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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

W

Willeth

Member
God dammit, why do I have to have all my awesome clips after the file share is inaccessible?! A running riot in FFA and a ten-second period where two of us were in the blue lift trying to kill each other. :lol
 
S

Shake Appeal

Member
Devin Olsen said:
I've never heard of a book being re released with the typo's fixed. :\

Pardon my ignorance
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Any book that goes past a single print run has revisions. Some books have gone through hundreds.

They're just not usually the subject of press releases.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Devin Olsen said:
So let me get this straight.

They are re releasing a book with some extra periods, commas, and other misc grammatical fixes.

Is the need really there for this sort of a thing...

I've never heard of a book being re released with the typo's fixed. :\

Pardon my ignorance
Click to expand...


The book was previously publised by Del Rey - we are now publishing with Tor so you will get in order of coolness:

1. Brand-new cover art by 343 artists.
2. All-new, never before-seen "bonus" content
3. New logo/jacket design/furniture
4. Some typos and other errors fixed and inconsistencies addressed, just like any other reissue. Fixing typos for consecutive editions is perfectly normal. My 9th edition of LOTR still has typos in it.
 
R

randomlyrossy

Member
Aww man, I didn't think it was ending till later tonight. Won't load the playlists for me now so I guess I missed my chance to get in one last game or two. :(

*Leaves sweet menu music playing*
 
S

Striker

Member
SailorDaravon said:
The problem is that some people insist on posting the same shit over and over and over and over drawing the rest of the thread into fucking inane circular arguments for hundreds of posts. Yes, I understand why some people don't like certain aspects, and I understand why and agree with some of it myself; but some people are just shitting the thread up with the same complaints for literally weeks. I haven't been posting because every time I wanted to post it was in the middle of same 3-page argument about people arguing why other people's opinions are wrong. I can't remember who it was, but they were right; go back and look at the Halo 3 Beta thread and how nice everyone was to each other, and look at how much of a dick half of this thread is to each other. It's honestly fucking shameful considering how devoted of a Halo community this group usually is. I'm done.
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2di3voo.jpg


For anyone interested, here's the link: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154012&page=219

Even in disagreements, for the most part, people were fairly civilized and friendly.

Note: on that page, folks were complaining about Push-To-Talk.
 
S

squidhands

Member
Thagomizer said:
Also, in Livejournal/Real Life news, I just got a $42,200 scholarship to Boston College! W00t
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Incredibly bad ass. Big congratulations!

Striker said:
For anyone interested, here's the link: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154012&page=219

Note: on that page, folks were complaining about Push-To-Talk.
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JdFoX187 (from the H3 beta thread) said:
What's next? You don't want to pull the trigger to shoot? You just want to say "fire" and the gun shoots? What about moving? You just want to say "move left, go forward, go back?" God, the absurdity of some of these complaints is asstounding.
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Somebody's gonna hate Natal. :lol
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
DualX said:
Lunge isn't necessary, and in fact, can be quite frustrating sometimes because it tries to "auto correct" which causes people to miss and (in some cases) fly in a direction they did not wish to go in the first place. I don't like it in any Call of Duty. I don't like it in Battlefield Bad Company 2. And I most definitely did not like it in Halo 2/3.
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I've hardly ever, maybe even never, encountered a situation in which I "fly" in a direction I didn't want to go in Halo 3 whenever I beat someone down. That, or it occurred so little I've never noticed it in retrospect. The lunge in Halo 3 has never been frustrating

Now please, enlighten me on how this was a good idea.
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The current melee system is weak, both in design and in execution, and I think the lack of a lunge contributes to it. It feels flimsy at best, and I don't feel like I'm playing a Spartan, but an ODST. Lunge also encourages melee combat, too. Beating people down was fun in Halo 3: it wasn't fun in the Beta.
 
K

KidA Seven

Member
Dax01 said:
I've hardly ever, maybe even never, encountered a situation in which I "fly" in a direction I didn't want to go in Halo 3 whenever I beat someone down. That, or it occurred so little I've never noticed it in retrospect. The lunge in Halo 3 has never been frustrating


The current melee system is weak, both in design and in execution, and I think the lack of a lunge contributes to it. It feels flimsy at best, and I don't feel like I'm playing a Spartan, but an ODST. Lunge also encourages melee combat, too. Beating people down was fun in Halo 3: it wasn't fun in the Beta.
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That isn't fun in a shooter, especially in Halo 3 where anywhere close you have two options. Melee or die no matter the enemy. I don't know how someone can get satisfaction knowing it's the easiest thing to do in the world. It's insane how you don't even have to look at a player and your melee will hit him for free. At least with swords, you could do 360s while meleeing but by itself? I guess I just strongly disagree, no offense.

