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[Darkmakaimura]

The Didact's armor is pretty sweet, but his organic form looked like generic trash from any monster game. I expected a much better design for the forerunners after waiting to see them for so long. At least his voice is perfect.

Isn't the voice actor the same guy who does Harbinger?

I don't really mind the Librarian's look, but the Didact looks like a rejected monster design from a horror game. I'm just disappointed in how plain he looks.

I've heard everything from "space orc" to Voldemort.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

Isn't the voice actor the same guy who does Harbinger?

Yup

 

[Izayoi]

Well I'm not just focusing on that aspect.

I like how they're delving into the Spartans' psychology, specifically John's. The overall massive upgrade in production value efforts, the morality of the Spartan program, the relationship between Chief and Cortana, and not just her physique...

You personally might not be focused on that particular aspect, but they certainly aren't subtle about it.

"Hey, check out Cortana's ass! Hey, look! We scanned someone in! Look, it's Cortana! Look at her!"

Makes the whole thing feel very amateur and fan-fictiony.

 

[TacticalFox88]

Well I'm not just focusing on that aspect.

I like how they're delving into the Spartans' psychology, specifically John's. The overall massive upgrade in production value efforts, the morality of the Spartan program, the relationship between Chief and Cortana, and not just her physique...

I really don't think 343 intended for the relationship to come in...THAT way. Flanderized? Okay, sure I could maybe buy that. But nothing further than that. Neither of them would know what to do even if they DID have such feelings.

 

[Darth Tigris]

You personally might not be focused on that particular aspect, but they certainly aren't subtle about it.

"Hey, check out Cortana's ass! Hey, look! We scanned someone in! Look, it's Cortana! Look at her!"

Makes the whole thing feel very amateur and fan-fictiony.

Don't you mean pancake butt? Seriously, all it did was repel my eyes every time it showed up. It was like a live tile and I half expected it to flip and give me level data. If they were determined to keep her caucasian and wanted to stroke our libidos, maybe they should've based her body on someone like, say ... Jaime Koeppe, Jessica Biel or ... Amazin' Amie even!

 

[Flipyap]

Wouldn't say he's an idiot, but delusional fits. He's the case in point of where stridency for good leads to evil.

I'm really hoping Bear is up to the task of giving us his fall from grace in Silentium. Could be a helluva' story if properly told.

Well, he did lead (and presumably design, or at least approve) an army of robot skeleton/dog monsters that look like they were designed by a troubled 14-year-old boy; he also considers unfreezing his sorry ass (+bots) to somehow equal the return of his master race - definitely delusional, but also quite pitiful and pretty darn stupid.
And then you imagine him actually achieving his goal, sitting on a space throne (floating around on a space segway?) all alone in the whole galaxy, except for his army of mindless automatons created by shoving all of his enemies in a space blender. Mission accomplished... I guess?
He's the worst kind of a poorly motivated, cartoony villain, but he's also supposed to exist in a complex, belivable (?) and suddenly very serious universe.

It would take some serious writerly magic to salvage this story in the final act... of the prologue.

 

[enzo_gt]

See, it's scenery like this that along with Mass Effect has made Halo my favorite space opera universe! Halo 4 looks beautiful from beginning to end and I'm really loving the mythology of this series.

I agree 110%.

I think the Normandy is one of the best designs for ANYTHING all gen. Halo and Mass Effect succeed so much at creating a genuinely interesting sci-fi universe and they needed to both hit the silver screen yesterday. I feel they could be both definitive sci-fi franchises of our time if they just cover the last few bases of media they haven't already touched.

 

[Red_Man]

Have you seen the Domain Terminals? What do you think about this Didact:

This looks better to me.

 

[Fuchsdh]

This looks better to me.

I think what's getting me is they're described as having fur, yet the Didact's "hair" looks more like quills.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I agree 110%.

I think the Normandy is one of the best designs for ANYTHING all gen. Halo and Mass Effect succeed so much at creating a genuinely interesting sci-fi universe and they needed to both hit the silver screen yesterday. I feel they could be both definitive sci-fi franchises of our time if they just cover the last few bases of media they haven't already touched.

There is a serious lack of space opera when it comes to movies nowadays. I wonder if we'll ever see another Star Wars like epic series. Halo and Mass Effect, video game series, both succeed at that.

