Cool News
Cool Art From Titan Books' AWAKENING: THE ART OF HALO 4!!
A while back, we brought you a look at Titan's lovely HALO: THE ART OF BUILDING WORLDS, an interesting and image-intensive look into the process of developing and realizing the universe featured in the tremendously popular video game series.
This year, Titan's back with AWAKENING: THE ART OF HALO 4...
...which is exactly what it sounds like...devoted wholly to the newest and perhaps most dazzling installment of the game franchise to date. I've enjoyed the HALO games tremendously over the years - but felt many of them were imbalanced in one way or another. HALO 4...is the first time I've believed that every element came together exactly as intended, and exactly as needed. In terms of graphics, controls, storylines...the balance here feels effortless...and the gameplay experience is, simply, top-notch in both campaign and multi-player modes.
AWAKENING: THE ART OF HALO 4 is 192 pages of well-presented artwork and context on a nice & heavier stock of paper, encompassing nearly every element of HALO 4's vast array of setting, characters, and technology. Not unexpectedly, magnificent planetscapes, vehicles of many sorts, weapons of all kinds, and humans, and alien renderings all appear - presented with a modicum of description and an emphasis on the art itself. It's beautiful...even for non-HALO fans the amount of imagination and effort evident on the page should be breathtaking from an artistry/design perspective alone.
The folks over at Titan sent over some images from AWAKENING: THE ART OF HALO 4, which is now available HERE.
The pieces below are all by John Liberto, and are EMBIGGENABLE!
More information about the book can be found at Titan's site, HERE!
___________
Glen Oliver
Readers Talkback
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Nov. 26, 2012, 10:42 a.m. CST
It's got a lot of nice landscapes but theres not much other art in it.
by Bandit 37
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Nov. 26, 2012, 10:45 a.m. CST
For old school PC gamers raised with Doom, Quake and Unreal Tournament, Halo sucks balls
by Seth Brundle
i seriously dont know what the hell people like in HALO multiplayer, is slow and boring as hell if you think that Halo is fast paced multiplayer action, your head would fuckin explode on a UT99 capture the flag match
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Nov. 26, 2012, 11:13 a.m. CST
But for those people who don't give a shit about some old PC game it's great.
by Bandit 37
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Nov. 26, 2012, 11:14 a.m. CST
Yeah, Quake and Unreal Tournament have really held up well over the years.
by Sardonic
Lol.
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Nov. 26, 2012, 11:20 a.m. CST
After playing and beating every other Halo game offline I...
by phifty2
finally took the plunge with this one and upped to xbox live gold and played multiplayer. Don't know if that's good or bad because now I'm addicted.
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Nov. 26, 2012, 11:34 a.m. CST
Quake and Unreal are spazzy, glitch filled, retarded games. They always have been...
by nephilim138
but when one of Unreal's creators is a jerk off like cliffy b, I expect nothing but shit from that juvenile, pompous fuck stain.
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Being a PC gamer and going head to head with console players on FPS games. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
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Complaining about an action game being fast? lmao The skill threshold for Quake 3 and UT were orders of magnitude higher than any Halo game, require higher levels of speed, timing, coordination, and accuracy. No one is impressed by the old men and 13 year olds Mountain Dew chuggers good at Halo, but a few people have gained minor celebrity status off of their Quake/UT play. What's next, Assassin's Creed has more challenging platforming than Super Meat Boy?
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How bad does the inside of Master Chief's armor smell? He never takes that damn thing off. www.nonipplesonthesuit.com
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Nov. 26, 2012, 1:11 p.m. CST
Since animation has become a viable career choice, this kind of stuff is starting to look really generic.
by justmyluck
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Nov. 26, 2012, 1:16 p.m. CST
@docpazuzu - how can you play console multiplayer tornaments when you play on PC?.....- You can't crossover XBox/PC/PS3 platforms.or are u in possession of some ultra high tech gizmo no one else knows about?
by cameron
Besides PC games are shit deep in their own whining about great PC's are compared to consoles, Get yourself an Xbox and play Black Ops 2 multiplayer on Elite..you'll get your shiney ass kicked.
