Halo Discussion thread

[stevepole]

Reach looks like Halo on steroids. Thats was my impression of that teaser or trailer or whatever it was that came out recently.

[Wingless]

Yup, it's out.

I played Stockpile and I must say I am impressed.

 

Well, lets discuss shall we!

 

[PS: Please lock this if there is already a thread for it.]

[TheValeyard]

Wow a cue for the millions of 13 year olds on XBL to explode in their pants.

[ultimatballr]

Did anyone else get an email from XBL saying that they were getting sent a Halo: Reach beta code when they informed everyone that they were going to shut down the XBL for the original xbox games?

 

They listed a few things such as; free days or months added to your XBL subscription and 400 free microsoft points. At the end of the list it said I would get a Reach beta code.

 

I just haven't gotten an email about it and the Beta was released today so I was just curious if it would come soon or at all for that matter..

[silasinth]

Got 3 games in (which were all awesome :) won all 3 :) ) but now the servers are being stupid :/

im loving the DMR though, and the pistol beatdown is just pro

+ The new armour abilities are actually pretty cool, i have to say sprint is my favourite so far though :)

[Guthorm]

Well, to be honest it looks similar to previous Halo games. Not really that impressed judging by the videos.

[Wingless]

Well, to be honest it looks similar to previous Halo games. Not really that impressed judging by the videos.

 

Game > Videos.

[Guthorm]

Well, to be honest it looks similar to previous Halo games. Not really that impressed judging by the videos.

 

Game > Videos.

 

Of course, that is why I mentioned that I based my feeling on the videos. It just seems bland with not much added to it. I mean I want it to be successful since I have enough friends who are rabid halo fans and I don't want them to be too disappointed, but eh it just doesn't look that good.

[PoorLepRecon]

Use the Halo discussion thread. ( http://forum.tip.it/topic/155216-halo-discussion-thread/ )

[ultimatballr]

Did anyone else get an email from XBL saying that they were getting sent a Halo: Reach beta code when they informed everyone that they were going to shut down the XBL for the original xbox games?

 

They listed a few things such as; free days or months added to your XBL subscription and 400 free microsoft points. At the end of the list it said I would get a Reach beta code.

 

I just haven't gotten an email about it and the Beta was released today so I was just curious if it would come soon or at all for that matter..

[H2PM]

Did anyone else get an email from XBL saying that they were getting sent a Halo: Reach beta code when they informed everyone that they were going to shut down the XBL for the original xbox games?

 

They listed a few things such as; free days or months added to your XBL subscription and 400 free microsoft points. At the end of the list it said I would get a Reach beta code.

 

I just haven't gotten an email about it and the Beta was released today so I was just curious if it would come soon or at all for that matter..

97% Fake im going with.

[Atom Smash40]

never been a fan of halo (though i do love it when youre in a party and just messin around)...but this game looks [bleep]ING SWEET!

[Zilla]

Oh how I love the Beta. It plays fluidly, weapons are balanced (even through people say the AR/DMR are underpowered for some reason) , It just feels perfect other than a few small errors.

[Crimsoncow42]

I'm in love with the focus rifle. <3:

[PoorLepRecon]

I like the defender? class. The one with the shield. I can see of some pretty cool uses for it. I like how it drops the shield of those around you when you release it. Atleast you get a fighting chance if someone is waiting for you.

[ultimatballr]

Did anyone else get an email from XBL saying that they were getting sent a Halo: Reach beta code when they informed everyone that they were going to shut down the XBL for the original xbox games?

 

They listed a few things such as; free days or months added to your XBL subscription and 400 free microsoft points. At the end of the list it said I would get a Reach beta code.

 

I just haven't gotten an email about it and the Beta was released today so I was just curious if it would come soon or at all for that matter..

97% Fake im going with.

 

It wasn't fake, it just took a day to get I guess because of all the masses downloading the beta on release day.

 

I will quote what it says... just because:

 

Sheriff Gotcha:

As part of the decommissioning of the Xbox LIVE V1 service, you are invited to participate in the Halo: Reach Beta. Below is an Xbox LIVE code that will grant you access to the beta. Thanks again for being such a loyal Halo fan. We hope you enjoy this exclusive access to the Halo: Reach Beta.

 

I think it's because I was playing halo 2 quite a bit during the beginning of the year.

[Zilla]

I discovered you can redirect a rocket with a Focus Rifle... I love this gun even more now.

