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[Havoc2049]

My best Halo memory would be having BBQs and Halo LAN parties with co-workers on an almost monthly basis during the Halo CE and Halo 2 days. Playing LAN Halo with between 8-16 friends and co-workers, with good food and brews, from about 6PM to the wee hours of the morning on a Friday or Saturday night was good times.

The Halo 2 launch was epic as well. I was there the day the XBox launched and it wasn’t even a midnight launch and there was literally only like ten people in line to get an Xbox when EB Games opened. Halo just grew organically from there and became one of the hottest franchises at the time. I met my buddy at the same EB Games, about 15 minutes before the midnight launch of Halo 2. We were floored, as there was like 200 people in line, in front of us and by the time the store opened, there was another 50 people behind us. The energy with the crowd was electric and some guy in a Mustang was doing donuts in the mall parking lot. When the doors opened, we all cheered and all acted like a bunch of little kids on Christmas as we got our copies of Halo 2.

My worst Halo memory was the launch of Halo MCC. I belong to a gaming community called Gunslinger Gaming and the Halo wing of the community used to be vibrant and one of the largest portions of the community. We always do sign ups before games launch had like 100+ people signed for MCC. A bunch of us met online for the midnight launch of MCC and we had enough for several full teams of BTB. We were all uber-excited. Then after midnight we tried to get into matches and nothing. Everything would time out or just keep searching or the game would crash and kick us all out of matchmaking. We would try and try and try some more. Not one single match. After several hours, gave up and left disappointed. I played some Halo CE campaign and even that was a little buggy, but at least playable. At about 4AM I tried again and finally got into one BTB match solo, on one of the PC specific maps from CE, but of course the teams were uneven. We tried several other get togethers over the next two weeks and it always ended in failure or a frustrating buggy mess when we did get in a rare match. About two months after launch, after an update, we finally were able to consistently find matches as a team, but by that time, 343 had done their handy work and there was only a few of us left from my clan that still wanted to play Halo. I still can’t believe Microsoft didn’t clean house then at 343. Halo MCC could have been a game changer for the XB1. I feel 343 cost Microsoft millions upon millions of dollars of future lost revenue with the disastrous launch of Halo MCC.

Just so I don’t end on a sour note, Halo MCC is pretty rockin’ now, is expanding to PC and Reach should be hitting shortly! I’m also hopeful for Halo Infinite! I’m hyped!

 

[Deputy Moonman]

My worst Halo memory would be the day my Halo Reach edition 360 Slim died (I was playing Gruntpocalypse on Corvette) Thankfully it was still under warranty and got it replaced for free.

My best Halo memory would be playing Halo CE on Legendary Co-op for the first time. I had only played the game solo on easy, but one day my cousin convinced me to play with him on Legendary.

Up until then I considered Halo CE to be an ok game and that's about it, but that day, playing Legendary Co-op with my cousin, I realized what an incredible game Halo CE really is. Now it's my favorite game ever.

Yeah, cranking up the difficulty to Legendary is a totally new ball game. I always wanted a difficulty setting where the campaign increased the number of enemies to the number that are in Legendary, while also keeping their health and difficulty like it is on Heroic. I had so many memories playing through the campaign solo and with friends.

My best Halo memory would be having BBQs and Halo LAN parties with co-workers on an almost monthly basis during the Halo CE and Halo 2 days. Playing LAN Halo with between 8-16 friends and co-workers, with good food and brews, from about 6PM to the wee hours of the morning on a Friday or Saturday night was good times.

The Halo 2 launch was epic as well. I was there the day the XBox launched and it wasn’t even a midnight launch and there was literally only like ten people in line to get an Xbox when EB Games opened. Halo just grew organically from there and became one of the hottest franchises at the time. I met my buddy at the same EB Games, about 15 minutes before the midnight launch of Halo 2. We were floored, as there was like 200 people in line, in front of us and by the time the store opened, there was another 50 people behind us. The energy with the crowd was electric and some guy in a Mustang was doing donuts in the mall parking lot. When the doors opened, we all cheered and all acted like a bunch of little kids on Christmas as we got our copies of Halo 2.

