|OFFICIAL| Halo 3 Beta Blowout

[Meshuggah]

Damn, I quit because I couldnt start matchmaking, came back and it said the Beta has expired. Tried that solution and it didn't work :/

Guess I am done for the night. Bungie needs to fix this.

[stanley porkchop]

Matchmaking takes forever O.O

Freezes my 360 consistently every twenty minutes or so. Seriously not worth the trouble.

[Meshuggah]

matchmaking takes like 20 seconds here. It just doesn't work anymore, lol.

[goji]

Sorry, but I think you need to rethink strategies if you're gonna be trying to kill from a distance all the time.

:yes:

Exactly, Halo isn't a point and click from a distance shooter, it is a "fist a cuffs" in your face action. Though you can, it makes for boring matches with no excitement.

[giga Veteran]

XBL is just getting hammered today. Thousands upon thousands of gamers going at it from downloading Crackdown to playing the beta.

[Sethos]

So I've spent a good hour and a half trying to get into this game.

So let's take it from the top shall we?

First game i entered was the standard setting mode, a Slayer match. Since this was my very first game i was easily outgunned and outskilled, i was dead throughout the match, was probably the most frustrating 15 minutes of my life!

I decided to change that to Team Slayer, where i quickly found a decent match. I started to get a feel for the game and the control layout, had a few decent kills but was still getting killed quite often here.

Third match was also a Team Slayer, where the Host had decided it should be a Rocket Launcher only map, again another match where everyone was dead all the time, rockets were flying all over the place ... Not very fun actually.

My fourth match was the best, where i found a great team and was starting to get some proper kills after getting used to the sensitivity. Was pretty awesome.

But my game exerperience overall has been "Meh" so far!

First of all, I'd like to point out the maps. I've never actually played such dull and random maps. There aren't any tactical thinking in these maps, just run-and-gun! You can go to a high-point and you've seen the entire map.

Also the graphics, i won't be too hard since It's a beta and dumbed down for Multiplayer. But C'mon! Looks like Halo 2 had a face lift, not one single thing "Wowed" me ...

The audio of the game is good, great weapon sounds and love the music as always.

As Ji@nBing pointed out, the controls do seem very imprecise! I have been playing a lot of Rainbow Six: Vegas in my time on the 360 and the controls are great. In Halo 3 i have two choices, slow but a bit more precise, Fast and totally unprecise. I want a bit of speed, so i gently nudge the joystick and it moves slowly, nudge it a bit more and You've turned away from your target. Horrible!

Overall, at this point ... The game doesen't "Woah :o" me at any point, Gameplay isn't even that exciting, i have been overhyping this to myself and so has Microsoft, it feels like a boring standard FPS with some nifty features implemented.

Will buy the retail product for Single Player purposes, but the Multiplayer aspect of the game isn't anything to shout about.

[stanley porkchop]

Seems to work better when only one person is playing (per 360). Matchmaking loads faster, at least, and I haven't run into any freezes since I started playing by myself.

[Matrix XII]

Don't worry guys, it's just a beta :)

[stanley porkchop]

I have been playing a lot of Rainbow Six: Vegas in my time on the 360 and the controls are great. In Halo 3 i have two choices, slow but a bit more precise, Fast and totally unprecise. I want a bit of speed, so i gently nudge the joystick and it moves slowly, nudge it a bit more and You've turned away from your target. Horrible!

That's your fault, not the game's ;)

[Sethos]

That's your fault, not the game's ;)

If you say so, having a ton of sensitivty settings in Rainbow Six: Vegas and where the sensitivty has also been tweaked leaves much to be desired from Halo.

[Meshuggah]

We've got some 4 player Team Neowin action going on. mixes of wins/losses, but it's deifnatly sweet. I like how you can add friends to your party and join parties of your friends.

[Nightz]

after playing for a while, i'm enjoying so far. i'm going to bed for the night, but feel free to add me if you want to get a game going tomorrow :)

[stanley porkchop]

Bed for me too. I'm so glad I decided to play without being in split screen. Makes a huge difference.

Very fun game. My expectations just skyrocketed in regards to the final product. High hopes for single player.

Love the equipment; makes things interesting. And it really is a gorgeous game, all things considered.

[bdsams Veteran]

i never had a probledm with matchmaking or freezing, the game played perfectly, although there are some small bugs

[Inplode]

im downloading now 50% done

edit lol 40 ,0000 + players online atm

Edited May 17, 2007 by Inplode

[Remysaus]

just had a session of 3 hours straight and wow, it's even better than i hoped for. it all feels so well balanced and it's just a lot of fun. the graphics were also a lot better than i was expecting, especially the water and the physics and how stuff floats on the water :)

also, the sound is just amazing, gunfire in the distance really sounds like it is in the distance and i love that charge up sound for the bubble shield.

Only bad thing atm is my ping, damn you shared network! :(

[Ji@nBing]

Just finished playing for a few hours and it really grew on me. I love the fact that you can form groups and keep playing together. Anyone that wants to play, feel free to add me. Game tag is in my sig.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

We've got some 4 player Team Neowin action going on. mixes of wins/losses, but it's deifnatly sweet. I like how you can add friends to your party and join parties of your friends.

That was kick ass :yes: We waited on you for 10 mins or something :p Sorry we didn't invite you back, it sucks how you can't do that unless you're in the lobby

Ji@nBing and the rest of us continued on for ages, we had some pretty good matches :cool: Although I think we need to work on the bomb matches lol

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Just finished playing for a few hours and it really grew on me. I love the fact that you can form groups and keep playing together. Anyone that wants to play, feel free to add me. Game tag is in my sig.

Good games dude, you caught on pretty fast :) I'll be on again later to play. My eyes are sore from having no sleep nearly, I had to stop lol

[spenser.d]

I've heard other reports of slow or halted matchmaking problems. Remember, that's the kind of thing Bungie is trying to test here.

-Spenser

[bdsams Veteran]

im downloading now 50% done

edit lol 40 ,0000 + players online atm

wow when i was playing last night it was around 5k

[bdsams Veteran]

I love the beta, some people are crazy on what they expected:

my review/8 cents

Like everyone else i was very excited to be able to play...i first booted it up and got a crack out of the "love bungie" in the corner...

Interface, I love the the look and feel/setup and its very easy to move about,invite friends,review stats, and maintain current party. I dont like how to see what medals you got requires you to select your name. You can no longer see it from revieiwng your stats directly...The rest of the interface works very well, the "shut up" button works great, already muted two annoying kids who were up past their bed times.

Being able to play with your friends has never been easier, this is one reason i feel this game/series is so successfull, it takes no time at all to get your friends in a room and being able to stay with them for the entire night. This makes the gaming all that more fun...

The gameplay took some getting used too, its not as sprint 'to the weapon or lose like halo2 was/is'. There is alot more strategy in the game which is a nice change but there needs to be some better weapon balancing. The needler is way over powered at close range...\

Vehicles are good as always but the warthog seems alot harder to destroy this time around...

The maps are great, nothing overly exciting but they are good maps for the beta...some people say you dont have strategy on the maps, but they must not be playing the same ones i am. The only map that doesnt have strategy really is snowbound, which makes it great for slayer and oddball...these games work well on there due to the hectic nature of the map ( i also love how gernades dont bounce in the snow)

gfx in the beta are better than halo 2 but are nothing stunning, they are improved but i belive the final game will look even better...the best thing in the game though is the....WATER, holy cow the water looks and acts real, i love how bodies will float down stream if you die in it, how your speed is slowed and if the rest of the gfx matched up to the water, then we will have one heck of a visual paradies to be feasting upon..

Overall, i love the beta and will obviously be purchasing the game sept 25th, i wish that i wasnt at work so i could be playing it right now

[Lexcyn]

Last night I was only able to get into one match from matchmaking. After that it pretty much didn't work anymore so I went to bed. If anyone wants to add me go ahead, I want to actually play some games tonight. :p

[Lingwo]

Tonight i'll be playing, i got it all ready to go. So if anyone wants a game then either add me (in sig) or if you already added me just message me.

[sgtLENIN]

No problem getting it :)