Halo 4 Castle Map Pack Preview & Walkthrough

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Thanks to 343 Industries and @HaloWaypoint I won early access to the Castle Map Pack for Halo 4! So I decided to make a walkthrough giving you all a preview of all three maps: Daybreak, Perdition, and Outcast.

Hopefully you enjoy and find this video helpful in making your decision to purchase the map  pack.

Castle Map Pack costs 800 Microsoft points or is free to War Games Map Pass owners

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

Halo 4 Castle Map Pack Strategy: Outcast

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Welcome to Outcast!

Outcast is a fortified network of rebel facilities that features a winding network of vehicle pathways. Built for vehicular combat such as Mantis vs. Wraith battles, this map offers a wide open outer ring with a central tunnel system that demands close quarters combat at times. Suggested game modes on this map include King of the Hill, Team Slayer and Capture the Flag, but the map will support a variety of game modes within Halo 4.

Set in a desert cliff environment, Outcast is a fortified network of rebel facilities hidden in one of Talitsa’s remote and harsh territories. This is why you can expect the medium-sized labrynthine map to be a treasure-chest of explosive, four wheel (and flying)-fueled battle. Controlling vehicle paths is critical in the circular map. As Outcast features frequent Mantis vs. Wraith battles, teams must keep their drivers informed with constant communication to get the drop on enemy movement. While driving the Mantis, target fusion coils in tunnels to flush out camping opponents, or cover your flag runner’s dash to a friendly Warthog.

To read more of Bravo’s tips click here

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

Halo 4 Castle Map Pack Strategy: Perdition

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Welcome to Perdition!

Perdition is an industrial, asymmetrical map that features a mixture of both open and tight spaces. This map offers many different vehicle routes, with a variety of ramps, bridges and corridors. Suggested game modes on this map include King of the Hill, Team Slayer and Capture the Flag, but Perdition will support a wide variety of Halo 4’s game modes.

When playing, you’ll likely notice that the Warthogs and Ghosts are deadly on this map due to its track-like outer roadway – be sure to control these vehicles along with the power weapons in order to establish map control.

New Carthage has always been a shining example of a healthy, growing colony –but hidden below the sky-high city of Pilvrosis this dangerous secret: one of the reactors is failing, and the entire city is now under evacuation. This large urban and industrial environment offers an up-close-and-personal view of the stunning yet unstable reactor and provides multiple vehicles, long sightlines, and close quarters combat, catering to nearly any gameplay style. Wheelmen and gunners will be right at home as a well-placed Warthog can lock down a quarter of the asymmetrical map, securing valuable ordnance for the team. Learning the interior routes is essential to both escaping danger and staging ranged kills. Be sure to look for the Gravity Hammer in Power Station 3, our team’s favorite revenge weapon against a pesky sniper or a big surprise for an enemy Warthog.

To read more of Bravo’s tips click here

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

Halo 4 Castle Map Pack Strategy: Daybreak

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Welcome to Daybreak!

Daybreak is an asymmetrical cluster of research facilities residing in the scenic highlands of the planet Oban. Built with Capture the Flag in mind, this map features a central top middle control area as well as outer roadways that circle the bases that lie within. Suggested game modes on this map include Capture the Flag, King of the Hill and Team Slayer, but the map will support many more Halo 4 game modes.

When playing, you’ll notice that it is a challenge to navigate the map with the Banshee, and that only skilled pilots will be able to eliminate the infantry fighting within Daybreak’s winding channels. If you know the enemy is in the Banshee, be ready for the opportunity to get a Skyjack medal or two – pilots are often forced low to the ground.

Operation: DAYBREAK is a cluster of research facilities residing in the scenic highlands on the planet Oban. The map itself is comprised of two such UNSC facilities opposing each other in this large asymmetrical map. Strategy here is key; teams must split focus between attacking the enemy base while playing close defense to their own. Claim your team’s sniper rifle to cover the central Man Cannon, or grab a Warthog to push through the side channels and flank the other team’s base. The Rocket Launcher and Banshee both spawn in strategic positions as well. On Daybreak, claiming early power is essential to landing the first flag or taking an early lead.