My worst Halo memory was the launch of Halo MCC. I belong to a gaming community called Gunslinger Gaming and the Halo wing of the community used to be vibrant and one of the largest portions of the community. We always do sign ups before games launch had like 100+ people signed for MCC. A bunch of us met online for the midnight launch of MCC and we had enough for several full teams of BTB. We were all uber-excited. Then after midnight we tried to get into matches and nothing. Everything would time out or just keep searching or the game would crash and kick us all out of matchmaking. We would try and try and try some more. Not one single match. After several hours, gave up and left disappointed. I played some Halo CE campaign and even that was a little buggy, but at least playable. At about 4AM I tried again and finally got into one BTB match solo, on one of the PC specific maps from CE, but of course the teams were uneven. We tried several other get togethers over the next two weeks and it always ended in failure or a frustrating buggy mess when we did get in a rare match. About two months after launch, after an update, we finally were able to consistently find matches as a team, but by that time, 343 had done their handy work and there was only a few of us left from my clan that still wanted to play Halo. I still can’t believe Microsoft didn’t clean house then at 343. Halo MCC could have been a game changer for the XB1. I feel 343 cost Microsoft millions upon millions of dollars of future lost revenue with the disastrous launch of Halo MCC.

Just so I don’t end on a sour note, Halo MCC is pretty rockin’ now, is expanding to PC and Reach should be hitting shortly! I’m also hopeful for Halo Infinite! I’m hyped!

Oh man I can't even imagine how frustrating and letdown that had to have felt trying to play TMCC on launch with a massive amount of people. At the time, I was pretty much just playing Halo solo. So, I didn't have as much trouble as others did getting into games. Wasn't the best, but way better than trying to do anything with a party. I remember all the players letdown who were just looking forward to replaying some campaign coop. For sure, that launch was devastating for xbox. It does seem like that might have been a wake up call for 343. I know they never want to go through that again.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Someone please help me understand what I'm watching here lol.

 

[Corrik]

I been playing a lot of Halo lately. I used to be the shit at Halo. Not so much anymore. I can't snipe worth shit either lol.

 

[Corrik]

Does anyone else have frequently atrocious hit reg on the MCC? Really wish that would get ironed out. Other games are fine. There's a video on YouTube that demonstrates that every game pings to a relay server first and then to the server hosting the game, which obviously increases the latency. I don't think I can get around that on my router.

I seem to mostly on Halo 3. Occasionally Halo 1. Sometimes I am a 3 shot kill machine and others its like I am unloading clips at fucking ghosts.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I seem to mostly on Halo 3. Occasionally Halo 1. Sometimes I am a 3 shot kill machine and others its like I am unloading clips at fucking ghosts.

Halo 1 is all I play on TMCC and I've run into the same experience. Sometimes I'm on fire and other times it feels like I can't finish kills for one reason or another. While it could be hit registration issues, I don't feel like Ill ever know for sure. Because it could always just be me not playing well lol. Overall my experience has been mostly positive. I have more issues with having less than stellar teammates or matching up against really good players and getting the snot kicked out of me.

 

[Bathtub Fart]

What's abundantly clear is that the netcode is not only bad, but not great on a dedicated servers. It's just not meant for it and needs to be updated, but that's not something I think I could ask of 343. Halo 2 frequently has horrendous desync where what you see on screen is unnatural and impossible. It's really unfortunate.

 

[Corrik]

Halo 1 is all I play on TMCC and I've run into the same experience. Sometimes I'm on fire and other times it feels like I can't finish kills for one reason or another. While it could be hit registration issues, I don't feel like Ill ever know for sure. Because it could always just be me not playing well lol. Overall my experience has been mostly positive. I have more issues with having less than stellar teammates or matching up against really good players and getting the snot kicked out of me.

Oh, trust me. Like half the games has someone quit, afk, or betraying. I am having fun, but it would be funner if the competitive was populated to separate out some of that stuff. I get kind of sad seeing how far I have fallen from my perch in the games, but it's really fun when you get an actual competitive game going where both teams are trying.

Honestly Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 2, and Halo 4 MP is just lightyears beyond 3.

I'd probably go H2A>Halo2>Halo 4> Halo 1 > Halo 3 But, man, do jet packs / spartan abilities really ruin Halo 4's MP.

And, yea bathtub, I don't know why I get different countries and west coast servers a lot on the east coast. It just seems so random, but I assume due to such low population, I guess.

 

[Tesseract]

i do like h5 quite a bit (insofar as arena shooters go, the movement and gunning is excellent)

pretty stoked for h3 on pc, hoping it's still coming this year

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Oh, trust me. Like half the games has someone quit, afk, or betraying. I am having fun, but it would be funner if the competitive was populated to separate out some of that stuff. I get kind of sad seeing how far I have fallen from my perch in the games, but it's really fun when you get an actual competitive game going where both teams are trying.

