As far as Scott Pilgrim goes, I’ve been listening to some music by the chiptune band that did the soundtrack, and I’m very impressed, so I’m pretty sure I’d enjoy the game’s music at least. Now that I’m in class again, I’m looking into getting a 360 of my own in a month or so; I’ve got my eye on a used MW2 special edition Elite, which has the same size hard drive as the new model for a lot less cash.

If there’s enough demand for it, I can eventually transcribe the remaining chapters, right up to the cliffhanger ending. It all depends on whether our readers want it.

C&D can be refilled with ammo?

Assuming, of course, that they don’t have more pressing things to worry about, like, say, other players. Design, especially game design, doesn’t operate in a vacuum.

>> far too unforgiving, especially in multiplayer, and nobody seems willing to use strategy beyond “there r bleu guy go keel ihm kay”.

That’s a problem with the players’ mindset, not the game itself.

>> Real design

…is whatever you want it to be. Go look at some Lego blogs once in a while and try telling me there aren’t some very talented people out there who work in the premade building block medium.

I’ll admit that there are some very nice custom maps for the Source engine. I’ve played on several of them. But you can’t ever expect me to believe that just because Forge uses a system of pre-made assets that it’s automatically inferior as a result.

Or maybe you wouldn’t suck so much if you checked your radar~

>They may know you’re there, but if they can’t see you, it doesn’t make that much difference.

But, again, at least when I played, the Active Camo still had the ripple effect around where you are, so all they need to do is put their back to a wall and wait for either the radar jammer to get out of range or a mysterious distortion to pass by. Point being: they can and will see you.

>people were actually complaining about Active Camo in its old state

People, especially on the Bungie forums, will complain about anything. I’m not saying that it’d be balanced without the radar jammer, I’m saying that they need to find another way of balancing it.

>Dead Ringer

Yeah, in Halo, that one would be fairly broken, but that’s not a comparable ability to the existing Active Camo. I suppose even the Cloak and Dagger wouldn’t be all that balanced, if only for the ability to resource-deny everyone else by stealing all the ammo to power your cloaking.

>Things can and will change. . . . a lot of bug fixes and balance tweaks

I certainly hope so.

>two completely different angles

That’s the thing: I’ve played Reach, and I used to be (much to my everlasting shame) pretty competitive in Halo 3. The reason I stopped entirely was that I realized I wasn’t having any fun. I just don’t have fun playing Halo games. They’re far too unforgiving, especially in multiplayer, and nobody seems willing to use strategy beyond “there r bleu guy go keel ihm kay”.

>All this talk of balance and problems is really just conjecture

For you, yes. I’ve actually played the beta.

>2D cliffside map concept

That’s going to be really tough, I suspect. Imagine playing Smash Bros. from a first-person view. It’s probably going to be tricky for the players to wrap their heads around.

>Because some of us would rather play with Legos than learn 3D CAD anyway.

And at the end of the day, you might have a nice house with a smiling sun. Real design is waiting for all of you Forgers whenever you’re ready to man up and face the consequences.

Unless you’re like me, and you just suck anyway. Radar doesn’t do much good anyway in my case.

>> For situations where you’re near a group of people, which was basically all situations I was ever in in the beta, it’s useless.

Unless you factor in that you’re hard to see and their reticle doesn’t automatically light up as soon as they’re tracking across your frame. Most players I know don’t spin in place spraying bullets everywhere if they think someone’s sneaking up on them. They may know you’re there, but if they can’t see you, it doesn’t make that much difference. Certainly not enough to dismiss it as useless.

On another note, I did a little digging on the Bungie forums and people were actually complaining about Active Camo in its old state, saying that being able to use it almost at will as an Armor Ability was immensely overpowered in multiplayer without something to counter it.

>> WHY DO YOU THINK I’M NERD RAGING OVER THE SNIPERS SO MUCH

Because snipers deserve it, no matter what game you’re playing.

>> Look at TF2?s Spy watches.

Yeah, because faking your own death is a totally balanced way to drop aggro, so to speak. Could just be me, but I don’t think you should ever have to kill the same person twice without a legitimate respawn.

And since it apparently needs to be said: If you hate it that much, don’t USE it. Geez. It’s not like that’s the only Armor Ability there is.

>> Okay, you’re getting unfocused here.

No, I’m just making sure I cover all the bases. If we’re going to have a debate here we might as well do it properly. At any rate, you’re still missing my point: what you saw in the beta is not The Final Product. That’s why it was a beta. Things can and will change. (Although not much at this point, since the game went gold last week, but I’m positive they hammered out a lot of bug fixes and balance tweaks between end of beta and gold status.)

Basically, we’re coming at this whole discussion from two completely different angles, from what I can tell. You’re looking at it from a more competitive side, where winning matters more, and I’m coming at it from the casual side, where I’m just out to have fun. (And yes, winning is more fun than losing, but that’s not the point here.

All this talk of balance and problems is really just conjecture until we get the final product in our hands and actually PLAY it. At any rate, the first thing I intend to do once I’ve got my initial Spartan armor looking as good as I can is to hop into Forge World and play around with this 2D cliffside map concept I’ve got. Because some of us would rather play with Legos than learn 3D CAD anyway.

Seriously, have you played multiplayer Halo at all? Ignoring your radar is the fastest way to the bottom of the killcount.

