180°

Halo 4's Forge Island available early, free for all players

The highly customizable Halo 4 location known simply as Forge Island has unexpectedly released today for all players to enjoy.

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blogs.halowaypoint.com
IQUITN4G4035d ago (Edited 4035d ago )

So is this actually free then? or another case of Spartan ops

m234035d ago

I don't get it. If you're referring to having to be a gold member I don't see why you would event want this if you didn't have Gold.

SJPFTW4035d ago

you can access the store without GOLD and get any game add-ons you want. been that way since the beginning

3-4-54035d ago

I don't think they have a choice if they are smart.

Next gen is approaching and it won't just be BF & COD they are competing against.

Halo 5 needs to be amazing or the series will slowly die....

My interest in Halo took a dive this year and I never bothered to grab 4 even though I had it pre-ordered prior to release.

It looks good for this gen, but always feels like I'm playing a lesser version of halo 2.

clintagious6504035d ago

I actually liked halo 4 better then reach & odst. Halo 4 just felt more of a complete package. U should atleast try it out. U might like this one.

Shadonic4035d ago

NO hes right it needs to be way better its not the king it was from 1-3 it has to climb back up to the top again.

ZigZagLagger4035d ago

I like the campaign ALOT more than reach, but halo 4's multiplayer is broken as all hell and not true to the halo formula (no load-outs, focus on map control.)

clintagious6504035d ago

See I cant really say much bout the multiplayer since i havent renewed my xbl account but i loved the campaign & that is what i was talking about when i said whole package. Campaighn didnt feel gimped at all and was great for a title not created by bungie.

Shadonic4035d ago

Really 343 basically improved on everything from reach MM missing some things like the death X and small stuff and then added in a bunch of unneeded things to grab in more players who know nothing about Halo. If the game didnt have sprint and Loadouts and Personal Ordinance were jsut for delivaring AA's i can guarantee a lot of the issues people have with a lot of the issues MM wise. The Halo feel is there its just heavily blocked out by all these unneeded things.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4035d ago
AnyaShroud4035d ago (Edited 4035d ago )

Halo 4 already sold 8 million copies, the series is as popular as ever, it's not in decline, or slowly dying

ZigZagLagger4035d ago

As a hardcore halo fan, I'm still upset. The largest island is only as big as Ragnarok. :(

Knight_Crawler4035d ago (Edited 4035d ago )

Patients my young patawan - you can only squeeze so much from a 7 year old console without having to limit some stuff.

Halo 5 on the 720 should be a marvel since MS will give Halo 5 the biggest gaming budget in history to compliment the 720 new technology.

Dms20124035d ago (Edited 4035d ago )

*Patience. Although I did agree with you,and bubbled you.

FragMnTagM4035d ago

This is the kind of comments that should be on here more frequently. Bubbles to you two as well as the two below for having civil discourse.

biRdy4035d ago

thats just the big island itself, you can also forge quite a long way off the island.

ZigZagLagger4035d ago

true, but i like building natural looking maps rather than floating forerunner blocks over an ocean.

TXIDarkAvenger4035d ago

Holy shit finally! But all my friends stopped playing this game...Better late than never I guess.

aviator1894035d ago

Wow, 2 weeks early?
Awesome.

Show all comments (22)
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
kingnick398d 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.

BandarHub397d 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.

slate91397d ago

Chief and the halo franchise became a joke under 343

Sciurus_vulgaris397d 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_Observer397d 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_vulgaris397d 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.

The3faces517d 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
Sonyslave3526d ago (Edited 526d 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.

ChasterMies525d 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.

ChubbyBlade525d ago

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

Halo has been in shambles for YEARS

-Foxtrot526d 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

CoNn3rB525d ago

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

LucasRuinedChildhood525d ago (Edited 525d 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.

MrChow666525d ago

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

525d ago Replies(3)
Yui_Suzumiya525d ago

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

ChubbyBlade525d ago

Yep and even then it wasn’t very good.

Levii_92525d 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 ?

Stanjara525d ago

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

Best Cortana halo 4.

ChubbyBlade525d ago (Edited 525d 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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