I can't believe they used that picture, a disabled Spartan? Is that how 343i sees the players, the Halo Community? I can also see this beeing insulting to a lot of people. And I agree with you Loscocco.
Oh, that did make me laugh Thing is though, Bungie could pretty easily say to microsoft "we want it our way." Think back to the new offices and what not. Microsoft then set up 343i THEMSELVES to use halo as a cash cow. And 343 are simply a subsidiary of microsoft, as opposed to bungie who were an independent studio who had to make money at the end of the day. 343 were given masses and masses with an expectation to sell more copies from MS, that much is obvious. How do you get more sales? Give the masses (lowest common denominator) what they want. Note how 343i said that they had all this cut content they just didn't have time to produce, but huge new casual features made it in? Sounds like microsoft was making all the calls and 343i had very little in the way of management and self direction. In other words, I think the casualising was due to microsoft giving 343i too much money and then calling the shots at a company without any respected backbone.
The problem is that this gets you basically nowhere. Pretty much every console game has a higher casual than competitive scene. What they're appealing to here is not casual players, it's new players. All pushing the focus down this gradient does is to lower the depth of the game for the sake of not scaring people off. A game with less depth isn't going to keep the majority interested for as long. The point is to make a game that's still fun at multiple skill levels, and allows a decent amount of depth for those who want it, which actually turns out to be most people in the end. Even if they don't see themselves actually getting to the top of the game, they appreciate the possible depth of the game as long as they aren't being matched against people a lot better than them all the time. This attitude effectively hurts the longstanding and diverse nature of the playerbase, simply because they're scared that their game can't keep people playing long enough to get past the initial humps. Every game has potential to be more frustrating when you're not as good at it. If you basically strip down the game to stop it being more intimidating in the first week, in a way which makes all the gametime after the first week less fulfilling, that's counterproductive. Again, you're taking away depth. This isn't about casual vs competitive at all. I know plenty of casual people, and they're still dedicated players. They don't need Halo made more accessible, they just want a certain type of it. This is desperately trying to lower the number of people who stop playing in the first week, or forego playing at all. The downside is that it's also going to lower the number of people who keep playing past the first couple of months as they realise that the long term experience has been compromised for the sake of the 1-weekers. Things are hard when you first do them, and they get more rewarding as you become more comfortable with them, and often a bit better at them. That's not something you have to fight against, 343, and you'll see the effect this has on the long term depth of your game when people tell you to do one after playing for a couple of months and getting tired of a game clearly aimed at beginners. Beginners don't stay beginners for very long, and when they're not beginners anymore they want a decent game to stick with.
I'm not accusing Microsoft/343i/Certain Affinity of anything when I say this, but they already made their money from us, so *if* they wanted to they could merely pretend to care and string us along.
Halo is one of the biggest titles out there they even have the term "Halo killer" for crying out loud! what new audience could they possibly cater to? E: also, I think that this covers what I feel right now rather nicely: http://www.forgehub.com/forum/halo-4-general-discussion/144254-rant.html
Very true. However, continued online player figures seem very important to these companies as metrics of success, and measures by which they're judged by others. Whether they're judged by their bosses/shareholders in this sense I'm not sure. In specific terms, longterm playerbase = more money for DLC, and also in a less direct way more likely buyers for the next title ("I got my money's worth, I'll do that again" kinda attitudes). Also, for MS, this is a flagship title and thus arguably has value in just keeping people on their Xbox and XBL. Money grabs are rarely a highly sustainable tactic, but they can be sustainable enough in a long enough timeframe to be worth doing as long as you don't care about discarding the subject of it after a while.
Loscocco for president. That was the most accurate thing anyone could say and I agree 100%. Seeing how 343i makes the decisions that they do, makes you realize how stupid the people working there really are. The "On my X" fix is a prefect example of that.
What I really don't get about Waypoint is why did it take them so long to realize that Halo 4 is incredibly casual? Before GDC, every person to say that the game or a specific mechanic is casual got some angry and idiotic copypasta argument (like "durrrr....adapt" or "stop asking for Halo 3.5") from just about every person in the community. It took them up until 343 said it themselves to figure out that the game isn't on the competitive level of previous titles, and now they're actually expressing their own opinion without getting berated by a bunch of blind fanboys humping 343's leg. I don't know if I should feel proud of them or disappointed...
