A studious Halo fan was able to get access to Halo 4 theater mode for campaign. I don’t know who it is as the video links to a German site and I can not read German.
Regardless, the montage is great and makes me yearn THAT MUCH MORE for theater in Halo 4 Campaign and Spartan Ops.
Thanks kindly to HaloDiehards.net for tweeting the link to this.
-Sal
Before the XBOX One comes out and even MORE of you leave Halo 4, I’d like to ask for your help in either/both Halo Wars and Halo CE Anniversary.
Simply put, I’m looking to get achievements completed. If you need some in either game, let me know. If you’r a WHIZ at Halo Wars, I definitely want to game with you as I know you’ll be able to help me get those cheevos!
In any event, I’m just looking to complete these games and need a break from Halo 4 for a bit.
Anyone interested in helping me grind out some cheevos, reply below or message me on XBOX Live. My GT is HaloFanForLife1
Here are the achievements I still need in Halo CE Anniversary:
Dear Diary… – Read all of the terminals hidden throughout the campaign.
Living Legend – Complete every level of the game on Legendary difficulty.
That Just Happened – Complete the level “The Library” on Heroic difficulty or higher without dying.
All According to Plan… – Kill all the enemies in the first encounter of “Truth and Reconciliation” without being detected.
Grenadier – Escape the map room in “The Silent Cartographer” without firing a shot on Heroic or Legendary.
Breaking Quarantine – Escape the Forerunner facility on the level “343 Guilty Spark” in 21 minutes or less.
Tying Up Loose Ends – Kill every Elite on the level “Keyes” on Heroic difficulty or above.
Never Tell Me the Odds – Escape “The Maw” on Legendary with at least a minute left on the count down.
And here are the ones I still need in Halo Wars:
Adjudicate the Arbiter – Complete the Campaign on Heroic Difficulty
Detour the Great Journey – Complete the Campaign on Legendary Difficulty
Mr. Punctual – Finish all missions under Par Time on Heroic difficulty
Own Worst Enemy – Get a Gold Medal with all Debuff Skulls Active
Wall of Recognition – Get a Gold Medal on every Campaign Mission
Epic Grinder – Obtain a Lifetime Campaign Score over 1,000,000
Everything’s Better with Bacon – Mission 1: Ram 50 Grunts with Warthogs
Covenant “Hot Drop” – Mission 3: Kill at least 5 Covenant Units with the Bridge
He’s Got The Jack – Mission 5: Jack 6 Covenant Vehicles
Rhino Hugger – Mission 6: Successfully protect every Rhino
Micro Manager – Mission 7: Do not destroy any Power Node
Ramblin’ Man – Mission 8: Use Elephants to train 100 Infantry
The Procrastinator – Mission 10: Disrupt all Tractor Beams
Battened Down the Hatches – Mission 11: Save all the Airlocks
Handy with Tools – Mission 12: Repair the Power Core in less than 4 minutes
Beaming with Pride – Mission 13: Destroy 25 units with the Scarab
Didn’t Get To Second Base – Mission 14: Don’t claim an extra base
Thinkin’ about My Doorbell – Mission 15: Open the Doors in order
OMG BFF FTW – Complete entire Campaign in Co-op Mode
Titan – Get 20,000 points in any Skirmish Game
Big Al’s Scooter – Win a Heroic Skirmish Game against the AI in under 10 minutes
Penny Pincher – Get a winning High Score with 10 or less Squads against the Heroic AI
N00b n0 M0r3 – Win a Matchmade Skirmish Game on Xbox LIVE
So Lonely at the Top – Win and have the Highest Score in a Matchmade Skirmish Game on Xbox LIVE
Basically Naive – Obtain the Recruit Rank on Xbox LIVE
Officer on Deck – Obtain the Lieutenant Rank on Xbox LIVE
Running the Show – Obtain the General Rank on Xbox LIVE
Graverobber – Collect all Skulls
Halo Historian – Unlock All Timeline Events
Ready for the Sequel – 100% Completion
24 Hours of Quality – Play Halo Wars for at least 24 Total Hours
One and Done – Score the winning point in a game of Keepaway against Legendary AIs.
Freak on a Streak – Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game.
