[media=]http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2012-spartan-ops-reveal/731135[/media]

You see Some customizations, characters, gameplay and more.

Campaign Demo From Microsoft Press Conference:

[media=]

Interview With Frank O'Connor About Halo 4 Campaign Reveal:

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SldvHFZdTyM&feature=player_embedded[/media]

A Bunch of New Renders - Enemies, Weapons, Vehicles & More:

Click these links for For Screenshots. http://www.littleeng...rs-enemies.html

http://www.littleeng...creenshots.html

http://www.littleeng...tion-intro.html

Continued in the comments.

[media=]

A new teaser video for Halo 4 at E3 has been posted on Gametrailers

http://www.gametrailers.com/

http://www.littleeng...view-video.html

New Ghost! Looks very glossy, I bet that specular highlight looks great in motion.

The front "hood" of the Ghost looks to be higher, but it might just be because of the angle of incline.

Is that the Spartan Laser? So the Railgun isn't a Splaser replacement? Interesing...

What was the point in even uploading this photo? It looks like you're playing the game on a phone through a sheet of privacy glass.

The Sniper looks very 'stubby' - Anyone care to guess what those shapes next to the weapons indicate?

The map looks cool in this shot, lots of cover, but really long sight lines.

"Killed By", is this a kill cam?

http://www.littleeng...505024746774191

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T-I_NRe7OMY[/media]

It's the best video we've had yet from the beta. As I say every time, we're so close to E3 that it might be best to just wait for the official footage now.

Movement speed looks really fast. The kill-time on the AR is crazy, it looks an absolute beast. First time seeing the grenade pistol in action too - I'm getting that screen that pops out tells you when someone is nearby so you can release the trigger and let the grenade explode, just like the Pro-pipe.

http://www.littleeng...eta-ok-ish.html

Looks to be a sort of Forerunner riot shield, could be a new Armour Ability? To be honest it could just as easily be a weird Forerunner missile pod or something, we can't be sure either way from just this image.

This is an important rock, apparently.

I'm posting the video because some of you may really hate your eyes and feel like giving them a bit of torture this afternoon. The quality of this video is so bad I really can't recommend watching it:

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BPhhb1gidPg[/media]

The video shows a slayer match on Warhouse, there's nothing particularly shocking in there, we see the Halo 4 sword for the first time, but its inclusion isn't going to surprise anyone.

The Railgun is visible in use at 3:00, it looks pretty devastating!

Something at 4:20, could be King of the Hill zone, Bubble Shield or is it some sort of safe spawn zone?

Forerunner Vision at 8:30, looks a bit like the Analyse feature from Halo:CEA.

As I say the quality is so poor that at this point you may as well wait for the HD multiplayer video we'll get during E3 next week as opposed to subjecting yourself to this.

What Are We Up To?

Jessica is out. At a shoot, hanging out with famous Halo and non-Halo people, including actors and actresses you’re all very fond of. And some you’ve never heard of. The answer to the question, “What Are We Up To?” is pretty long, so here we go.

We’re making a lot of stuff. Right now, we’re finishing work on Karen Traviss’ novel, The Thursday War, including tightening up the graphics on the cover and dotting some Is and crossing some Ts on last-minute fiction edits. I say “we” when in fact it’s mostly Karen doing the actual hard work and the publisher Tor implementing and assisting with changes and copyediting.

And at the same time as all that, we’re deep into Greg’s third book in the Forerunner Trilogy. I was tempted to type last, but I just can’t bring myself to. And I don’t see any reason why we would want to stop working with Greg, so I ain’t saying it and you can’t make me!

We actually had Greg in last week to listen to some music, look at some graphics, including in-game graphics, to make sure they line up appropriately with his vision, and vice versa. When we made the decision three or more years ago to start making sure that every piece of Halo fiction counted and connected, we knew it was going to be a lot of work, but it’s paying off. The connections, ties, and presaging that the books incorporate will make for some stunning resonances and revelations for hardcore digesters of external fiction. For those who don’t follow the novels and other fiction, don’t worry: Halo 4 will make perfect sense as a standalone piece of storytelling. That’s super important.

http://halo.xbox.com...012/5/2/FUD.jpg

And even Forward Unto Dawn, the live-action series we just announced, will make some of those connections, albeit in a much more approachable way. We wanted to fulfill the promise of our previous live-action commercials and the hints of storytelling they touched upon. We wanted to take that kind of ambition but put it in a real narrative – and a story that will take you and deliver you right to the gates of Halo 4. We’re super excited about it.

Our director is a joy (we’ll announce his name later) and the screenwriting talent is exceptionally appropriate to this material (we’ll tell you who they are later), and our VFX guy is an industry standard. All these people, including the unannounced cast, have been hand-picked by us to make sure they can deliver on the potential the Halo universe has for storytelling and bring something juicy to folks who’ve wanted this for years, and something interesting and approachable to those who are curious about Halo, but have never quite committed.

There will be action. There will be recognizable Halo universe objects and artifacts everywhere. There will even be a very large, imposing, and famous Spartan II – but there will also be new, and very real characters, real story, and a gripping yarn that will appeal to just about anybody who likes cool stuff.

http://halo.xbox.com...2/_MG_49382.jpg

We promise to bring you more updates and images as the weeks roll on. And some surprises that aren’t exactly that project…

Forward Unto Dawn is an essential piece in an arsenal – static, moving, aural and aesthetic. I’m kind of surrounded by it right now, going through endless iteration and honing to make sure we hit the ground running in the build-up to launch on November 6th. Oh, and if you buy the game on the 6th in the US – make sure you also vote while you’re out or vote by mail. If you already took the day off for Halo, then you have no excuse. We don’t care who you vote for, but it’s your responsibility as a citizen and you can feel proud of yourself and your country when you hit the ballot box before you go home to hit the, well, hitbox.

If you’re in another country, then don’t worry about that so much.

http://halo.xbox.com...88845879_o2.jpg

I have been traveling a lot myself recently, and just got back from a whistle-stop tour of New York City, where I had the pleasure of demonstrating some MP and Campaign gameplay to a bunch of press, community members from Waypoint and Halo.Bungie.Org and ,of course, about half of the top twenty NFL draft picks. I told them all to go to the Seahawks but only one listened. YOU’RE WELCOME, SEAHAWKS!

We also stopped by MLG’s offices, since they were right around the corner from our hotel and demoed the build, early and weird, to a large group of MLG staff and players. We let them tinker with weapons and run around levels (just Warhouse and Wraparound for now – and those are, I remind you, temp names) but it was fun to chat about the game as it relates to competitive play – they focused on lines of sight, flow, bullet spread and so on, loosing round after round into walls to see how things felt and how they compared to other Halo titles.

A lot of suicides happened as players attempted to jump from Wraparounds aeries down to the Grav Lift below (it’s supposed to be a one-way trip, but they almost made it…).

The game is being designed with lots of different types of player in mind – explorers, cooperators, tricksters, and, of course, competitive players. Lots of worries about how loadouts and other new features will affect those players were discussed openly and frankly with the MLG guys, and we were certainly able to reassure them about our philosophy, approach, understanding, and implementation. We also clarified that certain elements (like user selectable ordnance drops) will only be available in appropriate playlists. Oh, and there was happiness when we explained that loadouts for custom games don’t have the same limitations as some of the “career” playlists

http://halo.xbox.com...33344255_o2.jpg

We hope to bring you some interesting MP footage to show off these elements, but that will be a little way off, since we’re heads down working on some really big, important milestones as they relate to MP, Spartan Ops, and the year in general.

But we are really focused on doing one thing – respecting the core elements of classic Halo MP and Campaign experiences –and everything that entails, but also evolving the systems and gameplay in interesting, compelling, and balanced ways. Every time we announce new functionality, there’s a mixture of excitement, fear, curiosity and outrage and we’re cognizant of that – so with regard to the new elements of Spartan customization – yes, they are more than aesthetic (although aesthetic customization will be well supported too) I would personally compare it more to tuning your own vehicle to suit your driving habits, than replacing a four pot engine with a V8. Changes will be subtle in nature, but ultimately important to the way you play.

And don’t worry if you don’t want to follow that path to its ultimate conclusion – most playlists will allow you to select a default loadout (which will vary on a map/playlist basis) that will give you the means to deal with almost any situation. So don’t worry about spawning on Wraparound with an AR against a team of DMRs. That will only happen if you choose that path.

