All things Halo

[dezm0nd]

Some Halo 3: ODST gifs from my time spent with the usual crew.

Sticky grenades are still the best thing in videogames.



I get squashed between a door and a hard place (a door)



Tony evades a collapsing bridge... and then gets destroyed!



And I do some pole dancing... sort of.

[Flabyo]

Playing through ODST again now, and I've just realised that the city overseer AI changes the road signs to direct you to where the audio logs are hidden. Flashes up 'diversion', 'keep left' and so on.

No idea why I never noticed it before, it's not exactly subtle

[xbenblasterx]

Halo 3: ODST was a day one purchase for me, still riding the Halo 3 buzz, me and my group of fellow xbox 360 gamers at the time couldn't wait to sink our co - op teeth into yet more Halo content (even if the chief weren't involved this time).

But ODST certainly wasn't what I'd been expecting, gone was the bombastic showstoppers from Halo 3 to be replaced by a more somber and subtle mood. It was a side of Halo I could never have imagined, and because of this ODST will always stand out as the pinnacle of the Halo franchise (in my eyes ate least).

ODST offered just as many chaotic multiplayer romps and cooperative riots that it's predecessors had, but it's those moments spent skulking through the city of New Mobasa, with the drizzle clouding up my visor and the soft purple glow of hazard lights guiding my way, those are the moments I'll always remember. ODST was the first time the series had offered us a chance to simply stop and soak up the atmosphere. It's a theme that the franchise is yet to return to but I certainly hope that ODST isn't to be one of a kind.

The Halo universe could always use some more bluesy twists on it's iconic soundtrack that's for sure!

[Nekemancer]

I played through ODST at launch and was left feeling lukewarm on it. I don't recall much specifically other than just not really enjoying the style and design of the game, wanting something more consistently paced and focused on Chief's story.

I just finished a replay of this on the MCC a few weeks ago and have come away with a much more positive view on it. The setting is wonderfully crafted, the game requires a more measured approach in the night sections than I had used previously and that made a huge difference. The music is absolutely top notch and can absolutely compete with other favorite Halo tracks. The gunplay is just as good as ever, the story is interesting and involving. I heartily recommend any Halo fan to give it a shot via the MCC, but with an asterisk on the recommendation that they not approach it like a mainline Halo game.

As a side note, anyone else loving the heck out of "Xbox, record that" with their kinects with these games? I'm getting clips nearly every session just cause of how perfect it is to have on hand so easily. Halo's always been a game where you really hope the goofy/cool stuff happens with friends around, and this helps you record every instance of random deaths or hilarious physics going off.

[ratsoalbion]

Next up for the podcast is Halo: Reach. You were there man - you were there.

[deacon05oc]

I played Halo Reach out of general obligation to the series. I had an Xbox/360 and played every game. I liked them didn't love them. I played the multiplayer because my friends were online. I loved the atmosphere, gameplay was fine but it was never more than that. That continued when I bought Reach. I had enjoyed ODST because it was a smaller story within a larger framework. That and no Flood. I hate the Flood. But I digress. Reach for me was my favorite in the series simply because the fight felt personal to me. Knowing the lore and how important the Fall of Reach is, it made me focus on getting Noble Team back safely even though I knew it would end tragically. By the end of the game, I was angry that my team couldn't survive. I know it wasn't Mass Effect and there wasn't choice in the matter, yet I really wanted it. And if I could see the look on my face during the last stand. My determination to get Noble 6 out of this death trap and it would never happen. After I finished it, I played Halo 3 again out of boredom yet I found myself dedicating that playthrough to the sacrifice of Noble Team because I had a new perspective on it now. I finished the fight for them. I had a personal stake in the story. Halo Reach stands out for me as the one that made me appreciate the entirety of the series.

[Bakers_12]

Halo: Reach is at the top of my list of Halo games.
When I first played it on release I felt something was off with it. I could not put my finger on it, it felt a little slower and the scale of thing was a bit different than before. It felt different to play somehow. After I got used to what ever changed (or perceived to change) I was away. I now feel that the more gritty setting and slight changes to be akin to when there is a change in director in a long running film series.


