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[ElRenoRaven]

I always feel like I fell through a wormhole into some other bizarre Twilight Zome dimension when I read this shit. In a world... where the Graphics Whores are in control of the Truth.

The only Halo I know of that had anything remotely resembling "unimpressive graphics" was Halo 2. And even that was mostly pretty stunning for late 2004. We all know how badly troubled and flat out fucked up its dev cycle was, and it resulted in a severe lack of polish. The most obvious example everyone knows is the terrible constant texture loading and pop-in. What I never hear anyone else mention is that it seemed like in Halo 1 you could go right up to any surface texture you wanted and no matter how close you got it still looked tits. In Halo 2, a lot of them looked like absolute shit even from a distance.

With Halo 3 and Reach, I don't get it. I don't get the complaints. You can put every supposed "graphical area it was lacking" on paper and make a list as long as your arm. It means nothing to me, because when I put in Halo 3 and play it on my 42" Bravia and look at it from my own subjective POV, it looks fucking sweet to me. It did in 2007 and it still does today. I don't give a fuck if it's 240p. I don't care if you saw a jaggy. I don't care if you found a shitty texture. I look at it, and it looks brilliant. Same goes for Reach. Is it about punishing Bungie for their Halo 2 fuck ups? Seems like it sometimes.

But I know from experience that I'm in the minority, no, Halo 3 looked like shit, I'm wrong, blah blah blah. I admit Halo 4 is the best looking Halo so far, undeniably. It shouldn't be *that* surprising, each new game does tend to look better than the last. And it doesn't look *that* much better. If anyone honestly thinks Halo 3 and Reach don't look amazing, then it really just speaks to the extremely high standards Halo is held to.

Someone after my own heart. Every game has looked great minus 2 but even some of it looked good while some of it didn't.

 

[danwarb]

Doesn't look goo to me. I always got really hyped with Halo games and i am not getting that vibe at all .There's just something about Bungie man.

I disagree. It looks real goo to me.

Still following Bungie though, with whatever they get up to.

 

[GrizzNKev]

Someone after my own heart. Every game has looked great minus 2 but even some of it looked good while some of it didn't.

Some people never appreciated the ultra fucking ace texture work that went into Halo 3 and Reach. Ever took a sniper and zoomed in a million times at the floor? What, the quality still holds up? Damn.

 

[danwarb]

Some people never appreciated the ultra fucking ace texture work that went into Halo 3 and Reach. Ever took a sniper and zoomed in a million times at the floor? What, the quality still holds up? Damn.

Detail maps. You could do that in the original Unreal, and Halo CE.

 

[Domino Theory]

Awesome, so happy for 343!

Where can I check out all the new media that dropped today? I heard something about The Flood and a couple more maps?

 

[GrizzNKev]

Detail maps. You could do that in the original Unreal.

Why do so few games use this technology? It amazes me so much.

 

[Vire]

Someone after my own heart. Every game has looked great minus 2 but even some of it looked good while some of it didn't.

Halo 2 has some of the coolest skybox matt paintings in the series.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Some people never appreciated the ultra fucking ace texture work that went into Halo 3 and Reach. Ever took a sniper and zoomed in a million times at the floor? What, the quality still holds up? Damn.

Yup all while tons of activity is going on too. I still love coming out in Halo 3 on the Mongoose with a couple more following along with the warthog all while we have some ghosts and tanks waiting on us. Haven't found a game yet that captures that.

Halo 2 has some of the coolest skybox matt paintings in the series.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_46G6qbbYMpY/S_22wyZBaEI/AAAAAAAAC-w/G1jq8Gt2DAU/Gravemind3.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

Yes it does. That's one of the areas that Halo 2 really excelled out without a doubt. The environments even though very linear were also damn well done.

 

[Demoncarnotaur]

About the Flood:

My biggest issue with the new Flood is they look more like something out of Resident Evil or Doom rather than the parasitic Flood we all love and hate. I agree the Flood needed a makeover, but this throws away too much of its iconic look. For a multiplayer mode it is fucking badass, but if it indicates a design change overall I'm kinda meh about it. They sorta lost their visual identity.

It looks like this:

or

and looks nothing like this:

But as of now, due to it being MP only I am fucking pumped, they look scary as hell.

