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[jem0208]

Agreed for the first part - and the motion capture of 4 and onwards greatly enhances the emotions you can see out of the faceless character. The fist clench in the legendary ending is what I keep coming back to, it's such a little thing but if you can read body language, and know Chiefs character doesn't show emotions externally, you know it means a lot.


I'd be interested in some non covanant and promethean enemies too, also non-human (I'm not really down for fighting human rebels). Like that race that crash landed on one of the Halos in the terminal videos. If they achieved space faring so much earlier than the covies or humans, if they havn't wiped themselves out or reset themselves they must be very advanced by now.

And I also believe the forerunners are still alive, what are the chances they saved every other race but no members of their own species? They may just be hiding away not bothering other species.

Well we know they're alive, there's the Didact for one.


I don't think we'll be fighting any actual Forerunners at any point though, other than maybe the Didact.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Well we know they're alive, there's the Didact for one.


I don't think we'll be fighting any actual Forerunners at any point though, other than maybe the Didact.

I mean alive as a species, not just the Didact, maybe the Librarian and a few more. I think they're just hiding away in some far off star system avoiding being found by the other species, as they no longer try to control everything.

 

[Schweinehund]

I think you're wrong there. I could read every emotion of him because he was me. That's the concept of a faceless hero.

@Halo 5 discussion
I think 343i has to introduce a new enemy. Not just one, a whole race with thinking individuals, like the Elites in previous Halo games. I don't like the concept of 1 enemy with brainless robots.

Cortanna kind of makes light of it sometimes, she wonders which of the two (her or chief) is actually a machine, and touches his chest to see if he has a heart. He's meant to be hard to read and I think its a theme 343 wants to explore.

 

[Faith]

Cortanna kind of makes light of it sometimes, she wonders which of the two (her or chief) is actually a machine, and touches his chest to see if he has a heart. He's meant to be hard to read and I think its a theme 343 wants to explore.

Be he still has some kind of body language, not much...but you can read it.

Best scene: he refuses to hand over Cortana to Captain Del Rio. He never did that before. He never disobeys.

If he finds out what they did to Dr. Halsey...I don't know how he will react.

 

[Gestault]

Just finished halo 4's singleplayer, it was pretty amazing. I don't have gold so I won't be trying halo 4 online.

Its hard to take chief seriously since he never takes off his damn helmet and you can't read his emotions. Add onto that his monotone voice and it's kind of awkward to see him in these dramatic cortonna/chief scenes. He's almost as bad of a protagonist as kratos is, as far as the player being able to relate to. I guess chief's humanity is one of the themes they're going to explore under 343's direction.

Particularly in Halo 4, I can't agree with the premise that the Master Chief character lacked evocation/emotion. The body-language and tone was well handled, and almost shouted the underlying feelings at times. I don't think the helmet hid anything.

 

[Faith]

I really enjoyed the story of Halo 4. Although the A->B->Press button C design was kind of annoying. There was still a lot more substance in terms of emotions. Masterchief was nobody in Halo 1 & Halo 2, he was just a hero without emotions, without identity.

He became a human in Halo 3 and even developed further in Halo 4. At the end he was even talking to himself "she said that to me once, about being a machine".

I really liked this development of his character.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Particularly in Halo 4, I can't agree with the premise that the Master Chief character lacked evocation/emotion. The body-language and tone was well handled, and almost shouted the underlying feelings at times. I don't think the helmet hid anything.

Im not a big fan of 4 but I definitely give it credit for trying to give game Chief some much needed emotion and such.

 

[Computer]

Chief going to be pissed when he finds out what they did to his mama.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Chief going to be pissed when he finds out what they did to his mama.

Without Cortana there it's up to him to make "Need a hand?" jokes.

 

[kittens]

I really enjoyed the story of Halo 4. Although the A->B->Press button C design was kind of annoying. There was still a lot more substance in terms of emotions. Masterchief was nobody in Halo 1 & Halo 2, he was just a hero without emotions, without identity.

He became a human in Halo 3 and even developed further in Halo 4. At the end he was even talking to himself "she said that to me once, about being a machine".

I really liked this development of his character.

I enjoyed literally everything but the Forerunners. The UNSC stuff was cool, it was interesting to see a new Covenant faction, the developments with Cortana were interesting... But the expansion of the Forerunner's role in the present day Halo world just bores the hell out of me.