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I switched to Halo for my sci-fi shooter needs and never looked back. Now, I can't go back to PC gaming anymore because a wireless controller is way too comfortable.
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Why? Because in the original, if you don't kill ever last one of those friggin' xenomorphs (they like to avoid you by running away, but they're not gone), they'll ambush you from above when you're in a stairwell. Seriously smart AI in the game, too. If you use your motion tracker too much, and lie in wait for them, they'll change their attack strategy accordingly. Doom and UT never cottoned on to such sophistication.
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Mouse and keyboard are more responsive and accurate inputs for FPS, the framerates are higher on PC, so someone who primarily plays shoooter X on console is going up against people who have been operating on a higher level, by virtue of hardware. Sometimes you'll get a player who likes to brag about their k/d ratio on Xbox Live. Bragging gives way to tears, cursing, or silence after a couple rounds.
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i hope when GTA 5 arrives we can all enjoy this new technology to crossover to other platforms so i can kick his ass too
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Nov. 26, 2012, 2:39 p.m. CST
But he didn't get his ass handed to him, as I just explained.
by NotEnoughBiehn
You don't even know what you don't know
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I never said I cross-platform played anyone, slick. What I have done is played against console players and PC players on consoles as well on PCs, and in nine times out of ten, the console players were crushed -- sometimes by me, but mostly at the hands of better players. Console players have a better average playing against PC players on consoles, but end up losing most of the time just the same. Too much heat. Oh, by the way, do you remember an FPS game Microsoft launched a few years ago called Shadowrun? Microsoft wanted it to be the first game to crack the cross-platform boundary and arranged beta tournaments between PC and xbox players in order to test the software. The PC players utterly destroyed the console players and it was deemed too much of an embarrassment for Microsoft to release a cross-platform game seeing as how their own console sucked when their players were matched with PC players. Cross-platforming will be a reality eventually, but not until console makers have developed a system which allows console gamers to evolve past what they are today.
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When you're done licking windows, there's this piece of shit under my boot...
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Nov. 26, 2012, 3:47 p.m. CST
Wow, this escalated into a PC vs. console flame war pretty quickly
by kidicarus
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Nov. 26, 2012, 3:59 p.m. CST
wireless controls are nice, except the control is shit
by Ultron ver 2.0
mouse and keyboard always destroys silly thumbsticks. FACT. Oh...one more thing. UT/Quake multiplayer was 100x more exciting than the "running in quicksand" feel of Halo. Finally, Team Fortress 2 may be the most balanced and fun team FPS in existence. Teamwork, how does it work?
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Oh yeah, and fuck PC gamers. FPS with a keyboard and mouse just sounds fucking retarded. If we really want to see who has the better kill/death ration lets play some fucking paint ball you fat tubby internet fags.
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So i guess you don't know what a windowlicker is (come on google it, first name chris last name cunningham) ANYWAY good to hear you're crushing all those sad console fucks like there's no tomorrow. I guess someday the gaming industry will bow to your will but in the meantime the console suckers are in need of some major gaming bootcamp training or the PC hotshots will fuck them up the ass. Im so glad there's no release date yet fore PC GTA
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Nov. 26, 2012, 4:30 p.m. CST
FPS with a *keyboard and mouse just sounds fucking retarded.*
by DocPazuzu
Oh dear.
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I could have made a Rubber Johnny joke but it wouldn't have had the same humiliating power.
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It was an overhyped xbox 1 exclusive with microsofts powerhouse marketing behind it. Everything it had in it had already been done 1000 times in other games. I don't know why people brought up 10-15 year old games like Quake and UT. But Half Life, Bioshock, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Fallout, Skyrim... the list goes on, are all far superior experiences at least in terms of single player. the multiplayer is pretty generic in Halo also though. And to all the PC vs Console people. There is no competition here, there is no debate, a mouse will destroy a stupid thumb stick every time. It is a well known fact that the thumb is the least articulate figure yet those game pads are based entirely around the thumb. I laugh while watching 98% of gamers on a controller. If you compared their movement to that of a mouse user, it would look like a limping person using a crutch compared an athlete at the top of their game.
