[360] Halo 4

[Guest]

My initial thoughts were that, of course they would be making another one. There is no way Microsoft would let Master Chief die. And if Bungie wants to be done with Halo, 343 Industries (who have Bungie employees) is going to be developing it.

It will be interesting to see how much, if any, the franchise will change.

[j.hen]

I'M HERE!

[MmmmBeeeeer]

hopefully they bring back the Halo 2 br

[leaffan]

This is going to be the biggest milk job in history. I honestly think the halo series is going to over take the guitar hero series in terms of the "enough already" feeling.

[Guest]

This is going to be the biggest milk job in history. I honestly think the halo series is going to over take the guitar hero series in terms of the "enough already" feeling.

That is why I am waiting to see what happens. If they don't make many changes to the Halo formula, its definitely going to go that way. But with the game in other hands (I won't say new) it will be interesting to see where they take the game.

[JBregz]

This is going to be the biggest milk job in history. I honestly think the halo series is going to over take the guitar hero series in terms of the "enough already" feeling.

[Saluki]

This is going to be the biggest milk job in history. I honestly think the halo series is going to over take the guitar hero series in terms of the "enough already" feeling.

Remember when Assassins creed was only supposed to be a trilogy? Now they have plans to do 1 game a year, this ones already #4.

[Houston]

This is going to be the biggest milk job in history. I honestly think the halo series is going to over take the guitar hero series in terms of the "enough already" feeling.

[SethMode]

I liked Reach well enough, and for once actually though that the story in SP wasn't THAT bad. But still, it was evident even then, when the game was done by the creators who no longer wanted to do anymore of them, that it was getting stale.

I understand that they want to make money, and that people will buy Halo for quite a while but Jesus, it was a fairly simple game to begin with.

[Handleit_44]

Link: NY Daily News

The difference between Halo 4 and Halo Reach (the final Bungie title) is stark. Halo 4 will take place on a far darker color palette, and it will feature the most robust engine in the series' long history.

The relationship between the series' two pivotal characters seems set to evolve in this new era of Halo. Cortana's voice seems tinged with emotion throughout the brief level, and they banter back and forth more than ever, a constant reminder that this game has evolved into more than some first-person shooter. A deep mythology, forged by four previous titles and a series of books, underlies everything, but O'Connor promises that newbies will feel right at home in Halo 4.

The halls are dark, and lights and shadows glance off Master Chief's standard rifle. Dust particles float throughout the air, and everything from rifle to Grunts to Elite has been dramatically redone.

Weapons, which once had a distinctly sci-fi sound, now fire with stronger audio impact; your rocket launcher's missiles finally reverberate, and even your rifle shots have a greater amount of pop.

The entire game has visuals that rival — perhaps even exceed — the vast abilities of EA's Frostbite 2 engine.

"Reach looked really good, but we've had the benefit of hindsight, and the benefit of time," O'Connor says. "We had a little bit of luxury in that we weren't churning through consecutive game project after consecutive game project. We had about a year to just do some prototyping. And it's really paid off well."

Link: Gamespot

We changed the HUD and we also added a sense of immersion--you can hear your breath as it sounds inside the helmet," said Frank O'Connor.

"It's definitely at a higher fidelity at this point. Our facial animation and motion capture technology are all going to make it look better."

Spartan Ops mode.

With this mode, players will engage in a co-op story with other Spartan trainees, not unlike the co-op of Portal 2. The difference with Halo 4 is that this story is episodic, with new missions being released each week. O'Connor said, "It's about the same amount of story as [a traditional] campaign stretched over weeks."

Besides giving players more bang for their buck, the Spartan Ops mode was created for another practical reason. Despite what a glance at the leaderboards seems to tell you, Halo players really don't play online. "Most people actually play campaign and don't play competitive. It's because the competitive landscape is really intimidating for people. So they prefer to play at their own pace," said O'Connor.

The Spartan Ops story will stretch out for several weeks, but not months, according to O'Connor. And beyond that? "Season one comes free with the game. If we did another season we would be building that from scratch. Maybe that will be DLC; maybe it goes in the next game. We are still tinkering with that."

"We are not supporting 3D TVs or Kinect for Halo 4," said O'Connor.

343 is already giving Halo 4 the largest levels the series has ever seen, the most feature-intense multiplayer yet, and a new online co-op campaign in Spartan Ops--not to mention richer sound and visuals. "We are still pushing more and more of the graphics. We had one guy at the showcase who thought this was the next-gen preview. I wouldn't go that far, but it does look good. There is still more and more to be squeezed out of the box," said O'Connor.

[Handleit_44]

Link: Reach is more impressive than it gets credit for..., and I would argue the Halo games do more than most shooters and rely on less smoke and mirrors. However, Bungie has never struck me as a savvy graphics tech studio, while 343 has poached some of the best from Corrine Yu to VFX people and animators from Pixar and ILM. Ultimately art is king at the end of the day. You can have all the fancy tech in the world, but good art is what's going to make the difference. That's not to say the previous Halo games don't have good art, I just think their inconsistent and some character designs look like something you would see in the Power Ranger universe (hello, Brutes). I like the vision I'm seeing from longtime id Software Art Director Kenneth Scott (who's the AD at 343). Everything I've seen of H4 looks more mature.

Cortana:



vs




Grunts actually look menacing and closer to what their described like in the books.



vs



...

[Buzzman]

That does look good.

[Ralnakor]

That does look good.

Indeed. I'm stoked for this game.

The fact that they brought over who they did from Bungie, but still injected so much new blood into the franchise, I think this could really take Halo back into breaking new ground for what a shooter can be. At least I hope so.

[Guest]

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I skimmed the Game Informer article and heard that the Covenant would be involved. I really thought they would have created new enemies.

However, a prediction of mine is that Chief and Cortana will come across the crew of Spirit of Fire, which is the protagonist group from the RTS game Halo Wars. That would support current technology being available to them, and would come complete with another group of Spartans, another AI who has long surpassed the time limit and a ship from which to operate.

[Ralnakor]

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I skimmed the Game Informer article and heard that the Covenant would be involved. I really thought they would have created new enemies.

However, a prediction of mine is that Chief and Cortana will come across the crew of Spirit of Fire, which is the protagonist group from the RTS game Halo Wars. That would support current technology being available to them, and would come complete with another group of Spartans, another AI who has long surpassed the time limit and a ship from which to operate.

They will be involved, but it has also been stated that they won't be the main villain. Rumor has it that it could be the dude/thing from the Halo Consortium novel with regard to the Ancients.