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Halo 4 |OT2| TURBO

TheOddOne

Member
The counterpart philosophy behind the weapons in Halo 4 needs to be reexamined. At its core it’s re-skinning existing weapons with a new coat of paint. It has caused more weapon overlap and bloat within the sandbox. There are enough core weapons, but there are really less standout never-been-done-before weapons.

#thoughtoftheday #missingPlywood #Halodad
 

Chettlar

Banned
I wrote a post just now about people who were trying to say that Halo 4's design was good because Halo needed to evolve.

I agreed, but tried to explain why Halo 4 was doing it wrong and what Halo ought to do to evolve.

It's long, but I was getting really, really basic with things. It'd be cool if you guys'd read it though.

Ya gotta allow me one megapost once in a while. This is important, and there really wasn't a way to shorten it, despite my trying to.
 

Tawpgun

Member
The counterpart philosophy behind the weapons in Halo 4 needs to be reexamined. At its core it’s re-skinning existing weapons with a new coat of paint. It has caused more weapon overlap and bloat within the sandbox. There are enough core weapons, but there are really less standout never-been-done-before weapons.

#thoughtoftheday #missingPlywood #Halodad

Their reasoning was annoying too. Casual players didn't understand more complicated, different weapons and responded better to weapons that behaved as they expected weapons to behave. Ie. press left trigger and something that hurts others comes out similar to a bullet.

Reach's sandbox was awesome because it removed a lot of overlap, but then they killed it again in Halo 4. But I understand why. It's because of Halo 4's loadout system. They wanted you to pick from weapons that are similar to one another to be balanced well against each other, but different enough so players could feel they had options.

If Promethean weapons come back, I wanna see more creative uses. You have FORERUNNER TECH. Stop trying to make it re-skinned human weapons. The scattershot was a good concept but the bouncing projecticles have very little effect and no one uses the scattershot to bounce shots around walls. Possible fix? When a scattershot projectile hits a surface, it retains or maybe even MAGNIFIES its damage and can go further. This way, bouncing shots is encouraged. Leading to people aiming at the floor in order to bounce a shot into a player for more damage or to kill them at a longer range. Perhaps offer a charge shot mechanic as an alt fire. Do cool stuff. No boltshot though that was dumb.

And with covenant tech, you have a new faction of covenant known for being very guerilla, rag tag like. Have storm faction weapons that look like they were designed using makeshift covenant tech. Like ghetto DIY covenant weapons. Not just the storm rifle which was just a repeater which was just a plasma rifle.

Human weapons... just bring back grenade launcher, thanks in advance.

Oh and if you wanna add another thing to the human arsenal, how about a prototype weapon that uses forerunner tech. Infinity was built with forerunner tech, lets have some human weapons get that treatment.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Their reasoning was annoying too. Casual players didn't understand more complicated, different weapons and responded better to weapons that behaved as they expected weapons to behave. Ie. press left trigger and something that hurts others comes out similar to a bullet.

Reach's sandbox was awesome because it removed a lot of overlap, but then they killed it again in Halo 4. But I understand why. It's because of Halo 4's loadout system. They wanted you to pick from weapons that are similar to one another to be balanced well against each other, but different enough so players could feel they had options.

If Promethean weapons come back, I wanna see more creative uses. You have FORERUNNER TECH. Stop trying to make it re-skinned human weapons. The scattershot was a good concept but the bouncing projecticles have very little effect and no one uses the scattershot to bounce shots around walls. Possible fix? When a scattershot projectile hits a surface, it retains or maybe even MAGNIFIES its damage and can go further. This way, bouncing shots is encouraged. Leading to people aiming at the floor in order to bounce a shot into a player for more damage or to kill them at a longer range. Perhaps offer a charge shot mechanic as an alt fire. Do cool stuff. No boltshot though that was dumb.

And with covenant tech, you have a new faction of covenant known for being very guerilla, rag tag like. Have storm faction weapons that look like they were designed using makeshift covenant tech. Like ghetto DIY covenant weapons. Not just the storm rifle which was just a repeater which was just a plasma rifle.

Human weapons... just bring back grenade launcher, thanks in advance.

Oh and if you wanna add another thing to the human arsenal, how about a prototype weapon that uses forerunner tech. Infinity was built with forerunner tech, lets have some human weapons get that treatment.
ib1zXPqPeDHUKZ.jpg


You and I are on the same page.
 

Chettlar

Banned
So Halo 4's balance isn't really there? It's just a cheap shell of real balance? Instead of new and different and varied guns that Halo is known for, they just made a bunch of games that are the same so they didn't have to balance them?

