E3 2012: Halo 4 Xbox Evolved Promo



(click to play)

Can't wait!!

Way to get me even more excited... Ugh. Only 2 more days...

Great. Its in the afternoon for me. Will definitely be able to catch it.

Gonna be the highlight of my day.

Let's kick off this by saying good god guys, by the end of the E3 briefing I had to change my pants. After the Spartan Ops vid dropped, I needed to do so again. If any news drops tomorrow about Forge or multiplayer, I'm afraid I'll have to do laundry.

Much love to 343, that said Splinter Cell looked brutal. I WANT that game. Alongside, props have to be given to Gears, the Forza guys and Tomb Raider, even if she's completely broken op hax in concerns to taking damage. Seriously Lara, you should be dead after that spill. But enough about meaningless games, let's drop some knowledge.

I'm not going to repost all of the vids, they do all look gorgeous but I'm going to primarily focus on what I saw in the Spartan Ops vid.


Three things I have circled here that I noticed. The top we've actually seen before in different vids but while going back, I noticed something. For every kill, that bar fills until the entire circumference is full. What this relates to I have no idea, but if you watch each individual MP portion where that cube shows, you'll see it increases after each kill. A good place is the very first clip where the guy gets an overkill with the BR, a segment entitled War Games 1. The second is the new AA symbol there. I'm calling that to be either active camo or hologram, both which have been announced. Now we know what they look like. Lastly, I'd like you to rewatch War Games 3, and specifically the radar. At the start you'll notice a white circle (teammate) with an arrow in front of it, actually showing the direction of engagement or direction the player is shooting. The teammate in question is facing a warthog, and when the turret kills him, his position turns from a circle to an X. Not only that but if you look very closely the approaching warthog on the radar is not only represented by a square, but but a warthog itself. It becomes slightly clearer it's a hog right after it blows and for a split second it turns from red to white (neutral or unoccupied). This opens up potential for you to know what vehicle is actually approaching or around the corner if you can't hear it, it's clearly marked on your radar. That's wild man.



This next is just a little something I noticed; the only things that dissolve into those golden digital petals are 1) the Knights themselves and 2) Something affected by a Forrunner weapon, whether it be the the Lightrifle or the Scattershot. An interesting theory pops up, the Crawlers turn into something that looks like imulsion from Gears and the Watchers explode when killed. Cortana specifically mentioned they're support or defensive AI. Continued with screen below.


Check this out. The Knight almost looks as though there's a creature inside a suit ala tiny arms sticking out of the chest whereas the weapons themselves look almost integrated with some machine-like floating hand. It would explain the teeth, eyes, and orange skull thing that flashed Chief during the first encounter. Theory goes as follows; do only organic materials go up in petals when shot with the Forrunner weapons? Elites, S4's and the Knights certainly do whereas the other new enemies (AI's) do not.


Nothing special here, it does look like to be a new form of Covenant troop transport though. If you're as crazy as me and you remember the concept art of a strange ship inside of a human vessel, this is not the same. The other looks a lot more Forrunner. Hell, here it is;


Moving on:

I noticed this while watching and had to go back....is that a Halo Reach armor ability backpack chilling on a Promethean Knight? The kind that gives you armor lock or say sprint?

What the hell man. 343, I am deeply perplexed why there is a sprint icon sprouting from a Halo Reach armor ability pack on the back of a Promethean Knight. Bug report? The item in question appears just as the Knight is starting to teleport/ sprint away from the spartan. I was just learning to love again, oh the passion you brought forth 343 and how you excited me so, but now I don't know whom to trust; my life is in shambles. I still know I'll come crawling back though lol.

Just some thoughts on what I've seen. Shout out with your own thoughts or debase me for my debauchery here. Ladies and gentlemen, it's going to be a wile ride until launch.

The radar thing is really interesting. It would eliminate one of my favorite tricks, though: Crouching around a corner to make the other team think you've just died.

To be honest, I have not been keeping up with this game, so I don't know what has already been mentioned/discussed. But here's one thing I noticed:



I guess the reticule will now have a grenade danger indicator thing. It revolves around the middle to track the grenade's position as it flies past Chief.

I believe if you're concerned about crouching in reference to the physical hog on radar, it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Disappearing on radar while crouching has been a staple since the original Combat Evolved, I can't see 343 removing that function. The arrow and X however on radar I do kind of like as it provides the player with a greater situational awareness.



Yeah, I swear I saw a grenade indicator in another one of the War Games shorts as well as right by/beneath the hog when it blows. Check me on that though

Hehe. I can take screencaps and circle stuff in Microsoft paint and spout random stuff too

Anyways, all this stuff is fun, but I just want to see Grifball lol. My interest in Halo campaign and other stuff has taken a little drop since the 1/2/3/ODST days. I'm sure I'll still play through the campaign and spartan ops missions multiple times, but all I really want to do in 4 is barrel roll.

Yeah, I mean that if you die, you show up as an X on the radar instead of simply disappearing. Unless that X is only for people on your team, and red dots simply disappear. Then I suppose we can still use that death-just-kidding trick.

Frankie said on HBO that we'll be getting more Spartan Ops info tomorrow.

Sadly, I don't think this is going to be possible. There has been a screenshot leaked with the AA list and Evade is not included. Now, do I take a leak as 100% confirmed? Definitely not. My other basis on this is due to a couple other things:
1. I got curious and asked bs angel about it, knowing full well she couldn't answer me:

Her response however leads me to believe it won't be there:

Take that as you will.

2. 343's stance on Evade as a whole. When Reach first came out, Evade was available to Elites and Spartans alike even though technically Evade was supposed to be limited to Elites only as Sprint was Spartan only. I bring this up because one of the first things 343 did when they got their hands on the game was to remove Evade loadouts from Spartan based gametypes. Now, we all know that Infinity multiplayer will have no Elites playable in it, so our chances of having Evade (at least from my point of view) don't bode well.

Regardless of all that, I'm ok with there not being Evade in the game (although I am still holding out hope that it will be there). While it makes me sad on more levels than one, it's just something we're going to have to adjust to. It's going to be like transitioning from 3 to Reach all over again: New game, new Grifball, simple as that.


Which brings me to another point in the hammer. There has yet to be a mention of a hammer by 343, and I honestly don't think we're going to see one. Why? Well the Multiplayer is wrapped in the fiction this time around and I don't think we'll be seeing any Brutes, and even if we do, they won't be Chieftains so no hammer. That being said, I think we'll see something introduced to replace it though as 343 has stated that it's more or less possible to play Grifball in Halo 4. I don't think we'll be seeing a Forerunner equivalent however, I think we'll just be getting the golf club that was in 3 and Reach. My guess is that they won't reveal anything hammer like and make it a point to show the golf club is there when they release Forge info (which I hope is sooner rather than later).

And that's my wall of text for the night, I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

Check out 2:19-2:23 on this video. I'm seeing a double beatdown/mutual (whatever you wanna call it). Kinda makes me worried about how/if they changed the melee system.