Update #3.1
A plethora of new Halo 4 images seem to have surfaced onto the web today. Many are from the recent GameInformer Halo 4 cover story, but some appear to be concept art while others are in-engine models. See for yourself:
Concept Art
In-Game Screens:
In-Engine Models:
Well that's it for now. I may come back and comment on some of the info we can gather from these pics, but until then, enjoy.
Update #3
If you haven't already seen 1UP's recent Halo 4 article (that your's truly participated in), go check it out here.
Ok, first things first: Halo's release date was announced this week, and as I suspected, it's in November (November 6th, to be exact), meaning Microsoft and 343i are taking Call of Duty head on. The good people at Rooster Teeth teamed up with 343i to make a Red vs Blue video announcing the date:
There are a few new morsels we can take away from the video.
The 1st is that it's made using Halo 4. The map looks to be one of the two maps that have already been shown, "Warhouse". This is also the first time I've seen the shotgun, which appears to be exactly the same as Reach's shotgun. We also get to see the scope screen of the sniper rifle, which appears to be some what different than before. For starters the actual scope part isn't a complete rectangle anymore. Also the area of the screen surrounding the scoped area is now a shade of blue, rather than the typical blurred, colorless versions we're used to.
Because is the big annoucement there's a lot of other Halo news and media floating around as well. The funniest of these is the "Conan O'Brian's "Halo 4" Voiceover Remote video:
If you skip ahead to the 8:53 mark, we get a few seconds of BR gameplay. The only thing to really take away from this gameplay segment is that it's the first time that I've actually heard the Battle Rifle fired. To be completely honest it sounded kind of weak, so here's to hoping that it doesn't like that in the final game.
GameInformer still has their week long Halo 4 news special going on, so there are some really good bits of info that you can gather from these. The first of these is "Transitions to Halo 4", and is Frankie talking about why he decided to leave Bungie to stay and work on Halo and how 343i is made up of die hard Halo fans. The next is "The Music" and talks about how Halo 4's music guru, Sotaro Tojima, went about selecting British musician and producer, Neil Davidge, to compose the music for Halo 4. There is an accompanying bonus video:
Next is "Meet the Creative Director of Halo 4" and is an indepth interview withHalo 4's creative director, Josh Holmes. This one also has a bonus video:
Then we have "New and Old Meet: A New Take On Competitive Multiplayer" which I had high hopes for, but unfortunately it's not anything we didn't already know. The only new piece of info I could gather was that Halo 4 would only support 2 player split screen in online matches. It'll still be 4 player split screen locally, but scaling back online matches to only two player split screen could get them some negative reactions from fans considering every Halo that's ever been online supported 4 player split screen online play. UPDATE: Just read that Frankie clarified saying that the 2-player online, 4-player locally omment was in reference to Spartan Ops. Regular online matchmaking will still be 4-player split screen online. You can see it for yourself here.
And lastly we have "Spartan Ops: The New Cooperative Experience". While there isn't really anything new in here, there is a better explanation of what it is. Most notable is that Spartan Ops missions will take place outside of the Infinity (the giant UNSC ship that Halo 4's multiplayer takes place on) as it treks across the galaxy. This was kind of a given, but at least it's confirmed now. They also say that Spartan Ops missions will combine to be as big, if not bigger, than Campaign.
There are also several things that can be taken away from the video that aren't directly tied to the subject matter. Watching the video you'll notice a tv screen behind lead Spartan Ops designer, Chris Haluke, has Halo 4 running with the player idle. The equipped weapon is the assault rifle and we can see the "AFK" animation at work as the Spartan turns the weapon from left to right. The map appears to be Warhouse and some kind of robotic arm can be seen moving around near the giant mech that rests in the middle of the map. We can also get a glimpse of an ordinance pod (the new distribution model for power weapons in Halo 4 multiplayer - think oridance drops from Halo Reach's Firefight mode) up on the platform that is holding a sniper rifle, as given away by the blue sniper rifle icon coming off of the top of the pod.
We can also get an idea of what Halo 4's menu system will look like from the monitors sitting behind both Chris Haluke and Josh Holmes. Nothing really special about them, but it does appear that 343i is keeping with the traditional "shades of blue" style UI of past Halo games.
And that's it for the GameInformer news so far, if they post anything esle then I'll repost it here.
The last info drop comes by way of the latest 343i podcast: 343 Sparkcast 012 - A Halo 4 Multiplayer-Focused Extravaganza. You can check it out here. Among the things they talk about is ordinance drops, which I talked about above. If you missed it, in Halo 4 the power weapons will no longer be in specific places on the map any longer, instead the will be shot from orbit into the map by way of ordinance drop pods. Basically the same way you got power weapons in Halo Reach's FireFight mode. And if you happen to be under one of these pods when it comes - after an extensive warning system - then it will kill you. Could be pretty funny.
