E3: Cortana Goes Bonkers in Halo 4

[Proverbial Jon]

As a Halo fan... (Please, stay with me on this! I'm not the rabid fan-boy type of Halo fan. I mean I don't even LIKE multiplayer!) I'm actually liking the look of Halo 4... so far.

There appears to be just enough change to look as if the series is moving on and yet enough similarity so as to remain firmly within the scope of my expectations. The enemies look totally different to the Covenant (Who had become so boring after 5 games) and the AI looks smart as all hell. In short, it actually looks like fun to play, which is always a bonus. Now all we need is a smart storyline and some engaging characters...

Loving the idea of Cortana going off the rails, it's about time. I do like me some crazy-ass demonic AI overlord in my games!

"A.I.s deteriorate after 7 years"? So I guess they've dropped all pretense of sci-fy now and have gone into full-on future fantasy.

She's not just some sort of basic desktop computer. Cortana is a digital clone of Doctor Catherine Halsey's brain, mapped right down to her neural pathways. She is a "Smart A.I." that has the ability to learn and grow very much as a human brain does. But she's not human. After a certain amount of time the A.I. cannot withstand the amount of data and suffers an overload of sorts. That's when rampancy occurs.

But let's be fair here, Halo along with it's concept of the "Smart A.I." is all complete fiction. Who's to say what is more realistic? At least they are sticking to their established lore.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Am I the only one who noticed that we never saw any evidence that Cortana actually went rogue? She could just as easily be saying "YOU SHALL NOT PASS" to some ancient alien horror as to Master Chief.

Perhaps, but there is that part where she mentions that Smart AIs such as herself have a lifespan of approximately 7 yrs before they deteriorate and she has been active for 8 yrs. Those of us who have read the novels know that she is referring to what is known as AI rampancy. When an AI goes rampant it becomes a danger to itself and everyone around it and it could still take many years before the AI actually "dies". Because of this Smart AI's are usually deactivated/deleted after 7yrs to prevent them from going rampant and causing havoc.

In short, a rampant AI is sort of like a rabid dog.

So yeah, we haven't seen any evidence that specifically states she has gone rogue, but given her comment about AI deterioration and the fact she sounds really really pissed at the end, I think there's a very good chance she might go rogue.

Oh, very much so, I'm quite aware of the dangers of a Rampant AI. I just wanted to point out that taking something out of context can make an enemy seem friendly or a friendly seem like an enemy.

For example, in one of the Mass Effect 2 "trailers" before their release, Legion is referenced as an enemy and as something of a creepy-stalker-serial killer. See 3:19 to the end for the relevant parts.
In game, Legion was far more likely to do this than go on a murder spree:

 

[Dryk]

She's not just some sort of basic desktop computer. Cortana is a digital clone of Doctor Catherine Halsey's brain, mapped right down to her neural pathways. She is a "Smart A.I." that has the ability to learn and grow very much as a human brain does. But she's not human. After a certain amount of time the A.I. cannot withstand the amount of data and suffers an overload of sorts. That's when rampancy occurs.

Leave a basic desktop computer with a decent Internet connection accumulating data and running every program it can find without periodically wiping it and it won't last anywhere near seven years before it starts doing seemingly random or inexplicable things

 

[Proverbial Jon]

She's not just some sort of basic desktop computer. Cortana is a digital clone of Doctor Catherine Halsey's brain, mapped right down to her neural pathways. She is a "Smart A.I." that has the ability to learn and grow very much as a human brain does. But she's not human. After a certain amount of time the A.I. cannot withstand the amount of data and suffers an overload of sorts. That's when rampancy occurs.

Leave a basic desktop computer with a decent Internet connection accumulating data and running every program it can find without periodically wiping it and it won't last anywhere near seven years before it starts doing seemingly random or inexplicable things

Fair point. OK, maybe I made a bad comparison, but my original point (which is essentially the same as yours) still stands. It's quite reasonable to expect degradation in Cortana after a period of 8 years based on Halo's lore.

I get the horrible feeling that shortly after halo 4s release, We're going to be hearing a parody of a parody of portal.

"Cortana, why'd you try to kill me?
After all that we've been through.
Everything we've done seemed like so much fun
I just don't know what happened to you."

I do NOT want to kill cortana.

Hey, don't sweat it. This going to be another trilogy after all. There's no way 343 will kill Cortana off before they've fully milked the franchise. She'll be the final epic, bittersweet boss battle of Halo 6. You heard it here first.

