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[heckfu]

That is not what I thought it meant.

Well, at least you have your |OT7| title.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

OMG. 42.5% of the way there! My God Inheritors must be fat.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

That's your favourite Reach map?? We kept spawning in the same spot near a corner and there was like 2 guys scoped in on each end and there's not really a good escape route from what I saw, especially playing with randoms

I guess we need to be sure that we're talking about the same map. As others have said, there are some pretty awful forge maps in Team Slayer, but there are a few really good ones too. This is the map I'm in love with: Kingdom, so good!

I had fun playing TS yesterday. All of the AL users were bad, and the maps I played were fun. I did come from playing Gears 2, though, so Reach felt AMAZING.

Team Slayer is not becoming my favorite playlist anymore, it is my favorite playlist. I wish I had a team slayer buddy to play games with, but it's the best playlist if you're going to jump in solo. Squad slayer is all kinds of frustrating when you have quitters or the other team is just really good. No way to compete against 5 players in Reach. And I despise armor lock, but it's a small price to pay to have some halfway decent games. This was from earlier tonight. My team had a quitter early on and we still were able to come back and win, thanks to the other team not being the brightest. But the armor locking was pretty frustrating.
Pinnacle...

EDIT: Am I allowed to contribute?

Reach's Playhouse

Spoiler

and yes, he's thinking about bloom

 

[Tunavi]

Battlefield 360 is lame. Pokemon Red, however, is still incredible as it was 13 years ago.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Battlefield 360 is lame. Pokemon Red, however, is still incredible as it was 13 years ago.

Please tell me you where playing Battlefield 3 with a squad of friends, if not you where playing it wrong lol

 

[TheOddOne]

Battlefield 360 is lame. Pokemon Red, however, is still incredible as it was 13 years ago.

Battlefield was always lame.

*Runs*

 

[Tunavi]

Please tell me you where playing Battlefield 3 with a squad of friends, if not you where playing it wrong lol

I dunno, I've grown very tired of BC2. This looks exactly the same to me.

 

[Slightly Live]

Battlefield 360 is lame. Pokemon Red, however, is still incredible as it was 13 years ago.

Soul Silver is where it's at. There's so much colour that it's almost like a Halo game.

 

[wwm0nkey]

I dunno, I've grown very tired of BC2. This looks exactly the same to me.

idk maybe its because I played Caspian Border but I love BF3

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Superior Silver is where it's at. There's so much colour that it's almost like a Halo game.

Fixed.

BF 3 is very pretty on my pc, but I don't like the gun combat most of the time, Counter Strike is the much more enjoyable implementation of so called realistic health shooters.

 

[Booshka]

Fixed.

BF 3 is very pretty on my pc, but I don't like the gun combat most of the time, Counter Strike is the much more enjoyable implementation of so called realistic health shooters.

God if Battlefield games had the gunplay of Counter-Strike, holy fuck they'd be sweet. As is, they are pretty sloppy, at least that's how they feel on consoles to me.

 

[Kujo]

I guess we need to be sure that we're talking about the same map. As others have said, there are some pretty awful forge maps in Team Slayer, but there are a few really good ones too. This is the map I'm in love with: Kingdom, so good!

I don't think there are any good ones lol. But yeah that's the map, it kept spawning me to the right of where you spawned for most of the game, didn't like it. Also a map called Think Twice or something, didn't like how that played. Precipice and Cliffhanger, also maps I dislike. Any Forge map really. Give me Powerhouse or Boardwalk over any of them.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I don't think there are any good ones lol. But yeah that's the map, it kept spawning me to the right of where you spawned for most of the game, didn't like it. Also a map called Think Twice or something, didn't like how that played. Precipice and Cliffhanger also maps I dislike. Any Forge map really. Give me Powerhouse or Boardwalk over any of them.

Fair enough, on Kingdom.

Cliffhanger is absolute garbage. I detest that map. It's a map where if you're outnumbered or playing a better team, there is no possible way to move around without dying. And I hate maps that produce the same behavior every game, at least with specific weapons. Cliffhanger is full of campers in the middle structure using shotguns, snipers camping at their respective bases, and people flying around with jetpacks either using the needler or tossing endless grenades. Pure awful...

Precipice I don't mind as much. I like it for its asymmetrical design. Plenty of cover and ways to move about, even against a good team. The only issue I've had with that map is when a team decides to camp above the lift. It's pointless. But overall, the map is good for randoms to run around and shoot each other.

My most liked to least liked forge maps in Team Slayer in order:

1. Kingdom
2. Select
3. Treasury
4. Chateau
5. Enclosed(if it weren't for jetpacks, it would tie for 3rd or 4th)
6. Renova, Precipice, Think Twice, Affinity (4-way tie for playable but not great).
7. Synapse(has spawning issues)
8. Eden Minor
9. Cliffhanger

I didn't include remakes like Asylum and Pinnacle, but I generally dislike both. Let's pick up the sniper rifle and hide... (it's typical behavior on all maps, but these two maps have really horrible routes to attack the people doing it) Atom is being removed and hardly ever gets voted for, so I'm not including that map either.

