Following up on yesterday’s weapons of Reach, we’ll take a look at some of the weapons of the UNSC and Forerunners in Halo 4. I’d suggest pulling up both windows to compare the weapons/art.

First the UNSC weapons:

The BR is back! Much to the happiness of fans, 343 put the BR back into Halo. The design is sleek. The cool greys of the art make this weapon feel like a cold hard machine of war.

New to Halo are weapons skins. Above shows the Arctic weapon skin for the BR. This was available through pre-ordering from Gamestop. It became available through the Halo 4 Game of the Year edition. There were some really great skins to come out of Halo 4. I hope in the next game skins can be recolored as well.

A concept of the nuke and on the underside of the Broadsword.

A more fleshed out and color version of the nuke. There is some good use of shading and highlights here.

Here are some of the base concepts of the bomb.The magnum’s basic shape hasn’t changed drastically from Reach to Halo 4. It’s still very recognizable as the standard UNSC Magnum.

The Railgun is new to Halo, with Halo 4. I like the look of this and the feel of power. It does remind me of some of Bungie’s UNSC ship designs.

Here we have the SAW. The squad automatic weapon. It looks very much like the old Tommy-guns of the early 20th century.

Concepts of the SAW. I like the version we got in the final.

The auto-turret in Halo 4. This is most prevalent in Dominion. Though not a large shell based turret, it has the look of a Howitzer from the mid-20th century.

From greyscale to color to detailed concepts these show the progression of design and color choice.

Let’s take a look at some Forerunner weapons.

The Incineration Cannon, arguably the most powerful handheld weapon in all of Halo, this concept is similar to the in-game version. The addition of red lights into the final version gave it a much more powerful feel.

This is a beautiful rendering rendering. Not much more I can say about it. I’d love to have this as a print.

The Suppressor is the Forerunner’s Assault Rifle. This design is very futuristic. VERY Forerunner. 

The Light Rifle is another of the sleek elongated weapons. I like the design. The thing that is different with this weapon than most others is the hovering scope.

This is the Forerunner’s rapid fire shotgun. More bulky than other Forerunner weapons, this is a great weapon for up close combat. Now doesn’t this kind of look like the UNSC Infinity with a trigger grip?

And finally for this article, the Forerunner automated turret. This weapon, while not terribly effective, does keep enemies at bay. That allows you to take down those enemies. It’s a different design and a little bit of a departure from what we know. VERY cool design.

Tomorrow we’ll start to take a look a various concept art from places in Reach. Followed by Halo 4 locations.

-Sal

This short ride through takes a look at UNSC hand-held as well as larger weapons of Reach. As always, click on pics to make bigger!

The assault rifle went through several iterations of design before the final was chosen. In the compilation above, we see how much of the same basic shape ws present in most of the designs. As well the top grey/bottom black color palette was used throughout. 

Some of those designs are really pretty cool. One of the more radical designs above would be second column fourth row. Still has the look of an AR, however that lower part is quite a bit different from what we know and is a different color. My favorite of these,not including the in-game model, is in the first column, second row. Very similar to the in-game model, with a few extras.

The name of this piece includes “battle rifle”. However, we can tell that there is at least one sniper rifle and what looks to be an AR as well. The others did not in fact become the Reach style BR, but rather the DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle).

Note the similarities of each DMR design. There is however just enough redesign of each to differentiate them from one another. Very clean concept work as was the AR graphic above this.

Here we have a close-up of one of the DMR concepts. What is decidedly different it the strap. Given that weapons are stowed via magnet, it would have been a little odd to have this strap in the final. Of the art itself, there is a great deal of detail, especially towards the front of the rifle. Once again clean lines, highlight and shadow make for a crisp design.

The Magnum. Simple in color, it still is able to give the sense of power to it.

Now this concept of the Rocket Launcher is impressive. The color application, detail and shading really bring this design to life. While some consider the rocket launcher a “noob” weapon, I still see practically everyone use it, LOL. I know it’s saved more more than a few times on the virtual battlefield.

Here are a couple of concepts of the shotgun. Essentially the same design, with the main difference being the elongated barrel of the top one. The 3/4 rear view is done with exquisite perspective to it.

