[Beezulbubba]

Any gamers on this forum going to give Halo Reach a go? I haven't played any of the Halo games myself, but though I might try this one as it is supposed to be the last in the series (yeah right). Anyway, I've never been too big on getting destroyed in multi-player and then listening to the 12 year old brat who "pwned" me, berate me (calling me a n00b) while he does the ubiquitous "tea bag" maneuver on my corpse. Anyway, what are your thoughts?

[HiddenOne]

I feel your pain, although the teabag maneuver would suggest other than a 12-yr old at the controls (probably 14)

I was instanly hooked on Halo 2, and have been unable to play any later versions due to technology issues (no console) so I will warn you that a timer on your TV may be required.

If I get lucky, and some spare $$$ falls into my hands, I would indeed buy Halo Reach, and probably be faced with a divorce & child neglect lawsuit within short order.

I'm still craving the Minecraft these guys are so devoted to, so I may not be the most relevant source. Check out that forum.

[Defiance]

I'll probably pick it up sometime when it goes on sale.

As for being the last Halo game, it's the last one made by Bungie. It's not confirmed, but Microsoft will undoubtedly make more games to cash in on the franchise.

[Silencer]

Got it on midnight launch, played the entire campaign co-op at a friend's house (we were going to do Legendary diff, but too hard on co-op for first run-through so we did Heroic instead, took us 6.5 hours) then played some MP. Being first in meant we were somewhat better than we might normally have been, lol.

As for being berated...dude, mute. Simple. Or get better at MP. XD

Mostly I play Halo for the game-days. Get 8 friends over, play split-screen MP. That way most people know each other and aren't douches. Otherwise they don't get invited, lol. At least Halo doesn't need 4 Xboxes to do that, unlike MW2....two-player split only, wtf?

But it is a great game. The best of the Halo series BY FAR, awesome campaign which was more down-to-earth than past outings, and really hit all the right notes. MP is well balanced, and almost every weapon has a place and a time where it will be better than the others. I really enjoyed it. I know some will call me a fan-boy, and say that it sucks, but as someone who tends to appreciate a game on its merits (for example, I do not deny that MW2 was a great game...it's just different to Halo, so what is the point in comparing them other than to say you prefer the style of one over the other?) this really did the job. It hardly felt like Halo 1/2/3/ODST AT ALL it was all so new and different...and EVERYTHING WORKED. All the new stuff they added came in together really well. I dunno, it was just a great experience and I'm so glad I got it and had a day off Uni to play it through. Gonna hurt me now, 'cuz I have epic tests/assignments due over the next week...but damn, it was worth it no matter what.

9.5/10 - the .5 lost because no game is perfect, and sometime in the future this game will be surpassed in the 'less realistic than MW2' genre. But not for a while. And when it is, the game that does it will be god-like.

Definitely shooter of the year for people who aren't Call of Duty addicts or Medal of Honour vets returning, I think. Those two aren't quite out yet, but I doubt I'll get the fun out of them (especially as Black Ops is Treyarch...ugh). Will rent those anyway, and if you all haven't got your Reach by then, I'll let you know the comparative verdict from my point of view, lol.

[Beezulbubba]

My interest is definitely piqued....thanks for the replies. I will investigate some more, but I am definitely leaning towards purchasing Halo:Reach.

Another question I have is: since I have never played Halo myself (only have watched a buddy playing Halo 3 at his apartment), is there a learning curve to get up to speed on Halo: Reach? I have played FPS games before, so that is not an issue . . . . just wondering if there are any subtle nuances that veteran Halo players know about (and thus will have an advantage).

[hmqb]

god damn it, I pre ordered it like a month ago so I checked on it just now turns out the order didn't work and I had to re buy it, jeeze.

