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Halo: Reach |OT7| What are They to Say Now?
- Thread starter The Librarian
- Start date
bobs...onGaf
Member
vhfive said:
Skip The Flood, read the other ones. Fall of Reach was amazing. I didnt really enjoy The Cole Protocol and Contact Harvest as much as the others. The stories in Evolution's is well worth a read.
EDIT: But read them after the 4 books Dani mentioned.
The Real Napsta
Member
vhfive said:
Skip the flood and
Contact Harvest
Slightly Live
Dirty tag dodger
vhfive said:
Fall of Reach -> First Strike -> Ghosts of Onyx -> Glasslands
Those four books will bring you up to speed in that order.
Then maybe try some Evolutions - lots of sweet short stories. And Contact Harvest - the best standalone Halo novel.
I would suggest Cryptum too but it's part one of a trilogy and you'll be left hanging until the rest are published.
The Cole Protocol is nice for some Keyes backstory if you want it but it's a bit flat and the Flood is a novelisation of the first Halo game - totally skippable.
Tha Robbertster
Member
vhfive said:
I think The flood is pretty skipable; I personally don't hate it but most stuff isn't new and is just what you play in Halo CE.
The books I'd recommend are The fall of Reach, First strike, Ghost of Onyx, Contact Harvest and Evolutions.
I liked all Halo books but these are the ones I enjoyed most.
squidhands
Member
Finally got to listen to the Sparkcast. What was the final prognosis on Dan Ayoub's tapeworm (or lack thereof)?
Also seems a little strange that the matchmaking algorithm had to be re-worked to increase the DLC pairings. Seems like that should have been a no-brainer, but I know little to nothing on how all that behind-the-curtains stuff actually works.
Also seems a little strange that the matchmaking algorithm had to be re-worked to increase the DLC pairings. Seems like that should have been a no-brainer, but I know little to nothing on how all that behind-the-curtains stuff actually works.
Zeouterlimits
Member
Skip : The Cole Protocolvhfive said:
Recommended: The Fall of Reach
Cryptum
Contact Harvest
Evolutions
Ghosts of Onyx
Unsure : Glasslands (too soon for me to judge, but has Halo 4 bits)
First Strike (not hugely important, fills in a few gaps e.g. what happened to Master Chief after he blew up the Pillar of Aututmn)
The Flood (unimportant, but has some nice Flood stuff)
We should be finding out later today. :lolsquidhands said:
The Henery
Member
umad
Reach was good today. Got my first Reach ffa perfection (in the first game) and got a dirty overkill in snipes too. Need Prisoner classic gameplay now.
lybertyboy
Thinks the Evil Empire is just misunderstood.
squidhands said:
Dan has a doctor's apointment today. I think we actually made him paranoid about Kobayashi.
It actually makes perfect sense that we'd need to adjust the matchmaking search options to increase DLC pairings. Without going into too much detail the system had been set up to weight connection speed above all other considerations. What we've done is slightly lower that weighting while increasing the consideration for DLC and skill levels.
bobs...onGaf
Member
thee henery said:
Im not sure im a fan of the fridge or tshirt,
but I am pretty jelous of the game you have in your hands.The Henery
Member
bobs99 ... said:Im not sure im a fan of the fridge or tshirt,
Not me bro, don't fucking insult me.
:lol
Speaking of books...I hit a wall 200 pages into Cryptum yesterday.
but the narrative has be absolutely bewildered. It might be a while before I pick it up again; it's been a very long time since I read a book that cared so little about supplying context for the events it's describing.
Cryptum came highly recommended so I don't see myself picking up any subsequent books at this point. It's been a hugely frustrating read.
So, the Didact and his three buddies meet a fellow old dude in his decaying fortress ship. Then they leave and head down to the planet. Only they get ambushed along the way, ship destroyed, captured.
I don't know what they were looking for, why it was important, who captured them, why, why the old buddy betrayed them, or have the slightest idea what is going on.
The mentions of the Ark, Flood and the appearance (oddly timely) of a Halo ring are welcome bits of familiarity to latch onto,
I don't know what they were looking for, why it was important, who captured them, why, why the old buddy betrayed them, or have the slightest idea what is going on.
The mentions of the Ark, Flood and the appearance (oddly timely) of a Halo ring are welcome bits of familiarity to latch onto,
Cryptum came highly recommended so I don't see myself picking up any subsequent books at this point. It's been a hugely frustrating read.
Hypertrooper
Member
I'm using the talk about Thee henery's fridge to draw attention to the Monster Energy competition. If you are Halo-fan(obiviously every cool Halo competition is nearly US only and it is understandable. Unfortunately sigh), you can win Xbox 360 250gb with Halo CEA, 12 Gold Membership...
and...
wait for it...
and a cool looking Halo CEA fridge? Nice, right? Yeah.
