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Halo |OT10| The Calm Before The Storm

O

Overdoziz

Banned
JHall said:
FUD question. It's not spoilerish if you have watched it.

How do they not know that's the Covenant? I understand it's been 10 years or so since the war, but wouldn't they have been told war stories as a child? Shit, they did fucking attack Earth. Or is the UNSC keeping things completely under-wraps?
Click to expand...
FUD takes place right at the beginning of the war where the UNSC and ONI are still trying to keep it a secret.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
JHall said:
FUD question. It's not spoilerish if you have watched it.

How do they not know that's the Covenant? I understand it's been 10 years or so since the war, but wouldn't they have been told war stories as a child? Shit, they did fucking attack Earth. Or is the UNSC keeping things completely under-wraps?
Click to expand...

It's at the latest 2526. The UNSC kept the existence of the Covenant secret until around Cole's victory over Harvest. Few people know about the Covenant.
 
B

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
JHall said:
FUD question. It's not spoilerish if you have watched it.

How do they not know that's the Covenant? I understand it's been 10 years or so since the war, but wouldn't they have been told war stories as a child? Shit, they did fucking attack Earth. Or is the UNSC keeping things completely under-wraps?
Click to expand...

Yeah, what Moa said, this is all a "prequel."

It's to give you an understanding of who Laskey is (the main guy leading the Infinity).
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
Flipyap said:
Didn't 343 explicitly say that their goal was to simplify the story in 4 to make it easier to understand, leaving the meaty "canon"/backstory portions for the terminals? Which, considering recent revelations, would mean that this kind of storytelling won't make it into the game itself...
Click to expand...

Not from what I've seen. Showing Spartan augmentation in commercials, making the game about the Forerunners, making the story of the game directly tie into the Cryptum novels and the novels by Traviss, all of that is doing much more to tie the universe together than what Bungie did. Bungie allowed the novels, but never really noted them. You can really see that in Reach, they ret-conned the entire story of The Fall of Reach.

I'm actually worried for Halo 4 that people that haven't read Cryptum and Ghosts of Onyx (at the very least) might not know what is going on. I assume 343 has that part under control though. Everything about Halo 4's main story is out of the books, really nothing (except the existence of Covenant and the war, Cortana, and the flood) is coming from the last games. It's all from the extended fiction.
 
Moa

Moa

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Not from what I've seen. Showing Spartan augmentation in commercials, making the game about the Forerunners, making the story of the game directly tie into the Cryptum novels and the novels by Traviss, all of that is doing much more to tie the universe together than what Bungie did. Bungie allowed the novels, but never really noted them. You can really see that in Reach, they ret-conned the entire story of The Fall of Reach.

I'm actually worried for Halo 4 that people that haven't read Cryptum and Ghosts of Onyx (at the very least) might not know what is going on. I assume 343 has that part under control though. Everything about Halo 4's main story is out of the books, really nothing (except the existence of Covenant and the war, Cortana, and the flood) is coming from the last games. It's all from the extended fiction.
Click to expand...

Prolouge will sort all the big stuff out, probably like the Covenant, why Chief & Cortana are floating towards that planet and all that stuff.

^ Minor Campaign spoilers.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Well well well. That was a good episode of FUD. But i see the script lacks originality, so many easily reconizable tropes played straight... Entertaining, cool and fun but it could be better. I guessed what would happen way before anything happens.
 
S

squidhands

Member
u4iX said:
I'm in 100% disagreement.

The trailer sheds light on a subject that's been somewhat untouched through the main narrative of the Halo series. The main narrative meaning the straightforward story provided by the game's missions, cut scenes, and dialog.

It brings up the subject of humanity, what John actually is. Throughout the previous games you're touted as a an ultra-badass; the perfect soldier. Arriving at the front lines you're greeted with dialog praising your arrival, but while you may be the "perfect soldier," you're an imperfect human.

I love the dark themes being twisted into the Halo story now. The fact you're a kid who's actually a science experiment originally bred to kill his own race is fucked up.

Who in their right mind would be okay with that?

Who could live with that?

