Kiwi has decided to start a map reviewing "team", consisting of Kiwi (no way!), Selentic, and Malolo. Each one of us will post our own reviews on it after we play it.

We should have some reviews for ya'll tonight.

Map Scores:
Portent: 10, 10, 9
No_Remorse: 9
Ambush: 5
Mountain Cliff: 5
Valkyrie: 4
Sinkhole Final: 4, 2
Valhalla_Variant: 3, .5
Here it is reviews!

Valkyrie:

Kiwi realizes this is more of a technical demo. Why was the power up and the marine's corpse (what was with that by the way?) the only things placed in the map? Kiwi could see through the tunnel through the window. Add a teleporter to quickly get from top to bottom. Please don't put any heavies in the final.

Ambush:

Kiwi, in all honesty, did not like this map. The sniper was weak, too weak for quickly taking out people in turrets. The frag throw needs to be shortened to make it somewhat easier to kill tanks on foot. Kiwi liked the terrain for the most part, except for how open blue base was. Kiwi couldn't figure out the purpose of one weapon. You need to spawn with something other then a pistol.
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 3, 2008 at 08:37 PM
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 6, 2008 at 01:20 AM
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 9, 2008 at 09:18 PM
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 10, 2008 at 07:06 PM
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 11, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 12, 2008 at 12:03 PM

aww this is what I missed?

I personally liked ambush. Had some fun circling over the city with a gunner in my heli. And I actually don't mind not having reticles, of that's just because I've played more TimeSplitters 2 than Halo, but meh.

Kiwi didn't like that your only hope of killing a tank on foot was an rpg or frag (which took forever to throw).

not to mention its weakass 2 foot toss. i rate this a novelty map that plays like 1 but the effort was good.

Does this mean the WHOLE Halo CE community has to follow your reviews about maps to see if they are good... (sarcasm BTW). I actually like this idea it give pros and cons about maps and what to look forward when they are in gameplay.

K sorry I'm late, I passed out last night.

Valkryie_Beta2

It was too small, the model was alright but it had a pretty bad design to it.
Most of the times you died were on the ladder in the one cave.
On KOTH the hill wasnt even visible, it was on the very top floor, but it sucked cause it was only accessed by ladder.
Overall I thought it was boring (and I was on an enhancer too btw)
It did look nice though.

Ambush

The most finished thing is probably the vehicles, most of them are awesome except for the pickup trucks. There isn't as many weapons as I was expecting because they had pictures of alot more. And I only know where 2 are lol
I don't like not havning a reticle and the animations feel odd.
Overall I like this map, its nice to have a different feeling for halo.
Edited by malolo420 on Jan 4, 2008 at 04:58 PM
Edited by malolo420 on Jan 4, 2008 at 05:00 PM
Edited by malolo420 on Jan 4, 2008 at 05:00 PM
Edited by malolo420 on Jan 5, 2008 at 10:41 PM

Lol

Make video reviews instead. I was thinking about doing that..... but fraps would record choppy footage >.<

Kiwi doesn't have a mic (not sure about Selentic or Malolo) and it really wouldn't be much different. We will try to take some screenshots of the maps in the future.

Yeah I have a mic. I think selentic does. and yeah we should get pics next time.

Kiwi does that cos he can.

How does the Sim know such things?

but isn't that.....dare I say... REALISTIC?

shoot a tank with a beretta in real life and see what happens.

2 words: Common Sense.




I've tried that.... didn't go too well....
Edited by SiMuLaCrUm on Jan 5, 2008 at 10:29 AM

Besides, too much realism in games makes people go insane and shoot up their schools or workplaces and what not.

Too much realism in a game that suppose to be futuristic does not work out well. That's like trying to put real weapons in Unreal Tournament III. If I want realistic, I'll go buy Call of Duty 4 and then wait for my brother to build his awesome computer. (Which will happen sometime this year.)
[Edit: Ok, I got Call of Duty 4 finally, now to wait for my brother to build his computer...]
Edited by ODX on Jan 5, 2008 at 04:15 PM

Kiwi is sorry if he likes fun over realism.

i ad this whole idea but in a different way:
some starts a site linked with halomaps called the halomaps paper, which does weekly reviews for every map goes up ,just 2 for each reviewer and have the download link on the review for it then they give it rating.

This time we gots Portent!

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=1796

If there were one word to describe this map it would have to be beautiful. The sky looks awesome, the texturing is done well, and the lighting sets a good mood. The gameplay is also fun as well, if somewhat empty, this map works best for larger games, not as big a deal in slayer as the spawn points are closer together. What Kiwi likes about this map is how you can have both close quarters and long range combat here. The middle structure is an important part of the map as it is important to get access to the best sniping spots on the map; so you will have to fight your way up close to get to it. Oddball and King of the Hill are also fun on this map. In CTF, you will spawn in the bases in a place where you are not as easily reached by the enemy so spawn camping is not as huge a problem. Kiwi feels that snipers enjoy a little too much control here, in Kiwi's opinion.

