A purist? Nah.
Why are you getting so upset that I'm upset?
[EDIT] Disregard the above, I always forget that threads about Halo games are only for Bungie's personal dick suckers to post in.
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Just got the GI issue in the mail. Your armour has a slot which is like a USB-port in the sense that it accepts a bunch of different pieces that give you a perk. You start off with a Sprint perk, but during a night op where you have to sneak, you get the chance to swap it out for a piece that lets you use Active Camouflage like the Arbiter in Halo 2. You can only carry one piece at a time, and they are all governed by a single recharging meter.
The new HUD pretty much combines the ODST HUD with a shield meter and a motion tracker. You only get plasma and frag grenades this time around, because Bungie decided that the other two types were redundant. The new motion tracker also tells you how high up the enemies are relative to your position, represented by a line above or below the dot (yay, they finally caught up to Battlezone, 12 years later!). I like it.
Now, I don't like many of the aesthetics of the new game, but the gameplay as described (large battles, support for up to 40 AI and 20 vehicles at a time, 'handheld cameras', etc.) sounds promising. The Covenant don't speak English anymore (YES!), and they said they've given a lot of focus on making them terrifying again. We'll see how well they pull that off.
Yeah I posted that concept art after the trailer was revealed: http://www.modacity.net/forums/showp...&postcount=128
Anyways, each side to this has a reason. I do like the story of Halo and all its lore, and it does seem pretty stupid that Bungie "bends the fiction" (to which they admitted in the newest GI article). But as long as the game is fun, it shouldn't be something that bothers you. A game could have the worst and most generic story ever, but if its fun to play and you enjoy playing it then then it shouldn't matter.
Some people enjoy Halo outside of just button mashing. Whatever.
No gripes about Elite armor changing or when they switched to the Mark VI in Halo 2, so you can stop throwing words like 'afraid of change' around. These Reach changes are beyond ridiculous but I digress, it doesn't matter since you're probably a Monster drinking faggot who screams through his mic on XBL, you'll enjoy it as long as there's something to shoot at with explosions.
Over it.
The swappable abilities thing is an idea I had a while ago. I thought it would be cool if you could select modest abilities for a loadout and then find more "uber" abilities on the map, similar to hunting down the rocket launcher.
One of the "uber" abilities might be something like an EMP blast that fires when your shield drops that disables other nearby shields. I can't remember my other ideas. I might have written them down somewhere.
I think sprinting should be a standard part of the combat model, though.
A:I dont drink the shit
B:why would i scream? infact im pretty sure i couldnt scream if i tried and anyone who has spoken to me on live would beable to count for this.
C:if i didnt enjoy halo for what it was then why would i be making a halo themed mod for crysis?
Your just bitching because the game dosnt follow the books, which had extreme artistic liberty, Reach is a very large place to have battles on seeing as oh you know its a planet.
there fore there is bound to be other battles going on that the small peices shown in the books.
Yeah, when I read about the Skirmishers, the first thing I thought was "an excuse to keep using that terrible Halo 3 Brute AI?" As for the grunts, I hope what they showed us was just a subvariant, because that's the wrong way to go to make them look menacing. And, they are grunts for crying out loud, they aren't supposed to be that menacing, even if Jackals and Elites are.
Here I am, apologizing to Apollo for being a cock.
Just saying. I was kind of rude.
E: and lol at your post.
it makes them (the grunts) look odd i admit, but they look alittle like they're worth the waste of bullets or effort to kill now
the elites look more like they did in the E3 trailer for the original Halo, the armor seems to be Halo 1 ish, which is good, it kinda ticked me off that the armor design changed on the elites (I liked the glowing orbs that indicated their shield's charge)
which begs to question, if there is MP in REACH when it hits shelves, will elites be playable in MP? or will we revert back to SPARTANs only?
I have no doubt in my mind that we'll see Elites returning to MP in this iteration of Halo too.
It's just MP after all.
Depends on whatever fiction they come up with to explain the armor abilities. It might not make sense for Elites to be able to use them, but I guess that's never stopped Bungie before.
I would not be sad if there were no MP Elites. They weren't as customizable as the Spartans in Halo 3 and there was the whole headshot issue in Halo 2. They should focus on making the Spartans as customizable as possible, so we don't see one type of gaudy armor everywhere we look ala Hayabusa.
