"Halo 4: I Get a Woman!" - Sgt. Mjr. A.J. Johnson, RIP

[TVTyrant]

MOUNTAIN DEW GAME FUEL IS BACCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKK!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

[DarkHalo003]

So, based on what we saw in those videos, the Mantis is an overpowered vehicles that has no place in multiplayer because there are hardly any weapons that do damage to them.
Pretty much, but I doubt it won't be rebalanced. They have to make it look kickass to start with so people will gain interest in actually using it. However, Vehicles in general are a lot more resilient too, especially against rifles and the like. It has an energy shield like the Sabre too, so I wonder if that means it's actually more fragile than first perceived. Everyone in those two Mantis vids are also kind of bad anyways, especially in the first one. The second has one dying a lot easier, especially to explosives like grenades.

[Donut]

im really liking that SAW. it might just be because im a sucker for high-capacity machine guns, but it reminds me a lot of halo 1's assault rifle.

[Warsaw]

Bullet-hose easy-mode. If there ever was a gun in Halo that needed a kick-back, it is the SAW...not the SMG.

[TeeKup]

The player using the SAW and the Carbine was good. Nice to see a competent player for a change. Loving the carbine and the DMR.

[Sanctus]

^This
I'm so glad the Carbine is coming back.

[Amit]

Pretty much, but I doubt it won't be rebalanced. They have to make it look kickass to start with so people will gain interest in actually using it. However, Vehicles in general are a lot more resilient too, especially against rifles and the like. It has an energy shield like the Sabre too, so I wonder if that means it's actually more fragile than first perceived. Everyone in those two Mantis vids are also kind of bad anyways, especially in the first one. The second has one dying a lot easier, especially to explosives like grenades.

That's true, but my main concern is for the infantry on the ground. If a team manages to grab both Mantises and destroy all the enemy held vehicles, then infantry will have a really bad time trying to take it out with just one Spartan laser to go around and maybe a rocket launcher (which the other team might hold in addition to the mantises). Of course, infantry can rush the mantises to try to hijack them, but if what I heard is right, then the stomp ability will rape them and any survivors that moved back would be picked off by the other mantis, infantry, other vehicles, or all of them combined.

[Masterz1337]

Don't forget everyone has sprint, and can change their loadout to start with Plasma Grenades and PP's. If a team needs to take one down, I'm sure they can.

[Amit]

Ahh yes. I forgot about loadouts. Well, I can see many PG spamfests in the future.

[Warsaw]

But spam-fest won't be as fun as it was on Halo PC.

:mech2:

[Bobblehob]

3034

[Cortexian]

I still hate how some of the people playing at these press conventions are fucking terrible.
Most of the people at press conventions are press or special guests. They don't have the free time to sit down and play Halo all day like every kid between the ages of 8 and 18 in North America.

Anyway, have they announced this for PC yet or can I go back to not caring? :haw:

[Kornman00]

Flood walkthrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygjBow2jcPk

[Amit]

Most of the people at press conventions are press or special guests. They don't have the free time to sit down and play Halo all day like every kid between the ages of 8 and 18 in North America.

Anyway, have they announced this for PC yet or can I go back to not caring? :haw:

I think it's safe to say that you can go back to not caring even if it was for PC (which is isn't har har har).


Flood walkthrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygjBow2jcPk

Oh wow, I'm only seeing the shotgun now and it looks absolutely horrible.

[ODX]

I'm starting to not care about some of the "bad" parts to this game. It looks fucking amazing and looks damn fun to play regardless. I certainly can't wait for November 6th.

[Bobblehob]

Dat Shotgun, looks and sounds absolutely awesome.

[Masterz1337]

I'm not a fan of the new look but it's performance and sound is pretty awesome.

[Warsaw]

Dat Shotun, looks and sounds absolutely awesome.

No.

[Bobblehob]

No.

:lmao:

[Warsaw]

:mech2:

[Bobblehob]

:ohboy:

[=sw=warlord]

:fuckoff:

[Bobblehob]

:fuckoff:

:smugoff:

[Kornman00]

ITT: bobble finally learns what the thing in his pants does


:smugoff:
and proclaims it

looks and sounds absolutely awesome.

[Bobblehob]

ITT: bobble finally learns what the thing in his pants does


and proclaims it

http://kornnersoftware.com/images/boner.png

[Bobblehob]

IGN walkthrough of Valhalla, and damn does it look pretty...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEIB2txWyeo

[leorimolo]

I feel like its the launch of halo 3 again, I just can't wait.

[NotZac]

"Meltdown" leaked:

V0n82CBF5fI

[DarkHalo003]

Looks really intriguing for gameplay. Reminds me of someone taking burial mounds, danger canyon, and contamination then mixing them all together. The environments are real nice in it too.

[ThePlague]

Video is private

[PlasbianX]

Video is private

muUN2J-6gds

Edit: 6VBDv68Wnn8

Idk if anyone has posted this yet but.. man.. that multiplayer UI looks sexy

[Limited]

I hated the pregame UI when I played it, looked like more basic/crap Reach UI.

I suppose you could say its more Halo 1'y, but just didnt like it, hoping it changes for the release.

Edit: Heres a video

94lwRQZvCyk

[TeeKup]

Melt Down looks like Ice Fields :O

[Spartan094]

http://imageshack.us/a/img843/3759/floodainsley.jpg

[annihilation]

http://imageshack.us/a/img843/3759/floodainsley.jpg

Fuck you, I poured my heart and soul into my Ainsley flood.

[Timo]

derp

Well that just ruined halo 4's flood for me haha

[Spartan094]

:realsmug:

[Kornman00]

All those videos are goddamn private or removed

[DarkHalo003]

Hey nerds:

http://www.halopedia.org/Halo:_The_Thursday_War

http://www.halopedia.org/images/8/86/HThursday_War_-_Cover.jpeg

I'm a quarter through this book. It's pretty good so far, a bit slow, but hey I'm only in the first quarter. A lot of background info on the Infinity and what our favorite cast of non-MC-Cortana goobers are up to. Oh and no Greg Bear bullshit so far. So go buy it and read!

[Amit]

I've been looking for a new book to pick up. I think I'll give Glasslands a go and then read this. I just hope I'm not thrown off from the transition of Nylund to Travis (Ghosts of Onyx to Glasslands).

[DarkHalo003]

I've been looking for a new book to pick up. I think I'll give Glasslands a go and then read this. I just hope I'm not thrown off from the transition of Nylund to Travis (Ghosts of Onyx to Glasslands).
You'll develop your own opinion assuredly, but I will say that Travis is the only bright side to the recent Halo novels. She has a really good grasp on what her boundaries are and she never goes too far like Greg Bear thinks he can.

Here's the Modacity thread from before if you want some input from others:
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?24041-Halo-Glasslands&highlight=Glasslands

[TeeKup]

Glasslands is good, still need to finish it. Might pickup The Thursday War today so it can loaf around waiting for me to read it too.

[Amit]

You'll develop your own opinion assuredly, but I will say that Travis is the only bright side to the recent Halo novels. She has a really good grasp on what her boundaries are and she never goes too far like Greg Bear thinks he can.

Here's the Modacity thread from before if you want some input from others:
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?24041-Halo-Glasslands&highlight=Glasslands

I have no idea who Greg Bear is or what he represents.

[TeeKup]

Greg bear is a supposedly famed author who represents the downfall of decent halo literature.

[Masterz1337]

I finished Thursday War the other day, wasn't to crazy about it, nor Glasslands.

[Bobblehob]

Part one of the Live Action Forward Unto Dawn series is out.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfJVgXBfSH8&feature=g-all-f

[annihilation]

I like it.

[Bobblehob]

I have to say, I am impressed as well.

[Tnnaas]

Huh, that was good, I guess Helljumper (http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?24223-Halo-Helljumper-Dropping-this-January) can stick it.

[Cortexian]

At first I thought they fucked up the uniforms a lot, but it's just that the Cadets were wearing white fatigues under their armor instead of the actual military garb. I also thought it seemed more like a fan-fic thing, but as they showed more and more actual actors along with the set pieces I began to question it... Wasn't until the end when I saw 343i logo that I realized it was legit. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Hurry up and make a Halo feature film.

[DarkHalo003]

That was really good. If you're reading Halo: The Thursday War, you'll hear of Lateski and read about him throughout the book. I like this continuity. The acting is pretty solid for an internet series as well, though I'm not entirely sure how good it truly is given how they're playing a young age and military personas. So far though, it's pretty good and I thought it was going to be terrible.

Helljumper's only excuse was that it was done by fans. However, it was still really badly written, the acting was poorly executed, and the casting was poorly decided.

