Thats only in long range encounters, a lot of the garbage maps are all close range spamming. Plus in long range encounters bloom gives a player all the time in the world to take cover or use an armour ability to survive.

10/8/2010 3:10:31 PM

Somehow I don't see this thread getting to the 43 pages that Halo 3 got to...

10/10/2010 8:32:42 PM

Definitely not. This game is getting royally fucked by the fact that Black-Ops comes out little more than a month after it. Sure, all the hardcore Halo-ers will stick around but a large group will migrate over on 11/9 and never look back.

10/11/2010 8:40:35 AM

Finally finished the campaign over the weekend. I have developed such a love/hate relationship with this game. I absolutely love the design of the characters, weapons, vehicles, and environments. However, I have serious issues with the function of those weapons and vehicles.

1. Do the books have any relationship to what happens in this game? Someone told me there's a book about the fall of Reach.

2. What happened to Jun?

3. Has Bungie provided any official explanation (or potentially an upcoming solution) about the horrific lag in Firefight matchmaking?

4. It surprised me to see that the Covenant can dual-wield weapons, but Noble Six can't.

5. Have you noticed that when the Covenant uses the Fuel Rod gun, it fires at full speed, but when Noble Six uses it, it has a kind of air burst effect that tremendously slows down the shot shortly after it leaves the barrel? WTF?

6. You see how much assault rifle ammo you have at the start of Winter Contingency? Six hundred rounds. And you have it all parsed out in 32-round magazines. This is like the poster child for "woefully underpowered weapon."

7. I really wish Bungie would put MORE weapons and MORE vehicles in big maps instead of limiting the selection. Great case in point is with the removal of the Scorpion and the drop shield from Big Team Battle objective games. I'd much rather see them add in something to better counteract those objects rather than limit players to fewer (or less powerful) options. It'd provide for much less predictability and greater spontaneity.

10/11/2010 12:56:40 PM

Quote :

"Definitely not. This game is getting royally fucked by the fact that Black-Ops comes out little more than a month after it. Sure, all the hardcore Halo-ers will stick around but a large group will migrate over on 11/9 and never look back."

The White Warriors will once again be fully unified.

10/11/2010 1:40:51 PM

proud to say i resisted the urge to buy reach. definitely going to pick up black ops though. excited to have another fps to play online.

10/11/2010 4:30:31 PM

Reach has been worth it to me. I was never a huge online Halo player, but there's always a HUGE nostalgia factor to me with Halo. System link LAN parties with the original were a huge part of my freshman college year, and I've always loved the story arc of the campaign.

Bungie leaving the Halo universe will most likely be what turns me away from the series, but I'll at least give the 343 Halos a try before giving out a final judgement.

That said, I'm excited about Black Ops as well. I never even played the campaign of MW2...its all about the multiplayer (and the Tiny White Weiners) with CoD.

10/12/2010 8:46:51 AM

Quote :

"Someone told me there's a book about the fall of Reach."

Yes, it's called The Fall of Reach. It doesn't mention Noble Team, but it details other aspects of the Covenant invasion there. The biggest link between the two is Dr. Halsey.

Quote :

"What happened to Jun?"

He was last seen in the game being ordered to escort Dr. Halsey from Sword Base to Castle Base, which is located under a mountain range. Speculation is that this is the same mountain range Noble Six was headed towards at the end of the game. What happens to Jun and Halsey is still a mystery, but it wasn't an accidental plot hole or anything like that.

Quote :

"Has Bungie provided any official explanation (or potentially an upcoming solution) about the horrific lag in Firefight matchmaking?"

Well the reason it lags more than regular multiplayer is due to the difference between asynchronus and synchronus gameplay. Bungie has said the next patch should help some, but no guarantees.

Quote :

"It surprised me to see that the Covenant can dual-wield weapons, but Noble Six can't."

Dual-wielding was the worst thing to happen to Halo, it makes much more sense to simplify the controls and make each weapon useful as a single-wielded one. The AI gets to dual-wield because it doesn't add any complications, it just makes them more formidable/cool.