 

[JB1981]

I miss the Forerunner being mysterious. I get that there was really nowhere else to go, but instead of introducing actual living Forerunner I wish they would've just stuck with the Prometheans or whatever. The Forerunner have no mystique now, and that kinda takes some of the magic out of it. I loved those ominous, empty caverns and structures in Halo CE. Oh well.

Yea it's like Prometheus exploring the Space Jockey. Better left as a mystery

 

[JB1981]

So who created the Halo rings then, humanity a millenia ago or the Forerunners/Prometheans? Isn't the Promethean army just humans converted into something else by the Composer? Even with the these Terminals the story is unbelievably convuluted

 

[enzo_gt]

So who created the Halo rings then, humanity a millenia ago or the Forerunners/Prometheans? Isn't the Promethean army just humans converted into something else by the Composer? Even with the these Terminals the story is unbelievably convuluted

Forerunners.

To get rid of the flood:
Librarian wanted to use the Halos.
Didact wanted to create a Promethean army (wipes out humanity too, kills two birds in one stone).

But the Prometheans were not enough. Forerunners built the Halos anyways, much to Didact's dismay. And eventually the Didact was the one who activated the array anyways, because he was left with no other choice with his crumbling army.

The terminals explain all of this, except for the last bit about Didact activating the array.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

The scene where the Librarian and Chief conversing. Does anyone believe she is a Holographic image of the real Librarian or perhaps an Ancilla with the knowledge, personalities, and different priorities of her?.

According to the new trailer for Spartan Ops Episode 4, Laskey refers to it as an AI. He says "You looking for the Librarian AI that Master Chief encountered?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q17P6gOBFUY

 

[Flipyap]

I agree 110%.

I think the Normandy is one of the best designs for ANYTHING all gen. Halo and Mass Effect succeed so much at creating a genuinely interesting sci-fi universe and they needed to both hit the silver screen yesterday. I feel they could be both definitive sci-fi franchises of our time if they just cover the last few bases of media they haven't already touched.

Mass Effect was especially successful at creating, then promptly destroying its own universe by the time it even wrapped up its obligatory dark middle chapter. An achievement impressive in its own right, when even The Matrix Reloaded remained internally consistent while cartwheeling over the shark in slow motion.
Though it definitely WOULD be fun to watch both franchises get condensed into two hour chunks at the same time, I imagine that would do little but highlight how derivative both of them are in their attempts to tick off every point on the sci-fi trope checklist. Halo at least used to have a unique tone that set it apart from everything else, but if existing live action ads are any indication, that wouldn't survive adapation/evolution/growing up into the one and only respectable medium.

 

[Jake Tower]

Just finished the game... wtf is going on?

Humans fought the Forerunners before? huh?

Prometheans are... what? Human-hologram hybrids?

 

[Fuchsdh]

Mass Effect was especially successful at creating, then promptly destroying its own universe by the time it even wrapped up its obligatory dark middle chapter. An achievement impressive in its own right, when even The Matrix Reloaded remained internally consistent while cartwheeling over the shark in slow motion.
Though it definitely WOULD be fun to watch both franchises get condensed into two hour chunks at the same time, I imagine that would do little but highlight how derivative both of them are in their attempts to tick off every point on the sci-fi trope checklist. Halo at least used to have a unique tone that set it apart from everything else, but if existing live action ads are any indication, that wouldn't survive adapation/evolution/growing up into the one and only respectable medium.

I think you could do right by Halo in two hours, because going back to the source material of The Flood/Halo 1 allows you to work in as much about Halo that *isn't* the Aliens homages and bad tropes. I still think AJ's script was a solid start at creating a film trilogy that could convey the depth of the expanded fiction and still give us entertainment.

 

[enzo_gt]

According to the new trailer for Spartan Ops Episode 4, Laskey refers to it as an AI. He says "You looking for the Librarian AI that Master Chief encountered?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q17P6gOBFUY

The Librarian AI even tells you she's an AI when the Chief talks to her.

 

[NobleGundam]

According to the new trailer for Spartan Ops Episode 4, Laskey refers to it as an AI. He says "You looking for the Librarian AI that Master Chief encountered?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q17P6gOBFUY

Watched it earlier today

Once all Episodes and Chapters are out, could we discuss everything regarding SpOps story? I only keep up with every introduction episodes.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

The Librarian AI even tells you she's an AI when the Chief talks to her.

Fuck, I'm getting old.

 

[Dunlop]

I'm loving the whole spartan ops aspect of this game.

