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Halo |OT18| We're Back Baby!

T

TCKaos

Member
Oh god, I can't see page 258. Like, it loads, and then it just goes away.

If you ever wanted to make fun of me, now is the time.
 
M

Madness

Member
gAg CruSh3r said:
http://neopets.wikia.com/wiki/Blurtle

It's a NeoPet character lol
Click to expand...

Wow, haven't remembered NeoPets in a while. Back when I played it, I was one of, and friends with some of the strongest people on the site. Then the assholes banned me.

TCKaos said:
Oh god, I can't see page 258. Like, it loads, and then it just goes away.

If you ever wanted to make fun of me, now is the time.
Click to expand...

This page loads fine. The last one slowed the hell out of my phone with all the pics and Godzilla gifs lol.
 
U

User 73706

Banned
TCKaos said:
Oh god, I can't see page 258. Like, it loads, and then it just goes away.

If you ever wanted to make fun of me, now is the time.
Click to expand...

page 129 here dickwad

guys psst

*pfft*

tckaos

*snerk*

tckaos... is a butt

also when the fuck was neopets ever a thing
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
FUBAR McDangles said:
Odd coloring and Halo branding aside, those Ford trucks are sexy as hell.
Click to expand...

I kind of like them because they sort of feel like they could be a vehicle in the Halo universe. But I have no desire or need for a truck and most people I imagine don't, which is why I found it odd that it was the prize for the Championship.
 
S

Speedy Blue Dude

Banned
I'm finally up to $150,000. Not sure if I want to purchase a cheap apartment now, or keep going and get the best I can get. So addicting!

EDIT: This isn't the GTA Online thread! :p Speaking of GTA V, I saw Tunavi was accepted into HaloGAF Secret's crew, and checked to see if I was. I wasn't. :(
 
H

heckfu

Banned
Speedy Blue Dude said:
I'm finally up to $150,000. Not sure if I want to purchase a cheap apartment now, or keep going and get the best I can get. So addicting!

EDIT: This isn't the GTA Online thread! :p Speaking of GTA V, I saw Tunavi was accepted into HaloGAF Secret's crew, and checked to see if I was. I wasn't. :(
Click to expand...

You do realize that HaloGAF Secret is HGS right? I mean, you can't be that slow. There's a HaloGAF proper crew that kittens heads up.
 
S

Speedy Blue Dude

Banned
heckfu said:
You do realize that HaloGAF Secret is HGS right? I mean, you can't be that slow. There's a HaloGAF proper crew that kittens heads up.
Click to expand...

I thought I was in HGS?

I thought the HaloGAF Secret crew was just continuing the HGS joke, and assumed it was opened for all HaloGAF users
 
Ozzy Onya A2Z

Ozzy Onya A2Z

Member
Duji said:
A few more questions:
Judging from your posts in the past it doesn't seem like you think H4's population drop was a colossal failure as most of us do. What would the daily peak concurrent population have to drop down to in order for you to throw your hands up in despair (and after how many months beyond launch)?

And on the scale from bad communication to good communication, where does CCP and 343 lie? Which dev is doing the best job right now in your opinion?
Click to expand...

Sorry if old for a reply, was PM'd for a public response.

I don't judge a game or movie or activity by population alone. I generally judge on my own opinion, over a period of time and friends second to that.

I've certainty posted here and over at Waypoint that I don't hide from or ignore the population dropping off. I have also explicitly posted 343i had missing features and too much of their own take on things at launch.

If you combine that with the age of the franchise, competing titles and launch+2 months you can see what occurred. Arena shooters aren't king anymore and all games change with each iteration. Some hits and misses are to be expected.

In terms of what numbers would be a failure it's more about my particular playlist and search times vs. matching of teams/skills. Yes I have found Halo 4 to drop into wider parameters or longer search times due to lack of population. However it isn't a colossal failure to just Halo 4 so we should always listen to the classic players black and white answer. I saw all the same issues/low populations with ranked objective in Halo 3 or clans in Halo 2 or Arena with Reach.

The population drops and playlist management makes iterative changes to attempt to return players or consolidate playlists. Forums have always been calling for playlist manager heads to roll. Player toggles empower player choice for maps and gametypes therefore dynamic playlist and voting options based on the toggles should retain and attract more population.

