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[WordsintheWater]

What the hell, I never noticed in the Launch Playlist post on Halo Waypoint that Empire and Eden were excluded from rotation. That is very odd, why would they not be in Team Slayer?

Both forge maps are excluded as well, 21 maps is a good map count, but when there's only 6 available in Team Slayer that's a huge disappointment.

 

[wesleyshark]

that's nonsense. you mean to tell me you wouldn't get visual clarity with one of the campaign characters being selected? that's complete bullshit.

it's a really poor aesthetic decision on 343s part. really poor. especially since "looking cool" is very coveted by gamers today. look at destiny, is there no visual clarity there?

come on. i'm not even one to care much about that kind of stuff but at this point it's ridiculous.

What am I even reading. Visual clarity in MP is paramount to the experience. For Halo, that's red v blue. I have never seen someone complain about this before lol. I mean, it's fine if you don't like it!, but calling it poor or bullshit is just obnoxious.

Not to mention it would render the 1 out of 12 colorblind males completely non-competitive. Red and Blue are already tough against some backgrounds. Titanfall is the only game in recent memory to make concessions to the colorblind.

Destiny has colorblind options as well.

 

[Trup1aya]

that's nonsense. you mean to tell me you wouldn't get visual clarity with one of the campaign characters being selected? that's complete bullshit.

it's a really poor aesthetic decision on 343s part. really poor. especially since "looking cool" is very coveted by gamers today. look at destiny, is there no visual clarity there?

come on. i'm not even one to care much about that kind of stuff but at this point it's ridiculous.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but 343i is trying to make H5 an e-sport.As such it's important that color doesn't create balancing issues. Players should be able to immediately identify friend or foe, even at range.

Destiny PvP is chock full of balancing issues. You've got read a players name to know if you should shoot them or not! Destiny can't even be considered a competitive shooter, let alone an e-sport. Your comparison is worthless.

If you covet "looking" cool (which really shouldn't matter in a FPS, you rarely see yourself), over balanced gameplay, then this game just isn't for you.

 

[Flipyap]

it's a really poor aesthetic decision on 343s part. really poor. especially since "looking cool" is very coveted by gamers today. look at destiny, is there no visual clarity there?

As far as recognizing your team and the enemy at glance without looking at the name hanging above their head goes? Yeah, there's pretty much zero visual clarity there.

 

[Twilight Gap]

random lore question:

which came first, forerunners or prometheans? are prometheans ancient forerunners or a subset of forerunners? or are they not forerunner at all?

basically, how are they similar and how are they not?

 

[SmartWaffles]

Halo is the paramount example of great visual clarity in MP shooters, I don't understand the comparison.

random lore question:

which came first, forerunners or prometheans? are prometheans ancient forerunners or a subset of forerunners? or are they not forerunner at all?

basically, how are they similar and how are they not?

Prometheans are the creation/army of UrDidact (the one you fought in Halo 4), which originally was a group of high ranking Forerunner Warrior-Servant (the military people of Forerunners). The Promethean Knights/Soldiers we fought in Halo 4 and 5 are created by the UrDidact from composed Promethean Warriors, ancient humans, and more recently, the humans composed in the New Phoenix attack (last level of Halo 4).

 

[wesleyshark]

random lore question:

which came first, forerunners or prometheans? are prometheans ancient forerunners or a subset of forerunners? or are they not forerunner at all?

basically, how are they similar and how are they not?

Forerunners created the Prometheans. They are AI composed from organics to be specifically used for warfare and installation defense, unlike the monitors, which were designated as Caretakers for installations.

 

[Flipyap]

random lore question:

which came first, forerunners or prometheans? are prometheans ancient forerunners or a subset of forerunners? or are they not forerunner at all?

basically, how are they similar and how are they not?

Prometheans used to be the highest tier of the Forerunner warrior caste. Later on, when Didact started running out of them, they were replaced with robot dogs and robot skeletons (with robot butterflies living in their butts) who are made by recycling those filthy humans (mostly cavemen and old people), because that's that's how you honor your fallen comrades in Didact Land.

