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Halo: Reach |OT6| There Are Those Who Said This Day Would Never Come

wwm0nkey

Member
Louis Wu said:
Nice! lol

Hopefully this guy does research before posting another article next time. I just hate when people start passing around false info and act like its fact. The "I know because I played it" line was absolutely hysterical though.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
StalkerUKCG said:
That Beefjack article is hilarious. The writer should be out of a job.

Overdoziz trolling is pretty lulzy
It seems he also kept creating multiple accounts to downvote my comments and upvote his

Yes Overdoziz comments are pretty great, AR in Halo 2 lol
 
wwm0nkey said:
It seems he also kept creating multiple accounts to downvote my comments and upvote his

Yes Overdoziz comments are pretty great, AR in Halo 2 lol

Thats the worst part of this, Misinformed to start with i can kinda accept the whole multiplayer stuff seems to be very hard for people to grasp (god knows why) but the fact the actual writer of the article made a n4g account to back up his claims and make you look bad is so beyond belief. Quality Journalism beefjack keep it up .
 
Thagomizer said:
You would say that.
It's a conspiracy!

Shit. Wasn't suppose to mention that.
Hypertrooper said:
Oh this is most excellent. Time to dissect!

The first chapter for Glasslands was in the OXM Tenth Anniversary issue, and I've already posted my impression on it. I'll post 'em again for convenience.
However, the best part of the magazine was the except for Glasslands. The first chapter, to be precise. From what I read, I'm mostly pleased, though I do have some quirks with it. I'll put this in spoilers for those who haven't read the excerpt:
1.
The book implies that the Arbiter and the rest of the Elite/Human crew that traveled to the Ark arrived back to Earth in January rather than March. Peace talks are going on between humans and Elites lead by the Arbiter. Unless the book explains my confusion later on, this is already a pretty huge contradiction between the books and the games. Hopefully the book explains my confusion.

2.
After five years, I finally got a taste of what happened to Dr. Halsey and the other Spartans. I was pleased with what I read and it peaked my interest, but there are some things about it that bothered me. Calling Olivia "O" now when they were doing that in GoO, unless a lot of time has passed between where Glasslands starts and GoO lets off. Also, I don't think Travis wrote Halsey correctly, at least from what I read. Halsey was trying to get closer to the Spartan IIIs in GoO but in Glasslands she's distant to them. This depends on how long how much time has passed between GoO and Glasslands. If a couple months has passed then I guess it would work, but if it continues right where GoO left off then it doesn't. The formatting wasn't clear when the events of Dr. Halsey in Glasslands takes place.
The prologue and the second chapter are obviously new to me. Here's what I think of the prologue. It seems to start right after GoO ends, or a couple of hours after. Not too long.
Is it just me, or did anyone else get the feeling that Traviss is trying to create some sort of conflict between Dr. Halsey and Mendez? If she is, it's rather jarring because there is no hint of this conflict in Ghosts of Onyx. If anything, Halsey and Mendez are anything but mysterious of what the other has done since the beginning of the Human-Covenant War. They took much solemn comfort in seeing each other alive.

Chapter 2 – hey. Wait a second. It opens up with a excerpt from a speech of the president of the UEG. And that's something I wanted to see more of, as I mentioned here. Thoughts on Chapter 2 until
the end of the meeting with the Arbiter
:
I like what I'm seeing with Parangosky and Osman. Osman looks like she'll be leading a small team to Onyx to figure out what happened with Hasley and the rest. The chapter gets most interesting, I think, when it turns its attention toward Senghelios and what the Elites will do in the aftermath of the Covenant Civil War. The Elites are cliched in that they represent that modern-day warrior-class species that's expected in your popular science-fiction. The Klingons in Star Trek, the Jaffa in Stargate, and to a lesser extent, the Jedi in Star Wars. I like the direction 343 and Traviss seem to be taking the Elites: beyond this little niche of only being warriors as they consider how they will train engineers, farmers, etc.

