Unfinished: Halo 5: Guardians 01/14/2015

Especially considering it used to be a huge part of Halo. It goes to show how little he played of 1/2.

Excited for this aspect of this game. One of the crappy things about Halo 3/Reach/4 was that BR spawns became the standard, so you hardly ever used another gun.

Bro. We won the match, bro. Lets bro-out and show everyone how awesome we are, bro.

The improvements and changes seem good, but not enough to make Halo interesting to me, i'm just glad they finally realised the center of the screen is where the crosshair should go.

I really hope they redo the post-match brodown. I feel like Spartans ought to be more professional than that.

This beta isn't the only thing on the disc that is "Unfinished".

LEFT TRIGGER!?!? RIGHT TRIGGER!?!?

IN MY HALO!?!?

I would totally get nachos with Halo announcer guy.

@theacidskull: I'm not the one who said it, but I have a reason why I don't like this new Halo - as someone who enjoyed Halo 1, 2, and 3. The pacing. Halo is all about pace. It had a very deliberate pace without sprinting, boosting, or aiming down the sights. You run along at your speed and every weapon has a set use and limitation. That meant that you had to position yourself specifically around the map so that you could double back, use your specific weapon, or run away if needed be. Sprint and boosting kills the pace of the series. It's not the same. I don't hate it, but I much prefer Halo to be like Halo.

That's tame compared to your average "Bro" (what does Bro mean anymore?), Spartans have also always been portrayed as more of a military fraternity. That and the MP is literally a training simulation, I know you people and sports don't mix but generally sports teams celebrate when they win.

The reason I bring up sports? The beta is all about the Arena modes (4v4), not the BTB 8v8 stuff with larger maps. The logo's and all that junk are supposed to evoke a Esports feel, which is exactly what 343 is going for. My hope for the future is the pro teams will have the ability to change out the standard RvB logo's for Team logo's and that kinda jazz.

Lastly, stop saying Bro in a derisive way. There are abhorrent, simple, vain people in whatever kind of social group you can think of. For instance, drawing a comparison between a win celebration complete with hand slaps as some kind of Bro display that should be looked down upon or is something you can't get over. MAN! That is some overly judgmental, self serious, overly assumptive BS. I hope the feeling of superiority keeps you warm at night, the nights can be cold, dark and lonely all alone on that pedestal.

from what i've seen developers say, letting the player do that on consoles is really hard to account for bug-wise

@themaniacsgnome: jesus what's with all the vitriol at the end? it's a pretty widely held consensus how much bro-ier this feels even if you don't see it but you'd probably take a big shit on me if i tried to explain to you what's wrong with that

@beb: It does, but the only significant difference is with the AR and SMG; the single/burst weapons are still primarily hip-fired at anything but long range. And it's still only marginally useful on the above two guns, because neither's really viable at range--any half-decent player with a BR, DMR or even Magnum will be able to kill you a good deal quicker than you can kill them, and you'll constantly be getting descoped by them hitting you, anyway. You'll be doing the same to them, naturally, but as I said, the semi-automatics don't really need zoom to be accurate at range, while the automatics do. Up close, it's even less useful, as you'll never be able to stay zoomed for more than half a second.

Make no mistake; I'd rather the zoom didn't convey any accuracy bonuses at all, even on the automatic weapons, but it's not nearly so much of a problem as I thought it'd be. The SMG is still kinda OP, though, and grenades could do with a nerf.

@cairnsythebeard: This would have been true a couple years ago, but now CodAW is definitely faster paced than halo.

@beb: I could be totally wrong, but it looked to me like the tester in that video was adjusting their aim for recoil while firing in ADS.

You two are really bad at halo.

Seems very unimpressive visually.

@jdillinger: I mean Beta......

I played the Beta a bit and it feels like you die a lot faster than normal Halo. Felt like it took a step towards call of duty. Maybe I only felt it because I was playing the Masterchief Collection before. :/

No, they haven't "always been portrayed as more of a military fraternity". Within the core games, the only Spartan that was ever depicted before Halo Reach was John-117, and his demeanor is consistently serious and professional. The Spartans in Reach acted like soldiers. These guys are more like a rec league basketball team.

@yaffa: Oh ye, your right, also the speed makes sniper rifles completely pointless in that game! Why did they bother?

I played the beta along with a friend. We're not superfans, but we both have played quite a bit of it, him more so, but he also plays Call of Duty and other online competitive FPSs. I couldn't really get into it. My friend outright hated it. Something about it just doesn't feel balanced at the moment. The faster speed is not quite jiving with the maps and weapon design.

Some of it could be beta jitters. That said, I'll probably skip pre-ordering it for now. I'm not going to call it bad by any means, but just different and maybe not going in the direction I'd like to see. For reference, we both liked 4 well enough, so it's not a 4 vs. older games in the franchise thing.

If I cannot change the FoV then I don't care.

Well, I wouldn't say it kills it, but yes, it is more fast-paced. Though I don't agree that you can't position yourself or find strategic locations. I mean, I've been playing for 6 days now and I've been able to use all the weapons that require strategic thinking and position, like the sniper, the DMR, etc. The only problem so far is that you'll have to find a few of such locations so you can move around, since the maps are big and thus people can reach you quicker. Plus, the map control is pretty great and the gameplay feels very balanced and well-thought out.

