Halo 3: ODST - Page 2

It was for the original game! :P

I'm guessing that if you're a fan of Halo, you'll like this game, and if you think it's just okay/horrible you might not. Is Bungie really letting anyone down or surprising anyone at this point? It's Halo.

Weren't those Halo books really popular? I know a lot of my friends have sworn that the franchises story is epic and amazing etc and is only really done justice in them. I haven't taken them up on their recommendation as I believe the game has rotted their brains from the inside out.

I've always got the idea that Bungie's been suffering from delusions of grandeur with Halo's plot. Someone there is really interested in the lives of these hollow characters and wants you to know all about them.

$20 gift card and action figure if you buy ODST from Toys R Us. Limited time only, of course. Some of the comments say the card is only good for 2 months, but still, if you buy stuff from Toys R Us very often, it makes it a bit easier to swallow.

You know how I know Alex is good at his job? Because he didn't automatically give the game a 9 out of 10 simply by virtue of it having the word "Halo" in its title.

does anyone else think that Bungie has a huge problem on their hands now? That problem being complete utter lack of IPs.

They have been buttering their bread for years now solely on HALO (granted pressure from MS probably directed their selection quite abit), and now it seems like they are finally reaching the bottom of the barrel.

I havent touched Halo 3 in quite sometime. I actually finished the campaign (surprising because I fucking HATE the campaign in all Halo games). I never understood the obsession with the universe. Bungie in general has been a wonderful storyteller, mechanically, but the content is so hackneyed and boring. They make fucking great multiplayer titles though. Halo 2 on Xbox Live made me a believer in online console games, and is still probably my most memorable XBL experience to date. Halo 3's mechanics, the replay system, and tweaks were actually quite brilliant in my opinion, but after a year I just lost interest.

With all that said, Bungie is now making another fucking halo (the aptly titled REACH) game? Seriously? I think they should just bite the bullet and drop all this story bullshit and start making purely multiplayer only titles ala Unreal tournament. I might actually consider buying a Halo multiplayer game every 2 years, but ODST...go fuck yourselves.

If I remember reading correct, Reach is the last game Bungie's contractually obligated to deliver to Microsoft. We'll see after that where that company goes.

The hatemail that will stem from this will be fun. Great review though. Honest and to the point - the multiplayer's where this is at, but the price is stupid.

I'm surprised that it got a 6.5 out of 10 while simultaneously calling it a 'slap in the face.' I was expecting something closer to 5 in that case.

So now that it's clear who isn't buying, who is so we can get some Firefight going?

Oh man, that sucks! Thanks for the heads up because I would have just assumed this had autosave.

I haven't given the least bit of shit about ODST, but holy crap, no autosave? What kind of an idiotic design decision is that in this day and age?

That's an additional 40 lines of code and an autosave image file. This is value software, people.

Sounds like Russ found a way to extend the life of the campaign.

I'm baffled people would be tempted to replay something so tedious sounding. Was he reviewing it?

You know I’m all about wasting hours of my life on the internet so I’m definitely up for some firefight. You down for some co-op campaign tomorrow, because I think you need to have that done before you can access all the firefight maps.

I was going to cancel my pre-order but all my friends are still getting the game so I guess I am too. I'm buying it mostly for Firefight anyway.

The advertisement campaign for this game is so great, that it hurts. I'm sure they're as misleading as Halo 3's, though. I remember how the ads were showing the death of Master Chief during some large battle in diorama form. It was pretty epic. Then the game comes out, and it's literally the most underwhelming game ever. No fucking scope.

Yeah I'm going to pick it up. I didn't notice how far off the next good game is. Plus my speedy trade in of Batman got me $37 in trade-in toward it.

That diorama ad is one of the best video game ads I've seen. If any of the halo games delivered set pieces that epic, most of this thread would not exist. If bungie want to leave the franchise on a high note, they should try and model every big set piece in the game off that ad.

As far as firefight goes, I'd be up for some chud co-op. Is there a chud clan for odst? and if so how do I join up?

Went out at lunch to return some books to the library and stopped by Blockbuster and managed to pick up a copy of this. I figure I won't really be playing much online anyway outside of the first couple of weeks (plus I've still got Halo 3) so this is probably just the right amount for me. I think I'll have a friend come by and give it a go on split-screen co-op.

Firefight's a blast so far and the one campaign level that I played was pretty cool on co-op. I haven't tried the new Halo 3 maps, I'm in no rush.

So the new maps aren't downloadable and available only on ODST? Fuck that, bring on MW2.

So me, Eric and Zombie did co-op for about two and a half hours. We're just starting the third mission now. Love, Love, Love, Love this game. It's like Rainbow Six: New Mombassa in the hub sections and the action missions are fucking awesome. Driving around nature reserves, punching tanks to death, ducking for cover, sniping, blowing shit up, and level 3 looks like it's gonna be tank fights.

Then me and Eric did some Firefight, spent 22 minutes and got like 20,000 points. Got some screenshots of us being all teamlike and shit.

That tank level was such a huge fucking tease to quit on. Tomorrow cant come fast enough.

Is it just me or does Firefight take a fucking long time to load off the dvd? Installing it to my hdd fixes it (as in makes the load time 3 times as fast) but still..

Eric, Zombie and spike, there are some friend invites coming your way tonight for some firefighting.

I was going back and forth all day yesterday on whether I wanted to get ODST or not. Interestingly enough, the thing that finally pushed me over the edge towards not wanting it was playing some regular Halo 3 online last night. I have so much left to do in that game (since I picked it up pretty late in the game and haven't played it a lot outside of system link parties) that I decided I don't need ODST.

So far the rookie segments are kinda... boring to say the least. The game picks up when ever we get away from the rook and even then it's essentially more Halo 3. I'm having decent time in co-op but I'm not loving it.

Y’see, I really like the claustrophobia of the Rookie’s levels. You’re never particularly well armed and you’re always feeling hunted. Also I don’t get the hate for the music, AT ALL, the weird light jazz music that kicks in when you get back from the flashbacks is like some weird Takeshi Kitano score it’s bizarre, but it sort of fits the game for me.

I’m only two flashbacks in thus far, but everything I’ve played thus far reminds me of the original Halo. I’m tempted to say it’s my favourite campaign since the original.

Firefight is too much fun as well, especially with the usual Chud teamwork in place. Me and Eric were separated for most of the match, passing by each other and s’upping before running away from the respective gaggles of beasties behind us.

On a side note, what the hell is up with the animation in the cutscenes. In the game itself the characters move fine, in the cutscenes it’s like they’re stop motion animated or something.

You’re clambouring around in corpse strewn buildings half the time, or at least I was and playing on your own, even on Heroic, feels a lot more tense than any other Halo game. You’re largely outgunned by the Covenant in this game.*

I’ve been able to avoid some patrols, but a lot of them seem to be guarding key areas. I do love how the cities AI is trying to redirect you around enemies by taking over billboards and putting up road blocks, it’s kind of a neat little system.

*Then again I’m not as bad ass at videogames as you so therefore you probably didn’t feel the tension at all.

I'm at the same point in the game as spike seems to be and I get where he's coming from. The lighting and (somewhat goofy at times) music really adds so much to the games feel and look. Kudos to Bungie for trying something different. Unfortunately it's not really working for me because the rookie stages are just fucking dull. I can't wait till the flashback segments kick into gear whenever I play this.

Firefight is fun and all, but NO MATCH MAKING is dumb. To finish up on a positive note, since I just played Halo 3 last week, I feel ODST looks much better. Cleaner textures, better models and that snazzy lighting really help the overall look of the engine/game.

I still have serious issues with OSDT's price, but I gave in and got this at Toys-R-Us (the gift card and figure helped).

I'm really liking this so far. Feels a lot closer to Halo 1's campaign: you can't just run like a madman straight ahead shooting. If you see me online, send me an invite for Firefight.

It seems to me that playing Firefight with randoms would be the worst thing ever.

Firefight is designed to be played with your friends surely? As Spike says, playing with random people would just end up with either retards or griefers (most likely rolled into one knowing Halo's usual audience)

Yeah, tell that to all the randoms enjoying Matchmaking in Horde on Gears of War 2. I've had plenty of great horde games with those mental randoms.

Not wanting to play with random people is a personal preference, but that's hardly a justifiable excuse for matchmaking not to be included in firefight. Especially since Halo 3 multiplayer (and the second fucking disc of ODST) has such robust match making in place. Hopefully bungie gets their shit together and patches it in.

I'd imagine that it probably had more of a desire to not have any ongoing costs associated with the ODST add-on. By keeping Firefight completely separate from the standard Halo 3 multiplayer and not having any matchmaking infrastructure they don't have to maintain any new servers or anything else for the mode. It's probably not a huge cost (since they've already got Halo 3 servers) but it just probably gives them a slightly higher margin on the product.

Maybe, but this isn't some Russian publisher releasing some obscure Turn based war game that margins should matter. Its fricken Bungie and HALO. The game's gonna make truck loads of money. Competitors currently have matchmaking in place (GOW2 horde and COD5 Co-op and zombie modes). Bungie don't really have much of an excuse.
In the end, its not a deal breaker. It's more of an annoyance.

I guess the real question is, would anyone buy or not buy the game because of the lack of matchmaking? If the answer is no, why spend the money to put it in there? This game clearly has design issues (look at the lack of autosave or the way you have to access the messages as discussed in Alex's review). I'd imagine that many of those things were not addressed due to time and cost.

There is autosave. Everything you do is saved on the online campaign menu, like Halo 3 did. Also I really have no idea what Alex is talking about re: having to access the VISR to get mission information. You can look at your map, or you can just press up on your D-Pad and have the marker shown on your screen. Unless that is specific to co-op.

You are right, nachos and as I typed above it's not a deal breaker.

I like to think of it (the score in general) as: I'm playing through John Carpenter's Halo ODST

Picked this up at Toys R Us as well due to the gift card deal, would love to get in on some Firefight with you guys even though my Halo skills are a little rusty. Gamertag is x Odd Creature, I'll be sending friend requests to those of you who list their tags, feel free to send one my way as well.

Hey, there was an article up-I can't seem to find it, that had various minimovies, like the trailer, from ODST. Or was I hallucinating?

Sorry to all the people joining our parties/games tonight, a couple of the guys and I were in the middle of something we're trying to finish before we get to anything else.

I still can't believe that Scarab stamped on my Banshee. Good times tonight, good times. These levels all seem deceptively short, but checking the theatre they've all taken us a good 40-55 minutes each to beat.

I still need to check out the new Halo 3 maps.