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[Omni]

What's the Xbox System update for?

Plus I never understood why the Xbox doesn't tell you how big updates are and/or how much is left to download outside of an ambiguous green bar.

So are all the DLC maps going to look like mundane forge maps with the concept art they're already released hovering in the background?

These ones look good though...

 

[Sai-kun]

Made Me Lmao Watching This Post Launch Halo 4 Reaction.

 

[The Henery]

I definately was matched up against a party yesterday and I was playing alone.

If true this playlist is utterly pointless for me. When those early details were released the party matching aspect had me more excited than no jip or no guests. There's not a single playlist in Halo 4 that has party matching enabled which is disgraceful when you consider that Halo 3 has multiple 1-50 lists which all had party matching enabled. The csr value will be more worthless than it already is if party matching isn't enabled.

 

[Ghazi]

Cortana looks like Nicholas Cage in the first submission.

 

[willow ve]

Made Me Lmao Watching This Post Launch Halo 4 Reaction.

Good resurrection of an old meme.

 

[NobleGundam]

Edit: Nvm

 

[Blueblur1]

I'm a little disappointed by the map aesthetics. The human maps don't look any different than what we've seen before. The same goes for Monolith's design; it's visually a mini-Vortex with the same boring grey angle Forerunner architecture and washed out brown dirt textures on the ground. I'm already tired of 343's Forerunner design; grey angled walls with neon lights running along them do not make interesting Forerunner architecture. Its amusing that Certain Infinity has done a much better job at emulating Bungie's Forerunner visual design than 343 have. I think 343 needs to hire better artists or change their art director. All the new content they produce looks like a visual rehash of existing content.

But I do hope they play well.

 

[Striker]

Landfall looks pretty interesting. That said, the tight corners and small rooms will be ruined by Infinity Slayer, Boltshot, and AA's.

Monolith looks nice for CTF. Oh, waypoints and auto-pickup. That is going to be updated in the TU, right?

Skyline's bases look kind of easy to defend, but hard to gauge much on it since the player playing is terrible.

There's not a single playlist in Halo 4 that has party matching enabled which is disgraceful when you consider that Halo 3 has multiple 1-50 lists which all had party matching enabled.

I do recall Squad Battle and Ranked BTB having it, and once you get up to a decent rank, prepare to wait 45 minutes to find a game. Whether TS ranking system was a bad combo with party restriction setups or not, it was atrocious. I don't remember if Social BTB used it, but it, like Halo Reach's BTB, was just a team of 8 vs. random fest and had lots of matches lop-sided. I would say do it here in Halo 4, but it's Infinity Slayer, so I don't really care at all. Whatever 4v4/5v5 things they'll use for CSR will definitely need it. Other than that, whatever.

As to your other rebuttals, I just don't see what's wrong with needing to slay and use teamwork for objective captures. I'm pretty sure that's how Halo has been for some time now. It reminds me of Halo 2 bomb arms/disarms. You had to sit defenseless to arm and hold that same location to disarm. You had to slay as a team first to ensure this could happen. How is this a bad thing?

Halo 2 did not have any disarm. It used sticky arming and certain map's arming circle varied depending on the map size or bomb arming location. You armed it, planted it in the middle, and round was over. Halo 3 took all of it away and went to instant arming, had a defuse, and took away other strategic HUD elements that made Assault great before. Reach was in the middle between the two by using an arm rather than instant, but it did have a diffuse setting. Neither Halo 3 or Reach went back to the objective return markers or sticky arming, for whatever reason!

 

[squidhands]

Finally, some smaller maps. Why can't I ever play against people as bad as the ones in the videos?

 

[willow ve]

That Waypont video has me interested in the new maps. Except for the fact that when talking about the third map, which is mid-sized and asymmetrical, they show footage of Capture the Flag... which would be fine if one flag existed... How can they continue to make the mistake of putting 2 flag CTF on asymmetrical maps? It simply does not work.

Now maybe that's just an internal test and it won't be in actual matchmaking. Still - please learn from recent history (Complex) and stop making the same mistakes.

 

[matthieuC]

I'm a little nervous that he mentioned the bases on Monolith are slightly different. I hope this is only aesthetically and not like Solace.

