'd start shooting me instantly. And of course in Sword Base, there's no corner I can quickly run around or something. I'm facing them and I'd have to magically sprint backwards just to avoid being shot.
Spawns right now seem to be absolutely terrible. Also, I wish they would add another few seconds to the respawn timers too...they are wayyy too short at the moment. You can kill their whole team, but by the time you are finishing off that fourth guy the other three are already sprinting in to back him up. Not cool.
 
Ajemsuhgao said:
Spawning in front of a group of enemies in Arena is not fun. It happened to me at least twice, and both times I would spawn directly across from them, and they'd start shooting me instantly. And of course in Sword Base, there's no corner I can quickly run around or something. I'm facing them and I'd have to magically sprint backwards just to avoid being shot.

Yes, the spawns are truly awful, I can't count the times I've spawned into grenades, gunfire, or enemies behind or in front of me.
 
Sega1991 said:
After you play a game, hit up settings, local files, history. You have to manually pick your recent matches and hit "Save", otherwise they will be wiped when you quit the game.

Alright, I'll try that. It's a pain though, because H3 saved everything.
 
Phaethon0017 said:
Alright, I'll try that. It's a pain though, because H3 saved everything.

halo 3 didn't save everything, it just kept your last 25 games in history (unless you played a different game, in which case the history was wiped).
 
The needle rifle seems much more prone to host latency than the BR was. I guess the projectile speed is slower. It's fine with a UK host, but a US host makes it unusable. DMR is fine, obviously. Hitscan is rad.

Almost all 1 Flag games on Powerhouse now end 0-0 for me. The defending team drops for rockets, jetpacks back up, and camps the flagspot. The room is too easy to defend. I think the window where the flag is should be open to give attackers more of a chance of pulling the flag.

Apart from that, spawn times in objective games are just broken. They need to be 10 seconds, minimum.

Neverender said:
(unless you played a different game, in which case the history was wiped).
And in this case, ODST is that different game, which for most people is wiping your previous session's films.
 
My favourite spawn so far is spawning in front of a guy who promptly assassinated me. Guy must have been laughing himself silly.

Halo always seems to have problems with the spawns. I've probably been spawn killed more in Halo than any other FPS.*

*Possible exception of Shipment in COD4
 
Grenades are fine. They feel like actual explosions now. Radius might need tweaking though.

I think part of the issue may be that the inclusion of armour abilities means that for most 'serious' players who used Bumper jumper in H3, the jump button is less accessible if they use the default controls for Reach. This, coupled with the lower jump height means that you are jumping out of danger less often and less effectively when someone chucks a grenade. Damage is probably comparable to H3 but your ability to instinctively jump out the way when someone throws one has taken a knock.
 
Trasher said:
@Nutter: Yeah dude, it's not good when a video game frustrates you this much. Games are supposed to be fun to play, and should make you want to come back and play more. They should feel rewarding. But Reach is just pissing me off right now! That doesn't really say good things for the future and longevity of this game. I mean if I wasn't such a huge Halo fan I don't know if I would have continued to play this game after maybe the first day. I'm trying really hard to like the game right now, and I thought I was actually beginning to like it the other day, but now I'm just not sure anymore.
The best thing about this Beta has been listening to haggard Trasher and getting other teams haggard. Is it too late to call this game Halo: Haggard?
 
At this stage imo I would have been a happy camper with a True Halo 3.5.
Some may have, but I wouldn't. Halo 3's gameplay was so tiring it needed a big change-up. Gameplay felt so slow (playing BFBC2 and going to Halo 3) and the weapons needed changed. The Battle Rifle was the primary piece that can do all, and it's obvious Bungie wanted to remove itself from that, and I agree it needed to be, as well.

We'll see some changes within the weapons, grenades, melee, and other sorts I'm sure, but I can see myself having nostalgia moments like I did often in Halo 2 with it. Give the community the proper playlists and maps, and it will be guaranteed gold.
 
Striker said:
Some may have, but I wouldn't. Halo 3's gameplay was so tiring it needed a big change-up. Gameplay felt so slow (playing BFBC2 and going to Halo 3) and the weapons needed changed. The Battle Rifle was the primary piece that can do all, and it's obvious Bungie wanted to remove itself from that, and I agree it needed to be, as well.