The heavy machine gun up top we know was Jorge’s weapon of choice. This version shows us more of the mechanics of the weapon that we might not have taken time to see while playing the game.
Below that, the Grenade Launcher, itself a new addition to the lexicon of Halo, as of Halo Reach. At first it looks like a sawed off shotgun. The grip/hammer/trigger sections of the Grenade Launcher look to me like something out of the Old West, but modernized.

As you can see from both, Bungie continued to had exceptional concept art.

A closer shot showing the detail of the Grenade Launcher concepts. What really add to these concepts is the subtle texture designs employed throughout the rendering. Scuffed metal near the “hammer” and trigger section, slight mottling of the dark portion of the barrel, as well as patterns on the top and bottom dark grey parts give this a realistic, more “lived in” feel to the concept.

The Spartan Laser! This weapons saw some redesign. The biggest tell all from early concepts is this color change. While ultimately it went back to it’s normal color, the steel or brushed metal look has a more utilitarian look to it. It’s shape says Spartan Laser, the color does not. I’m glad Bungie stuck with the olive color.

Now let’s move on the large weapons. (Not the hand held kind)

This sketch is a concept of the automated defense platform that is seen in the massive cave where Halsey’s lab is located at. Even with lines unfinished, there is still plenty of shape to the design. I don’t know about you, but on Legendary, these helped. They might not have killed much, but they did attract the enemy enough for me to take them out.

This missile turret is a very well done piece of art. Simplistic in shape, and even color palette, it’s the highlights and shadows that flesh out the design. I like the addition of the Spartan for scale.

Similar to the above in concept and design is the “Vulcan” weapons platform. A large gun mounted on a similar base as the rocket launcher was. As I’ve mentioned before in previous articles, the repeated use of portions of designs shows consistency. It becomes obvious these were made by the same in-game manufacturer. This would be important in a war time setting as likely parts could be swapped out of one platform for another.

Another concept of the Vulcan weapons platform. The one above is built for taking down larger craft while this version can take down smaller and likely faster craft.

In the last two concepts of this article we loo at the MAC cannon.

We now know that MAC cannons come is many sizes, shapes and of course firepower. They all however have a very similar delivery system for their ammunition. MAC stands for Magnetic Accelerated Cannon. The designs seen here look more like a very large Railgun. Itself a form of MAC cannon. (I wrote an article about the Science of Halo, Fact vs Fiction, regarding real world Railguns vs Halo Railguns. You can read that HERE.)

The art above is so very well done. You can see that it’s still in the concept phase as not all of the lines are clean. however there is enough detail and color to give shape and context to the design.

And finally a side view of a concept of the Reach MAC cannon. This designed changed quite a bit into what what would eventually become the in-game version. That one was mounted higher and included a gunner’s station. We first saw this when Emile took the gun and used it to clear a path for Captain Keyes’s pelican. Emile was attacked by a Zealot. While he ultimately perished, due to a fatal stabbing by the Elite with an energy sword through the chest, Emile did manage to kill the Elite. 

As the player, you then were able to mount the platform as make way for the Pillar of Autumn to escape.

Mega Bloks made a building books version of this. Here is my review of that set. You can see for yourself the similarities.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at UNSC weapons from Reach. Tomorrow, we will take a look at both UNSC and Forerunner weapons of Halo 4.

If you like what you’ve been seeing and/or reading, let me know. Reply below!

-Sal

Hello again folks. This is the second of today’s two concept art articles. Earlier we looked at equipment of Halo 4, no we look at just some of the concept art for multiplayer armor in Halo 4.

Shall we begin?

The Scout. Also known as Commander Sarah Palmer’s armor. The helmet redesign reflects that of the one from Halo 3. These and others to follow that show the armor in orthogonal views give dimension to the art. One thing I remain curious about is the lack of armor around the mid-section. I know 343 said that they reduced the profile of the armor to allow for more realistic movement in game. However, that really seems to leave the character exposed. Still, I’d take this armor over anything currently used in today’s militaries of the world.

Scout armor trivia:
• Did you know that Spartan Jun from Noble team of Halo Reach wore a version of Scout armor?
• It is for that reason above the Palmer chooses to wear Scout armor. It’s an homage to Jun, who recruited her into the Spartan IV program.

The Halo 4 version of the armor does not look much like it’s predecessor, other than the helmet. To be honest, that to me is what makes the armor identifiable.

