I just got back from an exclusive Halo 3 Beta Preview event. I wanted to throw up some pics of it along with some quick impressions. To summarize things, Halo 3 will fit nicely as the next iteration of the Halo franchise. For anyone looking for something completely revolutionary, this isn't for you. Of course, there's no reason for Bungie to completely reinvent an already proven formula, and the 3rd edition of their Halo franchise adds just enough flavor to keep thing fresh...and fun as fuck.
The graphics aren't groundbreaking right now, but they are a step up from Halo 2 with higher resolution models, top quality textures, fancy lighting, and pretty shader effects.
There will be a saved film feature. Every match gets recorded and you can save this film locally OR upload it to your shared film section. As of now there are 6 slots available in the shared film section. The best thing is, replays of matches are small in size. A full 10 minute match came in around 5.2 MB. Pretty impressive.
Bungie has done quite a bit to address some complaints with the previous Halo matchmaking system. The first thing is separating rankings into two categories, overall and per play list. This allows for tighter and more competitive matches when someone that is level 50 jumps to a different playlist and starts at level 1. The other change added is the ability to create a party on the fly from a team of folks you just played a match with.
Overall there are lots of welcome changes, and lots of new weapons and gadgets to play with. Look for a more in depth review of the beta before it goes public next week.
First, does it play more like Halo, or like Halo 2? Because Halo 2 was a huge step backward. Second, am I to take your comments on multiplayer to mean that we will once again not be able to play a game with random people on any old map, without having to deal with some stupid ass playlist again?
Wonder how it must feel to work for a dev house that can't even get the basics of multiplayer matchmaking down after ten or so years of it becoming pretty much standard? Hell, if they would just do what other 360 games have done, it would be fine. Look at GRAW, R6: Vegas, PDZ... they all have pretty much the same matchmaking set up, and you know what? It works really well. It is actually fun, and I can play what I want to play instead of being stuck to the whims of the douche Bungie employee who gets the job of making the playlists.
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First, does it play more like Halo, or like Halo 2? Because Halo 2 was a huge step backward. Second, am I to take your comments on multiplayer to mean that we will once again not be able to play a game with random people on any old map, without having to deal with some stupid ass playlist again?
Wonder how it must feel to work for a dev house that can't even get the basics of multiplayer matchmaking down after ten or so years of it becoming pretty much standard? Hell, if they would just do what other 360 games have done, it would be fine. Look at GRAW, R6: Vegas, PDZ... they all have pretty much the same matchmaking set up, and you know what? It works really well. It is actually fun, and I can play what I want to play instead of being stuck to the whims of the douche Bungie employee who gets the job of making the playlists.
It's tough to say, with the assault rifle it feels a lot more like Halo 1. Dual Wielding is not as prevelant. There are A TON of weapons though now. The beta has like 12 or 13 and that apparantly isnt' all of them.
The Mongoose is great and a lot of fun.
And yes, playlists are still there for the ranked matches just like always. I don't see what the problem is with the Halo online set up, you want to play a specific map and gametype, you just start up a game with those options and off you go.
Wonder how it must feel to work for a dev house that can't even get the basics of multiplayer matchmaking down after ten or so years of it becoming pretty much standard? Hell, if they would just do what other 360 games have done, it would be fine. Look at GRAW, R6: Vegas, PDZ... they all have pretty much the same matchmaking set up, and you know what? It works really well. It is actually fun, and I can play what I want to play instead of being stuck to the whims of the douche Bungie employee who gets the job of making the playlists.
I agree that there are many problems with Halo 2, the matchmaking however, isn't one of them imo. An additional serverbrowser for custom games would've been great but the party system works extremely well imo.
And yes, playlists are still there for the ranked matches just like always. I don't see what the problem is with the Halo online set up, you want to play a specific map and gametype, you just start up a game with those options and off you go.
Well, the problem is that the way Halo 2 was set up, that is something you aren't aloud to do. If you have enough friends to populate a game like that, sure, you can do it. But if you just want to play on a random server, on a specific map, with a specific game type, you're out of luck. The only non-friend play that was available in Halo 2 was the playlist. Now, from the way you're describing it, you're still forced to either your friends list, or the playlist (where you can, at some point, gather a group of people to go to a custom game).
What I want is to be able to put up a server, the way I want, and to have other people search for it and join without ever getting into prior contact with me (like every other FPS made in the past ten years). I don't think that is too much to ask, all things considered, but Bungie seems to look on such play as some kind of sin against god and man.
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Well, the problem is that the way Halo 2 was set up, that is something you aren't aloud to do. If you have enough friends to populate a game like that, sure, you can do it. But if you just want to play on a random server, on a specific map, with a specific game type, you're out of luck. The only non-friend play that was available in Halo 2 was the playlist. Now, from the way you're describing it, you're still forced to either your friends list, or the playlist (where you can, at some point, gather a group of people to go to a custom game).
