Duck and Cover

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:53 am**

Retlaw83 wrote:On the other hand, it proves you don't need an RPG to tell a coherent story with emotional resonance - if the writers for Bungie worked for Bethesda, we would have had a much better Fallout 3.

Dunno if anyone has every played early Bungie games like Myth: The Fallen Lords or Myth II, but they had pretty dark, fucked up stories. Halo was pretty good from a storytelling standpoint, and the 3rd act revel with the flood was amazing, even if Halo in general negatively effected gaming.

It kinda blows how bad Halo 2 was, I didn't even bother with 3 after that fiasco, or ODST for that matter, but the oppressively dark tone of Reach makes me want to pick it back up again. How much character customization do you actually get? I've heard it touted, but suspect it is all a bunch of shit.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:19 am**

Aonaran wrote: It kinda blows how bad Halo 2 was, I didn't even bother with 3 after that fiasco, or ODST for that matter, but the oppressively dark tone of Reach makes me want to pick it back up again.

ODST was crap, essentially an expansion pack they charged full price for. As an expansion pack, ODST would have been fine, but as it's own game it fails on nearly every front.

I think the reason they went so dark with Reach was two-fold; the fact everyone knows Reach falls from previous games (and their ad campaign), and the fact this is the last Bungie Halo title.

How much character customization do you actually get? I've heard it touted, but suspect it is all a bunch of shit.

If it was an RPG, your customization choices would be awful. But it's a first-person shooter, and I've never seen a first-person shooter let you customize your character to this extent. You can change your Spartan's primary and secondary color, knee pads, chest plate cover, each shoulder pad separately, and your helmet. Some helmets have additional add-ons.

Really the only thing that upset me about it was some of the armor unlocks via a service called Halo Waypoint, which tracks your stats across all the Xbox 360 Halo games. The problem with that is the armor unlocks when you meet prerequisites from Halo 3 and ODST.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:27 am**

Retlaw83 wrote: You can change your Spartan's primary and secondary color, knee pads, chest plate cover, each shoulder pad separately, and your helmet. Some helmets have additional add-ons.

Now that's what I call a fucking seller. *slaps money on table*

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:41 am**

Stalagmite wrote:
Retlaw83 wrote: You can change your Spartan's primary and secondary color, knee pads, chest plate cover, each shoulder pad separately, and your helmet. Some helmets have additional add-ons.
Now that's what I call a fucking seller. *slaps money on table*

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:55 am**

Stalagmite wrote:Now that's what I call a fucking seller. *slaps money on table*

It's a nice feature, not one of the main selling points. It's nice in multiplayer, because there's enough variation that it's unlikely you'll see something identical to your dude.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:17 am**

Worth picking up for the single player campaign alone or should I wait a couple years til they finally knock the price down? Cause honestly all I care about is the story, I haven't given a damn about multi-player in years.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:26 am**

I enjoyed the campaign story, and the content of the missions throws you for loops sometimes - there's a dogfighting sequence and some stuff involving helicopter assaults. While it only clocks in at about 10 hours on normal difficulty, the missions have a lot of replayability because the AI never reacts the same way twice, and the cutscenes have decent acting and amazing visuals I don't get bored of.

I've only played a couple multiplayer matches because it gives you a month of live for free for making a new gamer profile, so that isn't a selling point for me.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:32 am**

Retlaw83 has purchased the game.

I haven't purchased a game since Red Dead Redemption.

I was still pretty Red Dead pissed. :smoking guns:

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:03 am**

My friend gave me an Xbox with a bunch of games I already had on the computer. Traded those in, got Reach practically for free, and now I'm going to take the $20 pre-order bonus gift card and put it towards the New Vegas collector's edition for PC.

Last game I bought before that was Alpha Protocol, but I pirated that first to see how it was.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:41 am**

You have a steam id, ret?

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:43 am**

Nope. Apparently retlaw83 is absurdly common as a nickname on the internet and it was already taken, and I'd just forget what my account was called if I named it something else.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:46 am**

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:52 am**

Retlaw83 wrote:I pirated that first to see how it was.

This is typically how I roll. I'll pirate here and there, but if I respect the work (music, game, movie) I'll buy it up to support the artist. Makes sense in the long run. I might have to pick up Reach if I get a sudden influx of cash, thanks for the info.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:57 am**

I have a hard time pirating stuff anyway, but being on a college campus makes me paranoid as hell about it. Case in point, I was updating Company of Heroes and got a warning since it uses a built it bittorrent program to update.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:23 am**

Aonaran wrote:Worth picking up for the single player campaign alone or should I wait a couple years til they finally knock the price down? Cause honestly all I care about is the story, I haven't given a damn about multi-player in years.