The new system at least encourages timing and shooting.

Keep the reviews coming everybody. Love reading your impressions and take on Halo. :D
 
Miggytronz

Miggytronz

Member
I personally liked the direction Bungie has taken the Halo gameplay as seen in the BETA. Yes there were things that urked me but overall, looking at the big picture its what HALO 3 prolly should of been, IMO.

:thumbsup: Bungie cant wait til the fall......now back to MW2, uhg.
 
D

Dipswitch

Member
OuterWorldVoice said:
The book was previously publised by Del Rey - we are now publishing with Tor so you will get in order of coolness:
Click to expand...

That's interesting. How does that work then? The original publisher gets the rights to the material for X number of years and then the owner gets to shop it elsewhere? I always assumed that the original publisher had publishing rights in perpetuity.
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
KS Seven X said:
I don't know how someone can get satisfaction knowing it's the easiest thing to do in the world.
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Because it feels powerful, not flimsy nor weak. I mean, getting a kill with the sword is the "the easiest thing to do in the world" but it's satisfying because it feels powerful.
It's insane how you don't even have to look at a player and your melee will hit him for free.
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Don't even have to look at the player? Not sure what game your playing, but I have to look at the people I melee.
The new system at least encourages timing and shooting.
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Huh? The new melee system encourages anything but timing and shooting. Run up using sprint to someone and quickly melee them twice!. How is that any different from Halo 3's? In that situation, you have either two choices: melee or die. How is that any different. If anything, it discourages shooting because if you don't get the guys shields down, it'll still take two melees to kill him. So what's the point in shooting?
 
Kibbles

Kibbles

Member
Bungie Aerospace website up.

"Coming Soon". Hmmm.

Joe Staten used the phrase "per audacia ad astra", which is on that site, in this April 29th interview with H.B.O. It apparently means "Through hard work to the stars".


[edit]Whatever it is, it's something that is multiplatform since Joe says this right after this quote from Brian Jarrard.
Brian Jarrard: The internet is fickle, I'm sure by the time we have real stuff to show and talk about, available on more platforms than before, people won't care so much who ships it to them.

Joe Staten: PER AUDACIA AD ASTRA!!!
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F

FilthyLies

Member
OuterWorldVoice said:
The book was previously publised by Del Rey - we are now publishing with Tor so you will get in order of coolness:

1. Brand-new cover art by 343 artists.
2. All-new, never before-seen "bonus" content
3. New logo/jacket design/furniture
4. Some typos and other errors fixed and inconsistencies addressed, just like any other reissue. Fixing typos for consecutive editions is perfectly normal. My 9th edition of LOTR still has typos in it.
Click to expand...
Hopefully those "inconsistencies" include some of the more egregious canonical errors that have developed since the release, like the number of surviving Spartans who returned to Reach for the mission and that according to the novel, Elites were first seen at Reach.

The Spartan number is really the one I hope that gets addressed, that shit makes NO SENSE with all the expanded universe stuff now. Pretty much every source gives a different number. :lol

Guessing we MIGHT see Butes inserted into one of those extra scenes too, since they've been included earlier in the timeline now as well, and we'll be seeing them in Halo: Reach.

Kibbles said:
Bungie Aerospace website up.

What was this rumored to be again?
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People were speculating that it might be their Bungie.net stat tracking tools, though I'm not sure we ever had any reason to believe that, other than the fact that Bungie has some of the best website integration in the business and it's something they could make money licensing.
 
K

KidA Seven

Member
Dax01 said:
Because it feels powerful, not flimsy nor weak. I mean, getting a kill with the sword is the "the easiest thing to do in the world" but it's satisfying because it feels powerful.

Don't even have to look at the player? Not sure what game your playing, but I have to look at the people I melee.