Look at ODST Firefight and a lack of matchmaking all together. Great game mode but died from low population because of no matchmaking.

In terms of which developer, I'd say 343i is now equal with Bungie for me. That's a fairer comparison as I don't follow CCP anymore and haven't for quite some time. Certainly at pre and during launch periods 343i had ground to make up.

Overall I'm not hyper competitive anymore (I am still a competitive person by nature though) and I guess I've seen all the same stuff from Reach that's back with 4 now. I too want the game many of you do but I don't want a 100% return. A middle ground or 75% return will be far better received.

Further IMO there are higher priority concerns than movement and settings to deal with e.g. quitters, cheaters, AFK, guest vs. ranked matching, regional matching etc. Of course it's a double edge sword; no population and these systems just don't work.

Quick Summary:
Campaign = win
Graphics = win
Animation = win
Mission design = mixed
Story = win
Skulls & scoring = fail
Multiplayer at launch = fail
Multiplayer now = win
Turbo = win
SPOPS = fail
SPOPS CGI/concept = win
OST = win
Audio mixing = fail
Playlists = win (purely for the cadence of change/sustain)
Lack of map/basic settings toggles = fail
JiP at launch = fail
JiP now and playlist based = win
FUD = win
Travis books = fail
Bear books = win
Waypoint on flag & no dropping = fail
Crimson DLC = fail
Majestic DLC = win
Castle DLC = win
Ricochet/Pitfall = win
Forge Island = win
Virgin Gaming tourney = mixed
Global champs = win win win
 
G

Gui_PT

Member
heckfu said:
it landed ol gag crusher on a one-way ticket to my ignore list.

but never you diogo. never you.
Click to expand...

Let's get matching heart tattoos

Ozzy Onya A2Z said:
Quick Summary:
Campaign = win
Story = win
Multiplayer now = win
Playlists = win
Click to expand...


WELL SOMEONE'S BEEN HITTIN' THE SAUCE

The campaign has 2, maybe 3 good levels. The story is all over the place with turrible characters. Multiplayer is still a mess EVEN after all the fixes and the playlist management is meh.
 
A

aHebrewMenagerie

Member
Ozzy Onya A2Z said:
Quick Summary:
Campaign = win
I'll liked the campaign personally, bar a few missions.
Graphics = win
Ye.
Animation = win
Also agreed.
Mission design = mixed
Agreed again, they tried to go too much for corridor shooter, which is fine for other games, but that's not what Halo is about.
Story = win
Yes.
Skulls & scoring = fail
Yes.
Multiplayer at launch = fail
Yes.
Multiplayer now = win
See, that's where you are wrong. Granted, alot of complaints filed at launch has been fixed, but that won't keep me or the population playing the game. The game simply lacks any longevity at all. The progression system is completed in a month, there's no ingame ranks, and the gameplay is not Halo, and therefore not fun to a lot of people, including me.
Turbo = win
For the most part, here's hoping that they turn down the aim assist on all the utility weapons, but the likeliness of that is next to 0%.
SPOPS = fail
I personally liked Spartan Ops, but yes I would consider it a failure.
SPOPS CGI/concept = win
Yep.
OST = win
I'm mixed on this one, yes there are a lot of great tracks, but in my opinion, the real master of this release was Kazuma Jinnouchi, he was the one who stayed closest to "the formula" and incorporated Marty's motifs into the soundtrack. My opinion is that they should dump Neil, and pick up the guy who did the Spartan Assault soundtrack, they would be a formidable duo. But I fail to see how this affects the state of the game in any important way.
Audio mixing = fail
Eh, this was bound to happen at some point, Marty's audio engine didn't really allow for a lot of customization, so if anyone besides him was working it, chances are, it wouldn't sound good.
Playlists = win (purely for the cadence of change/sustain)
I'm mixed here, they were trash all up until a couple weeks ago, when they actually started the consolation. I'm a playlist nazi, so take that as you will.
Lack of map/basic settings toggles = fail
This is another reason why the playability was diminished. Halo is also known for its wacky customs, and with the amount of options they stripped, it was the most damaged part of the multiplayer. Modders had to come in and work their magic with Megalo for customs to be a viable option again.
JiP at launch = fail
Eh.
JiP now and playlist based = win
Still Eh.
FUD = win
Not really related to the game at all besides on passing reference at the end, but whatever, I enjoyed the movie/mini series.
Travis books = fail
Haven't read em yet.
Bear books = win
Same.
Waypoint on flag & no dropping = fail
Crimson DLC = fail
Majestic DLC = win
Castle DLC = win
This was mixed, they were BTB maps, but they were ok.
Ricochet/Pitfall = win
Yeah, it's fun.
Forge Island = win
For the most part, but it's kind of boring. If they charged for it, no one would pick it up.
Virgin Gaming tourney = mixed
The Infinity Challenge was retarded. Did anyone actually find out how it works?
Global champs = win win win
Agreed, I would've loved a 4v4 or even a 2v2, but the production was sick, and no one here us refuting that.
Click to expand...
Responses in bold.
 
