(Halo 5 2014 member) posts about the new Halo game.

[Ghost Recon]

I will be posting the new Halo game links and Articles in here that I find about it.

 

Next Xbox One Halo Game to “Amaze and Shock” Gamers by Pushing Innovation for Graphics and Audio.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/07/mext-xbox-one-halo-game-to-amaze-and-shock-gamers-by-pushing-innovation-for-graphics-and-audio/

 

 

 

 

Xbox One Rumors

Little is known for the moment about the upcoming Xbox One Halo game, but a couple new career opportunity ads seeking a Graphics Engineer and a Software Development Engineer give us a glimpse on what we can expect from its visuals and audio.

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343 Industries is looking for an outstanding graphics engineer to complement its award-winning graphics team. This engineer will implement cutting edge features for the future of Halo, and will support other internal teams with their graphics needs and requests.

As a graphics engineer you will be responsible for writing and maintaining the systems which other 343 teams use to implement and iterate features during their daily work. The ideal candidate has a passion in this space, and loves getting their hands dirty while coding incredible systems which unlock the potential of our internal teams. Your features will be used to amaze and shock game players around the world. You are an out of the box thinker who relishes challenges, and enjoys making sure games are fast and pretty.

If rendering hot pixels and facilitating others gets you excited, this is the right job for you.

Candidate responsibilities
- Collaborate closely with internal development teams to unlock their potential
- Own and maintain various DirectX11 rendering systems
- Create new next-generation systems

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You are an audio technology innovator and have strong ideas for the future of audio technology. You will help prototype, test, and create audio features through the sheer power of your masterful coding abilities. You understand the tech behind audio at a deep level – both software and hardware. Working with developing technology means you have to be adaptive and understand the constraints of working in an iterative incubation environment. You must be a capable problem solver who is not afraid of big challenges and can use your engineering skills to quickly flesh out ideas with new technologies. A strong understanding of audio technology encompasses, but is not limited to, the following: audiology, acoustic and psychoacoustics, DSP, binaural/surround/HRTF spatial audio, Wwise or similar audio engines, Unity/Unreal or other scripting technologies that allow for rapid iteration on ideas.

As an audio-focused developer, you will be working collaboratively with the Technical Design Director, Central Audio Director, team creatives and producers to drive and support the audio features/tech you help create through all stages of production. You have well balanced communication skills and are able to present your audio concepts concisely both technically and in lay terms.

You thrive in an environment of innovation and excellence. Lastly, you must rock… figuratively of course.

_____________________________________________

Both ads indicate that 343 industries is pushing the envelope of innovation for its upcoming Halo game. A lot of emphasis is put on the fact that both candidates will have to implement and work with new and cutting-edge systems and technologies.

Will the new halo really “amaze and shock” us? We’ll have to wait and see, but 343 Industries definitely seems to be stepping on the gas pedal here.

 

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Next Halo to Use Sound as a “Major Function of Interactive Moments”

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/06/next-halo-to-use-sound-as-a-major-function-of-interactive-moments-might-have-traditional-music/

 

The next Halo game development at 343 Industries is still pretty much shrouded in mystery, but today Microsoft published a career opportunity ad seeking a Sound Designer that sheds a bit of light on its audio features.

Below you can read an excerpt of the ad itself with the relevant parts bolded:
 

343 Industries is looking for a Sound Designer to join our award-winning audio team for the upcoming projects. We are looking for a talented and diverse individual who has a driving passion to create the next chapter of Halo soundscapes. [...]

Demo reel of your past work is mandatory to applying for this position. It should highlight your ability to create original and compelling sound effects that’s relevant to Halo creative style.

The candidate must be able to demonstrate the ability to collaborate with implementers to transform game parameters into useful audio events, conceptualize and design features that employ sounds as a major function of interactive moments. Forward-thinking creativity is a must, but balance it with stability and optimization in mind.

Looks like we’re in for a pleasant audio experience with the upcoming Halo. The part about using audio as a “major function of interactive moments” is particularly intriguing.

We’ll have to wait and see what this will really mean, but hopefully the game will be fully revealed soon enough.