My problem with the chapter, though, stems from the apparent contradictions in timelines between Glasslands and Halo 3. As I touch on earlier in this post in my impressions on chapter one, Halo 3 heavily implies that the Arbiter and the rest of the Human/Elite force to the Ark got back to Earth in early March then had the funeral service on March 3rd. In Glasslands (I'll put this in spoiler tags just in case):
the Arbiter and everyone else, besides the Chief of course, got back in January and then have the funeral service on March 3rd.

I'm hoping Frankie or someone else from 343 could clear this up. Was Halo 3 misleading?

I didn't read the rest of chapter 2 because I don't want to have to re-read too much when I get the book later this month. Also: When are we going to see the final cover art for the book? IIRC, we were told that art that's featured in this week's bulletin and when Glasslands was announced was temporary/placeholder.
 

daedalius

Member
Wow, am I glad I finished reading Ghosts of Onyx last night, lol.

Just finished the prologue and chapter 1, enjoyable, looking forward to reading chapter 2 now-ish :)
 
Dax01 said:
It's a conspiracy!

Shit. Wasn't suppose to mention that.

Oh this is most excellent. Time to dissect!

The first chapter for Glasslands was in the OXM Tenth Anniversary issue, and I've already posted my impression on it. I'll post 'em again for convenience.

The prologue and the second chapter are obviously new to me. Here's what I think of the prologue. It seems to start right after GoO ends, or a couple of hours after. Not too long.
Is it just me, or did anyone else get the feeling that Traviss is trying to create some sort of conflict between Dr. Halsey and Mendez? If she is, it's rather jarring because there is no hint of this conflict in Ghosts of Onyx. If anything, Halsey and Mendez are anything but mysterious of what the other has done since the beginning of the Human-Covenant War. They took much solemn comfort in seeing each other alive.

Chapter 2 – hey. Wait a second. It opens up with a excerpt from a speech of the president of the UEG. And that's something I wanted to see more of, as I mentioned here. Thoughts on Chapter 2 until
the end of the meeting with the Arbiter
:
I like what I'm seeing with Parangosky and Osman. Osman looks like she'll be leading a small team to Onyx to figure out what happened with Hasley and the rest. The chapter gets most interesting, I think, when it turns its attention toward Senghelios and what the Elites will do in the aftermath of the Covenant Civil War. The Elites are cliched in that they represent that modern-day warrior-class species that's expected in your popular science-fiction. The Klingons in Star Trek, the Jaffa in Stargate, and to a lesser extent, the Jedi in Star Wars. I like the direction 343 and Traviss seem to be taking the Elites: beyond this little niche of only being warriors as they consider how they will train engineers, farmers, etc.

My problem with the chapter, though, stems from the apparent contradictions in timelines between Glasslands and Halo 3. As I touch on earlier in this post in my impressions on chapter one, Halo 3 heavily implies that the Arbiter and the rest of the Human/Elite force to the Ark got back to Earth in early March then had the funeral service on March 3rd. In Glasslands (I'll put this in spoiler tags just in case):
the Arbiter and everyone else, besides the Chief of course, got back in January and then have the funeral service on March 3rd.

I'm hoping Frankie or someone else from 343 could clear this up. Was Halo 3 misleading?

I didn't read the rest of chapter 2 because I don't want to have to re-read too much when I get the book later this month. Also: When are we going to see the final cover art for the book? IIRC, we were told that art that's featured in this week's bulletin and when Glasslands was announced was temporary/placeholder.

THi makes more sense. 1-3 days is just not enough time to get the Arbiter out of the Dawn, debrief him, determine the status of everyone who didn't come back, and set up and conduct a memorial service, even a very simple one like what was shown. A few months makes much more sense.
 
Dax01 said:
My problem with the chapter, though, stems from the apparent contradictions in timelines between Glasslands and Halo 3. As I touch on earlier in this post in my impressions on chapter one, Halo 3 heavily implies that the Arbiter and the rest of the Human/Elite force to the Ark got back to Earth in early March then had the funeral service on March 3rd. In Glasslands (I'll put this in spoiler tags just in case):
the Arbiter and everyone else, besides the Chief of course, got back in January and then have the funeral service on March 3rd.

