The Official Halo 4 Thread

[Soldier 95B]

Halo 4 Achievements:

Halo 4 developer 343 Industries has outed the game's list of Achievements, which offer up a meagre few clues as to the shooter's contents.

The main campaign appears to comprise eight missions, the last of which will unlock the usual difficulty based end-game rewards.Once again you'll be asked to hunt down terminals, and there's complete a specific task to complete within each level for extra Gamerscore, such as finding and accessing Master Chief's records during the game's opening chapter. Spartan Ops missions offer their share of rewards, too. They're also peppered with Red vs. Blue easter eggs for fans to uncover.
"Our primary goal when creating Halo 4's achievements was to reward milestones and increase replay value while balancing both difficulty and the breadth of game modes," community manager Jessica Shea wrote on Halo Waypoint. "Our secondary goal was to live up to Halo tradition with weird ass names for some of them (hello, The Dongblainer!). While you will only be able to speculate on the exact nature of some of these achievements, here's a peek at their very basic in-game descriptions."

• Dawn - Complete Mission 1 on any difficulty (10G)
• Requiem - Complete Mission 2 on any difficulty (10G)
• Forerunner - Complete Mission 3 on any difficulty (10G)
• Infinity - Complete Mission 4 on any difficulty (10G)
• Reclaimer - Complete Mission 5 on any difficulty (10G)
• Shutdown - Complete Mission 6 on any difficulty (10G)
• Composer - Complete Mission 7 on any difficulty (10G)
• Midnight - Complete Mission 8 on any difficulty (10G)
• Wake up John - Complete the Campaign on Normal or harder (20G)
• I Need a Hero - Complete the Campaign on Heroic or harder (40G)
• The Legend of 117 - Complete the Campaign on Legendary difficulty (70G)
• Lone Wolf Legend - Complete the Campaign solo on Legendary difficulty (90G)
• Skullduggery - Complete any Campaign mission with 3 or more Skulls on Heroic or harder (15G)
• Bropocalypse - Complete any Campaign mission co-operatively on Heroic or harder (10G)
• Bromageddon - Complete the Campaign co-operatively on Heroic or harder (40G)
• Contact the Domain - Find a Terminal in the Campaign (10G)
• Terminus - Find all of the Terminals in the Campaign (50G)
• Digging up the Past - In Mission 1, find and access Chief's record (20G)
• Midnight Launch - In Mission 2, get significant air in the Warthog at midnight (20G)
• This is my Rifle, this is my Gun - In Mission 3, carry a UNSC weapon all the way through on Heroic or harder (20G)
• Bros to the Close - Make it through Mission 4 without one preventable Marine death on Heroic or harder (20G)
• Mortardom - In Mission 5, hijack a Wraith and use it to kill at least four enemy Wraiths on Heroic or harder (20G)
• Explore the Floor - In Mission 6, trick or force a Hunter to fall to his demise (20G)
• Give Him the Stick - In Mission 7 in solo Campaign, take out both Hunters using only the Sticky Detonator (20G)
• Chief, Smash! - In Mission 8, kill 3 Crawlers in one hit with the Gravity Hammer (20G)
• Not Some Recruit Anymore - Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-5 (15G)
• Movin' on Up - Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-20 (30G)
• I ♥ Red vs Blue - Win 5 War Games matchmaking matches (10G)
• The Dongblainer - Win 20 War Games matchmaking matches (30G)
• Operation Completion - Complete a Spartan Ops Mission on any difficulty (15G)
• A Legendary Episode - Complete all chapters in Spartan Ops Episode 1 on Legendary difficulty (40G)
• Dedicated to Crimson - Complete all chapters in the first 5 episodes of Spartan Ops on any difficulty (80G)
• Crimson Alone - Complete a Spartan Ops chapter solo on Legendary (20G)
• Roses vs Violets - Find one of the RvB Easter Eggs in Spartan Ops (20G)
• Rescue Ranger - Save at least one Marine in Chapter 3 of Episode 2 of Spartan Ops on Heroic or harder (20G)
• Knight in White Assassination - Assassinate a Knight in any Spartan Ops mission (20G)
• What Power Outage? - Complete Chapter 4, Episode 5 of Spartan Ops without losing a generator on Heroic or harder (20G)
• No Easy Way Out - In Ch 1, Ep 5 of Spartan Ops survive all enemy waves during the defense on Normal or harder (20G)
• The Challenged - Complete a Challenge (10G)
• The Challenger - Complete 25 Challenges (20G)
• Armorer - Change your Spartan's armor in the Spartan Armor card (5G)
• Badge - Change your Emblem in the Spartan ID card (5G)
• PWND - Change your Service Tag in the Spartan ID card (5G)
• What a Poser! - Change your Spartan's pose in the Spartan ID card (5G)
• The Cartographer - Create and save a Custom Map in Forge (5G)
• Game Changer - Create and save a Custom Game type in War Games (5G)
• Snapshot! - Save a Screenshot from the Theater (5G)
• The Director - Save a Film Clip from the Theater (5G)
• Sharing is Caring - Upload a File to your File Share (5G)