Why I just...I can dig it (not the balance, the concept you guys are talking about). Makes a lot of sense.


And speaking of forerunner tech, Tawpgun, what kind of ideas would you have for that?

Just making things pop in my mind, maybe you could have a kind of punching type weapon (that uses that invisible "force" that holds promethean weapons together. Like a short burst of forward energy that knocks the opponant backwards) that could be used to counteract a sword weilding spartan
or elite. :'( Miss being able to play as those.
Would be real easy to have that end up being OP though. Maybe somethign as simple as a gun that knocks the person backwards, and no more, or maybe make that like a secondary fire, like the plasma pistol, and have normal fire fairly weak, again like the plasma pistol.
 
Alpha footage (or something early) of Halo 4 out, Adrift looks good without the brown in my opinion. BR sounds better too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEO1gtK9evc&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBFJ4K8KciE&feature=player_embedded

It's incredible how much better Halo maps look without so much detail and feeling busy. Simplicity all throughout its design works best IMO.

EDIT:
:(

That video reminds me, why can't there be a third person skull?
Surprised that a third person Halo game hasn't happened by now.
 
It's incredible how much better Halo maps look without so much detail and feeling busy. Simplicity all throughout its design works best IMO.

EDIT:
Surprised that a third person Halo game hasn't happened by now.

Certainly my biggest annoyance with Titanfall's map design is all the little shit jutting out in places that gets in the way of gameplay. Someone needs to hold those artists back.
 
Certainly my biggest annoyance with Titanfall's map design is all the little shit jutting out in places that gets in the way of gameplay. Someone needs to hold those artists back.

Couple that with no teammate indicators, callsigns, nametags, etc. and it gets annoying sometimes. It's easily one of my biggest complaints about shooters these days. Halo maps need to be more like Haven in art style, not necessarily Forerunner, but simple, clean and pristine.


EDIT:
Alpha footage (or something early) of Halo 4 out, Adrift looks good without the brown in my opinion. BR sounds better too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEO1gtK9evc&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBFJ4K8KciE&feature=player_embedded

Forgot to mention this but Thrusters need to be in first person again.
 

Mistel

Banned
I still have no idea why during development no one actually questioned why they made 4 like this. Why did they scrap that other build thingy?
 

Woorloog

Banned
I still have no idea why during development no one actually questioned why they made 4 like this. Why did they scrap that other build thingy?

Pretty sure they addressed this once. They were like "We nailed Halo, now how can be do [something, can't recall what]?", i think.
Correct me if i'm wrong.
 

Chettlar

Banned
I still have no idea why during development no one actually questioned why they made 4 like this. Why did they scrap that other build thingy?

Maybe they wanted to make it like that, but somebody from MS came in saying "Our shareholders want a COD killer. Is halo a COD killer yet? WHAT?! No powerups? No killstreaks? No loadouts? How can you expect this game to be a COD killer without those? Put them in right now!"

It's not as if it's unheard of.... (Seriously, one of the best articles on the subject of video games I have ever read).
 

FyreWulff

Member
Maybe they wanted to make it like that, but somebody from MS came in saying "Our shareholders want a COD killer. Is halo a COD killer yet? WHAT?! No powerups? No killstreaks? No loadouts? How can you expect this game to be a COD killer without those? Put them in right now!"

It's not as if it's unheard of.... (Seriously, one of the best articles on the subject of video games I have ever read).

343 made all those decisions on their own. I'm pretty sure the upper execs don't even care about Halo plays, they care more about Halo's ROI.
 

Chettlar

Banned
343 made all those decisions on their own. I'm pretty sure the upper execs don't even care about Halo plays, they care more about Halo's ROI.

Right, but they may very well have said "I want you to make a game that kills COD."

Again, read the article. It does a better job of explaining what I'm talking about. Plus it's a good read anyway.

And yes, maybe 343 did it entirely by itself, but that doesn't really explain why they would make a prototype that was like original Halo and then screw it up.
 

Tawpgun

Member
So over the past couple days I've had a few people impersonating bungie employees (Jason Jones, Sketch (though he left) and someone who claims to be a recent hire) friend requesting me because they think I work for Bungie. One dude messaged me asking if I could ban the jason jones impersonator because he was being a douche, I asked why and he said he was told I work for microsoft.

So Urk/Frankie, if you guys could just send my missing paychecks my way that would be great.
 
