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Halo |OT15| Beta-tested, GAF approved

Ghazi

Member
Bungle wanted Destiny to prevail to they tipped the first domino that led to a terrible new halo design philosophy
All part of their plan to take over the world and overthrow Obama so we can blame stosh for everything. (YES! Two Bungie references back to back)

Also, keep up the great contributions Wahrer!
 

Madness

Member
Things can change quite quickly :)

Just need a team that knows whats up, and can keep up to deliver a game that people want.

Yeah they can, but the problem is, Destiny is priming to be a launch title for next gen, same goes for Battlefield 4. I doubt Halo 5 will be a first year release. And depends on what the remnants of Infinity Ward have been upto, but it seems like Modern Warfare 4 or whatever is the next Call of Duty seem primed to launch in the second year as well.

There is too much competition, especially multiplatform.

A big reason why Gears of War took off was because the other consoles ie wii and ps3 had just launched, there was no Halo, and the only call of duty was Treyarchs half-asses attempt at copying call of duty 2. It catered to both the casuals and competitive players with its AAA quality multiplayer. Would Gears of War have been as big a hit if it launched in 2007 against Halo 3 and CoD4:MW? Doubtful.

And while it's encouraging to hear 343 take player feedback into account, nothing makes me believe they will ever go back to classic halo.

It's like that post CliffyB did about game studios either appealing to the diehards or to the industry publications.

If they removed ordnance, instant respawn, loadouts, perks, kill cams, IGN and other sites are going to loudly state that they just took Halo back 10 years, blah blah. That things were looking so promising with the changes etc.

I mean think about it, they gave Halo 4 a freaking 9.8 of 10. They think the game is near perfection. They said it 'out Bungie's Bungie'. And yet we have no firefight, file share didn't work for a long time, no campaign scoring, campaign theater, spartan ops first half was a boring, tedious and at times lag fest.

343 will have to ask itself. Does it want a Juices as a player/fan or an Ozzy.
 

Nowise10

Member
So Halo is doomed. :(

Still confuses me how 343 and Microsoft kept in AA and even made the game worse with changes the Community obviously didn't want. They should have known that from all the backlash Reach got.

Part of me still thinks that maybe Bungie was contractually obligated to add AA into Halo with Reach, or at the very least... Microsoft gave them guidelines/told them what too do.

Armor Abilities can leave just as fast as every equipment, vehicle, weapon and enemy that have been lost throughout the Halo series.
 

Nebula

Member
What fan base is 343 even targeting by the way? I always thought it was the CoD community but that obviously isn't it because I don't see 300k players online.
 

Tawpgun

Member
What Halo needs is modding, and MS would never support that. If the Nextbox supported modding, it would be the best thing ever.
What Halo needs is a refinement and to build upon what Halo 3 did.

Juices can wish for bare bones halo all he wants but it's not gonna happen outside of a playlist in the game.

But this doesn't mean continue adding bullshit to the game. Design a new mechanic but make it fair. Make it balanced. Stop the randomness.

Make it so everyone has equal traits and fights for their advantages. Like in Halo 1-3. And don't fuck with that design.
 

Ghazi

Member
What fan base is 343 even targeting by the way? I always thought it was the CoD community but that obviously isn't it because I don't see 300k players online.
I think they attempted to cater to the casual(CoD) crowd while trying to keep the hardcore/veteran crowd around too and ended up alienating both. Mainly because it wasn't Call of Duty enough for the casuals to easily pick up and play and because it was too Call of Duty for the hardcore/competitive/veteran crowd. The skill gap in it just got a whole lot smaller and now battles are mainly won through random numbers decided through a computer, even Call of Duty is better than that. So at this point it feels like a bad Halo and a cheap CoD rip-off at the same and isn't pleasing to either parties.
 

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
Specture turrets on Containment that could fly and pretending like it was Hoth? Yes, yes it was the best.

I meant like Custom Edition or Halo 2 Vista. Or many other PC games. The Xbox can't compete with PC games without at least implementing modding. That and getting rid of Xbox Live. And day one digital downloads. And...nvm, the Xbox can never compete with PC games.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
I meant like Custom Edition or Halo 2 Vista. Or many other PC games. The Xbox can't compete with PC games without at least implementing modding. That and getting rid of Xbox Live. And day one digital downloads. And...nvm, the Xbox can never compete with PC games.

