Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

I finally got a look at this game

I love how it looks except for a few cutscene camera changes (why they would change some of the shots and make them LESS impactful is beyond me... made them less cinematic and more... bland videogamey?)

also captain keys looks wrong, that isnt captain keys







as for reach (the last one I played) I LOVED the multiplayer on reach, it was a hell of a lot of fun. as good as halo 3 IMO. but I didn't enjoy the campaign... reach from the books was a much more dire fight, and I like that version a lot better. I actually just re-read fall of reach - ghosts of onyx... they are still great books even to my adult brain.

in my mind master chief is still in cryo sleep on the Forward Unto Dawn... he didnt wake up until he crashed onto marathon years later. memory gone.

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:I finally got a look at this game

I love how it looks except for a few cutscene camera changes (why they would change some of the shots and make them LESS impactful is beyond me... made them less cinematic and more... bland videogamey?)

also captain keys looks wrong, that isnt captain keys







as for reach (the last one I played) I LOVED the multiplayer on reach, it was a hell of a lot of fun. as good as halo 3 IMO. but I didn't enjoy the campaign... reach from the books was a much more dire fight, and I like that version a lot better. I actually just re-read fall of reach - ghosts of onyx... they are still great books even to my adult brain.

in my mind master chief is still in cryo sleep on the Forward Unto Dawn... he didnt wake up until he crashed onto marathon years later. memory gone.

I've been going to back to Anniversary recently, and it still holds up pretty well as a remake of Halo CE. It's a bit bad in some cutscenes (especially when they graft Halo 3's Cortana model over Halo CE's, and her mouth movements are completely off). I have agree Keyes didn't translate well.

Multiplayer in Reach was a lot of fun and I played it for a very long time, nearly up there with Halo 3's for me. The campaign was alright, but I think it could of used a bit more focus on a dire tone and how things quickly fell apart for the ground defense. Admittedly it'd be a relatively short game, but it'd be a lot more impactful.

Halo 3 to me is where Master Chief's story ends. I feel 4 should of been a clean break for them to do something new, and I was incredibly depressed when they just did the same game we'd been playing for 10 years again with some tweaks. It's why I refuse to buy and play it.

I would have loved halo 4 to focus on the story of the surviving spartans from onyx... THAT could have been a fantastic story, but sadly all of nylunds work was retconned

a game focused on Kurt or Linda or Fred would have been a great game... or a game in the shoes of a normal marine (not an ODST... or hell, another ODST game would be awesome)

Iunno, I watched a playthrough of halo 4, it just doesnt seem like a halo game... it seems like a different game with a halo skin applied to it, kinda like Super Mario Bros 2

I just played the original Halo last night and god damn, you stay in the air for 20 minutes after a jump.

stay in the air for 1/2 an hour and die instantly from 15 feet of falling


god damn I love that game

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:I would have loved halo 4 to focus on the story of the surviving spartans from onyx... THAT could have been a fantastic story, but sadly all of nylunds work was retconned

a game focused on Kurt or Linda or Fred would have been a great game... or a game in the shoes of a normal marine (not an ODST... or hell, another ODST game would be awesome)

Iunno, I watched a playthrough of halo 4, it just doesnt seem like a halo game... it seems like a different game with a halo skin applied to it, kinda like Super Mario Bros 2

You are aware that there is a trilogy of books following GoO, correct? Certainly not Nylunds work but eh.

Nylund is still the foundation of the lore. But at this point it's become fair game to shit all over it for the sake of convenience.

The Forerunner trilogy was fucking incredible however. It gave me a new appreciation for Halo 4. Say what you will about the prospects of Halo 4, it was good in its own right. Plenty of things about the game didn't fall in line with the originals, but it played well and had a lot of story. Having read Greg Bear's books it turns out that there is actually a lot to it. The original idea that humans were not the forerunners went against everything that I had come to understand about Halos backstory, but it ended up working well and actually added a huge layer of complexity to the whole thing. Also, in the games defense, Bungie clearly set it up for a sequel at the end of Halo 3 despite the ad campaign. I remember seeing a video somewhere about the Halo sequels, back before Halo 3 came out. Halo 3: Finish the fight. Halo 4: Start another fight

Seems that it was a good prediction.

