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

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
From that article:



Those two words will never stop being thrown around, will they?

Actually they're connected in my head. Visceral and immersive refer to connecting you directly to the "fleshy" physical experience of inhabiting those worlds and that armor. I don't mean "bloody" or "gritty."

I mean "inhabiting" but there isn't an easily understood word that isn't simply "immersive" whcih tends to be holistic. I mean specific and holistic experiences. Like hearing your breath inside the helmet every now and then.
 
Actually they're connected in my head. Visceral and immersive refer to connecting you directly to the "fleshy" physical experience of inhabiting those worlds and that armor. I don't mean "bloody" or "gritty."

I mean "inhabiting" but there isn't an easily understood word that isn't simply "immersive" whcih tends to be holistic. I mean specific and holistic experiences. Like hearing your breath inside the helmet every now and then.

So good visual and aural feedback, basically? I'm all over that.
 
Small-ish update.

Gameinformer: The Inspirations For Halo 4.

8bb8a4b3c195bacb1267ce1c6581958d6460840f.png

ba6ab3414588fd8088a360972528b0a99fabcd30.png

The game looks very cartoony in those screens.
 

Conor 419

Banned
- ????????? (0-2 mins)
- Forge Confirmed (3 mins)
- ????????? (4-18 mins)
- Female Spartans (19 mins)
- ????????? (20-21 mins)
- No bots (22 mins)
- ????????? (23-25 mins)
- No Dedicated Servers (26 mins)
- ????????? (27-30 mins)

------------

Supposedly their netcode is so good that they don't need dedicated servers, we'll see how that plays out. I'm still holding out hope for Custom Game Browsing, I've been updating the thread supporting it on Halo 4 for nearly a year. So I'd like to think they'd have the decency to have just denounced them from the start if they wont make it in.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Gameinformer’s podcast with Josh Holmes write-up:
  • Forge will be coming back, he could not say much about it. He could not confirm if Forge was like Reach (Forge World) or Halo 3 (individual multiplayer maps).
  • Really avoided the criticism of how Halo is taking too many cues from Call of Duty. “Feels like Halo”.
  • Weapon balance is really important and put a lot of emphasis on it. Even if the other player has weapons that you have not unlocked yet.
  • Scavenging weapons on the battlefield is still possible, so they are not locked away by the progression system.
  • Each weapon slot (primary and secondary) have different categories of weapons, within the primary weapon slot you have the biggest variety. Those breakdown in different roles and engagements (close, mid and longer range weapons etc).
  • Internally he has noticed that people build their loadouts around the armor abilities.
  • Duel Wielding was removed because of balance, added unwanted complexity to multiplayer.
  • There is a major connection points between campaign and Spartan Ops (like: The chief crossing paths with Infinity), but the stories of both of those diverge in their own direction.
  • Josh still could not say how they are going to roll out Spartan Ops.
  • Cosmetic changes to armor, like Reach, are back. Also, female Spartans are back.
  • They have put focus on Easter Eggs and Skulls that, like previous games, focus on the back story and the bigger fiction.
  • There are no plans to add bots to multiplayer.
  • They acknowledge the strength of weekly and daily challenges, they however can’t talk about what system might be replacing them, but it will be coming back in some form.
  • There are no plans to support dedicated servers, they have a “silky smooth netcode”.
  • Player skill is important in matchmaking, but they have added telegraphing systems have been added to help out new players.
  • Josh avoided the question about the new enemy we will be facing in Halo 4 (Understandable because of 343 stance on giving little campaign info and letting the player experience it themselves).
Notes: Much is said, but then again nothing is said. Go listen to Sparkast #12 which has more juicy information.

