What's your favorite Halo: CE map? (Progress: COMPLETE)

IMO I would realistically expect the aliens to be chosen by the forerunners, and humanity would have been attacking them because muh butthurt

Actually, that would have been an original idea. I notice a trend in sci-fi these days. Humanity always seems to land as "muh chosen ones" in some form or another. Portrayed as inherently "good" or "okay," or, "worthy."

Mass Effect was another series guilty of falling into that gay ass cliche of a trap as well.

I was actually thinking this it's always the good ole' humanity that saves the day with kindness and honesty, tbh i would see humanity as the greedy powerful types

Like I said. "Muh chosen ones" complex.

In Halo, in all instances in the lore, humanity had apparently done nothing wrong and was seemingly portrayed as the small kid on the block while everybody else was the big bad bullies to them.

And in Mass Effect, especially in 3 where shit became big time Earth centric, Humanity got themselves flagged as genetically superior by the Reapers and became the prime conversion target.

I don't think I've ever played a game or read a book where Humanity didn't have some sort of pivotal central role because of some special innate and invisible quality.

And it's kinda gay, the more I spot it frankly.

Yeh. Bungie kind of started that trend in games. In fairness, humanity got fucked over by the forerunners before the firing of the array.

But I basically rewrote half my own thing when I realise I was falling into this trap. Then again, my human faction only really got powerful because they arrived in the middle of a war and ended up ring the influencing factor for one side.

Actually, not really. Again, fell into the trap. The Forerunners only ever ended up firing the Halos because they got into a row with the Precursors who decided that humanity would be the inheritors of the mantle. Cue a good long millenia later when the flood return and the rest is history.

I count 3, if not 4 instances in the series alone.

1. Precursors giving the mantle to Humanity and the Forerunners getting all pissy about it, killing the milky way Precursors

2. Humanity aggressively expanding but actually fleeing the Flood, dunked on by the Forerunners, and, expressly taken an interest in by the Flood-Precursors

3.Post-Array activation, Humanity starting up again as delightful little flowers before the big bad bully on the block got all pissy when their leaders learned that Humans weren't relics but in fact, Reclaimers.

Special snowflake syndrome, that is.

I more meant humans being BTFO by the forerunners after their war and being reduced to cavemen.

Anyway;

2- Not really humans fault. The Precursors created the flood as a weapon against the forerunners. Humanity found it first and got destroyed by it.

3- The Primordial took an interest because he believed the Humans had found a cure. It is strongly implied this was a lie and there was no cure, but either way, the Primordial took an interest because he was decieved. Not because humans r special

To be honest, a lot of the forerunner saga stuff had to be written to explain the status quo that bungie enforced in their reign with humans r special. Which is a shame, I'm more of a fan of when someting occurs randomly. I preferred the idea of the flood as this big intergalactic.. thing that had consumed multiple galaxy like the they did the Forerunners before the Forerunner saga solidified the precursors.

Same here. They seemed more threatening as an advanced evolutionary lifeform on their own. Imagine that. A parasite that was so hyper evolved it was operating on galactic scale, enough to give even the Forerunners a kick to the dick.

Over what they are now, basically a tool just like the Reapers.

Yeh.

Honestly, I'm still not sure about the interperetation of the forerunners. It's cool, but seems... Can't put my finger on it, but it doesn't seem right. Maybe it's just the fact I don't like having ancient empires who left behind artifacts for all the new empires to squabble over trope. Seems pretty lazy when that's your motivation for political stuff and wars.

I mean, I like it in moderation. There were a few planets in ME with the descriptions that pre-prothean empires reigned there, but that's it. We don't see them as a major thing, but they provide depth to the universe by reinforcing that the current civilisations and the protheans aren't the only ones that have existed.

All that said, bungie's original intention; that the forerunners were humans and the flood an experiment gone wrong, is even more boring, IMO.

Exactly the same here. I was put off by the ancient empires thing. Not only for humanity but for everybody else too. I always liked the original vibe they set off, which is now at this point, tarnished.

