• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo |OT16| Oh Bungie, Where Art Thou?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Mock is old

So Wave 2 of McFarlanes Halo 4 figures are set for October release. But the press article from March 27th included this tidbit

As an added bonus, each figure will also include a unique code that unlocks exclusive Halo 4 video game content…More information coming soon!

Content sounds more than XP bonuses.

Source

For reference the figure line up is

Master Chief
Elite Ranger
Storm Jackal
SPARTAN C.I.O Variant
SPARTAN Scout Variant
Didact (September)

femshep is best character of this gen

Space Racist Maleshep disagrees
 
I blame Joseph Staten for the Cortana/Chief romance since Halo 2.

Yeah it definitely started before 4 and always seemed off to me. She's an AI, he's pretty stoic, but she's his humanity! It's like those awful stories where they take a badass male character and give him a mary sue loli and there's all kinds of sexual tension and you're thinking why. The only movie that ever did this any justice was Leon/The Professional because it was poking fun at that trope in a very obvious way in the uncut version.
 
Either way games could use some badass females who aren't the typical ball busting humorless bland types. It's always so yawn inducing the way female characters are written in these things. Although same could be said of other mediums.




Rampancy seemed like a convenient excuse for Cortana to go into some anti-menopause and become more and more a romantic character. It degraded into this fanfiction type feel that frankly made me feel gross at the end rather than emotional.

To be honest, even till the end of the game, I always saw Chief and Cortan's relationship growing in a more "Family/Mother/Child" relationship, and they "love" each other in a family way and not romantic way.

I loved Cortana's development through out the game, because as lame as this sound, I actually felt attached to her throughout the game, wanting to help her and make sure she doesn't die from rampancy, I actually cried a little at the end.

My only problem with Cortana is 343 took away her "brave, confident, intelligent, bad-ass" personality and made her come-off as a lonely helpless teenager.

She spent most of her time in-game looking like this"

images


cortana.jpg


2372371-cortana_tooth.png



than looking confident and bad-ass like this.

1280px-Cortana_halo4start.png



Completely took away the personality of the Cortana we knew in Halo CE-Halo 3.
 
To be honest, even till the end of the game, I always saw Chief and Cortan's relationship growing in a more "Family/Mother/Child" relationship, and they "love" each other in a family way and not romantic way.

I loved Cortana's development through out the game, because as lame as this sound, I actually felt attached to her throughout the game, wanting to help her and make sure she doesn't die from rampancy, I actually cried a little at the end.

My only problem with Cortana is 343 took away her "brave, confident, intelligent, bad-ass" personality and made her come-off as a lonely helpless teenager.

She spent most of her time in-game looking like this"

images


cortana.jpg


2372371-cortana_tooth.png



than looking confident and bad-ass like this.

1280px-Cortana_halo4start.png



Completely took away the personality of the Cortana we knew in Halo CE-Halo 3.

Well that's why I mentioned the loli character trope.
 
lol just noticed in one of the pictures I posted:

1280px-Cortana_halo4start.png



She's cupping her hand over her breast as if covering something. Lol is she self aware that she chooses to project herself in a dumb/distracting way, a naked young version of Hasley? Lol


I never understood why of all ways Cortana could project herself, she chooses this way.
 
I always saw Cortana as more acting like Chief's mom considering she's based on Halsey. Adding romance just added this weird layer of Oedipus complex shit where Chief wants to kill the UNSC and fuck Cortana.

I have three things in the works right now:
-Revised Gravity Gauntlet mechanics
-New ambient wildlife concept for future Halo games
-Art/sprite work for halogaffers

Which of these, if any, would you like to see here instead of posted on the blog?
 
lol just noticed in one of the pictures I posted:

1280px-Cortana_halo4start.png



She's cupping her hand over her breast as if covering something. Lol is she self aware that she chooses to project herself in a dumb/distracting way, a naked young version of Hasley? Lol


I never understood why of all ways Cortana could project herself, she chooses this way.

Because she didn't choose.
 
... not sure if you mean story/cannon wise, or you mean obviously 343/Bungie choose, but I thought AI's could decide for themselves in the Halo Universe how they "Project" themselves, no?