Now, look at the way Chief is being suspended in that blue field, the way he's held prisoner there. It's kinda Christ-like isn't it? Now draw the parallels. Regardless of your religious affiliation, the story of Jesus is equally torn. You grow up knowing you're the savior of mankind... but you're also just a kid; a human being, with feeling, with emotion, and with a moral gray area that we all can identify with.

You're the Atlas of the world. The fate of your entire race, a race you might despise because of what they made you, rests on your shoulders. Would you just be cool with that?

Now let's look at the tagline of the trailer, "An Ancient Evil Awakens."

At first inspection it looks to clearly refer to the Didact, or whatever your main adversary in the upcoming Halo title turns out to be, but I urge you to dig deeper.

What if the "ancient evil" is actually what's inside John, an evil within himself that he's suppressed. A distaste for humanity, for his own humanity, for what they made him and what they made him do.

If you're at all familiar with Freudian psychology then you'll be akin to the ideas of the id, ego, and superego. Imagine Cortana is the Chief's superego, the dialog that works between the id and the ego. As Cortana deteriorates and goes rampant, the Chief's consciousness, his ego, will be directly exposed to his id, or our instincts that don't care about reality or the needs of others, only its own satisfaction.

Maybe he's not the "strong, silent type." Maybe he's the type that's biting his tongue from telling his superiors to fuck off because he never asked for this.

If you're just staring at your computer screen letting the images flood your brain while you sit there flat lined, yeah, this trailer seems hokey. However, use that brain thing inside your skull and it becomes this dark undertone that's been present in the Halo universe, but never indulged in the games.

That's why I'm excited for Halo 4's campaign.
Click to expand...
GodDAMN, I'm gonna be let down if this doesn't happen now. The idea of playing as a potential bad guy Master Chief just gave me a nerdgasm.

ElzarTheBam said:
This.

I love your 'no bullshit' attitude.
Click to expand...
Most of the time I just ignore it, but some things just can't be left alone.
 
T

The P of Poland

Member
I'm a bit at odds with everyone on here, in that I didn't think the Cortana intro was all that great.
The episode itself was great, though. For everyone who ever wanted a Halo movie- you're getting your wish.
 
M

MaximumFlipFlop

Banned
JHall said:
Yeah that's true. As you can tell I haven't read any of the books.
Click to expand...

This is why I wish 343 would make something similar to the Metal Gear Solid database. Before I played MGS4, I downloaded that database application to my ps3 and spent hours reading up on the fiction. Waypoint kinda does this, but the MGS database is so much more in depth. Every event, every character, weapon, vehicle, location, etc is all in there and searchable. Every article has important words as links to you can constantly learn while reading. It is an incredible app. 343, make it happen ;)
 
B

bishoptl

Banstick Emeritus
gillFTR said:
People will play the leaked version regardless, and the dudes whos giving me his direct feeds recorded them after 1 day of borrowing his friends jtag xbox. The fact that hes my best source for gameplay over 343 I'll take it. At the end of the day I just want to play and see halo 4 MP, not slowly be fed because of some PR hype train.
Click to expand...
You'll have plenty of time to watch jtag Halo 4 gameplay now.
 
T

ThatsMytrunks

Member
Who likes gifs? GAF likes gifs. Here's a gif.

ibe74vA5ZIs26M.gif
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
The P of Poland said:
I'm a bit at odds with everyone on here, in that I didn't think the Cortana intro was all that great.
The episode itself was great, though. For everyone who ever wanted a Halo movie- you're getting your wish.
Click to expand...

I think the idea of the intro was good but the actual execution wasn't so good.
Of course rampancy is very hard to make clear via visual media, in a book it would work just fine, writing Cortana's thoughts.
 
T

The P of Poland

Member
sltPoison said:
This is why I wish 343 would make something similar to the Metal Gear Solid database. Before I played MGS4, I downloaded that database application to my ps3 and spent hours reading up on the fiction. Waypoint kinda does this, but the MGS database is so much more in depth. Every event, every character, weapon, vehicle, location, etc is all in there and searchable. Every article has important words as links to you can constantly learn while reading. It is an incredible app. 343, make it happen ;)
Click to expand...

