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[kylej]

AGDQ IS LIVE!

One week of speedrunning games for charity.

Stream - http://www.twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda/new

Schedule - http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/schedule

---

Good Speedrunners

Cosmo (OOT, Wind Waker, SOTN, Castlevania 64, Monkey Ball) www.twitch.tv/cosmowright
Siglemic (Super Mario 64) http://www.twitch.tv/siglemic
ZFG (100% Ocarina of Time) http://www.twitch.tv/zfg1
EnNopp (Majora's Mask) http://www.twitch.tv/ennopp112

also check www.speedrunslive.com for an assorted collection of active livestreams and www.zeldaspeedruns.com for all sorts of Zelda knowledge

Yoga Pants

Visit www.reddit.com/r/girlsinyogapants

Halo 4

Halo 4 recently got a title update. Click here for patch notes.

Recent News:

Halo is dead.

Halo 4 has had an overwhelmingly negative reaction from the hardcore community due to its adoption of CoD systems in the multiplayer such as loadouts, perks, instant respawn, and personal ordnance (aka point streak rewards) because they add random and unpredictable elements to the sandbox and cause major balance issues.

There are tons of other issues and bugs and glitches as well. An example of this is that ingame file browser, which allows us to view screenshots, films, custom maps and gametypes, has not worked since launch and there is no ETA on when it will become more than an error message. Bungie had hosted an online version of this on their website during their Halo 3 and Reach days, and you could even queue up files to download automatically the next time you started the game. This service is now gone as well.

Halo 4 is also the first Halo game with matchmaking that lacks any kind of ranking that is determined by skill - there's no arena or league playlist or anything like that, just keep playing and getting XP.

There was also recently an issue where Microsoft accidentally made the first map pack free for everyone who played in the first two weeks the game was out, and they had to revoke it via a title update. Title updates reset the system that uses game history to determine host, so laggy matches galore for many of us.

The campaign has become more focused on linear firefights and corridors rather than open areas and exploration, "because we wanted to do what Call of Duty does," according to a developer interview. The cutscenes have really bad audio compression.

Spartan Ops replaced Firefight, which was Halo's take on a horde mode. Firefight was highly customizable, Spartan Ops sacrifices that to tell a linear story. We were promised brand new environments, of which we got a few, but the majority of chapters take place in areas recycled from campaign and multiplayer, most of which are repeated several times. The mission design is almost always to kill enemies, press a button, and repeat until it ends. Sarah Palmer, your Spartan commander and narrator so to speak, is the most grating and one-dimensional character Halo has offered, though perhaps that's intentional.

The list goes on. The monthly challenge, a sort of completable goal that gives lots of XP when finished, has been the same every month since launch. Campaign theater and scoring have been removed. Spartan Ops has no theater either. Killcams don't work in any sort of accurate way. Many of the options in custom games are either missing or don't work. Several objective gametypes that were franchise staples, such as 1 Flag CTF and Assault, no longer exist. Microsoft has some kind of deal with Virgin Gaming, so there is no MLG playlist with competitive settings, nor are there any MLG tournaments in the near future.

Welcome to Halo 4, egghead.

Needs pointing out that it isn't just the added, regurgitated features that make Halo 4 unsavoury, but also the extensive yet needless tinkering with proven Halo staples that distorts the overall package in conjunction with the rest to multiply that feeling of 'this isn't fucking Halo'.

Why 343 decided to change the scoring system, or the basic UI setup, is completely beyond me. These were things that just didn't need overhauling, but needed careful refinement.

Nothing adds to my general sense of 'couldn't give a fuck' whilst playing Halo 4, than when I look down to check the score in a game of Slayer and both teams are on 400andsomething points, and my brain just does a middler finger up at the game.

The medals, too, dear lord.

WHY?

It feels like an elaborate joke. Frank's a fairly intelligent guy, how did he ever see that and think they were acceptable? I really don't understand.

No. We really don't. This misguided notion that Halo needs to get back to number one in the Live charts because their predecessors were is what has led the series down the path of chasing COD and blanching the games identity.

My opinion of what happened post-Halo 3: Bungie completely lost their bottle when the upstart COD 4:MW started giving them a bit of light bruising in the Live charts, something they'd never experienced before. Instead of retaining Halo's core values and doubling down on the feature set, they opted, in a sudden collapse of confidence from the first serious bit of competition they'd faced, to instead attempt to ape some of the characteristics of the game they were trading the number one spot with week in, week out.

