StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Did anyone else find it annoying that you don't keep your weapons when you switch levels? Like before Floodgate (on the way to destroy the AA cannon) there's a Chieftan with Invicibility and a Gravity Hammer. The first time I played that part, I had those items and then when Floodgate started the map basically reset (no bodies or weapons left on the little plateau), it would make sense that you would keep the weapons you had before the cutscene.

Andrew_Fireborn wrote:Well, the hard parts I found were all on the Earth missions.

A couple popped up on the Ark, but for the most part I found Legendary only a little bit harder.

Same here, on both counts.

The first facebreaking point: The Brute ambush on the way to Voi. There were a good too many Fuel Rods to fight close range, and attempting to snipe from the dam-type wall got us almost perfectly bombarded with Wraith fire. Ultimately, we resorted to Attrition.

This area, yes?

That was easily the most difficult part of the game for me. I died more times in there than at any other point. My save point had me cornered behind the buildings pictured above. I had a sniper rifle with 4 rounds, a fully-loaded battle rifle (and whole rack of same inside the aforementioned bldgs.) and a piss-weak assault rifle lying on the ground nearby.

Unlike the picture, I most certainly had no minigun :-\

My strategy was simple: go for headshots. I'd crawl around the edges of that building, single-stepping my way forward and peaking through my scope 'til I had a hint of a Brute's helmet in my sights. Then I'd shoot. Usually it'd take a good 24-30 rounds to drop the blues like this, but the lowest-ranking/least-armored blues could go pretty fast.

The trouble with that approach is obvious: the Wraith goes apeshit and fires 3 big glowy balls at me, the first of which is always hell to avoid if you spend too much time sniping. Further, I've got at least one heavily-armored blue and a Fuel Rod-wielding gold who've closed to within "holy shit!" distance. They're dispatched easily enough, but dodging those Rod rounds is always a fucking pain; one hit and you're blown away.

Eventually I ran out of battle rifle ammo and had to abandon my cover. I ran back to the bridge, knowing I had one reload for the BR, some Brute shots and other junk lying en route. I somehow used this mix of junk to wipe out the rest of the Brute infantry, and I managed to pop a plasma grenade on the Wraith.

I must've died at least 40 times before finishing that part. The vehicle part to come was also a pain in the balls, but I finished it with much less fanfare.

After that, the Earth missions were cake. The Flood are almost a joke compared to the other enemies on this level. The only thing making their later appearances difficult was the shear number of spider-turrets, which are still insanely bullet resiliant. Though I found that Dual plasma rifles tear the flood up a lot better than in any prior game.

Yep. There's one part in High Charity that gave me headaches -- one of the last large chambers before reaching the reactor room. It was crawling with those spider fuckers.

The third point came right before we got the tanks on the Ark. The huge arena with the AA Wraiths. That was primarily because the Ghosts could take you out with about one and a half seconds worth of fire. Again, attrition on gunners was the name of the day.

I got my ass kicked there a few times, but I honestly found that, as long as I hauled ass and didn't follow too linear of a course, the Ghosts would lose me and I'd flank 'em in short order.

Granted, it seemed as if I was driving around the entire area like a lunatic but, in time, my gunner got off enough shots that all of the threats were neutralized.

The final point was the big area right before the first shield tower. The amount of enemies, and the continuingly annoying anti-sniper ability of the wraiths, lead to a lot of attrition.

That was pretty irritating, yeah. One Wraith, at least two Ghosts and two Choppers, not to mention a turret and snipers back and to the left? I can't remember what I did to win there. I might've actually hopped into a Ghost. I find it pretty easy to tear up Wraiths at range with Ghosts.

seanrobertson wrote: This area, yes?

Exactly.

Took us a half dozen tries before we managed to get out of the buildings, after that is wasn't so hard. Yet that was only because the Brutes didn't respond as a unit to attacks from their dam-facing flank. (Honestly, I was the one breaking for the clearing, we abused the heck out of the respawn system. Don't feel as bad about it as I did with Bioshock, because it was still a challenge.)

seanrobertson wrote: Yep. There's one part in High Charity that gave me headaches -- one of the last large chambers before reaching the reactor room. It was crawling with those spider fuckers.

The reactor room wasn't too bad for the two of us. (Corridors were worse for us.) Because we could split up, my friend sniped most of the stuff with his Brute shot and other stuff, while I used the two stealth optionals to sneak up and carve the spider turrets up. I counted at least a dozen in there, probably closer to twenty, but that seems a little high.

seanrobertson wrote: I got my ass kicked there a few times, but I honestly found that, as long as I hauled ass and didn't follow too linear of a course, the Ghosts would lose me and I'd flank 'em in short order.

Granted, it seemed as if I was driving around the entire area like a lunatic but, in time, my gunner got off enough shots that all of the threats were neutralized.

The marines got slaughtered right before that on our game no matter what we did. That would have been my preferred strategy though. I love driving the Hogs, and the Marines are accurate enough gunners.

seanrobertson wrote: That was pretty irritating, yeah. One Wraith, at least two Ghosts and two Choppers, not to mention a turret and snipers back and to the left? I can't remember what I did to win there. I might've actually hopped into a Ghost. I find it pretty easy to tear up Wraiths at range with Ghosts.

I tried to stay back and snipe gunners while my friend went and rushed with the Ghosts we had. It ended up working pretty well, excepting when the Gold Brute hopped into the gunner's seat on the Wraith before my friend could grenade-jack it.


