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

[Timo]

Neat. Can't wait to play it this weekend.

[Donut]

well shit, if it gets pooky's seal of approval, i may actually check this out now.

[Bodzilla]

Finished the Campaign 3 times today. This game is fantastic. Massively better than Reach or H3.
kinda miss Halo's feel, but i'll be dammed if i'm going to play a new game on obsolete hardware.
seriously microsoft suck my fucking cock

[ODX]

If anything, this game really feels like a sequel to Halo 3 but with a bit of Reach. The main thing is that bloom isn't awful and stupid like in Reach though, the graphics are fantastic, and the map design is wonderful. The DMR is fucking god, and BR is good (though I just can't stand the origin) and the rest of the weapons are neat to use.

Oh, and to anyone worrying about the "loadouts, insta-spawning" and all those major changes: don't be angry or afraid, they fit Halo well and truthfully they're a welcome addition.

Again, this is still Halo, and a damn good one at that. I urge everyone to pick it up and see past the "wait what" story, and just enjoy how fuck damn good this multiplayer is.

[Arteen]

Beat the game on heroic. Thoughts:
Plot was nonsense.

Elites are much more fun here than in Reach due to less BS on their part. Grunts and jackals are as they always are. Hunters aren't quite as annoying as they are in Reach, but their FRGs/melees still do too much damage for my tastes. They don't appear too often, at least.

Prometheans just aren't fun to fight. They remind me a lot of the Flood in that respect. They're okay in small doses, and during three-way battles, but not when whole sections of the game are just devoted to them. The crawlers are fine. The flyers are annoying (which seems to be their entire purpose). The knights feel like bullet sponges.

I don't like how you lose your last armor ability if you die in co-op. It sucked in Reach, and it sucks here. Most of the game, it feels like the only choices are the shield and the sentry.

The ghost boosting section was silly.

Pelican section was lame, but it didn't overstay its welcome.

The broadsword section was also lame, and the controls suck ass for it. I had to switch the sticks to southpaw for them to make any sense.

The mantis was actually very fun to use (much better than the mech Gears 3 introduced). Lame that there weren't any other new vehicles. I don't like the banshees in this game.

The levels which are mostly covenant (the early ones) are the most fun. The mammoth level is probably my favorite. Or the one where you go inside the Infinity. I'm not much a fan of the level design in this game though.

After one playthough, I'd put the campaign on par with Halo 2 and Reach (which I think have the weakest campaigns). The covenant are more fun to fight in this, but the prometheans aren't, and the level design is lacking. Hopefully future game reintroduce more of the covenant races (brutes, drones, engineers, skirmishers) and add more promethean enemy classes.

Looking forward to playing spartan ops and multi.

[Limited]

Are cutscenes pausable?

Wait, can you tick a box that avoids joining a game in process when matchmaking?

[Pooky]

The main thing I like about this game's campaign over H3 or Reach is the non linear, open ended approach to combat. Rather than the corridor crawls of the last few games, Halo 4 feels like a return to the big open sandboxes of the first game. There were even a few epic 3 way battles.

As for the plot, it may have been silly but I still enjoyed it. Cortana and the Chief actually have some character development for once, and there were a few parts that were really cool because of that. Also the ending made me sad.

I haven't played multiplayer much, so I can't comment too much on that. I still hate the 2-hit melee and I don't like the new weapon spawning system but whatever. Played a bit of infantry-only slayer and didn't care for that, but Dominion was fantastic. It actually felt closer to H1 multiplayer than anything else has in the last few years. Large, open battlefields with lots of players and lots of vehicles. That's what I play Halo for, not the Lockout style clusterfucks. Moreover, the vehicles actually feel useful and not like papier-mâché deathtraps.

So yeah, I think H4 is the best Halo in a while, even if only for the Campaign.

[thehoodedsmack]

Wait, can you tick a box that avoids joining a game in process when matchmaking?

Good question, needs answering. In addition, are you penalized for leaving a game early?

[Tnnaas]

Customs get -Infinity/10. They didn't bring back VIP.

Or Juggernaut, Assault, ect.

That's it. I'm going to begin laying the groundwork for a new multiplayer-only Halo game FOR THE PC! Unfortunately I can't call it a Halo title, but that won't stop me!
:cheeseargh:

[Pooky]

Juggernaut is basically the same thing as Regicide from what I understand. Assault might be doable through custom gametypes, I'd have to look.

Just played some Big Team with Sanctus. It's confirmed, this game shits all over Reach. The ordnance drop system is actually really well suited for casual games on large maps. It keeps one team from rushing the power weapons and proceeding to steam roll the opposition until they run out of ammo. For anything seriously competitive though, we're going to need maps with fixed weapon spawns.

[Tnnaas]

Why the fuck haven't I played this game yet, then?

And I actually started that document. Needs a name though.

[Limited]

Halo 4 MP is where its at now folks. Fully team of people on friends list :D

[DarkHalo003]

Juggernaut is basically the same thing as Regicide from what I understand. Assault might be doable through custom gametypes, I'd have to look.

Just played some Big Team with Sanctus. It's confirmed, this game shits all over Reach. The ordnance drop system is actually really well suited for casual games on large maps. It keeps one team from rushing the power weapons and proceeding to steam roll the opposition until they run out of ammo. For anything seriously competitive though, we're going to need maps with fixed weapon spawns.
Did you watch MLG Dallas at all? It actually worked pretty well given how fast-paced the game was, yet still kept that great Halo gameplay. The games weren't also as nearly one sided neither, at least until they stopped being entirely objective based. At that point though, it became really who was the better team at getting kills than flag scoring.

[Higuy]

Beat the campaign, played some mp.



Plot was kinda meh, gameplay was better than Reach and Halo 3 ODST at least.

Like Arteen said, Promethean Knights were bullet sponges and kind of annoying to fight.

There was some decent levels throughout the game, and some really not so decent ones, its almost as if they had two very different level designers, were one was good but the other was mediocre.

Last level was terrible, or at least the "boss fight".

I thought actually showing what Forerunners looked like ruined the immersion of the game... I know some people might think it was cool, but I didnt find it that way. For me one of the biggest mysterys of the Halo universe itself was the Forerunners, and expanding on them (and through the novels) really ruined that. It dosent feel as if theres a whole lot left of "big mysterys" after kinda just being like "HERE YA GO DERP"

Cortana dying was also kinda lame, she was an essential character to the series. It was sad seeing her go, but in a way, it was also felt like it was really easy to tell that it was going to happen throughout the entire game. I also felt as if I wasn't "Master Chief" this time around, as he expands on his character so much throughout the game, not only in cutscenes. I felt like I was playing as someone else, and not myself. The immersion was a bit lost there.

[Con]

I went into this game with lower expectations. The promotional material didn't impress me and gave me the impression that this was going to be more Call of Duty than Halo. I thought maybe the SP would be terrible because they focused on MP mostly. I bought it anyway because I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, and I'm glad I did.

I'm not sure why some people are so disappointed with the story. The series has had plenty of WTF moments even since Halo 1. When you're playing a sci-fi series like this you have to suspend your disbelief a bit. Besides, it's a new trilogy so they need to start somewhere. At a lower level, I welcomed the character development and the symbolism of Cortana as the Chief's humanity. Cutscenes are more personal now and you actually care about the characters. Part of this is the improved animation, especially faces, because you can finally take the cutscenes seriously. Speaking of cutscenes, I didn't mind at all that they had some pre-rendered cutscenes. They looked brilliant, even movie-like.

Another thing I didn't mind was the new looks of weapons and vehicles. Ignoring the gear in the Dawn, it's been 4 years since Halo 3 and it makes sense that there are new developments. This gave 343i some room to experiment with the design of things we're so used to, like the Pelican, and I think it turned out great. Something I liked a lot about Halo 1 was it's similarities to the Alien universe, and you definitely get that feeling again in Halo 4. Some of my favourite parts of the campaign were the dark utilitarian corridors of human ships and bases. Aside from human and covie tech, I was also happy with the rest of the visuals like landscapes and skies. There's some definite throwbacks to previous Halo games in the level design, which could have been a little more imaginative (can say that about any Halo game), but was fun overall.

An early turnoff for me was sound design. A lot of the weapons have sounds that do not match their perceived power. The Storm Rifle, for instance felt totally wrong to shoot. I miss the plasma sounds from the previous games because everything sounds the same now. Also the sound of the warthog and sentinels--WTF. I also wish they had been more creative with the weapons. Human, Covie, and Promethean weapons are all just rehashes of each other with different appearances and slight behaviour changes.

The prometheans were not that fun to fight. Like Arteen said, the crawlers feel like the flood from Halo 3 and the Knights are just damage sponges. Nothing interesting happens while you shoot at them. You just keep shooting until their head starts evaporating then you move on. Maybe they're a bit like Halo 2 brutes in that regard. Long promethean sections get tiring. I actually liked the ghost boost section and the broadsword section though. Yeah, sure, they're a bit silly but they help break up the gameplay. For the longsword section there's no reason to be flying through that nonsense after the Didact's ship comes out of slipspace, but just pretend the ship doesn't come out of slipspace until you reach the Composer ;p. I wish there were more warthog sections though, something like Tsavo Highway...

Haven't played MP yet. Don't care about it that much.

Anyway, good game. You should buy it if you haven't already.

[Cortexian]

I feel bad for pro console players that have illusions of skill at a game, especially if the game has a PC version available.

[Tnnaas]

I'm about four missions in and I'm definitely liking it so far.
Still mad about General Grievous hands, but honestly I'm fairly satisfied with the appearance of the Didact. He looks about as ugly as Bear Grylls described and the didn't go completely over the top with him. He reminded me more of Prophet/Alcatraz in a suit of armor from Mass Effect.

Lasky had a decent appearance, but if you didn't watch FUD you would have no understanding about his relationship with the Chief.

Good so far. Still going keeping myself in the dark about the rest of the campaign. Don't want to spoil anything.
And the ghost can strafe. Remember that.

[Bodzilla]

I feel bad for pro console players that have illusions of skill at a game, especially if the game has a PC version available.
has a pc version of this been leaked?

[Zeph]

has a pc version of this been leaked?
Yeah man, hop in on the beta.

Also, the things people are complaining about in retrospect of playing the game are the things I predicted people would bitch about. Give it a month or two and people will be bitching up and down about mp.

[Higuy]

Other thing I fogort to mention was the beautiful soundtrack:

gOtrpTF19_4


It dosent really fit in the origional soundtrack that Martin made, but it fits with Halo 4 itself.

[Cortexian]

has a pc version of this been leaked?
No but I was watching the beginning of a 60 hour Halo 4 fest for a fund-raiser earlier. They guys were really good, something like 103 wins and 5 losses after about 14 hours. Yet watching them play was painful by PC standards, so slow and inaccurate.

[Ryx]

After playing for a few hours, I agree with Con. Weapons sound too much alike. However, when I get into it the tinny sounds still feel like they have some kick; but I used to be able to tell what was shooting at me. Now it's just 'ping ping'. Things are unlocked pretty fast, I'm about 4 hours in and I'm level 18; in another 2 I can unlock all the weapons so that's not too much of a problem. Missing arena and weapons spawns though. AFAIK, even without weapon drops spawns are still wierd. Also, limited playlists. Where is vanilla ffa? The only ffa is Regicide, which is where the leader has bonus points if you kill him and a marker on his head; it's fast paced, but I want some vanilla playlists. Also, doing the campaign on legendary and the third level is a bitch; I keep running out of ammo because of the damn sponges and lack of weapons. Seriously, on the second segment which is ~20 minutes long in legendary, there are no human weapons, no covie weapons, only the bolt pistol and the subduer or whatever the fuck the alien AR is called.

An interesting thing for anyone with the game: start a custom match with the carbine and active camo. Activate camo and shoot carbine. My pain.

Overall though, it's fun. And something must be wrong, because my kd from FFA and team slayer is good... maybe everyone just sucks?

[ODX]

I'm sure later in they will diversify the playlists. They probably just put all the new ones up first (The Infinity Slayers, Dominion, Regicide) so that everyone could experience the new multiplayer of Halo 4, and they could then use the data and feedback to create appropriate playlists for December.

[Ki11a_FTW]

I haven't played this game yet. Only watched the full walkthrough. So far I'm thinking the order of best Halo games is: (best is first)

Halo 1
Halo 3: ODST
Halo 4
Halo 3
Halo Reach
Halo 2

[DarkHalo003]

Other thing I fogort to mention was the beautiful soundtrack:

gOtrpTF19_4


It dosent really fit in the origional soundtrack that Martin IT'S MARTY YOU SCRUB made, but it fits with Halo 4 itself.
After listening to this, I honestly have to say it left a weird sensation. I guess because when you listen to all the recent games done by Michael and Marty, you begin to think "okay, this is Marty's score for Halo." But that score left me really feeling like it's just Halo in the name. No more Marty or Bungie. It's kind of odd in a way, but definitely cool to say the least. I'm glad to say that I'm happy the way the series is headed now and I'm glad 343i didn't take a shit all over it.

My favorite so far because it's so diverse and intense of a score:
npMi1Il2n7w

[PopeAK49]

Halo 1
Halo 4
Halo 2
Halo 3
Halo Reach
Halo 3 ODST (Played only a little bit, not official ranking on my list)

[Ryx]

Official Halo unicorn!

Battle-tested on the rough and tumble streets of downtown Kirkland, Washington,

https://download-ssl.halowaypoint.com/content/waypoint/assets/images/31066ba4aaae4b9faaa6941c0be2f708/2821965-web_preview.png (https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/intel/detail/d5c4bfdd-c707-4b86-bed8-606dba798830/fotus)

[ChemicalFizz]

Damn... I don't remember being this excited for a Halo release since E3 2004 for H2. I'll brb I think I'm finally going to buy myself an Xbox 360.

[PopeAK49]

Damn... I don't remember being this excited for a Halo release since E3 2004 for H2. I'll brb I think I'm finally going to buy myself an Xbox 360.

