[360] Halo Reach: Ghosts of GFF

Originally Posted by Tails

I'm fucking stoked. I've got off Monday/Tue and Friday that week. Daravon you'd better be around cause I'm gonna be blowing your phone up like Hiroshima, son. Halo just ain't the same without someone to betray all day and night.

In May, the battle begins...again.

I'll be around my normal times sure (for reference because you have no memory, I work 10 hour shifts on Mon/Wed/Thu/Fri). There's still no end date for the Beta yet, but it's expected to last 3-4 weeks, I took the 24th (Monday) off but that's it.

Originally Posted by LeHah

I'd like it if it played like the goddamned L4D2 add-on due out this week.

And even then I'd just play the goddamned L4D2 add-on.

So why aren't we playing L4D2 right now? I blame Tails and Kyndig.

We've honestly just all moved on. Phong is usually on at odd times and he's (as far as I can tell) obsessed with BC 2, as is Goodhand and Merk. Tails isn't around much (at least when I'm around), and I usually only get on to play MW2 with another group of people. Honestly don't know if I'll even bother getting the L4D2 DLC, it sounds great but I got burned on getting the first DLC and I don't know that I'd play (realistically) any more, especially with the Reach Beta starting a week and a half later.


In actual thread-related news, huge Reach embargoes went up today, so it's gonna take me some work to update the OP. I'll leave you with the leaked descriptions of the Halo Reach versions from an upcoming Best Buy ad.

Quote:

Pre-Order Halo Reach Today!
Choose from three editions:

Standard>>>>>$59.99
Limited Edition>>>>>$79.99

Includes: Special Limited Edition Case, Collectibles and In-Game Armor.

Legendary Edition>>>>>$149.99

Includes: All Limited Edition Contents, Unique Packaging, plus "Legendary Noble 6" Sculpture and Additional In-Game Armor.

And yes, I will buy the Legendary edition because I am a retard and want the packaging/in-game armor. Unless this sculpture is actually amazing it will go in the closet with my cat helmet. I wish they would sell this shit at like $99 without the physical thing no one wants; the Halo 3 Legendary discs were fucking amazing but you could only get them buy getting a cat helmet that I didn't want.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thread is largely content-complete for now with all of the embargoes that lifted today. Tomorrow I'll go through and make sure there were no minor things I missed.

I overhauled the OP again, removed and condensed things down a bit so it should be easier to read and less meandering now that we finally have real info, as well as it's easier to tell now what's relevant now and what's not. I still need some proper image headers, but aside from that we're good to go for the most part. There's a lot of little things I added, but probably the only one that really sticks out immediately that I'll mention here (aside from the editions being leaked) is that Assassinations are OPTIONAL, so it's basically a humiliation thing.

Originally Posted by russ

You could always just gently place the cat helmet and the sculpture into a trash bag, and then gently place said trash bag into a nearby dumpster. Then you could have your discs and in-game stuff and your closet space.

Bah.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Everyone go watch this:

Bungie.net : Halo Reach : Multimedia

Don't have time before work to update, but tons of new stuff in there, I'll update when I get home. Also the Bungie guys swear a lot. Also Luke Smith is pretty hilarious. "It's like everyone's got a Death Star in their hands" lololol

Also some stuff came out regarding the editions, what makes this different then previously is the in-game armor stuff is apparently exclusive to the editions, cannot be obtained otherwise; it's some sort of exclusive "armor effect", whatever that means.

Additional Spam:
Acutally leaked images of the actual packaging is up via Halo Waypoint: Reach Retail Packaging First Look

Again I'll properly update tonight.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Updated the OP with the details/pics of all the editions. There's some more relatively minor stuff, but it's late and with the BWU being tomorrow, I'll just wait and do it all tomorrow.

The statue's 10 freaking pounds people!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Per this week's BWU, Bungie is saying that Microsoft is saying that it'll be nothing like the cat helmet, and they actually are limited, so who fucking knows. I doubt it.

