-
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 |OT7| What are They to Say Now?
- Thread starter The Librarian
- Start date
One thing that is really distracting after playing CE is the Reticule not being in the middle while playing MP. Please have Halo 4's reticule be in the middle of the screen where it should be.
Oh speaking of Halo 4 I noticed that they are using Halo 4 as a news icon on the VGA site
Oh speaking of Halo 4 I noticed that they are using Halo 4 as a news icon on the VGA site
Shake Appeal said:
http://geekadelphia.com/2011/11/14/halo-anniversary-review-giveaway/
http://360burst.com/blog/2011/11/15/halo-ce-maps-giveaway/
+1xxjuicesxx said:
op_ivy said:
Nope. They took out all the cool tricks you could do in the original Halo.
In Hang 'Em High you can't grab rockets from underneath anymore.
In Prisoner you can't grab rockets from underneath either. You can throw stickies to knock them towards the edge then jump up and grab them. I'm sure you can grenade bounce the snipe down to the middle also. Haven't tried that yet. They also took out the doorway jump up to oversheild.
In Damnation you can't shoot down the invis anymore or camp in the portals. Camping inside the portals on Damnation was one of the best parts of it. So many montage clips.
In Headlong you can't grab the sniper from underneath its perch anymore.
In Beaver Creek you can't jump from the rocks on the side of the base towards the back of the portal anymore. I'm not entirely sure if you can jump from top rockets/top snipe to the top of the bases.
FyreWulff said:Nope, they fixed grabbing stuff through walls after Halo 2
except in Reach beta
grabbing those health packets through the walls on powerhouse was awesome.
Syracuse022
Member
Yes. This. 1000x this. Grabbing rockets from below on Prisoner and Hang Em, being ableKevinRo said:
to grenade sniper to you on those same two maps, and a number of nifty trick jumps (for example, using the sloped doors on Prisoner to change levels - I first learned this from a Zyos 1v1 video and was floored) made these maps extremely deep and rewarding, much like the other maps we hold up as the highest Halo standard (Lockout, Midship, etc.).
One of the primary forces in making these maps so great on Halo 1, however, was consistent weapon timing (hence my drop timer comment above). Things not going well? Stuck on bottom? You never have more than 59 seconds to wait for active camo and a weapon that could turn the tide. If you were timing well, you could even have multiple people pick up the same power-up. What's scarier than one guy with an overshield? 4 guys with an overshield. These consistent power-up and weapon drops made for an ebb and flow to the game where teams with the better positioning might have to sacrifice their position for an important weapon or risk seeing their position eroded.
These remakes can't capture all of those things that made them great, but I still find that they drastically improve on the Reach map offering. The only one that I really find disappointing is Damnation. Some of the rounded geometry seems entirely unnecessary, and that map needs weapon timers the most of any of the remakes in my opinion.
I finished Cryptum last week. Some quick comments:
The world being built out by Bear is fascinating, every bit as interesting as implied by Bungie's titles.
They way the story is told is absolutely maddening. The initial 80% of the book is intentionally confusing, with the bulk of explanations and context withheld until our protagonist sits in a room and is told all the backstory of what is going on. That is the central conceit of the narrative structure - answers are just out of reach for Bornstellar and we, until the end. Only, too much went unexplained. Long, confusing and seemingly critical conversations in the story are as confusing now as they were before. I don't understand most of what happened in the book, or why.
The ending was bewildering.
I'm torn on continuing to follow the series. Great world building, and in the Didact Bear created a great character
. But I was frustrated constantly, from beginning to end, by the narrative. It was a jumbled mess. Yet, I'm keen to see how this interesting universe ties to Halo 4, and how it will enrich it. The payoff will need to be steep if the next two books are of this same style.
In some ways, it has the same strengths and weaknesses of Bungie's titles: a great universe was built out, but Bear is struggling to tell a great story within it.
Is Glasslands really that much better? I'm hearing a lot of good and interesting things about it, but that was the case for Cryptum as well.
The world being built out by Bear is fascinating, every bit as interesting as implied by Bungie's titles.