[Sam]

o.O

 

Duuude.

 

 

I wish my X360 worked right now! :P

[justcallmedaddy]

This game is AMAZING. The shots register, weapons are balanced, plays fluid. Oh yeah, THE SHOTS REGISTER this time.

 

Only flaw is the pistol and DMR need more bullets per clip.

[Zilla]

This game is AMAZING. The shots register, weapons are balanced, plays fluid. Oh yeah, THE SHOTS REGISTER this time.

 

Only flaw is the pistol and DMR need more bullets per clip.

 

Around half the time when I try to only kill somebody with a Pistol, I run out of ammo 1 bullet short.

 

Also, completed a round of 1 Flag in 17 seconds on Swordbase.

[Zilla]

Invasion mode came out, its pretty good in my opinion, but I really am not a fan of Invasion Slayer, if your not an Elite you are basically screwed over.

[Zilla]

Managed to get past the 10 second timer, it seems to be after a certain point, its nonexistent. Now to figure out how to get past those annoying elastic barriers...

[Harakiri]

I reviewed the beta for another site, but here's the review.

 

[spoiler=Review of Halo Reach beta]RATCHET573 PRESENTS

HALO REACH BETA REVIEW

 

Some things never change, and the same can be said about the Halo franchise. I have never in my life been impressed with it's single player campaign. But, it's multiplayer is the only reason I keep a copy on my shelf.

 

Halo ODST is currently the only place where you can play the Halo Reach beta, which is running for a short period for free.

 

GAMEPLAY

If you have ever played any Halo game then the controls should be quite familiar to you. Some things have been changed, such as the strike button changing to the right front bumper instead of X, which was kind of frustrating at first. The left front bumper is used for your special ability, which is based on the class you pick. Otherwise the game play remains unchanged and while some might say that Halo's multiplayer is timeless, I must say that at points I felt like the game was dated. Maybe it is just because I played the other ones and they felt the exact same, but it just felt like it need more of a tune up than having classes and special abilities.

 

WEAPONS AND VEHICLES

The weapons are a little different, a couple new ones enter the mix including a new Covenant sniper rifle, but otherwise the weapons are the same old ones you know and love. The vehicles remain the same too. Nothing much in innovation found here.

 

LOBBY

It took quite a while for me to get to a game, between three and five minutes just to find a group to play with. The lobby does allow some customization using a point system to buy stuff to put on your character. And while I prefer Halo 3's "add crap whenever you desire" feature, this does add more incentive to play the game and there are also tons of new things you can buy.

 

MUSIC

The same, strong score you remember in the lobby, but once in the game, it is ultimately very forgettable. One of the most awkward things about the music is that when you go invisible, it completely mutes and there is nothing. While it makes sense in a way, it still feels completely awkward.

 

THE PEOPLE

If I am to complain about the one thing I hate more than Halo's campaign, it is the gigantic fan base of seven to twelve year olds that just get on your nerves more than anything else. The people, let's face it, usually suck. While I did have a conversation with a couple decent people, most of the time I had little kids telling us to shut the [bleep] up. And then when I asked them what gave them the right to talk like adults, we then hear the longest string of "[bleep]s" I have ever heard in my life. And while I can enjoy the cussing of a seven year old who's parents are probably too busy sitting drunk in their trailer's living room, I cannot excuse the fact that it seems like every time a new game starts there is another one. Intelligent conversations are hard to come by on Xbox Live, and the only conversations you can usually have over Live are with friends in secluded games of Uno. While it is rare to find someone to hang out with on Reach, it is still a great feeling when you know you have sat through four hours of children cussing more than a drunk Ron White to find that person.

 

THE CLASSES

Hey, the class system worked in Team Fortress 2, why not try that out in Halo? While it is decent, I do not think that it is at all a very good class system and it seems a little unbalanced at points. Every class comes with a set of weapons and a special:

Active Camo-Makes you go invisible for a short period of time. While decent in some respects, it is still only useful if you are camping. Otherwise, running and gunning while invisible will still make you appear to enemies.

Armor Lock-Allows you about five or six seconds to chill as the enemies fire at you. Basically, you are invincible. It is a decent thing to have and I do think it is kind of cool to sit back and watch as a Banshee tries to nose-dive into you and ends up bouncing off your glowing back.

