Halo 3 - now coming to Xbox One. MC Collection.

[MW_Jimmy]

Anyway - more to the point... have they done anything to encourage those who didn't enjoy Halo 2 online to play it?

I can't imagine they'll be doing much to please people who didn't like Halo 1 & 2, but have a passing interest in Halo 3. Just a hunch.

[MalevolentPanda]

just saying what he said on his blog. He does admit to online FPS' leaving him cold...

Well then he's talking shit.

(oh - and when I played Halo 2 online and was constantly pwned by stoned students or whining american kids - it usually involved them doing a lot of jumping and shooting)

To be fair, I'm guessing you'd probably say the same about any online FPS (that has a jump button).

Anyway - more to the point... have they done anything to encourage those who didn't enjoy Halo 2 online to play it?

It was massively popular and easily at the pinnacle of its genre though. What exactly could they have done to appease you, given that they can't really take out the jumping or the shooting?

[Sprite Machine]

just saying what he said on his blog. He does admit to online FPS' leaving him cold...

(oh - and when I played Halo 2 online and was constantly pwned by stoned students or whining american kids - it usually involved them doing a lot of jumping and shooting)

Anyway - more to the point... have they done anything to encourage those who didn't enjoy Halo 2 online to play it?

Not especially, although the maps seem a bit friendlier. You'll still get sniped from miles away by someone you didn't even see, but not as often. Or it could just be that the matchmaking isn't putting me up against anyone who's a good enough shot yet.

At any rate, Halo 2 online annoyed me frequently. This has been a pleasure in comparison. I'll be sad to see the beta end - how long is left? I should try some proper team games before then.

[Guest alisdair]

I didn't much like Halo, and Halo 2 was horrible to play online as a new player in 2006, but Halo 3 is awesome and I'm having great fun so far. Mostly due to the above-mentioned small changes, I think.

[Sprite Machine]

I can't imagine they'll be doing much to please people who didn't like Halo 1 & 2, but have a passing interest in Halo 3. Just a hunch.

Nowt wrong with broadening the appeal of a game (online play in general is still a bit 'specialist'), but perhaps Halo isn't the game to change things. This is hardly Animal Crossing.

[scottcr]

I enjoyed Halo 2 online at first but would like localised player selection (I don't want to play american teenagers) and I was continually being pwned in cheap ways.

If they've balanced out the weapons, that might make a big difference... but, as people reckon, Halo 3 will sell a lot of xbox360s... then it has to be n00b friendly.

[MalevolentPanda]

I enjoyed Halo 2 online at first but would like localised player selection (I don't want to play american teenagers) and I was continually being pwned in cheap ways.

If they've balanced out the weapons, that might make a big difference... but, as people reckon, Halo 3 will sell a lot of xbox360s... then it has to be n00b friendly.

I just checked that blog. You didn't even read it proerly, did you? For starters, the bit that you refer to wasn't written by N'Gai.

What do you want them to do to make it 'n00b friendly' that won't piss off the millions of Halo fans who are going to form most of the market for 3?

[moosegrinder]

Harsher penalties for dropping out for a start.

[scottcr]

I'd like to see weighted jumping - so - as you jump more, you slow down.

Also, more balanced matchmaking. After a while playing Halo 2, matchmaking was shoving me in with folks who dedicated their entire lives to playing Halo 2.

It stopped becoming any fun.

[MW_Jimmy]

If they've balanced out the weapons, that might make a big difference... but, as people reckon, Halo 3 will sell a lot of xbox360s... then it has to be n00b friendly.

No it doesn't. These people will play the 1-player and Co-Op (online prehaps). They might venture online but only fleetingly as they understand they don't have the time to get good. They might play a few Customs with like minded friends and avoid Matchmaking altogether.

Others will moan that they should change the fundementals of the game. Like you.

[moosegrinder]

Funny how you two (being Jimmy and Panda) are arguing that Halo 3 shouldn't be changed yet you don't actually own a 360 between you

[blipwoo]

No dash option

[MalevolentPanda]

Harsher penalties for dropping out for a start.

Well, that would cause problems unless they change it totally. With ELO ranks you can't take points off someone without giving them to someone else. It's not that much of a problem in Halo compared to other stuff anyway, unless you play unranked games/with randoms.

I'd like to see weighted jumping - so - as you jump more, you slow down.

What? Change your speed dynamically according to how much you've jumped? That would be game-breaking. It would be impossible to judge jumps or distances because you wouldn't know how fast you would move. Awful idea.

Also, more balanced matchmaking. After a while playing Halo 2, matchmaking was shoving me in with folks who dedicated their entire lives to playing Halo 2.

It stopped becoming any fun.