I just wish ghosts were in the game more. At least along side the choppers. The brutes didn't seem to have an issue with using them last time, but now it's all their fugly and unfunctional looking vehicles everywhere. Especially that silly ski-based transport vehicle... Looks like it should flip at any speed on even a small turn...

[R_H] wrote:Did anyone else find it annoying that you don't keep your weapons when you switch levels? Like before Floodgate (on the way to destroy the AA cannon) there's a Chieftan with Invicibility and a Gravity Hammer. The first time I played that part, I had those items and then when Floodgate started the map basically reset (no bodies or weapons left on the little plateau), it would make sense that you would keep the weapons you had before the cutscene.

It's been par for the course with Halo since the first one...

Though I was pleasantly surprised that whatever you had at the end of High Charity you kept after the Pelican ride. Which explained the Rocket Launcher at the end of the escape sequence.

On Heroic, the first real sticking point is the last part of Sierra 117, where you have to rescue the Marines from that power plant.

I have a replay of my first time I did it (well after I had started up again after trying for a while and quitting in frustration). I hadn't taken out all the snipers across the way, which made it more difficult... but it was even more difficult when I got a checkpoint with both my weapons lacking ammunition.

Looks like Zero Punctuation has a review for Halo 3 up now. I still want to try Halo 3, but ever since buying Deus Ex my standards for fps games have been raised above insipid boomfests.

Megabot wrote:Looks like Zero Punctuation has a review for Halo 3 up now. I still want to try Halo 3, but ever since buying Deus Ex my standards for fps games have been raised above insipid boomfests.

I find it a bit ironic that a reviewer who evidently bases a large part of his assessment of games on their plotlines freely admits that he has never played a Halo game before and is thus unfamiliar with the story, and then procedes to lambast it for exactly that. Now, I'm not going to say that Halo 3's plot is sacrosanct or anything (shocking, isn't it?), but honestly, that's a bit silly. I can appreciate the occasional sardonic review now and then, but I'd prefer it if they were done reasonably.

Well yes, he is the same guy who criticised Bioshock for being too much like System Shock 2, and then proceeded to lambast it for, err, not being more like System Shock 2.

You shouldn't take him entirely seriously, though he always does make good points about games.

Noble Ire wrote:I find it a bit ironic that a reviewer who evidently bases a large part of his assessment of games on their plotlines freely admits that he has never played a Halo game before and is thus unfamiliar with the story, and then procedes to lambast it for exactly that. Now, I'm not going to say that Halo 3's plot is sacrosanct or anything (shocking, isn't it?), but honestly, that's a bit silly. I can appreciate the occasional sardonic review now and then, but I'd prefer it if they were done reasonably.

His criticism of the plot was only part of the review; he made numerous other points about the game as well. It certainly wasn't a large part of his assessment of the game.

Vendetta wrote:Well yes, he is the same guy who criticised Bioshock for being too much like System Shock 2, and then proceeded to lambast it for, err, not being more like System Shock 2.

It seemed pretty clear to me that he was criticizing Bioshock for being a dumbed-down System Shock 2.

Yeah, the 'BS=SS2, but less features' was even illustrated in a nice animation.

However, regardless of Halo hype/cynicism, expecting it to be more than an 'insipid boomfest' seems a bad idea. They're not Stalker or even Bioshock.

Curious: now that I'm going back for the extras, I picked up the "Blind Skull" but I didn't get an Achievement notice I wonder if it's because I've already completed the game on Legendary, or is this a skull you've gotta carry all the way to the end of the level?

seanrobertson wrote:
This area, yes?

First time I played that area on Heroic I had a shotgun/sniper rifle combo. Used the sniper rifle to pick off a few brutes as they dropped in and then saved it for the damn flyers when they where sniping, otherwise it was shutgun dueling with a size order of 'nades

I saved Fuelgun spam to deal with the Wraith.

:edit: Strafing + jumping is required to prevent the elite brute with the fuelgun from introducing you to green glowing death.

Megabot wrote:His criticism of the plot was only part of the review; he made numerous other points about the game as well. It certainly wasn't a large part of his assessment of the game.

I'm not saying that the rest of the review is invalid; indeed, he does make some good points (for example, the difficulty level does seem to decrease as the game progresses overall). Nevertheless, it is still an eminently playable and highly entertaining game, especially on higher difficulty levels, where the enemy AI can actually assert itself and there's an element of risk involved (you literally don't take damage on Easy, but Heroic and Legendary can be extremely hair-raising).

Anyone who expects the third installment of a megabuck trilogy to be "innovative" or "unique" is on crack anyway. It's going to be a big, grandiose, but essentially derivative follow-up to the first two. Only a fool would deviate too far from the formula when making the third piece of a trilogy.

seanrobertson wrote:Curious: now that I'm going back for the extras, I picked up the "Blind Skull" but I didn't get an Achievement notice I wonder if it's because I've already completed the game on Legendary, or is this a skull you've gotta carry all the way to the end of the level?

The "blind" skull is a silver skull. You don't get achievements for any of the silver skulls.

Stile wrote:

seanrobertson wrote:Curious: now that I'm going back for the extras, I picked up the "Blind Skull" but I didn't get an Achievement notice I wonder if it's because I've already completed the game on Legendary, or is this a skull you've gotta carry all the way to the end of the level?

The "blind" skull is a silver skull. You don't get achievements for any of the silver skulls.

Danke.