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AICN Games: Quint plays a little HALO 3 Beta and sets up a talkback for the half a million others that will begin later today!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I’ve been lucky enough to have been included on the HALO 3 Bungie Friends and Family Beta test recently and I figured I’d write a little about my thoughts on what I’ve seen so far, especially considering the wider public Beta begins in a few hours.
Right now the community ranges from 1400 to 2000 depending on the time of day, but they expect half a million people on the Beta in the morning. It’ll be crazy.
One paragraph of history. I love HALO, the original game. Playing Co-Op with my buddy, Kraken, was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had with a video game, the first such experience I’ve had since perhaps GoldenEye on the N64. HALO 2 was more of a mixed bag. They seemed to weaken all the weapons I could actually use (shotgun, sniper rifle, pistol) and make the new weapons I had a hard time wielding more powerful. They also skimped on the campaign mode, instead focusing on the online play and the campaign of the first Halo was great, just as fun as the multiplayer.
That’s where I was entering into this Halo 3 Beta.
I’ve been playing since Friday. With QT Fest and my regular schedule of writing, interviews and updating, I’ve had much less time to play than I wanted, but I’ve gotten some quality time on the three maps released.
I have to say I’m liking what I’ve been playing. The physics are a little more like Halo 1, with the jump not being as gravity-defying and ridiculous as Halo 2 and the weapons handling a lot more like the original game.
Especially the sniper rifle, thank God. And my old friend, the Assault Rifle, returns at last.
Okay, the three maps:
HIGH GROUND – A multi-level base on a beach.
SNOWBOUND – Snow level with underground bunkers connected with tunnels and each entrance to the outside is protected by an energy shield you can walk through, but not shoot through.
VALHALLA – Giant open air map. A massive span of land separating two bases. Pretty much a giant version of Blood Gultch. Many trees, streams, rocks and hilly land. Also, no portals anymore, just “man cannons” which launch you to specific points, allowing you to shoot at people while flying through the air… and allowing you to get shot.
The biggest addition to the game play is the ability to pick up special items. There’s a trip mine, portable grav lift, a Bubble Shield and (my favorite) an energy drainer. Also new is the ability to reload your duel-wielded weapons one at a time by pressing the left or right bumper.
The X button releases your special weapons. Bubble shield creates a translucent energy shield around you, energy drainer is like a TERMINATOR electricity field that grows as it powers up and takes away shield and life from anybody around it (including you), the trip mine arms and will blow if you step near it and the portable grav lift is good for going over walls or deploying in front of an approaching vehicle. I haven’t done this myself, yet, but I hear it’s awesome to watch a warthog bear down on you, hellbent for leather, then hit the grav lift and go flying over your head.
It’s been nice playing with people who, for the most part, aren’t dickheads and no one who has been able to find ways to cheat, two major reasons why I stopped playing Halo 2 online. Let’s hope the trend continues when the Beta goes wide in a few hours.
My only suggestions… if I were king of the world, the Covenant carbine rifle would be eliminated from the game. I know lots of people love it, but I suck at using it and everybody else doesn’t. Didn’t say it was a fair suggestion, but if I were king of the world I’d be a tyrant when it comes to these fucking things.
They also need to toy with the physics just tiny bit. I have my sensitivity turned down low, but when I’m aiming through a long range weapon it’s still set too high, yet when I’m playing regularly I move too slow.
The grenades… there is a new grenade, a spiky one you can stab onto people. I like it. But the regular grenades need to be a little more powerful. Not much more, but the kill zone needs to be extended another half a foot or so.
Other than that, I like the gameplay. It feels like a hybrid between the original Halo and Halo 2.
I’m sure there will be much discussion about this in the talkbacks below when the the Beta goes live… I’m hearing it’s 5am Pacific Time.
Hope to play with some of you… But be warned. I’m incredibly talented. No one can die like I can. My body can draw your bullets and needles and plasma bursts no matter where you shoot them. I win at dying every single game, no matter who my opponent is. I’m that good.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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+ Expand All
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Just wanted to point out how dumb all this FIRST!!! shit is.
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And I don't even play Halo so I could care less.
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it sounds really cool. Sorta like Aliens. Is Bill Paxton a character in the game?
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If such a thing is possible. Anyway, ready to play this bitch in a couple of hours. Oh, and be sure to download the Red Vs. Blue Halo 3 Beta Video from XBox Marketplace right now (and yes it does use the Halo 3 engine).
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Quint, what's your handle? Do any of the other staff have one?
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Hit me up and we will own Quint. Send me a friend request Quint!