Honestly Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 2, and Halo 4 MP is just lightyears beyond 3.

I'd probably go H2A>Halo2>Halo 4> Halo 1 > Halo 3 But, man, do jet packs / spartan abilities really ruin Halo 4's MP.

And, yea bathtub, I don't know why I get different countries and west coast servers a lot on the east coast. It just seems so random, but I assume due to such low population, I guess.

Whoa that's really really close to how I'd rank them. Personally, I'd put Halo 1 at the front of everything (i'm old and stuck in my ways), but your rankings mirror where I would put things eerily close. Halo 4 is a really good game. It's unfortunate that 343 tweaked so many other aspects of the game, so that the base game-play kind of gets lost and unappreciated.

 

[Corrik]

Whoa that's really really close to how I'd rank them. Personally, I'd put Halo 1 at the front of everything (i'm old and stuck in my ways), but your rankings mirror where I would put things eerily close. Halo 4 is a really good game. It's unfortunate that 343 tweaked so many other aspects of the game, so that the base game-play kind of gets lost and unappreciated.

Halo 1 is great but you can tell the game maps aren't extremely well designed around the dominance of the pistol with their spawning and designs.

Spawns in Halo 3 and Halo 1 are absolutely atrocious.

 

[Bathtub Fart]

Halo 1 is great but you can tell the game maps aren't extremely well designed around the dominance of the pistol with their spawning and designs.

Spawns in Halo 3 and Halo 1 are absolutely atrocious.

Halo 2's spawns in the MCC are far worse than 3. In 2v2 you will spawn right in front of a player or they will spawn right in front of you after killing them and you're still one-shot. Rage mode activated.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

The spawns in Halo 1 aren't great, but they were never great in the original game either.

EDIT: Social stream tomorrow:

 

[SpartanN92]

Are there any Halo.Bungie.Org vets left here?

 

[Bathtub Fart]

Are there any Halo.Bungie.Org vets left here?

I was a member there since Halo 2 days.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Are there any Halo.Bungie.Org vets left here?

Ah that would be Louis Wu's site. He used to post on gaf back in the day but I don't know what he is up to now. Ive never been a member of HBO but people have always had good things to say about the community there. Unfortunately I was the definition of asshole when he posted on neogaf and said a lot of things I regret now. That was when halo 3 was new and I was ranting and railing against it and everyone who disagreed with me about it.

Speaking of spawns. This was in a game where two of the other players had quit out and the remaining two had given up and gone afk. Still, it is goofy how the spawn system will keep putting players in the exact same spot even after getting spawn killed over and over again.

 

[Corrik]

Yeah, that's why I said Halo 1 had bad spawns. It spawns you next to your teammate usually. Which if someone is afk ,you pretty much know where the spawn will be.

 

[Havoc2049]

I swear the spawns in Halo 1 MCC are worse than they were in Halo 1 from back in the day. Prisoner can be the worst sometimes, spawning on the top bridge over and over again..lol

 

[Bathtub Fart]

I swear the spawns in Halo 1 MCC are worse than they were in Halo 1 from back in the day. Prisoner can be the worst sometimes, spawning on the top bridge over and over again..lol

I really do think the game not being peer to peer messes up things. Maybe I'm wrong. Could be the result of it using PC ports of H1 and H2.

 

[Corrik]

Idk. I just know some of the smaller maps on Halo 1 you might as well be turning in circles at all times due to people spawning all around you at all times lol. (Rat Race specifically comes to mind).

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Community spotlight came out last night but I was literally falling asleep when I saw it. So I'm just now posting the link:

Halo Community Spotlight - Spotlight: October 17, 2019

The Halo community continues to surprise and delight with a myriad of creations from artwork, to sweet treats, and more. Come feast your eyes on the latest incredible works by your fellow Halo fans from all corners of the community.

www.halowaypoint.com

Idk. I just know some of the smaller maps on Halo 1 you might as well be turning in circles at all times due to people spawning all around you at all times lol. (Rat Race specifically comes to mind).

Ooh yes rat race is a nightmare. The grenade spam can trap a team in one spot for a while. But it is still one of my favorite maps. It's nice to have at least one map with no power weapons, longest too. Nothing makes me happier than rematching a team that stood at the top of damnation the whole game with sniper rifles and then the very next map is rat race. Don't get too comfy!

