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Halo Anniversary |OT| It All Comes Full Circle

malfcn

Member
BlueScrote said:
This should probably go without saying but after the GoD/preview disc debacle it's worth asking:

Does the Map Pack code play nicely with Games on Demand version of Reach?

I didn't even think of that. :X
 
BlueScrote said:
This should probably go without saying but after the GoD/preview disc debacle it's worth asking:

Does the Map Pack code play nicely with Games on Demand version of Reach?
Yep!

Which means I'm going to leave my CEA disc in the drive for Campaign, but quicklaunch the GonD version for multiplayer.
 

DangerStepp

Member
Majanew said:
Played Pillar of Autumn and part of Halo level. Very disappointed with the updated graphics. And, 343i, please...PLEASE...make the framerate the priority in Halo 4. The framerate is always stuttering and it cleans up every once in awhile. And while the new graphics look better than the old for the most part, some things look a little better with the old graphics. And no little sunbeams with the new visuals when the sun goes behind trees? :(

Same rock on the beginning of the Halo level:

Original:

6pc7y0.png



New:

302t2j7.png
Wow...

Is that a testament to how well the old visuals hold up or how poor the updated ones are?
 

FyreWulff

Member
ncsuDuncan said:
Yep!

Which means I'm going to leave my CEA disc in the drive for Campaign, but quicklaunch the GonD version for multiplayer.

Showoff!


DangerStepp said:
Wow...

Is that a testament to how well the old visuals hold up or how poor the updated ones are?

No, it's a testament to that when you have only 4 different textures to fit into RAM, you can make them higher resolution than when you have 100 different textures that have to fit into ram.
 
Majanew said:
Same rock on the beginning of the Halo level:

Original:

http://i44.tinypic.com/6pc7y0.png[IMG]


New:

[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/302t2j7.png[IMG][/QUOTE]


[IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/mvl1f7.gif

Great.... So no detail maps in the new updated graphics engine I guess.
 

Majanew

Banned
soulassssns said:
I dont trust those pics^^^

I'll have a look when my copy shows up.
Oh you can trust them. Have a look at all the rocks and the giant rock wall wrapping the opening of the 2nd level (Halo). Once you come out of the escape pod, take a right and go to the wall, there's that rock up there.

The updated rocks look better, but most don't hold up when I was getting close to them. That's where the old visuals held up better. I was just inspecting everything when I got the game to see the improvements. It's the framerate that annoys me.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
PsychoRaven said:
You joke but man sometimes you just need reading material. And I agree it's such a shame. Ever since I was a kid the first thing I do when I get a game is read it's manual. In this case I was able to read Anniversary's in the time I was loading the last level for Reach here. That's just not right.
Yeah. I'm an old school gamer, who has done the same for a good 20+ years. Halo games always had great manuals so it was part of my Halo tradition to sit down and read through before playing. CEA had a nice intro page and then a PR leaflet. As a packaging snob, I was bummed a bit.

Between manuals dying and motion controls becoming more common, I'm going to be one sad panda next generation.
Majanew said:
Played Pillar of Autumn and part of Halo level. Very disappointed with the updated graphics. 343i, please...PLEASE...make the framerate the priority in Halo 4. The framerate is always stuttering and it cleans up every once in awhile. And while the new graphics look better than the old for the most part, some things look a little better with the old graphics. And no little sunbeams with the new visuals when the sun goes behind trees? :(

Same rock on the beginning of the Halo level:

Original:
Yeah. Some of the Halo texture work still holds up very well, and I was surprised to see the sun effects abandoned in the new skin. I always move to put the sun behind the trees because it's such a great effect, it adds a lot to the scene. Odd it wasn't part of the update.
 

DangerStepp

Member
I wanna see more original vs. anniversary pics. I find it infatuating.

Also, are you getting the original images from CEA with the new graphics off or are they the true CE? Although, it is truly CE vanilla under the hood, right?

FyreWulff said:
No, it's a testament to that when you have only 4 different textures to fit into RAM, you can make them higher resolution than when you have 100 different textures that have to fit into ram.
Ah, okay. Now that makes sense.
 
DangerStepp said:
I wanna see more original vs. anniversary pics. I find it infatuating.

Also, are you getting the original images from CEA with the new graphics off or are they the true CE? Although, it is truly CE vanilla under the hood, right?


