I wouldn't mind seeing something other than a battle arena or an FPS on the circuit. Not that it'd capture the same following with MLG, but watching competitive fighting games (even Brawl) would be fun to watch. FIFA wouldn't be bad either. A little variety isn't a bad thing.
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Halo |OT18| We're Back Baby!
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I wouldn't mind seeing something other than a battle arena or an FPS on the circuit. Not that it'd capture the same following with MLG, but watching competitive fighting games (even Brawl) would be fun to watch. FIFA wouldn't be bad either. A little variety isn't a bad thing.
But aren't the Korean leagues doing worse too? It sounds like the cheating scandals and win-fixing really hurt its popularity over there too.
I like DotA 2, but my issue with watching MOBAs is the same issue I have with Halo--you can't have a really good view of what's going on because they're more than two participants. 1v1 StarCraft matches are really easy to follow. 5v5 DotA matches aren't.
Yeah the stream was great. Got a lot of new info about the game. I love the devs too. They all are very cool/nice on twitter and visit the forums/reddit a lot. I think they said they are planning on doing this twitch streams a lot more. Maybe even weekly, which would be pretty awesome.
As someone who's never been into (or really played) Starcraft, LoL, or DotA (or really any MOBA game), I find it EXTREMELY difficult to follow and somewhat monotonous to watch. Granted, I know the basics of the game, the objectives and goals, and how it's played, however I just can't find entertainment in watching it. FPS's, sports, and fighting games are much more entertaining to watch, even with only one perspective at a time (in the case of FPS's). I play fighting games just as much as MOBAs (never), however I find them much more entertaining to watch. I just don't see the attraction in MOBAs.
StarCraft is extremely fun to watch if you also play the game. I haven't played SC2 much since I no longer have a gaming rig so I don't know how the scene is, but I used to play the hell out of SC1 and Brood War. I remember sitting in the airport and Seoul and watching matches on the televisions there.
I'm hearing that it just wasn't getting the numbers MLG wanted and that some folks are blaming Blizzard too.
Ideally, Halo 5 positions itself in a way it reclaims it's MLG shooter spot from CoD. Though I don't know how long the deal with Virgin gaming was.
I'm hearing that it just wasn't getting the numbers MLG wanted and that some folks are blaming Blizzard too.
Ideally, Halo 5 positions itself in a way it reclaims it's MLG shooter spot from CoD. Though I don't know how long the deal with Virgin gaming was.
I got into LoL a couple weeks ago and I feel the same. I definitely prefer Halo's method of balance to LoL's. There's still some fun to be had though (ARAM).
Add me brudda: lightning3658. It's definitely more fun with friends. A lot less of the blame game.
Done!
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
Ghal?
Oh god no please no!
So the BR will cone into legendary slayer FFA but not in the 4v4 list?
Da fuck.
Anybody going to gamescom? I will be there for some days and hoping to play nextgen
And is the faster growing, better visually and mechanically.
User 73706
Banned
A Halo MOBA would be interesting considering you could add in people like the Didact and all that.
I was disappointed we didn't get to see the Brute Army Commander in the Halo Wars campaign. He was told exaggerated tales of his accomplishments by an overweight Grunt who serves as his official scribe. What's not to like?
A Halo MOBA would have to totally divest itself of any semblance of canon and established game balance to happen. There's plenty of other good MOBAs out there, there's no reason to denigrate Halo in the process of conversion.
Anyhow
MONTHS-LATE Halo 4 Vol 2 OST Review:
I was kind of surprised that the music was as good as it is. I guess my simple complaint is it doesn't sound like Halo. Sure, there's more touches to the original music than I realized when you take it out of the mediocre mixing in the game, but it functions a lot better on its own because some of the tonality just doesn't mesh with the "ground rules" O'Donnell established. Like all good Halo OSTs, the Volume 2 is the superior version. The actual music works better on its own than it ever did in the game.
