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[Juan]

Yeah, I reeeeally wouldn't read too much into it. Seems like like setting yourself up for disappointment.

Yeah you're absolutely right, better not expecting something "that" big and just wait instead.

Can't believe how poorly this game performed.

Fact under 8% have got this achievement is astounding to me - is it that shocking or am I being a bit sensitive?

That is so sad really... Most of the achievement I get on the MCC are diamond ones, it has always hurted me...

 

[Prinz Eugn]

Can't believe how poorly this game performed.

Fact under 8% have got this achievement is astounding to me - is it that shocking or am I being a bit sensitive?

Well, given how it performed at launch it was an achievement finding and finishing a match without it crashing or dropping you, much less winning 50 of them. By the time it was working okay a huge chunk of people had moved onto other games.

 

[Nollemaster]

I just played some Halo 3 BC with a friend to celebrate its 10th anniversary (Europe had the 26 release). I can play this game forever and still have fun, especially with the GOAT multi-team matchmaking playlist (2v2v2v2) and even with the peer-to-peer networking which just feels authentic at this point lol.

I can't believe it's been 10 years. All those fun Halo 3 memories from when I was a teen feel so vivid, as if it was yesterday.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Can't believe how poorly this game performed.

Fact under 8% have got this achievement is astounding to me - is it that shocking or am I being a bit sensitive?

You're being sensitive. Achievement unlock ratios have nothing to do with the quality or lack thereof of any game. They're comically low for a lot of games.

Even on sites like TrueAchievements, filled with completionists, only 71% of gamers have completed Halo 3 on Normal, ten years on (versus 22% of the general population). Fully 40% of Halo 5 players never completed the first mission, and less than 30% completed three games of Warzone.

Huge numbers of players either stick in their lane and only play very select portions of game experiences, or they pick up a game, play it for a week or a month and then move on to the next game.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

I did specifically pick a multiplayer achievement on purpose mate.

I also made no comment on quality.

 

[Fuchsdh]

I did specifically pick a multiplayer achievement on purpose mate.

I also made no comment on quality.

My point stands. Less than half of players played enough games to reach rank 10 in Call of Duty Black Ops II. Only 2% of CoD: Advanced Warfare players have played 50 Exo matches. 45% of Gears of War III players didn't play enough of the game in total to reach Rank 10. Could go on and on... unlock percentages are incredibly low across most games.

Your argument that unlock percentages have any relevance to how a game has performed is specious.

 

[AlStrong]

I ended up getting Mythos, and it's quite nice... but again, it's a big hardcover book.

Oof, completely forgot to reply. I'll have to look into Warfleet. Mythos was alright, but I was mainly thinking of Halo 5's Art book, and I just came away less than satisfied compared to Halo 4's book. I suppose I was expecting more insight? I think what rubbed me the wrong way was that after getting the book, there was a post on Waypoint not long after the release that had other art that wasn't in the book itself. Not that they *have* to include every single piece of art in their office, but... eh.

I've gotten rid of a fair few of my Halo novels and converted them to digital. Down to just Glasslands, Thursday War, Evolutions, Primoridium and Silentium. I'll probably swap them eventually when iTunes or Amazon has a reasonable sale (and if anyone has room and wants the books and is wiling to pay for shipping, shoot me a PM.)

I condensed down all my disc-based games into a CD/DVD binder as well; I'm not getting rid of my Halo games so the original packaging doesn't much interest me.

I still keep my hard copies, but I suppose they're more of a collection of mementos (including the games, and still one unopened pre-order copy of the Halo 2 LE. lol). I also like the hardcovers of the Forerunner Trilogy (still grumble about the change in art for Silentium ).

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

My point stands. Less than half of players played enough games to reach rank 10 in Call of Duty Black Ops II. Only 2% of CoD: Advanced Warfare players have played 50 Exo matches. 45% of Gears of War III players didn't play enough of the game in total to reach Rank 10. Could go on and on... unlock percentages are incredibly low across most games.

