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[FlawlessCowboy]

Those audio sounds were amazing. The weapons really pack a fucking punch and I love it.

Anyone notice how fast you can reload the AR judging from that audio clip?

Sleight of hand perk am confirmed.

Also, word! I can't believe how excited I am over this. :lol

 

[feel]

HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK

dat update

Satisfying clarifications and even better weapon sounds.

You rock urk.

 

[Thagomizer]

So now that the Falcon's confirmed for Multiplayer, I wonder how they are going to balance it, as it's campaign incarnation would be completely broken in multiplayer; either it could literally drop an entire team on the flag at once, or shooting it down could result in the whole team dying.



In unrelated news, I'm applying to transfer to Cornell (and a few other schools) for the Fall. Wish me luck!

 

[carbonbased]

the new sound effects are stunning. quality update all around.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

Frags still sound a little weak, IMO. Just seem to be missing that bit extra oomph.

AR no longer sounds like a Nerf gun! Yay!

 

[Ironborn]

the new weapon sounds like some kind of multi-lock rocket launcher
you can hear it locking on, firing, the projectiles hitting the target, and finally exploding
the weapon sounds are pretty rad anyway, and FUCK YEAH @ falcon confirmed for multiplayer
i hope the falcon will be everything i wanted the hornet to be

 

[TacticalFox88]

So now that the Falcon's confirmed for Multiplayer, I wonder how they are going to balance it, as it's campaign incarnation would be completely broken in multiplayer; either it could literally drop an entire team on the flag at once, or shooting it down could result in the whole team dying.



In unrelated news, I'm applying to transfer to Cornell (and a few other schools) for the Fall. Wish me luck!

I'd imagine that it's basically the hornet except a Helicopter. Same strengths/speed/weaknesses most likely.

 

[Tashi]

So now that the Falcon's confirmed for Multiplayer, I wonder how they are going to balance it, as it's campaign incarnation would be completely broken in multiplayer; either it could literally drop an entire team on the flag at once, or shooting it down could result in the whole team dying.



In unrelated news, I'm applying to transfer to Cornell (and a few other schools) for the Fall. Wish me luck!

Good luck!

Also, there should totally be a map specifically for an epic sky battle. That would be fucking awesome. It would be like Star Fox.

 

[rar]

needle rifle is really really dumb looking

 

[Safe Bet]

I've been playing ODST SP and just wanted to pop in to say:

Whomever designed the Banshee...

DAMN YOU!

DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!

 

[Ironborn]

So now that the Falcon's confirmed for Multiplayer, I wonder how they are going to balance it, as it's campaign incarnation would be completely broken in multiplayer; either it could literally drop an entire team on the flag at once, or shooting it down could result in the whole team dying.

i'd guess you can only carry one person per side in gameplay, as opposed to a whole team like in the trailer
a whole team piling out wouldn't work, because of the vehicle exit animations

 

[DiabolicalBagel]

I've been playing ODST SP and just wanted to pop in to say:

Whomever designed the Banshee...

DAMN YOU!

DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!

The banshee in ODST was fantastic, this is heresy!



Also... rar, where did you go?
My 360 froze and when I got back you decided to quit.

 

[GhaleonEB]

At this point in the project, just about everything is still being tinkered with, so gameplay specific questions are almost impossible to nail down (but please, do continue debating and arguing what’s right and wrong with each weapon or ability without having any context or hands-on experience ). That said, Sketch just put out the request for the formal URL we’ll be using to give Marcus a platform to sound off about Halo: Reach’s development progress. You’ll be getting a much more insightful look into that process soon.

Thanks for another meta post about nothing.

New sound effects are superb. The new AR sounds like a beast; I don't really care what kind of impact it has, I wanna shoot that thing.

 

[kylej]

Thanks for another meta post about nothing.

It's ok Ghaleon, grab your Halo Encyclopedia and a tub of ice cream and heal the wounds you've received from reading Halo discussion in a Halo thread.

 

[Roche]

Man I could see some pretty awesome Forge maps with the new Falcon vehicle if we can get a Sandbox type map with a skybubble. I LOVE the weapon sounds; the mystery weapon is pretty intense no idea what that could be.

