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[Gui_PT]

Yeah, what? The character models are impressive, the rest is pretty poor. But as I've stated before, I'm hoping more so for a gameplay overhaul than a graphical change. Halo needs a new direction, imo.

That is incorrect. All the levels(that we've seen) are beautiful; with the trees, grass, mountains and the lighting is awesome too

 

[Stahsky]

Obviously I disagree. Art direction or not, I'm not liking this at all. And I loved the Halo series. I'll hold off for videos though.

 

[Mizzou Gaming]

I think people are still confusing Bungie's initial response to the media following Natal's E3 introduction. I don't think they ever confirmed Natal would be in Reach. If I remember correctly it went basically like this:

Reporter: What do you think of Project Natal, and will you be using it?

Bungie Rep: Project Natal looks awesome and I could definately see us using Natal in a future project.

KOTAKU: BUNGIE CONFIRMS NATAL IN REACH

 

[JaggedSac]

Edge interview: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/halo-reach-–-being-definitive

Looks like they are really going for some big environments and battles.

 

[Gui_PT]

Obviously I disagree. Art direction or not, I'm not liking this at all. And I loved the Halo series. I'll hold off for videos though.

Don't forget these screens a from a very early build. Pre Thanksgiving

 

[Stahsky]

Edge interview: http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-463486.aspx

Looks like they are really going for some big environments and battles.

I can somewhat excuse the graphical issues if this happens to be the case, but I'm still crossing my fingers for some substantial gameplay changes.

Don't forget these screens a from a very early build. Pre Thanksgiving

I didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up. I guess i'm further off the loop than I had thought. Hope some videos pop up soon.

 

[Ninja Moomin]

Obviously I disagree. Art direction or not, I'm not liking this at all. And I loved the Halo series. I'll hold off for videos though.

So you loved Halo and you're not happy that... what? They didn't change it?


There's really nothing to complain about in these screens. it looks great - and certainly nothing for a fan to get upset over.


.

 

[kylej]

http://i50.tinypic.com/sg27ur.jpg
So, I'm guessing the little lightning bolt icon in the lower left, above the radar, is the armor ability. Previously I'd assumed the blurred out portion of the HUD was to not show an armor ability that hadn't been announced. So maybe there's another ability or such that hasn't been talked about yet.

But it's location is odd; next to the other icon would make more sense. It's almost as if the HUD is displaying information on that enemy.

It's probably the build number.

 

[Stahsky]

So you loved Halo and you're not happy that... what? They didn't change it?


There's really nothing to complain about in these screens. it looks great - and certainly nothing for a fan to get upset over.


.

So i'm not allowed to wish for a change on the fourth(does ODST count?) installment of a game? Don't be silly.

 

[Gui_PT]

So i'm not allowed to wish for a change on the fourth(does ODST count?) installment of a game? Don't be silly.

I worry it won't feel like Halo. I remember on an interview about Halo 2, Bungie talked about how they considered sprinting and leaning but didn't include that in the game because "it didn't feel like halo".

That's what I like about Halo. It's the Halo feel. Innovation is great, especially if it'll make the game more fun to play. But it'd be a shame to lose that Halo feel

 

[Apath]

I agree the graphics don't look too stellar, but honestly as long as the game play is the same thing we've been having for the past 3 games, I couldn't care less how the game looked (outside of jaggies -- those are damn distracting). Honestly this feels more Halo 1 than 3, which is exactly what I want anyways.

I worry it won't feel like Halo. I remember on an interview about Halo 2, Bungie talked about how they considered sprinting and leaning but didn't include that in the game because "it didn't feel like halo".

That's what I like about Halo. It's the Halo feel. Innovation is great, especially if it'll make the game more fun to play. But it'd be a shame to lose that Halo feel

Remember though that they cut a lot of things, but ended up bringing them in for Halo 3. I'm sure it just wasn't within their time constraint to work those new features into the game, rather than not being able to do it at all.

