[360] Halo Reach: Ghosts of GFF

I hope they're going to up the score needed to win in ctf games then because stopping flag carriers with jetpacks/sprint/armour lock is going to be that much harder. A decent boost from a jetpack with the flag and even if you get sniped out of the air the momentum would likely carry the flag across the rest of most maps.

Rocket Hogs look awesome though.

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

Holy shit I'm glad I booked a week off work for this. Game looks more awesome with each update.

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

Originally Posted by Tails

Also FUCK YOU playing Solo you're totally getting on with us.

The problem with that on day one is that if you don't start at the same time as everyone else you won't know what happens in the first few levels. Never the less, given my timezone advantage I might actually have the game and be on once people start playing through the campaign.

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Quote:

Chapters covering the credit system and armour customisation provide information and tactics for obtaining the available armour pieces for character customisation in the fastest way possible.

I dread to think what kind of shitty playing styles this is going to encourage.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Blimey, there's a lot more in that list that look like I might get them than I expected. Surprisingly few multiplayer ones this time out, looks like they're expecting Firefight to be the popular option in this game. I'm guessing already most people will get the triple-kill from a jetpack one playing all-rockets Gruntocalypse.

I'm betting Skills will have them all within four days.

FELIPE NO

Nice. That hologram thing looks pretty cool, I can see myself falling for that a lot.

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

Originally Posted by BZ

Or am i just imagining Cortana's voice?

Of course it's Cortana. They had to shoehorn in at least one character from the other games and it was never going to be Master Chief or Sgt Johnson.

Even having never read anything about Halo and only knowing what's in the games, it's painfully obvious that the plot of this one is for Noble 6 to carry Cortana off-world so she can link up with MC.

Since she's a computer programme, I'll never understand why they can't just email her and don't keep backups.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

So why can't they email their AI's or take backups?

Serious question, I've never read any of the wider material and it always seemed like a massive plot hole to me. Why would MC bother going into the Flood infested ship to get her back rather than just getting the backup disk from last week and reinstalling her?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

And you really should read some of the books, they're pretty good. Especially Fall of Reach. They also explain a lot of the stuff you're wondering about.

I've thought about it but having an ever growing collection of Black Library books, I fear that reading about Halo would just annoy me that Spartans aren't as cool as Space Marines.

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

I like the bit where the Spartan dude gets his dick out and pisses all over that Elite before literally cock-slapping him to death. I totally wasn't expecting comedy codpieces to be part of the armour options.

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

Originally Posted by SailorDaravon

Also I surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) don't disapprove of the title change.

I aim to please.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

Yeah, I kinda haven't paid anything for my two years of Gold. Not that I've played online once either but still.

As usual, I'm not so much worried about how this affects me (it doesn't really), but rather concerned as to what MS is thinking. I don't feel this is the kind of thing they should play the "well, they'll pay anyway" card like Activision or something. I mean sure, a number of people will pay anyway, but this is not winning them any favors when this is the time they should be appealing to their audience, not pissing them off.

You're literally the only person I know who has a 360 and doesn't use it to play online. Without a gold subscription there's not a great deal of point in owning a 360 as far as most people are concerned so yes, everyone will pay anyway.

That said, the only people who can't afford a $10 increase after 6 or so years are the kids who are probably using their parents' credit cards anyway. I imagine Microsoft are pretty happy with their market share at the moment and it's not like Sony have done anything recently to encourage people to buy PS3s. I can't even remember the last time I saw a PS3 ad on tv and I can count the number of PS exclusive titles I'm interested in on no hands.

Like you say, people will butch and moan because that's what the internet is for but all those same people will still buy the subscription and probably the next iteration of the xbox, whenever that might come along.

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If you do get it, RR, playing through the campaign would give you a good enough grasp of the mechanics for you to not get murdered straight up online then it only takes a few games to learn the strategy, especially if you're playing with some decent players you know.

FELIPE NO

I was playing a bit of H3 online over the weekend and either I've improved a lot or there's a ton of kids who've just picked the game up for the first time in forever because I was doing really well in a lot of games. I did keep hitting RB to melee though, didn't realise I'd got so used to that in the beta. Also I'm really looking forward to getting recognition for being a driver in Reach after ending one match with only 4 kills but 15 wheelman medals.

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

I suspect GAME will make me wait till launch day for mine, but that does give me time to get a bit further in Resonance of Fate (But not long enough to star all the arena levels I suspect).

Is that a fat spartan in the screenshot?

I always thought the worst thing about people playing with guests is when one of the guests sucks, team kills you and you hit boot without thinking and lose half your team, likewise if they lose connection or something.

Does anyone know if you can combine Gruntpocalpse with Rocketfight or would that have to be a (hilarious) custom game?

Depending who's online when I get this I'll probably start off with some Firefight then run around in a few custom games to get the hang of the maps then play multiplayer till there's some people online who want to co-op Campaign. I hope they don't have the same connection issues they did when the beta launched.

edit: Just checked my emails and my order has been despatched, next day delivery so it'll come Monday morning, which is annoying as I'm working on Monday...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Covenant slayer big team on the new Blood Gulch is literally the best thing ever. There needs to be a covenant playlist.

