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Halo 5: Guardians |OT5| Is HaloGAF irrelevant now?

Juan

Member
But causal fans or even hardcore fans see Prometheans and aren't intrigued by their existence or their relation to the Forerunners, really I think thats one of the main issues with gameplay motivation with the Prometheans in the fact that you see them as a simple mindless pawn ( a similar thing has now happened with the Covenant.)

One thing that made me dislike (and not hate) the Prometheans is that I never understood why they were fighting me (Master Chief).

Personally, I did liked the Prometheans during the first part of Halo 4, when they were blue. They didn't really attack us since they weren't making a difference between you and the Covenant. They were just protecting something, like the Sentinels in Halo CE/2/3, and that makes them intriguing to me.

But after that, they fall flat, and while the Covenant had a religious motivation to wipe me out, Prometheans during the second part of Halo 4 and during Halo 5 had no real motivation to fight against us, they were just robots manipulated by someone.

And I'm not even talking about the bullet-sponge side ofc. Scott Warner gave a really interesting talk at GDC regarding "The design of new ennemies for Halo 4". It's a one hour talk and it gives us an inside look at how they were designed, from a lore and gameplay standpoint. The first iteration for the Prometheans looked like really fun to play against, I don't really know why they changed the way they were behaving, maybe because they wanted to give player a harder time, making Prometheans more challenging, even if they ended up being more bullet-spongee than anything else.

If you're curious about this talk: GDC 2013: Scott Warner - "The Design of New Enemies for Halo 4"
 

JlNX

Member
One thing that made me dislike (and not hate) the Prometheans is that I never understood why they were fighting me (Master Chief).

Personally, I did liked the Prometheans during the first part of Halo 4, when they were blue. They didn't really attack us since they weren't making a difference between you and the Covenant. They were just protecting something, like the Sentinels in Halo CE/2/3, and that makes them intriguing to me.

But after that, they fall flat, and while the Covenant had a religious motivation to wipe me out, Prometheans during the second part of Halo 4 and during Halo 5 had no real motivation to fight against us, they were just robots manipulated by someone.

And I'm not even talking about the bullet-sponge side ofc. Scott Warner gave a really interesting talk at GDC regarding "The design of new ennemies for Halo 4". It's a one hour talk and it gives us an inside look at how they were designed, from a lore and gameplay standpoint. The first iteration for the Prometheans looked like really fun to play against, I don't really know why they changed the way they were behaving, maybe because they wanted to give player a harder time, making Prometheans more challenging, even if they ended up being more bullet-spongee than anything else.

If you're curious about this talk: GDC 2013: Scott Warner - "The Design of New Enemies for Halo 4"

I think with Cortana now in control you now have a really good opportunity to have the Prometheans represent her motivations, but that will live or die upon how well Cortana is written which is why I hope they go really dark and plunge Cortana into the depths of insanity with real reasons for her motivations. But the question is, depending on what happens to Cortana or when, what will the Prometheans become after that? they will have the same issue the covenant have now. But talking about the gameplay design of the Prometheans there is some really cool early 343 concepts that show a sort of modular transformers combine system that looked really interesting.
 

AlStrong

Member
One wrong twitch of the upper mandible and there goes its eye sight.

At least The Predator/Yautja have helmets to cover how bloody ugly they are.

If humans had a Sangheili design their helmets, they'd have the perfect protection for moustaches and beards while leaving everything else exposed.

Sometimes the novels have Doom gibs

Mona Lisa?
 

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
One wrong twitch of the upper mandible and there goes its eye sight.

At least The Predator/Yautja have helmets to cover how bloody ugly they are.

If humans had a Sangheili design their helmets, they'd have the perfect protection for moustaches and beards while leaving everything else exposed.



Mona Lisa?

I was just reading Envoy and it described a human getting hit with a gravity hammer and his head/legs flying everywhere.
 
