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Halo 4 User Research/QA Reviews (Self-Notes) For myself and those who are reading: Let me be very clear, as a reminder for myself and as a warning/template for all who do read this document. I am here to analyze, and contemplate the hell out of Halo 4 for several reasons. First and most importantly, I am hoping to incorporate this document into a portfolio that I will eventually show to game companies that I want to work for. A sort of, “This is part of how I do my research, This is how I feel I can help companies build exciting new games, and “This is why I’m a religious gamer” type of advertisement. Also I apologize for any profane language. I am one of the few “lucky ones”, who have known from a young age that the gaming industry is where I belong, and my most cherished heroes are residing in companies like Riot games, Activison-Blizzard, and the kings, Bungie. I might as well inform whoever is reading this that Bungie is the company that built the Halo universe, and is currently working on Destiny. I hope it will be funny later to read this over with DeeJ or Marty, and look back to before Destiny was released. Hi future self. Anyway, Secondly, as you can already tell, the goal here is to be informal. Lets get something very clear, and not mistake this for uninformative. I firmly believe, that in order to break this game (and all games) down to their bare bones, we must use INFORMAL language and documentation. There is a block if you will, a sort of inhibiting force, when informative / important information is kept in overly formal and confusing language. See what I mean? Again I want to be clear, when documenting bugs, or analyzing game play/ user interface issues, organization is key. But for this type of documentation, its more about listing off ideas as they come, and allowing the largest volume of thoughts to be present. Third and lastly, Halo is a game that I have loved since Jump Street. I bought and played the first one the year it was released, (I was 9 at the time). I played Halo CE all the way through today’s Halo 4, and have been an insane fan of the entire universe since its creation. That being said, I am disappointed. I do admit, I am a competitive player, and sometimes I let this competitive drive fuel my love for games too harshly. With Halo 4, I feel there are several keys aspects that have been lost from previous titles, but for now, in this document I want to focus on the competitive side of the game. After all, aren’t QA dudes and User Researchers supposed to analyze very specific parts of games? Anyway, I am going to do my best to breakdown Halo 4’s competitive multiplayer, partly because I feel like some of the issues in this huge title deserve to be talked about, and more importantly I want to show off some of my analytical skills. Lets get started. Chapter 1. The Controller Note: In order to understand how Halo 4, (and any first-person game for that matter) works, we MUST learn the basics of the controller. The way I think about the controller, and actually most aspects of the gaming world, is that we must assume that nobody knows ANYTHING about games. When conducting User Interface or analysis of a game, we must assume that everyone sucks, doesn’t know ****, and that it will be used by morons. This is the only way to ensure we build the easiest and smoothest form of game/ controller. The hard stuff comes later, like adapting the game for competitive play, and higher skill use. But for now lets stay with the basics. 1.The controller is an *******. I say this with love. The modern day controller is an *******. Gamers are forced into uncomfortable pre-set button layouts that they are forced to learn and deal with for their gaming careers. Hopefully future game companies and console manufactures will learn, but for now we are stuck with what we got. 2.What can we do? After all don’t you want to be in User Research? How about a simple screen somewhere in the options or menu, where a controller is shown with blank little text-bubbles around each button. The player then presses any button, and it becomes highlighted. Then the player is able to choose an action with that highlighted button. Like, you press R-bumper, a drop-down menu with options like “shoot, grenade, run,” or whatever are shown, and then you can select the one you want. Kind of like computer RTS Hotkeys and Micros? Whatever, they will learn eventually. Anyway, back to the controller. 