Halo 4

Discussion in 'Video Game and Fantasy Football Board' started by slhorn, Mar 5, 2012.

  1. slhorn

    slhorn Well-Known Member
    Donor

  2. swiggs

    swiggs Well-Known Member

    will it be on 360?
     
  3. swiggs

    swiggs Well-Known Member

    will it be on 360?
     
  4. slhorn

    slhorn Well-Known Member
    Donor

    It's coming out Christmas this year so definitely.
     
  5. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    graphics look good, really interested in who the new enemy is and how they do the entire storyline
     
  6. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

  7. Bruce Wayne

    Bruce Wayne Billionaire Playboy
    Donor
    Michigan Wolverines

    what the fuck kind of question is that? it's been a 360 exclusive title for over 10 years
     
  8. swiggs

    swiggs Well-Known Member

    360 or the next gen dumbass
     
  9. prerecordedlive

    prerecordedlive Sworn Enemy of Standard Time
    Donor TMB OG
    Florida State SeminolesTampa Bay RaysOrlando CityWolverhampton WanderersBarAndGrill

    Considering it launched it late 2005, I'm gonna go with "shithead answer". Yes, Halo 4 is Xbox 360 exclusive. It's considered the 1st in the "reclaimer trilogy" so the subsequent games will almost certainly be on the next gen platform.
     
  10. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

  11. Swt

    Swt Well-Known Member
    TMB OG

    Is the master chief back?
     
  12. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    yea and cortana, the covenant too but also new enemies
     
  13. Percyus: Son of Zeus

    Percyus: Son of Zeus Chompzy Lord
    Staff

  14. NinjaRXA

    NinjaRXA Make Anime Great Again
    Donor TMB OG

    I'm excited to get up there and whoop ET's ass.
     
    berg likes this.
  15. slhorn

    slhorn Well-Known Member
    Donor

  16. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

  17. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    holy shit that looks awesome, new enemy looks awesome. hopefully the campaign gets back to halo 1 style, with some crazy twists and awesome story telling
     
  18. slhorn

    slhorn Well-Known Member
    Donor

    I bet the new studio does something bold and makes Kortana the enemy for a little bit.
     
  19. Voodoo

    Voodoo Fan of: Notre Dame
    Donor
    Notre Dame Fighting IrishTottenham HotspurSan Francisco Giants

    That would be pretty gay.
     
  20. lazy bum

    lazy bum active consumer
    Donor TMB OG

    they were hinting at her having the normal AI insanity developing in Halo 3 as all AI's eventually do in the Halo universe. Seen some of that in the Halo 4 stuff, too.
     
  21. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

    Anyone been watching the Forward Unto Dawn live action series? Intriguing so far.

    Check it out at the Machinima youtube channel http://m.youtube.com/#/machinima
     
    Dr. Jan Itor likes this.
  22. lazy bum

    lazy bum active consumer
    Donor TMB OG

    a copy of the game was apparently stolen off the production line and has leaked. I'm not into that scene, but I guess it's out there, so if you're spoiler concerned beware of some Halo videos.
     
  23. Chief Hawk

    Chief Hawk Chiefs Kingdom

    im only interested in the online play. hope its good.
     
  24. DUCKMOUTH

    DUCKMOUTH People don’t you know, don’t you know
    Donor
    Southern Mississippi Golden EaglesNew Orleans SaintsGrateful DeadPoker

    Never really got into Halo, but this looks awesome. How are the story lines in Halo?
     
  25. Chief Hawk

    Chief Hawk Chiefs Kingdom

    lame
     
  26. Voodoo

    Voodoo Fan of: Notre Dame
    Donor
    Notre Dame Fighting IrishTottenham HotspurSan Francisco Giants

    The story arc in the first three Halo games was great.

    I'm pretty sure they're going to go full retard in Halo 4, though.
     
  27. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    first halo had a pretty good story, actually all 3 were good. not sure where this one is gonna go though
     
  28. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

  29. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    well that looked fucking incredible
     
  30. Taco Sa1ad

    Taco Sa1ad TMBSL
    Notre Dame Fighting IrishColorado BuffaloesAtlanta BravesTennessee TitansNashville Predators

    Just pre-ordered my copy for instore pick up (:fap::fap:). How's the halo following on TMB? Any guys play a shit load of online?
     
