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[kylej]

Hey Kyle

Time to start running SM64, son.

 

[Navidson REC]

Camo snipers will do that. I called it the day they announced its return for Halo 4. I mean its one of those that's a real no brainer; you don't let players go invisible, ad nauseum, at the touch of a button. You just don't put that in your first person shooter game. You don't make somebody else's mistake for the franchise. Again.

In the wake of Halo 4, reverence for Bungie has suddenly shot up again. Understandable but let's not forget that they actually sat around a table in the still hopeful post-Halo 3 era and agreed that letting players spawn with active invisibility was more than a novel idea, it was something that needed to be implemented into the core game and was somehow superior to the regular system of picking up Camo on the map. Bungie approved that idea. It's pretty shocking from a design perspective.

Looking back at the core tenets and philosophies of Halo's 1-3, it is genuinely combat evolved, incredibly fresh and innovative ideas that have only impressed more with age. Taking camo as an example here, it's an orb that spawns in the same key point on a map every three minutes. This often encourages a skirmish, the winner of which secures the camoflage power up. Now, it only lasts thirty seconds and you still appear on the radar but during those thirty seconds, providing you don't shoot, you can walk at full speed. Works incredibly well in facilitating pushes in Capture the Flag games, in particular. It's a power up that allows the player to play a real superhero role in a match, provide a moment of real game changing significance and make the player feel awesome. Or they can mess it up. But they learn from that failed use and improve incrementally with each game they play.

Contrast all that to Halo's Reach and now 4, in which a player simply chooses the ability in the menu before the match starts. All of the above goodness is sacrificed for what? I struggle to understand why you'd remove something so ingenious in its simple design for the camo AA. They should have asked themselves the question 'does this make the game more interesting to play?'. The reason it can't is because in order to balance its ubiquity they have to add the caveat that the player has to remain immobile or crouch walk to remain invisible. Players not moving much or at all is detrimental to gameplay. There are a host of other in game, moment to moment problems that the camo AA has but they've all been documented here for years.

So again, why did they do that? Because some players never or rarely secured the camo power up and therefore need it to be made a spawn ability? ......? .......?

When everyone wins, nobody does.

Great post right here.

Man, I'd really like to have a vanilla playlist in Halo 4 with no DMRs, predictable weapon and power-up spawns (your "super hero" description nails it), timed respawns, no AAs (sprint can stay, I guess), and no perk thingies. Aiming, movement, and coordination.

As I said earlier, I enjoy Halo 4 in its current state. But I feel like matches are bound to develop into clusterfucks more often than not with all those "extra layers" on top.

 

[Devolution]

It just dawned on me right this moment that even if you're not a regular camo user, you could still modify a loadout mid-match to include camo after you happen to get Sniper as an ordnance option, but before you call it in on your next respawn. Whomever said these games need to be play tested by assholes wasn't kidding.

Pretty sure that's what the other team did at this point. It was during Dominion on Longbow =/.

 

[squidhands]

Merry Christmas, HaloGAF. I still have over a week with time to spare.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

There are people working on the game and issues right now. u4ix has been unfairly pinned as some kind of salt troll, by my actions. He's not, I simply used one of his fairly moderate but salty posts as an example of the difference between dialog now and back in the day.

Merry Xmas gafers and let us all join hands and say a quiet prayer asking god to make LeBron choke.

Frankie believes in god, world has come to an end indeed.

Halo 4 is like Rachel Roxxx. A LOT of stuff has been put in but it's still really fun to look at.

Shout out to jelyk.

Dude for real, dat hip control.

 

[Omni]

"And if you were to look at what the big changes from previous Halo games are, it's the introduction of the new race, and our decision to move away from over-emphasizing huge combat spaces – like the ones you see in Halo 3 and Reach – in exchange for bringing some more tight linear environments back into the game. When you go back to the first Halo, there are many fantastic fights, like the one out of Pillar of Autumn, that are really excellent because they are more linear and tight."

This bothers me a hell of a lot.

The Pillar of Autumn level is 10+ years old. It's nothing more than a training level! If it weren't for the atmosphere that the game gives off, I'd even say that it's boring to play. The level just has no variety in it whatsoever. In contrast, there is a reason why the second level of CE recieved so much praise - you weren't forced (noticeably of course) into tight corridors all the time and had some choice in how you were going to proceed.

I like Halo CE, but it's entirely obvious that people didn't like the narrow repeating linear corridors as much as the big play spaces. Hell, 90% of the praise that came from Halo 3's campaign was because of it's large unscripted battles.