Living Loving Bug – Get a Scarab during a Reinforcement game.
Tour Coming Through – Hot drop 50 squads to your Covenant Leader in a single game on Barrens.
Never Leave a Man Behind – Finish with 5000 net resources tributed to your teammates on Memorial Basin except in Deathmatch.
Drain Cleaner – Kill 20 enemy squads with a continuous Covenant Leader Power on Memorial Basin.
Killjoy – Disrupt 5 active Leader Powers in a single game on Blood River.
-Sal
Tonight for Halo Fan Friday League, I’m going to switch things up some. It’s Reach night! I’m looking to play some Firefight and need 3 others who are ready and willing to play at least 2 hours of Firefight in Reach.
I just want/need a break from Halo 4 for a day, thus the reason for the change.
-Sal
Once again Bravo brings us this week’s bulletin.
There’s a bit of celebration today as it’s Halo 4’s one-year anniversary.
BS Angel addresses the team:
Bravo wore a Master Chief cosplay and cut the cake to honor this.
By now, hopefully you’ve gotten in a game or more on Halo for and especially in the Birthday Fiesta playlist. Every kill gets a confetti surprise. Also as previously mentioned on the blog, the Guilty Spark emblem will unlock in a week or two…
Matchmaking Playlist Update
This Monday Multi-Team makes it’s comeback. And the winner of the community choice poll is:
YES!!!! I’m VERY happy this won. Now if I can just get those last 30 or so wins I need in Regicide to finish off that commendation!
The Team Slayer CSR update is planned for later this month.
Community Playdate with 343: Multi-Team
After this comes a little bit of fluffery in Haloween “costumes” that really aren’t costumes…Okay, maybe one was.
Finally we come to the Screenshot Spotlight of the week. This week’s: ODST
I found three of them to be pretty good:
Nevermind that this one is OUTSIDE of Pitfall. It’s still pretty cool. I’d just like to know how they got their poses without dying from the death barrier…
For those that haven’t taken the time to look, this poster can be found on the multiplayer map, SKYLINE.
I just like the pose of this one.
Next week’s spotlight is on the Gravity Hammer. Expect a bunch of Grifball shots…
For the full bulletin, go HERE.
-Sal
Yet another great person with 343 is leaving…sigh.
Why is this happening? Why are the GOOD ones leaving? I’d venture a guess, but I know it would likely stir an argument with some folks.
So suffice to say, this is a blow to the Halo franchise. I know people come and go in business all the time. It just seems like Halo/343 is losing people they shouldn’t and people that I wish would leave, well…
You’ll be missed Chris.
-Sal
The XBOX One tour is winding down. But there are still places to go to check it out.
I for one am excited as it’s coming to Pittsburgh this weekend, which is where I live.
To check and see if the tour is coming to a place near you, click HERE!
-Sal
So you still have time to unlock the Guilty Spark Emblem.
The issue is that you won’t unlock it immediately as most everyone thought. Nope, instead you’ll get it a week or two later. What proof of that? Here you go, via Twitter:
Now why is this the case?
Okay, yes we’ll get it, but really a week or two out? Folks, THIS is the very kind of thing that is just RUINING the Halo franchise. I have to say that myself and my friends ALL expected this to unlock IMMEDIATELY. Not later, not a week or two from now.
Yes, I’m mildly thankful we get a special emblem, but honestly, it’s not all that big of a deal. What is though is the manner in which it was ‘advertised’ and then to be administered.
Why didn’t 343 SAY it would unlock a week or two from now? You know why…because we’d have all griped about it before hand. Instead 343 once again doesn’t bare enough info and once again it pisses off fans. When will they learn you just shouldn’t MUCK with your fan base like this?
Yes, I hear those of you saying, but it’s something free. Or be thankful. As I said, I am. But seriously, 343 needs to get their shit together. If you’re going to promote an item unlockable through your game for having played a game on a specific date, then it’s DAMN SAFE to assume most if not all expect that item to unlock once they’ve reached the criteria.
Now for those who say it’s not possible…Really? Look at challenges. Daily, weekly, monthly challenges. They are all times events that have locked in dates/times as to when you can accomplish them. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT. Instead of XP, we get an emblem. You’d have to think someone thought enough ahead to make this a timed feature too.
