Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin. "Halo 4 Armor Ability tips: how to finish every fight on your feet". Official Xbox Magazine UK. Future plc. p.1. Archived from the original on April 21, 2013 . Retrieved November 11, 2012.

Shea, Jessica (July 14, 2012). "Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 4 Console Bundle and Accessories Revealed at San Diego Comic-Con". Halo Waypoint. 343 Industries. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013 . Retrieved July 15, 2012. Halo 4: Hear Caboose Burn in Another Red vs. Blue Easter Egg". GameFront. Break Media. November 12, 2012. Archived from the original on January 21, 2015 . Retrieved November 16, 2012. OXM Game of the Year 2012 Awards: Gameplay Awards". Official Xbox Magazine. Future plc. December 18, 2012. Archived from the original on December 20, 2012 . Retrieved December 22, 2012. Shea, Jessica (October 1, 2013). "Halo 4: Game of the Year Edition". Halo Waypoint. 343 Industries. Archived from the original on October 7, 2013 . Retrieved October 8, 2013. Jason in Halo 4". The Gadget Show. July 23, 2012. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015 . Retrieved February 25, 2015.

Halo 4 was announced with a trailer at E3 2011, titled "Awakening". [94] It was directed by Joseph Kosinski and visual effects were created by animation company Digital Domain. [94] [95] Kosinski and Digital Domain had collaborated previously on the Halo 3 " Starry Night" commercial. [96] The trailer is set on the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn during the opening events of Halo 4. It depicts the Master Chief being awakened from cryonic sleep by Cortana, as the remnants of the frigate drift towards Requiem. [94] The trailer was short-listed in the Visual Effects and Design categories at the 2012 AICP Show and NEXT Awards. [97] At E3 2012, the presentation of Halo 4 was preceded with a live action segment called "The Commissioning". [101] The video was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and filmed over two and a half days, with four weeks of post-production and visual effects were added by Method Studios. [101] Music in the trailer was scored by Neil Davidge. [68] The video shows the UNSC Infinity vessel being pulled within the confines of the planet Requiem. Mark Rolston portrays Captain Andrew Del Rio in the live action video. [68] Yin-Poole, Wesley (December 28, 2012). "Games of 2012: Halo 4". Eurogamer. Eurogamer Network. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 . Retrieved March 27, 2015.

The senior art director for Halo 4 is Kenneth Scott; he described the visual style of Halo 4 as being more ingrained in the expanded universe fiction, and more "mature" than before. [32] [47] With the game's increased focus on the Forerunners, the artists invested heavily into the look and feel of Forerunner technology. The game also features more diversity in Forerunner structures, including fully active Forerunner technology as opposed to the mostly inert and abandoned structures seen in the earlier games. [32] [48] [49] The majority of the game is lit statically using lightmaps; this allowed the art team to achieve realistic lighting effects with full global illumination and ambient occlusion. Image-based lighting is also used to ground scenes and make everything fit together better. [47] Only Achievements that depend on game servers will be affected.The types of achievementsthat willno longer be available are: Saving humanity is the easy part. In Halo 4, his more difficult task is rescuing Cortana from herself. She is slipping into rampancy – a condition that plagues all UNSC AI constructs after they’ve been in service more than seven years. As their knowledge base expands, they eventually, as Cortana explains, think themselves to death. And that’s the unexpected heart of Halo 4’s greatness. The plot delves deeper into John’s humanity than ever before, but Halo 4 is more about Cortana and the fight for her own – ironically enough – humanity. Smith, Kevin (December 5, 2011). "Talking with the man who assembled the 'Halo Bible' for Microsoft". Official Xbox Magazine. Future plc. p.2. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013 . Retrieved November 24, 2012.Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (November 2, 2012). "Halo 4 updates may add clans, Theatre Mode campaign support in "the not-too-distant future" ". Official Xbox Magazine UK. Future plc. Archived from the original on June 5, 2013 . Retrieved November 3, 2012. The cooperative Spartan Ops mode originally began as a Firefight-type mode, similar to that featured in Halo: Reach, but was composed of different objective-oriented mission types. Over the course of development, changes were made to Spartan Ops to include a narrative that would tie Halo 4 's multiplayer together. The missions were designed primarily for four player co-op. The Spartan Ops development team worked with the narrative team to use ideas and storylines to shape the mode such that the cinematics would tie in with the missions. [50] Golden Reel Award Winners & Nominees: Other". mpse.org. Motion Picture Sound Editors. Archived from the original on February 26, 2015 . Retrieved February 28, 2013.

a b Leone, Matt (October 24, 2012). "Data entry, risk management and tacos: Inside Halo 4's playtest labs". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on July 6, 2013 . Retrieved November 24, 2012.Best Xbox 360 Sound". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on December 1, 2014 . Retrieved December 14, 2012. Holmes explained that one of the goals for Halo 4 's campaign was to incorporate more human elements into the story. To accomplish this the team wrote a B story that explored Master Chief's relationship with his AI partner, Cortana, who would break down into a dementia-like state. [46] The development team realized that Halo 4 's narrative could be dense and hard to approach, making it inaccessible for new players. [33] They found incorporating such a storyline into an action game to be extremely challenging and considered dropping it during development. Holmes was adamant about including it; he took inspiration from his mother's battle with dementia, which she was diagnosed with near the start of the game's development. This led Holmes to want to capture the emotion and tell "a perfect story". [46] A piece of concept art showing the gravity-defying architecture and scenery of the Forerunner planet, Requiem Following Halo 4 's announcement, O'Connor reported that both Master Chief and Cortana would undergo "radical" changes in appearance for the game, some of them attributed to better graphics and others to story elements. [40] The studio wanted Master Chief's appearance to convey an imposing mass and weight, to show that one of his characteristics is his 800-pound (360kg) armor. [41] [42] They studied the armor changes that were made for the Spartans in Halo: Reach, which were much bulkier than renditions in previous Halo games. [42] Character and concept artists began redesigning the Master Chief by creating sketches; these sketches would be rendered into 3D models so the team could analyze the design from every possible angle. The team would then return to creating sketches to make adjustments, and repeat the process until the main structure for the Master Chief was created. The team then worked on the finer details of his appearance. [41] [43] [44] Makuch, Eddie (June 21, 2013). "Microsoft: New Halo for Xbox One is "legitimate" ". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on June 26, 2013 . Retrieved July 9, 2013. On January 19, 2012, McFarlane Toys announced that they would be creating action figures for Halo 4, bringing new characters, weapons and vehicles from the video game to the fans. [73] McFarlane Toys CEO and founder, Todd McFarlane said that he was "really excited to be working with the all-star team of 343 Industries". [73] McFarlane also stated that they would continue and expand their previous figure line which would be rebranded as Halo Universe. [73] On February 14, 2012, toy company Mega Brands revealed a new product series in their Mega Bloks Halo Universe collector's line. [74] Both McFarlane Toys and Mega Brands revealed their figures at the 2012 American International Toy Fair. [74] [75] Jada Toys launched a new line of Halo 4 die-cast toys in August 2012; [76] Sideshow Collectibles also revealed a Halo 4 Premium Cortana Figure. [77] Toy manufacturer Funko released Master Chief, Cortana and Spartan-IV figures for their Pop! Vinyl toyline on November 8, 2012. [78] On June 11, 2012, video game console peripherals manufacturer, Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. announced that they had signed a deal with Microsoft Studios to create a Halo 4-branded gaming headset; the product shipped on October 30, 2012. [79] [80]