[The Real Napsta]

Wow still talking about not having a campaign? Guess I can safely not pay attention to halogaf for most of today. Kylej leading the charge; I'm literally shocked. Literally.

I've always thought Halo could be an MP only game. Think if all the time and resources that are used on something that most of us will only play once.

The MP is the meat of the game. It lasts for years, the campaign lasts what? a week?

[Trey]

All the marketing I've seen of COD focuses on the multiplayer experience (ie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ouf9RyA33A ). COD reveals starting with the campaign is carefully orchestrated to tantalize fans and also because of developer pride. But I agree with Dax, it's more worthwhile to discuss how the campaign should be better than pray that it's cut, because that thing is going to be shoehorned in regardless. First step on how to improve the campaign: throw out all existing enemy types. There's all this incredible space architecture and the ability for humans to (presumably?) travel intergalactically in Halo. Hell, Master Chief is floating around in space to a new location in the current fiction. Why on earth are we fighting grunts and hammer monkeys again. Give me something totally new, fresh, and alien.

New enemy types on Requiem; reduced Covenant role; no Flood. 343 delivers. Believe.

The MP is the meat of the game. It lasts for years, the campaign lasts what? a week?

Nope.

The campaign is the heart of the game. It lasts for (variable amount of time); most people play MP what? A couple of matches? [citation needed]

I think you will find among the hardcore Halo community an equal amount of respect--at least--towards both components of the game.

Cut campagin probably means the game just comes out sooner. And less whole for 60 dollars, therefore DOA.

[Gazzawa]

New enemy types on Requiem; reduced Covenant role; no Flood. 343 delivers. Believe.

Moonjumps?

[Stinkles]

I believe the campaign is wholly irrelevant to the success of multiplayer shooter franchises (see: COD, Q3A, TF2, CS). If it was that important, the rerelease of the best Halo campaign ever a couple months ago would've sold more than 8 copies. And if multiplayer wasn't as important, why are they turning the game into COD? Just make a great Halo campaign, that's all they need.

Lol

[ElzarTheBam]

Do MP only games do well on consoles? I'm genuinely curious, as a retail package, they are usually looked at negatively.

I remember all the furore over shadowrun, although a lot of that was not helped by the fact it was an RPG turned FPS.

[kylej]

Lol

Now that I've got your attention, why was Squad Slayer cut?

[Trey]

Moonjumps?

Apparently. I dislike them. Why people want to lose directional control of their character for a longer period of time, while being more exposed, is beyond me.

[GhaleonEB]

Best Weekly? Best Weekly.

[Gazzawa]

Apparently. I dislike them. Why people want to lose directional control of their character for a longer period of time, while being more exposed, is beyond me.

Yeah but moonjumps go to 11....

[Overdoziz]

I want a game that only has Squad Slayer. Nothing else.

[kylej]

I want a game that only has Squad Slayer. Nothing else.

fascinating.

[Overdoziz]

fascinating.

Lol

[The Real Napsta]

New enemy types on Requiem; reduced Covenant role; no Flood. 343 delivers. Believe. Nope. The campaign is the heart of the game. It lasts for (variable amount of time); most people play MP what? A couple of matches? [citation needed] I think you will find among the hardcore Halo community an equal amount of respect--at least--towards both components of the game. Cut campagin probably means the game just comes out sooner. And less whole for 60 dollars, therefore DOA.

I'm not saying they should cut campaign, I'm just saying I wouldn't care if they did.

[PsychoRaven]

I've always thought Halo could be an MP only game. Think if all the time and resources that are used on something that most of us will only play once. The MP is the meat of the game. It lasts for years, the campaign lasts what? a week?

You're delusional. If it were to only have MP it would be Dead in a heartbeat. Halo is so much more then it's multiplayer. There are lots of fans that never touch the MP and buy them just for the singleplayer. Yes the multiplayer is popular too but I bet you'd lose half if not more of your audience if you cut singleplayer. I have zero doubt on that.