B

Blueblur1

Member
343 has improved the multiplayer a bit but it still gets a big "meh" from me. It still doesn't play like the Halo we love. Instead it's this roided up and casual friendly Halo that's integrated accepted CoD trends. If you wanted Halo 4 to really feel like classic Halo you'd have to removal armor abilities and sprint completely, remove instant respawning completely, remove perks, neuter the loadout selections (only secondary would be Magnum), remove global and personal ordnance, place weapons on the map, ensure weapons despawn in 30 seconds, and go back to simplified scoring across all game types. I don't expect them to ever do all of that with Halo 4. They probably won't with Halo 5 either but a man can dream.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
17 people in King of the Hill.

I hope 343 does the right thing here and doesn't require DLC on any future rotational playlists. This can't be making King of the Hill fans happy, and Bullseye purchasers are probably just playing their maps elsewhere.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
FyreWulff said:
The writers of Apartment 117 still have a job?
Click to expand...

Woah, let's not say things we can't take back. That was offensive, this is much more tongue-in-cheek.

As for the music--I'd love to see Jinouchi and Tom Desalta team up for Halo 5. It's clear that DeSalta gets what Halo sounds like and he's the closest we've come to Marty without straight ripping him off.
 
E

ExigentContact

Member
Ozzy Onya A2Z said:
Quick Summary:
Campaign = win
Gonna disagree. The story was jumbled and the design was extremely poor, opting for narrow tubes instead of a wider sandbox. Issues with disappearing weapons and ammo and a badly executed new enemy put the whole kibosh on things for me. Fail.
Graphics = win
Gonna disagree here, too. The graphics while at face value are good, rely too much on the heavily touched-up in-engine cutscenes. When evaluating Halo 4 in-game you see lower texture resolutions than previous games, skyboxes more comparable to Halo CE and 2 than 3 or Reach, and a laughable LOD system. Combine that with a shoddy art style and I have to put Halo 4 down as a fail.
Animation = win
A mixed bag, but generally either superior or inferior to Reach when it comes to in-game animation. Things like Grunt animations were trying too hard. The cutscene animations with the performance capture were very impressive, even if Cortana looked...artificial a lot of the time. I'll agree and say it's a win.
Mission design = mixed
Eh...no. Sorry. I could write a book on what the hell is wrong with the campaign design of Halo 4. It was terrible. Fail.
Story = win
The Master Chief and Cortana interactions were a win. Everything was a huge failure. We had a series of poorly explained events and a poorly thought out bad guy that relied too heavily on ancillary material to understand and even then it was a muddled mess. The Didact was a good idea, but his execution is among the worst the series has ever seen. Considering they more time to build him up (two novels plus the terminals plus another novel right after the game came out) he should have amounted to more than a confusing James Bond-trope villain with hazy motivations. Mega fail.
Skulls & scoring = fail
Multiplayer at launch = fail
Multiplayer now = win
Not having played Halo 4 multiplayer in some time, I can't speak for it as a current product. But on the merits of providing a compelling product that would pull me in months and years after launch, it failed hard.
Turbo = win
SPOPS = fail
SPOPS CGI/concept = win
I hated the CGI and its storytelling. It only served to widen the gulf between the game and the story in a game where the story and gameplay were already deeply severed (with poor cutscene to gameplay transitions in campaign). This was that issue x1000. I would have preferred a mostly in-game story, even if that meant it was mostly Spartans talking in the sandbox with no face or body animation. The story was pretty dreadful, too. Fail.
OST = win