 

[Faith]

I enjoyed literally everything but the Forerunners. The UNSC stuff was cool, it was interesting to see a new Covenant faction, the developments with Cortana were interesting... But the expansion of the Forerunner's role in the present day Halo world just bores the hell out of me.

Why? The Forerunners were always the reason for everything in previous Halo games.

 

[TheOddOne]

Posted this over in the Halo 4 OT, but I think some people might like this BECAUSE PICTURES.

Darren Bacon, formerly of Bungie, has joined 343 as Senior Concept Artist. He had the same title over at Bungie. Some of his work:

 

[kittens]

Why? The Forerunners were always the reason for everything in previous Halo games.

They've always had a deep influence in the fiction, yes, but until Halo 4 they were a dead, ancient civilization, whose influence was merely rippling across the millennia. They were better left as a once magnificent and omnipresent but now vanished force. They were better left as a mystery.

I could see myself enjoying a series of spin-off games that explored the stories of ancient Forerunner society, but so far their return in the present day Halo fiction has been nothing but terrible.

 

[ArchedThunder]

Posted this over in the Halo 4 OT, but I think some people might like this BECAUSE PICTURES.

Darren Bacon, formerly of Bungie, has joined 343 as Senior Concept Artist. He had the same title over at Bungie. Some of his work:

Damn it 343, STOP MAKING HALO 5 A MORE ATTRACTIVE GAME TO ME!

 

[ryan299]

One thing I loved about Halo 4 that didn't get a lot of attention was Forge. Because the multiplayer sucked and everybody abandoned it Forge didn't get a lot of love. I loved the different environments you could build in and loved the tools.

Here's hoping they improve on it.

 

[Gabotron ES]

One thing I loved about Halo 4 that didn't get a lot of attention was Forge. Because the multiplayer sucked and everybody abandoned it Forge didn't get a lot of love. I loved the different environments you could build in and loved the tools.

Here's hoping they improve on it.

They abandoned it because Forge sucked and you couldn't build a damm thing. You have two enviroments (three if you count Erosion lol) with almost no good space to forge plus no precision editing. Magnets are a pain in the ass to toggle and don't align properly on some pieces.

They introduced some neat options like lock and duplicate at the expense of delivering a downgraded version of Reach's forge.

Blocks casting shadows is good but good luck making an indoors location where it's not dark and plain looking.

Most of the block textures are too noisy too, I liked Reach's blocks better.

 

[nib95]

Posted this over in the Halo 4 OT, but I think some people might like this BECAUSE PICTURES.

Darren Bacon, formerly of Bungie, has joined 343 as Senior Concept Artist. He had the same title over at Bungie. Some of his work:

Love the look of both of those. Good catch for 343i.

 

[Dongs Macabre]

One thing I loved about Halo 4 that didn't get a lot of attention was Forge. Because the multiplayer sucked and everybody abandoned it Forge didn't get a lot of love. I loved the different environments you could build in and loved the tools.

Here's hoping they improve on it.

Forge and custom gametypes were so much better in Reach. There's so much stuff that can't be done in Halo 4 without modding. People could make large BTB maps in Reach, but the original Forge environments in Halo 4 were tiny until they added Forge Island. There were tons of fun gametypes in Reach that can't be replicated in Halo 4. Invasion, Halo Ball variants, even a chess gametype. Hopefully Halo 5 has even better gametype and map editing. Or perhaps even an actual map creator with custom terrain and stuff. Official Megalo editing would be great, too.

 

[BeforeU]

Posted this over in the Halo 4 OT, but I think some people might like this BECAUSE PICTURES.

formerly of Bungie, has joined 343 as Senior Concept Artist. He had the same title over at Bungie. Some of his work:

That's pretty awesome.

 

[EvB]

I'm hoping for even more options to create grey and indistinct looking maps in Halo 5.

 

[LastNac]

Bring on the Precursors.

 

[SicSemperTyrannis]

They abandoned it because Forge sucked and you couldn't build a damm thing. You have two enviroments (three if you count Erosion lol) with almost no good space to forge plus no precision editing. Magnets are a pain in the ass to toggle and don't align properly on some pieces.

They introduced some neat options like lock and duplicate at the expense of delivering a downgraded version of Reach's forge.

Blocks casting shadows is good but good luck making an indoors location where it's not dark and plain looking.

Most of the block textures are too noisy too, I liked Reach's blocks better.

