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grittyreboot posted:I just replayed the first one. What's the plot beat you're talking about? Oh it's the bit where Cortana recognises a hidden threat, but says there's no time to explain and that the Chief needs to deal with the problem right now. Which involves him traveling half an orbital away, navigating across a swamp and then crawling to the bottom of a tech dungeon before he encounters the threat (the Flood), when she could have explained this all to him several times over on account of her living in his earholes. The game's pretty fun, and I like the focus on interacting systems in interesting environments. It's also got a nice, cold atmosphere a lot of the time, since it's mostly just you and Cortana wandering around this large abandoned space, and Cortana is nice but also a bit chilly and remote. Sort of like if someone used a Myst world as the setting for a shooter. The reused levels are pretty annoying though.
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Apr 5, 2024 07:07
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My very first exposure to Halo was at my cousin's with her eventual husband. I didn't really play consoles much and knew the name but wasn't familiar with it. He's like "Let's play some Halo!" and gave me a controller, selected coop and went to the level selector and choose The Library. It wasn't until a few years later when I replayed it with other people did I realize there was actually a pretty fun game there.
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Apr 5, 2024 07:59
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Mine was at a friend's house, too. He decided the best way to show me "all the enemies" was that tedious slog where you go through the same circular room about a dozen times. He was all, "Isn't that great?" Meanwhile I was bored out of my mind.
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Apr 5, 2024 10:28
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I played with a mate who had no concept of teamwork. Just blasted through the game, because he's played it a bunch of times before and knew what he was doing, while I was trying to take it in at my own pace. I mostly spent the game feeling out of my depth and struggling to keep up. He wasn't a very good communicator, and it soured me on the games for a very long time.
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Apr 5, 2024 10:30
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Open Source Idiom posted:The reused levels are pretty annoying though. It's always been a major complaint about the first game but I never had an issue with it because it felt like a relatively authentic backtrack. There's only ever gonna be so many places of importance, it makes sense to return to the Control Room then fight your way out so it felt more cohesive, etc. Plus I like symmetry in stuff anyway so ending things back on the Autumn where you started felt like a fitting way to cap it off. Keyes is maybe the only level where it felt egregious to me. The sequel went hard to make every single section NEW! DIFFERENT! but it just felt more contrived, surprised you didn't throw in a darn lava level too while you're at it guys.
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Apr 5, 2024 11:19
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I found the Flood levels in Halo 2 to be much more of a slog than those of the first game tbh. "Sacred Icon" and "Quarantine Zone" are just slogs and a lot of that is because they beefed up the Flood and weakened the weapons that you would normally used against them in the first game. Like yea The Library is annoying, but at least the Shotgun is so OP you can blast away the Flood pretty easily, and Grenades in HaloCE are ridiculously OP (almost like mini nukes). Especially if playing coop.
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Apr 5, 2024 16:32
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Quarantine Zone has the fun tank section but the Sentinel factory and the gondola rode at the end are lame. Sacred Icon is just weak.
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Apr 5, 2024 16:34
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counterfeitsaint posted:My very first exposure to Halo was at my cousin's with her eventual husband. I didn't really play consoles much and knew the name but wasn't familiar with it. He's like "Let's play some Halo!" and gave me a controller, selected coop and went to the level selector and choose The Library. It wasn't until a few years later when I replayed it with other people did I realize there was actually a pretty fun game there. That's the worst possible way to use to introduce someone to Halo lmao
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Apr 5, 2024 16:37
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Just play Silent Cartographer on repeat.
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Apr 5, 2024 16:48
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Solaris 2.0 posted:I found the Flood levels in Halo 2 to be much more of a slog than those of the first game tbh. "Sacred Icon" and "Quarantine Zone" are just slogs and a lot of that is because they beefed up the Flood and weakened the weapons that you would normally used against them in the first game. These were not fun. Two's generally considered to be harder than the others, yeah? I think I read that somewhere, and I reckon a big part of that is those levels are kind of a slog. The lack of light when playing the Arbiter sucked, at least in the enhanced edition where everything is darker and more atmospheric. The Cortana level in the third game was also a huge slog. I've played through pretty much all of the games on PC now except Reach, which I've left for last. They're fun, and have different pluses and minuses, though with a steady descent in quality after the second game. I also think the first two are the only ones with intereting-ish plots, but none of the stories anything to write home about. Pretty much every game to feature Cortana, after the first, is putting her through the wringer for some reason, though weirdly I thought the fourth one was the only one to really make that work despite the plot being a weird load of floo-ey that includes the words "gene sock". And there's this tendency to just introduce different shaped objects for the player to run through, all with very Noun-y names. The first game gets away with this because it's the first, and the second game's High Charity levels are actually really cool and a departure from things (though, I guess, like a lot of that game they're levels from the first game But Bigger And More). Some very cool atmosphere all over the place though, even the fourth (definitely the worst, with some very random and arbitrary changes to weapons mechanics for no reasons I could determine).
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Apr 5, 2024 16:55
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Halo 2's story is split between John Halo's Die Hard stunts and Arbiter having a crisis of faith. The Arbiter stuff is interesting and well acted, only for him to get the bad levels that are a slog to play.
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Apr 5, 2024 17:15
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The trick for the flood in 2 and 3 is that plasma weapons melt them almost instantly, except the tank forms
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Apr 5, 2024 17:28
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RBA Starblade posted:The trick for the flood in 2 and 3 is that plasma weapons melt them almost instantly, except the tank forms Plasma is only good against them in 3. Flood in 2 need precision weapons or explosives or the sword because they will eat an entire magazine and not due unless you manage to hit the infection form burrowed in the chest.
