Support NeoGAF

[Zeouterlimits]

Oh I agree. Not buying a book due to the cover is a bit childish I think. After all there is that old saying for a reason. I didn't see him say flatout he wouldn't buy it though. More of a case of him blowing off steam due to how bad it is. Course I could be wrong. I can see how others can see what he said as him saying he wasn't going to buy it.

Looking down upon other's purchasing motivation is a bit childish I think .
It's an aesthically ugly cover that just reminds me of so many of the problems I had with the Campaign's handling of the Forerunner plotline and one that abandoned the great style they had for the previous too books.

The covers for Cryptum and Primordium are fantastic, I love them.

-----------------
I make no comments about the quality of the actual novel. I hope it's fantastic, that Bear really sells

Spoiler

the fall of the Didact.

It seemingly gets more and more ludicrous; these small but glaring deficiencies, when you learn Spartan Ops CGI was outsourced, just as Forge, and who knows what else.

All of the C.G. was outsourced ultimately, no studio can do that easily, huge amount of effort involved.
----------------

Here's an idea, why don't 343 make it a reversible cover?

 

[The Lamonster]

I would love that they patched in a new functional UI, because the one we have not is just embarrassing beyond words.

Unfortunately this isn't a PC game. Blizzard, for example, is constantly tweaking all aspects of their games and smashing bugs all the time. They also have an incredible community presence and have justified just about every change they've made to their games.

This game, however...we'll be lucky if even the most terrible game-breaking bugs are ever fixed, such as when the game deletes all campaign progress.

Hoping for a UI makeover post-release on a console game (especially considering 343's support thus far) is merely a pipe dream.

 

[TheOddOne]

Unfortunately this isn't a PC game. Blizzard, for example, is constantly tweaking their games and smashing bugs all the time. They also have an incredible community presence and have justified just about every change they've made to their games.

This game, however...we'll be lucky if even the most terrible game-breaking bugs are ever fixed, such as when the game deletes all campaign progress.

Closed nature of consoles also destroys any chance of a decent update. Infuriating to be honest, because this game comes directly from Microsoft. Billion dollar company can’t budge for this? Smh.

 

[GrimBrother One]

I'm not as big of a fan of the new cover either, but good freaking grief... Not buying it? C'mon. You know there's words and story once you get past the cover right? And if you get the hardback, you can even... wait for it... take off the cover jacket! Bam! Instant classiness.

Personally, what I find more interesting than the cover is the change in the books description. Some interesting adjustments there...

 

[TheOddOne]

Halo 4 vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - The Results

Black Ops II wins all.

Spoiler

Lolz

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

It seemingly gets more and more ludicrous; these small but glaring deficiencies, when you learn Spartan Ops CGI was outsourced, just as Forge, and who knows what else.

I thought we knew Ops CG was outsourced?

Halo 4 vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - The Results

Black Ops II wins all.

Spoiler

Lolz

Why would they even do a versus? Two different styles of shooters. Maybe CoD vs MoH vs BF3 would have been better.

 

[The Lamonster]

Closed nature of consoles also destroys any chance of a decent update. Infuriating to be honest, because this game comes directly from Microsoft. Billion dollar company can’t budge for this? Smh.

It's especially annoying because of the tight deadlines placed on console developers by their publishers. Rush to get a game out the door with no real way to patch anything significant post-release. Terrible bugs? "We're listening to all the feedback and will hopefully make a better sequel next time around."

 

[ElRenoRaven]

I'm not as big of a fan of the new cover either, but good freaking grief... Not buying it? C'mon. You know there's words and story once you get past the cover right? And if you get the hardback, you can even... wait for it... take off the cover jacket! Bam! Instant classiness.

Personally, what I find more interesting than the cover is the change in the books description. Some interesting adjustments there...

Yup. I just can't fathom not buying a book because of it's cover. I've seen people do that with games too. I just don't understand it. To each their own though I say. If he doesn't want to buy it because of the cover that's his right.

 

[Gazzawa]

Halo 4 vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - The Results

Black Ops II wins all.

Spoiler

Lolz

All the votes were cast by IGN alternate troll accounts.
I'm sure there are alot of frustrated COD fans who are finally gonna kick the bucket this year.

 

[FyreWulff]

I thought we knew Ops CG was outsourced?

I thought so too, hardly any game dev actually does in-house CGI.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

I thought so too, hardly any game dev actually does in-house CGI.

Hell do any of them? I honestly can't think of any that do anyway. Not saying there aren't some mind you.

 

[The Lamonster]

Hell do any of them? I honestly can't think of any that do anyway. Not saying there aren't some mind you.

Blizzard.

 

[u4iX]

Whatever, you guys know everything. My bad.

 

[Hydranockz]

Whatever, you guys know everything. My bad.

At least you know now.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Hell do any of them? I honestly can't think of any that do anyway. Not saying there aren't some mind you.

Blizzard and Square Enix are sharing some drinks now.

 

[The Lamonster]

Blizzard and Square Enix are sharing some drinks now.

And their CGI happens to be the best in the biz

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Blizzard.

