Does anyone else think that Vale’s armor (in helmet configuration and color, especially) looks suspiciously reminiscent of Samus Aran?
The digi-folk factor is really interesting to me. The facial rendering at first is so real, that is until they start to express and emote, which is at that point between real and unreal. The result is a look that implies they’re in fact robots trying to perfectly impersonate humans.
I loved it. I really liked the noirish mystery of the plot, and the gameplay was cool, too. By being an ordinary human rather than an oversized and overpowered Spartan II, you couldn’t just waltz up to a Brute or Elite and go toe-to-toe with them. You had to be stealthy and tactical. I’m gonna have to play that campaign again soon.
It did for me. I liked playing as the Arbiter, and as the ODSTs, and as Noble Six as much as I liked playing as the Master Chief. Honestly, the first Halo game I kinda hated was Halo 4. The Prometheans are the worst. They’re repetitive, frustrating bullet-sponges without a hint of personality, and Halo 4’s Promethean and Forerunner textures are maddeningly confusing and hard to make out. I liked Spartan Ops, but the Halo 4 campaign can kiss my ass. I needed most of a year to finish it, because I never wanted to play it. My old assistant and I played the campaign co-op, which made it bearable (since we could bitch about it while we played), but Halo 5 won’t even have splitscreen co-op, which pretty much kills the whole game for me. I might do the campaign solo (I’ve played and enjoyed the first five campaigns solo on Heroic, but I can’t survive Legendary), but the fact that they eliminated couch co-op just to preserve 60fps (which no other Halo game has had or needed) just shows me that 343 Industries has no fucking idea what they’re doing with this franchise. Goddamn it, Frank O’Connor of all people should know better.
Edit: Oh, and this cinematic. They gotta be kidding me. Apparently now Spartans can just stroll right through solid rock, tapdance down a mountainside without so much as tripping over the corpses they pile up, and can destroy an entire game’s worth of enemies in a couple minutes with nary a reload or gun jam. I mean, Halo has always been pretty cartoony, but this is so over-the-top it’s beyond comical.
That guy looks just like Nathon Fillon! And sounds like him!
Oh.
Hey, Mal is in it! I’ve never played Halo in my life and I already care.
Maybe because it is Nathan Fililon.
And I agree that ODST was an excellent opportunity to get out of Master Cheif’s head for a while, wander around a very interesting setting and see what Earth looked like, and just enjoy (if that’s the word for it) a different kind of battle from the one presented in the mainline narrative. The same was true for Reach.
I am a fan of his, but not playing himself in this context. Wasn’t Dinklebot enough?
I just hope the future holds something more interesting for us than mindless gunplay.
I liked bits of ODST but much of it seemed bleak and repetitive. It was an interesting diversion though and it stands out against the rest (stands out as in different, not necessarily better).
but the fact that they eliminated couch co-op just to preserve 60fps (which no other Halo game has had or needed) just shows me that 343 Industries has no fucking idea what they’re doing with this franchise.
Are they just trying to push online co-op? Or maybe they believe no-one plays splitscreen any more. They ought to have the stats to back it up, either way.
The interesting thing is that although the Halo series has always had great campaigns, ultimately it’s all about the multiplayer for a lot of people (myself included), at which point characters don’t matter. The multiplayer has always been near-perfect though.
Not having an Xbox One, this looks like being the first Halo game I won’t end up playing and getting hooked on. And that gets a 
I bought my first Xbox specifically to play Halo. A guy at work turned me on to the game, and when Halo 2 came out I bought an Xbox and both games. I held off on buying an Xbox 360 until Halo 3 came out, upon which I bought the Halo 3 edition Xbox 360. After a few years it was starting to show its age (particularly the smallish hard drive), so when Halo 4 came out, I bought a Halo 4 edition Xbox 360. And then Halo 4 pissed me off.
I didn’t buy an Xbone at launch since none of the launch titles interested me. Since my hopes have been diminished by 343’s treatment of the Halo property, I felt no compelling urge for brand loyalty to Microsoft, since most of the rest of the games I like are more-or-less platform-agnostic, and I gave serious thought to buying a PS4 instead. I was mildly interested in The Master Chief Collection, but really only for the remastered Halo 2 campaign, since I’d enjoyed the remastered CE, and already have the rest of the games in . Once I found out for sure that Fallout 4 was going to be multi-platform, I went ahead and bought an Xbone, and for the hell of it got the MCC edition. So basically all the Xboxes I’ve owned in the past eight years have been Halo-themed. This weekend I ordered a Halo 5-themed Xbone controller since my Xbone only came with one, and (Halo 5 be damned!) I still like playing with friends or family on the same couch.
I can understand not getting an Xbone for many reasons, and even though I was lucky enough to have plenty of money for one, I wasn’t about to shell out $460 in order to play one game, even if I thought Halo 5 was going to be as fun as the first three games were. (And even if MCC wasn’t so broken… thanks again, 343!) Only now are there enough Xbone games available that interest me that I’ve been able to justify buying a new console.
But the online multiplayer aspect is the part that I care least about. I haven’t played online multiplayer Halo in years. And I think the focus on 60fps framerate is misguided. The 60fps framerate on Halo 2 Anniversary is… kinda wonky, in my experience. At any rate, I certainly don’t think it’s worth sacrificing splitscreen co-op for.
Well I bought my first Xbox in order to mod it and make it into a media centre/emulator and it was great. Then someone lent me Halo and I was hooked. As I recall I also held off buying a 360 until Halo 3 came out and that was it for me (tiny HDD and all).
Whilst I’ve immensely enjoyed every online multiplayer game to a ridiculous degree, I remember split-screen multiplayer fondly. Back when all of us had fewer responsibilities and commitments, myself and three mates would regularly meet at least twice a week at mine to play four player split-screen. It was like a ritual with the same teams of two every time and we kept a running score.
We’d usually play each map in turn with each team having our favourites (ours was Hang Em High but we’d always struggle on Chiron for some reason). Once proper online MP arrived, we’d still get four of us on one console and play online, despite the disadvantage of us only having a quarter of a screen.
I can’t see me buying one at all. Had GTA V been XB/PS only then maybe, but I was prepared to wait for the PC version. I just don’t play enough games these days to justify it and though I wouldn’t mind playing Halo 5, as you say it’s a huge outlay for one game.
As for the 60fps thing, I’d be inclined to agree. I’ve never noticed an issue with any of the previous games and I don’t really see why they can’t have 60fps for single player and something lower for split-screen, but maybe there’s a technical reason.
I think it’s just because preserving the framerate is a bigger priority to them, and that’s what I find so annoying. If the frame rate drops when you do splitscreen, I think that’s an acceptable compromise (as is the lower resolution, since after all each player is playing on only half the screen), but if 343 thought so too, they wouldn’t have killed splitscreen co-op.
They maintain it’s just that they didn’t want to spend time and resources optimizing for splitscreen.
The decision to remove split-screen support from Halo 5: Guardians was one of the most difficult ones we’ve ever had to make as a studio. We know that for many of our fans, Halo has meant playing together with friends in the same room. We all have great memories of past Halo split-screen multiplayer matches. To move Halo’s gameplay forward and deliver a true next-gen experience, tough choices had to be made. Our decision was driven by a desire for scale, fidelity and focus to ensure that we would deliver the best quality experience possible. With Halo 5 we are delivering massive scale environments, improved AI behavior, increased visual and gameplay fidelity… something that truly takes advantage of a new platform. Many of our ambitious goals for Halo 5 would be compromised in a split-screen setting and the time spent optimizing and addressing split-screen-specific issues would take focus from building other parts of the game. Game development is a balancing act of resources, time and technology, and in this case we made the tough decision to sacrifice something that’s been near and dear to us all.
Whatever. It’s how I prefer to play campaign, and since I can’t do it that way (and since I’m not interested in competitive multiplayer), I probably won’t bother to buy it.
I loved networked campaign, but my #1 campaign buddy is in Washington.
Well, online co-op will work pretty well for you then!
I’d have to buy a headset and find a buddy who can play at the odd times I’d be able to play. It was easier to arrange when we were in the same room. (Conference room at The Mentalist for Halo 4.)
I find this is much easier than lan parties. Maybe you can put two tv’s in the same room.
I remember the awful physical-network-shunt-to-play via a Windows based party creation software thing for halo combat evolved. Destiny is a dream by comparison.
I had fun playing CE and Halo 2 in my old office at W&G. I’d play my Xbox attached to a TV on my desk, and my buddy would play on his Xbox attached to the TV on our dub rack, with a shelf full of 3/4" tapes between us so we couldn’t cheat by peeking at the other guy’s screen. Best videogaming days of my life.
Yeah, I was going to say online co-op is a pretty good compromise but you do need a headset.
I can understand if 343 simply don’t have the time and resources to do it but we’re talking about one of the biggest game franchises in the world (and the flagship Xbox title) so it’s a little odd. I guess they have to prioritise the most important aspects though.
I miss spaceward ho.
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