And yes, maybe 343 did it entirely by itself, but that doesn't really explain why they would make a prototype that was like original Halo and then screw it up.
... because they didn't want to make that game? They wanted to reach for the proverbial sun and try to mix both very Halo ass Halo with new [one might COD-y] elements? That's what they were interested in attempting?

Looking at what they trying to do isn't rocket science.
It's clearly a very Halo ass Halo game made by people very invested in it, but bungled in a bunch of key ways.
 
So over the past couple days I've had a few people impersonating bungie employees (Jason Jones, Sketch (though he left) and someone who claims to be a recent hire) friend requesting me because they think I work for Bungie. One dude messaged me asking if I could ban the jason jones impersonator because he was being a douche, I asked why and he said he was told I work for microsoft.

So Urk/Frankie, if you guys could just send my missing paychecks my way that would be great.

Me and N00bs have a clan for these people. Forward them my GT.
 

Chettlar

Banned
... because they didn't want to make that game? They wanted to reach for the proverbial sun and try to mix both very Halo ass Halo with new [one might COD-y] elements? That's what they were interested in attempting?

Looking at what they trying to do isn't rocket science.
It's clearly a very Halo ass Halo game made by people very invested in it, but bungled in a bunch of key ways.

Sorta makes sense.

Though I wish developers would learn half-bread games like that (part arena, part twitch shooter ala COD) do not work. I've never played a game that successfully combined two completely opposite subgenres within the same genre. It just kills focus and identity.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Right, but they may very well have said "I want you to make a game that kills COD."

Again, read the article. It does a better job of explaining what I'm talking about. Plus it's a good read anyway.

And yes, maybe 343 did it entirely by itself, but that doesn't really explain why they would make a prototype that was like original Halo and then screw it up.

An impression Halo 4 would give some people is a lot of changes to show 343 had a non-Bungie identity. Hire a bunch of ex-CoD developers, and you have the perfect storm that would lend itself to a game beng CoD-ized with zero influence from higher ups.
 

Ghazi

Member
Alpha footage (or something early) of Halo 4 out, Adrift looks good without the brown in my opinion. BR sounds better too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEO1gtK9evc&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBFJ4K8KciE&feature=player_embedded

tumblr_inline_mnl0c33fx01qz4rgp.gif


I saw a lot I liked, though this was Adrift with a 1v1, so it's hard to make a final conclusion.

I saw motion blur, colors (COLORS!!!!), first person thruster packs, a non op assault rifle.

But, there were various things I thought turned out better in the final game.

If only they'd stuck to their roots, I'm certain Halo 4 would've turned out to be a juggernaut of online arena shooters if so.

Quick question, have the urge to play through the Halo 1 and 2 campaigns. Are there any issues with going with the 360 as opposed to digging out the classic original Xbox?

thanks

If there are, I'm not aware of any. I played H1 (from the arcade) on my 360 a while ago and it was great. Never played through all of H2 on the 360, but I can't remember having any issues. I may be wrong though, as this was forever ago.


e: Woorloog's post sounds more correct. I only ever played H2 on the OG Xbox, so CE on the arcade was my only experience with that game and I assumed it was just like that. I can't recall this "burn-in" bug, though.

e2: Ohhh, I know what he's talking about now. Yeah, that was a problem, but not really if you played sub-hd like I did.
 
Quick question, have the urge to play through the Halo 1 and 2 campaigns. Are there any issues with going with the 360 as opposed to digging out the classic original Xbox?

thanks
 

Chettlar

Banned
^ I don't believe so, no. Nothing gamebreaking anyway. You should get CEA though breh.

An impression Halo 4 would give some people is a lot of changes to show 343 had a non-Bungie identity. Hire a bunch of ex-CoD developers, and you have the perfect storm that would lend itself to a game beng CoD-ized with zero influence from higher ups.

Makes sense. Not to mention the one guy (who was it?) who apparently self-professedly hated halo.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Quick question, have the urge to play through the Halo 1 and 2 campaigns. Are there any issues with going with the 360 as opposed to digging out the classic original Xbox?

thanks

Framerate issues in CE AFAIK (though you'd get those with Anniversary too) and Halo 2 has this "burn-in" graphics bug.
EDIT i think i recall something about CE having sound issues too?
 
An impression Halo 4 would give some people is a lot of changes to show 343 had a non-Bungie identity. Hire a bunch of ex-CoD developers, and you have the perfect storm that would lend itself to a game beng CoD-ized with zero influence from higher ups.