Unless they're going to finally force Spartans vs Elites in a game mode. Then and only then would they be worth the development resources they'd be diverting from making the Spartans customizable.
no, suicide grunts <:maddowns:>
Playing as grunts would be so fun (but would ruin the game).
Isn't that what they did with the early demo's of Halo 2 multiplayer? Having Elites as attackers and Spartans as defenders. I think there'd be a lot of complaints about being forced to play Elites though (I never understood why everyone has such an issue with playing them).
yeah, they were the ones who said 'fuck it' and pulled out two plasma grenades and charged at you
they're also in Halo Wars :iamafag:
speaking of which, I played it on XBL this morning....I fucking got raped by a dude playing as the Arbiter who built NOTHING but Engineers to send with his arby to attack me. I tell you, it was not fair :saddowns:. You should have seen it. It was like a cloud of Engineers...:ohdear:
Now more than ever would be a good time to have elites versus Spartans because in halo 3, the elites were on the same side as the humans, now though their not, their back to halo 1 and 2.
You should see what its like to have a scarab with a cloud of engineers protecting it.
Actualy since its a little off topic il spoiler this.
be thankful it wanst a scarab, adn that the recent update nerfed the arbiter alittle
also, in halo 3 i never liked the brutes, they never actively hunted you down, just sent grunts in after you or jackals...elites were always more challenging because they would try to flush you out if you were hiding (Cairo station in H2 legendary)
who else is psyched about driving civ vehicles?
you can drive civ vehicle now?
Just a demo, dont hold your breath.
(Most of) those scan pics are now available in better-than-scan quality.
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_01_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_02_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_03_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_04_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_05_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_06_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_07_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_08_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_09_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...shot_010_l.jpg
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...shot_011_l.jpg
Not a fan of that elite. Maybe it'll grow on me.
That elite looks like he was animated by walt disney...
Am i the only one who is a little disappointed by the engine so far?
I was hoping to see a jump like halo 1 to halo 2 or halo 2 and halo 3.
E: what the fuck is mewtwo doing in my halo?
The menu seems to be the same as the last one, but with a new loading screen that gives tips, and the part of the audio of the beginning.
Robotic audio makes me think its fake and its weird how camera pans down when the goodies start.
The loading bar, well sweeping vertical line is freaking awful.
Typo whoops!
http://media.ebgames.com.au/images/s...nshot_09_l.jpg
yay spirit :)
I'm actually excited about this.. THOSE JACKALS LOOK FLIPPIN SICK!!!!!!! They have a tribal look to them... This actually looks awesome, I hope they do the amazing advertising like they did with H3, which had some awesome advertisements IMO.
To be honest, I'm a little underwhelmed. I understand it's a beta build, but still, those world environments look less detailed than Unreal Tournament 3's (which weren't that great in the first place), and that's a 3 year old game...
Even though, the art style is slowly starting to grow on me, even if I still don't fully like it. I just hope there's some pretty significant polish before this hits retail, I guess I'll have to wait for the multiplayer beta to see for myself.
You have to understand one thing:
The xbox 360's hardware is SHIT compared to what we have today in our standard computers.
512 mb ram.
1mb of l2 cache, and not to mention it's almost four years old.
UT3 was a brand new engine, released two years ago, and my comp while it may run well on it, I don't have shared ram and a true dedicated video card.
You aren't going to make anything better UT3 on the xbox 360. most definitely not.
I completely understand that, but what I'm referring to is the fact that Reach's environments look generally unrealistic, not that they are under par in resolution or physical detail. The cliffs are featureless and plain, the ground unnatural-looking, etc.
My problem is not with any kind of resolution or hardware capability, but Reach's unrealistic appearance. Even if the 360 can't handle much more than the level of UT3, that's no excuse for environments that generally look like someone just stuck some plain rocks into some plain grass and patches of plain dirt.
And even if UT3 is at the visual cap of the 360, you'd expect a major title released 3 years later to at least be at the same level. Hardware capabilities don't mean everything needs to look abnormally unrealistic and featureless.
But again, I completely understand this is only in beta form, and the game will be polished. I just expected Reach to at least look up to par with previous games on the 360, especially ones from many years ago like UT3. Not seeing that in these pictures was somewhat of a disappointment, although the new artistic approach also doesn't appeal too much to me.
