All things Halo

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NokkonWud
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by NokkonWud »

SWAT arrives next week, so they really are listening and acting quickly. Now all we (I) need is Multi-Team!
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

NokkonWud wrote:SWAT arrives next week, so they really are listening and acting quickly. Now all we (I) need is Multi-Team!
Multi team in 3 was ace, I found multi team in Reach absolutely brutal!
Glad for the return of SWAT, that's my weekends sorted for quite some time to come :)
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NokkonWud
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by NokkonWud »

It was, but the steep learning curve meant a quick improvement, between that and SWAT I did little else in Reach. The modes in 4 are great, but I wish the map qualities of Reach were there, but thankfully they are better than those in Halo 3.
Sly Reflex

Re: Halo - All of it

Post by Sly Reflex »

Multiteam is a welcome gametype. I played hours on the 2 man team games in Reach.

Something I've noticed about the game is that the multi is in need of a few simple features. Last Vs game I played last night I went 3/15 because of bad game design decisions.

People that are inactive in game need to be removed. In a game where every pair of feet on the ground counts, having 2 and 3 people sat idle breaks the game. Any team game that relies on your team hunting in packs should have this feature. I'd rather be men down than know I'm getting gipped by AWOL players.

The other gripe is the spawning. In general Halo games have immaculate spawning systems, but I feel hard done here. I think the problem is exacerbated with the AFK players as they'll often spawn inside bases with no line of sight or with the pack whilst you get the shitty end of the stick and end up getting sniped out of your boots or roadkilled by a passing banshee.

To some extent it was our fault that we allowed ourselves to get backed in like that, but instead of the game throwing us a lifeline and a chance to get back in the game (which it has done on maps such as the Valhalla remake with a spawn flip), it gave us a big fat fuck off and made us endure a base raping. It's games like that that leave a sour taste in the mouth.
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AndyKurosaki
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by AndyKurosaki »

I've been that addicted to playing Slayer online that I've barely got into the Campaign yet. Played through the first 5 parts of Spartan Ops, will be interesting to see how it develops.
Tried a few of the new Forerunner weapons, the Scattershot shotgun seems pretty lethal :D
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

Halo was completely broken last night
Matchmaking was taking much much longer than normal, people being dropped from games, parties separated.
all sorts of horrible glitchy lag.
343 have been making a bit of a mess... :(
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

well, I was hoping that the really bad matchmaking performance was down to the servers being hammered on release of the map pack, but the game still seems to be falling into a bit of a hole.
Playing last night, matchmaking was sometimes taking as long as 5 minutes, despite there being 20,000 people on the playlist.

Filesharing still isn't working (and not even showing on the halo waypoint main page) and according to a lot of posts in the halo waypoint forum, 343 have been allowing people to download the map pack for free, then issuing them a ban from xbox live for using unpaid content.

Stack this on top of the fact that the dashboard is being flooded with adverts for the Halo 4 infinity challenge, sponsored by virgin, that can't actually be entered if you live in the UK.

WTF? seriously?
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

So, I played some Halo 3 multiplayer last night.
Man Halo used to be so good.

Halo 4 is nice for how it looks, and it's nice that if a player quits out, a fresh player is dropped in to keep the teams balanced, but I think that's where it's multiplayer merits stop.
-The matchmaking in 4 is wildly inconsistant I'll flip-flop from game to game doing exceptionally well, followed by doing really badly. there seems to be no attempt to group people into games by skill level.
-It's nice that people can choose their own loadouts, but it seems to have taken a lot of balance out of the game. I'm starting to see more and more people using the "stealth" armour ability combined with a sniper or overcharged bolt shot. making them extremely overpowered on bigger maps.
-There's still no file share, some 3 months after release.
-There's a total lack of decent maps, even with the new map pack added in , the majority of big team battle games end up taking place on 2 maps, one of which is a remake of an older map (valhalla)
-There's hardly any feedback from 343 about any of the issues being raised by the community
-The selection of playlists is shite
-There was a massive drive for a multi player competition, adverts all across halo and the xbox dash, but the competition is limited to mainland north america.

The more I play halo 4, the more it feels like 343 are flogging the cash cow to death, sure halo 4 looks pretty, but the story from the campaign was a good build up, the forward unto dawn series was amazing and a great lead into the campaign, but the story just fizzled out from the middle of the game.
Previous halo games have made me want to re-play the campaign, just for fun. Despite it being tough, I've wanted to try and play through previous games on a tough difficulty level, it felt like a fun challenge. With halo 4, it felt like a challenge to get everyone into the campaign. I played through the campaign with Mr McFluffin and there seemed to be a 50/50 chance upon starting that one of use would end up with a weird glitch, where the controls for one of us would be really floaty, and you would carry on walking for a few paces after you'd stopped pushing on the controls.

