if you got a chance to play it, post up your impressions.
here's mine:
[cliffnotes: it's okay.]
i only played 4 games. the weapons sound a lot better. the gameplay is completely unchanged. within minutes, i got PP/BR'ed. lol. it may be a little too early to complain about the game, but i feel there are way too many weapons now. not only that, but some of them are very Lost Planet-ish. the huge gatling gun, some other giant missile launcher looking thing, and the wannabe UT's rail gun. when you equip yourself with either of these large weapons, the view switches to a 3rd person.
the new VIP mode is complete balls in valhalla. the VIP just hides in his base with the PP/BR.
i played territories. it was ok. slight changes were made. rather than holding/defending a point for X amount of time, theres a bunch of them around and i guess whichever team gets X number of them, wins the round. there are 3 rounds.
graphics are nice. nothing jaw dropping. it's just a very clean game with higher res textures than H2.
then i played rumble pit and another VIP. i also tried out the save match feature. it's pretty cool. i cant believe it actually saves an entire match, a 7:30 min match, and it only took up 2.5MB. it's basically a replay of your game and apparently you can set up a party just to watch your f'in replay! wtf.
there are a few more colors to choose from when customizing your character. the little avatars/emblems on your shoulder pads are obviously higher res. i didnt really see any new images on there.
one cool feature i saw was the secondary username you get. i forgot what it's called. it's basically one letter followed by two numbers. it's always visible when youre playing, and i think it's done to identify teammates a lot easier. if youve ever seen one of the leaked halo3 vids, youve probably seen those 3 characters above each persons head. so rather than having to put youre reticle over the guy to see who youre looking at or talking to, you just say, "hay, D32, come this way"...or whatever. i think it's cool.
the bungie/halo fanbase is still very immature. it's sad really. lobbies are still filled with idiots. on a slight tangent, Rainbow6: Vegas players are far more behaved and mature.... and compared to R6V's multiplayer, R6V beats it hands down.
Sounds like you're saying it's going to be a big let-down. I guess I should wait and see how it turns out though.
I agree with you about the weapons though. Too many is a bad thing. Maybe take out some of the crap weapons like the carbine. And what the hell is a flamethrower doing in this game? Don't get me wrong flamethrowers are cool, but it seems really out of place in the Halo universe...
my impressions:
the Halo 3 beta looked better then i expected. every match is pretty much random as in you have no rea say in what kind of match you want to get in. of course you can "veto" on a certain map layout or weapons but thats only once and only IF you can get enough people to disagree on the random map.
for gameplay wise, Lee is right... nothing has changed at all. actuall i felt more comfrotable playing the beta more then Halo 2 [which i hardly ever play] THeres alot of weapons... Spartan Laser has to be the very best in erms of sheer strength and coolness. The Spike Grenade..... ugh... weaksauce... I never killed anyone with it... ok i did.. but i accidently tagged them with it... like the sick grenades it is its only usefulness.
the lobbies will always be filled with morons. Chatting in game is a pain! FIX IT.
Sounds like you're saying it's going to be a big let-down. I guess I should wait and see how it turns out though.
I agree with you about the weapons though. Too many is a bad thing. Maybe take out some of the crap weapons like the carbine. And what the hell is a flamethrower doing in this game? Don't get me wrong flamethrowers are cool, but it seems really out of place in the Halo universe...
this game is definitely overhyped. it already has over 4 million preorders. oddly enough i cant stop playing the beta. just as i was ready to call it quits, they switched up a few things to the matchmaking play list. they took out team training, and added big team battle training aka BTB training. saw some banshees flying around in valhalla, but really wasnt interested in flying it.
the thing about this game is it is very user friendly. you do not need any sort of previous halo multiplayer knowledge to be able to kick ass in it. you also dont need to communicate with your team to kick ass. there are some modes where it's helpful, but i never took ranked(or unranked) games seriously in the halo series to really try hard enough or care about getting a win.
regarding weapons: the flamethrower was in halo 1 for the PC. it was a cool weapon. you couldnt use it and run forward with it or you'd end up engulfing yourself with the fire. so you had to use it wisely.
this game is definitely overhyped. it already has over 4 million preorders. oddly enough i cant stop playing the beta. just as i was ready to call it quits, they switched up a few things to the matchmaking play list. they took out team training, and added big team battle training aka BTB training. saw some banshees flying around in valhalla, but really wasnt interested in flying it.
the thing about this game is it is very user friendly. you do not need any sort of previous halo multiplayer knowledge to be able to kick ass in it. you also dont need to communicate with your team to kick ass. there are some modes where it's helpful, but i never took ranked(or unranked) games seriously in the halo series to really try hard enough or care about getting a win.
regarding weapons: the flamethrower was in halo 1 for the PC. it was a cool weapon. you couldnt use it and run forward with it or you'd end up engulfing yourself with the fire. so you had to use it wisely.
