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[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Phil is definitely to blame in part but I stand by the majority of it being due to the 343 leadership itself. It needs to be changed, and yeah, Phil does need to pull off the kid gloves when situations like this happen.

Good example - Gears 4 and 5. I know there's people who have problems with those games, but IMO Coalition's done an infinitely better job with Gears than 343's done with Halo overall. Just compare Gears 5's graphics to Halo Infinite's and there's no comparison, Gears 5 blows it out of the water. There's zero excuse why Infinite should look categorically worse visually than a last gen game (and before anyone brings up the "open world" thing - Gears 5 was also semi-open world, and from what I understand that's what Infinite's gonna be like too).

And yeah, they have no roadmap at all for where they wanna go with this series and it's extremely obvious. They may have in the beginning but not anymore. First game, Didact was the villain. People didn't like him so they got rid of him and replaced him with Cortana. People liked that even less so now they seem to be pushing her to the side and replacing her with this new Brute guy. I honestly think in cases like this 343 is almost TOO reactive, they need to just stick to their guns sometimes instead of jumping around like this, as it creates an incoherent mess and reminds me far too much of the clusterfuck that was the Disney Star Wars trilogy. Part of this is because Brian Reed, the Halo 5 writer suddenly left 343 in early 2017 - which happens to be around when the rumored development reboot happened. The entire Halo community pretty much unanimously hated him, so I think we can kind of connect the dots as to what probably happened there (and strangely I rarely see anyone ever bring this up).

One thing's for sure, Jason Shreier is almost certainly working on one of his big exposes for this game as we speak. And it's going to be very interesting when he releases it.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

Good thoughts all. Will have to chime in when I can take some time to think.

In the meantime:

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Good thoughts all. Will have to chime in when I can take some time to think.

In the meantime:

I watched that the other day, great fun actually. Really cool to have the old Bungie devs commentary.

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[VincentMatts]

Definitely the weakest of the mcc trailers. But its good that its finally gonna be all out there.

 

[SCB3]

Ok, let's get ready for 5 !

 

[Bernkastel]

I dont care what anyone says, I love that track in the trailer.


Would have cared about Halo 5 if it was more like Halo 4.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

Would have cared about Halo 5 if it was more like Halo 4.

 

[Bernkastel]

Halo TV Series Recasts Cortana With Original Voice Actress - IGN

IGN can exclusively reveal that Showtime's Halo TV series has recast its Cortana, bringing in Jen Taylor – who's played the role in every mainline Halo game.

www.ign.com

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[jdouglas]

Hot take: Bungie deliberately made Halo:Reach multiplayer dogshit, setting the tone for future Halo games with sprint and armor abilities, to cause migration to their newest franchise, Destiny.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

A lot of my complaints with Halo 4. I think gameplay, music, art, level design, and features are pretty self explanatory. On the story side I was incredibly dissapointed. Bungie took Chekov's gun off the wall, loaded it, fired it, and 343 chose to ignore the shot. The forerunner novels and Halo 4/5 were so thematically detached from Bungie's work it was jarring. A lot of Bungie's allusions and story hints ignored.

Hot take: Bungie deliberately made Halo:Reach multiplayer dogshit, setting the tone for future Halo games with sprint and armor abilities, to cause migration to their newest franchise, Destiny.

I wouldn't say that. Bungie was using both ODST and Reach as a way to test a lot of concepts for Destiny. It was also in a way a spiritual successor to both Halo and Shadowrun FPS two games that were great independently but did not work as well when combined.

 

[Havoc2049]

Compared to Halo 5, Halo 4 is pretty good.

I prefer the original Halo 4 teaser trailer.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

A lot of my complaints with Halo 4. I think gameplay, music, art, level design, and features are pretty self explanatory. On the story side I was incredibly dissapointed. Bungie took Chekov's gun off the wall, loaded it, fired it, and 343 chose to ignore the shot. The forerunner novels and Halo 4/5 were so thematically detached from Bungie's work it was jarring. A lot of Bungie's allusions and story hints ignored.

Could you imagine if Chief woke up in Halo 4 from the banished and instead of the Didact we got Atriox? That cutscene in Halo Wars 2 telling Atriox's backstory is better than any cutscene in Halo 4.

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[Bernkastel]

For people asking why 343i won't hire Marty(he is talking about "Through the trees" from Halo Infinite here).

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

For people asking why 343i won't hire Marty(he is talking about "Through the trees" from Halo Infinite here).

Marty has some interesting thoughts on credit, royalties, etc. He comes from a different world in music so he brings a different perspective.

