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[Why For?]

oh and yeah Halo 3's framerate is pretty horrible.

Have you PLAYED Halo 3 SP?

Seriously, this comment makes no sense if you've actually PLAYED the SP. I can't even remember a time when it dropped below 30 let alone dropped enough times to call the WHOLE games framerate horrible.

 

[Frenck]

Marines drove ghosts in CE. In fact, I don't think they ever drove anything but ghosts in CE. Ya nub!

I'm sure this wasn't intended but Halo: CE proves more than anything else that Marines can't or at least shouldn't drive Ghosts. Especially with cybernetically enhanced supersoldiers around who actually know what they are doing.

 

[NullPointer]

While the Brutes aren't really scarier if you encounter them alone they can easily take you down with some support. You have to scout your enemies, identify high and low priority targets based on vicinity and weapon load out, look for a fall back position that works to your advantage and you need to know when to run because if you fall back a second to late the Brute will catch up with you and reduce you to dogmeat.

Absolutely, which is why sometimes I'd size em all up, figure out my bounding cover points in advance, pick out specific targets for my weapons, and then lay in wait for the proper moment when some of the support has distanced itself, and then...

...I'd hoof it the fuck out of there and on to the next objective.

ODST is the first Halo where I've actively avoided some firefights. Hey, ammo is precious.

 

[Frenck]

Absolutely, which is why sometimes I'd size em all up, figure out my bounding cover points in advance, pick out specific targets for my weapons, and then lay in wait for the proper moment when some of the support has distanced itself, and then...

...I'd hoof it the fuck out of there and on to the next objective.

ODST is the first Halo where I've actively avoided some firefights. Hey, ammo is precious.

I usually do the same but as Joe Staten put it: "What if the phones rang?"

Yeah, what if they rang in the middle of a crawling bestiarium full of bloodthirsty aliens that you would rather stay clear off.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Team Stickies on Assembly? Not bad. Action Sack is a great palette cleanser after a few hours of Halo (and a stupid amount of Arkham Asylum, that's really all I've done today).

oh and yeah Halo 3's framerate is pretty horrible.

No, I believe you're quite wrong.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Have you PLAYED Halo 3 SP?

Seriously, this comment makes no sense if you've actually PLAYED the SP. I can't even remember a time when it dropped below 30 let alone dropped enough times to call the WHOLE games framerate horrible.

When scarabs blow up specifically on The Storm level. Actually watch the explosion it will dip pretty damn low. Lawyered!

Seriously also you can see past 60 fps with human eyes too. Read more google that 100fps.com link. Like if it was a video of a wall not moving, you'd only need 1 fps to create a fluid video. There's A LOT going on but yea you can see past 60 fps.

To be honest I never truely noticed the bad framerate until I played MW2 for a couple hours and then went back to H3 for a HaloGAF customs night. I mean I'm sure if I played a bunch of Halo 3 without switching I would go back to being used to it, but I'm not gonna play some technically inferior game anymore especially when MW2 offers more fun to me.

I just hope Reach can bring me back into Halo.

Also I got a christmas greetings card from Moonshot Games. lol.

 

[Major Williams]

Before the Reach teaser was released I thought that 343 would be the first ones to take this step in their games but the two minute teaser already dipped deeper into the existing Halo lore than any other Bungie game. They even mentioned a specific event from Ghosts of Onyx which is pretty revolutionary for Bungie when you think about it.

Unsure if you meant Halo game, or Bungie game, even though you said Bungie game. If you meant Halo game, the first 343 game, there are numerous ties to the fiction in Halo Wars than any other game.

Halo Wars -
- Dr. Catherine Halsey instructed and was at competition with Dr. Anders.
- They were investigating HARVEST, the first planet destroyed in the books
- Introduction of other Spartans besides MC (validation of the Spartan II program)
- First time engineers were seen in-game
- They uncover a shield world and travel to the middle of it

There were a few others, but I am too lazy to think harder than I am right now.


As for Bungie games, ODST had quite an ambitious amount too.

Halo 3: ODST
- Reference Reach, and its events (I believe CE did as well though)
- Engineers seen
- Show the forced nature of the engineers within the covenant
- ALL talk about ONI (huge)
- ONI Headquarters
- Actual canister of Biofoam seen (previously heard of in-game)

These are all just off the top of my head, and there could be more, but it seems like to me there is a substantial tie-in to the books in both games that came out in '09.