I've seen people get the Halo 4 special edition Xbox 360. I keep thinking to myself: "Damn, these people are just now getting a 360? In about a year or two, they will probably be getting the xbox 720 for Halo 5 and 6"

But hey, if you make money, then it shouldn't be a problem. :downs:

[Higuy]

My rank:

Halo 1
Halo 2
Halo 3
Halo 4
Halo 3:ODST
Halo Reach

(in order from best to worst)

[Kornman00]

Observations:
* Campaign metagame (scoring) isn't available, but is still in the game code (haven't checked the tag data though)
* Social settings (a la Reach) seem to be stripped from retail
* Arena isn't available, but is still in the game code (haven't checked the tag data though)
* Films for campaign/co-op are gone. My guess is that they couldn't get Havok AI to play deterministically.
* I'm still seeing code data for Invasion
* I'm seeing some code data that hints that they were trying to do clans again

Am I blind or are there no skulls for SPOPs?

The UI is horrible and likes to bug the fuck out. At least Bungie won't be obligated to do a metro ui for their next game!

[Zeph]

Listening through the soundtrack on youtube. I can't figure out how the guy got the job to do the music. The guy can't write properly without a chorus or orchestra. All his 'advanced instruments' do nothing but limit him into a tone, range, and rhythm. He's focused too much on trying to make a noise no one has ever heard of before that he lost sight of what he was doing with it.

[thehoodedsmack]

Some of the music reminds me of Star Wars tracks.

[Arteen]

Damn... I don't remember being this excited for a Halo release since E3 2004 for H2. I'll brb I think I'm finally going to buy myself an Xbox 360.
And you can get Halo 3, ODST, and Wars, which are better games!

Reach is okay too. I just like bitching about it too much.

EDIT: Regarding campaign scoring, I wonder if will be put in with a patch. I was playing some Spartan Ops matchmaking, and noticed in the carnage report that is still shows enemy kill points:
Biggest Kill: Phantom
Points: 2350

Also, any idea how to see saved screenshots on whatever Microsoft's Bungie.net analogue is?

[Limited]

So last night a bunch of people from here and an annoying guy on my friendslist played a good number of games and, agreeing with masters, its the most fun I've had in Halo for a long long time.

They seriously need to add in the option, so you can avoid joining game in progress, it literally breaks the game. I played with Malloy earlier yesterday, we played around 8 games, 6 we joined in progress, which meant we joined a team that had 2 free spots, and unsurprisingly they were getting hammered and sucked balls. It wasnt fun to play at all. The 2 games we were there at the start we won, and we had a lot of fun, and even if we hadnt won, at least we had a genuine shot of winning from the get go.

UI is as bad as when I played it at Eurogamer, it feels like Halo 1, designed solely to work on a tablet. I loved the Reach UI, at first I didnt think I would like it, but the overall look and the easy-of-use was a total win in my books.


One thing I have noticed, the game seems to show a lot less medals on screen, and instead shows text alternatives. I hate this really, I loved seeing all the medals pop up when I achieved that goal, and when I kill someone, or get a spree, it doesnt feel special.

@Arteen, check Waypoint? http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/

[Pooky]

Did you watch MLG Dallas at all? It actually worked pretty well given how fast-paced the game was, yet still kept that great Halo gameplay. The games weren't also as nearly one sided neither, at least until they stopped being entirely objective based. At that point though, it became really who was the better team at getting kills than flag scoring.

No competitive league is going to even consider a game that has such random factors as that. When there's thousands of dollars on the line, nobody wants to fail because they lost the roll of virtual dice and didn't get the ordnance drop they wanted. Fixed weapon spawns are the way to go for any kind of serious competition.


I feel bad for pro console players that have illusions of skill at a game, especially if the game has a PC version available.

Nobody cares.


Yeah man, hop in on the beta.

Also, the things people are complaining about in retrospect of playing the game are the things I predicted people would bitch about. Give it a month or two and people will be bitching up and down about mp.

Yeah, I'm afraid of that. I'm enjoying the MP now, but then it's early on and people haven't unlocked everything yet. The hardlight shield for instance, has been horribly annoying every time I've encountered it.


Observations:
* Campaign metagame (scoring) isn't available, but is still in the game code (haven't checked the tag data though)

This was something I really wanted. Maybe in an update?

[Limited]

There is a XP limit per day by the way, Masters hit it last night. Changing timezone does work, but you may get banned for it .

[DarkHalo003]

No competitive league is going to even consider a game that has such random factors as that. When there's thousands of dollars on the line, nobody wants to fail because they lost the roll of virtual dice and didn't get the ordnance drop they wanted. Fixed weapon spawns are the way to go for any kind of serious competition.

I'll take that as a no....

[Tnnaas]

So basically, the schmucks at 343i broke the game?

Wow, didn't see that coming. :v:

(3)

[Bobblehob]

So far, I am quite impressed with 343's work. I wouldn't rate it the best Halo game ever, but it definitely holds its own. So far my only major gripe with the game is with the colors and particle effects. The color palate when it comes to the covenant is just too dull for me. I like the art and character models, as well as the changes in designs for the most part, but they would have looked much better with some brighter colors.

I know it is nit-picky but the particle effects are something that really bother me. Compared to Reach, they are really pretty gross in this game. The larger explosions, like those when you destroy a phantom, or a wraith, the brightness of the flares, as well as the sprites used for flame and such are very dull color wise. It is especially evident when you look at explosions from weapons like the tank shell, or when a warthog goes off. Also, the larger explosions are lacking in general.

I was hoping for effects like you got when you destroyed a Scarab in H3, or when the Savannah explodes in Reach. The bright lens flares, the solid particles, as well as 3 dimensional rotational effects just made each one very satisfying to watch. In H4 most are very dim, lacking in lens flares, and often use simple sprites that are visibly 2D due to clipping with the bsp.

Impact effects from things like bullets, plasma, and explosions are very inconsistent. Some surfaces don't have visible effects, while others work perfectly. The decals are interesting, especially those that come from bullet impacts on forerunner metal. The level of detail in them though is reduced a fair amount from Reach, some even to an H3 level. They also seem to be missing a lot of the 3d decal effects that were present in Reach, like those that happened when plasma impacts a surface. Some effects do still look quite nice, like those of the promethean weapons, as well as the dissolve effect that the Knights do when you kill them.


For me (Best to worst)
Halo 1
Halo 3 ODST
Halo Reach
Halo 3
Halo 4/Halo 2 equivalent
Halo Wars

[ThePlague]

There is a XP limit per day by the way, Masters hit it last night. Changing timezone does work, but you may get banned for it .What is it? Because I have 14 games of double XP I was going to hammer through today, maybe more if I push my ass to the store and get some more.

[thehoodedsmack]

Having seen all the cutscenes now, I'd say this game has a strong narrative. However, it's built almost entirely on breaking the big rule laid out in every previous game: you don't show Forerunner. Story-wise, it's a huge cop-out. Anyone could have written this.

The first trilogy had a well-connected, if not well-written, functional storyline: In Halo, we found a Halo and fought the Covenant/Flood. In Halo 2, the Covenant found Earth, and the Halo array was revealed to be a seven-ring system, ultimately armed and ready to fire. In Halo 3, we stopped that from happening.

But with this game, I can't see a direction to take,
other than the unimpressive option of having the new villain return with reinforcements (and we've seen that already with Halo 2), which would tie the next two games into the supposed second trilogy they're making. I don't think it's accurate to call it a trilogy if it goes off in some wild other direction from here on, it would make Halo 4 more of an epilogue to the first trilogy, a stand-alone game.

Where do you guys think they could take the story from here that's not completely retarded? I'd suggest spoiler tags since some people may not have finished the campaign.

[Warsaw]

I honestly do not believe that the Flood should have been or even were totally wrapped up with Halo 3. That said, watch them bring the Precursors into the game. :v:



Microsoft, give me the keys to the Halo Bible...I will work magic with it.

[Cortexian]

no give m00kz the keys

[Limited]

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst121232_Decrypting-Section-3---Updating.aspx

[TVTyrant]

no give m00kz the keys
So we can have more Halo furrys?

[Warsaw]

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst121232_Decrypting-Section-3---Updating.aspx

Wait, wait, wait...since when was Forerunner script constructed out of legitimate Germanic runes? I thought it was round and curvy...

[TeeKup]

Already have everything but the Helmet unlocked.

[Arteen]

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/f/3145/p/375771/1925879.aspx

I can access my File Share in-game, but I can’t find it on the Halo Waypoint website.
Web access to your Halo 4 File Share will come online next month. Your in-game File Share, which features 25 slots, is fully functional in the interim.
Lame!

[Pooky]

I'll take that as a no....

Take it however you want. Randomization and competition do not go together.


Symmetrical v. Asymmetrical is immaterial.

What matters is good design philosophy.

THINGS TO CONSIDER:
1. Power Weapon Placement (Moot point in Infinity Slayer, if MLG chooses to use this variant)
2. Pathing Design (How players are visually directed around the map. Defines sight lines)
3. Cover Design (Where are you caught with your pants down and where is safe)

For example, the Halo 3 map High Ground featured an asymmetrical map design that worked nigh flawlessly. Why? Cover and power weapon placement equalized the advantage between spawning on the beach and spawning in the base. (Another good example would be the Zanzibar. Again, asymmetrical)

But I digress.

1. Power Weapon Placement

Probably your biggest concern. A rocket on map means 2-4 free kills in the hands of a skilled player. A shotgun means a team can lock down close quarters. A sniper the opposite. Both the amount of power weapons and their placement greatly effects both player pathing AND gameplay.

There's two big design philosophies here: Centerfuge or Per-team. Centerfuge places the power weapon at a spot equip-distant from either team, meaning there can and will be a fight for it's control. Per-team is exactly what it sounds like: Each team starts with ________ weapon in their base.

Alternatively, you can give one type of power weapon to each team, such as on the Halo:Reach map Pinnacle. (Red to Shotgun and Blue to Rocket) However, as seen on the Pinnacle, a rocket and a shotgun don't really offer the same amount of power. (And anyone with half a brain wouldn't jump through the portal to hand rocket to Red right away)

2.Pathing Design

This concept is closely related to Power Weapon placement. It defines how the players will move through the map, where the hotzones are, and how much cover is available to save your ass.
Before implementing this, you must consider the full spectrum of resources available on your map. Is there a lot of grenades? Close-range weapons? Long-range weapons?
In addition, consider how far each area's line of sight extends. Can I snipe someone on Blue's base from Red's base? That's a design flaw, unless you're intentionally locking down the top of a base. (If the base itself gives some sort of significant advantage)
NOTE: All areas should ideally have AT LEAST 3 entrances. Major areas of your map should not be able to be completely locked down from one entrance/exit.
NOTE: Visual contexts will also subconsciously direct your player. When a blue player comes out of the base, will he take the wide ramp in front of him? Or the small path off to the side? 8/10 times he will bolt for the obvious path: The Ramp. Consider this as you move forward with your design.

3. Cover Design

This concept is tricky. You need to allow players to obtain kills on other players who are OUT OF POSITION. (OOP for short) But, you must also allow for a reasonable margin of recoverable error. In layman's terms: If you're getting shot, is there cover nearby to save your ass?
THis is the #1 thing to consider when actually blocking out your level. Where are the killzones? Where is cover available? How will players use it? You want to encourage smart gameplay and intelligent choices, while not isolating parts of your map as completely useless. (Or unused)
A good trick is to use the Centerfuge method of power weapon placement, but place the power weapon directly in a killzone, be it open or simply a high-traffic area. This will generate PLAYER RISK AND REWARD, presenting an interesting choice to your players. Do I go after the weapon and risk getting killed? Or do I play it safe and wait for someone else to retrieve it?

This is of course only covering Slayer. Other gametypes have a HOST of other things to consider.

http://gamebattles.majorleaguegaming.com/forums/showpost.php?p=43194390&postcount=3

There's an extreme amount of consideration that usually goes into a Halo map and the placement of weapons and objects on it. Map control is the big overarching philosphy of competitive Halo multiplayer. If you can take and hold control of the map and weapons from the other team, you're going to win the game.

Infinity Slayer is the exact opposite of that. Infinity disregards any idea of control in favor of custom loadouts and random weapon drops. That's fine for casual gameplay but again, nobody's going to bet real tournament prize money on the roll of virtual dice.

Disclaimer: I like Infinity Slayer

[Donut]

i agree with you entirely pooky. im curious though, since randomization is bad in competition, how would you make a shotgun? ive seen many times in bad company 2 where a shotgun blast, that normally should kill someone, falls short because of the random spread on the pellets. if you had to address this issue, how would you do so?

E: random (hur hur) question, i know. just an idea ive been kicking around for a while

[Zeph]

But with this game, I can't see a direction to take

Your post there pretty much parallels what I've said they dug themselves into when I heard they were doing a forerunner trilogy.
They've written themselves into a rut and wont be able to get out of it. Everything Forerunner now is DeM. They can not progress plot with it. Forerunner power is now synonymous with human power since it is being explained/explored instead of OH FUCK THE UNIVERSE IS ABOUT TO GET FUCKED SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. Nothing Forerunner tech can do now is consequential.
When I was doing a single player campaign in CE (before I found out that recorded animations were cut :saddown:), I was explaining Forerunner tech as something that was beyond human comprehension. However, the tech was intelligent and able to manifest functionality through the laws of physics we know. Basically, a fancy way of saying stuff like if you point a ship right at the direction of a distant Halo in slipspace (or any Forerunner outpost), it will get pulled out of slipspace right at the Halo far faster than expected.

343 has completely missed out on something along those lines now that they've made the tech consumable (hurf I'm holding a forerunner gun that neatly fits into my hands).

They have a few apparent goals that they'd like to take with this new Halo trilogy.
First, they're here to make money on the next xbox. That's why 343i was so fucking huge for a company that hadn't launched a game yet.
Second, they're Halo fans with their own imagination as to what goes on in Halo. They're out to tell you what they think Master Chief is despite all the lore and all the prior games already doing so. Part one in this kind of thing is inherently to strip him of everything established. In case, it's the awe/wonder of his past and any status/companions he has. Part two in this kind of thing is to throw him in an environment that he's not comfortable with to create unnecessary drama leading to a falling out so they can tell you what he is. Part three shows that he's not a bad guy, he's a good guy all along and not only that but he's the hero most likely giving his life because it is noble and good and noble and they've already shown you what the chief is so there's nothing else to do.
Third, they've got to try and find something to make an identity for themselves. I have a feeling that it will be some kind of expansion to spartan ops setting or something. It will have to have some kind of long term replay ability though.
Fourth, they've got to somehow churn together a long term narrative plot. Since they've brought the gods back, Halo 5 will be the Covenant trying to integrate with their gods. Halo 6, that will not be a desirable thing to end a trilogy with so it'll have to be a rehash of Halo 2's schism and Halo 3's ending.

