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[Fuchsdh]

I am curious what a Speed runner thinks about it. He may disagree with you. A quick time event is just... more time consuming.

I hadn't thought about it that way, but on the other hand they can't be any more annoying than the Gravemind moments in "Cortana".

 

[malfcn]

For UK HaloGAF: http://xboxavatargear.com/2012/09/22/halo-4-mountain-dew-energy-avatar-suit-promotion-uk-only/

Mountain Dew is having a Halo 4 promotion where you can win 40 copies of the game or Avatar gear per day, or the grand prize of flying to Seattle to hug Frankie and friends.

If you guys get Avatar stuff hook us up!

Why not the US. Damn.

 

[m23]

I will be disappointed if its just War Games and Spartan Ops, so much secrecy over that one little thing. Who knows, maybe its a brand new addition to Halo 4 that is so revolutionary that 343 can't talk about it yet lol.

Where's Nilla and his 2nd disc gif? We need that now.

 

[Hypertrooper]

I will be disappointed if its just War Games and Spartan Ops, so much secrecy over that one little thing. Who knows, maybe its a brand new addition to Halo 4 that is so revolutionary that 343 can't talk about it yet lol.

Where's Nilla and his 2nd disc gif? We need that now.

Aren't you guys making the "secrecy" about the second disc? The game is still in development. Maybe they do not know what's going to be on the 2nd disc and want to wait till they can give a clear answer?

 

[bobs...onGaf]

What is on Disc 2 and what is Groups!?

What is on Disc 2 and what is Groups!? Is the Limited Edition physical stuff any good!??

Aren't you guys making the "secrecy" about the second disc? The game is still in development. Maybe they do not know what's going to be on the 2nd disc and want to wait till they give a clear answer?

This close to gold they would know. They would need to factor it into the cost of production.

 

[User 73706]

Second disc is a physical form of Waypoint that's upgraded and can seamlessly transition from 4 to Waypoint and vice versa and takes care of most of the community hopper stuff.

Oh man, everyone would be pissed. :lol

 

[Plywood]

I'll never forgive you guys for complaining about Steizer and his, "flag dropped, flag stolen, flag dropped, flag stolen" You guys are the reason we have no flag juggling in Halo 4. All your fault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5ehyTKWjcY

 

[Fuchsdh]

What is on Disc 2 and what is Groups!? Is the Limited Edition physical stuff any good!??




This close to gold they would know. They would need to factor it into the cost of production.

Well, they certainly knew it would take two discs, but the actual makeup of the discs might only have been determined recently. I do agree they should know this close to gold, however.

 

[feel]

Final thoughts/summary on the flood of information that came out last Friday.

• While it has been known for a while, but the inclusion of duel firing modes on the Prometheans weapons sounds great and a welcome inclusion to the sandbox as a whole.
• Great to hear that the game is challenging even on normal, according to Arthur Gies.
• The justification for the change in Chiefs armor should have never been a big deal,
  Spoiler