[F34R]

I'll be happy to achieve that much!!

[-Kwesnoth-]

"Bromagedon" is definitely going to be a fun achievement to get. A lot of the other are pretty cool, but I doubt I'll be able to complete most of em. lol

[F34R]

It might take me a decent amount of time to get all of them lol,

[MATRIX 2]

Some soundtrack samples have been released:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/..._medium=social

[MATRIX 2]

[MATRIX 2]

[dc89]

Looking incredible!

[-Kwesnoth-]

Indeed it does! That assassination with the flag is awesome.

Also, some of those look to be good sig material.

[F34R]

OMG! That looks gorgeous and extremely fun!!!

[MATRIX 2]

Possible spoilers.

[mynd]

Possible spoilers.

Watched this last night...just awesome....

[MATRIX 2]

Music from the magic of halo 4 video:

[X2]

[MATRIX 2]

possible spoilers

[MATRIX 2]

http://blogs.halo.xbox.com/Headlines...etin-9512.aspx



Halo 4 CTF

We recreated CTF as an all-new experience for Halo 4. Our goals early on were to create a fresh and exciting experience, focusing heavily on team play and being the flag carrier. If you didn’t get a chance to play the new CTF over the weekend at PAX, here are some elements of the new CTF experience.


Flag Carrier Experience – Picking Up the Flag

This is easily the biggest addition to CTF in Halo 4, and we’ve made it a huge focus and priority to develop. Before we run through the changes, let’s talk about becoming the flag carrier, which is an experience in and of itself.

The first thing you’ll notice about being a carrier in Halo 4 is you’ll automatically pick up the flag. Unlike a weapon, you won’t need to hold or press a button to take the flag. We extensively tested different flag pick-up methods and settled on this one as it gets you into the action very quickly. While there will be occasions when you accidentally pick up the flag, we feel this is worth it as you can now easily grab the flag from a tough-to-reach location with just a touch, and there’s a very natural feel to the transition. We’ve also carefully tuned the flag pick-up radius, so you’ll need to be right on top of the flag to grab it.


Flag Carrier Experience – The Flagnum

The moment you pick up the flag, you’ll hold the flag in your left hand and draw a Magnum in your right. The Magnum allows you to defend yourself in combat and joust other flag carriers. We’re still working with the exact tuning of the flag carrier’s Magnum, but we’re hoping to give the flag carrier a slight damage boost. As in previous Halo games, your melee attack will still instant-kill. You can’t switch weapons while holding the flag, and there are unlimited reloads on the Magnum. We’ve also added a brand new assassination called the “Flagsassination”.


Flag Carrier Experience – Movement Speed

Unlike previous Halo games, you’ll move at full speed as a flag carrier, including jump and strafe. One difference to regular movement is you can’t sprint. However, a huge advantage to the Magnum is forcing enemies to stop sprinting – so in most encounters, you’re on a nearly level playing field.


Flag Carrier Experience – You are the Objective

As soon as you pick up the flag, your HUD will change to highlight the point of delivery. Each player in the new CTF has a special presentation layer that changes based on the current game state. The new HUD features clear navpoints and verbs that let you keep track of the objectives and flag locations with just a glance. When you’re holding the flag, you’ve got a job to do – deliver it! You’ll become the center of attention as your teammates are charged with escorting you, and enemies with stopping you. To help reinforce this, you can’t drop the flag; this makes you the centerpiece of encounters as you move the flag to the delivery point, with teammates escorting you along the way.


Rule Changes – Scoring

One of the biggest rule changes to CTF is your team flag is no longer required to be at home to score; we found this keeps the flags moving across the maps through the flag lanes, and helps focus the flag defense, escort, and capture objectives. In a tie game with one point to win, flag carriers and teammates will have a tough decision of running the flag or stopping the enemy flag carrier. We’ve seen this lead to epic carrier vs. carrier battles that were so exciting we even created special rewards for them (more on this later).


Rule Changes – Defending and Returning the Flag

When the enemy team drops your flag, the return timer will start. The timer is now clearly integrated into the flag’s navpoint, so it won’t be a surprise when it returns back to your base. Unlike previous Halo titles, standing on the flag will not speed up its return timer. We found this greatly improved the flag attack and defend scenarios as players can use more of the play space around their flag to defend it. It also helps to think of the flags as moving entities across the map, and your job is to keep the enemies moving, and yours in one place. So many games come down to the final moment, and defending your flag for even a few seconds can make all the difference.


Rule Changes – Overtime

Overtime is also new and improved for Halo 4, and you’ll get there if time runs out in CTF and the score is still tied. Overtime is now 60 seconds long, and the first team to score wins the match. We’ve added some intense dynamic music in OT to keep the pressure on.


Scoring

As in Infinity Slayer, you’ll be earning points in CTF not only for your team by scoring flags, but also for yourself by contributing to your team. Each medal in CTF awards you with medal points, which determine your place on the scoreboard compared to other players. Here’s a quick summary of the medals just for CTF.


Medal Name


Description


Points

Flag Capture


Deliver the opponents flag to your base


100

Flag Carrier Kill


Kill an opponent who is carrying a flag


5

Flag Kill


Kill an opponent while holding a flag


5

Flag Defense


Kill an opponent close to your flag, or help return it


5

Flag Runner


Capture 2 flags in one game


15

Flag Champion


Capture 3 flags in one game


25

Flag Assist


Help a teammate score a flag


10

Flag Driver


Drive a Flag Carrier close to your capture point


5

Flag Joust


Kill a flag carrier while holding a flag


15

Flagsassination


Perform an assassination while holding a flag


15


In addition to CTF medals, you’ll still earn the standard medals you earn in Infinity Slayer. CTF also supports a custom game option that allows you to turn Infinity Ordnance on or off, allowing you to earn Infinity Slayer-style rewards in Capture the Flag. Team scoring is much simpler; the first team to three scores wins.


Playlist Specifics

We’re incredibly excited to host our CTF hopper at launch, on November 6th. Here’s a preview of our planned settings.


Mode


2 Flag CTF Only

Teams


5v5

Time Limit


12:00

Score Target


3 Captures

Overtime


60 seconds

Ordnance


Initial and World

Maps


5 non-forged maps, tuned for CTF

PAX Prime Q&A

As is customary when we release a slew of new information, there are always questions. So the rest of the Bulletin is dedicated to answering as many of them as Frank O'Connor, Kevin Franklin, Kevin Grace, and Brad Welch can handle. Thankfully that’s a lot.


What Objective options do we have in Custom Games? -Lycan XIII

We have many new custom game options coming, especially around the Infinity experience. This means lots of customization surrounding all types of Ordnance. In Objective games, you’ll have full control over player traits, including those of the King, Flag Carrier, and Grif. Each game mode also has multiple custom options specific to that game mode that let you tune timers, settings, and rules. CTF specifically offers tuning the “Flag Return Time/Proximity Return”, “Flag Reset Time”, “Flag at Home Requirement”, “Overtime Length”, and “Flag Carrier Traits”.


I like how Exile is an outdoor kind of map. Are there other outdoor-like maps on the Halo 4 disc/future DLC? -F22 Raptor X1

Oh yes. In fact, our only remake map – still secret – is most definitely outdoors.


From the gameplay videos I saw at PAX, there are no medals shown on-screen during the game. This is different from E3 gameplay where medals did show up on-screen. Will medals show up on screen for the final game? -FBI Derrick

In the final game, medals will show on-screen on the left side, near the kill feed, the all-new combat log, and the ordnance meter.


The Halo 4 multiplayer is in-universe. Therefore, Grifball is actually played by Spartans. Does that mean Grifball is now the official Sport of the Spartans? -Meta0X

Sort of. That is to say, it’s not a-canonical, but it doesn’t serve any particular purpose in the universe. That said, sharp-eyed fans may have already figured out a single item of context from outside the game universe…


Will there be a way to disable auto-pickup for Flag/Oddball? -CyReN CE

At launch and in the launch playlists, we will be deploying CTF as-is. Although it’s possible in the future that we will give players more specific control and choices, this is something we feel pretty strongly about – and is in some ways a new mode, rather than simply an evolution of an existing game type. We understand the reaction this may cause, but there’s method in our madness and we ask your indulgence in the short term.


In Grifball, does the ball explode when planted, killing the carrier? -CrazedOne1988

In the new Grifball, the round no longer cycles after each score; instead it resets at the center of the court. To reduce randomness on spawns when going back to the center, the Grif who scores is no longer killed by the ball explosion.


Was all of the announcer stuff like, "You’re holding the flag!", "Hold the ball to score points!", etc. just for all the possible new-to-Halo people at PAX so no one would be confused, or is that how the final build will be? -sliced365

The Jeff Steitzer Multiplayer V/Os are all recorded fresh and new for Halo. Some are going to be more subtle, some even more “ENERGETIC”, but all will fit into a broad and properly balanced sound scheme and folks should realize they’re also noticing that these things are different, new, and changed – as well as simply more strident. However in testing, and long term testing which is one advantage we always have over the “fresh” audience, it all works out beautifully or vanishes into the background. All that said as warning however, these are not the final mixes, but they’re not wildly off.





Was the vehicle setup on Exile planned to be what is used in matchmaking? -GhaleonEB

Vehicle setup was designed to show a ton of content for PAX. That map content will vary dramatically depending on game mode and playlist.


In Grifball, can you have rounds enabled to make it so after one arm, it starts a new one? -The Little Moa

Yes, this can be done by setting the “Score to Win” round in the general custom game settings to “1”. You can also tune the number of rounds in a game, the lives per round, and much more.


Since it's a separate game mode now, are there any Grifball-specific medals or post-game statistics? -TrueFlyingCow

Each game mode has four special statistics. In Grifball, we keep track of “Scores”,” Carrier Kills”, “Ball Kills”, and “Carry Time”. We also have a specific medal for scoring the Grifball.


What precautions are you guys taking to make sure that the point system is not exploited? For example, will we be able to just play catch with the Oddball to rack up points? -indubitably1

The game types, rules, matchmaking criteria and certain hidden systems will contribute towards game mode “congruity.”


In the Grifball demo at the panel, you said, "A few more tricks that are developing are the boost and a few other long throws." Can you go into any further detail on what those might be? -TacoPizzaHunter

As the new Grifball is, well, new, we are still seeing new tricks come up in the play tests.