This would be brilliant. The only piece of Halo fiction I haven't read is some obscure comic book, so I personally don't need it, but this would really be good for people who aren't familiar with the fiction.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Sai-kun said:
It's set before the events of Harvest, and obviously the FUD sets are post Halo 3.
Click to expand...
It's has to be set after Harvest. Chief didn't receive Mk IV until late 2525. Sometime in 2526 the UNSC admitted the existence of the Covenant to the populace. This likely takes place in early 2526.

One issue: why the hell would an elite UNSC academy be on some outer colony world?
 
Moa

Moa

Member
Fuchsdh said:
It's has to be set after Harvest. Chief didn't receive Mk IV until late 2525. Sometime in 2526 the UNSC admitted the existence of the Covenant to the populace. This likely takes place in early 2526.

One issue: why the hell would an Elite UNSC academy be on some outer colony world?
Click to expand...
FuD Spoiler.
They're training to fight Insurrectionists on inner-colony worlds?

Lucky guess, don't know that much on the canon.
 
L

Louis Wu

Member
F

Flipyap

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Not from what I've seen. Showing Spartan augmentation in commercials, making the game about the Forerunners, making the story of the game directly tie into the Cryptum novels and the novels by Traviss, all of that is doing much more to tie the universe together than what Bungie did. Bungie allowed the novels, but never really noted them. You can really see that in Reach, they ret-conned the entire story of The Fall of Reach.

I'm actually worried for Halo 4 that people that haven't read Cryptum and Ghosts of Onyx (at the very least) might not know what is going on. I assume 343 has that part under control though. Everything about Halo 4's main story is out of the books, really nothing (except the existence of Covenant and the war, Cortana, and the flood) is coming from the last games. It's all from the extended fiction.
Click to expand...
You could make the same argument about Halo 1 starting right where The Fall of Reach left off (that's even more direct than anything they're doing with 4), First Strike leading into Halo 2 and introducing new races, etc.
This says absolutely nothing about the way the game will handle this stuff. We're currently waiting for the fifth book in the "Reclaimer Saga" to explain why the things we're going to be fighting and why the characterization of the ANCIENT EVIL are so completely different from anything we've read about. This is what all those pages have added to: confusion.
 
H

HiredN00bs

Member
FUDep3 was great. I keep watching the previous weeks' episodes prior to watching the new one, and I have to say it's all coming together nicely. It's an excellent promotion for the game. What other game or game franchise has released a promotional film of this size and quality? It's pretty fucking amazing when you take a step back; it's a more than worthy edition to the franchise.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Moa said:
FuD Spoiler.
They're training to fight Insurrectionists on inner-colony worlds?

Lucky guess, don't know that much on the canon.
Click to expand...
I know that there were a lot of Innies on epsilon Eridani, but other than that most of what we've heard has the majority of action taking place on Outer colonies. I don't think you'd hide an academy in the Innie back yard, and with an orbital tether it can't be that remote.
 
H

Homeboyd

Member
u4iX said:
I'm in 100% disagreement.

The trailer sheds light on a subject that's been somewhat untouched through the main narrative of the Halo series. The main narrative meaning the straightforward story provided by the game's missions, cut scenes, and dialog.

It brings up the subject of humanity, what John actually is. Throughout the previous games you're touted as a an ultra-badass; the perfect soldier. Arriving at the front lines you're greeted with dialog praising your arrival, but while you may be the "perfect soldier," you're an imperfect human.

I love the dark themes being twisted into the Halo story now. The fact you're a kid who's actually a science experiment originally bred to kill his own race is fucked up.

Who in their right mind would be okay with that?

Who could live with that?

Now, look at the way Chief is being suspended in that blue field, the way he's held prisoner there. It's kinda Christ-like isn't it? Now draw the parallels. Regardless of your religious affiliation, the story of Jesus is equally torn. You grow up knowing you're the savior of mankind... but you're also just a kid; a human being, with feeling, with emotion, and with a moral gray area that we all can identify with.

