Just went into York to return my hired wedding suit thingy and couldn't resist. Breaking the seal on my copy now!

You get a 14 day Gold trial in the box. Anyone want it?

Ooh, I've got one too, if anyone else wants it.

It's the only piece of paper in the box. There's not even a link to an online manual. Mo' money No' thing-else.

Yup! Also, the discs are labelled "Disc 1" and "Disc 2"? What's what? Should I install both?

The second disc has been multiplayer for the last few.

Yeah, but it's usually labelled as such!

A friend of mine said this is shit. I haven't played it but inexplicably hate it already. Chavs wear helmets.

GET!!!!!!

...and remember, I may have unfriended you in my big cull, so anyone looking for online, friend me up.

I'm gonna install it up in a bit. Don't invite me yet, though, I want to piss around in single player for an hour or so! I say we get a bit of multiplayer on after "work" tonight. I'm actually off today, but you know what I mean.

I think it's install both then just use the first disk to launch owt you want.

Installing now, might shit pants.

Can't you use that 14 day trial thing to add two weeks to your current subscription?

Oh really? Mine runs out this month!

It's not a "brand new customers only" thing?

"Please insert Disc 2 to install multiplayer content." Eject disc one and you get booted to the fucking dashboard.

So yeah, most efficient way to install is as follows:

Install Disc 1 via the dashboard, eject it.
"Play" from Disc 2 and the only option it gives you is to install its content. It won't let you install Disc 2 from the dash. Then you just use Disc 1 for everything.

It appears you can't play multiplayer at all without installing Disc 2 to the hard drive. Same deal with Reach, though IIRC. So you'll need some space!

Clantag is beex?

I haven't seen a clan tag option yet! Not sure I like the new menu system entirely. Halo 3 basically perfected the online FPS menu and lobby setup. They've changed it.

Sure I'll get used to it, though. Just had a very quick blast on multiplayer. It's very CoD-like. Seems a little quicker than previous Halos. As for weapon unlocks, it's nothing that will give older players an advantage. You can unlock alternatives to the standard assault rifle, such as the DMR, the Battle Rifle(!) and some alien equivalents. And three sidearms, but you start with the Magnum (best) anyway. Other than that, it's classic Halo and you'll be wanting to find the good weapons on the ground as usual.

Seems good. Gonna play the campaign for a bit.

I found my way around the new menu system ok, seems quite intuitive but one man's intuition is another's bewildering mess. Its all a bit more neon and big tiles than Reach or 3, but i cant see it slowing me down any in the long term.

The War Games multiplayer is fucking brutal. Had two goes and now into campaign to ease myself in. Christ, as I relived when I got my first kill. I think anyone who has historically not enjoyed going up against strangers is going to hate it unless they persevere. Feels a little 'Quake of Duty' but in reality its just a motherfucker-tuned Halo.

Overall, it seems awesome. Can't wait to get into making some maps for us all.

OK, played through the prologue on Heroic. Its beautiful, the sound is somehow more real, the weapons are more or less the same but better so far and the QTEs are about as unobtrusive as a QTE can be.

Spoilers for first level:



I have opted for 'recon' controls, so grenade selection is moved from x to the d-pad and x becomes run, otherwise controls are the same as Reach.

Its bloody lovely. I really, really like it. N disappointment at all, though Im sure to have a shit fit at choke points along the way.

So there are no QTEs then?

All sounds pretty decent.

I'll buy it when it's £10.

Theres two, but they grate about as much as having to hit right bumper to access a terminal.

Been ages since I played it, but I recall the Halo 3 lobby system being abominably terrible, and massively worse than Halo 2.

Unless it was 3 that was good and Reach that was terrible. I forget.

Nbody is playing :,(

I've been asleep. Gonna go to bed soon, didn't sleep much last night and back to work tomorrow.

Tomorrow night!

3 was basically 2's menu system refined. Reach was very similar again but added some more options.

Right, your multiplayer, then...

There are more variants of four on four or eight on eight or free for all, I have tried Regicide and its quite good, takes the best element of the one from Reach where one guy was overpowered and balances it nicely.

The maps seem improved, overall... With everyone being able to run, the ones roughly comparable to Countdown or similar seem really tight and pacey and brutal, while Ragnarok, this game's big valley effort a la Blood Gulch or Haemorrhage or whatever is slightly smaller and more densely populated with stuff, more undulations, etc.

The Mantis. Oh my, the Mantis! I fucking love it. It's an AT-ST in Halo. Great fun and i think i chalked up 3 kills in my first ride but not overpowered, have a chum watch your back.

Weapons... I just use the BR

Weapon drops are fair and frequent. You choose from 3 seemingly random things, usually gun, nade or other gun... and you don't need to use them straight off. Most people will get at least one a game, no COD gamebreakers here. So far.

Killcams are decent, you can skip them.

The menus are a piece of piss once you have played five or so matches.

Levelling goes like the clappers, so you don's miss out on having a go on anything, but you don't get stuck on anything either. Customisation levels a bit as well, it will be really opened out armour wise in a week or so.

Armour abilities are your usual stuff but theres one some people will hate... Promethean Vision. Its your standard Batman/Deus Ex sort of x-ray stuff, but it does mean early door people will one-shot you as soon as you are a pixel round the corner. Not tried it with a needler yet.

To my mind this has taken the better parts of what CoD had and this didn't and integrated them without making it not Halo. I didn't think it would tun out this good.

Bit of a disappointment... Just spent a while taking a nice shot of my mantis and a video of me using one, then taking one down with a sniper rifle. Can't share them outside of the Halo ecosystem, no Bungie pro equivalent :/

I was really looking forward to some more of that!

Record it with your phone or camera? Better than nothing...

I played exactly 5 minutes of this last night.

It went like this:

*insert disc 1*/not got much time and I want to watch American Horror Story before bed/not got time for campaign I'll have a crack a the MP/click/cutscene for MP?/boring/boring/Hnnngh/*skips cutscenes*/a women telling me how to play MP? Fuck you equal rights/*click, click, click, click*/HNNNGH. Shut the fuck up and let me get into the pew pew/finally, erm, where's multiplayer? War Games? That's laboriously titled. "Multiplayer" would suffice/*insert disc 2*/Oh fuck that...

American Horror Story was ace by the way.

The multiplayer is bloody excellent.

Thoroughly excellent game with GovYard! Anyone else getting this? TEAM!

Popping heads with the DMR is so fun. The new "perks" aren't as intrusive as I thought they would be, and it's still essentially Halo, but with even more variety. The maps seem generally excellent too.

I might buy it again next month.

Must admit, the third campaign mission is shite.

Spoilers!

Had to have a night off after a day of conflict at work. Back on saturday, need to see Carter USM, Cud and Inspirals bloke tomorrow.

That was all one man?

I'm down for Saturday night! But also, tomorrow if anyone fancies it. After the Boro Sheff Wed game mind.

I've finally played the first chapter! Yay me!

Lovely intro damn near made me give a shit about Master face.

It was almost an exciting opening section too! Graphically, it looks nicer than ever before and has seemingly dropped the square blocks of the earlier games (which always reminded me of Half Life's early graphics for some reason). It's got a lovely shine to it all although I've a feeling that they might go overboard on the lens effects of wearing a helmet though. Still, very nice for what is clearly some very bland corridors in a space ship.

Then it got interesting. An invasion, some mega big shit going on in your face followed by even bigger mega big shit! I was reet excited.

Then I died because a sniper hit me.

The fecking snipers were always too accurate and irritating, but at least they keep your head down I suppose. So anyway, there's a large arena to plough through and across a couple of times and even some Dead Space-ness to keep it exciting.

It turned out to be quite dull clearing the area and a couple of "go-here" "now over there" "actually could you nip over here" and a dash to somewhere else was starting to grate. But it was still sort of exciting.



That last bit's stupid, right. How'd he keep managing that but a few pricks from a needled has he cartwheeling all over the place?

Space crash is one impact, which hits the shield once. Needlers chip away with several impacts, and are energy weapons specifically designed to drop shields quicker than physical, projectiles impacting would, be they rifle rounds impacting, or a planet.

Thats my best effort.

We're all playing tonight so, er, buy Halo 4!

I will be playing, but I am incredibly hungover and warching Jedi and am in Wakefield, so not sure what time I will be on. Working on it.

Get it sorted mate! You've got 90 minutes!

Sorry, I'm waiting for the PC version.

The smart man's choice!

Still in Wakefield. Wife watching Strictly Cunts Dancing. Purgatorial feelings.

Setting off now. Home half 8.

Sweet! I'll be fully warmed up by then, popping heads with the DMR for fun.

Hnnng. Still at shops.

I'll be on this later, if you're still on/get on. I haven't tried the MP yet!