[Cortexian]

I believe the two biggets actors they have are Mike Dopud (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0233304/) (lots of popular things) and Anna Popplewell (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0691600/) (Susan - The Chronicles of Narnia). I'm actually surprised to see big-name actors in it.

[Tnnaas]

I thought Silva looked familiar. Damn.

[Arteen]

Forward Unto Dawn was not bad. Not great, but I'm interested.

[Amit]

Forward Unto Dawn was not bad. Not great, but I'm interested.

Felt the same. At first I felt like it'd be a cheesy film with children again, but that's exactly what they are in the context of the story and I'm interested in what they have to go through now. It's also intriguing to see a way to portray a UNSC academy in regards to day to day life.

[Warsaw]

Interesting. Cheesy, but not terrible. I'll keep an eye on it.

[Higuy]

Yeah, I liked it. At least the actors aren't terrible. The only issues I had that I could comment on is that some of it felt dragged out, but it was still pretty cool.

[Masterz1337]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oATxKMr5FU

[DarkHalo003]

^It is Beta footage, but it does look pretty cool. Reminds me of some of the stuff people try to accomplish in HCE. Regardless, I'm ecstatic that 343i decided to insert DLC for Single Player.

[ODX]

There's just waaaaay too much to this game, it's insane.

[Higuy]

There is alot, indeed. Lets just hope there's no fat and its all meat.

[DarkHalo003]

There is alot, indeed. Lets just hope there's no fat and its all meat.
Hey, fat can be as good for as meat (protein) can. It's all relative to the person, which explains this scenario entirely. But I get what you mean. I'm honestly more concerned about it having some aspartame features instead, you know, the kind that shit-up gameplay for the sake of continuity. So far, I don't see that and that's good. Rather than aspartame, most of the features (like selectable Loadouts/Perks) are flavors of the month.

[Higuy]

Honestly there hasn't been much gameplay of the actual Campaign so you can't really tell. But yeah thats what I meant by fat and meat. Good level design comes down to meaningful encounters and nonlinear design. However, so far of what they have shown of campaign looks fairly boring (imo) + also heavily requires ingame cinematic moments, which is a bit disappointing.

I also have hardly seen any classic looking Halo enviroments, which is also annoying. I have yet to seen at least one nice grassy landscape with large clear sky's. I mean cmon, there needs be at least like 1 iconic Halo level like that in each game. Even Halo Reach had one, and that game is fairly dull and plain in terms of color palette and environments.

[Masterz1337]

I'm pretty sure the first mission of requiem is what you want Higuy, there's some concept art of it floating around.

[Tnnaas]

And so far we haven't seen much; only what they want us to see. Maybe three or four levels in the campaign, some of the multiplayer maps, and a few Spartan Ops missions. I would guess about a quarter of what there actually is.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the stuff we haven't seen will be genuinely unique in one way or another and they want us to experience it for ourselves rather than spoil it. Also works as a selling point: "Buy our game to see the things we didn't show you."

[Higuy]

Yes, BUT, they are a new developer and, even though its Halo, its practically a new IP. Even if they didn't want to spoil anything, you would imagine when showing off their levels they would be showing something great (as the rest of the game should be) that is ingame and fresh. For example, when my team and I showed off Lumoria: Episode Two the first time, we showed an actual encounter in the game to show how gameplay has improved. The only way to show off good level design is by showing off gameplay of an actual level, there isn't any other way because in those just turn into montages and trailers. So far what they have shown rely's heavily on scripted cinematic moments like COD and are fairly linear in design. Even the last mission they showed off where you disable the power cores was fairly boring and dull looking. I'll save my judgement for when the actual game is released to the public, but so far for first impressions it doesn't really have me sold.

[Ki11a_FTW]

Yes, BUT, they are a new developer and, even though its Halo, its practically a new IP. Even if they didn't want to spoil anything, you would imagine when showing off their levels they would be showing something great (as the rest of the game should be) that is ingame and fresh. For example, when my team and I showed off Lumoria: Episode Two the first time, we showed an actual encounter in the game to show how gameplay has improved. The only way to show off good level design is by showing off gameplay of an actual level, there isn't any other way because in those just turn into montages and trailers. So far what they have shown rely's heavily on scripted cinematic moments like COD and are fairly linear in design. Even the last mission they showed off where you disable the power cores was fairly boring and dull looking. I'll save my judgement for when the actual game is released to the public, but so far for first impressions it doesn't really have me sold.

Even though I'm still Iffy about the game, I think its worth the play. I watched something awhile ago on some SP mission and it actually reminded me of the halo i once enjoyed, I'm not really a fan of all of the scripted events they have going on, but everything else is looking okay to me.

[Bodzilla]

had a chance to play this on the weekened, didnt give a shit, i was too busy trying out shootmania and watching starcraft.

u mad?

[DarkHalo003]

had a chance to play this on the weekened, didnt give a shit, i was too busy trying out shootmania and watching starcraft.

u mad?
That's cool. Not really mad though. I probably won't be able to play till Christmas.

And add me on SC2 brah. Jasiwel 444.

[Warsaw]

Reminds me of some of the stuff people try to accomplish in HCE.

This is not a good thing. I love playing around in CMT as much as the next guy, but I would not want to find it as a finished product. A game made to sell better have some refinement to it...

[Limited]

had a chance to play this on the weekened, didnt give a shit, i was too busy trying out shootmania and watching starcraft.

u mad?
Nah, I've already played Halo 4. Plus have no interest in starcraft :D

[Siliconmaster]

This is not a good thing. I love playing around in CMT as much as the next guy, but I would not want to find it as a finished product. A game made to sell better have some refinement to it...

Ooooh I think we just got burned lol :P

[Warsaw]

Nonsense. CMT is what it is: a fan-made mod done with limited access to manpower and time.

[Siliconmaster]

Fair enough. <3

[Kornman00]

Crysis 3 has flood mode and a mech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI5n95FCgJM

[Bobblehob]

Video not available :\

[Kornman00]

Video link still works fine for me

[DarkHalo003]

This is not a good thing. I love playing around in CMT as much as the next guy, but I would not want to find it as a finished product. A game made to sell better have some refinement to it...
I think it's not HCE in the way that it's moddish, but more that it's just experimental and exploratory. Those are honestly the only similarities I see, anyways.

[Warsaw]

Thats what I meant, too. They are cramming too much into one release.

[chrisk123999]

http://youtu.be/lOJ5lqXXtpU

[DarkHalo003]

That's really fucking cool.

[thehoodedsmack]

I am more and more conflicted over this game. Everything looks great except the player models, weapons, and campaign. I don't know what to think anymore.

[Warsaw]

And totally fucking pointless, because your map won't ever be on a playlist to be enjoyed by countless numbers of people!

Make it available on PC, give it an editor, and then we can talk. Forge is a neat toy, but it is ultimately undermined by the nature of the very ecosystem it was made for.

[DarkHalo003]

@Hooded: The models are questionable, I agree, but the Campaign looks really interesting. However, the best solution for you would be to rent it or borrow it to decide. It never harms to play it to find out yourself.


And totally fucking pointless, because your map won't ever be on a playlist to be enjoyed by countless numbers of people!

Make it available on PC, give it an editor, and then we can talk. Forge is a neat toy, but it is ultimately undermined by the nature of the very ecosystem it was made for.
:mech:

So, so negative.

[Warsaw]

After how Bungie abused Forge in Reach with their generally AWFUL Forgeworld maps and how there were no system for rating and cycling user-made maps, you betcha.

[Donut]

is it just me, or are these 343 interviews a lot less polished than bungie's vidocs were? it seems like theres a lot of "um"ing and people tripping over their words.
E: that said, i really fucking love what theyve done with forge. object highlighting and actually visually showing where snap points are is awesome. object duplication is sweet too.
also, the map they showed called "relay" that shows up at about 6:30 reminds me a hell of a lot of tensity, the ce map.

[Tnnaas]

I'll bet that there will still be community maps brought to playlists through Blueprint (or 4chub, XF, etc.) and 343i just like it was in Halo: Reach.

[Bobblehob]

Im still spazzing over her saying 300-400-500 forge pieces in a single map... Holy what... if we can seriously have 500 different pieces in a single map, that is incredible compared to previous iterations. So many possibilities.

[JackalStomper]

500 fusion cores!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sanctus]

500 camping stools! Finally my dream has come true.

[Kornman00]

is it just me, or are these 343 interviews a lot less polished than bungie's vidocs were? it seems like theres a lot of "um"ing and people tripping over their words.
I believe there is also a lot more 'vidocs' released than Bungie has done for a single game. Of course, someone may not want to classify these as traditional vidocs as they're more like a Let's Play video (totally ingame and voiced over)

[Tnnaas]

The Making Of Halo 4 videos are closer to vidocs.

