343 Industries' Josh Holmes Talks Halo 4, Change & Some Dude Called Master Chief

99
Dan Webb

Master Chief might not be the most talkative of characters in the games sphere, but he's every bit as enigmatic and iconic as the best of them. Yes, we missed him, so did 343 Industries.

Halo 4 marks the return of the big MC himself and we recently caught up with Halo 4's Creative Director, Josh Holmes, to talk about his return, what their interpretation of "cinematic" is in terms of Halo 4, what we can expect from the multiplayer, and more.

Don't forget to check out our first impressions of Halo 4 if you haven't already, but after you've watched the interview, of course. Consider this an Easter treat.

Comments
99
  • Im abit cautious when a new developer takes over an IP. Lets not hope they take this franchise in a new "Different" direction.
  • It wont be the same bungie without you.
  • After playing Halo:CE Anniversary I have full confidence in 343 to pull of Halo 4 spectacularly.
  • I'm just mad its Master Chief again. Reach was great, but it wasn't the same. Halo 3 was supposed to be the end of him. Period. Now 343 makes a entirely new trilogy with him again. I'm going to get it regardless, but I'm not going to be happy about it. Halo 3 was supposed to be the last one. Halo 4 is...eh. That's like making a new Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings book. Just not the same.
  • I just hope that even if they do move in a new direction in terms of some abilities/features, that they still make classic playlists available for old timers like myself. I just couldn't get into reach because of the load out :/ Sorry, but cod/bf already have that... I don't play halo because of a loadout system. Just my 2 cents, agree or not, I hope halo4 delivers!
  • @4 So you'd have prefered if Chief was left out in space to die? Come on...
  • I guess Armor Perks will be cool.. Atleast its new to Halo.. Hope it works out good.
  • I'm going to buy Halo 4, it may well look promising....
  • I can't wait. I want a new competitive halo game and I'm really hoping this is going to be it. 343, I have faith in you, just don't let us, or the chief down.
  • Spartans never die, they're just MIA untill we need them for a sequel.
  • at #6 OMG SPOILER MUCH?
  • Without Reaching the top rank in Multiplayer you wont get the best ending..... no just kidding i am very exited
  • @11 wow. Halo 3 came out like 4 years ago. Deal with it._
  • @ #11, Please tell me that is sarcasm. If you don't know that MC was set adrift in space at the end of 3, you shouldn't be on this board. Also, how is that spoiler? If MC died, this wouldn't be Halo 4.
  • Who is this Mister Chef?
  • @6 Yes. That would be a brilliant ending to him. All the work he did and for what? To get left in space.
  • Mister Chef wants you to suck on his chocolate salty balls.
  • Lol Mister Chef hahahahahaahhahahahahaa! Been toning my skills on Reach ready for this naughty boy ;]
  • I'd rather have the power drainers and bubble shields back instead of armour abilities. However, 343 said they're "evolving" the abilities.. Lets hope for the best
  • You guys do realize that 343 and Bungie worked on Halo PC(not sure about Halo 1 on Xbox) right? That turned out just fine so I wouldn't worry about this game not doing well with a "new" IP considering they've worked on Halo before.
  • @4 Actually I remember seeing some where that it was planned out to be a double trilogy from the very start.
  • A sizeable chunk of the team are core ex-Bungie employees that and so far over the past few years members of the 343 staff have proven how invested they are personally into the Halo Universe. The series is in good hands. It may come out to be different the past games but overall I see that as a sign that the series is progressing ever forward into the future. Allready clues that the universe is going to be far different then Chief left it when he finds himself thrown back into it again.