They way the story is told is absolutely maddening. The initial 80% of the book is intentionally confusing, with the bulk of explanations and context withheld until our protagonist sits in a room and is told all the backstory of what is going on. That is the central conceit of the narrative structure - answers are just out of reach for Bornstellar and we, until the end. Only, too much went unexplained. Long, confusing and seemingly critical conversations in the story are as confusing now as they were before. I don't understand most of what happened in the book, or why.
The ending was bewildering.
I'm torn on continuing to follow the series. Great world building, and in the Didact Bear created a great character
and the twist on how that character will continue was very well handled
In some ways, it has the same strengths and weaknesses of Bungie's titles: a great universe was built out, but Bear is struggling to tell a great story within it.
Is Glasslands really that much better? I'm hearing a lot of good and interesting things about it, but that was the case for Cryptum as well.
ElRenoRaven
Member
GhaleonEB said:
Without a doubt Glasslands is better. Your thoughts on Cryptum pretty much describe how I felt. The world he sets up and the fleshing out of the current universe is great but the story he tells is so damn boring. It's really the first book I didn't really care for.
Glasslands on the other hand is damn good. The story is interesting too. I think if you enjoyed Ghosts of Onyx you'll like Glasslands too.
HiredN00bs
Member
I'm trying to get a group of players with the Defiant Map Pack to play Living Dead and get that elusive achievement. I just played 8 games of Living Dead, checked every player's game history to find ones that have played at least a game on Condemned, and came up with a list of 23 tags. If anyone from here wants to join, just let me know and I'll throw you an invite.
Zeouterlimits
Member
Glad you finished it anyway Ghal .
If I had read the book once and not given it another go, I know I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I do.
Requiring multiple readings is generally not a good thing, so I'm very interested to see how Primordium turns out in this aspect and many others.
.Glasslands is closer to the great popcorn of the rest of the series has been.GhaleonEB said:
I think what's key here is that it takes multiple readings (at least two) to get a proper handle on what goes down in the book.GhaleonEB said:
If I had read the book once and not given it another go, I know I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I do.
Requiring multiple readings is generally not a good thing, so I'm very interested to see how Primordium turns out in this aspect and many others.
I really enjoyed Cryptum, but it was pretty impenetrable in a few parts, heh. I guess that kind of wondering and questions just keep me reading... I finished it in like 2 days. It seems to tie into the new Terminals quite a bit, I really need to finish CEA so I can see the rest!
Glasslands was great, and was tonally similar to most of the other books; not nearly as cryptic as Cryptum.
Also, after playing in the anniversary playlists, I really have NO need to go back to any of the others. Even the tweaks to regular reach make it feel worlds better than the regular playlists (85% bloom and knocking scrubs out of AL, not to mention Anniversary play). And why would I want to play forge-world varients every game in BTB rather than awesome Timberland and Headlong?
Glasslands was great, and was tonally similar to most of the other books; not nearly as cryptic as Cryptum.
Also, after playing in the anniversary playlists, I really have NO need to go back to any of the others. Even the tweaks to regular reach make it feel worlds better than the regular playlists (85% bloom and knocking scrubs out of AL, not to mention Anniversary play). And why would I want to play forge-world varients every game in BTB rather than awesome Timberland and Headlong?
squidhands
Member
Wow, love how these new maps have little love notes to Halo fans all over the place. Classy stuff.Hypertrooper said:lol. Unfortunately that wasn't a hard task to create a better map than every Reach FF map. But I agree. Installation is just a great map and I would love it if I had ODST Firefight. Btw. I like that little easter egg.
You can still do it in Campaign. I guess it wasn't as important for them to fix there.KevinRo said:except in Reach beta
grabbing those health packets through the walls on powerhouse was awesome.
Zeouterlimits said:Glad you finished it anyway Ghal
Glasslands is closer to the great popcorn of the rest of the series has been.
I think what's key here is that it takes multiple readings (at least two) to get a proper handle on what goes down in the book.
There are basically two levels to the story. There's the present narrative, which is pretty simple. Boy meets humans. Boy discovers ruins, wakes up grumpy guy. Gang goes on road trip to meet some old acquaintances and get caught up on what's gone on while grumpy guy was sleeping. Shit hits fan. Book ends.