They were alone in their advancements in the galaxy. No other species was going as fast as them. So, obviously, they were caretakers. Then they bumped into the Flood, extra-galactic origin, and waged war, utterly, completely lost, and made the ultimate sacrifice for everybody yet to come, if anything, to buy them some time.

Now I don't see automated machines, the only thing left after the Forerunners hit the killswitch, building the portal to the ark on africa as early man watched them in wonder.

I see politics and, to be honest, a cunt of a species.

Alas, the dangers of "too much information."

I find the inter-rate politics fascinating, honestly. But the series had to get back round to the Forerunners eventually, you can't keep a plot of human vs alien forever, lest it get stale. Despite my own personal distaste for having an ancient species+artifacts in the first place, I think Halo 5 is handling it really well.

The one thing that puts me off is the fact that we're actually facing Forerunners now. It doesn't seem feasible, especially with their engineering feats and capabilities. I'd have preffered if things related to forerunners stayed automated to their machinery.

And what really gets me iffy is the fact that now, for some apparent reason, the forerunners get a nerf. Forerunner aircraft getting taken out by homing rockets?

Simple ballistics? Battlesuits and hardlight getting demolished by bullets?

Really? Come on now. The hell happened to all that powerful engineering?

Gameplay != canon. remember, plasma bolts burn peoples faces off and needlers can kill with one crystal exploding and spreading micro-shrapnel throughout the body.

Besides, the didact wasn't even killed by falling into slipspace, and you saw just how badly John was getting massacred by the Didact. It took six composers exploding at the same time while a section of halo ring was detached to fall into the gravity well of a gas giant to kill him. Even then, he's referred to as 'contained' rather than dead.

Well, see, here's the thing.

Gameplay equates to the experience and the story. If you pass through a level and blow up some forerunner aircarft with your hydra homo rockets over there, then that's technically how it went. If you drop that section of the story into a book, the outcome is still the same.

And that's what I'm saying. I really, really want my gameplay to start reflecting canon. It'd be cool if they could find some way of doing that. Would help with the immersion.

If they did it by canon, then it'd be like playing on Legendary ++ all the time. Bullets would be literally useless.

Actually, it would get rid of making unsc weapons the staple weapons..


Anyway. It has been said that gameplay is done for balancing purposes and shouldn't be a factor for deciding that gun's damage in the canon or whatever. Rather, the campaign should be seen as a guide to the general story (IE Chief gets out of a crashed pelica, defends a courtyard from covenant, moved through the alleys of mombasa, drives a warthog through the underpass and then drives a tank across a bridge, for example).

Because in-lore, bullets are useless against shielding, grunts are lucky to even get a plasma pistol and unsc forces prefer to pick up covenant weapons whenever they can because they're superior.

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T THEY SHOW IT THEN.

Instead we get cutscenes of eggheads and co. in the Infinity mary-suing about. Spartan-ops. Infinity was boarded.

Lasky went rambo on Promethian Soldiers with a shotgun.

And grunts with no weapons? In book lore, Grunts are known for being sturdy as fucking shit. They can rip apart marines with their hands easily. Why can't we have mobs of rabid, melee based grunts trying to rip you apart?

Dunno. Needs to be exciting, I guess.

That would be awesome.

Seconded. I'd love a Halo game like that.

You know what might be nice? A Halo game using something like X-com mechanics. Those games are noted for not fucking around with pissy aliens. And by extension, none of the aliens in Halo are pissy.

Grunts are only noted as Grunts because they're used as throwaway canon fodder. They're short and stocky but they've the strength to walk and fire a fuel rod cannon one handed.

Something a Spartan can't do without two hands. Just once, I'd love a Halo game where the Covenent were portrayed like they are. A credible and incredibly dangerous threat that trumped Humanity on almost all levels.

That shit is only like 50 pounds.

A fuel rod? no

A fully trained ODST had trouble picking one up in first strike. and a grunt could probably duel wield those things

Idk this might be a canon fuck up cuz on wiki leaks it says 51 pounds loaded

http://www.halopedia.org/Type-33_fuel_rod_gun


Grunts are strong but they would still get whooped by humans in a straight up 1 v 1 fight. inb4 11 page argument

Not in the lore

Grunts eat people

They were basically set loose on civilian populations and ate them

Those things are fucking vicious

I know, but 1 they were civilians and 2 the gruntos probably outnumbered the people by a huge margin.

