Halo 4 multiplayer!!!

[Smallz08]

http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/Universe/detail/making-halo-4-first-look/9a9548bc-a4bf-4112-b4a9-ff935afecb5e

THANK YOU 343!!!!! So excited I can't hide it!

"purpose built with competitive in mind" best quote in the whole video.

[Antidote]

Looks cool. Although the word "competitive" is suggestive in the sense that it's being references so that could mean anything. Plus...mmmmm sprint.

[Smallz08]

I do believe they have load outs and such as well. One thing that kinda just makes me question why but they have the score system similar to COD in the team slayer games. Just like all the other Halo's it can be customized so we will have to do some tweaking and find that sweet spot for the hardcore competitive people... just like all the other ones. Halo has to many casual fans that are ignorant towards what a competitive experience really is and they have to please them or else the franchise will die because frankly there is not enough hardcore competitive people that play Halo anymore.

[SullyVan]

The graphics look AMAZING and the br is back=love. I'm very excited for this game and i hope there will be some sorta beta cause i dont wanna wait till fall/early winter:P

[Smallz08]

I hope so to sully. I am kinda curious as to how the maps are going to be mainly. I hope that there are at least 5 maps that we could use in tournament play that are on disc. Of course I would want all of them to be tournament worthy but being realistic 5 seems to be reasonable to me. Also I am curious in what direction they are going to be taking forge.

[itwuzmagik]

You have no clue how happy I am :)))))))

[forefront]

Forge will be super important. The ability to watch theater with other players will be important. The BR being hitscan will be important.

Lots of things will be hoped for, how many will be tended to, we can only wait and see.

[Smallz08]

I just thought of another thing that will be huge for the success of competitive halo. Spectator mode. This needs to happen really badly but I haven't heard all that much fuss being raised for it. I guess we just get to caught up in game play and forget about some of the necessary features to make the game more tournament friendly.

[WiFFXI]

Hitscan BR won't happen. It just wont. And the competitive map quote was a huge relief. This video makes me not able to wait for Halo 4. But I want to mention something that hasn't been yet. How about that there MUSIC! Sounds amazing and awesome. LFG!

[heuer89]

Forge will be super important. The ability to watch theater with other players will be important. The BR being hitscan will be important.

Lots of things will be hoped for, how many will be tended to, we can only wait and see.

I think however they implement Forge will be important but I'd like to see more customization options on "normal" maps to actually be able to create possible new routes / lines of sight rather than only really being able to effectively forge on set maps.

Addressed hitscan BR below. Kinda.


I just thought of another thing that will be huge for the success of competitive halo. Spectator mode. This needs to happen really badly but I haven't heard all that much fuss being raised for it. I guess we just get to caught up in game play and forget about some of the necessary features to make the game more tournament friendly.

With every major shooter I can think of now having some form of spectator mode, I can't imagine that Halo 4 would lack this. Every now and then I'll send a tweet to bs angel, allison, and other 343i employees asking for this feature. Also: 4+ person theatre mode back. One of the best parts of Halo 3 (IMO) was the ability to review a film with up to 3 friends to show off a clip, jump, general strategy, or an entire game review.


Hitscan BR won't happen. It just wont. And the competitive map quote was a huge relief. This video makes me not able to wait for Halo 4. But I want to mention something that hasn't been yet. How about that there MUSIC! Sounds amazing and awesome. LFG!

Never say never, IIRC Halo 2's BR was hitscan but the spread on it was just silly. I personally don't believe it will matter if the BR is hitscan or not. Maybe the BR does more damage than a single-shot weapon but is more difficult to hit your opponent. I would like to see the return of the Carbine, Halo 3 beta-style. I've seen this posted almost everywhere I've looked and I couldn't agree more. Other than the H:CE pistol the beta-carbine is still my favorite weapon to date but it was nerfed so hard between beta and release.

I was both shocked and ecstatic that Frankie mentioned MLG and competitive maps right off the bat.

As noted in all the videos I've seen, every single clip is pre-alpha footage. While this gives us a general idea of how the game might be on release, that's all it is: a general idea. It still has many testing phases to go through and obviously major development is still going on.

I was somewhat disappointed that an open-beta will not be occurring but I can understand why they would rather focus on putting more time into development rather than spending a month gathering gradual feedback.

