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[AwakenedCloud]

I guess I am alone in liking Dual Welding.

Nope. I loved it. Halo 2 will always far and away be my favorite Halo for it. I think Halo 4's lack of popularity came from franchise fatigue and showing up late in the generation more than the actual quality of the game. Halo 3 came out in 2007, and there had been a game in the series almost every year since then.

A lot of people here don't seem to care for it, but the reception around launch and from the people who played online for the most part seemed positive. Out of the 360 set of games in the franchise, it was probably my favorite.

 

[Havoc2049]

I went back and played Halo 2 Vista recently on Legendary, to get the achievement before GFWL is shut down and the campaign in Halo 2 is leagues better than Halo 4. Way better story and the level design is better as well. Let's not forget that the Halo 4 end fight is a short QTE...SMH...

 

[Advance_Alarm]

This is depressing. Changed halo formula to cater to COD crowd and look what happened. I'm glad Halo fans quit this garbage.

I agree. I was THERE when Halo 3 was the biggest game around for 3 years, staying at the top of XBL despite a new CoD every year. The abysmal Halo 4 numbers should be a wake-up call for 343, but I doubt they will listen. I wonder if anybody at 343 even cares that they have driven a once excellent franchise into the ground with their terrible decisions. Most likely they are too busy celebrating the good initial sales of Halo 4 while playing with all of the cash M$ gave them to be worried about Halo fans.

 

[rokkerkory]

I agree. I was THERE when Halo 3 was the biggest game around for 3 years, staying at the top of XBL despite a new CoD every year. The abysmal Halo 4 numbers should be a wake-up call for 343, but I doubt they will listen. I wonder if anybody at 343 even cares that they have driven a once excellent franchise into the ground with their terrible decisions. Most likely they are too busy celebrating the good initial sales of Halo 4 while playing with all of the cash M$ gave them to be worried about Halo fans.

Stinkles tweeted they were humbled so here's hoping.

Also using 'M$' is sooo 2005

 

[Rickenslacker]

I sort of see your first point, but Bungie was good at making sure when their were dual wielding weapons on maps, there were plenty to make a pair. I dont agree that it was dinky vs powerful at all really, the Plasma Rifle and the Mauler both hold their own. Disagree completely on the second point, that's basic risk vs reward game design.

That's just it though, it was going all-in with little payoff. Outside of the Plasma Pistol and Mauler, your choices left you vastly outclassed by picking up nearly anything else. So you throw away a lot of your choices just so that you can stay on par with AR rushing and not much else.

The Plasma Rifle (and all plasma weapons) had an alternate use in CE which slowed the aim of anyone hit by it, but I can only imagine they tossed that out for 2 onward by walking the dual wielding tightrope balancing act as a means of allowing you to use something else along with it. It's been a shadow of its former self ever since.

 

[LowSignal]

???

One of the biggest issues with Halo 3's handling of DLC is that they didn't make the maps free after a time. The game is going on seven years old, and the maps still aren't free.

I thought (wrongly) all of them were free after a set time but for sure the heroic was after a point.

 

[Syphon Filter]

Stinkles tweeted they were humbled so here's hoping.

Also using 'M$' is sooo 2005

link to tweet?

 

[HTupolev]

I thought (wrongly) all of them were free after a set time but for sure the heroic was after a point.

It's only Cold Storage and the Heroic pack.

Of Halo 3's 13 DLC maps, only 4 are free. To purchase the rest on XBL, you still have to spend $17. Which you might notice is more than it will cost you to go buy a new copy of Halo 3: ODST, which comes with a Halo 3 MP disc featuring all of Halo 3's DLC.

 

[HiredN00bs]

Loadouts are fine. Just make them static/preset with no option to customize them and no option to change your loadout mid-match.

At this point, you might as well just remove them. And the unlocks in Halo 4 need the full variety loadouts provide.

Next Halo should go back to its roots: create a small, well-balanced weapon set, focus on the basics—movement, shooting, and action (ditch armor abilities, sprint, and any movement that restricts shooting), do everything possible to make matches fair and fast (ditch vote screens, loadouts), encourage players to win matches rather than grind kills (heavily reward fast victory), and they will come. Games don't need XP systems and tons of guns, they need good gameplay and a strong self-identity.