We'll see some changes within the weapons, grenades, melee, and other sorts I'm sure, but I can see myself having nostalgia moments like I did often in Halo 2 with it. Give the community the proper playlists and maps, and it will be guaranteed gold.

This.

If you guys want BR's just go play Halo 3. It's still there!
 
Striker said:
Some may have, but I wouldn't. Halo 3's gameplay was so tiring it needed a big change-up. Gameplay felt so slow (playing BFBC2 and going to Halo 3) and the weapons needed changed. The Battle Rifle was the primary piece that can do all, and it's obvious Bungie wanted to remove itself from that, and I agree it needed to be, as well.

We'll see some changes within the weapons, grenades, melee, and other sorts I'm sure, but I can see myself having nostalgia moments like I did often in Halo 2 with it. Give the community the proper playlists and maps, and it will be guaranteed gold.
You really think this game plays faster? Which part of it exactly? The movement speed, the jump height, the 6-shotting with artificially lowered rates of fire? I have no problem with the BR's functionality being split between two weapons, it's just every other gameplay decision that makes the game less fun.
 
I loved Halo: CE and really got hyped for Halo 2 and 3 but when it came down to it, I was just not that great at MP. I enjoyed some games but felt hopelessly outclassed at it.

Now in Reach, I have played nearly 90 games and I am loving it. Sure there are a few tweaks needed to things like spawns etc but I am really enjoying Halo! Maybe its the Armour Abilities adding a little more diversity, or that the weapons are more balanced and have defined roles, or the fact Bungie are having more team and objective based modes.

Weapons and controls do seem to take a little while to get use to but they just require some dedication to learn their little ways. I like the DMR but I am more of a Needle Rifle person and it is very satisfying to see people explode. :lol

I like Powerhouse, though it seems a little to easy to control once the Hammer is in play. I am still not sure about Swordbase. I know the layout now but you can tell its a Halo CE throwback. It feels old, both in look and layout. Ok for Slayer but I am not really digging it for Objective games.

Overall Reach is a day 1 for me and I cannot wait to check out Generator Defence and Invasion in the coming days too!
 
I totally agree with Striker. Yeah, I checked the Reach threads like I do with every Halo thread but my hype for Reach prior to the beta was really low. The Halo series was kind of dead to me after Halo 3. I haven't even checked out ODST, and I don't plan to do it. This beta though is absolutely incredible. I can't believe Bungie was able to make Halo feel both fun AND fresh to me again. It's amazing what they've done.
 
Neverender said:
halo 3 didn't save everything, it just kept your last 25 games in history (unless you played a different game, in which case the history was wiped).

Still, it did it automatically. If I have to go to settings and save it after every game that's going to get old fast. I would prefer that it did just keep the 25 recent games in the Theater and then let me permanently save a few.
 
Finally got my 360 to read the ODST disc. Downloaded the longest download in the history of all downloads and finally got to jump in. I managed to play about 15 games before I turned in, reluctantly.

SHIT BE FRESH!

Pistol, DMR <3

Just out of curiousity, what control layouts are you guys using?
 
Falt said:
Finally got my 360 to read the ODST disc. Downloaded the longest download in the history of all downloads and finally got to jump in. I managed to play about 15 games before I turned in, reluctantly.

SHIT BE FRESH!

Pistol, DMR <3

Just out of curiousity, what control layouts are you guys using?

The one real men use...RECON! Anything else is just pretending to be the best.
 
Mr_Brit said:
Texture work in this game is a noticeable step up from Halo 3. Nice work, Bungie.

fd4vo1.jpg

DERP
 
Eh. I'm having a real problem with grenades in Reach, most notably the spamming. It just seems like it's a lot higher than it was in Halo 3. Even if grenades are the same strength as they were in Halo 3, because the way the health is in Reach, I feel they're too powerful now.
 
Phaethon0017 said:
Still, it did it automatically. If I have to go to settings and save it after every game that's going to get old fast. I would prefer that it did just keep the 25 recent games in the Theater and then let me permanently save a few.
It does do that.
 
Dax01 said:
Eh. I'm having a real problem with grenades in Reach, most notably the spamming. It just seems like it's a lot higher than it was in Halo 3. Even if grenades are the same strength as they were in Halo 3, because the way the health is in Reach, I feel they're too powerful now.

