Halo 4

Halo 4, 343i’s first venture into Microsoft’s wildly successful, billion-dollar franchise, came out a week after Assassin’s Creed III, and it could not have come sooner.  I was more than willing to take a break from the glitch-ridden and nonsensical monotony that was most of Assassin’s Creed III to happily welcome Halo 4 into my home.

I was worried with the direction Halo games were going.  Halo: Reach, Halo creator/developer Bungie’s final contribution to the franchise, was just that: a reach.  The game lacked the sense of wonder and mystery that other Halo games had done so well.  It had canon problems as well, going against previously written novels that outlined this particular part of Halo lore.  And the gameplay, while doing some things well, just didn’t quite feel right.

Let me preface what comes next with this:  I am a huge Halo fan.  I try not to let any sort of favorable bias I may have towards one of my favorite franchises cloud my objective judgment when picking apart the issues.

With that said, Halo 4 blew me away.

As soon as I was controlling Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, I knew they’d done it.  Everything looked and sounded amazing.  Graphics were stunning.  The sound effects quite remarkable – they’d totally revisited how everything should sound in the Halo universe.

But even beyond that, it felt amazing.  I couldn’t describe it any other way – no game I had ever played felt so authentic.

I had read in reviews how it really felt like you were controlling a bio-modified super-soldier in a hulking suit of armor, but I didn’t realize how much it felt like it until playing. 

Images and even video do no justice to the authentic feel you get
as you play Halo 4.

The story, too, was clearly a big focal point in 343i’s development.  Microsoft has done well to extend this transmedia story through two new novel trilogies, both which point directly to this game.  It’s no small wonder that this, unlike Reach, would have to be right on point as far as story goes.

And it was well done, fleshing out Master Chief and Cortana like we had never seen before (in one of the games). 

My only serious campaign story gripe (aside from the number of missions, which has been in steady decline since Halo 2's peak) requires I look at the game through someone else’s eyes.  Having read all the books, the background for many of the things happening in this game were clear to me.  Had I not read them though, I can see ample cause for confusion.  Many things were not explained well enough for someone who may only play the Halo games and not read any of the novels.

Multiplayer gets a big gold star from me as well.  I wasn’t a huge fan of Reach’s multiplayer.  I liked some of the game modes, but for some reason, it never felt as good as Halo 2 or Halo 3 felt. This feels again like I’m playing a Halo game.  So much of it feels like Halo 3 to me.

But the unlockable abilities and weapons had me worried.  In Reach, everything you earned was purely cosmetic.  I liked how they still wanted to keep multiplayer on a level playing field.  I have always championed that Halo multiplayer differed from others in that it’s so much more balanced, and doesn’t reward players by providing additional skills or weapons because they play more.  I was skeptical of Halo 4’s unlockable abilities and weapons, but they did not take much at all to unlock, meaning there is still no serious gap between newcomers and veterans, so that skill is once again the deciding factor.

Multiplayer feels so right again, especially on Ragnarok,
the remake of Halo 3's Valhalla map.

What did bother me about unlockables, though, was the emblems.  As far back as Halo 2, I’ve used a unique emblem as an identifier.  Now, all emblems are not available immediately – they have to be unlocked.  What results is a constant changing of emblems, which to me just looks like a brand always changing itself.   Then again, we don’t see them immediately on the battlefield like we used to, so it’s not like they’re as conspicuous as before when they were used to identify our teammates.  The unfortunate replacement for battlefield recognition has become the callsign, which has unfortunately regressed to half of my team going by YOLO and the other half as NOOB.

Spartan Ops, a new episodic game mode, was a bit of a let down for me.  If you’re playing alone, it’s not really worth it.  These are designed to be co-op, and you really feel like you miss something if you play it alone.  The story that’s connecting all of the episodes, and connecting it back to the main story, just doesn’t have the same draw to me as the single player did, especially as the missions all start to feel somewhat the same.  I believe the plan is for 343i to start charging for additional episodes as they’re produced, so we’ll see how much people will pay for more, or if they’re content with co-op fun and don’t care about where the story goes.

