Halo 4 - Catch All

I know a lot of folks are strictly PC or Console and so on and so forth and some despise AAA games, but this looks really fun and that's all that matters when it comes to games for myself. I don't care what system it's on or if it had a big budget or bad/good reviews. I'll always try a game if I'm interested in it even if reviews are bad. If I enjoy it then that's all that matters.

Halo gets a lot of trash talk, but it gives me a good feeling. Halo has always been something I enjoyed. It's very reminiscent to the Alien franchise and that's a big reason I love it. Halo 4 looks to be a awesome game and I'm excited to get my copy of the Limited Edition in the mail. I've been playing Halo 3 on Legendary and the whole game is bringing back many memories. It's a lot more fun now that I'm married with children. As I play my 2 year old daughter is seating with me saying, "Go! Go! Go!" When I whoop up on Covenant or "Ouch! That hurt" when I get mauled by them.

I'm very excited. I even took a day off from work

P.S. Just started listening to the podcasts a month ago. I love it. You guys are great. It feels like I have hilarious new friends. Keep up the awesome work.

Anyone feel free to add me to Xbox Live Friends List if you're a good person. Gamertag = The 23rd Psalm

The 23rd Psalm wrote:

I know a lot of folks are strictly PC or Console and so on and so forth and some despise AAA games, but this looks really fun and that's all that matters when it comes to games for myself.

You'll find there's a lot more people around here like you, where all that matters is that they're having fun, than any other sort. I think people here have preferences, but I don't think anyone is against gaming on any particular platform or any particular budget.

In fact, I imagine that's one of the reasons we're all here. We just want to talk about games because we love them.

I still haven't gotten any indication that my copy has shipped. I really hope they pull through on the release date shipping.

I'm ready to wax nostalgic like it's 2004. Wasn't planning on attending a midnight launch but the more hype this iteration gets the more I want to participate. Anyone else waiting out in the cold this Nov. 5th?

You guys weren't exaggerating about Forward Unto Dawn's quality. I was quite pleased by the first episode. It'll get me in the mood for some Marining, sometime this week.

mr_n00b wrote:

I'm ready to wax nostalgic like it's 2004. Wasn't planning on attending a midnight launch but the more hype this iteration gets the more I want to participate. Anyone else waiting out in the cold this Nov. 5th?

I'll be going, but mostly to experience the event of it all. My copy's coming from Amazon!

I'm in at my local GameStop Monday night.

mr_n00b wrote:

I'm ready to wax nostalgic like it's 2004. Wasn't planning on attending a midnight launch but the more hype this iteration gets the more I want to participate. Anyone else waiting out in the cold this Nov. 5th?

Hey, it isn't cold everywhere yet! Sitting in shorts with my windows open right now.

Anyone interested, send me a friend request for mp.

I haven't been following this all that closely. Is it just me or is the multiplayer significantly faster moving than it used to be?

Flipped on the Halo 4 finals at MLG and was immediately struck by just how much faster everything seems to be. Player movement speed in particular seems much quicker.

Thin_J wrote:

I haven't been following this all that closely. Is it just me or is the multiplayer significantly faster moving than it used to be?

Flipped on the Halo 4 finals at MLG and was immediately struck by just how much faster everything seems to be. Player movement speed in particular seems much quicker.

Rebel FM just said as much a second ago (as I sit listening to the show, not live).

Yeah, it's faster-paced. It seems to be (from previews) a mix of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise and Halo. I have only played the third Modern Warfare and though the multiplayer was fun; it grew old very quickly. I'm hoping the multiplayer for Halo 4 stays fresh. I'm excited for Tuesday and my Amazon order is "Shipping Soon"!

Does Master Chief have a new voice? I just watched a few seconds of a 'Forward unto Dawn' video and he sounded different.

I'm pretty sure the show has a different actor than the game. As far as I know, all the game, including this one, have the same actor.

@stevedownes117 on Twitter describes himself as
"The voice of Master Chief 1 2 3 & 4!
Host the 97.1FM The DRIVE's morning show.
Host of The Classics, syndicated radio show"

cyrax wrote:

You guys weren't exaggerating about Forward Unto Dawn's quality. I was quite pleased by the first episode. It'll get me in the mood for some Marining, sometime this week.

Spartans are squids not Marines

The show definitely has a different actor than the games. During the "Making of" stuff, they showed him several times with his helmet off and him going through lines and it's different. But that's okay. I can't get over how amazing the warthog looks. I want one.

