Halo 5: Guardians [XO]

[AlNom]

I don't know... I've never really liked the way the book told some of the backstory, and the animated series seem to do even worse in some cases.

For example, John seems to be a pretty violent and selfish kid, and his main motivation to start helping his fellow recruits is to make his own life better. I don't really get how this could be turned around into him becoming a great squad leader. We should simply accept that his selfishness somehow turns into selflessness and caring for others.

Yeah, that scene bugged me in the animation. Too smug, but it fits in his character when he tries to lone-wolf the bell ring the first time. I'm not sure he's a bully, but he is very aware of his belief in his superiority.

Then there's the issue of his morals. He starts off violent, and then ends up killing fellow soldiers because of his irresponsible behavior - he should have known that his augmentations would make him lethal in hand to hand combat.

I don't have access to the rest of the episodes, so I don't know how that plays out in the animation, but it was explained in the novel pretty clearly. Did they not show how he could lift 40kg, see in slow motion? His mind just isn't used to the augmentations.

IIRC (I forget when) it was revealed that the soldiers were ordered to instigate the fight in order to see if the augmentation program was worth it - and just so happens it worked a little too well I suppose.

Also, it's strange that the series is called "Fall of Reach" - and yet it ends at less than the halfway point of the book and there's nothing about the actual battle... Then again, maybe there's going to be a second season sometime later...

Ha. Heard about that. Maybe they should have titled it Bootcamp like the comic.

 

[AlNom]

I am basically a decoy. I get a lot of assists, few kills. I mostly draw enemy fire and then my team cleans up. I guess that's some form of useful.

If you ever get the flag, I've got your back. :V

 

[HTupolev]

Excluding complaints directly targeted at art style, the thing that bothers me most about the graphics isn't the texture quality, or the unstable shadows, or the low-res transparencies, or the occasional awkward geometry, or the sudden termination of splashes, or the 30fps animations, or the texture filtering, or the antialiasing, or 343i's continued inability to render headlights that look a tenth as good as those in Halo 1 on original Xbox, or the wimpy use of decals, or the instability of screen-space reflections, or the dynamic res.

It's that hazy rim lighting that carried over from Halo 4. I don't know if it's because these games don't use Bungie's area specular, or if it's because they're using a low-quality Fresnel approximation, or what, but it looks like a blend between frosty glass lit from nowhere and an elite energy shield from Reach.

 

[BadTB25]

Completed the Slayer free for all qualification and ranked "Silver" which sounds about right.

Also did a couple of matches of Team Arena. 1st was Stronghold which takes some teamwork and communication. Our team had none and we got wrecked.

Also played a match of Team slayer. On this match, I decided to be a wingman to another player and just trailed and watched his back. Unsurprisingly, I had the lowest kill total of the team, but astonishingly, I had more kills than the highest on the opposing team with a K/D ratio of 3.0

Arena matches are claustrophobic with deaths around every corner. MP is more fun than I thought. I'll try to get some more matches in later.

Does anyone know where you find your Spartan company in the game? I see a link in the waypoint to join, but is there any way to group together via the company?

 

[iroboto]

Completed the Slayer free for all qualification and ranked "Silver" which sounds about right.

Also did a couple of matches of Team Arena. 1st was Stronghold which takes some teamwork and communication. Our team had none and we got wrecked.

Also played a match of Team slayer. On this match, I decided to be a wingman to another player and just trailed and watched his back. Unsurprisingly, I had the lowest kill total of the team, but astonishingly, I had more kills than the highest on the opposing team with a K/D ratio of 3.0

Arena matches are claustrophobic with deaths around every corner. MP is more fun than I thought. I'll try to get some more matches in later.

Does anyone know where you find your Spartan company in the game? I see a link in the waypoint to join, but is there any way to group together via the company?

Perfect! Yes death is around every corner haha. It's awesome when the matches are so close and you don't feel dominated, it's the only way to feel progression imo.
Good question, I haven't seen that yet myself to be honest.
When you click 'X' to go to roster, I usually just see, friends and recent. There is a 3rd tab, but it's not coming to mind. Perhaps it's company.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Started to do better in arena last night. Controlling the power weapons is critical. Don't shoot like a spazz. Pick your shots wisely. I was shooting too fast, getting caught reloading too often. Be a little selective when using a gun like the magnum. Treat the assault rifle as a fairly short range weapon, use your magnum at anything medium to long range. Don't be too aggressive. Work on managing your shields and staying alive. Swap your assault rifle for basically anything else you can pick up. Actually turned my sensitivity down to 2, and it helped me a lot. Since the opponents are spongey, you really have to track your shots well, so the reduced sensitivity helped. In other games like COD I play with high sensitivity, because it's usually a matter of who gets the first shot winning the fight. Get used to using your boost to dodge.

Edit: Oh, and your shields do not recharge while you sprint, so sprinting away from an enemy is not always the best idea.