Your argument that unlock percentages have any relevance to how a game has performed is specious.

Fully accept percentages being low, even lower than I anticipated.

However, with your responses, you're sort of proving my point of Halo looking "exceptionally" low.

Then my point morphs, do you consider Halo MCC's performance to be wholly consistent with everyone else?

 

[Fuchsdh]

Fully accept percentages being low, even lower than I anticipated.

However, with your responses, you're sort of proving my point of Halo looking "exceptionally" low.

Then my point morphs, do you consider Halo MCC's performance to be wholly consistent with everyone else?

Insofar as achievement unlocks? Yeah. It's not at all a good indicator of player retention, and MCC's ratios seem roughly in line with similar types of games of similar vintage.

That MCC was perceived as a debacle and is even now seen as broken beyond the actual technical problems seems inarguable, so I don't really see the point in even trying to use achievement unlocks to prove some point. We still have people asking "can you play MCC" years after the fact now. I'm sure if Bonnie Ross and Frankie had a time machine they would have already zipped back to 2013, shot their past selves, and just released H2A, and we'd all have been much happier for it. C'est la vie.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

Let's play some together now.

Such a phenomenal product executed poorly.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Let's play some together now.

Such a phenomenal product executed poorly.

GT's same as my GAF handle.

Right now I'm working on Awakening the Nightmare, though

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

I'm sure if Bonnie Ross and Frankie had a time machine they would have already zipped back to 2013, shot their past selves, and just released H2A, and we'd all have been much happier for it. C'est la vie.

Despite all of its issues, I'm glad TMCC exists and that it wasn't just H2A.

 

[Madness]

Why play a substandard game that barely worked for well over a month. It wasn't until Christmas that the game became stable. If you can't ensure launch day, week, month works, you can kiss the playerbase goodbye.

It is why even games that launch well but are super barebones like H5 get abandoned quick. If H5 launched as it is now at launch, you would have seen way more content, community and players.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Despite all of its issues, I'm glad TMCC exists and that it wasn't just H2A.

Personally, I am too, but I think it's inarguable from a player goodwill standpoint 343 and the franchise would have been a lot better off with the alternate reality.

 

[Fata1moose]

.

 

[Karl2177]

Despite all of its issues, I'm glad TMCC exists and that it wasn't just H2A.

But if you could have a standalone H2A, HCEA+, H3(With A coming in 2017), and H4 that all worked; would you take the MCC over those?

 

[m23]

Despite all of its issues, I'm glad TMCC exists and that it wasn't just H2A.

Same. Getting to replay all the Halo games in co-op at 60fps was amazing. It's a shame the game didn't work as it should have, but it definitely gave me enjoyment.

 

[Radiant Silvertuna]

Got my Xbox One S and MCC a few weeks ago. Working my way through the campaigns now, then I'll look into getting Reach and ODST in holiday sales. What's the difference between ODST MCC and BC? 60fps vs Firefight?

 

[Woorloog]

Got my Xbox One S and MCC a few weeks ago. Working my way through the campaigns now, then I'll look into getting Reach and ODST in holiday sales. What's the difference between ODST MCC and BC? 60fps vs Firefight?

Higher resolution and 60 fps make ODST campaign very enjoyable. But if you intend to spend time in Firefight... well.

 

[Radiant Silvertuna]

Higher resolution and 60 fps make ODST campaign very enjoyable. But if you intend to spend time in Firefight... well.

I don't know really, I've read that Reach has a really good firefight mode? I doubt I'd need two different firefights.

 

[Woorloog]

I don't know really, I've read that Reach has a really good firefight mode? I doubt I'd need two different firefights.

They're very different. Not only does Reach have rather different mechanics from Halo 3/ODST (hitscan weapons, different movement, AI has more health, etc., collectively making the game worse IMO), the Firefight is more like a shooting gallery rather than an endurance survival mode. ODST Firefight lasts until you lose, Reach's has cap on it by default.
It is customizable unlike ODST's though.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Personally, I am too, but I think it's inarguable from a player goodwill standpoint 343 and the franchise would have been a lot better off with the alternate reality.

