There and back again, a Spartans tale...

[i_Elite_BoB]

Ok the hobbit reference has pretty much nothing to do this but oh well. So here I’ve compiled all my thoughts about Halo 4 and the lead up to it. Since I’ve written quite a bit, I’ve organised it for you folks to read the bits which you want (I know I wouldn’t read something this long):

1. Halo and I
2. Halo experiences
3. Impressions of Halo; 3, CE(/A), ODST, Wars and Reach contains spoilers
4. Halo 4 (and Spops) story contains spoilers
5. War Games and Gameplay
6. Weapons and AAs
7. Vehicles
8. Commendations
9. Armour
10. Maps
11. Forge
12. Custom Games
13. Theatre/fileshare
14. Sounds/Music
15. Promoting the game
16. Commending 343s work
17. Criticisms of 343s work
18. Possible Inclusions for the next game
19. My perfect Halo

Me and Halo:
I first played Halo 4/5 years ago; it was actually the game that made me buy the xbox. My first halo was 3 so I don’t have as much experience as the Halo veterans of CE, however the only game I’ve not played is Halo 2. H2 anniversary would be good so I can get my hands on this multiplayer everyone seems to be banging on about. I’m 17 years old and from the UK, (the North-West to be precise so watch out for my colloquialisms). My favourite Halo multiplayer must be Halo 3, I don’t know whether it’s just cos it’s my first or what, but it is. My best Halo moment must be in the Halo 3 mission in which you fly over to some pylons in a hornet over a raging battle and along with the elites, you must destroy them
Another would be in Halo 3 where you have to deal with the two scarabs
In Halo 4, I mainly play Dominion. My favourite game that isn’t Halo is Battlefield 3, so I’m gonna be rambling on about that. A similar game I loved, not on the xbox was Star wars Battlefront II.

My view on the Halo franchise, background details:

I’m finding that since Halo 3, the franchise has been quite rocky. With Ensemble studios releasing Halo Wars, (which by the way should have a sequel to it as it was a brilliant RTS and definitely has potential), then ODST and Reach following, the original trilogy has been succeeded by what I can only call a miscellaneous trilogy. Halo 3 left on such a finale that I think Bungie and Ensemble studios thought it would be idiotic to follow on from that.

Halo CE was not the first Halo title I played as I’ve probably mentioned; I did however buy it on arcade before CEA so I had the determination to play it. It also totally ruined the campaign before CEA. Anyways… I have to say, Halo CE(/A) was not the best Halo game I’ve played, but what I can say that I do like about it is that it plunges you into a whole new universe and it is so well structured (story wise). Yes the weapons were pretty abysmal the needler did not seem as terrifying as other games and the weapons were very unbalanced. The story however saved this game, how you start off being boarded by the covenant, crash land on an ancient alien ring who as we find out were fighting another ancient alien race. Lots of factions yet if you think of it as the modern war: UNSC v Covenant and the ancient war: Forerunner v Flood/precursors with them over time overlapping, it’s quite simple(ish).

Halo 3 was great, heck it was amazing but not perfect. After playing Halo Reach for a few months then returning for a quickie, I found myself missing certain features. Sprint for example (usually what I’d use in Reach, I was really glad to find out that Halo 4 had default sprint which meant I could use others for once). How dull I thought some of the graphics were (I’m not using that against Halo 3, I’m just expressing one of the reasons I don’t play it anymore). The inert reticle reduced interaction between me and the game. However, there are many pros in which Halo 3 redeems itself. The vehicles it offered were incredible; the hornets… the ELEPHANT (completely stupid yet freakin’ awesome). Non-heavy vehicles seemed worthwhile entering.

The weapons were awesome differing in characteristics and dual wielding, ah wasn’t it just the best. Dual wielding should return with the plasma rifle, mauler and smg (please bring back both smgs [ODST]). Halo 3 brought me some great experiences through the campaign, a brilliant new universe with a jumble of factions. There was so much going on yet the story was simple(ish) as opposed to Spartan ops where you’re like “oh we’ve gotta go over there, oh wait what’s this?, get back here we need you, get to this place as fast as you can - then go back to that place”, Halo 3 seemed more structured. You guys at 343 are probably not thinking of this but don’t just bring back the flood. That story has been done, if you want to reference them do so or even have a little fight but they’ve had their time as the ultimate threat.