[Path-Shaper]

Veteran Halo players will know the sort of cadence of battle slightly better...you develop a skillset to do with shooting, jumping and using grenades/abilities that is fairly unique (nothing you won't have from other shooters...just a different skillset) so you will most likely be a tad behind. Obviously, however, Reach introduces some new features that BOTH veteran Halo players and newcomers will have to come to grips with.

Because it goes back to Shield + Health, but excess damage (except from the 'power weapons' - shotgun, sniper rifles, rocket launchers/other heavy ordnance) does NOT carry from one to the next (i.e. if you smack a guy in the face, it will take his shield down...but if his shield was already half down, the excess damage will not damage his health), the system may be a bit of a change from your standard FPS (health-only) and is definitely a change from Halo 3 (damage used to carry through).
Basically, you bring an enemy's shields down, then you hit his health.

Reticle bloom. On some weapons, such as the DMR, Sniper Rifle, Pistol (has a smartlinked scope) and other accuracy-based weapons, firing is semi-automatic. Every shot makes the reticle 'bloom' or get larger...this means you need to develop a cadence for firing these weapons to keep yourself accurate. It's not a major pause or anything, but it is noticeable that you are more effective at getting that final headshot (one shot to the head after shields are down from the DMR/Pistol...really crucial to get that, usually) and is important.

Changing grenade types is also something you have to keep in mind. Now, grenades are more powerful than in past Halo games, and the difference between throwing a plasma and throwing a frag can be the difference between victory and defeat. Just an additional factor to consider.

Other than that you'll probably pick it all up fairly quick. Playing campaign lets you try it out and gets you the basic skills..it's just that enemy players will take x amount of damage to kill, the enemies in campaign require differing amounts based on their species, type and your difficulty level.

-Silencer

[Aptorian]

Silencer, on 14 September 2010 - 11:33 PM, said:

so we did Heroic instead, took us 6.5 hours)

See that's the thing I don't get about the Halo series. Unless you rushed it and and you're some kind of super FPS players, that's a stupidly short campaign. I know that this is sort of what Halo has become known for, being more of a Multiplayer shooter than a single player game, much like MW2, but seriously.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Everything Silencer said is true. EVERYTHING.

I love this game.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

I got the Limited Edition yesterday. I haven't played much (work to be done, you know) but I can easily say it has revolutionised the franchise. And oh yes, it's fucking awesome.

[Silencer]

Aptorian, on 15 September 2010 - 03:46 AM, said:

Silencer, on 14 September 2010 - 11:33 PM, said:

so we did Heroic instead, took us 6.5 hours)

See that's the thing I don't get about the Halo series. Unless you rushed it and and you're some kind of super FPS players, that's a stupidly short campaign. I know that this is sort of what Halo has become known for, being more of a Multiplayer shooter than a single player game, much like MW2, but seriously.

This. It's a good point to make, and with the advent of the co-op up-scaling of difficulty I would hazard a guess it would not take any longer when doing it solo. This being said, my friend and I *are* veteran Halo players (from Halo 1 launch onwards...though I've only had an Xbox of my own from Halo 3) and we're really experienced at playing campaign together.

I think the difference here is that, if you're looking for a challenge, go and play Legendary. I would anticipate around 10 hours with me and my friend going together. It's still short, and most of the added length is from 'oh fuck, I died again!' in the same place twenty times. The story, as I said, is nowhere near as grand as the previous games, it's literally just running around achieving what amounts to a minor tactical objective as part of a larger campaign (minor spoiler

Spoiler

except for blowing up the Assault Carrier...that one is pretty major

).

I love story in my games, and I spent most of my time in Halo 3 playing, and re-playing the campaign (Halo has ridiculously replayable campaigns) for the gameplay rather than the story. Reach is set to be the same. Except I'm kind of getting into the multiplayer. Logged on again today for an hour at a friend's house, and I have to admit I'm surprised I'm holding onto my place (roughly speaking) as much as I seem to be. Doing fairly well, if I say so myself. XD

MW2 campaign, by contrast, is for me a cinematic one. Aside from a few missions (which inevitably have their pacing ruined by Veteran mode) I don't *really* play that for the awesome gameplay moments. I play it for the story. And it has a really short story. By coincidence, I can do Hardened (roughly equivalent to Heroic on Halo) in 4 hours, give or take. So it's quite a bit shorter, even if it's more story overall.

