Archangel Tyrael

Little English Blog has gotten a chance to talk to Frank O'Connor of 343 about Halo 4. Read below for more details From: http://www.littleenglishhaloblog.com/ By: FlawlessCowboy On Wednesday night in a basement bar in London's Covent Garden, I got the chance to have a sit down with 343industries Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor. I tried to cover a lot of the unanswered questions that I know many of you have been wanting answers to. Me: So what can you tell me about the Halo 4 ranking system? FO: What ranking system? Not the Exp based Spartan Ranks, a skill based system? That's not something we're talking about at the moment, we'll have more on that closer to launch. Ok, so what's on disc 2? [laughs] It's not really a big secret, the only reason we've not talked about this is because until everything is locked in we can't be 100% sure what's on each disc. But as you probably guessed it will be a split between campaign and multi-player content. Ok cool, so now that you've made competitive multiplayer fit within the Halo canon, does this mean that the multiplayer announcer, Jeff Steitzer, is a character within the universe? Although you won't meet him in the game, yes the implication is that he's an officer or trainer aboard the Infinity working with the Spartan IVs. I played Spartan Ops just now, and if I'm honest I didn't really get a feel for the "watercooler" moments you've discussed. I know you've likened it to Game of Thrones. At times it felt like the objectives were fairly standard 'defend this', 'destroy this' and so on.. Ah, this is absolutely to do with the nature of the demo we're showing today, the three missions we've selected were to demonstrate the different types of gameplay we have on show, so there's a big mission which focuses on vehicle combat, the mission that focuses on the Prometheans and another the Covenant. You don't see any of the cut scenes or story progression in this demo, you can rest assured there are some great moments and a really strong narrative throughout. The Game of Thrones analogy is a good one. I know this is something you'll have been asked before, but can you tell us anything about why we're fighting the Covenant again? Is it Telcam's boys? This is something that will be explored in the game, I don't want to go into any major plot details, but this will be a focus of the Spartan Ops story. You've said before that going forward "everything matters" within the Halo universe, does this mean we'll start to see more crossover between the expanded universe and the games? Yes, this is something that was one of our goals when 343 took charge of Halo and you can see that in the more recent books and how they're closely related to the events in the games. While not every story arc and character you could point to in the expanded universe will appear in the games there will certainly be some. Since last year's E3 we've seen a change in terminology from the "Reclaimer Trilogy" to "Reclaimer Saga" what's the thinking behind that? Is it because you see Spartan Ops having such an impact on the story between the games? Spartan Ops is certainly a part of that thinking, but it's bigger than that. When we took a holistic look at our plans for the story; be that the main games, books, Spartan Ops and Forward unto Dawn the phrase "trilogy" didn't really fit any more and so it became "saga". We've seen the work you've done to flesh out Grifball and Infection and make them feel more like full featured modes. Are there any other modes that have seen a similar lick of paint? SWAT, maybe? No, we've shown all the major changes now, we put a lot of work into Flood and Grifball as those have always been really popular modes. There will be some minor tweaks here and there, but we've shown all the big surprises. Obviously CTF has seen some significant changes too, but there's nothing else on that scale. Obviously you're one of the few who's made a Halo game with both Bungie and 343industries, how do they compare? In many ways they're very similar, in terms of the pool of talent and the quality of the teams. And both 343 and Bungie are absolutely committed to making the best game they possibly can. The main difference between the two is the way the teams were formed, with Bungie it was a slow organic growth over time, whereas at 343 we had to build a team much smaller time frame. Huge thanks to Frankie for taking the time out to talk to me. There are some more questions, but they relate to content under embargo, I may release them as a part 2 at a later date. View full article

I think adding accuracy to your stats would be nice too. We have Kills, Deaths, Assists and other weapon stats (kills and deaths with the weapon and etc) Though no accuracy? I think it would give us another challenge - raising our accuracy up as high as we can get it. I love seeing this in other games. I want to know what you guys think about it. Example: BR: 51.3% Shots Fired/Shots Hit/Shots Missed P.S - I know the game is finished basically but how cool would this be..and i don't know if they could implement this at all since the game is in this stage.

