One ring to bind them - and awesome wedding ring that only a Halo fan would want...

There's Halo fans and then there's Halo fans. I'll leave you to ponder what kind the owner of this wedding ring is...

Found here.

Bungie reveals three classes of The Fallen. Wanna have a look?

Bungie have released some sweet details about some of the enemies the heroes of Destiny must defeat if they  can truly consider themselves heros: three classes of the Fallen. 

Dreg

THE FALLEN CLASS: DREG

These relentless thieves seem driven by desperation and rage. They are crafty, but they usually give up their cover with their clattering and hissing. Most seem outfitted with some kind of shock dagger and pistol, and as far as we can gather, they seem to only have two arms, while other Fallen have four.

A Vandal from Destiny

THE FALLEN CLASS: VANDAL

The truths about the Fallen chain-of-command are still making themselves known, but Vandals appear to hold a higher ranking than the Dregs, and deadlier weapons, too. They often have long range capability, but, lucky for us, their weapons take time to charge.

Oh Captain, my Captain

THE FALLEN CLASS: CAPTAIN

Fallen run in packs, led by an individual Captain. There is no denying a Captain's might; they are the fiercest of the Fallen. There is this sense of tattered nobility to them. You can see it in the way they carry themselves. They think they're better than us. They believe that Earth belongs to them.

Awesome Cortana fan art by Charlotte Chambers

This awesome rendition of Halo's Cortana was crafted by Charlotte Chambers. Check out her work on Deviantart.

So where does Sarah Palmer come from? Find out reading Initation

Wired explains about a new Halo novelization of Sarah Palmer's back story called Initiation:

Brian Reed, the comic writer who adapted the Halo: Fall of Reach novel into comic form in 2010 before joining 343 Industries to write the Halo 4 game, will write the books, with Marco Castiello (Star Wars: Purge) on art. Initiation is the origin story of Sarah Palmer, a character introduced in Halo 4.

Although she appeared in the game as a commander of the Spartan forces, she was originally an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper; this series follows her career path.

“After Halo 4 and Spartan Ops, fans wanted to know more about the origins of the Spartan-IV program and Sarah Palmer in particular. So it’s great fun to be able to grant those wishes with a partner like Dark Horse,”

Halo designers call in the big gun to test weapon tune ip

Halo's weapons are getting a tune up to make things a bit more balanced in the multiplayer realm. And that means testing so why not bring in one of the most renown Halo players, Walshy!! 

Here's Walshy earning his keep with a ride in a Halo 4 warthog:



And here's what he had to say about the weapons tune up in the Weekly bulletin:

Hey, Walshy! What were your first impressions with the new weapon tuning? Did anything immediately stand out as different, enjoyable, confusing, etc.?

New weapon tuning felt much better! Three features stood out the most to me:
The Battle Rifle being a 4-shot makes it a force to be reckoned with, no longer is the DMR the go-to choice for top players.

Decreased magnetism on automatics definitely adds more skill to those short-range fights.
The LightRifle's increased rate of fire while zoomed in will possibly make it the best long-range starting weapon in the game.

I’ve certainly seen quite a bit more LightRifle in our playtests. The slightly increased ROF when zoomed makes it even deadlier at range. So tell me – was the 4-shot BR as crispy as you expected?

Cookie Crisp crispy! I might have to start doing the wolf howl after each kill! On a slightly more serious note, the 4-shot kills give the game the faster kill time that I loved from previous Halo games.

We played a 1 vs. 1 on Haven with Assault Rifles only, and I think we both agreed that the new tuning made it quite interesting and different. How did you feel about the reduced auto-aim on the automatics?

First off, you and I both agree that I am the best 1 vs. 1 Haven ARs only player in the world. Secondly, I think this will only result in even more dominance from me in 1 vs. 1 Haven ARs! I think this change accounts for the few automatics in the top level of play to take slightly more skill to use. However, this change primarily affects the casual level of play, which is the majority of Halo players – overall, I think everyone will be very happy with this change.

How do you think these tuning updates will affect gameplay, both Matchmaking and tournament play?