 

[op_ivy]

I've been playing ODST SP and just wanted to pop in to say:

Whomever designed the Banshee...

DAMN YOU!

DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!

:lol

speaking of, i finally played through odst alone on legendary and i want to add;

damn you buck, shoot that fucking warthog chaingun! you stupid son of a bitch, there are 8 fucking ghosts going after dare and the engineer, why arent you shooting?

the ai gunners SUCK MA BALLS

 

[Not a Jellyfish]

Man I could see some pretty awesome Forge maps with the new Falcon vehicle if we can get a Sandbox type map with a skybubble. I LOVE the weapon sounds; the mystery weapon is pretty intense no idea what that could be.

It definitely sounds like an anti-aircraft weapon to me. Something to possibly take down the Falcon. Sounds like the player is cranking it to aim.

 

[Flipyap]

needle rifle is really really dumb looking

I think it looks pretty cool... for a robot duck.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I'm wondering....that charge up from the mystery weapon sounds a lot like the laser did in Halo 3; would be interesting if that modified laser we saw in the leaked pics wasn't the same laser, but had a more indirect fire. Though, it's more likely a Covenant weapon; a man can dream.

 

[JaggedSac]

The unknown weapon is probably this one that Tom Morello describes:

"New Needler-based Heavy Weapon - Looks like a Covenant version of the Spartan Laser!"

Especially given the fact that it hits and then delays before exploding like the needles from needler.

 

[Trasher]

Hey, Eazy.

IT WAS A BUG

 

[carbonbased]

needle rifle is really really dumb looking

 

[electricpirate]

Speaking of Mr. Morello, nice photoshopping on the blurred out text shot. :lol

 

[Blueblur1]

That update was sweet. So savory. Thanks Eric.

 

[BladedExpert]

New weapon sounds are sweet. Holy shit at the mystery one! My sub nearly shit a brick when it went boom boom boom

 

[GhaleonEB]

New weapon sounds are sweet. Holy shit at the mystery one! My sub nearly shit a brick when it went boom boom boom

Yeah. Just like I bought an HDTV for Halo 3, I might pick up a decent sound system for Reach; right now it's just the TV speakers, which suck. That sound practically vibrated my computer desk turned up loud.

I still think it could be the modified laser-like weapon. On the boot up sound I'm imagining the little flip screen on the side of it swinging open.

I love the Tom Morello reference they made in the cross hair pic.:lol

I only just noticed that one. :lol

 

[Louis Wu]

This made a rough evening just a little bit less rough.

Solid info, all around. GREAT update. Thanks, urk (and mancannon)!

 

[Chip N Chance]

I love the Tom Morello reference they made in the cross hair pic.:lol

 

[Kapura]

Man I could see some pretty awesome Forge maps with the new Falcon vehicle if we can get a Sandbox type map with a skybubble. I LOVE the weapon sounds; the mystery weapon is pretty intense no idea what that could be.

I could easily see the intrinsic value of having Falcon Fights.

 

[electricpirate]

Yeah. Just like I bought an HDTV for Halo 3, I might pick up a decent sound system for Reach; right now it's just the TV speakers, which suck. That sound practically vibrated my computer desk turned up loud.

I still think it could be the modified laser-like weapon. On the boot up sound I'm imagining the little flip screen on the side of it swinging open.

I only just noticed that one. :lol

Do it. When I got surround sound I replayed CE, because the surround sound and bass made it an entirely new experience.

 

[Jin34]

Can someone explain what they mean by hitscan and why its much better than before? And how was it before? I understand say a hitbox in fighting games but don't get what they mean here.

 

[Ramirez]

Hitscan confirmed!

 

[Roche]

Can someone explain what they mean by hitscan and why its much better than before? And how was it before? I understand say a hitbox in fighting games but don't get what they mean here.

Hitscan makes things awesome for international players.

 

[electricpirate]

Can someone explain what they mean by hitscan and why its much better than before? And how was it before? I understand say a hitbox in fighting games but don't get what they mean here.