I got it when it came out. Was pretty good, except for the cutscenes and getting stuck on level geometry
Stephan Loftus pointed out a whole bunch of problems with the visual upgrades, though. Used to be you could actually look on the Halo ring and find the Silent Cartographer island; it was smack dab in the middle of an ocean, no other landmasses around, and I think it was diametrically opposite from the Control Room.

Still, it was great to go back to a game where every weapon was useful, even the AR and Plasma Rifle. A game where the Flood didn't just mosey around and wait for you, but charged as soon as they saw you.  

Spoiler:

A game where you could pick up a gun and not worry about reloading for half a level.

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:as for reach (the last one I played) I LOVED the multiplayer on reach, it was a hell of a lot of fun. as good as halo 3 IMO. but I didn't enjoy the campaign... reach from the books was a much more dire fight, and I like that version a lot better. I actually just re-read fall of reach - ghosts of onyx... they are still great books even to my adult brain

I'm with you here, except I don't really like multiplayer in general. Reach was a Hell of a lot of fun, and it had the second-best (Read: almost as good as the first game, damn near perfect) weapon sandbox of the Halo games. The grenade launcher is perhaps the best weapon Halo has ever had. If the automatic weapons had been buffed to be on par with the precision weapons, Reach would have been the greatest game I've ever played for gameplay.

And then... Halo 4 ruined it. I've gone over what the design team has said about Halo 4's sandbox, and they did not know what they were doing. Their design philosophy, their decisions, they... well, I guess if you're trying to attract the shoot-shoot bang-bang lie down you're dead Call of Duty crowd, they were on the right track. If they're trying to make a fun sandbox, they're better off dropping out of game development. Go to a trade school, become a plumber, they might actually be good at that.

All the fun weapons from Halo 3 and Halo Reach? Gone. No grenade launcher, no Brute Shot, no Focus Rifle, no Plasma Repeater, no Plasma Launcher. The DMR and the BR were both fun, so 343i gave you both of them! And the Carbine! And the Light Rifle, which sorta kinda acted like a DMR and a BR mixed together! I call it the DMBR, pronounced phonetically. And just to make sure you know that precision weapons are king, we've got three sniper rifles. The Beam Rifle and sniper rifle are crowded out by the Binary Rifle. It kills what it hits... unless you're playing campaign. Then it's just a slightly more powerful sniper rifle.

Automatics? Present but useless, especially the brand-spanking-new Storm Rifle. Shotguns? Two of them, good luck telling them apart.

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:in my mind master chief is still in cryo sleep on the Forward Unto Dawn... he didnt wake up until he crashed onto marathon years later. memory gone.

In my mind, Halo and Marathon are distinct and separate.
But in my personal fanon, the UNSC discovers the back half of the Forward Unto Dawn sometime in the 2590s. They find a dead AI core and an empty cryo tube.

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:stay in the air for 1/2 an hour and die instantly from 15 feet of falling


god damn I love that game

That last one's only in the second game. In the first game, you can descend from the bridge to the canyon floor in Assault On The Control Room if you time your jump right.

Dud Doodoo wrote:
You are aware that there is a trilogy of books following GoO, correct?  Certainly not Nylunds work but eh.

Yeah, they're about half-good. The Onyx situation is resolved without fanfare, characters spend most of their free time talking about what a monster Halsey is, Halsey's character is completely derailed, and characters act like complete idiots when it serves the plot.

The rest of the trilogy is quite enjoyable, though. It's the only time when a Spartan could have defected and still be in character.

Dud Doodoo wrote:The Forerunner trilogy was fucking incredible however.

^^This. Even for people who don't like what 343i is doing for the Halo universe, the Forerunner trilogy is the perfect way to cap off the Bungie/Nylund story. 

Dud Doodoo wrote:Say what you will about the prospects of Halo 4, it was good in its own right.  

No, it wasn't.

What are the Forerunner in Greg Bear's books? An advanced alien race that could move stars, muster fleets of hundreds of thousands, and wore armor that made them immortal.

In Halo 4? Their greatest warriors are mindless hardlight killbots made from the melted-down souls of cave men. Top-of-the-line hardware is laughably, pathetically weak to the weapons fashioned by backwater primitives.

Since one of the writers was from Marvel, we've got plenty of comic book tropes about advanced aliens. There's the advanced, ages-old aliens that look like funny-looking humans in funny-looking suits. There's the odious notion that advanced technology is really just magic. There's the technology that's been developed for a million years, yet only performs as good as, or even worse than, contemporary weapons and armor. Sure, that's fine and dandy for children's fare like the MCU, but it's not good science fiction.

