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Halo 4 |OT| Spartans Never Die

Another day, and more lag. Earlier it ran fine with no problems like this, now it's to the point I just might give this game up.

Do people really give up on games because of stuff like lag on the week of launch?
I'm not trying to make excuses for the game, it obviously should've had a beta, but there are always going to be problems to begin with.
 

Rev3rb

Member
Do people really give up on games because of stuff like lag on the week of launch?
I'm not trying to make excuses for the game, it obviously should've had a beta, but there are always going to be problems to begin with.

Nah, I think a beta would have hindered development and more stuff would have been left out of the game
 

MrDaravon

Member
Do people really give up on games because of stuff like lag on the week of launch?
I'm not trying to make excuses for the game, it obviously should've had a beta, but there are always going to be problems to begin with.

In this case it's bad because if it continues to suck ass, people are more likely to at least check out CoD on Tuesday. This was the worst weekend for the game to be unplayable.
 
Nah, I think a beta would have hindered development and more stuff would have been left out of the game

Then it should've had a beta test and a few months added onto the release date :)

In this case it's bad because if it continues to suck ass, people are more likely to at least check out CoD on Tuesday. This was the worst weekend for the game to be unplayable.

I agree, but the game hasn't been unplayable for me at all. I've barely had any issues this weekend. It's shit for those that have though.
 

Recarpo

Member
Waypoint acting up for anybody else? I've been trying to watch a few of the
terminals
I found but each time I get an error. Have tried a couple days in a row and it's still the same thing.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Just finished it. Really a mistake for them to depend so heavily on people having read the books. I feel very lost.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Just finished it. Really a mistake for them to depend so heavily on people having read the books. I feel very lost.

All I read was Fall of Reach and Evolutions and I was not lost. I followed the story pretty well but I did have a few questions when I was finished for sure.
 

-PXG-

Member
Just finished it. Really a mistake for them to depend so heavily on people having read the books. I feel very lost.

Yep. Even worse is that the Terminal videos have to be viewed through Way Point. Thank God for Youtube.

They should have added the lore and backstory into the actual game, somehow. Bridge the gap between franchise's plot and additional fiction from the books so that people aren't asking themselves, "Who the fuck was that and what the fuck just happened". I pieced things together but only after asking others and doing some research of my own. I shouldn't have to do that to get a basic understanding of the story.
 

MrDaravon

Member
It's not that it will, it's that it doesn't matter. COD is more popular and any reason to jump ship from Halo doesn't help.

This. Halo 4 had been running super smooth for me all week (wasn't having any of the problems people have been complaining about all week), but today it's just gone to total shit, and every time I've looked there's only been 300-350k on max. CoD runs smoother than this with 3 times as many people on. I've been saying for months and months not having a beta for this was going to fuck them, and here we are. Incredibly disappointing for MS's flagship title.
 

Lingitiz

Member
This. My least favorite map so far.

I think its the only map so far that I actively hate. The combination of instant respawn, precision weapons, and high rooftops that dominate the map is a total clusterfuck. I have no idea what they were thinking with this one.
 
It's not that it will, it's that it doesn't matter. COD is more popular and any reason to jump ship from Halo doesn't help.

the people that play COD only play COD and likewise for Halo. Having connectivity issues isn't going to change that.

The MP Maps feel more like they were designed for BTB first and foremost and then shoehorned for regicide and team slayer. the melee and sword lunge sucks btw, your spartan has little alligator arms and you have to be neck deep in some ones ass in order for two systems to be effective.
 

MrDaravon

Member
the people that play COD only play COD and likewise for Halo. Having connectivity issues isn't going to change that.

Uhhh that's total bullshit. I could rattle off about 30 people on my friends list off the top of my head that play both. Both titles sell millions and millions of copies, you're suggesting that there's no overlap when Halo sells 6+ million copies and CoD more? Really?
 

IJoel

Member
I just finished the first 2 levels on legendary. The first one was pretty easy. For the second one, I set the Thunderstorm skull (to complete the weekly challenge; though the challenge only required Heroic+ and Thunderstorm), and it was very tough. What it boiled down to was to snipe/headshot all enemies except elites; for elites, a charged plasma shot accompanied by a few more shots of your weapon of choice.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
This. Halo 4 had been running super smooth for me all week (wasn't having any of the problems people have been complaining about all week), but today it's just gone to total shit, and every time I've looked there's only been 300-350k on max. CoD runs smoother than this with 3 times as many people on. I've been saying for months and months not having a beta for this was going to fuck them, and here we are. Incredibly disappointing for MS's flagship title.

