I'd say the beta has turned me into a believer. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting Reach at launch, I had plenty fun with the beta!

Didn't think I would be able to go back to Halo after COD4, but it was a nice changeup again. Though I would still pick COD4 over Halo Reach if I had to make a choice. Fortunately, I don't. :)

I'm absolutely stoked for Reach. The beta was a ton of fun for me, and I'd probably be quite content if they didn't change a thing. If Bungie continues to fix bugs and play around with balance issues a good deal, that's even better.

The beta also made me even more excited for the single player...specifically with respect to fighting the Elites. I love how they look and move, and I expect encounters with them in the campaign to be a lot of fun.

I think the Beta's been fantastic, and I've no doubt that it will be the best game of the series.

I don't think I've had this much fun with a Halo game as I have with Reach - although there are some improvements that need to be made.

I personally prefer it to Halo 3.

Quality, no. But I like it more than I liked the Halo 3 beta. Halo 3 maps were very weak over all and with maps like Sword Base and the inclusion of jet packs I hope for more vertical maps (I have a soft spot for vertical maps and Construct proved to be one of my favs).

I also like the weapons way more. They all seem useful and the single shot weapons are just very satisfying. They have to work on some of the details, especially the feedback and visual cues. But they already felt better than the BR to me, compared to the H2 BR it lacked that "umph". It just sounded weak.

Ditto that. I mostly tend to play Team Slayer, and the AAs allow for a more successful lone wolf when teammates inevitably don't have mics(which I still find retardedly baffling).

The one mode I really like is Team SWAT. It's simple yet refreshing.

Probably the main reason why I prefer the Reach Beta to Halo 3 is because of the Armor Abilities; quite simply, they shit all over the equipment in the third game. For the most part they're balanced, they feel like a core component of the game - unlike the equipment in Halo 3 - and they're just more fun to use.

There's nothing better than reigning death from above by using a jetpack. Oh, and assassinations are ridiculously satisfying.

I unintentionally perform assassinations quite often instead of a quick melee. Even if I make a conscious effort not to hold the button, I still end up with an assassination.

I never thought I could ever tolerate SWAT, but I liked it in Reach too. Without the BR spread it's quite enjoyable since not every buffoon can pull off a head shot within milliseconds. Also agree that AAs are vastly superior to equipment. Even armour lock seems like a good addition in light of the bubble shield or the regenerator.

I just hope Reach will get an all MLG playlist early on, or at least a hardcore one. No radar, only sprint/evade and head shot weapons at spawn is where the fun is at for me. Well, unless I'm playing with buddies on the same console, for that I have high hopes for Invasion. That was by far the most fun I've had with the beta.

Oh I played it, sure. But it came up twice in 2 weekends. If it got a playlist of its own with some healthy amount of objective game types (crazy king, oddball, 2 flag CTF) it would be ace.

And speaking of AAs, I don't get the love for jet packs. Every time I hear it, it's like an invitation to look out for them and grab an easy kill. At least I can't imagine it ever being used in a highly skilled lobby unless for a desperate last attempt in an objective game.

Ok, some other thoughts on the Beta: Bungie needs to tone down grenades, increase movement speed and address some issues with the head shot weapons, mainly the bloom. The problem I see is that gunplay is taking a huge step back in terms of relevance while grenades are predominantly the deciding factor in standard confrontations. The way it's been in Halo 2/3 was that grenades were there to weaken enemies first and foremost, and finish them with your rifle (preferably with a head shot).

In Reach it's the other way around. It needs two shots and a nade thrown somewhere near the opponent to kill him. Since he can't escape the nade with its huge blast radius it's a sure kill 90% of the time. Another side effect of this constellation is that team shooting is even more important than it was in Halo 3, the small clip and the amount of time it takes to kill someone just with bullets makes it necessary. While there is nothing bad about team play I think Halo 3 had just enough of it.

There still needs to be a way for a good player to turn the tables in the most desperate of situation. This is Halo in a nutshell. The best FPS games have their moments you crave for. There are moments in BF that you'd label "Battlefield Moments". Halo thrives on multi kills and sprees, or it has been until Reach. With all the steps Bungie took with Reach they've been working against that formula. I had my fair share of Overkills and Triplekills this Beta, but nothing was really memorable (apart from a Triple but only because I had a really nice stick at the end). Most of them involved chucking two nades and some close quarter combat. It's just as boring to watch as it sounds and it didn't make me feel good about myself.

What I want to see is that the gameplay is allowed to evolve throughout the lifetime of the MP. See, if Bungie had decided with the last game that they wanted to severely limit the capabilities of a single player we would not see plays like these on a pro circuit. But it seems like they want to do it now.

Can't say I have an issue with the grenades. Have had absolutely no problem with grenade spamming or anything like that. If you want to know what grenade spamming is, then play a match of TDM on Wetwork in COD4. ;)

I don't know, the nades feel spot on to me. I haven't been killed all that often by grenades, and haven't gotten an excessive amount of kills with them either. I've actually have had plenty of occasions were I was convinced I should've killed someone with a grenade + a couple of shots and they walked away unharmed...

It's not the frequency of it's occurrence, it's the game play mechanic itself that bothers me.

While I'm enjoying how lethal the grenades are in the beta, I wouldn't be upset if their damage was toned down slightly. That said, I absolutely hated the grenades in Halo 3 and spent an awful lot of time completely frustrated that shooting AND a nade at an enemy's feet didn't kill them how I expected.

The only thing I absolutely want addressed is the quick double melee. I hate getting killed by it, and I don't feel particularly good when I use it to get kills.

Well, it is quite a while since I've played anything other than dexp weekends on Halo 3. That said, I would still always prefer to have a shotgun. I don't remember off the top of my head any maps that feature Maulers where shotguns aren't. And the map is actually useful to have a shogtun. Uh, maybe the bridge one? With the two mancannons?It had its role sure, but I'd rather stick with an AR and BR than swap out the AR for a needler. It was very specific though.I know. But it barely appeared on any maps, and where it did, the BR was much more plentiful, and was an easier to use and pretty much as effective weapon.rather keep an AR for close range and have my grenades easier access.I know! I play BTB! But that was about all it was good for, and even then, it was still pretty hard to actually hit a vehicle with one.'Sandbox' or 'the sandbox' in relation to Halo means the collection of 'stuff' that you can interact with in the game. NOT that it is a 'sandbox game'

It is a confusing term to be sure.


Also, don't know what people around here thought, but I get the feeling that Network Test 1 (Generator Defence) is a test for their synchronous matchmaking model and associated matchmaking. Where do they use synchronous connections? Campaign and Firefight. If you managed to download one of those films that was broken out of the level barriers (heres the one I used if you had a code for the beta you can still access theatre) and fly high above, you could quite clearly see that Overlook was a map that was cut out of a longer multi-stage loaded campaign level.

So asking for 'make generator defence 4v4' isn't going to happen in its current form I don't think :P