I get where you are coming from, but I guess I already prepped myself for a change like this, since 343 has the job of not only appeasing old fans, but also thous who would like to give Halo a fare shot, but may not be accustomed to the more methodical type of gameplay.

Someone should have told them about the ground pound. Coolest thing in there.

The hit detection is either really bad or they have some low level aim assists going on..

http://s11.postimg.org/fq2q4lltv/Untitled.jpg

This isn't exactly dead on as cycling through on this player sucks, but this was around where he shot you and killed you... wasn't anywhere near.

The beta is still going? I thought it was over

Hmmm…. looks like more Halo. Watching Jeff and Drew kind of squirm with the boosting/dashing stuff kind of concerns me, though. It just seems too clunky and deliberate somehow. I'm way more interested in the single player though, so I can't wait to see more of that stuff.

Red Closet is my favourite country singer.

It shows off nice but I did not like my time with the beta. Not sure if it's me or the game but it just feels off somehow.

I can never watch the GB crew play competitive multiplayer games or any FPS game for that matter, they're all so terrible at them. That Far Cry 4 quick look... my god.

Early access has ruined my wanting to get involved in things like this. I am a huge halo fan but would much rather just play the game when its done. Looks good so far though.

@jeff Yes, this game is definitely "unfinished", but I sure hope it's actually finished when they release it. But are games ever really finished nowadays anyway? Does that term in this context even make sense any more? Wouldn't calling it something like "unreleased" or "work-in-progress" work better? You might even call them "W.I.P Looks".

I'll admit to not owning an Xbox One, so I obviously have not played the Guardians beta. I have watched a metric ton of it though, but feel free to discard this and ignore at your leisure.

With the disclaimer out of the way, I enjoy the mobility upgrades (Including sprint), if there's a direction to change and improve Halo, that is 100% it. BUT (and this is one big ole' Sir Mix A Lot booty) The ADS accuracy boost (Which undeniably exists and there are lots of videos out there that prove it) and smaller health make this look pretty much like CoD with a Halo mod to me. Having both ADS and a short TTK seems to thoroughly ruin the rhythmic feel of Halo's combat.

1 on 1 combat in Halo feels like a dual for a reason, the high pool of health means that you have to and you have time to think about better options to kill your enemy before he/she domes you. The Mobility upgrades play perfectly into that, but lowering the health pool just trivializes aspects of the new movement system (Including the ADS stick in the air). I dont even fully object to ADS, because it can play into that feeling of robust combat options.

@xdeser2: I've been playing the Beta pretty extensively over the last few days, and the ADS thing has been ever so slightly blown out of proportion. Make no mistake, I'd rather it didn't provide any kind of bullet spread reduction, but the effect is only noticeable on automatic weapons, like the SMG and AR, and it's still not significant enough to make them viable against the semi-automatics - which are still perfectly accurate from the hip - at any kind of range. And up close, everyone's hip firing anyway, because they brought descoping back.

The health reduction really isn't all that bad, either--it's at least partly balanced out by the increased mobility. I've had plenty of satisfying duels in my time playing, and the boost in particular really adds an extra dimension to the one-on-one play, that I've had a good time exploiting.

I'm certainly not saying it's perfect: grenades need a significant nerf, and the SMG is incredibly overpowered. Still, it's been a good time, and all my problems are purely matters of balance, which will almost certainly change - for better or worse - between now and release.

@foggen: There is an explanation for that built into the lore. These Spartans - IVs - aren't like the Spartan IIs and IIIs. They weren't kidnapped as children, put through, well, 'Spartan-esque' training throughout the entirety of their early lives, and then augmented as they hit puberty. They start out as regular soldiers.

Make no mistake, I don't enjoy the 'Bro' stuff, either, but equally, it'd actually be rather odd if the IVs acted like the Chief and the other Spartan IIs.

Agreed, with the first part anyways. In spartan Ops the Spartan IV's are portrayed as very good friends who joke and poke fun at each other more times than not.

You know what gets me to buy an XBONE instead of a PS4? Fucking THIS.

Let's all bro out! And eat nachos with the Halo announcer. He always sounds so dire.

""I know what I like. I know what I like to do." - Huey Lewis" - Drew Scanlon

I really liked the 5 or 6 hours I played. Really looking forward to his one.

jeff sucks at halo

As someone who hasn't cared at all about Halo since 3, I'm surprisingly excited about this. I don't know what it is, especially since I still haven't been happy with a multiplayer FPS since, oh, about Halo 3, but something about this really excites me. I hope it turns out as good as I'm pretending it looks, because it looks real good to me!

Slayer

Woah. Halo at 60fps is weird.

POOP ON FACE

uuuuh Jeff, Halo has always been about map control and heavy weapon spawns......

If nothing else (and I am not saying there isn't anything else) those maps looked pretty cool.

Drew uses the same settings as me!!

Dammit, you beat me to it! Maybe my favorite part of this video :-P

It's really odd hearing people be nostalgic for the "origin of online multiplayer" in a game that is only like a dozen years old or so, when the rest of us were playing multiplayer shooters almost a decade earlier.

That said, I bought the master chief collection and will get Halo 5... even though I kind of don't give a fuck about halo. It's just sort of a spectacle that I like participating in... and it feels like a sort of cultural moment that you need to be a part of.

Sorry Drew, the Christmas tree thing isn't true. Christmas trees actually became LESS popular after World War 1 due to their association with Germany.