Some story talk, but I still really feel they should've postponed the
Didact reveal
until the end of the game, or very near to it. Have the player discover the legend first, the story,
of this ancient, powerful Forerunner with a hatred for humanity, locked away for an eternity, but now close to awakening
. Have the player fight to prevent it, and fail. The reveal would've had a lot more impact.
Now you press some magical buttons and some dude appears, who, for some reason, doesn't like humanity, even though all Forerunner structures have solely existed to help humanity up til that point.
Actually this would have been cool. I just finished reading Thursday War yesterday which contextualises everything a lot more (I don't know if I can bring myself to read the second Bear novel though) and so I've been thinking about the story. Came in here maybe to talk about it, didn't realise that everyone hates Halo now
I think the main weakness with the story in 4 is that for the first few missions you have no real motivation for all the buttons you're pressing. are we doing it because we think it'll help us find Infinity? Because that didn't have me fooled for a second. You could make the argument that the MC has been used to open the Cryptum but it still doesn't sit right with me.
I'm really looking forward to the next Traviss book, hopefully she'll go into a little more detail about Jul Mdama and his involvement in how everything came together. After re-watching all the Spartan Ops episodes yesterday I'm totally on an EU kick, it's great stuff. It's funny how the games are now just a tiny sliver of this story about the UNSC. I'm much more interested in what Parangosky and Halsey and Osman are going to do next.
Actually this would have been cool. I just finished reading Thursday War yesterday which contextualises everything a lot more (I don't know if I can bring myself to read the second Bear novel though) and so I've been thinking about the story. Came in here maybe to talk about it, didn't realise that everyone hates Halo now
I think the main weakness with the story in 4 is that for the first few missions you have no real motivation for all the buttons you're pressing. are we doing it because we think it'll help us find Infinity? Because that didn't have me fooled for a second. You could make the argument that the MC has been used to open the Cryptum but it still doesn't sit right with me.
I'm really looking forward to the next Traviss book, hopefully she'll go into a little more detail about Jul Mdama and his involvement in how everything came together. After re-watching all the Spartan Ops episodes yesterday I'm totally on an EU kick, it's great stuff. It's funny how the games are now just a tiny sliver of this story about the UNSC. I'm much more interested in what Parangosky and Halsey and Osman are going to do next.
Yeah that would have been an interesting way to go about it--in many ways the overall shape of the story would have remained the same but I think that getting the Librarian info frontloaded, *then* having humanity show up and try to stop the Didact would have offered some alternatives for how they had to cram together the story.
Personally, though, I thought having the Chief accidentally open the Cryptum was more interesting than the old standby of "those Covenant fools! There should have been signs!" (Althoug on the other hand this would prolly be the first time the Covenant intentionally released something from a Forerunner installation.)
I'm not sure how much the next Traviss novel is going to deal with Mdama. I kind of got the feeling that they frontloaded his story into this one so we knew how he ended up at Requiem and where he got his followers. I hope the final novel spends a little more time with Arby and the Elite Civil War; other than that it's definitely going to deal with the Venezia insurrectionists.
Yeah that would have been an interesting way to go about it--in many ways the overall shape of the story would have remained the same but I think that getting the Librarian info frontloaded, *then* having humanity show up and try to stop the Didact would have offered some alternatives for how they had to cram together the story.
Personally, though, I thought having the Chief accidentally open the Cryptum was more interesting than the old standby of "those Covenant fools! There should have been signs!" (Althoug on the other hand this would prolly be the first time the Covenant intentionally released something from a Forerunner installation.)
I'm not sure how much the next Traviss novel is going to deal with Mdama. I kind of got the feeling that they frontloaded his story into this one so we knew how he ended up at Requiem and where he got his followers. I hope the final novel spends a little more time with Arby and the Elite Civil War; other than that it's definitely going to deal with the Venezia insurrectionists.
Yeah, and I'm looking forward to the Venezia stuff too, I can't wait to see how it pans out with Staffan and Naomi. I really only needs a chapter or two to setup Halo 4, with Jul raising his forces and heading to Requiem and perhaps having something to do with the Didact's awakening too.
It was fun watching the SpOps eps now, knowing who Jul is and a bit more about Infinity. It took the shorts from being nice CG with some story to being the main stuff I'm interested in. Halsey working with Jul unknowingly was an awesome twist and made sense for her character. I'm excited about where the story is heading, it's all wide open.