 

[Stahsky]

I probably wouldn't complain if it ended up more like Halo:CE than the others. Honestly at this point, I don't know what to expect. I'm just hoping it's different to some degree. Something fresh and exciting, you know?

 

[Ninja Moomin]

So i'm not allowed to wish for a change on the fourth(does ODST count?) installment of a game? Don't be silly.

You said the visuals were not of a good enough standard - not that you wanted the style of those visuals to change.

Yeah, what? The character models are impressive, the rest is pretty poor. But as I've stated before, I'm hoping more so for a gameplay overhaul than a graphical change. Halo needs a new direction, imo.

Please be specific - what do you actually want them to change?

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

I think it looks great, although not amazing, but I expect it to look even better in motion, with full-scale battles going on, improved animation, particle effects and so on (and of course, this is still pre-alpha code). Mind you, I also thought Halo 3 looked beautiful - in bullshots. If Bungie can drastically improve the in-game image quality, I'll be more than pleased.

But visuals are not the reason I fell in love with Halo anyway, at least not on the technical level. I played the first two games on PC so they never seemed that impressive to me.

 

[Kapura]

I probably wouldn't complain if it ended up more like Halo:CE than the others. Honestly at this point, I don't know what to expect. I'm just hoping it's different to some degree. Something fresh and exciting, you know?

Bungie's always kept things fresh. There's always been innovation from title to title, and this one will be no different.

 

[Magni]

Bungie's always kept things fresh. There's always been innovation from title to title, and this one will be no different.

Oh, yeah!

Spoiler

Equipment..

 

[Stahsky]

You said the visuals were not of a good enough standard - not that you wanted the style of those visuals to change.





Please be specific - what do you actually want them to change?

You've got issues, buddy. I was pointing out your absurd "graphics don't matter because of it's amazing art style" crap. And I don't think the visuals are good, hence why I said it in the first place. But I was told that it's an old build, and then read that it could be very large battles, and said that I could live with the looks if that ended up being the case.

Bungie's always kept things fresh. There's always been innovation from title to title, and this one will be no different.

We got dual wielding then crazy gadgets. Strictly talking about gameplay here, I can't think of anything else, which is why I'm hoping there are some big changes.

 

[feel]

Edge interview: http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-463486.aspx

Gooooood. :Q_

 

[dilatedmuscle]

Theres been a rumor floating around that the current build has a blue hud instead of Yellow. Have any of you heard that? I think it looks great yellow, in the first person screen it really helps tie in the greens and blues. If its Blue then it will match the sky and gun ammo count which would be kinda boring.

 

[Louis Wu]

Theres been a rumor floating around that the current build has a blue hud instead of Yellow. Have any of you heard that? I think it looks great yellow, in the first person screen it really helps tie in the greens and blues. If its Blue then it will match the sky and gun ammo count which would be kinda boring.

It's not a rumor. It was clearly stated, in Friday's Weekly Update. (Scroll down to the end of the 'Rules of Engagement' section.)

 

[Kuroyume]

The game looks identical to Halo 3. There's definitely a bit more detail to the characters and weapons but that's it. They really should show the large scale battles in the next batch of screenshots because bringing up in the interviews how the engine is capable of handling more enemies and vehicles and then putting these screenshots out there is stupid.

- The Spartans look stupid. The only one that looks good is the female one. The armor on her has a nice shape to it. The others look like they're walking around in boxes. The art team has gone way overboard with the armor permutations. They look like they're carrying too much shit.

- The AR looks signifcantly better than the plastic toy in the previous games, but it could definitely use more detail. Hopefully, it gets some better textures.

- The needler, plasma pistol, and plasma rifle are back. Fuck that shit. Seriously, scrap all the covenant weapons and give us new weapons. They all suck and after four games we could use a whole new set of weapons. What can be expected out of the needler that hasn't been done before? The new needle weapon looks good though.

- More spools of wire? Come on...

