ProudDrunkIrish

I have to say your post makes a very good point and gives great food for thought.. I do think the storyline of the campaign was very good, it was new and refreshing, we got to see a new enemy, new weapons and real development of the characters. Maybe we are at a point where the best possible features for an FPS on current consoles have been explored, though I dare say there is something entirely new left on a drawing board somewhere, this may have lead to what we describe as the copying from CoD (using CoD as the basis is due to it being the beiggest title). I still believe that they sacrificed too much of what made Halo well Halo.. Its not so much the additions to the game that get me but the things they took away as a result. 343 seem to have taken what may have been considered the safe and easy route, in the multiplayer they added features that had been tried and were in other games. But beyond that in the campaign things such as showing the chiefs face at the end was a cheap addition to ''make the game special and memorable'', such things were not really needed hell they had already killed cortana so why add more??? If Bungie were still in charge then I would say with a new console we may have had an awsome game but the pressure on 343 to carry on a huge title along with the launch of a new console may have been too much. Such a company has to protect its future, not their fault just the way it is. All the above said this game released with a new console and the improvements that would have allowed, also giving them more time to complete the game (thus a better product on day of sale) may have been a huge leap in keeping the customer base happy. Now these are just my opinions, and as such they are what they are..

Simply you have to pick a specialization, press start-up on D pad-go to specializations-select 1

You wait for more specializations to be released if you do not have them all and when they do you pick one till then you stay at SR90 simple as that... Bad system especially as some nations got left out of the freebies..

I have to say on page 8 this topic has reached its end, the points have been made and discussed in great detail. I believe we have discussed the similarities with CoD and other games, and we have mentioned the loss of traditional and sometimes defining Halo features. I do not think anyone is really saying this is CoD, but rather that it has become a lot more like CoD and lost a lot of what made Halo great. I mean we can all see that we are still blue and red spartans running around and to some people thats Halo no matter what else they change. I for one play the game still and even enjoy it, I just find myself putting it into the console less than previous Halo games and playing less hrs. when I do. Maybe its time to close this thread as apart from the same people making the same arguments I cannot see anyone reading through all of it and thus being able to find the few posts that mean anything. It appears the Trolls did their work and made bits of a decent discussion. Oh and have to agree with Tornado this was a rushed and unfinished game which might be the biggest dissapointment of all..

Well this may be my opinion so it is far from fact but here goes: Needler not OP - Has little ammo and so only gets a few kills, since its a power weapon well that seems the least it should get Incineration Cannon - Not OP its just they made the rocket launcher worse so it seems better, direct hit on a hog and unless bounce offs also hit you do not get the kill!! AR/Suppressor - Not OP they have very limited effective range especially suppressor, so they need to be kings of their range to give them a purpose. DMR - OP its good at all ranges and very easy to use. Destroys vehicles very quick aswell. Botshot - OP not because of the 1HK but the range that you can get a 1hk at also the allowable release time removes the need for good timing. Binary Rifle - Is OP but the fact it gives away your position and is bad at no scoping brings it back in line somewhat. The DMR and the Boltshot are really the only OP weapons in the game for me. Some may seem too good but I think they are meant to be and others are probably underpowered, I mean rockets are not what they used to be.

First off OP good post. As for some of the points in general I agree with them, except maybe the flag carrier one, I quite like the pistol addition as it means you have a chance to score even if your teammates are not good at helping you. The vehicles in general are underpowered from general small arms fire, a team can destroy a banshee or ghost very quickly with just DMR's and the ability to start with plasma pistol and grenades changes the whole thing, if this had been in H3 then vehicles would not have been able to rampage as much. The Gauss hog being OP is more due to the map layout of exile (its most common place to appear) it can hang back and wipe out players before they even get near it, whenever a bad driver takes it close to the enemy it is usually dead very quickly. The staying zoomed when shot is something I hate as not just for the sniper aspect of it but sometimes when I am being shot I do not even notice anymore which is annoying. The lack of fixed weapon locations on the map is annoying, in big team I always have ammo on or else I run out. And although i like the map voting system there is a constant flow of the same maps which can get very boring. All these things are small and to be honest most of the issues with the game are but there are many of them. All this said I still play and have some fun, but hope they make some changes.

Please no rubbish beyond the topic which is how to best use one, every thread on this forum gets trolled to death lol.. So once again tips and tricks to get the best out of the gravity hammer in griffball??? Any takers???

