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HaloGAF |OT: Anniversary| So fades the great harvest of our betrayal.

Akai__

Member
There will probably be a few more secret embargo things like with Zanzi a few weeks ago.

Is there any other notable events from now until release?

Secret embargos for games, that we already played years ago are really weird. I can understand the embargo for Halo 2 Anniversary, but for every other game? Doesn't make any sense to me.
 
When the H3 1080p 60fps footage came out my laptop couldn't play it right so it just looked like regular h3 cutscenes. I was puzzled. Thought Dan Ayoub was trolling me the whole time.

But then I had my GS 2 phone was running it and holy crap it was beautiful. H3 at 60fps looked amazing.
 
Eurogamer EX this weekend.

To which I am going, with 3 friends. Hoping for some 4 v 4 Halo 2A. I did PM Frankie as to whether 343 were organising any tournaments etc...I got an honest 'Maybe''

Fingers crossed. Will take lots of pictures and video with my VHS Camcorder and will play it in my barn. ;)
 
Halo 3 maps that I really enjoyed:

- Valhalla
- The Pit
- Rat's Nest
- Standoff
- Avalanche
- Guardian
- Heretic
- Ghost Town
- Assembly
- Longshore
- Citadel

<3 <3
 
Citadel must have been after my time cuz I don't remember none of that shit. I think that was one of those DLCs where I was thinking "i'm sure Bungie will make it free eventually, like Halo 2. They dont want to divide the community right guyz"

good halo 3 levels

Sierra 117
Crow's Nest
Tsavo Highway
The Storm
Floodgate
The Ark
The Covenant
Halo

Goddamn you Cortana for fucking up the winning streak of the GOAT Halo campaign
 
Citadel must have been after my time cuz I don't remember none of that shit. I think that was one of those DLCs where I was thinking "i'm sure Bungie will make it free eventually, like Halo 2. They dont want to divide the community right guyz"

good halo 3 levels

Sierra 117
Crow's Nest
Tsavo Highway
The Storm
Floodgate
The Ark
The Covenant
Halo

Goddamn you Cortana for fucking up the winning streak of the GOAT Halo campaign

Huh, I never looked at it that way, you take cortana out, and you're left with amazing consistency and variety in H3.
 
The Covenant
That level always brings a smile to my face; easily in my top 3 from all Halo games.

I mean it starts with a Pelican insertion where you fight to take the high ground with ODSTs (also it reminds me of the beginning of Silent Cartographer), then there's a small Warthog segment, then you get some nice CQC in the first tower, then you go back and enter a dogfighting segment is Hornets, then you touch base and enter some more CQC forwards and then a quick Flood fight, then you back track and enter a small Scorpion, which then leads into the greatest Scarab fight of all time (with many opportunities to take them out), and then you fight alongside and then against the Flood at the end. And it's all to some epic Marty music. Better than The Ark imo.

Wow, how did they go from that to Destiny's level design? What happened, Bungie?
 

Cow

Member
Hoping the last map is warlock or some type of forge world map with a few different H2 maps built in, that'd be cool.
 
The Covenant has always been my favorite Halo level. Really great mix of close quarters with more open environments, tank and hornet destruction, gravity hammer with the two Hunters, TWO SCARABS, the long final stand of the Covenant on the bridge, the escape from the Flood, all that shit. Looks great, sounds great, plays great.

Like in theory, I can see why they went with Cortana cuz they pretty much covered every possible angle on the Covenant front between The Ark and the Covenant. What do you even do to escalate after that, 3 scarabs? Have to go in another direction but fuuuuck what a direction.
 

Ampoc

Neo Member
Halo 4 on Legendary was incredibly easy on legendary compared to playing legendary on all the other games. Some moments were indeed still very hard to me (the most memorable being the two elites with concussion rifles on Composer)

Halo 2 on legendary was probably the worse because of those god damn OP brutes that just wouldn't die. Ugggh.

Brute_sin_armas.png


I can just imagine all those brutes that took me a life time to defeat on Halo 2 legendary just chuckling at me in the after life as they promptly put on their sunglasses and say, "Deal with it."
 
Building a new engine, launching a new IP, and developing on new hardware (let alone 2, and making two other versions), all at the same time, is really, really hard.

That's true. But didn't they start working on Destiny very around the time of Halo 3? I mean they had the whole concept down by ODST's launch due to the "Destiny Awaits" poster, had 4 years to work solely on Destiny (save the Noble Map Pack), and had around 350 employees working on the game? Maybe level design just wasn't on their priority list.
 
I was gonna rank Halo 2's campaign, but honestly I remember so very little of it. I remember that first Tank section on the bridge is REALLY boring, Jackal snipers, dat final boss, some really boring Arbiter sections, and Gravemind/Prophet of Regret. Why did Gravemind turn into a cackling cartoon villain in Halo 3...and what was up with the Prophet of Regret as well...and the Arbiter being a pointless sidekick most of the game...
 

Madness

Member
Building a new engine, launching a new IP, and developing on new hardware (let alone 2, and making two other versions), all at the same time, is really, really hard.

I'm pretty sure almost every other developer out is doing the same. The ridiculous thing is, Bungie not only got hundreds of millions, but an almost unheard of 4.5-5 years of development for a large scale western developer. They're also like double the size they were during Reach.

I don't doubt how tough it must've been, but this didn't just come out of left field. The fact we knew nothing about the game almost until the alpha shows in hindsight they also didn't know where to go with the game. I think it was just one of those, great idea, poor execution scenarios. Who knows what was cut, what just wasn't fun.
 

