official Halo 4

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I think I'm getting Halo 4 when it's released. :)

[Pajter]

Damn. That got me excited! Those Forerunner AI things look bad ass!

[spenser.d]

That's looks sick. I'm excited for Halo again :D

[Mr.XXIV]

Halo 4 changed my life already. Omggggggggggggg I had a tear coming out when I saw the video. The way Cortana got serious at the end, you know it's real! :D

[George P Global Moderator]

And people had no faith in 343i. pfft.

[Ghost5525]

So from the video...what i wanna know is who is the new enemy - Precursor or Forerunner.

[Mr.XXIV]

So from the video...what i wanna know is who is the new enemy - Precursor or Forerunner.

I believe they were artificially created by Forerunners. Especially the warriors that carry the ability to teleport.

I think that the original Forerunners died major years ago.

[BajiRav]

Spartan Ops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2TuwxT_LQ

[George P Global Moderator]

Looks like I'll be getting a Gold sub again just to play some spartan ops. I'm not a fan of normal multiplayer etc but some story driven online co-op, count me in.

[Emn1ty]

And people had no faith in 343i. pfft.

I still don't, really. From a gameplay standpoint I think Halo 4 will be very good. But from a Halo fan's standpoint, they've trampled on the franchise a bit. I mean, the forerunner tech they are showing makes little sense in comparison to established tech (Halo array, Sentinels, Monitors, etc). They are extremely insect-like and have too many biological qualities (forerunners weren't capable, at least that I know of, of mimicking biology in technology). On top of that they've arbitrarily thrown aside an alliance that was fought long and hard for just to keep the Covenant in the game as enemies.

Much of the potential of this game in terms of story has been thrown out. The game should have been isolation on an alien world. Instead we have a heavily modified Halo CE.

1) ship crash lands on forerunner construct.

2) MC goes to find ship.

3) Fights off alien race and newer enemy (in this case forerunner).

I'm still going to buy the game and see where 343 goes with this, but I stopped caring about Halo cannon when the Contact Harvest book was released. This decision was only reinforced by Reach. I don't think 343 will do any better with their decision to move back to Halo 2's playstyle.

PS: Defense AI's would not be walking around. In fact, you'd only need ONE to control all of them. A bit of an ignorant way to portray them (although it is picky).

Oh, and for anyone worried about the 8 year comment. Cortana lost a significant amount of lifespan upon obsorbing the wealth of information from the first Halo ring. That's why she was acting so funny during Halo 3 and is able to be manipulated by Gravemind. So really you could say she's been overdue for a breakdown for 4 years, not just one.

[Kyang]

Who else noticed the gun he's carrying in the beginning of the video isn't the one he's using when he starts his hike...

[BajiRav]

Who else noticed the gun he's carrying in the beginning of the video isn't the one he's using when he starts his hike...

I take it that you don't play much Halo? :p

[Matthew S.]

I still don't, really. From a gameplay standpoint I think Halo 4 will be very good. But from a Halo fan's standpoint, they've trampled on the franchise a bit. I mean, the forerunner tech they are showing makes little sense in comparison to established tech (Halo array, Sentinels, Monitors, etc). They are extremely insect-like and have too many biological qualities (forerunners weren't capable, at least that I know of, of mimicking biology in technology). On top of that they've arbitrarily thrown aside an alliance that was fought long and hard for just to keep the Covenant in the game as enemies.

Much of the potential of this game in terms of story has been thrown out. The game should have been isolation on an alien world. Instead we have a heavily modified Halo CE.

1) ship crash lands on forerunner construct.

2) MC goes to find ship.

3) Fights off alien race and newer enemy (in this case forerunner).

I'm still going to buy the game and see where 343 goes with this, but I stopped caring about Halo cannon when the Contact Harvest book was released. This decision was only reinforced by Reach. I don't think 343 will do any better with their decision to move back to Halo 2's playstyle.

PS: Defense AI's would not be walking around. In fact, you'd only need ONE to control all of them. A bit of an ignorant way to portray them (although it is picky).

Oh, and for anyone worried about the 8 year comment. Cortana lost a significant amount of lifespan upon obsorbing the wealth of information from the first Halo ring. That's why she was acting so funny during Halo 3 and is able to be manipulated by Gravemind. So really you could say she's been overdue for a breakdown for 4 years, not just one.

Unm grave mind can control any sentient being. It's controller a forerunner ai before ( the books are considered cannon FYI) so that's not specific to cortana.