Forge and custom gametypes were so much better in Reach. There's so much stuff that can't be done in Halo 4 without modding. People could make large BTB maps in Reach, but the original Forge environments in Halo 4 were tiny until they added Forge Island. There were tons of fun gametypes in Reach that can't be replicated in Halo 4. Invasion, Halo Ball variants, even a chess gametype. Hopefully Halo 5 has even better gametype and map editing. Or perhaps even an actual map creator with custom terrain and stuff. Official Megalo editing would be great, too.

I've never quite understood the flak that is given to Halo 4 Forge over previous iterations, especially Reach, and not only because...

I'm hoping for even more options to create grey and indistinct looking maps in Halo 5.

...but also because I was able to make a great looking and fun to play map (imo at least) in Halo 4 in less time I would have needed for it in any previous iteration. I thought the benefits of the additions outweighed anything that was taken away. The simple fact in my mind is that the map building within Forge got better in Halo 4, the game type editing may have been negatively effected but that has never really been my thing.

 

[Gabotron ES]

I've never quite understood the flak that is given to Halo 4 Forge over previous iterations, especially Reach, and not only because...



...but also because I was able to make a great looking and fun to play map (imo at least) in Halo 4 in less time I would have needed for it in any previous iteration. I thought the benefits of the additions outweighed anything that was taken away. The simple fact in my mind is that the map building within Forge got better in Halo 4, the game type editing may have been negatively effected but that has never really been my thing.

Let me shed some light on you...

 

[BeekleMatter]

Let me shed some light on you...

I love every time this video gets linked. It's gold.

 

[ArchedThunder]

Bring on the Precursors.

They were already in Halo 1, 2 and 3.

 

[Homeboyd]

I've never quite understood the flak that is given to Halo 4 Forge over previous iterations, especially Reach, and not only because...



...but also because I was able to make a great looking and fun to play map (imo at least) in Halo 4 in less time I would have needed for it in any previous iteration. I thought the benefits of the additions outweighed anything that was taken away. The simple fact in my mind is that the map building within Forge got better in Halo 4, the game type editing may have been negatively effected but that has never really been my thing.

It in no way got easier. Entire forge communities disbanded (mine being one) because of the simple stuff that was cut. There were some nice additions and Forge Island was a great offering to the forge community, but it was clearly too late and the fundamental problems created by some of the cuts still made map making more difficult than it needed to be. One step forward, two steps back. IMO, make a full investment or cut it completely. I hate the "all or nothing" approach to anything, but the damage has been done at this point and nothing short of a significant improvement will ever bring me back.

I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with in the future however. Guys like Pete, Nok, Godly, Schnitz, etc.. come up with stuff I couldn't ever dream of. That's why it sucks seeing these guys bail due to the current state forge is in. They'll be back...

They'll be back.

 

[il Diavolo]

Let me shed some light on you...

This is amazing.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Bring on the Precursors.

Indeed. We know they're coming. It's just a matter of how and when.

 

[ArchedThunder]

Indeed. We know they're coming. It's just a matter of how and when.

They turned into the Flood.

 

[Thursday War]

Let me shed some light on you...

Amazing

 

[SenjutsuSage]

They turned into the Flood.

It's a possibility that they are the source of that strange powder found in that ship that eventually became the flood infestation, and there seems to be strong indications the flood somehow stems from or has knowledge from the precursor days, but it's hard to say if the precursors truly turned into the flood, or if the flood + humanity, for whatever reason, is connected to the re-emergence of Precursor civilization.

 

[ArchedThunder]

It's a possibility that they are the source of that strange powder found in that ship that eventually became the flood infestation, and there seems to be strong indications the flood somehow stems from or has knowledge from the precursor days, but it's hard to say if the precursors truly turned into the flood, or if the flood + humanity, for whatever reason, is connected to the re-emergence of Precursor civilization.

The Primordial (Gravemind) was pretty clear about it.

 

[Chettlar]

It's a possibility that they are the source of that strange powder found in that ship that eventually became the flood infestation, and there seems to be strong indications the flood somehow stems from or has knowledge from the precursor days, but it's hard to say if the precursors truly turned into the flood, or if the flood + humanity, for whatever reason, is connected to the re-emergence of Precursor civilization.

That would be the lamest thing ever.

343 already resurrected the forerunners. For goodness sake leave somebody dead. 343 made the elementary mistake of answering "ALL THE QUESTIONS" in the books and Halo 4. You don't do that in writing a story. You just don't. The reason being that one of the important things of story is to get people invested in it. You do that through various means, such as emotion. Go on a journey with someone, and you'll feel sad when they die, or lose someone close to them, or come upon hard fortune. K, so there's these different things you do to invest the viewer/reader/player/listener by playing upon different parts of story's strengths. So for a gigantic "explore the infinite possibilities and places of the universe!" kind of story, you need some mystery. If you don't have mystery. There's nothing nobody knows. There's nothing to find. Since, you made a thing about "explore the universe" telling people all your secrets is counter-intuitive to that. It doesn't match the strengths and characteristics of your story. I mean, there's little things we still don't know about Halo right now, but oh my goodness don't reveal all the big secrets right up front! Why on earth did 343 do that? A good way to tell a story is just to tell us what the characters know. Unfortunately a lot of writers get this far (yay!), but then have this character or series of characters that tell you everything (Like the Librarian for instance, or Elder Gray Eyes in Dust: AET, etc., though maybe the latter is excusable, since his little speech is right near the end and knowing what he said was important to what came next in the story.). Nooooo. You've missed the point entirely. How am I supposed to be invested in your story when you just told me everything in it! I mean, the story's all told now. Why would I stick around?

Who knows, maybe 343 will just create another race, give it some mystery (that had previously belonged to the forerunners and to a further extent the precursors) and then do an exposé of them too later on down the road. Honestly, after a few times though, in my experience, it gets old real quick.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

The Primordial (Gravemind) was pretty clear about it.

I found what it said quite strange. On some level, you sense it's being forthright and telling the truth, and then at the same time you also sense a strong degree of deceptiveness, as if it's hiding some big secret. Was it truly a once a precursor, or does it (the flood, gravemind etc) consider itself all things and all civilizations simultaneously due to the way the flood consumes and incorporates all like the parasites that they are.

I believe there is some big secret involving humanity and the precusors, and the flood plays an important role in carrying it out. I suspect that a certain number of humans need to be consumed by the flood in order to give birth to a single, true precursor, and once that happens, then things really get interesting.

That would be the lamest thing ever.

343 already resurrected the forerunners. For goodness sake leave somebody dead. 343 made the elementary mistake of answering "ALL THE QUESTIONS" in the books and Halo 4. You don't do that in writing a story. You just don't. The reason being that one of the important things of story is to get people invested in it. You do that through various means, such as emotion. Go on a journey with someone, and you'll feel sad when they die, or lose someone close to them, or come upon hard fortune. K, so there's these different things you do to invest the viewer/reader/player/listener by playing upon different parts of story's strengths. So for a gigantic "explore the infinite possibilities and places of the universe!" kind of story, you need some mystery. If you don't have mystery. There's nothing nobody knows. There's nothing to find. Since, you made a thing about "explore the universe" telling people all your secrets is counter-intuitive to that. It doesn't match the strengths and characteristics of your story. I mean, there's little things we still don't know about Halo right now, but oh my goodness don't reveal all the big secrets right up front! Why on earth did 343 do that? A good way to tell a story is just to tell us what the characters know. Unfortunately a lot of writers get this far (yay!), but then have this character or series of characters that tell you everything (Like the Librarian for instance, or Elder Gray Eyes in Dust: AET, etc., though maybe the latter is excusable, since his little speech is right near the end and knowing what he said was important to what came next in the story.). Nooooo. You've missed the point entirely. How am I supposed to be invested in your story when you just told me everything in it! I mean, the story's all told now. Why would I stick around?

Who knows, maybe 343 will just create another race, give it some mystery (that had previously belonged to the forerunners and to a further extent the precursors) and then do an exposé of them too later on down the road. Honestly, after a few times though, in my experience, it gets old real quick.

