Halo 3 online mutiplayer beta.

[Lyris]

Yeah, we should all have a game later on tonight. I've not played with many people from this forum before. (I'm Lyr1s on Xbox Live...)

[Charlie]

Finally got round to playing this on a mate's machine last night and was completely bowled over by how dull and tedious it is. Graphically, it's very average-looking, but worse the game plays almost identically to Halo 2 which begs the question why bother releasing a new game when so little of it is actually new?

Turned it off after a couple of hours, thoroughly unimpressed, and convinced the main reason Bunjie released it (the beta version) is because they have little confidence in it. Really, if you know something's good, you don't put a 90% complete version out asking what people think, just shows a lack of faith.

[Ben-K]

I'll be on at some point this evening. And I'll be staying on until they kick me off!

[Crisp_Rapper]

Really, if you know something's good, you don't put a 90% complete version out asking what people think, just shows a lack of faith.

it's for network testing, yo.

[Charlie]

I don't buy that. Look at how popular Gears and Forza 2 are, they didn't need beta versions to test networking.

[Yoshimax]

You think that - But I can 100% guarantee you they'd have been seriously beta tested during development - Just not by everybody who bought a certain game

As far as gears go - I don't think it'd have been a bad idea !!!! Get that shotty lag sorted for starters.

[Mr Pump]

Turned it off after a couple of hours, thoroughly unimpressed, and convinced the main reason Bunjie released it (the beta version) is because they have little confidence in it. Really, if you know something's good, you don't put a 90% complete version out asking what people think, just shows a lack of faith.

Your argument makes no sense what so ever

If they had no faith in the game it would make business sense to keep under wraps as much as possible until the public went out and paid hard cash for it.

Besides betas are stand practice for online games in the PC world and increasingly with consoles. I guess the creaters of warhawk, phantasy star,FFXI and Shadowrun attached an equal lack of faith in their products.

[Charlie]

But the fact they released the beta to the public shows they were more interested in feedback than testing the network in my opinion. When a poet/artist/author shows their half finished work to someone, it isn't because they're proud of what they're working on, it's because they're not sure if it's any good. And I think it's the same with Bunjie, they're uncertain if Halo 3 is enough and, in my opinion, it isn't.

[El Leone]

Gears needs cilent side detection so badly, even when the connections are good the bullets are still trailing by a few miliseconds. It really makes it hard to play seriously and competitively.

I've really enjoyed the beta personally, it was pretty cool getting to play it for almost a entire month (partly thanks to the early invitation I got to it by Bungie ).

worse the game plays almost identically to Halo 2

Try playing Halo 2 while the beta is fresh in your mind. There have been alot of things tweaked and changed, both dramatic and minor. Weapons, physics, vechicals, auto aim, level design, game types.

Really, if you know something's good, you don't put a 90% complete version out asking what people think, just shows a lack of faith

Source?

But the fact they released the beta to the public shows they were more interested in feedback than testing the network in my opinion

Thats right. They're interested in feedback about network performance. Halo's netcoding is pretty heavy and becuase they're adding more features to the server to perform they need testing (sharing videos - some unannounced and not in the beta). There's a huge difference between getting a few thousand people testing it compared to hunderds of thousands.

Halo 3 is enough and, in my opinion, it isn't

That's fair enough.

[Charlie]

The 90% reference was a guess, but I expect the final multiplayer mode to differ very little from the Beta. I'll gladly eat my words if proved wrong.

[Concept]

I think it's fair to say with only a couple of months of development time still left, that what we're seeing in multiplayer is from a technical standpoint what we'll be seeing in the final game. I don't have a problem with it.

Were you expecting Bungie to reinvent the wheel?

If they'd drastically changed things now it would have been double-edged. You know what rabid fanbases are like. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[EvilBoris]

the game plays almost identically to Halo 2 which begs the question why bother releasing a new game when so little of it is actually new?

Well it certainly wasn't going to play like Singstar was it!
What did you freaking expect?

[El Leone]

The 90% reference was a guess, but I expect the final multiplayer mode to differ very little from the Beta. I'll gladly eat my words if proved wrong.

Maybe graphically, I'm expecting (hoping) it'll look a fair amount more better (but probably not dramatic). Everything is in place, and now what just polish it up adding textures and ****niz onto it. I'm pretty happy with how it looks now, IMO Snowground and High Bound makes it look like Halo Next gen, Valhalla is fun to play but kinda ugly.

In terms of content, we've only seen very little. I could list stuff if you want, I don't mind.

[Charlie]

I can see it's a sensitive issue (especially amongst Halo fanboys and devotees) but I was hoping, and indeed expecting, the gameplay to have changed considerably more than it has done. Maybe it's down to a lack of imagination (or possibly courage) on behalf of Bunjie, but I don't see the point of releasing a new game when it's so similar to the last and, graphical improvements aside, I feel they might as well have just continued releasing new maps for Halo 2.

[El Leone]

What can I say? Alot of issues have been fixed from both Halo 1 and 2, some new stuff has been added (equipment) which can make battles pretty different. Anyone who has played Halo 2 and has it fresh in their mind will find big differences in the pace and generally how well it plays. Theres stuff they've holding back of and which hasn't been unnannounced (which in terms of gameplay may be big or not, I do not know). There's generally alot of stuff we haven't seen (Single player and so on).

Anyway as EvilBoris and Concept said, they've still got to maintain the Halo feeling, and reinventing it would not only make it not Halo but piss of alot of fans. Like in MGS2 when they made you play as Raiden (or the Arbiter), that created some outrages and that was only a model/character change!

What I can do is direct you towards Shadowrun which seems to be getting alot of love from people who don't like Halo. Not much else I can say, as we're already starting to repeat ourselves.

It's Bungie mate as well, it can sound like Bunjie but tis Bungie.