Not saying they aren't viscous. The one thing I'd love in a halo game is being swarmed by thousands of grunts.

Marines also have been dunked by grunts before as well. Happened on Reach. However.

50 pounds you say? Refer to my post above. The cannon itself may be "light" but the recoil on the weapon is tremendous. And for the record, 50 pounds is not light to hold in one arm, at all. I know what 50 pounds weighs like.

So I have a grasp of what firing a 50 pound object with recoil would be like. Judging by the fact that the cannon can lob rounds for a few hundred feet, as I said, the recoil on that gun is going to be fucking massive.

So do I, I've hauled shit over 50 pounds countless times while working construction with my brother.

If I recall correctly in one of the books a grunt named dabab gets fucking raped by a lone ship captain before an engineer throws a rock at his head.

Usually humans are somewhere within the grunt-jackal range of strength in halo.

The captain had a fire hydrant and took Dadap by surprise. and the engineer threw the rock with such a force it caved the guy's skull in. this was first contact, remember, so they had never encountered humans before.

IMO I would realistically expect the aliens to be chosen by the forerunners, and humanity would have been attacking them because muh butthurt

Actually, that would have been an original idea. I notice a trend in sci-fi these days. Humanity always seems to land as "muh chosen ones" in some form or another. Portrayed as inherently "good" or "okay," or, "worthy."

Mass Effect was another series guilty of falling into that gay ass cliche of a trap as well.

I was actually thinking this it's always the good ole' humanity that saves the day with kindness and honesty, tbh i would see humanity as the greedy powerful types

Like I said. "Muh chosen ones" complex.

In Halo, in all instances in the lore, humanity had apparently done nothing wrong and was seemingly portrayed as the small kid on the block while everybody else was the big bad bullies to them.

And in Mass Effect, especially in 3 where shit became big time Earth centric, Humanity got themselves flagged as genetically superior by the Reapers and became the prime conversion target.

I don't think I've ever played a game or read a book where Humanity didn't have some sort of pivotal central role because of some special innate and invisible quality.

And it's kinda gay, the more I spot it frankly.

Yeh. Bungie kind of started that trend in games. In fairness, humanity got fucked over by the forerunners before the firing of the array.

But I basically rewrote half my own thing when I realise I was falling into this trap. Then again, my human faction only really got powerful because they arrived in the middle of a war and ended up ring the influencing factor for one side.

Actually, not really. Again, fell into the trap. The Forerunners only ever ended up firing the Halos because they got into a row with the Precursors who decided that humanity would be the inheritors of the mantle. Cue a good long millenia later when the flood return and the rest is history.

I count 3, if not 4 instances in the series alone.

1. Precursors giving the mantle to Humanity and the Forerunners getting all pissy about it, killing the milky way Precursors

2. Humanity aggressively expanding but actually fleeing the Flood, dunked on by the Forerunners, and, expressly taken an interest in by the Flood-Precursors

3.Post-Array activation, Humanity starting up again as delightful little flowers before the big bad bully on the block got all pissy when their leaders learned that Humans weren't relics but in fact, Reclaimers.

Special snowflake syndrome, that is.

I more meant humans being BTFO by the forerunners after their war and being reduced to cavemen.

Anyway;

2- Not really humans fault. The Precursors created the flood as a weapon against the forerunners. Humanity found it first and got destroyed by it.

3- The Primordial took an interest because he believed the Humans had found a cure. It is strongly implied this was a lie and there was no cure, but either way, the Primordial took an interest because he was decieved. Not because humans r special

To be honest, a lot of the forerunner saga stuff had to be written to explain the status quo that bungie enforced in their reign with humans r special. Which is a shame, I'm more of a fan of when someting occurs randomly. I preferred the idea of the flood as this big intergalactic.. thing that had consumed multiple galaxy like the they did the Forerunners before the Forerunner saga solidified the precursors.

