Platform: Microsoft
Publisher: 343 Industries
Release date: Election Day 2012
Videos
Multiplayer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmOoGucyMNg
Spartan Ops - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK9f8-LSqcg
HaloGAF Montage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V27NUP-pdZU
Halo 4 is a new Halo game built from the ground up by 343 Industries. 343 Studios spared no expensive in hiring the best talent in the industry to relaunch this seminal gaming franchise, as seen by hiring a guy who worked on the Turok remake to be their lead multiplayer designer.
Halo 4 is about Cortana going rampant. I'm pretty sure she did the same thing in Halo 3 but I don't really follow the Halo stories. Every 7 years AIs in Halo get erased or something, so despite capabilities for inter-galactic spaceflight and sentient AI, the UNSC can't store information longer than my Link to the Past SNES cart. In Halo 4 you get to fight the same enemies you've been fighting for a decade, only now they look weirder. There's also a new enemy that looks like Nicholas Cage's character in Ghost Rider.
Spartan Ops
Halo 4 brings an all new mode called Spartan Ops. Spartan Ops is basically Firefight with more cutscenes and less options. Spartan Ops is small 5 minute chunks of content in an episodic format. It looks pretty cool, problem is it might have input lag like previous co-op Halo experiences which would pretty much ruin the entire mode. We have no confirmation of whether input lag is fixed or not because the official Halo website devotes its resources to articles on the best ship themed Halo: Reach forge screenshots.
Multiplayer
Halo 4 multiplayer is basically Call of Duty in space. There are killcams, text that pops up in the middle of your screen to congratulate you on dying, killstreaks, perks, loadouts, sprint, gun camo, and more. Traditional Halo CTF modes are gone - and are unable to be played even in custom games. Now the flag automatically sticks to anyone who goes near it. You cannot drop the flag. If you have rockets and accidently walk over the flag, you cannot drop the flag to use your rockets you must instead use a pistol. Traditional Oddball is gone. Now you can throw the Oddball instead of dropping it and strategically moving it around the map. There are 9 maps, none of them small.
Forge
Halo 4 Forge mode is the same as before. After 5 years of development, Forge has gained a magnet feature which allows you to snap pieces together. Everything else is the same. The pieces are still grey.
Theater
Same as before, but now it's missing a feature from Halo 3 which allowed you to view games with a party. There might be an Upload to Web/YouTube feature but nobody can load Halo Waypoint to tell.
Custom games
Have less options than before. Lobby UI looks like Stevie Wonder designed it.
As seen in this real-time screenshot, Halo 4 looks incredible
Important Halo Figures To Know Before Playing Halo 4
Tom "OGRE 2" Ryan
Ogre 2 may look like an AIDS patient, but within that 85lb frame are thumbs of steel. Unlike other Halo pros who get paid in packs of Stride gum and Bic razors, Ogre 2 hopped onto the MLG train when they had tons of VC money so he got a big contract to keep him playing in MLG even though every other competitive league failed soon after. Ogre 2 is the captain of Team Instinct. His teammates are two indentical twins and a fetus.
Tom "TSquared" "T2" "Dr. Pepper" Taylor
T2 dropped out of high school to play Halo. He achieved some success, and because he doesn't look like a xenomorph like everyone else who plays pro Halo he was featured on bottles of soda a few years back. T2 is bad at Reach and considered past his prime. He lives in a trailer in Florida.
Matt "Formal" Piper
Formal is a chunky asian child from California who smokes fake tobacco and wears tanktops even though he has no musculature. Formal is known for his sniper. You can frequently catch Formal pretending to be bruised, battered and scarred but hard despite being 17 years old and living in a gated Californian community.
Michael "Siglemic" Sigler
Siglemic is a skinny kid from the pacific northwest who probably has autism. He plays Mario 64 for 12 hours a day. Siglemic is the best Mario 64 player in the world, having played nearly 5000 hours of the game in less than 2 years.
Halo Community Sites | The Halo community is vast. Here are a few highlights.
HaloGAF!
Used to be cool.
HBO
Terrible layout. Run by a really old guy who seems nice.
Bungie.net forums
Idiots
Tied The Leader
Pretty sure these kids are all sensitive and play to feel good or whatever. You see TTL [gamertag] around sometimes. If you see TTL in a matchmaking lobby you've guaranteed a free win.
rampancy.net
No idea. Sounds nerdy.
Forward Unto Dawn
Site devoted to the Halo story, I think. Basically they spend a lot of time squeezing blood from a stone.
Halo Waypoint
Terrible
Major League Gaming
Used to be an important part of Halo. Now MLG Halo is pretty much dead because they decided to focus on asians who click their mouse and play boring Blizzard games.
Forge Hub
Got yelled at by Shishka for trying to improve Halo 3 maps.