Maybe, but I don't think that's saying much. Simply not having TMCC exist would have kept the goodwill above what it is now lol.

But if you could have a standalone H2A, HCEA+, H3(With A coming in 2017), and H4 that all worked; would you take the MCC over those?

Releasing each game one by one would have been the better option, not only for development concerns, but to maintain the marketing drive to build momentum going into Halo 6.

 

[TCKaos]

Can't believe how poorly this game performed.

Fact under 8% have got this achievement is astounding to me - is it that shocking or am I being a bit sensitive?

Don't think too much about it. If you look at achievement unlock rates you'll find that the vast majority of people don't really start or finish the games they play. Something like 40-60% of players never finished the first mission of MGSV, and even achievements like opening your inventory in Minecraft have stupidly low percentages of completion.

It's a weird games thing, not necessarily a weird Halo thing.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

The thing with MCC achievements is that there’s like 600 of them and the game has 5.5 games worth of content. I didn’t play a whole lot of multiplayer, but I played an enormous amount of campaign. The time each player sinks into each segment of the game is going to look wildly different, so you’re going to have a lot of content that’s played by a smaller slice of the base compared to past games.

 

[Juan]

So, I guess we will get a Halo-like serie thanks to Amazon long before we ever get a glimpse of the Halo serie made with Spielberg?

From Polygon (following a report from Variety):

Amazon is developing three new original science fiction adaptations from some titans of the genre, according to a new report from Variety.

Larry Niven’s Ringworld is being co-produced by Amazon and MGM, based on the 1970s scifi series that influenced not only other authors in the genre but also the Halo franchise.

Snow Crash, Ringworld and Lazarus would join 67 TV series and 20 movies that Amazon currently has in some state of production or preproduction. Polygon has reached out to Amazon for comment and confirmation.

 

[Poodlestrike]

So, I guess we will get a Halo-like serie thanks to Amazon long before we ever get a glimpse of the Halo serie made with Spielberg?

From Polygon (following a report from Variety):

Ringworld (despite the titular Ringworld) isn't really anything like Halo.

 

[Prinz Eugn]

Ringworld (despite the titular Ringworld) isn't really anything like Halo.

They aren't that different. Big rings in space with planet-like environments on the inside built by some ancient super-high technology alien civilization. Ringworld is purely a habitat, and much, much bigger (a star is in the middle), while Halo is mainly a super weapon, and there are multiple Halos.

343i also later adapted "ZOMG ancient humanz!" which are also in the "Known Space" universe.

 

[Juan]

Ringworld (despite the titular Ringworld) isn't really anything like Halo.

Hmmm, really depend what you're looking for. It shares a lot of the lore regarding species, being human or not, the installation that is the Ringworld, etc...

But sure, there are not Spartans or Covenant there, I was mostly sharing this because it's funny to see we may see a serie with a ringworld well before we will get a trailer of the official Halo serie.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

Never read Ringworld or the other novels. How far off is it from say, the Forerunner Saga?

 

[Fuchsdh]

They aren't that different. Big rings in space with planet-like environments on the inside built by some ancient super-high technology alien civilization. Ringworld is purely a habitat, and much, much bigger (a star is in the middle), while Halo is mainly a super weapon, and there are multiple Halos.

343i also later adapted "ZOMG ancient humanz!" which are also in the "Known Space" universe.

The closer analog to the Halo series is the Culture, though, right down to the Orbitals. Everyone remembers Ringworld because it's in the name, but Bungie didn't really take much inspiration from it.

 

[Prinz Eugn]

Never read Ringworld or the other novels. How far off is it from say, the Forerunner Saga?

Completely different. There are a couple shared core concepts, like a "ring world" and the aforementioned ancient humanity, but their nature is otherwise totally different.

