Quick Look: Halo 4

Drinking Game!!! Take a shot every time Brad mentions he played on Heroic.

@KaneRobot said:

Sorry to be the guy to ask this, and I know they are usually pretty careful about spoiling stuff, but is this fairly spoiler free if I've only played the first two levels?

@thebigJ_A said:

"30 million people can't be wrong"

Well, more than that voted for Romney, so.... hehehe

Yeah, and more than that also voted for Obama..."hehehe"

Yes, it's almost entirely spoiler-free, especially if you've played the first few levels. Safe to watch.

And sure more than that voted the other way, the people who do the opposite of those who are wrong are those who are right. That is, of course, in my own humble opinion. You're welcome to your own. Even if it's wrong. ;)

Yay, no magic underwear in the White House! (It's sad that I'm not making that up.)

This looks better than the previous ones but every reviewer who said this is the best looking game of this generation either needs to take the Doritos out of his a** or change his eyes.

@chilipeppersman said:

it shoulda got 3 stars, its just more halo.

but halo is great. it its more greatness. why should they just change it for the sake of it. have you heard of the saying 'if its not broken, you don't fix it'

"Master Chief is a big, relatively slow-moving armored dude. He can take a lot of damage and dish it out."

-said a few minutes after being one-shotted twice by Knights.

@Gunharp said:

@Cheesebob said:

I'm not up to date with my Halo game knowledge but is there no dual wielding in this game?

There is no dual wielding.

@msavo said:

@Skanker said:

This game can eat poop for locking all non-Campaign content behind the Gold pay wall. You can't even play Spartan Ops splitscreen and offline unless all participating accounts have Gold. Absolutely stupid.

Please tell me you are joking... That is fucking stupid if true.

This is true.

Isn't that illegal? In that, you've paid for a product, so having portions of it locked requiring further payment isn't allowed?

I might be wrong, but I'm sure I've read something to that effect.

@djhicks1: They started with the e3 demo. Also from what little they played you're not really spoiling anything. Oh man master chief meets up with other humans. WHAT A MASSIVE PLOT TWIST.

Also if you don't want spoliers maybe don't watch the quicklook?

@GetEveryone said:

@Gunharp said:

@Cheesebob said:

I'm not up to date with my Halo game knowledge but is there no dual wielding in this game?

There is no dual wielding.

@msavo said:

@Skanker said:

This game can eat poop for locking all non-Campaign content behind the Gold pay wall. You can't even play Spartan Ops splitscreen and offline unless all participating accounts have Gold. Absolutely stupid.

Please tell me you are joking... That is fucking stupid if true.

This is true.

Isn't that illegal? In that, you've paid for a product, so having portions of it locked requiring further payment isn't allowed?

I might be wrong, but I'm sure I've read something to that effect.

If that were the case then any competitive multiplayer would be illegal on the 360. That isn't illegal, it's just a rather consumer-unfriendly business move. Microsoft does a similar thing with Netflix, where you have to pay for the Netflix service, and then pay for a gold membership in order to access that service on your 360. Sucks but they seem to not have an issue getting away with it since the last I heard, the majority of 360 owners are willing to pay the price.

@SpartyOn: But the difference is for online mulitplayer, you require a service that they offer.

For offline, that service isn't required, and so locking is seems pretty suspect. I'm not disagreeing with you now, just strikes me as super shady.

Okay, so I know this is Halo style, but the cross-hair not changing when you run seems CRAZY.

They keep bringing up where are the brutes. The reason why there are no brutes is the last third of Halo 2 all the way through Halo 3.

And they keep saying the groundwork for the plot of 4 is from the more recent novels, again no. The major players are all set up by the terminals in Halo 3. Some stuff about the forerunners and more specific details yeah but all you need to know that is relevant is from Halo 3.

@bushlemon said:

"Someone who loves the game should have done this quicklook because I don't like listening to people who have different opinions to me"

haha, I see what you did there.

For the review, it really doesn't matter to me that someone who doesn't like the genre reviews that genre. If I know that going in, no big deal.

However, a QL is not a review. I really feel it would be better to have someone familiar with the genre, and preferably someone who enjoys the game, do the the QL.

Yup. That sure looks like Halo.

@kajankua said:

Fishstick . Cod is a fish .

I see what they did there .

Gearbox does a similar thing with their games, and I always get a chuckle out of it. I think the Halo-esque control layout is "Ring World".

@GiveUpNed said:

@HyperionX3 said:

Thoroughly impressed with the game, myself. I feel like 343 has out-Bungied Bungie.

I'm assuming they poached many of Bungie's staff.

Yeah, there are a good number of ex-Bungie developers on 343's staff. Significant parts of development were subcontracted out (i.e. Certain Affinity), though.

