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Halo |OT15| Beta-tested, GAF approved

Homeboyd

Member
Went to a buddies house yesterday, loaded up forge island. Put down a bunch of trees. They all cast shadows. Looked good.
And they're animated. I wish they'd let you lay down "patches" of different textures; grass, snow, etc... Like a coliseum wall, but instead of grey, it's sand on one side, or water... Wouldn't have to have an editor for that.
 

Madness

Member
Honestly, I think 343 is too much of a corporate studio. Run by people who seemingly haven't ever been in the trenches while a studio was built from the success of their games.

I don't know them personally, but from what I read of Bonnie and Kiki's experience, a lot of it is primarily work at Microsoft in the 90's and then senior management staff during the 2000's. They were either producers, managers, etc.

Not that there is anything wrong with it, but Microsoft has always been to corporate for it's own good. A lot of the people there don't understand true games development and, by proxy, don't understand Halo.

How many studios have we seen get bought by Microsoft and the quality drops? How many are forced to make games they didn't have any passion behind and they suck? I'll use Twisted Pixel, StalkerUKCG gave me a code for the maw which I've been playing and I had played the hell out of splosion man, and after Microsoft bought them, came a ms. Splosion man that was alright but nowhere as good as the original and then Gunslinger, an on rails kinect only shooter that was laughably short.

And it's always like this, after the success of Midtown Madness, Microsoft wanted Angel Studios to keep churning sequels, but after the second one, they wanted to make other games, so because they were a small studio, they decided to get bought by Rockstar instead and became their San Diego branch which made games like Midnight Club and Red Dead Redemption recently.

They wanted the same for Bizarre Creations to keep making Project Gotham games, but even they got tired of Microsoft and rather than be bought out by them, got bought out by Activision.

Not to ramble again, and it's not that the head of the studios are women at all. It's the culture of Microsoft and the nature of games development. If Lorraine Mclees aka Mehve from Bungie was the head of the studio at 343, she would be ten times more suited to run the place and hire people who would be suited for Halo than internal Microsoft employees.

Any thoughts? Am I wildly off base in what I'm attempting to say?
 

Karl2177

Member
I don't know you

Edit: hooo boy, I'm creepin up that bracket ladder!
Sadly though, it is impossible for you to win. You don't have enough unique points from any of the top 5 contenders and you're too many points behind. If I did the math correct, it's only possible for vhfive, blood, myself, hydra, yuhas, and cyren to win. Maybe Duncan too, but I'm not 100% sure on that one.
 

m23

Member
How many studios have we seen get bought by Microsoft and the quality drops? How many are forced to make games they didn't have any passion behind and they suck? I'll use Twisted Pixel, StalkerUKCG gave me a code for the maw which I've been playing and I had played the hell out of splosion man, and after Microsoft bought them, came a ms. Splosion man that was alright but nowhere as good as the original and then Gunslinger, an on rails kinect only shooter that was laughably short.

Ms. Splosion man was awesome. You suck.
 

Homeboyd

Member
Sadly though, it is impossible for you to win. You don't have enough unique points from any of the top 5 contenders and you're too many points behind. If I did the math correct, it's only possible for vhfive, blood, myself, hydra, yuhas, and cyren to win. Maybe Duncan too, but I'm not 100% sure on that one.
I was out a long time ago.. I was sitting in 3rd or 2nd to last this whole time. Just happy to finally be making some moves!
 

CyReN

Member
hG6nAZW.png
 

Madness

Member
Ms. Splosion man was awesome. You suck.

Never said it wasn't. I don't know, I played the hell out of the first and while gameplay was expanded, I didn't think it was as good. I think the game sold less than 1/5th what the original did.

And it's funny I mentioned it, because Microsoft is bringing ms. splosion man soon to iOS and Steam to bring more sales.
 

CyReN

Member
Seems he is confused about what they are complaining about.

It was referenced to this thread, not sure if it was posted here:

To 343i, Hi. My name is Geoff. I tell you my given name so that you realize I am a real person, to humanize myself. A person that has thoughts, feelings, goals, ambitions, desires and is also disabled. Got your full attention now, do I? Hopefully I do.

I posted some thoughts over in another thread about the GDC Conference. I will reiterate some of them here and add in others as I see fit so that you understand the image of a spartan in a wheelchair paired with Josh Holmes tweets and his comments at GDC, are exceptionally offensive.

I play games to escape my daily life. So I can think and focus on something, anything, other than the constant pain I am in and things I can no longer do. I do not need to have a company, that took over one of my favorite franchises in gaming, remind me none to subtly of the fact I am disabled. What I expect from you is a high quality product that provides me entertainment and value for my money. Not some off the cuff tweets and a graphic that is obnoxious.

That you found it "acceptable" to compare, or whatever label you want to slap on it, things being accessible for those with disabilities to accessibility in a game is appalling. What's more, one of your employees goes on to tweet "Lighten Up" in reference to that same image that I found so offensive. You have effectively belittled people with disabilities with this comparison and reduced the hardships and suffering we endure on a daily basis to a "joke". I can tell you I am NOT laughing and I am sure others like me are not as well. Honestly, I thought as a society we had moved past this level of insensitivity and disregard.

Whether or not you choose to apologize or acknowledge this incredible blunder will determine how myself, and others, view your integrity and character as individuals and as a company. For my part, I am deeply disappointed, disgusted and upset. I hope that you, and your employees, can understand why.

