[Gazzawa]

Ladies I think there is all one thing we CAN agree in.
BLOPS 2 is shitting all over Ghost Recon Future Soldier!
Ubisoft gun b maad.

[Steelyuhas]

I missed the GAMURFULE the first time around, don't drink much Dew. The praise it gets makes me feel like I missed out. Not again!

lol no.

Dew: sugar, cancer, sugar

3. Since the game is still using placeholder Reach UI and is on a modified Reach engine, I wonder if we're still going to have a sort of Auntie Dot style loading screen delay in and out of matches. Load up some Halo 3 and see how snappy the game loads and transitions into matches by comparison.

Reach may have the Auntie Dot in and out of matches, but the overall load times are still vastly quicker than Halo 3. The maps take quite a while to load in the lobby in Halo 3, and they are usually quite quick in Reach.

[Deadly Cyclone]

Thanks Wu!! Spartan Laser is back, Halo 4 just keeps sounding better and better by the hour.. Halo 4 am cry gg 343

Those are nice ODST's Blops2 has...

I'm buying both Halo 4 and Blops 2.

[Dax01]

Probably would have been better had I not left on Thursday; things get unclear after several days, and I'm sorry. Nevertheless: Impressions from last week's Halo 4 event

Thanks for the write up, Wu. I hope the Spartan Laser has received a good overhaul.

[Havok]

"This game has a million and one cool ways to kill somebody, but I decided to just play it as boring as possible. Meh"

I finished the game having used 90%+ of the skillshots, and found the entire game totally boring and generally not very good, so I see where he's coming from. The solutions were always so obvious, and it's not like execution was ever a challenge.

Edit: Spartan Laser, really guys? Reach finally introduced the best, most balanced antivehicle weapon yet in the plasma launcher, and you bring back that gamebreaking piece of junk? Cmon.

[Homeboyd]

Didn't expect new infos that fast. Thanks! <3

They've been pretty consistent with reiterating that the features we've read and heard about (and are starting to see) are not universal across all gamemodes/playlists.

[Louis Wu]

4. Grenades being toned down sounds nice. Did you notice if they were more bouncy, or did they plop in place when tossed?

THIS sort of question is why I wish I hadn't been gone for four days. I've completely forgotten. :( Sorry.

[squidhands]

Pretty sure Frankie earlier implied that user activated weapon drops are something that will be in certain game modes but not just custom games.. So it varies a bit. It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out, and while some people may be worried it sounds dramatically different than killstreaks so I'm excited. Sounds like everyone has the same options and a fairly equal chance at the weapons so I think it will remove the randomness and onesided-ness from what we expect from 'kill streak' rewards.

I just want more multiplayer news from a site that does a better job of reporting what they've seen/played than Game Informer. Kind of shameful on their part that they had such incorrect information that 343 had to run around doing cleanup. Not that I minded that podcast on bit, mind you.

[CyReN]

Haven't heard it from Wu or KC yet but I wonder if they noticed if aim acceleration (or option of) was in the game they played, or would it be too early for that?

[Steelyuhas]

Thanks for the impressions Wu. I can't wait to play the game myself. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in altitude radar and the laser being in the game.

[GhaleonEB]

Thanks for the impressions Wu. I can't wait to play the game myself. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in altitude radar and the laser being in the game.

I was surprised by that as well, though it fits with 343's shift toward giving the player more data (power weapon spawn indicators).

[Demoncarnotaur]

THIS sort of question is why I wish I hadn't been gone for four days. I've completely forgotten. :( Sorry.

Outta curiosity, do you know if this is the 6sk pistol, or a new variant?

Just seems to look a lot different than the reach pistol and I swear I saw a pistol looked just like the Reach pistol in previous screens.

Edit* now that I think about it, I bet that looks just like the Reach pistol from the side, so it likely is the 6sk pistol.

[Blueblur1]

Thanks for the impressions, Wu. The game sounds okay so far. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the weapon system before moaning about any further even though I don't like change too much. I'm glad the Spartan Laser is back though. I hope it's more like the Halo 3 version.

[Steelyuhas]

I was surprised by that as well, though it fits with 343's shift toward giving the player more data (power weapon spawn indicators).

That is true.

Thanks for the impressions, Wu. The game sounds okay so far. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the weapon system before moaning about any further even though I don't like change too much. I'm glad the Spartan Laser is back though. I hope it's more like the Halo 3 version.

[Havok]

Thanks for the impressions, Wu. The game sounds okay so far. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the weapon system before moaning about any further even though I don't like change too much. I'm glad the Spartan Laser is back though. I hope it's more like the Halo 3 version.