We got Reach, complete with 'gritter' (read: modern, not sci fi) visuals, players starting with different abilities from each other (which couldn't be visually determined by opponents), players starting with plasma nades in their loadouts and sprint. Inferior fileshare presentation, degraded theatre, significantly more framerate dips, bloom on the primary precision weapon and a dramatically debased matchmaking experience which suffered from its lack of ranked and social divide, no 1-50 and pathetically loose trueskill priorities.

What it should have been: More of the same with an emphasis on strengthening Halo's meta features and intelligently improving on some of Halo 3's weaker aspects.

- If AA's were the answer to the so called 'problem' of players not using it then make them map pickups; I don't recall equipment being a map pickup ever being invoked as to why they were problematic.

- 1-50, broaden the banhammer's wrath, maybe add the dip to 49 at the end of each month

- Recognise that filesharing, forge and theatre were incredibly successful additions to the franchise and focus hard on improving and expanding on them.

- Hitscan BR after the scandal of 3's spread

- Maps specifically made for gametypes and objective settings tailored individually to each map (no 30 second flag reset on small maps just because a larger map has it)


There exists an argument central to these Halo threads now that pontificates on why Halo declined in popularity: Is it because of COD or is it because it so hastily abandoned its core principles to chase COD? The most frustrating element of this debate is that the core gameplay principles that carried the original Halo trilogy were never permitted a chance in the post Modern Warfare era. If Reach had launched as a natural evolution of Halo 3 (as I've outlined above) and it absolutely bombed in the Live charts, didn't sell well, kids wouldn't play it because it didn't have sprint etc then nobody on this forum could blame Bungie/343 if they then decided to change the formula for fear of ongoing obsolescence. However, Halo as we knew and loved it was never given that chance.

It just annoys me when some would chase COD for the number one spot when it's basically fools gold. You can't catch COD, it's a force of nature, "sweeping leaves on a windy day" as the deacon on The Wire said. What Halo should've done and should do going forward, is accentuate its differences and really solidify the core of what attracted people to this wonderful game in the first place. Forget COD and its success; you might as well be chasing Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk when it comes to implementing gameplay features or elements. Most of the time, they're simply not compatible with Halo.

DURING CRUNCH

Start at Halo |OT1| and just work your way through the threads. Short version is: Halo started as a competitive 4v4 experience that pitted even teams against each other in a game determined by skill not luck. Halo 4 does not offer this and/or launched as an incomplete product with many glitches. The first DLC pack does not address the lack of 4v4 maps and the general consensus is that the maps are ugly.

Also, many long-time posters here saw the writing on the wall and railed against it only to be told by 343 and Microsoft "trust us" and "it feels like Halo". They did. It doesn't. Rage.

You just updated it with more bs. Figures.... This thread is a joke and it should have been locked the moment you posted it. Im annoyed that people who actually like the game have to put up with your shit. I have no idea why the mods let it slide every single day. You spend more time pissing on halo 4 and talking about your favorite porn stars than anything else. Its really sad.

Ok you put yourself out there and you should be prepared for some criticism...

You have no industry experience, no multiplayer experience, list nothing about collaboration/networking/game engine/testing skill sets, don't like Halo 4 or Reach and troll a forum where developers exist. Hmmm good luck getting their attention mate.

Personally I'd rather not have a forum personality such as yourself develop against veterans of the industry who have developed previous AAA games. I'll stick with the hiring criteria of you know a professional gaming company like 343 or MS Studios thanks.

It's certainly worthy of the bullshit first post.

Thank you for visiting HaloGAF

 

[Thermite]

10/10

 

[Tawpgun]

lmao

 

[xxjuicesxx]

is this the urn?

 

[OdysseusVA]

 

[SpudBud]

Kylej, you are so cool.

 

[heckfu]

Holy shit. Wow.


Perfect.

(and when I say perfect, I mean 'this is classic kyle.')

 

[DeadNames]

Damn kyle.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

you guys still playing this shit

man

 

[Hydranockz]

Reset the OT!

 

[Poker Face]

awesome

 

[Franklinator]

This OT is Good Enough™

 

[CyReN]

We are back.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Halo OT 13: Bravo, voted best man for the job.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Impressive.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

This might go well in the Original Post Kyle:

 

[Demoncarnotaur]

I guess this home now. Might as well post some Halo 4 concept art to sum things up:

 

[Franklinator]

Ouch, barely hitting 100k now

 

[GhaleonEB]

People still play Halo?

 

[SpudBud]

Halo |OT13| Don't Open, Dead Inside.

