Halo 3 and Reach, despite the latter reusing many audio assets from the former, had by far the best multiplayer announcer. From my time in the community, it seems to be a general consensus that Halo 3 had the best sounding announcer.
The way that Jeff Steitzer would say “Slayer” or “Double Kill” is not only bad -Yoink-, but it’s also very satisfying when he announces your medal. It sounded sinister yet smooth and natural, like a killer.
I felt Jeff’s performance in Halo 4 was a massive downgrade. He sounded, for a lack of better words, too dudebro, “MLG 360 NO SCOPE”-ish. It didn’t sound natural nor bad -Yoink-, it sounded like it was trying too hard to be cool. They added an audio effect overlay onto his voice which I felt made it sound worse.
Halo 5’s was an upgrade from 4, but still inferior, even compared to Halo CE. He doesn’t sound sinister or like a cut throat who’s ready to shove a frag down an Elite’s mouth after plunging his dagger down its throat. The audio effects are even more noticeable, making him sound like a robot and he sounds like someone’s dad announcing for an elementary school soccer game. Halo Wars 2 also sees the same problem as H5.
Why doesn’t Jeff Steitzer sound cool like he did in Halo 3’s multiplayer anymore? Is he not able to sound like that anymore or is 343’s voice directors making him sound the way he does in 5?
Because they digitized his voice to high hell and back. It’s not as bad as it was in Halo 4, but his voice is still leagues away from being as good as it was in CE-Reach… man, I miss classic Jeff Steitzer.
He sounds too subdued in H5 at times… you get a nasty Overkill and it’s like barely audible. The Beta tracks were prominent and pretty good, but according to feedback, the announcer was “too obnoxious” or something, so they dialed him back. Same with medals… many were removed, but they changed the medal feed itself into the clunky, broken mess that it is currently.
That’s my problem with how they handled feedback from the Beta… It changed trivial stuff. Meanwhile, players were expressing concerns about Spartan Charge and whatnot, concerns that still apply to a great number of players to this day, or stuff like getting caught on pointless/excessive geometry… and nothing was done to effectively tweak or redesign the mechanics or clean up the environments. It was the dude-bro celebrations and audio tracks that changed mostly… Very weak. Gameplay tweaks were generally pushed aside…
Yeah, I really wish Jeff would go back to Halo 3/Halo: Reach style performance. It was so much better that the pseudo-MLG BS he’s put on in Halo 4 and Halo 5.
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> > Nah the Halo 5 announcer is good, the voice pack announcers however are not.
>
> Have you never heard Buck? (Yabda and Exuberent suck -Yoink- though)
If there was a way to buy only 1 voice I would buy buck in a second. But not 10 dollars to hear one voice. Jeff rocked I’m halo 3. And at times halo 5. But yeah a lot of things you can’t bearly even hear what he says
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> > 2533274919101675;10:
> > > 2533274805919869;2:
> > > Nah the Halo 5 announcer is good, the voice pack announcers however are not.
> >
> > Have you never heard Buck? (Yabda and Exuberent suck -Yoink- though)
>
> If there was a way to buy only 1 voice I would buy buck in a second. But not 10 dollars to hear one voice. Jeff rocked I’m halo 3. And at times halo 5. But yeah a lot of things you can’t bearly even hear what he says
I still haven’t used the other two announcers from the pack. I bought it in part because I like Nathan Fillian, & hope some small part of the profits go to him. The man needs work! It’s been a blast having the same ODST from the game, Reach & the book, calling plays in arena & WZ.
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> So I’m not the only one who noticed?
>
> Yeah, I really wish Jeff would go back to Halo 3/Halo: Reach style performance. It was so much better that the pseudo-MLG BS he’s put on in Halo 4 and Halo 5.
Absolutely, although Halo 5’s isn’t as pseudo-MLG as it was in the beta. It was far worse than it is now. Halo 5’s is tolerable, at best, but sounds lame. Notice how Steitzer says “gain the lead” in H3 and H5 respectively. H5’s sounds too robotic, artificial and too kid friendly in my opinion. After all, Halo 5 in general seemed pretty childish to me compared to past installments due to the T-rating, how the new Spartans act like a bunch of Space Ironman/Power Rangers hybrid, the Warden Eternal being something out of a bad Saturday morning cartoon and due to the lack of blood. Perhaps 343 didn’t want to spook the 8-year olds playing this game because they probably felt Jeff sounded too scary in Halo 3?
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> An Unreal Tournament style commentator would fit halo more than any of those voices in that pack. Even the Arbiters voice would work better.
I would take 343 recycling Halo 3’s over what they have right now if I had to be honest.
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> > 2533274805919869;14:
> > An Unreal Tournament style commentator would fit halo more than any of those voices in that pack. Even the Arbiters voice would work better.
>
> I would take 343 recycling Halo 3’s over what they have right now if I had to be honest.
I also much prefer the raw, deep, crystal clear Jeff Steitzer from CE-Reach.
I think the way he says it in Halo 5 is fine, Reach was pretty good two, but it felt like everything was in slow motion when he said stuff in Halo 3. I wouldn’t mind just having him with no digital sound, but its not really a problem for me.