I'm hoping Frankie or someone else from 343 could clear this up. Was Halo 3 misleading
Where does Halo 3 "heavily implie" that the Arbiter and the rest of the Human/Elite force got back to Earth in early March? The Halo 3 ending only shows flashbacks. But these don't answer the question when. Just who and where.
 

PooBone

Member
Dax01 said:
Well, considering GoO was written and published before Halo 3 was finished, I don't think you can view anything from GoO as a peak at Halo 4. Obviously there are plot points in Onyx that would allow us to make some reasonable speculation as to the nature and contents of the shield world in Halo 4, but any such speculation would prove to be less reliable, I think, than whatever we can draw from the Forerunner Trilogy and Glasslands. That's what they're for.

It's too bad Nylund isn't writing the sequel. No disrespect to Karen Traviss.
Pure Heresy. Traviss is 100x the writer that Nylund is. Halo is at the point now where it doesn't have to commission second rate talent to write a shitty screenplay and call it a novel (which is how Nylund writes).
 
Dani said:
Is Live's price not already justified? If not, why have you been paying for it up to now? Millions of folks have had the price justified for them. Dedicated servers for one game wouldn't change anything.

The whole dedicated server thing is just funny. Over-entitled Americans crying every time the host doesn't live within walking distance from them.

P2P is just fine the way it is. It's not perfect but it works. No need to change it. Dedicated servers won't fix global latency differences now or in the future nor will they "save" Halo.

Im pretty sure in the UK things would be just as bad or maybe worse if those servers are based in America. No thanks ill take the 9/10 laggy games rather than the 10/10 laggy games please lol.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
PooBone said:
Pure Heresy. Traviss is 100x the writer that Nylund is. Halo is at the point now where it doesn't have to commission second rate talent to write a shitty screenplay and call it a novel (which is how Nylund writes).
How dare you speak bad of Nylunds books. Seriously though WTF?
 

daedalius

Member
Dates sure are a thing aren't they, heh. Probably wouldn't pay too much attention to them, as they always tend to get mixed up in fiction/canon anyway. We all know what happened.

Really enjoyed chapter 2, book is a day 1 purchase now.
 
bobs99 ... said:
Im pretty sure in the UK things would be just as bad or maybe worse if those servers are based in America. No thanks ill take the 9/10 laggy games rather than the 10/10 laggy games please lol.
why is the idea of servers based around the world that hard to think about? Or doing P2P when there aren't local servers?
 

PooBone

Member
Letters said:
Don't bother clicking if you don't care about the book, there's nothing else in it.
Well I care about the book and will buy it day one, but that doesn't mean I want to read the first two chapters and then wait two weeks to read them again.

What a lame bulletin. Was hoping for achievements or a vidoc.

wwm0nkey said:
How dare you speak bad of Nylunds books. Seriously though WTF?
His books were fine and I've read them all multiple times, but his actual writing abilities are lacking. The books aren't the most well-written in the world, and Karen Traviss is, without a doubt, a much more talented writer.
 
PooBone said:
Pure Heresy. Traviss is 100x the writer that Nylund is. Halo is at the point now where it doesn't have to commission second rate talent to write a shitty screenplay and call it a novel (which is how Nylund writes).

Strongly Disagree.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
PooBone said:
Well I care about the book and will buy it day one, but that doesn't mean I want to read the first two chapters and then wait two weeks to read them again.

What a lame bulletin. Was hoping for achievements or a vidoc.


His books were fine and I've read them all multiple times, but his actual writing abilities are lacking. The books aren't the most well-written in the world, and Karen Traviss is, without a doubt, a much more talented writer.
October 15th bro

Meh I think both styles are fine.
 
PooBone said:
Well I care about the book and will buy it day one, but that doesn't mean I want to read the first two chapters and then wait two weeks to read them again.

What a lame bulletin. Was hoping for achievements or a vidoc.
Why should they release CEA information via bulletin, when there is a panel for it at NYCC? There will be even a press tour through Europe next week.
 

Risen

Member
You guys sure that article wasn't one giant troll in journalism clothing?


Where are these "many other shooters have come along and done the Halo formula better."?