 

[RSTEIN]

Halo 3 can't touch MW2 but I definitely wouldn't call the framerate "horrible."

 

[NullPointer]

To be honest I never truely noticed the bad framerate until I played MW2 for a couple hours and then went back to H3 for a HaloGAF customs night. I mean I'm sure if I played a bunch of Halo 3 without switching I would go back to being used to it, but I'm not gonna play some technically inferior game anymore especially when MW2 offers more fun to me.

It affects me so much I've had to institute a new personal rule of gaming. If I'm going to play a bunch of games, 30fps games come first. Because if I settle into a game like MW/MW2 or Burnout Paradise and go to any other 30fps game like Halo 3 or Left 4 Dead they just, feel, horrible. They aren't horrible of course, but after getting adjusted to the smoothness of 60fps for an extended period, everything else feels like its breaking at the seams and just chugging along through molasses. It takes me about 30 minutes to an hour for the effect to wear off. Seriously.

There are serious trade-offs in getting a game to play that smoothly, but I'm glad some developers make it a necessary goal. Halo will never be 60fps, but I wouldn't mind seeing HD remakes of Halo 1 and 2 do it.

 

[GhaleonEB]

The problem with this thread is that there are way too many opinions regarding Halo 2/3 Multiplayer and how Reach's MP should be.

After playing about 18000 games combined in 2 and 3, I think I know what has worked and what has not.

Much of which is pure opinion. Juices has played hajillions of games and I think his opinions are mostly shit.

And to be honest I think that is the problem even at bungie themselves, they hardly play their own game. They play test within the studio and play casualy when the game hits retail; but in Matchmaking environment they have no idea what works and what doesnt because they stop playing their own game.

I often question why Bungie doesn't do certain things. There are odd decisions in the matchmaking playlists, and I wish they would communicate more of the "why" and not just the "what" of the configurations. But I think it's unfair and downright strange to project motivations and reasons for why the setups do not align with your preferences when you have no knowledge of the subject. It could be that they stopped playing the game. It could be that they simply are satisfied with the set up as it is, based on the veto data that comes in. It could be that Shishka is fucking with you. I don't know, but I'm not going to pretend to know, either.

oh and yeah Halo 3's framerate is pretty horrible.

I've played many games with horrible frame rates, and Halo 3 would not make the cut.

 

[Frenck]

Unsure if you meant Halo game, or Bungie game, even though you said Bungie game. If you meant Halo game, the first 343 game, there are numerous ties to the fiction in Halo Wars than any other game.

Halo Wars -
- Dr. Catherine Halsey instructed and was at competition with Dr. Anders.
- They were investigating HARVEST, the first planet destroyed in the books
- Introduction of other Spartans besides MC (validation of the Spartan II program)
- First time engineers were seen in-game
- They uncover a shield world and travel to the middle of it

There were a few others, but I am too lazy to think harder than I am right now.


As for Bungie games, ODST had quite an ambitious amount too.

Halo 3: ODST
- Reference Reach, and its events (I believe CE did as well though)
- Engineers seen
- Show the forced nature of the engineers within the covenant
- ALL talk about ONI (huge)
- ONI Headquarters
- Actual canister of Biofoam seen (previously heard of in-game)

These are all just off the top of my head, and there could be more, but it seems like to me there is a substantial tie-in to the books in both games that came out in '09.

I excluded Halo Wars because I didn't play it but that's very interesting, I checked out a youtube vid that added all the CG cutscenes together once but it seems like there is more to the game than that. Of course I agree about ODST and I realize now that my original comment that you bolded above was a bit exaggerated.

Maybe it's just because I see Reach as the fourth main Halo game and regard ODST as a sub chapter but it's still a Bungie game and it has a lot of references to the existing EU in it.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Much of which is pure opinion. Juices has played hajillions of games and I think his opinions are mostly shit.

Please I guarantee you agreed with so many of my points on the "things to include into Reach" list. You probably didn't hate my "updates to MM" list. You respect my opinions even if you don't want to agree with me because it will shatter your future job chances at Bungie.

 

[kylej]

(juices is my alt)

 

[BattleMonkey]

And in Halo Wars the Spartans had shields... a good 20 years before they ever got ahold of the technology.

Of course apparently in 20 years of warfare, the UNSC apparently had lost shield technology and had not a single innovation in it's military since every single piece of equipment in the future halo seriers was in Halo Wars.

