76 replies to this topic

[Slightly Live]

So what's the excuse ladies and gentlebeings? Why aren't you playing Reach right this moment? What could possibly be more important than blasting some Covenant in Firefight with some friends or teabagging unskilled randoms from Germany with funny sounding accents? Friends come and go like gentle farts on the breeze, you don't have to worry about family because you're equipped with half of the tools to make a new one yourself and who cares about work when you can easily make a career advertising new age Chinese skincare products on Twitter? Toilets are a thing of the pass thanks to empty bottles and Kinect has taught us that we don't ever have to leave the seat again - just verbally abuse our electronic appliances to perform specific functions with a cheery Americano accent. You have no excuse. You know you should be playing Reach right this instant. If you're reading this, then you should be between matchmaking games. Quick, vote One-Flag on Reflection and then read on. In all serious business, why aren't you playing Reach? I find the time, usually a few hours each day, sometimes not and I hop on. I'm lucky to have a few hours to sit down and play games and Reach is my first choice. Yeah some other games come along, my backlog never seems to get any smaller but Halo and Reach is still my de-facto vidja game. I also recognise that not everyone is lucky enough to have the spare time to play video games most evenings. In the scale of life essentials, video games barely rank above brand purchasing decisions during grocery shopping and no sane person would live like a hermit hooked up to the colour box all day to the exclusion of friends, family and even minor social commitments. So what stops you from playing Reach? Have other games seduced your gamer loins down a dark back alley with the lure of kinky button presses? Are you taking a break from Halo? Is the relationship over? I'm still playing and I'll continue to do so until the next Halo game whisks me away. Not exclusively though, we have an open relationship me and Reach. There's many games on my radar over the next few years and every one of them will steal time from Halo for sure. Sometimes I'll be be bored with another game and consider going back to Reach, only to have bloom and jetpacks make me regret it. I do have issues with Reach, more so than Halo 3 and yeah they get in the way. I doubt I'm the only one that experiences this. They do stop me from playing on occasion. I'll switch the game off early or maybe I'll go watch a movie instead. However, I'll always return. Halo is Halo and despite Reach trying really hard sometimes to make me not want to play, I'll stick at it. How about you?

[Blaze]

1. Reach's list of good maps can be counted on half of one hand. 2. I suck at the multiplayer.

[Kinetic]

So what's the excuse ladies and gentlebeings?

I'm running an EMS department, taking 18 credits of collegiate course work, and studying for a graduate exam that will help dictate my entire future.

Good enough?

[Slightly Live]

1. Reach's list of good maps can be counted on half of one hand.
2. I suck at the multiplayer.

The community playlists maps, Classic playlist maps and DLC maps aren't enough to temp you to play? What about Firefight? I know of a few folks that practically live almost exclusively in the FF playlists.

So when did skill matter in Halo? =P

I'm running an EMS department, taking 18 credits of collegiate course work, and studying for a graduate exam that will help dictate my entire future.

Good enough?

Twitter. Ads. Millionaire. Do it.

=P

I was talking about outside of commitments, why aren't people playing? More power to you for taking your life seriously and buckling down with work and study. The last thing you'd want to do it is forgo a decent future for the sake of a few cR and a higher k/d ratio. =)

For those with the free time to spend like fatties in a fast food joint, why aren't you going for the Reach meal deal combo?

Edited by Slightly Live, 10 April 2011 - 05:57 PM.

[Gamble]

The slow inconsistent gameplay and constant drops in framerate send me into rages that only the blood of a homeless person can calm me of. I'd rather play an RPG or the fast and inconsistent BLOPS. At least with Call of Duty, I respawn instantly and usually I'm a grenade toss away or a few seconds away from getting revenge on the bullshit that happened to me. The faster the game is, the less I sit in anger.

[Slightly Live]

The slow inconsistent gameplay and constant drops in framerate send me into rages that only the blood of a homeless person can calm me of. I'd rather play an RPG or the fast and inconsistent BLOPS. At least with Call of Duty, I respawn instantly and usually I'm a grenade toss away or a few seconds away from getting revenge on the bullshit that happened to me. The faster the game is, the less I sit in anger.