Hitscan means that the bullets have no travel time. This makes the weapons easier to use (which hardcore players will probably bitch about) but it makes the weapons more reliable, especially in laggy conditions. With instant travel times you can write netcode that does more client side checks, fighting lag better. Hardcore players will love that.

 

[dilatedmuscle]

Hitscan.. Coolio.

I've been playing Bad Company 2 like mad. Prolly around 12 hrs in 2 days. Bad Company is the king of sound as of now. After hearing the soundfx in that game, these reach sounds are not as impressive as they wouldve been... except for the AR and the Sniper. The AR sounded so sweet and solid compared to the last versions. The Sniper was so powerful sounding like a giant robot punching another giant robot in the neck. The rest were still really good.

I wasnt impressed with the plasma grenade explosion. I was hoping it would sound more "alien-like" or have hints of an electrical feel. If a frag sounded like that in any other game i wouldnt notice that its the sound of an alien grenade.

The mystery sound sounded like some sort of covenant mortar from hell lol

 

[Kapura]

Can someone explain what they mean by hitscan and why its much better than before? And how was it before? I understand say a hitbox in fighting games but don't get what they mean here.

First we need to back off to real life: Guns fire bullets, which travel at a speed faster than you can run and less than the speed of light. They are fired fast so that they can hit the target before gravity would bring them down to earth, so to speak.

Back into games: Shooters like Halo need a way to simulate that speed to target. Many games completely ignore the gravitational effects on a travelling bullet, as it hits its target before the ground more than 999 out of 1000 times. But then there is the issue of the horizontal motion, over ground. Hitscan, in essence, assumes a close to infinite muzzle velocity. When you pull the trigger on a hitscan weapon (like the Hablo Dos BR), the game uses where you're aiming at that instant to track where the shot will hit. Looking at a wall? It hits the wall. Looking at EasyB's Bird Bros? Boom! Headshot.

The other model of bullet motion relies on a considerably sub-infinite muzzle velocity. You can see this in Halo 3: Go into theatre and watch a BR being fired. The bullets travels a fixed distance every frame until colliding with something. This model more accurately represents slow firing weapons, like the Rocket Launcher.

Why would you prefer one over the other? Several factors:

• Simulation: A non-hitscan weapon is by definition a better weapon simulation than a hitscan one, because real guns travel at speeds closer to zero than infinity. Modeling each bullet's path frame by frame creates, in general, more realism in a game
• Skill Gap: Full simulation weapons also create a larger skill gap
  Spoiler

  IN GENERAL
  than a hitscan variant. The former case creates a necessity to lead shots, that is, to point the reticle not where they are but where they will be when the rounds make contact. More skilled players lead more effectively, and are able to finish of weaker players faster.
• Ease of Use: Conversely, needing to lead shots at a distance more than a few frames out makes guns frustratingly difficult to use at moderate range or for new players. Hitscan weapons shoot exactly where they are pointed when the trigger is pulled, so there is never any guessing as to where and when the shots will hit.
• System Resource Use: I'm not sure how large of a factor this is, but a non-hitscan model needs to simulate the direction and velocity of every live round that hasn't yet hit anything. Seeing as bullets with relatively low muzzle velocity can be active for a large number of frames could, hypothetically, create unnecessary system burden.

 

[Jin34]

Oh thanks now I see why everyone is so happy. I live in Puerto Rico and in Halo and MW2 our connection is usually one bar less than max, I thought that was great until getting MW2 because everyone of my friends got it. Then I saw the killcam and it was eye opening just how much lag it really was. In my screen I get off 2 shotgun blasts at close range, in the killcam I never shot, in my screen I shoot a guy in the face as he is going prone to dodge the bullets, in killcam he was already down and I was shooting air.

Can't believe I got to level 40 in Halo 3 under these conditions.

 

[dilatedmuscle]

Oh thanks now I see why everyone is so happy. I live in Puerto Rico and in Halo and MW2 our connection is usually one bar less than max, I thought that was great until getting MW2 because everyone of my friends got it. Then I saw the killcam and it was eye opening just how much lag it really was. In my screen I get off 2 shotgun blasts at close range, in the killcam I never shot, in my screen I shoot a guy in the face as he is going prone to dodge the bullets, in killcam he was already down and I was shooting air.

