Halo 3 Beta, Part 4 : A Step Back for the Friends List?
May 21, 2007 10 Comments
Accessing your friends list in Halo 2 is such an easy user friendly process. You bring up your friends list with a single push of a button, click on their gamertag, and can instantly see who they are playing with and what they are doing in a matter of seconds. When you back out of looking at a specific person, you are kindly deposited back where you started, on your friends list. It is such an effortless quick process. Unfortunately, it has changed for the Halo 3 beta.
On the Halo 3 beta, you can still pull up your friends list with a single button push. However, now when you click on their name, another menu pops up with a variety of options. You then choose to look at their party details. Now taking two button clicks, the next screen takes a few seconds to pop up. And when you are done looking at them and back out, you are deposited back to your lobby screen instead of still being on your friends list. It takes significantly longer to scroll through your friends to see who is available to join you and who isn’t.
If it isn’t broke, why fix it? Why has this changed? It is time consuming and a hassle to fill up a Halo 3 beta room. Perhaps I am spoiled by the user friendly interface of Halo 2. Maybe I am complaining over a matter of seconds that really is not a big deal. It could be that the extra options that are now popping up (like saved films and file share) are worth the increase in time of scrolling through your friends. I will attempt to reserve judgment until the beta is over and I am more accustomed to the entire process and what the extra choices have to offer.
But for now, it is a burden.
The Halo 3 Beta Series
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10
I’m with you on that one Angel!
In H2 it’s literally two button clicks from the lobby to the information you need.
Now with H3 [and the integration of the console wide friend's list] it’s several menus and buttons to get to the information you need. I know there’s a lot of stuff on there, but is there anyway we can expedite this?
When you back out from viewing a party, you really should be deposited back at your FL, not the lobby. If they fix that, I would be pretty happy with it.
Me three, Filling a party for the beta is a drag, but the info on their party/game development is better, so maybe a mix of them both would be nice. As always, you hit the bullseye! You rock! And not only in Guitar Hero… :)
I think Microsoft has some work to do with the FL implementation in games. I imagine Bungie faces some real limits with this since MS seems to hold those reins pretty tightly. Naturally, MS wants gamers to have to through the Guide interface to reach their community members and friends. I just think this could be improved by letting individual games display that same data but allowing their own functionality to be used as well. I have no idea if that’s a difficult programming issue or not. Just a wish.
Alright, I found something to comment about. ;)
I’m going to be pissed if they don’t do something about the friends list interface. I think I spend more time trying to figure out which friends are available for a game and which ones already have a full party than I do actually gaming. Also, is it too much to ask to maybe get a little more information about the match they’re playing? Maybe like the time remaining and important things like that? I hate waiting in the lobby for people to finish a match, only to waste 8 minutes of my precious gaming time.
Lol, I think it’s time to set up my own blog to vent about these things myself.
After complaining about this one day to oi1, our site creator; he explained to me that the original Xbox left the freidns list up to the game designers.
Microsoft as a whole controls the content and setup of the Xbox 360 dashboard. While extra stuff was added for Beta to the side bar for Halo 3 details, that is about all they can do. Whether or not Bungie will be able to add a clan list in is beyond me since I do not know the technical aspects behind it.
However if the clan list is not included, it will be a dark day for many gaming communities. Clans size will shrink and either be reduced to close to nothing or become non-existance.
Hopefully this wil be able to be added by the time of the official Halo 3 release.
Playing Halo 3 without a clan list is a terrifying thought. I think some gaming communities would remain strong (such as yours and the one I belong to) however I agree that many would fall apart.
I know most of this is on Microsoft’s side. I only hope that Bungie will keep working with them to streamline this process for us.
well, they did not fix this! grr. i have faith : )
I don’t.
Teh Xbox Guide button is awsome!