 

[hooijdonk17]

Having the Plasma Pistol and Plasma Grenade be selectable in load outs was one of the worst decisions in the game. I would never want to play BTB because I would just get Plasma Pistoled and Plasma Naded whenever I got in a vehicle. One of the most infuriating things in the multiplayer ever.

They actually did that? LOL.

 

[everyday math]

They actually did that? LOL.

Then you add in the mini-shotgun the boltshot. Just a smorgasbord of fun. /s

 

[l Zealot l]

Then you add in the mini-shotgun the boltshot. Just a smorgasbord of fun. /s

Mauler > boltshot

Placed on map not in loadouts of course.

 

[everyday math]

Mauler > boltshot

Placed on map not in loadouts of course.

I can't understand what was going through their heads allowing that to be put in a loud out.

Also agreed, I loved my duel wielding Maulers.

 

[Rockyrock]

Nope. I loved it. Halo 2 will always far and away be my favorite Halo for it. I think Halo 4's lack of popularity came from franchise fatigue and showing up late in the generation more than the actual quality of the game. Halo 3 came out in 2007, and there had been a game in the series almost every year since then.

A lot of people here don't seem to care for it, but the reception around launch and from the people who played online for the most part seemed positive. Out of the 360 set of games in the franchise, it was probably my favorite.

Halo 2 came out 1 year before the 360 launch and it was still absurdly popular.

Halo 4 failed due to beyond horrible design choices, nothing else.

 

[l Zealot l]

I can't understand what was going through their heads allowing that to be put in a loud out.

"How can we make the kill times faster and less skilful?"

Halo 2 came out 1 year before the 360 launch and it was still absurdly popular.

Also take into account the impact H2 had on Xbox live and online play in general, it was insane.

 

[Naked Lunch]

It took me quite a while to get used to but I ended up liking H4's multiplayer far more than Reach in the end. The gameplay patch that came out last summer did wonders. Even with H4's changes, there is still nothing like it on the console market. It still plays so unique. I still pick up 4 every once in a while. I have a group of friends who really enjoy it so that helps. Even the music of H4 grew on me with time. In the end though it was nowhere close to H2/3 multi.

The biggest Halo 4 screw up for me is that CTF shows the flag carrier at all times to the enemy. This is fine in large scale games like Battlefield and super fast games like Titanfall but this needs to be removed from Halo 5. The days of sneaking the flag out are over with this system. Its dumbed down to the maximum. Halo used to be my favorite CTF game outside of Team Fortress Classic. 4 ruined it.

343 got the look of Halo down pat - 4's graphics and art style were amazing - some of my favorite art in all of gaming. I have high hopes for Halo 5 and I still greatly enjoy the fiction. The poncho H5 trailer had me hyped beyond belief even after all these years.

 

[thenexus6]

When I played the original Halo I was blown away, I even got an Xbox because of it and been an xbox gamer ever since (until I just got a PS4).

My problems with Halo 4:

Maps and rotation on MP were not good. They are just not interesting and small. I don't quite remember the name but i'd play BTB with a few friends and the same map would come up literally 4-5+ times in a row.. I know its not good to live in the past but Halo 2 and 3 maps haven't been topped in terms of the quality. Bring out a "Halo classics" map pack with maps from theses games and i'd pay whatever you're asking.

Weapons were boring, Promethean weapons weren't fun to use. Not interesting; its just a pistol, SMG, Rifle, sniper just with a different skin at the end of the day. Also I found fighting the Prometheans boring too.

Having load outs / classes I didn't like either, thats for Call of Duty not Halo. It got to a point where you didn't even pick up weapons on the maps anymore expect from the power weapons.. I remember times i'd run out of rifle ammo and there just wasn't any on the map

SP wasn't that interesting no where near as fun as previous games especially on co-op. Didact was goofy looking to

Things I liked:

Graphically the game is very nice, while I prefer the art from the previous games the graphics are super.

The soundtrack was also very good, no work of Marty but I was happy with it.

Gameplay was good still for the most part, shooting felt tight.

Another thing, not really the games fault, but I grew up loving and playing Halo and I also loved that Bungie were good to the community. They were the only company where I could actually name and recognise people opposed to all these faceless companies making games. Because of that I felt in a community and part of something more. With B.net, their podcast, vid docs etc.

After Bungie left Halo I haven't felt this with Halo 4.

 

[Prine]

I agree I wasn't into H4 multiplayer as much as the others, but the single player was superior to Reach and H3. Locations were spectacular, and just like the original Halo, it felt great exploring and uncovering strange alien world's. One of the best single player Halos, but the multiplayer was just "decent"

 

[reptilescorpio]

Roughly a year after release, Halo 3 had a 1.1 million peak population day.
Reach had a 900,000 peak population day after the same amount of time.
Halo 4 clocks in at 20,000 peak for it's annual checkup

Wow that's shocking. Especially considering the much larger install base the 360 for each subsequent game.

 

[l Zealot l]

Wow that's shocking. Especially considering the much larger install base the 360 for each subsequent game.

It speaks resoundingly of what the people want.

 

[hooijdonk17]

I think part of it may also have to do with people being burned out on Halo in general.

I was super hyped for H3, pre-ordered the CE and finished it in a day, and played MP for years.

I was hyped for Halo: RECON (ODST), got it in first month, finished it later in the year.

I was interested in Halo: Reach, I got it only last year, I have yet to open the shrinkwrap.

I'm really not interested in Halo 4 at all..

 

[DopeyFish]

There were so many problems with H4 that they should just throw out everything and use H2 as a base

No perks, no ordnance, no sprint, no random weapon locations, proper game modes, no assassination animations, ramps on every map and no stairs, no loadouts, no armor abilities, proper ranking system, etc

The reason H2 was so popular was because it was one of the best arena deathmatch games in existence. It had great map control, very good gunplay, GREAT game modes, and very very good grenade play. A bunch of stuff was lost in H3. Reach was shit. H4 was worse.

Halo 2 was simple. No bullshit, easy to understand, high skill gap. Very very intense.

Halo 3 was still passable because despite the bad AA and the messed up game modes (assault being a piece of shit compared to H2, and the removal of contesting for assault/ctf) it was still OK but not great.

Halo 3 had great deathmatch. But the game modes were all messed up and sometimes lacking.

I hope Halo 5 brings back flag/bomb contesting just like it was in H2, brings back CTF from H2 and assault/territories from both H2 and H3 (both variants across games were good). H3 is best reference for slayer except without the AA. KOTH was best in H3 too.

H2 is the best reference for vehicles except with more health. (but maybe not as insane as H3 beta... warthogs were death machines)

Everything added from H3, reach and 4 was basically "how do we mess with the formula?"

Grenades too good? We will just add stairs and shit on walls!
Vehicles too fun? We will just add 2 anti vehicle AAs and let people use charged PP shots to disable!
People too good at maintaining map control? We will add ordnance, random weapons, remove contesting and completely screw up spawns to the point where they make no damn sense!
Played waterworks or sandtrap twice and everyone took all the vehicles so you have to walk? Wahhh lets add sprint
Having difficulty getting the flag out of the base? Omg lets make the flag carrier run the same speed as everyone else and then we will disallow flag dropping, having flags on auto pick up and put a target on your head for the sake of balance! And then we will remove 1 flag just because.

Its really quite shocking how we went from halo 2... the best CTF game ever to halo 4... the WORST CTF game ever.

And whoever thought assassination animations were a good idea (in reach and halo4) deserves to be slapped until the hands of the person doing the slapping snaps off.

 

[akira28]

Dual Magnums was my fucking favorite thing ever. Like Dual Automags from Unreal and Unreal Tournament.

The only thing I liked more was the Jetpacks...yeah yeah I know, everyone hates the Jetpacks and AAs. Not me.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

TBH the writing was on the wall long before 343i took over. Bungie turned Halo into something it isn't in Reach. The armor abilities ruined the 'Halo' feel of the game. 343i just took the logical step forward along the path Bungie had already set by evolving the armor abilities into the perk system we saw in Halo 4.

I disagree with the above poster about Halo 3. Those weren't armor abilities. They were single-use items that you had to pick up on the maps just like any ordinance weapon and they helped with maintaining map movement and causing choke points and hot zones to develope spontaneously.

OP is absolutely right in that they tried to chase the CoD crowd with Reach and H4, and in the process lost their own playerbase, while not succeeding in bringing in the CoD guys. CoD players will always be CoD players, and no other franchise is going to lure them away from that annualized cash cow. Halo should've stuck to what it did best.