 

[Olas]

As someone who has NOT been a fan of Halo I actually feel optimistic about this. Unlike pretty much all of the other sequels it feels fresh, like the series is going somewhere different.
The previous Halo sequels were just cash cows, and so is this one, but at least it isn't so incredibly obvious. It looks like it has a reason to exist apart from making more money off the Halo franchises popularity.

So... It's a Metroid Prime game with Master Chief? Colour me unimpressed.

I've always thought it would be good if some of the Metroid Prime formula rubbed off on Halo, this is very much a good thing IMO. Metroid is my favorite series though and MP is my favorite game so what I'm saying should probably be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[DaRigger420]

After seeing an up close still of that biped, ain't no god damn forerunner based on what I have read in the Forerunner saga. The warrior race was supposed to be ugly but they are till essentially similar to humans.

I will be very disappointed if Forerunners were suddenly an "Ancient Evil"

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After reading the books I hate to tell you but I think it IS Forerunner and they are the Ancient Evil. At least they are responsible for it.

I present to you these facts:
A. The Forerunners used TONS of AIs that had physical body structures.
B. The Forerunners lost control of one of their Contender-Class AIs before, Mendicant Bias.
C. The AI 343 Guilty Spark had become very unstable after all these years (read as CRAZY).
D. The Forerunners had the ability to translate someone from physical bodies to AI constructs.
E. The Forerunners and their AIs, for the most part, had serious disreguard, animosity and hatred to human life.

I could go on for a while, but needless to say there are many reasons that the Forerunners, or their creations, could easily be the Ancient Evil.

side note: While Forerunners and Humans did have similarities, they were not able to be mistaken for Humans. It would be like saying a dog is similar to a monitor lizard just because they both have four legs and a tail.

 

[Tharwen]

Halo 4: proof positive the games industry will not innovate unless forced.

(Don't worry, we've got 2-3 more Halo games to look forward to by my estimation.)

How can you innovate the FPS genre? You point, click, kill. That is how all FPS are like.

Ever played the first Halo? Crysis? Battlefield? Half-life? Modern Warfare?

 

[Tharwen]

Halo 4: proof positive the games industry will not innovate unless forced.

(Don't worry, we've got 2-3 more Halo games to look forward to by my estimation.)

How can you innovate the FPS genre? You point, click, kill. That is how all FPS are like.

Ever played the first Halo? Crysis? Battlefield? Half-life? Modern Warfare?

Yes I have. I don't see what they did to "Innovate" anything. Half-life and Halo are the only ones who innovated anything in your sentence. That is only because Half-Life added a story while Halo managed to get FPS on the Consoles successfully.

I am not saying any of them are bad, I just don't see why people continue to ***** saying "INNOVATE THE FPS GENRE!" when they really just want a game that isn't Kill Aliens or another Modern Warfare game.

Please, tell me how they could innovate the FPS genre, I truly can't figure out what you people want from it. I still play FPS games, I still love them, yet no one has answered my question. They simply say "Well what about XX AND XXX AND XXXXX?! THOSE WERE INNOVATIVE!" Instead of simply saying "They could do XX and XXX and XXXXX to improve the genre." No, you people instead throw out names of FPS genre instead of answering my damn question.

Answer it. Now.

If you forgot the question, "How can you innovate the FPS genre today?"

If it was that obvious, it would have been done already.

However, my point is that it already has. If you really want, I'll go through exactly why I think each of those brought something new.

 

[Korten12]

E. The Forerunners and their AIs, for the most part, had serious disreguard, animosity and hatred to human life.

I could go on for a while, but needless to say there are many reasons that the Forerunners, or their creations, could easily be the Ancient Evil.

side note: While Forerunners and Humans did have similarities, they were not able to be mistaken for Humans. It would be like saying a dog is similar to a monitor lizard just because they both have four legs and a tail.

While the other reasons are sound this one just seems weak and hope it's not true.

Yes, they hated Humanity, but not enough that after 100,000 years, they would still want to kill Humanity, since the Librarian is whom helped get Humanity to be kept alive. None of the humans alive now were involved in the Human-Forerunner war, so they wouldn't have much reason to hate them.

Well they're similar, they both were created by the Precursors, but I see what you're saying.

Pretty sure the Bionicles are just Forerunner defense bots. What is interesting is the Didact's glyph at the end there, but the colour and inversion implies he's evil? That doesn't make much sense from what I know of Halo lore (admittedly not much).

Still though, whoever is talking at the end has to be Forerunner - who else would refer to the Chief as reclaimer? Although there has been rumours going around that the "ancient evil" could be the Precursors.