 

[Woorloog]

Small maps? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Do they at least have vehicles? Halo's at its best if infantry and vehicles are mixed. Which is one reason why Reach sucked, no vehicles on smaller maps...

I'm a little nervous that he mentioned the bases on Monolith are slightly different. I hope this is only aesthetically and not like Solace.

And maps ain't even truly symmetrical? *sigh*

EDIT if i have to play on a small/mid-sized map, i prefer them to be symmetrical, with few exceptions, usually for one-side objective modes.

 

[NobleGundam]

Small maps? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Do they at least have vehicles? Halo's at its best if infantry and vehicles are mixed. Which is one reason why Reach sucked, no vehicles on smaller maps...

Doesn't look like it, but maayybe Landfall, I don't think so. Good that smaller (Arena type) maps are coming into play.

 

[kylej]

Halo's at its best if infantry and vehicles are mixed.

Incorrect.

 

[EagleBurnn]

Good lord, the guy playing on the Majestic maps has to be the worst I've seen the press do. He thought the Boltshot had the range of a Sniper. He doesn't understand simple physics when using a jetpack and he relied on plasma grenades before dying to get most of his kills. I had to stop watching when he (blue team) had the Rocket Launcher and he went into a room full of three red guys. Doesn't fire. Just sprints to the flag. Dies immediately.

Always hard to judge these maps by watching someone else, especially him. Monolith looks like to be the medium map though and Skyline looks great.

 

[Hydranockz]

Small maps? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Do they at least have vehicles? Halo's at its best if infantry and vehicles are mixed. Which is one reason why Reach sucked, no vehicles on smaller maps...



And maps ain't even truly symmetrical? *sigh*

EDIT if i have to play on a small/mid-sized map, i prefer them to be symmetrical, with fex exceptions, usually for one-side objective modes.

What maps in previous titles are you referring to? The hidden ghost on Midship? The Banshee on Ascension? Ghosts on Backwash?

 

[Gui_PT]

I am not French!

 

[TheOddOne]

I am not French!

Gui is French, guys.

 

[Ghazi]

I am not French!

Oui_PT

 

[ElzarTheBam]

I am not French!

You are 'downstairs'.

Gui is French, guys.

Don't insult him, you!

 

[Woorloog]

What maps in previous titles are you referring to? The hidden ghost on Midship? The Banshee on Ascension? Ghosts on Backwash?

Wait, did write small? Meant medium.
Banshee on Ascension fits, though it was a balance issue, IIRC. Or just plain stupid.
Longshore, Highground, Snowbound, Zanzibar (never felt that big... if maps works for 4v4, it is medium as far as i'm concerned), Sanctuary (had a 'Hog by default)... eh, well, there are a bunch. Forgotten names now.

Basically, a map that works with 4v4/5v5 just fine but also includes vehicles. Reach didn't have a single vehicle map outside BTB.

EDIT also, didn't say those maps are necessarily among the better maps, Snowbound certainly isn't...

 

[Hydranockz]

Oui_PT

 

[Striker]

Out of those, and you can include Turf with the 'hog, the only one that is a pure vehicle map would be Zanzibar. The rest were basically Ghosts. And I don't really consider Tempest a BTB map. Was it a good map? Not necessarily, but it was fit for that 5v5/6v6 role like Colossus, Terminal, Relic, and Standoff.

 

[CreateNowSleepLater]

New maps, aesthetically, look very nice, particularly the first two shown in the trailer. What a relief after the brown and grey dirge of the crimson mappack, which was the only pack I hadn't bought since 2007. I'll be buying these, if only because they cater to 4v4.

Can anybody give a definitive answer on whether team throwdown has party matching enabled? They promised it in the early sketches of the playlist settings but it's not mentioned in the latest released settings and I've had a few suspicious matches where the co-ordination of the other team was seemingly too good to be a bunch of randoms.

idk, they all look flat to me. Are these guy's afraid of color of something?

 

[Gui_PT]

Gui is French, guys.

Oui_PT

You are 'downstairs'.



Don't insult him, you!

Spoiler

I'm going to have to change my avatar now, right?