Have you tried the Classic playlist? They have removed AA's, increased the speed and jump height and brought in a selection of community made Halo 1 and 2 remake maps. It's generally considered "faster with less bullshit".

[aander91]

League of Legends. And I stopped playing Reach because nearly ever game sent me into a rage, there's just something really infuriating about the gameplay, whether it be bloom, lack of weapons, or something else.

[Gamble]

Have you tried the Classic playlist? They have removed AA's, increased the speed and jump height and brought in a selection of community made Halo 1 and 2 remake maps. It's generally considered "faster with less bullshit".

That won't help at all. The playlist doesn't take out bad framerate or fight length. No interest in anything the community does. The only thing out of forge I really like was one of Blaze's maps.


I think I'm pretty much done with Halo.

[Slightly Live]

That won't help at all. The playlist doesn't take out bad framerate or fight length.

To be fair, the maps in the playlist have consistently good framerates, better than some stock maps. And I'd argue that removing AA's and increasing the damage does significantly change the fight length, particularly the Four-shot kill variant.

Shame to see folks so down on Reach. At this point, is there anything reasonably possible that could tempt folks like you back? More DLC maps? Different playlist management? Or is Reach, at the core level, just not compatible with your tastes? Does Reach feel like Halo?

I've had my fair share of rage moments, maybe more just going on the basis that I've played the game a ton. Even with issues with bloom and some nasty maps, it isn't enough for me to stop, not for long.

I think the playlist management is doing a job, more so than Halo 3 although there are some questionably odd decisions at times and some real stinkers in the playlist line up. If I could wave a wand, remove bloom and AA's, insert the best multiplayer levels of the trilogy I would, but alas. Fundamentally, Reach still feels like Halo to me, it just doesn't live up to the same quality bar from the previous entries in the series in some specific areas. It's still a better game than most of the trash out there.

[aander91]

I guess it just doesn't feel like Halo to me. Halo was awesome because of how it contrasted with the "realistic" shooters. The maps were symmetrical and played fairly. I don't think there's any symmetrical maps on disc, and what's more they're all just so bland and uninteresting. I loved maps like Guardian and Epitaph because they were simply gorgeous and suffocatingly atmospheric. In Reach you're fighting in buildings. Sure, they're futuristic and all, but you know their function. They just don't have the same magic that the previous games had. This said the Noble map pack was a step in the right direction on both fronts. Yet to grab the second, but at the moment I just don't want to get them if I'm not going to play Reach.

[Blaze]

The community playlists maps, Classic playlist maps and DLC maps aren't enough to temp you to play? What about Firefight? I know of a few folks that practically live almost exclusively in the FF playlists.

Too little, too late.

Firefight would be fun if the input lag wasn't horrible and there were more maps centered around vehicular combat. Campaign co-op would be fun if it didn't have the same input lag problems, but the bigger problem with campaign lies in the lack of fun, replayable missions. During my first playthrough of the campaign, there was never a point at which I said to myself, "I can't wait to replay this mission." I think Halo 3 had better missions and therefore was a better campaign overall.

[Niterider]

I pretty much agree with everything Blaze and Gamble have said. In addition, immortality is not a balanced game mechanic and leads to way too much frustration. I don't know why, but Reach was much more fun during the Beta. In addition, time's been a big factor for me. I've been trying to catch a few people during the weekend since the map pack was released, but truth is I won't have much time for gaming at all until the semester ends.

[deftech]

1. Reach's list of good maps can be counted on half of one hand.

Agreed. (I didn't quote the second point because while I do suck at the game, I haven't been 'good' at a Halo game since CE. At this point, it's not a huge concern for me.). While I agree that the map packs have helped immensely, the quality map selection is still sparse. From my POV, using the campaign spaces as multiplayer maps was a huge mistake.

