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Halo Reach Reveal Thread - Matchmaking/Multiplayer Details Revealed

The skulls were and will continue to be killed/spoiled by the internet, there's really no way around it now. IWHBYD would have been near impossible to get without some kind of tutorial. I thought most of them were fairly challenging to obtain, but nothing like H2. Those were evil, angry people who hid the H2 skulls.
 
All of you who don't expect this to be anything like CoD are in for a big shit sandwhich.

All early indicators would seem to suggest that this will be Halo's take on the CoD formula. Hell the main art is 4 different classes of Spartan.

I for one welcome the concept. The only beef I have with MW2, and I'm a noob here with the game so correct me if I'm wrong. When I jumped into multiplayer, level 1 or whatever, I was being matched up with level 20s and level 30s who had all these crazy perks and overpowered weapons. I thought to myself, what the fuck is this shit? Just because being killed 3 times in a row by them allows me to "steal" their class, does not make up for this very poor design choice.

I have no problem with learning new classes, new perks, and new weapons along the way of leveling up. But for fucks sake match me up with people on my level so I'm not completely outclassed.

If Halo Reach does what I've mentioned above I think it could be awesome. Really, I think it's a great idea because lets face it, gameplay from Halo 2 - 3 has gotten a little stagnant and tired, I think we could all use a break and get into something new/different. That will make Halo 4 (or Halo Remake or whatever they decide on the next Xbox hardware), a return to the 'pure' Halo formula, that much better.

I mean think of how complete the 360 platform will be on Halo games. You have Halo 3 for the classic style, Halo ODST for an awesome expansion campaign, Halo Wars for some RTS action, and Halo Reach for a Halo take on the CoD formula. It's good to have variety.
 
Talon- said:
Yes. Halo 2 and Halo 3 really oversold the invasion element in the advertising. Tsavo Highway and The Storm were good levels, but the import of the situation wasn't really conveyed, IMO. I was thrilled when Reach was revealed as the setting of the game, but Bungie's managed to dance around the situation before. Hopefully you're in the middle of the shitstorm for most of the game.

I haven't been a huge fan of either Gears game, but Gears 2 does a great job of conveying the gravity of the situation with setpieces and the cavern battle scenes. If Reach pulls off the same effect for players, then Halo will blow Gears away.

Also, if you want to change everything that makes Halo Halo, go play MW2 or Battlefield: BC. I play MW2 alongside Halo 3 because of their differences. Nobody's making you stick to a series you don't enjoy. The only problem is when the criticisms you throw out there are factually incorrect.

I think it depends on what you as a person define as Halo. For me it's the core gameplay and the world, design and so on. Not the co-op. I would very much prefer if they removed co-op from the singleplayerpart, created a seperate co-op story-mode and focused on making a co-op campaign that used the co-op element for something interesting, instead of just being more people next to you.
 

Louis Wu

Member
kylej said:
Because most other FPS's aren't developed by a team that can afford to move into a movie theater complex and has Microsoft paying the bills.
Oh, how quickly John Romero and Ion Storm are forgotten!

TacticalFox88 said:
Can we see John's face? It's not that hard Bungie.
  • John is you - showing his face removes the immersion
  • The Master Chief wasn't even ON Reach (before the fall)
 

Chinner

Banned
i'm just hoping that the multiplayer will be class based/weapon selection beforehand. Fighting over weapon spawn areas instead of over the objective made me grow tired of multiplayer. Please fix the single player and multiplayer maps so they're concise and focused, and get rid of this check list style development style.

peace.
 

gibonez

Banned
Arpharmd B said:
All of you who don't expect this to be anything like CoD are in for a big shit sandwhich.

All early indicators would seem to suggest that this will be Halo's take on the CoD formula. Hell the main art is 4 different classes of Spartan.

I for one welcome the concept. The only beef I have with MW2, and I'm a noob here with the game so correct me if I'm wrong. When I jumped into multiplayer, level 1 or whatever, I was being matched up with level 20s and level 30s who had all these crazy perks and overpowered weapons. I thought to myself, what the fuck is this shit? Just because being killed 3 times in a row by them allows me to "steal" their class, does not make up for this very poor design choice.

I have no problem with learning new classes, new perks, and new weapons along the way of leveling up. But for fucks sake match me up with people on my level so I'm not completely outclassed.

If Halo Reach does what I've mentioned above I think it could be awesome. Really, I think it's a great idea because lets face it, gameplay from Halo 2 - 3 has gotten a little stagnant and tired, I think we could all use a break and get into something new/different. That will make Halo 4 (or Halo Remake or whatever they decide on the next Xbox hardware), a return to the 'pure' Halo formula, that much better.

