Halo: Reach

[Lucky Gonk]

Nice vids, but lol at the number three clip in the first first one you posted, where the tank is sitting outside the red team's base on Boneyard spawn killing with inpunity. I've mentioned Boneyard's dodgy spawns previously in the context of SWAT, but if anything that looked worse. There's no way that should be allowed to happen. :/

[chris on the moon]

anyone want to play some legendary firefight tonight? Ie, not the matchmade stuff

[TommyG]

This is pretty cool. A list of all the remakes maps. Some are brilliant.

Remake me do

[Vulgar Monkey]

Re: video.

Lol - but seriously, people actually use aa batteries for their controllers? The rechargeable lithium ones pay for themselves ffs.

Plasma pistol - can't speak for other difficulties, but on ledge an overcharged shot does NOT reliably knock out a jackal shield. Usually just weakens it considerably, but jackal shields actually seem to be bloody resistant to plasma fire. Also I find even going for a charged shot is a risk - you have to charge it in advance if you can predict its need, or if not find some cover. Also you can't see shit while it's charged, another reason you can't just keep it handy for whenever. Great supporting weapon, but I wouldn't rely on it.

[idiwa]

This is pretty cool. A list of all the remakes maps. Some are brilliant.

Remake me do

Fuck yeah De_Dust-Reach

[redman]

just finished it on legendary. I love it but it feels like there's something missing... but again, I really enjoyed the whole thing (apart from the odd time of course when i felt like breaking my controller)

so a little list of things i don't like:

1. the characters are shite

2. the music... still disappointed. nothing stood out and there were too many guitars. it's still very good it's just i really loved the other halo stuff and this I don't as much

3. the sometimes constant chatter from your team for you to 'get it done'. i ignore them but i shouldn't have to

4. not enough levels on your own. i think that's what's missing. as timmo mentioned it just doesn't quite feel like the big journey as the others. i never hated the flood and i think their levels add to the game in the sense that your going deeper into the bad times (can't think of a better phrase) and then to come out the other side is a sense of relief.

5. the unerring accuracy of some of the covenant. their ability to home in on you the second you pop out of cover. and the constant nature of some of the fire, for example when a wraith is in the distance and you are in a fight and can't take it out. that thing just doesn't stop and i find it really grating after a while (this is a general halo complaint)

6. the over-zealous use of those invisible walls

but it's still my favourite series (and the mario games ). the combat is so much fun and so satisfying. played a quick gruntpocalypse a few minutes ago and it's great.

as a whole package reach is brilliant. i'll go back to the campaign, I love the multiplayer and mess about in firefight quite a bit too. The challenges are surprisingly enjoyable as well

great game

[Boozy The Clown]

Downloaded a Forge map called Death Star last night. Someone's really put the work into that one. It's got a trash compactor and everything.

[snowbind]

5. the unerring accuracy of some of the covenant. their ability to home in on you the second you pop out of cover. and the constant nature of some of the fire, for example when a wraith is in the distance and you are in a fight and can't take it out. that thing just doesn't stop and i find it really grating after a while (this is a general halo complaint)

I agree with this point a lot. I think it feels more prevalent in this game because your team mates are around constantly and usually in the open, yet the A.I makes a bee-line for you. It feels very gamey at times.

[A Hen]

Someone's done a D-Day landings map. It's pretty impressive, but I don't know how playable it would be. Also, he/she left irrelevant spawn points in, so you might end up in that empty hangar in the cliff face, or an empty plateau, when you start. I had to go into Edit mode and flew to the relevant bit of the map.

[Uncle Nasty]

It does feel somehow ungrateful to crit this game as so much work has clearly gone into it, but the campaign in particular just doesn't have the moreish qualities that were so deeply ingrained in CE. I've genuinely lost count of the amount of times I played CE to completion, such is the pull of that game I could happily dig-in for an all day sesh with it now, but Reach? It looked like Halo in places, sounded a bit like Halo, sure as fuck didn't feel anything like Halo though. On my second playthrough now and feel totally unengaged and distanced from it.

I'm glad that Bungie are throwing the Halo towel in. The franchise is stale, years past its best, and will clearly never step out of the shadow of the original.

Yet another disappointing Halo game/10

[sir stiff_one]

The team mate AI and those "get it done comments" are incredibley infuritating. Yes, you've stuck an objective in a choke point that is brick hard and then you have the cheek to basically call me shit as it takes me more than 10 seconds to do it.

Oh God, totally agree. Another thing cribbed from CoD:MW. Sure there (in the MW warzone) it adds to the sense of urgency, but it would be loads better if they were a bit, calmer, brains and brawn? Part of the reason Halo was so good was that it was ok to spend forever getting through a level rather than have the feeling that you have to steamroller it.

