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Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta: Over 1 Million Served

Eddie Makuch
Gaming News

Bungie and Microsoft released the multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach yesterday and due to an insane influx of users, from thousands to millions in hours, Bungie’s servers were stressed beyond belief, causing headaches for hopeful gamers.

Bungie revealed this morning that over a million of you guys played, or attempted to play, the beta yesterday, on its first day of availability.

The studio has been vocal and active in the Twittersphere, keeping gamers in the know, this morning issuing the following Tweets.

#Reach beta day two should be smoother than day one. All systems are go so far. Thanks for your patience and testing help!

BTW, we had over 1 million unique players login to the #Reach beta yesterday! Thanks to everyone who helped stress our servers and systems

Those of you who’ve managed to get games in, what’re you thinking? I’m not blown away just yet, but then again, it is a beta and Invasion isn’t available yet.

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Eddie Makuch
Eddie Makuch is a Blast staff writer. Reach him at Makuch.E@BlastMagazine.com. Follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch.

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19 Responses

  3. The beta has to be by far the best Halo game ever released and its just the beta I cant wait to play for real!

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  4. Loved the Beta, like a faster paced more modern warfare like halo, jumping no longer helps a great deal and the gernades actualy feel like they have some weight and cna’t be randomly thrown. Love the new rifle and the multi level maps. Stockpile is good, but not a lot of people go for the flags (wanting kills I guess) this game will draw in a new crowd with the old fan base due to the faster style, I bet this sells more then Halo 3 due to that fact.
    Only proble is that they need to fix the stalker class because it is much togher to play then any other class, but the beta is fantastic.

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  5. it is actually quite good!, guns feel real with recoil effect and weight behind ever blust, i do agree some abilities like jetpacks and the stalker is quite usless as ppl still know ur there, but sprint is awsome like COD and th armor lock is interesting jetpacks add to the mix, it is an interesting new take to invigurate the matchmaking that is sort off getting stale. i mean the gameplay is getting hecktic! and needle rifle is kick ass,,, i miss the spartain laser 🙁 and sometimes it seems that grandes dont d anything but other times one kills you straight away :S, after first few games and learning to use the abilities to your avantege like sprint or cloak to hide with a sniper etc, the game gets interesting, comments ebove seem to be harsh quick coments from those who dont realy play well in halo3 let alone in reach beta. so for those of you who suck at halo3 reach beta is not for you too much for you to harness and use abilities at the same time…. but for my first 50 games today i enjoyed 40 of them first couple made me sick, as i didnt get it and as u play long u get the halo 3 vibe back with a new twist

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  7. It’s good and the jet pack rocks. Don’t know what’s wrong with california. Maybe he/she wants to play Halo 1 again. Just wish I didn’t end up playing 1 of 2 levels every single time.

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  8. Armor lock is a little over powered, and I am not say this because I have been killed by to many people using it, but I have used it and it can be a little unfair compared to the other abilities, maybe if it were nerfed a little. Friggin’ sick game though.

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  9. So far, barring any server crashes, it has been a great beta. It is still taking awhile to get the feel for each of the weapons and the layout of the maps. Sword Base is still confusing as all hell. The gameplay is just extremely intense. I wish that forge or custom games was allowed so that players could get an understanding of the layout and button configuration beforehand, but I do understand their reasoning of not including it.

    As someone already mentioned, if you are not decent at halo 3, this reach beta will be even more of a challenge. 1st trick if you DO decide to give it a shot, is to change your controller setup. The default layout does not mimic Halo 3 in my eyes, and it is much easier to get accustomed if you switch over to the “recon” layout. I have never used bumper jumper or any other styles, but if you are a default halo 3 player, switch to recon on the reach beta.

    I have noticed that some of the guns “appear” to do no damage, but take into consideration that those you are shooting may have low health. Remember, if your health drops to low, it will not regenerate and you will need to find a health pack. This simple fact could explain the damage inflicted by certain guns.

