Halo 5 Will Have "New Epic Multiplayer Experience" - 343 Industries

[Evonisia]

...but, have you played any of the Halo games from Reach onwards? Neither Bungie nor 343 care about the integrity of the series anyway.

I'd dispute that rather heartily; I've been playing since CE, and I thought 4 was terrific, especially in terms of writing and character. Absolutely cracking score, too, and I think it's the best Chief armour design (and animation/performance capture) yet.

Much as I disagree with your views on 4 (sans the characters that aren't the Didact are OK and MC's armour), I'm more referring to their attitudes to making the games. Halo has become much more a commercially minded venture. Maybe Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST were deemed disappointments by the executives at Microsoft, but Reach, 4 and the MCC[footnote]On the bright side, I hate Halo 4 slightly less because of my Master Chief Collection play through of it, but only slightly[/footnote] all rubbed me the wrong way in the singleplayer department, all feeling like brand marketing to ape popular franchises and techniques of the AAA industry[footnote]Weirdly enough, though, Gears of War: Judgment (a.k.a. Gears 4 but not really) seemed to use the cynical design as a strength to change the pace but keep the identity of the franchise. A shame Halo 4 didn't do that.[/footnote].

Multiplayer has a better time surviving that kind of development, though, which is why I'm generally not as down as I should be on their decision making lately.

 

[FogHornG36]

When i hear there is no split screen coop, all i think is all families that have two or three kids that share the one xbox.

You are literally turning your back on these kids, although they will end up buying the game anyway because they don't look at news media like this, so they won't know until its too late.

 

[09philj]

My thoughts on 343 come by way of Edmund Blackadder:
"The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed"

While Halo 4 had some enjoyable levels (Infinity, Reclaimer.) and a couple of good multiplayer maps (Exile, Haven), the remainder ranged from extremely dull and forgettable (Forerunner, Composer.), to crimes against game design itself (Shutdown, Midnight.). And don't get me started on the story. If a main series game essentially requires you to have read some of the background novels to make sense of it, you're probably doing it wrong. All this would be more forgivable if this were a company starting a new IP from scratch. However, since all the mistakes made are somewhat evident in Combat Evolved, and had essentially been entirely rectified by Halo: Reach, I'm inclined to be less charitable. Oh, and Spartan Ops was pretty terrible as well.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I'm betting it's a sort of Battlefield style conquest mode. (Which would actually be awesome.)

Wow, your optimistic
Well your not wrong about it being awesome if done right. That's something I've wanted since halo 2.

Not that optimistic. :\ They took away my 4-splitscreen and local co-op for 60 FPS. A pittance. So I'm actually pretty darn angry at 343.

 

[Chefsbrian]

I'm honestly a bit upset about this. Me and my girlfriend play Halo Co-op on my Xbox. She doesn't have a 360, she certainly won't have a One, and we neither have room to set up a second TV and console for this, nor do we desire to play it at our separate houses across the bloody city.

I feel that publishers took the last two years of "Pfft, it can't do 60fps 1080p" harassment in the entirely wrong way, if they are cutting features. I'd rather a slightly choppy game that has the experience I want, than a flawless game that isn't what I was looking for, and that's coming from a primarily PC guy.

I don't have a One yet, and this is making me seriously think it might not be worth it, short of a surprise cash windfall.

 

[Strazdas]

Looks like Xbox isnt powerful enough to run co-op even for Halo anymore. Also are they going to try and do good multiplayer for once? last time it wasnt functional.

Halo franchise was a failure to innovate on almost every level.

Fixed this for you.