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Never really got into the second one first one was ok more of a COD man myself, im sure ill check this out tho. Anyone know if you can get on this Bata without owning crackdown...and/or will a second hand copy of crackdown work?
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But wasn't the two player co-op campaign mode in Halo 2 much better? That's what I'm looking for anyway. Fuck the running around a map killing eachother, there needs to be a story to follow.
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I got in with the Rule of Three crap and I'm about 80% downloaded now. I can't wait to get in there and get my ass handed to me!!!!
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Good luck getting me to do anything else for a couple hours/days/weeks.
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After playing (and loving) Rainbow Six Vegas, I cannot imagine a shooter without a decent cover system being satisfying.
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But since I was a fan of Halo first, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
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Come play with me. And what the hell is Quint's gamertag?
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Will miss the Beta, but would be good to hook up with some AICN people on some other games.
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Will miss the Beta, but would be good to hook up with some AICN people on some other games.
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...to show how many years behind those on the PC they are. :^)
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Or Paul?
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The cover system in Halo is called "get your ass behind cover." ...Seriously, though, Halo plays NOTHING like Rainbow Six. If you want to make use of cover the strafe function is very easy to use and objects to duck behind are plentiful. But mainly Halo is about hyper-powered machine-men running around blasting each other with things called "spartan lasers" and "energy swords" and "needlers." Save the deluxe cover systems for the hyperreal shooters; the rest of us will have fun playing HALO.
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The sniper rifle in Halo 2 was EASIER to use than in Halo 1. There was an adjustment period, but the hit box on your opponents' heads was made larger, and they added in a lag-targeting adjustment that allowed you to "sweep snipe" - i.e. sweep your reticule across an opponent and pull the trigger at any time during the sweep and still hit them (even if you were not actually on target at the time of firing). Sniping well in Halo: CE was a skill; sniping well in Halo 2 was commonplace, and sniping like a god was just a matter of learning to exploit the changes. (We play 2 every week on a LAN at my house and I run around with the sniper rifle as much as possible. That thing is NASTY.)
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i will not whine--i will not whine!
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I'll play with anyone. I'm such a tuppenney-strumpet.
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Quint's tag (I believe) is AICNquint. I saw him (I assume it was him) get killed in a video of the beta roaming around the net.
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Quint and everyone else, maybe I'm too much of a non-team player, but the whole concept of the multiplayer never scored with me. Perhaps its because I didn't have any guys my age who bought an xbox or had time to sit around and play games (not a slam fellas, just the truth), but the multi-deal just alluded me as to why it was so fun.Granted, I got an xbox the first day bestbuy san antonio had them and halo as well, then went on to play every level of the campaign on legendary until I completed all of 'em, but played multi with a friend from houston only once and we got really bored with it and went into campaign co-op almost immediately. As for Halo 2 and xbox live multi, I spent about five minutes with it and was also bored. not sure why I'm telling everyone this...
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How cool is that??
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This game is going to be JUMPING!
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And BUMPING!
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YEAH!
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Also been playing on the Friends and Family invite and I have to say that this game exceeds my expectations. Not only does this game totally wipe the floor with Halo 2 multiplayer, it actually beats Halo 1 on PC which, as far as i was concerned, was untouchable.It's taking me a little while to get used to the controls though, i've been trying to use the B button to climb in and out of vehicles and pick up weapons and even though I've been playing it for ages I still keep forgetting.Totally love the new weapons and they've made the guns as powerful as they were in halo 1. What's more incredible, is that I've not experienced any lag. Halo 2 suffered badly but, so far, every game i've played has been flawless. Roll on SeptemberOh and anyone interested in playing; head over to the zone and check out the XBOX Live community. You'll get afew talkbackers tags on there and the chance to post your own.
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Needler in H2 sucked. Needler in H3 is back to awesome kick ass weapon. Everything is so much more precise and refined. The dual SMG's are absolutely rediculous; i always thought they were the worst weapons in Halo 2 so i avoided them in 3, until i kept getting raped by people dual wielding. I tell you what else is back to normal too, the shotgun. It's...man..so lost for words.
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Of course you guys all know this already...but Halo 3 got "pushed up" to September 25th.
Got mine reserved already. -
I think I am going to miss a lot of work.
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You loved the first Halo?
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Halo is just a watered down version of Bungies' mid 1990's game, Marathon. Thousands of levels, new games and stories every year. Marathon 1, 2, Tempis Irae, Evil, etc. With Anvil and Forge, people made their own games and levels, and posted them on the net to download. Now you only get some crap every few years, with story lines not even a fraction of the quality of Marathon. My kids still prefer Marathon to Halo. Halo 1 and 2 combined are still only half as long as Marathon 2.