I agree.. Especially when multiple people throw grenades, and the not exploded grenades fly off other explosions into your face then you think yeaahh maybe these things are a little strong :p.
 
I really like all the gameplay changes in Reach. The only one I couldn't immediately understand the rationale for was health packs. I've had a think about it, and I have a theory. This might well be obvious to other people, but I'm a bit slow.

Halo 3 (and 2) have separate health and shields. The mythbusters videos demonstrate this: if you grenade a player once, it doesn't kill him. Let his shields charge and repeat this, and on the third nade he'll die (an aside: this is exactly the same in Reach, so the grenades aren't actually more powerful, they just sound louder). Halo 3's health does eventually recharge, but only when you're at full shields and not taking damage, and it's slow. It's also invisible, so you have no idea what state it's in.

The problem with this is that if you win a 1v1 battle, and your shields come back, you're still at a disadvantage for the next firefight. You just don't know it yet. Lack of information is not suitable for a competitive multiplayer game. See: Halo 3's 1.0 melee system. When a combat outcome is unfathomable to the player, it feels random and unsatisfying.

Visible health is a great idea. You can now see how much damage you've taken, and how much you can take once your shields drop. This is also useful when you're backing down: if you've got full health but no shields, maybe it's better to stay in cover and hope you avoid most of a grenade; with almost no health that won't work, so you may as well take the high risk approach and either try to damage the enemy for an assist or take an unpredictable escape route.

This is separate from health packs vs recharging health, though. I think the reasoning here is that you should be at a disadvantage after winning a firefight, but only if you don't also have control of the map. It's analogous to having power weapons and powerups: a health pack location is another thing to keep in mind, to (slightly) reward the team in the better position.
 
Kibbles said:
Why is my firefox being so bad with images? One more BA shot. I think I'm starting to get a lot better with the DMR. 3 more days until Invasion.

vpeofq.jpg
Hah I see you use the exact same colour combo I use for my Spartan, brothers!
 
on the stats page (weapons part) there is a "classified" and a "i'm calling my lawyer". what's that? it sais that my k/d ratio with that weapon is -1. anybody knows?
 
Diablohead said:
Hah I see you use the exact same colour combo I use for my Spartan, brothers!
Speaking of which, Bungie really really should expand the color selection and the different color patterns you can put on your spartan. Theres just not enough to make your Spartan look unique at this point.
 
Raide said:
The one real men use...RECON! Anything else is just pretending to be the best.

I've been using Recon myself but I was a default H3 anyway. I'm interested in finding out if the bumper jumpers out there are still bumping and jumping.
 
infinityBCRT said:
Speaking of which, Bungie really really should expand the color selection and the different color patterns you can put on your spartan. Theres just not enough to make your Spartan look unique at this point.

What's also kind of depressing is they took away the unique color stripe you could have during team games. I kind of liked that I could have some representation of my preferred color in team games in Halo 3 regardless of which team I was on. Even if it was just a tiny little stripe.
 
Loving the game so far but the game play needs to be sped up.

-Make the base player speed a little faster than right now, but leave sprint the same.
-Make the rifles kill in 1 less shot than they do now. It takes forever right now, and although it does feel satisfying to kill the guy, most of the time, you won't get the kill and you'll get the assist. The individial skill in this game often times doesn't give great satisfaction to the user because of the ineffectiveness of the rifles.


Those imo are the most important game play changes that can improve the game immensely.

-The melee system is fine the way it is now, but I would prefer melees to become a little weaker, say 3 to kill a fully shielded spartan, 2 for 50% shield, and 1 for no shields. I think the game is trying to reward players who best utilize their melee by being patient and shoot until the enemy is 1 shot and finish with the melee as opposed to Halo 3's spray for 1/2 sec, and than rush for the beatdown. The current melee system however doesn't really utilize that philosophy very well. Up close the double melee is the most effective method (excluding power weapons) despite being weak.

The 3 melees to kill system would definitely do a better job conveying that since obviously 3 melees take longer to kill and rushing for the melees wouldn't reward the easy way out. Of course, if the goal of this new system isn't what I thought, disregard my melee comment.
 