  31. Jeffrey Lebowski

    Jeffrey Lebowski Obviously you're not a golfer
    Donor
    Georgia BulldogsAppalachian State MountaineersFormula 1

    7 DAYS!

    I use to play a ton during halo 2 and 3, played reach an average amount. Will be playing this online
     
  32. Warrant

    Warrant Mrow kitty

    I won't be pre-ordering, but I will be playing at least the campaign. Halo's storyline is damn good, but after the gameplay off Reach, I just couldn't see myself doing multiplayer again. Halo 2 and 3 had it down on par though.
     
  33. Taco Sa1ad

    Taco Sa1ad TMBSL
    Notre Dame Fighting IrishColorado BuffaloesAtlanta BravesTennessee TitansNashville Predators

    I thought Reach's multiplayer was a lot of fun....definitely not up to Halo 2, 3 with the leveling system but still fun. I really hope they put leveling 1-50 back into Halo 4. I'll be playing this a considerable amount of multiplayer while at school...just got back into Skyrim to keep me busy for the next 7 days too
     
  34. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

    Halo3 was the absolute best. Reach was good but where it fell short was the maps. Those maps were absolutely shit. Unbalanced, unsymmetrical and just not fun. Even the remakes like Blood Gulch and Ivory Tower played like shit.....so maybe it wasn't just the maps, idk.

    I still have high hopes. Not sure about the new enemies and I don't like the return of armor abilities but we'll see what Halo post-Bungie will be like.
     
    WTX likes this.
  35. Warrant

    Warrant Mrow kitty

    The armor abilities and bloom effect killed it for me. By the time ZB Slayer came out, I had long ridden myself of Reach. I did have some fun playing it though, especially BTB. That was the highlight of it though. Halo 2 spoiled me too much, I felt like I went from the Autobahn to a neighborhood street speed when I started playing Halo 3.
     
  36. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    a halo movie wouldve been incredible
     
  37. NCHusker

    NCHusker We named our yam Pam. It rhymed.
    Donor TMB OG
    Nebraska CornhuskersChicago CubsDenver NuggetsKansas City ChiefsAvengersUnited States Men's National Soccer TeamUSA BasketballBig 8 ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceNebraska Cornhuskers alt

    the only thing I can stand playing on Reach is doubles. The maps suck for anything bigger than that.
     
  38. wolfpck

    wolfpck haters gonna hate
    Donor
    North Carolina State Wolfpack

    Cannot wait to get this shit. Gonna be the first video game I ever get at midnight.
     
  39. lazy bum

    lazy bum active consumer
    Donor TMB OG

    I've been surprised by the Forward Unto Dawn stuff. I thought it'd have the stupid kid character stuff it's had, but I didn't expect that level of effects. It's definitely a test run for the eventual movie.
     
  40. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    the special effects really arent that bad. with a legit budget a halo movie would look incredible, after seeing district 9 I'm so disappointed the neil blomkamp as director fell through
     
  41. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

    I'm just afraid they would CGI the shit out of it until it was more cartoon-like. Like Avatar or the Star Wars prequels, where everything was just green screened. This Forward Unto Dawn stuff is pretty good live action stuff. I mean, Master Chief could use a little bit more work, and obviously the Covies are gonna be CGI, but that would come with a good budget.
     
    WTX likes this.
  42. Dr. Jan Itor

    Dr. Jan Itor I throb for COB #TeamOutlaw

    star wars prequels looked shitty but avatar looked amazing imo, im hoping halo 4 get great reviews and renews interest in the movie, i cant imagine it wouldnt make money. super popular game with a pretty good story that leaves them with tons of options in terms of what story they want to tell
     
  43. NCHusker

    NCHusker We named our yam Pam. It rhymed.
    Donor TMB OG
    Nebraska CornhuskersChicago CubsDenver NuggetsKansas City ChiefsAvengersUnited States Men's National Soccer TeamUSA BasketballBig 8 ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceNebraska Cornhuskers alt

    wasn't Guillermo del Toro also going to direct it at one point?
     
