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Halo |OT13|

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Havok

Member
Shatter is hardly the worst map. Shatter is good, Harvest is just as nice (simple layouts are always appealing), Wreckage is absolute hot, smelly, 2am Taco Bell diarrhea. The map screams camo, PV, and Boltshot abuse (the damage range on that thing is absurd), close quarters with ridiculous amount of hiding spots, and one side of the map is blinding when you look in that direction (which you have to on a regular basis. I'm sure there's more, but I've been quitting out whenever that map is chosen by the unwashed majority. Wreckage is right up there with The Cage as one of the worst maps to ever disgrace the Halo franchise.
After playing a bunch of it, I just don't see what gametypes Wreckage was designed for. The asymmetry and Halo 4's atrocious spawn system ruin CTF on it, Ball consists of camping either on the hill or in the red base ramp corner, King has insane framerate issues (but is otherwise acceptable).

Harvest is pretty obviously a CTF map and is okay, though again, the spawn system has ruined several games of it for me. It manages to have some interesting routes but I definitely see top glass camping being a problem in the future. Then again, the issues I've run into with that almost entirely stem from the CTF changes, which I think are a net negative in the first place.

Shatter is an interesting one. It has so much potential with the right gametypes. The few games of CTF Shatter I've managed to play have been some of the most fun I've had with the entire game. It has flag routes that are more than "Do I go into this hallway or the other hallway?" with the ramp/tunnel to mid or the teleporter to the seconary base. But it almost never shows up, leaving King of the Hill and Extraction as the predominant gametypes on it, neither of which I think work well on it. It could use a Warthog or two, as well.
 
Bad netcode, horrible gunplay, boring gameplay, low population.

Not sure what I'm missing out on.

Amazing campaign. The Ark and The Covenant are my favorite Halo campaign levels ever.

Insane graphics. Slow-mo dat Theater mode. I think it looks better than the washed-out and blurry Halo Reach. And it has the best water engine in all Halo games.

Armor. You can have a fucking katana on your Spartan. A fucking katana on your Spartan. A futuristic super soldier with a traditional Japanese sword on this back.
 
Amazing campaign. The Ark and The Covenant are my favorite Halo campaign levels ever.

Insane graphics. Slow-mo dat Theater mode. I think it looks better than the washed-out and blurry Halo Reach. And it has the best water engine in all Halo games.

Armor. You can have a fucking kitana on your Spartan. A fucking kitana on your Spartan.
I prefer Mileena on my Spartan.
 

WJD

Member
Shatter is hardly the worst map. Shatter is good, Harvest is just as nice (simple layouts are always appealing), Wreckage is absolute hot, smelly, 2am Taco Bell diarrhea. The map screams camo, PV, and Boltshot abuse (the damage range on that thing is absurd), close quarters with ridiculous amount of hiding spots, and one side of the map is blinding when you look in that direction (which you have to on a regular basis. I'm sure there's more, but I've been quitting out whenever that map is chosen by the unwashed majority. Wreckage is right up there with The Cage as one of the worst maps to ever disgrace the Halo franchise.

They can both be bad in my eyes. I actually really like Harvest except there's maybe too many Warthogs.
 
Insane graphics.
Lordhoodhalo.jpg


Those graphics certainly were insane.
 
It makes me lament the highly sequel focused nature we're in but if they could've just stuck to Halo 3 and kept patching and adding map packs, we'd be much better off.
 
It makes me lament the highly sequel focused nature we're in but if they could've just stuck to Halo 3 and kept patching and adding map packs, we'd be much better off.

dude I have had this opinion for years. Totally agree.

Look at World of Warcraft or the Source engine for example. Mists of Pandaria and Portal 2 look sexy as hell, and these are ancient (albeit heavily updated) engines.
 
Me - I'd like to order a cheeseburger.
Waiter - what would like on it?
Me - just a plain cheeseburger, no veggies please.
Waiter - I'll see what we can do.
*10 minutes pass
Waiter - here's your cheeseburger.
Me - umm, there's veggies on here?
Waiter - oh, well it's still a cheeseburger.
Me - well I didn't want any veggies.
Waiter - you can just try removing them.
Me - I can't, it looks like someone fused them to the burger.
Waiter - if you don't mind waiting, I'll see if my chefs can get a fix worked out.
Me - I am kinda in a hurry, not to mention the fact that the last restaurant ruined my cheeseburger as well.
Waiter - well if you just trust us and stick around we will cook another one up for you.

Custom games without the option to disable sprint and instant respawn is like gluing the gerkhin to the patty.

Another one bites the dust.

Still really enjoying Team Regicide a lot, it really focuses each team (even randoms sometimes!). Although I feel like I fail my team as the King most of the time.

Team Regicide is unexpectedly decent. In terms of 4v4 I definitely prefer it to Infinity Slayer.

Out of yesterday's long article, we get 165 words about the changes to matchmaking and nearly nine times that much detailing one of the softest developer interviews I've ever read.