[Zeph]

Wait, wait, wait...since when was Forerunner script constructed out of legitimate Germanic runes? I thought it was round and curvy...
Gosh, get with the times. This is 343i now, not bungie. None of that old bungie stuff matters anymore.

[Ki11a_FTW]

Now lets think in a different perspective here.. we see the final product from 343. Now if bungie was still in development what direction do you all think the game would head in?
I certainly think it'd be a lot different. Maybe not that much better though, since reach was kinda eh.

E: I feel like bungie would have certainly brought characters such as Arbiter, shipmaster, lordhood. It would have been awesome to have came back to earth and lord hood and cheif meet face to face, lord hood being really suprised, etc. This game cut out all characters previous to this sequal, excluding cortana. It's always good to add new people but.. really? I wanna see these guys again. The game could have also been 3 times better if johnson didn't die in Halo 3.

[Masterz1337]

Zeph you are totally talking out of your ass. Play the fucking game before you continue to criticize. Nearly everything you are saying is extremely subjective, or flat out wrong.

[Warsaw]

Halo 7: Buck meets Johnson's Ghost.

[TeeKup]

Here are the waypoint codes

http://i.imgur.com/BxdPa.png

http://mingcool2000.wix.com/section3-decryption#!codes/cee5

[Higuy]

Zeph you are totally talking out of your ass. Play the fucking game before you continue to criticize. Nearly everything you are saying is extremely subjective, or flat out wrong.

Not really, he's pretty accurate

[thehoodedsmack]

The game could have also been 3 times better if johnson didn't die in Halo 3.

I always thought it would have been great to see Johnson return in Flood-form ala Sarah Kerrigan style.

[Zeph]

Zeph you are totally talking out of your ass. Play the fucking game before you continue to criticize. Nearly everything you are saying is extremely subjective, or flat out wrong.

ITT, I talk about what can happen in the future and you say it's subjective and wrong.
Not like anything like this has happened before cough cough BSG cough cough or will happen again.



See what I did there?

[Bodzilla]

Zeph you are totally talking out of your ass. Play the fucking game before you continue to criticize. Nearly everything you are saying is extremely subjective, or flat out wrong.
Most unbiased guy ever.

no fanboyism here EVER in A BAJIlliON MACRO-YEARS

[Bodzilla]

I always thought it would have been great to see Johnson return in Flood-form ala Sarah Kerrigan style.
my fucking Pants

[Arteen]

More campaign thoughts:
There are three things that bug me about this game that make me hesitant to rank the campaign higher than Reach and Halo 2.

The first is Prometheans, which are the Flood 2.0. Like the flood, they are less enjoyable to fight than the covenant, only fun in small doses, and awful when most of a level is devoted to them. But unlike the flood, they lack an interesting atmosphere. Levels like Sacred Icon, Quarantine Zone, High Charity, Floodgate, etc are awesome. Not particularly fun, but they are intriguing and have a great atmosphere. The prometheans lack the same presence.

Second, I'm not digging the Forerunner architecture. Even in the first game, the Forerunner architecture looks different in each level. This is especially true in Halo 2, and still holds in Halo 3. The Forerunner architecture in Halo 4 is neat, but it all looks samey and purposeless, almost generic. Blah. The overall level design (Forerunner or no) and encounters feel lacking.

Third, there's a lack of enemy variety. On the covenant side, there's elites, grunts, and jackals. Hunters hardly make an appearance. No brutes, skirmishers, drones, or engineers. There weren't many variants in the races either. There were sword elites and sniper jackals, but that was pretty much it. As opposed to something like Brutes, which had the regular soldiers, the jump pack troops, the stalkers and the chieftans. Or helmeted grunts, camo elites, etc. Prometheans had three enemy types, but no sentinels. Some with weapon variety. There aren't enough new, unique weapons.

[Kornman00]

dot

Pretty sure the sentinels are on your side for a reason, what with Prometheans being digitized ancient humans and whatnot who are fighting for the rebellion Didact. The sentinels probably answered to the Librarian's programming. It's surprising we didn't see any Enforcers, though. I mean, Halo has 'em.

I just noticed that the beginning part of Sniper Ally of SPOPs is almost the exact same bsp setup as part of the Reclaimer level (after you leave the mammoth)


Not like anything like this has happened before cough cough BSG cough cough or will happen again.

See what I did there?
Hey, you leave BSG out of this! The next thing you know, fatsters will watch it then claim the Reclaimer trilogy is like the BSG reboot (great), where the original series (in this case Bungie's Halo) was complete crap.

God this fucking UI is horrible.

[=sw=warlord]

Am I the only one wondering why the Didact went through so much effort to get the composer to kill humanity when there was a massive Halo installation right next to it?
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n599/cobby87/100_0343.jpg

[DarkHalo003]

http://rewards.xbox.com/faq/#halo-4

Cool, but disappointing for people like me who have to wait until Christmas and would be playing a great amount of time.

[Zeph]

Hey, you leave BSG out of this! The next thing you know, fatsters will watch it then claim the Reclaimer trilogy is like the BSG reboot (great), where the original series (in this case Bungie's Halo) was complete crap.

God this fucking UI is horrible.

I want to, but when you write the script for your last episode after an idea strikes you while taking a shower the night before production beings, you've already long welcomed this kind of thing.

And I'm not fat; just incredibly atrophied.

[Pooky]

Am I the only one wondering why the Didact went through so much effort to get the composer to kill humanity when there was a massive Halo installation right next to it?

The composer doesn't kill humans, it turns them into Prometheans. With that in mind though, I found the part where he fires the composer at that space station rather odd. I was totally expecting all the scientists to turn into Prometheans so you'd have to fight your way through them to escape the station. That would have given the level a really cool atmosphere. At any rate, firing the Halo array might not even be possible anymore since the Ark was destroyed.

[Tnnaas]

The composer doesn't kill humans, it turns them into Prometheans. With that in mind though, I found the part where he fires the composer at that space station rather odd. I was totally expecting all the scientists to turn into Prometheans so you'd have to fight your way through them to escape the station. That would have given the level a really cool atmosphere. At any rate, firing the Halo array might not even be possible anymore since the Ark was destroyed.
I don't think so. Halos can be individually activated. I assume the Didact himself could've retrieved the index, moved the ring, and fired short-range pulse in the Sol system if he wanted to. He wanted to trap humanity though. Imprison them in the data centers of the Composer, and then use them to raise his own Promethean Knight army.

Anyways, the Ark in Halo 3 is just a manufacturing station. It's designed to build Halos using captured moons or planetoids. And it's not the only one. Sure it can activate them remotely and simultaniously, but it isn't required to activate the installations. Each can be activated manually.

Just pointing that out.

[Arteen]

I got bored, and started looking into ways to make the Halo 4 armor not so awful. Shrink the backpack so he doesn't look like some anime character, then change all of the under-armor to gray so that his armor stands out. It still has a smooth, almost cartoony look to it, but now he looks like an actual person, in actual armor.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/Arteen/lolwut/MarkVI_Gen2_sm.pnghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/Arteen/lolwut/MarkVI_Gen2_fix_sm.png

[Higuy]

inb4 arteen is hired at 343 as lead character design

[t3h m00kz]

bitch better have a beast folio and better have shipped like ten AAA titles.

[PopeAK49]

bitch better have a beast folio and better have shipped like ten AAA titles.

Bitch please. More like 10 AAA Halo Custom Edition Levels.

[DarkHalo003]

Bitch please. More like 10 AAA Halo Custom Edition Levels.
Bitch please. More like 10 Lego sculptures.

[TeeKup]

So Flood remains my favorite gametype. It's just too intense.

[Timo]

Best since Halo 1.

[Pooky]

I don't think so. Halos can be individually activated. I assume the Didact himself could've retrieved the index, moved the ring, and fired short-range pulse in the Sol system if he wanted to. He wanted to trap humanity though. Imprison them in the data centers of the Composer, and then use them to raise his own Promethean Knight army.

Anyways, the Ark in Halo 3 is just a manufacturing station. It's designed to build Halos using captured moons or planetoids. And it's not the only one. Sure it can activate them remotely and simultaniously, but it isn't required to activate the installations. Each can be activated manually.

Just pointing that out.

Yeah but all the Halos are interconnected and the Ark is the hub of all of them. Who knows what effect destroying it would have on the stability of the network. Forerunner tech is ( or was supposed to be ) a mystery vOv

[Arteen]

So, Cortana:
I almost hope she is well and truly dead, and gets replaced in Halo 5. I liked her in Halo 1 and 2 where she felt like a proper partner to the Chief. In Halo 3 and 4, she's not fun anymore, and instead she's an overly emotional, pseudo-love interest damsel in distress.

Of course, she's probably just as dead as the Didact, and will show up again later.

[Tnnaas]

Experimenting with Dominion led to unsatisfyng results. Most maps DO NOT even support the gametype. The default dominion maps do, plus Ragnarok (barely, but I'll explain), and the three forge maps. Ragnarok has everything except ordinance drops supported. So, dominion on Ragnarok would suck to extremes if you tried it.

Forging dominion maps is 100 times easier than invasion. Literally three minutes of setup and easy labeling and you're done with a base.

Also: newfound respect for the hardlight shield. It stops every projectile. Tanks shells just bounce off without draining or knockback. The railgun seems to be the only thing capable of draining juice, but thanks to a long reload time, HLS guy will likely win that fight.

[Higuy]

The multiplayer has been decent so far, better than Reach, perhaps close in comparison to Halo 3. In a way some of the level design from the maps remind me of Halo 2, although not as iconic. I find it somewhat annoying with the weapon placement too - most maps have hardly any weapons placed on them what soever, and when they do the weapon pickups half the time switch to random weapons, even some time just simply gernades.

[ODX]

http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2012/11/08/The-Halo-Bulletin-11812-.aspx

Instead of monthly playlist updates, it's now weekly. SWAT comes back next week.

[Zeph]

Re: Halo 4: Much better than Reach. [edited by jcap] < lol what? ~jcap
Re: Halo 4: Much better than Reach. [edited by nazimod zeph]

what?
lol.

[Amit]

The peasants are rising up. STAMP THEM OUT QUICKLY!

[Limited]

Swat? Hell yes.

Still no news about an option to avoid joining games in progress. Stupid. If they don't add that, I will hate 343. It is literally a game-breaker in my eyes.

[Btcc22]

Swat? Hell yes.

Still no news about an option to avoid joining games in progress. Stupid. If they don't add that, I will hate 343. It is literally a game-breaker in my eyes.

What's wrong with it? Non-Halo 4 player here.

[Kornman00]

Oh yeah, did they not bring back location names in Halo4? In Reach the map variants had support for them (and translations) but I don't think they finished the user interface (I know Bungie was trying to get user support for them)

[thehoodedsmack]

If this game stuck with Reach armor design, and simply adopted the more Halo 3-esque lighting and shaders present in Halo 4, this game would look intensely better.

By the way, having played the game now: more fun that Reach, but still lacking some of the features which made Halo 3 the best experience, in my opinion. ie. Dual-wielding, Elite player-models, fixed weapon-spawns, etc. Also, sad to see some of the old weapons and vehicles fail to return. I'm not saying that you have to put them in the default loadouts or include them in the regular ordnance drop options, but I can't think of a good reason to limit options available in previous games for local or LAN multi-player.

[Limited]

What's wrong with it? Non-Halo 4 player here.
Imagine you join a team, its CTF...the teams are 5 vs 2; and your on the team with 2. The score is 2 - 0 and the other team are camping your base in 2 mantis's. With tons of time left on the clock.

[Btcc22]

Imagine you join a team, its CTF...the teams are 5 vs 2; and your on the team with 2. The score is 2 - 0 and the other team are camping your base in 2 mantis's. With tons of time left on the clock.

Figured that'd happen. =(

[DarkHalo003]

I played the first level of the Singleplayer. From the first level, I can say that this game is going to be fucking awesome. I may be playing more tomorrow too, hopefully multiplayer.

[thehoodedsmack]

Joining mid-game is probably more to compensate for examples like the one I encountered today:

We were playing Slayer on Adrift, 4 vs 4. Then, two guys on the other team quit. We proceeded to gain the lead. Another guy was added to the other team, then another, until it was an even 4 vs 4 again.

I think it's better than games of old, where if two or three people on your team quit, it essentially doomed you to playing out the motions of your inevitable defeat.

I do think it should be an option you can select, though, to join games in progress or not.

[Timo]

I keep getting thrown into laggy 2 v 4 matches :\. Need to be able to filter matchmaking by ping as well.

[ejburke]

Beat the campaign on Normal and thought it was a really good game. Now I've finished the campaign on Legendary and think it's a really great game. That is exactly how I came to love the original.

There's no comparison between this and the other Halo sequels. I might even go as far as to say that this is the best campaign in the entire series. From start to finish, it is so consistently fun -- completely free of the bum levels that have been a recurring feature every other Halo SP.

As for the multiplayer: don't know; don't care. If I play online, it'll be almost exclusively Spartan Ops, which I think captures Halo combat far better than Firefight ever did. You don't (always) sit and camp as you did in FF; you actually move in and take territory.Now that my Legendary run is done, I'm looking forward to more of that.

[Spartan094]

I swear I got killed more times by the Binary Rifle on Legendary then anything else...next to Scattershot.

[t3h m00kz]

you don't fuck around with the bi-ri. it's some serious shit.

[Limited]

Joining mid-game is probably more to compensate for examples like the one I encountered today:

We were playing Slayer on Adrift, 4 vs 4. Then, two guys on the other team quit. We proceeded to gain the lead. Another guy was added to the other team, then another, until it was an even 4 vs 4 again.

I think it's better than games of old, where if two or three people on your team quit, it essentially doomed you to playing out the motions of your inevitable defeat.