Most of the books describe Gravity Hammer attacks as messy, rather than flinging around ragdolls like the game incarnation. Most of the victims (ex. Contact Harvest) are literally reduced to a pulp after a single hit.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
But none of that is reflected in the Halo games, which is where my point that he would have been ill-suited to the franchise comes in.

Describing stuff in the books versus realizing it on screen are two very different things.
 
But none of that is reflected in the Halo games, which is where my point that he would have been ill-suited to the franchise comes in.

Describing stuff in the books versus realizing it on screen are two very different things.

That can be pointed both ways, though, because people have been upset the novel incarnation of Fall of Reach hasn't gotten a "proper" realization (Reach, the various animated versions, etc.) as early back as the years following Combat Evolved's release. Most of the chat I've seen in the past with the franchise regarding a film has also been in hopes of it featuring Fall of Reach, which, again, is reflected in, like, all of two or three lines of dialogue in the original game.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
That can be pointed both ways, though, because people have been upset the novel incarnation of Fall of Reach hasn't gotten a "proper" realization (Reach, the various animated versions, etc.) as early back as the years following Combat Evolved's release. Most of the chat I've seen in the past with the franchise regarding a film has also been in hopes of it featuring Fall of Reach, which, again, is reflected in, like, all of two or three lines of dialogue in the original game.

And those people have dumb opinions.
 

Juan

Member
And those people have dumb opinions.

Because you have the good one? One french philosopher, Emil Michel Cioran, once said "Dès qu'on me parle d'élites, je sais que je me trouve en présence d'un imbécile" which could be translated by:

As soon as someone talks to me about elites, I know that I am in the presence of a moron.

If you weren't joking, then I would apply this quote especially for you.

Ok, I'll give you the talented bit if it'll make you happy, but he's fundamentally unsuited to Halo. We've seen what he would have done with District 9 and Elysium, and for someone who professes to love Halo he clearly doesn't understand anything about its style. Halo has and never will be gritty shakycam gun POV shots and people exploding like Doom gibs.

Agree to disagree. Halo CE had the gritty shakycam POV thanks to Jenkins found footage about the Flood, Halo 3 had this in some form with the shaky Cortana moments, Halo 3 ODST was full of this with the flying drone, camera footages from Virgil, Madison logs, and we're not even talking about Reach.

You're not making a good point here. District 9 and Elysium aren't Halo movie, but actually, their gritty look would have been great for Halo, the same way Landfall was. Halo always had a gritty yet grungy look, and this can be seen with every major concepts art Bungie made for their games.

You may not like his style as a director, which is something I could understand, but saying he would be a bad director for Halo is in my opinion absolutely untrue. I would even say that Landfall was the perfect movie-prequel for ODST, and Forward Unto Dawn was way too clean to be really appealing to the Halo aesthetic.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Because you have the good one? One french philosopher, Emil Michel Cioran, once said "Dès qu'on me parle d'élites, je sais que je me trouve en présence d'un imbécile" which could be translated by:

As soon as someone talks to me about elites, I know that I am in the presence of a moron.

If you weren't joking, then I would apply this quote especially for you.
.

Lol. Appropriate junior member garbage.
 
Fuchs became a conductor on the Bad Opinion Train™ the moment it was discovered he hates teleporters. Looks like he's working towards that tenure now.
 

Trup1aya

Member
But none of that is reflected in the Halo games, which is where my point that he would have been ill-suited to the franchise comes in.

Describing stuff in the books versus realizing it on screen are two very different things.

The stuff in the books is more readily adaptable for film.

Much of the 'style' of the game is decided purely for gameplay reasons. For example, Grenades send people flying, intact, because it's fun. That doesn't mean that gibbing wouldn't be appropriate or even good for a movie.

When watching a movie, you aren't playing a game, so different considerations are made. I think the most important thing to carryover from the games would be the art style, and obviously stay true to the narrative.
 
The stuff in the books is more readily adaptable for film.

Much of the 'style' of the game is decided purely for gameplay reasons. For example, Grenades send people flying, intact, because it's fun. That doesn't mean that gibbing wouldn't be good for a movie.

