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Halo |OT14| They call it Halo

Best vehicle counter loadout ever:

DMR
Plasma Pistol
Plasma Grenade x3
Hardlight Shield
Grenadier
Explosives

If you successfully EMP it, three direct sticks from this loadout are actually enough to kill a Mantis all by yourself.
 
But that doesn't have anything to do with what I said. I said Frankie and the 343 team said it's the best/fastest selling main halo game.

And I agree, but it also launched with the largest install base a month before Christmas and then reduced its price officially as well. I don't remember Halo 3 or even Reach having their msrp drop to $39 within a month.

So of course Halo 4 will sell more and possibly quicker. We're now approaching only 3 months since release and the playerbase is dwindling considerably. I can't imagine what it would become once the other MS heavyweight Gears of War launches.

Is it a huge success for the game to sell great initially and then drop off drastically? Sure a $20 halo 4 will now sell more than a $59 Halo 3 did.

I'm sorry if I couldn't get what I meant across.

Absolutely it is. A very vocal minority of the fanbase whining on forums means nothing to MS revenues from the game. It made a shit ton of money. Were not happy, but that means nothing to business. And MS is a business afterall. All the people who picked the game up for the campaign or to play multiplayer for a week or two were generally happy with the game.

Halo 5 will sell a shit ton too. In the grand scheme of things we dont matter to Halos success.
 
Absolutely it is. A very vocal minority of the fanbase whining on forums means nothing to MS revenues from the game. It made a shit ton of money. Were not happy, but that means nothing to business. And MS is a business afterall. All the people who picked the game up for the campaign or to play multiplayer for a week or two were generally happy with the game.

Halo 5 will sell a shit ton too. In the grand scheme of things we dont matter to Halos success.

err then why not make the game good competitively if most people are just going to play the game for two weeks anyways?
 
err then why not make the game good competitively if most people are just going to play the game for two weeks anyways?

I dont know. I hate using the word casual, but the majority of players are the "casual" gamers. Look at the ranked lists in most shooters and that becomes clear. So thats the main market the developers need to sell too.

I know 343 do give a shit about us to some degree. But overall when you think about it we dont really matter to the games success overall. Sure we will pick up the DLC over its lifetime, but those initial "casual" gamer purchases when the game is new is where the money is.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I dont know. I hate using the word casual, but the majority of players are the "casual" gamers. Look at the ranked lists in most shooters and that becomes clear. So thats the main market the developers need to sell too.

I know 343 do give a shit about us to some degree. But overall when you think about it we dont really matter to the games success overall. Sure we will pick up the DLC over its lifetime, but those initial "casual" gamer purchases when the game is new is where the money is.

Well that's how most things are. Your fans might be the most dedicated but they're also going to complain the most. Microsoft for their part has always known it can't count on fans to deliver the sales it wants--hence the "Believe" ads and marketing Microsoft has done since. It's obviously worked pretty well.
 
I keep forgetting to go grind Grifball for Energy Sword kills. Already grinded it for the Gravity Hammer.

Also, why is the Gravity Hammer even in this game? It's a Brute weapon. Brute's aren't in the game.
 

Tzeentch

Member
I know 343 do give a shit about us to some degree. But overall when you think about it we dont really matter to the games success overall. Sure we will pick up the DLC over its lifetime, but those initial "casual" gamer purchases when the game is new is where the money is.
They are a large studio that is eating a lot of money every month just for payroll. They were going to be using that DLC money to help offset their operating budget, but the negative buzz and very steep drop off of that 'casual' audience is not going to do them any favors. Last night the Crimson DLC list had about 300 people on it. That's absolutely atrocious and the sales of the next map packs are almost guaranteed to be abysmal - which even Microsoft will notice as that would set off flags based on their expected conversion rate.

That said the IP isn't going anywhere, even though the last two games have done a lot of damage to the brand with their evangelical fans (which, let's be honest - are very useful in driving sales and converting browsers into purchasers). Will Halo 5 do better? Hard to say, but it's not a very good idea to use past performance to predict future sales in the game industry. The industry is littered with the corpses of dead IPs.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
They are a large studio that is eating a lot of money every month just for payroll. They were going to be using that DLC money to help offset their operating budget, but the negative buzz and very steep drop off of that 'casual' audience is not going to do them any favors. Last night the Crimson DLC list had about 300 people on it. That's absolutely atrocious and the sales of the next map packs are almost guaranteed to be abysmal - which even Microsoft will notice as that would set off flags based on their expected conversion rate.

