EDIT: I’ve noticed some people are just voting and leaving. That’s fine, but I’d much prefer if you left a comment as well saying why. I’d like to discuss this and see what people’s thoughts and opinions are.
I know this has probably been asked a million times but bear with me, I wanna hear some opinions on this. From my experience:
Halo: CE’s Cortana was pretty much the standard “Sci-Fi Holographic Artificial Intelligence”, but Jen Taylor’s voice work and some decent writing made her a memorable character for most who played the game. Her appearance here was only okay to me; Her face and body were average, and I kinda didn’t like her short hairstyle. She was also pretty dim and transparent, making her a bit hard to see clearly sometimes.
Halo 2 Cortana (my personal favorite rendition) was largely similar to the last, however she was a bit deeper this time around. She was more of a sarcastic “smart -Yoink-” while still being a charismatic, intelligent, and strong companion throughout the game; A well-rounded supporting character in my opinion. She was witty and smart-aleky yet still showed an understanding of self-sacrifice and care for John’s safety by the end of the game. She also seemed to be the version that acts the most like Halsey (from what I’ve seen of her) with more of a sense of humor I guess. Her appearance was also my favorite: They added longer bangs (with physics!) to her hairstyle and a more “mature” facial structure with an expression that matched her attitude. She looked like an attractive woman, but didn’t go too far.
Halo 3’s Cortana is where things got iffy for me. For the most part, she was fairly irrelevant to the plot and was much more akin to a “Damsel in Distress”, and I found her cryptic appearances throughout the game more of an annoyance than anything. She was alright as a character after John finds her, but not as strong as 2’s Cortana IMO. Her appearance was fairly nice; Her color was changed to blue rather than purple and she was given a bright glow effect that enhanced her “techno” look, and they made her breasts maybe a tad bit bigger lol. What I didn’t like was that they’d given her an overall softer look and demeanor that felt “off” from the first two.
And lastly, (as of now) we have Halo 4’s Cortana. By this point in the timeline she’s dealing with good ol’ AI Rampancy, causing a slew of emotional outbursts and hyperactive thinking. While I thought it was fine to add more emotion to her character, there were times where they went overboard with “humanizing” her to the point of awkwardness IMO (particularly at the end of the game), and she often comes off as whiny and weak throughout. Her look was also hit-and-miss for me: She was given noticeably larger breasts and wider hips, seemed almost fully opaque, and her “code line” effect was removed from her skin, making her look like basically a small girl painted blue with some dark stripes. Her face is nice, but again they opted for the soft, sympathetic look from 3, making her look overall like a teenager fresh after being somewhat “gifted” by puberty, all adding to her sense of weakness for me. Her hair was also altered from the “Bangs in front, Fade in back” style she pretty much always had, and was static for the first time since Halo: CE, which irked me to no end.So after all that: What are YOUR thoughts?
I think 4 just edges it over 2 for me. In 4, we really got to see new sides to her, especially her strength as she’s trying to help Chief whilst holding off her inevitable death. Yes she seemed weak at times but a) that’s the point of rampancy and b) makes for a far more interesting character than one who never suffers and is just strong and tough. Her sacrifice at the end…damn I still shed a tear
I think her look in Halo 4 is a visual representation of all that which is why I think it’s the best. The details are great, and whilst the Halo 2A one is closer to a young Dr Halsey, there’s just something about 4 that I like over it.
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> I think 4 just edges it over 2 for me. In 4, we really got to see new sides to her, especially her strength as she’s trying to help Chief whilst holding off her inevitable death. Yes she seemed weak at times but a) that’s the point of rampancy and b) makes for a far more interesting character than one who never suffers and is just strong and tough. Her sacrifice at the end…damn I still shed a tear
>
> I think her look in Halo 4 is a visual representation of all that which is why I think it’s the best. The details are great, and whilst the Halo 2A one is closer to a young Dr Halsey, there’s just something about 4 that I like over it.
I can respect that, especially about the sadness of her death in 4.
I understand rampancy causes emotional swings and she’s also thinking about dying and whatnot, but I dunno, it didn’t feel like she was fighting it off much the way it seemed Halo: CE and Halo 2 Cortana would.
But then that would kind of discount the trauma and weakness she was subjected to in Halo 3, so I guess after that going for an even more fragile Cortana during rampancy just makes logical sense.
Still not my preference, but eh, what’s done is done at this point.
I think her anatomy looks much more curvy and natural, and reveals much more of her humanity. I think it actually goes beyond graphical improvements; she looks less like a hologram and more like a living being. It kind of suits what 343 were going for with her being so vulnerable, breaking down and experiencing self-realization about her mortality.
Yeah, when I saw that it became clear that SI didn’t give a single -Yoink- what that model looked like. They Frankenstein’d a random head onto Halo 3 Cortana’s body and called it a day.
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> Halo 4
>
> I think her anatomy looks much more curvy and natural, and reveals much more of her humanity. I think it actually goes beyond graphical improvements; she looks less like a hologram and more like a living being. It kind of suits what 343 were going for with her being so vulnerable, breaking down and experiencing self-realization about her mortality.
So less curvy=less natural?
I just don’t feel that she should look so much like a human, I mean look at Roland, that guy’s based on a WWII bomber pilot and looks less human than Cortana.
They could have at least made her actually transparent or kept the code lines. She can have humanity without looking exactly like a human.
Her Halo 4 look is outstanding. Personality wise it’s tough.
Halo CE she was pretty great with her snickering comments and the anger she showed toward Guilty spark is something we don’t see in other games.
Halo 2 she was a brick imo
Not enough time in Halo 3
Halo 4 she was terrific, but I don’t feel like it was necessarily “her” due to rampamcy changing her personality. If that makes sense.