Same here. They seemed more threatening as an advanced evolutionary lifeform on their own. Imagine that. A parasite that was so hyper evolved it was operating on galactic scale, enough to give even the Forerunners a kick to the dick.

Over what they are now, basically a tool just like the Reapers.

Yeh.

Honestly, I'm still not sure about the interperetation of the forerunners. It's cool, but seems... Can't put my finger on it, but it doesn't seem right. Maybe it's just the fact I don't like having ancient empires who left behind artifacts for all the new empires to squabble over trope. Seems pretty lazy when that's your motivation for political stuff and wars.

I mean, I like it in moderation. There were a few planets in ME with the descriptions that pre-prothean empires reigned there, but that's it. We don't see them as a major thing, but they provide depth to the universe by reinforcing that the current civilisations and the protheans aren't the only ones that have existed.

All that said, bungie's original intention; that the forerunners were humans and the flood an experiment gone wrong, is even more boring, IMO.

Exactly the same here. I was put off by the ancient empires thing. Not only for humanity but for everybody else too. I always liked the original vibe they set off, which is now at this point, tarnished.

They were alone in their advancements in the galaxy. No other species was going as fast as them. So, obviously, they were caretakers. Then they bumped into the Flood, extra-galactic origin, and waged war, utterly, completely lost, and made the ultimate sacrifice for everybody yet to come, if anything, to buy them some time.

Now I don't see automated machines, the only thing left after the Forerunners hit the killswitch, building the portal to the ark on africa as early man watched them in wonder.

I see politics and, to be honest, a cunt of a species.

Alas, the dangers of "too much information."

I find the inter-rate politics fascinating, honestly. But the series had to get back round to the Forerunners eventually, you can't keep a plot of human vs alien forever, lest it get stale. Despite my own personal distaste for having an ancient species+artifacts in the first place, I think Halo 5 is handling it really well.

The one thing that puts me off is the fact that we're actually facing Forerunners now. It doesn't seem feasible, especially with their engineering feats and capabilities. I'd have preffered if things related to forerunners stayed automated to their machinery.

And what really gets me iffy is the fact that now, for some apparent reason, the forerunners get a nerf. Forerunner aircraft getting taken out by homing rockets?

Simple ballistics? Battlesuits and hardlight getting demolished by bullets?

Really? Come on now. The hell happened to all that powerful engineering?

Gameplay != canon. remember, plasma bolts burn peoples faces off and needlers can kill with one crystal exploding and spreading micro-shrapnel throughout the body.

Besides, the didact wasn't even killed by falling into slipspace, and you saw just how badly John was getting massacred by the Didact. It took six composers exploding at the same time while a section of halo ring was detached to fall into the gravity well of a gas giant to kill him. Even then, he's referred to as 'contained' rather than dead.

Well, see, here's the thing.

Gameplay equates to the experience and the story. If you pass through a level and blow up some forerunner aircarft with your hydra homo rockets over there, then that's technically how it went. If you drop that section of the story into a book, the outcome is still the same.

And that's what I'm saying. I really, really want my gameplay to start reflecting canon. It'd be cool if they could find some way of doing that. Would help with the immersion.

If they did it by canon, then it'd be like playing on Legendary ++ all the time. Bullets would be literally useless.

Actually, it would get rid of making unsc weapons the staple weapons..


Anyway. It has been said that gameplay is done for balancing purposes and shouldn't be a factor for deciding that gun's damage in the canon or whatever. Rather, the campaign should be seen as a guide to the general story (IE Chief gets out of a crashed pelica, defends a courtyard from covenant, moved through the alleys of mombasa, drives a warthog through the underpass and then drives a tank across a bridge, for example).

Because in-lore, bullets are useless against shielding, grunts are lucky to even get a plasma pistol and unsc forces prefer to pick up covenant weapons whenever they can because they're superior.

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T THEY SHOW IT THEN.

Instead we get cutscenes of eggheads and co. in the Infinity mary-suing about. Spartan-ops. Infinity was boarded.

Lasky went rambo on Promethian Soldiers with a shotgun.

