Halo 4 review

All I have to say is "Lawlz" EGM.

EGM WAS once a respect mag with a pretty solid rep. Now its a hallow version of its former self. I've been reading this new EGM's reviews on and off and I find that I rarely agree with them at all on anything. They gush over every JRPG they play and constantly bag on FPS games.

Honestly I couldn't give a fuck about reviews. I'm very picky about what I play so If I buy something these days I've done enough home work to know if it'll be something I like. If I end up disliking it I'll pop it on Ebay and make most of my money back.

Based on the live stream of Halo 4 from machinima , I'm extremely exciting for this new Halo. And it seems that 343 even managed to one up Bungie with a better game than Reach and I enjoyed Reach quite a bit (except armor lock , Bungie can rot in hell for that class ability).

LOL.. yeah armor lock was horrible.
 
If anybody wants somebody to play with, send me a message on xbox live: KSI Zohar78
 
i wasnt going to get this but it looks sharp so im picking it up later today... shesh and then soon is black ops 2 = \


tag = xTweakeRx
 
Just finished it was awesome. Going to sleep now! Watch thru credits all the way!
 
its missing doritos and mountain dew
VEjcA.jpg
 
I immediately noticed two reviews that were the exact same, by two different users. Same "0" score, with the same comments. Man, some people are pathetic.

This is why I find user reviews pointless. Too many fanboys and idiots. People posting reviews for a game they probably haven't even played or even own the system.
 
It's up to 3.3 now. Most people seem to give it really high marks with a few people slamming it hard for one reason or another and dropping the averages in a big way. The bulk of the scores are 10's or 's with two zeros, and some sub-3's. And there aren't that many "reviews" there so far.

From what I've read and seen review wise Halo has been on a downslope and rather than go with something completely fresh they just padded out more Halo. Similar to how Call of Duty and Gears of war are going.

It's not bad for people that buy this kinda shit, but it's as good as to be expected from an unnecessary sequel..

I'm very thankful for my backlog these days. Hell I haven't even played Halo beyond 1.
 
It's up to 3.3 now. Most people seem to give it really high marks with a few people slamming it hard for one reason or another and dropping the averages in a big way. The bulk of the scores are 10's or 's with two zeros, and some sub-3's. And there aren't that many "reviews" there so far.

Whenever I see these user scores, I often wonder if they are people being paid to astroturf it, other console fanboys, or actual legit reviews. It's impossible to tell.

There are a ton of negative reviews because of the Mountain Dew cross promotion. What do people expect with a AAA title launch? There is always shit like that. Hell, CoD did the exact same promotion with Modern Warfare 3 last year, and it was even more absurd--15 minutes of double XP when you buy a 20 ounce Pepsi.
 
Whenever I see these user scores, I often wonder if they are people being paid to astroturf it, other console fanboys, or actual legit reviews. It's impossible to tell.

There are a ton of negative reviews because of the Mountain Dew cross promotion. What do people expect with a AAA title launch? There is always shit like that. Hell, CoD did the exact same promotion with Modern Warfare 3 last year, and it was even more absurd--15 minutes of double XP when you buy a 20 ounce Pepsi.

I think it's just review bombing.
 
I generally ignore any user reviews that are 10s or 0s. Most of the time they aren't objective in the least. Usually, I'll read through the professional reviews and ignore the final score. At least you can find objective stuff in those about frame rates, texture pop, glitches, etc. Most user reviews just spout crap like "ZOMG HALO IS TEH BEST!!!!1!!1!11" or "LOL HALO LOSERS, PS3 FOR LIFE."
 
Whenever I see these user scores, I often wonder if they are people being paid to astroturf it, other console fanboys, or actual legit reviews. It's impossible to tell.

There are a ton of negative reviews because of the Mountain Dew cross promotion. What do people expect with a AAA title launch? There is always shit like that. Hell, CoD did the exact same promotion with Modern Warfare 3 last year, and it was even more absurd--15 minutes of double XP when you buy a 20 ounce Pepsi.

I don't care about the cross promotional stuff. It doesn't bother me at all. But as you said the bias in game reviews is usually towards one extreme or the other.
 
So I just got home and played through a bit of the campaign. I must admit, looks like 343 has outdone themselves here. For a console game, the graphics are pretty damn impressive. When you first land on the Forerunner planet and leave the crash site, the game opens up onto a pretty stunning cliffside vista. I just sat there and looked around for a few moments; it was that good looking.

My super early review so far:

Graphics: 9/10 - I think it's easily the best looking game on 360. Some issue with texture pop in the distance, but it doesn't bug me at all.

Sound: 10/10- WAY better than past Halo games. Just pull the trigger on the Assault Rifle once, and you'll see what I mean here.

Music: 8/10 - Personally, I liked the old composer's direction with the music, but I can forgive the new guy for trying to do his own thing while still making it sound like Halo. Small step back here, IMO, but the music isn't bad by any means.

Story: ?/10 - So far I think it's pretty good, but I'll reserve final judgement until I beat it.

Gameplay: Not even going to rate it. It's unmistakably Halo. You either love it, or you don't. Fairly difficult, even on Heroic. I've died a few times, and I generally have never had an issue with anything below Legendary in past games. Can't wait to get some co-op stuff going later tonight with the pals.
 
Just saw GT's review. And I have to say, it looks pretty cool from the vids and stuff. I want to play it... but I will probably wait for a while before getting it.
 
'Halo 4' not planned for PC, Microsoft confirms

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a436243/halo-4-not-planned-for-pc-microsoft-confirms.html

A Microsoft representative squashed that hope, telling the Penny Arcade Report: "Halo 4 was designed specifically for Xbox 360, and while we're always exploring new ways to expand the franchise and share the Halo experience with as many fans as possible, we do not currently have any plans to port Halo 4 to PC."

Only the first two games in the Halo series were ever released on PC. Halo: Combat Evolved arrived two years after its Xbox release in 2003, while Halo 2 released three years late as a Windows Vista exclusive in 2007.

None of the Halo games since the launch of the Xbox 360 have seen a release on PC, including Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach and the real-time strategy spin-off Halo Wars.

The lack of a PC port is seen by many as a missed opportunity, as a Windows 8 version could have helped Microsoft dispel the perception that its new operating system is not well suited for games.

However, that could lead to a situation strikingly similar to Halo 2's Vista exclusivity, which performed poorly enough that a PC port of the series has not been attempted since.

Halo 4 launched worldwide today on Xbox 360, accompanied by an extravagant aerial performance in London.
 
Of course they are not going to release it on the PC. Keeping it on the xbox means plenty of monthly cash comming in from live gold subscriptions, which you ain't going to get from the PC crowd. MS aint that stupid.
 
So I just got home and played through a bit of the campaign. I must admit, looks like 343 has outdone themselves here. For a console game, the graphics are pretty damn impressive. When you first land on the Forerunner planet and leave the crash site, the game opens up onto a pretty stunning cliffside vista. I just sat there and looked around for a few moments; it was that good looking.

My super early review so far:

Graphics: 9/10 - I think it's easily the best looking game on 360. Some issue with texture pop in the distance, but it doesn't bug me at all.

Sound: 10/10- WAY better than past Halo games. Just pull the trigger on the Assault Rifle once, and you'll see what I mean here.

Music: 8/10 - Personally, I liked the old composer's direction with the music, but I can forgive the new guy for trying to do his own thing while still making it sound like Halo. Small step back here, IMO, but the music isn't bad by any means.

Story: ?/10 - So far I think it's pretty good, but I'll reserve final judgement until I beat it.

Gameplay: Not even going to rate it. It's unmistakably Halo. You either love it, or you don't. Fairly difficult, even on Heroic. I've died a few times, and I generally have never had an issue with anything below Legendary in past games. Can't wait to get some co-op stuff going later tonight with the pals.

I pretty much agree here. . Graphically its a beauty, and a step up over reach, considering how aged the xbox is. It reminds me of a quote valve software said in regards to source engine getting old but still looks great.and compared well with Newer more powerful engines. Valve said something along the lines of: "We have some really talented artists that can use their work to hide limitations of the engine."
Gameplay Multiplayer: Shields dont last long in multi. Besides the thrust pak being almost not worth it, it does flow very fluidly. Its really how reach should have been done. It does havea halo 3 feel for the most part, but added a lot of new stuff to change it up.
Gameplay Campaign: Its halo. It does have alot of similarity to Halo 1. Which is what they were in effect trying to do. I also felt/saw glimpses of halo 2.
Sounds: The guns (especially human's) have a "weighty" sound. They sound absolutely powerful. Im not to fond of how the grunts talk now, but in genereally everything sounds amazing. The music is decent. Though the original composure was tad better.
 
Here are my impressions thus far :

1. Graphics are a step up BIG time in the series. I thought Reach looked great but Halo 4 puts it to shame. Props to 343 for cranking up the detail and actually doing some excellent motion model work.

2. Sound is crisp and clean , as you would expect. None of the Halo games have poor sound quality plus the soundtrack continues to impress me. Puts some AAA Hollywood budget movie soundtracks to shame.

3. UI , in a word .. excellent. Much more fleshed out and easy to get at than in previous Halo games. I've always felt Halo had a chunky and weird UI but now its smooth and very suiting to the future feel of the franchise.

Now I finished the SP with a friend doing Heroic and I have to say "SPOILERS DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER" that I was surprised by how short the campaign is. Only took us about 6 hours of casual play.. that's a real let down honestly. I was expecting a full fledged Master Chief Halo game to have at least 15+ hours of SP. The Spartan missions are a nice touch but they are incredibly easy , especially so on co-op where you can respawn over and over again , they should crank up the difficulty needless to say. Also I had tons of connection issues doing co-op , I know 343 is doing this for the first time on their own but I expect a smooth launch and frankly getting lagged like I was is really annoying considering that co-op is a requirement for any Halo game. I dealt with it but I wasn't happy about it. Also however I wanna say I LOVED THE STORY. Excellent , it captured the feel as it should of the books and the ending was just .. well done. I won't go into more detail because I'm sure most of you haven't finished it yet. Also I wanna add that I don't really feel like this Halo chapter was made for co-op in mind , never really any events requiring other players that made them feel useful and there were even times were you would just fly around in a turrent while whoever was driving was doing all the work. I personally think it feels rushed but it doesn't distract from the overall game and you'll still enjoy the fuck out of it.

Now for the MP , I love the new weapon setups , weapon drops randomly throughout and the overall feel and balance of them. I really love the player armor abilities and I don't feel any of them are seriously over powered (HELLO Armor Lock from Reach) and overall I can't really complain. However some small grips , the customization is not as great as it is in Reach. You have a limited selection of colors and the emblem count seems much lower. Also I really don't like the player card setup for MP , I prefer just the regular name stack from the previous games. Its much easier to read a bunch of names stacked than vertical player cards. Perhaps I just need to get use to it.

Match making is currently a bit dodgy but is to be expected. Reach was the smoothest Halo launch I've ever seen but Reach as a game was not the best Halo game I've played. I think once 343 irons out the match making it'll smooth out any current complaints.

Overall I rank this Halo above reach in single player and MP. Its more balanced , it manages to feel fresh even though Halo is an old franchise now. I think 343 has done an excellent job. But still , it doesn't feel like a "Bungie" game , it feels like a game trying very hard to be a "Bungie" game and almost pulling it off. If you even remotely like Halo , you'll love it.

I'm giving it a 8.5/10 , its certainly worth your dime and at least the Halo franchise stays fresh where other FPS franchises (looking at you COD) just barf and eat the same game with same features every year.
 
Here are my impressions thus far :

1. Graphics are a step up BIG time in the series. I thought Reach looked great but Halo 4 puts it to shame. Props to 343 for cranking up the detail and actually doing some excellent motion model work.

2. Sound is crisp and clean , as you would expect. None of the Halo games have poor sound quality plus the soundtrack continues to impress me. Puts some AAA Hollywood budget movie soundtracks to shame.

3. UI , in a word .. excellent. Much more fleshed out and easy to get at than in previous Halo games. I've always felt Halo had a chunky and weird UI but now its smooth and very suiting to the future feel of the franchise.

Now I finished the SP with a friend doing Heroic and I have to say "SPOILERS DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER" that I was surprised by how short the campaign is. Only took us about 6 hours of casual play.. that's a real let down honestly. I was expecting a full fledged Master Chief Halo game to have at least 15+ hours of SP. The Spartan missions are a nice touch but they are incredibly easy , especially so on co-op where you can respawn over and over again , they should crank up the difficulty needless to say. Also I had tons of connection issues doing co-op , I know 343 is doing this for the first time on their own but I expect a smooth launch and frankly getting lagged like I was is really annoying considering that co-op is a requirement for any Halo game. I dealt with it but I wasn't happy about it. Also however I wanna say I LOVED THE STORY. Excellent , it captured the feel as it should of the books and the ending was just .. well done. I won't go into more detail because I'm sure most of you haven't finished it yet. Also I wanna add that I don't really feel like this Halo chapter was made for co-op in mind , never really any events requiring other players that made them feel useful and there were even times were you would just fly around in a turrent while whoever was driving was doing all the work. I personally think it feels rushed but it doesn't distract from the overall game and you'll still enjoy the fuck out of it.

Now for the MP , I love the new weapon setups , weapon drops randomly throughout and the overall feel and balance of them. I really love the player armor abilities and I don't feel any of them are seriously over powered (HELLO Armor Lock from Reach) and overall I can't really complain. However some small grips , the customization is not as great as it is in Reach. You have a limited selection of colors and the emblem count seems much lower. Also I really don't like the player card setup for MP , I prefer just the regular name stack from the previous games. Its much easier to read a bunch of names stacked than vertical player cards. Perhaps I just need to get use to it.

Match making is currently a bit dodgy but is to be expected. Reach was the smoothest Halo launch I've ever seen but Reach as a game was not the best Halo game I've played. I think once 343 irons out the match making it'll smooth out any current complaints.

Overall I rank this Halo above reach in single player and MP. Its more balanced , it manages to feel fresh even though Halo is an old franchise now. I think 343 has done an excellent job. But still , it doesn't feel like a "Bungie" game , it feels like a game trying very hard to be a "Bungie" game and almost pulling it off. If you even remotely like Halo , you'll love it.

I'm giving it a 8.5/10 , its certainly worth your dime and at least the Halo franchise stays fresh where other FPS franchises (looking at you COD) just barf and eat the same game with same features every year.

While I agree with most of this, the game length felt no different than the others. I played thru all of them this week leading up to this one. Each one including Halo 4 took 6.5 to 7 hours very much the same. And for it not feeling like a bungie game? It feels like halo pure and simple in fact the best most balanced and prettiest Halo yet! The Mp issues where similar to all the others on day one I think people have short memories. A solid 8.5 to 9/10. More so than dishonored and AC3 which I think got overrated.
 
I picked up Halo 4 tonight. I won't have a chance to play it until tommorrow at the earliest. Hopefully I can adapt to the controls. But it looked like a good game so I'll give it a shot.
 
Spartan Ops is nice, like a 5-10 minute mini-campaign mission. Multiplayer is still badass.

Single player was incredible.
 
I played the first few campaign missions and about an hour of multiplayer.

It's Halo. You like Halo? You'll like this. I'm not a good judge of the graphics because I haven't used by 360 for anything but Netflix in over a year, so I was freaking out at every jagged edge. The sound quality is good, the musical score is slightly behind the prior games, but not by much, and that's all subjective. I don't like the seeing the corners of the helmet UI deal that many games seem to be doing these days, but I got over it quickly.

Multiplayer doesn't borrow from CoD as much as reviews let on. Sure, there are loadouts, and you can pick your starting weapon, but most of the good/powerful weapons are not attached to any loadout or major XP requirement, and instead spawn throughout the maps. The new point system of slayer is fun. Even when I sucked on a K/D ratio, I was still getting points with assists, revenge, etc.

I bought the LE Halo controller because I keep my other 360 attached to my PC. Huge mistake. The control sticks are so stiff and not broken in I could hardly aim. Have to go back to the OG controller and see if that helps.

I'll have to put some more time into it to give it a real score. My first impressions are that the campaign is underwhelming (but I haven't got very far, at all) and multiplayer is everything you loved about Halo previously.
 
I thought campaign was excellent but I love the Halo story so I'm biased. The fucking Promethean Crawlers are a PITA but the Knights and Watchers are fun to fight. Covenant is always fun.
 
Is it just me or is the aiming not as "smooth" as in previous halo's? Maybe its just that I havent hoped on my xbox in such a long time but the aiming seems more "jerky"?
 
Does the multiplayer still have the horrible match making system where you have to join Team based objective and then hope in pray you get a CTF match? Is there still no way to host a custom map and let random people join? Does the multiplayer still consist of 90% MLG bullshit extremely boring DMR battles.
 
Is it just me or is the aiming not as "smooth" as in previous halo's? Maybe its just that I havent hoped on my xbox in such a long time but the aiming seems more "jerky"?

Your just rusty. It's smooth as the others. Shooters with a controller is a finess thing not the jerk and shoot fest of a keyboard and mouse.
 
my only real complaint is why can't i customize the controls? i like the boxer setup but hate that it makes left thumbstick click to crouch.

why 343? why? let me swap 'b' and 'thumbstick' please
 
Your just rusty. It's smooth as the others. Shooters with a controller is a finess thing not the jerk and shoot fest of a keyboard and mouse.

It's about finess becuase there is a serious lack of precision. On a mouse you can go faster because it's more precise and more controlled.
 
It's about finess becuase there is a serious lack of precision. On a mouse you can go faster because it's more precise and more controlled.

God kill me I was playing PayDay the Heist on my Ps3 last night. It was like going to a gun range on a bottle of Valium. Slowly slowly spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin. Gonna be a while before I get used to console FPS controls. It's painful to play these games. No clue how I ever beat Halo.
 
when i was playing CS back in the day, i noticed a big boost in my play when i lowered my sensitivity. I paid attention to the radar, to my speakers, and it just makes you play the game differently when you're not flailing like i used to. i think it helped me when i made the jump to consoles.
 
God kill me I was playing PayDay the Heist on my Ps3 last night. It was like going to a gun range on a bottle of Valium. Slowly slowly spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin. Gonna be a while before I get used to console FPS controls. It's painful to play these games. No clue how I ever beat Halo.

The ps3 controls are not as smooth as the 360 I have issue with that all the time
 
The ps3 controls are not as smooth as the 360 I have issue with that all the time

It heavily depends on how the game is optimized for controller input. I had no problems with uncharted or killzone on the ps3 and i also found payday incredibly difficult to control.

I find the 360 controller has stiff anologs with little range of movement and most game like halo rely on heavy auto aim to make up for that fault. I actually prefer the original xbox S controller over the 360's stiff analogs. ps3 controler has larger range of movement and a smoother analog sticks that i like. I'm perfectly fine on the layout on either one though.
 
However some small grips , the customization is not as great as it is in Reach. You have a limited selection of colors and the emblem count seems much lower. Also I really don't like the player card setup for MP , I prefer just the regular name stack from the previous games. Its much easier to read a bunch of names stacked than vertical player cards. Perhaps I just need to get use to it.

THe big issue with the emblems and armor is how many of them you have to unlock either thru sr rank or commendation or both. Luckily you do rank pretty fast. Im sr 29 wiithout using any double xp

Does the multiplayer still have the horrible match making system where you have to join Team based objective and then hope in pray you get a CTF match? Is there still no way to host a custom map and let random people join? Does the multiplayer still consist of 90% MLG bullshit extremely boring DMR battles.

1) Playlist: as of right now its all seperate, though some classics are missing: swat, action sack, and griffball. Off the top of my head, CTF, Oddball, big team infinite, 4on4 infinite, dominion, regicide (new FFA), king of the hill, and a couple others. 2) No custom map search function. 3) Multiplayer: Is more customizationfor your play style. I tend to like dmr/br weapons for team shooting. Some prefer autos and pcik that. theres no precision weapon drops. About the only drops now are either personal ordinance drops or power weapon drops. Because of this, it just plays smoother and faster.

It heavily depends on how the game is optimized for controller input. I had no problems with uncharted or killzone on the ps3 and i also found payday incredibly difficult to control.

I find the 360 controller has stiff anologs with little range of movement and most game like halo rely on heavy auto aim to make up for that fault. I actually prefer the original xbox S controller over the 360's stiff analogs. ps3 controler has larger range of movement and a smoother analog sticks that i like. I'm perfectly fine on the layout on either one though.

Have you done the test for xbox controller to make sure you dont have one of the defected ones that have something like 20% less movement? The sticks themselves are normally fine but what happens is the plastic shell is not hollowed out enough to allow full range movement.
 
Back
Top