On another topic: I'm kind of glad they did three different maps for this, each with their own palette. That'll certainly mix things up a bit.

[Bobblehob]

I can haz covenant palette plox?

[Higuy]

Yo dawg, forge is cool and all, but we all know that HALO 4 NEEDS TO COME ON THE FUCKING PC WITH A DECENT EDITING KIT LIKE HALO:CE

[Disaster]

Yo dawg, forge is cool and all, but we all know that HALO 4 NEEDS TO COME ON THE FUCKING PC WITH A DECENT EDITING KIT LIKE HALO:CE
QFT :neckbeard:

[Kornman00]

Yo dawg, forge is cool and all, but we all know that HALO 4 NEEDS TO COME ON THE FUCKING PC WITH A DECENT EDITING KIT LIKE HALO:CEQFT :neckbeard:
QQFT

[DarkHalo003]

Waypoint has some Terminal videos up now. If you've read (or haven't) read The Thursday War, it fills in some suspicions and a few gaps.

EDIT: Waypoint is currently offline for upgrades right now. Lemme find a YouTube of that Terminal perhaps....here we go:

k4srUmp6s-c

I encourage everyone to read The Thursday War. It's well written and it has a lot of information concerning some background on the next game's Covenant antagonists. It isn't entirely action packed, but it's still interesting regardless.

For those who won't read the book and want to know some disposition anyways:
Jul 'Mdama is the Fleet Master for the Storm faction. He seeks vengeance on humanity because their intervention killed his wife. Did I also forget to mention that he smartly did not trust humanity, followed the rebel leader on Sanghelios to learn the rebellion was being fueled by humans, was subsequently captured and tortured, kept and interrogated in Onyx so that humanity could create a strain of produce that would force the Sangheili race into starvation, and finally escaped via Forerunner portal in Onyx (because the humans were stupid to let him walk around free, even with a bomb-harness on) to meet a Covenant faction still devoted to the Forerunners. Though he doesn't give two shits about the Forerunners as gods, he does want to find Requiem and the Didact to reek vengeance on humanity for their atrocities. He considers them to be more of a threat than the Flood.

[Amit]

For those who won't read the book and want to know some disposition anyways:
Jul 'Mdama is the Fleet Master for the Storm faction. He seeks vengeance on humanity because their intervention killed his wife. Did I also forget to mention that he smartly did not trust humanity, followed the rebel leader on Sanghelios to learn the rebellion was being fueled by humans, was subsequently captured and tortured, kept and interrogated in Onyx so that humanity could create a strain of produce that would force the Sangheili race into starvation, and finally escaped via Forerunner portal in Onyx (because the humans were stupid to let him walk around free, even with a bomb-harness on) to meet a Covenant faction still devoted to the Forerunners. Though he doesn't give two shits about the Forerunners as gods, he does want to find Requiem and the Didact to reek vengeance on humanity for their atrocities. He considers them to be more of a threat than the Flood.

Now that​ is a shitty storyline.

[Kornman00]

Wait, is this some shitty asian dub or is that real el33t sp33k?

Also, what Amit said

[thehoodedsmack]

Why would you A: record lines for a made-up language with a completely noninflected American-English accent, and B: intersperse that language with English words? The subtitles are already there, and the Elites are heard using an Elite word for "Humans", why do they not have Elite words for "Forerunner" or the planet itself?

Points docked, Halo 4. See me after class.

[DarkHalo003]

Now that​ is a shitty storyline.
Then read The Thursday War because what I said only pertains to Jul 'Mdama in a very summed up sense. The book puts everything into context and it's a lot nicer. There are a lot more details and it is a pretty good read. But as we have all been guessing, the Didact is the main antagonist in Halo 4. Just fucking read the book or something.

I thought the Elite Speak was kind of weird in the terminal, but honestly it doesn't matter that much. It's a piece of narm that doesn't honestly detract from the overall product.

[Amit]

I thought the Elite Speak was kind of weird in the terminal, but honestly it doesn't matter that much. It's a piece of narm that doesn't honestly detract from the overall product.

It defeats the purpose of having the Elites speak their own language. What word did they use for Requiem before the Covenant discovered the humans? Obviously not Requiem. Knowing that really detracts from the immersion.

I honestly can't understand how some of you guys continue to be interested by this product. Every time they reveal something new it's just a further insult to the Halo universe.

[DarkHalo003]

It defeats the purpose of having the Elites speak their own language. What word did they use for Requiem before the Covenant discovered the humans? Obviously not Requiem. Knowing that really detracts from the immersion.

I honestly can't understand how some of you guys continue to be interested by this product. Every time they reveal something new it's just a further insult to the Halo universe.
I can understand how it kills immersion and it does sound weird, but it doesn't kill anything. It's just a short clip of a terminal. We'll probably still hear "Wort wort wort" and other sounds in-game. Also, if you read The Thursday War, Requiem is first understood by Jul in the English language. The Sangheili language only had symbols for it which were discovered later by the Sangheili, but names for those symbols were never given. Prone To Drift informed Jul 'Mdama of what Requiem is utilizing English to Sagheili. Because Requiem is a proper noun, it's English sound is the only one that probably works. The only problem with that is that Forerunners are still called in English, so I do agree that was annoying and it seems lazy of 343i. After listening to it again, it also sounds like a lot of Asian in the second half, which is also weird since it wasn't as bad in the first half. Needless to say, I still don't think it's a big deal, especially when you consider that the Covenant Jul' Mdama is leading is from a different side of the Galaxy and the Sangheili branch left "long ago" from the home world of Sanghelios. Just read The Thursday War. Wikias still aren't updated yet, sadly enough.

One part about the series that we all love is that you can go into those parts you don't like and reinvent them with your imagination. That's basically what Halo Custom Edition allowed by default when it came to modding the original campaign and then that lead many people down great roads of creativity. The point I'm making is that you're making this too big of a deal and frankly I'm not understanding how you can keep calling this game deteriorating when the the more stuff that's being released is looking pretty fucking cool. It may not be on PC, but does that make it shit? Of course not. If you're actually a gamer and love the series, then you'll play it regardless. And then you might say: "But I don't consider this to be part of the series...." blah blah blah. Simply put, you're being closed minded to letting only one shepard lead a flock. Bungie may not be the leaders this time, but it's pretty obvious that 343i is trying to keep working with the series in a fashion that isn't releasing the exact same thing over again.

I'm not really defending the actual choices that 343i makes when it comes to designs. I find the language to be kind of dumb to be honest, but it's for entertainment purposes, so lighten up. I'm defending 343i's ability to interpret and express what they think the Halo Universe is going into with Halo 4, technical shit like Forge and gameplay shit like SP/MP. I don't understand how anything introduced so far besides Greg Bear's Cryptum and Primordium are insults to the Halo Universe. All things considered, I simply think a lot of you are being overdramatic because you don't have another PC release. Face it, Microsoft doesn't want to invest in PC gaming. They probably see too much rivalry from Valve's Steam to be able to cost-effectively compete. On top of that, explain to me ALL of these insults that are ruining this unreleased game for you. I'm only speaking positively from anticipation and how it seems really cool as a new installment. What are you seeing as insults for the series? Honestly, it's just looking more like it's not all lining up with your immediate opinion/guesses, so you're slamming it to compensate.

[Timo]

I miss the good ol' wort wort wort :(

[DarkHalo003]

I miss the good ol' wort wort wort :(
You can hear it sometimes in Reach, but alas, it's not always easy to hear as a result of all of the noise/chaos going on in the game. :(

Here's a good example of when you can hear it!:

pEvtzijPf2o

[itszutak]

god damnit

when I first read up on the elites in halo 3 (the limited edition came with a little thing explaining the biography of each race) and read that they had a "feudal" culture, I thought they mean like, european-feudal. Knights and serfs and shit. Then the halo anime thing came out and they made them super-japanese. But they fucked up so much in that anyway (elites without split jaws?) that I figured "fuck it, it's anime, they can have their japanese whatever".

...The elites sound like god damn george lucas aliens speaking japanese. I don't know if that's fake or placeholder voices or whatever, but seriously?

[Warsaw]

You can hear it sometimes in Reach, but alas, it's not always easy to hear as a result of all of the noise/chaos going on in the game. :(

Here's a good example of when you can hear it!:

pEvtzijPf2o

They spruced it up. It's not as derpy as the original.

Derpyness is what made Halo 1 so timeless. To give an example, something as simple as replacing its built-in animations with Havok physics would ruin the game completely.