 

[Deputy Moonman]

A nice little (long) Halo Reach flighting update on the waypoint forums PC Flighting is just around the corner:

MCC Development & Flighting Updates | Halo Insider | Forums | Halo - Official Site

www.halowaypoint.com

Hey friends,Welcome back to our regularly scheduled Friday flighting updates. October is a busy month in terms of flighting for sure! Last week we wrapped up our Xbox One Multiplayer flight for Halo: Reach and we are moving full steam ahead on getting the next PC flight out the door as well. Below are updates on both. Before I dive in, if you haven’t recently updated your Halo Insider profile, please go HERE and make sure you have done the following:

• • Verified your email
  • Opted into communication
  • Opted into PC flighting
  • Provided an updated DxDiag

To be considered for a flight, the first two must be true and the third simply helps us select from the latest and greatest configurations for PCs including OS versions. Let’s dive on in!

Xbox One Flight Recap
Early on in October we flighted Halo: Reach’s Multiplayer on the Xbox One. This flight’s main goals were to test the backend and each of the matchmaking offerings that are going to be available when MCC comes to PC and Halo: Reach joins MCC on the Xbox One. We invited significantly more Halo Insiders to play Halo: Reach than any previous flight. A few different user groups were selected with different criteria. One included a percentage of users from previous Halo Insider flights and actively participated. Also, many users were selected who had not received invites previously. A second, more specific, set of users with high engagement in MCC over the past 90 days was also curated in case we needed to expand our flight to reach goals we had set.We invited approximately 50k users who have registered for the Halo Insider program. Beyond that, we manually added just over 100 individuals for this flight ranging from streamers, content creators, professional gamers, casters, and other individuals who are vocal about Halo. Their numbers are a mere drop in the bucket compared to who was chosen by specific criteria.With this flight, we sent invites out in waves to test engagement and better understand who would participate at what rates. This roll-out not only allowed us to validate our theories, it helped us reach the goals we set internally. After the first round of invites, we saw low engagement levels and made the call to double the audience and invite even more players. As we opened the floodgates and expanded invites, we did push our flight services to the limit and even saw a brief moment of (expected) instability as a result where new dedicated server instances were having a hard time keeping up. This is to be expected and is only an issue given the intentionally limited scope for a flight environment.One mistake we did make (and have since rectified) is we selected users who had not verified emails. So even though we chose you, we couldn’t email you to let you know you were invited! Please make sure you verify your email and opt in for communication in the Halo Insider program. Help us help you!

Additionally, there was an extra special stress test where we asked folks to come out Saturday, October 5th to help us put Halo: Reach’s updated networking to the test. Thank you, Spartans, as you did not disappoint!We hit our goals, and then some, for concurrent users playing that day (nearly 4x over!) and were able to effectively test the new infrastructure brought online to help support MCC for the future of the title. Your time playing helped us effectively see how leveling worked during the flight and verified that our progression system worked as intended at scale.All in all, this test was very successful, and we are excited to say that quite a few folks showed up and played lots of matches during the stress test. In total 3,720 users played 5 or more matches, and as a thank you, received the MCC Insider nameplate. On top of that, 1,713 additional folks hit the bar of completing 12 matches during the stress test’s time window earning themselves the MCC Insider Pro nameplate. Thank you to everyone who came out and participated so much. Your efforts are very much appreciated and are helping us shape Halo: Reach!That being said, there were quite a few folks that went above and beyond in terms of participation. Below are the top 10 players from this flight who all played well over 200 matches during the flight. The top 3 though went all-in and put in over 300 matches. The top player, Bound, took top marks and was the only one to break 400 games played, completing a total of 429 matches!

1. • Bound
   • Mint Blitz
   • Rammyy
   • LUKEPOWA
   • Fazel 2
   • ASS1STED
   • Reclaimants
   • The DiZZeL
   • Th3 LiE
   • MrJaycoooo

We can’t state enough how much we appreciate everyone’s efforts in helping us to test this flight so extensively. As a token of our appreciation for playing near constantly through entire duration of the flight, if you see your gamertag in the list above, we have granted you each an extra special nameplate for your efforts. Thank you!As one final note to all participants, you can go ahead and delete the old MCC Insider build from your console. This build will not be used again and any flight in the future for Xbox will require it to be deleted.