I think the most important thing to carryover from the games would be the art style.

Uh, considering that probably a hundred million more people have played the games than read the books, I think the games would be the place to start.
 
Yeah, that strategy has worked brilliantly for video game adaptions over the years...

Yes, that's definitely the problem with video game movies. Being too close to the source material.

You've done it, you totally figured it out.

streetfighter-movie-screencaps.com-203.jpg
 

Fuchsdh

Member
The games are a lot easier to adapt as well. As you point out, a lot of gameplay considerations can be stripped out. Adapt CE and you could cut whole levels without impacting the story heavily. Far easier to turn a game into a two-hour movie than a full novel.

We've also gotten The Fall of Reach in, what, four different mediums?

Either way we're not getting a Halo movie any time soon, and that's fine.

Guess you have nothing more to say. Not even surprised. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Because the irony of spouting irrelevant French quotes to argue against "elitism" is lost on you. (Also: Cioran was Romanian.)
 

Madness

Member
Something about multiple Halo threads on gaming side has me nostalgic. I really hope Halo 6 blows people away. I miss this series.

It's dead jim. By the time it is out. You will probably have 9 year olds who weren't even born when Reach launched. These things happen. I just didn't think it would happen to a massive series like Halo. Once talked about with Mario and Zelda, CE in the hall of fame with games like DKC and whatnot. And yet ask a random kid on the street, what game are you excited for. You'll get Overwatch and Destiny 2 and Battlefront 2. No one cares about Halo. It is the baseball of first person shooters now. A primary fanbase of mid twenties to fifties and growing each year.
 

Trup1aya

Member
Yes, that's definitely the problem with video game movies. Being too close to the source material.

You've done it, you totally figured it out.

streetfighter-movie-screencaps.com-203.jpg

Yeah because basing a movie on a critically acclaimed novel = making a movie about a fighting game with a lose narrative to begin with.

Making movies based on good books is a proven concept. Making movies based on games is not
 

Juan

Member
Because the irony of spouting irrelevant French quotes to argue against "elitism" is lost on you. (Also: Cioran was Romanian.)

Can't force on you if you can't handle some culture when you call others's opinions dumb while you're not even good at arguing. (⌐■_■) ☞ ☞

Also, next time you try to use google to discover who I was quoting, be sure to read the whole wikipedia page (since Cioran was actually french since 1946 and was studying in a french school in Romania).

Yes, that's definitely the problem with video game movies. Being too close to the source material.

You've done it, you totally figured it out.

A movie is actually its own medium, and it can be based on a game or the lore used in expanded universe from this game. It is only what you make of it in the end. Like, some perfect adaption aren't even named after the game. Say Street Fighter for example, I would argue the best Street Fighter movie is actually "Future Cops" directed by Wong Jing.

There is a ton of example of movies adapted from games, which are great, but they aren't official movies because people owning the IPs are sometime too afraid to stay true to the universe and try to only replicate what's good in a game, on screen, but it didn't translate well.

That's why Bloomkamp would be a great director for a Halo movie. He doesn't try to replicate what's good in a game. He creates a proper scenery for a specific medium.
 
Yeah because basing a movie on a critically acclaimed novel = making a movie about a fighting game with a lose narrative to begin with.

Making movies based on good books is a proven concept. Making movies based on hands is not

I mean, it depends on what stuff you are talking about. Story-wise, sure, but if you're going to blow tens of millions of dollars on something, it's going to borrow most heavily from the dominant form of media in the franchise, da videa gaems
 

Trup1aya

Member
I mean, it depends on what stuff you are talking about. Story-wise, sure, but if you're going to blow tens of millions of dollars on something, it's going to borrow most heavily from the dominant form of media in the franchise, da videa gaems

The universe the movie would be set it IS borrowed from the game.

But it would be a mistake to let gameplay design dictate how the film adaption is presented.
 
What is this silliness? Games easier to adapt than movies?

WUT

Game narratives just aren't structured right. Books, being similarly noninteractive, have a lot more in common with movies than games do.