[Tnnaas]

god damnit

when I first read up on the elites in halo 3 (the limited edition came with a little thing explaining the biography of each race) and read that they had a "feudal" culture, I thought they mean like, european-feudal. Knights and serfs and shit. Then the halo anime thing came out and they made them super-japanese. But they fucked up so much in that anyway (elites without split jaws?) that I figured "fuck it, it's anime, they can have their japanese whatever".
Fuck Origins BTW. Some of the videos were really bad, but fuck that one in particular. I cleansed my mind of those female non-split jaw elites immediately. And besides, didn't Halo 3 female elites look about the same as the male ones? Not flat-faced at all.

[Kornman00]

Mexican pirates (http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=37629). Of course they're too lazy to put it up on usenet like any normal frenchie person

[DarkHalo003]

Mexican pirates (http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=37629). Of course they're too lazy to put it up on usenet like any normal frenchie person
Lol Mexicans.

Waypoint has the new Bulletin that explains how Halo 4 Multiplayer will work. Pretty neat stuff.
http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2012/10/10/The-Halo-Bulletin-101012-.aspx

[TeeKup]

I actually thought Origins was one of the only decent things to come out of Legends. Prototype remains my favorite, the Mark 3 suit was fucking intense.

[Arteen]

Fuck Origins BTW. Some of the videos were really bad, but fuck that one in particular. I cleansed my mind of those female non-split jaw elites immediately. And besides, didn't Halo 3 female elites look about the same as the male ones? Not flat-faced at all.
The female elite was in The Duel.

Prototype was okay (lol melodrama)
The Package was okay (lol Halsey)
The Duel was just plain bad
Homecoming I really like, but the animation is awful
Origins is great and easily the best part of Legends
The Babysitter could have been decent but has too much dumb shit in it
Odd One Out is fun and silly

[t3h m00kz]

Fuck Origins BTW. Some of the videos were really bad, but fuck that one in particular. I cleansed my mind of those female non-split jaw elites immediately. And besides, didn't Halo 3 female elites look about the same as the male ones? Not flat-faced at all.

Hilariously enough people were complaining that the female Elite design in The Duel would promote more 34 of female elites because they gave them boobs or some stupid shit like that. Too bad the overall design was fugly as shit!!

[Amit]

When I think of females, I think of not having boobs. I don't know why, but that's just me.

[t3h m00kz]

Because reptiles would not have boobs.

[Bobblehob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K56gSEJ6IGc&amp;feature=g-all-lik


:iia:


Edit: Watch out for a special guest appearence at 5:03. Franky you sneaky bastard...

[TeeKup]

Really Franky...really...

[DarkHalo003]

I actually thought Origins was one of the only decent things to come out of Legends. Prototype remains my favorite, the Mark 3 suit was fucking intense.
I agree. I thought Legends was pretty good all around as far as entertainment was concerned. But my favorites have to be Origins, Prototype, The Babysitter, and Spartan 1337 (because it was amusing). I skipped most of the Arbiter one though, only because it was so dramatic and kind of weird in the bad way.

[TeeKup]

Duel was just really stupid all around.

[DarkHalo003]

AAAAAAAND FRAAAAAAAANKYYYYYYYYY.....as the janitor....LOL.

That was a really good episode too. Acting was good, scenes were good, and in general everything is looking exciting. I honestly am greatly anticipating the next episode.

[Zeph]

Forward Until Dawn: HIGHSCHOOL IN THE YEAR 2500!
This series isn't Halo.

[Bobblehob]

Forward Until Dawn: HIGHSCHOOL IN THE YEAR 2500!
This series isn't Halo.

How the hell is it not?

[BobtheGreatII]

I like it so far.



This series isn't Halo.
I don't see how "This series isn't Halo" means anything. Define Halo? And remember, this is no longer Bungie's Halo. 343i has full
control, and as much as that sucks, we have to adjust to their vision of Halo. Not Bungie's.

[Zeph]

So far, it's been a bunch of spoiled kids who are angsty that their parents or superiors dont see how awesome they really are. Yeah, it has props that resemble things from Halo and the CG cutaways resemble things from Halo but that's about it.

[Bobblehob]

So far, it's been a bunch of spoiled kids who are angsty that their parents or superiors dont see how awesome they really are. Yeah, it has props that resemble things from Halo and the CG cutaways resemble things from Halo but that's about it.

Is that really all that you have gotten out of it so far? Im pretty sure that the main character isn't frustrated by the fact that his superiors don't see how awesome he is, Its more like he is frustrated because he doesn't agree with what he is being trained to fight for, and that he is always being overshadowed by the fact that he has to fill the shoes of his older sibling. Did you actually try to understand what was happening?

[DarkHalo003]

It's also only episode 2 Zeph so stop being :mech: and stop doing :dramabomb:.

[Kornman00]

It echos that live action short for H3 that Neil B. or w/e did...so yeah. It's a Halo live action film at any rate IMO.

[Warsaw]

I like it so far.


I don't see how "This series isn't Halo" means anything. Define Halo? And remember, this is no longer Bungie's Halo. 343i has full
control, and as much as that sucks, we have to adjust to their vision of Halo. Not Bungie's.

I think it should have been written more like the books, personally, but this still has my interest.

[NotZac]

05S3eMBPaHw
Still no Covy structure palette >:|

[annihilation]

Because covenant structures are too curvy. If you look at Covenant structures you will notice how it's mostly seamless and in one piece. The items would have to be very limited in order for it not to look like shit.

[NotZac]

There still needs to be some kind of break-away from all this grey/white nonsense though.

[Bobblehob]

That underground area, the cave, looks incredible, especially the water portion.

[annihilation]

own3d.tv/elevatorsource

[nuttyyayap]

Looks pretty good so far...

[Cagerrin]

Guess that first map was built for Waterworks?

[Higuy]

Yep, halo 4 using pre-rendered cinematics = :suicide:

[Btcc22]

Yep, halo 4 using pre-rendered cinematics = :suicide:

...and I remember people complaining about Halo 1's lack of pre-rendered cinematics.

[Spartan094]

My eyes burn from seeing the halo 4 ending, fuck.

[=sw=warlord]

Link?

[Spartan094]

You will be warned, it isn't down yet. I just said it burns my eyes cause I didn't want to see it but I did.
5nzH1ALDt-o

[Zeph]

Say as you want, the Halo 2 cliffhanger from a horrible dev cycle at least gave a proper sense of adventure leading up to the next game. Halo 3 finished things properly, but at least gave you enough questions amidst the closure to keep thinking. ODST expanded what we knew while still giving us more questions to think about. Reach was tightly packaged as a finished piece when you look at it from an action perspective, but visually there were plenty of things to keep you wondering how deep the rabbit hole went (dead spartans in last mission for example).

I was worried there for a bit that there'd be some sort of stupid cliffhanger or something leading up to Halo 5 for rabid fanboys to drool over and continue to talk about how awesome 343i is. Can't say I'm a fan of introspective character development in video games. That shit is usually left to books for a reason. Yeah, they dumbed it down to MC looking out a window, but they're going to catapult with it in Halo 5. 343 weren't kidding when they said they wanted a story with the chief and not a story where the chief is in it. Seems like it's a linear first person mass effect to me. As for the "boss fight" there, I think it's funny that the big scary boss snuck up on the MC by floating down when the MC has a motion tracker that would be able to detect that. 343i is retconning old stable lore while ignoring the shit they keep and make use of. This is probably the worst case of, "hurry [player character], we've got to [go push that button to save the day]," syndrome I've ever seen.

[DarkHalo003]

Yep, halo 4 using pre-rendered cinematics = :suicide:
Weren't Halo3's cinematics pre-rendered?

[BobtheGreatII]

Weren't Halo3's cinematics pre-rendered?

No. Bungie never used pre-rendered cinematics.

[annihilation]

343i what the fuck are you doing to MC





http://oi47.tinypic.com/28a8b4l.jpg[/IMG]

Also, RAGE had a better ending

[Amit]

Despicable

[DarkHalo003]

No. Bungie never used pre-rendered cinematics.
Huh. What exactly is pre-rendered?

[Siliconmaster]

Bungie's games used matte paintings and visual cheats to make huge environments like the space battle above the Ark and the shots of the Chief's pelican flying over the burning plains after the Cortana level. A pre-rendered cutscene would be like the stuff in Halo Wars, where it's all CG and not done in real time, but rather in a 3d engine. It's a video playing, rather than a true cutscene. The upside is that they can theoretically do effects that rival the ones in the engine, but at this point there's really no excuse for that since game engines are really damned good looking. Personally I prefer in-game cutscenes because they keep the flow the same. The pre-rendered cutscene at the end of Crysis 2 bugged the hell out of me because my graphics settings were actually better than the ones they rendered their cutscene at, so it looked washed out and low res, defeating the entire purpose.