Overall a very beautiful, well designed, fun map to play if you can get some people to join. Though some people (Selentic) might have trouble navigating the map.
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 5, 2008 at 06:07 PM

If we could replace BG with portent Kiwi would.

the animations made puke
and whats with the epic lag in that map

Get yer own review topic!

Also, nope, Kiwi test these with Selentic and Malolo.

Only Hackers can host servers.

Portent

First thing you'll notice is that the map looks great. Really nice sky, good geometry and textures, it looks like it was made by bungie.
First thing that I found was off was the water, its really hard to see in some spots and looks like theres nothing but theres still water splashing when you walk/drive/shoot it.
It was a pretty good size, we played 4v4 but it would have been better with 1 or 2 more on each team.
It played very well too, had perect amount of cover most places, could of used a bit more in certain areas though.

10/10

Thanks to Kiwi's ability to stay up late, ya'll get another map reviewed.

This time it's No_Remorse

http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=1759

Another visually well done map. In Kiwi's opinion not as good as Portent because the color scheme felt a bit drab to Kiwi. Gameplay-wise it is amazing. You spawn with shotguns, which Kiwi is not a huge fan of, but for this map it works well as you won't get spawn killed as easily. What makes this map stand out is the options, go for rooftops or ground or jumping through windows and lamp post if you're good enough. They're all viable options here. Slayer is just awesome for this map and KOTH as well. Oddball and CTF work well here too. Overall, good visuals, interesting weapon layout, and proof that you don't need a map to be large to be complex or have depth.

Just be careful as this is a pretty graphics intensive map.

9/10

(to the other two)
From now on, rate the map on a scale of 1-10 up to the first decimal place. And try to get some good looking screenshots cause they don't look as Jawsome on Kiwi's comp.

Kiwi will update the first post with the scores of each map.

'K grammar man, you can sod off.

lol like we want the reviews of kiwi on the new maps XD

Ok next map we did is vanhalla varient http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=3448

Vanhalla Varient :

It looks nothing like vanhalla, doesn't even have a similar lay out, and its way to small. The water is too deep in the one part, its snowing everywhere, even though theres only snow on half the map. The map is a rectangle shape, it has ugly snow textures, and the bases arent unwrapped everywhere and almost the whole thing is metal flat generic.
Man cannons have a sorta cool looking effect, doesnt really look like its pushing you anywhere, and the man cannon barely works.
The bubble shield has a pretty nice skin/shader, and you can walk through it, but collision is only 1 sided.
Plasma pistol is an automatic rocket launcher....
Theres way to many vehicles for how small it is (I'm pretty sure it was on default).
Overall, the map plays like it looks.... Like crap.

Edit: 1/20
Edited by malolo420 on Jan 9, 2008 at 08:31 PM

Kiwi did not have high expectations for this map, but still it was worse. The first thing, no health, all you have is sheilds, shields are stronger then normal but you die the moment they're gone. The map design, was very bland, Kiwi liked the idea of having to go underwater to get the banshee and fuel rod gun, but as Malolo said, too deep. It should not be deep enough that you can hide from explosives. The cliff design was bad and looked very unnatural, and the texturing, oh boy, Kiwi could see squares in the textures. It's snowing all over the map, but snow is only on one side. Would have been better without the snow falling and patches of melting snow. The man cannon did not seem to work on one side.

The Assault Rifle is the most powerful weapon that isn't an automatic rocket launcher. The accuracy and it seems like the damage has been upped. The pistol is not powerful enough in comparision. There are definitely too many vehicles on it for a map this size. The mongooses have the dreaded missing string as does the gametypes. Replacing frags for the bubble shield is a bad idea. The bubble shield does not show up on Kiwi's computer. There is an instant death field above the map to stop the banshee from being used to get above the map for sniper camping.

Overall, this map needs a massive overhaul; how this became the featured map is beyond Kiwi. 3/10
Edited by Kiwi on Jan 9, 2008 at 09:15 PM

Wow, I joined my first server with it, with da n**** and 'Matt.' I proceeded to get 'pwned' and called 'noob.' The host (da n****) was using bottomless clip, and host advantage. I then proceeded to pwn him, I shall show results later.

That doesn't really have much to do with the map.

i would try mongoose heaven either it is jsut a box with pointy hills in it

tried to hit the wall with the mongoose adn my mongoose jumped in the ait an landed with the weels on hte wal and hte rear of hte mongoose on the ground and i was stuck XD tried to ride back and foreward but it didnt help

only 8 mongooses and very badly textured Like a piece of cliff was groudn texture adn a piece of ground is cliff texture?!??!?!

and you only have the assault rifle and the pistol as weaapons

but atleast the mongooses work jsutl iek in yoyorast island
2/10
(1 for the mongoose and 1 for the funny moment at the cliff with my mongoose)

I was in that game when you formed this team, :(. And that Valhalla Variant map is eww.
Edited by Pingvinz on Jan 10, 2008 at 10:03 AM

??!!?? wtf are you talkign about what team??