I'm not a complete Halo fanboy and I think it's completely fucking ridiculous. The gameplay has shifted in ways that few sequels ever do. The campaign design of ODST was also vastly different (note: Not in a way that I particularly appreciated either). To say that there are essentially five games that play the same isn't just a bad opinion, it's factually wrong. Of course it still feels like a Halo game. You get that it's a sequel, right? There is vastly different gameplay here, from basic movement (jump, speed, grenades, etc) physics, to some vast changes in weapon behavior and control (uh, DMR bloom? Hello?). And that's not even considering the gigantic curve ball that armor abilities throw into the mix. This is a big change for the Halo franchise all around. Most sequels get by with far fewer updates.

Srsly. What I don't get is why there are people who think that it shouldn't be Halo at all. If you don't like Halo... why did you buy Reach anyway?

Korn's comments (and credibility) is a victim of his incessant desire to add a sensationalist bullshit twist to everything.. a bit like Jim Sterling that way. Since he's unable to do it himself, scale the "shock" content of his comments back about 300% and you'll get close to something more sensible and oftentimes quite sincere.

The sameyness of the Halo campaigns (barring like Grift points out ODST, which I find the most interesting and refreshing since the first game) is definitely a factor that I doubt ANYONE disputes. I think people who feel one way or another about Reach's campain vs the main trilogy (because few seem to have played ODST, frankly) are mainly responding to the tonal/visual shift. A more "desperate" backdrop, a muted colour palette, "humanised" characters... a lot of people reckon this is Halo at its most "grown up" and get a kick out of that.

I sincerely think few feel that the campains have varied much between 1, 3 and this. Halo 2, on the other hand was an uncharacteristically narrow/linear thing that people pretty universally disliked. At least if their gravitating towards Halo's gameplay in the first place was due to its openness and dynamism.

Halo Reach Mythbusters Ep. 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L08c3s0JySII have plenty of my own criticisms. This one is particularly stupid though. The MLG kiddies are complaining that this game is too different. It's sorta funny to see the vast majority of criticism for this game take one of two positions: It's too samey, or it's not samey enough. The campaign does naturally feel less different than the MP, especially since AA is vastly underused there. But it's still more different than the vast majority of sequels, and the first big shake-up for the franchise. I still think this particular complaint is pretty ridiculous.

The weekly challenge this week is weak. 1500 cR? Come on! The first week was 5000!

File under: no shit. It doesn't mean we can't still tell you you're wrong. :PLegendary is easy with four people. It will take no more than six and a half hours to complete.

UT2k3/4 is probably the biggest franchise-shift ever, but.. it's a pretty big change regardless, and most sequels to games as young as Halo stick to their guns for a very long time. I'll definitely give ya UT. That basically turned into Battlefield. Quake is probably the best example of franchise shakeups you could find though. Every game is wildly different.

Still, for a modern console game, the point is still somewhat valid. The people complaining about Halo becoming stale mostly never cared for Halo in the first place. There are big fundamental changes this go around, and that's a fact. The campaign will still remind you of Halo, and I actually think it falls short of Halo 1-3, but it has some pretty big changes as well. The new vehicle sections (including outer-fuckin'-space!) are.. well.. new, and there's moderate use of jetpacks and other AA throughout. It's not an entirely different game though, and I'm pretty sure it would need to be to make some people happy.

And the robustness of the package itself is simply unbeatable on the platform (or any other console platform). If you're not into online MP, than it's probably not going to set your world on fire, but between campaign co-op, firefight, MP, and forge world, I simply can't see how anything else compares to Halo Reach.

Granted, some people are campaign only sorta players.. and well.. that's a shame! There's so much more to this game. No single portion of Reach is perfect. The MP playlists need serious tweaking, FW tools could be better, and the campaign was pretty average for a Halo game.. but this game really is the sum of its massive parts.

I don't know how someone could *not* find a game of infection. It's all people ever fucking play in rumble pit. God forbid I just want to shoot some people and not play, "lets all camp in a corner!" Zombies is fine in smaller doses, but I just played five rounds of rumble pit and we played one game of slayer. It's sorta awful. Make a zombies playlist or something and get that shit out of the rumble pit. Sometimes I want to play an actual game of free-for-all! /rant

Yea.. early October.

The plasma pistol really is a beast :)