You want it to be even easier to aim and have more shots? Boy, vehicle combat would finally have a bullet put in it, even more than Reach managed to do.

Never really got the hate towards the Spartan Laser, Reach's laser is perfect.

Being instakilled from across the map with zero warning is not fun, it is not good design. A hair-thin tracer (that doesn't even show up half the time) is not a good enough warning for an event like "Hey the enemy team is about to get a triple kill with little to no effort!". Especially not when the plasma launcher exists and manages to be effective, but has traveling projectiles that can be avoided and an incredibly loud charge process within its effective range.

[Demoncarnotaur]

can someone photoshop this and turn it into 360 boxart with the Black Ops 2 logo?

It just seems like too good of an opportunity to miss.



and or replace the little remote controlled things with phantoms and pelicans in this pic:

[Gabotron ES]

Never really got the hate towards the Spartan Laser, Reach's laser is perfect.

[ElzarTheBam]

Never really got the hate towards the Spartan Laser, Reach's laser is perfect.

What would be perfect, is not having it in there in the first place! :P

Besides, the plasma launcher is a far 'fairer' anti-vehicle weapon.

[Dax01]

Thanks for the impressions, Wu. The game sounds okay so far. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the weapon system before moaning about any further even though I don't like change too much. I'm glad the Spartan Laser is back though. I hope it's more like the Halo 3 version.

*backs away from the computer screen*

Being instakilled from across the map with zero warning is not fun, it is not good design. A hair-thin tracer (that doesn't even show up half the time) is not a good enough warning for an event like "Hey the enemy team is about to get a triple kill with little to no effort!". Especially not when the plasma launcher exists and manages to be effective, but has traveling projectiles that can be avoided, and an incredibly loud charge process.

The sniper! :P

[Striker]

What a better way to strangle the vehicle combat than bringing back the worst weapon introduced in the series.

[TheOddOne]

Probably would have been better had I not left on Thursday; things get unclear after several days, and I'm sorry. Nevertheless: Impressions from last week's Halo 4 event

Thanks Wu :)

Great stuff:

Many people scorned the text describing your actions that appeared on the middle of the screen during a recent clip (the gameplay shown during the Conan O'Brien show) - some of that is still there, but it's no longer smack-dab in the center of the screen (I don't think). I remember noticing it only once during the evening - so it's clearly quite a bit less obtrusive. Radar has been simplified; no more brighter/dimmer dots for folks above/below you. Now, altitude is obvious: if your enemies are on your level, they're dots. If they're above you, they're small arrows pointing up. If they're below you, they're downward-pointing arrows. It felt almost crude at the beginning of the evening, compared to the subtlety of Reach's altitude display... but that feeling went away quickly, and the utility was highly appreciated by the time we wrapped it up. Frank suggested that there are multiple types of drops, and in the games we were playing, these were PERSONAL drops... but I saw that they could be used to supplement your armory (you know about the drop before the other team, and can get to the drop location first), or used to set up traps for the other team (put yourself in position to ambush folks coming to a drop, then give them a reason to walk in). I'll be keeping my eyes open for more details on how these systems work. When I started playing, I found it difficult to get into the groove; it almost felt like I was 'swimming'. I realized after a little bit, however, that this was due to two things: the first was that I'd been playing with almost no sound (I was wearing headphones, and volume was turned almost off), and I hadn't gotten the hang of Sprint being in a new place. Once I turned up the sound, and became accustomed to clicking for Sprint, things became much snappier - Halo 4 feels faster than Reach.

[Havok]

*backs away from the computer screen* The sniper! :P

I know you're joking...but that's been used as an argument for the laser before. Lets just say that if I could hit someone in the foot and get a triple kill, I'd feel very differently about the sniper.

[Overdoziz]

Never really got the hate towards the Spartan Laser, Reach's laser is perfect.

Well, you also like Invasion.

[Gabotron ES]

What would be perfect, is not having it in there in the first place! :P Besides, the plasma launcher is a far 'fairer' anti-vehicle weapon.

Oh I like the Plasma Launcher too! the beta one was the shit...

Well, you also like Invasion.

[Hydranockz]

THIS sort of question is why I wish I hadn't been gone for four days. I've completely forgotten. :( Sorry.

And you're sure it was Halo you were playing, right?