And grunts with no weapons? In book lore, Grunts are known for being sturdy as fucking shit. They can rip apart marines with their hands easily. Why can't we have mobs of rabid, melee based grunts trying to rip you apart?

Dunno. Needs to be exciting, I guess.

That would be awesome.

Seconded. I'd love a Halo game like that.

You know what might be nice? A Halo game using something like X-com mechanics. Those games are noted for not fucking around with pissy aliens. And by extension, none of the aliens in Halo are pissy.

Grunts are only noted as Grunts because they're used as throwaway canon fodder. They're short and stocky but they've the strength to walk and fire a fuel rod cannon one handed.

Something a Spartan can't do without two hands. Just once, I'd love a Halo game where the Covenent were portrayed like they are. A credible and incredibly dangerous threat that trumped Humanity on almost all levels.

That shit is only like 50 pounds.

A fuel rod? no

A fully trained ODST had trouble picking one up in first strike. and a grunt could probably duel wield those things

Idk this might be a canon fuck up cuz on wiki leaks it says 51 pounds loaded

http://www.halopedia.org/Type-33_fuel_rod_gun


Grunts are strong but they would still get whooped by humans in a straight up 1 v 1 fight. inb4 11 page argument

Not in the lore

Grunts eat people

They were basically set loose on civilian populations and ate them

Those things are fucking vicious

I know, but 1 they were civilians and 2 the gruntos probably outnumbered the people by a huge margin.

Not saying they aren't viscous. The one thing I'd love in a halo game is being swarmed by thousands of grunts.

Marines also have been dunked by grunts before as well. Happened on Reach. However.

50 pounds you say? Refer to my post above. The cannon itself may be "light" but the recoil on the weapon is tremendous. And for the record, 50 pounds is not light to hold in one arm, at all. I know what 50 pounds weighs like.

So I have a grasp of what firing a 50 pound object with recoil would be like. Judging by the fact that the cannon can lob rounds for a few hundred feet, as I said, the recoil on that gun is going to be fucking massive.

So do I, I've hauled shit over 50 pounds countless times while working construction with my brother.

If I recall correctly in one of the books a grunt named dabab gets fucking raped by a lone ship captain before an engineer throws a rock at his head.

Usually humans are somewhere within the grunt-jackal range of strength in halo.

The captain had a fire hydrant and took Dadap by surprise. and the engineer threw the rock with such a force it caved the guy's skull in. this was first contact, remember, so they had never encountered humans before.

Shit I meant fire extinguisher

Ironically the most peaceful species in the Covenant was the first to kill a human.

really?

Yeah. A Huragok killed a human with a rock.

I thought a Grunt was the first one to kill a human

Ironically the most peaceful species in the Covenant was the first to kill a human.

really?

Yeah. A Huragok killed a human with a rock.

I thought a Grunt was the first one to kill a human

No.

Yawn.

Update incoming.

without any spoilers


I reckon you'd enjoy the last level, or at least, appreciate it.

Ironically the most peaceful species in the Covenant was the first to kill a human.

really?

Yeah. A Huragok killed a human with a rock.

I thought a Grunt was the first one to kill a human

No.

wat

dammit i mustve missed this in one of the books.

Ironically the most peaceful species in the Covenant was the first to kill a human.

really?

Yeah. A Huragok killed a human with a rock.

I thought a Grunt was the first one to kill a human

No.

wat

dammit i mustve missed this in one of the books.

Contact Harvest

Ironically the most peaceful species in the Covenant was the first to kill a human.

really?

Yeah. A Huragok killed a human with a rock.

I thought a Grunt was the first one to kill a human

No.

wat

dammit i mustve missed this in one of the books.

Contact Harvest

yep, i missed that detail

Cartographer is probably one of the iconic levels from the series. Like, the one that most people would pcik for CE's iconic mission, if that makes sense.

I can give you a tip that will make the mission time half of what it would be, but then it might spoil the plot.

I wasn't really a fan of Truth and Reconciliation. The Silent Cartographer is easily one of my favourite levels in the series, though.

RAM THE HOG IN THE DOOR

RAM THE HOG IN THE DOOR

BAD. VERB SAID DON'T TELL HIM ABOUT SHIT.