 

[EazyB]

(juices is my alt)

Two separate accounts. One purpose.

 

[Domino Theory]

Have you PLAYED Halo 3 SP?

Seriously, this comment makes no sense if you've actually PLAYED the SP. I can't even remember a time when it dropped below 30 let alone dropped enough times to call the WHOLE games framerate horrible.

I'm pretty sure he means horrible 'compared to MW2'.

When you only play 30fps games, Halo 3's framerate is solid and just fine since your eyes have adjusted to the lower frame count.

It's the switching from 60 to 30 that 'makes' it look horrible.

 

[The Librarian]

Playing through CE right now and I came across a couple of sentences of dialog concerning Fireteam Zulu that I'm pretty sure I've never heard of before.

You know a game is great when, despite the many times you've played it, it can still surprise you.

 

[Merguson]

Okay I've done some looking around.

From what I understand, the frame rate doesn't mean shit depending on how well you disguise it based on blur, sharpness, lightning and so on. One can make a game that runs at 30 fps appear to run more smooth than a game at 60 fps depending on how well one disguises the little things like fluidity.

So, it doesn't matter whether your game runs at 30 fps or 60 fps as long you are able to maintain the illusion of fluidity.

At least that is what I understand from various sites including 100fps.com which is the website that started what I just said above.

 

[Frenck]

And in Halo Wars the Spartans had shields... a good 20 years before they ever got ahold of the technology.

Of course apparently in 20 years of warfare, the UNSC apparently had lost shield technology and had not a single innovation in it's military since every single piece of equipment in the future halo seriers was in Halo Wars.

Everything can be explained away if you try hard enough

Maybe Halo Wars was a historically inaccurate UNSC training simulation that greatly exaggerated the technological advancement of the UNSC during the first encounter with the Covenant for propaganda purposes. That wouldn't explain the inclusion of a certain parasite but it's a start.

 

[NullPointer]

Okay I've done some looking around.

From what I understand, the frame rate doesn't mean shit depending on how well you disguise it based on blur, sharpness, lightning and so on. One can make a game that runs at 30 fps appear to run more smooth than a game at 60 fps depending on how well one disguises the little things like fluidity.

So, it doesn't matter whether your game runs at 30 fps or 60 fps as long you are able to maintain the illusion of fluidity.

At least that is what I understand from various sites including 100fps.com which is the website that started what I just said above.

That's either false, or there has never been a 30fps game that I've ever experienced that has those tricks applied. 60fps and 30fps aren't even in the same ballpark, even with blurring and the like.

Maybe some people just don't notice it somehow. I'm colorblind, so I know how that feels ;P

Thanks for reminding me: what did Bungie do with ODST's framerate? I don't ever have a problem switching from MW2 to ODST for some reason. It seems A LOT smoother than Halo 3 even though it's still 30fps.

Hmm... Maybe its worth trying out again. I've only noticed it having a major effect with Halo 3 and Left 4 Dead (360), but maybe there are some games that aren't as jarring an experience.

 

[Domino Theory]

Okay I've done some looking around.

From what I understand, the frame rate doesn't mean shit depending on how well you disguise it based on blur, sharpness, lightning and so on. One can make a game that runs at 30 fps appear to run more smooth than a game at 60 fps depending on how well one disguises the little things like fluidity.

So, it doesn't matter whether your game runs at 30 fps or 60 fps as long you are able to maintain the illusion of fluidity.

At least that is what I understand from various sites including 100fps.com which is the website that started what I just said above.

Thanks for reminding me: what did Bungie do with ODST's framerate? I don't ever have a problem switching from MW2 to ODST for some reason. It seems A LOT smoother than Halo 3 even though it's still 30fps.

 

[kylej]

Two separate accounts. One purpose.

People may not like it, but at least posts that criticize spur some interesting discussion.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Okay I've done some looking around.

From what I understand, the frame rate doesn't mean shit depending on how well you disguise it based on blur, sharpness, lightning and so on. One can make a game that runs at 30 fps appear to run more smooth than a game at 60 fps depending on how well one disguises the little things like fluidity.

So, it doesn't matter whether your game runs at 30 fps or 60 fps as long you are able to maintain the illusion of fluidity.

At least that is what I understand from various sites including 100fps.com which is the website that started what I just said above.