Ampoc

Neo Member
The (Halo 2) brutes have humongous heads, they ain't that tough really. The helmet is a problem but a few shots knocks it off.

They still felt like their skin ate my bullets. It's like as if they had armor layered beneath their flesh. Yeah I guess they seem easier now, but they are still relatively hard to beat and in combination with young me who sucked major at Halo back in the day, it lead to a very unhealthy couple.
 

Nebula

Member
I'm pretty sure almost every other developer out is doing the same. The ridiculous thing is, Bungie not only got hundreds of millions, but an almost unheard of 4.5-5 years of development for a large scale western developer. They're also like double the size they were during Reach.

I don't doubt how tough it must've been, but this didn't just come out of left field. The fact we knew nothing about the game almost until the alpha shows in hindsight they also didn't know where to go with the game. I think it was just one of those, great idea, poor execution scenarios. Who knows what was cut, what just wasn't fun.

Might have pulled a 343 and made a classic experience and then scrapped it.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Halo 4 on Legendary was incredibly easy on legendary compared to playing legendary on all the other games. Some moments were indeed still very hard to me (the most memorable being the two elites with concussion rifles on Composer)

Halo 2 on legendary was probably the worse because of those god damn OP brutes that just wouldn't die. Ugggh.

Brute_sin_armas.png


I can just imagine all those brutes that took me a life time to defeat on Halo 2 legendary just chuckling at me in the after life as they promptly put on their sunglasses and say, "Deal with it."

I thought it was almost universally agreed that Halo 2 Legendary is terrible to complete because FUCKING JACKAL SNIPERS
 

belushy

Banned
Bungie was working on Destiny before leaving Microsoft and signing up with Activison right? Destiny seems very MMO-lite, and I wonder if it was going to be a full blown MMO before Activison changed it up. The UI really seems like it was made with mouse control in mind. I haven't got my hands on the launch game, so I'm just saying this based on videos/streams, and the few hours I played of the beta on the X360.
 

KiboSenshi

Neo Member
I was eleven when I first beat Halo 1 with a friend. After that I fell in love with the series and took me a bit to save up money for Halo 2. I got it around 4 months before Halo 3 came out. After I finished Halo 2's campaign(Oh man that cliffhanger, I actually thought it was really cool) I saw one of the Believe Ads on television. The believe campaign for Halo 3 is my favorite of all the Halo ad campaigns. Really got the eleven year old me super hyped. For me, no game release has topped that of Halo 3's.

Believe.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Bungie was working on Destiny before leaving Microsoft and signing up with Activison right? Destiny seems very MMO-lite, and I wonder if it was going to be a full blown MMO before Activison changed it up. The UI really seems like it was made with mouse control in mind. I haven't got my hands on the launch game, so I'm just saying this based on videos/streams, and the few hours I played of the beta on the X360.

They were spending a lot of time building their engine. The ideas behind Destiny have existed in some form or another for quite some time before even Halo 2 released.

Also, pretty sure they weren't full on developing Destiny until after Reach shipped. They've said a couple times a lot of their reason for taking 4 years between games was building their new engine so that they could make a game for that engine.

Don't think Activision has made any actual design decisions around Destiny. They wouldn't be afraid of an MMO, they already have the biggest MMO on the market under their umbrella.

edit: also, Blur just laid off all of their concept artists. :(
 
I'm pretty sure almost every other developer out is doing the same. The ridiculous thing is, Bungie not only got hundreds of millions, but an almost unheard of 4.5-5 years of development for a large scale western developer. They're also like double the size they were during Reach.

I don't doubt how tough it must've been, but this didn't just come out of left field. The fact we knew nothing about the game almost until the alpha shows in hindsight they also didn't know where to go with the game. I think it was just one of those, great idea, poor execution scenarios. Who knows what was cut, what just wasn't fun.

You're not only making a lot of assumptions – and no, not "almost every" developer does all three at the same time – you're stating them as fact.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Reach population check again:

34,876 -> 43,201 -> 66,150 Players Online

Team Slayer: 4096 -> 5525 -> 6642
Team SWAT: 1135 -> 1987 -> 2736
Team Snipers: 821 -> 1051 -> 1626
Living Dead: 2207 -> 2775 -> 4467
Invasion: 664 -> 942 -> 1503

Super Slayer: 99 -> 159 -> 261
Team Objective: 101 -> 139 -> 256
Rumble Pit: 320 -> 431 -> 587
Double Team: 171 -> 306 -> 501
Big Team Battle: 1250 -> 1865 -> 3133
Multi Team: 382 -> 460 -> 730
Arena: 83 -> 130 -> 258

Anni Classic: 217 -> 220 -> 200
Anni FF: 63 -> 43 -> 52

MLG: 222 -> 265 -> 266
Grifball: 576 > 930 -> 2081

Co Op: 128 -> 171 -> 327
Score Attack: 90 -> 92 -> 121
Firefight: 434 > 590 -> 799

Halo 4 population: 6,920 -> 9,467 -> 9,456


DLC requirements continue to be an absolute anchor on Anni and MLG playlists. Microsoft should really make Anni free or extremely reduced price, and MLG's DLC requirements should be dropped.

But I guess it's more important to sell 15$ 4 year old DLC to 5 more people than actually let an old game flourish?
 

Nebula

Member
It'd be fucking awesome PR wise if they made all DLC for Reach free. Can't really do it for 3 and 4 now because MCC is doing that instead.
 
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