First blog post in a while! I’m going to try to blog more. Anyway:
People are calling the 3DS dead. I’m very, very skeptical.
I bought a 3DS for $170 recently. My old DS (which is my all-time favorite system) broke a while ago and I finally got around to replacing it. Why a 3DS and not a Lite? Because I know that, like the DS, there’s a strong lineup to come.
Right now, the 3DS is where the DS was at launch. It’s got a price point of $170 (the DS was, what, $150 at launch?) and its biggest title is a remake of a critically-acclaimed N64 title.
Sure, the DS sold like hotcakes at launch, but that’s because it was a Black Friday launch window. The 3DS has yet to see a holiday season, and plus, they’ve got some AAA titles (Mario, Mario Kart) for the holiday window. The only reason they would do a price drop AND a redesign before the first holiday window is if they were really really scared of the Vita, and they have no reason to be.
Nintendo historically sucks at doing launch windows. They really really do. But they’re in it for the long haul. They always have been. It was months before the DS (or the GBA, or the GameCube, or the N64, or any of Nintendo’s other systems) had many titles worth talking about. But the titles eventually came and didn’t stop coming. Nintendo’s handhelds have what their consoles (and their competition) currently don’t: strong third party support with AAA titles for both mass market and the hardcore audience. (Read: Pokémon.)
The 3DS is the new PS3. Absolutely horrible launch window, massively overpriced at the start, but with a good price drop and some time to build up a decent library, suddenly it becomes a strong contender. And unlike the PS3, they’re not competing with the 360: a system that had a head start, killer app exclusives, and goes toe-to-toe with the PS3 in regards to third-party support. The 3DS won’t just have AAA titles, it’ll have AAA exclusives.
Nintendo is currently selling the 3DS as a loss leader, and they’re doing a lot of value-added stuff (Pokédex 3D, Nintendo Video, Four Swords coming up, Flipnote coming up, the promise of free DLC and apps via SpotPass, etc). Unlike MS and Sony, Nintendo historically does not do that, and I’m thinking that they’re confident that they will, at some point, have a strong AAA lineup. They have to, or else they won’t make money.
Much like the PSP, I don’t see the Vita as serious competition due to high price point and lack of third party titles. Come holiday season, the parents are going to be choosing between a 3DS at $170 versus a Vita at $250 or $300. Mario and Pokémon sell more systems than Uncharted and Gran Turismo, and that’s a fact.
While iOS and Android are becoming bigger and bigger in the gaming space, I don’t see them posing serious competition to the 3DS. This is because of poor controls, lack of AAA titles, and, most importantly, the Parents Factor. Your average parent isn’t going to see the 3DS and the iPod touch as being in the same class of device. They’re going to buy their kids (especially younger ones) 3DSes. (Incidentally, the Parents Factor is going to be the thing that kills the Vita as well, much like it did the PSP.)
The one area I see Nintendo struggling in the face of iOS/Android is in the non-gamer market, a market where Nintendo used to have a complete lock. Parents are going to buy the 3DS, yes, but they’re going to buy it for their kids. Nintendogs, Brain Age and Wii Sports may have helped push systems back before the iPhone became big, but now, a parent isn’t going to plunk $170 on a 3DS and $30 a pop on games for themselves if they can play Angry Birds for a buck on an iPhone they already have. Especially if they got bored with Nintendogs, Brain Age and Wii Sports the first time around. (This won’t stop them from buying them for their kids, of course.)
Nintendo needs to abandon their Blue Ocean strategy, because it’s dead. Blue Ocean sold Wiis and DSes, but it’s not selling 3DSes or Wii Us (or Kinects). The retention just isn’t there. Consoles and dedicated handhelds are no longer the dominant force in casual gaming, smartphones are. In addition, if Nintendo wants to sell loss leaders, they have to take into account that the casual crowd who bought Wiis just to play Wii Sports, or DSes just to play Nintendogs, simply aren’t buying many other games. It’s games, not systems, where Nintendo makes money.
Nintendo saw their mistake, they saw the challenge that the Vita proposed, and they threw a Hail Mary. When the Vita was announced at a similar price point to the 3DS, Nintendo needed to respond, and respond they did. They want (need) to get as many 3DSes into the hands of gamers as possible, so that when we do get a slow trickle of AAA titles, they’ll sell. And they still have one more trick up their sleeve…
When Nintendo dropped the 3DS price to $170, they pointed a gun at the Vita’s forehead. When Pokémon launches on the 3DS, that gun goes off.
