Halo : Reach Beta

[Family Fry]

About 4 games we couldn't get ANYWHERE near the core evac, we got the core out of the building and it was just painful after, waves and waves of Elites going down to a strong team of Spartans. They all stuck together like glue and were all over the stairs to the evac.
Invasion slayer is just as bad especially when people forget it's slayer and not territories! GRRR.
Bit disappointed with the gametype it is only one map though maybe it will play better with different maps.

[PeteJ]

Really enjoying this gametype, highlight of the beta for me. Always seem to land on the Spartan side and our team have won every round, I think the balance needs tweaking. Agree with the comments that the attacking team should have to get both objectives to make it more interesting, but increase the round timer to give the elites a fighting chance.

[JohnMcL7]

Originally I only seemed to be on the Spartan side, then only on the Elite side however last night it went Spartan, Elite, Spartan, Elite so I guess it is just random.

I'm still finding it very unbalanced in favour of the Spartans, I've seen some good Elite teams who work well together and take advantage of the pairs to keep spawning each other and cover the Elites doing the objectives. They can get through the first and second objectives quickly but still can't get the core out of the evac point - as long as two Spartans are on the ball they can stop a well organised and competent Elite team. By that point the Spartans are getting the shotgun loadout, the rocket launcher is nearby, the respawn point is near making it all easy to take down incoming Elites. As the room is enclosed the Elites can't really use the vehicles to help at all.

If they get the core out it doesn't get any easier as it needs to be carried all the way past two spartan respawn points in the wide open making it a breeze for spartans to keep the core covered. Any time I've seen the Elites win more recently it's been a really, really sloppy Spartan team. I did wonder if there was a glitch though with the core as one game I was on the commentator went crazy going ' core dropped/core retrieved/dropped/retrieved/dropped about 30 times over and somehow the core ended up outside the building despite a relatively strong spartan team.

Is it just me or is there hardly any headset talk? It's a pleasant surprise as the kids screaming on Halo 2 used to do my head in, the matchmaking also works surprisingly well.

John

[EvilBoris]

There are definately balancing issues on that map, I'm not entirely sure where the elites power weapons which doesn't help.

Having to carry the core across that big empty area is often quite a task as everywhere overlooks it and many times the game type feels no different to capture the flag.
I'm guessing that Bungie will be easily able to tell that the Spartan team wins more often and make the neccesary adjustments. Fingers crossed for that one as I've noticed they are becoming increasingly thick skinned in regards to critiscm, but that probably is because there are so many people that don't like Halo moaning and then loads of people that do like it moaning , I imagine it becomes hard to filter through it.

[EvilBoris]

Well the new map went up in the NT1 playlist.

Something fishy is going on with it, Bungie claim it is to stress test the network code, but there are only 6 players in the gametype, also there is a weird delay on all movement....just like Halo 3 co-op. This delay isn't present in any other gametype.

6 players in game, 6 members of Noble Team......

Do I smell 6 player co-op?

[JohnMcL7]

I was bit puzzled by that map as there doesn't seem to be any sign of anything that is a network test, I expected it to be something more obvious.

The main problem that stands out to me with six player co-op is Jorge-052 as he's the only mk II in the team and he's noticeably different to the others.

John

[Lyris]

Am I the only one who sometimes can't get into the beta? I put in the ODST Campaign disc but "EXTRAS" remains greyed out and selecting it tells me the feature is not available. Server issues?

[EvilBoris]

I was bit puzzled by that map as there doesn't seem to be any sign of anything that is a network test, I expected it to be something more obvious.

The main problem that stands out to me with six player co-op is Jorge-052 as he's the only mk II in the team and he's noticeably different to the others.

John

I don't think that means too much in game land,but how so, out of interest?

[JohnMcL7]

I don't think that means too much in game land,but how so, out of interest?

The five mk III's in the Noble team are all much the same as they're using similar armour and went through similar biochemical augmentation therefore gameplay wise you could have co-op across all of them without having to make any gamplay or cosmetic changes so that works fine.

Jorge-052 is fairly different to the mk III's in both his armour and augmentation process (he was given the best possible in both regards whereas the Mk III's were created as disposable), you can see in the Halo Reach trailer just how much bigger he is than the mk III's as they walk out to the transports. So if they go with six player co-op they're either going to have to make him the same as the others which would mean his role in the game is fairly pointless as I'm assuming him and his superior capabilities are going to be part of the story. The other choice is he does play differently to the mk III's but I think that would cause problems as you'd have people arguing either to be him or not rather than just all being equal.

John

[MJ]

Are people still playing the beta?

[EvilBoris]

The five mk III's in the Noble team are all much the same as they're using similar armour and went through similar biochemical augmentation therefore gameplay wise you could have co-op across all of them without having to make any gamplay or cosmetic changes so that works fine.

Jorge-052 is fairly different to the mk III's in both his armour and augmentation process (he was given the best possible in both regards whereas the Mk III's were created as disposable), you can see in the Halo Reach trailer just how much bigger he is than the mk III's as they walk out to the transports. So if they go with six player co-op they're either going to have to make him the same as the others which would mean his role in the game is fairly pointless as I'm assuming him and his superior capabilities are going to be part of the story. The other choice is he does play differently to the mk III's but I think that would cause problems as you'd have people arguing either to be him or not rather than just all being equal.

John

Well as Halo Reach doesn't feel any different to Halo 3, I don't think it's going to be any big issue when it comes to gameplay. Maybe they will just remove him having to have health packs.
Also I did read that the The Spartan guys in Halo Reach are all wearing a smaller size mjolnir armour.

[JohnMcL7]

Halo Reach does feel different though, there's health packs, no dual wielding and no heavy weapons. It is Mjolnir armour the mk III's are wearing (rather than the basic non-shielded armour most of them had) but Jorge-052 has a heavier duty version plus he's physically stronger himself hence his role with the heavy weapons. I agree it is suspicious that they had a six player network test though.

I'm a bit disappointed there's been no tweaking to the invasion game as the last couple of nights I've been playing it the Elites have lost every single time despite some very good teams. One managed to get through the first to objectives incredibly quickly but still could get nowhere with the core. I managed to assassinate a Spartan with the laser who was guarding at the top which worked out quite well as I could spawn in my team-mate and take out the Scorpion while the energy sword and stealth stopped anyone getting me. That was until an idiot team-mate attacked me with the wraith...*sigh* With the Spartans able to respawn with heavy weapons right on top of the core and its path to the evac it's no wonder it's so hard to get by, I just hope the final release is better balanced as it could be an enjoyable gametype.

John

[JohnMcL7]

I'm guessing it's now over despite the extension, I've just tried to get onto and was warned that although I could play the system would be unstable and matchmaking would be running poorly. It wouldn't load the playlists and all the details for my player were missing bar the rank.

Oh well, roll on autumn.

John

[MJ]

Now it's over, Bungie talk beta:

http://www.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=BWU_052110