  44. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

    And Peter Jackson.

    Personally, I never believed any of it. I want it to happen but I chalked all the talk up to fanboy BS
     
    WTX likes this.
  45. lazy bum

    lazy bum active consumer
    Donor TMB OG

    IGN says its the best Halo game yet.
    http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/01/halo-4-review
    "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE... HIM."

    NOVEMBER 1, 2012 Halo 4 is really Cortana’s story.
    As usual, of course, the fate of the universe rests on Master Chief’s long-dormant shoulders – the green-armored super-soldier has been on ice aboard the Forward Unto Dawn since Halo 3 faded to black five years ago – but this time our hero bears an even greater burden.
    Saving humanity is the easy part. In Halo 4, his more difficult task is rescuing Cortana from herself. She is slipping into rampancy – a condition that plagues all UNSC AI constructs after they’ve been in service more than seven years. As their knowledge base expands, they eventually, as Cortana explains, think themselves to death. And that’s the unexpected heart of Halo 4’s greatness. The plot delves deeper into John’s humanity than ever before, but Halo 4 is more about Cortana and the fight for her own – ironically enough – humanity.
    Amazingly, Halo 4 is not only a success, but a bar-raising triumph for the entire first-person shooter genre. And just how new developer 343 Industries has done it will surprise,


    NOVEMBER 6, 2012

    Master Chief returns in Halo 4, part of a new trilogy in the colossal Halo universe.
    MUCH MORE

    RYAN MCCAFFREY SAYS
    Underrated Halo

    • [​IMG]

    • [​IMG]

    • [​IMG]

    delight, and excite you.
    Familiarly Unfamiliar
    It starts with a mesmerizing CG cutscene that flat-out knocks you on your ass. The lighting is flawless, subtle movements and animations abound, and it even goes so far that Commander Lasky (yes, the same Lasky we see as a teenager in the Forward Unto Dawn webseries) has crooked teeth – not the usual polygon-perfect Chiclet choppers that every other animated video game human has. It strikes a fine balance between old-school fan service and establishing context for new players, and it quickly segues into gameplay, where Halo 4’s greatest strength becomes immediately apparent: its gunplay.
    Halo’s weapons continue their trend of working in complementary harmony, where each gun has a purpose, and every situation a fitting firing solution. The inaccurate Promethean Suppressor and undesirable Covenant Storm Rifle proved near-useless at times, but Halo 4 still hits on a ludicrously high percentage of its death-dealers. The short-range Energy Sword or new Scattershot are great to pack alongside mid-range delights such as the DMR or Battle Rifle, which also pair nicely with the ferocious Sniper Rifle if you’re into the long game.

