The New Visual Guide... Thank you, 343.

Community Halo Universe
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Specifically to Voc, (and Loftus!) but to all involved. This book is fantastic. So full of excellent information, both new and previously-known. In all honesty, though I enjoyed the Encyclopedia, this is a bit more of what I wanted. I can only hope that the tender love and care used to bring this book to fruition is also applied to the upcoming revision of the Encyclopedia itself.

I love the details on the various classes of Covenant Crusiers and UNSC Frigates and Longswords. Awesome stuff. I also love that almost all of the various armor permutations got their own section, including Rogue, which was exclusive to Halo 3. Details regarding history, dimensions, and variations are lapped up like a starving lion at a savannah watering hole.

There are a few things I would like to see, but these are really just loving suggestions for further detail rather than true complaints.

In any attempt to create something like this, there will always be things that are left out, but there were a few omissions that stood out to me:

-UNSC Destroyers, I’ve really grown to love the look of these ships and would have liked to see a page devoted to them, especially as we’ve been seeing them more of late.

-UNSC Booster Frames, I just like them. That’s all.

-ONI Stealth Ship, like the one seen in The Package (Legends) or The Mona Lisa. These are SO badass, and I want to hear more of their tech… then again, it is ONI we’re talking about…

-UNSC Security Armor, I’ve always really liked this armor (It was my choice in H3 until getting Recon). I would have liked to see it’s own section. I was thinking perhaps it’s a Bungie/MS issue, but then again, 343 did feature it in their MJOLNIR vid (part 2) a bit back, so I’m not sure…

-Covenant Phantom Gunboat, the most badass Phantom should have gotten a page, especially since the Banshee Fighter did.

For the record, I would have traded the Forklift entry for any one of the above… :wink:

Also, (and poor Voc is just going to skip over this next bit) I would really have liked to see a mention, or preferably a picture, of variations on certain designs, such as the Banshee and Seraph, instead of only showing the Reach version. I know that they certainly want to use the most high quality assets available, but using something like the Banshee renders from Blur Studios (Halo Wars cinematics) or the Seraph from The Package (Legends) would have been more than sufficient. Especially since there were plenty of other items that had to make do with less than “new” quality visuals, such as the Covenant Shadow.

Even if there was just a mention of the design variation, such as they did quite excellently with the Mk V to Mk VI Scout helmet for MJOLNIR, and the various Longsword designations.

Of course, as said, all of these details pale when brought alongside the overall quality of the entire publication. I really want to thank the entire 343 team for fostering a creative enviroment that seeks to respect and elaborate on the deep and amazing fiction found in the Halo Universe. Keep it coming guys… I’ll be there to snatch up every SKU.

<3<4<3
Grim

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What book?

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The newly-released Halo: Essential Visual Guide

Grim

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Thanks for the kind words, Grim. The book was the product of a good number of people on staff, one cool dude off staff, and the talented folks at DK – and I think it came out pretty sweet. The focus of this book was to cover topics specifically found in the games. There were a lot of fictional “stones” left unturned because they weren’t in the games, while we featured non-fiction elements like the multiplayer maps and the forklift (even though we tossed fiction slants on those as well). That doesn’t mean we’ll never have detailed coverage of the Booster Frame or the UNSC’s destroyers, like you mentioned, but it does mean that those particular items were outside the scope of this specific book.

That said, who knows what the future may hold down the road. :slight_smile:

PS: And I didn’t skip over the variants question. :wink: Some of the weapon/vehicle variants are distinctive designations (like the Shade or the Longsword) which have multiple models/types based on their design and armament. Then there are some weapons/vehicles which are variations within an existing type, or, in other words, relatively minor changes to the design of something without the requirement of reclassification. We didn’t cover everything in this book, but we covered a ton – there’s room for other stuff to be covered in the future too.

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> The newly-released Halo: Essential Visual Guide
>
> Grim

How sweet, her cheeks are “A essential.” :wink:

I will attempt to get soon, thanks :slight_smile:

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I love you 343 :slight_smile:

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I would like to see “real” booster frame. Like most things in Legends I’m sure it would look quite different in the games.

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Nice to hear. Ordered this book today.

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Thanks OP.
Im going to have to look into this.

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I should get mine on the 13th.

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I’m just curious as what you guys thought of the new book. I bought it today and love that they’ve managed to pack so much in there (especially at a decent price). Did you think it could’ve used more models from other games, more info, or just take out all the information and just have visuals all together? What did you think?