I do think it should be an option you can select, though, to join games in progress or not.It has its pros and cons. Being stuck in a game where your down players does suck, so you could end up getting new teammates which will help. Yet you could be thrown into a game you stand no chance, and getting killed over and over isnt fun.

An ability to say "okay I expect to join a game in-progress" because at least then, your deciding what you want.

[TeeKup]

The Binary Rifle is terrifying. Also Flood mode if you want to avoid the pro-tard try-hards.

[PenGuin1362]

If this game stuck with Reach armor design, and simply adopted the more Halo 3-esque lighting and shaders present in Halo 4, this game would look intensely better.

As it stands the art is amazing, there's no question. But my issue with it is just some of the aesthetic design choices they made. Like you said about the armor, I think a lot of the designs kind of got away from the halo universe, not that they're bad, they're really well done. I just don't think many of them look like Spartan armor.

[Arteen]

I'm liking the campaign more, now that I have a better appreciation of its nuances as I'm playing through legendary. The campaign levels are good, fun, and competent, but none of them reach the same highs as in previous games. Reclaimer (the Mammoth mission) comes close. It's the Elephant mission that never was, and the closest thing to boarding a scarab in the game.

Also, I'm glad that Sgt Stacker is still around.

I'd really love an ODST-style expansion game using the Halo 4 engine. Spartan Ops seems fun, but basic.

[Sanctus]

Gonna try to finish Spartan Ops on Legendary tonight. Yet I haven't been able to join an online match in Legendary, it's always either Normal or Heroic, but there doesn't seem to be a way to change that. This new UI is weird...

[DarkHalo003]

I played a little bit on Heroic. It was so much fun. So refreshing. I've been playing it splitscreen-Coop too, so when you enjoy that it's pretty indicative of how well-designed the game is.

[ejburke]

It's hard to have highs without lows. I find this game to be a steady morphine drip as opposed to the passion-neglect cycle of past games.

My first playthrough, I wasn't impressed with the Prometheans. I thought that the Chozo ghosts and the space pirates from Metroid Prime had gotten drunk and decided to screw, resulting in these Knights as their unwanted spawn. I thought they were hollow, out-of-place bullet sponges.

But they grew on me. Legendary really revealed their behavioral patterns and made killing them and watching them digitize feel so satisfying. My preconceived notion was that they were simple Elite clones, like the Brutes eventually became, so I was expecting them to be easier to kill. But they are a tier above Elites and now that I've come to understand that, the damage required to kill them doesn't seem so undue.

The crawlers are far cooler than I had anticipated. I love how they skid and slide and explode. I also think it's neat how their weak spot grows and shrinks based on whether they are trying to shoot you or not. I could have done without the spot where they infinitely (?) spawn, however. That's some Call of Duty bullshit that we don't need.

The watchers are more ancillary and don't feel like true characters to me, but they demonstrate 343's understanding that flying enemies should hold relatively still, just like the crawlers demonstrated the understanding that fast-moving enemies should have big glowing targets.

So, I did a 180 on the Prometheans. They fit in the sandbox just fine. The Watchers are vastly superior to Drones/Engineers/Sentinels. The Crawlers are vastly superior to Skirmishers. And the Knights are vastly superior to Brutes. As such, I'm really not sad that any of those unit types were cut. I just don't miss them. Though, I do wish there were more Promethean enemy types. Where's the Rook!?

[ODX]

Gonna try to finish Spartan Ops on Legendary tonight. Yet I haven't been able to join an online match in Legendary, it's always either Normal or Heroic, but there doesn't seem to be a way to change that. This new UI is weird...Just play it Legendary by yourself, or invite some friends and set up a game.

[TeeKup]

These kids don't know how to play regicide I swear.

[Limited]

I just finished level 3 and I feel physically sick. I don't know if its the game or I ate something bad but its weird.

I'm just not feeling the campaign much, playing it on Heroic and I get frustrated, the lack of ammo is something I notice every time I play. I don't want to feel like I have to avoid using a certain gun because I need to keep that ammo for only X enemy.

[thehoodedsmack]

Jesus, this game is BRIGHT. You guys notice that?

[Limited]

Jesus, this game is BRIGHT. You guys notice that?
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m66ntl31bD1qb5lnr.gif

[Ryx]

Jesus, this game is BRIGHT. You guys notice that?
The visual bloom and glare is annoying on some maps.

[Limited]

Ryx you up for some h4? You never added me.

[Kornman00]

I got thrown into an in-progress Flood match today. I spawned without getting to select a loadout, I was an enemy to everyone, and I only had an AR and pistol. It was great. But not. Then the next round started and it fixed itself.

Fuck this joining mid game shit.

[PlasbianX]

I got thrown into an in-progress Flood match today. I spawned without getting to select a loadout, I was an enemy to everyone, and I only had an AR and pistol. It was great. But not. Then the next round started and it fixed itself.

Fuck this joining mid game shit.

Last night i was playing flood to try and get my remaining double kills. This guy randomly spawns in front of where im sitting (i was human still) and is blue. He showed up as an enemy on my radar so I killed him..

BETRAYAL.

Wut :saddowns:

[ejburke]

I just finished level 3 and I feel physically sick. I don't know if its the game or I ate something bad but its weird.

I'm just not feeling the campaign much, playing it on Heroic and I get frustrated, the lack of ammo is something I notice every time I play. I don't want to feel like I have to avoid using a certain gun because I need to keep that ammo for only X enemy.Level 3 is the most frustrating level. There are 2-3 encounters where they dump you in, with no (good) place to retreat to and enemies left, right, center and above you. I don't know how many times I ran over this one Elite heading toward a Banshee before I finally figured out a course of action that would actually lead to a checkpoint. If I had to pick a worst level, that would be it. But it's not nearly as bad as the other worst levels in the series.

As for the ammo conservation, I found it to positively impact my experience. There are power weapons everywhere, but you can't carry them all and they aren't individually going to carry you through a level, so you might as well use them when they are available before moving on.

What I like to do is have a weapon that I AM trying to carry through a level, like a SR or one of those incinerator thingies and I'll be dropping it constantly to pick up available power weapons like Needlers and Rail Guns, emptying them, and then picking back up my preferred weapon and proceeding to the next encounter. The resource management meta game is one of my favorite aspects of the Halo series and I think it's been mastered with this game. It's so much fun to take constant inventory of available assets and figuring out a way to leverage them.

Be warned , though. There are some issues with garbage collection that crop up every so often. I dropped a Rail Gun in this one spot to pick up a weapon on a rack, then I triggered an event in the environment, came back and both the Rail Gun and the rack from which I picked my weapon were gone. I looked high and low. They were just gone.

Didn't happen very often, though.

[Kornman00]

So I just realized there's 8 firefight maps on Disc 2...only one of them has the same name as their mission (Sniper Ally), though not the same ordering as their chapters...and their descriptions are not the same as the ones used on the SPOPs menu...

[Limited]

So I just realized there's 8 firefight maps on Disc 2...only one of them has the same name as their mission (Sniper Ally), though not the same ordering as their chapters...and their descriptions are not the same as the ones used on the SPOPs menu...Was that an accident, or did you really say firefight?

I think the problem with low ammo is I like using human guns, obviously after a while you have to pick up enemy guns.

I assume the loadout ammo ability thing doesnt cross over to SP?

[ODX]

In regards to the mid-game joining bullshit, I'm sure they'll fix it up. They haven't exactly had the oppurtunity to test run it with 300,000+ people before, mind you.

[Masterz1337]

With the new system, what does it matter if you join a game in progress? You can always quit it and not be penalized, or you can play and still earn points.

[Kornman00]

How about giving me an option to NOT join in-progress games at all? Bungie would have.

[Warsaw]

No they wouldn't have...they would have forced you to stay in a match.

[Sanctus]

Guys... guys. I just had a terrifying thought: Halo 6 Legendary ending scene. John is wounded and dying. Tired from years of war, he takes off his helmet for the last time, and we see... Frank O'Connor's face. :gonk:

[Tnnaas]

:suicide:

[ejburke]

Yeah, I was never a fan of Bungie's matchmaking. You could just as easily be in a game from the start and have too many of your teammates quit to be competitive. If you quit yourself, you'd be penalized. With in-progress funneling, you don't need a penalty for quitting.

Is it still an opt-out lobby? So, you only have that risk of joining a match in progress in that first match, right? If you stick with the lobby, you're in games from the start the rest of the way?

There's flaws to both approaches, but I think the system trying to fill vacancies in empty slots in in-progress matches is the way to go. They just didn't implement it particularly well and it needs some fixing, it seems.

[Warsaw]

Why does mid-game joining seem to work for basically every other game on the market but not Halo?

[Ki11a_FTW]

Bought Halo 4 and a pack of redbull tonight. Game is amazing so far. Although I think the banshee drivers are even worse than in Halo 1:|. I'm on the mission Infinity now, and decided to call it a night. Also, jackals are now a nightmare.

[DarkHalo003]

Why does mid-game joining seem to work for basically every other game on the market but not Halo?
Because it's a new function that Halo has never had on Xbox? Give it time, the game has only been out for a week.

[Warsaw]

Because it's a new function that Halo has never had on Xbox? Give it time, the game has only been out for a week.

That can not be the answer. They have had ample time with the series to make it work. Joining mid-game worked just fine on Halo PC, so why can't it work here? What is so fundamentally different about the games that prevents this from working? I am going to have to assume that the multiplayer mechanics are generally shit, just the same as I feel that they were with every other post-Combat Evolved entry until a better answer comes along...

[nuttyyayap]

Played the campaign through 3 times. I like it. Time to play legendary :ohdear:
I'm afraid to touch multiplayer and spartan ops, though. Not sure how unforgiving they are yet.

[Ryx]

Played the campaign through 3 times. I like it. Time to play legendary :ohdear:
I'm afraid to touch multiplayer and spartan ops, though. Not sure how unforgiving they are yet.
Legendary is fucking hard, promethean knights are damage sponges. The only way to kill them is to use a splattershot or storm rifle/needler. It took me the past hour and a half to finish the 3rd level ;_;

Anyone else notice how on Spartan Ops it always consists of 'running into something', having to eliminate some enemies, hit some switches, then kill enemies while you wait for extraction? Every. Single. Time.

Also, why the fuck can crawlers carry binary rifles? I'm getting one shot killed all over the place, finished a Spartan Op with 50 deaths because I'd spawn and get instakilled. Every promethean can carry one hit kill weapons.

[DarkHalo003]

That can not be the answer. They have had ample time with the series to make it work. Joining mid-game worked just fine on Halo PC, so why can't it work here? What is so fundamentally different about the games that prevents this from working? I am going to have to assume that the multiplayer mechanics are generally shit, just the same as I feel that they were with every other post-Combat Evolved entry until a better answer comes along...
Dude, you're putting your expectations too high for a game without a public beta. It's the first fucking week. The next Title Update (or update period) will probably remedy these oddities. You're acting like they have to do everything perfect and flawlessly, especially with something never done before in a Halo Xbox game. Give it time. There's no other answer besides that and if you think there is then please enlighten me on why they should have to be perfect here when they've already given us a pretty kickass game. I'm just saying, you're being a bit too :mech: to be even rational.

[ejburke]

I killed the most Knights on Legendary using the Light Rifle. Early on, I did think the only way to kill them was to get in close, but it's not true. You can ping them from afar just like an Elite. Just have a shotgun weapon handy, because sometimes they teleport to you when their shields break.

I finished Land Grab on Legendary. I honestly don't know why they would encourage people to play this solo. You die and either get spawned too far away or too close and you eventually just brute force your way through the mission, which doesn't feel in any way satisfying. Not having checkpoints breaks this as a solo experience.

When I played Land Grab on Normal, I just blew through it without dying and had a lot of fun. This is really disappointing.

[Warsaw]

Dude, you're putting your expectations too high for a game without a public beta. It's the first fucking week. The next Title Update (or update period) will probably remedy these oddities. You're acting like they have to do everything perfect and flawlessly, especially with something never done before in a Halo Xbox game. Give it time. There's no other answer besides that and if you think there is then please enlighten me on why they should have to be perfect here when they've already given us a pretty kickass game. I'm just saying, you're being a bit too :mech: to be even rational.

I'm not. Remember how games almost never had public betas, period? Remember how they still did just fine? Remember how Halo 1 let you join a game mid-match and it still did just fine? Remember how Halo is NOT a new series and the mechanics have been all but completely unchanged since Halo 2 and they thus should have had ample time to get this working?

I'm not asking them to make a perfect game. I'm just wondering why joining a match in the middle of the round is such a huge thorn in the side of players of this series when it has been demonstrated to work fine in both other games of similar style AND in a previous entry to this very franchise.

Joining ongoing games is a common mechanic that Bungie and now 343i seem incapable of properly incorporating. The problem is either in the players or the game mechanics. Since you can't change people, you have to change the game. I'm inclined to think that this game doesn't reward resourceful playing, because if it did then a single player would be able to at least hold his own (still losing, but not getting raped with no chance) versus two or three people; it worked in Halo 1 even on Xbox LAN. It even worked in Halo 2. So, and please pardon my French, what in the fuck are the people running this series smoking they are so incapable at making a balanced team multiplayer experience and how to I obtain this magical substance?

If that's being overly critical, then you are a display of being overly charitable. It's a $60 game; it damn well better work right.

[DarkHalo003]

I'm not. Remember how games almost never had public betas, period? Remember how they still did just fine? Remember how Halo 1 let you join a game mid-match and it still did just fine? Remember how Halo is NOT a new series and the mechanics have been all but completely unchanged since Halo 2 and they thus should have had ample time to get this working?

I'm not asking them to make a perfect game. I'm just wondering why joining a match in the middle of the round is such a huge thorn in the side of players of this series when it has been demonstrated to work fine in both other games of similar style AND in a previous entry to this very franchise.

Joining ongoing games is a common mechanic that Bungie and now 343i seem incapable of properly incorporating. The problem is either in the players or the game mechanics. Since you can't change people, you have to change the game. I'm inclined to think that this game doesn't reward resourceful playing, because if it did then a single player would be able to at least hold his own (still losing, but not getting raped with no chance) versus two or three people; it worked in Halo 1 even on Xbox LAN. It even worked in Halo 2. So, and please pardon my French, what in the fuck are the people running this series smoking they are so incapable at making a balanced team multiplayer experience and how to I obtain this magical substance?

