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[The Librarian]

I think I like Horde better.

*runs*

I much prefer Halo's gameplay to Gears', so Firefight wins out for me.

I just have to say that Sadie's story is amazing and how it ties into the regular ODST story.

Agreed.

So. NMPDHQ and then Kikwani Station.

Holy fucking shit, or holyfuckingshit?

Spoiler

Also, I has a Ghost, some Mongoose and rawkets to prowl around the hub in. Plastering a pair of Hunters in the Ghost felt right as rain.

ODST thumps Halo 3's campaign in every way possible.

I knew it was only a matter of time before you said this.:lol But I wouldn't say in "every possible" way. We can't use equipment, and there are no scarab battles.

Alright, these achievements are really starting to piss me off. Seems like none of them work the way they should. I just spent like 2 hours collecting the 29 audio files in the Hub, and then I backed out to do the Deja Vu achievement. After that I went back to the Data Hive to get my last audio log and it didn't work... So all those 29 audio files are now gone. Time to start over I guess...

Also, I have beaten the whole game, and yet I still don't have the Super Sleuth achievement. Can anyone explain that to me?

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Halo3ODST_FAQ#_17

Halo 3: ODST FAQ

 

[DragoNZ DZ]

Halo ODST is the best of the series.

I didn't think I'd get a chance to say that about any Halo game since Combat Evolved (edit: i.e., H2, H3, and Halo Wars didn't surpass Halo 1...). I'll have to Solo legendary eventually, since that's a requirement for any Halo game, but it'll wait 'til after I've done it co-op. Tomorrow, however, it's time to firefight. My brother, friend, and myself quit due to it being 4a.m. on tuesday when we got to set 4, but that was normal. So much fun. Best campaign, best multiplayer... really, ODST is absolutely incredible, for so many reasons. Reach and Bungie's next-next game have a high bar to meet.

 

[Domino Theory]

Legendary ending for ODST = awesome and unexpected

And finally got Deja Vu achievement thanks to my buddies and the easter egg that immensly helped us on that level.

 

[Arnie]

there are no scarab battles.

Spoiler

yes there are.

 

[Almak]

I knew it was only a matter of time before you said this.:lol But I wouldn't say in "every possible" way. We can't use equipment, and there are no scarab battles.

Err,

Spoiler

yeah there are.

Legendary ending for ODST = awesome and unexpected

And finally got Deja Vu achievement thanks to my buddies and the easter egg that immensly helped us on that level.

Oh great, now I have to play it on legendary.

 

[Neverender]

Does anyone have any tips for fixing this Firefight lag bullshit?

 

[Domino Theory]

Does anyone have any tips for fixing this Firefight lag bullshit?

Play with people in your region and make sure everyone in the room has a good, solid connection. Even if the host has a 500MB upload, if there's one person in that game who's running off dial-up like levels, it'll be laggy as shit for everyone.

 

[Kevtones]

Best campaign since the first, easily.

 

[pringles]

Man, Firefight is awesome but they should have made it more "compact".
Me and a buddy got like 390,000 points on crater last night, took like 1hr 40min. It's intense, but it also means you need to have a lot of time to even start a game. I don't even want to know how many hours it's going to take to get to Set 4.

 

[Neverender]

Play with people in your region and make sure everyone in the room has a good, solid connection. Even if the host has a 500MB upload, if there's one person in that game who's running off dial-up like levels, it'll be laggy as shit for everyone.

The four of us are within a couple hours of each other. My connection is 512/64kbps, it works fine for everything but Firefight.

 

[Myr]

Is the soundtrack out?

If so, what's the track that's played after you finish the first flashback mission?

Really reminded me of the soundtrack from Spirited Away.

 

[Falt]

I knew it was only a matter of time before you said this.:lol But I wouldn't say in "every possible" way. We can't use equipment, and there are no scarab battles.

For me, I haven't even thought about equipment. It's something the brutes have and I don't and that's it. I honestly don't miss it, or see it as any type of hindrance on gameplay for lack there of.

That said, I have muscled my way into a few bubble shields on the streets

 

[Joel Was Right]

Gaf is meant to be a gaming site yet gamertag's or PSN ID's are limited to a specific thread somewhere in the forum. Why can't we have our tags somewhere on our avatar section?

 

[Justinian]

Is the soundtrack out?

If so, what's the track that's played after you finish the first flashback mission?

Really reminded me of the soundtrack from Spirited Away.

Its titled "Rain" the first part of the "Deference for Darkness" suite. It was the first song written for ODST, and it's my favourite track. The OST is full of awesome tunes though.