That said the IP isn't going anywhere, even though the last two games have done a lot of damage to the brand with their evangelical fans (which, let's be honest - are very useful in driving sales and converting browsers into purchasers). Will Halo 5 do better? Hard to say, but it's not a very good idea to use past performance to predict future sales in the game industry. The industry is littered with the corpses of dead IPs.

On the subject of dead IPs though, how many are on the level of Halo? Mario is still around. Spyro and Tomb Raider have never been billion dollar franchises. Sonic? Same thing.

If CoD or Halo goes completely defunct it will be an implosion without equal in video gaming.
 
I dont know. I hate using the word casual, but the majority of players are the "casual" gamers. Look at the ranked lists in most shooters and that becomes clear. So thats the main market the developers need to sell too.

I know 343 do give a shit about us to some degree. But overall when you think about it we dont really matter to the games success overall. Sure we will pick up the DLC over its lifetime, but those initial "casual" gamer purchases when the game is new is where the money is.

But those casuals leave after a week. And they will buy the game just because it has Halo in the name.

So...why not make a good Halo game instead of making a generic modern day FPS with shields and no ADS?
 
On the subject of dead IPs though, how many are on the level of Halo? Mario is still around. Spyro and Tomb Raider have never been billion dollar franchises. Sonic? Same thing.

If CoD or Halo goes completely defunct it will be an implosion without equal in video gaming.

I'd say Sonic is in the same league as Halo. Sonic games sell millions.

Also, that's probably why people want Microsoft to make a new IP, so they're not screwed when Halo is dead, which might as well be now because a lot of Halo fans have given up on Halo after Halo:Reach and Halo 4.
 
But those casuals leave after a week. And they will buy the game just because it has Halo in the name.

So...why not make a good Halo game instead of making a generic modern day FPS with shields and no ADS?

But they buy the game for the same price we do?

Why cater more so to a minority of your fanbase over the majority?
 

Ghazi

Member
I would even go as far as to say that they've damaged the Halo IP. Between casuals and the hardcore crowd everyone's been dropping this game.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I'd say Sonic is in the same league as Halo. Sonic games sell millions.

Also, that's probably why people want Microsoft to make a new IP, so they're not screwed when Halo is dead, which might as well be now because a lot of Halo fans have given up on Halo after Halo:Reach and Halo 4.

Sonic never made 2 billion dollars in ten years. You can argue that's because it arrived on the scene a decade before games usurped movies as entertainment blockbusters, but the point is they're still not in the same league as a franchise.
 
But those casuals leave after a week. And they will buy the game just because it has Halo in the name.

So...why not make a good Halo game instead of making a generic modern day FPS with shields and no ADS?

That's what I don't get as well. Why did 343 have to go and try to get the CoD fanbase to buy the game? It clearly didn't work, considering this game sold less than Reach and Halo 3 in the launch month, if this game out-sold them now, it's only because the game has been on sale from $20-$40 for ever now.

The casual gamers would have bought this game because it's Halo, they didn't have to change the game to make it sell.

The Halo fan side of the sales would only buy this game if it was what they wanted. Competitive, Fair, Balanced, etc. They didn't do any of that. They essentially alienated the most important part of the fanbase (aka the side that'll keep the game alive and buy the DLC) to try and get more Casual sales, but that didn't work. They gambled all they had for no return.

But hey... for a first time... they didn't do half bad.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Throw some pretty graphics at the screen and people will buy it (and quickly sell it after). It's a sad reality of the industry, gameplay and system centric games have been replaced by linear handholding experiences. Heck, go look at Kickstarter and see how many old design philosophies can't get proper funding.
 
Because the casuals would play everything with the label "Halo" on it, even the old Halo.

Why not cater to the people who would stay for playing longer.

But see thats my point. From a purely business standpoint theres no real value difference between casuals and people who play for longer times.

Both groups buy the game for the same price. In regards to the size of each group its clearly Casuals>>>Us.

Surely the revenues from the casuals buying the game still outweighs what we pay through buying and purchasing DLC?
 

J10

Banned
There's an achievement for getting Gravity Hammer kills on the last level. So I'm guessing it's there. I never saw it.

There's a room with the Grav Hammer on display with a bunch of other weapons, the only place you'll find it in the campaign. It's kind of impossible to miss.
 