- To my fellow Community Members: It is my hope and wish that you help to make 343i aware of exactly how offensive this actually is, and perhaps, respond to it. Many thanks.

Props for him responding so quickly though.

and:

CylyGMI.png
 

m23

Member
Never said it wasn't. I don't know, I played the hell out of the first and while gameplay was expanded, I didn't think it was as good. I think the game sold less than 1/5th what the original did.

And it's funny I mentioned it, because Microsoft is bringing ms. splosion man soon to iOS and Steam to bring more sales.

Sales difference may have been because Splosion Man was on sale for like 160msp one time. Splosion Man was great when I first played it, but I think Ms. Splosion Man stepped it up quite a bit aside from the annoying loading screens. Both are great games and I've played the hell out of both of them.
 
It doesn't seem like they will go back to the roots of Halo in the future going from what they say each time. It's going to be hard to get the next xbox because Halo was the main reason why i got one along with gears but even Gears is ruined.

I know it doesn't seem likely, I just don't know :/. It's gonna be weird not buying Halo games anymore though.


things like this give me hope
 

Tawpgun

Member
The thing with halo 1-reach, yes even reach, is that the base game. Team slayer, team objective, was still competetively viable. Not super mlg competetive, but you get the point.

With halo 4 being as random and cluttered as it was, the base gameplay was chaos.
 

Madness

Member
I knew the image would offend people who were disabled or handicapped.

A much better picture would have been a master chief in diapers to get his point across. Or Master Chief riding a bike with training wheels. Sure fans would have gone ballistic (they did anyway) but no one would have been offended.
 

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
I knew the image would offend people who were disabled or handicapped.

A much better picture would have been a master chief in diapers to get his point across. Or Master Chief riding a bike with training wheels. Sure fans would have gone ballistic (they did anyway) but no one would have been offended.

Baby Chief would be awesome.
 
I have internally competing views on the whole thing. I can see how an image like that may be mistaken as offensive but at the same time no intent of that nature was behind it. In fact quiet the opposite if I'm reading things correctly. It begs the question how far should we go to be politically correct. I'm all for fair treatment but everything someone does will offended someone.

The symbol used was a modified variant of the accessibility symbol its intentions are no further mocking the disabled than the image already does. Halo has included a Blind Skull since Halo 2 should the Visually Impaired community be offended?

Props to Josh for apologizing but I think the main issue I have with it is that the subject was not worthy of that kind of backlash (however the "Lighten Up" comment may have been)

Maybe id feel differently if i was suffered a disability that made me wheel chair bound who knows.
 
Also removing loadouts/perks/etc would help. It makes the game more competitive and makes it more accessible. Understanding that everyone spawns with the same weapon and base traits is a lot less confusing than having a ton of perks and starting weapons to sift through.
 

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
Also removing loadouts/perks/etc would help. It makes the game more competitive and makes it more accessible. Understanding that everyone spawns with the same weapon and base traits is a lot less confusing than having a ton of perks and starting weapons to sift through.

I think they should keep set loadouts for some gametypes/playlists. People like choices.
 

Madness

Member
I have internally competing views on the whole thing. I can see how an image like that may be mistaken as offensive but at the same time no intent of that nature was behind it. In fact quiet the opposite if I'm reading things correctly. It begs the question how far should we go to be politically correct. I'm all for fair treatment but everything someone does will offended someone.

The symbol used was a modified variant of the accessibility symbol its intentions are no further mocking the disabled than the image already does. Halo has included a Blind Skull since Halo 2 should the Visually Impaired community be offended?

Props to Josh for apologizing but I think the main issue I have with it is that the subject was not worthy of that kind of backlash (however the "Lighten Up" comment may have been)

Maybe id feel differently if i was suffered a disability that made me wheel chair bound who knows.

Yup, hate political correctness as well, but the problem here was the image and then the explanation for it were off. Why do you need to use a symbol for handicapped and disabled people to talk about the ease and accessibility of Halo? My point being a Master Chief in diapers, Chief in a stroller being pushed by Cortana, Chief riding a bicycle with training wheels, gets the point across without offending someone.

Everyone does get offended in a politically correct society, but see it from the point of view of disabled or handicapped Halo fans. They probably also see what the game has become and then you see the image and the justification and it says to them that handicapped people get things handed to them, that things are dumbed down for them etc. I've had the pleasure of knowing people who have disabilities. The worst thing to them, is reminding them of it.
 
Halo 3-style BTB with Equipment and some AAs like Evade/Thruster Pack and Sprint would be nice for Social.

Check last page, I changed my mind on that. :lol

Active Powerups are where it's at. No Sprint, no Armor Abilities, no Armor Mods. It's a much more controlled environment but still enables people to have some different cool shit they can do while maintaining the classic fight for power tools.
 

Madness

Member
Is there a reason why Certain Affinity does the maps and not a group from 343?

Probably just easier. 343 focused primarily on the campaign and a few maps. A lot of studios are outsourcing their work these days.

I think Certain Affinity and their history with halo DLC, made it seem like a better choice for 343.
 
Just throwing it out there: have Certain Affinity get all their future deadlines pushed three months earlier than they normally would. Using these additional three months, have the seasoned competitive veterans such as Bravo tone down the six million power weapons that Certain Affinity assumed were a good idea to put on the map.
 
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