10/12/2010 4:48:17 PM

I have 150k credits saved up. Trying to decide if I am going to spend the 200k I will have in a couple days on the death confetti, or if I should do the 300k heart garden. I have started to see a number of confetti throwers (still rare), but I've yet to see the heart garden.

10/13/2010 1:51:54 PM

I wish there was an Armor Effect that I could buy to turn those off.

I think the hearts/confetti is ridiculous and I don't understand why it isn't restricted to custom games. It's like the MW2 money that would fly out of a body after a payback kill, and it's only going to get worse when more people unlock it.

10/13/2010 2:05:52 PM

I have the grunt birthday party. It's OK. I thoroughly enjoyed it at first and it was funny. My friends enjoyed killing me in rumble pit and such. Now it gets old when I have a bad game, because all it does is announce to everyone I died and rub it in when I'm doing bad.

Can get especially annoying on SWAT during the times you get spawn killed 3-5 times in a row without taking 2 steps.

10/13/2010 2:43:46 PM

Grund bday is annoying as fuck..

I think im gonna make my guy look like the original master chief as much as possible, then buy the lightning storm when i can save up 2mil credits.

10/13/2010 3:25:34 PM

^^ You know you can turn it off, right? I just wish I could disable it for everyone I play against...

I mean, Halo obviously isn't a realistic game, but it's never had anything that annoying and canon-breaking before (excluding Oddball games and such).

10/13/2010 4:24:23 PM

I haven't been saving up at all. I buy pretty much whatever I can when I have enough credits. I'm going to start from now on until Lt. Col to get that black visor.

10/13/2010 8:47:47 PM

^^I hate to break it to you, but 8 random spartans running around killing each other isn't exactly "canon," whether they burst into confetti or not

10/14/2010 12:10:12 AM

Traded-in my copy with Amazon. They are paying $39 and I wanted to try MOH before Black-Ops.

10/14/2010 2:13:08 AM

^ Heard MoH is garbage...you might regret your decision.

10/14/2010 8:58:25 AM

^^ thanks, i'm gonna give them my reach copy as well. though i doubt i'll get MoH on xbox360. PC if anything...

1 Battlefield Bad Company 2 1 Xbox 360 $14.00
2 Halo 3: ODST 1 Xbox 360 $10.00
3 Red Dead Redemption 1 Xbox 360 $18.00
4 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 1 Xbox 360 $8.25
5 Left 4 Dead 2 1 Xbox 360 $15.50
6 Tekken 6 1 Xbox 360 $9.00
7 Halo Reach 1 Xbox 360 $38.00

total $112.75 woot

[Edited on October 14, 2010 at 9:45 AM. Reason : .]

10/14/2010 9:45:05 AM

Quote :

"^^I hate to break it to you, but 8 random spartans running around killing each other isn't exactly "canon," whether they burst into confetti or not"

Okay, canon wasn't the right word to pick, but my point remains the same. Halo has its own level of realism and the Birthday Party effect just ruins it.
I feel like the people that make those awesome montages are going to cut a ton of great clips just because some idiot exploding into confetti makes the video look silly.

10/14/2010 10:12:10 AM

Alright, so what's next for the franchise? My memory on the news is spotty at best. Bungie is out, and another studio is in? And this other studio is going to continue making Halo games?

10/14/2010 3:02:41 PM

Yep, pretty much.

Bungie (once again an independent studio) is working on a new franchise that Activision has the rights to publish for the next 10 years.

Microsoft (who owns the Halo franchise) has created its own studio, 343 Industries, which has been working on a new Halo game for a while now. No announcements yet, but it is coming.

343 Industries is owned by Microsoft and headed by Frank O'Conner, former Bungie employee. So far they have just released the Halo Legends dvd and Halo Waypoint (on the Xbox dashboard), with some new Halo novels coming in January.

I'm guessing the new game won't be called Halo 4, it will probably be a new trilogy. So maybe something like Halo: Bad Modern Company Warfare, then Halo:BMCW 2&3.