Huh? The new melee system encourages anything but timing and shooting. Run up using sprint to someone and quickly melee them twice!. How is that any different from Halo 3's? In that situation, you have either two choices: melee or die. How is that any different. If anything, it discourages shooting because if you don't get the guys shields down, it'll still take two melees to kill him. So what's the point in shooting?
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Oh really? You don't really have to look and the way the lunge was in Halo 3, online became frustrating dealing with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnATdmHs0GQ

I really don't like the new melee system either, but I prefer it to Halo 3s where the insane lunge and AR together made it over powered.
 
T

Trasher

Member
Well, since it's all over now I figured I would post my final stats for the beta.

Ended up playing 459 games and winning 323 of them.

Was top 60% of Onyx after only logging three daily ratings. Wish I would have played more, BUT my TJs disappeared on me!

Playtime was around 2 days and 17 hours. (It doesn't tally all of your different playlists up which is really dumb. Hopefully they change that for retail so you can see all of your stats compiled together from each playlist)

top4.png


commend.png


TJ+Trasher.png

And once again, this thing just appears to accumulate only my Standard game stats (so no Invasion/Arena and no Network Test 1 I think as well). Oh well.
 
Z

zewone

Member
Dax01 said:
The current melee system is weak, both in design and in execution, and I think the lack of a lunge contributes to it. It feels flimsy at best, and I don't feel like I'm playing a Spartan, but an ODST. Lunge also encourages melee combat, too. Beating people down was fun in Halo 3: it wasn't fun in the Beta.
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I've never been a fan of quick melee kills in a FPS shooting game. I'm glad they toned it down, and I'll be even happier when they increase the time between melees so people can't just sprint at you and get the double melee kill faster than you can five-shot them.

IMO, melees should be a last ditch effort, not a go-to move.
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
KS Seven X said:
Oh really? You don't really have to look and the way the lunge was in Halo 3, online became frustrating dealing with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnATdmHs0GQ

I really don't like the new melee system either, but I prefer it to Halo 3s where the insane lunge and AR together made it over powered.
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What did that video have to do with the lunge? There wasn't any. Besides, he was right next to the person. Might as well complain about all the other stuff that's shown in that video, like how even though the BR is next to the guy's head, the reticule is red and the bullets will still land.

To test it out, I just booted up the game, and the player being close to the wall had something to do with what was shown. Try that with no walls around, and it doesn't work.
zewone said:
I've never been a fan of quick melee kills in a FPS shooting game. I'm glad they toned it down, and I'll be even happier when they increase the time between melees so people can't just sprint at you and get the double melee kill faster than you can five-shot them.

IMO, melees should be a last ditch effort, not a go-to move.
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Melees are part of the golden tripod that is Halo, and melee is a huge part of Halo. Melee is not suppose to be a "last-ditch effort."
 
F

feel

Member
Kibbles said:
Bungie Aerospace website up.

"Coming Soon". Hmmm.

Joe Staten used the phrase "per audacia ad astra", which is on that site, in this April 29th interview with H.B.O. It apparently means "Through hard work to the stars".


[edit]Whatever it is, it's something that is multiplatform since Joe says this right after this quote from Brian Jarrard.
Click to expand...
activision...
multiplatform development...*

why bungle why?** :_(
*not that I care if more people get to play it, it's just that a dev focusing in a single console is just plain better for the game, and it always shows in the end result

** because urk and co. get to roll into work on lambos now :p
 
Z

zewone

Member
Dax01 said:
Melees are part of the golden tripod that is Halo, and melee is a huge part of Halo. Melee is not suppose to be a "last-ditch effort."
Click to expand...
Who says it has to be a part of it? I've played tons of Halo and melees were never that fun to me.

EDIT: Except Oddball kills, for some reason those are very satisfying. :D
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
zewone said:
Who says it has to be a part of it? I've played tons of Halo and melees were never that fun to me.
Click to expand...
Who says melee has to be a part of the golden tripod that is Halo? Who says that's one of Halo's design philosophies?

...

.....
 
D

Dirtbag

Member
zewone said:
Who says it has to be a part of it? I've played tons of Halo and melees were never that fun to me.

EDIT: Except Oddball kills, for some reason those are very satisfying. :D
Click to expand...

Bungie has said so on numerous occasions. Melee, grenades, guns. It's their philosophy for capturing the 30 seconds of fun. They refer to it as the tripod. Now I think its safe to say they've added AA's.
 