 

[Twilight Gap]

thanks guys. and thanks for that mental image of butterflies.

basically doing a venn diagram on them from an architectural standpoint.

 

[Flipyap]

thanks guys. and thanks for that mental image of butterflies.

basically doing a venn diagram on them from an architectural standpoint.

Hey, don't blame me, I didn't come up with the robots who walk around with another dude's head sticking out of their butts (someone at 343 must have been a big Ace Ventura fan).

(photo of a toy, because it seems like there are no clear pics of a Prom Knight butt on the internet)

 

[Gravemind IV]

RuL is streaming the Swords of Sanghelious mission rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG1soEPU36c

Wraith plasma mortars look weak man, don't even leave a scorch mark..

 

[SwolBro]

I'm not sure if you noticed, but 343i is trying to make H5 an e-sport.As such it's important that color doesn't create balancing issues. Players should be able to immediately identify friend or foe, even at range.

Destiny PvP is chock full of balancing issues. You've got read a players name to know if you should shoot them or not! Destiny can't even be considered a competitive shooter, let alone an e-sport. Your comparison is worthless.

If you covet "looking" cool (which really shouldn't matter in a FPS, you rarely see yourself), over balanced gameplay, then this game just isn't for you.

heard of a game called Counter Strike? i don't need to just talk about Destiny there bud, i brought it up because it was bungie. Coming from a franchise that couldn't figure out that coloring everything, including your HUD sky blue was a bad idea i don't take the "visual clarity" argument very serious in this instance.There's ways to improve visual clarity while actually giving us some decent player model/colors that fit with the rest of the world.

 

[SmartWaffles]

heard of a game called Counter Strike? i don't need to just talk about Destiny there bud, i brought it up because it was bungie. Coming from a franchise that couldn't figure out that coloring everything, including your HUD sky blue was a bad idea i don't take the "visual clarity" argument very serious. There's ways to improve visual clarity while actually giving us some decent player model/colors that fit with the rest of the world.

come on.

CS is a completely different beast with asymmetrical maps and without respawning, the distinction between friend and foe are done via fixed spawn locations, attack routes, team coordination/callouts and a sound based minimap/radar system, plus the character model of T and CT are different enough to tell from a distance, the philosophy doesn't really apply to Halo.

 

[m23]

Prometheans used to be the highest tier of the Forerunner warrior caste. Later on, when Didact started running out of them, they were replaced with robot dogs and robot skeletons (with robot butterflies living in their butts) who are made by recycling those filthy humans (mostly cavemen and old people), because that's that's how you honor your fallen comrades in Didact Land.

I wish we got to fight actual prometheans rather than these robot versions.

 

[Random17]

I wish we got to fight actual prometheans rather than these robot versions.

If we did, Halo's story would be dead.

Don't wish for bad things.

 

[Flipyap]

I wish we got to fight actual prometheans rather than these robot versions.

I'm of two minds on this. On one hands, I'd rather fight anything that isn't a robot dog, a spooky glowing skeleton bot or a shitty terminator, but I also think that bringing back even a single Forerunner was a colossal mistake, the kind from which the franchise will probably not recover.

 

[wesleyshark]

I'm of two minds on this. On one hands, I'd rather fight anything that isn't a robot dog, a spooky glowing skeleton bot or a shitty terminator, but I also think that bringing back even a single Forerunner was a colossal mistake, the kind from which the franchise will probably not recover.

Wait what? Everything was leading up to humanity finding a Forerunner. Didact was hinted at being a future story element in Halo 3. Chief and Cortana were sent off towards Requiem to wake him by Mendicant Bias.

 

[orichalcos]

Here we go...

Stream from me:

http://www.twitch.tv/orichalco

Starting: 16:00 CEST (slow downloading. )


Only first 3 mission. No commentary.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Here we go...

Stream from me:

http://www.twitch.tv/orichalco

Starting: 16:00 CEST (slow downloading. )


Only first 3 mission. No commentary.