Gauss + good driver on exile is the simplest way of getting one, no doubt. Sniper base camping on Ragnarok is good aswell, stick on ammo and camo and hope you team are bad. Wraith on whatever lvl that is on hang back and kill vehicles you build a running riot pretty quick. The above lvl's are most consistent for perfections, although I have also gotten them in banshee on exile. Its all about careful play which can be boring but if you want the commendation then its what you have to do.

People are not always saying they are quitting, they say that the game has lost what made it great, it was very different from other FPS games and that is part of why it was loved. I view this as a new game with an old title, but unlike previous versions (H1-H3) it does not have the same appeal. It is a case of if I had to choose what to play (this or CoD) I might go either way. People point out the negatives more than the positives, thats just nature, also having the name Halo it had big shoes to fill. What really annoys people is not so much the additions but the loss of some of the defining features of the game. Rather than add they replaced and when your additions are not seen as being as good as the things you removed then there is a backlash. Truth is however that 343 have set the tone in relation to the direction they are taking the game and people are not so impressed, rare is it that a game series starts poorly and gets so much better. Now Halo 4 is a good game, not great but still good, and I enjoy playing it as most do. The thing that annoys me the most is that it was clearly released unfinished and since then we have only really heard empty promises, they are finishing the game instead of improving it. This has left fans disheartened and automatically gives them a negative outlook on the game. All in all 343 did make a mess of things, not solely in the changes to the game but in picking deadlines over quality.. I can only hope this changes for the next one but who knows and will as many people spend 60 quid to find out?

The best thing is that I believe they had quite literally promised this in January this yr. then when they were nowhere near ready they hopped to April.... So anyone in a betting frame of mine I'd have to gives odds on that we do not see it in April lol.. 343i make more false promises than a junkie, I am getting tired of them, now that said I will probably still play Halo on and off till that time but releasing something that should have been in the game from the start 6 months later is bad business and dissapointing. Oh well some companies have what it takes and well others don't I suppose.

Cheers Chris will give that a go I have been going straight at them and seeing the way the hammer swings that seems logical..

Personally Halo and Xbox go hand in hand and I for one like that, its the first xbox game i owned, it was the reason I bouht a 360 and no doubt when they release 5 it will be the reason I buy a next gen xbox. So nothing against pc users but there is no pc gamer out there who could naot afford an xbox at its current price. Want to play the game then get the console i was designed for..... It was designed for the xbox system and the controls for an xbox remote. Now thats just my narrow minded opinion and it will make no odds either way to be honest but meh...

He pulls it out of a little cavity at the lower rear of his back!!!

You need to post this on the waypoint forums, there is no 343 rep here its just a community discussion forum. Yup and if it was there its hacked and he deserves a forever ban, BRING ME THE BAN HAMMER!!!!!

Your logic is undeniable, I guess I am living in the past a bit and considering my life has moved on and I have less time for games maybe this was the best change for me aswell, to be honest a lot of features added to this game could have worked out very different, take ordinance for example, I mean who thought more power weapons would mean more camping? In my mind pre playing that seemed like more madness and mayhem. Fleshback is right all things could have been done better, but then they will be making Halo 5 so who knows maybe there they will find the right mix. Time for me to sign off on this thread... Have a good time gaming everyone

True enough I dare say, good chance most matches have US hosts and yet I fail to see the game changing lag despite having a mediocre connection in Ireland!! Maybe people think they are gods of halo and and that their enemies should die just by looking at them, I suppose when this doesn not happen they may blame the connection To be honest its rare enough that I see game breaking lag, sure it may lag a little but its only unplayable on the odd occasion. I wonder what speeds the guys who are complaining about have and what kind of service they use?? I know mine is poor and since its boosted through copper wires its never going to be great lol..

Haha not really helpful this thread is for tips on hammer use, type of movement, strike distance, where to aim if at all, its not really a discussion on the good and bad just how to get the best from a hammer... :wallbash:

Well then try the class for team slayer, try to injure enemies with nades before you get in sight of them (use your radar and throw them in their path), see how it goes and adjust the class to suit you. You will get better the more you play, the game takes a while to get used to. Remember just grenade the enemy position the shoot, go for the head if you can. Its a matter of practice will make perfect.

This thread is still going lol, I love how we are now onto the skill lvl haha. In past Halo games you won because you and your team were better, you could assault multiple enemies and beat them if you were good enough, it was a game where skill and aggression won, there is nothing wrong with that especially as it had a ranking system that was designed towards skill. Halo 4 does not require as much skill as say Halo 3 did, it is not even comparable, sure some map knowledge and slightly improved strafing will keep you alive 1 on 1 but its designed for you to die. The whole map control ideology is gone out the window, we now have camp with a DMR and stick on ordinance priority, this way you can get better weapons than the enemy that advances and is better than you (hooray a lesser team can win) As fleshback has stated the additions have changed the core of the game we loved, its a new game with an old name thats just a fact of life now. I used to enjoy battering teams in H3 but also got my *** handed many a time and I never blamed the game just myself. Oh well I suppose they should change all sports so that I can beat the best even if I am no good at them!!!!!!!!

A set style of play.. you either hang back or attack non stop but it has to be one or the other. Your loadouts must be specifically designed for this style. For each game dependant on lvl you have to have a plan of how you start, for example no matter what on Ragnarok I go for the spartan laser, on exile the banshee, on longbow the high middle ground, on meltdown mantis, on the Vortex a ghost, on complex ghost, on haven sticky detonator/more grenades (start by throwing first 2 instantly at enemy position), on solace incineration cannon, adrift straight for sword area (not to get it but to kill enemy that try), on abandon the top lvl centre. I have 3 BTB classes that cover all my plans. Basic one is: DMR, PP, Plasmas, Camo, Ammo, mobility (mobility gets changed for wheelman when i plan to use vehicles) The above class is for aggressive play, you have range and the ability to fire at anything that moves with no risk of running out of ammo, also you have the weapons needed to kill vehicles, active camo gives you an edge for when you are holding high ground, it makes you less obvious to snipers and lets you get closer to vehicles. If you wish to camp use a light rifle and maybe a boltshot then put on ordinance priority. For team slayer: BR, Boltshot, Frags, Hologram/jetpack, explosives, resupply Good aggressive loadout that covers all situations, if you hang back more then DMR and regen field. These are classes that suit me and how I play, I rarely variate as I have learned to use them to their best and they suit my plans. What you have to do is have a plan and a backup plan, say if you do not get the banshee on exile then what?? you can go back for sniper or down for ghost or just hold the banshee spawn area. my class having active camo and ammo allows me to hold the area if I do not get the banshee but if I get it I have wheelman so its better. The main point is have a plan of action, power weapons and vehicles still rule, so pick one and go for it, have a play style and use the weapons that suit it and the map, I hope this helps you somewhat.. Good gaming.

Hate to say this as you did try to lay out your points well, but this has been talked to death with all points noted. Have a look and see peoples thoughts many are similar to your own.. Regards, PDI

Hi all I have a simple queury for all of ye. Having played griffball a bit today I found myslef a little at a loss, my grav hammer skill leaves something to be desired. Last time I played griffbal was Halo 3 and I was quite good at it.. now I did not play Reach much so may have missed changes to the grav hammer. It seems the blow back from 2 hammers going at each other is gone and now you both die!! Also the old technique of jump + hammer down has lost its range and strength. Also I cannot find the sweet spot on the aimer to get max distance. Any help would be appreciated..

Been fine most of the time for me, now and then there are connection issues but that is with all games these days and this one is not the worst by a mile. Maybe your connection is poor, test it against a server on the far side of the world and see how it goes. You would be amazed how much worse it is than you may have thought. If it is bad then you are going to have issues connecting to games where the host is in different countries.. There is little that anyone here can do for you except advise staying away from hectic gamemodes i.e. Big team as its is always more laggy, less players often means less lag.

There is no regional matchmaking and the issue is not localised, although it does not happen all the time to me I have seen what you are describing... It seems to occur mostly in BTB for me where I do not even get assists despite hitting the target, or I empty a clip to kill them on and off. As far as I know its lag based upon where the host is, so if the best host is non US well then those closer to him should be having better connection. To be honest I guess most hosts are US based (if what they say of their net connections is true) or maybe UK being they have a fibre heavy network, so I would expect to suffer as much as anyone but do not find it a major issue most of the time. Not sure what 343 are doing about it if anything as they have a lot of things top fix right now might be some time before they get anywhere near this issue

Cannot say i have but something tells me i am gonna be doin that as soon as i finish work hahaha!!!!