Halo 4

[jms493]

I'm struggling on-line so far, really rusty from not playing in a couple of years.

Had some difficulty at Best Buy this morning, they couldn't find my pre-order on their computer and I didn't have my receipt. Luckily the district manager was there and gave me $5 off anyway and said next time I want to pre-order something tell them that Rick messed up and I'll get it for free. Then my $25 reward zone certificate wouldn't go through so he knocked $25 off the price anyway and said that I should be getting another one to replace it. Pretty awesome customer service, another reason I love Best Buy.

they better be nice....or there will be no more best buy.

[Maynard]

Holy fucking shit this game is addictive online.

great review

[padman59]

:michaelscott:

[jms493]

great review

The Halo series has long been the flagship game for the Microsoft Xbox since November of 2001, and is the main reason many people own their Xbox’s, and will continue to stick with the system when the next series of consoles come out. I personally fell in love with the game in 2003, when I was introduced to playing games on a LAN, using multiple systems and TVs. It was during this time that the Halo series really kicked off the competitive gaming circuit for consoles, and online multiplayer became the “it” thing every FPS game needed. The one thing Halo has always done better than any other shooter in my opinion is their ability to create the most stable form of matchmaking, as well as being able to create custom games down to the smallest level. 343 has not messed around with what Bungie accomplished in the past, as far as these two subjects are concerned, and gamers will be glad to hear that it’s still a strong point as far as online multiplayer is concerned. The one change I have seen that can be either good or bad depending on your point of view, is that if a player quits a game, then a person looking to join that playlist will fill their slot. In the past Halo series games, if someone quit out, then you were left with a smaller team. The only downfall to this is you will get pulled into games where your team is getting beat badly, and will more than likely get the loss.

343 Industries had a tough task at hand when they took over for Bungie, after 11 years of working with the game, but from everything I have seen while playing the game they have done an incredible job picking up where they left off. The game feels like a ramped up version of Halo Reach, which a lot of people most likely will not want to hear. Reach did a good job making an interesting campaign that helped keep your attention until the end, but the multiplayer seemed to have gone away from what Halo 1,2 and 3 brought to the table. Halo 4 sticks to a similar style of gameplay that we saw in Reach, but the game feels a lot smoother and you have better control of your Spartan. There is a large assortment of new weapons that will really give Halo fans and even those that have never played a Halo game real enjoyment. 343 did an incredible job of adding new weapons to a game that has been established for well over a decade that feel as if they should have been there all along. Armor abilities are still here that are carried over from Reach, but they have done away with the Armor Lock ability which many found to be considerably overpowered. You’ll still see players using the hologram ability, but in Halo 4 the holograms show up on the enemy’s radar, whereas on Reach this was not the case.

Online players will begin as a level 1 recruit, and work their way up the rankings by earning points from the online games they play. Each time you advance to the next rank you earn points to use towards your Spartan’s armor, and to unlock weapons to use on your load outs. In Halo 4, unlike any other Halo, players will be in full control of what their character spawns with at the beginning of the game. With each point you earn you will be able to unlock different weapons, secondary weapons, and armor abilities. The Spartan Hub is where you will go and buy different items to use towards how you want your character, and your load outs. 343 has stated that there will be a new ranking system similar to what was used in Halo 3, this was due to many not liking the ratings bases system used in Halo Reach’s Arena playlist. Halo has a strong competitive gaming community as I mentioned earlier, and bringing back the old ranking system should help bring some of the gamers lost during the Reach era.

The single player campaign picks up with Master Chief and Cortana as his AI partner in crime facing off against a new enemy, the Prometheans. There are still more of the completely outnumbered missions where you are forced to do your best to try and find a way around the mass numbers of enemies, but the game has storylines that create tension here and there that really draws you into it. The cut scenes are incredibly well done and the characters themselves look incredibly realistic as 343 used similar motion capture technology to what we saw in L.A. Noire. The final scene of the opening mission starts the game off with incredible jaw dropping action, and it doesn’t stop until the final mission is completed. Accompanying the campaign is a new mode called “Spartan Ops”, which will be a 10 week DLC series that expands on the Halo series storyline. As usual the Campaign and the new Spartan Ops mode will be able to be played with 4 total players, and supply lots of fun and exciting missions.

Overall the campaign can be beaten pretty easily if played on Normal or Easy, but gamers will find it a little bit more challenging on the harder difficulties. It is believed that one of the achievements gamers will be looking to unlock in order to be able to use new armor online, will be achieved by beating the game on Legendary mode by themselves. The jump from Halo Reach to 4 is not as large as some might expect, but 343 Industries did an excellent job of really sharpening up what Bungie did in Reach. The core to the Halo games has always been the storyline and Master Chief, but after the gamer has completed the campaign it always comes down to online multiplayer. Halo 4 is a step in the right direction for the series after what a lot believe was a step down with Reach. The campaign and Spartan ops modes will be really enjoyable to those who follow the series, as well as those just starting it out. Multiplayer will continue to make the games replay ability incredibly high. Unlike your typical military shooting games, the Halo series provides more possibilities as to what can happen after the game starts, and will hold gamers attention for months after buying this game.

Overall: 9 out of 10

Pros:
Improved Gameplay
Colors/Sound improvement
Spatan Ops DLC

Cons:
No Firefight mode

[Maynard]

i was joking you fools.

[jms493]

gonna watch this at lunch

[wingsfan77]

You must have a long ass lunch break haha.

[Swarley]

Best Buy >>>>

Except they don't have a speedy checkout for people picking up preorders. That's the only thing that GameStop is better at.

[jms493]

Except they don't have a speedy checkout for people picking up preorders. That's the only thing that GameStop is better at.

agreed store pick is a longer process then just checking out.

[Rylo]

Servers messed up for anyone else? Looks loke my rank and shit reset

[MmmmBeeeeer]

Add me douche bags. GT: MmmmBeeeer

I've got the next few days off of work.

[Twigg4075]

The wife and I need to run some errands tomorrow so I'm going to pick up my copy from BB then.

Edit: Well shit, my Newegg copy was in my mailbox today. Maybe I'll play some before work tonight?

[Leftwich]

Very impressed with the online so far.

[MmmmBeeeeer]

I concur with Leftwich. Even though I'm struggling, this game is way better than Reach so far.

I am a little confused though, do you only show up on the radar when sprinting or what? Might just switch to Slayer Pro.

This is a big adjustment from the laid back funfest of BF3.

edit: and DMR > BR so far. It feels so good to headshot the shit out of people again.

[Guest]

Mine just shipped, so it should be here when the Crysis 3 alpha closes. I'm OK with that.