Im going to be honest, if what I am seeing of the new Xbox is true I do not care if Halo 5 is the next Halo 2, I refuse to buy it. It will just be PC/PS4 for me.
 

Nebula

Member
Im going to be honest, if what I am seeing of the new Xbox is true I do not care if Halo 5 is the next Halo 2, I refuse to buy it. It will just be PC/PS4 for me.

If the nextbox is always online I will not be purchasing it. I said this before the Sim City fiasco and it has only confirmed what I feared.
 

JHall

Member
What fan base is 343 even targeting by the way? I always thought it was the CoD community but that obviously isn't it because I don't see 300k players online.

This may be the whiskey talking, but I feel they have shifted their focus to the Battlefield crowd. How else can you explain all these damn BTB maps?
 

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
Im going to be honest, if what I am seeing of the new Xbox is true I do not care if Halo 5 is the next Halo 2, I refuse to buy it. It will just be PC/PS4 for me.

Yeah, some of the stuff seems pretty stupid, but I haven't heard anything so far that's a deal-breaker for me.
 

Ghazi

Member
Yeah, I'd rather not buy a console that I can't take to a friend's house to play if he has no Internet, though not common, would be ridiculously annoying to deal with in those situations and is completely unnecessary.
 

Madness

Member
If the nextbox is always online I will not be purchasing it. I said this before the Sim City fiasco and it has only confirmed what I feared.

You know I thought about it, and I don't think my xbox has never not been connected to the Internet since launch in 2005. As soon as I got my xbox, it's been connected with an ethernet cable in the back and I've always signed in. I've gone a month or two on silver, but I don't think I've ever purposely played offline.

Now granted I'm not the norm, but always online wouldn't bother me as much as say no used games or something else.

EDIT: I could totally see it being a huge problem for younger kids. I remember taking my n64/psx to my cousins house or friends houses to play all the time. I think no used games hurts more because kids like to share games with friends, family members.

This may be the whiskey talking, but I feel they have shifted their focus to the Battlefield crowd. How else can you explain all these damn BTB maps?

Simple. The competitive/classic player base moved on after some time with Reach. They either stopped playing or only played anniversary. I think the removal of squad slayer also hurt like hell.

Those that remained, saw BTB turn into shit heavies like Cragmire where Gauss cannons, wraiths, rockets and explosions galore dominated. They wanted to bring this fun to halo 4 and we got BTB Infinity. In which almost every match turns into heavies after a minute or two.
 

Nebula

Member
You know I thought about it, and I don't think my xbox has never not been connected to the Internet since launch in 2005. As soon as I got my xbox, it's been connected with an ethernet cable in the back and I've always signed in. I've gone a month or two on silver, but I don't think I've ever purposely played offline.

Now granted I'm not the norm, but always online wouldn't bother me as much as say no used games or something else.

Very true but I'm thinking about issues on Microsofts end, or things out of my hand like the internet going off for the day or something like that. Not having my xbox while my internet is dead would suck, especially since I tend to get tons of achievements/clear backlogs on days like that.

EDIT: Don't even know why they're pushing to nuke used games so much. Chances are that the person buying it used wasn't going to buy the game new. Ever. I think the industry overexaggerates the lost sales massively as a way to justify this movement against used game sales.

Double EDIT: I lend/borrow games all the time and buy them used all the time as well. I wouldn't have ever experienced most of the games I love, thus meaning I would never have purchased any sequels if they had yet to release meaning that the developers would have lost my sale on the second game.

Hell I got given Halo CE by a friend. I bought Halo 2, Xbox live, an Original Xbox and Halo 3 and a 360 because of someone giving me ONE GAME.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Reach

No enhancements, then FXAA + Adaptive Lanczos + Local Contrast Enhancement + Gamma Correction

reach_anni_noaa.png

reach_anni_fxaa_al.png

It gives me this weird sensation while moving around that the DMR is a jpg billboard sprite on the screen because of the smoothing going on.
 
As long as Microsoft invests a ton of money, and gets a lot of good, reliable servers, and a few back up servers, I'm fine with always online for the Next Xbox.

Unless Microsoft kills Forza as well, Forza is the only thing keeping me on Xbox now, since Halo is dead.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Finished Silentium. Some nice plot hooks for future games, as well as a good explanation for the Didact of Halo 4 and a couple really excellent callbacks to questions longtime fans have long discussed.

