- AbstraxioN
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- Exalted Member
Unforunately, the premise behind forcing every player to press on the d-pad while in intense battle seems to be a bit odd. If the 360 controller had the same features as a keyboard, allowing the players pinky to access the voice chat while still having full control of the WASD and firing functions, then I could see a reason; but the 360 is not designed for a user to interact with both triggers, both analog sticks, and the d-pad at the same time; atleast not in the function of intel while in-battle. This feature seems to be pointless based on the 360's advanced settings in regards to muting players, etc. With private chat, group chat, etc. built into the 360 dashboard, any player who dislikes hearing constant chatter but wants to hear something from someone can using the private chat or group chat. If somoene doesn't like someone's endless chatting; then the player can mute them - but the base you target to stop the annoying chatter isn't going to be quelled because they usually are not engaged in the gameplay. The portion of players that will suffer are the people who intensley play the game and can't afford to press an additional button to tell their team important information.
In the end, the player should be able to understand that he/she can not have a headset setup and not stream the voices what-so-ever, or he/she can setup a private chat or group chat with someone, or even more-so he/she can mute people who are annoying. This is a feasable option with every other multiplayer title on the 360 to my knowledge, as I have not played one that requires the user to be intensely involved with both triggers and analog sticks; but also assumes that holding UP on the d-pad would not cause any issues. Just my 2 cents, the feature seems to shy people away from using voice chat for practical methods; as 99% of what I've herd in those cases is people making odd noises and no sense of intel - as it's not worth it to tell your team about two enemies if it jeaprodizes you surviving any fire-fight; whereas the spammers can die and respawn in a safe area to press UP and rant away.
Other then that, the game is a good sequel to Halo 2. I hope you go the same route of adding new maps, as the list is lacking atm. Also, the Forge is an innovative feature but I had wished you had went the route of something along the lines of the Far Cry 360 map editor, as it seems to be even more user friendly but has a huge amount of options far surpasing adding junk to previously designed maps. The one reason why Halo 2 on the PC is appealing isn't it's Windows Live Acheivements; it's the ability to use software on par with or a more user friendly style of software remenicant of Radiant or Unreal Editor.
Also, Shotgun and Snipers = A horrible option to have in Team Slayer. I don't know why so many games try to change something they have right; and keep alot of things they have wrong. Mabye it's easier to break things than it is to fix them - and I'm pretty sure that's the truth regardless of the topic. Playing 2 rounds of Shotgun Sniper for every 4 rounds of Team Slayer really shows off the vast amount of new weapons availible in Halo 3, and it also shows off the new gameplay dynamics as I continue to snipe people in the same spot on a more visually appealing version of Zanzibar.
I'm a fan of the game, but I'm a critic aswell; and I know MGS probably wasn't begging you to launch Halo 3 after Christmas either; but it's unforunate that alot of things are left problematic until further patches that may or may not happen. Bungie as an independant company is a good thing; look at MGS's track recrod for companies they acquire and control - It's not a great thing. Theres that one company that did a few small titles, what was it... Oh yeah, FASA. Good call not turning into a roboust version of them; as I could see Halo 4 being something along the lines of Shadowrun, a ton of random ideas shot into MP with the hope it'd last more than a month or two - and a SP campaign could have saved it.
Anyways, long story short. Good job, -blam!- is still a bit off but you're miles ahead of most of the companies Microsoft has direct control over as far as quality. My game hasn't caused my box to RoD nor has it caused my HDD to burn up into little peices of metal scraps; so far you've beaten Shadowrun and PGR. Bravo!