What makes the Magnum so much worse that make you want to quit dual-weilding it? Just curious since the Magnum/SMG combo is one of my favorites. Did they take the punch out of it as well as the aim?

That is bad news about the Battle Rifle for me since I can't seem to hit crap with it and everyone else seems like an expert on it.

Hey Spider,

I didn't have the time to test it thoroughly, but in the quick games I played I found that I was getting killed pretty easily when carrying SMG/Magnum when that used to be my combo of choice. I found that I was getting hit by lots of grenades, and it just didn't seem to be taking people out nearly as quickly.

As far as the Battle Rifle, I used to hate it as well, but knew that it was powerful. I made myself use it whenever possible for a couple of weeks and now have it down. Here are my BR noob tips: 1) try to find a location where it's tough for people to rush you/sneak up behind you; 2) always zoom in and aim just above the head (more or less depending on distance); 3) always move backwards or strafe as shooting. The BR is pretty weak if you are pumping rounds into the chest, but into the head it's deadly. Two or three bursts and they're down for the count. Now you can also throw a quick grenade first, and by the time you hit them a time or two in the head they're down.

Shoot me an invite, it's been too long.

I thought I read on Bungie that they specifically -DOWNGRADED- the Magnum so that the focus is now on accurate headshots?

Wow, so how about those grenades now, huh? It seems that the ability to accurately chuck a grenade is a huge advantage, especially right now while everyone is getting used to the adjustments.

I played last night for about two hours. It took a while to find games. Someone (Wolverinex21, who has extremely helpful), explained that Bungie keeps records of who the "good" hosts are, and that's why you can find games so easily -- they default to those thousands of players that they know can host a good game. It took at times over 5 minutes to get to a game.

I don't think the balances are that different. I'm mad that my favorite "brute force" combo, Plasma/SMG has been downgraded. The pistol I thought was already underpowered, don't know why it was downgraded more.

What was funny is that on the few maps I played people were toppling over each other to get the Brute Shot. :lol: It's still not THAT good.

Yep. I need to get online at least once this week before this weekend. Need to talk my buddies into doing the same so we don't have to wait forever on games to load once we all get together.

from Bungie.net

I don't know people. I chucked grenades right at Bastards and all I got was shimmering shields on the character. I thought grenades were supposed to nail 'em right off the bat?

they still don't do shit (grenades) but the battle rifile and grenade toss works better now super fast kills. well not like halo 1. but then again you don't have a handgun that can shoot clear across a map and kill with 3 head shots either. i'm still waiting for the update that auto kills the punks when they hop around like gay guys in a parade. hop once hop twice BAM AUTO KILL.

They reset the stats this morning.

nope. they were down all morning but they are back up.

Nice to know someone out there appreciated my hog skills. I'll be updating soon I suppose, but I don't really know how much time I'll spend with it. I've been hooked on SC:CT like a madman. I play with one of my friends a lot and he hasn't got Halo 2 yet. I'm off tomorrow, so if you guys wanna have a DVDtalk throwdown tonight I'm down.

I like how the fixed the noob combo (plasma pistol and battle riflle)....wait they didnt i still got killed by it like 3 times in a row on Colossus. Id think theyd at least make the combo a little less powerful like instead of one burst w battle rifle make it 3 anyeay updates good so far.

My question is the 19.99 disc with all the maps will it be unique (only can be used once) or can you buy it and split it with friends?

split it with friends.

All 9 maps will be available for free by the end of summer.

Only if you have Live, though...

Anyone get the new maps yet? I downloaded all four this morning before work. Pretty cool stuff. Only ran around them for about 15 minutes, but they seem like a good addition. Planning to be on tonight after class to play around with them some more.

I'm going to D/L them when I get home also....I'll pay the $6 now to get the two extra maps.

So if you do a multiplayer LAN party and only one box has the new maps, can you "push" those out to the other boxes? Maybe just for LAN play?

The maps are out already? I thought they were still a week away. I just might have to get some live time in later tonight.

If you've got a Live account just use a memory card to get the maps to the other boxes and then play. If you don't have a 'net connection there, I dunno.

Ah, they fit on the memory card then... thanks!

Anyone else having problems with the killtacular pack? I downloaded the free ones no problem, but when i click on the pay ones it just beeps at me and the box to the right doesn't have a pic in it like the free ones did. I doublechecked my settings and premium content is enabled, my credit card is updated, and microtransactions is enabled as well. I'm bumming... i want to play Sanctuary.

Stick to PD... newb...

From looking at bungie.net it seems that there are a few people that are having the same problem as you Miyu. Wonder if it is cuz so many people are trying to get them now?

I have them, and they rock!

Alrighty, oddly enough i rebooted and it loaded fine. So i'm downloading them this second. I tried to look on the bungie forums but dear Lord were there some idiots posting there. Especially some doofus named Strangehate. Strangehate something... THX maybe?