I don't understand why they'd intentionally take that away. Halo 4's campaign suffers because of it (it's soooo boring. Mammoth level should never of made it past concept), and I worry what the hell Halo 5 is going to be like.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Halo 4 (as a whole) is the new AR vs BR.

Happy Holidays again folks, just hit the 26th here, hope ye're having a great In's

 

[Devolution]

Gonna play a game and see how pissy I get.

 

[Tawpgun]

I didn't account for the studio going on christmas break. I originally said my deadline for 343 ackowledging the games issues was first bulletin of the new year. Moving it to last bulletin of January.

Make me proud 343. I'll outright say this game shipped as a broken, incomplete product with very questionable design decisions. Don't burn your bridges with the old halo community in pursuit of new fans. Make those new fans love Halo for what it is. In a time when people are growing discontent with Call of Duty, now is the perfect time.

 

[heckfu]

I didn't account for the studio going on christmas break. I originally said my deadline for 343 ackowledging the games issues was first bulletin of the new year. Moving it to last bulletin of January.

Make me proud 343. I'll outright say this game shipped as a broken, incomplete product with very questionable design decisions. Don't burn your bridges with the old halo community in pursuit of new fans. Make those new fans love Halo for what it is. In a time when people are growing discontent with Call of Duty, now is the perfect time.

Make those demands like they give a shit about 1 sale lol

 

[Tawpgun]

Make those demands like they give a shit about 1 sale lol

Not really meant to be like demands, just trying to help out the community. It seems like almost every community short of the casual players got shafted by this game. At least at launch.

 

[MIMIC]

So when did they add the explanations to the game types/modes? Just noticed that recently. I'm glad they did. Maybe they heard my complaint =p

 

[Tunavi]

Not really meant to be like demands, just trying to help out the community. It seems like almost every community short of the casual players got shafted by this game. At least at launch.

HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THE GREAT HECKFU

 

[Devolution]

Quit the second game. Forgot how noobish everything is.

 

[CyReN]

Finished Minecraft: The Story of Mojang tonight, awesome documentary. Make sure to check it out.

 

[Tunavi]

Quit the second game. Forgot how noobish everything is.

atta girl

 

[Hydranockz]

Quit the second game. Forgot how noobish everything is.

I look forward to this exact scenario in another month's time

 

[Devolution]

atta girl

I forgot weapons exist that you barely have to aim with to kill people. Always a mistake.

I look forward to this exact scenario in another month's time

Not going to happen unless there's some updates to things I take issue with.

 

[Trey]

I forgot weapons exist that you barely have to aim with to kill people. Always a mistake.

The Rocket Launcher was always in Halo.

 

[Devolution]

The Rocket Launcher was always in Halo.

Rocket launcher just has a big splash radius, still has to be aimed in a general direction and it's a given that a rocket landing in your vicinity will kill you.

 

[Trey]

Rocket launcher just has a big splash radius, still has to be aimed in a general direction and it's a given that a rocket landing in your vicinity will kill you.

Just busting your balls.

I actually like Halo 4 and I haven't played in a good while myself. Life's unfair like that.

 

[User 73706]

Not really meant to be like demands, just trying to help out the community. It seems like almost every community short of the casual players got shafted by this game. At least at launch.

To be fair, some of that isn't their fault. Infection community got shafted because Infection became balanced.

 

[Tawpgun]

To be fair, some of that isn't their fault. Infection community got shafted because Infection became balanced.

Uhh, Infection community got shafted because of custom options. Unless you're referring to the actual matchmaking gametype.

But whatever, fuck it. Imma try some Halo.

 

[Pop]

Rocket launcher just has a big splash radius, still has to be aimed in a general direction and it's a given that a rocket landing in your vicinity will kill you.

Halo 3 rockets were a hit and miss at times, you usually had to have a pretty good shot to kill them.

Now the one shot cannon in H4, you could be blindfolded, hit 10 yards from them and still kill them thx to them little splashers.

 

[NobleGundam]

Well you did a fantastic job! Did you posted this on 343i - Halo 4 forums? That's where I saw it.

No, unfortunately I do not have the time to post on Waypoint forums. Having a family dinner

The dude is nice. His site has limited bandwidth until he plans to upgrade from the free hosting.

He just updated his site with a Shoutbox.

 

[Conor 419]

People who directly shit on the devs get a ban. If you want everyone to pucker up and suck dev dick, post elsewhere. I like that people here aren't afraid to voice their true opinions.

Shame they took their time to show up, where were they on the run up to launch?