How many came from ex-COD? When I looked at the staff list some time ago it seemed 343i staff came from all over the industry. A quick look here shows Pandemic, Treyarch, MS, Bungie, Koei, 2K, Rockstar, ID, EA, Sony, Bioware, Rare, FASA...I don't see any one dominate hiring pattern other than sourcing existing talent from all over.
 

FyreWulff

Member
How many came from ex-COD? When I looked at the staff list some time ago it seemed 343i staff came from all over the industry. A quick look here shows Pandemic, Treyarch, MS, Bungie, Koei, 2K, Rockstar, ID, EA, Sony, Bioware, Rare, FASA...I don't see any one dominate hiring pattern other than sourcing existing talent from all over.

Ex-CoD in key high positions. Add in the fact that if you've worked on an FPS in the past 5 years.. that FPS likely imitated CoD, or was CoD in all but name. Probably not going to find much resistance to CoD elements.

I don't know how else to explain the roaring hurricane that was the community's rejection of perks, and then 343 releasing more perks in a title update. (Besides MS corporate culture's effects, anyway)
 

DeadNames

Banned
Ex-CoD in key high positions. Add in the fact that if you've worked on an FPS in the past 5 years.. that FPS likely imitated CoD, or was CoD in all but name. Probably not going to find much resistance to CoD elements.

I don't know how else to explain the roaring hurricane that was the community's rejection of perks, and then 343 releasing more perks in a title update. (Besides MS corporate culture's effects, anyway)

I think that storm hit twice, once with Reach and again with Halo 4. I don't get the hate for it all really. Random POD I understand the hate and imbalance but playlist diversity (granted missing at 4's launch but we're past that now, right?) didn't deserve the population drop during Reach (Bungie) or 4 (343).

Personally for HX1 I feel all they have to do is keep it simple by allowing dedis, no black screen, accurate statistics/in game rank, less cheating/abuse, cleaner/tighter maps, less clusterfucking and the current Halo 4 playlists/settings diversity/sandbox tweaking with really high quality mode specific maps to shine. Add in a kick arse campaign and new mode for cloud/large scale/crazy full scale Halo sandbox plus a replacement to FF/SPOPS to try something drastically new and BAM instant classic, for me anyway. Throw in online tournaments and clans that culminate into GC style event finals and a grand final/reveal event to really drive competitive.

I feel like they've done the hard yards/experience/studio through Reach TU/Ann/4 and are ready for this as X1 title now. I guess I'm still excited for Halo, especially regional dedis. To me that's far more game satisfaction then any previous Halo, imagine coop campaign or FF without terribad input latency. Imagine no black screen or fucked up stats/rank. Hmmm, I could care less if I was playing Halo 2, 3, Reach or 4 in that framework. As long as the maps and playlists are really top notch quality for each mode I'm ready to enjoy the best Halo experience, whatever the developer decides from their vision.
 

Chettlar

Banned
Why IWHBYD skull exist in this game.

...Don't you mean "Why wasn't IWHBYD skull in the game?" Or what are you saying?

And the reason it wasn't included in the game is because Halo 4 handled skulls awfully. Instead of being things you find, nah, they had to make them just things in the menu, thus removing the IWHBYD skull, since they didn't want people turning that on their first time through.

And plus, most of the Covenant doesn't speak English in 4 anyway, so good luck with that.

Ugh, yet another problem with Halo 4.
 

FyreWulff

Member
I think that storm hit twice, once with Reach and again with Halo 4.

Reach wasn't CoD-ized, though. The loadout functionality was per-gametype, not universal, and I didn't have to unlock basic stuff like my own emblem. 90% of the time, the loadouts had all the same weapons, just different AAs. And everyone had access to the same loadouts. Reach also had the ability to remove AAs and any loadout popup completely. The progression system only offered you cosmetics to unlock - no gameplay advantages existed between an Inheritor and a Recruit of the same skill.

Where the CoDization goes awry is how it was implemented in Halo 4. Locking basic emblems for the sake of the progression system. Locking away AAs for the sake of the progression system, meaning people have a material advantage in matches that I CANNOT counter at ALL unless I've played as much as them or have paid money to unlock them faster. Locking away weapons for the sake of the progression system. Making loadouts universal, so now it's impossible to remove weapons or AAs that don't work from certain gametypes without nuking the entire loadout system. Reach never painted itself into a corner, Halo 4 did. Reach started having AAs that didn't work out deleted, Halo 4 added more perks to counter the other perks it already had.