  • @20 You do realize that was a remake of a game bungie made with minor alterations, right? =/
  • All I can really say is this for the multiplayer. The weapons, vehicles, gameplay, etc. are overall the same, have been for over 10 years now and for the most part that wont change. I might be a little cautious about anything they add to "evolve" it but overall it'll still be at its heart the same Halo we've been playing for over a decade now. BUT here's the thing that it absolutely needs. It HAS to have an iteration of one of the greatest maps ever. 2001 - Halo 1 - Blood Gulch 2004 - Halo 2 - Coagulation 2007 - Halo 3 - Valhalla 2010 - Reach - Hemmorhage 2012 - Halo 4 - ???? As long as they have an adaptation of BG, I'll live with whatever they put in. So far I'm impressed by what they've done, most especially by the inclusion of the Battle Rifle and utilizing live gunfire from the US military. Here's hoping 343 does an outstanding job with 4.
  • @20 That was gearbox, not 343 lol
  • @3 Why cuz they just painted over an older game?
  • Master Chief had to come back , he's awesome . I just hope they don't show his real face , i like not knowing what he looks like.
  • All I Got to say, Halo CE, Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Halo Reach, Halo CEA,and Halo 4. Halo #1 Game in my Heart, Mind and Soul.
  • @3 Polishing a 10 year old turd with new graphics hardly gives me confidence in a company building a new game from the ground up. The core game was already made. The multiplayer was already made. They added a fresh coat of paint to the campaign and adjusted the multiplayer maps to work with the new mp design. Given, I HOPE they do Halo 4 well. I have enjoyed the franchise, and almost bought the books as well. That's impressive, considering the Mass Effect books are the only books I've read in 10 years. As of right now, I'll reserve my judgement once more information comes to light. Probably my biggest hope is that they do a better job with the story-telling than Bungie did. Halo 2....ugh, that was a train-wreck of a plot. Multiplayer has always been fun, looking forward to the next evolution of equipment/armor abilities/whatever.
  • @24 halo4-all maps lol
  • Disappointing... He only said umm 21 times... Had to watch the video twice coz the first time I could do nothing but count the umms... Looks epic defiantely glad to see the chief back in action after so long...
  • halo 4 gameplay at san diego comic con this july.
  • Halo 1 remake had AWFUL netcode. The input lag was atrocious when playing co-op. Even when playing system link. Hopefully they don't f*** Halo 4 up.
  • It's obvious that the "evolution in gameplay" is gonna be a cod-style levelling up/loadout system. I'm not sure if I like it, but i have hit Noble on Reach and there is simply nothing left to look forward to. Bring it on 343! @33 Lol at counting the uums @35 I never had any trouble with the netcode, i'm sure you're a master programmer who knows all about it though...
  • My main gripes about the Multiplayer so far: 1. First and foremost, not releasing a Beta when you're switching reins on Xbox's biggest title...Talking about "taking risks" and "dramatic innovations" doesn't sit well with me, knowing I have no say in the matter. 2. Why (pardon my french here) the FUCK do we need justification on why Red Spartans battle Blue Spartans?! What about all the other colored Spartans? Are they less important now? Are there even different color choices?! 3. He talks about how you'll have so much customization for your Multiplayer character, yet all I see are standard Red and Blue Spartans with ugly back pieces that make the Spartans look like hunchbacks... 4.These are the same people who made Halo Anniversary. If you played Halo: Anniversary, you'd know that somehow, they managed to make 2 player Co-op seemingly impossible do to lag. How are they going to manage a 8v8 Big Team Battle or even a 3v3v3v3 Multi-Team? Don't get me wrong, I love 343 industries and their Defiant map pack as well as the nice overhaul in Halo: Anniversary, but honestly, the next coming months are going to come down to whether or not I actually buy or rent this game. I just really hope they don't do Bungie's fans wrong.
  • @37 your forgeting that Halo CE never had Online Ever so i say it would be pretty hard to put in online when working on DLC for Reach And Working On Halo:4 if they was not working on halo 4 im sure that the online Co-op would have been much better also Halo Anniversary dont have Servers im pretty sure itsw Host Base because i joined 1 friend and laged like hell and joined another and had No Lag...i think halo:4 will do just fine dont forget Microsoft is like hawks when it comes to thare dear Halo Games. if they F This Up 343 will be a thing of the past......
  • @4... chill its a game...
