Halo series - Crimson Map Pack out now!

[Master Xanthan]

Good thing I have a 250 gb hard drive.

 

[Eclectic Echo]

Anyone see the new Halo 4 gameplay? If not, here it is!

http://halocouncil.com/content.php?r=545-3-New-Halo-4-Gameplays

 

[Segtendo]

Time to resurrect this thread.

WITH SOME NEWS.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/728802/halo-4-leaked-microsoft-investigating/

Discuss.

 

[sakuraZaKi]

Any idea why the two discs?

 

[Jamage]

Check out my Sticky montage I recently done. Ive had some top players tell me its amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=814SSin4CN0&feature=plcp

 

[Segtendo]

I got that in my e-mail, as a part of something for Halo 4.

 

[Segtendo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmOoGucyMNg
Hnnnnng.

 

[sakuraZaKi]

Almost a week left until release...

Ugh. Unbearable.

 

[Pluvia]

So Forward Unto Dawn is pretty awesome I have to admit.

 

[Jem.]

Jem shall be back. ^_^

Possibly playing competitive again in Halo if the game is good / get a team.

 

[Hot_ArmS]

Was on the fence about getting this game until I saw the 8gb requirement

*has 4gb xbox*

welp

 

[Kal]

Reviews for Halo 4 are quite good. I was initially not going to buy it, period, but now I'm considering picking it up. Might wait for a price drop, though, because I've never been a big FPS fan, let alone console FPS.

 

[O D I N]

There's no question.

I'm getting it.

[see's that there is no ODST helmet]

THAT'S IT. NOT GETTING IT.

Spoiler

Disappointed, but in no way would that prevent me from buying this game. I'm way too damn excited.

 

[Pluvia]

Promethean Vision is making making me uncertain. Like, at first glance it seems pretty OP.

 

[sakuraZaKi]

So will we be setting up parties and the like for launch week or something?

I know some of us are busy, like me, lol.

MLG is up today for H4.

 

[RespawningJesus]

Promethean Vision is making making me uncertain. Like, at first glance it seems pretty OP.

Well, all the gameplay has been demonstration copies of the game, so I'm pretty sure they will tweak it.

Also, just pre-ordered the game, and I am totally getting the game at midnight.

 

[Pluvia]

I doubt they will tweak it.

Maybe it has some counter though? Right now it only seems to be hologram but even then I doubt it'll affect Promethean users any more than it does non-Promethean users.

 

[RespawningJesus]

I know they were planning on making some sort of visual cue that shows when someone has the Vision on. So, people would be able to tell where you are.

 

[Pluvia]

My friend got his copy of Halo 4 today, it arrived in the post from Amazon.

I'm not joking.

Also I'm off out to his to play it.

 

[sakuraZaKi]

I ordered mine from Walmart and tracking a says it'll come n Tuesday. Hope it does.

 

[O D I N]

My friend got his copy of Halo 4 today, it arrived in the post from Amazon.

I'm not joking.

Also I'm off out to his to play it.

That explains why you're on playing it.

Also, **** you.

 

[RespawningJesus]

Lol. Patience, the game comes out in less than 3 days. Show up at midnight, and play the **** out of it when you get back home. Our time will come.

 

[Jem.]

Halo 4 maps look amazing compared to Halo Reach. Look unique and lively.

BTW, MLG Dallas for Halo 4 going on all weekend for those interested: http://www.twitch.tv/mlg_halo_4

It'll be interesting to see later on if they use loadouts in competitive play. Reach they started out with sprint for everyone with jetpack/evade as ones you can pick up on the map. But the consensus was that sprint let you get out of too many dumb situations and didn't really feel like Halo because you could do something dumb and just sprint away and be okay. So then it went to no starting ability with only Jetpack able to be picked up on the map. This event so far looks like there is some built in sprint (Call of duty? not sure) and start with jetpack. The gameplay looks REALLY fun though, but it'll be interesting to see how the settings in competitive play change again.

 

[O D I N]

Lol. Patience, the game comes out in less than 3 days. Show up at midnight, and play the **** out of it when you get back home. Our time will come.

But I want it Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow...

Halo 4 maps look amazing compared to Halo Reach. Look unique and lively.

BTW, MLG Dallas for Halo 4 going on all weekend for those interested: http://www.twitch.tv/mlg_halo_4

It'll be interesting to see later on if they use loadouts in competitive play. Reach they started out with sprint for everyone with jetpack/evade as ones you can pick up on the map. But the consensus was that sprint let you get out of too many dumb situations and didn't really feel like Halo because you could do something dumb and just sprint away and be okay. So then it went to no starting ability with only Jetpack able to be picked up on the map. This event so far looks like there is some built in sprint (Call of duty? not sure) and start with jetpack. The gameplay looks REALLY fun though, but it'll be interesting to see how the settings in competitive play change again.

I never really got into the "MLG" play. But it's still interesting to see how they change things around.