S

Spasm

Member
Matchmaking is working again. I just got into Grab Bag.

Edit: Fileshare is working too.

Edit 2: Aaand Fileshare is down again.
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Wow Trasher you're such a shotty whore lol

<3

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nystofmind23.png


Pretty similar to my Halo 3 stats. Aaaaand I'm spent. Time to get back to some good ol' MLG (Does anyone know if the playlist has been updated with v8 settings?) and some Super Street Fighter IV.
 
T

t4ng0

Member
Hot damn you guys played a lot - I never really figured out the pistol; hit top 30% in Onyx though with only playing like 15 games.

t4ng0.png
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Summary Thoughts

I'll start by noting stuff that I didn't like that's already being taken care of, one way or the other. In approximate order of importance:

  • Grenade Damage/Grenade Availability
  • Targeting Reticle Visibility
  • Directional Fire Indicators
  • Second Immediate Mêlée
  • Vehicle Fragility/Balance
  • Headshot Hitboxes
  • Reduction of Simultaneous Beat downs
  • HUD/Waypoint Clarity
  • Powerhouse Flag Location
  • Vehicle Damage Indicators
  • Party Splitting
  • Sword Base CTF Flag, Spawn, Cap Locations
  • Visual ID of Sword Base Rooms
  • Image Ghosting
  • Stockpile Spoiling
  • Commendations Progression Visible In-Game

That's a pretty big list. I'd say of all the time I spent bitching about the Beta, this list covers at least 60% of it. The Halo 3 Beta set a polish bar that I was - unfairly - expecting Reach to hit, and it took some time to adjust to the fact that with so much new stuff, and so many changes in a much more ambitious game, the Beta was simply in rougher shape than Halo 3's. But from what Bungie has said they've already or are in the process of taking care of, it's clear that they're on top of it.

So it was in large part because of that stuff that I had a very mixed time with the Reach Beta, as my roller coaster of impressions clearly demonstrated. It's hard to separate out specific issues from how they impacted the overall experience. Not being able to tell what direction I was taking fire from, or having the targeting reticule obscured, or the maddening double-mêlée dances really hurt the experience. But I think that if the above list were the entire scope of the changes made to the Beta, that it would be a pretty great game. And while I'd still have (many) issues, Reach would take its place among the other Halo titles as a superb multiplayer experience. So I'm pretty excited for the final game, despite my mixed impressions of the Beta itself, because I know Bungie is addressing the bulk of my issues already. And I generally trust Bungie's design instincts.

With all that said, here's some summary thoughts on a few areas of the Beta, mixing praise and hopefully constructive criticism. I tried to skip or at least lightly touch stuff I've written at length about before.


User Interface & HUD

Bungie continues to set the bar for menu and overall UI design. There's a clarity of purpose and organization to every menu and screen which somehow manages to surpass what I thought was a high water mark in Halo 3. And they're pretty, to boot. Of particular note:

  • The player emblem design interface is a godsend
  • The armory is streamlined and accessible
  • The "tilted" main menu is a brilliant touch, and it prevents a lot of information from being compressed or buried in sub-menus.
  • The File Browser is a slick way to organize content, and it's accessible from any menu outside of a game

The issues already noted earlier about the HUD aside, it's pretty much perfect. It has a massive amount of information to display, much more than Halo 3, and does so quite elegantly.​


Weapons & Balance

I think the weapon sandbox - or rather the slice of it on display in the Beta - is great. Every new weapon had a distinct role and function, and served that role well. My only specific request is that the infantry tracking be removed from the Plasma Launcher. Carpet bombing an area in plasma grenades is quite sufficient, I think. Especially on Sword Base, it seems misplaced: with narrow bridges and hallways, there's not much room to dodge the fire as it is, but it's almost impossible to do so against the tracking (unless you have Armor Lock).

The pistol/DMR split works as advertised, which is to say, very well. (Bloom later.)​


Vehicles

In the OXM podcast, Chris Carney said vehicles were getting another pass by the design team. This is good. As such there's not a lot to say, since they obviously know the Beta implementation of vehicles had issues. Nearly every aspect of them felt off, from controls (the Y button toggle for the Banshee is a mistake) to the fragility to the damage indicators.