 

[iroboto]

Good post for a quick reference damage guide to weapons
https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/3rqtno/a_fairly_indepth_halo_5_multiplayer_weapons/

 

[BadTB25]

I finished Team Arena slayer with a gold ranking. I had more fun with this mode although teamwork was definitely hot or miss. For the most part, I tried to play support roles providing supportive fire or charging ahead when my lead took too much hits to spread some of that damage.

Strategy worked out pretty good in some instances and really bad in others. In stronghold, we either got destroyed or destroyed the other team----no close matches.

I still need to be more disciplined in my shots.

 

[BadTB25]

Good post for a quick reference damage guide to weapons
https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/3rqtno/a_fairly_indepth_halo_5_multiplayer_weapons/

Good guide and explains why I see a lot of players crouching while firing the assault rifle. At first, I thought it was to avoid showing on radar while shields recharged, but then saw players doing this after being spotted. Conversely, they also jump and fire while lobbing grenades or sprint and Spartan charge melee which I think takes your shield out in one shot.

So many tactics to figure out.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Good chunk of the way into the campaign. Story is underwhelming, which is par for the series. I'm not sure I understand the complaints about the advertising being deceiving, at this point. From my recollection, all of the elements in the advertising are in the campaign. There's just another plot line that they didn't spoiler in the trailers, which is good. I just think the writing is kind of shit.

Gameplay wise, I'm still enjoying it more than the other games, but I do find it gets kind of grind in long play sessions. The boss fights I've done were not very good in single player.

 

[Ike Turner]

Good chunk of the way into the campaign. Story is underwhelming, which is par for the series. I'm not sure I understand the complaints about the advertising being deceiving, at this point. From my recollection, all of the elements in the advertising are in the campaign. There's just another plot line that they didn't spoiler in the trailers, which is good. I just think the writing is kind of shit.

Gameplay wise, I'm still enjoying it more than the other games, but I don't find it gets kind grind in long play sessions. The boss fights I've done were not very good in single player.

Did you reach Sanghilios yet?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Did you reach Sanghilios yet?

No. According to a walkthrough I'm just finishing the mission before that.

 

[Ike Turner]

No. According to a walkthrough I'm just finishing the mission before that.

Ok..because for me this the when the game play (& GFX) went from "Meh" to "Damn that's good"

 

[BadTB25]

I just noticed last night that our Spartan Company name underneath my gamertag while playing a couple of matches in Arena.

Is this new?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Ok..because for me this the when the game play (& GFX) went from "Meh" to "Damn that's good"

I've played through missions 1-12 twice, once in single player and once in co-op. Mission 8 onward is definitely great. Missions 11 and 12 are really good. I don't know if I'd ever have recommended a Halo game to anyone before, but I'd definitely recommend this one. The rest of the series ranked from highly overrated to okay, at best.

 

[BadTB25]

I've played through missions 1-12 twice, once in single player and once in co-op. Mission 8 onward is definitely great. Missions 11 and 12 are really good. I don't know if I'd ever have recommended a Halo game to anyone before, but I'd definitely recommend this one. The rest of the series ranked from highly overrated to okay, at best.

Having recently played through Halo 1-4 recently, I'd rank this campaign pretty high up there maybe only eclipsed by Halo 2, but not by a big margin.

Some parts could've been fleshed out better for sure and I'm a little pissed with the direction they went, but that's because I'm a flaming fanboy of the characters.

The MP is also better than the previous Halo games for me. It may have to do with the quicker load times and better graphics as I'm still getting to the new abilities and weapons.

 

[BRiT]

November update details include BTB (Big Team Battle!) game mode. Initially set to include 4 maps, Basin (inspired by Valhalla), Deadlock (inspired by Standoff), Guillotine (inspired by Headlong), Recurve (inspired by Longbow)

The update will also include additional Req Pack(s).

http://www.trueachievements.com/n22161/november-update-detailed-for-halo-5.htm

 

[BadTB25]

I finished qualifying for everything besides Breakout in Arena. So far each mode has a fair amount of variety. My favorite so far is SWAT----I guess there is less to manage without grenades and radar and seems to be the mode I do the best in. I'm starting to get more comfortable with the Spartan abilities and just figured out how to do the stability ability utilizing Bumper Jumper. I still haven't been able to execute the slide---is it still in the game?

The smallish maps are tough for me and look forward to the bigger maps.

I've yet to try warzone, but probably will sometime this week.

 

[iroboto]

Yes sprint + crouch will slide. It works the same as Spartan charge. You must achieve the speed lines to be full sprint before you can hit slide.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Finished the campaign. It dragged a little bit at the end. The intensity stays too high for just a little too long and the boss battles get a little frustrating with the ai companions. Overall, I'm very happy with the game. Beating it on legendary would be a pretty serious challenge. I beat it on heroic, and I thought it was just hard enough that it was always fun, but casual enough for me to make consistent progress. Good pace for me. A legendary run would be more of a co-op thing for me.