In fact, I think I've ranted about this before, so let me borrow from a post on another forum.

Rant begins. Let's face the facts. "Advanced technology used to primitive ends" is the Covenant's schtick. The Forerunner had something like eight million years to get over that; they should be god-tier. Seeing them use reskinned UNSC weapons is like seeing modern soldiers fight with bows and spears. Sure, maybe those bows are made from fiberglass and carbon fiber, but it's still a stupid way to fight. The whole concept behind the Prometheans and their arsenal isn't just pathetic, it's an insult. Frankie is supposed to be a fan of Ian Banks' Culture novels, so you'd think that he'd have an idea of how many magnitudes the Forerunner should outgun the UNSC by, but I guess not.

Go play Halo 2. The Forerunner's Roombas have enough firepower to fend off a full-scale Covenant incursion.
Go read the Forerunner Trilogy. A War Sphinx is their equivalent of heavy infantry or light armor, and a few of them can wipe a city from the map.

That's the catch 22. You can't fight Forerunner soldiers because the Halo formula isn't designed for an enemy that's faster, stronger, better armored, slightly better armed than an Iowa class battleship, and sees in the full electromagnetic spectrum. In the opposite direction, you can't nerf the Forerunner enough to make them playable without turning them into a shallow imitation of what they're supposed to be. That's why 343i delivered top-heavy killbots with holographic skulls and spikes. Once you're at that level of nerfing, it's hard to get any less ridiculous.

And it's not just the Promethean Knights that were crippled. The Didact had to be a raving madman with sub-room temperature IQ, because anything more intelligent would have ended the game a third of the way through the story. At the end of Halo 4, we have the Master Chief charging the Didact with a nuke in hand. How would that scene play out if the Didact wasn't hopelessly senile?*

"You survived. Such inoculation against the composer should not have been possible. But can it protect you from having your head twisted off?"
Crack. Pop.
"I suppose not."

Or what if that scene had played out if the Didact wasn't hopelessly senile and had weapons-grade telekinesis instead of his cute little Jedi tricks?

"That sound you just heard was your combat skin's power sources being ripped out. Primary, secondary, and emergency. By the way, these tendons look important."
Snip

*The game would have ended several levels before, with a Promethean teleporting onto the Infinity's bridge with several-kiloton warhead, but I digress.

There was no chance that 343i would be able to do the Forerunner credit in Halo 4. I'm frustrated that they even tried.

Rant ends.

But yes, you have to take Halo 4 as it's own thing, completely separated from the Bungie games and the Greg Bear novels. Otherwise, the UNSC can't have a seven-kilometer long warships with a pocket flotilla and an army of Spartan IVs because our fleets were gutted and our industries were leveled to the ground prior to Halo 3.

So... in other news, anyone hear about the Master Chief Collection?

I'm really looking forward to playing Halo 2 again. My collector's edition is scratched to hell so when I play it, images "burn" into the game screen, but not the actual tv screen, if you get what I'm saying. Granted, I don't have an Xbone, but I have friends that have one so I may be able to play it there. The cutscenes that Blur had made are shaping up to be completely amazing. My only grip with MCC is that Halo 3 is not receiving any visual upgrades other than a few shaders and an FPS/resolution boost.

I will say though, watching the Halo games at 60 FPS I'd weird. Like, the game seems to move too fast, but that's probably from playing them all these years at 30fps.

screen burning for Halo 2 isnt because the disk's scratched, its just an error that happens when you play it on the 360

there are several spots in the game where it almost always happens

I refuse to buy an Xbone or the MCC for at least 2 years because they said they MIGHT release it on PC.

If that shred of hope exists I'll hold out.

