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Halo: Reach: The Thread! Grifball went live
FyreWulff
YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
The Halo: Reach Thread
And Also Other Previous Halo Titles Discussion
Add these metatags on Xbox Live:
"A PA Reach Multi" , "APAReachMulti2", "A PA Reach CoOp"
And Also Other Previous Halo Titles Discussion
Add these metatags on Xbox Live:
"A PA Reach Multi" , "APAReachMulti2", "A PA Reach CoOp"
Halo: Reach is the fourth and final Halo title to be developed by Bungie Studios and the fifth overall game to be released by Microsoft Game Studios. A prequel to the Halo trilogy, the game takes place on the planet Reach, a major planet of the Halo canon and home to many ONI secrets. The story follows Noble Six, a new replacement for the Spartan III-filled Noble Team. Six's gender and appearance are completely determined by the player; the gender and customizations are recognized across the board in both Campaign and Multiplayer, with properly matching voice acting in cutscenes to boot.
Elites can be given different suits of armor, but they are male only.
Reach still retains all the features of previous Halo titles. Campaign is present along with support for up to 4 players across Xbox LIVE and system link, with the new ability to be able to drop out of a game without ending the run for all the other players. Firefight returns from Halo 3: ODST with a deep set of customization options and game limits. In addition to that, players can take control of Elite warriors and play against human Spartans in Firefight Versus which is a simple team change away in the lobby. Forge makes a glorious return from Halo 3 and is a whole lot more useful this time around, with built in object merging, coordinate editing, and more gadgets and toys at your disposal. While it is not a full on geometry editor like Far Cry, it gets the job done. Competitive Multiplayer is of course present with all new game options and returning old ones such as 4 Team Flag and Bomb. Theater Mode is back and now supports making film clips in Firefight and Campaign modes. When you take screenshots in this mode, Bungie.net will even identify you in a screenshot with a quick mouseover, Facebook style.
As Bungie moves on to new pastures with a new IP set to be revealed sometime over the next year, 343 Studios (an internal Microsoft team) will take over the Halo series. There is no ETA or idea on what their first Halo project will be. Bungie is planning to support Reach for the time being with DLC and matchmaking updates for the time being, with those updates more than likely being assumed by 343 in the distant future.
Welcome to the Halo thread, dear reader. We've been here since the release of Halo 2 a scant six or so years ago. All we care about in this community is having fun playing the game. You do not need to be a FPS god or know all the maps to play with us. Feel free to jump in and enjoy what the game throws at you. You'll be accepted and loved as long as you're not an asshole like Evil Badman.
Just like Halo 2 and 3 before it, Halo: Reach eschews the old clumsy server list model for the Matchmaking experience. Instead of manually trawling through a gigantic server list, Bungie attempts to lay out a suitable cross section of gametypes and maps that the community will enjoy. You can't be kicked out of a game for playing too well, nor do you have to put up with 5 hour games of CTF set to 50 points to win (those are available as part of Custom Games). New to Reach is matchmaking support for both Campaign and Firefight. Below is an overview of the Reach playlists as best as the OP can keep up with them, gleaned from the Bungie.net Playlists Page.
Competitive Playlists
These playlists are the tried and true versus multiplayer you've been playing for many years. Teams and groups of Free For All players try their best to out-gun, out-flag, out-bomb and out-play their opponents. There is no more distinction between Social and Ranked like Halo 3 anymore; every Competitive playlist supports parties up to the maximum player count, and the Trueskill rank system is now hidden from view.
Rumble Pit
8 players. Free For All only, featuring Slayer, Elite Slayer, and a smattering of objective games.
Living Dead
8 players. All Infection, all the time. Features both the Living Dead and new Safe Havens gametype.
Team Slayer
8 players, up to two teams of 4. 24/7 deathmatch funtimes. The bread and butter of Halo online.
Team SWAT
8 players, up to two teams of 4. One shot, one kill. Currently Slayer only. One of the more popular destinations next to Team Slayer.
Team Snipers
8 players, up to two teams of 4. Load out with your long rifle and begin engaging people at long distances.
