Halo 4 - Master Chief After Bungie

Games
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I’m absolutely sure that the included Season is their test to see if a CoD Elite/BF3 Premium style plan will be popular. I don’t necessarily have anything against it, since fans that would buy all the DLC for a game on day 1 usually save a bit of money through these plans. YMMV, of course. I enjoyed my Gears 3 Season Pass, but the Forza 4 offer just looked like a ripoff since it was nothing but more cars.

I know the CE of Halo 4 is offering the first two MP map packs as part of the package, so Microsoft intends to charge for that DLC already.

42

I don’t want to alarm you … but you’re in the Halo 4 thread.

43

Oooh! All Spartan Ops missions can be played solo as well as co-op. You get more XP for playing them co-op, but the AI can fill the other spots.

44

Oh good… “Quake” 4.

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I haven’t regretted it yet. No one has revealed anything about the game yet. But you’re right, I should probably stop checking this thread now that Microsoft has started revealing things about this game. I’m sure someone will mention who the enemy is, or some of other things that I don’t want to know about.

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Tons of info popped today through the retail ExpertZone portal. This blog picked it all up.

50 Spartan Ops missions will be released over 10 weeks for Season 1.

47

Wow, I love me some Halo and all, but this looks terrible

48

That’s going to be a web series, right? It doesn’t look great, but it looks better than a lot of web series promotional stuff out there.

Personally, the best marketing ads they did were the Halo 3 diorama one and the series “interviewing” vets of the Covenant battles.

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I wasn’t too thrilled the new bad guys in Halo 4 being revealed to be an army of sleek, silver-orange space monsters, but at least we’ll be fighting something new. Achieving the personality, variety, and color of the Covenant is a tall order, anyway.

Now comes the live action Halo 4 launch trailer, produced by David Fincher and featuring more teases of Master Chief’s face than any other Halo product to date. And the new slogan, delivered with a straight face: “An ancient evil awakens.”

So I hope that didn’t come from anyone who had anything to do with writing Halo 4’s story. I’m so tired of fighting awakened ancient evils.

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This is an old comment, but I don’t get this at all. Is this supposed to be snark?

51

Season Pass type deal announcement.

With the highly anticipated launch of “Halo 4” on Nov. 6 less than two weeks away, Microsoft and 343 Industries today unveiled that there will be more content to come in the months post-launch, and the “Halo 4” War Games Map Pass is your ticket to getting it all at a 15 percent discount. Stoking the excitement for launch, 343 Industries also premiered the gameplay launch trailer for “Halo 4, available now on Halo Waypoint.

Retailing for $24.99 USD2 (2,000 Microsoft Points), the “Halo 4” War Games Map Pass confirms your access to three War Games map packs as they become available in December, February and April, and represents a savings of more than 15 percent versus purchasing the packs individually. In addition, Map Pass purchasers will receive two bonus in-game helmets, as well as a unique in-game emblem.

Exploring new worlds and wonders, all three Map Packs provide classic “Halo” combat and exciting ways to experience the new feature-set of “Halo” Infinity Multiplayer. Descriptions and tentative release dates are as follows:

Crimson Map Pack (December release timeframe)

Maps: Wreckage, Harvest, Shatter

Description: Witness the chaos of a clash of civilizations in Wreckage, with its blend of claustrophobic spaces and dangerous exposures and venture into the human colony environs of Harvest, and explore a human foray on an alien moon in Shatter.

Majestic Map Pack (February release timeframe)

Maps: Landfall, Monolith, Skyline

Description: Landfall’s emphasis is on infantry battles against a glittering ocean on a distant world, while Monolith exposes you to the naked vacuum of space – and the firepower of opposing teams, and Skyline’s distinctly industrial feel provides new challenges in somewhat familiar, but occasionally confined spaces.

