Off Topic: The Flood
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Subject: Your organized thoughts on Halo 4.
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A 3 Legged Goat
Nobody cares about anyone else's opinion - be it mine, yours, or a cult of angry star wars nerds - when they are enjoying what they enjoy.

Zombine
Everyone cares about opinions, that's why we socialize on a forum with strangers.

I think I'm I'm the minority here, but I thoroughly enjoyed Halo 4. The campaign was incredible and multiplayer was the second-best of the series after Halo 2. It's far from perfect, though, and I do have several complaints.

Pros
- Flawless campaign story. Confused? Watch the damn Terminals.
- Superb campaign gameplay.
- Dazzling graphics and sound design.
- Fresh art direction.
- Great enemy AI. The Prometheans are challenging and irritating in the best possible way. Oh, you think Knights are "overpowered"? Of course, that's the point. They're Forerunner AI soldiers! They provide a unique challenge and I enjoyed every second of fighting them.
- Second-best multiplayer in the series after Halo 2.
- Infinity Slayer rocks. All game types play well.
- Excellent map design. Only the default Erosion set-up (Ascent) disappoints, and it's not in matchmaking anyway.
- AAs are actually balanced! I still don't like Hologram, though, and it doesn't continue to flicker if you shoot at it like it did in Reach.
- On the topic of AAs, universal sprint was a good change.
- Incredible weapons and vehicles. Incredible balance.
- The Mantis rocks. *puts on flamesuit*
- Great music. Sub-par when compared to Marty's work, of course, but that doesn't make it bad. It just means Marty is a tough act to follow.
- Chief/Cortana relationship was well-handled.
- The Forerunners still feel sufficiently alien and mysterious. I liked that they were able to maintain that despite revealing so much about them.
- NO FLOOD. (Flood mode does not count.)

Cons
- The Mammoth was boring and underused, which unfortunately made Reclaimer a fairly ho-him level. It takes forever to get from place to place and there's nothing interesting to do with it during the journey.
- Cheap design tactics to discourage map exploration in the campaign. ("Return To The Battlefield," the killer streams on Reclaimer, etc.)
- Spartan Ops is bland. The idea behind it is exciting, but in practice, it's just bland due to the constant re-use of maps and objectives and the lack of replayability. Shame. I had such high hopes for it. (I like the idea of the shorter arena-style missions as well as the use of multiplayer maps, and the re-use of existing campaign environments doesn't bother me, but the re-use of the same 8 maps over and over again got monotonous very quickly. It's still fun but I have no sense of anticipation for upcoming episodes at all.)
- Lack of campaign scoring.
- Lack of campaign theater. This has all but killed the speedrunning community.
- Overpowered boltshot. Hopefully this gets fixed in a TU. I don't mind the DMR, though.
- Lack of multiplayer playlist variety. I love Infinity Slayer, but there needs to be a "classic Grab Bag" playlist with regular Slayer and FFA objective game types.
- Total lack of Forge map integration in matchmaking. (No Ravine, Erosion, or Impact map variants of any kind.)
- Short campaign, although this has been true of every campaign since Halo 3 and it's looking unlikely that it will change in the near future.
- "Return To The Battlefield" still sucks just as much as it did in Reach and needs to die a fiery death.

  • 12.29.2012 2:41 AM PDT
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"The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been."
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Posted by: car15
- Lack of campaign theater. This has all but killed the speedrunning community.


Yeah, that's true alright.

  • 12.29.2012 2:43 AM PDT

Located here.

It was overall disappointing. Not terrible, but underwhelming.

  • 12.29.2012 2:47 AM PDT

A competitive players main goal is to win.
A casuals main goal is to have fun regardless of whether that results in a win or loss.
It has nothing to do with individual skill or knowledge, it has to do with the reason you play.

Disappointment.
Bad matchmaking.
Lack of social playlists make the game unplayable with friends.

  • 12.29.2012 2:48 AM PDT

Loved it.

  • 12.29.2012 2:49 AM PDT


Posted by: Garem
Sucked Dinosaur wang.
Fix'd

  • 12.29.2012 2:50 AM PDT

Posted by: AquaBlader
Soon to be breaking news:


US Coast Guard prepares for massive rescue mission after Iranian fleet sinks off shore. Reports say a small thunderstorm caused most of the ships to simply...fall apart.

Posted by: Garem
Loved it.


[Edited on 12.29.2012 2:52 AM PST]

  • 12.29.2012 2:52 AM PDT

Non Nobis Nascimur - We are not born for ourselves.

I like it. Good campaign, good multiplayer, Spartan Ops was meh. The only thing that's a little off-putting to me are the personal ordnance drops, but I mainly play Dominion so what do I care.