Relying on books/comics/videos/whatever expanded universe stuff to explain the context of a game is ridiculously cheap.

@Tikicobra said:

Relying on books/comics/videos/whatever expanded universe stuff to explain the context of a game is ridiculously cheap.

Truth

I really like the game so far. First thing I noticed was the assault rifle felt way better. Like I don't know if I'm just imagining things, but I just remember in Halo 3, fighting another player with the assault rifle meant we'd both go through like two magazines, and if I actually got the kill I would be near death myself. But in Halo 4 I can actually aim for the head with the assault rifle and feel like it's hitting.

Spartan IVs are augmented, the UNSC just decided to use consenting adults instead of children.

I hope Jeff will still be throwing dark in 2017.

Holy crap, what did they do to Halo? This looks so boring. So bland.

I couldn't wait to buy Reach as soon as I saw the Quick Look, and all its wonderful vistas, rich color, cool outdoor environments. I still honestly remember the moment that made me say I had to buy that game, when they were walking along a cliffside and there was this neat mist in the air, trees along the mountainside, a beautiful skybox, just gorgeous.

This Quick Look featured a big brown cave that looked like it would come straight out of Gears, a big gray facility, and then some mulit/coop on a lighter grey metallic facility, and a big brown canyon. All that talk, both here and elsewhere, about how great this looks, and it's by far the worst looking Halo I've seen. Technical specs aren't everything. Hell, they aren't almost ANYTHING anymore, as Wind Waker still looks wonderful.

That mech looked as boring as Jeff made it sound, the new guns aren't all that new, more Covenant... It's not ALL bad, but I think this is an incredible disappointment, and seems to be the worst Halo game I've seen, other than maybe ODST. But sadly I seem to be in the minority, as I have no nostalgia for Master Chief.

@Duffyside: It just seems kinda harsh if you have not played the game and your judging to purely on a quick look. I'm not done with the game just yet but there is some seriously beautiful art design put into some of the landscapes

I really enjoyed this quick look.

@Bell_End said:

@chilipeppersman said:

it shoulda got 3 stars, its just more halo.

but halo is great. it its more greatness. why should they just change it for the sake of it. have you heard of the saying 'if its not broken, you don't fix it'

Debatable, I'm sick of Halo in its current form, some of the dullest fiction going and the multiplayer just got worse after Reach with all the stupid loadout crap. Bring back Halo 2.

Reach is the only Halo game that has had a compelling narrative, decent swan song from Bungie. They really worked that "This place is fucked" thing.

@Sooty said:

@Bell_End said:

@chilipeppersman said:

it shoulda got 3 stars, its just more halo.

but halo is great. it its more greatness. why should they just change it for the sake of it. have you heard of the saying 'if its not broken, you don't fix it'

Debatable, I'm sick of Halo in its current form, some of the dullest fiction going and the multiplayer just got worse after Reach with all the stupid loadout crap. Bring back Halo 2.

Reach is the only Halo game that has had a compelling narrative, decent swan song from Bungie. They really worked that "This place is fucked" thing.

yeah, but i've never seen you post anything possiive about anything so you being negitive about halo 4 is of no really suprise.

anyhow its the superb halo game mechanics that keep me coming back. not the nonsense stories.

Brad: "Covenant CARBEEN"...

This seems like a solid Halo game but not the shake up I was hoping for. I think I will wait until the Christmas break to check this out

@Napalm said:

I don't know. I'm not really happy to see the Covenant as a major player, again, plus all of the old enemy types, plus all of the old weapons. This is one of the rare times where I fully agree with Jeff - I wanted Halo 4 to be a more singular, introspective journey away from the military life and familiar enemies. I mean, how much cooler of a story would that have been? Master Chief all alone, fending for himself against an unknown force, all the while trying to deal with an artificial intelligence that's about to go insane? Truthfully, it's just easier to stick to a "winning formula" so to speak rather than reinvent a series which is one (out of many right now), that desperately need it.

This. As much as I enjoy Halo I would have loved for 343 to do something off the wall with the franchise instead of playing it safe.

@Bell_End said:

anyhow its the superb halo game mechanics that keep me coming back. not the nonsense stories.

You must have low standards, then.

@Sooty said:

Reach is the only Halo game that has had a compelling narrative, decent swan song from Bungie. They really worked that "This place is fucked" thing.

Really? Tell me more.

@Tikicobra said:

Relying on books/comics/videos/whatever expanded universe stuff to explain the context of a game is ridiculously cheap.

Relying on merchandise, yes. Using them to expand the world and fiction, no. There's only so much background plot you can cover in a narrative-driven first person shooter.

Jeff sure knows how to make shooters look boring. He just plays such a straightforward style without really even paying attention. I would have loved if Brad was playing and Jeff was making his critical comments hands-off instead.

As for the game, Halo is fun for a while but gets old pretty quickly and that MP progression system sounds like it sucks the fun about Halo MP. Oh well, looks like a good rental game.

Someone else may have pointed this out, but I think the right bumper mantis problem could have been because you changed your control setup. It probably wanted you to use your melee button.

I am about half way through the campaign and I am really bored of fighting both the Covenant and the Forerunners. The campaign is dull and expects you to know every detail from the books and other media. They never explain anything, the characters are all fairly shitty especially the captain. The voice work by Cortana is all over the place, it feels like every second line is overly dramatic or weirdly read and the Master Chief is mostly boring but it feels worse since he talks a lot more. I feel like it does not live up to the hype that the devs themselves have been spreading. Its like they got all this talent together and they made a game with no heart and proves that throwing money at something doesn't make it amazing. I have also seen some pretty shitty bugs which ever happened in a Bungie game as strange as that sounds to say. The campaign is meh and it feels like all the focus has been put on the multiplayer which is terrible since everything added is just a clean rip off of Call of Duty. Overall I am a little disappointed and feel like 4 out of 5 is spot on. I just wonder what they spent the time and money on, like seriously this was all they could do?. Saying that though a Jeff and Brad QL in which Jeff is driving and doesn't really like the game is fucking boring as shit. I couldn't even watch the whole of this, yes I get it Jeff you don't particularly like Halo.

I never found myself confused about what was going on during the game. The only thing that happens, but isn't really explained properly by the game, is when the characters initially call him the "Didact". I thought everything else was explained adequately. And an explanation for pretty much everything the game sets up, and the trilogy will evidently deal with, is given by a certain character towards the end of the campaign.

I have a passing knowledge of the books, and I've read Fall of Reach, but the only explicit additional knowledge it gave me, was the knowledge of what a "MAC cannon" is (the giant cannon they activate at the end of the SP quick look here). Nothing was integral to the game's story.

I like hearing Brad keep talking about Heroic like it's crazy hard. Being a fan of Halo, I can agree with a lot of Jeff's criticisms.

I had the same issue with the rb-prompt. Turns out it only shows the default controls. So for a fishstick player like Jeff it would be clicking the right stick.

@mewarmo990 said:

@Tikicobra said:

Relying on books/comics/videos/whatever expanded universe stuff to explain the context of a game is ridiculously cheap.

Relying on merchandise, yes. Using them to expand the world and fiction, no. There's only so much background plot you can cover in a narrative-driven first person shooter.

You ask me, Halo does a pretty good job of towing the line.

@Scotto said:

I never found myself confused about what was going on during the game. The only thing that happens, but isn't really explained properly by the game, is when the characters initially call him the "Didact". I thought everything else was explained adequately. And an explanation for pretty much everything the game sets up, and the trilogy will evidently deal with, is given by a certain character towards the end of the campaign.

I have a passing knowledge of the books, and I've read Fall of Reach, but the only explicit additional knowledge it gave me, was the knowledge of what a "MAC cannon" is (the giant cannon they activate at the end of the SP quick look here). Nothing was integral to the game's story.

Yeah, I found Halo 4 easy to follow as well. My thing (other than the "Didact,") is what's with the covvies? Have hostilities resumed? Is it a rogue Covenant faction? Doesn't really point that out, but I guess the Chief wouldn't know about that, having been on ice for four years.

@Duffyside said:

Holy crap, what did they do to Halo? This looks so boring. So bland.

I couldn't wait to buy Reach as soon as I saw the Quick Look, and all its wonderful vistas, rich color, cool outdoor environments. I still honestly remember the moment that made me say I had to buy that game, when they were walking along a cliffside and there was this neat mist in the air, trees along the mountainside, a beautiful skybox, just gorgeous.

This Quick Look featured a big brown cave that looked like it would come straight out of Gears, a big gray facility, and then some mulit/coop on a lighter grey metallic facility, and a big brown canyon. All that talk, both here and elsewhere, about how great this looks, and it's by far the worst looking Halo I've seen. Technical specs aren't everything. Hell, they aren't almost ANYTHING anymore, as Wind Waker still looks wonderful.

That mech looked as boring as Jeff made it sound, the new guns aren't all that new, more Covenant... It's not ALL bad, but I think this is an incredible disappointment, and seems to be the worst Halo game I've seen, other than maybe ODST. But sadly I seem to be in the minority, as I have no nostalgia for Master Chief.

Halo 4 has many beautiful spanning vistas, this is one level, and it is in the jungle so long sight lines are slim. The second levels opening has what I would consider the largest most open spanning vista in a Halo game to date, it looks incredible.