For me it’s the best Halo story (proving my Halo Standalone stories are a lot better then the continuing ark ones), being a prequel the story messes with a traditional FPS/Halo story structure. Where in most games playing through a level rewards the player with a lovely mission complete, a pat on the back and the feeling of shaping the events of the story. Reach's story is one of hollow victory after another, you destroy a ship along comes a fleet, and you protect an evac site from enemy troops the site will be shot at from orbit. On paper you would think this would feel unsatisfying but for me it wasn't , in fact it was the most emotionally charged Halo game to date. You only get a small glimpse of hope in the dyeing stages of the game, only to have THAT end section.

Reach was the only Halo multiplayer that I loved, I enjoyed Halo 3's but this clicked with me in a big way. The modes, customization, challenges and game play were balanced to perfection.

Bungies good bye to Halo was its best game to date but razes the question whey did they not take the gritty and brilliant storytelling and use it for Destiny?

[Flabyo]

didnt the story people leave Bungie for 343 as part of the split deal?

Il have to replay Reach before I say anything, I honestly don't remember too much about it...

[RoboticMonk3y]

I hope you're going to spend some time in the show talking about the beta testing for Reach, a lot of great gaming!
It was also nice that Bungie actively encourage people to send in the clips of their game doing weird and wonderful stuff, I seem to remember Bungie compiling videos showing off some of the best bizarre moments.

The beta testing for reach got me really excited for the game, and I picked it up day one.
At the time, I had two xboxes and two televisions both set up and working downstairs, and I played through the game with my wife on normal, followed by both of us instantly replaying it on legendary with a group of 4.
I'm genuinely proud of completing a legendary solo run of this game too, as has been the case with previous Bungie games, the game forces you to play in a different way when you're playing Legendary. You have to approach each battle carefully and work out your path though to the next area. The enemy AI is downright devious, elites hiding behind cover and frustratingly accurate with grenade throws, but it never felt unfair.

The multi-player became a regular Sunday evening event, and there was a broad enough scope to it that I figure I must have played this every weekend for the best part of a year and I have no regrets about that, in fact I kinda miss the group of people who would regularly drop in and play (and the joys of pulling off an assassination on the people who spent too long staring down a sniper scope!). There were so many great custom game types that evolved from the community.

I feel that Halo:Reach was bungie's swan song for the franchise. Despite not featuring Master Chief (easter eggs aside) it felt like another careful step in the seires, the new Spartan abilities felt like a welcome addition to the game, and each of them felt carefully balanced. The multilayer featured a good balance of old an new maps as well as a great selection of balanced weapons.

[Bakers_12]

didnt the story people leave Bungie for 343 as part of the split deal?

That would explane it!

[fieldy]

Reach was also my favourite game in the series, for me the story was told in a way that was so emotionally charged and in some places gritty that it won me over instantly, that and knowing that in Halo lore the fall of reach is a key event I was really invested.

Another day one purchase for me, I picked up the legendary edition from my local game station at midnight. I started playing that night and I was still playing the same time the year after! This entry in the series feels like the culmination of a decades worth of work from Bungie and it really shows, everything about this title was perfect for me. The story and setting were excellent with Reaches wide open arena areas juxtaposed with enclosed urban areas making for some interesting encounters with the covenant, which Bungie somehow managed to make feel like new but also familiar. I think having to fight the elites again added to this after their absence from the end of Halo 2 up until this.

The 'feel' of the game was also right on the money for me, the shooting mechanics felt tight and accurate. Reach also introduced my favourite in game weapon of all time with the DMR which was something that was promised since halo 2's E3 demo but ultimately turned into the burst fire battle rifle, the single shot marksman rifle was perfect for Halo right down to the amount of bullets in a magazine -enough to take down an elites shield with one or two shots left for the finishing head shot but then you would have to reload.

In addition to the above you could create your own avatar for the game which applied for both multiplayer and campaign. This made it feel more personal in a way, you could create your own spartan and unlock new pieces of armour and equipment by playing the game.

I was apprehensive when I heard that this was to be Bungies last Halo game but after playing Reach I really didn't mind where they took the series this was the pinnacle for me and Bungie really did go out with a bang!

[chase210]

Reach was yet another example of me getting caught up in the hype for a game. I'd sold my original 360 I used to play Halo 3 by this point, but I got so caught up in the hype and the remember reach campaign I went out on launch day and bought a slim 360 and the limited edition of reach, the one that came with the neat diary and art pictures and stuff if I recall correctly. And promptly traded it all in again a week later once I'd gone through the campaign and dabbled in the multiplayer.