Ringworld (and sequels) take place in Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe, which has a ton of other stories and lore unrelated to Ringworld at all.

They are pretty much all super good, by the way.

 

[Woorloog]

Completely different. There are a couple shared core concepts, like a "ring world" and the aforementioned ancient humanity, but their nature is otherwise totally different.

Ringworld (and sequels) take place in Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe, which has a ton of other stories and lore unrelated to Ringworld at all.

They are pretty much all super good, by the way.

Ringworld and Ringworld's Engineers are good. The later sequels are... questionable.
No comment on other works by Niven, haven't read them, Known Space or otherwise.

 

[Poodlestrike]

They aren't that different. Big rings in space with planet-like environments on the inside built by some ancient super-high technology alien civilization. Ringworld is purely a habitat, and much, much bigger (a star is in the middle), while Halo is mainly a super weapon, and there are multiple Halos.

343i also later adapted "ZOMG ancient humanz!" which are also in the "Known Space" universe.

Hmmm, really depend what you're looking for. It shares a lot of the lore regarding species, being human or not, the installation that is the Ringworld, etc...

But sure, there are not Spartans or Covenant there, I was mostly sharing this because it's funny to see we may see a serie with a ringworld well before we will get a trailer of the official Halo serie.

I meant more that Halo is mil sci fi, Ringworld is... well, not.

 

[Fata1moose]

.

 

[Trup1aya]

Ancient advanced humans is the dumbest thing about Halo's lore which is why I ignore most of the expanded universe. Of course it's a genre trope and not exclusive to Halo.

Yup. So dumb. And the way it was just pulled out of thin air for people who only play the games it was so cheap... this is why don't understand why people like H4s story.

 

[Prinz Eugn]

I meant more that Halo is mil sci fi, Ringworld is... well, not.

Damn eponyms

Edit: While we're here, ancient humans and ring-ed worlds were cribbed from Larry Niven (maybe), but did you know both ancestral memories and a war against sentient machines were probably borrowed from Frank Herbert?

Spoiler

Chief is the Kwisatz Haderach

 

[AlStrong]

When you rish upon a star,
Makes no difference what you are.

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

Ancient advanced humans is the dumbest thing about Halo's lore which is why I ignore most of the expanded universe. Of course it's a genre trope and not exclusive to Halo.

But the bulk of it is from the Forerunner Saga, which is easily the best Halo story. So nah.

Plus, it sort of works back in the original lore of the Forerunners themselves being ancient humans, which is kind of neat.

 

[Woorloog]

Damn eponyms

Edit: While we're here, ancient humans and ring-ed worlds were cribbed from Larry Niven (maybe), but did you know both ancestral memories and a war against sentient machines were probably borrowed from Frank Herbert?

Spoiler

Chief is the Kwisatz Haderach

I disagree the Prometheans as a concept are stolen from Dune. A robot war is not exactly uncommon trope in scifi.
And Frank Herbert didn't ever show that except maybe one scene in God Emperor of Dune that may have been from the Butlerian Jihad. In any case, the Butlerian Jihad is implicitly more of a war against machine-mindedness than directly against robots. Unless you count the terrible books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...

As for ancestral memories... a bit too fuzzy to say one way or another. Not uncommon trope either, though perhaps Dune popularized it?


Speaking of Ringworld, as i understand it, Halos are more like Orbitals or something like that from Ian M. Bank's Culture series. At least when it comes to size, Niven's Ringworld is mindbogglingly big. That said, since Bungie at times implied the Forerunners were ancient humans, the Ringworld is a probably inspiration for Halo's world.

 

[Prinz Eugn]

I disagree the Prometheans as a concept are stolen from Dune. A robot war is not exactly uncommon trope in scifi.
And Frank Herbert didn't ever show that except maybe one scene in God Emperor of Dune that may have been from the Butlerian Jihad. In any case, the Butlerian Jihad is implicitly more of a war against machine-mindedness than directly against robots. Unless you count the terrible books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...