But they buy the game for the same price we do?

Why cater more so to a minority of your fanbase over the majority?

Why are you thinking that they are mutually exclusive? What the "minority" is asking for only helps Halo.. Based along your line of thinking you should then agree that the majority doesn't know crap about Halo and if they listened to us the game would be better for all, therefore proving your point is moot.

Mooooooooot.
 

FyreWulff

Member
There's an achievement for getting Gravity Hammer kills on the last level. So I'm guessing it's there. I never saw it.

SGwWel.jpg
 

Overdoziz

Banned
Most of the Forerunner structures look great, but I'm really not into the entire circular theme some of the Forerunner structures and interiors have in Halo 4. I mean, I get it because the Halo rings are circular too, but it feels so out of place with Forerunner structures usually having straight lines.

I felt the same with Anniversary where they from this:

To this:

Such a weird looking wheel... thing.
 
They practically rub the hammer all over your face when you teleport into a mini-armory on Midnight.

I know I've been talking about the sandbox in general, but would you guys be interested if I tried mapping out a majority of the multiplayer components down to the start menu? I've been having some ideas about map creation modes.

Cartographer: Terrain editor. You can select a few basic environments, optional skybox, and so on.

Forge: This allows you to place in your artificial structures and weapon/vehicle placements. Structure just has a general texture.

Builder: Short for World Builder. This mode lets you truly breathe life and atmosphere into your maps. You'll be granted access to 8 possible environmental textures, affecting structures. They're similar in function to team colors. Options include:
FACTION
UNSC (Halo 4 version)
Covenant
Forerunner (See Reclaimer interior section)
Old Mombasa (Turf, Headlong)
New Alexandria (Exodus, Boardwalk)
Pharaoh-Runner (Sandbox, Sanctuary)
Heretic (Skunkworks Covenant. Various Brute and Heretic materials. Sort of iffy on this one)
Domain (Mirror's Edge Time Trials)

COLOR - This affects lighting, metal, hues, and so on on structures.
Red / Blue / Green / Orange / Lime / Pink / Indigo / White

POWER - This affects how intense the interior lights and mechanisms are. For example, setting HIGH would give you lens flares similar to Reclaimer's interior section. You can indicate focal points on maps using this, as well as add some color variation. A LOW orange would look amber or brown, for example. There is an OFF option.

ACTIVITY - Promethean objects have lights pulse in and out, Covenant blocks make noises and so on. This lets you modify their rates. OFF is an option.

You can affect these options manually, OR you have the option to spawn up to 50 "Aesthetic Zones" that will change all the objects in a given, modifiable radius.

In addition to this, it lets you change the weather using radial zones. For example, you can spawn a "Cascade" which is running water. Changing the size and intensity can mean the difference between a waterfall and a light rain over the entire map. You can also change the terrain textures from here as well as time of day.

Another big change is that gametype options (such as flag spawns) get moved to Builder, as well as Spartan Ops and Firefight options. Builder allows you to "stress test" maps with enemy AI (which, in addition to Covenant/Prometheans, can spawn humans) with optional levels of play/intensity. If you want an Aggressive Brute Chieftan Pack to be able to clear a canyon, test it. If you want a Hit-And-Run Grunt Squad in nothing but Warthogs, test it! Some Dominion-style options like forts are also available.

Spartan Ops is a bit more complicated, akin to Reach's Invasion Forge. You can spawn a variety of buttons which can have specific properties, add in camera pans/cutscenes, objectives, and so on.

Additionally, due to hardware improvements, while there are three map-making components, you can switch between the three modes seamlessly. If you made a hill too tall, switch from Forge to Cartographer and shorten it. If you need to add a sniper tower while designing a Spartan Ops mission? Go from Builder to Forge and add it!

Additionally, you can also do a small checklist for Spartan Ops to create entire episodes; you can make episodes up to 5 chapters long.

pls 343
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Most of the Forerunner structures look great, but I'm really not into the entire circular theme some of the Forerunner structures and interiors have in Halo 4. I mean, I get it because the Halo rings are circular too, but it feels so out of place with Forerunner structures usually having straight lines.
I mean, straight and angular lines are the other 66% of the designs really, I'd hardly say there is a deficiency of them.

I haven't played Anniversary, but that structure is blasphemous right there and more deviant of the Forerunner aesthetic than anything else I've seen.
 
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