Trailer for Halo ODST

[Battlehymn Republic]

Aren't ODSTs a tribute to the orbital insertion drops from Starship Troopers?

What's 'cool' about this advertising is idiots keep falling for it. Halo marketing has always been about the sizzle and not the actual content; Bungie are masters at selling things that don't exist. If this trailer makes you want to play ODST any more than you already did, you are quite simply a retard.

It is true that live-action trailers obscure the actual game content, and Bungie's E3 2004 trailer for Halo 2 featured a New Mombassa level that wasn't even in the game.

Yeah, even the games would work more if they worked the mysticism of the Spartans; if they had actual superpowers and showed up like a shiny golden god to save the day.

Personal shields are pretty much superpowers once compared to all the poor non-Spartan bastards who were never equipped with one.

What I don't get is how an interstellar organization with a united military can fail to provide some of the things that Spartans have for the regular grunts. Or, at least, build more Spartans.

All I know about Halo since 2005 or so is that the endboss to Halo 3 is 343 Guilty Spark and that killed off any remaining interest I had in the storyline, ever.

[neoolong]

Man i'll always have to take a minute to pause and laugh whenever I read about or see the super equipment the ODST's get to use that the Spartans don't. Master Chief's armour didn't even have night vision. I guess whole SPARTAN II program suffered from serious budget cuts at some point?

To be fair, the Master Chief has a flashlight.

[Losonti Tokash]

Aren't ODSTs a tribute to the orbital insertion drops from Starship Troopers?

What's 'cool' about this advertising is idiots keep falling for it. Halo marketing has always been about the sizzle and not the actual content; Bungie are masters at selling things that don't exist. If this trailer makes you want to play ODST any more than you already did, you are quite simply a retard.

It is true that live-action trailers obscure the actual game content, and Bungie's E3 2004 trailer for Halo 2 featured a New Mombassa level that wasn't even in the game.

That had more to do with the fact that they had to come up with a playable demo a week before E3, but they didn't have the game in a playable state yet. So they just threw that thing together in the tiny amount of time they were given.

[weemadando]

Really, your ragging on tabletop games? That's your plan?

No, I'm actually a fan of table-top games.

I was just making the point that it was a fucking weird choice for an advertisement that the Bungie fans immediately clung onto like it was their mothers titties.

[General Zod]

Really, your ragging on tabletop games? That's your plan?

No, I'm actually a fan of table-top games.

I was just making the point that it was a fucking weird choice for an advertisement that the Bungie fans immediately clung onto like it was their mothers titties.

I hear fanboys may not be rational?

[Vendetta]

All I know about Halo since 2005 or so is that the endboss to Halo 3 is 343 Guilty Spark and that killed off any remaining interest I had in the storyline, ever.

TBF, Bungie don't do bosses and would prefer not to have them at all. Being able to shoot Smuggy the Robot is more fanservice than bossfight.

[Lord Relvenous]

All I know about Halo since 2005 or so is that the endboss to Halo 3 is 343 Guilty Spark and that killed off any remaining interest I had in the storyline, ever.

TBF, Bungie don't do bosses and would prefer not to have them at all. Being able to shoot Smuggy the Robot is more fanservice than bossfight.

I wouldn't call it a boss fight anyways as IIRC, it takes maybe two shots with the Spartan Laser to kill him.

[Stark]

Yeah, even the games would work more if they worked the mysticism of the Spartans; if they had actual superpowers and showed up like a shiny golden god to save the day.

Personal shields are pretty much superpowers once compared to all the poor non-Spartan bastards who were never equipped with one.

I mean things like 'jumps real high' and 'runs real fast' and 'punches real hard' and 'has super reflexes and accuracy', the stuff they talk about in the novel. If you could lead charges with UNSC because your shields will take the shots that would kill regulars, do giant somersaults, kill people with a thrown Jackal shield and destroy heavy weapons with a midair sniper shot, you'd actually seem to be a hero. As it is, you're just a standard twitch-shooter protaganist in a game full of UNSC guys with 2 hitpoints.

That said, shooter developers always do powers wrong and Bungie is really unimaginative, so...

[Pulp Hero]

What I don't get is how an interstellar organization with a united military can fail to provide some of the things that Spartans have for the regular grunts. Or, at least, build more Spartans.

Basically the Spartan II program had a high fatality rate when it came to the gene modding/surgeries, so that is why there were not many. Plus they were originally started as a counter-pirate force intended to do surgical strikes before the Covenant war. The power armor required Spartans to use it, regular humans ended up getting torn apart. The shields were experimental technology based Covenant Elite shields and were added later. The UNSC did make improvements to their program with the Spartan IIIs which were fielded during the war in black ops missions.

[Samuel]

The power armor required Spartans to use it, regular humans ended up getting torn apart.

I should point out that is extremely crappy design... and a problem for the Spartans. How the heck do they survive their gear trying to rip them apart?

The shields were experimental technology based Covenant Elite shields and were added later.

Why didn't they just issue scavanged elite shields to their ground troopers?

The UNSC did make improvements to their program with the Spartan IIIs which were fielded during the war in black ops missions.

The ones with the camo gear, weaker armor and mass produced nature, right?

[Stark]

Uh oh.

Someone's going to say 'why don't they cover tanks in the fifty million Jackal shields that are left in MC's wake'.

[neoolong]

That and why do they have a fairly open cockpit that you can snipe the driver/gunner?