Visually- Halo 4
Personality- Halo CE
Edit: I forgot H2A. Visually I go blur H2A. She’s perfect there!
I like the Halo 4 as of the fact that she is more mortal than the others. She also looks hot. (don’t hold it against me, Just saying). The comes Halo 2 Anniversary Cutscenes, in game was terrible (i actually switched to classic just to avoid cortana).
A solid combination of 2 and 4 - especially Halo 2 Anniversary’s look. I really like that an actress was brought in and they used her proportions for the character design. Like the OP said above, I like that Cortana is the sarcastic quip machine in Halo 2 and that she just radiates confidence. Halo 4, I really appreciate how much of the game was her story and despite her battle against rampancy, she took control of her own life and kept her agency throughout the story, even to the point of choosing how she left Chief - not through rampancy but through a sacrificial act.
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> > Halo 4
> >
> > I think her anatomy looks much more curvy and natural, and reveals much more of her humanity. I think it actually goes beyond graphical improvements; she looks less like a hologram and more like a living being. It kind of suits what 343 were going for with her being so vulnerable, breaking down and experiencing self-realization about her mortality.
>
>
> So less curvy=less natural?
>
> I just don’t feel that she should look so much like a human, I mean look at Roland, that guy’s based on a WWII bomber pilot and looks less human than Cortana.
>
> They could have at least made her actually transparent or kept the code lines. She can have humanity without looking exactly like a human.
I said curvy and natural. I think curviness in women is aesthetically pleasing, not that you need to be curvy in order to be natural-looking.
Cortana’s physical appearance is based off of a younger Catherine Halsey. Your point? They’re both based off real people in the Halo universe.
Besides, it’s called visual story telling. Cortana was becoming less transparent due to her condition which caused her to have spontaneous outbursts which she could not control. By the end of the game her rampancy culminated to the point in which she was as a close to being human as she was ever going to be. Other than that, she’s really not that much different from her older designs. She still had “code lines.”
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> A solid combination of 2 and 4 - especially Halo 2 Anniversary’s look. I really like that an actress was brought in and they used her proportions for the character design. Like the OP said above, I like that Cortana is the sarcastic quip machine in Halo 2 and that she just radiates confidence. Halo 4, I really appreciate how much of the game was her story and despite her battle against rampancy, she took control of her own life and kept her agency throughout the story, even to the point of choosing how she left Chief - not through rampancy but through a sacrificial act.
I feel that. I just wish it was more her trying to keep the rampancy hidden from Chief over the course of the game rather than her breaking down every so often.
They had the perfect setup: She could have blamed it on the crash and actually have Chief go with it, as well as not revealing the amount of years that went by the instant you start the game.
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> > > Halo 4
> > >
> > > I think her anatomy looks much more curvy and natural, and reveals much more of her humanity. I think it actually goes beyond graphical improvements; she looks less like a hologram and more like a living being. It kind of suits what 343 were going for with her being so vulnerable, breaking down and experiencing self-realization about her mortality.
> >
> >
> > So less curvy=less natural?
> >
> > I just don’t feel that she should look so much like a human, I mean look at Roland, that guy’s based on a WWII bomber pilot and looks less human than Cortana.
> >
> > They could have at least made her actually transparent or kept the code lines. She can have humanity without looking exactly like a human.
>
>
> I said curvy and natural. I think curviness in women is aesthetically pleasing, not that you need to be curvy in order to be natural-looking.
>
> Cortana’s physical appearance is based off of a younger Catherine Halsey. Your point? They’re both based off real people in the Halo universe.
>
> Besides, it’s called visual story telling. Cortana was becoming less transparent due to her condition which caused her to have spontaneous outbursts which she could not control. By the end of the game her rampancy culminated to the point in which she was as a close to being human as she was ever going to be. Other than that, she’s really not that much different from her older designs. She still had “code lines.”
I’m saying Roland looks like a holographic A.I., while Cortana looks like a small human. You can argue that being part of the “storytelling” all you want, doesn’t make it any less silly.
And what do you mean? Almost everything about her was changed; Her hair, her transparency, her body, and her visual age.
I’m not talking about the dark stripes, I’m talking about the lines of binary code (or whatever) that moved over her skin in all the other games. It made her seem like she was coursing with near-infinite information as opposed to other A.I.s appearances.
> I’m saying Roland looks like a holographic A.I., while Cortana looks like a small human. You can argue that being part of the “storytelling” all you want, doesn’t ake it any less sill
Visual storytelling is a key component in telling stories. When you’re telling a story about a person’s suffering and ongoing decline, portraying them as a hologram lessens the impact of that. I think 343 wanted her to look more human since she that’s what she wanted to be and it was to highlight that her suffering is just as important as any other individual. One of Halo 4’s themes is a man vs. machine. In the game, the lines between them are blurred. Chief is a machine-like human and Cortana is human-like machine.
“Before this is all over, promise me you’ll figure out which one of us is the machine.” — Cortana
> And what do you mean? Almost everything about her was changed; Her hair, her transparency, her body, and her visual age.
>
> I’m not talking about the dark stripes, I’m talking about the lines of binary code (or whatever) that moved over her skin in all the other games. It made her seem like she was coursing with near-infinite information as opposed to other A.I.s appearances.
Halo 2 gave her a radically different hair cut. Halo 3 changed her appearance to blue instead of purple. Her difference in appearance isn’t that jarring compared to the shifts in her appearance between the other games; characters change and evolve. I’ll invite you to look at this again. Besides, it’s established that she can change and choose her own appearance.
As for the code and lights thing, it’s still there, but it’s less noticeable.
lol. What I didn’t like was that they’d given her an overall softer look and demeanor that felt “off” from the first two.