But at least it has matchmaking. You're right that it could be improved on - the ranks were too fractured to give a true reflection of skill on every playlist. And the system was subverted by people signing up second gamertags so they could play easy games. Still, a bit unfair to criticise Halo for this when you consider the efforts that they went to to achieve fair games were far and away better than any other game made before or since, don't you think?

[layten]

Funny how you two (being Jimmy and Panda) are arguing that Halo 3 shouldn't be changed yet you don't actually own a 360 between you

Perhaps if the changes were made...

[sir stiff_one]

Shut up Panda. Bungie clearly should've taken out the jumping and shooting parts to please people like scott.

Yeah, like draw a big smiley Mario face on the screen for a special Mushroom Cup and 100cc Mongoose. Plus an invincibility star as a deployable and pipes instead of warps.

[Rushy]

I'd like to see weighted jumping - so - as you jump more, you slow down.

I've never understood peoples problems with jumping. When an opponent jumps it makes them a much easier target because they can't change direction, they're following a predictable arc leaving an easy shot.

Why do some people dislike jumping?

[Guest alisdair]

Why do some people dislike jumping?

Rapid vertical aiming is harder for me. If I need to tweak my horizontal aim a bit, I can strafe for minute changes. For vertical aiming, I only use the right stick, which means more chance of fucking it up entirely.

[sir stiff_one]

Why do some people dislike jumping?

Because they are shit at the game and the bad man jumps over their head and kills them.

To be fair I was really really bad when I came back. People were running past me and I couldn't track them at all. I'd spray my bullets all around a player like a blind man trying to kill a ninja by pissing on him. My grenades went the wrong way etc. I used to use Legacy controls, inverted. When I came back I could only use regular, non inverted. I felt really slow and cack handed. Having experienced that I understand how unrewarding it can be for a new player to take part at first. "Grab the laser" "huh?", "he's below you!" BOOF! Asassinated. etc

Now I'm happily mediocre!

[Eighthours]

Had a few awesome games of 2vs2 last night with my brother, including one nailbiter: Team Snipers on High Ground, which quickly turned into Team Shotguns for some reason!

[Talvalin]

I've got no problems with shooting people who are jumping. I just have difficulty with the fuckers who jump over my head. Snowbound was shocking for the number of times when someone jumped over me, I lost track of them and then was promptly assassinated. That's just me.

Nerfing running speed due to excessive jumping is clearly a shit idea.

[sir stiff_one]

well, I played quite a bit I suppose. But the same as you, i've not touched it for ages. I should be online in the next few days so if you see me and you're up for a game or two, send me an invite.

Yeah - really you need to get your rank up to around 7 or 8, it should only take a session or two. Then it will be easier to find games plus you'll get back into it etc.

I've got you on my little 'add' list.

[scottcr]

I think the problem is that I'm just not good enough at the game to go online comfortably. When I do (and this happened with GoW as well) I just get pwned massively. It's fun for a while but gets old really quickly... my gaming situation doesn't give me the time to dedicate to learning the subtleties of each map and weapon. I'm not that fast or accurate at aiming (with the sticks at least).

Perhaps it's just not for me... I just thought that such a high profile online game as Halo 3 could perhaps have some dedicated options/game modes for complete n00bs to ease them in gently before going into the big bad world.

Don't get me wrong - I'm cautiously optimistic about Halo 3 single player and I'll certainly give it a bash online. Just wondering if it's been tuned to keep the Halo 2 hardcore happy rather than make it a bit more accessible for people who are just too rubbish/old/slow like me to be any good at it.

I agree that the matchmaking was a good attempt at helping here - it was just subverted, don't know how they can prevent this.

MS have this whole 'gamerstyle' thing (don't know what it's called) where you say whether or not you're hardcore or casual etc - this should factor into the matchmaking. Although you'd still end up with similar problems.

[scottcr]

I've got no problems with shooting people who are jumping. I just have difficulty with the fuckers who jump over my head. Snowbound was shocking for the number of times when someone jumped over me, I lost track of them and then was promptly assassinated. That's just me.

Nerfing running speed due to excessive jumping is clearly a shit idea.

I've heard of this being done somewhere else - was it Counterstrike? The more you jump, the more delay there is between jumps - or something...

[Venice Cull]

There is some talk of an 'underdog' mode in Halo 3, whereby the team or player who is massively losing gets some sort of advantage - wether that be double damage or free oversheilds or whatever, its not clear. I guess the idea is to keep things nice and close.

I'm assuming that the new matchmaking code will reduce the need for that kind of thing anyway.

[sir stiff_one]

I think the problem is that I'm just not good enough at the game to go online comfortably. When I do (and this happened with GoW as well) I just get pwned massively. It's fun for a while but gets old really quickly... my gaming situation doesn't give me the time to dedicate to learning the subtleties of each map and weapon. I'm not that fast or accurate at aiming (with the sticks at least).

