I just bought and started moving our blog over to the new site. I'll be designing and customizing it over the next month or so and I'll have it up and ready soon enough. Stand by for more news on this. This is your last time to request features. Pretty soon it will be extremely difficult to add them in. For now the features stand at basically this. I will have a section where the main news is. I will also have a section that I have not named yet which will allow all of you to make original posts. There will also be a strategy page where we can discuss strategies of anything from How to Get Achievement X to setting up a Spawn lock, or even building strategies for your favorite RTS game. I'm contemplating a media page and maybe a separate page for all things Halo. Another thought of mine has been adding a calendar that we can all add events to, or an events page where we can list upcoming and pertinent events. For example, next week customs on Saturday at 10:00. (No seriously at 10:00 see you there...) Or we could say today that Fallout New Vegas has come out with a little blerb about it or the achievement list or something. I'll leave the rest up to you all, comment below or send me a message on Xbox Live if you have any thoughts.
In other news I read a great article about the top 10 games you must play before you die. I decided that while this list was a fairly good list I would rather make a more relevant one. So without further ado, the top 10 games you should play this console generation.
1. Halo - If you haven't played a Halo game you are truely missing out. Especially the two from this generation which honestly are two of the most balanced and well put together feature rich FPS if not games of all time.
2. Half-life 2 - Okay so this is slipping a bit into the last generation but it would never have played on the original xbox at the time it came out and it honestly was way ahead of it's time as valve games usually are.
3. StarCraft 2 - I had to include the legendary RTS and while I've only had a limited amount of time with this game I can say hands down that it is amazing. There are no words for this game...
4. Fallout 3 - This game brings back the excitement of exploration and really pushes the envelope as to what an RPG can be. When you play this game you really get a good understanding for what is going on this world and you become so involved it's hard not to love every minute. Whether you are freeing the world from the tyranny of a robot army, saving a town from two nut jobs or hunting down unsuspecting humans and enslaving them for extra cash, this game takes the RPG to a whole new level.
5. Gears of War - In addition to the fantastic over the top gore and language that makes this game a true mature title this game offers something much more. Gears has redefined what a co-op experience should feel and play like. Even in the limited interactivity between characters you can understand the strategies and how you should work together. There is not I in team and certainly not in Gears of War either.
6. (Insert MMO here) - If you haven't played one of the MMO's this generation you are truly missing out. Although I don't personally believe MMO's have hit their full potential their evolution this generation should be experienced. There's a reason you have to pay to play these games. They are fun, there's free content and you get to play with and against more people than any other game, you have to experience this.
7. Call of Duty - I don't think there is a person left on this planet who owns a game console and doesn't own at least one version of Call of Duty. Say what you will about their balancing practices or how competitive this game is but I have to say it's fun. It capitalizes on everything that made Counter Strike good and the newer versions include an RPG like mode where each challenge seems just another game away. The momentum keeps you playing and that's why it's on this list. Pick it up and I doubt you'll ever put it down.
8. New Super Mario Bros. - This has to be on the list although there were several Nintendo titles that came to mind. If you liked mario ever, even just a little bit this game will rock your socks. There are no words to describe the elated feeling you get chucking your friends into a pit so you can make the gap and spring to victory. 2D Screen scrolling mario but with 4 player co-op = WIN!
9. Portal - The greatest puzzle game ever was Tetris. Play this game...
10. Left 4 Dead 2 - I have to say that Left 4 Dead is a must play. Whether you are a fan of killing zombies or not this game is fun, hands down. You can't beat the four player co-op action, chainsaws, machetes or even a chance to be a zombie yourself.
I can think of a few that almost made the list like Crysis for it's tech or Forza for it's realism. I'm sure I missed something or left something out. Let me know about it below...
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Santa Clause
He's making a list and checking it twice....
So this actually isn't at all about Santa but it is about making a list. I think we all have little details that we would like fixed in Halo Reach and I plan on brining them before Bungie in a well thought out argument in favor of some changes. Almost every single change we wanted from the beta made it into the final version of the game and unfortunately a few other little details slipped in or slipped by. That being said I think we know most of them but lets make a list. I'll write it all up and start a discussion on Bungie.net and then post the link to the forum here. I expect all of you to actively participate as this is the last halo game ever and we should have an active hand in shaping the first combat update which every halo has had since the dawn of Xbox Live.