3. How does Halo 4 use it? For now we are left with the modern day ******* controller. So how does Halo 4 utilize the beast? In my opinion, Halo 4 actually does a pretty good job. Thanks to Bungie and now 343I, Halo titles come with many different pre-set options for the button layouts, even they do suck it at least offers some variation. BTW I don’t mean Bungie and 343 suck, I mean the controller itself sucks. Anyway, Halo 4 uses the basic model that most FPS games have now come to accept. R-trigger=shoot, L-trigger=grenade, Left stick= visual movement, Right stick=foot movement, and so on. This seams to work for today’s gamers. You already know I feel that there are better ways to go about this entire process, but lets stay on task. The controller offers quick reactions, and small-refined movements, which are CRITICAL for competitive games. It allows for things like headshots, sprinting, movements, shooting in refined areas, and many other competitive aspects that are too critical to ignore. Overall, Halo 4 doesn’t really do much for the controller, and the controller doesn’t really do much for Halo 4. The controller is basic a pre-set system with modern day settings. The one thing I WILL say about Halo 4’s default controller settings, is the B-button crouch. What the **** is that. I don’t know about you guys, but my B button is one of most commonly used buttons in FPS games, and in my humble opinion should be reserved for the most often used actions. I’m not dissing the importance of a crouch, we all know it’s a fierce tool when caught up in 1v1 shoot outs in halo, or dive-shooting in COD, or removing your presence on a radar. But lets be real. Don’t you think you reload more times than you crouch? Especially with modern day Crouch-Toggling abilities, people are using it far less than they are using reloads, weapon swaps, and even grenades. I guess it’s a small tick, but something I felt like mentioning. 3.A bit of “Controller Psychology” I like to think of the buttons on controllers in levels of importance. First of all, we have the 4 most critical buttons, (based on a modern day Xbox 360 controller, since that’s what Halo 4 uses). The A, X, B and Y, buttons. These are used by your right thumb, and in my opinion should represent the 4 fastest actions that the game demands. In Halo 4 these things are reloads, weapon swaps, melee attacks, and armor abilities. These are all actions that require quick movements, and fast usage, not long or steady actions such as shooting. Next are the triggers, hugely important for FPS play. I feel that the right and left triggers are usually associated with shooting and grenades for a reason. They are easy to hold in position, and are easy to associate with important actions like “R=Shoot, L=Grenade”. Next are the analog sticks, left and right. The left stick, allows movement of the feet, the actual player. This is hugely important in FPS play, because of the skill based required to out-maneuver your opponents. The right stick, allows movement of the “eyes” or head of the player. Clearly important for the most basic of game play, aiming and sight. These stick also have the ability to be “clicked” inwards, in Halo 4 activating sprint and scopes. These are actions I might prefer elsewhere, but at least Halo 4 found a way to use them, like every other shooter out there. Lastly, is the D-Pad. I believe this is one of the most usual tools, and under-utilized options on the controller. It offers quick options, and it’s relatively easy to use, either by clicking or by holding the buttons. I would be ABSOULTY BLOWN AWAY, if Destiny ends up not using these buttons in a BIG BIG way. Chapter 2. Tempo Note: Tempo? Who am I, Marty O’Donnell? I ******* wish. Tempo is a musical term that basically means the speed of the song or music. In terms of Halo 4, I’m referring to the speed of the game, in everyway. The speed of the players, of the weapons, of the vehicles, of the spawning, of the game play, of the loading screens, of the map choosing screens, of the actions, of the ordinance drops, of EVERYTHING. In a general sense, I feel that the faster the game play gets, the worse the COMPETITIVE game play becomes. There are aspects to speed that are truly important for good completive play, such as player speed. Some of the games that have used this for genius competitive play in the past are, Halo 1-3, Halo Reach, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. But there’s a HUGE problem when you combine player speed, with high speeds of all the other aspects as well, but Ill talk more in a moment. Let me tell you something Halo fans, the speed of Halo 4, is ******* LIGHTSPEED. 1.Player Speed The speed of players (Spartans) in Halo 4 is fast, fast, fast. Just like almost every other part of this game. Players can shoot, use an armor ability, toss a grenade, or scope the sniper with virtually no downtime at all. In my view this is one of the best aspects of modern day shooters, Halo 4 included. These intense competitive games need to allow players to respond instantaneously, and fluidly, so that the outcome of the game play is based on skill, and not inhibited by an obnoxious, slow system. The player’s ability to react by shooting, jumping, or reloading, MUST be INSTINCTUAL, so that instead of fighting the controller or game, the players are fighting each other. Lets talk about the armor abilities. Everything is based on being faster. Finding an ordinance FASTER, being able to move a stunned vehicle FASTER, seeing around corners FASTER than just using your radar. I mean