How Halo 4 is Seeking to Win Multiplayer Wars

Multiplayer combat gaming is dominated by titles that enfold players in quasi-realistic modern war-zones. The action and the perks and the zombies-on-the-moon modes may be pure fantasy, but the settings are rooted in the real world of multi-terrain combat boots and SA-58 clips.

“

The first time you play it, it has to be fair, but also it has to be fair on the hundredth time and the thousandth time.

By contrast, Halo 4 is pure fantasy, a sci-fi dreamscape of weird colors, strange weapons, variable gravity as well as Ghosts, crazed AIs and abandoned deep-space mining vessels. Publisher Microsoft wants its key multi-billion-dollar franchise to sit at the heart of inter-human gaming.

Developer 343 has delivered what is arguably the best Halo ever made, and one key component to this is multiplayer, described by IGN reviewer Ryan McCaffrey as “golden” with “immaculate weapon balancing” and containing “an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds.”

343 hired Austin, Texas-based development house Certain Affinity to help out with modes, maps and map-creation tool Forge. Why? The company was founded by Max Hoberman, who spent a decade at Bungie, crafting the Halo series’ multiplayer experience.

“

I'm dying to see what crazy things people come up with.

Certain Affinity is also responsible for working on MP sections of recent Call of Duty games and on Left 4 Dead. In short, these guys really get multiplayer, and they have a long and intimate relationship with the Halo universe. 85 team-members spent 18 months working on Halo 4’s multiplayer, in close association with 343.

Hoberman says the starting point for refining and evolving Halo 4’s multiplayer modes has been making it available to as many people as possible.

He explains, “That was 343's approach across the board. How do we make this better by letting more people enjoy it? We started by smoothing off some of the rough edges on areas that could be great, but just weren't quite there for accessibility reasons. That can be really difficult, really challenging, especially when you're trying to develop something that has some inherent depth. How you balance depth and accessibility is always a challenge. But that has absolutely permeated all of our decision-making.”

Certain Affinity worked on some of the War Games modes, many based on old favorites that have now been tweaked. For example, Dominion is a team-based mode in which each side attempts to capture and defend a series of bases which, over time, sprout defensive upgrades, culminating in a ‘last stand’ slaughter of the team that’s failed to secure defensive positions.

Oddball is the classic game mode that wins players points for holding onto a ball, with an added twist of being able to throw the ball. When this one feature was first shown, at PAX, it drew enthusiastic whoops from the crowd.

“

When you're designing for multiplayer, you have to be selfless.

Part of the responsibility facing Certain Affinity, and all developers that specialize in multiplayer, is the intense relationship players have with the modes and maps they play. Unlike single-player games, which are experienced once or perhaps a few times, multiplayer games are experienced again and again. They are lived. They are also very public testing grounds for people who take their skills very, very seriously.

Not only, but also, through map-editors like Forge, players understand the fundamentals of multiplayer level design. Ten years ago, players might have enjoyed a multiplayer map, without stopping to think about the subtleties of sight blocks and cover positions. These days, they intuite sloppy design.

Hoberman says, “We’re very aware of the gravity of our responsibility. We're creating this content that people are going to play time and time again, sometimes thousands of times, for one map or one game mode. It feels like a massive responsibility. We mandate internally that we play this stuff over and over. We have to be fans of our own work and we have to put it to the test day in and day out.

“

We're creating this content that people are going to play time and time again, sometimes thousands of times.

“We insist that our developers participate in daily playtests. It can be tough. Our artists, for instance, they have a big to-do list, but we make them take an hour out of their day to playtest. We think that's invaluable. Fans are going to pick these things apart. They're passionate about every detail. It's critical that everyone working on these things is also passionate about every detail and understands how these things are going to be experienced by the players.”

He points out that in single-player modes, the story embraces the player as well as the characters in the game, but only the actual player is having a real emotional experience. But in multiplayer, it’s about everyone who is on screen.

“When you're designing campaign levels, you're inherently designing something asymmetrical. You're designing for the player. You don't need to care about how the enemies feel. You don't need to care about how the Covenant feel about their experience. When you're designing multiplayer, you have to care about everybody.

“What you're designing is inherently balanced and symmetric, even if it's physically asymmetric. It has to be balanced. It has to be a fair experience for everyone. The first time you play it, it has to be fair, but also it has to be fair on the hundredth time and the thousandth time. It takes a different mindset to design for multiplayer. I'd say it also takes a different personality sometimes. When you're designing for multiplayer, you have to be selfless. You have to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you're just concerned about designing a good experience for yourself, then you'll never be a great multiplayer designer.”

One of the massive projects undertaken by Certain Affinity was Forge, which allows players to make their own multiplayer maps. This tool has been around for some years but in Halo 4 has been drastically overhauled.

New features include better looks through dynamic lighting and gorgeous native environments; greater ease-of-use via neat gadgets like item-lock, duping and magnets; and local effects called player-trait zones which give designers all sorts of freedom to play around with their invented worlds.

Hoberman says, “Forge is interesting, any map editor is interesting, because so many people benefit from it whether they actually use it or not. Everyone benefits from the creations that come out of it. The accessibility improvements that we made and some of the feature additions are ultimately just going to mean that new users will find it easier, but because Forge is inherently a pretty sophisticated tool, the creations are going to be that much more inventive and novel.

He adds, “You always do something and you think maybe you’ll see a dozen interesting ways people use it. In reality, over time, you end up seeing hundreds of greats ideas. I'm dying to see what crazy things people come up with.”

Don't forget to make use of IGN's massive Halo 4 wiki.

For daily opinions, debates and interviews on games you can follow Colin Campbell on Twitter or at IGN. 

Source : ign[dot]com

How Halo 4 is Seeking to Win Multiplayer Wars

Multiplayer combat gaming is dominated by titles that enfold players in quasi-realistic modern war-zones. The action and the perks and the zombies-on-the-moon modes may be pure fantasy, but the settings are rooted in the real world of multi-terrain combat boots and SA-58 clips.

“

The first time you play it, it has to be fair, but also it has to be fair on the hundredth time and the thousandth time.

By contrast, Halo 4 is pure fantasy, a sci-fi dreamscape of weird colors, strange weapons, variable gravity as well as Ghosts, crazed AIs and abandoned deep-space mining vessels. Publisher Microsoft wants its key multi-billion-dollar franchise to sit at the heart of inter-human gaming.

Developer 343 has delivered what is arguably the best Halo ever made, and one key component to this is multiplayer, described by IGN reviewer Ryan McCaffrey as “golden” with “immaculate weapon balancing” and containing “an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds.”

343 hired Austin, Texas-based development house Certain Affinity to help out with modes, maps and map-creation tool Forge. Why? The company was founded by Max Hoberman, who spent a decade at Bungie, crafting the Halo series’ multiplayer experience.

“

I'm dying to see what crazy things people come up with.

Certain Affinity is also responsible for working on MP sections of recent Call of Duty games and on Left 4 Dead. In short, these guys really get multiplayer, and they have a long and intimate relationship with the Halo universe. 85 team-members spent 18 months working on Halo 4’s multiplayer, in close association with 343.

Hoberman says the starting point for refining and evolving Halo 4’s multiplayer modes has been making it available to as many people as possible.

He explains, “That was 343's approach across the board. How do we make this better by letting more people enjoy it? We started by smoothing off some of the rough edges on areas that could be great, but just weren't quite there for accessibility reasons. That can be really difficult, really challenging, especially when you're trying to develop something that has some inherent depth. How you balance depth and accessibility is always a challenge. But that has absolutely permeated all of our decision-making.”

Certain Affinity worked on some of the War Games modes, many based on old favorites that have now been tweaked. For example, Dominion is a team-based mode in which each side attempts to capture and defend a series of bases which, over time, sprout defensive upgrades, culminating in a ‘last stand’ slaughter of the team that’s failed to secure defensive positions.

Oddball is the classic game mode that wins players points for holding onto a ball, with an added twist of being able to throw the ball. When this one feature was first shown, at PAX, it drew enthusiastic whoops from the crowd.

“

When you're designing for multiplayer, you have to be selfless.

Part of the responsibility facing Certain Affinity, and all developers that specialize in multiplayer, is the intense relationship players have with the modes and maps they play. Unlike single-player games, which are experienced once or perhaps a few times, multiplayer games are experienced again and again. They are lived. They are also very public testing grounds for people who take their skills very, very seriously.

Not only, but also, through map-editors like Forge, players understand the fundamentals of multiplayer level design. Ten years ago, players might have enjoyed a multiplayer map, without stopping to think about the subtleties of sight blocks and cover positions. These days, they intuite sloppy design.

Hoberman says, “We’re very aware of the gravity of our responsibility. We're creating this content that people are going to play time and time again, sometimes thousands of times, for one map or one game mode. It feels like a massive responsibility. We mandate internally that we play this stuff over and over. We have to be fans of our own work and we have to put it to the test day in and day out.

“

We're creating this content that people are going to play time and time again, sometimes thousands of times.