Right now I am going through an MP build, enjoying the fact that the UI now lets me customize loadouts from the Pause menu (it was disabled for some time, meaning noobs often got stuck with defaults if they forgot to build one before going in). But it also surprised me with one possible scheme for the loading screen – I can’t say what it is, but it replaces the placeholder Auntie Dot pattern we showed in NY. And I love it.

Somebody asked me to report on water. Yes, I can confirm there’s water in the game, and yes, it looks good. But now I can’t stop thinking about the loading screen. Maybe I have a new obsession. In the build and map I am playing right this instant, the “physics” and behavior are functioning, but the appearance properties are literally turned off, so it looks amazing, but it also looks like thick, turgid, clay-filled mud. More updates as I explore, tinker and break it in the future. I think the more compelling thing would be WHERE I tested the water…

Oh. And on the subject of MP maps – we have a great variety of maps, with a good breakup of sizes and modes – but on larger maps, vehicle support was a big priority for the design team. Ironically, this is something that becomes a little easier to tune thanks to the universal inclusion of sprint. If your teammate spazzes out and sails off a cliff in your hog, you still have options.

One map in particular gave me a really excellent vibe – a mix of my favorite aspects of Blood Gulch and Waterworks. Don’t just mash those ideas up in your head to imagine the map, because that won’t really get you there. But you’ll know what I mean when you play it. You’d be amazed how much fun it is just to tool around empty levels imagining future encounters, but it’s obviously a lot more fun to hammer through these in playtests. We’re long past the days of playtests being chuggy and graphically bland – and well into them feeling in many ways, like real shipping code, often with spectacular graphics.

About every three years I get to enjoy this period. Watching the hard work and talent of an incredible team take shape and turn from promising innovation and ideas into real, visible, playable results. We’re busy. We’re crunching, but this is the best of times.

-Frankie

P.S. One last thing, May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness month. It’s a sucky disease and affects children in truly awful numbers. I realize you all get bombarded with a dizzying number of charities, but do me a favor and watch this video. Thanks to “Ramirez” for this May reminder.

http://2.bp.blogspot...s1600/AG7MC.jpg

Update: Some more new screen shots

A lonely cortana

http://2.bp.blogspot...s1600/XFueM.jpg

Chief and a rouge elite get up close

http://4.bp.blogspot...s1600/oUl1k.jpg

In game screen shot of the forward unto dawn

http://3.bp.blogspot...s1600/kZR0H.jpg

And a few other new shots

http://1.bp.blogspot...s1600/LDZ5i.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot...s1600/NZZih.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot...s1600/5CZmR.jpg

Look at the picture below, if you zoom into the part that has the red text (look at the thrid box) on the monitor screen is says (i think it says) last contact with UNSC 3 years, 4 months and 30..?, im guessing 30 days if there are in one if the months that have 31 days.

Sorry this isnt the best quality

Update: Halo 4's new composer http://www.edge-onli...c-another-level

Update: Some official Halo 4 soundtracks http://www.evilsourc...e-scenes-video/

Update: Frank explains a little on the new music http://neogaf.net/fo...postcount=18468

Update: Halo 4's composer Neil Davidge gives some Q&A (click on the image to magnify the size it is very small for some reason) http://i.imgur.com/2gfrb.jpg

Update: Jeff Steitzer comfirmed http://i1207.photobu...nfirmedjeff.png

Update: Frank stated that the flood will not be in halo 4 (I kind of expected the flood wont be in it) http://oi41.tinypic.com/250q9mc.jpg

Update: Frank's Neogaf post about the arbiter and elites in general. Credit goes to Nova for finding this. http://postimage.org/image/5keldgd6n/

Update: Jeff Steitner confirms that Jen Taylor will return for the voice of Cortana http://3.bp.blogspot...00/Steitzer.png

Update: Game Informer Video interview and article on Competitive Mulitplayer http://www.gameinfor...ultiplayer.aspx

Update: Frank Tries to calm the nerves of those who have worrying feelings about halo 4 http://www.neogaf.co...&postcount=2337

Update: Possible Halo 4 released date but it's a rumor for now and todays new halo 4 info revealed at 5pm UK GMT http://www.computera...-report-claims/

again i will now be posting any new info on halo 4 in this thread.

