Halo 4 is Not a Halo Game: Here is Why

[DeadbeamZERO]

Before I begin i would like you to know I am not trolling anyone and I am expressing my opinion on a matter I consider very serious. I know many of you will flame me and disregard me, but I need to get my feelings out to the community. I need you to know what I believe. I know for a fact Halo 4 is going to be a great game. But it is not what Halo is, it is not Halo.

 

I grew up with Halo and my Xbox. Halo was a very important part of my childhood. I remember coming home everyday from school and starting up Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 2 with the same euphoric look on my face. There was nothing that compared to popping skulls with the pistol, or headshotting grunts and elites alike with the BR. When time came, I saved all the money I could for an Xbox 360, because I knew Halo 3 was on its arrival.

I was so eager to play it, so hyped up by everyone around me. To this day, I believe it to be the most hyped up video game ever. Some say that throne belongs to Modern Warfare 3, but I disregard them. G4 did not do a 24 hour countdown to MW3, and if they did. It was not worth it. The hype that led up to Halo 3 was completely worth it. That game was the reason I got Xbox Live. And that game was to this day, the best experience I have ever had in a multiplayer game.

A few years ago, Halo: Reach, Bungie's farewell had released. For months prior, I would spend hours on the forums. And I had spoiled the campaign for myself prerelease. But I cared not, while we enjoyed Reach for weeks, we crashed and came to loathe it. But I recently returned to it, to give it another shot. And what I discovered is how much i had loved it. It was a bitter-sweet finale. Halo was done.

 

Until they announced Halo 4.

 

From the get-go, I had shaky feelings about Halo 4. Previous to the release of the ViDoc, I felt like the entire new trilogy was just milking the series. The original Halo had to die, its rezurection was blasphemous to the original trilogy. The thing I was so hung up on was the fact that they had already defeated the covenant. Starting a new trilogy with all new enemies would undermine the entire struggle, the entirety of Halo: CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST, Halo:Reach, and even Halo Wars. The one thing I would not stand for is the replacement of the Covenant as the new enemies. There is way too much of a nostalgia factor to replace grunts, elites, jackals, hunters, and even brutes, prophets, and drones. The sheer gameplay that was created by the variations in the enemies you fought was what made Halo Halo.

How do they plan on replacing the Covenant with "Forerunners", as speculated and completely change the gameplay of the it all. My biggest gripe is that there is too much change for this to be a canonical continuation.

Sure, I know the game must change from game to game. But the game no longer resembles what you and I grew up playing and loving. There is too big of a jump. The thread was sewn so tight, the only thing we had left to wonder was where Master Chief would end up. Johnson and Miranda are dead. The Arbiter and the elites have gone home. Who is there to fight?

The ViDoc had gave me mixed feelings. On one hand I was estatic to play this game as it looked good and fun. The multiplayer instantly gave me visions of Halo 3 on Narrows, although I am not a big fan of the new Spartan IVs(they look like they are wearing the Nanosuit from Crysis) But on the other hand, I felt violated, and I have never, ever felt this way about a video game before. Why does Chief have new armor? How does chief have new armor? Why does the BR look so different? Why does the Warthog look so different? Who is the Chief going to fight now?

These things,The BR(atleast a semi-shot, skill required weapon), the Warthog, The Covenant are all staples of the Halo Franchise. If you remove them or heavily alter them, these staples are going to fall apart, and the paper they bind together will promptly follow. There is so much change with little canonical explanation. My hope is this will all be explained in the beginning of the game, and that the covenant will return as the main enemy, but the Forerunners will replace the flood as the emerging enemy. Although I know for sure that is not going to happen. 343 is going to take Halo 4 in the direction they deem fit, and I do have respect for them. They are the ones making the game and it is their right to alter it. But I know, deep down that the new trilogy will end up being like the second Star Wars Trilogy.

I don't want Halo to be like this. Halo has changed too much, it is no longer Halo. It is no longer the game I grew up with. I will by the game, there is no doubt about that, but I don't think I will enjoy it. I'm not mad, I'm scared, scared of what Halo is going to become. I hope, I really, really hope that I am dead wrong. But that is not what I think, that is not what I know will happen.