    The new Veto 2.0 system is great. The only downside for now is that the available maps and play types are very limited. Once the full release in September comes, the power of the veto system will truly shine. I just fear that it will cause more people to quit because they didnt get the game type they wanted. Its bad enough now in Halo 3 with just 1 option, let alone Reach when you have 3 and none of the above. Hopefully the quitting problems will be addressed…. like a timeout. You quit mid-game, you must wait 2 minutes to start matchmaking again, hopefully that would help solve this issue.

    Overall, this has been a great beta. Obviously they have worked hard on getting this out as it is not a simple re-hash of previous halo games. From the start you can see…Reach, is just plain SicK!!!

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  12. I think all the new armor abilities are great. Each one offers its own advantage if you know how to use them. I couldn’t agree more with Ryan above, about the timing out of people who quit. I would make it five minutes or however long was left in the match. That way it would be pointless for anyone to quit in the middle of a game when they could earn experience.

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  13. I actually read this on another site and thought that this guy made so much sense.

    Weapons

    1. DMR: Good to go!
    2. Pistol: Needs 2 more rounds in clip size, a tiny tiny bit less bloom on it.
    3. Sniper: Good to go! DOMESCOPES!
    4. Rockets: AMAZING! DONT CHANGE THEM!
    5. “Pro Pipe”: Normal shot is good, but when i hold the trigger for the EMP it seems like it doesn’t do enough damage or enough slash damage to be worth it
    6. Needle Rifle: Good
    7. Focus Rifle: Love it!
    8. Plasma Pistol: Balanced and good.
    9. Assault Rifle: Not worth using, at all.
    10. Plasma Repeater: Not worth using, good balance with AR tho.
    11. Plasma Launcher: Good once u get the hang of it, CANT WAIT TO USE ON A WORTHOG!
    12. Hammer: Slow speed down just a bit, other than that it great with sprint.
    13. Sword: Acts a lot like H3, but people can block it with a melee, take that out.
    14. Needler: Good balance, not over powered, not under powered.
    15. Shotgun: REALLY GOOD UP CLOSE! Best close range weapon in the game.

    Armor Abilities: Balanced, don’t change em’

    1. Sprint: Balanced, but take out the fact you can sprint up and just hammer/sword RIGHT AWAY. Add a short delay.
    -BY FAR, Favorite. Use it defensively by running away to a health pack, offensively to melee them twice or just moving around a lot faster to power weapons, oddballs, headhunter skulls, flags, and your teammates to help them. YOU CAN FLAG JUGGLE WITH SPRINT! Jump, toss flag, sprint, pick up flag, jump… etc.

    2. Jet pack: Balanced
    -Little to no good use on powerhouse, you will get shot out of the air SO FAST (by me and my focus rifle), only use it when getting rockets and wanting a quick way out. Learning to use this on Sword Base it key for objective game types. I only use jet pack on SB when there is something I want in the upper levels like a sniper, oddball or flag.

    3. Armor lock: Balanced
    -Good to have one of these on your 4 man team, great if you are able to communicate with your teammates. “Pro tip” DO NOT use this when you have oddball, people will just run up, grab the ball u just dropped and the smack you when it all used up.

    4. Active Camo: Balanced but i don’t think it should jam the enemies radar, just the person using it. I like the fact it doesn’t jam your teammates’ radars.
    -Use this when in 3 plots, Hill and when you have sword, shotgun or hammer.

    5. Evade: Good
    -Use this like sprint, offensively, defensively and just to get places faster.

    Maps so far: A little “meh” if you ask me

    1. Powerhouse: I feel like it is NOT balanced for stockpile. 1 flag can be fun but most of the time a smart defense team will just stay in the flag room making it almost impossible to pull the flag out without some kind of power weapon. I like slayer but I wish some game types had a human sniper in place of the focus rifle. I normally just use sprint on this map. Ball on this map sometimes never leaves the locker room and it just becomes a beat down bash in the showers.

    2. Sword base: Favorite of the 2 maps, i love to snipe and I feel like I can always find a DMR. When you start this map, people run for snipe… nade it, get a free double kill. I always try to sprint for snipe, then sprint to the DMR in red lift and lift to the top of the map where i make it rain DOMESCOPES! Yet again, stockpile it not balanced, i feel as though blue team has a huge advantage. They are able to just toss flags down and run the like 5 ft into the base as compared to red team needs to go up one of 3 very exposed ramps. And, blue team in RIGHT next to sniper.