For those that complained about Cryptum and Primordium being boring--this book moves at an incredibly faster clip. The last pages hit hard and fast. Bear's writing is still lyrical and sense so expect another read through to grapple with the nuances.

While I still wish they hasn't decided to override the H3 terminals in the first place they did a fairly good job of weaving the H4, CEA terminals in with a chronology that mostly fits with what we learned in Halo 3.

I really think this book should have come out before Halo 4. Even with the terminals, the Didact doesn't make as much sense as he does here.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
Finished Silentium. Some nice plot hooks for future games, as well as a good explanation for the Didact of Halo 4 and a couple really excellent callbacks to questions longtime fans have long discussed.

For those that complained about Cryptum and Primordium being boring--this book moves at an incredibly faster clip. The last pages hit hard and fast. Bear's writing is still lyrical and sense so expect another read through to grapple with the nuances.

While I still wish they hasn't decided to override the H3 terminals in the first place they did a fairly good job of weaving the H4, CEA terminals in with a chronology that mostly fits with what we learned in Halo 3.

I really think this book should have come out before Halo 4. Even with the terminals, the Didact doesn't make as much sense as he does here.

spoilers plz!

(will buy it but poor at the moment)
 
4 times today iv typed up fairly large posts in response to things or just general commentary on Halo and 4 times my cat has walked across my keyboard and went back a page, Something must either be wrong with my Cache or Firefox because usually they come back when you go forward again but apparently not today.

Eh.

PSCX2 is good stuff
Halo 4 is bad
Lockout is good
Midship is good
People in this thread take the bait and bite easily
Skyrim Modders are weird (and pervy)
Halo 3 PC will be bare minimum port if it even happens
Modding support on consoles would do more harm than good
PAX Halo is going to be let down of the century
Mcfarlane pisses me off
Happy Birthday Devo
Star Trek The Voyage Home is hilariously bad
Always online Xbox will be fine if it has good servers
 
I love the look of Reach. 4's campaign might look nice, but everything in multiplayer is just off. I don't know how to describe it. The best I can do is point out the differences between Valhalla and Ragnarok. Ragnarok... no richness... it seems... dull? Perhaps someone can explain better than I can or point out the reasons I am completely wrong.
 

TheOddOne

Member
I love the look of Reach. 4's campaign might look nice, but everything in multiplayer is just off. I don't know how to describe it. The best I can do is point out the differences between Valhalla and Ragnarok. Ragnarok... no richness... it seems... dull? Perhaps someone can explain better than I can or point out the reasons I am completely wrong.
Yeah, I know what you saying. Outside environments don't feel cohesive at all, it's just a jarring mismatch of low textures and overly complicated level design. The more industrial look works better though (i.e. Skyline, Haven), it just fits in the game.
 

Madness

Member
I love the look of Reach. 4's campaign might look nice, but everything in multiplayer is just off. I don't know how to describe it. The best I can do is point out the differences between Valhalla and Ragnarok. Ragnarok... no richness... it seems... dull? Perhaps someone can explain better than I can or point out the reasons I am completely wrong.

Welcome to the club. Someone posted a gif of Valhalla a few pages back and I forgot how amazing and colorful and ALIVE it felt. Ragnarok just feels devoid of any personality on the map. Just a map full of dirt, camo users and mantis lol.

On a similar note, was reading IGN's review of Halo 4 and this caught my eye because someone at GAF came up with a great question a few pages back about the emphasis on BTB/vehicular play as opposed to 4v4 team based play.


From IGN: "Halo 4 might not have its instant-classic (a la Halo 2’s Lockout), but this is an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds, with a seemingly greater emphasis placed on the large-scale, vehicle-inclusive levels that are Halo’s bread-and-butter."

What would you guys say is Halo's bread and butter? Guys like BigShow like 1v1 pistols on prisoner, Tashi likes 4v4 BR's on Midship etc.

Is BTB really the go-to mode for Halo now? Is 4v4, small map, small teams based Halo on the way out? I mean look how long it took for Doubles to even be included.
 

Computron

Member
Fyre, those screens are just riveting but do you mind putting quote tags around them?

iw5a2TWi1BAgH.gif


2x 720 Halo related pics. That doesn't even exceed the size of most browsers/monitors.

eh...