The hitch: It is a Facebook competition. If you want to take part, here you go.
and...
wait for it...
and a cool looking Halo CEA fridge? Nice, right? Yeah.
The hitch: It is a Facebook competition. If you want to take part, here you go.
The Real Napsta
Member
bobs99 ... said:Im not sure im a fan of the fridge or tshirt,
You already have MW2, why be jealous?
ncsuDuncan
Member
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) -> Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein) -> 2001 (Arthur C. Clarke) -> Ringworld (Larry Niven)vhfive said:
Zeouterlimits
Member
That feels very intentional.GhaleonEB said:
Bornstellar is almost as clue-less, the humans most definetely so.
I really think you should just sit down and finish the book in an hour or two. Just to put it to bed and see how you ultimately feel about it.
I really think you should just sit down and finish the book in an hour or two. Just to put it to bed and see how you ultimately feel about it.
I did feel very similarly mind, it is paced very confusingly and is especially slow for the first 2/3s of the book, before things come together.
Ultimately, I'm glad it's not as cookie cutter action adventure as the other books have been. I enjoyed having to stop and try to parse what was really going on.
squidhands
Member
Ah, now that makes a lot of sense; I wasn't aware that speed had such precedence. Thanks for the clarification.lybertyboy said:
Dan should be a little paranoid; no man that age has high metabolism, lol
lybertyboy
Thinks the Evil Empire is just misunderstood.
squidhands said:
LOL, "that age."
bobs...onGaf
Member
thee henery said:
lol. Fair enough, that did seem a little odd.
The Real Napsta said:
MW2 sucked. Im half expecting MW3 to go the same way, but im jelous of the dude who has it a day before me.
I actually think MW3 will be a better game than Reach, Black Ops sure is
I keep trying to knock it off, but I find I can only handle it in small doses. Yesterday I did about 30 pages and set it aside after the sequence I described, shaking my head.Zeouterlimits said:
I'm sure I'll finish it at some point, but it really is the most frustrating book I've gotten that far into.
The Real Napsta
Member
bobs99 ... said:lol. Fair enough, that did seem a little odd.
MW2 sucked. Im half expecting MW3 to go the same way, but im jelous of the dude who has it a day before me.
I actually think MW3 will be a better game than Reach, Black Ops sure is
Blops might be better if the netcode didn't drop shots like it was it's job. That game is a complete joke online.
bobs...onGaf
Member
The Real Napsta said:
Thats quite true, it was a very well balanced game though. I think Blops with good netcode would have been amazing.
MW2 was a absolute clusterfuck though, I would take Blops with its poor netcode any day over MW2.
To be fair I should clarify, MW3 has the potential to be more fun than Reach, but no doubt IW would have put so much junk in that it will just end up being another MW2
ncsuDuncan
Member
Yep, Ender's Game is fantastic. I don't agree with OSC's politics (even if he's friendly in person), but I've enjoyed reading all of the Ender series, especially Ender's Shadow and Speaker for the Dead.vhfive said:
Ringworld is great, it's interesting to compare that structure to a Halo. The similarities are interesting, but the differences are REALLY fascinating. Particularly in terms of scale.
I need to read more of the Ringworld series. I've been meaning to read more Dune novels as well, but as soon as I finish Glasslands I'll start Game of Thrones and that series will take a while.
thezerofire
Banned
yes!lybertyboy said:
ElRenoRaven
Member
GhaleonEB said:
It's ok man. I know I'll take a lot of shit but I really hated Cryptum for the most part. There were good bits but for the most part I just can't stand it. So don't feel bad. Sadly I'll probably buy the rest in that series to see what happens with the few tiny bits I did like about it.
On a side note though don't be hating on The Flood people. That novel was actually pretty good in that it gave some behind the scenes stuff. It has some parts that actually deal with what others were doing while you were busy on the Halo. Sure the bulk of it's the game but there is enough stuff in it that compliments the game that makes it worth a read in my opinion. Course I feel that all the Halo Novels are worth a read in that each one has something in it that you will like. Even the one's you hate will have an interesting side story or character in them.
The Librarian
Banned
First Strike is worth it for the fantastic array of secondary characters that Nylund introduces: Whitcomb, Haverson, Locklear, Polaski, and Sgt. Johnson. The chemistry between these characters and the Chief/other Spartans is what made the book.Zeouterlimits said:
ncsuDuncan
Member
The impression I got was that the BTB playlist in CEA would have both Vanilla and Classic gametypes. I hope I was wrong.FyreWulff said:
I imagine we'll get the full details on the playlists this Wednesday.
ncsuDuncan said:
That's going to be 85% bloom and Classic, not Vanilla.
Striker said:
Also this.
Might as well make Big Team the Premium Battle since the Anniversary playlists will be there for the DLC-whores to get their fix.