Team Objective
8 players, up to two teams of 4. No Slayer to be found here, just flags and bombs and lots and lots of balls.
Multi Team
12 players, up to six teams of 2. Both Slayer and Objective gametypes can be found in here. It's crazy!
Big Team Battle
16 players, up to two teams of 8. Duke it out big style in Slayer and Objective with high player counts and high players. Curiously, BTB is the only Competitive playlist that is limited to 2 players per box (all others support 4 players on one box).
Invasion
12 players, up to two teams of 6. The new gametype for Reach, Invasion has two maps that were explicity designed for it and has one more coming in the next DLC. Featuring a different spawn system than the other playlists and multiple phases per round, it is an interesting new take on Objective gametypes. Try it at least once!
Cooperative Playlists
Don't feel like shooting other humans in the face? How about some Covie AI? They can't play loud music over voice chat and can't send you racist text messages. Sounds good to me. This is where you will find the matchmaking for both Campaign and Firefight. Both of these modes use a different networking model than Competitive multiplayer which relies on everyone having low latency internet connections, so if you are lagging in this category but not Team Slayer... there you go.
Campaign Co-Op
4 players, up to 2 per box. The game offers you a map; you vote for the difficulty, or None of the Above to get another map. No skulls are on. Just get to the end alive.
Firefight
4 players, up to 2 per box. The game offers youa map; you vote for the gametype. Currently Heroic 24/7. Runs for One Set. Options include vanilla Firefight, Rocketfight, and Sniper Attack (featuring a Hunter-only bonus round).
Score Attack
1 player, 1 per box. Have a bad internet connection? Don't feel like playing with other people? Score Attack is your destination. Play in this playlist to post leaderboard high scores on each gametype and map; friend high scores will be displayed in the upper left hand corner as you play. Running for One Round, options include Gruntpocalypse and Mythic Score Attack. This playlist also counts towards any daily or weekly challenges that require "Firefight Matchmaking".
Community Playlists
This will be the home of gametypes and setups that are not Bungie created, and can't truly fit into either the "Competitive" category or the "Arena" category. Go here for stuff outside the norm. Or stuff way outside the norm.
MLG (Coming December 2010)
8 players, two teams of 4. Load out with an extremely reduced weapon set and map layout. You think you are hardcore? Well, don't talk about MLG in this thread, go to the MLG Forums for MLG discussion, as this is not a community that is into MLG. But if you think you have the patience and at least four Xs in your gamertag, queue up in this playlist. Contains both Slayer and Objective gametypes.
Grifball (TBA)
8 players, two teams of 4. Hammers, swords, and the new addition of Armor Abilities should provide a refreshed look at this gametype born out of the Red vs Blue community. Arm the neutral bomb by launching the bomb carrier or slipping through the defense and explode in spectacular fashion. Will apparently have Classic (no AAs), a version with Evade, and a version with Sprint. Unknown when this will be available.
The Arena
Are you a serious business player? Want something a little less social and a little more cut throat? Arena is your new destination. Essentially replaces the Ranked playlists from Halo 2 and 3. No more grinding out or boosting to a 50 or a General rank to be displayed in a lobby, Arena is a seasonal affair with division placements. Boosters and hardcore players can no longer earn max rank in a playlist and "park" there for the next 3 years; you must play each season to earn a Division and rating again and again.
When each new season starts, the game will tell you how many games you need a day for a rating, and how many daily ratings you will need to get a Division. The possible Divisions that you can be slotted into are Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Onyx and are all determined by the percentage of players with your daily rating. For example, Onyx is reserved for the top 5% of all Arena players in Reach. Not only that, but just because you have earned a division does not mean you keep it! If more players qualify for your division, you could be pushed down to a lower one. If you want the top tiers, you're gonna have to play more than just the minimum required games.
The Daily Rating is determined by your Rating from all of your qualifying games. Based off a public formula, the Rating replaces the visible 1-50 Trueskill rank from Halo 3, and can fall anywhere from 0 to 2000. Bungie has the ability to change this formula post-ship. Due to the nature of having a public formula and the complexities of balancing scoring for kills in a non-kills oriented gametype, Objective gametypes are not planned for Arena at this time and may never show up inside this category. It is purely a Slayer (and Spartan only) experience.'
