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*Original post. Click at your own discretion.
A lot of people, myself included, have been wondering why Halo 5 lacks the features that we as a community have asked for. This is because 343 no longer seeks to cater to it’s previous fan base. The current fan base of Halo is a fairly even mix of new, competitively focused players and older, sandbox focused players. Sandbox games, mainly sandbox shooters like the older Halos, are dying due to a high level of creational difficulty. In other words, 343 is far too lazy to put effort into making a Halo game. 343 no longer wants to focus on the older, more loyal fans, but instead on the next generation of gamers. This shift in loyalties (if you can consider 343 loyal) is brought about by a singular entity, profit. 343 has realized that the next generation of gamers is comprised primarily of apologists who never experienced true quality. As a result they are happy to push older bases aside in order to gain more short-term cash. This is NOT to say that 343 is “killing” Halo, they are merely evolving it in order to gain more profit.
Now, many reading this post are already keenly aware of the lack of features in Halo 5 (compared to past titles). Retracted features include less armor customization and the lack of original game play aspects (as most enhanced movement seems to be shamelessly stolen from titles like advanced warfare and titanfall). While some may argue that the game cannot simply keep adding features with old ones present, their arguments are those of apologists.
Apologists are people who side with large companies and essentially allow these companies to continue disreputable behavior due to the fact that the apologists are too scared, too stupid, or simply too indifferent to stand up to these companies. Apologists are gamers that are akin to abused wives, as they are clearly aware of the abuse, but allow it to continue and get worse and worse. These gamers are pathetic and are responsible for the current lapse in quality games. Lines such as “its not a big deal” and “they’re trying their best” are common phrases of these people.
343, like most companies, will continue to forsake quality until the community refuses to deal with their -Yoink-. Halo 5 is a turning point in the Halo franchise. It represents a movement from the sandbox freedom and plethora of fun features into a linear and competitive franchise akin to Call of Duty. Forge is being degraded, matchmaking is no longer about friendly competition, and smaller features like customization are slowly being removed in favor of generalized game play.
“They’re trying,” cries one apologist," They’re doing all they can, the console just can’t handle it." They aren’t doing near enough and they know it. For example, many people have been asking for the use of AIs in forge since Halo 3. 343 has shown a complete disregard for this request. They even refuse to allow a NEXT GEN game to utilize AIs. They naturally throw out excuses like," The console couldn’t handle it." This is beyond pathetic. A modern on YouTube was able to mod Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 and spawn AIs in forge. With his mod, which took him, alone, 3 days configure: Set patrol paths, set AI weapons, set AI teams, and choose AI types. For proof: look up “halo AI battles” on YouTube.
343 has EVERY capability to include ALL competitive AN sandbox featured, but they refuse. Why? Because gamers will expect quality from them in the future. If your customer base is used to quality, then they will expect it. This, of course is far too dangerous for 343. They want a blindly loyal base that does what they are told. Unless people speak up, they will achieve their goal.
To summarize: 343 can include BOTH sandbox and competitive aspects in Halo, they simply choose not to. It is not a matter of console capability but of ineptitude o 343’s part. I, personally, respect 343. Though I must speak for the game that raised me. Halo can easily fit BOTH bases with equal satisfaction, just like it used to. The xbox one can handle it. This post isn’t just hate on 343, but to appeal to them as a company. You known EXACTLY how to fix this. Please, do the right thing.
Edit:
Do to a large amount of negativity in responses I include this message:
Please read the ENTIRE post BEFORE replying. Also, this is a call to 343 to serve the ENTIRE community, not just the competitive faction. Do not attempt o take direct offense at this post unless you are an apologist. Please keep replies civil.
Definitely share a lot of your sentiments here. I honestly think H5 looks like a fun game, but comparing it to past halo games, particularly the original trilogy, I can’t help but feel disappointed.
> 2533274793614518;2:
> Definitely share a lot of your sentiments here. I honestly think H5 looks like a fun game, but comparing it to past halo games, particularly the original trilogy, I can’t help but feel disappointed.
Remember that 343 has the ability, just not the level ground. Innovation is scary to companies. They prefer imitation because it involves established territory.
I agree with the basis of your rant, but not with your generalized conclusion.
I will say that I don’t understand why Halo 5 can’t have elements such as 4-player splitscreen, playable Elites, extensive armor customization, etc. Reach had all of these features, 5 years ago on the so-called inferior console. The excuse given for the lack of splitscreen was particularly unsatisfactory, as Halo 5 isn’t exactly pushing the Xbox One as far as it can go in the graphics department.
Overall, based on what I’ve seen and heard, 343 is doing an excellent job, with some moderate disappointments here and there.