A 7 minute gameplay on the map Complex with the game mode "Flood".The pistol is still in and we get to choose 1 of 3 loadouts from Flood and Human alike. It appears you can choose Camo, Hardlight Shield and Thruster pack. I am not sure exactly what side can do what but Camo is for both sides and i haven't saw a Human with Thruster pack and i have not saw a Flood yet with a Hardlight Shield. Give me your thoughts on this. From and By: ducain23 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrPt2rWwbOg&feature=g-user-u Fan Mail Friday Post: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=480727948617768&id=2675... Original Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUaPZC0Ydq8 View full article

Battle Rifle Covenant Carbine Promethean Scattershot Energy Sword Light Rifle

IT is in Multiplayer - Read the news tab more. http://www.343industries.org/news/_/halo-4/matchmaking/some-gameplay-of-the-unsc-mantis-in-action-in-m-r348

To learn more about Halo 4 and how to pre-order your copy today, please visit http://www.halo4.com http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimaprime Subscribe to Machinima Prime for the best of Machinima's new shows! "Squad" - Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Special Preview The newest members of Hastati Squad at Corbulo Academy talk about joining the UNSC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6rPEXGuqzM&feature=g-user-u "Meet the newest members of Corbulo Academy of Military Science's Hastati Squad and find out what led each of them to the UNSC and the civil war that not all of them want to fight." "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a live-action digital series that takes you back to the beginning of the Human-Covenant war and leads right into the events of Halo 4. It will unfold through a series of five episodes and will be initially distributed worldwide by Machinima, debuting on its new channel, Machinima Prime, as well as on Halo Waypoint, on Oct. 5, 2012." FOR MACHINIMA'S BEST HIGH QUALITY SERIES, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimaprime FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinima FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimarespawn FOR MORE SPORTS GAMEPLAY, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimasports FOR MORE MMO & RPG GAMEPLAY, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimarealm FOR MORE COMPETITIVE GAMING, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimavs FOR MORE ANIMATIONS & SHORTS, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=happyhour FOR MORE TRAILERS, GO TO: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=machinimatrailer View full article

ducain23 talking about Halo 4 on two discs as well the map remake being Valhalla from halo 3 and to be renamed Ragnarok. Read below for more details From and By: ducain23 Valhalla: http://halocouncil.com/content.php?r=863-Halo-4-Remake-Map-Vahalla-.2 Disc: http://halocouncil.com/content.php?r=866-Halo-4-Confirmed-To-Be-2-Disc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LnPMoO5d68&feature=g-user-u View full article