Any way, I'll be full on updating the OP later tonight or tomorrow, plenty of news between yesterday and today's update. Quick question: does any one actually give a shit about the .gifs? To be clear I'm pulling them from elsewhere and not spending time myself on them. I'm thinking about maybe pulling down all of them (except maybe for one or two), and severely condensing down the weapon section and possibly doing away with even the spoiler dropdowns, dunno.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Condensed the OP down further, got rid of most of the .gifs although I did keep one or two, seemed particularly relevant to show how Armor Lock works. Once I get off my ass and actually make some image headers it's done done.

Additions to OP:

-Few more details on various editions (The flames on the helmet that comes with the Legendary Edition works with any Spartan Helmet, it's not tied to only that one).
-Mongoose is NOT in the Beta as previously reported.
-Some Loadouts start you with 3 of a grenade; the third grenade is only available upon spawn, once you throw your first grenade of that type, you're capped at 2 for the rest of that spawn, even if you pick up another.
-There are a number of new medals, such as for killing someone who's flying with a Jet Pack, killing someone who's reloading, and more. Waiting for better screens/Bungie info to update this further.
-Custom Games will NOT be available in the Beta.
-In Invasion Slayer there are randomly positioned territories; capture them, and 10 seconds later an airdrop containing either weapons or vehicles will arrive.

(Current) Playlist drop dates into the Beta:
* Grab Bag – May 3
* FFA – May 3
* Arena - May 3
* Invasion - May 7
* Network Test 1/Generator Defense - May 14
-As you can see not all of the Playlists are immediately available; they are being staggered for specific network testing. However once a Playlist is up, unless unforseen circumstances arise it should be up for the duration of the Beta (i.e. Grab Bag does not go away on May 7th when Invasion is available). Per Bungie the above dates are subject to change.
-The Bungie Weekly Update on April 30th will detail what gametypes fall into what Playlists, etc.

FELIPE NO

Image headers are up; likely NOT permanent, but they'll do for now. I need hi-res screens of things that aren't available yet to do something proper with the headers that I want to do. There's apparently a huge media embargo going up tomorrow, so there should be tons of videos and screens from all of the media outlets when they played the game a couple of weeks ago. Then some time next week (likely on the Bungie Weekly Update) we should have concrete information on how the Arena ranks are calculated, the Beta end date, and final details on what will be in every Playlist, etc.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Media embargo went up today, if you only watch one thing make it this. It's by GiantBomb and clocks at 35 minutes, but they play and go over all of beta maps, as well as all the new weapons and various changes.

Quest Your Way To Early Halo: Reach Beta Access - Giant Bomb

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Tails

Now that's just silly.

Why?

That one's called Opportunist I believe.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

That seems to be more an issue for me in MW2 more by far than any other game though, not exactly sure why. Possibly because MW2 generally encourages you to go more apeshit with your weaponry/ammo than most other games.

Also updated the OP, it's unconfirmed but it appears that the Rocket Launcher has vehicle lock-on back, a la Halo 2.

Additional Spam:
OP updated, we got confirmation of the Playlist drop dates as well as exactly what Gametypes are going to be in each early. At this point barring some sort of shocker or typo on my part, I think the only addition will be whenever they announce the end date of the Beta, which as far as I know they still plan on announcing this week.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Two updates:

-The Beta ends May 19th (what the hell)
-You will get a Halo: Reach hoodie for your avatar by playing at least one game of the Beta, then checking your game stats on Halo Waypoint.

Also sometime this week we're still supposed to be getting the exact formula for how Arena rank is determined, I'll update with that if it's relevant, but that's basically about it for pre-beta stuff. The F&F beta starts tomorrow, so there will be a ton of livestreaming happening (it's being allowed), if there's a particularly good one or something I might post it. I know there's at least one GAFer who will be in F&F who is actually extremely good at the game who will be livestreaming his play, if anything I'll post and check that one out.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

No, the Beta download on ODST right now is a VIDEO, not the actual Beta itself. I've talked to several people who were fooled by it too, because it has you download it, but it's just a video which is pretty misleading (I haven't looked at it myself).

