I mostly agreed with bob regarding movies and games. It's not that movies are inherently better at telling stories than games, its mostly down to "whats gonna sell". And that's knidof what the following rant is about.
I'd like to apologize in advance for the wall o text (skip to the bottom for the abridged version) but I've been thinking about this for awhile and this article reminded me. Consider everything between the dashes justification for the points at the bottom for the less easily persuaded.
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Look at these pictures of the Halo ODST trailer.
http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu85/BeforeCrisisIGN/odst-2.jpg
http://ugc.kontain.com/video/20090905/prod_1ed479e9-edbc-4476-a01e-df02e557bae5/tb_640x480.jpg
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/halo3odst_liveaction.jpg
http://www.co-optimus.com/images/upload/image/2009/halo3odst_live.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/ub5eE7gk6Qg/0.jpg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PRhg1_BWHwM/0.jpg
* http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2009/09/500x_halo_3_odst-la.jpg
Some words that come to mind are:
Dark, Gritty, Serious, Compelling, tense, dirty, HUMAN.
Right off the bat you know who this character is (Tarkov is some Russian guy), what he's doing (Attempts and passes ODST training), why or what motivated him to do it (saw some dude die). You then see him dropping from down in his pod and enter a chaotic battlefield that the series will never visit. He gets pimp slapped by a brute who then gets teamkilled by a noob banshee pilot. The video ends the same way it started (at some guys funeral), where the viewer realizes that the trailer was Tarkov essentially reliving the experience that made him join the ODSTs in the first place. And since your subconscious just witnessed a second funeral, the viewer is then prompted to do what? Join the ODSTs of course. I'm telling you that in that 2.5 minutes you know (and subconsciously identify with and relate to) that generic space marine more than the protagonist(s) that the series is essentially about. So Bungie DOES at some level understand story telling.
*Edit: You also witnessed Tarkov undergo a change within his character albeit a very superficial one. This is called an "arc". He starts off as a scared recruit, but ends up as a competent soldier. Not a perfect example as he's not characterized, but name one difference between the Master Chief in Halo 2 and 3. There are none, because he is a nobody whom we are told nothing about, and are thus never given any reason to care about.
(Here's the trailer I guess)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRhg1_BWHwM&feature=PlayList&p=89A6102384166E9B&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=21
Notice how the trailer lacks giggling grunts, stupid dialogue ("Orders are orders, and those are my orders" lt. Veronica), and soldiers wearing a hundred pounds of gear bouncing around the battlefield while maintaining perfect aim.
Now lets compare it to a few Halo games.
http://img.hexus.net/v2/gaming/screenshots_xbox360/halo3/halo2_large.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/7/78/Grunt.jpg
http://hiphopolitic.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/jar_jar_binks_large1.jpeg
http://hardcoregaming.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/halo-wars-gameplay.jpg
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/old/entertainment_videogames/images/2007/09/24/h3_thestorm_fp04_copy.jpg
* http://blogs.wvgazette.com/pluggedin/files/2007/08/4pftwbig.jpg
Definitely compare the last two screens, because it provides perfect contrast.
I think of words such as:
Bright, wacky, colorful, silly, shallow, clean, artificial.
Now this isn't a case of "omg trailer is fake!!11". It is much more than that. Bungie has made 5 live action trailers so far and they are all similar. I am seeing a definite pattern here. Find me one Halo player who doesn't like any of the trailers. The problem here is that even if you did, why would someone make an advertisement that people DIDN'T like? They spent the thousands necessary to bring an idealized version of their universe that IS NOT SHOWN IN THE GAMES.
I don't really enjoy Gears of War or COD4 that much (I'm a PC buff anyways), but they are closer to the mythical world of Halo Live Action Trailers than the actual Halo games are.
http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/cod4_1_hr.jpg
http://splitscreenonline.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/gow1.jpg
My point is this. Bungie for some reason feels that it is necessary to advertise the Halo universe not as its wacky colorful midget space opera, but as a dark, and serious military shooter. So then:
WHY NOT MAKE A GAME LIKE THIS?
Obviously they would like to. My hypothesis is that Bungie has basically become the Halo fanbase's bitches where even the slightest change means a Tsunami of hate mail. Personally I think they'd like to make the game more like their novels and something I'd enjoy playing. So what if it looks more like other FPS games? The fact is Halo has visited some pretty big ideas in both the games and the novels despite its underwhelming presentation. Tell me now if stupid, asthmatic, gummy bear bad guys and plastic nerf guns should share the same space as thought provoking and relevant ideas like:
*Genocide
*Colonialism vs Independence
*Religious Fundamentalism and Holy war
*Rebelling against your society
*The Origins of life on Earth
*Collectivism vs Free Will
*Needs of the few vs Needs of the many
*Needs of the State vs Needs of the Person
***Using Children as experimental SOLDIERS against their will***
These are huge topics that could be explored in the GAME. But I kid you not, in Halo 3 the story is literally hidden away in terminals that most players probably walked past the first time to begin with. If they actually made the existing story in Halo part of the game and not some stupid pamphlet you pick up somewhere else, the series would finally deserve its reputation. Games are BETTER at telling stories than movies ever can be. A game has 10 hours+ to get its point across while a movie has maybe two and a half. But clearly whoever is responsible for the big, compelling ideas isn't in charge at Bungie and must find an outlet in the scattered terminals and the EXCESSIVE number of novels that must accompany the game to understand the story.
I mean even gameplay wise the plinky plonky toy gun models and sounds just ruin all of the tension. Needing 300 rounds to kill a baddie and being able to take a similar number yourself just deflates what little tension and immersion from it like a low quality balloon. In a game where every bullet, baddie, and space zombie could spell death for your character, all of a sudden the world becomes THREATENING and DANGEROUS (For example even the poorly designed Sacred Icon level in Halo 2 I still enjoy because the environment is so alien, where the flood could be hiding in any dark corner, that I am actually concerned for my characters safety. Contrast with Halo 3 where even in the bowels of infested High Charity its still bright and colorful as your average mario title). And what this mostly means for your brain is "I've been skewered by 10 bullets to the torso. That would probably hurt a lot or kill me". And when that happens all of a sudden you aren't in a GAME, but you are an actual soldier on an alien world with things that are actually trying to kill YOU and not some pixels on a screen. When you see your character with 10 spikes sticking through their head, all of a sudden your brain realizes "oh I'm playing a game, this doesn't really matter". And then you may as well go do something else at that point.
This is basic stuff and I wish whoever at Bungie keeps providing these glimmers of possible brilliance would get a chance to make them actually happen. And maybe with Reach coming up it will be different, and it being their last Halo title makes it somewhat plausible. Maybe their next project will let whoever made the trailers with the big ideas actually be in charge.
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TL;DR:
- Halo could be good. The trailers, Halo 3 terminals, and books have some great ideas. But their very existence shows a very weak level of story telling, immersion, and thus weak gameplay (I'm just sitting here playing a game, not a super soldier), in the game itself.
- COD4 and Gears of War do NOT have copyright on the dark, gritty, and human atmosphere that the live action trailers show. There's plenty of problems with those titles. Nothing is wrong with making Halo like this as long as its actually better.
- Please hire actual writers for Halo or at least let the writers get to put their ideas in the actual game.
- Bob is basically right because making Halo good would make it nothing like Halo.