But that really isn't the point. In fact, you kinda respond to yourself. Reach is a multiplayer game. Not only is the campaign (as is Halo traditional, and how have other games not adopted this??!?) co-op up to four players, but the Firefight games are multiplayer-oriented (Firefight matchmaking, now, too) and the bulk of the content is the multiplayer matchmaking. Which is epic. It is so different from the past games I honestly can't get my head around it.

One of the best things about campaign, though: customisation. Your player character is the same between campaign, Firefight and multiplayer. The armour carries over. So you look like you in campaign, not like the default Noble Six.




tl;dr the campaign is short, but the replay value is great...then you have Firefight. THEN you have multiplayer. I would love a longer campaign if it served a purpose, btw...more story honestly would *not* have been better in this case, though. It was a cohesive, contained story, and it worked. Another mission or four to take its length out into the 10+ hours (which is still 'short' compared to, say, most quality RPG's) could have killed both the story and made the campaign crazy long in terms of gameplay. *shrug*

Still loving it.

[Cause]

I bought this game for firefight. Nothing better than you and a friend fighting of infinite waves of covenant until you die. Now with added game types and being able to custom set the games I expect amazing things.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Cause, on 15 September 2010 - 09:15 AM, said:

I bought this game for firefight. Nothing better than you and a friend fighting of infinite waves of covenant until you die. Now with added game types and being able to custom set the games I expect amazing things.

Absolutely. My favourite loadout for Firefight is the one with the grenade launcher. The AA is kinda crap, but it rocks. I love blowing them apart with it.

[Stalker]

I got this day 1 too, of course.

Loving the multiplayer, though I am not a fan of teammates spawning on me. BTB Snipers is great when you have a nice little sniping spot (as there is no radar anyway) but then having 3 guys spawn on you
and start sniping completely ruins any plan of stealth. And then the perfection medal that I was so close to. I also dislike playing objective based games with random people because there are usually several people
just trying to get kills and not the flag or bomb. I like to win, and that is annoying.

The campaign looks great and is fun so far. I miss some of the usual Halo music, but other than that very good. Also very hard on legendary haha.

Also @ Silencer, you should play with me sometime. I tried inviting you last night when I was playing with Sparkimus, but I had to get to sleep for early morning gym.

[Obdigore]

Purchased. Spent a bit of time with the GF on Co-Op Campaign. It was ok. The new armor abilities are interesting.

Spent some more time in Multiplayer, it is also ok. I dislike emptying a full clip into someone, then having them kill me in 1 hit with an energy sword. I also dislike the fact that my first game was marred by a modder. We were playing Squad DM (or w/e it is called in halo) and we were in a snipers-only lobby. He was bunnyhopping around, and even if he wasn't facing you, every time he hipfired his weapon, it was an instant headshot. Every single one of his kills (43 in a to 50 match) was a headshot. I managed to hit him thrice with a sniper rifle, without him dying.

Other than the ginormous health everyone has with the starting weapons, and somehow the shotty from next to someone isn't an instant kill, I am still trying to get used to the game.

'quickscoping' is way too easy, especially in a snipers lobby. if you have a large TV, there is never, ever, any point to zooming in. Just put the center redicule on them, pull the trigger, and it is a kill.

I like the armor abilities, especially the hologram (spartan) and the slide or dodge or w/e it is for the Elites.

I changed the controls to be more COD-like (or any other FPS - default trigger is shoulder button, wtf?) and I do love doing the sticky grenades since people move slower than in COD and you can take the time to line up the shot.

Halo:Reach, Fable 3, Fallout: Vegas, and (hopefully) COD:BO makes it an exciting season once more.