It is.
 
malfcn said:
Can CEA disc play on Reach DLC maps?
Just to follow up, I assume the reason the CEA disc can't access the Reach DLC is to reduce the number of variations in the population:

Reach
Anniversary
Reach + Noble
Reach + Defiant
Reach + Anniversary
Reach + Noble + Defiant
Reach + Noble + Anniversary
Reach + Defiant + Anniversary
Reach + Noble + Defiant + Anniversary

That's 9 possible configurations, allowing CEA to access DLC bumps that up to 12:

Anniversary + Noble
Anniversary + Defiant
Anniversary + Noble + Defiant

Keep in mind, the current playlist selection only has 3 sets of requirements:

Reach
Anniversary
Reach + Noble + Defiant

All other configurations rely on the matchmaking algorithms to match people with similar DLC together. (To be fair, they recently increased the effect of the DLC weighting.)
 
malfcn said:
Is Campaign 4-man?
Nope, Co-op is limited to two players. Just like the original. :)

Expanding it to four would have required rewriting the AI as well as an increase in the number of enemies to kill, the number of weapons available, and the number of vehicles to drive. That was beyond the scope of this remake and went against the idea of preserving the original gameplay.
 

CyReN

Member
After playing some it should be a $20/$30 title.

Any word on Duke controllers for 360 or was that something for Pax I missed?
 
CyReN said:
After playing some it should be a $20/$30 title.

Any word on Duke controllers for 360 or was that something for Pax I missed?
343i had produced a few Dukes as prizes for their HaloFest contests. There weren't available for sale. :)
 

GhaleonEB

Member
ncsuDuncan said:
Nope, Co-op is limited to two players. Just like the original. :)

Expanding it to four would have required rewriting the AI as well as an increase in the number of enemies to kill, the number of weapons available, and the number of vehicles to drive. That was beyond the scope of this remake and went against the idea of preserving the original gameplay.
When the limit was initially announced, I was bummed, and then all these reasons and more came to mind. Really, there aren't that many spaces that would work well with four players. (Imagine the trench run with two Warthogs.) Halo 3 onward were designed with enough space for everyone, and as you said would scale enemy counts, weapons/vehicles and AI accordingly.
 

Kibbles

Member
Opening screen lied, said you could install the maps with the code so I put the code in and it started download. Not going to download 1.whatever GB it is. You should just be able to install the maps from the disc =\

[edit] No infinite blood when meleeing enemies on new graphics.
 
CyReN said:
Any word on Duke controllers for 360 or was that something for Pax I missed?
There were only about seven made. They were custom built by Ben Heck at great expense (I heard someone say $800, but I'm not sure how accurate that is).

One was given to the winner of the Halo cosplay contest (who immediately sold it to HaloGAF regular Devin Olsen for something like $200).

One was given to the winner of the Claude Errera Community Award. I can't remember what his name was.

Not sure where the others went, but the point is they are extremely rare.
 

ElRenoRaven

Gold Member
So yea first level down. Framerate seems decent except when it hits load areas it does stutter for a bit afterward. Without a doubt the texture pop in is pretty bad. Not liking that one bit. Really takes away some of the enjoyment seeing a blurry texture until it pops in. Prime example is sign on bridge. Aiming seems spot on. No clue why some seem to think it's not. It feels just like the original to me.

I love that the Spartan diagram of the Spartan on the other side of the area where they wake you up having a certain name on it. Skull and terminal were of course both easy to find. I hadn't watched videos I linked before so I'm enjoying finding them. Oh and dear god at the fatties. Seems that all the crewmen put on some damn weight. Just makes them look bad to me.

Overall just off my play of the first level so far it's looking like it's going to be good but not as good as it should be. These are just thoughts after one level mind you. My opinion could always change.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
I've been playing a bit this afternoon. Wish my monitor had a better viewing angle, because I'm absolutely loving everything. No complaints.
OverHeat said:
Im a little let down by the graphics Reach look a lot better :s
And?
 
PsychoRaven said:
Aiming seems spot on. No clue why some seem to think it's not. It feels just like the original to me.
It feels fine in anniversary mode to me, but once you switch back to classic the differences are pretty apparent, it feels a lot smoother in classic.
 