Bring your friends for Spartan Ops.  Otherwise it's just not really worth it.

With all of these, though, Halo 4 can be exceedingly frustrating.  But that’s not a bad thing here.  Most of my frustration came with how difficult the game could be at times, especially on Legendary difficulty.  It’s the right kind of frustration – the challenge.  The challenge made it so much better once you finally made it through that awful stretch that had made you feel as if you were in your own personal version of Groundhog Day.

It’s not to say Halo 4 is not without its faults and blunders.  For all its splendor, there are a couple serious polish issues. 

Vehicle explosions really get me.  I love seeing all the bits and pieces go flying.  Except they’re not there in this game.   In one particular scene where a ship blows up (let’s not discuss how convenient it was that disabling its power core meant it would drift slowly away until you’re out of the explosion’s radius), it’s as if they copied George Lucas’s approach to the Death Star explosion – HUGE explosion, nothing left.  Just lost that authenticity feel for a few moments when this happened.  Same thing when you blow up any Phantom.

Lip syncing seemed to be a terrible issue, and I’m assuming they just couldn’t get it right and eventually gave up on it.  Which is too bad, because the facial animations and mouth animations are incredible.  Some scenes it seemed spot on, and look amazing with how the mouths fit the words, and then suddenly in others it was so terribly off that the fourth wall was broken.  I suddenly remembered that this is a coded piece of software I’m interacting with, and there are problems.

Incredible cut scenes.  The facial animations were amazing.  Unfortunate issues every now and then with the sound syncing to the visuals.

Maybe some of the cosmetic issues are a sign of the Xbox 360’s age – it can’t handle the full scope of these games coming out seven years after it was created.  Some things may have to be sacrificed, and it’s possibly some of the smaller cosmetic things that get pulled first.

I would also talk about Forge mode, but there's not much to say.  It's very much like it was in Reach.  The only issue I have with it is the size of the open maps to build on - they're much smaller than the Forge world was in Reach.  However, I get the feeling this is an Xbox limitation again, so I can't put too much fault here, especially since 343i seemed to manage it pretty well.

Score: 1 Flying Controller

Yes, I gave it only one controller.  Yes, I’m a Halo fan.  But this game did everything it sought to accomplish, and did it well.  The harder difficulties in campaign mode are the right kind of frustrating, multiplayer doesn’t have any maddening imbalance to it, and Spartan Ops is a fun third option to pass the time with friends.  When the only really frustrating things are some minor cosmetic issues that take a nitpicking, critical eye to really find fault in, then you’ve done it right.

Well done, 343i, on your first Halo game.  I'm looking forward to more.

(The one controller is really for the lack of background provided at many key moments in the story.  And for the time I threw my controller for the RIGHT reasons.  If a game truly has so little to frustrate you that it deserves zero controllers, it probably wasn't trying to do much to begin with, and more than likely doesn't merit much play time or conversation.)

A Much-Needed Addition to Next-Gen Consoles

In 2007, the coming launch of Halo 3 prompted me to buy an Xbox 360.  I'd already been considering it, and the looming launch of the next installment in one of my favorite franchises helped cement it for me.

The 360 has gone through multiple changes since 2007, and five years later, its offering as an entertainment console has redefined what many thought a machine for playing video games could be.

One of the smaller improvements I've enjoyed since the latest OS update is the integration with Facebook and Twitter to share achievements.  Microsoft has really made it a point to give people the chance to share what they enjoy, with social media integration being a great addition to the Xbox offering.

Sharing an achievement on Facebook.  Image via Xbox forums.

But there's so much more we can, and want to, share.

It may not have been the first game to do it (or maybe it was), but Halo 3 was the first game for me where I had the ability to go back, watch what I've played, and take pictures and videos of the action to upload and share on Bungie's dedicated Halo network.  (You might have been able to do this with Halo 2 as well, but I didn't have Xbox live until I got Halo 3, so I can't confirm this.)  This has spawned countless machinima series - one of the many creative outlets created by users when given tools like this.

Image via The Married Gamers, a screenshot of the Halo 3 file share portal

I loved this feature, as I could go back and relive that awesome double kill with a Spartan laser, and share visual confirmation of said pwnage with other users.  What bugged me, though, is that you could only share this with other players, as the only way to see the videos and images was to download them to your 360.  You could see them right there on your computer if you were a paying member of Bungie's website, but that didn't help me if I wanted to share things with non-players.

EA Sports eventually caught the UGC bug, and for the last few years, users have been able to save replays and screenshots to upload to EA's servers, where you can watch them online.  I've never felt the controls are as great as Halo's theater mode, which has made the creation of dynamic replays that are fun to watch a bit difficult, and the clips can't be that long, but it's nevertheless rewarding to be able to share that awesome bicycle kick you just scored in FIFA.  And even better, once you find your video online (which isn't always easy or immediate, and in fact, as I write this, it's become almost impossible to find any of the content I've uploaded on EA's site), you can share that link with anyone.  It's even more rewarding when someone you WANT to share the video with can enjoy it.

I'd put a video of this hilarious clip from a game of FIFA I played, but EA doesn't give the option to embed the video anywhere.  So here's a link.  It's better than the NCAA videos because at least it gives you sound, if not full commentary.

But all of these ways of sharing your gaming experience currently exist in-game only.  It requires you to go back and look at what you played, pick out parts, and then share them.  And it's not always the easiest way to share it with the real people you want to see it.  And not every game has the ability to view replays.

"But BoFC, how do people share videos of Mass Effect?  It doesn't have a replay mode."  Well, those are either recorded on the PC version of the game, or someone has bought extra hardware to send the Xbox (or PS3) AV stream to a PC in order to record it.

There's no need to buy extra hardware if it can be built into the operating system.  This is my proposal for next-gen systems.

Allow users, at the click of a button, to take a photo or record a video as they are playing.  Then, allow the user to share the video or image directly to any of their social networks.

All the pieces are in place, just not connected.  Microsoft has made parts of Xbox integrated with Facebook and Twitter.  Take it further.  Video and photo uploading is there.  Why not just let it go directly to the platforms that people already use?  No extra steps seeking out your uploaded content on low-quality servers to share with the people you want.

It could be as simple as an additional button on next-gen controllers.  Click it once, it takes a picture while you're playing.  Hold it for a second, it will start recording video.  Click again to stop.  All of these are saved to your hard drive, where you can then pick through the ones you want to upload directly to whichever platform you wish.

This operates over all functions on the console, so it can be used whenever.  And of course it can be disabled to prevent recording on Netflix, Zune (does anyone use that?), etc.

An extra button wouldn't be too much, as evidenced by this concept from Dave's Geeky Ideas that has Kinect functionality built in.

This will add a lot to all those games without replay modes where you couldn't share what you had just done because you had no option to.  For the games that do have great replay modes, it doesn't add much except the ability to upload directly to Facebook, Twitter, etc. (which I would love instead of having to hunt through EA's site to find my stuff and then share it).

And why wouldn't a console manufacturer want to include this?  It's not adding any data that needs to be stored on its own servers - everything is stored either on the user's hard drive or is uploaded to existing platforms.  Upload a video directly to Facebook - it's on their servers now.  Same with a photo to Twitpic.

And it's free advertising.  We know of the power of word of mouth, and how that's become amplified through social media.  If your friend shows you how enjoyable something is, you might be more inclined to check it out.

I'm not saying that me just showing a clip of fighting a dragon in Skyrim is going to convince someone to buy a new Xbox.  What's most likely is it would convince someone who already owns the system to consider the game.  It's a lot to say that this is going to get new console purchases.

But, if you were like me in 2007, perhaps all you needed was just that little push, inspired by a game, to get a new console.  And the console manufacturers wouldn't want to miss out on that.