The truth will be in the pudding if the rumor was true and Halo 2:A releases this fall, with its full multiplayer intact and un-blemished. They really ought to do it, because they could at least test the waters and see if taking Halo back to its roots (multiplayer wise) can salvage the franchise.

I guess we'll see.

 

[Synth_floyd]

I didn't mind the armor abilities. Though I think the only useful ones were armor lock, camo, sprint and sometimes one or two others depending on the situation. Reach still felt like Halo and I loved the MP. Most people only used the same few armor abilities so you could adapt and it wasn't a big deal. With H4, everything turned into a clusterfuck.

 

[Skeleton]

Halo 4 multiplayer. NOT even once.

Bring back the days of Halo 2/3 with a decent ranking system and a matchmaking that did the simple thing of "TEAM VS TEAM" not TEAM VS Randoms."

Take out the pick your weapon shit LOOKING AT YOU BOLT SHOT YOU RUINED THE GAME FOR SOOO LONG, stick to what works, AR/BR starts.....

Plus with there being no ranking system it made games 90% of the time uneven,

My 4.5kd says so, which is a real shame. I prefer a challenge then a complete whitewash every damn game.

I really hope whoever was like RANDOM WEAPON DROPS AND ORDINANCE for kill streaks got fired as that really fucked it up the flow broke.

also I'd like to add that the perks ruined everything and people sprinting away whilst you pepper them with BR and they live is a whole other level of annoying.

God I hate this game, Played it solid for the first month hit SR130 then stopped. I would have hit it so so much sooner, if it wasn't for the god damn credit cap, which btw is stupid. If i want to waste my life on a game, let me and reward me for doing so.

Although saying that now I live with my GF I don't get to game that often anymore

God damn this thread, it essentially ripped the scab off my wound IT HURTTTTSSSS

Saying this I am cautiously excited for halo 2 and halo 5 on xbox one as cloud hosted dedicated servers and a ranking system and the things fixed above could make it one hell of an awesome game.

 

[HiredN00bs]

TBH the writing was on the wall long before 343i took over. Bungie turned Halo into something it isn't in Reach. The armor abilities ruined the 'Halo' feel of the game. 343i just took the logical step forward along the path Bungie had already set by evolving the armor abilities into the perk system we saw in Halo 4.

I disagree with the above poster about Halo 3. Those weren't armor abilities.

I fail to see how armor abilities in Reach logically lead to perks in 4. I mean many of them are just straight copies of modifiers in Call of Duty.

 

[FourMyle]

They made CoD with outsourced Halo skins. That's what happened

 

[Laws00]

I want to play halo 4 i do i just cant.

My friend made the game feel so boring. I swear the CoD life got to him or the competitive side or whatever it is. All he cared to do was his K/D. K/D this and that. Obsessed with being postive. Would go to capture the flag, and play objective just to go hide and shoot people to raise his K/D and if he was doing bad he'd leave and try to invite us into another game he made.

We also played swat, we were good at it lol and when we found ourselves challenged he would leave.

I swear this game ruined him for the worse. I mean I can just play but the mind set of his just leaked onto us too as well.

I just cant see myself playing the game without worrying about my K/D now. He made me consensuses about it. I know its stupid but people are concerned about their K/Ds in game. And CoD people get a bad wrap from their games, leaving matches and yada yada things.

I'd rather play older halo games where I had fun not giving a fuck. I mean I can still play halo 4 I just me personally dont see the point for personal reasons as I pointed it out. That game will forever be the stain to me

uuggh friends love them

sorry for my rant

 

[Fehyd]

Gameplay aside, Spartan Ops was probably one of my favorite things about the game. I loved actually being my own character as opposed to MC. The coop aspect of it was pretty fun as well.

 

[mocoworm]

There were so many problems with H4 that they should just throw out everything and use H2 as a base

No perks, no ordnance, no sprint, no random weapon locations, proper game modes, no assassination animations, ramps on every map and no stairs, no loadouts, no armor abilities, proper ranking system, etc

The reason H2 was so popular was because it was one of the best arena deathmatch games in existence. It had great map control, very good gunplay, GREAT game modes, and very very good grenade play. A bunch of stuff was lost in H3. Reach was shit. H4 was worse.

Halo 2 was simple. No bullshit, easy to understand, high skill gap. Very very intense.

Halo 3 was still passable because despite the bad AA and the messed up game modes (assault being a piece of shit compared to H2, and the removal of contesting for assault/ctf) it was still OK but not great.

