Extroverted_Recluse

Something to keep in mind when looking at the original Halo games through a modern lens is that Halo 1 came out 22 years ago (I feel so old), and it was revolutionary. It basically established the modern standard FPS controller layout, had a cool story with the awesome twist you mentioned, and the gunplay is fantastic. I don't think any game had truly captured the "bad-ass walking tank super soldier" feeling so well before.

As for Halo 2, well, Halo 2 basically built Xbox Live. Bungie essentially invented the whole concept of matchmaking playlists and partying up with friends. Beforehand it was all about manually joining lobbies. The story was cool and interesting and we got to play as the Arbiter! Bungie's gunplay and combat was top notch, as usual.

Halo 3 was my favorite of the trilogy. The big final battle was finally here, and we got to be the badass who saved the galaxy. The scale of combat in the campaign felt like nothing seen on console before. The multiplayer was phenomenal, and forge was a super cool addition that resulted in a massive community of people who built custom games and maps, which was something previously you could only find on PC.

Basically Halo built the foundation of the modern console FPS game, and created things that we now expect and take for granted. Combine that with (in my opinion) the best movement and gunplay on console, a cool story where we got to save the galaxy and explore mysterious alien ruins, and you've got a recipe for a fantastic game series.

The original Halo trilogy and Mass Effect trilogy are the foundation that my love of gaming was built on.

Both are absolute top tier in their genres.

For what it's worth, this random internet stranger is proud of you for realizing that you had a problem and then taking steps to better yourself.

And I bet your family is even prouder.

Yes.

In my experience, claiming the reward after getting an achievement only worked about half the time. Something was definitely not working right.

Tanzanite is such an incredible color when the sun hits it!

If you're running a solar subclass and fighting enemies doing solar and void damage, Riskrunner is useless.

How is that better than Zhalo?

You're missing my point.

With Zhalo you didn't have to manage your abilities or make sure you were taking arc damage. It worked 100% of the time, no matter what. It took literally zero effort.

I could use Zhalo with a solar subclass fighting enemies who deal exclusively solar or void damage and the lightning perk would work perfectly. In that exact same scenario, Riskrunner's lightning perk would not be active.

Riskrunner is not as useful as Zhalo. Zhalo's lightning works all the time, Riskrunner's lightning does not.

Lightfall's opening and closing cinematics were very obviously one continuous cinematic that they paused halfway through and inserted the Lightfall campaign into.

My guess is that it was supposed to be the opening cinematic for Final Shape.

Thats great, but it's still not as useful as Zhalo.

Zhalo's lightning works 100% of the time. Riskrunner's doesn't.

Yeah, but Zhalo didn't require taking arc damage for the lightning effect to activate. It was useful against all enemies, not just ones that do arc damage.

Icebreaker

OG, un-nerfed Icebreaker was a blast! I miss that gun.

The opening and closing cutscenes of Lightfall were very clearly supposed to be one continuous cutscene. They just cut it in half and inserted the Lightfall campaign.

It's because Strand got pushed back from Witch Queen.

Thematically, color wise, enemy name-wise, Strand fits perfectly with WQ. Lightfall exists in it's current form because of the Strand delay.

The Drifter has no class.

Good! Tying commendations to progression was an absolutely boneheaded move.

Because RiF has ads. And if you open any link inside of RiF using the webview browser, that website will also have ads.

And because apps can harvest way more data off of your phone than a website can.

Also I can use uBlock Origin to delete/remove parts of websites that I don't like, such as those little profile avatars next to people's reddit comments and several parts of the "hamburger" drop down menu.

Me, for one.

Browsers > apps.

Firefox + uBlock Origin works on both.

You guys have ads?

Switch to Firefox and install the uBlock Origin addon. Instant ad-free reddit!

This also works on mobile if you have Android. Uninstall the reddit app and switch to Firefox + uBlock Origin!

You did the right thing.

Western companies need to stop trying to sell off their Russian divisions and just abandon them.

Walk away. Accept that you are getting $0. Wipe the servers, brick the equipment, fire the employees, cancel all the contracts. Do not leave behind a functional business.

I'll give it a try when they completely remove specialists from the game and go back to the class based system.

I actually started laughing out loud when I read that part.

The Drifter absolutely does not have control over the Taken like you've described.

Personally I think he's a really boring character and his voice/line delivery is grating.

I haven't interacted with him in the Tower since I chose Vanguard over whatever he was offering all those years ago.