Halo 4 Has Permanent Sprint and Personalized Loadouts

...and here's why, the short version:

basically everyone needed sprint the majority of the time and therefore chose to use sprint more often in matchups.

How many times can you remember picking an armor ability that you were unable to use to the full because you were beaten to a location where you could use it fully? Or how many times were you beaten to a weapon just because the other guy chose sprint and you wanted to have cloak, just to get beaten because he got there quicker?

This happened to me plenty of times, but quickly you learn to rush the power weapons with sprint, use them up and then switch to a new armor ability later.

If you are interested in seeing the report here is the full version explained for those of you wanting more....http://www.examiner.com/console-gaming-in-national/halo-4-multiplayer-loadout-system-and-permanent-sprint-explained-by-343


and here is the link to gameinformers video to see firsthand that this is absolute truth about what Halo 4 will bring to the table.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/04/16/the-changes-to-halo-39-s-competitive-multiplayer.aspx

note in the video shots that a weapon that looks pretty similar to a DMR is shown. wow now this is very interesting because Halo 4 will have a Battle Rifle and a DMR. How will the two be distinguished in terms of how they play. We are all hoping here that the DMR may be much more accurate at longer distances that the battle rifle. We will have to wait and see I suppose. Also you can have 3 different grenade type, and 3 of each so it may just be that 9 grenades can be held? who knows.

Halo 4 images

Expect to see quite a lot of these images flying around the ether now the first ViDoc  has been released. If, however, you have been absent and have you missed the First Look Video Documentary from 343 Industries watch the video now Click here, it kicks-ass!

Now onto some of the latest images...just a few simple ones to get you ready for what lays ahead.

I'm not too sure how much of this is official stuff, I'm not the judge of that, you can be if you want. But I came across this last image on my searches and well it was one that made me smile a bit and I'm sure will bring a smile to your face as well.

Enjoy

So there we have it until next time. Once more stuff comes in, tune back in here to get up to speed with the latest updates of any new art, news, ViDocs and other juicy tidbits of Halo 4 info that you know you want.

Halo 4 More info

Ok so you must have seen the new first look ViDoc for Halo 4 which is totally awesome. Personally not having enough time to analyse all aspects of the video fully check out some of the ViDoc breakdown videos like to see things that you may have overlooked when watching originally.


List of changes:

• Battle Rifle is back  -  and its been given a new scope. 

• Overhauled sounds  - all the new sounds have been recorded from scratch to get the exact perfect sounds in-game.

Hud Changes 

• 3 different grenade types  - currently there are three 0's for grenade slots. Each one able to hold three grenades, 9 in total? will have to see if that changes.

• Halo 3-style Radar - radar seems to have the up an down elevation arrows, and what looks like an arrow at the edge of the radar to reveal distant enemies beyond the nearby range. Team mates appear GREEN, enemies appear RED. 

• Damage Direction Arrows - looking pretty interesting.

• Secondary Weapon -  displayed on left hand side.

• Armour ability - (Jetpack) displayed on left hand side.

• Lighter Kill Text - much more transparent and not solid blue as Halo 3 was. So no more ridiculous text blocking up half the screen.

Misc

• NO beta  - halo 4 won't have a public beta. As confirmed by 343industries. So beware of beta key fraudsters.

• New items to spend Credits on - which won't be limited to just armour. Maybe a perk system? although this is not in-keeping with Halo.

• Additional medals scoring system (game type?) - notice (in the Vidoc) that next to the medals earned are a number and the score of a BR slayer game was upward of 300 which is way too high. This appears to be an additional variant of team score. Obviously this will not replace traditional kill-scoring paradigm but rather introduce a new feature for certain game types.

Halo 4 is still in development, so some of these items may change or not happen at all, please bear that in mind when considering this post.

Well that's all we have so far, look out for more details soon.

Halo 4 Update

So finally we have some info related to Halo 4! Oh Yes! I hear you say...

If you haven't already done so, check out the new FIRST LOOK video below:

Among improving on the graphics and model style of the armour that we will see in the campaign and multi player, a big choice has been to bring back the original halo 3 battle rifle with the triple-shot burst fire functionality. This will probably cause lots of dynamic change to the game like experienced back on halo 3.

Personally I'm pretty pleased that things will be picking up from where we left off in terms of the battle rifle, the new model specification etc...

Two maps are featured on the video, they are Wraparound and Warhouse. Both look aesthetically pleasing and have lended some features from previous maps from halo3 and Reach, in terms of style and design. Is it me or does warhouse appear to be a mix of Halo Reach countdown and the downloaded map Anchor 9? But don't get me wrong it looks incredibly awesome, keeping the same feel and texture we are already familiar with.

Purely judging from the video footage we can tell that the character models appear nicely trimmed and moving around fluidly in keep with Halo tradition.

And 343 are clear they want the whole experience to be much more cinematic, again keeping true to and expanding on the main story and emotional journey of previous games.

