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Halo 4 Announced (MS Conf, 2012, Start Of New Trilogy)

Teasing bastards :)

S8nE9.jpg
 
As someone not very versed in Halo lore or the series in general, if I'm reading right, it seems like there are Precursors to the Forerunners?

Are there Ancestors to the Precursors to the Forerunners to the humans of today?

I'm not being entirely serious, here, you may have guess. Just seems funny to have an even more ancient civilisation behind the standard ancient super advanced civilisation.

I may have misread the thread entirely, of course.
 
As someone not very versed in Halo lore or the series in general, if I'm reading right, it seems like there are Precursors to the Forerunners?

Are there Ancestors to the Precursors to the Forerunners to the humans of today?

I'm not being entirely serious, here, you may have guess. Just seems funny to have an even more ancient civilisation behind the standard ancient super advanced civilisation.

I may have misread the thread entirely, of course.

This isn't just a sci-fi trope, the Universe and this Galaxy have been habitable for BILLIONS of years. We are only dealing with a slice of only a few hundred thousand.
 
As someone not very versed in Halo lore or the series in general, if I'm reading right, it seems like there are Precursors to the Forerunners?

Are there Ancestors to the Precursors to the Forerunners to the humans of today?

I'm not being entirely serious, here, you may have guess. Just seems funny to have an even more ancient civilisation behind the standard ancient super advanced civilisation.

I may have misread the thread entirely, of course.

No, no. You got it right. There was an even greater, older bunch of aliens before the Forerunners.

The Precursors, from what little we know of them, we're the first really ancient and really powerful first civilization. These seeded whole galaxies with life and laid down the "Mantle" which the Forerunners took up.

The reality is, is that, eons ago in the lost history of the Halo fictional universe, the Forerunners, Humanity and a great many other species - maybe even life itself was created, shaped or cultivated by the Precursors.

It might just be that the Forerunners rebelled against their creators and took upon themselves to assume what they seen as their former master's role as guardians of all life. In doing so, the Precursors vanished from the Milky Way.

The Forerunners took on the responsibilities of the Precursors and modeled their entire galaxy wide society around this assumed responsibility. They changed their own identity, even their collective species name assumed their were just the next species in line to assume the role of galactic guardians and that others would follow in due time.

The Forerunners may have distorted and twisted the facts to suit themselves, as they say, history is written by the winners.

There's a parallel one can draw between the Forerunners and the Covenant here. Just as the Forerunners were in awe of the Precursors, the Covenant were in awe of the Forerunners. The Forerunners remodeled themselves after the Forerunners and tried to learn as much as they could from their technologies and relics - the same as the Covenant did a hundred thousand year later with them. However there has always been something important lost each time. Technology itself has regressed backwards as has the scale, influence and capability. There are cycles withing cycles. Mistakes beget mistakes. All the gods are mortal.

I think the Precursors add a very important element to the fiction. You can easily dismiss their impact on the surface level if you just want to pick up a controller and enjoy any of the series' campaigns or even individual books. Only when you string it all together do you get this fuller picture and I think it's a great reward for those patient enough to seek it out and easier still to walk away from this particular area if it's not your cup of tea.
 
I am so ready for a Halo 4 blowout that it's not even funny.

Time for CoD, Battlefield and all the rest to face the original master.
 
I love how, as more about the Forerunners is revealed to us, the Precursors are essentially become what the Forerunners have been for the past ten years – an old, ancient, mysterious and very powerful race.
 
Sorry this isn't about Halo 4, but I'm super curious: what's the story behind the Halo DS game? Why was such a thing ever being produced and...wha?
 
And clouds and atmosphere from Frankie during development of Halo 3...

Great times.

Here's to many more greater times to come.

I would love a HaloWaypoint Bulletin that has both bsangel and Frankie do a super duper update of epic porportions. With the usual what Frankie loves hints and teases from HALO 4.
 
GAHHHH, I keep on thinking this is a new thread for some new trailer. I see "Halo 4", my face lights up, and then a split second later I realize it's the same old thread from E3, and then I'm like FFFFFFUUUUUUU.

I've done this three days in a row now. :-(

Edit:

We're working with what we got here... =/
The conversation has been great (better than the Community thread for once)! I just need to stop logging on to GAF expecting to see Halo 4 news. After the VGAs, I'm just dying for any piece of info.

