General Discussion I: The Purr of the Battle Rifle

Talk about whatever you want in here, Halo-related or not .

It's funny how excitement for a new game will make you look back at the series in-depth, even if you have grown utterly bored of the previous games already. I've been listening to old Halo music, looking at old concept art, etc. I even went back and beat Reach's campaign on Legendary for the first time just the other day.

The most fun I've had recently though is going back and playing Halo 3. I have to say, playing it again cleared any suspicions I had of whether or not Reach really is less fun. Everything in Halo 3 feels so smooth, so harmonious. Reach seems so angry by comparison. The Battle Rifle purrs like a kitten, while the DMR just sounds pissed off all the time. Grenades in Halo 3 are accurate and fast. Reach grenades are obnoxious-sounding mini-nukes that never do what you want, but you might get the kill anyways because of the ridiculous blast radius. Strafing in Halo 3 is buttery smooth. Strafing in Reach just frustrates your aim more.

What really surprised me though, was how much faster the games went by. You'd think that with Sprint, there would be more encounters in less time, therefore the game goes by faster. If anything, Sprint just slows the game down by allowing players to run away from battle. Bloom adds to this due to the last couple shots always being the hardest to hit. Then there's other things like Armor Lock that slow it down even further.

I feel like map design was better in 3 also, and it's not because the team became less talented, it's just that jump height allows areas to be spaced out in more unique ways. There's more vertical battles going on. You don't have AAs, but purely from your movement and the map design, there's just as many ways to avoid the enemy.

Anyway, going back and playing it made me even more excited for Halo 4. I can see a lot of similarities between the two games, and I think Halo 4 will benefit from that greatly.

One day my bro, and I were bored so we decided to play some Halo 3 co-op on legendary, and it was the best time I had in a long time.... to bad it doesn't work anymore

The BR is like a calm cat purrring away while the DMR is
an angry dog barking its head off.

I like the idea of a forge world 2 maybe it could be on one of the new planets the spartan IVs are exploring what do you guys think?

Craigy Boy, I'm pretty biased, but I imagine you getting a lot more playing time out of Halo 4. I'm really looking forward to the campaign this time around too. Much more than Reach, maybe more than Halo 3, it's hard to remember.

quote Rouge Elite

The BR is like a calm cat purrring away while the DMR is
an angry dog barking its head off.

Exactly!

I'm not sure where Forge World 2 will be, but they've implied that the multiplayer will take place aboard the Infinity spaceship. It has a holodeck-type thing that allows it to create any environment. Placing maps elsewhere certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility though, especially one that involves a Spartan Ops location. And really, they could copy an environment from elsewhere and still claim it's on the Infinity, and it really would make no difference.

quote Roy

I can see why the difference between the DMR and the Battle Rifle is by landslide. I think I have a bette control with Battle Rifle, the DMR just seems a lot weaker. I can imagine just using the Battle Rifle in Firefight (Spartan Opps in Halo 4) versus DMR in Reach's Firefight.

They could have used more maps instead of recycling Forge World. Yes, I like Forge World, but they need like another whole map that could be a Forge World 2.

Yeah, I think the BR was way better at taking out AI. The fact that the bullets spread slightly actually made getting headshots on the lower class enemies easier.

What are your favourite games, guys? I only ask because I don't feel that Halo is similar to many other games, so it would be hard to determine what sort of stuff you play.

I'm not a big Halo fan but I love post-apocalyptic games (as long as they're not ridiculous) and survival horror even though there aren't many out there these days.

Haha, Deadly Premonition looks god awful! Like the tackiest Resident Evil ever. Lately I've been digging Rage. I got myself Borderlands GOTY too but still haven't played it. Love Fallout, Dead Space, Arkham Asylum, F1 games and the likes.

quote EricF

What are your favourite games, guys? I only ask because I don't feel that Halo is similar to many other games, so it would be hard to determine what sort of stuff you play.

I'm not a big Halo fan but I love post-apocalyptic games (as long as they're not ridiculous) and survival horror even though there aren't many out there these days.

You're right, Halo really isn't similar to many other games, beyond being an FPS. There really isn't another game similar to Halo that I play.

Shooters and RPGs are mostly my thing. Other than that, I love Nintendo's first-party stuff. I'm a huge fan of the Smash Bros series in particular. The past few months I've really gotten into the competitive scene for Brawl and have started going to tournaments.

I went out and picked up Red Dead Redemption: GOTY yesterday. Probably the best 24 bucks I've spent all year.

quote EricF

I never ever played Super Smash Bros. to be honest (or any other similar knock-offs). My little brother is into th at sort of stuff but I've never actually sat down and given it a bash. I'm strictly an Xbox 360 dude.

Oh man, you should definitely try it. I typically hate fighting games, but for some reason this clicks with me. It's an easy game to pick up and play, but you can take it to such a far level.

The idea of bringing all the Nintendo characters together (plus Sonic and Snake) is pretty awesome in itself.