Halo 4 Special Edition Includes Maps, Specializations, Other Stuff

With the lead-up to the release of a big sequel in any tent-pole franchise comes the inevitable and obligatory announcement of the various special editions that will come at an extra cost. For most of us, they're unnecessary, but then they're not really for most of us anyway. They're for the superfans, those who just can't live without cloth maps or plastic Spartan helmets or early access to multiplayer perks or what have you.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has today announced that Halo 4 will have its very own Special Edition, chock full of goodies for Master Chief enthusiasts the world over. The Special Edition, which will retail for $99.99, includes the following bonus content over the normal retail SKU:

• War Games Map Pack Access -- These nine maps will be spread across three different DLC releases, and purchasers of the SE will be able to download them for free as each pack is released.
• Specializations -- SE owners will be able to unlock six specializations earlier than other players. Specializations are something Microsoft and developer 343 Industries will be providing more details on at E3.
• USNC Infinity Briefing Packet -- This packet includes "a Spartan armor customization schematic, information about UNSC weapons, an introduction to the massive ship UNSC Infinity, and insight into what it means to be one of humanity’s finest warriors: The Spartan-IVs."
• Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Special Edition -- A 90 minute extended edition of the live-action digital series with additional featurettes, including a behind-the-scenes making of feature.
• Bonus Digital Content -- The remaining grab bag of stuff includes: a unique in-game Spartan-IV armor skin, a unique in-game weapon skin for the Assault Rifle, an exclusive in-game emblem, Xbox LIVE Avatar prop, and Xbox LIVE Avatar Spartan IV armor set.

Interestingly, Microsoft has opted to forego offering an additional Legendary edition this time around. So if you want special goodies in addition to the game, there's only one version you need to be looking at.

Thank you Alex.

Seems pretty reasonable for that many map packs

I'll wait for Halo 6, the end of this trilogy. I prefer finishing the fight instead of starting it.

Seems reasonable.

Holy crap 9 maps? I hope the base game has enough in it already.

The legendary edition of Halo Reach didn't sell well which is probably why they aren't releasing a legendary edition of Halo 4.

I finished the fight a few years ago

For a second I thought they meant they were doing day 1 DLC & withholding maps from people who bought the standard edition.

Very relieved to know that isn't the case. Still... Instant respawns and their version of perks has me worried.

EDIT: If I read the entire article before posting, I would've complained about withholding "Specializations". What the fuck people, why is it acceptable to restrict content?

Kinda cool that they're including a season pass for the DLC in with the CE. Seems like a pretty reasonable price all considering.

I'm waiting to see more of the actual game, but that seems pretty solid.

Well, I think we can easily guess what specializations are. $30 for 9 maps and perks just doesn't sound appealing to me.

Peer pressure would be the only thing that would make me buy this.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but what's the incentive to buy this if you're not interested in the multiplayer? Got to wonder why they even still bother to include a campaign.

NO PLASTIC NONSENSE? legit disappointed about that. Ah well

@Arker101: $30 for the nine maps alone is probably equivalent to just buying them later (when they release as DLC for 800 points each), which effectively makes everything else you get a free bonus. Pretty fair IMO.

Also really, they're giving out all 9 maps that would be the game's DLC at launch? Jeez, game will get old fast with no new content for people buying this edition. Seems weird.

Bahahahaha! No, no thank you.

sounds like they're going for some kind of perk style unlockables this time around? "SE owners will be able to unlock six specializations earlier than other players."

Halo Reach multiplayer left a bad taste in my mouth. So I am not even sure if I want regular ass Halo 4 yet.

@Chavtheworld: Actually, I just reworded that bit to make it clearer. The packs won't just be available at launch. You'll just be able to download them for free when they are eventually released post-launch.

@Alex said:

@Chavtheworld: Actually, I just reworded that bit to make it clearer. The packs won't just be available at launch. You'll just be able to download them for free when they are eventually released post-launch.

Ah right, that makes more sense! Thanks for clearing it up Alex.

@Shaka999: There is nothing wrong with giving people unlocks earlier than others because they paid for it. It's been happening for years and if you read it carefully you would know that it is goin to be made available for everyone. If I were to guess i'd say specializations are just some sort of classes that you use in multiplayer that will be unlocked through play.

@Chavtheworld said:

@Arker101: $30 for the nine maps alone is probably equivalent to just buying them later (when they release as DLC for 800 points each), which effectively makes everything else you get a free bonus. Pretty fair IMO.

Also really, they're giving out all 9 maps that would be the game's DLC at launch? Jeez, game will get old fast with no new content for people buying this edition. Seems weird.

By today's standards, this is a really good deal if you know you'r going to be playing Halo 4 this year, but I'm more concerned with how it now has perks in the game. Halo Reach was a good game, but the Armor Abilities really sucked any fun I had in competitive multiplayer. I'm a sucker because friends will get the game and since I want to play with them I'l get it as well, but it stinks seeing balance get replaced by unlocks.

Cool. I really love the bonus content that Bungie provides, I'll probably be pre-ordering this edition.

When you break it down and consider what you'd probably pay for everything separately, it's really not a bad deal for an extra $40.

Joystiq posted this image of the CE earlier:

@Shaka999: Read it again. It's unlocking specializations early. Not as in they're DLC as in you'd unlock them normally through play.

Seems like a pretty great SE for Halo fans. I want all of that stuff. No giant plastic thing is a bonus in my book. Owning those things is fun for about a day and then I'm trying to sell it on eBay.

Reach turned me from a fan of the games into fan of the universe. I think it was Bungie at their best. Obviously, they're not on Halo anymore but I think/hope 343 is gonna pull off something awesome with the series. What they've shown so far has gotten me pretty excited. I hope they can inject more of the fiction into the games. Reading some of the novels has made the games much more enjoyable for me.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

Cool. I really love the bonus content that Bungie provides, I'll probably be pre-ordering this edition.

You know Bungie isn't producing this right? 343 is, Bungie is done with Halo

No thanks.

Specializations -- SE owners will be able to unlock six specializations earlier than other players. Specializations are something Microsoft and developer 343 Industries will be providing more details on at E3.

This makes me so sad. Part of what makes Halo 3 and Reach so much damn fun is the fact that you play the game because it's fun, not to unlock the next gun or special thingy or whatever. Sure, you get cosmetic unlocks, and those are nice, but adding in unlocks just doesn't feel the same. It fits pretty well in Battlefield 2 and 3 and CoD, because those guns do have tons of little different things that you can change and look at, but I don't want this in my Halo. I really don't. I already wasn't a big fan of armor abilities in Reach.

@wh1terav3n:

@laserbolts:

Yep, I'm stupid and still can't read. My bad.

Seems like a fair deal if you know you're going to be buying those map packs. I'm pretty sure I can still find the Legendary version of the last game at stores here and there. The time for super silly Special Editions seems to have passed.

@believer258 said:

Specializations -- SE owners will be able to unlock six specializations earlier than other players. Specializations are something Microsoft and developer 343 Industries will be providing more details on at E3.

This makes me so sad. Part of what makes Halo 3 and Reach so much damn fun is the fact that you play the game because it's fun, not to unlock the next gun or special thingy or whatever. Sure, you get cosmetic unlocks, and those are nice, but adding in unlocks just doesn't feel the same. It fits pretty well in Battlefield 2 and 3 and CoD, because those guns do have tons of little different things that you can change and look at, but I don't want this in my Halo. I really don't. I already wasn't a big fan of armor abilities in Reach.

Yeah, moving farther in that direction does not excite me. Hopefully there's plenty of matchmaking options that standardize loadouts to go along with this.

Barring more details on specializations, this seems like a great SE, though.

So I take it Alex is looking forward to Halo 4? Or is at least a fan of the prior games? I mean it's not like we ever see many articles about special editions :o Not complaining mind you; this just seems... odd.

I think I'll just stick with the regular edition. The maps are enticing but $100 is a little more than what I want to pay for a game at launch right now.

I am impressed that they are not doing a legendary edition this time.

The fact that you get map packs with this is awesome too.

@Yummylee said:

So I take it Alex is looking forward to Halo 4? Or is at least a fan of the prior games? I mean it's not like we ever see many articles about special editions :o Not complaining mind you; this just seems... odd.

Howisitodd?......if its a popular game, people like to see what kind of special editions are being released and what they contain....thus, they create an article about it.

I just finished selling my xbox which I realized I kept for nothing but halo games. I'm good this round. Bungie fan first, halo fan second.

Seems like a pretty sweet deal, not crazy expensive this time around either.

@Guided_By_Tigers said:

@Yummylee said:

So I take it Alex is looking forward to Halo 4? Or is at least a fan of the prior games? I mean it's not like we ever see many articles about special editions :o Not complaining mind you; this just seems... odd.

Howisitodd?......if its a popular game, people like to see what kind of special editions are being released and what they contain....thus, they create an article about it.

The first two were done in 2009, and the latter were done by Brad Nicholson, who frankly would post just about anything. My point is you don't see them being posted up very often. Besides this one, when was the last time an article detailing a special edition was posted? I consider it odd because it's been ages since they've posted one, and there's been plenty of big names completely omitted, making it appear really arbitrary. As an example: Max Payne 3 had a special edition available and that didn't have an article put up.

So it seems that by buying this Special Edition, it essentially includes their version of the season pass. I guess the rest of the stuff can be valued at about $10 which I'd rather save because it doesn't sound too interesting. I wish more games would include Making Of's like the Halo 3 Special Edition or that cool God of War leads panel in the HD collection.

Seems like a pretty good deal if you're really into Halo and plan on buying all of the DLC. I would probably buy this if I had the cash.

I just lost any interest in the product, the only probable way to get everything out of the game is with this edition. Period (financially). So for a very very skeptical gamer for the Halo series at this point, my interest in the "regular" version just dropped to 0 because of that. And yes, a 40$ season pass is basically the same thing, which is also really really not for my taste. I wont be able to justify spending 100$ for one game (and yes, I still bought Geras 3 because unlike Halo, I actually had respect and interest in a sequel from Epic). Though luck. I am sure it will sell super well, but I won't be part of that.. Which is a shame, I was very pro 343 giving them a chance to do something rather refreshing, but even that seems like it is not the case... So another year.. another Halo... Great.

I like that the special edition means not paying for DLC later. I think this should become a trend. However...I'm just not that interested in the rest of the stuff included in the SE. I'll take my standard edition this time around.

If I don't have anything nice to say I shouldnt say anything at all right?

um, well then i'm sure people who like the others will like this one, or play it and critisize it for not being Halo 2 again.

@Yummylee: I see your point that there haven't been many articles about special editions lately....maybe its just because Halo is such a big franchise and with this being the first non-Bungie developed title its going to get extra attention.

oooo, now this seems worth the $99 spent.

@ThatPrimeGuy said:

I just finished selling my xbox which I realized I kept for nothing but halo games. I'm good this round. Bungie fan first, halo fan second.

I'm going to get this out of principle, because I used to be friends with Frankie, and because I'm interested to see what a fresh group of developers can do with the franchise. But yeah, I'm REALLY waiting for Bungie's next project, which I hope is coming to the NEXT generation Xbox, if anything.

Seems legit. I'd pick up the special edition for that price.

Gotta wear that Avatar armor!

@Guided_By_Tigers: I could see why. I love Halo, but I don't need a dumb plastic statuette. Although admittedly, the special edition with the diary is awesome. i actually read through the whole things.