Hosts: Dust Storm, DaftLink & Kete
Hey Podtac,
This is Rev, first time writer, long time listener, blah, blah. Right now I am a college student in NC. Recently, I have been crafting an insanely long post, but I just had to take some time to let out my frustration on this issue. I have recently read the articles by Game Informer on Halo 4’s multiplayer and I am extremely skeptical. This post will be solely focusing on 343 Industries changes to Halo 4’s competitive multiplayer.
First, I would like to say that I am officially pissed off by Brad Welch. I don’t think this man has any idea of the repercussions that these changes can have on the game. These types of changes have completely ruined games in the past. The problem is not solely the changes being made, but the effect it can have on the community. I, as an avid Halo fanatic, will always welcome evolution in the Halo franchise, but what he’s doing is not the right direction in my opinion.
I am speaking of the load-out and ranking system for multiplayer. Having players increase in rankings is fine for showing their commitment, but when you bring rewards into the picture you are treading on very thin ice. If you let one player have access to better gear for playing longer you will develop a cast system in the community. This can be witnessed by observing the Call of Duty system. With the COD system of ranking, players gain access to better gear the longer and more often they play, making it very difficult for casual gamers or players that have bought the game a few months after. There are many posts and videos focused on hate for top tier gamers who literally have the best weapons and skills. This is a huge problem when many gamers buy the game day one and immediately (within the week) become the ”elite.” These players are those extremists who play consecutively for days without stopping. When gamers enter with these players, they find themselves overwhelmed by the disadvantage they have.
Many games try to remedy this by matching up players by their skill or ”rank.” Unfortunately, this only works 80% of the time.
Load-outs are also a major issue with this new multiplayer. The problem with load-outs is more specific to halo’s style of play rather than an overall issue with multiplayer in general. While load-outs provide many options for players they can reduce the creativity and improvisation for gamers. Load-outs allow players to spawn with a weapon of their choice, it gives them the comfort that they will rarely need to restock on ammo. The reason this is an issue in Halo, is because Halo is really about improvising with the tools you are given. In any match, you are constantly looking for the power weapons and subconsciously keeping tabs on who has what. Load-outs throw this out the window. It kills the need to run for the best weapon. In this situation you are not given the basic assault rifle an told that you are on your own with only your team to rely on. Load-outs make it so you are more likely to focus on relying on yourself. Why look for the sniper if you ca n just start out with one. Why not just camp at the top, keep spawning there, and never move. EVER. This is a constant issue in games like COD and Battlefield 3. You are simply not given an incentive to move from your spot. With weapon spawns you are given a lot of incentive to grab the power weapon or let it fall into the other team’s hands. Weapon spawns would not happen if we had the option of load-outs. It would not make much sense and people would be less likely to rush for them. The power weapon system would most likely turn into the air drop system of COD or the reward point system of BF3 or Homefront. This would explain the developers (343’s) emphasis on the point system in their interviews.
Besides impacting multiplayer, load-outs kill creativity. Think of all the custom games you played where random weapon spawns have been part of the system. They add so much to the game-play mechanics and stories that are told. Have you ever seen those pictures in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach in which people have made impressive works of art with just weapons lying on the ground?
Look, I’m not trying to poke holes into Halo 4 and deflate its balloon of probable epic-ness. I’m just worried. Too many times have we seen games try to mimic other games and cash in on their specific styles, only to fail and never be seen from again (Duke Nukem: Forever). Creativity and improvisation are what made the Halo’s multiplayer so rich and enjoyable. Ask yourself: ”How many times have I been in a situation where out of the blue, I found the sword and decimated those guys behind me?” These memories are the ones I’m trying to protect at all costs.
But maybe the load-outs and ranking won’t destroy the multiplayer. What could happen is that we just have access to weapon attachments as shown in the pictures, these very rarely change the game-play and give him or her the option of adding a more personal feel and touch to his or hers multiplayer experience.
The skill system still worries me though, with the addition of unlock-able skills, games can become one-sided very quickly.
Here’s too hoping for some closure on this.
So long, and keep fragging trucks driven by anus-armor wearing Na-Na’s followed by a fold-able bike parade led by Foo-Mo Jive along with a horde of midgets and ended by a 40 story Grunt statue with JVB inside a plasma grenade in one hand and a jar of fart juice in another.
Okay so if you guys are doing a halo 4 campaign episode next I have a few questions. Do you guys think that the precursors will be in halo 4 or have a big part in it? At the end of the first concept art trailer I believe that last shaky image was a precursor. Also I am wonder if indeed there are forerunners in halo 4 how are they going to do that with gameplay the Didact was 16 or 14 feet tall it will make you feel so small… Last thing if indeed that magazine leak that had the master builder as the halo 4 enemy that would mean we'd be fighting forerunners and the Didact/Bornsteller would be fighting wit us which would be awesome thanks and sorry for whoever had to read this. Thanks guys
Will there ever be a Podtacular app for mobile or a mobile version of the website?
[1] Do you guys think that we will be seeing any of the web series at e3 and just wanna know what you guys think would be in the legendary edition? As for an enemy to halo 4 I am hoping for precursors as they would be insane to fight and would make the flood look like pansies. Thanks Jimmy Shmo
[2] Dam Obama followers… You guys do an awesome job with the show and keep things fresh and entertaining the only thing I could suggest is just having more people kinda like the Waypoint moderators do theirs it keeps conversations flowing a little better. All in all though guys love the show and keep fraggin' trucks
Hey guys. I am enjoying the podcasts. Listening to you guys shoot the shit about Halo helps improve my time on the job, so thanks again. Anyway, I thought I'd give you my two cents on "Forge Improvements," from your "Speculatory Ops" podcast. Forge is missing a few key options that I think would vastly improve its usability for everyone. They are:
1. An "UNDO" option- I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally deleted an integral piece that destroyed all my work and could have been easily remedied by a simple UNDO.2. CHAINS OF LINKED ITEMS- Say you are just messing around, and you create an awesome structure, with many, many pieces. Then you see how awesome it is, but realize you've built it out over THE FREAKING OCEAN. Now you've got to find a new place to put it, and rebuild it piece by piece. DAMNITTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why not be able to select and link your entire building with a simple "CHAIN" or "LINKED OBJECTS" option? Then, you could grab the whole structure, and easily move it around! This would save us all a whole mega-buttload of time!
3. COPY and PASTE. Thats right. Link up all the pieces of that awesome building you just made. Copy it, and paste it wherever you want it. Symmetrical play space… You got it!
Of course, you guys mentioned TEXTURES, and that's a biggie that I hope they definitely do not ignore!
OK! Well….. Any-hoosle, Those are my dreams for Halo 4's Forge… And if you are still reading this, why are you still reading this? Get back to do doing whatever the hell it was that you were doing before you were reading this. Unless you were beating up kittens. Don't do that.
Yours truly,
WONKAdonkathon
Podcast 289
liked the podcast, could have been a little more talk on Cortana's first interactions with the Chief after 4 years 7 months and 10 days. Looking at it she hasn't had anyone to talk to for so long and she has to know the facts that shes getting to that rampant state so she'll try to hide it, and will we be able to see her slipping up a little with some attitude towards the chief.
when you guys started talking about humanity and how crappy it is with the whole we kill each other and stuff you have a very one sided view. humanity is so interesting to follow and watch interact with other species because of how they react. humans and the aliens COULD have been allies and friends from the beginning, but the prophets decided that this species contradicted everyone and everything of their Great Journey and decided that it would break up the entire Covenant apart if the truth was found (on a side note this is how Truths name comes to be since his entire upbringing to power is based entirely on a lie, he names himself the prophet of truth) now we may never be able to come together because of our diversity and emotional actions. but this also lets us be able to bring together our diversity to asset the situation.
Master Chief is something i take as misunderstood. the whole point of why people appreciate John is not because he can tear apart a tank with his arms or blow up an entire fleet. he is special because of this concept of luck. now to explain this luck why is chief one getting lucky so much. well is this cause and effect method. your right about how the UNSC stole him as a kid, cloned him, killed the clone unintentionally, tried to brainwash him to become only a fighting killing machine who takes orders, eventually loses all of his previously known friends over all the years, and most of the time he is alone. So why is he so great then……..well, instead of becoming a an emotional wreck of a super-tank, he is always that same kid who they found on that planet playing with his friends on some far away planet. he doesn't blame the world for what happened to him, he uses his trials and falls to become his fullest potential to save what he loves most, humanity. so do i th ink master chief was design as a killing machine, yes. do i think he decided what he wanted to be and what to do instead, yes.
With the whole idea you guys brought up of having a spartan two show up in halo 4 be a terrible idea, i disagree. in fact i almost guarentee that some of the spartan IIs from Glasslands take the opportunity the join the spartan 4 program to train new Spartans. the community who doesn't read the books can't be aggravated if this new spartan shows up. if anything i would say they would be shocked in a good way. they would want to know what happened and go look back in the books or get knowledge from someone. and if they don't do that, then i doubt they're that into the halo lore storyline to say "well that was a dumb idea to destroy the last spartan myth." side-note the spartan II program wasn't to go and kill as many humans as possible, they were created to to special ops missions that no one else could to end the insurrectionists with little casualties.
How hes saying you only need to see chiefs actions with his grunting and see his hands to bond with him. we've already seen that, we want to see the chief really come out and show us his true self and how he is going to deal with his friend hes had since 2550's. another side-note he barely knew Johnson he met him in 2552 and saw him die in 2553 so not to close compare to Mendez who was with him since he was a childhood so of course he will be seen as some sort of figure and he respected him for his position and for his character for what he had done for john.
Sorry if this was hard to follow but these were just a couple thoughts i had on the last podcast :)
[1] I owe you an apology and an explanation. I feel that my previous submissions were taken to be "calling you out" on something. This is far from the truth. Although my inquiry about your previous inactive phone number resulted in a new active number, the rest of my remarks seem to have been interpreted incorrectly. When I wrote to you about not having read all the books, it was intended as just an observation. In reality, I have not read all the books either, so when I said that not reading all the books means that there are some answers to questions that you have about the halo 4, I meant it as a simple true statement. I did NOT foresee that comment as being an attack at you or any of the co hosts. I expect the podcast to be run however you and your co hosts intend it to be run. I in no way am trying to tell you how it should be or will be run. Furthermore, my observation about your podcast being I informative, and your "complaints" about 343 giving non informative answers was just a simple rhetorical comment. Something that just made me slightly chuckle inside. To clarify my statement I meant this; You said that you don't want to read a bulletin that has non information. At that exact point, the first thing that ran through my brain was, "why do I want to listen to a non informative podcast?" it was just one of those things that is more situational humor. I'm sorry that it was taken as something else.
The truth is, I started listening to the podcast because I looked up "halo podcast" on iTunes, and I clicked on Podtacular. I love the show and I don't care if it's informative or not, (except MLG, I do skip those because it's the only part of Halo I can't relate to) even if the show talked about GASP politics!! I still would listen because of who is running the show, and the co hosts. I honestly feel that you care about who listens, and want to bring a quality podcast and website.
So, I appologise for all misunderstandings and any "attacks" that you felt that I may have done towards you.
[2] So in regards to halo 4 marketing, how much information do you personally want about the game mechanics, new weapons, storyline, and enemies? Does the podcast "force" you to read about everything so that you can talk about it to us, but resulting in some secrets being spoiled for you than you really wanted, or do you want to know every single little detail that you can about halo 4?
Personally, I don't want to know what this "new enemy" is. I could sum it up this way, I want to get every little scrap of information about multiplayer, but I DON'T want to really know very much about the campaign.
So I was right in regards to a Glasslands sequel. (it wasn't read on the podcast, but one of the posts you discarded said that there had to be a sequel to Glasslands based on the books halo 2 like ending.
So for forge, 343 HAS to have some sort of how to guide. Reach's forge gave us so many options, the only problem was I made a map and it was not compatible to the game type. My favorite game type to forge is Invasion because there can be assault, CTF, and Territories all in the same game. The only problem is spawn timing and labeling EVERYTHING! Bungie had no guide that I could find. Eventually through hours of trial and error I finally figured it out, but I was really annoyed not having a guide, or at the very least told what I needed to place down in order to make the game compatible.
So I've heard that the cutscenes for halo 4 are going to be more in 1st person. What do you think about deaths in first person in multiplayer?
My thought would be that a first person death would be from one of the many assassinations. I picture something like this; your spartan is sprinting past a wall where an enemy spartan is hiding. All of a sudden you stop dead in your tracks and your controls don't work. The next thing you know you spin 180 degrees and are facing helmet to helmet to your assassin. You watch helplessly as the enemy grabs the knife and stabs you, then you fall to the ground waiting to respawn. That would all take place in the normal assassination time.
So last thing before I go, my girlfriend has finally had the last straw with me and Halo. She says that I am so obsessed with it that there must be something fun about it. She has never seen any of the campaign or multiplayer. I'm starting her off with halo CE. Do you think I should start her on easy? Man this game seems to be in all aspects of my life…