Track-by-track:
*"Atonement" aka the main menu screen: the vocal treatment isn't bad, but it's breaking one of the "rules" of Halo's music to me in that the vocals are used more as an instrument than a voice. Aside from the Qawwali bits in the original Halo soundtrack (which, come to think of it, never reappeared in later versions of the theme, which sucks), the chanting is always tones and not a fake language or anything sounding like one (a la the Sanskrit chanting that John Williams or Jack Wall use.) The second cut with the french horns is a lot more interesting and demonstrates the more sweeping sound the Davidge and Jinnouchi like, but doesn't really fit specifically with Halo. Could they make the callback to the Halo 3 piano theme any quieter?
*"Gravity" - J's danger cues borrow a lot from pre-new age Hollywood composers, so it's not surprising that the first minute of this pulls heavy influences to Goldsmith's adventure scores, which persists through the entire cue. You could overlay this on The Phantom, The Rocketeer, or basically any action-adventure movie from the 90s to today.
*"Wreckage" - the mournful rendition of the de facto Halo theme. Opens with that swirling nothingness sound that I personally really love, though it was probably done better by the CEA OST crew. Also displays what I think is the more "default" Davidge and Jinnouchi sound, which has the pulsing electronic stuff just under the surface.
*"Aliens" - this plays in the game during the underground parts of "Reclaimer", which in my opinion is the best part of the game insofar as really nailing the sense of isolation and alien wonder in a way that hasn't happened since Halo 1 (it's just a shame that the Librarian plot dump was tagged at the end to sour it a bit.) The music helps a lot with this; the vocal arrangement is just plain different than you usually here, and it's more towards the Qawalli end. There's a great use of the synths in this piece. Personally I think it's overall Davidge's best piece, and it fits stylistically with the ambient elements of parts of Halo's previous scores like "The Library Suite" without slavishly following it.
*"Kantele Bow" - What? Davidge is an electronic composer and producer? I had no idea. I think Davidge really just found a lot of the more orchestral stuff boring and stuck to his sound. That's his strength, so it's not really surprising. There's a heck of a lot of electronic music in Halo when you get right down to it, although I think Davidge's work leans towards more house and industrial and more manipulation/modulation of the electronic instruments themselves.
*"Pylons" - More of the Davidge "start more orchestral and go into full electronic" mode. One thing I'll say about Davidge's synths is they wear that distinction on their sleeve; some of the pieces feel almost retro in their sound and implementation. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I kind of flash back to some of the electronic music that accompanied Dinosaur programs in the late '80s/'90s.
*"Escape" - What plays when you're mowing down Grunts in Halo 4's trench run sequence. This pulls a lot more influence from the current generation of "remote control" composers, like a bad Zimmer or his rip-offs. Still, it never gets lost in the droning swells and introduces some interestingly light bits that we probably couldn't hear over the WOWROWOWRO of the supercharged Ghost in the game.
*"Swamp" - Actually reminds me of bits of the CEA soundtrack combined with "What Once Was Lost" for the early parts. One of the better tracks with the classic "space synth" sounds used effectively. The very end veers close to becoming part of a Blue Man Group percussion line.
*"Push Through" - the drums here that start things off are a lot more McDonnell-esque, especially in his Reach period. The angry boat sound is pure Remote Control though. It develops but never does anything that unexpected.
*"Convoy" - This one feels strangely antiquated, like it should belong to a game from 1999, partially because the string arrangements are so spare in the beginning. Towards the end it develops an eastern feel. It could transition into "Kashmir" without much issue.
*"To Galaxy (Extended)" - Davidge's main contribution to the soundtrack, and the main presentation of the main theme. Overall while the theme wasn't really very Halo to me, it was definitely used effectively in the campaign, and it's simplistic enough that they were abel to do some interesting variations on it. There's more lush orchestration in this piece as well. About 4 minutes in it also gives us some "heroic human" music that I think it a lot more interesting than the music O'Donnell often used for the UNSC (the "Enough Dead Heroes" and "Brothers In Arms".) The ending mercato progression of the strings to the final bits is very nice.
