Unlabelled Halo - Halo Community Update - Channel Surfing

7/06/2018 02:28:00 pm
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Halo - Halo Community Update - Channel Surfing

Halo Community Update - Channel Surfing

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 07:26 PM PDT

Animated scene from Ready Player One

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 04:39 AM PDT

If Hunters used Mjolnir

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 08:24 PM PDT

Which armor do you prefer for the Arbiter?

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 09:48 PM PDT

I'm playing Halo: Combat Evolved for the first time. Here are my thoughts on the first three levels.

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 01:29 PM PDT

As a kid who grew up on Nintendo hardware, I was always curious as a teen about the Halo franchise - I borrowed a book or two from a friend growing up, and occasionally heard the theme song in Youtube videos, but never quite had the opportunity to get into it. So when the opportunity came up recently to purchase an Xbox 360 and 5 Halo games (1-3, ODST, and Reach), I decided to take notes along the way and document my thoughts.

The main menu caught my attention. A male choir decked out in all kinds of reverb and a huge... ring... of sorts, floating along in space. I'm reminded a bit of Star Fox 64's main menu, with its quiet, almost thoughtful atmosphere amidst a lot of action and intensity. A good first sign. After creating a profile and harrumphing briefly over the lack of characters to fit "InstantTrain", I began the campaign.

1. The Pillar of Autumn

Graphically, this looks decent. The models are a bit low-poly, but the texturing is pretty sharp for its time. Music already has great presence, but I do wish there were subtitles to help when dialogue gets buried in the mix a bit. After climbing out of "The Hushed Casket" (I think that's what they called it?) and a brief tutorial, I'm fighting through the ship. I love the little "doop-doop-doop-beep-beep-vwooooom" as my shields recharge. Bungie did a great job with the level design - a lot of the corridors have 90 degree turns, so they can frame little jumpscares and interactions as you approach them. Boy, they really love the "character gets shot/blown up by something juuust off-screen", huh?

Making my way to the bridge, I'm given Cortana (or is Cortana given me?), and told to escape. You know, whenever I see pictures of her on Reddit or whatever, I thought she was more of a cerulean than a lavender color. Hey, I can appreciate a lady with options. She's already proving herself useful, chatting with the brass, accessing data, and all sorts of stuff. I wonder if she's actually going to have direct gameplay effects (hacking shields? electronic interference?), but at least it's no escort mission.

The assault rifle feels a bit like it shoots a laser made of bullets rather than individual shots. The pistol's got a lot of kick to it, and surprisingly has a scope as well. Experimenting with other weapons as I go, I can tell Bungie put thought into differentiating between human and alien weapons - as far as I can tell, I can't pick up spare plasma ammo, only a plasma pistol can charge up, and only they overheat. Neat. The lack of sprinting or sights aiming means that there's a lot of neat options when it comes to spacing - some weapons stagger, some favor cover, some are all about closing gaps. I'm fond of charging forward while firing the assault rifle to remove the enemy's shields, and melee them for the remainder of their health. This gameplay is smooth and fun. "Combat Evolved" indeed.

After fumbling around and discovering that the White Button is the LB on the 360, I duck into an escape pod, and head on down to that ring. I assume this is Halo?

2. Halo

Well, I survived the crash. Juuuust me. I'm apparantly made of tougher stuff, or maybe I should be thanking this armor. While immediately failing to stealth my way away from the "Covenant" patrols, I'm noticing the difference in human and Covenant designs. The marines look like (no offense folks) your standard SyFy channel television army, all olive-drab-and-gunmetal-and-hooah, and the Covenant has a very... iridescent plastic? vibe going on. I guess someone at Microsoft was really eager to show off that Xbox shader horsepower.