Syracuse022 said:
The original is small and indicates very clearly where your bullet is going - the new version is large and gives no indication where you're actually aiming. If I'm going to aim based on a 4 pixel wide dot, don't put the enormous circle around it that conveys absolutely nothing about the sniper's functionality. Did you compare the pictures? It's pretty clear how much larger the reticle is now. Is the sniper a large area of effect weapon? Because that's what a large reticle communicates to me after umpteen years of gaming.
The new reticule is great, I think. Just aim for the center dot and the bullet will go wherever that is. The circle helps you focus on the dot, I find.
 
Ramirez said:
I probably haven't looked at a manual in close to 7-8 years, I just don't see the point. All a game needs is a good tutorial in the opening sequence, and that eliminates their main purpose anyways. :p
Absolutely this, as long as the tutorial is skippable on subsequent playthroughs. I can't even remember the last time I looked at a game manual. Seems like the Kinect Library does some of what the Halo manual did anyway.
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Majanew said:
And no little sunbeams with the new visuals when the sun goes behind trees? :(
WHAT?
What the hell are they doing over there?
 
Woah, I didnt remember Halo 1 feeling this 'stiff' I really need to go back and put the original in and see how that feels in comparison. I remember that feeling a lot more floaty in comparison, especially when using the Hog.

But omg the pang of nostalgia that hit me when I saw that loading screen. Well played 343. :p Switching between the graphics truley is gobsmacking.
 

Teknoman

Member
Kibbles said:
Opening screen lied, said you could install the maps with the code so I put the code in and it started download. Not going to download 1.whatever GB it is. You should just be able to install the maps from the disc =\

[edit] No infinite blood when meleeing enemies on new graphics.

Wait im confused, if the opening screen said you could install the maps with the code, and the maps started to download to install...what did it lie about?


EDIT: I still need to download the other packs.
 
Played through POA, forgotten simply how good the gunplay is, but that little frame rate jitter is fixed quite firmly in the back of my mind.
 

Karl2177

Member
I have this to say about the skulls and terminals: At first they seemed really easy to find. I only missed 1 skull in the first 3 missions and hit all of the terminals. Then I saw the
2nd (in my case first)
skull on Silent Cartographer. That skull is a bastard. Then all of the collectibles in Guilty Spark are difficult to find. I'm pretty impressed with the collection so far. I found all but 2 objects in ODST, all of the terminals, and all the skulls but 3 in Halo 3. Whereas in Anniversary, I've missed all of Guilty Spark's collectibles + 1 in the first 3 missions + Silent Cartographer skull + AotCR skull.
 

feel

Member
OverHeat said:
Im a little let down by the graphics Reach look a lot better :s
Does it have cleaner image quality at least?? Reach is grainy and blurry like some B-tier COD knockoff.
 
Karl2177 said:
I have this to say about the skulls and terminals: At first they seemed really easy to find. I only missed 1 skull in the first 3 missions and hit all of the terminals. Then I saw the
2nd (in my case first)
skull on Silent Cartographer. That skull is a bastard. Then all of the collectibles in Guilty Spark are difficult to find. I'm pretty impressed with the collection so far. I found all but 2 objects in ODST, all of the terminals, and all the skulls but 3 in Halo 3. Whereas in Anniversary, I've missed all of Guilty Spark's collectibles + 1 in the first 3 missions + Silent Cartographer skull + AotCR skull.
1. Overshield
2. Rocket launcher
3. ????
4. Profit
 

scarybore

Member
Karl2177 said:
I have this to say about the skulls and terminals: At first they seemed really easy to find. I only missed 1 skull in the first 3 missions and hit all of the terminals. Then I saw the
2nd (in my case first)
skull on Silent Cartographer. That skull is a bastard. Then all of the collectibles in Guilty Spark are difficult to find. I'm pretty impressed with the collection so far. I found all but 2 objects in ODST, all of the terminals, and all the skulls but 3 in Halo 3. Whereas in Anniversary, I've missed all of Guilty Spark's collectibles + 1 in the first 3 missions + Silent Cartographer skull + AotCR skull.

I played through the first two levels forgetting that the skulls and terminal were even in the game. :p Really enjoying the terminals that I have found though, almost worth the price of admission for those alone.

I'm replaying the first level to find the skull and terminal (skull was easy enough) and just noticed
the noticeboard with the Dark Planetoid Rising poster with an included troll face in the bottom corner which gave me a good chuckle.
Probably not worth the spoiler tags, but people often like to find these things themselves.
 
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