From your descriptions it sounds more like a Halo 2 expansion than a true follow-up to the series (but again, I'll have to wait and see if it sinks or swims).
The flamethrower idea still feels out of place to me (but maybe it's just me).
Hey, now that you bring that up, I wonder how they'll handle Windows Live to Xbox Live Halo multiplayer. I guess they'll just have to ban that weapon from all games that include Xbox Live gamers or release an update for the Xbox version? Anyway, that's neither here nor there.
I'm now worried for the game. Do you think they'll be able to clean it up before the official release?
I want to get a 360 so I can test out the beta myself...
From your descriptions it sounds more like a Halo 2 expansion than a true follow-up to the series (but again, I'll have to wait and see if it sinks or swims).
The flamethrower idea still feels out of place to me (but maybe it's just me).
Hey, now that you bring that up, I wonder how they'll handle Windows Live to Xbox Live Halo multiplayer. I guess they'll just have to ban that weapon from all games that include Xbox Live gamers or release an update for the Xbox version? Anyway, that's neither here nor there.
the multiplayer portion definitely feels like an expansion. im just really surprised how well this beta runs. not once did i have lag issues and it looks great... for a beta. the campaign is the finale in a trilogy, so in that sense, it is a follow-up to the series. i started playing H1 on the PC first, so, for me, finding out that the flamethrower wasnt in the xbox version was a bit of a disappointment.
not quite following you on the windows live and xbl thing. for halo1, xbox and PC users couldnt play together. halo 2 for the PC will not have any new weapons that werent available for the xbox version either. i dont know if xbox and PC users will be able to play together for H2, but i doubt it, so no issues there. shadowrun is the game that MS hs been touting as the first "cross-platform" game for this generation. if H2 was capable of this, it'd be silly not to brag about it.
why does it seem like this? When everyone heard about the Halo 3 beta at first they were all like 'ZOMG! BETA! KILL NOOBS! HALO 3 awesomesauce!'
now people are hatin' on Halo...interesting...
why does it seem like this? When everyone heard about the Halo 3 beta at first they were all like 'ZOMG! BETA! KILL NOOBS! HALO 3 awesomesauce!'
now people are hatin' on Halo...interesting...
there's only mine and JM's impressions. besides us two, i dont know who's hating on it. i personally am not a huge halo fan, so my impressions may have come off as negative; they'e just not as hyped as others would be. in other forums, there are far more people praising the beta than hating on it. will i get it? oh hellz yeah! since none of my friends were able to get in on the beta, im left playing with random people. this game is definitely a lot funner with groups of friends. we've even settled forum disputes with Halo matches. lol. good times.
not quite following you on the windows live and xbl thing. for halo1, xbox and PC users couldnt play together. halo 2 for the PC will not have any new weapons that werent available for the xbox version either. i dont know if xbox and PC users will be able to play together for H2, but i doubt it, so no issues there. shadowrun is the game that MS hs been touting as the first "cross-platform" game for this generation. if H2 was capable of this, it'd be silly not to brag about it.
Well I assumed that M$ would make one of their biggest claims to fame cross platform. From my personal experience, it would only be a matter of how the server itself handles the connections and data communication, I don't think any patches or anything of the sort would be required to make it happen. Basically, as far as the software is concerned, it has no idea it's connected with software on another platform. I take that back, Halo might need some kind of Vista patch, but other than that, nothing else would seem necessary. Of course this is all assuming M$ does it right.
im pretty sure H2 for the PC wont be cross platform.
You're probably right, but it would be pretty sweet if it was (Halo 1, too).
EDIT: Curiosity got to me, so I looked it up. You are right about Halo 2 for PC. It will not be cross-platform multi-player. A decision which does not make sense to me at all, but whatever. Shadowrun, like you said, will be the first cross-platform Live game. Either way, I really don't care because I rarely game on my PC anymore these days. (Probably because I don't have internet at home, and that's the type of games I would typically play on PC: multi-player online games--notice I didn't say "massively" there).
Seeing as I don't have a 360, I'll have to look up more on this. I don't even know much about the new weapons released.... A flamethrower? That just seems out of place. It doesn't seem like it would do much to a Spartan's suit either....
so i've logged in close to 50 games and i just realized that i havent been on any of the covenant vehicles. i'll need to try those out next time.
Im not getting very good vibes about this game.