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HaloGAF |OT: Anniversary| So fades the great harvest of our betrayal.

Madness

Member
I don't see any harm in it, so long as it's cosmetic (and there's an option to earn it in-game).

Having it be purchasable defeats the purpose of locking it into further player investment in the game. I'll use Destiny as a recent example. Imagine if you could just pay $5 to get the weapons you possibly receive from the Vault of Glass raid, would you still put in the time and effort required to do the raid? Not really. But those items affect gameplay, and which is why people go so crazy to unlock.

Think about Recon armor. If Bungie had made it available for purchase for $5 from the onset, would it have achieved it's status as hyped armor? Probably not, it'd probably be less sought after than Hayabusa. It was the fact you couldn't get it, that drove people crazy, and then when it was tied to Vidmaster, it was used as a reward to play the game more.

I know my posts are tl;dr and I'm probably rambling but we have to look at things that will draw in additional Halo players, and for longer, beyond just gameplay. This could be one of those approaches. People love to unlock things, and love to work towards something, even if it is some dumb cosmetic item.
 
I think proximity chat would be huge in reviving online multiplayer chatter instead of it being so heavily based in party chats.
My only point being, imagine Funk if they gave you exactly what you wanted out of the game play. You're loving Halo 5, it's what you've wanted since Halo CE, you're not going to stop playing because you hate that a certain armor you think looks cool is locked until you win 1000 matches, it's just a long reward for you to have.
I know my posts are tl;dr and I'm probably rambling but we have to look at things that will draw in additional Halo players, and for longer, beyond just gameplay. This could be one of those approaches. People love to unlock things, and love to work towards something, even if it is some dumb cosmetic item.
Not as bad as the more specific ones, but I think going all out with a Firefight/Invasion mode sounds far sexier than unlocking a new piece of armor for playing a lot of multiplayer. You earn money or points to be used in an armory where you can buy things like AI ODST Drops or Weapons/Power-ups. These credits are earned in every mode and can only be spent on items/misc. for Campaign and Firefight/Invasion, providing more of an incentive to play those modes over just multiplayer; those modes serve as a great palette cleanser which many hardcore fans may not necessarily appreciate until they dive in.

1-50 ranks for MM multiplayer along with optimatch toggles so I can play what I want, when I want, for unranked.
 
randomly booted halo 4 and I got 22 achievements

image.php
 

Trey

Member
People are sucking the dry ass bone that is Destiny dry, imagine when Destiny 2 comes out with an actually immersive and interesting world populated with fascinating characters with a gripping storyline. And a well realized social element.

Families will be destroyed.
 

Madness

Member
People are sucking the dry ass bone that is Destiny dry, imagine when Destiny 2 comes out with an actually immersive and interesting world populated with fascinating characters with a gripping storyline. And a well realized social element.

Families will be destroyed.

I would imagine they'll really focus on the story and level design, as well as increase the social events, make the world more immersive, but I feel the damage has been done. I've never seen such bad storytelling for what should be an AAA game. Imagine if we never cared about the story of Halo CE, would Halo 2 have had as big an impact? People compared Destiny to Mass Effect, but after the first ME, we were fully engrossed in Shepard, his friends, the community, the Reapers and the threat they posed etc.

I do think being that it'll be next gen focused, Activision will clamp down to keep it on track and on budget, and they'll be watched more closely. They'll see what worked and what didn't, probably try and make PvP more appealing and balanced, have more raids and strikes, better social connectedness/matchmaking.
 

daedalius

Member
Man that final panel in the latest halo comic...

So chief got his visor broke, fixed, and it's gonna get broken again? I guess in the comic it was actually missing a piece and in the h5 trailer it is just cracked.
 

-Ryn

Banned
Trey has an avatar! And it's an Avatar avatar!
And it's the GOOD Avatar!
:D

But when you have those unlocks, you have people altering their gameplay to get those things. It's no different than the challenges and achievements we've seen before that require specific multiplayer feats.