I know what you're saying, but I can't entirely agree with you. I don't think 343i made any serious mistakes with Halo 4's story. I thought some of the secrets they made us privy to were absolutely necessary, and there was plenty in that game still very much left up in the air or mysterious. We know how much can happen in a short period of time when we're dealing with entities as intelligent as Cortana or even the Librarian. She could have done something to Cortana that we aren't aware of, possibly even made a copy. What else does accelerating the Chief's evolution as the Librarian did accomplish? We know it made him immune to the Composer, but what else might there be? Could he somehow gain access to the domain? Will the domain make a return? How can humanity possibly hope to contend with someone with the abilities such as what the Ur-Didact displayed against the Master Chief? If not for Cortana, he has no chance in that final encounter. There's plenty of mystery left, but reviving the Precursors, which seems more or less like a guarantee right now based on the books, does not automatically destroy all sense of mystery. I mean, the Primordial said in no uncertain terms that the Forerunners weren't totally successful in their efforts to wipe out Precursors. He suggested that there were legions still waiting and biding their time. There's so many mysterious still left in the universe, and revealing to us a little bit more about of that history is not something that destroys the story or is somehow evident of bad storytelling. Being too afraid to reveal and show us more can also be a drawback, and I thought that was one of the primary weaknesses of Halo 3, for example. It was not nearly as ambitious a game from a story perspective as, say, Halo 2. Halo 3 left a lot (too much) on the table, and it was to the game's detriment.

 

[ryan299]

Pretty sure the Precursors went into a sort of hibernation by turning themselves into a powder. After a long time the powdered Precursors became 'sick' and turned into the Flood.

 

[MisterGrey3000]

I like the design of the new guy!

Halo games make me weak in the knees. I might cave, and get the console....
in 2015...
Why are games always announced so early?
:/

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Pretty sure the Precursors went into a sort of hibernation by turning themselves into a powder. After a long time the powdered Precursors became 'sick' and turned into the Flood.

I didn't finish the latest books, but do we have an answer for how they turned into that powder? The problem with the powder is that humanity brought it back to their various civilizations and used it to create special animals with mutations, and then the substance, instead of being predictable, started to turn dangerous. If humanity had left the powder on that mysterious ship alone, there's a good chance that the flood doesn't ever come about. Still, you have to assume someone would have found it sooner or later.

I still find it incredibly strange how the flood 'chose' not to infect humanity, giving the impression that humanity had somehow found a mythical cure for the infection. I still find that very interesting.

edit:: And another thing, the Forerunners themselves, though there may be a few still out there, didn't exactly experience some kind of full revival as a civilization in Halo 4. We literally saw 2 forerunners tops in Halo 4, one of which wasn't even entirely there. So, there may be no forerunner resurgence, but signs are pretty strong that there may very well be a precursor resurgence, and I don't see that as necessarily being a bad thing. Forerunners had obviously advanced to the degree that they were capable of coming close to wiping them all out across the galaxy. They were basically forced into hiding in order to survive. Humanity is gaining more technological superiority, but it's my understanding no civilization comes close to Precursor technology. I guess that didn't matter so much for the Forerunners, but is humanity at that point yet? They're learning quite a bit more about forerunner tech, but they probably haven't exactly learned all the ropes just yet.

 

[AusRoachman]

Just watched all of Halo 4 Spartan Ops cutscenes, i kinda stopped halfway when the game came out, loved it!

Interested to see how 5 links with spartan ops and where master chief falls into it (since chief seems to have left the ship by that time period)

 

[ArchedThunder]

Just watched all of Halo 4 Spartan Ops cutscenes, i kinda stopped halfway when the game came out, loved it!

Interested to see how 5 links with spartan ops and where master chief falls into it (since chief seems to have left the ship by that time period)

You loved that? How? The elites were brain dead and apparently could die from a single shot despite their shields and the one armed Covenant Halsey ending was stupid. I hope they completely ignore Spartan Ops, it was worse than the campaign.

 

[Hubble]

Posted this over in the Halo 4 OT, but I think some people might like this BECAUSE PICTURES.

Darren Bacon, formerly of Bungie, has joined 343 as Senior Concept Artist. He had the same title over at Bungie. Some of his work:

This is great. I loved the art style in the Halo games by Bungie but not Destiny. IMO I find the art direction in Destiny very non-special. This can be a sign of the Halo art style coming back.

 

[ryan299]

I didn't finish the latest books, but do we have an answer for how they turned into that powder? The problem with the powder is that humanity brought it back to their various civilizations and used it to create special animals with mutations, and then the substance, instead of being predictable, started to turn dangerous. If humanity had left the powder on that mysterious ship alone, there's a good chance that the flood doesn't ever come about. Still, you have to assume someone would have found it sooner or later.

