march Update and past present and future Halos

This update is exactly what we needed. If you want damage bleeding go play Halo 3.
The reason Halo Reach is different is because it’s a different game. If you wanted to keep playing Halo 3 then get off of Reach and go do that.

The original Title Update was well intended but it attempted to “fix” things that didn’t need fixing.
Changes such as nerfing armor-lock and active camo were excellent additions and deserve to stay.
Eliminating the sword cancellation was too much in my opinion. Without sprint, sword needs to remain un-countered, but when you factor in the ability to sprint, the sword (without the possibility of cancelling out) becomes overpowered. It would have been a good original balancing function for the sword to have to be redeployed after a sprint (like when you first pick it up and it goes “pshh!”) but it’s too late for that now, and the sword should be able to be cancelled out again.

KEEP IN MIND, I am not a casual Reach Player. I have worked VERY hard from almost zero gaming experience, to become a decent Halo player. I play, and I play to win with a positive K/D (my roommate does not though) I am an educated Reach Player. Before the game came out I taught myself all the statistics and strategies, all the weapons and their functions. I studied Reach. I have kept up with all the changes and updates.

I also know seasoned Halo gamers who do like Reach because they came to the game with an open mind for a NEW game. You can rage all you want, but you’re closed minded and you’re living in the past. This is not Halo 2, or Halo 3. So stop screaming that it needs to be turned into that.

Reach was not designed for damage bleeding, damage bleeding had no place in Halo Reach and it needed to be removed from the Title Update. TU now has nerfed Armor Lock, and reduced bloom, (things that were good to fix) and damage bleeding needed to go. Armor lock is fine. I don’t like it, but I am skilled enough to counter it. Even in Vanilla Reach where it’s over powered I can beat Armor Lock because I learned to play THIS game. Now that it’s nerfed it’s even better. Let anyone use Armor Lock. I don’t care.

I don’t like Jet Pack, but you know what? I learned to play against it because I’m not trying to play Halo 3. It’s been over a year. Get over the fact that this is a new game and enjoy it for what it is. The March Update was excellent and fixed the broken aspects of Reach.

Halo 4 is going to have some MAJOR changes even from Reach (e.g. the new CoD like scoring system shown in the preview video) and chances are I’m not going to like those changes very much, but if I have a problem with it, I will just go back and play Reach. Then I’ll adapt to the new game factors and enjoy Halo 4 for what it is.

Look back to the huge changes from Halo Combat Evolved to Halo 2! HUGE changes. Implemented by BUNGIE. Damages changed, new weapons were added, the scale changed, everything was different, but you don’t hear nearly as many people whining about how Halo 2 wasn’t like Combat Evolved. The fact that 2 and 3 were so similar gave you all a bad impression of future Halos. Bungie is an innovative company, things are going to change, change is part of nature. If you want to play the exact same game over and over again, go play CoD.

I didn’t notice many people complaining about bleedthrough at all, but apparently you did. I really dislike this March update, not because of the bleedthrough, but because they removed playlists such as Squad Slayer and Anniversary Slayer. Not many people know why they did this, and it really makes a lot of people mad.

As for the sword cancel, I’m glad it was removed. The sword should be powerful and intimidating, but the sword cancel just made the weapon totally unreliable. The sword is very similar to the Gravity Hammer where you can use it immediately after exiting sprint, but there is no fix to the Grav Hammer. Granted the sword has a bit of a lunge to it, the two are very similar, hence the reason they are the two weapons available in Grifball.

As for Armor Lock, well… Armor Lock just sucks…

And finally, there are definitely people who wish Halo Reach was more like Halo 2/3, but I feel like that’s because of a few reasons. In Halo 1, 2, & 3, when players spawned, they all started at the same level. They didn’t have sprint or jetpack or armor lock, they didn’t have the choice between weapons at the beginning, they all started the same. This made the kills more fulfilling and satisfactory when you had to beat your opponent who was at the same level as you. In Reach, however, many players don’t like having to choose a loadout that has both pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. It is shifting towards a different type of game that many people don’t like. Now, if the AA’s were pick-ups like the bubble shield in Halo 3, I feel like there would be less of a problem since players would have to race and fight in order to get these. This is what I personally hope 343 does in Halo 4, but honestly, I doubt they will.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, you realize this isn’t Bungie’s game anymore, right? Towards the end of your rant, you claim that “Bungie is an innovative company”. Umm… Bungie is completely out of Halo… like, forever. It’s all up to 343i to not screw up now.

The major problem I heard people complain about with bleedthrough was that it rendered the gravity hammer almost completely useless. In TU, getting up in a guys face with the hammer netted you the kill, because while it swung a little slow the guy couldn’t get through your shields fast enough and usually wound up punching you once, only enough to take out your shields, while your hammer killed him outright.

But with bleed through, an enemy could fire a handful of AR bullets or a DMR shot or two at you and while you brought the hammer down, they could give you a quick jab in the face and kill you.

I don’t even play TU by choice, but when voted for in Team Slayer during the experiment, the one thing I enjoyed about bleedthrough was that it made the needle rifle a 6 shot weapon, which I felt was great since it needed a damage boost, even if unintentional.

The needle rifle kills just as fast as the DMR in default i believe, and is actually more accurate. Its reticle is half the size of the snipers!

The problem with it in TU is that its a full auto gun and its literally zero bloom in TU. Try it. With the bleedthru it turned into a crazy power weapon that broke a lot of the sandbox balance. Thankfully bleed is gone so its back to 7 shots and its taken the edge off, but its still the only zero bloom gun in an average TU game making it too powerful to be balanced.

I think the take-home message is Bleedthrough fixed Sprint-double melee, but made a mess of a lot of other things…

While the needle rifle fires faster than the DMR, it’s not really any more accurate. Bloom spreads the shots out very quickly, some (I) would say a little too much. 6 shot kill due to bleedthrough felt just right for me, and I’ll miss that about bleedthrough.

But that’s about it. Eugh, I hated everything else about bleedthrough. Everything.