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Halo |OT12| Last One Out, Get the Lights

Do you really need a 4 shot weapon to like Halo? I recall the kill times are about the same as previous halos.

Ordnance are not so random, it's the same drops every time. Have you not noticed scattershot dropping bottom mid on Haven every game. Their set and at exact times.

Already gave up and it's been less than a week. Geez

4 shot is a lot cleaner than the 5/ 8 shot we have going on now. When I see an enemy than a teammate put a shot into I dont know what state of play his shields are in and im kind of just spamming headshots hoping eventually he will go down. With everyone having a 4 shot kill I know immediately that he will be going down in either 3 or 4 shots. The more shots it takes the harder that stuff becomes to read. When you have people using weapons ranging from the carbine to the light rifle its just really unreadable. The game does not do a good job with visual indicators for any of this kind of stuff.

I still dont have my head around random ordnance - I know there is consistency to it, I just don't have a clue whats going on and I feel like every game eventually turns into heavies with everyone eventually having power weapons. I think its more fun to have set locations and set weapons for teams to fight over. Would prefer if Slayer pro had the old system.

All I know is when I talk to friends who love the game its because they have already figured out great tactics to get easy kills - thats not really my cup of tea. I just dont think BR/ DMR/ Carbine/ Light Rifle duels are all that much fun.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Finished campaign on Wednesday, finally finished my write up, or at least there's no point in inflating it further now since observations are changing so quickly. Heroic, 6h 56m according to my service record. Waypoint totaled it up to about 25 minutes longer, maybe that's cutscenes included?

Impressions, some of the game at large. Long post, and I'm sure it's missing a lot of observations I failed to write down. I wrote all of this on my phone over the course of the week so bear with me if there are spelling/grammatical errors:

Stuff I like:
  • This game is beautiful. Technically, but more importantly artistically. IMO best looking game period regardless of platform. The art design trumps any technical merits other games may excel with in my eyes. I had difficulty writing this up because there are so many breathtaking moments that make you lean back in your chair and go "wow." Last time that happened to me this gen was probably the GTA IV trailer. I think I will definitely have a lot of fun playing through this on Legendary, only wish there were still Campaign commendations.
  • It certainly plays and feels like Halo, which was my biggest scare. Overall, the game feels like a logical evolution in mechanics, and the ordnance systems don't feel too out of place as I thought they would. 343 nailed the combat loop and the gunplay.
  • The gun sounds. Oh lord, the gun sounds. DAT SAW
  • Level design for the most part is stellar. Tons of what appear to be homages to classic Halo encounters, especially from Halo 1. A lot of cues taken from Halo 1 actually.
    ALSO THE RETURN OF GONDOLAS
    It is very apparent they took the best bits of all the Halo games as inspiration when it came to encounter and level design, and what kind of segments fans have been asking for forever. You could say its safe design, but 343 did it right, they've created a fantastic sense of old and new.
  • The campaign was much more vehicle-heavy than I expected. I mean the bits are good but I certainly got the impression the large amount of vehicle segments were supposed to help show off the scale of the game. They succeeded.
  • The game nails that science fiction feel well. 
    The start of the last level.. Awaking to the ashes of humans around you.. Exiting a cave to a surreal yet beautiful world of discovery.. Low gravity fighting.. The feeling of inferiority compared to your environment and your opposition even while knowing you are the beast that you are. Check after check after check.
  • The Star Wars-esque beginning to the last mission was breathtaking and fucking amazing, better than the Ghost segment, which dragged on a wee bit too long, but was still enjoyable. Hell, at times I felt the music was VERY reminiscent of Star Wars too.
  • New sandbox additions are awesome but I feel a lot of them cover too similar ground and thus feel like there's some sort of need for equivalencies and variants instead of fresh, different options and niches altogether. Not complaining though, just noting. From rifles to machine guns, there's a lot of overlap and ambiguous utility. RIP Plasma Rifle. It seems like they took a safe approach when it came to expansions to the sandbox, and I can't really blame them. Forerunner grenades seem to be the weakest of the bunch, maybe they'll grow on me, but the immediate effectiveness, even in closing off choke points, is better with the other two types. Favourite new gun is probably the Railgun at the moment, so satisfying even though I'm terrible.
  • Maps are a mixed bag. On one hand, Adrift, Ragnarok (for certain game types), Haven are great. Meltdown is interesting, but I've yet to learn any efficient ways of getting through the map and placing yourself in advantageous positions cause nobody fucking picks it. Indifferent on the rest, really. Vortex is kind of meh, I feel like it needs to be scaled down because it's already bordering on vehicles not being needed. Complex is terrible, a map full of buildings you don't want to be in, where you can get smoked from across the map entirely. Awkward ramp geometry doesn't help. I thank 343 for Haven at this point, it appears that'll be this game's Lockout, as it seems to work beautifully for a wide range of players and game types.
  • Infinity Slayer is really fun, and does put a lot of power into the player and really does make you implicitly feel like you are contributing. No matter how ass you are, you'll likely get at least one drop per game, my only gripes are the Binary Rifle and Incineration Cannon, which both are stupid OP, even if rare, and it's noticeable as the experience turns to "okay that was some goddamn bullshit" whenever you get hit with either.
  • Personal load outs are a welcomed addition, save for complaints made in the latter half of this post. I'm gravitating to specific set ups a lot more than I do in CoD, I guess because I have an affinity with a lot of these weapons already. AR/Boltshot for short-to-mid range KotH and BR/Boltshot for mid-to-long range KotH and grenade-heavy encounters. I still feel it could do without perks altogether though.
  • I really like Domination, though like every other team-based mode, your teammates are usually a mixed bag of usefulness. Great in concept though. Haven't tried Regicide yet, maybe I will when a challenge forces me too. KotH seems to be the star of the show though, I think 343 finally fully realized the potential in this mode and made it shine with the mechanics of the game. They're only missteps were adding Complex and Ragnarok to rotation. This game needs new maps ASAP.
  • Its kind of cool how the villain isn't really there to be the villain as much as he is to aid the progress the story of the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana primarily, and test Master Chief on something other than strength. That said, he does look badass and I wish we saw him more. Though I also agree with what some said in these threads, Cortana casually puts a name to him and Chief doesn't question it like he does everything else at that point in the game, which caught me off guard like I missed something.
  • Universe-building has hit it's stride, this looks like the fastest expansion in the history of the franchise. I like. After the events in the game, I'm really excited to see what they do with Halo 5, as
    The Didact is presumably still alive, Chief *needs* a new AI, other Halos have been discovered and the UNSC has set up shop there for a while now, and the Chief has received an evolutionary augmentation that could make him more resilient going crazy or maybe make him immune. The game did well being a contained story, yet opening up possibilities for sequels. I feel like we will see the return of the Flood, Chief finally reuniting with Halsey at the start of the next game, the return to other Halo installations that now blend UNSC and Forerunner artistic elements from their prolonged occupation, and perhaps the return of the Arbiter who will provide his own insight on the rogue Covenant and the new Forerunner revelations that have been bestowed onto the Chief. I just want to see Arby get a sexy makeover too.
  • Master Chief talks more in the first level of this game than the entire rest of the series it seems.
  • Jon Favreau is credited in the Special Thanks, anyone know what he contributed?
  • Spartan Ops is a curious case. I love the idea of short, bite sized missions that very slowly progress a story. It lets them create some focused encounters and environments. However, I feel like this will be hurt down the line if it does not see any more objective variety than what the campaign has. Comparisons to Firefight puzzle me, as it's really it's own beast. I also like that it's free, and a welcomed addition to Halo IMO.
  • Technical hiccups very rare, less than in any other Halo game. In fact I can only think of said issues twice, once in SP and once in MP.