[Tha Robbertster]

Yep. Yesterday I was sharing the Halo 4 mp info (AAs, sprint, perks, bloom, etc.) with yet another group of people (who don't go to forums or game news sites) on a xbl party who were expecting a complete return to form (supped up Halo 2/3 style gameplay) and the massive disappointment was palpable, I felt like I was telling people their pets just died. lol I have no clue how Halo 4 mp will turn out, but on paper it just seems so bad.

I was afraid to tell my friend, who also doesn't read any forums, all the new Halo 4 news. But to my surprise, my more competitive friends actually liked the news of custom loadouts. He was happy he could always start with a BR. I didn't tell him about the weapon drops though, I didn't want to ruin the moment :P

[heckfu]

Now that I've got your attention, why was Squad Slayer cut?

hahaha, well done.

[ElzarTheBam]

I was afraid to tell my friend, who also doesn't read any forums, all the new Halo 4 news. But to my surprise, my more competitive friends actually liked the news of custom loadouts. He was happy he could always start with a BR. I didn't tell him about the weapon drops though, I didn't want to ruin the moment :P

As long as I am reunited with my covenant carbine, I'm happy.

Maybe your friends reliased that once they unlock the weapon, they would never have to sit through another AR starting weapon game ever again, or maybe their wierd like you? :P

[Dax01]

The vehicles encounters and large scale battles, definitely. Reach and CE dismantle the rest of the series in close quarters and interior combat design.

I disagree about CE. Because of my most recent play through of CE because of Anniversary, I've come to the conclusion that the interior combat in Halo CE is largely outdated. Speaking strictly of interior combat, the game is, at best, an average corridor shooter brought down by tight corridors that offer little in the way of variety across different runs of the campaign in the beginning and repetitive, Flood-infested monster closet corridors in the later levels. I cannot think of an interior encounter in CE that's as fun as the battle in the Mausoleum of the Arbiter in Halo 2. (I've said many times before that Halo 2 has better interior combat than Halo 1).

As for Reach, I think the best interior combat is found in New Alexandria, but whenever I play through Reach I never find myself getting too excited to fight any of those encounters as I do the Brute hallway in Crow's Nest. (You know an encounter is good when you get excited to play it). There's nothing particularly noteworthy about many of Reach's interior encounters. They're just there.

[The Real Napsta]

You're delusional. If it were to only have MP it would be Dead in a heartbeat. Halo is so much more then it's multiplayer. There are lots of fans that never touch the MP and buy them just for the singleplayer. Yes the multiplayer is popular too but I bet you'd lose half if not more of your audience if you cut singleplayer. I have zero doubt on that.

Again, not saying they should cut campaign, but they definitely could.

MP is what (the majority of) people play for years. Are you seriously telling me you'd be playing Reach campaign 2 years later if not for the challenges?

[Gazzawa]

As long as I am reunited with my covenant carbine, I'm happy.

Unh
Green gun.

[-Yeti]

First step on how to improve the campaign: throw out all existing enemy types. There's all this incredible space architecture and the ability for humans to (presumably?) travel intergalactically in Halo. Hell, Master Chief is floating around in space to a new location in the current fiction. Why on earth are we fighting grunts and hammer monkeys again. Give me something totally new, fresh, and alien. I want to be wowwed.

...

Isn't that what we're getting? And Hammer Monkeys. :lol

[ElzarTheBam]

Unh Green gun.

On Halo's tonight?

[Tha Robbertster]

As long as I am reunited with my covenant carbine, I'm happy. Maybe your friends reliased that once they unlock the weapon, they would never have to sit through another AR starting weapon game ever again, or maybe their wierd like you? :P

Yeah, that was line of thought. That's also why I actually like the idea of loadouts too. As long as all the weapons and AA's are balanced that is.

[Overdoziz]

As long as I am reunited with my covenant carbine, I'm happy. Maybe your friends reliased that once they unlock the weapon, they would never have to sit through another AR starting weapon game ever again, or maybe their wierd like you? :P

Remove AR from the game, everybody wins.

