Halo 4 Title Update Tackles Gameplay and Stability Issues

[Ellie]

Yesterday, 343 Industries rolled out a fairly hefty title update for Halo 4 on the Xbox 360.

Independent of the playlist updates that usually deploy each Monday, this patch was primarily focussed on bug fixing and smoothing out other issues and glitches.

343 Industries community manager Jessica Shea has provided the official patch notes via the Halo Waypoint:

-Implemented general stability improvements

-Fixed glitch where quickly reloading after firing the Boltshot resulted in an instant reload

-Fixed glitch where sprinting prior to activating the Hardlight Shield allowed players to move faster

-Fixed glitch were players could throw a grenade and then immediately sprint afterwards to perform a high velocity grenade

-Fixed glitch where Mantis could fire more rockets without reloading if the machine gun was fired partway through unleashing the charged missile barrage

-Fixed issue where DLC was unavailable for other profiles on the same console

-Fixed issue where DLC disappeared after console reboot

-Fixed issue where players could not unlock Campaign completion achievements when using a rally point other than Alpha for any mission to finish the Campaign

-Fixed issue where players were not given credit for completion of a Spartan Ops Episode Difficulty Challenge when completing it through Matchmaking

-Fixed issue where players with 99 or more Xbox LIVE friends could not get File recommendations

-Fixed issue where loadout configurations were lost if the game was booted and then powered off before passing the “Press START” screen
Fixed issue where attempting to upload large films to the File Share under poor network conditions caused the upload to fail

-Improved time to load variants with separate profiles

-Fixed issue where moving a profile from one controller port to another after relaunching the game reset loadout settings


-Improved consistency of random ordnance navigation marker display

-Fixed performance issues when launching Halo Waypoint from Halo 4

Shea also writes, “we have another TU in the works and will continue working on the timing and content of the next one.”​

 

[Violence]

Although 343 did smooth out the game in some aspects, I feel as though the game was released in a BETA form, and up until now, still met the standards of a game in its BETA form rather than a polished game in its entirety.

That being said, this is just a crumb compared to what needs to be done to this game to make it successful. Speaking from a primarily competitive perspective, but also a casual one.

The three big things I feel need to be not fixed, but implemented into the game are:

1. A consistent, true skill ranking system similar to that of Halo 2 or 3.
2. Small, balanced, structurally and visually pleasing maps. Not another BTB map which now make up 9 of the games 13 current maps in the game.
3. Customizable options within game options allowing Sprint, Instant Respawn, and Auto Pickup of Objectives to be able to be toggled on/off as pleased to accustom different maps.

This is half of the battle, there are several issues that need to be fixed and much more that I hoped would have come with this game. But these are the 3 big things, and I would be content if they were addressed.