A quick youtube test, considering the 30sec time limit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9YuJGXsRe0&feature=youtu.be

The actual raw AVI is 600MB.. not sure how to distribute that for a first attempt, but in an email quote, I'm hosting the converted AVI at Blu-Ray quality at a much lighter 75MB:



.


Cool, Thanks.

Something does seem strange about that DMR. Kinda looks like its poorly composted from a green screen...
 
I've been re-watching some Halo:Reach clips I've rendered using Bungie Pros... and you know... even though I complained about the game so much, and used to call it "the worst Halo ever" I still played the hell out of it. Almost 6,000 games in One year, all DLC bought, almost reached inheritor, had amazing fun, and replayed it so much.

I really did love Halo:Reach, regardless of how much it disappointed me, Bungie did make an amazing well-polished with Reach.

I can't say the same for Halo 4 though...
 

Omni

Member
Finished Silentium. Some nice plot hooks for future games, as well as a good explanation for the Didact of Halo 4 and a couple really excellent callbacks to questions longtime fans have long discussed.

For those that complained about Cryptum and Primordium being boring--this book moves at an incredibly faster clip. The last pages hit hard and fast. Bear's writing is still lyrical and sense so expect another read through to grapple with the nuances.

While I still wish they hasn't decided to override the H3 terminals in the first place they did a fairly good job of weaving the H4, CEA terminals in with a chronology that mostly fits with what we learned in Halo 3.

I really think this book should have come out before Halo 4. Even with the terminals, the Didact doesn't make as much sense as he does here.

Plot hooks? Dun read below if you haven't read ze book.

Aside from the second Librarian and the IsoDidact (who probably died), they closed pretty much everything else. Kinda bothers me that the Forerunner went to another galaxy and found... well... nothing. At the end of the book the domain is destroyed, the last precursors are gone and the Forerunners are wiped out.

What's left to go on to?

They had a wonderful storyline that they could have explored over the trilogy - The Precursor's return and judgement in regards to the mantle. But for some reason (for better or worse) they've killed off any chance of that happening, as well as any bigger threat that could have existed in future games (without pulling something completely random out of their asses).

Can't wait to only fight humans and elites in Halo 5! Eh

I really hope that I'm proven wrong, but IMO, it seems like the story 343i are going to tell is going to be really... dull... and full of Halsey hate.
 

Madness

Member
Just seeing Standoff and that skybox and then talking about Reach, Bungie's skyboxes and levels always had killer art design.

Quote from th the latest breaking in interview on Bungie.net: "Other companies typically call the position "Sky" or "Skybox" art. At Bungie, we invest a lot more into backgrounds than just skies and clouds. Think of it as environment art that has no gameplay area. If there is something cool looking in the environment that you can't reach, odds are our Sky Team made it."

Obviousky 343 got the hint that their skyboxes were kind of lacking which is why I think Majestic got much better and dynamic ones as opposed to the ones that came with say Complex.
 

HTupolev

Member
I love the look of Reach. 4's campaign might look nice, but everything in multiplayer is just off. I don't know how to describe it. The best I can do is point out the differences between Valhalla and Ragnarok. Ragnarok... no richness... it seems... dull? Perhaps someone can explain better than I can or point out the reasons I am completely wrong.
Ragnarok versus Valhalla?

Ragnarok: Piss-filtered to be skewed yellow with very low colour contrast. Ground detail produced through boatloads of blotchy low-quality shadows meant to look like contours (shadows which hilariously fade out as you get close). FXAA, cheap+heavy bloom, and screen-space godrays combine to produce a very hazy look. The water is a stationary surface.

Valhalla: Bold green and blue colour composition, with some healthy greys thrown in. Ground foliage drawing in is noticeable, but looks great, with the ground ultimately appearing as having lots of rough ground cover plants. Image has substantial aliasing, but is sharp. Water is a fully 3d animated surface with splashes produced through superimposed 3d animation, and it's interactive in that objects in it will float downstream.
 

Sai-kun

Banned
Plot hooks? Dun read below if you haven't read ze book.

Aside from the second Librarian and the IsoDidact (who probably died), they closed pretty much everything else. Kinda bothers me that the Forerunner went to another galaxy and found... well... nothing. At the end of the book the domain is destroyed, the last precursors are gone and the Forerunners are wiped out.

What's left to go on to?