I'm scared for Halo 4, and you should be too.

[DeadbeamZERO]

I'd like feedback on whether anyone agrees with me or if everyone just thinks I'm crazy

[M4sT3r Ch13f S117]

I think that Halo 4 IS a Halo game so what if it is different enemy by the way the enemy is not confirmed.Halo 4 is Halo.

[DeadbeamZERO]

I think that Halo 4 IS a Halo game so what if it is different enemy by the way the enemy is not confirmed.Halo 4 is Halo.

 

Well you are titled to your opinion, but I will have to disagree with you. I think the game will be good if the covenant come back as the main enemy, preferably altered and more in a destroyed state. I could cope with every other change as long as the covenant returned as the main enemy. But I doubt that will happen

[Vitamin Pwn]

i can see where you coming from, alot is still uncertain about halo 4,im curious to see who the enemy is going to be exactly and if the covenant will have any appearance in the new trilogy. the change in the armor and br and warthog at this point can be credited to aesthetic changes at this point until they say othewise. as for your referene to new star wars trilogy i can see something like that happening because people who grew up playing the original halo trilogy will most likely prefer that one more than the new trilogy, where as the players new to halo might like the new halo trilogy better than the old one.

 

oh and also this belongs in the halo 4 forums so im moving it

[BigMartin58]

this should interest you a little!

 

http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/6498-enemies-returning/

[kingkellogg]

My problem is more of with the gameplay,it seems like its going to be more like call of duty,with its crappy point based score system and custom loadouts.

 

Story wise Im not considering it canon,bungie ended the series.

[Twinreaper]

After just watching the video about halo 4, I have some very dissapointed feelings and am very worried about the future of the franchise and it's development team. As with standard format and tradition I will limit my rant to numbered order of things, and as time allows, I willa nswer for my griefs in more detail as needed...

 

 

1. Engine (core settings) The graphics are not anything as I imagined. fact is, they barely look any different from what you can find in UEK or Cryengine, under

the hand sof a good SDK user. All this time, and the Blam! engine just now comes to almost a par level with 2 to 3 year old engines? Yeah, way to suck

Wolfkill and Yu.

 

2. Competative map designs. Frank never minces words, and he rarely ever says anything unless he has a conviction or the words have meaning. When they say "built for competative", it means just that. every map is thought out and planned with the competative game in mind.

 

3. Perks. They touched on the fact that certain types of "perks" would be available. Couple that with my #2 griope...and you have a MM that seems straight out designed for MLG and FFA/Arena style gameplay...leaving us casual and fun lovers at much of a dissadvantage.

 

4. Animations. Sorry, but I'm calling lazy or bull**** on this. The movement animations yes were touched up a bit, but the same old ones used series after series. Even the jump animation under closer look, had pretty much from what i could calculate, the same marker and node placement as Reach animations. even the in air postures were nearly identical.

 

5. Vehicles. The warthog model had 34 different part/model permutations. That's it? Really? You increased the amount of poly's and parts by 6?!?!?! I expect way more in terms of detail and permutations for a new engine and new trilogy...not a water downed lazy version. Hell i could go and add 23 new different parts to a warthog in halo2 easily....

 

6. maps. Both maps look exaclty inspired by previous ones in the series...yet they have the balls to say they are all brand new made from scratch and not reused?!?

 

7. HUD. I have grown acustom to seeing my grenades on the left side of the screen. So why is now they have a 3 teir icon set for the grenades on the right. And yes...those are grenade placeholders. If you watch one of the HUD gameplay screens...you clearly see a plasma grenades occupying one of those places.

 

8. Player physics. The physics seem to be exactly what I would expect coming out of Reach into H4. The same physics system is in place. This is not good for players. The movement speed in Reach was to slow and the jump height/gravity increased too much. What we see now in H4 is too fast of movement....for the love og god...IS IT THAT HARD TO GET IT RIGHT?!?!?

 

9. Weapons. The dmr is coming back. Frank said it. He said the DMR is in, and also some other single shot weapons. What purpose does pitting a BR and a DMR in the same title serve? That would be including the bruste shot and grenade launcher together.

