glyphstrip FAQ button
Halo.bungie.org
glyphstrip
Frequently Asked Forum Questions
 Search the HBO News Archives

Any All Exact 
Search the Halo Updates DBs

Halo Halo2 
Search Older Posts on This Forum:
Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts


Re: Points on your H3 review (long)
Posted By: Gravemind <kuukan_no_kage@yahoo.com>Date: 4/25/08 2:58 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Points on your H3 review (long) (Rockslider)


: Indeed. I had intended to finally take bold strides into multiplayer with
: H3, but apparently some things never change.

Well, if you ever do decide to dive into MP and get an XBL account, send me a friend request. My gamertag is ShadowOfTheVoid.

: There's no 'guessing' about it buddy - it's a draw-distance issue alright,
: and a major one. I still think you're taking it mighty casually. It seems
: such a fundamental thing to me. But as I've said at least once before
: (probably in the forum), the degree to which you find it noticeable may
: depend quite a bit on your style of play. You might be a bit less
: enamoured of your favourite level, The Ark, if you did it on foot, as I
: like to. If you're going around zooming into battles in a vehicle, you're
: not going to be jarred by the flaw so much.

I've never bothered to tackle The Ark on foot, due to the overpowered enemy vehicles. The first time I noticed the "phase-in" of corpses was in the long hallways on Crow's Nest. It was a noticeable flaw, but it's still not as glaring as the texture pop-in of Halo 2.

My question is why do certain objects (mainly corpses) exhibit this phase-in at all? Considering that stage geometry can encompass many square miles of game area, you'd think the game could maintain a corpse on-screen for viewing distances past a few dozen meters. Even Halo 1, despite being a launch game on an older system, didn't have objects fading into thin air after you walk so far away from them. I don't even think Halo 2 had this problem despite the texturing issues.

: Oh my lordy, it's another of those ghastly net-speak abbreviations.
: Shudder... What the heck does this one mean, if you don't mind? From the
: looks of it, it stands a pretty good chance of being even more hateful
: than the generally superfluous 'IMHO', which some people scatter amongst
: their ramblings like corn in a field. IMHO this, IMHO that... yes buddy,
: it's patently obvious that you're expressing your opinion, so you don't
: need to be writing IMHO all over the place! Or even once! The english
: language got on fine for hundreds of years without people spewing IMHO and
: whatnot about the place. Phew... calming down now.

IIRC = "If I remember correctly"

Apologies for using internet abbreviations. There's only a few I use, and even then, it's only on message boards for the sake of expediency. I'm a slow typist, so I take the occasional shortcut if need be.

: Ok, I may as well post my short piece on it. I've started a separate thread
: on it, just in case anyone has anything useful to chip in.

I'll go take a look at it in a bit.

: Well, certainly not the Warthog. A key part of what I reported was that it
: had a 'recovery point' it would always recover to if given enough time. As
: such, you could keep firing on it indefinitely without it blowing up, as
: long as you keep giving it enough time to recover. But I think you must
: know this, and just mis-expressed what you meant.

Ah. So vehicles that aren't in use have regenerating "health" just like the player? That's wierd. Did the UNSC hire Skynet to make its vehicles?

: No, it'll spawn when you trigger it in the usual place - which is pretty
: close to the tunnel exit. You'll see it motionless for a moment, then it
: shoots forward. Seems strangely clumsy of Bungie. I mean, it's not THAT
: unlikely that you might be looking back at the tunnel.

I'll have to take a look at it next time I play.

: Yay! Wow, I can't believe you've only just got around to tackling AOTCR on
: foot. I hope you'll find it as rewarding as I do. I go through phases of
: trying it again and again, usually on Legendary, and often applying weapon
: restrictions - e.g. only allowing myself covie weapons. I just love
: soaking up the atmosphere in that level, and doing my best to take out
: each and every covie in a clinical way.

AotCR on foot on Heroic difficulty was pretty awesome, so I think Legendary will be even better. As for weapon restrictions, while I haven't done that for a whole stage, but I have gotten to where I never use the pistol to kill Hunters. Those guys are actually really tough if your using an AR or plasma weapon on them.

: I get the impression you may have misunderstood what I was trying to say, as
: I agree that complete stationary enemies aren't the most interesting of
: targets. In H1 they're generally still moving about of course, but you're
: usually getting lots of opportunity to nail them. If enemies in H1 had
: been as intelligent as us about using cover, I think the combat dynamic
: would have felt a lot different and I'm not sure it would've been as much
: fun.

Oh, okay. I get you now. Anywho, I agree that Campaign enemies shouldn't behave like good multiplayer opponents. How they used cover and otherwise behaved in Halo 1 & 2 was good enough. If only the Halo 3 Brutes acted like Brutes or Elites from the previous games instead of being target practice.

: Yes, I was only talking about the needler in connection with campaign mode,
: as per my intro. But it's nice to see Captain Spark wading in with tales
: of his heroic needling in multiplayer. Yeah, you show 'em buddy!
: Ftt-ftt-ftt-ftt... BANG! Tears from your nephew eh? Harsh but fair. It's a
: fine testimony to needler glory (all hail to the mighty pinkness).