I've been a huge halo fan-boy for quite some time, and I think I've been glossing over all the negatives of halo 4, because I don't really want to admit that my beloved franchise is sliding down the pan. Had the game been called '343's shooty space dudes' then maybe I would be willing to forgive the growing list of frustrations, but I really do think 343 have dropped the ball :(

anyone else have any thoughts on this?
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RoboticMonk3y
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by RoboticMonk3y »

Sly Reflex

Re: Halo - All of it

Post by Sly Reflex »

I spoke about the matchmaking ages ago on another forum as being semi broken.

When I studied the previous games on Waypoint it appeared that the drop out/drop in mechanic was to blame. If a player dropped it allowed friends of players to join in progress even if they were not in the skill bracket that the game built its foundation on. After a few games the good players stay in the games because they are having it good, while the worst players drop out. It looks like the matchmaking looks at the players currently in game and chucks people into games where they are matched against the people in the lobby.

To back this up, I noticed that any game I joined half the way through I'd be put in a game full of people who I'd dominate, because I was getting matched up with the few better players in that lobby I'd end up just clearing up all the lesser players for a few games until the power creep of players dropping and better players filling their boots got the better of me.

I miss the old way it did things if I'm being honest, all those solo and 4 v 4 games I had tended to be really close affairs unless you had someone who'd restarted their career so they could noob bash their way up to the top. The system they run now would probably fair better if any matchmade games were locked out to people joining unless they went into the match making menu instead of being able to join friends in progress. Either that or create ladders similar to how Starcraft 2 has and lock players into playing with people in their bracket and only allow promotion/demotion based on performance. Ranked only of course, social games would still be available for those wanting to kick back and just have a few games with their diversely skilled friends.

I think in general it all comes down to the volume of people playing the game. I remember playing Halo 2 online and the matchmaking being a fine example of how to matchmake games. Of course if you wanted a shooter game back then that's really the only option you had, so the more people playing the more plentiful the data going in was which resulted in better matchmaking. There's so many options now for playing shooters that it's fragmented the userbase into something that the current matchmaking systems struggle to make close knit games out of.

In short, I think MS (and other companies) should look into refining Trueskill for the next generation and ask game developers to put game modes in that follow these number rigidly, or even have mandatory game modes. It's really the only way competitive gaming will ever be taken seriously.
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dezm0nd
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by dezm0nd »

An hour long presentation of the Halo: Master Chief Collection. Xbox One, come to me!

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dezm0nd
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by dezm0nd »

So, I felt the wrath of Halo:MCC's terrible bugs last night.



First of all, it had lost one of our legendary level completions when I switched it on. I was raging. Legendary is nothing to sniff at with each level taking between 1-2 hours.



We persisted and moved onto Delta Halo and finished it fine, moved onto Regret. Took ages, loads of stress punching that floating twat in his chair.



We finally did it! Cue cutscene! ...



Crash to desktop. Lost progress. Nothing.

Don't buy this game just yet. It's a turd.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by ratsoalbion »

What a load of pants. I bought it but I'm leaving well alone until there are widespread reports of it not being a buggy, progress-losing mess.
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James
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by James »

ratsoalbion wrote:What a load of pants. I bought it but I'm leaving well alone until there are widespread reports of it not being a buggy, progress-losing mess.
Same for me. Matchmaking issues aren't as big a deal for me as they undoubtedly are for many, many folks, but I'm not going to spend time with MCC just now. I'll come back to it later, and spend time on a plethora of other games in the meantime.

Okay, okay, I'll spend time on Binding Of Isaac in the meantime. ;)
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hazeredmist
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by hazeredmist »

What a mess. As I've thought since Halo 4, it seems 343 have royally fucked up Halo.

Meanwhile Bungie's latest game Halo Online (or Destiny as it's more commonly known) continues to operate flawlessly.

:D
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by ratsoalbion »

There was another patch today, again supposedly addressing matchmaking issues.
More still to come so they say.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by Combine Hunter »

This whole thing is such a shame. I was keen to get an Xbox One just for this collection. Now, I can wait another year.
SnakeyDavid

Re: Halo - All of it

Post by SnakeyDavid »

I bought one. Genuinely miffed, but it is getting better at least.
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Re: Halo - All of it

Post by DomsBeard »

Laughable that so many companies can get away with this. Normally you buy something and it doesn't work you take it back not hope it'll sort itself out.
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ratsoalbion
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Our next Halo podcast recording: Halo 3

Post by ratsoalbion »

We already covered Combat Evolved quite some time ago, but now we return to the Halo series for a set of shows covering 2 to 4 in the run-up to Guardians.

Please share your experiences, memories and opinions of 2004's Halo 2 for potential inclusion in the show.




Apologies if we already have a Halo thread elsewhere. I'll have a proper look later and merge if so.
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