 

10. Spartan IV's. Ok I know this is gonna sound dumb, but I agree with however said the suits look like a nanosuit from Crysis. In fact, on the one level they showed, the giant mech being constructed looked like a giant tachikoma from GITS. I get MM being changed and blah blah blah...but really? We need Spartan IV player models with aweful looking armosa and a whole RvB backstory? My god......

 

Well there you have it. A good old fashioned 10 point reason why I will not be buying Halo 4, but instead renting it just to see and maybe finish the campaign.

[Archangel Tyrael]

After just watching the video about halo 4, I have some very dissapointed feelings and am very worried about the future of the franchise and it's development team. As with standard format and tradition I will limit my rant to numbered order of things, and as time allows, I willa nswer for my griefs in more detail as needed...

 

 

1. Engine (core settings) The graphics are not anything as I imagined. fact is, they barely look any different from what you can find in UEK or Cryengine, under

the hand sof a good SDK user. All this time, and the Blam! engine just now comes to almost a par level with 2 to 3 year old engines? Yeah, way to suck

Wolfkill and Yu.

 

2. Competative map designs. Frank never minces words, and he rarely ever says anything unless he has a conviction or the words have meaning. When they say "built for competative", it means just that. every map is thought out and planned with the competative game in mind.

 

3. Perks. They touched on the fact that certain types of "perks" would be available. Couple that with my #2 griope...and you have a MM that seems straight out designed for MLG and FFA/Arena style gameplay...leaving us casual and fun lovers at much of a dissadvantage.

 

4. Animations. Sorry, but I'm calling lazy or bull**** on this. The movement animations yes were touched up a bit, but the same old ones used series after series. Even the jump animation under closer look, had pretty much from what i could calculate, the same marker and node placement as Reach animations. even the in air postures were nearly identical.

 

5. Vehicles. The warthog model had 34 different part/model permutations. That's it? Really? You increased the amount of poly's and parts by 6?!?!?! I expect way more in terms of detail and permutations for a new engine and new trilogy...not a water downed lazy version. Hell i could go and add 23 new different parts to a warthog in halo2 easily....

 

6. maps. Both maps look exaclty inspired by previous ones in the series...yet they have the balls to say they are all brand new made from scratch and not reused?!?

 

7. HUD. I have grown acustom to seeing my grenades on the left side of the screen. So why is now they have a 3 teir icon set for the grenades on the right. And yes...those are grenade placeholders. If you watch one of the HUD gameplay screens...you clearly see a plasma grenades occupying one of those places.

 

8. Player physics. The physics seem to be exactly what I would expect coming out of Reach into H4. The same physics system is in place. This is not good for players. The movement speed in Reach was to slow and the jump height/gravity increased too much. What we see now in H4 is too fast of movement....for the love og god...IS IT THAT HARD TO GET IT RIGHT?!?!?

 

9. Weapons. The dmr is coming back. Frank said it. He said the DMR is in, and also some other single shot weapons. What purpose does pitting a BR and a DMR in the same title serve? That would be including the bruste shot and grenade launcher together.

 

10. Spartan IV's. Ok I know this is gonna sound dumb, but I agree with however said the suits look like a nanosuit from Crysis. In fact, on the one level they showed, the giant mech being constructed looked like a giant tachikoma from GITS. I get MM being changed and blah blah blah...but really? We need Spartan IV player models with aweful looking armosa and a whole RvB backstory? My god......

 

Well there you have it. A good old fashioned 10 point reason why I will not be buying Halo 4, but instead renting it just to see and maybe finish the campaign.

 

I agree with 10 highly because i said that, and 1 is true. I mostly agree with everything else.

[Azaxx]

I agree with 10 highly because i said that, and 1 is true. I mostly agree with everything else.

 

well i dont

[Unease Peanut]

I hope just like you that they will explain how everything changed. But about the covenant I think they'll return (only without a leader and savage or another leader) because there's no way the entire covenant army comitted suicide because of the death of the leader.

 

The maps might look a bit like the old halo 3 maps (as Twin said) but I dont think so. We haven't seen that much of it and the only similairity I see is the grey colour of the steel walls...

 

And guys theres no need to hate already they can still change a lot of stuff.

