Halo 4

[Stendarr]

I'm half into the campaign. I don't know what to think of it right now, I guess I'll have to finish the campaign and play it again on heroic. I read somewhere that you could finish the first mission in 45 minutes? This must be [&@%!] honestly, unless you're playing on legendary. But so far, the pacing has been definitely fixed, so that's great news. But for the actual level design and new enemies, I'm not sure what to think right now. Maybe that the missions seem to be a bit on the short side, particularly the first two, which is a shame since the environment of the second one is killer. Oh, and except a couple of tracks, I'm really not fond on the new music. It doesn't feel Halo at all, but some generic epic/action/sci-fi Hans Zimmer stuff I almost loathe. Well, it's bearable, some parts are better than others. I hated the first cinematic, but the rest seems fine so far. (I just hate when they take Halo games too seriously, as if we had any direct emotional connection to this fictional world. One of the reasons I hated the Earth bit at the end of Halo 3, don't show us things we don't need to be shown). Anyway, so far seems like it's not as bad as it could've been, and it seems they're a bit cashing on the potential the game had. I expected to be pleasantly surprised or bitterly disappointed, and so far it seems like it will land between both. The multiplayer is surprising though. More enjoyable than I thought it would be, it might even beat Reach's. I guess for me it needs to be either classic gameplay or some new stuff, not a weird combination of both. And I'm definitely pleased on how they tweaked the AAs, particularly what has become of armor lock.

[Frost Mage]

This is just... fantastic. I have no words.

[Sav]

Campaign spoiler

Spoiler:

Apparently you can fly a Pelican in the campaign. Huh.

[DarkEastwood]

Finally finished the campaign on Legendary (co-op, and single player). Kinda short, but the Crawlers on Legendary are quite hard.

[Stendarr]

Got through the game. It gets better as it advances, maybe except the last mission which isn't that great bar the beginning. But something which didn't get better as the game advanced, is the music. God I hated it, Hans Zimmer style. And it feels so not Halo either which quite impacts the feel of the game unfortunately. But anyway, the pacing is so much better than Reach although I could've used longer missions, particularly the first two. The mission design is quite good, bigger areas than ever with lots of different levels and such. The new enemies are kind of interesting to fight and more fun as the first time.

And not surprisingly enough either as for the music, some cinematics are as bad, rivaling ''epic'' Hollywood films, particularly at the beginning and end of the game.

Spoiler:

Seriously, we don't need too much unnecessary stuff to dilute the quality. The very first cinematic wasn't necessary at all, as the last one after the credits and some bits before it. Some Cortana and Chief bits were cringe-worthy, particularly when they're speaking after Chief exploded the nuke. Cheesy...

I feel they made the game too epic for its own good, and that's often a trap newer games and Hollywood movies fall into. Instead of showing us epic things, make us feel epic things. The music giving us a feel too, but not forcing emotions upon us because of the storytelling failing at doing so, which is a big complaint I have on that sort of way of doing (Mass Effect 2 had it as some popular movies like Inception). For example, I saw this film where there's basically no character development at all, or a very timid one. Except for being a total shell, we know some dude got back on good terms with his daughter. As he hung the phone after talking to her, he gets killed. But, you got bug strings coming up in your face, telling you to feel bad about it. But I didn't care about him! The whole film was like this, you didn't care about anything that was happening, but the music, the way it was filmed etc. they tried to force it down to you. I'm not saying it's the case here, but I'm saying they're trying to make me feel a way that I can't given the not so good emotional connection I have. And I shouldn't have more emotional connection either, there's a limit somewhere. They tried to make the game grand, epic and all, when it was not enough grand and epic for the way they presented us the game. And like I said, they shouldn't make the music and cheesy dialogue do most of the job. Just wanted vent something that makes me crazy with modern gaming and movies, sorry..

Spoiler:

Last thing, is it me or there's a lot of elements that feel like Mass Effect 2? So much orange everywhere particularly with the guns, the small dog-like enemies feel like ME2 enemies. And the Promotheans (Protheans). Come on, they were once human but turned into machines? Just like the Collectors were once Protheans turned into weird creatures? And please stop with that cheesy bad guy voice always throwing you cheesy lines here and there. Harbinger much? And it felt like the prophet too like in Halo 2 or 3.

