While personally, I bored of Forerunner maps, this one does have a nice aesthetic.
Category Archives: Halo 4
Halo 4 Majestic Map Pack Strategy: Landfall
Wow I am just SO excited to play on this map! It just looks “REAL.” Everything has a purpose on the map. I love maps with realism to them, rather than just shapes to dodge and run around.
Majestic map pack achievements
Released just last night, here are the achievements for the Majestic map pack!
-Sal
THE HALO BULLETIN: 2.20.13
Lots of Halo goodness coming from this week’s bulletin.
It starts with a big article on the Majestic Map pack. Loads of info. Some we’ve already seen the past few days, and lots more to come. There is a schedule of this info at the link above. As well you can download several hi-res images from the Majestic map pack.
Next is the secretive “Section 3” portion of the bulletin where fans can try to unlock a secret code/message, etc.
From there we jump into next week’s matchmaking updates. Spartan Ops missions will be these for next week:
Spartan Ops Designer’s Choice: David Ellis and Greg Murphy
Episode 3 Mission 4 – Shootout in Valhalla
Episode 10 Mission 3 – Seize the Power
Episode 10 Mission 5 – One Last Time
Episode 4 Mission 3 – Random Transport
Episode 5 Mission 4 – The Cauldron Base
Here’s how the Majestic map pack will play into matchmaking starting Monday:
To start, here’s how these maps will be integrated into existing playlists at launch.
| Landfall | Infinity Slayer |
| SWAT | |
| Team Doubles | |
| Monolith | Infinity Slayer |
| Capture the Flag | |
| SWAT | |
| Regicide | |
| Team Doubles | |
| Skyline | Infinity Slayer |
| Capture the Flag | |
| SWAT | |
| Regicide | |
| Team Doubles |
The Majestic Map Pack will also be featured in two brand new playlists: Majestic FFA and Majestic Team DLC. Here are the game types that will be featured in each playlist:
| Majestic Team DLC | 4 vs. 4 |
| Landfall | Infinity Slayer |
| Extraction | |
| Monolith | Infinity Slayer |
| Team Regicide | |
| King of the Hill | |
| Skyline | Infinity Slayer |
| Capture the Flag | |
| SWAT |
| Majestic FFA DLC | 8 player Free-for-All |
| Landfall | Infinity Rumble |
| Rumble Pro | |
| Monolith | Infinity Rumble |
| Rumble Pro | |
| Regicide | |
| Skyline | Infinity Rumble |
| Rumble Pro | |
| Regicide |
Speaking of FFA and Rumble Pro, here are those details:
| Mode | Infinity Rumble |
| Players | 8 |
| Score to Win | 250 (25 Kills) |
| Loadouts | Custom |
| Instant Respawn | Disabled |
| Death Cam | Enabled |
| Motion Tracker | Enabled |
| Personal Ordnance | Enabled |
| Ordnance Drops | Enabled |
| Time Limit | 15 Minutes |
Rumble Pro is another brand new mode that offers an FFA experience based on the Doubles Pro settings. Here are the details below:
| Mode | Rumble Pro |
| Players | 8 |
| Score to Win | 250 (25 Kills) |
| Loadouts | Game Loadouts (see below) |
| Instant Respawn | Disabled |
| Death Cam | Disabled |
| Motion Tracker | Enabled |
| Personal Ordnance | Disabled |
| Ordnance Drops | Enabled |
| Time Limit | 12 Minutes |
Rumble Pro Game Loadouts:
| Loadout 1 | |
| Starting Weapon | DMR |
| Secondary Weapon | Magnum |
| Armor Abilities | None |
| Tactical Mod | Resupply |
| Support Mod | Explosives |
| Loadout 2 | |
| Starting Weapon | Battle Rifle |
| Secondary Weapon | Magnum |
| Armor Abilities | None |
| Tactical Mod | Resupply |
| Support Mod | Explosives |
| Loadout 3 | |
| Starting Weapon | LightRifle |
| Secondary Weapon | Magnum |
| Armor Abilities | None |
| Tactical Mod | Resupply |
| Support Mod | Explosives |
| Loadout 4 | |
| Starting Weapon | Carbine |
| Secondary Weapon | Magnum |
| Armor Abilities | None |
| Tactical Mod | Resupply |
| Support Mod | Explosives |
Now here’s the most important part of the bulletin: Title Update info!!!