But I also had a very hard time getting a feel for their role in combat. On Invasion in particular, they're not especially useful since the objectives are not ones that are supported heavily by vehicles. They were totally outclassed by anti-vehicle measures. And the map made them feel sort of purposeless, despite Boneyard's size. (More on that in a sec.) I hope they have a more clearly defined role in the other MP maps.​


Spawn Systems

There's really three distinct spawn systems in the game:

  • Classic: the system choses your respawn location.
  • Fireteam: spawn on your bro, bro
  • Player selection: choose a respawn from a list of options

What I had expected, when the last two were announced, was they would be influenced by the dynamic spawn system. And the Fireteam spawns are, in theory: you can only spawn when the player is out of combat. Now, obviously it was buggy; I'm assuming the bugs will be worked out. In concept, it works.

What didn't work was the spawn selection process. I see three distinct problems with it:

First, there are not enough of them. Limiting the selection to just a couple locations each helped to keep combat clustered in a few areas of Boneyard.

Second, there's a long pause between spawn location and when you can actually spawn. I hope that in the shipping game, after waiting the requisite timeout, you can just press A to spawn upon selecting the location.

And last, it needs to interact with the dynamic selection. When this was announced, I thought we'd be choosing a region of the map to spawn on, and then the game would determine the best spot in that region based on the classic system (enemy presence, recent deaths, etc.). So were it in place on Valhalla, I'd choose Base or Cave, for example, and the system would find the best place in that area.

In Reach it feels like I'm literally picking that one spot to spawn at, and that makes it far too inflexible. It's going to be easy to camp the (few) enemy spawn locations. I hope this system is really worked on before ship.​


Player Movement

Lots of folks, myself included, have this one covered before. But briefly: this doesn't feel like Halo. And while that in and of itself isn't a bad thing - I do not fear change - it also doesn't work in a Halo game. Halo's combat has always been dynamic, and the restrictions on player movement locks that down. Even ODST, with its similar speed and jump height, felt much more free form. Fates feel much more pre-determined once an encounter begins, unless someone fires up Armor Lock. Conceptually, the slightly longer encounter times would lead to a wider array of outcomes, but restrictions on movement negate the effect. Not being able to navigate even tiny jumps - as Shake outlined - severely damages map flow. And it limits the player's ability to get away from grenades, sharply increasing their potency.

I don't know if this is the case, but it feels like the maps were not designed for such a low jump height. All sorts of ledges and ridges impede movement in what look to be perfectly natural routes. I could go through and point out upward of 20 other areas similar to the one Shake wrote about at length. So if this is to be the final jump height, the maps really need another pass to adjust the geometry accommodate it.

Also, the basic player movement - acceleration, momentum - feels sluggish. This can be addressed without impacting player speed - see ODST as a reference. That game felt distinctly Halo, despite similar jump height and movement speed to Reach. Frankly, Reach's basic gameplay just isn't very fun; just running around and jumping used to be a joy in Halo. It's not in Reach.​


Boneyard

It feels like this is an area taken from campaign and retrofitted into MP, not the other way around. I think someone from Bungie mentioned that was the case, but I might be mistaken. But either way, while gorgeous, vast and absurdly detailed, I don't like it as a MP map. This mostly applies to Invasion.

The main problem is that is just feels formless. The attackers don't have a base to work from. Vehicles don't have a clear role in Invasion: they're not used to transport players to locations, since the Mongoose wasn't in the Beta. They're not used to defend locations (much), since most of the objectives are indoors. There's a huge expanse of room for them to play on, but the battle is always confined to a very small swath of the map at a time. They're mostly used to locate the area players are spawning in and to pound that area (see: issues with the spawn system), or to point their firepower at the Core and blow people up who are near it.

Things like the defender spawn box right next to the Core extraction point feel like they were tacked-on to address game balance issues, but only highlight how unsuited the map -or at least, that section of the map and the objective location - is for the gametype.

The free flowing BTB combat experience is not to be found in either Invasion or Invasion Slayer. Maybe that's by design. But Invasion Slayer was my least favorite gametype in the Beta (followed by Invasion), and on paper, they're a dream for me.​

Mêlée Combat

I think mêlée combat in Reach is flat-out broken. I've lamented the double-mêlée, and that's being taken care of. That in and of itself will improve mêlée combat dramatically, but insufficiently. There are at least two other problems.