To read more of Bravo’s tips click here

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

Rumble Pit, CSR, Castle DLC, & Multi-Team! The Halo Bulletin 4.3.13

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Hi everyone, Chief here, I took a hiatus last week as the bulletin didn’t have any new information. It was just a Q&A from PAX East and all of the questions were answered by my PAX East video anyways. So here we have a doozie of a bulletin fill to brim with Castle Map Pack and CSR details so lets dig in! Click here for the full bulletin.

Thursday April 4th

  • Welcome to Daybreak: Map walkthrough and strategies by 343 Industries on Daybreak

Friday April 5th

  • Welcome to Perdition: Map walkthrough and strategies by 343 Industries on Perdition

Saturday April 6th

  • Welcome to Outcast: Map walkthrough and strategies by 343 Industries on Outcast

Sunday April 7th

  • Castle Map Pack Livestream: A livestream hosted by 343 Industries (most likely on their twitch.tv livestream channel http://www.twitch.tv/343industries) showcasing all three maps for the Castle map pack.

Monday April 8th

  • Castle Map Pack Release:
    • 800 MS Points or Free to owners of the War Games Map Pass
    • 3 medium to large sized maps: Daybreak, Perdition, and Outcast
  • CSR (Competitive Skill Rank) Release
  • Multiplayer Update
    • Multi Team – 6 teams of 2 players
    • Castle Team DLC – 6v6
    • Rumble Pit (FFA) will replace Community Forge FFA Playlist
      • Infinity Rumble and Rumble Pro
    • Team Objective will transition to a 6v6 playlist
      • on-disc maps, Crimson DLC, and Castle DLC
    • Extraction Playlist will transition into Team Objective Playlist
  • Encore Episode 1 of Spartan Ops

csr

CSR (Competitive Skill Rank)

“There are two different ways we calculate your CSR. CSR is closely based on your TrueSkill rank, which ensures that you’ll be ranked – and matched – against opponents of comparable skill. Your CSR is dependent upon your personal performance as well as the rank of those you play with. While several playlists will use a win/loss system to determine whether or not you rank up, others will use individual scoring, which will rank you based on your performance against everyone in the match, teammates included. In some playlists, you’ll rank up faster than others – these vary in order to create the most optimal experience for each playlist.”

There will be two different scoring systems: Individual Scoring (compares you against everyone in the game) and Team Scoring (based off wins and losses and objective play). Playlists will only feature one system:

Playlists that use individual scoring:

  • Infinity Slayer
  • Big Team Infinity Slayer
  • Rumble Pit
  • Multi-Team
  • Team Action Sack
  • Flood
  • Team Snipers
  • Regicide
  • SWAT

Playlists that will use team scoring:

  • Castle Team DLC
  • Team Objective
  • Capture the Flag
  • Dominion
  • Team Throwdown
  • Team Doubles
  • Grifball

“CSR challenge where playing the Castle DLC playlist and reaching level 35 or higher between April 8 and April 22 will award you with an exclusive Avatar t-shirt, so stay tuned to Halo Waypoint and our Twitter account for more giveaways and surprises.”

In mainstream playlists it will be very difficult to carry your teammates CSR if they continually end up on the bottom of the scoreboard, it will be easy however for the weakest link in your party of friends to bring down their CSR and risk losing lots of matches.

If you leave early once a match has started, it treats it as if you were the lowest rank in the match for the individual-scored playlists and as a loss on the team-scored playlists. Players that join in progress are currently treated as if they had played the entire match. That said, in our selected, more competitive playlists, there will be rules in place to mitigate the effect. Namely:

  1. You can only join in progress during a small window of time in the beginning of the match, so those players will still have time to contribute meaningfully to the match.
  2. Friends are not allowed to join a game in progress. Only random players searching through Matchmaking can join during that 60-second window.

The rules for these playlists restrict the amount of noise from Join-in-Progress since that feature is only possible during the first few moments of the match. They also help improve the purity of CSR in these playlists. We plan on putting in these Join-in-Progress parameters as close to CSR launch as possible.

We are actively investigating occasional CSR resets, both globally and for certain playlists. Reasons for resetting ranks include overhauls to CSR calculation, Halo 4 game updates, and events and promotions centered on CSR. Resetting CSR is not something we’re taking lightly so when we do reset it, we’ll be sure to provide ample messaging describing the reasons for doing so.