Recon Armor Trivia:
• I can has Recon? This was a popular saying back in the Halo 3 days.
• The armor wasn’t available for the longest time. It was only for Bungie employees.
• On a rare occasion, they would award it to a gamer for doing something above and beyond.
• Eventually, the armor was made available through Vid-Master Challenges.
• IIRC, well after that, it was finally given away free.
• In Halo 4, Spartan Madsen of Fireteam Majestic wears the Recon armor. He’s a Sniper. Good thing for someone who does recon, eh?

The EVA armor. Again, other than the helmet, the rest of the armor is of a new design. While this helmet reflects that of previous EVA iterations, in-game it has a move tapered visor, rather than the much more rounded version form Halo 3 and Reach.

EVA Armor Trivia:
• Spartan Emile from Noble team in Reach wears a version of EVA armor. However, his has been heavily modified. In fact, he etched in a skull-like visage into the visor to evoke fear in the enemies he faces.

For the first time, we didn’t just have secondary colors that looked about the same for each armor set, we now got “skins”. These specialized skins were aesthetic in nature. However they gave us something to work for while playing Halo 4. In the above a color palette much like Chocolate Mint is shown. That is great use complimentary colors. They contrast well so that we the viewer are able to immediately determine what is the base color of the armor and what is the “skinned” portion of the armor.
Some skins in Halo 4 are fairly tough to get. I’m almost done with commendations, at 97%. And yet, those last few elude me.
Of the skins shown above, I think only one of them or a close variant of it,made it in-game.
The one I liked the best of those above has to be the bottom right. That EOD helmet most definitely says “SKULL” to me!

The Scanner Helmet. I really like the design of this helmet. In the graphic we get to see what it would look like without the scanner itself. It would have been very cool to have been able to choose if we wanted the visor up or down. Maybe the next game will have choices like that.

Scanner Helmet trivia:
• The Scanner helmet was an exclusive. Due to fan complaints of this, 343 reversed that and made it more readily available to everyone.
• IIRC, the inspiration for this helmet came from Clone Commander Cody in Star Wars Revenge of the Sith.  (Don’t quote me on that though, as I can’t find the source)

War Master Armor. This by far is my favorite helmet design of Halo 4. I’m a HUGE Iron Man fan. This helmet is the closest one to that helmet. Other than just a couple of days ago, I’ve used that helmet in Halo 4 fro well over a year. Why did I change armor? Well, now I’ve gone to an armor set-up that is as close the the new character from Halo5 Guardians. (See below)

The only other helmet that I think might be better is the Deadeye helmet. And of course that is the ONLY one I do not have… 🙁

This Spartan segues nicely as it uses the same helmet I have from above. It’s the Soldier armor set. Other than the rounded dome, this armor set looks “tough”. The addition of the pouches harkens back a little to Halo CE’s Master Chief.

Soldier Armor Trivia:
• This armor set is used by Spartan Paul DeMarco, Fireteam Majestic’s leader.
• It’s also worn by Spartan Scruggs in the comic book series Halo Escalation. That armor is white primary/yellow secondary

The Orbital armor seen above feels and looks more like EVA armor to me. It’s a decent design. Personally, if I had other choices, I’d never wear a helmet that has a large visor. It just hollers out,”SHOOT ME HERE.”

The Infiltrator armor, the helmet in particular is quite a departure from helmets we’ve seen in the past. While the basic shape is similar, it’s in the faceplate that the difference are the strongest. This is one mean looking Spartan!

Rogue Armor. (Not Rouge as many people spell it…LOL) This is another design that I liked a lot. Not so much the helmet, but the torso harness as well as the shoulder armor. The skins you get for the shoulders help to make this one stand out.  This is a solid, well designed set of Mjolnir armor.

Stalker…wait what? Heh, the name itself has always bothered me. I know what it seems 343 was going for, but that word has a negative connotation to it. Consequently, I never use it. It’s not a bad design, though the flat top of the helmet is really different.

And finally a concept of what likely is Gungnir armor. I love the level of detail in this piece.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our little journey into some of the multiplayer armor of Halo 4. If so, let me know by replying below.

Tomorrow, we look at weapon concepts of Reach, then the following day, weapon concepts of Halo 4.

