[Archived] Halo Reach

[Harry Balls]

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated game of this generation and looking at the clips on bungie.net, it looks like it's not going to dissapoint!

So, is there anyone else pulling a sickie next Monday?

[M-K]

So, is there anyone else pulling a sickie next Monday?

It's a bank holiday, isn't it? The servers are going to be hammered...

[Harry Balls]

It's a bank holiday, isn't it? The servers are going to be hammered...

I forgot about that. I'm in Melbourne at the moment and we have no such luck. It will definitely have to be a sickie for me!

I really hope their servers can cope with the amount of traffic they're going to get.

The new weapons look awesome and the loadouts are going to add a completely new dimension to the game.

It will take some getting used too, but I can't wait.

[thebigguy]

If you had followed ign website you could off been on the beta since beginning off this week

Looks good and the extra mods are impressive to add a extra dimension to the game and extra variation to a already popular game series.

Oh and dont forget on monday blackburn rovers are at home for a 5pm kick off against arsenal. i am not pulling a sickie from that game

[Harry Balls]

So what do you think guys?

I'm unsure yet. I was a big fan of Halo 3 so was kind of hoping that they wouldn't fiddle with things too much, so I was a bit surprised to find all the changes they have incorporated into Reach.

The weapons definitely need a lot of work though, especially the DMR which has far too big a reticule bloom to make it useful. I'm not that big a fan of the armour abilities either. I find the only useful one to be run. Cloak just messes up the radar and hardly makes you less visible anyway, whereas all armour lock and jet-packs do is make you sitting ducks (or should that be flying ducks?). Part of the fun of Halo 3 was the race to grab the active camo or the overshield, so I hope they don't plan to get rid of these in place of the current loadouts.

I guess it's only the beta so there are likely to be tons of changes to the final release. But I really don't know what to think of it at the moment...

[M-K]

I played a ton of Halo 3 - over 1200 games - but since then I've been on Modern Warfare 2 and now Battlefield BC2, so this is taking a bit of getting used to.

I just can't get kills with any sort of regularity. The weapons feel really inaccurate for me, but everyone else wastes me in half a second. In Halo 3 I would unload the assault rifle into someone and smack them in the face for a guaranteed kill. In Reach it seems like it takes at least two strikes with the melee to finish someone, even if I've already shot them up a bit.

It's like everyone starts with an overshield, so there probably won't be a specific powerup for that in the finished game. Just tried the Team SWAT variant, where there are no shields and no radar - got two kills, about 16 deaths, then turned it off and played Battlefield instead.

I'm not that bad at these games - at least I thought I was okay until I played this and got completely owned every time.

[Harry Balls]

I just can't get kills with any sort of regularity. The weapons feel really inaccurate for me, but everyone else wastes me in half a second. In Halo 3 I would unload the assault rifle into someone and smack them in the face for a guaranteed kill. In Reach it seems like it takes at least two strikes with the melee to finish someone, even if I've already shot them up a bit.

I have exactly the same frustration with this beta. Especially with the medium/long range guns like the DMR. Sometimes I could swear I've unloaded a whole clip in their head but they're still not dead... I really hate the Covy Slayer game as well - it's just completely chaotic and looks like a cartoon!

I've only really played Halo 3 for the last couple of years, so if the final release of Reach is anything like the Beta then I can see myself seeking other alternatives. How do Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield BC2 compare to Halo 3?

[M-K]

I really didn't like the Halo 3 beta but loved the finished thing, so maybe it'll seem better by the time it's released and I've gone through the campaign mode to get the hang of the controls.

Have you not played MW2 / BC2 yet? Modern Warfare 2 is brilliant when things are going your way, but probably the most annoying game ever when it's going wrong. Absolutely chock full of cheaters, people just respawning next to their mates and killing each other to finish top of the leaderboard.

If you can kill 7 people in a row, which isn't hard, there are perks that basically annihilate everyone automatically and take you to a massive killstreak. You call in an aircraft and watch the ticker informing you you've killed somebody on the other side of the map. Each player can do at least two per life, depending on their loadout. Crap if you're on the receiving end, of course. I've got loads and loads of 20, 25, 30+ killstreaks through very little skill of my own.

That said, I played five and a half days before I got fed up of it, so it's not all bad.

BC2 is the business, though. Not many bad points about that, and unlike MW2 you can take it slow, play a bit more tactically, and not have to respawn every 10 seconds. Nobody can just peek out of a window and snipe all day long either, because you can bring the entire building down on top of them. It's my favourite game at the moment.

[Harry Balls]

Thanks for that M-K. I rarely get to play Xbox for a more that couple of hours a week so Halo 3 was usually enough of a fix for me.

In saying that, I did have a go on MW2 when it came out but found it really, really hard. What I loved about Halo was that it was really easy to pick up, even for a numpty like me. With MW2 it seemed like it would take me quite a lot of practice to get to a respectable level and it wouldn't be much fun being called names by a bunch of 10-year olds until I got there. I am tempted to give it a proper go though, especially now that I've seen the the new Halo game might be a let down.

BC2 looks awesome though. My brother is always raving about it, but he's quite a scatty dude so I never know if I can trust his judgment. I'll probably go and get a copy this weekend.

Thanks again mate!

[M-K]

Had a few more games on Halo Reach the other day, and I'm beginning to revise my opinion. There was one really good player on my team, so the other guys were always on the back foot, and I managed to get more kills in about 20 minutes than in all my previous games put together. When you get the hang of the new grenade launcher it's a one-hit kill. Sometimes one hit, two or three kills if the other team is tightly grouped.

I suppose it's like anything else - great when you're winning.

The Sword Base level is still a bit rubbish though.

[Harry Balls]

Had a few more games on Halo Reach the other day, and I'm beginning to revise my opinion. There was one really good player on my team, so the other guys were always on the back foot, and I managed to get more kills in about 20 minutes than in all my previous games put together. When you get the hang of the new grenade launcher it's a one-hit kill. Sometimes one hit, two or three kills if the other team is tightly grouped.

I suppose it's like anything else - great when you're winning.

The Sword Base level is still a bit rubbish though.

Just had a go on invasion. It's nowhere near as good as I hoped it would be, but it's not awful either. You can choose to spawn with the grenade launcher which is great fun!

I'm starting to warm to this as well. I still think there are loads of things that Bungie need to work on for the final release, but it could turn out OK.

By the way, I bought BC2 on the weekend. The maps are enormous and the destructible environments take some getting used too, but all-in-all I think it's a pretty good game so far.

[M-K]

I haven't touched Reach since my few good games last week, so I think I'll wait for the finished thing now.

On BC2, I find it easier to play conquest mode, so the maps aren't so huge. There's one level, I think it's called Arica Harbour, that's basically just a single street.