TL:DR: Nintendo has this generation in the bag.
So Apple had an event the other day. Pretty cool stuff. The video’s available on the internet, but here’s a recap:
Steve Jobs is, in fact, still alive. He presented at the event and didn’t mention anything about his health or anything.
Throughout the presentation there was the obligatory numerical bragging: 100 million iPhones have been sold. 15 million iPads have been sold (more than every tablet PC ever) for a total of $9.5 billion in revenues. The iPad has a 90% market share. 100 million books, from over 2500 publishers, have been downloaded from iBooks. Apple has paid more than $2 billion to developers in App Store revenues. Not counting iPhone apps running in windowed or 2X mode, the iPad has 65,000 dedicated and universal apps, compared to 100 at most for competing tablets. There are 200 million iTunes accounts. Apple is the world’s largest supplier of video editing software.
First small announcement: Random House is now on iBooks. That’s 17,000 new books.
The big announcement, however was the iPad 2. No specific specs were given, but we do know that it uses a new dual-core Apple A5 chip. According to Apple, the A5 is up to twice as fast as the A4 but with the same low power consumption. Also, according to Apple, the iPad 2 will have 9X faster graphics performance than the iPad, and will be the first dual-core tablet to ship in volume. It’s lighter (1.3 vs 1.5 lbs) and 33% thinner (8.8 mm vs 13.4 mm) than the original iPad (he iPhone 4 is 9.3mm thick, for comparison). It’s got front and rear cameras, FaceTime, and a new Photo Booth app, complete with effects; in addition, it’s got a gyroscope just like the iPhone 4.
The iPad 2 has the same screen resolution (XGA), battery life (10 hours), capacities (16/32/64GB) and prices ($499/$599/$699 for Wi-Fi model, $130 extra for 3G), as the original. One major difference, though is that the 3G model is now available in either a GSM version through AT&T or a CDMA version through Verizon. There’s no dual-band version though, and presumably both are carrier locked. In addition, all iPad 2 models are available in black or white. (Still no white iPhone 4 yet.) This means that there are a total of eighteen different SKUs: three different storage capacities (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) times three different wireless chipsets (Wi-Fi only, Wi-Fi+GSM, Wi-Fi+CDMA) times two different colors (black, white). It ships March 11 in the US, March 25 internationally.
In addition, they announced a few accessories. Apart from the obligatory $29 dock, the first major accessory is an iPad 2 “smart cover” case: it attaches to the iPad 2 magnetically, covering the front side of the device. When the cover is attached, the iPad 2 automatically goes to sleep, and when it is removed, it wakes up. The foldable case also doubles as a two-position stand, propping the iPad 2 up either at a low angle (for typing) or a higher angle (for watching movies). It’s available March 11 in either polyurethane ($39) or leather ($69), in five colors each.
The other accessory announced is the $39 Digital AV Adapter. This allows you to mirror your iOS device’s display to your TV or monitor through HDMI (though you’ll have to supply the HDMI cable yourself. It’s compatible with the iPod touch 4G, iPhone 4 and original iPad at resolutions of up to 720p, but hook it up to an iPad 2 and you’ll get 1080p (though movie playback is limited to 720p). It’s also got a Dock Connector pass-thru so you can sync or charge your device while it’s plugged into your TV.
Apple also spent a lot of time talking about iOS 4.3, whose golden master recently got sent to developers and whose compatibility iTunes update just got pushed out. It’s got the Nitro JavaScript engine from OSX, meaning that it’ll run JavaScript twice as fast as before. 4.3 also adds support for iTunes Home Sharing, allowing you to stream music from your PC or Mac to your iOS device. AirPlay has also been improved: it now supports Web videos and most apps, photo slideshows (complete with transitions). One button searches for an Apple TV and pipes the video or audio to it automatically. You can now delete partially installed apps (FINALLY!), and there’s a new font (Noteworthy) in Notes. iPad owners can now set their switches to either orientation lock or mute, and the GSM iPhone 4 now supports tethering over Wi-Fi to up to five simultaneous devices like its CDMA cousin (if you have tethering in your plan). It drops March 11 for the iPhone 3GS, GSM iPhone 4, iPod touch 3G and later, and iPad (though the CDMA iPhone 4 version has been delayed indefinitely).
