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Halo |OT2| Hyper-Athletic Speed And Mass And Weight and Power

G

GhaleonEB

Member
1:35 - 2:20 in that soundtrack sample is just fucking godly, such a powerful punch atop the progression it builds from. And it in no way feels like an echo of Marty's work; they didn't try to top him, they sidestepped. I'd said from the other video that it sounded interesting but none of it stood out as memorable; I have this stuff stuck in my head hard now.

We can officially stop worrying about the music.
 
H

heckfu

Banned
GhaleonEB said:
1:35 - 2:20 in that soundtrack sample is just fucking godly, such a powerful punch atop the progression it builds from. And it in no way feels like an echo of Marty's work; they didn't try to top him, they sidestepped. I'd said from the other video that it sounded interesting but none of it stood out as memorable; I have this stuff stuck in my head hard now.

We can officially stop worrying about the music.
Click to expand...

I can't wait to get home and listen to the sample. Only saw the vidoc. APPARENTLY watching YouTube at the pharmacy is "frowned upon."
 
Z

zlatko

Banned
Anyone else in love with the design of the new Spartan helmets they've shown off? I also dig the texturing on the body pieces on a few of them as well. Super sharp looking stuff.

I need a new avatar to show my hype for this game, but I can't find an image for the new spartans that I want to avatarize. :(
 
K

Karl2177

Member
I like it, but to me it doesn't feel like Halo. I got Halo vibes from the concept art trailer and a bit from the MP debut ViDoc, but this seems just a little off. There's some things missing, and the only one thing I can put my finger on is the triplet usage. I'm in the group that is excited for it, but there's a bit of work to be done.

We still haven't heard the full soundtrack, I know. But going with what we've gotten, this is my viewpoint.
 
T

Tawpgun

Member
Blue Ninja said:
I loved the synth-y sound of that concept art trailer. I loved ODST and Reach's soundtrack, which were both rather similar. The previous Halo games always had this slightly ethereal, slightly playful feel to it. With all respect for Neil Davidge, hat we have now sounds like a poor man's Hans Zimmer attempting to create a soundtrack for a summer blockbuster. I can appreciate stuff like that from time to time, heck, I love the Transformers soundtracks. I just don't love this.

Maybe it'll grow on me, but as I've said before, everything I've seen of Halo 4 so far hasn't convinced me of that.
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GhaleonEB said:
Interesting direction. All the music sounded good, and unusual in its composition (I mean that as a compliment), but not very strong melodies on first watch. Of course, they're just snippets. I'm really looking forward to a longer piece. It's a very different direction for the score, and that's a very good thing. This isn't Marty-lite, it's a whole new ball of wax.

Will the Halo theme return?
Click to expand...

This and this.

Marty's music was very unique, and because of that Halo had a very unique sound. From the trilogy, to ODST, to Reach, and maybe even Halo Wars... they still sounded like Halo.

To me, this sounds more like a generic score to some dramatic action movie. Something, that if super-imposed on The Dark Knight, or even a game like Modern Warfare, would sound right at home.

Halo themes were iconic and you remembered them. They had strong, catchy melodies with amazing percussion. Maybe we need to listen to more of it, but there was nothing in those samples that made me hum along like the original halo themes did.

Also, to reinforce Ghal's question... Is the Halo theme returning? Did they confirm no monks? Because I got some reservations about no monks...
 
S

squidhands

Member
The last 45 seconds of that new song is the exact feeling I want to have for the majority of the campaign. Intense, kind of scary, and alien-y. Bravo.
 
T

TS x Massacre

Member
OuterWorldVoice said:
What did I miss?
Click to expand...

They're telling Cyren not to post any links to "TheHaloCouncil" content on the FORUMS.

At least that's what im getting from it. I dont know, I dont want to sound like an unappreciative douchebag, but with no front page coverage, and a small banded together community that is the MLG Halo community and the impressive work that Cyren does covering all the incredible stuff that you guys from 343i give to us.. it's fairly ridiculous to ask him to not post stuff related to people who not only are in MLG but also it's factual information to show to the MLG Halo community.

I'm in rant mode so that probably came out incoherently.. also, thank you very much David and Frank and all of 343 for the awesome content today.

Calling it right now, no MLG playlist in H4. And I dont really care either. 343 is more than capable creating a competitive playlist themselves without the "help" of these tools( I've been slowly hating Sundance more and more over the last year or so)
 
C

CyReN

Member
Well around Christmas time (2011) MLG let go (fired) all of their content team and cut all of their shows in studios. With the decline of competitive Halo and that it really put a dent in "our community". Then TheHaloCouncil started up, had quite a few shows and following, showed up strong to MLG Columbus (thanks again Frankie/Ellis/343i for NB/Map Codes) and we had what would be considered a successful event.