Buy it used, saved ten bucks. Obviously the END is already known, but the story is quite spectacular, easily the best since Halo: Combat Evolved, and you don't want to hear bits and pieces and pick the whole thing out over the next few years. Worst case borrow it from a friend or go 50/50with someone.

It's kind of tragic that Bungie is moving on just because when they do it right they really do it right, but I'd feel the same way working on the same thing for ten years because your new MICROSOFT OVERLORDS COMMAND IT. As already stated in the thread, the gameplay is pretty much meh, but they do some great storytelling. I forgive them for Halo2 just because to my understanding it was a cliffhanger forced onto them, not one that they wanted to do of their own accord. Halo3 was pretty good, ODST was a good story with the huge flaw of, as stated, an expansion at full price.

Long story short, I want to know what their next game will be over at Bungie. And how bad the next non-Bungie Halo will be

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:25 am**

Aonaran wrote:Worth picking up for the single player campaign alone or should I wait a couple years til they finally knock the price down? Cause honestly all I care about is the story, I haven't given a damn about multi-player in years.

Buy it used, saved ten bucks. Obviously the END is already known, but the story is quite spectacular, easily the best since Halo: Combat Evolved, and you don't want to hear bits and pieces and pick the whole thing out over the next few years. Worst case borrow it from a friend or go 50/50with someone. The story is great stuff, proof that all shooters aren't just generally flawed from the getgo, that they are capable of combining good storywriting with mediocre-by-design gameplay to make an altogether worthwhile game. Campaign isn't that long, but, as stated, worth it if you've enjoyed the Halo story at all.

It's kind of tragic that Bungie is moving on just because when they do it right they really do it right, but I'd feel the same way working on the same thing for ten years because your new MICROSOFT OVERLORDS COMMAND IT. As already stated in the thread, the gameplay is pretty much meh, but they do some great storytelling. I forgive them for Halo2 just because to my understanding it was a cliffhanger forced onto them, not one that they wanted to do of their own accord. Halo3 was pretty good, ODST was a good story with the huge flaw of, as stated, an expansion at full price.

Long story short, I want to know what their next game will be over at Bungie. And how bad the next non-Bungie Halo will be

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:57 am**

jetbaby wrote:Long story short, I want to know what their next game will be over at Bungie. And how bad the next non-Bungie Halo will be

Apparently Bungie has signed some sort of deal with Activision, and hinted at the fact they don't want to just do FPS games for the new franchise.

I'm guessing the non-Bungies are going to be pretty terrible, considering Microsoft started a brand new division, 343 Industries (as in 343 Guilty Spark), to do nothing but crank out Halo.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:28 pm**

SenisterDenister wrote:I have a hard time pirating stuff anyway, but being on a college campus makes me paranoid as hell about it. Case in point, I was updating Company of Heroes and got a warning since it uses a built it bittorrent program to update.

I never quite got how Colleges Campuses in the US and to a degree in Britain are like ultra light prisons.

I mean you're a bunch of smart dudes, adults, studying to do something greater. Yet you're treated like a bunch of babies.

Aren't there guards and stuff on campus to? Do you have a "now its sleep" time to? ...No I'm not teasing I'm curious.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:20 pm**

Username wrote:Aren't there guards and stuff on campus to? Do you have a "now its sleep" time to? ...No I'm not teasing I'm curious.

Wow, you're retarded.

College campus networks try to limit torrents and things so some idiot company doesn't hold them liable and they get bad press. I went to college before the trend was to limit peer-to-peer networking, but the school I went to blocked access to a lot of ports used for online gaming. That wasn't a big deal, though; you just pirated copies of whatever you wanted to play, distributed it around the dorm, and did LAN games.

As for guards, most colleges have an on-campus police force like a town would. People who go to college are adults, and when they eat and sleep is their choice.

It shocks me that Europeans tend to think of themselves as worldly and above Americans, when some think shit like what you're spouting is true. Every country has it's far share of stupidity and stupid policies, and a lot of things that look ridiculous and are denigrated by outsiders aren't a big deal in reality.

Posted: **Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:37 pm**

Yeah there's no coddling in college. If you're not ready for it when you get there tough titties, you'll flunk out and you'll get no refund and they'll just laugh at you when you get mad. Happened to my friend's room mate last year, the guy was getting wasted every night and forgot to study anything. The only thing colleges really do to keep you on the right path is having an academic adviser assigned to you to make sure you take the right classes for your major, besides that you're on your own.

Teachers may or may not be helpful outside of the classroom but that's more of a person-to-person thing.

Duck and Cover

Game you're playing. How far you are.