[Louis Wu]

With finals over, I'm starting up the stat collection again. Here's a random graph of Multi-Kill Retention Rate for 66 random HaloGaffers.

lol - so the average Halogaffer has one Killpocalypse?

That's WAAAAY above the average. :) (I can't get exact numbers; Bungie's final stats don't show Killpocalypse totals, and even the double-kill numbers have only two significant digits... but if percentages stay relatively constant, you'd expect about a million total Killpocalypses from 1.7 billion double kills, and there are many more than a million Reach players.)

[Gazzawa]

On Halo's tonight?

I think I can squeeze an an hour at some point.
Get battlefield 3 back. In a weeks time I want to be knee deep in a match of Operation metro getting more revives than kills!

[kylej]

... Isn't that what we're getting? And Hammer Monkeys. :lol

Grunts have already been confirmed in Halo 4. Grunts. The moment I read that I almost trounced my computer.

[ElzarTheBam]

I think I can squeeze an an hour at some point. Get battlefield 3 back. In a weeks time I want to be knee deep in a match of Operation metro getting more revives than kills!

Make sure it's not too late god damnit!

[Hypertrooper]

Best Weekly? Best Weekly.

Moar credits please. I have to be fat until Halo 4.

[-Yeti]

Grunts have already been confirmed in Halo 4. Grunts. The moment I read that I almost trounced my computer.

Haha, well at least they're not the main enemy.

[Hydranockz]

Grunts have already been confirmed in Halo 4. Grunts. The moment I read that I almost trounced my computer.

Do you even play campaign? Or is serious Kyle time? Hard to tell.

[ZalinKrow]

I don't even know how to find the challenges anymore (outside of the game obviously) :P Can you view them on the Waypoint site? I know it's probably staring me in the face, but I've barely used it, and I'm certainly not spotting it quickly haha.

[Overdoziz]

I don't even know how to find the challenges anymore (outside of the game obviously) :P Can you view them on the Waypoint site? I know it's probably staring me in the face, but I've barely used it, and I'm certainly not spotting it quickly haha.

Use that slow-as-fuck dropdown box at the top of the site (if you're logged in) and go to challenges.

[ZalinKrow]

Use that slow-as-fuck dropdown box at the top of the site (if you're logged in) and go to challenges.

Just found it yeah, I hadn't tried signing in first. So do you have to be signed in to view them? :/

[Hydranockz]

I don't even know how to find the challenges anymore (outside of the game obviously) :P Can you view them on the Waypoint site? I know it's probably staring me in the face, but I've barely used it, and I'm certainly not spotting it quickly haha.

That XNA program I had would come in handy right about now.

[ElzarTheBam]

Just found it yeah, I hadn't tried signing in first. So do you have to be signed in to view them? :/

Why don't try signing in on that fancy 3DS of yours? Mr. Promises you a 3DS but delivers lies instead.

Wow, what a long name.

[Kuroyume]

Do you even play campaign? Or is serious Kyle time? Hard to tell.

Grunts were amusing a decade ago. Not so much anymore.

[Gazzawa]

Grunts were amusing a decade ago. Not so much anymore.

same could be said about.....yo face booom!!!

but yeah I get ya.

[ZalinKrow]

That XNA program I had would come in handy right about now.

Haha yeah it would. Not the most aesthetically pleasing way to check, but it did it's job :P

Why don't try signing in on that fancy 3DS of yours Mr. Promises you a 3DS but delivers lies instead. Wow, what a long name.

I'm actually on the computer this time, and it's bound to be faster than my 3DS for internet. Also, that's a terrible name, 5/5.

[ElzarTheBam]

I'm actually on the computer this time, and it's bound to be faster than my 3DS for internet. Also, that's a terrible name, 5/5.

That Marty scale is incredibly accurate.

[Wahrer]

Just wondering if David or frankles can clarify yet on this: story-wise, does 343 view Cortana's "origin" as an extension of Halsey (and her relationship to the Chief included), or as an entirely separate character in that regard?

