Although things are fine in most games, all too often I’m in a game where I’m staring at the black score screen repeatedly. I could live with that happening once in a game once in a while, but the #1 reason I leave games is seeing that screen for the third time in the same game.
Not only is it frustrating for the game to pause for long periods, but when it restarts things have changed. I’m almost always looking in a different direction for some reason. In one game it was pausing every few seconds. I was in a Mantis duking it out with a warthog with a turret. Every time the game restarted I was looking away from the warthog. I’d turn back to fire on it and as soon as I was facing it the game paused again. It kept firing at me while I spent all my time turning to face it until it killed me.
Ordinance I’m waiting to call down changes, and there are other changes as well.
I don’t think it’s my connection. It doesn’t happen in most games. I have a relatively new FIOS fiber system with a wired connection and I see the problem even when nothing else that accesses the Internet is on. The other day I was playing with a friend in one of these games. Eventually he got booted, but the problem continued so I just quit.
I don’t need explanations, I need a reliable, enjoyable gaming experience, and the current implementation simply doesn’t seem capable of delivering that. I play mostly BTB, and maybe the problems are less severe in other playlists with fewer people, but BTB is the most popular playlist and all playlists need to work well.
I agree totally. I’ve never seen this much lag in a Halo game before.
Lag for me is the biggest problem in the game. It ruins big custom lobbies and has put me off BTB for good. Also I find the host system to be garbage, with most hosts having crappy connection, though that’s my personal experiences.
I have never seen so much lag in a game its unreal.
> I agree totally. I’ve never seen this much lag in a Halo game before.
Halo 3 is grand champion of being laggy.
> I need a reliable, enjoyable gaming experience,
Speedtest, location and the time you play please.
And it might be your router.
> > I need a reliable, enjoyable gaming experience,
>
> Speedtest, location and the time you play please.
>
> And it might be your router.
Speedtest.net says ping 39ms, 14.98Mbps down, 5.05Mbps up.
Location is central Florida and play time can be almost anytime since I’m self-employed and work from home. Looking at my game history it looks like I quit this game just before 6PM last night. I’m assuming that’s my time zone but I can’t say for sure.
As you can see it lists 16 people on my team and 16 on the other. Over half of those didn’t finish the game. That’s not my router.
Dedicated servers isn’t the automatic success solution that people make it out to be. In fact, it could actually make the game worse for many people, and even for all players.
> Dedicated servers isn’t the automatic success solution that people make it out to be. In fact, it could actually make the game worse for many people, and even for all players.
I was in a game I eventually left last night about 6PM. By the time it finished 16 people had been on each team at one time or another, and most of them didn’t finish. How much worse could it get? Is this just really bad networking code?
> Halo 3 is grand champion of being laggy.
It is now, because the population is so small.
Back in 2007-2009 it was never like this.
> > Dedicated servers isn’t the automatic success solution that people make it out to be. In fact, it could actually make the game worse for many people, and even for all players.
>
> I was in a game I eventually left last night about 6PM. By the time it finished 16 people had been on each team at one time or another, and most of them didn’t finish. How much worse could it get? Is this just really bad networking code?
You think that’s bad?
Try playing Grifball and getting killed when your the only one on the court. On top of that, you re-spawn half an hour later.
> > Dedicated servers isn’t the automatic success solution that people make it out to be. In fact, it could actually make the game worse for many people, and even for all players.
>
> I was in a game I eventually left last night about 6PM. By the time it finished 16 people had been on each team at one time or another, and most of them didn’t finish. How much worse could it get? Is this just really bad networking code?
We add in a local only search filter. Any networking problems can be figured out once we’ve determined if it really is poor host selection that’s causing all the trouble or bad networking.
Dedicated servers can be bad because most developers don’t know how to do them. Chances are they’ll only have servers for US, meaning the game can ONLY be played by US players. It’s worse when there’s no server selection option and you’re hoping the game just throws you into an unfilled local server.
Did you ever play Bad Company? You could always tell who wasn’t in the US. Just sit in the spawn area and wait. If a player spawns and rushes forward, he’s in US, if a player spawns, runs up to a fence, knifes it, then leaves, he’s not from the US.
There’s also the obvious problem about servers where the game only exists when the servers are up.
> > Halo 3 is grand champion of being laggy.
>
> It is now, because the population is so small.
> Back in 2007-2009 it was never like this.
I don’t remember a lag problem back then. I just remember my butt getting kicked all the time. LOL
> > > Dedicated servers isn’t the automatic success solution that people make it out to be. In fact, it could actually make the game worse for many people, and even for all players.
> >
> > I was in a game I eventually left last night about 6PM. By the time it finished 16 people had been on each team at one time or another, and most of them didn’t finish. How much worse could it get? Is this just really bad networking code?
>
> You think that’s bad?
Actually, yes, I do. 
> Try playing Grifball and getting killed when your the only one on the court. On top of that, you re-spawn half an hour later.
Sorry, but I’m not a glutton for punishment. If I’m playing Grifball and we’re more than one man down I’m outta there. Otherwise someone will just spawn camp me and kill me as soon as I spawn over and over again. But I would say that’s bad too. We aren’t having a competition here.
> I don’t remember a lag problem back then. I just remember my butt getting kicked all the time. LOL
Same here. Halo 3 was my first ever FPS and my first ever game on Xbox. Not only that but I had just made the change from PS2/Wii to Xbox.
You can only imagine how difficult it was to adjust to the new controller, a game-engine with a high learning curve and learning how to shoot. Rough times.
Just a search for good connection filter is all a lot of people want. But again the population is a problem with that. I can find a few local games a day in my country still though.
> There’s also the obvious problem about servers where the game only exists when the servers are up.
I guess I’m just a gaming weenie, but from where I sit the “game” doesn’t exist while I’m staring at a black screen with scores on it.
YUP either they give us dedicated servers or at least some sort of search filters.
> > I don’t remember a lag problem back then. I just remember my butt getting kicked all the time. LOL
>
> Same here. Halo 3 was my first ever FPS and my first ever game on Xbox. Not only that but I had just made the change from PS2/Wii to Xbox.
> You can only imagine how difficult it was to adjust to the new controller, a game-engine with a high learning curve and learning how to shoot. Rough times.
Halo 3 was my first console game, and I was 53 years old when I started playing it. When you start playing that late in life you just don’t develop the reflexes the kids who start playing when they’re six do. Trust me, it’s brutal.
All big games should have dedicated servers these days. There really is no excuse when your making Microsoft’s biggest exclusive title.