I still find it incredibly strange how the flood 'chose' not to infect humanity, giving the impression that humanity had somehow found a mythical cure for the infection. I still find that very interesting.

edit:: And another thing, the Forerunners themselves, though there may be a few still out there, didn't exactly experience some kind of full revival as a civilization in Halo 4. We literally saw 2 forerunners tops in Halo 4, one of which wasn't even entirely there. So, there may be no forerunner resurgence, but signs are pretty strong that there may very well be a precursor resurgence, and I don't see that as necessarily being a bad thing. Forerunners had obviously advanced to the degree that they were capable of coming close to wiping them all out across the galaxy. They were basically forced into hiding in order to survive. Humanity is gaining more technological superiority, but it's my understanding no civilization comes close to Precursor technology. I guess that didn't matter so much for the Forerunners, but is humanity at that point yet? They're learning quite a bit more about forerunner tech, but they probably haven't exactly learned all the ropes just yet.

I was under the impression that the Flood chose not to infect humanity bc the Gravemind had the collective consciousness of the Precursors and they didn't want to waste time on humans.

It was later revealed by the Primordial that no such cure existed: the Flood possessed the ability to choose whether or not to infect hosts, and what had actually happened was that the Flood had decided to refrain from infecting the humans at the time as part of the Precursors' overarching plan to take revenge upon the Forerunners.

http://www.halopedia.org/Flood#First_outbreak

I really don't see the Precursors coming back bc I think most of them became the Flood and I think a lot of people are over the Flood. I see the Forerunners coming back. I see Chief and the humans teaming up with the IsoDidact to stop the Didact and whatever army and plan he has.

For some reason I think 343 developers are huge fans of the Empire Strikes Back and are going to make Halo 5 dark like the film. I don't mind that but there will be more random crap than Halo 4.

 

[LordOfChaos]

They turned into the Flood.

Some of them who turned themselves into powder to be re-created later were corrupted and turned into the flood. We don't know if any non-powdered precursors survived. The Forerunner did hunt then down in this galaxy and Path Kethona, but the Precursors traveled to other galaxies to seed life, I don't see why there couldn't still be some elsewhere.

The Primordial (Gravemind) was pretty clear about it.

Like I said, it doesn't mean all of them are gone or in flood form. Not sure why everyone is so sure all of them turned into Flood, not all of them even powdered themselves.

Besides, the Primordial was dead set on fucking with everyone.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I was under the impression that the Flood chose not to infect humanity bc the Gravemind had the collective consciousness of the Precursors and they didn't want to waste time on humans.


http://www.halopedia.org/Flood#First_outbreak

I really don't see the Precursors coming back bc I think most of them became the Flood and I think a lot of people are over the Flood. I see the Forerunners coming back. I see Chief and the humans teaming up with the IsoDidact to stop the Didact and whatever army and plan he has.

For some reason I think 343 developers are huge fans of the Empire Strikes Back and are going to make Halo 5 dark like the film. I don't mind that but there will be more random crap than Halo 4.

I love the Empire Strikes Back reference, and I hope you're right. I also kind of see the UNSC/ONI perhaps doing some even more questionable things than normal that creates conflict not only within the wider UNSC, but with the Chief. As it is, ONI are already running a shady sabotage campaign against the elite. I know there are at least two books that cover that, but I didn't finish them, so I don't know how that ended up. I really need to catch up on my Halo fiction.

 

[RE_Player]

So on Giant Bomb's morning show Patrick Klepek said that certain people at 343 are well aware that Halo 4's story was fucked with the whole having to read outside material to get a grasp on the plot and characters. Hopefully 343 realize with Halo 5 when I buy a $60 game I want a full experience and not just a piece of a puzzle.

 

[Punchy4486]

Just finished halo 4's singleplayer, it was pretty amazing. I don't have gold so I won't be trying halo 4 online.

Its hard to take chief seriously since he never takes off his damn helmet and you can't read his emotions. Add onto that his monotone voice and it's kind of awkward to see him in these dramatic cortonna/chief scenes. He's almost as bad of a protagonist as kratos is, as far as the player being able to relate to. I guess chief's humanity is one of the themes they're going to explore under 343's direction.

Just finished Star Wars Original Trilogy, it was pretty amazing. I don't have brain damage so I won't be trying the Prequel Trilogy.

Its hard to take Darth Vader seriously since he never takes off his damn helmet and you can't read his emotions. Add onto that his monotone voice and it's kind of awkward to see him in these dramatic Luke/Obi-Wan scenes. He's almost as bad of a protagonist as The Man With No Name is, as far as the audience being able to relate to. I guess Vader's humanity is one of the themes they're going to explore under Lucas's direction.