[Ghost Recon]

Halo 5 might miss 2014. If so, will Titanfall really be enough?

http://www.gamesradar.com/halo-5-might-miss-2014-and-if-so-will-titanfall-really-be-enough/

 

If word from the very mouth of Master Chief (voice actor Steve Downes) is to be taken as gospel--and it isn’t entirely, as of yet--then the release of the Xbox One’s Halo 5 could slip to 2015. Obviously, if that happens, then it’ll be very disappointing for players, not to mention a rather sizeable blow for a console increasingly struggling to compete in the face of much faster-selling competition. The most recent sales figures give the PS4 a 2:1 lead against Microsoft’s machine for January in the US, and the (relatively) imminent return of the Xbox’s biggest franchise would have gone some way toward building the One’s momentum.

 

Both next-gen machines are currently lacking killer apps, but the PS4 is making great headway by way of a lower price and its attractive status as a PS+ machine. There might be little in the way of big hitters landing soon, but the constant flow of strong, free games gives the PlayStation 4 a unique value all of its own. So if the Xbox One is to compete in the near-term, what does it have to fall back on? With work on the next-gen Gears of War only just starting, surely the console’s biggest hope is EA and Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall.

Titanfall, arriving in mid-March, is excellent. I’ve played rather a large amount of it at various preview events, and I continued to have a great time with the beta at lunchtime today. I’m thus far finding it to be the freshest, most interesting, most exciting multiplayer-only shooter I’ve played in years, and I’d heartily recommend it to anyone, based on my current experience of it. Is it enough to turn around the Xbox One’s fortunes though? I’m not entirely convinced.

Because as fantastic a game as Titanfall is, it has three attributes that I feel might limit it as a hardware saviour. Firstly, it is only one game. For those looking forward at the tangible future potential of a console (ie. those who Microsoft really needs to convince to buy an Xbox One), one great game, however great, probably isn’t enough. Secondly, while it’s the best MP-only shooter I’ve played in years, that caveat is important. It is an MP-only shooter, and historically those don’t set the console world on fire. It’s ironic, of course. Millions buy a new Halo or Call of Duty, only to rinse through the campaign in a matter of hours before spending months online. But give a console player a game that caters only to multiplayer and--unlike on the PC--its commercial prospects seem limited.

The third problem? Although not heading to the PS4, Titanfall is not an Xbox One exclusive. It’s releasing on the PC at the same time, and on the Xbox 360 a couple of weeks later. That third format in particular could be a problem for the XO. As I've mused before, this new hardware generation is plagued like none before it by cross-generation releases, and that’s seeing the new consoles struggle to distinguish themselves as must-buys with exclusive selling points. Titanfall will look better on the Xbox One, but mechanically it does nothing that couldn’t be replicated on a 360. And does it look £400 worth of better? No, no it doesn’t.

 

I’m in no way writing off Titanfall or the Xbox One. The former is an amazing game, and the latter has years to prove itself. But Microsoft’s first steps in doing that cannot rely on one single release. The PS3 started out troubled, but Sony realised that long-term consolidation of a strong, eclectic exclusive line-up was the key to success, not quick-fix hype. If Master Chief really is going to be delayed in his arrival to next-gen, Microsoft needs to be thinking in those same terms. The spirit of Sony’s successful PS3 strategy is arguably alive and well in its generous approach to PlayStation Plus. Going in a similar direction, ideologically if not strictly in terms of emulated policies, would be a great way for Microsoft to start.

[Ghost Recon]

UPDATE: Regarding the recent Halo 2 Anniversary and Halo 5 confirmation

http://www.gamezone.com/news/2014/02/14/update-regarding-the-recent-halo-2-anniversary-and-halo-5-confirmation

 

It's certainly been a busy Friday here in the GameZone office. Yesterday afternoon we posted a snippet of an interview with Master Chief voice actor Steve Downes (the full interview has now been posted in full and can be read here) confirming the release of Halo 2 Anniversary later this year, with Halo 5 not arriving until 2015. As you can imagine, this sort of thing spread like crazy. And it didn't take long for Microsoft to contact us, asking us to retract the statement and post a new one -- one that they claim is what Downes really said to us.

Of course, having the original email and interview on file, we know what Downes originally said. And it isn't the new statement that is being published today.

The new statement, which Microsoft is under the impression Downes told us, reads: "I think you're ahead of yourself on H5.  I have read some things on line that you can look forward to a H2 anniversary edition maybe this year,  but  I have no official information one way or the other."

Keep in mind, that's not what was originally told to us. And we have the original emails to back it up. Needless to say, we're confident in the interview that we posted.

In a follow-up email containing his new response, Downes wrote to us, "It sounds like I was "confirming" [an] H2A edition, which I most certainly was not. I'm in no position to do that as I have no knowledge of it.  I was only mentioning what  I had seen on line about it."