A couple things that I see are wrong with your post.
You say armor customization is limited and forge is being degraded, but where has those things ever been confirmed. The armor was like that in the beta because, well it was a beta. 343 wanted players to focus on the gameplay, not how cool their Spartan looks. There have also been no statements related to forge so it is still a mystery to us.
You also say that Halo has copied movement
from other titles like AW. Remember how Halo Reach had that little thing called Evade? And how H4 had that little thing called thruster pack? 343 could not have copied from AW because they were both revealed at around the same time. To say they copied AW is saying that 343 refined the Spartan abilities in a couple months for the beta. It makes zero sense.
Calling Halo 5 a linear and competitive franchise? There are so many things wrong with this statement. For campaign, the past games have been extremely linear. Halo 5 is the first Halo that is offering the player many different ways to approach a mission. For multiplayer, Halo has always been competitive, nothing wrong about it. Halo 5’s multiplayer seems to offer more possibilities than past Halo games with the abilities and game types like Warzone.
You are free to have an opinion, but being educated before you express your opinion is pretty important.
biased opinion that has no logic and makes no sense, “lack of features” their is more in halo 5 then any other halo ever, more weapons more abilities, more balanced abilities cough cough halo 3 equal starts, more players, Warzone, huge campaign, including canon from great books that bungie was too stubborn to include, Warzone again, squad commands, actual characters that speak and have personality.
343 is listening more to the fan base then bungie ever did, the beta feedback is proof of that. im sorry, i can accept criticism and i understand if you dont like the direction it is going, but at least know what you saying and base your claims on logic and actual information. The only lack of anything that halo 5 is missing is lack of customization. that is it.
> 2533274832290972;5:
> A couple things that I see are wrong with your post.
>
> You say armor customization is limited and forge is being degraded, but where has those things ever been confirmed. The armor was like that in the beta because, well it was a beta. 343 wanted players to focus on the gameplay, not how cool their Spartan looks. There have also been no statements related to forge so it is still a mystery to us.
>
> You also say that Halo has copied movement
> from other titles like AW. Remember how Halo Reach had that little thing called Evade? And how H4 had that little thing called thruster pack? 343 could not have copied from AW because they were both revealed at around the same time. To say they copied AW is saying that 343 refined the Spartan abilities in a couple months for the beta. It makes zero sense.
>
> Calling Halo 5 a linear and competitive franchise? There are so many things wrong with this statement. For campaign, the past games have been extremely linear. Halo 5 is the first Halo that is offering the player many different ways to approach a mission. For multiplayer, Halo has always been competitive, nothing wrong about it. Halo 5’s multiplayer seems to offer more possibilities than past Halo games with the abilities and game types like Warzone.
>
> You are free to have an opinion, but being educated before you express your opinion is pretty important.
Asking for an innovative game does not prove a lack of education. What does is using campaign as a basis to represent the entire game. I never once expressed disdain for Halo 5’s campaign (which actually looks like a blast). I’m simply asking 343 to utilize the tools that they have to make a decent game. Forge, the creative outlet of Halo, has yet to be featured beyond leaked hints. Media is always focused on the basis of the game. Thus far, 343 seems to be avoiding mention of Forge because warzone is their objective. While Halo did pioneer enhanced movement, games like Titanfall were the main contributors to the trend. Halo’s parkour aspects are imitative of previous games, which is not to say that that is a bad thing. Regarding your statement on Halo’s competitive atmosphere, you fail to acknowledge the two other communities of the Halo franchise. Many Halo players love the LORE of the franchise, but most older fans love the sandbox aspects that the series offered. Halo is also a competitive game but past games maintained a working balance between all three aspects. In your haste to disprove me you have failed to analyze this paradigm. Is the competitive aspect is to be boosted, then 343 has the responsibility to cater to the FULL fan base, not just the competitive crowd.
> 2533274802469862;6:
> biased opinion that has no logic and makes no sense, “lack of features” their is more in halo 5 then any other halo ever, more weapons more abilities, more balanced abilities cough cough halo 3 equal starts, more players, Warzone, huge campaign, including canon from great books that bungie was too stubborn to include, Warzone again, squad commands, actual characters that speak and have personality.
>
> 343 is listening more to the fan base then bungie ever did, the beta feedback is proof of that. im sorry, i can accept criticism and i understand if you dont like the direction it is going, but at least know what you saying and base your claims on logic and actual information. The only lack of anything that halo 5 is missing is lack of customization. that is it.