Castle Map Pack (April release timeframe)

Maps: Daybreak, Outcast, Perdition

Description: Daybreak is set in a military facility against the backdrop of an idyllic mountain range, while Outcast plunges you into the warrens, canyons and arches of an alien edifice, and Perdition takes players into the heart of an urban sprawl, with tactical speed and situational awareness its key features.

Also included in the “Halo 4” War Games Map Pass are two unique in-game helmets (‘Scanner’ and ‘Strider’) that feature new geometry, and an exclusive in-game emblem (‘Falcon’).

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I hear you, but let’s at least give a pat on the back for giving the bad guys some motivation. Hell, I’m cranky when I’ve just awakened too.

53

Watching Forward Unto Dawn and I’m getting ridiculously excited about this. Alas, the Limited Edition is TOTALLY SOLD OUT, which is sort of pissing me off, as I have the Limited/Legendary editions of all the games to date. Of course, MS didn’t create actual “limited” numbers of those editions, but now they decide to go old school Blizzard and actually create an actual limited limited edition. Ugh.

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This is looking pretty rad. I think Bungie leaving Halo might be the best thing that ever happened to Halo - and hopefully the best thing that ever happened to Bungie as well.

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I’m really excited about Halo 4 myself and am pretty sure it’s going to dominate my time for a while after release.

I have to admit for being kind of a sucker for the universe though, which I really like and think has had more promise than has been exploited in the past. I have been enjoying Forward Unto Dawn, and am about half-way through the second book in the Greg Bear trilogy about the Forerunners, which feels like it’s going to dovetail pretty hard into the Halo 4 story (it shares at least one character in common).

At first I was concerned about the switch to 343i, but based on all the prerelease stuff they have been putting out I get the feeling that they are doing a great job and we’re going to be pleasantly surprised.

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Every other site is breathlessly zeroing in on the fact that Microsoft’s Phil Spencer told Polygon that Halo 4 is the company’s most expensive game to date, but the actual article about the User Research labs is pretty fascinating. I read a story about the labs during the run-up to Halo 3, so it’s pretty cool to see how the (at the time) unprecedented level of game testing has evolved.

Sit in the lounge for more than a few minutes and it feels like watching horse racing or NCAA basketball in a casino gambling pit, with Microsoft employees calling out players by their station initials.

“C04 knows what she’s doing.”

“B06, what are you doing? Oh my god no … no! What are you doing?!”

“Don’t go over there! Yes, keep doing that! That’s what that blip means.”

“Just turn to the left! To the left! To the left! … or just fall off that cliff.”

The 343 team members in the room claim they don’t place bets on players, impossible as it may seem with all the data that gets thrown around. They’re impressed with the diversity in today’s test because four of the 18 participants are female. They note that, on average, a game’s overall survey score goes up two-tenths to three-tenths of a point when the developers add music.

And they cheer for specific players — in today’s test, B03 is the fastest, running towards enemies, using lots of quick melee attacks and at one point flying past enemies in a Banshee [one of the game’s aerial vehicles] to save time.

“He’s our rabbit,” says Schuh.

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That Polygon article was a great read. Thanks for linking to that.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_o9y79QrIE 5 day 24/7 livestream of the MP.

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Reviews are in, and they’re quite good.

I’ve played it, and I gotta say, 343 kicked butt on this. The engine looks great, with a lot more detail, but the Halo “feel” is still there. AI is better – I played on Normal so that I could get through it in time to write it up, and it was still quite challenging. And there’s not as much ammo lying around (which fits the story), so if you’re the type to lob a couple of grenades and then just spray-and-pray the bad guys, you might have to learn some more conservative tactics.

At one point I was completely out of ammo and there were two Promethean Knights and a few Covenant forces standing between me and any dropped weapons. Tried unsuccessfully to sneak around them, so finally just screamed “Leeeroooy Jeeeenkinnnnsss,” ran right between them while taking fire, and grabbed a railgun on my way to the cover on the other side of the clearing. That was exciting and fun.

And the story is way more coherent than Halo 3’s. :)

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I went from not being all that interested in the new Halo to being really excited to play.