Microsoft: We Lost Our Way With Recent Halo Games

[Buizel91]

Want proof on the price? Here you go http://www.shoptonews.net/2011/06/15/halo-hd-anniversary-price-confirmed/ (admittedly more than i thought, but still cheap considering today's standards.)

and again you assume the worst, they will probably make a new engine, or stick with Reach's.

I also know a lot of people liked Reach but you still didn't answer me, Fans wanted to know more about the chief, just check the Bungie forums, so how are 343 not listening to the fans?

Thank you.

Though from that link, it seems that I'm right and you're wrong, since 34.99 pounds is roughly $55.40 in American. That suggests the US price is likely to be between $49.99 and $59.99, and in either case that's considered to be the price for a full priced game. I see no indications that the game is going to cost 30 bucks, judging from that, unless they're purposely waving a middle finger at England for some unknown reason. So it seems that perhaps you should verify your own research a bit more, before you start laughing at me for "not doing my homework".

It was simple business mathematics to know that the HD remake of Halo would be given a full price tag, or at the very least, one very close to full price, given the fact that the market is doing this a lot right now (3DS remakes, anyone?). Apparently developers think that repackaging the same old game with better graphics and a few extra maps or small features makes it worth 50-60 bucks again, and as long as people keep buying, they'll keep doing it.

I assume the worst based on what they've said. If they believe that ODST and Reach were missteps in the franchise, they will not reuse the engine from those games. Developers don't recycle an engine that they've publicly denounced, because then when people buy the game and notice the similarities, it means bad press for them because they look like hypocrites for denouncing a game that they then recycled wholesale. If they were to recycle Reach's engine, then they're just doing precisely what I said they were doing: slinging mud on Bungie's last works in the hopes of convincing people that Bungie didn't know what was best for the franchise, and that 343 knows the franchise better than Bungie did. I don't know how you can buy into what 343 is saying at this point.

And yes, I did answer you. Look at this thread, and various other threads across the internet. You are part of a minority of players that wanted to see the MC story continue past Halo 3.

$39.99 in america http://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/news/360/Halo-Combat-Evolved-Anniversary-gets-a-budget-price/735 can i still laugh? hehe i kid i kid

Look, i like Reach,and ODST, more than CE, i personally didn't care if the Chief was continued or not, but looking on the Bungie forums, it's what fans wanted, So i accept that.

Plus they said the game wasn't that good, not the Engine, but i assume they will make a new Engine anyway.

I hope you read my edit on my last post, if not i mean no offence and i'm sorry if i come over as a fanboy

 

[Caligulove]

That's odd, I actually liked ODST and Reach more than the original trilogy.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Fuck you, Microsoft. I'm sorry, but seriously, fuck you. ODST was the best damned game of the series, and it was fucking four hours long. And the only reason I liked it when Master Chief was around was because of his supporting characters, like Johnson and Cortana.

I mean, sure, there are people who want to see Master Chief back. But there are also people who are excited for the new Call of Duty game.

Gah, I know I can't support my arguments without sounding like a Bungie fanboy, but seriously, this is how I feel, and I don't see how I could be wrong.

 

[General BrEeZy]

Chief isn't Halo. He's just the Best Soldier in its Universe full of other great minds, personalities and grand, brilliant fighters. anyone that gave up on ODST or Reach because they weren't him is frankly kind of lame.

plus i think microsoft is lame. thats just me though. dont bother.

 

[General BrEeZy]

I actually liked ODST and Halo: Reach the best!
I was getting a little tired of the faceless speechless green spartan.

He may be faceless...but he does have a voice...

and he DOES have a personality, but it doesn't flourish in the games, so if you have the time and/or dedication to read the books, i suggest you do, but wether or not it matters that much to you is up to you. there ARE more important things in this life lol

 

[imnot]

Funny how they say they're 2 mistake games are my favorite ones of the series, ODST felt like metroid whereas halo reach had much better characters that didn't seem untouchable

Just wondering how is it like metroid?
Never played metroid so dont yell at me XD

And Reach was my favourite, with ODST/Halo 2 being joint second.
Although Halo 2 was my first xbox game, so it could be nostalgia talking.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

This is the man in charge of Halo games from now on? Shit.....

