Halo 5: Guardians Discussion

[EagleBurn]

So usually when I come on here I bash people for being negative and hating on Halo. I am usually extremely optimistic about 343 and Halo in general. But...

...It's so backwards.

...They basically throw you up against a wall.

...My rant is done but I have never had less fun playing Halo than I did last night.

 

You are now awake. Welcome.

 

[Lickmyb4c0n]

LOL, he means the community update.

Oh geez... it's been a rough week at work. My bad.

[TBisEATIN]

 

Can a mod delete this? Meant to quote the guy above me.

[TBisEATIN]

You are now awake. Welcome.

 

I was on the stop hating on 343 train until I made the mistake of thinking I would have fun playing FFA.

[Goat]

My Gamertag was GoatDownOnHer once. 

 

It didn't last very long. 

[ThievinStealbrg]

Beat the CE campaign again while listening to Karl Pilkington talk a bunch of bullshit on the Ricky Gervais Show. Game was on mute, still fucking brilliant. On to H2 now.

[ThievinStealbrg]

Running along exploring the frigate parked on Cairo Station. Gonna try to see if the battle where you're outside next to the MAC will load if I skip the indoor fights to it. If it were made by 343 the outdoor sequences of the level would be entirely scripted or just a cinematic, they'd not want you to do any exploring whatsoever, just run along the straight line they call a level.

 

Conclusion: Halo 2 > Halo 5

[LeandroTrooper]

There's a FREE 2v2 Tournament in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in a Microsoft Store, who wants to team? Anyone from Canada?

[Infinity]

Random thoughts on what should change in matchmaking:

 

Universal

• Pegasus and Orion are catastrophes in terms of design and frame rate, remove them. Don't think twice.
• Far too many ranked playlists (making a new thread about the ranking system soon)
• Duplicate and redundant playlists should be removed
• Content Browser and Action Sack/Mini Game playlists should be re-evaluated

 

Ranked

• Team Arena (4v4)
• Doubles (2v2)
• Free-For-All

 

Social

• Social Arena (Team Skirmish)
• Slayer
• BTB
• SWAT
• Snipers (Shotty Snipers weighted lightly)
• Breakout (Reverted to Vanilla Breakout)
• Infection & Grifball if necessary

 

 

Rotational

• Triple Team
• Super Fiesta
• Weekly Infection/Mini Games (One week, Duck Hunt, next week, Ground Pound Arena, etc.)
• Seasonal Events (Snow Fight)
• Race
• Community Lists

[Vetoed]

Random thoughts on what should change in matchmaking:

I agree with about all of this. HOWEVER, I do think Slayer should become 5v5 if made social, and Skirmish become 100% objective (put some One Flag, One Bomb and KOTH) and lose all the Arena game modes.

 

Also, I think it would make sense to have Snipers ranked but I don't think it matters much regardless. Def merge the two variants though.

[Kell Of Scots]

I agree with about all of this. HOWEVER, I do think Slayer should become 5v5 if made social, and Skirmish become 100% objective (put some One Flag, One Bomb and KOTH) and lose all the Arena game modes.

 

Also, I think it would make sense to have Snipers ranked but I don't think it matters much regardless. Def merge the two variants though.

I would agree with 5v5 thing if we had more than just generic, boring and honestly bad 4v4 Arena maps

[My Namez BEAST]

I would agree with 5v5 thing if we had more than just generic, boring and honestly bad 4v4 Arena maps

Yea spawns are already pretty broken with 4 people on the map. With 5 you're gonna get some crazy bad spawns. No bueno.

[Mhunterjr]

I don't understand the appeal of 5v5 at all. Always Pissed me off, even in social.

[Basu]

I don't understand the appeal of 5v5 at all. Always Pissed me off, even in social.

 

It worked in H3 because of maps like Standoff and Valhalla being in Social Slayer. Ever since Reach it's flat out terrible though.

[My Namez BEAST]

Brute plasma rifle might be worse than the storm rifle. God the covenant weapons in this game are all BS.

[automatousbeing]

 On top of that the servers were absurdely bad all night, another thing I have been really positive about. 

 

This is what kills me.  Tried playing with my normal 4 squad last night, having the same issues, while we're playing against people that don't seem to have these problems at all.

 

I don't consider myself a 343 apologist by any means, and I've been pretty vocal about issues, but after the night I had last night, and then seeing the community update today, I'm so close to done.  I don't give a shit about Warzone, I don't give a shit about Halo Wars, and for god sakes, did anyone watch the community update play of the week?

 

http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/Streaks/video/25286212

 

It's a 3rd person theater view of a guy walking (not juggling, jumping, thrusting; just walking) a flag across a big team map.

 

There is so much god damn effort put into this game from the production and development side, hundreds of people, hundreds of millions of dollars, so so so much done to try and attract the casual crowd, and when it comes down to it, all anyone who wants to play an online FPS wants is solid aim feel and good servers, and for all that time, and money, and effort H5 doesn't have it.  I'm still not convinced that the modern world wouldn't welcome a more vanilla, old-school Arena style movement shooter if it was polished and presented for today's crowd.

 

I don't like the concept behind Overwatch, having to learn all the heroes, the maps are pretty boring, it often feels slow, but I genuinely enjoy playing shooters on the console after these last 15 years, and I've been enjoying Overwatch because it is such a freaking solid product.  I haven't noticed an ounce of lag, and while the aiming is definitely unique and un-Halo when compared to the original trilogy, it's still confidence inspiring which is what really matters.  

