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The Official Halo 3 Thread
- Thread starter GhaleonEB
- Start date
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Captain Blood
Member
I read on the internetz that if you can find the turkey in the thanksgiving playlist you get RECON!!!
Domino Theory
Crystal Dynamics
EazyB said:
Fixed
:lol :lol
xxjuicesxx
Member
Captain Blood said:
Fuck yea I want recon! I'm gunna search for so long for that turkey!
Mr Vociferous
Member
I haven't played Halo 3 multiplayer since early Sep., so I'm in a similar boat and that's a likely culprit to why we haven't hooked up on XBL. I actually removed the auto-renew feature on my XBL account back in Dec. of last year so when it came time to renew about a month ago I slipped to silver. I've kept it that way because I've been spending the bulk of my extra time trying to work on my father's business website and other IT shit he has going sideways.GhaleonEB said:
Add to this that I've recently finished what will amount to an end cap of "article material" from me for the rest of this year on Ascendant Justice. It'll be a single, small article (with a massive ancillary the size of two football fields on crack), a likely hate magnet and, barring me actually getting paid to write about Halo in the near future, it'll be my last one for a good while until things settle down here.
I'm getting Gears 2 at launch, but sadly I won't be playing it until I get a good way down a pretty long checklist. I'll be back well before Mythic, but I don't know when exactly.
Sorry Wu! I'm trying to keep the American dream alive! I'd post more if I could.
I haven't played much Halo recently, but I played some Team Slayer last night. Managed to get my rank to 43 (started at 41), through a combination of good teammates, quitting opponents and pure Brigadier-worthy skill. In one game on Construct our team was quite a few kills behind, probably because I only had 1 kill. Then I went on to get a Killing Frenzy and we won the match.
Perhaps I will reach the 45 at some point after all.
Perhaps I will reach the 45 at some point after all.
D
Deleted member 21120
Unconfirmed Member
With the release of Fable 2, the unholy season of Empty Wallets and Not Enough Time has begun... Fable 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Gears 2, and not forgetting Mirror's Edge and the various XBLA games like Portal. Ascendant Justice will, of course, live on, but I doubt I'll be playing any Halo 3 MP for a while. At least not at the rate that I was playing prior to this month.
Louis Wu said:
You can thank Microsoft and Bungie for that. They killed our Halo buzz with that map pack announcement. They're treating this map pack like it's the world's greatest secret. It's a fucking map pack. I can't believe we have to wait 10 (and possible more) months between map packs. Purple Reign has been done since forever too.
Shake Appeal
Member
Yep. I am rarely bothered by the sorts of things that irritate and rile GAF at large, and usually laugh my way through threads complaining about publisher decisions, DLC costs, release dates, and whatever else have you... but the wait for Mythic really has annoyed me. If these maps are in a finished state, then holding them back is a grossly cynical move, and I think the community at large should feel mistreated.GhaleonEB said:
I'm still playing Halo 3 at a furious rate, or I was the past few weeks anyway, but this Friday I'll be getting Far Cry 2 and possibly Fable 2 (depending how much I get for trading in Oblivion, Viva Pinata, Double Agent, and Dead Rising). In a few weeks there will be Gears 2, and Left 4 Dead a few weeks after that. None of this would stop me playing Halo 3 for a few hours a week ordinarily, except that these and other games will probably mean my friends will be playing less and less, which means I will be playing less and less. Real life is also encroaching a little more than it has in the past six weeks or so.
Frankly, this thread does feel a little stale, and I can't quite put my finger on why. Perhaps it's simply that the people whose posts I look forward to more than anyone else's aren't contributing as often as they used to. Which is a great shame. But I am looking forward to Voc's 'final' article now. It's also reminded me (again) that I want to get back into scribbling thoughts about games into a blog (as I did with Bioshock).
The Librarian
Banned
Downloading now.Cocopjojo said:
Don't worry, Halo, I'll still play you.
MiloFoxburr
Member
Tieno said:
That was juices wasn't it?
BakedPigeon
Banned
Tieno said:
Did you read the Bungie update yet?
The Librarian
Banned
He's joking.BakedPigeon said:
ToyMachine228
Member
Blueblur1 said:
I've wanted Flame Grenades on a map in Halo 3 for so long...And I'd love a Shotguns playlist for Thanksgiving. Shotguns on Midship was one of my favorite games in Halo 2.
I see Avalanche regularly in Squad Battle, and Ghost Town and Blackout in SWAT. The Legendary maps show up in many places - they're just not REQUIRED, so if Avalanche is picked in Squad Battle, and not all 12 players have it, it'll be ignored, silently.TDG said:
Wow, bummer. I'd send that message - if I were tired of the bullshit, I guess. I'm finding I'm playing Halo 3 more than I ever have before.TDG said:
Ah, well.