I've played it a fair bit yesterday and today, super tired right now so I'll post more detailed impressions and make updates to the OP tomorrow. Overall I think it's kind of a mixed bag, but our options are so limited right now you can't really make any overall judgments yet. Still mainly bummed that so many people are on right now and you can't have more than 4 on the same team, and the highest anything will go in the Beta is 6 (for Invasion). As someone who spends 90% of his time playing Big Team games with people, I will get no feel for how it plays out in the Beta, so even in 3 weeks I still will only have a loose idea of how it will go for me in September.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I did a long-ass impressions post on GAF that I won't copy/paste here because it's going to be long and boring as fuck if you haven't already been playing the Beta (it's mostly impressions on the really minor ins/outs), but if you're interested it's here.

Aside from that, I'll really try to get the OP updated tomorrow, and maybe get a good general impressions/gameplay post up in here for the people who didn't get in early and will be playing for the first time on Monday. Short version: After a long-ass up and down feeling curve, I'm really digging the game, but it is totally it's own thing, it barely feels like Halo at all. I think it started clicking more when I stopped expecting it to play a certain way.

OP needs more Murder Basement fo 'sho.

How ya doing, buddy?

Because it is. On Monday, as has been advertised for months. Everyone play now is doing so through early access codes.

Also Shimms posted this on the SC, I'm way too amused by this for some reason:

YouTube Video

How ya doing, buddy?

You also forgot trolling Halo because all games should be more like Battlefield.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

My detailed impressions overall on the Beta. For the finer points see the below, but the short version is that I really like the game, but I was very up an down on it for about 50 or so games until it finally "clicked" for me. The most important thing to realize and that you'll need to accept is that this game feels very little like Halo has in the past. If you're able to accept that and deal with the changes and how you need to change how you play the game, you will probably have a great time. It seems that the most vocal haters are people who only or primarily only play Halo, and people who DON'T do anything but play Halo are really liking it. I've seen several people compare it to a hybrid of Halo and Shadowrun.


Player Investment
-Highest rank and cost of armor pieces seems a tad low for the Beta; at 4 days of play (and only one of those being a full day) I'm about to hit one grade shy of the highest rank available in the Beta. Armor pieces not quite as much, by the time I max rank I'll probably have the complete armor set I want, but I won't have enough to buy absolutely every piece of armor either. You do have a ton of options for customizing your guy as far as emblems/colors and whanot go however.
-Commendations are slightly broke for the Beta. The Commendations level up basically based on the medals you get; right now there's Assist, Headshot, Multi-kill, Sitcky Grenades, Killing Sprees and "Technician." In the final game there will be tons, but right now for the Beta essentially any of the medals you get that aren't the first five are all lumped under Technician. They've clarified in the final game there are tons though; a specific example was given where say in the Campaign if you headshot a Grunt with a Needle Rifle, that will go towards your Commendations for Infantry Kill, Headshot, and another one I can't remember (Covenant weapon kill maybe?). Also there's no way in the game to see your Commendation "rank", it's only visible on bnet.


