Halo: Reach Beta

[Maxon]

Anyone else gonna be playing this?  I'm downloading it now so I'll be playing alot tonight with friends hopefully.

For those that don't know much about this, they've taken the Halo 3 engine, really worked it for better lighting, more enemies, and added alot of features.  With that, they also simplified the game in a way, bringing it back to it's roots by removing dual weapons to have the style be more to that of Halo 1.  Along with this, there are very interesting new armor abilities ranging from a slight invulnerability lockdown (No damage, though your stuck in place and can take out vehicles if they hit you lol), jetpacks, sprint, and a few other things.  There are new weapons along with bringing back some of the weapons such as raising the pistol to some of it's former glory.

Not sure how many maps or gametypes there in the Beta, but it should more than enough to get a taste of what this final Halo game by Bungie will bring.

[Vongore]

i bought Halo ODST for this..

And today i entered the code and Microsoft quietly said

FUCK YOU FUCKING LATINAMERICAN! ONLY NORTHAMERICANS ARE BADASS ENOUGH TO PLAY THIS SHIT

yeah.. region lock. now my code will rest alone along with my GoW2 Golden Lancer and Flashback Maps

[Maxon]

Bah, servers are abit funky right now it seems.  Got one game in and was able to try some of the loadouts.

The Jetpack is cool, nothing fast and can leave you abit open, but good for getting high ground that only jetpacks can get to.

Sprint is nice and not surprisingly my favorite thing after playing Bad Company 2 and wanting to be able to run lol

Stealth gives you about 5 seconds or so of mostly invisibility along with tossing out the radar jammer that makes a bajillion red dots zoom about.

For the new weapons, the main AR is now a mix between the Battle Rifle and original AR.  It's got a fast spread and medium range.  Then there's the one that's more Battle Rifle like where it zooms and you semi-auto fire.  The more you use it though, the more it spreads.  Then there's the aliens version of the new Battle Rifle.  Kinda like the Carbine from the first game.  Pistol is definitely more like Halo 1.  Not as powerful, but still pretty kickass.

But now the servers seem to be down, so I'll just have to take what I can from the first game lol

Also I like the idea of earning credits in a game and then using that to buy new gear to wear on your Spartan.  As of right now, there's about three armor options.  For Helmet's and maybe chest piece, you then get three more options within that for added detail.  I for one love collecting and earning things like this.

[Moosendoo]

One thing I have to say is: Stealth + Gravity Hammer owns.

[Surf314]

I can't read the game title as anything other than Halo: Reach Around.

[copulatingduck]

god i was talking with a friend about this and am just now remembering how awesome halo3 was. now i i kinda want an xbox again

[Squishy3]

trying this and hoping it isn't as shitty as halo 3

[copulatingduck]

trying this and hoping it isn't as shitty as halo 3

hate u, halo3 was fantastic for shenanigans. if it's like maxon said where they simplified and toned down the gunplay, i will say that sounds like a huge step in the right direction.

the best games in halo3 were donkeykong (gravity hammers) and rocket race. In rocket race lobbies we'd shout at the other teams and carry on like a couple of hillbillies,  making sure to talk extra trash about the green team. inevitably someone from green team would send an insult our way, at which point we would declare "YOU DIRTY SONUVABITCH. WE'RE GOING AFTER GREEN TEAM!" and proceed to do nothing but chase down and repeatedly assassinate the green team. I guess in retrospect it was a dick thing to do but I would laugh until I cried so I'm not apologizing for shit

granted, if you actually wanted guns and plasma grenades and shit, halo2 was better, but halo3 was [u]FAR from a bad game

[Luca Shoal]

I was just playing, hit Private Grade I. It's p rad. Guard is kinda useless, but fun to blow up just as they get out of their invuln (frag grenades have been improved upon a ton, they're actually dangerous and produce a lot of smoke cover.) Scoot, Stalker, and the Aerial ability are all good for different things.

Whatever the grenade/rocket launcher thing that locks on is called is also pretty phenomenal. It's like...a plasma launcher. And the rocket launcher on it's own I think has gotten a greater splash range.

[Maxon]

Armor Lock seems like something that's great with teammates.  Your running together, your getting nailed down, just before your killed, you hit it and stay alive.  Then while they get distracted with waiting for you to cone out of it, a teammate can get the attacker, sparing your life.