The first is the lack of lunge, though not for the obvious reason. Now, I'm all for lunge being minimized. I know a lot of people don't conceptually like it at all, and enjoy Reach's implementation. But I found that with it missing, mêlée combat became sloppy.

The reason: the secondary effect of mêlée lunge was that it centered the target on the screen. In Halo 3, when you smacked someone in the front, the mêlée would end with the two players facing each other and moving apart. At this point a decision has to be made: back up and go for the kill with guns, go in for a second mêlée, concede death and drop a grenade and hope to make the attacker join you. Mêlée combat did not always end the same way.

Here's what happened far too often in my mêlée encounters in the Reach Beta. The example is of two players seeing each other and going in for a simultaneous first strike in which both survive.

  • I spot someone, and move in for the mêlée attack. I land the blow, but the guy I hit was not centered on my screen - they were just to the right. Close enough to fall inside my mêlée attack range, but they're not centered because there's so little (if any?) lunge effect. Because of my forward momentum, both due to movement and due to the heavier feeling in Reach, I bump into the guy I'm attacking.
  • He has a similar experience, and the combined effect is that we are nudged outside of each other's field of view.
  • There's two complicating factors: first, the mêlée attack animation causes the player to lean forward and down slightly. Close up, this can pull a player mostly out of the attacker's field of view, if they're looking straight ahead. And the mêlée attack itself seems to take up a huge proportion of the screen. The combined effect is minimal visual feedback to the fact that I've landed the blow.
  • So now we've hit each other, collided, and bumped each other off to the side. Most of the time, there's this awkward dance as we try to find each other again. Because of the double-mêlée (fixed for fall), we're smacking the mêlée button and looking all over trying to get the other guy into our view. If I'm lucky, I get off the second attack when that player is in my peripheral view.
  • This makes it feel like I just gave someone off to my side a sharp elbow. I check the game log on the left to confirm I got the kill.

That sums up a huge swath of my mêlée combat in Reach. This can largely be addressed by adding in a minimal lunge/centering effect to the mêlée attack.

The last issue is the shield/health system. Now, I've covered that before. So I'll just say that if the goal was to reduce the number of charge'n pop situations, there's a smarter way to go about it. The all or nothing approach in the Beta is pretty detrimental to the gameplay. But the effect can be preserved by making the shield absorb/dissipate a larger proportion of the mêlée attack than health does. So for instance, smack a player with minimal shields and 2/3 health, and you've got them within an inch of their life. Hit someone with full health and half shield, and they're down to 2/3 health. But the only scenario where a melee would kill if a shield was up would be if the player had a sliver of shield left and 1/3 or less health. I think that would be both more fair to the attacker, and more interesting melee encounters.​


Matchmaking and Netcode

Holy shit the net code is good.

The entire matchmaking experience is pretty much flawless. Faster search times, faster loading times, more information about where the status of the matchmaking is, better veto system (it's perfect), great UI.

My primary request: a box to explain the rules of the game types as you select them in the veto screen. In Halo 3, this was something Bungie regretted not including, because the rules behind the emergent gametypes like Griffball and Rocket Race couldn't be explained to players in-game. I really hope there's a way to explain the rules of a game to players in-game.

Also, please don't let the party lead cancel my credit bar from advancing after a game. It's a nice little dessert, even after a losing performance. I want to watch my gold pile up!​


Bloom

I'll keep this quick:

The variables of firing rate, ammo clip size, scope presence and magnification level, damage dealt and innate accuracy are sufficient to balance weapons with. The bloom is not only unnecessary, but makes combat sloppier than it should be. There's an elegance to Halo's combat that is lost with this addition.

Classic Reach Beta situation: two players are near each other and both have the Magnum. Who wins? It won't be the guy who fires methodically, since at close range, you can get most shots to land no matter how fast you pull the trigger. This means both players are motivated to "trigger spam" while pointing in the general area of the opponent's face. Whoever gets the lucky headshot first wins, because pacing your shots means getting off far, far fewer of them.

Two Spartans enter. The lucky one leaves.

An alternate scenario: two players are near each other and both have the Magnum. Who wins? Since the weapons have a fixed firing rate similar to the Halo 1 pistol, but five shots are required for the kill and there's only eight in the clip, there's a dance of strafing and methodical firing to strip the opponents shields without wasting shots. Whoever lands the perfect headshot first wins.