SNIP

Master Chief IS dull in the games. Admittedly, the books featuring him as the main character are rather good but Chief is still boring. Limitations & weaknesses make characters more interesting too. And Spartans were NOT "raised" to be killing machines, they were genetically modified and augmented.

Agreed.

People like that guy are the reason Halo has a sterotype of being a generic space shooter, when it's definitely not [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_312/8981-A-Bigger-Universe]

 

[Nurb]

Bungie consorting with Kotick makes them completely dead to me and not worth supporting.

 

[Poptart Invasion]

snip

I don't like MS man-handling and dictating where this series goes either and think they should keep their hands off for the most part. But seriously, chill it with the slander. Maybe 343 doesn't give a shit about fans, but if so they tell a hell of a convincing lie, with fan service and participation comparable, if not nessessarily up to, level of Bungie. Again, maybe it is just a sick, devious emulation of Bungie, but I guess we'll never know until someone finds a way to get them to say their own name backwards and return them to their own dimension.

Also, this statement came from a bigwig outside 343i itself. And while there is room for innovation even if we're playing as Master Cheif again, there are too many places for the series to go for every game to be him over and over. But if Halo is run into the ground, I say it'll be because of Microsoft's dictatorial and ham-handed treatment of 343, not the studio itself. Again, these are people from Bungie and elsewhere across the industry, hand-picked by Bungie. Would you pick a pedophile for a baby-sitter? :\

 

[Tea_bird]

Like a lot if people, I actually preferred Reach and ODST to the original trilogy. Sure, CE has nostalgic value, but I liked customizing my character. I especially liked being female in Reach.

I'll play the games no matter which character I'm in control of, though.

 

[dstreet121]

But a character like Master Chief gets boring, especially when that character never changes or has any flaws. Reach was my favorite game of the series because I wasn't Master Chief, I was kind of my own Spartan. Yeah, the guy's iconic and everything, but he has no face, no personality, no emotions. The NPCs are better characters than Master Chief.

I don't want to play as Master Chief again for the same reason I don't want to play as a Warthog; because I want the protagonist to be more than an emotionless war machine.

 

[catfishtuna]

What made the first interesting was the constant feeling that you were adventure into the unknown. John was a no nonsense veteran that didn't say much, so the incredible visuals, environment design, and powerful, original weapon combinations could show throw. The second game tried to make me give a shit about the characters, about Earth, and the perceived threat that threatened It. Going to earth and humping throw some derelict African city, altho the best level in halo 2, did not inspire the same level of incredible wonder. Nothing compares to that first time thrill of driving a warthog over the hills atop the high cliffs of Halo. The colorful alien sky over head, and the rhythmic blasts of energy like the relaxed breath of a sleeping giant. Anyone who didn't own an Xbox in winter 2001 can't have the same appreciation for Halo as I do.

My Concept art teacher Don put it best when he explained how doing any visual composition or media is like telling a good joke. What makes a good joke bad is when you wink and nudge your buddy in the ribs afterward. All the class and originality is sucked out, no matter how good the structure or premiss or timing. The simple fact is its cheesy.

Being master Chief encourages pandering to what is in the past. I Love the original for more than any of the sequels. I didn't play Halo 3 because I hated all the macho pandering of the second game, and buying an Xbox 360 just to be disappointed wasn't a good investment. Things like having Keys daughter, and the bullshit quirky love affair with Cortana. Listen That not why I like Halo. You could throw all those characters off a Fucking cliff. Every god dame character dies in the original leaving master Chief the lone survivor, perhaps to drift helplessly throw the emptiness of space. I don' think that Sword class space ship thingy could travel the great interstellar distance the Pillar of Autumn had with its mammoth sized Engines. Halo 2 had the opportunity to have no master chief, and could not have had anything to do with the original. In fact, humanity might have gone on never knowing how close to it came to total sentient life annihilation or whatever.

and As long as the next group characters thrust into a dynamic conflict with consequences far greater than their comprehension, would be unaware of the dangers that could be looming over their heads. Then a degree of the unknown would be vicariously available throw the games characters. Instead of all previous surprises be laid out like the exposed hand of a brain injured poker player. For everyone to plainly see, and most critical expect. We could once again experience a degree of the previous surprises although re-imagined throw a new perspective. Instead of trying to just add more and more to the pile. Games are not about story, and there not about continuity, its dose not work for the medium like it dose for TV and comics. Its just not a serial medium. The production time is to long and expensive and the technology changes to quickly. Games are about interaction, the action of the player and the response of the game. A game is not a obstacle between cut scans. There call cut scenes because they cut up the game. Don't butcher a game let it grow naturally.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Get real. Master Chief is a useless non-person.

