Halo 4 - Catch All

This week's spartan ops mission set might be the best yet.

Huge battles, lots of vehicles(Spoiler: Tank. Beats. EVERYTHING!), and they're paced pretty well.

Story is still meh, but as a bunch of one-off co-op scenarios, there's nothing better than having 4 tanks take down everything in front of them.

cube wrote:

This week's spartan ops mission set might be the best yet.

Huge battles, lots of vehicles(Spoiler: Tank. Beats. EVERYTHING!), and they're paced pretty well.

Story is still meh, but as a bunch of one-off co-op scenarios, there's nothing better than having 4 tanks take down everything in front of them.

Overall having finished Ep.1 and the first mission of #2 I would have to say I like Spartan Ops as a Firefight replacement. Looking forward to this week's mission set when I get around to it!

On a competitive note: this game could use a Mercenary playlist like they have with CoD. Feel it the most in my pick-up Team Slayer games and only slightly in Big Team. Getting to the point where the extra bodies/targets makes me prefer Big Team a lot more.

Once during the Campaign the game spawned four Hunters instead of two, just as a glitch.

I didn't kill them.

RooneyFan wrote:

Second, just kidding. But I have to assume that we should think that the notion of human sexuality would have evolved to a marginally higher state in the 150 years between now and when the Covenant will invade.

Try 500 years--it's 2557.

CptGlanton wrote:

Once during the Campaign the game spawned four Hunters instead of two, just as a glitch.

I didn't kill them.

I almost cried when that happened to me.

Almost.

It's space opera so they don't bother taking post-human concepts past computers with personality and science-made super-soldiers. Everything else is just World War 2 times with fancy names.

Why do giant space ships have to be within sight distance to fire on one another? Why aren't human beings immune to the effects of aging? (You can bet if Halsey cracked that one the first candidate would be her and not some snot-nosed warrior child.) Etc.

Having a lot of fun with the MP which is a massive surprise considering how I was thinking about retiring from online shooters earlier this year.

The tweaks to their progression system is clearly in response to CoD and in this area they are definitely playing catch up. I'm glad they modeled it after BLOPS 1 with the point-purchase system.

Has anyone unlocked the Specializations yet? What benefits do you get with those?

If anyone is interested in some Spartan Ops action tonight I missed out on Week 2 and need to catch up. Feel free to send me a message (ccesarano on Xbox Live).

My 360 has been getting neglected by Halo 4 will get me back on it. I'm only a few hours into the story but friend me up if you don't mind someone with weak FPS skills. But I make up for it by being a hell of a nice guy!

Docjoe, if you ever want to dip your toes into competitive or do some spartan ops or co-op campaign send me a FR. Halo 4 is more or less glued to my 360's disc tray these days.

I was reduced to pubbying Spartan Ops today. And Euro Halo GWJers out there?

spider_j wrote:

I was reduced to pubbying Spartan Ops today. And Euro Halo GWJers out there?

Yep, GT is "failnaut". Don't run SO at the moment as I'm saving that one, but I do play a fair bit of MP across the week.

Anyone who wants to play MP, friend me up. I play a lot.

Would also like to try some of the Spartan Ops. Some invites have been sent. Should online tonight around 9 PM PST.

I'll try and be on around 9pm myself then. I still haven't played Spartan Ops episode 2.

I haven't played much at all, other than a few rounds of MP. Should I finish the campaign before trying Spartan Ops?

Added some more of you guyz on XBL. Looking forward to turning on the mic again. The global Mute in Halo 4 was long overdue but the downside to the golden, silent serenity is... well, there really isn't a downside! But hey if I play with GWJers perhaps I'll try my hand at an objective-style mode for once.

H to the ickle wrote:

Anyone who wants to play MP, friend me up. I play a lot.

I watched my buddy beat the campaign over the weekend, so I'm ready for some multiplayer. I played in one game and got my ass handed to me, which is status quo for a Halo game, so I won't help you win, but I'll have fun.

I'd like to do some Spartan Ops.

I'll fill your friend-hole all up.

This game is ridiculously good looking.

Maclintok wrote:

Added some more of you guyz on XBL. Looking forward to turning on the mic again. The global Mute in Halo 4 was long overdue but the downside to the golden, silent serenity is... well, there really isn't a downside! But hey if I play with GWJers perhaps I'll try my hand at an objective-style mode for once.

Ahaaaa, so that's who that was last night.

Maclintok wrote:

Added some more of you guyz on XBL. Looking forward to turning on the mic again. The global Mute in Halo 4 was long overdue but the downside to the golden, silent serenity is... well, there really isn't a downside! But hey if I play with GWJers perhaps I'll try my hand at an objective-style mode for once.

Tried to add you but your Friends list was full. Eager to try some Spartan Ops; looks like a lot of content there.

Trashie wrote:
Maclintok wrote:

Added some more of you guyz on XBL. Looking forward to turning on the mic again. The global Mute in Halo 4 was long overdue but the downside to the golden, silent serenity is... well, there really isn't a downside! But hey if I play with GWJers perhaps I'll try my hand at an objective-style mode for once.

