Halo 4 Promethean Enemies and Weapons Revealed

Images of eight Promethean enemies and seven of their weapons from 343 Industries' upcoming shooter Halo 4 have surfaced.

Taken from a forthcoming issue of Game Informer and hosted by All Games Beta, the images are accompanied by a little bit of information about who our victims will be come November.

Minor spoilers follow for Halo 4 in terms of enemies and weapons, but there's also minor references to the plot of Halo 4 that leaked last week.

The Promethean enemies will live on Requiem which, as we discovered last week, is where the ancient Forerunner called Didact is hidden. In terms of enemies, there seem to be three basic types, though these then further diversify through attack methods and armour designs.

First up are the Crawlers, which are apparently common, agile and hunt in packs. They come in Alpha, Snipe and normal flavours, with each one sporting different weapons that they can utilise from a distance.

Alongside the Crawlers are the Knights. These are the captains of the Promethean forces, and can appear as Lancers, Battlewagons or Commanders in addition to their normal version. The special versions can deploy turrets and fire through walls, so it sounds like we'll have to utilise all our skills to best them in combat.

And finally there are the Watchers. These will apparently fight shoulder to shoulder with Knights, but will ominously be equipped with resurrection powers and the ability to summon Crawlers. So they're the ones we'll be taking out first, then.

Alongside the already intimidating range of abilities referenced, the Prometheans will be decked out with some pretty full on weaponry, details of which you can see below.

Halo 4 is due out on Xbox 360 on November 6.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Grifball will be added to Halo 4 multiplayer

According to Joystiq who was in attendance at a 343 Industries panel, the much-beloved, fan-made Halo multiplayer variant, Grifball, will be an official game mode in Halo 4.

Grifball was introduced by the fan community in Halo 3 when the "Forge" mode allowed for the creation of new types of levels and games. It was not featured at launch, but was eventually patched into Halo: Reach, and will now be available at launch in the latest title.

Grifball is a unique type of game variant created by Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth, in which two teams attempt to carry a ball or bomb into the enemy base. All players are armed only with energy swords and hammers. So essentially it's futuristic death rugby.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

PAX: Halo 4 Updates Grifball and Oddball

If you've ever wanted to throw your skull before, you'll enjoy the changes planned for several multiplayer modes in Halo 4. 343 Industries announced today that players will be able to pass and catch the ball/skull/bomb in both Grifball and Oddball during its Halo panel at PAX.  This news comes a day after the announcement of Capture the Flag (CTF), and a new War Games map, Exile. Similar to allowing the flag carrier to carry a Magnum in CTF, you'll also be able to weild a pistol while carrying the ball in Oddball. Assassinations are also possible which apparently vaporzize your enemies.

Here's the two modes in action.

Both modes themselves are carry-overs from past Halo games, Oddball featuring classic "earn points each second you control the ball" gameplay, while Grifball arms players with Gravity Hammers and Swords in a bid to score points by carrying the ball to the other team's goal.

Including a weapon in CTF makes enough sense given how wide open t=most CTF-ready maps are, but I wonder about adding a pistol to the ball-carrier mix given the typically smaller-sized arenas best suited for Oddball. There's something about relying solely on melee attacks that's always balanced out the gameplay, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays (343 only showed the mode off via its presentation, it wasn't playable).

In case you missed it yesterday, here's what we thought of the new CTF mode.

Casey Lynch is Editor-in-Chief of IGN.com. Follow his non-sequitur ramblings about video games, '80s films and Protest the Hero on IGN and Twitter.

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Halo 4: Spartan Ops DLC is "Longer Than ODST"

343 Industries' boss Frank O'Connor has responded to fan concerns over the length of Halo 4.

After yesterday's achievement list leak pointed to the game containing just eight missions, O'Connor explained on NeoGaf that this didn't reflect how long each would be.

“

The main campaign is substantial and will compare favorably with previous entries in the series.

Posting as 'Stinkles', he wrote that the "Number of missions has no bearing on the length of the campaign. It's a Halo sized campaign. PLUS [Spartan Ops] etc."

His words were then added to by 343 Industries' designer David Ellis (as lybertyboy) who claimed that "[Spartan Ops] season alone is longer than [Halo 3: ODST].

"Spartan Ops and Campaign are completely separate teams. As Frank mentioned earlier, the main campaign is substantial and will compare favorably with previous entries in the series."

Spartan Ops is a new story-driven game mode set to feature in Halo 4 and will replace the Firefight mode that appeared in Halo 3: ODST. Gamers can play it on their own or co-operatively with up to three other players, and the first Season of Spartan Ops plans to deliver five new objective-based missions and cinematics each week over a 10-week period. It's this content taken in isolation that Ellis has claimed will consist of more content than Halo 3: ODST.

So it seems if you were concerned after yesterday's news then there's no need to panic. Halo 4 launches on Xbox 360 on November 6.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Halo 4 Achievement List Revealed

Halo 4's achievement list has been revealed by developer 343 Industries, offering some slim insight into what tasks we'll undertake in the game.

