Author Topic: Halo 3: OSTD (Read 25426 times)

duckman2000 · « **Reply #360 on:** October 09, 2009, 02:13:27 AM »

Quote from: Bocsius on October 09, 2009, 02:06:49 AM

Have you received your copy yet?

No, should arrive tomorrow or Saturday. If it arrives the same day as Uncharted 2, then ODST will have to wait.

Bebpo · « **Reply #361 on:** October 09, 2009, 02:56:39 AM »

WHY DOES THIS GAME NOT AUTOSAVE LIKE EVERY OTHER GAME IN THE UNIVERSE THESE DAYS. IS THERE A WAY TO TURN ON AUTOSAVE?

I have to redo everything after the first stage because I forgot to save

When it said "CHECKPOINT" I just assumed it saved :\

duckman2000 · « **Reply #362 on:** October 09, 2009, 02:27:54 PM »

Playing through the first flashback mission now. I like the tone of the hub world, but the whole ODST thing is a little bit difficult to digest. So you're weaker, I get that. But why do weapons do less damage? There don't seem to be any changes to the gameplay other than less combat abilities, weaker weapons and lower damage tolerance for yourself, so it seems pretty half-assed. Also, cutscenes have been major lulz so far. Why even bother with a high profile cast when the direction is what it is?

Other than that, it's fun enough. Playing on Heroic, and it's a good challenge so far.

Draft · « **Reply #363 on:** October 09, 2009, 02:41:20 PM »

What's funny is that you aren't even really that weak.

I'm not one to get hung up on game world integrity, but it does make me giggle when my human character is punching brutes to death and flipping warthogs.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #364 on:** October 10, 2009, 12:08:54 AM »

Yeah, I just noticed that in the last mission. It honestly feels like little more than a limited Halo 3 at this point. There's been a lot of talk about the change in character forcing you to switch up your strategies, but I haven't noticed that at all. You may be a bit more vulnerable and your weapons are less lethal, but I'm not noticing a huge difference.

On the upside, this last mission was a bit more fun than the last. The combination of bloom and music in the hub world reminds me of some Lifetime Movie Network drama, which I guess fits well with the quality of the cinematics.

TEEEPO · « **Reply #365 on:** October 10, 2009, 11:25:04 AM »

Quote from: Bebpo on October 09, 2009, 02:56:39 AM

WHY DOES THIS GAME NOT AUTOSAVE LIKE EVERY OTHER GAME IN THE UNIVERSE THESE DAYS. IS THERE A WAY TO TURN ON AUTOSAVE?

I have to redo everything after the first stage because I forgot to save When it said "CHECKPOINT" I just assumed it saved :\

it has happened to me 3 or so times already

\

the last session i lost 1 1/2 hours of progress. so annoying.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #366 on:** October 11, 2009, 12:14:47 AM »

So, does anyone want to co-op up? I think I'm done trying to get into the game, but I have a feeling co-op would transform the game quite a bit.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #367 on:** October 11, 2009, 12:21:07 AM »

hmm, I've got a copy of Halo 2 here. I think I'll play me some of that instead of renting this.

fistfulofmetal · « **Reply #368 on:** October 11, 2009, 01:17:09 AM »

even tho this game is pretty by-the-numbers, it's still better than Halo 2. what a turd that was.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #369 on:** October 11, 2009, 03:37:56 AM »

Just beat the Oni mission. So far this has been point to point or basic siege stuff, mostly the latter. Any variation coming up? Also noticing some really dodgy Brute A.I., seems to switch off completely when they are at a set distance, and they don't even react to getting shot multiple times. A bit surprising to see that on this difficulty. Maybe it was like this in Halo 3 as well, I'll have to double check.

Draft · « **Reply #370 on:** October 11, 2009, 09:21:47 AM »

Firefight is the laggiest shit. I wish I could return this stupid game.

fistfulofmetal · « **Reply #371 on:** October 11, 2009, 03:12:25 PM »

Just did the NMPD mission and then the Oni Alpha mission, pretty fun. Liked how they are directly connected to each other.

edit: And I'm getting annoyed by having to walk to my next mission. Kinda wish I didn't have to.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #372 on:** October 11, 2009, 04:05:21 PM »

Buying at $40, selling at $50

So, what's up with the lack of BR, and the silencer on the SMG? It's not like it makes a tactical difference; once you shoot someone, they all seem to know your location.

demi · « **Reply #373 on:** October 12, 2009, 12:51:43 AM »

Does anyone want to do Halo 3 Annual?

duckman2000 · « **Reply #374 on:** October 12, 2009, 03:54:48 AM »

The last few missions were pretty alright, but the Coastal Highway mission felt real padded. And for Reach, I seriously hope that Bungie can swallow its pride and outsource writing, character modeling and cutscene direction to some other studio. The writing and delivery, especially in the second half of the game, was straight out of Killzone 2, with a touch of Gears 2, sans the cussing.

