For someone who has read this thread, you must have missed:

"Well of course it's not mine. I didn't waste my money on a 360. I also haven't played Halo since Novemeber (I blame WoW(, but given practicec again who knows. I never compete outside of the local LAN."

Or the one where I state that even my roomate will destroy me right now. Give me several weeks after I come back from Barceclona (mid august) and let's go.

@jagged

Yes, and in UT2004 you have those utility guns which serve as your items and grenades (shield gun, biorifle, etc.). And it's not just you who has those, but so does the other guy. You see a guy go into a tunnel and you know where the exit is os you race there ad you then decide on what to do, at the same time what if he saw you too? He could just as eassily wit out your initial shock combo and nail you with laoded 3 rockets. Or if you are just doing the dance, where do you lay your shock core before comboing it? What if he pulls the shield gun out? You get my point, on top of all that there is also timing the spawns just like in Halo, and also all this is done at a speed 3-4 times faster than in Halo.

Also the 1 hit rocket kills in Halo are bullshit, they are the reason whu UT3 sucks so hard. At least in UT2004 I'm left with 12 health to retaliate if it was just some lucky chob who got it off.

The words "sniper" and "pistol" really don't belong in the same sentence.

If magical weapons like that existed in real life, no soldiers would ever bother shlupping around anything else. But since Halo was a fantasy Sci Fi world, they can take their own creative licenses like light sabers being far superior to blasters, and laser swords = instakill in Halo 2.

Weapons balance is probably not one of the strongest suits of Halo, but since everyone has access to the same thing, learning to exploit the limits of the system if you want to stay competitive is part of the game. Memorizing maps and terrain and using the appropriate weapons to match terrain strategy are probably the single most important factor if you play to win.

With such a great PC you should be playing exciting games.

@ JaggedSac

Your statement about the pistol is right on the mark jagged and I know exactly how you feel but I must respectfully disagree with you. Although the pistol is extremely powerful with its ability to kill in 3 shots it still required a large amount of skill to wield properly. The weapon is not a hit scan weapon hence everything from player movement to relative strafe has to be taken into account. For example try booting up Halo:CE and shooting a wall at a decent distance with a pistol by holding down the trigger. You will find that there is a large spread to the bullets. Do the same experiment and pulse the trigger this time and you will find a very tight bullet spread. This is just one very tiny aspect of the pistol, I really don't want to get too in depth with it since it would probably take up multiple pages just explaining the complexities of that one weapon.

However you are correct when you say Halo takes massive amounts of situational awareness. At any one time a player must be aware of the spawn time's of the rocket, sniper, over-shield, camo, the movements of his own players and the movements of the enemy players as they set up to control the power weapons and power positions on a map. It's like an extremely fast game of chess.

Well if console shooters like Halo take no skill then you should have no trouble doing something as easy as getting 2 kills on me. Don't say something obviously ignorant and down right dumb and then try to backtrack. But sure if you need some time go for it, I'll be waiting for you whenever you think your ready.

edit- oh and this challenge goes out for any of the Halo's. It shouldn't be too hard for you to borrow Halo 3 from your room-mate and 'school' me in it since its just a slow easy console shooter.

vlad, you always bring up the shock combo, rockets, or flak to add strategic depth.  I know those aren't the only two weapons in the game.  Also, you bring up the fact that each person can have more than 2 weapons.  This means that there is less thinking involved because each character can have a weapon for each situation and it is as easy as scrolling the mouse wheel or pressing the right number to counter your attack.  Instead of having to think about it before choosing which weapon to carry.

Rockets in Halo 3 have goods and bads.  Bads is that reload is awfully slow, there are only 2 shots before reload, and 4 ammo on pickup, they are also rare on the map.  They are also easy to avoid from mid range and on.  The goods are the damage that they do.  The idea is to know that your opponent has one, and get him to a position in the environment that gives you the upper hand.  Probably getting the high ground on him and some distance.  UT2004 gives out rockets like candy so it is a very good thing they are not a power weapon on the scale that Halo rockets are.

And like mendicate said.  The weapon is powerful, so you should ensure that it does not fall into enemy hands.

I understand that it takes some skill to wield properly.  But that does not mean that a 3 hit kill weapon(with 12 rounds in a clip, which means a possibility of 4 kills with one clip) should be given to you on spawn.  It should be something that you need to pick up.  And it should not be a pistol, they should have made it a different weapon, if just for the point of making the power match the weapon.

Thank you for explaining to the elite all knowing PC gamer the concept of weapon balance, for some unkowing reason it seems to be a foreign concept to him...

The whole weapon balance is based on the fact that all weapons (cept bio and assault) have the same opporunity to kill you in mid-range. Some are btter at longer some are better in closer, but in mid-range they are all created equal (hoenstly, mid-range is where most of the fights take place because it's so easy to close range at those speeds). Also the weapons don't work like paper-rock-scissors, so when it comes to it out in the open, you use the weapon that suits you best. There is no strategy in the dancing, just pure skill, the strategy comes in between thos long times before you actually encounter the person.

I would agree with you completely if strafing wasn't so effective in Halo:CE. If such a weapon existed in Halo 2 or 3 it would completely break the game but landing a 3-shot against an competent opponent is a hard thing to do, I would definitely say much harder than landing a 4-shot with a br. Also you have to remember that weapons kill much more quickly in Halo:CE and explosions have a much larger splash radius. Shoot a rocket or land a grenade any where in a 15 feet radius of a player and your almost gauranteed a kill hence a weapon was required that gave opponents a good chance of surviving off spawn. Although I agree conceptually that a pistol should never be stronger than an assault rifle.

I also agree that Halo 3's system works amazingly well from a competitive stand-point as well, the concept of having the right weapon for the job forces you to always think two steps ahead. Something most conventional shooters never do. Hence why it is by far my most played game this generation.

On a side note do you ever jump into the MLG hopper? I'm currently a 46 and looking for a good player to get my 50 with.