Why people hate Halo 3, A Pudge Bnet post

Hey

This text originally appeared for 3 seconds on Bungie's Halo 3 fourm. Enjoy

It seems that every time I come on here nowadays I see the same topics. "I want Lockout back!" "HALO 3 MAP SUCKAGE!?!#" "When will the fix that damn melee?" It kinda makes me nostalgic for a long bygone time. I'm sure not a lot of you were here back when Halo 2 came out (I was NeedlerFanPudge, had to change my name to link my Gamertag), but if you think this is bad, you should have seen the posters back then.
"Where are my 3-shots?"
"Auto-Aim Sniper SUCKS"
"I hate duel-wielding!"

The transition period from Halo 1 to Halo 2 was arguably much worse than this current transition. I know I'm not gonna make a lot of friends by saying this, but Halo 1 was a perfect game, and Halo 2 was flawed to say the least. This was for a lot of reasons that I wont get into here, but one of the big reasons was the Bungie team changed drastically from Halo 1 to Halo 2, mostly because Alex went off to make Stubbs the Zombie and took staffers with him. He was the game play goto guy for H1, and without him, Bungie basically made a new game and called it Halo 2. Every weapon was changed, tactics were changed, vehicles were emphasized, and I wont even begin to get into Jar Jarbiter. What I'm basically saying is that fans of the original Halo never really got a sequel to their game, they got a new experience.

Halo 3 is much more akin to a sequel then Halo 2 ever was. It took most of the problems of Halo 2 (SMG spawns, Spray and Pray, Massive Auto Aim, the Slotgun) and fixed them without changing much of the fundamentals. The BR still does 4 shots after all. Bungie focused on making sure the game play for this game was the best that the Halo 2 weapons could make it and I think they succeeded in that respect. Halo 2 fans got a sequel instead of a new game.

I can understand the problems with Halo 3 that a lot of you have. The OS doesn't last as long as it should. Forge is limited in scope to say the least (No plasma rifle on Valhalla...) Bungie promised us that we could keep a huge library of customs and forge variants, then my screen pops up to say that huge library is only 100 items big. Bungie gave us some of the best custom game options in any FPS, but no good way to play them beyond small gatherings of friends. Isolation is one of the worst maps I have every played on an FPS, and I played Doom 1 Deathmatch. But all that is fixable. Bungie will patch the game. Bungie will release new maps. And I have no doubt in my mind that Bungie will give the players Halo 1 and Halo 2 maps as DLC, if anything because of the profit for themselves and M$.

Be thankful that you guys got a sequel. Us Halo 1 fans never got that luxury, and that old M6D can never be replaced.

Halo 3 Dissapointments, Or, you didn't really think I'd post for a month after H3 did you?

Hey,

Well, if I was happy with Bungie right now, this would be my first post about my fileshare. Sadly, the way that they have set up Halo 3 and the forums has made it impossible for 99% of people's creations to be recognized. With no custom games list in game, it doesn't really matter anyway. I'll keep making maps for my own amusement and the amusement of people at Zion, but there's no way I'll care that much about my fileshare. Bungie has taken the interest out of it. Not to mention that the Forge is too limited for it's own good, stifling what little of my creativity I had left. I've been enjoying the game, but I thought it could be so much more.

Speaking of the game, I also have to vent a little about the matchmaking playlists and the Optimatch forums at Bnet. When Halo 2 first came out, there was a page that showed every gametype you could play in matchmaking and what list they were on. Ninja 0n Fire was a transparent matchmaking master, telling us the intricate details of every playlist update, and building a real community trying to make Halo 2 the best it could be. Without this, there would have been no Team Hardcore, no Big Team Slayer, no Team Actionsack. The people had a say, me included (Brutality FTW!!). As Halo 3 came out, I went around looking for a similar site. It was no where to be found on the main site, so I assumed it was on the forums. What I saw on the optimatch forums made me very sad. The entire forum is dominated by displeasure with the playlists, suggestions for improvement, and full out Bungie hate. The sad part was there wasn't a moderator or Bungie worker in sight. It seems like without Ninja (he left the company just over a year ago) they are content to do everything behind the scenes and decide what is good or bad. I can tell you right now that that wont work in the long run, and Halo 3 could end up with worse playlists than Halo 2, which seems unfair, because Halo 3 is SO much better than its predecessor I actually don't own a copy of Halo 2 anymore. That tells you how much I want this game to succeed, but it wont achieve true greatness in my eyes unless Bungie address these problems and finds a way to satisfy simple needs. Till then, it's really just a fixed Halo 2 with a DLC weapons pack.