At the end of each season, your stats and division placement will go on the back of your "baseball card" for permanent viewing by yourself and other players, and everything begins anew.
Team Arena (Season 3, Nov 1 - 30th)
8 players. Two 4 man teams, up to 2 per box. Roll out with your team and take the win and your ratings back home. Features a reduced loadout and weapon set as compared to normal matchmaking. All DMR starts, all the time.
Team Doubles (Season 3, Nov 1 - 30th)
4 players. Two 2 man teams, up to 2 per box. A more intimate and trusting experience. You mess up? The effects will be felt more harshly. Features maps and gametypes tuned to the smaller amount of players and is not a carbon copy of Team Arena settings.
Halo: Reach obviously supports downloadable content. It is unknown at this time if Reach supports new Firefight maps; so far all the announced DLC is multiplayer only.
Reach also has much better support for split userbases than 2 or 3 did. 2 required everyone to download the maps to play the game; 3 made it optional, but due to player complaints of DLC not being common enough, Bungie eventually required DLC for most of matchmaking. Not for Reach. While there will be a DLC-only playlist for purchasers at release, DLC will remain OPTIONAL for the rest of matchmaking. The game now considers DLC ownership when searching for games while matchmaking, so you should have DLC as an option fairly frequently - the system will attempt to match you with other DLC owners first.
The Noble Map Pack
Available for 800MSP (10$ US) on November 30th. Also available as a code card from Gamestop. Preordering the code card from Gamestop will also get you a flaming Mark V helmet for your Live Avatar (no picture available). If you sign up for their PowerUp Rewards program, you do not have to go back to the store to get your code.
The Noble Map pack contains 3 new multiplayer maps. Not much information is known at this time except some overhead shots and weapon layouts. More to come.
Tempest is a fairly large map, compatible with up to 16 players. Features the Forge palette of Forge World, including all the Structure pieces from that map for you to build crazy maps with. Looks to play similiar to Valhalla and/or Containment.
Breakpoint is a massive underground map designed for the Invasion gametype. Time to blow up some buildings soldiers; this appears to be the first Invasion map designed around an Assault based final phase.
Anchor 9 takes it's visual appearance from the Sabre section of campaign, but everything else is new. Designed for 4 v 4 encounters, this symmetrical map is sure to be fast and deadly.
The Noble Map Pack also comes with 250 extra gamescore for you achievement whores out there.
Halo: Combat Evolved
Buy for: Xbox, 360 GoD, PC
The original Halo that started it all. Pretty much everyone knows everything about this game by now. Was made in approximately 5 months. If you have a LEGITIMATE CD keycode from a Mac or PC copy you can plug it into Bungie.net and unlock a special ingame Reach lobby badge for linking your gamertag to Bungie.net. This offer is not available forever, so if you want it you should buy it and redeem it now. Don't even try to keygen it as they're using the database of all known printed serials. The game is also available for the Mac. The Mac publisher's rights have lasped however, so no more new copies are available at this time.
Halo 2
Buy for: Xbox, PC (Vista and higher required)
The Halo that started the PA Forum Halo community and the TBK clan. Introduced matchmaking to the world. Had awesome clanlists. Was later ported to the PC with 1000 points of achievements to get.
The Xbox version's online was taken offline on April 15th, 2009 as part of a complete ending of support for the original Xbox. If you were lucky enough to have ever played Halo 2 on Xbox Live, you have the option to wear a Halo 2 badge in the Reach lobby if you link your gamertag to Bungie.net. If you didn't.. there is no other way to get it. Bungie is apparently choosing to ignore Halo 2 Vista owners.
Halo 3
Buy for: Xbox 360, 360 GoD
The end of the Halo trilogy and the Human/Covenant war. Go on a trip across the galaxy to blow stuff up. And then blow stuff up again. You may be familiar with this game as the most recent main game of this thread before Reach came along. Introduced user-friendly film saving/editing/upload, in-game screenshot tools, Forge map variants, and uploadable and downloadable user created gametypes.