Yeah, games don't just revolve around fucking graphics. Bungie just didn't "upgrade the graphics engine some and called it a game". They've at the very least, tuned the AI and object memory to allow for larger battle scenes in-game. More than likely they've also addressed the networking layer too. Who knows what else they may have in store in terms of saved films, forge and possibly even the return of firefight.
We've only seen a few environments in a beta stage engine. We have yet to see, for ex, any real water upclose with any objects interacting with them or waterfalls, etc. Basing a rendering engine off stills isn't the best method either
Even so, KM, I'm unimpressed by the graphics. The bipeds look fantastic, but everything else looks like Halo 3. I'm not seeing the impressive lighting I was expecting from the trailer and that one presentation they gave on their lighting tech. Then again, dynamic lighting is only impressive when you can see it changing.
Honestly, we want to see something new. We are demanding fanbois.
Perhaps Bungie's secret project is targeted for Microsoft's next console- that's gotta be coming out in a year or two. I don't expect Bungie to impress me as much as Crysis first impressed me, but I want to be impressed. Like it or not, visuals are a big thing these days.
And besides, if we have another Halo game, we're stuck with the same universe, the same characters, essentially the same gameplay, so the only new thing left to impress us is: visuals.
Far from it. There are so many changes and upgrades they can make to saved films, forge and multiplayer variants still. Plus, there is the possibility of the return of Firefight which itself can really be upgraded.
We've already seen the inclusion of civilian vehicles as one mode of transportation. Plus new weapons with thier own dynamics which don't permit the same old gameplay. Don't think so two demsionally (sp). You're also basing everything about this game you know on old games which this game isn't. Campaign wise, we're on single planet (which a Halo game has never touched on), following a single team. However, this doesn't limit or directly affect other mechanics of the game (ie, multiplayer, theater, etc)
Granted
Well, why can't I draw on experience? Halo 2, 3, and ODST were good but not great. I've said before that the Halo IP is being drawn out way too long- if you're going to keep doing it, you have to make it great, not good. Otherwise people like me start to get rather annoyed.
What about ODST?
Look, I fully expect Reach to be quite fun, and a pretty good game. But there are hundreds of fun, pretty good games out there. What is Bungie doing to set themselves apart? Little that I can see. A good game is not the same as an impressive game, and I haven't been impressed by Bungie since Halo 1. As I said, I'm hanging onto the hope that their unannounced next game will be more impressive.
e: OK, I'm not giving them enough credit. Halo 2 and Halo 3 made successive massive improvements to the multiplayer, and ODST added an awesome gametype to the mix. I have been impressed by that. I guess it's just my preference for campaign (and admittedly, visuals- ok, I'm shallow) over multiplayer that's left me disappointed. For a while I liked to think of Bungie's skill as lying in immersive universes, skillfull storytelling, etc, but in hindsight it's pretty clear that what they're so great at is fun, replayable, social multiplayer.
Here's a question, why exactly is it called Halo Reach, if it has nothing to do with the halo's should it not just be called "Reach"?
Since everyone is getting so picky over the slightest details i think i'l join in.
Something tell's me we will have some sort of link to halo 1 in some way or another and i don't mean visualy or design wise.
Oh, that's easy warlord
You see, being a prequel to the first Halo game, this game is actually how our dear friend John manages to get lucky, survive the battle of Reach and Reach Halo. Ergo, Halo Reach :downs:.
It's all about thebenjamin'sHalo's baby!
Yeah, we'll probably get some plug like that in ODST (when you beat the game on legendary) that ties to the first Halo. Also, I'm pretty sure we'll see a few more new skulls. ODST had some support for a few new ones but they never made it to release. I'm pretty sure the "director's cut" skull will this time though.
The skulls are just so arbitrary and random in their effects, I don't really respect them. My ideal of Halo combat doesn't involve having to melee flying drones every third round. If Firefight was legitimate, it wouldn't need such gimmicks.
It really needs objectives and counter-objectives. The Covenant need to be trying to move a bomb in or your team is trying to keep a door shut that would give the Covenant a flanking advantage. Just killing covies for the sake of killing them, I find to be somewhat numbing.
Even adding objectives might not be enough. Halo is best when it allows you to be bold and aggressive and it's hard to feel that when you're just sitting and defending.
for those who think the new "jackal" look is impressive, you're mislead.. the new jackal-esque enemy is called the skirmisher...
and in terms of gameplay all I have to say is it better be as fun as Halo 1, which was honestly better than H2, H3 or ODST...
Upon closer inspection, it looks like most if not all of those screenshots are from the same map at different times of day. My guess is it's a firefight map. Given that, I'm slightly less harsh in my criticism of the lighting, but only slightly. We'll just have to see how cool it is to play Firefight for so long that you cycle from day to night (I assume it would cycle relatively quickly). But if they pull that off right, that's one of those things that will make me more impressed with this game.
Wouldn't it make more sense to just have day and night versions of the map, like they did in ODST?
sense schmense, proper time-of-day lighting is hot.
Bungie have stated that all of these screenshots are pre-alpha build so the game isn't even in alpha yet so expect a whole lot to change by the time we get to try the game at the end of spring this year.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/halo...-bend%E2%80%9D
I like this quote:
Finally, they're pushing back at all the complete shitheads -- players and critics alike -- that don't have the first clue why Halo is special.Quote:
Bungie also told us that improvements to Halo’s AI would offer Reach buyers plenty of replay value compared to highly scripted series like Uncharted or Call Of Duty.
"The AI system is super robust, and is taken for granted as a rich simulation,” said community director Brian Jarrard. “A lot of people don't necessarily appreciate how much of a difference that makes in their experience, the fact that everything is simulated, nothing is bolted down. You can throw a grenade in a room and it's all physically simulated. Even in our giant environments you see films in which someone will throw a grenade and it will send a Warthog flying through the air and it'll kill someone on the other side of the map. It’s one of those things which is so hard and complicated to do, but it's just underlying the whole game. It's kind of delightful that people don't appreciate how hard that stuff is to make.”
As long as a Halo FPS retains its simulated identity, it will always be my favorite FPS series by miles and miles. My own nitpicks and gripes be damned.
Only thing I really want to see them change in Halo's mechanics is the addition of an irons system. Even the annoying melee lunge that has been in since Halo 2 can stay.
Why. WHY do people like iron sights. Halo's aiming is pretty-well pinpoint to begin with. The characters have always had damn-good aim, you don't breath like a dork when you're zoomed in, I don't understand why people prefer to be looking down their barrel.
Edit: That is what you're talking about, right?
Halo's not a 'semi realistic' shooter like COD. It's more like Unreal Tournament meets CS... I wouldn't like iron sights except maybe in a more tactical Halo game (which ODST could have been but was not).
I just like doing it. Has nothing to do with extra accuracy or whatever, I just don't like hip-firing at all. It feels strange that I can nail a running guy in the head with a 14.5mm sniper rifle while unscoped, or that I can unleash a volley of aimed fire from an SMG without having to bring it up to my shoulder. And Halo Reach seems to me like it's trying to be a bit more tactical; that's the only reason I suggest it.
Hell, I just want the irons. The breathing and wavering I couldn't care less about (and contrary to popular belief, holding your breath actually throws your aim off).
I agree with smack. Iron sights are dumb.
To each his own. At least even in the books he has a crosshair on the HUD, so not all is lost.
I have issues with iron sights. It's sort of a weird functional switch in your brain. When you're out of iron sights, that's when you're making your decisions and when you're in iron sights, all you're doing is aiming. So, one can watch footage of a CoD game while holding a stopwatch and you can precisely determine the percentage that the player's brain was turned on vs when it was turned off. in the case of CoD, it seems to be a very high proportion of mindlessness.
I get the gun porn appeal of iron sights, but I think they're such a product of realism that they don't apply to hypothetical future weapons. If you were designing weapons for a game from scratch, why would you even bother with cumbersome, old-fashioned stuff that has to completely obscure your target in order to work? Why wouldn't they have sights that allow you to SEE your target and give you a better periphery view? That's basically what Halo already has.
I'd be okay with sights as a part of the presentation value if it weren't an obligation to aim down sights. If it didn't grant any kind of artificial accuracy bonus.
Because electronic sights can fail for a number of reasons is why irons are still around and will still be around for a long time. Also, well-designed irons don't completely block your target, only shitty ones like on the M16 or G36 do.
But I do see your point.
As long as I don't HAVE to use them, like ej said, I am okay with them.
Updates out.
Quote:
Right. Let’s talk a little Halo: Reach.