[spoilers]Apologizes if you meant in real life, were 343 and Bungie choose that look for her, lol[/spoiler]

Think about it, a woman or AI with a female slanted gender wants to be taken seriously and she chooses that? She didn't choose that. It's a terrible justification for a shitty character design that lets them distance themselves from the original design.
 

Havok

Member
To be honest, even till the end of the game, I always saw Chief and Cortan's relationship growing in a more "Family/Mother/Child" relationship, and they "love" each other in a family way and not romantic way.
I dunno about you, but my family members don't usually come up to me, stroke my chest longingly, and breathily tell me they've "waited so long to do that."

Maybe that's not weird, I dunno.
 
Think about it, a woman or AI with a female slanted gender wants to be taken seriously and she chooses that? She didn't choose that. It's a terrible justification for a shitty character design that lets them distance themselves from the original design.

Oh, so we're talking real-life. We'll, yeah obviously 343/Bungie choose to overly sexualize her, for some strange reason. Seriously, it's pretty god damn funny, here's a picture 343 published,
evolution_of_cortana-2.jpg
.

It's hilarious how an AI that can "choose" for itself decides that it was to get more "attractive" over time lol. Wonder if 343 and Bungie realized how stupid, and immature it is to design her like that, and try to use "she chooses to present herself like this" as a reason lol.


I dunno about you, but my family members don't usually come up to me, stroke my chest longingly, and breathily tell me they've "waited so long to do that."

Maybe that's not weird, I dunno.

She's dying, and is about to be torn apart from the ONLY person she has ever truly communicated with, the ONE person who takes care and cares for her, and vice versa. The one person she lived inside his head for 7 years. She waited so long to touch Chief, the person she took care of and worked with for 7 years, her child basically.
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
Halo 4 had some pretty cringeworthy moments off the top of my head:

Chief becomes Space Jesus
Tinkerbell Cortana's
"Waited so long to touch you"
 
Think about it, a woman or AI with a female slanted gender wants to be taken seriously and she chooses that? She didn't choose that. It's a terrible justification for a shitty character design that lets them distance themselves from the original design.

I don't even think Cortana being butt nekkid is necessarily the issue - back in CE, the graphics made her look like something from ONI's cutting room floor so you just accepted the design for what it was. Come Halo 2 and then the model in Halo 3, yeah you could make out curves, but it just seemed natural at that point. An AI probably wouldn't have to deal with concepts like modesty or being cold considering it's just a projection. Yeah, you'd have one or two people wanking over her but the relationship at is core still just felt love-fed in the sense that you'd love a fellow family member.

BUT THEN:

ProfilePhotos


"HELP ME CHIEF YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE BBY"

also the mocap actor is an underwear model

"WE WANTED TO MAKE HER SEEM VISCERAL AND FULL OF GRAVITAS TO IMMERSE THE PLAYER IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN AND DYLA-I MEAN CORTANA"
 

Korosenai

Member
Halo 4 had some pretty cringeworthy moments off the top of my head:

Chief becomes Space Jesus
Tinkerbell Cortana's
"Waited so long to touch you"
Its even worse when you realize that she never wanted to actually touch him until that moment. It was really out of nowhere.
 
Oh, so we're talking real-life. We'll, yeah obviously 343/Bungie choose to overly sexualize her, for some strange reason. Seriously, it's pretty god damn funny, here's a picture 343 published,
evolution_of_cortana-2.jpg
.

It's hilarious how an AI that can "choose" for itself decides that it was to get more "attractive" over time lol. Wonder if 343 and Bungie realized how stupid, and immature it is to design her like that, and try to use "she chooses to present herself like this" as a reason lol.

Canon aside because its only validity is in discussion against its self.

Nerds love sexy blue holograms. Cortana looked best in H2. The way her character devolved emotionally in H4 was to show rampancy I think. On a less canonistic level it was to pull at players (see hologram loving nerds) heartstrings so that the final events became more emotional. I don't think it succeed but I've never found Cortana anything other than a witty companion and a encyclopedia of space stuff. I was not very attached to her but her voice broke up some mundane areas.

The final scenes played like a romantic fanfic and left me feeling awkward.
 
How does an AI such as her even know or care about touching on our level? How can she even feel when it's a projection? Why am I asking these questions? PLOT MAGIX OF COURSE.
 