 

[Chettlar]

I know what you're saying, but I can't entirely agree with you. I don't think 343i made any serious mistakes with Halo 4's story. I thought some of the secrets they made us privy to were absolutely necessary, and there was plenty in that game still very much left up in the air or mysterious. We know how much can happen in a short period of time when we're dealing with entities as intelligent as Cortana or even the Librarian. She could have done something to Cortana that we aren't aware of, possibly even made a copy. What else does accelerating the Chief's evolution as the Librarian did accomplish? We know it made him immune to the Composer, but what else might there be? Could he somehow gain access to the domain? Will the domain make a return? How can humanity possibly hope to contend with someone with the abilities such as what the Ur-Didact displayed against the Master Chief? If not for Cortana, he has no chance in that final encounter. There's plenty of mystery left, but reviving the Precursors, which seems more or less like a guarantee right now based on the books, does not automatically destroy all sense of mystery. I mean, the Primordial said in no uncertain terms that the Forerunners weren't totally successful in their efforts to wipe out Precursors. He suggested that there were legions still waiting and biding their time. There's so many mysterious still left in the universe, and revealing to us a little bit more about of that history is not something that destroys the story or is somehow evident of bad storytelling. Being too afraid to reveal and show us more can also be a drawback, and I thought that was one of the primary weaknesses of Halo 3, for example. It was not nearly as ambitious a game from a story perspective as, say, Halo 2. Halo 3 left a lot (too much) on the table, and it was to the game's detriment.

You are mistaking mystery for questions. They're not quite the same thing. There's lots we don't know. That doesn't make it mystery.

One of Halo's greatest strong points was that mystery it had. See, mystery makes things feel big. When you explain everything it makes it feel small. It's kind of like when you're in a crowd of fifty people it seems like a lot of people, but when you know each and every one of them, it's not all that many. That's your brain telling it's a lot or not a lot. Since one of the main points of a story is to draw you into it, it needs some help of the player/reader/viewer's mind. Reading a book or watching a movie is a very active thing. You're mind is doing quite a bit of the work. Another example that's relevant in a different way is horror games, books, and movies. The best ones are mysterious. Why? Because we don't know "what's out there." So our minds concoct this sense of fear for what it could be. It's not like we imagine what the creature looks like and then get scared of that. That would be silly. But the sensation of fear we create ourselves. When we can see the monster or whatever, we quickly "process it" and dismiss it as a fear. Soon after we can go through that very same horror experience and, excepting a few jump scares, laugh at the whole thing. We know what it looks like. It isn't scary anymore because we know what it is. It's like Scooby-doo. Scooby-doo really isn't all that scary, because you know after the first few episodes that it's really just some people playing tricks (but that's ok, since that's the point of that particular series. It's meant more to be funny than scary).

In like manner, Halo just isn't as "big" any more, because 343 gave us all the answers. More importantly, they gave us the big answers. They answered the mysteries. Now there is very little to wonder about "hey, I wonder where such and such came from, or how such and such happens or how such and such is powered." We know. Cuz they told us. And that's boring.

It's psychology brah.

 

[Syphon Filter]

So on Giant Bomb's morning show Patrick Klepek said that certain people at 343 are well aware that Halo 4's story was fucked with the whole having to read outside material to get a grasp on the plot and characters. Hopefully 343 realize with Halo 5 when I buy a $60 game I want a full experience and not just a piece of a puzzle.

They already admitted that in a post mordom conference they held last year.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

So with Halo 5 being a ways off are we still expecting a decent trailer from E3?

So on Giant Bomb's morning show Patrick Klepek said that certain people at 343 are well aware that Halo 4's story was fucked with the whole having to read outside material to get a grasp on the plot and characters. Hopefully 343 realize with Halo 5 when I buy a $60 game I want a full experience and not just a piece of a puzzle.

Hopefully they don't cut back on that good stuff and just explain it for people better.

 

[The Flash]

So hyped for more Halo. Really hope the Master Chief collection is real too.

 

[AusRoachman]

You loved that? How? The elites were brain dead and apparently could die from a single shot despite their shields and the one armed Covenant Halsey ending was stupid. I hope they completely ignore Spartan Ops, it was worse than the campaign.

Well i didnt love all of it , im talking more about the overarching story, though i hope they dont just go down the halsey generic badguy route.

Would love to be master chief hunting down forerunner tech throughout the galaxy and oni or whoever trying to track you and the relics at the same time.