Halo 4 Discussion

Breakpoint? I haven't gotten many objective games on Breakpoint in matchmaking, but those were good. Is there anything that you like about slayer? The snowy steps by the 1st phase don't fit any better (in BTB) than the 1st phase areas of Boneyard and Spire; it's too out of the way, but they put vehicles there anyway. The room where the bomb would spawn isn't used at all (unless someone wants to hide). There are no team spawn zones because because the map is too asymmetric (slayer), but it is also so big that enemies could spawn on the same side as you, and thus you can't ever know which direction you'll have to protect yourself from. Movement tends towards the middle ridge with jetpacks, because you have a very good chance of DMRing someone on the other side without them being able to fight back, but within a short amount of time someone is bound to spawn behind you, and the ridge offers no cover behind you (despite offering unfair cover/elevation in front). I don't see that as fun. I can't remember the locations of the power weapons, so I won't comment on that.

What don't you like about Highlands? I don't think it's perfect, but it seems like a functional mix between Boneyard and Valhalla (with overly complex and numerous elevated side routes and a lower center, but with actual bases and objective games, and the Valhalla aesthetic). I think that the teleporter system was a bit complicated and unintuitive, but I didn't think much about it because I played it so rarely. Do you not like how warthogs can only be protected mongeese with completely seperated infantry routes?

 

I don't think Breakpoint is perfect either, but it plays better than most (objective certainly better than slayer.)

Highlands was probably the biggest letdown for me in all of Reach. Highlands is basically designed like a giant cereal bowl: You have a higher rim around the whole map with a bowl sinking below it. Apparently someone at Certain Affinity thought it would then be a bright idea to place 2 Snipers, 2 Rockets, a Spartan Laser, and a Plasma Launcher all along the rim of said bowl, all in high ground infantry areas that are either safe to go through like in the bases or at least out of the way of any vehicle fire. Because of these design choices, the Warthog is nearly worthless. It has no control over any of the weapons that can kill it in one shot and they are all already in positions to do the job if the hog is trying to cross the map, turning the entire middle area into a no-man's-land and leaving the only real viable strategy to drive around the base and hope to pick up spawn kills while staying out of sight of the laser perch. And after all this the mixture of the openness of the map, weak Reach Hog, and powerful DMR makes it easy for a hog to be team shot to oblivion even without all the previously mentioned weapons.

For infantry the game is not all that much better. The map is a sniper's paradise with only a very few covered paths crossing the map, basically forcing all player movement through either the neutral buildings or the cave systems, both of which are fairly linear. The teleports helped some but in the end it was just pick a side, push up it, stay out of the sniper's LOS. Moving through the center was so unviable that it simply could not be done in any way besides the teleports, which were camp-able to begin with in those little buildings. I was never a big fan of Hemorrhage, but I preferred it's balance to Highlands after a few weeks of having Defiant, and even though both basically did this same bowl design the hills of hemorrhage and the lower power weapon count made it play much better. A remake of highlands would just make me sick to my stomach to see, let alone to have to actually drive it again.

 

So new vidoc coming later tonight.

Assuming it's with the bulletin.

 

Doubt it'll be Forge, but who knows.

 

Naw..probably about this remake (longshore) and their motives behind it and whatever gametypes they expect it to play well. Though maybe they've been yankin our chains with these hints and it's not Longshore at all..but I feel strongly based on these hints that it is.

 

I'm really not all that excited with the hints of the remake, I just want more info on gametypes we may have not seen or even some of the options.

Hoping the ViDoc will cover that.

 

were there more hints about the remake after them saying "It is NOT small" ?

I probably wouldn't mind longshore. Though the main reason I liked it was the space and palette available to make maps on there.

 

There was some stuff about a restaurant down the street from 343 that they eat on on a waterfront and frankie apparently posted a menu with "fish tacos" on it. They said it was an outdoor map as well, and that it wouldn't really cause drama. Most this stuff isn't stuff I've seen first hand though, just heard others talking about it. Some of it was on Twitter though.

Longshore makes sense to me though. Decent sized map usable for multiple gametypes, never got its fair shot in Halo 4, isn't a map too many people ever had a chance to hate. The only thing that would make me sad is that it's not the Pit

 

Got that for ya.

I could live with Longshore. I'd be happier if the remake was Valhalla, but Longshore was always a solid map.

 

You know, no matter what I always reverse them. If I'm talking about Halo 4, I say Halo 3 and if I mention a map from Halo 3 I call it Halo 4. Even in speech. Dunno what it is, it's strange though lol.

 

fixed that too.

 

Nope.

It only occurs when he is the king, look at 3:330, when he isn't the king, no explosion occurs.

That doesn't rule out the possibility that armor effects won't be in the game, though.

 

Making Halo 4: Return of the Forerunners - YouTube

Also, prepare to flip your **** everybody: http://blogs.halo.xbox.com/Headlines/post/2012/09/12/The-Halo-Bulletin-91212.aspx

 

I wouldn't mind trying them out.

 

They would have done better to have the knights without the hunched back in my opinion. Hard to take something that looks so top heavy and a bit silly, serious.

 

Man that grassy landscape at the end was stunning, and definitely Halo

 

The dissolve is awesome, I had no idea it began where the killing shot hit! Loving this new portion of the sandbox.

 

And once again, the community cartographers show their impeccable eye for good level design with the winners they selected for the contest.

And to make sure this message is absolutely clear, the above is written with the bitterest of sarcasm.

Edit: The vidoc was awesome of course. I wish I had watched it second to the CC contest vid.