 

[Muffdraul]

Some people never appreciated the ultra fucking ace texture work that went into Halo 3 and Reach. Ever took a sniper and zoomed in a million times at the floor? What, the quality still holds up? Damn.

I spent a lot of time in Reach zooming in on every single Covenant metallic surface I could find just to confirm "dat honeycomb texture."

 

[Dennis]

Two points:

1. All the Halo games have amazing graphics and art direction.

2. Every single GAF thread about Halo game features tiny screenshots to hide the fact that the consoles push out very low res imagery.

 

[FyreWulff]

The Flood look makes sense for the purposes of multiplayer. You want the bipeds to act as similar as possible in terms of hitboxes/collision, hence the hunching of the Elites in Halo 2 and 3 in multiplayer.

That OG flood pic looks neat, but it'd have a significantly different playstyle, collision, hitbox, etc.

 

[Vire]

The Flood look makes sense for the purposes of multiplayer. You want the bipeds to act as similar as possible in terms of hitboxes/collision, hence the hunching of the Elites in Halo 2 and 3 in multiplayer.

That OG flood pic looks neat, but it'd have a significantly different playstyle, collision, hitbox, etc.

Yep, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[danwarb]

Two points:

1. All the Halo games have amazing graphics and art direction.

2. Every single GAF thread about Halo game features tiny screenshots to hide the fact that the consoles push out very low res imagery.

Some of the screens aren't tiny or bullshots, and there's a lot of actual gameplay footage.

 

[Demoncarnotaur]

The Flood look makes sense for the purposes of multiplayer. You want the bipeds to act as similar as possible in terms of hitboxes/collision, hence the hunching of the Elites in Halo 2 and 3 in multiplayer.

That OG flood pic looks neat, but it'd have a significantly different playstyle, collision, hitbox, etc.

Yup, I was thinking as much, but it still has me worried that the Flood, should they return, will come back as mutant monsters rather than parasite controlled corpses. But as for a MP and MP hitbox thing they look awesome. Just, more like a mutant zombie creature and less like the Flood. Still, I can't deny they are cool as hell.

Two points:

1. All the Halo games have amazing graphics and art direction.

2. Every single GAF thread about Halo game features tiny screenshots to hide the fact that the consoles push out very low res imagery.

Huge pics here: http://press.xbox360.com/products/1155p51/halo-4-war-games-flood-and-complex-screenshots

 

[wwm0nkey]

Fun fact about the flood, they can look pretty interesting if given enough time to evolve, the ones we fought in CE and 2 were very recent and not evolved. In 3 we started seeing the Pure forms which can look pretty complex.

EDIT: Never mind

 

[Muffdraul]

Some of the screens aren't tiny or bullshots, and there's a lot of actual gameplay footage.

Holy shit. JAGGIES.

 

[Dennis]

My point is not that large size screen do not exist - of course they do.

My point is that in every Halo thread, OP and other posters, always deliberately post small screenshots to make the game look a lot better than it will ever do on your TV screen.

 

[danwarb]

My point is not that large size screen do not exist - of course they do.

My point is that in every Halo thread OP and poster alway deliberately post small screenshot to make the game look a lot better than it will every do on your TV screen.

The screenshots in the OP are big.

 

[Dennis]

The screenshots in the OP are big.

They are in quote tags and therefore small.

 

[shinobi602]

So are these ODST or other Spartans?

I know there are other Spartans alive, did they even confirm they'll show up? I thought they would if we will end up finding Halsey.

 

[G-Fex]

So is Halo 2 anniversary coming out?

 

[Hypertrooper]

So are these ODST or other Spartans?

I know there are other Spartans alive, did they even confirm they'll show up? I thought they would if we will end up finding Halsey.

Those are Spartan-IVs.

 

[adelante]

They are in quote tags and therefore small.

Then click the images to make them bigger? Seems like a common practice for many people these days to put large images in quotes. Also, no one's trying to hide anything with these Halo shots, if that's what you're implying.

 

[Havok]

So are these ODST or other Spartans?

I know there are other Spartans alive, did they even confirm they'll show up? I thought they would if we will end up finding Halsey.