I kid, I kid ;)

[CyReN]

can someone photoshop this and turn it into 360 boxart with the Black Ops 2 logo? It just seems like too good of an opportunity to miss. and or replace the little remote controlled things with phantoms and pelicans in this pic:

(I used different thing than you asked, added a jackal. flowed better imo)

[Homeboyd]

:lol flawless

[senador]

can someone photoshop this and turn it into 360 boxart with the Black Ops 2 logo? It just seems like too good of an opportunity to miss. and or replace the little remote controlled things with phantoms and pelicans in this pic:

Holy. Shit. I haven't looked at BLOPS2 stuff yet. Really looks like that? Hahaha that is awesome. I can't believe they are chasing the Halo money. Such a joke. They are doomed.

Edit: LOL excellent work Cyren.

[TheOddOne]

CyReN brings the lulz.

[Hydranockz]

:lol I love you Cyren!

[Blueblur1]

You want it to be even easier to aim and have more shots? Boy, vehicle combat would finally have a bullet put in it, even more than Reach managed to do.

It should have 4 as it does in Reach. And honesty, I feel the Reach version was easier to fire especially since it doesn't kick you out of zoom when fired.

[Gazzawa]

i see no difference XD

[neoism]

if those Blops 2 pics are real... that is sad, and hilarious. Not like they really had any other way of going with it. lol

[FL1Psyde]

if those Blops 2 pics are real... that is sad, and hilarious. Not like they really had any other way of going with it. lol

I wish they would of went back to WWII games :(

[Demoncarnotaur]

(I used different thing than you asked, added a jackal. flowed better imo)

YES! :lol

Post it in the Black ops 2 thread!

[Homeboyd]

Why isn't this in the Gaming side?!

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

Megaton.

Can't wait to get our first look at one of the vehicles. Any of them...

[Stinkles]

You want it to be even easier to aim and have more shots? Boy, vehicle combat would finally have a bullet put in it, even more than Reach managed to do.

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

[Louis Wu]

And you're sure it was Halo you were playing, right? I kid, I kid ;)

SHUT UP I'M OLD OKAY?

I THINK it was Halo. Might have been BLOPS2.

[Bregmann Roche]

Honestly, as long as I get good matchmaking times and fantastic maps, I'll be happy. It's still somewhat surprising to me that every once in a while I'll go play Halo 3 and it only has a few thousand less players than Reach. Craziness.

I don't know if you're being serious or not, but in case you are: Halo 3's player count reflects all players in a 24 hour period. Reach's player count is closer to the number of players online at that moment.

Probably would have been better had I not left on Thursday; things get unclear after several days, and I'm sorry.

No apology necessary. Thanks for the writeup. I think you might have scooped every other news outlet with that laser reveal.

(I used different thing than you asked, added a jackal. flowed better imo)

That jackal made me laugh more than it should have. For that I will give you a "well done sir".

[ncsuDuncan]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

<3

[GhaleonEB]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

*turns to jelly*

[Demoncarnotaur]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

=D

So, Chopper?

[Karl2177]

Posted this on my Facebook. Time to see how many naive dudebro friends I have.

[TheOddOne]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

You good peoples Stinkles, good peoples.

Incoming Kyle comment, which will be hilarious.

[FyreWulff]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

something something Reach Banshee

[Homeboyd]

=D So, Chopper?

Don't even to that to us.

DON'T TEASE US LIKE THIS.

[Havok]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

That's reassuring. Vehicle balance is the thing I feel Reach missed the mark most on, so changing it can really only be for the better.

Also, I would pay several US greenbacks for the removal of the banshee bomb this time.

[GhaleonEB]

something something Reach Banshee

Most agile kite in the known universe.

That's reassuring. Vehicle balance is the thing I feel Reach missed the mark most on, so changing it can really only be for the better.

Aye. I think, as a category, it's Reach's biggest failing. Nearly every aspect of vehicle design in Reach is very poor.

[Hydranockz]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

RB, Y, RT, A + Down, A + Right, RT, A + Left, RT, A + Down, A + Right, RT, A + Left, RT, A + Down, A + Right, RT, A + Left, RT, A + Down, A + Right, RT, A + Left, RT, A + Down, A + Right, RT, A + Left.

Profit.

Edit: DAMN YOU FYRE! :p

[Bregmann Roche]

One thing I can state unambiguously is that more emphasis has been put on larger MP maps to support Vehicle combat. Including adjustments to stop vehicles being torn apart by breezes and harsh language.

How can we trust your opinion on vehicles when you drive a Honda Fit?
I also drive a Honda Fit

That's reassuring. Vehicle balance is the thing I feel Reach missed the mark most on, so changing it can really only be for the better.

I would say missed mark number 1 was player movement and missed mark number 1a was vehicle combat.