If that's being overly critical, then you are a display of being overly charitable. It's a $60 game; it damn well better work right.
Dude, what the fuck? Halo 1 PC had joining in the middle of the match. For PC. With dedicated servers. Different story dude. The game has been out for a motherfucking week. Your expectations are pretentious and high. You ARE being overly critical and I'm not being overly charitable. The fact is, they have implemented joining match in progress and they are encountering issues that occur because so many instances happen. There are a lot of people playing the game so there is a higher probablility you will encounter these problems simply because there are more instance for those problems to show up. This is the first week where a very substantial amount of people are playing the game. If you seriously don't expect hiccups to be found, then get over yourself.

I'm defending the game because you're being completely irrational and claiming the game/developer is bad simply because this one feature is having bugs, which could not within reasonable time be detected and fixed before release. There WILL be updates, so buckle down and do one of the many other things that this game has. And from nearly everyone I've talked to, multiplayer is super-balanced and kickass. Like I said before, your expectations are too damn high, especially given how good the game is to begin with.

[neuro]

no, mid-game joining has NEVER been a problem, TEN YEARS AGO.

there's not really an excuse for not having a functional mid-game-join nowadays.
unless it's left out by design ofcourse.

keep in mind that software will have bugs, and bugs tend to get fixed.
i don't know the state of whatever this is about, so i can't really sya more than that.

then again, it's hardly irrational to expect a functioning product when you buy it.
it's the LEAST you should expect.
to expect anything less sais a lot about the PATHETIC FUCKING STATE of games nowadays.

[Patrickssj6]

the ability to patch a game on consoles made the original product worse...why have a beta if you can sell your game, test, and patch afterwards?

90's be trolling with N64 cartridges..no ability to patch there. the game had to be perfect and for the most part, they were

[Arteen]

Finally beat Legendary solo. Promethean knights can DIAF. My new Mk VI armor feels well-earned.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/Arteen/halo_ss/fullbody_001.png

[Limited]

Is it still an opt-out lobby? So, you only have that risk of joining a match in progress in that first match, right? If you stick with the lobby, you're in games from the start the rest of the way?
You'd think so right? You finish a game, and people are still in the lobby with you, you imagine others would join and you start a game from the start...wrong - it can put you in an in-progress game.

I like the option of joining in-progress games, it eliminates issues that Halo 3 had that plagued the game. Yet that is what it should be, an option.

The only true fun I've had on Halo 4 MP, is when its a bunch of people from Modacity all playing in the same team, as we have the exact number of people needed for a gametype, we know we will get a new fresh game. Plus its just tons of fun playing with people you know.

I don't like the way MLG works, but I do feel to get the best out of Halo, you need to play in a controlled environment with a team working fully together.

[Arteen]

Korn and I were playing, and got joined-in-progress into a losing match, as the only players on our team. How does that even happen?

[thehoodedsmack]

So I went and counted, and this game has more weapons you can use than any other Halo game. So why does it feel, to me at least, like there are so few? Because there are few fixed spawn points? Because the Forerunner weapons are almost identical to the Human weapons? What do you guys think?

[Zeph]

So I went and counted, and this game has more weapons you can use than any other Halo game. So why does it feel, to me at least, like there are so few? Because there are few fixed spawn points? Because the Forerunner weapons are almost identical to the Human weapons? What do you guys think?
This was pretty much explained in Halo 1 dev when they talked about getting the shotgun in last minute. You really only need to add a weapon if it fills a niche that otherwise wasn't already there. By the time you have to resort to spreadsheet tactics to keep your myriad of weapons balanced, you've saturated your gameplay mechanics or have become reliant on gimmicks. That is, to say, when you balance one gun by the stats of another you've lost the game.

[Limited]

So I went and counted, and this game has more weapons you can use than any other Halo game. So why does it feel, to me at least, like there are so few? Because there are few fixed spawn points? Because the Forerunner weapons are almost identical to the Human weapons? What do you guys think?

2 Reasons

A: You pretty much have to rely on enemy drops in campaign to be able to have barely enough ammo to finish the level.
B: There are on random pick-ups in MP, you spawn with the gun you have to begin with, and the ordinance drops are rare. In MP I rarely have a chance to pickup the power weapons, unless its from Infinity Slayer.

[El Lobo]

Just finished campaign....wow, really liked it actually. Good storytelling. Liking the game a lot so far, probably as much as I liked Halo 2....of course Halo 1 is still my favorite, but this one is pretty fun.

Where is Veegie I want to tell him good job. Someone locate him....also, trying to figure out which name in the credits is him, have not seen a "Veegie" yet.

[Limited]

Where is Veegie I want to tell him good job. Someone locate him....also, trying to figure out which name in the credits is him, have not seen a "Veegie" yet.He works at Bungie (http://www.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=news&cid=32055), not 343...Heres Veegie (http://twitter.com/HashtagVeegie), his real name is Nate Hawbaker by the way.

[Tnnaas]

I find SPOPs pretty entertaining and it's pretty care free. I don't have to worry about dying or outperforming a bunch of tryhards. Solo Legendary is pretty fun once you realize you don't have to go, "Oh fuck, I'm going to die and restart the mission, shitshitshitshitshitshit!"

Also: Saw these on Waypoint (http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/detail/238068a2-d025-42b8-879c-56b55de61cdb/funko-halo-4-pop). What the fuck?!
http://download.halowaypoint.com/content/waypoint/assets/images/a831c176042546019a5b748d034b4ba3/2822880-web_carousel_main.png

[DarkHalo003]

Meh, some people really like that stuff. I know people in Japan find that figure style to be a fad, so it's meant for a wider audience. Basically, it's just marketing.

The Chief looks pretty cool. - #notweeaboo

[Tnnaas]

Oh, well, Cortana looked asian enough already. Thanks Funko. :v:

Also checked out the MLP products they apparently had available. They could've done better.

[Sanctus]

Gonna try to get my Mark VI armor tonight. :D

[Patrickssj6]

I find SPOPs pretty entertaining and it's pretty care free. I don't have to worry about dying or outperforming a bunch of tryhards. Solo Legendary is pretty fun once you realize you don't have to go, "Oh fuck, I'm going to die and restart the mission, shitshitshitshitshitshit!"

Also: Saw these on Waypoint (http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/detail/238068a2-d025-42b8-879c-56b55de61cdb/funko-halo-4-pop). What the fuck?!
http://download.halowaypoint.com/content/waypoint/assets/images/a831c176042546019a5b748d034b4ba3/2822880-web_carousel_main.png

Haha those are awesome :D

[Warsaw]

Rossmum post, go!


Dude, what the fuck? Halo 1 PC had joining in the middle of the match. For PC. With dedicated servers. Different story dude.

Can you tell the difference between a dedicated server or a live server without an indicator telling you it's dedicated? No. And what does being on PC have to do with it? If being on PC has any bearing on this, then please explain Modern fucking Warfare 3 and how it works on the console (but let me go get my popcorn first). There is absolutely no reason why joining a game mid-match should work here but be hard to implement on the Xbox given the exact same game. Match-making is essentially just an algorithm that automatically selects AN EXISTING GAME AND SERVER FOR YOU TO CONNECT TO. You pulled the above explanation out of thin air and didn't even pretend to analyse that statement before posting it.


The game has been out for a motherfucking week. Your expectations are pretentious and high. You ARE being overly critical and I'm not being overly charitable. The fact is, they have implemented joining match in progress and they are encountering issues that occur because so many instances happen.
I'm not. Hundreds, if not thousands, of games work perfectly fine out of the box without any sort of patching with mid-game joining. The bottom line is that they clearly didn't do a whole lot of testing to see if joining mid-game would cause problems, which it seems to be doing. They just stuck the feature in the game and hoped it would work. Well, it doesn't, and neither did trying to prevent people from leaving mid-match. Bungie, and as a result 343i, have dug themselves into a hole by trying to keep the game in the "competitive" category, which is ironic because now it can't be classified as such for the reasons Pooky mentioned.



There are a lot of people playing the game so there is a higher probablility you will encounter these problems simply because there are more instance for those problems to show up. This is the first week where a very substantial amount of people are playing the game. If you seriously don't expect hiccups to be found, then get over yourself.
I never said I don't expect hiccups. That aside, this is a problem that probably will be complained about for duration of the title's relevance, based on experience with people complaining about being forced to stay in a match no matter what. They didn't get it right then, and it sounds like the game is highly prone to becoming unbalanced when even a single player leaves. You want to know what the simplest fix to that problem would have been? Upping the player count. Another way would be to make the weapons harder to master. Or giving you a finite amount of health allowing you to whittle away at people or force a retreat...

There are so many ways to fix this issue, none of them likely to be implemented because they are simply not accounted for with how the game was designed.



I'm defending the game because you're being completely irrational and claiming the game/developer is bad simply because this one feature is having bugs, which could not within reasonable time be detected and fixed before release. There WILL be updates, so buckle down and do one of the many other things that this game has. And from nearly everyone I've talked to, multiplayer is super-balanced and kickass. Like I said before, your expectations are too damn high, especially given how good the game is to begin with.

You are making the assumption that I said the entire game is crap. I have not said that at any point here. I merely questioned why they are having such a hard time with mid-game joining when that mechanic has A.) been a staple of multiplayer shooters pretty much since the inception of the genre, B.) already been done before in a Halo game, and C.) had ample time to be re-implemented into the series over it's 11 years of evolutionary development. I also said it sounds like they deliberately low-balled ammo caps to force you to use the many extraneous weapons in the game's campaign. Neither case implies that the whole game is crap. I'm merely analysing it, sizing it up for a purchase. It's not a final judgement, because I have not test-driven the game yet. However, I seem to value my dollars more than you value yours and apparently it's pretentious to want to get my money's worth out of a $60 purchase...a purchase which could also fix the dead (but not imperative) O2 sensor in my car, give me just under a tank of gas, net me three or four games on Steam, buy a new controller, feed me for three weeks, etc. You are damn right that I am going to be critical of a game. This isn't a simple "flaw," it's a fundamental "oops, we fucked up." That all said, since the number of fucks I give about Infinity multi-player is somewhere between 0 and 1, I don't think the game is worth $60 at all, probably closer to $30. I'm not paying for a feature I won't use, much less one that is still broken 7 years after it was introduced.

You see, I could say the inverse of all of the things you said about me, about you. You never seem to be critical of anything at all. However because I am not like you, I am not going to automatically assume you are a flagrant idiot who loves chucking his money out the window before breaking down what he wants in a game and reading all of the reviews and test-driving the product to see if it lives up to the hype. From what I've heard, the campaign is one of the better in the series but the multi-player sounds like more of the same. You have to understand that I didn't like the multi-player in Halo 2, and since all subsequent titles seem to be derivatives thereof I'm not going to like them either. You should also notice that Halo: Combat Evolved didn't have any problems with mid-game joining, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with the platform.

So really, what the fuck. Dude.

z0r

[Limited]

I find SPOPs pretty entertaining and it's pretty care free. I don't have to worry about dying or outperforming a bunch of tryhards. Solo Legendary is pretty fun once you realize you don't have to go, "Oh fuck, I'm going to die and restart the mission, shitshitshitshitshitshit!"

Also: Saw these on Waypoint (http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/detail/238068a2-d025-42b8-879c-56b55de61cdb/funko-halo-4-pop). What the fuck?!
http://download.halowaypoint.com/content/waypoint/assets/images/a831c176042546019a5b748d034b4ba3/2822880-web_carousel_main.png
Woah I want one.

http://www.funko.com/images/large/4d4347660026f.jpg
Darth Vader looks like Stewie's Darth Vader.

Wow they made Gangam Style non-asian! (http://www.funko.com/images/large/509ae824d120c.jpg)

[DarkHalo003]

Rossmum post, go!

Can you tell the difference between a dedicated server or a live server without an indicator telling you it's dedicated? No. And what does being on PC have to do with it? If being on PC has any bearing on this, then please explain Modern fucking Warfare 3 and how it works on the console (but let me go get my popcorn first). There is absolutely no reason why joining a game mid-match should work here but be hard to implement on the Xbox given the exact same game. Match-making is essentially just an algorithm that automatically selects AN EXISTING GAME AND SERVER FOR YOU TO CONNECT TO. You pulled the above explanation out of thin air and didn't even pretend to analyse that statement before posting it.

I'm not. Hundreds, if not thousands, of games work perfectly fine out of the box without any sort of patching with mid-game joining. The bottom line is that they clearly didn't do a whole lot of testing to see if joining mid-game would cause problems, which it seems to be doing. They just stuck the feature in the game and hoped it would work. Well, it doesn't, and neither did trying to prevent people from leaving mid-match. Bungie, and as a result 343i, have dug themselves into a hole by trying to keep the game in the "competitive" category, which is ironic because now it can't be classified as such for the reasons Pooky mentioned.

I never said I don't expect hiccups. That aside, this is a problem that probably will be complained about for duration of the title's relevance, based on experience with people complaining about being forced to stay in a match no matter what. They didn't get it right then, and it sounds like the game is highly prone to becoming unbalanced when even a single player leaves. You want to know what the simplest fix to that problem would have been? Upping the player count. Another way would be to make the weapons harder to master. Or giving you a finite amount of health allowing you to whittle away at people or force a retreat...

There are so many ways to fix this issue, none of them likely to be implemented because they are simply not accounted for with how the game was designed.

WORDS

You see, I could say the inverse of all of the things you said about me, about you. You never seem to be critical of anything at all. However because I am not like you, I am not going to automatically assume you are a flagrant idiot who loves chucking his money out the window before breaking down what he wants in a game and reading all of the reviews and test-driving the product to see if it lives up to the hype. From what I've heard, the campaign is one of the better in the series but the multi-player sounds like more of the same. You have to understand that I didn't like the multi-player in Halo 2, and since all subsequent titles seem to be derivatives thereof I'm not going to like them either. You should also notice that Halo: Combat Evolved didn't have any problems with mid-game joining, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with the platform.

