Poll: What is the Best FPS shown at E3?

[Mcgeezaks]

Before you say anything, not quoting the pictures because they'd take up far too much room.

But obviously, yes, I have seen the sangheili. However, it never really bothered me too much - they're obviously the same species, and any changes in anatomy I could attribute to existing variances in sangheili biology (even under Bungie we saw that with the kig-yar). After all, variation exists in the human phenotype, but do we expect all aliens to look the same? While I prefer the look of the old sangheili, I'm not opposed to a new take on them.

See, that doesn't make sense because even Arbiter was changed to look like the monstrous nu-elites. They're not a different type of elite, they just tried to drastically change the look of the elites and failed horribly.

343 was explicitly founded to make Halo games, so that isn't an option.

Then maybe they shouldn't exist at all ?\_(&#12484_/?

That's hyperbole, but it touches on a subject that's far too wide-reaching to deal with in a single post here. All I can say is that visually, Halo is still recognizably Halo. Has a different art style to an extent, but that's the least of my gripes with 343. If I had to summarize those gripes, it would be:

1) Halo really didn't need a continuation post-Reach

2) The continuation we did get didn't feel like a natural one in the post-H3 context, and arguably even undermines previous lore (that's a whole bag of worms in of itself, so I won't go there)

3) Halo 4, garbage fire that it is aside, feels systemic of having a lack of confidence in one's ability to do something with an IP.

4) Halo 5 finally introduces something new to the series (thematically at least), but is blasted (for reasons I don't get, but given the next point, is academic)

5) Halo Infinite comes along, and every indication is that we've gone full on emulation, trying to capture the feeling of Combat Evolved.

343 isn't the only one guilty of this (looking at this thread, Doom is just as guilty for instance), but while I'm still interested in Halo Infinite, everything about it feels reactionary. A reversal in art style, as jarring as it is (least for the UNSC), is systemic of what appears to be a wider issue.

It's hardly recognizable as Halo anymore, not to me anyway and it makes me sad. Yes Halo 5 tried to bring something new but failed miserably because how awful it was. We've barely seen anything of Halo Infinite, what we've seen looks familiar to the Bungie games but not identical. People will easily and happily block out the art style in 4/5 from their memories so it won't be jarring for most people, just like 4 and 5 wasn't jarring for you but for pretty much everyone else.

Off the top of my head:

-Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
-Castlevania: Judgement
-Command & Conquer: Generals 2 (not really the art style per se, but more the 'cinematic style', so to speak)
-Command & Conquer: Tiberian Twilight
-Diablo III
-The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
-Metroid Prime: Federation Force
-Spyro the Dragon (if you count Skylanders as part of the Spyro moniker)
-StarCraft II

Whether the backlashes are bigger or smaller in these examples is debatable, but negative reactions about art style are common, whether justified or not (course, what counts as "jusified" is down to personal interpretation)

Of course there have been complains about other games change of art style but I think Halo is on a whole other level, there are tons of videos on Youtube with hundreds of thousands of views that are discussing the change of art-style.

Right, because no series ever changed its art style and remained successful...

Except Ace Combat. And Castlevania. And Diablo. And Doom. And Defence of the Ancients. And Final Fantasy. And Legend of Zelda. And Prince of Persia. And Quake. And Team Fortress. And Warhammer Fantasy Battle. And Warhammer 40,000. And Xenoblade. And...well, you get the idea.

Changes in art style aren't make or break in the success of a series.

But back to your claim, of Halo Infinite not pressing the nostalgia button...

...it is. It really is. Not just in art style, but in premise. Everything about it is channeling Combat Evolved - we're on a Halo ring (again), and if we equate the trailer with gameplay/narrative, we can assume that John is spending a lot of time driving around the Halo picking up marines (like CE's early mission(s). Based on reported leaks, that:

Spoiler

Cortana is leading the Covenant (why?!), in an apparent attempt to minimize the presence of Prometheans and Guardians (which weren't in CE), along with the theory that John's new AI is called Durandal (another Marathon reference, because if Bungie referenced Marathon liberally, why shouldn't 343?)

it's clear that (assuming this is true), Infinite is really, really, REALLY trying to channel Combat Evolved, from its setting, to its art style, to its plot.

And look, I'm not saying the game won't be good. You can drench a product in nostalgia and still make it good. But let's be honest that nostalgia is what 343 is going for - a reversion in art style is part of that. Which, under the assumption that Halo will continue beyond Infinite (which it almost certainly will), it leaves me to ask what happens next when the main games up to this point have been a combination of one step forward, two steps back.

They aren't a make or break but they play a big role to a lot of people, especially if they keep screwing it up over and over again.

It's almost like Halo games used to be about Halos...geez that's almost as bad as having a Metal Gear in the new MGS game. Eh, from what we've seen the art style isn't like CE (Which was heavily influenced by the Aliens movies) but rather from 2 and 3 judging from the armors. Now the Halo itself looks like the Halo in CE minus all the wildlife and yuge lakes, so I guess you could say it's trying to channel all 3 original games. Like Halo Wars 2 I think they're going to combine the new art style with the old art style, just like it always should've been.

With that said, neither of us knows yet to what extent it will look familiar or different.

Also

Spoiler

Thank fucking God they're removing prometheans, easily the worst enemy design in a Halo game. Who thought that enemies that can phase in at any time, any place and teleport all over the place with space magic would be extremely annoying?

 

[Hawki]

Then maybe they shouldn't exist at all ?\_(&#12484_/?

I've already stated that there was no need to continue the series post-Reach. But either way, Microsoft was going to. Whoever they handed the IP off to, they could only just hope to make the most of it.

It's hardly recognizable as Halo anymore, not to me anyway and it makes me sad. Yes Halo 5 tried to bring something new but failed miserably because how awful it was. We've barely seen anything of Halo Infinite, what we've seen looks familiar to the Bungie games but not identical. People will easily and happily block out the art style in 4/5 from their memories so it won't be jarring for most people, just like 4 and 5 wasn't jarring for you but for pretty much everyone else.

Of course there have been complains about other games change of art style but I think Halo is on a whole other level,

After seeing the outrage for stuff like Wind Waker and Diablo III...no, not really.

It's almost like Halo games used to be about Halos...geez that's almost as bad as having a Metal Gear in the new MGS game.

Both chains of thoughts can (and arguably have) lead to rediculous outcomes.

On the front of Halo, the Covenant spends thousands of years looking for any of these rings scattered across the galaxy, then finally find Installation 04. Then, immediately after, we have Installation 05. By Halo 4, we know the UNSC has a presence at Installation 03, and apparently discovered it back in 2552. Now, we're on what people are theorizing is Installation 07. These rings are meant to be insanely hard to find, since they're scattered across the galaxy (need I remind you that the Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years), but nup, apparently any person can get to a ring at any point in time. Just because it's called "Halo," it doesn't mean you're obliged to put a ring in every instalment. And while I haven't played Metal Gear since Snake Eater, it strikes me as pretty silly that the Outer Haven Metal Gear apparently wasn't the first, that there's always got to be a Metal Gear (or Shagohod) in each instalment, even if these walkers have to keep popping up every time. Again, there's no obligation to put a Metal Gear in every game.

Spoiler

Thank fucking God they're removing prometheans, easily the worst enemy design in a Halo game. Who thought that enemies that can phase in at any time, any place and teleport all over the place with space magic would be extremely annoying?

Spoiler

As much as I disliked the Prometheans in Halo 4, I enjoyed them in Halo 5. But even then, what's far worse (in my mind) is making the Covenant enemies AGAIN. It's creatively bankrupt in terms of both lore and gameplay.