We've seen a surprising amount of speculation this month about our May cover, with all sorts of different games being suggested. At long last, we can pull back the curtain on our world-exclusive look at Halo 4. This 14-page cover story is stuffed full of details on the new game, including information on where the story is going, hands-on impressions of multiplayer, and intel on the surprising new approach governing every aspect of Halo's multiplayer experience. 343 Industries also shared a wealth of in-game screenshots and concept art revealing new locations within the Halo universe.

Because we have more info on Halo 4 than we can fit into a 14-page cover story, we are rolling out new interviews and articles throughout the month with additional insight into the game and the new creators behind the franchise.

On a somewhat unrelated note we also have the profile of an Assault Rifle that was released in the latest bulletin.

Anticipation levels surrounding the debut unveiling of Halo 4 in San Francisco at Microsoft’s Spring Showcase were through the roof. Finally, the Chief is back and we thought we’d have a good chance to see whether 343 Industries has the moxie to carry Bungie’s elliptical torch on to new heights. Boy, were we wrong… Not wrong in the sense that the game looks like an utter disaster or as uninformed as when we saw one map for Halo: Reach at the same event 2 years ago. We were wrong because we didn’t really see that much of the game to evenly remotely form an opinion of the holiday 2012 title. Still, we were put on this planet to probe, and probe we did.

Halo 4 is the “beginning of an epic new sci-fi saga that will define the next decade for Halo,” said Josh Holmes, the game’s Creative Director, but it’s not just about more of the same and then some, 343 Industries is keen to start its own legacy in terms of creating Halo game and stamping its own mark on the franchise. How can 343 do that and keep fans of the franchise happy, you ask? Simple, it’s about balance according to Holmes, “How do we balance the respect that we have for the legacy of this game that we love so much with this desire to innovate and push things forward?”

Keeping and maintaining the game’s canon is an important part of that respect notion and it probably factored into why Master Chief is coming back. “He’s the heart and soul of the IP,” said Kiki Wolfkill (who must have the coolest name in the games industry), the game’s Executive Producer, but for the most part, it’s because, as Wolfkill says: “As gamers and players, we just missed him.”

Halo 4 is looking to explore Master Chief more as a character and 343 is not only looking at “what makes Master Chief click,” but the studio is looking to pull back the curtain on John and explore what’s going on behind the mask. That’ll include not just John and the Chief’s persona, but also his relationship with his closest friend and ally, Cortana, who Wolfkill points out, is probably more human than he is.

Master Chief’s had a bit of a makeover too in Halo 4, but it’s not just about the aesthetics, it’s about functionality – think Batman in the Dark Knight film. The in-game Chief we took a look at was not only shinier than ever before, but his armour redesign was all about making the 900lb Spartan more agile as well. There was some spiel about Master Chief’s HUD being a focus in Halo 4, but in our brief 2-second glimpse, it wasn’t clear what 343 had done with it, if anything.

It is a much prettier and more impressive game from a visual perspective though, with 343 opting for a much more detail-orientated experience. “There’s been dramatic improvements across the board in terms of the visual fidelity that we’re getting out of the game experience,” said Holmes. “All in service of the experience we’re trying to create obviously – that’s where we focused our attention.” It only took a few minutes of multiplayer gameplay footage to notice the more impressive particle effects, a new level of lighting and an element of vibrancy in the game visuals.

Storytelling and character development are a key focus for 343 Industries in Halo 4, with Holmes noting that it’ll be a “deeper, more emotionally impactful story.” Master Chief is going to be facing a “very ancient, very dark threat” that “will define him as a hero,” according to 343. Holmes noted that “in telling that story, we’ve really adopted a darker, more sophisticated tone for the game which ties into the themes of our story and the goals that we have there.” Remember though, Halo 4 isn’t just about being Halo 4, it’s about the “evolving saga” and being able to “connect [it to the] existing fiction.”

So let’s leave the theory behind for a minute and focus on more of the nitty gritty: the multiplayer after all, was the purpose of Microsoft’s “unveiling” at this year’s Spring Showcase. I use the term “unveiling” in the loosest sense, as it seemed anything remotely interesting or revealing was being saved for a later date.

“We really want to redefine what Halo multiplayer is and make it something that is indisputably Halo at its core, but is evolved in important and innovative ways,” said Holmes, again not giving anything away and speaking rather cryptically. “So from a gameplay standpoint, it’s really about creating something that stays true to that magical Halo feel, but is faster, more visceral and intense in all aspects of the combat.” More mystery there then. The one thing that did stand out though was when Frank O’Connor, the Franchise Development Director said, “We’ve created a fairly convincing reason why Red Spartans kill Blue Spartans,” although we’re not sure there needed to be a reason. The term “fairly convincing” doesn’t seem to exude confidence either.

Regardless of our cynicism, Halo 4 takes advantage of the new Spartan IV character model, who are the newest breed of Spartan warriors. These bad boys are fully customisable, not only from a cosmetic standpoint like Reach, but from a gameplay standpoint too, allowing players to make “gameplay enhancing choices, customise playstyle and [create] custom loadouts to take into battle.” In terms of concrete information, battle rifles are back, joining a “vast arsenal of weapons and abilities that will be available in the game,” says Holmes.

The main focus of the hands-off look at Halo 4 was to take a look at the game’s multiplayer, with 343 bringing a pair of multiplayer maps with them to give us a bit of a first look tour.

First up was “Warhouse,” which is a civilian manufacturing facility that exists in near space orbit above a gas giant. It’s a map with symmetrical design and tight spaces that range from corridors and catwalks to a large centre space housing a large Cyclop Mark II mech being assembled in the centre of the map.

As you’d expect in any Halo map, it’s littered with catwalks, grav lifts, outside areas and man cannons galore. Warhouse is a map that boasts more moving parts than any other Halo map to date as well, with the giant mech being assembled in the middle whilst the combat flows around it, steam bellowing out of pipes in the game’s metallic corridors and crates suspended from cranes swaying in the map’s gusty exterior. It’s a map that feels more alive than any other Halo map before and like every map in Halo 4, it’s a purpose-built space for competitive combat, which according to 343 allows for “optimal flow and optimal balance.”

The second and final map or our brief look at Halo 4 was Wraparound – which is too close to reach around if you’re asking us. Wraparound is a map that’s set on a Forerunner solar facility within a Forerunner shield world that generates artificial sunlight, providing energy for the world below. It’s a smaller, more focused map, serving as a good Team Slayer arena, with drop downs, inner catwalks and a circular core around the outer core in the middle. Unlike Warhouse, Wraparound is a lot less claustrophobic, with the bright artificial sun meaning it’s much more vibrant than Warhouse and with man cannons allowing you to jump back into the thick of it within an instance. In essence, it’s very Lockout in nature, especially in terms of its walkways and inherent openness.

Unfortunately for us – and you – it seems as if Microsoft is saving the first in-depth look at the Chief and his Halo 4 antics for this year’s E3, which truth be told is a rather bizarre decision considering the white noise phenomenon of E3 and the fact they have a captive audience in San Fran at their dedicated Microsoft event. At present though, Halo 4 is a lot of buzz words, PR gobbledegook and cryptic messages galore. I mean, if we hear the words “cinematic,” “own voice” and “visceral” any more times, we’re going to forcibly insert the Pillar of Autumn into Master Chief’s anus! That said, the classic battle rifle is back and it’s sure looking purdy, so at least we’ve got something to take away from this debut showing, right? Pewpewpew! Makes you wonder whether MS and 343 have something to hide though…

Halo 4 is scheduled for a holiday 2012 release.

Inside the studio across a myriad of monitors is often where the magic happens. Every once in a blue moon, though, the planets—or in this case, water droplets—align and make that magic visible to all. Such was the case yesterday when a seemingly endless sea of clouds gently parted, allowing a triumphal arch to curve its way across the sky, leaving a trail of softly woven colors lingering in its wake.

After coming face-to-face with such a wondrous meteorological phenomenon, two 343-ers did what anybody would have done when placed in that exact same situation: they opened wide and shot a multi-colored bow out of their favorite orifices. And then, so we could share the picture, they did the same thing again, only this time with their mouths.

Since the aforementioned artists proved they are capable of emitting magic of near mythical proportions while outdoors, I thought I would talk about the magic they also produce when within the confines of our studio as well, in particular, some of the general philosophy behind the Master Chief’s physical appearance in Halo 4. You did, after all, recently get a small preview of what’s to come

Toy Fair 2012

Today was the last day of the American International Toy Fair. Every year, this event takes over New York City’s Javits Center for four entire days, bringing manufacturers and buyers from around the world together to celebrate one very important thing: toys. Whether you like the company of others or you prefer to do it by yourself, as long as you like playing, this is the event for you.