More info in the OP too.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Supposedly their netcode is so good that they don't need dedicated servers, we'll see how that plays out. I'm still holding out hope for Custom Game Browsing, I've been updating the thread supporting it on Halo 4 for nearly a year. So I'd like to think they'd have the decency to have just denounced them from the start if they wont make it in.
mj-laughing.gif
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
Gameinformer’s podcast with Josh Holmes write-up:
  • Forge will be coming back, he could not say much about it. He could not confirm if Forge was like Reach (Forge World) or Halo 3 (individual multiplayer maps).
  • Really avoided the criticism of how Halo is taking too many cues from Call of Duty. “Feels like Halo”.
  • Weapon balance is really important and put a lot of emphasis on it. Even if the other player has weapons that you have not unlocked yet.
  • Scavenging weapons on the battlefield is still possible, so they are not locked away by the progression system.
  • Each weapon slot (primary and secondary) have different categories of weapons, within the primary weapon slot you have the biggest variety. Those breakdown in different roles and engagements (close, mid and longer range weapons etc).
  • Internally he has noticed that people build their loadouts around the armor abilities.
  • Duel Wielding was removed because of balance, added unwanted complexity to multiplayer.
  • There is a major connection points between campaign and Spartan Ops (like: The chief crossing paths with Infinity), but the stories of both of those diverge in their own direction.
  • Josh still could not say how they are going to roll out Spartan Ops.
  • Cosmetic changes to armor, like Reach, are back. Also, female Spartans are back.
  • They have put focus on Easter Eggs and Skulls that, like previous games, focus on the back story and the bigger fiction.
  • There are no plans to add bots to multiplayer.
  • They acknowledge the strength of weekly and daily challenges, they however can’t talk about what system might be replacing them, but it will be coming back in some form.
  • There are no plans to support dedicated servers, they have a “silky smooth netcode”.
  • Player skill is important in matchmaking, but they have added telegraphing systems have been added to help out new players.
  • Josh avoided the question about the new enemy we will be facing in Halo 4 (Understandable because of 343 stance on giving little campaign info and letting the player experience it themselves).
Notes: Much is said, but then again nothing is said. Go listen to Sparkast #12 which has more juicy information.

More info in the OP too.

thank you for this detailed summary.

looking forward to hearing about the new forge, and more importantly, how user created maps can be shared with the community. i'm not a fan of all the forge world maps in regular matchmaking but would absolutely love a community playlist to play a huge variety of user made maps. maybe with a rating system that influences the likelihood of the map coming back up for voting or its longevity overall within that playlist. community cartographers return needs major changes or removed for a better system.

or, custom forge browser separate from matchmaking playlists.
 
Apologize if this sentiment has already been shared but is else outright confused by active camo's ability to scramble the radar as well?

You're already invisible (Halo 1 style where you're damn near impossible to see) do you REALLY need radar scrambled tacked on also?
 

Gui_PT

Member
Apologize if this sentiment has already been shared but is else outright confused by active camo's ability to scramble the radar as well?

You're already invisible (Halo 1 style where you're damn near impossible to see) do you REALLY need radar scrambled tacked on also?

sagec7bw.gif
 

=/

Just release Halo 2 again with 2 changes, a.) the sword has a usage meter and b.) the plasma pistol charge has less homing and I'll leave everyone alone

The button glitches can stay or go too, I understand it's a glitch but hey, if you can't pull them off, too bad, but seeing them go wouldn't bother me one bit.
 

Teppic

Member
Are those things in the OP still true? Like random weapon drops, always run, weapon lockouts, no spawn delay? Sounds disastrous.
 

Petrichor

Member
Are those things in the OP still true? Like random weapon drops, always run, weapon lockouts, no spawn delay? Sounds disastrous.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to 343i changing things up a bit. I got bored of Reach's multiplayer fairly quickly and am looking forward to progression in Halo's multiplayer design. If I want classic halo multiplayer, Halo 3 is always there.
 

Teppic

Member
Yes.

Random weapons are not random random. They're random within certain predetermined spots
I guess how this works will still remain to be seen, but it sounds to me that people will spend more time with their nose in the ground looking for weapons than fighting.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Honestly, I'm looking forward to 343i changing things up a bit. I got bored of Reach's multiplayer fairly quickly and am looking forward to progression in Halo's multiplayer design. If I want classic halo multiplayer, Halo 3 is always there.
Including terrible netcode!
 