The Infinity is chock full of Spartan IVs. I cannot imagine you won't see a bunch of them.

 

[shinobi602]

The Infinity is chock full of Spartan IVs. I cannot imagine you won't see a bunch of them.

Oh yea forgot about them.

I meant from the handful original Spartan IIs with Halsey.

 

[Demoncarnotaur]

So are these ODST or other Spartans?

I know there are other Spartans alive, did they even confirm they'll show up? I thought they would if we will end up finding Halsey.

Spartan-IVs, the new class of Spartans. Also, there is a decent chance we may see some old Spartan-IIs.

 

[Overdoziz]

My point is not that large size screen do not exist - of course they do.

My point is that in every Halo thread, OP and other posters, always deliberately post small screenshots to make the game look a lot better than it will ever do on your TV screen.

I'm pretty sure bigger screenshots weren't released until just now.

 

[KageMaru]

What I never hear anyone else mention is that it seemed like in Halo 1 you could go right up to any surface texture you wanted and no matter how close you got it still looked tits. In Halo 2, a lot of them looked like absolute shit even from a distance.

I remember that was one of the first things I noticed when I first played Halo 2 in 2004. I forgot who I was talking to about this, but it was explained to me that the texture resolution took a hit (or maybe it was detail maps were cut, I forget) to fit the normal maps into memory. Makes sense.

Thanks for giving the definition of a bullshot again. Good to have this out of the way. And I still need to see ingame shots that show this definition of lighting. The shots in the op are bland compared to the old footage lighting wise. Just look at the reflections on the armor. There were more of those ridiculous gifs in the old thread. For example the master chief in a vehicle, can't find it now. Same applies for AA and DOF obviously. So yes, those shots were misleading.

You do realize there are different lighting conditions that can produce different results, right? Can you point out the exact differences that lead you to believe the "definition" of the lighting has been downgraded? Sorry but saying it looks "bland" doesn't really tell us much.

Also, what reflections in the armor? You're going to have to show us screens demonstrating these changes you're harping on about.

Maybe also performance? Looking forward to the Xbox720 Halo with ingame DOF. I am not juding the game just on the DOF, I am just disappointed that people do not mind the devs releasing the typical Halo bullshots long before release and the final game looking much worse.

There is no ADS in Halo, so there isn't that opportunity to use DoF as it's typically used in a shooter. I'm sure it's in use where it's appropriate and until we actually play the game, neither of us can say anything.

Also, what's with this mentality that some of you people have with "Halo bullshots"? Every company releases bullshots, it's not something only done with Halo games. This right here indicates to me that you have some kind of agenda against Halo.

How do you know? What AA method is it using? How good/demanding is MLAA on 360 at this point? Otherwise I suspect FXAA.

It's using FXAA. It's likely similar to the iteration used in Halo CEA which is very clean.

Don't confuse texture resolution with AF. However, it's probably an odd exception or the textures were not fully loaded yet.

The filtering is one area that I wish would be improved, agree with you there. Though, poor filtering isn't anything new with console games.

Actually, most of this forum thinks it's going to like like the screenshots, anti aliased and all. They also think that FXAA is equivalent to super sampling.

I wish people would post direct capture from the uncompressed videos Microsoft has released instead of these bullshots. It's not like there isn't actual 720p gameplay footage to look at but it never gets posted in these threads except in the form of minature gifs.

There might be a person or two who actually believe the game will be completely jaggy free, but the vast majority of the people posting here do not think the game will be as clean as the bullshots.

There is no opinion involved here. And Eurogamer also says that the final game looks worse, and they maybe actually played it.

They could be talking about the aliasing alone and their comment would still apply. Not sure why you have this mission to prove that 343i has been misleading us from day one.

Some people never appreciated the ultra fucking ace texture work that went into Halo 3 and Reach. Ever took a sniper and zoomed in a million times at the floor? What, the quality still holds up? Damn.

Hard to appreciate the texture in Halo 3 with the piss poor filtering =p

Why do so few games use this technology? It amazes me so much.

Plenty of games use them this gen, usually to help hide or cover up lower resolution textures. Halo games typically have good resolution textures and have detail maps on top of them.

 

[shinobi602]

So is Halo 2 anniversary coming out?