 

[RespawningJesus]

I thought loadouts were available in every game mode? Calling in Ordnance is only in infinity slayer.

It will also be interesting if MLG will allow armor mods as well. (Most likely not.). To be honest, we can't really say anything for sure though. Halo 4 is totally different, after all.

 

[Pluvia]

So completed the campaign on Heroic, wasn't very long took us about 5 and a half hours. There was a welcome thing in the starting screen that told us the online might be a bit wonky until the 6th, then we got an update later on and the welcome screen changed to just a generic "Welcome to Halo 4" one, and it told us to vote if we were American for some reason. So anyway I'll keep it vague and spoiler stuff, but the things I don't need to spoiler are the armour abilities:

Promethean Vision: This was as useful as I thought it would be. I assume it'll be tweaked for online as it lasted an absurd amount of time on campaign.

Auto Sentry: Seemingly more powerful than I thought it was gonna be, like it was actually killing stuff. Has a long animation to summon it though and it dies in like 1 shot, but heck if you put this out in the battlefield it will actually get you kills if people ignore it it seems.

Hardlight Shield: My god I loved this thing, by far my most used power. A shield that blocks everything and you can move around with. Great for retreating and messing with the enemy, slap on that Promethean shotgun and you can just waltz right up to the bad guys with this thing and shoot them in the face.

Thruster Pack: A quick boost. Maybe if you want to catch someone escaping? Get somewhere fast? I would say good for hijacking vehicles too but chances are they'll just run you over.

Jetpack and Hologram are just the same as usual.

So story mode (I'll keep this vague):

First thing I noticed was Master Chief gets more characterisation and talks more in the first 10 minutes than the whole of the other 3 games combined, and he actually has full conversations in the cutscenes (even though most of his dialogue boils down to "what" "how" and "I can't let that happen"). Heck even the opening movie is about the moral aspects of Spartans and Master Chiefs borderline sociopathy. Also Cortana now looks like Fiona from Shrek.

The whole of the campaign is incredibly dramatic but be prepared to miss half the dialogue thanks to the ambient noise and music, couldn't find a way to turn those things down in the menu, but generally you'll get the jist of what's happening. Also make sure you know tons about Halo because the game plays out like you have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the extended universe stuff that happened after Halo 3 and some of the important Forerunner figures mentioned in the original trilogy.

But anyway, all in all it was great fun. Had a great laugh and all the weapons (except the Sticky Launcher) felt useful, especially the Promethean weapons, and even seeing an Elite was a relief compared to the new Knights. Also it seems 343 never noticed you can take vehicles places they're not supposed to go thanks to the teleportation checkpoint thing. I just waltzed through one whole section of the game by getting Jo to teleport the Ghost I was sitting in to the checkpoint, skipping the obstacle that was blocking vehicles from entering.

As for Multiplayer:

Everything is locked apart from colours and service tag. You can't even change your emblem or add an armour loadout, you're literally stuck with the normal AR, a pistol, and a frag. Everything else, armour customisation, stances, new emblems etc, you have to unlock through multiplayer. I did some snooping around and 343 said they're not resetting anyones ranks come Nov 6th, so I guess that means I'll have a massive advantage come release day thanks to all the levels I'll have gained.

 

[The Real Gamer]

This game looks fantastic. Feels good to be excited about Halo again.

Unfortunately I won't be able to get this game until this semester is over cause this game will tank my grades. lol

 

[Pluvia]

Also you don't unlock any muliplayer things by playing campaign. Not even an emblem.

 

[Jem.]

One does simply celebrate and yell after beating Instinct game 1 and get to win the series. Knew they'd lose the next two games to Instinct when they started celebrating after a game 1 win lol. Ogre 2 tooo goood.. GOAT!!

 

[RespawningJesus]

Was never going to play campaign on launch. Multiplayer all day long. Also, I think some features are locked in multiplayer until launch.
As for voting if you are an American, Microsoft wants to raise political awareness, since the presidential elections are coming up.

 

[Pluvia]

Was never going to play campaign on launch. Multiplayer all day long. Also, I think some features are locked in multiplayer until launch.

Don't think so, it told us what level everything unlocks at, so if those things stayed locked it would then have to retroactively unlock them come launch, which is pretty much the same thing.

 

[RespawningJesus]

Don't think so, it told us what level everything unlocks at, so if those things stayed locked it would then have to retroactively unlock them come launch, which is pretty much the same thing.

Ohhhhh, I misread that a bit. I thought you meant that some things such as the weapon load outs you couldn't access yet due to the fact that the game won't let you access it yet, no matter your level.

 

[O D I N]

Amazon hasn't told me that my game has shipped yet...

Hurricane Sandy has better not have ****ed with my order.

 

[Pluvia]

One thing the camaign sorely needed was humour. Like I don't even think someone cracked a joke once. Also, while I'm not completely sure, I think they retconned the end of Halo 3 a bit. (Really small 1st level spoiler)

Spoiler

I think Cortana was suppoed to be 6 at the end of Halo 3? Well we get told right at the start of Halo 4 that she was actually 4.