 

[Almak]

Been checking iTunes daily now, but the ODST soundtrack is not out in my region. Is it on the US store yet?

 

[The Librarian]

@ Almak and Arnie... I think I just spoiled myself!:lol I haven't finished the campaign yet. Guess I shouldn't have assumed.

Anyway, I saved right before the third flashback. Total play time is ~ 3 hours and 45 minutes, and I have 14/30 audio logs, and it's gotten good:

Spoiler

Kinsler has found Sadie

. Can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[alisdair]

Been checking iTunes daily now, but the ODST soundtrack is not out in my region. Is it on the US store yet?

It's on Sumthing Digital.

 

[chicken_ramen]

I've only done three of the flashbacks, but this is definitely one of the best FPS games I've played in a while. It's got the solid, rewarding encounters of the rest of the series wrapped up in great atmosphere of the rookie sections. If anything the game has a little too much for everyone in it, I enjoyed the big flashback fight sequences, but the moody atmosphere of the rookie segments is much more fun and involving. More of that in the next single player bungie game please.

 

[Spike6663]

A quick headsup to people still wanting a Sgt Cigar Chomper code, Britxbox are going to be giving away a code on their podcast next week.

 

[The Elite]

How long was Master Chief gone for the events of Halo 2?

 

[EarsOfASnake]

Just started a single player Legendary play through and I am enjoying this so much more than the co-op I played. Co-op just felt like regular halo where you can pretty much run and gun it because of ratio of players to enemies. Single player is a whole different feeling, you have to pick your moments to attack and pick of people tactically (I think the brutes are pretty easy once you remove all the grunts who would otherwise slowly pick away at you). My only disappointment on my second play through is that in the beginning section you have to kill all of the enemies before you can access the superintendent I was moving through the shadows and avoiding the patrols with ninja like precision before hand. Finished the first flashback too and all I can say is screw fighting those Hunters!

 

[Spirit3]

Thank goodness I have 2 weeks off next week because I am going to play this game to hell and back. Easilly the most enjoyable Halo experience to date. Long-term I see myself returning back to the multiplayer side of things but the Campaign alone looks to hold my interest for some months to come, unlike Halo 3 which I played through just to get achievements and not for the sheer awesomeness of it.

Gaf Firefight 1 needs more online people

 

[MMaRsu]

The four of us are within a couple hours of each other. My connection is 512/64kbps, it works fine for everything but Firefight.

Exactly. This shit needs to be fixed already.

 

[-PXG-]

Does anyone have any tips for fixing this Firefight lag bullshit?

Sure do

Some tips to lessen lag/ improve game performance:

1) Try to play with people in your region. Americans play with Americans, so on and so forth

2) Try to get an Open NAT on your router.

3) If you're trying to join a game, or send invites, and keep on getting NAT errors, make sure you, or your guests JOIN ONE AT A TIME. I noticed inviting people en masse, will generate the NAT errors, while having people join one by one will allow people to get in.

Hopefully these help a little.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=17714602#post17714602

If you can, try to play with people who are close to you. For example: I live in New Jersey. Therefore, I'll try to play with people from the East Coast, or people in PA, NY, CT MA, MD, DE so on and so forth. Also, try turning off computers or other devices connected to the internet. Of course, if you're downloading torrents or, that will have an adverse effect on the connection as well.

Hope these help.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Holy crap I had hell of a time with that stupid Wraith tank in courtyard mission after abandoning the scorpion. I died so many friggin times doing it till I found out there was a fuel rod gun right next to the start pretty much...... idiot.

 

[The Wise Old Man]

Played my first firefight match last night with some fellow GAFers on Lost Platoon. Cheers to Taylor910 and Unsavory Nibblet for two and half hours of unadulterated awesomeness.

We got close to the fourth and last wave (I think) but were so exhausted by that point that we signed a death pact and just died intentionally.

Final score: 1,027,675. Not bad for a first attempt.

The brute chopper is a freaking beast on Lost Platoon.

 

[MMaRsu]

Played my first firefight match last night with some fellow GAFers on Lost Platoon. Cheers to Taylor910 and Unsavory Nibblet for two and half hours of unadulterated awesomeness.

We got close to the fourth and last wave (I think) but were so exhausted by that point that we signed a death pact and just died intentionally.

Final score: 1,027,675. Not bad for a first attempt.

The brute chopper is a freaking beast on Lost Platoon.

Were you guys playing on heroic?

 

[The Wise Old Man]

Were you guys playing on heroic?

No, normal.

By the way, Black Eye is probably my most hated of all the skulls. Driving around on a brute chopper with the screen all tinted red hurts my eyes big time.