Weapons
-The Focus Rifle (aka Bacon Wave) feels more or less fine, it's maybe a tad overpowered and a clip lasts too long.
-The Plasma Launcher is rape-time, and probably the only weapon that needs a serious nerfing for the final game. It locks on and gets Plasma Grenades out way too quickly, and it currently comes with a stupid amount of ammo (I think 22).
-No one ever seems to use the Plasma Repeater or Plasma Pistol.
-The Needle Rifle is pretty neat and feels pretty balanced, basically a Covenant DMR.
-I think the Needler is fine, but some people think it's still too weak. It now requires essentially two bursts to kill, one will drop their shields, then the 2nd burst will actually kill. Most people find this to be too weak, but it seems to work fine for me, I think because the homing seems a bit better. So even with it usually taking more Needles to kill, I'm still doing pretty well with it.
-The Gravity Hammer operates the same, but when combined with someone who is Evading (Covy Slayer) it is super broken, since they can hammer you immediately out of the roll. The weapon itself is pretty much identical to Halo 3 though.
-The Plasma Sword has been nerfed a bit; the weapon itself is the same, but if someone is lunging/swinging at you, you can actually melee to "block" the sword. As far as I've been able to tell this does still take down your shields so you can only do it once (assuming you have shields), but it does change the dynamic. I don't know that I've been able to successfully get out of these situations, but a few times I've been able to do the melee block which drops both of our shields, then get a mutual beatdown.
-Grenade Launcher is real squirrely at the moment; when you fire a round, it bounces hard and fast, and doesn't seem to detonate on the first impact/bounce, which makes it near-impossible to use close range. Haven't had a whole lot of time with it yet, but it seems useful for bouncing grenades around corners, etc. I think it's fine as-is, but it seems to definitely be a finesse/situational weapon.
-Both how the DMR and the Magnum work are hotly contested right now. Both seem to require a lot more skill then I think people were expecting or are used to from the BR, so there's a lot of bitching. Both weapons (along with the Sniper Rifle) have the expanding reticule/bloom with shots fire in quick succession. After about 50 or 60 games I more or less got the hang of them, depending on distance you really need to adjust your rate of fire. They both take a lot more skill then the BR, and getting a kill with it can be extremely satisfying. There is a call from a fair number of people calling for the DMR to be a 4-shot kill (it's currently a 5-shot), and for the reticule bloom to be reduced on the Magnum. I personally think both are fine, but this along with the shield melee debate are definetely the two big things people are upset about and split on.
-The Spartan Laser isn't in any of the current playlists. The Rocket Launcher is on one, and it seems fine and operates basically the same. With no vehicles yet still not able to confirm that vehicle lock-on is back.
-I'm not a big fan of the Shotgun in this one. Rate of fire seems slow, and it seems to take too long to fire a shot. It's range is much more focused now, and while I personally have had little success trying to kill people with it at any range, I seem to be in the minority there.
-I've only picked up the Sniper Rifle a few times, but aside from it also having the expanding reticule, seems to be the same. With the reticule change it definetely forces you to pick your shots better.
-The Assault Rifle does seem improved over Halo 3, but honestly once you get decent with the Magnum there still seems to be little reason to use it. I guess if you just can't get with the Magnum or it's what you have out it'll get the job done though.


Armor Abilities
-Armor Lock is more or less fine, but it's hard to make any big calls on this one without having the chance to use it in an arena that has vehicles, where it seems like it will have a bigger impact. It currently seems to mainly be useful for buying time for a teammate to come save you; the EMP blast itself isn't a huge damage dealer, and people will generally just back off and spam you with grenades anticipating you coming out of it. There does seem to be a bit of abuse with it as if you do a short burst you can do it very quickly, so there are complaints of people using it when they're about to get into a melee confrontation to quickly absorb the first hit, then come out of it with the upper hand.
-The Jetpack is pretty awesome, and seems perfectly fine right now in terms of lift, time, and recharge time. Using it for actual aerial combat seems to be shaky at best, it seems to be best used for shortcuts and to get to higher ground or around obstacles more quickly.
-Sprint is awesome, and probably my favorite. Being able to barrel around a corner with a shotgun or sword into a guy not expecting you that quickly is awesome. There is definitely a second or so delay between when you stop moving and when you can pull out your weapon, so doing it too much or right on top of people will get you killed. When used right though, you can bumrush dudes to get the first melee in, or alternatively get behind a guy for a quick assassination.
-Camo doesn't seem nearly as useful as you'd think. When active it lasts a long -ass time, but it jams your radar as well as those around you. Also when the radar is getting jammed people just immediately are on the lookout for you, and since you're not 100% invisible (just like past games) I find myself getting taken apart quickly. Seems to be most useful when there are people on multiple levels, and I will jam to create a distraction for a teammate on a different level. Also seems like it might be more useful in that regard in large player-count games.
-Evade is super awesome. You roll extremely far and get two rolls per charge, and it recharges fairly quickly. It makes Covy Slayer very interesting, as people can very easily get out of the way of things, so you're force to anticipate or close the gap, etc.