- That radar needs to be in multiplayer. I would like no radar but that's not going to happen so this new one better be in there. The older one is annoying. Either don't have radar, or have this new one, or have a new one that only displays people who are on your level. It should also only detect people only when they're moving.

- The night time screens look good. The game needs more things like that. Night time and significant weather effects add a lot to the game. I don't want shit like in Avalanche where you can only see the snow flakes if you stand still and stare closely.

 

[Thagomizer]

The game looks identical to Halo 3. There's definitely a bit more detail

Stopped reading here.

don'tknowwhatthatwordmeans.jpeg

 

[Kuroyume]

I had the word "almost" in there but I edited it out for whatever reason when I posted that.

 

[dilatedmuscle]

It's not a rumor. It was clearly stated, in Friday's Weekly Update. (Scroll down to the end of the 'Rules of Engagement' section.)

 

[Magni]

Once again, I hope we'll be able to choose our HUD color the same way we can choose our armor color (in H3 at least).

 

[Ninja Moomin]

You've got issues, buddy. I was pointing out your absurd "graphics don't matter because of it's amazing art style" crap. And I don't think the visuals are good, hence why I said it in the first place.

oh

I agree it's more refinement than a great leap forward ... but the quality of the art direction means that it really doesn't matter one little bit.

From the look of the screens, Bungie is gambling that the majority will agree, too.

Reading comprehension?

If you bother to actually read what i wrote, and the post i was responding to, you'll see i was agreeing with you... and i've got issues?


:lol :lol :lol

 

[Chorazin]

- The needler, plasma pistol, and plasma rifle are back. Fuck that shit. Seriously, scrap all the covenant weapons and give us new weapons. They all suck and after four games we could use a whole new set of weapons. What can be expected out of the needler that hasn't been done before? The new needle weapon looks good though.

What? How the hell would they explain the entirely different set of weapons between Reach and CE? That is one of the most odd complaints I have seen yet!

 

[metareferential]

Once again, I hope we'll be able to choose our HUD color the same way we can choose our armor color (in H3 at least).

Armour color does not affect singleplayer, though.

I do not think we will get to that degree of customization.

I do not understand why people keep complaining about the graphics we have been shown; we are 8 months from release, we have been told these are pre-alpha shots coming from an already old build.

Nontheless, pictures look significantly better when compared to Halo 3.

I guess it should be clear to everybody that Uncharted 2 level of image quality combined with Halo scale, interactivity and enviroments is not achievable in this generation, on this hardware.

 

[TheLOLMan]

So how different Reach gona be from Halo 3 in terms of gameplay? I mean they are not calling this Halo 4 nor expansion, it should at least play differenly ain't it?

 

[Zabka]

I guess it should be clear to everybody that Uncharted 2 level of image quality combined with Halo scale, interactivity and enviroments is not achievable in this generation, on this hardware.

Halo 3's image quality issues were more a result of their HDR implementation than anything else in the game.

It looks pretty good so far. The environment shots of Halo 3 looked amazing too, so I'm not putting too much worth in those.

 

[dilatedmuscle]

Armour color does not affect singleplayer, though.

I do not think we will get to that degree of customization.

I do not understand why people keep complaining about the graphics we have been shown; we are 8 months from release, we have been told these are pre-alpha shots coming from an already old build.

Nontheless, pictures look significantly better when compared to Halo 3.

I guess it should be clear to everybody that Uncharted 2 level of image quality combined with Halo scale, interactivity and enviroments is not achievable in this generation, on this hardware.

They said full feature parity which means the character color will be customizable... Then they said there will be a certain level of customization within the campaign... Then they said your customized character will be the same from/carry over to Multiplayer, Campaign, and Co-Op.... so it will affect singleplayer and we will get atleast that degree of customization

 

[metareferential]

They said full feature parity which means the character color will be customizable... Then they said there will be a certain level of customization within the campaign... Then they said your customized character will be the same from/carry over to Multiplayer, Campaign, and Co-Op.... so it will affect singleplayer and we will get atleast that degree of customization

Yes, I was just referring to the hud color.