[Skittlze]

made for competetive doesnt mean that they disregarded social and casual gamers. forged maps tend to be the most casual and fun imo.

The way the spartan IVs looked in the video arent how theyll look in MM because they said they will be even more customisable than reach

THIS GAME LOOKS 100x BETTER THAN REACH sure the graphics might not be the best out there but they are an improvement and dont forget that this is still based off of the reach engine so im going to judge 343s graphics more off of halo 5 once they build thier own graphics system on the next box.

DMR vs BR

DMR>BR at long range

BR>DMR at close range

not to mention that there are people on both sides of the which is better argument so if 343 balances them out then why shouldnt people get to play with their favorite

Sure the maps may have had a few sections that looked like past halo maps but you only saw up to a minute and a half of real gameplay so you dont have a clue what these maps are structured like or how they will play

This trailer wasnt clear on a whole lot just that Halo 4 is different from 1-3 and Reach

[gazdich07]

I'd like feedback on whether anyone agrees with me or if everyone just thinks I'm crazy

 

I semi agree with you on alot of what your saying but then again on the other hand all great things are great because they are not afraid to evolve and take that next step. I have just been getting back into Matchmaking and Reach and i am finally getting a little bit of the "Home sweet home" feeling of the original halos by playing the MLG playing with no sprint and zero bloom, which i am grateful for, and your right, there really will be nothing that can top how much i loved and enjoyed coming home from school and hoping into customs with my friends on halo 2, any time i play on one of the remade maps i have the memories of the good old days of halo, but i think the path that 343i is going to go with halo 4 will be a good one and will keep the series we love alive. The people working on the new trilogy are people that are halo fans as much as we are, they wont do anything to the game that they would feel make it something that isnt halo. Yes the things may be a bit altered, but this is in the future of where we left off of halo 3, did master chief not get new armor from CE to H2? so that really isnt much of an issue, i just hope that they dont wander too far off the path of the originals. Make something new and fun, but give the vets something that they can say "alright, this feels familar"

[The Director]

Halo was done.

 

Until they announced Halo 4.

Not quite. Most of us had known there would be a Halo 4. Master Chief had to come out of space somehow.

From the get-go, I had shaky feelings about Halo 4. Previous to the release of the ViDoc, I felt like the entire new trilogy was just milking the series. The original Halo had to die, its resurrection was blasphemous to the original trilogy.

I understand how you could feel this way, but are you honestly going to tell me that you are fine with the way Halo 3 ended? That you would rather not see Master Chief rescued? To have the hero that almost single handedly ended the covenant war slowly die in space, never to see Earth, the people he saved, or anyone ever again? To have Cortana go rampant and slowly but surely unravel herself?

The thing I was so hung up on was the fact that they had already defeated the covenant. Starting a new trilogy with all new enemies would undermine the entire struggle, the entirety of Halo: CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST, Halo:Reach, and even Halo Wars. The one thing I would not stand for is the replacement of the Covenant as the new enemies. There is way too much of a nostalgia factor to replace grunts, elites, jackals, hunters, and even brutes, prophets, and drones. The sheer gameplay that was created by the variations in the enemies you fought was what made Halo Halo.

While you are entitled to your opinion on what makes Halo Halo, I am afraid that I must vehemently disagree with you on this one. True, the variations of the enemy did play a huge factor (which, bear in mind, the enemy may still be very versatile in what they look like and how they act), but to me the key element was Master Chief giving his all and never giving up to do what must be done to save humanity. This will obviously still be in the next trilogy.

How do they plan on replacing the Covenant with "Forerunners", as speculated and completely change the gameplay of the it all. My biggest gripe is that there is too much change for this to be a canonical continuation.

I honestly doubt that the enemy will be forerunners, but even if they are they were still part of the original trilogy whether you like it or not. Who built the Halo arrays (which the games name is from)? Who made 343 Guilty Spark? How can you call it change, when they were in the story-line all along? As far as canon goes, you should read the books if you haven't already. They fill in some pretty big gaps. I recommend Glasslands, it happens after Halo 3, and is said to be a prequel to Halo 4.