Stuff I don't like:
  • Why did they get rid of Campaign commendations? Weird exclusion for what was a standard feature across all modes.
  • Mantis is fun, but I'm kind of indifferent on it overall. The best bit of it is how the rockets are arranged on the left arm, but other than that, it does nothing for me aesthetically since its as generic of a mech as possible. And it is pretty dominant on Ragnarok if your not too aggressive (even moreso if your opponents are dimwits that haven't touched a Plasma Pistol since Halo 1).
  • Prometheans are kind of fun to fight, and they're definitely different to fight than enemies we're used too, but my main complaint is that they're WAY too one dimensional in terms of your attack strategy. Irregardless of situation, you must always take out first Watchers, then Turrets, then Crawlers, then Knights (because Knights are pussies and will never test you or your defensiveness as much as Elites will who are not afraid to charge). As a result, playing the long or even mid-range game is given a bigger focus and make things a lot easier if you have patience.
  • Not sure how I feel with regards to the ending in terms of closure and as preparation for subsequent games. There's a sweet spot between cliffhanger and full closure and it just doesn't feel like this has hit it.
    The ending all happens so quick, and I'm not a fan of those dream-like sequences taking their time to bend reality momentarily. Plus it was awkward as hell seeing Cortana full-size wanting to touch the Chief and that somehow was supposed to be an emotional moment, yet it was with Rampant Cortana and not Cortana which made it all the weirder.
    Slightly disappointed, but the rest of the game is so good who gives a fuck.
  • Not a fan of the delivery of a lot of Master Chief's lines, particularly the last thing he says in the game. I get that they're trying to deliver a more emotional narrative, and I get that they must maintain the machine-like quality to his interactions with people (as that is a theme in this game), but hearing a slight change in intonation or something would be nice. If the Chief finally gets chinks in his armor, I want to hear it through his voice, not just see it through subtle changes in pose.
  • Ammo shortages seem to be a consistent issue in SP. I always felt like straining the amount of ammo available for you was always a cheap way to add difficulty, and force you to scavenge and use shitty weapons unless you played things perfectly as intended, which obviously isn't great for sanbox-y games. Level the difficulty at the strategic level, 343, not where my super soldier is reduced to a peasant after every encounter.
  • QTEs. Yeah, they're VERY infrequent, but if so why the hell are they even there? They just feel cheap and they make me question why they're even there more than they annoy me. Super scripted stuff like that stands out amongst the sandboxy nature of the rest of the franchise, and just takes you out of the experience.
  • Player progression in multiplayer is terrible. Bad idea, especially when you have to play many hours to even unlock the basics to be competitive. Effectively, default load outs are more useful than anything you can customize until you get to high enough of an SR. This is bad design at work. By far the worst aspect of the game alongside Forge.
  • Objective variety, or the lack thereof is a definite issue, one that wasn't prevalent in previous games. I hope this is a central focus moving on to Halo 5. I feel this significantly hurts how high I'd place the campaign compared with others. It's between Halo 1 and Reach still, but I feel it could've been close to or could have surpassed Halo 1 if this wasn't the case.
  • Lack of advancement in Forge. I have been very vocal of this but Forge needs that revolution rather than these micro evolutions from what we got first 5 years ago. I understand Halo 4 is ambitious in other regards but this shit IS long overdue and if it's not a full-on map editor with landscape editing with proper fucking canvasses by Halo 5, I honestly think they don't care any more. Give us empty space and a skybox. That's it. This is especially troubling when they still refuse to give proper colour options in the game. Forge overall is a huge disappointment. Also let's not forget it still has 99% of the same dull pieces as Reach Forge.
  • Forge file browser is down and nowhere to be found on a PC either. This is disappointing considering how quick people come up with stuff and how hilarious it is to go back and look at early stuff later in a games life. This is functionality the is just not working day 1 and deserves more of an uproar. Unacceptable.
  • Am I daft or is the game type customization lacking in comparison to Reach? Or is the menu reorganization throwing me off? Why is there no Slayer but there's a Slayer Pro?
  • On the flip side, the Didact remains quite mysterious for the gravity he carries, and is resultantly undeveloped, pretty much all the info about him is dropped within a minute or two and the rest of the important information is in Terminals which are not immediately apparent to all players and would be better served within the actual game, no reason why such crucial contextual information should be withheld and place in periphery content. I hear he is much more developed in the books, etc., but this is exactly what I don't want happening with the franchise, where it leans too heavily on auxiliary media to explain the story. Not that I'm saying it does to an extreme content, but still I hope they delve deeper into him in 5 going onwards.  Also kinda sucks that you never got to fight him though... I finished the game with a fully loaded Incineration Cannon to smoke his ass and all I got was a QTE.

tl;dr:
play Halo 4
it's a good game
 

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
The MP is better than Reach, as I've long said. But the more I play it the less I think that actually means.