Can't believe I got to level 40 in Halo 3 under these conditions.

Dude... i get that even in California. Which is why im happy about Hitscan lol it should help to some extent.... but lag is lag.

 

[Tashi]

I can't wait to hear Reach with my headphones. (Sennheiser HD 555) You're really doing yourself a disservice if you're not playing Halo with a decent sound setup. You really get to appreciate sound design and it's actually pretty important if you wish to play competitively. You hear where shots are coming from all directions accurately. You hear grenades near by and can tell how close they are. You can hear foot steps and whiffed beat downs from behind as well as players jumping down around you. You can also hear a near by enemy switch to his rockets or his mauler. They all make sounds but those two are very important to hear when you're near by someone lol.

So while playing MLG today, in the pregame lobby, my teammate noticed that we had all achieved the Linktacular medal. I wish that the announcer would give out a nice "Linktacular!" in the pregame lobby. That would be awesome. It's a pretty rare medal and I think deserves it. It might also get people to link up to Bnet.

 

[duk]

amazing update bungie! i <3 thee

 

[Loxley]

Now those are some badass sounds. I've always felt Halo's weakest link from an aesthetic perspective outside of it's animations were it's (honestly) pathetic sounds. That sounds like some fucking lethal shit right there.

Halo: Reach - directed by Michael Mann

I honestly never thought Bungie would drastically alter the sounds of the weapons in the series given how iconic they are amongst the community, this is honestly- of the many excellent design changes they're making with Reach- the one that I'm the most happy about. Bravo Bungie

Spoiler

I'm curious how they've altered the Covenant weapons audio...can't wait to see.

 

[Self Induced]

Guns and explosions definitely have a lot more pop to them.

Flying Warthogs in multiplayer ftw

 

[enzo_gt]

YES HOLY SHIT FALCONS IN MULTIPLAYER YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[AwesomeSyrup]

Do Falcons in MP hint at larger maps and more players? I mean it looks huge and I can't really think of any MP maps in Halo 3 that would be big enough for it. Maybe Sandtrap but that's it.

 

[Striker]

Do Falcons in MP hint at larger maps and more players? I mean it looks huge and I can't really think of any MP maps in Halo 3 that would be big enough for it. Maybe Sandtrap but that's it.

We'll probably still get the accustomed 8v8 large scale games.

Our hope should be getting large and expansive maps like Halo 2's big team lineup (Coagulation, Waterworks, Headlong, Relic, Terminal, Containment, etc.).

 

[GhaleonEB]

On reflection, aside from the sound clips, the two best nuggets in the update to me were, "Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title", and "Yup" (in response to the Falcon question).

That's some good, good shit right there.

 

[Thermite]

We'll probably still get the accustomed 8v8 large scale games.

Our hope should be getting large and expansive maps like Halo 2's big team lineup (Coagulation, Waterworks, Headlong, Relic, Terminal, Containment, etc.).

Headlong or Waterworks with a Falcon? Oh my god, yes.

 

[duk]

lets hope they bring back hang em high

really though for MP, I am hoping for 24 players

 

[Flipyap]

Yeah. Just like I bought an HDTV for Halo 3, I might pick up a decent sound system for Reach; right now it's just the TV speakers, which suck. That sound practically vibrated my computer desk turned up loud.

I always felt that a decent sound system is more important than HD.
The jump to HD is pleasant, but surround sound really adds something new to the experience.

I hope they'll start making use of the center channel again (Halo 3 basically doesn't), because you'd be buying expensive A/V equipment for something that doesn't even properly use it... again.

 

[Hazimov]

Guys, I'm a graphic designer/halo fan. I've worked on some decent Multiplayer emblems for the contest Bungie has recently announced. The problem is that the contest is for US/Canada residents only (for now they say). I'm thinking of sending the designs to someone I know there to join the contest on behalf of me (with his name of course lol).

Should I do it? Or should I wait till Bungie open it for the rest of the world?