And THAT'S why I'm playing so much these days. :lolGhaleonEB said:
I've been playing a lot more Halo 3 recently but when Gears hits it'll be on hold till after Christmas. The smart thing to have done would have been to ship some maps around the time of PAX or just after. I'm enjoying the game but it needed more maps when it came out, it needs more maps now. 10 over the course of the year (including the 7 we've got now) wouldn't have been too much to ask for. Especially since at least 3 of them are remakes.
The Librarian
Banned
What's the "noob" button layout?alisdair said:
I don't understand the big deal about waiting until next year for the Mythic Maps. If we got the maps now we would get nothing new for an entire 12 to 13 months depending on when Recon launches. Im sure Bungie wants to use the map packs to keep hype up with Recon as well. Releasing them now would be pointless.
No reason for all the MS hate either. From a business standpoint it makes no sense what so ever to launch the maps now with Fable 2, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, and a slew of other games due out over the next month or so. After the holidays there is usually a little drought in new games coming out and since Bungie hinted at "early 2008" I'm pretty sure we will see at least 1 map pack before March.
No reason for all the MS hate either. From a business standpoint it makes no sense what so ever to launch the maps now with Fable 2, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, and a slew of other games due out over the next month or so. After the holidays there is usually a little drought in new games coming out and since Bungie hinted at "early 2008" I'm pretty sure we will see at least 1 map pack before March.
Oh, I have something very slightly worthwhile to contribute this time.
I was watching some old Halo 2 MLG tournament gameplay yesterday evening, after someone recommended Legit's ridiculous performance in Lockout Oddball (game 3, starts at 20 minutes in). As someone who's played way more Halo 3 than Halo 2, a few things jumped out.
There were some really, really bad spawns. You can't tell that easily from a single POV, compared to a full saved film, but there were a number of times where the player spawned right on top of the other team, behind another player, or into the middle of a battle. Not much real data to go on, but it's worth pointing out that there were shitty spawns in H2 as well. Maybe you don't remember them because you couldn't save films.
Despite all the whining about the BR spread in Halo 3, it looks like it doesn't actually make a difference at high level of play. The BR looks just as consistent in MLG H3 gameplay as it does in H2 gameplay. A lot of bitching and whining about nothing.
The sword was stupid. How anyone can complain about the shotgun or mauler being overpowered in Halo 3 is beyond me, when compared to the infinite ammo, instant-draw sword.
And Lockout seems to be so much better than Blackout. Apart from being way nicer to look at, I don't understand why the design of snipe tower was changed so much. Especially the jump from elbow to S2, and the sight-line all the way from BR1 to snipe ramp. Also the pillar at elbow corner made elbow a worthwhile place to be positioned, rather than a deathtrap, and the ramps instead of stairs from green room made it possible to survive an attack from the lift.
I just don't get why these changes were made. Who made the design choices (ferrex?) and how did they justify them? Frankie made a post ages ago saying that Library window was closed because BR tower was too easy to lock down. That sort of response to feedback was good to hear. It would be rad to find out more about this stuff.
I was watching some old Halo 2 MLG tournament gameplay yesterday evening, after someone recommended Legit's ridiculous performance in Lockout Oddball (game 3, starts at 20 minutes in). As someone who's played way more Halo 3 than Halo 2, a few things jumped out.
There were some really, really bad spawns. You can't tell that easily from a single POV, compared to a full saved film, but there were a number of times where the player spawned right on top of the other team, behind another player, or into the middle of a battle. Not much real data to go on, but it's worth pointing out that there were shitty spawns in H2 as well. Maybe you don't remember them because you couldn't save films.
Despite all the whining about the BR spread in Halo 3, it looks like it doesn't actually make a difference at high level of play. The BR looks just as consistent in MLG H3 gameplay as it does in H2 gameplay. A lot of bitching and whining about nothing.
The sword was stupid. How anyone can complain about the shotgun or mauler being overpowered in Halo 3 is beyond me, when compared to the infinite ammo, instant-draw sword.
And Lockout seems to be so much better than Blackout. Apart from being way nicer to look at, I don't understand why the design of snipe tower was changed so much. Especially the jump from elbow to S2, and the sight-line all the way from BR1 to snipe ramp. Also the pillar at elbow corner made elbow a worthwhile place to be positioned, rather than a deathtrap, and the ramps instead of stairs from green room made it possible to survive an attack from the lift.
