I agree that Halo 4 deserves the nomination for Best Storytelling (and every other category it is in), and deserves the award as much as any title on that page…
But “The Last of Us” receives my vote. It’s not that Halo 4’s story was bad, or that “The Last of Us”’ story was “better”.
> Honestly, if you are voting for Halo 4 I think you need to expand your horizons a bit.
Umm…I voted for Halo 4 and I just cited a book. Specifically the Last of Us and Infinite only really hold up if you have absolutely no interest in the western literary tradition (they’re our equivalent of mainstream Oscar bait, ex. Inception) while Halo, being less pretentious, is much more meaningful as it explores the depth of the human experience (see. the Chief) for the sake of that exploration rather than just the appearance of such (like a good, well produced indie film, ex. Moon.)
> > Honestly, if you are voting for Halo 4 I think you need to expand your horizons a bit.
>
> Nope, <mark>Halo 4 has had years of build up which I have every piece of media building up for it, from Halo 3 to Halo Silentium,</mark> I have every right to want to vote for Halo 4 if I want, the Chief-Cortana relationship was as good as the Lee-Clementine one and for a Sci-fi game that combines mutliplayer and single player it did it damn well
A shame very little of that build up actually managed to get into Halo 4’s story.
> There’s no way I’m voting for Halo 4 when The Last of Us in an option.
Serious, that game is incredible.
I was going to vote for stuff, then it wanted me to sign in through Facebook or Twitter, both would take all my info and post “on my behalf”.
Pass.
> It doesn’t deserve it.
I’m going to have to agree.
I voted for The Last of Us, while I didn’t enjoy the gameplay much the story was just awesome.
> i would say this has something to do with it sir sammy. i would also say the story could have been better as some of it seemed kinda forced and cheesy but to each their own.
If that at list of things makes a bad campaign, then Halo: CE (if not the rest of the series) is just as horrible.
Remember how we never actually learned why the Covenant were fighting us or where the Spartans came from in any of the other games?
> > You guys seem gloomy, wheres the enthusiasm? The excitement? The Halo Pride? Is this what our fanbase has become?!
>
> Oh no, we don’t want to nominate Halo 4’s story for a story-based award we don’t think it deserves because <mark>we didn’t like the story.</mark>
>
> The inhumanity.
I did.
> > Halo 4 for best story up against games like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite?
> >
> > Yeah, no. Not happening.
> >
> > Halo 4 had a good story, with the relationship betwee John and Cortana being at an all-time high, allowing us to see the Chief’s human side for once. <mark>But there were so many elements that were unexplained for those who didn’t read the books. Who were these Covenant attacking us? Who the hell is the Didact and why is he angry at us? Who are these new Spartans and where did they come from?</mark>
>
> Oh don’t act like that’s new to Halo:
> Halo CE: Who are the Covenant? How does a Halo destroy life? What is this flying lightbulb? What is the Flood?
> Halo 2: Why are there new Covenant species? What is a Gravemind? How did the Covenant find Earth? How did Chief outrun a glassing beam and be protected by water?
> Halo 3: How does Cortana communicate with John? How did the Sangheili manage to keep High Charity, a planetoid, in quarantine? Why was there a portal to the ark on earth? How did High Charity jump to the Ark?
I agree with some things you said. 
> > i would say this has something to do with it sir sammy. i would also say the story could have been better as some of it seemed kinda forced and cheesy but to each their own.
>
> If that at list of things makes a bad campaign, then Halo: CE (if not the rest of the series) is just as horrible.
>
> Remember how we never actually learned why the Covenant were fighting us or where the Spartans came from in any of the other games?
I think of Halo: Combat Evolved as the Episode IV of Halo, we are thrust into a galaxy at war and while we may not know a lot of the background, we can tell it is important and can garner things pretty easily. We know the Empire are the bad guys, we know the Covenant are the bad guys. We know the Jedi are essentially space wizards, we know the Spartans are supersoliders.
Sure, looking back at the old games, they aren’t super strong in the story department, though I think ODST is the best out of them all. Thing is though, Halo 4 tried to juggle too many things at once that individually are cool, but they never get enough time to develop. When a book explaining why your antagonist is a bad guy in the first place releases five months after the game released…there is a problem.
> When a book explaining why your antagonist is a bad guy in the first place releases five months after the game released…there is a problem.