I'm more excited for what Bungie has been working on.
------------------------
3 new maps coming on Nov. 30th for $10.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/first-halo-reach-map-pack-coming-in-november/

They look big enough that someone couldn't just make them in Forge. The second one should be good for making custom maps using a different palette than ForgeWorld. The third map looks great for Invasion (and it looks like a Warthog driver's dream).

10/14/2010 3:18:16 PM

why can't they be 5 map packs. especially when 2 of them are HUGE.

10/14/2010 5:46:45 PM

Is it possible to use matchmaking to join a Forge-created map or custom game?

10/15/2010 11:47:50 AM

No, there is no matchmaking for Forge or Customs.

Alternatives:
- Check your recent players list to see if anyone is playing.
- Check forum communities like forgeHub.com or halo.bungie.org for people that want to play customs.
- Some communities have a Silver gamertag that adds people, so you can check the "Friends of friend" list without cluttering up your own friend list.

Eventually there might be some custom-like playlists similar to Halo 3's 7 on the 7th playlist or the weekend playlists, but I doubt there will ever be Forge matchmaking.
---------
It looks like Campaign Matchmaking goes live today, and there is a possibility of a Team Snipers playlist and an Infection playlist going up on Tuesday, 10/19.

10/15/2010 11:57:01 AM

Quote :

"Sure, all the hardcore Halo-ers will stick around but a large group will migrate over on 11/9 and never look back."

i already jumped ship

Gamestop is giving an extra 25% on trade in towards Black Ops preorders

Halo: Reach - $37.50

10/15/2010 2:06:23 PM

OK, another question I've not yet had definitively answered. Say if you shoot someone down to 10% shield and then you run up to them and melee them, all this does is take them down to 0% of their shield and 100% health and not knock them down to, say, 0% shield and 30% health?

10/15/2010 3:13:36 PM

A couple of games away finally from captain. Have about 210k credits. 90k more to get the stupid armor effect I have seen no one use yet.

10/15/2010 3:20:50 PM

^^Yes.

If the player has ANY shield, it will take 2 melees to kill him. 1 to take out the shield (even if it's only 10%), 1 to kill.

This new system has caused a lot of confusion (and whining in some cases), but it is much better than the Halo 3 system of "he sprayed you with the AR for half a second so a melee kills now". There's no more guesswork as to whether or not you'll get a one-melee kill. Either your opponents shield is up or it isn't.

10/15/2010 3:38:31 PM

$38 for trade in isnt bad. I was hoping this game would last longer than a month but really it just can't compare to the original trilogy.

10/15/2010 4:40:09 PM

Yeah I got tired of it quickly

Trading this and a few others in for Fallout

10/15/2010 4:41:34 PM

I have and always will love multi-team. It's so much fun if you have a good partner. I just went 37-21 though and my partner went 10-25.

10/15/2010 9:47:55 PM

Anyone else play this on NCSU's internet? I get the Upstream Bandwidth Warning and lag like crazy and I am plugged directly into a port.

10/16/2010 2:40:06 AM

Quote :

"Office of Not Dying Complete ONI on Legendary without dying."

uhhh wtf. that's impossible. at least for me. worth a hefty 4000 credits though.

10/16/2010 8:40:39 AM

you pretty much have to co-op boost it. have 1 or 2 guys stay at the beginning to be a spawn point for the others who are killing stuff, then switch roles for another playthrough

10/16/2010 12:56:03 PM

I always thought the other person in co-op would teleport to you if you got too far behind?

10/16/2010 12:58:07 PM

not for sword base b/c most of the level is a big loop. the ones getting boosted can just sit at the gates of the base and never get ported

10/16/2010 1:10:34 PM

Gamertag: AchillesWlfPack

Add me if you like playing team slayer or doubles and use communication skills to own.

10/16/2010 2:58:24 PM

ewie. major grade 3 but 50k until lt. col. that'll take me like 2-3 weeks with the amount of time i have to play.

10/18/2010 9:03:35 PM

back to back 31 kill games. so much for that weekly challenge.

10/19/2010 11:00:11 AM

Got my first Reach extermination. SWAT killtacular, though, so maybe I shouldn't brag too much.