With that said, the number one reason I don't play the game that often is: No one else is playing it. I'm not a fan of playing with randoms. When I see Cocop/Ivan playing, I'll jump on and get a few games in with them. Other then that, I'm not going into matchmaking to watch half my team quit out before the game even starts. No thanks.

[DualX]

Life, etc... Been wanting to play through a bit of my backlog anyhow so it's perfect since, like Deftech said, no one really plays it anymore. Playing with randoms makes me rage most of the time. So I really have only been playing Black Ops with coworkers on occasion. Will be playing even less starting next week because of school.

[aander91]

I actually did just play for a bit. I'm so horribly rusty though. Still had fun, but it was too easy to turn off. :/

[Drew]

Even if I had an Xbox I wouldn't be touching Reach outside of Campaign and maybe Gruntpocalypse for cR farming. Not only are there tons of other games that I could be playing (not to mention the stuff that's coming out closer to the end of the year), but I just don't really enjoy it as much as I used to. The game is fun at times, but ultimately flawed. Bad framerate, shitty situations all of the time (Armor Lock, I'm looking at you), and it's just slow. I don't have a huge problem with slow games if they're satisfying to play (see: Bad Company 2), but Reach just gives no feedback. No feedback when you hit somebody, no feedback when you kill somebody, nothing. It feels very flat. Call of Duty and Battlefield are entertaining to me because there's always feedback on everything you do, it sets up a great positive feedback loop which Halo lacks. It's not just the gameplay, though. There are maybe two or three maps that can truly be considered "good", even with the DLC maps (not the newest ones, referring to the first pack). I don't think that's a good sign when a huge selling point of the series has become its multiplayer. I will still buy future Halo titles to play the Campaign, but I doubt I'll be spending long with the multiplayer. Unless there's some kind of paradigm shift with game feel and map design (who knows, maybe all the series needed was a developer switch) then I'll be really hard pressed to give it longer than a couple dozen hours. I don't know, maybe the series has just stagnated for me. Outside of Campaign I find it hard to really enjoy it for long periods of time (unless I'm playing Halo PC, which is still fucking incredible to this day).

[Vanwadilion]

Drew's thoughts pretty much echo my own. It's been difficult for me to define why I don't feel drawn to play Reach, but what Drew said is about spot on. I just don't have a yearn to play it like I've had with other games I've been playing lately (Black Ops, Bad Company 2, Crysis).

[Blaze]

The game is fun at times, but ultimately flawed. Bad framerate, shitty situations all of the time (Armor Lock, I'm looking at you), and it's just slow. I don't have a huge problem with slow games if they're satisfying to play (see: Bad Company 2), but Reach just gives no feedback. No feedback when you hit somebody, no feedback when you kill somebody, nothing. It feels very flat. Call of Duty and Battlefield are entertaining to me because there's always feedback on everything you do, it sets up a great positive feedback loop which Halo lacks.

I 100% agree with Duffman. Call of Duty figured it out back in 2007. Constant feedback, constant unlocks, constant stat tracking, constant experience gain. You are always achieving things and are usually only a few kills away from the next one. Reach's feedback and experience gain is spread way too thin. It takes forever to level up and forever to unlock enough points to buy anything. It's such a grind.

Feedback when you're hitting someone should be a requirement for all online multiplayer games; it's part of the reason why Reach feels so inconsistent. A feedback sound allows you to instantly know what is working and what isn't so you can adjust your aim accordingly.

[mattacus]

The first halo didn't need a "feedback" system. It's a crutch and modern shooters, all scrambling to play catchup to Modern Warfare's system, rely on it way too much. All OG Halo lacked was an online system, and Halo PC showed that to be true. None of this screwing with the sandbox shit that Halo 2 started - just slap netcode onto the Original Halo multiplayer and you've got gold. I would pay full price for that game again. Shit. I may just go find a copy of it -- I bet my Macbook Pro could run it. But they can't just do that. Every developer feels a need to put his own little stamp on the universe and ends up screwing up something that wasn't broken. I rarely agree with Drew's gaming choices (pokemon? still? seriously?), but he's right about Halo PC.

[Gamble]

(pokemon? still? seriously?)