Halo 4

[Flabio]

I think Bungie should go back and look carefully at what made Halo 1 so good.

They may well be. But it won't help with this, cause Bungie aren't doing it.

[fishbowlhead]

They may well be. But it won't help with this, cause Bungie aren't doing it.

Not even Bungie know how or why Halo came together like it did, and from what they said it, it all randomly came together in the last few months of development. Its doubtful its magic will ever be re-created by anyone, as it was by accident in the first place.

[rmoxon]

Reach was the best Halo game by far, the level design and story were great I thought, but it did lack a proper Protagonist as you were basically just playing as one of the unammed heroes that

->Open Spoiler<-

sacrificed his life during the fall of Reach

.

Will be nice to have Master Chief back.

[randombs]

Just saw this:

http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/halo-4-developer-diary-shows-new-footage

Definitely felt tingles, which is a good sign

[Uli]

Reach was the best Halo game by far, the level design and story were great I thought, but it did lack a proper Protagonist as you were basically just playing as one of the unammed heroes that

->Open Spoiler<-

sacrificed his life during the fall of Reach

.

Will be nice to have Master Chief back.

Reach is great overall but the single player campaign is slightly lacking in the "true campaign feel" as its individual missions don't string together very well. it feels more like a loose collection of kick ass-missions.

so, yes, very much looking forward to MC too. traditional Halo release date is September but as far as i know it's not been confirmed yet, right?

[fishbowlhead]

Seems strange that the games have skipped the much overlooked spartanIII's and halo 4 features spartanIV's?

To get some continuity between the games and the fiction, they really need to look at what has been done by Eric Nyland and follow his example, or even get him involved with the game scripts to some degree, instead of going off on their own tangents.


The weapons need a serious sound overhaul too, lets return to the meaty days of halo 1, where you felt like every round thundered across the landscape and ripped through flesh. Not like you are throwing popcorn at a marshmellow in every other game since.

[EvilBoris]

[randombs]

Yeah, I always found the guns in the later games were quiet. I thought the helmets had buit-in noise cancellers or something

[Uli]

To get some continuity between the games and the fiction, they really need to look at what has been done by Eric Nyland and follow his example, or even get him involved with the game scripts to some degree, instead of going off on their own tangents.

that's what Bungie already should have done with Halo 3 and Reach. Nylund surely is the visionary force behind most of the post Halo CE universe and also has proven to be a great action script writer. i really would like to ask Nylund himself if he ever was asked to work on the game narrative too.

[EvilBoris]

A good book writer doesn't automatically make for a good game writer.

Richard Morgan is a far more Critically Acclaimed Sci-Fi writer and he wrote the plot for both Crysis 2 and Syndicate, both of which had awful plots and didn't work within the realm of interactive Narrative.

Bungie had said in the past that they would never let Narrative dictate gameplay and having a rigid narrative can hamper gameplay.
I personally don't want to play another FPS where the entire complex story is delivered via radio chatter from multiple characters talking into your head.
I suspect that having an external writer probably isn't the best way to handle it, because it must be very easy to deviate too far away from what they have written.

[Uli]

A good book writer doesn't automatically make for a good game writer.

it's not about game writing in the first place here - it's more about directing the plot of probably the biggest story driven gaming franchise into something that's both imaginative and cohesive in respect to the novels. that's were the last 3 Halo games struggled somewhat.

[EvilBoris]

Frankie has confirmed the game is 720p native with some form of AA.
About bloody time!

It shares no engine tech with Anniversary. Almost every single system, audio, rendering, lighting, you name it, has been either radically overhauled or rewritten from the ground up. At this point saying it's based on a previous version of the engine basically speaks to a few pieces of code.

It must of been a Major overhaul to of increased the resolution alone, Bungie only managed a marginal increase between 3 and Reach.

[EvilBoris]

You can see the Mark IV armour here has taken a turn towards the mech, the character models are quite a bit leggier too


Here is a new chief

[rmoxon]

A good book writer doesn't automatically make for a good game writer.

Richard Morgan is a far more Critically Acclaimed Sci-Fi writer and he wrote the plot for both Crysis 2 and Syndicate, both of which had awful plots and didn't work within the realm of interactive Narrative.

Bungie had said in the past that they would never let Narrative dictate gameplay and having a rigid narrative can hamper gameplay.
I personally don't want to play another FPS where the entire complex story is delivered via radio chatter from multiple characters talking into your head.
I suspect that having an external writer probably isn't the best way to handle it, because it must be very easy to deviate too far away from what they have written.

Crysis 2 had an OK plot.

I could follow it, which is more than I can say for most games, especially big titles as they all try to have "edgy" storytelling becuase they know they can get away with it.

Havent played Syndicate.

Games these days are so plot based though that a good writer can make all the difference.

[Neon Ignition]

From those quick snippets of gameplay in the vid it looks like there's been a texture overhaul and a heavy dose of lighting applied. Other than that the first impression is of the 'safest' Halo since 3, as in they're taking no risks with the design which is in a bad need of an update. Still plenty time to go though with E3 no doubt being the main showcase for the game. Hopefully they plan to make their stamp on the series and not just iterate.