The katana looked pretty stupid to be honest but what I do say bring it back like this.as a reward for completing the game on legendary or something. I like how the completion of the campaign on legendary is acknowledged with rewards like MK. VI armour, but sometimes I’d rather wear other armour but I still want to show off my achievements. I you were to consider this recommendation, have an option which is like ‘yes or no’ (or even a range to choose from like different difficulties) but just not like Halo 3 where it was part of the armour. (Other accessories would be good to show off certain achievements [big achievements like LASO not so much “oh commendation complete, have some armour”])

Halo Wars showed how much damage Spartan IIs could do in larger teams and gave an insight to how halo was told in the books. The cuts scenes were something to live up to especially this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vhIIeSo-_U. I think that 343 did an excellent job matching the quality of these cutscenes, but the best thing is that Halo 4 cutscenes are twice as long. We saw some great new vehicles in this game and although they are mentioned in the waypoint universe section, I wish that they were acknowledged in game somewhere. Even if it’s just flying over a battle scene and we can see a bunch of cobras battling a swarm of locusts or something.

[i_Elite_BoB]

ODST, I enjoyed how it was like Halo 3 but with better graphics. Thesilenced SMGwas a great addition to the universe and personally I would have it in Halo 5 as a loadout weapon, why not? The campaign was depressing, (when you were playing as ‘rookie’), but incredibly fun playing as the other ODSTs (which by the way was an awesome idea). The campaign was too dark for ‘normal’ vision but too bright using ‘VISR’ mode. The music was incredibly depressing also with the campaign not having much story to it. It did have good gameplay and felt like a refined Halo 3. Firefight was insane, with less functions than reach, it still felt better, it felt like it was a campaign mission but with this, you had to see how far you could get. The only problem was that you couldn’t save your progress meaning to get to high levels to unlock certain achievements took quite some time. However I do see the reason for not being able to save as it would basically be a shortcut through firefight to higher levels. My solution: Make it like campaign, (if it is going to be brought back) have checkpoints where it will save, so you can leave and when you come back, you are where you were at. This means, you can’t recall specific games, you either continue with where you left from the last time you played or start again.

Halo Reach. Ah, this could take some time. I’ll start with the campaign, I did actually read the fall of Reach before I played the game so I did anticipate the ending (although with a name like: ‘the FALL of Reach’, there are no real surprises in what’s going to happen). It’s an important part of the Halo Universe explaining how master chief develops through his past experiences so I was glad to see it put into game form. Although a good concept, working alongside other Spartans, and fighting for Reach against all odds, I was expecting Spartans to be of the calibre of the Halo Wars Spartans. THIS IS WHERE I LEARNED OF SPARTAN IIIs AND THEIR INFEIROR WAYS. What could have been a heroic end for all the Spartans just led me to think What?. I never played the campaign for fun in this game.
With the exception of George and perhaps Emile, the Spartans die pathetically, especially Kat with that one needle. Carter flew a pelican into a scarab, what you can’t handle a scarab? Master Chief knocks out two and carries on with his day. EVEN ODSTs can take out a scarab, Carter was just lazy. Jun, where did he go? We now know that Halsey survives Reach but where the heck did he go? And finally noble 6, my least favourite character of the Halo franchise ever. He (/she) had no personality/character at all. I know it was meant to blur the boundaries between multiplayer and campaign but seriously, Master Chief was an awesome character and the reason he never took off his helmet and hardly talked was to make you feel like master chief, but noble six was just an abomination. And staying on Reach just to die, even master chief knows it’s best to live to fight another day and to save the universe. Although I’m not complaining N6 was –YOINK!-. Just to see how pathetic again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpK0UEqdEhg .

Now the rest of the game as a whole, it felt like Reach was about quantity but not quality HOWEVER THIS IS NOT THAT BAD as I will explain. Compared to its predecessors, Reach offered an abundant of armour with various permutations, some of which were repeated which was slightly disappointing but understandable. The armour looked bulky robust and fit for the job as compared to the Halo 4 sleek and smooth aesthetic designs which both work well as they tell the story of different eras. Tac-pads looked really nice, I think a return is in order here 343. The currency system however to purchase the armour was a terrible idea. 343 do not go back to this as it is useless. Playlists, now personally Reach offered a wide variety of playlists of which some started to seem unnecessary. The good side to this however is that they did offer all the important playlists; 2v2, 4v4, 8v8, infection, snipers, swat and multi team. (I’m not denying that the others were good, however these are the core playlists in which the other gametypes can be applied).
Now as I mentioned, the quality of Halo Reach was succumbed to the sheer quantity it offered. Areas in which quality fell back on; detail of forge objects and various glitches in the gameplay (mainly in forge, for example when deleting armour lock to become invincible). Areas in which Reach offered quantity; playlists, armour, gametypes, forge world, forge objects, custom options amongst a few. My overall opinion has led me to believe that Halo reach sucked for some gameplay. However it did offer some epic big team battles which in my opinion Halo 4 has lacked. The falcon however will remain in Halo reach’s legacy in my opinion. Last of all, I HATE SKIRMISHERS.