Sure, I know the game must change from game to game. But the game no longer resembles what you and I grew up playing and loving. There is too big of a jump. The thread was sewn so tight, the only thing we had left to wonder was where Master Chief would end up. Johnson and Miranda are dead. The Arbiter and the elites have gone home. Who is there to fight?

Now we get to know where Master Chief ends up. And to answer your question, flood, insurrectionists, Sangheili zealots, Kig-Yar pirates, not to mention forerunners and precursers. It's a big Haloverse out there.

The ViDoc had gave me mixed feelings. On one hand I was estatic to play this game as it looked good and fun. The multiplayer instantly gave me visions of Halo 3 on Narrows, although I am not a big fan of the new Spartan IVs(they look like they are wearing the Nanosuit from Crysis) But on the other hand, I felt violated, and I have never, ever felt this way about a video game before. Why does Chief have new armor? How does chief have new armor? Why does the BR look so different? Why does the Warthog look so different? Who is the Chief going to fight now?

I agree with the Spartan IV thing. However, armor may be customizable, you never know.To answer your questions in order of appearance: Because Master Chiefs armor has nanobots with automatically upgrade it however they can when given enough time to, it's been a few years so it's pretty obvious that they would upgrade basic weapons and vehicles, and the possibilities are almost endless.

These things,The BR(atleast a semi-shot, skill required weapon), the Warthog, The Covenant are all staples of the Halo Franchise. If you remove them or heavily alter them, these staples are going to fall apart, and the paper they bind together will promptly follow. There is so much change with little canonical explanation. My hope is this will all be explained in the beginning of the game, and that the covenant will return as the main enemy, but the Forerunners will replace the flood as the emerging enemy. Although I know for sure that is not going to happen. 343 is going to take Halo 4 in the direction they deem fit, and I do have respect for them. They are the ones making the game and it is their right to alter it. But I know, deep down that the new trilogy will end up being like the second Star Wars Trilogy.

It seems you keep forgetting that in the time between Halo 3 and Halo 4, Master Chief has been out for a couple of YEARS. In the little amount of time between Halo CE and Halo 2, they changed so much that Halo 2 didn't even LOOK like Halo CE. The only two Halo games that looked and played even similar were Halo 2 and Halo 3. And Halo 3 still had some pretty drastic changes added into it (for instance, no longer fighting against elites). Also, the pillars that made up the covenant (the prophets, the Sangheili, the Dreadnought, High Charity, and the tentative alliance between the species of the covenant) have all been either destroyed, or ripped from the covenant. The covenant is finished. What is the new enemy going to be? No one knows but 343i. You don't have enough information as of yet to form this opinion.

I don't want Halo to be like this. Halo has changed too much, it is no longer Halo. It is no longer the game I grew up with. I will buy the game, there is no doubt about that, but I don't think I will enjoy it. I'm not mad, I'm scared, scared of what Halo is going to become. I hope, I really, really hope that I am dead wrong. But that is not what I think, that is not what I know will happen.

I'm scared for Halo 4, and you should be too.

It's inevitable that Halo is going to change. However, as long as it has Master Chief, or makes some sort of sense, it is still Halo. Very little information has even been released about Halo 4's story-line as of yet, so I have no idea how you "know" the things you claim to. No, the game is not going to be the game that you grew up with because it is evolving. That's what games DO. They get more advanced, more intricate. That doesn't mean they are going to be bad though. I really doubt that you will not enjoy Halo 4. It's going to be similar to Halo 3, but with some changes. Just like Halo 2 was similar to Halo CE, but with some changes. We don't know what we will be fighting against, we don't know what is going to happen, pretty much all we do know is that things are more advanced, the covenant is gone, and Master Chief is still alive and kicking someone's ass. You are putting to much thought into conjecture. Lighten up, have some fun. Also, I REALLY suggest picking up the Halo books if you haven't already. They pretty much explain everything.

[SangMan]

I'm gonna touch on the enemy part of your thread. You said that you hope the Forerunners replace the flood. You do know that the Forerunners created the rings in order to contain there experiment (the flood) and used them in a last resort to kill off the flood? So why would they be back in this game to attack humans? Also I see what your worried will happen but this game still takes place in the Halo universe which makes it "Halo".