I've always assumed that Marty wouldn't want to work directly for 343, he would rather work under a contract. He would also want control over the narrative. He has expressed some disappointment with the story in the past and he was pretty instrumental in the writing of the original games, particularly Halo 2 and 3. I imagine that he would seriously butt heads with Frankie and the narrative team at 343.

BRB putting you on ignore.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

I've always assumed that Marty wouldn't want to work directly for 343, he would rather work under a contract. He would also want control over the narrative. He has expressed some disappointment with the story in the past and he was pretty instrumental in the writing of the original games, particularly Halo 2 and 3. I imagine that he would seriously butt heads with Frankie and the narrative team at 343.

I feel like Marty would go crazy working with 343. I remember Marty was told that 343 added the co-op elites from Halo 3 to the lore and Marty just rolled his eyes and was like wtf XD. Then he went on a tangent about how the games should be the main source of the lore and the books should be some side stuff, which is the opposite direction 343 is going, you literally didn't know who any of the Spartans were in Halo 5 without external sources.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

I feel like Marty would go crazy working with 343. I remember Marty was told that 343 added the co-op elites from Halo 3 to the lore and Marty just rolled his eyes and was like wtf XD. Then he went on a tangent about how the games should be the main source of the lore and the books should be some side stuff, which is the opposite direction 343 is going, you literally didn't know who any of the Spartans were in Halo 5 without external sources.

Bungie was really good about the games feeding the novels vs. 343's approach of using the novels to inform the story in 4 and 5. Bonnie has talked about her admiration for Star War's trans-media and merchandising elements. It is abundantly clear that 343 has tried (unsuccessfully) to copy that model with the innumerable books, toys, and other media ventures that 343 has released. It makes Bungie's non-gaming output, which was substantial compared to other franchises at the time, look paltry in comparison. The difference is Star Wars earned all of the EU and the toys. The movies had a clear and articulate story while the books served to chronicle adventures outside of the core events. Halo did the opposite and has even pushed out more and more media despite waning interest in the few games they have released (Bungie's 5 original FPS titles in a decade vs 343's 2 in a decade). There isn't interest in the games much less the novels. The other issue I have is how 343 largely ignored a lot of the themes and story elements that Bungie had established. We ended up with the bizarre human-forerunner war, redundant precursor race, and anti-climatic flood origin. A lot of Bungie's framing of the universe was thrown out to make things bigger. It is very inconsistent with the tone of the Bungie games and therefore jarring to someone who played those as they released.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Bungie was really good about the games feeding the novels vs. 343's approach of using the novels to inform the story in 4 and 5. Bonnie has talked about her admiration for Star War's trans-media and merchandising elements. It is abundantly clear that 343 has tried (unsuccessfully) to copy that model with the innumerable books, toys, and other media ventures that 343 has released. It makes Bungie's non-gaming output, which was substantial compared to other franchises at the time, look paltry in comparison. The difference is Star Wars earned all of the EU and the toys. The movies had a clear and articulate story while the books served to chronicle adventures outside of the core events. Halo did the opposite and has even pushed out more and more media despite waning interest in the few games they have released (Bungie's 5 original FPS titles in a decade vs 343's 2 in a decade). There isn't interest in the games much less the novels. The other issue I have is how 343 largely ignored a lot of the themes and story elements that Bungie had established. We ended up with the bizarre human-forerunner war, redundant precursor race, and anti-climatic flood origin. A lot of Bungie's framing of the universe was thrown out to make things bigger. It is very inconsistent with the tone of the Bungie games and therefore jarring to someone who played those as they released.

Tbh I wonder how much of the writing Joe Staten is changing on Halo Infinite, I hope its a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if 343 is doing the same thing with Halo Infinite with a lot of the Zeta Halo lore requiring outside sources to fully understand. He's probably trying to figure out a way to put that stuff in the game.

I also hope he completely changes the writing on that brute from the trailer, that shit was just bad. If you just read that script by itself I don't think anyone would say he was from a Halo game. If he's the main villain and not Atriox I'm gonna be pissed.

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

Tbh I wonder how much of the writing Joe Staten is changing on Halo Infinite, I hope its a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if 343 is doing the same thing with Halo Infinite with a lot of the Zeta Halo lore requiring outside sources to fully understand. He's probably trying to figure out a way to put that stuff in the game.

I also hope he completely changes the writing on that brute from the trailer, that shit was just bad. If you just read that script by itself I don't think anyone would say he was from a Halo game. If he's the main villain and not Atriox I'm gonna be pissed.

