Halo 4

You don't have to defend Halo from every modicum of scrutiny.

Yeah, loadouts existed before Call of Duty, but you're being obtuse if you think Halo 4's loadout system (among other things) were not inspired directly by Call of Duty.

 

I don't see any problems with adapting good game design concepts from other titles. Halo is still one of the most influential FPS games anyway, having introduced the two weapon limit, usable grenades, and regenerating 'health' (in this case, shields) to the genre. A lot of other titles borrowed these concepts, so why can't Halo do the same, if it works well?

 

The question is, "Is it worse for the wear--or better--because of such?"

It is silly and simplistic to say, "They ripped this off" and then give little thought to, "Did this design evolution help or hurt the game?" Halo popularized a gamepad configuration for shooters, rebounding shields, instant melee/nades, limited weapon carrying ability, vehicles, etc, especially in the console space (even though they were NOT the first to do basically any of these things). There are very few "absolutely new, never been done before, ever!" ideas.

The question a magazine reviewer should be asking is (a) does it fit and (b) does it improve the experience? The whole, "Your CoD just tainted my Halos!!!111" is really out of the depths of fanboy hell.

I have not played Halo 4 yet. From what I have seen the "power weapon" re-design is a thumbs up from me, specifically how they work it onto the HUD. I have no opinion yet on the loadouts. I don't mind the custom-spartan stuff, but what I did NOT like about Reach was the stupid cost of everything so I will be interested to see how they plays out here.

 

Only defending it because the reviewer is a obvious COD fanboy that wants the Halo campaign to play exactly like COD.Funny thing is that alot of people called him out for it and he couldn't even properly defend his ignorant stance on Halo 4's campaign..We obviously disagree about Halo 4's loadout sytem being inspired or not by COD so I'm just going to leave it at that.

 

It took forever to rank up in Reach mp, so I'm hoping its a bit faster in Halo 4.

 

Gamestop called me! Yeeeeeeeeeees!

Edit: have it in my hands...long night incoming

 

So... now that you guys are getting your hands on the game, I think it's about time I come clean about this: we (Digic) have worked on Halo 4 for the better part of this year, producing the CG Prologue and Epilogue for the game. I guess this might make me a little biased about it; but damn it, who wouldn't be excited about such a project

Hope you guys will like it, I personally think that the ending rocks and 343 has really nailed it.

 

great.
Now work hard to make those CGI running real time on next gen xbox !

lol.
Already bought 2 games this month, i'll have to wait 'till december to buy halo 4

 

That's on 343 and not on us

 

"Best CG in a game" succes own!!!! Respect!!
The amateur in me is really impressed with the Prologue CG, don't saw the Epilogue yet. And my wife tell me at first "It's a real girl?" And after few seconds "No, but it's really near…Look the skin!!!!" "Want a CG Halo film, from them!!" And you known: "That Girl want… God want"

I'm only in the 6 chap, start Saturday afternoon. Sometime is cool to be in a country who don't care of "launch rules" specially if broke is at start of a week-end.

 

the old woman face was quite amazing. It remembered me the first time i saw FF spirits within, especially Cid. It looks a bit dated now.

 

@Laa-Yosh
Thanks for telling us this. I am definitely looking forward to seeing your team's handiwork!

 

The Terminals. A background to the Forerunners and Promethians. SPOILERS. But a great background to Halo 4 and who the new enemies are and why they have a conflict with humans.

@ Laayosh: You da' man!

 

I really like the body armor designs in multiplayer. Also beautiful work Laa-Yosh and company..

 

The amount of bloom in this game kind of tires the eyes after a while.

 

Laa-Yosh, the opening cgi cut scene was very special! The skin of the old woman, in close up, was super realistic and faked my brain, which resulted in a short discussion about being real or not One of the best CGI work I have seen so far. Congratulations.

I wonder if it would be affordable/possible to do a whole CGI movie with this quality?

Game so far is good. Graphics sometimes very good. Especially the terrain is very detailed imo. Am still at the beginning...looking forward to some more action this evening!

Noob question: I can not find the right audio option to increase the volume of the music? It seems to me that there is basically no audio option available? What am I doing wrong?

 

I just picked it up at my local exchange.
It's sometimes good to be a day ahead of the mainland.

I will dig in for a quick campaign run tonight.

 

Up to the Infinity level, the jungle has no dynamic environment shadows, all baked in which kinda reminds me of Alan Wake's outdoor shadows. But the lighting setup and environment design look really outstanding. The AA and AF are kinda lacking, Forerunner level was especially jaggy, but overall impression was pretty good.
I hope the story picks up at some stage, it's been rather dull so far.

 

Really liking the graphics so far. It appears really clean.
The story is a little slow, but kind of what I expected as it is already picking up pace.

I have to quit for the night because of work, but plan on picking it up as soon as I get home. I hope it a good longish story for the kick off of a new trilogy.

 

Not sure to what you compare it. But imo, this is the weakest point in HALO4 graphics (as it is in most console games). Lot's of aliasing/shimmering in the corridors, blurry ground textures about 5 meters ahead (which is a shame, because they are super detailed imo). IQ is not the strongest point. Although there are some situations with heavy post processing kicking in where those artefacts are very well hidden.

I very much like the high amount of detail everywhere, this makes a very believable atmosphere and world. Just looking at the Warthog and recognizing all the detail is

Gameplay so far is good. Quite challenging in the sense that you have to manage your weapons good, to not run out of ammo. My favorite gun is still the burst fire assault rifle with scope, although I am not sure it still fires in bursts as it has rather fast moving bullets. Nevertheless, it packs quite a punch!