Once again this leads me to ask WHO IS MAKING THE DECISIONS at 343?
-Sal
I’ve already said ad naseum my issues with Halo 4. Yet some “friends” and others try to refute my claim that Halo 4 has failed us. The following shows charts of the decrease of the Halo 4 population as well as certain events that happened during this timeline. It’s a GREAT read and should prove beyond doubt that Halo 4 just wasn’t up to snuff.
What’s better about this is that it IS NOT me saying this. Fyrewulff, was (maybe still is) a community cartographer. So he is a respected member of the community. So don’t take my words for it, read his:
This is a repost of an initial post of a thread on NeoGaf, by FyreWulff:
Well, it”s been about a year since Halo 4 released.
Halo 4 was 343’s first full go at their own Halo title since Bungie left the Microsoft umbrella to go work on Destiny.
The reception of Halo 4 was thus. A graph of Halo 4’s peak population, every day, for the last year:
(all graphs in this post provided by www.halocharts.com , by the way )
Hmm.
Let’s go over the major events in Halo 4’s run. Here’s the big overview:
The First Two Weeks
In the run up to Halo 4’s release, Microsoft seemed interested in getting as many people to play the game as possible. So they took the early perk unlocks from the LE and told people that everyone that played within the first two weeks would get the perk unlocks too. This sets the stage for a fairly big blow to this game, but it’s not the first one.
A week into Halo 4’s life span, Black Ops 2 releases. And half of Halo 4’s population vanishes, never to return. November 12th – a whole six days after the game releases – is the last day Halo 4 will see more than 300k peak population. It won’t take much longer – ten days after release – for Halo 4 to see the last time it goes above 200k, on November 16th.
14 Day Buy and Play
Everyone who has gotten their codes for the first two weeks either redeems them or hands them out. People that wants the perks use the code for themselves. A lot of people, including many GAFers, HBOers, and other Halo communities toss the codes to people that want them, since they’re not too interested in the perk system. The population continues downward.
And then.. the Crimson Map Pack release happens. And something hilarious happens: everyone with the specializations code can download Crimson as if they have the map pack. For free. What? WHAT? Yep. Seems in their rush to get the specializations code out, Microsoft forgot that the software key that unlocked the specializations was the same one that unlocked the map packs for free download. Awwwkward. Okay, it’s a fuck up though, they’ll just fix it right?
Well, they did. But they did it in the worst way possible. Absolutely the WORST handling of a mistake I have seen, and destroyed absolutely any pretension in my mind (and other’s minds) that 343 had any autonomy from Microsoft. So what did they do?
Lie through their frickin’ teeth.
They goofed. We understand humans develop games, so whatever. Patch it up. In less than 24 hours, we went from 343 employees, Microsoft employees, and Xbox Support acknowledging it was a fuckup to Microsoft outright pretending it was not actually a mistake at ALL. They invented a fake program called “14 Day Buy and Play” that supposedly ran at Halo 4’s release (the term didn’t even exist until that day), sent it out as a press release, and Kotaku and most other gaming sites happily regurgitated it as legitimate. So not only had Microsoft fucked up, they then proceeded to tell us no, they didn’t screw up, they meant to do it all along.
They then issued a patch a week later that fixed the bug and took the free Crimson map pack away from the people that redeemed it. Hrmm, for something intended, strange they had to patch the game to end the trial period.
To make it even worse, 343 could have at least poked fun at the whole thing, or acknowledged the screw up was a screw up and they were letting people play it for a bit before taking it away. Instead, they posted the 14 Day Buy and Play press release directly on their website. With a straight face.
343 lost a lot of good will on that day, with a lot of people. It definitively set the tone people treated 343 with after that.
Boltshots R Us
Halo 4 trucked along. At this point, players were getting frustrated. Big, annoying balance issues were identified, such as the DMR being overpowered and the go-to weapon for ranged kills, and the Boltshot being the CQB weapon above all others.. Content share was completely broken; you couldn’t search for files nor could you initiate a download from the website. The game had menus and UI for it, but none of it worked. Along with a lack of campaign films and Forge features being dropped from Reach, this kneecapped the content creation arm of the community.
