Burnt out Rant from longtime Halo fan.

Games Other Halo
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Hello

After another weekly bulletin goes by, without really addressing any of the outstanding issues being raised since halo 4’s release i felt i needed to vent my frustration with this game.

Firstly, I’ll start with the Crimson map pack dlc. I know, its been a questionable release, and the way it has been handled is a complete farce. But every man and his dog has been posting about that this week. My problem with the new maps is quite simple. WHY RELEASE 3 NEW MAPS WHEN 3 THAT SHIPPED WITH THE GAME ARE NOT YET IN MATCHMAKING? Seriously, is no one else questioning this? Where are Impact, Erosion and Ravine?

Secondly, The fileshare system or lack-there-of. In this weeks update, during the interview the creative director mentions the inclusion of both large and smaller community maps that are being screened and tested for matchmaking introduction next year. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE WHEN THE FILESHARE SYSTEM IS NOT FUNCTIONING?. Again, i question the maps being community made. The lack of a fileshare system has substantially reduced the ability of user made maps to spread throughout the community. So I’m assuming whatever they are testing at the moment are maps built by map builders carried over from reach.

Thirdly, almost every time i play halo 4 i find that most of my LTD edition content is missing, I have to repeatedly re-download the content or recycle power on my xbox. Why?

Lastly, Spartan Ops, mid season finally. I recall video interviews with the lead designer for Spartan ops stating that post release they will be continuing working on the spartan ops missions, that it will be a challenge to get it out on a weekly basis… From what i’ve seen of Spartan Ops, its basically 4/5 maps recycled per week, with re-used audio and objectives. Why were we not informed that it wasn’t “10 weeks of new content” and 5 weeks of reused maps, with a 5 week break between. Also, just a thought. People who bought Vanilla Halo 4, no map packs etc. Will they even be able to finish season 1 of spartan ops? Assuming that the “new maps” listed for the reminder or season 1 are from the Crimson map pack…I bet that’s another looming marketing problem thats right around the corner.

This game shipped without a ton of features we had grown accustom to in Halo:
*No theater in campaign/ firefight (S-Ops)
*No Matchmaking search preferences
*No community maps
*Sub Par custom games options

Sure, you’re probably asking why I’m getting stuck in like this; “if you dont like it don’t play it,” etc. Good question, I guess being a fan of halo since well… as long as these developers claim to be, I’m concerned that maybe it’s not being handled as well as it should be. Bungie always added to the Halo experience, they never subtracted things the way 343i has.

I love the story, and the direction that its heading going into Halo 5. But its scary to think of all these other features we’re sacrificing along the way.

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They probably haven’t added Forge maps because of rendering issues that cause serious lag online. They have apparently started to fix the issue since they are screening maps to be added. The Crimson maps however, were ready to roll, so they released them.

File share works, file browsing doesn’t. They likely have some group working on maps that they know all the gamertags for. Or, they are perusing the community creations forum and downloading maps that way. They are trying something new in the file browsing system according to the update, but it’ll be up soon enough. They even provided steps to downloading maps in the update. Hop on over to the community creations forum and look for maps there.

The whole thing about the LE content missing again and again would get annoying, hopefully they know about it and it will be fixed.

I doubt they would advertise that the first season of SpOps is free, if they would make it so you would have to have the new maps to play. I’m guessing that the “10 weeks of new content” applies to the CG story, not to the re-hashed missions. As far as the mid-season break goes…eh whatever. Lots (if not all) shows do it and that is what they are trying to make SpOps. They would have taken a break for the holidays anyway, but now we at least have a competition to participate in.

There’s some rendering problem with Campaign/SpOps that makes theater super buggy or laggy or something like that. They are working on it, so hopefully it gets added soon, if not…not the biggest deal.

They probably should have had network search options, yeah. I have yet to run into a match where it was a huge problem though. Community maps was addressed above, they are getting there.

I’m really curious as to what people what out of custom games. All I can tell is that they want to be able to remove sprint and be able to drop the flag/not carry the magnum. I hardly see missing small options like that as “sub par.” Please elaborate on what you want here. I don’t think it is too much to ask that people work within the constraints of the game if they want to make custom games. Surely they can come up with something…there are PLENTY of options.