I ended up really enjoying part five of Forward Unto Dawn. Part of it was the simple joy of seeing a live action Jackal and Hunter. Microsoft managed to fund a short movie here, and I partially hope it can be used to make movie studios feel like idiot assholes for passing up.

On the other hand, I still feel like a retelling of the game's story, which is what the original script sounded like, is horrible and thus if they choose to do that as a film I'll be much less excited.

In any event, I'm honestly prepared to just ditch all my preconceived notions of what Halo "should" be/have been at this point and just welcome it for what it is. Everyone's hype and excitement is getting to me.

Though I won't be able to get it until after Christmas, so hey, if it turns out all the reviewers are somehow dumb or lying then I'll find out in time.

Just watched all of Forward Unto Dawn and it was pretty good.

Spoiler:

At first I thought it was supposed to take place between the events of Halo 3 and 4 instead of even before Reach.

Definitely makes me think they could pull off a live action movie and it has gotten me in the mood for Halo 4.

ccesarano wrote:

I ended up really enjoying part five of Forward Unto Dawn. Part of it was the simple joy of seeing a live action Jackal and Hunter. Microsoft managed to fund a short movie here, and I partially hope it can be used to make movie studios feel like idiot assholes for passing up.

On the other hand, I still feel like a retelling of the game's story, which is what the original script sounded like, is horrible and thus if they choose to do that as a film I'll be much less excited.

In any event, I'm honestly prepared to just ditch all my preconceived notions of what Halo "should" be/have been at this point and just welcome it for what it is. Everyone's hype and excitement is getting to me.

Though I won't be able to get it until after Christmas, so hey, if it turns out all the reviewers are somehow dumb or lying then I'll find out in time.

A strick retelling of the game is the worse idea ever IMHO. I am really not sure how you would go about making a Halo movie though. It would have to be planned as at least a trilogy I think and the amount of backstory needed to make non-Halo initiates understand what is happening would be insane. They might be able to skip most of the early days of training and stuff (or at least just condense it down to a few flashbacks) but they need to include that stuff if they really want to have any real characterization. The first movie could almost be training to early fight against the Covenant to The Fall of Reach and actually close with the opening of the first game (kind of like the Reach game does if I remember right). Second movie would have to cover the important plot points of the first two games but wouldn't need to stick super close story wise (forget all about the Arbiter and they could probably even cut the flood and it would still be good enough or maybe even better). Would probably need to skip the return to earth at the start of Halo 2 and just have everything important happen on a single ring before returning to earth at the beginning of the third movie. That movie could cover the invasion of earth and the ark all together.

Dominic Knight wrote:

The show definitely has a different actor than the games. During the "Making of" stuff, they showed him several times with his helmet off and him going through lines and it's different. But that's okay. I can't get over how amazing the warthog looks. I want one.

They have the Warthog on MS campus near the Studios/Commons area so you can go and take a picture of yourself in it.

ccesarano wrote:

I ended up really enjoying part five of Forward Unto Dawn. Part of it was the simple joy of seeing a live action Jackal and Hunter. Microsoft managed to fund a short movie here, and I partially hope it can be used to make movie studios feel like idiot assholes for passing up.

Microsoft was the one that pulled out of the movie deal, not the movie people. When MS pulled the license (and a good chunk of the budget) said movie producers went on to make District 9.

Let's just say that it's not the movie folks who look like idiot assholes in this case.

(I can totally understand Microsoft not wanting to trust their flagship franchise to an unproven director, but in hindsight… they missed out. I don't think they are idiot assholes; I just think they look like it.)

I thought the movie studios pulled out because they didn't support WETA's choice of director.

Rykin wrote:

I thought the movie studios pulled out because they didn't support WETA's choice of director.

And here I thought it was because the two studios (Fox and Universal?) couldn't agree on who would spend more and then reap the most profits. Each of them was trying to negotiate a contract where they'd lose less and gain more, and no one was happy with it.

Yay rumor mills!

Edwin wrote:
Dominic Knight wrote:

The show definitely has a different actor than the games. During the "Making of" stuff, they showed him several times with his helmet off and him going through lines and it's different. But that's okay. I can't get over how amazing the warthog looks. I want one.

They have the Warthog on MS campus near the Studios/Commons area so you can go and take a picture of yourself in it.

Did they bring it back? It was there for one day a several weeks ago, but gone after that.