It's still going to be the best MP game on Xbox, for whatever that's worth.

I've been watching Blops2 streams and I just can't play/get into that anymore (no this isn't a stealth troll).

Hopefully this Halo retains a bigger population this go around.

Edit: This guy is already on his second specialization. http://www.twitch.tv/absoluda
 
4 shot is a lot cleaner than the 5/ 8 shot we have going on now. When I see an enemy than a teammate put a shot into I dont know what state of play his shields are in and im kind of just spamming headshots hoping eventually he will go down. With everyone having a 4 shot kill I know immediately that he will be going down in either 3 or 4 shots. The more shots it takes the harder that stuff becomes to read. When you have people using weapons ranging from the carbine to the light rifle its just really unreadable.

I still dont have my head around random ordnance - I know there is consistency to it, I just don't have a clue whats going on and I feel like every game eventually turns into heavies with everyone eventually having power weapons.

All I know is when I talk to friends who love the game its because they have already figured out great tactics to get easy kills - thats not really my cup of tea.

I get this feeling only in BTB. 343 must think chaotic means more fun.
 

Pop

Member
The drops are only the same at the beginning of the match. From there on out every 2 minutes one of several spots will be randomly chosen and then the game will randomly choose one of several weapons (depending on location it could also be just one weapon) to drop there.

Non of the random weapon drops are game breaking. What Solace has Incineration Cannon and sword at the start. What else drops after that snipers and nades, maybe a needler. I'm just using Solace as an example, this goes for all maps. Come to think about it, I don't think I have ever ran into Incineration Cannon on Haven.

Edit: @Bob, hey man I agree. I rather have set weapons on map too. But this system right now doesn't seem to bad, power weapons seem to be at the start only. The next sets of Ordnance is just nades, snipes and needler(I believe).
 
Non of the random weapon drops are game breaking. What Solace has Incineration Cannon and sword at the start. What else drops after that snipers and nades, maybe a needler. I'm just using Solace as an example, this goes for all maps. Come to think about it, I don't think I have ever ran into Incineration Cannon on Haven.

Just the fact that people have Saw's/ Scattershots/ whatever else takes away from what could be fun BR/ DMR duels.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
You missed out Join in Progress, most annoying thing ever when you join a game where you're losing by 100's of points and have no way to make a comeback because it's 2v5.
KotH Is mostly what I've been playing and it hasn't been too bad. I've actually been alone vs. a full team who got a 40 point start basically before others joined and came back to win. It is frustrating at times though, and certaintly isn't working most effectively, I just haven't been on the losing side much.

Matchmaking in general doesn't seem to be up to snuff. You can't even change your votes anymore do why the hell is the timer still running when the majority has already voted in favour of a map? That is something that should've been taken from CoD years ago. I had another gripe that your post reminded me of but it has just slipped my mind while writing this.
 
I really enjoy coming into a game when I'm losing and turning it around.

Also, I'm an SR42 and had yet to get party split. Guess I've been really lucky.

Customs last night were fantastic. Playing alongsde gaffers is so damn fun. Can't wait for the leagues to get started up. Even if people are donging on me, it just doesn't feel so bad. Spent a lot of the night trading with Tashi or else I was killing Dax as he spawned in my way.
 

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
You know, now that I think about it. I'm glad weapons despawn so fast in MP, especially IS. With all the power weapons falling out of the sky it would suck if the ones already in play stayed in as well.

Gotta find that silver lining, haha.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
Non of the random weapon drops are game breaking. What Solace has Incineration Cannon and sword at the start. What else drops after that snipers and nades, maybe a needler. I'm just using Solace as an example, this goes for all maps. Come to think about it, I don't think I have ever ran into Incineration Cannon on Haven.

