Hope... That this can make a difference.

[Zeppelin]

Halo… The game that truly introduced me, and many others, to competitive gaming. I can remember, before I had the slightest clue about any professional gaming leagues, playing Halo CE with my older brother, constantly getting three shotted when we played 1v1 on the tube T.V. downstairs. I can remember the rush I got from playing my first XBC game. It was 2v2, just me and my brother playing Halo. I can remember the first day Halo 2 came out, having to watch my brother play it as I hoped for a turn. I can remember the day I got my own account on Xbox live, and playing Halo 2 until five o’clock in the morning. I had never been up that late before, but with the game I was playing, time didn’t exist. I can remember getting my level 30 in hardcore for the first time, and not wanting to play the game type anymore so I wouldn’t lose my level. Man, that ranking system was so good. I can even remember getting up at ten on Saturdays, just to watch MLG tournaments on USA. All I ask is to bring these memories back to us with Halo 4.

 

Competitive Halo is dyeing, and we need your help to bring it back to full life. The original Halo qualities are obviously the ones that make Halo, Halo. The ranking system… It was just so simple, yet so awesome. It made the game fun and competitive. We played people of our skill level, hoping we could break out of that barrier that separated us from the next level. The maps… We want real maps! We don’t want to play forged maps. It’s not right to make a game; make maps that completely ignore the requirements for a competitive map, and give us something called forge and say it’s a done deal. C’mon, we want a game that at least makes a valid attempt to fulfill the expectations of everybody in the community. What is happening to Halo?! Remember when you would go to MLGpro.com and see Halo on the front page, and not Starcraft II? Remember all those tournaments that had you at the edge of your seat? Let me remind you of MLG Las Vegas 2006, where Carbon beet the seemingly unbeatable Final Boss. The day that Halo: Reach gets a crowd like that is the day I stop playing the Halos forever.

 

I truly hope, from the bottom of my heart, that this makes an impact on the development of Halo 4, and attention given to us, the MLG community. Thank you.

[Guest Cuz im Black]

1. It runs on redesigned Halo: Reach

technology

 

First things first: the techno-trappings. Rather than the proprietary engine 343 Industries built around Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's recycled Bungie code, Halo 4 runs on a pimped-out, juiced-up Halo: Reach engine, equipped with new lighting and shader systems. It supports true HD 720p and Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing, for a smoother look, and animation fidelity has been kicked up a notch with new motion and performance capture. Combat Evolved Anniversary's multiplayer component also called on Halo: Reach technology, so 343's had plenty of practice with the code. Your jaw will be dropped.

 

Concept art for Halo 4's Wraparound map.

2. The Covenant are back

Of course they are. 343 wants returning players to feel immediately at home when they pick up the pad, and what easier way to achieve that than by serving up a few familiar faces to blast? Master Chief awakens from cryosleep to find the human-Covenant ceasefire apparently broken, with the wrecked Forward Unto Dawn under siege by Elites, Jackals and Grunts. Struggle through to the vessel's hull, and you'll have the opportunity to gawp at an entire alien fleet. Except you won't, because Master Chief doesn't gawp. He merely looks upon things with an air of heroic reserve.

 

3. You'll get to kill ancient races

But the Covenant isn't the only, nor even the most serious threat. After leaving the Forward Unto Dawn via unknown means, you'll descend to the innards of the mysterious Requiem facility. Constructed umpteen millennia ago, Requiem is basically a massive, heavily shielded time capsule; it's a Dyson Sphere enclosing an artificial planet, populated by lifeforms thought destroyed when the Forerunners unleashed the Halo ring network against the rampaging Flood. Naturally, not all those lifeforms will be friendly. 343 says we can expect a new, more complex and intelligent enemy faction - founded, like the Covenant, on relations between unit types that players can exploit, but considerably more testing. You may even end up sticking it to the Forerunners themselves. After all, they've waged war on humanity before.

