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E3 2011: Halo 4 Announced

Microsoft announced this morning that it will release Halo 4 holiday 2012 for Xbox 360.

Microsoft made the announcement via a cinematic trailer at the end of its 2011 E3 press conference. Halo 4 marks the first proper Halo title created outside of creator Bungie, who signed off the series with 2010's Halo: Reach. Instead, Halo 4 will be the first major release from 343 Industries, Microsoft's internal Halo studio.

343i currently operates Halo Waypoint, a central hub for Halo content on Xbox Live. 343i also coordinated with developers Certain Affinity for Halo: Reach's Defiant Map Pack, and is working with Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity on this year's Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved using the Halo: Reach engine slated for this November.

President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, Don Mattrick, described the game as the "beginning of a new trilogy" in the franchise, signaling a return to the narrative of the Master Chief, who last appeared in 2007's Halo 3.

Halo 4 releases holiday 2012.

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- Chief attached something to his magnum. Weapon attachments in?
- Chief had a jet pack. Bit of a retcon but I dig it.

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plz add 360 to the title, i came in here thinking it was multiplatform

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Cortana looked different or am I crazy?

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Yeah, she does get adjusted every game.

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Glad to see they aren't going to completely go overboard with Halo after its peak.

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Yeah, pretty straight forward releases. I wish 343 Industries luck!

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Does this mean we won't be seeing the same 5 enemies from all the other games?

Cause that would be super.

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That thing in space doesn't look Covenant or Forerunner, so I'm guessing Chief faces a new galactic threat.

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I marked out for this...

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Halo 4 might end up being a bit different than expected after Microsoft hired some new designers for 343 Studios to work on the project. Some of the new designers have key experience regarding the Killzone and Metroid Prime series.

Two people they hired were the Lead Designer who was also the Lead Level Designer for Killzone 3 and the Senior Designer from Retro Studios who worked on Metroid Prime 2 and 3 along with Donkey Kong Country Returns. Another person was hired to bring in the "Nintendo" philosophy in terms of game innovation and design.

http://vicariousgames.blogspot.com/2...orking-on.html

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Hopefully this nintendo person isn't from the zelda department, or we'll just get the same game every year with updated visuals.

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Oh wait, that's the first 3 halo games.

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Wouldn't we just get a greener Master Chief? I'm sure Navi would make a great Cortana.

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"HEY! LISTEN!"

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The Halo 4 beta is expected to be included with the Halo Combat Evolved Remake game coming later this year and would be under the "Extras" menu for the game.


http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=132287
http://gamekyo.com/groupnews_article19975.html

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That sort of thing works well. Hope they don't tie it to some silly preorder deal, though I'd probably preorder anyway since businesses pretend Halo sells out at launch (hasn't since Halo 3).

"It's right there on the shelf, give me that one!"

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Will be odd to not have the arbiter in multiplayer. Kinda think covenant will have something to do with the game otherwise they would be taking half the vehicles and weapons out of the game.

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I'm assuming Forerunner tech will be opposite humans this time.

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Nice, the maps seem Halo 3-ish, which is good. Love the soft jabs at Bungie concerning maps made from scratch instead of taking them from campaign. The art direction on the new armor (Chief and Spartan 4s) still seems wonky to me. The final HUD should be interesting if they're serious about the 'feel like a jet HUD' thing.

Noticing that mecha prop in that multiplayer map... I wonder what kind of vehicles they have in store...

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Unlike Halo 3 and Reach (not sure if 2 ever had one), there will not be a multiplayer beta for Halo 4 according to 343 Studios.

Their reasoning is they feel the multiplayer will be good enough on its own and instead want to spend the extra time being focused on polishing up the rest of the game for its Fall 2012 release date.

http://www.screwattack.com/news/ther...er-beta-halo-4

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They're going to have extended testing within the studio they say. Halo 2 didn't have a beta.

So long as it works launch week, what with the crazy shit that went down with other FPS games during launch week. I hope glaring glitches can be found as they're very annoying. Little things can be fixed after the fact.

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Gameinformer's cover story this month is Halo 4. If anybody can snag a copy and put up a list of key points that would be cool. If not I guess I'll give it a try.

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There's been some new details released from 343 Industries' Halo 4 (found in the newest issue of Game Informer). Here's a rundown, and what I think of them:

• Spartan Points: Like the credits in Reach, you earn these points in multiplayer and use them for transactions. You can get new armor pieces, but more interesting is getting new Armor Abilities. This brings Halo closer to modern FPS systems, as ongoing play rewards with better gear. I'm fine with this, since I'm used to the grind of all these shooters by now.
• Infinity: This is the name of Halo 4's multiplayer mode, which will likely be played as it's own brand as far as stat tracking is concerned. Wouldn't be surprised if it had it's own title screen. With this new title, I wonder if it means Spartan Points can not be earned in single player/co-op, as credits were in Reach.
• Spartan Ops: A new co-op mode that essentially replaces Firefight. This mode is to rival campaign, and will have new episodes months after release. I like this idea, though I'll miss the arcadey nature of Firefight. Watch kiddies consider this a rip on Call of Duty's Spec Ops due to the name. Note: Halo 4's campaign is still co-op ready, so if one happens to prefer the main story with their friends, they can do that. I love options to death.
• Red vs Blue: An explanation as to why red spartans fight blue ones finally comes to light; it's a training program for the Spartan 4s. Obvious really. They battle in a giant hologram field akin to the Danger Room, which explains how they fight in different locations. This doesn't really change anything in the grand scheme of things, but now we know. I wonder what the deal for multi-team matches where other colors are used, or am I being anal? :-()
• Default Sprint: Sprinting is now a default ability of all players. Saw this coming. I dig it.
• Armor Abilities Return: The Armor Abilities from Reach make their return, including Camo, Jetpack, and Hologram (YES). New to the gang is X-Ray vision, which let's you see thru- well you know. Betting X-Ray mode will cut off your radar for balance reasons. Also betting campers will be pissed at the newest initiative to make their lives a living hell.
• No More Elites: Perhaps Scarlett Witch got pissed at those dinosaurs because they are gone gone gone as an option to use. I can care less, as I never enjoyed the bastards. Bye dinosaurs.
• Custom Loadouts: Unlike how Reach regulated loadouts according to map and gametype, you can now edit your own and take it on your quests for pwnage. You choose your primary and secondary weapons (gonna assume power weapons will not be selectable), Armor Ability, and grenade types. And on that, it seems there's more than frag and plasma grenades now (2 more). I wonder is Spike Grenades make a return. I like this, because it's a natural evolution of loadouts and more inline with what I expect of shooters today. I hated having to locate Plasma Grenades when they really weren't any more lethal than frags.
• Regicide: I don't know if this is a new Free For All rule or a separate game mode, but basically the leading scorer has a bounty on his head that increases with each kill. I guess you get more Spartan Points for slaying this mass murderer, similar to a feature in Red Dead Redemption. It's possible the bonus is actually match points, but I doubt it (as it would truly make it a new mode of play). I need more information, but I dig it so far.
• Distraction Medal: Apparently there's a new medal for distracting a player who gets killed by a teammate. I would love to know how the game can decipher whether you really did that tactically or not. It might end up like the melee medal, something that happens so often I wouldn't deem it worthy of acquiring a medal for. Sure you should know how many time you whacked somebody in a game for interest, but a medal? And really... most kills in any FPS game is due to a player focused on somebody else. A FFA game will give out Distraction Medals like they're made of grass.
• Drop Pod Weapons: Weapons no longer start in the map, but randomly(?) drop throughout the match. This is to mix up players who time their power weapon spawns. This is sketchy, since Halo is all about map control and keeping taps on certain weapon spawns paramount. This makes me think power weapons (like the Sword, Rocket Launcher, etc) will be available for Loadouts. Not to mention how this sort of thing would look in an indoors map, I'm just aesthetically minded like that. Hopefully this isn't random and it does have a cycle or logic to it, but if it does and players figure it out anyway - the change is moot. Not digging it.
• Instant Respawn: When you die you can immediately rejoin the match with a button press. This will speed things up, but I'm sure there's many reasons why respawn time is important for an FPS match. Namely objective games where putting a player out for a few seconds is a key bonus for slaying him. This feature may be gametype specific, but we have to wait and see. half and half on this.
• Joining Games: You can now join games in progress, which means the joy of joining a game moments before it ends has arrived to the Halo series. Perhaps you can see how far a long a game has gone, as with Reach's queue screen, and see if it's worth arriving to. What this really does is facilitate the Spartan Point grind in that you may not care for seeing a match start to end so long as you 'scored some money' anyway you can when you join. This does alleviate uneven teams from quitters/disconnects, but I figured Halo typically had enough games going at a given moment that one doesn't need to join games in progress to get some action. Maybe I'm being too hard on this otherwise standard feature, and in the end it won't mean too much. It may also help people squad up for lobbies.

I will find this issue of Game Informer and see there's anything I can add to these details, sorry for the third party account. So far I like what I hear, and the things I don't like will probably blow over once the full game is in my hands. I love Halo and hope 343 Industries nails their first try (of a planned trilogy).

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the same things you are iffy on coincide with mine.

the drop pod weapons could make for some very uneven games if that's how they are gonna roll for the whole multiplayer experience. plus, the metagame of weapon battles are great.

i can just instant respawn being used by dipshit randoms and costing me games. i am iffy on this instead of fully against it

joining games is mehhh. i can just see jumping into a 45-20 game and the like. hopefully it will be an option you can select.

everything else sounds nice. but they may be making some rough changes to multiplayer. hopefully they put out enough beforehand to quell my fears.

x-ray i am up in the air with. could be great. could be shot down by invisibility. may not even be the best choice in armor ability.

new medals: who gives a shit? maybe it is time they have a fun or two to get. first strike is always a top medal, even though it isn't that much of an achievement. not a big deal to me.

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When's it due out?

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This Fall, I think.

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Based on some details, this should be the last game to feature Cortana and apparently she's now considering as a "mortal"-like being.

Also confirmed is episodic DLC content is being planned to be released each week for the co-op but will be free.

http://www.screwattack.com/news/halo...%99s-mortality

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AIs have short life-spans? Bullshit.

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Time to file complaints with the FCC and BBB.

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This news of her impending death was common knowledge for Halo fans, or at least the ones who are versed with the universe.

More than likely she will be 'saved' somehow and uploaded to some android body so Chief could finally rail her.

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I made this thread?

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This.

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Yeah.

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Which will come off as very silly, no matter how it's portrayed.

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Super soldier battles aliens with hot sounding female AI/girlfriend in a series of battles that leads to partnering up with the initial enemies, facing off against zombie-fungus things, blowing up a few ring worlds, eventually meeting a giant plant thing.

Cortana acquiring a tangible body for romantic/side-kick services would not surprise me at this point.

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Not knocking Halo's canon, but I don't hold too many things sacred with videgame stories.

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As long as Mario can jump and Link keeps getting called Zelda I'll be happy.

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