My bad, I should have made it clearer.

 

[Magni]

Yes, I was just referring to the hud color.

My bad, I should have made it clearer.

Why don't you think we'd be able to have this? It's not that hard to implement, is it? Someone with decent photoshop skills could probably make me a pink HUD out of that fucked up AR screen :lol

 

[GhaleonEB]

From the Reach interview up at Edge:

Which encounters did you reference most? Silent Cartographer?

NS It depends on what we were looking for - Cartographer is a great example of solid level design that is in many ways non-linear but still has a focused objective. We talk about that and Flawless Cowboy. We talked about how to bring back some of that magic that was in Halo: CE. I'd say there's a lot of good high action examples from all three games.

CO Certainly, The Covenant from Halo 3 - that's a good example of on-foot, vehicle, on-foot. That was a long mission but it never felt long because you were constantly changing what you were doing. That's absolutely one of the missions I look at.

NS Certainly the missions that offer choice and replayability and allow you to attack in multiple ways, whether through a vehicle or different weapons. It's very important we retain that while the rest of the industry goes in the direction of very exacting, linear, almost movie-like levels that play the same way every time. We definitely are conscious that the strengths of Halo lie heavily in the ability to immerse players in this organic sandbox, and depending on how the player players it changes. Memorable, personal and specific things is what I love Halo for. That's what we want to drive the missions in Reach.

Reading this made me happy this morning. Very happy.

 

[urk]

So how different Reach gona be from Halo 3 in terms of gameplay? I mean they are not calling this Halo 4 nor expansion, it should at least play differenly ain't it?

It's gonna play like a 2D platformer. BUT IN 3D!

 

[JaggedSac]

It's gonna play like a 2D platformer. BUT IN 3D!

Halo Complex. Sounds awesome.

 

[scently]

It's gonna play like a 2D platformer. BUT IN 3D!

333DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
:lol :lol

 

[metareferential]

Why don't you think we'd be able to have this? It's not that hard to implement, is it? Someone with decent photoshop skills could probably make me a pink HUD out of that fucked up AR screen :lol

Not that is hard to implement, of course, I just think there's no reason to have a color-customizable hud.

It would be interesting to have it fully customizable though, à la Forza 3.

With the ability to remove everything or just some elements (while keeping the crosshair).

 

[nilam01]

I'm really excited for reach and having read the gamereactor article (took me awhile to decipher the automated translation) I believe bungie is doing a really good thing bringing the series back to it's roots. Halo's singleplayer isn't about fast paced action. No it's (using bungie's words) about mystery, exploration and sandbox gameplay. A good example of this CE's second level 'halo'. I can't remember how often I've played that level and each time I had a different experience.

The first time I was captivated by it's mystery, looking at the horizon and wondering how such a thing is possible. What do these installations fire upwards towards the sky? What's in these artificial tunnels? Who build this and why? I was marveling at everything and luckily the game's pace allowed me to do that. It didn't present me with time limits didn't throw endless hords of respawning enemies or required me to pick up the pace. The moment you land the music was absent, there was no radio chatter, no massive battles taking place and only ambient sound all around you, there was just you and this strange ring you stood on. The mood was set perfectly.

The second time I played the mystery of the ringworld faded, but I started to explore the level taking different paths, different approaches. And each time I replayed the level the sandbox gameplay provided me with different battle experiences. Do you stay and defend the installation with the marines, snipi the covenant from above each time they drop. Perhaps you wait for them to come to you and grenade them to bits, or you decide to hide somewhere else wait for the covenant to attack the marines before attacking them from behind. You could also just run down towards them when they drop taking all their attention while the marines attack them from above.