Jet Pack-I hated this ability. It isn't all that exciting to me to be able to fly around the map for short spurts, and the only real use I found was if you wanted to fly behind someone when they weren't paying attention and then get behind them and kill them before they realized you were there.

Sprint-For Spartans only, this makes you, oddly enough, sprint. It looks a lot like Call of Duty Modern Warfare's sprinting and you can only sprint in short bursts. This is a fairly useless special.

Evade-The Covenant equivalent of sprint, this makes you roll to the side, though you wouldn't know because the camera give you no indication you have rolled. Basically, everyone else saw you roll, but your camera didn't go around 360 degrees like it could have, making it a bit more fluent and a bit easier to notice you did something. This is an alright special, but still not that exciting.

 

GAME TYPES

Juggernaut-Probably one of my least favorite games. Find the juggernaut, kill him, become the juggernaut, and try to stay the juggernaut for as much time as you can. A fairly basic game and I never really could enjoy it.

Headhunter-Another "meh" game. You kill everyone else, steal their skulls and take them to a ringed area to score a point. It seems almost like a chore most of the time, just because you have to collect the enemies skull and take it to a ring again and again and again. Probably should stay with lone wolves if you want a faster, much more exciting game.

Generator Defense-Spartan's protect three generators from Covenant. A very simple, very boring game. One thing that really annoys me is that only the Spartan's defend and only the Covenant attack, the two never switch and try to beat the other teams time. Instead there is an allotted time for the attackers to get to the generators. Not my favorite version of attack and defend.

1 Flag Capture the Flag-One flag, take it to your base or stop the other team from taking it to theirs. It is an alright game, but once again, the traditional two flags works much better. While one flag is somewhat the same, it makes it a bit less frantic. You are only trying to get the flag, not defend yours and get the other teams.

Stockpile-Four neutral flags must be taken to your base. This one is a bit better than one flag, but I still prefer the original CTF to this. Oddball-Get to the skull, hold on to it for as long as you can to collect points. Kill the person with the skull if you must. I loved this game and did find it quite entertaining.

Crazy King-King of the Hill, only the area you need to stand in changes all the time. It is kind of fun to play, and makes it even harder to rack up points.

3 Plots-You score by staying in an area, and capturing it, taking over the territory. This is just as good as Crazy King and I don't really notice any differences among the two really minus the time limit.

Slayer-Just as good as it has been since the original Halo.

Team SWAT-No shields or radars. Basically team slayer made a bit harder.

Covy Slayer-Covenant slayer. Because we can't just have interracial slayer, we have to be racist.

Slayer Pro-Slayer minus the radar.

 

MAPS

POWERHOUSE

 

Powerhouse is a good map until you have played it ten million times. Basically, it is a circular map with two levels, the ground level and an upper level around a ruined water purification center I guess. You could also jet pack onto the third level area, but nobody does. The fight is usually pretty intense on the bridge area and off to the side but it otherwise a very simple, and very basic map to figure out. Most people should be able to easily understand the ins and outs of this map on their first play.

 

SWORDBASE

 

Swordbase looked kind of like Kamino from Star Wars Episode 2 for me at first. It is two different buildings connected by various walkways with a plaza beneath the walkways. I found this map a bit confusing, even after three or four plays. The grav lift in the center takes a bit of getting used to (jump into it and more than likely you might want to play as a jet pack character to make the rest of the jump) and it just became a bit frustrating to navigate at points. It is a great map for oddball though, and I did kick some major [wagon] at this map when playing said game type.

 

BONEYARD

 

The best map of the three in my opinion, and you will play this map. A lot. I played this map maybe 80 percent of the time I played. Anyway, it is a bit more complex than you thing at first. Basically a base, a field, a large building, another field, another base. Very simplistic, but simplistic maps are usually the best for large multiplayer battles. This is the only map that supports vehicles as well, so this also makes it a big plus in my book.