Castle Team DLC – 6v6

  Map   Game Type
  Daybreak
  Infinity Slayer
  Capture the Flag
  King of the Hill
  Extraction – 1 Plot
  SWAT
  Snipers
  Outcast
  Infinity Slayer
  Capture the Flag
  King of the Hill
  Oddball
  SWAT
  Team Regicide
  Perdition
  Infinity Slayer
  Capture the Flag
  King of the Hill
  Extraction – 1 Plot
  SWAT
  Snipers

Also, these maps will be integrated into many of our existing playlists. DLC maps will appear in a playlist if all players in the match have downloaded the content.

  Playlist   Map
  Capture the Flag
  Daybreak
  Outcast
  Perdition
  Infinity Slayer
  Daybreak
  Multi-Team
  Daybreak
  Outcast
  Perdition
  Action Sack
  Daybreak
  Outcast
  Perdition
  Dominion
  Outcast
  Flood
  Daybreak
  Perdition
  SWAT
  Daybreak

Rumble Pit

Replacing Community Forge FFA, Rumble Pit will feature both Infinity Rumble and Rumble Pro in the voting options. Here are the maps that the playlist will launch with:

  • Skyline
  • Landfall
  • Monolith
  • Haven
  • Solace
  • Adrift
  • Abandon
  • Shutout
  • Simplex
  • Dispatch

Phewf! That was a big one.

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

Halo 4 Castle Map Pack Achievements Info

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The Castle Map Pack DLC achievement list was posted today over at Halo Waypoint. There are a total of ten brand new achievements, totaling 250 gamerscore. The Castle Map Pack will released April 8th, 2013.

Halo 4 Majestic Map Pack Achievement

What is Yours is Also Mine – 40G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, disabled a vehicle and hijack it.

 

 

 

Dodge This! – 20G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, get two direct Spartan Laser kills in one match.

 

 

 

Hello Nurse! – 30G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, heal a near-death teammates with the Regen Field 5 times.

 

 

 

That Won’t Save You – 30G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, assassinate an enemy who is using a Hardlight Shield.

 

 

 

Ashes to Ashes – 10G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, disintegrate 6 enemies using Forerunner weapons.

 

 

 

Beating up the Beat – 30G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, perform 5 melee kills in a single match.

 

 

 

Sight Seeing – 20G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, completely a match in any mode for each Castle map.

 

 

 

Scrapyard – 30G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, destroy 2 vehicles during a single game.

 

 

 

Outta My Way! – 40G
In Castle DLC Matchmaking, kill 5 enemies during a match by running them over.

 

 

 

The Castle Map Pack is planned to release on April 8th, 2013 for 800 Microsoft Points, or free to Map Pass holders.

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

CSR Launch Date Announced!

bsangel confirmed via twitter and gave us a cut and dry list of dates for items to come after the Halo 4 panel at PAX East.

April 8th, 2013

  • Castle Map Pack
  • CSR (Competitive Skill Rank)
  • Multi-Team Playlist

Within 1-2 Weeks

  • Title Update 1.04

April 11th, 2013

  • Forge Island for FREE

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

PAX East 2013 Halo 4 Panel Video & Recap

Thanks to PodtacTV for providing us the entire panel video before Halo Waypoint has even uploaded theirs.

The panel discussed many specific multiplayer news in regards to Halo 4. Here’s the breakdown if you can’t watch the entire 1 hour panel video:

Competitive Skill Ranking

  • You will have a 1-50 ranking in every single playlist, including Grifball!
  • CSR is still exclusive to Halo Waypoint – shows up on the Xbox & Website!
  • CSR rank will show up along side your matchmaking history on Halo Waypoint
  • If you haven’t played a playlist, you will won’t have a rank compared to previous Halo’s where you were automatically a rank 1
  • CSR may be reset after a long period of time to prevent account selling and ‘rank locking’, similar to Arena from Halo: Reach
  • UPDATE: CSR will launch April 8th, 2013 (Source bsangel twitter)

