Having had considerable time to mull this over, I really have to ask why is Theater such a mediocre feature in Halo 4? That isn’t to say Theaters decline in quality began with Halo 4. Halo 3 introduced the feature to Halo and it had its flaws, but it a nifty feature. Reach, however, disabled group viewings in Theater. Halo 4 continues this while also removing Campaign playback as well as not being able to watch Spartan Ops.
While I have heard that this is due to the engine and some issues related to it, that does lead me to ask why anyone would make an engine that cripples other portions of the game? Granted, I know Theater is very important to a lot of people, but it really did make Halo better and more enjoyable. Instead of telling my friends of other Halo players about some great feat I pulled off, I could pull up the match, record/screenshot it and plop it in my File Share. While I can do this for multiplayer, it sucks to lose so many cool moments from Campaign and Spartan Ops.
Not only that, but I would sink hours into flying around the environments with Theater and admire the art direction or find some hidden goodies.
However, the biggest problem I see is that the competition is getting better with the Theater concept. Call of Duty has YouTube connectivity with its Theater and I saw that Black Ops 2 has a highlight feature where the game pulls out what it thinks are your top moments from a match and strings them together. THAT is -Yoinking!- cool. Bungie at least had Bungie Pro and rendering services.
Is anyone else annoyed with how bad the Theater system has gotten, relatively speaking of course?
I have never really used theater in the first place so it could be completely gone and I wouldn’t mind or probably even notice. I do see why players that like and use theater would be annoyed. As to why it’s the way it is, I’ll never know.
One thing that really annoys me about it is that it doesn’t have a simple “skip forward” button, except for certain points that you can only get to if you already fast forwarded that far, and the max you can go is maybe 2.5x speed. That’s really, really stupid, especially when you want to get to something that you already know is at the end of a freakin’ 20 minute video.
> One thing that really annoys me about it is that it doesn’t have a simple “skip forward” button, except for certain points that you can only get to if you already fast forwarded that far, and the max you can go is maybe 2.5x speed. That’s really, really stupid, especially when you want to get to something that you already know is at the end of a freakin’ 20 minute video.
I knew I forgot something. The lack of an adequate fast forward is simply INSANE.
343 does not really think before they act. Ask them why they made it so you can’t look at screenshots in pregame lobby i’d love to hear their answer.
They should’ve expanded Theater mode. I think it would be really cool if you could string together several clips. With this you could make multiple camera angles in one film clip, making montages and machinimas easier to make.
Not having Theater films for Campaign and Spartan Ops mission is a real letdown. Some of my favorite screen shots in Halo 3 were from scenes in the Campaign, and not being able to go into Theater and really enjoy the environmental work that was put into each of the levels is a disappointment, especially since I can’t think of a real reason why Theater isn’t there because other Halo games did it just fine.
Also, and not to sound like some conspiracy nut, but when I play through the Campaign or Spartan Ops I see some really crappy textures on certain objects, like how the metallic plating on Phantoms are just smudgy block-y textures, and I sometimes think that there’s no Theater for these modes so that players can’t go through and nitpick all the muddy textures and designs that plague the areas outside of the player’s immediate field of view.
It’s probably for some technical reason though, like the game is unable to reload [something] or [certain piece of dated xbox hardware] doesn’t allow [something something] to [fake science], or something along those lines.
Halo is becoming less about depth and function and more about graphics and looks.
It’s a ridiculous sacrifice.
> It’s probably for some technical reason though, like the game is unable to reload [something] or [certain piece of dated xbox hardware] doesn’t allow [something something] to [fake science], or something along those lines.
And yet previous Halos managed just fine…
WHOOPS DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD?
Theater mode does need some campaign and Spartan Ops love. However I hope they don’t bring back group view until they spend some real time fixing its problems. I only ever used it in Halo 3 ONCE. The feature was crap since no matter how good your connection it just crashed on you.
> 343 does not really think before they act. Ask them why they made it so you can’t look at screenshots in pregame lobby i’d love to hear their answer.
Probably to ensure that people don’t miss the map vote.
> I only ever used it in Halo 3 ONCE. The feature was crap since no matter how good your connection it just crashed on you.
It wasn’t that bad. It just took like 2 minutes to start up…
ODST improved start up time immensely, though you could only watch with 2 players IIRC.
Halo 4 was another step backwards for theater but if the nextbox is gonna have the same video system as the PS4 is gonna have then 343 will most likely put a lot more time into a better theater.
My theory is that 343i had to write all of this from scratch and just couldn’t get everything done.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE Theater in the Halo games, and H4’s Theater is so disappointing. . .
Sure, Reach got rid of group-viewing, but at least you could rewind in Campaign/Firefight clips, unlike H3 and ODST. So in that regard, I’d say Reach overall improved Theater mode.
Also, I barely use H4’s Theater mode. H4’s multiplayer just isn’t as funny or interesting as Reach, and there’s less moments worth capturing. Add the fact that you can’t view Campaign or Spartan Ops; they might as well not even have Theater for H4.
> Sure, Reach got rid of group-viewing, but at least you could rewind in Campaign/Firefight clips, unlike H3 and ODST. So in that regard, I’d say Reach overall improved Theater mode.
I feel the same way.
It’s also a little crap that 343 actually never told us about this. It was only after people who got the game early mentioned that there was no campaign theater that an official word came out about it.
I want theater back. I would have got many cool screenshots or vids from Campaing or Spartan Ops but no. I want proper theater back
A fast forward feature would be nice.
I really wish H4 had Theater. This has and always been my greatest frustration with this game. I had to work hard to get an up close look at this teabagging Spartan.
Edit: Elites can dance!
> <mark>I really wish H4 had Theater. This has and always been my greatest frustration with this game.</mark> I had to work hard to get an up close look at this teabagging Spartan.
>
> Edit: Elites can dance!
I second this.