Both tournament and Matchmaking play will see more variance with starting weapons. Biggest difference in my opinion will be in the short and long-range game since the DMR currently is the go-to weapon for almost every situation. With the updates to the BR and LR, we now have weapons that, on paper, are superior to the DMR. I'm excited for this change and am excited to see how it changes the game!

Cody Miller decided to edit Halo's final scene with Lasky and 117 - is it better?

Cody Miller, a well known Halo gamer, decided to edit the final Halo cut scene as he felt the Chief talking about Cortana was a bit cheesy. Here’s the edited video.

“Contrast this with the scene directly afterwards. Lasky has been somewhat established now and his conversation with the Chief is written as a natural reaction to the events that preceded the scene. I wish that's what the whole game felt like!

The Chief's last two lines ruined it for me. They were so cheesey and absolutely unnecessary, that they took a nice moment and really messed it up. We're not stupid. When Lasky says 'we're not machines' and the chief turns his head, that's all we need. We know what he's thinking. If I were editing this cutscene I would have done away with the lines. In fact, why not edit them out now?”

Putting the Chief’s line in was deliberately done for people who cannot draw the dots – like movies always do with flash backs to key early scenes so people remember the ‘loaded gun’ moment.

Either way, I had no issue with the lines. I thought Halo 4 was pretty well scripted (except for that crazy dude that ordered Cortana shut down). What do you think of Cody’s change?

What went into making Halo 4.

Here's yet another article on how Halo 4 was made - this perspective below is that of Josh Holmes who was the creative director for the game and you can check out Frankie's thoughts here

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Josh Holmes (@JoshingtonState) is creative director on Halo 4 at 343, but he did have a life in game development before he arrived at Microsoft. He started as a game tester in 1995, working for another game industry giant, Electronic Arts. Holmes moved up the ranks to producer and designer, eventually working on sports games.

"One of the ideas there that took flight was the original NBA Street, which I was lead designer on," recalls Holmes. "We went back into incubation and worked on a couple of concepts. Then I was pulled into kind of a brainstorm think-tank about how to save a dying project that was in trouble. It was a wrestling game at the time, where they lost the WCW license. That rapidly became a game, because I made a mistake with my creative partner of brainstorming the concept of 'urban culture meets fighting and wrestling.'

"It became Def Jam Vendetta. The marketing team was like, 'That's a brilliant idea!' and we were like, 'No, that's a terrible idea! Don't make that game!' But we had a lot of fun." Holmes actually ended up working on a sequel to Def Jam before leaving in 2004 to co-found Revolution Interactive, which would be purchased by Disney a year later under the studio's final name, Propaganda Games. Shuttered a couple years after Holmes left, it was known best for 2008's Turok reboot and a Pirates of the Caribbean game that never saw the light of day.

He eventually found his way to Microsoft in 2009, when he joined the company's internal Halo team, which at 20 people was relatively small. Holmes' interest in the Halo franchise had already been simmering for years, even during the Def Jam days at EA.

"As a designer, I've always been interested in complex systems interacting with one another, and the emergent gameplay that can come from those interactions," he explains. "I've been a long-time fan of shooters. I grew up playing games mostly on personal computers -- Commodore 64 and the Amiga. I never wanted to be a 'PC guy,' because I was this die-hard Amiga fan. Then I remember seeing Doom for the first time on a friend's computer. I went out and bought a PC the next week [laughs]. I converted immediately. I spent a lot of time doing PC gaming with shooters."

When Halo: Combat Evolved came out for Xbox in 2001, his first encounter was the same as with many who experienced the game for the first time. There was a purity in his early experiences with Halo. Like most everyone else, he experienced it as a player, with no real expectations.

"Halo was that first title that really convinced me that shooters could work on a console," Holmes says. "I remember going and buying Halo, buying an Xbox, and bringing it back to EA where I was working crazy crunch overtime. I plugged it in and thought, 'I'll just play the first level and see how it goes.'