Finally, two iPad apps were shown off. First is the iPad version of the soon-to-be-universal iMovie for iOS ($4.99, requires iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4G, iPad update coming March 11). It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect: iMovie on the iPad. There’s a precision editor with a multitouch interface (set start and stop points at the same time with two fingers). There’s multitrack audio with waveforms, volume control, voiceover recording and easy importing of music from your iTunes library. You get full control over transitions, face detection over stills, and the requisite plethora of themes, titles, transitions, and (over 50) stock audio clips. And finally, you can play your videos over AirPlay, send them to your camera roll or iTunes library, or upload them in HD to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or CNN iReport.
The other was GarageBand for iPad ($4.99, coming March 11). Again, it’s what you’d expect: GarageBand for iPad. In addition to the 8-track recording and mixing, guitar amps and effects, and over 250 loops, there’s also the virtual on-screen guitars, keyboards and drums. The virtual keyboards have all the controls (pedals, knobs, etc.) of their real-world counterparts. Some of the synths even have theremin-like sliding and vibrato control (the higher up on the key you press, the more vibrato there is). The keyboards and drums are velocity sensitive (thank you, accelerometer). For guitar, there’s a “smart guitar” function: just pick a chord and strum, or tap individual notes. Or, just punch in a chord progression and it plays automatically – Apple says it’s easy enough to be used by people who have never played guitar before. GarageBand for iPad is compatible with its Mac cousin’s project files (so you can start a project on your Mac and finish it on your iPad, or vice versa). You can export your song to AAC format and either add them to your iTunes library directly, or email them.
So what did you guys think of the new hotness? Post in the comments.
My girlfriend got a copy of The Orange Box the other day for her birthday, and I started telling her about Half-Life 2. And during the conversation, I realized:
I want to play this game now.
See, I’ve beaten this game once already. I got it a few months ago (again, as part of the Orange Box) and beat it, following it up immediately with Episodes One and Two (except that I never really beat Episode Two because of the so-annoying-it-makes-you-want-to-ragequit Strider fight near the end). And then I put it away.
Now, a few months later, I break from my playthrough (I’m currently at the part right after you first get the squad) to tell you: It’s just as good the second time.
Why? I’ll tell you after the break…
So, just off the heels of the last patch, Bungie’s patching Halo Reach’s matchmaking system again.
As a little pre-update, the long awaited Campaign Co-Op playlist in Matchmaking is finally here. It’s 4-players (maximum of 2 per Xbox) and the mission and difficulty (no Easy here) are selected by majority vote. Note that:
- there’s no spoiler-prevention system to prevent people from playing the last mission first
- you have to have a rank of at least Corporal to play in this playlist
- you have to have a hard drive; owners of Core, Arcade, and 4GB consoles are out of luck unless you buy a hard drive. Microsoft has said that they’re working on it, but no concrete details have come up yet.
And there’s another patch due out Tuesday!
Playlist updates:
- New playlist: Team Snipers.
- New playlist: Living Dead (for Infection and variants thereof).
- Rumble Pit: No more Infection (see above), Safe Havens (see above), Race, Rally, Headhunter Pro, or any Classic variants, period. Gametype frequencies have been adjusted so that the crazier gametypes are less heavily weighted.
- Team Slayer: No more Team Snipers, period. See above.
- Team SWAT: New gametype: SWAT Magnums.
- Team Objective: No more Multiflag Classic, 1-Flag, or 1-Bomb on Hemorrhage. No more Oddball or Hot Potato on Boardwalk. No more 1-Flag Classic or Headhunter Pro, period.
- Multi Team: No more The Cage, period. No more SWAT or Classic, period. Gametype frequencies have been adjusted so that Rocket Race will not always be a voting option.
- BTB: No more Multiflag on Boneyard or Spire.
- Invasion: Now has 3 voting options instead of 2.
Map updates (these only apply to Matchmaking):
- Zealot: In Matchmaking, all Slayer gametypes (not just Arena) now use Arena Zealot instead of Zealot. Arena Zealot has altered initial spawns and a “Return to Battlefield” soft-kill time limit in space. In addition, Arena Zealot has been updated so that players now can no longer shoot below the shield by crouching on the edge of the generators in space.