Thats not a slight against the game though. I think reach has by far the strongest single player of any halo game, discounting my nostalgia for stuff like 3. The story of a disaster we already know is happening, and how its gonna end (although if you read the extra halo book first strike, you'd know thats not the end of the story on reach) is really good, and although none of the new spartans appealed to me nearly as much as the chief, its still good stuff. In particular the ending is a brilliant way of weaving gameplay with story, having your character fight till they literally die, and ends the game. The single player really is stellar, great selection of weapons, great set pieces, and the feeling of fighting a battle you know you have to lose hangs over the thing. I especially like the weapon they kinda rip from gears of war, the artillery bombardment thing.

I wasn't a huge fan of the multiplayer, but then I didn't put that much time into it, so maybe if I'd played it longer I would have got more into. Overall, a great game for bungie to leave the franchise on.

[fieldy]

Just remembered this, the live action ads for the Halo games always impress me. I was already sold on reach but this just really built the hype for me!

[Nekemancer]

(Note: Final edit for reals, just finished!)

Reach is good. It hits the high points of other Halo games, graphics, characters, soundtrack, etc. Introduced Halo-StarFox all ranged mode, and that worked well too. I never played the multiplayer, so I can't really comment on that side of things.

There's a fair number of low points though. I feel like the areas don't quite have the same freedom as previous games did. It's not quite a hallway simulator, but I've definitely felt much more constrained. Which is a shame, because Reach is beautiful and I'd have loved to have a little less guided story. I get what they were doing with the story and zones, they work together, but it feels a little less Halo-ish.

Gotta admit though, I don't really care for some of the enemy designs they went with here. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I found the elites to be far less... defined maybe? They just kinda seemed like a mashup of shiny things that are shooting at me. And the brutes are a long ways off from their Halo 2 and 3 designs that I much prefer. Really bullet spongy too, even on just normal. It didn't seem like plasma pistol/head-shot-weapon was nearly as effective as vs elites or vs brutes in previous games.

I really wish Reach had been put into the MCC. I ran into tons of frame rate issues through my playthrough. It definitely ran much more roughly than I remembered it doing. Here's hoping for it being added in as DLC down the road. It absolutely deserves to be played on hardware that can actually handle running the game appropriately, because the game is flipping gorgeous.

Honestly, the further I get on my replay of this, the more I'm thinking this may be the weakest entry in the Halo series. It's still a great game, but it feels quite a bit different than the other mainline Halo games. Because of those differences, it's likely that some people might enjoy it more while some less. It's kinda funny, I originally was down on ODST and up on Reach. On revisiting them, I'm up on ODST and down on Reach. Still really enjoyed my replay of Reach though. That ending is incredibly powerful. What a strong, solid way to wrap the game.

Three word review: Master Chief Collection...?

[Testtube27]

my quick thoughts on Halo 4 are :

- its the first Master Chief story that I actually cared about, the characterisation and the interactions between Chief and Cortana were great.
- The art style change was a bit weird at first, Halo 4 made everything in the world look more mechanical and heavy
- the gameplay is great in some sections but you never really get a huge area play around in, much more of a hallway shooter
- the new enemy types were actually pretty good. I liked the tactical nature of having to concentrate on certain enemies first
- Spartan ops was a nice addition, kept me coming back for a few months with a friend to complete each one
- multiplayer was fun with some nice new maps but the loadout system strayed a little too close to Call of Duty for me

Overall I really enjoyed the game but I didn't stick with it for even a fraction of the time I did with Reach, perhaps it was Halo fatigue or some of the original magic was gone....I'm not sure

[chase210]

I fell for the hype for Halo 4 yet again, as I do with all Halo games, and bought yet another 360 to play Halo 4, and yet again traded it along with the games back in a few weeks later.

As for the game, I have mixed feelings about it. I personally enjoy the halo lore and universe stuff, so the fact you needed to have a knowledge of what had gone in the books wasn't a problem for me, but I'm not sure I like the fact the story has gotten to the point the extra knowledge is necessary. I like the base story though, the narrative of the chief and cortana was pretty compelling for me, not sure how I feel about the overall story though, like I said maybe a bit too convoluted for its own good.

The game looks really nice, I like the art style a lot. As for the gameplay itself, I mostly immensely enjoyed it. The mix of Covenant and Promethean enemies was pretty good, even if the promethean enemies aren't quite as awesome to fight as the covenant. The lack of flood was great. Honestly though, it felt a lot less open than previous Halo games, and that along with stuff like the sprint, made it feel a lot less Halo than before. In Halo 3 for example, when taking down say the scarabs, there are multiple ways to take them down, and its up to you to decide, and that applies to a lot of the combat there, and the previous Halo's. Here, it felt more constrained, though not bad. And I didn't touch the multiplayer.


