Colour me impressed, 343.

Games Other Halo
1

So my opinion on the information from the GI scans? I’m very, very pleased with what I read.

The graphics look fantastic, as expected after the First Look, and this new narrative focus for the Campaign sounds pretty damn awesome, like how Cortana and John’s encounter with the Covenant unfolds around introducing the player back into Halo and the Dawn.

Spartan Ops, whilst it has a cheesy name, sounds like something potentially revolutionary: a new, pick-up-and-play, episodic marriage of quick-blasts of multiplayer with the continuity, depth and narrative, not to mention co-operation and gameplay meat of Campaign? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Sounds bloody awesome.

The multiplayer I’m still sceptical about, given that we still don’t know what the deal is with these ‘unlockable abilities’. Custom loadouts still sound a bit absurd, but I do like the random weapon spawns adding a delicious degree of unpredictability to map control.

And Requiem… my, what a twist on the old Dyson Sphere concept. I mean, there’s nothing narratively intriguing about it that we didn’t already know, but it’s certainly unexpected.

I approve, 343. Very much so. Job well done.

My request now is that the new enemy is not revealed even at E3. If it is to be a ‘Holy -Yoink-!’ moment, I think that’s something that should be left until we play the game ourselves. Just give us, I dunno, the second level, maybe John hijacking a Covie ship and crashing into Requiem. Even if he was heading for it without any Covie ships around at the end of H3. Is that still canon? Pretty sure the E3 trailer isn’t canon.

2

I don’t even know how I would go about doing that.

3

> So my opinion on the information from the GI scans? I’m very, very pleased with what I read.
>
> The graphics look fantastic, as expected after the First Look, and this new narrative focus for the Campaign sounds pretty damn awesome, like how Cortana and John’s encounter with the Covenant unfolds around introducing the player back into Halo and the Dawn.
>
> They look like Halo 3 got sodomized by a Micheal Bay Transformer.
>
> Spartan Ops, whilst it has a cheesy name, sounds like something potentially revolutionary: a new, pick-up-and-play marriage of quick-blasts of multiplayer with the continuity, depth and narrative, not to mention co-operation and gameplay meat of Campaign? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Sounds bloody awesome.
>
> It could be good, but its pretty clear that it is a blatant rip-off of Spec Ops. Also, we lost Firefight.
>
> The multiplayer I’m still sceptical about, given that we still don’t know what the deal is with these ‘unlockable abilities’. Custom loadouts still sound a bit absurd, but I do like the random weapon spawns adding a delicious degree of unpredictability to map control.
>
> If anything about the MP is true from the leak, Halo MP is going to be unbelievably bad. I don’t think I know a word to describe how terrible it will be. Oh wait, I do. It rhymes with "343 won’t be giving us a Beta to see if we like the MP or not."
> And Requiem… my, what a twist on the old Dyson Sphere concept. I mean, there’s nothing narratively intriguing about it that we didn’t already know, but it’s certainly unexpected.
>
> I approve, 343. Very much so. Job well done.
>
>
> My request now is that the new enemy is not revealed even at E3. If it is to be a ‘Holy Yoink!!’ moment, I think that’s something that should be left until we play the game ourselves. Just give us, I dunno, the second level, maybe John hijacking a Covie ship and crashing into Requiem. Even if he was heading for it without any Covie ships around at the end of H3. Is that still canon? Pretty sure the E3 trailer isn’t canon.

4

Good to see another bungieite here.

Anyways, I actually agree with you. You said everything that I wanted to say. One thing I would like to say to a lot of fans is that Spartan Ops -yes it’s cheesy guys get the hell over it- is not a blatant rip off of Specs Ops. Spartan Ops should provide with story, with something to keep us coming back for more. I think it counts like a pretty revolutionary idea in the way that they are presenting it. I like the way 343 is going with this, long as they don’t start charging us separate money for spartan ops. Which I figure they’re smart enough to do. They are no Infinity Ward after all.

5

> > So my opinion on the information from the GI scans? I’m very, very pleased with what I read.
> >
> > The graphics look fantastic, as expected after the First Look, and this new narrative focus for the Campaign sounds pretty damn awesome, like how Cortana and John’s encounter with the Covenant unfolds around introducing the player back into Halo and the Dawn.
>
> They look like Halo 3 got sodomized by a Micheal Bay Transformer.

They look like Halo 3 was actually built out of weighty, damaged metal, and alien scales instead of plastic.

> > Spartan Ops, whilst it has a cheesy name, sounds like something potentially revolutionary: a new, pick-up-and-play marriage of quick-blasts of multiplayer with the continuity, depth and narrative, not to mention co-operation and gameplay meat of Campaign? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Sounds bloody awesome.
>
> It could be good, but its pretty clear that it is a blatant rip-off of Spec Ops. Also, we lost Firefight.

Well, not really: Spec Ops includes neither canonical continuity, nor a narrative thread, nor an episodic basis, nor 4 players, nor accompanying CG narrations.

As for Firefight, I’d gotten bored of it, to be honest. It can be fun, but the novelty wears off when you realise you could be doing the same thing in Campaign with some story and developments in the objectives and location.

> > The multiplayer I’m still sceptical about, given that we still don’t know what the deal is with these ‘unlockable abilities’. Custom loadouts still sound a bit absurd, but I do like the random weapon spawns adding a delicious degree of unpredictability to map control.
>
>
>
> If anything about the MP is true from the leak, Halo MP is going to be unbelievably bad. I don’t think I know a word to describe how terrible it will be. Oh wait, I do. It rhymes with "343 won’t be giving us a Beta to see if we like the MP or not."

I can’t think of a single word that rhymes with that sentence. Point being, the fantastic moment-to-moment core of Halo MP will undoubtedly be preserved. It’s just that the playing field won’t be level anymore. Which is a huge shame.

And I would say, if you’re going to quote me, don’t put words into my mouth, but the quoting system on this site is broken anyway.

6

I think we should all reserve our judgments (both positive and negative) until we have more information. Until that time, we should try to remain as objective and unbiased as possible.