The Boost - Hold the ball with a teammate running close and directly in front of you towards the goal. Throw the ball to your teammate, telling him to jump. Immediately hammer smash behind him – pushing him forwards towards the goal. Oh, and try not to kill your buddy.

Long Throws - As Grif runs forward, jump. At the apex of your jump, aim up and throw the ball. You’ll get a slightly longer throw than normal, letting you make a Hail Mary pass to a teammate cherry picking near the goal. Ball throws are influenced by your character’s movement, so you can do shorter passes by running backwards, and longer ones by running forward. The actual angle of the throw makes the biggest difference, but every bit helps when threading the needle to a teammate.


Was the armor that was available in the PAX build the full set? If so, why is there no Mark V armor? -ArchedThunder

The PAX build contains the full set of armor in Halo 4. In the final game, there are a variety of methods for unlocking armor and armor skins - ranking up, earning commendations, progressing through Specializations and completing goals on Waypoint. Some of the skins, helmets, and the FOTUS armor are exclusive to various retail offers. Some of these items MAY become available to all players at a later date. We wanted to focus on the Spartan-IV armors for Infinity, maximizing the amount of variety across the armor designs. However, we did want to include a reward for completing the Campaign on Legendary, so we decided to use the Mark VI armor as that reward. While we'd love to include every historical variant of the Chief's armor, it's just not possible to fit more armor sets into the available memory.





Will stat tracking for kill/death ratio be done separately for the different playlists? All of the changes made to modes like Capture the Flag will do wonders for improving game speed as long as everyone is focused on winning. These improvements start to fade when people are just trying to farm for kills.-indubitably1

When comparing yourself to teammates, medal points make all the difference and in each mode you’ll earn specific points for not only scoring but also helping your teammates. CTF, for example, has medals for “Flag Driver”, “Flag Assist”, and “Flag Defense”. We will be reporting stats for War Games as a mode, but also for the individual game base variants, meaning the underlying game types like CTF, Regicide, Slayer, etc. K/D ratio in general will only be highlighted for Slayer.


Was the entire Grifball arena built in Forge or is it one of the 3 Forge pallets? -N Y K R Y L L

Grifball, regardless of “where” it lives, was created independently and specifically as its own thing. The environment is somewhat moot. Frankly, it had WAY too much time and effort poured into it, but we loved it.


Will there be an option to turn off the white text notifications in the middle of the screen? -The Yanix

No, but the fact is that it “vanishes” after a few plays. Ask people who’ve played a lot. This is something we spent a lot of time on and is true of many “intrusive” UI, audio and dressing aspects of the game – they provide vital information for certain types of players and quickly vanish for frequent players in terms of intrusion. They were designed, tested and tweaked to achieve this. Watching other people play is almost counter to how it feels in practice.


Could you clarify where approximately Exile stands on the small-medium-big-humongousbongus scale when it comes to map size? -Royal Guacamole

Because it’s laterally narrow, to ME it feels medium, but in terms of literal scale it’s in the top two thirds. However, it’s navigable and playable for four-on-four on foot. Sprint and other speedy aspects of the game make some of these answers somewhat subjective.


I noticed that the Mark VI armor for Multiplayer is not the same armor that the Chief dons in Halo 4. What type of armor is the Chief wearing then? -One One Seven

Very fancy, very custom, very unique “Cortana special” armor.


In CTF, you now hold a Pistol with the flag. If I have a Plasma Pistol secondary, will it use that or still pull out a Magnum anyway? -goobot

The Magnum, or “Flagnum” as it’s been dubbed, is specific to this mode. As we’ve mentioned before, this is similar, but ultimately a replacement for, rather than simply an evolution of, CTF. We understand this is controversial but are now pretty confident the changes will be enjoyed. And as we’ve said in this very article, we will have more information about options and customizability much later.





