Creative Director Walks Off Halo 4

Just read the article at IGN.

IGN:

Ryan Payton has left 343 Industries - the team responsible Halo 4 - saying the game had become a "crazy endeavour".

Payton, who worked on Metal Gear Solid 4, was tasked with developing the game's story and overseeing the creative team who were planning the next trilogy of Halo games.

Speaking to Kotaku, Payton said, "I had a great run at Microsoft. I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore."

But he took pain to stress that it wasn't because the game was turning out badly. It was simply not in line with his original vision. "The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through.

"I think time is the most valuable thing we have," said Payton, "and I've decided that I'm not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn't speak to my values."

Fulll articlehttp://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/119/1192587p1.html

Big blow for Halo 4's development.

could it be delay? I do wonder

A delay maybe?

I'm actually looking forward to this game, I'm not sure why, I've never really cared too much about halo game releases before, even though I somewhat like the series.

Cant blame him why continue with a creative project if you dont have it in you, that usually tends to end up with a mediocre product a perfect example of this is Metallica and St anger and sure as hell Halo fans dont want that :P

Being said Paton's a good guy and im sure he was like this after MGS4 just wanted something new :P

I personally dislike change when it comes to Halo if the transition from Halo 3 to Halo Reach is any indication.. So any "crazy endeavour" ia probably best left out of my favourite shooter. Hopefully one day we get to hear what his plans were after the release of Halo 4. Maybe he wanted a TPS or something?

What does Endeavour mean?Solid_Tango

just a fancy word for him saying he wants to do something diffrent basically.

I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like 343 is trying too hard to get out of the shadow of Bungie. Their desire to make Halo 4 the perfect Halo game is probably making the project turn messy. Maybe someone needs to step in, lay down the law, and get this ship back on course.incuensuocha

Cant blame him why continue with a creative project if you dont have it in you, that usually tends to end up with a mediocre product a perfect example of this is Metallica and St anger and sure as hell Halo fans dont want that :P

Being said Paton's a good guy and im sure he was like this after MGS4 just wanted something new :P

razgriz_101

Ugh, well if that makes Halo 4 feel like the rest of the Halo games...

As a diehard Halo fan, I'm going to be very disappointed. I've had five Halo games. I think it's time for the Halo franchise to take risks.

Sad to hear it, but I'm glad he walked away before he did some weird stuff with my Halo. Frankie or Shiska should just take over the whole project, they're the most competent people working there. (not that the other devs aren't competent, Frankie and Chad are just legendary)enterawesome

Frankie isn't a game designer.

What does Endeavour mean?Solid_Tango

[QUOTE="enterawesome"]Sad to hear it, but I'm glad he walked away before he did some weird stuff with my Halo. Frankie or Shiska should just take over the whole project, they're the most competent people working there. (not that the other devs aren't competent, Frankie and Chad are just legendary)FrozenLiquid

Frankie isn't a game designer.

I would like for the game to actually have a story, and maybe have other characters other than Master Chief. I found halo 2, and 3 to be some of the most boring games I've played thanks to the stories in them. Gameplay wise they were good though.

[QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

Ugh, well if that makes Halo 4 feel like the rest of the Halo games...

As a diehard Halo fan, I'm going to be very disappointed. I've had five Halo games. I think it's time for the Halo franchise to take risks.

sts106mat

I'd like to see it do something different, and executed well. I'm not a video game designer, so I wouldn't know what they could and couldn't do.

But to illustrate a picture, look at the current Batman film franchise. Batman Begins was a very good Batman film, in fact, it's considered one of the best. It was a film that was very, very true to the comic books, painted Gotham City in a very styIistic light, and was dark and moody looking to boot. The Dark Knight on the other hand, threw all that out the window, and simply created a slick looking crime film featuring Batman and Joker in it. Not only do the two films not contend with each other, they're each considered fantastic films in their own right.

With Halo 4 coming up, I'm simply sick to death of the Halo formula. Small increments from over the past five games can't hide the fact that the essence of the formula is ten years old, and we will see that in the upcoming Anniversary game. What 343 needs to do is really shake it up. They need to think outside the box. How can you make a Halo first person shooter feel fresh and distinct, without alienating the fanbase?