“We insist that our developers participate in daily playtests. It can be tough. Our artists, for instance, they have a big to-do list, but we make them take an hour out of their day to playtest. We think that's invaluable. Fans are going to pick these things apart. They're passionate about every detail. It's critical that everyone working on these things is also passionate about every detail and understands how these things are going to be experienced by the players.”

He points out that in single-player modes, the story embraces the player as well as the characters in the game, but only the actual player is having a real emotional experience. But in multiplayer, it’s about everyone who is on screen.

“When you're designing campaign levels, you're inherently designing something asymmetrical. You're designing for the player. You don't need to care about how the enemies feel. You don't need to care about how the Covenant feel about their experience. When you're designing multiplayer, you have to care about everybody.

“What you're designing is inherently balanced and symmetric, even if it's physically asymmetric. It has to be balanced. It has to be a fair experience for everyone. The first time you play it, it has to be fair, but also it has to be fair on the hundredth time and the thousandth time. It takes a different mindset to design for multiplayer. I'd say it also takes a different personality sometimes. When you're designing for multiplayer, you have to be selfless. You have to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you're just concerned about designing a good experience for yourself, then you'll never be a great multiplayer designer.”

One of the massive projects undertaken by Certain Affinity was Forge, which allows players to make their own multiplayer maps. This tool has been around for some years but in Halo 4 has been drastically overhauled.

New features include better looks through dynamic lighting and gorgeous native environments; greater ease-of-use via neat gadgets like item-lock, duping and magnets; and local effects called player-trait zones which give designers all sorts of freedom to play around with their invented worlds.

Hoberman says, “Forge is interesting, any map editor is interesting, because so many people benefit from it whether they actually use it or not. Everyone benefits from the creations that come out of it. The accessibility improvements that we made and some of the feature additions are ultimately just going to mean that new users will find it easier, but because Forge is inherently a pretty sophisticated tool, the creations are going to be that much more inventive and novel.

He adds, “You always do something and you think maybe you’ll see a dozen interesting ways people use it. In reality, over time, you end up seeing hundreds of greats ideas. I'm dying to see what crazy things people come up with.”

Don't forget to make use of IGN's massive Halo 4 wiki.

For daily opinions, debates and interviews on games you can follow Colin Campbell on Twitter or at IGN. 

Source : ign[dot]com

Defiance: Sticky Grenades and Alien Aides

Trion has shown off how you can quest and kill in the open world and take part in Defiance. For this particular round of previews, arena PvP combat was on display. Using your regular PvE character, you’ll be able to queue up for matches while running around in the overworld and then magically transport yourself into maps that can range from fights between small teams to bigger 32 player contests that allow for vehicle use.

Defiance’s weaponry includes the conventional and the strange. You can run around with shotguns and assault rifles, or switch to a grenade launcher that lobs up to five sticky explosives that can be detonated by reloading the gun. While this is great for setting traps around stages, the bombs also stick to players, which means it could be wise to time the detonation so it coincides with the moment the affected player runs into a group of his friends. Alternatively, if a player sees there’s a bomb stuck to his clothing, he could run at you, making it impossible to detonate the bomb without dealing damage to yourself as well.

By equipping a beam weapon you become a significant threat, as its damaging energy discharge rapidly drains the health of any enemy it touches. By using its alternate fire, you turn into a healer, and can serve your team most effectively by pairing up with others and scouring the map for enemies as part of a pack. The strangest weapon on display fired blobs of organic goo at enemies. The blobs stuck and grew on targets, and eventually burst, spilling Half-Life-like headcrab monsters onto the ground. These creatures then scurried around the map for a limited time and attacked any hostiles in range.

In addition to weapons, you’ll have special abilities like cloaking fields and speed bursts and decoys to help escape from and distract opponents. The map included in the demo had plenty of hiding spots and few wide open spaces, making it easy to escape around a corner and throw off a pursuing enemy by tossing out a decoy in the opposite direction. Near the map’s center was a raised platform that gave a view of most of the map; an excellent place for snipers to sit and pick off any down below. Getting up to the platform was risky, though, as it required you climb up an exposed ladder at a slow pace, making you an easy target for any in the area.

If you’d rather play on larger maps with vehicles, you’ll find many machines can accommodate multiple players at once. One could drive while another could operate a rocket turret, so it seems the flow of combat on each map could differ quite significantly. While on foot, the game played just like you’d expect a third-person shooter to, which perhaps didn’t really highlight what are Defiance’s most interesting aspects – the fact that it’s not only a third-person shooter, but also an MMO. Still, it’s yet another way to play, in case you’re looking for combat that’s a bit more structured than the chaos of the open world.

Source : ign[dot]com