Also on the topic of forerunner tech, there tech as described by the books can be more organic or cold machine like

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I still don't, really. From a gameplay standpoint I think Halo 4 will be very good. But from a Halo fan's standpoint, they've trampled on the franchise a bit. I mean, the forerunner tech they are showing makes little sense in comparison to established tech (Halo array, Sentinels, Monitors, etc). They are extremely insect-like and have too many biological qualities (forerunners weren't capable, at least that I know of, of mimicking biology in technology). On top of that they've arbitrarily thrown aside an alliance that was fought long and hard for just to keep the Covenant in the game as enemies.

Much of the potential of this game in terms of story has been thrown out. The game should have been isolation on an alien world. Instead we have a heavily modified Halo CE.

1) ship crash lands on forerunner construct.

2) MC goes to find ship.

3) Fights off alien race and newer enemy (in this case forerunner).

I'm still going to buy the game and see where 343 goes with this, but I stopped caring about Halo cannon when the Contact Harvest book was released. This decision was only reinforced by Reach. I don't think 343 will do any better with their decision to move back to Halo 2's playstyle.

PS: Defense AI's would not be walking around. In fact, you'd only need ONE to control all of them. A bit of an ignorant way to portray them (although it is picky).

Oh, and for anyone worried about the 8 year comment. Cortana lost a significant amount of lifespan upon obsorbing the wealth of information from the first Halo ring. That's why she was acting so funny during Halo 3 and is able to be manipulated by Gravemind. So really you could say she's been overdue for a breakdown for 4 years, not just one.

Do we know it's all Forerunner tech? If it is, then I'm sure they have reasons for portraying it differently. I'm excited by what they've shown so far. As much as I love the Halo games, it would've been tiring to fight the Covenant again. And speaking of the Covenant, the non-Forerunner/Precursor aliens we saw could be rogue. That can explain why they look a little different than the Covenant from previous Halo games.

I, too, was concerned about 343 Industries because they're fairly new as a developer. And I didn't know if they could live up to my expectations. Bungie Studios set the bar pretty high with Halo: Reach so naturally, I was a little worried. From what I've seen though, I'm happy to say that they've done a good job at getting me interested. The graphics are better, the story seems better, and the planned features for multiplayer are really interesting.

[Mr.XXIV]

...

Actually, as far as I know, the original Forerunners are either dead or there's a few who still monitor the standpoint of their planet alone. They created AI's such as 343 and others to take care and build the rings along with the ark for them which has been going on for millions of years. It's obvious that they're too advance for us to even suggest the fact that they're not capable of manipulating anything. Word has it (if I remember the stories correctly) all lifeforms were originally destroyed once, and had to be replicated, by the forerunners. And for that sake, the forerunners, I believe, perished for that reason due to the amount of powers.

Those defense AI's are what they call a Promethean. The bugs are crawlers, the flies are watchers, and the warriors are knights. Looking at the Knights alone, they are definitely a huge threat.

These are biologically / artificially engineered which they've produce abilities to do such things like teleportation. Ever heard of DNA algorithm?

I believe that planet Chief and the Infinity's on is the home world of the Forerunners.

I have full faith in 343.

[Brendando]

I can't help but see a few things wrong (in my opinion) with your post Emn1ty.

Let me make it clear; I was hugely disappointed with Reach. I was a big fan of Halo 3, played on the Halo 1 competitive circuit for a long time and was expecting something very different. Frankly, it just didn't live up to the hype in a whole bunch of ways. So with Halo 4, I'm naturally a little nervous. I got burned pretty bad by bungie because of their "swan song". However, with Halo 4, the more I see of it, the more I become comforted and optimistic.

I still don't, really. From a gameplay standpoint I think Halo 4 will be very good. But from a Halo fan's standpoint, they've trampled on the franchise a bit. I mean, the forerunner tech they are showing makes little sense in comparison to established tech (Halo array, Sentinels, Monitors, etc). They are extremely insect-like and have too many biological qualities (forerunners weren't capable, at least that I know of, of mimicking biology in technology). On top of that they've arbitrarily thrown aside an alliance that was fought long and hard for just to keep the Covenant in the game as enemies.

This is one of the moments were investing yourself in the canon a little more would help. 343 have specifically stated that they are going to incorporate the other stories that have been told (books, animation) into the games. The books have detailed the Forerunner tech in a lot more detail and, as I believe was already mentioned in this thread, they developed ways to mimick humanoid species. For christ sake, they catalogued pretty much every species in the known universe, so they'll have gathered a lot of data on that sort of thing. In terms of the Covenant alliance; again, in the books if you read Glasslands, etc, only on section of the Covenant followed the Arbiter (I believe the Separatists) in his alliance with the humans. A substantial amount deemed them heretics and what nothing more than to kill humanity (Loyalists). The elites are a proud race and the Loyalists feel cheated and dishonored by an alliance with humanity. It strong suspect it will be a splinter cell group like this that they're fighting. Besides, also in Glasslands, humans are actively attempting (albeit deniably and covertly) to antagonise conflict with the Covenant. It's been 5 years since the end of Halo 3, and it was a tenuous alliance anyway, mainly due to the mutual threat of the flood and a hatred of the Prophets. We'll see how things are, but like I said, I strongly suspect it'll be some form of Loyalists, not the Arbie's crew.