Blizzard and Square Enix are sharing some drinks now.

Oh yea. How could I forget those 2? Stupid me. I'll agree. Blizzard's got some great CGI without a doubt. Can't comment on SE because I was never a fan of the Final Fantasy games. I do remember their movie they made looking amazing though.

 

[FyreWulff]

Whatever, you guys know everything. My bad.

Wait until you find out about the open secret of the game industry: contractors and how heavily they're leaned on to complete games.

Gaming industry can't consider itself mature until it gets away from crunch.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Knowing is half the battle, I hear.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Oh yea. How could I forget those 2? Stupid me. I'll agree. Blizzard's got some great CGI without a doubt. Can't comment on SE because I was never a fan of the Final Fantasy games. I do remember their movie they made looking amazing though.

SE does pretty good stuff too.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Particularly annoyed this evening because Adobe and their ridonkulous pdf digital signatures were causing a bit of havok, but the moment of clarity of not rewarding the cover change with money seems like the right choice.

Why would they even do a versus? Two different styles of shooters. Maybe CoD vs MoH vs BF3 would have been better.

They compete for sales/userbase? They're the big AAA shooters of the year?
*shrug*

 

[Tawpgun]

I realize its early as fuck for this but considering this won't help Halo 4 in any regard.

Halo 5 better have most of its shit done IN HOUSE. Certain Affinity has some cool guys but damn. Cmon. It's almost insulting they didn't get their logo on the cover.

The other thing is the next xbox needs to have PC levels of dev support. NEEDS to.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

IGN-Shatter developer walkthrough.

 

[FyreWulff]

I realize its early as fuck for this but considering this won't help Halo 4 in any regard.

Halo 5 better have most of its shit done IN HOUSE. Certain Affinity has some cool guys but damn. Cmon. It's almost insulting they didn't get their logo on the cover.

The other thing is the next xbox needs to have PC levels of dev support. NEEDS to.

That'd be great, but the level of success Halo 4 had is going to tell Microsoft their current setup is fine.

And yes, Certain Affinity needs to get front and prominent credit if they're essentially co-developing Halo.

 

[J10]

If they absolutely must keep the loadout/unlock system in place for future Halo games, they should include the entire Brute weapon set in the next one. I'd like the Bruteshot (H2 version) and Chopper back.

 

[enzo_gt]

Some more Halo 4 concept art.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Ok, I mentioned this on mastrbiggy's stream last night but I figured I'd put it here because I actually found it so ridiculous.

The information delivery from/in lobby is atrocious. You click on a person's name from the roster and hit party details and you'll know who they're with, if they're in a game, and if their lobby is open. If you want to know how much time is remaining, not only does the party have to be open, but you then have to enter the join queue for their game. Did I mention only the party leader gets this information when waiting to join? Then if you decide that's too much time to wait and want to back out, you can't just cancel the join like before. Everyone in your lobby has to quit separately and rejoin together.

After all this, say you actually want to wait, but you're curious as to the playlist the other party is in. Guess what, nowhere to get this information directly! However, you can at least see what map they are playing and make some sort of inference as to the playlist. But guess what? You have to view their gamer profile in the guide to see the map name! God forbid it actually be built into the game.

This is just the latest revelation for me about how shitty the UI is for this game. I wasn't even aware of the map info until last night and I literally just starting laughing at how ludicrous it was.

This has been bugging me since day one and I don't how how it was overlooked. For a series which did a great job with the 'virtual couch' ideaology of being a social experience it's a huge omission

 

[Poker Face]

IGN-Shatter developer walkthrough.

well it's green and brown.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Some more Halo 4 concept art.

You know say what you want about the look of the maps and game but that damn concept art is amazing.

 

[squidhands]

Some more Halo 4 concept art.

This was my favorite part of the Halo 4 campaign. "Hold X to don trenchcoat"

I really wish we could have had Forerunner forge pieces that matched the Ravine area. Continuity, who would have thunk it?

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

This was my favorite part of the Halo campaign.

I thought something looked out of place.

 

[Steelyuhas]

I guess I've been spoiled by BF3; don't know if other games do this as I typically only purchase 1-3 games per year.

Some of those patch notes posts take about a half an hour to read lol.

Spoiler

Downloading the update and Aftermath last night, I hope to get to play it sometime tonight.

Guys see the Silentium cover? I'll link it, might be spoilery.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/tor-books-unveils-the-real-cover-for-greg-bears-halo-silentium

lol that's awful!


Shatter's aesthetics are awful as well. It's Vortex with a green tint.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

This was my favorite part of the Halo campaign.

LOL. : D

 

[GrizzNKev]

This was my favorite part of the Halo 4 campaign. "Hold X to don trenchcoat"

... and fire WWII-era pistol at fire demon?

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Too bad art design and dialogue suck balls.

I can't say it often enough: Bungie, come back pls!

Spoiler

not happening, ever, I know

Reach was a misstep, but I'm sure they'd have delivered a better Halo 4 than this mess.

What! I don't even.