So I can look up, and see the rest of this ring, and yet, there's trees. Grass. An ecosystem. I'll remember that for later. And yet, I'm beginning to appreciate something I was taking for granted - the first level was full of tight corridors and sharp turns. The Covenant didn't have much room to move, and that made learning aiming easier. Here, they're dancing all over the place, and I'm burning through ammo. It's a clever level design thing that I don't think I would have thought of. Several fights later and I find myself the driver of a Warthog.

Oh, she's a thicc girl. She fishtails like crazy, and she's hard to keep on four wheels, but it's extremely fun to drift around turns and swing myself around corners. This is great. I love the way you can hear the tires kick up small pebbles and dirt when the wheels start spinning - nice work sound team. My fellow Marines climbed into the sides and back of the Warthog and cheered me on unwaveringly as I slammed our ride into walls, flipped it over waterfalls, and jumped 2 inch hills. Truly, we could all use a pair of Halo marines in our daily lives. Plus, driving around and letting them "fish" for kills using the minigun on the back is a lot of fun.

3. Truth and Reconciliation

I begin to experiment with grenades. Frags are bog standard, but plasma grenades are intriguing. They kick up white smoke as they arc up, they stick to enemies, and they have long fuses. Anyone remember TimeSplitters 2? The Plasma Autorifle had grenades just like these.

We're starting to get some great firefights, big teams of marines and big teams of Covenant. Even though they're not much help, I find myself sprinting ahead and trying to draw the enemy's fire to keep them alive as long as possible. Hey, they make it more interesting, and their chatter is funny. We make our way to the gravity lift (great setpiece, by the way), and find ourselves aboard the ship. All the marines immediately died, and I find myself wandering alone. I'm not entirely impressed by this one. It feels like a boxy Quake Arena level covered in metallic gift wrap. Doesn't quite feel like an authentic, lived-in alien space. The dynamic music gets a bit overzealous, and takes me through a stirring string piece, then a pseudo-African drum bit, and finally a beepy synthesized ambient electronic song, all in the span of 2 or 3 minutes. I'm not sure if they programmed this area to have a specific musical atmosphere, but it's not there. The level design is getting pretty confusing, too.

So we're off to rescue Captain Keyes? Was he of any importance? Last I checked, he told me to keep Cortana from Covenant hands. Seems like I'm delivering her right back to them by strolling on in here. He gives his exposition on Halo, but then, how does he speak the Covenant's language? Is that common in this universe? He grabs a Needler and starts blasting foes away, proving his recipe of three parts President Whitmore from Independence Day, and one part John Wayne's jaw-clenched drawl.

A few firefights later and we're home free. Not my favorite level, but they can't all be winners. Shoutout to the huge Covenant with the shielded forearm that, upon getting my plasma grenade stuck to his bicep, chose to charge me down with it still stuck to him. Valhalla for that guy.

Next level is "The Silent Cartographer", and judging from my play so far, I'm going to like this game very, very much. Thank you for reading.

submitted by /u/Instant_Train
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Master Chief, MJOLNIR Mark VI [Render]

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 07:26 AM PDT

In Halo: Collateral Damage issue #2 you can see post- and pre-refit Halcyons side-by-side. Interesting little details popping up everywhere. So much attention to detail!

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 07:04 PM PDT

Back to school

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 09:44 AM PDT

Found at a local Walmart

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 12:52 PM PDT

Spartan Emile-A239 stalking his prey at night

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 06:21 PM PDT

Sword flying, a popular Halo 2 trick, returns in the Halo: MCC Insider build!

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 10:28 AM PDT

Nade jump the hangar in the third level they said. It'll save a lot of time they said.

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 08:56 AM PDT

Cool nod to a certain faction in Smoke and Shadow, released 2 months before HW2

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 06:50 PM PDT

Finished plasma pistol effects, I just had to tease something! [SFM]

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 11:34 PM PDT

Picked up Halo 5 for the first time since release

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 10:21 AM PDT

I have to say I'm blown away by how much more complete the game feels now. I enjoyed it when it came out, but the changes to the forgetting community, the additional arena playlists, and the expansion of warzone makes this game so much better than it was at release. I haven't been able to stop playing for the late couple days

submitted by /u/BasedTroy
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Anyone else wish this wasn’t cancelled?