That will absolutely never happen, waiting for it is stupid.

yeah, dud is right I wouldnt hold my breath for the MCC on PC... they never even did Halo 3 for PC and halo 2 PC sucked


halo CE on PC however IMO was superior to on the xbox, so if it did happen I would be happy

I miss danger canyon, Infinity, Ice Fields, Death island, Gephyrophobia,  and Timberland

I think those were the best multiplayer maps in any of the halo games... the only ones that rival them are sidewinder and sandtrap (keep in mind I prefer CTF and big team battles to FFA, so big maps are my favorites)


if the MCC means that halo 3 multiplayer is being played again I might get an xbone to play it, I miss that game immensely. the nostalgia thinking about games I used to love that I cant play any more is making me sad

Preordered mine. Took the day AFTER its release off from work because of a supposed 20GB patch (which Im thinking is the other half of the game) so i can have it downloaded and ready to play the next day

halo 2 anniversary edition has forge mode.... I think I have been sold. better start saving up for an xbone


http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/28/see-forge-in-halo-2-anniversary-halo-the-master-chief-collection-ign-first?watch

watch the whole thing. I am super impressed

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:All the fun weapons from Halo 3 and Halo Reach? Gone. No grenade launcher, no Brute Shot, no Focus Rifle, no Plasma Repeater, no Plasma Launcher. The DMR and the BR were both fun, so 343i gave you both of them! And the Carbine! And the Light Rifle, which sorta kinda acted like a DMR and a BR mixed together! I call it the DMBR, pronounced phonetically. And just to make sure you know that precision weapons are king, we've got three sniper rifles. The Beam Rifle and sniper rifle are crowded out by the Binary Rifle. It kills what it hits... unless you're playing campaign. Then it's just a slightly more powerful sniper rifle.

Automatics? Present but useless, especially the brand-spanking-new Storm Rifle. Shotguns? Two of them, good luck telling them apart.

I completely agree with you about the grenade launcher. It's easily my favorite weapon in Halo.

And Halo 4's weapons sandbox is too crowded. I don't see what the difference between the Suppressor, Assault Rifle, and Storm Rifle are. What's the difference between the Shotgun and the Scattershot? What about the Carbine, Battle Rifle, DMR, Light Rifle clusterfuck? The Sniper Rifle, Beam Rifle, Binary Rifle is the worst, imo; presumably the disadvantage of the Binary Rifle is that it only has enough ammunition to kill four people- however, the weapons despawn so fast that it's incredibly unlikely that you would need more ammo.

I did the math, and Halo 4 has more UNSC weapons than Halo CE's entire sandbox, grenades included. It's too crowded. There should be less weapons with more unique features, like the Plasma Rifle in CE's stun effect, or the Grenade Launcher's trigger system.

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:I miss danger canyon, Infinity, Ice Fields, Death island, Gephyrophobia,  and Timberland

I think those were the best multiplayer maps in any of the halo games... the only ones that rival them are sidewinder and sandtrap (keep in mind I prefer CTF and big team battles to FFA, so big maps are my favorites)

I mostly agree with this... but no Blood Gulch? Blood Gulch is definitely in the top five of all Halo maps, arguably number one.

the maps I listed there were PC exclusive and havn't had remakes (except for timberland)

as much as I love blood Gulch I have gotten my fill of that map over the years, it pretty much plays the same every time

I miss Valhalla, Sandtrap, Avalanch, and Zanzibar the most.

I actually prefer valhalla to BG there is more cover in the center which means that there are multiple routes that can be taken.

halo isn't exactly the most tactical game, especially on public multiplayer, but having options is always nice

I really, REALLY miss Elongation. That was one of the first maps I played Halo 2 online on, and it's always stuck out for me.

Ok, Im trying hard to like this game, I REALLYY am. But having matchmaking broken at launch? I mean what fucking year is this?! I went from taking 20 minutes to find a game but still being able to play it, to having connection failures when i DID find a game, to getting into games with 2-5 players and getting such intense lag that I couldnt finish the damn thing. And no my goddamn connection is not the issue.

Yeah theres 4 campaigns but any Halo fan worth his salt has probably played each of these at least 20 times. Not too mention in the Halo 2 Anniv. campaign there are NUMEROUS AI bugs between enemy and allied AIs. Enemies I notice just freeze sometimes and WILL NOT react to anything, and allies do the same thing. Usually right when they first spawn they will not move to save their lives. This is particularly prevalent on the Uprising level.

Not to mention that stupid fucking "Halo Channel" thing can lick my salty balls, WHY CANT I JUST WATCH THE FUCKING TERMINAL VIDEOS IN GAME LIKE YOU COULD WITH, I DONT KNOW, EVERY OTHER FUCKING HALO GAME?!?!.

Im buying Dragon Age Inquisition.

Honestly I'm considering buying an xbox for the game, assuming that the matchmaking issues will be fixed. If Halo 2 is going to be played again online with detailed forge then that alone will make it worth it.