Halo traditionally has a strong showing at the Toy Fair, and this year was no different. Square Enix showed off their Combat Evolved line, Mega Bloks featured various construction sets that, when put together, magically transformed into your favorite Halo characters and vehicles, and McFarlane Toys had no fewer than four different collections on display, a few of them, because of our current development cycle, being prototypes.

Toy manufacturing, you see, is typically a year-long process that starts with the delivery of 3D files. For earlier games, such as Halo 2 and Halo 3, the game assets weren’t hi-res enough to make figures, so oftentimes, additional sculptural changes were necessary. Halo 4 assets, however, are so hi-res, they didn’t require many, if any, modifications.

So, files are delivered, digital sculptures are made, and then a prototype is created to make sure everything looks right physically. This is also the point in the process where joints are checked to make sure they work. Once the prototype is perfected, it’s sent to the factory along with the digital files, and the steel that will be the molds for the toys is cut.

Right now, with the McFarlane Toys Halo 4 Master Chief figure in particular, we’re in the process of approving paints, so you’ll likely see the colors shift slightly from the prototype. You’ll notice small details like the glove on his undersuit changing to some extent as well.

While those are small adjustments, packaging will see more dramatic changes because manufacturers often use placeholder images to create their mock-ups (hello, Halo Wars legs!). They need to show the toy buyers what they’ll be producing, but they need to do this before the toys are finished in production. That’s why they use FPO (for position only) elements. A picture is worth a thousand words, so the mock-ups give buyers a chance to see product details, such as size, weight, how many come in a package, additional pieces, etc. The actual details, such as if it’s an Elite Zealot or an Elite Ranger, are less important at this stage than simply knowing it’s a Covenant figure.

The Toy Fair is all about works-in-progress. The big picture is not about the little details, and there’s an understanding that minor things will change. We are ramping up the quality and pushing our partners to make the best toys they can for Halo 4. Our partners are fans, and we’re fans, so we’re all concerned about the same thing: getting the details right

The Halo 4 Master Chief

While it’s exciting to get a glimpse of the Halo 4 Master Chief in toy form, nothing will compare to when you finally see him in-game. I’ll never forget the exact moment his design started coming together; when inspecting the smaller details of his armor, such as the scarring on his chest piece, suddenly gave insight into the depth of his character; when suddenly… the Master Chief was the Master Chief.

While I can’t share pictures with you quite yet, I can share some general philosophy behind his design. And Kenneth Scott, Senior Art Director, will do the same a little bit later in this Bulletin.

Typically, from Halo to Halo, the Master Chief’s armor has changed and adapted, and there have been fictional reasons why. With Halo 4, we’re taking a different approach and focusing on the storytelling aspects of art from the design standpoint. We don’t do that everywhere in the game, but we wanted to take this opportunity to really focus on him as a human being.

In Halo 4, we are interested in doing something the franchise does well on the book side, and that’s helping shape the narrative. Halo is a compelling and deep universe, and we want to tell the story of this bio-engineered super-soldier.

One of the Master Chief’s most notable physical characteristics is that he’s wearing 800 pounds of tank and jet fighter. So we pulled that design into the armor and HUD. When you play Halo 4, it’s important you understand that you’re more than just a gun on the screen. To give you that feeling, we have represented that weight with player physics, without interrupting crosshair and shooting accuracy.

When we first looked at the Chief’s armor, we studied what was done in Reach. We knew he needed to be understood as a nimble yet heavy superhero, and contrast that with Reach armor design that was more on the bulky side. Our goal is to hit that sweet spot where we represent what is fictionally true about the Chief while making sure you feel like you’re a super-powerful human being when you're playing him.

There’s a lot of dark history in the fiction, but the Master Chief has always been an aspirational character. In fact, the Chief’s looking up is important to understanding his character. What’s interesting is that we have an opportunity to use that understanding of the Chief to tell different stories with subtle physical cues. As we develop the visual ID, the Chief’s current head-tilt is in an interesting territory where he’s typically looking up into the danger that he needs to conquer, but the camera tilt is potentially posing a question. Is he looking up, or is the camera tilted so that he’s actually looking down?