Immediate respawning is elaborated on, although it is still what we thought: in certain modes you'll be able to respawn immediately after dying. This WILL NOT apply to objective based gametypes. But, players don't have to respawn immediately if they don't want to, they can go in and change their or customize their loadouts in-between deaths.
They talk a bit about how having similar weapons like the Battle Rifle and the DMR in the game and how they actually serve different purposes in spite of their similar class.
Forerunner Vision is explained a little better. I had a feeling that it would be similar to Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach's visor mode and that's what it sounds like it'll be. The range isn't too long on it and it puts off a sound that alerts players to the armor ability.
The new Assault Carbine is touched on briefly, even if they don't really tell you what it is. It sounds like it'll be what I thought which is a Halo equivalent to the real world M4A1.
And they finish it off by talking about Spartan Ops and the lack of FireFight. They feel that it was right to remove FireFight because Spartan Ops is a deeper, meatier, Halo co-op experience. Apparently Spartan Ops will encourage teamwork unlike FireFight's tendency to turn into a player free-for-all. Also, each week's new Spartan Ops missions will come with full CGI movies to flesh them out.
Well that about wraps it up, I'll keep posting info as it comes out.
Update #2
Today 343 released their Halo Bulletin for 3.07.12. In it, Frankie harkened back to the days of the "Weekly Bungie Update", in which he would talk about the progress of the current game and answer questions from fans. Today, he answered quite a few questions from fans, and though the answers were expectedly vague, there were some nice morsels hiding in there. You can read the whole thing for yourself here.
One of the things he addresses is the attempt by some to compare whatever the new gameplay functions in Halo 4 are, to Call of Duty's "perks". I personally have an idea of what direction they are going with Halo 4 in terms of new gameplay, which is nothing like CoD's perk system, so it'll be interesting to see how on or off the mark I am as we learn more. But suffice it to say, whatever it is, it is not a clone of CoD's perks.
Next he touches on the new armor customization systems for multiplayer and how that will affect play. It's really hard to discern what it will entail with his vague statements, but you do get that not all armor customization will be just cosmetic. It sounds for a brief moment that there may be an evolution of the loadouts seen in Reach, but even then it's hard to say. He does say that what they're doing will not affect balance or give certain players an upper hand.
Another fan question asks if either equipment or armor abilities would see a return. Frankie answers by talking about how Halo: CE and Halo 2 had equipment at different points of the map, while Halo 3 featured equipment, which was the same idea, but in greater variety. Halo: Reach featured armor abilities which were picked in loadouts before the match begins and in respawning. He went on to say that Halo 4 would feature a natural evolution of these systems while taking into account the successes (Halo:CE - 3) and failures (Reach - though the jetpack has it's moments) of previous games.
Other points of interest include:
No multiplayer beta.
Master Chief and multiplayer Spartan IV's will play virtually the same.
There will be new characters introduced, though I think that goes without saying.
They're planning some interesting things in terms of marketing, though anyone who remembers the whole "I love Bees" ARG from Halo 2 understands that Halo has a history in this regard. There will also be someone from 343 attending all the major events to represent Halo 4 between now and when the game ships.
Playlists for "traditional Halo fans" was mentioned, which made me think of Classic Slayer in Halo: Reach, which is basically the game the way it was played in Halo 1 - 3.
As I speculated in my previous update to this blog, health and health packs are gone.
It sounds like there will be more guns than in previous games. Frankie said definitively that "it is not the same number of guns (as in Reach)". Seeing as how they've already shown the Battle Rifle AND said that there will be single shot weapons like the DMR, along with lots of new guns, I highly doubt that there will be less weapons than Reach.
The Covenant will return. Though they're role in the game will be, "in a completely (graphically, politically and sonically) overhauled form".
The Battle Rifle (and presumably other weapons) will be hitscan (Halo 2, Reach) as opposed to spread (Halo 3). This information is more for the very competitive multiplayer fans as it pertains to how fast the bullets hit the target once the trigger is pulled - hitscan=instantaneous/spread=not instantaneous.
Reach's assassinations will return, though in an unspecified, altered way.
There will be a way to still play Grifball, whether that will be with a gravity hammer or some new weapon wasn't said.
We can probably expect some remakes of fan favorite maps.
it sounds like Halo 4 will be able to match Reach mode for mode.
Forge will be awesome.
The machinima community has not been forgotten.
There will not be an outright colorblind option, though colorblindness was taken into effect in art design.
And lastly, he said that their current stage of development is officially "crunch". Frankie described crunch as, "We’re finishing levels. Improving perf. Finishing gameplay. Finishing UI. The Campaign is playable from beginning to end. Cinematics are being fully realized. Music is composed, final orchestra sessions are booked. Some levels are graphically polished and beautiful, others waiting their turn in the schedule. Testing and polishing of systems continues. Crunchy."
