Halo 4

[Benson13]

Is anyone playing Halo 4?

I've only played the first two campaign missions and so far I like what I see. The play control is smooth and you can tell 343 wanted this to be a faster paced game. The music also reflects this by urging you to jump in and shoot everything CQB style as opposed to playing the range game and picking off enemies from a far.

As with every other installment of the series it's quite a feast for the eyes. All the exterior areas have a grand scale to them always alluding to what's beyond the horizon. Interior areas have vaulted ceilings that make you wonder what else is up there and everything is saturated with Forerunner technology.

The new weapons are definitely interesting. I like that you can used either the Battle Rifle or the DMR. You can even customize your loadouts in Spartan Ops to carry two primary weapons if you wanted. The Forerunner weapons great to watch form in your hand once you pick them up and they expand and contract when you reload so that you can insert the new magazine.

Spartan Ops I've had some good co-op fun with so far. You can fully customize your Spartan like you could in Reach but the character models are far superior this time. You can unlock and assign equipment packages in a Call of Duty type system. These equipment packages range from unlimited sprint to carrying two primary weapons.

I personally won't be actively playing the multiplayer. I love my co-op gameplay to keep things fun while multiplayer tends to just piss me off.

All in all, I really like it so far and look forward to some Legendary runs with my friends. Also feel free to send me a friend request if you have a gold account. Always looking forward to playing games with my fellow Macross fans.

Edited January 29, 2013 by azrael

[Lynx7725]

Just getting into the second mission. Overall have to credit 343 for making it a prettier game -- it looks very good. Gameplay is still similar to the last Halo game. Too early to talk about the strength of the writing.

Multiplayer doesn't work for me, but still need to check out the coop play part.

[Hikuro]

I picked it up dirt cheap today and I love the graphics and digging it even more on my 3D TV. On the downside I don't know about you guys but I did not get an instruction manual.

[Benson13]

I dont think there was one. Most of that stuff was on the inside of the case. I haven't looked at a manual in years so no worries there.

I'll be online on Thurs and Fri. Hit me up, Tag is in my signature.

[anime52k8]

I picked up a copy today but I've been too busy with school to actually play it and won't be able to crack it open till at least Friday, if that. Also kind of annoyed because the only reason I bothered to pick it up early was because I ordered the strategy guide to go with it because it's all hard bound and full of concept art, and they didn't actually have any so now I've got to go make a second trip latter this week to pick that up.

[Benson13]

Sorry to hear that. You would figure they would have enough guides for the people who pre-ordered them. That's just good business practice. I personally won't get guides because I can't not look ahead and ruin the storyline.

[azrael]

Unless it comes to PC, then no, I won't be playing (Yeah, I stopped holding my breath when Halo: CE for PC had a delayed release so don't mind me).

But, I was watching the walkthrough on Youtube during lunch. It does seem very action packed with lots of things to shoot.

[Hikuro]

So it looks like Spartan OP is just a new version of Fire Fight with unlimited lives and your score is based off of technique and number of deaths you've had on yourself. I played the first mission and scored a lot of medals bringing me up to nearly a lvl 4 and died 5 times.

On a down side, you need almost 4 gigs of HDD space to get all the multiplayer crap installed on your Xbox. That drove me nuts as I had to either move and or delete a vast number of stuff I've downloaded and I do not have a large hard drive like the newer xboxs. That goes to show you I need to get a new one soon if these games continue to go this route.

[Benson13]

So it looks like Spartan OP is just a new version of Fire Fight with unlimited lives and your score is based off of technique and number of deaths you've had on yourself. I played the first mission and scored a lot of medals bringing me up to nearly a lvl 4 and died 5 times.

On a down side, you need almost 4 gigs of HDD space to get all the multiplayer crap installed on your Xbox. That drove me nuts as I had to either move and or delete a vast number of stuff I've downloaded and I do not have a large hard drive like the newer xboxs. That goes to show you I need to get a new one soon if these games continue to go this route.

I'd wait it out and see when they release the next system.

[Lynx7725]

Spartan Ops is essentially a enhanced Reach MP -- no reason to change things too much. You get more points for non-killing work, like wheelman and assists (and even distractions), but kills is where the points are. Nothing changed much in this aspect.

One good thing is that you can call for ordnance drops. But I rarely survive long enough to use those. So.. meh. I just suck at Halo MP.

I poked a bit, there seems to be some game modes missing. Things like sniper rifle matches, etc. The server's also quite unstable, but I expect that to sort itself out.