As for ancestral memories... a bit too fuzzy to say one way or another. Not uncommon trope either, though perhaps Dune popularized it?


Speaking of Ringworld, as i understand it, Halos are more like Orbitals or something like that from Ian M. Bank's Culture series. At least when it comes to size, Niven's Ringworld is mindbogglingly big. That said, since Bungie at times implied the Forerunners were ancient humans, the Ringworld is a probably inspiration for Halo's world.

The whole Cortana "Created" reveal reeks of the Butlerian Jihad to me, and that was mentioned in the original novel. Plus Stinkles is a known Dune fanboi

Ringworld undoubtedly inspired Culture it seems to me, but I'm thinking more along just the visuals of the ring. I mean, there is loads of sci-fi art of Ringworld that almost had to be used as references for Halo skyboxes.

 

[Madness]

I hope they look at how Cerberus in ME3 and DeeBees in Gears 4 played out and find some way to make the Created better than their first attempt with the Prometheans. They should be fun to fight,fun to kill and tense to run from at times like Covenant and Flood.

 

[mcrommert]

The whole Cortana "Created" reveal reeks of the Butlerian Jihad to me, and that was mentioned in the original novel. Plus Stinkles is a known Dune fanboi

Ringworld undoubtedly inspired Culture it seems to me, but I'm thinking more along just the visuals of the ring. I mean, there is loads of sci-fi art of Ringworld that almost had to be used as references for Halo skyboxes.

ALL sci-fi is derivative... Though not as obviously as much as fantasy is and what it owes to tolkien

 

[Fuchsdh]

I hope they look at how Cerberus in ME3 and DeeBees in Gears 4 played out and find some way to make the Created better than their first attempt with the Prometheans. They should be fun to fight,fun to kill and tense to run from at times like Covenant and Flood.

Well, the entire potential with the Created arc is that 343 could take the opportunity to completely blow up and rework the factions the player fights in a way that has literally never happened in the franchise's history.

There's religious armies out there that worship the Forerunners as gods still but include humans in their ranks. There's a Kig-Yar who wants to create her own Jackal dominion and move her people away from their specious pirating ways. There's a bunch of disaffected low rungs of interstellar society who now have the chance to be the enforcers for what seems like a real winner to them—and so now the Grunts get shiny new mechs. Even if the Prometheans remain unaltered (and really with Halo 5 my only beef with them really comes down to some aesthetic choices) there's plenty of other combat roles they could fill with different enemy combinations and factions.

 

[NippleViking]

I hope they look at how Cerberus in ME3 and DeeBees in Gears 4 played out and find some way to make the Created better than their first attempt with the Prometheans. They should be fun to fight,fun to kill and tense to run from at times like Covenant and Flood.

As Fuchsdh says above, I've always perceived the Created as 343i's opportunity to rework the game's existing ecology, tools and encounters, rather than introduce new enemies all-together. You'll get reworked Blue Prometheans, and then a ton of new interesting tech invented by the Created for existing enemies - e.g. Grunt Mech. And hopefully within that 343i will design some interesting new synergies.

I'm not up to date with lore, but what are the chances of the Banished allying with Cortana?

 

[Trup1aya]

Well, the entire potential with the Created arc is that 343 could take the opportunity to completely blow up and rework the factions the player fights in a way that has literally never happened in the franchise's history.

There's religious armies out there that worship the Forerunners as gods still but include humans in their ranks. There's a Kig-Yar who wants to create her own Jackal dominion and move her people away from their specious pirating ways. There's a bunch of disaffected low rungs of interstellar society who now have the chance to be the enforcers for what seems like a real winner to them—and so now the Grunts get shiny new mechs. Even if the Prometheans remain unaltered (and really with Halo 5 my only beef with them really comes down to some aesthetic choices) there's plenty of other combat roles they could fill with different enemy combinations and factions.

My thing is, the created arc wasn't needed AT ALL in order for 343 to capitalize on the opportunity to rework the factions.