- Asylum: The tops of the sniper buildings now have “Return to Battlefield” soft-kill time limits.
- Boneyard: The spawn points for Slayer gametypes have been modified.
- Hemorrhage: Spawn zones for both bases have been modified. Warthogs now all have a 120-second respawn time.
- New map variant: Cliffhanger. Created by Bungie’s Lars Bakken, it’ll appear in Rumble Pit, Team Slayer, Team SWAT, and Team Objective.
- New map variant: Atom. Created by a Bungie.net member named JoeSki73, it’ll appear in Team Slayer, Team Snipers, Team Objective, Multi Team, and BTB. Here it is, if you want to get some practice rounds in ahead of time.
Gametype updates (again, Matchmaking only):
- All CTF gametypes now have 10-second player respawn times. For Assault, player respawn time is 10 or 15 seconds, depending on map.
- Touch-Return has been enabled for all Classic CTF gametypes.
- Flag-At-Home-to-Score has been enabled for all Classic CTF gametypes and disabled for all other CTF gametypes.
- 1-Flag gametypes played on small maps now have 10-second flag return and 30-second flag reset times.
- All other CTF gametypes now have 30-second flag return and 45-second flag reset times.
Score Attack updates:
- All leaderboards have been reset.
- The Glacier map now appears in all gametypes.
- No more Crashsite, period. It may return in a future patch.
- Time limit for all gametypes is now 15 minutes instead of 12.
- In Sniper Attack, weapon pickup is now disabled, and the melee modifier now matches the damage modifier of 150%.
- New mode: Mythic Score Attack. Same as Score attack, but with Mythic on (enemies have double health).
Firefight Matchmaking updates:
- The Glacier map now appears in all gametypes.
- Friendly fire and betrayal booting have been disabled.
- Time limit for all gametypes is now 30 minutes instead of 10.
- Round limit for all gametypes is now 1 Set instead of 1 Round. A Set is 3 rounds, plus an endless bonus round. During the bonus round, all skulls are on, including Iron, which means no respawning; the bonus round ends when everyone dies. In Firefight and Generator Defense, the bonus round is Grunts-only; in Rocketfight, it’s Elites-only; in Sniperfight, it’s Hunters-only.
- Skull progression is now out in full force: Tough Luck (enemies dodge more effectively) is enabled from the start, Catch (enemies throw more grenades) is turned on during Round 2, and Cloud (no radar) is turned on during Round 3.
And here’s some more stuff that’s coming later (NOT during this patch):
- The rank cap will be lifted when the community collectively completes a total of 117,000,000 daily and weekly challenges. According to Bungie, this is on track to happen sometime next month at the current rate. Exploiting the disconnection glitch (where unplugging your Ethernet cable when you complete the challenge allows you to complete it twice) does not count and can (and will) get you banned from earning credits for one week. (Accidental disconnects are OK; it happens to everyone.) If you feel that you have been unfairly banned for exploiting the disconnection glitch, you can appeal on the Bungie.net forums, but fair warning: unsuccessful appeals get you another week’s ban, and no appeal has yet been successful.
- The first map pack (Noble) comes out November 30. 3 maps, 800 MSP ($10). There will be a “Noble Maps Only” playlist, and the Matchmaking algorithm will do its best to group Noble owners together and show Noble maps as voting options if everyone in the lobby owns them.
- Limited-lives Firefight is in the works for Matchmaking.
- Firefight Versus is in the works for Matchmaking; it may start as a weekend playlist before getting its own permanent playlist. Like Firefight, but with limited lives and human-controlled Elites; teams (Spartan and Elite) alternate each round, and the highest score wins. Killing an Elite nets you an extra life.
- Bungie is currently running a Forge contest; it runs until November 28. There are seven categories, each with a grand prize of an autographed limited edition Halo Reach 250GB Xbox 360: Invasion, Infection, BTB, Team Slayer, Symmetrical Arena, Race, and CTF. Any extremely awesome entries will be put into Matchmaking. (Note that the rules have been updated; entrants in the Invasion category no longer have to support both Invasion and Invasion Slayer. They can support either or both.)
- An MLG playlist is in the works, and will be released as soon as MLG finalizes gametypes and map variants, hopefully by the holidays.