Need I remind you - if you start Halo 4 as a new player, you're stuck with an AR against people with DMRs, Lightrifles, Carbines, and BRs. You cannot counter people off spawn because they start with better weapons that the game says "no, you can't have this until you've been pooped on enough"
 

willow ve

Member
I think that storm hit twice, once with Reach and again with Halo 4. I don't get the hate for it all really. Random POD I understand the hate and imbalance but playlist diversity (granted missing at 4's launch but we're past that now, right?) didn't deserve the population drop during Reach (Bungie) or 4 (343).

Personally for HX1 I feel all they have to do is keep it simple by allowing dedis, no black screen, accurate statistics/in game rank, less cheating/abuse, cleaner/tighter maps, less clusterfucking and the current Halo 4 playlists/settings diversity/sandbox tweaking with really high quality mode specific maps to shine. Add in a kick arse campaign and new mode for cloud/large scale/crazy full scale Halo sandbox plus a replacement to FF/SPOPS to try something drastically new and BAM instant classic, for me anyway. Throw in online tournaments and clans that culminate into GC style event finals and a grand final/reveal event to really drive competitive.

I feel like they've done the hard yards/experience/studio through Reach TU/Ann/4 and are ready for this as X1 title now. I guess I'm still excited for Halo, especially regional dedis. To me that's far more game satisfaction then any previous Halo, imagine coop campaign or FF without terribad input latency. Imagine no black screen or fucked up stats/rank. Hmmm, I could care less if I was playing Halo 2, 3, Reach or 4 in that framework. As long as the maps and playlists are really top notch quality for each mode I'm ready to enjoy the best Halo experience, whatever the developer decides from their vision.
I think you're in the minority on this. Perks and loadouts in the next game is going to be an automatic pass from a lot of gamers who dropped 4 after that first week. I can't imagine the clusterfuck of ideas that are going to get crammed into the next game as Microsoft attempts to sell consoles on the back of Halo. And without halo being a truly unique (throwback) experience who needs it over than fall, COD, or Battlefield? The next game in all honesty is going to have way too much pressure put on it.
 

Woorloog

Banned
...Don't you mean "Why wasn't IWHBYD skull in the game?" Or what are you saying?

And the reason it wasn't included in the game is because Halo 4 handled skulls awfully. Instead of being things you find, nah, they had to make them just things in the menu, thus removing the IWHBYD skull, since they didn't want people turning that on their first time through.

And plus, most of the Covenant doesn't speak English in 4 anyway, so good luck with that.

Ugh, yet another problem with Halo 4.

I'll remind you that Reach handled the skulls like Halo 4 did (actually, i should say Halo 4 handled them like Reach did...). The skull was utterly pointless in Reach too...
 
I think that storm hit twice, once with Reach and again with Halo 4. I don't get the hate for it all really. Random POD I understand the hate and imbalance but playlist diversity (granted missing at 4's launch but we're past that now, right?) didn't deserve the population drop during Reach (Bungie) or 4 (343).

Personally for HX1 I feel all they have to do is keep it simple by allowing dedis, no black screen, accurate statistics/in game rank, less cheating/abuse, cleaner/tighter maps, less clusterfucking and the current Halo 4 playlists/settings diversity/sandbox tweaking with really high quality mode specific maps to shine. Add in a kick arse campaign and new mode for cloud/large scale/crazy full scale Halo sandbox plus a replacement to FF/SPOPS to try something drastically new and BAM instant classic, for me anyway. Throw in online tournaments and clans that culminate into GC style event finals and a grand final/reveal event to really drive competitive.

I feel like they've done the hard yards/experience/studio through Reach TU/Ann/4 and are ready for this as X1 title now. I guess I'm still excited for Halo, especially regional dedis. To me that's far more game satisfaction then any previous Halo, imagine coop campaign or FF without terribad input latency. Imagine no black screen or fucked up stats/rank. Hmmm, I could care less if I was playing Halo 2, 3, Reach or 4 in that framework. As long as the maps and playlists are really top notch quality for each mode I'm ready to enjoy the best Halo experience, whatever the developer decides from their vision.
Halo 4 population drop did deserved it. If it's bad, not fun, not competitive enough, and whatever other reasons, than people aren't going to bother. Just being honest.
 
Reach wasn't CoD-ized, though. The loadout functionality was per-gametype, not universal, and I didn't have to unlock basic stuff like my own emblem. 90% of the time, the loadouts had all the same weapons, just different AAs. And everyone had access to the same loadouts. Reach also had the ability to remove AAs and any loadout popup completely. The progression system only offered you cosmetics to unlock - no gameplay advantages existed between an Inheritor and a Recruit of the same skill.