I don't even think Cortana being butt nekkid is necessarily the issue - back in CE, the graphics made her look like something from ONI's cutting room floor so you just accepted the design for what it was. Come Halo 2 and then the model in Halo 3, yeah you could make out curves, but it just seemed natural at that point. An AI probably wouldn't have to deal with concepts like modesty or being cold considering it's just a projection. Yeah, you'd have one or two people wanking over her but the relationship at is core still just felt love-fed in the sense that you'd love a fellow family member.

BUT THEN:

ProfilePhotos


"HELP ME CHIEF YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE BBY"

also the mocap actor is an underwear model

"WE WANTED TO MAKE HER SEEM VISCERAL AND FULL OF GRAVITAS TO IMMERSE THE PLAYER IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN AND DYLA-I MEAN CORTANA"

Is that who they designed Cortana after? I thought it was this girl:
tumblr_m5nof2D47r1rv7sano1_500.jpg

tumblr_m5mr9x1nQt1r2s5ljo1_500.jpg


Paisha Coffey?

How does an AI such as her even know or care about touching on our level? How can she even feel when it's a projection? Why am I asking these questions? PLOT MAGIX OF COURSE.

She wasn't being projected, she was an actual person for a few second because of the hard-light thingy.

An AI that knows everything would probably know about Touch and our other senses, just never experienced them, hence why she would probably want too, and did, on her basically son, Master Chief.

I never knew so many of you guys saw Master Chief and Cortana's relationship in Halo 4 in a romantic light. Pretty weird.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0iy78CO0Do

So fanfictiony it makes me cringe. Gotta watch in parts.


She wasn't being projected, she was an actual person for a few second because of the hard-light thingy.

An AI that knows everything would probably know about Touch and our other senses, just never experienced them, hence why she would probably want too, and did, on her basically son, Master Chief.

I never knew so many of you guys saw Master Chief and Cortana's relationship in Halo 4 in a romantic light. Pretty weird.

Now we know who this game was developed for. The stuff that went on between them was some definite tension. Also them joking about her being developed after a pornstar. Priorities, check. I know mom's totally do the hip walk up to their sons.
 
Nah, the HaloGAF podcast had one of her designers on as a guest for a bit and they revealed the whole Dylan Rider thing was a developer in-joke to see how much they could get away with as a 1st-party company.

... are you kidding me?

and I thought my opinion of 343 couldn't get any lower after yesterday's "Halo 4 is too traditional, SCRAP IT AND MAKE IT DIFFERENT" news.


Not only did they try their best to overly sexualize Cortana, they DESIGNED her after a porn star. I really dislike 343 now, this is immature as hell.
 
... are you kidding me?

and I thought my opinion of 343 couldn't get any lower after yesterday's "Halo 4 is too traditional, SCRAP IT AND MAKE IT DIFFERENT" news.


Not only did they try their best to overly sexualize Cortana, they DESIGNED her after a porn star. I really dislike 343 now, this is immature as hell.

Welcome to gaming..
 

IHaveIce

Banned
Is that who they designed Cortana after? I thought it was this girl:
Yes, look up Dylan Ryder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0iy78CO0Do

So fanfictiony it makes me cringe. Gotta watch in parts.

It is even more awkward when you are in a party of 4 people all joking and how bad the didact fight was and how it couldn't go worse.

Then there comes this scene.. there was nothing like this in previous Halos, there was an awkward silence and then someone said "Well... that was bullshit"


I was also quite surprised how mismanaged the female characters were, you saw in the recent books more and more females given important roles or spotlight.
Osman, Parangorsky, Naomi, Lucy and there are still Kelly and Linda, some of them are real Spartan 2s who show more emotion than the blandy written piece of crap that calls itself Palmer.

And yeah Cortana seemed like a whiny kid while she was a witty awesome prick in the other games.


edit: Wahrer got you guys.
 
Because she didn't choose.

... not sure if you mean story/cannon wise, or you mean obviously 343/Bungie choose, but I thought AI's could decide for themselves in the Halo Universe how they "Project" themselves, no?

Apologizes if you meant in real life, were 343 and Bungie choose that look for her, lol

This one.

IA's can choose their form and change theirs appearance after that too.

Cortana have another form actually.