[Destroyaaa]

After just watching the video about halo 4, I have some very dissapointed feelings and am very worried about the future of the franchise and it's development team. As with standard format and tradition I will limit my rant to numbered order of things, and as time allows, I willa nswer for my griefs in more detail as needed...

 

 

1. Engine (core settings) The graphics are not anything as I imagined. fact is, they barely look any different from what you can find in UEK or Cryengine, under

the hand sof a good SDK user. All this time, and the Blam! engine just now comes to almost a par level with 2 to 3 year old engines? Yeah, way to suck

Wolfkill and Yu.

 

2. Competative map designs. Frank never minces words, and he rarely ever says anything unless he has a conviction or the words have meaning. When they say "built for competative", it means just that. every map is thought out and planned with the competative game in mind.

 

3. Perks. They touched on the fact that certain types of "perks" would be available. Couple that with my #2 griope...and you have a MM that seems straight out designed for MLG and FFA/Arena style gameplay...leaving us casual and fun lovers at much of a dissadvantage.

 

4. Animations. Sorry, but I'm calling lazy or bull**** on this. The movement animations yes were touched up a bit, but the same old ones used series after series. Even the jump animation under closer look, had pretty much from what i could calculate, the same marker and node placement as Reach animations. even the in air postures were nearly identical.

 

5. Vehicles. The warthog model had 34 different part/model permutations. That's it? Really? You increased the amount of poly's and parts by 6?!?!?! I expect way more in terms of detail and permutations for a new engine and new trilogy...not a water downed lazy version. Hell i could go and add 23 new different parts to a warthog in halo2 easily....

 

6. maps. Both maps look exaclty inspired by previous ones in the series...yet they have the balls to say they are all brand new made from scratch and not reused?!?

 

7. HUD. I have grown acustom to seeing my grenades on the left side of the screen. So why is now they have a 3 teir icon set for the grenades on the right. And yes...those are grenade placeholders. If you watch one of the HUD gameplay screens...you clearly see a plasma grenades occupying one of those places.

 

8. Player physics. The physics seem to be exactly what I would expect coming out of Reach into H4. The same physics system is in place. This is not good for players. The movement speed in Reach was to slow and the jump height/gravity increased too much. What we see now in H4 is too fast of movement....for the love og god...IS IT THAT HARD TO GET IT RIGHT?!?!?

 

9. Weapons. The dmr is coming back. Frank said it. He said the DMR is in, and also some other single shot weapons. What purpose does pitting a BR and a DMR in the same title serve? That would be including the bruste shot and grenade launcher together.

 

10. Spartan IV's. Ok I know this is gonna sound dumb, but I agree with however said the suits look like a nanosuit from Crysis. In fact, on the one level they showed, the giant mech being constructed looked like a giant tachikoma from GITS. I get MM being changed and blah blah blah...but really? We need Spartan IV player models with aweful looking armosa and a whole RvB backstory? My god......

 

Well there you have it. A good old fashioned 10 point reason why I will not be buying Halo 4, but instead renting it just to see and maybe finish the campaign.

 

 

I think your over reacting. Dont tell me that your not going to buy this game when you know you're a big halo fan. I am excitied to see what the campaign is about as well as return to fast paced style of play back in halo 2. I know we have differing views but give it a chance man.

[TerribleTimbo]

After just watching the video about halo 4, I have some very dissapointed feelings and am very worried about the future of the franchise and it's development team. As with standard format and tradition I will limit my rant to numbered order of things, and as time allows, I willa nswer for my griefs in more detail as needed...

 

 

1. Engine (core settings) The graphics are not anything as I imagined. fact is, they barely look any different from what you can find in UEK or Cryengine, under

the hand sof a good SDK user. All this time, and the Blam! engine just now comes to almost a par level with 2 to 3 year old engines? Yeah, way to suck

Wolfkill and Yu.

I may be horribly wrong here, but how much more can graphics really improve on the 360? It is a....what...6 year old system?

 

3. Perks. They touched on the fact that certain types of "perks" would be available. Couple that with my #2 griope...and you have a MM that seems straight out designed for MLG and FFA/Arena style gameplay...leaving us casual and fun lovers at much of a dissadvantage.