Halo 4 (and Spartan ops) story:

Well personally I think it was quite ambitious to carry on from where Halo 3 left off from. Whether it was the right decision, I don’t know. Master Chief seems to now be a relic in a new universe (a bit like captain America). Weak areas in the story: Cortana: “Covenant? I thought we had a pact with them”, as in looney tunes “that’s all folks!”, only the true Halo fans that probably did their research would get that they are the ‘storm covenant’ a splinter group who still worship the forerunners. Also why bring in a whole new faction (Prometheans) and just have them side with the covenant? It doesn’t matter how many species there are 343, if they’re all on the same side it’s just a two-way battle – very boring, not gonna lie. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the Prometheans, having robots (can I call them robots, they’ve gone all digital) working for the Forerunners (well just a select few) is pretty cool. Just why have a two way-battle?

Next, what are the Didact’s motives? Yes thousands of years ago, humans were running away from and cleansing worlds of the flood (a threat aimed at the forerunners anyway), and we attacked the forerunners but the Didact was around to see our motives (which by the way are evidently clear). Then the flood threat was neutralised, “WHY YOU STILL ATTACKING?!”. Also there were not many appearances from the man himself, a bit disappointing but oh well, least of my worries.

Lastly, the ending. When it happened I was trying to figure out what actually happened. I appreciate you were trying to make a cliff hanger, but I was still trying to comprehend what was going on. It was only till I went on waypoint to see some other waypointers say that Cortana made a hard light shield. I feel that in this case I am not actually being that stubborn for once but that the story could have been conveyed better. The story on a whole though was very auxillerating I must say, so 343 here it is… well done.

[i_Elite_BoB]

The story of Spartan ops. I will say that you got the formula right (being equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium). Episode 5 left on an intense cliff-hanger which was brought back sensibly I’m glad to say. However Episode 10 was, how can I put this delicately, disappointing. I really feel for Halsey. She is an elderly lady who probably wants nothing more than to sit back in a nice comfortable chair and watch a gardening show but no, she saves the world and indirectly saves the universe (Halsey –Chief-Flood-boom) and what does she get, her arm shot off. Not cool 343, not cool.

Next requiem, I read the review say how Frankie said jokingly “oh perhaps requiem falls into the sun”, and then you just went with it cos your ‘script-writers’ couldn’t think of something better. I’m just gonna say this, I’m quite concerned that you are not taking this that seriously, you have a lot of fans behind you and a lot of money from Microsoft behind you, start respecting the responsibility you’ve been given (or bought) and take more care of it. Directly to the scriptwriters: How are you still in a job if Frankie is doing all the work for you? That’s it, rant over.

Next, where now? Requiem burning is a pretty big deal (not forgetting that thread made by another forum member saying that ‘every forerunner structure found by us gets destroyed and for reclaimers, we’re not that good at reclaiming’. The impression given to me by Spartan ops is that you dipped your toe in the water not thinking how far you could go with it then suddenly you take a huge dive. If there is another Spartan ops season (which I hope there is, and in the next game, even if firefight returns, don’t get rid of Spops) then the end story between Halo 4 and 5 is going to be the size of a campaign itself, meaning you’ve gotta really up your game for well, the next game.

Before I go on, I just want to clarify, I’m not bashing Halo or 343 specifically, I just want to protect a game that I know and love so much, so yes 343 you’ve done well, it’s just here is where you could do better.

Also on a less negative note… Halsey. Now she is maybe part of the storm covenant, will she make an ‘evil’ army of Spartan IIs? Maybe from the insurrectionist’s children or even from elites? Will this show that Spartan IVs are inferior meaning that they’ll have to reboot the Spartan II project or will the Spartan IVs actually prove themselves to be quite decent (better than those pesky Spartan IIIs).