Mixed bag. Doesn't compare with Marty and doesn't capture the Halo spirit or sound, but it is good stuff on its own. Win.
Audio mixing = fail
Terrible sound effects. After the dynamism of 3 and Reach, the neutered soundscape of Halo 4 is murder on the ears. Fail.
Playlists = win (purely for the cadence of change/sustain)
Lack of map/basic settings toggles = fail
JiP at launch = fail
JiP now and playlist based = win
Join in progress is always fail for Halo matchmaking. Always.
FUD = win
Only the first few episodes, but those were really good. When the Chief comes into play it becomes hilariously ridiculous. Also, why doesn't Lasky look or act ANYTHING like his FUD counterpart in Halo 4? For that reason alone I have to say fail, because Lasky was a million times more interesting in that than he was as the '80s teen movie sidekick he was in Halo 4.
Travis books = fail
I believe Travis has more merit than a lot give her, and that her Halo stuff isn't the horrible atrocity that a lot of fans seem to think it is. She still wasn't the right person to handle the immediate post-Human-Covenant War material. I would have preferred to see her tackle a Covenant story, maybe at the height of their empire pre-Contact Harvest. Mixed.
Bear books = win
The second and third parts fall flat. Disappointing after such a strong start. Fail.
Waypoint on flag & no dropping = fail
Crimson DLC = fail
Majestic DLC = win
Castle DLC = win
All of the DLC doesn't see enough usage, just like prior Halo games. Not worth investing into on that basis alone. Fail.
Ricochet/Pitfall = win
Forge Island = win
lol Forge Cookies lol
Virgin Gaming tourney = mixed
Global champs = win win win
Click to expand...

That's my rationale for why Halo 4 was a colossal failure disregarding the player base issues that plague the game.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Godofnerdiness said:
I can't believe it was a perma. What did she do? :
Click to expand...

Acted too high and mighty, according to her ban message on Twitter.

Also, I have to defend Halo 4's sound effects. There are some I prefer the originals for, but on the whole there is some great work in there that the mixing does let down.

Also, while I understand why thy did it (you're supposed to be hearing Cortana from Chief's helmet) I hated the compression they applied to Cortana's voice in some scenes and especially cinematics. She sounds so thin and compressed.
 
B

BigShow36

Member
Ozzy Onya A2Z said:
Multiplayer at launch = fail
Multiplayer now = win
Click to expand...

My question now becomes, and this is directed at anyone in here, how do you define "good" multiplayer?

In terms of the actual gameplay, very little has changed since launch, so apparently good gameplay isn't your definition of a "win" for MP.
 
U

User 73706

Banned
Fuchsdh said:
Acted too high and mighty, according to her ban message on Twitter.

Also, I have to defend Halo 4's sound effects. There are some I prefer the originals for, but on the whole there is some great work in there that the mixing does let down.

Also, while I understand why thy did it (you're supposed to be hearing Cortana from Chief's helmet) I hated the compression they applied to Cortana's voice in some scenes and especially cinematics. She sounds so thin and compressed.
Click to expand...

Ehhhh, I dunno. After letting them settle in for a while, there are some that are definitely interesting, but on top of scrapping a lot of the iconic sounds, they also cut out a lot of the basses for whatever reason. It's mostly mids and flange. While it doesn't affect most weapons (and was presumably so that people without high-yield sound systems wouldn't be left in the dark) certain things like the Gravity Hammer just sound chirpy without the old wham-bam of the traditional SFX.

RIP Dax.
 
T

Tawpgun

Member
BigShow36 said:
My question now becomes, and this is directed at anyone in here, how do you define "good" multiplayer?

In terms of the actual gameplay, very little has changed since launch, so apparently good gameplay isn't your definition of a "win" for MP.
Click to expand...