*"Lasky's Theme" - Another Jinnouchi theme. This one borrows more from James Newton Howard and Harry Gregson-Williams' sound (especially in the Narnia scores) (really, you can just hear the Narnia theme three notes off in the middle of this one.) Aside from that it's not bad, appropriately heroic. More classic use of the vocals here although it sort of takes on that generic "every modern movie about WWII has these Saving Private Ryan bits".
*"Foreshadow" - Back to Davidge's Forerunner aesthetic. I really like this one. It actually kind of makes me think this is what would happen if you slowed down The Beatle's "Within or Without You" by 600% and scored on top of that basic sound.
*"Cloud City" - "Techno Asian village" is the first thing that popped into my head for this one, with its opening synth melody sounding a lot like Tibetan singing bowls. As the name suggests it's got a very ethereal sound with some basic drum lines keeping things grounded.
*"This Armor" - the most retro synths are definitely in this one, but counterbalanced by the choral atmosphere they work really well. It transitions into a more fast-paced piece but keeps that interesting old-vs-new sound dynamic throughout. Your opinion of this is going to depend a lot on how you like that sound.
*"Intruders" - Back to the Jinnouchi block. This one borrows more from the classic UNSC sound, as does the following track, although it's much brassier by default. I think this one was a little better used in Spartan Ops, actually.
*"Mantis" - This one is a big blend of the UNSC Brass sound heard elsewhere with some quiet electronic bridges between sections. I like using the Halo 4 theme but ending it on a minor note; gives it that innate sense of danger.
*"Sacrifice" - More in the Gregson-Williams vein. Interestingly though, when this one pulls out the halo duhduhduhDUHHH line, it actually pushes it towards a baroque, blaring horn sound that feels more at home with Modest Mussorgsky or Prokofiev than much else in the soundtrack. It's a great adaptation of a classic Halo bit.
*"Never Forget" - the transition here from the original music to "Never Forget" is a little awkward, but the arrangement of the piece itself is quite nice, a little more spare than the Halo 2Vol2 version, but some interesting high-pitched accents and synth notes, as well as the introduction of more punctuated horns. Interestingly, compared to the use of the choir elsewhere, this one shifts the high female voices over to strings, which I think sounds loads better than the original. It adds some nice pieces and horn variations onto the end too, although the final repetition of the theme starts inching dangerously too close to Christian New Age, luckily pulling back with an orchestral fanfare. Overall I'd say this is the best arrangement of the music, and personally I'd rank it as high or higher than the original.
*"Majestic" - this one goes everywhere, starting with some pensive music than pushing into a more driving theme with lots of horn blasts. You hear some of that "Star Wars" sound in the horns here and your classic rising key climax. It's fine, but "Never Forget" is a superior album-ender.
Overall, quite solid, better if you buy it as a soundtrack rather than a Halo soundtrack. It's only $10 and you can get it off Bandcamp in your choice of lossy or lossless formats, which is the only time I ever buy non-physical copies. Personally, you can have Jinnouchi handle some composition chores next game, but I think the CEA crew of Paul Lipson, Brian Triffon and (now Spartan Assault composer) Tom Salta have a better understanding of how to craft music within the Halo sound.
Speedy Blue Dude
Banned
I secretly hope that Xbox Live next gen has a little Twitter/Facebook update like page with only your friends where you can post statuses and make comments and have people see them in real time (if they desire) or have them see them when they enter it's section on the dash.
I want to be able to make status updates like "Who's buying CoD Ghost? Xbox One or Xbox 360 version, I need help deciding." and actually have friends respond, without the annoying and ignored "_______ WANTS YOU TO PLAY _______" you see every start up/sign in with beacons and without the nuisance of a "MESSAGE TO ALL FRIENDS".
Anyone know if anything like this will be on Xbox Live next gen? PSN next gen seems to have a page like this.
I want to be able to make status updates like "Who's buying CoD Ghost? Xbox One or Xbox 360 version, I need help deciding." and actually have friends respond, without the annoying and ignored "_______ WANTS YOU TO PLAY _______" you see every start up/sign in with beacons and without the nuisance of a "MESSAGE TO ALL FRIENDS".
