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The Halo 3 Beta Thread

I don't like new rockets, they were perfect in Halo 2.
Bubble shields are brilliant justice made of freedom and win.
Missle pod is not a keeper.
I really like Valhalla.
I really don't like Snowbound.
Power drain is awesome and it is so satisfying to use.
Minigun :)
 
Ok, played for about an hour.



* Total Kills: 72
* Total Deaths: 47
* Kill/Death Ratio: 1,5319
* Total Assists: 17


:)

Dumb thing was that the map was always high ground.
 
but i don't understand....the graphics look good. disliking the graphics and saying they're not good are 2 different things. if a game looks good (for the gen it's in) then that's it....it has good graphics. could they be better? i suppose so, but what else do you want it to look like? it's using some nice lighting and textures with nice sized environs. are style is a toss up but i'm talking about graphics from a tech standpoint. art style falls under opinion and can mean anything to anybody. are the graphics good? yeah. is the art style? depends on who you ask. it's like a glass of water. you can debate if it's cold enough for you to consider it to be refreshing but you can't deny the fact that it's wet. c'mon people, H3 is wet!!! end of discussion! Halo may not be cold enough for everyone but it's damn sure wet....:P
 
Just woke up to see the beta is up, sweet :)

*downloads* :D

It's going pretty fast, 70% now, guess i missed the big rush :P

Any uk/euro gaf'ers playing atm? Preferably someone not too amazing at halo :lol I don't want to get beat too badly on my first time playing halo mp ^^
 
polyh3dron.png

Add me up.. I'll be playing again in an hour or so.
 
it was pretty bizarre watching the exponential growth of the online population tonight. when i first started playing on friday, i'd regularly see anywhere from 700 to a couple thousand. tonight, between rounds, it would jump to 15,000, to 35,000, then all of a sudden to over 100,000 players
 
I still can't get over how amazing every weapon feels. I think I actually prefer AR over everything else right now.

I don't really like Valhalla. The respawns are screwy, why the hell aren't they inside the base?

FFA Crazy King is absurd and nearly impossible. Ditto for Oddball on anything but Snowbound. But holy shit @ Oddball on Snowbound. I think the map was created solely for it.
 
Got in, played for a while. Had some fun.

Visually, my brain's holding a constant argument between whether it's a great jump over Halo 2 that I'm used to playing, or whether it's middling compared with the PC FPSes I've kept up with occasionally. Eventually, I'm more and more coming to the conclusion that it's graphically, in many areas, weak enough where there are flaws but strong enough where you have to slow down and look for them, which won't be an issue during actual play; and as much as I hate some parts of the terrain and models others are great.

Gameplaywise, I like the greater variety in shortrange combat given by the assault rifle, but think shortrange in general is still a little overpowered compared with midrange---this could just be me getting used to the controls and smaller radius/higher damage within radius frags, but unless I actively got the jump on someone with the battle rifle at 20-30 meters, AR or duals were usually better.
Couldn't really find a use for the human needler-equivelant whose name I forget is---it certainly SOUNDS tough, but compared to the already-overused plasma/SMG combo that can now easily kill vehicles...
I like the new exposedness of light vehicles, usually playing Halo 2 with someone who whores the Ghost and can only be pried out with a year's practice in sticky placements against his movement.
I like the new weaker shields, to a degree, or at least will when they stop working against me; I'm used to surviving a clip of SMG or needler and finishing things off with a frag or punch, but the 1.5x or so boost of firepower forces focus.
Relatedly, the new needler is great fun---sure, it's harder to keep locked, but it actually kills people with a clip, as opposed to the needlers-only H2 round I played while waiting for the DL to go up that turned into "oh what the hell you mean I punched you before the clip and a half of needles took effect, almost drained your shields, then the needles went off and did so minimal physical damage you survived".
The new matchmaking can rot in hell; I spent a half-hour before giving up on getting my last game in with coworkers when they both started getting mysterious forced Live downloades, and then spent 15 minutes on the loading wait in a solo game.
 
Tf53 said:
I absolutely suck at this game, and I still like it. Has to count for something.

Yeah its strange. I suck at FPS too, but the more I watch the H3 videos and impressions, the moer compelled I am to pick up H2 and give it a try(to prepare for H4).
 
special mention to the sound also. to me, the guns feel a lot more powerful. might be my newer-than-when-i-played-halo 2 sound system, but they feel like they have a lot more oomph
 
rod said:
i love king of the hill. i hate sniper and shotgun slayer matches. so annoying

seriously, Sniper and shotgun matches are the worst.

after playing for a while, I already hate Snowbound, I think Valhalla is beyond awesome and High Ground is pretty good.

I think the bubbleshield is great so far, so is the grav lift, the energy drain and the mine arent that good. Picking up chainguns is an awesome addition, especially in territories. Spartan Laser is pretty cool but takes a bit of time to get it down.

one thing I cant wait to see is Valhalla with Banshees flying around dodging missles being shot from below, it will be awesome. Valhalla is so much fun, but whenever I get the map, it is that damn sniper and shotgun mode.
 
Ferrex, are Bungie monitoring the playlists for what people veto?