Edit 2: lol @ Tashi
 
GAHHHH, I keep on thinking this is a new thread for some new trailer. I see "Halo 4", my face lights up, and then a split second later I realize it's the same old thread from E3, and then I'm like FFFFFFUUUUUUU.

I've done this three days in a row now. :-(

We're working with what we got here... =/
 
I love how, as more about the Forerunners is revealed to us, the Precursors are essentially become what the Forerunners have been for the past ten years – an old, ancient, mysterious and very powerful race.

Yep, I'm getting that same vibe and loving it, although, I felt that Greg Bear did a fantastic job of 'revealing' a lot about the Forerunners without taking away that sense of mystery their architecture, worlds, and overall population always had.
 
Keep your eyes on FUD. =)

Anything in particular you think needs clarification?
Yesssss.

I'm halfway through the book, and I'm just having trouble keeping track of all the dates. The only part that I thought needed clarification (because I didn't understand what the hell was going on, not when it happened) was MB's assault on that massive Forerunner installation. Whatever it was.

Other than that, can't think of anything. Once I have everything laid out in front of me I think it'll be easier to remember.
 
I don't care what they do with Halo 4, just as long as Forge 3.0 is utterly amazing and fully featured. They could make it a turn based RPG, just make Forge awesome.
 
Yesssss.

I'm halfway through the book, and I'm just having trouble keeping track of all the dates. The only part that I thought needed clarification (because I didn't understand what the hell was going on, not when it happened) was MB's assault on that massive Forerunner installation. Whatever it was.

Other than that, can't think of anything. Once I have everything laid out in front of me I think it'll be easier to remember.
Basically:
1) Mendicant Bias, after being turned rampant by the Gravemind, deactivates the ancillas and security operations on the Capital. He also holds the council hostage by overriding their armor.
2) Bornstellar is able to reverse by using a verbal fail safe code that was in the Didact's memories.
3) Mendicant Bias then commands the 5 Halo rings around the Capital to fire, and a Forerunner armada in the vicinity attacks them.
4) At least one of the rings is destroyed by the Forerunners ships, and I believe Bornstellar escapes via a slipstream jump.
 
I'm 3/4 of the way through Glasslands and absolutely loving it, but a question has just occurred to me. I'll spoiler tag it just to be safe but I don't think it's particularly spoiler-ey:

Throughout Glasslands, Halsey is bitter at Mendez for keeping the Spartan III program hidden from her, essentially going behind her back to train all the recruits. However, in Reach (the game, not book), she makes contact with Noble Team, which is mostly composed of S-III soldiers. So she had to have known about them for a while now, seeing as Reach takes place before Halo: CE and the book takes place after Halo 3. Why is she acting like the S-III program is news to her?
 
I'm 3/4 of the way through Glasslands and absolutely loving it, but a question has just occurred to me. I'll spoiler tag it just to be safe but I don't think it's particularly spoiler-ey:

Throughout Glasslands, Halsey is bitter at Mendez for keeping the Spartan III program hidden from her, essentially going behind her back to train all the recruits. However, in Reach (the game, not book), she makes contact with Noble Team, which is mostly composed of S-III soldiers. So she had to have known about them for a while now, seeing as Reach takes place before Halo: CE and the book takes place after Halo 3. Why is she acting like the S-III program is news to her?

r-r-r-rectcon?
 
I'm 3/4 of the way through Glasslands and absolutely loving it, but a question has just occurred to me. I'll spoiler tag it just to be safe but I don't think it's particularly spoiler-ey:

Throughout Glasslands, Halsey is bitter at Mendez for keeping the Spartan III program hidden from her, essentially going behind her back to train all the recruits. However, in Reach (the game, not book), she makes contact with Noble Team, which is mostly composed of S-III soldiers. So she had to have known about them for a while now, seeing as Reach takes place before Halo: CE and the book takes place after Halo 3. Why is she acting like the S-III program is news to her?

Her having the time to chat with Mendez gives her an outlet for her annoyances with him.

Imagine a old friend stole money of you and disappeared for a few months. Then you meet up again. You'd probably be fuming at them.