 

4. The story-telling has moved on

A modest touch, this, but Halo 4's cinematic direction is a lot less disruptive. A majority of cutscenes take place in first-person, and you'll retain control (over the camera, for instance) during certain chinwags.

 

Concept art for Halo 4's Warhouse map.

5. Planet-sized caves are the new Halos

Thanks to Requiem's unique architecture, Combat Evolved's famous skybox has given way to something equally far-fetched but a lot more, shall we say, cosy. In place of a tapering loop of Forerunner geography, you've got an omnipresent ceiling. Huge, sculpted stalactite-type structures stab down at a boggling primeval fastness. Bring your inner anthropologist.

 

6. You'll have to save Cortana from herself

As we theorised, Cortana's possible descent into Rampancy - the volatile penultimate stage of an AI's life cycle - will be a crucial component of Halo 4's plot. "It's about finally moving their relationship beyond the realm of video game exposition," comments O'Connor, not very informatively. "And what it really means to have your only friend be more human than you, but be an artificial intelligence. And what it means to your place in the universe to be put into a position where you have to deal with her Rampancy. You literally rescue her in Halo 3, but her jeopardy was geographical rather than existential." Halo 4: Analyse This Mode confirmed.

 

7. No firefight mode.

 

Moving onto multiplayer, let's get the most disappointing bit of news out of the way first: ODST's Gears-influenced Firefight mode has gone the way of the Dodo. It's all a bit tragic, given the brilliant way Reach padded the concept out, but don't despair - 343 has something else up its sleeve. More than one something, actually.

 

8. Halo 4's multiplayer isn't a mode, it's a starship

 

Halo 4 multiplayer isn't just about shooting things for the sake of it. Well, it's still about shooting things for the sake of it if all you want to do is shoot things, but there's a full-blown over-arching narrative for the bookish. The gist: Halo 4's multiplayer takes place aboard the Infinity, an advanced human vessel with a full complement of super-tough Spartan IVs. Among other things, the ship's equipped with a truly epic holodeck, which generates all the maps used for traditional competitive multiplayer. 343 has revealed one mode so far - Regicide, in which lead scorers become kings who accumulate a bounty for every kill. Bop the king, and that bounty is yours.

 

9. Spartan Ops could be the future of DLC

The Infinity's most exciting contributions to Halo online as we know it are Spartan Ops - cooperative missions that make up a separate campaign. So far, so Modern Warfare Spec Ops, but the game-changer here is how these missions are distributed. You'll get five more of them every week - totally free - plus a wodge of cinematics which propels the story onward. It's a leap and a bound beyond Call of Duty: Elite's dripfed co-op maps.

 

10. There's a Call of Duty style unlocks system

In another nod to the Activision colossus, Halo 4 offers a roster of non-cosmetic unlockables. That's going to alarm people who prefer to make key tactical choices mid-mission, rather than at the lobby screen, but thus far, 343 looks to have struck a promising middle ground. Halo 4's take feels like an evolution of Reach's Armour Ability system, rather than a wholesale cut-and-paste of Call of Duty's myriad perks and accessories. Each load-out has room for a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, one grenade type, one Armour Ability (jetpacks and active camo are confirmed, along with wall-piercing Forerunner Vision) and one character mod. It's pleasantly trim.

 

 

You'll get access to the goodies by injecting Spartan Points, Halo 4's currency. These are awarded for revenge kills, match wins and even diversionary tactics, among other major and minor battlefield triumphs. Points can be earned during Spartan Ops missions too; load-outs appear to carry over between the co-op and competitive modes.

 

11. Power-ups and respawns are handled differently

While the broad strokes of Halo 4's multiplayer make better headlines, it's the grist of match policy that'll interest the veterans, and there are some controversial tweaks. For one, heavy weapon drops are now randomised, making it impossible to dominate through map knowledge alone. Spawning is instantaneous, making revenge kills easier, and sprinting has become a default ability.