The only thing Halo needs to keep fans invested should be the gameplay. Bring back Invasion and Firefight, then go all out with those modes. Have unlocks and things to purchase as consumables in Firefight (ie: Ordnance Drops could fit perfectly into Firefight), similar to PvZ Garden Warfare's sticker packs and coins that you earn, which can be purchased with real money but are also earned quickly. Long, specific grinds to unlock cool shit is lame and doesn't really fit in Halo IMO, if gameplay is their main concern being the carrot at the end of that stick.
That is diabolical

Bah, it doesn't work like that, not for me. All or nothing. Not satisfied with anything in-between (in shooters, roleplaying games are different, as are some other games).
And there's crap like in Halo 4, where it is impossible to unlock many of the armors, because required playlists do not exists anymore! (Commando armor. Looks crap so i'm interested actually, only in principle.)

What's the fucking point of customization if you can't customize? Makes zero sense to me.

I figure i did like unlocks when i was younger, i seem to recall something about saying something about liking them long ago... but i do not remember why, nor do i care what my younger self thought anymore.

Achievements are the kind of unlocks i actually like: They're actually nothing, so i don't lose anything by not getting them, yet they do somehow manage to feel like you did achieve something if you do get them, as long as they're not such easy things as "download a saved film".
As long as they're sensible and not frustrating. Note that difficult doesn't mean frustrating necessarily, nor does frustrating mean difficult automatically. (For example: that Elite assassination achievement in Reach. It is simple because you can do that right from start of the final level, yet the condition for the achievement to trigger is either bugged or really, really particular. It took me some 25+ tries to get it. That is not fun, despite not being difficult.)

EDIT By all or nothing i mean, if you have customization, unlock everything from start. Or don't have it at all.
I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down.

I think Halo 4 didn't do a good job with the armor unlock system at all. Personally, I think Halo 3 did the best job. Reach was just a MASSIVE grind to get armor.
In the end I hope that 343 gives a lot of good armor that is unlocked from the beginning, but also some really cool ones that you need to unlock through some cool feat. Hell if necessary, make it where you can purchase the armor somehow I suppose. Whether through actual money or in game currency I don't know. They both have their own merits.
 

Mistel

Banned
I think Halo 4 didn't do a good job with the armor unlock system at all. Personally, I think Halo 3 did the best job. Reach was just a MASSIVE grind to get armor.
4 probably was a bigger grind than reach for some particular sets especially all those weapon challenges.
 

JDHarbs

Member
Saying the shark mouth on the flamethrower is a skin is a bit misleading (at least in gaming terms) since its not customizable in any way and has looked the same for multiple games. I would simply refer to it as a decal thats part of the weapon's design.
 

RowdyReverb

Member
The depth of field second shot reminds me that Halo's theater mode could really benefit from similar photo-taking tools to Forza's photo mode. Maybe in Halo 5?
 

-Ryn

Banned
Geez. Breakfast Buffets are amazing. I feel so FAT though.

4 probably was a bigger grind than reach for some particular sets especially all those weapon challenges.
Yeah some of the things you had to do were ridiculous. It didn't really feel like it had any weight or impact. Maybe a system that made it where you can purchase armor using credits but some armor you need to get via some epic feat ala Halo 3 would be a good middle ground? I think one of the biggest issues with 4's system is it never felt like you were making any real progress. Or at least that's what it felt like for me.

So long as my GUNGNIR armor makes a return, I'm happy.
Love that anime armor
 

gAg CruSh3r

Member
What the hell. God, please no, keep this shit out of Halo.

What's the harm of having it in halo?

They could probably have weapon skin bundles.
Not like Halo 4 where you get one skin for one weapon. Since everything will be same foot start gameplay for Halo 5 mp. Maybe you could get skins for weapons you start with? I know many would disagree but I like being different from the next guy. Just a thought.
 
What's the harm of having it in halo?

They could probably have weapon skin bundles.
Not like Halo 4 where you get one skin for one weapon. Since everything will be same foot start gameplay for Halo 5 mp. Maybe you could get skins for weapons you start with? I know many would disagree but I like being different from the next guy. Just a thought.

Do it like Gears did, where you choose what skin you have the BR start with. and also, not everyone needs to be a special butterfly, CE- 3 didnt have weapon skins and they were fine, they didnt have this extended carrot on a stick game play, 2/3 had ranks and achievement unlocked armor and that was enough for people.
 
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