Halo 4

[spatular]

Is it worth buying the season pass for this game? I haven't taken it online yet, so I'm not sure what it's like. I played a lot of Halo Reach online, and had some fun with it.

definitely play some online first to see if you like it. not sure i can offer much of an objective opinion on the season pass as it's a no brainer for me, but the first map pack is 3 quite large maps, 2 of which seem ok, not great tbh, but not crap either, and the 3rd one i really like, its great for flag games. so probably good if you like the big team games. i'm hoping the next pack has some smaller maps though.

[Sly Reflex]

I played some of this online tonight. What a difference a nice connection makes. Sometimes I still feel like I'm being conned, but for 90% of the time when I put a bullet in somebodies face it doesn't pop the score up seconds behind. I'm pretty sure I pulled host a few times tonight as well. Damn did that feel good. I might still suck at the game but at least now I know that when I die it's me being outplayed instead of being fucked by a shitty connection.

I just want to add that after playing BlopsII online with Hendo I seem to have calmed down a bit too, if you die in game you die, no point in getting angry about it. Not that that stopped Martae shouting every time He got betrayed or I betrayed him in Grifball, I just found it super funny. I dunno, I think maybe it's a multitude of things that's changed my outlook on the loosing at games. Something's changed and I'm not sure what factors have brought it on.

what do the maps in the season pass play like? If I continue playing this I might drop the moon dollarz on them if they have got a good appraisal.

[RoboticMonk3y]

don't bother,

they're average, and rarely come up in matchmaking

worst 2100 microsoft points I ever spent.

There is a playlist for the DLC maps, but there are only ever about 100 people in them, and those 100 people want to either snipe or get into the mech (or attempt to betray you, because you got to the mech first)

[RoboticMonk3y]

also,

if you've not played the game in a while, you might find it a bit different, because they finally sorted out the matchmaking.

For the first couple of months of that game, the matchmaking issues were fucking awful.

I'm glad that griffball is finally a playlist though, took them long enough.

[Sambob]

Something's changed and I'm not sure what factors have brought it on.

Does it happen at the same time each month for about a week?

Im going to get back into this, got fed up of it for the same reasons people here are saying, connection and playlist were frustrating me so much.

[spatular]

i've heard people mention matchmaking/connection problems and stuff but never really noticed it myself, i mean yeah i have those problems but just not noticed it being any worse than the usual odd problem.

i believe the bolt shot has been nerfed a bit, so that's good.

new maps next week too, smaller ones apparently, hopefully they'll be better than the first pack (although i do like one of them - harvest i think its called?). but yeah getting to play them often after the initial few weeks is a problem.

[Sly Reflex]

don't bother,

they're average, and rarely come up in matchmaking

worst 2100 microsoft points I ever spent.

There is a playlist for the DLC maps, but there are only ever about 100 people in them, and those 100 people want to either snipe or get into the mech (or attempt to betray you, because you got to the mech first)

That's a crying shame, Halo's one of those few games that normally has exemplary map design.

I assume the whole mech raping is because there happens to be achievements attached to it. Achievements breaking the flow of games! Who'd have guessed it? I really don't know why they didn't just have the maps on a pay to play timed thing, so eventually anyone with a copy of Halo 4 could play them all, except those late to the party were on an uneven ground because they didn't know the ins and outs.

also,

if you've not played the game in a while, you might find it a bit different, because they finally sorted out the matchmaking.

For the first couple of months of that game, the matchmaking issues were fucking awful.

I'm glad that griffball is finally a playlist though, took them long enough.

I noticed that everyone was a hell of a lot better than me, I've hardly played an Vs games recently because my internet has been so choppy it makes them a trail in frustration because you just constantly get fucked when you really shouldn't. It's probably don to me leaving at a point where I was doing OK and the system matching me up with people that were OK but who are now a lot better. I'm guessing eventually it'll even out some.

[RoboticMonk3y]

I assume the whole mech raping is because there happens to be achievements attached to it.

I out it down more to it being like the people who will try to betray you when you pick up the sniper rifle, because it's theirs, and you don't deserve it....

also,

if you've not played the game in a while, you might find it a bit different, because they finally sorted out the matchmaking.

For the first couple of months of that game, the matchmaking issues were fucking awful.

I'm glad that griffball is finally a playlist though, took them long enough.

I noticed that everyone was a hell of a lot better than me, I've hardly played an Vs games recently because my internet has been so choppy it makes them a trail in frustration because you just constantly get fucked when you really shouldn't. It's probably don to me leaving at a point where I was doing OK and the system matching me up with people that were OK but who are now a lot better. I'm guessing eventually it'll even out some.

Well, I was hoping that there was going to be some kind of filter going on behind the scene, so you get shuffled into playlists of similarly skill players, this doesn't' really seem to be the case...

Something I have noticed (and something I encourage you to do next time you jump into matchmaking) is the distribution of players across playlists.

In Reach, big team battle was the playlist you would choose if oyu had a few too many people turn up for your game night, or, if you didn't really want to play so seriously and just want to get lost in the numbers. The highest populated playlists were in slayer, followed by swat, and so on. Big team was a much lesser populated playlist. Pretty much since launch Big team has been the highest populated game type. I started playing in big team initially, because so many people would drop out in a game, that in slayer, you would either spend half the game outnumbered 4 to 1, or spending the time trying to find the one person ont eh other team who didn't quit/drop connection.

It strikes me as odd that there has been this huge shift in how the game is played, and it adds to the list of things in halo 4 that aren't quite right, but I can't put my finger on why. It almost seems to have tilted the game to me more like call of duty multiplayer, not that COD multiplayer is a bad thing, it's just not halo.

The other sad fact about halo 4 big team is that you end up playing one of two levels, Val-fucking-halla or exile.

on a side note,

I had a particularly shitty run of playing about a month ago, having almost my entire team drop out and ending up against a team that managed to pick up every vehicle in the game, getting spawn camped brings on controller destroying levels of frustration, so I thought, fuck it, drop back to the menu and find another game. into another game of being constantly run over by team mates, fuck it, find another game. I ended up in matchmaking only showing a few hundred people playing in total, as opposed for a few thousand. it's nice that they drop regular quitters into a playlist with other regular quitters. I wish they did the same with people who use the wetwork specialisation and sit at the back of the fucking level with active camo on sniping like a little shit-head

[spatular]

ha, yeah i hate invisible snipers hiding in a corner, its much worse now too as the invis is much better than it was in reach.

i think the numbers are low in general for halo 4, maybe some people went back to reach?

there has been matchmaking based on skill levels in previous halo games and i'm sure there still is - weather it works or not is another matter. some days we seem to do really well, and others we lose every game - this could be to do with the rank rising and falling behind the scenes.

[Sly Reflex]

I used the invisibility perk on my set ups. I don't snipe though. I use it more as an ambush vehicle to get a few shots on target before they start firing at me, or as a way to disguise my outline from a distance if I start getting shot up.

I've seen a few people playing Reach recently too. I honestly think that CoD and the masses sort of fucked up online shooters. Before CoD4 you could jump on any shooter, whether it be Halo, Rainbow 6, Battlefield, Gears, GRAW and you'd have lots of people playing. You'd think that more people online would just spread around the various games making sure they had a nice pool of players to contend against, but it seems to have gone the other way with most people playing the one game. I mean fair play, they won that audience fair and square, but it makes you wonder if there's any point getting invested in other games because you know 6 months down the line you're going to be stuck in a game that has a minuscule userbase, nobody plays the DLC maps because they had the foresight to avoid wasting money on them and the few that do stick with with are either supremely good at it or result to acting like cretins because they don't like losing all the time.

[Sly Reflex]

I had one game of Regicide earlier while I was in between waiting for a friend to get online and sending sexy photographs of myself to Nag. I got in the lobby, everyone was double my level. I squeezed a bit of shit out. Then something amazing happened. I did the killings. I had some killings snatched from me, but in general I I was doing lots of killings on everyone and the king. I didn't manage to take top spot I because of how the score is displayed I thought I was last all the way through the game. When the game finally ended I was 20 points behind winning in 2nd place, which was super annoying as I went to the part of the map they were fighting on, but couldn't figure out how to get up to the level the fire fights were on. I could have bloody won it. Balls.

I'd put the stats up to that game but the servers are down, what's pissed me off most about the servers going down is that you cannot play Spartan Ops. I've been chipping my way through them bit by bit today, the servers go down and completely fuck it up. That's online connectivity for you.

EDIT: Servers up so I can link that Regicide game.

https://app.halowaypoint.com/en-us/Halo4/Sly%20Reflex/home/match-a007b079c4e9c2d0

[Sly Reflex]

https://app.halowaypoint.com/en-us/Halo4/Sly%20Reflex/home/match-8f9c0e67936b081a

Came in to the lobby 85 points down on the leader and had a beastly game to come second. I need to press harder instead of waiting around, I spend far too much time fucking about waiting for the action to come to me instead of going to it. I was going to hang about and see if I could play these players again but they all left after that game. I think I scared them. Or at least I'd like to think that. I got an awesome killfeed ending in an assassination, when stuff comes together like that in game you feel like such a badass. I even put it up on my fileshare for prosperity.

I see the new maps are up. Who's played them and what do you think?

[spatular]

yeah i played them, unsurprisingly i guess, 3 small maps, bit early to judge fully but i like small objective games, and 2 of these maps seemed like they might be good for that, the other one was a bit too open maybe.

edit, i've also ditched the shield and started using promethian vision, it's stupidly useful, seems like cheating and i don't really think it should be in the game. same for weapon drops - this guy got a speed boost on a flag game and nabbed off with our flag, seemed a bit silly.

edit 2 - not seen the new stats pages before, is this the game Sly:

https://app.halowaypoint.com/en-us/Halo4/Sly%20reflex/wargames/match-8f9c0e67936b081a

[RoboticMonk3y]

Ah, the fileshare,

I remember when it used to be something that you could use to actually share things with people. the Waypoint web site seems like a massive fuckup in style over substance.

The new maps are ok I guess, but much like the last map pack, I give it a week before no one is playing them.

[RoboticMonk3y]

Having played them a bit more, I must say that new maps are actually quite enjoyable.

Landfall being my favourite, I enjoy small maps that lead to close quarters fighting. Skyline is good again for this reason. Monolith however feels like it's a variant on one of the existing levels.

Much like the last map pack however, I feel like they will have dropped clean off the map rotation in a week or so :|

[Sly Reflex]

Do those DLC playlists expire then?

[RoboticMonk3y]

about 2 weeks after the last map pack there were only a handful of people in there, maybe 200?

[RoboticMonk3y]

I still can't really understand what's going on with this game.

Matchmaking was falling apart at the seams last night, each of the game playlists were populated with about a third the normal figures, People were dropping out and lagging all across the map.

I thought It might have been my connection, but I managed to play a game of battleifled with no issues at all.

[Sly Reflex]

Had some really cracking games on this tonight with Robo. It's nice to kick back, chew that fat and shoot some dudes in the face.The game was running quite nice too, apart from that one glitch we saw on Ragnarok with the Banshee.

My K/D is slightly raising up too, not that it fucking matters. If I can get it evens like it was in Reach I'll be happy.

[Sly Reflex]

I left this at a weird point because I was waiting for the challenges to come around for finishing the levels on Legendary but then got completely sidetracked and only just went back. The game sort of excels itself the harder difficulty you play it, although I think the Knights play fucking dirty as fuck when they start wielding power weapons. I guess that's my problem with them, their arsenal and behaviour just isn't that great. Especially when you compare them to enemies in previous games.

The way the game worked before with the enemies they had before because each weapon had a specific use. Now you have all these weapons that do the same bloody job with barely any difference besides availability. I've really no idea why they needed the DMR, the Battle Rifle, Carbine and Light Rifle as they are in this game. Same with the Assault Rifle and Suppressor. The small differences between them are not really enough. I feel they should alter them slightly so that one has a bigger scope, one is better at close range and stuff like that. Initially when I picked the light rifle up I thought it would fire bullets separately like an assault rifle but when zoomed in you got a weapon that was similar to the DMR but it wasn't. The new grenade was super shit too, really really pointless. I only every found a use for them as a way to push enemies into cover if I was hurting, but as an offensive tool they fucking blow a massive dick.

The thing is before in the older Halo games is you had four factions. Humans, Covenant, Brutes and the Flood. All of them acted differently in battle. You had to pressure Elites, wear down Brutes, and in the Floods case the game changed into a run and gun survival where keeping as much distance between you and them and blowing off limbs became the priority. In Halo 4 the Covenant fights are as good as ever. The Knights are almost carbon copies apart from the teleporting and cheap ways they can kill you, it really does take away from the whole satisfaction of cornering something you bested in a battle only for it to one shot you or vanish because it wants a break from fighting. It's crap. It could be so much better without resorting to those artificial ways of making them fights harder.

I paid close attention to the story this time around too. It makes sense right up until the last moments and then it falls apart. It literally makes no sense to me. At all. It's a really shitty way to close a game. "Hi Chief! I basically put a shield around you and saved you from being blown up by a nuke! Isn't that cool? Oh well, I'll be off now!" Such a terrible way to top off the finale.

It should be interesting to see what they do with Halo 5 given the way it wraps up after the credits. Showing all those Spartans is a bit of a tease really, hopefully they look into Halo Reach's best bits and have groups of Spartans instead of just having Master Chief going lone wolf again.