The AI was brilliant, the covenant where unpredictable and so were your allies. Some marines would stay up and shoot from above while others will follow you down to face the covenant head on. Sometimes they would just stay and wait for you to clean up. Back then it was mindblowingly awesome. After the second level, it only got better, silent cartographer and assault on the control room are even better examples of the mystery, exploration and sandbox gameplay that made Halo CE such an awesome game. It's no wonder that these levels are some of the best known game levels in gaming history. Even someone who hasn't played halo knows what silent cartographer is or even the library. I never do remember the names of most fps' levels not even those from Halo 2 and 3, halo CE is an exception. There is a reason why halo CE is considered a long game in comparison to it's sequels, it's the strength of CE's level design.

Don't get me wrong I love halo 2 and 3, but there was just something 'off' and I never realized what untill I replayed CE. I'm glad bungie realized this as well. Having read the new info and seeing the new screens made me really excited. Hopefully they'll polish the graphics up a bit, because let's admit it they do play a role. Halo CE wouldn't have had the same impact if it looked like quake 1. But I have no doubt they'll be able to pull off something amazing when the game releases.

Anyway I thought these two screens were good for a comparison between reach and halo 3. I notice that the draw distance has been increased, the trees finally look like trees and the first person gun model is made bigger. The HUD seems more opaque and subtle (a good thing IMO). The ground and gun textures are a bit low res and flat though (probably place holder) and the vistas are a bit bland. What would really help the graphics is some object motion blur. Other than that it looks really good especially considering this is pre alpha and apparently before the VGA trailer.

Oh btw new member. Love the community! Oonsk :lol

 

[Tashi]

Halo Reach is a Natal Light Gun game! I can't wait!!!

 

[pringles]

Screens look f'kin great to me. Definitely a big step up from Halo 3/ODST already, and judging from the info we have about improved explosions, animations, skybox/weather, scale of environments/battles etc. I'm guessing the difference between this and H3 will become even clearer when we see it in motion.

Reading this made me happy this morning. Very happy.

Silent Cartographer is probably the best level they ever created (yes even better than AotCR) so the more they look at that, the better.

The Covenant is a good level too, if they're gonna look at any of the level design from Halo 3 that should be it. But still, that level forces you into certain vehicles at certain times, which I don't like. CHOICE is the key word, and I'm glad Bungie finally seem to be bringing that back.

 

[AwesomeSyrup]

From the Reach interview up at Edge:


Reading this made me happy this morning. Very happy.

Yeah that's really sweet. Silent Cartographer is one of the best levels in any FPS.

 

[The Librarian]

A Swedish-speaking HBO visitor provided a very readable translation of the Gamereactor article.
Edit: Bah, never mind - he friggin' copied and pasted the Google translation.

:lol

Edge interview: http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-463486.aspx

Looks like they are really going for some big environments and battles.

Thanks for this; reading now. It's good to hear that Bungie is really looking at Halo: CE in order recapture that magic that was in Halo: CE but not 2/3.

Also - I still don't see that "600" ammo count next to the AR. I don't think it's there.

 

[feel]

333DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
:lol :lol

Whoa whoa whoa, let's keep this thread minor safe.

edit- Nice post nilam01, welcome.

 

[Stahsky]

oh



Reading comprehension?

If you bother to actually read what i wrote, and the post i was responding to, you'll see i was agreeing with you... and i've got issues?


:lol :lol :lol

And for the third time, I was commenting on your art statement. But good try.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

Reach multiplayer should allow users to set the colours of the teams on their TV set, like Perfect Dark Zero did. You can have few different shades of green, red vs blue and some others I can't remember.

I think it was supposed to be for colour blind people, but I used it anyway.

 

[scently]

Whoa whoa whoa, let's keep this thread minor safe.

What do you mean?

 

[vhfive]

What do you mean?

sigh

boobs junior he's talking about boobs

 

[Warm Machine]

I said it before but I'll say it again...the character models and textures are stunning. There isn't another game in this gen with characters that look like those.

 

[DiabolicalBagel]

I said it before but I'll say it again...the character models and textures are stunning. There isn't another game in this gen with characters that look like those.

You must be lacking a good gaming rig.

Still, they are pretty great. If the final build's environments looks as purdy as the characters I will be a happy man.