Truth is, Reach introduced a contradiction with previous fiction but games > books and Glasslands assumes both previous books and the events at Reach occurred but giving the events at Reach (the game) priority over any canon conflicts.
 
With regards to Halsey and Noble Team, in Halseys journal she sates
"They are Spartans - and with one exception, they're clearly not mine." In the same entry she later says "Are they all SPARTAN-IIs? Or, as i suspect from their inelegant personas, are they substandard versions of the SPARTAN-II? Perhaps from a parallel program (JAVELIN?), or some next gen venture piggybacking on the last three decades of my work... I'm again reminded that Mendez is missing."
 
Water, textures, lighting and Weapons confirmed.

Fixed.

Seriously we have to see something from the game soon, the hype is killing me...and Frankie doesn't help either showing in this thread and saying how obsessed he is with textures, lighting and weapons. :P
 
Her having the time to chat with Mendez gives her an outlet for her annoyances with him.

Imagine a old friend stole money of you and disappeared for a few months. Then you meet up again. You'd probably be fuming at them.

Truth is, Reach introduced a contradiction with previous fiction but games > books and Glasslands assumes both previous books and the events at Reach occurred but giving the events at Reach (the game) priority over any canon conflicts.

Exactly, she puts on a good poker face during Reach, but she's basically blindsided when the Spartan IIIs show up. Glasslands is her chance to finally confront someone about it. There are certainly some retcons in the Halo fiction by now, but that isn't one of them.

I kind of wish they'd avoided the retconned ending of Reach, as it really just felt like a way to force Reach's protagonists more directly into the chain of events that leads to halo 1-3. It's kind of bizarre; they bring the PoA down to Reach's surface to in order to facilitate Noble Team's mission, but that mission is actually
just to transport a small 'shard' of Cortana with the research data to the ship, it isn't even actually Cortana, a fact which anyone who just plays the game would be oblivious to
. It felt like a forced effort to tie a neat bow on everything, when really Noble team's story could have been wrapped up just fine without messing around with what was already written in Fall of Reach.

Now if you want to talk about some really annoying retconning in Glasslands, how about
nanomachines handwave to allow Mjolnir to, um, upgrade itself. That 'revelation' is both out of nowhere and completely unnecessary, except to justify Master Chief's crotch bulge and jet pack in the e3 teaser trailer I guess. I would have been just fine with 'artistic style change,' personally. Ryan Payton works on Mgs4, we get a story where the answer to every interesting question asked in that entire series is 'nanomachines.' Then he spends some time at 343, and suddenly bullshit plot points that didn't need to be there are being explained by nanomachines. Conspiracy confirmed. Now the book does apply this fancy new solution to a problem that didn't exist specifically to Mjolnir mark 7, which actually makes it useless as a handwave for the Chief who is still in Mark 6.
Enjoyed Glasslands overall, but I really don't understand the apparent compulsion to create a continuity problem in order to provide a kind of wonky, out of place solution to it. I'd love to be proven wrong here, but so far no sale on that stuff.
 
I kind of wish they'd avoided the retconned ending of Reach, as it really just felt like a way to force Reach's protagonists more directly into the chain of events that leads to halo 1-3. It's kind of bizarre; they bring the PoA down to Reach's surface to in order to facilitate Noble Team's mission, but that mission is actually
just to transport a small 'shard' of Cortana with the research data to the ship, it isn't even actually Cortana, a fact which anyone who just plays the game would be oblivious to
. It felt like a forced effort to tie a neat bow on everything, when really Noble team's story could have been wrapped up just fine without messing around with what was already written in Fall of Reach.
No, the ending of Reach was much more.
The so-called "small shard of Cortana" had the latch key discovery: The coordinates of Installation 04. Even if Reach has a lot of story conflicts with FoR, the game explains where Cortana got the coordinates. Of course the story didn't mention it in the whole game, but I think it is obvious for the most of us.

Reach's campaign is just to show much location of the planet. It should show you the country side(The Winter Contingency/Nightfall), one of the ONI bases(ONI: Swordbase, LNoS), the space(LNoS), the capital of Reach and its fall(Exodus, NA) etc. It is really hard to tell a good story if the location changes too much. Otherwise this is the impression I got.
 
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