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

[Stroker Ace]

He didn't say that.

I assumed he did, when he said: "Hey, good point -- why are you playing Team Slayer so much in an objective-game hopper? So we fixed that, and we're paying close attention to that."

I presumed their 'fix' would be to take fucking Slayer our of Team Objective. It's the most idiotic, cretinous feature of their matchmaking system. "Let's have a playlist for Slayer! Oh, and let's also have a playlist for objective games, that's four fifths Slayer!"

Apparently, my assumption is wrong, because Yawdib doesn't like it.

[dan_tm]

Your assumption is wrong because in the beta they originally had slayer coming up in about 3 out of 4 games or something stupid, they then fixed it and reduced it to more like 1 in 4.

Maybe they have removed it completely since the beta ended, but that isn't what he said.

[Stroker Ace]

Fuck.

[Simmy]

I assumed he did, when he said: "Hey, good point -- why are you playing Team Slayer so much in an objective-game hopper? So we fixed that, and we're paying close attention to that."

I presumed their 'fix' would be to take fucking Slayer our of Team Objective. It's the most idiotic, cretinous feature of their matchmaking system. "Let's have a playlist for Slayer! Oh, and let's also have a playlist for objective games, that's four fifths Slayer!"

Apparently, my assumption is wrong, because Yawdib doesn't like it.

That's rich, coming from you. No?

[Stroker Ace]

Simmy, the only question I want to hear from you is "Can I please be on your Friends list, Stroker" To which the response will be "no".

[Simmy]

I think it gives me greater pleasure just getting that anger-riddled answer from you, than you evidently get from seeing the question

[Stroker Ace]

It's not anger, so much as it's lolz.

[Snowman]

On EGM Live, Brian Jarrard was discussing why players three and four would use Elite character models in Halo 3's co-op, and he mentioned the following:

The alternative [to playing as Spartans] is that we have these other two elite characters, that happen to have a real fit within our story, within our game. And also, on another note, it's a nice way to sort of bring Elites back into the game, because we know a lot of people potentially are going to miss Elites. They've already expressed that sentiment, even though they don't know what it's going to be like to not have Elites, and I think the Brutes are awesome. But we're gonna try and bring them back in and the Elites are really a big iconic part of the Halo franchise.

I'm still not sure what to make of those comments. He doesn't explicitly rule out fighting Elites. Or does he? Maybe they'll make a short appearance as enemies in a similar manner to the Heretics in Halo 2.

[Pob]

I simply can't believe Bungie would remove one of the best things about the Halo games. What next? "Yeah, well we decided that Warthogs didn't really fit into our storyline any more, so we decided to replace them all with Ghosts." Or "we've had two games with a recharging shield now, and we wanted to get back to the idea of hunting for health packs."

[Snowman]

I simply can't believe Bungie would remove one of the best things about the Halo games.

That's a very good point. But on the other hand, wouldn't Bungie have put the fans' minds to rest by now and shown us some Elites in campaign screenshots, instead of going out of their way to make a documentary about how awesome the Brutes are? I guess it wouldn't be totally out of the question for Bungie to keep the Elites a secret so that there's one big surprise left for when we finally get to play the game. But even that seems a little odd.

[A Hen]

We don't know yet. But it seems that Bungie have tried to make the Brutes more Elite-like in their fighting style, as if they're meant to take the place of the Elites. With the new changes, and as long as they aren't just damage sinks like in Halo 2 as well as having shields, etc., they should be fun to fight.

Their design, on the other hand, I'm not so happy with. They always seemed like generic video game foes, whereas the Elites - in the first game, at least, before they opened their big gobs - were more interesting. The Elites are fun to fight because they have personality. On the strength of Halo 2, the Brutes are pretty cringeworthy, but we'll have to wait and see if Bungie increase their interest value in 3.

[Uzi]

So this time you have the personality on your side, and the dickheads on the other.

It might just be fun. But to reiterate Pob, what if bungie took the warthog, made it wider and gave it six wheels instead of four? Well it would look different, but if it drove just as well, boo fucking hoo. Lets see how the brutes fight.

[A Hen]

So this time you have the personality on your side, and the dickheads on the other.

