Daily Archives: 07/20/2012

Living Dead and/or Griffball in Halo 4???

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A discussion on HaloWaypoint is going on about these two gametypes being available for Halo 4.

There are some strong opinions for and against. Here is my take on them.

Living Dead is but one aspect of gametypes for Halo, but really, “Zombies”?

I’m only just now getting into playing it in Reach. Then, only for getting my small arms commendation up. Otherwise, I just don’t like it as a regular playlist. It detracts from the rest of the shooter game types.

If “War Games” is supposed to be just that, a simulation of war strategy, well, I don’t suspect that we’ll be dealing with zombies anytime soon.

As for Griffball, how many times have you seen people pad stats in Griffball by spawn camping? I’ve done it, as I’m sure many other have. It’s not a good game type to keep all the time. Make it one that people want to play for the XP, not for the kills.

As for those who are in Griffball leagues, they can always play custom versions of it, so it doesn’t affect their tournaments in the slightest.

Basically, IMHO, if the gametype isn’t reminiscent of what you’d see on the actual battlefield, then it shouldn’t be in the normal everyday playlists. Double XP, yes on weekends only.

One other very significant reason is that by having those additional playlists available all the time, it severely dilutes the other playlists. Very often Living Dead has similar population numbers to Team Slayer. That just shouldn’t be, again IMO. Halo is about the team shooter aspect, NOT Zombies. (And this is coming from a HUGE fan of everything Zombies, not just in Halo format)

Living Dead and Griffball are niche gametypes, plain and simple.

-HFFL

Surprise Halo Mega Bloks set: Flood Seige

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Deinonychus (a fellow fan and friend of mine on XBOX Live), found this set at his local Toys R Us. (Photo credit goes fully to him)

It’s one of three new exclusives sets to TRU.

Flood Seige:

Front of box

Okay, one thing I’m REALLY liking about this set is the addition of the “Mass Driver” as seen in the last mission of Halo Reach’s “The Pillar Of Autumn.” However, the rest of the set seems a bit discombobulated. The Flood weren’t on Reach, we never saw an orange elite flood and the rest of the setting isn’t really anything out of the games.

So, does that matter? Heck NO!

The orange color of the Elite flood is in direct reference to it being a TRU exclusive. Orange is one of TRU’s corporate colors. They also use this color for exclusive McFarlane Halo figures too.

The setting itself could be a mishmash from Halo 3/Reach. But it’s cool regardless. Some really good potential here to make a UNSC base from. I’m pretty sure the Elite flood can be made into a regular elite. (That’s what I’d be doing with it anyway.) And one small detail…JERSEY BARRIER! YES!! I’ve been asking for this in Halo MB sets for many months now and it’s finally happened! Is it a small detail? Yep, but one that shows up time and again in Halo. While not exactly game accurate, it’s close enough for me. I hope I can get my hands on a bunch of these!

Now, one thing that is a downer. The price. It seems this set is selling for $54.99. It’s an exclusive, so TRU can jack the price up. Should they? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Just consider how many exclusives they’ve had before and look how many are still on the shelves. They price themselves out of competition. Look, I LOVE shopping there. But they have to be more reasonable with pricing. This set comes with 426 pieces. I always use the guideline of 10 cents per piece. So this set should be around $42.60. I’d be fine with rounding it to $45. But not $9 more.

As much as I want the set (and I’d like 2 at least of it), it will be a set I’ll wait for a sale for. Thankfully, TRU does do a “Buy on get one half off sale” fairly frequently for Mega Bloks. That’s when I’l buy. That will bring the cost of two sets to $81 or $40.50 each which is lower that what I think the set should be prices as.

I love to support Halo Mega Bloks. MEGA Brands itself can only suggest a price (MSRP). It’s up to the retailer to actually price an item. This is one of those times where the retailer is failing the license.

So, IMO, wait for a sale folks. While a good set, it’s not likely to sell out on shelves (again due to price).

Here are the other two sets from the TRU exclusive line:

Is that bubble shield clear? Translucent black? Either way, it’s not cannon to the games but is very cool.

Dang, I wasn’t going to buy another “Wolverine” set, but that black/dark grey version just looks awesome.

Again, thanks to Deino for the intel.