Beware of spoilers below. There's nothing too soul-shatteringly revelatory, but don't say you haven't been warned.

“

Developing and designing these game-specific challenges might seem simple but is quite a bit more complex once you begin digging into the psychology of a gamer.

The achievements on offer were revealed in an update on Halo Waypoint by community manager Jessica Shea, who also explained some of the reasoning that went into the achievements' design.

"Developing and designing these game-specific challenges might seem simple but is quite a bit more complex once you begin digging into the psychology of a gamer," she shared.

"Our primary goal when creating Halo 4’s achievements was to reward milestones and increase replay value while balancing both difficulty and the breadth of game modes.

"Our secondary goal was to live up to Halo tradition with weird ass names for some of them (hello, The Dongblainer!). While you will only be able to speculate on the exact nature of some of these achievements, here’s a peek at their very basic in-game descriptions."

So, without further ado, the achievements you'll be testing your Spartan training to breaking point to achieve are:

• Dawn - Complete Mission 1 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Requiem - Complete Mission 2 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Forerunner - Complete Mission 3 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Infinity - Complete Mission 4 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Reclaimer - Complete Mission 5 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Shutdown - Complete Mission 6 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Composer - Complete Mission 7 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Midnight - Complete Mission 8 on any difficulty - (10 Points)
• Wake up John - Complete the Campaign on Normal or harder - (20 Points)
• I Need a Hero - Complete the Campaign on Heroic or harder - (40 Points)
• The Legend of 117 - Complete the Campaign on Legendary difficulty - (70 Points)
• Lone Wolf Legend - Complete the Campaign solo on Legendary difficulty - (90 Points)
• Skullduggery - Complete any Campaign mission with 3 or more Skulls on Heroic or harder - (15 Points)
• Bropocalypse - Complete any Campaign mission co-operatively on Heroic or harder - (10 Points)
• Bromageddon - Complete the Campaign co-operatively on Heroic or harder - (40 Points)
• Contact the Domain - Find a Terminal in the Campaign - (10 Points)
• Terminus - Find all of the Terminals in the Campaign - (50 Points)
• Digging up the Past - In Mission 1, find and access Chief's record - (20 Points)
• Midnight Launch - In Mission 2, get significant air in the Warthog at midnight - (20 Points)
• This is my Rifle, this is my Gun - In Mission 3, carry a UNSC weapon all the way through on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Bros to the Close - Make it through Mission 4 without one preventable Marine death on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Mortardom - In Mission 5, hijack a Wraith and use it to kill at least four enemy Wraiths on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Explore the Floor - In Mission 6, trick or force a Hunter to fall to his demise - (20 Points)
• Give Him the Stick - In Mission 7 in solo Campaign, take out both Hunters using only the Sticky Detonator - (20 Points)
• Chief, Smash! - In Mission 8, kill 3 Crawlers in one hit with the Gravity Hammer - (20 Points)
• Not Some Recruit Anymore - Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-5 - (15 Points)
• Movin' on Up - Rank up your Spartan-IV to SR-20 - (30 Points)
• I ♥ Red vs Blue - Win 5 War Games matchmaking matches - (10 Points)
• The Dongblainer - Win 20 War Games matchmaking matches - (30 Points)
• Operation Completion - Complete a Spartan Ops Mission on any difficulty - (15 Points)
• A Legendary Episode - Complete all chapters in Spartan Ops Episode 1 on Legendary difficulty - (40 Points)
• Dedicated to Crimson - Complete all chapters in the first 5 episodes of Spartan Ops on any difficulty - (80 Points)
• Crimson Alone - Complete a Spartan Ops chapter solo on Legendary - (20 Points)
• Roses vs Violets - Find one of the RvB Easter Eggs in Spartan Ops - (20 Points)
• Rescue Ranger - Save at least one Marine in Chapter 3 of Episode 2 of Spartan Ops on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• Knight in White Assassination - Assassinate a Knight in any Spartan Ops mission - (20 Points)
• What Power Outage? - Complete Chapter 4, Episode 5 of Spartan Ops without losing a generator on Heroic or harder - (20 Points)
• No Easy Way Out - In Ch 1, Ep 5 of Spartan Ops survive all enemy waves during the defense on Normal or harder - (20 Points)
• The Challenged - Complete a Challenge - (10 Points)
• The Challenger - Complete 25 Challenges - (20 Points)
• Armorer - Change your Spartan's armor in the Spartan Armor card - (5 Points)
• Badge - Change your Emblem in the Spartan ID card - (5 Points)
• PWND - Change your Service Tag in the Spartan ID card - (5 Points)
• What a Poser! - Change your Spartan's pose in the Spartan ID card - (5 Points)
• The Cartographer - Create and save a Custom Map in Forge - (5 Points)
• Game Changer - Create and save a Custom Game type in War Games - (5 Points)
• Snapshot! - Save a Screenshot from the Theater - (5 Points)
• The Director - Save a Film Clip from the Theater - (5 Points)
• Sharing is Caring - Upload a File to your File Share - (5 Points)

Halo 4 will release on Xbox 360 on November 6.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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