How ya doing, buddy?

I played a load in Reflection on day one but since then I've not really been in the four a side playlists. Multiteam is probably my playlist of choice at the moment, you get the mentalness of BTB but only have to rely on one other person not to be hilariously retarded at the game and it plays on the normal maps so the matches are pretty manic. I got teamed up with one random, got chatting to him and we ended up not dropping below third place in a huge string of games, winning a few of them. The only bad gametype on multiteam is Headhunter which turns into pure luck as everyone is killing everyone else and you just end up with this huge collection of skulls bouncing steadily closer to the drop point until someone gets lucky and manages to score them all, thereby winning the round. My only gripe with Multiteam asides from that is there's no Rocket Race...

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

Originally Posted by SailorDaravon

I've only played Swordbase once or twice in the retail release, also like it and the little graphical touches they've made are good. Haven't played any objective games on it though, can't recall if they said they were changing the flag issues people had in the Beta or not.

The flag is now along the corridor and up a ramp from the objective, a very short distance and capture the flag is a lot more balanced now. You can either try to get it there direct and have to fight every step of the way or be a tricksy hobbit and take it one of several long way rounds while your team distracts the enemy. I think it's a great map personally.

Quote:

I'm actually not a huge fan of Spire; it seems to suffer from the same problem as Boneyard in that it seems to have good chunks of the map that are not used at all, and the map just doesn't seem to flow very well at all. It's interesting though. On the other hand any gametype on it where Falcons get going seems to be completely jacked, as if the Falcon pilot is at all decent is becomes extraordinarily difficult to take it out with the weapons on the map; definitely wish there was a laser on there.

Jacking a falcon is even easier than jacking a Banshee using a jetpack, especially if you jump off the spire to do it. Then you can either fly off and face the gunner in to a cliff to annoy him (There's never two gunners, Halo players don't cooperate that well) or just jump out and jetpack safely to the ground while the thing crahses with no pilot. Spire is too big though, as is Haemmorage. I can't understand why when most games put a lot of effort into keeping people together and the action intense, Halo seems determined to place you in big, open, empty expanses. I mean, even Ghost Recon, a game all about precision headshots and sneaking around the joint has multiplayer maps no bigger than Zealot and those are designed for 16 people.

The only lag/connection issues I've had have been occasional waits while we stare at a black screen but if anything those are less frequent than in previous Halo games.

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

Originally Posted by SailorDaravon

Nah, we continue to have major matchmaking issues with people. Omangus gets dropped frequently, as does Roflfox, Goodhand, and two of my other friends. Last night I think we spent over 10 minutes actually trying to get everyone into a lobby then a game without dropping.

I think that might be to do with Harvey's router, it does seem to be him that suffers from lag and dropouts when we're playing as a group. I've had no problems playing with Phong and other Americans and certainly none when playing with other Brits. Like I said, if anything my connection suffers fewer problems with Reach than it ever did with H3 or ODST. The one problem I have noticed though is that sometimes after matches it'll drop someone out of the party which is a bit annoying if you're reviewing the post-match stats and don't notice they've gone until you've already rolled into a new game.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I guess my online experience has been limited to fewer people than most of you and for me to be the one without any connection issues is incredibly rare. I swear my housemate has got some kind of bandwidth limiter on my Xbox when he's uploading websites.

I shall count myself lucky to be thus far free from such issues in Reach.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by DieSeLFueLeD

I like doing Firefight with randoms if I'm grinding out credits though, since often they don't know what the fuck they're doin' and I get a hilariously high score.

My favourite thing about Rocketfight is waiting till there's only one bad guy left and running as close as possible, waiting to get betrayed by a random firing rockets in then booting them so they don't get any credits after the match. I've only had one match of Firefight where lag was an issue and bizarrely I came out top in that. I think Firefight is my favourite game type so far. You've got to love it when your first two shots in a sniper game result in a killamanjaro and first strike medal.

FELIPE NO

But Tails, what's the point of playing the game if you can't get credits? Certainly it's not just for the enjoyment of playing. Who plays games just for fun any more?

Computer games are serious business.

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

So anyone care to speculate what one would need to do to unlock the bits of armour from the rest of Noble team? I'd guess that earning the top level commendation in a sniper type thing would get you the shoulder pads with bullets on or the netting on the back of the chest piece, stuff like that. There's no way they'd put in individual armour modals for the team and not let people wear them eventually.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh really? I figured it'd be something more exciting than just "Earn a lot of credits" since they sorta hinted at there being more than that involved in unlocking some stuff.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

You unlock two helmets and a chest piece for having finished H3 and ODST along with Reach and for getting a few easy achievements. Had I ever played ODST on anything other than Normal I'd have unlocked all of those on day one, as it is I unlocked five of the seven unlockables via Waypoint. I think I once saw "armour award unlocked" pop up while we were playing through Campaign but aside from that, it all seems to be credit-related. I'm sure there'll be other stuff released as time goes on like they promised but so far, so Rainbow Six in terms of unlocking stuff, I was hoping for a bit more variety to be honest.

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