Halo, is it me you're looking for? - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

Irony |i re ne|, noun; when the posts pointing out that we're all being too negative and complaining too much contain the most negativity and complaining.

Welcome to the forum. Here we like to go over every little detail on games that are yet to be released. Then, using the imagination-thinkers contained in our skull-boxes, we like to imagine what these games might be like. Yes. Might. I can't believe I have to point this out, but no one here has said Halo 4 is definitely going to be shit. But, IMHO, YMMV, etc. etc., from what I've read/seen/watched, Halo 4 is shaping up to a be a bit crap.

Trust me, nothing would make me happier than for Halo 4 to be the next coming of Christ, burnt on to DVD and sold to me ready to slam into my 360. But from what I've seen this seems unlikely. We're not complaining, nor are we whining, we're speculating. That's what we do here at B&B.

Shyam39

Blue Swirl wrote:

no one here has said Halo 4 is definitely going to be shit.

You know it's funny you say that because Tiger sent me a text.

From the future.

He included a photo of himself. Naked. And he had really built legs... like Chun-Li.

Halo 4 was playing on his tv in the background. FYI he said his tv was 65inches, but I think it was really 28inches and he wanted it to look bigger.

...

Oh yeah... He said Halo 4 is definitely shit.

(I don't believe him btw)

tigersgogrrr

I miss you.

Blue Swirl

Group hug!

HALO 4 EVER.

I BELIEVE.

tigersgogrrr

Nah, it's shit. BR is an 8 shot just like the DMR in Reach.

Nexx

8 shots for you maybe lolololol

StrayAndroid

Quick question because I didn't play Reach for all that long (as I've not had the 360 set up for a while), but what were the big issues with it?

I always quite enjoyed it, thought some of the user made maps that ended up in the play lists were pretty tight, really enjoyed snipes in it (which is my favourite play list in halo anyway alongside swat), wasn't that bothered by bloom as I thought it added a nice risk reward touch to shooting (though I can understand the better you play the less you want chance coming into play).

Mod74

Just popping in to check the regs are moaning about multiplayer minutiae.

Roger.

Is nobody excited about the thought of Chief kicking alien butt again? Witty asides to and from Cortana, expanding the universe mythos?

I'll, as always, buy it for the single player and can't wait to see what 343 have done with it.

Knight

Hi Android. There was no risk vs reward on the DMR bloom. The most effective way to shoot the weapon was just to spam. Made most fights a lottery. You know that satisfaction of out shooting someone in H2 and H3? Didn't exist anymore in Reach. Just as importantly it made the kill times really slow, which combined with armour abilities that made getting away really easy caused the game to slow right down. Also, at base movement speed you couldn't actually strafe, the maps were terrible and the sniper hitbox was MASSIVE. However, they released a title update which made it possible to remove bloom, the difference no bloom makes to the game is amazing. MLG Reach is better than MLG H3.

tigersgogrrr

Nexx wrote:

8 shots for you maybe lolololol

At least I use the BR and not the AR you grenade spamming hax fiend.

Mod - The minutiae is important because we're all geeks. Particularly Knight. For the record, I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing Chief back in action. There really isn't enough info about the campaign to even make vaguely worthy speculations at the moment though.

Stray - In short, all (?) the original maps were bad for almost every gametype, the armour abilities were poorly balanced and weren't conducive to fast paced encounters, the Warthog physics were completely broken (making them pretty much redundant), and the re-imagined ranking system was gutter trash.

Billy

Mod74 wrote:

Just popping in to check the regs are moaning about multiplayer minutiae. Roger. Is nobody excited about the thought of Chief kicking alien butt again? Witty asides to and from Cortana, expanding the universe mythos? I'll, as always, buy it for the single player and can't wait to see what 343 have done with it.

Myself, like a few others are definitely excited for the Chiefs return, but when it comes to the multiplayer we are like a bunch of moody old blokes.Â Weapon upgrades bahh, new Armour Abilities bahhh, Spartan Credits bahhh.

Basically what it boils down to is we are very easily pleased!Â We roughly just want -

- Core movement to be fluid, the Chiefs great jump to return, strafes to be fast and responsive.

- Combat/kill times to be classic halo.