 

[Tunavi]

I was randomly going though Bungie.net profiles of a game I had finished, and it turns out I played a guy who has one of the funniest clips in Reach. I saw this back in May, so it's crazy that I got matched up with him and decided to look at his file share randomly. Small world.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I was randomly going though Bungie.net profiles of a game I had finished, and it turns out I played a guy who has one of the funniest clips in Reach. I saw this back in May, so it's crazy that I got matched up with him and decided to look at his file share randomly. Small world.

Hahaha that's hilarious. Now I can't stop watching it. Also, I just read your comment on one of my games from a while back and called you a troll. Rushing power weapons.... pffffttt! ;-)

 

[TheOddOne]

Halo 4: is 343 taking inspiration from Red Dead and LA Noire?

Right now, you'll have more luck parking a Warthog atop a Scarab than getting anything Halo-4-related out of 343 Industries. The studio is eager to talk up its vision for the new Reclaimer trilogy, dropping a few nuggets on Cortana's impending Rampancy (the AI equivalent of senility) and treating us to a dazzling montage of Forerunner-flavoured concept art. When it comes to cold hard gameplay or plot specifics, however, 343's collective lips are sealed.

Fortunately, there exist several Mystic Journalistic Abilities designed to break a developer's silence, psychological war techniques handed down from editor to editor over the centuries. One of them's the Art of the Ostensibly Unrelated Question. All innocence, we recently asked 343 directors and producers what they've enjoyed playing lately. The responses - which you'll find in OXM's now-available limited edition Halo special - are... suggestive.

Creative director Josh Holmes was "blown away" by Red Dead Redemption. "To me, that was such an amazing narrative experience. Being able to express myself in an open world environment in whatever way I saw fit, but also managed within that experience to give me the spine of a story that went through all of it. It wasn't just window dressing - it managed to make me care about the characters and the places, and that makes it really stand out."

Intriguing. Halo's never had an open stake in the chin-stroky "player freedom" vs "developer intention" debate, leaving the bulk of its storytelling to cutscenes rather than those edgy, flashy emergent environments proffered by Bioshock and co. But factor in the series' wedding of tiered, intensely dynamic AI to linear campaign design, and you start to see where an open world game like Red Dead could be influential.

Missions like Silent Cartographer in Combat Evolved or the assault on Sword Base in Halo: Reach aren't just bouts of COD-style whack-a-mole, they're helter-skelter stages on which you thrash out living, breathing drama with the AI. No one battle is the same, as Grunts lose their rag, Elites decloak at different intervals and jet-packed Brutes accidentally bump heads.

Master Chief has "changed" in Halo 4, but 343 won't say how. While the overall plot arch is a hands-off affair, and the environments in themselves aren't exactly bursting with backstory, Halo's scenario design involves much the same sinuous plating of the nailed-down and the free-floating as Red Dead and its fellow sandboxers.

In terms of how NPCs behave, how they react to each other and the player, and how that feeds into mission plot, Rockstar's opus could have much to offer. It's worth noting, on a possibly important tangent, that Redemption's "free roam" multiplayer lobby and Reach's Forge World have a lot in common - they're menus reimagined as playable environments.

Advances in storytelling dominate the 343 take on competing developers. Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill looks to another Rockstar game, LA Noire, for inspiration. "I wouldn't say the whole truth or lie mechanic worked - or at least I don't read people well, apparently - but they're really pushing things forward in terms of characters and story.

"I'm mostly interested in storytelling," she adds. "And it's fascinating to see how games like LA Noire, Heavy Rain and even Call of Duty tell their story. It seems to be the place where games are evolving the most right now, outside of technology."

It's even harder to imagine what a game like LA Noire could add to Halo than Red Dead - we can't see the Chief grilling Covenant witnesses for clues, somehow - but again, the balance between flexibility and direction is one Bungie's existing work speaks to. Holmes feels Team Bondi didn't quite nail it, a criticism many players will echo.

"LA Noire was really intriguing for me in terms of the mechanics they tried to introduce - I thought it was successful in some ways, and not so successful in others. We had a hearty debate about how you could present that same experience in another way - it felt like the open world didn't really add a ton. But within games it's becoming increasingly hard to see real innovation and people taking risks. I though it was pretty exciting for that reason: it was a mechanic that we hadn't seen in any other games."

OXM just wanted to write something.

 

[Slightly Live]

Halo 4: is 343 taking inspiration from Red Dead and LA Noire?

OXM just wanted to write something.

Mystic Journalistic Abilities

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Also Aliens was awesome.