- A Grifball playlist is in the works; GrifballHub is currently soliciting gametype settings and map variants. The playlist will hopefully be out by the holidays.
So here’s something that you should do right now. Frankly, I’m surprised Apple doesn’t make this mandatory, given their bragging about security, seeing as if you don’t do this, you’re leaving the biggest security hole on your computer open. Namely, the hole in your window left by the thieves who just broke into your apartment and walked away with your precious Mac.
Setting a firmware password basically stops your computer from booting into anything except what it normally boots into (normally, this is OSX, but if you’ve set up a Linux dual-boot with rEFIt, it’s the rEFIt bootloader, and if you’ve altered your startup disk in System Preferences, it’s whatever startup disk you set. If you had no idea what I said there, assume it’s OSX.)
Specifically, it stops you from issuing any of the following commands at boot-time without entering your password first:
- Boot from CD (press C while booting)
- Boot from Apple Hardware Test (Intel Macs only; press D while booting; on some Macs you may have to have your OSX install disc inserted)
- Boot from NetBoot server (hold N while booting)
- Boot into Target Disk Mode (hold T while booting)
- Boot in Verbose Mode (press Command+V while booting)
- Boot into Single User Mode (press Command+S while booting)
- Reset PRAM/NVRAM (press Command+Option+P+R while booting)
- Enter commands while booted into Open Firmware (PPC Macs only; press Command+Option+O+F while booting)
- Boot into Safe Mode (press Shift while booting)
- Use the Startup Manager bootloader (i.e. to boot Windows; press Option while booting)
And, before we begin, you need to know what models support firmware password protection:
- iMac: all models except the tray-loading G3 (the slot-loading G3 works)
- iBook: all models
- eMac: all models
- PowerBook: all G4 models and the G3 FireWire model
- Power Mac G4 (all models including the Cube, except the original 400MHz model with no AGP slots) and G5
- Any and all Intel Macs (please note that if you have a MacBook Air, you will need a DVD drive from which to boot)
All you need to do to do this is to set your password is run the Firmware Password utility:
- If you are running a version of OSX prior to Tiger, you will need to download the relevant utility from the Apple website.
- If you are running Tiger, the Firmware Password utility can be found on your Tiger install disc under /Applications/Utilities. Copy it to the same folder on your computer, then run it.
- If you are running Leopard or Snow Leopard, you’ll need to boot to your OSX install disc, then choose Firmware Password Utility from the Utilities menu.
From there, click the check box and make a password.
Note that (though they don’t give specifics) Apple states on their site that it is theoretically possible for anyone to change or disable the firmware password if they have administrator access on OSX, any access to any OS9 install that may be on the Mac, or physical access to the inside of the computer. But, theoretically, this should be able (combined with a strong OSX login password and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DISABLING AUTOLOGIN) to deter potential thieves, whether they’re interested in the data, or interested in wiping the hard drive and using or pawning the hardware.
Meanwhile there’s systems like Prey, a very excellent (and free!) laptop (and Android phone) theft protection system. There’s also FileVault which encrypts your home folder so it cannot be accessed by other users, OSs, or Target Disk Mode, and which I have not turned on because I have heard that it does weird things with Time Machine, and quite frankly my data is more valuable to me than it could potentially be to a potential thief.
Speaking of which, security tip: Whenever you’re doing anything money-related on the Internet (paying bills, using credit cards, doing banking-related stuff), turn on your browser’s privacy mode (InPrivate, Incognito, Private Browsing, whatever your browser calls it). If your browser *coughIE6* is outdated enough that it doesn’t have a privacy mode, you fail at life and you have much worse security problems to worry about, like the fact that you should install some security patches once in a while, or maybe switch to Firefox or Chrome. In fact, I’ve heard that there are some financial institutions that are accidentally recommending that their users do all their online banking while booted to Linux liveCDs so as to be 100% sure that there are no pesky keyloggers trying to steal your identity, which is a great idea, if a little overkill.
TLDR: MW2 isn’t fun if you’re a noob.
I have not had a chance to play any online games (stupid satellite connection) until I arrived at college around a month ago. I noticed my roommate had a copy of MW2 and so I played through most of the campaign, then (in between Halo 3 marathons) set my sights on online play, and played enough games to reach level 8 or so.