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

lol you guys are too serious about people acting too serious

People need to stop trying to justify the constant disrespect by saying things like "the Halo I know is gone!" Not only has that cycle repeated since Halo 2's release, but aren't you the same people who complain about Waypoint and other sites?

It's funny sometimes, but to constantly berate the people at 343 and at the same time want to be respected? Hmm.. Normally I don't get involved with this nonsense, but after Dax said something and someone other than u4iX got involved, I thought the equation was unbalanced so wanted to voice my opinion.
[

I bet you'd let Frankie and Ellis turn you into a wobbly H.

 

[Striker]

Halo 3 rockets were a hit and miss at times, you usually had to have a pretty good shot to kill them.

Now the one shot cannon in H4, you could be blindfolded, hit 10 yards from them and still kill them thx to them little splashers.

Rockets were always easy to rack up kills with. If didn't kill them you just missed. Jumps and strafing factor, and H4's still sort of lacks there.

Besides, you get to see the Incineration Cannon more often. Another wonderful addition to this Halo sandbox.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

I bet you'd let Frankie and Ellis turn you into a wobbly H.

Why doesn't it surprise me that you'd think of something like that..

 

[Trey]

I... just... I... can't... believe... what... I... am... reading...

Great graphics come at a price. I know none of you all asked for that.

I'm happy none of the payer agency was stripped from the game. All kinds of shit still happens in Halo 4. It's just a tighter, smaller sandbox with a few more pales and buckets.

 

[GrizzNKev]

Shame they took their time to show up, where were they on the run up to launch?

Kind of hard to judge a game you haven't played.

People like to have good faith and ignore the truth staring them in the face in part thanks to hype, in part thanks to slight misdirection or undelivered promises, or just that they hope they can adapt to the changes and just have fun.

Everything new is that way. It didn't work out between us.

 

[User 73706]

Rockets were always easy to rack up kills with. If didn't kill them you just missed. Jumps and strafing factor, and H4's still sort of lacks there.

Besides, you get to see the Incineration Cannon more often. Another wonderful addition to this Halo sandbox.

I think the Incineration Cannon could be slightly balanced if it somehow utilized an altfire mode in order to reduce its effectiveness in close quarters/versus infantry. Maybe adding a charge time or limiting the shots to the one big hardlight "blob" rather than the secondary explosives unless you're scoped in.

EDIT: Better idea. Make it function like a mortar unscoped and have the initial projectile act "heavy." People with the high ground can still ambush infantry and vehicles, people a safe distance from vehicles can time their shot by aiming up and having it rain down. If you just try and fire it head-on at an enemy it drops to the ground almost instantly and kills you.

 

[Pop]

Rockets were always easy to rack up kills with. If didn't kill them you just missed. Jumps and strafing factor, and H4's still sort of lacks there.

Besides, you get to see the Incineration Cannon more often. Another wonderful addition to this Halo sandbox.

I've hit plenty of people in H3 right below their feet and it made them one shots. It wasn't always guaranteed.

Now in H4, you just hit anywhere within 10 yards with the rockets and it's a kill, hardly any trying. Don't get me started with the cannon...haha what a noobish weapon. It's looks to be faster then the rockets and the splash radius is ridiculous.

 

[Kuroyume]

Where does H4 take place? Assuming it's an alien place... Does it feel in any way like the Halo from CE?

 

[blamite]

Where does H4 take place? Assuming it's an alien place... Does it feel in any way like the Halo from CE?

There's at least one moment that gave me a very similar cool feeling to Halo 1.

 

[GrizzNKev]

Where does H4 take place? Assuming it's an alien place... Does it feel in any way like the Halo from CE?

On a Forerunner Shield World called Requiem. And some other spoilery locations.

 

[enzo_gt]

Where does H4 take place? Assuming it's an alien place... Does it feel in any way like the Halo from CE?

Requiem, a Forerunner world.

It does feel a bit like Halo from CE, the open areas provide the similar illusion of exploration, but it is a bit more reigned in and linear. IMO it does a good job of hiding it's linearity, hence contributing to that same illusion of exploration Halo had. The vistas are amazing though, you will feel a similar "wow" at the stuff you come across. The art in this game is so damn good, it's hard not to be enamored with all you come across like you were playing Halo for the first time.

 

[GrizzNKev]

Requiem, a Forerunner world.

It does feel a bit like Halo from CE, the open areas provide the similar illusion of exploration, but it is a bit more reigned in and linear. IMO it does a good job of hiding it's linearity, hence contributing to that same illusion of exploration Halo had. The vistas are amazing though, you will feel a similar "wow" at the stuff you come across. The art in this game is so damn good, it's hard not to be enamored with all you come across like you were playing Halo for the first time.