Christopher Nolan had done that with the new Batman films. There are many other examples too. If 343 Industries wants to prove their mettle, they would be wise to follow suit.

[QUOTE="fend_oblivion"]

[QUOTE="Solid_Tango"]What does Endeavour mean?sts106mat

yes indeed, Nasa's space shuttle endeavour was named after captain cooks ship the HMS endeavour, glad to see the americans kept the spelling. honestly sometimes the american way of spelling the words makes much more sense, like color and favorite.

I would like for the game to actually have a story, and maybe have other characters other than Master Chief. I found halo 2, and 3 to be some of the most boring games I've played thanks to the stories in them. Gameplay wise they were good though.

GTSaiyanjin2

Halo, for the most part, has a fantastic story. However, the way it tells its story makes it incredibly dull.

It's like someone standing up in front of an audience trying to describe the greatest discovery of all time, but in dull broken English.

Eh, he didn't like the fact that is was getting a major delay since MS has decided to make Halo 4 the launch title for the next MS console. :o

Well, at least I wish that were the case. :P

[QUOTE="sts106mat"][QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

Ugh, well if that makes Halo 4 feel like the rest of the Halo games...

As a diehard Halo fan, I'm going to be very disappointed. I've had five Halo games. I think it's time for the Halo franchise to take risks.

FrozenLiquid

I'd like to see it do something different, and executed well. I'm not a video game designer, so I wouldn't know what they could and couldn't do.

But to illustrate a picture, look at the current Batman film franchise. Batman Begins was a very good Batman film, in fact, it's considered one of the best. It was a film that was very, very true to the comic books, painted Gotham City in a very styIistic light, and was dark and moody looking to boot. The Dark Knight on the other hand, threw all that out the window, and simply created a slick looking crime film featuring Batman and Joker in it. Not only do the two films not contend with each other, they're each considered fantastic films in their own right.

With Halo 4 coming up, I'm simply sick to death of the Halo formula. Small increments from over the past five games can't hide the fact that the essence of the formula is ten years old, and we will see that in the upcoming Anniversary game. What 343 needs to do is really shake it up. They need to think outside the box. How can you make a Halo first person shooter feel fresh and distinct, without alienating the fanbase?

Christopher Nolan had done that with the new Batman films. There are many other examples too. If 343 Industries wants to prove their mettle, they would be wise to follow suit.

[QUOTE="fend_oblivion"]

[QUOTE="Solid_Tango"]What does Endeavour mean?sts106mat

yes indeed, Nasa's space shuttle endeavour was named after captain cooks ship the HMS endeavour, glad to see the americans kept the spelling. honestly sometimes the american way of spelling the words makes much more sense, like color and favorite.

Um, what? Not everyone speaks English the same way Americans do.

It's a remnant of French influence in English, but I find the British spellings and its pronounciations recognizable in many accents.

[QUOTE="GTSaiyanjin2"]

I would like for the game to actually have a story, and maybe have other characters other than Master Chief. I found halo 2, and 3 to be some of the most boring games I've played thanks to the stories in them. Gameplay wise they were good though.

FrozenLiquid

Halo, for the most part, has a fantastic story. However, the way it tells its story makes it incredibly dull.

It's like someone standing up in front of an audience trying to describe the greatest discovery of all time, but in dull broken English.

Yeah I know what you mean, thats one of the reasons I'm always disappointed by them. The Halo universe has a lot to offer, yet they dont take advantage of it.

Nolan got away with making the new Batman trilogy so unique because Batman had been dormant for a long time. The Halo fanbase is still occupied with things like Reach and so they know (or think they know) exactly what they want. Expect 343 to do new and exciting things with Halo's tried-and-true formula and fill the disc to the brim with loads of new content. Do not expect the core formula to change, because it won't. 343 already made that vision very clear from the get-go. enterawesome

I was talking about the Batman trilogy as a whole, but as separate entities, so your comment makes absolutely no sense. I'll reiterate: Batman Begins is rather faithful in tone to the comic books. The Dark Knight isn't. They both revolve around the same over-arching story, but both are presented in distinctly different ways.