Hell... I haven't seen even one game attempt the Halo "formula" much less many... I mean I've yet to see a better lobby/matchmaking system from other developers since H2! And that's just one small part lol...

What in the ever loving EFFF?
 

Homeboyd

Member
Hypertrooper said:
Why should they release CEA information via bulletin, when there is a panel for it at NYCC? There will be even a press tour through Europe next week.
I disagree. That's one not-so-great thing about the whole MS affiliation... I feel like everything is going to require some huge press release at a major convention somewhere rather than being dropped in an update or in here. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why they do it.. you just KNOW you're not going to get any substantial news unless it's at a panel or some sort of event.

: /
 
So (Glasslands spoilers)
there's a group of Elites and Humans trying to work together (Arbiter and Hood) and a group that feels we haven't fought enough (Parangosky and that new Elite guy). Interesting. I hope the Arbiter and Hood can kick their collective asses down a well somewhere.
 
Homeboyd said:
I disagree. That's one not-so-great thing about the whole MS affiliation... I feel like everything is going to require some huge press release at a major convention somewhere rather than being dropped in an update or in here. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why they do it.. you just KNOW you're not going to get any substantial news unless it's at a panel or some sort of event.

: /
What should they still show? We got a lot of information about CEA already. The last few bulletins gave us a lot of information about the Title update, and the new maps. The sparkast confirmed BTS and one trailer. And videos are always released at a specific embargoed day or a specific convention. :^) Just wait. Just wait. Halo CEA will be out soon. And the little woman called bs angel will tease us. And we will beg her to stop. It will be a terrible time till Halo 4. Believe me or believe me not.

Otherwise we will get a lot of information during the next weeks. It's just the calm before the storm. A break where we should breath the last time peacefully.
 
Hypertrooper said:
Where does Halo 3 "heavily implie" that the Arbiter and the rest of the Human/Elite force got back to Earth in early March? The Halo 3 ending only shows flashbacks. But these don't answer the question when. Just who and where.
Because of the pacing of the cutscene and the fact that the game gives no indication that the Arbiter and the rest came back in January (a date on the video that showed the Arbiter being recovered would've been good) rather than early March.
Thagomizer said:
THi makes more sense. 1-3 days is just not enough time to get the Arbiter out of the Dawn, debrief him, determine the status of everyone who didn't come back, and set up and conduct a memorial service, even a very simple one like what was shown. A few months makes much more sense.
It wouldn't have taken too long to get the Arbiter out of the crashed Forward Unto Dawn because it would be sinking into the ocean. Wouldn't take too long. You have a valid point on everything else though.
Blue Ninja said:
So (Glasslands spoilers)
there's a group of Elites and Humans trying to work together (Arbiter and Hood) and a group that feels we haven't fought enough (Parangosky and that new Elite guy). Interesting. I hope the Arbiter and Hood can kick their collective asses down a well somewhere.
Where did you get that impression that
Parangosky wants to fight more? All I got was that she was assembling a team to figure out what happened to Halsey
. Maybe I missed it.
PooBone said:
Pure Heresy. Traviss is 100x the writer that Nylund is. Halo is at the point now where it doesn't have to commission second rate talent to write a shitty screenplay and call it a novel (which is how Nylund writes).
lol.

*Looks at "The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole," then looks at "Human Weakness."*

Huh?
 
Dax01 said:
Because of the pacing of the cutscene and the fact that the game gives no indication that the Arbiter and the rest came back in January (a date on the video that showed the Arbiter being recovered would've been good) rather than early March.
But you know. It doesn't even implie a early march date. Otherwise just think about it: Did it really take 4 months for the first half of the FUD to reach Earth through portal that was connected to Earth? :^)
 
PooBone said:
Pure Heresy. Traviss is 100x the writer that Nylund is. Halo is at the point now where it doesn't have to commission second rate talent to write a shitty screenplay and call it a novel (which is how Nylund writes).