Contact Harvest released years after CE.
Anyway, why can’t Halo 4 be another Episode IV? Chief’s been asleep for a long time, and the Universe as we knew it has changed.
> > When a book explaining why your antagonist is a bad guy in the first place releases five months after the game released…there is a problem.
>
> <mark>Contact Harvest released years after CE.</mark>
>
> Anyway, why can’t Halo 4 be another Episode IV? Chief’s been asleep for a long time, and the Universe as we knew it has changed.
Like I said, none of the games were really great at presenting their stories. Halo 4’s problem is that is simply isn’t the first game. Those who played the games know other things have happened prior. Yet we get little in the way of explanations.
For example, the Covenant show up, we get very little. At the basic level we can connect the dots, Forerunner world, Covenant show up, they obviously want something. But how is this new Covenant structured? Who is the leader? Where do they come from? Those questions never get answers except for who leads them, but Jul 'Mdama in the game is nowhere near as developed as he is in the books. As -Yoink- as I think the Kilo-Five trilogy has shaped up to be, it did create a fascinating antagonist.
When the folks at 343i even admit that they probably focused too much on the books telling the story rather than the game itself, there IS a problem.
Halo 4 hada pretty bad story. But Black Ops 2 is -Yoink-. And we can’t have a CoD game do anything better then a Halo game. So I guess I need to vote for Halo 4…
> I was going to vote for stuff, then it wanted me to sign in through Facebook or Twitter, both would take all my info and post “on my behalf”.
>
> Pass.
It didn’t ask me to login, all I had to do was click 2 times, and I was done. There should be no login or sign up required, or info to fill out.
> Nice idea for a topic! It’s always good to see some positivity on the forums
>
> I think the story arc as a whole is absolutely fantastic - first rate.
>
> However, that’s if you include the end of Halo 3 (to explain why Master Chief is drifting in space), the forerunner trilogy by Greg Bear (to explain the Didact, Requiem, the Librarian etc.), the terminals (which you need to view via Waypoint, not in-game).
>
> I’ve viewed all of the above so can appreciate the story arc as a whole, like I said, first rate.
>
> But if you just look at the story element in the game (without viewing the above) I could imagine it being quite difficult to understand what’s going on!
>
> Anyway, I’ve only played Halo 4 on that list so I’m not sure if I should vote as I haven’t played the others, but I do feel it’s going to be hard to beat - the Halo 4 story is excellent in my opinion!
Thank you
> > I was going to vote for stuff, then it wanted me to sign in through Facebook or Twitter, both would take all my info and post “on my behalf”.
> >
> > Pass.
>
> It didn’t ask me to login, all I had to do was click 2 times, and I was done. There should be no login or sign up required, or info to fill out.
My bad, I just realized you have to submit it by logging in. I thought all you had to do was select. Apologies 
I don’t know, dude. As much as I loved Halo 4’s story, I think with Black Ops II up there, I would vote for BOII. It told a great story.
And talk about that mind-blowing plot twist where… you find out Salasar is working for Menendez! WHAAAT?! Anyway, yeah, Halo 4’s story was kinda linear. Good, but linear. Black Ops II’s story fluctuated as you went along, thanks to the whole idea where your choices changed how the story ended.
Halo 4’s stories were amazing. Favourite. 343i did an amazing job there. Connecting it with other stuff was great too. I could identify with Cortana at least a bit heh.
> I don’t know, dude. As much as I loved Halo 4’s story, I think with Black Ops II up there, I would vote for BOII. It told a great story.
>
> And talk about that mind-blowing plot twist where… you find out Salasar is working for Menendez! WHAAAT?! Anyway, yeah, Halo 4’s story was kinda linear. Good, but linear. Black Ops II’s story fluctuated as you went along, thanks to the whole idea where your choices changed how the story ended.
Halo 4 had emotion and a moral at the end, both of those things Black Ops II lacked.
Contrary to some of the posters here I thought the Halo 4 story was excellently executed. Dare I say it was probably my favorite story execution for any Halo campaign.
Though I haven’t played most of last years games to make an informed decision on what was best. There is heavy competition with Walking Dead and Bioshock. I wouldn’t feel hurt if Halo 4 didn’t win.
So, I don’t think it’d be right for me to vote considering I haven’t played the lot of those games.