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

JonCha

Member
Hope people saying this will be the death of Halo turn out to be completely embarrassed, because we've nothing outside a few lines of text. We have no idea how they're implemented. They key word is balance. Balance, balance, balance.

And the screens look AWESOME.
 

Petrichor

Member
The cinematic screenshots with grunts and elites look a little weird (probably just the change in design), but the first person campaign screenshots are stunning.
 
People seem to think this is any other Halo game with random weapon-drops and instant respawn added, but it's not. They're designing the game with these elements in mind.

As I see it, weapon drops will probably drop over 6 or more places. The game will probably drop the weapons were it's the furthest away from both teams, and also notify quite early of it so the teams constantly move around.

This might also mean more symmetrical maps, which is good.
 

Khezu

Member
The single player stuff sounds really good, and despite the really stupid name, spartan ops is way better then firefight.

I'm really worried about multiplayer though, halo multi is really the only FPS have ever enjoyed competitively. Really need more in depth details as soon as humanly possible.
 

Arnie

Member
Randomized power weapon drops demand more skills as it pushes you out of your comfort zone, and people hate that.

With comments like this just lock the thread up.

It's genuinely sad to see Halo so desperately chase other games and look to appease the call of duty crowd, something I thought I'd never write.
 
To be fair the 'competitive scene' has been the shittiest part of the Halo community since it started. I for one am quite excited to see random power weapon drops, should keep maps fresher.


No it hasn't. They're the ones who continue to play the games the most. The people who cry and whine that the competitive scene takes things too seriously are hypocrites. They care about winning as well, but are just too lazy or dumb to learn the game in order to help them win.


Also, if a map is great, it can be played an infinite amount of times and still be fun. In Halo 2, I always wanted to play lockout, midship, beaver creek, sanc, headlong, terminal, etc... because they were good maps. They didn't need some gimmick to keep things "fresh."


Randomness, low skilled mechanics, bad maps & gametypes are what made people frustrated. That's why people hated nade spamming Orbital, Smashed, Armor Lock, AR, etc...
 

Moaradin

Member
I was really hoping to see this return to the roots of Halo, but instead it looks like it's going to add more stupid shit than Reach did.
 

Petrichor

Member
I was really hoping to see this return to the roots of Halo, but instead it looks like it's going to add more stupid shit than Reach did.

Have you read the campaign stuff? It sounds uncannily similar to the first game, even down to the first mission starting on a crashing ship being boarded by covenant. I'm really excited to see where they go with the story this time round.
 

Arnie

Member
Have you read the campaign stuff? It sounds uncannily similar to the first game, even down to the first mission starting on a crashing ship being boarded by covenant. I'm really excited to see where they go with the story this time round.

He's clearly referring to the Multiplayer.
 

Moaradin

Member
Have you read the campaign stuff? It sounds uncannily similar to the first game, even down to the first mission starting on a crashing ship being boarded by covenant. I'm really excited to see where they go with the story this time round.

I'm not that worried about the campaign. I loved every Halo game campaign mode, but it's the multiplayer that gives Halo it's legs. Halo doesn't need all these dumb perks and unlocks. Instant respawn and random weapons don't seem very good at all either. I loved the map control element of Halo games.
 
So it seems like you can choose your AA now i hope that you have to collect a power module to use those AA. Part Reach where you choose your AA/Equipement and Halo 3 where you need to pick up a power module.

Not sure what would work the best.
1)Pick up power module and player can use it at will until the power module is depleted.
Used for BubbleShield or EMP like halo 3 you throw the AA on the ground with the power
module powering it.

2)Once you pick up a power module your AA will activate and runs out when module is
depleted this is outside of the players control. Overshield and camo AA these are time
based.

3)Or just completely user controlled so you can power on and off Overshield and camo at will
and dont know if this will work for BubbleShield and Camo.

The random power weapon spawn not sure how i feel about it hope it is not in all playlist.
 

Arnie

Member
If handled well, I can see Spartan Ops bringing me back to H4 for a long time.

It's the only part of the article that got me genuinely excited. Well, that and the planet being a Forerunner Dyson Sphere.

The idea of a weekly, serialised co-operative campaign that ties back into the main story over time, and follows the Spartan IVs as they train on the UNSC Infinity is awesome.
 
Maybe Spartan ops is microsoft way of testing a 3rd party developers request.
To update their game with new content without going through cert first.
 

Raide

Member
People seem to think this is any other Halo game with random weapon-drops and instant respawn added, but it's not. They're designing the game with these elements in mind.

As I see it, weapon drops will probably drop over 6 or more places. The game will probably drop the weapons were it's the furthest away from both teams, and also notify quite early of it so the teams constantly move around.

This might also mean more symmetrical maps, which is good.

I wonder if it will be like the drops in Firefight? If players know a drop is coming, either by visual or audio cues, that could make for an interesting shift in the battle. Player get the warning and suddenly see it burst out of the sky. :D It could add an interesting new dynamic to battles but that does depend how well they do it.
 

AceLegacy

Member
The multiplayer is going to suck so hard And I base this on what I read on the internet not actually from playing it. /sarcasm

Anyway, its about time they change the Halo formula. Nothing good ever comes from doing the same thing over and over again. If I want Halo 2 style MP I'll put in Halo 2 and bring some buddy's over to play it.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Spartan Ops sounds good as well, but that's related to the campaign. I'm just worried about MP right now.
From the source:
Spartan Ops is structured like a TV season. Each week, players gain acces to a new CG movie sequence that slowly unfolds the story of the UNSC Infinity mission, chronicling the struggles the Spartans encounter along the way. Along with each story componant, five-objective-based cooperative missions will release. These missions are new content, offering unseen events, locations, and challenges to overcome for that week.
Either A) we get to play missions for the campaign from a different perspective or B) new locations from the extended fiction or C) a mix of a and b.
 