Honestly I'm surprised that they're that far along in development, but I'm glad as well considering that gives the team that much more time to polish the game and find and squash bugs. I'm hoping that we'll start seeing weekly updates on Halo 4's progress like in the days of old.
I'll continue to update this blog as I find out more about the game.
Update
Something else that I forgot to point out that I noticed in the Halo 4 Making of video was the removal of health. For those that don't know, the original Halo: Combat Evolved saw your shield meter accompanied by a health meter. The player would have to pick up health packs in order to restore lost health. This was removed in Halo 2 and Halo 3, but returned in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. Thankfully, 343 has seen that Bungie made the right choice by removing health in Halo 2 and 3 and it appears from the video that Halo 4 will also not have a health meter or health packs.
[Original Blog]
So today 343 industries finally released the first piece of actual in-game footage of Halo 4.
I've watched it like 20 times already.
Just from the short, 4 minute video - in which only a very small part was in-game, from the HUD gameplay - I can already see that 343 "get's it". Halo 4 looks to be what it's being billed as: a direct sequel to Halo 3. And that's what I want. Halo is my favorite gaming franchise. Ever. I love the Halo universe and have consumed just about every single piece of content available.
In a lot of ways, the novels are just as important to the Halo universe as the games, if not more. The novels really have done a great job of putting you knee deep in the universe and giving you a more human look at characters like the Master Chief, something the games haven't really done. So for the folks that haven't read the novels, the Master Chief probably comes across as pretty bland. So I was very excited to hear that 343 is taking all the depth we normally only get from the novels and planting it squarely into the game. They specifically mentioned a desire to flesh out John (Master Chief) more, which is very exciting to a long time fan like myself.
Anyone who finished Halo 3 on Legendary will remember the cinematic after the credits, in which we see John and Cortana drifting into the orbit of what appears to be a planet. But as the surface is illuminated we realize that it's not a planet, at least not a natural one as the surface appears to be metal and machine-like. Judging from the reveal trailer for Halo 4 this is exactly where Halo 4 picks up. I think it'll be safe to say that there will be new enemies this time around. Maybe even some Forerunner involvement. So as far as story, and this is hard to say coming from a Bungie faithful, I think that Halo 4 will be the strongest Halo story yet.
Graphically the game looks amazing. And the weird part is that it looks like Halo. The art style, the colors, the direction, it all looks like Bungie themselves did it. In the video we see a little snippet of the kind of facial detail we can expect, and it was very impressive. Something they talk about in the video is really putting an emphasis on the superhuman abilities of the Spartans through gameplay. This really intrigued me because I've always read about the amazing things the Spartans are capable of in the novels, but never really got to do any of it in the games.
One of the things that ended up really disappointing me in Reach were the armor abilities. When Reach was first announced I was really hoping it would be based on the novel, "The Fall of Reach", and put you in the shoes of the Chief along with his squad of Spartans called Blue team. These were all Spartan II's and each had an ability that made them unique. These characters would not have needed armor abilities like the Spartan III's, who had not been genetically enhanced, nor did they have the same Mjolner armor that the Spartan II's had.
To me, Reach felt like Bungie was feeling the pressure from CoD, and rather than take the game in the direction they could have by featuring characters that were natural superhumans and using that in the gameplay, they decided to add their version of perks. Hell, even the campaign-space multiplayer maps, the reticule bloom, among other things, were taken straight from CoD. But everything we've seen of Halo 4 so far shows a game that is getting back in touch with itself.
I saw no armor abilities, no reticule bloom, they go out of their way to say that all of the multiplayer maps are unique spaces built from the ground up for multiplayer. Oh, and the Battle Rifle is back. For those who don't know, the BR is leagues better than the DMR (though, according to Frank O'Connor, there will still be single shot weapons). Oh and they're actually making a backstory for multiplayer, which I thought was interesting. The ability to sprint also seems to be a normal gameplay mechanic now as well, something that is long overdue in my opinion.
1UP has a piece up with some of the guys talking about the Halo 4 video and how it looks like CoD to them. I thought this was very strange, and frankly, completely unsubstantiated. Reach, with all the things I mentioned previously, was the closest any Halo game has ever come to copying CoD. But Halo 4 appears to be shedding all of those things in favor of a new direction. One of the things they talk about is how Halo 4 appears to have a slightly faster movement speed than Reach, which would make sense considering Bungie admitted to slowing down movement speed in Reach and lowering jump height.
Before this video, nobody really knew what to expect from 343's first entry into the Halo series. But after what I've seen today, this is one diehard Halo fan that is not only happy with what he's seen, but believes that this could be the best Halo yet. 343 is made up of Halo fans and it shows, because so far they are doing what this fan wants.
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