Just before the event Nexy and Animal approached me wondering if I could get a Halo news hub going for competitive people to go to, thought cool why not. So we did our thing and I got a PM today from the moderating staff and was told to cease covering everything about TheHaloCouncil besides the podcast on their site. The irony of the thing is MLG DOESN'T cover Halo in any aspect anymore. Check their homepage and look at Sundance and Clap on twitter. So a lot of the Halo community on MLG is a bit mad about that that.

Can't say I didn't see it coming but it's disappointing. If you are wondering why MLG had such a stronghold on Halo players this is why below

Here's a writeup from reddit (2xNoodle) about competitive Halo:
Halo was going fairly strong in the the last year of Halo 3, but when Reach came out, two things happened to the community: participation declined because the game settings and maps weren't fun and competitive and the community had to deal with the fact that their game, which had built MLG and had always been the flagship game there, was no longer the biggest, with SC2 on the scene in full force and receiving more money. With smaller crowds, Halo got bumped from the center stage and the community began to shrink. I myself stopped caring about Halo, which I had been watching with a passion as the first and only esport I followed for three years, and started watching things like SC2 and other games.

This year, MLG has made it clear that they won't keep Halo around for the sake of nostalgia, and that the community would need to start returning to former levels to keep the game on the circuit. Halo is a game whose faith as an esport pretty much rests on MLG, since the league drove out other Halo leagues and pampered their players with stipends and sponsorships so they didn't have to get them on their own (another thing that lead to Halo's decline was the inability of the community to respond to MLG ending this system).

Towards the end of last season, there was a patch that allowed removal of a flawed game mechanic and figures in the community urged players to help test settings for tournament play (unlike many games, the latter Halo games have default settings not suited for competitive play at all). Cbus is a big deal because the most successful Halo player of all time, who is still winning events, is from there and Cbus has a fairly big Halo scene. MLG also hired real strong commentators, including a recently retired legend of a player, all of whom have been urging the community to both compete and spectate in full force.

The chant is the Halo community's way of showing it's not dead, although we still don't if it'll be enough to get the game picked up for Spring (Anaheim participation for Halo is usually lowest there compared to the other cities), although most are optimistic about the game getting picked up for at least for Fall.
Click to expand...
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
Woohoo. Caught up. I watched the ViDoc and the opening chants by the female singers was different, but I definitely liked it. I'm eager to hear more of it. Is it at all possible can have a .mp3 of the soundtrack sampler to download?

I agree with the following sentiment: We won't have to worry about the music.
 
B

Bregmann Roche

Member
GhaleonEB said:
1:35 - 2:20 in that soundtrack sample is just fucking godly, such a powerful punch atop the progression it builds from. And it in no way feels like an echo of Marty's work; they didn't try to top him, they sidestepped. I'd said from the other video that it sounded interesting but none of it stood out as memorable; I have this stuff stuck in my head hard now.
Click to expand...
At that 1:35-2:20 mark is when I became a believer, but it was around the :30 mark that the music caught my interest. I'm not worried about the music, single-player, co-op, audio, and visual aspects of the game. It's just a question of whether 343 can successfully meld together all the crazy MP elements they've revealed.
 
S

Sai-kun

Banned
OuterWorldVoice said:
No wub wub.
Click to expand...

Preorder cancelled.

For real though, loving the samples. Like Ghal said, no melodies that immediately pop out at me, but I wasn't really expecting that just from samples. The little bits of electro and synth I heard in the vidoc were just like "fuck yeah" moments for me. I really loved the little bits of techno/electronica that were present in H2/H3, because they flowed so perfectly in with the orchestrated/organic sounds.

basically ugnnghhhhhhhh techno <3

edit: oh shit listening to the actual sample from youtube now. daaaaaamnnnn
 
M

m23

Member
I loved the music from the BTS video, but the soundtrack sample wasn't as great except for some parts. The latter part of the sample was amazing, but majority of it wasn't as great for me. We'll hear more for sure though, its just one song.
 
F

FL1Psyde

Neo Member
TS x Massacre said:
Calling it right now, no MLG playlist in H4. And I dont really care either. 343 is more than capable creating a competitive playlist themselves without the "help" of these tools( I've been slowly hating Sundance more and more over the last year or so)
Click to expand...

Bring back Team Hardcore :)
 
K

kylej

Banned
A fading competitive community is rallying together to show support for a game purely out of love, and MLG is shitting on them because... it isn't Starcraft? Cutting off their nose to spite their face. C'mon Sundance.
 
H

Hypertrooper

Member
It looks like one of the track is called "Arrival".
With console video games becoming more and more cinematic, Microsoft Studios was quick to secure the musical talent of Neil Davidge for the fourth installment of its highly popular Xbox franchise, Halo. Davidge, a pioneer of the trip-hop genre, is best known for his production work for Massive Attack as well as for scoring several films, including the Oscar-nominated Katrina documentary Trouble the Water and the 2010 blockbuster Clash of the Titans.