Update DXDIAG and Verify Email
Before I jump into anything around this, please take some time right now and go update your Halo Insider profile if you haven’t recently with a new DxDiag, ensure you have opted into PC flighting, and have a verified email that we can contact you at! We need this info to help target specific goals we are trying to reach in our upcoming PC flight.I know this is the third time I’m asking, but literally please click HERE and do it now. I swear it’s the last time I will ask in this post. Now back to our regularly scheduled update!

PC Flight Update
The team is moving very rapidly preparing for the next Halo: Reach flight. Yesterday we received our first branched build for the next PC flight, and it has been getting hammered on internally with our 2nd Ring 0 test happening today. The teams will be in over the weekend hammering away identifying any blocking issues to resolve prior to going to Ring 1 & 2. If no issues are found, the team plans to go out to Rings 1 & 2 on Monday. Our goal is to get this flight out as quickly as possible, so hang on to your seats!This PC flight, in terms of scope, will have the most content to date for players to enjoy. This flight includes two campaign missions, multiple offerings for social and ranked matchmaking, custom games, and Firefight matchmaking. All types of content will be available over the course of the flight – which we anticipate will last a week – but select offerings for Multiplayer and Firefight matchmaking may change.Campaign Missions

• • Noble Actual
  • Winter Contingency

Firefight Matchmaking Offerings

• • 4-player Heroic standard Firefight
    • Beachhead
    • Corvette
    • Holdout
  • 4-player Normal grab bag Firefight
    • Beachhead
    • Corvette
    • Holdout

Multiplayer Matchmaking Offerings

• • 2v2 Social: Slayer
    • Countdown
    • Powerhouse
    • Zealot
  • 4v4 Social: Slayer, Flag and Bomb, Zone Control, Asset Denial, and Action Sack
    • Countdown
    • Powerhouse
    • Zealot
    • Tempest
  • 8v8 Social: Slayer, Flag and Bomb, Zone Control, and Asset Denial
    • Tempest
    • Breakpoint
    • Ridgeline
  • Halo: Reach Team Hardcore: Slayer and Capture the Flag
    • Countdown
    • Zealot
  • Halo: Reach Invasion
    • Breakpoint

Closing
As we get closer to the flight’s target date, more information will be shared out in terms of days it will span, what offerings will be present on what days, and all the additional details we know you want. Please stay tuned and we will catch y’all online!

Cheers,
Postums

Okay!

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Started my Halo marathon today, gonna go through all of them on heroic, legendary would take way too long.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Started my Halo marathon today, gonna go through all of them on heroic, legendary would take way too long.

Ooh that'll be fun. Heroic is a good choice and not just for time considerations, but also for your sanity lol. Legendary can be painfully frustrating. When I go back and play any campaign for fun it's almost always on Heroic difficulty. Keep us updated on your progress. Recently I went back and replayed a lot of the campaigns to knock out achievements. It was fun to play though parts of the game that I had mostly forgotten. And also agonizing when I would miss a par score and have to start over. Like you, I also wanted to start preparing for Reach's release. Or at least I'm assuming that's why you're replaying the campaigns.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Ooh that'll be fun. Heroic is a good choice and not just for time considerations, but also for your sanity lol. Legendary can be painfully frustrating. When I go back and play any campaign for fun it's almost always on Heroic difficulty. Keep us updated on your progress. Recently I went back and replayed a lot of the campaigns to knock out achievements. It was fun to play though parts of the game that I had mostly forgotten. And also agonizing when I would miss a par score and have to start over. Like you, I also wanted to start preparing for Reach's release. Or at least I'm assuming that's why you're replaying the campaigns.

Na it's more that its been way too long since I've played through all of them. I think I might be able to knock out the first Halo in one day, already on mission 7. Maybe next gen I'll do a legendary run but I see myself doing like one game every 3 or 4 months or something, it wouldn't be a marathon like this.

 

[Corrik]

I started doing achievements on MCC recently also. Got like 5 left in Halo 1. Also beat Halo 2 on legendary. Ironically I have probably logged tens of thousands of hours in Halo 2 but never actually did the campaign. Was a very decent campaign.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Halo 1 done, the start to silent cartographer remains my favorite moment in all the Halo games. When you hear, "touchdown, hit it marines!" and the music plays, nothing has replicated that feeling. The cover is placed so perfectly that you can run straight through that section without ever having to stop.