General Gameplay
-THE BIG DEBATE: MELEE AND SHIELDS by far the biggest and most effecting change. This one seems to have drastically split people, seems like about third HATE how it works, a third like it, and a third don't really care. I personally like it just fine, but not enough to defend it to the grave. As mentioned in the OP, if you have even 1% shields left, if you take a hit/blow it will only "pop" your shields, and not do any damage to your health (this obviously excludes "power" weapons). What no one seems to have really realized pre-beta is that this drastically changes the game; Halo MP in general has relied heavily on melee kills, the typical pump half a AR clip into a dude and finish him with the melee. In Reach, that is completely gone, and no longer works.

The people who hate the change present this scenario: You get the drop on a guy at mid-range, and get say half a AR clip into him, leaving his shields at say 25%. He rushes you (with Sprint or otherwise) and while you are trying to keep distance/fire he melees you once; your shields are now gone, and his are still there "despite" the fact you got the drop on them and have been shooting them. Now in this scenario since you're basically already fucked, you melee back but he's already gotten his first melee off, so you drop his shields but then he's immediatley meleeing you back, and now you're dead. So obviously this sucks!

The people who are fine with or like the change present this scenario: It's not Halo 3; you need to change how you play. In the above scenario, if you're unable to keep the distance when he rushes you, you should be either using your AA to counter/escape, or what I do personally is instead of backing off like a bitch you counter-rush them and YOU get the first melee in. 9 times out of 10 I've been able to surprise someone who's obviously trying to get the first melee in by advancing on them first and getting the first hit in, then turning the tables and killing them. Obviously there's other ways such as Jetpacking away, Armor Lock, Sprinting towards/away from them, etc. And in the above scenario if you don't have the means to do either of these things, you probably shouldn't have engaged them at that point. Everything in this game has a counter, and you're not ALWAYS going to have the ultimate combination of AA and weapons to counter the enemy you're fighting.
-I don't miss dual wielding for a second.
-The assassinations are great for humiliation kills, but I cannot get them with any consistency for the life of me. Not sure if I'm doing it wrong, or it timing range is just picky at the moment. Possibly the best moment I've had in this game was when we had someone on the other team sniping us at the highest point in the map; I managed to Jetpack up behind him, and assassinate him from above by dropping on him like a rock and slitting his throat.


Maps
-Powerhouse is perfectly fine. I like it but don't love it or anything. I don't mind playing it, and it's miles better than Swordbase.
-Swordbase quite frankly sucks, and for once I'm glad that it seems the greater majority of people seem to agree with me. On 1-flag CTF (which is a VERY common gametype in Grab Bag right now) it is fundamentally broken. On other gametypes it's okay. You do really more or less HAVE to use a Jetpack most of the time though, as you can't choose your spawns and it's pretty shitty getting around.


Gametypes
-1 Flag CTF is exactly what you'd expect. It's broken on Swordbase, but that's not really it's fault. The only big problem with it at the moment is that Sudden Death is shit, it's super fast and ends badly.
-Oddball and Team Oddball are also fine, but both maps have spots that are too good for people to camp with the Oddball. Oddball melee kills are back to 1-hits, if I recall correctly (I could be wrong) they weren't in Halo 3.
-Team SWAT is super awesome now. First off no Elites, so everyone is on a level playing field. Secondly, with the DMR it feels like there's actually more skill involved, it's not just instead death once someone spots you with a BR.
-3 Plots (a return to Halo 2 type-territories) is great, although at the moment it goes super super fast, which according to Urk is to get more matchmaking churn in for Beta purposes.
-Covy Team Slayer is pretty great; the Elites are fun to play as with their increased speed and awesome roll. Only problem at the moment is that there are only two Loadouts for this mode, and no one ever uses the Plasma Repeater, so everyone's basically using the same Loadout of Needle Rifle/Plasma Pistol. Could use some more variety for sure to mix it up.
-Stockpile (the 4 neutral flag mode) is pretty awesome.
-Juggernaut I've only played I think twice, and both times got owned so hard I have no real impression on this, although I will say the Juggernaut is WAAAAY more of a beast then he is in Halo 3.
-Headhunter is inherently broken right now. It seems like it could be fantastic as a Team game (which it will not be in the Beta), but right now being only in FFA, it becomes a game of people camping the turn-in territories and being more opportunistic then I think they intended. I've only had one game of this NOT end with a Skullmanjaro.