Multiplayer and Gameplay

Gameplay is very good in this game with the faster pace but not like an instant death pace. I would however like to see the return of the Halo 3 ranking system. I know people said that it doesn’t work because of modders, hackers and boosters, but who cares? They’ll get banned in xbox live’s own time and it doesn’t really affect us. I would say however, that vehicles have no place in halo 4, they are too weak and have little maneuverability.

Weapons and AAs

Promethean weapons are great with their fun new abilities. 343 have shown a lot of care and consideration with introducing all their new toys. However just a few things to consider: Perhaps make the Incineration cannon differ from the Rocket launcher, like it ‘overheats’ - so like the beam rifle, you can’t pick up new ammo. I don’t know whether this means making it automatically overheat after the first shot or charging it up like a Splaser/railgun or whatever. The reason behind me saying this is that each factions weapon has different abilities/characteristics (with the snipers, what makes them different is that the UNSC and BiRi sniper both use ammo, the beam and the UNSC both have ‘snapshot ability’ in effect. With close quarter weapons, the UNSC is a shotgun and the covenant is a sword, both very different and I can see the scattershot has been made different with its ‘bounce’ ability. I think it’s important to emphasise that Halo have cherished the fact that weapons CAN have different abilities, with COD or battlefield, essentially all weapons are the same with the adjustments of damage, rate of fire, capacity and stability. REMEMBER THIS 343. Remember Reach.

UNSC, well, first off, thank you so much for bringing back the battle rifle, its new design is brilliant – give whoever designed this a pay rise, immediately my good sir. I remember leading up to the release, everyone was looking at the stats trying to make their minds up then you guys land us with this and we’re like, it’s not what we expected (in a good way).
DMR, I can see where people are coming from saying that it is too powerful but I have nothing to offer about this weapon. I think it’s interesting to see the DMR brought back alongside the BR. I like the variety.
The assault rifle. I think that this is a lot better than Reach’s and I would actually use this weapon by choice (although to be perfectly honest I’m only using it to get the commendation as I much prefer the BR) I do however feel that compared to other loadout weapons, the AR is a bit weak (but compared to the SAW its about right).
The Railgun, this is a great new weapon, the only suggestion I would make about improving this weapon is letting it hold more ammo, good job introducing it. The sticky detonator, I wouldn’t be sad to see this go. The shotgun has received a makeover, and it works. It looks more bad-YOINK!-.
The rocket launcher, well me and my friend were discussing this, I thought that the locking system seemed weaker but he seemed to think that it’s more powerful, then I came to the conclusion that it probably is more powerful, but the maps are too small to get a good lock on. This weapon spawns way too often in dominion. The splaser, well, at first I thought it was quite bad, but after mastering the commendation I have to say, again the maps are too small for this weapon to be used effectively, (perhaps with the exception of ragnarok which I keep forgetting).

Beam rifle and carbine, all I can say is yes. Also the needler, this actually seems more like the Halo CE needler which I found interesting, slower but more damaging. The bad thing I can say about this is that in a regular game of slayer, you will probably get only around three kills with it as there’s not that much ammo, the UNSC equivalent (SAW), you’re able to get many kills, what up with that? Concussion rifle = annoying as hell = perfect. I’m glad to see not everything from Reach thrown out the window and the only other alternative would be the brute shot which would mean carefully writing them in. Storm rifle, just seems like the plasma repeater but better. I did, with the plasma repeater, like the ‘vent plasma’ ability though.

The BiRi, maybe there’s good reason for this but why isn’t it in team snipers? If I had a choice of a BiRi or Beam Rifle, I’d go for the Beam rifle any day. The BiRi is bad for short range and ‘revealing’ at long range. You’ve balanced it perfectly, let us play with it. The pulse grenade, why only one? (for loadout). It is less damaging, and it has a delay making it the least likely I’d choose. You give to in ordinance drops, why not loadouts?
The other weapons that I have not mentioned seem to be perfectly adequate to me.

[i_Elite_BoB]

AAs: Well I don’t have much to say about these (which you’re probably glad about) but I do appreciate that some people dislike them all together and would prefer to go back to equipment. Me, I’m on the fence, so I do not have any suggestions in how to compromise here. The AAs themselves seem great. Active camo and hologram actually seem worthwhile using in this game, PV, people were opposed to at first but there’s so many ways to counter it that it’s not a problem. I think that all AAs could do with a little more juice to be honest.

Vehicles.