Anywho, I think this game will be fantastic. If it ends up changing super drastically, I'll be fine with it. I'll continue to play Halo games until they stop making them but I hope that it is geared to be inherently competitive rather than extremely casual. I'm sure I'll find something to piss and moan about but I'll still play it regardless. :)

[MidKnight]

halo 4... simply amazing

[chris_cr33p]

looks sooo sexy omg asdgasdgasdfgafg cant wait

[DYNASTYBLUE2]

i really happy at what i saw for H4 i cant wait

[chris_cr33p]

Even though it isn't Bungie, [ :( ] it looks reallly good and i am sooo giddy, i cant wait to get my hands on it

[Synystars]

I'm more excited for the campain more than anything. But real talk, a hitscan BR will make this game superb. Now for love of all that is holy in the world 343, make it happen <3

[WiFFXI]

Never say never, IIRC Halo 2's BR was hitscan but the spread on it was just silly. I personally don't believe it will matter if the BR is hitscan or not.


I'm more excited for the campain more than anything. But real talk, a hitscan BR will make this game superb. Now for love of all that is holy in the world 343, make it happen <3

Well you got me. As of right now the BR is hitscan. For more info you can go to the QnA 343i released in this weeks bulletin.

http://halo.xbox.com/blogs/Headlines/post/2012/03/08/The-Halo-Bulletin-30712.aspx

Now I'm even more excited! :D

[Smallz08]

I saw heuer tweet about that and I was like no way! I had to see for myself and I am so happy right now. I still wonder if they are going to be putting in some form of ranking for the competitive people. It sounds like he doesn't dismiss the subject entirely.

[HavkinKnight]

ok. First off im looking forward to this game but i do have my gut feelings about it... Reach left a nasty taste in my mouth. it was a sold title but the game felt less and less like Halo to me. i and stoked about the BR, i dont mind the fact that we can Cnage armor and crap BUT what i dont want is Perks and AAs and Updates to our player or the fact that we can pick what weapon we choose to play with from the start. i want BR/pistol and then duke it out Oldschool (Goldeneye) Style. weapons on map power ups on map i dont want crazy numbers i want 50 kills not 500 points i want 4 mins of hill time not 1000 points. i want Old halo with new maps new wepons new graphics and updated system mech but i want HALO not CoD, GoW, BF, C-S i want halo. Thanks mindless rant over.

[D Moralize]

Although it is cod-esque I could care less if the game goes to 500 points, as long as its a great game again. I really hope the level up system grants you things like weapon attachments, a 4x zoom br scope, bigger clip size, ect. and not just new weapons. I'm not going to be happy if I have to reach level 45 to get a BR

[aX goes ham]

i personally agree with havkin, but i mean their trying to attract kids on different games, the compettitive community is very little of the whole halo community. Their just trying to make it in a fashion to were the competitive players are happy and the casual kids get something new. It's all very difficult, and they can't really just isolate the mlg playlist to a whole different thing like 50kills instead of 500 points. So were all just going to have to try and make the best of it. (Which it'l still most likely be better than reach.)

[phreekopath]

I've read through all of the posts that have been made so far and all I hear is "wah wah wah I miss halo 2"

Lets be serious for a minute. The BOTTOM LINE should be that we want/need a game that WORKS out of the box. We need competitive maps from day one, weapon choices, and some sort of tangible ranking system. These are the things that cannot be changed (at least by us) once the game is out. As long as everything else is configurable or toggle-able in the forge or custom games sandbox, it should not concern us! Perks, AA's, movement speed, jump height, weapon damage, powerups, equipment, etc are all things that can be removed or modified via either forge or custom game settings.

Granted, the argument has been made that "competitive" halo gametypes should not differ much from their "vanilla" counterparts in order to draw in more players, as long as the basic mechanics of the game are not changed so drastically as to make the two sections of matchmaking feel like completely different games (i.e. Reach).