Well there are multiple reclaimers through out the series, not ever human is, but a decent amount of Spartans (not so much III's) are reclaimers.

And you're right, Didact doesn't make sense to be evil.

It seems that the forerunners made an AI colony to do their bidding but much like the geth in the Mass Effect series they went rouge. Presumably this "Ancient Evil" is what caused the forerunners to fade from existence. If it is for PC I'll be interested, but if it is Xbox 360 only then until the console drops to about $20 then I won't be buying it. I am not buying an Xbox 360 for just halo.

Like the last 4 Halo games, 4, will be 360 exclusive and that's not what happened. They're security AI and even if they have gone rouge, they aren't what wiped out the Forerunners. That was the Flood (a parasitic alien race created by the precursors) which forced the Forerunners to activate the Halo Arrays and wipe all life in the galaxy so it had no food source.

 

[The_Lost_King]

So... It's a Metroid Prime game with Master Chief? Colour me unimpressed.

I was getting more of a mass effect vibe. You are battling people that built massive tool of destruction*cough**cough* reapers *cough*cough*. You are also battling people who were tried to make look beter in the second game*cough**cough* Ceberus *cough*cough*.

 

[Shjade]

So this far into the Halo series, they swing back to Marathon-esque themes of having ship AI go Rampant and awakening deep-space ancient evil, after Bungie gets out of the project (they did leave after 3, right?).

Hunh.

 

[Korten12]

So... It's a Metroid Prime game with Master Chief? Colour me unimpressed.

I was getting more of a mass effect vibe. You are battling people that built massive tool of destruction*cough**cough* reapers *cough*cough*. You are also battling people who were tried to make look beter in the second game*cough**cough* Ceberus *cough*cough*.

Sorry... But this is the other way around. Mass Effect sounds more like Halo.

ONI and the Halo Rings/Ancient Civilzation existed before The Reapers and Cerberus.

 

[DaRigger420]

E. The Forerunners and their AIs, for the most part, had serious disreguard, animosity and hatred to human life.

I could go on for a while, but needless to say there are many reasons that the Forerunners, or their creations, could easily be the Ancient Evil.

side note: While Forerunners and Humans did have similarities, they were not able to be mistaken for Humans. It would be like saying a dog is similar to a monitor lizard just because they both have four legs and a tail.

While the other reasons are sound this one just seems weak and hope it's not true.

Yes, they hated Humanity, but not enough that after 100,000 years, they would still want to kill Humanity, since the Librarian is whom helped get Humanity to be kept alive. None of the humans alive now were involved in the Human-Forerunner war, so they wouldn't have much reason to hate them.

Well they're similar, they both were created by the Precursors, but I see what you're saying.

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My point with the "disreguard, animosity and hatred to human life" comment is that it was the norm when most of the Forerunner AIs were created and would have carried through the ages with them as the Forerunners are no longer around to adjust that view.

 

[The_Lost_King]

So... It's a Metroid Prime game with Master Chief? Colour me unimpressed.

I was getting more of a mass effect vibe. You are battling people that built massive tool of destruction*cough**cough* reapers *cough*cough*. You are also battling people who were tried to make look beter in the second game*cough**cough* Ceberus *cough*cough*.

Sorry... But this is the other way around. Mass Effect sounds more like Halo.

ONI and the Halo Rings/Ancient Civilzation existed before The Reapers and Cerberus.

Yeah but mass effect was 1,000,000 times better.
Plus wasn't it hinted that humans built the halos?

 

[Korten12]

So... It's a Metroid Prime game with Master Chief? Colour me unimpressed.

I was getting more of a mass effect vibe. You are battling people that built massive tool of destruction*cough**cough* reapers *cough*cough*. You are also battling people who were tried to make look beter in the second game*cough**cough* Ceberus *cough*cough*.

Sorry... But this is the other way around. Mass Effect sounds more like Halo.

ONI and the Halo Rings/Ancient Civilzation existed before The Reapers and Cerberus.

Yeah but mass effect was 1,000,000 times better.
Plus wasn't it hinted that humans built the halos?

Opinion and the second isn't true, Humanity had nothing to do with the Rings, at least not directly.

My point with the "disreguard, animosity and hatred to human life" comment is that it was the norm when most of the Forerunner AIs were created and would have carried through the ages with them as the Forerunners are no longer around to adjust that view.

Ah, makes sense. Still, hope they don't turn it into a Synethic vs Organic storyline.