Halo 4
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Halo 4 Promethean enemies, weapons unveiled in images [Update: Pulled]
Halo 4's Promethean enemy race includes eight classes and seven specialized weapons, all decked out in gunmetal grey and fiery orange, images provided by All Games Beta show. The Prometheans include the Knight, Knight Lancer, Knight Commander, Knight Battlewagon, Watcher, Crawler, Alpha Crawler and Crawler Snipe.Knights are the captains of the Promethean forces; Battlewagons are rare but lethal where other troops have failed; Watchers fly, acting as medics and laying down shields; Crawlers attack in packs and are the most common form of Promethean on Requiem.Each class uses a specific weapon type from the seven available: Boltshot, Binary Rifle, Incineration Cannon, Lightrifle, Suppressor, Scattershot and Pulse Grenade. Knights utilize the Suppressor and Lightrifle, Knight Commanders can carry Incineration Cannons and deploy Autosentry turrets, and Crawlers can use a Boltshot from a distance.Check out the full Promethean lineup in the gallery below.Update: The images originated from Game Informer's digital magazine and have been removed.
Potential spoilers for Halo 4 story unleashed in official assets
A barrage of Halo 4 media and pre-launch information has led a few fans to uncover more about the story than 343 Industries may have intended. The following information may be considered a spoiler; it names the supposed main antagonist and contains a snippet of the motion-capture script revealing a potentially pivotal scene with him, Master Chief and Cortana, as collected by NeoGAF:
Halo 4 ViDoc makes Chief human, multiplayer map 'Exile' revealed
Along with the revelation that Grifball will be making its way into Halo 4 multiplayer, a number of other exciting tidbits were revealed by 343 Industries at PAX. First up is a brand new ViDoc which takes a look behind the scenes of Halo 4 and at the emotional growth of John 117 himself. Of particular interest are the bits showing off Halo 4's motion capture setup, which appears to be borrowing a page from Naughty Dog's playbook and capturing the full physical performance of the game's actors.Next up is a first look at the multiplayer map, Exile. Check out some screens below, featuring a verdant canyon setting and one guy being really mean with the flag.
Halo 4 adds Grifball to the multiplayer menu
Community-created mode Grifball is graduating to the big time in Halo 4. 343 Industries revealed during PAX this weekend that the popular sport would now be a major multiplayer mode in Halo 4, available for play at launch. For the unaware, Grifball pits two teams against each other as they fight to grab a bomb (or, ball, in this case) and deliver it to the enemy's base. Each team is armed with only hammers and energy swords.Grifball in Halo 4 will be a bit different, as you can see in the video above. For one, players can now throw the ball, allowing for passes between teammates, and the mode has been adjusted to be more fast-paced – the ball will respawn much more quickly now when dropped. On top of that, using the sword to take out the ball carrier will now instantly give you the ball, rather than sending it flying away when killing with the hammer.
Latest Halo 4 'Forward Unto Dawn' episode waxes philosophical about cryo-sleep
If we've taken anything away from the latest Halo 4 "Forward Unto Dawn" short above, its that being an enlistee at Corbulo Academy means two things. First, students are apparently locked into their rooms at lights out like some kind of military prison barracks, and secondly, cryo-sleep is both commonplace and, apparently, terrifying.Most sleepers report having strange dreams during cryo, but not the blonde in today's short. "For me, it's like dying," she says, "and then waking up again. Sweet dreams." At that moment, Master Chief and a human version of Cortana (given life and physical form by 282 Reality Circuit) burst through the ceiling and tell our young heroes that they're needed, and time is short.... Okay maybe we made up that last part, but wouldn't that have been awesome?
Play Halo 4 before the rest of the world at the MLG Fall Championship
Halo 4 is entering the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit four days before its launch in the wider, unprofessional world on November 6. Halo 4 will be part of the Fall Championship running November 2 - 4 in Dallas, Texas, MLG announced today.MLG will announce details about the Halo 4 competition, including prize money, format, bracket size and schedule, in the coming weeks.
