/halo/ - Halo General Discussion

[Digital Cheese]

I've decided to create a Halo thread because me like Halo. This will be used for general discussion of Halo, along with other useful things like sharing gamertags. This will focus on Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST, and the Master Chief Collection but the PC versions of Halo CE/2, along with 4 and Reach, are fair-game to discuss too as per expected.

USEFUL TOOLS
XLink Kai - https://www.teamxlink.co.uk/ [Mainly Used In Halo 2 On OG Xbox]
Halo 2 Project Cartographer - https://halo2.online/

ONLINE PLAY
Halo CE - XLink Kai (required, free)
Halo 2 - Insignia (free), XLink Kai (free)
Halo 3 - Xbox Live (paid), XLink Kai (free)
Halo Reach - Xbox Live (paid), XLink Kai (free)
Halo 4 - Xbox Live (paid), XLink Kai (free)
Halo 5 - Xbox Live (paid), XLink Kai? (free if usable)
Halo MCC - Xbox Live (paid), XLink Kai (free)
Halo Infinite - Xbox Live (paid), XLink Kai? (free if usable)

USERS WHO HOST LOBBIES
@Digital Cheese - DigitalCheeseXB [3/ODST/Reach/4/5/MCC/Infinite, Xbox Live], Digital Cheese [CE/2, XLinkKai]

USEFUL NOTES
- Halo CE never had official online, thus XLink Kai will always be necessary.
- Halo 2 online shutdown in 2010, but Insignia brings it back. Web features like clans are in the works, so use Insignia or XLink Kai, whichever is necessary to play the game online. Halo 2 supported clans, so if those work, someone confirm it in this thread. This only affects the original Halo 2 on the original Xbox, because the Master Chief Collection didn't exist until several years after the shutdown of the original Xbox Live for OG Xbox.
- Halo 3, Reach, and 4 had their matchmaking shutdown in 2021 iirc, but hacked lobbies exist if you're willing to risk the chance of getting your achievements reset or getting banned outright. Also, private matches still work, which is where lobbies are generally hosted. This does not affect the Master Chief Collection, just the original Xbox 360 title.
- Halo 5 Companies may no longer work, but if they are still usable, I may create an H5 Company (H5 Companies seem to just be clans with cool names, very useful for people who just play Halo 5, which is unlikely).
- Halo Infinite may or may not have a proper clan system as well, I have not been able to confirm for sure but I don't believe there is.

I will mostly use this thread for gamertags, joining/planning matches, and sharing images/videos of Agora matches (alongside very good clips obtained). This first post may be updated overtime, I will keep an edit log for anything major. Anyone who would gladly host lobbies may reply below, along with post their XBL or Insignia gamertag if they are doing it outside of XLink Kai, and I will add them here. Similarly, if someone is going to stop hosting lobbies at all or for a long time, they can either message me or reply again for me to remove them from the lobby-hoster list.

 

[№56]

How is the PC port of the Master Chief Collection? I've never played any of the original games, except for part of CE back in the day (wasn't that impressed), and every time it goes on sale for dirt cheap I'm tempted to pick it up. Is the port decent and do people still play online?

 

[Digital Cheese]

How is the PC port of the Master Chief Collection? I've never played any of the original games, except for part of CE back in the day (wasn't that impressed), and every time it goes on sale for dirt cheap I'm tempted to pick it up. Is the port decent and do people still play online?

I'm not sure, I haven't played it before. It probably works decently though. Also, I believe the PC version can play with the Xbox version.

 

[RisingThumb]

Does this include Halo Master Chief Collection? iirc you can still play Halo Reach/Halo 3 custom lobbies in it. Might be fun to organise some Halo game nights but idk how many people are interested, and how many people want to fork over money for Halo MCC since it is bottled at Microsoft.

If there's interest in this, I'd be happy to sort something out for this...

How is the PC port of the Master Chief Collection? I've never played any of the original games, except for part of CE back in the day (wasn't that impressed), and every time it goes on sale for dirt cheap I'm tempted to pick it up. Is the port decent and do people still play online?

It's excellent imo. It has Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Halo Reach and a couple of the crap 343 industries ones I don't care for. When I played it ages ago I found Halo Reach to work really well and finding custom games lobbies in it to be a blast. I haven't played much Halo 3 on it, but I know the forge maps in it are absolutely cracking from my childhood memories. The only issues I have with it is Microsoft-tier enshittification efforts, where you have to have some ass microsoft account. Apparently matchmaking has cheater issues in it nowadays, but idk. Never really played matchmaking, always been a custom games guy myself.

Anyways, have some classic Halo 3 screenshots I made way back as a kid:

And one that's not mine but I have in my folder for some reason

Man, the Hayabusa armour sure was beautiful wasn't it. Modern 343 industries halo armours can't hold a candle up to it

 

[Digital Cheese]

Does this include Halo Master Chief Collection?

No, the MCC is unaffected, just the original Xbox 360 titles no longer support matchmaking (which is annoying because now it is riskier to get certain achievements).

 

[Skookumsquitch]

A small anecdote on my time with Halo, because I have nothing particularly constructive to add:

The first one I ever played as a kid was Reach not long after it came out on XBOX 360. I absolutely loved it, and a core memory of mine was playing it with my dad (who had and would never have any experience with games thenceforth) whilst he recovered from an injury. We would talk about it all the time, and we now have fond memories about this hard time in his life all because of it.

Years later, I was given Halo 4, and was so confused as to how it 'continued' the story of Reach (I was under the impression it was the sequel to Reach). I figured the ship the main character awakens on is the Pillar of Autumn from Reach, so I wasn't sure how it got destroyed or who the hell this AI who's talking to me was. I ended up quitting ⅖ of the way through due to boredom.
I wouldn't end up playing another Halo game until MCC came out on PC right before COVID. It was so much fun playing Reach again after so many years, and I was so excited to play the story chronologically for the first time once CE were to release. Keep in mind: I had zero clue about the lore of Halo outside Reach. You can imagine my surprise when I had my very first encounter with the Flood—almost twenty years after most people had. I screamed like a girl.
And that's what I find so funny. I considered myself a fan of Halo for all these years, despite not knowing a thing about the central horror of the whole story. Yet, I still got a genuine experience that only people who played CE when it first came out would have gotten. I think that's a bit special.
To this day, despite being a tad burnt out from playing MCC, I still keep my custom Spartan with the same colours as my dad had it: bright red and rust with a prosthetic arm and a gold visor.

 

[RisingThumb]

Years later, I was given Halo 4, and was so confused as to how it 'continued' the story of Reach (I was under the impression it was the sequel to Reach). I figured the ship the main character awakens on is the Pillar of Autumn from Reach, so I wasn't sure how it got destroyed or who the hell this AI who's talking to me was. I ended up quitting ⅖ of the way through due to boredom.

Halo Reach was a prequel to the Halo series as a whole. As you already know, the events of Halo CE(Chief on the Pillar of Autumn) come right after Halo Reach... don't believe me? There's a whole easter egg of it in Reach! Halo 3 was ended on a cliffhanger and in my heart it's the end of Halo.
Halo Reach was the final Halo game made by Bungie. It went to 343 industries to work on for Halo 4 and onwards. I and many others had the same mixed and generally negative opinion of 4 coming from the Bungie Halo games.

To me... Halo 3 is still the peak. Halo Reach felt like the beginning of them making halo this overdetailed and overwhelming game. You can see that in how much over the top stuff they added for Reach's armour customisation. Granted... it at least fit in with the game imo. Halo 4 looked shit for this. Halo 3 on the other hand looks very unique and distinctive. The other thing is both Halo 3 and Reach armours meant something. Halo 3's meant more imo and you can see all their unlocks here.

HAYABUSA is still the Goat imo

What I'll give Reach though... it had the best damn custom games lobbies. Personally... I think Halo in 343's hands has been a terrible mistake. Anyways, Bungie complained about Microsoft and creative limitations and jumped right into bed with Activision for Destiny, so Bungie execs were a bunch of retards and gave up a crown jewel gaming IP.

Another thing I thought was awesome about Halo games back in the day was the number of easter eggs in it. Meant there was always something to go hunting for and checking out with friends back in the day

 

[Andy Kaufman]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzH4hCHLm8M

 

[knowerofgnomes]

Halo Reach was a prequel to the Halo series as a whole. As you already know, the events of Halo CE(Chief on the Pillar of Autumn) come right after Halo Reach... don't believe me? There's a whole easter egg of it in Reach! Halo 3 was ended on a cliffhanger and in my heart it's the end of Halo.
Halo Reach was the final Halo game made by Bungie. It went to 343 industries to work on for Halo 4 and onwards. I and many others had the same mixed and generally negative opinion of 4 coming from the Bungie Halo games.

To me... Halo 3 is still the peak. Halo Reach felt like the beginning of them making halo this overdetailed and overwhelming game. You can see that in how much over the top stuff they added for Reach's armour customisation. Granted... it at least fit in with the game imo. Halo 4 looked shit for this. Halo 3 on the other hand looks very unique and distinctive. The other thing is both Halo 3 and Reach armours meant something. Halo 3's meant more imo and you can see all their unlocks here.

HAYABUSA is still the Goat imo
View attachment 128658
What I'll give Reach though... it had the best damn custom games lobbies. Personally... I think Halo in 343's hands has been a terrible mistake. Anyways, Bungie complained about Microsoft and creative limitations and jumped right into bed with Activision for Destiny, so Bungie execs were a bunch of retards and gave up a crown jewel gaming IP.

Another thing I thought was awesome about Halo games back in the day was the number of easter eggs in it. Meant there was always something to go hunting for and checking out with friends back in the day

Halo CE still has the best BtB imo. I prefer how vehicles work, and the maps are great. Snowfield in particular has the best BtB CtF gameplay. Halo 3 also has great maps but I hate the spartan laser. I guess it balances banshees but it just feels like shit when you get hit with it. Halo CE is also great for splitscreen, its got lots of 2v2 maps and I can waste hours on 1v1s in Battle Creek. I also feel like Halo CE has the most ethereal atmposphere.

As for Halo Reach, it will always have my favorite campaign. Its the only Halo game with no bad levels.

 

[RisingThumb]

Halo CE still has the best BtB imo. I prefer how vehicles work, and the maps are great. Snowfield in particular has the best BtB CtF gameplay. Halo 3 also has great maps but I hate the spartan laser. I guess it balances banshees but it just feels like shit when you get hit with it. Halo CE is also great for splitscreen, its got lots of 2v2 maps and I can waste hours on 1v1s in Battle Creek. I also feel like Halo CE has the most ethereal atmposphere.

As for Halo Reach, it will always have my favorite campaign. Its the only Halo game with no bad levels.

I never played much matchmaking. Whenever I did, I added everyone in the game as friends and then whenever I saw them in customs, joined their custom games lobbies. My favourite matchmaking game to play was grifball back in the day. When I played Reach I also enjoyed SWAT I think it was called, the one where you headshot with dmrs. Good fun.

I guess the comparable thing is playing MW2 and queuing only search and destroy(which was the only gamemode I played on it). I had never heard of Counter Strike at that point

 

[Digital Cheese]

I recently got quite a few good clips from Halo MCC, specifically 2 Classic and 3, which I may upload as a YouTube video soon. I just use the Xbox Series X built-in capture feature, currently have the clips set to 720p by default but I might upgrade them to 1080p for future clips. I also have a decent number of clips for other games, specifically Destiny 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops 2, but the Halo ones are more interesting especially whenever I get to go on killing sprees. I will also mirror said clips onto my website, but, I may drop the quality to something like 360p if necessary, due to me having more limited bandwidth.

 

[TheGr8Whoopdini]

I'm TheGr8Whoopdini on Steam and Xbox Live. Feel free to shoot me a friend request on either/both, I play Halo Infinite with some acquaintances every Friday evening.

 

[nakanaka]

hello. i just finished Halo CE around two days ago. first Halo i've ever played and i really enjoyed it up to a certain point - the early stages are pretty fascinating, these vast empty landscapes that remind me of Shadow of the Colossus, all the lively and reactive behaviors of the enemies and NPC's, the huge dynamic battles, it's all very impressive, very cinematic and large scale while also being efficient, effortless and smart. i knew about the Flood and that they were something spooky but their introduction blew me away regardless. i had no idea this game had a fucking 5 minute long found footage horror short hidden in it. that's amazing. i'm glad to have experienced it with fresh eyes without feeling the need to be a sperg about how it ruined the FPS genre forever or having to compare it to some other shooter. i think it's a much more interesting and quirky game than anyone gives it credit for, it should be looked at in a similar light as the other western prestige games of the era like deus ex and half life.

i'll be honest though i really didn't enjoy the second half of the game. pretty much everything after Guilty Spark became kind of irritating and samey. the big battles are replaced with giant fields of enemies that will just kill you, the Flood add no new layers to the combat aside from being kind of annoying, all the dynamism i liked is now replaced with me shooting thousands of bad guys inside dark grey cubes and backtracking through previous levels. feels kind of rushed in that regard, though i'd never call this game unfinished or poorly realized. i guess there's something thematically interesting about the lack of NPC's in the second half - a feeling of loneliness, things slowly getting out of control and more desperate, but i don't think that's worth nuking the game's pace and making me restart a hundred times. how's Halo 2? would you say it's better? what are the differences?

 

[Digital Cheese]

hello. i just finished Halo CE around two days ago. first Halo i've ever played and i really enjoyed it up to a certain point - the early stages are pretty fascinating, these vast empty landscapes that remind me of Shadow of the Colossus, all the lively and reactive behaviors of the enemies and NPC's, the huge dynamic battles, it's all very impressive, very cinematic and large scale while also being efficient, effortless and smart. i knew about the Flood and that they were something spooky but their introduction blew me away regardless. i had no idea this game had a fucking 5 minute long found footage horror short hidden in it. that's amazing. i'm glad to have experienced it with fresh eyes without feeling the need to be a sperg about how it ruined the FPS genre forever or having to compare it to some other shooter. i think it's a much more interesting and quirky game than anyone gives it credit for, it should be looked at in a similar light as the other western prestige games of the era like deus ex and half life.

i'll be honest though i really didn't enjoy the second half of the game. pretty much everything after Guilty Spark became kind of irritating and samey. the big battles are replaced with giant fields of enemies that will just kill you, the Flood add no new layers to the combat aside from being kind of annoying, all the dynamism i liked is now replaced with me shooting thousands of bad guys inside dark grey cubes and backtracking through previous levels. feels kind of rushed in that regard, though i'd never call this game unfinished or poorly realized. i guess there's something thematically interesting about the lack of NPC's in the second half - a feeling of loneliness, things slowly getting out of control and more desperate, but i don't think that's worth nuking the game's pace and making me restart a hundred times.

Glad that you enjoyed Halo CE, I had quite a lot of fun with it myself when I played through the campaign for the first time back in 2022.

how's Halo 2? would you say it's better? what are the differences?

Halo 2 I would argue is significantly better than CE, both in campaign and multiplayer, mainly the multiplayer is better though. Even funnier this is the case though, because Halo 2 was apparently rushed especially towards the end, yet still feels like what I'd imagine a proper Halo CE sequel would look like, mostly they didn't get to add some of the campaign stuff which probably got added into Halo 3 instead, along with minor things from there. Very fun game, highly recommend. If you're on the original Xbox instead of the Halo MCC, I would recommend playing online some via XLink Kai or Insignia after the campaign stuff, very fun and I think voice chat even works if you have an OG Xbox mic. XLink Kai requires tricking LAN into connecting online and Insignia requires a modded OG Xbox, though I may try to setup mods for the purpose of Halo 2 Insignia in the future. As for actual game differences, it depends.

General Differences Are:
- GUI Is More Polished
- Gameplay Is A Bit Smoother
- Dual Wielding Of Certain Weapons
- etc etc etc

Multiplayer differences were particularly noticable, but may not apply on either Insignia or XLink Kai, due to the latter just being LAN play over the internet and the former still being in development, thus issues are to be worked out.

Halo 2 Multiplayer Had:
- Online (ofc)
- Clans + In-Game Voice Messages
- Matchmaking + Private Matches
- etc etc etc

I actually wish they kept the clans in Halo, they had them in 5 but now you cannot change members of your clan in question. And still, that leaves Halo 3, ODST, Reach, 4, and Infinite without them. If used right, you basically had 2 friends list, that being the Xbox Live Friends and the Clanmates.

 

[TheGr8Whoopdini]

hello. i just finished Halo CE around two days ago. first Halo i've ever played and i really enjoyed it up to a certain point - the early stages are pretty fascinating, these vast empty landscapes that remind me of Shadow of the Colossus, all the lively and reactive behaviors of the enemies and NPC's, the huge dynamic battles, it's all very impressive, very cinematic and large scale while also being efficient, effortless and smart. i knew about the Flood and that they were something spooky but their introduction blew me away regardless. i had no idea this game had a fucking 5 minute long found footage horror short hidden in it. that's amazing. i'm glad to have experienced it with fresh eyes without feeling the need to be a sperg about how it ruined the FPS genre forever or having to compare it to some other shooter. i think it's a much more interesting and quirky game than anyone gives it credit for, it should be looked at in a similar light as the other western prestige games of the era like deus ex and half life.

i'll be honest though i really didn't enjoy the second half of the game. pretty much everything after Guilty Spark became kind of irritating and samey. the big battles are replaced with giant fields of enemies that will just kill you, the Flood add no new layers to the combat aside from being kind of annoying, all the dynamism i liked is now replaced with me shooting thousands of bad guys inside dark grey cubes and backtracking through previous levels. feels kind of rushed in that regard, though i'd never call this game unfinished or poorly realized. i guess there's something thematically interesting about the lack of NPC's in the second half - a feeling of loneliness, things slowly getting out of control and more desperate, but i don't think that's worth nuking the game's pace and making me restart a hundred times. how's Halo 2? would you say it's better? what are the differences?

Halo 2's development was plagued by issues worse than even those that led to the second half of Halo: CE being so lackluster in your eyes. Ever was it thus with Bungie's Halo titles—they always started out planning what would have been the best game ever, and then invariably needed to cut so far back on that vision that you can feel the absent content and story beats like a phantom limb. Halo 3 is the worst of the lot in that regard.

But I'm a seemingly rare breed among Halo fans in that CE is my favorite and I dislike most of the changes made in 2 and 3, especially the multiplayer. Reach is a close second favorite though, because it tried to harmonize the best gameplay innovations from 2 and 3 with the pace and tone of CE (and, in my humble opinion, it succeeded greatly at this). I've only ever heard of one prominent figure in the Halo fan community who shares my outlook on this, and that's the developer of the SPv3 overhaul mod for Combat Evolved, which, among other things, imports later gameplay innovations and sandbox elements like vehicles and weapons into the CE engine, and massively expands the campaign.

 

[N3TZZZ]

What is the maximum number of points I can get in ODST FIREFRIGHT using only one weapon?

A few months ago I did some shooting in Heroic but I didn't find any reference to this,
Does anyone know where I can see this data? Thanks

 

[TheGr8Whoopdini]

What is the maximum number of points I can get in ODST FIREFRIGHT using only one weapon?

A few months ago I did some shooting in Heroic but I didn't find any reference to this,
Does anyone know where I can see this data? Thanks

ODST Firefight goes as long as you can last. So the maximumum number of points with one weapon is the same as with two: the most you can manage (or rather, the largest number the game as a computer program can manage).