 

[Tesseract]

is mcc not releasing this year?

starting to worry

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Halo 1 done, the start to silent cartographer remains my favorite moment in all the Halo games. When you hear, "touchdown, hit it marines!" and the music plays, nothing has replicated that feeling. The cover is placed so perfectly that you can run straight through that section without ever having to stop.

Silent Cartographer is solid. One of the best levels in Halo CE, although I love them all. The second half of that level has another sick music intro/segue when you are trying to escape and all the covenant start pouring in from above. Rock Anthem for Saving the World starts playing and takes things up a notch to an I'm completely jacked up, come at me bro level of high lol.

is mcc not releasing this year?

starting to worry

If you're talking about Reach, honestly, I don't think anyone knows for sure. 343 would love to have it out before the end of the year and I can see it happening. It wouldn't surprise me if they announced the release date at X019 in London for some time in December.

 

[Corrik]

A lot of criticism is that halo reuses levels so level design isn't good. But, I personally felt this worked perfectly in Halo because it was all about how the flood was changing the status quo and wreaking havoc.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

A lot of criticism is that halo reuses levels so level design isn't good. But, I personally felt this worked perfectly in Halo because it was all about how the flood was changing the status quo and wreaking havoc.

I never understood the criticism either. The reused levels play nothing like each other. The dynamic of the flood being introduced changed everything. Plus, you attack the levels from a totally different direction. Assault on the Control Room was a great level. Are we really going to be upset that Two Betrayals was even better? The Truth and Reconciliation and Keys are so different it's not even funny. All that is to say that I completely agree with you.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

I've noticed the flood gets harder and harder to fight in Bungie's games. In halo 1 they weren't that bad because the game almost always makes sure you have a shotgun with plenty of ammo. Halo 2 the shotgun is nerfed and so is the ammo and you die faster. In Halo 3 they add like half a dozen different kinds of flood enemies into the equation.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I've noticed the flood gets harder and harder to fight in Bungie's games. In halo 1 they weren't that bad because the game almost always makes sure you have a shotgun with plenty of ammo. Halo 2 the shotgun is nerfed and so is the ammo and you die faster. In Halo 3 they add like half a dozen different kinds of flood enemies into the equation.

I always felt it satisfying to be able to one shot flood with a shotgun. Halo 3 added more forms and made some of them a little harder to kill. I like the difficulty in being overwhelmed but not by making bullet sponges. It's kind of like what bungie did with the brutes in Halo 2. Dirty meatbags.

 

[Corrik]

I have no idea how the brutes work health wise. I see some going down in 2 headshots from a carbine and others eating like 10 headshots. No idea on them lol

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

I always felt it satisfying to be able to one shot flood with a shotgun. Halo 3 added more forms and made some of them a little harder to kill. I like the difficulty in being overwhelmed but not by making bullet sponges. It's kind of like what bungie did with the brutes in Halo 2. Dirty meatbags.

Yea that's exactly how flood should be, low health but there's a shit load of them.

 

[Tesseract]

is halo 5 still active?

might nab an xbox for this since microsoft is too stupid to put it on pc

 

[Deputy Moonman]

is halo 5 still active?

might nab an xbox for this since microsoft is too stupid to put it on pc

I believe so but it might be a lot of long-time die hard players. Which means if you go into matchmaking you could be in for some tough games. 343 usually has a rotating playlist throughout the month and I would go into whatever is current. Warzone assault has a population whenever it rolls around for the weekend and that's what I enjoy most. Here's the remaining schedule:

• October 17: H2 BR Slayer rotates in for Grifball
• October 24: Roaming King rotates in for Covenant Slayer
• October 24: Warzone Turbo goes live for the weekend
• October 24: GLOBAL DOUBLE XP for a week to celebrate Halo 5's birthday week
• October 27: Halo 5's Birthday! Log on and earn a free Platinum Pack!
• October 31: Castle Wars rotates in for H2 BR Slayer

So I was going back through the latest community spotlight. I'm really digging this female prophetess. Not something you see everyday:


And another sick piece. Love it:
Creator: AB I (megamecpowerfull.artstation.com)

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aRVQO2

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Another good one from the previous Community Update:
Concept Artist Craig Mullens

Edit: I'll probably be on some tonight but late. Gonna finish the Gears 5 campaign first and then either play some TMCC or download another game from game pass.

 

[pesaddict]

Does anyone have any idea of when were likey to see in game footage ?

