• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo: Reach |OT3| This Thread is Not a Natural Formation

Hydranockz said:
Deputy Moonman is like that one dude that likes [bandName]'s first few albums but hated them as soon as [bandMember] left/[bandGenre] changes/[albumSales] increases.

So

Halo CE: The College Dropout
Halo 2: Late Registration
Halo 3: Graduation
Halo Reach: 808's and Heartbreak

Which means.... Halo 4: return of the chief = My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy?


In response to the debate between classic old style Halo over a new direction, my feeling is if it aint broke, don't fix it. Seriously, Halo has ruined other videogames for me. I play hardly anything but Halo. That's how great I think it is. I'm certainly not one of those who feels fundamental rules or aspects of the game have to be changed in order to keep it 'fresh'. I view Halo as less a videogame than a sport, like football, tennis or cricket. Those games have been played for over a century with very negligible alterations to their rules. Now, obviously the distinction between a national sport and a videogame is that a videogame has to continually distinguish itself as a commercial entity to be played and purchased, rather than one which generates revenue from spectating and advertising.

So, from that perspective, I understand a company's need to evolve and change their product to justify asking gamers to return once again for the next installment. I just think that the core Halo gaming experience is so strong that it is in a rare and priviledged position that doesn't demand it change a whole lot to satisfy the target market. I personally would be happy with a plethora of new maps, a graphical reskin, inprovements to netcode and additions to the meta features such as theatre mode and forge from the next Halo. Oh and no bloom ;)
 

Lazslo

Member
Just got around to reading the Update from Friday; Speedpile and SpeedFlag looks amazing. I don't think we've ever been able to kill a player and carry a flag in a Halo title yet so this will a great new feature. I'm usually not into the actionsack gametypes but even PowerSlayer looks like good times. Also with the addition of Classic Slayer, Reach is staying Fresh ta Death. Thank you NoF, now all you need is a Gaf Account. I just hope our loving relationship with Shiska didn't skurr you away- we promise to be nice!
 

FourDoor

Member
The Bungie Foundation Japan Quake Relief Wristband arrived today!

BungieJapanQuakeReliefWristband.jpg
 

Sibylus

Banned
wwm0nkey said:
One thing I want to new Halo game to do. Pay REALLY close attention to the cannon in all of the books.
Eh.

It's important, but not important enough to be placed anywhere except at the bottom of the list. It ought to be placed below nearly all story considerations too. Background detail consistency is a plus, but it doesn't create great characters and stories.
 
Botolf said:
Eh.

It's important, but not important enough to be placed anywhere except at the bottom of the list. It ought to be placed below nearly all story considerations too. Background detail consistency is a plus, but it doesn't create great characters and stories.

Plus, it was fun watching the complete meltdowns over at HBO over canon conflicts.

There was one guy who said he spends something like 5 hours a day cataloging every detail about Halo, and has amassed something like 900 pages of details about the story. I distinctly remember about a week after Reach came out watching this guy have a complete nervous breakdown about the story conflicts. He wrote a huge essay about how adding more detail to the PoA was an unforgivable sin and how Bungie should be ashamed of it. I mean, I like the Halo story too, but there's a point were OCD becomes a little scary.
 

Toddler

Member
thee henery said:
So

Halo CE: The College Dropout
Halo 2: Late Registration
Halo 3: Graduation
Halo Reach: 808's and Heartbreak

Which means.... Halo 4: return of the chief = My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy?
Does this make ODST the G.O.O.D. Friday rleases?

I guess that doesn't work chronologically...
 
Thagomizer said:
Plus, it was fun watching the complete meltdowns over at HBO over canon conflicts.
Yeah, I remember that dark time. Really, gameplay and the current story comes before fitting into the canon, but I do sympathize with people that want a single, unified timeline. All of the mentions of the Halo Bible had me hoping we wouldn't run into a Lost/Star Wars scenario. I hope 343 sticks to as much of the canon as they can without sacrificing gameplay/Campaign.

Oh, and look who just became a Member! I'd like to thank Armor Lock, Reticule Bloom and Halo 2 XBLA. Without them I never would have made it to 300...

:^D
 
kylej said:
In my opinion the Halo universe contains some of the greatest stories ever written. More canonical rigidity please.

Erhm. I wouldn't go that far, but there is definitely some good writing to be had among the extended materials and especially by the standards of videogame literature.

While we are on the subject of the fiction, can anyone from 343 confirm whether or not the ARG going down over at HBO is legit or just some guys with way too much time on their hands jerking around the fanbase?
 

MrBig

Member
Thagomizer said:
Erhm. I wouldn't go that far, but there is definitely some good writing to be had among the extended materials and especially by the standards of videogame literature.

While we are on the subject of the fiction, can anyone from 343 confirm whether or not the ARG going down over at HBO is legit or just some guys with way too much time on their hands jerking around the fanbase?
I thought someone said it was a part of someone's fanfic that has gone too far.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Tip of the Spear LASO attempt aborted after 3/4 of the mission and 70 minutes of play time due to the utterly broken nature of the rail ride with three players.

Squid was given the Falcon in front, which is nerfed with a machine gun turret, not a grenade launcher. Dax and I are in back with the grenade launcher, but because the turret Falcon flies so far ahead of us, we can't get turrets into line of sight until they're already pounding on the Falcon in front. And the machine gun when doing LASO is less effective than harsh language (which was also deployed). And if that wasn't enough, the path of the Falcons are not fixed; I would often be bobbing and weaving in unexpected ways, and on numerous occasions the front Falcon flew down into my line of fire to a turret, resulting in inadvertant team killing.

Look at the deaths chart and see where we hit the rail ride. Note the linear nature of Squid's line at the end.

We could not see the guns killing Squidhands until enough fire was in the air to do so. And he's got an impotent weapon (no offense, Squid).

It was, literally, impossible.

Just utterly broken game design. Poor AI scripting, the decision to put a turret Falcon out in front where it takes the brunt of the fire (from both sides, even through there's only a gunner on one side), the works.

It was always a poor decision of Bungie to put those kind of linear shooting sections in Reach, but on three player LASO all the problems with it blow up into oversized proportions. Broken, broken, broken.

[/rage post]

Edit: bonus rage! In single player you start the mission with the grenade launcher and a DMR. In co-op, we each get the grenade launcher and an Assault Rifle. WTF?
 

Lazslo

Member
All this cannon talk is getting me psyched for the new IP. It's going to be great to get into a Bungie story at the ground level- to watch it unfold from the beginning will be a first for me. I really only got into the Halo Story after H2 and learning everything after it happened wasn't as fun as being there the whole time. I could only imagine how great it would of been reading the Cortana Letters when they originally appeared and watching the Halo Story get fleshed out in real time. I can only hope that some sort of Viral marketing starts off this new World and that the community plays a big part in figuring out aspects of the story before we see the game. There is a huge part of the community that absolutely loves stuff like 'I Love Bees', The Cortana Letters, Iris, and even Adwhatever Reflex from ODST, I just hope Bungie utilizes them as they usually do for The next big thing. It was actually very surprising the complete lack of any sort of Viral Marketing for Reach, a game that could of had an phenomenal ARG considering the importance of the events that took place within the Halo Universe during that time. I'm sure whatever those Story Jedi's at Bungie have in store for the ARG community will be great but I also said that about Reach. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, fingers crossed.
 
Yeah that on-rails section was just about the dumbest thing I've seen in awhile. What's probably the most irritating thing about that section is that there is nothing preventing the pilots (story-wise, game-wise, engine-wise, etc), NOTHING, from them simply flying over the cliff wall and directly to the Spire.

If I can't get TotS: LASO in co-op, I'm not gonna get it. These LASO runs are never fun solo...even when you're just running through the level.
 

Havok

Member
GhaleonEB said:
Tip of the Spear LASO attempt aborted after 3/4 of the mission and 70 minutes of play time due to the utterly broken nature of the rail ride with three players.

