Yup.

Dark Souls only took me away from MK for 100 hours. This on the other hand...

If the "new threat" they were talking about in the video turns out to be the Pfhor, I'm going to proclaim my love for 343, but I'm not going to get a 360 just to fight them

Halo 4 looks great

If it is anything like Halo: Reach, it will be terrible.

I don't think Master Chief is going to die at the end of this...

I was going for more of a game-play type direction with my post since the game-play of Reach was god awful, but I guess I could have been directing it at the horrific story also. Everything looked awkward in Reach as well. dang.

Lets all just hope its more like 3.

I'd rather it be more like Marathon... but whatever

Unless you are in the Warhammer 40K universe...


Power armour is for pussies.

Pretty stoked for Halo 4.

I thought Reach's story was the best by far...

You know what'd be news? Of this installation in the series has justified hype.

Seriously, what made this series so special? Multiplayer notwithstanding.

The first one pioneered many of these things in modern shooters, like regenerating health... It's also one of the few shooters with vehicle combat built in.

Eh. Don't know why, but I simply can't stand the series. I'll bounce though since I don't have anything to contribute to this conversation.

Now that the game has been out for a few days, who has played it and what are your thoughts on it?

I'm actually pretty dam impressed with 343 Industries take on the series. The cutscenes in the campaign are simple amazing. I honestly though it was pre-recorded video at first, but its totally CGI. The story telling in campaign is beyond anything done in the series so far.

As for the multi player, I know some people thought the series was going to take a nosedive from adding a bunch of elements from COD, but i can honestly say that is not the case. i feel the MP is probably the most balanced game in the series and 343 has tried to make the game as accessible to new comers as possible.

First is load-outs. It's just very basic but they let you pick a primary rifle, pistol, grenade, armor ability, tactical package (kind of like perks from COD but only 1, ie faster reloads) and support upgrades. As for gameplay. there is a new ordinance meter and ordinance drops. Basically as you get kills your ordinance meter fills up (it doesn't reset when you die) and once filled you can choose 1 of 3 ordinance drops to call in immediately (two of which are weapon chooses the other is a a power up like an overshield). The big deal about ordinance drops is that it's a counter measure to one team hoarding all the power weapons on the map, because you could get an ordinance drop and call in a shotgun or machinegun

As for leveling, its nowhere near as ridiculous as Reach. There are now only 50 ranks to go through, Once you reach level 50 you unlock specializations (kind like a hybrid of classes and prestige, but your stats don't reset). You pick a specialization to rank up in from levels 1-10. Once you've master that specialization you unlock a special armor set related to that specialization.

As for the armory most of the armor now unlocks in sets and you don't have to purchase them in order to use them like in Reach. The difference now is that not all the armor sets unlock from just ranking up. Some do, but other require you to master commendations (like headshots, assassinations, ordinance drops, etc). They've basically become the weapon challenges from COD. Master Chief's Mark VI armor actually unlocks from beating the campaign on Legendary.