Definitely agree about the grenades.  They have a slightly shorter fuse, so when you toss it, less of a chance to get away, for the frag that is.  Still haven't used the plasma launcher though I've seen it used on me.  Barely find those guys.  I got alot of time with the...DRM, which is okay, but it's only JUST good at longer ranges.  Pistol is much better up close I think, even more than the AR, which kinda makes the AR pointless.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Best Halo 3 gamemmode: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dumbass: Highest speed, lowest grav, on the bigass desert map, with grav hammers and RLs (no extra ammo) only.

[Maxon]

Invasion game mode is great.  Both the objective and Slayer version.  This is probably gonna be my favorite mode when the game comes out.

[Geoff]

played this for 6 hours last night





god this game FLIPPING OWNS

[Vandamguy]

your input on halo is bias

[Geoff]

well ok yeah but an unbiased analysis would be that the game is radically different from other halo games and it could anger seasoned halo veterans.  the game no longer feels like halo (i.e. you dont jump 30 fucking yards)  there are also different classes with different perks to replace no dual wielding and equipment (bubble shields) which are absent from the game.  although the absence of those components from reach are a little saddening, the new perks like jetpacks and _SPRINT_ take the game's pace up a notch.  halo is still not as fast as quake or team fortress but reach certainly is more so than the previous entries.  the gameplay has also been tweaked so guns require more skill and the shield system is also different.  i got my ass kicked initially because i was used to the run at guy with assault rifle for 3 or 4 seconds then melee for a kill.  melee works differently now so you cant rely on it.  the gameplay has also been tweaked so it revolves more around objective based gametypes than slayer.  i am glad to see that happen because more teamwork is involved and more strategies can be made with the different combinations of classes on your team.  it is no longer about power weapon control (also because almost all of the power weapons have been tweaked), albeit i think the sword needs to be tweaked a bit.  there is of course the classic slayer but i found objective gameplay more enjoyable.


the most annoying thing i found in the beta was that control scheme has been changed so right bumper is melee, but that's probably because im so used to the old halos.  there was an option to change to the classic control scheme which was comforting.












and that concludes my input on halo for the rest of time that actually involves thought and not the habitual HALO OWNS.

[Maxon]

While I wouldn't say it's that drastic of a change compared to the last ones, it is fairly significant, and is basically a throw back to the original in terms of gameplay I think.  You have actual health with the shield, weapons are a solo thing so that if you get jumped by someone with one more gun than you, your automatically dead. 

I love the loadout ideas, especially for the objective Invasion mode.  It puts everyone on fairly even grounds and then changes how the map plays when things open up more.

Also I forgot to mention that I LOVE the Elites...sniper rifle I think.  I don't know if they get a regular one, but the one I played with is actually a steady stream, like the sentinel beam in the past game, but this one actually doesn't suck.  A steady stream on someone will kill them in just a second or two.  It's pretty awesome and can be used with single pulls of the trigger.

[Geoff]

first of all the elite sentinel beam is a fucking atrocity and needs to go to hell.  the game was doing well with weapon balance until that little piece of shit showed up. 


although the health is similar to halo 1, when its combined with the other components of the game it doesnt really play like it at all.  and idk what youre saying about the one than more gun thing.



and yeah invasion is fun (reminds me of bc2) but most of the time my team was full of retards so i cant really say much about it.

[Maxon]

I just meant that if you got jumped by someone with dualies, and you only had one of the same gun, you were dead.

And this is Beta, so I'm sure the Elite Beam Rifle will get knocked down a peg in damage lol

[Geoff]

oh yeah totally i see what youre saying.  but usually dual wieldable guns were awful by themselves.  it was the combination of certain guns that made them good.

[Luca Shoal]

Invasion game mode is great.  Both the objective and Slayer version.   This is probably gonna be my favorite mode when the game comes out.

Agreed. Though I hope they do a little balancing on it. Elites need a little more firepower on objective, and the Spartans need a little more punch early on in Slayer.

And I really wanna know how many of each medal I get from games :<. That's the feedback I've got for Bungie so far.

e - the Focus Rifle you guys are talking about? I dig it, haven't played with it to much though aside from one Slayer match where I was doing really damn good.. Oh, and that reminded me of something else. They should up the speed a little for the camo, so you can walk a little faster and still stay fully cloaked. Running at full speed should still make you a little visible as it is, but walking carefully to stay hidden kinda sucks.