 

[Karl2177]

Feels like Call of Duty.

 

[DeadNames]

Oh golly... That's Reach tier.

 

[Noricart]

lol

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Another image to add to the OP:

Top 10 nerds of the last thread:

Congrats Tashi.

 

[Blinding]

Ouch, barely hitting 100k now

Not surprising, seems to me that the game is either boring, frustrating, or broken to most people.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

This might go well in the Original Post Kyle:

Honestly I'm not so sure I trust the data from Halo Charts. I don't even trust the data coming from 343i for game statistics tracking etc.

There isn't even an official API and they're basically feeding into XML/JSON requests to gather Halo Charts data at the moment. It's very close to screen scraping which isn't that accurate. Also if you look at your own game statistics and then check those on Waypoint I've seen plent of discrepancies between in game stats and Waypoint stats.

Further with JIP and host migrations the data is getting fucked up alot, in my opinion it's not accurate yet.

I'd like some official XBL numbers per game per day based on unique users. That is the only statistic I would trust.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

game stinks

sig's streaming www.twitch.tv/siglemic

GET SHIT ON!

 

[User 73706]

Halo |OT13| Rendezvous at Rally Point Bravo

 

[Karl2177]

Honestly I'm not so sure I trust the data from Halo Charts. I don't even trust the data coming from 343i for game statistics tracking etc.

Wait wait wait. You trust vg chartz, but you don't trust a Halo community dedicated to getting the population data everyday?

 

[kittens]

Anyone wanna try out my uncaged remake? You gotta see these shadows mannnnn

 

[willow ve]

Hahahahaha. Ha.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

LOL Ghaleon.

https://twitter.com/GhaleonEB/status/276873010428928000

 

[Captain Blood]

Is this Siglemic dude ever not playing Mario 64?

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Not surprising, seems to me that the game is either boring, frustrating, or broken to most people.

Its just not HALO.

Bottom line.

Its CoD with a Halo skin.

Halo fans dont want that.

There are two different games for a reason.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Wait wait wait. You trust vg chartz, but you don't trust a Halo community dedicated to getting the population data everyday?

There is a difference about the available collection methods, way to oversimplify things.

********: Games sales have a number of official sources corroborate initial launch week numbers against, they are fairly accurate for what is available. There is also an exact guide about how those numbers are calculated, if you cared to read it.

Halo Charts: Player numbers have nothing to corroborate numbers against, there is no developer API, the developer in game statistics vs. Waypoint website statistics already show discrepancies and Halo Charts provide no information about how the calculate data etc. There have also been issues with security being tripped and caching problems with this data etc.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

There is a difference about the available collection methods, way to oversimplify things.

YOU are already mad.

 

[Captain Blood]

Its just not HALO.

Yup. Some people may really like the MP and that is fine. For me it is something completely separate from the glory that is Bungie's Trilogy.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Did I make the first page?

EDIT: I DID!

 

[Orochinagis]

Wait what, this is the new OT or a rant corner

 

[GhaleonEB]

Props to 343 for getting a TU out so fast. I'm not a fan of the underlying game, but they're really cranking the support with the weeky updates and quick turn TU.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Did I make the first page?

EDIT: I DID!

-high five me twoo2-

 

[Pop]

Feels like Halo

Spoiler

ish?

I'm glad Kyle made this.

 

[Franklinator]

LOL Ghaleon.

https://twitter.com/GhaleonEB/status/276873010428928000

Whoa, Playstation All Stars bomba'd hard. Not too surprising though, I guess.

edit: I know that's not what you were referring to, but I noticed that too haha

 

[watership]

I am proud to post in a thread with such a great start.

 

[m23]

Lmao, great OT.

 

[Fracas]

Home sweet home.

 

[TCKaos]

Reporting for duty.

 

[orznge]

hahaha

 

[zap]

Great OT.

There is a difference about the available collection methods, way to oversimplify things.

Even if the Halo Charts data was not accurate regarding 'peak' - as long as it is consistent, the trends should be the same.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Yup. Some people may really like the MP and that is fine. For me it is something completely separate from the glory that is Bungie's Trilogy.

You did well to exclude Reach. I don't know how I feel about 4 at the moment, but it's definitely not a true halo successor. I'm finding ways to enjoy the game though.

EDIT:

Props to 343 for getting a TU out so fast. I'm not a fan of the underlying game, but they're really cranking the support with the weeky updates and quick turn TU.

This is true. Still hopeful that some of the game can be salvaged.