It was also the first game to recieve a bump up to 1750 gamescore via DLC. 4 of those achievements called "Vidmasters" will set you on the road to unlocking the coveted Recon armor within Halo 3 - you'll also need 3 achievements from ODST to get it. Note that ALL of these maps come for free with the purchase of a brand new copy of Halo 3: ODST, and allows you to play all of Halo 3 matchmaking without a hard drive.
Halo 3: ODST
Buy for: Xbox 360
A game with a somewhat interesting history. It was originally supposed to be a DLC expansion to Halo 3. Then it was delayed by Don Mattrick and turned into a disc title scheduled to release in Winter of 2008, and the maps included would be released as massive "Mythic Collection". Then Don Mattrick delayed it again into late 2009, and the maps from it were split out. And the game was made a full retail release. It was also your golden ticket into the Halo: Reach Public Multiplayer beta.
Drop down into the streets of New Mombasa in a storyline that takes place during the middle of Halo 2. The Chief has just followed a carrier's slipspace jump; where did he go? Brute squads are patrolling the night streets, your squad is seperated and there's an annoyingly positive AI trying to help you out. Introduces the Firefight game mode to the Halo featureset, and was the first game post Halo 3 to ditch dual wielding. Is probably the only Halo LIVE compatible game that will never have a patch or DLC.
Supports up to 4 players for Live Co-Op, Firefight, and Theater film watching. Supports films and screenshots, but not clips. Shares the same file share with Halo 3, so you can snap screenshots in ODST and view them from inside Halo 3, or vice versa. ODST is smart enough to ignore Halo 3 only files such as map variants and gametypes and films from Halo 3 campaign and multiplayer.
Halo Wars
Buy for: Xbox 360, 360 GoD
Halo Wars is an RTS that was developed from the ground up for the Xbox 360. It was also the swan song of Ensemble Studios, the creators of the Age of Empire series. It's a pretty solid game, and sold over a million in it's first month on market, impressive for the RTS genre on a console - a genre that is usually not too popular. It features a lengthy campaign (that you can play co-op over Live), pretty hardcore (but not cheating!) AI, and versus competitive matchmaking for up to 3 man groups.
Post release, the game was supported by Robot Entertainment, one of the many studios made from former Ensemble employees. They went on to issue 4 title updates for the game in an aggressive support of rebalancing and bug fixes. In mid-2010, Halo Wars was handed over to 343 Studios, who have announced that as of December 15th the online stats website will be taken down and disabled. The game itself will continue to function as normal.
It has one map pack available for release, which you can download below:
Many of us have bought these maps, so you won't be hurting for people to play them with. There's also an overpriced gametype pack, but don't buy that unless you really want the Waypoint gamescore from it.
FyreWulff on
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Posts
Reach's mapmaking utility is awesome. How awesome? In Halo 3 we had around 2 or 3 people that actually bothered to forge maps to completion. In Reach, we have over 20 "serioustime" forgers and even more than have been making maps. It's that easy to do!
Below is a list of mostly stable Penny Arcade creations. If you want to take your map to the clinic and get some serious help, you can post your map at our Map Library, which is an offsite forum where you put it up, get critiques, and get it running like a well oiled machine for inclusion in this post. In the distant future, this will become an even easier to use 'app', but for now this will do. Also, apparently at some point I will be responsible for pushing maps towards Bungie for inclusion in matchmaking, so it'd be a good idea to get used to forging like your map could be played by millions of assholes.
Remakes
Maps that are reconstructions of scenarios from previous Halo titles or other videogames.
R.A.T. Race
Author: FyreWulff Description: A remake of Rat Race from Halo 1. Supports almost all game modes.
Infection Maps
Maps designed around the Infection gametype. Usually these maps will not play well on any other gametype.
Invasion Maps
Maps for going at it big style with 6v6 teams. May also support objectives and slayer, but the Invasion gametype is why they were made.