Fun, Fair, "addictive"

Fun is subjective. A lot of my fun from Halo 4 was detracting by how unfair the gameplay mechanics are. Too bad 343 decided to hop on the bandwagon of loadouts and ran it into the ground. It is NOT fun to get blasted by boltshots and having to play hide and seek with a camo guy. "Just use PV!" That kind of rock paper scissors design is not fun to me.

They fixed some of the issues since launch. Boltshot is annoying but not game breaking. Camo still sucks. Infinity still sucks. But we have more options now. Too little too late though...

Fairness is self explanatory. But it also doesn't mean just in a balance, equal starts sort of way. If I am better than another player I should feel confident in taking them on. In Halo 4 I don't, because its a little too easy to land all your shots. Funny enough, Reach actually had this feeling down pretty good, because a alot of people couldn't handle bloom. But with reach is, although I could outplay people easier than in Halo 4, it wasn't fun. Bloom blows.

Wasn't sure what to call this last criteria, addictiveness/longevity or whatever It's that "x factor" that keeps me playing. In the past this was driven by incredibly fun and fair gameplay and community. Both of which are absent or rather, less apparent in Halo 4. I could play Halo 3 BTB for days and then go into super competetive doubles matches, and then find a custom lobby to have a blast in.

In Reach, the base game wasn't that fun, but we still had a solid community. Never forget the BK Cleansing days. RIP Squad Slayer. HaloGAF customs were still pretty fun too.

Halo 4, the base game was miserable at launch and couldn't recover fast enough to save the community. None of my friends play Halo 4 anymore, HaloGAF barely plays Halo 4 anymore. The custom options took a hit because of the lack of content/options/fileshare functionality.

Damn shame. I'll probably get Halo 5 to see how the Halo community reacts to a new and hopefully better game. That dream of once was is still compelling me to give it a shot.
 
S

Speedy Blue Dude

Banned
Oh wow, can't believe it was a perma-ban. RIP Dax.

Anyways, the Halo 4 campaign was disappointing. Only good missions was the first one, and the first half of the jungle one. I felt like it forced vehicles too much. I was so bored in the Mammoth level.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Wahrer said:
Ehhhh, I dunno. After letting them settle in for a while, there are some that are definitely interesting, but on top of scrapping a lot of the iconic sounds, they also cut out a lot of the basses for whatever reason. It's mostly mids and flange. While it doesn't affect most weapons (and was presumably so that people without high-yield sound systems wouldn't be left in the dark) certain things like the Gravity Hammer just sound chirpy without the old wham-bam of the traditional SFX.

RIP Dax.
Click to expand...

Well, they destined the hammer to sound chirpy. Can't say I would ever have chosen that plinks sound effect myself but I actually really enjoy it now. "SPACE HAMMER"
 
B

Blueblur1

Member
IHaveIce said:
I wondered why people don't do this since the release of Halo 4 but hey... seems like those guys need a little more time to think.
Click to expand...

I play Halo 3 every so often. It's usually a great experience aside from the empty playlists. :(

Edit: Oh, and stats aren't available anymore nor are fileshare content outside of the game. :( :(
 
N

NobleGundam

Banned
1383658_663290637029180_294432931_n.jpg

Meh cover
 
U

User 73706

Banned
Zeouterlimits said:
Hope this change for Dax, but will definitely pour one out for her.
Click to expand...

Now that EazyB has revived and ascended to God Tier in HGS, it's only fair that Dax gets a freebie back into GAF. It's kinda bullshit considering some of the HGS higher-ups have been assholes towards her meaning she doesn't really have a community left beyond Twitter now.
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
IHaveIce said:
I wondered why people don't do this since the release of Halo 4 but hey... seems like those guys need a little more time to think.
Click to expand...

There's kind of 2 sides to the coin. On one end if what's best of the competitive scene is to go back to Halo 3 (TBD, we don't know how it will work out) then cool. If that's what people enjoy watching and playing the most then that's what should be in tournaments. However, on the other side it's kind of a slap in the face of 343 because of all the effort and money they've put into the competitive scene with Halo 4. Halo4 GC being the biggest one there.
 
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