Fixing their game, eh? They're moving on. It's been said time and time again that they were. As for the comment about the employees that are with 343, those that are have been some of the biggest contributors to the franchise thus far. 343 is an internal team under Microsoft, comprised of some of the guys that have been on the Haloz ship since it all began. With that said; shat ap nubs.
I'm sorry, but I really can not tip my hat for the sake of Bungie adding community maps. In fact, it angers me when I look around here and see the quality maps that exists and yet they added maps that don't even have load out cameras nor soft kills outside half the selection. I actually miss Arena before it was crowded with junk. That's not in regards to all of the maps of course, some are acceptable, but far from all. Either way, I'll be getting Halo 4 because it's, well... Halo 4. I want to see smaller competitive maps, or at least a balance. They should be looking to CE/2 for inspiration this time around and I have a feeling they are. Plus a new developer may breathe some fresh air into the series. There is no place for Bungie bashing, but letting the series slip into new hands isn't necessarily a bad thing, it may be just the opposite.
Blizzard and Valve (despite the sometimes laughably disorganised nature of the latter) absolutely blow Bungie out of the water when it comes to listening to the community, as well as showing a much more refined approach to balancing etc. There is no way you can consider changing playlists something equivalent to a title update. I agree that they put a lot of effort in, I don't think anyone could argue with that, it's how much that effort actually falls in line with what the community is asking for a lot of the time which is questionable. I'm not saying they're the worst, far from it, but it pains me to see people riding their dicks all the time when actually they display a good deal of self righteous disregard for majority community sentiments a lot of the time. Agreed on this count. Everything Frank et al have said so far does instil a good deal of hope in me, but as you say we have nothing more than conjecture right now. I'll be really interested to see what they do, but anyone who acts as if there's anything certain right now, based solely on a non-gameplay trailer and some non-commital, short statements, is fooling themselves. OP: As far as I'm concerned at this stafe I will be buying it, simply because it's a Halo game and I love Halo. If information comes out which really puts me off then I may well reconsider, but by default I'm going to assume on buying it. However, still agree with Shatakai that being too certain right now on how it'll turn out, and basing any decision of that massive assumption, is foolish. How they deal with the TU/CEA is going to be a big indicator of how much their approach falls in line with what I want to see from Halo.
Right now I don't know. Main reason I would buy Halo 4 is if it had loadout specific traits and a good forge but that could be done in the TU for Halo reach so if it's not done in reach and done in halo 4 I will definitely buy it.
It is a lot easier for a PC developer to cater to their community than a console developer. I think Bungie is doing the best job that they can. He actually does in Halo 3.
You're completely right. Bungie really is at fault, not working on a title update for a franchise that they will not own by the end of the month. Microsoft, who owns 343, are making 343 work on the title update because Bungie will not own any rights to the Halo franchise in a matter of weeks. It may sound like a cop out, but Security is right, it's much easier to balance and tweak a PC game as opposed to a console game. Every time Bungie wants to update their games, aside from playlist changes, they have to go through Microsoft's certification process, which can take weeks, possibly over a month. Either way, Bungie does a good job of communicating with their fans, even if they can't always fix every problem as soon as they wish they could. Obviously playlist updates are not the same thing as a title update, as those almost always consist of major gameplay changes as well as possible interface and networking refinement. I overexaggerated, but the point remains that the majority of developers release a game and maybe patch or update it twice, while Bungie feels obligated to do that at least every month.
Not to mention, just to put the patch through the certification process costs $25,000. Then if Microsoft says they need to tweak anything they need to pay that again and again until the patch is right. A lot of the time Developers are looking at $75,000 - $100,000 to put out a patch (Plus the monetary worth of the time it takes to make said patch), and would you want to do that with a month of control over the game?
I know right! And they always put in community maps made by the same damn people. That JoeSki73 guy has had like 3 maps in Matchmaking since Halo 3. Give someone else a chance, God dammit!
^that's because Joeski knows exactly what they are looking for in an MM map. it seems like this argument boils down to people who didnt get what they want from bungie vs. people who did. you are all silly. bungie is cool and so is 343 and halo 4 will probably kick ass, and you're all going to buy it. then, one half of you will ***** about it all day, and the other half will worship it.
Most of the people who are bitching about Bungie now will be bitching just as hard about 343 in a year or three. Guaranteed. I'm not saying Bungie is perfect or that Reach doesn't have some issues, but as always since at least Halo 2, the problems are blown way out of proportion and what the company does right is ignored by the extremely loud minority of people who just want to complain. Repeating the word "broken" eight thousand times like a mantra doesn't make it so.
Amen brother. And yet, some who who are in the former camp (the camp of *****) about Reach still frequent this website, which is devoted to a feature in said game, probably way too much than is humanly healthy. You speak the truth about Halo 4.lol.
As of now we don't know almost anything about the game, but since it has halo in the title I'm planning on buying it. If leading up to the game something looks horrible or they try to change up the halo style of play a bit to much (AAs on steroids of some sort) I actually might not get it
I'm definitely not buying it, I stopped with the Halo games after Reach came out, I was afflicted with "oh god it can't be" syndrome and sold my 360. The multiplayer was pretty good, but it felt more like Tribes 2 than ever before. Must have been the jetpacks. Which is weird because it feels nothing like it. Don't get me wrong, both games are awesome in their own right, but all it did for me was remind me of Tribes 2 with a bucketload of nostalgia, and upon doing some light googling, found that servers are still up for it. Hats off to Halo, for making me rediscover Tribes. Also, Tribes: Ascend is coming to the 360, so it's looking good for y'all. Yeah, did make an account here just to say that. Off to MA more flag carriers with a disc to the face.
Only if an Xbox falls out the sky and hits me. Or some hobo gives me an Xbox. But I'll let ya know if it happens.
I'm going to ignore 36 posts of discussion and address the OP's question: Yes. Halo storyline is, and always will be, fantastic. If they made 1000 games, I'd buy every one of them.
Ill definitely buy it! Halo was the first game series i got hooked on. I'v read all the books, and play all the games. Sure bungie is leaving halo, but 343 will take care of our baby! Least some of you people can do is give them a chance. I'll still love Bungie though. They are one of the few game company's i think that are really involved with there fans. I just started reading the 343 weekly updates, and I'm already liking the Humour they put into it.