In another of her whimsical community broadsides, Halo Waypoint figurehead Jessica Shea has shared details of a few forthcoming Halo 4 playlists and character Specialisations.
Besides Spartan Ops Episode 7, next Monday, 28th January will see the release of a new Grifball playlist - a celebration of what Shea terms "the greatest online sport". Here's a potted history, if you're fresh to the field: "The game type was first created by Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth back in the days of Halo 3, where it gained an online following and quickly became one of the most played custom games in the history of Halo Multiplayer.
"If you haven't yet played and the above sounds complicated, don't worry - you'll get the hang of it right away, and likely play for many hours and forget that you have any responsibilities at all."
Halo 4's lead designer Kevin Franklin has also passed on details of two other playlists, dedicated to Extraction and Infinity CTF. The need-to-know on them and the Grifball playlist is below:
- Grifball Playlist: Slated to include multiple versions of Grifball and new courts.
- Extraction Playlist: Adding overtime, fixing a score bug, improving the capture experience, and tuning maps.
- Infinity CTF: More details next week.
According to Franklin, "several of the modes currently on 'hiatus' are getting updates and fixes based on community feedback". The team is also "planning to build several multi-mode playlists that include rotated modes, and new modes we have not launched yet." Furthermore, "we hope to keep Grifball and Doubles in as regular playlists."
He went onto discuss the new and improved Competitive Skill Rank system, which will integrate with your Waypoint player profile, viewable on tablets, phones and PCs. Brace for another set of bulletpoints:
- You will have a unique CSR visible per playlist.
- Your highest CSR across all playlists will be promoted in the player profile on Halo Waypoint.
- CSR uses familiar 1-50 scale.
- When CSR launches, everyone will start with a fresh rating.
The upcoming Specialisations are Engineer and Stalker. The first comes with a "Drop Recon Armor Mod [which allows users to predict the location and time of an Ordnance Drop through an external suborbital monitoring system." The second packs a "Nemesis armor mod allows users to target and track down previous attacking enemies, highlighting them on the armor's passive sensors".
I've never played Grifball, for some reason. Perhaps now is the time to take an interest... Thanks to VG247 for the spot.
9 comments so far...
AllusiveTurtle on 24 Jan '13 said:
What would really improve the overall package would be if the new DLC was in fact a Firefight mode, it's the one omission from the game that I really don't understand. One can only wish....!
fracturedrich on 24 Jan '13 said:
Ive been playing forge playlist all morning,the maps are great,other developers take note,gamers love free stuff.Some of the maps are as good as the main ones,i hope they keep going with it.Ive also been playing new episodes of spartan ops,alright it isnt firefight but youve got to hand it to them for trying new things,people moan about things being the same,and when they change it up people moan,you cant win.I love halo 4,single and multiplayer and they keep adding quality things.The only thing because ive being playing halo ce,four does seem a bit slower,but with the next one being next gen,that small thing should be fixed
PonderingWalrus on 24 Jan '13 said:
I do love the idea of Halo DLC that is something other than a three piece map pack.
FishyGinger on 24 Jan '13 said:
It's no deathball that's for sure. Epic should really make another unreal game.
Waffles2541 on 24 Jan '13 said:
They could implement Firefight pretty easily. Just use the Spartan Ops maps that they have going with maybe a few tweaks here and there, maybe some downsizing on some of the larger maps, and hey presto, you have got yourself a firefight map. They already have the technology to sum waves of enemies as seen from some of the maps so it can't be hard for them to make firefight.
zacho 666 on 24 Jan '13 said:
I gotta say 343I are masters of suspense they could have just released every playlist on launch but no they force gamer's to go back to halo 4 to check out the new playlists and they have been revamped so well
Sandbwoy on 24 Jan '13 said:
I had hours of fun playing the various multiplayer games in Halo 3. Not got hold of 4 yet but I'll grab it soon.
MasterChiefJ117 on 25 Jan '13 said:
The reason so many people are moaning as you put it about Halo 4 is that the campaign looks amazing but everything else has been problematic and a step backwards from other Halo games. Perhaps the graphics engine for the campaign pushes the Xbox to it's limits so much that it can't cope with the simple things like a ghost traveling at a decent speed in multiplayer.
I am also intrigued as to why you don't have to pay £40 for Xbox live gold in order to even play spartan ops ? Or £60 for your copy of Halo 4 limited edition to get access to the future map packs and future developments? Why is it that you have 'free' content that I have had to pay over £100 to access?
How you can say that 'four seems a bit slower' and that is a 'small thing that should be fixed', lag and performance issues is make or break for games take the recent Devil may cry game it has scored less on PS3 compared to Xbox 360 for that very reason.
Spartan ops episode 6 is a massive improvement over episodes 1 to5 even IGN's Halo 4 reviewers who gave the game 9.8 say that they hated episodes 1-5 apart from the amazing cut scenes. Yet this improvement took going back to the drawing board and a 2.21 gb download, which without people moaning as you put it I do not believe 343 would have bothered doing.
marhorn on 26 Jan '13 said:
Xbox live is like £2 a month....and Spartan ops is free (the limited edition just gives free access to the versus maps)
So you paid over £100? but really it just requires buying Halo 4...
I have not had one instance of performance or lag issues....best looking/playing game Ive ever played on Xbox 360!