YOU'RE NOT HIS REAL DAD.

I should make it clear that I am indeed playing on Normal difficulty, as I always do. "Normal" to me means... standard. As in, this is how the developers intended the game to be played--hence "normal".


Ended up ditching the warthog, because that's how much I hate that thing. Destroying those banshees was simple enough--I hid behind a couple of trees, and the dumbass flew right into it, giving me ample opportunity to stick it with a plasma grenade. I love using these.

I tried to use the assault rifle a lot more to see if I can get any use out of it, but nope, it still kinda sucks. Every single other weapon in the game so far is just so much better at doing the same exact thing it's supposed to do, but in a much more... I don't wanna say "interesting", but it's a lot more fun using the plasma pistol and the needler than it is using this boring-ass assault rifle. Guess I'll just avoid it from now on.


All right, now for the level that everyone was saying I would like, but it actually kinda sucked. I seem to be catching some disagreement here, and I don't really understand why.

Well, the level certainly got a lot more engaging after I actually boarded the covenant ship. Prior to that, everything was balls. I couldn't see anything because of how fucking dark it was--even with the flashlight turned on. The sniper rifle was kinda cool--I like how it has nightvision; I never noticed that before in MP (unless it didn't have that in MP). The sniper quickly becomes useless as soon as you're inevitably spotted, however, so it's back to the boring ol' assault rifle and plasma rifle for the next skirmish.

This battle wasn't fun, at all. It wasn't that it was hard, or anything, but the game's mechanics really started to bite me in the ass here.

There are turrets that the grunts use to fuck you up from all angles. There's no strategy here--it's just shoot, shoot, shoot the whole way through. So while taking out these turrets, you may feel the need to reload and regroup for a second. So, you press X, and... Fuck. Now you're in the goddamn turret yourself, and now you're sustaining more fire. Wonderful. So you I jump my hamster-ass off of the fucking turret, which takes way longer than it should, and now I'm in danger of dying. All because I wanted to reload immediately after killing someone. Bullshit.

Now, here's a major flaw that most of you should probably agree with, considering that they fixed it in all future installments, to my knowledge: Fall damage. Jesus H. Motherfucking Goddamn Christ, is this mechanic retarded as fuck. Now--I get it. When you fall from great heights, you're gonna get yourself hurt. That's a given. But literally--Master Chief cannot fall two fucking meters without hurting himself.

"Oh, yeah, I can totally make that jump. I don't even need to think about it."
>dies (or comes very close to dying)

fucking... uuuughgh

You could argue that it's my fault for simply not learning the general height at which it's safe for me to land, but think about this--I'm wearing a fucking suit of super armor. I should be able to take any fucking fall. It's ridiculous enough that MC can't handle being punched in the back--he can't even fall from a small house's roof without dying.

That's retarded. Another thing that bugs me is that grenades--plasma or regular--don't have any way of warning you before it explodes. In Half-Life 2, grenades made a faint beeping noise when they were about to explode--frags in this game do nothing (as far as I know), and plasma grenades make a very faint hissing noise before they go off. It's difficult to hear during a firefight, so, on at least two occasions, I spontaneously combusted, because I couldn't see or hear what was being thrown at me.

Hunters are fun to fight, I guess, but I mean... not really. They're basically just bigger elites with more health. Oh, and they have accompanying music. Whoop-dee-do. It just makes you feel like it's a bigger fight, when it isn't, really. They run up to you really close, just to scare you, but they never catch up. Unlike the fucking zealots. I'll talk about these shitheads later.

Speaking of the music--I know, I know, I know that Marty's music is generally praised to high heavens, and everyone just loves to suck Marty's musical cock. But I'm sorry... I just can't get into this game's soundtrack. Either the music is laughably over-dramatic to almost cheesy extents, or completely unfitting for the scenario (there was this ethereal, atmospheric piece that was playing as I was fighting an army of grunts, jackals, and a zealot). And compositionally? It just doesn't impress me whatsoever. Sorry.

Now, what made the covenant ship part of this chapter slightly more compelling and engaging was simply the fact that it just kinda felt like a maze--but it only FELT like a maze. The entire level is linear. Doors either opened up, indicating that you're supposed to go there, or stayed closed, indicating that you're not supposed to go there--for no rhyme or reason. It didn't feel like I was actually exploring the ship--I was following a set path, paved with trails of enemies to let me know precisely the direction I'm supposed to be going. It felt like a guided tour. Bleah. Boring as fuck.

At least the enemies are growing in variety--if only just a little bit. But not in ways that I like. We have two new forms of elites--gold ones (which BaconShelf told me were "zealots") and white ones ("Spec Ops"). Sometimes, they carry energy swords, which was my favorite weapon--in Halo 2. You can't use them in this game. Shitty.

I don't like either of these enemy types. I get that they're supposed to be strong--I don't really have a problem with that. And maybe it's just because I suck, and I haven't figured out another way to beat it, but it seems like the only way to defeat the zealots is to stick it with a plasma grenade. Which is tricky, because even though they're big and dumb, they're agile enough to dodge them when you throw them--and it's generally difficult to stick anyone outside of point-blank range anyway. But since being in point-blank range will always result in your death (because, unlike hunters, zealots WILL outrun you, and if it gets close enough to you--you're done, it's curtains), you wanna make sure your sticky toss counts.

I think this makes zealots just a little bit too strong. Obviously, I beat them, but did I have fun beating them?... No, not really. Maybe I planned on conserving my plasma grenades, and didn't really feel like I should have to waste one on an arbitrary zealot. Maybe they shouldn't be able to outrun you, or maybe you should be able to avoid their sword strike somehow (though, like I said, maybe you can, and I'm just not good). So yeah, those guys were lame.

The Spec-Ops guys are okay, though, when they're not using active camo. Of course, when I use active camo, it's basically completely useless, but when enemies have it, it's a much bigger ordeal. Simply put--I can't see the fuckers. That's not a substitute for a challenging game mechanic--that's just... cheap bullshit. I don't think anyone can really argue with me there, except to the point where active camo doesn't make you completely invisible. But the level is dark enough to the point where beating them wasn't exactly a birthday party, either.

This game is just mindless combat. I don't believe I've come across a single puzzle. It's so rare that I'm not just mindlessly shooting at aliens, it's like, when I'm finally at a point where I have to do something passive, like flip a switch to open a door, I'm like, "Wow!" It just feels so... shallow. I don't wanna say "lifeless"--the music is dramatic, and the marines (and even the aliens) all have things to say during battle, cheesy or not ("I'll take you back to school!" -_-).

But still, it's just... putting me to sleep.

So yeah, sucky level. Not sure what's so great about it. I'm glad it got a little bit better, but still...
This is a pretty boring game so far.

I will say that I saved and quit just before taking a quick glimpse at the Silent Cartographer's level, and I'm relieved to say that it actually looks pretty fun. The island you end up on looks pretty nice, actually. I'll continue either tonight or tomorrow.

RAM THE HOG IN THE DOOR

BAD. VERB SAID DON'T TELL HIM ABOUT SHIT.

YOU'RE NOT HIS REAL DAD.

D:<

silent cartographer is a 'hog level. Just a heads up.

Anyway, your best bet in Halo is this; plasma weapons do amazing damage against shields, and bullets do amazing damage against unshielded enemies

When fighting the bigger elites, shooting their shields with a plasma rifle or overcharging a plasma pistol by holding the trigger will deplete their shields quickly, then a pistol shot to the head will take any enemy out in one hit

As for hunters, run round the right and hit them in the orange bit in the back between the armour. That counts as the 'head' for the game, so one pistol or sniper round will do them in. They take zero damage to armour, though.

Marty's music got a lot better throughout the games. Particularly in ODST.

Also, master Chief has survived falls from orbit twice as of now. So be glad the fall damage was removed until Reach (Well, ODST has it but you play as a regular human then so whatever) then removed again in 4.

Also, the sniper's night-scope has been removed since CE. So has the flashlight in general. It only appears in the campaign. You get a proper night vision in ODST and Reach though.

