Some people take the COD hate too far, lol. While I'm not in love with COD, it still does a number of things right. Halo is still Halo, even if they try adding Ideas they like from other games. It still looks pretty fresh while being familiar. The only thing I'd hate, is if they DIDN'T change up the game/feature set. Of course, everyone and their dog bitched about how dual wielding would ruing halo MP, but H2 MP is considered the best by many. Lets not be so darn dramatic yet. It could all end up being just fine.

I also like seeing one of my favorite weapons from Unreal Tournament show up in the Scattershot...

Thing with Halo is, the series has by far, the best vehicular combat in FPS (or even a TPS) EVER! In my opinion, no other FPS developer has even topped the vehicular combat sections from the original Halo yet.

I played Halo on PC, and I was BLOWN AWAY by the amazing vehicular sections. The level with the snow, where you have to take down the giant enemy tanks throwing purple artillery at you, or when you land on the "HALO" initially and have to drive around completing objectives. Those levels were amazing, the vehicular physics were amazing (both on the ground and in the air), the AI was top notch (both enemy and friendly).

Halo even came up with the idea of killing infinite spawns and replacing them with scripted drop ship sequences, among other things. But that's another discussion.

IMO Halo is on another level, people who compare it to COD are fools. That being said, I haven't played Halo 3, ODST or Reach yet :/

@Doom_Bringer

and the vehicular action is what also makes the mp so awesome (for me atleast).

Driving warthog with someone operating the turret you're used to play with is such a blast.
The only thing that tops it, is destroying warthogs with plasma pistols and plasma nades...Stunning banshees with the grenade launcher and seeing them spinning down the abyss also is nothing to sneeze at!


P.S. WTF, GO PLAY HALO 3 AND REACH, NOW!!!

yea I totally forgot to mention the multiplayer. GearBox did a great job on the multiplayer for Halo 1. There was this map called, "Death Island" with tanks, banshees, jeeps, ghosts etc and it was sooo much fun! ^_^ And there was this capture the flag map, where the two bases were sandwiched between canyons, it had ATV's, ghosts and the jeep. It was so much fucking fun. Honestly, Halo 1 on PC was the only game (at the time) that made me pull away from Battlefield 1942 (and I was a BF1942 fiend, I was addicted to it like crack).

This series would destroy Battlefield on PC, if it got proper backing my Microsoft. 64 players in the Halo universe? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW

BTW there were a lot of good maps in Halo 1 PC, I forgot their names but most of them were simply fantastic.

Yeah loved the vehicle sections in Halo 1 and 2, 3 not so much... Reach no again although I did enjoy the brief Spaceship battle sequence we got to play, I hope Halo 4 has some great vehicle sections.

Halo has everything, Halo 1 PC was what 24 players max? It has the gameplay, the graphics, the physics. It could work IMO, it would be perfect.

What really jumps out at me with this game is that artists look like they probably have an astronomical amount of freedom. It may sound incredibly awkward to say something like that for a videogame in this day and age, but there doesn't appear to be a limit on much of anything this game's artists want to express in the game, and that's pretty damn exciting. It might be the real culprit responsible for why there is so much unique content for Spartan Ops. They probably have so much to work with.

I mean, if you really take a look at that SP gameplay footage again and see just how truly amazing that forest looks artistically, you start to get a sense of what I mean. If that level of attention to detail has gone into other major game environments, and signs are positive so far, then, man, I just can't wait.

I know some people think this whole ordinance thing sucks to high hell, but it's sounding like some good balancing may be in effect. At first I thought people were going to be getting ordinance drops galore during a single game, and I wasn't sure what I thought about that, but making each successive attempt at getting a personal ordinance 30% more difficult and restricting the highest tier of power weapons from just being able to fall right at someone's feet, sounds like a good starting point.

So, on average, 1-2 personal ordinance drops per game per player ain't half bad at all, considering the way that new weapons tend to be acquired in a typical game of Halo MP. I mean, I haven't had too much experience with Halo MP, but it has been enough to have watched as people have basically camped the living hell out of specific weapon spawn locations, and personal ordinance drops, mixed in with semi-randomized Infinity Ordinance drops, would seem like a pretty damn good way to not only dis-encourage camping a bit, but to kinda get players to utilize more of the map. If the maps are designed right, and they find a really solid way to balance all this out, then it sounds me to like they've got a winner on their hands, even with similarities to COD.

Anything of this sort would probably piss me off beyond belief in a game like counter-strike 1.6, but then Halo isn't counter-strike, so I suppose I could be compelled to accept something a bit different from what I'm personally used to. What scared me most about the personal ordinance drops was the powerups, but it's nice to know that individual players will, at best, only get those once or twice a game, with the folks who are really kicking ass possibly getting it 3 times. I might get gold for this game.

That's a pretty inaccurate take on what I was saying, but to make the point more clear: Halo and Counter-Strike are two entirely different kinds of first person shooters for more reasons than I even care to go into. This kind of stuff would flat out be like the death of an MP game such as Counter-Strike. With regards to something like Halo, however, I really and truly don't need very much experience with the MP side of the game to see that these additions are nothing of the sort.