 

TCKaos

Member
To be honest, even till the end of the game, I always saw Chief and Cortan's relationship growing in a more "Family/Mother/Child" relationship, and they "love" each other in a family way and not romantic way.

I loved Cortana's development through out the game, because as lame as this sound, I actually felt attached to her throughout the game, wanting to help her and make sure she doesn't die from rampancy, I actually cried a little at the end.

My only problem with Cortana is 343 took away her "brave, confident, intelligent, bad-ass" personality and made her come-off as a lonely helpless teenager.

Well, if we're to take Evolution's Human Weakness at face value she's essentially a schizophrenic rape victim by this point, having been subjected to the Grave Mind's probing and left entirely alone for over a year. She is entirely helpless in that she's dying and can't stop it. She can feel her sanity slipping, and she still wants to help as much as she can, but she can feel herself dying the entire time, growing constantly weaker. I feel as though that more than justifies the character development.
 
Yes, look up Dylan Ryder.

No thanks, I use Bing as my Search Engine, I'd probably get awful pictures with the search.

Not to mention just searching up a Porn Star at all would probably be irresponsible of me, and tick my parents off lol.


Still though, so god damn infuriating that 343 would do that. Really, really, awful move on them.
 
Yes, look up Dylan Ryder.


It is even more awkward when you are in a party of 4 people all joking and how bad the didact fight was and how it couldn't go worse.

Then there comes this scene.. there was nothing like this in previous Halos, there was an awkward silence and then someone said "Well... that was bullshit"


I was also quite surprised how mismanaged the female characters were, you saw in the recent books more and more females given important roles or spotlight.
Osman, Parangorsky, Naomi, Lucy and there are still Kelly and Linda, some of them are real Spartan 2s who show more emotion than the blandy written piece of crap that calls itself Palmer.

And yeah Cortana seemed like a whiny kid while she was a witty awesome prick in the other games.

To me it was mostly downhill once she got kidnapped and held by the Gravemind.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
"Chief I won't pretend to know how I you feel. I've lost people I care about, but... never anything like you're going through."

He lost a robot lady goddammit 343 what did you do to halo i cry evry tiem
 
To me it was mostly downhill once she got kidnapped and held by the Gravemind.

Which begs the question was she ever a strong character. Halo 1 she spends much of the time giving you a tour guide and Halo 2 she makes a few quips. Halo 3 she has some annoying pop up action for the first half and the second half is spent making a few more less palatable quips. Then in Halo 4 she is screaming and crying.
 
"Chief I won't pretend to know how I you feel. I've lost people I care about, but... never anything like you're going through."

He lost a robot lady goddammit 343 what did you do to halo i cry evry tiem

He lost his only companion and real friend, the only person he could talk too, the only person he legitimately cared for, the only thing keeping him human.

He didn't lose some robot lady, he lost his only love (in a non-romantic sense) he had for the past 10(?) years.
 
Which begs the question was she ever a strong character. Halo 1 she spends much of the time giving you a tour guide and Halo 2 she makes a few quips. Halo 3 she has some annoying pop up action for the first half and the second half is spent making a few more less palatable quips. Then in Halo 4 she is screaming and crying.

I don't honestly think she was ever really developed well. She falls into the same damn tropes you see time and again with these characters.


He lost his only companion and real friend, the only person he could talk too, the only person he legitimately cared for, the only thing keeping him human.

He didn't lose some robot lady, he lost his only love (in a non-romantic sense) he had for the past 10(?) years.

The thing is she was never really heavily invested as that, a chirpy smart ass sarcastic AI, 343 decided to make her his humanity in 4. It's a tired ass trope hence me bringing up the whole badass with a heart of gold who takes in a loli.
 

Havok

Member
She's dying, and is about to be torn apart from the ONLY person she has ever truly communicated with, the ONE person who takes care and cares for her, and vice versa. The one person she lived inside his head for 7 years. She waited so long to touch Chief, the person she took care of and worked with for 7 years, her child basically.
More power to you if you viewed it that way, I guess. I see where that sentiment comes from and I certainly wish that aspect was directly addressed, but the instant that aching, yearning chest stroke happened it went from a kind of moment that was maybe a little bit pandering but still had some decent emotional dialogue to...well, the video game equivalent of a Spanish language soap opera.

"Mi amor!" Maestro Jefe Juan cried in grief.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom