Tonic7

Couldn't possibly rank them all (have played less than half, for sure), but hardly any videogame memories will ever live up to playing OoT when I was in the 4th / 5th grade. The world felt impossibly open back then...adventured for hours with friends, swapped secrets, annotated guidebooks, etc. Even the main Hyrule "field" - which now seems comically tiny - felt like an expanse waiting to be explored. If only for nostalgia, it will always be OoT, although most seem to agree it was a bit of a landmark game, too.

Wind Waker is also pretty great.

Right now, it feels the mode has balancing issues, primarily. I never played Firefight in the beta, but with a PUG group this feels too difficult. I shouldn't empty an entire clip of BR into a soldier and have them survive; I understand you must use REQs strategically based on enemy spawns, but you almost certainly need 2-3 high-powered vehicles on the 5th wave bosses to succeed. Therefore, at least 2-3 people need to save up and burn a 6-9 point REQ at the very end. Again, without communicating, very few PUG groups are going to pull this off. Of the 10 games I've played, we have only finished all 5 waves twice. If this is working as intended, then so be it. But I've been arbitrarily one-shotted by enough enemies at this point that I think I'm losing interest.

Also, the way they spawn enemies in mid-wave by simply drop shipping them (or randomly teleporting them) right on top of you just feels...cheap? There's no strategy or planning that could combat it, unless you memorize spawn points (this is sounding a bit MOBA-ish...). If 10 Promethean dogs suddenly warp on top of you, there's nothing that can be done. You cannot out-shoot them. Skill will not save you. I could definitely use a few more creative objectives, but that doesn't stand out as the worst part about the mode to me so far.

@jellybones: So you're the only other person I've ever known who loved Beetle Adventure Racing. My God, the hours my friend and I lost to that game... Other than Diddy Kong Racing, it is the racing game I think back on most fondly. Phew! I'm gonna go dig up some Youtube videos right now.

I'd also like to throw Quest 64 out there.

If a title pun doesn't hook you, nothing will.

I've been reading through the Neogaf thread on this game's beta and came here to see what other people thought; I was shocked to see no threads up yet about it! I'll post my quick thoughts below. Short version: It was going to be a day 1 purchase for me, and now it is not. I've been playing on Xbox One.

Positives: New classes feel - for the most part - unique, if not a little imbalanced. Each seems to fill a gap and provides a counter-balance to classes on the other side, which is ideal in any class-based game. Although there feel like odd changes to classes I loved (the solider's jump just doesn't have the same 'Oomph!' anymore), I think the new classes fit in fine. An obvious exception is the imp, the class everybody seems to loath. I get it. I also loath this class, but I feel that with an increased size / hit box and a serious nerf to its grenade, it would be a fair "glass cannon" that the developers seemingly intended it to be. This game, like the last, has a gorgeous and now newly-uprezzed cartoon art style that's easy to love, at least in my opinion. Animations are sharp and funny, characters all look and sound unique, and it's just damn charming. The first game was, too. The maps don't seem especially noteworthy for better or worse, and the "low G" moon gimmick isn't all that interesting, but they seem functional and look nice.

Negatives: Every game just feels like a hot mess. I'm currently Rank 20 and I'm not sure how many games I've played so far - perhaps 20-30? I've played approximately 70+ hours of the first PvZGW and each match had a nice rhythm to it. Encounters were intense but not utter chaos; this game is the complete opposite. Too many particle effects, too many graphics, too much chaos on the screen. No matter how balanced you've made your character classes, if you pit 12v12 with essentially instant respawn times things just devolve into people spamming every power they have at every opportunity. It also seems like they've made the cooldowns shorter for almost every power/class; I could be completely wrong about that, but the games just feel like a spam-filled mess at this point. One easy solution I could see working would be to reduce the matches to 10v10, but who knows what changes they'll make before release. I'm usually a fan of smaller team multiplayer shooters, Halo's 4v4 and sometimes 8v8 big team being favorites, so I'm not really interested in games that propose that "more = better" on a battlefield.

It's a shame this game just feels off; I fully expected to buy it day 1. Now, I'll wait and see. I hope they make changes to their Gnome Bomb and Vanquish modes. As I mentioned, reduced team size might make the game a bit more tactical and less chaotic. Or perhaps a few changes to the cooldowns on the powers. What do you guys think of the beta so far?

After mooching off of this website for years, I finally decided to upgrade. It was well-overdue. He's to some new content to enjoy!

@pontron: God I love Lockout and Narrows. I'm even thinking about how they could include a few tweaks here and there for the new movement abilities...

Oops I forgot to add - it pains me to think MP resources were shifted away to create Breakout maps. God I hate that mode. Nothing more antithetical to Halo in my mind than sitting around waiting for a spawn. Nothing about this mode appeals to me...if they could have swapped BTB or even 3-4 more arena maps instead...eek. Hope somebody is liking Breakout; I think it's terrible.

Hey duders,

I understand the title may make this a magnet for complaining - and I guess that's kinda the point. Still, it doesn't need to get absurd. Just trying to list off some of my complaints and concerns so far and see if you all have similar thoughts 1 week after release. Overall, I think the shooting is better than ever, the movement feels great, and 60 fps goes a long way. Nevertheless...

Arena:

- I'm ranked Platinum 2 in Arena and Slayer and oh my God is there a problem with quitters. I thought they'd be laying down the law with bans, and perhaps they are, but as it is, someone quits on either team probably every other game. The only playlist I don't seem to have this problem in is SWAT - also the only rank of "Onyx" I have. Maybe the higher you go the rarer it is that someone quits?

- Map rotation is laughably bad. Pretty common to get the same map and even game mode 3-5 times in a row. CTF on Coliseum, anyone? This may have happened in other Halo games...I just can't remember.

- Maps feel just cluttered and over-designed. I know they used pros to make them "As competitive as possible yeah ESPORTS!" but as someone who has played 100s of hours on each Halo release, they just feel cramped and off here. They're not terrible, just feeling too busy with poor sightlines.

Warzone:

- I could write pages already about what a joke Warzone Assault is. How could this have possibly been playtested and approved? A grenadefest with no discernable strategy. Takes their largest maps and crams you into 2-3 corridors to spam at each other. Not enough time to unluck the fun stuff your req packs get you. I mean Jesus, how did this possibly get into release? If they wanted to make a shorter, non-25 minute version of Warzone, why not lock off the bases, take away the AI spawns, and have slayer matches to 200 kills? Or just a CTF with those restrictions plus a time limit? (By the way, there's your BTB mode you can add in without making new maps...although I'm no game designer). You could even use the card unlocks still. Warzone Assault fucking baffles me.

- Overall, it is what it is. If you don't go in with 2-3 other people chatting and come across a coherent team, prepared to be steamrolled. For how "close" all the matches felt in the pre-release press footage, I've only ever seen 1 end within 100 points so far.

- Losing AI kills at the last second after you've done 90% of the damage is savage. I know that's how MOBAs work. I'll just have to get over it, I guess. Can't see why they don't divide up the points by damage dealt but I'm no game designer.

@csl316: Could not agree more. All of the maps feel like they were picked apart by pros over and over and over (which, according to their vidocs, they were). It really shows. I don't think it makes them any better, honestly. Just muddled in a lot of instances.

I'm thinking back to some classic maps like Beaver Creek, The Pit, and Lockout. Nothing in Halo 5 feels as good so far. Those were clean, simple, well-designed maps. I guess Coliseum is kinda almost there but it has about 4 layers high and feels too "squished."

@nickhead: Just gave it a quick skim. His complaints about the revive system are accurate and fair if not a bit exaggerated. Frustrating, but I'm on Mission 9 and I've died maybe 5-10 times on heroic so far? Hasn't majorly affected my experience except on the awful bosses, which feel like an exception.

I'm an admitted "Fanboy" (what a goddamn term) who is dedicated to the series, so keep that in mind. Yet he honestly compares the squad commands to those in Mass Effect 3. I mean...why? The squad commands here practically don't exist, but it also isn't an RPG at all (or claiming to be) and it's the first time they've tried it and etc. etc. It's a straightforward first person shooter that plays fine alone and is clearly anticipating co-op. The squad mates make ambient sound that adds to the action, and they change very little for me compared to another Halo campaign. That comparison alone is worthy of considerable debate.

It's an interesting read, and especially odd considering how much of a "lore nerd" he considers himself to be. You'd think he'd forgive some of the terrible, terrible character development with both squads considering his background knowledge. I know nothing about the squads and found them to be kind of meh but at times interesting filler and that was...fine? How many characters in original Halo are truly that interesting? Much of his rhetoric reads like someone coming to the series expecting something it has never been. Did anyone expect the squad mechanics to be truly game-changing? Am I crazy expecting nothing from the teammates? I wanted a solid single player experience and I've found it in Halo 5. That's my quick take.