Misc.
-The whole Active Roster thing where you can see what everyone on your list is doing on any of the main menus and queue to join them and whatnot is fantastic. We've had a few weird things happen (like failing to join), but for the most part it's awesome.
-The Voting system pre-match is pretty great.
-So far the game seems to be doing a mixed job of keeping certain players/parties together post-game, but it's hard to tell if it's just failing to some extent, or if people are just backing out.
-The Post Game Carnage screen needs some work. I don't like the fact I have to hit A 3 or 4 times to go through each of the individual categories I earned credits in that match to get to the Post Game Carnage screen, and then I can't even see how many cR I earned there. Plus Matchmaking is super super fast right now which is great, but half of the time people don't vote on maps because they're still looking at the last game's stats or looking at the Armory.
-As mentioned Matchmaking is super super fast, maps load fast (although that may or may not be a result of everyone working off HDD's at the moment), and except for one game where I got one or two spikes, has been 100% lag free. The people we play with from other countries are saying it's hugely improved for them over Halo 3 and totally lag free, so hopefully it stays this way as that was not the
case in Halo 3/ODST at all.
-You can finally save a game immediately while still in post-game lobbies without having to back out and go to theater (like you could in the Halo 3 beta, but not the final game).
-All of the stats on Bungie.net are freaking awesome, seeing your kills versus how many times you died by individual weapons and the bar graphs showing your recent games K/D and W/L are awesome.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

I typically agree with all of this, but only want a few changes to how voting works. I would like to see it changed so that if you don't vote, it doesn't default to whatever the first choice is. Only count it if someone actively makes the call to vote, don't assume everyone and their dog wants 1 Flag.

Yeah I forgot about that, good call.

Also the other major bitching point I somehow completely forgot to post about is grenades; virtually everyone agrees that grenades are waaaay overpowered in this. I only think they slightly overpowered, but the general consensus is that they need to be nerfed dramatically, or not drop off dead bodies, or something. Get your grenade spam on for the Beta kids!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It sure is nice to play games with our friends

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Sorry I'm late Tails, I slept in for an extra hour (was really tired) and I've just had a ton more stuff to do around the house then I thought. I see that you just got off; I'll be done with everything I'm doing in about 20 minutes or so (just waiting on my stuff in the dryer), then whenever you get back on I should be around all day.

Additional Spam:
Also finally got my Bungie Pro to show up, here's some clips:

Leading someone on a merry chase
Getting an Overkill and a kill after; I'm super proud of the Grenade Launcher kill at the end
Poor Shake.
Awesome planned grenade toss that I probably should not have gotten away with. WHAT NOW TAILS
Possibly my greatest moment in the Beta, this guy had been wrecking us up there.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'm fine with the melee system. If I can't keep my distance, 90% or so of the time I counter rush THEM, and they're almost never expecting it. So even though they were trying to close with me for melee, my superior mind games let me get the first melee in any way. The only problem I seem to have a lot is losing people at melee range that dodge to the left or right. My sensitivity is pretty high, so I don't know if it's the movement speed or FOV, or I just need to get used to something or what.

BEATDOWN CITY

Also:

I love the idea of the Arena and how it works.