  finding out that it was just a Firmware update done by Cortana kind of makes me laugh
  .
• So the recap of previous games is tucked under a terminal you can’t miss after waking up, cool. Don’t like the sound of terminals being locked and viewable only (?) via Waypoint, though.
• “But the interesting thing is that a lot of peoples' favorite moments from Halo games are the sort of noir-ish plot elements from ODST, or the politics of Halo 2. We wanted to make sure that those fans are getting lots and lots of meat out of this experience. So what we did is move that stuff out of the mainline game and into the fiction that is scattered throughout the game. Some of it's in the skyboxes, some of its in the terminals. But the complicated, super deep canon is in the game, and just moved to different places now, and to appropriate places for that audience.”- Frank, Verge interview.
• Don’t like the inclusion of non-QTE scripted events (Which are said to be sprinkled here and there during the campaign), very few games do it right. Even those who do it right often just limit the replayability of the game. Feels wrong that it’s even in a Halo game.
• The Covenant and Prometheans fighting each other should bring some interesting dynamic to the game. Hearing you can sneak past them, fight with a faction or just watch them tear themselves apart sounds pretty trilling.
• So next to flying sentinels that you can spawn, there are also fixed-to-the-wall sentinels. Interestingly, they have not been named.
• “Q: Prometheans equal Forerunner or does it go deeper than that? A: It goes deeper than that. You’re effectively fighting Forerunner Warriors”- Frank, Giantbomb interview. Interesting answer, especially seeing Frank sweat it a little during that segment. Maybe it’s my fascination with the Forerunner that makes me question everything.
• “We’re not going to eliminate the idea that you can have a cliffhanger thought or premise in a story, because those are actually useful or satisfying. [..] It’s just done one battle in a bigger war. We will definitively use that tact in the end of Halo 4. ”- Frank, IGN interview.
• “Maybe on the next [Spartan Ops] episode that artifact is on the UNSC Infinity and something happens with it.”- Kiki, Gametrailers interview. I wonder if we will get to run around the ship itself.
• “Forward Unto Dawn’s John Sullivan shows up in Halo 4 and along with some other characters, and he is kind of hacker, social networking guy, and he has found some strange tapes while going through the UNSC archives.”- Frank, Machinima interview. Interesting side-story.
• A mech playable, named Mantis, confirmed to be in the game. So far only a single player vehicle. I like mechs, sorry Gundams, and want to Power Ranger all day.
• They changed the Legendary icon, which now looks like a dead Forerunner. Seeing as they are new big baddies, it’s understandable that they changed it – still I wish it didn’t look like clipart.
• Newly introduced multiplayer map Solance really does remind me of Halo 3’s Narrows. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but from the videos we’ve seen the look of the level is awesome.
• The new multiplayer mode Dominion looks interesting, but a bit too hectic from what I have seen. It’s interesting to hear that once a point is secured it will resupply, which can give the structure turrets, shield doors and even vehicles. Those fortification will stay even when the other team takes the base over. Interesting dynamic.
• Killcams and final killcam, sorry Sitrec Replay, are now in Halo. So far we know it’s only restricted to certain modes. Don’t mind this at all, one of the better things that has been copied.
• Zombies, now renamed Flood will gets its own mode. 2 against 10 flood infected. Sounds cool, look forward to how it's executed.
• “There will be classic playlists where those loadouts are restricted.” –Frank, Gamespot interview.
• No word on any ranking system, then again this blowout seems to be focused on SP.

Phew, I know I missed some things.

Thanks for this.

About the explanation of the new armor, that has to be a joke right? I mean they will have to explain properly why and when he got completely new parts, right? Please no bullshit metal reshaping nanomachines/magic explanations if you want me to take you story seriously 343i..

 

[Plywood]

Firmware =/= hardware

According to the Halo 4 article in Game Informer magazine, the game starts off with the Master Chief and Cortana in the remains of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn in 2557, with Cortana stating she's updated the MJOLNIR suit's firmware while the Master Chief was unconscious, apparent from the new HUD.

 

[FyreWulff]

That explains the glove change from 2 -> 3. OTA updates.

Spoiler

For the record, I'm not actually serious about nitpicking the glove thing

 

[Flipyap]

Thanks for this.

About the explanation of the new armor, that has to be a joke right? I mean they will have to explain properly why and when he got completely new parts, right? Please no bullshit metal reshaping nanomachines/magic explanations if you want me to take you story seriously 343i..

Nope. Artistic liberty.
That's kind of like expecting them to explain why he's now on the severed butt-side of a completely different ship. The armor has the same battle scars, it's clearly meant to be the same suit. Someone thought old Halo armor/spaceship/creature designs were lame, so they made them cool. You don't need technobabble to justify badassification. In fact, that would be most uncool.

 

[The P of Poland]

Nope. Artistic liberty.
That's kind of like expecting them to explain why he's now on the severed butt-side of a completely different ship. The armor has the same battle scars, it's clearly meant to be the same suit. Someone thought old Halo armor/spaceship/creature designs were lame, so they made them cool. You don't need technobabble to justify badassification. In fact, that would be most uncool.

^This.

 

[Computron]

Nope. Artistic liberty.
That's kind of like expecting them to explain why he's now on the severed butt-side of a completely different ship. The armor has the same battle scars, it's clearly meant to be the same suit. Someone thought old Halo armor/spaceship/creature designs were lame, so they made them cool. You don't need technobabble to justify badassification. In fact, that would be most uncool.

This kind of stuff doesn't bug me at all, I think its awesome. New stuff to look at!

 

[JackHerer]

Nope. Artistic liberty.

Exactly. It's one thing to not like how they look, but I find it sorta comical when people actually get mad about aesthetic design changes because "they break canon". They don't need a canonical explanation for every visual change they make. That would be quite ridiculous.

 

[Tha Robbertster]

I don't really care about most changes except those to the jackels. All the other stuff is still pretty recogniseable but it seems like the jackels decided to evolve into reptiles over the span of 5 years.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Exactly. It's one thing to not like how they look, but I find it sorta comical when people actually get mad about aesthetic design changes because "they break canon". They don't need a canonical explanation for every visual change they make. That would be quite ridiculous.