[=sw=warlord]

Huh. What exactly is pre-rendered?
Pre-rendered is video that has been rendered previous and not shown as it is rendered ingame.
CGI in movies is pre-rendered, cutscenes in Halo CE through to Halo 3 were rendered on the fly by the xbox.


/ninja'd

[Siliconmaster]

Haha sorry warlord

[Higuy]

TL:DR Halo 4:

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/554/facepalm.jpg

[DarkHalo003]

I do want to remind you guys, bad features don't exactly rule out the good features. Gameplay is hopefully solid and honestly I'm looking forward more to the gameplay than the actual story. I also can't wait to kick the shit out of all of you with the Covenant Carbine. Just saying suckers, it's been 5 years since the Carbine was struggling for power. It has returned.

[annihilation]

The gameplay gets really stale after awhile. hth

The soundtrack is also noticeably terrible. So bad that it actually ruins some parts of the game. They didn't even try to make it sound like something from Halo despite having access to parts of the former Halo soundtracks.

E: I'm sorry, I personally hate this game. I hope you enjoy it though.

[DarkHalo003]

The gameplay gets really stale after awhile. hth

The soundtrack is also noticeably terrible. So bad that it actually ruins some parts of the game. They didn't even try to make it sound like something from Halo despite having access to parts of the former Halo soundtracks.

E: I'm sorry, I personally hate this game. I hope you enjoy it though.
Singleplayer or Multiplayer? I could understand either way. I guess we'll find out soon.

[Kornman00]

They obviously didn't put some of these campaign missions through play testing

[Timo]

The warthog sounds like a goddamn dragster

[Zeph]

They obviously didn't put some of these campaign missions through play testing
Yeah they did. All plot progression points were thoroughly tested.

[=sw=warlord]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo6cpsOYHmM

[Zeph]

I can understand why they used prerendered for stuff like the prologue, but it was wasted in the eplogue. At first I thought it was live action until I saw Halsey's lip synching.

[Kornman00]

Heh

http://www.richardsphoto.com/images/forums/breaking_spartan2_small.jpg
http://www.richardsphoto.com/images/forums/breaking_covies2_small.jpg

Source (http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=1157927)

[DarkHalo003]

I lol'd.

[Warsaw]

Lol'ing at how the only comment is somebody criticizing for not having the SMG's fore-grip extended. Reminds me of a certain website I can't quite put my finger on...

[BobtheGreatII]

Lol'ing at how the only comment is somebody criticizing for not having the SMG's fore-grip extended. Reminds me of a certain website I can't quite put my finger on...

I think it's pronounced Mod-a-city. :realsmug:

[itszutak]

I think it's pronounced Mod-a-city. :realsmug:I thought it rhymes with "audacity"?

[ODX]

Fuck you and your "how do I pronounce this:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmOoGucyMNg

I am so fucking excited for this game now. Sure some stuff is like "what the fuck? (Mantis)" but this game is still going to be fun as hell and there's so much to it there's definitely something for everyone.

[DarkHalo003]

^

I can't wait. There's a lot of anticipation that goes with it. I haven't played a lot of Halo since I left for my second year at college (or for you foreigners, university) and it will be nice to finally have that gameplay back. I think now we'll see a lot of that customization that we've all wanted in the primary Halo platform. It may not be on PC, but I don't honestly think that's a bad thing. Everyone knows Halo as the kingpin of shooters on Console, whether they're fans, CoD jocks, or PC users. I simply am looking forward to the fun I'll have with this game and that nice feeling that we know as Halo gameplay.

Also, the Mona Lisa Series from Evolutions is resumed and at number 10 now. I encourage everyone to go watch as it was one of the best stories in Evolutions.

[ThePlague]

Yeah i'm trying to scrounge together an xbox just for this game. With hope I will have one :D

[Kornman00]

As far as campaign goes, IMO, you can't go into it expecting anything like that of previous games. Else you're setting your experience up for failure. You really have to treat is as if this was the first time playing Halo.

[Warsaw]

But is it still good even if you do that?

[Bobblehob]

But is it still good even if you do that?

3 more weeks, and we shall see :P

[Kornman00]

It's entertaining, yes (albeit, I haven't finished the game just yet). Fucking different, that's for sure. 343i switched to using Havok Animation and AI for Halo4 and Wwise for sound, where Bungie rolled with their own developed tech. I don't know if it's the TV I'm playing on (using HDMI, so...) or what, but the music barely feels like it's there (did any of the previous Halo games provide a volume setting for music/dialogue?), and the same goes for the some of the character dialogue.

I'll say this much...if 343i itself were to be the ones to work on Halo Wars 2, I would be very hesitant to get excited. I want a sequel to fucking Halo Wars, not 200+ people 343i does Halo Wars.

I'd really like to see a competent gamer who has never played previous Halo games play Halo4 for a few weeks, then go back and play all the Bungie games and see what they turn around and say.

Oh and 10 of the 13 MP maps in Halo4 were developed by Certain Affinity if the file name prefixes are of any meaning.

[Cortexian]

Based on the direction and the ideas behind the Forward Unto Dawn series, in addition to the pre-rendered cut scenes that we've seen in Halo 4 and Halo Wars... There needs to just be a TV series for Halo instead of Halo 5 and 6.

Microsoft contract HBO to make a TV series with their seemingly infinite budgets. Thanks.

I just want to see some side stories where the Chief pops in at certain points while he's doing stuff from the game(s). Everything from the inception of the program in the insurrectionist time period, to the post-covenant invasion. It doesn't even need to follow ONE main individual, it could flow between individuals and different stories to culminate in something awesome (see: A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones).

[Amit]

Oh and 10 of the 13 MP maps in Halo4 were developed by Certain Affinity if the file name prefixes are of any meaning.

Not surprising considering they helped with HA10, Halo 4 Forge mode, and created maps for Halo 2, CoD:WaW, and BlackFlops.


Microsoft contract HBO to make a TV series with their seemingly infinite budgets. Thanks.

Game of Thrones has to scrounge money in order to afford special effects.

[Tnnaas]

You really have to treat is as if this was the first time playing Halo.
I'm going to owe 343i a lot of cake.

[DarkHalo003]

A write-up from a dude who spent a fucking long time at NYCC's Halo 4 playing.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43184685&postcount=9801

Really good write-up from the looks of it. I'm sad he didn't get to give impressions of the Carbine though. He does say that Ammo is very scarce at times and that the Banshee is basically no longer a game-winner, but still a way to stay ahead. AKA it's balanced now. I do want to say that peope are going to WHINE about armor abilities and he includes a subtle bit of that in the write-up. Regardless, it'll rock.

[Sanctus]

As long as it's better than Reach I'll give it a shot.

[Arteen]

"Join in progress" is something Halo has been sorely lacking. I also like all this talk about how every player should feel like they're involved. No damn 1-50 ranking system. Dominion sounds a lot like the Halo 4 analogue of Invasion.

[DarkHalo003]

"Join in progress" is something Halo has been sorely lacking. I also like all this talk about how every player should feel like they're involved. No damn 1-50 ranking system. Dominion sounds a lot like the Halo 4 analogue of Invasion.
I agree with these. I'm glad 343i is doing what has needed to be done for Halo since Halo 3 in terms of bringing it to the modern demands of FPS shooters in these aspects. I feel Halo: Reach was a needed stepping stone for this process: it showed what worked, what worked well, and what was too weak to continue working.

Dominion reminded me of a BTB that doesn't have Identity Dissociative Disorder. It features that true-scaled BTB matches we haven't seen since Halo 2. Halo 3 BTB was alright, but it was always shrouded in controversies like BR Starts and relatively Arena-styled maps until the end of the game's DLC with the Sidewinder remake and Sandbox. Then you have Halo Reach with it's wavering attempts at recalling that same gametype, but that was relatively wishwashy because Reach is such a different game in comparison with its armor abilities, different weapons, and fragile vehicles. It never really felt like a BTB mainly because the fighting was more like skirmishes between a couple or few players at different locations. You needed a team to win, but it really didn't feel that team-like most of the time. Objective games were always skeptical and a bit confusing depending on how many explosions were going. You also had Invasion which took that step to a greater sense of self and most of the objectives were clear cut (not to mention the shenanigan threshold was ridiculous). In comparison, Dominion looks like a BTB with that same sense of self that Invasion had with the diverse intentions that Reach's BTB simply could not maintain.

[Btcc22]

"Join in progress" is something Halo has been sorely lacking. I also like all this talk about how every player should feel like they're involved. No damn 1-50 ranking system. Dominion sounds a lot like the Halo 4 analogue of Invasion.