I'm at 2% after half an hour. Their servers are boooorked.

 

[SmartWaffles]

Wait what? Everything was leading up to humanity finding a Forerunner. Didact was hinted at being a future story element in Halo 3. Chief and Cortana were sent off towards Requiem to wake him by Mendicant Bias.

Yeah it's not like 343 abruptly invented the whole post-Halo 3 story arc, pretty sure if Bungie was still doing Halo the story direction would be similar.

 

[mchiodo1]

The point is, most people haven't, and shouldn't have to to understand WTH is going on in the game.

You don't have to read it to understand the story being told, if you want to know more about two characters in the game, (didact and librarian) then you should read the forerunner saga,

did of you that are complaining about the backstory of these characters in h4 also complain about the prophet of regret ,prophet of mercy, and prophet of truths intentions and backstories while playing h1-h3, because there wasn't a whole lot of info on them in the game, yet no one complained about them

 

[mchiodo1]

I dunno what it is about reach, but it was missing something. Perhaps it was just missing the mystery of other halo titles and alien worlds. It could be that simple, but its not my favorite despite doing a lot very very well. And you are right, the end sequence was incredible.

i did not like the way they did some of the cutscenes thought they were garbage, maybe it was just a graphical thing, but to me cutscene wise h3 looked better than reach

 

[mchiodo1]

Dude. The games are the primary medium for Halo. I shouldn't have to read books, comics, read online wikis to know who characters are, what they're doing there or what their motive is. It's called good storytelling to keep everything contained, concise, and informative.

I don't think Halo 5 will have this issue like Frank said. But I don't care for the line of thinking saying, hey to understand this, read up on the thousand other things that came out in the meantime if you really care.

I should be able to go from Halo CE to Halo 5 and not have to be confused about a single character or storyline introduced. This doesn't mean they have to explain everything though.

If your confused about the story then its your fault, anyone else out there thats confused will do some research to get a better understanding of what there confused with, i read the books, comics and wikis all AFTER playing the games, it definitely enlightened me more, but it wasn't necessary, it was because i love the universe

 

[Slightly Live]

If your confused about the story then its your fault

anyone else out there that's confused will do some research

If the audience gets confused about basic story beats and main characters, then it's a failing of the game to convey its story.

Blaming the audience and expecting them to have to work and research other media in order to understand something so basic is absolutely and monumentally stupid.

In fact, I'm confident the folks at 343 went out of their way to include additional narrative within the game this go about precisely because of the criticism levelled at Halo 4's story.

 

[ExigentContact]

Yeah it's not like 343 abruptly invented the whole post-Halo 3 story arc, pretty sure if Bungie was still doing Halo the story direction would be similar.

There were a few Bungie-era stabs at Forerunner concepts before they settled on Reach (they briefly considered making Halo 4 themselves):

The general idea of Chief waking up at a Shield World and having to contend with reawakened Forerunner forces was probably a running theme even then, though the artistic takes are radically different.

 

[Blue Ninja]

If your confused about the story then its your fault, anyone else out there thats confused will do some research to get a better understanding of what there confused with, i read the books, comics and wikis all AFTER playing the games, it definitely enlightened me more, but it wasn't necessary, it was because i love the universe

First of all, we have an edit button. Learn to love it.

Secondly, it's not his fault. Halo 4's story was pretty unclear for a lot of people. It didn't require extra reading materials, but a lot of it was left hazy. If you're telling a story and players need to research things to understand it, then you've failed as a storyteller. From what I've seen of Halo 5, it looks like 343 realized this well enough themselves.

 

[mchiodo1]

First of all, we have an edit button. Learn to love it.

Secondly, it's not his fault. Halo 4's story was pretty unclear for a lot of people. It didn't require extra reading materials, but a lot of it was left hazy. If you're telling a story and players need to research things to understand it, then you've failed as a storyteller.

What was hazy about it? actually list some things for me that made it hazy because i cannot think of one, i actually think halo 4 had one of the more straight forward stories in the series

 

[Random17]

I was up to date with the lore at the time, but it still took a reading of Silentium, the Terminals and internet discussion for me to understand the Ur Didact's chacterization.