I think I'll be categorizing everything as I go so don't be surprised if I reorganize a couple of times or add your thoughts into the main post. For any entries like that I will use the following nomenclature. * (Denotes an addition from your comments below.) ** (Is the recognition of any move or change of category.) Any other updates will be listed at the bottom in my notes.
Game Mechanics: This is perhaps the hardest section to really post in as it is extremely controversial and any changes here will dramatically effect the gameplay regardless. As for the armor abilities, I feel they are almost perfectly balanced. The melee feels great, shield popping is amazing and grenades feel pretty darn good too. Most of my overall grievances lie elsewhere so I'll leave it up to you guys to add your input here.
I do however have one thought to add. MLG 1.1 is out and for everyone who has had a chance to play I think many of you will agree, the changes to jump height, fall rate and run speed feel pretty good. I know they would cause problems with sprint but it's always something we should be thinking about.
Vehicles
I'm dreading getting to this so I'll come back to it at the end.
Weapons
The Sniper Rifle: The Sniper Rifle feels awesome, it feels powerful but honestly it's too powerful. It needs to be toned down just a tad. I'm not saying it should be completely nerfed but I do feel the Auto Aim could come down a tad and it shouldn't be the vehicle destroying monster that it is. I have no problem with it popping the top off the Scorpion I do however have a problem with a 50 Cal sniper rifle knocking the engine block out of a heavily armored futuristic tank in any number of shots. If you want to kill someone in a vehicle with the Sniper, you should have to shoot the person not the headlight.
The Concussion Rifle: It sucks, it needs a light damage increase to make it worth picking up. It lacks the brute shot shoot smack that made the brute shot a usable weapon. This isn't too priority for me though as it's not on very many levels. If any gun should do a lot of damage to vehicles though it should probably be this one.
The Plasma Launcher: While it needed a major nerf in the beta it now just plain old sucks. They nerfed every aspect of this damn thing to the point that there is no reason to pick it up. It needs some loving, any ideas?
Game-types
King of the Hill: The hill moves way too fast. 30 seconds is not enough to let anything play out in the hill. You can't wait to attack or assess the situation because if you do you get the last 4 seconds of the hill and it becomes more about where the hill moves than how you dispatch your opponents.
Another change I would like to see to King of the Hill is an alternate version which allows use of Armor Abilities in the Hill. Why turn off your 4th leg of fun? Invis and Armor lock make KotH fun. Why did they get rid of Jet Packs in KotH? Perhaps Crazy King is the Armor Abilities on version, King Classic is no armor abilities in the hill and so on.
Territories: I have a similar grievance to KotH with this one, how could you take away a large part of the game when you are in the hill. Bring them back, they are fun. Make a classic version and an AA packed version.
Capture the Flag: Where to start... First we need two versions again like ye olden days, CTF classic which is Flag at home to score and touch return and another version Multiflag which allows scoring when your flag is not at home with a reasonable return rate.
The return rate, I can't stress this enough but it seems Bungie will never get this right. Flag return rates should scale with the map. If i'm playing on a BTB map I should have enough time to get back once and maybe twice if I die quickly and really hurry. It shouldn't be the same time on Countdown, a map you can cross in one sprint, as it is on Hemorrhage a map more than 10 times the size of Countdown.
Finally, you shouldn't have to straddle the flag pole to return it. Honestly that's the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Not only that but it shouldn't instantly reset your return process when you step off the flag. That's insane... I think this can be easily argued do the overwhelming power of the large grenade radius. Which I personally agree with having in the game but in this particular case it breaks another rule. Therefore the flag return radius should be increased in order to fit the balance of the rest of the sandbox.
Arena
The Arena is pretty damn fun but I think they need to make it more competitive. Less armor abilities and no radar to start. Perhaps having an MLG arena along side the original version will solve this.
Map Glitches/Bugs/Exploits/Layouts
I have very little to say about this, just a few exceptions.
1. We need more arena maps, give us lockout and wizard we know you have them. Hook us up with that amazing version of Beaver Creek, Noble Creek. It's a great remake and we all know and love our favorite water bound fragging spot.