"When I first went into this, I thought scoring for a video game would be similar to scoring a film," Davidge tells Rolling Stone. "Pretty soon I discovered the similarities were few."

For his first video game gig, Davidge had to create a soundtrack that could stretch to any length, depending on gameplay. It had to be multi-layered, open-ended and able to be looped, intensifying as the game progressed.

Another major difference he discovered is that production work for Halo 4 has not been completed. In the past year, Davidge has flown to Microsoft Studios' base in Seattle, Washington, several times to play a rough mockup of the game on a beta machine. He originally worked using video captures of each mission; that proved unfruitful, however, and he soon turned to artists' impressions of the scenes instead.

"I was losing the emotional perspective," Davidge says. "When I approached it more similarly to making an album, then I hit the nail in the head."

In creating the score, Davidge wanted to recapture the "touch of romance" that the orchestration brought to the franchise, while at the same time explore its world more thoroughly with electronica to create a more vivid alien soundscape. Orchestra recordings for the Halo 4 soundtrack are currently taking place at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London.

"Halo games traditionally have strong, sweeping melodies to drive the story," Halo 4 audio director Sotaro Tojima tells Rolling Stone, "so we needed someone who could capture that, but with a very new sound."

Fortunately for everyone involved, Davidge did not need to get acquainted with these Halo traditions once he jumped aboard. The producer has been an avid fan of the game series since the original came out back in 2001.

"I used to play all the time in the recording studio while waiting for the Massive Attack guys to show up," he recalls. "We're all huge gamers."

Halo 4 is expected in stores this holiday season, but an exact release date has yet to be confirmed.



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture...producer-scores-halo-4-20120411#ixzz1rkcBgAnS
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Louis Wu said:
Mig and I were just talking about him on Monday. We were hoping he was stilll there. Glad to hear he is. :)
Click to expand...
I was obviously a topic of one of your guys talk!
 
B

Bregmann Roche

Member
kylej said:
A fading competitive community is rallying together to show support for a game purely out of love, and MLG is shitting on them because... it isn't Starcraft? Cutting off their nose to spite their face. C'mon Sundance.
Click to expand...

Agreed. There is every possibility that Halo's popularity will rise again and with it, a competitive community. All MLG is doing here is opening the door for someone from the outside OR from the community to capitalize on that resurgence.

I understand Sundance's need to make money now, but this is just bad foresight.

EDIT:

monsterfracas said:
I'm jealous of you guys, can't get out of class for another 4 hours :|

Guessing from your reactions, it sounds great? Can't wait to listen to it.
Click to expand...
I got your back 'fracas, just read this in 4/4 time:
hmmmmmmmmmm HMMMMMMMMMMMM
hmmmmmmmmmm HMMMMMMMMMMMM
dedodeodeodeodoedo deedo deedo deedo do
dummmmmmmUMMMMMMMM DUMMMMMMM
Weeewwwoooooweeeewoooo deeeedooooooo

That should give you an idea of what it sounds like.
 
F

Fracas

#fuckonami
I'm jealous of you guys, can't get out of class for another 4 hours :|

Guessing from your reactions, it sounds great? Can't wait to listen to it.
Also, the bulletin's not out yet, right?
 
B

Biggest-Geek-Ever

Member
Those soundtrack samples are fucking godly. I was bit disappointed when I saw it was Davidge, mainly because it seems like he was known since June lol, but dat music.... sooo good.
 
H

Hydranockz

Member
Overdoz1z said:
Where's Hydra to tell you that you shouldn't jump to conclusions? Or does that only count for negative comments?
Click to expand...

I know you were trying to make a joke but I think gameplay mechanics are quite a few dimensions away from music and art. Especially considering we have considerable snippets of the music.

Jumping to conclusions would be Frankie saying "electronic" was going to feature heavily and people either hating or loving it. "Oh I hope it's like [awesome electronic artist's name here]". Alternatively you could hear; "Ugh, Halo's OST is gonna be filled with [some bad electronic music]".

The difference being is that we don't have a 'word' to describe the music anymore. We have hefty chunks of it. Thematically, the music won't change. I certainly can't recall a game's soundtrack changing much once they've released some audio from it. Can you? You seem to think that this music is likely to change or rather that there is still much we don't know about it.

To contrast, gameplay mechanics are going to change. They'll change once the new build comes in. They'll change coming up to launch. Heck, they'll probably change years down the line. Instead of getting decent chunks of gameplay footage from which to properly understand these mechanics, we were only given a few short notes. As Frankie and Ellis have demonstrated, those lines were not sufficient and require more dialogue between the devs and fans before we 'really' get a feel for them.

And yeah, I think the word 'masterpiece' is a bit much right now. A masterpiece musically certainly doesn't sound like a bad thing to say after hearing those pieces. I won't call the gameplay a 'masterpiece' from what we know.

So I'll just stick to keeping my feelings in check. While you keep joking about the game dying, I'm at least going to enjoy the ride while we don't know much.
 
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