I completely disagree with this line of thinking. I don't complain about it, but for them to completely change the look of someone/something with the only explanation being artistic vision?

Lame. Hopefully 343's Halo will continue to explain the cannon behind such drastic changes from here on out. If in Halo 5 MC is pink for no reason other than 343 wanting to make him pink due to artistic design, ima flip shit..

Wait... what does that mean if I think it's lame?! This is like an MC Escher drawing of opinions!

Read the ^edit

 

[The Librarian]

Obviously I haven't played the game, but from we know of the storyline it seems upgrading Chief's armor could've worked by starting out the game with the Mark VI, then upgrading when the Infinity crashes on the planet. If you're worried that much about the fictional reasons for the armor change.

 

[Akai__]

Can this also record sound from my headset?

Can it also record the voices of other people talking online?

You can always record the voices of other people, if you set your sound preferences on the Xbox 360 to speakers or to both. But they are more quite, then your is.

Sorry, if this has been already been answered.

 

[The P of Poland]

Obviously I haven't played the game, but from we know of the storyline it seems upgrading Chief's armor could've worked by starting out the game with the Mark VI, then upgrading when the Infinity crashes on the planet. If you're worried that much about the fictional reasons for the armor change.

Nope. He pops out of the cryotube with the new gear.

 

[User 73706]

Obviously I haven't played the game, but from we know of the storyline it seems upgrading Chief's armor could've worked by starting out the game with the Mark VI, then upgrading when the Infinity crashes on the planet. If you're worried that much about the fictional reasons for the armor change.

This was my idea too. Maybe it's a surprise for the real game?

Start out with Legendary Mark VI. Upgrade to Mark VI when you get to the Infinity.

Maybe in the 3 years the Chief's been gone Storm had upgraded to a full-fledged Heretic faction; in Halo 2, the Heretics treated all their members equally, with the obvious exception in ranking, contrary to the "racism" pretty evident in the Covenant. They wouldn't lead Grunts on suicide runs or anything, they'd all legitimately care for them. Maybe the Jackals have been given better treatment and some better food and the grunts have gotten proper dieting rather than food nipples. It could be as simple an explanation as that, and the Grunts/Jackals we've seen in the past games are suffering from malnourishment, even Kwashiokor or Marasmus. Hell, this actually makes sense from a lore perspective; why would the Prophets want lower castes being nutritional and fully-healthy? It'd make it easier to rebel!

 

[Woorloog]

Obviously I haven't played the game, but from we know of the storyline it seems upgrading Chief's armor could've worked by starting out the game with the Mark VI, then upgrading when the Infinity crashes on the planet.

Yes... I reckon they didn't do this to avoid needing two Chief models.
A shame, i would have loved to see updated Halo 3 Mark VI and then this new armor. And there is no logical way for Cortana to have upgraded the Chiefs armor really. Firmware for sure but not anything else.
Of course the ship now carries MA5Ds and BR85s... Why weren't those used in Halo 3? Especially the new BR, which seems to be post-2553 weapon. So there's something odd going on. Maybe. Especially if Cortana is rampant too.

 

[The Librarian]

Nope. He pops out of the cryotube with the new gear.

What?

 

[Ryaaan14]

Maybe one of the Terminals will show the security camera footage of Cortana removing Chief's old armor while he was in cryo.

Bow chicka wow wow.

 

[Flipyap]

Obviously I haven't played the game, but from we know of the storyline it seems upgrading Chief's armor could've worked by starting out the game with the Mark VI, then upgrading when the Infinity crashes on the planet.

Then you'd have the main character running around in a space diaper for 3.5(?) missions. Gross. 343's Director of Badassery would never allow that!

I completely disagree with this and the few posts above this. I don't complain about it, but for them to completely change the look of someone/something with the only explanation being artistic vision?

Lame.

Wait... what does that mean if I think it's lame?! This is like an MC Escher drawing of opinions!

 

[Fuchsdh]

Exactly. It's one thing to not like how they look, but I find it sorta comical when people actually get mad about aesthetic design changes because "they break canon". They don't need a canonical explanation for every visual change they make. That would be quite ridiculous.

Well, to me it depends on the severity. A lot of the updates from Halo 1-3 were fairly minor, especially from Halo 1-2. I don't care that the patterns on the gloves don't match, I do care that the Chief apparently has a new kit after being stranded in space for years.