I mean think of how complete the 360 platform will be on Halo games. You have Halo 3 for the classic style, Halo ODST for an awesome expansion campaign, Halo Wars for some RTS action, and Halo Reach for a Halo take on the CoD formula. It's good to have variety.


If anything the main cover suggest that Reach will Halos Take on the battlefield franchise.

Battlefield did everything Cod did before COD4.

But yea I expect Halo Reach to be similiar to the battlefield games Big maps/ Objectives/ Vehicles and classes.

Would work out wonderfully for Halo since the vehicles are so varied and already fit roles.

Imagine if the maps are big enough that the Wraiths are used for long range bombarding of targets seeing the plasma balls fly slowly at targets a mile away :D
 
Ranks/unlocks are cool, but for customization only. CoD4 dodged a bullet with the most powerful stuff being availible off the bat, but they were definately playing with fire. Armour permutations, weapon skins, camos etc. are cool and harmless.
 

XenoRaven

Member
The class-based idea certainly is possible from a storyline perspective. Anyone who read Fall of Reach knows that each of the SPARTAN IIs specialize in different things, while John was kind of an all-rounded and was the best suited to lead. There was one good with heavy weapons, one that was good with stealth, one that was fast, one that was a good sniper, etc. We'll see I guess. As long as it's fun, I don't really care. I don't need it to be just like Halo 3. I already have Halo 3 for that.
 

DD-11

Member
XenoRaven said:
The class-based idea certainly is possible from a storyline perspective. Anyone who read Fall of Reach knows that each of the SPARTAN IIs specialize in different things, while John was kind of an all-rounded and was the best suited to lead. There was one good with heavy weapons, one that was good with stealth, one that was fast, one that was a good sniper, etc. We'll see I guess. As long as it's fun, I don't really care. I don't need it to be just like Halo 3. I already have Halo 3 for that.

Yeah, I've been hoping for something like this for a while. Playing as a hunter, Elite, Brute, etc for the cov side would be pretty cool.
 
I think that Reach will have a class system more akin to Battlefield than Call of Duty, whereby it will have predefined classes that players can then customise to a certain degree as opposed to totally creating their own classes from scratch.
 

FrankT

Member
Spartan_008 asks, "How long is the Halo: Reach screening for the VGA's?"

About two and a half minutes

Longest VGA trailer ever heh.

This is the Halo I've been waiting for since Halo CE.
 
Nutter said:
They have that mode, its called Firefight. :p

Hopefully Reach takes it to another level though. [ Matchmaking, more enemy variety aka Elites and more difficult?]
No I was talking more team deathmatch, not against bots.
 
Urk said:
We’re trying to get him to stop in for the year end podcast that we’ve started planning, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.
Fight the good fight Urk, don't let us down, I'd hate to go Street Fighter on your precious Honda.

Awesome update, now that's what I want to read :)
 

gibonez

Banned
Tashi0106 said:
About a sprinting mechanic...fuck that!


That is reliant on the type of game Reach is.

Sure it might not fit with a traditional Halo 2-3 type multiplayer game, but if it is indeed a multiplayer mode similiar to battlefield it would be vital to have sprint.

Imagine lugging from objective to objective with the slow slow halo 3 multiplayer speeds.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
gibonez said:
That is reliant on the type of game Reach is.

Sure it might not fit with a traditional Halo 2-3 type multiplayer game, but if it is indeed a multiplayer mode similiar to battlefield it would be vital to have sprint.

Imagine lugging from objective to objective with the slow slow halo 3 multiplayer speeds.

Yea you're right.

Battlefield style Halo...Fuck that!
 

big ander

Member
Super Mario Bros. 2 Halo, do it!
Seriously, all signs point to it. The promotional image has 5 characters. At the start of each level, you choose a protagonist, then play the 2D sidescrolling level as them, and then you can choose a new person at the start of the next level.
 

JB1981

Member
Chinner said:
i'm just hoping that the multiplayer will be class based/weapon selection beforehand. Fighting over weapon spawn areas instead of over the objective made me grow tired of multiplayer. Please fix the single player and multiplayer maps so they're concise and focused, and get rid of this check list style development style.

peace.

isn't multiplayer easier to balance this way, though? i mean, if everybody is running around with a rocket launcher, shit can get annoying. take a look at kz2 for why custom weapon loadouts can turn into an unbalanced disaster.
 