I honestly don't see Halo and COD as interchangeable. I'm not saying halo 4 is impervious to critique, but I really don't think there are tons and tons of people that play Halo that think "Man, this sucks, let's go play COD". They're pretty disparate takes on the genre.

Maybe I'm just too far removed from the mainstream gaming public.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
All I read was Fall of Reach and Evolutions and I was not lost. I followed the story pretty well but I did have a few questions when I was finished for sure.

Really? I had questions immediately after starting the game...I felt like I was missing something. I hate that feeling.
 
Really? I had questions immediately after starting the game...I felt like I was missing something. I hate that feeling.

Yeah, pretty much. I mean at the very beginning...
Covenant comes along, Master Chief says he thought there was a truce, they start fighting, I'm still wondering why...
. Nevermind things that happen later in the game with apparently "ancient evils." Still not done, perhaps it will all make sense in time. I have a feeling there might be a decent plot buried somewhere beneath all the unfun gameplay (my opinion, fellers), but it's not sitting on the surface.
 
I think its the only map so far that I actively hate. The combination of instant respawn, precision weapons, and high rooftops that dominate the map is a total clusterfuck. I have no idea what they were thinking with this one.

This sort of thing also happens on Abandoned. One massive battle for top-mid. Very rarely do you ever fight people away from it unless you're spawn killing people.
 
the melee and sword lunge sucks btw, your spartan has little alligator arms and you have to be neck deep in some ones ass in order for two systems to be effective.
That's a good thing, the mindless rushing of Halo 3 and Reach are worse than having melee that requires some forethought to be useful.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
This game is kinda like an animu when you think about it.

Master Chief: Cortana...
Cortana: Chief...
Master Chief: Cortana...
Cortana: ...
Master Chief: Cortana...

If only Cortana would say uguu, my heart would be full.

My service tag is UGUU, so perhaps that can hold you over for now.
 
Uhhh that's total bullshit. I could rattle off about 30 people on my friends list off the top of my head that play both. Both titles sell millions and millions of copies, you're suggesting that there's no overlap when Halo sells 6+ million copies and CoD more? Really?

there's overlap, but its minimal.

and your judging this off your friends list?!? lmao your friends are the exception not the rule and they aren't the basis for the rest of the worlds taste in games, your world maybe, but not the real world. most gravitate toward the simplest means of satisfaction and that's COD.

That's a good thing, the mindless rushing of Halo 3 and Reach are worse than having melee that requires some forethought to be useful.

its a bad thing because 343i has removed the effectiveness of one of the three pillars of Halo's game play. everything in H4 is going to be everyone taking potshots at each other half way across the map which is what made H3 utter garbage.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Yeah, pretty much. I mean at the very beginning...
Covenant comes along, Master Chief says he thought there was a truce, they start fighting, I'm still wondering why...
. Nevermind things that happen later in the game with apparently "ancient evils." Still not done, perhaps it will all make sense in time. I have a feeling there might be a decent plot buried somewhere beneath all the unfun gameplay (my opinion, fellers), but it's not sitting on the surface.

Also, it's not just the books. It's like Halo Legends too and such.
 

MrDaravon

Member
there's overlap, but its minimal.

and your judging this off your friends list?!? lmao your friends are the exception not the rule and they aren't the basis for the rest of the worlds taste in games, your world maybe, but not the real world. most gravitate toward the simplest means of satisfaction and that's COD.

The last I saw I think Halo Reach was at somewhere around 6 or 7 million in sales. Do you seriously think that more than half of those people don't play CoD? Really?
 
The last I saw I think Halo Reach was at somewhere around 6 or 7 million in sales. Do you seriously think that more than half of those people don't play CoD? Really?

when 15 million play COD i'd say yes the over lap is probably in the hundreds of thousands not millions.

most of my friends exclusively play COD because its easier and avoid Halo because it takes skill and teamwork
 
its a bad thing because 343i has removed the effectiveness of one of the three pillars of Halo's game play. everything in H4 is going to be everyone taking potshots at each other half way across the map which is what made H3 utter garbage.
No, it's still very effective. Instantly removing shields/killing at close range is good. Just not detractively so as was the case in 3 (AR rushing for melees) and Reach (sprint herp derping for double beatdowns).
 

Plywood

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MrDaravon

Member
when 15 million play COD i'd say yes the over lap is probably in the hundreds of thousands not millions.

most of my friends exclusively play COD because its easier and avoid Halo because it takes skill and teamwork

Well obviously if CoD sells twice as Halo I wouldn't say that there was a 50% overlap in that direction since that would mean every person who plays Halo plays CoD. What I meant was that I bet at least 50% of Halo players also play CoD. I don't mean that as a negative, but when a game in a genre is the most popular, you have to figure that a good chunk of people who play that genre are going to play it. Like I bet a good chunk of fighting game players wind up playing/buying Street Fighter 4, just because it's the "most" popular.
 