Yeah, that interview wasn't particularly informative or helpful in terms of giving us an insight into the MM playlist management. A lot of repetition featuring the words 'experience', 'most popular', 'bugs' and 'exploits'. They used a lot of words in the interview to impart not very much at all. I regularly feel that way when reading 343 employee interviews. However, I think that may be because

You can tell how much closer MS holds 343.

Agreed and I think the blizzard of confusion surrounding so many issues in the lead up to launch and beyond can be attributed to MS rather than 343. Bungie kicked out a lot and parted on sour terms with MS and I don't think 343 has anywhere near the levels of autonomy that Bungie possessed. Sometimes it seems like MS would prefer Halo decision makers to be as faceless and bland as possible.

It [predictable ordnance] would still be too much carnage and heavy ordnance for my preferences, but it would be an improvement and reduce the element of chance in the game.

Fixed weapon spawns would really go a long ways in other modes. That, some BTB objectives and flinch dying a painful death would probably get me back into the game.

It's probably annoying for those I'm playing with but am I the only one who feels the need to read aloud their ordnance options as they're displayed on screen? The classic:

"Promethean nades, Needler or Overshield" Fucking bullshit"

The exultant (and exceedingly rare):

"Beam Rifle!"

I think personal ordnance is so contentious in this game because it is both unfair and outside of the players control. Not particularly great traits to base a game mode around. Your suggestion would certainly be an improvement. Mario Kart style power weapon distribution in the core Team Slayer playlist for Halo is unbelievable really. Good job I enjoy the game despite these extremely questionable decisions. Generally stay away from Infinity stuff though. I cannot understand why BTB is so popular (must be because the majority of the maps are designed for BTB) as I find it to be the most rage inducing playlist.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Custom games without the option to disable sprint and instant respawn is like gluing the gerkhin to the patty.



Team Regicide is unexpectedly decent. In terms of 4v4 I definitely prefer it to Infinity Slayer.



Yeah, that interview wasn't particularly informative or helpful in terms of giving us an insight into the MM playlist management. A lot of repetition featuring the words 'experience', 'most popular', 'bugs' and 'exploits'. They used a lot of words in the interview to impart not very much at all. I regularly feel that way when reading 343 employee interviews. However, I think that may be because



Agreed and I think the blizzard of confusion surrounding so many issues in the lead up to launch and beyond can be attributed to MS rather than 343. Bungie kicked out a lot and parted on sour terms with MS and I don't think 343 has anywhere near the levels of autonomy that Bungie possessed. Sometimes it seems like MS would prefer Halo decision makers to be as faceless and bland as possible.



It's probably annoying for those I'm playing with but am I the only one who feels the need to read aloud their ordnance options as they're displayed on screen? The classic:

"Promethean nades, Needler or Overshield" Fucking bullshit"

The exultant (and exceedingly rare):

"Beam Rifle!"

I think personal ordnance is so contentious in this game because it is both unfair and outside of the players control. Not particularly great traits to base a game mode around. Your suggestion would certainly be an improvement. Mario Kart style power weapon distribution in the core Team Slayer playlist for Halo is unbelievable really. Good job I enjoy the game despite these extremely questionable decisions. Generally stay away from Infinity stuff though. I cannot understand why BTB is so popular (must be because the majority of the maps are designed for BTB) as I find it to be the most rage inducing playlist.

If infinity Slayer was really like Mario Kart the deadl last players would get a weapon that kills anyone who you can see on your screen.

...or something like that, in not sure what the Halo equivalent of a blue turtle shell and comeback AI would be. All I know is ordnance drops aren't close.
 
It's a tribute to what MW2 stood for that it's still in the top 10 after coming out in 2009. That game was the definitive COD.

It's sad that there's four COD's in the top 10, but Reach has fallen to 16th and H3 off the chart entirely. What does that say about the direction of the two franchises?

I can't say I liked MW2's MP compared to the original and MW3 (and BO2, haven't played BO1), though. It had seemed to go way overboard with the kill streaks.

Oh my bad. Yeah, for competitive and hopefully all future games. When I had personal ordnance in my semi-competitive settings, it was DMR/SAW/Speed Boost. Always set to that. I considered those to be more mid-tier power weapons, but for general MM the DMR is a starting weapon, so I don't know what would take its place. IMO, it should be a set constant.

This is the change I wish would happen. Make personal ordnance mid-tier weapons, while global ordnance is still high-power weapons.
 
After playing a bunch of it, I just don't see what gametypes Wreckage was designed for. The asymmetry and Halo 4's atrocious spawn system ruin CTF on it, Ball consists of camping either on the hill or in the red base ramp corner, King has insane framerate issues (but is otherwise acceptable).

Harvest is pretty obviously a CTF map and is okay, though again, the spawn system has ruined several games of it for me. It manages to have some interesting routes but I definitely see top glass camping being a problem in the future. Then again, the issues I've run into with that almost entirely stem from the CTF changes, which I think are a net negative in the first place.