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..anyone that's a real gamer knows it. Anyone who's a gamer also knows the difference between PC and console controls and still choose to go console for a number of reasons that lay flatly on why PC gameplay can be a suckfest. Who's a gives a fat pickle, really? It kills me the one line pisser, see's a story about Halo, jumps on just long enough to shit on it, then leaves. Halo definitely has a heavy control set up, if you prefer something twitchier there's tons of games for that, but don't try and tell me the ending of Reach wasn't one of the best endings ever. I won't spoil anything for anyone that hasn't played it and will, but I really felt the isolation and last man standing aspect of that ending, it was really cool. As for the artbook, the stuff is kinda generic, a hit the Halo games deserve since day one. The design has always been very bleh, not lazy just totally unimaginative.
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And did i read that right? The 'humiliating power' of your brilliant licking windows comment:)) Then what do you think about this: Hey Doc! Why don't you go heal your sister's broken leg!!!
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...since you're bent on humiliating yourself some more. Google cunningham docpazuzu alien 5 and see what posts you find. Also, be sure to look at the dates those posts were made on AICN. You were a complete feeb under your previous usernames and are obviously just as stupid today. However, by all means, please continue.
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Really, you accuse me of 'licking windows' which you thought was 'humiliating' and now you're your high horse but with still no humour. I was waiting for your next windowlicker joke and you start bragging about some shit you wrote:)
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Nov. 26, 2012, 6:50 p.m. CST
Go youtube Johnathan 'Fatal1ty" Wendel, the fuckin god of Quake 3, then come here and tell me that HALO is "fast paced"
by Seth Brundle
Fatality is a fuckin legend of FPS gaming,
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No, but I couldn't squeeze in the shitlicking comment (which you so richly earned by jumping the gun in your initial post) without it. How's that googling working out for you by the way? First rule of being pwned is knowing when you're being pwned, chief.
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Nov. 26, 2012, 8:53 p.m. CST
DOOM was great back in the day, and will always be fondly remembered
by lv_426
I never got into the multiplayer but I loved the single player portion of DOOM. HALO is also good. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. HALO is more full featured really (expansive mythology/setting, fun campaigns, co-op, firefight, team deathmatch, capture the flag, big team battles, custom games, forge, saved films). Halo is like a big grab bag filled with all sorts of fun stuff to do. It is currently one of the best values in gaming IMO. id Software is now working on DOOM 4. Hopefully they'll give us all something great with that one. Besides deathmatch and competitive multiplayer, I would love to see an intense horde/survival mode where my friends and I can blast all sorts of demonic hellspawn with the BFG9000. I'm guessing DOOM 4 won't be ready until the next console cycle, and will require a beefy PC to run it on optimal settings. Then again, I like both DOOM and HALO, which should come as no surprise to you all as I am obviously a huge ALIENS fan. Both games were heavily influenced by ALIENS.
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Nov. 26, 2012, 9:05 p.m. CST
You say cool, I say boring, derivative, unoriginal, bland, without any cultural value.
by kevred
People keep pumping as much "art" as they can into video games, but it ain't budging the medium's "0" rating on the true-art meter.
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Even an art snob like you can't argue with the obvious technical proficiency.
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Nov. 26, 2012, 9:27 p.m. CST
I think I am a console player partly due to starting out on the NES and arcade games
by lv_426
So the joystick/controller interface is more embedded in my mind when I think *video game* as opposed to the keyboard & mouse set up. I didn't start playing much on a PC until around the time of DOOM. I had already been playing on the NES, Genesis, and SNES for a several years before I really became interested in anything on the PC. I guess that means I like joysticks... oh wait a second. That didn't come out right. Moving on, there are some PC games coming out in the next year or two that do look interesting. I'd love to get my hands on Hawken and that new MechWarrior Online game. Anybody seen the Kickstarters for Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous? Star Citizen looks like an unofficial Battlestar Galactica game molded in an open world space sim game. I'm really interested in that and Elite, which doesn't seem as far along yet as Star Citizen.