It's not so much that they're dickheads... although they are... but that they're just so cliched. They instantly bring to mind lesser FPSs every time I see one, something I don't want to be constantly reminded of when playing Halo. It's not a deal-breaker, of course, just a shame if we have to face these dullards throughout the game*.

*assuming, as I said above, that they haven't been made more interesting.

[Pob]

So this time you have the personality on your side, and the dickheads on the other.

It might just be fun. But to reiterate Pob, what if bungie took the warthog, made it wider and gave it six wheels instead of four? Well it would look different, but if it drove just as well, boo fucking hoo. Lets see how the brutes fight.

It's great tha Bungie have made the Brutes more fun to fight (well, we hope). But why not have all-new Brutes in addition to the classic Elites? You know, to add some variety. Like they tried to do in Halo 2.

I'm still hoping that enemy Elites will return in the second half of the game as a crowd-pleasing surprise.

[MBM]

Sierra 117 singleplayer video(almost 8 minutes). The quality is quite poor, but you can still see that the stages seem much more open than Halo 2, even though half of the video takes place in closed environments:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/99824.html

Quality aside, it looks lush.

[Lovelyman]

That's looking very impressive. Visually superb, and some great set pieces.

[kerraig UK]

that last vid looks great. Brutes defo have shields judging by that video. To be honest apart from some sound cues i'd be hard pressed to notice the difference between these enemies and elites on this evidence. though it looked like it was only being played on medium so the jury is still out.

My only complaint fromt hat would be sound. theres FAR too much voice chat. I want some silent lone man stuff wheras that vid sounded like an EA Big game.

[El Stevo]

My only complaint fromt hat would be sound. theres FAR too much voice chat. I want some silent lone man stuff wheras that vid sounded like an EA Big game.

I'm sure that legendary difficulty will quickly solve any marine-related noise problems.

[Hass]

I fired up Halo 2 at the weekend and played the single player through to the start of Delta Halo. My god those first few levels were gash...

I remember downloading the Frenchie version and sitting there wondering if this was actually the real game we'd been so hyped about. The Halo 3 beta was fantastic so it really boosted my hopes that Bungie would return to form but playing Halo 2's single player again was definitely a reality check!

[nevsan]

Compared to the original or other xbox shooters at the time - maybe. 'Gash' is a bit harsh though. I've been playing it through aswell and quite enjoying it (on Heroic). I never did like the first level on the ship, but once you land on Earth its fun. Never remembered the visuals looking quite so sparse in places though, or perhaps I am too used to seeing everything in HD.

Each to their own I guess, but I never understood all the extreme hate for the sequel. Yeah, its flawed in places and has a hissy fit ending but its still good for the most part. It felt rushed and they explained it was - but everyone knows this.. so I'll shut up

[A Hen]

Sierra 117 singleplayer video(almost 8 minutes). The quality is quite poor, but you can still see that the stages seem much more open than Halo 2, even though half of the video takes place in closed environments:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/99824.html

Quality aside, it looks lush.

It looks really good. I can't wait.

Granted, Sgt. Johnson seems to feature prominently again (the gung-ho, cheeky git), but I can live with that.

[A Hen]

Brutes defo have shields judging by that video. To be honest apart from some sound cues i'd be hard pressed to notice the difference between these enemies and elites on this evidence.

Agreed, except I'd add that the Brutes look rubbish (I mean their basic design, not the quality of the graphics in Halo 3), and the Elites look ace, so I'd still rather be fighting the wort-wort-worters. But if the Brutes' AI is as good as the Elites', I can live with that too.

[Talk Show Host]

The problem with Halo 2 is not comparing it to other shooters. Halo 2 is still probably better than anything out there in terms of giving you the feel of actual combat and smart enemies. Even Half-Life 2 was driven by its atmosphere and its unique storytelling techniques and not combat AI.

The problem with Halo 2 becomes apparent when you compare it to the first Halo which was, unquestionably, a better and more solid game, combat and story wise. What I want to say is that if for some reversal of fortune Halo 2 was the first one in the series it would still get 10s and would still be considered revolutionary. Its just had the bad luck of coming second and being rushed.

It is very interesting to see what Halo 3 will achieve in gameplay terms, especially since Bungie have stated that "this time we've had all the time we needed."