Unfortunately I don't think anything really changes. Joe is there to make sure they finish the game but most of it is already content complete.

One thing with main villains is that they should be ancillary to the challenge the hero must overcome. 343 Guilty Spark, Tartarus, Truth, Gravemind are all major enemies but their actions are what need to be overcome. The activation of the rings and the possibility of the flood engulfing the galaxy are the real conflicts. The villains are just bad guys/narrators on that journey. The covenant will still arm the rings without Truth, the brutes will still take over without Tartarus, and the flood will consume people without Gravemind. Killing them is secondary to ensuring the survival of humanity. Thats one area where I feel like the Didact, the Warden Eternal, Cortana, and this new Brute all fall short. The direct conflict is with them vs. them being vehicles of the larger conflict for human survival. They admittedly do a better job with the Didact but still, his motivations for wanting to kill all of humanity are kind of obtuse and overall lacking substance.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Unfortunately I don't think anything really changes. Joe is there to make sure they finish the game but most of it is already content complete.

One thing with main villains is that they should be ancillary to the challenge the hero must overcome. 343 Guilty Spark, Tartarus, Truth, Gravemind are all major enemies but their actions are what need to be overcome. The activation of the rings and the possibility of the flood engulfing the galaxy are the real conflicts. The villains are just bad guys/narrators on that journey. The covenant will still arm the rings without Truth, the brutes will still take over without Tartarus, and the flood will consume people without Gravemind. Killing them is secondary to ensuring the survival of humanity. Thats one area where I feel like the Didact, the Warden Eternal, Cortana, and this new Brute all fall short. The direct conflict is with them vs. them being vehicles of the larger conflict for human survival. They admittedly do a better job with the Didact but still, his motivations for wanting to kill all of humanity are kind of obtuse and overall lacking substance.

I agree that the survival of humanity was the main theme in Bungie's games and I think it was strengthened by a lot of things like Bungie's focus on military and actually having likable characters that you want to save. For comparison I don't think anyone is motivated to save any of the new characters in Halo 5...

That being said I think having those secondary themes in Halo is extremely important. Every good Halo game has had them be it in the form of villains to saving an ally

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

What is this weapon on Chief's back? I don't recall it -

 

[SafeOrAlone]

Playing through the Master Chief collection as someone who hasn't played these games since their original, respective releases.
I've plowed through Halo 1 and Halo 2 and enjoyed the former much more. Funny, as Halo 2 was one of the games I was most hyped for back in the day, but I really didn't enjoy it much this time around, especially coming from Combat Evolved, which had much more interesting encounter and level design. Actually sort of put me off my playthrough of the series, but I am looking forward to starting 3 eventually.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

What is this weapon on Chief's back? I don't recall it -

Ravenger I think

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Ravenger I think

Oh it's the banished weapon. Thanks.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

So I picked up 3 months of Ultimate for $1 and I googled it and it says ODST and Reach should be included with the gamepass version of MCC, but when I boot up the game its telling me to buy them. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I have the physical version of MCC.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

I had to install them separately through the dashboard store, rnot in game, rebooted MCC after that and all was fine. Maybe you could try the same.

 

[Bernkastel]

Halo: Point of Light novel announced, releases in March 2021

Rion Forge returns to our pages once again.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[Complistic]

So I picked up 3 months of Ultimate for $1 and I googled it and it says ODST and Reach should be included with the gamepass version of MCC, but when I boot up the game its telling me to buy them. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I have the physical version of MCC.

Windows store is a bit wonky. You may need to activate them in the game in order for it to realize they're installed.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

It's here.

Inside Infinite – December 2020

<p>Hey everyone, I’m Joseph Staten. If you’ve been a longtime part of the Halo community, you may already know me. If you’re new to the community: Hello! It’s great to meet you. I was part of the Bungie team who made Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. I came […]</p>

www.halowaypoint.com

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Multiplayer renders look hot and a lot more "mature" Halo, which I want. Still concept art only for campaign at this stage has me a little worried though. At least there was some basic communication and multiplayer peeks. Also Watchdog Armour is my Spartan spirit animal, utilitarian but shiny. I like it.