So really, what the fuck. Dude.

z0r
:dramabomb:

I'm not only talking from a technical standpoint. There is quite a difference between CoD joining-mid-game and Halo joining-mid-game for instance. The gameplay is entirely different and as a result the experience is going to feel different, if not crass. Halo is one of those games where spontaneous shit happens and it's silly to not expect that out of a Halo title, even with this. You die instantly in CoD compared to Halo, so dying isn't as big of a deal in CoD. However, with Halo you can have a higher survivability and thus dying from being put into a shit game is a lot more frustrating. You're right about the technical aspects because consoles are really computers used for gaming. However, the difference in gameplay changes how those aspects play out.

As far as being thrown into shit games, there really isn't much to say here. Shit like that happens. Unless for some reason you get this pissed-off when you join Halo PC games midgame, don't take it so fucking seriously. You could also, I don't know, not use the feature? Try waiting for a game maybe? Point being, YES, you are acting like this game is utter shit because one feature has bugs and borks.

Regardless, you and I are opposites, so you can state the inverse. However, I value my money and investments DIFFERENTLY than you do. I find more joy in different things than you do. I love some of that extraneous shit they want me to use. I don't find a problem with it. I don't mind the spontaneous insanity that happens in Halo games. It's why I play them in the first place. Just because I am not as critical about them doesn't mean I chuck my money out the window. It means I can enjoy something even if it isn't always up to the best possible standards. I also want to note that I really don't give a single shit about joining-midgame. It's a very wanky feature (always has been to begin with in my experience and opinion) given how many ridiculous variables come and go compared to starting a game from the beginning. I mean, it works for games like Halo PC where winning/losing doesn't mean shit and there's really no competitive edginess going on half of the time, but honestly you're expecting way too much out of a feature that can put you in a horendously losing battle at any time.

EDIT: From what I'm reading, you and I are in the same boat regardless: neither have played the game to a great extent. Therefore, why the fuck can we be arguing about it?

[Timo]

A brat? lol? It's not hard to understand that people who drop $100 on a game expect it to be free of stuff like this. At least half of my games (unless I stay in a party) are laggy as crap shitfests because a bunch of other people left.

[thehoodedsmack]

I get lag all the time, too. I just thought it was my connection, though.

[Warsaw]

:dramabomb:

You honestly think I only am talking from a technical standpoint? There is quite a difference between CoD joining-mid-game and Halo joining-mid-game. The gameplay is entirely different and as a result the experience is going to feel different, if not crass. Halo is one of those games where spontaneous shit happens and it's silly to not expect that out of a Halo title, even with this. You're right about the technical aspects because consoles are really computers used for gaming. However, the difference in gameplay changes how those aspects play out.

As far as being thrown into shit games, there really isn't much to say here. Shit like that happens. Unless for some reason you get this pissed-off when you join Halo PC games midgame, don't take it so fucking seriously. You could also, I don't know, not use the feature? Try waiting for a game maybe? Point being, YES, you are acting like this game is utter shit because one feature has bugs and borks.

Regardless, you and I are opposites, so you can state the inverse. However, I value my money and investments DIFFERENTLY than you do. I find more joy in different things than you do. I love some of that extraneous shit they want me to use. I don't find a problem with it. I don't mind the spontaneous insanity that happens in Halo games. It's why I play them in the first place. Just because I am not as critical about them doesn't mean I chuck my money out the window. It means I can enjoy something even if it isn't always up to the best possible standards. Honestly dude, I don't know if it's how you're writing, but you're looking like a brat.

Funny you use that emote, since you started the drama after I rejected your explanation...because your explanation is completely off-base. There is literally no excuse for why this can't work and whether or not it is on a console has literally nothing to do with it. There is nothing so special about Halo that makes this hard to implement; it's a pretty generic science-fiction shooter with really good production values. If it's hard to implement this feature it's because they overlooked something major, there are no if, ands, or buts about it. So stop putting this game on a pedestal.

On a separate note, I think it's high time this was stated directly: you are a spineless, manipulative weasel who lacks both observational skills and tact. You are incapable of making a point on your own without leaving yourself an exit plan in case people vehemently disagree with you because you made an uneducated, presumptuous, and distasteful assessment or statement. You are always trying to save face by attempting to explain your asinine comments in a way that makes you both look good and disown said asinine comment. Was I blunt in saying that the game-play has to be generally shit for this feature to not work properly? Yes, yes I was, and perhaps mistakenly so, but I didn't make it into a personal attack. You, sir (and I use the term apprehensively because I am pretty sure you are a madame), completely misread and twisted almost every point, pulled an argument out of your overstuffed asshole, and are now trying to frame me as the perpetrator of a dramafest. Stop being such a thunder-cunt faggot and inject some fucking integrity into your brain-dead excuse of a personality.

I'm a stubborn son of a bitch, but at least I'm not crawling around in the fucking mud.

[ejburke]

This was pretty much explained in Halo 1 dev when they talked about getting the shotgun in last minute. You really only need to add a weapon if it fills a niche that otherwise wasn't already there. By the time you have to resort to spreadsheet tactics to keep your myriad of weapons balanced, you've saturated your gameplay mechanics or have become reliant on gimmicks. That is, to say, when you balance one gun by the stats of another you've lost the game.And I bet if you asked them about it today, you'd get a modified answer. The reality is that in this day and age of sequels and persistent online unlocks and loot ladders, an elegantly minimalist weapon repertoire just isn't going to cut it.

Even Halo 1 had role redundancy (AR/PR) and gimmicks (needler, PP). Then with Halo 2, they had to add stuff, so they added a Beam Rifle to match the SR. The Carbine and BR were introduced. Hell, there was an Elite PR and a Brute PR. So let's not paint the picture that 343 has dropped one of Bungie's core design principles. They were only marginally committed to it and the needs of making a sequel has outweighed it time and again.

With regards to Halo 4, I can't tell you the difference between the Scattershot and the Shotgun. But I didn't wonder how a Scattershot got onto a Forerunner ship. I think it was important that players understood intuitively that this was the Forerunner version of the shotgun. It was not a failure that it didn't read as something entirely unique; it was a goal.

Also, not all roles are created equal. The BR/DMR/LR/CC/Magnum occupy a supremacy role. You always need to have one with you and I'm grateful that it wasn't always the same weapon that I was toting around. Since the gameplay differences were almost negligible, I didn't particularly have a preference and could enjoy each one. It kept things really fresh for me and I used the entire spectrum of weapons in the campaign.

[DarkHalo003]

Funny you use that emote, since you started the drama after I rejected your explanation...because your explanation is completely off-base. There is literally no excuse for why this can't work and whether or not it is on a console has literally nothing to do with it. There is nothing so special about Halo that makes this hard to implement; it's a pretty generic science-fiction shooter with really good production values. If it's hard to implement this feature it's because they overlooked something major, there are no if, ands, or buts about it. So stop putting this game on a pedestal.

On a separate note, I think it's high time this was stated directly: you are a spineless, manipulative weasel who lacks both observational skills and tact. You are incapable of making a point on your own without leaving yourself an exit plan in case people vehemently disagree with you because you made an uneducated, presumptuous, and distasteful assessment or statement. You are always trying to save face by attempting to explain your asinine comments in a way that makes you both look good and disown said asinine comment. Was I blunt in saying that the game-play has to be generally shit for this feature to not work properly? Yes, yes I was, and perhaps mistakenly so, but I didn't make it into a personal attack. You, sir (and I use the term apprehensively because I am pretty sure you are a madame), completely misread and twisted almost every point, pulled an argument out of your overstuffed asshole, and are now trying to frame me as the perpetrator of a dramafest. Stop being such a thunder-cunt faggot and inject some fucking integrity into your brain-dead excuse of a personality.

I'm a stubborn son of a bitch, but at least I'm not crawling around in the fucking mud.
Feel better? The only drama created out of this was you because you made it out more than what it is. The fact is that you expect gold to be delivered to your hands in bars when it was just mined. It's been a week. Give it time. If it had been a month or a half a year, I would understand. If Ad Hominem is your way to avoid wanting to accept this, then go ahead, insult me. Look at what your responses are in comparison to mine. You get so bent out of this that you would go so far as label me as degenerate and judge me based off of my opinion of why a feature isn't 100%, even though said feature can be remedied in feature patches/fixes/updates. I'm putting this game on a pedestal because it deserves a shot at being there from public opinion and the limited time I've had at playing it. You simply keep knocking it off even though you're not actually playing it.

I'll say this once and only once. I found the holes in your argument and I exploited them to prove your argument wasn't solid because it isn't in the current context. It's nothing personal. I was simply trained for a year to tackle arguments like a lawyer and that's what I currently do unless I go on prolonged routes of research for better solutions. Like I said, nothing personal and I never intended to make it personal. I called you a brat at first (I edited that out almost immediately with better judgment, but alas it was quoted too fast) because I genuinely though you were taking the extreme of one. I apologize, but I feel for the first week of release you're holding your standards a bit too high.

As I said before, neither you nor I play this game currently. I'm basing my information off of everyone I talk to, all of which are saying it's pretty good. You've stated several times you're just assuming. Please don't assume anything. It makes an ass out of you and me.

[Cagerrin]

Tackling arguments like a lawyer just makes you a cunt, I wish I was more like you so I wouldn't have to put thought into making terrible posts, must be nice to just be able to shit them out.

[DarkHalo003]

Tackling arguments like a lawyer just makes you a cunt, I wish I was more like you so I wouldn't have to put thought into making terrible posts, must be nice to just be able to shit them out.
Yeah dude, just letting it out feels pretty good I tell you!

[Zeph]

*popcorn*
look at dis high school setting.

[Amit]

Fuck you guys. I came here to learn about Halo 4, not see bitch fights between a fan boy and a rational dude.

[DarkHalo003]

Fuck you guys. I came here to learn about Halo 4, not see bitch fights between a fan boy and a rational dude.
:iamafag:

[Limited]

I dont see why you are repeatedly using the rubbish reason of "its only been out a week". The game has been in development since 2009, how can you over look a feature such as turning off in-game joining?

Using your petty excuse is valid for things such as the very rare and messed up kill cams, and the fact it doesnt always show the last kill to everyone (COD style).

[Zeph]

The game has been in development since 2009, how can you over look a feature such as turning off in-game joining?

By paying your QA guys to stick around as long as possible doing everything they can to cause a bug?

[Limited]

By paying your QA guys to stick around as long as possible doing everything they can to cause a bug?How is the emission of an (arguably) necessary feature a bug?

[DarkHalo003]

I dont see why you are repeatedly using the rubbish reason of "its only been out a week". The game has been in development since 2009, how can you over look a feature such as turning off in-game joining?

Using your petty excuse is valid for things such as the very rare and messed up kill cams, and the fact it doesnt always show the last kill to everyone (COD style).
My point is rather that one should not get so bent over shape about it. It's the first week, so it will hopefully be acknowledged and accounted for to fix in future updates. It's sad that I couldn't just say that and people be like "hmm, okay I see what you mean." Instead we get this massive dramabomb because no one here seemed to be able to understand that one truth. It sucks that shit happens when it happens from this feature. But is arguing here going to do anything about that besides try to prove whose Epen is bigger? No. That's why I said numerously it will most likely be fixed in an update, so give it all time.

As far as turning it off, I don't fucking know. That is pretty bullshit. Could that be fixed in future updates?

[Limited]

My point is rather that one should no get so bent over shape about it. It's the first week, so it will hopefully be acknowledged and accounted for to fix in future updates. It's sad that I couldn't just say that and people be like "hmm, okay I see what you mean." Instead we get this massive dramabomb because no one here seemed to be able to understand that fact.

As far as turning it off, I don't fucking know. That is pretty bullshit. Could that be fixed in future updates?Like I said, its a fucking game breaker. They should have thought about this, instead of implementing those stupid "we want total equality against female players system".

[Zeph]

How is the emission of an (arguably) necessary feature a bug?

No. By keeping their QA people in games until they finish, they never ran into the idea that you could join a shitty game in progress from people leaving intentionally.

[=sw=warlord]

How are all of you missing the fucking fact this feature has been in Halo in the form of customs since Halo 3?!
Only difference now is it allows you to join mid game in matchmade games.

sure they could add the option, they should have but the didn't, I'd rather them fix theater for SP and SPOP's than add a little button for opting in mid games or not.

[DarkHalo003]

Like I said, its a fucking game breaker. They should have thought about this, instead of implementing those stupid "we want total equality against female players system".
I'm having difficulty understanding something. Can one in Matchmaking simply not join a lobby that starts a fresh game? Or does joining matchmaking of any kind revolve around joining games already in progress? I thought you could join a regular lobby like the past 5 years and start a game in this game.

Also, I realized that my memory has struck again. Thank you Warlord who has reminded us we have had joining-in-session games since Halo 3 for custom games and Forge. I guess not touching XBL for a year lets me forget this, which is weird considering how much I played custom Games during Halo 3. Either way, the bugs that come along with a game can be fixed and that's what I want people to recognize here. I will now quietly leave and cry over my deteriorating memory. My this argument rest peace and may a mod cleanly take out the shit that has polluted this once fine thread.

[ODX]

I'd rather them fix theater for SP and SPOP's than add a little button for opting in mid games or not.My guess is that there are just too many graphical tricks in SP to allow for theater, so they ultimately had to cut it for Halo 4 or else the game wouldn't have been able to look as beautiful as it does.

[Arteen]

Arteen's List of Major Halo 4 Grievances


Where did all of the emblems and backgrounds go? Eagle emblem? Gone. Dreamcatcher background? Missing in action.
Any why lock emblems at all? I can understand locking a few of them, like the "117" one, but locking the majority of them?
I can't see my Spartan's feet in the Armory. How the heck am I supposed to pick proper legware if I can't check out my boots?
Only two color choices? By now I was expecting to be able to choose primary and secondary colors on a per-piece basis. Heck, even Halo 3 had primary, secondary, and decal choices.
Even the color choices themselves are lacking. Where's magenta? Madness.
Why can't I choose the under-armor color separately? Even Mass Effect 3 lets me choose my under-armor color. I want it to be black, not the same as the primary.

(seriously though, I'm disappointed with the missing emblems)

[Pooky]

Upping the weapon damage would do more for this game than anything else, but whatever. I've never really run into any problems with join in progress, but then I'm usually searching with a large party. It's probably worse if you're searching solo.