Had a brutal week and forgot about it until I went on the XBOX tonight and ran through the 5 missions.

Really extends the longevity of the game for people who do not want to MP (deathmatch) 24/7

 

[JB1981]

Forerunners.

To get rid of the flood:
Librarian wanted to use the Halos.
Didact wanted to create a Promethean army (wipes out humanity too, kills two birds in one stone).

But the Prometheans were not enough. Forerunners built the Halos anyways, much to Didact's dismay. And eventually the Didact was the one who activated the array anyways, because he was left with no other choice with his crumbling army.

The terminals explain all of this, except for the last bit about Didact activating the array.

I don't get that. I thought the Halo rings wiped out all sentient life in the universe. Oh Didact wanted to wipe the Flood and humanity with his Promethan army and live rather than fire the rings and die

 

[Flipyap]

I don't get that. I thought the Halo rings wiped out all sentient life in the universe. Oh Didact wanted to wipe the Flood and humanity with his Promethan army and live rather than fire the rings and die

Yeah... so, here's the thing... the kind-of-sort-of were two Didacts.
One of them made the stupid robots, the other one reluctantly fired the rings.

If you thought the story presented in the game was convoluted, you should TOTALLY check out the bestselling "Forerunner Trilogy" by Greg Bear! Featuring: Twists within twists! A lot of walking! Misleading non-descriptions! Eating bugs! Space ghosts! Excitement...?

 

[Bsigg12]

Yeah... so, here's the thing... the kind-of-sort-of were two Didacts.
One of them made the stupid robots, the other one reluctantly fired the rings.

If you thought the story presented in the game was convoluted, you should TOTALLY check out the bestselling "Forerunner Trilogy" by Greg Bear! Featuring: Twists within twists! A lot of walking! Misleading non-descriptions! Eating bugs! Space ghosts! Excitement...?

Is the third book out now? I can't remember what the name of it is.

 

[Flipyap]

Is the third book out now? I can't remember what the name of it is.

Silentium. It comes out on March 19, 2013.

 

[enzo_gt]

Yeah... so, here's the thing... the kind-of-sort-of were two Didacts.
One of them made the stupid robots, the other one reluctantly fired the rings.

If you thought the story presented in the game was convoluted, you should TOTALLY check out the bestselling "Forerunner Trilogy" by Greg Bear! Featuring: Twists within twists! A lot of walking! Misleading non-descriptions! Eating bugs! Space ghosts! Excitement...?

Yeah I'm just going to keep pretending there is only one Didact for the foreseeable future. I ain't tryna hear that shit.

 

[Squire]

I'm loving the whole spartan ops aspect of this game.

Had a brutal week and forgot about it until I went on the XBOX tonight and ran through the 5 missions.

Really extends the longevity of the game for people who do not want to MP (deathmatch) 24/7

Absolutely. I love playing these each week.

 

[Jake Tower]

oh fuck..

Cortana reborn in Halo 5

Will she have as big a camel toe as EDI?

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Was this discussed yet?

Halo: Silentium

Plot

In the last years of the Forerunner empire, chaos rules. The Flood has arrived in force, aided by an unexpected ally. Internal strife within the ecumene has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses.

Too little, too late, the legal rate of Juridicals is only now investigating possible crimes by the Master Builder and others. Evidence-gathering agents known collectively as Catalog have been dispatched to collect testimony from the Librarian and both Didacts: the Ur-Didact, treacherously abandoned in a Flood-infested system, and the Bornstellar Didact, who accompanies the Librarian as she preserves specimens against the dire possibility of Halo extermination.

Facing the imminent collapse of their civilization, the Librarian and the Ur-Didact reveal what they know about the relationship between the long-vanished Precursors and the Flood.

The Precursors created many technological species, including humanity and the Forerunners. But the roots of the Flood may be found in an act of enormous barbarity, carried out beyond our galaxy ten million years before...

Because of that barbarism, a greater evil looms. Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian—husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict—hold the keys to a solution. Facing the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time—to prevent an insane evil from dominating the entire universe.

Yeah, this brings me more to believe the ancient evil is not ultimately the Didact again.

 

[Karl2177]

Was this discussed yet?


Yeah, this brings me more to believe the ancient evil is not ultimately the Didact again.