Otherwise the game was much better than I thought it would be. Now it's just the test of time and other playthroughs to confirm this.

[DarkEastwood]

Agreed. The only music I actually remember is the piece(s) that was in the last level. I feel that Halo 4 really hit the mark on Multiplayer. Me and my friends played it in my basement all night, and never got even remotely bored.

[BlackDrake]

Thank God...me and my best mate have been playing it since its release...I was so worried about the loadout/ordinance system.

Why, I dont know. Its brilliantly balanced. Plus I like the new armour pieces they've put in.

My only one regret? Firefight. But the Spartan Ops are AMAZING! I like the side story they've put in for it

anyone who disagrees is a fascist

[Mattbott]

i am terrible at halo MP so wouldn't buy this game for that aspect but i have been a halo fan since the first one

can anyone guess how many hours worth of gaming is there in halo 4 if you stick to playing campaign and/or co op type modes? (normalish difficulty)

[Frost Mage]

i am terrible at halo MP so wouldn't buy this game for that aspect but i have been a halo fan since the first one

can anyone guess how many hours worth of gaming is there in halo 4 if you stick to playing campaign and/or co op type modes? (normalish difficulty)

A solid 10-15 hours on Heroic in the campaign, plus the Sparton Ops episodes that will be released every week for the next 8 weeks are bound to give you a good amount of replayability.

[Mattbott]

ok, thanks

hopefully i can muster some septims over the Christmas break

[POMC S117]

Do the Spartan Ops episodes stack? I haven't got Halo 4 yet but when I do will I be able to play the first episode?

[Frost Mage]

You'll be able to play it right out of the box. Actually, the third episode (they're each made up of 5 levels) teaser just came out, so I can't imagine it would be much longer until the next chapter. So the first and second are out as of right now.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Woo, just played the first bit of the campaign! I've got to say, it looks awesome so far. But what's the second disc for?

[Musicman247]

Second disc is Multiplayer. It installs on your hard drive if you've got one. I don't know what it does if you don't.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Thanks! Since I don't have a hard drive, that means that it's gonna have to go on my USB memory stick, but that's okay with me.

[BlackDrake]

You can also download it straight from XboxLive if that doesnt work...I know on ours (mine and my best mate) the disk would get halfway and suddenly scream about it not being able to install.

Download worked fine though.

[Vahrukiv]

just reached SR-70 yesterday. man, i love this game.

[Musicman247]

SR-22 here. I think they nailed the multiplayer. I'm having more fun than I did in Reach, and that's saying something.

[Believe]

SR-22 here. I think they nailed the multiplayer. I'm having more fun than I did in Reach, and that's saying something.

Hmm... Well, it looks like i am going to have to go impose on a couple friends of mine so I can check it out for myself.

I couldn't care less about the campaign, since I find all "shooter" type games, incredibly boring in single player. But if the multiplayer is really that good, I may have to eat my words about how I thought 343 would cock-up...

We shall see.

[Frost Mage]

Halo 4: If it ain't broke, keep making game-changing tweaks to the game until you no longer have any of the hardcore fans on your side. If it is broke, pretend like it's supposed to be that way.

[BlackDrake]

Okay, im really enjoying Halo 4. So glad they didnt muck up the loadout system

on another note, anyone liking the new Team Regicide? I think its SOOOOO fun!

on yet another note, how about we make a small Halo 4 community on here? Say, message me your gamertags (if you want to, of course) and ill add them to the front page!

[Lynx]

Here's a naire I got yesterday. I like this game but 343 has to stop [&@%!] it up. Give us a competitive ranking system, bring back Team Snipers and add some forge maps and I'll ve happy.


YouTube Link

[Frost Mage]

Holy crap Lynx, I can see why you're semi-pro... And I definitely agree. But Frank O'Connor or someone else from 343 confirmed a 1-50 ranking system coming next year, hopefully with the next Title Update. Then things will start getting good.

[Frost Mage]

There's currently a glitch in the Xbox Live servers that allows you to get the Crimson DLC Pack for FREE! Go check, the charge will be 0 MS Points! And they've confirmed that it's not a bannable offense! Do it quick before they fix it!

[Musicman247]

Seems to be fixed on the website.