-Sal

Gamecheat13 made this vid of various Covenant vs other Covenant. Stay through the whole vid to see the fun BONUS rounds!

Normally I’m not much of a proponent for modded stuff. This though is FUN!
I wish we, the average gamer, had the ability to do this.

You can find this and more at Gamecheat13’s YouTube channel HERE.

-Sal

I had meant to post this on Friday. However, with the exciting news of Halo 5 Guardians, I devoted that whole day to just that topic in a myriad of articles, podcast, etc.

Yesterday I was quite busy, so other than the theory of Halo 5 Guardians, I didn’t have time to get this posted then.

However, here I sit at nearly 3am EST, Sunday. I’m wide awake and ready to go. Now I had said the next concept article would be Halo 4 Equipment and Other Spartan Armor. With there being 24 pics for just the equipment, I decided to split them up.

So without further ado, let’s look at and discuss Halo 4’s concept art of equipment.

The Hard Light Shield. Hard Light itself is not new to Halo. We’ve seen it from the beginning with jackal shields,light bridges and such. This design brings us the Forerunner equivalent to the Jackals shield. Though, I’d say it’s likely better. What I like about this concept is that it most definitely evokes Forerunner design. The upper right conner rendering seems to convey different layers of the shield. The orthogonal views real help in understanding the shape and size of the Hard Light Shield. Good piece of art here.

While this graphic is called “belt bomb” we know that they are really the ability upgrades. In just three colors for each, we get a good sense of depth. I like some of these designs more than others.Notably 2, 8, 11, 13, and 16. The one that stands out the most to me though is 12. Does it or does it not look like a controller?

Next we have this ammo crate. This is a very detailed concept. I appreciate the dimensions being put in as well. The texture sample boxes show just how much can go into something as simple as an ammo crate. Did you know there is a version of this up for sale soon? Check it out HERE!

This piece of art looks strangely like an XBOX 360. Coincidence? LOL The scratched metal adds character to what would have otherwise been a standard green box. Even for a sketch, there is a good amount of detail in here. I’d have loved to have seen this become a Halo 4 XBOX!

We’ve been used to fusion coils in Halo. Now we get to see an amazing design for the Forerunner fusion coil. Both the highlights and shading give the renderings plenty of depth. For me, my eye immediately goes to the blue light though and it’s glow against the coil itself. Excellent design!

Another thing we’ve seen in Halo are ordnance crates. Don’t forget the tube shaped ones in Halo 3 for example. Here we have an ordnance pod that looks designed to mean business!  Basic shapes in this concept coupled with a muted color scheme actually work very well for this piece. It’s a utility device. So as such, does not need to be fancy. This is a well thought out concept.

Here are three more fleshed out armor ability attachments. Visually it was important for 343 to be able to differentiate all three styles. Clearly UNSC had to be green/grey, Covenant Purple, and then there the Forerunner attachments. With the Didact’s armor having a lot of silver with orange lights, it made sense to bring that feel to the attachments as well.

Funny enough, by looking at this piece we see the Mammoth may have been named the Tortoise instead. (I much prefer Mammoth) The consoles within took a little bit of a different shape in the final in-game version. This concept shows well the early concept stage (upper right), more fleshed out designs, and even placement as see at bottom. Note the main pic within has the console being very detailed, while the outer parts are rougher in rendering. This is a good way to direct the viewers eye to specifically where you want them to look.

Even the ammo rack had to be designed. Once again, it’s fairly simple in shape and color. The accouterments of the rack are what gives it its detail. Without, this could have been a multitude of things.

Did you see these in the game? If not, go check out Spartan Ops Episode 5, Chapter 1 (Spartan Miller). There, your task in part will be to activate and defend these towers. It seems 343 really wanted to show detail in their concepts for equipment. Even with it being mostly shades of cool greys, there is plenty enough detail to convey what this is supposed to be. BTW, if you haven’t ever played or have not played in a long time, Spartan Ops, I suggest going back and doing so. It’s a nice break from matchmaking. The whole 50 missions are like a whole other campaign unto themselves. And if you still need Covenant vehicle kills for Commendations, you can EASILY get them there!