Will we be seeing a part II of the "Hero Awakens" video? -Austin7934

Yes, and sooner than you may think. Unless you’re thinking really soon. Then it will be later than you may think.


Members of 2old2play watched much of the video footage from PAX and are finding the armor color to be kind of pastel and eggshell in nature. Are any changes to the quality of color of armor expected in the final release of Halo 4? -DEEP NNN

As a very old, gray-haired fart, I resent you guys speaking on my behalf. But yes, these are indicative but hardly comprehensive color schemes.


Does the Grifball game type support up to 16 players or is it locked to a certain number? - Nuclear Taco 42

Our officially supported version is 4v4, but the court is setup for 8v8 and there’s much more you can create in custom games and Forge. We’re really excited to see all of the new Grif variants the community puts together.


We have now seen the map Exile, built for CTF. I have to say, it looks awesome. Can you tell us how many maps have been built specifically for CTF, and how many others it can be played on? -GristlyStew721

I agree strongly with your description of how awesome the map is. Most maps were built with team sizes and objectives in mind, but new elements like universal sprint make these modes and maps a little bit more flexible than past games.


So far we've seen that some of the weapons have customizable skins. Will this feature be available for, say, the hammer or sword? -Goosechecka

Both of those items do not have enough visible surface area to justify the hit on disc/RAM/hilt/buttspace. To be honest, I only answered this question so I could coin the term “buttspace.”


I do believe that freshly-coined term is the perfect note to end on. So, until next week, my friends, when you’ll be seeing a brand new vid…oops. I should probably stop talking now. Until then.

<3,
bs angel

And a nice wallpaper I found:

[MATRIX 2]

Somewhat old news, but you need 8GB free for multiplayer and are encouraged to install H4 for an optimal experience.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/halo-4-...player-6385431

[radgamer420]

No problem. I have 163gb still free on my hdd.

[-Kwesnoth-]

I got 280gb left on mine, so 8gb is no problem.

[MATRIX 2]

No problem. I have 163gb still free on my hdd.

I got 280gb left on mine, so 8gb is no problem.

Yeah, I'm rocking the 20GB HDD from launch.

Also, I just realized the Halo 3 LE 360 console owners are screwed (their special HDD is also only 20GB):

[mynd]

Yeah, I'm rocking the 20GB HDD from launch.

Also, I just realized the Halo 3 LE 360 console owners are screwed (their special HDD is also only 20GB):

They have confirmed you can just use a USB stick.

Problem solved.

[MATRIX 2]

They have confirmed you can just use a USB stick.

Problem solved.

Considered that, but I don't like the idea of having my game files (among other content) on 2 different storage mediums.

My only concern about getting a bigger HDD is that it may crap out on me due to it being mistreated (plan on buying used because of price and the fact that you can't trust "new" HDD's for the original 360 design to be legitimate) and that some content licenses may not properly transfer (I know MS made improvements to this process, but I don't know if they perfected it).


Also I don't think MS has published what the desired read/write speeds are.

[MATRIX 2]

New video, possible spoilers:

[MATRIX 2]

http://blogs.halo.xbox.com/Headlines...tin-91212.aspx




Pressing Matters

Select members of the press from around the globe have been visiting the studio the past two days, October 11 is New York Comic Con, and November 6 will be the day you take Halo 4 for its first official spin in your disc tray, plus a few surprises we can’t talk about just yet. We’re ready for these things… are you?

While you won’t see the results of this week’s press visit until late September, we do have a very special treat for you today in the form of a brand new behind-the-scenes video. The majority of you have probably stopped reading and are now frantically scrolling, searching for that magical play button. For the two of you that are still reading (thanks, Mom and Dad!), I thought we could talk a little about why we invite the press to our studio.