 

[Reagan's BR]

The map in space better be symmetrical.

 

[Talents]

10/10 Booties.... 10/10

 

[Fuchsdh]

idk, they all look flat to me. Are these guy's afraid of color of something?

Compare these to Reach and your eyes will be opened *

* although to be fair the issues weren't always the saturation or hue as much as the grain filter making things look a little dingy.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

So Metal Gear Rising is fantastic. Play it.

Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4KNv485Owo

New OT!

 

[Smeghead]

So are we going to get a 'trial period' like the last maps or not? I'm guessing not.

 

[no bullets hans]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed at length, but are there any tricks to limiting the lag in Spartan Ops? I live in Texas and my buddy lives in Ireland and we've been trying to go through the episodes but the lag makes this thing absolutely unplayable and it doesn't seem to matter who's hosting, or when we play, or anything.

Its just straight up broken.

Then we go into something else and play like we're sitting next door to eachother.

 

[Nazgul11]

It's hard to tell without seeing a map overview or playing it, but Monolith looks pretty good.

 

[Fuchsdh]

So are we going to get a 'trial period' like the last maps or not? I'm guessing not.

I would imagine they would have made it clear after the frankly horrible job they did messaging it before if we were getting that option. If we are we should hear about it this bulletin, but I wouldn't expect it.

 

[Calm Killer]

Thread 15 already? Crazy.

 

[Hydranockz]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed at length, but are there any tricks to limiting the lag in Spartan Ops? I live in Texas and my buddy lives in Ireland and we've been trying to go through the episodes but the lag makes this thing absolutely unplayable and it doesn't seem to matter who's hosting, or when we play, or anything.

Its just straight up broken.

Then we go into something else and play like we're sitting next door to eachother.

Because of the networking model they use to handle the AI, there really isn't any solution that I can think of. Your best bet is to play as geographically local as possible.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Count me in too pls.

Me too, of course.

The map in space better be symmetrical.

Are you going to play the map anyway?

 

[Fuchsdh]

Because of the networking model they use to handle the AI, there really isn't any solution that I can think of. Your best bet is to play as geographically local as possible.

Really wish they'd pushed an Xbox update in the middle of the console's life cycle so that devs could utilize more bandwidth and minimize these issues.

Between the rise of broadband and HD, this console generation came at a pretty awkward time.

 

[Gui_PT]

Yeah, I'd be down for an achievement party. I just need 2 more.

I have them, but let me know if you need an extra brosky for help

 

[stephen08]

Regarding the Spartan Ops Epilogue:

Spoiler

Did anyone else find the human characters (particularly Palmer, Roland, whoever else those other jerks were) so poorly characterized that when it's shown Halsey lost her arm and that she may be working with the Covenant for revenge that you are actually pulling for Halsey/Covenant? I hope Halsey outfits the Covenant with some sweet tech and they destroy Sarah Palmer and the rest of her generic Spartans. The only human character I actually liked was Lasky and I think it was the same thing as the campaign where he was just a reasonable person surrounded by total assholes.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Regarding the Spartan Ops Epilogue:

Spoiler

Did anyone else find the human characters (particularly Palmer, Roland, whoever else those other jerks were) so poorly characterized that when it's shown Halsey lost her arm and that she may be working with the Covenant for revenge that you are actually pulling for Halsey/Covenant? I hope Halsey outfits the Covenant with some sweet tech and they destroy Sarah Palmer and the rest of her generic Spartans. The only human character I actually liked was Lasky and I think it was the same thing as the campaign where he was just a reasonable person surrounded by total assholes.

I believe that's part of the point. Everyone who complains about how 343 is demonizing Halsey are ignoring the fact she is clearly one of the most sympathetic characters in the series. We aren't supposed to be rooting for Palmer (although I do agree that the Infinity crew needed a bit more characterization--we only got a little bit from Palmer this half of the season, and that really wasn't enough. Also, I was a bit disappointed we didn't get a character beat for Thorne considering his part in the story.)

There are plenty of faults with the story, but I wouldn't say Halsey's path is among them.

 

[User 73706]

I was second place last OT? rip halo

...did they reuse Relay's skybox for Monolith?