There was a rumor a while back that H2 Anniversary is being worked on.

343 denied it, but we all know it's coming.

 

[shinnn]

I'm pretty sure bigger screenshots weren't released until just now.

Those screens in the OP are 1280x720 lol. There's nothing wrong with them. The guy is just trolling.

 

[FyreWulff]

Also, people need to stop acting like Depth of Field is some sort of complicated effect.

 

[Izayoi]

It seems those high-res press shots are actually a pretty good representation of what the game will look like IQ-wise (AA, LoD, etc.), just rendered at a lower resolution.

See here for a good example, make sure you embiggen the image so your browser isn't supersampling it. Another good example here.

 

[DocSeuss]

Fuck that, Halo: CE has some of the best combat and emergent gameplay ever in a shooter.

The first game was perfect because the story was just there to give us all kinds of crazy experiences, but Bungie totally dropped the ball when they put their awful writing to the forefront in Halo 2 and onward. In CE, the gameplay was the focus, in the sequels, the story was.

Which sucks.

Marathon Infinity still has some of the best video game writing in history.

 

[danwarb]

It seems those high-res press shots are actually a pretty good representation of what the game will look like IQ-wise (AA, LoD, etc.), just rendered at a lower resolution.

See here for a good example, make sure you embiggen the image so your browser isn't supersampling it.

Loading this screenshot reminds me of dialup interweb in the olden days.

 

[BlackJace]

Good swan song for the 360. I know there's GoW Judgment, but c'mon, it's Halo 4.

 

[Flipyap]

Someone on GAF drew a picture of the Timeless One from the Forerunner Trilogy and it was revealed he was a

Spoiler

Gravemind

.

http://i.imgur.com/OJOcul.png

So yeah they can look pretty interesting I would say.

Yeah, about that... that was before Primordium came out. That doodle is based on the description from Cryptum, before it was revealed that it

Spoiler

wasn't actually describing a creature's anatomy, but a shapeless mess of corpses*.

* - at least until future reretconning

 

[Blue Ninja]

Marathon Infinity still has some of the best video game writing in history.

You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern. Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild.

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are.

You are Destiny.

 

[Muffdraul]

I remember that was one of the first things I noticed when I first played Halo 2 in 2004. I forgot who I was talking to about this, but it was explained to me that the texture resolution took a hit (or maybe it was detail maps were cut, I forget) to fit the normal maps into memory. Makes sense.

Oh, I'm sure they had their reasons. I'll bet they could have found a better way with a longer, smoother dev cycle. I think there were a lot of of good lessons to be learned there.

A) Don't announce your game so goddamn early. Keep it under wraps until it's relatively close to being at least alpha complete. Just let the fans wonder what the fuck you're doing until then. They're not going anywhere. (Rockstar, please take note. Assholes.)

B) If you do announce your game way too early, don't tell the press all of the super mega awesome features you plan to implement in the game, and then end up cutting most of them.

C) Don't show a totally fucking rad gameplay demo at E3 and then not deliver it in the finished game. OK, so the engine you used for the demo wasn't viable for release. Fine. You still could have done a much better job of rebuilding the demo content in the new engine. Taking tiny chunks of the demo and sprinkling them around a couple levels of the finished game doesn't cut it. I really think this was the major reason for the backlash against Halo 2. The fans were *DYING* to play that demo for almost two years. Bungie's failure to deliver it into their hands cost them a lot of hearts and minds. Thinking about it eight years later... still kinda feels bad, man.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Yeah, about that... that was before Primordium came out. That doodle is based on the description from Cryptum, before it was revealed that it

Spoiler

wasn't actually describing a creature's anatomy, but a shapeless mess of corpses*.

* - at least until future reretconning

Edited it out, also still great work on the drawing though!

 

[Unity2012]

The more information we get, the more Amazed I am with the game's improvement.

It looks great! I don't mind the game coming in two discs and the required 8GB MP download.
It gives us an idea of how much content and improvement there is compared to prior halo games.

The flood was one of my least favorite things in Halo, especially after the Library on CE; but having it in MP as a mode sounds very interesting.

Keep the goods coming 343i.