They would finally fix file search and tagging in late January, 3 months after release. These features worked day 1 in Reach.
Finally, 343 addressed the Boltshot with a title update on Feb 21, a couple of days before the Majestic map pack:
The title update + Majestic caused a minor uptick in Halo 4’s population (the missing days were due to issues recording the numbers). Between the announcement of Majestic and the week after Majestic’s release, Halo 4 would lose another 20,000 peak players.
Tune It Up
In late March/early April, 343 issued another title update. This title update implemented support for death indicators in game (previously relegated to a perk) and the ability for 343 to deploy weapon tuning via embedding the weapon data inside gametypes, allowing them to rebalance guns without a title update. And thus began what was a critical mistake by 343: sticking to the script and not acting like they were bleeding out players.
No, you’re not reading that wrong. It took 343 two months to actually deploy a weapon tune update from the moment it became possible, when the original point of the update was that they could make changes instantly. They would lose 20,000 people in this time period. What did they spend it doing? Hyping up a Community day where they flew out people from the community so they could ‘reveal’ the weapon tune update on a big, advertised stream. Even though the update was in gametypes and could be shared with the community immediately, we had to wait for MS’s marketing department to get their rocks off before we could feel like 343 was actually trying to salvage the sandbox. In a sensible world, the weapon updates would have been thrown in a beta playlist and updated weekly, with the community day just being a nice thing to celebrate the final version. 343 seemed to be intentionally ignoring their dire situation and did not act like they needed to address huge problems immediately. Because..
Stability Perk
The weapon tune update actually did legitimately address a lot of issues with the game. Halo 4’s weapon tune update actually stopped the bleeding, and stabilized Halo 4’s population.
A whole six months after the game came out. Six months of people showing 343 what was wrong with the game, that they could have all identified within the first two months. Unfortunately, 343 never seemed willing to deviate from their marketing and support script. People were walking out the door as 343 said “Trust Us”, and didn’t come back.
Soon after this, 343 would release the Bullseye Map Pack, which was 2 maps. One was a remake of The Pit from Halo 3! Yay! The population didn’t get boosted at all. It also introduced armor that could be bought with Real Money Only and they dug in even more on perks, after backlash from the community over them. Then promised those perks would become available to everyone else, which still hasn’t happened.
The Game of the Year Edition, which released at a reduced price point and includes all of the game’s DLC, came out somewhere in the chart. See if you can find it.
It’s in the second population valley from the left
Some points I didn’t have a good way to write up or didn’t care to:
* Halo 4 lasted a whole two entire months in the Top 3 of the Xbox Live activity chart. Halo 3 didn’t fall out of the Top 3 until Halo Reach released – 3 years after it’s release. Halo Reach didn’t fall out of the Top 3 until 343’s title update for the game after they took over the game, 12 months after release.
* Roughly a year after release, Halo 3 had a 1.1 million peak population day. Reach had a 900,000 peak population day after the same amount of time. Halo 4 clocks in at 20,000 peak for it’s annual checkup.
* 343 attempted to require the Majestic DLC for Team Slayer. The DLC requirement took the playlist from the top 2 in population to almost the bottom. They removed the DLC requirement afterwards and removed the DLC requirements from their weekly playlists after the first weekly playlist struggled to maintain over 150 players in it. Keep in mind the Majestic map pack was included in the map pass…
I imagine a lot of people have a lot to say about Halo 4, I’ll follow up later with my breakdown of gameplay and breakdown of campaign. Thought I’d start the thread off with an overall recap. The storm approaches. I’m talking about HaloGAF
Reference Material
Campaign Screenshots
Dawn
http://imgur.com/a/uVdoj#0
Requiem
http://imgur.com/a/yxFDj#0
Forerunner
http://imgur.com/a/FybUX#0
Infinity
http://imgur.com/a/LYst8#0
Reclaimer
http://imgur.com/a/N8hox#0
Shutdown
http://imgur.com/a/fA2VM#0
Composer
http://imgur.com/a/uiK8d#0
Midnight
http://imgur.com/a/RH2te#0
Character Studies
Master Chief
http://imgur.com/a/Ja0OE
Cortana
http://imgur.com/a/bb1KO
Lasky
http://imgur.com/a/PPYZY
Marines
http://imgur.com/a/3HzX2
Medics
http://imgur.com/a/DLkAr
/copy-paste
So there you have it folks. Reach WAS and IMO still IS a better game than Halo 4. If anything the numbers themselves PROVE that. I’ve said before, I think Halo 4 is a good game, but it’s NOT a great game, and most certainly isn’t even near the top of Halo games. Too many additions that took the game away from what the core of Halo was into being something Halo isn’t just made many long time fans leave. Without them to help carry the franchise along, those casual friends of the long time fans left as well.