Fall of Reach I still feel hasn't gotten its' real due (motion comic wryyyyy) but yeah maybe something more like Harvest or maybe Ghosts of Onyx would work better.
 
you'll get a film adaptation of the kilo-five trilogy and like it, westboro baptist church elites, jackal mating, spartans socking halsey in the face (somehow non-lethally???) and all
 

Trup1aya

Member
What is this silliness? Games easier to adapt than movies?

WUT

Game narratives just aren't structured right. Books, being similarly noninteractive, have a lot more in common with movies than games do.

Fall of Reach I still feel hasn't gotten its' real due (motion comic wryyyyy) but yeah maybe something more like Harvest or maybe Ghosts of Onyx would work better.

All facts here.

I personally think Fall of Reach would be the best way to introduce a wider audience to chief, blue team, and the Halsey.sure it's been adapted before, but only a fraction of the the halo base has ever encountered it- and we are talking about a movie, which would potentially be seen by folks who've never even played halo.

you'll get a film adaptation of the kilo-five trilogy and like it, westboro baptist church elites, jackal mating, spartans socking halsey in the face (somehow non-lethally???) and all

Lol! kilo-5 wouldn't make for a bad movie. I actually really enjoyed the espionage. And BB and Mdama were amazing additions to the Universe.

I forgot about the Halsey getting punched... that was dumb as fuck.
 
It's all been said already, but my biggest gripe with fighting prometheans is wasting ammo on them. You literally take them down to one-shot, but then they become invincible for a couple of seconds while they go through their animation of almost being dead, soldiers in particular. Um okay... What usually ends up happening is i expend my ammo clip, trying to get the finishing shot too early, and have to reload, by which time the promethean has moved behind cover or teleported off into who knows where - or else i'm dead lol. I perfer fighting covenant ala Combat Evolved where you could cut short an elite's enraged cry and they just drop dead instead. Definitely satisfying to drop them before they can even finish their animations. Adding to the wasting ammo gripe, it often feels like shots don't register, especially on nearby prowlers that are charging about. I shoot them with the scatter shot and it's like I somehow missed even thought it was almost point blank range.

The teleporting ability is equally annoying. I really dislike playing through the campaign when a group of prometheans can literally spawn right on top of you with minimal warning time. In previous Halo games, I could be methodical in eliminating covenant. With prometheans I get to fight an unknown amount of waves of randomly spawning enemies, which really takes the satisfaction out of strategically eliminating enemies. And there is just very little feed back when prometheans are taking shots. It's like shooting brutes all over again.
 
The Promotheans don't have interesting counters. You either aim at their head or a bright orange spot.

Compare that to the covenant where you have to use different strategies and tools to expose their weaknesses.
It is more effective to use different weapons on Elites to shred shields than to kill.
It is more effective to work around the Jackal shield than to brute force through it.
The Hunters have an explicit weak spot like Prometheans, but their attacks are able to be avoided with timing and positioning, unlike Promethean hitscan weapons. Plus hunters are a rare encounter.

The units having clear counters enables the developers to design more interesting encounters and allows players to strategize when approaching a fight.
 

jem0208

Member
The Promotheans don't have interesting counters. You either aim at their head or a bright orange spot.

Compare that to the covenant where you have to use different strategies and tools to expose their weaknesses.
It is more effective to use different weapons on Elites to shred shields than to kill.
It is more effective to work around the Jackal shield than to brute force through it.
The Hunters have an explicit weak spot like Prometheans, but their attacks are able to be avoided with timing and positioning, unlike Promethean hitscan weapons. Plus hunters are a rare encounter.

The units having clear counters enables the developers to design more interesting encounters and allows players to strategize when approaching a fight.


It's more efficient to use promethean weapons like the suppressor to shred a Soldiers armour.

It's more effective to take shoot the back off a Knight then headshot it than brute force it.
 
The universe the movie would be set it IS borrowed from the game.

But it would be a mistake to let gameplay design dictate how the film adaption is presented.