 

 

 

----

 

The gun in question is the Rail Gun, or as it's formally known the Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920. As detailed on Game Informer, it's "a compact-channel linear accelerator that fires a high-explosive round at incredible speed, delivering both kinetic and explosive force to both hard and soft targets alike". Short version: looks like death, hits harder than Zeus, will make your mother cry.

 

The Rail Gun joins the Designated Marksman Rifle, Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle and Sniper Rifle among

other returning weapons. We doubt it's the only new toy you'll be playing with.

In a GI podcast, creative director Josh Holmes also shed a little more light on 343's decision to add a progressive unlocks system, a la Call of Duty. Don't worry - if your personal custom loadout proves woefully inadequate to the challenges ahead, you'll still be able to pick up weapons on the map.

 

343 has toiled mightily to ensure that there's no game-breaking loadout. Dual Wielding has been cut to avoid the sort of mammoth DPS overkill that afflicts Modern Warfare 3. My curse upon thee, akimbo FMG9 players. On the battlefields of Requiem, I will have my vengeance

 

 

---

 

 

just a few things you should know about Halo4

 

[Anarchy]

Cuz i'm black pretty much summed it up, Nice job

[Guest Hotdog8818]

Ok cool

[Veer Zamamai]

1. It runs on redesigned Halo: Reach

technology

 

 

First things first: the techno-trappings. Rather than the proprietary engine 343 Industries built around Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's recycled Bungie code, Halo 4 runs on a pimped-out, juiced-up Halo: Reach engine, equipped with new lighting and shader systems. It supports true HD 720p and Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing, for a smoother look, and animation fidelity has been kicked up a notch with new motion and performance capture. Combat Evolved Anniversary's multiplayer component also called on Halo: Reach technology, so 343's had plenty of practice with the code. Your jaw will be dropped.

 

 

Concept art for Halo 4's Wraparound map.

 

2. The Covenant are back

 

Of course they are. 343 wants returning players to feel immediately at home when they pick up the pad, and what easier way to achieve that than by serving up a few familiar faces to blast? Master Chief awakens from cryosleep to find the human-Covenant ceasefire apparently broken, with the wrecked Forward Unto Dawn under siege by Elites, Jackals and Grunts. Struggle through to the vessel's hull, and you'll have the opportunity to gawp at an entire alien fleet. Except you won't, because Master Chief doesn't gawp. He merely looks upon things with an air of heroic reserve.

 

 

3. You'll get to kill ancient races

 

But the Covenant isn't the only, nor even the most serious threat. After leaving the Forward Unto Dawn via unknown means, you'll descend to the innards of the mysterious Requiem facility. Constructed umpteen millennia ago, Requiem is basically a massive, heavily shielded time capsule; it's a Dyson Sphere enclosing an artificial planet, populated by lifeforms thought destroyed when the Forerunners unleashed the Halo ring network against the rampaging Flood. Naturally, not all those lifeforms will be friendly. 343 says we can expect a new, more complex and intelligent enemy faction - founded, like the Covenant, on relations between unit types that players can exploit, but considerably more testing. You may even end up sticking it to the Forerunners themselves. After all, they've waged war on humanity before.

 

 

4. The story-telling has moved on

 

A modest touch, this, but Halo 4's cinematic direction is a lot less disruptive. A majority of cutscenes take place in first-person, and you'll retain control (over the camera, for instance) during certain chinwags.

 

 

Concept art for Halo 4's Warhouse map.

 

5. Planet-sized caves are the new Halos

 

Thanks to Requiem's unique architecture, Combat Evolved's famous skybox has given way to something equally far-fetched but a lot more, shall we say, cosy. In place of a tapering loop of Forerunner geography, you've got an omnipresent ceiling. Huge, sculpted stalactite-type structures stab down at a boggling primeval fastness. Bring your inner anthropologist.

