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Halo: Reach Beta - The Spartans have stolen victory! What are they hiding?
FyreWulff
YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
The Halo: Reach beta begins on May 3, 2010 for the general public. You can guarantee access to the beta by purchasing a copy of Halo 3: ODST. It does not matter if the copy is bought new or used; the disc itself acts as the key. You will need to keep the disc to continue playing the beta after the first download, so no grabbing the beta and then trading in ODST.
The beta will be available in the Extras slot on the bottom of ODST's main menu.
Just like the Halo 3 Beta, Bungie will have a "Friends and Family" beta period (roughly a week before everyone else) where they send out codes for early access. Note that only Bungie can send out codes. Do not trust anyone selling one on eBay or that can "hook you up".
First things first: there is no dual wielding in Reach. As such, some dual-able weapons from Halo 2 and 3 have been cut for redundancies. The Spiker and SMG have gone to the great weapon loadout in the sky. The Battle Rifle has also been left on the cutting room floor.
Your trusty sidearm. Has a scope like Halo 1's pistol, but not overpowered and broken like Halo 1's pistol. Kills in 5 shots (4 to pop shields, 5th one to the head to finish off). Designed in this game to compliment AR spawns, it can reach out beyond AR range for kills. It can kill someone faster than the DMR within it's range.
The replacement for the Battle Rifle from Halo 2 and 3, the Designated Marksman Rifle is intended to be a long-range weapon but still not a "one size fits all" weapon like the H1 pistol and Halo 2/3 BR became. It fires single shots, 5 of which will get you a kill. If you want accuracy, you must pace your shots and watch the reticule bloom to keep your bullet groups on-target. Both the DMR and Magnum use the same ammo, although it hasn't been said if you can pick up ammo for a DMR from Magnums laying on the ground Perfect Dark style.
The trust AR from Halo 1 and 3 returns as the main starting weapon for Reach. More accurate than the Halo 1 and 2 versions, the AR has been visually overhauled and looks a little prototype-ish compared to the Halo 1 and 3 versions. It is a close to mid range weapon.
Meet the two races for Reach's multiplayer. Elites and Spartans.
Instead of giving the Elite the same hitboxes as Spartans (and therfore making them the exact same size), Bungie has embraced the size differences in Reach and made the races play a bit differently but still keeping them balanced in the end.
Due to these new differences, Elites and Spartans will not play against each other in the Arena.
Arena
The arena is Bungie's new take on ranked multiplayer. Trueskill in Reach is now going to be hidden (like it should be) so it can serve it's actual purpose of matching people of similiar skill. A new rating will now be shown in Reach that updates in real-time during a game. In the beta and during initial retail launch, Arena will be Slayer only.
As you play Arena, you'll earn your "daily rating". Earn enough daily ratings (in the beta, it will be about 3 games per day). At the end of a season, you will be placed into a league depending on your Rating - either Steel, Silver, Gold or Onyx - and that rating will go on the back of your 'baseball card', so to speak. Basically, there's no point to buying accounts anymore.
Bungie will be publically posting the Arena rating formula and will be asking people to try and break it.
Loadouts
Loadouts are new to Halo! They are NOT determined by you, but by the gametype. So you're not going to be making a DMR/Jetpack/3 Stickies loadout for use in every playlist. Each loadout gives you a weapon (plus secondary), an armor ability, and grenades. Want to be tactical? Choose the camo loadout with grenade launcher. Want to be a high flying marksman? Choose the Jetpack and Pistol loadout.
It's assumed that you will be able to set loadouts yourself for customs, so you can have crazy gametypes where you can choose between a Rocket Launcher/Sword loadout or a Laser/Needlerifle loadout, etc.
FyreWulff on
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Ahahaha I'm not not maintaining a gamertag list in a post for this. Just use this wikipedia page. Put your gamertag in, and your forum name in parenthesis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FyreWulff/PAReachBetaList
* Up to 4 player splitscreen in all game modes except Generator Defense.