Tried to add you but your Friends list was full. Eager to try some Spartan Ops; looks like a lot of content there.

Odd, as Xbox Live told me your list was full.

ccesarano wrote:
Trashie wrote:
Maclintok wrote:

Added some more of you guyz on XBL. Looking forward to turning on the mic again. The global Mute in Halo 4 was long overdue but the downside to the golden, silent serenity is... well, there really isn't a downside! But hey if I play with GWJers perhaps I'll try my hand at an objective-style mode for once.

Tried to add you but your Friends list was full. Eager to try some Spartan Ops; looks like a lot of content there.

Odd, as Xbox Live told me your list was full.

Yeah - it might have been. I cleared it up last night. Should be some spots now.

Feel free to shoot me a friend request.

I've been playing mostly Dominion as my multiplayer game of choice (mainly because I'm terrible at the other competitive game types). Wouldn't mind teaming up with some GWJers for Spartan Ops or even a co-op campaign run (been slugging my way through legendary solo).

I'm up for a legendary co-op campaign run, or MP, or Spartan Ops. Friend me up and let's do this thing.

Apologies for anyone who has sent a FR to me and was turned away. My Friend list needs pruning/tuning in addition to the backlog of pending FRs that I've sent in the last week that were maybe confirmed since then.

Yeah would be great if Halo 4 included clan support like Blops 2 or Syndicate: it's nice to have that extra layer of organization

I wouldn't mind doing some Spartan Ops or maybe even Big Team Battle (if that is still around) if we can setup a day and time in advance. Evenings CST except Friday and most of the day Sat and Sun are open for me. As far as Spartan Ops go I have only played episode 1 and I am not apposed to redoing it.

Hey all. I'll be catching up on Spartan Ops tomorrow night with a coworker and another friend. We'll be picking up at Episode 2, Mission 2 on Legendary so if you don't mind jumping in mid-stream on the fascinating Spartan Ops story we would love to have an extra gun.

Start time? With any luck around 9:30pm Pacific.

More spartan ops today, since it's Monday.

This week's set was just brutal, especially the first two.

I got the knight weekly done in the first mission.

Draco wrote:

I have really enjoyed watching the evolution of Chief and Cortana over the years.

Spoiler:

Cortana is gaining more humanity through her rampancy and the Chief is loosing his for whatever reason.

...

Spoiler:

the reuniting of Lansky and Chief was REALLY poorly done. I mean, Lansky became the leader he is because of the Chief. How about a ""What? How? My God, you're alive! We all thought you were dead! I'm sooo happy to see you!" Instead we get, "Oh, hey, 'sup? Go clear an LZ." And Palmer comes face to face with a living legend, and she just says, "Thought you'd be taller," which was kind of funny as it's something that the marines say in Halo 1 a lot, but it just fell flat for me."

Spoiler:

Cortana is in many ways his last tie to humanity. He was ripped from his family when he was 6 and everyone he grew up with (the other Spartan IIs) and most of the folks he's served with (the Keyes family, Sgt. Johnson) are dead or MIA. As a Spartan II he's supposed to be in cryosleep between engagements. She's the only one left who has any idea what he's been through and what his life is. I thought that Cortana's rampant selves were the ones coming out of the light bridge at the end, their purposes served when it came to the shield generators, and reunited one last time for the only task they could remain coherent enough to accomplish: helping the Chief. She hadn't conquered her rampancy, she'd only found something useful to do with it. And I'm pretty sure she's dead.

About the reunion with Lasky, they met on just one night thirty-something years earlier, and Lasky did hear the distress signal from Forward Unto Dawn once Infinity was within range. That event is likely what motivated Lasky to put his trust into the Chief completely and give him an armed Pelican in violation of his own orders. On more than one occasion the Chief was given the opportunity to abandon the cadets, and he placed himself directly in harm's way to protect them more than once. As for Palmer's reaction, it may very well have been the best she could do between going completely fangirl on him and silently giving him the respect that his reputation commands. When ordered to place him under arrest, she doesn't exactly leap into action, after all.

Arrival is a pretty good track, and I found the score to be pretty enjoyable as I played the game. Darn it I liked that it felt different than the previous games, even if I did seem to spend most of the game running from console to console and letting Cortana do her thing (and the first third of it being played by the Didact). The Prometheans are a much more enjoyable foe than the Flood ever were, I'd say.

Draco wrote:

Why is Cortana using her "hands" to type on a virtual screen? She can do hundreds of thousands of calculations in her "heard." In Halo CE when she "accessed" a computer she just put her hand to her head like she was thinking.

Probably because the visual of her typing was more comforting to the humans interacting with her. Same reason she looks like a human being in the first place, I'd imagine.

I finally beat the campaign yesterday. Would have been really frustrating to go through the broadsword level without co-op respawns. I liked the campaign a lot but felt like:

Spoiler:

the ending was a blase cliff-hanger. The looming questions about Cortana annoyed me, I was hoping there would be a hint of her being constructed into a physical form through the composer. Was the post-credits dialogue a quote from the didact's previous trial or foreshadowing for another forerunner threat?