This compilation of displays once again goes to show us the amount of detail 343 put into Halo 4. These displays are in many places within both the Campaign and Spartan Ops. A couple of display (not shown here) on the Campaign mission “Composer” are fantastic. They are located in the two-story room just before you have to bring up the shield to stop the Covenant from getting into the hangar bay. Search them out. It’s worth it, IMO!

Now these I do not at all recall in the game. What they do look like though are the capsules form the 1960s rockets, when they crash landed in the sea after the missions were complete. While a nice throw-back, I’m glad this wasn’t put in, as we’ve already had much more advanced drop pods in Halo. (Halo 3: ODST anyone?)

A digital concept showing a Promethean Knight on a Holotable. I do hope one day soon holographic technology like this will be real. We’re CLOSE!

I’m not sure where this pump is in the game, though I want to say the multiplayer map Complex. (If I’m wrong, please let me know where this can be found in-game.) As for the art, it’s very simple. In that though, it’s CLEAN. No real stray lines to detract you from the design. With varying shades of grey, we again get the sense of shape and depth to the art, without it having to be full color.

Remember that Hangar Bay I mentioned earlier? Well, this is the section where you have to run to to bring up the shields. At the end, there is a column (not shown) by which to bring up the shields. This design brings me back to Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back. Specifically within Cloud City, during the lightsaber fight between Darth Vader and Luke. Yes, that’s an old reference…But I just LOVE those movies!

Now this is most definitely on Complex, during certain Spartan Ops missions. Good color application brings this to life. The bulkiness of the missile battery give it a sense of power, however, it’s likely they are short range.

Another example of something that can be found in Spartan Ops. In one of the Cauldron missions, you have to protect the marines as well as these power cores. There are only two of them. It’s a fun mission and pretty tough if you go it alone on legendary. I used this mission to get my assassinations of Covies commendation done. Regarding the art, I’m glad that the color version was put in. The other three look a little flat. Yes, there is some shading, but most of it is very dark. Once again, color really helps to show off detail and depth.

Here’s the follow up that shows the progressive damage the power cores take. Here is where this concept really blows up! Yes, pun intended… The callouts (text around the design) explain the damage well. Good piece of transitional art.

The name of this is a UNSC projector. I’m not quite sure what this means or where it might be in the game. I can only think maybe the holotable or the hologram projection armor ability. Sketches like this represent a brainstorming session. It’s where you have no definitive design choice and just come up with as many different designs as you can quickly. This helps as the people involved, especially those in the decision making, have more things to look at. They may like a piece of one, a part of another, and so on. I’ve done many of these types of things over the years. It’s a very good method to use.
In the above top, we see a modular temporary base. You can tell it’s modular by the design. It’s something that’s meant to be put up quickly, and/or shuffled around to meet the requirements of the mission. The in-game version can be seen in Spartan Ops. While just grey in color, the line work is enough in the sketch to make out the shapes. Sometimes your line art can stand up to a more colorful design, so long as they are drawn well and not sloppy. This is an example of a well done piece of line art,with a bit of grey added in.

Not quite equipment, but this is the section the above fit into the best. It’s amazing how something as simple as a door can have many compacts of it.All of them are quite good. I think the bottom oat right is my favorite of these. Which one is your favorite of them?

More props to fill in a room. It’s these kinds of extras that make a place look more real. Without, you’d have a mostly empty space. The variances as well as similarities tells us that while they may have different uses, they are all of the same design manufacturer.

And finally, the Holotable. I saved this one for last as I like it the most of all of these in this article. We’ve seen on tv something similar. I think it was CSI: Miami that had one. Though that wasn’t a holotable. It was more of a glorified tablet in table size. This can be seen in both the campaign and Spartan Ops. Sarah Palmer actually damages it in a later episode. Go check it out.

Whew, okay, it took me almost an hour and a half to get this article done. Mostly because I’m feeling a little ill this morning. I found a round steak in our freezer and thawed it to be grilled for dinner. After grilling it and my wife and I ate it, she wanted to know where it came from. I told her…. I shouldn’t have got that steak. Turns out it was one forgotten and was literally 4 YEARS old. Yes, frozen that whole time…But I think that’s why I’m sick this morning…yuck. (It did taste good though).

Later today, I’ll have up the other concept art article on “Other Spartan Armor” of Halo 4. And who knows what else might just pop up.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the article and looking at the concept art. Let me know if so by replying below. (Rhyming not intended…)

-Sal