Dani said:
Do you really think Reach is performing similar to Halo 3 against the competition, more specifically, COD? I don't want to sound like an ass, but I've been watching the Live activity charts for years and I can say for certain that Halo 3 fared much better against the various COD games than Reach has been doing. If you want, feel free to go back and pull up the data and prove me wrong. My memory may be waning but I am pretty confident on my observations here.
I posted months back how both MW2 and World at War were both defeating Halo 3 countless months. GTA IV was also in that area during its release, above 3.
I've seen enough to know that there's always at least two CoD's in the top five, and often top three, to battle the top Halo game. You need to realize it's the fact it's going up against the pop culture juggernaut CoD than the game itself. Rather than blaming Reach's changes for being beneath CoD in the charts, look at the real picture and accept the fact this has been here since November 2007.
Dani said:
You may have been bored but millions of other players were not. The numbers do not lie. Halo 3 stayed popular long after release. I do not think Reach has the same legs post release that Halo 3 did. It's too early to make direct comparisons but as we reach post release milestones, feel free to make comparisons then, as I and many others will be doing.
You don't know if it will continue the same way as 3, or be lower, or higher. Neither do I. Bungie has pointed out many times the population comparisons.
It's also ignorant to pinpoint any accusations that most Halo players were wanting Halo 3.5. It's also clear that isn't what Bungie wanted hence they felt the need to address the inconsistencies of the game, and improved on it (which most importantly, they did: hitscan).
EDIT: Urk kind of just did.
Dani said:
So if Halo 3's Equipment slowed down gameplay with Bubble Shields and Regenerators, then Reach takes that speed and slows it to a crawl with multiple Drop Shields (the effects of Bubbles plus Regenerators combined!) and invincibility granting Armour Locking.
If you are going to compare the two, at least be open about their effect on combat.
None of the pieces in Halo 3 sped up the gameplay.
Bubble shield = stop the game to a crawl, and forced players to ensue into a CQB battle
Regen = hilariously bad piece that did nothing but give another player another ounce of life; this was the most obscene item, as well, due the awful fast respawn it had
Power drainer = the prominence for larger scale games, even though it felt like it spawned at 10 sec. intervals so everybody and their sister had one
Grav lift = least annoying piece, but that didn't matter since it was hardly used
The rest: flare, radar jammer, personal shield, trip mine = obsolete. Bungie never used them. Why are they in the game?
The fact they brought in sprint was heavenly, because both Reach and Halo 3's base speeds are a snails crawl compared to Halo 1 and Halo 2. They introduced these pieces of equipment to spice up the MP, but in my view, they should have let it alone because you can still make magnificent moments in multiplayer without the need of any special equipment or maneuvers. And for them, I think that's why they did. I personally wished they had left it alone and kept it the way it was from Halo 1/2. Basic elements of overshield and camo on the map with nothing else getting in the way or bringing down the pace of the game.