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Nov. 26, 2012, 9:38 p.m. CST
I'd say Silent Hill 2 is the closest horror has come to true art...
by NotEnoughBiehn
in a long ass time. Shame they couldn't it right on film. They've wasted one of the 3 or 4 games I consider having worthwhile writing and storytelling.
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from windowlicking to shitlicking, and all that in just 3 posts. i would call that an improvement, but you can do better. what about piss-licking? You throw that around when you're crushing all those pathetic console gamers and you'll be the star of the show:) Really, you should try some humour instead of this superseeerious bragging of yours
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Just man up and take your medicine, dude. Learn from your mistakes and come back to fight another day.
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I'm a gamer full stop. I own and play games on my PC and all the consoles because there are great exclusives on them all. I will say I normally favour FPS games on PC due to the superior mouse/keyboard controls, HOWEVER Halo 4 is one of the best games I have every played - FPS or otherwise. It ticks all the boxes - characters, story, art and sound design, score, graphical wizardry - honestly, this game is worth owning a 360 for even this late in its life cycle. Any bullshit elitist that refuses to play games on consoles because you have to use a 'controller' has missed some of the best games every made, and deservedly so if you ask me.
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Nov. 27, 2012, 3:22 p.m. CST
I think PC FPS games are what drive consoles to improve
by MoistMuskyCamelToe
Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, Unreal, Deus Ex, System Shock II, Half Life- all of them gave gamers an experience you couldn't have on a console. They ranged from high concept (Doom) to a stories with real depth (Deus Ex). The graphics just kept getting better. And the multiplayer, oh the multiplayer. Even Doom brought a level of speed and skill you couldn't get anywhere else. And god help you if your opponent had a marble mouse and knew how to bind keys. Getting railpimped in mid-air all the way across the map on Unreal Tournament or Quake Arena was fucking incredible. When FPSs started to transition to console, I was very doubtful that it would work. But it does, because the experience is uniform between players; everybody gets a console and a remote, and there are no real dildo hacks or exploits for cheaters. That said, I don't play PC games any more. I don't have the money to put into hardware, and I don't have the time to fuck with driver issues. Give me a console that just works any day, thank you. I love console FPS games. You play them and they just work out of the box, and bugs either get patched or the game dies (fuck you very much, Dead Island). BioShock fucking ruled, and every Modern Warfare has been great both as a solo campaign and multiplayer. Black Ops 2 is incredible. And when I'm done, I can sell my games off without having to fight DRM heavies like Blizzard. You can't argue that Halo is a bad game; it's far too popular. And I don't think you can fairly compare PC keyboarding to a gaming with a console remote. I would never, ever want to play a console FPS against a PC keyboarder- you'd never have a chance. None. The playing field would be so disconnected that gameplay would be completely broken. If it ain't fair, it ain't fun. And the Halo solo campaigns have been fun (although I think less so with each release). The multiplayer isn't my thing, because I find the look sterile and the idiotic dialogue irritating. But my kids love it, and that's the target market. Haven't played Halo4 so I can't speak to it, but I'm sure it's fun. I'll wait for the price to drop a bit and pick up a used copy, which will work just fine.
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Nov. 29, 2012, 10:05 a.m. CST
Man I love all video games that are good and worth investing time in. I loved quake and unreal and I live halo 4. Here's something that happend in halo 4 and it's
by UltraTron
maybe not as impressive as twitchy shitty graphics ancient fps games but it was incredible. I threw a grenade under a hover tank with like 5 guys coming at me on top of the tank. The tank swerved to avoid the grenade and hit another grenade I threw. Thing explodes sending bodies everywhere. I finished em off before they hit the ground and got 5 kills, a shattered hover tank at my feet with corpses falling like confetti and my back was to the wall and thought I was gonna die the whole time but instead it is I who killed them all. Cinematic. Epic. Real people in those virtual skins. Joy joy
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