Halo: Anniversary - The Halo 1 remake (fuck anyone who calls it "halo ce" remake)

What was wrong with Halo 3? I absolutely loved that game and it was well done and a true fitting end to the Master Chief story.

1. Gravemind made the Flood seem less scary to me; I mean, them being intelligent and organized is terrifying, but they should have stuck to a classic hive mind rather than having a central controller.

2. The idea of Halo 3 was fine, but the execution was not. I can go into detail on how it would be better executed in PMs/VMs if you want.

3. They could have made Truth's motives far more sinister instead of him being truly ignorant of how the Halos work. I thought that Truth was using the Covenant as a tool to destroy life in the galaxy so the San 'Shyuum (Pophet race) could repopulate the galaxy and shape it to their liking. But no, Truth actually was little more than a zealous religious figurehead. Woohoo.

4. Scarabs...fuck scarabs. They ruined the Covenant for me. So did the 'pew pew' of the plasma rifle. Also, fuck the Elites speaking English.

5. I was kinda hoping for some time travel fun, with Chief also being the one who activated the rings the first time. Remember when 343 said in the first game "Last time, you asked me if it were my choice, would I have done it? Having had considerable time to ponder, my answer remains the same. We must activate the ring." So much material right there that was not appropriately capitalized upon.

I don't hate Halo 3, I just felt underwhelmed with its anti-climactic ending and its ho-hum missions. "The Covenant" tried to be as epic as Assault on the Control Room" and fell far, far short. I enjoyed playing the campaign, but not as much as I enjoyed Halo 1 and ODST. I absolutely hate Reach's story/premise, but its campaign was also more fun than Halo 3.

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

And the Reach Beta was amazingly awesome. Then retail happened: sad face. I'd say a Halo 4 beta key is worth it.

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Not how I felt. I remember playing it and thinking, "This needs some work, but retail is going to be great after they fix all of these issues!" And then Bungie hardly fixes any of the problems in the beta. Even absolutely basic stuff like the lack of flag away indicators they don't fix until months after release, and the transparent Invasion teammate indicators they never fixed at all. And they ruined the grenade launcher. Boo.

EDIT: Scarabs are awesome and Halo 2 had awful gameplay and a mess of a story. Good music though. And time travel is, has always been, and always will be a terrible plot device.

It's not a terrible plot device if done correctly. Halo 2's story kinda screwed the pooch, but it was executed much better than Halo 3's was. As for the beta, I didn't see much wrong with the actual gameplay. Melee lunge was all but gone, the DMR was perfectly balanced, and you could get away with using the assault rifle.

Sorry, there should never be such a thing as a "gun you must ditch at first chance" in any game, ever. There should also never be a "gun you must have to do well" either. And I mean universal, not map-specific. I understand that on larger maps you need a mid-range gun, but when the DMR > Assault Rifle on the small close-in maps, something is wrong.

Also Scarabs are retarded and have no place in a universe when you can bring your CCS-class Cruiser down low to do your digging or major destruction. They make literally zero sense at all and for that they marr the ambience. By a similar token, mechs of any type are also retarded because you can get the same job done with something that rolls or flies, and do it more efficiently and with less awkwardness.

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Originally Posted by Arteen

And time travel is, has always been, and always will be a terrible plot device.

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Singularity would like a word with you.:maddowns:

Scarabs are so much fun to fight, that's why they're awesome. I don't see how they "don't make sense", either. You aren't going to send out a bunch of scarabs to dig up the ark portal or glass a planet, but small-scale mining and combat? You don't send in a CCS-class battlecruiser for that. The cruiser's glassing laser might be more destructive than a scarab's beam, but you can have a lot more scarabs on the field than cruisers. And the glassing laser isn't really a precision weapon.

Galaxy Quest has the only "serious" time travel story I like.

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Originally Posted by Arteen

EDIT: Scarabs are awesome and Halo 2 had awful gameplay and a mess of a story. Good music though. And time travel is, has always been, and always will be a terrible plot device.

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Halo 2's (single player) gameplay was very well done in my opinion, it was just a very different mindset from Halo 1.

Halo 1 on Legendary was all about selecting the right tools for the job, using them efficiently, and exploiting the AI's patterns to make encounters easier. Halo 2 on Legendary was about manipulating and exploiting every possible aspect of the game just to survive. A lot of encounters were almost impossible at first glance, until you looked closer and found an unconventional way to accomplish them. I find something immensely satisfying about beating the game at its own... game.

Was it all an accident? Probably, but then so is the entirety of Halo 1's multiplayer.

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

Sorry, there should never be such a thing as a "gun you must ditch at first chance" in any game, ever.

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Yes there should.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/572/doompistol.jpg

I know someone's gonna say 'BUT U DONT DROP TEH DOOM PISTOL'. I know, but it's still the same principle :P

It's easier to have the cruiser, which you already had to bring with you to get everybody there in the first place, to come in and torch whatever is giving you so much trouble that you had to bring a Scarab in to deal with. Cruisers also have more than one beam, just an FYI. That centre beam is the big gun, but they have tons of smaller pulse lasers that they use for close-quarters space fights and point defense which would have no trouble killing tanks, masses of infantry, Longswords, Sabres, frigates, etc. There are also lots of them on the ship. Engage multiple targets at once, pofit. Scarabs are also slow and clunky and easy to kill if you have overwhelming numbers. Not so with a cruiser. Cruiser can get anywhere on the planet in a matter of minutes and can not be taken out by anything less than an MAC round or an expensive commando team.

I will admit they were fun to fight. Best one is the right side Scarab at the citadel. If you have a Mongoose, you just ramp off the rock formation onto its top and kill it in less than 15 seconds.If you are lucky, you can retrieve the Mongoose before it blows and if the other Scarab is sitting just right, repeat the procedure. It's the most epic part about that entire game.

E: Ninja'd by Pooky. BUT U DUN DROP TEH DUM PISTOL! :v:

That said, it still has its uses. In Reach, having an Assault Rifle in multiplayer = DMR spammed to death or double melee. Come on now, it was a decent gun in Halo 1, why can't it be decent in Halo: Reach?

I also ragequit Halo 2 Legendary. Never beat it. I don't feel like spending hours on every checkpoint. And then the 2000rpm 5sk dual-wielded plasma rifles on the Elites are total bullshit, no two ways around it.

4 shots, 2 for your shields and 2 to kill you....

"Mk. VI has stronger shields..."

"As you can see, they recharge a lot faster!"

"Ha! My ass!"

:v: