Nintendo Okie

I know it’s just killing y’all to know how a co-op games goes between Will, Peter, Josh and myself.  Wonder know more!  The powers of Apple and Microsoft combine to bring you a three part video series of our first half hour playing Halo: Reach.  Watch as we brutally beat wild animals, give each other piggyback rides and run over each other with vehicles.  Good times are had by all.

First Night Part 1

First Night Part 2

First Night Part 3

If y’all get a laugh out of these videos, let us know in the comments.  I’m sure we could do more stuff like this in the future.  If you were to subscribe to our YouTube channel you would be the first to know when new videos go up.  Just a tip.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m hooked on Halo.  You can thank my friends list for that, and more importantly you can thank fellow Nintendo Okie member Daniel Teasley for making it such a fun experience.

Before this week my total experience with the Halo franchise was playing the demo of Halo: CE on the PC, and not completing the first level of Halo 3.  I just didn’t really care about Halo.  I had played too much Call of Duty to really enjoy the different style of play that Halo offered.  It was too slow and the buttons did different things.  My fingers had gotten so used to playing with a CoD style control scheme.  That’s why I liked Borderlands so much.  It felt like Call of Duty.

My friends list on the 360 has been completely filled by people playing Halo reach.  It got to where I had double digit numbers of friends all playing Halo at the same time and I felt kinda left out.  So I used my Gamestop Power up rewards points to get $10 off of Halo Reach and picked it up used because I wanted to be able to return it if I didn’t like it and get my money back.  Well, tomorrow is the one week return limit and I have no intention of returning the game because I’ve been having so much fun playing the game with Daniel and his wife.

I just want to talk about some of the experiences I’ve had with the game.  So far the single player campaign has been pretty good.  I never finished the first level of Halo 3, which tells you how much I enjoyed that game.  With Halo Reach the experience has been a bit different.  I think the way the story has been told and been interspersed with cut scenes has get me wanting to move forward.  From the very beginning I’ve wanted to find out what happened on Reach for the game to start with the image of a destroyed Spartan helmet.  The characters have been entertaining to watch and see how they interact with each other and the missions have kept me moving forward.

I picked up the controls pretty quickly despite my affinity for the Call of Duty layout.  It’s been amazing how much I enjoy wading through laser fire to sneak up on some alien and hit them with the butt of my pistol or use the missile launcher like a baseball bat.  I’ve found myself doing that at every opportunity.  I’ve managed to get through about 2 hours of the campaign and have enjoyed it, but that’s not why I’ve enjoyed my experience with Halo so much.  It’s been the multi-player, which is something, like I said at the beginning; I never thought I would say.  I don’t like online competitive multi-player.  I didn’t play Call of Duty for multi-player.  I played those games for the story.  I spend more time dying online than I do anything else and it just hasn’t been fun.  I held off on multi-player for Halo this week until I was able to play with friends.  I didn’t want to have any potential fun spoiled by 14 year olds talking about their demon dogs (more on that later).

Daniel, Brandy, and I have spent the last three nights playing multi-player together, mostly firefight.  We’ve not been taking things too seriously.  We laugh it off if we betray each other.  Daniel boldly defends his wife if I shoot her when we’re playing.  One of the funniest experiences happened during a firefight where I accidentally shot a team mate with a missile launcher.  I don’t know who this person was, but I got booted from the game for betraying him one time.  Daniel decided to stick up for his friend by punching the other guy in the face because of it.  I didn’t see any of this happen, but the exchange over the chat lines was quite hilarious with Daniel talking about paying him back for kicking his team mate.

The other came during a firefight where we got matched up with another random person, who happens to be from Oklahoma.  I’d never met him before and don’t have any idea where he comes from.  The match started off well enough, but highlights the reasons I, and many others, don’t like playing with random people online.  The three of us had spent the better part of two hours having fun, generally chatting about random stuff while playing.  When we got matched up with this person none of us could get in a word because he spent the entire time talking.  Mostly about his demon dog who bit him, and cursing at everything going on in the game.  We ended up finding out he was the 14 year old player we don’t like playing with.  Needless to say there were a bunch of private messages going back and forth with laughter ensuing because of the messages.

