_______
-...you are a gigantic female genitalia sanitizing apparatus.
I think we can all agree that aim-assist helped Halo: Combat Evolved be branded one of the best games ever because it was kinda like a combat stimulant for the analog sticks and because it was barely noticeable. Basically, it felt like "This is working!".
As Halo advanced in age and numbers, the games used a bit more aim assist, causing a few problems, but not making the game rediculously easy.
In the latast installment, ODST, heavy aim-assist didn't work because you faced giant angry mobs of aliens tightly packed and if you tried aiming for one grunt in front, it would sometimes displace your reticle to the guy in the sixth freaking row. Didn't happen often, but it wasn't cool when it did.
But back to Halo 3 for a moment.
Bungie, in an effort to make the game more accessible and at the same time relieving some net code stress for the Online Multiplayer portion of Halo 3, also added a version of aim-assist for melee: Lunge.
Lunge basically works like this: If your enemy is within a certain range from you and your reticle is red, when you press the melee button, your character is automatically alligned to the target and melee damage occurs. This means there is no room for a last second dodge, which is the melee equivalent of side-stepping while being shot at by a precision weapon (like the BR).
I can understand why Bungie did this, but I feel it really dumbs down melee combat. I know you guys wanted to emphasise on melee a little more in Halo 3, the most widely ignored part of the Three Pillars of Halo (Guns, Grenades and Melee), but it simply doesn't work on a fairness level. Some may say it fair due to aim assist, but in my opinion, if it doesn't correct your crosshair agaisnt someone side-stepping left and right, it shouldn't make your fist a face-magnet.
Now, tell me how this makes any goddamn sense: Guy jumps over other guy, does a 180 looking down, presses melee and magically moves in the air for a perfect assassination, even though he was clearly out of range were it in real life (though I doubt you could jump over a guy and do a 180, but you get it).
If it were up to me, aim assist and lunge would be off in all ranked matches at very least, if not the whole game.
But it's not to me, so if any devs read the suggestions on the Reach forum, I'd like to make an appeal to fairness here: Think about competitive play, ranked matches, LAN, and the children.
But most of all, think of me, who used 10 minutes of my life to write an elaborate letter about one feature that bugs me.
A solution to this could be to add an invisible reticle, especially for melee that would be much larger, but would actually fit the size of the weapon (which doesn't mean a custom reticle has to be made for every single gun: it can work with a "one size fits all" invisible circle). So, when you hit a guy with your whole freaking Spartan Laser, it doesn't just deal damage within the comparatively minuscule reticle; you won't miss him if it's slightly off, but the size will compensate.
"Yeah but n00bs will just melee!", everyone uses melee. Case and point: Simultaneous deaths (And don't get me started about the melee system). You know this to be true.
If Reach is your last Halo in a while, at very least give us the option to turn it off in custom games. Comon, 2 hours with an interface guy must be worth my 60 bucks.
Thanks.
Regards,
-Noccifer