There is only so much we the remaining loyal Halo fans can do. It’s up to 343 to make or further break this franchise.
I should be joyous and happy for the 1 year anniversary of Halo 4. Instead, I look back with grim solace over what was lost…
-Sal
Darkhorse will be releasing the next Halo comic next month. I’ve shown the following two covers previously on the blog, so these are a reminder. The last cover is Halo Escalation #2’s.
Escalation #2 cover:
REALLY liking these covers!
Issues will cost $3.99. Look for these at your local comic book store!
-Sal
It’s just Martin and myself tonight as we discuss the week in Halo, Halo 4 turning one-year old, and Spartan Assault coming to the XBOX 360 and XBOX One.The Week in Halo:
For the first time ever, we record a podcast shorter than one-hour! Whew, didn’t think it could be done, LOL.
This podcast is mostly upbeat. With exception to the first report, everything else is pretty good.
Have a listen or download and please let me know what you thought of this episode by replying below!
Listen Here:
Download here by right clicking:
-Sal
VanOcean, has struck again, uncovering two new sets to come from Mega Bloks for their Halo line.
The first is a 4-figure multi-pack.
What’s great about this set is that you get two good army builders in the grunt and jackal. As well, for folks like me who like active camo figs, we get an AC Recruit Spartan IV. Also, there is a Red Scout Spartan. VERY good set, imo. A little odd the packaging shows a clear AC spartan while the set comes with a blue AC Spartan. But I’m NOT complaining. I LOVE AC figs (as most of you long time readers know!).
Taking a look at the back reveals three other sets. What looks to be a Black and Yellow Cyclops (or maybe Green and Yellow), a Ghost set with a white or silver Elite Zealot and a Spartan, and the UNSC Weapons pack II as seen below.
Okay, this is a KNOCKOUT set! First it comes with an incredible army builder in the regular Halo 4 marine style. Not to mention an energy core, a couple of sandbags….AND SKINNED Weapons! YES!
The AR and DMR get FIRST-EVER skins! The DMR is even more special as that is the skin you can only get through Spartan Assault!
The back of this box also shows the previously pre-viewed ODST drop pods coming for the holidays.
Here’s what you get in the Weapons pack.
And here are two action posed pics.
All pics are from VanOcean, a Mega Bloks fan in China.
-Sal
Multi-team is the next playlist to come into the rotational playlist for the next two weeks.
It looks like Multi-Team Regicide is going to win the community choice poll as well. I’m SO happy about this. The reason being is that I’ve been trying for MONTHS to finish my Regicide commendations so I could unlock the Kingslayer emblem. (Seen below)
The reason for this is that it’s crucial to my web series “MaC Rounds.” Why? Mac Rounds is a web series that follows the further adventures of Crimson and Majestic Fireteams. Majestic uses the Kingslayer emblem on their armor, as seen here on Spartan Grant’s left shoulder:
With Regicide being picked for the community choice of Multi-team for the next two weeks, I have a better chance of completing the commendation sooner. I only need 35 wins in Regicide to get this done, so you can bet I’ll be playing this playlist a LOT for the next two-weeks. Hopefully I can get it done BEFORE those two weeks end!
-Sal
Weekly I scour Pinterest for Halo art. This week brings quite the assortment of art. Whether it’s concept art from Bungie or 343, tattoos, fan art, etc. There’s something there for everyone. Here is this week’s batch of pins!
As always you can find my Pinterest page from the homepage in the blogroll on the right. Or you can click HERE.
Click each to make bigger and/or right click to download.
-Sal
Worth a chuckle.
This is funny, exciting and VERY well done!
Man, I wish I could be part of this. I’d love to do voice-over work for the vids!
-Sal