-May Shotty Snipers always be vetoed
Pudge

Bungie Pro Rant

Another weekend, another post from Pudge. You people are so lucky. (technically it's still the weekend with 5 minutes left right?) Anyway, I typed this up a little while back when Bungie announced Bungie Pro. Everyone's free Fileshare on Halo 3 will be limited to 25MB of space and 6 slots. When I read it, I was very confused, and this is what came out...

I hope someone at Bungie explains this one thing to me, why in god's name do you have to limit the slots? In Halo 2 I spent hours tweaking gametype variants to perfection and testing them out with friends. I was one of the people that contributed to the Team Actionsack playlist back when I was really into Halo 2, giving you Brutality (certainly not one of my best creations, but I guess I just like the Brute Shot better then most of the populous.) I am certainly a beloved figure in my circle of friends for coming up with new ways to play in the somewhat limited customization options of Halo 2, and when I started playing the beta and my friend got me into the Custom Games menu, I realized that I would have so much more fun with Halo 3 because of the limitless game options I could tweak. I was excited that I could share my hard work with people outside my circle of friends and maybe be noticed a little bit more. Then I read about Forge and again I was speechless, thinking that not only could I make new game variants, I could tweak maps to fit them as well. I was mostly excited because, although I knew that in order for the servers to run you would need to limit space per person on File Share, I thought that with the space being big enough for game films, I could post many of my creations at once because variants (and I assume forge edits) are very small files, in the Kilobytes. Then I read todays update... I was confused. I know that no matter if you have 1 10GB file or 10 1GB files, it still takes up the same room on your servers. It shouldn't be an issue to store as many files as possible within the 25MB of space, and even if it is an issue, the number shouldn't be in the single digits, because I know that 6 video files is probably going to fill in the 25MB anyway.

If you have the space to give us, the only reason I see for limiting the number of items is to get every one like me that has been a loyal Halo fan since it's inception, and still plays Halo 1 every week on System Link with my friends, to pay and extra $10. On top of the extra 10 that we are already paying this generation for new games. On top of the extra ten that many of your loyal fans are spending on the limited edition. On top of the untold amount of money we hardcore fans will spend to get new maps a few months early. Is that really what M$ wants? To squeeze the people that brought them to the dance. Without Halo, Xbox would be a memory piled on with the Apple Pippin and the Celecovision and everyone knows it. Please give me some sort of reason to falsify this, cause otherwise you are nothing but corporate sellouts, and that is bullshit pure and simple.

I'm still confused as to why they would limit slots, but I think this Blog will be a good tool for archiving all my creations just in case someone wants to see something again.

-15 Days and 2 Minutes till Halo 3!! 1337 1337
Pudge

Previously on "Pudge"

Hey again,

My first day I double post, I think the planets are aligning.

Anyway, while I was at Slave Port Square getting my wages, I thought I should catch the Internet up on my doings in the past year and three months. Kinda an update on my first post, when I posted about what I like and don't like (wow, I was a horrible writer back then... I'll try to get my points across better this time around). Here's a year of events in the life of Pudge!

• First off, about a week after my last post before today, I fell asleep at the wheel of my first car, which was called the PudgeMobile. I was coming back from a Zion Lock-In with a couple of my buddies, I didn't get enough sleep, and an SUV got in my path at 35MPH. Luckily, all I got was a fat lip, but my 400lb buddy Jdsnut was pretty badly hurt. I try not to think about it as I really liked that car, but my insurance rates are through the roof. I AM a better driver now, and my second car, the PudgeWagon, should hold out through college (cross your fingers). I'm pretty sure that's the reason I first stopped posting in the first place, although the reason why this caused it is lost to time...
  