As is Gordon Freeman, a quite lauded 'proagonist'. Hell, Master Chief at least has a couple of lines, a backstory contained within books and a support character with whom he has a pre-existing relationship that's quite complex. And he has a reason (being a super-soldier in strength-enhancing power armor) to be proficient with lots and lots of weapons and being superhumanly endurant; Gordon Freeman is a MIT-educated black mesa researcher.

Just saiyan.

As always, Valve's use (or modern reuse) of the silent protagonist is misunderstood. There's been too much ink spilled on this point already to go over it now, but there is a world of difference between Freeman and a floating camera clothed in faceless cliche that travels between consciously epic cutscenes with your typical Hollywood-inspired sloppy videogame storytelling.

No offense, my good person, but I would like to know what separates one floating gun-camera from another floating gun-camera =)

Also, completely off-topic, you wouldn't happen to be a terry brooks fan? I'm asking because I recently read Bearers of the black staff, and noticed that your nickname, which matches a term in the book.

 

[maturin]

No offense, my good person, but I would like to know what separates one floating gun-camera from another floating gun-camera =)

In short, Master Chief is just a bad videogame character, while Gordon Freeman's muteness is a deliberate storytelling technique that builds the character both as the embodiment of the player and as a reflection of the excellent characterization of other NPCs.

Also, completely off-topic, you wouldn't happen to be a terry brooks fan? I'm asking because I recently read Bearers of the black staff, and noticed that your nickname, which matches a term in the book.

I wasn't aware of a Terry Brooks connection, only of the Turtle God Maturin in the Dark Tower series, and the real-world city in Latin America.

But my name refers to a Patrick O'Brian character (the doctor in Master and Commander).

 

[Chicago Ted]

For Multiplayer, Reach was the best in the series, and for singeplayer it was ODST. Funny that Microsoft is saying that they were worse because they had no Chief, but what do I know, I've only been playing the series for several years since the release of Halo 2.

The Chief is hardly a character anyways. The amount of dialogue he has between scenes is minimal at best. That's why ODST was the best because the rest of the squad was interesting and constant. Rookie and Chief were hardly different in my mind, but the characters surrounding one of them was far better than the other.

 

[xXCrocmonXx]

Microsoft must not have received the memo that by Halo 3 the Chief was just there for the player to see things through.

How can you be that stupid, Microsoft? The Chief was desperately trying to be a part of the story in Halo 2, and only fit in Halo 3 because Cortana was there. We cared more about emo-ciding Arbiter than we did about the Chief.

 

[mchoueiri]

*cough*BULLSHIT*cough* They need to stop with Halo the story ends with 3 I can understand wanting to do Reach and ODST but guys enough is enough the series gonna go downhill I can understand remaking Halo 1 but Halo 4 really?

 

[LJJ1991]

Eh... I think they're being overly critical of themselves. I've played Halo since it came out nearing 10 years ago and I think ODST and Reach were a good way for them to spin- off from the original series. I didn't actually like ODST very much, but Reach was absolutely fantastic. I understand what they're saying, but I think they need to realize they don't always need Master Chief.

Looking forward to the Halo remake, though. Halo 4 I'm still on the fence and will be for a while, though.

 

[Ogargd]

Reach was by far the best game to come out of that series, it's the universe that is the theme not a single man within that universe.

 

[Trivun]

I normally agree with Spencer on Halo topics, and I like John-117 as a character (more so with his being fleshed out and whatnot in the books), but I can't agree here. I think it was awesome change of pace with the last two games, especially ODST (as it complemented my own stealthy playing style much better than the main trilogy did), and I enjoyed playing as other characters and seeing the world from their perspectives in a non-book related way. Hell, I even enjoyed the Arbiter sections in Halo 2...