Title Update… Update?
The next Halo 4 Title Update is slated to go live sometime this week. While we’d love to give you the specific date and time you’ll be prompted to download this update, unfortunately we’re only given an ambiguous window in which it will release, not a hard date. So you’ll know as soon as we know… or something like that, anyway.
While this update tackles a significant amount of bugs, glitches and issues we’re happy to soon call resolved, there’s more balancing to be done and more matters of contention to address, and we are actively working with the Halo 4 game team to investigate the feasibility of additional fixes. For now, here is a breakdown of what will be included in this particular title update.
Gameplay
• Reduced the range of the Boltshot’s damage scaling over distance. The previous effective range for 1-hit kills was around 20-25′. The range has been reduced to 15′.
• Fixed an issue where modified loadouts were not being saved correctly.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to sprint while crouching using “hold to crouch” would cause players to be unable to shoot for 1-1.5 seconds.
• Fixed an issue where some players were not able to get into matches on new map/game variants after playlist updates.
• Fixed a DLC-related Join-in-Progress issue that kicked players back to the title screen.
• Fixed various issues regarding glitched Autosentry deployment.
• Fixed an issue where one player per session was unable to stay scoped with the Flagnum.
• Fixed an issue where clients playing multi-round matches were not propelled by Man Cannons after the first round on Wreckage.
• Fixed an issue for players who had licensed content for the specialization offer, and had the free Map Pack content, but did not have the Map Pass or Map Pack license by displaying a new error message: “You have Map Pack content that requires a license. Please purchase the War Games Map Pass, purchase the Map Pack individually, or delete the Map Pack content from your console.”
Vehicles
• Fixed issues with friendly fire against vehicles. If FF is disabled, damage/EMPs from friendly sources will no longer damage vehicles that are fully controlled by your team.
• Fixed an issue with where the Wraith secondary turret became disabled when shot with a Plasma Pistol. The feature has been updated to be consistent with previous Halo titles.
• Fixed a Mantis functionality exploit that allowed pilots to survive planted grenades.
Specific Game Modes
• Friendly fire turned off in Flood to prevent exploits.
• Fixed Flood character models to allow for Warthog and Mongoose use.
• Fixed an inconsistency with King of the Hill deathcam.
• Fixed an issue where the Grifball would get stuck in geometry and never respawn.
• Fixed the issue for Extraction where players did not regain full control of their character for extended periods of time after interacting with a site.
• Fixed multiple Extraction scoring issues, including an overtime fix that ensures that a victory will not be awarded to a team who is controlling the go-ahead extraction point when the game ends.
Custom Games
• Fixed an issue that did not allow players to create respawn timers or disable instant respawn in custom games.
• Fixed an issue on Shatter where players couldn’t start a custom Dominion game.
• Fixed an issue where the Ordnance game options reset when scrolling up or down in custom games.
• Fixed an issue where custom game descriptions did not appear in the “Settings” preview screen.
• Fixed inconsistencies and bugs in the final death cam for custom games.
Spartan Ops
• Fixed an issue where the “Dedicated to Crimson” Achievement could not be unlocked.
• Fixed an issue where players in Spartan Ops Episode 6 Mission 1 were able to look around before the vignette.
Miscellaneous
• Fixed a selection of issues where theater clips were missing map-specific audio, including ambient noise and announcer voice.
• Fixed File Share preview images for films and map variants.
• Fixed issues with in-game translations.
• Fixed title screen camera clipping.
• Fixed an issue with Forge pieces and the shadows they create.
• Fixed aliasing split screen HUD issues.
• Fixed an issue where some saved films of Forge games featured no Forge lighting.
• Fixed incorrect “change description” text in File Browser.
• Fixed assorted crashes.
Whew, that’s a lot to take in for next week. Suffice to say we’re in for a good week in Halo gaming starting Monday!
-Sal
Is Halsey’s revenge comment legit from Spartan Ops episode 10?
Is Halsey’s revenge comment real?
I’d say partially. I think she’d have no compunction about taking out Palmer who tried to kill her. It’s obvious those two have issues with each other.
But the UNSC (read Humanity) though? No.