Where the CoDization goes awry is how it was implemented in Halo 4. Locking basic emblems for the sake of the progression system. Locking away AAs for the sake of the progression system, meaning people have a material advantage in matches that I CANNOT counter at ALL unless I've played as much as them or have paid money to unlock them faster. Locking away weapons for the sake of the progression system. Making loadouts universal, so now it's impossible to remove weapons or AAs that don't work from certain gametypes without nuking the entire loadout system. Reach never painted itself into a corner, Halo 4 did. Reach started having AAs that didn't work out deleted, Halo 4 added more perks to counter the other perks it already had.

I completely agree with your comments about "arena Halo style" was more present in Reach, I was generalising about those who don't like 4 for a massive percentage also prefer CE, 2 or 3 over Reach as well. Similar population trends were in Reach and 4 as well with regard to the trilogy.

Take all that into account and now in current day 4 we do have fixed loadouts or no AAs playlists/settings. I've never been a fan of any progression system for multiplayer. I still don't have issue with an Infinity style mode where unlockables via progression are present, they just have to have an arena style mode where no unlockables exist and it's even starts. I don't see that as splintering in the same way I don't see FF/SPOPS splintering War Games. I just see them as differing modes.

Modes or playlists are better suited for this over current Halo 4's vote variants mixing them. I want to see maps and modes specifically designed around their settings, not the vote variants/settings created on maps after the fact in terms of map design. It's a development cycle thing and part of why I believe maps are so very important to how the game is received, they drive the design, development, game flow, mechanics, playlists, settings and to an extent even the networking etc.

Give me this in the menu:

1. Campaign (solo or coop)
2. Ranked Arena & Clan & online tournies e.g. multiplayer with fixed loadouts and default vs. MLG type settings with slayer vs objective, no JiP, always even starts, no progression systems, ranked only, FFA, 4/5 vs 4/5, 10v10. Maps to suit.
3. New BTB mode with full scale Halo Wars style sandbox, progression systems, vehicle upgrades, the works, social and ranked, JiP, parties but not clans. Dynamic maps to suit.
4. FF or SPOPS style (happy if they just cut these all together to focus on point 3 resource wise).
5. There is potential for points 1 & 3 to become a hybrid game that extends beyond the campaign in a dynamic persistent world but I don't think games/developers have quite nailed this down yet. I'd like to see a set campaign and then a dynamic universe with point 3 beyond that. Episodic content would server well here but the development cycle would take some reinventing.
6. Perhaps social e.g. infection, grifball, action sack and rotational playlists.

As long as they create minimal playlists and design high quality maps I see this sort of game being received on a large scale and retaining a better cross section of population longer than any one vision of the game at launch. Just as Infinity didn't create millions of concurrent players I doubt pure arena would do that at the next launch either. We need a solid base game, which I think 4 has developed into very nicely but the modes have to be there during development and at launch.

I think you're in the minority on this. Perks and loadouts in the next game is going to be an automatic pass from a lot of gamers who dropped 4 after that first week. I can't imagine the clusterfuck of ideas that are going to get crammed into the next game as Microsoft attempts to sell consoles on the back of Halo. And without halo being a truly unique (throwback) experience who needs it over than fall, COD, or Battlefield? The next game in all honesty is going to have way too much pressure put on it.

That's why I think having separated modes over mixed vote variants is an important nuance to make. Player toggles also go a damned long way to empowering players and party leaders getting gamers playing settings/maps that they want to play and match up with. Reach and 4 have far more permutations and many times you feel like you're playing something you don't want to. Dedis, player choice and well defined separation of modes/maps/settings leads to far closer games for all. Take the menu points above and overlay player/party toggles then ask yourself would you even play progression/custom loadouts if you didn't want to? Now put yourself in other gamers shoes and ask the permutation of questions the population variety shows...This sort of framework enables players/parties to play what they want and the other systems continue to work nicely e.g. trueskill or player pools due to toggle minimums etc.
 

Chettlar

Banned
I'll remind you that Reach handled the skulls like Halo 4 did (actually, i should say Halo 4 handled them like Reach did...). The skull was utterly pointless in Reach too...

Oh, I don't deny it. I'm just as mad about that.

In a way I'm mad at Bungie more, since they started this precedent. 343, determined to play Halo really safe, would likely have included campaign skulls in that case (yes, they changed a lot, but core things like this don't seem like something they would have changed. Plus, most of the things 343 seemed to look to Reach as an example.).
 
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