Halo Reach

[Matt]

Cool

[Brats]

What's interesting, to go back a few pages to the "You must play Halo games on Heroic or higher!" is that it was the first time I'd played it on Normal, as I was co-oping with a mate who'd just got a 360 online, and isn't really into FPS titles. The second sequence with the big scarab things, there was only one - there were two on Heroic / Legendary. Also at the top of the cliff there were some flying vehicle options I think, to take them on. These were also gone.

So it seems on Normal they scaled back the scale....

The third scarab encounter is the one with two scarabs and the flying vehicles where you can land on them. The second encounter (in the desert) there is only one.

[Matt]

The third scarab encounter is the one with two scarabs and the flying vehicles where you can land on them. The second encounter (in the desert) there is only one.

OK. It was the encounter at the end of level 5 or beginning of 6. Good news then, as I have fond memories of the double Scarab battle

[Brats]

Yeah it's level eight (just called Covenant) with the two scarabs. Brilliant level, one of the best in the series.

[Family Fry]

Ahhh the Halo 3 Scarab battles.....memories.
AIM FOR ITS FACE!

[Matt]

Yeah it's level eight (just called Covenant) with the two scarabs. Brilliant level, one of the best in the series.

Yeah. Really good in co-op, you'd get creative in the ways you took them down. Someone flies and someone bails out overhead. Proper action movie stuff

Fry, good pic, lol.

I liked the H3 photo mode. I've not looked into it, but I assume it's back for Reach?

[jimtendo]

Yep it's back.
Good news is that you can now skip back a few seconds in a campaign video, where in Halo 3 if you missed your photo opportunity, that's it, you got to start the video again!
There's no option to x2/x4/x8/x16 fast forward though.

[Matt]

Thanks Yeah I had some issues getting what you wanted with the camera in H3 due to the "keyframes". No surprise you can't skip forward though, I'm guessing it's calculating everything on the fly in realtime, it's not saving the state of every item at every frame.

Looking forward to playing around with it, grabbed some nice pics of the old game

[Uli]

does difficulty now adjust according to the number of players in co-op campaign?

[EvilBoris]

Several Reviews have mentioned it does, it must of been something that was pointed out to them by Bungie as opposed to experienced though, ad they all say it in the same way.

[cavalcade]

Is there anyone playing this with a terrible broadband connection? ODST Firefight never really worked for me, is the netcode any better in this?

[Ouenben]

A fair few missions in and loving it The music that kicks in during that sniping mission is epic!

Is there no hidden skulls in this game? Bit of a shame they were fun to find (ie use a guide for) in Halo 3.

[EvilBoris]

I think there are Hidden Data pads in this one

[Charlie]

Yeah, there's hidden data pads this time.

Completed the first six mission on Heroic and it's pretty good. The AI and set pieces are as fine as ever, and the graphics are noticeably crisper and cleaner. Level design ain't too bad either but doesn't approach that of Halo and Halo 2. Biggest disappointment so far is the music which seems more rock-influenced; there are still orchestral pieces, but fewer than I was expecting, and those that are there are okay but not brilliant.

Despite the new armour power ups there's nothing radically different from the previous games, but then I suppose you'd have to be crazy to make big changes to a series as successful as this. So, yeah, existing Halo fans should love it, those who don't won't find anything here to sway them.

[Charlie]

Forgot to mention I think they may have toned down the difficulty a little compared to ODST because I remember struggling a bit more playing ODST on Heroic. Or maybe the squad AI is better this time meaning they kill more enemies and take better cover. Probably the latter.