On a different note, I'm off to play the multiplayer, will be back later to say my impressions on it.

 

[Hot_ArmS]

2 days till I see my whole friendlist playing halo4

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Sup.

Might be getting a Xbox for this game.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Pluvia]

So I'm back from my afternoon of multiplayer. All in all, very disappointed.

First thing you'll probably notice is the killstreaks, they seems to be quite random on what you get I couldn't see a pattern, not that it matters much because everyone just picks the bazookas, that thing that gives you a damage boost for like 45 seconds, and the thing that makes you move super quickly and reload faster. The extra damage is stupid, and bazookas are also insane now that they have like twice the explosion range and move faster (it should basically be called "free killstreak" because that's what it gives you) but all in all the rest of the killstreaks weren't that bad. Also they're not reset from death.

Next thing you'll probably notice is EVERYONE runs. Shooting someone with your BR? Watch them sprint away in half a second behind cover. There used to be loads of jumping in Halo but now a lot of firefights boil down to shoot, RUN! You'll quickly realise why most people are running too: double melee's have been brought back. And now that the AR > DMR + BR at every range apart from really far (seriously the AR is supposed to be a close range gun? As if), there's a perk that gives you permanent unlimited sprint and you can get a massive speed boost in a killstreak, there was a couple of matches were you'd see people skipping the shooting part entirely and running from miles away to get the easy double melee. It was like Gears 2 all over again. Also the melee hitbox animation has been extended, so there was quite a few times where I got both a kill from the grave AND a melee kill medal, so don't expect death to stop someone from melee killing you.

Leveling up is also weird, it takes like 1 game to get to level 2 but after that it takes a while to go up levels. I played all afternoon and I hit level 12, but you only just unlock the second tier of perks (not the unlimited sprint ones, a different one with different perks) at 12, and you don't even really get the good ones (bigger explosions and you take less damage from explosions? yes please!) until you're in your 20's. It seems 343 has abandoned the pretence of "true skill" and instead just reward people for playing for a long time. I feel bad for all the people who get the game on the 6th, it'll just be a slaughter.

Vehicles, seemed pretty balanced, apart from the Gauss turret that gave us two 20-0 killstreaks. The Mantis probably gets the award for easiest vehicle to hijack, I jumped on like 3 of them with ease.

When it comes to armour abilities the Promethean Vision wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be, permanent radar basically does its job, and the Hardlight Shield is incredibly useful as it blocks everything. That Regeneration Field looked good but you get that at a level much higher than mine, and the turret also looked really good, it was even getting kills. Thruster Pack propels you about 2 steps forward and is an animation, so you can't melee or shoot during it, so if you want to be completely helpless for a short period, not move very far or fast, and put your face closer to their barrel without being able to retaliate, then the Thruster Pack is perfect for you.

So yeah, it has some balancing issues with the AR being insane, double melees and sprint basically making BRS + DMRS useless at everything but far range and shooting someone in the back, and the fact you get better stuff from leveling up. Once people get that perk that makes grenade explosions bigger it will just be chaos. I think there's a killcam but it was absent from splitscreen, and joining into a match in progress isn't as good as you'd think it'd be due to the whole spawn killing thing, but now people will join and quit freely. Heck one guy even quit when I was in mid-assasination on him.

 

[RespawningJesus]

They'll most likely patch a few things when it gets released for everyone. After that, they'll just patch things once a much bigger population has played the game.

However, you are also the only person that I have heard say the multiplayer is lackluster. Also, I hate hearing they have a damage boosting drop. I hate it when games add that.

 

[Pluvia]

The damage boosting one is quite comon too, but then again it's not always a go to choice as some of the other picks can be great. The Binary Rifle for example that is one shot kill anywhere on their body (think they can see where you're aiming though) or a rocket launcher, those could appear and they'd be better picks than a 45 second damage boost.

One other thing I never mentioned, because this might be different when there's more players online on the 6th, is the fact that there was no lobbies when we played. Well, there was in-between matches now that it doesn't kick everyone at the end, but not once did we ever join a lobby or see anyone join a lobby, instead we just joined matches in progress.

Dunno if that'll be the same come release day though.

Edit:

To give a bit more information about multiplayer in general, the Hardlight Shield wont protect you from splatters and you seem to unlock armour by achieving different things (Perfections, Assists, etc). Also Infection is now called Flood, and the infected play as the Flood.

 

[Jem.]

The MLG settings looked pretty fun, and most the pros said it was very fun and 1000x better than Reach.

You can time weapons and predict your ordinance drop I'm pretty sure, I didn't hear any complaints from pros towards the ordinance drop.

I'm a competitive Halo player though, I never really found the social-esque playlists fun. Example: I only liked the MLG Playlist on Reach. Radar is lame. Teamwork is fun.