    In the opening mission, Master Chief is thawed out and immediately put back to work shooting Covenant, evoking both Halo: Combat Evolved (it’s set aboard an under-attack spaceship) and Halo 2 (the stage’s major battle takes place in zero-G on the hull of the ship). Expect your jaw to drop at least once on every level of Halo 4’s eight-mission campaign, especially after crash-landing on the Forerunner planet Requiem, emerging from the wreckage, and ascending a hill whose apex overlooks a gorgeous valley. It is your introduction to the planet you’ll be spending most of the game exploring and fighting the new Promethean enemies on, an obvious callback to the unforgettable moment when you touched down on the Halo ring for the first time in Combat Evolved.
    Now Hear This
    Of course, gorgeous graphics are only one responsibility a console’s killer app must bear. Perhaps equal to Halo 4’s monitor-melting visuals is its bar-none, best-in-class sound design. If you think you’ve heard Halo, check your ears and listen again. Nary a gunshot, MJOLNIR boot clank, or Covenant Elite’s “Wort wort wort” passes through your speakers without a significant, authoritative overhaul that lends an aggressive, testosterone-inducing punch to Halo 4’s combat.
    Few game series are known as much for their music as Halo, and thus much has been made of British electronica producer Neil Davidge taking over for the beloved Bungie incumbent, Marty O’Donnell. It’s a bold shift – and probably wise of 343 to go in a tonally different direction rather than attempt to emulate O’Donnell – but the results are mixed. The trademark monk chants are gone, and Davidge’s moody tunes are complementary rather than additive. The new tracks simply aren’t memorable and never elevate the action happening on the screen the way that O’Donnell’s bombastic scores did, though this may be intentional, as Davidge’s compositions are decidedly atmospheric.
    Hello New Day
    Resplendent set-pieces are ubiquitous during your quest, matched by what is inarguably the finest Halo sandbox yet. Halo 4 feels much more open-ended and organic than Halo Reach’s paint-by-numbers sequences because of its massive scale, scope, and freedom for possibility. Go it on foot, or take the Scorpion in front of you? Hop in a Ghost, or take the riskier strategy of trying to get to a heavily guarded Wraith? All of these choices exist in a moment, not a spectacular scene, allowing for emergent encounters dictated by the opportunities you seize.
    [​IMG]
    The wealth of options in Halo 4's sandbox make the campaign a joy to play again and again.
    To be clear, Halo 4 certainly has its share of dedicated vehicle sections. The walking two-story Mantis robot packs a high-caliber machinegun alongside a rocket barrage. It’s even sporting a mean foot stomp attack to flatten any Covenant or Promethean scum who dare venture within spitting distance of you. The time you’ll spend behind its controls is both empowering and refreshing.
    Halo 4 also finally lets me do two things I’ve always wanted to do in a Halo campaign: fight alongside other Spartans and fly a Pelican. It’s a treat to blast Covenant Phantoms out of the sky with the silver bird’s beefed-up Spartan Laser, giving a classic Halo vehicle its long-overdue moment in the sun. Furthermore, an amazing near-final sequence tips its cap to the Halo finales of yore – you’ll know it when you see it and I dare not spoil it for you – even if it’s very obviously reminiscent of another powerhouse pop-culture phenomenon.
    Digging Deeper
    All throughout, the Halo 4 campaign is paced better than any first-person shooter this side of Half-Life 2, deftly mixing on-foot combat, vehicle sequences, quiet story moments, and key Chief-and-Cortana interactions. That pacing is most evident on Normal difficulty, where you won’t run into the patience-testing battles for the next checkpoint that define the Heroic and Legendary settings.
    The series has long been lauded for its brainy bad guys, and they’ve gained a whole host of IQ points for Master Chief’s return. As you’d expect, the full smarts of Halo 4’s brilliant enemy AI are most evident at higher difficulties. Vehicles get brought down to earth – sometimes literally, in the case of the Banshee – now that enemies are proficient at firing ride-disabling overcharged Plasma Pistol bursts. And the new Promethean aggressors are wicked intelligent without being unfair.
    [​IMG]
    The Prometheans are anything but dummies. In other words, they're not the Flood.
    Watcher units hover above the Knight infantrymen, acting as guardians and medics – if you can get around the protector’s shield or return-to-sender grenade tosses, it can revive its allies. Halo 4’s combat is about efficient prioritization: kill the Watcher before it can get to cover, and turn the Knights to dust before they can escape, all the while dodging fire from swarms of speedy wall-running Crawlers – dog-like denizens of Requiem that can only be shot in the face.
    An Imperfect Being?
    The campaign has few failings, but the primary annoyance is that a lot of great story content is left for the eight hidden Terminals. Unlike previous Halos, the Terminal tale here isn’t a side-story, but rather it fills in important backstory for both the main antagonist and a key allied character. Worse, you can’t view the videos within the game. Instead, you’re directed to Halo Waypoint, which serves only to pull you out of the experience, literally and figuratively.
    On a related note, as much as Halo 4 delves delightfully deep into its iconic characters, it leaves a number of threads hanging. Why is Spartan-II creator Dr. Catherine Halsey in handcuffs in the intro? What did Master Chief’s [spoiler redacted] do to him? How did [spoiler redacted] survive at the end? No doubt these will be addressed in the fifth and sixth Halos, but until then the discussions will be heated and the wait will be maddening.
    [​IMG]
    Fair warning: Getting the special Legendary ending is going to require a lot of tough work.
    Halo 4’s other drag is one that’s only really evident on Heroic or Legendary difficulties: some of its fetch quest-y, flip-three-switches sequences feel like they artificially lengthen the game because of how long you can get hung up on them when the going gets tough. I spent upwards of an hour trying to trudge through one of them on Heroic, but when playing again on Normal I cruised through on the first try. At one point, Cortana even makes a self-deprecating remark about the repetition, which I recognized and appreciated.
    These are mostly just scrapes in the paint of Master Chief’s MJOLNIR armor, however. His return in the Halo 4 campaign is a success of mission design, art direction, level design, technology, and story writing. Underpinning it all, though, is that irresistible combat. Some shooters get a few weapons right, or, like Sniper Elite v2, they build their entire experience around one facet like long-range. Halo, however, boasts the best of all worlds. As you’d expect, this plays exceptionally well in Halo 4’s robust multiplayer modes.
    Great Expectations
    No console shooter has a richer, deeper, more revered multiplayer history than Halo. So how does Halo 4’s multiplayer suite live up to the legacy in 343’s hands?
    It’s golden.
    Halo has evolved, wrapping its multiplayer in an unexpected narrative context – the Spartan-on-Spartan battles are presented as training sessions aboard the UNSC Infinity ship – complete with more of the same visually arresting introductory cutscenes for both the adversarial War Games and the new Spartan Ops co-op mode.
    With Halo 4’s immaculate weapon balancing and gun-for-every-situation combat strategies, it needs only a great crop of multiplayer maps in order to qualify for classic status. Fear not, as 343 packs War Games with 10 mostly stellar stages and three additional Forge-built battlegrounds. Exile leads the vehicle-heavy Big-Team Battle complement, Ragnarok shines as a Mantis-showcasing remake of Halo 3’s Valhalla, and Haven is among the series’ all-time finest small and symmetrical levels. Oh, and one of the official Forge constructions, Settler, is a smaller, crazier evolution of the franchise’s most famous map that I absolutely love: Blood Gulch. Halo 4 might not have its instant-classic (a la Halo 2’s Lockout), but this is an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds, with a seemingly greater emphasis placed on the large-scale, vehicle-inclusive levels that are Halo’s bread-and-butter.