 

[stickkidsam]

Does anyone have any idea of when were likey to see in game footage ?

Anything substantial probably won't be revealed before E3 2020. Until then we'll get some minor teases (e.g. concept art, music samples, maybe in-game models) and maybe a beta announcement at one of the gaming events like PAX.

343 is hedging all of their bets on that E3 hype to carry them to release next winter.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Does anyone have any idea of when were likey to see in game footage ?

Not likely until next year. If we were shown anything it would probably be multiplayer footage for an upcoming beta, and even that seems unlikely before next year. It would be nice to at least get some kind of announcement on if and when we might get a beta test. For campaign, it wouldn't surprise me if they waited until E3 of next year. I'm not a fan of having to wait, but it's how MS handled Gears of War 5's campaign. These are the next gaming events that Microsoft could feasibly show or announce something. Best chance is X019 i think or PAX.

• Paris Games Week - October 30 - November 3
• X019 in London - November14-16
• PAX Unplugged Philadelphia, PA - December 6-8
• Dream Hack in Jönköping, Sweden - December 13-15

Anything substantial probably won't be revealed before E3 2020. Until then we'll get some minor teases (e.g. concept art, music samples, maybe in-game models) and maybe a beta announcement at one of the gaming events like PAX.

343 is hedging all of their bets on that E3 hype to carry them to release next winter.

Yep. I'm one of the few perhaps that thinks E3 2020 is going to be really really good. Should be no shortage of exclusives shown regardless of when they are actually coming out. Fable 4, Halo Infinite, and definitely some new IP's.

 

[Corrik]

The only chance before e3 is x019.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

A rather short Community Update last night:

Halo Community Update - Insider Insights

As you can usually tell from my Community Updates, we try to stay busy here at 343. In case you've been in a cave on Reach, we've started closing in on a new Halo Insider flight for MCC PC, celebrating Halo 5: Guardians' fourth anniversary, and preparing for more Halo esports action. Meanwhile...

www.halowaypoint.com

Here's the latest calendar for Halo 5 playlists:

• October 24: Roaming King rotates in for Covenant Slayer
• October 24: Warzone Turbo goes live for the weekend
• October 24: GLOBAL DOUBLE XP for a week to celebrate Halo 5's birthday
• October 27: Halo 5's Birthday! Log on anytime from October 25-28 and earn a free Platinum Pack!
• October 31: Castle Wars rotates in for H2 BR Slayer
• November 5: Snipers rotates into ranked for November
• November 7: Triple Team rotates in for Roaming King
• November 14: CE Anniversary Throwback rotates in for Castle Wars
• November 14: Warzone Assault goes live for the weekend
• November 21: Forerunner Slayer rotates in for Triple Team
• November 26: Action Sack rotates in for CE Anniversary Throwback
• November 26: Warzone Turbo goes live for the weekend
• December 3: Winter 2020 Arena Season begins

This is kind of fun to follow. Who do you think will win it all? I'm thinking it will come down to Snipedown and Roy with Roy coming out on top. Is that crazy?



Concept art never fails to impress

Final tidbits:

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Where is this footage from? I don't recognize the cinematic. I'm guessing it is from one of the Halo Wars games, which I still have not played. Anyway, if the Flood were done right in a movie it would be scary indeed.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Halo 2 done, never realized how much harder this game is than Halo 1, you die so much faster.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Halo 2 done, never realized how much harder this game is than Halo 1, you die so much faster.

Yep concur. I think it is widely accepted that Halo 2 is the hardest. On Legendary it can even be described as cheap. The jackal snipers will insta one shot you even if they aren't looking at you at first.

I never liked Halo 2's campaign. The narrow FoV made it far easier for me to get motion sickness. I especially didn't like what Bungie did to the flood and the hunters. The flood in Halo 2 have no substance. You shoot them and they turn into a puff of dust. The hunters could no longer be one shot from behind for 1-hit kills. Then the brutes were not fun to fight as they played more like bullet sponges, and I did not like the drones either. These are all personal gameplay qualms.

The story however was pretty impressive. I'm just thinking about how much we learn and see in Halo 2:

Arbiter and his back story
The Covenant culture
Prophets - Truth and Regret
Getting to actually take out the prophet of Regret
Orbital defense force
Earth - Mombassa
Fighting a Scarab
High charity - Covenant's homeworld
Heretic Leader
Installation 005
Brutes - Tartarus
Gravemind


I never appreciated how much happens in Halo 2.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Yep concur. I think it is widely accepted that Halo 2 is the hardest. On Legendary it can even be described as cheap. The jackal snipers will insta one shot you even if they aren't looking at you at first.