You're the Atlas of the world. The fate of your entire race, a race you might despise because of what they made you, rests on your shoulders. Would you just be cool with that?

Now let's look at the tagline of the trailer, "An Ancient Evil Awakens."

At first inspection it looks to clearly refer to the Didact, or whatever your main adversary in the upcoming Halo title turns out to be, but I urge you to dig deeper.

What if the "ancient evil" is actually what's inside John, an evil within himself that he's suppressed. A distaste for humanity, for his own humanity, for what they made him and what they made him do.

If you're at all familiar with Freudian psychology then you'll be akin to the ideas of the id, ego, and superego. Imagine Cortana is the Chief's superego, the dialog that works between the id and the ego. As Cortana deteriorates and goes rampant, the Chief's consciousness, his ego, will be directly exposed to his id, or our instincts that don't care about reality or the needs of others, only its own satisfaction.

Maybe he's not the "strong, silent type." Maybe he's the type that's biting his tongue from telling his superiors to fuck off because he never asked for this.

If you're just staring at your computer screen letting the images flood your brain while you sit there flat lined, yeah, this trailer seems hokey. However, use that brain thing inside your skull and it becomes this dark undertone that's been present in the Halo universe, but never indulged in the games.

That's why I'm excited for Halo 4's campaign.
Click to expand...
Well shit. All aboard motherfuckers. The hype train is leaving the station.
 
E

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
HiredN00bs said:
FUDep3 was great. I keep watching the previous weeks' episodes prior to watching the new one, and I have to say it's all coming together nicely. It's an excellent promotion for the game. What other game or game franchise has released a promotional film of this size and quality? It's pretty fucking amazing when you take a step back; its a more than worthy edition to the franchise.
Click to expand...
It got me back into the hype train harder than I could ever have imagined. I've been knee deep in Vita/school work, but now, it's time to dive into a little Halo reading when I'm commuting.


Letters said:
aaawwwwwww :(
Click to expand...
Sorry. :( I will say, it isn't the best part. Episode is filled with great moments.
 
T

The P of Poland

Member
FUD spoilers
I loved the way Reach music played when the Covenant corvettes appeared. That particular Marty track still inspires a sense of doom and awe.
 
G

Gr1mLock

Passing metallic gas
sltPoison said:
Do you know anything of human anatomy, or the anatomy of a human skull? Serious question.
Click to expand...

Lmao. Ok doctor. An alien with backwards goat legs set in a sci fi universe has something that is pretty similar to a human skull stuck in his head. How cool are you for pointing out the 3 things that are slightly different.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Moa said:
They're Forerunner skulls, Forerunners were extremely similar to humans, hence why we're the Reclaimers.
Click to expand...

Extremly similar? In spirit maybe, not in form. Forerunners have fur and they mutate multiple times during their lifetimes, often to very different form.

The skull is really odd. It might be a form of intimidation, we tend to be afraid of human skulls. It might be a symbol for revenge, the Promethean's commander might be wanting revenge against us.
It is not there because they're similar to us.

EDIT IMO it looks like a human skull, based on info about the Forerunners it would be odd they have so similar skull. Need a clear picture of it, from multiple angles to say for sure of course.
 
Z

zlatko

Banned
An ancient evil awakens refers to Cortana is my guess. I imagine she will make sweet passionate A.I sex with the forerunners, and make evil Cortana of doom!

Halo 5 will have Chief going back to Earth or wherever to find the second A.I Hasley built, because if I remember right from her journal there was Cortana and one other.
 
T

The P of Poland

Member
Fuchsdh said:
I know that there were a lot of Innies on epsilon Eridani, but other than that most of what we've heard has the majority of action taking place on Outer colonies. I don't think you'd hide an academy in the Innie back yard, and with an orbital tether it can't be that remote.
Click to expand...

The primary UNSC military academy, their equivalent of Annapolis, is on Luna, their term for Earth's moon.
That said, UNSC space is so huge that it could very well be the case that they have multiple academies strewn around, and this particular one is to serve cadets that are originally from the Outer Colonies.
 
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