 

 

6. You'll have to save Cortana from herself

 

As we theorised, Cortana's possible descent into Rampancy - the volatile penultimate stage of an AI's life cycle - will be a crucial component of Halo 4's plot. "It's about finally moving their relationship beyond the realm of video game exposition," comments O'Connor, not very informatively. "And what it really means to have your only friend be more human than you, but be an artificial intelligence. And what it means to your place in the universe to be put into a position where you have to deal with her Rampancy. You literally rescue her in Halo 3, but her jeopardy was geographical rather than existential." Halo 4: Analyse This Mode confirmed.

 

 

7. No firefight mode.

 

 

Moving onto multiplayer, let's get the most disappointing bit of news out of the way first: ODST's Gears-influenced Firefight mode has gone the way of the Dodo. It's all a bit tragic, given the brilliant way Reach padded the concept out, but don't despair - 343 has something else up its sleeve. More than one something, actually.

 

 

8. Halo 4's multiplayer isn't a mode, it's a starship

 

 

Halo 4 multiplayer isn't just about shooting things for the sake of it. Well, it's still about shooting things for the sake of it if all you want to do is shoot things, but there's a full-blown over-arching narrative for the bookish. The gist: Halo 4's multiplayer takes place aboard the Infinity, an advanced human vessel with a full complement of super-tough Spartan IVs. Among other things, the ship's equipped with a truly epic holodeck, which generates all the maps used for traditional competitive multiplayer. 343 has revealed one mode so far - Regicide, in which lead scorers become kings who accumulate a bounty for every kill. Bop the king, and that bounty is yours.

 

 

9. Spartan Ops could be the future of DLC

 

The Infinity's most exciting contributions to Halo online as we know it are Spartan Ops - cooperative missions that make up a separate campaign. So far, so Modern Warfare Spec Ops, but the game-changer here is how these missions are distributed. You'll get five more of them every week - totally free - plus a wodge of cinematics which propels the story onward. It's a leap and a bound beyond Call of Duty: Elite's dripfed co-op maps.

 

 

10. There's a Call of Duty style unlocks system

 

In another nod to the Activision colossus, Halo 4 offers a roster of non-cosmetic unlockables. That's going to alarm people who prefer to make key tactical choices mid-mission, rather than at the lobby screen, but thus far, 343 looks to have struck a promising middle ground. Halo 4's take feels like an evolution of Reach's Armour Ability system, rather than a wholesale cut-and-paste of Call of Duty's myriad perks and accessories. Each load-out has room for a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, one grenade type, one Armour Ability (jetpacks and active camo are confirmed, along with wall-piercing Forerunner Vision) and one character mod. It's pleasantly trim.

 

 

 

You'll get access to the goodies by injecting Spartan Points, Halo 4's currency. These are awarded for revenge kills, match wins and even diversionary tactics, among other major and minor battlefield triumphs. Points can be earned during Spartan Ops missions too; load-outs appear to carry over between the co-op and competitive modes.

 

 

11. Power-ups and respawns are handled differently

 

While the broad strokes of Halo 4's multiplayer make better headlines, it's the grist of match policy that'll interest the veterans, and there are some controversial tweaks. For one, heavy weapon drops are now randomised, making it impossible to dominate through map knowledge alone. Spawning is instantaneous, making revenge kills easier, and sprinting has become a default ability.

 

 

 

 

----

 

The gun in question is the Rail Gun, or as it's formally known the Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920. As detailed on Game Informer, it's "a compact-channel linear accelerator that fires a high-explosive round at incredible speed, delivering both kinetic and explosive force to both hard and soft targets alike". Short version: looks like death, hits harder than Zeus, will make your mother cry.

 

The Rail Gun joins the Designated Marksman Rifle, Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle and Sniper Rifle among

other returning weapons. We doubt it's the only new toy you'll be playing with.

In a GI podcast, creative director Josh Holmes also shed a little more light on 343's decision to add a progressive unlocks system, a la Call of Duty. Don't worry - if your personal custom loadout proves woefully inadequate to the challenges ahead, you'll still be able to pick up weapons on the map.

