i dig it. the story and characters have possibly never been quite this deep before (in the games, i mean. while i’m at it, i’ve not gotten into the whole travessty series of novels and after hearing so many negative things, likely never will. :P)
i found a serious appreciation for the music of halo 4 last night, as well. the track 117 seems to me like the perfect combination of humanity, warfare, machinery and mystery. a perfect representation of the chief’s character and what they’re trying to make of him. several of the darker tracks go into some deep sinister places that i just love music to portray well.
as an artist, i’m loving the new creativity that 343 are bringing into the series. i’ve enjoyed most of the multiplayer i’ve played, but i’m not among the most serious of players. i love a good game of btb and halo 4 delivers. many dislike the idea of specific power weapon locations through-out the game not being implemented as it makes mapflow feel “random”. in the case of btb, i would actually suggest that it makes mapflow feel more dynamic.
a well designed map will still have it’s strategic points. ragnarok is a very good example of this. (i know i know. we’ve alll played enough ragnarok.) the teams fight for control of the center of the map and there are several ways of changing the areas of control. with all the personal ordnance you can imagine, it is still quite possible to push a team back to their base and gain control by taking over the various areas in the center of the map. (the hill, the downed pelican / near by caves, and the more open area with the mounted turret).
what i like about personal ordnance, is you have to contribute to your team’s score to receive it. a 1-sided slaughter fest isn’t enjoyable to me, even when i’m on the winning team. the enemy team manages to rack up some kills and gain some more powerful weapons? cool. now things are a little more interesting again.
i understand not finding the same sort of enjoyment out of 4 vs 4 or other game-types, though. 1 or 2 power weapons means a lot more on that scale than it does when playing teams of 8 and thus much of what i just discussed only really applies for btb. but in general, i like that the ideal strategy is no-longer to just memorize and camp power weapons and respawn points. this causes the outcomes to be more about the combat and controlling the map through clever positioning and team work.
meh. for 343’s first all-original game, it’s damn fine. now that they’ve learnt a lot more about what their various players want to see, the series has more potential to become even better in the future.