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

Some people never appreciated the ultra fucking ace texture work that went into Halo 3 and Reach. Ever took a sniper and zoomed in a million times at the floor? What, the quality still holds up? Damn.

Or the fact that they used this for particles you would never see up close except in the Theater mode:

 

[Stinkles]

While the vast bulk of Halo 4 dev work is done, it's not finished. There's still loads of process that needs to happen, not to mention that Spartan Ops content (the fiction) is still being developed and will be for some time, but we will make an announcement when it gets to the official "gold" status. But yeah, we have some parking spots back and some sleeps for some of us. But lots of heroic people are still burning the midnight oil to get this over the final final finish line.

Feelsgoodman.

 

[TheOddOne]

While the vast bulk of Halo 4 dev work is done, it's not finished. There's still loads of process that needs to happen, not to mention that Spartan Ops content (the fiction) is still being developed and will be for some time, but we will make an announcement when it gets to the official "gold" status. But yeah, we have some parking spots back and some sleeps for some of us. But lots of heroic people are still burning the midnight oil to get this over the final final finish line.

Feelsgoodman.

Congrats to 343 as a whole. Can't wait to play it.

 

[Raide]

While the vast bulk of Halo 4 dev work is done, it's not finished. There's still loads of process that needs to happen, not to mention that Spartan Ops content (the fiction) is still being developed and will be for some time, but we will make an announcement when it gets to the official "gold" status. But yeah, we have some parking spots back and some sleeps for some of us. But lots of heroic people are still burning the midnight oil to get this over the final final finish line.

Feelsgoodman.

Any chance of some Spartan OPs that has us playing as a squad of ODST's? Some Orbital Drop work would be awesome.

Also, we need Grunt Ops DLC.

 

[Vire]

While the vast bulk of Halo 4 dev work is done, it's not finished. There's still loads of process that needs to happen, not to mention that Spartan Ops content (the fiction) is still being developed and will be for some time, but we will make an announcement when it gets to the official "gold" status. But yeah, we have some parking spots back and some sleeps for some of us. But lots of heroic people are still burning the midnight oil to get this over the final final finish line.

Feelsgoodman.

Congrats! Pretty monumental accomplishment of following up a Bungie game.

Is this the project you are most proud of since your involvement has been increased?

 

[shinobi602]

While the vast bulk of Halo 4 dev work is done, it's not finished. There's still loads of process that needs to happen, not to mention that Spartan Ops content (the fiction) is still being developed and will be for some time, but we will make an announcement when it gets to the official "gold" status. But yeah, we have some parking spots back and some sleeps for some of us. But lots of heroic people are still burning the midnight oil to get this over the final final finish line.

Feelsgoodman.

Awwww yea.

But I thought Frankie said it is 100% complete and you guys are shipping it off to get certified?

 

[wwm0nkey]

Awwww yea.

But I thought Frankie said it is 100% complete and you guys are shipping it off to get certified?

That is Frankie

 

[GrizzNKev]

Awwww yea.

But I thought Frankie said it is 100% complete and you guys are shipping it off to get certified?

wat

Also remember Spartan Ops isn't all going to be there on day 1. They can keep working on it until it's out, and then some.

 

[DocSeuss]

You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern. Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild.

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are.

You are Destiny.

CHILLS.

DOWN MY SPINE.

Also makes me wonder if Project Destiny really is Marathon related, since we know they're working on SOMETHING Marathon related. In Bungie's context ( they were doing the whole Bioshock/Portal "this is a game" thing eleven years before those games were released), Destiny refers to the player being the game's ultimate end, a philosophy we've seen throughout their games.

I really wish Greg Kirkpatrick was still in the industry. No offense to Staten, but he's nowhere near as good as Kirkpatrick. I don't think the industry has ever actually had a writer that holds a candle to Kirkpatrick--not CD Projekt Red, not Rockstar, not nobody. Maybe Sam Lake.

Quite. Nothing hugely wrong with it, but Bungie was not a technically impressive studio.

Uh...

Bungie has some of the best water in gaming history, massive draw distances (14 miles!), and does a bunch of other cool details, like making the model your character holds the same model as is on the ground. That's not even getting into the way they designed their AI and stuff.

Technically impressive is VERY much a Bungie thing.