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Halo |OT13|

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Havok

Member
Their updates of the CE Anniversary maps, questionable weapon placement on Beaver Creek aside, were pretty good. Prisoner and Hang em' High both fantastically benefited from additional routes to high ground.
They made pretty decent geometry changes in the updated variants (the connecting hallways of Breakneck were outstanding), but even beyond Battle Canyon their weapon placement was largely atrocious. Two snipers within 5-8 seconds of each other on High Noon, a shotgun beside each teleporter exit on Highlands, moving defense Rockets from a dangerous spot on Breakneck to the totally safe rear hallway (putting offense rockets behind the ferris wheel where 95% of players didn't even know it existed). The list goes on but those are the obvious offenders. If you really want to get picky, their objective item placement has not been very good either - bomb arm locations outside the base on Battle Canyon in a killing field, High Noon offense/defense bases switched from Tombstone so that Defense Base is little more than two ramps and a flat area, etc.

They have shown a decent ability with the last Halo 2 pack and Anniversary to update existing maps for new generations, but the stuff they did from the ground up with Reach left a lot to be desired. I don't have super high expectations for them in Halo 4 as a result. I already have significant issues with how they've structured Dominion, but that's probably a separate issue.

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I check the traffic for the dumb site I run every once in a while and those stats include search terms that lead people to it. Usually it's South Americans and Eastern Europeans looking for a Halo 4 trial (why am I the first result for "Halo 4" on an Italy-based search engine, exactly?), but occasionally I get some good stuff. Today, it's an instance of "halo 4 global ordinance pattern?" and "global ordnance drop halo 4" and "how to get the bianary rifle more often in ordanance drops." People are asking Jeeves and the Googles how a fundamental gameplay system works. If there is any reliable indication that the huddled masses don't understand something, it's this.
 

FyreWulff

Member
1171247910.jpg

Man, people are sure harvesting a lot of stuff out of Harvest.


.. I'll show myself out
 
I'm going to go ahead and recommend these Rooster Teeth Let's Plays of Halo 4. For one, they're pretty notable because everyone involved has a pretty diverse playstyle so it's easy to find someone to relate to. Ray and Ryan are higher-skilled players, Gavin's the next effective but relies on cheaper things like Hardlight Shield, Jack's about average but bland, Michael's worse but more entertaining, and Geoff's the oldest and arguably worst at the game but is very clearly enjoying himself. Lindsey doesn't usually show up. The most important part is that they actually make Halo 4 seem fun, though. It usually makes me actually feel like playing after watching them.

It's also hilarious because their enjoyment is subjective, but they make Jack do almost all of the shameless Mountain Dew plugging and he's the most generally disliked player out of all of them (mostly for being a sore loser/poor sport in other games/videos).
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
I hope someone finds the File Browser in Harvest. Or maybe the Forge map editor that was long overdue but cut last minute.
 

FyreWulff

Member
I wish the modders would sit on their discoveries for a while in the future though, all this stuff being found will probably make 343 more aggressively datascrub future map packs.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
Man, people are sure harvesting a lot of stuff out of Harvest.


.. I'll show myself out

If anyone still had doubts about Halo 4 being their idea of 'improvements' over reach.


Stuff like that is still in, wheres my classic CTF/not instant respawns?
 

Nowise10

Member
Blackmagic Intensity Pro + mashing Y really hard to keep the gun off the screen then pressing a button to take the pic.

I just got a BMIP also, installed it lastnight. Such a pain. The quality is amazing though. How are you taking pictures? or are you just getting clips, and then taking a picture from the clips?
 

FyreWulff

Member
I just got a BMIP also, installed it lastnight. Such a pain. The quality is amazing though. How are you taking pictures? or are you just getting clips, and then taking a picture from the clips?

using Media Express (came on the CD, but you should download the Blackmagic software off their site to be up to date) to view the feed, then Ctrl-G or click the camera icon to take a .tga that will save to your Documents folder.

http://i.imgur.com/dxBsn.jpg


A couple more

 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Cool pictures.