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I think Vociferous did an amazing job. I’m loving reading it! It’s consistent, pretty, and fictionally correct. There’s a few mistakes and typos, but most of them the writer even admitted in posts before the book was even out (which is always encouraging for the next printing).

To me, the Halo Encyclopedia was cool, but a bit over-ambitious. It was riddled by lots of mistakes and inconsistency in presenting us everything we should know. For example, the Shadow got a full page of graphics, while on the next page, the Spectre gets only a passing mention with no visuals. BUT in the Visual Guide, we get equal representation of these two vehicles. Giving everything their own page was a smart way to do it.

I hope this book is just a stepping stone to greater things. I want a whole series of books in this style, each specific book focused on characters, vehicles, etc., giving each item a whole spread or more, with schematics, cross-sections, and more!

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I’m not going to read the thread yet but I’m waiting for my book to be delivered. It said it was held by the carrier yesturday at 10:30 something am. I’m waiting… I’ll share my thoughts later.
It seems that it has to be picked up at the mail place. I’ll have to wait until my mom gets home because I ordered it with my Mom’s name on it and not mine so I can’t pick it up until she gets home. I should have ordered it with my name on it.

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Last reply was 8 days ago. Bs angel does it too.

I got mine today and I’ve finished reading it a few minutes ago. I love it! There was one or two errors but I think that’s about it and even now I don’t remember. I love the addition of the halo wars material and I’m im lore amazement that there are over 1000 shield worlds. I thought there were way less! I would have liked to see a bit more details on the forerunners but other than that, I loved it! I love the addition of new material and the confirmation that Linda wears mark VI. I would have liked to know what the name of the city seen in the halo wars trailer was beause I’ve asked that question a really long time ago on the halo wars forums.

Good job Vociferous and everyone who contributed! I’ll keep it close to me! I also can’t wait until halopedian is updated. I could do it but I’m not the best halopedian editor but it would give me a nice ammount of points [:)].

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> Thanks for the kind words, Grim. The book was the product of a good number of people on staff, one cool dude off staff, and the talented folks at DK – and I think it came out pretty sweet. The focus of this book was to cover topics specifically found in the games. There were a lot of fictional “stones” left unturned because they weren’t in the games, while we featured non-fiction elements like the multiplayer maps and the forklift (even though we tossed fiction slants on those as well). That doesn’t mean we’ll never have detailed coverage of the Booster Frame or the UNSC’s destroyers, like you mentioned, but it does mean that those particular items were outside the scope of this specific book.
>
> That said, who knows what the future may hold down the road. :slight_smile:
>
> PS: And I didn’t skip over the variants question. :wink: Some of the weapon/vehicle variants are distinctive designations (like the Shade or the Longsword) which have multiple models/types based on their design and armament. Then there are some weapons/vehicles which are variations within an existing type, or, in other words, relatively minor changes to the design of something without the requirement of reclassification. We didn’t cover everything in this book, but we covered a ton – there’s room for other stuff to be covered in the future too.

Great stuff. Was skimming through it in the book store today (plan on picking it up soon!)

Loved your stuff with your old website and am very happy you’re on board with 343. Now if we can just get me in there as a video editor :wink:

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Am I the only one who thought it was a bit lacking, then? I don’t want to be rude; I do appreciate the effort, but this book was not really what I was looking for. That is, I wanted something a bit more information-based. I found that this book was mostly pictures with a few tidbits of information that were either useless or already-known. There are a few good anomalies, but they’re somewhat buried. Point is, I enjoy reading about Halo fictional elements, even if I already know the inside and out aspects of what I’m reading about, but I found this visual guide to be just that; mostly visual. The reading aspect didn’t satisfy me, and I felt I walked away with some cool pictures to look at and a great point of reference for a few tidbits of information, but overall, not much information to work with. I was mostly turning pages and going “Oh, I remember this story element from this game!”, etc. Again, I’m not saying the book isn’t good for what it is; it’s just not what I thought it would be.

If you guys could release a more text and info-based collection of information that is error-free (I look at you, Halo Encyclopedia!), I’d appreciate it. It would be very cool to have things not fiction-related in said book, too. For example, give each video game its own “chapter”. Detail some of the development of them. Make it really special and thorough, both in-universe and out.

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…
There was a lot of new stuff…
I don’t know what you’re talking about.