  • 12.29.2012 2:52 AM PDT

心の中に弱い風が吹いています。

I like it.

  • 12.29.2012 2:55 AM PDT
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"The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.
The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light."
-Felix Adler

>Weird changes are silly (chief's armour changing, spartan IIs wearing new armour, modern UNSC weaponry on the Dawn, etc)
>As said earlier; playlists need more variation. Lack of a non-regicide FFA is disturbing for example.
>Certain things in Campaign should have been done better. For instance, the Covenant. Yes, I've read Glasslands, but nowhere in Halo 4 (outside of Terminals) was their reasons for existing actually stated. You shouldn't have to have other mediums to understand basic plot points.
>SO's repetitiveness
>File browser still not sorted. Was it even tested pre-launch?

There's some more, but I'm too tired to think.

  • 12.29.2012 2:58 AM PDT
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A 3 Legged Goat
Nobody cares about anyone else's opinion - be it mine, yours, or a cult of angry star wars nerds - when they are enjoying what they enjoy.

Zombine
Everyone cares about opinions, that's why we socialize on a forum with strangers.


Posted by: Metalignus
Lack of social playlists make the game unplayable with friends.


...

Posted by: Metalignus
with friends


Why don't you just play customs?

  • 12.29.2012 2:59 AM PDT
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A 3 Legged Goat
Nobody cares about anyone else's opinion - be it mine, yours, or a cult of angry star wars nerds - when they are enjoying what they enjoy.

Zombine
Everyone cares about opinions, that's why we socialize on a forum with strangers.


Posted by: Emperor Gillard
>Weird changes are silly (chief's armour changing, spartan IIs wearing new armour, modern UNSC weaponry on the Dawn, etc)

This didn't bother me at all. I hear people -blam!-ing about it all the time but who cares? It's just for gameplay purposes and for maintaining the new artistic direction.

  • 12.29.2012 3:09 AM PDT

I make a living of selling my body, and I don't mean sex.

I hate they way they handle the playlists.

Where be my objective btb?

Where be my King of the Hill?

Where be my assault?

Where be my *insert gametype*?

Not just Halo 4, but same goes with how they handle Reach's playlists.

  • 12.29.2012 3:11 AM PDT
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"The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.
The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light."
-Felix Adler


Posted by: car15

Posted by: Emperor Gillard
>Weird changes are silly (chief's armour changing, spartan IIs wearing new armour, modern UNSC weaponry on the Dawn, etc)

This didn't bother me at all. I hear people -blam!-ing about it all the time but who cares? It's just for gameplay purposes and for maintaining the new artistic direction.

I found it really jarring. Original Mk. VI is available to the Infinity's Spartan IVs, yet looks different on chief.
The opening cinematic including the Spartan IIs just felt lazy with the same assets as new chief IMO. Even if it is purely for artistic limitations and the Infinity's classic Mk VI isn't canon, it still felt odd.
As for the weapons and the Dawn, I wish that the gameplay had evolved from the state the Dawn was left in during H3. Instead, the structure and geometry of the ship was altered for gameplay purposes and the ship had 2557 model vehicles and weaponry.

The only canonical explanation is that the IIs shown were a secret group, who eventually found chief, changed his armour to theirs without alerting Cortana and then dumped their Armoury onto the Dawn before restructuring it.
When they finished, they left without a word.



Silly (and maybe miniscule in your eyes,) I know, but these things really made me feel detached from the game.

  • 12.29.2012 3:19 AM PDT
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I heard someone say once (paraphrasing here) "Multiflag on Blood Gulch with your friends is what makes Halo, Halo." I GUARANTEE that more people agree with that sentiment than "Getting a 50 in MLG is what makes Halo, Halo." - Oboewan42
Meta | NHL | Kotor


Posted by: car15
Pros
- Flawless campaign story. Confused? Watch the damn Terminals.
- Superb campaign gameplay.


You've got to be joking.

- Dazzling graphics and sound design. Graphics yes. Sound no.

- Fresh art direction. If you call straight ripping iconic styles from other franchises fresh then sure.

- Great enemy AI. The Prometheans are challenging and irritating in the best possible way. Oh, you think Knights are "overpowered"? Of course, that's the point. They're Forerunner AI soldiers! They provide a unique challenge and I enjoyed every second of fighting them. At this point I'm convinced you're a comedian

- Second-best multiplayer in the series after Halo 2.
- Infinity Slayer rocks. All game types play well.
- Excellent map design. Only the default Erosion set-up (Ascent) disappoints, and it's not in matchmaking anyway.
Maps suck. No. Infinity Slayer's power weapon frenzy is likewise. I wasn't aware I was playing a party game.

- AAs are actually balanced! Nope.