She did NOT create the Spartan project to save humanity. She created it to quell the insurgency by outer colony rebels. It just so happened that the Covenant came along at that time and the Spartans were redeployed to take on this newer more dangerous threat. So she doesn’t have an issue with humans being killed. But it has to be for what she considers the right reasons.
The Librarian chose Halsey. Why? It’s plainly obvious Halsey is the most brilliant mind at that point in time of humanity. She created Cortana who was unique among AIs. Let’s not forget Cortana while in the Forerunner system met the Librarian. Likely the Librarian looked at all the information Cortana had and was able to asses who best to give the Janus key to, that being Halsey.
I can’t see Halsey being out to kill humans this time around, again with exception to Palmer possibly. I’m positive she’s just playing Jul M’dama like she has countless other persons in her life. She’s a master at that.
As for her arm? I’m betting she makes a robotic arm for herself. Who knows, she may even make a whole robotic body or a suit of armor for herself? Is that idea outlandish? No so more that super soldiers of the future battling aliens. So it’s completely possible within the realm of the Halo universe.
-Sal
Spartan Ops Vs Firefight
I just posted this response on Halo Waypoint to another forum users argument that Spartan Ops wasn’t quality and wasn’t as good as Firefight.
Let’s pit Spartan Ops versus Firefight (mind you this comes from someone who LOVED Firefight as well). Ask any of my friends I gamed with in Reach and they’ll tell you I played Firefight to death.
Spartan Ops vs. Firefight
• CG vids of Spartan Ops / Firefight-No full quality CG, just in-game cutscenes
• Spartan Ops Maps 15 at launch/ Halo Reach FF maps 10 (over a more than 2 year span)
• Varied missions using different vehicles to achieve goals. Scorpion, Mantis, Warthog, Gausshog, Rockethog, Wraith, Banshee, Ghost / Rare uses of anything but chaingun/rocket warthog, ghost or wraith
• Varied missions with ability to pick better weapons from the map to achieve goals (ie Sniper Alley with Snipers/Beam Rifles)
• Furthering canon / Firefight had NOTHING to do with canon. Just the same battles on the same maps with no rhyme or reason. At least with SpOps you have a goal/objective in mind other than just killing AI.
• RvB easter eggs / FF-RvB who?
• 50 missions / FF-10 maps with a select few gametypes all pretty much the same, just different enemies. Other than Generator Defense, it was all slayer, and I didn’t know ANYONE who played GenDef regularly if at all.
• The BIG one: SpOps season 1 FREE / FF-DLC cost money and we only got a paltry 2-3 maps of the total 10. Again we got FIFTEEN maps (which some were more like campaign LEVELS) for FREE.
These are all facts. Not something made up. So they can’t be denied.
Even if SpOps was created to keep people playing for the first 3-months, I see NOTHING wrong with that. A gaming devs SHOULD look to keep people playing at least that long if not MUCH longer. It brings them more credibility too. Beyond that though, I really think SpOps was also made to give we fans a new experience within Halo. It really is like another whole campaign.
If you added up all the time spent playing each of the 10 videos and 50 missions even just ONE time through, you’d have clearly 6-7 hours of gameplay. A short campaign yes, but a campaign none the less. Spartan Ops is free. Well season one anyway, and I’d GLADLY pay for a Season two. Considering Requiem has been destroyed, 343 would HAVE to make all new maps for season 2. Firefight in Reach came with about 6-7 FF maps at launch? Easily less than half of what SpOps gave us. And then only did we get maybe 3 more FF maps in Reach over the course of the next two years. And you know there isn’t going to be anything else new added for Reach.
Even if SpOps is done at Season one (which I hope it’s NOT), it has FAR exceeded what Firefight was in Reach and ODST.
End copy/paste
I think the only thing I miss from Firefight is in ODST’s FF you could play on and on and on as long as you had lives left. But then again, it would get boring after a 3 hour sessions of just ONE game of firefight. So I really don’t mind the shorter missions. There are certainly some that give me that classic Firefight feel to them. I also enjoy having real objectives to complete though, versus just slaying waves upon waves of Covies.
-Sal
Want yet MORE Majestic Map pack goodness? Video of gameplay!
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
New Majestic Map pack screen shots
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
Majestic Map Pack video discussion by 343.
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.
Competitive playlist or MLG playlist?
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:
-Sal