It is STRESSING ME THE FUCK OUT

For whatever reason I do much, much better in Arena, I super focus on what I'm doing and what I think everyone is doing. I basically maintain a much higher level of situational awareness than normal. I'm normally someone who plays BTB and is sort of messing around with my friends, and in Halo 3 I have a K/D of 1.08 in Ranked and 1.15; I would probably consider myself a little above average. And in Grab Bag/FFA for Reach my K/D is 1.03. That said, my Arena stats are crazy:


The one game I went negative it was -1, and 5 of the 8 games were playing with randoms who weren't talking. And yes, that's a fucking PERFECTION the first game, of which I have ONE of in Halo 3 in over 3,000 games.

I think so far the best thing I like about Arena is that it basically forces me to think more and play smarter, which I definitely see see improving my game outside the Arena. But fuuuuuck man I can barely play my 3 placement games without losing my mind :lol

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Shake Appeal

Every game counts, though. If you play three games over 1700 and then thirty under 1300, your daily rating is going to look great because it's an average of the best three (and you need those daily ratings for divisional placement), but all the others are contributing to where you end up. At least, that's the way GhaleonEB explained it on GAF. Shit is unclear.

It's still unclear, but the way I understood it was for the placement days, it only counts the best 3 towards your average. But once you're placed in your actual division, every game counts and will up or drop your rating at that point.

Most amazing jew boots

Arena is totally broken right now, I literally know no one who is not Gold or Onyx. According to Bungie only the top 5% should be Onyx lol

FELIPE NO

At first I was going to say you're fucking crazy, but then I see how you were a Spartan every Invasion game you played but one, so that makes sense. I'm going to make a post in a bit when I update the OP, but Invasion is totally unbalanced giving the Spartans the advantage (they have ranged weapons in first Phase when Elites do not, and get the Grenade Launcher Loadout which lets easily nerf any enemy vehicle while the Elites have nothing even close to comparable). At first I thought I just sucked or something, but then when I started playing as the Spartans I was kicking ass or something, then I look and basically almost everyone has the exact same complaints. I'll get into that later though, but ultimately I'm really disappointed in the mode.

I think the map is fine but waaaay too big for 6v6, especially in Invasion Slayer (and especially in Phase 1 when you have no ranged loadouts except magnums for the Spartans arguably).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I totally deserved the rocket, I have no idea how I fucked up driving that badly. I very very rarely ever drive the Warthog in Halo multiplayer, and it shows. My gunner was fucking terrible though.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

I was so furiously reloading you have no idea

"OH GOD I AM SO FUCKED GO GO GO GO SHOOT SHOOT SHO-"

::explosion destroys all four of us::

I didn't realize that you had died in that as well, awesome.

Anyway, OP massively updated, and I put my impressions of everything in there as appropriate. There's a bunch of little new things in there, but the only thing in particular I'll point out is a new section I put at the top of things Bungie has confirmed have been already fixed/adjusted or will be before the final game comes out. Current listing:

Quote:

-No more party splitting in Invasion/Invasion Slayer (this is a bug).
-The announcer constantly calling out things like "FLAG TAKEN FLAG DROPPED" etc will be addressed (not clear on specifically how).
-It will no longer be possible for teammates to take flags out of their own Stockpile base. It was originally as-is to allow for flags to be grabbed for beatdown kills against attackers, but has turned into people taking flags out then putting them back in to get the points for themselves, or to grief their own team.
-The weapon reticules (which have been much bitched about, especially on the Magnum/DMR) are "placeholder".
-Damage indicators are "lighter" than intended in the Beta, leading to a lot of people complaining that they can't tell where they are being hit from; will be much easier to tell in the final game, apparently this was a last minute bug.
-The severe "ghosting" effect of many graphics in the game will be fixed.
-In the Beta you can do a second melee attack very quickly after the first; this was not intended and will be fixed.
-The melee "contest window" is currently larger than intended, which is what leads to all of the current mutual beatdown deaths; this will be improved and not as prevalent in the final game.
-Nothing specific yet, but they're well aware that grenades are seen as vastly overpowered by pretty much everyone. Bungie is clear that grenades will still ultimately be different than they were in Halo 3, there will be some tweaks made in the final version; TBD if they will adjust radius, damage, spawns/drops, etc.
-BANHAMMER TIME: In the final game (and to be implemented late in the Beta cycle) they have a new "Quitter ban." It will be used aggressively since it is a "soft ban," and essentially after a handful of quits, it will prevent players from rejoining matchmaking for 15-30 minutes. They are also playing around with some gametypes that will end early if the majority of a team quits out, to avoid 8v1 slayer matches that are forced to continue until time runs out.

