Halo 4

[Velvet LeChance]

I'll be getting Halo 4 for it's single player, I've played every other game so I'm not going to stop now. In terms of multiplayer I'm not going to lie, it's the least excited I've ever been for a Halo. A lot of the new additions I just really don't like sprint abilities etc. I've stopped listening out for the news about the game about 6 months ago so I'm not sure if anything has changed.

Fighting the flood sure does look cool even if it is just a re polished version of Bungies zombies. With any luck they will make the hit boxes for the flood's head tiny so that the game doesn't turn into the survivors all camping on the highest structure on the map blasting away with the pistol, whilst one or two guard the entrance(s) with shotguns. (See Reach.)

[DikaSmausha]

I just want some more Master Chief.

[Musicman247]

I'll play the campaign and then multiplayer. Or maybe a little of both. For Halo: Reach I played the campaign all the way through then got on multiplayer and was way behind the curve. This time I may balance things a bit.

[Lindai]

Halo 4 ending leaked and maliciously spoiled for me. Not that I give much of a dam, but heads up to you all to be cautious.

[Frost Mage]

Halo 4 ending leaked and maliciously spoiled for me. Not that I give much of a dam, but heads up to you all to be cautious.

Ouch. I'll be sure to watch out for that.

[DikaSmausha]

I almost saw that spoiler today. That would have sucked.

[BlackDrake]

I nearly ended up watching it, and thank god I didn't...i don't wanna ruin it for myself

[Mattbott]

i'll probably get it for the single player, and do a bit of mp too. I love the halo universe, though they need to bring back halos for the wow factor

[Abel]

Some dickhead posted the ending in a comment on another website. I haven't played Halo and I probably never will, but be warned people.

[Musicman247]

There are other websites

[DikaSmausha]

That is what we have been discussing, Abel. Stupid hackers and piraters.

[Ripcage]

Any one else worried about the appearance of armor in H4? Some of the armor just looks way to weird for my tastes, but I did see that they still have the EVA helm!

[DikaSmausha]

I don't know, they seem pretty cool.

[Travalanche]

Halo was supposed to die at Halo 3, now Bungie is just milking the franchise and it sucks. I loved Halo1 and 2 and blood gulch is my fav map EVER for an fps game but Bungie just doesn't know when to quit like Lionhead (Peter Molyneux) has done with the Fable franchise.

It will most likely be a good game and fun but I think the story will be a joke and will purchase it used off ebay most likely seeing as I only play Campaigns really, yeah lame I know lol.

[POMC S117]

Bungie is milking Halo? Don't know how that works out when they're not even making the game.

[Travalanche]

Bungie is milking Halo? Don't know how that works out when they're not even making the game.

My bad I meant Microsoft

[POMC S117]

If people like the games I wouldn't call it milking. It's only milking, in my opinion at least, if a sequel is brought out year-after-year with very little change.

[Ripcage]

...but Bungie just doesn't know when to quit like Lionhead (Peter Molyneux) has done with the Fable franchise.

I didn't think Peter Molyneux was even working on the new Fable game.

I don't know, they seem pretty cool.

Yeah, but some of those helmets make your Spartan look like an alien. And the Hazop helm just looks ugly.

[Frost Mage]

Halo was supposed to die at Halo 3, now Bungie is just milking the franchise and it sucks. I loved Halo1 and 2 and blood gulch is my fav map EVER for an fps game but Bungie just doesn't know when to quit like Lionhead (Peter Molyneux) has done with the Fable franchise.

It will most likely be a good game and fun but I think the story will be a joke and will purchase it used off ebay most likely seeing as I only play Campaigns really, yeah lame I know lol.

That's a lie. Bungie never intended Halo to die after 3, that's why the lead designer is working at 343i now, the developers of Halo 4, while Bungie is working on a new project.

[DikaSmausha]

Halo 3 was just a trilogy. They never said it was the last game ever. Just the last of the trilogy.

[Frost Mage]

Exactly. A whole new trilogy for Halo, in my opinion, is the best possible way they could have handled the next generation of Halo games.

[Lindai]

Halo was supposed to die at Halo 3..

Someone didn't beat Halo 3 on Legendary difficulty and watch past the credits..

[Stendarr]

I have been playing Halo since almost day one (2002 I think) and I almost didn't read anything about Halo 4 until now. I think I just grew tired of the series AND of the whole masturbation thing with the developers, the video game websites and the gaming crowd. I hated these live action vids we were presented, except for the one the dude of District 9 did. The first 343 Halo 4 vids made me want to puke, talk of Halo as some sort of incredible entity above everything, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love Halo, but let's be realistic, it's not legendary video gaming, it's not something genius that should be praised as if it was high art, it's a freaking FPS video game which got most of its popularity from the multiplayer portion of the game, which can be plagued by ragers, quitters and whiny kids. The multiplayer can be terrific, but when it sucks, it sucks. I read the books (but stopped doing so) and while they were good, they're nothing particularly special - although some of them have interesting bits. The Halo universe is kind of nice with all the outside influence it takes, but seeing it above that, above a sci-fi tribute, is pretentious.