[Silencer]

Stalker, on 15 September 2010 - 02:25 PM, said:

I got this day 1 too, of course.

Loving the multiplayer, though I am not a fan of teammates spawning on me. BTB Snipers is great when you have a nice little sniping spot (as there is no radar anyway) but then having 3 guys spawn on you
and start sniping completely ruins any plan of stealth. And then the perfection medal that I was so close to. I also dislike playing objective based games with random people because there are usually several people
just trying to get kills and not the flag or bomb. I like to win, and that is annoying.

The campaign looks great and is fun so far. I miss some of the usual Halo music, but other than that very good. Also very hard on legendary haha.

Also @ Silencer, you should play with me sometime. I tried inviting you last night when I was playing with Sparkimus, but I had to get to sleep for early morning gym.

I know dude, I saw your invite but was in mid-match on a friend's xbox. By the time we finished up you were offline.
Next time, though.

I haven't noticed the issues with objective-based matches...though really in that sense I've only been playing Invasion. OMG Invasion! Soooo awesome to lock out peope on the first generator. I know that those people exist, though. Kind of annoying, though I always look at it as providing a good distraction while I catpure the objective.

The stupid thing is, day-one no Invasion gametype would load - just kept getitng 'Game Load Failure'. Then yesterday, we finally got the chance to play a match on Spire for classic Invasion (not Invasion Slayer) and some bastards in a group vetoed it so we got a new round of voting and ended up on Boneyard w/ Invasion. I mean, I'm not complaining, I love Boneyard for Invasion....but dammit, I wanted to play Spire for once so I got to find out what it was like!

The spawning on teammates thing...I've only seen that in Invasion? It must be a game option, because I never see it in Slayer. It's pretty awesome in Invasion, though. If you know the guy who isyour wingmate, ofc.

And I know what you're saying about the music. Some of it so goddamn understated I didn't even notice it! But we were warned, I guess...probably the most disappointing aspect. The new music is good (when you can hear it) but it's not as glorious as Marty's old stuff.

Obdigore, on 15 September 2010 - 05:23 PM, said:

Purchased. Spent a bit of time with the GF on Co-Op Campaign. It was ok. The new armor abilities are interesting.

Spent some more time in Multiplayer, it is also ok. I dislike emptying a full clip into someone, then having them kill me in 1 hit with an energy sword. I also dislike the fact that my first game was marred by a modder. We were playing Squad DM (or w/e it is called in halo) and we were in a snipers-only lobby. He was bunnyhopping around, and even if he wasn't facing you, every time he hipfired his weapon, it was an instant headshot. Every single one of his kills (43 in a to 50 match) was a headshot. I managed to hit him thrice with a sniper rifle, without him dying.

Other than the ginormous health everyone has with the starting weapons, and somehow the shotty from next to someone isn't an instant kill, I am still trying to get used to the game.

'quickscoping' is way too easy, especially in a snipers lobby. if you have a large TV, there is never, ever, any point to zooming in. Just put the center redicule on them, pull the trigger, and it is a kill.

I like the armor abilities, especially the hologram (spartan) and the slide or dodge or w/e it is for the Elites.

I changed the controls to be more COD-like (or any other FPS - default trigger is shoulder button, wtf?) and I do love doing the sticky grenades since people move slower than in COD and you can take the time to line up the shot.

Halo:Reach, Fable 3, Fallout: Vegas, and (hopefully) COD:BO makes it an exciting season once more.

The point is, Obdi...you shouldn't let a guy with an Energy Sword get that close, and if he is taking more than a whole clip to kill you're using the wrong weapon for the range. You *need* to be careful about the guns you're using in this one. For example, using a DMR in tight spaces? Yeah, that guy with the pistol is going to pwn your ass (if he's any good).