[nevsan]

Maybe a victim of its own success and fantastic first game - but the way people talk about it here makes Pariah sound a better game

[Hass]

Compared to the original or other xbox shooters at the time - maybe. 'Gash' is a bit harsh though. I've been playing it through aswell and quite enjoying it (on Heroic). I never did like the first level on the ship, but once you land on Earth its fun. Never remembered the visuals looking quite so sparse in places though, or perhaps I am too used to seeing everything in HD.

Each to their own I guess, but I never understood all the extreme hate for the sequel. Yeah, its flawed in places and has a hissy fit ending but its still good for the most part. It felt rushed and they explained it was - but everyone knows this.. so I'll shut up

I think you're right in that the HD visuals really show up the sparesness of the environments. I didn't notice it the first time through but perhaps the Beta just conditioned me for general loveliness.

One thing I do remember though is that the visuals generally seemed to look worse in Halo2 than the original. Perhaps it was because things were on a greater scale and you'd frequently be looking at adverseries from miles away. But the whole thing looked a bit more flaky. One of the things I really liked about the original's visuals was its solidness and this was really lost in the sequel. Again, the Beta showed that this looks like it's been remedied. Valhala was absolutely stunning looking and really reminded me of the original feeling on the Halo 1 ring.

Now for the pedant in me to really come through but I really missed the particle effect that was present in the original when you fired plasma weapons against walls. I remember seeing that first time through and thinking OMFG!?!

You're right about the combat though, most other shooters feel very empty gameplay wise compared to any of the Halo series.

Change of subject, is anyone else really yearning for Sidewinder to make a return in the multiplayer maps? If they man cannoned that beauty up it would be aces.

[Snowman]

My only complaint fromt hat would be sound. theres FAR too much voice chat. I want some silent lone man stuff wheras that vid sounded like an EA Big game.

Bungie said that the combat dialogue hadn't been tuned for that build of the game, so the AI were reacting to every single trigger. Thankfully, the final game won't be quite so chatty

[Pob]

There's no way of playing NTSC Halo CE on a 360 is there? I'd like to revisit it, but I just can't play PAL Halo after playing Halo 2.

[Guest]

The problem with Halo 2 is not comparing it to other shooters. Halo 2 is still probably better than anything out there in terms of giving you the feel of actual combat and smart enemies. Even Half-Life 2 was driven by its atmosphere and its unique storytelling techniques and not combat AI.

The problem with Halo 2 becomes apparent when you compare it to the first Halo which was, unquestionably, a better and more solid game, combat and story wise. What I want to say is that if for some reversal of fortune Halo 2 was the first one in the series it would still get 10s and would still be considered revolutionary. Its just had the bad luck of coming second and being rushed.

It is very interesting to see what Halo 3 will achieve in gameplay terms, especially since Bungie have stated that "this time we've had all the time we needed."

Halo 2 had gash level design. Real gash. It was dull.

[RubberJohnny]

Halo 2, without the licence could have passed for a poor imitator like so many that were doing the rounds at that time. The graphics were also gash, the increased textures and decreased levels made everything too muddy.

Not only that but the multiplayer is gash now, it was acceptable at the time as it was one of the few games with such comprehensive options but dual-wielding was unbalanced, and the difference in power between say the Sword and the Sentinel Beam was ridiculous. Gears of war certainly did the latter better than most.

Most of the problems stemmed from poor design decisions or lack of time, and all seem to have been improved:

Cliffhanger ending - Had enough time to not cut the last 3 levels.

Weapon Balance - Dual-wielding isn't overpowered, power weapons are more balanced, all weapons are useful.

Multiplayer - Button comboes nonexistent, standbyers fucked, properly tested.

Arbiter - Essentially removed

Brutes - No longer damage sponges

Bosses - No longer exist

Small levels - Largest levels ever

[sammy]

Bungie have a new Podcast up - this one is all about Forge. It does sound very intriguing, I like that they've designed the feature as a game, rather than just a map editor. Some of the game variants they talk about sound like great fun as well - Rocket Races, Infection etc.

What with the saved film function, online Co-op and Forge, this is surely the most feature rich FPS yet?