No 343, no. You sold yourself high and let yourselves down. Credit must be given for the mantis, so yes well done. The ‘Non-heavy’ vehicles; Mongoose and Warthogs, are rarely used by anyone in the game, and why would they be? The maps are smaller (not necessarily a bad thing) and the vehicles are weak. They have no place in Halo 4. The Wraith, well I wasn’t sure about the red plasma, but you’ve pulled it off, it works. The scorpion, where is it? Oh yeah, it’s there on one map (EXILE) on one playlist (BTB), come on 343 why, I play dominion which frankly will be one of Halo 4’s legacies, I never see the scorpion what’s up with that? Banshee, Yes good, but I feel that when I fly around, there’s not enough room, the best map to be on for the banshee is Ragnarok (glad to see return).

Commendations.

95% Yes. Good: Great way to unlock armour, you’ve taken the ‘unlock’ from 3 and the commendations from Reach to make a system which is perfect. No alterations needed here. One query I have though is why can’t we see our friends’ commendation progress like Reach? Was this TOO competitive, this game is pitched at a 16, you can expect competition at this age and above. Lastly I feel the armour choice for the ‘Gametypes’ commendations are unbalanced. What would you rather go for… The second Recon version, which people will probably not notice the difference with anyway, or commando, a very distinct looking prestigious armour set? Other than that, perfect.

Armour

I don’t see where all the complaint is coming from. I can accept that not everyone will like all of them, honestly I don’t. But there are at least 3 or 4 favourites and around 10 that I’d happily wear. There are many returns from Halo 3 which the fans should be happy about which don’t seem to be appreciated. Anyways, enough about that. I think that the sleek new designs look perfect for the era that 343 are trying to convey. The refined Spartans and their more functional armour just fits together quite well.

Maps

Among the best, Haven and Adrift. These are great small team maps, which have been mastered. 343 you do 4v4 very well. There is a good pace to the game and the small maps are very iconic in my opinion. I do have to say that, although fit for purpose for dominion, Longbow and Exile seem pretty bad for Big team. This is where Reach excelled past Halo 4, with big team. I’m not sure how much of this is the outdated console but the bigger maps perhaps should sacrifice a little less detail for a slightly bigger size.

Forge

You made some great additions here but it’s almost as if you took one step forward and two steps back. Magnets and lock are good. Size? No forge world can run rings around all three. I’d prefer one big map than 3 different environments. I’m not so picky that I’m desperate for terrain editor and whether, but I do feel limited with the tools given. Objects = yes, even if they are exactly from Reach, a good revamp and they look amazing. I would like to see the dominion objects available for other gametypes, so the monitors, turrets and shields, also multi-teams on dominion.

Custom Games

The Lack of Gametypes and custom options is pretty depressing. Assault, why was this removed. A much loved gametype annexed by extraction, a good but inferior gametype. Invasion, the three objective gametype. Why was this removed? It had a lot of potential, it was very much loved and last of all it was also part of Reach’s legacy. VIP I would like to see return. However to modern it up a bit: perhaps only the defending team should know who the VIP is and the defending team have to get the VIP to a pelican/extraction point. Dominion is a great gametype. Give whoever thought of this a pay rise.
Custom options. Where have they gone 343?

Theatre/File share

I have barely used the theatre and not at all used the file share, which is weird since I used to own bungie pro. I feel like this has fractured the community due to the delay. Also when can we have skip forward in theatre?

Sound/Music:

The re-recorded sounds of the weapons sound absolutely fantastic for weapons like the shotgun and the DMR and so on. Dislike: fuel rod cannon sound, it doesn’t sound alien enough. Every time I hear it, I hear a mortar. Other than that, good job. Music, err acceptable but not terrible (not brilliant either). What happened to thrilling music like and themes like On the positive, at least it’s no depressing like the ODST or Halo Reach title menu.

Promoting the game:

I feel 343 did build up a lot of hype for Halo 4 in the last month, and did a very good job – especially entertaining the fans with forward unto dawn (I think now the background has been set, I’d like to see more action that was shown in the last few episodes). Something that did intrigue me was the sight of needle rifles AND carbines present in the same era:
(around 12:50) I think from the fans’ point of view though, we would like to see some more live action trailers like Reach leading up to the game a few more months in advance.

