- Cowleyad
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- Senior Legendary Member
He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.
--Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Yes, this is a rant. Get over it.
I took a very long break (well, "long" for me) from Halo: Reach recently. I thought this little break would help me appreciate a game that I honestly would like to love. I mean, I've played Halo from literally day one (giant controller with awkward white and black buttons, anyone?) and have obsessively played each Halo installment thereafter. Halo has been the only game I've actually ritualistically owned, played, and immersed myself into. No other game has ever come close. Then Reach came out...
I wanted so bad to like Reach. If the previous Halo games were so amazing, how could I possibly question the brilliance of Bungie? Well, I denied the reality of Reach's terribleness for so long until my little "break" from Reach was over.
Armor Lock. Wow. Such a moronic and dumb idea. Player gets completely demolished, presses a button, comes back to life. Yep, genius idea, Bungie! In fact, it's such a good idea that it takes Halo gameplay to a place it had never been: you don't have to aim well, play smart, or watch what you're doing. No! You must simply choose a Loadout and press a button. Presto! Your back in the game! Don't get me started on EVERY other Armor Ability. Admit it, they were a stupid idea and an even stupider thing to add to the Halo universe.
But, I digress. I dealt with all the horrible gameplay AAs brought to the table and the way bloom wreaked havoc on what used to be a pristine, high-level game (Halo put MLG on the map. 'Nuff said). What really tipped the scales for me was the lack of servers. Yes, the lack of servers pushed me into an anti-Halo hole. Playing games against someone, quite literally, thousands of miles away results in an un-playable game. When you play against decent players, this problem is exponentially compounded. Someone else "hosting" a game is an open invitation to a bad experience. What makes this laughable is how Bungie decided to "give" someone host. How could a game possibly last in Yellow/Red Bar all game long?? It's stupid.
All in all, have fun playing Halo, my friends. It is dead to me.