I dont care how the story is framed, if the story is good. Nylund brought us a ton of information on the Spartan program and wrapped it up into an entertaining narrative. Will Karen Traviss have the imagination to do the same? She may be a better writer but is she as good at 'creating' such a interesting world? For apparently being such a bad writer Nylund managed to bring a ton of personality to the Spartans and made following the military missions interesting rather than difficult to read.
 

daedalius

Member
Blue Ninja said:
So (Glasslands spoilers)
there's a group of Elites and Humans trying to work together (Arbiter and Hood) and a group that feels we haven't fought enough (Parangosky and that new Elite guy). Interesting. I hope the Arbiter and Hood can kick their collective asses down a well somewhere.

I think the plan is to keep
the elites off balance so they won't be capable of becoming a threat to humanity again, not necessarily to go to war with them again... just to keep THEM from being ready for war
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
I'm psyched about Glasslands. Cryptum didn't do it for me. I found it hard to care about the characters or the world that was painted. But I'm plenty invested with the present day (255X) fiction, and am excited to see what's going on with those characters. And I'm excited to speculate about connections to Halo 4. :-D
 
At this point we can pretty much confirm Anniversary's Hang 'em High to be a new Forge World like map, it has to have something special into it.
 
omg.kittens said:
I'm psyched about Glasslands. Cryptum didn't do it for me. I found it hard to care about the characters or the world that was painted. But I'm plenty invested with the present day (25XX) fiction, and am excited to see what's going on with those characters. And I'm excited to speculate about connections to Halo 4. :-D
Fixed it for ya.

Gabotron ES said:
At this point we can pretty much confirm Anniversary's Hang 'em High to be a new Forge World like map, it has to have something special into it.
They have to put my easter egg on it. My fault, Sorry.
 
Hypertrooper said:
Fixed it for ya.


They have to put my easter egg on it. My fault, Sorry.

new forge world sounds ambitious, on the other hand its likely theirs a reason we havnt seen it yet, just 1 month before launch

Hang_Em_High.png


Looking at the backdrop unless its a multi area space station i cant see how it could be a "forge world". None organic structures however mean it could be heavily forge able.
 

daedalius

Member
StalkerUKCG said:
new forge world sounds ambitious, on the other hand its likely theirs a reason we havnt seen it yet, just 1 month before launch

Hang_Em_High.png


Looking at the backdrop unless its a multi area space station i cant see how it could be a "forge world". None organic structures however mean it could be heavily forge able.

I have to say I like the aesthetics of "Forge World" better, but I guess this could be interesting for a new forge space.

However I hope that with the new maps we will just have more maps in general to play around in rather than just differently organized forgeworlds (also never Hemorrhage again)
 
Hypertrooper said:
But you know. It doesn't even implie a early march date. Otherwise just think about it: Did it really take 4 months for the first half of the FUD to reach Earth through portal that was connected to Earth? :^)
It does imply it because of the date the ceremony takes place. And why would it take four months of the first half of Forward Unto Dawn to reach Earth? You're forgetting the travel time going to the Ark.

Also, a lot of dates of the fiction in the games is hard to put down because we're never given the time the events take place (aside from Reach, obviously). The only times we're given the date of an event is when the ceremony in Halo 3 and when Halo 2 begins: October 21, 2552. We don't know how long it takes for the MC and the crew of In Amber Clad are in hyper space because the game doesn't tell us the date they arrive. Neither do we know when the MC arrives back at Earth in the Dreadnought (though presumably around November 4th), nor do we know when the Human/Elite fleet arrive at the Ark. From there, we could figure out a travel time to and back.

Edit: Though this is probably done so future writers aren't bound by certain times and they can have new story elements in place they wouldn't otherwise have (like Glasslands).
 
Dax01 said:
It does imply it because of the date the ceremony takes place. And why would it take four months of the first half of Forward Unto Dawn to reach Earth? You're forgetting the travel time going to the Ark.
I just tried to say, that it never took 4 months for the FUD to reach Earth. So it is very unlikely for a early March landing...

Edit.:
Dax01 said:
It does imply it because of the date the ceremony takes place. And why would it take four months of the first half of Forward Unto Dawn to reach Earth? You're forgetting the travel time going to the Ark.