 

For those who haven't played Overwatch, you know what it does when it's taking too long to find a match?  Throws you into a skirmish until it finds enough players. You can practice with the heroes, learn the map, and it seamlessly handles transitioning into an actual game when the time comes.  Also, I know everyone has seen the Gears update about handling disconnects.

 

Halo 2 built the concept of online console FPS play with its party and matchmaking system, and since then the series has slowly allowed every other console shooter to do all the things it had the potential to be first on.  It blew my mind last night when I was playing and shit like this was happening:

 

https://streamable.com/vrkju

 

And I realized that things often times feel more like a beta in H5, then they did in the actual beta.  We lost split screen, anything further out than 50m runs at 30FPS, anything Forge in Arena seems to run like shit now, we finally have dedicated servers but the game feels worse than ever, and for what?  I'll admit, I've embraced the Spartan Abilities, because they're there and can be fun to use, but aside from that, there's nothing that H5 has improved upon in the series, and more so than any other release (yes, including H4, which for the most part was always crispy as hell), it has moved backwards in all the respects that actually matter.

 

This turned into far more of a rant than I wanted, and a lot of it is just a rewording of what everyone else has been saying for over a year now, but I really feel like Microsoft and 343 are trying to shake off our side of the Halo community.  Sure, we have HCS, and they hired a pro team and we all got excited about it, but if they really cared so much why is it that H5 is consistently denounced as being one of the worst all around competitive entries in the series?  Are they trying too hard?  Too many cooks in the kitchen?  Or, could it be that having 17 versions of the AR tied to REQ packs that they make real money off of by 12 year olds who don't know any better means far more than a bunch of cynical has-beens pining for the yesteryears of balanced, brutal, methodical competitive Halo play?

[Vetoed]

I don't understand the appeal of 5v5 at all. Always Pissed me off, even in social.

More people, more action, more frequent and bigger multikills. I don't think it's supposed to feel organized or thoughtful, just dumb action where even noobs are bound to get a few occasional multis.

 

It's one of the reasons BTB is popular. It makes it more rewarding for lesser skilled people without having to the dumb down the actual game's mechanics... although in H5's case it's a little late for that. It also has the benefit of being a different format from the ranked experience, which motivates people to check out both, creating healthier populations and longer engagement to the game.

 

For instance, I can tell you that I have no interest in Skirmish because a lot of its game modes are the same as Arena, I match teams that try as hard as if it was Arena, but when I win, I don't get rewarded like in Arena. I don't have a reason to bother with it.

[Mhunterjr]

More people, more action, more frequent and bigger multikills. I don't think it's supposed to feel organized or thoughtful, just dumb action where even noobs are bound to get a few occasional multis.

 

It's one of the reasons BTB is popular. It makes it more rewarding for lesser skilled people without having to the dumb down the actual game's mechanics... although in H5's case it's a little late for that. It also has the benefit of being a different format from the ranked experience, which motivates people to check out both, creating healthier populations and longer engagement to the game.

 

For instance, I can tell you that I have no interest in Skirmish because a lot of its game modes are the same as Arena, I match teams that try as hard as if it was Arena, but when I win, I don't get rewarded like in Arena. I don't have a reason to bother with it.

Yeah, but the difference is BTB has maps designed to support more players. I think the additional chaos is fun, but when you're tripping over your own teammates, it's just annoying on these tiny arena maps.

 

I would like it if Skirmish would deviate more from the Team Arena playlists. It's an opportunity to get funky with the weapons and powerups on map. and they should add some Forge mini games like King and Extermination, IMO.

[Killmachine]

I hope Halo succeeds enough so @@automatousbeing and @@Hard Way will have the motivation to stick around and keep writing these excellent forum posts

[Moa]

I think 5v5 saw a lot more success when we had maps that were designed with multiple player counts in mind like Last Resort, High Ground, etc.

 

Every single Halo 5 Arena map is designed for 4v4. The only reason to make it 5v5 is so you could put BTB maps in which I don't think anybody wants... again.

 

I hate associating social with chaos. Sometimes people just want to play Halo and not care about rank.

[Moa]

Mythic WZFF is up. Raid on Apex 7 is the map this weekend.

 

 

Round 1: Tough Luck

Round 2: Tough Luck – Blackeye

Round 3: Tough Luck – Blackeye – Thunderstorm

Round 4: Tough Luck – Blackeye – Thunderstorm – Catch

Round 5: Tough Luck – Blackeye – Thunderstorm – Catch – Mythic

[Hard Way]

I hope Halo succeeds enough so @@automatousbeing and @@Hard Way will have the motivation to stick around and keep writing these excellent forum posts

Thanks man. I'm not going anywhere though. Even in Halo's darkest time (Vanilla Reach, for me at least), I was still coming to Halo forums despite only playing Bad Company 2.  I just love talking about Halo.

[Kell Of Scots]

What is the top post of r/Halo today?

 

A showerthought: What if Marines suck at driving because in the furture cars drive themselves.

 

r/Halo: Tackling the REAL issues of the Halo franchise.

 

On a unrelated note, there are confirmed reports of Halo fans dying of suffocation, with witnesses claiming to have seen the fans digging deeper and deeper holes at the nearest beaches and putting their heads in them.

[Moa]

What is the top post of r/Halo today?

 

A showerthought: What if Marines suck at driving because in the furture cars drive themselves.

 

r/Halo: Tackling the REAL issues of the Halo franchise.

 

On a unrelated note, there are confirmed reports of Halo fans dying of suffocation, with witnesses claiming to have seen the fans digging deeper and deeper holes at the nearest beaches and putting their heads in them.

Lighten the fuck up.

[Kell Of Scots]

Lighten the fuck up.

Where would be the fun in that?