Halo 4 Enters “Super Crunch Time,” Longbow Map Detailed

A post over on the Halo Waypoint blog reveals that the men and women of 343 Industries, the developers who’ve taken over the Halo franchise from Bungie, are closing in on the finish line. They’ve left crunch time behind, and are now entering super crunch time, as explained by 343’s community manager, Jessica “bs angel” Shea:

“The Campaign for Halo 4 is playable from start to finish, with some levels being near complete and others still needing some good, old-fashioned elbow grease (in the form of polish and bug bashing). The first several weeks of Spartan Ops find themselves in a similar state, as do the ten multiplayer maps that are shipping with the game.”

Shea also reveals in the post that shooting has just wrapped for “Forward Unto Dawn,” the live-action series that will be broadcast exclusively on the Machinima video network, so that’s pretty exciting. I know literally nothing else about the series other than it’s happening, and the fact that it’s all finished shooting is kind of exciting to me. Go figure.

Shea also offered lots of information about the Longbow map, which is situated in a glacial environment, and will apparently feature a new and as-yet unannounced gameplay mode. Here’s the scoop on Longbow:

“We wanted a big engineering effort that connected to the war or the resources needed for the UNSC, so when looking at the designers’ initial idea for the map from the top, we began thinking of a Y-shape or loop shape that accommodated this single big machine—a magnetic launcher that works on similar principles as a MAC Cannon. It was an interesting case of trying to make a symmetrical map area feel natural and almost accidental, while still telling an epic sci-fi story.

We then had to develop solid visual markers so the players could understand where they were. Each side is a very similar plan and path, but distinct enough to get a peripheral sense of being in a distinct ‘zone’ in the map.

At one point, we flipped the direction of the entire map. The center building of the launch facility moved north to be a better landmark, pointing the launcher’s arms out over the ocean. It’s much cooler to look at, and better for the players’ orientation.

Longbow supports both infantry and vehicle play. On foot, players will notice it’s mostly a mid-to-long range map with pockets of close range combat in and around the base structures. However, there are plenty of vehicles (currently Warthogs, Mongooses, and Ghosts) and routes through the map that will make fans of vehicular combat happy.”

The map–of which there are four hi-res screenshots at the top of this post–will be playable at RTX, or the Rooster Teeth Expo, which will be July 7 and 8 at the Austin Convention Center—basically, next weekend, so if you didn’t already know about it, you’re probably not going, I’m guessing.

All in all, a pretty info-packed post. Are you stoked about Halo 4?

Via Halo Waypoint