2. Swordbase, Bring back the sniper. I'll argue this on the forum but we've all been talking about how it took skill to use and it balanced the map etc etc. I have other thoughts about weapon configuration on this map and we'll get into them soon because It's defiantly something that needs to be addressed, this map plays like shit which is unfortunate because it was a great experience in the beta.
3. Over and under use of just about every vehicle on all the maps. On most of the maps there are far too many vehicles and power weapons to keep track of. While this is fun for a while it becomes less about the skilled use of these tools as much as it becomes how can we beat the other team over the head with an endless onslaught of power weapons and vehicles. Where's the finesse.
I'll leave the bug collecting or reporting up to you guys. Or just let me know what's bugging you. Pun intended....
So this actually isn't at all about Santa but it is about making a list. I think we all have little details that we would like fixed in Halo Reach and I plan on brining them before Bungie in a well thought out argument in favor of some changes. Almost every single change we wanted from the beta made it into the final version of the game and unfortunately a few other little details slipped in or slipped by. That being said I think we know most of them but lets make a list. I'll write it all up and start a discussion on Bungie.net and then post the link to the forum here. I expect all of you to actively participate as this is the last halo game ever and we should have an active hand in shaping the first combat update which every halo has had since the dawn of Xbox Live.
I think I'll be categorizing everything as I go so don't be surprised if I reorganize a couple of times or add your thoughts into the main post. For any entries like that I will use the following nomenclature. * (Denotes an addition from your comments below.) ** (Is the recognition of any move or change of category.) Any other updates will be listed at the bottom in my notes.
Game Mechanics: This is perhaps the hardest section to really post in as it is extremely controversial and any changes here will dramatically effect the gameplay regardless. As for the armor abilities, I feel they are almost perfectly balanced. The melee feels great, shield popping is amazing and grenades feel pretty darn good too. Most of my overall grievances lie elsewhere so I'll leave it up to you guys to add your input here.
I do however have one thought to add. MLG 1.1 is out and for everyone who has had a chance to play I think many of you will agree, the changes to jump height, fall rate and run speed feel pretty good. I know they would cause problems with sprint but it's always something we should be thinking about.
Vehicles
I'm dreading getting to this so I'll come back to it at the end.
Weapons
The Sniper Rifle: The Sniper Rifle feels awesome, it feels powerful but honestly it's too powerful. It needs to be toned down just a tad. I'm not saying it should be completely nerfed but I do feel the Auto Aim could come down a tad and it shouldn't be the vehicle destroying monster that it is. I have no problem with it popping the top off the Scorpion I do however have a problem with a 50 Cal sniper rifle knocking the engine block out of a heavily armored futuristic tank in any number of shots. If you want to kill someone in a vehicle with the Sniper, you should have to shoot the person not the headlight.
The Concussion Rifle: It sucks, it needs a light damage increase to make it worth picking up. It lacks the brute shot shoot smack that made the brute shot a usable weapon. This isn't too priority for me though as it's not on very many levels. If any gun should do a lot of damage to vehicles though it should probably be this one.
The Plasma Launcher: While it needed a major nerf in the beta it now just plain old sucks. They nerfed every aspect of this damn thing to the point that there is no reason to pick it up. It needs some loving, any ideas?
Game-types
King of the Hill: The hill moves way too fast. 30 seconds is not enough to let anything play out in the hill. You can't wait to attack or assess the situation because if you do you get the last 4 seconds of the hill and it becomes more about where the hill moves than how you dispatch your opponents.
Another change I would like to see to King of the Hill is an alternate version which allows use of Armor Abilities in the Hill. Why turn off your 4th leg of fun? Invis and Armor lock make KotH fun. Why did they get rid of Jet Packs in KotH? Perhaps Crazy King is the Armor Abilities on version, King Classic is no armor abilities in the hill and so on.
Territories: I have a similar grievance to KotH with this one, how could you take away a large part of the game when you are in the hill. Bring them back, they are fun. Make a classic version and an AA packed version.
Capture the Flag: Where to start... First we need two versions again like ye olden days, CTF classic which is Flag at home to score and touch return and another version Multiflag which allows scoring when your flag is not at home with a reasonable return rate.
