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First Halo 4 GI information (Spartan OPs, multi, etc) [Update: Campaign/More Details]

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
LOL, Cortana adopted a new visual form that I'm sure will insert sexual tension throughout the game!

While not mentioned in the details, she refers to him at John in all the dialog now, and John has also gotten on the sarcasm train. :p
 

Portugeezer

Member
Because it fucking sucks when all your team rage quit and you are left alone, or when half the enemy quit and then teams are unbalanced.

What about when you join in progress to a losing team or a game which is already ending? Not much fun there, in fact it's worse for me because if people quit at least you have an excuse for not winning, if you join a losing game (which is usually the case, losers rage quit, leaves an empty slot for the losing team how great)... well that just sucks balls.
 

Arnie

Member
While not mentioned in the details, she refers to him at John in all the dialog now, and John has also gotten on the sarcasm train. :p

In fairness, the dialogue seems very consistent with how the pair have always interacted in the novels. It's 343's goal to bring the series more in line with the novels, and in this respect I think it'd be harsh to criticise them. The Master Chief isn't just a shell as the first three games seem to imply, and I'm glad the other side of him is finally being told.
 

Row

Banned
AA were horrible in reach. If you're going to piggyback onto what has made CoD so huge, atleast go all the way with it. The half assed nature of AA in reach just sucked for everyone.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
In fairness, the dialogue seems very consistent with how the pair have always interacted in the novels. It's 343's goal to bring the series more in line with the novels, and in this respect I think it'd be harsh to criticise them. The Master Chief isn't just a shell as the first three games seem to imply, and I'm glad the other side of him is finally being told.

How deeply would you say the novels explore verboten love between AI constructs and robotmen?
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Guess I'll have to dig up posts I made a few months back on why random, timed weapon spawns are a good thing:

Halo? Well, the meat of it is some extraeneous element that is difficult to keep tabs on and not very interesting.
Competitive gaming is as much about skill as it is it's ability to be entertaining for spectators.
Watching people scramble to adapt to a new situation like a sniper drop pod makes for a much better (and understandable) spectator element than coach timers.
DOTA's rune spawns.
 

KageMaru

Member
SP sounds great and hopefully will produce that sense of mystery and discovery found in the first Halo. Campaign shots look gorgeous, but they all seem like they are taken from FUD level, I hope the levels open up once you land on the planet.

MP? Not sounding quite as good so far. I'll keep an open mind until I play it but some things do concern me. The random weapon spawn for example, I understand how it can encourage players to explore and use more of the map, but bungie has always balanced power weapons with risk vs reward. Power weapons were generally placed in areas that would leave you open and vulnerable unlike your standard weapons. It's these key points of balance that I hope are not lost. I'm also not happy that firefight isn't returning, curious to see is Spartan ops is a good replacement.

In the end I play halo more for the campaign and co-op so I'm happy with the info for the most part.
 

Majanew

Banned
The Covenant, at least Elites and Grunts, return but are not the primary enemy.

Firefight is absent and it is stated that there are no plans for it to return.
I hope you don't fight the Covenant at all in the Campaign. Been there, freaking done that. And no firefight is brutal. It's where I spent most of my time because I did not care for Reach MP.
 
In fairness, the dialogue seems very consistent with how the pair have always interacted in the novels. It's 343's goal to bring the series more in line with the novels, and in this respect I think it'd be harsh to criticise them. The Master Chief isn't just a shell as the first three games seem to imply, and I'm glad the other side of him is finally being told.
It would be amazing if they have an opining that's a montage of the story so far,from Fall of Reach (novel canon) all the way to 3, telling players stuff like how the Spartan program got it's soldiers and about the terrorists they were made to fight, little details the games never touch upon.



I hope you don't fight the Covenant at all in the Campaign. Been there, freaking done that. And no firefight is brutal. It's where I spent most of my time because I did not care for Reach MP.

The Covenant talking the place of the Flood (3rd fighting force) would work well, and mean even less reasons for the flood (who suck shit) to be in the game at all.
 