I liked the story, but it cannot be told to be self sufficient. The actual plot was straightforward, but the Didact was a huge part of the story.

Everything about Halo 5 suggests this will not be repeated. Hell, in an earlier post I suggested Spartan Ops as recommended viewing, but mission 1 of Halo 5 largely proves otherwise.

 

[mchiodo1]

If the audience gets confused about basic story beats and main characters, then it's a failing of the game to convey its story.

Blaming the audience and expecting them to have to work and research other media in order to understand something so basic is absolutely and monumentally stupid.

In fact, I'm confident the folks at 343 went out of their way to include additional narrative within the game this go about precisely because of the criticism levelled at Halo 4's story.

You don't need to research to understand the basic story, you need to research if you feel that you want to know more about these characters, which is normal for any medium of story telling really, if you watch game of thrones, and you want to get more of an understanding of each of these characters stories and where they came from your gonna wanna read the books, to know more, if your a real fan of these characters, now you don't need to read the books to understand the basic story, but if you really love the characters then you will invest the time,

obviously some people don't enjoy it enough to invest that time to learn more

 

[mchiodo1]

I was up to date with the lore at the time, but it still took a reading of Silentium, the Terminals and internet discussion for me to understand the Ur Didact's chacterization.

I liked the story, but it cannot be told to be self sufficient. The actual plot was straightforward, but the Didact was a huge part of the story.

Everything about Halo 5 suggests this will not be repeated. Hell, in an earlier post I suggested Spartan Ops as recommended viewing, but mission 1 of Halo 5 largely proves otherwise.

in all fairness to 343 though halo silentium and the rest of the forerunner trilogy was actually released AFTER halo 4, obviously 343 had come up with all the information and lore for the didact before the books where written, but at the same time, before these three books were released there was not a whole lot of information on the forerunners mainly the didact and the librarian for the fans to digest, so there always was and still is all this mystery surrounding the forerunners, and i think we are just starting to understand just who the forerunners are

 

[wesleyshark]

Mmmm... Silentium. One of Halo's finest stories.

 

[Blue Ninja]

What was hazy about it? actually list some things for me that made it hazy because i cannot think of one, i actually think halo 4 had one of the more straight forward stories in the series

The friends that played the game and didn't have any knowledge beyond the rest of the games were confused on several fronts.

- "Who is this Didact guy? Why is he hostile? Wasn't he in Halo 3's terminals, being described as a good guy?"
- The Didact's motivation for his crusade on humanity is never really made clear in-game. The Librarian explains it, but even then it's just vague mumblings. "The Forerunners were good guys, right? Why is this one trying to kill us?"
- The whole reason why there were any Covenant on Requiem wasn't explained until Spartan Ops reintroduced Jul M'Dama.
- Spartan IV's were never explained, they were just there. They let Lasky do an entire monologue about where he grew up, but not a word was uttered as to the origins of these mysterious new Spartans.
- Most of the Librarians mumblings were hard to understand for the uninitiated, really. "What the hell is a genesong? Why is the Chief so special?"
- Last but not least, how Cortana pulled Chief away from the nuclear warhead he blew up a microsecond earlier. We can surmise she used a teleportation grid or some hard light wizardry, but it's never explained... It just happens.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I distinctly remember being mentioned.

 

[mchiodo1]

I was up to date with the lore at the time, but it still took a reading of Silentium, the Terminals and internet discussion for me to understand the Ur Didact's chacterization.

I liked the story, but it cannot be told to be self sufficient. The actual plot was straightforward, but the Didact was a huge part of the story.

Everything about Halo 5 suggests this will not be repeated. Hell, in an earlier post I suggested Spartan Ops as recommended viewing, but mission 1 of Halo 5 largely proves otherwise.

.

 

[mchiodo1]

The friends that played the game and didn't have any knowledge beyond the rest of the games were confused on several fronts.