None of that was really very interesting or difficult, it's just a structure for Bornsteller and we to get a tour of the world Bear is building. The interesting and confusing stuff is all the backstory, the context. A lot of the events and dialog depend on knowing the history, most of which is not revealed until the end. And even then, only marginally. Things that should be incredibly important are given minimal attention, things that are meaningless dwelled on. Pretty sure we get more
time spent talking about the merse that slow their boat ride at the beginning than we do about the Flood.
A lot of motivational stuff isn't well established since we don't know how characters relate to one another, what their history is. A lot of the interactions are formal and stiff, with Important Things Being Said that are devoid of context.
I still have no idea what the conversation near the end between
the Didact and the Master Builder was about. And it was sort of important, seeing as it got the Didact executed, and all.
Narrative structures where the goal is to be intentionally confusing to this degree are not ones I enjoy, even on re-read. I need to at least enjoy the book the first time through, and want to go back through with a greater understanding. I did not enjoy reading most of it it enough the first time through to want to revisit; I'll wiki the story and wait for reviews on Primordium to see if I want to continue forward.
Random end note: when a certain character said, "I had a lovely time with my wife," I translated that as, "We screwed like rabbits."
This is coming off as harsher than I mean to be. I said the world build was fascinating, and the Didact a great character. These are significant accomplishments, and are what kept me reading.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
I never finished Ghosts of Onyx and I started Glasslands. Half-way through the first chapter I realized this probably had a lot to do with Onyx, so I went out and bought Onyx on my iPad to read fully this time.
So many books.
So many books.
ElRenoRaven
Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Yea it's part follow up to Ghosts of Onyx so without a doubt reading that book is recommended before reading Glasslands.
Hydranockz
Member
Me and Zalin should be on by then.heckfu said:
xxjuicesxx
Member
Ken said:
O myyyyy goshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Will be donging on kids tonight!
i nerini del buio
Member
if only forgeworld looked like hang em high
Shake Appeal
Member
I just checked and it's been nearly two months since I played Halo. Fuuuccck college.
The Librarian
Banned
Fair criticisms, Ghaleon. I haven't read Cryptum since I first read it back in January, I'll re-read it right before Primordium comes out.
Bear does a lot of world building in Cryptum, as you said. Hopefully the pay off will be there in Primordium.
Bear does a lot of world building in Cryptum, as you said. Hopefully the pay off will be there in Primordium.
StalkerUKCG
Banned
xxjuicesxx said:
Grats ill join in with dropping the dong later maybeh
Devolution
Member
Shake Appeal said:
Know that feel bro. I'm holding off buying Skyrim for the same reason. This winter break is going to be like Reach/Skyrim overdrive.
thezerofire
Banned
finally got CEA. who wants to play?
Hypertrooper
Member
I'm going to start CEA Reach right now.thezerofire said:
thezerofire
Banned
just got in a game but I'll invite you after
HiredN00bs
Member
I'm not. It replaces Reach in the recent games list, adding an extra couple steps to my boot routine.wwm0nkey said:
thezerofire
Banned
first game in Anniversary goes to Snipers on Headlong with people going negative double digits. wonderful.
Devin Olsen
Member
Posted this over in the CEA thread but since we're in duo thread mode I guess I'll post it here too.
-----
I'll definitely re-do this with my capture card setup, but this is kind of a quirkly glitch that goatrope and I found the other day.
When you go out of the 'playable' area the new graphics just give up and decide to render absolutely nothing.
In this first video you can see that as soon as we get across the shaft the new graphics just stop rendering anything. When you switch to old you see everything as normal, but switch back to new and you'll see nothing.
Video 1
In this second video you'll see that if someone spawns while you're rendering nothing in new graphics, you will see the player spawn infront of you with no weapon. Kind of funny.
Video 2
Kind of neat
-----
I'll definitely re-do this with my capture card setup, but this is kind of a quirkly glitch that goatrope and I found the other day.
When you go out of the 'playable' area the new graphics just give up and decide to render absolutely nothing.
In this first video you can see that as soon as we get across the shaft the new graphics just stop rendering anything. When you switch to old you see everything as normal, but switch back to new and you'll see nothing.
Video 1
In this second video you'll see that if someone spawns while you're rendering nothing in new graphics, you will see the player spawn infront of you with no weapon. Kind of funny.
Video 2
Kind of neat
In case I die, I want you all to know what took me.