Edit: @Bob, how man I agree. I rather have set weapons on map too. But this system right now doesn't seem to bad, power weapons seem to be at the start only. The next sets of Ordnance is just nades, snipes and needler(I believe).
I just played a IS match on Solace and a Sniper and Incineration Cannon were dropped during the game. And if you think a Sniper can't have a big impact on the result of a match then I don't know what to tell you. Random mechanics like this have no place in a competitive environment, same counts for the personal ordnance drops. I've had matches where all I got was Needlers, Speedboost and Pulse Grenades while the other team gets Binary Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Damage Boost and all kinds of stuff that's way more powerful than anything I got. The only reason both of these systems are in the game is to give bad and new players a chance at getting a power weapons without having a more experienced player grab it first. It's another step towards making the game more casual, it's another step towards making the game unfair.
 

feel

Member
Finally the weekend arrived and with it some free time to play the damn game. Completed 2 campaign missions, absolutely adoring it so far.

Played a few games of MP and it's a lot of fun, so much questionable stuff but the amazing core gameplay makes it all bearable (for now). Finishing someone with a Hitscan BR burst brings a tear to the eye, shame they made the DMR better than it.

Pretty impressed by 343i.


edit-

Cortana's butt: 10 out of 10 would stare again
 
You missed out Join in Progress, most annoying thing ever when you join a game where you're losing by 100's of points and have no way to make a comeback because it's 2v5.
Bro, this is Halo 4. Winning games is irrelevant. Just grind that XP. And if you don't care about XP, there's no ranking system, so just grind your K/D.
 

Pop

Member
Just the fact that people have Saw's/ Scattershots/ whatever else takes away from what could be fun BR/ DMR duels.

I just played a IS match on Solace and a Sniper and Incineration Cannon were dropped during the game. If you think a Sniper can't have a big impact on the result of a match then I don't know what to tell you. Random mechanics like this have no place in a competitive environment, same counts for the personal ordnance drops. I've had matches where all I got was Needlers, Speedboost and Pulse Grenades while the other team gets Binary Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Damage Boost and all kinds of stuff that's way more powerful than anything I got. The only reason both of these systems are in the game is to give bad and new players a chance at getting a power weapons without having a more experienced player grab it first. It's another step towards making the game more casual, it's another step towards making the game unfair.

Hey I agree with both of you. I much rather have classic competitive matches were power weapons are fought over. Just right now Slayer Pro is all we have regards to the no radar playlist or competitive for that matter. I'll just wait it out for 343i to change playlist up and give us obj in these slayer playlist.

All these individual playlist/gametypes could be grouped. Four different obj gametypes acting as playlists is really weird. But I guess if they condensed the gametypes now, we would only have 6 playlist. BTB and Slayer Pro are in dire need of obj.

Edit: MM servers just went down for me.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace

GhaleonEB

Member
So I finally played a game of what I wanted to play, which was CTF on Ragnarock. My first game on it.

The map does play smaller with sprint, and it was an intense game. I use Mobility, so being able to quickly flank the entire opposing team through the caves was pretty neat. We deadlocked at 3-3 because I got our flag all the way to right in front of our base in overtime and them not a single player on our team made a go for it from there. Yup, that's the Halo I know and love.

It played about as I expected: the DMR dominates (namely mine, since the other team favored the BR), and the ordnance system is highly detrimental to objective games. Not having any idea who has what when or where is a problem and made the game feel very sloppy and uncontrolled. I'd really like to understand the reasoning for the new global ordnance system. I can pretty clearly articulate all the damage it does to the game, particularly objectives. I have yet to identify a reason for it to be in effect, other than to give randoms a random shot at a power weapon. Which isn't a good enough reason.

The Mantis got EMP'ed and destroyed within about ten seconds of anyone using it (I helped on three of those), so it was a non-factor in the game. I EMP'd a whole lotta vehicles, come to think of it: Warthogs, Ghosts, Mantis (Manti?), two Banshees and Mongoose. In hindsight: that's way too many vehicles for a map that size.

One of the better MP games I've had, and one that can be made a lot better by pulling back on the vehicles (yank the Ghosts for starters) and removing the DMR from load out options. Doing so, and going with fixed ordnance placements, would make it almost as good as Valhalla.