Also, grenade indicators weren't added until Halo 4. Before then, you were expected to hear grunts shouting to look at their blue balls.

I really liked the Plasma rifle in Halo CE

There's all sorts of ways to combat Goldies, if I remember. The plasma pistol overcharge drains their shielding and stuns them for a bit if I remember, leaving them open for some other weapon to fuck them up.

Needlers always work wonders if you've the range.

Your semi-automatic sniper rifle always did a good job too if you were a good shot.

And the invisible gentlemen? I can't say much else Verb. My eyes always spotted their shimmers or the token glow of a rifle or sword. Bacon is partially incorrect as well.

You're gonna meet the real Spec-Ops later.

And if you didn't like that level, The Library is gonna kill ya. It's infamous among even fans for a reason.

silent cartographer is a 'hog level. Just a heads up.

Anyway, your best bet in Halo is this; plasma weapons do amazing damage against shields, and bullets do amazing damage against unshielded enemies

When fighting the bigger elites, shooting their shields with a plasma rifle or overcharging a plasma pistol by holding the trigger will deplete their shields quickly, then a pistol shot to the head will take any enemy out in one hit

As for hunters, run round the right and hit them in the orange bit in the back between the armour. That counts as the 'head' for the game, so one pistol or sniper round will do them in. They take zero damage to armour, though.

Marty's music got a lot better throughout the games. Particularly in ODST.

Also, master Chief has survived falls from orbit twice as of now. So be glad the fall damage was removed until Reach (Well, ODST has it but you play as a regular human then so whatever) then removed again in 4.

Also, the sniper's night-scope has been removed since CE. So has the flashlight in general. It only appears in the campaign. You get a proper night vision in ODST and Reach though.

Also, grenade indicators weren't added until Halo 4. Before then, you were expected to hear grunts shouting to look at their blue balls.

As if "GREEEEEEENADE"  also wasn't an indicator.

shields

For some reason, it never occurred to me that the elites would have the same shield/health mechanic as I do.

Good to know about those weapons, though. I guess the general strategy is to just start with plasma weapons, and finish with... lead weapons, then.

shields

For some reason, it never occurred to me that the elites would have the same shield/health mechanic as I do.

Good to know about those weapons, though. I guess the general strategy is to just start with plasma weapons, and finish with... lead weapons, then.

Plasma weapon + pistol shot to the head

As if "GREEEEEEENADE"  also wasn't an indicator.

Considering that shouting "grenade" gives me no concept of its relative location or blast radius, I wouldn't really consider that much help. It only happened a couple times--it's whatever.

Plasma weapon + pistol shot to the head

I haven't seen any pistols in a long time. I guess they just weren't available in those levels.

I play CE with the D-pad

Plasma weapon + pistol shot to the head

I haven't seen any pistols in a long time. I guess they just weren't available in those levels.

I meant when you have one. Sorry.

Also run things over when possible to take advantage of CE's terrible acceleration physics.

I play CE with the D-pad

That's weird.

I can't stand how bulky the Xbox controller is, by the way.

I play CE with the D-pad

That's weird.

I can't stand how bulky the Xbox controller is, by the way.

Very.

And I liked it, but I can see why you wouldn't. Bloody fat

As if "GREEEEEEENADE"  also wasn't an indicator.

Considering that shouting "grenade" gives me no concept of its relative location or blast radius, I wouldn't really consider that much help. It only happened a couple times--it's whatever.

Na. If you hear a grunt scream "grenade", it means they're throwing one. Not that there's already one at your feet. That's your que to pack your shit up and get outta dodge essentially.

Basically, dance like your life depended on it.

I play CE with the D-pad

That's weird.

I can't stand how bulky the Xbox controller is, by the way.

Do you have the Duke controller or the slim controller?

Na. If you hear a grunt scream "grenade", it means they're throwing one. Not that there's already one at your feet. That's your que to pack your shit up and get outta dodge essentially.

Basically, dance like your life depended on it.

I wouldn't know where to run, is the thing. I might run right into it, because I can't tell where the fuck it is. Sometimes.