That'd be nice, so if your statistics see that a certain mode is getting vetod every time then you guys would hopefully remove it from the playlist. Every time 6/8 people veto territories (including me).
 
sypher said:
Yeah its strange. I suck at FPS too, but the more I watch the H3 videos and impressions, the moer compelled I am to pick up H2 and give it a try(to prepare for H4).

There won't BE a H4. Halo 3 is the conclusion. It is the way the world ends.
 
polyh3dron said:
Halo 3 is the conclusion
"... to this story arc"

It'll finish what was started in the first game, but they're implying that the story will be left open for more sequels and/or spinoffs.
 
Sai said:
"... to this story arc"

It'll finish what was started in the first game, but they're implying that the story will be left open for more sequels and/or spinoffs.

When the game sells 5 or 6 million copies, a sequel is made. Theres no story that wont be reopened for that kind of cash. I bet if you dug up Nabokov he'd manage a sequel to Lolita for what the guys at Bungie would get for H4 or something in the vein of H4.
 
I think many people don't see that Halo 3 is technically quite a good looking game. Lighting is brilliant, textures are of a good quality, water effects are great, etc. Also, you're not playing with a "gun fixed to the screen" like many FPS's. You're playing with a character (jump and look down to see your legs).
 
Wow and people bitched at the Forza 2 demo for being jaggy.
I hope the final game ships with a packet of bandaids, those jaggies in the beta cut deep!

Seriously though, the visuals are pretty dissapointing and I hate deathmatch.. sucks to be me I guess.
 
Sean said:
Ferrex, are Bungie monitoring the playlists for what people veto?

That'd be nice, so if your statistics see that a certain mode is getting vetod every time then you guys would hopefully remove it from the playlist. Every time 6/8 people veto territories (including me).

They are :)

They already did an update to the beta, look here

Also, due to player response we've also significantly reduced the appearance of Team Slayer gametypes on the Team Skirmish playlist - this means more High Ground CTF for Beta gamers.
 
Wow. First online match of Halo ever.


.... I know ....



But I liked it, graphics looked ok, little rough here and there but certainly fine. It is funny to see Microsoft aiming for gameplay over graphics with Halo 3 and Forza 2.
 
Melhisedek said:
What sensitivity are you guys using... Using 5 so far. Any faster and I can't aim at all (not that I can aim with 5 either) but I still feel I turn so damn slow :/

Using default myself. I may try messing around with it a bit later, but it works extremely well for me as is.
 
Played my first game at 6.30 in the morning before work, I'm not normally sharp at this hour but certain things demand it from time to time. Being early, I just did a Team Training with Team Crazy King on Snowbound, and I've been dying to finish work ASAP since X0.
 
Melhisedek said:
What sensitivity are you guys using... Using 5 so far. Any faster and I can't aim at all (not that I can aim with 5 either) but I still feel I turn so damn slow :/

4 (one higher then default). that's always worked best for me, not too fast and not too slow.
 
I only played one game last night and recorded the playback, it was fun.

I'm still very tired...

Anyways, the graphics looked quite good to me. It took forever for a game to get going, but other than that it played fine.

I played only one game, but I won it against 5 other people. :lol

Does anyone know how high the people playing got? I saw over 100k people playing at one point.
 
I left my 360 on download for the entire night (12-6), just to find that it shut itself off (at least I hope it did). But the beta is there...

I'm debating whether or not I should go back to sleep or play the beta...
 
Sai said:
"... to this story arc"

It'll finish what was started in the first game, but they're implying that the story will be left open for more sequels and/or spinoffs.
That FAQ was written before either Halo Wars or the Peter Jackson partnership were announced. It left the door open for those games, maybe others.

And m0dus wasn't being a dick, he was incredulously stating the facts. :p

(In a few days hopefully no on is talking graphics anyways - just the game, baby.)
 
Someone wanna try something for me, load up the halo3 beta and see if you can take the crackdown dvd out and still play.
 
Klaxon said:
Maybe a dumb question asked for the millionth time, but do I always have to load up Crackdown to play the beta?

Yeah you always need Crackdown. Homez used Internet Connection on Crackdown. What? Crackdown is evolving! Congratulations, your Crackdown evolved into Halo 3 Beta.
 
okey, just played a little, first rumble pit then sniper valhala or what the name was. well, its an ok shooter, for console players seems to be the best out there, most well rounded id say. but its still seems soooooo slow, dont know why :(

some questions: how do i cycle through granates? how do i use this energy thingy, what was it, um, energy extractor? is this with the X button? and i still dont like this much health, cause one clip from the machine gun and with big luck the enemy is dead (my aim is not thaaaat great yet, but still). are there headshots? like in counterstrike where with one bullet with most of the guns youre insta dead?
 
banKai said:
okey, just played a little, first rumble pit then sniper valhala or what the name was. well, its an ok shooter, for console players seems to be the best out there, most well rounded id say. but its still seems soooooo slow, dont know why :(

some questions: how do i cycle through granates? how do i use this energy thingy, what was it, um, energy extractor? is this with the X button? and i still dont like this much health, cause one clip from the machine gun and with big luck the enemy is dead (my aim is not thaaaat great yet, but still). are there headshots? like in counterstrike where with one bullet with most of the guns your insta dead?

cycle grenades w/ LB (left bumper)

power drainer is X button

there are headshots, not with all guns though. use the BR/carbine/Sniper rifle for headshots
 
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