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all my friends were on crackdown this morning while i used my key and downloaded. good stuff. still figuring out the nuances, tho. my gamertag is TheZombieSlayer.
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ShiniGamiSan - nobody plays first person shooters for the story. It's a bit of gravy that Halo even has an interesting backstory. But Halo has a wider audience than Marathon because it draws in players for other reasons than storyline. ATARI - the first Halo had an engrossing (though sometimes repetitive) campaign, and the best console multiplayer FPS action available to that point. What's not to like? KnowThyself and others - uh, the needler in all multiplayer iterations has always sucked. It was a decent weapon in Halo 1's campaign, and dual-wielded it absolutely rocked in Halo 2's campaign (I call dual needlers the Elite Killers). But anybody who knows how to strafe can shrug off needler fire like it's nothing in both of the first two Halos. I haven't fully play-tested the new one yet, but so far in the beta the needler seems slightly better than either of the previous two, while still being inferior to most other weapons in the game. The real tragedy of Halo 2 was the neutering of the plasma rifle - bring back the freeze function, Bungie! That shit was awesome. As it stands now the plasma rifle is just another boring rapid-fire, mid-range weapon.
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I don't think it's quite back to glory, sorry. It's a little juiced compared to 2, and a little more consistent - less of those inexplicable occasions where you drill someone in the chest almost point-blank and they walk away without a mark on them. But it still doesn't seem to have the range it had in the original game. In CE you could expect instant kills on anybody within arm's reach, and if someone was wounded the shotgun would tip them over from several yards away; but in 2 and now in the beta for 3, the shotgun seems to do absolutely nothing to people more than a few feet away. Several times now in the beta I was chasing someone at death's door, blasting away with the shotgun, and it never seemed to tip them over like you'd expect. (I've gotten used to it though - in 2 I've mastered the "run right up in their face, fire, then melee" routine that always results in a kill, and I'll be doing the same thing in 3 it looks like. Although now the melee is probably unnecessary if your aim is good.)
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Isn't "AICNQuint" anymore... that is his OLD gamertag that did not transfer to his Xbox 360 when he got it. So anyone sending friends requests to that tag is hitting a dead end.
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Anyone know how long us crackdown folks are being delayed for?
I need to know when I should skip outta work. :) -
Just kidding, I'm still waiting for a "later date." Love the halo series, Love the halo books, love the peter jackson stalled movie, love the rts coming next year, love the episodic halo game coming at the turn of the next century... Fuck, just call me Chief. Bungie's conquering the world!!!
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The shotgun was always a close up weapon. Except in Halo 2 where, depending upon network conditions, it could be used to precision levels from the other side of the map. In Halo 2 the shotgun was weak even without the network problems. Now it's a killtacular charge in weapon. No prisoners.Flip63Hole, maybe Quint doesn't want to play some other first person shooters. Maybe he has played other shooters and can't see the appeal you see in them? For what it's worth, I've played both Half Life 1 and 2 and the second one bored me immensely. It's a game for PC elitists whose only achievemnts in life will be to "have a better pc than you". Sorry, but if you're going to pick a game that's more engaging than Halo 1, at least pick something other than Half Life, all the mooks have made that statement already. Oh and Half Life only did well because of Counter Strike; so don't tout sales figures.
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games like HL2,CS:S,FEAR,BF2..and classics like Deusex,Unreal,Hl1,Noone LIves forever really dominate Halo. Why does halo get all this press over far better FPS comming out this year like Bioshock? I will never know..prolly the hype and popularity. It has several times been called the Linkin Park of shooters.
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Bungie said that crapdown should be fixed within the hour...YEAH!!!
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WEAK, i have reading to do anyway.
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i was all excited and then crackdown fucked it up
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I'M DOWNLOADING AS WE SPEAK! 90% COMPLETE!
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Halo always seemed like a pale imitation.
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was one of the 'rule of 3' winners, So i' was playing all night last night, no crapdown needed.
my gamertag is DoctorWhiskey if anyone wants to party up. -
ASS. This game fucking rocks. Major props to Bungie for thier fine work. Everything that needed fixing is fixed.It's slowed down a bit, you can't jump like fucking Superman anymore, sniping actually requires skill again, and I love reloading each dual wielded weapon seperatly! The new weapons and equipment are really cool. Even dying is pretty awesome! I can almost feel my skull exploding when I am the victim of a sniper's headshot. I also love the blood splatter on the snow and the way some of your weapons will float down the river when your dead.
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TheAtomicCow. Bet you couldn't guess that.
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