Beat the game on Legendary today and noticed a lot of the CG cutscenes seemed really low res. I don't have the technical vocabulary to describe it, but the lighting in some of those lens flares and whatnot is visibly blocky at times. Despite looking pretty hot stuff otherwise.
 

blamite

Member
You have to admit, Shutdown has some really cool looking Forerunner structures. There are things that break the immersion a bit, like how most rooms just fade away to a solid color instead of having a real ceiling or floor, but the geometry itself is really pretty. I can't wait to see that stuff next-gen, when it can be fully fleshed out without having to cut surfaces.

I replayed from Shutdown to the end of the game the other day, and had a pretty fun time. Normal with some skulls on is the best difficulty, I think, it seems to be the best way to avoid the bullet-sponginess of the Prometheans while still requiring you to put some effort and thought into dealing with them. Heroic just isn't as fun as it used to be.
 
Has there been any word on a CTF Pro or some such variant where the flag carrier is not marked on the HUD for everybody to go after?

I think CTF is currently waaaay more fun than either Infinity Slayer type, and I can understand how the changes make for more action-packed matches, I just miss the strategy of that perfectly-timed flag run, or a stealth run where none of the enemy team know where their flag is.
 

Havok

Member
Has there been any word on a CTF Pro or some such variant where the flag carrier is not marked on the HUD for everybody to go after?

I think CTF is currently waaaay more fun than either Infinity Slayer type, and I can understand how the changes make for more action-packed matches, I just miss the strategy of that perfectly-timed flag run, or a stealth run where none of the enemy team know where their flag is.
I wouldn't bank on it happening anytime soon, if at all. They've got a bunch of existing gametype setting bugs to fix that may or may not come with their upcoming sandbox patch. Maybe after that they'll get around to creating gametypes I can enjoy without massive caveats. My worry is that they've committed so heavily to their new vision of the gametypes, a few of which I consider in many ways to be a dramatically lesser quality experience, that they'll stick to their guns and won't do anything about it.
 

Karl2177

Member
Sounds like you just described a skill gap. The better player is able to come on top of 1v1 battles with a lot more shields by the H1 magnum being a "death machine". How is that a bad thing for casual players?

Halo 4 is being criticized for being a competitive joke, yet the same people also call the H1 magnum "overpowered".

To those people, please tell me which game has a good balance of skill and this fun-for-casuals thing. It doesn't necessarily have to be a Halo game.

I... uhh... yeah. I did describe a skill gap. And that's why I said the competitive community holds it very highly. Remember though, not everyone has the same mindset when playing. Any more, I don't give a fuck if I win or not, as long as I'm having fun(and I'm not while playing 4). And that's why a lot of people are turned off by Halo CE's multiplayer, similar to how a lot of people are turned off by Halo 4's multiplayer.
 

J10

Banned
Has the CTF playlist population been consistently high? I wonder if they removed the carrier waypoint, would a significant number of players abandon that playlist because they've become too accustomed to that crutch?
 
Has the CTF playlist population been consistently high? I wonder if they removed the carrier waypoint, would a significant number of players abandon that playlist because they've become too accustomed to that crutch?

No, it jumped about 10,000 since it was featured as the Infinity challenge. It used to be around 8000 on a good day, now it's between 18000 and 20000 at peak hours.

The carrier waypoint doesn't kill CTF for me as much as I thought it would. It's not a worse experience just really different. Less higher-order strategy and communication, and more rushing and recovering.

I don't mind it, but I do wish you could vote on a CTF Pro variant or something that eliminated the carrier waypoint.


Obviously those are wrong though.

AC3 just froze on me, right when I had worked my way across the frontier as well. Fuck :/


When the servers fuck up, the numbers tank. I've seen the list drop from 20,000 in Infinity Slayer down to like, 800, and then bounce back a few minutes later.
 

Nowise10

Member
Alright, does anyone know the cause of instantly spawning sometimes in Spartan Ops?

If not, im gonna find out what causes it, and use it to my advantage.
 
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