At first, I liked the level-up system, which (a) uncovers the layers of complexity behind the game’s class/perk/weapon system gradually, so as not to overwhelm new players and (b) gives people an incentive to keep playing.
However, I also noticed the complete lack of any skill-based matchmaking system. I’m a level 8 or so, and I felt a little overwhelmed by the people I was being ranked up with. These people all had the best weapons, the best attachments, the best everything. These people had levels in the 40s and 50s and higher (the cap is 70), with nary a noob in sight. Or so I thought.
Then I found out what “prestiging” was. Prestiging, for those of you who don’t know, means that once you reach level 70, you have the option to dump all your unlocked items and start back at level 1, with your rank icon changing to represent the fact that you’ve prestiged. You can prestige up to ten times.
I can count on one hand the number of people I was playing with that hadn’t prestiged at least once. I was being matched up against people who had played the game ten to a hundred times more than me. And I was getting my a** handed to me. I believe that my KDR is 0.3, if that. I do not believe that I have ever finished in the positives. Laughable by the standards of the game’s community, where anyone with a KDR below 1 is shunned.
Which brings me to my next point: KDR is the only thing that matters in this game. There is no teamwork. There is no scrambling for the best weapons or vehicles like in Halo. It’s just kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. There are TDM (MW2-speak for Team Slayer) games that I’ve played where I can’t even tell you who won. And it doesn’t help that on the off chance you find someone with a mic, they’re some 12-year-old kid talking about something completely unrelated to the game. I may as well have been playing Lone Wolves. Even in objective games, it’s just kill, kill, kill. Nobody cares about silly things like flags or nodes; they’re just off trying to get the best KDR.
And it’s nigh impossible for me to keep up because this game is NOT noob-friendly. At least in Halo everyone has a chance; people actually work together and actually, you know, go for the flag, pile in the Warthog, try flanking tactics, etc. in team games, and in solo games, you actually have to know the map, pick up weapons, etc. In MW2, your weapons are entirely determined by how long (and well) you’ve been playing. There’s no element of strategy, no weapons to pick up. Every weapon (or at least every weapon anyone uses) is exactly the same, except the more experienced players’ weapons are better. And on the off chance you can last five kills without being jumped by someone who knows the maps like the back of their hand, you get a killstreak reward, which means more kills. And everything and everyone looks the same – at least in Halo you can find the enemy before they kill you.
I get killed. A lot. Since there’s no matchmaking system, I regularly get matched up with people who have played the game for almost a year, not counting the time they spent playing MW1, which is essentially the exact same game. I could get Black Ops when it comes out, in the hopes that maybe it’ll be a fresh start, but it’ll still be essentially the same game. And unlike Halo, where at least everyone starts on a level playing field and there are tactics other than “camp like crazy and shoot everything that moves”, in MW2 the deck is stacked towards the more experienced player. Not just because they most likely have more skill, but because it actually gives them better guns, one of only two things that matter in that game (the other being pinpoint-accurate reflexes.)
Some people might flame me because the crux of my argument is that I suck at MW2. They’re right. They’re exactly right. I suck at MW2 and am whining about it. But I’m whining about it because I suck so much, the game’s not fun. It’s not fun to die time after time and never even get a single kill. At least in Halo you can actually get a level playing field (just choose “Skill” in your Reach matchmaking settings) and everyone can get kills, and plus, there are fun parts other than trying for a high KDR. I’m not saying that multiplayer should be entirely non-skill-based (that would be just stupid) but what I’m saying is that, when you make multiplayer too stacked against the noob, it ceases to be fun.
EDIT: If you look at my Halo Reach Service Record you’ll see that I am by no means the best Halo player. But at least Reach is still fun if you suck. MW2 isn’t.
EDIT: UPDATED!!! First patch drops TUESDAY!
So you’re playing Halo Reach! Yeah! And you notice that the matchmaking playlists… are boring. And they don’t often really work well.
Fear not!
Bungie has stated that the reason that matchmaking is relatively vanilla and boring is that they’re still seeing what works and what doesn’t. In fact, they’re coming out with a patch October 5 that will fix a bunch of pet peeves people are having (NOTE: this list is not comprehensive):
- SWAT variants will be removed from Big Team Battle and Team Slayer and moved into their own, brand-new, 100% Hemorrhage-free “Team SWAT” playlist. (For those of you not in the know, SWAT is Slayer with no shields, no motion tracker, infinite ammo, and the only loadout available is DMR/Magnum/Sprint.)