These additions don't kill Halo MP. You and many others might hate the changes, and want things to be done the older way, but it doesn't kill Halo MP. If anything, I think it makes it seem slightly more dynamic, strategic and genuinely interesting than I ever felt it was before. There was also a time when counter-strike players felt that the AWP delay that was implemented in 1.6 would forever kill sniping in competitive counter-strike, or when people thought that the changes to the money system, and the ways it could once be exploited in competitive play, where all it would take was a single player from the terrorist team camping till the end of the round to screw the counter-terrorist side's money, while bolstering their own all while not completing the primary objective of the terrorist side, which is to either kill everyone on the CT side, or to plant and protect the bomb until it explodes. There were also people who felt that the elimination of crouch hopping/russian walking would kill the MP game, too. While I'll admit that power-ups are a bit more on the extreme side of things, even if handled well, it doesn't take an experienced Halo MP player to see that while these changes might piss off Halo MP die hards, that they don't exactly kill or doom the Halo MP experience. These additions are far from being the CS riotshield, for example, that was so bizarre it couldn't even be allowed in serious competitive play.

I've also now finally seen the "wallhack"/promethean vision used on a much larger map, and it's then that you see that this is far from being a wallhack, more than it's like a form of quick sonar that scans a certain radius around the character, but prevents you from seeing very much further beyond that limited radius. It can seem downright overpowered on much smaller maps, though, can't deny that, but it looks tamed significantly on larger maps. But then armor abilities are suppose to provide advantages. A wallhack would be, and is, far more dangerous in a game like counter-strike, but you still have a legitimate fighting chance against promethean vision in Halo. I wouldn't consider that the case in a game like CS. So, I'm not necessarily saying I don't care what they do to it, but I know an overreaction when I see one, and when you read more about what they're doing, it doesn't really sound all that drastically different from the Halo that already exists. In a game like Halo, any change, or set of changes, that discourages weapon spawn camping, adds a bit more strategy and dynamic gameplay situations to the mix, while also encouraging players to explore more of the map, are a good thing. You may not see it that way, but I'm just not seeing how the "legendary" Halo MP formula is somehow being ripped to shreds. It sounds to me like it's being made better. You haven't referred to the formula as legendary, but I've seen others do so on other sites, and I'm just not seeing it.

All the Pro MLG players loving the Halo4 MP is great, but what i find more promising are all the reports from this weekends RTX show were lots of normal players got hands-on with the Halo 4 MP and also loved it, allot of them from Gaf who went there with negative views on the additions, but after they got hands on came away very impressed.

I played a fair bit during the Halo 3 beta. I acknowledge that I haven't played it as much as you and some others, but I do think I've played it enough to have a pretty good idea of what Halo MP is like. I think I have a good feel for how it flows. I understand, and partly agree, with the argument that if maybe I were more invested in Halo's MP, I'd be more pissed off with the additions, but there seems to be a lot of pro gamers and just plain hardcore Halo players who themselves seem just as heavily invested, if not more so, in Halo's MP, who are sharing a similar opinion to my own.

Seriously, have you seen Promethean Vision used on a larger map? I swear, there were times when it was practically useless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIYlP5FVPJQ

Check about 27-30 seconds into this very recent Halo 4 MP vid. The guy uses Promethean Vision on a larger map, and fails to spot anybody. It's not your traditional wallhack. It performs a single sonar style sweep of the environment. ONce you use a wallhack, you can see everything consistently everywhere. It doesn't appear to be so with Halo 4 so far. I also wonder to myself that if someone uses promethean vision, and then performs a full 180, if they actually manage to see anything back there?

Each to his own, I guess. Will have to see and learn more.

What COD did wrong was the automatic kills on top of getting stuff for smoking everyone. I didn't have a problem with rewarding good play, but I did with having unmanned turrets earning kills, unanswerable (without a specific kit) gunships flying overhead shooting you in the back and earning kills while sitting in a corner, or even moving about without control. Also the ease (sprint and commando, anyone) and stupidity.
I don't see anything wrong with kill streaks as long as it stays balanced. You still have to earn your kills, and an opponent can still fight back...

@Grift
Complete agree.

Rewarding the good players is plain stupid. Frustrating and match-breaking. Giving the bad players rockets and shit doesnt help either to make a game more fun.

In Halo 3, there once was a game mode, where the team beeing down by 5 or more points, got navigation arrows so that they knew where the members of the leading team were.
Its also not really competitive this way, but it genrated close outcomes everytime and is a better method to keep the game more even than throwing power weapons and abilities at us.

I do actually understand and agree at all of your concerns, Grift and although i am rather a glass-half-empty type of guy, I hope for the hands-on reports to also reflect my opinion on the game once I play it...

From those that have actually played the demo at RTX the PV is near useless, according to them the standard radar you have does just a good a job, lots of people are trying it of course because its new, but they soon revert back to something more useful.

Quick questions aren't the normal Halo playmodes still there for those that want the classic Halo?

I think it depends, and will mostly be used be noobs, also 343 have stated it will be tweaked back, what this means i have no idea? less distance or only once per charge/min who know?

And yes classic Halo modes are still there, so those that dont like I.S can stay away from it :)

Oh right thanks.
Guess we will see, i for just cant wait to get me hands on this game! SP / Spartan Ops and some MP, bring it!!

Yeah plus its good to hear that from all the MLG Pros and the Halo communities that have got real hands on time at RTX, that it plays and feels great. :)

Great to hear.Missed this video from E3, Holy fuck at the sounds of those weapons! and you can even hear different wildlife in the forest lol..

http://uk.gamespot.com/halo-4/videos/loud-gun-game...