So I'm really taking this new Halo with a grain of salt, and even more so with how the video game industry is turning into, or already turned into but is getting worse. I think one of my biggest fear in the campaign is the cinematics and the MC/Cortana relationship, please! nothing cheesy and cringe-worthy. And back to the series as a whole, I think it missed the big thing of building upon itself. Every single Halo game is like the one before, or almost. I can understand Halo 2 couldn't do anything drastic because of the xbox capabilities, but Halo 3 and particularly Reach missed the boat. Contrary to a lot of people, I really liked the Arbiter's portion of Halo 2, I liked the insight into the Covenant, the places he brought us and all. Halo 2 brought you to very killer looking and unique places, long immersive missions (that were cut in two, but that doesn't change anything). The multiplayer was the best.

Came Halo 3... while I was playing the game I had a lot of fun, but felt kinda disappointed afterwards, and then came to appreciate a bit more, but still. I think one of my biggest complaints is the size of the missions. Most of them are shorter than both preceeding Halo's missions! And where was the big gap from Halo 2? The huge battlefields with multiple ways to tackle the situation? Well, there were some and the Scarab bits were clearly welcomed and killer. But overall, it felt like the exact same experience. And I think they dropped the ball with the Arbiter, I don't mind not playing him anymore, but he's taken the backseat. We played him HALF the game in 2, but now he barely does anything at all! Why were the bits on Earth so damn short and linear, and it seems like on the Ark there's some bits missing for a better pace. We got the best two missions, the longest ones and all, but it feels like something is missing. Strangely enough I don't remember exactly what would've been Halo's perfect evolution, but for me it should have taken a big step with each game in level design and story. You can keep the same gameplay while playing with the level design and add a couple of gameplay elements along the way.

ODST was fun but disappointing too. I loved the concept, the bit of walking around a big city and then get into flashback sequences, and finally walking around to your last stop. All felt connected and immersive, one thing that was missing in Reach. Personally, I'm a sucker for long missions where you walk from point A to point B, it helps you feel in there, being Chief, rather than play a movie sequence or something. And that's a bit of the spirit of video games that have been terribly missed from me. As time goes on, games feel more and more like playable movies. ODST being short was a problem, but not as much as the ODST playing almost identically to the Chief. It felt like a ''best-of'' of Halo moments, except not really for me and it couldn't tie certain elements as well as I hoped to. Still a commendable effort.

Reach on the other hand... both got me excited and disappointed on my first playthrough. I loved what was happening, but every time I felt immersed and was having fun, they took me out of my experience. The locale of the first mission was great, but it ended up frustratingly short. I think the mission that did it the best in terms of length and pacing was Nightfall and New Alexandria. And just as examples, I loved ONI Sword Base, I was eager getting in the base and exploring it a bit, but you were doing so for what? 8 minutes? Get in, walk a few corridors and mission's over? The whole thing felt contrived, even outside. Long Nite of Solace was the most disappointing. It had the potential of being the most badass Halo mission, but it felt so quicktime battles! The beach storm, get in the base, but instead of clearing it and heading to the ship and maybe finding interesting ONI information, you walk a corridor and straight into space. The space bit could've been longer, and the ship portion was frustratingly small too. First thing that came to my mind was Truth and Reconciliation, where you had a long on ground assault, and then a long ship attack. Long Night of Solace had neither. It's a shame because there were maybe 2 missions with commendable pacing, but the whole game felt like a playable Halo movie, and I had a hard time getting into the experience for a long stretch. The falcon bit in New Alexandria as well as the Long Nite of Solace were nice additions to the franchise, but I still think they dropped the ball. It was not enough.

Hell, I'd say Halo 3 was more crazy! We went from big scarab battles which could ask for your imagination, to most of the time SMALLER battle fields with nothing special at all. It was a downgrade in most aspects! How did this happened? Reach was the perfect opportunity for testing naval battle and raise the bar for the environment/battlefields, but more than ever it was the same ''small corridor-y path followed by a semi open area, rinse, repeat, maybe add a semi big open area with vehicular combat, etc.''. And they couldn't even do it with a good pacing most of the time. And let's not even talk about the disappointing aspects of the story. When reading The Fall of Reach you get the impression the battle was something impressive with lots of UNSC presence, but we got none of that! Still, I enjoyed the game, but it could've been so much more. I got a bit disillusioned about Halo ever taking a step up. No wonder why everyone said Halo Anniversary played like a recent game!

So now, strangely enough, I'm almost excited. I don't know, maybe a new beginning is what this series need. I read plenty of things didn't change, but by now the only think I really want, is a campaign which feels like it comes from the 360. I think it's the best way to say it when I mean Halo should raise the bar, but failed doing so every single time. That's not something so bad, but it definitely leaves you disappointed. Halo 3 almost got it at times. I'm not terribly worked out when they say it plays like any other Halo, but what I need to know, is does it REALLY plays like any other Halo? Is the campaign the exact same thing we got over and over again, or actually something slightly new? But I think I can be satisfied if they manage to give us a good pacing again, like Halo CE, 2 and ODST to a certain extent. Give me that, and I think I'll still manage to have fun.


I think abandoning Firefight is a bad idea, there was a lot of potential with this. They could've done like the new gametypes, make it possible to fortify areas, give us rescue objectives, anything. But oh, well. Spartan Ops seems like a bad idea. I have the impression we'll get quick-time missions that aren't particularly exciting. And I just dislike that format anyways. Let TV-shows keep their thing, just work on a complete expansion or something. I don't know what to think about always sprint, I say let's wait and see. But I'm definitely looking forward some of the new additions to the gametypes. At last some real fresh air, and now just fancy AAs and other boring things. And I hope these AAs with play better, or they have something more ''classic''

[DikaSmausha]

Could you put that in a spoiler?

[Frost Mage]

Tomorrow guys!