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
I guess how this works will still remain to be seen, but it sounds to me that people will spend more time with their nose in the ground looking for weapons than fighting.

Nah, you get a visual of where weapons are when when they spawn I do believe.
 
AFAIK: you get weapon indicators on your HUD too, shooting at someone using sprint will slow them down, there'll be set loadouts designed for each map as well as your custom loadouts, so may not be completely locked out of weapons you haven't unlocked (unlocking stuff allows you more freedom to mix and match in your custom loadouts), and there's no spawn delay on only some gametypes while others won't have that.
 
=/

Just release Halo 2 again with 2 changes, a.) the sword has a usage meter and b.) the plasma pistol charge has less homing and I'll leave everyone alone

The button glitches can stay or go too, I understand it's a glitch but hey, if you can't pull them off, too bad, but seeing them go wouldn't bother me one bit.


Just release Halo 2 again with 2 changes, a.) It's not Halo 2 and b.) destroy the source code for Halo 2.
 
Halo 2 still has the best MP in the series.

This.

H2 really put Halo in the competitive gaming spotlight and built on what H1 had done originally for competitive FPS console gaming.

H3 and Reach have had their skill gaps lessened too much. The skill gaps in H1 and H2 were enormous which is why I played them at a pretty high level (never got into the whole timers thing for H1) but with all the changes and additions they've made in 3 and Reach, they catered it towards a wider, less-skilled audience, which from a business and growth perspective, makes sense.

I will say that the MLG playlists in H3 and Reach help alleviate those problems and made the games pretty fun for me. The Anniversary playlist in Reach has done the same, 3 shot pistol vs. someone who doesn't realize how powerful it is = priceless.
 

Yo Gotti

Banned
This.

H2 really put Halo in the competitive gaming spotlight and built on what H1 had done originally for competitive FPS console gaming.

H3 and Reach have had their skill gaps lessened too much. The skill gaps in H1 and H2 were enormous which is why I played them at a pretty high level (never got into the whole timers thing for H1) but with all the changes and additions they've made in 3 and Reach, they catered it towards a wider, less-skilled audience, which from a business and growth perspective, makes sense.

I really hope that was Bungie's doing and not Microsofts.

That skill gap needs to exist in order to keep the audience interested, if it's not there the hardcore audience that kept Halo 2 alive for so long will leave. Reach wasn't as gimped as 3 IMO, but still too little too late. Halo 3 was fun for a while but I specifically remember that being when my group of 25+ Halo friends started slowly leaving Halo for Gears and later, Call of Duty.

Today when I look at my friends list they're pretty much split between Gears 3/BLOPS/MW3. Not a single one of them stuck with Halo, and that's a damn shame because I keep up with them and I know they'd come back if Halo 4 delivered an experience equal to or better than Halo 2.
 
Was it the noob lock on guns, the gigantic hit boxes or the horrible dual wielding that made it the best, i forget.

The only issue I had that's sort of related to a hit box was how sticky/easy the sniping was, and yes the plasma pistol homed in way too much, but that is something I agree they should've caught before it shipped.

But I'm bias, I pretty much exclusively played the "MLG" (Team Hardcore) playlist once it came out which had BR starts and no Radar. To me, this was the ONLY way to play, so when H3 came around and a playlist similar to that experience wasn't around, it lost me.

To me, that's what made H2 the best multiplayer Halo experience yet.
 
I really hope that was Bungie's doing and not Microsofts.

That skill gap needs to exist in order to keep the audience interested, if it's not there the hardcore audience that kept Halo 2 alive for so long will leave. Reach wasn't as gimped as 3 IMO, but still too little too late. Halo 3 was fun for a while but I specifically remember that being when my group of 25+ Halo friends started slowly leaving Halo for Gears and later, Call of Duty.

Today when I look at my friends list they're pretty much split between Gears 3/BLOPS/MW3. Not a single one of them stuck with Halo, and that's a damn shame because I keep up with them and I know they'd come back if Halo 4 delivered an experience equal to or better than Halo 2.

They wont leave since they will be in their own matchmaking bracket.
 
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