The next Halo game will feature both "dramatic innovations" and "slight tweaks" to the traditional Halo format - but new studio 343 Industries doesn't think the core game mechanic needs to be changed.
Speaking to CVG, creative director of MS's 343 Industries - and former CVG employee - Frank O'Connor said he doesn't think the Halo series needs to be taken in a radical new direction... it just needs to go "deeper".
"With Halo 2 we recreated the System Link, LAN party experience on Xbox Live and that wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been on Xbox... So there are a lot of things that comes from partnership with the hardware and platform guys, and a lot of innovations come through necessity, which is going to continue to happen with us.
"Ultimately the core game mechanic and strength of the universe doesn't need to be changed, it just needs to be taken deeper. We want to make Halo games - we don't want to make Call of Duty or Ridge Racer. We want to make Halo games because we understand what's special about Halo."
Despite the fact that the next Halo will be the fourth on the current Xbox hardware, O'Conner said he doesn't think it'll be a problem producing another innovative instalment.
"I would say that one thing that has happened with previous Halo games regardless of hardware or platform shift is that there were always ideas left on the table due to time constraints, there were also ideas that didn't quite work because people didn't take to them or audience player patterns weren't exactly what we expected," he said.
"So no matter when it comes out, the next Halo is going to contain improvements. Some of them are going to be dramatic innovations while others will be slight tweaks.
"You've got to say 'what can we do to make this better?' It doesn't matter if that is a giant innovation or a small tweak, you've got to do it all over the board. That's how Bungie approaches it."
In the same interview O'Conner told CVG he thinks the next Halo will be "scrutinised differently" without Bungie at the helm.
Comments
32 comments so far...
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
Two news articles based on comments from Frank O'Connor in 2 days. I assume we can expect an interview at some point...
MrPirtniw on 23 Mar '11 said:
If they totally overhauled everything it would be Halo only in name so it makes sense to keep the basics intact. Can't wait to see what direction the games go next- But I must know what happens to the Chief!!
Black Mantis on 23 Mar '11 said:
Glad someone else has noticed this bizarre practice!
I'm liking what Frankie's saying in regards to the direction of Halo, especially the "going deeper" part.
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
He feeds a mysterious extragalactic powder to his pet poodle, and it all goes south from there....again.
big chief on 23 Mar '11 said:
"Bungie tried to reinvent every time," he told CVG. "If you think about it, with Halo it was about putting the controls on the sticks, which hadn't been solved properly.
Timesplitters had solved that way before halo was thought of.
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
Timesplitters was released just one year before Halo. To assume Halo hadn't been "thought of" by that point is very odd, but I imagine that the stick controls were being developed before Timesplitters was released. So for Bungie, they had no basis of comparison.
MrPirtniw on 23 Mar '11 said:
Ah! So the Flood/Gravemind- they all stem from somekind of Forerunner equivilant of a Pot Noodle? It. All. Makes. Sense.
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
Have you read Cryptum? You're so close to the mark, it's not even funny.
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Flood#Background
MrPirtniw on 23 Mar '11 said:
Bet they taste better than a pot noodle though... now for some read-age.
Welsh Jester on 23 Mar '11 said:
People still play Halo?
is there anyone else out there who prefer real quality games like half life 2/ left 4 dead 2 etc?
that said, i'm not surprised the vast majority of gamers here probably use consoles
evileyecheese on 23 Mar '11 said:
i hope slight tweaks mean a brand new name and a brand new concept
like halo allstars racing
MrPirtniw on 23 Mar '11 said:
Yeah, I have both the Orange Box and Left 4 Dead. Great games. Now shut up.
StonecoldMC on 23 Mar '11 said:
'Speaking to CVG, creative director of MS's 343 Industries - and former CVG employee - Frank O'Connor'
You mean there is hope for you guys yet
?
OT, looking forward to seeing what 343 can come up with, like really looking forward to it!
originalbadboy on 23 Mar '11 said:
Thats handy then ... cos i dont want to play it!
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
I was going to reprimand you for feeding the trolls, but that was actually quite good!
And I agree, L4D is ace....HL2 is better, though. In fact, HL2 is my favourite game ever - something I decided when I used to game primarily on the PC. I love Halo too, though - I'm not blinkered or elitist
JD_Method on 23 Mar '11 said:
I dunno. I got tired of Halo's gameplay a long time ago. The gunplay just feels dated and not very satisfying. They would be insane to change it though since these games sell millions. I guess it's just not for me.
MrPirtniw on 23 Mar '11 said:
Each to their own JD. I've played tons of shooters (the reason why I'm so bored of them now), but Halo always feels fresh to me. Saying that, if the next game was Halo Wars 2, I'd be well up for that!
raredevice on 23 Mar '11 said:
With claims Activision are set to oversaturate the COD franchise I think people are missing something. Each FPS that's released goes some way towards saturating the genre. Bottom line is, there's just too much competition out there in the FPS market. A new shooter is released each month and each one chips away at the ever thinning veneer. The next Halo will be top of the heap for a month, then something new will come along. All the while the genre staggers towards collapse. It happens in the movie industry and it's likely to happen here too. Vampires are dead. Long live zombies etc. It's so hard to innovate these days.
Ror1984 on 23 Mar '11 said:
I've just started reading Cryptum (had to finish off The Dark Tower first, y'see), so anyone that hasn't read any of it, consider this next part SPOILERS!!!
Ok...
I'd actually really like to see a game based around the Human-Forerunner war, and see what human technology was like 100,00-odd years ago. Man, what a Universe they've created with Halo. There's so much scope for so many stories to be told. I really look forward to seeing what 343 do, and with Frankie at the helm, I think we can afford to be optimistic
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
This is what me and BM want (at least I think he does). I want to control a War Sphinx!
Ror1984 on 23 Mar '11 said:
I'd really love to see that! I don't know how likely it would be for them to delve over a hundred-thousand years deeper into Halo lore... I don't know what percentage of Halo purchasers know the expanded Universe, but I'm sure there's a large chunk out there whose only experience of Halo is through the games. I'm not sure 343 would want to risk potentially alienating them, though it would be a huge shame, from our point of view, considering the strength of material they have to draw from.
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
I'm hoping for a bit of both. You are right, in that to completely remove those players from the game into that environment would be too jarring. Maybe a Halo game set in the present (the 26th century-present, if you get me) with some kind of crossover with Forerunner lore, where you go back via flashbacks and see the war first hand, perhaps?
I don't know how far you are through the book (not a massive spoiler), but the Librarian does imprint the humans with memories from those humans who fought in the Human-Forerunner war - something that Chakas and Riser are tormented with later on in the story. Black Mantis and I thought that the Librarian may still be around, and probably imprinted the Chief's geas, his destiny to save mankind. That would explain his luck. If that's the case, then she may also have imprinted dormant memories onto him too - ones that get awoken by contact with some Forerunner artifact like the humans and the Cryptum. You could play those bits.
Just a theory...
Ror1984 on 23 Mar '11 said:
I'm only about 50-60 pages in as I just started it yesterday, so I knew the Librarian did something to the humans, considering what Chakas and Riser have said so far. So yeah, not a massive spoiler at all.
That's a good theory, and it could work if they handled it well. They handled multiple perspectives well in ODST as well, though many were up in arms about that in Halo 2.
I do hope they go deeper into the lore with the new game. I always find there's enough in the games to tempt you to look deeper into the expanded universe stuff, but I'd really love to see some of that stuff on my screen too!
TOKEN on 23 Mar '11 said:
I would like real inovation on ms's next console like physics animation for example elites or who ever interact with their weapons or tapping away on a piece of tech on their rists or connect soming to their weapons for a better techical edge.
Some proper animals or beast that attack you or you could lure to a grunt camping party toasting marshmallows and a beast just ruins their perect moment,or even attaching to sub machine guns to your jetpact with auto lock on?
altitude2k on 23 Mar '11 said:
Yeah, let's not mention the Arbiter bits! I think it'll probably be OK in this case, because if you go back into the memory of a human in the war, the likelihood is that they'll be augmented and wearing battle armour - just like the Chief.
chamony on 23 Mar '11 said:
Next Halo will feature 'dramatic innovations' and 'slight tweaks'
whenever a game is remade/updated/ported or whatever by a different development team to that who originally made it, its always different in some ways or another, maybe they are just referring to that 'transition' differences
like when orange box came to ps3, or Final Fantasy XI to 360
MrPirtniw on 23 Mar '11 said:
Shame on me- haven't bought Cryptum yet! I'll get on that like chocolate cake on a fat kid. Or something.
Ror1984 on 23 Mar '11 said:
I appreciate what they tried to do with the Arbiter missions in Halo 2... I just think it didn't pan out as well in-game as it might have on paper. Let's face it, the trilogy is about The Chief and Cortana!
That's very true, so in a sense it'd probably be closer to ODST in that regard. That's why I want to see something from that period in a game though - when I found out about the Human-Forerunner War, it made me think "Man, I wonder what the equivalent of a Spartan was like then!"
Must read more Cryptum!
Black Mantis on 23 Mar '11 said:
I agree, the best way to introduce a Forerunner game based in Human-Forerunner war, is to introduce them physically in MC's next outing. The planet he's drifting towards could be the last Forerunner collective, hopefully the Librarian (or her Ancilla) is present. Cryptum opened up so much of what's possible in the universe, I'd be amazed if the Forerunner don't feature at all. I'd also like to see the San'Shyum before they turned into ugly religous nut-jobs!
solamon77 on 24 Mar '11 said:
I'm torn between my "If it's not broke, don't fix it" mentality, and my desire to see some more dramatic moments in Halo. Let's face it, there's as many people who think Halo is one of the most boring games out there as there are people who love it.
shogunreaper on 24 Mar '11 said:
Keeping the same core mechanics and doing a few tweaks is EXACTLY what call of duty is about.
MrPirtniw on 25 Mar '11 said:
...you missed the part where he also mentions "Dramatic innovations".