When is the Castle pack supposed to be out? Right now I'm looking at my dashboard and on the home selection, right in the middle, is a picture of two spartans, one red and one blue. And beneath that it says "Castle map pack kicks off Halo week". I select that, and it takes me to a new screen and on the far right, is the same picture from the previous screen, but now it says underneath "Download Castle maps and more". I select that, and it lists the Castle Map pack, the Majestic map pack, the Crimson map pack, Spartan Ops S1: Eps 6-10, Forge Island, and the Halo 4 War Games Map Pass. What's really bizarre about this is when I go to the Add-ons section, and select Halo 4, the Castle map pack is not shown anywhere. It's not even shown in the new release area of the Add-ons section. I'm just puzzled as to why this is happening. Edit: When I select Xbox Live Market place from Halo 4's main menu, I keep getting this "There are no items available for purchase at this time." message. Did Microsoft screw up something?
It's out now for everyone, unless you've already paid for it. Look for it on the dashboard. (War games map pass owners can't download it, and have to wait for it to be available to them. This happened with each map pack release, 343i apologised each time and said it won't happen again, each time. The last time it took about 5/6 hours, but the first map was available to WGMP owners a whole day late.)
Is there any other way 343 can screw us over, or are they still looking for new ways? They didn't nerf the Boltshot, they nerfed the Gauss Hog, they put the DMR in the game. They continue to screw over people who have the War Games map pass, and they changed out Fiesta with Fiesta Classic in the Team Action Sack playlist. Fiesta classic is a piece of crap. I can't think of anything else they screwed up on.
They did nerf the boltshot. Not enough (though imo "enough" is either so much that it's next to useless, or just removing it as a loadout weapon), but the did nerf it. And I'm sorry but the Gauss hog needed a nerf. That thing was easy mode anti infantry. It was both faster and easier to use than a tank, so much more deadly. The DMR, yeah, but it's not like they invented that. You could look at it the other way round and say they brought back the BR. Not denying the poor balancing on their part, the DMR is too easy and too effective by half, but you're being overly cynical imo.
Is there anything else you can ***** about? Am I the only person who is pretty damned satisfied with Halo 4? It has it's kinks here and there, but this is a new studio, and there first title. 343i owns Halo now. This isn't Bungie. You (and all the fanboys) can continue too uselessly pout over the changes, but me; I'll enjoy the future of Halo with 343 Industries.
I'm not a ****ing fanboy asshole. I was satisified with Halo 4 as it was BEFORE they started releasing title updates.
How is the Gauss hog any more deadly than the Scorpion or the Wrath? If you stack the Gauss vs the Scorpion or the Wrath, the Scorpion and Wrath are going to win everytime. They destroy everything in one shot, whereas the Gauss hog needs two shots against anything vehicular. I'll concede that the Gauss, before the nerf, could kill a Spartan with one shot. But against other vehicles, it was no more effective than the rocket launcher.
Because it's much faster. This is of obvious, significant benefit, but that increases further when you consider it in a PP + Plas nade loadout environment. The Scorpion can do next to nothing against any real attempt with a PP, but the Gauss can do noticeably more. It can also fire faster than the Scorpion, and has a lower travel time for the round meaning it works better at range. It frankly outclasses the Wraith however you look at it. I'm not saying it's impossible for the either tank to kill it, obviously they're both very powerful, but I think you're understating just how much of a gamechanger the Gauss can be compared to either of them.
****ing finally someone on this damn site share my feelings towards halo 4. Everyone keeps bitching about how halo "isn't like halo 3" OF COURSE ITS NOT HALO 3! We are talking about a brand new studio taking an old game and making it different. Different is good. Especially in this case. I like the new differences. 343i is trying to give halo a new feel, and just take a look at Bungie. The only thing they have left of halo is a statue to arguably the best fps character ever made in their lobby. They have moved on. All you fanboys need to move on from the old halo too.
Yah, Forge is the only thing I will let you guys get away with complaining about. Cause even I am screwed over by most of it. (Who the hell rounds their edges on blocks? Its a block its supposed to be square dammit)