Commending 343s work:

Well one thing which needs huge recognition from the community is the quality of graphics. Towards the end of Halo 3’s life, other games such as COD (yes I mentioned it) started to produce a quality of graphics unmatched. Halo Reach almost kept up be still not quite. However, Halo 4 has put Halo back on the map again. Nice one 343, you’ve done well. The loading UNSC emblem: before the game is just exceptionally good. 343 give whoever made this a pay rise and a happy ending. This loadout screen is simple but effective, better than any game I’ve played, it just looks great.
Main Layout (when you click start). Very well organised and an overall better layout, a change for the best.

Criticisms of 343s work:

Well apart from the things already discussed, the things that I’m about to mention are so minor you are probably gonna think “get over yourself, it’s not a big deal”, which it’s not.
First of all ‘player-cards’ bad idea, stick to the original, more organised layout of Halo Reach. The stances are great and you could still have them, but the player cards are too messy.
Next, the lack of information and options for the menus and stats. What was wrong with Reach displaying all this information?

[i_Elite_BoB]

Continued…

I found this slightly disappointing and a bit pointless removing, I’m sure that if there is a valid reason that I’d move on but it seems like it’s being removed for the sake of it being bungie.
The bonus content was a fiasco, so many fans were annoyed unnecessarily and that is down to poor organisation, this has been improving though.

Recommendations for the next game:

Well these are just some insignificant ideas that I have come up with: Smoke grenades which disrupt, different colours affect different things for example, red smoke may contain iron filaments or something disrupting Promethean/night vision, black smoke may distort normal vision, blue may contain charged electrons attracting to people revealing active camo users, ect.
SMG, I’d like to see the silenced SMG as a loadout weapon and the regular one able for dual wielding
Dual wielding, this is Halo, why keep a removed element from the game for this long, please return it.
Civilian vehicles for forge please
If we were to progress in game, classes are the solution. Customisation, but limited by the developers, this would stop ‘perfect combos’.
I also think that Halo has reached an adequate level for graphics and should focus more on size.

My perfect Halo:

Well I loved battlefront II, battlefield 3 (very similar, I know) and halo 3 the most. So combining that into a game would mean a larger scale battle. Let’s take a game from BF3 for example; there are jets which could be replaced by broadswords and seraphs, troop transport helicopters which could be replaced by falcons (and a covenant alternative), attack helicopters which could be replaced by hornets and banshees. Yes you heard me right, falcons and hornets. Each team would have a tank (scorpion/wraith) a couple of troop vehicles (Warthog/Mongoose/ghost). On some maps we could see anti air (wolverines [not rocket hogs] and AA wraiths).

BF3 and BF3

Instead of spawning with parachutes, we could see drop pods. With this we could send the pod to the front line or further back and safer. Maybe there’s a disrupter which a team can obtain which makes drop pods fall in random places.
On some gametypes we could see instead of many building, each team having an operational mammoth and a scarab.

Space battles (inspired by battlefront II) we could see in one hanger; long/short/broad-swords and sabres. Seraphs, Vampires and banshees (there must be other small fighter covenant aircraft) on the other team. Perhaps each team gets a pelican/phantom to transport troops to the other ship? I gather that this section is the most unlikely. But hey, it was on battlefront II, a PS2 game. Also the mammoth and scarab are already in game so why not have it in multiplayer, sand trap saw elephants which are only slightly smaller, so this seems very feasible to me.

This but Halo

I think Halo would do a lot better having Battlefield as a role model rather than COD. 343, COD’s sales are only where they are through their previous reputation. Battlefield are earning it and working their way up, they show innovations that work, COD will be on the decline as soon as people realise that it’s pretty bad.

[A_Virtual_Duck]

Wow…umm…well done! Some algebra just got in the way, but please watch out for my post edit!

EDIT: This is a very well constructed post, well done! However, I disagree with your “Battlefield”-esque decision making. Yes, CoD sucks. Yes, Battlefield is cool. Bur it’s not Halo. Halo is about 4v4-8v8 and no more, the best man wins (indirectly, like winning a rocket launcher from one enemy, and proceeding to kill two others with it) or directly (by situational skill). Halo has always been about hand to hand (or gun to gun) combat. Vehicles play a dominant, but at the same time superficial role here. We aren’t the game for 36 on 36 matches, or 28 player FFA. Admittedly 12v12 would be good for Invasion and BTB for Halo 5, but any more and we’re pushing the boundaries of “the best man wins” to “the best vehicle wins”.