- The gametype weighting for the Team Slayer playlist is being adjusted to fall in line with voting trends. More standard Slayer, less crazy variants.
- Team Objective will now feature the Powerhouse map more often, and will even have 1-Flag and Stockpile games on it.
- A new gametype (Rocket Race) is being added to Multi-Team. Basically, it’s a Race, only the guy in the back of the Mongoose has an unlimited-ammo rocket launcher. Expect hilarity.
- “Classic” (Sprint-only) variants are being removed from Big Team Battle, and Team Snipers will appear much less often. Again, this is to keep gametype weightings in line with voting data.
- “Pro” (no-radar) variants are being removed from Arena, and the Boardwalk map is being removed from Arena Doubles. In addition, for the Arena playlists, Zealot will be replaced with a variant called “Arena Zealot” with altered initial spawn points and a “Return to Battlefield” time-limit soft-kill zone to prevent people who camp in space.
- Credit earn rates for Gruntpocalypse are being reduced.
And here’s what’s going down with a second patch later in October (NOTE: again, not comprehensive):
- The controversial betrayal-booting system (which allows victims of teamkilling to kick the offender from the game) has been revamped: it now takes three instances of teamkilling to trigger a potential boot, just like it was in Halo 3.
- Friendly fire has been disabled in Firefight Matchmaking.
- Team Snipers will get its own playlist.
- “Pro” variants may or may not return to Arena, or get their own Arena playlist, just in time for season 3
- Campaign Co-Op Matchmaking will go live. Note that, since people vote on which mission to play, and the voting system doesn’t take game completion into account, you’re going to want to beat the game first, either alone or with a friend. For that reason, Campaign Co-Op Matchmaking will be restricted to Corporal-level players and above (keep earning those credits!)
(Editor’s Note: I have not posted in forever. I AM SORRY. I had college.)
So, yeah! Halo: Reach! It’s out! Go get it! (And hit me up on Live. It’s oboewan42. Be warned: I suck.)
So, you may or may not be asking yourself, “How do I get those cool logos for beside my name in the lobbies and make it not look blank?”
The answer: do cool stuff. Then, sign in to the nameplate change page on Bungie.net and choose your nameplate. There are a total of 12 that you can earn (pics will come later):
Halo “O”: To get this, you need to enter your CD key from your PC or Mac version of the original Halo (the Xbox version doesn’t count, and each CD key can only be used once).
Halo 2 “O”: To get this, you need to have played the Xbox version of Halo 2 (the PC version doesn’t count) online at least once (this means that if you don’t have it right now, tough, Bungie says no exceptions).
Halo 3 “O”: To get this, you need to play Halo 3 at least once while connected to Xbox Live.
ODST logo: To get this, you need to play Halo 3: ODST at least once while connected to Xbox Live.
Assault Rifle: To get this, you need to have participated in the Halo: Reach beta. If you don’t have it right now, tough. Bungie says no exceptions.
Spartan Helmet: To get this, you need to have earned at least four of those five emblems. If you don’t have either the Halo 2 “O” or the Assault Rifle right now, tough. Bungie says no exceptions.
Halo logo: To get this, you need to unlock all three “O” logos. If you don’t have the Halo 2 “O” right now, tough. Bungie says no exceptions.
Septagon: The logo for the Bungie.net community (because, you know, 7 and stuff). Just like in Halo 3, all you need to do to get it is log on to Bungie.net.
DMR: To get this, you need to subscribe to Bungie Pro. It’s 750 Microsoft points per year, but it also gives you an expanded File Share and five minutes of replay rendering per month, among other things.
Marathon 2 Pfhor Terminal icon: To get this, you need to have the Xbox Live Arcade version of Marathon 2: Durandal in your last-five-played-games list. The PC and Mac versions don’t count.
Bungie logo: To get this, you need to get a job at Bungie. No exceptions.
Star icon: Bungie has said that they do not yet know what they’ll use this for. Presumably, they’ll give it out semi-randomly as a status symbol, like they did with Recon armor in Halo 3 pre-ODST.
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