I really feel sorry for folks who aren't reading the books now though. It feels like the game is ancilliary to the rest of the media - really MC's fight on requiem was just a tiny fragment of the story. Non readers have no idea who any of these characters. I understand why Halsey is so hated (even though I kinda disagree, she's also a hero and I hope MC will get a chance to speak for her), who Jul is, where the Infinity and the tech came from, what a sheild world is, a little bit about the Didact (although I wish I hadn't read Cryptum, it really muddies the waters) and tons more context besides. It feels like the game is fanservice for the book fans, like if they made a Game of Thrones game that just centres around a battle on the Wall or something.
Goddammit Tawpgun you beat me to this, this is exactly how I feel and been trying to put it into words. Might share my feelings about it eventually too.
There's some discussion way back about a few people thing the gun sounds are too loud (turret, DMR, etc). I live in an apt and have to turn my stereo almost all the way down because the gun noises are super loud. Is there anything I can do to adjust this? I have an ONKYO RC360 receiver, but no idea what to adjust.
In the first week after the game came out, me and the friends I was playing with were constantly telling Steitzer to shut up. Literally, we'd say it out loud. Sometimes we'd even say it in unison. The announcements are just so frequent, and so awful.
There's some discussion way back about a few people thing the gun sounds are too loud (turret, DMR, etc). I live in an apt and have to turn my stereo almost all the way down because the gun noises are super loud. Is there anything I can do to adjust this? I have an ONKYO RC360 receiver, but no idea what to adjust.
This is a big complaint a friend of mine has had for some time because he wants to record voices, without having to use the Xbox settings to make the audio low enough to hear people talk. You get this constant increase and decrease in game volume which can get pretty annoying.
I wish they would give us the option as well. It's one of my favourite features of Call of Duty. Maybe 343 should look into it and see what they can do for Halo 5. It can't be anything but a good thing.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since it's a new studio. This is microsoft after all. Tons of bloated bureaucracy and producers and directors etc. I bet they got the core studio down now for the next go and will make sure the next game is more polished.
I wish we had both instead of one or the other. Marty did mix the audio really nicely, but sometimes you wanna crank the dialogue up in case you missed something or you feel like playing without music.
This game is a fucking mess. being forced to play infinity slayer has actually made me a worse player. Im so used to shit teammates that i just rush like a fucking idiot. Can we get some version of slayer pro back? ..Please??
In short: a significant step up in quality from the first half of the season, most of which I wasn't exactly in love with.
The chapters actually feel like snippets from a campaign mission rather than "Here's an area, go hit buttons and oh PS drop pods incoming!" There's a logical progression and flow through the playspaces that the first half of the season just didn't have. However, I do not see these spaces being as reusable as the first, because they are much less like generic combat arenas and more like actual levels than before.
I feel like the encounters are much more manageable solo and more well-designed than the first half's, with a more careful hand than the established Spartan Ops trend of dumping an assload of enemies out all at once, often on top of the player. That happened to me once during this episode, but it wasn't the annoying enemy composition that we saw previously. In general, there is a much higher percentage of enemies wielding rifles now, so expect Storm Rifle/Carbine Elites and Light Rifle/Suppressor Knights more than anything. Those types of encounters are where I think Halo combat excels rather than the instakill FRG/Incineration/Binary moments, so it's really encouraging to see them focus on it more in this episode.
Fuel Rod Guns are still in use, and still pretty obnoxious. They're usually on Grunts now, though, rather than Elites, which is a good change. There are still Binary Rifles (a lot of them) and Incineration Cannons galore on one of the missions, and they're still not fun to fight against. There is also a moment where 6+ Beam Rifle Jackals drop in and immediately start blasting you. That totally sucks. Please don't do that.
There is asset reuse, from both campaign and multiplayer. I think it works better than the first half of the season. I'll detail the reuse in spoiler tags at the bottom of this post for those that are interested.
Interesting to note that they seem to be balancing out their commendation progress this episode, where the last half of the season didn't have many Jackal Majors, Knight Battlewagons and Commanders, and certain Elite classes, there are plenty now. As someone who is stupidly trying to max those out, I appreciate it.