- On the topic of AAs, universal sprint was a good change.
Agreed.


- Incredible weapons and vehicles. Incredible balance. Now I'm questioning whether or not you actually played any Halos before 4.

- The Mantis rocks. *puts on flamesuit* Don't care for it personally.

- Great music. Sub-par when compared to Marty's work, of course, but that doesn't make it bad. It just means Marty is a tough act to follow. Music was garbage, son.

- Chief/Cortana relationship was well-handled.

Well Handled? You call

"Chief! ASJDJKSHADJHASJHFJAG"

"Cortana calm down and hang on!"

Times a thousand well handled?

- The Forerunners still feel sufficiently alien and mysterious. I liked that they were able to maintain that despite revealing so much about them. Not at all. In fact, now I picture every female forerunner as looking like Voldemort. Thanks Librarian.

- NO FLOOD. (Flood mode does not count.)

I'd take an expanded look on the flood over the prometheans anyday.

  • 12.29.2012 3:21 AM PDT
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A 3 Legged Goat
Nobody cares about anyone else's opinion - be it mine, yours, or a cult of angry star wars nerds - when they are enjoying what they enjoy.

Zombine
Everyone cares about opinions, that's why we socialize on a forum with strangers.

Why don't you offer your own opinion instead of ripping mine apart point-by-point?

  • 12.29.2012 3:24 AM PDT


Posted by: car15
Why don't you offer your own opinion instead of ripping mine apart point-by-point?

They offered their own opinion by saying your opinion sucks.

That's how teh flud works, mang...

  • 12.29.2012 3:25 AM PDT

I make a living of selling my body, and I don't mean sex.


Posted by: car15
Why don't you offer your own opinion instead of ripping mine apart point-by-point?
But isn't that their opinion?

  • 12.29.2012 3:26 AM PDT
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  • Veteran Heroic Member

A 3 Legged Goat
Nobody cares about anyone else's opinion - be it mine, yours, or a cult of angry star wars nerds - when they are enjoying what they enjoy.

Zombine
Everyone cares about opinions, that's why we socialize on a forum with strangers.


Posted by: Ice Penjamin

Posted by: car15
Why don't you offer your own opinion instead of ripping mine apart point-by-point?
But isn't that their opinion?

Opinionception

  • 12.29.2012 3:28 AM PDT

Posted by: AquaBlader
Soon to be breaking news:


US Coast Guard prepares for massive rescue mission after Iranian fleet sinks off shore. Reports say a small thunderstorm caused most of the ships to simply...fall apart.

I still don't understand how people can say the soundtrack is bad. It's full of great songs. Haven, Arrival, Immaterial, Nemesis, etc.

  • 12.29.2012 3:28 AM PDT
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I heard someone say once (paraphrasing here) "Multiflag on Blood Gulch with your friends is what makes Halo, Halo." I GUARANTEE that more people agree with that sentiment than "Getting a 50 in MLG is what makes Halo, Halo." - Oboewan42
Meta | NHL | Kotor


Posted by: car15
Why don't you offer your own opinion instead of ripping mine apart point-by-point?


Well I would've ended up typing each of those topics anyways, you just did it for me.

/Lazy

  • 12.29.2012 3:29 AM PDT


Posted by: hadlermaster
I still don't understand how people can say the soundtrack is bad. It's full of great songs. Haven, Arrival, Immaterial, Nemesis, etc.

The Flood has been officially declared the Halo 4 hate forum many times.

I can think of a few people who are gonna post blind hate in this thread any minute now.

  • 12.29.2012 3:31 AM PDT


Posted by: Bryanesie
I like it.

  • 12.29.2012 3:32 AM PDT

I win, you lose, get over it!


Posted by: car15
I think I'm I'm the minority here,

Pros
- Flawless campaign story. Confused? Watch the damn Terminals.


But the other Halo games didn't have such a befuddled story that could only be explained with a non-linear source.

Play any of the othe Halo games and the story tells itself. Halo 4 was "read, play, scratch head in confusion"

  • 12.29.2012 3:49 AM PDT

Unsuccessfully trying to bring science and reason to The Flood...

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with Halo 4.

I agree that the campaign was very fun, and I actually liked most of the levels. The story did feel a bit nonsensical at times, but I thought the Chief/Cortana stuff was done very well.

BUT imo it has the worst multiplayer in the whole franchise. So boring to play for more than 2/3 games, and the horrendous map selection and design just slowly killed me. Halo 4 was designed for maps with vehicles, and so 4v4 suffered greatly. I spent a week playing the same 2 maps over and over again and basically gave up.

Don't even mention the ridiculous sound design for most of the weapons, which is also the worst it has been in the series.

  • 12.29.2012 3:49 AM PDT

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