Halo 3 had great deathmatch. But the game modes were all messed up and sometimes lacking.

I hope Halo 5 brings back flag/bomb contesting just like it was in H2, brings back CTF from H2 and assault/territories from both H2 and H3 (both variants across games were good). H3 is best reference for slayer except without the AA. KOTH was best in H3 too.

H2 is the best reference for vehicles except with more health. (but maybe not as insane as H3 beta... warthogs were death machines)

Everything added from H3, reach and 4 was basically "how do we mess with the formula?"

Grenades too good? We will just add stairs and shit on walls!
Vehicles too fun? We will just add 2 anti vehicle AAs and let people use charged PP shots to disable!
People too good at maintaining map control? We will add ordnance, random weapons, remove contesting and completely screw up spawns to the point where they make no damn sense!
Played waterworks or sandtrap twice and everyone took all the vehicles so you have to walk? Wahhh lets add sprint
Having difficulty getting the flag out of the base? Omg lets make the flag carrier run the same speed as everyone else and then we will disallow flag dropping, having flags on auto pick up and put a target on your head for the sake of balance! And then we will remove 1 flag just because.

Its really quite shocking how we went from halo 2... the best CTF game ever to halo 4... the WORST CTF game ever.

And whoever thought assassination animations were a good idea (in reach and halo4) deserves to be slapped until the hands of the person doing the slapping snaps off.

..

 

[AwakenedCloud]

Halo 2 came out 1 year before the 360 launch and it was still absurdly popular.

Halo 4 failed due to beyond horrible design choices, nothing else.

There weren't any Halo games between Halo 1 and 2. People were incredibly hungry for another Halo game.

 

[Karl2177]

Gameplay aside, Spartan Ops was probably one of my favorite things about the game. I loved actually being my own character as opposed to MC. The coop aspect of it was pretty fun as well.

Sadly for me, Spartan Ops was one of the things I was looking forward to the most and it heavily disappointed me. To me the idea of mini missions is a great way to add replayability. It turned out to be practically the same missions with minor changes. It really took away the dynamic aspect that Halo's AI did really well in previous games. I don't really want to go into a ton of detail with my complaints right now, but having it paywalled off killed my desire to ever replay it.

 

[akira28]

I miss Halo night. Pizza, booze, oregano for the pizza, headsets, friends all over the country. My friend list has like 4 active members now, and nobody plays Halo. They killed it. They blew it up!!

PlanetofApesLaugh.gif

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Halo 3 had best singleplayer

Halo 2 had best multiplayer

Halo 4 has the worst single and multiplayer

And Halo CE had a phenomenal single player, an amazingly accessible multiplayer, and skill-based shooting that felt rewarding. There was absolutely no reason for Bungie to make Halo 2 slower, floatier, deliberately inconsistent and exponentially easier.

It is hard to not see the out cry for old school Halo game play. If they don't then they are blatantly ignoring the fans.

To add: I feel like a broken record, but Bungie didn't really listen to the fans as much as people would like to believe. After Halo 2, people begged for a more consistent utility rifle (which Bungie was opposed to in the first place, so that was only one war going on during that time), faster movement speed (yet another war as people fought over how Halo needed to be faster), faster kill times (yup, another war), etc., but what did we receive? The exact opposite.

343 isn't innocent here either. Who was asking for the Active Camo AA to return? I don't know about you guys, but I haven't seen one person say that they loved this Armor Ability and wanted to see it return in Halo 4. What I did see however was the backlash it received in Reach, only for it to be improved and more readily available in Halo 4. The trend continued of the fans not being listened to..

So before people go dumping on 343, Bungie's been making seemingly obvious mistakes with this multiplayer for many years. Halo 4 needed to happen at the time that it did because 343, being a new studio, had to be broken in order to become greatness because otherwise we would have gone through the same cycles as we've seen in the past. If they don't know by now that the "vocal minority," as we who post on forums have been called by Bungie for so many years, is a rather decent representation of the entire demographic of Halo players, then they never will.

And no, I don't hate Bungie.. I just don't think they were into Halo as much after Halo 3, the multiplayer at least (especially with this "colorful" community lol). Now that we have a fresh studio to take the reins of this franchise and the backlash after Halo 4, I think we're going to see a far superior Halo game than we've seen previously. The jump from Halo 4 to Halo 5 is going to be more significant (in a positive way) than the jump between CE and Halo 2 (which IMO led to the downfall of Halo gameplay). Halo 2 was a really fun game that had the best maps and gametypes, but Halo 3 should have been more like CE and less like a more sluggish, more inconsistent Halo 2.