No, it's still very effective. Instantly removing shields/killing at close range is good. Just not detractively so as was the case in 3 (AR rushing for melees) and Reach (sprint herp derping for double beatdowns).

the melee in reach was better because it promoted player movement. Halo 4, making melee an ineffective means of killing an opponent, only promotes camping and grenade spam.

Well obviously if CoD sells twice as Halo I wouldn't say that there was a 50% overlap in that direction since that would mean every person who plays Halo plays CoD. What I meant was that I bet at least 50% of Halo players also play CoD. I don't mean that as a negative, but when a game in a genre is the most popular, you have to figure that a good chunk of people who play that genre are going to play it. Like I bet a good chunk of fighting game players wind up playing/buying Street Fighter 4, just because it's the "most" popular.

and I'm saying its more like maybe 3-5% of the Halo players also play COD. You're using your own personal gaming preferences as a means of gaging global player purchasing habits and that's flawed.
 
Yep. Even worse is that the Terminal videos have to be viewed through Way Point. Thank God for Youtube.

They should have added the lore and backstory into the actual game, somehow. Bridge the gap between franchise's plot and additional fiction from the books so that people aren't asking themselves, "Who the fuck was that and what the fuck just happened". I pieced things together but only after asking others and doing some research of my own. I shouldn't have to do that to get a basic understanding of the story.

But.. what if the phones.. rang?


Remember loving what Bungie did with Sadie's story in ODST and what the Terminals did in Anniversary? Yeh. I'm still shocked at 343's decision.

the melee in reach was better because it promoted player movement. Halo 4, making melee an ineffective means of killing an opponent, only promotes camping and grenade spam.

Wait, what? The Halo 4 melee is even better than Reach's IMO and is SUPER fast. My favorite melee system of any Halo game :] (if you don't count the double beatdowns in H1 that required a grenade)
 

MrDaravon

Member
and I'm saying its more like maybe 3-5% of the Halo players also play COD. You're using your own personal gaming preferences as a means of gaging global player purchasing habits and that's flawed.

There is no fucking way only 3-5% of Halo players also play CoD. If there is any available data on this I will do whatever ban bet you want.
 

cameron

Member
There's quite a bit of MP talk here, but I just finished the campaign on Heroic and I came out more than satisfied. I have a strong desire to go back immediately and play it again on Legendary, even though AC3 and Dishonoured need to be unwrapped.

My incoherent thoughts on what I liked about single player:
- Most of the enemy encounters, weapons, vehicle sections, and level layouts are what I want in a Halo game. Like previous Halo campaigns, I can appreciate the fact that not all encounters are are narrow corridors where you have to Rambo your way through. Even the generic scifi hallways have side paths that can be used to flank a group of enemies. Loved the vehicle sections.
The Mantis mech was an awesome surprise. I wish there was a Promethean vehicle, but I guess they have no need for it if the Knights can teleport/blink.

- The Prometheans were fun to fight. There something extremely satisfying about shooting the crawlers in their pieholes and watching them pop. Plus, the crawlers can mess you up pretty easily if they have the numbers.
I also enjoyed beating down asshole Knights with the Gravity Hammer you pick up near the end
. The Covenant were great as usual. I was ill-equipped and overconfident during my first close encounter with a pair of Hunters, and I got my ass handed to me. That's how it should be.

- The environments are ridiculously huge in the visual sense, like in the scale of God of War 3. There's architecture or landscape that seem to go on forever, or shit happening at a distance, whenever you look out a window, or look down a glass floor, or up at the sky/ceiling, etc.
The UNSC Mammoth is comically gigantic. There's also a decent variety in the type/style of environments during the first half of the campaign. A UNSC military vessel, a scorched crash crater, a Forerunner ground installation, a jungle, and a giant canyon.

- It's insane how good this game looks; a huge step above Reach. The lighting, the overall look of the environments, and the Chief, are all eye candy. But what surprised me the most was Lasky. That guy's facial animation gave the same vibe as Sully from Uncharted. Stylized, with sometimes subtle movements, but totally believable. I have to appreciate all the effort that went into Lasky, considering how many games from the last few years all have botox-ed looking main characters with animation akin to Muppet mouths and Chucky doll eyes.