Well, yeah, but it does blur together in places. Jackals have shields that look that way so you can shoot through them, as a minor example.

My larger point is that any film would be done in relation to the video games as the paramount reference, because those are the dominant forms of media for the franchise. No rando is going to have any knowledge of the books, but there's a pretty good chance they've played the game, or seen it played, or have at least been bombarded by its marketing.

I'm not saying it makes sense to basically make Halo: CE: The Film, but it would be pretty dumb from a marketing perspective to make a big-budget Halo movie without the Chief, colorful grunts running around, or maybe even a Halo.

So yes, using the books as a start for some things (narratives) makes sense, but most things (characters, visuals) are going to be looking at the games for inspiration.

To go back to Blomkamp, he might do neat sci-fi stuff, but I don't think his style meshes well with the mainline games. Halo has never been a really gritty series, especially compared to other games in the genre, and Blomkamp wants you to feel like you need to rinse and spit after a screening.
 
Empire strongholds was the worst game type on release day annnnnnnnd it's still there on 15 July 2017. Someone should have a look at that.

Edit: twice in a row for my first two arena games in months lol
 

Trup1aya

Member
Well, yeah, but it does blur together in places. Jackals have shields that look that way so you can shoot through them, as a minor example.

My larger point is that any film would be done in relation to the video games as the paramount reference, because those are the dominant forms of media for the franchise. No rando is going to have any knowledge of the books, but there's a pretty good chance they've played the game, or seen it played, or have at least been bombarded by its marketing.

I'm not saying it makes sense to basically make Halo: CE: The Film, but it would be pretty dumb from a marketing perspective to make a big-budget Halo movie without the Chief, colorful grunts running around, or maybe even a Halo.

So yes, using the books as a start for some things (narratives) makes sense, but most things (characters, visuals) are going to be looking at the games for inspiration. The book-based movie would naturally share key items in common with the games, because the books are based on game's universe.

To go back to Blomkamp, he might do neat sci-fi stuff, but I don't think his style meshes well with the mainline games. Halo has never been a really gritty series, especially compared to other games in the genre, and Blomkamp wants you to feel like you need to rinse and spit after a screening.

Making a game based on the books does not mean the game would lack chief, grunts or a halo... it just means it would have a narrative structure that is more suitable for cinema.

I said the books would be a better place for narrative, where as the games would be the source for artwork.

The games being franchises dominant form of media doesn't really sway anything. The potential audience for the movie would dwarf the game franchises audience. Filmmakers need to focus on what it takes to make a good movie - which is different from what it takes to make a good game.

Also people not being as familiar with the books, makes them better sources IMO. That way more people have a chance at experiencing something new.

As far as tone, classic halo has a Aliens meets Starship Troopers vibe. I think Blomkamp could deliver that.
 
Five placement games in Arena, 5 losses (bad kids + game thinks I'm at the level I was 6 months ago). Winning 6th game, flag, 2-0, server boots me for no reason, still connected to Live, internet perfectly fine.

This is how you got Trump
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
Empire strongholds was the worst game type on release day annnnnnnnd it's still there on 15 July 2017. Someone should have a look at that.

Edit: twice in a row for my first two arena games in months lol

Naw, they got rid of empire ctf
 

Rtas

Member
Lol. Appropriate junior member garbage.

I was in total agreement with him actually. You've provided little to show your argument that Blomkamp is unsuited to Halo. Landfall was and still as an absolute masterpiece, and district 9 definitely retains some of its look from its halo origination. (Blomkamp used assets and designs from the initial failed halo project) along with it being a solid movie.

You've said the gritty style doesn't suit Halo, but thats basically the descriptor for Halo 3 ODST and in my opinion Halo 2. Halo 2 was street level grit in the first few levels, and when they got to the stuff with the flood that was some serious gritty horror esque shit.


Lastly even if you don't agree with Juan don't reduce yourself to throwing insults. Keep it clean man, you do HaloGaf a disservice by being a dick for no reason.
 
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