I know this sounds really cheesy, but I just had to say that while 343i does a lot of amazing things (Just look at PC), and listens to feedback, they only seem to get recognized for the tiny imperfections in their games. No game is perfect, but the Halo series is pretty close. At least 343i didn’t abandon Halo like Bungie did.
In other words,
THANK YOU 343!
343 has done an awesome job with the Halo franchise. I don’t care what you haters have to say.
The only problem I have them is that they don’t really listen to their fanbase
I can certainly appreciate a 343 appreciation post… But I wouldn’t be so quick to throw Bungie under the bus for trying to move on to other things. They spent 1999 (and likely before that) to 2010 building up an incredible franchise with a finale wrapped up in a neat little bow. We honestly could have left the series at that and all moved on with our lives, remembering Halo as this incredible game from a few years ago that none have managed to top in terms of hype or credibility.
But some corporate fat cats decided the Xbox flagship franchise needed to be squeezed for a bit more money, so they took a franchise finale that had a nice little bow wrapped on top of it, gave it to a Microsoft development team, and told them to recapture lightning in a bottle.
The point of this short rant is to say that Bungie isn’t the bad guy for finishing what they started and moving on. And 343 isn’t the bad guy for trying their best to continue a franchise that the last developer gave a final send off to. There really isn’t a bad guy here at all really. Maybe a greedy Microsoft exec or two, but in truth, we’re all holding on to a franchise that we probably should have let go of back in 2010.
Now that the franchise has continued on another ten years beyond that, I’m still here and ready to see what comes next. But I’m not going in with the mindset that “Halo is back”, or that it’s gonna kick COD or some other popular game off its throne. My mindset is that of, “I’ll always love this quirky game that became a worldwide phenomenon, and it doesn’t matter if it ever returns to the spotlight it once held”. Most games never even get the spotlight in the first place.
Good point, I suppose it was the only sensible choice on Bungie’s part. I do also agree with your mindset. The community that Halo has right now is bug enough. Putting it in the spotlight would only attract more toxic players and tryhards.
I hope they know that there are people in the community that appreciate them. They’ve made many mistakes and will make more but at the end of the day Halo is still the best shooter out there in my opinion. Negativity is always louder than positivity so I hope they don’t feel like everyone hates them.
> 2535435902217648;3:
> I can certainly appreciate a 343 appreciation post… But I wouldn’t be so quick to throw Bungie under the bus for trying to move on to other things. They spent 1999 (and likely before that) to 2010 building up an incredible franchise with a finale wrapped up in a neat little bow. We honestly could have left the series at that and all moved on with our lives, remembering Halo as this incredible game from a few years ago that none have managed to top in terms of hype or credibility.
>
> But some corporate fat cats decided the Xbox flagship franchise needed to be squeezed for a bit more money, so they took a franchise finale that had a nice little bow wrapped on top of it, gave it to a Microsoft development team, and told them to recapture lightning in a bottle.
>
> The point of this short rant is to say that Bungie isn’t the bad guy for finishing what they started and moving on. And 343 isn’t the bad guy for trying their best to continue a franchise that the last developer gave a final send off to. There really isn’t a bad guy here at all really. Maybe a greedy Microsoft exec or two, but in truth, we’re all holding on to a franchise that we probably should have let go of back in 2010.
>
> Now that the franchise has continued on another ten years beyond that, I’m still here and ready to see what comes next. But I’m not going in with the mindset that “Halo is back”, or that it’s gonna kick COD or some other popular game off its throne. My mindset is that of, “I’ll always love this quirky game that became a worldwide phenomenon, and it doesn’t matter if it ever returns to the spotlight it once held”. Most games never even get the spotlight in the first place.
I totally agree with you, Halo isn’t going to have the spotlight it held before, and it’s not 343’s fault. Bungie hadn’t expected for Halo to be “unwrapped”, so how could they have created the “finale” and create more breathing room for the game to grow at the same time? Bungie didn’t expect there to be a Halo 4, 343 didn’t expect to be making a Halo 4, but they ended up owning the “finished” franchise and were tasked to undo the wrapping that Bungie had put on the game. Out came Halo 4, and all the pure hatred that followed it. Halo will never be the same, and it will certainly not come back to what it was. And that is because 343 isn’t Bungie. Bungie finished off their era of Halo, and they certainly did nothing “wrong”. They didn’t abandon Halo, because they expected it to be finished. 343 was given the impossible task of creating a new Halo era, and they did just that with Halo 4. You really have to appreciate 343’s amazing work for Halo, they truly redefined the series, and looking at the circumstances, they really did amazing
I don’t blame Bungie for moving away from Halo. That’s just normal to seek other projects and invest your talent with other ideas after so long. They did an amazing job bringing Halo to life, so they could move away with their heads up.
Now with 343, I’m a fan of them. I think they also brought Halo to another level of storytelling and multiplayer. Their task is one of if not the most difficult of the gaming industry, which is to move the Halo franchise forward and expand upon it with new characters, stories, visuals and gameplay additions.
> 2535435902217648;3:
> I can certainly appreciate a 343 appreciation post… But I wouldn’t be so quick to throw Bungie under the bus for trying to move on to other things. They spent 1999 (and likely before that) to 2010 building up an incredible franchise with a finale wrapped up in a neat little bow. We honestly could have left the series at that and all moved on with our lives, remembering Halo as this incredible game from a few years ago that none have managed to top in terms of hype or credibility.
>
> But some corporate fat cats decided the Xbox flagship franchise needed to be squeezed for a bit more money, so they took a franchise finale that had a nice little bow wrapped on top of it, gave it to a Microsoft development team, and told them to recapture lightning in a bottle.
>
> The point of this short rant is to say that Bungie isn’t the bad guy for finishing what they started and moving on. And 343 isn’t the bad guy for trying their best to continue a franchise that the last developer gave a final send off to. There really isn’t a bad guy here at all really. Maybe a greedy Microsoft exec or two, but in truth, we’re all holding on to a franchise that we probably should have let go of back in 2010.
>
> Now that the franchise has continued on another ten years beyond that, I’m still here and ready to see what comes next. But I’m not going in with the mindset that “Halo is back”, or that it’s gonna kick COD or some other popular game off its throne. My mindset is that of, “I’ll always love this quirky game that became a worldwide phenomenon, and it doesn’t matter if it ever returns to the spotlight it once held”. Most games never even get the spotlight in the first place.
This is incredibly well said. I totally agree with you, especially when you said that we probably all should have let go of the franchise back in 2010. I’m a firm believer of this, and believe the amazing universe created that we call Halo should have ended where it did (and boy did it end oh so well too!). I don’t think it would have ever truly died out, I think it would have been appreciated for what it was for many, many more years to come.
It’s evident that Halo was going to continue judging by the way Halo 3’s Legendary ending, well, ended. Even Halo 4 was on the table for Bungie before settling on Reach, but they knew they’d be unable to really commit to that vision with one Halo game left on their contract. Arguably, Halo 3 still left a lot of questions and a whole universe ripe for exploration, so I don’t think I could call it a perfect ending.
I applaud 343 for continuing on this franchise, but it hasn’t been a perfect road. I attribute that a lot to a lack of confidence. Granted, with this fanbase that’s not hard to understand. But 343 needs a really unified and consistent approach that I hope Infinite nails.
I believe that Halo Infinite will be among the top 3 games in the franchise.