I never liked Halo 2's campaign. The narrow FoV made it far easier for me to get motion sickness. I especially didn't like what Bungie did to the flood and the hunters. The flood in Halo 2 have no substance. You shoot them and they turn into a puff of dust. The hunters could no longer be one shot from behind for 1-hit kills. Then the brutes were not fun to fight as they played more like bullet sponges, and I did not like the drones either. These are all personal gameplay qualms.

The story however was pretty impressive. I'm just thinking about how much we learn and see in Halo 2:

Arbiter and his back story
The Covenant culture
Prophets - Truth and Regret
Getting to actually take out the prophet of Regret
Orbital defense force
Earth - Mombassa
Fighting a Scarab
High charity - Covenant's homeworld
Heretic Leader
Installation 005
Brutes - Tartarus
Gravemind


I never appreciated how much happens in Halo 2.

I just started halo 3 and I honestly think the brutes are funner to fight in Halo 2. It is so satisfying to headshot them in Halo 2, I don't think it's possible to do that in Halo 3? So they feel like even bigger bullet sponges in this game.

 

[RSB]

Yep concur. I think it is widely accepted that Halo 2 is the hardest. On Legendary it can even be described as cheap. The jackal snipers will insta one shot you even if they aren't looking at you at first.

I never liked Halo 2's campaign. The narrow FoV made it far easier for me to get motion sickness. I especially didn't like what Bungie did to the flood and the hunters. The flood in Halo 2 have no substance. You shoot them and they turn into a puff of dust. The hunters could no longer be one shot from behind for 1-hit kills. Then the brutes were not fun to fight as they played more like bullet sponges, and I did not like the drones either. These are all personal gameplay qualms.

The story however was pretty impressive. I'm just thinking about how much we learn and see in Halo 2:

Arbiter and his back story
The Covenant culture
Prophets - Truth and Regret
Getting to actually take out the prophet of Regret
Orbital defense force
Earth - Mombassa
Fighting a Scarab
High charity - Covenant's homeworld
Heretic Leader
Installation 005
Brutes - Tartarus
Gravemind


I never appreciated how much happens in Halo 2.

Yeah, Halo 2 is inferior to Halo CE and Halo 3 from a gameplay and level design perspective, but the story is by far the best in the series for me. The music is also incredible, and the Arbiter is easily my favorite character.

Back in the day the Campaign felt quite disappointing for me, compared to Halo CE, but with time I've learned to appreciate it more and more, and now I like it a lot, even with its obvious shortcomings (Halo 2 Anniversary, with its extremely beautiful presentation, helped quite a bit with that I'm sure)

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Yeah, Halo 2 is inferior to Halo CE and Halo 3 from a gameplay and level design perspective, but the story is by far the best in the series for me. The music is also incredible, and the Arbiter is easily my favorite character.

Back in the day the Campaign felt quite disappointing for me, compared to Halo CE, but with time I've learned to appreciate it more and more, and now I like it a lot, even with its obvious shortcomings (Halo 2 Anniversary, with its extremely beautiful presentation, helped quite a bit with that I'm sure)

Yeah it has a great story. I actually had more fun replaying it recently, aside from the levels I did on Legendary. That part was painful. I do think halo 2 has some of the best multiplayer maps in Halo though. The big team battle offerings were really good too. It might have the best collection of BTB around: Colossus, Waterworks, Coagulation, Zanzibar, Headlong, Burial Mounds, Terminal, Containment, and Relic. I mean dang.

Honestly I think the BTB might give Halo the better longevity even compared to the campaign. Halo 5 shot itself in the foot by putting BTB on the back burner.

EDIT: meant to says "best multiplayer maps"

 

[RSB]

Yeah it has a great story. I actually had more fun replaying it recently, aside from the levels I did on Legendary. That part was painful. I do think halo 2 has some of the best multiplayer in Halo though. The big team battle offerings were really good too. It might have the best collection of BTB around: Colossus, Waterworks, Coagulation, Zanzibar, Headlong, Burial Mounds, Terminal, Containment, and Relic. I mean dang.

Indeed. Halo 2 multiplayer is great. Best map selection of any Halo game for sure.