Office of Halo Intelligence: Part 4

To provide you with additional insight into the Master Chief’s design process, I coerced, er, asked, Kenneth Scott, Senior Art Director of Halo 4, to write this week’s OHI entry. He kindly acquiesced, so here are his thoughts on this subject matter.

Big thanks to Jessica for dragging me gently into this week’s OHI. The 343 Art Team (and 343 in general) is thundering on all cylinders, and the seismic rumble has the neighbors all up in arms. When your landlord is the UNSC, you tend to giggle when the homeowner association mail starts to pile up!

With Chief making an appearance at the NY Toy Fair, the internet has bubbled with lots of questions around Chief’s design changes. Having cut my first game developer experience on Daikatana, I’ve developed a healthy respect and fear of the internet. I will step onto a message board with all the cautious ginger one would employ pulling lost forks out of a sink garbage disposal. I did want to risk mangled finger burger to talk a little about some of what brought us to our current design.

Above all, we wanted the player to really feel what it’s like to be the Master Chief. This manifests itself in a lot of ways, and for those who read the Fall of Reach, there’s a lot of character depth behind that helmet that has yet to make its way into the game experience. Every person who was allowed to touch him had to, HAD TO, understand his history as a person. The Chief’s origin is pretty sad and grim: A strong, vibrant child stolen from his parents, he underwent dangerous bioengineering that destroyed the weaker of his friends, and trained to stomp out human Insurrectionists. Pretty morally nebulous beginnings for someone who ultimately saved humanity. Of all FPS heroes, he is distinct in that his arc is aspirational and not a cynical view of the universe.

A big focus on the Chief’s armor was his physicality and putting the player in those mighty shoes. Getting that weight across in the design had us looking at a lot of contemporary military vehicles, and we pushed detail and form into the armor that implied that history. This is the bleeding edge of military technology.

A Spartan tossing his chest plate should feel like an anvil dropping….

A Spartan sprinting across concrete should be a stealthy whisper….

Putting on your helmet should feel like powering up an F-15E….

These are the sorts of experiences we want to give the players.

Kenneth

The Chief has been fighting for decades, and while he has always triumphed in the end, it boggles the mind to think about how many millions of rockets, plasma blasts, red-hot spikes, and bullets have been fired at him over the course of all his adventures. Although a few of those were lucky enough to graze his armor, none of them could keep him down. But the Chief has new adventures coming his way….

Courtesy of bsangel @ halowaypoint

"Obviously we’ve been working on the game in earnest for a long time, but it’s all starting to feel pretty real to me now. Campaign is playable from start to finish (not to be confused with complete or polished) and multiplayer has been running for a while. It’s amazing to see changes big and small have a dramatic effect on making the game smoother, more playable and more enjoyable in almost every session.

Personally I have been traveling a fair amount in support of the impending year-long launch activity. Visiting with our partners and colleagues in Europe to talk (and walk) them through the game, the features, the U.S. marketing plans and the sheer scale of the project. We certainly surprised some folks with the ambition and concrete realization of where we’re at, but it was kind of cool to see genuine excitement and enthusiasm for the game.

Our show and tell was pretty BIG, since the European partners (marketing, retail guys, etc.) need as much information as is available to make their plans and start building the path to launch abroad. So they went from knowing practically nothing about the game, to knowing practically everything about it. Which is a weird feeling when you expend so much effort and energy on security and secrecy. It’s amazing how much detail you need to go into. It’s not good enough to simply list off the changes and additions and improvements, you have to contextualize them. It’s been almost five years since Halo 3 and a LOT of stuff has happened between then and now: ODST, Reach, multiple map packs, loads of story and a whole swathe of technical and gameplay changes.

Creating material to explain those changes, walking people through the game features – showing them a lot of this stuff in action, it’s fun, but it’s nerve-wracking. In a way it’s a preview of our public showings, where we get a feel for which changes, which additions, which refinements are going to get people excited. It’s also a chance to get a feel for which new features are complicated and how to distill the explanations to capture the essence of what we’re making. Training wheels, as it were, for showing you guys.

Launching a game is a massive undertaking, with literally hundreds of people all over the world preparing and planning to make sure that every aspect, from the box art to the matchmaking, is executed flawlessly. And if it seems slow, ponderous, even, then remember that there’s a plan and a process, and that you’ll see Halo 4 soon enough. And we can’t wait to share it with you."

Frank O'Connor