Did anyone else find this easier than Halo 3, on Heroic? Whatever they and others have said about the grand differences of the ODST role seems like a bunch of crap.

Bocsius · « **Reply #375 on:** October 12, 2009, 01:53:43 PM »

Reach should be out, like, now. What, it takes 10 guys a year to do ODST, but it takes the full company three years to make Reach? Bungie seems to waste a lot of time in making games. Other highly competent developers can get great games out every two years. Developers of shooters, even. Who knew? Tell me they're not doing everything from scratch again.

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #376 on:** October 13, 2009, 02:18:37 PM »

Quote from: Bocsius on October 12, 2009, 01:53:43 PM

Reach should be out, like, now. What, it takes 10 guys a year to do ODST, but it takes the full company three years to make Reach? Bungie seems to waste a lot of time in making games. Other highly competent developers can get great games out every two years. Developers of shooters, even. Who knew? Tell me they're not doing everything from scratch again.

It is supposed to be a new engine which is why it has taken 3 years.

Since November 2001 and the release of Halo CE, Reach will be the 5th Halo game in total they've done in the series so they haven't exactly been keeping Halo in Duke Nukem territory.

Bocsius · « **Reply #377 on:** October 13, 2009, 02:31:06 PM »

Yes, and it has been three years between each of them. ODST doesn't count, as it's from a small subteam, which is the point. A small team took the Halo 3 engine and got something that loosely resembles a game out the door in a year (give or take) of development time. A larger team should be able to get something that more resembles a game out the door every other year. There's no need to start from scratch every time out.

If I'm Microsoft, I'm frustrated with their throughput. A bunch of profitable development houses take the time to get their engines running and then release game after successful game, maximizing game sales, revenue, and profit without having to redo everything. Bungie, on the other hand, starts from scratch each time out, and sometimes has to start over even after already starting over (I present to you the screwed up development of Halo 2).

Yes, they've made a lot of money doing it the way they do. Yet I can't help but think they would make a lot more money just doing it the way of Infinity Ward, Epic, Insomniac, and the list goes on.

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #378 on:** October 13, 2009, 02:38:00 PM »

I would argue the purpose of a first dev is to not only create profitable games but push the tech of the console to be a flagship example of what is possible on said console. A first party big time dev has a different role than a third party who is going to crank out a game every year or 2 at the most. I don't think the position of the average person is that there have been too few Halo games.

I would argue that potentially where Bungie has fallen off a bit is in the sense that three years should be enough time to really push ahead on graphics which they haven't done. I would argue their game output both in quanity and quality has been fine and that their graphic output hasn't been up to snuff at least since Halo CE released.

Bocsius · « **Reply #379 on:** October 13, 2009, 02:51:23 PM »

On the other hand, I think Halo 2 looks great. Halo 3 even better. And people playing the games couldn't give a crap about if it pushes technological bounds or comes out too often. Just look at the market! They're used to getting their Rock Band and Guitar Hero and Madden and Call of Duty every year, one from Infinity Ward coming every other. They got their Rainbow 6 and Ghost Recon and whatever other shooter franchise Ubi released. They're getting Uncharted and Resistance every other year. Bungie is big enough to be able to get a new game out every other year. It doesn't have to be Halo every single time, but it also shouldn't be a new engine every time, either.

And why they'd want to move away from a surefire hit is beyond me. Seriously, if I'm Microsoft and the people from Bungie came up to me and told me they're tired of doing Halo, I would have had them subjected to psychiatric evaluations. Are you insane? It's a cash cow. But OK, we'll give it to somebody else when you're done with it. Even Rare couldn't screw this up! (But we'll not test that theory...)

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #380 on:** October 13, 2009, 02:58:50 PM »

I very much respect Bungie and the Halo series. I'm one of those people who thinks that Halo was sort of instrumental in the fps taking off the way it did on consoles and a lot of the conventions that came to be.