 

[squidhands]

It's pretty interesting to see how tweaking the audio of a certain weapon can broaden its appeal. Though, I'm still not noticing any audio differences.:lol

Put on some surround sound headphones. You'll cream your jeans. I absolutely love the tweaked sounds on the weapons, especially the Sniper Rifle. It has that crack sound that makes it seem so much more bad ass.

- Some glitches. As in, I would get to an objective, where I'm supposed to go, but

Spoiler

the people I'm escorting would not follow

, and it would take a minute or so for the game to catch on and fix this.

I ran into the same problem. At one point I had to go back and melee Buck to him from staring at a wall. :lol

There is not a single mission I don't want to play again and again, unlike every other game in the series.

This. I finished the game last night, and I have to say that every level is brilliantly laid out. Every other Halo game has a level(s) that I'd rather skip, but not ODST. Great job, guys.

So. NMPDHQ and then Kikwani Station.

Holy fucking shit, or holyfuckingshit?

I think both apply. Especially for the cutscene at the end of NMPDHQ. holyfuckingshit.
BTW - congrats on the credit nod.

EDIT: Wow, bnet stats are counting a 2min campaign that I stopped. weird...

 

[UnluckyKate]

I always liked the Halo franchise, even if I always thought it was overrated. I liked it because of it's very good gameplay mecanics, open maps, great sci-fi design, epic soundtrack and interesting story.

Now I'm listenning to ODST soundtrack and I feel like buying a 360 just for the game, because when I'm listing the that (amazing) score, I feel like droping into the game. Furthermore, ODST seems to be the best Halo experience I could play, from my expectations...

So, could anyone send me his 360 for a week or so ? I can send him cookies...

 

[dark10x]

Played through more of the game last night. I completed the bridge destruction mission shown at E3. Still loving the game, but I definitely feel as if that mission was nothing more than a series of firefight maps strung together. It's definitely becoming clear that this was originally an expansion pack.

That said, the flashback sequences are all very tightly designed and never fall into the same routines that damaged the first two games. It remains f*ck awesome.

The city at night is, oddly enough, the most compelling segment of the game for me. I absolutely love just exploring the world. It's so much larger than I expected and truly a wonderful place to explore. I also love how the superintendent guides you to each audio log. Very nice touch.

I really appreciate the change in pacing this city allows as well. It really keeps the game from passing by too quickly and allows me to slow down a bit and take in the world. By Halo 3, the series was pushing you forward all the time and really never allowed you to simply take in the world around you.

 

[orion434]

I have a dilema... actually my friend has ran across a glitched Achievement. He's completed the game, but the "Find the final Clue" Achievement didn't unlock. I mean you have to find the final clue to advance the story... but no dice. Has anyone else ran across this glitch? We're going to play co-op this weekend and we hope that this will unlock for him on that playthrough.

 

[Walshicus]

No, normal.

By the way, Black Eye is probably my most hated of all the skulls. Driving around on a brute chopper with the screen all tinted red hurts my eyes big time.

Yeah.

I think if there's anything that will stop me playing Firefight in the long term, it'll be Black Eye. If I were able to meet the man or team who decided that should be the third skull... I'd just shake my head at 'em.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

I have a dilema... actually my friend has ran across a glitched Achievement. He's completed the game, but the "Find the final Clue" Achievement didn't unlock. I mean you have to find the final clue to advance the story... but no dice. Has anyone else ran across this glitch? We're going to play co-op this weekend and we hope that this will unlock for him on that playthrough.

Q. Hey! I just found all the clues in the city and never got my Super Sleuth achievement! What gives, you monkey-lovin’ jerks?!

A. You have to earn Super Sleuth by playing through in a single save session. That doesn’t mean that you can’t save and quit, but it does mean that you can’t erase your save data to replay another mission and then return to your core play through later.

Says Bungie.

 

[Expendable.]

My girlfriend and I played this for about 2 hours last night. Played two levels of campaign, it was pretty fun. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the scoring system, instant satisfaction. We had a lot more fun with firefight though, just the two of us. We played Windward and she held her own. I almost like it better than competitive vs. multiplayer. The sense of teamwork is very rewarding. Count me impressed.

 

[orion434]

Says Bungie.

ahhh... I think he exited and played Mombosa Streets then went back to playing the missions. It should then unlock when we play co-op straight through this weekend.

Thanx

 

[Almak]

It's on Sumthing Digital.

Thank you.
That is definitely the shittyest site I ever bought music from though. My god! Well, at least I have it now.

 

[ShinAmano]

Do maps exist with layouts of where weapons are in firefight?

 

[Deleted member 47027]

I REALLY love how Mombasa at night feels so moody. Fantastic setting.

 

[ToyMachine228]

When a friend and I play Firefight all of the sudden, the framerate will drop down to an unbelievably slow rate, right in the middle of the game. It doesn't start that way, it just drops down to it at seemingly random times and usually doesn't recover. Anyone know what the issue is? It's choppy as all hell.

 

[The Lamonster]

Best campaign since the first, easily.

Seriously? It doesn't even have Elites to fight or Flood...or Halos for that matter.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Flood...or Halos for that matter.

And largely why it's so damn good.

 

[StuBurns]

Hey GAF, I just went around a friends to play a couple of hours of ODST, fucking amazing so far, I didn't finish it though. But my question is, and sorry if it's been covered already, is there a OST coming out? The music blew me away.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

ODST>Halo 3 for me. I prefer pretty much everything in ODST - combat, story, characters, AI, music, pacing etc.

 

[-PXG-]

When a friend and I play Firefight all of the sudden, the framerate will drop down to an unbelievably slow rate, right in the middle of the game. It doesn't start that way, it just drops down to it at seemingly random times and usually doesn't recover. Anyone know what the issue is? It's choppy as all hell.

I noticed, as more skulls were added, the lag got worse. Hmmmm....

Also, lag gets worse whenever there are more covenant, explosions or when Phantoms are dropping reinforcements.

 

[taylor910]

Played my first firefight match last night with some fellow GAFers on Lost Platoon. Cheers to Taylor910 and Unsavory Nibblet for two and half hours of unadulterated awesomeness.

We got close to the fourth and last wave (I think) but were so exhausted by that point that we signed a death pact and just died intentionally.

Final score: 1,027,675. Not bad for a first attempt.

The brute chopper is a freaking beast on Lost Platoon.

Couldn't agree more fluff. The reason I thought it ended after 4 was because of the "Endure" achievement. Oh well, making it to wave 5 was a blast none the less. Can't imagine lasting that long on legendary though.

Ill hit you up and we can shoot for that Endure achievement one of these days - Get through the 4th set on 4 player heroic - Should be tough!

 

[Grady Durden]

When a friend and I play Firefight all of the sudden, the framerate will drop down to an unbelievably slow rate, right in the middle of the game. It doesn't start that way, it just drops down to it at seemingly random times and usually doesn't recover. Anyone know what the issue is? It's choppy as all hell.

Sounds like lag, maybe a region issue? I have had awesome luck with the connection because I was playing with a GAFfer from the UK with no issues.

 

[Feindflug]

Legendary ending for ODST = awesome and unexpected

And finally got Deja Vu achievement thanks to my buddies and the easter egg that immensly helped us on that level.

Deja Vu is the achievement for finding all the audio logs right? Is there an easter egg that helps you find them/show the locations?

BTW to all these people saying that ODST's campaign is much better than Halo 3's, have you recently played Halo 3? Don't get me wrong ODST is an awesome game and all the levels are top-notch - well except

Spoiler

maybe the last level were the driving in the highway/escort mission was way too long and got boring IMO

- but if you exclude the final 2 weak levels of Halo 3 all the other levels are equally amazing with variety, great level design and some really intense/epic fights..I guess ODST is a new game and the hype is still fresh but it will be interesting to see the reactions of all these people in about 6 months from now.

I'll say it again ODST is a freakin' awesome game IMO it's just weird to see so many people saying that it's better than Halo 3 with such ease...was I the only one that really got satisfied with Halo 3's campaign and thought that was freakin' amazing?

Anyway one thing is sure, Bungie gave us another AAA game with only one year development..that's the most amazing thing.

Spoiler

Bungie = <3.

 

[vatstep]

Question about the audio logs:

Spoiler

From reading here, I understand that you can search for the logs after you complete the story. I missed the log in data hive, is it possible to go back? I haven't even attempted any second play throughs with the missions, so I'm not entirely sure how it works.

Spoiler

You can select Data Hive from the campaign menu and still have the opportunity to get the audio log during the mission. This is the way I did it, and a lot of others too, I think - unless you collect all 29 other logs BEFORE you start that mission during your campaign run, you won't have the opportunity to get it. Things will play out a bit differently once you have 29 logs and play the mission again from the campaign menu.

 

[-PXG-]

ODST is a much better game than Halo 3. I wish it was longer, but as is, it's excellent.

Hopefully, with all the praise people are giving it, Bungie will change their minds and release DLC.

More maps (day and night for all them), more skulls, more armor, Elites, matchmaking, net code stabilization. The game is fantastic, but just a little more, and it would be nearly perfect.