Screenshot by Fyrewulf.

Co-op Night Is Wednesday at 9 EDT

Master Chief has just witnessed the crash of the UNSC Infinity into the jungles of Requiem, and now must make his way to the nearest IFF tags, but there are strange noises in this wilderness, mechanical noises. Gun up. Let's go.

We haven't played for a few weeks, and last time my team was unfortunately we were plagued with network issues. Here's hoping that doesn't happen again!

Here are stats from two weeks ago:

Team stabbim
Team Kermit (Incomplete)
Team Snipe

Stabbim's team split kills more evenly than the others, with only 20 kills separating the strongest and weakest player. Revenant gave the most assists with 34, most of which probably helped Snipe, who had 122 kills!

This week's battle plan:

Infinity
Legendary
Tough Luck, Thunderstorm, Tilt, and Mythic (fun skulls optional)

If you haven't yet, be sure and send a friend request to Coop Night on XBL. This will help me organize teams.

Co-op Night FAQ (V5.1)

Why co-op?
I like playing with other people--especially people from the bungie.org communities. We all love inhabiting other worlds and kicking alien butt. Co-op Night gives us to chance to do this while also enjoying each other's company and maybe getting to know each other better than we might when we're trying to shoot each other in the face.

What will we play?
A level of the Halo 4 campaign each week until we're done.

Why only one level?
There's no limit to what you can play. The battle plan is just a starting point. If you want to continue to play the next level, that's fine, but personally, I’m about savoring one level per night. Simply put, Co-op Night is about having a night where if you show up, it's assumed you are interested in co-op with community members, and you’re committed to playing through one level.

So there are no rules?
Not really, but the goal is to milk as much fun as possible out of each mission, and for the most part, this means full path Halo, appreciating the story, killing everything, avoiding glitchy shortcuts, and saving the galaxy with style while leaving piles of dead enemies in our wake. In other words, this is not high speed Halo. Co-op night is about teamwork. On co-op night, assists count as much as kills.

How will teams be formed?

1. Send a friend request to the gamertag Coop Night on XBL. (You can also send a note to Kermit7, but friends of Coop Night get invited first.)
2. If you're online at the designated time, I assume you have an interest in co-op and invite you to my party.
3. If and when we have a full party (or multiple parties), we play a short custom Free-For-All game and the results will serve as our randomized team list. I'll assign team leaders, and we'll count off four starting from the top.
4. The party leaders leave to form their own Xbox Live party, inviting their assigned teammates (usually the two to three names under them in the last game results). Then the co-op game begins!

With luck, this process shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes.

But what about my friends?
You have friends? Congratulations! Gathering a party to play co-op should be easy whenever you want. Quit your bellyaching, soldier! You've got a job to do. Co-op night isn't about playing with the same old people you always play with. It's about playing with the bungie.org community, and maybe forming new friendships and bonds forged in brightly colored blood.

<3

Kermit

cc: HBO

Would love to join, but can't get on until 8:30 or 9:00 PT.

Would love to join, but can't get on until 8:30 or 9:00 PT.

Would love to have you join, but you'd have to get on a little earlier. We start at 9 eastern.

Thanks to everyone who played.

It's becoming more and more apparent to me that these missions are impossible to finish with both Mythic and Tilt on. I suggest we remove one.

It's becoming more and more apparent to me that these missions are impossible to finish with both Mythic and Tilt on. I suggest we remove one.

I'd like to hear more. My team and Snipe's team didn't have a problem, but it looks like Bones didn't finish either. I thought the problem last week was because of network difficulties. Was it not?

I haven't had the chance to play for a few weeks, but on the first mission it felt less like Halo to me and more like everyone die to the near invincible Elite until someone can assassinate it. I get not wanting it to be too easy, and Halo 4's (overly) generous respawn while in danger rules tilt it more towards the easy side than other Halo's, but not having the firepower or ammo to advance is kinda frustrating.

I haven't had the chance to play for a few weeks, but on the first mission it felt less like Halo to me and more like everyone die to the near invincible Elite until someone can assassinate it. I get not wanting it to be too easy, and Halo 4's (overly) generous respawn while in danger rules tilt it more towards the easy side than other Halo's, but not having the firepower or ammo to advance is kinda frustrating.

Good feedback. Didn't seem to be a problem for Halo 3 and ODST. I blame 343i. :(

We didn't have any trouble. We did joke about charging the knights and elites as a group so that at least one of us had a chance for the assassination, but we had fun pumping them full of lead. We also had a lot of fun trying to clear the mantis area on mongeese. My only complaint is that some of my favorite weapons (shotgun, FRG) feel useless, but that's just part of having a bunch of skulls on.

we make Tilt optional for teams of less than four?

Kermit

There was lag for us, but nothing unmanageable.

Tilt and Mythic are tough on Jackie as she hasn't yet learned the mechanics of the basic weapons and weaknesses.

It got late on us quick and we had to go, otherwise we would have kept trying.

When I take a needler and it takes 4 clips to pop an Elite's shield I get frustrated. She was bummed because 1.) she thought she sucked and couldn't kill anything and 2.) felt like she should have emptied enough ammo into something to kill it.

Her and I are going to replay it next Wednesday to catch up on the story before the main event.

Understood.

I'll make Tilt optional and try to get you on a team of four from now on. That should help.

This a bit indulgent, but here's why I, who is consistently one of the worst players on co-op night, like these skulls:

They only harden enemies instead of radically altering gameplay in some other way. It brings back a little of the fear and excitement I've always gotten when I first played new Halo games.

I realize that there's a tension here. I love the social aspect of co-op night--getting to know people, catching up with friends, but I also like it to be difficult enough so that there are sections at least where we're forced to really concentrate on the game, discuss approaches, and get tactical, Marines, as the man once said! I mean, that's the experience we don't get playing solo, right?

One of the best times I've ever had on co-op night was going for Deja Vu after our mongeese were destroyed and finally getting the checkpoint after failing to get it many, many times. And with the iron skull on we didn't have the option of having one guy hang back to provide safe respawn points. I bet all of us were thinking it might be impossible, but we made it, and it was exhilarating!

Kermit