Much of the potential of this game in terms of story has been thrown out. The game should have been isolation on an alien world. Instead we have a heavily modified Halo CE.

1) ship crash lands on forerunner construct.

2) MC goes to find ship.

3) Fights off alien race and newer enemy (in this case forerunner).

You have absolutely no idea where the storyline is going to go at this point. We've seen a 6 minute segment from one mission. I agree, parallels can be drawn; but I have no problem with that. It's the start of a new trilogy and it's echoing the great things that made the first Halo the best Halo to date. There will be many, many differences in the storyline. But, to each his own.

I'm still going to buy the game and see where 343 goes with this, but I stopped caring about Halo cannon when the Contact Harvest book was released. This decision was only reinforced by Reach. I don't think 343 will do any better with their decision to move back to Halo 2's playstyle.

What was wrong with Contact Harvest? (Genuinely interested, not attacking. I enjoyed the book. Was there some kind of linear error?)

Totally agree on Reach. However I disagree on your second point. Moving back to the play-style of Halo 2 and 3 (speed, jump height, weapons) is a very good decision from so many points of view. They've already fixed an awful lot in my opinion. The implementation of sprint is now right, rather than crappy and a choice that made you lose any other options in terms of armor abilities, a system which was deeply flawed. Load outs have undergone a natural progression. Finally I can spawn with a skill weapon (BR/Assault Carbine/DMR). Hopefully rank will mean something again, but still waiting on that. Time invested is not something you should earn a prominent badge for. I'm personally really excited about the playstyle changes.

I agree with everything else you said. I'm very excited for Halo 4 now, following E3. It's soothed a lot of nerves to see the full length multiplayer gameplay and spartan ops stuff :)!

[Mr.XXIV]

I actually said Planet Chief instead of Master. Wow.

I hope to see Chief and the Arbiter fight together again. :)

Throughout the past 11 years, I've been trying to study every aspect of Halo and I want to know so much more! Seeing the Forerunner technology got me hyped! :D

[articuno1au]

You should read the novels if you can get your hands on them. I got them all off of Kindle for less than $100.

I must say, I hated the arbiter and the Master Chief fighting together. I also hated how Halo Reach changed the story from The Fall of Reach book :(

I'm just hoping they don't **** up Halo 4.

[Mr.XXIV]

I read the Fall of Reach and The Flood. :) I really wanted to visually know how Spartans first came about all the way to the end. I hope one day, they create a series where they tell everything! :D

I believe Halo 4 will be great. The way I saw the preview, I know the action will be amazing. Story wise, I hope I learn the truth as I've been watching stories on Halo Waypoint. So I hope it's all relevant.

[articuno1au]

Ahh, you should read about the beta squads and stuff then. I believe there are 8 canonical books, and a book of short stories.

Hell yes I want the visuals also :p

I want to know what happens to Cortana given she isn't a "standard" AI.

[Mr.XXIV]

I plan on reading them when I get the iPad. :)

I'm more of a visualizer than a reader or listener. I have a huge addiction for special affects, the models, seeing bloody sci-fi. :p

Plus her life span, and her experiences that give her a little mental illness. God, I wish she was real. :D I'm still stoked just because I saw her get angry in the trailer. :woot:

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Loving what I'm seeing so far, can't wait for this :D My only problem is unlockable abilities in the progression system. This isn't COD. Halo has always been about level playing fields and fair fights. Unlockable abilities completely flies in the face of that.

I'll buy it anyway.. hopefully it's not too bad.

[Mr.XXIV]

I think unlockables make it more challenging and tactical. Especially when we're wearing suits that can do many things based on the armor. I don't like having the same little features. This is all about working with skills + power and Halo is the perfect game for modifications. :)

The MJOLNIR VI is one sexy suit to me. :D

[Kyang]

I take it that you don't play much Halo? :p

You'd be right. Definitely interested in the games though. Can you explain the gun thing?

[Hardcore Til I Die]

I think unlockables make it more challenging and tactical. Especially when we're wearing suits that can do many things based on the armor. I don't like having the same little features. This is all about working with skills + power and Halo is the perfect game for modifications. :)

The MJOLNIR VI is one sexy suit to me. :D

Yeah it makes it more challenging because other players who have been playing the game longer/more have an advantage over you (other than their experience). That makes for really bad competitive play.. I could be beaten by someone who would ordinarily be worse than me just because he has more unlocked abilities.