• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Hybrid |OT| Choose This Day Who You Will Serve

Does MS/ATVI release those for Halo/CoD? I've seen them on wikis, but I thought it was always unofficial.

BTW -- Matchmaking servers are getting some updates tomorrow, so hopefully things will be better.

Going from single player games to dedicated mp games has been a very... enlightening and humbling experience I must say.

The ones from COD come straight from the game files I believe, and someone from the wiki jumps in and makes a graphic for it. For both of those games though, there's a way to do custom games, and go in, and mess around with your friends and nail down some of the mechanics, there's no option for that here. So, I still don't really know exactly how damaging a headshot is, I don't know if the bullets have travel time or are hitscan, I don't know if there's a fall off in damage at range, or a straight max range. I have a general sense for these elements but no specific knowledge.

Also, FYI, matchmaking update nuked my settings and made me take the tutorial again. Speeds seemed better in terms of getting into a game though.
 
Do you guys think the mp community will stick it out/around?

I'm wary of XBLA titles when it comes to sustainable mp communities.

When people ask questions like this I'm never quite sure what they're wanting to know.


How do you define "stick around". What player count would define "sticking around"? Will there be as many players playing this game in 3 months as there are today? Highly unlikely, but you can say that for almost any MP game.

Will you be able to get into a matchmaking match in Hybrid in 3 months? I'm almost certain you will.
 
When people ask questions like this I'm never quite sure what they're wanting to know.


How do you define "stick around". What player count would define "sticking around"? Will there be as many players playing this game in 3 months as there are today? Highly unlikely, but you can say that for almost any MP game.

Will you be able to get into a matchmaking match in Hybrid in 3 months? I'm almost certain you will.

Yea, even with the Beta's Janky matchmaking and small audience, even at the end I never had really bad times for matchmaking; generally they were on par with something like a lower popularity Halo Reach playlist. The thing that will be harder, is the idea of skill lock in, where the game is fairly niche, so the niche gets awesome at the game, and it becomes impenetrable to new players, which kind of reduces the variety in games. Kind of like if you were to try and pick up counter strike today, all that's left are the super hardcore, and you'll get pretty owned.
 
Glad to hear about matchmaking fixes coming soon. My only gripe so far is that matchmaking can take a little too long at times, but hopefully it's much better after the patch.


Yeah, I decided to go with Variant since I wasn't really sure what the difference between factions were at the time, and the boost to level 5 was enticing. Last time I checked, we were still ahead of the Paladins by 5 or so Dark Matter.
 

totowhoa

Banned
Yeah, I decided to go with Variant since I wasn't really sure what the difference between factions were at the time, and the boost to level 5 was enticing. Last time I checked, we were still ahead of the Paladins by 5 or so Dark Matter.

That's not so bad, I felt like we were further behind. Can't remember what the score was... but if it's just five then one continent win will put as back in the run.

Also, IGN's review is out - 8/10
Putting such a heavy emphasis on cover and limiting player movement in intriguing ways is a risky move that pays off in Hybrid. With its quirky play style and captivating global meta-war, it’s easily one of the most unusual and interesting online shooters out there. While it's not very original in terms of the core weaponry and visual presentation, it more than makes up for it with sheer creativity in the gameplay department, which it needs given the fact that it has no single-player or offline modes whatsoever. The war is on, and it's awesome.

Edit: And Joystiq's - 4/5
Opposing teams taking potshots at one another from cover is nothing new, and Hybrid doesn't really turn the concept on its ear, but supplanting the usual ground game with an entirely aerial one is a delightful twist. It turns every movement into a serous commitment, a dedicated choice. When that choice is to glide into the air and gently lob a grenade behind a pair of unsuspecting adversaries, that's just gravy.

And OXM - 8/10
Pros: -Stripped-down movement centered on frequent flying = more shooting, less commuting. -Cool special abilities broaden tactical possibilities, while plentiful drones keep the pressure on foes. Cons: -Movement behind cover can feel unresponsive; little reason to care about the overall war; game is online-only. -Why can’t we save and name our favorite loadouts?
 

totowhoa

Banned
Skyline is one of my favorite maps. I love slipping around and rushing simebodys blind side. You definitely have to watch out for grenades though... Probably a good map for void pulse but I never use it. That map really requires careful and quick movement. All the dead ends make for crazy 3v3 standoffs as well in artifact
 
I've only had 2 or 3 games on skyline, and it wasn't really my cup of tea. I'd need to try it some more, but I didn't feel like there was a ton of strategy to it, since you cant actually get around and flank enemies.