common, every single player has ******* SPRINT. This game is build for speed, and an “everybody feel good” vibe. 2.Object (Weapon and Vehicle) Speed I am going to be repetitive throughout this Tempo section. The speed of the weapons and vehicles in Halo 4 is very fast. In a way I do mean the actual speed of the vehicles, such as the highly mobile Banshees and Ghost, but more importantly I’m talking about the manner in which the vehicle are used. The vehicles in Halo 4 are not really vehicles at all, they’re more like suicidal, maniac, DGAF machines. The vast majority of the time they are used by players who jump on a Mongoose or Ghost, speed across the map to the enemy spawn-side in an effort to splatter any enemies along the way, and blow up in the inevitable explosion from the entire enemy team shooting them down. Sometimes they will be used for just transportation, which in my view is the only way to successfully use vehicles in Halo 4. A quick example is when your playing on the Valhalla remake, Ragnarok: You die, jump on a Goose, and drive down the edge of the map to the pelican-side, and now you GET OFF. You have used the vehicle to put yourself back in the middle of the fight far faster and less dangerously than the main lift out of either base. This is the only way to successfully utilize vehicles without becoming a human moving bomb in Halo 4. There is one exception with the Mantis of course, but this only really applies in the hands of a dangerous and experienced player. These players are usually able to keep the Mantis alive for a while if they stay back and use it more as a defensive measure than an offensive one. But even then, these vehicles are not REALLY being used for competitive play. Occasionally players will get a few kills in a Warthog if the driver can keep the car from flipping. But even then, any team shots on the gunner renders the Warthog useless. Don’t even get me started about the Mongoose. That ******* thing flips faster than Shaun White, and has less armor than Kat in Halo Reach. (Idk who else noticed that, but this war-torn, arm-missing, badass SPARTAN warrior Kat, takes A SINGLE PINK needle to her visor and is instantly killed). She must not have gotten the most recent armor upgrades. But whatever. Anyway, if the vehicles in Halo 4 are going to be used for actual completive play, there needs to be some drastic changes. First of all, MAKE LESS OF THEM. On any of the maps where vehicles are offered, make 1 Warthog or Ghost, put it somewhere in a neutral position on the map, and make players fight for it. Now, 343 also must make these Ghost and Warthogs and everything else WAY WAY WAY buffer. Make the Warthog very hard to bring down without large explosives, even then make it 2 laser shots or several rockets. Give the gunner a huge protection buff, so that he is able to actually do some harm. This way, the vehicle does several things. First, it becomes an actual THREAT. No good team will be able to let that Warthog dominate them without losing the game or become totally immobile. They will be forced to team up to bring it down. This is totally opposite to the game play that happens now, where an enemy warthog is basically 2-3 free kills. Secondly, it inspires a part of competitive play which I will talk far more about later, Map Control. At the locations where the vehicles spawn, people will be fighting for the areas, and be forced to use competitive teamwork to secure the prize vehicles. As Halo 4 is played now, nobody cares about vehicles, they are unimportant, unpractical, and can be blown up with a single grenade and clip from the AR. Again these Halo 4 vehicles are contributing to the far less difficult, more easy to grasp, “everybody feel good” vibe. Can you imagine if it was actually helpful to have these on your team? Nobody would just run around sticking unused Warthogs and Gooses, and nobody would lightly drive a Ghost to middle of the map. They would become precise tools for competitive play, which is what needs to happen to make a successful competitive game. Now for the other half of this segment, Weapons. The Weapons in Halo 4 are incredibly fast, even the slowest shooting guns like the Rail gun and Spartan Laser take less than 3 seconds to fire. The standard load out weapons are all incredibly fast. Even though the DMR is supposedly slower than the BR, its very very close. The Carbine, Light rifle, and automatic weapons all shoot very quickly, so that players feel the controller vibrate more and feel more engaged. Even the sniper can unload its entire clip quickly. As well as the shooting speeds, the weapon swapping is almost instant. There is 0 downtime or repercussion for pulling out the wrong weapon in a fight. There’s even an armor add-on called dexterity so that you can swap weapons FASTER. To me, these guns are incredibly fast, so much so that there really isn’t any downside to pulling the trigger as fast as you want, and there isn’t any downside for accidently pulling out a pistol when you needed a DMR. 3.Spawning