What I want is to be able to put up a server, the way I want, and to have other people search for it and join without ever getting into prior contact with me (like every other FPS made in the past ten years). I don't think that is too much to ask, all things considered, but Bungie seems to look on such play as some kind of sin against god and man.
Ummm...that's completely not true. You just don't play a ranked game, and it'll fill in the match for yo uwith players whether it's just you or 3 of your friends or 7 of your friends.
What you described in the 2nd paragraph is how Halo 2 worked.
The game is in Beta. Don't expect any graphic improvements that aren't bug fixes.
I can't wait to try this out come the 16th.
No, the game ISN'T in beta. It's in a multiplayer beta. I was told by more than one person there that extra layers of polish will be applied yet. Honestly it doesn't need much, some AA, and maybe some more detail in the worlds.
Remember, there is 6 months until release. Lots of room for improvements and tweaks.
I hope no one is fooling themselves that this will be a graphics powerhouse. This, just like Forza, are going to play amazing but NOT be amazing looking. And that will be a test of the 360 crowd. I am excited because I think games like Halo 3 will last far longer than most. I think it looks like a blast. No one will say its amazing looking, but they will be playing it when the xbox 720 or whatever the fuck they will call it ends up coming out
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Ummm...that's completely not true. You just don't play a ranked game, and it'll fill in the match for yo uwith players whether it's just you or 3 of your friends or 7 of your friends.
What you described in the 2nd paragraph is how Halo 2 worked.
Eh, not to my knowledge. Only by putting together a party can you play a custom game. You can only put a party together by inviting friends or clan mates. I'm looking at the Halo 2 multiplayer GUI right now, and what you're talking about, what I want, isn't there.
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And yes, playlists are still there for the ranked matches just like always. I don't see what the problem is with the Halo online set up, you want to play a specific map and gametype, you just start up a game with those options and off you go.
Perigon is talking about the Halo 2 online portion. It doesn't sound like you played it so let me clarify his question: are we forced to play shitty maps that we don't want or can we actually choose what map we want to play?
People don't play full rotation Counter-Strike servers because most of the maps are terrible. Instead, people join (or create) servers that just play the maps they want to play and are playing the map they want to play at that instant. In Halo 2, if I wanted to play some of the maps that I thought were pretty spiffy then I had to play maps that were absolutely terrible. I'm sure some people enjoy indoor maps with no vehicles and nothing but purple crates on a purple map, and that's fine, but don't make me play that shit to get to what I want.
Was there a hidden server browser that I missed? God knows people hate having the option to look for servers. Thanks for freeing us from the oppression, bungie. Wheels should be square; it all makes sense now. Or was there an option to quickjoin a certain map? It's been a while since I played it, and I may have missed the option, but I recall the multiplayer being fundamentally broken. If someone has to fill up their buddy list with people that loooooove the game you're trying to play in order to have fun, then something is fucking broken with a game's multiplayer.
edit: damn, there were a lot of responses while I responded
Eh, not to my knowledge. Only by putting together a party can you play a custom game. You can only put a party together by inviting friends or clan mates. I'm looking at the Halo 2 multiplayer GUI right now, and what you're talking about, what I want, isn't there.
I think I might be getting confused with the PC version since that's the freshest in my mind.
I think I might be getting confused with the PC version since that's the freshest in my mind.
Well, the PC version of the original Halo certainly had it. And it is no surprise that I spent about 100x the time playing Halo PC than Halo 2.
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yo bap. hit me up in the beta if you want to party up. i'm on now.
and they're including Custom Match searching and shit. You set up a game you want to play and it puts it out there for people to search for and join. You can have people in your party already and it will fill the rest up, or you can just create it alone and see who wants to join up. or you can search for what others have created. simple.
i've been playing this for the past 4 hours and i love it.
yo bap. hit me up in the beta if you want to party up. i'm on now.
and they're including Custom Match searching and shit. You set up a game you want to play and it puts it out there for people to search for and join. You can have people in your party already and it will fill the rest up, or you can just create it alone and see who wants to join up. or you can search for what others have created. simple.
i've been playing this for the past 4 hours and i love it.
Now that is fucking awesome. While I didn't mind the ranked stuff, being able to search will be nice.
I CAN"T WAIT UNTIL THE 16th!!!!!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 51|RandoM
Boycotting a game over DRM is like cutting off your penis to boycott sleeping in the wet spot.
"To summarize things, Halo 3 will fit nicely as the next iteration of the Halo franchise. For anyone looking for something completely revolutionary, this isn't for you."
Sounds like halo 2 to me, and I hate cut and paste content.
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