Everything was already in place for them to tell the of post-Covenant power struggles and the unlikely alliances littered throughout out the galaxy prior to the Created emerging.

Lore fans already knew that UNCS was back to squashing insurrectionists, that some rebels have teamed up with ex-Covey's, that Jackals were trying to rise up in the pecking order, that ONI was trying to back-stab the Sangheli, that M'dama was calling ONI out on their bullshit, despite being a massive Bullshitter himself, that the secrets of the Spartan program were slipping out, that lower-rug species were seeking out Forerunner tech etc.

it was all right there, ripe for picking- all 343 had to do was choose to show this side of the Universe in H5.

Instead, they pulled a completely new arc out of thin air, and dedicated an entire game to it.

 

[Juan]

So, this is Halo Recruit in action.

Well, I guess I can forget my dream of 343 going back to the old design after I played Halo Wars 2...

I would say it's a cool introduction to the Halo's fauna, but even if I knew we should not expect a lot, I was a bit disappointed to see this take place in a UNSC ship simulator and you shot 2D sprites of Covenant units...

I mean, did 343 limite themselves regarding new Halo experiences, or was it because it was a small side project they didn't offer more? Like, be creative, why not offering the same shooting experience on a Halo ring, using the power of VR to bring us to new worlds?

One fan tried new things with the idea of VR Halo. It is far far from perfect, and I'm sure 343/Microsoft wanted a more simple yet controlled and mastered experience when bringing Halo to VR, but I don't feel like they were inspired for this one.

Again, I don't know if they are limiting themselves or they couldn't afford more with the goal of this VR experience.

 

[AlStrong]

I thought it was just a side project demo they threw together to get a feel for the tech.

 

[wwm0nkey]

So, this is Halo Recruit in action.

Well, I guess I can forget my dream of 343 going back to the old design after I played Halo Wars 2...

I would say it's a cool introduction to the Halo's fauna, but even if I knew we should not expect a lot, I was a bit disappointed to see this take place in a UNSC ship simulator and you shot 2D sprites of Covenant units...

I mean, did 343 limite themselves regarding new Halo experiences, or was it because it was a small side project they didn't offer more? Like, be creative, why not offering the same shooting experience on a Halo ring, using the power of VR to bring us to new worlds?

One fan tried new things with the idea of VR Halo. It is far far from perfect, and I'm sure 343/Microsoft wanted a more simple yet controlled and mastered experience when bringing Halo to VR, but I don't feel like they were inspired for this one.

Again, I don't know if they are limiting themselves or they couldn't afford more with the goal of this VR experience.

Small budget, probably not a whole bunch of time to make it, and MS probably wanted it to be small for the launch of MR so they can easily demo it at stores (which is where I will be trying it out to see if I want a MR headset)

 

[Fuchsdh]

Can't fault AAA game makers for being gunshy on AR/VR. I don't have a room in my NY apartment I could actually use one.

 

[Trup1aya]

So, this is Halo Recruit in action.

Well, I guess I can forget my dream of 343 going back to the old design after I played Halo Wars 2...

I would say it's a cool introduction to the Halo's fauna, but even if I knew we should not expect a lot, I was a bit disappointed to see this take place in a UNSC ship simulator and you shot 2D sprites of Covenant units...

I mean, did 343 limite themselves regarding new Halo experiences, or was it because it was a small side project they didn't offer more? Like, be creative, why not offering the same shooting experience on a Halo ring, using the power of VR to bring us to new worlds?

One fan tried new things with the idea of VR Halo. It is far far from perfect, and I'm sure 343/Microsoft wanted a more simple yet controlled and mastered experience when bringing Halo to VR, but I don't feel like they were inspired for this one.

Again, I don't know if they are limiting themselves or they couldn't afford more with the goal of this VR experience.

I wouldn't look to much into this. 343 is just getting their feet wet with VR development, and MS wanted them to throw something together for launch