The Big Picture: Combat Evolved?

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tkioz

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May 7, 2009
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So I was just watching this again, and something popped into my head, the whole eyes turning blue actually makes sense if they are actually trying to make a super soldier that can fight in any environment; if I recall correctly there was a study done in the 80s that showed people with blue eyes did better in low gravity, something about them holding their form better, so if you're going to make a hyper advanced killing machine, go all out.
 

wadark

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Dec 22, 2007
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I've always liked Moviebob because of the fact that he avoids one of the biggest annoyances I have with film critics in general. Let me explain.

The deconstructive and analytical nature of the profession of critiquing, in my opinion, seems to always generate this tendency in the critic to draw parallels and connections between what their critiquing and other things, be it other media, past or present cultural or political events, whatever.

To me, its always given me this impression of creating connection out of coincidence. For example, I'm an aspiring writer, and when I write my stories, I come up with a general premise and then move forward with whatever comes to mind as I write. I'm sure someone, somewhere, could read my work and find parallels to some past event or movie or book, etc.

Essentially, Moviebob spent 5 minutes all-but-blatantly comparing the Halo mythos to the belief structure of Nazi Germany and Neo-fascism. Whenever I see a critic doing that (not exclusively with Nazism and fascism, mind), I can't help but conjure this image of a story-writer throwing up his hands and going "Dude, I just wrote a story, that's it."

Just because there are noticeable parallels between two separate events does not intrinsically mean that the one of those events was inspired by the other.

Edit: In conclusion, Bob spent this review doing the one thing I dislike most about critics. But it was still an interesting take and here's hoping that it doesn't remain on that path.
 

Nodrog

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Dec 9, 2007
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"...these video games (shows Halo box art)"

Oh for Christ's sake Bob, we get it. You don't like Halo. Fucking drop it already.

Yeah I despise Halo too, but seriously, it's getting old. I predict references to it or using it as a euphemism for "bad" or "bland" in just about every damn video moviebob releases. You know, for every primitive "knuckle dragging" space marine shooter, there's about a dozen good games. Can't he talk about one of those games? Please?

Call me cynical, but I'm starting to like the old moviebob who talked about a number of thought provoking things and not leaning on the "Nintendo is awesome/Halo sucks" crutch. It's not really the topic that bothers me so much as how "by the numbers" his disdain for Halo is and how unsurprised of all of the things in the world he could cover for his first episode, he chooses, yet again, to talk about a certain stupid, boring, yet oddly successful first person shooter.
 

Ferrious

Made From Corpses
Jan 6, 2010
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This might have been mentioned already (seriously, 27 pages), but is it just me or is "Stern-looking, high-horse Bob" also a well-known Admiral of a Battlestar?
 

LordOrin

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Feb 19, 2009
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I think it's mostly a matter of players expecting a variety of enemy types. Whether or not your own team is diverse, in most decent action games the enemies will be.

You raise an interesting point though, and the blue-eyed space marine thing is a little unsettling in that context. I'm just going to assume they're pumping him with spice.
 

Overseer76

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Sep 10, 2009
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I guess MovieBob really isn't a Halo fan. While I'm not a ravenous "Halo-or-Nothing" type, I do respect the game for the simplicity of its damage system and the unorthodox backstory. What Bob said about the multicultural aliens being the "bad guys" (and therefore "diversity = bad") is not what I saw at all. I saw the concept behind Star Trek's Federation of Planets turned on its head. In this reality, humans aren't responsible for getting all those different aliens to work together. The galactic collective is already out there and the strength that comes from their diversity is as awesome and intimidating as the Federation's. Unfortunately the flying Drones, the cunning Elites, the powerful Brutes and the ubiquitous Grunts are a fighting force squarely aimed AGAINST humanity. WE are their demons prophesied to cause utter destruction. WE are the cosmic scourge that must be exorcised from the heavens. This makes for a necessarily uphill battle for the player to fight. The Covenant isn't necessarily "bad"; they simply misunderstood what must be done. Making the Covenant out to be a direct corollary for cultural diversity (or possibly blind-faith religion) diminishes the complexity of their collective character.