Reserving judgement on this.

My concern was the possibility of waiting several minutes for a game only to be dumped in a stacked game where you have absolutely no chance of winning. Games with a heavy focus on stats and shiny medals seem to increase instances of rage quitting and stacked teams; see BF3 et al where 90% of the time joining a pub would land you in a stacked server with no chance of winning the next ten games. I've been told that they've considered this and implemented safe-guards but we'll see.


You also had Invasion which took that step to a greater sense of self and most of the objectives were clear cut (not to mention the shenanigan threshold was ridiculous).

Invasion had real potential but it felt like an afterthought. Unreal Tournament's assault maps played out like a multiplayer campaign whereas Invasion just felt like BTB with waypoints. It didn't really help that Reach had the worst vehicular combat of the series.

[Arteen]

Invasion had so many little problems that Bungie couldn't be arsed to fix. Awful, campable spawns. Players get royally screwed when their battlebro quits. Teammate indicators disappear behind obstructions. Awfully balanced maps. Phase one blows as the offense. Only two maps with no variations. Complete lack of support and updates too. The only time Bungie ever supported the gametype was during the beta, when they removed DMR spawns from the phase one defense loadouts.

I was a huge fan of BTB in Halo 3, and Invasion was the closest playlist to that in Reach (Reach's actual BTB playlist was awful until 343i took over). I had a lot of fun with it for a while, but the flaws just add up and make it an unbearable experience. All of these problems are mindlessly easy to fix but Bungie never bothered.

[Pooky]

Don't forget that Elites never got remotely usable weapons on invasion slayer gametypes. Invasion slayer on Hemorrhage, a wide open map. Spartans start with Pistols, Elites get... Plasma Pistols. Invasion Slayer on Paradiso was the worst gametype in the history of Halo.

[TeeKup]

Paradiso in of itself was an abomination. Exile and Longbow look genuinely fun. I expect the story to be utter crap. but multiplayer looks like it has a lot of potential.

[Masterz1337]

Just want to say, I've had the game, and I absolutely loved the campaign. Some of you may have issue with the story, but It was some of the most fun I've had in any Halo campaign. I also got to play all the way up to last mission of Spartan Ops of week 3, and I think SPOPS is a the real gem of this game. The sandbox gameplay and encounters and environments are amazing, but the Campaign is restricted in what types of combat scenarios it can put you in due to story and pacing and such.

SPOPS is all about the cool encounters they could do, but can't justify in Campaign. One mission was all about hogs vs vehicles, one was like firefight, one was like 343 GS, one as like the exterior of T&R, another was like the start of the covenant, another was like the first part of the ark and then tank combat, another took place on the complex mp map and valhalla. For the complex map, it was really cool as you could capture points to get guns online, which would then clear the skys of the banshees that were after you. In valhalla they made a story about the map, where you have to save the marines from the pelican, then take out a makeshift covie camp, and then acess a base. Then defend it with frickin Manti (which aren't overpowered at all btw).

MP is fun as well, but it's much faster paced, and all I played was infinity slayer. I'll do a more in depth review later, but unless your a hater (which is about 80% of this forum), I think you'll agree it's one of the best Halo games in the series.

[Masterz1337]

I got bored


Halo 4 Review

Campaign: Where to start here, well I will say I enjoyed this campaign more so than any other games. I will admit I was a but worried when I started, The first mission is really cool and fun, but also short and has many elements where it is linear and trying to set a mood and atmosphere, with scripted sequences. It took me about 20-30 minutes to beat. Then the second mission started, and I began to wonder more about this game. The second mission is about exploring the planet, and just general wandering, it's not to different than the mission Halo in H1, without the marines. Parts of it were repedative, and I began to really worry. Then came mission 3, which blew my mind. Promethians, Covenant, an amazing cutscene at the end that had me "oh shit oh shit oh shit." Then came mission 4, which I just recently replayed on legendary. This might be my favorite mission out of any halo game. It's the E3 mission, although the events of the E3 demo are simply of that of a demo, and not the actual level. Anyway, it goes from wandering in the jungle, to fighting alongside marines, to fighting covies and promethians as a unified force, to tank combat, to mantis combat. For those concerned about the mantis, let me say it's awesome, and not overpowered. Think of it as a less powerful, slower, weaker tank, but with a smaller footprint, higher firing point, and can be used by one person. Anyway, by the time I was done with this mission, I was sold on 343's design. The rest of the missions are all very good, although I did have a problem with the last 2. One is similar to a mission earlier in the game, and the last one while really cool, does not try to encompass everything the game has been about.


In all levels, except Dawn, the environments are incredibly open. There are so many ways of going through encounters, even on legendary. On my third play through of some missions, I was still finding new areas and ways to attack through exploration. I really feel I'm on another planet, exploring these huge natural environments. Halo hasn't had a more open environment since H1, and this is even more open. The gameplay is fantastic too. Even on legendary, your enemies are tough but never unfair. Your deaths are a result of your actions, not unfair AI. If you are dying, change your tactic, don't hate the game hate the player. Anyway, the enemies and weapons are all great, I'll go into more detail later.


What I do want to note, because it is important, is that the Campaign does a great job of telling the story 343 wanted to tell. Some people may have an issue with the story and the way it's told, but unlike every game since H2, this HAS a story. Some of the melodrama between the Chief and Cortana made me roll my eyes, but this new perspective for them is so much better than the old bungie way. The chief feels like a character, which I really loved. The missions suited the story well, as the missions conformed to the story, unlike reach where it was a bunch of mission ideas with a story shoehorned into them. One of my big problems with H2, comes back in H4. Because the story is so specific in locations and situations, there are levels where the entire game sandbox is not available. However, there are lots of cool things in campaign that could have been done with the sandbox they have, but weren't done. And this is where Spartan Ops comes in.


Spartan Ops.


I love single player, I love spartan ops (SPOPS). I was able up to play till chapter 4 episode 3, until I could no longer sign into XBL which is required to play. Let me first say what I don't like about SPOPS.



Infinite live: When you die when playing with others or yourself, you always respawn at the last checkpoint, but the enemies don't reset. Basically, you could throw your team at the enemy until you win, rather than have to be careful. IDK how the point system works, but I assume you don't get as much points to your next rank the more you die. Eventually, I began to embrace infinite lives and respawns. the truth is, it's annoying when you have to restart from the last checkpoint and all the enemies respawn. Most of the time when I die, I think "shit, I can't do it that way" and now I can go back to the encounter the way I left it, and try a new strategy. When the enemies reset like in regular campaign, you have to go through all the motions to get back to where you were before. This is after all, the Firefight replacement, and I can see why they made it work this way. however, onto point 2.
No skulls!!! I wanted to turn iron on, but I couldn't. Also, even on legendary, they may become to easy with 4 players. I just wish this was an option.
The game has no Brutes, Buggers, Engineers, or Skirmishers. Not a big deal for the main campaign, but when you consider by the end of season 1, you will have 50 chapters, each at a minimum of 10 minutes a piece. I think there could have a place for these enemies, especially if we get 2 more seasons, bringing us up to over 1500 minutes of SPOPS campaign. Maybe they'll show up in later seasons? If so I'll be happy.


Other than those 3 things, it's amazing. On my own, they took about 10-20 minutes to beat. The majority of these are new environments, specificly for SPOPS.. They are "forged" for different missions, to give them different twists and to open up new areas, which at first I kind of groaned at, but I still had lots of fun and they seemed fresh each time I revisited. MP maps also are featured (I played on Valhalla and Complex in some missions), and one was recycled from SP. The SP area was great, didn't even realize it was from SP until I played that mission again, and the complex mission was fantastic too, as I ran around the map, I activated auto turrets that actually cleared the banshees out of the sky that I'd been avoiding. The valahalla missions… well they were cool, but I had a lot of trouble on them. At one point I had to go up against 4 hunters all by myself, which was a total pain in the ass. However, I can see it being fun with 2 or more players, which is what it was designed for. Of the missions I played, one was firefightish, one was heavily reminiscent of the Truth and Reconcilliation exterior from H1, one was like the Ark from H3, and one was like 343 GS from H1.


If campaign is about telling a story, this is about showing all the different kinds of encounters and missions can be achieved with this game. I think there is a lot of potential here, and I would gladly pay 30-40 dollars for extra seasons. If each weeks missions take about an hour to beat, and theres 10 per week, you're getting a 10 hour set of campaign style action, which is longer than any halo's campaign since H2. In fact, it would be 2 hours longer than H4 itself which took me 8 hours on heroic to beat. Anyway, I hope they realize the potential for fun for the players, and the potential for them to make a lot of money.