• I've lost interest in Magic: The Gathering, not because of lack of good stuff coming out of WoTC (the cards in the Time Spiral block were inspired, I wish I would've bought more of them as they came out) but due to moving from one high school to another because of the aforementioned accident. Only a few people play it at my new school, and their decks are a little on the cheap side (SLIVERS). I still have my decks, and hope that someone in college shares a passion for this TCG and it will rekindle my interest.
  
• I've also sadly lost interest of Saturday morning cartoons, which really saddened me. However, it was required because the shows they are pushing on Kids WB and 4Kids are ridiculous in their attempts to entertain. It sickens me to even think that the time that used to give us gems like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, the first seasons of Pokemon, Tiny Toons, and Freakazoid now has crap like Loonatics, Johnny Test, Xiaolin Showdown, and Mucha Lucha.
  
• I now have an Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. I actually waited out 19 hours for my Wii, and I still believe that was one of the funnest days of my life. 10 player wireless Mario Kart DS and the chicken from the Wal-Mart Deli. Good times.
• I still play on XBL all the time. My current multiplayer games I play often are Shadowrun, Halo 2 (gotta get some kind of Halo before the 25th), and sometimes Gears. I've actually been focusing on the single player recently though, with BioShock and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. I'll try to put the gamercard on the blog as soon as I'm done typing this post, which should be easy as I'm taking an HTML class at school now.
• Zion has fluctuated, with many Zionites moving on to higher learning, leaving me at one of the top spots. I still annoy most of the old school folks that have stayed local, but it's mostly people I've recruited or befriended now, and we still rape at Halo 1. M6D Pistol forever!
• I've been sucked into the world of Pro Wrestling, with old ECW PPVs acquired from various sources becoming a weekly source of entertainment. I also watch all current forms of WWE and TNA (even Heat...). Some of you might be wondering what a older teen like me is doing watching this. Well, my father disapproves of it, so I never got to see it as a kid, and I guess I'm making up for lost time. My favorite "Superstars" are Adam "Edge" Copeland, The Bogeyman, The Dudleys (Currently Team 3D on TNA), and Mr. Kennedy.
• Otherwise, I feel like I've matured since you last heard from me. I'm less cynical, I've come to terms with my religious beliefs (as in, I'm an Agnostic, religion's version of not caring), and I have more friends for it.

Well, that's all I can think of. BTW, the name of my work is actually South Port Square, which is a retirement home where I'm a waiter, but Slave Port sounds much better to me. It at least explains why I'm doing some of the things I have to do there for people who have no idea where they are anyway.

23 Days till we Finish the Fight!
-Pudge
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Listening to: Three Days Grace - Riot
via FoxyTunes

Reintroduction to a Madder Man

Hey,

It's been a long time since I thought about this site, even longer since I'd given up on what I wanted before due to me being too damn busy. But I'll always think of this blog as a permanent thing that I do some stuff on throughout my existence, which brings me to why I'm posting right now.

There are currently 23 days remaining until I'm sitting outside a Gamestop at the mall with Halofreak (one of my good friends with WAY too many video games) getting our copies of Halo 3. I'm obsessed with that fact and it's driving me crazy, but that's besides the point. One of the big features of Halo 3 is the Fileshare, where you can post content made by you for the world to enjoy. I've decided that my long defunct and always readerless blog would be the perfect place to describe in intricate detail my Forge variants and gametypes. What makes me think people will give a damn? Well, I think of myself as a pretty good creator (I did make Brutality, which was featured and loathed by idiots on the Team Actionsack playlist, so that's something ;) ). Mostly, I just want somewhere that gives me more space than a name on Bnet (www.bungie.net for the uninitiated)

In the weeks to come, I plan to post some about my ideas for Halo 3 gametypes, a rant about Bungie pro if I can find it on the forum, and probably some other random shit too. But for now, I gotta go serve old people food for pay.

Welcome back ego. I missed you
-Pudge

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Now playing: Fort Minor - In Stereo
via FoxyTunes