  • as long as they dont turn it into another cod style multiplayer/campgin then im fine i loved how unique halo is and how story rich the univerise is
  • @4 clearly you've never played halo 3 or else you'd know it was setup for another story from then
  • i wish Halo 4 doesn't have special weapons (like Snipers, rocket launchers etc.) placed on the map because some noobs are always camping them and if they don't get it they'll betray the guy who got that weapon. Special weapons could be added to class like in Battlefield. And if there not gonna change this I hope they would at least make the clips of the guns smaller and spawning times shorter. But hopefully they take example of Battlefield in this.
  • can't wait, soon as I have money again, physical release date I'm pre-ordering asap.
  • Mario, Link and Samus Aran will tell hello to Master Chief and we are now big team because we not talkactive just we have big adventures and we are BIGGEST HEROES!!! hehehehehehehe hihihihihihi Look forward Halo 4 for Master Chief returns, singleplayer campaign, coop modes and achievements.
  • 343 will not let the Halo community down. This is not their first Halo game, and Some Ex Bungie employees are on board with 343 for Halo 4. Game looks visually stunning. Multiplayer footage looked great. Hope the campaign looks just as good. Everyone is always going to have a complaint about something but when the game drops everyone will buy it anyways because the "Chief" is back baby! You can expect top notch performance trust me.
  • @4 I have played that game multiple times. I'm just saying Master Chief's story is getting old. New character.
  • EPIC.
  • Looking very forward to this......need the energy to get past the 990G I have on Reach....ugh
  • Comment #4 is a flat out NERD
  • I really liked the films they used in Halo Wars. If 343 does graphics like that, I'd be first in line to get H4lo. Well, I'd still be first in line with or without super great graphics.
  • BATTLE RIFLE, YES!!! I am so EXCITED for this game!!! Day 1 Legendary Edition purchase for me!
  • @4 I completely agree with him and also I personally think Halo is garbage and that's been my feeling since day 1 complete rip off of other classic FPS''s but I'm sure like everyone else who writes on here you nerds will be giving this comment -whatever cause you can't handle people & there opinions. But I do enjoy Reach but that's mainly cause that Doom wannabe Master Chef isn't in it (and yes I spelled it wrong for a reason...he's a horrible character)
  • I can't wait for this awesome game!
  • yaaaayyyy
  • I need to stop playing ps3 and reading the sister site ps3t, I'm getting way behind on my Halo 4 news.
  • Ugh. Stop talking about multiplayer.
  • I'm for one glad there bringing Master Chief back. Halo wouldn't be the same without him.
  • cant wait for halo 4... not a big fan of reach mp it just was not as fun as halo 2 or 3 hope halo 4 brings halo back to the top.... cod sucks
  • IMPORTANT NOTICE: For those who care, we have a thread going on in the Halo 4 forums pertaining to the singleplayer and multiplayer components recently revealed in the may issue of Game Informer. Pictures and scans of the magazine are featured, as well as links to other sources. Post a comment in the thread and let us know what you think of the new info. You'll have to scroll down a bit to see the info, the top of the thread has some old stuff from the waypoint bullitens. Here's the link: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=360531
  • HALO 4 SPOILERS (for those eager for halo news) http://forums.gametrailers.com/thread/all-game-informer-scans/1284038
  • After looking at those scans... oh dear /: untimed respawns, custom classes, random power weapons, default sprint [cue everyone with jet packs or armour lock, if it returns] no elites for MP, no firefight, Spartan Points? Really? lol. Oh hell no /: Parts of what made Halo, Halo, are going.. How is unlimited respawns going to work in objective game modes? 343! Silly duckhumpers!
  • Halo 4 FTW
  • I know that this is off topic, but is it possible to delete your X360A Account?
  • I know all theve done so far is Halo Wars and the remake to Combat Evolved but I am skeptical to say the least. They made HCEA great but it was very unpolished, characters should have been taken directly from Reach, and their menus were not done well and had glitches and just wasn't as good as Bungie. I fear Halo 4-6 won't be as good as Halo 2
  • @64 All they did was put in a new graphics engine, they initially fixed bugs and made it newer, but beta testers complained that the gameplay was too different from the original, so they ended up only doing the graphics and maps.
