Halo 3 Beta

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Who's playing it? I found stats for Tessian and Blacklotus, and mine are here:

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/PlayerStats ... d%20Andrew

I've been playing FFA almost exclusively as I only really enjoy playing team games with friends. I did play the one VIP game last night because I wanted to check out Valhalla - it's lovely, and a worthy successor to Blood Gulch. Different enough that it doesn't freak me out, like Coag did.

Andrew's weapon reviews, real quick!

SMGs
Buffed. No longer feel like pop-guns. Recoil is manageable.

Spiker Pistols
Feel a lot like skinned SMGs with a stronger melee. Not quite sure yet what the point of these are.

Plasma Pistol
Nerfed. No longer able to run around with these perma-charged, thank Christ. Charged shot now has pretty sucky homing.

Assault Rifle
Nice (re)addition. Excellent short to mid-range, useless beyond that. Actually worth holding on to, unlike the SMG in Halo 2.

Shotgun
Pretty much exactly the same? Maybe a bit more useless at anything other than short range, but remains insane in close quarters.

Carbine
Far out, seriously buffed. I've got a feeling this might be the Halo 1 pistol of Halo 3. It's currently insane: super accurate to a really long distance, really powerful, but with a high enough fire rate that it's not useless at short range.

Battle Rifle
Nerfed hard - for me, anyway. Now requires way too much precision, and feels like it's a bit less powerful. Would choose the carbine over it in every situation now.

Sniper, Beam, Plasma Rifles
Untouched? All feel about as powerful as they did in Halo 2.

Brute Shot
Rate of fire increased, firepower maybe slightly decreased? It's more effective, whatever they've done with it, anyway.

Needler
Disappointingly, this looks exactly the same as it always has, but it's significantly more powerful. Needle tracking has been nerfed but the needles travel much faster, explode quicker, and for more damage. Excellent at mid-range, comparable to the carbine now IMO.

Rocket Launcher
As powerful as it always has been, with maybe a slight nerf to the splash damage radius?

Spartan Laser
I just cannot get the hang of this thing. This is one of those weapons that feels overpowered in everybody else's hands, heh.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Maps!

High Ground
Sweet mother of Christ, it's awesome. Awesome. Just unimaginably perfect. Beautiful, intricate, incredibly well-considered. About half base and half beach, with the base being a tightly woven nest of tunnels, small outside courtyards and towers, and the beach area being a longish, sniper-friendly hill with some tunnels running up both sides. It's really easy to get from any place on the map to any other place, but a million ways to do it, and heaps of fun "oh shit red dots everywhere, why can't I see anyone" moments.

Just a really, really nice map.

Snowbound
Had much hate for this one to start with but I'm starting to dig it now. Just had to get used to how differently it plays above and below ground. I tend to stay below unless I get my hands on a sniper rifle or carbine. Lots of fun playing between the force fields.

Valhalla
Big! Very big. But it feels pretty nice. Need to play more on it.

[Tessian]

Yeah I've been playing...it's fun for some short sessions, but I wasn't going to go reviewing weapons

Most of my Halo playing has been multiplayer on System-linked Xbox's...but a lot more Halo 1 than 2.

Right now it doesn't seem much better than Halo 2...but the back end with the matchmaking and the Live features and stuff like that is what I can't wait for (oh and the graphics).

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Yeah I've been playing...it's fun for some short sessions, but I wasn't going to go reviewing weapons

I'm a Halo nut, I'll admit it .

Most of my Halo playing has been multiplayer on System-linked Xbox's...

Ditto that. I've only played a little Halo 2 online - it's just too punishing. Too many jerks, too many children, too much cheating, too many bad sports. I intend to make full use of Halo 3's universal mute.

Right now it doesn't seem much better than Halo 2...but the back end with the matchmaking and the Live features and stuff like that is what I can't wait for (oh and the graphics).

Yeah, it's not leaps and bounds beyond 2, but 2 was almost perfect. The problems I had with it in multiplayer (weapon imbalance, mostly - Halo 2 was all about the power weapons) look to have been addressed, so I'm happy.

I can't wait for the single-player campaign. I do hope we can play as the Arbiter again. The mission where you fight against the brutes and jackals alongside other elites, grunts and hunters is probably my favourite in the series. Team Awesome versus Team Ugly, go!

[Tessian]

Was I the only one who saw the trailer for Halo 3 and mistook it for an episode of 24?

[Zeus]

Was I the only one who saw the trailer for Halo 3 and mistook it for an episode of 24?

Which one? :-)

[Blotus]

I was playing around with launching things off the man cannon in Valhalla tonight. My plan was to push a mongoose onto it and throw a trip mine on the mongoose at the same time. Conveniently, two of my teammates jumped on the mongoose at the very time I was doing so and they were launched on an explosive goose with hilarious results.

Trying to take down a banshee with a trip mine/man cannon is terribly difficult (there's a video around somewhere). What isn't as hard though is launching yourself at a banshee with plasma grenades. I came inches from sticking one on one attempt.

Fuck I wish you could do custom games (without it being a ridiculousy convoluted glitch).

What's your tag, Andrew?

[Tessian]

Was I the only one who saw the trailer for Halo 3 and mistook it for an episode of 24?

Which one? :-)

I forget exactly...it was the Chief going against a large group of guys, I remember at one point him jumping off a cliff into the middle of a group of them...but the entire trailer reminded me of something Bauer would do.

[Zeus]

Was I the only one who saw the trailer for Halo 3 and mistook it for an episode of 24?

Which one? :-)

I forget exactly...it was the Chief going against a large group of guys, I remember at one point him jumping off a cliff into the middle of a group of them...but the entire trailer reminded me of something Bauer would do.

That was the original announcement trailer.

Bauer jump into a group of mercenaries? No, man, he would walk towards them in mid-day with a small hand-pistol against high-powered rifles and calmly take them out one by one with one bullet each :-)