K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
There better be a beta. Doesn't have to be public. Heck, make it HaloGAF exclusive.
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Halo: Reach |OT7| What are They to Say Now?
- Thread starter The Librarian
- Start date
A27_StarWolf
Banned
Or perhaps Halo 4 is so magical, it can only be made in Santa's Workshop.
wtf with the avatars? What's going on here?
And there will be a beta to test 4 of the 15 MP maps that launch with Halo 4.
BELIEVE
Slightly Live
Dirty tag dodger
I would be very surprised if there wasn't a public beta. Then again, I was surprised we didn't see anything on Halo 4 before 2011 ended.
Steelyuhas
Member
Hitmonchan107
Member
Touche.
VictoriousGAF is where it's at.
Schmitty
Member
E3 invasion
A27_StarWolf
Banned
During Sony's press conference, they have a huge reveal XD!
Disgusting.
The move to VictoriousGAF is natural progression.
Steelyuhas
Member
Nah, only MP is compromised.
Don't worry though, MP maps will come as paid DLC and there will be no implementation of the maps into matchmaking.
Trollface
Sounds like the worst idea ever.
To me, it would imply they aren't confident enough to show it.
Every game that has had a beta, a public beta, has been amazing at launch.
CoD4 and CoD WAW had betas. I don't think they were public but they were easy as hell to get into.
Halo 3 and Reach had betas. Fixed a lot of map exploits for 3. (though it is my opinion the beta was the superior product) In Reach, while I miss the pistol to death, they fixed the DMR, upped movement speed and jump height, fixed the headshot hitbox, melee issues, etc.
Battlefield 3. Remember the beta we got? Holy shit was that horrible. Whether or not we got an old build or not, that was atrocious and almost all of the problems were fixed for the final game.
Gears 3 was the best beta I have ever experienced. It was smooth as a beta but it deserves recognition for how much it changed the retail product. They took two of the maps, Trenches and Thrashball, and added elements to them to make them more balanced and fun. And by elements I mean new areas and pathways. If only Reach did the same *cough* sword base. *cough*
Let's look at some offenders that didn't have betas.
Modern Warfare 2. Remember that at launch? LOL.
Gears of War 2. After playing it at launched I gave up on the series. Gears 3 Beta brought me back.
They don't have to make it 100% public. But have a big enough player base, in the hundreds of thousands, to test and give feedback.
Maybe it is bad, maybe it's not. All the games you listed were sequels in franchises that had a well worn pattern of play. New maps added to a basic style of mechanics save a couple modifications (weapons, equipment, etc.).
Halo 4 may be based on old school Halo play (we don't know) but it's their first product as a team. I don't know of many first titles that have betas but I am kind of curious now to how many that have.
I'm still thinking the first time anyone is playing Halo 4 on a mass scale is when it comes out at retail. It seems kind of late at this point to announce any tie-in game, so if a beta is coming it is (hopefully) just a goddamn download that we can all just grab.
Accessing it via Reach would make too much sense so I don't think it'd be that either.
opinion noted, but it's microsoft. i don't think they HAVE to prove anything.
farts, i have to go back to work tomorrow. enough gaffing for me tonight.
HiredN00bs
Member
20% thru Primordium...
Steelyuhas
Member
Most of the changes in any of these are just bugs though, mostly ones that would have been found (or already had been found) and fixed before release anyways. None of those titles had huge gameplay changes from the public build shared despite when feedback called for them. Map changes were great for Gears, but what about the sawed off shotgun, which was basically universally panned as an absolute travesty yet saw minimal changes? How about Armor Lock, magnum ammo, bloom fixes/consistency with Reach? Point is, most of these betas are at the stage in development when they aren't going to make any significant gameplay changes regardless of the public feedback, they are just for testing their back-end systems and finding any bugs that they weren't aware off.
Not saying that a public test is bad in any way, but I'm sure its as necessary as people say it is. I hope their is a public test build of Halo 4 made available at some point, but I don't think its a guarantee, nor do I think we should press some massive panic button if they don't do one.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
I don't think 343 will have a beta to "prove" anything. They'll have a beta because this is their first game, and their going to want to iron out the bugs. Getting a few hundred thousand beta testers would be helpful towards that goal, I imagine.
Those X-events still exist, but nowadays it's just a preview event for games coming out that year. No announcements have been made during those events in the last two years.
they announced the Gears of War 3 beta date at the last one. Also showing a Halo 4 trailer there would be a good way to put the event back on track, or since its usually a GDC pre-show have press have their first hands on there and show it off at GDC.