Another thing I loved was using your custom spartan. The perks and Loadouts are fantastic. It's really cool to have your Spartan prepped for your play style. I found overall in the game, ammo to be in short supply, so I changed my max ammo counts through a perk, and also improved my shielding. Add in some promethium vision so I can quickly find targets to use my DMR on, and I was a happy player. This addressed one of my problems with Campaign, which was the lack of human weapons in certain missions and the max ammo you could cary.


Multiplayer


I only got to play a bit of Infinity Slayer, but it plays a lot like h3, but faster paced. I don't want to draw any conclusions, as I think it takes a while to see the flaws in the MP in any halo game. I had fun playing it, and I think it's a good evolution of Halo's gameplay.

There does seem to be lots of power weapons in infinity slayer, but I also played on small maps where the LMG, Sticky Launcher, and shotgun, and Rail gun are going to be more effective for obvious reasons.


Sandbox stuffs


Vehicles: Nothing new to see here really, except for 2 minor vehicles that I don't want to ruin for anyone. But nothing substantial has been added other than the Mantis. There is no falcon or hornet, and the covie's are back to the Ghost, Wraith and Banshee. Vehicles are back to the H3 health system, but are faster like in reach, which makes sense with sprint and so many ways to EMP the vehicles.


Weapons: All awesome. Pistol feels like H1 more than ever, but with minor bloom if you fire to fast and a 8 round clip, AR feels like reach but stronger and less accurate. BR and DMR are fantastic, and for the first time in a Halo game, I enjoyed the carbine. Also, I enjoyed the beam rifle for the first time ever too. It's slightly weaker, but can fire more rounds before overheating at the same ROF as the human sniper, plus it's not as effective against vehicles as the human sniper. Promethian weapons are cool, although I used the surpressor as a weapon of last resort. I miss the PR and the SMG, I think they'd have been great as secondary weapons for the load outs. It sucks I have to start with a DMR and 3 pistol types, unless I use a perk to use the AR. The Storm Rifle is cool, but it seems like a reskin of the AR with slower projectiles and heat instead of ammo. It's slightly effective against shield. Boltshot I like a lot, you can use it for lots of head shots real quick like the H2 magnum, and the shotgun bast from it can be a life saver against a Knight, or a Watcher trying to revive one. The shotgun is now slower to fire and more powerful, while the Scattershot is faster firing and has more range, at the cost of less damage. I was disappointed by the light rifle, the burst is so quick you may as well be shooting single shots. It's still useful and cool though.


If anyone has any other questions, I'll be happy to answer and integrate them into this review. Also for anyone wondering, I have already paid for my full game, and will be picking it up midnight at launch.

[Cortexian]

When are we getting Halo 4 CE from CMT?

plz stop slacking Masterz.

[Masterz1337]

Actually, the majority of the weapons are pretty close in behavior to ours, I felt quite at home and it didn't take me long at all the adjust to the weapons both CMT and H4 shared.

[Cortexian]

Yeah it ain't bad, I played a bit of mulitplayer at PAX for about 30 minutes and it seemed fun.

Would still be better on PC, and I won't be buying it anywhere near release, but yeah.

[Kornman00]

I haven't been able to play SPOS yet, and I must say, if there are no skull options then someone at 343i needs to get their head out of their ass. You can't tell me there weren't that many players in ODST/Reach who played FF for the use of skulls, or who got extended enjoyment out of FF because of the use of skulls.

Also, no falcons, or any multiperson air carrier, in MP is teh lame.

[Tnnaas]

Include any vehicle that appears in campaign into Forge, please.

I wanna fly my pelican in spaaaaaaaaaaaaace!

[Masterz1337]

The 3 hogs, tank, Mantis, ghost, banshee, wraith

[thehoodedsmack]

Theatre-mode is still in this game, right? They didn't take that away? Furthermore, does anyone know if the pan-cam function can still be accessed?

[Kornman00]

Theatre mode is still there for "Infinity" games (that's where it shows up at least). Not sure about campaign

[Tnnaas]

I'm pretty sure they'll leave theater mode in for everything. It would be hard to remove it without having the entire Machinima community running at them with pitchforks and torches.

Pan-cam should still remain, I believe. It may be underused, but it is a really useful tool for the avid in-game film maker.

[Pooky]

Bloom, again?

:saddowns:

[leorimolo]

Theatre mode is still there for "Infinity" games (that's where it shows up at least). Not sure about campaign
No theater for campaign, waiting to see if they atleast left a devcam.

[thehoodedsmack]

No theater for campaign, waiting to see if they atleast left a devcam.

Amazing.

[Kornman00]

Sorry, but all these new features can't replace the old ones they're killing off

[Masterz1337]

SP really pushes the hardware, theres like 24 bsps for Dawn and the map is like 30 minutes long. Also, I've noticed how often the collect garbage, sometimes things will be deleted before you leave the room, quite annoying but still doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game. Perhaps with all the BSP switching they had problems with letting you run around with the camera in SP Theater.

[leorimolo]

SP really pushes the hardware, theres like 24 bsps for Dawn and the map is like 30 minutes long. Also, I've noticed how often the collect garbage, sometimes things will be deleted before you leave the room, quite annoying but still doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game. Perhaps with all the BSP switching they had problems with letting you run around with the camera in SP Theater.
Also draw distance was significantly cut, like I played it through on splitscreen first time through and I really couldn't enjoy the game correctly. Everything looked SO bad. I'm playing it with a friend over syslink now and it really looks glorious.

[Sanctus]

Bloom, again?

:saddowns:

I'd honestly be surprised if it wasn't in the game. I don't think it will be going away any time soon unfortunately.

[Tnnaas]

If I play four-screen multiplayer I better have a 120 degree field of view.

I'll be in a really meeeeeeeean mood if I don't!

[leorimolo]

If I play four-screen multiplayer I better have a 120 degree field of view.

I'll be in a really meeeeeeeean mood if I don't!
I'm pretty sure you don't, I was playing splitscreen and it felt tiny as hell even on 1080p

[Kornman00]

The ending was pretty bland. The CGI run after the credits helped, but the overall end was very 'meh'. Won't be playing again (and thus, won't be seeing the legendary ending) until the game launches to the world.

SP really pushes the hardware, theres like 24 bsps for Dawn and the map is like 30 minutes long. Also, I've noticed how often the collect garbage, sometimes things will be deleted before you leave the room, quite annoying but still doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the game. Perhaps with all the BSP switching they had problems with letting you run around with the camera in SP Theater.
Just because they have that many bsps doesn't mean they're pushing the hardware.

I just did some game state comparisons. In Reach, the object memory pool had a little bit more than 1.6MB of space. In Halo4 they added exactly 1MB more, so it's a little more than 2.6MB.

In Reach, the starting biped allocation is 6,464bytes. This doesn't take into account the node matrices (which is variable on the actual node count) and any other additional blocks they may have to append to the object in the memory pool. In Halo4, the object type sizes have exploded. The starting biped allocation is 9,848bytes.

The base "object" type itself (the base of all other types in the game) went from 424bytes to 1,136bytes, that's a 2.6x increase.

Unlike tags, they don't plan out the memory layout of their game state data, so they can easily explode their data structures with compiler-generated padding.

If they did internships, this is the kind of stuff I would have looked into for them (along with making sure they didn't ship with more debug data than they needed), even if I had to do it in my free time, as I question whether any of their engineers do already (or have the time).

Also, apparently they're using RAD's Granny somewhere in the engine, or in the production of the game at least. Which makes me scratch my head because they licensed Havok Animation for the game as well.

[ThePlague]

Check it:
3050

[DarkHalo003]

I want to go to the store so much to grab a package of it. Like, seriously, I just want to go to the store to get only that.

[Amit]

What's so good about this game fuel besides the fact that it tastes better than normal MD.

[t3h m00kz]

It's delicious and I need some for my ridiculous Halo shrine.

[Masterz1337]

You get more EXP the more Game Fuel and doritos you eat. A lot of us are going to get diabetes.

[Ki11a_FTW]

Damn. My birthday is a couple of days before Halo 4. I know what I'll be getting.

[t3h m00kz]

Not halo 4.

[Ki11a_FTW]

Nope, the doritos and game fuel.

[Masterz1337]

Just beat game on legendary, I think a lot of you are going to be put off by the overall ending. Kind of overly melodramatic, anti climatic, involves a quick time scene, and is unbelievable and doesn't make the most sense. That said, after beating it on legendary its still the most fun i've had in a campaign, despite a few bumps in the story. However, I still prefer the story in this one to the other games, despite it's faults.

[Timo]

Watching a bit of gameplay the other day, the environments looked damn amazing, but the sounds were average. It was via a webcam though, speakers might do it a bit more justice.

