Anyone else not playing Halo 4 much?

Games Other Halo
1

I’m a casual gamer who only really plays one game, and Halo has always been it. I don’t have time to invest in other games, but since my first couple of days with Halo 4 I’ve noticed I don’t have my gaming sessions nearly as often as I did with Reach or Halo 3. I’m not boycotting the game or being dramatic, I just genuinely have little desire to play Halo 4. This led me to try and pin down why. I’ve read the grievance/missing features posts, but I wanted to address this as simply as possible on a non-technical level. After much though, I think I’ve come to the answer:

I don’t usually have three or more friends online to play with, and if I do, one or more of them usually has a high K/D spread.

To explain why that situation results in a general lack of Halo 4 playing enthusiasm, I’ve provided a basic two-point explanation below.

  • Playlists

Every playlist in Halo 4 is designed for 4+ players except for two. In fact, the only options you have as a single player are Regicide (modified Juggernaut) or Flood (Zombies). There is no slayer and/or objective game type for single players. Now you may ask, “why not just play Regicide?” I played a Regicide game with a +8 K/D and was the king for over 4min. I came in 4th place, losing to three people who had less than 1min of king time and held negative K/D spreads. The scoring system in Regicide is fine for those who want to play a casual Juggernaut game, but you actually get REWARDED for dying (since dying actually allows you to kill the king again). If you dominate a game, there is no reason you should lose. Slayer is the baseline for Halo and I don’t understand why it isn’t represented for those who just want to play the game and be rewarded for playing it well. If I have less than four people and want to play slayer, I am forced to play with 1-3 random people, which makes my experience based entirely on chance. Will I get three decent teammates, or will I get a guy who throws grenades at me with two AFK guests? If I’m going to lose, I’d at least like the option of losing in a fair fight.

  • Matchmaking Algorithm & Mid-Game Joining

I no longer play with my friends who have 3.0 K/D spreads, because if I do, I end up playing teams of people with 3.0+ K/Ds and get absolutely destroyed. Honestly that’s sad, and it needs to be addressed. It’s gotten to the point where I won’t play with good friends of mine anymore because of this issue, and I’ve had to send more than one Xbox Live message to an online friend explaining why I keep declining their requests. It’s just not fun to go -10 every game, and it’s not fun to have a teammate going -10 every game. Further, the addition of the mid-game join system has ruined many games for me. If my team dominates another into quitting, they are now replaced by better players and in many cases the tide can turn mid-game because you’re now playing an entirely new team. There’s no longer any real penalty for quitters, and there’s no reward whatsoever for people like me who haven’t voluntarily quit a game since Halo 2.

  • Solution

Solving the first part of this problem is fairly simple. There are three basic and essential Halo playlists that are conspicuously absent from Halo 4 that would enable people like me to enjoy this game:

  • FFA Slayer (or even a FFA Slayer/Objective mix, let us vote for Regicide if we want it)

  • Double Team

  • Multi Team

I just can’t imagine that the revenue from this game is such that 343 can’t afford to leave more than 8 gametypes up at a time. The player matching issue is more complicated, but Bungie’s simple solution was not to embrace a one size fits all approach to gametypes. If you wanted to play a ranked game, you’d play in a ranked playlist. There were always multiple playlists for basic games like 4v4 slayer, one being competitive and one being social. Halo 4 was clearly and intentionally designed for the unskilled masses, with gametypes like Regicide that offset a player’s lack of skill by rewarding players for dying. Using an invisible (or soon-to-be-visible) trueskill rating to match players in every playlist is defeating the “fun for everyone” goal by not letting people of different skill levels play together and still have fun.

2

Interesting post.
I see what your saying, and it is tough to debate. You hit it dead on when saying 343 made this game noob-friendly. I don’t think 343 realizes they must not limit their playlist for one-type of player. They must attest to all different types of player; that being competitive, casual, and even glitchers. Hopefully in time they will realize these things you brought up.

3

I’m waiting for them to fix the file share and custom games to be honest. I play Halo games primarily for custom games and ever since Halo 3 the file share has been very important.

Also no Race mode >_<

4

I suppose I’d consider myself a noob. I only starting playing Halo with Reach, and Reach was the only Xbox game I played. I could play for hours because of the competitive nature. H4 is pretty good but I just get so exhausted playing. The chaotic nature of gameplay is overbearing. H4 is noob friendly but that is exactly why I’m not enjoying it as much. If I got worked in Reach it was because I couldn’t hold down a location or get the power weapon before the other team. I knew I had to stratagize more, learn the maps and spawns, and work with teammates. H4 requires almost none of that so I don’t feel I have much to work towards. I can’t get 1-up on the other team by getting to a weapon before them or by strategically taking out their sniper because if I do there is another enemy waiting to bombard me with their personal ordanance weapon. And teamwork is almost non-existant. Everyone only needs to work towards their oun personal ordanance and go use it as they like. Just feels chaotic and less challenging.

I’ll continue to play H4 because I love Halo at it’s core. I’m just starting to miss Reach and may go back. Just my personal feelings.

5

This is the first Halo game I’ve removed from my xbox in less than two months.

I miss Borderlands 2 and will probably go back there until H4 is out of testing and patched.

6

I stopped playing it.

7

> I stopped playing it.

8

I stopped playing myself after about 3 weeks, even then i only played until SR25, i am severely disappointed in the game which is a shame because i played Halo 2 and Halo 3 multiplayer to the death (i went through 4 Halo 3 disc’s haha) it was so addictive to me, i loved and craved the competition so much. Halo 4 quite simply didnt deliver what i personally consider Halo, to me it’s just not fun at all.

Terrible/BTB style map’s, no descoping, sprint, AA’s, Loadouts, Ordinance, Blatant OP DMR (boring weapon) and so much more i cant be bothered to list. I understand a game has to evolve but this is not evolution, it’s a step back from what Halo actually is.

To be honest i have no problem with ‘Infinity’ Halo but why couldnt we have True Classic Halo too? obviously a title update can easily implement the changes needed for Classic settings as far as i know and my one hope is that the Ranked playlist’s are actually true classic settings then it’s the best of both worlds right?

Right now i am playing Black Ops 2 and actually enjoying it, funny thing is i hate CoD with a passion but this game seem’s to have a better skill gap than previous titles and a ranked playlist too which i am enjoying although compared to Halo 2 and halo 3 it’s still inferior, what i would give to experience the amazing times and memories i had with Halo 2 and 3 again <3

As i said, i have no problem with ‘Infinity’ Halo, i’m not asking for it to be scrapped, i simply want Classic Halo alongside it, it cannot be hard to implement because the base movement speed and jumping is there so it must be possible with a few tweaks but for the map packs due to sprint it’s likely they will remain quite large and to me that is a problem, i have the LE map pack access yet i havent used it so far, crimson map pack is essentially ‘BTB Map Pack’ and that does not interest me.

343i dont have to change anything really, they just need to add to the current game, i can still see some potential…

9

I have happily returned to the land of Skyrim.
And I would consider myself a multiplayer enthusiast. The amount of time i have spent in matchmaking on all the other games (and there have been a lot) totally overshadows (understatement) the time i spent on this installment of this much loved series.
I don’t know what happened…

10

I get more enjoyment out of listening to kids complain about the multiplayer then I do actually playing it. Halo is just not fun to play anymore.

11

farcry… just farcry

12

I’m just going to wait until January. That’s when 343 are releasing the CSR, Team Doubles, Grifball, Second Half of Spartan Ops and hopefully the Sandbox TU.

Until then, I shall be engaging my brain into some Zombie slaying action in Black Ops II.

13

I have noticed the skill increase when I play with friends.