50°

Halo 4 Crimson Map Pack playlists detailed, Team SWAT and Team Regicide stay

XMNR: 343 Industries announced Thursday the multplayer playlist updates coming Monday to Halo 4 alongisde the release of the Crimson Map Pack. The biggest surprise is that both Team SWAT and Team Regicide are hanging around while King of the Hill gets kicked to the curb for the Xbox 360 shooter.

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examiner.com
aviator1894156d ago

Why in the world would they remove king of the hill??

Why can't we just get a segmented playlist system - ranked and social - like in Halo 3?? It worked so well.

Queasy4156d ago

343 is trying to keep the number of playlists at a manageable number so it doesn't become the mess that the Halo: Reach playlist became. As a result, they are rotating out playlists that aren't necessarily popular.

I'm not defending the practice, just pointing out their reasoning.

There's no skill ranking in Halo 4 yet but it is supposed to be coming in a future title update. Maybe they'll add a ranked playlist then? <shrug>

Thatlalala4156d ago

King is garbage anyways, Douchebags just use it to pad their K/d's. 90% of games have 2-3 guys sitting back just DMR'n into the hill and chuckin their nades with explosives on. Really do need a Ranked/social playlists though. Big Team Battle right now is retarded, take personal ordinance out of it, or else your going to keep getting teams stacked with power weapons. Played last night 3 guys had Binarys, 2 more had human snipes, and 1 had a beam rifle. Now with no Scope out when you get shot... HOW THE FUCK do you go up against that with just a BR/DMR.

Cerberus294156d ago (Edited 4156d ago )

I really wish they could at least do a tier system with ordinance drops. For example, your first ordinance drop would always be grenades, needler/concussion rifle, or speed boost; your second would be grenades/railgun, sword/hammer, or over shield; and if you managed to get a third ordinance drop then you would get sniper/beam/binary rifle, rockets/splaser, or damage boost.

omi25p4156d ago

FFS i just want Grifball and rocket race.

MasterD9194155d ago

Double team and multi-team desperately need to come back.

I can appreciate that they don't want too many playlists, but the current playlists and the ones they are removing don't seem to be a complete fit for this game. I'm holding out for the better playlists and hope they increase the limit by a few more at least...

In no way would the gametypes become as convoluted as Reach's did.

50°

Master Chief Became More Than A Machine In 343's Halo

In Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, Master Chief became a more nuanced, human character.

In spite of the Halo series’ struggles, 343 deserves praise for adding nuance and characterisation to the ever-beating heart of Halo - The Master Chief. Playing through Infinite, it's abundantly clear that the events of the current and previous trilogies have irrevocably changed the iconic hero. He’s no longer the ‘blank slate’ that was previously presented by Bungie. He’s a fatigued, damaged and fallible protagonist, and one who is meandering through currents of grief, while reveling in his newfound agency. Giving the Chief a compelling and meaningful voice was no small feat, and 343 should be proud of that victory.

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thegamer.com
kingnick405d ago

This article completely misses part of the appeal of the original iteration of character in the original game trilogy. It was the Chief and Cortana vs an entire alien collective. The blank slate Bungie displayed in their games was genius, he was an mysterious hero a wide audience could identify with because he wasn't as clearly defined as most characters.

The books added a lot of lore and backstory but most Halo players just want a fun game with exposition that doesn't get in the way of gameplay, it's why the Cortana level in Halo 3 was derided.

Not every character has to be a damaged soyboy, a soldier has to suck it up and do his duty.

BandarHub405d ago

A lot of people give the 343 version of Master Chief a lot of slack.
But Fundamentally he is still the same character, he just has a couple more dialogues. He has not changed in terms of attitude.
"Not every character has to be a damaged soyboy, a soldier has to suck it up and do his duty."
And that's what he has done at the end of the day, he did his duty. Watch his partner die, and was ready to destroy the weapon in Halo infinite....he is still the same soilder that everyone remembers

Halo Infintes one was a nice balance between both.

slate91405d ago

Chief and the halo franchise became a joke under 343

Sciurus_vulgaris405d ago

The 343i Master Chief has is based on the books. However, in Halo 4-Infinite, the Master Chief overtime become. gradually becomes more willing to show some emotion.

Obscure_Observer405d ago

"However, in Halo 4-Infinite, the Master Chief overtime become. gradually becomes more willing to show some emotion."

Which is awesome! I love how Master Chief become more John and less soldier.

Sciurus_vulgaris405d ago

I didn’t even notice my typos,lol

50°

Halo's Identity Problem Began With an Admirable Mess

It’s a law of nature that eventually, every long-running game franchise will have a particular entry that gets dinged for straying too far from what made it so fun in the first place. Your Super Mario Sunshine, your Dragon Age II, Assassin’s Creed III, and so on. Whether or not that opinion changes more favorably over time, the initial specter of negativity will forever hover it. Microsoft’s Halo is no exception, except that negative specter hasn’t hovered over one particular game, but one whole studio.

The3faces525d ago

True Halo 4 was a sign of 343i's incompetence and the decline of Halo.

180°

10 Years Later, Halo 4 Proves Itself a Disappointing Omen for Halo Infinite

Halo 4 released 10 years ago today, and its disappointing reception was just an omen of things to come with 343 Industries at the helm.

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gamerant.com
Sonyslave3534d ago (Edited 534d ago )

Halo 4 and infinite have a 87 on metacritic and five a 84🤣. 343i need contents and everything else will play it self out.

ChasterMies533d ago

Halo 4, 5, and Infinite reviews are good examples of the pressure on review sites to score everything between 8-10 out of 10.

ChubbyBlade533d ago

As if reviews scores are any indication of a franchises health.

Halo has been in shambles for YEARS

-Foxtrot534d ago

Halo 4-6 are like the Star Wars sequel trilogy

They all just seem like a brand new games with small connections to the last one but no solid arc connecting them, you’re just told stuff that happened off screen in between the games and nothing makes sense

It’s like they didn’t plan a new trilogy out

CoNn3rB533d ago

That's actually a pretty good way to sum it up

LucasRuinedChildhood533d ago (Edited 533d ago )

I would argue that the new Star Wars trilogy is still better. lol

Most Halo fans would kill for the equivalent of The Force Awakens at this stage (a competent rehash of what came before it). Halo Infinite tried to be that but was undercooked and failed. Halo 4 wasn't that either - they started messing with the formula straight away although the story was okay.

There was nothing particularly compelling about Halo 5's story besides the fake plot they advertised. The Last Jedi is a divisive movie but as RedLetterMedia would say, it was "sporadically interesting" because it tried some new things and set up things that could have been great (like Kylo teaming up with Rey after backstabbing Snoke). That conversation with Yoda is great and it felt like the real Yoda, not that CGI thing in the prequels.
- "Skywalker, still looking to the horizon. Never here, now, hmm? The need in front of your nose."
- "The greatest teacher, failure is ... Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters."
- "That library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess." (because she already took them, haha).

The Rise Of Skywalker is the only one where loads of stuff happens off screen ("Palpatine has returned") in between and nothing makes sense because ... they just needed a main villain and 100 star destroyers to blow up. They could have done something much better.

MrChow666533d ago

no, all disney star wars sucks also disney marvel and everything godamn disney touches

533d ago Replies(3)
Yui_Suzumiya533d ago

Um, didn't Halo 4 have the best campaign out of the new Trilogy? Lol

ChubbyBlade533d ago

Yep and even then it wasn’t very good.

Levii_92533d ago

I'm getting a good gaming laptop soon and i'm finally going to play through the Halo franchise again plus Infinite but i never played Halo 4 before .. can anyone tell me how's the campaign in comparison to the games before it and compared to Halo 5 ?

Stanjara533d ago

Halo 4 campaign great, multi bad.
Halo 5 campaign trash, multi good.

Best Cortana halo 4.

ChubbyBlade533d ago (Edited 533d ago )

Halo 4 was when they started turning it into a “modern” game. Aka taking tips from CoD.

The older titles were sandbox based with weapons that all filled a niche and vehicles that did the same. Open levels with multiple ways to approach in different spots with different weapons etc.

Halo 4/5 doesn’t have that. It’s a linear shooter and nothing else. The story is alright but that’s about it. If it wasn’t a halo game, it would be ok but because it is a halo game, it’s outshone by the previous games.

It’s a hell of a lot better than 5 though. I found infinite pretty meh

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