10/19/2010 5:48:32 PM

team snipers and living dead playlists are up. got a medal for the first time - hell's janitor for 10 zombies in a row. but fuck infection

edit: just played a map called Cliffhanger on Team Swat. looks like they are finally incorporating forge maps into playlists? awesommeee.

also, sorry for my play-by-play experiences of halo.

[Edited on October 19, 2010 at 6:44 PM. Reason : .]

10/19/2010 6:38:23 PM

Yay, new firefight maps!

Oh wait.

Boo, they still lag like hell!

10/20/2010 12:04:10 PM

I never played ODST. Did its firefight mode ever lag like this one? Has Bungie provided an official explanation as to why this is happening? I'd really love to play more of this mode, but it's just not currently worth the hassle.

10/21/2010 12:58:12 AM

^ ODST's firefight lagged just as bad, if not worse. It just didn't elicit as many complaints because you could only play with people on your friends list, so there was no random matchmaking and fewer games overall.

I already answered your second question on this page, but here you go again:
Bungie has explained that the reason Firefight lags more is the differenc between synchronous and asynchronous gameplay.

MODERATELY LONG FIREFIGHT LAG EXPLANATION:
Basically, in normal multiplayer there is 1 host and 1-15 clients. The clients tell the host what they are doing e.g. where their player is moving, who he is shooting. The host adds all this data up and determines the current state of the game, then transmits that to all of the clients. If one player has a bad connection that just means he doesn't get to tell the host what he's doing as often, and falls behind on knowing what the current state of the game is, which causes only that one player to lag. The host keeps running the game without him and when the lagging xbox catches up the host overwrites that xbox's data with what the actual state is (meaning that the non-lagging players keep playing without even noticing).

In firefight, everyone is treated as a host of sorts. All of the xboxes in the match must agree on the current state of the game before it will move to the next frame. This is because the AI has to know exactly where every player is and what he is doing in order for it to control the Covenant. When one player has a bad connection, everyone suffers as if he were the host.

It's not Bungie's fault that people with shitty connections try to play Firefight. The best they can do is try to set up matches between people that are geographically close to each other to reduce latency. The thing is, some people with bad connections don't even realize it, because the game is so good at picking hosts and normal multiplayer matches get by with less bandwidth.

The best thing you can do is go into Matchmaking Preferences and select the Good Connection option. Maybe check your Network Status in the start menu, if your connection sucks stick to offline Firefight or just play Score Attack.

10/21/2010 8:43:43 AM

"Prefer good connection" is a joke just like it was in Halo 3. Everytime I have tried that it sticks me with Europeans.

10/21/2010 10:08:06 AM

^ Weird. I select Prefer Good Connection every time, and very few games have been laggy for me.

It seems like Reach does a good job of detecting when a host is bad and switching it, sometimes even at the beginning of games. It used to be that games would lag for a while before the host would get disconnected, now it notices lag quickly and switches hosts without dropping that player.

10/21/2010 10:20:41 AM

I have always had the Good Connection option set ever since I bought the game, so that's not the issue. All of my connection settings are in the green, and my bandwidth is quite good both up and down. I have played at least a half dozen Firefight games in the last 2 weeks where the lag was so bad, the other 3 players left the game. Even with just me playing, it was still lagging. That doesn't make sense at all. I don't see how things are lag-free in multiplayer campaign when it's almost the same type of scenario - up to 4 people against the AI.

10/21/2010 1:42:10 PM

I never had the problem in ODST, playing offhost with my friend. Playing with the same person on Reach though... not even fun. I don't see how they hyped up firefight when such a fundamental and obvious flaw ruins it.

10/21/2010 3:18:37 PM

Pretty much all the preferences are a godawful joke. "Skill" set me up once with three other warrant officers, while the entire other team was Lt. Cols. It did not go well. "Good Connection" doesn't seem to affect lag one way or another.

10/22/2010 7:40:48 PM

Yeah, I'm done with this game. Beat the campaign, not even sure what the story really was.


Played a bunch of multiplayer - from big team battle to snipers to zombies


Just not my cup of tea anymore. Trading/selling this and just waiting for the new CoD

10/22/2010 10:39:02 PM