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
xxjuicesxx said:
Juices list of shit the next big halo needs:

Basic options all games should have these days:

1. Complete button mapping of controls option.
2. Split the x and y axis sensitivities.
3. Split effects, music, and speech volumes.

Suggestions that would be cool:

4. Left trigger rewinds films for quick 'reverse' when viewing films in Theater Mode. Like a scribble dial.
5. Include Midship and Lockout and The Pit as a multiplayer map from release.
6. Options for certain kill types to reduce score. (This might be already there?)
7. Option to lock no-zoom for no scopes game type.
8. Bring back the lock on rockets
9. No more spread please. Hitscan weapons please. Thanks. Leading and Huge Bursts are fucking stupid and random and have no place in a competitive FPS.
10. View ping #'s.
11. View host. Make a host icon somewhere so it's clear. Make this decision controllable to the Party Leader in Custom's lobby.
12. Timed weapon switches, Pistol's faster to pull out then a rocket launcher. I love this about CoD and it should totally be copied.
13. Bring back Quick Reload, the YY and the XBXR.
14. Option to force or lock elite or Spartan models. For game types like SWAT.
15. New vetoing system - Map 1 Map 2 choice buttons X Y for choice, Gametype 1 Gametype 2 A B button for choice. Ability to switch choice while countdown. (It was Annoying in Halo 3 that if you pressed X by accident you couldn't undo it) 10 seconds for choices, calculate votes, load map, start game, simple.

Improving on some common H3 problems:

16. Reduce 'broken geometry' as much as possible. This is when nades or other items get stuck or fall in between invisible cracks, walls or illogical spots, or explosions generally from nades and rockets have splash damage that travels through walls and floors. Do this in campaign but also take extra extra extra extra time to check for them on all MP maps.
17. Option to use part of your hard drive as a recent games played cache, so switching discs does not remove all your last games played.
18. Like Mass Effect give a button to command troops where to go in campaign, Most NPC's in the previous campaigns are useless. In hard modes they go out in the open and get killed instantly.
19. Use the timer countdown before a match starts, and when new host is picked similar to CoDMW's system. In Halo currently people can move whenever there connection gets into the game and I've seen people grab bombs before I've even left black screen and joined into the game and gotten control of my character. When you are taking a standardized test you don't get to open the exam booklet before everyone else because your mom dropped you off first, Right Dax?
20. Remove or fix dead body physics. Sniper bullets will go through live enemies but not dead bodies? Makes no sense. I think theres also some other weird things that happen with them, but I've forgotten at the moment and don't plan on playing anymore H3.


Wish list as in I know it won't happen but in my dreams:

21. HaloTV. Add an option in the main menu for HaloTV. Buffer and download a random game that a server would randomly choose and download and then upload to any person entering HaloTV and have the next games download while watching the current game, will be like Theater mode but without any control over it, watching a completely randomly selected game(or criteria based on dates and time or something) Only use MVP or winning team player footage and add some basic algorithms as to make sure you are watching a moving player. Essentially you'll just be able to watch Halo at any time when bored or tired of playing. Learning cool shit by watching others or laughing at bad kids.
22. Add pregame chat lobby, for users with no microphone but a USB keyboard(many people simply prefer that kind of privacy while playing strangers). In game chat also (not cross team on ranked, cross team on social) Good word filter please. It also facilitates communication exchange online for the deaf and or mute.
23. Dedicated Servers. Yea Yea.
24. Have to do something about the frame rate, 60 fps preferably but if unable, a locked non-dipping frame rate. Its fucking annoying that frame rate actually effects MP games when there's more than two enemies strafing up close on your screen or there are stairs or walls and stairs with too much fencing and or too much equipment that causes slowdown.
25. Very basic Weapon Stat Modifier. Maybe Damage of weapon (Different from changing global weapon damage) and Rate of Fire and Mag Size. This would allow things like rocket launchers with huge clips and quick firing, Adjusting the BR for MLG perfection, and adjusting anything else that needs to be in the future and for creating crazy gametypes.
26. Clan Support added back into Halo. H2's Clan System was amazing for its time. Why throw that shit away?
27. A ranking system where there was no reaching the top, you are scored and placed on a scale based on all players. Only the best players would be at the top the rest would fall somewhere within. Chosen by a few qualifiers win percentage, k/d, some sort of scoring system. This means your number might even change while not playing, but would give the closest competitive games by placing you with players with similar stats with you and against you.
28. In game challenges like CoD. Straight up copy this, challenges are fun as shit.

Forge

29. Holding X button temporarily turns on a Snap-to feature.
30. Triggered doors.
31. Option to turn object clippable and then unclippable so you can easily meld two objects.
32. Flat open level with terrain height adjustability.
33. Give us some fucking big walls so we don't have to use thousands of walls and bridges and hours to close areas up.

