Recently uncovered by a person on NeoGaf here are four gameplay videos of the soon to be released Majestic Map Pack!

LANDFALL GAMEPLAY

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

MONOLITH INFINITY RUMBLE GAMEPLAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsjhQW7obmw

MONOLITH TEAM RECICIDE GAMEPLAY

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

SKYLINE CTF GAMEPLAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO-4YEh_1NA

Wow, does Landfall look fantastic!!! And did you notice the ships flying overhead?
Monolith as I suspected is a basic Forerunner map.
Skyline looks good. A bit “yellow-ish” in color palette. That however would make for a great Flood map!

Majestic is crowned for gameplay this Monday, Feb 25!

-Sal

If you’re like me and anxiously awaiting the Majestic map pack, then here are a few establishing screen shots to tide you over, with even more at the source link.

The maps look great. As I’ve said before, I’m really looking forward most to Skyline, then Landfall. I guess I’m liking the human maps that are somewhat realistic. I’m kind of bored with Forerunner stuff as often times it just seems like shapes on a map without much reason for them.

-Sal

I’m SO looking forward to this new map pack. Skyline looks AWESOME. As does Landfall.

Just released yesterday this video from 343 have some of it’s employees talking about the virtues of each map, it’s design style, and gameplay.

The Majestic Map pack comes out this coming Monday, Feb 25.

Here are my opinions of the current “competitive” playlist that was just launched yesterday for Halo 4.

I played several games in Team Throwback…er Throwdown yesterday. Different gametypes within it, CTF, Extraction, Slayer. As well, I played with friends and randoms alike.

I’ve got to say I don’t like the settings for most of Team Throwdown. Why?

Okay, first, let’s look at those settings as posting by MLG Bravo (or whatever his correct screen name is) Open the source link in another window and use to read long with my post.

Source link: Team Throwdown Playlist Details

Bravo goes on to list what “gamers” said about this playlist. Note that those same gamers are the ones who HELPED him create this playlist, so of course they are going to like it. Rather biased I’d say…

So let’s break some of this down and I’ll give my feedback along the way.

Overall settings: I agree with the first several settings until with get to Personal Ordnane. BR start only? Okay, but why no secondary weapon? Halo 3 had secondaries, so did Reach. Having no secondary harkens back to Halo 2. It’s funny, one of my friends whom I gamed with yesterday in the playlist was livid about this. He said (and I paraphrase) “If they wanted to make Halo 2 settings, then just go F$%*&ing play Halo 2!.” Hmm, got to agree with him there. Halo 4 is supposed to be about progressions and evolving gameplay, not taking steps backward.

Now how about those armor abilities? Thruster I’ve almost never see used in multiplayer before this playlist, same can be said about the lightshield. So that leaves us with Hologram which was used ad nauseum in the games I played by practically everyone. Really? Enabling two abilities most don’t use on a regular basis? Wow, out of touch. And then including one that you know most are going to default to. Or is this a way to shove having to use thruster pack and hard light shield down on us?

Sensor Mode only allows for Allys. Really? Hmm, let’s see Halo 3 showed us all, so do Reach and Halo 4. So you’re going to strip away a much needed asset? It’s something everyone uses for awareness of enemies This was something I heard just about everyone I gamed with yesterday complain about. Put it in! It doesn’t make sense to only have allies viewable. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

Weapons spawns. Railgun on every freakin’ map? (well the ones I played on anyway) Seriously? Come on guys mix it up a bit please. Did I get killed by it? Yes. Did I kill with it? Yes again. But it really became boring to have the same power weapon on each map.

BR Starts. Again why only the BR for the “v2” settings? I guess Bravo and his crew don’t want to be killed by an AR? Okay, so why not have the magnum as a secondary? It’s just ludicrous to NOT have a secondary weapons.

Deluxe settings. Wow, 5 settings and only 1 for the DMR and it doesn’t have a support upgrade. I think someone really hates DMR users. And the laughable Light Rifle as one of the other 5? Come on, really? If it’s firing rate were ramped up just a smidge okay, yeah, it would RULE. It is powerful, but is TOO slow in firing. So what does this leave us with…Yep, three BR settings.

On to game type settings.
Slayer-no complaints there.

Extraction…whoo boy…here we go. Five second arm time? Really? Feels more like ten. I’m going to have to check that. It just feels awfully LONG. And then it takes one MINUTE to extract? This was complained about alot. Not just me, but just about every friend I gamed with yesterday. Games were not finishing with someone winning by scoring 5 to win. Most were winning with 3 points or less. One game we played in, the initial extraction point was fought over for more than 2/3 of the game. Sorry Bravo, you got this one wrong. Scoring points makes the game exciting. By having such a LONG time to extract you severely diminish the ability to score. That doesn’t make people happy, it pisses them off. You need to look a professional sports bud, not gaming. Each major sport has evolved their sport to make it better and easier for scoring. This is what people want to see and play.

King of the Hill-barely came up and I never got the chance to play, so I can’t speak to it. But I want to play this game type.

CTF-flag at home? Okay, maybe ONE of the 3 choice, not TWO of the three. Again, you’re taking us back to the “old” days and again MLG settings. Scoring Bravo, THAT is what competitive objective needs to be about. You’ve got to make it a little easier to score.

Lastly, how about those respawn times? Wow, it feels like it’s taking forever to get back into the game. Come on guys, we want to PLAY the game, not feel like we’re waiting in LIMBO to play while respawning.

It’s clear to me Bravo and his buds wanted this to be a MLG playlist. Um fellows, MLG does NOT rule Halo. In fact didn’t Halo get dropped from MLG? Yeah, it’s because it didn’t have MLG settings in a playlist. However, just take a look at the numbers from MLG playlists in the past Halo games. Those playlists were VERY often low in population. Why? Because the majority of gamers (whom are average gamers) don’t like MLG settings. Not to mention they know the playlist is filled with “TryHards.” Yes, I used that hated term. Fact is, when you’ve got MLG organized teams  (I’m talking the REAL ones, not wannabees) playing in that playlist, most people do NOT want to go up against them. So why make the regular competitive playlist in Halo 4 like this? When teams of friends are getting crushed by those teams, you’re going to see a lot more complaining. Bravo, who did you really have test these settings? Oh yeah, that’s right your MLG buddies as you stated in your article on Waypoint.

Folks, this is what we get when someone from MLG is allowed to create the settings for the competitive playlist. Yes, I know Bravo is with 343 now, but his roots are very clearly with MLG.

My friends I game with, (gamers ranging from average to very good) were all complaining about many of these settings. It got so bad that we were continually looking at K/Ds in pre-game lobby to determine if we wanted to go against those players or not. I see that being abused a LOT in the competitive playlist. Maybe this will even out over time, but then again, matching up teams haven’t been all that successful in past Halo games. So, I don’t think that’s going to stop.

Now all this said, am I saying Bravo’s MLG setting competitive playlist needs to be scrapped? No, but it does need some major changes. Competitive is NOT MLG. Most gamers are NOT MLG, though some like to think they are. You’ve GOT to cater to the majority here, not just your MLG buds.

Instead of bringing in just MLG guys to help with settings and testing, how about you get some regular folks, you know average/above average players to help with settings and play testing. No, 343 employees don’t count either.

This is one article I REALLY want to hear back on. Have you played the competitive playlist? If so what are your thoughts on the settings?

Also, if you want to give your feedback to 343, go to this thread on Waypoint:

Team Throwdown Feedback

-Sal