Anyone know if anything like this will be on Xbox Live next gen? PSN next gen seems to have a page like this.
User 73706
Banned
Well, PS4's allowing for custom dash options. A customizable XBO dash with the Metro aesthetic (and, I know it sucks but let's be realistic here, a few mandatory ad placement slots) would be GOAT
If they were nice we could just put all the cool stuff on our main dashblades and then cram all the mandatory ad squares on the Bing dashblade.
A Halo MOBA would have to totally divest itself of any semblance of canon and established game balance to happen. There's plenty of other good MOBAs out there, there's no reason to denigrate Halo in the process of conversion.
Anyhow
MONTHS-LATE Halo 4 Vol 2 OST Review:
I was kind of surprised that the music was as good as it is. I guess my simple complaint is it doesn't sound like Halo. Sure, there's more touches to the original music than I realized when you take it out of the mediocre mixing in the game, but it functions a lot better on its own because some of the tonality just doesn't mesh with the "ground rules" O'Donnell established. Like all good Halo OSTs, the Volume 2 is the superior version. The actual music works better on its own than it ever did in the game.
Track-by-track:
*"Atonement" aka the main menu screen: the vocal treatment isn't bad, but it's breaking one of the "rules" of Halo's music to me in that the vocals are used more as an instrument than a voice. Aside from the Qawwali bits in the original Halo soundtrack (which, come to think of it, never reappeared in later versions of the theme, which sucks), the chanting is always tones and not a fake language or anything sounding like one (a la the Sanskrit chanting that John Williams or Jack Wall use.) The second cut with the french horns is a lot more interesting and demonstrates the more sweeping sound the Davidge and Jinnouchi like, but doesn't really fit specifically with Halo. Could they make the callback to the Halo 3 piano theme any quieter?
*"Gravity" - J's danger cues borrow a lot from pre-new age Hollywood composers, so it's not surprising that the first minute of this pulls heavy influences to Goldsmith's adventure scores, which persists through the entire cue. You could overlay this on The Phantom, The Rocketeer, or basically any action-adventure movie from the 90s to today.
*"Wreckage" - the mournful rendition of the de facto Halo theme. Opens with that swirling nothingness sound that I personally really love, though it was probably done better by the CEA OST crew. Also displays what I think is the more "default" Davidge and Jinnouchi sound, which has the pulsing electronic stuff just under the surface.
*"Aliens" - this plays in the game during the underground parts of "Reclaimer", which in my opinion is the best part of the game insofar as really nailing the sense of isolation and alien wonder in a way that hasn't happened since Halo 1 (it's just a shame that the Librarian plot dump was tagged at the end to sour it a bit.) The music helps a lot with this; the vocal arrangement is just plain different than you usually here, and it's more towards the Qawalli end. There's a great use of the synths in this piece. Personally I think it's overall Davidge's best piece, and it fits stylistically with the ambient elements of parts of Halo's previous scores like "The Library Suite" without slavishly following it.
*"Kantele Bow" - What? Davidge is an electronic composer and producer? I had no idea. I think Davidge really just found a lot of the more orchestral stuff boring and stuck to his sound. That's his strength, so it's not really surprising. There's a heck of a lot of electronic music in Halo when you get right down to it, although I think Davidge's work leans towards more house and industrial and more manipulation/modulation of the electronic instruments themselves.
*"Pylons" - More of the Davidge "start more orchestral and go into full electronic" mode. One thing I'll say about Davidge's synths is they wear that distinction on their sleeve; some of the pieces feel almost retro in their sound and implementation. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I kind of flash back to some of the electronic music that accompanied Dinosaur programs in the late '80s/'90s.
*"Escape" - What plays when you're mowing down Grunts in Halo 4's trench run sequence. This pulls a lot more influence from the current generation of "remote control" composers, like a bad Zimmer or his rip-offs. Still, it never gets lost in the droning swells and introduces some interestingly light bits that we probably couldn't hear over the WOWROWOWRO of the supercharged Ghost in the game.