Frank O'Connor hiring Treyarch and Activison employees to work on Halo 4 and give it the twist like CoD has. Bringing some of their habits into the game. 'Perks' if you call them that, Specializations and Tactical Packages. Frank said "they aren't chasing Call of duty's tail". Two new vehicles and flood game type along with a interview of Frank O'Connor. Also, they game is complete and is off to Microsoft for manufacturing. Read below for more details From: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/homepage.php? By: Tamoor Hussain for CVG UK Although 343 Industries has taken influence from Call of Duty in the development of Halo 4, the studio isn't trying to compete directly with Activision's behemoth. In an interview with CVG, Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor was asked if modern shooters such as Call of Duty have had an influence on the design of Halo 4. O'Connor replied by saying 343i has done its due diligence, keeping abreast of the genre's evolution and a keen eye on peers. He went on to reveal former Treyarch and Infinity Ward devs are working on the sequel and "bringing some of their habits to the game." Despite this, the development team has made a conscious effort to ensure Halo remains distinct and maintains its own gameplay identity. "We haven't tried to chase that tail," said O'Connor. "Those games are good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons. "I think the closest we've come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn't just aesthetics." Earlier today 343 revealed the Flood will return in Halo 4, and showed off two new vehicles. Frank O'Connor: Halo needs to innovate: Read below for more details From: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/homepage.php? By: Rob Crossley for CVG UK 343 Industries' development exec discusses the future of the franchise Britain is secretly controlling the games industry from the inside like a rain-soaked Trojan horse, I'm sure of it. Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor FIFA is spearheaded by David Rutter, GTA is "the Scottish game", Sony was run by a Welshman and now PlayStation is under the command of another. Similarly, the next trilogy of Halo games is being orchestrated by Frank O'Connor, the Edinburgh-born developer who helped establish 343 Industries for Microsoft in Seattle. O'Connor speaks with a butchered American accent but performs a quite remarkable impression of Peter Molyneux. He also carries that 'executive glow', a calming air of success when other men would depict the astounding pressure of being responsible for the most important Xbox game of the year. CVG met with O'Connor to discuss his views on the fourth main instalment in the Halo saga, as well asthe future of the series. Here's what he had to say. CVG: The last interview we had with Bungie, it was amazing to hear Brian Jarrard explain the extent in which his whole life and family has changed through all the years of making five Halo games. You are embarking on the next decade-long trilogy, do you feel ready for it? O'CONNOR: I am prepared, yes. People ask me if I'm tired of it. To be perfectly honest, there's something about sci-fi that makes you never feel like you've reached the end of it; both technologically and in terms of narrative. And we're starting to call Halo a saga, because - as you'll see in Spartan Ops - the narrative continues, so we literally don't know how many pieces comprise the overall arch. We know what the beginning, middle and end will look like, we just don't know how many distribution points we are going to have in there. One of the design challenges for Halo 4 appears to be making it look new yet familiar. How did you try to achieve this? Yeah, because of the natural growth of the Xbox 360 [installed base], we know who the core Halo fans are but we knew there are going to people who are brand new to it. So we want to include nods and winks to regular players, and resonate this sense of déjà vu on the first level of the campaign. But we also wanted to come up with an experience that's suitable for new players. It was obviously a big challenge but there were some great solutions, and what I'm most excited about is I think we've captured the magic of the first trilogy. How difficult do you think it will be to stand out from the Bungie line of Halo games? Yeah, the funny thing is that's a pressure externally, with people obviously comparing the games, but that pales to insignificance to the pressure we feel internally. We had nearly three hundred developers from all studios who loved Halo, and wanted to put their stamp on it. There's no diplomatic way to say it; we have hundreds of developers who love the Halo series but thought, you know what would be cool if we added? The FPS genre has evolved quite significantly since the release of Halo 3 in 2007. Have games like Call of Duty had an influence on your project? Certainly, and we've hired people from Treyarch and Infinity Ward, and so those people are bringing some of their habits to the game. But we haven't tried to chase that tail. Those games are good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons. I think the closest we've come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn't just aesthetics. By the time the second trilogy is finished in another four-to-six years, Halo will have approached a second decade since its birth. Yeah, that's right. Do you feel, looking ahead, the series needs to innovate? Yeah, it does need to innovate. Bungie had this great history of evolutionary innovations. Matchmaking, for example, were not completely new but the way it was implemented was a new benchmark for the industry. So you believe this is what 343i needs to be doing? Yeah. But we're not trying to radically overhaul anything - we are trying to make it more fun primarily. The biggest innovation in Halo 4, I would say, is Spartan Ops, because it's essentially a TV show we are producing. We simply do not know how the public are going to respond to it. Is there any scope to support Halo 4 with Kinect? Not for Halo 4 specifically, but we'll be using it for the [Xbox Live app] Halo Waypoint, which you'll be able to launch directly though Halo 4. Halo is a core game series, and more than many others is directly linked to the muscle memory of holding an Xbox controller, going back as far as the days of the Duke on the first Xbox. Kinect is a logical extension of the UI, and with regards to some of the sci-fi themes we're actually pretty excited about it, but not for the controls. That's not what it's for, and we would never try to shoehorn that into our game. But there's a lot of cool experiences that we're going to put on Waypoint in the future that's completely appropriate for the experience. Technologically, Halo 4 makes a marked improvement on its predecessors. Is it an entirely new engine? Engines are constantly evolving. The funny thing is that Id Software is probably using some code from Doom. I'm sure is a Bungie engineer from 1999 looked at our engine, they would recognise some code in our new engine too. But ultimately every system was either radically re-written or tweaked, and there's a whole spectrum of these systems we have improved. The entire rendering graphics component is probably one of the biggest changes, and our audio and networking underwent big revisions. So is this an engine just for one Halo game, looking ahead? Well as I say, it's going to be this evolution of technologies that already exists. So whatever the next thing is, it'll contain some code from this engine too. But the tech is becoming more powerful and flexible as we continue to work on it, so it's going to be around for a while. View full article

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