The nice thing about MP hdd space is that if you don't intend to play MP, it seems that you don't need to install MP, which is from Disk 2. Looks like the SP storyline is contained on Disk 1.

[anime52k8]

So it looks like Spartan OP is just a new version of Fire Fight with unlimited lives and your score is based off of technique and number of deaths you've had on yourself. I played the first mission and scored a lot of medals bringing me up to nearly a lvl 4 and died 5 times.

On a down side, you need almost 4 gigs of HDD space to get all the multiplayer crap installed on your Xbox. That drove me nuts as I had to either move and or delete a vast number of stuff I've downloaded and I do not have a large hard drive like the newer xboxs. That goes to show you I need to get a new one soon if these games continue to go this route.

I've got the same xbox I've had since 2007, have never deleted a thing off the HDD and still have 85+gigs of free space. BTW, I totally skipped halo reach, so the last time I actually played halo MP was during 3. how does 4 compare to that?

[Benson13]

I've got the same xbox I've had since 2007, have never deleted a thing off the HDD and still have 85+gigs of free space. BTW, I totally skipped halo reach, so the last time I actually played halo MP was during 3. how does 4 compare to that?

Things have definitely progressed. It's faster paced for sure.

[Lynx7725]

PvP? Manic. It's closer to Reach than Halo 3 (though I hadn't play 3). Otherwise.. pew pew pew. If you're not really hot, be mentally prepared to die. A lot.

Large scale Slayer (8 a side) is really fun to die a lot throughout the game though. I prefer those to the smaller Slayer matches.

[taksraven]

[anime52k8]

PvP? Manic. It's closer to Reach than Halo 3 (though I hadn't play 3). Otherwise.. pew pew pew. If you're not really hot, be mentally prepared to die. A lot.

Large scale Slayer (8 a side) is really fun to die a lot throughout the game though. I prefer those to the smaller Slayer matches.

TBH, I gave up completely on slayer/team slayer after the first week of playing Halo 3. Team objective is a lot more fun IMO. Although my favorite playlists where Grifball, oddball, team melee and team SWAT.

[Mr March]

I might pick this up. I loved Halo and Halo 2 (including the Anniversary edition of Halo), but I skipped Halo 3. I feel like playing more Halo and the reviews for the game mostly say it's more of the same Halo, only done right. That's kinda where I'm at as far as my wants for this franchise right now, but I can understand if some were disappointed.

[Hoptimus]

So far I think this is the best Halo since Halo CE.

Single Player is good so far but the Multi player had me addicted last night! Big Team Slayer is fun again and there is MECHA!

Yeah.

Add me for fun and talk of beer and anime/comics while fragging.

[Beltane70]

I wish that I could be playing Halo 4! Unfortunately, finances have been tight these past few months.

[Archer]

I've never played any Halo games before this since I've always been a Playstation/Sony guy. Would it make any sense if I picked up Halo 4?

[Hoptimus]

There is not all that much to the story.

You are a super powered mechanically enhanced soldier caught in intergalactic conflict. You have guns and get to shoot aliens/other Spartans.(Multi-Player)

I say hop on board!

[Benson13]

I've never played any Halo games before this since I've always been a Playstation/Sony guy. Would it make any sense if I picked up Halo 4?

There is not all that much to the story.

You are a super powered mechanically enhanced soldier caught in intergalactic conflict. You have guns and get to shoot aliens/other Spartans.(Multi-Player)

I say hop on board!

I agree with MilkManX, you may just discover something you like and then go back and play the rest of the series.

[Lynx7725]

For me, Halo has one of the more fleshed out storyline of games nowadays. If you bother to follow up on some of the sideline stories outside the game, the universe is pretty rich. Personally, that's why I play the game to see how the Master Chief gets by.

I also think the story is a bit too grimdark for me, and prefer Mass Effect's background story. Both are good stories though.

[Benson13]

As of right now the challenges in Spartan Ops don't always work. I got all the chapters knocked out on legendary and I didn't get the 3000 XP for it.

By the way the DMR and BT DO NOT work on the Forerunner Knights. In fact they pretty much shrug it off like you never fired at them. The Forerunner shotgun works best.

[Hikuro]

I love the promethean weapons, these things are destructive. I guess that helps with ancient advanced technology that wasn't poorly reverse engineered huh?

[Benson13]

I love the promethean weapons, these things are destructive. I guess that helps with ancient advanced technology that wasn't poorly reverse engineered huh?

Sounds familiar for some reason.

