As of now we know little to nothing about Halo 4. It will not be too long now before the hype train starts rolling and info starts getting dropped.
With reach, i feel like they told us way too much. By the time it had come out we had seen pieces of most of the missions, the entire Forge World, All but 1 firefight map, and every multiplayer map.
I do not want Halo 4 to be like this. When i play Halo 4 I want it to be a mystery. I want to know some things going in. But I would love to go in not knowing what half the maps are, very little about the campaign, and be blown away with firefight and forge.
My idea is to start off with a gameinformer cover story in either the January or February issue. Here we will finally learn what we are fighting, where exactly we are, get our first taste of what the game actually looks like, and some new weapons/vehicles etc.
Then a month later release a vidoc/trailer going over the basics. What has changed, what has returned, how the game feels, and at the same time showing us our first in game footage.
A month later release a multiplayer beta trailer. This will show the community an overview of what they can expect from Halo 4’s multiplayer offering. This puts us at around april.
Over the course of the next 2 months just hype up the beta. One thing I didn’t like about the Reach beta is it let the players have too much. Most of the weapons and a good chunk of the maps were released and they had less of an impact when the final game was released.
There should be 2 maps in the beta. 1 4v4 map. 1 btb map. ( maybe 1 more if the final game has an abundance of maps). This way players have the competitive side of Halo 4 along with a btb side where we get to try out new vehicles etc. The beta will allow us to see some new mechanics, get a very small taste of new weaponary and play with some other new toys. but most importantly, to make sure the final game is balanced and polished. I would like the majority of weapons to be left in the final game and only introduce 2-3 new ones in the beta. Unless the weapons are returning from past games like the SMG, Brute Shot, Battle rifle, etc.
The beta should last 2 weeks.
Then stay dormant till E3. Come out swinging with 1 big reveal ( like space combat) and then just chill until launch.
During the time E3-Launch. Drop little tid bits. Maybe a multiplayer vidoc one month. A vidoc describing a new race. An overview of new modes. A gameplay of a new map. A TV commercial. And reveal Forge at some sort of event. Then have a launch trailer and call it good.
Save most of the maps till the game is released. only reveal 2-3 firefight maps. Show off forge, but keep its full potential a secret. Only show off one or two campaign missions and leave the rest for us to find out. And call it good.
Point being, dont give us that much info. Just enough that we know what is going on and keeps us excited. but not so much that the final experience is hindered.