 

[bobs...onGaf]

I am not French!

That's exactly what a French man would say!

 

[stephen08]

I believe that's part of the point. Everyone who complains about how 343 is demonizing Halsey are ignoring the fact she is clearly one of the most sympathetic characters in the series. We aren't supposed to be rooting for Palmer (although I do agree that the Infinity crew needed a bit more characterization--we only got a little bit from Palmer this half of the season, and that really wasn't enough. Also, I was a bit disappointed we didn't get a character beat for Thorne considering his part in the story.)

There are plenty of faults with the story, but I wouldn't say Halsey's path is among them.

I don't know man, I think you might be giving more credit than it is due. If this was intentional then that's interesting but I think the goal was to

Spoiler

paint Halsey as a villain.

 

[Gui_PT]

That's exactly what a French man would say!

I'm not a man!

 

[gAg CruSh3r]

Man I always fall asleep right before the next OT starts -.- ...

 

[Fuchsdh]

I don't know man, I think you might be giving more credit than it is due. If this was intentional then that's interesting but I think the goal was to

Spoiler

paint Halsey as a villain.

Eh, I suppose ymmv. In a year or two or tree or however long it takes to get resolved, if Halsey turns full on Darth Vader and orders the construction of a Promethean Death Star, you can give me an earful of "told you so"s.

 

[Havok]

Catching up, just watched those Majestic matches.

Landfall looks like it might be all right, it reminds me of Longshore which...I don't know how to feel about that just yet. Really hard to get a sense of the layout when the player was running around with his Boltshot drawn. Refreshing to see a human shotgun in multiplayer for once.

Skyline similarly looks good, but I noticed some crappy things like Swords spawning inside the bases via Global Ordnance. In what world is that a good idea? Having said that, I like the routes on that map, though again, it's a little hard to get a good idea of the full layout from gameplay.

I like what I saw of Monolith's layout...but then I saw someone using a Binary Rifle in the Team Regicide gameplay (meaning it wasn't Personal Ordnance). Why ruin what could be a good map with that nonsense and/or garbage?

We haven't seen Infinity Rumble before, right? So, is that going to be what dominates their upcoming FFA playlist? If so, no thank you, please delete, do not bother.

The Cartographers just announced a Forge contest looking for maps compatible with Infinity Rumble, Rumble Pro, Rumble Oddball, Rumble King of the Hill & Regicide.

I assume those gametypes will be used, not just Infinity Rumble.

Aha, thanks. That's what I get for not checking Waypoint.

In that case, just delete Infinity Rumble and let the playlist live.

And then delete all other gametypes labeled Infinity everywhere.

Please.

 

[Moa]

Catching up, just watched those Majestic matches.

Landfall looks like it might be all right, it reminds me of Longshore which...I don't know how to feel about that just yet. Really hard to get a sense of the layout when the player was running around with his Boltshot drawn. Refreshing to see a human shotgun in multiplayer for once.

Skyline similarly looks good, but I noticed some crappy things like Swords spawning inside the bases via Global Ordnance. In what world is that a good idea? I like the routes on that map, though it's a little hard to get a good idea of the full layout.

I like what I saw of Monolith's layout...but then I saw someone using a Binary Rifle in the Team Regicide gameplay (meaning it wasn't Personal Ordnance). Why ruin what could be a good map with that nonsense and/or garbage?

We haven't seen Infinity Rumble before, right? So, is that going to be what dominates their upcoming FFA playlist? If so, no thank you, please delete, do not bother.

The Cartographers just announced a Forge contest looking for maps compatible with Infinity Rumble, Rumble Pro, Rumble Oddball, Rumble King of the Hill & Regicide.

I assume those gametypes will be used, not just Infinity Rumble.

 

[TheOhrenberger]

majestic maps are looking great. Can't wait to play on them next week!

 

[Booties]

The Cartographers just announced a Forge contest looking for maps compatible with Infinity Rumble, Rumble Pro, Rumble Oddball, Rumble King of the Hill & Regicide.

I assume those gametypes will be used, not just Infinity Rumble.

I don't get these quotes. Why the hell are they making infinity rumble? That's basically fiesta.