Well blurring makes a lower framerate seem fluid. You don't want the same framerate of say watching TV as you do playing a really fast game. Think Quake 2. You also need higher framerates when the graphics are sharper and better. Which is probably why H2 seemed to run better than H3. Generally 60fps will just play better. Regardless of how its disguised. Yes though you can maintain fluidity with much lower framerates than 60fps.

Would it really be out of the question though for them to seperate the campaign and MP sections and have one be higher than the other. CoD seems to have two different programs when you select MP or SP.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Everything can be explained away if you try hard enough

Maybe Halo Wars was a historically inaccurate UNSC training simulation that greatly exaggerated the technological advancement of the UNSC during the first encounter with the Covenant for propaganda purposes. That wouldn't explain the inclusion of a certain parasite but it's a start.

This some Macross: Do You Remember Love type stuff here.

 

[Slightly Live]

This ties in to Bungie's biggest problem: poor story writing and subsequent game integration. The main Halo universe is a mess of sci-fi cliches, cutscenes that lack any emotional weight and a web of jargon that is never explained. There are many wonderful things about the Halo games. The story is not one of them. I have yet to play a Bungie developed Halo game that did not have a sloppy story, which is disappointing considering the need for an FPS game with a legitimately great script. If Mass Effect can conquer the space drama, why can't Halo?

I agree and disagree. Bungie is fantastic at writing stories. Whether it be the Split of the Covenant, the Fall of the Forerunners through the eyes of separated lovers or lone Rookie creeping around the desolate streets of New Mombasa, the setup and story are rather mature and developed. However, and this is where I agree with you, Bungie has failed in several keys areas of properly integrating their stories into the actual gameplay and implementing into the sandbox.

The best example of this would be Halo 3. Buried within the game is the story of the downfall of the Forerunners, who, as we know, all the aliens that built all the ancient technology. And Cortana struggle against the Gravemind, the ultimate controller and manifestation of the Flood seen at the end of Halo 2. However the presentation was beyond horrible, from having to hunt down the terminals and piece together the story ourselves or having Cortana/Gravemind shouting all kinds of pithle and slow the game down for lengthy intervals in more levels than anyone wanted.

The story is present and accounted for, but in order to find anything deeper than a bunch of cliche's, you have to find it yourself, force yourself through restrictions you'd never want to go through anyway or break the flow of gameplay just to get at it.

Even you must admit that despite all the shortcomings and winnings of ODST lies within in it an improved narrative, the fact that it contains essentially two separate stories interwoven and you are able to follow both paths to conclusion without it having to take your attention away from the gameplay.

Is the FPS really in sore need of a legitimately great script? With the exceptions of Portal and the Half Life series (both of which you could argue fulfil any need of a great script themselves) most FPS's either carry a generic sci-fi war cliche (Halo, Killzone, Resistance, Timesplitters) or thow the narrative out of the window altogether (Quake, Unreal, Counterstrike).

Games like Mass Effect that easily burden intelligent scripts are usually only able to do so because the core gameplay mechanics, those of an action role playing game, lends themselves directly into the narrative focus, your avatar being the main character, you shape him the way you want, you choose his reactions, decisions and face his consequences. Those games feature hours of static screens usually taken up by the plain transpiration of the narrative and your manipulation thereof.

So could you break the pace of the game by introducing narrative segments that limit or remove your ability to interact with the environment (a key FPS principle this generation) or could you attempt to interweave within the carnage of a gunfight, which a player might not be able to give them time to enjoy it, stuck behind fleeting moments of intense hostile gunfire?

I don't think either of those approaches for Halo would work. For Reach, Bungie should take one of the main positive critical areas of ODST, the narrative, and try to emulate the narrative progress, the game has a logical start and end with narrative interludes that do not distract but rather enhance the core gameplay. Most people would react positively to a story they can understand and follow to it's logical conclusion even if it's little more depth than a sci-fi cliche than having a deeper narrative buried out of sight during regular gameplay.

 

[Domino Theory]

I hope Bungie takes some positives from Halo 2 into Halo: Reach.

Halo 2 has the most heavy fiction from the Halo universe out of the trilogy, IMO. I absolutely loved the story in Halo 2 from start to finish.