 

[Hydranockz]

I don't really get any real satisfaction from knowing the canonical explanation for a different BR skin, jackal or Master Chief armour. As long as the gameplay beneath them is solid, they could replace everything with Metroid references for all I care.

 

[The P of Poland]

What?

He's wearing the newfangled 343 Mjolnir in all scenes we've seen so far on the FUD. He's definitely got the new helmet on when Cortana wakes him up, there was a cutscene in the latest wave that showed it...

 

[Slaker117]

On the latest episode of Rebel FM, Arthur Gies said there is a moment early on where Master Chief looks down at his suit and offers a line to Cortana to the effect of "I see you've been busy", so they are at least acknowledging the change even if they don't address the particulars.

 

[Shake Appeal]

If you care about why Master Chief's armour looks different from game to game, and think that cosmetic changes of that kind requires a convincing explanation, I worry for you. It's one thing to say it looks better or worse (see: Jackals), quite another to think it's, like, an affront to the canon or something that MC has a different groin plate now.

 

[Flipyap]

Well, to me it depends on the severity. A lot of the updates from Halo 1-3 were fairly minor, especially from Halo 1-2. I don't care that the patterns on the gloves don't match, I do care that the Chief apparently has a new kit after being stranded in space for years.

Severity? Like completely changing the morphology and anatomy of a species? Making up a technobabble (biobabble?) explanation for that would be the absolute worst thing they could do.

Okay, the second worst thing, right after

 

[User 73706]

On the latest episode of Rebel FM, Arthur Gies said there is a moment early on where Master Chief looks down at his suit and offers a line to Cortana to the effect of "I see you've been busy", so they are at least acknowledging the change even if they don't address the particulars.

That's what they want us to think. Chief's looking down and talking about what's going on inside his armor. You can't leave a girl alone with that for three years and just expect her to stay put.

 

[Woorloog]

If you care about why Master Chief's armour looks different from game to game, and think that cosmetic changes of that kind requires a convincing explanation, I worry for you. It's one thing to say it looks better or worse (see: Jackals), quite another to think it's, like, an affront to the canon or something that MC has a different groin plate now.

Good point. I reckon they retconned the old Mark VI to look rather a lot like the new Mark VI. Would be more of an issue if the Chief had built-in thruster like in the announcement trailer. But...
Oh, wait, this ain't the case. The multiplayer, which is canon now, has a lot different Mark VI helmet.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

If you care about why Master Chief's armour looks different from game to game, and think that cosmetic changes of that kind requires a convincing explanation, I worry for you. It's one thing to say it looks better or worse (see: Jackals), quite another to think it's, like, an affront to the canon or something that MC has a different groin plate now.

Good to know you worry for anyone who has a different opinion and clearly cares more for cannon-breaking changes.

So thoughtful ;]

Severity? Like completely changing the morphology and anatomy of a species? Making up a technobabble (biobabble?) explanation for that would be the absolute worst thing they could do.

Okay, the second worst thing, right after

..or they could've updated them visually without changing the "morphology and anatomy of a species" - dat ass.

 

[Fracas]

That's what they want us to think. Chief's looking down and talking about what's going on inside his armor. You can't leave a girl alone with that for three years and just expect her to stay put.

http://www.abload.de/img/0436_nwua9.gif

It's that time of day again! lol

 

[darthbob]

That explains the glove change from 2 -> 3. OTA updates.

Spoiler

For the record, I'm not actually serious about nitpicking the glove thing

We never actually got an explanation for this eh?

Or did those Marvel comics set between 2 and 3 explain?

 

[Shake Appeal]

Good to know you worry for anyone who has a different opinion and clearly cares more for cannon-breaking changes.

So thoughtful ;]

"Canon-breaking" is so far removed from what this is I'm surprised you managed to hit 'Submit Reply' with your pants on fire.

 

[Karl2177]

I don't really get any real satisfaction from knowing the canonical explanation for a different BR skin, jackal or Master Chief armour. As long as the gameplay beneath them is solid, they could replace everything with Metroid references for all I care.

Frank touted canonical reasons for multiplayer. It pretty much set a precedent for every other change.

 

[The Librarian]

He's wearing the newfangled 343 Mjolnir in all scenes we've seen so far on the FUD. He's definitely got the new helmet on when Cortana wakes him up, there was a cutscene in the latest wave that showed it...

