Halo 4 = Fail!

Games Other Halo
1

I have been a long time Halo player (since Halo 2 in 2004), and I have to say that Halo 4 has been and is quickly turning into a fail of a game. Yes, Halo 2 Halo 3 and Reach had their flaws like standby/modding, ranking system, and bloom/armor lock respectively, but none of them have had this many flaws and problems. I will list my view of the fails of this game:

  1. How can you mess up making KillCams? COD has been doing them since 2007 and its 2013, how could you possibly fail at that?

  2. Join in Progress is also a complete fail. Can’t tell you how many times I have had teammates quit and play the entire rest of the game with guys down. Also, try to join teammates who are ‘joinable’ and yet I basically wait in a lobby for their game to end.

  3. What happened to search filters? Halo 3 had them and Reach had them, how can you not have them? Instead I get foreign guys, noobs, and terrible connection games all the time.

  4. Speaking of terrible connection, what is up with that? I play games where the game is fine the entire game and then half way through the lag sets in. No one joins and no one quits, yet I see a Mantis skipping across the map. Epic fail there!

  5. Weapons update was just stupid. Yes it is nice to finally have the Carbine be useful, but the BR is now the almighty weapon from God. Claims of 4 shot kills are bogus. Can’t tell you how many times I have died from 3 bursts. In fact, all of the weapons are so strong now you might as well rename the game to COD: Future Soldier since you die so fast from weapons. What I liked about Halo was the ability to come back from a guy shooting at you to be able to kill him or simply take out an entire team of guys if you were good enough. Now a burst and a melee from a BR is almost certain death.

  6. Maps are terrible! It is seriously getting annoying only playing on Haven or Abandon because no one else likes the other maps. Also, the remakes are getting old. You have all of these designers and professionals, yet you remake maps from Halo 2 that was made almost 10 years ago.

  7. Speaking of maps, what is up with the set weapon spawns are ridiculous! Played a game on Adrift and every one of their players had sniper rifles because they spawned so quickly regardless of how many were on the map.

  8. Matchmaking variety is a joke. Infinity Slayer playlist has something other than Infinity slayer? What is that? Rename the list or change the types to vote. Also, Fiesta should be renamed to Team Rockets/Fuel Rods/Incineration Cannon because at least 3 people spawn with them at one time and then there are hundreds littered all over the map. Binary Slayer should be renamed to Team Swords.

  9. Where is 343? I have tweeted bs angel a few times with no avail. Website doesn’t even have a contact us page which is unbelievable. The weekly updates on Halo Waypoint are just a ploy to get us to buy things. I mean seriously, they dedicate at least half of the bulletin to talking about upcoming DLC or Spartan Assault. Then give us a paragraph about the changes happening now. Bungie was way more in touch with their fans. I read these forums all the times and it appears to me that 343 either doesn’t care or doesn’t read them. There has been a slew of threads based on much of my list here and yet they do not change anything.

  10. Speaking of DLC, why do I even bother buying it? They never show up in playlists and DLC playlist population is so low I play with the same annoying kids all the time. Also, how come the worse possible forge maps are chosen to be implemented in the playlists? Shutout is no Lockout and Opus and Dispatch are horrible maps. Rail is decent and I am indifferent about Simplex.

  11. File Share is a joke too. I remember I thought it was really cool in Reach where I could see the content other players saved that I happened to be in, Halo 4? No one even cares about File Share because it is such a joke.

  12. Why no ranking system? I know Halo 3 was an epic fail of a system and Reach really didn’t have one. I know there is CSR, but why can’t that be posted to my GT in game? Halo 2 was dominant because of its ranking system. People enjoyed winning more because it affected their levels. Nowadays, you have guys just messing around in games. I was in a game where guys on my team tried to splatter with the mongoose the entire time. Didn’t even try to win.

I have more, but I think I made my point. Halo 4 is a failure because 343 rolled out an incomplete product. I know Microsoft probably pushed it on them, but they have had plenty of time to fix things and I haven’t seen it happen. It seems to me that they are just sitting there making minor changes to the last things people like about the game. ‘I know, let’s ruin the most popular playlist with Slayer Pro’ or ‘I know, let’s ruin a popular new gametype in Lockdown by removing the radar.’

Unfortunately, I am a Halo fan and I will probably be buying Halo 5, but if there isn’t significant improvement there I will likely be done with Halo. I am also buying Destiny in the hopes that Bungie can sway me from the watered down, mainstream Halo franchise that Microsoft and 343 are on the path the ruining.

On a final note, I know 343 will likely not read this and likely never check the forums anyways, but please make a Halo 2 Anniversary! If you do, do not change anything! I repeat, do not change anything! Just update the graphics. No armor abilities, no tweaks to maps, no weapons tweaking, and definitely do not mess with the ranking system. I loved playing competitively and winning and seeing my level go up. The little graphics for each level made it so much fun and nerve wrecking when playing matchmaking. The threat of losing a 31 to a 30 and seeing the greenish graphic go to red one made me want to get that level back so bad. That is what attracts players, the addiction of trying to acquire that level back! Hell, if you want, leave the superjumps in the game too. Those were cool and fun.