Perks are bad. Progress ranking is bad if it adds in-game advantages past looking -Yoink!-. Even skill rank is bad if it locks away in game content past, again, looking -Yoink!- (and getting evenly matched games). Pocket shotguns are bad. But worst of all, CoD influences are bad (excluding custom loadouts for Weapons and AA’s, all available the second you start up the game).

[Allu_boy]

A novel to a forum? I think you could have shortened that story a little bit…

[i_Elite_BoB]

> A novel to a forum? I think you could have shortened that story a little bit…

Why? It’s organised so you can only look at the bits your inteseted in (or not).

[DaRk_VeGeTabLe1]

You should separate your ideas with the enter button. It seriously hurts my eyes.
And shouldn’t this be in the General feedback forum section?

[i_Elite_BoB]

> Wow…umm…well done! Some algebra just got in the way, but please watch out for my post edit!
>
> EDIT: This is a very well constructed post, well done! However, I disagree with your “Battlefield”-esque decision making. Yes, CoD sucks. Yes, Battlefield is cool. Bur it’s not Halo. Halo is about 4v4-8v8 and no more, the best man wins (indirectly, like winning a rocket launcher from one enemy, and proceeding to kill two others with it) or directly (by situational skill). Halo has always been about hand to hand (or gun to gun) combat. Vehicles play a dominant, but at the same time superficial role here. We aren’t the game for 36 on 36 matches, or 28 player FFA. Admittedly 12v12 would be good for Invasion and BTB for Halo 5, but any more and we’re pushing the boundaries of “the best man wins” to “the best vehicle wins”.
>
> Perks are bad. Progress ranking is bad if it adds in-game advantages past looking -Yoink!-. Even skill rank is bad if it locks away in game content past, again, looking -Yoink!- (and getting evenly matched games). Pocket shotguns are bad. But worst of all, CoD influences are bad (excluding custom loadouts for Weapons and AA’s, all available the second you start up the game).

Thanks for your reply, obviously my ideal halo is not everyones ideal halo and i appreciate that. I agree although not exactly like CoD, there are too many influences.
My thoughts on Battlefield were aimed more at big team. I think 343 have got the formula completely right for small team. With big team however, the games seem to be still a little slow and bad for vehicles which is probably the main point.

[i_Elite_BoB]

> You should separate your ideas with the enter button. It seriously hurts my eyes.
> And shouldn’t this be in the General feedback forum section?

lol, you have no idea, but yeah, i’ll space it out some more when i have time. I posted this in the halo 4 section as although i did provide some background knowledge in points 1,2 and 3, this post is primarily about Halo 4 (points 4-18).

[Sliding_Ghost]

CE had a bad weapon sandbox and Halo 3 didn’t? The sandbox was complete in CE, every weapon was useful and weren’t necessarily noobish.

But I agree, the large scale battling is noticeably missing in Halo 4.

[Bionic_Cell]

I can’t believe I read the whole damn thing…

anyway, I agree with you for the most part. I say the only real things they need to work on is maps, playlists, and slight sandbox balancing.

for the BF3 thing, that would be awesome, if the next xbox can handle it, they should do it. They shouldn’t scrap the old BTB so they should have BTB and BTW (big team war)

[i_Elite_BoB]

> CE had a bad weapon sandbox and Halo 3 didn’t? The sandbox was complete in CE, every weapon was useful and weren’t necessarily noobish.
>
> But I agree, the large scale battling is noticeably missing in Halo 4.

Not so much a bad sandbox, but incredibly unbalanced. The magnum and that’s all i need to say.

[i_Elite_BoB]

> I can’t believe I read the whole damn thing…
>
>
> anyway, I agree with you for the most part. I say the only real things they need to work on is maps, playlists, and slight sandbox balancing.
>
> for the BF3 thing, that would be awesome, if the next xbox can handle it, they should do it. They shouldn’t scrap the old BTB so they should have BTB and BTW (big team war)

Many cookies to you for reading.
BTB and BTW, I like it. I could see BTB consistiing of more objective style games like invasion, dominion, assault and CTF with some slayer thrown in.
BTW could still potentially have some objectives in but it would probably be more consistant.

[fundays]

TLDR

• Bilbo T. Baggins

Seriously though bookmarked for later reading.

[Sir_Boobington]

I just gave a shoutout to your thread in the Halo 5 community thread, you made great points and I love the looks of this thread. I will read this later on so you will be hearing from me in the future

I encourage you to come by the Halo 5 Community Suggestion thread with more of your ideas I am slowly building the thread up, it will always be changing and I will do my best to maintain it.