The talking head dialogue snippets are still a little hit or miss, though I think it is markedly better than before (not a single mention of eggheads). The combat dialogue from Miller and Palmer is still grating ("I still see targets!" "Drop pod incoming!" "Get to work, Crimson.") if only because of how frequently it occurs.
This is much closer to the quality bar than the majority of the first half of the season. I don't know if this upward trend will last, but this is a pretty strong start to the second half of the season.
Locations and asset reuse:
Chapter 1: All new.
Chapter 2: Reuses the big pyramid structure from the end of the level Requiem, but at night. It's cool.
Chapter 3: All new.
Chapter 4: Vortex.
Chapter 5: All new, and really disappointing given the hype surrounding it.
Dumbest line of dialogue ever:
Player is standing surrounded by green boxes and ammo crates filled with Battle Rifles, Assault Rifles, and DMRs.
The others were kinda disappointing, because they were basically more of the "HOLY SHIT THAT'S A MILLION ENEMIES AT THE SAME TIME"-bullcrap I don't really enjoy in mah Haloez.
It was nice. I really hope that more missions do something similar in the future with something like a predetermined stealth loadout or heavy weapons loadout.
I thought it was great. The only thing that slightly miffed me was that I didn't get my Fast Track XP, but oh well.
Personally, the greatest thing for me about Chapter 6 was that we started off in a
first-person cutscene, and we got to see one of our buddies knife an Elite. Out of curiosity, does the 1st player actually get to see that happen in first-person on their screen?
I thought it was great. The only thing that slightly miffed me was that I didn't get my Fast Track XP, but oh well.
Personally, the greatest thing for me about Chapter 6 was that we started off in a
first-person cutscene, and we got to see one of our buddies knife an Elite. Out of curiosity, does the 1st player actually get to see that happen in first-person on their screen?
It picks a random person apparently. Played it once and got to be the cool assassinating dude :Y
On the subject of Spartan Ops, the fact that nearly every game I've played in matchmaking for Spartan Ops has had a minimum of one guy idling the whole time, I'm basically at the point of saying "F this" and not even play Halo 4 anymore, already beat the campaign and played enough multiplayer to realize it's not fun anymore.
I thought it was great. The only thing that slightly miffed me was that I didn't get my Fast Track XP, but oh well.
Personally, the greatest thing for me about Chapter 6 was that we started off in a
first-person cutscene, and we got to see one of our buddies knife an Elite. Out of curiosity, does the 1st player actually get to see that happen in first-person on their screen?
I think im gonna tone down how much i play until a new slayer pro or mlg playlist. IS is like a live circus. Theres a fifty fifty chance it will make you either laugh or cry.
I think im gonna tone down how much i play until a new slayer pro or mlg playlist. IS is like a live circus. Theres a fifty fifty chance it will make you either laugh or cry.
Actually you might be right that it's the party leader.
The only way I've figured out if someone is host in this game is via IS. When you call your ordnance drop, if there's an orange symbol on the floor where it drops AND there's a green icon telling you what it is at the same time, you're host.
I'm just going to leave this playlist here. Not exactly 'nostalgia-trip' stuff considering the period of time since the game's release, but I think the Never Forget / Another Rain remix can be quite powerful for those who played Halo 3 and/or ODST back in its day.
At this point its hard not to sound like a broken record but this game is seriously unplayable. There is no joy to be had playing this game in an even semi serious manner.
I played a JiP match of CTF on one of the new Forge maps, and I really enjoyed myself. They changed the CTF settings! 15 second flag returns, and that number goes down if you're standing on the flag. Also, the flag can't be captured unless yours is at home. Good improvements.
4 vs 4
Pre-set game loadouts
Forced respawn timers
No instant respawn
Ordnance on re-supply timers
Join-in-progress off
No split-screen play
Friendly fire on
Max party size 4 with big party matching enforced
No guests allowed
4 vs 4
Pre-set game loadouts
Forced respawn timers
No instant respawn
Ordnance on re-supply timers
Join-in-progress off
No split-screen play
Friendly fire on
Max party size 4 with big party matching enforced
No guests allowed
4 vs 4
Pre-set game loadouts
Forced respawn timers
No instant respawn
Ordnance on re-supply timers
Join-in-progress off
No split-screen play
Friendly fire on
Max party size 4 with big party matching enforced
No guests allowed