Arnie

Member
How deeply would you say the novels explore verboten love between AI constructs and robotmen?

Probably not deep enough for your tastes.


It would be amazing if they have an opining that's a montage of the story so far,from Fall of Reach (novel canon) all the way to 3, telling players stuff like how the Spartan program got it's soldiers and about the terrorists they were made to fight, little details the games never touch upon.

An epilogue is mentioned in the article, and it would be cool like you say if they summed up some points from the books rather than the just the games.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
I'm going to withhold judgement on the multiplayer info until I see it in action, but the campaign stuff sounds super cool.

it really does, but its odd that it sounds like the opening level is completely different then what the CG reveal trailer showed...
 

Majanew

Banned
>>Returning Armor Abilities

well, i'll prob be renting this one

Yeah, man. That's some rough news to hear. And with no Firefight, I'll beat the Campaign and then the disc will just go back in the case and sit on the shelf beside the other Halos. At least I'm gonna get some eye candy. :) The water better move when I run through it/shoot it, 343!
 

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Is it explained in the novels why Elites would even be back in the Covenant? I thought they all left it by Halo 3.
 
Yeah, man. That's some rough news to hear. And with no Firefight, I'll beat the Campaign and then the disc will just go back in the case and sit on the shelf beside the other Halos.

You'll have a weekly reason to come back to it for several months.

Anyway, one thing that's been lost in all the multiplayer talk is the announcement of new enemies with apparently more advanced AI than the Covenant. I'm really interested in seeing how this pans out, enemy AI is one of the main reasons why Halo is so dear to me.
 

Zomba13

Member
What about when you join in progress to a losing team or a game which is already ending? Not much fun there, in fact it's worse for me because if people quit at least you have an excuse for not winning, if you join a losing game (which is usually the case, losers rage quit, leaves an empty slot for the losing team how great)... well that just sucks balls.

If you join a losing team just as it's about to lose then you also have an excuse for not winning. Anyway, it shouldn't be about winning, it should be ablout having fun shooting dudes. Does it really matter if you lose? What if you get match made and are with a bunch of idiots who don't know how to play?

Anyway, with this there really shouldn't be many teams losing due to lack of players. Halo is damn popular online, the empty slot would get taken pretty quickly. Someone rage quits and gets replaced by a new dude. That dude is a little baby and quits because he doesn't want to lose? That spot gets refilled quickly.
 

DSN2K

Member
personally glad hardcore Halo fans are concerned by what they are reading....I really want Halo 4 to be different and 343 to define their own game instead of simply copying what Bungie did.

I understand the stance of being concerned about making changes simply because they can but frankly Halo needs freshening up, Reach Multiplayer showed that even if it was most refined MP experience of all the games it felt somewhat stale.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Frank was so nice to clarify some stuff:

The magazine scans were always going to come out the day after the cover debuted, that almost always happens. We can't talk about the story in detail, because it is GI's exclusive. I will say that some of the things that "invested, emotional" players are "raising eyebrows slightly at" are being very misinterpreted ("random" weapon spawns for example) but we will be able to clarify some of those things in due time.

Some of the other features, abilities, are also being discussed with no context (not your guys' fault, obviously) and frankly, a video of TS would probably allay many of the especially hysterical reactions, but we're not there yet.

We haven't seen a single reaction we didn't expect (apart from the Dax love story) and we will clarify a lot of this stuff 100% in the coming weeks and months. SOME of the things in here won't be properly understood outside of a holistic experience (modes, progress, fictional setting, etc) but I am going to say one thing and leave it at that:

It feels like Halo, it does NOT feel or act like the other game(s) it's being compared to. Again, without playing it, you can't be blamed for jumping to certain conclusions.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I always wanted to tap Cortana. Thank you 343i.

GOTG for me.


Bungie never even allowed me to become best bros with Durandal.
 