And besides, I would have thought the colorful aliens just made for better game visuals.
 

Overseer76

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Sep 10, 2009
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Ferrious said:
This might have been mentioned already (seriously, 27 pages), but is it just me or is "Stern-looking, high-horse Bob" also a well-known Admiral of a Battlestar?
I thought that was Lewis Black.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0085400/
 

D34dM4n

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Sep 23, 2010
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great show man, but just wondering. in Halo 2 all the Elites join the the human side and they are completely accepted by the humans. where is the speciesism there?
 

Dice Warwick

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Nov 29, 2010
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I always thought that halo was about humanity last defense, which is normally not about being multicultural, but what works for the job. I can see the point that is being made here, but I don't see that the humans are as coming because of the Spartans, but it is a bit concerning that there are so few black people in OSDT, when it was Afferica that the group dropped down to.

Your main point can be made in Reach, Halo 1, and Halo Wars, but in Halo 2 and 3 this is not true. in 2 and 3 the human when from standing alown agents a multicultural slave army, to a two species alliance agents the multicultural slave army. (ignoring that their new big warriors are barbarians) And it should be remembered that in Reach they faild to save the planet, any planet at that, earth to was nearly lost until the Elite jumped in.

So ya, Halo has a bit of a fascism symbolism problem, but it also showed that in the end it didn't work, just gave humanity the time it needed for a new solution to be discovered.
 

Chunko

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SomeBritishDude said:
I love reading too much into things.

Also...Movie Bob is the one to get a second show? No offence ment but...Movie Bob?! Da fuck?

Can't wait for that Hit with an Axe spin off...
Come to think of it how come Yahtzee never got a second show.

Also didn't the humans team up with the elites in halos 2 and 3. Not too mention earths forces are made up of people from all over the world. This is a case of multicultural group of people versus multicultural group of people. I have no clue what you're talking about.

Good way to start a flamewar though.
 

Trillovinum

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Dec 15, 2010
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Dice Warwick said:
I can see the point that is being made here, but I don't see that the humans are as coming because of the Spartans, but it is a bit concerning that there are so few black people in OSDT, when it was Afferica that the group dropped down to.

.
I think that's because of our own 'racism' issues. If you make a game where an african city gets destroyed and a lot of black people die. You get called a racist. So you add alot of whites, hispanics and asians in it to balance that. But you're right, especially in the police force. (marines come from all over so I get that but police is local.)
They also did that in CoD black ops; in vietnam there isn't a single african-american soldier to be seen (save for one party member.) while actually they were over-represented.
 

Dice Warwick

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Nov 29, 2010
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Trillovinum said:
Dice Warwick said:
I can see the point that is being made here, but I don't see that the humans are as coming because of the Spartans, but it is a bit concerning that there are so few black people in OSDT, when it was Afferica that the group dropped down to.

.
I think that's because of our own 'racism' issues. If you make a game where an african city gets destroyed and a lot of black people die. You get called a racist. So you add alot of whites, hispanics and asians in it to balance that. But you're right, especially in the police force. (marines come from all over so I get that but police is local.)
They also did that in CoD black ops; in vietnam there isn't a single african-american soldier to be seen (save for one party member.) while actually they were over-represented.
it is a problem, one that sould be easily fixed with resurch, or mathematics. In wargames all one needs to do is look into the racial distribution that when on in the area, and then apply it to the game. For more future games it is more of a guess, but easily thought out. In the show "Firefly" the cast was mainly wight with two black people, but no matter were they went there was always Asian (Chinese decedent) people, with them randomly yelling at each other in chinese. Halo could have easily don something similar, were at least they spoke a fusion of English, and other languages, or some Solders would commonly speech in different language.
 

Tsun Tzu

Feuer! Sperrfeuer! Los!
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Jul 19, 2010
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Since I just noticed this series' existence, I'll throw a comment out.