It's been discussed in the Community OTs, but not here. I'm going to be quite disappointed when the whole point of setting up the Didact as an enemy now is to reintroduce him as an ally when the situation is dire. It lacks the depth that the Arbiter->ally had and really takes away from the whole story of Halo 4.

 

[Flipyap]

Was this discussed yet?


Yeah, this brings me more to believe the ancient evil is not ultimately the Didact again.

Er. The Didact is unquestionably this game's ancient evil that has been awakened. As evidenced by him being evil, real old and taking a nap inside his stupid ball.
There will definitely be other ancient(er) evils that might need waking up, but they're not advertising some imaginary future sequel with that tagline.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Er. The Didact is unquestionably this game's ancient evil that has been awakened. As evidenced by him being evil, real old and taking a nap inside his stupid ball.
There will definitely be other ancient(er) evils that might need waking up, but they're not advertising some imaginary future sequel with that tagline.

Kind of wondering if we will see the Precursors mentioned in Spartan Ops. Also thinking about them using MP assets in Spartan Ops wouldn't it be possible thats why we have Spartan Flood models?

 

[Ghost_Protocol]

My Predictions for the future:

Halo 5, chief will get a replacement AI who will play the jealous anime female rival role while the chief keeps reminiscing about Cortana. By the end of the game they discover a way to bring Cortana back.

Halo 6, they bring Cortana back, but, since she was created out of living tissue (and maybe through some crazy forerunner voodoo) they bring her back to life as an actual person. Sex. The end.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Er. The Didact is unquestionably this game's ancient evil that has been awakened. As evidenced by him being evil, real old and taking a nap inside his stupid ball.
There will definitely be other ancient(er) evils that might need waking up, but they're not advertising some imaginary future sequel with that tagline.

I just don't see the Didact as being the main antagonist throughout this trilogy. I'm guessing it's a return of the Flood or something we don't know too much about yet, like possibly the Precursors or the true origins of the Flood (it's still debatable if the Precursors created them).

 

[cool_dude_2049]

So who here thinks the series is completely done with Cortana and will move on to a replacement AI?

 

[blamite]

In Halo 5 the Chief should play each mission with a different AI, and the game ends by telling you to go on Facebook to vote for which one you want to keep for Halo 6.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

So who here thinks the series is completely done with Cortana and will move on to a replacement AI?

Not a chance.

In Halo 5 the Chief should play each mission with a different AI, and the game ends by telling you to go on Facebook to vote for which one you want to keep for Halo 6.

Ouch.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Cortana will be a bad guy in the next game. Bet my left nut. Merged with Didact in some way.

 

[Jake Tower]

Main complaints:

- Forgettable music
- Visually noisy Forerunner architecture
- Lame Tron-like architecture
- Prometheans were not fun to fight
- Cortana turning into Tinker Bell...quite literally
- Overly confusing story...seriously...what was the game about
- Too many corridors...not enough open levels

I could go on. I was hoping for more Halo: Combat Evolved in art direction, storytelling, and level design. Maybe I'll get those things in Halo 5? Maybe from Bungie's next game? Who knows...

Despite my negativity, this was a solid outing from 343. I just yearn for those feelings and experiences I had playing Combat Evolved for the first time when the Forerunner were an unexplained, ominous entity.

+1

 

[Red_Man]

I think what's getting me is they're described as having fur, yet the Didact's "hair" looks more like quills.

That's suppose to be hair? :lol looks exactly like stupid weird quills / spikes, combined with the vampire fangs and the weird red tumors on the side of his head, it's just out of place in the Halo universe imo.

 

[Jake Tower]

Cortana will be a bad guy in the next game. Bet my left nut. Merged with Didact in some way.

 

[Alucrid]

No, it went more like this from my understanding:
- humans and forerunners coexisted, with forerunners being the advanced guys, keepers of the mantle, etc.
- human started to expand a lot, which was seen as a threat and led to war between the two.
- the forerunners barely won that war. And to make sure humans wouldn't be as aggressive in the future, they devolved them, implanting genetic memories and particular conditioning (geas).
- the forerunners found out afterwards humans had been fighting on 2 fronts, against the flood and them. The flood was what drove their expansion to begin with.
- the forerunners went to war with the flood, got fucked for a number of reasons and resorted to using the halo array while seeds of all species were preserved to reseed afterwards.

Ahh, okay. Thanks, that makes sense. I suppose I should get around to reading the books, or at least the wiki eventually.

 

[Monumental]

You personally might not be focused on that particular aspect, but they certainly aren't subtle about it.