I do think graphically though they took an approach with Halo 3 in retrospect that seems out of place in the current market. I think they concentrated on things like aspects of lighting and other secondary graphic features that sort of makes their game fit into an odd space. I think most devs made the call this gen to either tone down the graphics and go for 60 fps or really punch up the graphics and settle for 30 but focus on the areas that most normal people really associate with "good graphics".

Halo 3 is an odd duck to me because it doesn't run at 60 and yet it doesn't look traditionally exceptional for a 30fps game. We'll see how they balanced things in Reach.

As far as stepping away from Halo, I sort of applaud the move. They clearly have the clout and confidence that they can create something else big. I think that takes balls. And I'm always down with balls.

Sho Nuff · « **Reply #381 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:21:32 PM »

Lemme know if anyone's interested in trading their copy of ODST for a shiny copy of BAT-MAN (360 of course)

duckman2000 · « **Reply #382 on:** October 20, 2009, 03:39:20 AM »

Quote from: dcharlie on October 13, 2009, 07:59:42 PM

level design varies from great to copy/paste from older games.

I can't name a single instance of great level design in ODST. Flashback levels feel like pickings from a pile of discarded content from previous games, and the city is basically one big library. The gameplay is obviously "solid" if a bit outdated (I can't be the only one grasping for a sprint button), but the much ballyhooed ODST deal is critically overstated; granted that I haven't played it on Legendary, but Heroic didn't feel much different from any other Halo game on that difficulty. If anything, it was actually easier, and the ODST deal felt half-assed all around.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #383 on:** October 20, 2009, 10:11:56 AM »

It's hard to criticize something as basic but functional as the combat of Halo, although I think there are some additions that need to be made in general, like sprint. My issue with it in this game has more to do with the role you're put in. Cross hairs still take up a good chunk of the screen and the magnetic aim takes care of the rest, and there is virtually no loss of precision based on movement so you can bunny hop your way to victory like in any other Halo. Given that you're supposedly a bit less of a super-soldier, I would have actually liked to see some proper adjustments to the gunplay itself, and not just by way of making bullets less effective (which really makes no fucking sense).

Some were worried that it would be too different from the previous games, but I feel that it suffers from the opposite problem. What you have here is basically a Halo game with unusually unimaginative and repetitive level and skirmish design, writing that puts up a serious fight against KZ2 in terms of raw crapness, and some half baked ODST limitations. Not what I expected when they announced the game.

demi · « **Reply #384 on:** October 20, 2009, 07:59:53 PM »

Still lookin for 4 people for Gaylo 3 Annual

Stoney Mason · « **Reply #385 on:** October 20, 2009, 08:40:57 PM »

One of those digital foundry articles on ODST.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-odst-tech-analysis-article

TEEEPO · « **Reply #386 on:** October 21, 2009, 12:40:52 AM »

i'd like to play some coop.

mr teepo on live.

tehjaybo · « **Reply #387 on:** October 21, 2009, 01:49:11 PM »

Quote from: demi on October 20, 2009, 07:59:53 PM

Still lookin for 4 people for Gaylo 3 Annual

Yes, please. Also, I need Endure as my last CHEEV on ODST.

Bebpo · « **Reply #388 on:** November 12, 2009, 06:40:22 PM »

Slacked off of school stuff and finished the campaign today.

I have to say I respect Bungie and their work with the Halo series soooo much. ODST's campaign was very, very good. It took all the best parts of Halo and strung them together in an episodic style that surprisingly worked really well. The story was ok, made sense, wasn't offensive or juvenile, and unlike most games these days, it held the narrative and brought it together for a very satisfying finale in the last two levels. They introduced the cute engineer and through their awesome cutscene animation they made you care about him. You really felt GOOD when you were fighting at the end and he was protecting you and you worked together to take out the enemies. The epilogue even brought a tear to my eye because it was really so perfect.

Visually, despite the old engine I thought the lighting and art design was excellent. I felt it was a shame almost half the game was in the dark because with the visor on it totally washes out the lighting and you don't get to appreciate it. Like during Data Hive I tried to do most of the mission with the visor off because the blue tints and the flamethrower lighting up the halls was really nice looking.

And the soundtrack, oh my the soundtrack. Soundtrack of the year for sure. Maybe of the generation so far. A++++++ score.