If, say, the only differences were that MLG said "no bubbleshields, no sprint, and 110% movement" with appropriate weapon choices (that are still available in every other playlist already) then that would make a MINIMAL impact when moving between playlists. However, if MLG only uses custom made forge-only maps, increase weapon damage or movement speed drastically, remove half of the weapons, relocate the rest of the weapons, and things like that then the communities will continue to have a large void between them. Not saying I want to be close to the average casual gamer, I just think it's what's best for Halo, the community (both casual and competitive), 343i, and MLG all at the same time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we will have a way to TWEAK the game, so instead of griping and complaining that they're not doing EVERYTHING right (at least for competitive halo), lets hope they make the things we CANNOT change absolutely perfect, which basically boils down to nothing more than out-of-the-box maps and gameplay mechanics. Everything else can, and will, be fixed.

[Smallz08]

The reason why people say they miss halo 2 is because that was by far the most competitive, highest skill gap, and probably most popular of the Halo series as a whole. Why wouldn't people want Halo 2 back? Halo 3 introduced the atrocity of equipment and spread that ultimately contributed to the huge growth in casual scene because it gave them a chance and then Halo: Reach butchered absolutely everything about Halo and even caused most of the casual scene to disappear. Just about everyone that likes to play Halo casually are to stubborn to even embrace nor support the competitive community because it is to different from "THEIR" game... give me a break.

The only way that we will see Halo survive is not to wait and hope and pray the H4 is going to be amazing but to get people interested in competitive Halo. Not the people that was interested and then quit but new people. They don't have to play they could just watch and admire it for what it is (I watch SC2 because it is interesting). Spread the word about competitive Halo. Explain the teams and all the changes and why it is so intense to see The All-Stars go up against Status Quo and the irony of Ogre2 playing against Final Boss and some of the other huge things in the history of competitive Halo. It is interesting to me so I know that somewhere out there that people exist that will be interested in competitive Halo. The biggest thing about the competitive community is that we are not very receptive to diversity. That needs to change. So what if someone hasn't accomplished more than another person it does not mean that their opinion or outlook on certain things are wrong nor does it prove that the more accomplished person is right.

[phreekopath]

Smallz, you're talking purely about the competitive community instead of about the game, as I was.

However, you inadvertently reinforced the point I was making.

In Halo 2 there was no forge and there were limited options for custom games. This meant that the MLG or Hardcore competitive versions were pretty much the same as the casual gametypes, with only weapon and map exclusions, and i believe a movement speed change. That's it. That game pulled so many people into competitive gaming because there was a very short learning curve to change from one to the other.

When you refer to Halo 3 as an "atrocity" because of equipment and BR spread (and bullet time), lets break that down. MLG removed all equipment from the map pool, increased the speed and jump height and removed some maps, just like they did in Halo 2. What they couldn't do is remove the BR spread and bullet time, because it was an integrated core game mechanic. Really they did nothing different than they did in Halo 2, other than perhaps changing some weapon spawn locations and times. The fact that the BR had that spread, and that you had to lead your shots, is really what gave the impression that Halo 3 was "less competitive" than Halo 2.

Then we move to the red-headed stepchild of the Halo series. Reach followed in Halo 3's footsteps in making changes to core mechanics of the game that could not be changed to allow for a more competitive playstyle (namely, bloom), as well as adding some that could be changed (like AAs). Now I know it took a few version changes, but finally we had some MLG gametypes that ditched the idea of AAs. And it works, to a point. The real problem came in the fact that we had to wait for a company change and a full title update to be released to fix the OTHER problem that was stopping the game from reaching it's competitive potential. It was a long process and MLG and the community had a very minimal impact on the decision making.

For Halo 4, the core game mechanics need to be right. The maps need to be right. That's all. MLG and the community will decide on gametypes, settings, weapons, map pool, AAs, pickups, powerups, and all of those things can be configured in forge or custom games. We need 343 to make sure that the things we cannot change are flawless. It's not going to be perfect for MLG out of the box, it would alienate too much of the casual community.

Stop dwelling on things being included in vanilla H4 that you know KC is going to throw in the trash on day 1. The community has spoken on a lot of those issues already. AAs will be gone, equipment will be gone, some maps will be gone. Hopefully that will leave us with symmetrical arena competitive maps, a weapon that works consistently, and smooth movement and visuals; all of which are things that made H2 great, and are things that forge and customs can NEVER fix.

[Vox]

Great discussion so far...I agree with a lot of what you're saying Phreek...The recent updates to MLG have already gotten me excited to play again...hopefully 343 continues this trend and we can have yet another great title...