    Meanwhile, Halo 4 includes all of the same matchmaking, playlists, customization, and social options you’ve come to expect from the series. The more visual lobby screen, where player cards depict each person’s custom Spartan, is a bit more cluttered and difficult to parse through than previous Halos, but that’s the only downgrade. Everything else is on par with what Bungie had previously established. The Theater returns virtually unchanged, as does the Forge editor, with its notable improvement being a magnet feature that allows you to more easily connect Forge pieces.
    That leaves Spartan Ops, a downloadable series of 10 episodic side missions for Gold subscribers, each of which include a lengthy CG cutscene. The first one spans five chapters, and it took about an hour to play through in four-player co-op on Legendary difficulty. As you’d expect, the more friends you bring the easier it’ll be – and, while it’s perfectly enjoyable and makes for a good excuse to jump online with your pals once a week, once you’re finished with each episode, it lacks the replayability and score-based incentives of the Firefight mode it replaces. However, the incredible pre-episode cinematics make the mode a must-play regardless, and it opens up a number of interesting narrative possibilities for future episodes and seasons. So even if you only play each episode once, you can’t complain about the fact that nine more weeks of downloads await you.
    The End of the Beginning
    After soaking in the new game, I am beyond thrilled to be so in love with Halo again, more than I’ve been since Halo 2. Halo 4 is a masterstroke everyone can and should celebrate, and its two guaranteed sequels instantly make the next-generation Xbox a must-own system, with Halo 5 its most anticipated title. Halo has been rebuilt. It has been redefined. And it has been reinvigorated. The Xbox’s original king has returned to his rightful place on the throne.

    BECOME A FAN OF IGN

    THE VERDICT

    Cortana once asked Master Chief what would happen if he missed his target, and in the single greatest line of dialogue in Halo history, Chief replied with the coolest, calmest confidence, "I won’t."
    With Halo 4, he doesn't

    I'm disappointed in the music review, but I won't know until I listen. Music was a huge part of the Halo campaigns, if it's been pushed to the background I'm not happy about it.
     
  46. Artoo

    Artoo 1312
    Donor

    I agree with your take on the music. I will not be happy either.