But one of my reasons for loving it so much had to do with the AMAZING, dark-tone, space-dramatic music that Marty created for Halo 2. Seriously, the opening cut scene for Halo 2 not only showed the perspective of the continuing Covenant-Human War from the Convenant's perspective, but used one of the best scores from Marty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9et7DSJ9uw&feature=related

GOD I LOVE HALO 2'S MUSIC AND CUTSCENES. So FUCKING good.

The techniques that Marty used for ODST's score shouldn't be copied into the epic space war that we're returning to. That should be something that's unique to ODST, IMO. Halo: Reach's score should go back to its Halo 1 and Halo 2 roots. Please, Marty.

 

[EazyB]

People may not like it, but at least posts that criticize spur some interesting discussion.

Agreed. Unless of course they're delivered in a way no one wants to read or respond to them. Regardless of whether or not the delivery should matter, it does make a difference, and if one wants to spur a constructive discussion here let alone have anyone at Bungie pay them any attention they should keep that in mind when posting.

I'm certainly not saying I always keep my opinions civil, it's just I don't plan to be heard when I want to vent my frustration in chasing someone down with AR starts on a map as big as Last Resort.

There's the common thread between your two GAF accounts, Juices full of frustration induced hate and Kylej hatred fueled snarkiness. I get a kick out of the Kylej posts because while I don't always agree with them, they can be pretty funny. The Juices thing has just gotten weird with the whole MW2 undying fanboyism and the lack of snark makes him a dull character.

 

[Captain Blood]

I am pretty damn sure no one ever claimed Halo 3's frame rate was horrible until they playing MW2 then jumped back to halo. Is 60 > 30......yes does that make 30 horrible, no.

 

[BattleMonkey]

The best example of this would be Halo 3. Buried within the game is the story of the downfall of the Forerunners, who, as we know, all the aliens that built all the ancient technology. And Cortana struggle against the Gravemind, the ultimate controller and manifestation of the Flood seen at the end of Halo 2. However the presentation was beyond horrible, from having to hunt down the terminals and piece together the story ourselves or having Cortana/Gravemind shouting all kinds of pithle and slow the game down for lengthy intervals in more levels than anyone wanted.

Yes, they have a great universe but the story telling in the games has been pretty minimal. This is a good example of the great stuff in the Halo universe lore http://www.amazon.com/dp/0756655498/?tag=neogaf0e-20 , book is full of bungies background material for the universe and awesome art, but much of it is never presented in the games, lot is not even in the novels/comics.

I think Guerrilla has done a similar thing with their Killzone universe, it is pretty rich and really cool, but do we see this in the game? No.

 

[Slightly Live]

I am pretty damn sure no one ever claimed Halo 3's frame rate was horrible until they playing MW2 then jumped back to halo. Is 60 > 30......yes does that make 30 horrible, no.

I've never had a problem with Halo 3's FR until I played MW2 for a good few hours and swapped games. I found Halo slow, sluggish and just not right visually in a way I could not accurately describe. My perception cleared up after a few matches and I never had the same contrast again when I was swapping between them, it was just the initial swap, where the difference had an actual affect on my perception.

 

[Thermite]

I am pretty damn sure no one ever claimed Halo 3's frame rate was horrible until they playing MW2 then jumped back to halo. Is 60 > 30......yes does that make 30 horrible, no.

Yeah, jumping straight from 60 fps back down to 30 fps is obviously going to have some effects on how smooth you perceive the framerate is (especially in first person games). Once you let your eyes re-adjust to 30 fps, though, it runs fine.

 

[A Penguin]

I've never had a problem with Halo 3's FR until I played MW2 for a good few hours and swapped games. I found Halo slow, sluggish and just not right visually in a way I could not accurately describe. My perception cleared up after a few matches and I never had the same contrast again when I was swapping between them, it was just the initial swap, where the difference had an actual affect on my perception.

Yup. Immediately changing games is very jarring. I can't notice anything if I take a short break. The framerate and Halo's slower gameplay definitely make Halo seem slow as molasses running uphill for the first few matches.

 

[Blueblur1]

I propose a new thread title: ITT we're always finding new things to bitch about.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Its jarring switching between the two games. I've mentioned H3s frame rate before MW2 though in the old old Halo 3 Thread. I compared it to H2 saying I wish they went back to 60fps. I was dead wrong about H2 being 60fps apparently, but it just seems H2 runs a lot smoother...I wonder what happened there, maybe because H3 is more detailed and clearer it requires a higher frame rate to seem as smooth?