*"Swamp" - Actually reminds me of bits of the CEA soundtrack combined with "What Once Was Lost" for the early parts. One of the better tracks with the classic "space synth" sounds used effectively. The very end veers close to becoming part of a Blue Man Group percussion line.
*"Push Through" - the drums here that start things off are a lot more McDonnell-esque, especially in his Reach period. The angry boat sound is pure Remote Control though. It develops but never does anything that unexpected.
*"Convoy" - This one feels strangely antiquated, like it should belong to a game from 1999, partially because the string arrangements are so spare in the beginning. Towards the end it develops an eastern feel. It could transition into "Kashmir" without much issue.
*"To Galaxy (Extended)" - Davidge's main contribution to the soundtrack, and the main presentation of the main theme. Overall while the theme wasn't really very Halo to me, it was definitely used effectively in the campaign, and it's simplistic enough that they were abel to do some interesting variations on it. There's more lush orchestration in this piece as well. About 4 minutes in it also gives us some "heroic human" music that I think it a lot more interesting than the music O'Donnell often used for the UNSC (the "Enough Dead Heroes" and "Brothers In Arms".) The ending mercato progression of the strings to the final bits is very nice.
*"Lasky's Theme" - Another Jinnouchi theme. This one borrows more from James Newton Howard and Harry Gregson-Williams' sound (especially in the Narnia scores) (really, you can just hear the Narnia theme three notes off in the middle of this one.) Aside from that it's not bad, appropriately heroic. More classic use of the vocals here although it sort of takes on that generic "every modern movie about WWII has these Saving Private Ryan bits".
*"Foreshadow" - Back to Davidge's Forerunner aesthetic. I really like this one. It actually kind of makes me think this is what would happen if you slowed down The Beatle's "Within or Without You" by 600% and scored on top of that basic sound.
*"Cloud City" - "Techno Asian village" is the first thing that popped into my head for this one, with its opening synth melody sounding a lot like Tibetan singing bowls. As the name suggests it's got a very ethereal sound with some basic drum lines keeping things grounded.
*"This Armor" - the most retro synths are definitely in this one, but counterbalanced by the choral atmosphere they work really well. It transitions into a more fast-paced piece but keeps that interesting old-vs-new sound dynamic throughout. Your opinion of this is going to depend a lot on how you like that sound.
*"Intruders" - Back to the Jinnouchi block. This one borrows more from the classic UNSC sound, as does the following track, although it's much brassier by default. I think this one was a little better used in Spartan Ops, actually.
*"Mantis" - This one is a big blend of the UNSC Brass sound heard elsewhere with some quiet electronic bridges between sections. I like using the Halo 4 theme but ending it on a minor note; gives it that innate sense of danger.
*"Sacrifice" - More in the Gregson-Williams vein. Interestingly though, when this one pulls out the halo duhduhduhDUHHH line, it actually pushes it towards a baroque, blaring horn sound that feels more at home with Modest Mussorgsky or Prokofiev than much else in the soundtrack. It's a great adaptation of a classic Halo bit.
*"Never Forget" - the transition here from the original music to "Never Forget" is a little awkward, but the arrangement of the piece itself is quite nice, a little more spare than the Halo 2Vol2 version, but some interesting high-pitched accents and synth notes, as well as the introduction of more punctuated horns. Interestingly, compared to the use of the choir elsewhere, this one shifts the high female voices over to strings, which I think sounds loads better than the original. It adds some nice pieces and horn variations onto the end too, although the final repetition of the theme starts inching dangerously too close to Christian New Age, luckily pulling back with an orchestral fanfare. Overall I'd say this is the best arrangement of the music, and personally I'd rank it as high or higher than the original.
*"Majestic" - this one goes everywhere, starting with some pensive music than pushing into a more driving theme with lots of horn blasts. You hear some of that "Star Wars" sound in the horns here and your classic rising key climax. It's fine, but "Never Forget" is a superior album-ender.