You misunderstood my post. I was trying to point out that, if people have such a problem with the fictional explanation given for Chief's armor change, and if one were putting effort into a good fictional reason for the change, then from what we know of the story, this situation could work: Have the Chief start off with the Mark VI at the beginning of the game, then when Infinity crashes on the planet, have the Chief upgrade to the armor we see he has now.

As for me, I don't really care about the fictional reasons for the armor change. I don't think it matters for some relatively small detail like that. What bothers me more is that I think it looks worse than what we had previously. I feel the same way about other small details. For example:

Yes... I reckon they didn't do this to avoid needing two Chief models.
A shame, i would have loved to see updated Halo 3 Mark VI and then this new armor. And there is no logical way for Cortana to have upgraded the Chiefs armor really. Firmware for sure but not anything else.
Of course the ship now carries MA5Ds and BR85s... Why weren't those used in Halo 3? Especially the new BR, which seems to be post-2553 weapon. So there's something odd going on. Maybe. Especially if Cortana is rampant too.

Whatever fictional reasons you could want to explain these circumstances, I don't feel like they matter. Those guns weren't used before because they didn't exist, and they didn't exist because the developer had a different goal in mind for the sandbox. This is a game, and gameplay should come first.

Now, if we're talking about major event retcons, like what Reach did, then that's a whole different discussion. Though my problem with Reach's changes come more from the fact that a) I think we got a weaker narrative overall compared to Nylund's work and b) I don't see why Bungie couldn't have delivered a game within the timeframe Nylund wrote out. I'd have less of a problem with Reach's fiction changes if the story delivered was strong enough to stand on its own.

 

[Hypertrooper]

I completely disagree with this line of thinking. I don't complain about it, but for them to completely change the look of someone/something with the only explanation being artistic vision?

Lame. Hopefully 343's Halo will continue to explain the cannon behind such drastic changes from here on out. If in Halo 5 MC is pink for no reason other than 343 wanting to make him pink due to artistic design, ima flip shit..

It is a complete new studios. They want to set their mark on the franchise. You will not see such drastic changes in further Halo games.

 

[op_ivy]

ahahahahaha! is this real? i'm laughing so hard right now

 

[FyreWulff]

We never actually got an explanation for this eh?

Or did those Marvel comics set between 2 and 3 explain?

I dunno, did the last issue ever come out?

 

[NobleGundam]

There must be a prologue explaining chiefs armor metamorphosis. Yes creative liberty I understand. But seeing cutscenes for it would be awesome imo.

 

[daedalius]

Time to talk about a new team of artists changing how things look in the game again, huh?

 

[Tha Robbertster]

Time to talk about a new team of artists changing how things look in the game again, huh?

Time to complain about people complaining about artistic changes again?

 

[CyReN]

That's what they want us to think. Chief's looking down and talking about what's going on inside his armor. You can't leave a girl alone with that for three years and just expect her to stay put.

I see Steve-O, every time..

 

[Hypertrooper]

I dunno, did the last issue ever come out?

It did and it did not raise the bar of quality.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Ah, back to the armour? Least of the questionable artistic changes. The least.

 

[Woorloog]

Whatever fictional reasons you could want to explain these circumstances, I don't feel like they matter. Those guns weren't used before because they didn't exist, and they didn't exist because the developer had a different goal in mind for the sandbox. This is a game, and gameplay should come first.

Think about it. The ship has new weapons, ones that shouldn't be on it. The Chief's armor has changed, even canonically considering how the classic Mark VI still exists (unless that is an easter egg, ie not canonical in-universe thing).
And then there was this pic (one of earlies campaign pics, maybe in some magazine, don't remember exactly), where you can see time since the last contact with UNSC, a time that does not coincide with when the FUD was split in half but is a few months to a year later (don't remember exactly as i said). Now, since this was early on, this may have been changed but assuming it hasn't been...
Someone may have boarded the FUD beetween Halo 3 and 4, giving new equipment for it, new armor or armor pieces for the Chief, and i reckon Cortana either knows this but doesn't tell about it due to rampancy or the memory has been deleted.

Not waterproof though, and we'll need to see the final game and its terminals to be sure this hasn't been changed as this hinges on the time shown.

 

[The P of Poland]

It is a complete new studios. They want to set their mark on the franchise.

So, if in order to make their mark on the franchise, they had come out and said that Elites no longer had mandibles and instead just had two part jaws like everyone else, you'd have been okay with that?
There are plenty of places for 343 to make their mark that don't involve retconning (God, how I hate that very concept) what Bungie did- the Prometheans, the Infinity, new gameplay devices, etc.