- "Who is this Didact guy? Why is he hostile? Wasn't he in Halo 3's terminals, being described as a good guy?"
- The Didact's motivation for his crusade on humanity is never really made clear in-game. The Librarian explains it, but even then it's just vague mumblings. "The Forerunners were good guys, right? Why is this one trying to kill us?"
- The whole reason why there were any Covenant on Requiem wasn't explained until Spartan Ops reintroduced Jul M'Dama.
- Spartan IV's were never explained, they were just there. They let Lasky do an entire monologue about where he grew up, but not a word was uttered as to the origins of these mysterious new Spartans.
- Most of the Librarians mumblings were hard to understand for the uninitiated, really. "What the hell is a genesong? Why is the Chief so special?"
- Last but not least, how Cortana pulled Chief away from the nuclear warhead he blew up a microsecond earlier. We can surmise she used a teleportation grid or some hard light wizardry, but it's never explained... It just happens.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I distinctly remember being mentioned.

Believe it or not some of things are still not really explained in detail, the way i hope people are treating halo 4 is the same way I'm sure people treated halo 1, at least when it first was released,

I'm sure everyone that played the h1 campaign new the basic story and what was going on but there was obviously more to these groups of characters, (flood, forerunners, covenant) then what was told in halo 1,

what I'm trying to get at with all these posts here on this thread, is give 343 a chance to tell there story arc that they want to tell, then you can make a judgement on how the stories were lacking certain character details, or if they had plot holes in them

if you were to take the first halo trilogy and treat them as separate stories, you would be saying the same thing about h1-h3 that you are saying with h4

 

[Slightly Live]

if you were to take the first halo trilogy and treat them as separate stories, you would be saying the same thing about h1-h3 that you are saying with h4

Halo 1 has a very self contained, straightforward plot. You don't need any external sources or references to understand any of it.

There is no way you can compare Halo 1's story with that of Halo 4's, and and claim they are both as straightforward and easy to understand. I mean, are you insane? That claim certainly is.

 

[op_ivy]

Smh at outrage over red vs blue and too much color. Gtfo, this is halo.

 

[Slightly Live]

Smh at outrage over red vs blue and too much color. Gtfo, this is halo.

We had a "Anyone else wish Halo 5 looked like Killzone 2" thread recently. Launches bring out crazy people.

 

[Trup1aya]

heard of a game called Counter Strike? i don't need to just talk about Destiny there bud, i brought it up because it was bungie. Coming from a franchise that couldn't figure out that coloring everything, including your HUD sky blue was a bad idea i don't take the "visual clarity" argument very serious in this instance.There's ways to improve visual clarity while actually giving us some decent player model/colors that fit with the rest of the world.

If you can't figure out why Halo would take a different approach from counter strike, then this entire conversation is lost on you...

Also I don't recall anyone ever having issues seeing their HUD in Halo.

 

[Madness]

If your confused about the story then its your fault, anyone else out there thats confused will do some research to get a better understanding of what there confused with, i read the books, comics and wikis all AFTER playing the games, it definitely enlightened me more, but it wasn't necessary, it was because i love the universe

Storytelling 101 is to tell a concise, consistent and self contained story within the medium you choose. Video games are the primary medium for Halo. People shouldn't have to read books, novels, comics, watch movies, trailers to find out things to understand the game better.

Why is this so hard for you to understand? Yes reading expanded universe canon or lore helps explain things. If people wanted to, they can wiki everything about characters and places, the problem is, they shouldn't have to. If people beat the game and are left confused about certain characters, certain plot points than you haven't done a very good job.

I didn't need to read the books to find out who Arbiter is in Halo 2. They explained it perfectly who he was, what he meant to the Covenant and what his motivation was. Can you say the same about Didact in Halo 4? Your own personal feelings aside, this was an issue a lot of people had with the game. It was evident in several reviews as well. Either way, you're taking it personally for some reason, it's great you loved Halo 4, and that you love reading the expanded universe lore.

 

[wesleyshark]

Smh at outrage over red vs blue and too much color. Gtfo, this is halo.