Once again, I have no issue with Halo 5’s new features. But 343 has neglected the creative community. Forge hasn’t seen a proper upgrade since Reach. The creative base wants innovation. I love all the features in Halo 5, but 343 shouldn’t REMOVE features just to add new ones. New features should pile on top of old ones because that is how innovation works. The community was outraged when elites were removed because it was a restriction. Restriction makes for a bad game.
> 2533274851470427;8:
> > 2533274802469862;6:
> > biased opinion that has no logic and makes no sense, “lack of features” their is more in halo 5 then any other halo ever, more weapons more abilities, more balanced abilities cough cough halo 3 equal starts, more players, Warzone, huge campaign, including canon from great books that bungie was too stubborn to include, Warzone again, squad commands, actual characters that speak and have personality.
> >
> > 343 is listening more to the fan base then bungie ever did, the beta feedback is proof of that. im sorry, i can accept criticism and i understand if you dont like the direction it is going, but at least know what you saying and base your claims on logic and actual information. The only lack of anything that halo 5 is missing is lack of customization. that is it.
>
>
> Once again, I have no issue with Halo 5’s new features. But 343 has neglected the creative community. Forge hasn’t seen a proper upgrade since Reach. The creative base wants innovation. I love all the features in Halo 5, but 343 shouldn’t REMOVE features just to add new ones. New features should pile on top of old ones because that is how innovation works. The community was outraged when elites were removed because it was a restriction. Restriction makes for a bad game.
I really despise the fact that you compared “apologist gamers” to abused wives. That is awful.
And before anyone asks, no I am not a feminist, no I am not a woman, I just think that it is disrespectful to women and actual abused wives and victims of domestic violence.
As to the rest of it, 343 is not ingoring and or not catering to their older fan base, I am part of the older fanbase and I am happy with the direction it is heading.
> 2533274802469862;9:
> but you see why elites were removed, all the spartan abilities would not work for them , plus hit box issues
That still restricts Halo as a game. Elites were crucial to the creative and lore loving communities, 343 removed them to cater to the competitive community. This throws the game out of balance. Even if elites couldn’t be utilized in competitive matchmaking (the home of most competitive players), both custom games and casual playlists (like living dead) wouldn’t suffer because of elites. 343 removed them because of convenience, but in doing so they lost the faith of the sangheili community, which serves as a subdivision of the lore community.
> 2535463261337659;12:
> I really despise the fact that you compared “apologist gamers” to abused wives. That is awful.
>
> And before anyone asks, no I am not a feminist, no I am not a woman, I just think that it is disrespectful to women and actual abused wives and victims of domestic violence.
>
> As to the rest of it, 343 is not ingoring and or not catering to their older fan base, I am part of the older fanbase and I am happy with the direction it is heading.
Spoken like an apologist. You’ve just quoted every other apologist that I’ve ever encountered. Essentially, you’re satisfied that 343 is adding competitive features and refusing to upgrade things like forge. Removing features (like armor customization) is restriction, and restriction is no good. Also, yes, the wives thing was extreme, but effective. If 343 wants to satisfy the entire community then all they have to do is give in to basic requests (which you’ve failed to acknowledge). Things like the re-addition of elites and improved armor customization (that and a player count worthy of next gen). These requests aren’t ridiculous or demanding, they are just the pleas of a forsaken community.
> 2533274851470427;14:
> > 2535463261337659;12:
> > I really despise the fact that you compared “apologist gamers” to abused wives. That is awful.
> >
> > And before anyone asks, no I am not a feminist, no I am not a woman, I just think that it is disrespectful to women and actual abused wives and victims of domestic violence.
> >
> > As to the rest of it, 343 is not ingoring and or not catering to their older fan base, I am part of the older fanbase and I am happy with the direction it is heading.
>
>
> Spoken like an apologist. You’ve just quoted every other apologist that I’ve ever encountered. Essentially, you’re satisfied that 343 is adding competitive features and refusing to upgrade things like forge. Removing features (like armor customization) is restriction, and restriction is no good. Also, yes, the wives thing was extreme, but effective. If 343 wants to satisfy the entire community then all they have to do is give in to basic requests (which you’ve failed to acknowledge). Things like the re-addition of elites and improved armor customization (that and a player count worthy of next gen). These requests aren’t ridiculous or demanding, they are just the pleas of a forsaken community.
No I am not an “apologist”, I am going to say two things before I leave as I do not want to fight here or have an argument as I will get nowhere with it.
Just because something is extreme and it works does not mean it is right. In my opinion, which is just an opinion, not a fact, is that 343i is doing a fine job with the halo franchise and I assume a lot of people agree with me, however a lot disagree. I’m not going to try and change your mind as it will never change your view on it, we have not heard a word about forge or anything and yet you say it still hasn’t received upgrades.
