Halo 4

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Bertie
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase (29th Feb)?
by Bertie » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:47 pm

glowy69 wrote:
Bertie wrote:I'm currently reading harvest, and will move onto the cole protocol after that. I loved ghosts of onyx, that made me want to play 3, and look at the trailer for 4 again. Can't wait.

Which books do you recommend next? Grasslands, or cryptum?


Its glasslands :lol: :wub:

But that one, you have to read glasslands if you dont have it. It follows right on from onyx, I couldnt put it down, absolutely brilliant.

Then get hold of cryptum and primordium. They are very very different from what you are reading at the moment.



Ha ha, awesome... They don't get much better than that, I won't edit it!

Cool, I shall pick it up and stick it in the pile, I've got some amazon vouchers to use. Its probably going to be one of my holiday books for Easter.

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Garth
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase (29th Feb)?
by Garth » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:55 pm

Anung wrote:Is all of that on Kindle? do want.


Cryptum and Primordium definitely are, but Glasslands isn't available for Kindle through Amazon.co.uk yet (some of the other Halo books aren't available for UK Kindle users either). I'm pretty sure you can get them all for your Kindle through other means though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... lo&x=0&y=0

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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase (29th Feb)?
by Glowy69 » Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:02 pm

Garth wrote:
glowy69 wrote:Then get hold of cryptum and primordium. They are very very different from what you are reading at the moment.


Indeed. Minds will be blown :shifty:


Im still early in but the forerunner lad has just revived that librarians husband.

The sentance that hooked me was in the prologue, the last line about how his action unleashed the last wave of the flood. Must. know.what.happens :wub:

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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Harry Bizzle
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase (29th Feb)?
by Harry Bizzle » Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:05 pm

Shadow wrote:Jetpacks aren't exclusive to Spartans, they're used by Marines in Reach and mentioned several times in the books as a means to move around in zero-G, there would definitely have been some aboard the The Dawn at the end of Halo 3.


In Reach the ODSTs are using jet packs before you do.

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evanswolves
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase (29th Feb)?
by evanswolves » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:37 am

glowy69 wrote:
Garth wrote:
glowy69 wrote:Then get hold of cryptum and primordium. They are very very different from what you are reading at the moment.


Indeed. Minds will be blown :shifty:


Im still early in but the forerunner lad has just revived that librarians husband.

The sentance that hooked me was in the prologue, the last line about how his action unleashed the last wave of the flood. Must. know.what.happens :wub:


Thats nothing, the ending of primordium, is just incredible, the final few sentences :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

Glowy69
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase (29th Feb)?
by Glowy69 » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:41 am

evanswolves wrote:
glowy69 wrote:
Garth wrote:
glowy69 wrote:Then get hold of cryptum and primordium. They are very very different from what you are reading at the moment.


Indeed. Minds will be blown :shifty:


Im still early in but the forerunner lad has just revived that librarians husband.

The sentance that hooked me was in the prologue, the last line about how his action unleashed the last wave of the flood. Must. know.what.happens :wub:


Thats nothing, the ending of primordium, is just incredible, the final few sentences :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

:x

Im nowhere near that. Dont tell me that now

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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Glowy69
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Glowy69 » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:53 pm

cryptum..

humans...and..AND THE PROPHETS :o

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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Garth
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Garth » Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:28 pm

I hadn't read the full 343 blog post the other day (just the bits posted here from Joystiq) but there's some more interesting stuff there:
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 Master Chief 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?

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.

http://halo.xbox.com/blogs/Headlines/po ... 1512.aspx/

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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Glowy69 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:50 pm

Sounds great :wub:

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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tomvek
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by tomvek » Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:52 pm

Lots of cool little titbits in that article. God, I really can't wait for for Halo 4.

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Glowy69
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Glowy69 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:53 pm

It is out this year isnt it? They arent going to sneak a massive delay on us, I don't think I could take it

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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Codename 47
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Codename 47 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:06 pm

They are certainly making the right noises I have to say :D I'm liking the sound of the effort they're going to to really immerse us in the role of Master Chief and just really give us that feel of being a Spartan. Can't wait for it to be properly unveiled :D

And yeah I think it's due out this year - possibly that usual September period perhaps?

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Eighthours
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Eighthours » Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:14 pm

Sounds good, apart from my "uh-oh" about the mention of storytelling. Bungie were gooseberry fool at storytelling, except, ironically, when they barely did any in Halo 1 and it enhanced the experience because we were doing the work.

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Garth
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Garth » Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:28 pm

Eighthours wrote:Sounds good, apart from my "uh-oh" about the mention of storytelling. Bungie were gooseberry fool at storytelling, except, ironically, when they barely did any in Halo 1 and it enhanced the experience because we were doing the work.


Some may argue that Bungie weren't the best at storytelling in the Halo games but I don't think that's reason to be concerned about 343 trying, especially considering the wealth of material there is in the Halo books and how much 343 have been doing to flesh the story out and expand the Halo universe in interesting ways in recent years - they've even got sci-fi writer Greg Bear (author of the Forerunner books) helping with the new Halo trilogy's story. I think it's good that they're putting a bit of effort into it :)

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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Glowy69 » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:02 am

Greg Bear :wub:
Forerunners :wub:

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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Kanbei
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Kanbei » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:09 am

Soon as I finish A Dance with Dragons it's back to Halo Books for me! Got Glasslands and the Forerunner books to catch up on 8-)

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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Glowy69 » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:38 am

Glasslands kanbei 8-) Its so very very good :wub:

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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Garth
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Garth » Thu Feb 23, 2012 11:27 pm

The Hills Are Alive With the Sounds of (Halo 4) Music

In designing a video game, its audio is, of course, one of the things that contribute to a memorable and emotional experience.

Halo has always had amazing audio design. With Halo 4, we are respecting the music philosophy of previous Halos while establishing a fresh, new direction for Halo 4’s music, employing our own distinctive style that still feels like Halo. The goal is to make the music of the story fit not only the gameplay, but also the player’s emotional circumstances.

When thinking about the player’s emotional circumstances, we’re using an interactive implementation. Sometimes, when fighting an enemy, it’s simply a fight. Other times, even in the same level, you can be fighting but it may suddenly turn into a distressing encounter. Since circumstances within the story constantly change, we want our music to sync with those changes when it’s appropriate to enhance the experience. How many enemies are tracking you? When do the enemies notice your presence? What kind of cinematic did you watch before the combat? Our goal when asking these questions is to make the music change dynamically with the gameplay to account for your personal gameplay experience.

Sometimes we’ll suggest a change to the story to sync with the music more, and vice versa. Communication within the studio is an important part to achieve this synchronicity.

The vision for our audio is huge. Like a child, we started as a blank slate when trying to find our own unique musical language. Then we began making a few sounds here and there. Now we’re at the point where those sounds collide, intertwine, and say things about the Halo 4 universe. This was a process that we had to learn as a team. Introducing a new composer, and learning how to work with that composer, was part of the process. We’ll have more details about this currently unnamed individual in the future. But I’m guessing you already knew that....

So, how are we creating our own language based on realism in the world of Halo? Our concept focuses on the digital and the organic, and we share that vision across the entirety of our audio production.

What does that mean, exactly? I’ll use a recent audio recording session as an example.



We’ve recorded source material for the arsenal of both new and returning weapons you’ll have at your disposal in Halo 4. The gun recording was difficult because we needed to record close sounds, distant sounds, and everything in between. We had to figure out what microphone, what distance, and what range was appropriate while factoring in weather, wind, and anything and everything Mother Nature might randomly decide to throw our way.

To get the best audio quality possible, we worked with the military on one of their training grounds where the occasional dropped bomb is not an uncommon experience. During that session, we staged first-person encounters so that we could understand how the weapons should feel when playing the game, and then we used numerous 30-channel microphones to record the actual sounds.

We had to have the elements to connect the player to something familiar but still be able to offer something outlandish and alien. After this aural base is formed, we then have all the freedom in the world to mix and match different elements into a single weapon. Even a Forerunner weapon incorporates some of the elements from that gun session.

These real weapon recordings act as the glue for the rest of the sound ingredients for Halo 4’s arsenal. There’s a whole other process we go through to create epic sci-fi elements outside of the field recording sessions, though, as we gather a collection of source assets and then shape them to precision. The aforementioned gun session, as elaborate as it was, is just a small portion of the assets we require to make the sound effects in Halo 4.

This means we’re always exploring and recording new sounds. Everything from the opening and closing of a pair of rusty scissors to a brushtail possum’s scream pitched down an octave to a short snippet from a two-inch mortar explosion are all on file in our extensive audio library.

Within the sounds of Halo 4, there’s a sense of fantasy based on reality, where otherworldly sounds have a feeling of familiarity….

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Office of Halo Intelligence: Part 5

To talk more about the audio aspect of our upcoming game, I asked Sotaro Tojima, the Audio Director for Halo 4, to write the fifth entry in our Office of Halo Intelligence series. Here are his thoughts on the music and sounds that will one day be gracing your earholes.

I’m honored to have an opportunity to talk here! I just came back from a weekly music review, and especially this week, I was so excited about one piece of music. This emotional, digitized piece became the second favorite piece of Halo 4 music which we’ve made so far. I can’t wait to share this with you!

Producing the Halo 4 music is very difficult, but such a fun job for me. I know many people, including me, love the previous Halos’ music. Halo 4 will be a story for Master Chief and Cortana. Therefore, we are driving our music production respecting the previous music tone.

At the same time, we are working to establish some freshness in the music because this is a new trilogy and we are a new team.

I love creating game audio because it is a direct communication between fans and the team. I want to communicate with our "own" language of sound and music. Even if having a new language on Halo is very challenging...

My goal for making audio is always very simple. How much can we make people excited and immersed in the story and gameplay experience with our audio? There are three key ways I like to do that:

• Provide a sense of reality with sophisticated sound design to bring you into a believable world.
• Achieve a memorable, dramatic experience with great music and sounds well synced with the story beat and your gameplay.
• Share a delightful memory with all fans providing an iconic melody.

Actually, my real goal is to make you cry!

When I hired the people that make up the Halo 4 audio team, one of the criteria I had was that if you want to work it had to be "for fans more than anything." And now I have a great team. Everyone is so happy to work hard to surprise you.

Again, it is very hard to achieve a great audio for the Halo universe, but I believe we can do this as long as we don't forget you are waiting patiently for us. Stay tuned for next update from me, and for more exciting topics in OHI!

-Sotaro Tojima

http://halo.xbox.com/blogs/Headlines/po ... 22212.aspx

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Fargo
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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Fargo » Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:01 pm

All this Halo talk really makes me want to play ODST again!

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PostRe: Halo 4 - reveal at Spring Showcase? (29th Feb)
by Glowy69 » Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:14 pm

Anyone that has read cryptum, can you just let me know if Im following the book correctly as nothing is explained very well

Main character and two people have a destiny with an old warrior in a cryptum, the didact who is a warrior
The forerunners had a massive war with the humans
The humans at a time were in cohorts with the prophets
The forerunners invented the engineers
The forerunners built these weapons to protect planets..which im guessing are prototype halo rings
The thing that has the didact spooked and that has escaped is something to do with the flood?

Fabian Delph is a banana split.

Drumstick wrote:I'll go on record in stating that Villa won't finish inside the top 6 this season.

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