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

And Halo CE had a phenomenal single player, an amazingly accessible multiplayer, and skill-based shooting that felt rewarding. There was absolutely no reason for Bungie to make Halo 2 slower, floatier, deliberately inconsistent and exponentially easier.

To add: I feel like a broken record, but Bungie didn't really listen to the fans as much as people would like to believe. After Halo 2, people begged for a more consistent utility rifle (which Bungie was opposed to in the first place, so that was only one war going on during that time), faster movement speed (yet another war as people fought over how Halo needed to be faster), faster kill times (yup, another war), etc., but what did we receive? The exact opposite.

343 isn't innocent here either. Who was asking for the Active Camo AA to return? I don't know about you guys, but I haven't seen one person say that they loved this Armor Ability and wanted to see it return in Halo 4. What I did see however was the backlash it received in Reach, only for it to be improved and more readily available in Halo 4. The trend continued of the fans not being listened to..

So before people go dumping on 343, Bungie's been making seemingly obvious mistakes with this multiplayer for many years. Halo 4 needed to happen at the time that it did because 343, being a new studio, had to be broken in order to become greatness because otherwise we would have gone through the same cycles as we've seen in the past. If they don't know by now that the "vocal minority," as we who post on forums have been called by Bungie for so many years, is a rather decent representation of the entire demographic of Halo players, then they never will.

And no, I don't hate Bungie.. I just don't think they were into Halo as much after Halo 3, the multiplayer at least (especially with this "colorful" community lol). Now that we have a fresh studio to take the reins of this franchise and the backlash after Halo 4, I think we're going to see a far superior Halo game than we've seen previously. The jump from Halo 4 to Halo 5 is going to be more significant (in a positive way) than the jump between CE and Halo 2 (which IMO led to the downfall of Halo gameplay). Halo 2 was a really fun game that had the best maps and gametypes, but Halo 3 should have been more like CE and less like a more sluggish, more inconsistent Halo 2.

<3 Giving me hope.

 

[Feorax]

The fact that Halo 4 had the same problems with map rotation and multiplayer achievements that Halo 3 had almost 7 years earlier says a lot to me. The campaign wasn't bad, but this was absolutely a "by the numbers" sequel, with the exceptions of a couple of elements to try and make it a bit COD-like.

It's why I'm glad Bungie aren't making a straight up FPS for Destiny, since neither they nor 343i seemed to learn from mistakes.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

The best overall campaign in terms of pacing, story, art and character development in the history of the Halo franchise happened, that's what.

 

[Yopis]

Crazy how times change Socom 2 and Halo 2 were biggest online shooters for the consoles.
Now Socom is dead Zipper closed after running it to the ground and Halo 4 failed to keep true Halo fans.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

<3 Giving me hope.

hahah, Halo 5 is 343's real shot at being respected by the entire Halo fanbase. Halo 4 can be forgiven based on their situation, but with Halo 5 they won't have that luxury. I have confidence in what they will produce honestly. Sure I've said this with past Halo games, but this time I feel confident (which is also what I've said with each game lol).

Crazy how times change Socom 2 and Halo 2 were biggest online shooters for the consoles.
Now Socom is dead Zipper closed after running it to the ground and Halo 4 failed to keep true Halo fans.

You know what happened to both of these franchises? They both tried to appeal to crowds that were never going to stick around for the long haul, hurting their core fanbase in the process. It's just that with Halo, the population was far greater as the franchise was on the rise, while Socom wasn't fortunate enough to have similar legs to stand on.

 

[Wickerman22]

It's also important to note that Halo 3 was out about 6 weeks before COD4. Halo was the game of the era. On Xbox 360 you were either playing Gears of War or Halo. The COD era hadn't really started yet. I was an absolute hardcore Halo player, especially Halo 3. However, once COD4 launched that November, it was game over for me. The COD "formula" and gameplay won my heart over.