Shotgun is an instant kill on anyone from two steps or so away. You're not using it right, or you're playing a custom game, because it is VERY rare that I don't get a kill with 6 shots from the DMR (which really is not a lot of health...well, most of it is shield, actually) or put someone down with a shotgun to the face. And just be prepared to melee in case you don't put them down with one.

As for the 'modder' - you should report him and submit the saved film as proof. Plus, sniper takes a headshot to put someone down, and the new reticule bloom means you may have thought all three shots landed when you actually missed with the second two. Lag could also have been involved. And how can you tell if he hipfired? There is no scoping in animation - the MJOLNIR suit the Spartan's wear is smartlinked to the scope, so you don't have to hold it up to your face. (Oh, and if the three shots were wide apart...energy shields recharge, bro XD)

I'm not sure what you mean about the large TV thing, either. I find it a lot harder than that on most maps. :S Maybe I just haven't played enough, lol.


Anyway, I'm sensing you come from the CoD side of the field, Obdi...where energy shields don't exist and everything is one-or-two-shots to the head to kill. Couple of things to do about this - start thinking more like 'pop shields then kill' rather than 'oh fuck this guy has 10,000 health', and also go and play Team SWAT. No shields. Very low health. One headshot kills.


Oh yeah, RE: Hologram. I have found it is useless in open maps. Very easy to tell if it's a hologram before the other guy can start hitting you in say...Hemorrhage. On the other hand, that thing is fucking deadly in close quarters: one, it doesn't show up on the motion tracker, so you get all 'OH FUCK ENERGY SWORD WHERE DID HE COME FROM' for a second sometimes. But secondly, it allows the enemy player to hide behind it, using it, basically, as a meat shield. Some peeps picked that up quick, and it works quite well until the other team starts expecting it (one of my best games was on Countdown...think that's the name...Sabre launch faciility - we went 50-48, and not only was I best player on my team with 18 kills, and a k/d of +5, but I got the First Strike AND the game-ending kill. LOL...but it is where some guys first started using holograms as shields and in close spaces.....very clever).

Anyway, far too soon after waking up for me to be posting this, lol. Got a test this evening as well...damn...no Reach for me today.


Anyway, stick at it Obdi...I'm sure you'll get used to it. It's a huge change from 'first sight kill' games like MW2, and even quite a bit of a leap from the past Halo games.

@Stalker - I'll be playing tomorrow from around this post's time, to around when you saw me yesterday. So if you're on during that time period, we'll probably catch each other for a game.
Obdi...you can join too if you're on at the right time. XD

[Stalker]

Yeah I'll have time tomorrow to play, one of my easier days. I'll send you an invite when I get on.

Re: Invasion on Spire, it is awesome! I love the spire itself, very cool.

I also love the return of many Halo 2 maps, I still know them way too well, haha.

Anyone know what all the different emblems on people's gamertag are? I've seen the Seventh Column (bungie registered user), one that said ODST,
and one that had the Halo 2 logo, and one that is a spartan helmet (that I imagine comes from the legendary edition).

[Silencer]

ODST: Played ODST
Assault Rifle: Played the Reach beta
Septagon: Bnet user.
Spikey One: Marathon Durandal played on Live.
Halo Symbol: Played Halo PC, entered serial code.
Halo Two Symbol: Played Halo 2 on Live before support was cut.
Halo Three Symbol: Same thing but with 3. I think.

Not sure on the Helmet, though. :S I have Legendary, after all, and no helmet for me. It may even be Bungie Employee style...there was a Bnet update a few months ago that layed them all out, can't find it now though (it was just a small section...search is predictably bad, lol).

And awesome, see you online tomorrow then.

(And damn you for having played on Spire Invasion! ARGH!)

[Silencer]

Double-post: go here regarding the nameplate stuff. 'Visual Flair', lol.

[Stalker]

For the helmet nameplate, you must unlock 4 of the 5 Halo related nameplates. So any four of these choices, Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Reach beta.
As always, nameplates are set up on Bungie.net where you can choose which one to use.