[Karl2177]

lol - so the average Halogaffer has one Killpocalypse? That's WAAAAY above the average. :) (I can't get exact numbers; Bungie's final stats don't show Killpocalypse totals, and even the double-kill numbers have only two significant digits... but if percentages stay relatively constant, you'd expect about a million total Killpocalypses from 1.7 billion double kills, and there are many more than a million Reach players.)

I have a couple theories on that. I think one reason why that is above average is because HaloGAF is above average. So far of the people I've collected, no one has a K/D ratio of under 1. Then there is also the Grifball factor. People going for the "Multiplicative" weekly challenge can get up to 9 points towards it just off of 1 multi-kill spree. Fyrewulff is also an out-liar in the data with 37 Killpocs.

It's not final data yet, I'm still collecting. And once I'm done with that, I have to get all of the derivative data from it(like K/D, headshot %, etc).

Just wondering if David or frankles can clarify yet on this: story-wise, does 343 view Cortana's "origin" as an extension of Halsey (and her relationship to the Chief included), or as an entirely separate character in that regard?

Oh my god. I love your avatar. Keep it forever.

[Homeboyd]

Didn't jonnyothan say that in the ForgeWorld group? At least, that's how I remember it. Also, I need to talk to you about one of my maps and working on improving it(namely spawns).

Yep

Slayer Everything you need to know about setting up maps for Slayer Map Setup Labels "slayer" - use this AND the "gametype specific" flag to make an object only spawn in slayer "team_only" - use this label for objects that only spawn in team games "ffa_only" - use this label for objects that only spawn in FFA games Slayer is an asymmetric gametype.

[PsychoRaven]

Again, not saying they should cut campaign, but they definitely could. MP is what (the majority of) people play for years. Are you seriously telling me you'd be playing Reach campaign 2 years later if not for the challenges?

Yes. I'm not alone in that too. I play ever single Halo game multiple times a year and not for the singleplayer. In fact I've lost count of how many times I've played the older games because I've played them so much. All of the Halo games including Reach have some amazing singleplayer campaigns that are fun to play time and time again. This is thanks to the AI, Sandbox, and just being well designed. Sure some may get their panties in a bunch about retcons that were done in Reach but even then they don't let them stop playing it. Well most of them. I'm sure a couple do. Course my opinion on that is that it's Bungie's universe and they had ever right to retcon it if they wanted to. I feel the same for anyone even George Lucas. If I don't like said retcons I won't buy their products if it bothers me that bad. Haven't bought a Star Wars since the originals on VHS for this very reason. Anyway I'm wondering off a side subject so back to subject.

Let's also not forget those that buy the game for both features. For those people you'd be ripping out half the reason they bought said game. Doubt that would set to well with them. To these people they'd be getting half a game. Hell for a lot of people even if they play mainly multiplayer they'd probably still think that. Just look at how many multiplayer only games haven't done so well.

[daedalius]

Again, not saying they should cut campaign, but they definitely could. MP is what (the majority of) people play for years. Are you seriously telling me you'd be playing Reach campaign 2 years later if not for the challenges?

I'm playing the Halo 2 campaign on PC right now.

I just played through most of the Halo 3 campaign a few weeks ago.

I just played through a few levels of Reach on legendary a few days ago.

None of these play-throughs were associated with challenges.

So yes, I'm telling you I play the Reach campaign 2 years later not for challenges; albeit occasionally.

[Stinkles]

Lol

Interesting.

[Stinkles]

Just wondering if David or frankles can clarify yet on this: story-wise, does 343 view Cortana's "origin" as an extension of Halsey (and her relationship to the Chief included), or as an entirely separate character in that regard?

If I am understanding your question correctly, it is by necessity "both" - that is to say she's a separate perosnality - just like your child would have his or her own persona, but there are unavoidable "genetic" connections.

[Gui_PT]

As long as I am reunited with my covenant carbine, I'm happy.

That didn't help you at all on Guardian yesterday, if I recall correctly

[Overdoziz]

Interesting.

Squad Slayer.

[Homeboyd]

Squad Slayer.

fascinating.