I like how I finally get a token for the game after I already have access to beta :lol

Any advantages of being able to launch the beta from the dashboard rather than booting up ODST other than the obvious?
 
My only complaints at the moment are:

- Grenades are too overpowered.

- Pistol reticule transparancy is too low

- Double melee

The rest is awesome so far.
Thanks Bungie.

EDIT: Maybe my complaint really is the radius of the grenades.
 
Dark FaZe said:
I like how I finally get a token for the game after I already have access to beta :lol

Any advantages of being able to launch the beta from the dashboard rather than booting up ODST other than the obvious?
Replays of your last 25 matches get saved by default and stay there as long as you don't play another game. Booting from ODST means playing another game, so every time you boot ODST those automatically saved replays are cleared.
 
godhandiscen said:
Replays of your last 25 matches get saved by default and stay there as long as you don't play another game. Booting from ODST means playing another game, so every time you boot ODST those automatically saved replays are cleared.

this is pretty big actually...thx.
 
So what's the consensus on what a good game is? I sat in the Arena pretty much all day yesterday and ended the day with a 1676 rating. I had a bunch of low 1600s games and one beast game of 1705 that pushed me up.

I'm figuring that someone with a rating over 1650 you have to worry about.

I also didn't see anyone with a rating higher than mine.
 
My only complaint right now is its kind of hard to pin-point which direction you're being shot from and that sprint should only be active whilst holding down the LB. As soon as I let go of that left bumper I don't want to keep sprinting ffs. How was this missed Bungie in lieu of the jetpack?
 
Scullibundo said:
My only complaint right now is its kind of hard to pin-point which direction you're being shot from and that sprint should only be active whilst holding down the LB. As soon as I let go of that left bumper I don't want to keep sprinting ffs. How was this missed Bungie in lieu of the jetpack?

I prefer just tapping it once to run. If I want to stop sprinting I just wiggle my stick.
 
What program could I use in order to isolate the audio from a video? It was mentioned earlier in this thread, but I can't and don't think I'll be able to find it (in a reasonable amount of time).
 
Ten-Song said:
What's also kind of depressing is they took away the unique color stripe you could have during team games. I kind of liked that I could have some representation of my preferred color in team games in Halo 3 regardless of which team I was on. Even if it was just a tiny little stripe.
Yeah I miss my stripe :(
maybe it will return in the retail version.
 
Ten-Song said:
What's also kind of depressing is they took away the unique color stripe you could have during team games. I kind of liked that I could have some representation of my preferred color in team games in Halo 3 regardless of which team I was on. Even if it was just a tiny little stripe.
This, plus none of the colors are as bright anymore (I miss being a pink spartan, damn it). Also, your emblem no longer shows up on your shoulder which is a major bummer. They are hyping up all the customization options, so it's kind of weird that they removed the emblems on your model and made most of the colors pretty homogenized. I really hope they liven up the color choices before the game actually ships, but I'm sure if it's anywhere on their priority list it's at the absolute bottom.

Also half (literally half - four out of eight) of the Arena matches I got a chance to play last night started with 1-3 players on my team, never the other team, leaving immediately. Son of every bitch.
 
In one of the first reach video's we saw about multi there was an assassination where the spartan punched the other player, did that not make the cut? I am thinking the knife kill replaced it as it's more deadly looking, using a blade and all.
 
Ten-Song said:
What's also kind of depressing is they took away the unique color stripe you could have during team games. I kind of liked that I could have some representation of my preferred color in team games in Halo 3 regardless of which team I was on. Even if it was just a tiny little stripe.

Yup I'm very much missing rocking my pink stripe :(

I love the look of the new Spartans but I have to say I don't like most of the colours for them, I haaaate green but I've actually gone to that just cause it looks the best to me for some reason.

Diablohead said:
In one of the first reach video's we saw about multi there was an assassination where the spartan punched the other player, did that not make the cut? I am thinking the knife kill replaced it as it's more deadly looking, using a blade and all.

I've been wondering this too, assassinations from the front could be kinda broken I suppose but it'd be epic as hell to pull off.
 
randomlyrossy said:
I've been wondering this too, assassinations from the front could be kinda broken I suppose but it'd be epic as hell to pull off.
It wasn't from the front, the animation had the spartan whipping the guy around before punching him in the stomach.
 
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