That way we can regularly get Highlands, Timberlands, and Headlong under normal Reach settings.
Downside would be losing a reliable way to get Invasion Breakpoint since the normal Invasion playlist cannot be made DLC-required.
ncsuDuncan
Member
Ah. We have different definitions of Vanilla then.FyreWulff said:
To me, Vanilla just means AAs and Bloom are both present. I suspect 343 may have the same definition, so you might want to prepare yourself for the possiblity of 85% bloom being made the standard for "Vanilla Reach".
ElzarTheBam
Member
daedalius said:
Same here bro.
ncsuDuncan said:
When you crouch in 85% you have zero bloom on your shots on the DMR. You'll see the reticule expand but it'll reset before you can even shoot again.
85% is very much not Vanilla Reach for that reason alone. I don't care about the AA changes since I die with armor lock anyway so a nerf is going to make me die even more and Evade is still there and very much overpowered, the sword buff is silly but whatever, 85% bloom changes things too much for me to accept it as standard Reach.
Changing the DMR's RoF instead keeps the sandbox intact while letting people avoid actually learning how to use the weapon, letting it keep the RoF while reducing it's bloom starts screwing with the sandbox.
We were told Vanilla Reach would remain available into the future, and I'm going to hold them to that as long as they refuse to RoF-lock the reduced bloom DMRs.
squidhands
Member
I'm probably close to his age (38), and my metabolism has come to a screeching halt. If I eat a bunch of hot dogs, I'll be running that off for weeks. :-\lybertyboy said:
Same. I'm 34 and have to really watch it. I put on 10lbs earlier this year letting my diet slide a bit. I recalibrated, and had to moderate my diet and add more excecise to slowly drop it off. I'm doing well now, but it's frustrating making constant trade offs. Especially around the holidays; I'm so used to not having to hold back, I have to stop and remind myself I'm not 20 any longer. A day or two of indulging and I'm cutting back for a week or so to compensate.squidhands said:
Aging. :\
ncsuDuncan
Member
They said Vanilla Reach. They never said 100% bloom. That statement was aimed at people worried about the Classic, no-bloom, no-AA settings being implemented across all playlists.FyreWulff said:
I think it comes down to the TU Beta playlist feedback. If the majority of the Reach population is willing to accept 85% as still within the bounds of "Vanilla Reach" there is no reason why it shouldn't be across all "Vanilla" playlists.
I think it's an all-or-nothing deal. Either 85% stays in the TU Beta playlist ONLY, or it spreads to ALL of the Reach playlists/gametypes that feature precision weapons (except Classic and MLG, of course). Otherwise you run into the situation where a player doesn't know if it's 85% or 100%. With ZB Slayer you know it's 0%, with the TU Beta playlist you know going in that settings are going to be weird because it's Beta.
I don't really care either way, I just think you're going to be disappointed if you think 100% was guaranteed. I just want the CEA's Classic gametypes to be popular enough to warrant more playlists devoted to that style. Right now it looks like there won't be a Classic playlist with Reflection/Hemorrhage/etc. or any of the old Team Classic forge variants.
The Librarian
Banned
What? People in HaloGAF are getting old?
I took "vanilla Reach" to mean the original experience, untouched by the TU changes.ncsuDuncan said:
Regardless, I'm one of those guys hoping vanilla Reach (as so defined) gets tweaked, particularly by the inclusion of the AA tweaks.
From a playlist management perspective, it gets really messy really fast if there is that kind of bleed-through of TU features, though. It's going to be tough to communicate changes to players - what mix of tweaks are in what playlists - if there is overlap between "classic" and "vanilla" Reach playlists.
Also, I got through all of Winter Contingency today, hoping to find that last Moa. I'm assuming there are exactly 15, as I saw Jorge mow one down in the last encounter before we left for the communications outpost after I'd killed 14 of them, and never found another. The jerk.
Tomorrow, which is one week before the game ships per GAF rules. I'm 90% done, just some text to draft and tweaks to make. I'm waiting on m0dus' art. I'll ping him later today and see how it's coming, we were both working toward an 8th publication.Ken said:
It's a simpler, more compact (single post) OT, which I think I'll do going forward. Reach's was a bit overboard. :lol
The AA's in the TU playlist with 85% bloom isn't even bothersome, at least for the most part.
What 343 needs to do is wipe Evade out of the game unless it is used for Invasion or in Elite Slayer. Shit is annoying to play against, and lately I've mostly played BTB. Why Bungie opted to go to Evade and not Hologram after removing the Drop Shield (Team Objective) completely boggles my mind.
What 343 needs to do is wipe Evade out of the game unless it is used for Invasion or in Elite Slayer. Shit is annoying to play against, and lately I've mostly played BTB. Why Bungie opted to go to Evade and not Hologram after removing the Drop Shield (Team Objective) completely boggles my mind.