The return rate, I can't stress this enough but it seems Bungie will never get this right. Flag return rates should scale with the map. If i'm playing on a BTB map I should have enough time to get back once and maybe twice if I die quickly and really hurry. It shouldn't be the same time on Countdown, a map you can cross in one sprint, as it is on Hemorrhage a map more than 10 times the size of Countdown.
Finally, you shouldn't have to straddle the flag pole to return it. Honestly that's the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Not only that but it shouldn't instantly reset your return process when you step off the flag. That's insane... I think this can be easily argued do the overwhelming power of the large grenade radius. Which I personally agree with having in the game but in this particular case it breaks another rule. Therefore the flag return radius should be increased in order to fit the balance of the rest of the sandbox.
Arena
The Arena is pretty damn fun but I think they need to make it more competitive. Less armor abilities and no radar to start. Perhaps having an MLG arena along side the original version will solve this.
Map Glitches/Bugs/Exploits/Layouts
I have very little to say about this, just a few exceptions.
1. We need more arena maps, give us lockout and wizard we know you have them. Hook us up with that amazing version of Beaver Creek, Noble Creek. It's a great remake and we all know and love our favorite water bound fragging spot.
2. Swordbase, Bring back the sniper. I'll argue this on the forum but we've all been talking about how it took skill to use and it balanced the map etc etc. I have other thoughts about weapon configuration on this map and we'll get into them soon because It's defiantly something that needs to be addressed, this map plays like shit which is unfortunate because it was a great experience in the beta.
3. Over and under use of just about every vehicle on all the maps. On most of the maps there are far too many vehicles and power weapons to keep track of. While this is fun for a while it becomes less about the skilled use of these tools as much as it becomes how can we beat the other team over the head with an endless onslaught of power weapons and vehicles. Where's the finesse.
I'll leave the bug collecting or reporting up to you guys. Or just let me know what's bugging you. Pun intended....
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Complete MLG V. 1.1 up. Check it out here.
Let me know what you think after you've downloaded and play them. I'll let you all know soon enough.
Let me know what you think after you've downloaded and play them. I'll let you all know soon enough.
Halo Reach Map Pack Released
I'll save you the long introduction but mostly because I'm at work. Here's the link to the Noble Map Pack. My thoughts when I take my lunch break, post yours below.
For those of you who are lazy, so all of you, here's the quick breakdown of what you need to know.
1. It comes out November 30th
2. It will cost 800 points, or 10 dollars
3. There will be three maps.
a. Anchor 9 - An orbital dry dock that also allows seamless travel between the dock, space and back again.
b. Tempest - A beach assault similar to the current Pinnacle and reminiscent of the Halo 1 Silent Cartographer mission.
c. Breakpoint - Think last encounter of the second to last mission in Reach.
For those of you who are lazy, so all of you, here's the quick breakdown of what you need to know.
1. It comes out November 30th
2. It will cost 800 points, or 10 dollars
3. There will be three maps.
a. Anchor 9 - An orbital dry dock that also allows seamless travel between the dock, space and back again.
b. Tempest - A beach assault similar to the current Pinnacle and reminiscent of the Halo 1 Silent Cartographer mission.
c. Breakpoint - Think last encounter of the second to last mission in Reach.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Top 10 Series
So I know it's been a while since I've made a post and most of that is due to the fact that there has been very little worth writing about. I've also started making a new blog which will replace this one and as I said before I'm taking suggestions on features that should be added to it. Would you like to see a strategy page for all recent games or would you rather have a separate halo section to help lighten the load of the overwhelming halo posts. Another idea would be whether or not you guys would like to make posts and where they should go. Should you have a separate page or should you be able to post right on the home landing. Let me know what you think.
Anyway let me get back tot he topic at hand, the Top 10 Series. I may not have made it into the main Top 10 but I was featured in the honorable mentions which is featured below.
I'm honored to have made it and I won't say that my clip should have been in the Top 10 but some of the entries were much weaker than those in the honorable mentions.
Anyway let me get back tot he topic at hand, the Top 10 Series. I may not have made it into the main Top 10 but I was featured in the honorable mentions which is featured below.
I'm honored to have made it and I won't say that my clip should have been in the Top 10 but some of the entries were much weaker than those in the honorable mentions.
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