Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

[DakAttack]

After a full twelve hours of waiting Bungee finally manages to work the kinks out of their Crackdown version of the Halo 3 beta. Unfortuantely there's really only more waiting as Xbox Live chugs along attempting to download the game, and then again during Matchmaking as you watch yourself join countless games just to leave them for no apparent reason.

Most of the problems start during matchmaking where simple mathematics fall apart and logic ceases to function. The game uses a level system similar to Halo 2, and by uses I mean fakes its way through. I have never seen more lopsided teams in my life, and at this point I really have to wonder what exactly your level represents; your personal level of skill or the luck you've had finding a good team?

The game dynamics are pretty unreliable. Some times you spawn next to a team mate, and others out in the middle of nowhere. You have just as much chance of spawning on top of an enemy player as they do on you, and it's not uncommon. It doesn't quite matter what gun you pick up because each is as unreliable as the next. Smoking grenades stream through the air like crumpled up pieces of paper.

There's really nothing in this beta that's at all reliable. At one point I charged up a flight of stairs with a shotgun at a person who's wielding the Spartan Laser, and for those of you not familiar with this gun it has a period where it must warm up before it fires a gigantic laser instantly killing anybody in its path. I had enough time to put two slugs into the person's chest, when the first should have been enough to take him down, before the gun went off at point blank range and killed me.

Hopefully I can get more games under my belt for a better impression.

[Caspian]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Well, shotgun was a piece of crap for the first year two was out, so hopefully they'll get it worked out before release.

[Malacite]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

I had enough time to put two slugs into the person's chest, when the first should have been enough to take him down, before the gun went off at point blank range and killed me.

Welcome to the shotgun of Halo 2. This is why this is a Beta. It is incomplete, and is subject to strong, constructive criticism of the testers. Please god or w/e higher power(s) that be, MAKE BUNGIE UN-**** the shotgun ; ;


Aside from that, everything I've read about it from IGN has me drooling over Halo 3, especially the new Sept. 25 Release date.

[raidenn]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Well that is a shotgun you know, uses bullets which spray metal balls. What does it exactly do on someone with plated body armor?

[Skoal]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Well that is a shotgun you know, uses bullets which spray metal balls. What does it exactly do on someone with plated body armor?

Well a slug is actually just one one big shot. Buckshot is the ammo that spreads out into separate balls. And with any shotgun, the closer you are the more damage it does.

[DakAttack]

One of the bigger problems with Halo 2 is that they went and made the grenades stronger for no reason which turned the game into a throwing competition. It's still the same way in Halo 3.

And why the hell does the Halo franchise attract the biggest idiots and the biggest losers on Earth? Why can't I be put on a competant team for once? The game is called Capture the Fscking Flag, not Team Slayer W/ Flag, it's there for a reason.

I get extremely competitive for some reason. All I ask for are competant team mates or game where I can be awarded for my individual efforts.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Expressing disappointment in a beta test is like being disappointed in your six-month old for not comprehending algebra.

The point of a beta is not to be part of a super-cool multi-player extravaganza that is polished to a shine. The point is to play a rather broken video game and submit suggestions and point out flaws.

Its kinda like playing an MMORPG, except MMOs live in eternal state of beta.

[DakAttack]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Expressing disappointment in a beta test is like being disappointed in your six-month old for not comprehending algebra.

The point of a beta is not to be part of a super-cool multi-player extravaganza that is polished to a shine. The point is to play a rather broken video game and submit suggestions and point out flaws.

Its kinda like playing an MMORPG, except MMOs live in eternal state of beta.

So what you're saying is that the game will change so completely that it'll actually be a completely different game but under the same name?

It's so crazy it makes sense.

[Caspian]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Actually...it kinda is.

When 2 came out, shotgun blew. In the first a shotgun followed by an immediate melee was an instant kill. For nearly the first year 2 was out shotgun blew. They finally changed it so that shotgun+melee was an instant kill again.

As for competent teammates, its Halo, an FPS on a console. Its always been like that. The good players join a good team early on, and they are few and far between. You want a much higher percentage of capable players, play Counter-Strike. Most good FPS players play on PC.

Your rank is determined by points, you gain a lot more points than you lose. If you play enough, you'll keep going up regardless. Last I heard, there were lots of players at rank 50 (the highest rank at the time) about a year ago or so. They reset it occasionally when they fix major hacking problems, but I'm not sure how much they do that anymore.

[Legal Fish]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Fun Fact:

If someone would of said the same negative things about FFXI's beta(of course changed to fit the game), DakAttack would write a post detailing how that player is wrong to think so.

[DakAttack]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

Your rank is determined by points, you gain a lot more points than you lose. If you play enough, you'll keep going up regardless. Last I heard, there were lots of players at rank 50 (the highest rank at the time) about a year ago or so. They reset it occasionally when they fix major hacking problems, but I'm not sure how much they do that anymore.

The Halo 2 rank system worked fairly well. In the middle portion you had a lot of people who played well. At the top you had cheaters, and at the bottom you had idiots. Most people would settle out somewhere within the middle portion because they had the idiot buffer and the cheater cieling.

As I hinted in the first post I'm still playing and hoping for better impressions. From my continued experiences rank matches tend to have the better players if you can get past rank one, but it can be difficult when the teams are stacked. It's more of a struggle than it needs to be just to get started.

[Jei]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

So what you're saying is that the game will change so completely that it'll actually be a completely different game but under the same name?

It's so crazy it makes sense.

What do you think beta is? Just a free play?
Beta is for the dev to get mass feed back so they can make adjustments to their game.
That's the whole point. They want the game to be fun to the mass, so the mass will buy their game.

[Malacite]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

One of the bigger problems with Halo 2 is that they went and made the grenades stronger for no reason which turned the game into a throwing competition. It's still the same way in Halo 3.

What are you on and where can I get some?

'nades have been significantly weaker since Halo: CE. Even after the update in 2 that increased their power, it can still take 2-3 to kill someone depending at what range the blast hits them from. Though in all seriousness, frag grenades need to be changed...

no grenade in the world detonates like that. You can NOT pack that much explosive power into a grenade. either give us phospherous (sp?) or make frag's do what they're supposed to; send shrapnel flying everywhere.


Oh, and a shotgun has an effective range of 20-30 feet, so Bungie needs to get their act together, drop pistols (as my military friend tells me, NO ONE issues pistols to field troops anymore save for officers) and make rifles the standard. Machine guns are repeatedly too weak in these games and it's annoying as hell.


Rather than nerf the guns themselves, focus on using cover/surroundings ala GoW.

[DakAttack]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

no grenade in the world detonates like that. You can NOT pack that much explosive power into a grenade. either give us phospherous (sp?) or make frag's do what they're supposed to; send shrapnel flying everywhere.

Brute grenades use shrapnel, but in a cheesy kind of bounce off the walls way. They also stick to any surface.

Oh, and a shotgun has an effective range of 20-30 feet, so Bungie needs to get their act together, drop pistols (as my military friend tells me, NO ONE issues pistols to field troops anymore save for officers) and make rifles the standard. Machine guns are repeatedly too weak in these games and it's annoying as hell.

I haven't seen a pistol yet.

Rather than nerf the guns themselves, focus on using cover/surroundings ala GoW.

Arg, GoW was only good the first time through. The only reason you could use cover in GoW was because grenades could be difficult to throw. Here we can easily lob a grenade over or around you cover more easily than walking around it to kill you.

[Malacite]

Re: Disappointed with Halo 3 Beta

The pistol is absent in the beta for some odd reason....


I luvs my Spartan Laser though. Best toy evar...