If there is one thing I can agree on it is armor customization, I liked reach’s the best as it had the most options, but we may not be getting that much customization anymore. Not the end of the world. Get over it.
The only kind of person who would look at Halo 5 and think 343i is LAZY is someone who has no idea how much work goes into ANY videogame development project of any scale (let alone a triple-A project like this). Halo 5 is what THREE YEARS of hard work by several hundred extremely skilled professionals looks like. They’ve built it from the ground up for the new system and the new features they’ve implemented are impressive. And they are LAZY because they didn’t cater to a handful of minor features that some geniuses on forums think they deserve?
I shouldn’t be surprised. This is Waypoint, after all. What I am, however, is disappointed. Because no matter how much they try to do in a 3 year span, there will be some entitled pedants who are furious that their specific nitpicks weren’t completely catered to, regardless of everything else featured in the game and PRIOR TO HAVING PLAYED IT. And anyone who disagrees with this puerile behavior is just an “apologist,” too afraid to “stand up” to these companies? I have a suggestion for you: Grow up and get over your deluded sense of consumer vigilantism or just do everyone else a favor and move on.
> 2533274890584596;16:
> The only kind of person who would look at Halo 5 and think 343i is LAZY is someone who has no idea how much work goes into ANY videogame development project of any scale (let alone a triple-A project like this). Halo 5 is what THREE YEARS of hard work by several hundred extremely skilled professionals looks like. They’ve built it from the ground up for the new system and the new features they’ve implemented are impressive. And they are LAZY because they didn’t cater to a handful of minor features that some geniuses on forums think they deserve?
>
> I shouldn’t be surprised. This is Waypoint, after all. What I am, however, is disappointed. Because no matter how much they try to do in a 3 year span, there will be some entitled pedants who are furious that their specific nitpicks weren’t completely catered to, regardless of everything else featured in the game and PRIOR TO HAVING PLAYED IT. And anyone who disagrees with this puerile behavior is just an “apologist,” to afraid to “stand up” to these companies? I have a suggestion for you: Grow up and get over your deluded sense of consumer vigilantism or just do everyone else a favor and move on.
I can also agree in the fact it is not easy to create a game, let alone a triple A game with several hundred talented professionals working on it. I used to create things in halo custom edition, and it was hard then, and I am sure it is a lot harder now with all of the normal mapping and advanced shader options etc. There was no destructible geometry back then, some people have found a way to make it work on that engine, but it must be extremely difficult to create stuff for a newer engine such as halo 5.
> 2533274822366750;18:
> > 2533274802469862;9:
> > but you see why elites were removed, all the spartan abilities would not work for them , plus hit box issues
>
>
> With some no-brainer compromises, these would not be issues at all.
>
> OT: I wholeheartedly agree with you OP, Halo 5 severely lacking in content, especially when you compare it to most games before 2012.
I’m happy to hear some support. Halo 5 is certainly not a bad game, but it could be better. It simply lacks the community balance that the previous titles have.
> 2533274890584596;16:
> The only kind of person who would look at Halo 5 and think 343i is LAZY is someone who has no idea how much work goes into ANY videogame development project of any scale (let alone a triple-A project like this). Halo 5 is what THREE YEARS of hard work by several hundred extremely skilled professionals looks like. They’ve built it from the ground up for the new system and the new features they’ve implemented are impressive. And they are LAZY because they didn’t cater to a handful of minor features that some geniuses on forums think they deserve?
>
> I shouldn’t be surprised. This is Waypoint, after all. What I am, however, is disappointed. Because no matter how much they try to do in a 3 year span, there will be some entitled pedants who are furious that their specific nitpicks weren’t completely catered to, regardless of everything else featured in the game and PRIOR TO HAVING PLAYED IT. And anyone who disagrees with this puerile behavior is just an “apologist,” too afraid to “stand up” to these companies? I have a suggestion for you: Grow up and get over your deluded sense of consumer vigilantism or just do everyone else a favor and move on.
First, please read the entire post before ranting.
Second, I never said that Halo 5 would be bad, but 343 has no reason to remove features just because its convenient to them. Posts like mine wouldn’t be necessary if 343 listened to the ENTIRE community, which isn’t hard. In fact, the things that the community have requested are so few that I can count them off on my hands. We just want customization and an improved forge. Getting elites back would not hurt either.
In addition to expressing great respect for 343 (which you would be aware of had you not jumped the gun after the first paragraph), I have also said that Halo 5 is a decent game, but it can be improved. Bungee had 2 years to make Halo 3,and the amount of innovation for that game is astounding. Asking for features isn’t “nitpicking”, its expressing freedom of speech. For the sake of this forum I request that you take a breath and calmly reply to future posts.