They had a wonderful storyline that they could have explored over the trilogy - The Precursor's return and judgement in regards to the mantle. But for some reason (for better or worse) they've killed off any chance of that happening, as well as any bigger threat that could have existed in future games (without pulling something completely random out of their asses).

Can't wait to only fight humans and elites in Halo 5! Eh

I really hope that I'm proven wrong, but IMO, it seems like the story 343i are going to tell is going to be really... dull... and full of Halsey hate.

Primordium, Silentium spoilers

The plot point from Primordium with the 'second' 343 Guilty Spark and knowing where the Librarian was never really came to fruition did it? Unless 343GS^2 meant to imply that he knew about the AI version of her on Requiem, in which case, boring!

They pretty much closed the loop on everything except for IsoDidact, didn't they? I thought he was on the second Ark.
 

Computron

Member
Ragnarok versus Valhalla?

Ragnarok: Piss-filtered to be skewed yellow with very low colour contrast. Ground detail produced through boatloads of blotchy low-quality shadows meant to look like contours (shadows which hilariously fade out as you get close). FXAA, cheap+heavy bloom, and screen-space godrays combine to produce a very hazy look. The water is a stationary surface.

Valhalla: Bold green and blue colour composition, with some healthy greys thrown in. Ground foliage drawing in is noticeable, but looks great, with the ground ultimately appearing as having lots of rough ground cover plants. Image has substantial aliasing, but is sharp. Water is a fully 3d animated surface with splashes produced through superimposed 3d animation, and it's interactive in that objects in it will float downstream.

Love Valhalla. and H3 HDR.
 

Omni

Member
Primordium, Silentium spoilers

The plot point from Primordium with the 'second' 343 Guilty Spark and knowing where the Librarian was never really came to fruition did it? Unless 343GS^2 meant to imply that he knew about the AI version of her on Requiem, in which case, boring!

They pretty much closed the loop on everything except for IsoDidact, didn't they? I thought he was on the second Ark.

Spoilers continued!


Yeah, that was never touched upon for some reason. Maybe they're saving it for another game? It's still quite possible that the copy knew where the second Librarian was, rather than the Librarian AI fragment (or whatever it was) on Requiem.

and unfortunately so. The IsoDidact activated the rings on the second Ark (the one we blew up in 3), but we don't know what happened afterwards. He would have been safe from the blast and Halo 4 showed us that a Cryptum could have kept him alive, so it's possible for a future appearance later on.
 

Madness

Member
Damn, was looking over at my history, I played roughly 148 matches on Blackout in Halo 3. Don't even remember how many matches I played in Halo 2 on lockout, but I'm guessing it was triple that number.

That's what I get for not keeping up with Halo 4 too much, but damn, was inexcusable comparing it to Cage lol. I knew it was strangely familiar though. The whole color scheme and sprint and JiP in SWAT just threw me off.
 
Damn, was looking over at my history, I played roughly 148 matches on Blackout in Halo 3. Don't even remember how many matches I played in Halo 2 on lockout, but I'm guessing it was triple that number.

That's what I get for not keeping up with Halo 4 too much, but damn, was inexcusable comparing it to Cage lol. I knew it was strangely familiar though. The whole color scheme and sprint and JiP in SWAT just threw me off.

I have about 150 games of Halo 4 played lol. Its just not addicting anymore. Needs more fast paced 4v4 action on small maps. Less BTB.


BTB can S my D.
 

Madness

Member
I have about 150 games of Halo 4 played lol. Its just not addicting anymore. Needs more fast paced 4v4 action on small maps. Less BTB.


BTB can S my D.

I don't think anyone is playing Halo 4 much. Hell I think I still managed over 2000+ games played of Reach and I didn't even play it that much after the defiant map pack launched.

I've tried to play Halo 4 in earnest, but it's just not that fun most of the time. I just get infuriated with the personal ordnance and emphasis on random elements in the modes. I'll play a match or two of Infinity slayer, maybe a match of BTB, then either play fiesta or grifball, flood and call it a night.

There's nothing to work towards, no ranks, nothing. And team doubles or team throwdown are horrible if you go in alone without a team or partner and seeing as how I'm the last person on my friends list who plays, I'm usually playing this game alone.

Though I had a great time in a match of Extraction today with some randoms.

EDIT: is the new Gears worth buying? Or would you say to wait for a price drop? How's the multiplayer? Meaning cog vs locust teams? Is it as bad as people were saying in the run up to the release? Does it play completely different?
 
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