Forge & Forge Island

  • Forge Island is a brand new Forge environment releasing on April 11th for FREE
  • Forge Island is a HUGE flat land map, there are three areas, one large flat area, one medium flat area and a small flat area, the whole map has a ton of space in the sky
  • The maps aesthetics is extremely similar to Ravine, an on-disc Forge environment
  • The largest island on Forge Island is big enough to have a Hang ‘Em High remake and a Blood Gulch remake (multiple times over!)
  • No planned improvements for Forge such as Precision Editing, focus going into future titles for Forge

Title Update

  • The Title Update is expected to be released within the next two weeks
  • The panel had a video displaying what the Title Update can do, for example, an Incineration cannon that does no damage while the
    rest of the weapon sandbox goes untouched – these changes can be applied universally or singularly
  • Other changes that the new TU will allow is damage changes, rate of fire changes. Which can also be directed towards vehicles and adjusting their weapons.
  • Weapon descoping will not be happening
  • Hold X to pick up the Flag isn’t being discussed, but it possible
  • A DMR rebalance is being looked at

Matchmaking Updates & Changes

  • Multi-Team will be returning on April 8th with the Castle Map Pack. SIX teams of TWO setup
  • Fiesta in Team Action Sack will be getting tweaked in the future
  • Legendary Slayer is a Throwdown & Infinity mix with competitive in mind, it’ll feature tweaked weapons and is launching in late Spring/early Summer

Images of Forge World and CSR

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

PAX East, Community Forge FFA Playlist, Title Update 1.04! The Halo Bulletin 3.20.13

HELP ME

Hi there, Chief Landless here, back once again breaking down and highlighting this weeks Halo Bulletin. As always you can read it here, but lets get onto the highlights!

PAX East Attendees:

  • Thursday, 6pm-12am – Mad Catz Unveiled
    • Exclusive private party with hands on preview of upcoming Halo 4 multiplayer content (winners invited to this pre-PAX event were announced in the bulletin… wish I had known about this sooner, lucky them)
  • Friday 5-6pm – Halo 4 Multiplayer: Past, Present, & Future Panel
    • Play Castle Map pack on the convention floor
    • Hear from Kevin Franklin, Andy “Bravo” Dudynsky, Jessica Shea (bsangel), and Burnie Burns from Rooster Teeth
  • Friday – Sunday 10am-6pm – PAX East Floor Experience
    • Play the Castle Map Pack early!
    • Daily Majestic Themed FFA competition. Last person standing wins a GAEMS Halo UNSC Vanguard Personal Gaming Environment. (One competition per day!)
    • Also giving away a GAEMS via twitter during their usual Friday HaloWaypoint Twitter giveaways

Matchmaking Update – March 25th

  • Spartan Ops Encore Episode 9
  • Majestic FFA Playlist replaced by Community Forge FFA Playlist
    • Maps (download them via the links & check them out early):
    • This playlist will last for a little while before changing into the finalized FFA playlist with on-disc maps, Majestic DLC, and some of the above forge maps.
  • Team Throwdown Playlist will be updating from v2 settings to v3 settings
    • Team Slayer on Haven, Monolith, Skyline, Abandon, Shutout, Simplex
    • CTF on Simplex, Adrift, Skyline, Monolith
    • King of the Hill on Monolith and Haven
    • Extraction on Dispatch and Adrift
    • Oddball on Skyline
  • Doubles Pro settings will replace “Deluxe” Settings and converted to 4v4 in Team Throwdown.
  • Lightning CTF will be added to Action Sack Playlist
    • Lightning CTF is a fast-paced game mode in which players start with LightRifles, the Flag is transported on the Flag carrier’s back, and one shot anywhere on the body will kill. I suggest you start training with a ridiculously high sensitivity and LightRifle loadout immediately. 

That is it for this weeks bulletin, the sneak peak information in regards to the next title update (1.04) is located here in another post.

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!

Halo 4 Castle Map Pack – Daybreak Walkthrough by IGN

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IGN is back here once again with their third and final installment of their 3 walkthroughs for the upcoming Halo 4 Castle Map Pack. Here we have a look at the map Daybreak. Links to the other two map walkthroughs, Perdition and Outcast will be linked below the video

Watch their previous Halo 4 Castle Map Pack walkthrough video on the map Outcast.

Watch their previous Halo 4 Castle Map Pack walkthrough video on the map Perdition.

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!