Matchmaking update really sped things up, normally when I play at 8:30 east coast it takes about 2-3 minutes to find a match, and about a minute to finalize votes load the map etc. It felt like the total time was down to about a minute, it was great. I normally get 4 games in before work, but today I managed to sneak in 6.

I played really well too, went positive in all games, had a couple of 15-4, 16-5 type dominations too. Rolling with the armor spec the entire time and tried a few new loadouts.

Auto Shotgun
Ammo
armored

This build basically gives you a bottomless rapid fire shotgun. I dropped an entire three man team in a game of tactics in about a second, it was glorious. This may be my Goto CQB setup.

Tripod Burst SMG
Meta Shield
Armored

The tripod burst may be the most versatile weapon in the game. You won't win a sniper fight, but you can do some damage from range, up close it's just brutal, since you can easily get headshots with it, and one burst to the head will finish them off. With Meta shield I found I was able to stand and deliver while under file to bring down people flying, or I can charge right in.
 

totowhoa

Banned
When you go elite, do you lose anything like unlocks or anything?

Nope. Same goes for when a new season starts (save for your specializations, which must be re-leveled).

Just a couple levels away from elite as well now. Figured I'd have it today but I didn't play much at all.
 

Jackson

Member
Nope. Same goes for when a new season starts (save for your specializations, which must be re-leveled).

Just a couple levels away from elite as well now. Figured I'd have it today but I didn't play much at all.

Er no... When you elite you lose all your unlocks, unless you bought them.
 

Spirit3

Member
I really wanted to like this game, trulyGreat concept, a step away from the norm, a good selection of weapons and power-ups, the list of reasons why this game should be great is astounding.

Sadly it's marred by poor netcode, regular host migration drop outs, an inability to play with friends because of a strict nat that has never reared it's ugly head in any other game and sub-par matchmaking. Pairing me up with two level 5's against three level 30's doesn't seem like balance to me. Early game jitters maybe but I don't have the patience to wait for things to turn around as there is far to much on the horizon.

A good game never the less (if only we lived in a world where the internet was reliable and even) and a good starting point to expand on the developers talents.
 
Convinced a friend to check it out with me, as I wanted to give it a full shake of the trial.
Think the hour long trial is a great idea, that's the way to do it.

However, we ultimately decided to pass.
I like that it's a different take on the genre, but I didn't have fun. Just got rail roaded. The higher level teams with plasma grenades and sniper rifles certainly added to my frustation.

Similar to how I'm worried about Halo 4, I'm just not interested in shooters with specialisations/unlocks that make it hard to parse out what I'm up against and how to play against that.
If it was kept away from me thanks to my low level it would be one thing, but it wasn't.

So I like cover and movement, but beyond that, I think Hybrid isn't for me.
 

totowhoa

Banned
Came back from vacation to find my faction had gone down. At least the bag of shame looks pretty cool :p.

Haha yeah I haven't been playing during the week, so when I came back last weekend I was happy to see that the Paladins had won :D I had actually meant to log in and switch factions if necessary to be on the winning team for the first season but I forgot to. Good thing it worked out.
 

aku:jiki

Member
Got into the game after having it lying around for a while and my main gripe was that level progression just feels way too slow - barely going from level 20 to 22 in an entire evening's worth of play is just boring - so I bought 3 days of double XP, but then I noticed that time is ticking off it even when I'm not in a match.

So uh, did I really just buy 72 hours of double XP that I'll only be able to use 6-8 hours of since, you know, I have a job? Fuck that...
 

aku:jiki

Member
Didn't have a chance to play yesterday and I see now that's exactly what I paid for. My 72 hours are now down to 26. Boo, 5th cell. Boo.
 

totowhoa

Banned
*whew* after about a two weeks hiatus, maybe three, I'm going to delve into this again tomorrow. School has finally let up and I've got a free weekend. Looking forward to it.


Didn't have a chance to play yesterday and I see now that's exactly what I paid for. My 72 hours are now down to 26. Boo, 5th cell. Boo.

Yeah that is pretty lame. I'd definitely prefer paying for in-game hours... but really, 72 hours would be a shit ton of time, so I always assumed it was not in-game hours of course :p

I'm looking forward to seeing how the community is now. Hopefully it's still steady.
 

Aselith

Member
Does this game still have a good sized playerbase? I'm thinking about picking it up but if I can't get into games I probably will skip it.
 
Top Bottom