As for campaign, I'm probably 3/4 through on Heroic. It's hard to think of the sweetest moments on the first rush-through I find. With previous Halo games, I find the campaign benefits from being played at the pace you dictate, whether that's a rush, or leisurely, or ploddingly, calculatingly, etc. Halo 2 was annoying in a way because quite a few of the levels were locked down for exploration. Even from the first level in Halo 3, which of course everyone barrelled through the first time, you could really do the whole predator style inching your way through the landscape if you wanted. I'll go through on Legendary of course with Reach at some point, but it's always best savoured, and then you find the real gem levels you want to replay.

Loving the multiplayer vids. I'm going to be fully behind the pace when I start. I just hope I can be useful in a support role in team matches.

[Soi]

I've not followed this thread for fear of spoilers (not even loaded Campaign yet), but I'm loving the multiplayer.

It is just a shame I've got a busy job and a small baby. 10 years ago I'd be caning it all night, every night.

[Timmo]

Loving the multiplayer vids. I'm going to be fully behind the pace when I start. I just hope I can be useful in a support role in team matches.

Did you watch those SeaNanners videos? They should be near the top of the recommended videos in the theatre. Really helped me with my grenade use among other things.

[Oracle]

my fav bit:

the bit where you storm the oni sword base, on legendary.

You and your team of Spartans, flanking, providing covering fire and reaming covenant scum.

It's beautiful

[redman]

quitting is still epidemic. finished a BTB on a team of three

maybe they should give more credits for finishing. the ban is useless

[McCoy]

quitting is still epidemic. finished a BTB on a team of three

maybe they should give more credits for finishing. the ban is useless

What about deducting credits for quitting?

[Mr. Gerbik]

quitting is still epidemic. finished a BTB on a team of three

maybe they should give more credits for finishing. the ban is useless

I get the impression that sometimes people get kicked out due to the game giving host to some bozo in New Zealand with a 56k connection and the connection subsequently becoming unstable.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

In all honesty, I found this to be by far the least enjoyable and most disappointing Halo campaign by a country mile. As someone else pointed out, it seemed more obviously gamey: the AI focusing on you over all others, the inconsistency of weapon damage when used against you compared to used against enemies, etc. The joy of the original was that you and an Elite would die to essentially the same things but here an explosive blast to the face will kill you while Elites will survive a couple of hits and still keep on firing, not to mention Jackals (bloody Jackals!) surviving hits that should send them flying into the stratosphere. It feels cheap in way not even Halo 2 did (for all that game did wrong, I still had way more fun and desire to replay it than I have had with this one).

Of course, there are still a few moments here and there. Surprisingly, the dogfight over Reach was a lot more fun than I expected it to be and boarding the cruiser soon after felt like the most Halo moment of the entire game. Bombing through to the shipyard on the Moongoose at the end was also pretty thrilling too. Shame they had to spoil it by having you trek through a cave full of dronezzzzzzz right after, mind.

Eeeeee, remember all those silly old videos where people would screw around with Warthogs and grenade physics and go exploring through the levels, driving Scoprions underwater and such? It wouldn't surprise me if few even bother trying with this one. It's slick but it's hollow and, in the main, a terribly dull and disappointing note for Bungie to go out on. Somewhere along the line, it seems they forgot what was great about the original and tried to recreate it based on a half-remembered dream.

On a more positive note, it's left me thinking a lot more fondly of ODST, I do feel like giving that another spin now instead.

Edit - I should also add that both Reach and ODST have convinced me utterly that the Flood are a very much crucial and underappreciated ingredient of the series. I am not, however, excusing the complete garbage that was the Cortana level in Halo 3.

[Kevvy Metal]

Backlash of wrongitude is in full effect I see.

Still, right on schedule.

[MojoChin]

Noble team are all invincible, except for you, only the marines will die, maybe that's where you're getting mixed up.

Backlash of wrongitude is in full effect I see.

Still, right on schedule.

I'd say they're actually late, it was a refreshing lull for a while anyway.

[Mr Ben]

I found the campaign good but not CE good, but is definitely more enjoyable than Halo 3 and less frustrating than Halo 2 with its snipers ( ). The Sabre part is good but when they said in their video that it would be insanely hard on Legendary I was expecting the worst. I walked it. Piss easy. Heroic seemed harder overall for me than Legendary, but I'm guessing it was due to it being my 1st playthrough, and on Legendary I knew where everything was, what to do etc.

Multiplayer.....Well. Its good, really good. Halo 3 is a joke compared to it. I do think that if Halo 2's physics(jump distance, walk speed, no dual wielding, etc) and Reach's weapons and armor abilities were combined it would be the ultimate Halo game though perhaps. Small ledges that I still cant seem to jump up to and the speed the character walks normally is something I find very irritating in multiplayer, so much that I pick the run armor ability 9 times out of 10. Weapons are amazingly well balanced, though I do wonder what the plasma repeater rifle is actually useful for (not the one handed variant thats always been in Halo, but the new rifle like one). Grenades are really cool, and pretty well balanced as well.

However, matchmaking atm is full of bugs and glitches. The wtf video that was posted on the previous page highlights the worst, though I havent seen someone come back to life from an assasination ( ) yet in matchmaking thankfully. The ctf game I played *was* supposed to have the run ability btw, as other classic variants always have it that I've seen, yet I didnt have it for 3/4 the entire match. If the host quits and you were picking your armor then tough you wont have one sometimes either. I also died last night in the tank after getting the cannon blown off, me driving around a bit then dying to seemingly nothing then my corpse appearing where the tank actually spawns, despite me dying mid field .

The matchmaking playlists are also pretty dumb, with ctf having practically every vehicle on the map in a big team battle/Invasion or team game. Spawn points on certain maps need looking at (I'm looking at you Paradiso!), with teams being stuck spawning at the base on Slayer game types on those maps, leading to spawn camping behaviour, because the base is miles away from any other cover, making it difficult to get anywhere, and the opposite team can snipe you with both a sniper and a DMR/needle rifle from up high on the mountain.

The games still great and all, but I do feel that some aspects were slightly rushed, which is a shame as its the last Bungie Halo

[Don Rosco]

Well, one thing Bungie have form for is tweaking the multiplayer, so i'd expect a lot of those problems to be ironed out sooner or later.

[Mr Ben]

Well, one thing Bungie have form for is tweaking the multiplayer, so i'd expect a lot of those problems to be ironed out sooner or later.

Yeah, I really cant see some of them being caused by latency either, that assasination/coming back to life thing looks well dodgey for example.

Fortunately playlists are getting sorted somewhat, and I really hope they do a pass on Paradiso with big team and team games in general on that map. It really is too big for 4v4 and in big team slayer shouldnt stick you at each base when you respawn all the time. It beats Spire on my most hated map, when it comes up I'm tempted to go make a cuppa or something as I know it'll just annoy me.

[Don Rosco]

I seem to have a fairly consistently terrible time on paradiso, but I do like spire. Invasion on there is an all-time classic game type.

[Kevvy Metal]

Reach is the best Halo sequel by far... as close as they have come to replicating the endlessly re-playable combat sandbox of the original. Reach might not hit the lofty high notes of CE but it's campaign is almost without a doubt the most consistently enjoyable of all the games.

I recently replayed CE and It really takes an odd turn with the introduction of the Flood. It's interesting to see how much stuff Bungie changed and mixed up between all the Halo games. The incarnation of the Flood in CE is probably the most enjoyable, purely for it's obvious throw back to the dumber onslaught of games like Serious Sam.

...but they're still a dumb crowd of annoyance. The "three way battles" stick in peoples memories but that's only really present on the 'Two Betrayals' chapter.

The last two chapters; 'Keyes' and 'The Maw' do hit some gruelling, monotonous low points...then there is 'The Library'.

[Pob]

I don't think there's actually been a three-way battle since Two Betrayals, has there? You were always fighting the flood alone or with allies. Never at the same time as you fought the Covenant. Which is a shame.

I guess you could count the few seconds in Reach where it's humans, Covenant and those giant ape things and duking it out.

[Guest]

quitting is still epidemic. finished a BTB on a team of three

maybe they should give more credits for finishing. the ban is useless

Yeah, 15 minutes ban is pathetic. Make it 24 hours. Then 72 hours if they don't stop quitting. Then a week if they still carry on with their shit.

[Guest]

Something that has bugged me - The Falcon. It's a smaller, less advanced version of something we've (well, America) had for the last decade. What the fuck's up with that? What year is the game set in again?

[squirtle]

I keep watching the Deliver Hope trailer. It's brilliant. Really makes me pine for a full length Halo film.

[Michael J Glocks]

Fortunately playlists are getting sorted somewhat, and I really hope they do a pass on Paradiso with big team and team games in general on that map. It really is too big for 4v4 and in big team slayer shouldnt stick you at each base when you respawn all the time. It beats Spire on my most hated map, when it comes up I'm tempted to go make a cuppa or something as I know it'll just annoy me.

BTB objective games on Paradiso are good fun, one flag especially. BTB slayer is always shit regardless of the map.