I was pissed when I got to that moment because you see all this shit and you want to walk right off that cliff and visit it. And you can't.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

Why doesn't it surprise me that you'd think of something like that..

I knew you would, you dirty little bitch!

 

[User 73706]

I was pissed when I got to that moment because you see all this shit and you want to walk right off that cliff and visit it. And you can't.

I think it was even worse on the level Requiem when we get cockteased through a few hallways and don't do anything before going back out to ROCKS ROCKS ROCKS

Can you imagine if the Library or something looked like that?

 

[GrizzNKev]

I think it was even worse on the level Requiem when we get cockteased through a few hallways and don't do anything before going back out to ROCKS ROCKS ROCKS

Can you imagine if the Library or something looked like that?

At least Halo 4's rocks are the sexiest rocks.

Just less rocks next time guize.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

At least Halo 4's rocks are the sexiest rocks.

Just less rocks next time guize.

Halo 5, building off the popularity of the boltshot we give you the Joltshot. Single fire it shoots sniper rounds capable of stripping shields and/or headshotting, but charge it up to unleash a incinerator type blast. Combine this weapon with camo to get an extra damage boost and prolonged AA time.

And for those of you who are worried about this being overpowered, don't worry, good players won't need to use it and will find better alternatives; Plus IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME!

 

[GrizzNKev]

Halo 5, building off the popularity of the boltshot we give you the Joltshot. Single fire it shoots sniper rounds capable of stripping shields and/or headshotting, but charge it up to unleash a incinerator type blast. Combine this weapon with camo to get an extra damage boost and prolonged AA time.

I remember the very first mod for Halo 2 Vista was the Cattle Rifle, a BR that shot sniper rounds.

 

[enzo_gt]

I was pissed when I got to that moment because you see all this shit and you want to walk right off that cliff and visit it. And you can't.

I was tempted, but then I had a moment of clarity where I realized I was so used to what games have become now that they are so expensive and you can only either have something that's purely linear or purely open-world, so I refrained.

Regardless though, it's so damn beautiful, I just stood there and looked, probably for a full minute. IMO a lot of the stuff in the campaign is what I felt Halo as a franchise would eventually evolve to when they got the technology, from animations, to cut scenes, to graphics, to pacing, to the evolution of the Forerunner architectural style in terms of the complexity within simplicity that they would employ on their own worlds. The encounters are pretty good too, although in some places they could use work, but overall I'm impressed with those too.

Honestly, if it wasn't just a button pushing marathon and the enemies had better AI, Watchers weren't the Swiss army knives that they are, and the terminal info was woven into the actual story I would probably call Halo 4 my favourite campaign. Of course, that is a long list of stuff, but it's a lot I can eeaaaaaaaasily see being changed for Halo 5.

 

[GrizzNKev]

I was tempted, but then I had a moment of clarity where I realized I was so used to what games have become now that they are so expensive and you can only either have something that's purely linear or purely open-world, so I refrained.

Regardless though, it's so damn beautiful, I just stood there and looked, probably for a full minute. IMO a lot of the stuff in the campaign is what I felt Halo as a franchise would eventually evolve to when they got the technology, from animations, to cut scenes, to graphics, to pacing, to the evolution of the Forerunner architectural style in terms of the complexity within simplicity that they would employ on their own worlds. The encounters are pretty good too, although in some places they could use work, but overall I'm impressed with those too.

Honestly, if it wasn't just a button pushing marathon and the enemies had better AI, Watchers weren't the Swiss army knives that they are, and the terminal info was woven into the actual story I would probably call Halo 4 my favourite campaign. Of course, that is a long list of stuff, but it's a lot I can eeaaaaaaaasily see being changed for Halo 5.

#1 on the fix list being getting Elites a pilot's license.

 

[gAg CruSh3r]

No, unfortunately I do not have the time to post on Waypoint forums. Having a family dinner

The dude is nice. His site has limited bandwidth until he plans to upgrade from the free hosting.

He just updated his site with a Shoutbox.

Sweet that's pretty cool. Yeah his name is AssaultCommand and he posted it on the 343i forums that's where I found it haha.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst171321_Introducing-Armor-Watcher-tk.aspx

 

[JustProgress]

Good God, the lag.

 

[Rev3rb]

Spoiler

Merry Xmas

 

[JustProgress]

On plus side, a lot of people just got this game for Christmas - means easy stat padding

 

[willow ve]

On plus side, a lot of people just got this game for Christmas - means easy stat padding

The hourly population did take a jump today, but it still barely cleared 130K at the peak. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of the holiday break plays out.