Long live Halo, Bungie is amazing.

Rtas Monkatarae,out

chris

First off I’d like to let you all know that it’s okay to crucify me for, of course, comparing the H3 maps to the HCE maps. Without a doubt, CE had far better maps. But, like with most games, the original always exceeds the successors. Halo 3 is still a beautiful game in its own respect.

I’m not one to scrutinize the maps and point out all of the flaws in them. Tbh, I think that it should be the players’ responsibility to adapt to the changes. A lot of the close-quarter combat introduced in H3 means gamers need to focus on timing. Patience is another big issue. With the exception of The Pit, a lot of close-quarter maps don’t have a spot that you can just stand and frag safely from your secluded corridor. Often times you need to sacrifice a small amount of cover to get your precious explosives.

Now for the big maps, I must admit that Valhalla does not seem to be the best to me. Sure, on the “Valhalla Heavy” variant, the geometry of the map works beautifully. However, on a regular Team Slayer or Team Objective game, you’re virtually screwed. The trees conveniently placed on the crest of the central hill let anyone who knows where the crouch button is and has a sense of stealth to hold that post almost uncontested. I could also argue that it’s the beauty of the map. You can’t rely on just charging into battle with your BR barrel melting from use. You need to focus strategically on securing at least some high ground, or risk being picked off with ease.

Moving on to the vehicular standpoint of it. Aside from popular belief, a threesome in a warthog did not necessarily dominate a round (with the PC version at least). It simply means you need to watch where you’re running until you can have the upper hand. On some maps the “overpowered turret” has blind spots that make a duo of infantry an equal opponent, rather than a kill medal. Also, a properly placed plasma grenade can annihilate a team in a hog just as easy then as it can now. Of course, like with anything, it takes some skill. I don’t think we can condemn the vehicular dominance of CE, or even regard it as dead with H3. To truly dominate takes some form of skill. Of course, with hijacking it is 10x easier to stop a hog. Just watch where you’re driving. If someone is looking right at you prepared to board then you obviously shouldn’t try to splatter them.

Common sense plays a big role in the transition from game to game. It’s just a different playability and sooner or later you need to adapt or get over it. Comparing a different game to its “former glory” isn’t bad, but using the originals as a template to find the faults in the new surely is. As the series evolves the playability evolves. It’s up to the players to decide if they want to try and master a new weapons cache, a new art of vehicular warfare, and a new way to combat opponents in close-quarters.

On the matchmaking end of the spectrum, it’s a dark cloud with a distinct silver lining. I think that in some cases it suits a lot of people. However, I did like the notion of choosing from a list of custom games, much like in CE. The only issue with that was the fact that often a clan or group of friends could stack a team and just mow people down. If used together, I think a custom games list would work splendidly alongside the current matchmaking system. Variety is always good, and that’s all it really takes to keep me interested. Another useful thing (as previously mentioned) is setting a game type preference. I liked this idea in particular. The feeling sucks when you get pounded with oddball matches all day. Just toss me a good old CTF match and I’m satisfied.

Lastly, I’d like to apologize for writing a novel in response to a year-old topic. If you’ve read this whole comment then I give you a nice pat on the back.

If those live up to the standards of small maps of the past, youll all be eatin your words.

God Speed, voc

Desert Rat 852

ALSO! Need more elite players online.

Case in point: The melee. Now rather than being subject to either complete ownage by a power weapon wielding teabagger or having close combat degrade into a series of “whacks” until one of the combatants falls over from boredom, the close quarters combat has been leveled. One can now enter into a room knowing that his/her actions will largely determine whether he/she lives or dies, not purely the weapon choice of the “awful camping B***h.” The retooled melee has added balance to an incredibly weapon biased combat sequence. There is also the added bonus of that little rush you get as you see your opponent fly backwards 30 feet with limbs trailing, only to meet a wall and crumple to the floor.

Another touchy subject – The Battle Rifle: Affectionately known as the “BR” by its legions of wielders who never enter combat until they have secured one. In Halo2 the battle rifle was king; in any mid range situation (with the exception of extreme fault on the user’s behalf or the introduction of the carbine) the belligerent ignoramus attempting to best the hallowed BR in its prime territory was deserving of all forms of postmortem humiliation that it no doubt received. Yet in this new Halo3 experience, balance has yet again been added. The battle rifle no longer “auto-locks” onto a target but shoots a predetermined spread. This makes Swat, and even standard game play more skill based rather than pure reflex and “sweep sniping.” An added note of increased sniper suppression in the new BR, and the fact that the target no longer is a bullet magnet helps balance the gameplay even more.

In defense of the Bungie matchmaking and online play I would like to point out that it is the culmination of accessibility. Call of Duty’s matchmaking, while fast, lacks the quality, settling with horrendously unbalanced teams and putting players into matches already in session. The Gears of War matchmaking is not even worth mentioning, as anyone who has waited ten minutes for a single person to complete the teams, and then died within minutes and watched the battle be decided by the few elite can attest. Halo’s matchmaking will almost always ensure fairer teams than any of its competitors, and keep players at the rank they rightly deserve. (Apologies to all ratings whores, but if you aren’t leveling up, odds are it’s because you have hit your skill niche.) One thing that would do well though: less rigid skill matching; I hope I am not alone in my occasional yearning to be owned gratuitously, or vice versa.

The point of compartmentalization and its affect on game play – Yes, it turns many maps into grenade traps and play areas for those who molest with shotguns, but the good in this has been largely ignored… Perhaps good was too strong a word. The “compartments” have turned into a team war of attrition, or an area of avoidance/camping in free for all matches. With a few exceptions (Ghost Town notably) the methods for taking said compartments are few and insipid; granted they are varied when compared to past Halo games, or any other games, yet in the context of Halo3 the numerous strategies at the player’s disposal die at the threshold.

The spawning system succeeds brilliantly: A bold yet substantiated statement. For every spawn which puts you into premature contact with the enemy there are a hundred perfect spawns. Again I must reference the competition. The CoD spawning system is faulty, more than rarely birthing players into the middle of a firefight. Of course the firefight is short, but painfully, so is your health. With exceptions of Lockout and occasionally Guardian, the Halo3 multiplayer spawning engine succeeds brilliantly, shining even brighter when compared to its competition.

The Vehicles have also taken much flak from those who cling to the past. Halo1 saw the vehicle as the undisputed ruling power, with Halo2 having little advantage due to the Rocket launcher and hard hitting stickies. Halo3 again brings about balance. No longer are maps controlled by a single machine of death. There is the odd occasion when a brilliant duo will whore their hog to multiple terrorized customers, but they can only go so far before a beam of red relieves their position. In the current arrangement warthogs, choppers and ghosts work well as support weapons and perform very well as anti-human spearheads, but never so well as to bring about the apocalypse. Props to Bungie on the balance.

In a brief conclusion to what has been much longer than originally projected, Halo3 is different, and in most cases better than its progenitors. A few last points as my English essay is dying to be written –
-the assault rifle is not an entirely crappy weapon – it only suffers from extreme balance and mediocrity, and when coupled with the BR as a starting weapon raises the quality of game play.
– The online halo experience suffers mainly from repetition. A year later custom games are gaining popularity and matchmaking population is declining (from my eyes, actual stats will hopefully prove me wrong). Surely this is a call to Bungie to mix it up and keep online halo fresh and exciting.