Halo 4 is now available on the Xbox 360 and the game is gorgeous with fantastic character models and stunning environments. The game is also a financial hit for Microsoft and the game's developer 343 Industries.
In a recent interview with Time Magazine, creative director Josh Holmes discusses how the game's graphics environments bring the game full circle back to Halo: Combat Evolved.
"I think one of the core elements of Halo is wonder," Holmes said. "I have my four guiding principles of Halo, and one of those four is wonder. We talked about really wanting to embrace that sense of sci-fi wonder and epic scale across everything we were doing, because it's something that sets it apart from any other experience. And I do feel like some of the more recent Halo games maybe got a little bit away from that, and that's something that we wanted to get back to."
He also told Time Magazine that the original game had a personal influence on him and many of the members of the development team. He said during the process of development, the studio recognized that certain moments of the game were reminiscent of the Halo: Combat Evolved.
"There were times when someone would say 'Hey, this moment kind of reminds me of a moment in Halo: CE,'" Holmes told Time Magazine. "So I think in some ways, subconsciously, that experience of playing through Halo: CE and the impression it left on us, that's obviously informed the work that we've done on Halo 4. That speaks to the impact of that first game."
Another interesting that Holmes brought up about the game's graphics, was that Halo 4 is running on a modified version of Halo: Reach's game engine.
"We have an incredible team of engineers who worked basically with the art vision in mind, understanding that they're serving that art vision," Holmes said. "So a lot of technology where we overhauled and rewrote parts of the engine was all in service to that vision. Speaking to that, there's really three artistic components."
Holmes praised the development teams dedication and vision for the game including concept artists, like Nicolas Bouvier Gabriel Garza and John Wallin.
"Our concept art team delivered just stunning, amazing vistas and moments that were then taken by the art team modelers and skybox artists to go and then realize that," Holmes said. "So there was a real partnership between all these people that helped inform the visual style you're referring to in Halo 4."
Halo 4 is now available worldwide as of Nov. 6 for the Xbox 360. You can check out our review of the game and find out why we gave it a perfect score here. If you want to more about how 343 Industries has attempted to make Halo 4 feel familiar and brand new at the same time, read more here. No more Master Chief in future Halo games? You can read about it here. Learn how you can earn free Microsoft points by playing Halo 4's multiplayer mode here.
Have you seen Microsoft's "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn?" The new web series consist of five web segments. Here are all the segments; Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5.
Watch Spartan Ops episode two's trailer below and comment on your experiences with the new mode or anything about Halo 4 in general.