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 02:38 PM PDT

This halo mega blocks game. I know a lot of people will probably think this looks stupid or childish but I grew up on the lego games, and to see a halo lego-style game just seems awesome to me. I legit only just found out about this now so sorry if this has already been brought up before, but I wish this wasn't cancelled.

submitted by /u/shrekcurry502
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Since Halo 3, I have never been able to finish the fight. I just can’t let go.

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 07:42 PM PDT

I was listening to Martin O'Donnells music today, as I do every day, and I realized that I have never finished the fight. I've never been able to finish the story and let go or move on.

I've been stuck, wanting, begging to finish the fight again, and again, and again. I want to go back to the ark and kill the prophet of truth, to stop the covenant and the flood while humanity rested on my shoulders, I wanted to save the last friend I had, who truly understood me (the Chief) inside and out. I want to watch as the halo I destroyed is launched into space, to fix what I had broken.

I listen to Martins music, and I don't hear a game composition, I hear my childhood. I hear me being able to do the impossible when I knew in reality I meant nothing at all. I hear the sounds of victory, to Never Forget. Waiting to be awoken again when I was needed. I hear the promises I made, because I knew I could keep them.

I remember so many good times in Halo, how we finished the fight. But somehow, some way, I can never finish the fight. I can't move on from the good days. All I want is to be there again. To not just put the old disk in and play, or to look at old photo albums, but to BE there again, to have time frozen and stay at that moment, to finish the fight.

submitted by /u/Makuta001
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Master Chief tattoo by Ben Kaye

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 08:57 AM PDT

Having trouble playing Halo 5. It says my fireteam is too large eventhough I’m by myself. Any suggestions?

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 05:54 PM PDT

The problem with 'having to use old tech' art style explanation

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 03:06 PM PDT

I've heard a lot of people say they want the art style switch to be explained, and a lot of people saying a good explanation would be the UNSC switching back to old technology as Cortana's EMPing everything means the newer stuff is less reliable.

Only problem with this is it could only really last for one game? Or until Cortana is defeated.. Then it'd only make sense for everything to switch back again.

I'd personally rather it wasn't explained, but rather have the old and the new mixed together (ala Halo Wars 2, both era Pelicans with different functions, both era grunts with different roles) as this seems a much more permanent solution.

TLDR: The old tech excuse is very short term as it'll no longer be valid after the Created story finishes. I'd rather it was just a mix of 343 and Bungie, then no excuse is really needed IMO.

submitted by /u/FranklinNeilson
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Shooting a Turret in the Passenger Seat, Halo Reach Glitch

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 08:33 PM PDT

A pretty cool glitch where you can hold a turret in a passenger seat where you normally can't, making things like the warthog have two turrets, or even making the mongoose have a backseat turret. A couple guys found it and I've never seen it before so I figured I'd share it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Cp5jsW6WY

submitted by /u/ChampionWill
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Halo: The Fall of New Mombasa

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 10:30 AM PDT

Good Halo books to read?

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 09:05 PM PDT

It's been a very long time since I've played any Halo and I've kind of forgotten a lot of the lore, and with a lot of spats of downtime in my schedule this coming semester I thought it'd be nice to pick up a few Halo books to read; are there any that are particularly worth getting?

submitted by /u/RoadTheExile
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Lore Question : Brute Matchup

Posted: 05 Jul 2018 09:04 PM PDT

So I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but fun little question, which Brute is more brutal.

Atriox or Tartarus.

Both are pretty powerful characters, both were able to handle the Flood, humans, and Elites, making all (But the Arbiter) Submit to there power.

And Im pretty sure Tartarus was the leader of the Brutes, not just some random Brute, so, for me I'd like to know.

submitted by /u/Zeoinx
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