This is one of my biggest problems in Halo 4, and with almost every modern day shooter. Most people don’t take into account the real effects of spawning throughout a competitive game. The fact is that Spawning is EVERYTHING. Spawning changes the speed, player-dynamic, and game play for the entire match. In previous Halo titles, spawning was controlled in several ways. In most game modes, Spawning was restricted by time, usually 3 seconds in slayer matches. In other modes, it was a long re-spawn time, like Capture the Flag and Oddball. The point of this control was to ensure that the players had adequate time to regroup with teammates, or plan their next strategy in a competitive sense. While Halo 4 does keep longer re-spawn times in some game types, its basic Slayer layout is completely different. In Halo 4, there is 0 re-spawn time in Slayer modes, and most game modes for that matter. This means that as soon as a player is killed, he can press the X-button and get right back in the game. This ABSOLUTLY DESTROYS the competitive aspects that other Halo titles had during these slayer matches. The pure speed of the re-spawns, allows players to sprint in, (since everyone has sprint), shoot as much as possible, die quickly, and get right back up to do it all over again. This COD style of game play is completely opposite to what Halo fans have come to know from their completive experiences. The name of the game in Halo 4 is FAST, and spawning is no exception. Chapter 3. Player Rewards and Their (Not)-Consequences Note: So what do I mean player rewards? And the player’s ability to NOT have any Consequences? What I mean is, that in Halo 4 players get rewarded for everything. Even stupid decisions and bad moves for competitive play are rewarded. And at the same time, there are few, but virtually NO consequences for making bad moves or poor competitive decisions. Lets break some of these down. 1.Rewards For Poor Competitive Play In Halo 4, players are rewarded for every move they make. In most game modes, the ordinance drops are the new form of power weapons. These drops contain either power-ups or power weapons that greatly change the course of the competitive game. The way ordinances are achieved is by building up a small meter on the bottom left corner of the screen. Basically a reward system. The problem with this, is that the meter for ordinance drops builds from almost EVERY action a player can make in Halo 4. For getting kills obviously, but also for assist, for destroying vehicles (which we already have mentions as being incredibly easy), for getting kills specifically around a base, or flag, or territory, for assassinations, for long shots, for headshots, for grenade kills, for sniping, for specific weapon kills, for kills with the oddball or flag, and the list EVEN GOES FURTHER. The problem with this COD style of reward, is first of all, that the ordinance drops become SUPER frequent, which drastically effects the number of power weapons on the map at any one time. This substantially increased the speed of the game play due to the increased ease in killing your enemies. But at the same time, this over-the-top reward system encourages poor competitive play. It causes players to use the vehicles recklessly, totally disregarding the chance of being killed. It causes players to specifically attempt assassinations, when getting a faster kill and helping your team is the far better competitive choice. These may seam like small details, but they add up when trying to analyzes the competitive speed and type of game play. Again this is leading towards an “everybody feel good” style of game, where you can be rewarded for being a poor competitive teammate. 2. No consequence for Bad Moves The other side of this section occurs partly in game, and partly during the re-spawn process. In Halo 4’s competitive play, there is no consequence from making poor decisions for your team. The largest problem is found in the instant re-spawns. Because of the 0 re-spawn time, players feel no remorse for dying quickly, and throwing themselves back into unwise game decision. Players don’t stop to wait for backup from their team, players don’t hesitate to jump on a mongoose and drive into the middle of a fight, and players don’t warn team mates about new information, such as player positions changes, or power weapon locations. Why would they do these things? All they have to do is press x, and they are instantly back in the fight. This also means that players are able to reengage super quickly. If they are able to re-spawn as fast as they want, or even if there is small re-spawn time, they are able to jump back into a fight, sometimes the same fight they were in BEFORE it was even finished! This is partly the fault of the speed of the game, but the fault also rest with the lack of consequences. No waiting after you die, no reduced ordinance meter. Why don’t they keep re-spawn times like in previous Halo titles? There was a reason Bungie had them. Why don’t they reduce your ordinance meter for these stupid behaviors? The reason is simple. Can you guess? It’s an “everybody feel good” type of game. Easy to play, even easier to master in a competitive sense. This is not the last time ill be using that term. Chapter 4. The Highlights Note: It seams like I’ve been bashing Halo 4’s competitive side pretty harshly. That’s because I am. For the most part, I feel like Halo 4 has lost its sense of competitive play that previous titles knew so well. That being said, there have been some improvements to the competitive side of the game that I feel deserve acknowledgment. 