We need a better way to show the difference between opposing MP teams.. Hmm....

 

[JumPeRJumPzZ]

Storytelling 101 is to tell a concise, consistent and self contained story within the medium you choose. Video games are the primary medium for Halo. People shouldn't have to read books, novels, comics, watch movies, trailers to find out things to understand the game better.

Why is this so hard for you to understand? Yes reading expanded universe canon or lore helps explain things. If people wanted to, they can wiki everything about characters and places, the problem is, they shouldn't have to. If people beat the game and are left confused about certain characters, certain plot points than you haven't done a very good job.

I didn't need to read the books to find out who Arbiter is in Halo 2. They explained it perfectly who he was, what he meant to the Covenant and what his motivation was. Can you say the same about Didact in Halo 4? Your own personal feelings aside, this was an issue a lot of people had with the game. It was evident in several reviews as well. Either way, you're taking it personally for some reason, it's great you loved Halo 4, and that you love reading the expanded universe lore.

100% this^^

The Didact introduction was really bad. He was just there, a level later or so everyone knew who he was. Halo 4s Story was really bad IMO.

 

[mchiodo1]

Halo 1 has a very self contained, straightforward plot. You don't need any external sources or references to understand any of it.

There is no way you can compare Halo 1's story with that of Halo 4's, and and claim they are both as straightforward and easy to understand. I mean, are you insane? That claim certainly is.

did you read the rest of my post....

 

[mchiodo1]

Storytelling 101 is to tell a concise, consistent and self contained story within the medium you choose. Video games are the primary medium for Halo. People shouldn't have to read books, novels, comics, watch movies, trailers to find out things to understand the game better.

Why is this so hard for you to understand? Yes reading expanded universe canon or lore helps explain things. If people wanted to, they can wiki everything about characters and places, the problem is, they shouldn't have to. If people beat the game and are left confused about certain characters, certain plot points than you haven't done a very good job.

I didn't need to read the books to find out who Arbiter is in Halo 2. They explained it perfectly who he was, what he meant to the Covenant and what his motivation was. Can you say the same about Didact in Halo 4? Your own personal feelings aside, this was an issue a lot of people had with the game. It was evident in several reviews as well. Either way, you're taking it personally for some reason, it's great you loved Halo 4, and that you love reading the expanded universe lore.

So do you think that halo 2, as a stand alone story, was a good one?

 

[Stinkles]

Brown and gray Spartans, it's time to get swole.

 

[wesleyshark]

Brown and gray Spartans, it's time to get swole.

Do u even lift weights brohammer. Getting beef was far better explained in CE. H4 is a veggie patty.

This is known, because gaf said so.

 

[VincentMatts]

Three person co-op is tight.

Like a toiger?

 

[Marvel]

Like a toiger?

 

[wesleyshark]

Damnit, ya beat me Marvel lol.

 

[justgames7604]

hahaha

 

[Black Mantis]

Storytelling 101 is to tell a concise, consistent and self contained story within the medium you choose. Video games are the primary medium for Halo. People shouldn't have to read books, novels, comics, watch movies, trailers to find out things to understand the game better.

Why is this so hard for you to understand? Yes reading expanded universe canon or lore helps explain things. If people wanted to, they can wiki everything about characters and places, the problem is, they shouldn't have to. If people beat the game and are left confused about certain characters, certain plot points than you haven't done a very good job.

I didn't need to read the books to find out who Arbiter is in Halo 2. They explained it perfectly who he was, what he meant to the Covenant and what his motivation was. Can you say the same about Didact in Halo 4? Your own personal feelings aside, this was an issue a lot of people had with the game. It was evident in several reviews as well. Either way, you're taking it personally for some reason, it's great you loved Halo 4, and that you love reading the expanded universe lore.

Because he was a playable character, Halo has always told its stories from the main characters pov. The opening scenes in H2 where The Arbiter is on trial was a big hint to me, that we'd be playing as him. If he wasn't a playable character in H2, no way we'd have got that scene and the subsequent Arbiter only moments.