  • Can't wait for Halo 4! :)
  • Anyone that complains because Elites are no longer in MP and that FF is removed is a moron. Reach showed that Dinos were being phased out, and FF was never fun. I am no Halo fanboy. I have had my ups and downs with the series since Halo 2, but I am genuinely interested in what Halo 4 is shaping up to be. I think that people are talking bits of info and assuming that they know how and when they will be implemented in the game. The fact is that we dont know much of anything, and speculation about these things without MORE info is pointless. That said, the new Elite design is awesome, Sprint always available is a good thing.
  • @4 shut up you cunt!
  • they can do what they want with halo 4, but please get classic halo back, halo 3 and 2 were outstanding, their MP was what made halo unique, i hated reach just because of the loudouts, and yea sure they had a classic halo mode, but thats not enough, i may or may not be speaking for alot of veteran halo players, but i won't go back to a 'reach clone' anytime soon, now about the campaign.......
  • I need another good dose of a stellar campaign! So far this looks like it will deliver. I am not, however, a multiplayer fan. I only do the multiplayer to get my 100%, then i'm done with that shit. I've read every book, every comic, and have collected one of almost everything ever made from Halo. The whole mythology of the universe is what keeps me playing. I have beaten every campaign at least 10 times and it never gets old. 343 was involved from the start so i'm confident of another great trilogy to come! PS: DON"T ADD ANY FUCKING KINECT SHIT TO THIS GAME!!!!!
  • Hmmm... this one is a real make it or break it kinda game. I hope it succeeds. But the COD/Battlefield influences aren't looking too good in a Halo game.
  • Not really a fan of halo but I am looking foward to playing it with friends.
  • Halo 4 will be inside the shield world
  • armor abilities and the blood gulch remake need to go (valhalla is an exception), possibly remake good maps like headlong, the pit, sidewinder etc. i just want to see more map variety than i did in reach, with a lot less focus on forge world (gets a bit boring to see the same backgrounding every map doesn't it?)
  • Maister Chief is also gay.
  • @ #70 Damn straight same here always been more about campaigns for me also especially Halo. I am glad Halo is back for another trilogy this time more about the Forerunner's than anything which is good also heard they might make a Halo 2 Remake which would be excellent. The thing that is amazing about the Forerunner is there tech is so advanced they are able to make artificial planets and the Halo rings they gave them planet-like environments and even artificial weather I know it's a work of fiction but still the concept is excellent. Also #75 better watch what you say here and let me guess you are a COD fan boy just here to make of fun a better series maybe Call of Duty outsells Halo but at least every Halo is worth buying unlike the shit fests the likes of Modern Warfare 3 so yeah Master Chief is not gay he is one of the most iconic video game characters in history period...
  • @76: I have never owned a single Call of Duty game and I have actually played Halo since the early days. You should consider "cooling down" instead of over analyzing, maybe. I'm not as keen on Halo 4 with the Reach armor abilities as I was with Halo 3 but find Halo 4 worth buying currently. Thanks.
  • #75 well I am gay in real life so whatsoever. If Master Chief is gay then leave him alone. He shouldn't listen to you anyway :):)
  • @23: Way to fail because I was talking about Halo PC and not Halo Anniversary. Halo PC was made by both Bungie and 343, so I'll say it again, there's no reason to worry about Halo 4 considering 343 has worked on a Halo project before.
  • @77 Alright then I will cool down but perhaps like 78 said maybe you shouldn't be using homosexuality as a put down and exactly what point where you trying to make by saying "Master Chief is also Gay" in the first place care to elaborate?
  • @80 Gearbox did Halo PC, not 343. 343 wasn't founded until 2007.