All very promising so far. And we cant wait for more....

January Update

Hello everybody.

As we are plunging into a new month and new year (as you may have heard),  I've got some updates for you to be aware of that have recently taken place.

1. The video series of How to Use Armour Abilities Effectively has now finished. Each one included a video or two of some serious in-game action that focused on each of the particular armour abilities. If you missed them they can be found on the Homepage or on the Basics and Advanced page under the armour abilities sub-heading.
2. The Basics and Advanced page has been updated to include all the above mentioned armour ability links to their corresponding articles.
3. The Merchandise and Games pages are available to view via the menu bar, but the pages themselves are still in a state of flux. Changes will be taking place soon.

With those updates in mind what is on the horizon?

Well the primary focus for upcoming weeks will include adding vehicles to the Weapons and Vehicles page. And with the addition of including the vehicles I may include some useful articles on how to use the them effectively as well. So watch out for some cool new images, photos and descriptions of all the Halo Reach vehicles that the game has to offer.

And looking ahead to Halo 4, only some details have come through about it so far, referring of course to the teaser trailer and official concept artwork of last year. But be assured that when something interesting pops up I'll do my best to shove it into your faces asap so you don't miss a thing.

Well that's all for now.

Armour Abilities: How They Work - Part 2

As everybody knows by now, when Halo Reach hit the shelves back in Sept 2010, and having sampled the beta myself in May 2010, the newly included armour abilities were introduced into the game.

The idea behind armour abilities is to give a player a certain advantage in battle. And to fit in with the story of Halo Reach, the planet Reach was primarily a military fortress world where new technology was being developed. Hence we get these armour abilities. From the next game in the series point of view the armour abilities are a more refined version of the deployable, and 1-time use, equipment from Halo 3.

Now, there are several armour abilities you get to choose from when you begin a match in Halo Reach. These armour abilities are preset by the gametype and match you are playing.

The armour abilities include:

• Sprint
• Evade (elites)
• Armour Lock
• Jet Pack
• Medic (drop shield)
• Camouflage
• Hologram

We'll take each armour ability at a time, describing how it works dynamically, and then a brief note on how to use it to full effect.

Note: all armour abilities have a cool down time once used, which replenishes automatically, some take longer than others. And you get the choice to switch which ability you want to use each time you respawn. So you can keep changing them each time if you want.

Copy and paste over. In part two of this article we will look at another two of the Armour Abilities. We'll talk abut Jet Pack and Drop Shield.

JET PACK


As you would expect jet pack allows you the ability to fly around for short periods of time. When activated the JetPack will send you upwards a certain height as long as the button is pressed. To cover a gap or distance over the ground you can pulse the trigger for short burst to cover a long distance.


Things to know about JetPack. You can fire your weapon whilst flying. If you fall from the air you will still take fall damage. When falling if you activate a short burst of your JetPack you will soften the fall and can avoid sustaining heavy amounts of fall damage. JetPack recharges fairly quickly when not in use. JetPack can be used to hop up several levels in a short space of time than if you were manually running on foot.

JetPack works very effectively if you have a rocket launcher. The added height advantage affords you air to ground shots, with a much reduced chance of blow back on your character. Caution is required for JetPack-ers as flying around all the time with no cover makes you an easy target. Also a neat trick is to jump before activating your JetPack for a better climb in the air.




DROP SHIELD


When deployed the drop shield creates a bubble, sphere, of protection from damage. It also heals the health, not shields, of any player inside it. This bubble can only sustain so much damage before expiring.

Things to know about Drop Shield. When activated your ability meter will drain entirely, giving you only 1 bubble shield per shot. However if you press the button accidentally and the character does not compete the animation, you will not drop a shield and the meter will remain full.

Drop shield is great for blocking in door ways, and then protect them with melee weapons. Or just for a quick heal. Also the protection offered in objective based games proves a very powerful armour ability to have.


In part three the last two armour abilities will be discussed.

Halo 4 Related Info and Videos

Now I know this has broken away from the Halo Reach advance tips sections that is on going. But I want to make this place also about all kinds of Halo related things. So, seeing as Halo 4 is due out near the end of next year I want to keep you up to date with the latest info and hot details that Halo 4 will offer you.

These videos are some of the coolest info about Halo 4. And if you haven't seem them yet there always worth a look:

[Be warned spoilers for previous titles follow this video, read at own discretion]

This first one is the E3 Teaser Trailer from 2011:

So in this video we see the Chief being re-awakened from his cryo sleep chamber after the events of Halo 3, where the Chief and Cortana are stranded  after the ark explosion at the end of the game, in what was left of their derelict ship.

Supposedly the game will pick up what happens next, and may even introduce to the gamer the forerunners themselves, who have been alluded to throughout the series. The forerunners of course are the ancient and intelligent race that built the Halo array, the ark and other technology in the halo universe.

It will be interesting to see if they will be unveiled within the game directly. But we will have to wait and see about that.

Check back tomorrow for the next video.