1.The Armor Abilities Halo 4 has introduced an entire new lineup of armor abilities for players to choose from. These including anything from a deployable turret (which needs a buff drastically), too a regenerative shield. There are many others, and that’s the point. With so many different styles of players and game play occurring every match, versatility is huge. Players can perform with extra aggressive behavior by using the thruster pack to their advantage, and others can hold a position by defending with the hard light shield. Can you guess why the hard light is my favorite? It’s the only one that actually SLOWS DOWN the pace of the game for the entire 4 seconds it stays open. But anyway, players have a good selection to best match their play style. 2.The Weapons For pretty much the same reason as the armor abilities, the weapons of Halo 4 should get some credit. The weapons offer diversity on the battlefield, an aspect even Bungie has struggled with in the past. In the other Halo titles, a single weapon dominated the competitive play, either the BR (Halo 2 and Halo 3), or the DMR in Reach. Those older games really offered no other choice when it came to high-level competition. But this is not the case in Halo 4, as players have a variety of balanced weapons to choose from. I would still argue that some of the weapons need buffs, like the Suppressor, and the Covenant version Storm Rifle. But for the most part, the primary weapons are balanced, and able to fit into many varieties of game play. 3. The Game Types Halo 4 and 343I has done a fantastic job with its new list of game types. It has many of the old title favorites like Griffball, Swat, and even team Snipers for a while. And it has of course some of the most popular games, like slayer, capture the flag, and big team battle. Specifically with Capture the Flag, I love the addition of an automatic flag pick-up. Anytime you walk close to the flag, you automatically pick it up and pull out a pistol (which is an awesome addiction in itself). This means that teams are forced to play the objective (the flag), or wait out the entire game by playing slayer with no clear winner. It means teams are forced to work together to protect the flag-runner, instead of being able to put it down and be in full assault-mode again. Oddball has been the playlist with the biggest improvement. With the addiction of throwing the ball to teammates, 343I has basically invented a new virtual sport. It forces strong teamwork, and good strategy planning. Both are huge contributors to successful competitive gaming. I believe the new Oddball game type is the Halo version of soccer, or football, and will last as 343’s best competitive achievement. It’s debatable on whether or not that Griffball may be the best competitive version of the Oddball game type. They are different, and are played at very different speeds. But overall Oddball will last as the biggest change in Halo 4’s list of game types. In Conclusion Note: It’s been a long list of likes and dislikes for Halo 4. I’ve talked about many different topics, and have tried to list some of the key aspects of the game. Keep in mind this is not an official test study, but more a general review of thoughts about the game while I am playing. Thanks for your time, to whoever is reading. I’m sure I’ve pissed plenty of you off, yet hopefully I also had a few responses of “**** man! That is so true!” Below are some of the key points to keep in mind from this document. - Halo 4 is built around speed. Everything from its player control, too its map design is based around fast-moving and never-resting game play. The best way to sum up 343’s competitive play is, “Everybody Feel good!” - The competitive design has fallen away from traditional Halo play. Weapons no longer spawn in specific areas of the map, hence the removal of most map-control. Players in most game types now have no re-spawn time, and are able to get back to making poor decisions even faster. - The weapon and armor variety is great. With many different kinds of players, comes the need for many more types of primary weapons, and armor ability use. - The controls in Halo 4 are standard. Today’s modern FPS games are built around the “accepted” buttons for certain actions. If you’re comfortable with the choice of pre-determined control layouts, then good for you. If not, your **** out of luck. Hopefully these will become more customizable with future titles.