From the source:

Either A) we get to play missions for the campaign from a different perspective or B) new locations from the extended fiction or C) a mix of a and b.

Genuine episodic gaming. If they can pull it off, it opens up for so much potential creativity for the developers. Doing seasons with unique mechanics, scenarios and the likes.

Man, thats pretty cool concept.
 

Raide

Member
Genuine episodic gaming. If they can pull it off, it opens up for so much potential creativity for the developers. Doing seasons with unique mechanics, scenarios and the likes.

Man, thats pretty cool concept.

Sounds a little like Halo + ODST side missions. With expanded narrative, it could be pretty damn awesome.
 
So not only is sprint in the game, but it is a standard armor ability. You do not need to pick it up, it will always be available.
It took 9 years for them to realize that FPS w/o sprint looks, to put it mildly, silly.
 

Walshicus

Member
No it hasn't. They're the ones who continue to play the games the most.
That's arguable.

The people who cry and whine that the competitive scene takes things too seriously are hypocrites. They care about winning as well, but are just too lazy or dumb to learn the game in order to help them win.
I don't think many would complain about that; what I've found though is that elements such as the MLG clique consistently argued in favour of design decisions that would have made the series less fun.

You have this big segment of players who are drawn to Halo's multiplayer through the interplay of all the sandbox elements and the balancing act it plays between raw player ability and making one in a million events happen fifty percent of the time.

Then you have another segment of people who basically just wanted a point-fire-kill shooter.

I just don't think the "competitive" side actually understood what made Halo appealing to the mass market.
 
IMO the first mission they discribe sounds awfully like the first mission in Halo 1. Which is great.

Yes last level warthog race. Can still remember me and a friend almost punching my trolling little brother because he would take a wrong path for the lulz. That was with the Halo 3 ghost race at the end was some special way to unlock stuff i believe some helmet or so.


I don't think many would complain about that; what I've found though is that elements such as the MLG clique consistently argued in favour of design decisions that would have made the series less fun.

You have this big segment of players who are drawn to Halo's multiplayer through the interplay of all the sandbox elements and the balancing act it plays between raw player ability and making one in a million events happen fifty percent of the time.

Then you have another segment of people who basically just wanted a point-fire-kill shooter.

I just don't think the "competitive" side actually understood what made Halo appealing to the mass market.

The competitive side is actually what made halo appeal to me and my friends when live launched every wednesday i would go to a friend that had a Xbox and live to play it.
 

Seep

Member
SP screens look pretty nice and the OPS thing sounds interesting, as for the MP stuff I don't give a toss I don't play Halo for the MP.
 

Portugeezer

Member
Only worried about the forerunner vision, how does it work? Can you see through walls like Blacklight Tango Down (A feature of the game which made me stop playing)? Is it like UAV in COD? Does it just make your minimap bigger? Does it show the direction enemies are looking?

I hope it's not Xray vision, the other things not so bad.
 

Walshicus

Member
The competitive side is actually what made halo appeal to me and my friends when live launched every wednesday i would go to a friend that had a Xbox and live to play it.
My group of mates used to gather four xboxes, sixteen controllers every weekend and do room-vs-room CTF for hours. We did the same for Halo 2 and moved to Live for the later games.

There's a world of difference between playing the multiplayer and being part of the "competitive" clique. We always played to win, but it was the crazy emergent game/gunplay that really made us fall in love with the series. Take away that vision and you have just another competent shooter.
 
T

Transhuman

Unconfirmed Member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QhNRPk1EHOM

I had a brief moment of genuinely thinking it might be fake, but there it is. I still can't believe they called their in-game currency Spartan Points and added a new mode called Spartan Ops. It's like they've given up on their public image of being the last independent in a market dominated by Call of Duty.

Random weapon spawns means they've given up on Halo 4 being features at MLG? :p

I highly doubt that it's not something that you can edit in gamemode or forge.
 

TheOddOne

Member
I don't know if it's in-game, but you can see this in the mag:
zX1d1.jpg
Seems to be the first thing you see after you land on Requiem.

You must have no imagination if 'CoD and random weapon drops' is enough to blow your mind.
Changing much of the MP side isn't playing safe. I've played enough to know that those features can ruin the flow of multiplayer, hell the armour abilities in Reach are abused to death.
 

Sojgat

Member
It took 9 years for them to realize that FPS w/o sprint looks, to put it mildly, silly.


Even COD didn't have a sprint nine years ago. After MW every FPS game started having the function but it wasn't that widespread before then. Battlefield introduced a sprint function in 2005 with BF2.
 
Regardless, it's still 720p and will look crisper than a lower resolution. I don't doubt it helps like a giant ass weapon/low FOV does.

You could tell the gpu to not render those pixel part of the vignette. But im not sure if helmet parts are always visible because they arent visible in every corner in the scans i saw that were in fps mode.
 
I don't want to properly judge the game til we know more but the info in the op has me seriously worried. All these changes to multiplayer sound awful. It sounds like the game will be more Reach than 3, which is disappointing.
 
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