    Game types:
    1. Slayer: Good
    2. Headhunter: Bad, skullamanjaros make me come in 2nd, A LOT!
    3. Oddball: Good
    4. Stockpile: Good idea but bad for the 2 maps in the beta, i could see it working well on a map like Midship or Warlock
    5. 1-Flag: solid, but the sudden death should be triggered by proximity and not having to be holing the flag when the clock hits 0, also, bring back touch return for flag game types, it wasn’t in halo 3 and was a good idea in halo 1 and 2. Retuning the flag is a pain because you have to stand directly on the flag, also, have some sort of return indicator other than just blinking 5 sec before return, something like the halo 2 progress bar under the flag icon
    6. 3 plots: this gametype goes by WAY TO FAST. and camo is overpowered in it.
    7. King: hill move way too often, make it 1 min rather than 30 sec.
    8. JuggerNOT: BAD, just bad.

    General feedback: I love the beta! but we run WAY TOO SLOW for competitive play and don’t jump high at all. Hopefully these things are able to be customized when the game comes out in fall. Also, another amazing thing to add for customization is being able to pick specific weapon dmg, bloom, ammo, reload time and shot speed. This would allow for a user to perfectly tweak the weapons to a competitive standard.

    Melee system: im still not sure if tying melees are a good thing, let me play 200 more games then ill let you know. There is one huge concern though. If 2 player are no shields in a melee battle and player “A” goes to melee player “B” but misses completely and then player “B” goes to melee player “A” it seems like the melee that player “A” missed on somehow magically come back into the game an it ends up in a tie.

    Grenades:

    1. Let us carry 8 total again, this 2 of each is weak sauce.
    2. Frags are AMAZING!
    3. Plasmas are AMAZING!
    4. I have noticed that i don’t stick people that much, im not sure if it’s harder or if that i just don’t use a lot of plasmas.

    MISC.: Oddball is the greatest weapon when the game type is oddball. It seems a little to over powered, make it more similar to Halo 2 where you have to be in the air meleeing down at an opponent for it to be a one hit kill.

    Pro tips!

    1. When your shields and health are low, picking up a health pack will make your shields start to regain RIGHT AWAY!
    2. Never use the AR.
    3. PACE your pistol shots, you only have 8, use them wisely.
    4. Do NOT sleep on the pistol!
    5. Learn the nade spawns and pick them up frequently
    6. Learn the DMR spawns and always try to pick up a DMR in combo with a power weapon.
    7. You can pick up the health pack outside the dorms on Powerhouse through the wall. This has saved my life many times.
    8. Slide jumping when sprinting can launch you far and fast.
    9. Weapons re-spawn according to when they are dropped with 0 ammo or they disappear. “Not telling you guys the times yet, MY SNIPE”
    10. YOU CAN FLAG JUGGLE WITH SPRINT! Jump, toss flag, sprint, pick up flag, jump… etc.
    11. DO NOT use armor lock when you have an oddball, people will just run up, grab the ball u just dropped and smack you when armor lock is all used up.

    Bungie needs to pay attention this this man here.

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    1. i read all that and…and i only disagree with wat he said about the swords. being able to block a sword lunge with a melee is realistic and needed in reach multiplayer…i dont play halo 3 matchmaking anymore because of the swords being unrealistic

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  14. So thats why I was so shitty. I kept using the AR…

    I don’t see how the DMR is any good. I’d really want the BR back.

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    1. Yeah, the pistol is sick. It’s my primary, I only use the AR when I mess up with the pistol and have to reload.

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  15. That huge list up there is right, but grenades are overpwoered. A frag grenade can take down your shields and health. They need to be more like the ones in H3, or else you should only start with one like in slayer pro. These grenades allow for sloppy kills, and noobs always toss them before dying so you never get a fair kill.

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    1. wrong!!! thats y bungie put the armor lock ability in…when someone throws a grenade at u, ARMOR LOCK!!!!!!!!

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