Number 1 son at 20 obviously playiong this at Uni. anyone played it and willing to advise. is there enough to make it worth buying as an occasional gamer?
Any changes wich would make it (more) difficult to keep up at Christmas?

Basicly, do I buy it?

I'haven't played Halo 4 specifically but my general opinion would be.. if you're a 'casual gamer' you're never going to be able to keep up with the competitive multiplayer part of any online community. You just aren't. You're playing a couple of hours at the weekend maybe and you're competing against people who play three or four hours a night six nights a week and would play more if they could. It's like trying to keep up with an professional athlete if you go for a jog on a Sunday morning. This is true for Halo, CoD, Battlefield, Starcraft etc.

The 1P game of Halo 4 is reportedly excellent and the 'Spartan Ops' co-op mode looks pretty good and will be unlocking over time, so you're going to be roughly at the same level as everyone else regardless of how many hours you put in. If you're looking for something to play with your son over the internet, Halo 4 spartan ops is what I would suggest. Either that or Borderlands 2, which is also an excellent online co-op game.

But seriously, if you're a casual gamer stay away from the competitive stuff and particularly any team competitive games. They're a recipe for just getting abused by ill-mannered 13 year olds who do next to nothing but practice the game you're trying to beat them at.

Jon

Well that makes me feel old.
I'm just a casual gamer, so have avoided the online areas. The few times I have watched online stuff the people on have irritated me.
I have a feeling that some/many are too old to be spending so much time online, but if it keeps them off the streets........

Just didn't want to totally ermbarrass myself. Used to be.. adequate. Might just play the game.

I can attest to what Jon's saying

On a similar note, I find muting the sound completely and playing rock music makes me a better online player somehow

That is why online play is useless for a slow coach like me. Single player only for me. Unless game developers maintain a decent single player option then they alienate a large slice of the market.

The single player campaign of Halo 4 is reported to be very good indeed, almost makes me wish I'd bought an Xbox. Almost.

The last game I played online was Left 4 Dead, I tend not to play games online these days for two reasons:

1) I don't really have the time

2) I don't enjoy playing with obnoxious thirteen-year-olds.

Same here but mainly #2

As a sometime half life 2 deathmatch player, there's nothing better than whupping arrogant teens. Especially if they've got the voice chat thing on.
Yes, sometimes I bully young uns. I've even been banned from one server... And I'm not that good.

Good for you. I am not that fussed about MP but what is the SP version like?

HL2 is, I think, a superb game in single player. If you don't own it, you should.
Also, I have my own HL2 DM server now.

Absolutely.

HL2 is one of the best games I've ever played. (And I never really played the online stuff) the story is awesome. A good 15 hours of game play at least.

The only game that I think beats it (if you count it as an individual game) is HL2 Ep2. Lol!

Brilliant story and some of the scenes you end up in are beautiful to look at and hard to master.

You can buy the whole lot (including Portal which is another great game) on Steam I think. Not much money now either.

I have Halo 2. Played it but cannot remember it.

Hmm... I think that was the one with the beach landing in that helicopter thing.

I played through that with my housemate on legendary. Lol! Was good fun to do that!

It's so good, that when walking down the stairs at Queensway tube station, in my head I was wondering if there'd be a Combine guard at the foot of the stairs with a stun stick.