 

343 has toiled mightily to ensure that there's no game-breaking loadout. Dual Wielding has been cut to avoid the sort of mammoth DPS overkill that afflicts Modern Warfare 3. My curse upon thee, akimbo FMG9 players. On the battlefields of Requiem, I will have my vengeance

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

just a few things you should know about Halo4

 

 

 

 

I lost interest after the third sentence. This is so long winded.

[Smokin Shadowz]

Yeah, Cuz im Black pretty much summed up any question I could have asked.

[Veer Zamamai]

Yeah, Cuz im Black pretty much summed up any question I could have asked.

 

I didn't read it, it was too long.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Cuz put it well ,but I dislike the spawning idea of 343. I can already here heav raging through my mic, lol.

[Minuette]

1. It runs on redesigned Halo: Reach

technology

 

 

First things first: the techno-trappings. Rather than the proprietary engine 343 Industries built around Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's recycled Bungie code, Halo 4 runs on a pimped-out, juiced-up Halo: Reach engine, equipped with new lighting and shader systems. It supports true HD 720p and Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing, for a smoother look, and animation fidelity has been kicked up a notch with new motion and performance capture. Combat Evolved Anniversary's multiplayer component also called on Halo: Reach technology, so 343's had plenty of practice with the code. Your jaw will be dropped.

 

 

Concept art for Halo 4's Wraparound map.

 

2. The Covenant are back

 

Of course they are. 343 wants returning players to feel immediately at home when they pick up the pad, and what easier way to achieve that than by serving up a few familiar faces to blast? Master Chief awakens from cryosleep to find the human-Covenant ceasefire apparently broken, with the wrecked Forward Unto Dawn under siege by Elites, Jackals and Grunts. Struggle through to the vessel's hull, and you'll have the opportunity to gawp at an entire alien fleet. Except you won't, because Master Chief doesn't gawp. He merely looks upon things with an air of heroic reserve.

 

 

3. You'll get to kill ancient races

 

But the Covenant isn't the only, nor even the most serious threat. After leaving the Forward Unto Dawn via unknown means, you'll descend to the innards of the mysterious Requiem facility. Constructed umpteen millennia ago, Requiem is basically a massive, heavily shielded time capsule; it's a Dyson Sphere enclosing an artificial planet, populated by lifeforms thought destroyed when the Forerunners unleashed the Halo ring network against the rampaging Flood. Naturally, not all those lifeforms will be friendly. 343 says we can expect a new, more complex and intelligent enemy faction - founded, like the Covenant, on relations between unit types that players can exploit, but considerably more testing. You may even end up sticking it to the Forerunners themselves. After all, they've waged war on humanity before.

 

 

4. The story-telling has moved on

 

A modest touch, this, but Halo 4's cinematic direction is a lot less disruptive. A majority of cutscenes take place in first-person, and you'll retain control (over the camera, for instance) during certain chinwags.

 

 

Concept art for Halo 4's Warhouse map.

 

5. Planet-sized caves are the new Halos

 

Thanks to Requiem's unique architecture, Combat Evolved's famous skybox has given way to something equally far-fetched but a lot more, shall we say, cosy. In place of a tapering loop of Forerunner geography, you've got an omnipresent ceiling. Huge, sculpted stalactite-type structures stab down at a boggling primeval fastness. Bring your inner anthropologist.

 

 

6. You'll have to save Cortana from herself

 

As we theorised, Cortana's possible descent into Rampancy - the volatile penultimate stage of an AI's life cycle - will be a crucial component of Halo 4's plot. "It's about finally moving their relationship beyond the realm of video game exposition," comments O'Connor, not very informatively. "And what it really means to have your only friend be more human than you, but be an artificial intelligence. And what it means to your place in the universe to be put into a position where you have to deal with her Rampancy. You literally rescue her in Halo 3, but her jeopardy was geographical rather than existential." Halo 4: Analyse This Mode confirmed.