After the game, I watched my XP meter fill, and then pressed B to back out of the lobby. Only, by then it was too late. The game was already loading up and dropping me into another, in progress game. Took less than ten seconds after the match. That's join in progress gone badly awry. On the flip side, I quit without any guilt, since some other unlucky fellow will just take my place.
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
I find join in progress to be fun when in certain gametypes. We joined a Dominion match where our team was down and ended up grabbing all the bases and killing the other team off in last stand.

Overall JiP adds to the game. It does suck when you get put in a match that's almost over, but it's very nice to have more people added to the game when people quit.
 

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
I love JIP, but I'm one of those people who don't care if I get put on the losing side. Also, like Ghaleon just pointed out. It makes for guilt free quitting too.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I find join in progress to be fun when in certain gametypes. We joined a Dominion match where our team was down and ended up grabbing all the bases and killing the other team off in last stand.

Overall JiP adds to the game. It does suck when you get put in a match that's almost over, but it's very nice to have more people added to the game when people quit.

I never ever want to start a game that's not from scratch. I'll roll with it in Slayer or Slayer-like modes such as Regicide (which I've been enjoying), since when I play those it's just to blow off steam. But objectives? I don't want to join an objective game mid flow, ever,. I can see the appeal of what you described, but too much of what I enjoy in objective games comes from the ebb and flow that begins at the start of the game. I don't want to be forced into a game where I don't know what's happening.

In this way JIP makes me much more of a quitter than I ever was in past Halo games. I want to play full games.
 
I'd rather have a skewed win/loss stat than play games where teams are ridiculously lopsided due to quitting. If your playing in large parties with friends you can count on not quitting I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate the feature but when your party accounts for a small fraction, quitters without replacements is a game killer and no amount of accurate win/loss stat tracking will make up for that.
 
JIP isn't working fast enough. Many games yesterday ended up just being us spawn killing 2 or 3 players over and over and never replaced the quitters.
 

FyreWulff

Member
@Beeklematter Looks like all the No Frills finally started fully stocking, 36th & Q No Frills:

dvJ9Hl.jpg


Grabbed 3
 
@ Enzo, good writeup. I'm working on a post that covers a lot of what I really like about the game so far.
One of the better MP games I've had, and one that can be made a lot better by pulling back on the vehicles (yank the Ghosts for starters) and removing the DMR from load out options. Doing so, and going with fixed ordnance placements, would make it almost as good as Valhalla.
We tried that out in customs last night and it was the most fun I had in Halo 4 yet.

Gonna make some lunch then curl up and watch the Terminals on Youtube. Can't wait!
 

Pop

Member
Xp capped again

But Luda plays all day and earns credits. :/

It's like I gain 50-60k a day and get locked out. That seems way too low.
 

Talents

Banned
So while in a middle of a match on Complex, I jumped into a doorframe and ended up going through it, and out the map so to speak. Nice work 343 bug testers, no beta needed.
 
It's probably been brought up, but during Flood matches some of my teammates skins turn red, turn my reticule red, but if I kill them it still comes up as a betrayal. Pretty frustrating accidently killing my own teammates on instinct.
 

L1NETT

Member
SO now that we had some games under our belt what are people's thought on the multiplayer?

Just talking Maps here but going solo matchmaking means I have to avoid most playlists.

KoTH mostly ends up with Ragnarok. (Kids can;t wait to get in the Mantis)

Infinity Slayer has Complex. Horrendous map. On a par with Sword Base.

CTF mostly ends up with Ragnarok. Mantis + Banshee + Mute teammates + No dropping flag = no fun

But I am going to guess Ragnarok KoTH (which I really enjoy on the whole) will never be taken away. People always choose it (same situation with Sword Base TS in Reach) so it can be taken away.

Complex and Ragnarok are making it really hard to enjoy some games of Halo 4. Other than that, am enjoying it a lot. Haven and Adrift are very enjoyable. Solace is disappointing, as is Exile although the two BTB snow maps are decent.

Need more arena style maps, need less Complex.
 
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