>all the crap they’re changing in Cataclysm

Okay, you’re getting unfocused here. Yeah, they’re changing crap in Cataclysm because it’s an expansion pack. They are also changing crap in Reach because it is a sequel bordering on expansion pack territory. This is not the point we’re arguing here.

>Active Camo + Sniper Rifle

Right, because what Halo needs is stronger, harder to take down snipers. I know *I* don’t get spawn-camped by them nearly enough already!

Keep in mind that I, at least, usually play objective-based gametypes, and the vast majority of what I was forced to play in the beta was small Team Deathmatch maps (because the guy who actually had ODST really liked that crap and I was playing on his proverbial dime). For situations where you’re near a group of people, which was basically all situations I was ever in in the beta, it’s useless. For sneaking across a map like Valhalla without taking sniper fire, it might be useful, but the recharge time would kill a plan like that.

>Besides, I can’t be the only one who thinks that not even being aware of your killer’s presence until you’re already dead makes for bad and unbalanced gameplay.

WHY DO YOU THINK I’M NERD RAGING OVER THE SNIPERS SO MUCH

There are other ways of balancing this than making everyone in the area aware of your presence immediately. Look at TF2′s Spy watches.

No, I just choose to play differently. Doing it differently != doing it wrong.

>> Yes, but Bungie does have to design a map with said verticality in mind before it’ll be of any use to you.

Hi, I’d like you to meet Spire. You two will get along great.

>> Because WoW has had two expansions and god knows how many significant content patches since its release.

Point still stands. Things change from beta to release. Hell, just going from Wrath to Cataclysm you’re looking at seeing every talent tree get chopped almost in half, HUGE overhauls to several classes’ major systems (‘lock soul shards, holy power for paladins, rune refresh for DKs, focus for hunters, etc.), and several of those weren’t even implemented in the Cataclysm Alpha.

On another note, why is the radar jammer function of active camo so horrible? All that does is make nearby enemies aware that someone cloaked is nearby. Active Camo + Sniper Rifle = problem solved for you. Just because assassinations are heavily featured doesn’t mean that’s the only effective way to kill someone.

Besides, I can’t be the only one who thinks that not even being aware of your killer’s presence until you’re already dead makes for bad and unbalanced gameplay.

>you’re much more likely to ignore a tiny radar window.

If you’re ignoring the radar, you’re playing Halo wrong. Besides, it’s not hard to see a crapload of red dots on something out of the corner of your eye.

>And then there’s always turning the motion tracker off entirely in the gametype options.

We’re not talking about custom gametypes here. Unless you’re playing SWAT, you’re going to have the radar, and that’s going to render the invisibility pointless.

>They’d have to be pretty good at avoiding that EMP blast at the end of it

It’s easier than you think, actually. The blast radius isn’t big enough to be a real pain in the neck, again, at least when I played.

>Because, you know, it’s not like you have to GET to the flag first. :-p

Yes, but Bungie does have to design a map with said verticality in mind before it’ll be of any use to you.

>If you’d played World of Warcraft back in beta you wouldn’t recognize it compared to today.

Because WoW has had two expansions and god knows how many significant content patches since its release. From original beta to vanilla, they basically changed “bloodstone” to “healthstone”. You Fail Metaphors Forever.

>> but then I suppose I’m making the “gtfo of Guitar Hero and learn a real instrument” argument here.

Yes. Yes you are. Besides which, I don’t enjoy feeling like I need bachelor’s degrees in architecture and computer-aided drafting to be successful with a map editor.

>> There’s nothing that you can unlock that screams “holy crap, this guy’s awesome” like the Hayabusa did, at least right after launch.

I’m guessing you haven’t seen the list of stuff that’s going to be available from the armory on day one. One of the items immediately purchaseable (if you’ve earned the credits for it, natch) is a LIGHTNING AURA. If that’s not badass, I dunno what is.

>> The invisibility is useless because it instantly alerts anyone clever enough to watch their radar that there’s an invisible person somewhere nearby.

To be honest, the only situations in which I find myself so much as glancing at the motion tracker (which you can always fool if you move slowly enough; been that way since game one) are the campaign and a one-on-one duel in multiplayer (and let’s face it, 95% of the time I’m sneaking peeks at the other half of the screen anyway). Yeah, I see how it could be a problem if you’re the only one around, but most of the footage I’ve seen has so much activity going on you’re much more likely to ignore a tiny radar window.

And then there’s always turning the motion tracker off entirely in the gametype options.

>> Protip: did you know you can melee someone in the back as they’re coming out of the Armor Lock animation for an instant kill?

They’d have to be pretty good at avoiding that EMP blast at the end of it and then ducking in to gank you before you can react. Seems like a pretty small window, seeing as how you can’t just walk up and stand behind the guy without getting hit yourself.

>> Riiight, because deployable cover is the same thing as a medic.

I guess I should have been more specific: the drop shield combines the bubble shield and the regenerator. You know, that thing that heals people?

>> Oh, and by the way, in Bungie’s words: “If you have hold of the flag, using an Armor Ability will cause you to drop it instantly.” So much for those new routes!

Because, you know, it’s not like you have to GET to the flag first. :-p

Look, I know the series has its flaws, but also consider that you’re judging the game based on a beta test. If you’d played World of Warcraft back in beta you wouldn’t recognize it compared to today.