Overall, quite solid, better if you buy it as a soundtrack rather than a Halo soundtrack. It's only $10 and you can get it off Bandcamp in your choice of lossy or lossless formats, which is the only time I ever buy non-physical copies. Personally, you can have Jinnouchi handle some composition chores next game, but I think the CEA crew of Paul Lipson, Brian Triffon and (now Spartan Assault composer) Tom Salta have a better understanding of how to craft music within the Halo sound.
Nice.
I will be there for a day or so.
User 73706
Banned
Fuchsdhshshdh redeemed, I didn't know he had it in him.
You really love musical critiques, huh? I have your PM hanging on my refrigerator.
I work closely with the musicians. I don't actually help, but I listen in throughout because I am fascinated by soundtracks. I could walk you through some of the deliberate and accidental cues and calls to other influences from Vangelis and Toto to Bonham and Bach. It's amazing fun chatting about that stuff mid-production and seeing them double-down or ease off.
User 73706
Banned
I'm very glad to hear that.
Is the Nemesis bass riff a deliberate shout-out to the Blade Runner ending credits theme, just slowed down?
Dongs Macabre
aka Daedalos42
Hey, Frankie, have you heard Jellycrackers' music stuff?
BRB, cutting Halo cinematics to "Africa" and slowing down Chief running to "Chariots of Fire".
Now that you mention it though I definitely hear the influence. A lot of my comments are based on my musical tastes which run more classical and film score; I imagine it's one of those things where you hear sort of what you're familiar with.
NobleGundam
Banned
Have to agree. Halo 4 Soundtrack Volume 2 is good. Can't wait for those Monk Chants in Halo XB1.
NobleGundam
Banned
Hey Wahrer, you're right. Halo needs a Gravity Gun/Gauntlet.
Call it the "Promethean Gauntlet".
Gravity Gun Live Action
Call it the "Promethean Gauntlet".
Gravity Gun Live Action
User 73706
Banned
Gabotron ES
Member
Something I have been working on for three weeks, of course when it's ready HaloGAF will be the first one to playtest it
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
Something I have been working on for three weeks, of course when it's ready HaloGAF will be the first one to playtest it
careful, frankie's in the thread. don't wanna get banned from Halo 4.
Which day? Wanna shoot some tequilas or visit some bars?
Hyper the partypooper won't be there
Which day? Wanna shoot some tequilas or visit some bars?
Hyper the partypooper won't be there
Friday!
Headhunter?Something I have been working on for three weeks, of course when it's ready HaloGAF will be the first one to playtest it
NobleGundam
Banned
Grenade explodes Into Spontaneous Griffballs? New Skull? WitchCraft or Wizardry? Looks cool.Something I have been working on for three weeks, of course when it's ready HaloGAF will be the first one to playtest it
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
seems like it.
ODST 2 is coming. Right?
Actually if they took ODST full call of duty they could leave halo as simple halo. That way they get the best of both worlds.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
that would be for the best. but when has anyone thought of whats best for the fans?
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
ODST2/Wars 2 in a double pack for $80. Believe.
$130 edition comes packed in an ODST helmet and dropped into your house from the space station.
$130 edition comes packed in an ODST helmet and dropped into your house from the space station.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
would the ODST helmet be normal sized or cat sized? and would the package burn up on re entry?
Not as cool as SRIV Wad Wad Edition
Hypertrooper
Member
I am sorry that I have to work till 4pm. I told you that I could come after work.Which day? Wanna shoot some tequilas or visit some bars?
Hyper the partypooper won't be there
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
If you buy both you get to go to the space station in a Lamborghini and drop the package on your own house.
Full sized. Comes with heat shielding on the carbon fiber box.
Yay!
Well I expected you to quit your job and everything
but yes after work sounds good
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
We should get a crew to play halo pc. I have a super fast connection and can host.
Gabotron ES
Member
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
not really Halo related, but i found Heracross' Mega Evolution.
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