Halo: Reach Discussion

[Saggy]

Honestly, I think I like the Assault Rifle better than in Halo 3, but that's just me.

[Sasc]

I agree I think it looks quite good.

[Kornman00]

It goes down vertically now. It's really stupid. Much like the entire HUD.

I hate this dumb vertical theme they are giving the HUD, especially with the grenades.

While at first glance this all may seem silly, I'm pretty sure they didn't do any of this without prior user research.

Like most of the stuff, we're basing our thoughts on static imagrey and short gameplay clips. However, some of this stuff actually needs to be played before a thoughtful and accurate critique can be given. You really have to think how your mind may be working when you're actually In The Shit. Statistically, it may have been proven that players responded more to data represented more in "progress bar" like interfaces.

For the ammo counter, it visually shows your overall range to the end. Yes, when it did in a horizontal manner it gave the same end result, but you really have to think about this in a user's experience as they're in combat and there are dozens of things they're having to think about. Visual ques can be mentally expensive if not executed right. The more natural it is for your brain to pick up a specific pattern, especially when it is in the peripheral range, the faster it is for you to execute and concentrate on other actions.

For the shield and IIRC, health bars, it may sound like it goes against the possible reason of the ammo counter but again, think about its overall position on the HUD and what it means for you to need to glance at it. It's in the top middle of your screen. Both eyes can and have the same sight on it. Using a symmetrical layout could have perhaps scored higher when researching user interaction due to the fact that your eyes are too in the middle of your head and symmetrical.

While with the ammo counter, only one eye should be used with picking up on information it needs only one direction. However, people have dominate eyes and thus it could be easier to have a symmetrical layout with the health bar to account for any dominate eye.

Nothing should be seriously judged at a glance as you're just leaving it up to the cover of a book. Yes it's your first response just like how you act when first meeting someone, but without actual interaction with that person, you really have no working knowledge of who and what they really are, or in the the HUD's case, how it really may feel like it is actually less there using these new forms of representation.

E: They've shown their "user experience" labs before. I'm pretty sure they have some high tech shit at their disposal. They could easily have cameras that monitor the player's eye and head movements, plus their behavoiral gestures to gather information that a player can't verbally put "into words" about their experience.

[jcap]

The shield is the worst because it is incredibly misleading. I don't care about it's placement, since it was good in Halo 3 when they did it properly. However, in ODST it SUCKS because it decreases from both sides to the middle.

Oh, and the grenade placement just sucks. They should be horizontal, not vertical. The vertical stacking has no flow to it and the blank space to the left of the grenades is a waste.

[FRain]

Am I the only one that thinks that AR looks terrible? Texture is awful. I dont like the new armor much, I loved it shiney.

Really? I thought it was retarded like that because it looked like the armor just came off an assembly line.

[Terry]

The only thing that bothers me is that some of the ground textures are tiled, stretched, or need anisotropic filtering in some cases.
Also the jaggies.

I don't really like how the shield looks at all with the damage being depleted from both sides rather than one. I think its one of those things they should have left unchanged.

[Hunter]

I like the new AR, especially the display as it looks a tad more real or attached to the weapon, if you get me.

[sevlag]

I like the new AR, especially the display as it looks a tad more real or attached to the weapon, if you get me.

does look more attached actually

[Needles]

The assault rifle is interesting, I wish they would go for more of the look it had in halo 1 with 60 rounds though.

[Warsaw]

I think they realised that 60 rounds in the AR is completely bonkers and they recognised the complaints made about the Halo 1 version where it behaved too much like an SMG and not enough like an assault rifle.