Halo 4 was great. Art design wise I like it just as much as any Halo it's different step but not a backwards one. Forerunner architecture now looks alive and the implied function behind everything is great.

Dialogue could of used work as could encounters, scale and underlying story however the story events and character building had a sense of development which is far beyond anything bungie ever did.

I very much doubt bungies Halo 4 would of been superior as much as i like them as a developer it was clear that they were done with halo. Reach campaign was average. Halo 3 based on story was average to good. Halo 2 was average and Halo 1 was great.

ODST was stellar but more because if the characters and mystery that was regained by explorer a deserted city invaded by a foe much more dangerous than you.

The rose tinted glasses need to come off. Bungie fucked up a lot.

Cortana and gravemind shouting at you telepathically
The ending of Halo 2
Forced deaths of reach characters
Flood levels that look like I'm in a dirty protest
Armour abilities


343 are not blame free but hailing Bungie as lords of game design is silly

 

[TCKaos]

Some more Halo 4 concept art.

Is that an Ace Attorney crossover? Why is Gumshoe fighting a Promethean Brute (which would have been awesome)?

Did he get promoted to Space Detective Gumshoe?

 

[Fuchsdh]

Closed nature of consoles also destroys any chance of a decent update. Infuriating to be honest, because this game comes directly from Microsoft. Billion dollar company can’t budge for this? Smh.

This is where consoles rightly get slammed. While I definitely see Microsoft's strong arming as helping to keep bad games from being published, it also inhibits the game's chances at real growth.

While I think the leaked specs for the 720 being modular like a PC is damn stupid (didn't they learn from the lack of hard drives in some SKUs this time?) I think adopting some of the support infrastructure would be good.

 

[CyReN]

IGN-Shatter developer walkthrough.

Replace the A with an I.

 

[Havok]

Hard to be excited for Shatter when it's just another big map with fairly strong symmetrical bases that will be used primarily for Dominion and Big Team Slayer, the world's most boring gametype. Put objectives that play well on it and maybe I'll feel change my tune. Doesn't seem bad, but if what they're using the current BTB maps for is any indication of Shatter's future, no reason to look forward to it.

That they spend a third of this video praising on-spawn plasma pistols and encouraging that everybody use them is telling.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Is Shatter the "large" map in the Crimson pack or the "medium" one?

 

[CyReN]

Is Shatter the "large" map in the Crimson pack or the "medium" one?

Medium-Large

Shatter: Shatter is themed around natural crystalline surfaces and the huge UNSC factories mining them. This large, symmetrical map is a playground for the Warthog and Mantis – its open pathways make it easy to get around, whether on foot or in vehicles. Shatter is a great fit for Dominion and the new game type Extraction. For some close-quarters face-time, escape the open landscape and duck into a mining facility, or slip through a doorway and hunt unsuspecting Spartans. This map has variety for different types of players. Shatter enables multiplayer mayhem for up to 16 players in Infinity Slayer and up to 12 players in other modes, such as Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Dominion and Extraction.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Medium-Large

Thanks.

This is the first map pack in the history of the series that I'm probably not going to get. It's an odd feeling.

 

[Slightly Live]

The "real" Halo film. lol

 

[squidhands]

IGN-Shatter developer walkthrough.

Design Director: "a really good map for objective-based play"

*showcases Slayer*

facedesk.jpg

Replace the A with an I.

wIlkthrough?

 

[scar tissue]

WTF is up with the ordnance on Haven spawning in the floor?
Played 2 games without pickup weapons, one where the scattershot was the only one.

Slayer Pro is pretty cool btw, I wish we had Objective Pro.

 

[Merguson]

The "real" Halo film. lol

What is this?

Is that Harrison Ford?

EDIT: Oh that image has a link.. Ender's Game.. um.. interesting..

 

[willow ve]

Just ran through the campaign on heroic. Two other people playing over Xbox Live. Only took us just over 2 hours to complete the entire campaign (obviously skipping cut scenes). Is this a normal time for everyone else?

 

[Havok]

Design Director: "a really good map for objective-based play"

*showcases Slayer*

facedesk.jpg

Plus, it's pretty obviously massive in terms of physical area. Number of playlists with large player counts that would take advantage of that space that also have objective modes in them: zero. One, if you count Dominion, but that's only barely an objective mode at this point since almost everybody just holes up in a base waiting for a dozen rocket launchers to spawn.

 

[TCKaos]

Just ran through the campaign on heroic. Two other people playing over Xbox Live. Only took us just over 2 hours to complete the entire campaign (obviously skipping cut scenes). Is this a normal time for everyone else?

Not sure. I was at just under six hours Legendary with my brother. Lower difficulty with more people, I wouldn't say that's entirely off.

 

[enzo_gt]

I'm kind of put off by how comfortable the 343 is with encounters on Shatter being centred around the Mantis' survivability.

Just ran through the campaign on heroic. Two other people playing over Xbox Live. Only took us just over 2 hours to complete the entire campaign (obviously skipping cut scenes). Is this a normal time for everyone else?

It's reasonable considering 343 didn't bother to add any difficulty scaling for more players apparently.