* Up to 2 player splitscreen in Generator Defense.
* Xbox Live only. No local or system link.
* Both Elites and Spartans customizable.
* You being Elite or Spartan is determined by the gametype in the Beta. You are only an elite on offense in Generator Defense and Invasion for the beta.
More stuff to be added shortly
But I'm now at the critical junction of desicion: Do I go a Spartan or an Elite in mp? I've always gone down the Spartan route in Halo 3, but the new Elite's look awerosome!
No local multiplayer, Live only. Supports up to 4 player splitscreen for multiplayer, 2 player splitscreen for "Network Test 1/Generator Defense".
aww thats too bad I take my xbox to a group home on the weekend and they would love to play the beta (big Halo fans) oh well I guess they have to wait for the real thing.
But fear not, Bungie has developed new enemies to be super annoying.
Jackals apparently have a swarm behavior of some kind now, and there's still the drones to deal with. I'd rather deal with a room full of flood than a room full of drones.
Only way it can happen is if H:R goes beyond what happens to Reach and follows some events of H1 or if they pull a Halo Wars and halfway through the game we do a slipspace jump to a far off Forerunner planet.
Well, there was that dimensional portal thingamajig that Halsey takes herself and some Spartans through in one of the books. It's not completely impossible.
Here's hoping Bungie takes the high road and avoids that though. Fight needs to start on Reach, and end on Reach.
I want an Echo 419 cameo, though.
From what I've seen so far, this sounds like a good idea. It is called "Reach", after all.
Reach book spoilers
Watching the gameplay videos, Reach seems hella smooth. I know I'm going to spend ages agonising over loadouts, like CoD.
And I wouldn't have any problem believing that the Forerunners buried some Flood research labs on Reach, if it wasn't for the fact that the damn things probably would've gotten loose at some point.
A flood-less Halo would be nice. I think Bungie realizes this.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
new vid with commentary by Luke Smith
OHNOES HALOZ IS NUBY.
Noticed the plasma pistol draws power while holding a charge. Not that I expected otherwise, but I really liked earlier Halo games where I could run around glowing green.
Otherwise I expect it would be like 2 and 1 where charging does nothing.
(guessing no)
Steam Profile
Thank god. While it was fun making up names for places (like the Al Queda caves in Blood Gulch), actually having a universal word name for a location will be so much better teamwork-wise.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
How does this happen?
I have games from the PS1 in absolutely mint condition, and I've played them a lot.
I just don't get it how folks get their disks that dicked up or straight up broken. o_O
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Although the faulty LE box was the initial scratcher of my first copy.
Also, is it just me or does everyone look like they are sliding around on ice skates? Especially elites.
Hopefully it's just beta tomfoolery? I really can't imagine that Bungie would be so inattentive as to have ice skating in their game.
Also, seconding the no Flood thing. Every, and I mean every chapter I've hated throughout the series is a Flood level.
Said friend was a complete idiot, to say the least.
Steam Profile
Not happening.
Flood are great. Except in implementation. I loved the Flood in Halo 1 because they allowed for crazy 3-way and 4-way battles, and were at least somewhat fun to fight on their own. They sucked in Halo 2 because they weren't fun to fight, at all. They were the most fun in Halo 3, but Bungie doesn't seem to realize that Flood only work as a faction in a larger, multi-way battle. 3 Flood-only levels in Halo 3? What were they thinking?
Especially considering the way every single mention of Reach comes with the information that you need ODST to play the beta.
Which is precisely my point.
What they "could" do with flood is irrelevant considering what they have done with the flood.
When someone says "I hope they don't do x because of y" it's because of what has been done; not some mythical imagination of what could be good. There are a plethora of things that could be done better than they were; but when people think of the flood they thing of terrible terrible levels like Cortana and thus it is reasonable to not want flood in Reach.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Another thing of interest in that interview is the fact that there will be 1 way shield doors. The question was about vehicle depots on boneyard... but forging with 1 way shield doors will be cool.