I rarely faced rookies during Halo 1 LANs, and most of my opponents were fairly decent, so the Needler was useless. But like I said, it was good in Campaign. I always liked how it could produce multiple explosions if you got enough needles stuck in a guy, and how the explosions could set off grenades. Fill an Elite with 20 Needles, and you can get an awesome room-clearing fireworks display. Deeply satisfying, that is.

: Talking of weapons, I felt that a lot of what you were saying about them was
: oriented around multiplayer, and might thus have been better placed within
: the multiplayer section. Quite often when I start reading something
: someone's written about stuff, it becomes clear that they're only really
: talking about multiplayer - as if that's all anyone is interested in (I'm
: not saying that you were that extreme, and I know you're a keen campaigner
: too). Like when they start talking about shooting "someone",
: rather than shooting covies or flood. In general I wish people would make
: more distinction between the two modes and state it clearly up front,
: because there are obviously different concerns for each. As far as your
: article goes, that made it hard for me (as someonly solely interested in
: campaign) to get a lot out of your weapons talk. Or at any rate, I had to
: work to figure out what was relevant to campaign. Er, just in case you
: want to take that on board for next time.

Sorry I didn't specify. Whenever I talk about weapon issues, it's generally about multiplayer since most of the problems I have with the weapons are how they they work in a multiplayer setting. Issues like accuracy, power, etc., aren't as big of an issue for me considering that enemy AI behaves differently from human players. For example, there's the comment I made about the Halo 1 & 2 Needler being effective against enemies in Campaign, but relatively useless against MP foes.

Various weaknesses, resistances, and shield/health levels of Campaign enemies aside, if a weapon works like it should in MP, it will be equally effective in Campaign. For example, the AR is a close-range buzzsaw, so of course it'll tear through Grunts and other weak foes, though an enemy with large amounts of shielding (Elite Zealots in H1, Brute Chieftains in H3) will take a considerable number of hits before dying, much like if you attacked an overshielded opponent in MP with it. The BR's potential for partial hits resulting from the spreading burst fire has the same advantages (i.e., taking out multiple unshielded enemies in one shot) and disadvantages (i.e., partial bursts reduce damage over time vs. shielded enemies), though in the case of the latter it's not as bad considering that it's easier to cap Elites or the slow-moving Brutes than a MP opponent who's quick on his feet. I could list other examples, but I think you get the point.

: Well I never said I liked it. But I like it a lot more now I've spotted a
: link to my own H3 yammering, right at the end. Woo-hoo!

Oh. So that's how it is? :p

http://shadowofthevoid.wordpress.com



Message Index




Replies:

My Halo 3 review (finally).Gravemind 4/19/08 11:04 p.m.
     It was a nice read.BlueNinja 4/20/08 2:32 a.m.
     Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).zethren 4/20/08 2:50 a.m.
           Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).onebitrocket 4/23/08 2:10 a.m.
                 Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).scarab 4/23/08 8:08 a.m.
                       Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).onebitrocket 4/23/08 11:20 a.m.
                             Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).scarab 4/24/08 1:53 a.m.
                                   Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Gravemind 4/25/08 12:58 a.m.
     Comprehensive!Jillybean 4/20/08 8:51 a.m.
           I'll say...stan 4/20/08 9:11 a.m.
     Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Louis Wu 4/20/08 9:38 a.m.
     Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).UrsusArctos 4/20/08 10:01 a.m.
     Well written but,Spec ops Grunt 4/20/08 12:37 p.m.
     Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).serpx 4/20/08 3:06 p.m.
     Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Vandle Valsher 4/20/08 3:16 p.m.
           Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Gravemind 4/23/08 4:14 a.m.
                 Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Vandle Valsher 4/23/08 4:56 a.m.
                 Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Louis Wu 4/23/08 8:07 a.m.
                       Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Gravemind 4/23/08 10:21 a.m.
                             Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Louis Wu 4/23/08 11:15 a.m.
                                   Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Cocopjojo 4/23/08 11:28 a.m.
                             Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).DiscipleN2k 4/23/08 11:13 p.m.
                                   Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Gravemind 4/25/08 1:21 a.m.
                                         Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).DiscipleN2k 4/25/08 1:14 p.m.
                                               Re: My Halo 3 review (finally).Ragashingo 4/25/08 2:15 p.m.
                 The Melee Isn't All That Different!Ragashingo 4/23/08 11:59 a.m.
     Points on your H3 review (long)Rockslider 4/20/08 8:46 p.m.
           Re: Points on your H3 review (long)scarab 4/21/08 7:42 a.m.
                 Re: Points on your H3 review (long)Rockslider 4/22/08 4:26 p.m.
                       Re: Points on your H3 review (long)scarab 4/23/08 7:52 a.m.
           Re: Points on your H3 review (long)Gravemind 4/23/08 12:10 a.m.
                 Re: Points on your H3 review (long)Captain Spark 4/23/08 8:50 a.m.
                 Re: Points on your H3 review (long)Rockslider 4/23/08 5:41 p.m.
                       Re: Points on your H3 review (long)Gravemind 4/25/08 2:58 a.m.
     Comment on the Covenant in H3reprobate 4/21/08 6:23 a.m.



contact us

The HBO Forum Archive is maintained with WebBBS 4.33.