Here has always been my (and many others) thought process on this issue. Casual players can have fun competitive maps and make change them around easily to enjoy them. Meanwhile, a "casual" map may be near impossible to balance competitively or even have a competitive match on them. I personally feel as though the perk system is meant to be something to please the "casual" crowd more than the hardcore, unless they're actually balanced then they could please both.

 

4. Animations. Sorry, but I'm calling lazy or bull**** on this. The movement animations yes were touched up a bit, but the same old ones used series after series. Even the jump animation under closer look, had pretty much from what i could calculate, the same marker and node placement as Reach animations. even the in air postures were nearly identical.

 

5. Vehicles. The warthog model had 34 different part/model permutations. That's it? Really? You increased the amount of poly's and parts by 6?!?!?! I expect way more in terms of detail and permutations for a new engine and new trilogy...not a water downed lazy version. Hell i could go and add 23 new different parts to a warthog in halo2 easily....

I'm not a technical guy like yourself, but I don't see the harm with these two. I think the animations look fine. The little clip they had of the warthog all messed up looked great to me also. The game is still far off and everything can still be tweaked.

 

6. maps. Both maps look exaclty inspired by previous ones in the series...yet they have the balls to say they are all brand new made from scratch and not reused?!?

We didn't see enough of the maps to even jump to this conclusion. I can't think of a map warehouse (or whatever) could have been inspired by and wraparound could arguably be inspired by derelict or any other arena type map, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

7. HUD. I have grown acustom to seeing my grenades on the left side of the screen. So why is now they have a 3 teir icon set for the grenades on the right. And yes...those are grenade placeholders. If you watch one of the HUD gameplay screens...you clearly see a plasma grenades occupying one of those places.

This is so incredibly minor of a change I don't see how it would really affect anyone...

 

8. Player physics. The physics seem to be exactly what I would expect coming out of Reach into H4. The same physics system is in place. This is not good for players. The movement speed in Reach was to slow and the jump height/gravity increased too much. What we see now in H4 is too fast of movement....for the love og god...IS IT THAT HARD TO GET IT RIGHT?!?!?

I personally would rather move faster than slower. Besides, none of us have played it so we really don't know how it handles.

 

9. Weapons. The dmr is coming back. Frank said it. He said the DMR is in, and also some other single shot weapons. What purpose does pitting a BR and a DMR in the same title serve? That would be including the bruste shot and grenade launcher together.

There must be some sort of reason to bring both back. Maybe perhaps the BR sucks at long range battles and the DMR can't hope to win a short-mid range battle. And the brute shot/nade launcher thing doesn't make sense to me, those two weapons are really unique from each other.

 

10. Spartan IV's. Ok I know this is gonna sound dumb, but I agree with however said the suits look like a nanosuit from Crysis. In fact, on the one level they showed, the giant mech being constructed looked like a giant tachikoma from GITS. I get MM being changed and blah blah blah...but really? We need Spartan IV player models with aweful looking armosa and a whole RvB backstory? My god......

The spartan models used in each Halo game multiplayer have been different for each game if I remember right. And I'm guessing that the RvB story will either be something you can read about if you want or unfold in the campaign, I doubt they'll cram it down our throats each time we want to play.

 

 

A lot of these points seem rather minor to me and wouldn't warrant writing the game off at this point considering we have very little information and some very short clips to base anything on.

[StuntedJet]

It will be different for sure having 343 instead of Bungie making it but I believe it will be worthy of the title Halo.

[Zamio]

I think your being kinda paranoid. I can understand some of your concerns, but A Halo game does NOT need the Covenant to be a Halo game. I think everyone is just cautious because someone new is making a Halo game. Everyone will adjust later.

[36-2071 Pragmatic Avarice]

Halo has earned its place to change. Not many game franchises have.

[Twinreaper]

My concerns may be over reacting yes, but remember, this is the footage they decided to rleease and the words that went into it during the video were carefully crafted and chosen to make the cut. I know that many things may get changed, even textures and possibly speeds at which players move etc... but there are core things that cannot be changed that I have pointed out. I've watched many VidOC's and spent countless years in development of Halo related assets and I know what I see on screen and know how to translate it back into a wip, or real time asset.