Objective Maps
Maps for playing 1 sided or 2 sided bomb, flag, stockpile, oddball, etc. These maps tend to be symmetrical and focused on many paths and bases.
Slayer Maps
Maps for duking it out in a bloody deathmatch to the end. Killing is the primary focus of these maps.
so close
to my Lt. Colonel
I can taste it
e: ps Fyre the BBcode at the to of the OP is broken
it works in ScoreAttack? Sweet, no problem then.
also, if your gonna start a new thread, maybe update the OP, with the new playlists and everything, rather than a quick copy and paste, sorry to be that asshole.
Xbox | x Dredgen Yor x |
don't worry about it
Also anyone up for a quick Halo 2 Vista get-together and/or achievement whoring tommorow?
or friend request me (BritishDavid), I game most nights and like to get a big old PA game together, cya tonight?
I like Corvette, go out the door and just camp right, not right the top of the ramp, but about half way, you can pick off every grunt on the map from here,
other option is Holdout, back of the map, top of two staircases, overlooking the whole map, with the spawn/ammo room directly below you, DMR the grunts as they come up the stairs to you, only spot with one entrance pretty much.
Xbox | x Dredgen Yor x |
THE PAST
also who the hell is BritishDavid have i played with him before
Also I should try to get the Halo 2 Legend achievement tommorow. Fuuuuuuuuu
WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?
Anyway, I'm good people. Cya around.
Xbox | x Dredgen Yor x |
Pope of Armour lock.
I don't see why that is neat but using Armor Lock is annoying. I see Evade as annoying as hell a lot of times because, generally, people use it to get away rather than to actually fight. And when they're using it to fight, it's because they've got a one-hit kill weapon like a sword, shotgun, or hammer and are using the evade as an ultra-long dash attack.
Don't get me wrong, I like Evade as it is. If people are using it in a smart way, great; they aren't obligated to stand still while I kill them. But I simply do not get the gripes about Armor Lock as overpowered or somehow ruining the game. It becomes increasingly less useful with fewer and fewer teammates around and is generally very easy to counter by simply leaving or waiting out the target. Waiting 5-10 seconds to kill a guy is perfectly reasonable considering it'll take you just as long to go find someone else to kill. As far as losing a kill in Rumble Pit/Multiteam because someone Armor Locks, well, that's pretty much entirely how those playlists work. If losing kills to other people in those lists bothered me, I wouldn't be able to play their at all because it's the winning strategy and it would drive me mad.
EDIT: And shedding plasma grenades with Armor Lock is still the Second-Best Thing Ever. Best Thing Ever is flinging off a stick and tagging the perpetrator with it. So rare, but so good.
Anyway, I'm staying with Halo Reach.
Xbox | x Dredgen Yor x |
cheyahhh
I'm also keen to see what Fyrewulff has in mind for the TBK anniversary tomorrow. It's hard to believe that I first played Halo 2 with PA people 6 years ago. I kinda wish I hadn't missed the whole Halo 3/ODST scene.
Also, I won't be getting BLOPS, because I am too slow and busted to compete with twitchy teenage cyborgs in a headshot competition.
God, I'm getting so old.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Steam
XBOX
It's a CTF map, by the way.
Also, I'm going to play a lot more Halo days to come. I have a new love for Firefight. To bad there's no zombie Flood Mode.
what you're saying isn't a thing right
that's not an actual opinion
can't be
Blops is also tomorow. People were debating Reach vs. Blops.
Also, I think you meant "there's"
8-)
Seriously though, I was talking more about the birthday thing too.
Not as cool as Halo but still cool.
Fucking stop it, dude. Also quit your bitching.
sometimes i just take off my headset entirely
Wait, what? Thats a killer deal.
It was in the game area, which I thought was pretty smart. And it was marked down from $10 to $5. Still cheap to begin with.
It's pretty much this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/gaming/e58e/
I am an asshole, I do yell occasionally, and i do love to bitch, could well be me, truth is, it gets real lonely in my head without the voices constantly speaking.
Also, im logging on now, see you crazy cats there.
Xbox | x Dredgen Yor x |