Would be a perfect 10/10 campaign IMO if it wasn't for the hub segments that are neat but get old mainly because even though you're just walking from one area to another, for some reason each level is EXACTLY ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CITY. I heard you get a vehicle if you get enough audio logs but I didn't find many log machines! I wasn't scouting for them but I did look around each area I fought through on the way to the next level and grabbed any I saw. Anyhow I never got the vehicle so I walked it each time and it was pretty fillerish despite the great art and music.

The combat in Halo is soooooo good. Same with the vehicles. I wouldn't mind an entire air combat game made from the banshee flight engine.

Still I'd say the campaign was the best FPS campaign story/gameplay-wise I've played since HL2 Ep2. Just a fantastic game full of character and those little details that only Kojima and Miyamoto games have. I'd put it up there with Demon Souls and Machinarium as a strong GoTY contender for 09 so far. Don't think I'll ever try firefight since none of my friends play it (would have tried it with matchmaking!), but I'll play the Halo 3 MP someday. I liked the H3 beta but I didn't play the real post-beta MP much. Now with forge and the DLC maps there should be a lot of new fun things to check out.

AdmiralViscen · « **Reply #389 on:** November 12, 2009, 09:41:01 PM »

Nailed it

Green Shinobi · « **Reply #390 on:** March 12, 2010, 06:54:29 PM »

Took a break from Mass Effect 2 to play this. I'll probably go back and finish Mass Effect 2.

This is easily the worst Halo ever. The biggest offender is the red screen. I don't need that shit in Halo. If you're playing on Heroic or above, one or two hits from a Carbine will put you in the red. I'm playing the Buck stage right now, and every time the screen goes red, he pants like crazy and sounds like he's busting a nut. Given how little damage it takes to trigger this, you could potentially play about half the game with a guy sounding like he's orgasming in your tv screen. Not cool, Bungie. Not cool at all.

I'm really glad I only paid $30 for this and the Reach beta is starting soon.

ManaByte · « **Reply #391 on:** March 12, 2010, 07:17:51 PM »

You're not playing as Master Chief. Don't play like you are.

Green Shinobi · « **Reply #392 on:** March 12, 2010, 07:20:27 PM »

I realize that, and I'd be completely okay with the main character being nerfed if not for the fucking red screen and panting. It's not the gameplay modification that irks me; it's the way they chose to present this gameplay modification.

It's still pretty fun. I'm not pissed I bought it. It's an even better value for me since I never bought any of the DLC maps for Halo 3.

Also, keep in mind that I would rate Halo 2 a 9/10 and the other two perfect 10s, so "worst Halo ever" could easily be an 8.

ManaByte · « **Reply #393 on:** March 12, 2010, 07:22:48 PM »

You're right. The screen should turn blue and he should pant in Na'vi.

Green Shinobi · « **Reply #394 on:** March 12, 2010, 07:24:05 PM »

It would have been GOTY if that were the case.

But seriously, I would have been fine with the beeping sound to let you know to take cover, like in the other games. That red screen shit should stay in Rainbow 6 and COD where it belongs.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #395 on:** March 12, 2010, 08:20:56 PM »

Quote from: Green Shinobi on March 12, 2010, 07:20:27 PM

I'd be completely okay with the main character being nerfed

He's not though. His bullets do less damage (which makes no fucking sense), your movement is slightly gimped and you take some more damage, but he can still flip tanks over and the game plays like any other Halo. The whole ODST thing is so fucking half-assed.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #396 on:** March 12, 2010, 08:29:50 PM »

my only complaint about this game is that the red screen and panting does seem to start way too early. you take more damage in that mode than you do fully healthy before the warning.

Draft · « **Reply #397 on:** March 12, 2010, 08:45:10 PM »

Quote from: duckman2000 on March 12, 2010, 08:20:56 PM

Quote from: Green Shinobi on March 12, 2010, 07:20:27 PM
I'd be completely okay with the main character being nerfed

He's not though. His bullets do less damage (which makes no fucking sense), your movement is slightly gimped and you take some more damage, but he can still flip tanks over and the game plays like any other Halo. The whole ODST thing is so fucking half-assed.

Word. I normally have great disdain for lore freaks who get hung up over this kind of thing, but come on. You're just a dude. And you flip cars. It's so ridiculous.

News:

Author Topic: Halo 3: OSTD (Read 25426 times)