First of all: In reach, the Spartans are presented a lot more individually. I'd sort of chalk this up to limitations of the graphics in previous games as well as the fact that the "only" living Spartan is John-117. In his case, which fits with his character, it's substance over style. The Spartans in general, as you kindly pointed out, are a military outfit, which makes their armor less of a point of contention, given that all militaries in the world today are issued BDUs as well as standard kits.

Once the Spartan 3s started to roll off the line, numbers swelled and the price to outfit them plummeted. Members can and do add their own personal flair to their armor/equipment when they want to. Noble team in particular was a special group overseen by ONI, thus, their available range of equipment was more varied than, say, an "off the line" Spartan 3.

Second: You were doing fine at the start, to be honest... The Covenant IS a slave army. The UNSC (Humans) are as diverse as human beings can be with varying societal facets, flaws, failures, and struggles shown throughout the course of the series. They're forced into a "quasi-fascist" (Ugh) social structure in response to an overwhelming force attempting to wipe them off the face of the universe. The racial purity context is a bit out of left field, especially considering what you said not a minute prior to bringing it up.

Third: The blue eyes? They're blue! You only find this sort of thing if you're looking for it to begin with. His head is shaved because he's in the military. If he had suddenly sprouted a head of luxurious blonde hair, then I'd say you would have more a case for the Aryan argument.

Fourth: "Pure" mono-culture vs. "dirty" multi-culture would have some logical basis had the Sangheili (Elites) not joined the Humans shortly after Halo 2. And what's more threatening? An army of grunts or elites? Or an army of enemies ranging in size and combat ability, thus making preparation for their coming that much more difficult? It's a narrative construct most likely meant to lend reason and credibility to enemy variation. Not to mention it's a chance to create alien races and, honestly, what sci-fi game/movie/comic doesn't thoroughly love the chance to do that?

On another note about the fourth point, the Covenant are technologically superior in every conceivable way. Humans, the "pure" mono-culture, are the ones who are inferior, at least in that aspect.



It really does seem like you would have had to already been looking for things like these in order to find them. On top of that, you haven't really found anything. Each instance can be readily explained or understood with a little bit more digging or, oddly enough, not attempting to divine some sort of ultimate symbolic meaning behind plot devices.

Just because others don't see it doesn't mean that it's there and you're just that much more perceptive. I like your movie reviews. They're entertaining in their own right, but have their own obvious bias, which is perfectly fine and unavoidable given the medium and context. This, however, is just trolling. :/

I'd read about this in another thread and it was being used as ammunition against the Halo series and a reason not to buy it. Now that I've seen it, I'm kind of disappointed.
 

DVS Storm

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Jul 13, 2009
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This new show is great. Although I don't really understand all the rant about Halo. They are good games even though the newer ones have really ruined the plot. If you read the novels you understand what I mean. The whole universe is really interesting and there is so much going on but the games don't really give a good picture of it and it is really, really sad imo.
 

Zap Happy

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Mar 28, 2010
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So basically, even though you know you're taking Halo completely out of context, you're still okay with making the points you made? You said it yourself, the Covenant is a slave army. The Profits and Elites treat the other races like dirt and use them in their armies. How is that racially sensitive? Oh, and speaking of the Elites, they joined the humans in game two. Why didn't you mention that?

I'm sorry, I just think you have a bone to pick with Halo and are digging up subtexts that don't exist.
 

GracieMay

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Oct 11, 2010
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Great video, but just to let you know (and i may not be the first person to point this out) the blue eye thing was most likely implying that the machine was taking away the pigment in his eyes. See, human eyes have a default color of blue unless one has pigment inserted in the womb. So it's most likely unintentional symbolism.
 

TiefBlau

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Apr 16, 2009
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I think it's interesting to compare this kind of Sci-fi "Humans vs the Universe" mindset with the typical fantasy "The rest of the world is threatened by asshole bigot humans" mindset. Take for example Warcraft III and Dragon Age, where the humans see all the other races as lesser beings. What this might say about society's fiction in general I don't really know, but it's a bit ironic that the future fiction is less progressive than those set in the past.