Halo 4 Message Board older than one year ago

If you feel like shooting aliens on your Xbox today, you are very likely to be able to do so in a new venue. Both Halo 4 and Gears of War Judgment have new DLC, available at no extra cost.

Having passed certification early, Microsoft has released the Halo 4 "Forge Island" map well in advance of its expected April 11 date. On their own, these aren't the most exciting locations - three big, flat islands - but they're intended to be the base for Forge Mode customization.

Simba, Scar and headshots.

You might think that the biggest challenge in creating Halo 4's Forward Unto Dawn series was translating one of gaming's most beloved franchises into a live-action film that was not only true to the source material, but also worth watching. You'd be right, of course, but for fans the biggest challenge was in making sure Master Chief sounded right.

During the Forward Unto Dawn postmortem at GDC, 343 Industries franchise development director Frank O'Connor noted that the casting of Master Chief was "a source of much consternation" for series fans. "We did a couple of tests using the actor who plays Master Chief in the game, and he's an older guy," said O'Connor.

The ending of Forward Unto Dawn reveals that the superhuman Spartan soldiers are just as young as the film's UNSC cadets, so giving Master Chief the gravelly voice we all know and love would be out of place. "He can't sound like he's 50," said O'Connor, "and so we had to find a young actor whose voice sounded like his voice might eventually grow into the Chief's."

Watch one Spartan take out 10 noobs in just a few seconds.

343 Industries has announced at PAX East this weekend that Halo 4 is getting a new Forge map, with plenty of blank, open canvas for Halo level makers to paint their creativity on. As you can see in the quick video on IGN's page, "Forge Island" actually has three different islands of varying size, all completely flat and round, to give map makers lots of room to build whatever they want.

The map will also come with some new Forge pieces, which the developers have already used to build a copy of Hang 'Em High. 343 specifically asked at the panel if a fan would be kind enough to remake Blood Gulch on the biggest island, so that's possible too. The new map and related tools are all being released for free on April 11, just a few days after the Castle Map Pack arrives on April 8.

#halo4 343 Industries announced during a PAX East panel yesterday that Halo 4 will soon get its own version of Halo: Reach's Forge World map (pictured above), a feature that has been missed since 4 launched. Called "Forge Island" and releasing for free on April 11, the map will provide a series of open spaces in which Halo 4 forgers can putz around and try to smack one another by swinging tanks around like giant, deadly paddles. That's what I'm going to do there, at least. More »

343 shows off some concept art for the upcoming Castle map pack and talk about weapon spawns on the new maps

Competitive Skill Ranks are something new coming to Halo 4 Multiplayer that are pretty awesome. You may want to get used to them too by listening as 343 explains what you can expect.

We see Halo 4's new Forge Island in action as 343 fly's around the map showing off what we can expect from the new area.

We show you the only Mantis-Annihilating Spartan-Vaporizing Ball of Death Pulse Grenade Plant that took place during 343's internal testing of the game.

Alfredo schools folks at 343 multiplayer and laments the current state of cartoons.

Symmetry is sexy, but Daybreak does it a little different. Check out this mid-size vehicle map.

Halo 4 is getting yet another batch of DLC next month. Entitled the Castle Map Pack, the content adds three new multiplayer maps: Daybreak, Outcast and Perdition. The new maps are designed around objective gametypes and vehicle use, with Outcast in particular promising "frequent Mantis vs. Wraith battles."

The DLC will be available for $10 staring April 8. A new 6-on-6 playlist catering to the DLC will launch on the same day. The Castle Map Pack also marks the third and final pack included with the War Games Map Pass.

A region two Blu-ray / DVD combo of the Halo 4 miniseries Forward Unto Dawn has been spotted on Amazon UK. If you missed it the first time around, Forward Unto Dawn is a prequel of sorts to Halo 4, telling the story of a Covenant invasion of a UNSC training facility. In addition to Blu-ray and DVD copies of the film, the deluxe edition will also feature several extras, including a poster, art cards and over 100 minutes of bonus content.

The Forward Unto Dawn Deluxe Edition is slated for a May 27 release in Europe. Amazon UK currently has it listed for 18.70 ($27.80). We've contacted Microsoft to find out if the set will also be released in North America.

#guildwars Dave Bolton is a concept artist who has worked for 343 Studios, ArenaNet and Hourglass Studios. So we're about to get a look at some fantastic art from, among other things, Halo 4 and Guild Wars. More »

IGN editors Ryan McCaffrey and Mitch Dyer look back at 10 weeks of Spartan Ops. Was it worth it?

There may be a few clouds hanging over your Xbox Live experience today. Microsoft reports that users are experiencing troubles accessing cloud saves and other remotely stored information on Windows 7 and Xbox 360. We've also received reports of trouble with the Halo 4 servers.

The (crackpot) theory going around the Joystiq think tank is that Sony's testing PS4 cloud services and taking up all the bandwidth in the imaginary "cloud." Xbox Live isn't working right, because Kaz Hirai is streaming some Cool Boarders 2 to QA.

Here's a video for the Landfall map in Halo 4, with is part of the upcoming Majestic Map Pack. The rockets are in the back. What else do you need to know?

See one of Halo 4's smallest maps in action with 343 Industries' level designer Kynan Pearson.

See a city destroyed while Spartans fight it out in a mid-sized multiplayer map. 343's Kynan Pearson walks us through Landfall.

Halo 4 is laying down the red carpet to provide its Majestic DLC with a royal entrance when it arrives next week on February 25. Like Crimson before it, Majestic brings three new maps to 343 Industries' shooter, each one a small-scale affair. There's the metropolitan wreckage of Landfall, the arena-like Monolith, and the rooftop mayhem of Skyline.

Majestic comes with two new playlists too, one a free-for-all for eight players and the other a 4v4 team-based line-up. Also, the new free-for-all Infinity Rumble game type is a timed-exclusive for owners of the DLC. Infinity Rumble is all about earning and using personal ordinance, this doled out for killing stylishly and special medals.

The DLC is priced at 800 MSP, and is free to those with the War Games pass. The third map pack DLC, Castle, is coming sometime in April. Given the accuracy so far of this leaked ad from last year, our gut is telling us it's coming April 1. But our gut is also very hungry.

#halo A poorly kept secret since November is official now: the Majestic Map Pack, the latest series of multiplayer maps in Halo 4, will indeed be available on Feb. 25 for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). More »

#halo Today's the big day for Halo's ex, Bungie, which will soon tell all about its new affair, Destiny. That makes the discovery of these four images for Halo 4's forthcoming Majestic Map Pack quite a coincidence, indeed. More »

If you've been entrenched in the story of Halo 4's Spartan Ops mode, prepare yourself for this latest episode. Dr. Halsey meets the Dydak's wife, the Librarian, and learns her role in humanity's fate is bigger than she imagined.

#watchthis Watching someone who isn't too familiar with video games try their hand at Halo 4 can be pretty hilarious. But when it's Conan O'Brien testing out 343's first entry in the series, it's that much funnier. Even if he does roll his eyes a little too much at the storyline. More »

You don't often hear the words 'librarian' and 'rodeo' close to each other, but this trailer for the ninth episode of Halo 4's Spartan Ops, out February 11, pulls it off, leaving us with the pleasing image of riders shushing each other as they desperately try to stay saddled.

In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: 343's Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor. Frank O'Connor has worked in and around the gaming industry for about twenty years, starting in the gaming press in the UK, where he edited and wrote for several magazines before making the move to the States. After several years working on games publications here, he took an opportunity to work at Bungie studios as a community manager, working on consumer relations, marketing efforts and game fiction.

When Bungie spun out of Microsoft during Halo Reach, he decided to stay with the Halo franchise and has been there since the inception of 343 Industries. He's lived through every single console and computer game transition, and he is just as excited about the impending one as he was when Pong gave way to the Atari 2600.

At Frank's forthcoming 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit session with Microsoft Game Studios/343 Industries' Executive Producer Kiki Wolfkill, Frank will co-present on "Changing the Universe - Three for Three." This session will explore the trials, tribulations, and opportunities in building and rebuilding a cultural phenomenon, expanding a beloved universe into live action and transmedia storytelling, all while creating a AAA-game studio from scratch.

This latest edition of Clueless Gamer, in which Conan O'Brien says he "kinda hates games," is slow to get going as the host struggles with the plot. But it's worth the watch just to see him react to Cortana, and in particular the characters voiced by himself and Andy Richter.

The penultimate episode of the episodic series!

#halo Watching this video by ReiKo, you have to wonder if the people who made Halo 4 intended for players to be able to pull off some of the insane trick-jumps that they do. The spacing is just right, the trajectories lead perfectly from point to point… maybe they planned it this way? More »