 

My main quams are with the speeds at which the players are moving. From what i can calculate, the players in the footage are movign at 1.5 (halo 2) setting speed. Meaning they increased the speed relative to around .5% Not a big deal at all, but for me that is way to big a jump in relative movement speed.

 

The graphics are a big issue with me. Now I don't usually take issue with it at all because i believe in quality of gameplay over quality of visuals. But in this case, seeing as how dated the games tend to look compared to engines twice their age...I have a big problem with that. The hardware of the 360 is not what is keeping the footage from h4 looking great, it is the engine itself, the post-processessing and compression quality. Fact is, UEK and Cryengine 2 both beat Blam! hands down any day in terms of handling and processessing on the 360. Crysis 2 came out in march 2011. Thats almost a good solid 2 years of development prior. Halo 4 is slated to come out in 2012 Holiday season. it has been talked to be in development since 2009 at it's earliest.

 

Halo 4's version of Blam! should at this point in it's development cycle and maturity, at least be able to surpass lighting, shaders, particle effects etc, of at least UEK and Cry2. What I see in the video is nothing more than something a little below the UEK and Cry2 standard that you can see today. I'm not saying that the game doesn't look great...because it does. it looks a millio times better than Reach graphically, but from a hobbiest dev standpoint the engines graphical layer doesn't make the cut compared to others older than it. That's all I am saying. Again, I think the game does look great, but because the GL is a core engine code part, it will not be changed and cannot be changed. Now yes it may simply be an issue with shader settings or bitmap compression, but we will have to wait to see.

 

When I talk about animations, I am referring to the same old cut and paste "stick up your ass" positions that seem to follow every title. Animations to me, should evolve along with the title and characters as they progress along the timeline of games. Jumping, running, croutching etc... have all been the same old animations time and time again. When a Spartan is running, I would like to see the aniamtion show him/her running with the gun lowered. It's very easy to have the animation snap to the firing aniamtion when you actually pull the trigger. Jumping is another one. Besides the feet and legs...nothing moves. How about we have them raise their arms up over their head or kinda peddle their arms like someone actually would look like jumping? Give it a fresh feel for christs sake.

 

Overall I am not impressed enough by the teaser or released information thus far to make me want to commit to putting out $60+ for a title in this economy. Again, this is only a first look and many more things may come to light, but the longer 343i waits, and the more they stay tight lipped on important things, the more they push players away into looking at other new titles coming out around the same time.

[Ash]

Wow... Anyone here actually read the books? 343I pulls a ton of info from the books and puts them into the games... e.g. Spartan IV 's are from Halo Glasslands, And their not like Spartan II's or III's, their Just partially enhance soldiers..

[Pope 138]

When a Spartan is running, I would like to see the aniamtion show him/her running with the gun lowered. It's very easy to have the animation snap to the firing aniamtion when you actually pull the trigger.

 

I never thought of this. It would make a huge difference! Wow, I hope they're reading this.

 

I have some of the same fears as the OP. Spartan IVs? That's really coming out of nowhere. I have read a lot of the books but not Glasslands. I'll pick it up and give a read but regardless of the explanation I feel like there has already been too much retconning in the Haloverse. I can only go along with so much. Nanobots? How convienent.

Like I said I've only read 5 of the books and loved them all (except The Flood...Zzzz...). I'll pick up Glasslands and hope for the best. I promise I'm staying optimistic.

 

One last thing: I think the new Spartan Armor looks rediculous. I can get past that and still enjoy the game, but man does MC look bad. Yes I know they updated him for every new Halo game, but no one can tell me that this isn't the most drastic change he's undergone. Seriously. If you covered his head and changed his armor color I wouldn't be able to guess that it was him and I'd imagine that's true for most Halo fans.

[halomanTB]

I get what your saying.....and i agree and disagree......the new enemys will be a rise and fall for some...like Reach was for you......but i do want to see Master Chiefs story.....

[BFella]

In my honest opinion, Halo 3 was the best and most memory filled game I've ever played. I hope to god Halo 4 is nothing like Reach though.