2

  1. 30fps and connection issues.

  2. JIP has been tweaked to not put players into games after a certain point.

  3. Supposedly working in the background. They may be and the super low population trumps the search filters to speed up match times.

  4. Netcode sucks. Hopefully they learn from it and have a public beta to test it next time. Also low population leading to long distance host and just overall poor host selection

  5. Weapon update is the best thing that’s happened to this game. BR is 4 shot. If you’re getting killed with 3 you are getting team shot, your shield was down, or lag.

  6. Default maps are terrible. The last couple DLC packs were good. Most of the Forge maps are good IMO.

  7. Weapons on the maps are good. The spawn times need adjustment especially the snipers on Adrift. Maybe change it to 1 sniper centrally located.

7 #2? Voting system should go to help with variety. Don’t let the inmates run the asylum.

  1. Bungie wasn’t way more “in touch”. They kept everything just as close to the vest. I personally think they communicate enough with reasonable people.

  2. DLC doesn’t come up very often because people don’t buy it. Everyone in the party needs to have it.

  3. Just speculation but it’s possible they didn’t invest a lot of time into the file share on Halo 4 due to the next 2 games being on the new Xbox. Why devote a ton of resources into something that will be completely obsolete 2 years later when you can spend your efforts toward the one that will be here for the next decade.

  4. Because people complain too much about the rank they thing they deserve. It’s a terrible idea not to have a visible ranking system. Hopefully they’ve learned from that and the next game will go back to ranked and social playlists. There was a tweet acknowledging that they may do just that with future titles.

In conclusion. Fail? No. Disappointment? Yes. I has most definitely gotten A LOT better since launch.

3

While I agree that Halo 4 was certainly not the best game in the series, I have a few things to say on some of your statements.

> 1. How can you mess up making KillCams? COD has been doing them since 2007 and its 2013, how could you possibly fail at that?

They didn’t account for lag apparently. They work fine on LAN. I do not think killcams should even be in the game in the first place.

> 2. Join in Progress is also a complete fail. Can’t tell you how many times I have had teammates quit and play the entire rest of the game with guys down. Also, try to join teammates who are ‘joinable’ and yet I basically wait in a lobby for their game to end.

I agree, although I think JiP as a whole makes it very difficult to be a team player. A sizable percentage of occurrences of the above situation, your teammates at the end of the game are none of the same ones from the beginning of the game. It discourages me from communicating with my teammates with the possibility that I am now talking to a nonexistent player or the completely wrong player.

> 3. What happened to search filters? Halo 3 had them and Reach had them, how can you not have them? Instead I get foreign guys, noobs, and terrible connection games all the time.

Where indeed? This is not a new issue among the forums.

> 4. Speaking of terrible connection, what is up with that? I play games where the game is fine the entire game and then half way through the lag sets in. No one joins and no one quits, yet I see a Mantis skipping across the map. Epic fail there!

Many things could be causing this, including your own internet connection.

> 5. Weapons update was just stupid. Yes it is nice to finally have the Carbine be useful, but the BR is now the almighty weapon from God. Claims of 4 shot kills are bogus. Can’t tell you how many times I have died from 3 bursts. In fact, all of the weapons are so strong now you might as well rename the game to COD: Future Soldier since you die so fast from weapons. What I liked about Halo was the ability to come back from a guy shooting at you to be able to kill him or simply take out an entire team of guys if you were good enough. Now a burst and a melee from a BR is almost certain death.

I assure you that the BR cannot kill in 3 shots, unless your shields were already damaged. You are most likely mistaking a 3-shot death with multiple weapons being fired at you, sometimes without your notice.

> 6. Maps are terrible! It is seriously getting annoying only playing on Haven or Abandon because no one else likes the other maps. Also, the remakes are getting old. You have all of these designers and professionals, yet you remake maps from Halo 2 that was made almost 10 years ago.

What maps do you see in Halo 4 that are from Halo 2? I would like to know very much. I enjoyed those maps.

There are only 2 map remakes in Halo 4, and one isn’t even released yet (Pitfall). Neither of these are from Halo 2.

> 7. Speaking of maps, what is up with the set weapon spawns are ridiculous! Played a game on Adrift and every one of their players had sniper rifles because they spawned so quickly regardless of how many were on the map.

I’m assuming you’re talking about map/personal ordinance here. Go check out Legendary Slayer then, all weapons on the map are static and on set respawn timers, like previous Halo games.

> 7. Matchmaking variety is a joke. Infinity Slayer playlist has something other than Infinity slayer? What is that? Rename the list or change the types to vote. Also, Fiesta should be renamed to Team Rockets/Fuel Rods/Incineration Cannon because at least 3 people spawn with them at one time and then there are hundreds littered all over the map. Binary Slayer should be renamed to Team Swords.

Hey, there’s two #7s :smiley:

Anyway, I haven’t played Infinity Slayer in some time (I strongly dislike it). But I hear that Slayer Pro made it into the mix. I don’t think it should be in there.