It seems like the Master Chief should have been Captain America with armor and a gun, instead of what he is now.

[Battlehymn Republic]

I was wondering why don't the space marines just pick up shields themselves to use.

[CaptHawkeye]

The games tried real hard to come up with some bullshit explanation basically saying "they don't know how to use them". Because I guess the Jackal Shield has controls more complex than on/off?

Or could it be that Bungie just didn't want to balance it?

[Stark]

Underbarrel plasma pistols are likewise impossible, right? No tactical use there, right?

I can see MC going System Shock style, with a bandolier of plasma pistols he overloads one after the other to kill tanks. With his UBBER SPEED it should be even more effective than with real pirates!

[Eleas]

I enjoyed the trailer. I felt it was well made, with a good flow from one scene to the next and an excellent pacing, and the distinct lack of spoken dialog was a nice touch. Having watched that and the trailer for The Old Republic after one another, the latter doesn't look too good by comparison.

Granted, I probably won't play either game. It didn't pique my interest as much as adverts go, so I can't say if it was a good trailer. As an action short, though, it was fun.

[Duckie]

I enjoyed the trailer. I felt it was well made, with a good flow from one scene to the next and an excellent pacing, and the distinct lack of spoken dialog was a nice touch. Having watched that and the trailer for The Old Republic after one another, the latter doesn't look too good by comparison.

Granted, I probably won't play either game. It didn't pique my interest as much as adverts go, so I can't say if it was a good trailer. As an action short, though, it was fun.

Distinct lack of spoken dialogue? There are several spoken sentences in that trailer. Granted, they are not in English, but since when did English lay claim to "Only Real Language"?

[Hawkwings]

The effect is different when the spoken language is something you (and most people) don't recognize. Sure we *know* what's going on, but not understanding the language makes us feel differently about it.

[Eleas]

Distinct lack of spoken dialogue? There are several spoken sentences in that trailer. Granted, they are not in English, but since when did English lay claim to "Only Real Language"?

From an ESL speaker such as myself, a claim like that would seem a bit strange, wouldn't it? I just charitably assumed the reader would read what I wrote and think, as opposed to going "huh? bUt dey Speaked!"

Dialogue implies the exchange of ideas. The shouts and various noises we hear aren't dialogue; I'd argue that they are by deliberate stylistic choice garbled; a sort of all-adrenaline, no-content distillation of boot camp and martial tradition. I've got a pretty good ear for languages, and this could have been practically any - and it's not important. That's what I liked about it. The trailer wanted to convey a bucket of atmosphere, and it did so without (intelligible) words.

[Lord Relvenous]

The power armor required Spartans to use it, regular humans ended up getting torn apart.

I should point out that is extremely crappy design... and a problem for the Spartans. How the heck do they survive their gear trying to rip them apart?

It's not that the gear actively tries to rip them apart, it's that it amplifies movement and strength to such a level that regular humans do not have the reaction time necessary to deal with a piece of armor that moves so quickly. In the book, a scene is described where a marine wearing the suit is ordered to just think about moving his right arm. The suit amplifies this thought into action, and his arm moves so fast it slams against his body before he can control it, snapping the bones in his arm. His resultant convulsions of pain were amplified by the suit, causing more damage, resulting in the suit essentially ripping the guy apart, shattering all of his bones. The Spartans, with their quicker reaction times can adequately control the suits.

[General Zod]

The power armor required Spartans to use it, regular humans ended up getting torn apart.

I should point out that is extremely crappy design... and a problem for the Spartans. How the heck do they survive their gear trying to rip them apart?

It's not that the gear actively tries to rip them apart, it's that it amplifies movement and strength to such a level that regular humans do not have the reaction time necessary to deal with a piece of armor that moves so quickly. In the book, a scene is described where a marine wearing the suit is ordered to just think about moving his right arm. The suit amplifies this thought into action, and his arm moves so fast it slams against his body before he can control it, snapping his bones. His resultant convulsions of pain were amplified by the suit, causing more damage, resulting in the suit essentially ripping the guy apart, shattering all of his bones. The Spartans, with their quicker reaction times can adequately control the suits.

In other words Halo engineers don't know how to design for human tolerances before live trials?

[Vendetta]

Blame the Forerunners. Everything they touched turned to stupid.

[Losonti Tokash]

The power armor required Spartans to use it, regular humans ended up getting torn apart.

I should point out that is extremely crappy design... and a problem for the Spartans. How the heck do they survive their gear trying to rip them apart?

It's not that the gear actively tries to rip them apart, it's that it amplifies movement and strength to such a level that regular humans do not have the reaction time necessary to deal with a piece of armor that moves so quickly. In the book, a scene is described where a marine wearing the suit is ordered to just think about moving his right arm. The suit amplifies this thought into action, and his arm moves so fast it slams against his body before he can control it, snapping the bones in his arm. His resultant convulsions of pain were amplified by the suit, causing more damage, resulting in the suit essentially ripping the guy apart, shattering all of his bones. The Spartans, with their quicker reaction times can adequately control the suits.

It also helps that their bones are supposedly nearly unbreakable.

[CaptHawkeye]

Blame the Forerunners. Everything they touched turned to stupid.

How do you stop an alien disease from infecting you?

Shoot yourself in the face of course!

[Hawkwings]

For anyone who wants to know, the language in the trailer is apparently Hungarian.