I’m not a great Halo player.  I don’t play competitively, and don’t want to.  I just want to get in and have fun with friends.  I’m going to finish the campaign, and trick out my character to look as close to Darth Vader as I possibly can.  I’ve been a rather ambivalent gamer when it came to the Halo franchise in the past, but I can honestly say that after the past week of playing online with friends and having fun while doing it I’m now a fan of Halo and will be playing the game for a long time to come.  If you want to play Halo online with me and you’re a reader of the site hit me up.  My gamertag is SmileyRyder34.

I received my copy of Reach on the night of the release. Yes – I braved the madness at midnight. I have played through the campaign with my totally awesome wife  and we completed it in just a few nights, playing about one and a half to two hours a night. I spend most of my time on matchmaking though, with the endless attempt to rank up so I can get that new armor (which, by the way, does nothing for you, but makes you look like you spend to much time playing Halo). With that having been said, there are lots of changes and a great storyline, but what else would you expect from Halo?

Campaign:

The storyline is awesome, being the prequel to the entire existing Halo series, and is much needed to fill in some of the gaps. At the beginning you join the Noble Team as their #6 Spartan. Apparently the previous #6 is MIA. Encouraging, right? Anyway, the first few missions are kind of slow but after the Covenant starts attacking at full force, it’s non stop action. The only break you will get is the short ride in the Falcon. The enemy’s are all the same as in the previous Halo games. The Elites are enemies, as this storyline takes place before the treaty, and there is no annoying Flood. The cut scenes are good, not too short and to the point. One part of the game that is totally new (as well as totally awesome) is the air fights. That’s right, you get to fly UNSC ships and engage in dogfight style air combat, shooting down Phantoms, Banshees, and Seraphs along with tactical objectives in the sky.

One change is that there will be no more duel weapons. There are now different types of abilities that you pick up along the way that the left bumper is used to activate. There are six different types of abilities.

1. Active Camouflage- ( This is my favorite ) As long as you stay still you are practically invisible, for about 40sec. If you walk slowly it will still work but only last about 15sec. I like to place a nice shiny gun down, like a missile launcher, and wait for them to go for the bait. It works every time!
2. Armor Lock- You can not be harmed for 5sec. And it emits a small EMP like wave that stops small vehicles. I don’t like it,  due to the fact that the enemies just wait for the 5 seconds, and they have time to reload or throw a grenade or two that will get you when your lock down is done.
3. Drop Shield- Lasts up to 15sec, unless under heavy fire. But while in the shield you regain some health and its time to reload. This is my 2nd favorite.
4. Hologram- lasts 10sec. Basically its a hologram of you that walks to where you are looking, but only in a straight line, and stands there. It can be good if used right!
5. Jet Pack- Gauge goes down fast, but fills fast as well. Gets a little time to get the hang of it, but it can be deadly!
6. Sprint- You run faster than normal for about 6sec, but can’t use anything while doing it. Makes you a easy target, but you can get there a little faster!

Other then that I don’t want to kill the ending for anybody that hasn’t played it, so I’m going to stop it there. BUT, I will say that the ending is rather disappointing, to say the least.

I would personally advise to, if possible, play through the campaign on co-op at first. It’s a lot better that way.

Multiplayer:

This is the best part of the game. Of course the main idea is about the same as the rest of the Halo, with some extras added in as well. You can go into matchmaking to play online in various different games, and you can also go into a Firefight match in co-op. Firefight consists of ten waves of enemies, increasingly difficult with each wave, and a bonus round if you complete all ten waves without using up all of your lives. It is great and all, but if you are looking to rank up quickly, Firefight is not the way to go. Online matches are the best way to rank up.

The video is a short Firefight match that I played with my wife.

Oh yea, there are also some data packs you find in random places, but for most of them the game need to be on Legendary, and you cant find them unless you have a guide. Happy Hunting!

Overall:

Campaign: 4/5 – Good, but too short.

Multiplayer: 5/5 – Endless possibilities

Will likes Halo.  He’s getting excited about the launch of Halo: Reach and to celebrate that he’s put together a video featuring clips of some funny moments he’s encountered while playing the game.  Some of them come from his messing around in Forge.  It’s a pretty good video and if you like Halo I encourage you to check it out.