Halo: Reach In-Game Trailer - Same old, same old

[Mr. Coffee]

As far as the backstory goes bookwise, I've read the first and third books (Fall of Reach and First Strike. Didn't bother with The Flood, I've played the game), Ghost of Onyx, and about half of The Cole Protocol. The first couple of novels were actually ok, only real problems I had was with some of the retarded reasoning Dr. Halsey used to justify basically kidnapping a bunch of kids and abusing the shit out of them mentally and physically for years on end, and minor nitpicky stuff like everyone referring to magazines as "clips". It took me three tries to actually read through Ghosts of Onyx before I finally forced myself to finish the book through the sheer wall of dumbass it had (oh, kidnapping, torturing, and genetically/cybernetically altering them wasn't enough, this time let's pull out the FORBIDDEN SCIENCE schtick and get really stupid). The Cole Protocol I made it about halfway into it before I chucked it and went and reread some old Tom Clancy novels to cleanse the stupid from my brain (you know a book sucks when Tom Clancy technowank is actually more enjoyable).

It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd all be written by the same guy (Nylund's books really weren't that bad. Not exactly NY Times bestseller stuff, but good enough), or even if the authors at least talked to each other, but they didn't and internal consistency is something the entire damned HALO franchise is in dire need of thank to it.

As far as the games go, after HALO III (aka HALO: High Def Patch) and everything I've heard about ODST makes me really leary of ever purchasing another HALO title.

[Sarevok]

On the plus side Halo : Reach is going to have Elites again. If these were non english speaking scary alien lizards from Halo : CE there is a chance Halo : Reach could be good.

[Ford Prefect]

Halo had more potential when the Covenant were mysterious, the Forerunners were mysterious, and there was a sense that there was some really meaty backstory out there to learn.

The problem was that, as more of the backstory was fleshed out, it really wasn't as good as we might have hoped, to put it mildly.

I can agree with that. Back in the day, I thought the Covenant were great. They were unknowable and strong: colour coding is pretty 80s, but the bright, garish look contrasted with the dull human grey as well as the pristine wilderness of the Halo itself. As a result they felt like a serious' invasion' in a few different ways, and the fact that everything about them - including their actual names - is unknown makes them effectively threatening. I mentioned above that I found the Covenant-side stuff more interesting than the human stuff, but there's no denying that the Covenant lost a lot of their 'oomph' as a result - this made Halo 3's return to the faceless enemy style totally pointless because the second game had deconstructed the idea of the Covenant as a monolithic juggernaut that just stomps on you.

Also the less said about the Forerunners the better. Setting aside the cliches, the Forerunner as presented are possibly the dumbest motherfuckers in the universe.

[chitoryu12]

I can guarantee that not only will I not buy this, but that it likely even won't be a rental. Halo 3 was fun enough for one playthrough and several repeats of the best missions, but it wasn't worth buying in the slightest, hence why I just borrowed it. The most interesting thing about Halo Wars was that it wasn't Halo with better graphics, and even then it wasn't a particularly good RTS.

I enjoy reading the novels and other supplementary material much, much more than playing the games. Halo was good, Halo 2 made a lot of improvements, but Halo 3 was repetitive both in how much it was like the previous game and how the missions had practically no variety. I think the hype around ODST was what killed it for me, though. I thought it would be a fresh, new look on the series, with you having to play with stealth and suppressed weapons, maybe even having a more realistic difficulty option to better represent the war. It turned out to be Halo 3 with slightly prettier graphics, a few new weapons, and a different HUD. Oh, and it added an Engineer. Whoop de doo.

[Edward Yee]

As far as the backstory goes bookwise, I've read the first and third books (Fall of Reach and First Strike. Didn't bother with The Flood, I've played the game), Ghost of Onyx, and about half of The Cole Protocol. The first couple of novels were actually ok, only real problems I had was with some of the retarded reasoning Dr. Halsey used to justify basically kidnapping a bunch of kids and abusing the shit out of them mentally and physically for years on end, and minor nitpicky stuff like everyone referring to magazines as "clips". It took me three tries to actually read through Ghosts of Onyx before I finally forced myself to finish the book through the sheer wall of dumbass it had (oh, kidnapping, torturing, and genetically/cybernetically altering them wasn't enough, this time let's pull out the FORBIDDEN SCIENCE schtick and get really stupid).

This sounds like my view of what was wrong with Halo down the line. (Seriously, do not read Finishing the Fight.)

[Nephtys]

Why was it even necessary to go through all of that 'Okay, we need augmented children!' stuff?

Superpowers? But why did you need them? So the Spartans were developed for basically antiterrorism work and black counter-insurgency operations, okay. But a super power-armored titan that costs as much as a battleship doesn't seem like a very practical way to fight rebels, compared to training more special forces people. Also, if augmentation kills like half the kids, why did they put the kids through a decade of training, THEN go through a thing that kills half of them? Why not augment, THEN train?

The 'clone duplicate' thing was just stupid. As is the 'AIs are all colorful pretty fairies with quirky one-note gimmicks' stuff.

[Mr Bean]

Superpowers? But why did you need them? So the Spartans were developed for basically antiterrorism work and black counter-insurgency operations, okay. But a super power-armored titan that costs as much as a battleship doesn't seem like a very practical way to fight rebels, compared to training more special forces people. Also, if augmentation kills like half the kids, why did they put the kids through a decade of training, THEN go through a thing that kills half of them? Why not augment, THEN train? .

The augmentation had to wait until they had reached adulthood and stopped growing. Even in the future it seems that puberty sucks. So what to do with them in the mean time? Why train them of course! That bit of future science makes sense. However where is the "costs as much as a battleship" line from. My impression was costs as much as a Cruiser. Which is a far different cost point in US dollars. I have a feeling that the price point is misleading because it was a SPARTAN in-universe detractor who said it. And like most military programs it does not incudle just the cost to raise one John 117 but also the R&D costs that went into making him and ignoring the fact you can keep making more.

[Hawkwings]

I believe the quote is that the armor costs as much as a destroyer. The training I can't see costing an extravagant amount, it's just extended boot camp + special forces training after all. The augmentations yes, that would probably cost a lot, but as Mr Bean pointed out, a ton of the costs in the augmentation and the armor came from R+D.

[Sarevok]

A spartan is essentially a light vehicle. He weighs about 500 kg in armor iirc. That makes you wonder what did the UNSC gain by building such a giant infantryman. The chief is almost like a vehicle with none of the durability and firepower advantages and costs an arm and leg to UNSC taxpayers.

[Hawkwings]

They won the war, arguably because of the actions of the Spartans (or just one in particular). That's what they gained.

[chitoryu12]

In fact, the armor wasn't even completely necessary for the Spartans. John's killing of several ODST's in hand-to-hand, completely unarmored at the age of 14, is an indicator enough that the Spartans' augmentations made them extraordinarily powerful. They could have been equipped with standard ODST armor and have functioned far more effectively than ODST's. Indeed, one well-trained and well-equipped Spartan could be a match for a squad of them.

[Setzer]

Look, I loved the Russian so trained from infancy he has an accent. And the supercharger one guy has on his armour. And the high-visibility helmetless woman.

It's all very standard 'you-are-a-tough-guy' stuff'. Like I said to JSF earlier, the SPARTANs went from the quiet, professional, distant and 'iconic' Master Chief to the Dirty Dozen in one trailer. I mean a guy with a skull sharpening a kukri on his armour? Come the fuck on.

I agree. For people trained as warriors and nothing else, they seem entirely too human. The Master Chief was more Spartan in character then any of these knockoffs. His armor was austere, his dialog consisted mostly of laconic one liners or simple communication. He seemed a nice representation of someone who was created to be a part of an automated mechanized war machine. Even the AI and machines have more of a personality. It hammered in his role as a weapon rather then a person. Sure it mean Master Chief was a flat character, but it at least made some sense to me.

I was not impressed with Halo 3, and I never even considered buying ODST. Unless this game does something really worthwhile, I won't be buying it either.

EDIT: And what idiot decided to set the game on Reach? No matter what you do, failure is the only option. Unless Bungie is willing to throw out its own canon.

[Sarevok]

In fact, the armor wasn't even completely necessary for the Spartans. John's killing of several ODST's in hand-to-hand, completely unarmored at the age of 14, is an indicator enough that the Spartans' augmentations made them traordinarily powerful. They could have been equipped with standard ODST armor and have functioned far more effectively than ODST's. Indeed, one well-trained and well-equipped Spartan could be a match for a squad of them.

Well while thats true for Spartan-IIIs keep in mind that the biggest strength of a Spartan-II is his regenerating energy shields. Without shields a Spartan-II would be battered and bruised after a firefight or two. With shields he can go on for days and days of fighting. Now of course while that is very useful that does not justify how did Spartans win wars by themselves.

[chitoryu12]

EDIT: And what idiot decided to set the game on Reach? No matter what you do, failure is the only option. Unless Bungie is willing to throw out its own canon.

They've done that before. Remember how John was supposed to be the "last remaining Spartan" before Halo 2 was released? Then they pulled out Halo: First Strike and had a squad of Spartans survive. Then you have Halo: The Cole Protocol and the Grey Team. Or Kurt, who survived to train the Spartan-III's. They're perfectly willing to throw out canon if it means they can get a new storyline.

[Darksider]

They've done that before. Remember how John was supposed to be the "last remaining Spartan" before Halo 2 was released? Then they pulled out Halo: First Strike and had a squad of Spartans survive. Then you have Halo: The Cole Protocol and the Grey Team. Or Kurt, who survived to train the Spartan-III's. They're perfectly willing to throw out canon if it means they can get a new storyline.

Didn't they also massively retcon the size of the UNSC as well? IIRC Fall of Reach had them pegged at nearly a thousand colonies and more recent stuff has them at like twenty.

[Hawkwings]

There's 20 "inner colonies", major worlds like Reach. There's hundreds (it's unclear) of outer colonies, stuff like Harvest.