I just don't get why these changes were made. Who made the design choices (ferrex?) and how did they justify them? Frankie made a post ages ago saying that Library window was closed because BR tower was too easy to lock down. That sort of response to feedback was good to hear. It would be rad to find out more about this stuff.
alisdair said:
I bet it's partly nostalgia from Halo 2 (Shake Appeal and I played a lot of 1v1 games on Lockout), but I agree. Where Lockout has well-placed smooth slants and ramps, Blackout has rough edges and stairs. This makes frag grenades nowhere near as useful on the new map.
I wasn't much into the whole jumping-from-one-side-to-the-other stuff, but it's true that those have been changed quite drastically as well, probably for the worse.
More on Halo map design, from a Gamasutra interview with Hardy LeBel, one of the two key people who worked on Halo:CE multiplayer:
I wonder what the process for designing a multiplayer map is now. I presume it has changed somewhat. Maybe a weekly update or podcast could go cover this topic, if it hasn't already.
There are a ton of weird decisions made in the Halo 3 multiplayer design that I have no idea of the rationale behind, and it would be interesting to find out. I'd also like to hear what the Bungie multiplayer guys think about the changes MLG has made to the maps and gametypes, especially the comprehensive changes to The Pit, and drop-spawns for power weapons.
Holy shit. Some of the awesome Halo:CE maps came about because a guy was messing about while learning how to do 3D modelling.
I wonder what the process for designing a multiplayer map is now. I presume it has changed somewhat. Maybe a weekly update or podcast could go cover this topic, if it hasn't already.
There are a ton of weird decisions made in the Halo 3 multiplayer design that I have no idea of the rationale behind, and it would be interesting to find out. I'd also like to hear what the Bungie multiplayer guys think about the changes MLG has made to the maps and gametypes, especially the comprehensive changes to The Pit, and drop-spawns for power weapons.
GM Bullfrog
Member
alisdair said:
I wonder if they do that so if you are near it waiting for it to respawn, you can hear it drop as opposed to needing to be looking at it.
No, they do it so that the weapons spawn at reliable times, not player-dependent ones. The argument is that this is fairer, as it gives both teams an even chance of knowing when the power weapons will be up.GM Bullfrog said:
With resting spawns, the weapon timer only starts when the weapon is dropped (which I think also includes firing a round, or maybe reloading, but I don't think anyone is really sure). MLG get around this by spawning the weapons in the air, and so a couple of seconds after they first spawn, the timer starts.
For Team Slayer, the rockets are still on 3:00 respawn, but you have to note when they are first fired or dropped, which is information that might not be available to you. In an MLG game, everyone knows exactly when the rockets are up on The Pit: at game time 14:59, 11:56, 8:53, 5:50, 2:47.
The Librarian
Banned
Don't forget, we still have the concept art book and the next Cole Protocol coming out next month.
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStatsHalo3.aspx?gameid=799262750&player=TheLintendo
bungie am fail at math?
bungie am fail at math?
GM Bullfrog
Member
alisdair said:
That is good to know. I didn't realize that.
Dax01 said:Don't forget, we still have the concept art book and the next Cole Protocol coming out next month.
you can't even read you're like 8
<3 dax
Man. I need to play Halo more. I've been busy with WoW, and recently Dead Space. We need to put together a little DLC BTB group. It'll be good times
ToyMachine228
Member
FLAME GRENADES AND SHOTGUNS FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!
Wizman23 said:
Yeah I'm mostly ok with the timing of early 09 for the map-packs as well.
I'm getting kind of bored with Halo 3's multiplayer, and when I previously thought they were holding this map-pack till fall 09 with the recon release - I was definitely pissed off (that would have been just too long, and would certainly hurt the online population). When that turned out to be untrue, I was no longer angry, just a little bored instead - having played soo much H3 already and exhausted the existing map selection. Ultimately though, this decision doesn't bother all that much.
Though I must admit, I'm somewhat letdown by the hype vs. reality on the Recon reveal, and that has much more to do with how MS handled it all. With the stalled-out reveal and the MS by-line 'that a game like this deserves its own reveal event', I naturally assumed this was a much larger project/undertaking then it actually was. While I still can't wait to play Recon, I was definitely hoping for something with a bigger departure from Halo 3 (certainly not an expansion) and hopefully something in the halo-verse with its' own new multiplayer component. And yes the bogus Gamespot rumor about a squad based cover-shooter played into my disappointment as well.
I'm not sure I could think of a more imbalanced weapon combination if I tried. Flame grenades would totally dominate everything, as your only other form of attack without them being to run straight at your opponent with your shotgun to close the gap. Now I love a shotgun match as much as the next guy, but mixing in flame grenades just seems something reserved for a match with some ranged weapons.ToyMachine228 said:
bigdaddygamebot
Member
That Bungie hates fun and is incapable of capitalizing on Gamespot's wealth of ideas that are full of teh awesome?LukeSmith said:
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