 

FINAL THOUGHT

Halo Reach's beta was good fun. And while it did become a bit of a drag during some game types and the people were idiots, it still provided the entertainment you expect from Halo's multiplayer. Hopefully there are more classes and special powers shipping with the actual game to balance it a bit more and I also hope some more new weapons and vehicles are added to freshen an experience that is becoming slowly duller and duller. What started with Halo 3 continued into ODST and is now in Reach is becoming old news, and with more and more much more involving and exciting multiplayer experiences out there, Halo is becoming a slowly dying creature. And while Halo's fan base is huge and I do praise it for being as much fun as it is, I can't shake the feeling that change is needed, more than the classes and special abilities that at points feel tacked on and kind of lame compared to Halo 3 when everyone had the same starting weapons and picked up whatever they wanted as they proceeded around the map. The class system just doesn't really work as much for Halo, which has always been a frantic battling game. In games like Team Fortress and Bad Company, the classes are integrated a lot more and seem a better fit. Team Fortress includes well balanced characters with different abilities all around, while Halo Reach provides the same character with pretty much a different set of starter weapons (All of which can easily be procured from the map) and a different special ability.

 

Hopefully I will see a few tweaks to the multiplayer come September 1, but overall, the experience was a pretty good one. If you have ODST, then definitely give this beta a try.

 

The beta earns four out of five stars.

 

 

I really did enjoy it.

[Zilla]

I thought of an ending for Reach, chances are it won't happen; but I think its pretty good. Tell me if you like it or not.

 

Idea for an ending, albeit sad while remaining a good ending.

 

Noble Team barely survives getting all the way to a Longsword fighter, they take off planning to escape. A Seraph flies by disabling the Longsword, causing it to crash. Noble team sees a Covenant cruiser loading up in the distance, but close enough to possibly get too. Noble team rushes into a large structure, but confronts a heavily built door with a lock on it. Jun begins to activate the code, and a large group of Covenant begins swarming the site. Kat, remembering her fallen squad-mates before the Fall of Reach, makes the ultimate sacrifice and rushes into the group of Covenant, and activates a special fail-safe for her armor causing her to explode.

 

Noble Team stands shocked when Jun opens the door. Jorge begins to say "It was an honorable thing for what she did." Carter exclaims with sorrow on his face "Spartan's never die Jorge, they're just missing in action." Noble team reaches the ship, but are confronted by a large group of Covenant. They attempt to rush into it and begin going up the lift, but Emile stops right when the others begin going into the lift. Noble Six, Jorge, Carter, and Jun look down and see around ten pairs of Hunter's surround him, he begins laughing silently and pulls two Grenade Launchers from his back and the rest of Noble team reaches the top and the porthole closes.

 

The cruiser begins entering orbit, Noble team reaches the core of the ship while Jun went in search of a Vehicle suitable to escape in. Noble Six hears something and turns, he is slashed across the visor by an Elite holding two energy swords. He is about to be stabbed in the chest when Carter tackles the Elite. They begin fighting when the Elite stabs him through his abdomen, Carter pulls out a knife and stabs the Elite in the head, killing it. Jorge pulls the sword out and begins attempting to help the commander, whom is about to tell him something, but his life fades away. Jun alerts them through his com that the cruiser is approaching a Halcyon-class Cruiser. (UNSC Pillar of Autumn)He finds a Phantom Drop ship still inside of the Covenant Cruiser and tells the remainder of Noble team to hurry.

 

Noble Six tells Jun to escape on his own, who accepts his order and flies off. Jorge and Lone Wolf set up a bomb onto reactor when the Covenant onboard ship begin swarming them. Carter proceeds to unload his gun at them. He tells Noble Six that it was an Honor being on Noble Team when all four Plasma Bombs stick to Jorge from a Plasma Launcher, he takes off his helmet and explodes. Noble Six, surrounded by Covenant has a flashback of the events of Pegasi, He activates the bomb and is engulfed in a bright light.

 

The camera moves to Jun's position, he sees the Covenant Ship explode right before it was about to bombard the Pillar of Autumn. The Pillar of Autumn begins to speed up and Jumps. Jun's Seraph is seen flying toward the surface. I camera than switches to the ground, The camera flies pass a dead hunter which has a knife stuck into its back, Emile can be seen standing, slightly covered in Hunter blood. A small dot, which appears to be Jun's Seraph coming in, noticeable in a detailed sky which shows Covenant cruisers glassing in the distance. Emile begins walking in the distance of the sun, inches away from where a Covenant ship is glassing the planet.

 

The beam of the cruiser passing by blocks the screen, and it fades to black. Stars begin appearing in the background and Reach is seen from a side angle. Debris is seen passing through the screen, and Noble Six's badly damaged helmet is seen with it, slowly orbiting the lost planet...

[Star.]

I just played the Reach Beta for the first time today. It is awsm.

 

Slayer pro is hard. I rely on the radar so much...