[TeeKup]

I've seen a few key cinematics. I can honestly say I'm impressed with the Didact.

I also love how John stands 2 feet taller than these Spartan IV's.

[Timo]

Welp, I really should'nt have opened that spoiler.

[TeeKup]

More like a foot, maybe a foot and a half.

[Masterz1337]

Well there's been pics of him with them since like... E3. The sound I HATED at first, but now I love. It's like gears, where it's best played loud enough that you are totally immersed.

[p0lar_bear]

It's like gears...



Marcus: CONTROL, THIS IS DELTA.
Dom: Something deep and meaningful.
Baird: Something arrogant.
Cole: Something completely irrelevant.
<Cast repeats this ad infinitum every 3 minutes.>


dot

[JackalStomper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUUdhpMJLRE

[DarkHalo003]

^True story.

[Arteen]

Just beat game on legendary, I think a lot of you are going to be put off by the overall ending. Kind of overly melodramatic, anti climatic, involves a quick time scene, and is unbelievable and doesn't make the most sense. That said, after beating it on legendary its still the most fun i've had in a campaign, despite a few bumps in the story. However, I still prefer the story in this one to the other games, despite it's faults.
"Overly melodramatic, anti climatic, and is unbelievable and doesn't make the most sense" sounds just like Reach. Please tell me it's not that bad.

[DarkHalo003]

"Overly melodramatic, anti climatic, and is unbelievable and doesn't make the most sense" sounds just like Reach. Please tell me it's not that bad.
I don't think he means it in the same way as Reach. Reach was anticlimactic in that you went through all of that death-defying shit just to die at the very end of the game anyways. I think he means that it's very Space-Opera and very surreal.

[Higuy]

@Arteen

It's that bad. Perhaps worse, since it dosen't make sense.

[Masterz1337]

No, way better than reach. They just take the chief-cortana relationship to far, and make the chief survive something he shouldn't.

[Higuy]

Perhaps use spoiler tags, Masterz. Even though I find this game to a terrible disgrace to the Halo franchise there are some people here who apperciate the game for what it is and don't want it ruined for them.

[Zeph]

Perhaps use spoiler tags, Masterz. Even though I find this game to a terrible disgrace to the Halo franchise there are some people here who apperciate the game for what it is and don't want it ruined for them.
It's no secret that halo 4 is a MC/cortana love story.
It's also no secret that MC survives shit he shouldn't.

Crash landing on Halo: survived
Glass Cannon to the face on another Halo: survived
Fall from ionosphere: survived
slipspace bomb: survived

[Higuy]

I'm just saying, there is other people here that like to play games without any indication to shit like that, notably the ending.

[thehoodedsmack]

You came to the wrong thread. This forum is now Halo Haters General.

[Amit]

Welp, I really should'nt have opened that spoiler.

Ha, that's what people who actually plan to play the game say. I've never in my life owned an XBOX console so I've never had that problem haha. Can't play it? Might as well wiki/watch cinematics until I can actually play the game at my cousin's house 4 months from now :smith:


I'm just saying, there is other people here that like to play games without any indication to shit like that, notably the ending.

Would it be a spoiler to say that what he said wasn't really a spoiler since it's basically something you should expect from Halo after playing Halo 3?

[Masterz1337]

I don't think it's much of a spoiler, crazy shit happens in every game the chief shouldn't survive.

[Tnnaas]

Halo 5: Buck meetskills Chief.
:mech2:

[Kornman00]

So would confirming that there are no Scarabs in campaign be a spoiler? That anyone cared to not have spoiled? Or would you rather have 343i spoil this fact for you directly?

How do you spoil a spoiled game? TBH, I preferred Reach's campaign more than this.

[Amit]

Well, spoiling causes boiling (anger).

[Dozo]

It's no secret that halo 4 is a MC/cortana love story.
It's also no secret that MC survives shit he shouldn't.

Crash landing on Halo: survived
Glass Cannon to the face on another Halo: survived
Fall from ionosphere: survived
slipspace bomb: survived
30m fall: dead

[Spartan094]

RPALm8JYhZc

[DarkHalo003]

^Fucking sick.

[Dozo]

Was that the H3 grenade and reach AR sounds I heard at 1:45?

[Cortexian]

So I just finished the game, as I stated previously I really enjoyed fighting the Prometheans and their weapons were awesome.

I'm kind of upset that there weren't any real "boss fights". The ending cinematic where you push LT to place grenade was hugely disappointing.

I'm actually kind of glad that they removed Cortana from the main portion of the game now. It was sad to see her come to a close and go into rampancy, and I did feel sorry for both the Chief and her for being separated (possibly forever). Keep in mind that Cortana was probably the closest "friend" that the Chief ever really had, and they already mentioned the sociopathic tenancies of the Spartan II and III candidates. I'm assuming that they ironed out most of the psychological issues with the Spartan IV program since they're way less augmented and drugged up.

Anyhow, I suppose it's possible that Cortana makes a reappearance magically in Halo 5 like she did after her encounter with the gravemind. What I'm really interested in seeing though, is the Chief hopefully overcoming some of his antisocial issues now that he's surrounded by a ton of Spartan IV's and maybe even surviving III's. It would be cool to see him forge new relationships, maybe even a romantic one, with another Spartan. Would also be cool to see Buck and the Chief "saddle up and give 'em hell" together.

[Tnnaas]

Oh man, that ending was genuinely horiffying. The falling bodies were a nice extra detail, but fuck.

[Sanctus]

RPALm8JYhZc
Best trailer yet

E: And I just finished watching episode 3. Holy shit that Elite was terrifying!

[Amit]

Anyone else think the medical officer looks like a slighter older Obama?

EDIT: Just watched the rest of ep.3. OMG OMG OMG, that was epic.

It was so sick when the ODST's dropped and punched out of their HEV pods. The largest problem I had was the super cliche death for Dima. It was painfully obvious she was going to die the second she gets past the guard. I was hoping we wouldn't see any main/supporting character deaths from a mile away. Anyone else weirded out by the Spinter Cell elite? lol

[DarkHalo003]

That episode was fucking great. I think this is a great outlet for Live Halo rather than a Halo movie. I'm nervous about how they represent the Chief and his voice next episode though. I'm one of those people where Steve Dowes MUST be the Chief or it gets annoying, but that's just me.

Also, those were Halo Reach sounds in the trailer. I know my AR sounds. :P
But they do sound alike.

[=sw=warlord]

better version of that trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yipgA3BMgnY

[Tnnaas]

If the VA can pull off Downes well enough, there should be no problem. I think the thing to realize is that the Chief is quite a bit younger though. I mean, at this point in the storyline, he's gotta be what? Late twentys, early to mid thirtys? He's around forty in the Halo games. I wouldn't be too critical if there is some difference in his voice, as long as it sounds plausible.

[DarkHalo003]

Fucking great. I love the monks in the choir still being there, albeit it is different than the ones in the first trilogy. I like how it sounds a lot more personal now, which is good for what 343i is going for, and it definitely makes it a lot more epic. I can't wait for this game and I can't wait for the next Forward Onto Dawn. I'm done with StarCraft2 now and Halo just looks so much cooler every day that goes by, which coming from someone who has dabbled in it for years is quite a feat to still do.

[Cortexian]

For those of you that have played, compare the space scenes from the Halo games to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqIC2B9UVPM

LOL the graphics on consoles are so bad.

[Warsaw]

So would confirming that there are no Scarabs in campaign be a spoiler? That anyone cared to not have spoiled? Or would you rather have 343i spoil this fact for you directly?

How do you spoil a spoiled game? TBH, I preferred Reach's campaign more than this.

GOOD. Scarabs were an abomination to the series. Fun to take down? Yes. Fun to look at and accept their existence? No.

Fake E: Holy what the balls, rep is back...

[Zeph]

GOOD. Scarabs were an abomination to the series. Fun to take down? Yes. Fun to look at and accept their existence? No.

Fake E: Holy what the balls, rep is back...
He's joking. There's two scarab levels.

[Warsaw]

Nooooo.jpg

:saddowns:

[Arteen]

Scarabs were the best part of Halo 3 and I was super disappointed that you couldn't fight them in Reach. Damn you Carter, just let me have one!

[Disaster]

That episode was fucking great. I think this is a great outlet for Live Halo rather than a Halo movie. I'm nervous about how they represent the Chief and his voice next episode though. I'm one of those people where Steve Dowes MUST be the Chief or it gets annoying, but that's just me.

Also, those were Halo Reach sounds in the trailer. I know my AR sounds. :P
But they do sound alike.

The Chief's voice has already been revealed.


http://youtu.be/Ca3Y8Ws3plI?t=2m10s

Skip to 2:15