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Apr 5, 2024 17:50
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Arc Hammer posted:Halo 2's story is split between John Halo's Die Hard stunts and Arbiter having a crisis of faith. The Arbiter stuff is interesting and well acted, only for him to get the bad levels that are a slog to play. Huh, interesting. I remember a fairly common sentiment being that once people sat with the game a bit, they realized they preferred the Arbiter sections for gameplay reasons as well as story. Teaming up with the hunters was one of the highest points in the game!
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Apr 5, 2024 19:36
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Trash Trick posted:Huh, interesting. I remember a fairly common sentiment being that once people sat with the game a bit, they realized they preferred the Arbiter sections for gameplay reasons as well as story. Teaming up with the hunters was one of the highest points in the game! Uprising and The Great Journey are both very fun levels, but The Arbiter, The Oracle, Sacred Icon and most of Quarantine Zone are pretty dull. Having active camo instead of a flashlight was sick.
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Apr 5, 2024 19:56
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In Bungie games you can be a girl or an alien, but you definitely can't be a girl alien. Unless you're a wizard.
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Apr 5, 2024 20:18
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Halo 2's early levels are some of the best in the series. Towards the end, though, all the enemies become bullet sponges. Even a Grunt can take a point blank shotgun blast and just shrug it off. It really drags the game down.
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Apr 5, 2024 21:06
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Well that's because the Halo 2 shotgun is rear end compared to the CE boomstick.
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Apr 5, 2024 21:23
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I'm playing through Halo CE again with my girlfriend on the Master Chief remaster, and I have to suggest to anyone doing it use the old graphics instead of the new. At first I thought maybe it was just the nostalgia talking, but then I got onto the Halo. In the original, the Forerunner structures are really dark and mysterious, dimly lit with an ominous fog that makes them stand out from the brightly lit super saturated Halo surface. Things like activating the light bridge or firing plasma weapons really pop against the dark environment. In the remake graphics engine everything is super bright as if they left a dynamic sun in the scene and it kills the mood.
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Apr 5, 2024 21:45
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Isometric Bacon posted:I'm playing through Halo CE again with my girlfriend on the Master Chief remaster, and I have to suggest to anyone doing it use the old graphics instead of the new. I brought this up a few days ago in a PYF thread. Yeah the newer graphics make everything look too busy and bright. Either 343's art director wanted to bring it in line with the more recent games, or they just plum didn't get what the original's director was going for aesthetics wise. Especially the first level featuring the Flood. It's supposed to be creepy, but it looks almost cheerful.
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Apr 5, 2024 22:55
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Yep, it's near total consensus that Halo 1 remaster graphics are hot rear end and destroy much of the intended atmosphere. They even negatively impact the gameplay itself, making it harder to quickly analyze engagements and causing shots to miss - this video is a pretty entertaining and thoughtful breakdown https://youtu.be/MyeCb99cb2Q?si=iKHpggJAwTkZkdfh Trash Trick fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Apr 6, 2024 |
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Apr 6, 2024 19:59
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Meanwhile Halo 2 Anniversary visuals are beautiful.
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Apr 6, 2024 20:10
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I went into MCC thinking they had also remastered 3's graphics as well. Early 360 games do not hold up well at all. It looks like everyone's wearing bad latex masks. Reach still looks pretty good though.
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Apr 6, 2024 22:23
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So I finally finished the series during my treadmill time, and I'm kind of pissed. Called the episode Halo and they hardly spent any time there. And we more than likely aren't getting a third season so that's it. At least Fallout was awesome.
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Apr 23, 2024 03:08
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Witcher/Halo vs Fallout/One Piece/Avatar Amazing the difference when the people making it give a poo poo about both the source material and making an engaging show with coherent plot and likeable characters.
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Apr 23, 2024 05:23
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Lammasu posted:So I finally finished the series during my treadmill time, and I'm kind of pissed. Called the episode Halo and they hardly spent any time there. And we more than likely aren't getting a third season so that's it. At least Fallout was awesome. Eh...it rated fairly highly in the Paramount dumpster fire. There is a modicum of hope it gets renewed.
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Apr 23, 2024 15:21
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C-Bangin' it 
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Colostomy Bag posted:Eh...it rated fairly highly in the Paramount dumpster fire. There is a modicum of hope it gets renewed. This might have been true a few weeks ago, but radio silence this long after the end of the season? Nah, RIP
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Apr 23, 2024 18:12
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counterfeitsaint posted:This might have been true a few weeks ago, but radio silence this long after the end of the season? Nah, RIP That's not a bad sign in and of itself, given the bloated organisational structures at play. The only reason Fallout had its second season get announced so fast was because a lot of the decision making was made ages ago (some of the season two stuff, nothing interesting just tax stuff, leaked before the season aired). I think there's some confidence, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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Apr 23, 2024 18:16
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counterfeitsaint posted:This might have been true a few weeks ago, but radio silence this long after the end of the season? Nah, RIP Paramount is deep in buyout discussions with Skydance, and Sony has partnered with a VC firm to explore purchase options for Paramount as well as all of National Amusements. No one at Paramount is signing off on huge expenses right now.
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Apr 23, 2024 19:16
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I didn't start watching Halo season 2 and then buy the Master Chief Collection for a tenner when pissed*, something something keeps going. *Yes I did. Ah, bum.
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Apr 25, 2024 03:08
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MCC is a steal for  It's halo 1, 2, 3, odst, reach, and 4, with singleplayer, co-op, and multiplayer for each. If you have any affinity for playing halo games at all, you'd be pretty daft to not take that deal.
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Apr 25, 2024 07:42
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plus you can easily download mods through the steam workshop for even more content, it's a good deal for sure
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Apr 25, 2024 08:01
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