Monocle

Member
So about Spartan Ops: Do we get to keep and replay the missions forever after they're released, or will they magically disappear from our hard drives as the new batch is rolled out each week? This talk of "seasons" has me worried.

If the missions are permanent, that means lots more speedrunning goodness to look forward to, which is a huge plus for me.

On a different note, assuming Firefight really isn't returning, I might consider forgiving 343 if Infinity can use its holodeck to magick up some nostalgia missions in settings from older Halo games. I would cover my entire block in churned man cream if I got to play a nighttime ODST mission in Halo 4. Can you even imagine?
 
personally glad hardcore Halo fans are concerned by what they are reading....I really want Halo 4 to be different and 343 to define their own game instead of simply copying what Bungie did.

I understand the stance of being concerned about making changes simply because they can but frankly Halo needs freshening up, Reach Multiplayer showed that even if it was most refined MP experience of all the games it felt somewhat stale.

I know this is your opinion, but that statement just drives me crazy when I read that, change is not always for the better. I felt the changes within Reach messed a lot of things up compared to 3. You can't just eliminate the hardcore base either for new players all the time, unfortunately that seems to be a trend these days with developers that I don't particularly care for at all.

Now it will be nice if we have this new updated Halo 4 MP along with a more classic setting (not Halo Reach classic mode). I'm talking more along the lines of a Halo 2/3 style mode instead. I also don't agree with people saying, "If you like Halo 3, go play that", I mean come on, there are things that newer games do right that makes going back to older games somewhat stale plus you don't have as many people playing it as well. Having the two different settings would be nice, only draw back is separating the community even more, but with a game like Halo, it has enough fans to support that idea.

Frank was so nice to clarify some stuff:

I have my trust you Frankie, let me get that feeling of playing Halo I had back when 3 was out, the sense of amazing MP battles and the like.
 

Petrichor

Member
I hope you don't fight the Covenant at all in the Campaign. Been there, freaking done that. And no firefight is brutal. It's where I spent most of my time because I did not care for Reach MP.

You're certainly fighting grunts and elites in the first level, but it says in the text that the level is intended to ease players back into the familiar feel of Halo, before completely turning the experience on its head when you land on requiem.

If they're introducing a whole new caste of enemies and new weapons / vehicles for that race (likely forerunners) I can't imagine the covenant presence will be significant. Imagine the size of the weapon sandbox if all of the covenant and human weapons return with the forerunner weapons! It seems like only the covenant carbine (elites), plasma sword (elites) and plasma pistol are returning according to the scans, and I'd assume this will be it.
 
So about Spartan Ops: Do we get to keep and replay the missions forever after they're released, or will they magically disappear from our hard drives as the new batch is rolled out every week? This talk of "seasons" has me worried.

One of the captions says that Spartan Ops content won't expire and players who join in at a later date will be able to catch up on the story.
 
pretty much everything so far sounds terrible. i feared that 343 will not get halo or MS trying to change halo into CoD and so far it seems i was right.
 
Always funny to see the constant backlash at any type of changes done to Halo MP. Though the instant respawns does sound like crap.
 

Elginer

Member
I always wanted to tap Cortana. Thank you 343i.

GOTG for me.


Bungie never even allowed me to become best bros with Durandal.

This. Bless you 343. Kings among wo(men). Can't wait to see this thing in motion. Game graphically looks in-fucking-sane looking at those screens. I can only imagine what it looks like in motion.
 

Monocle

Member
One of the captions says that Spartan Ops content won't expire and players who join in at a later date will be able to catch up on the story.
Yeah, but "catch up on the story" could mean "shitty recap video, lololol sux4u latecomers." Maybe. I'm hoping this is cleared up in the podcast.
 
OK, I am stlll waiting for my issue to arrive in the mail, but since seeing all the scans now...

There is no hyperbole to Reiner's statement: jaw is dropped.
 

Ace 8095

Member
Only thing the really concerns me at the moment is instant respawns. Hopefully it will be elaborated on heavily during the podcast.
 
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