"I ended up staying up all night and finishing the game, because I was just so completely enthralled by the universe, and the sandbox systems that were at work. I was enamored with this idea that you could have a shooter with systems of a sandbox nature working together, where different solutions were possible, and emergent gameplay would come out of that. That completely captivated me.

"I finished the game, and I remember finishing it at nine in the morning or something, and I hadn't slept, and I just started it all over again [laughs], because I wanted to go and have that ride a second time. So ever since I had that experience, it really changed in my mind what a shooter could be, and in a lot of ways, what an immersive game experience could be.

"It influenced a lot of my thoughts as a designer."

Mac Walters attempts to rewrite history on ME3 ending.

Mac Walters

Mac Walters is a dude who had lot to do with Mass Effect 3’s ending (he was the lead writer for the game) and appears to be trying to rewrite history. 

During a recent awards show he was reported to have said about ME3’s ending that ‘he doesn’t think the majority of Mass Effect fans had an issue with Mass Effect 3′s ending and that it was just a very vocal minority’. 

Which just seems a nonsense thing to say.

Every man and his dog was talking about the ending. It got people seriously wound up – so much that a Extended Cut was released by Bioware to placate everybody. If it was such a minority, this would never have happened. NO game developer would change their ending just because a couple of people didn’t like the game’s ending. 

I wonder if this was a case of the 'silent majority' and the vocal minority being of similar views.

If so, I think Mac Walters might being a little too cute for his own good. 

He’s currently working on Mass Effect 4: “Right now I’m actually just working on Mass Effect 4 (I wouldn't call it 4, I’d just call it the next Mass Effect).” Read into that what you will.

Follow him on Twitter! Or check out this awesome Ashley Williams cosplay. And some Femshep.

Specific details on Halo 4's weapons update

Following some earlier words, the Halo Bulletin has some more words on the Halo 4 weapons update. Enjoy, with BS Angel's compliments:

Touching any part of a game, regardless of how insignificant it may seem, is a risky, complicated and lengthy undertaking. We often don’t divulge the minute details of the process, simply because it’s tedious and, quite frankly, boring. We know there’s a large amount of interest in the upcoming weapon tune update, however (yes, we read the forums!), so we wanted to invite you into this process so you can get a glimpse behind the curtain and a head start on providing feedback. The cracking open of this door started last week when we shared our basic goals in regard to weapon tuning. Today we’re opening it even further by discussing the progress that was made last week.

As you read today’s update (and the rest that are coming), I ask you to remember that everything is subject to change. One of the facts of shipping games and updates is that until it’s out the door and in the wild, changes, both big and small, happen for a variety of reasons. We anticipate going through several waves of iteration and even more waves of testing before landing on our final design. So below is where we are today but not necessarily where we will be tomorrow.

TL;DR: The below tweaks are nowhere near final. In fact, they are as far from final as they can be without being not final. Please recognize this is a work-in-progress, we will clearly communicate our final plan once we know it, and until then, we’ll provide weekly updates about its current status.

With that out of the way, Bravo is now going to take you through the past seven days of Halo 4 weapon tuning efforts.



Bravo here with more news on overall weapon balance. We have been actively tweaking, tuning and testing the weapons in the Halo 4 sandbox, and we’re now at the point where we can share some of the details with you. I sat down with Quinn, a fellow member of the Matchmaking Systems Team, to get an update on these particular efforts, and the following details the progress we’ve made since last week. Please note these details are not final, and we’ll once again provide an update on the current status of the weapon tuning efforts next week.

As you may have guessed, the first area that we felt the need to tackle was primary weapons, specifically the precision rifles. There are two schools of thought with rifle balance: One suggests that we should reduce the power of the DMR, and the other suggests that alternate weapons should be bumped up to balance out the sandbox. Both things being said, there can be a middle ground. Looking at the DMR, we currently feel that the kill time should remain unchanged, as the weapon has become a clear favorite amongst the community due to its reliability and consistency. So tuning the Battle Rifle, LightRifle and Carbine against this weapon presented quite a challenge. Here are the tweaks that have currently been made, and the challenges associated with each.