What I didn't care for:
- Enemy AI at certain moments. This seems to have carried over, but the Elites will sometimes not move into cover or dodge when getting shot at from a distance. You can whittle away their shields and then shoot them in the head a couple of times for a cheap kill. And the Covenant are all over the place when it comes to flying Banshees. Sometimes they'll have awesome aim and be a decent threat, while other times they'll 'fly' upside down on the ground. Also, the turret amour ability seems to be way overpowered for the AI to handle.

- The music. Perhaps it was intentional, but I can't even remember the soundtrack. With previous Halo campaigns, even ODST, I can easily link a specific level or encounter to a specific tune. Not with Halo 4. Most modern games have forgettable music, so I guess it's not that big of an issue. I think Max Payne 3 was the last game where I can recall specific tracks.

- The weird QTE sequences. Who's that for? Throughout the campaign, there were plenty of regular action heavy cutscenes where the devs refrained from making them into QTEs, like when
the Chief kickflips the ghost off a cliff
, so I don't quite get the purpose of those sequences.

- The latter half of the story.
The beginning was fine. Cortana's rampancy and Halsey, the Prometheans reveal, the Covenant fanatics, the UNSC Infinity, and the intro to the Didact, were all interesting to me. After the Didact intro, I stopped paying attention and I don't know why. I was still having fun with the campaign, but I didn't really care about any new piece of narrative. Consequently, I thought the end sequence with the Didact was pretty underwhelming. But it's easy to forgive since I enjoyed the rest of the game

That's about it. I'm going to do a Legendary run before I try Spartan Ops and MP.
 
the melee in reach was better because it promoted player movement. Halo 4, making melee an ineffective means of killing an opponent, only promotes camping and grenade spam.
It promoted poor player habits which are getting punished in here. Making your only goal of engagement to double melee someone dumbed down the game overall, you're suggesting that people only moved in Reach because they could get really sloppy kills out of it. In CE there was no lunge at all, and that's where the pillars started, the guns still hold top priority but having grenades and melee at quick access for appropriate engagements were the ideal. You'll notice even grenades have been limited in 4 by not allowing you to pick ones off corpses by default.

All in all, nothing wrong with melee with how they currently implemented it. In fact the only problem was it ever having such absurd lunge in the first place. You just have to think smarter when you're up close now, not just instantly resort to melee.
 
Wait, what? The Halo 4 melee is even better than Reach's IMO and is SUPER fast. My favorite melee system of any Halo game :] (if you don't count the double beatdowns in H1 that required a grenade)

the lunge distance/range is the difference. its too short and feels like you've got little alligator arms.
 
Combined with how much faster everyone dies now, you are less likely to close enough distance for a melee kill now. Guns > everything in this game.
 
It promoted poor player habits which are getting punished in here. Making your only goal of engagement to double melee someone dumbed down the game overall, you're suggesting that people only moved in Reach because they could get really sloppy kills out of it. In CE there was no lunge at all, and that's where the pillars started, the guns still hold top priority but having grenades and melee at quick access for appropriate engagements were the ideal. You'll notice even grenades have been limited in 4 by not allowing you to pick ones off corpses by default.

All in all, nothing wrong with melee with how they currently implemented it. In fact the only problem was it ever having such absurd lunge in the first place. You just have to think smarter when you're up close now, not just instantly resort to melee.

this statement is just dumb

it was risk versus reward not poor player habits or sloppy kills. and 'think smarter' wtf does that even mean?!? if there's a weapon on the map that I want now, because the melee sucks, I'm not going to risk trying to take it. I'm just gong to sit back and grenade/bullet spam the area.

Combined with how much faster everyone dies now, you are less likely to close enough distance for a melee kill now. Guns > everything in this game.

I'm mainly concerned with the close quarters combat because it is really bad now because they put all the fucus on the guns and chasing after COD.
 

GamerSoul

Member
It promoted poor player habits which are getting punished in here. Making your only goal of engagement to double melee someone dumbed down the game overall, you're suggesting that people only moved in Reach because they could get really sloppy kills out of it. In CE there was no lunge at all, and that's where the pillars started, the guns still hold top priority but having grenades and melee at quick access for appropriate engagements were the ideal. You'll notice even grenades have been limited in 4 by not allowing you to pick ones off corpses by default.

All in all, nothing wrong with melee with how they currently implemented it. In fact the only problem was it ever having such absurd lunge in the first place. You just have to think smarter when you're up close now, not just instantly resort to melee.

I've been on the side that thinks Halo 4's melee is pretty "awkward" but you make some good points. I can see why they would want to remove the lunge but I still think even at close quarters there are times where you just randomly use sight of your opponent after you land the first hit or your second hit just comes out late. Imo, Reach's had a more rythmic flow to it so it felt better when the hit connected. Maybe I just need to get use it, I dont mind.
 
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