Halo 4

[EvilBoris]

I'm half expecting it will be the intro to the game, walking through the spaceship and being attacked for the first time, probably with it ending just as we get a glimpse of the new planet.

They've done demos of that intro to certain peeps already and the screenshots have been of that section

[Uli]

best game trailer ever...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_y3cbIV-Xg

unfortunately not entirely representative of the final product.

[randombs]

A mate told me that level was in the final game somewhere near the end. I blitzed through the campaign and then suddenly the game finished and I was sitting there going wtf

[EvilBoris]

That's what everyone thought!

When people say Halo was never know for its graphics, I think they forget Halo 1 and 2, which were impressive at the time.

[randombs]

Granted, the 360 ones weren't graphically lovely to probably a fair few but I get the impression the Halo look is such that it's quite difficult to make it much better without causing it to lose what makes it look like Halo. Take Master Chief's suit, for example - all you can really do is improve the textures and stuff but you can't really add random polygons just for the sake of it because it's quite distinct. Same goes for the Warthog. It'd be like modeling Mario to take advantage of the Wii-U by increasing the number of hairs in his moustache. Maybe the fact it was originally on Xbox is to blame, or maybe Bungie just weren't too hot at modernising the look. I've always thought Halo's visual strength lay in the scale - how you could see(and reach) far away things instead of endless corridors, all these rolling hills and flying about in the snow.

I like the effects they're going for with Halo 4 like the dust and particle stuff. Would need to see it in action but I can't imagine them mucking it up. I'm not too worried about what they'll change gameplay-wise(esp. multiplayer because I never play it), I'm only interested in the story. It may well turn into a CoD-u-like but that's progress, I suppose.

[EvilBoris]

I read a really interesting article recently that talked about the big changes they have made to his armour.

i.e. the reduction of the amount of armour.

They said that the existing armour that he wore covered him so much that it actually created problems in animating the character, because the armour plates couldn't just clip each other. They said that he couldn't lift his arms up for example.

They've removed a load of areas of armour and replaced them with black rubber in this game and embellished other aspects. Not just cos, but because it actually limited what they could do with the gameplay. They've said that now the Spartans can actually more be more naturally animated, it opened up quite a few new moves that wouldn't of been possible otherwise and allows them to change the way the game plays.

Of course, so far there is no CANON explanation for how these changes have miracuously occured, much to the outrage of fans.

I thought it was really good insight into some of the design decisions that get made that can quite significantly alter gameplay. There is a crazy balance between Story/Visuals and Gameplay that are all linked in ways that us mere mortals rarely get to see.

[Family Fry]

Guardian.co.uk interview with Frank O Connor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/jun/04/e3-2012-halo-4-interview

Snippet

How did you come up with the idea of housing all the multiplayer components within a narrative framework?

The seed of that decision happened three, maybe four years ago, when Bonnie Ross first set up 343 Industries. We were just trying not to make the same mistakes that other franchises have made where they enjoy success but don't really plan for it, then just have to make it up as they go along.

We had the luxury of know what the next few years would look like and we decided at that point that one of the simplest strategic decisions we could come to, was to make sure that everything mattered; that every single piece of fiction we made counted, that every storyline and character we created actually had some worth and value and was part of a long term investment in the Halo universe. Taking that philosophy through books and comics and graphic novels is one thing, but applying it adds a wrapper for the entire game experience is something really different.

What that enabled us to do was to move separate components of the game, together. Normally, the campaign, the competitive multiplayer and the half-way house of the co-op mode are ring fenced apart from each other. Wrapping the whole thing together allowed us to make sure that all the fiction in all of those pieces actually mattered – in this case, it connects directly to your career as well as the narrative experience.

Also, it allowed us to make everything feel much more comprehensively connected, more thoughts out. I think when you played multiplayer in the past it felt a little ... surreal. There's definitely a charm to that, that we've retained, where there seems to be this purposelessness for your fighting. But ultimately, all the effort that you put into that experience would feel a little futile because you were just shooting for a single number that our True Skill system would identify for you and then keep you there. We wanted to turn the whole thing on its head while keeping the core gameplay that people love.

[EvilBoris]

woo

[PeteJ]

https://gamespress001.blob.core.wind...nEi6xuemoYI%3D

Graphics are insane!

[EvilBoris]

Scroll up!

[PeteJ]

oh yeah My pic was higher res though!

[EvilBoris]

Bullshot!

[randombs]

That gameplay demo was absolutely loverly. I especially love the way the weapons piece together when you pick them up.

[broomey]

Its nice to see the new aliens / machines what ever they are but a shame they still feel the need to have hundreds of humans and covenant tagging along too. I thought this would be a chance for the chief to make a clean break from the past in a whole new setting.

[EvilBoris]

I don't actually think that Halo would quite be the same without the backup to man the Warthog gun.

I'm hoping for an epic scene with Infinity turning up with 1000's of new Spartans dropping off that giant Infinity ship to give him a hand.

I wonder if they may even take the place of the Marines, all wise cracking and annoying, thinking they are awesome with their powers.