Just a thought.
Intresting, not getting my hopes up though
Zeouterlimits
Member
A beta would be nice, but 343's marketing silence has baffled me a small bit, so can't really comment on it's likeliness.
I just read The Forge of God bu Greg Bear and goddamn that book is good. I'm about to start Anvil of Stars (I hear it's awesome) and then Cryptum is next. Now if I can only find the time.
The Henery
Member
This hiding your body behind a wall complaint hardly ever occurs, and is more a problem of the map you're playing on rather than the gametype itself. I also laugh at scrubs that use this tactic whilst I blain their mush into the asphalt. You won't get past staff captain using those tactics. Go watch some high level Snipers gameplay on Citadel/Construct/Blackout/Narrows/The Pit and tell me it's not superior strafe, co-ordinating map positioning with your teammates and straight up better shot that wins out.
fyrewulf said:
This doesn't happen.
fyrewulff said:
Read that sentence back to yourself again.
Are you feeling alright?
fyrewulff said:
Hemorrhage is the worst Snipers map in Reach and a massive disservice to the gametype.
Again, two of the worst Snipers maps in Halo 3. Radar should be turned on for Reach Snipers and pistol removed.
Hypertrooper
Member
It came out today in the USA? Kindle? And some British and Canadian's stores sold it already.
ElzarTheBam
Member
ncsuDuncan
Member
Camped out at Barnes & Noble last night for Primordium's midnight release. I was first in line!
Of course, it turns out B&N didn't open until 9am. I was a little suspicious when the lights were still off at 11:30pm and no one else was in line. When the manager showed up in the morning to open the store and saw my sleeping bag he thought I was a homeless person and threatened to call the cops. I tried explaining the plot of Cryptum to prove my sanity but he just locked himself in the store and started dialing on his phone. I packed up my tent, ran home and ordered the book off Amazon. It gets here in a week.
Of course, it turns out B&N didn't open until 9am. I was a little suspicious when the lights were still off at 11:30pm and no one else was in line. When the manager showed up in the morning to open the store and saw my sleeping bag he thought I was a homeless person and threatened to call the cops. I tried explaining the plot of Cryptum to prove my sanity but he just locked himself in the store and started dialing on his phone. I packed up my tent, ran home and ordered the book off Amazon. It gets here in a week.
None of this is true, except the Amazon bit.
Slightly Live
Dirty tag dodger
Gabotron ES
Member
Lmfao
ncsuDuncan
Member
Awesome! Added it to the Archive.
I really need to finish these last 200 pages of Game of Thrones before Primordium comes in the mail (dat Super Saver shipping).
----
Any time you HaloGAF folk create a new Halo thread, be sure to post it here in the OT. I don't always check the Gaming/Off-Topic boards and tend to stick to my Subscriptions.
You can also use this handy new submission page I made:
HaloGAF.com/submit
I also added submit forms to the GIFs, Vids, Thread Pics and Gamertags pages. Note that you can only submit a link to content, I haven't figured out a way to allow direct image uploads yet.
As Moltenslowa of HBO pointed out on Twitter, Passover also runs through PAX East's run time this year in addition to being on Easter weekend.
I wonder if that double whammy is contributing to the fact that passes are still freely available 2 months after they've gone up (versus a month for PAX Prime 2012)
I wonder if that double whammy is contributing to the fact that passes are still freely available 2 months after they've gone up (versus a month for PAX Prime 2012)
Hypertrooper
Member
Sorry, bro. Couldn't make it to the midnight launch.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Agh, I am a third through Cryptum but being off of holiday break now I either work or play games. When ever will I finish!?
We wouldn't be able to find matches, everyone would be bitching about it on the forums.
A27_StarWolf
Banned
It's a long walk.
Slightly Live
Dirty tag dodger
FUD servers go down the day Primordium launches. =/
bobs...onGaf
Member
Primordium is amazing, and im only a few pages in.
Devolution
Member
I've been told I'm neglecting halogaf, who can play today?
There weren't many good Snipers maps in 3, period. What's your point? Standoff sucked bad, Narrows, Construct, Rat's Nest, all terrible.
Radar on in a gametype like that only causes more camping and guys crouching behind obscure objects, and once they see the red dot, it only furthers the issue. Main reason Halo 3 Snipers sucked balls outside the putrid map selection.
Reach's version need(ed) a Pistol removal and no Sprint. Base speed increase to 120 or 110, whatever the next bump is. Sprint causes too many quick sneak attacks, aka assassinations.