There definitely seems to be a lot less blurring in H2, it seems sharp.

I propose a new thread title: ITT we're always finding new things to bitch about.

Better then ITT: we bitch about the same thing for 30 pages. No?

 

[Grimm Fandango]

At least better than BR vs AR round 17.

 

[EazyB]

At least better than BR vs AR round 17.

Didn't you see the Reach trailer?

War's over, son.

 

[Blueblur1]

Didn't you see the Reach trailer?

War's over, son.

:lol :lol :lol :lol

Somebody tell Dax!

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Didn't you see the Reach trailer?

War's over, son.

Yeah I guess Bungie did cave in lol.

Actually it makes me think Bungie trolled both sides in ODST, giving the SMG and pistol as starting weapons.

 

[The Librarian]

:lol :lol :lol :lol

Somebody tell Dax!

? The AR is still in Reach.

 

[Kibbles]

I hope Bungie takes some positives from Halo 2 into Halo: Reach.

Halo 2 has the most heavy fiction from the Halo universe out of the trilogy, IMO. I absolutely loved the story in Halo 2 from start to finish.

But one of my reasons for loving it so much had to do with the AMAZING, dark-tone, space-dramatic music that Marty created for Halo 2. Seriously, the opening cut scene for Halo 2 not only showed the perspective of the continuing Covenant-Human War from the Convenant's perspective, but used one of the best scores from Marty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9et7DSJ9uw&feature=related

GOD I LOVE HALO 2'S MUSIC AND CUTSCENES. So FUCKING good.

The techniques that Marty used for ODST's score shouldn't be copied into the epic space war that we're returning to. That should be something that's unique to ODST, IMO. Halo: Reach's score should go back to its Halo 1 and Halo 2 roots. Please, Marty.

Agreed on all fronts. Based off the VGA Trailer though, I'm getting an ODST-ish vibe. I mean, it was great, but Halo 2 was just fucking wow. Whenever I think of Halo 2 the menu music immediately hits me. I'm really hoping there are some twists in the game that may take us to mysterious places, away from the squad, space combat, or whatever, to bring back some Halo 2-esque music.

I'm liking the look of Halo: Reach, it looks darker like Halo 2 and less cartoony like Halo 3.

 

[Domino Theory]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6OjCGLHR0

 

[The Librarian]

I hope Bungie takes some positives from Halo 2 into Halo: Reach.

Halo 2 has the most heavy fiction from the Halo universe out of the trilogy, IMO. I absolutely loved the story in Halo 2 from start to finish.

But one of my reasons for loving it so much had to do with the AMAZING, dark-tone, space-dramatic music that Marty created for Halo 2. Seriously, the opening cut scene for Halo 2 not only showed the perspective of the continuing Covenant-Human War from the Convenant's perspective, but used one of the best scores from Marty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9et7DSJ9uw&feature=related

GOD I LOVE HALO 2'S MUSIC AND CUTSCENES. So FUCKING good.

The techniques that Marty used for ODST's score shouldn't be copied into the epic space war that we're returning to. That should be something that's unique to ODST, IMO. Halo: Reach's score should go back to its Halo 1 and Halo 2 roots. Please, Marty.

The first song you here. Makes me want to boot up the CD and listen to the whole thing...
Hm. I think I might do just that.

 

[Nutter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6OjCGLHR0

:lol

Yes, when all else fails. Use the Rockets.

 

[Vast Inspiration]

The people justifying Bungie's laziness are the bigger joke. Having to find med packs, not being able to jump as high, and having a wonky grenade arc did not make the ODSTs more fun to play than Master Chief. They were changed explicitly for story reasons. Why a superhuman ability to lift objects was not changed cannot hide behind the "fun" excuse, when other core gameplay components are changed for canonical reasons.

You are quite a big fool if you think that the lead designers made those changes for story reasons. They didn't want dual-wielding or regenerative health in. End of story. Not being all powerful made the game fun. You may not have found it fun, but then we're not really talking about you, are we?

Will little tweaks ruin the game? I doubt it but obviously you think so, but hey your opinion is so much more important than others.

You have a hard time reading the english language? You keep putting up this straw man of me not wanting change because I'm some sort of hardcore Halo fanatic but you can't seem to actually talk about what I'm saying.