So why are we saying all of this?

Because we stand by the original quote that was published. By issuing a new statement today, one that Downes is claiming he told us, it casts doubt and confusion among readers. I understand why he would backtrack in his statements -- Microsoft has yet to actually announce anything and a leak like this is huge. So I get it; he's probably feeling the heat. Or maybe he really did misunderstand the question. But we also feel the need to defend ourselves, especially when new statements distort our image as being honest.

For what it's worth, we have spoken with Microsoft and have been going back-and-forth regarding the leak. They respect our decision to stand by the original quote and offered this statement:

"We can confirm your next “Halo” journey will begin in 2014, but beyond that we don’t have any details to share at this time.”

Based on the feedback we've heard and seen online, Microsoft would be smart to release Halo 2 Anniversary for Xbox One. A lot of people have claimed they'd actually go out and purchase an Xbox One just to get it.

 

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What We Want From Halo 5

http://thekoalition.com/2014/02/want-halo-5/#_

 

I was in attendance that Monday morning at E3 2013 when Microsoft was dropping trailer after trailer for what would be their game lineup of 2014. Among them was the first teaser of the next Halo game with a 2014 date to keep me impatiently waiting. Needless to say, I got chills down my spine when that duststorm blew the hood off Master Chief's head to reveal his helmet. Halo is more than a game to me, it was essentially the "hangout spot" for me and my friends in our high school days. But to be completely honest, it has lost a bit of it's flare with me with each installment, and this was happening even before 343 Industries took over development duties.

Like a fanatic to any sort of media, I feel I have the "answers" to rejuvenating the Halo series and giving it that grand spectacle feel it had when it would approach an impending release. These are a few changes that 343 Industries could implement to make Halo 5 once again reign supreme over the FPS genre.

Ending Master Chief’s Storyline

Fellow writer Gary Swaby used this point for his Uncharted 4 article, and was criticized by me and people in the comments. This point is way more suitable for a game like Halo where the story isn’t so personal to a character like Master Chief. For one, he’s a man of few words unlike the mouthy Nathan Drake. Secondly, we’ve already had a taste of what a Halo game would be like without the Chief, and those turned out fine. At the end of Halo 4, Master Chief essentially lost the closest person to him in Cortana. Seeing as how we got a small glimpse of Master Chief without his helmet, I’m hoping Halo 5 will be his most personal story to date and hopefully wrap up his story in a pleasing way to fans.

New Enemy Type

Let me start by saying, The Prometheans suck. They weren’t all that fun to kill and were sort of a hassle to kill. Can’t tell you how many time the Promethean Knight pissed me off, on Legendary difficulty might I add. I’m not asking for the Prometheans to be scrapped for good, but many give a better sense of what their end goal is. What if we got to play as one in the campaign like when we played as the Arbiter in Halo 2? Just an idea.

Taking Halo Multiplayer Back to the Basics

Gamers seem to dwell on nostalgia. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean we love where we come from in terms of gaming but sometimes it’s good to go back to the basic fundamentals of a series. Like other FPS nowadays, Halo has adopted some Call of Duty multiplayer elements with classes and abilities. That needs to go away, asap.

What I would like to see happen is a focus on bringing back the Halo 2 multiplayer feel. After COD took over the competitive nature of multiplayer games became diminished. I blame this on the “everyone wins no matter what” motto that games have been implementing. People don’t care if they win a match in Call of Duty as long as they pwned every noob in the match and their K/D ratio is high. Back in my Halo 2 days I would yell at the top of my lungs telling my teammates to “touch the flag before it resets” because winning mattered. Ranked matches need to make a serious comeback and I don’t mean that Arena system they had in Halo 4.

Another misstep the series has been making is focusing on having some grand epic battle mode. Halo Reach did this with Generator Defense and Halo 4 was guilty of this with Invasion. Both modes weren’t all that great and even caused other modes to suffer because of it. One complaint I had with Halo 4 was that there were only about six maps that supported 4v4 at launch. WHY ony six? I know we just had the whole “outrage” over Titanfall supporting 6v6 matches but Halo multiplayer was built of 4v4. If anything just give us Big Team Battle for our massive battle fix, but please stop taking away from your crown jewel.

What Would You Like To See In Halo 5?

There are a few other minor changes or additions I would like to see but I pretty much covered the major ones. I know how vocal you Halo fans are, so leave a comment and let me know what you want to see in Halo 5.