Over the past several months, we’ve worked hard to get Halo 4 into the hands of as many people as possible. From being playable at events to hosting numerous community parties to inviting fans to participate in private playtests, we’ve used every available opportunity to get, and then implement, player feedback. We can only reach so many individuals in person, though so we try to give the press regular sneak peeks at the game so they can share what we show them with all of you. Think of it this way: We want to reach out and touch every single of you, and press visits help us with that, if only virtually.

Enough about our wandering hands, though. Let’s talk about the return of the Forerunners, shall we?

The Return of the Forerunners

As soon as we started concept work on Halo 4, we started looking at potential big pillar features. One of the things that came up early on was a good way to refresh the overall campaign experience, so we decided to create a new enemy race, applying the fundamentals of what makes Halo work to them. While we understand the importance of the Covenant’s role in the game for continuity purposes, we didn’t want to focus solely on those particular species. Thus, the idea for the Prometheans was born.

There were a bunch of initial ideas the team had come up with, but the real spark of where they’re at today came around discussions we had about if the sandbox is ultimately what differentiates Halo from every other FPS, then what does it mean to the way the legacy AI works and how can we make that better? That very quickly evolved into a theme of adaptive AI.

Our goal was to design a type of enemy that is highly adaptive from a tactical standpoint, basically transforming the player’s idea of how the world and combat works in order to try and gain the upper hand. If these are advanced beings, it seems like they would be intimately connected with the world they made, so the Prometheans can manipulate their environment and themselves in a way that makes them part of it. That is where you get to the final end result of Forerunners being able to spawn in and out of the world, spawn other creatures, phase back and forth, and environments moving around. They are able to manipulate things in a way we haven’t seen before, and they complement existing mechanics and change the way the player engages in the combat encounter.

According to Scott Warner, Lead Designer on Halo 4, creating an entire new enemy class was a daunting task. We started with, for all intents and purposes, a blank canvas where anything could happen. There was a super-brief glimpse of Forerunners in Halo Legends, but we wanted to do something different from that so we took as much as we could from already established Forerunner language and put it on the Prometheans. For instance, when you see a Knight idle, there are small and large bits attached at the elbows that are not physically connected but linked in a different way. They have a mystique, a gravity-defying look, similar to Forerunner structures.



We had several goals in regard to the appearance of the Prometheans, but the most important ones were to make them relatable and resonate with the player. To achieve that, we went through weeks of brainstorming and iteration. That process went a little like this: Senior Concept Artist Gabriel Garza would sketch a sheet of character models (which often included up to 20 different variations), and, upon completion, would send it around the studio. Designers, animators, and every other relevant group in the studio would then chime in with feedback. Often times people would react strongly to the same models, so from that initial 20, Gabo (as we call him around these parts) would then grab five and make another 20 out of that five. It was a long and tedious process, but one that is necessary when designing new alien characters.

There was a lot of design and creative and artistic flux there, where people just didn’t see eye-to-eye on things. Subjectively, it took us a long time to get everybody to a place where they were truly happy with what’s on-screen. Even going up to E3, we weren’t sure how people were going to perceive them. Getting the forms to be something that met the design requirements of what was important and getting people to appreciate their aesthetics was a challenging process.

After the concept phase was over, we then had to determine what works in-game. One of the very early takes on the Knight included long, folded arms with tentacle-like fingers. It looked awesome, and incredibly menacing, but if it was holding a weapon, its range was extraordinarily (and freakishly!) long. So while it looked great in concept, it wasn’t functional in-game. Every character has to move around, aim, and communicate things to the player, and because it couldn’t do those things effectively, that take of the Knight was taken back to the virtual drawing board and iterated upon again, until we perfected what you see today.

Halo 4 has a very rich ecosystem of enemies, but ultimately we wanted to give you something you haven’t seen before that is fun to shoot and kill. And hopefully that is exactly how you’ll feel come November 6.

Now, without further ado, here is what you’ve been waiting for: the Return of the Forerunners BTS. Enjoy.

[MATRIX 2]

Neogaf