"Hey, check out Cortana's ass! Hey, look! We scanned someone in! Look, it's Cortana! Look at her!"

Makes the whole thing feel very amateur and fan-fictiony.

I have been made dumber after reading this post. An extremely tiny but irritating amount of people have looked at Halo 4 and made some crass remarks about Cortana and how 343 handled her appearance. This is so incredibly stupid. It's people actively displaying their own sleazy mindset about something that hasn't been sexualized at all.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I have been made dumber after reading this post. An extremely tiny but irritating amount of people have looked at Halo 4 and made some crass remarks about Cortana and how 343 handled her appearance. This is so incredibly stupid. It's people actively displaying their own sleazy mindset about something that hasn't been sexualized at all.

Speaking of which, did they ever explain why Cortana's appearance changed so much between 3 and 4?

 

[Giard]

Just finished the game, I have a really stupid question...

How did Master Chief survive the nuclear blast? Did Cortana teleport him into a bubble shield as he pressed the detonator? That makes no sense.

 

[Jake Tower]

I have been made dumber after reading this post. An extremely tiny but irritating amount of people have looked at Halo 4 and made some crass remarks about Cortana and how 343 handled her appearance. This is so incredibly stupid. It's people actively displaying their own sleazy mindset about something that hasn't been sexualized at all.

I don't know how anyone can look at this and not see a character design made deliberately more sexual (as in erotic):

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

I have been made dumber after reading this post. An extremely tiny but irritating amount of people have looked at Halo 4 and made some crass remarks about Cortana and how 343 handled her appearance. This is so incredibly stupid. It's people actively displaying their own sleazy mindset about something that hasn't been sexualized at all.

Ha. My wife walked into the room during a cut scene, was like "wtf why is there a naked blue girl" and I was like "uhh... it's the main character's computer girlfriend" and she was just like "damn Captain Chief is an otaku."

 

[Der Flatulator]

Another question:

Is it actually known which Didact we awaken in Halo 4? Obviously the Didact that composed the first humans, but was that the Ur or Bornstellar Didact? As far as I know 'the' Didact, after finding out that the Librarian had died, fired the Halo array, but I don't know if that was the Ur-Didact or Bornstellar.
Also, has it been detailed how the Ur-Didact escaped the flood infected planet/system that Faber left him to die on?
​

This lore is getting really complicated.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Ha. My wife walked into the room during a cut scene, was like "wtf why is there a naked blue girl" and I was like "uhh... it's the main character's computer girlfriend" and she was just like "damn Captain Chief is an otaku."

Yeah I'm pretty sure you could show Cortana to any person out there and they would wonder why it's a naked blue chick. That's not just a few people being prudes.

A lot of the reason has to do with the transparency, though--the Halo 1 and Halo 2 incarnations, besides not being as busty, are a lot more transparent and formless.

Another question:

Is it actually known which Didact we awaken in Halo 4? Obviously the Didact that composed the first humans, but was that the Ur or Bornstellar Didact? As far as I know 'the' Didact, after finding out that the Librarian had died, fired the Halo array, but I don't know if that was the Ur-Didact or Bornstellar.
Also, has it been detailed how the Ur-Didact escaped the flood infected planet/system that Faber left him to die on?
​

This lore is getting really complicated.

No, but my bet from what we know from the previous two Bear books is that we awakened the Ur-Didact who goes off the deep end in Silentium, while the Bornstellar-Didact who's replaced him by the Librarian's side is the one who fires the rings.

 

[Flipyap]

Another question:

Is it actually known which Didact we awaken in Halo 4? Obviously the Didact that composed the first humans, but was that the Ur or Bornstellar Didact. As far as I know 'the' Didact, after finding out that the Librarian had died, fired the Halo array, but I don't know if that was the Ur-Didact or Bornstellar.
Also, has it been detailed how the Ur-Didact escaped the flood infected planet/system that Faber left him to die on?
​

This lore is getting really complicated.

Not yet, but it's the Bornstellar Didact who's described as having "betrayed them all", which doesn't seem to fit the Halo 3's Didact, who eventually carried out the Librarian's plan (assuming we're not about to get hit with a twist within a twist within a twist, or introduced to a few more Didacts for the hell of it).
The whole Flood-infested system thing doesn't even come into play until Silentium. As far as readers who aren't aware of the third book's description know, the original Didact died in Cryptum.