[Limited]

How are all of you missing the fucking fact this feature has been in Halo in the form of customs since Halo 3?!
Only difference now is it allows you to join mid game in matchmade games.No one plays customs competitively, so your argument is moot.

You make a good point Zeph, but they had to test it to check it works. Surely someone must have had the brainwave of, oh what happens if its 5 vs 1. In my eyes, they only saw it as a pro and never a con.

Now I'm not bashing the idea of in-game joining, but I want it to be my decision. When I play with Malloy, we want to play competitively. We go in with a game plan of what we want to do usually. If when we are in that game people quit, then yes it could be nice for those slots to fill up, yet I want those people that join, to be in the mindset of "oh, I don't mind joining a game in-progress, and I run the risk if joining a bad game". There are times when I just want to hop in a game and have fun and not worry about if I'm winning, my k/d or whatever, and those are the times where I would pick to join a game in progress.

DarkHalo, your arguing about something in the game that you don't even how its working?? My word...that said, whenever you click Find Game and then select a playlist, you will either join a lobby and start a game from scratch, or you will be put into a game thats already running (and could have just 1 second on the clock remaining, which has happened to me). There is absolutely no indication into what type of game you are joining, the only way to find out is spawn and check the scoreboard/timer.


@Arteen, I agree with every point. I cant make the emblem I've had in the previous games simply because its locked. In certain cases, emblems will be locked until you hit Rank 130.

[Timo]

I'm having difficulty understanding something. Can one in Matchmaking simply not join a lobby that starts a fresh game? Or does joining matchmaking of any kind revolve around joining games already in progress? I thought you could join a regular lobby like the past 5 years and start a game in this game.

Matchmaking searches for any game it can, whether it's in progress or not. You can get thrown into a game in progress, stick with the players after the match and get thrown into another game in progress. No way to avoid it.

[DarkHalo003]

Arteen's List of Major Halo 4 Grievances


Where did all of the emblems and backgrounds go? Eagle emblem? Gone. Dreamcatcher background? Missing in action.
Any why lock emblems at all? I can understand locking a few of them, like the "117" one, but locking the majority of them?
I can't see my Spartan's feet in the Armory. How the heck am I supposed to pick proper legware if I can't check out my boots?
Only two color choices? By now I was expecting to be able to choose primary and secondary colors on a per-piece basis. Heck, even Halo 3 had primary, secondary, and decal choices.
Even the color choices themselves are lacking. Where's magenta? Madness.
Why can't I choose the under-armor color separately? Even Mass Effect 3 lets me choose my under-armor color. I want it to be black, not the same as the primary.

(seriously though, I'm disappointed with the missing emblems)
Is it bad that I'm more bothered over this? Especially the emblems. I really hope they still have mine. :(

[=sw=warlord]

No one plays customs competitively, so your argument is moot.


How is that in any way shape or form relevant to the fact the feature has been ingame the entire time?
Oh but wait, you struck out twice (http://forums.majorleaguegaming.com/forum/348-halo-reach-customs/)

[Limited]

How is that in any way shape or form relevant to the fact the feature has been ingame the entire time?
Oh but wait,you struck out twice (http://forums.majorleaguegaming.com/forum/348-halo-reach-customs/)The current state of the system hasnt been in any previous games. The problem with it is that it is in matchmaking, the automated system of putting you into a game. You have absolutely no control what game you get put in. Forge, and custom games you do.

Warlord, your losing the plot.

[Ryx]

SWAT is broken, and the only map it's played on is Haven and Abandon, fucking stupid voters.

Like seriously, you can swipe with the BR and get a headshot. It's stupid.

[DarkHalo003]

SWAT is broken, and the only map it's played on is Haven and Abandon, fucking stupid voters.

Like seriously, you can swipe with the BR and get a headshot. It's stupid.
Sounds lame, but SWAT will never be as competitive as it was in Halo 2 and Halo 3. Those were some glorious days I tell you.

Nobody answered this for me:

I'm having difficulty understanding something. Can one in Matchmaking simply not join a lobby that starts a fresh game? Or does joining matchmaking of any kind revolve around joining games already in progress? I thought you could join a regular lobby like the past 5 years and start a game in this game.
.

[Limited]

Check the other page.

[thehoodedsmack]

Is there an emblem in this game that functions like the Seventh Column used to, where you can toggle it to show no emblem? Because F emblems.

[BobtheGreatII]

Why in the world would you hate emblems? Lol. What a weird thing not to like.

[Pooky]

Why in the world would you hate emblems? Lol. What a weird thing not to like.

I always used no emblem vOv

[DarkHalo003]

Check the other page.

Swat? Hell yes.

Still no news about an option to avoid joining games in progress. Stupid. If they don't add that, I will hate 343. It is literally a game-breaker in my eyes.
Is this what you mean? You mean you can't just find a gametype (like Slayer, Dominion, Infection, etc.) where you end up in a lobby like Halo 2/3 and the match begins? What is this noise?

[ThePlague]

DarkHalo you must be having a bad time with matchmaking. I have only once joined a game that started already, other than that it's been smooth sailing for me. I do sometimes get the ones where teamates join throughout the game, but that's it.

[Limited]

DarkHalo you must be having a bad time with matchmaking. I have only once joined a game that started already, other than that it's been smooth sailing for me. I do sometimes get the ones where teamates join throughout the game, but that's it.
Malloy and I joined 8 ingame games in a row where we were put onto a losing team that had no chance of winning as we were down so much. It's happened a lot to me

DarkHalo, this post (ttp://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?23461-Halo-4-Master-Chief-kills-Dumbledore.-WARNING-MAD&p=637363&viewfull=1#post637363).

[TeeKup]

Is the new spartan ops available?

EDIT: It is.

Who else thinks its completely badass the Infinite supports it own flotilla of frigates?

[DarkHalo003]

DarkHalo you must be having a bad time with matchmaking. I have only once joined a game that started already, other than that it's been smooth sailing for me. I do sometimes get the ones where teamates join throughout the game, but that's it.
I've hardly played Halo 4. I'm going off of others' feedback and a small amount of time I've had with it. I just hope this gets remedied though, mainly because I love sitting in that lobby and seeing the countdown for a match to start. It's just reminscent is all.

[PenGuin1362]

Like I said, its a fucking game breaker.

I just wanted to point out, it's not game breaking. Game breaking means it crashes the games or physically halts any further progress in the game. What you have is not even a bug at all. Instead a personal grievance with a choice made by the developers. While I agree it can be annoying, but anyone who's played any first person shooter in the last 5 years should be used to it now. No point in staying just back out. Not to mention, as someone who typically has one asshole quit every time at the start of a match, I do enjoy that people can now join in to even out the teams. Please stop using 'game breaking' incorrectly, it drives me fucking nuts seeing people rambling about how the stupidest little tweaks are GAME BREAKING BUGS.

[Pooky]

SWAT mode is fun, but it really highlights just how atrociously bad the map designs are. A map where you have people coming up behind you every 5 seconds is a badly designed map.

[BobtheGreatII]

Solace is the only map I can't stand to play SWAT on. All the rest are just fine to me.

[Sanctus]

Just finished a match on Adrift. People love camping with the DMR across the center area on the second floor. If you run down the hallway and come across one of the doorways on either end you get pegged... fucking campers. It sort of defeats the purpose of having the option of choosing between BR and DMR

[Pooky]

Solace is the only map I can't stand to play SWAT on. All the rest are just fine to me.

Played on Adrift earlier. 4 times in a row spawned and got shot in the back within 5 seconds. There's no possible way for someone to cover the excessive amount of sight lines looking at you at all times.

[Cortexian]

Sounds like they should of released this with dedicated servers and a modding kit on a platform that isn't seven years old.

Something like the PC.

[Bodzilla]

you guys seem pretty mad.

[Masterz1337]

Level 51 cheaaaaa. Working on my Stalker specialization now.

[Pooky]

Sounds like they should of released this with dedicated servers and a modding kit on a platform that isn't seven years old.

Something like the PC.

Oh definitely. The bad maps would be way less of a thing if I had a mouse and keyboard.

[Tnnaas]

They kept the aim assist from Reach for passenger in the Warthog. Fucking sniper passengers be headshottin' like little bitches. :v:

[Limited]

I just wanted to point out, it's not game breaking. Game breaking means it crashes the games or physically halts any further progress in the game. What you have is not even a bug at all. Instead a personal grievance with a choice made by the developers. While I agree it can be annoying, but anyone who's played any first person shooter in the last 5 years should be used to it now. No point in staying just back out. Not to mention, as someone who typically has one asshole quit every time at the start of a match, I do enjoy that people can now join in to even out the teams. Please stop using 'game breaking' incorrectly, it drives me fucking nuts seeing people rambling about how the stupidest little tweaks are GAME BREAKING BUGS.
If you play 12 games, 8 of them you get put into a game that you have no chance in hell of winning. You call that "general game experience?". No, that is a broken game. The idea of matchmaking is to put you into a suitable game, that is not a suitable game.

[DarkHalo003]

you guys seem pretty mad.
Did you forget the website you're on?

[Tnnaas]

Halomaps.org?
Halo2Vista.net?
Forums.HaloWaypoint.com?

[DarkHalo003]

Halomaps.org?
Halo2Vista.net?
Forums.HaloWaypoint.com?
Touche.

[Kornman00]

My guess is that there are just too many graphical tricks in SP to allow for theater, so they ultimately had to cut it for Halo 4 or else the game wouldn't have been able to look as beautiful as it does.
That's a good point, though they could have at least limited the camera views to FP and 3rd-rotating instead of letting people free roam. My guess is Havok AI (they no longer roll with the engine's own AI as far as I know, same goes for animations) has deterministic issues, where replaying the same inputs back doesn't net the same results, thus rendering films unusable (once the game state goes out of the sync, the rest of the film is trash). Though if this is the case I can't imagine how rough it got with debugging the game, as it's a mechanism used for debugging what caused the conditions that crashed the game in development.

Another piece of tech that may be causing film playback issues could be Wwise (their new sound platform). But since MP works, my bets on ODX's and/or my guess.


Arteen's List of Major Halo 4 Grievances


Where did all of the emblems and backgrounds go? Eagle emblem? Gone. Dreamcatcher background? Missing in action.


Did you notice that they named the Septagon symbol "asterisk"? Also, I think the pimp hat was also removed, meaning I can't sport my CAWK emblem anymore. IMAD.


Is the new spartan ops available?

EDIT: It is.
I was online around 2am PST, when the challenges cycle, and that's when the new ops were unlocked too.

Kinda interested in how they, technically, did firefight this time. Eg, did they come up with scenario variants? They reuse scenario zones (some from campaign even), and there's only eight or so firefight maps, so I'm curious what solution they rolled with, especially if the variant (ie, chapter) information isn't locked away in the map...meaning one could possibly mod these behind the scenes variant data. Or unlock the missions before the 343 servers give the green light.

[=sw=warlord]

The current state of the system hasnt been in any previous games. The problem with it is that it is in matchmaking, the automated system of putting you into a game. You have absolutely no control what game you get put in. Forge, and custom games you do.

Warlord, your losing the plot.
My point was that join in mid game has been a feature in Halo since at least Halo 3, it may not have been in matchmaking but the fact it was there at all gives the hint that the feature shouldn't be broken at all.
As for joining mid game without a choice, matchmaking is doing exactly what it was designed to do, find a existing game with the gametype you specified and if it can't find any slots then it will set you up with people to make your own match.
Your idea of what's game breaking actually isn't.

As for kornman joining a match where he was the only person on his team, I would bet that there was at least one person shortly before he joined and whilst he was making the transition in joining, the last person left as to make it look like he joined an empty team, I know for a fact that when the entire team quits that the match ends because I've seen it countless times.

[PenGuin1362]

If you play 12 games, 8 of them you get put into a game that you have no chance in hell of winning. You call that "general game experience?". No, that is a broken game. The idea of matchmaking is to put you into a suitable game, that is not a suitable game.

Still not broken. Aggravating as fuck, yes. But does not classify as broken. I still don't have this issue that often, it happens, but not frequent. You must have some shit luck with matchmaking.

[Tnnaas]

Hey, how do I access the Domian/Terminal videos from Waypoint? My Xbox froze trying to start the seventh one and I can't find it. :saddowns:

[Ki11a_FTW]

Welp. Went to try MP to find out it needs 8GB of storage and needs to be installed. BS. It's my step dads Xbox with a 4 gig drive. Also, after beating campaign, I had no idea that halo 4 consisted of the Spartan Laser of the Gravity hammer. At least the single player, I was surprised to see a spartan laser sitting there. Same with the gravity hammer.. considering there are no brutes in the game lol.

[BobtheGreatII]

Gravity Hammer is most likely there for Grifball would be my guess. And yeah, spartan laser was a surprise even though:
it was on the Pelican when you were flying around as a secondary weapon.

[Kornman00]

It may not be game breaking, but it sure as hell is mood breaking to not have an option to toggle mid-game joining in matchmaking.

What is, however, game breaking is this game's rediculously low object garbage collection threshold. May Bungie have mercy on your soul should you die in MP/Spartan Ops and have one of the few power weapons, cause that shit will be zapped from existance. Or temp swap your power weapon for another weapon to thrash the AI, cause it will be collected once you go back for it once a checkpoint or zone load is hit.

Also, the UI is horrible.

And where the fuck did campaign matchmaking go?

And the gravity hammer was there in the last mission. There's an achivement for it.

[Ki11a_FTW]

I saw the SL on the pelican and was like "well at least it was implemented into the SP someway", then i found Spartan Laser again on the second to last mission just sitting in a hallway on a crate, thank god though, it saved my life with all those fucking banshees at the end. Gravity hammer was there too, and yes I saw that, got the achievement as well.

Why is the banshee so hard to control on this game? Not pressing anything on the controller and the banshee is still going 25 mph. Makes it real hard to aim, yet the ai are like fucking professionals.

[ejburke]

That one Spartan Laser in campaign comes right before they give you a Mantis, so I never even used it.

Flying a Banshee is pretty frustrating. I don't know why they even bother with them if, in order to balance it, they have to constantly move forward, making it really hard to spot movement on the ground because EVERYTHING is moving. And when you do spot something, you have a tiny window to drop a bomb and hope something dies before you have to pull up and come around again. I also found the stunt maneuvers to be especially useless this time.

I got to pour one out for the Halo 1 Banshee. Maybe light some candles. Maybe tie a pair of sneakers together and toss them up onto a power line. I keep H1B in my HEART, son.

Speaking of Covenant vehicles, isn't it about time that they changed the Wraith so that you don't have to look up and completely lose sight of your intended target to shoot at it from range? How about a hold down/release mechanic like the Torque Bow in Gears of War? And while they're at it, would a visual indication of where the mortar is going to land kill anyone?

Well, I guess it would. That's the point.

[DarkHalo003]

Why is the banshee so hard to control on this game? Not pressing anything on the controller and the banshee is still going 25 mph. Makes it real hard to aim, yet the ai are like fucking professionals.
Well, from a lore standpoint, they are kind of supposed to. :P

[Warsaw]

But so is the Master Chief, and thus you, the player.

Games these days...injecting challenge, what are they thinking?

[Ki11a_FTW]

I guess, it's just so annoying to handle. The ai are obviously programmed to know how to use it, the only good thing is that they actually fly low enough for you to board them in this game. Though when I'm driving one, I find myself holding down the boost button to escape death. Those pilots have some crazy leading with the fuel rod.

One thing I really liked about the game is that there doesn't seem to be a ridiculous amount of enemies. Don't get me wrong, i liked all of the other halos, but when it came to fighting the covenant it felt REALLY good to have it back to the H1 style again. Ghost, banshee, wraith: only drivable covenant vehicles (excluding the shade), it felt really clean and fun like the original halo. I also enjoyed the warthog level with the mantis. I hear a lot of people complaining that there is no action with the warthog. Well there is, it's just kind of misrepresented. I forget at which point, but in the level with the mantis (i think the first stop with the stream), I see a hog dart out of the mantis. I',m like fuck. I go into the mantis to grab some ammo, and I see a marine just standing in the gunner seat of a hog. Fuck yes. Although idk why you dont hear anything like "warthog is waiting for you in the mantis cheif". Hes kinda just chilling there.


THE LAST LEVEL OF THE GAME SUCKED.
The prometheans are fucking annoying as hell to fight. They're not fun, not interesting, I'm like.. okay next level plox. They need another natural race as interesting as the covenant, not digital fucks. Aside from that, i think the game was great. I loved the base level. I'm looking forward to see Arbiter, shipmaster, lord hood, in the next game. The game lacks with a feel of a "sequal", aside for a few parts. I have a feeling the next game will be pretty bad-ass. Considering chief is back at earth thinking everything is solved for now. It should kick off with a pretty good intro.

[Warsaw]

I was being tongue-in-cheek on two levels:

1. That people complain about games being too simple these days, and

2. That when big developers decide they want to make their games challenging and engaging, they use cheap tricks instead of good planning to do it, creating complaints of a game being too hard or frustrating.

[PopeAK49]

Add me you dicks...

AK ODoyleRules

[Ki11a_FTW]

I was being tongue-in-cheek on two levels:



if you're talking to me, my post wasn't in reply to yours. Just posting my experience.

[Tnnaas]

Hey, how do I access the Domian/Terminal videos from Waypoint? My Xbox froze trying to start the seventh one and I can't find it. :saddowns:HALP! PLEASE!

[ejburke]

Go to the waypoint website on your computer, click career->Halo 4 stats, then click on the career tab to the left of your Spartan's picture. Then you should see on the right side an option for domain terminals. Click it and everything you've unlocked will be right there.

Or just give the middle finger to this bullshit hoop-jumping and find it on YouTube.

[RedBaron]

Ugh I absolutely hate fighting the Prometheans. And the S-IV armors look like absolute shit. Even the marines look like shit. D:

[CabooseJr]

I'm waiting on those Halo Waypoint challenges. :v:

[PenGuin1362]

Also, the UI is horrible.

Yeah, the fuck? Halo UI has always been so simple. This one is just a cluster fuck of menus on top of menus and can be sluggish.

[Pooky]

It looks like it was designed for tablets??

[JackalStomper]

It looks like it was designed for tablets??
Halo 4 Windows 8RT

[Kornman00]

Just because they can, doesn't mean they should

[Kornman00]

Hey, all you gays, you can get banned (temp, etc) for quitting games still https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst135680_The-Official-Halo-4-Ban-Thread.aspx


Types of violation include, but are not limited to, the following example actions:

• Skill, EXP, or Credit Boosting, deleveling, idling through games, cheating, habitual quitting or any other type of unsociable and unsportsmanlike behavior.

[ODX]

Team Snipers incoming next week. Check out the blog post for various statistics as well:
http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2012/11/14/The-Halo-Bulletin-111412-.aspx

[Limited]

Hey, all you gays, you can get banned (temp, etc) for quitting games still https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst135680_The-Official-Halo-4-Ban-Thread.aspx
Told you ingame joining broke game. If I decide the game given to me won't be fun/winnable I decide to quit it, if it happens multiple times (which as I've previously stated, it does), I'll get banned.

[thehoodedsmack]

Say, does anyone know if there's been a GPD file put out yet with which I can swap into an offline profile like with Reach to get all the armor and emblems unlocked for local play?

[DarkHalo003]

Told you ingame joining broke game. If I decide the game given to me won't be fun/winnable I decide to quit it, if it happens multiple times (which as I've previously stated, it does), I'll get banned.
Habitual quitting. That means you quit nearly every game. 7/20 wouldn't get you banned. 15/20 would.

[PlasbianX]

Told you ingame joining broke game. If I decide the game given to me won't be fun/winnable I decide to quit it, if it happens multiple times (which as I've previously stated, it does), I'll get banned.

If you're going to join a game I'm playing and trying to make a comeback in and quit, then I do hope you get banned.

[ejburke]

I'm sure you can get away with quitting games that you're hopelessly outnumbered and are just being spawn-camped and farmed. Even if that was every game you played, I'm positive they wouldn't dare ban you for that.

But players will naturally stretch their justifications for quitting to include the map choice, whether they can get the power weapon or vehicle they want, etc. Remember: the fewer people that quit, the less often people will get slotted into game that are in progress. So only do it when it's really necessary and save the film as proof.

[Limited]

I would like to point out, I've played 76 matches so far and haven't quit a single one.

[PlasbianX]

Also, Has anyone figured out how to make custom challenges yet?

[Ki11a_FTW]

I managed to get a flash drive to play MP. I don't know what you're talking about limited, out of my solid first 10 games I've came in first or second place everytime.. My second game ever playing the game and I was atleast 16 kills above the person in second place. Keeping in mind that I haven't played live since Halo 3. I see no flaw in the matchmaking so far, excluding the shitty UI. Then again the people I'm versing could be like WTF.

[Sanctus]

http://m.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-11/best-review-halo-4

Best review ever.

[annihilation]

Everyone knows his name is Iron Chef

[thehoodedsmack]

"How far to the missile?"
"We're just about there," they said for a god-damn hour.

Fuck this game on Legendary. This shit is broken in HALF!

How do you guys get past the fuck-ton of Covenant bastards on the first level? The room with the little glass gazebo in the centre. With the gold Elite and the BILLION Grunts.

[ODX]

Take out the two jackals on the side with a plasma pistol/AR, then begin taking out the grunts in the middle (one by one, slowly, retreating after each kill) with a plasma pistol. They recoil as you shoot them so they can't do anything, and they always drop a new fresh PP so you don't run out of ammo.

After that, go one way and try to either throw grenades at the Elites, use a needler, or plasma pistol one at a time. It's a bitch, yeah, but not impossible.

[=sw=warlord]

Sprint to the rocket and press the button to launch it as soon as it says the rocket is jammed.

[Tnnaas]

I took it slowly and carefully. The rounded glass room was only a mild annoyance. Above all, PP is best with anything, but you'll want a BR in space. Keep an eye out for snipers and take out unshielded infantry. Elites are annoying but can be taken down if you persist.

I didn't die once on Legendary and I had to deal with every encounter possible. You can do it. It just takes patience.

[Arteen]

Having trouble on the first level? Boy are you going to have have some fun when the prometheans show up.

[ejburke]

The first mission is the shortest and easiest. I'm afraid of what will happen when you hit the 3rd level. Either quit now or make sure your insurance is paid up.

[Tnnaas]

These two speak the truth. Here's a trick I came up with when dealing with a lot of the Knights: Kill their lessers (Crawlers, Watchers, you know), then hide behind something. They will go into a patrol mode. When you see them walking away from you, quickly run up and beat them down. Or assassinate them since it's so much more satisfying. Rinse and repeat with every encounter. I didn't have any ammo problems because I was shooting unshielded targets. I died a lot though because a Knight would bum-rush me at the wrong moment.

When you hit the second tower, that's when shit gets real. Boost to run over the first Elite by the banshee. After that, it's a toss-up. I can't remember what I did for that part, but it took many a try.

[=sw=warlord]

If you have a lancer promethean suddenly begun to teleport dash at you, step to the left and then assassinate them as they finish their charging at you.

[Ki11a_FTW]

They always miss a lot when they do that bum rush thing.. if timed right, yes, easy assassination.

[TeeKup]

That's No Moon challenge can go fuck itself. I can't find the patience to do this.

[Kornman00]

The Ghost run in Forerunner was not playtested in co-op. 343i is now on my shit list. Prepare to die.

Also, to beat the game on Legendary you pretty much have to take things slow. One enemy at a time. And crawl every inch of the landscape for weapon placements. Especially UNSC shit, since that green bullshit just blends into the landscape.

[TeeKup]

Holy shit SWAT is amazingly atrocious. How the hell do you people enjoy this game mode.

[Kornman00]

I guess you could say it's hit...or miss :caruso:

[DarkHalo003]

So I played until the "Longsword" mission:

All I can say is that it's a solid game with solid gameplay. The art design is solid, though few things speak to me. The game is beautiful aesthetically though. The Prometheans take some time to get used to. On their debut level I was completely schooled, then the Didact shows up and I begin to figure out how they work. The weapon are all really cool and have their own feels. They can technically fulfill the same roles, but it comes down to a manner of style and how they accomplish those roles. With that said, I picked up a Carbine any chance I had. Although it takes quite a bit to kill an Elite with, it's still a very resourceful tool. At the right times, I find nearly all weapons to be some sort of fun. The only stipulation is that each one requires its own playstyle to be affective, which can be a bit challenging at first. Either way, I played til the latest level on Heroic and was completely immersed in the game. A lot of fun, a different kind of challenging than other Halo games, but pretty intense all the same.

The only things I did not like were how obnoxious I found vehicles to be (especially the fucking Banshees, oh my God those things lead to my dying more than I can count), grenade throwing felt weird compared to past games, and although the audio is fantastic a lot of weapons sound incredibly similar. I had difficulty distinguishing between plasma and human weapon sounds for a while. Another thing that bothered me, but not so much after a couple of levels, was that Promethean Knights take so much to kill. I don't want to say they are straight up damage sponges because they have a good intensity to them that keeps them form being Halo 2 Brutes, but I do want to mention that they can soak up so much damage it's ridiculous on Heroic. I can't even imagine playing this on Legendary yet. Hunters are pretty badass though, but they aren't much tougher than they are in Reach. This was on Heroic though, so really all I used to kill them was the energy sword or kited them off the edge of platforms. Fun stuff. One Hunter took an entire Fuel Rod clip to the face and didn't die. I was absolutely astonished. Bad. Ass. Anyways, the level where you're defending the Composer was a lot of fun and challenge, but the final engagement location and encounters felt really broken for some reason. I suppose when you use up two Mantis Mechs and have to shoot down the Banshees/etc with Machine Gun Turret, then I guess that'd make sense. I wish plasma cannons (the guns mounted on banshees and ghosts and phantom side turrets) weren't so annoying though. Those got me killed indirectly quite a few times and almost more than Banshees did.

The story now, that's something VERY different. Different indeed. It's really strange, still Halo enough, but STRANGE. I also don't know if I like the aesthetic appearance of the Forerunners faces. No one said they were angelic, but I do feel like they were physically portrayed as other galactic organisms than I'd liked. The Librarian was kind of ugly as a result too. . However, when the Didact put on his armor, IT WAS AWESOME. Their characters were AWESOME though, very Forerunner, and I'm okay with that. It was also cool to find out that the Prometheans were recomposed Humans by the Didact or something. They are also Advanced AI Systems for defense, kind of like the step-up from Sentinels, which I was glad to be right about! I also like how the Chief basically didn't give a fuck when the Captain yelled for him to hand over Cortana. Lasky was also a boss for giving him the most kickass Pelican ever. Then the story kind of takes some turns, with Cortana really going on the fritz, and then it starts doing the jumping around that we all hated from Halo 2 and Halo 3, which it was cool that you go from Requiem to Halo AT THE VERY END....then you jump somewhere that I don't know about yet. It's like "Oh look guys, a HALO, awesome right? Kthnxbai let's go somewhere completely different! Again!" I would have liked it if they would have stayed on Halo. The death ray was pretty fucking cool though. I also like how the Librarian tied-up the loose end that 343GS said about MC being a Forerunner ultimately and how Reclaimers are still relevantly important to the story, which is why MC survived said deathray (after the Librarian did some tweaking to make his genes even more boss). So now I am at what appears to be a deathstar-like segment. I can't wait to see what happens! Also, I'm curious to know what 'Jul Mdama has been doing during this time. Has he been communicating with the Didact at all? If he doesn't appear at the end of this game, will he appear in future media like Halo 5? Interesting enough I hope. Really liking this game so far and I probably shouldn't sitdown to play for 6 hours in one day. My head kind of hurts now. Glad I got to play as much as I did though, considering I don't even own it on my own Xbox yet.

I haven't even touched multiplayer and haven't even begun to think about it. All I can say is that for me it will be a VERY interesting experience. Spartan Ops will be too.

[Sanctus]

Sprint to the rocket and press the button to launch it as soon as it says the rocket is jammed.
THIS. If you are fast enough, you'll make it without a single shot being fired at you.



Holy shit SWAT is amazingly atrocious. How the hell do you people enjoy this game mode.
It's become a twitch shooting DMR-fest.

E: I experience moderate success with the magnum, but that's only on maps like Adrift. If I'm on complex, then I just come to terms with my imminent demise.