Move further 'Unto Dawn' with the latest Halo 4 live-action short
The latest Halo 4 short – sans Master Chief, but with a whole bunch of tough-looking dudes no less – focuses on the psychology of UNSC rookie troopers. Not just any UNSC troopers, but the ones we'll be getting up close and personal with when 343 Industries and Microsoft Studios finally drop the full live-action "Forward Unto Dawn" video prequel to Halo 4.And yes, the Chief will also be part of that. Quit worrying.
Halo 4 soundtrack lands Oct. 22, Special Edition runs $75
Two versions of the Halo 4 soundtrack will become available on October 22, but only one of them will cost more than the game itself. Composed by Massive Attack alumni Neil Davidge, the standard edition Halo 4 soundtrack will encompass 15 tracks from the game's score in both physical and digital formats for $13.98.The Special Edition 2-Disc Box Set, on the other hand, will set you back quite a bit more. At $75, the package includes the standard soundtrack, a 14-track remix album (sorry, no Skrillex), a behind-the-scenes "Making of Halo 4 Music" DVD and accompanying hardcover book with "composition notes from Neil Davidge plus exclusive behind-the-scenes photos and exclusive artwork images." The kit also comes with a 12-inch art print signed by Davidge, an honest-to-goodness vinyl record with Cortana and Master Chief on the disc itself, and a special shirt for your Xbox Live avatar.Whether your Halo-music monetary threshold is $14 or $75, both versions will be available at Halo Waypoint.
Halo 4 dev diary is a prelude to war
There's a lot riding on Halo 4, Microsoft's first stab at the franchise without the aid of Bungie. The gravitas of the situation is conveyed in this latest developer diary – not a word is spoken, but so much is easily understood.
Introducing Halo 4 'Specializations:' Multiplayer sub-classes with designer helmets
Halo 4's online multiplayer components will feature a new way to differentiate your own Spartan from those used by the other seasoned warriors you'll be battling with over Xbox Live. Dubbed "Specializations" and available after reaching Level 50, Halo 4's version of character classes each feature nine levels of various unlockable cosmetic upgrades (outfits, armor and weapon skins, etc), capped off by a final tenth level that grants a class-specific ability.There are eight different Specializations in total, two of which will be available to everyone as soon as the game launches on November 6: Wetworks, which allows the use of Promethean Vision without the usual drawbacks, as well as a quieter sprint, and Pioneer, which gains XP at an accelerated rate, provided that perk is active.The other six Specializations (Engineer, Tracker, Rogue, Stalker, Patherfinder and Operator) will be gradually made available to players post launch, unless they preorder the Halo 4 Limited Edition, in which case all eight classes will be available from day one. Hit up that source link below for specifics on each Specialization and more pictures of weird space-bug helmets.
Halo 4 guns go 'blop blop' in this video vignette
Halo 4 not only re-imagines the multiplayer conflicts of games past and the Spartans who engage in them, but also the tools available to these insatiable part-machine murderers. The video above from Halo Waypoint takes a quick tour of Halo 4's new arsenal and the remastered sound effects for each.Most of the guns have an added oomph – we like the whooshing sound behind rockets now, for example – but one thing is kind of odd: the shotgun still sounds like it's being fired inside a sound-proof room. Maybe that's just a special feature of all future shotguns.
A Week Between Blockbusters
You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro. Thanks to a shared caution between movie studios, you were saved from seconds of paralyzing indecision last weekend. Had Total Recall and The Bourne Legacy stuck to a shared release date in theaters, as originally scheduled, you'd have become a seated participant in an extravagant and mutually destructive showdown. Between Colin Farrell and Jeremy Renner, which pouting action star would have gotten your twelve bucks and two hours?If you're a movie buff, you might not even hesitate spending time and money on both consecutively. But what happens when you bump the price up to $60, and extend the temporal investment to something between 8 and 80 hours? Now you see the dilemma squeezed in-between this holiday's most anticipated shooters, Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and all of a sudden one week doesn't seem like much of a buffer at all.
Take a quick peek at Halo 4's Spartan Laser
As this leaked footage proves, the Spartan Laser is still a terror to Warthogs everywhere.
Behind-the-visor of Forward Unto Dawn's Warthog scene
Our first taste of Halo 4's live-action tie-in Forward Unto Dawn gave us a glimpse at what to expect from the live-action series, but a behind-the-scenes trailer issued today promises that we'll eventually see one epic Warthog action sequence.
Master Chief surveys the Art of Halo 4 book cover
Above, your eyes can gaze upon the cover of the upcoming Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 art book, featuring all sorts of concept art and designs from Microsoft's upcoming Halo 4. It's got everything you want in a Halo book cover, including Master Chief, some crazy epic Forerunner structure, and a trusty assault rifle. Actually, that's not quite true; we could use at least a little Covenant. Is that a Covvie ship flying through the background? Unclear. You'll have to wait to get a better look when the book arrives on store shelves in November, along with the new game itself.
More shots of the Legendary Edition Halo 4 console and controllers
Maybe these new shots of the Halo 4 Legendary Edition 360 and controllers will put some of the spark back in your relationship with professionally taken photos of gaming equipment.
It's-a me, Master Chief: Halo 4 lead talks shop at Italy's View conference this October
Italy's View Conference – taking place in Turin from October 16 to 19 – is a show focused on video games, interactive media and film. Halo franchise creative director Josh Holmes will give a special presentation on Halo 4 during the show: Halo Reborn: Building a Studio, Crafting a Universe. As one might imagine, the presentation will focus on the hurdles of employing a new studio to create a new entry in the popular Microsoft franchise.Holmes will discuss the challenges of "creating a game with a storyline that encompasses over 100,000 years of fictional history and connects through and across multiple mediums including print, a live-action digital series, an ambitious story-driven campaign and innovative episodic content that will continue beyond the launch of the game." Holmes will also address how Microsoft went about creating its first internal studio from scratch, and the talent that helped make Halo 4 a reality. Finally, it's not listed in the presentation description, but we expect Holmes will talk about what Master Chief's been eating all this time that's made him put on all that weight.
Xbox 360 Halo 4 bundle fights new enemies, packs familiar hardware on November 6th
It's widely considered a tradition: Microsoft readies a new Halo game, and a new Xbox 360 bundle swings by stores to mark the occasion. The Limited Edition Halo 4 Xbox 360 follows that pattern, with a special (if minor) twist. No one will be shocked by the new Halo-themed artwork or the inclusion of a Halo 4 copy in the 320GB system's box, but the ring of light on both the console and its two matching gamepads will drop the Xbox 360's green glow in favor of a distinctive bright blue. At $400, the console arriving November 6th will aim chiefly at the hardest of hardcore sci-fi shooter fans -- although murmurs of an upcoming successor console could make the Halo 4 pack an unofficial swan song for Microsoft's market dominator. Consider the stand-alone $60 special edition wireless controller for a less expensive way to say goodbye.
Legendary Edition Halo 4 360 bundle official, limited edition controllers also detailed
Microsoft's $400 Legendary Edition Xbox 360 bundle was "officially" announced today during SDCC, despite having been ousted yesterday by IGN. As we originally heard, the bundle includes a remarkably fancy transparent Halo 4-themed 360 with blue lights and bespoke Halo sounds, two matching transparent controllers with matching blue lights, vouchers for both in-game and Avatar DLC, a headset and (of course) a copy of the game.What we didn't know, however, was that snazzy Halo 4-edition controllers, blue LEDs and all, will also be sold on their own at $59.99 a pop, starting Oct. 21. Both controller and console are available for your inspection in the gallery below.Update: The controllers sold separately differ in design from the controllers packaged with the bundle; the wording of this article has been updated for clarity.%Gallery-160402%
Halo 4 Xbox 360 console bundle revealed, costs a legendary $400
Are you in the extremely unique position of being a big Halo fan and not owning an Xbox 360? Microsoft's hoping that's the case, as the publisher is releasing a special Halo 4-themed version of its Xbox 360 alongside the game this November – altogether, the whole shebang will run you 400 big ones.Beyond the snazzy console and the game itself, you'll also get two branded wireless controllers, and a less thrilling generic black headset. And you'll have plenty of space for all those Forge-created maps with the 320GB hard drive built-in.It looks like Microsoft doesn't want anyone to see its bundle just yet, however, as the listing was taken down from Microsoft's web store after IGN spotted it. We expect to hear more official news on the bundle in the coming weeks (or whenever Microsoft's marketing team decides to acknowledge the leak).