Also, a lot of dates of the fiction in the games is hard to put down because we're never given the time the events take place (aside from Reach, obviously). The only times we're given the date of an event is when the ceremony in Halo 3 and when Halo 2 begins: October 21, 2552. We don't know how long it takes for the MC and the crew of In Amber Clad are in hyper space because the game doesn't tell us the date they arrive. Neither do we know when the MC arrives back at Earth in the Dreadnought (though presumably around November 4th), nor do we know when the Human/Elite fleet arrive at the Ark. From there, we could figure out a travel time to and back.

Edit: Though this is probably done so future writers aren't bound by certain times and they can have new story elements in place they wouldn't otherwise have (like Glasslands).
We know the dates:
Nov, 03: Battle of Halo 05 begins
Nov, 17: Second battle of Earth begins and is followed by the Battle of Installlation 00.
 
Hypertrooper said:
I just tried to say, that it never took 4 months for the FUD to reach Earth. So it is very unlikely for a early March landing...
Of course it didn't take four months for the Forward Unto Dawn to reach Earth simply because it had to get to the Ark in the first place.

Edit:
Hypertrooper said:
We know the dates:
Nov, 03: Battle of Halo 05 begins
Nov, 17: Second battle of Earth begins and is followed by the Battle of Installlation 00.
Source?
 
daedalius said:
I have to say I like the aesthetics of "Forge World" better, but I guess this could be interesting for a new forge space.

However I hope that with the new maps we will just have more maps in general to play around in rather than just differently organized forgeworlds (also never Hemorrhage again)
I just want it to have detailed and nice looking forge pieces, Forge World's pieces are not just grey and blue but they look really bad, not like something you could see on a built in map.

I'm liking how Hang 'em High looks, if those pillars and platforms are actual forge pieces designs I would literally piss myself.
 
Dax01 said:
Where did you get that impression that
Parangosky wants to fight more? All I got was that she was assembling a team to figure out what happened to Halsey
. Maybe I missed it.
“A man after my own heart,” she said. “Very well, I’m asking you all to go and kick the Sangheili in their collective nuts in ways that might seem foreign to you. I want you to sow discontent and strife. They’re already infighting and I want to keep that going until we’re ready to finish the job. Anyone not keen on that? There’s no shame in refusing. I’ve seen your service records and you’ve all more than earned the right to say no.”
 

daedalius

Member
Gabotron ES said:
I just want it to have detailed and nice looking forge pieces, Forge World's pieces are not just grey and blue but they look really bad, not like something you could see on a built in map.

I'm liking how Hang 'em High looks, if those pillars and platforms are actual forge pieces designs I would literally piss myself.

I guess I more mean the overall look of forgeworld (y'know, brilliant skybox, distant mountains, epic forerunner scale, etc), not necessarily the pieces. But yea, they are a bit bland; maybe we would like them more if we didn't seem them a billion times already because there is a serious lack of maps... and no one buys the DLC!!! (argh)

Happy Bday Frankie!

Btw. Greg Bear posted the first page of the Primordium transcript at Facebook.

What a tease, hah.
 
Hypertrooper said:
Halo Encyclopedia.
Haven't cracked that open in awhile. Good to know!
daedalius said:
Slipspace time-dialation!
It's possible because we don't have any concrete rules on how slipspace affects the amount of time it takes you to get from one place to the next, but it is shown that the more advanced races can get to destinations more quickly (the Covenant, the Forerunners). The Portal being a Forerunner construction would certainly suggest a really fast travel speed, even if the Ark is a long way away from the galactic center. And all of this seems to fit nicely with the Arbiter and everyone else getting back in December/January.

I guess I was wrong on all of this. My apologies to Frankie and crew. Speaking of Frankie, I heard a little birdie (cough, hypertrooper) wish Frankie a happy birthday. Happy birthday, dude!
Blue Ninja said:
“A man after my own heart,” she said. “Very well, I’m asking you all to go and kick the Sangheili in their collective nuts in ways that might seem foreign to you. I want you to sow discontent and strife. They’re already infighting and I want to keep that going until we’re ready to finish the job. Anyone not keen on that? There’s no shame in refusing. I’ve seen your service records and you’ve all more than earned the right to say no.”
Was that in chapter 2? I stopped reading halfway through it. :p
 
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