That's what I was hoping to hear! It's one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

"I'm ready, man, check it out. I am the ultimate badass! State of the badass art! You do NOT wanna fuck with me. Check it out! Hey Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you! Check it out! Independently targeting particle beam phalanx. Vwap! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks... "

 

[TheOddOne]

Mystic Journalistic Abilities

 

[king picollo]

Love the battlefield beta, I enjoy the feel of those games so much better then CoD, shame it wasn't a more vehicular based map as that's where Battlefield always shines for me.

True story, I know the maker of Kingdom personally, he's a good friend of mine.

Who wants to touch me?

 

[Sikamikanico]

Love the battlefield beta, I enjoy the feel of those games so much better then CoD, shame it wasn't a more vehicular based map as that's where Battlefield always shines for me.

True story, I know the maker of Kingdom personally, he's a good friend of mine.

Who wants to touch me?

LOL. Who said I was a good friend, you jerk?

I will always have a soft spot for Kingdom, if I could update it, I think I would make Green and Orange sides be more like rooms than able to see diagonally across the map. Maybe a doorway from each ramp. I'm not worried about camping, as there's no shotgun to make it a viable strategy.

@ Moonman - Did you ever get to try out Majesty? I think it would really suit zero bloom games...

 

[king picollo]

LOL. Who said I was a good friend, you jerk?

Fine, last time I make you a cup of tea

 

[LAUGHTREY]

Did we ever find out who Tom Morello was and how he was able to leak screens of reach almost a year in advance?

I like going back in time and looking at all the leaks, real and not real, and all the analysis if they are fake or not.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Love the battlefield beta, I enjoy the feel of those games so much better then CoD, shame it wasn't a more vehicular based map as that's where Battlefield always shines for me.

True story, I know the maker of Kingdom personally, he's a good friend of mine.

Who wants to touch me?

Oh man I do! lol Sikamikanico made a heck of a map. I'm still thinking about what makes it so good in addition to the things I've already mentioned (ie only two power weapons on the map (rockets/sword) and no sniper rifle).

One thing I believe that makes a big difference is its size. In Halo2, a small map like Warlock worked really well. But weapons taking so much longer to kill players in Reach, plus bloom and armor abilities, completely change the feel and flow of the game. Reach has made a mess of the weapon sandbox, to where if a map is too small or too large, it's not nearly not fun to play on. Just look at BTB and Invasion. Vehicles are not the only problem. The opposite is true also, which is why I don't particularly care for the warlock remake. Kingdom hits the sweet spot in size, which means it also hits the sweet spot in ranged combat in regard to precision weapons. Any smaller and all of a sudden it becomes an AR fest. Any larger and it would be much harder to get kills, and it would feel cheap getting pinged from across the map. As is, there's plenty of cover to hide behind, while at the same time, you can return fire and do well, even if not having gotten the first shot off.

Another thing -- it's basically laid out in such a way that makes camping next to impossible. It's spacious enough that trying to abuse the sword in close quarters combat won't work. And there are no small rooms or little tiny hard to reach towers where people can hold up like little rats without risk. Jetpacks don't feel overpowered on Kingdom and sprint is the perfect compliment for getting around.

Maybe I'm too in love with the map, but Kingdom nails everything I like about arena style maps. I think, due to the weapon sandbox, arena maps really need to be larger than normal, but not convoluted like so many other forge maps. This may also be why I like Swordbase more than most. The range in most encounters is perfect. Reflection is really too small given Reach's weapon sandbox.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Mystic Journalistic Abilities

I do kind of love that they gave it that phrase themselves.

 

[The Henery]

5 people in Premium Slayer right now, not enough players to find a game.

 

[The Librarian]

I wonder if OXM asked some folks if they like games with ADS.

Which would, of course, mean that Halo 4 will have ADS.

Spoiler

D=

 

[Blinding]

I wonder if OXM asked some folks if they like games with ADS.

Which would, of course, mean that Halo 4 will have ADS.

Spoiler

D=

If that's the case, I hope someone out there develops an ad-blocker for the 360.

 

[LAUGHTREY]

Did we ever figure out what this is? A super elaborate troll?

 

[GarthVaderUK]

Any idea what's going to be in the Halo CE Anniversary Combat Edition?

 

[Woorloog]

Did we ever figure out what this is? A super elaborate troll?

Just Certain Affinity and 343i trolling us with a new helmet...
New armor cannot be added as that would require patching old maps, which is, as far as i know, impossible in practice.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Looked really ugly anyway, like a small brute head/ogre with a scoped eye-patch.

Still new armour would have been nice...

 

[TheOddOne]

Just Certain Affinity and 343i trolling us with a new helmet...
New armor cannot be added as that would require patching old maps, which is, as far as i know, impossible in practice.

Why u troll 343i and Certain Affinity? Why?

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Just Certain Affinity and 343i trolling us with a new helmet...
New armor cannot be added as that would require patching old maps, which is, as far as i know, impossible in practice.

Has that been confirmed? I guess I need to learn more about programming, but I always think of armor as a skin, which shouldn't have anything to do with the maps themselves. Someone educate me, please. 8)

 

[Kujo]

lol

 

[vhfive]

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Any idea what's going to be in the Halo CE Anniversary Combat Edition?

What's this? Is Anniversary getting a special edition?

 

[Tawpgun]

lol

343 should expand Infection and make a spin-off Halo a la RDR's Undead Nightmare. REACH IS INFECTED WITH THE FLOOD. FIGHT THEM OFF IN THIS ALTERNATE REALITY TO REACH. Multiplayer is a modified Living Dead.

Boom. All BK's cleansed from Standard Halo.

 

[FyreWulff]

Has that been confirmed? I guess I need to learn more about programming, but I always think of armor as a skin, which shouldn't have anything to do with the maps themselves. Someone educate me, please. 8)

It's the way Bungie has set up Halo. Each map contains it's own copy of the vast majority of the assets to be used during a game, including all player armor and bipeds (and vehicles and weapons etc)

Every time you load any map, it's actually loading every armor and player variation (even if everyone's a Spartan, it still loads the Elite model, for example).

To add new armor into Reach, they'd have to patch every single .map in the game. Not only the multiplayer maps, but all Firefight maps, Campaign maps, and the mainmenu.map (the lobby).

Touching every single part of the game as a part of a TU is quite an undertaking. Not only that but you have RAM considerations to make.


It's a system that has TONS of post-ship flexibility options but makes other changes harder.

 

[Sikamikanico]

...they'd have to patch every single .map in the game. Not only the multiplayer maps, but all Firefight maps, Campaign maps, and the mainmenu.map (the lobby).

I've heard this before about a very recent update to Reach...

 

[Tashi]

:lol :lol

 

[kylej]

People are so overwhelmed by the experience of playing One of the Greatest FPS Games of All Time that of course they're not going to play regular playlists for a while. After a couple games most people will be too stunned by the creativity and perfection of Reach to keep going. Nothing to be concerned about.

 

[FyreWulff]

I've heard this before about a very recent update to Reach...

Alright, let's see you add new models to Reach without actually adding them to where the engine looks for assets..

I never said zero bloom was impossible, I said it was impossible to do without breaking compatibility since it was client side. Guess what 343 did? They broke compatibility.

Adding new armor is possible, but going around and touching every part of the game has an aspect of "diminishing returns" to it.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

lol

 

[Gabotron ES]

Alright, let's see you add new models to Reach without actually adding them to where the engine looks for assets..

I never said zero bloom was impossible, I said it was impossible to do without breaking compatibility since it was client side. Guess what 343 did? They broke compatibility.

Adding new armor is possible, but going around and touching every part of the game has an aspect of "diminishing returns" to it.

How did they broke compatibility, can you explain it?

 

[Hypertrooper]

Any idea what's going to be in the Halo CE Anniversary Combat Edition?

The game will be shipped with a paper sleeve cover with silver/gold foil effects. (Chief's visor) David and I think Frankie, too, teased us that there will be something awesome behind the paper sleeve. I have to say that "awesome" is my words and I interpreted it like that.

Just Certain Affinity and 343i trolling us with a new helmet...
New armor cannot be added as that would require patching old maps, which is, as far as i know, impossible in practice.

I wouldn't really say that this was trolling. I'm thinking that they want to show us "hey, we are working and experimenting with Reach right now". But it didn't make the cut. Didn't they say something at the HaloFest Multiplayer panel?

 

[FyreWulff]

How did they broke compatibility, can you explain it?

Reach 1.0 can't play with Reach 1.1. Not much more to it than that. They added things in the TU that 1.0 would go derp and desync on.

 

[Hey You]

Did we ever find out who Tom Morello was and how he was able to leak screens of reach almost a year in advance?

I like going back in time and looking at all the leaks, real and not real, and all the analysis if they are fake or not.

I don't think we do, but we know its an employee/relative of a Microsoft employee.

I'm sure he'll be giving us the details on Halo 4.

 

[Sikamikanico]

Alright, let's see you add new models to Reach without actually adding them to where the engine looks for assets..

I never said zero bloom was impossible, I said it was impossible to do without breaking compatibility since it was client side. Guess what 343 did? They broke compatibility.

Adding new armor is possible, but going around and touching every part of the game has an aspect of "diminishing returns" to it.

Dude, as always, if on the internet someone says something with at the end, it means they're messing around. Chill out.

 

[Gabotron ES]

Reach 1.0 can't play with Reach 1.1. Not much more to it than that. They added things in the TU that 1.0 would go derp and desync on.

Didn't know that.