I didn't know they took it away.

ccesarano wrote:
The 23rd Psalm wrote:

I know a lot of folks are strictly PC or Console and so on and so forth and some despise AAA games, but this looks really fun and that's all that matters when it comes to games for myself.

You'll find there's a lot more people around here like you, where all that matters is that they're having fun, than any other sort. I think people here have preferences, but I don't think anyone is against gaming on any particular platform or any particular budget.

In fact, I imagine that's one of the reasons we're all here. We just want to talk about games because we love them.

Ditto. I get enough of the elitist crap from the people I hang out with (my friends here in town are basically PC snobs who never miss a chance to slag on consoles, whereas I just enjoy playing good games of any type on any platform).

I don't care whether a game is indie, or mainstream, small budget or big budget, "hardcore" or "casual"; I care about whether it's fun and well-made.

I'm not a huge Halo fan, but I do like the games. I picked up Halo 2 and ODST at launch, but was far behind the pack on Halo 1 and 3. I'm not going to have the time to put into Halo 4 in the near term, so I'm skipping it for now, but it looks fun and I'll play it eventually.

Just a note, not sure if this has been said already - there's a thing on the Limited Edition giving you early access to all eight Specialisations, rather than the starter two, for quite a while after release.

While this is messed up, apparently they've stated that the standard edition will give you this too if you play online in the first fortnight after release.

Edwin wrote:

I didn't know they took it away. :(

Yeah it was just a one day thing. It would make sense if they brought it back for the launch though. I'll try an check the website when I get to the office today. I also think they'll bring it out for the release party tonight at the UVillage store.

EDIT: Just checked and it doesn't look like they'll have the Warthog on campus today

So GamesRadar has 21 Things you should know about the Halo universe, an article consisting of a backstory summary.

Turns out Bungie has really changed things since the original Halo's instruction manual, or GamesRadar didn't fill things out quite well. My original thought was...

- Spartans were created after coming into contact with the Covenant as a way to counter them (no Spartan I information was given at the time).

- From Halo 1-3 I was always under the impression, based on the writing in all three games, the Flood were created by the Forerunner. Evidently the Forerunner discovered the Flood.

- Turns out the Forerunner don't look much like humans after all, despite an entry in Halo 3 suggesting that the Earth was seeded with life based on Forerunners themselves, hence the last Forerunner living out his last days on Earth.

- The Forerunner themselves came after another alien race, because Lord knows nothing makes good backstory like convoluted information.

- No one still knows, or hasn't bothered to give a sh*t about, why the Covenant attacked humans in the first place. They called them heretics and shot-on-sight.

That last part, combined with a few other things Halo 2 started to hint at but Halo 3 ignored, are part of what drove me up the wall in terms of Halo's story.

Considering all that backstory convolutedness, I'm really, REALLY thinking it's a good idea to just let all my preconceived notions go. Halo is the Star Wars of video games, only all that extended universe crap is actually considered canonical within the main series itself.

ccesarano wrote:

- No one still knows, or hasn't bothered to give a sh*t about, why the Covenant attacked humans in the first place. They called them heretics and shot-on-sight.

Religious reasons. Humans were believed to be descendants of the forerunners. The prophets saw this as a danger to their political and religious power so they labeled humans as bad in order to maintain their grasp on power.

JC wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

- No one still knows, or hasn't bothered to give a sh*t about, why the Covenant attacked humans in the first place. They called them heretics and shot-on-sight.

Religious reasons. Humans were believed to be descendants of the forerunners. The prophets saw this as a danger to their political and religious power so they labeled humans as bad in order to maintain their grasp on power.

This was originally my theory after Halo 2 and waiting for Halo 3, or at least with the Prophet of Truth (Mercy and Regret each live up to their names somehow in Halo 2, yet Truth seems to be hiding something. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT). Yet when Halo 3 comes around Truth's motivation is very simple. There is nothing clever going on. No fear that he might be wrong and the humans might be right. He simply captures Johnson so he can use his hand to try and activate some crap.

Which, when you consider that a human hand is required, why would you go about trying to wipe out humanity? Unless they didn't know since the Halo ring was the first of its kind they found in the original Halo (unless my memory is getting fuzzy and they had known about multiple installations, but my impression was they discovered other Forerunner architecture and then stumbled upon the Ring shortly before the events of Halo 1, which is why they hadn't discovered the contained Flood yet and were still trying to figure out how it worked).