Perhaps it's just not for me... I just thought that such a high profile online game as Halo 3 could perhaps have some dedicated options/game modes for complete n00bs to ease them in gently before going into the big bad world.

Don't get me wrong - I'm cautiously optimistic about Halo 3 single player and I'll certainly give it a bash online. Just wondering if it's been tuned to keep the Halo 2 hardcore happy rather than make it a bit more accessible for people who are just too rubbish/old/slow like me to be any good at it.

I agree that the matchmaking was a good attempt at helping here - it was just subverted, don't know how they can prevent this.

MS have this whole 'gamerstyle' thing (don't know what it's called) where you say whether or not you're hardcore or casual etc - this should factor into the matchmaking. Although you'd still end up with similar problems.

To be fair I was really really bad when I came back. People were running past me and I couldn't track them at all. I'd spray my bullets all around a player like a blind man trying to kill a ninja by pissing on him. My grenades went the wrong way etc. I used to use Legacy controls, inverted. When I came back I could only use regular, non inverted. I felt really slow and cack handed. Having experienced that I understand how unrewarding it can be for a new player to take part at first. "Grab the laser" "huh?", "he's below you!" BOOF! Asassinated. etc

Now I'm happily mediocre!

Play about 30 games online, don't worry about dying a lot, just get into the rhythm of the game - this often does include dying a lot. By that time you will have a much better idea of the weapons, the maps, everything. Once you've got the controls down, a worse player technically can outdo another by second guessing him. You just need brains and cunning and luck for that part.

One thing that is very different is that the levels are a lot more vertical, there's so much more coverage on every map. Valhalla on Halo 2 would have involved you running toward the base for 3 minutes and getting sniped before you got to half way, or just getting sniped in your base from the other one. At least now you can go from cover to cover and you can't snipe base to base. Also once you know the maps you'll have a much better idea what route people are gonna take, where they might be hiding etc.

The best game I've had so far was a Team Slayer where everything went right. I'd wait for a player to come up the stairs and throw a spiker right into his path so it would explode next to his head, rather than do it too late and basically shout "here I am!". I was getting stickies on people in times of certain death and taking them with me, it was all good. All the feelings of being utterly shit were worth it for that game.

[sir stiff_one]

There is some talk of an 'underdog' mode in Halo 3, whereby the team or player who is massively losing gets some sort of advantage - wether that be double damage or free oversheilds or whatever, its not clear. I guess the idea is to keep things nice and close.

I'm assuming that the new matchmaking code will reduce the need for that kind of thing anyway.

Sometimes you kick ass, sometimes you get whupped. That's how it should be.

[Venice Cull]

Sometimes you kick ass, sometimes you get whupped. That's how it should be.

Oh, yeah. I'm sure when Scott plays splitscreen on his Jap Import Pokemon Limited Edition N64 with his mates and gets a drubbing he's not moaning about stuff.

[Thread Astaire]

As long as you don't get matched against Tyler you should be ok. Next time I meet him online I'm hiding behind a big rock.

[MalevolentPanda]

I think the problem is that I'm just not good enough at the game to go online comfortably. When I do (and this happened with GoW as well) I just get pwned massively. It's fun for a while but gets old really quickly... my gaming situation doesn't give me the time to dedicate to learning the subtleties of each map and weapon. I'm not that fast or accurate at aiming (with the sticks at least).

Perhaps it's just not for me... I just thought that such a high profile online game as Halo 3 could perhaps have some dedicated options/game modes for complete n00bs to ease them in gently before going into the big bad world.

Don't get me wrong - I'm cautiously optimistic about Halo 3 single player and I'll certainly give it a bash online. Just wondering if it's been tuned to keep the Halo 2 hardcore happy rather than make it a bit more accessible for people who are just too rubbish/old/slow like me to be any good at it.

I agree that the matchmaking was a good attempt at helping here - it was just subverted, don't know how they can prevent this.

MS have this whole 'gamerstyle' thing (don't know what it's called) where you say whether or not you're hardcore or casual etc - this should factor into the matchmaking. Although you'd still end up with similar problems.

You need to get involved with the nubes clan when the game comes out. Did wonders for me and lots of other people. I was total, total shit when 2 came out. I'd not played an FPS since dabbling in Quake 3 DC at the time. Get a group of people who you can have a laugh with and learn at your own pace and you might eventually see what makes Halo so compelling.

I've heard of this being done somewhere else - was it Counterstrike? The more you jump, the more delay there is between jumps - or something...

Jumping isn't a big thing in CS either, and it's not that that you're thinking of. Your objection to jumping is a bit weird, because it's quite slow and not difficult to deal with in Halo. If we were talking about Unreal or Quake I'd undersatnd.

[Rushy]

As long as you don't get matched against Tyler you should be ok. Next time I meet him online I'm hiding behind a big rock.

The rock won't save you. Have you never seen the Monty Python Halo sketch?