Also it's largely redundant, but I'm just going to mostly copy/paste my GAF post on Invasion and why it's disappointing:

Quote:

Played 3 games of Invasion, 2 games of Invasion Slayer. I wouldn't say it's complete garbage, but it's pretty close. The idea is sound, but it's unbalanced and broken for a number of reasons right now; many of them seem to have already been addressed or certainly will be before release. However that doesn't help me enjoy the game now, and quite frankly I'm pretty disappointed. I would have thought the new backend stuff (like bnet connectivity, Party/lobby system and filters, etc.) would be way more broken and buggy than the main gameplay itself.

My personal problems with Invasion:
-Spawns seem to be broken and inconsistent; it will take me eons to spawn in the back of my base, or my teammate will be nowhere near combat and take forever to spawn. Alternatively I've had multiple people (on the enemy team) spawn literally right in my face, and not as a result of a fireteam spawn or anything.
-Heavily favors Spartans right now. Elites get no ranged starting weapons, but more importantly later on Spartans get access to Grenade Launchers, which make it ridiculously easy to effectively nerf vehicles. All it seems to take is Spartans getting a good Warthog or Scorpion up, and assuming they don't completely suck they can prevent you from getting a weapon drop, which is your best chance to actually get something to stop them with. And one time a Spartan stole our Banshee, and just completely destroyed our team with it, absolutely nothing we could do against it.
-Map is ridiculously large for 6v6. This is less of a problem in regular Invasion, but in Invasion Slayer it makes the first phase goddamn ridiculous. Later phases are not much better, even with ranged weapons I was literally spending 30 seconds trying to spot anyone from anywhere. Regular Invasion's objectives essentially funnel combat which helps alleviate this, but the map is still way too big for 6v6, and it's borderline terrible in Slayer since there's no single focus.
-The team splitting is ridiculous. We played 3 games with a guy and his guest. Not only did he and his guest not get put on the same fireteam, all 3 games they were on completely opposite sides. Seriously, how do you fuck this up that bad? We had a few randoms in each game, and they were really confused and didn't understand why they had gotten split up.
-The in-game scoreboard could be split up better with headers or something to indicate sides. Could also be put maybe side-by-side, having to scroll down to see your kills if you're on the bottom third or so of the scoreboard teams seems ridiculous.

It's basically unbalanced, the map is too big for the player count, and honestly it's just not a lot of fun right now. If I've got a group on but they're one or two short of 12 players I'll probably be willing to hop on, but other than that I think I'm pretty much done here. Generator Defense has no appeal to me with being only 3v3, and given how they fucked up party splitting and game balance in Invasion, I don't even know that I'd trust they'd get that right. I'm sure when the final game comes out this stuff will all be addressed or mostly addressed, but right now I'm super bummed out and disappointed. I think playing it a lot more (like I have been) is only going to make it worse, so I'm going to stop now while I still have some excitement left for the final product and not let problems that will likely only exist in this Beta get me down. Sorry urk p

If you guys are short a couple of 12 I'm willing to hop on. I'll check out Generator Defense when it hits next week, and at some point I need to play 3 more Arena games to get my final Daily Ranking and division placement, but I'm largely done with the Beta. I know that most/all of this will be addressed in the final game, and I think the more I play the Beta the more it's just going to bum me out towards the actual release of the game, so I think I'll refrain. If we've got a large crew going though I'm down if I'm around, but most of what I'm tackling next is not on 360 so I don't know how much that'll be.

I will continue to update the OP though as relevant (probably on Fridays with the Bungie Weekly Update, depending on what's hit or not hit that week).

There's nowhere I can't reach.