Overall, good games, not quite up to Bungie's standards, but I'm eagerly awaiting Halo 5.

[RoboticMonk3y]

I'll preface this by saying that I am not the biggest fan of Halo 4, if you loved halo 4, that's great! but you might not like the rest of this post
(also this is the second time I've typed this post because the forum exploded this morning )


Halo 4, where do we start? right, well, end of the previous halo game we got to play, Halo:Reach, Masterchief wasn't even in it, so we spin back to Halo 3.
Right at the end, after Masterchief saved everything, he popped himself into a stasis pod, right after dropping the badass line "wake me when you need me..."
so he floats through space, and in the meantime, courtana develops hips, a larger bottom along with shiny new nudy space shape, sadly she also has developed a case of the mentals, because she's only supposed to be on for 10 years, and it been like 12 or something. No idea why she can't spool down into hibernate mode or something. I guess the most hyper-intelligent AI didn't think of that one...

anyways, after halo 3, all the bad dudes got killed, there's no one left to muck things up, so we're all good.
but wait! Ultimate baddy space yeti is here and he's messing up everyone's junk, so it's time to wake up the chief!
Cue 6 hours of fighting with courtana going mental and have arguments with herself, it's OK though, you can tell when she's cross because she goes red instead of blue.
Materchief is all like .. hmmm... can't see how having a corrupted AI could possibly go wrong..
after your 6 hours of fighting things because of reasons I'm sure were explained somewhere in a book or something, you finally catch up to ultimate baddy space yeti where you have an epic showdown, and a tense battle where literally the outcome of the battle with decide if the universe will be safe again. Faced against insurmountable odds, the chief persists and battles on to save the day. You conduct this epic and monumental battle by throwing a single grenade which sends ultimate baddy space yeti from his very safe spot on a magical space bridge into a hole.

courtana is fine, materchief is fine, universe is probably alright too.
Masterchief plots a course for home to get Courtana fixed by Dr Halsey, who probably given the nature of statis and space travel has probably died a long time ago, but ah well. I'm sure they'll fix that McGuffin somehow in halo 5...

Roll credits.


I really can't pin down what exactly it is about halo 4 that made it feel so far removed from the other games in the series. for me it felt like someone had tried to made a really good cake, but all they had to go on was a picture of what the last really good cake looked like.
There are so many things that were mildly irritating that ended up leaving me with a bitter taste.
The warthog engine sounds like it's been replaced by a petrol strimmer.
I remember spending an hour trying to get past the level when you're on ghosts trying to flee while the level crumbles around you, it worked just fine in single player, but with 3 players, someone was forever being bounced out of the level and falling through the floor. Upon re-spawning they would bump someone else out of the level making the section virtually impossible to complete.
The space ship flying section felt like it was glued on to the game at the last minute and again was massively problematic with 3 or 4 players.


There was the promise of the "spartan-ops" being a rich addition to the game, but they weren't available on launch, and when they did come out, it was just re-treading story missions.

The multi-player weapons were massively unbalanced and games were often dominated by invisible snipers or the overcharged bolt-shot.
I also got fed up of forever ending up playing in valhalla, as much as I enjoyed that level from previous games, under the new weapon and loadout system, it seemed far too easy for one team to dominate.
As nice as it was that 343 sorted out for extra players to join if members of your team quit out, this often meant playing on your own in multiplayer, you would be thrown into an already running game you have no chance of winning.
Let's not even go into the mountain dew and doritos debacle...


The game sure did look pretty, but ultimately for me the game felt completely hollow and devoid of any of the gameplay experience that I'd got form any of the previous Halo games, which kinda breaks my heart a little.

[Flabyo]

Cortana is most definitely NOT fine at the end of Halo 4...

[RoboticMonk3y]

Cortana is most definitely NOT fine at the end of Halo 4...

she's absolutely fine, she's just got the hump about being in a badly written sequel

[Flabyo]

Am I interpreting the ending differently then?

Spoiler: show

She sacrifices herself to save the chief from the didact. She isn't coming back from that. In the early teaser stuff for Halo 5 they show her empty memory chip being worn by the chief the way a soldier might wear the dog tags of a fallen comrade.