- An awesome campaign full of bombast and win.

- Multiplayer that is a level playing field where your only advantages are tactics, teamwork and skill.

-Enough awesome multiplayer content to keep us competing and loling for a really long time.

All the extra shit in Reach has diluted those simple Halo pillars, and while H4 looks to bring some of them back it seems to be introducing a bunch of other extra shit.

StrayAndroid

@Knight: Â That's fair enough, to be honest I didn't play enough of the non-Snipe/Swat games to ever notice theÂ armorÂ abilities (though I do remember some pretty painful armor lock moments now you mention it) etc, thought on the bloom that if you waited a bit longer between shots you got the accuracy back, but it may well have been that the most effective strategy was to spam.

A lot of the maps that I played on were actually quite reasonable for swat and snipes, but you're right that for most of the other game modes they were a dogs dinner (nothing on the H3 staples). Â Not seen enough of H4 to get a feel for the dynamics.

Blue Swirl

tigerswiftly wrote:

Stray - In short, all (?) the original maps were bad for almost every gametype, the armour abilities were poorly balanced and weren't conducive to fast paced encounters, the Warthog physics were completely broken (making them pretty much redundant), and the re-imagined ranking system was gutter trash.

This. Reach has no stand out maps like Valhalla or The Pit, they're all just a bit middling, really. The DLC hasn't changed much; Breakpoint is possibly my least favourite Halo map ever. The DMR lacked that satisfying meaty punch that the BR had - Reach was vastly improved even by the 85% bloom, the DMR felt like it was actually doing some damage for a change. I still think that the armour abilities could have been made to work, but that might be wishful thinking on my part. Maybe something as simple as some indicator as to which ability people had would have made a difference.

JRPC

Billy_Hologram wrote:

Myself, like a few others are definitely excited for the Chiefs return, but when it comes to the multiplayer we are like a bunch of moody old blokes.

Reckon at the very least we can be pretty confident about SP being a blast. I read the GI bit about the opening section and it sounds sweet (with slight concerns about QTEs). And all this iffy MP stuff shouldn't affect it either.Â

Reach's saving grace was pretty excellent SP. Even the AAs were fun in the campaign.Â

I'm very much enjoying all the H4 ranting and stuff - it's part of the fun. I've never been as invested in a game series and I love how most of our types are up in arms about what's been announced. It makes for some good banter.

Anyway, I'm now officially being officially positive until we hear damn good reason to be otherwise.

Besides, even if H4 turns out to be a bit shit (and it won't) then we've still got Bungie's thing to look forward to. We can't loose!

Also: been trying to get my head around what the Requiem horizon will look like. Curvy?

Blue Swirl

I dunno, Reach's campaign wasn't bad, but it wasn't a patch on 2's or ODST's.

Facewon

AAs were fine once bloom was nerfed and AL was relegated. Playing with AAs (other than AL) with tu settings (so 85% bloom) is really great. Battle Canyon tu settings is awesome. jet pack adds to that map.

I'd also defend Powerhouse as a pretty great map, but yeah, overall, stock maps aren't as good. A couple of corkers in the DLC (tempest) though. And some very solid forged efforts in BTB (wayont).

Dan_Dare

Blue Swirl wrote:

I dunno, Reach's campaign wasn't bad, but it wasn't a patch on 2's or ODST's.

Maybe a bit on my own here, but I reckon Reach has the best campaign in the series. All the gameplay that didn't really float the boat in MP actually works incredibly well in SP- even bloom and armour lock are both awesome. On top of that, The Covenant are the best they've ever been and the level design is really pretty good. The assault on the spire and taking out the carrier are particular highlights.

Fentonizer

I like all the 360 game campaigns. Halo and Halo 2 wither under the lights a bit, but H3, ODST and Reach are all excellent, IMO.

And I agree with Billy's wishlist.

Blue Swirl

Dan_Dare wrote:

Maybe a bit on my own here, but I reckon Reach has the best campaign in the series. All the gameplay that didn't really float the boat in MP actually works incredibly well in SP- even bloom and armour lock are both awesome. On top of that, The Covenant are the best they've ever been and the level design is really pretty good. The assault on the spire and taking out the carrier are particular highlights.

