Archangel Tyrael Posted September 26, 2012 Report Share Posted September 26, 2012 Frank O'Connor hiring Treyarch and Activison employees to work on Halo 4 and give it the twist like CoD has. Bringing some of their habits into the game. 'Perks' if you call them that, Specializations, and Tactical Packages. Frank said "they aren't chasing Call of duty's tail". Two new vehicles and flood game type along with a interview of Frank O'Connor. Also, they game is complete and is off to Microsoft for manufacturing. Read below for more details From: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/homepage.php? By: Tamoor Hussain for CVG UK Although 343 Industries has taken influence from Call of Duty in the development of Halo 4, the studio isn't trying to compete directly with Activision's behemoth. In an interview with CVG, Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor was asked if modern shooters such as Call of Duty have had an influence on the design of Halo 4. O'Connor replied by saying 343i has done its due diligence, keeping abreast of the genre's evolution and a keen eye on peers. He went on to reveal former Treyarch and Infinity Ward devs are working on the sequel and "bringing some of their habits to the game." Despite this, the development team has made a conscious effort to ensure Halo remains distinct and maintains its own gameplay identity. "We haven't tried to chase that tail," said O'Connor. "Those games are good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons. "I think the closest we've come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn't just aesthetics." Earlier today 343 revealed the Flood will return in Halo 4, and showed off two new vehicles. Frank O'Connor: Halo needs to innovate: Read below for more details From: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/homepage.php? By: Rob Crossley for CVG UK 343 Industries' development exec discusses the future of the franchise Britain is secretly controlling the games industry from the inside like a rain-soaked Trojan horse, I'm sure of it. Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor FIFA is spearheaded by David Rutter, GTA is "the Scottish game", Sony was run by a Welshman and now PlayStation is under the command of another. Similarly, the next trilogy of Halo games is being orchestrated by Frank O'Connor, the Edinburgh-born developer who helped establish 343 Industries for Microsoft in Seattle. O'Connor speaks with a butchered American accent but performs a quite remarkable impression of Peter Molyneux. He also carries that 'executive glow', a calming air of success when other men would depict the astounding pressure of being responsible for the most important Xbox game of the year. CVG met with O'Connor to discuss his views on the fourth main instalment in the Halo saga, as well asthe future of the series. Here's what he had to say. CVG: The last interview we had with Bungie, it was amazing to hear Brian Jarrard explain the extent in which his whole life and family has changed through all the years of making five Halo games. You are embarking on the next decade-long trilogy, do you feel ready for it? O'CONNOR: I am prepared, yes. People ask me if I'm tired of it. To be perfectly honest, there's something about sci-fi that makes you never feel like you've reached the end of it; both technologically and in terms of narrative. And we're starting to call Halo a saga, because - as you'll see in Spartan Ops - the narrative continues, so we literally don't know how many pieces comprise the overall arch. We know what the beginning, middle and end will look like, we just don't know how many distribution points we are going to have in there. One of the design challenges for Halo 4 appears to be making it look new yet familiar. How did you try to achieve this? Yeah, because of the natural growth of the Xbox 360 [installed base], we know who the core Halo fans are but we knew there are going to people who are brand new to it. So we want to include nods and winks to regular players, and resonate this sense of déjà vu on the first level of the campaign. But we also wanted to come up with an experience that's suitable for new players. It was obviously a big challenge but there were some great solutions, and what I'm most excited about is I think we've captured the magic of the first trilogy. How difficult do you think it will be to stand out from the Bungie line of Halo games? Yeah, the funny thing is that's a pressure externally, with people obviously comparing the games, but that pales to insignificance to the pressure we feel internally. We had nearly three hundred developers from all studios who loved Halo, and wanted to put their stamp on it. There's no diplomatic way to say it; we have hundreds of developers who love the Halo series but thought, you know what would be cool if we added? The FPS genre has evolved quite significantly since the release of Halo 3 in 2007. Have games like Call of Duty had an influence on your project? Certainly, and we've hired people from Treyarch and Infinity Ward, and so those people are bringing some of their habits to the game. But we haven't tried to chase that tail. Those games are good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons. I think the closest we've come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn't just aesthetics. By the time the second trilogy is finished in another four-to-six years, Halo will have approached a second decade since its birth. Yeah, that's right. Do you feel, looking ahead, the series needs to innovate? Yeah, it does need to innovate. Bungie had this great history of evolutionary innovations. Matchmaking, for example, were not completely new but the way it was implemented was a new benchmark for the industry. So you believe this is what 343i needs to be doing? Yeah. But we're not trying to radically overhaul anything - we are trying to make it more fun primarily. The biggest innovation in Halo 4, I would say, is Spartan Ops, because it's essentially a TV show we are producing. We simply do not know how the public are going to respond to it. Is there any scope to support Halo 4 with Kinect? Not for Halo 4 specifically, but we'll be using it for the [Xbox Live app] Halo Waypoint, which you'll be able to launch directly though Halo 4. Halo is a core game series, and more than many others is directly linked to the muscle memory of holding an Xbox controller, going back as far as the days of the Duke on the first Xbox. Kinect is a logical extension of the UI, and with regards to some of the sci-fi themes we're actually pretty excited about it, but not for the controls. That's not what it's for, and we would never try to shoehorn that into our game. But there's a lot of cool experiences that we're going to put on Waypoint in the future that's completely appropriate for the experience. Technologically, Halo 4 makes a marked improvement on its predecessors. Is it an entirely new engine? Engines are constantly evolving. The funny thing is that Id Software is probably using some code from Doom. I'm sure is a Bungie engineer from 1999 looked at our engine, they would recognise some code in our new engine too. But ultimately every system was either radically re-written or tweaked, and there's a whole spectrum of these systems we have improved. The entire rendering graphics component is probably one of the biggest changes, and our audio and networking underwent big revisions. So is this an engine just for one Halo game, looking ahead? Well as I say, it's going to be this evolution of technologies that already exists. So whatever the next thing is, it'll contain some code from this engine too. But the tech is becoming more powerful and flexible as we continue to work on it, so it's going to be around for a while. This post has been promoted to an article 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryu♥Hayabusa Posted September 26, 2012 Report Share Posted September 26, 2012 Simply, the best news on Halo 4 so far. Great find. This is just...incredible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Havoc Posted September 26, 2012 Report Share Posted September 26, 2012 Agreed. Very well linked and detailed, Tyrael. Thank you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam91 Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 Agreed. Very well linked and detailed, Tyrael. Thank you. yeah i agree his posts are very well organized and colourful, i'll have to make mine more bright and nice because they look dull and crappy at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robius5991 Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 Wow Tyrael, my first time reading one of your post and I must say that my mind has been blown. What a greatly organised, properly researched and incredibly prepared, information stuffed thread. You now officially have me as a fan. Just amazing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewin3 Posted September 27, 2012 Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 Frank sums it up quite well that they are aware of the pressure they have as they embark on the continuity of Bungie's 'legacy'. Halo 4 will show if what 343i are doing is the right direction for the franchise, and whether or not people will be interested to follow it and get hungry for more. Well time will tell. Thanks for the article, Tyrael! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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