If 343 ain't going to change the core formula, then damn, I'm pretty disappointed.

In fact, I was pretty disappointed the moment Halo 4 was announced.

[QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

[QUOTE="GTSaiyanjin2"]

I would like for the game to actually have a story, and maybe have other characters other than Master Chief. I found halo 2, and 3 to be some of the most boring games I've played thanks to the stories in them. Gameplay wise they were good though.

GTSaiyanjin2

Halo, for the most part, has a fantastic story. However, the way it tells its story makes it incredibly dull.

It's like someone standing up in front of an audience trying to describe the greatest discovery of all time, but in dull broken English.

Yeah I know what you mean, thats one of the reasons I'm always disappointed by them. The Halo universe has a lot to offer, yet they dont take advantage of it.

I actually wouldn't have minded Payton filling Halo 4 with a million cutscenes. Would have freshened the franchise up a bit, and got a lot of exposition out of the way.

He probably wanted to do something great and Microsoft wants to continue doing the same old boring thing with this franchise. Bread_or_Decide

Ugh, well if that makes Halo 4 feel like the rest of the Halo games...

As a diehard Halo fan, I'm going to be very disappointed. I've had five Halo games. I think it's time for the Halo franchise to take risks.

FrozenLiquid

[QUOTE="incuensuocha"]I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like 343 is trying too hard to get out of the shadow of Bungie. Their desire to make Halo 4 the perfect Halo game is probably making the project turn messy. Maybe someone needs to step in, lay down the law, and get this ship back on course.sts106mat

Cant blame him why continue with a creative project if you dont have it in you, that usually tends to end up with a mediocre product a perfect example of this is Metallica and St anger and sure as hell Halo fans dont want that :P

Being said Paton's a good guy and im sure he was like this after MGS4 just wanted something new :P

razgriz_101

Ugh, well if that makes Halo 4 feel like the rest of the Halo games...

As a diehard Halo fan, I'm going to be very disappointed. I've had five Halo games. I think it's time for the Halo franchise to take risks.

FrozenLiquid

Completely agree. I've played the same Halo formula for 10 years. I was really hoping this new title would evolve beyond Halo:CE.

I've said it many times before, but I really liked the fake, leaked info about branching storylines, on the fly wepaon mods, and the suit powers being made to work like Crysis.

He did Metal Gears Solid 4?? Good riddance.AkimboBFGNinja

Very true. MGS4 was abysmal, such a poor iterations to an otherwise stella series.

Although you can't deny that perhaps marrying some aspects of MGS4 into Halo would be for the better? Storytelling for one, although MGS' is full of nonsense and rambling, Halo's is rather straight forward and could be handled in a far better way.

Now 343 will have to figure where to spend their multi-millionaire budget, without the ten-hour long sequence of cutscenes (and a whopping 93 minute 38s cutscene). Really, I want to play games, not watch them.

[QUOTE="razgriz_101"]

Cant blame him why continue with a creative project if you dont have it in you, that usually tends to end up with a mediocre product a perfect example of this is Metallica and St anger and sure as hell Halo fans dont want that :P

Being said Paton's a good guy and im sure he was like this after MGS4 just wanted something new :P

WilliamRLBaker

the whole documentary showed they just didnt have it in them to keep going sometimes its pretty common, compared to early Metallica of the 80's especially the burton era they were a totally diffrent band full stop full of life, creative and a lot of great ideas some ideas like S&M did rear their heads after burton's death but there was a steady decline over the 90's early naughties cause Metallica didnt even know itself where it was going.

Well this isn't the best news for 343.

It's understandable Halo rehashes don't exactly inspire creativity I would imagine and that's what he wanted.kuraimen

[QUOTE="incuensuocha"]I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like 343 is trying too hard to get out of the shadow of Bungie. Their desire to make Halo 4 the perfect Halo game is probably making the project turn messy. Maybe someone needs to step in, lay down the law, and get this ship back on course.mayceV