> 8. Where is 343? I have tweeted bs angel a few times with no avail. Website doesn’t even have a contact us page which is unbelievable. The weekly updates on Halo Waypoint are just a ploy to get us to buy things. I mean seriously, they dedicate at least half of the bulletin to talking about upcoming DLC or Spartan Assault. Then give us a paragraph about the changes happening now. Bungie was way more in touch with their fans. I read these forums all the times and it appears to me that 343 either doesn’t care or doesn’t read them. There has been a slew of threads based on much of my list here and yet they do not change anything.

BS Angel is very busy, she cannot always respond to everyone. I’m sure she gets an immense volume of tweets. However, I too agree on the lack of real content in the bulletins.

> 9. Speaking of DLC, why do I even bother buying it? They never show up in playlists and DLC playlist population is so low I play with the same annoying kids all the time. Also, how come the worse possible forge maps are chosen to be implemented in the playlists? Shutout is no Lockout and Opus and Dispatch are horrible maps. Rail is decent and I am indifferent about Simplex.

The game will only present DLC maps in the voting options if everyone has them. Since they are not required to play, this results in very few matches with all players owning the DLC.

…Running out of space

> 11. …

My guess is that this is on par with the whole “Make Halo accessible” thing. They want to make sure nobody gets their feelings hurt when they see a higher level. A ranked/social split is the best option in my opinion.

> On a final note

If Halo 2 Anniversary is made, what’s to stop them from making a Halo 3 Anniversary? Halo 3 doesn’t need an HD remake.

Besides, Halo Anniversary didn’t bring back classic multiplayer, it came with some classic maps on Reach’s multiplayer engine. If Halo 2 Anniversary were to come out, it would most likely not contain Halo 2 multiplayer, especially with Halo 4 out right now and Halo 5 presumably close on the horizon.

Ok, I had more than a “few” things to say I guess. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Title and unconstructive tone will probably get this locked but here goes.

It seems clear that they just ran out of time to make their deadline. I don’t know how much was being overly ambitious, working out kinks being a new studio, or running up against the limitations of the 360 and having to struggle against that constantly. Some of your complaints are valid such as the lack of traditional game types, file share, and forge are all undeniable missteps and regressions.

Some of your complaints are off base. The BR is not and never has been a 3 shot kill. Your lag complaint is intrinsic to p2p hosting and has been an issue with every Halo game. It is now being exacerbated by low population (game can’t be picky like it used to).

If you are THIS dissatisfied with the current game, you would be better served in simply commenting on what you would like to see in the “Halo Xbox One” forum.

5

I will never understand people who claim to be hardcore Halo fans and then bash the classic killtimes brought by the tuning…

It just makes no sense. >.<

6

> I will never understand people who claim to be hardcore Halo fans and then bash the classic klltimes brought by the tuning…
>
> It just makes no sense. >.<

If you loved Halo 2 but just wish they would have increased the kill times by a quarter second…

Its not counter intuitive to think you could dislike the kill times but find much less wrong with it than the vastly different Halo 4.

7

> > I will never understand people who claim to be hardcore Halo fans and then bash the classic klltimes brought by the tuning…
> >
> > It just makes no sense. >.<
>
> If you loved Halo 2 but just wish they would have increased the kill times by a quarter second…
>
> Its not counter intuitive to think you could dislike the kill times but find much less wrong with it than the vastly different Halo 4.

“5. Weapons update was just stupid. Yes it is nice to finally have the Carbine be useful, but the BR is now the almighty weapon from God. Claims of 4 shot kills are bogus. Can’t tell you how many times I have died from 3 bursts. In fact, all of the weapons are so strong now you might as well rename the game to COD: Future Soldier since you die so fast from weapons. What I liked about Halo was the ability to come back from a guy shooting at you to be able to kill him or simply take out an entire team of guys if you were good enough. Now a burst and a melee from a BR is almost certain death.”

OP is acting like these kill times are faster than ever, a completely new thing.

8

> > > I will never understand people who claim to be hardcore Halo fans and then bash the classic klltimes brought by the tuning…
> > >
> > > It just makes no sense. >.<
> >
> > If you loved Halo 2 but just wish they would have increased the kill times by a quarter second…
> >
> > Its not counter intuitive to think you could dislike the kill times but find much less wrong with it than the vastly different Halo 4.
>
> “5. Weapons update was just stupid. Yes it is nice to finally have the Carbine be useful, but the BR is now the almighty weapon from God. Claims of 4 shot kills are bogus. Can’t tell you how many times I have died from 3 bursts. In fact, all of the weapons are so strong now you might as well rename the game to COD: Future Soldier since you die so fast from weapons. What I liked about Halo was the ability to come back from a guy shooting at you to be able to kill him or simply take out an entire team of guys if you were good enough. Now a burst and a melee from a BR is almost certain death.”
>
> OP is acting like these kill times are faster than ever, a completely new thing.

Yeah… he also seems not to believe it is a 4 shot kill and a 2 shot plus melee. 3 shot and 1 shot plus melee would be new territory… thank god no.