[anime52k8]

This makes me really want to play some multiplayer.

[Benson13]

I got some big Halo 4 plans for Thurs and Fri. To make things better, I hear my mini-me wants to play too.

[CoryHolmes]

By the way the DMR and BT DO NOT work on the Forerunner Knights. In fact they pretty much shrug it off like you never fired at them. The Forerunner shotgun works best.

Great, now you tell me. Why wasn't I told this before I used a gazzilion rounds of ammunition? DMR ammo is hard find after all...

[Benson13]

Great, now you tell me. Why wasn't I told this before I used a gazzilion rounds of ammunition? DMR ammo is hard find after all...

I had some seriously emo moments yelling WTF at those Knights. I really should've realized this after they put 8 Knights on the screen at once. I ended up assassinating them all one by one.

[Hoptimus]

I am loving this game. Even the campaign feels like there is more at stake than ever. Just got done with my first major skirmish with the Promethean. Nasty buggers.

[Lynx7725]

I just came out from a session. Played a few Team Slayers, and a couple of Spartan Ops chapters. Spartan Ops chapters are like Reach missions, you go in alone or with a team, then you just kill all the way to the end. Decent, even entertaining solo, though some of them is obviously a bit over the top. (1 Spartan vs. 6 Elites is not funny. Died 6 to 8 times there. Respawns so it's more ok.) So far, it's not like Master Scavenger Chief who steals stuff from everyone. Earth weapons are relatively easy to find, and ammo is there. Covie weapons in the first few missions are also reasonable to come by -- take them off corpses if you need to.

I actually won a Team Slayer game today. Basically, at least on Exile, who controls the most vehicles wins. You don't get enough Anti-tank to work against vehicles and most are travelling too fast to hit them easily. I managed to nail one Warthog only because I nipped for a rocket launcher and he flipped int a pothole. The second match my side got slaughtered even with more players -- just couldn't control the vehicles, and it doesn't help when the team (and myself) kept trying to cross open and exposed ground.

The third, lost 1000 to 990 points. I helped to turn the game around midway through when I respawned next to a Scorpion. Earned 9 kills there just randomly blowing things up, and put the Blues on their back feet. Got caught in terrain and had two Spartans board me. If your side (I won't even call it a team) has people who work together, covering each other, and make an effort to keep vehicles in control (preferably use them properly too), then it is a lot easier.

EDIT: Huh, is that Jennifer Hale doing Sarah Palmer? If so, good to hear her again.

EDIT EDIT: Huh, this Smartglass thing is useful offline. From the records, I killed 9 with the Scorpion, 1 more with the rocket launcher (was from that match), 1 in a random explosion, and killed something with a Warthog turret. And that was one of my better matches. Why do I even bother with infantry weapons?

Edited November 8, 2012 by Lynx7725

[Knight26]

Unless it comes to PC, then no, I won't be playing (Yeah, I stopped holding my breath when Halo: CE for PC had a delayed release so don't mind me).

But, I was watching the walkthrough on Youtube during lunch. It does seem very action packed with lots of things to shoot.

Preach on brother, much as I might like to play the later Halo games, I'm not going to buy a system to play just a handful of games. I'll just watch the cutscenes on youtube and that will be enough I guess. Honestly Microsoft and 343 are shooting themselves in the foot by cutting off PC gamers like this, it is a slap in the face, and why I won't buy their games anymore.

[CoryHolmes]

Preach on brother, much as I might like to play the later Halo games, I'm not going to buy a system to play just a handful of games. I'll just watch the cutscenes on youtube and that will be enough I guess. Honestly Microsoft and 343 are shooting themselves in the foot by cutting off PC gamers like this, it is a slap in the face, and why I won't buy their games anymore.

Preach on brother, much as I might like to play the later Halo games, I'm not going to buy a system to play just a handful of games. I'll just watch the cutscenes on youtube and that will be enough I guess. Honestly Microsoft and 343 are shooting themselves in the foot by cutting off PC gamers like this, it is a slap in the face, and why I won't buy their games anymore.

I admit, I'm considering doing that for the PS3 just to get Dust 514.

[anime52k8]

maybe this is old new from reach but I when I went in to change up my control set up I got a kick out of that fact that the button layout that matches CoD is called Fishstick.

[Lynx7725]

Hey Ben, good to meet you in lobby. Guess you saw how bad I suck at Halo MP. Sorry about the accidental removal from the game -- I'm not used to XBox party groups, so not sure what to do with it.