Quoting Juice's almost awesome wishlist.
 
11537_324538465726_540780726_9649592_5890119_n.jpg


Hopefully with the healthbar back, it means that Bungie has done away with the whole "screen turns red when you are hurt" mechanic. I don't know about anyone else, but ODST killed that for me; it just got so vexing. I don't want to see it in anymore new FPSes.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Dax01 said:
Hopefully with the healthbar back, it means that Bungie has done away with the whole "screen turns red when you are hurt" mechanic. I don't know about anyone else, but ODST killed that for me; it just got so vexing. I don't want to see it in anymore new FPSes.

Even though I haven't bought it yet, the blood bubbles that go on your screen in MW2 appear like they'll get annoying as hell. Looks so ugly too. Subtle effects are fine. Personally, they haven't bothered me much in ODST.
 

Talon

Member
enzo_gt said:
Even though I haven't bought it yet, the blood bubbles that go on your screen in MW2 appear like they'll get annoying as hell. Looks so ugly too. Subtle effects are fine. Personally, they haven't bothered me much in ODST.
The two function differently, though. In ODST, your screen flashes constantly until you find a a health pack. In MW2, it obscures your vision for a moment until your "health" rebounds. The latter is less distracting while playing because you're focused on seeing through the jam.
 

Kibbles

Member
enzo_gt said:
Even though I haven't bought it yet, the blood bubbles that go on your screen in MW2 appear like they'll get annoying as hell. Looks so ugly too. Subtle effects are fine. Personally, they haven't bothered me much in ODST.
The strawberry jelly in Modern Warfare 2 is quite annoying. I'm not sure why all the soldiers carry strawberry jelly on them, and why the jelly packs always seem to get splatter all over your face, but it is annoying.


Where are you Geoff? Throw us a bone.

[edit] Oh wait, he says he'll be on the Major Nelson podcast later today.
MajorNelson said:
Today's how is full of new stuff, including an interview about the 2009 VGA's with @geoffkeighley

He also said the following, which may be Halo: Reach, but it might not. He didn't name it, so maybe it's one of their surprise trailers, but urk was talking about seeing the final cut of the trial in the Weekly Update on Friday, so it could be Reach.
geoffkeighley said:
Just saw a final cut of one of our VGA trailers - wow! Can't wait to show you guys everything in just 6 days.

I'm bored today, need something to drool over.
 

gibonez

Banned
At the VGAs, we actually go down on to the Planet Reach and see this game for the first time. It’s all going to be in-game stuff. This is not CG. This is not live-action like all the kids on twitter are speculating. You will get a first glimpse at the world of Reach, which is phenomenal. I think it’s going to be the biggest game of next year by far. Folks love ODST and though it was great but when people see the huge leap forward Bungie is taking with Reach, I don’t know if you seen it yet, but everyone that I talked to that’s been on the team and seen it is incredibly excited about that time.

--- Keighley @ the Major Nelson podcast

Link to the podcast here


I'm starting to get hyped.
 

Mastperf

Member
gibonez said:
--- Keighley @ the Major Nelson podcast

Link to the podcast here


I'm starting to get hyped.

Please!! make sure what you show is actually what we will get with the actual game. We've had two major Halo reveals and neither were an honest indication of the real shipped product.
Keep all the stuff that makes Halo so awesome and give us a true Xbox 360 hardware showpiece.
 
I don't really buy into hype like that anymore. Until i see it for myself that description is basically worthless. That's coming from a massive halo fan.

Mastperf said:
Keep all the stuff that makes Halo so awesome and give us a true Xbox 360 hardware showpiece.

I just can't see this happening. One of the main things that makes halo so great (to me anyway) is splitscreen co-op. I don't know much about programming but i would assume that having a feature like that would make it difficult to get the game to compete with the best looking games.

I guess i could always settle for co-op over lan if it made a significant difference to the game.

The other thing which is a huge part of halo is the large scale of the game. You can't make the best looking game AND keep the massive scale. So you either have to compromise one of the main things that makes halo... well halo or you have to sacrifice graphics in some way.
 

user_nat

THE WORDS! They'll drift away without the _!
AdventureRacing said:
I just can't see this happening. One of the main things that makes halo so great (to me anyway) is splitscreen co-op. I don't know much about programming but i would assume that having a feature like that would make it difficult to get the game to compete with the best looking games.
Gears of War is generally considered one of the best looking 360 games and it has split screen.
 
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