Did you? Because no, they did *not* have 'situational uses'. The AR/SMG/Plasma Rifle/Spiker have been utterly useless in every single Halo game, even at their intended range. Why? Because the Pistol/BR/DMR have always been able to beat them, either by pure firepower, or with a simple melee combo. This isn't just true about the automatics either. The BR/DMR have also always been able to outclass the Carbine because of their greater damage, range, and shot-consistency. The only other gun that came close was the Needle Rifle in Reach, but no one ever actually used that either. In short, if you were ever caught *without* a Pistol/BR/DMR in their respective Halos, you were as good as dead because unless the other guy had absolutely terrible aim you were *not* going to be able to outgun them, rendering their existences pointless. The only non-Pistol/BR/DMR weapons that ever had any use were either the obvious power weapons, the Plasma Pistol because of its 'evolution' into an EMP-utility, or sometimes the Needler because of its unique functionality.
This is a silly tack to take against someone who has played Halo more than any other game going back to when CE was fresh out of the box. But let's go down that road anyway: - CE non-power weapons: plasma pistol, plasma rifle, needler, AR. The plasma rifle was the very definition of situationally useful as it would freeze opponents in place and let you move in for a melee to finish; great for attacking opponents not looking at you and a fantastic counter in close range situations when, for example, somebody with a power weapon (shotty or rockets) was turned the other way. I used to use it for entire games - mostly for the lulz, but also because in the right hands it was effective and unexpected, particularly on CQC-heavy maps like Chill Out and Longest. // The needler, as in all its pre-Halo 4 incarnations, was also marginally situationally effective - a good way to kill someone at range but mostly if they weren't looking at you or were fighting someone else. // The AR was superior at close range to the pistol, provided you were good at strafing and jumping to avoid getting headshot. // And the plasma pistol was meh, but still had the freeze effect in place. And also, I'll state this here only, but it applies across the board - pistol ammo is limited and the pistol's clip size is finite, which means that almost any weapon that does significant damage is SITUATIONALLY effective if you need a backup weapon to finish someone off, or to use until you find more pistol ammo. I was a pistol-first guy but got a lot of kills with needlers and plasma rifles because I would swap my AR out for them, and end up using them when I was out of pistol ammo, or stuck in a reload with an enemy in front of me. In other words, every one of them was at least as useful as the H4 magnum, and I'd argue more so in the case of the plasma rifle. - Halo 2 non-power weapons: No point even listing them, because almost all of them could be used in the dual-wield system, which was so effective that competitive players were begging for a nerf of some of the combos. Plasma rifle or plasma pistol + magnum could devastate - if you were accurate it was the fastest non-power-weapon kill in the game. Dual needlers was the CE needler revisited in terms of basic purpose, but killed far faster. Plasma rifle or pistol plus SMG was brutally effective against everybody except at long range; up close it was unstoppable. All of this was gradually pushed aside in popularity as people fell in love with the "noob combo," but I still was doing my own noob combo with the plasma pistol and magnum late in Halo 2's lifespan, and got a **** ton of kills with it. (EMP + headshot from a weapon in your hand is faster than EMP/switch weapons/fire shot from the BR.) - H3 brought back dual wielding (though nerfed almost across the board) while adding the mauler. I hope you're not going to argue that the boltshot's predecessor wasn't, at the very least, situationally effective. The spiker was pretty much just an SMG with a reskin. I didn't mention the carbine for H2, but in both of these games it served the same purpose - a precision back-up weapon, that you could either swap out your BR for without much loss of function, or actually hold as your second weapon on more open maps. The SMGs were the most effective weapon in the game that for some reason most people ignored; I used to use them singly (not even dual-wielded) and referred to them as the "man-saw" for their ability to cut people down swiftly at close range. (They were especially fun near where they spawned on The Pit, for going up and down the tower and raining death on people's heads.) - Reach: The needle rifle was basically a new carbine and the plasma pistol was still reasonably effective for noob-comboing; the repeater did indeed suck; and the needler returned to what it was in CE, basically, but with slightly better shot-tracking. You might want to look up the definition of the word "situational" before we continue down this road. You're arguing against a position that I'm not even taking. Of course you'd always want the utility precision weapon on you in all of those games; my point is just that your secondary weapon could be useful as well, and people (including me) did pick them up and use them. Particularly with H2's dual wielding, it was well worth exploring the other weapon options. And you seem to be looking at this from a standpoint of "two guys facing off at mid-range and shouting DRAW! at each other," which is simply not all of - or even the majority of - Halo encounters.
That feel when 343 adds a community member's modded gametype to Action Sack, says no one outside 343 staff (and "lucky" visitors) has played it, and gives no one any credit for it. On a related note: Mini Slayer is going to be in Matchmaking:
What? For me Melee would definitely be top spot too (no game beats that, I loved meleeing other players to death), but BR will take 2nd place. Loved both. By the way, thanks Loscocco.
Another crisis of honesty? Or is this little fib the only way they could put it into MM without legitimizing modding? It's cool news either way, maybe they'll use some of our mini maps. It says it will initially only play on The Rail, but hopefully they are aware that there are maps made just for this...
Yes, because there's no way 343i could have thought of it long ago. It's not like they've been using the blam engine for years now.
Another fine example of what I was talking about. If you think only the precision primary and power weapons are useful in all the Halo games, you may have a bit of an MLG-style blind spot. Hell, I even played with a guy who would go whole games in Reach using nothing but the plasma pistol. Granted, he was doing it to be a ****, and he did a lot better with real weapons - but he'd still go positive while running around firing little energy globs and shouting, "GREEN GUN!" into his mic. It's just that all the other non-power weapons require you to put yourself in winnable situations, whereas the DMR/BR (or the original magnum) are useful in any scenario.
Well, they did create Dominion, Regicide, and Extraction -- so I'm not sure if you're trying to be funny or what.
which are spin-offs of Invasion, VIP, and Territories The point is that the game they are now claiming to have invented is an exact duplicate of a game that community members have already made. It just seems a bit fishy.
Certain Affinity created Dominion. Plus, Extraction wasn't even working properly until months after release when they put it behind a paywall even though the gametype is on everyone's disc.
I hadn't played for a long time. they modified the maps did they? I don't think there was a sniper on adrift or a combustion canon on solace.
There was a TU, yeah. The game is slightly more bearable now as there are weapons on the map (not just personal ordnance) spawning pretty often. The movement speed was increased to 110%, and the primaries were balanced (BR 4sk, LR stronger in scope but even weaker out of scope) plus slight range nerf of DMR/LR. Carbine is increased to 7sk and has reduced invisible bloom. DMR doesn't dominate everything anymore. IDK how long ago you stopped playing but hopefully that covers the basic stuff.
yeah, actually I had some time to figure those things out. I was surprised at first to see everyone use BRs instead of DMRs. I've yet to play all the maps to know all the new weapons positions. I think I hadn't played for about 6 months.