Bungie can make all the changes they want! I'm just saying that those changes should be improvements to make the game more fun to play, not so that people like you can rest easy because Bungie adhered to the one paragraph from a book.

This is my point. Try to grasp it. I don't give a shit about change. Bungie can make gigantic changes to gameplay. (They already have throughout the series.) I just don't want them to make it due to bitching from people like you who insist on complete story accuracy with the books and the extended fiction. Sometimes.......THINGS ARE MORE FUN if you you ignore that the ODSTs shouldn't be able to walk around with turrets.

Don't bother replying unless you actually learn to read and understand that argument.

 

[Kibbles]

Well, since this is the "Halo Reach Speculation and Reveal Thread", I'll throw out some speculation. Ending: Some of your squad die in combat, you and Kat somehow arrive on a shield world, and greet Master Chief and Cortana as their half-ship floats by, all is merry. =P

 

[Vast Inspiration]

Heres my speculation.

Bungie makes gameplay changes in some areas and none in others. I enjoy the game immensely like I have enjoyed all previous entries in the series.

HaloGaf has a bunch of whiny retards arguing about every little thing. I laugh at them.

 

[OMG Aero]

And in Halo Wars the Spartans had shields... a good 20 years before they ever got ahold of the technology.

Of course apparently in 20 years of warfare, the UNSC apparently had lost shield technology and had not a single innovation in it's military since every single piece of equipment in the future halo seriers was in Halo Wars.

I'm pretty sure Ensemble were aware that the Spartans didn't have energy shields at that time, they just put them in for game play purposes. Just like you could make the point that the Spirit of Fire didn't have infinite numbers of ODSTs to drop precisely where you want and that you cannot just train new Spartans in a matter of seconds.
Overall, Halo Wars fit in well to the Halo universe if you ignore these slight errors to make the game fun.

I hope Bungie takes some positives from Halo 2 into Halo: Reach.

Halo 2 has the most heavy fiction from the Halo universe out of the trilogy, IMO. I absolutely loved the story in Halo 2 from start to finish.

But one of my reasons for loving it so much had to do with the AMAZING, dark-tone, space-dramatic music that Marty created for Halo 2. Seriously, the opening cut scene for Halo 2 not only showed the perspective of the continuing Covenant-Human War from the Convenant's perspective, but used one of the best scores from Marty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9et7DSJ9uw&feature=related

GOD I LOVE HALO 2'S MUSIC AND CUTSCENES. So FUCKING good.

The techniques that Marty used for ODST's score shouldn't be copied into the epic space war that we're returning to. That should be something that's unique to ODST, IMO. Halo: Reach's score should go back to its Halo 1 and Halo 2 roots. Please, Marty.

You know what? I hate you. Watching that cutscene and hearing the incredible music makes me want to play Halo 2's campaign again, but I am visiting family for Christmas and New Year and don't have my Xbox with me.

 

[feel]

Didn't you see the Reach trailer?

War's over, son.

Yep, the pistol totally owned the trailer.

Bring it.

Spoiler

But if it sucks like the ones in Halo 2 or 3, nevermind.

 

[Kibbles]

Yep, the pistol totally owned the trailer.

Bring it.

Spoiler

But if it sucks like the ones in Halo 2 or 3, nevermind.

I don't think it'll be like Halo 1, since the BR is now pretty much that. 1 shot burst, 12 shots. Maybe the pistol will be similar to ODST, but non-silenced?

 

[Major Williams]

And in Halo Wars the Spartans had shields... a good 20 years before they ever got ahold of the technology.

Of course apparently in 20 years of warfare, the UNSC apparently had lost shield technology and had not a single innovation in it's military since every single piece of equipment in the future halo seriers was in Halo Wars.

Shields weren't meant to be in the game originally to keep with the fiction. Graeme Devine said this in an interview, which I can find if you really want me to. It was purely a gameplay decision - it would have alienated the people who didn't read the fiction as to why the Spartans don't have shields, and it was just more fun too. So, the canonical reason they had shields during the second battle for Harvest: because the game developers said so.

Kibbles posted the first cutscene from Halo 2. Wow. Speaks volumes more than any single cutscene in Halo 3 (opinion, of course). I would go so far as to say that I would like to see more of these type of surprises from Bungie in Reach than what they did for ODST and Halo 3, which seemed like they were catered to a one-dimensional 12-year old audience who wouldn't go further than play a few levels before yelling into his mic on multiplayer.