Two Spartans enter. The better one leaves.

That is all.​

Random Stuff & Misc.

The UI - noted and fixed issues aside - is remarkable. Bungie continues to be the best in the industry here.

The sound design is the best in the series.

The graphics are fantastic. I don't know if there's any AA applied or not, but I don't care. Beautiful lighting, incredible textures, and Bungie's trademark love of detail. And it still retains Bungie's signature Halo art style. It's a superb looking game, and the fact that it's going to look this good with so much more going on is just nuts.

Skyboxes: OMGWTFBBQ

Armor Abilities and Load Outs: some tweaks aside, I love these. Very well balance and implemented, and they feel like a natural extension of Halo. Sprint and jet pack in particular feel good (man).

I loved Powerhouse, and didn't care for Sword Base for anything but Slayer and Headhunter. I'd like the bridges to be partly covered to enable one team to get to the other side a touch easier.

Speaking of gametypes, Headhunter and Stockpile are absolutely lovely gametypes. Great additions to the mix. Stockpile in particular is great fun, and has a nice dynamic cadence to each "mini-round" of the game. Can't wait for Team Headhunter.

The saved films, screenshots and bungie.net integration remain glorious. They're a HUGE part of the game and one of the many things that sets Halo titles apart. I'm so glad they were part of the Beta.

The Arena system needs to be explained much more clearly in the final game.

The entire player investment system is great. Credits, The Armory, rank, etc. is the best set up in the series. It motivates but does not pervert player behavior (that I can tell, at any rate).

God bless the Quit Ban.​


Wrap-Up

Reach has the potential to be far and away the best Halo game in the series. Not only is it crazy ambitious, but it does more right than most games even try in the first place. But to join the ranks of Halo 3, mêlée combat, player movement and targeting bloom need to be addressed. Even if my specific suggestions to not manifest, they need to be implemented better than they are now. They do not need to be the same as Halo 3: they need to be as good or better than Halo 3. Otherwise, despite all the improvements around the edges, Reach's core combat is going to settle for being merely good, but not as satisfying or deep as the rest of the series. Different is fine, but it's also got to be at least as good as what its changing. Right now it's not there. I hope it gets there.

And the simple fact that MP is a small slice of what Reach will have to offer is something that's almost intimidating. Can't wait to see the rest of MP, and the rest of the game.

Time to start planning the Official Reach Thread. It's going to be crazy big; I'm thinking three posts.

Thanks for the Beta, Bungie.

(Also, I enjoy debating stuff, but don't mistake a single thing I just said as a fact. It's all opinion. And honestly, having said my piece, I'm inclined to let most of this drop until I get my hands on the final game and judge it as a whole.)
 
D

Demoncarnotaur

Member
Just possibly put in my last game. Ill have to leave for work now, so I'm not sure if it will still be running when I get home, but Ill leave myself signed in just in case. I have to say, the Beta has been a rollercoaster, but for me it was a really fun time. I cant wait til fall.

Edit: Accidently went back to the dashboard so thats it for me. Ah well. :lol

So... Bungie Aerospace... E3 reveal? I would assume it has to do with the multiplatform game.
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
GhaleonEB said:
summary post
Click to expand...
I was going to write my own impressions, but instead, I'll just say "Fuck it" and agree with this entire post. That was easy!

Bloom needs to be redone. It was pretty inconsistent in the Beta. Often times I would get a kill using half a clip, other times it would take the whole clip, and other times I would use more than one clip. Plus, I don't want to have to deal with it in Campaign. Bloom on AR and PR is awesome, though.

Laser needs to be removed.
Gotta get that comment in here somewhere.

Despite my rollercoaster of feeling with the beta, thank you, Bungie, for giving us a taste of what's coming this fall.

Edit: I like Boneyard as a map itself, but I think Invasion is pretty unbalanced in its current form. Vehicles are basically deathtraps, sadly.
 
N

Nutter

Member
Cant say I am going to miss the beta, it had many problems that needed to be addressed.

So will see what changes happen in the final release version.

Outside of that will have an open mind for the new "Aerospace" project. I hope it can bring back the magic that Halo had as a new IP back in 2001.

edit: Dax did you really have to quote his post? he is the first post on the very same page!!
 
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