  • @78: I'm sure he shouldn't listen to me when I'm writing. @81: It was just a bad addition to all the things about MC in the article. Nothing against gaygong people here anyway. :-)
  • plz dont down vote because im not being serious when i say this, im simply saying it to try and you guys to imagine it. when it shows chief wake up and fly with the jet pack and stuff doesnt it remind you of dead space? now imagine if it went in that direction be weird but it would be kinda cool to see chief stomp the S*** out of some elites heads, and limbs hahahahahha again people im not saying its gonna be like that, or that i hope it will im simply saying what if and imagine
  • cannot flipping wait till this game comes out!!!
  • i cant wait!!
  • I just want to know whay they're adding equipment? halo 1, 2 and 3 didnt have it. So why halo 4? As long as there is a classic playlist ill get it
  • K 83 no problem little worried about this myself lets see if 343 can handle making Halo from now on. Doing a remake is all well and good but till you make one of your own it's kind of questionable.
  • @64 Dude Ensemble Studios made Halo Wars lol 343 had nothing to do with that game. Honestly though,I just want the campaign to be awesome like the first 3 games were.I thought Reach was a cod ripoff,didn't even know it was Halo until somebody told me the other day...lmao I hated that game,don't even want to consider it a Halo. I loved Halo because it was the alternative from everything else I played,I personally hated cod so I wanted to play Halo,but now it's turned into the mainstream bull crap in the multiplayer.Honestly I won't even play the multiplayer now,I mean load outs? Really? Armor abilities? Come on guys.This is supposed to be Halo 4 not Call of Halo 4.Everything else I've read about the multiplayer does sound awesome,but why the cod spinoff? Arghh.Oh well,I am just hoping the campaign is really fun.From what I've read in Game Informer with the whole like,20 page or whatever article (I hate Game Informer,but it had a huge Halo 4 thing in it so I read it lol) to the announcement trailer,it looks very interesting so far and I can't wait to play the campaign :) I am definitely going to pre-order any kind of special edition that they'll have whenever it's available to pre-order.Gosh I seriously can't wait for the campaign lol. Oh and people,if y'all (I'm not redneck lol) don't agree with me,I am kindly asking you to please not write hateful things,this was just an opinion thing I felt like writing it out...Idc if you don't agree with me,just don't shoot me down and call me an "idiot" or whatever for an honest opinion..well except for the first thing I wrote,that's a fact Ensemble Studios made Halo Wars,not 343i lol
  • Oh and I like how #87 just comes out of nowhere and interrupts what everybody's talking about to sell his products lmao
  • I have really high hopes about Halo 4. welcome back chief we missed you
  • there should be a game about Jun from reach.... or at least something should be said about his death. Jorge blew up with covennent,Kat shot in the head by covennent (or was it really UNSC), Carter suicide, emile epic sword fight, Jun.......flew off with hasley and was never seen again?? oh and should of made H4lo with new protaganist and brought John back for halo 5 instead.
  • What I would REALLY like to see return in Halo 4 that 343 Industries left out in Halo CE is the notification that your co-op partner is down and is trying to spawn on you. That was a nice feature in Halo Reach (and Halo 3?) Also, GIVE ME campaign co-op matchmaking!!! The Reach system was ok but needs a few improvements, like switch between voting and simply setting the mission. Also drop in/drop out in co-op would be nice. The function is well alive in like GoW2 and GoW3 and shouldnt be too hart to incorporate in games like Halo. Dont remember if Reach had that... Really looking forward to Halo 4!
  • @DN Deathrow Me to man.. Halo CE Was one of the best shooters for me on pc. They did a great job ;D
  • i am not a big fan of halo games but this looks good :)
  • i just hope they spend enough time on the main game and story to make it good. dont just make i an online game. also, i cant be the only one that misses it, but co-op 2 or more on 1 system should be a staple. what, we gotta own 2 360s to play w/a brother or sister or a friend at the house?
  • Halo 4 FTW!!! TIME 2 KILL
  • Ive played all Halo, and this one is suppose to be the best of all of them
  • Cool.
  • gunna be awesome really really buzzing :)
  • Oh how I missed the BR...
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