Battle Rifle

Right now, we feel that the mid-range role of this weapon is undermined by the strength of the DMR. To combat this, we are looking at decreasing the kill time for the Battle Rifle through various tweaks. This means testing a “4-shot BR” (currently, the Battle Rifle takes 5 bursts to kill) with a reduced rate of fire, though these changes are not final.

LightRifle

At this time, we have adjusted the range at which the reticle turns red to match the DMR.

Carbine

The Carbine has been adjusted to take one less shot to kill, bringing it to a 7-shot kill. This change was applied because we felt that players who used this weapon and took the time to become skilled with it were not rewarded due to the weapon’s kill time.


These changes have sped up the kill times of some of these weapons, which will provide a faster overall Halo 4 competitive War Games experience. The above tweaks have also led to the need to adjust the automatic weapons, which would likely be beaten at even the closest of ranges if tuning ended with the above changes. As a result, the Assault Rifle, Suppressor and Storm Rifle have all received a slight damage buff along with an auto-aim decrease that requires players to be more accurate than they would have previously. This means that while these automatics will be slightly more deadly at close range, they will require that players are more accurate.

Lastly, as we’ve mentioned in the past, we understand the need for viable and effective vehicles in Halo multiplayer, and as a result, we’re looking at bumping up the damage on both the Warthog and the Mantis chain gun. This is not the extent of our tuning, and we are actively investigating tweaks to additional weapons, such as an aim-assist decrease on the Beam Rifle.

If you’d like to leave your thoughts and opinions about this update, head to the ‘Discuss’ link at the bottom of this page, orjoin the discussion over in the Weapons Feedback thread in the War Games Feedback section. We’ll continue to monitor the forums as we test and tweak these changes, and once they go live, we’ll be looking for and reacting to feedback to ensure that the weapon tune provides optimal experiences across all of Halo 4’s game modes and playlists.

343 on the Halo 4 weapon re balance

The Halo Bulletin had this to say about the forth coming weapon re balancing that's going to occur in Halo 4's mulitplayer mode soon. 

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Bravo here with a weapon balancing update! As we have mentioned in various Halo Bulletins, panels and live streams over the past few weeks, we are currently evaluating the state of Halo 4’s weapon balance. The sustain, sandbox, multiplayer and test teams have been working together and evaluating which weapons and categories of weapons need some attention, and we are happy to say that our internal testing has allowed us to make great progress.

We have also mentioned that we are approaching weapon re-balancing very carefully, as each change that is checked requires vigorous testing to ensure that it benefits the entire sandbox, and that gameplay is improved on a global level across all of Halo 4’s maps, game modes and scenarios. Because of this, the process takes several weeks while we are in a constant cycle of making tweaks, testing and retesting. This being said, we are well underway and will be bringing this update to Halo 4 Matchmaking as soon as it’s ready.

Here are some of the big ticket items we’re currently looking at:

Precision Weapon Balance

Our goal of the upcoming balance update is to create an even balance across all precision rifles (DMR, Battle Rifle, Carbine and LightRifle). Our latest tests have included (but are not limited to) rate of fire and damage tweaks to several weapons within this category. Additionally, it is important to create balance amongst all primary weapons, which leads into the next category.

Automatic Weapon Balance
An important part of overall balance is ensuring that each weapon excels within its intended role. As we move the dials to tweak some of the precision weapons, it demands that certain tweaks also be made to automatic weapons, which include the Assault Rifle, Suppressor and more. We are investigating modifying the rate of fire, accuracy and damage on these weapons.

Vehicle Weapon Balance

We have seen many community concerns that certain vehicles may be examples of sandbox elements that could be improved. We are currently looking at tuning some of the weapons that these vehicles have at their disposal in order to increase their usefulness and viability. We greatly value the teamwork (and fun) required in riding around in a Warthog with a buddy, and want to ensure that this and other vehicles have great draw and value.

Also, we are taking a look at many weapons that do not fit within these categories to ensure that the sandbox is providing the most ideal experience possible for all users in all playlists and game modes. As we finish up our internal testing, we look forward to providing further updates on the weapons that will be receiving attention and the specific changes that will be made, once finalized.