Here we have a full analysis of the destiny vidoc from IGN, it does thorough job at going through everything from the video. We get to look at enemy factions, vehicles, beautiful environments and a lot more. This Entire analysis is from IGN. Credit to Drizzy_Dan for the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HjqYn2Bc1Hw Pillar #1: A World Players Want to Be In “This pillar really influenced us early in development,” Jones said, noting that Destiny has already been a six-year odyssey for him, while the rest of Bungie started to get in on the action in 2009 and jumped fully onboard after Halo: Reach shipped in September of 2010. “Is this world cool? Do I want to stay here? Do I want to learn more about it?” That world is a post-apocalyptic earth. Humanity has been nearly wiped out, but saved by the extraterrestrial protection of The Traveler, a gigantic white globe that now floats claustrophobically close above the planet’s last safe city – a place where humanity’s greatest minds have come together. Over time, humans have regained their technological mojo and again taken to exploring the stars of our own galaxy: Mars, Venus, the Moon, etc. Except now various forms of alien life seek to stamp out humanity once and for all, and it’s up to you as a Guardian to help stop them and keep earth safe. Not much is known about the Black Garden.. Pillar #2: A Bunch of Fun Things to Do Staten proceeded to tell a story about a possible gameplay scenario in Destiny, in which Staten’s Warlock class character and Jones’s Vanguard (Staten explained that every Guardian wields some of the Traveler’s power: “You can call it magic, I guess.”) head off on an adventure together. You’re at the Tower, a reinforced monolith that serves as your home. Here you can socialize, gear up, or group up and then aim for the stars – literally. Many other players mill about. Some you may know, some you may not. Some are making plans for adventure, but others may simply be watching the sunset – a worthwhile endeavor thanks to the spectacle of Destiny’s new engine, which pairs real-time dynamic lighting with global illumination for some truly spectacular vistas (one of the few things I actually did get to see with my own eyes). Jones is a higher-level player, and as such has better gear, including an impressive sleek, black spaceship that makes Staten’s smaller, simpler vessel look like, in his own joking words, a “Space Corolla.” Ships will serve various purposes. Only a Scout class was specifically mentioned, though it was implied that space combat will factor into Destiny as well. Mars' Exclusion Zone is controlled by the Cabal. Whooshing to Mars, the pair finds “the bones of a lost human civilization.” It’s “an ancient city,” Staten detailed. “Buried in sand. The precious remains of a golden age.” Here to prevent you from reaching any of the literal gold that’s rumored to lie beneath the ruins of the Dust Palace are the Sand Eaters, a group of massive, armored rhino-esque creatures known as the Cabal. A shootout soon turns ugly for Staten’s Warlock and Jones’s Vanguard. Fortunately, a mysterious female player – rocking a Hunter class – speeds in on the very Ghost-like Pike vehicle and helps turn the tide thanks to her unique weapon, dubbed “The Fate of All Fools.” The battle was won thanks to invisible, behind-the-scenes matchmaking that linked the players – think of it as the next evolutionary phase of Bungie’s groundbreaking hopper technology that served as the online backbone for every Halo game starting with 2. Earth's moon is broken. Check out the tectonic action! “Every time you run into another player, it’s amazing,” Staten exclaimed. “It just doesn’t happen in other shooters.” The Hunter class of Guardian lies in wait as a few different foes pass. “And just like that,” Staten explained. “The Dust Palace becomes part of my story. The breadth and depth of Destiny’s world encourages me to find my own adventures." Pillar #3: Rewards Players Care About Jones explained how the game will have “a lot of great things to earn, find, and make,” reiterating that “everything you do in Destiny earns rewards.” Besides unique weapons, every piece of your kit will be your own, from your helmet to your cape to your armor pieces to your face. Their goal, he said, is to keep players coming back “day after day, week after week, month after month, [and] year after year.” The two of them are now three, and the trio plumbs the depths of the Dust Palace, reaches Charlemagne’s Vault, and Staten scores a new pistol. Like the Huntress’s sidearm, it too has a custom name: “Thorn,” a fitting description for a 45-caliber hand cannon. With this outing complete, the Hunter leaves just as quickly and quietly as she arrived. If this sound a bit reminiscent of IGN’s 2012 Game of the Year Award-winning Journey in that regard, you’re not alone. Pillar #4: A New Experience Every Night “Imagine you could spend an hour and accomplish something,” Jones mused. Bungie aims to have emergent activity, where “you get distracted from doing the thing you meant to do when you logged on.” Furthermore, Jones expressed hope that “every time you sit down to play Destiny you have a different experience than last time.” All we know about the Vex is that they're time-traveling robots. The word “raids” – a term MMORPG fans know well – was used at one point during the presentation, suggesting