RedStarRocket91

AND WHERE THE LIES END WHERE DO THEY END, CHURCH? WHEN WILL THE LYING END!?

Wait... what exactly do you mean, the driver is broken?

JESUS CHURCH BLOCK OUT THE NAME OF THE TOP CONVERSATION YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE THE GAME AWAY Also, 'Jesus Church'. Appropriate today, huh?

I thought you'd be taller.

Surprisingly, I have to say Halo 5. For all I really dislike very large parts of it, the OST is absolutely phenomenal - it feels like a perfect blend of new material and throwbacks to the older games, and I really love the way they've managed to get something which feels so fresh and exciting in terms of music but which also manages to evoke a sense of the rest of the series, too. In particular, 'The Trials' is just a perfect example of music done well - it feels like it's drawing on every single one of the great Halo tracks over the years, and it's so well done you could put it in just about any moment from any Halo game and it would feel appropriate.

I'm not going to comment too far on the amount of content the game has - we all know that there is far too little in the way of maps and gametypes, and that we need more of both to sustain the game's lifespan. Personally, I also really want new maps - I'm already sick of the 'remixed' maps, and I've played Halo 5 far less than any other Halo. The variety is just awful, and it doesn't help that they're all in the same bland UNSC aesthetic style. They're dull to look at, dull to play, and discovering that the 'new' map is yet another remix (i.e. hardly worthy of the title of 'new map' at all) has only lowered my expectations further, as it just feels lazy and cheap, as though it's being pushed out simply to fit the promise of extra maps, rather than because it's a genuinely interesting map. I've also complained about the REQ system at length before, so while my opinions on that haven't improved, I'm not going to restate them here. In terms of actual mechanics - generally, I actually think most of the gameplay is good as it is. Probably the biggest concern of mine is grenades - for something which does so much damage over such a large area, spawning with two and having so many on the map is just too much. They could definitely use a reduction in either spawning number, or overall power, and possibly both, because right now Halo 5 is awash with grenade spam, and forcing grenades back into the role of tactical weapons they had in Halo 3 and Halo 4 would make for much more interesting gameplay. Next thing would be, something needs to be done about the motion tracker. My personal theory on this is that the pro team insisted it shouldn't be included because it's 'nooby', while the devs wanted it to be the same as it always has been, so in the end they reached a compromise of 18m, which seems very arbitrary. The biggest issue for me isn't even coming from Halo 4's tracker, which had extremely long range, but that it differs from Halo 5's own campaign, meaning for a player coming from the campaign it's outright misleading. It's too short-ranged to really be of any use, and yet it's still there being distracting visual noise, and it's a step back in pretty much every way from where things were in Halo 4. I don't care whether they buff it to campaign levels or remove it, but its current status is worse than useless, and needs to be addressed. The last thing which really needs to be looked at is the matchmaking system, which while technically functional, is appaling for putting together completely lopsided and imbalanced teams. It's simple fact that occasionally your team is going to be at risk of getting steaked, but I can honestly say that in about half of my matches, I'm literally the only player on my team who's not trading that poorly, and the constant poor matchmaking has outright killed my enthusiasm to play. Players need to be allowed to drop ranks if they're placed too high, solo players need to be matched against solo players, and teams need to be properly split into roughly equal power levels.

It's a real shame to see this sort of thing still happening - I'm desperately hoping they bring in a rank reset soon, and allow players to rank down from leagues, as right now it feels like player skills often don't have anything to do with their actual ranking. Especially since these kind of mismatches seem to be happening so frequently - unless the population drop-off is even worse than we think (which is quite possible), there's very little point in a matchmaking system if it's going to give this kind of lopsided game, or for these people to be in separate divisions if their skills really are supposed to be similar. I'm also desperately hoping that we eventually move over to individual player rankings, rather than this team-based nonsense - less incentive for people to boost their friends through the ranks like this, and less of a problem when you get saddled with poor teammates...

UPDATE Bravo has responded to a thread on Reddit confirming that 343i are aware of the issues, and that their networking engineers are working to determine the root of the problem. No news yet on what exactly the cause is or when we can expect a fix, but at least we now know that they know there's a problem and are looking into it. His full statement is as follows: Source: Reddit

Well this is a very tricky one. In terms of the overall story of the campaign - Halo 4, no contest. Its got the best characterisation, a strong villain, and a few decent supporting characters, topped off with good voice acting and some of the most genuinely emotional moments in the series. Plus, the gameplay is really great, there are plenty of fun set pieces, it brings back the sense exploration and mystery from Combat Evolved, and the earlier levels in particular really give a feeling of being a one-man-army. But then... well, Halo 3 is just perfect. The story is epic in scope, and although it's a little operatic and cliched it's very well-executed. The gunplay and mechanics are brilliant, the weapon and enemy sandbox is varied and impressive, it has some really fantastic set-piece battles with plenty of freedom in how to approach them, and of course between The Ark and The Covenant, the two absolute best levels in the entire series, which are basically everything that makes Halo great distilled down into an hour and a half of non-stop awesome. So overall? I really can't decide between the two. I know that's a cop-out, but they really are different enough that it feels okay to say that they're both the best games in the series.

I agree with a lot of this - while I haven't played SWAT and thus can't comment on it, it feels like Halo 5 is shaping up to be the worst game in the series since Combat Evolved in terms of grenade spam - even with thrusters and fast reactions, it feels nearly impossible to dodge grenades, given the utterly ridiculous blast radius and splash damage. Something I really loved about Halo 3 was how much skill there was to be had with 'nades - if your throwing was poor, you'd do very little damage, but because they were so predictable and reliable in the way they bounced and detonated, a talented player could pin a frag on another player's forehead from around a corner and guarantee maximum damage. There's none of that finesse now - just lob 'em and forget 'em. The motion tracker thing particularly gets me, though. As it is right now, I'd honestly prefer it just be turned off, instead of this 18m nonsense. Coming from the campaign, where the range is 40m (as it was in Halo 4), I honestly find it to be far more confusing than actually helpful - I often see an enemy on the edge and switch out to my pistol for a mid-range encounter, only to discover that I'm being melee'd to death by them a moment later. Players move so fast that there's almost no point to it at all, and this is definitely something where the pro team has shown that it's a bad idea to balance the game around tournament play, as I feel like they probably insisted that it's a nooby tactic which should be removed, and so ultimately they hit a compromise with the dev team who wanted to keep it in about how it should be nerfed. The result is something that nobody likes, and which actively hurts play more often than not. Make it 40m to match the campaign or get rid of it, I don't care which, but stop misleading me. Think the only thing I disagree with is BR starts. The BR was an okay spawning weapon in Halo 3 because of the wide spread and travel time - but in every other appearance, it just ruins map movement completely and turns games into long, drawn-out poke-fests with both teams hanging back in power positions rather than pushing out. The Pistol is already more than adequate as a mid-range skill-based weapon, so I don't really see the need to get rid of that.

Can you provide a source for that quote?

I'm not playing but if I were I'd totally vote for Drizzy. I don't know how this works or what voting does but he's very suspicious, I mean have you seen the way he dances? Clearly a man with something to hide... (Unless you're not in which case sorry Drizzy lol)

Can I choose which bits of my memory I lose or is it random?

So... a choice between becoming a hideous abomination or getting a free ticket to the future, effectively getting to experience all the wonderful social, technological, and medical advances that will bring ten years ahead of everyone else? Yeah... that's not a hard decision. Future, please! Would you rather know what everyone really thinks of you, or not know?

That's a very good idea - I've updated 343ibot's welcome script, so she should provide a profile link at the end of each greeting from now on. We'll monitor this over the next few days and make sure that it's working properly and isn't resulting in any trouble (e.g. directing spammers toward the member's profile), but provided there aren't any technical errors, it's likely to stay in place. I'm a little hesitant to add a 'report' button to the quick menu, as it's something that could very easily be pressed by accident or out of curiosity, and it only really saves one click. If there's demand for it, however, it's something I can look in to.

Good for you. Plenty of us, however, did. Whether due to forgetting to save, power failures, or just the game glitching out, almost all Forgers I know have lost a map or progress at one point or another, so for those affected the introduction of dedicated servers to record Forge maps is a very welcome safety net.

Hello EdwardBuckODST, Sharing videos is normally fine, whether they're providing analysis, gameplay montages, or just generally connected to the Halo universe. All we ask in general is that any videos you'd like to post meet our own site rules (e.g. no nudity, political content, bad language, etc.) and contain a short summary of their contents in the accompanying text, so that any members who can't access them can still join in with the discussion. The full list of rules can be found here: if you have any questions or need clarification about any of these rules, feel free to @Mention me in a response, or send me a PM directly. But the short version is - yes, sharing videos is not just allowed, but actively encouraged!

I really love the Scarred version of the Mk. VI helmet - there's something about the worn, damaged aesthetic which really appeals to me, I think because particularly with characters as faceless and emotionless as Spartans, it's a great way of giving a sort of physical indicator of their mental state and mindset without needing to actually show their faces or talk, the latter of which in particular would feel contrived. I'm honestly hoping that come Halo 6, all of the armour is starting to take on the same sort of weathered, decaying appearance - even if it weren't a fantastic way of showing that the UNSC is starting to wear down, that supplies are running out and morale is low, it just looks awesome.

Banned because.