Shatter is an interesting one. It has so much potential with the right gametypes. The few games of CTF Shatter I've managed to play have been some of the most fun I've had with the entire game. It has flag routes that are more than "Do I go into this hallway or the other hallway?" with the ramp/tunnel to mid or the teleporter to the seconary base. But it almost never shows up, leaving King of the Hill and Extraction as the predominant gametypes on it, neither of which I think work well on it. It could use a Warthog or two, as well.
I keep wondering if 343 will give us the option to remove the waypoint over the flag carrier. Harvest could really benefit from that, though I have to admit the CTF games I've played on it have been pretty fast-paced and high scoring.

You might want to try the CTF playlist. DLC has mercifully been showing up when I played it last night, which I'm very happy with.

They can both be bad in my eyes. I actually really like Harvest except there's maybe too many Warthogs.
yeah, they spawn too often. Seems like they're on the same timer as the Ghosts and Mongoose, which isn't good.
 

Havok

Member
I keep wondering if 343 will give us the option to remove the waypoint over the flag carrier. Harvest could really benefit from that, though I have to admit the CTF games I've played on it have been pretty fast-paced and high scoring.

You might want to try the CTF playlist. DLC has mercifully been showing up when I played it last night, which I'm very happy with.
Yeah, that's what we primarily play and it's been showing up a decent amount, which is a nice change. I'd wager that after the 18th that percentage drops like a brick, though. Like I said, I do enjoy Harvest, just not spawning in the "ring of death" (343 map designer's words, not mine) over and over and over again with 3 dudes at top glass with DMRs pinging me immediately. Like so much of Halo 4 though, when it works, it works well and lots of fun can be had. Shatter and Harvest are probably the two maps I've had the best CTF experience in, but given that the next best map for CTF is probably Adrift even with its camping (in my eyes, at least), it might say more about the on-disc objective experience than anything.

If 343 ever wants to introduce Big Team Objective, that waypoint will have to go, period. Imagine Ragnarok or something like that where you're the flag guy - there would be no chance of not being instantly melted from 3 different directions as soon as you step out of the base. Even then, objectives that work in big team would be...CTF and maybe Extraction? Probably not King, definitely not Oddball. The gametype situation in Halo 4 is a bummer for someone like me.
 
Faces needed a lot of work, but lighting, art style and the sheer scope of everything has yet to be matched in a Halo game.

Bungie faces always looked like ass. This example is more fair.

You can say what you want about these textures, but the art design in Halo 3 is unmatched.
I'm just joshin' fellas, though I'd hardly call a theater mode screen of Halo 3 "fair."

Though if you ask me, environment art in Halo 4 surpasses 3, and Reach had the best looking Elites.
 

Omni

Member
Wrote a multiplayer review for the Ascendant Justice forums, but the whole thing doesn't need to be transcribed. This image pretty much sums up my feelings:

Unless you played 4000 games of Halo 2 in a month, that graph means absolutely nothing. I'm not trying to dispute the fact that obviously your interest in the series has gone down with each title, that graph is just a poor way of demonstrating it.
 
How much time do you spend gaming now compared to back in 2001?
Exactly. A time when a lot of us were in high school or college and didn't have full-time jobs and wives and kids. My matches decline as well when you look at the stats.

Halo 2: 4,988
Halo 3: 1,238
Reach: 622
Halo 4: ~400
 
Exactly. A time when a lot of us were in high school or college and didn't have full-time jobs and wives and kids. My matches decline as well when you look at the stats.

Halo 2: 4,988
Halo 3: 1,238
Reach: 622
Halo 4: ~400

So you're saying we need to stand up and fight back for our gaming time!?
 
Wrote a multiplayer review for the Ascendant Justice forums, but the whole thing doesn't need to be transcribed. This image pretty much sums up my feelings:

This graph isn't good.

You should have compared the amount of online games played in a month for each title.

Also, no matter which Halo game I play in a LAN, I always have a blast. I guess that's just me and my friends though.
 
You played Halo 4 a month after release less than Reach in it's lifespan? Ya don't say!
How much time do you spend gaming now compared to back in 2001?
Unless you played 4000 games of Halo 2 in a month, that graph means absolutely nothing. I'm not trying to dispute the fact that obviously your interest in the series has gone down with each title, that graph is just a poor way of demonstrating it.
Undoubtedly, it's not a fair comparison.

I also, as BlueScrote pointed out, spend considerably less time gaming now. Through the first 8 months or so of Reach, though, I still wasn't a part of the full time work force, it was just becoming clearer and clearer that Halo had diverged from what I had fallen in love with in the first place.

Bottom line is I don't enjoy Halo 4. I don't like 343i's handling of the multiplayer aspects of the franchise and the focal points of their strategy (which are made pretty clear by the inclusion of Zombies and Grifball to the detriment of Assault, 1 Flag CTF, and even the Objective gametypes that did ship - instant respawn on KotH and Oddball is a joke), so I'm moving back to the other games that deserve my admittedly more limited gaming time (Red Dead, Deus Ex, Skyrim).
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
Hmm, number look up?

In 2004 when 2 came out I was in college, same with 3. Reach and 4 I'm in the working world. No significant other though, which does give me more time to play games. In the Halo 2 days I lived in the dorms, which is why it's such a high number. Nothing to do.

Halo 2: 4,135
Halo 3: 1,746
Reach: 1,204
Halo 4: 300 (and counting)
 
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