large group scenarios as well as solo and smaller-party endeavors. Bungie says they’ll have “an activity for every mood.” As an extension of this pillar’s concept, Destiny will have no main menu. Instead, it just lives and you’re always in it when you boot the game up. Pillar #5: Shared With Other People Though all of the Bungie representatives on hand made sure to emphasize that there’s plenty of fun to be had in Destiny by yourself, they made repeated efforts to nudge my thinking in a more socially minded direction. You'll have at least three classes of Guardians to choose from: Hunter, Warlock, and Titan (left to right). “Everything that’s fun to do is more fun to do with your friends,” Jones mused. Naturally, of course, there will also be a fully featured competitive multiplayer mode, though neither Jones nor anyone else from Bungie was willing to offer even a hint about any details just yet. Well, other than the fact that you won’t be forced to engage in player-vs.-player combat unless you explicitly desire to. Pillar #6: Enjoyable By All Skill Levels He also made a point to emphasize that Destiny seeks to appease everyone from shooter neophytes to hardcore FPS players. “All core activities can be enjoyed by a novice player,” Jones promised. That, he intimated, is not hard. “What’s hard is keeping it interesting for your advanced players.” Pillar #7: Enjoyable by the Impatient and Distracted Destiny is alive whether you’re in it or not. But you’re busy can’t live there 24/7. To that end, a Destiny mobile phone app – shown as a prerecorded iOS demo this time – illustrated how the game could send you updates about new quests and what your friends are up to. Bungie also teased that you may be able to use the mobile connection to affect your friends’ games, but declined to provide any additional details. This image is interestingly titled "Hellmouth." Can't imagine why... Within the game proper, Jones said they know that players “don’t want to work hard, they don’t want to read, and they don’t’ want to go to the Internet to figure out our bull****.” In other words, they understand that what they’re making is escapist entertainment. “This has led us to a huge investment in [user interface],” Jones explained. Clearly, Bungie has a story to tell and information to convey, but they don’t want to bog you down with any of it. What Else? Talk about "dead space"... Bungie art director Christopher Barrett dubbed Destiny a “mythic science fiction” universe and shared a number of locales we can look forward to visiting: the Cosmodome Breach, the ruins on the edge of the European Dead Zone, the swamps of Old Chicago (likely a nod to Bungie’s original home city), derelict fleets floating in the rings of Saturn, the earth Moon’s Hellmouth, the uncharted depths of Reef, giant obsidian pyramid ships, mile-long tomb ships, and much more. Then there are the characters we’ll be encountering: fellow Guardians in at least the Titan, Warlock, and Hunter classes; the Fallen, the time-traveling robots known as the Vex, the aforementioned Cabal, Spider Pirates and their rusted machines, evil space zombies, the FOTC (apparently a Guardian faction of some kind) and...that's everything they'd cough up for now. View full article

Hey all, Ive been playing Halo for about 8 years now (since the end of H1) and have loved the multiplayer aspect of the series since the very beginning. This is just a quick thread on my minor (hopefully constructive) complaints on Halo 4 at the moment, and where I can see it potentially heading with the proper attention. First off, thanks to 343 for taking the time to listen to a lot of the community's feedback and making the core of H4 so enjoyable. Despite all my minor gripes with the game, I stil am enjoying myself tremendously. However, having said that, there are a few key things that I would love to see implemented going forward, that could make this game have tremendous staying power. -The division of competitive and social playlists. I really love playing competitive Halo (MLG settings, snipers, etc...), but I don't always feel like trying so hard. Sometimes I love just signing on and joking around with friends while playing. I had a ton of fun doing both in Halo 3 because the weapons were so varied. It was amazingly fun to give ourselves handicaps (stickies only, beatdowns only, spikers only, or some other) upon realizing our opponents were far less skilled, and making the game interesting and close. This wasn't possible in Reach because of the lack of variety in the weapons, but is now back with H4. So my hope is to have playlists where TrueSkill is not weighed as heavily, so that those of us who do not always feel like playing with 100% intensity can have that option. -Option to turn off instant spawns. To me, Halo has always been a game of momentum and control. Typically after a shootout, one player has died and the other is weakened. Normally this is not an issue, the player who died has to wait a few seconds before coming back into the game, giving the player who won the encounter time to recover (as it should be). However with the newly implemented instant spawns, a player who lost an encounter has the ability to quickly jump back into the fray, and possibly finish off the fight he just lost. In my opinion, being given two chances to another player's one is never fair. While the instant spawns are great for continuous action and have their place in social play, playlists like "Slayer Pro" would benefit immensely from a more traditional timed re-spawn. At the very least this should be an option for custom games. -Set location and times for power weapons spawns. This also relates to Halo always having been about momentum and control. Having power weapons put in precise locations, away from choke-points and "power positions", encourages map movement and makes gameplay more dynamic and continuous. Without powerful weapons to entice players into moving, a power position can be established early and (possibly) never given up. Random weapon drops (and random ordinances), along with the previously mentioned instant spawns, have their place in casual playlists, but are borderline game-breaking for those looking for a balanced competitive experience. One team getting needlers on ordinance while the other is given 2 or more snipers makes for an unfair game. -Visible marker above teammates recent death. This has been in all the previous Halo games, and is an extremely useful aid in map awareness. When you see a teammates red X, you have an idea of where the enemy team is on the map. Granted that you can develop the awareness needed to not rely on this aid, but I miss it. These are my primary concerns at the moment! I realize map packs are already scheduled for release, supposedly with a competitive slant, so that wasn't brought up. Thanks again to 343 for working hard and doing their best. I only provide these criticisms with the hope that they are somehow considered for the continuous revision of the game that I love.

That's my newest Youtube vid. I have been practicing and getting adapted to software for a while now. Please check it out, reply, I have a lot of plans for this Youtube channel but I really need starting support. More videos coming out this week! Like? Feedback? Subscribe? Thanks and Peace (:

Halo 4's Forge Menus Get a Close Up Gamespot came out with a video showcasing Halo 4's Forge mode in use. It was in super fast motion so we could really see what he was doing, but no the less we got to see what the pieces looked like. He went very quickly through the menus and did not show us any pieces that we have not already seen. So Halo 4 Follower took that video and took so screenshots of the menu's and then zoomed in. Now we get to see what was on those menus that were basically flown by in the actual video. Here is the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HxK6JTYo1I&feature=plcp Video By Halo4Follower So what do you think about some of the options that we now have? There is a list solely dedicated to the Ravine. There is an entire list dedicated to Dominion Gametype. Let me know what all of this means to you.

It never really occurred to me how much this video told until it was brought to my attention again recently. The video clearly shows the world Master Chief is or could possibly be on and its massive. There are tons of Forerunner structures and a lot of green areas in the shield world. One of the first important things I found was the moving object at around 0:24. If you pause it at the right time you can see something triangular or pyramidal flying at a high speed with a vapor trail which could possibly be the escape craft used to get off the Forward Unto Dawn or knows? There are a lot of Sentinels and protectors of all different shapes and sizes, some even resemble dolphins at around 1:04. These happen to inspecting what look like drop pods and there are a few there. Throughout the video it is shown that Chief is in a large area with lots of Space to roam, or so it seems. Clearly the story will be linear and will not have you allowed to roam around wherever you want, it will probaby be like Halo 3 and Reach where there are gigantic levels in the campaign but you have to follow a certain path and most of it is scenery that is blocked off. I believe the concept art of the ship from outer space and the Sentinels inspecting it is concept art for cinematics. Then around 1:09 you see large metal things with thrusters which I believe are larger Sentinels or protectors but am open to the possibility of them being ships of some sort. HOWEVER I also notice there at the bottom left what I think is more than one figure. It's definitely not certain whether that's just what the piece of metal whomever (most like John) is standing on is shaped like or there are other figures there but I noticed it as I was going through the video slowly. I believe it is just one more figure on his left and the one's on his right are scrap metal. Or it could all be scrap metal I don't know for sure. Sticking with the same scene you could also see fire on the left indicating something chaotic might be going on along with the groaning sound of the video. Last but not least everybody sees the part after the Halo 4 logo comes up with the shaking camera and a moving image and a big red light. This has been said to resemble a Precursor and I agree to some extent. I could believe this would be a Precursor with more proof. There aren't many Precursors left and to me it'd feel too early to introduce Precursors but if you freeze the video at certain points you can make out some features of a tall creature that kind of resembles Alien. Post theories and ideas of what you think is to come in Halo 4 based on the video.