 

[pesaddict]

Finally some news

 

[Cutty Flam]

I'm hoping that the maps for Halo: Infinite are on level with Halo 2's and a handful of Halo 3's maps

I might even write a letter to 343i about that subject, whether in vain or not I can't be sure until I write it, but I'd be willing to spend some time to reach out and see how it goes

I've always thought that the maps dictate the greatness of the multiplayer ever since Halo 2. Especially if they're going to allow sprint and jetpacks in Infinite. Certain features are going to be more necessary than ever

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Ha. I randomly went to waypoint last night and was surprised to see info on Infinite. Not surprised but sad that it's been delayed until the end of 2021 Sounded like Staten was in a way doing some damage control but very glad he is involved.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

An idea I think has merit for a spinoff game or mode - Battle Royal but with AI and objectives. Each team has a different starting point, can decide for a quick attack route against 1 or 2 other teams vs objective layer unlocks. Think of mini stages or segments of the maps where a few teams exist in each pizza slice and can fight it out for mini objectives/weapon rewards or perhaps teleport/vehicle to fight in another area. Great for networking and variety of play as well as progression similar to Apex for example. As the teams wipe each other out or unlock segments of the map they escalate in their progression of shields/weapons and complexity of objectives as well as the enemy teams closing segments/objective unlocks. Out last/slay everyone to win or complete the final objective unlock to win.

I reckon Halo would have a brilliant take on this sort of mixed idea and could really add in AI to the objective, even foster teaming within segments perhaps, timed challenges for better unlocks to attract teams within each other etc. Temporary alliances/betrayals and a last squad standing all in play. Some elements of dominion could play as well, sustain a segment and build a little base defense system as well. I'd even go as far as a little Forge in real time on the battlefield?

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

MCC is finally what it should have been all along.

 

[Bernkastel]

Halo News - Sunsetting Halo Xbox 360 Game Services in 2021

In approximately one year, December 2021, online services for legacy Halo Xbox 360 titles will be discontinued in order for 343 Industries to fully focus on the future of the franchise. Owners of these titles will still be able to play these games indefinitely but some experiences will be...

www.halowaypoint.com

 

[Bernkastel]

First look at Halo TV series

Halo Community Update - Happy Halodays 2020

We're back with one last Community Update before the holidays! In today's post you can expect to hear from the people that bring Halo to life, what they worked on this year, and even get a few hints at what to look forward to in 2021. It's going to be a great way to close out the year!

www.halowaypoint.com

We couldn't wrap up a look at the whole franchise without talking about Showtime's Halo TV series. To give us the latest news from the set, Kiki Wolfkill has written a few words and shared a few pictures from behind the scenes!


As you may have seen on IG last month, after a herculean effort on Showtime's part, we were able to go back to Budapest a few months ago and resume production on the Halo television series! While we were able to cover a lot of ground during the pandemic 'hiatus', the thing we couldn't do while working from home was to actually shoot. So with a rigorous covid protocol in place and our fingers crossed, we picked up where we left off in March and were able to get some amazing footage in the can. Oh, and this time I got to pack Jen Taylor in my luggage to bring her Cortana magic to the show! What a gift to have her on our set and in Budapest with me. So much to share in 2021 but in the meantime, stay safe, Spartans and enjoy this tiny sneak peek!

 

[Evangelion Unit-01]

Halo News - Sunsetting Halo Xbox 360 Game Services in 2021

In approximately one year, December 2021, online services for legacy Halo Xbox 360 titles will be discontinued in order for 343 Industries to fully focus on the future of the franchise. Owners of these titles will still be able to play these games indefinitely but some experiences will be...

www.halowaypoint.com

This is worth a new thread! Unfortunate news. I need to buy the games digitally now I guess.

Edit: I see you made one, perfect!!

 

[Darkmakaimura]

So the Domain is pretty much the Forerunner equivalent of cyberspace, yes? I know it's....

Spoiler

basically a Precursor and in a sense, alive....

But can it be physically entered? I still don't quite get how that works.

Also how do Inline Spoilers on here now? I cannot find the option on here now after the upgrade.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

One other thing.

Is the Composer somehow tied to the Domain, as well?

 

[Bernkastel]

Also how do Inline Spoilers on here now? I cannot find the option on here now after the upgrade.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Thank you.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Anyone here make SR152 in Halo 5? I have 6 million XP left to hit it. I’ve been grinding like a madman the past few weeks. The double XP has helped. bit torturous but I gotta have those Infinite bonuses that I’m sure will be worth shit.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Finally finished Halo Wars 2 campaign. I liked the premise of the story, but I wanted way more of it, didn't like that most the story is told through debriefings. They only went to Atriox's perspective a couple times, wish they did it more. I guess since they decided to tie it into the next mainline Halo game they couldn't put too much story into a side-game.