My point is, because of COD, Battlefield, now Titanfall, etc, Halo will never be what it was. And even if Halo 4 would have been an epic return to the series, the landscape has changed.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

It's also important to note that Halo 3 was out about 6 weeks before COD4. Halo was the game of the era. On Xbox 360 you were either playing Gears of War or Halo. The COD era hadn't really started yet. I was an absolute hardcore Halo player, especially Halo 3. However, once COD4 launched that November, it was game over for me. The COD "formula" and gameplay won my heart over.

My point is, because of COD, Battlefield, now Titanfall, etc, Halo will never be what it was. And even if Halo 4 would have been an epic return to the series, the landscape has changed.

Agreed. In addition, CoD was releasing a phenomenal experience annually while Halo took 3 years to see a new release that wasn't an exponential improvement over its predecessor. People gave shit to Bungie/Microsoft for "milking" the Halo franchise because people apparently weren't used to sequels back then, but Activision gave CoD fans more of what they wanted year after year after year while Halo just sat and gave the fans the exact opposite.

People give shit to CoD for this, but now we're seeing that this was the best decision for that franchise. One year is a long time in today's market of games competing for your time (publishers not wanting you to sell your games to GameStop, rise in DLC, etc.), so CoD not sitting on its laurels paid off.

EDIT:

Halo doesn't need to be what it was. It needs to be better than it has ever been.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Twilight Gap]

It's also important to note that Halo 3 was out about 6 weeks before COD4. Halo was the game of the era. On Xbox 360 you were either playing Gears of War or Halo. The COD era hadn't really started yet. I was an absolute hardcore Halo player, especially Halo 3. However, once COD4 launched that November, it was game over for me. The COD "formula" and gameplay won my heart over.

My point is, because of COD, Battlefield, now Titanfall, etc, Halo will never be what it was. And even if Halo 4 would have been an epic return to the series, the landscape has changed.

Halo doesn't need to be what it was. It needs to be better than it has ever been.

 

[Brerlappin]

The best overall campaign in terms of pacing, story, art and character development in the history of the Halo franchise happened, that's what.

HAHAHAHAHA....seriously?? That confused, piss poor messthat made the least amount of sense of any Halo title and had the blandest enemy design, with the most linear mission design and ended with a QTE, and ruined its characters like how it turned Cortana into a helpless damsel in distress, was the best Halo yet? Oh man...i think i need to lie down.

 

[Santiako]

The best overall campaign in terms of pacing, story, art and character development in the history of the Halo franchise happened, that's what.

It was by far the worst campaign of the series.

 

[Gui_PT]

The best overall campaign in terms of pacing, story, art and character development in the history of the Halo franchise happened, that's what.

 

[Rockyrock]

It's also important to note that Halo 3 was out about 6 weeks before COD4. Halo was the game of the era. On Xbox 360 you were either playing Gears of War or Halo. The COD era hadn't really started yet. I was an absolute hardcore Halo player, especially Halo 3. However, once COD4 launched that November, it was game over for me. The COD "formula" and gameplay won my heart over.

My point is, because of COD, Battlefield, now Titanfall, etc, Halo will never be what it was. And even if Halo 4 would have been an epic return to the series, the landscape has changed.

There has never been a true Halo game released since the CoD era started. That's what's so baffling.

Reach was the beginning of Codification, ODST didn't have a true MP, and Halo 4 was the completion of the CoD transformation.

We haven't even seen an attempt at the successful Halo formula since 2007. How can they know its not what people want if they never tried it. Especially when the last 3 times they did it was astronomically successful.

 

[Nydius]

The best overall campaign in terms of pacing, story, art and character development in the history of the Halo franchise happened, that's what.

Can't tell if serious or if proof that people will gladly eat a shit sandwich if it's loaded down with enough condiments.

 

[HTupolev]

Can't tell if serious or if proof that people will gladly eat a shit sandwich if it's loaded down with enough condiments.

It's SenjutsuSage.

Probably dead serious.

 

[squidhands]

We haven't even seen an attempt at the successful Halo formula since 2007. How can they know its not what people want if they never tried it. Especially when the last 3 times they did it was astronomically successful.

I wished that 343 had released the stripped down Throwdown playlist at launch, alongside the (IMO wretched) Infinity playlists and let the population decide what was going to stick over a longer period of time. I felt that Throwdown was released far too late to attract any players that would provide decent matchmaking for someone like myself who isn't a teenage twitch machine.

343 lost my trust, but as yet haven't destroyed my hope for a good future Halo game.