 

 

7. No firefight mode.

 

 

Moving onto multiplayer, let's get the most disappointing bit of news out of the way first: ODST's Gears-influenced Firefight mode has gone the way of the Dodo. It's all a bit tragic, given the brilliant way Reach padded the concept out, but don't despair - 343 has something else up its sleeve. More than one something, actually.

 

 

8. Halo 4's multiplayer isn't a mode, it's a starship

 

 

Halo 4 multiplayer isn't just about shooting things for the sake of it. Well, it's still about shooting things for the sake of it if all you want to do is shoot things, but there's a full-blown over-arching narrative for the bookish. The gist: Halo 4's multiplayer takes place aboard the Infinity, an advanced human vessel with a full complement of super-tough Spartan IVs. Among other things, the ship's equipped with a truly epic holodeck, which generates all the maps used for traditional competitive multiplayer. 343 has revealed one mode so far - Regicide, in which lead scorers become kings who accumulate a bounty for every kill. Bop the king, and that bounty is yours.

 

 

9. Spartan Ops could be the future of DLC

 

The Infinity's most exciting contributions to Halo online as we know it are Spartan Ops - cooperative missions that make up a separate campaign. So far, so Modern Warfare Spec Ops, but the game-changer here is how these missions are distributed. You'll get five more of them every week - totally free - plus a wodge of cinematics which propels the story onward. It's a leap and a bound beyond Call of Duty: Elite's dripfed co-op maps.

 

 

10. There's a Call of Duty style unlocks system

 

In another nod to the Activision colossus, Halo 4 offers a roster of non-cosmetic unlockables. That's going to alarm people who prefer to make key tactical choices mid-mission, rather than at the lobby screen, but thus far, 343 looks to have struck a promising middle ground. Halo 4's take feels like an evolution of Reach's Armour Ability system, rather than a wholesale cut-and-paste of Call of Duty's myriad perks and accessories. Each load-out has room for a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, one grenade type, one Armour Ability (jetpacks and active camo are confirmed, along with wall-piercing Forerunner Vision) and one character mod. It's pleasantly trim.

 

 

 

You'll get access to the goodies by injecting Spartan Points, Halo 4's currency. These are awarded for revenge kills, match wins and even diversionary tactics, among other major and minor battlefield triumphs. Points can be earned during Spartan Ops missions too; load-outs appear to carry over between the co-op and competitive modes.

 

 

11. Power-ups and respawns are handled differently

 

While the broad strokes of Halo 4's multiplayer make better headlines, it's the grist of match policy that'll interest the veterans, and there are some controversial tweaks. For one, heavy weapon drops are now randomised, making it impossible to dominate through map knowledge alone. Spawning is instantaneous, making revenge kills easier, and sprinting has become a default ability.

 

 

 

 

----

 

The gun in question is the Rail Gun, or as it's formally known the Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920. As detailed on Game Informer, it's "a compact-channel linear accelerator that fires a high-explosive round at incredible speed, delivering both kinetic and explosive force to both hard and soft targets alike". Short version: looks like death, hits harder than Zeus, will make your mother cry.

 

The Rail Gun joins the Designated Marksman Rifle, Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle and Sniper Rifle among

other returning weapons. We doubt it's the only new toy you'll be playing with.

In a GI podcast, creative director Josh Holmes also shed a little more light on 343's decision to add a progressive unlocks system, a la Call of Duty. Don't worry - if your personal custom loadout proves woefully inadequate to the challenges ahead, you'll still be able to pick up weapons on the map.

 

343 has toiled mightily to ensure that there's no game-breaking loadout. Dual Wielding has been cut to avoid the sort of mammoth DPS overkill that afflicts Modern Warfare 3. My curse upon thee, akimbo FMG9 players. On the battlefields of Requiem, I will have my vengeance

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

just a few things you should know about Halo4

 

 

 

ranking style isnt that same as COD you get 1 spartan point after a rank up

[Trevor]

Lol it's because you're black? Is that really all you could say? xD