Builds are coming in at a blistering pace as the team continues to drive hard and fast towards the ever looming Alpha branch. The process is so break neck at times that it’s hard for us poor dudes over in the community pod to keep track and chronicle the goings on for you in any meaningful way. For example, the build that brought you the latest batch of media assets was already weeks old when we scrubbed it for screenshots. Pre-Thanksgiving, in fact. The nature of the development process is such that stability can often become a concern when the various disciplines are routinely plugging in their new pieces of technical and artistical hotness, so when it came time to show it off to our media friends, we decided to dust off one of the older, notably stable builds. Game tends to show better when it’s in rock solid working order.
This make's me very happy, i really did not like the yellow hud in ODST, didn't feel like Halo and it really did not blend well in the outdor environments...Quote:
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of UI, the HUD isn’t yellow anymore. It’s blue. Because Marcus said so.
I liked the yellow in ODST. I just don't think it works for Reach because the Chief's HUD was never blue, and we are still playing as Spartans after all.
Should've just crossed out "never". =þ
Too easy. ^_^
http://www.zippoc.com/blog/wp-conten...hor-wrong1.jpg
You need to watch me or any other good player in a game. Sighting is just a minor FOV zoom and a accuracy boost. Good players strafe jump while aiming so they can dodge while sighting.
Dodging isn't exactly what I mean by making decisions, but I'm not going to argue other than to say MY brain turns off every time I'm obliged to go into tunnel vision mode.
And aren't you kind of committed to shooting and only shooting to bring a guy down with the iron sights? Halo is much more about combos of different attacks to bring a guy down than Call of Duty and that's what I love about Halo and bores me about CoD.
Personally, I had an unpleasant time adjusting my play style to meet that of COD's (not to mention how easy kills are to get). When it comes to shooters, I grew up on Golden Eye and Halo and really could give two shits less about "iron sights".
It wouldn't be Halo if it had iron sights. I don't even see why it was even brought up.
It was brought up early on in this thread when we knew nothing about Halo: Reach because some of us thought it would be a more tactical-based shooter. Then someone griped about changes in gameplay mechanics, and I said adding irons was the only thing I'd like, and not because I'm a CoD player (hate the game).
I don't treat iron sights as anything more than a little zoom and a accuracy boost. I usually scope in for a second to get someone then instantly sprint out to my next target. People who just scope in and slowly walk around corner and shit are stupid.
BTW I play Marathon + Stopping Power + Ninja at all times.
back on track...how long do you think Reach will stand before being spoiled by MLG profags?
Psh. When the game is released it will already be infested by bad kids.
It's a consouless game.
ODST was infested by mlgfags days before it was out.
I like the balanced MLG weapon set but not the kids that come with it. And BR BR BR ONLY gets boring after a while. If Reach was to have a MLG playlist I really hope they added some accuracy and firing rate to the plasma weapons so they could be added as actually useful tools.
Swedish magazine dudes got to play.
http://translate.google.com/translat...n&hl=&ie=UTF-8
HBO thread: http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/...pl?read=963909
Various highlights include the name of the helicopter-thing ("Falcon") and confirmation that it's flyable.
Plenty of pictures.
http://www.gamereactor.se/media/15/g...alo_201507.jpg
http://www.gamereactor.se/media/15/g...alo_201516.jpg
Even without the obviously misplaced (I hope) bitmap I really dislike that AR design.
http://www.gamereactor.se/media/15/g...alo_201523.jpg
http://www.gamereactor.se/media/15/g...alo_201524.jpg
On the other hand, massive T&R vibe coming from that level.
Where are those from Advancebo?
They seem to be printscreens from this video of Marcus Lehto commenting on various Reach-related materials.
Photoshooped
And yes, Teh Lag is correct.
Oh, hello.
http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/images.aspx?c=59
(Mega-highres of just about every pic posted so far).
wiimote support
There's been a ton of debate on it at Bungie.net, with theories all the way from a hologram ability (mentioned in leaks), location tagging, Natal support, or the reticle moving when turning, to just a graphical glitch or bug. Even though, I'm a little surprised not a single media outlet or leak source would mention it if it wasn't a feature of some kind.
What's this? The radar showing elevation?
Looks like a debug cursor.
Lieutenant's spartan number is S-312 according to the personnel page on bungie.
I don't think that's blood, looks more like some sort of flowers to me. Also; maybe it's some sort of homing/lock-on missile attachment on secondary fire or something? Could possible explain being so far off center and red when it's not aimed on anything visible
You mirrored and centered the original shield bar?