Squid was given the Falcon in front, which is nerfed with a machine gun turret, not a grenade launcher. Dax and I are in back with the grenade launcher, but because the turret Falcon flies so far ahead of us, we can't get turrets into line of sight until they're already pounding on the Falcon in front. And the machine gun when doing LASO is less effective than harsh language (which was also deployed). And if that wasn't enough, the path of the Falcons are not fixed; I would often be bobbing and weaving in unexpected ways, and on numerous occasions the front Falcon flew down into my line of fire to a turret, resulting in inadvertant team killing.

Look at the deaths chart and see where we hit the rail ride. Note the linear nature of Squid's line at the end.

We could not see the guns killing Squidhands until enough fire was in the air to do so. And he's got an impotent weapon (no offense, Squid).

It was, literally, impossible.

Just utterly broken game design. Poor AI scripting, the decision to put a turret Falcon out in front where it takes the brunt of the fire (from both sides, even through there's only a gunner on one side), the works.

It was always a poor decision of Bungie to put those kind of linear shooting sections in Reach, but on three player LASO all the problems with it blow up into oversized proportions. Broken, broken, broken.

[/rage post]

Edit: bonus rage! In single player you start the mission with the grenade launcher and a DMR. In co-op, we each get the grenade launcher and an Assault Rifle. WTF?
Those sections are always baffling, but at least without the skulls shitting up the party they're not incredibly offensive. I'll be doing my run in an hour or so, so I'm sure I'll experience your pain firsthand. I don't understand a few things: why these zero-freedom sections exist in a series known for its freedom of combat, and why the coop weapon and vehicle swaps exist (in what world would anyone prefer to start a mission with an assault rifle, or use the crappy MG Falcon (which leads to some great fighting choosing which Falcon you get in on New Alexandria coop)?). This stuff is antithetical to what people like about Halo, and the LASO modifiers exacerbate the issue to nearly unbearable proportions. In conclusion.... :( .
 

Sibylus

Banned
MrBig said:
I thought someone said it was a part of someone's fanfic that has gone too far.
I still remember that Halo 3 fanfic that was circulating through the rumour mills before the game's release. Something about the Arbiter having a son? :lol
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
GhaleonEB said:
Edit: bonus rage! In single player you start the mission with the grenade launcher and a DMR. In co-op, we each get the grenade launcher and an Assault Rifle. WTF?


Dax fanmail from 2009. We promised.
 
Botolf said:
I still remember that Halo 3 fanfic that was circulating through the rumour mills before the game's release. Something about the Arbiter having a son? :lol

I remember that! That was so ridiculous. I also remember the Bnet kids believing it.

What a wonderful bunch of people.
 
Im_So_Pringles said:
I remember that! That was so ridiculous. I also remember the Bnet kids believing it.

What a wonderful bunch of people.

Pfft, that's nothing. I whole heartedly fell for the Bungle Pro fiasco. Downkoaded the maps, was overjoyed that the clearly less popular weapons were getting some time to shine. Questioned why it was so easy to break out of the maps but was quickly dazzled by the use of flares and radar jammers.

One day urk. One day you will take me there... and it will... be... beautiful.
 
D

Deleted member 21120

Unconfirmed Member
So has anyone beaten this week's challenge in co-op yet?
 

GhaleonEB

Member
That LASO attempt had me more frustrated than any gaming session I've had in years. It felt unfair, and not unfair in a "those odds are crazy stacked against us" kind of way, but in "how are we supposed to get past this when the dude with the weak gun is getting killed but we can't protect him because we're back here?" kind of way.

I think doing Tip of the Spear LASO will be easier with two players than three for that reason - everyone is on the same Falcon, with the grenade launcher. Which means I might not be able to carry my daughter through it. :(

######

Happier thoughts.

To wash the taste of that session away, I'm romping Firefight Limited for the evening, and just had one of the most enjoyable sequences I've had in a while. It was down to me and one other pretty good player. I split off to take down a Wraith and got stuck out there with a stream of enemies between us.

The duel I have with the Brute Captain with the hammer at the end of the clip felt so great. Dude got some serious air.

If the LASO run highlighted the worst of Reach, Firefight often brings out the best.
 
Sai-kun said:
Fuck this challenge. We can't even get past the AA gun. :( All we have are ARs.
hah! I went to google to find some witty picture reffering to "spray and pray" (aka the AR) and found that this was even better.

Ts93S.png

The fourth result, lawwwl
 

Karl2177

Member
Devin Olsen said:
hah! I went to google to find some witty picture reffering to "spray and pray" (aka the AR) and found that this was even better.

http://i.imgur.com/Ts93S.png[IMG]
The fourth result, lawwwl[/QUOTE]
Even though you had a red box and line leading to the AR, my eyes still went straight to the condom...
 
Devin Olsen said:
hah! I went to google to find some witty picture reffering to "spray and pray" (aka the AR) and found that this was even better.

Ts93S.png

The fourth result, lawwwl

pov_assault_rifle.jpg


Battling more than one opponent with an AR clip? Is that even possible haha

Didn't even notice the condom until I read Karl's post haha.
 

Tawpgun

Member
wwm0nkey said:
Most of the books painted this vivid picture of the Halo universe for me (the Eric Nylund ones at least) and the games just seemed to kind of be like "meh"
I'm with monkeys here. The books open up this rich, amazing universe... But the games leave so much out. The narratives in Halo are never THAT good. Its the universe that is truly amazing. I want a deep, rich campaign experience, with heavy forerunner mystery and mythos. A game that truly captures the universe.
 

Tunavi

Banned
A27 Tawpgun said:
I'm with monkeys here. The books open up this rich, amazing universe... But the games leave so much out. The narratives in Halo are never THAT good. Its the universe that is truly amazing. I want a deep, rich campaign experience, with heavy forerunner mystery and mythos. A game that truly captures the universe.
you're getting me excited for the next halo game
 

Lingitiz

Member
A27 Tawpgun said:
I'm with monkeys here. The books open up this rich, amazing universe... But the games leave so much out. The narratives in Halo are never THAT good. Its the universe that is truly amazing. I want a deep, rich campaign experience, with heavy forerunner mystery and mythos. A game that truly captures the universe.
I think it'd be really interesting if the next Halo game had some sort of codex similar to what we see in Mass Effect. The narrator doing the pieces on Halo Waypoint would be perfect for that kind of thing.
 

blamite

Member
So I go into the Defiant playlist, and everyone who votes chooses either Snipers on Breakpoint, or big team slayer on Tempest.
Wha? Noble playlist's over there, guys.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
blamite said:
So I go into the Defiant playlist, and everyone who votes chooses either Snipers on Breakpoint, or big team slayer on Tempest.
Wha? Noble playlist's over there, guys.


Stool Corey, Bro.

zCAAF.jpg
 

Sai-kun

Banned
I got disconnected from my 4p game of the LASO challenge. :( *gulp*

Wow. I died...and I have no checkpoint, so I can't even BS my way through it.

Welp, guess I'm not getting this challenge. Fuck this. That just ruined my evening.
 

Havok

Member
Cocopjojo said:
So has anyone beaten this week's challenge in co-op yet?
I just did it in a little under an hour with a buddy. The on-rails part was the worst of it, the rest was actually really simple. Two-player is pretty much cake.

For comparison, ONI took probably 2 hours due to the garage section and the Elites immediately preceding it.

I actually really like the LASO runs with a friend that I've been playing Halo with since the first. It's one of very few things that can actually challenge us and force us into teamwork instead of just going lone wolf and blasting through everything. It's unfortunate that some sections are frustrating, but overall I think it's super enjoyable.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
I actually gathered a few clips for my weekly montage. I'm excited to make it. It'll drop on Wednesday. It's gonna be tough to find music for each week. Should be fun though.
 
Tashi0106 said:
I actually gathered a few clips for my weekly montage. I'm excited to make it. It'll drop on Wednesday. It's gonna be tough to find music for each week. Should be fun though.

Are you only going to use Halo music?
 

Trasher

Member
Tashi0106 said:
I actually gathered a few clips for my weekly montage. I'm excited to make it. It'll drop on Wednesday. It's gonna be tough to find music for each week. Should be fun though.
What editing program do you use for your montages?
 
Top Bottom