"Microsoft's strategy in bringing about the return of the Master Chief appears to have been a case of throwing an enormous amount of money at all of the problems it faced, investing in an enormous, talented, highly experienced team and crucially giving them enough time to produce a quality product."
Microsoft did exactly what they should have done. When one series is your bread and butter, you get the best bread and butter you can possibly find. Now I wonder if 343 will work on anything except Halo?
I'd like to play Halo 4. Certain segments of Killzone 3 are the best I've ever seen on a console, so I'd like to compare. It sounds like Halo has really improved in terms of dynamic light sources, which I think are one of the premier improvements of this generation. When done well, it works to create a much greater sense of immersion in an FPS, especially atmospheric sci-fi experiences.
And, speaking of atmospheric, "Halo 4 is positively drenched in particles, from the obvious implementation in explosions through to the disintegration effect from Forerunner weaponry to flickering embers hanging in the air during an all-out UNSC vs. Covenant skirmish," sounds amazing. Stuff like that is why I love sci-fi FPS games despite having almost zero interest in modern military FPS games.
On the other side of the coin, reading these articles always makes me aware of the compromises developers have to make, like Halo 4 not having some things that Uncharted or God of War have, such as motion blur, and vice versa. Makes you kind of excited to see what developers of this caliber will be able to accomplish in the next generation of consoles.