None of them were bad, but Reach's had the least number of stand out moments. IMHO, YMMV, and all that jazz, but the best campaign was ODST's. Brilliantly paced, properly tense stuff. I'd rate Reach as my least favourite campaign, but it'd be a bit like picking my least favourite child, y'know? It just felt ridiculously linear, compared to the feeling of freedom you get from, say, CE. Plus it was the only Halo campaign that I remember getting properly annoyed with, with some parts feeling a bit unfair rather than difficult, and that's an important thing with Halo. It should always feel like your fault when you die.

Facewon

In hindsight, I'd rate reach a bit behind the other 360 campaigns. The basic mechanics are there, as evidenced by the awesome sauce that is firefight, but I think it's defo the level design and overall action that fails. Vehicle combat is very suss compared to H3, and there's no scarab like action. I think in an effort to lose the legendary difficulty spikes, they may have neutered some potential.

Mod74

They could have Chiefy and Cortana running a tea shop in Devon and I'd still buy it.

Dan_Dare

Blue Swirl wrote:

Dan_Dare wrote:

Maybe a bit on my own here, but I reckon Reach has the best campaign in the series. All the gameplay that didn't really float the boat in MP actually works incredibly well in SP- even bloom and armour lock are both awesome. On top of that, The Covenant are the best they've ever been and the level design is really pretty good. The assault on the spire and taking out the carrier are particular highlights.

None of them were bad, but Reach's had the least number of stand out moments. IMHO, YMMV, and all that jazz, but the best campaign was ODST's. Brilliantly paced, properly tense stuff. I'd rate Reach as my least favourite campaign, but it'd be a bit like picking my least favourite child, y'know? It just felt ridiculously linear, compared to the feeling of freedom you get from, say, CE. Plus it was the only Halo campaign that I remember getting properly annoyed with, with some parts feeling a bit unfair rather than difficult, and that's an important thing with Halo. It should always feel like your fault when you die.

To be honest Halo has always been linear. The sense of freedom is largely an illusion - and CE was the worst offender with most of its levels if you ask me. Or 2...

Blue Swirl

Dan_Dare wrote:

To be honest Halo has always been linear. The sense of freedom is largely an illusion - and CE was the worst offender with most of its levels if you ask me. Or 2...

It's true, but I did say "feeling of freedom". In CE and 2, I always felt like I was exploring (even though I wasn't) and that I was deciding where I wanted to go (even though I wasn't). Reach failed to give me that feeling. They've all been linear, but Reach felt linear. The others didn't. Well, 3 had a few patches that felt like funnels through which they would pump enemies.

It's all down to personal taste and is very subjective, but I reckon Halo 2 has the best Chief campaign, and ODST is the best campaign out of the lot.

Dan_Dare

Personally I fucking hated Halo 2's campaign - a lot of good ideas I think but bogged down by some serious bullshit and terrible testing. The Brutes alone set it a good deal lower than the rest of the series. ODST was great though- like a greatest hits compilation and the abandoned city was cool. Great music, too.Â

Halo 3 is my other favourite. That has some absolutely awesome levels in it and the scale was astonishing when I got it (with my brand new 360 to boot)

Petey

After spending an hour or two on Reach yesterday, it struck me just how mixed a bag it is. Core gameplay is still fantastic; but a single game on haemorrhage was enough to make me want to claw my eyes out. If Halo 4 can get the balancing of 3, I think I could probably live with the stupid perks system, because at least the difficulty will come from other players, rather than a broken map design.

mk64

I want maps on multilevels. 3 at least. They are maps i've always liked most (aka Construct). Even the pit kinda has 3 levels.

Fentonizer

Countdown has proven to be an excellent map.

Haemorrhage can rightly get to fuck.

Diluted Dante

mk64 wrote:

I want maps on multilevels. 3 at least. They are maps i've always liked most (aka Construct). Even the pit kinda has 3 levels.

I fucking hate that map.

The Pit however is one of the best in the series.

Djornson

Since replaying anniversary i've realised how amazingly good the campaigns in 3/ODST/Reach are and how stupid i was to have such rose tinted glasses.

The Pit is best map evvarrrrrrrr

Dan_Dare

woo woo!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories