GENTLEMEN! I come bearing Bungie-related leakings!

[ExAm]

From Gamespot:

Next Halo squad-based, Master Chief-free? (http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26483669) Source: A source with firsthand knowledge of Bungie's development.
http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2008/194/haloblompkamp758_embed.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUcreY0X33k) What we heard: Last year, those skilled enough to complete Halo 3 on legendary difficulty were treated to an extended ending of the game after the credits rolled. For those who don't have a knack for Covenant slaying, numerous YouTube videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yygn_vlH5a4) depict how, after the defeat of the Flood, series hero the Master Chief is left adrift in space in half of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) ship Forward Unto Dawn.
After a brief conversation with the AI Cortana, the genetically enhanced, perpetually armored Chief enters a hypersleep chamber. The cutscene camera switches to an exterior shot, which pulls back to reveal the remnants of the Dawn entering orbit around a mystery planet. As the sun rises on the planet, music swells, and the screen fades to white, at which point the cutscene abruptly ends.
With that setup, many assumed that Bungie's next project would feature the Master Chief marooned on a strange planet, struggling for survival--a sort of off-world Far Cry. However, a source with knowledge of the studio's development slate told GameSpot a different story. She or he said that sometime this year, Bungie will announce a "darker, grittier" Halo game that doesn't feature the Master Chief at all.
According to the source, the new Halo game will be a spin-off that resembles "a cross between Ghost Recon and Gears of War." It will reportedly tell a "less cartoony" and "more bloody, violent, and grim" tale of a battle between UNSC forces and the pan-racial religious empire known as the Covenant. The game's atmosphere was described as similar to that of the live-action Halo shorts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUcreY0X33k) directed by South African filmmaker Neil Blomkamp (pictured), who was to helm the now-stalled big-screen adaptation of the game (http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26163137).
The source says that the upcoming Halo game is a tactical shooter that will follow a squad of colonial marines or orbital-drop shock troopers engaged in "intense" fighting on the ground. Gameplay details were scant, other than the fact that it will reportedly let gamers play as an entire squad in co-op mode through the entire campaign. The exact number of co-op players has yet to be finalized, but it could be as high as eight. It is unclear if the new game is the same as the "Halo: Forerunner" project (http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24847371) first rumored in 2006.
The official story: Microsoft had not yet responded to requests for comment as of press time.
Bogus or not bogus?: Based on the strength of the source, this is almost certainly not bogus. And with Bungie's teaser last week, news about the game could arrive as soon as tomorrow's Microsoft press conference at theOriginal story here (http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26483669).

I'm psyched and waiting for an official announcement. Thoughts?

[beele]

I hope this is true, I really do.

[SMASH]

Dang, that'd be hot.

[Cortexian]

http://www.bungie.net/defaultsi.aspx

:(

Here's an image of what I'm referring, in case you miss it on the site:

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3127/nonewbungienewsad4.jpg

[Botolf]

Microsoft representative interview just went up on MTV, he confirmed that Bungie has some sort of Halo project ongoing, although it could be an expansion pack of sorts.

[Stormwing]

"MS announces new halo game through an mtv blog."
that sounds all kinds of fucking wrong.

[ExAm]

http://www.bungie.net/defaultsi.aspx

:(

Here's an image of what I'm referring, in case you miss it on the site:

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3127/nonewbungienewsad4.jpg
This is irrelevant to the topic at hand! That letter only refers to the scheduling of the announcement for the game, not a change in the game itself.

[Heathen]

I have BEEN waiting for this to come to existance since it was mentioned.

[Pooky]

So they're taking Halo, and turning it into a brown and grey GoW style shooter?

Meh.

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

I think its win imho.

[Rob Oplawar]

Well, that does it. Whatever tiny elements of originality that were present in Bridge will be gone if they do this game.
Still, I wouldn't exactly be disappointed if they did it. Sounds like it could be cool.

Can't really see how that would fit in with the superintendent, tho. The superintendent seems to have a completely different style than what's described above.

[Hotrod]

I read this a while back, though I was too busy to really think twice about it. If Bungie wouldn't have decided to cancel their E3 announcement, we would have probably gotten the truth today.

[Rob Oplawar]

In fact, the announcement would have been made 14 minutes ago. According to the timer that was up, anyway.

[Atty]

No, their timer is PST. Would be later.

[Hotrod]

Well, 12 hours is 12 hours, no matter in what time zone you are. He probably used the timer's countdown as reference, and not the time that Bungie would have been announcing their project, with their time, but in his time zone.

[Warsaw]

If this is indeed true, and it is pulled off well, Bungie will have redeemed itself (well, I can't cast all the blame on the failure of the last two Halo campaigns *glares at MGS*), and I will scream with glee like a little school girl seeing a real pony.

This is the direction Halo should have gone in the first place. Halo 1 was not cartoony, because graphics back then were not as diverse in feel. From there, they made it increasingly "kid friendly" (though maintaining a rating of "M"), like Lucas did with Star Wars. It could've maintained epicness and awesomeness if they had kept it dark, as the books imply it was.

[TeeKup]

A Grittier? Bloodier? Halo?

A storm is coming, an epic storm. Despite the events of Halo 3, I'm hoping the flood will once again make an appearance. Only this time Bungie can do the voracious nightmare its justice.

[Rob Oplawar]

entirely unimportant, but:
the code had it counting down to 2:07:07 at some weird time zone, which converted to 8:07:07 my time, or 7:07:07 PST (the timezone Bungie's office is in). Aber natürlich.

[blind]

Could be good.
Of course, thats what I said about Halo 2.
I'll reserve all judgements until I play it, I really hope that they completely scrap the Halo 2/3 formula with this new game. I want to have faith in Bungie again :S

[ICEE]

I hope they leave it FPS.

[Con]

same

[ExAm]

seconded

[Hotrod]

Thirded

[Corndogman]

fourth..ded?

[Terin]

Fifthed.

[Heathen]

Idk...I wouldn't mind a change of pace.

And am I the only one that somewhat liked H2 over H3?

[Terin]

Halo 2 seemed like too much of a rape-fest to me. I guess that's why I play TF2, where you can't instantly and constantly kill someone with a headshot from 1000 yards away, except with a sniper, but they aren't so bad.

BUT THIS IS OFF-TOPIC.

[SMASH]

I think a 3rd person/First Person Combo would be awesome.

Like the good old days of SOCOM on the PS2... I felt like that had the best gameplay of any game ever.

[Arteen]

As long as it's fun, I'm happy.

[The_Wraith]

Sounds good. Love Halo, one of the best universes I've ever encountered but the I've thought about how awesome Halo would look as the gritty, terrible battles that are described in the books and the like. The Covenant shown in it's true ferocity, unlike the current trilogy where, let's face it, you're a one man army that fucking owns face. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd like to see the other side too. A la the Halo shorts where just a few Brutes devastate a well armed Marine squad.

[Timo]

As long as it's fun, I'm happy.
.
This, what all games should aim for.

[PenGuin1362]

As much as I would love to see closure on the game after that gay cliff hanger, I love ghost recon games and squad based combat games of the sort. So to combine that with the halo story line with more blood?...epic win.

[Rob Oplawar]

I often find my self liking the concept of Halo better than the reality. For all the worship we throw at Halo 1, it's not all we say it is.

I'm going to sound like a massive nerd for saying this, but I admit it, before Halo 3 came out I had one or two "anticipation" dreams where I was playing Halo 3. In hindsight, it basically looked like Gears of War- dark, dreary, devastated earth- but anyway, my point is that all I had in my mind was the abstract concept of something cool, and when Halo 3 came out I saw the reality of that concept and was unimpressed.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Let's try this:
We have this image in our heads of a dark brutal war with an unfeeling alien foe, awe-inspiring artifacts left by a mysterious, ancient, and super-powerful race, and a horrifying plague of unstoppable monsters. But that's not what Halo is. That's the concept of Halo. The reality of Halo is that it's a fun series of one-sided fights against colorful and cheery aliens with nerf guns, occasionally awe-inspiring but mostly just mildly pretty and entirely nonsensical artifacts, and wave after wave of annoying blobs.

Not to say that Halo isn't a wonderful game- it is.

When I think of the Covenant, I think of an uncomfortable alliance of varied races united in their fanatical worship of ancient artifacts, driven to extinguish those they perceive as blasphemers (humans).
In Halo 1, you get a bunch of aliens that are fun and easy to kill and occasionally make some mention about humans being bad.
In Halo 2 you get a bunch of aliens that are fun and easy to kill who apparently are trying to kill you because one alien told them to.
In Halo 3 you get a bunch of aliens that are fun and easy to kill except some of them are suddenly on your side for no clear reason.

As much as it pains me to say this, Tartarus (sp?) and the Arbiter are my favorite Covenant guys because they're the only ones that seem to fit in with the idea of religious fanatacism, and the rest of them just seem to be along for the ride. The prophets don't do it for me. As they are portrayed in Halo 2 and Halo 3, they're all you really have to worry about- once they're gone, you don't have to worry about the other aliens anymore. I don't like that. I think the other aliens have their own motivation, even if it was originally imparted to them by the prophets. IMO, killing the prophets would only exacerbate the war, because the other aliens aren't just blindly following their orders for no reason, they're blindly following their orders because they have been trained to worship the Forerunner and hate humans.

When I think of the Flood, I think of the horror of an unstoppable plague that can and does consume everything in its path. I think of the complexity of a massive dispersed single organism taking the form of many appendages controlling host bodies on worlds all across the galaxy.
In Halo 1, we got the horror of the unstoppable plague.
In Halo 2, we got a talking plant.
In Halo 3, we got an unsatisfying "oh, we stopped the unstoppable plague by killing the host"- imo, the Flood is not stopped and will continue in other games, but that just makes Halo 3 that much less satisfying, having gone through a lot of trouble to not stop the Flood.

The Flood in Halo 3 was scary in appearance, but in the end, for an unstoppable plague, we sure beat them easily. If the Flood truly existed in the games as they do in my vision of the Flood, the games would be unfun and unwinnable. Because, I mean, even the Forerunner could not defeat the Flood. I don't care how hopeful and strong and united we are, the Flood is the perfect hive mind organism, dispersed so far and wide across the galaxy, needing only a single piece to recover itself in whole, that the Forerunner were right, the only way to kill them is to kill everything in the galaxy all at once. Now that's scary to me, and that's what the Flood is to me, and that just won't work in a game, which is why the Flood really isn't all that unstoppable in Halo.

When I think of Forerunners, I think of some unknown group that left behind marvelous artifacts all across the galaxy. I think of incredible scale and complexity, intricacy, unknown purpose, perpetually active machinery, immense intelligence.
In Halo 1, we got mystery and a bit of scale, and in the old engine, it was acceptable for the "unknown purpose" to equate to "we don't have the time to give this purpose, so we'll make something cool". It worked then.
In Halo 2, we got some stunningly beautiful vistas, and more of a sense of underlying but incomprehensible purpose. We even got some understanding of the perpetual motion of their machinery from the 100,000 year war. It worked then too.
In Halo 3, you'd think they would blow us away with their vision of the Forerunner. But instead we got a series of rooms that had clearly been planned out with a pillar here and some cover there, for gameplay, and then had as much apparent intricacy slapped on top of it as they could. This is wonderful from a gameplay standpoint, but it lost that certain something.

In Halo 3, in the distance, forerunner artifacts are amazing and stunning and have a sense of purpose. Once you get up close to them, you lose a lot of that feeling. That doesn't work for me. The illusion was destroyed once I got inside, and then after that I saw all Forerunner artifacts as an illusion, sloppily pasted on top of good gameplay design. In Halo 1, the Forerunner seemed mysterious, in Halo 2, they seemed incomprehensible, but in Halo 3 they just seemed arbitrary.


So, what I'm saying is that we all know what we want Halo to be, the vision we have built up of Halo. And it's more than the games. It's better than the games. Perhaps it's better than is possible to make a game. That's why we love Halo 1 and were disappointed by Halo 2 and Halo 3. Halo 1 created the impossible vision, and when Halo 2 and 3 didn't achieve the impossible vision, even though Halo 1 never did in the first place, we still placed Halo 1 on an altar above the sequels.

To tie this back to what we now know with some degree of confidence to be some sort of Halo sequel from Bungie:
I have a vision of a darker, grittier, more brutal Halo in my mind, but it's not going to be that. It can't be that. It can't be the ideal. Physical limitations and practical concerns and unresolved conflicts in the ideal insist that what we get will be imperfect. I'm going to go on dreaming of Halo, knowing that my dreams are better than the games, past and future, and knowing that even though the games are imperfect, they are responsible for creating my dreams.

Bungie, thanks for creating such a universe that I could embrace above and beyond what you were able to portray. I'm confident that if you do continue with Halo in your next title, it won't be perfect, but it will deepen my immersion in your fantastic universe.




And while we're at it, I might as well draw the parallel that I'm sure you've all been thinking while reading this:
Lucas, you may have fucked up the latest movies, but dammit if I don't love you for creating another universe to get lost in.



[/essay]

[Disaster]

Bravo! I don't think anybody could disagree to that.

[Heathen]

Well said. Basically for those who dont feel like reading, he said that we love what Halo would be in reality. We love the ideas that Halo brought forth. We just dont like how the story really played out. Its like how you see yourself in your mind. You are much more attractive in your mind than you are in real life. Its like ideas that look good on paper.


Thats why I love novelization. You can make your own visuals. You can have that gritty tensious feeling.

[Hotrod]

*claps slowly* Well said Rob, I think you've summerized what we're all thinking.

[JunkfoodMan]

I just liked Halo 2 because it was alot of fun =\
Like, there were levels I wanted to go back and play, like Cairo to Regret were great. And I loved Uprising, Gravemind and the last level.
I mean, it kept me occupied until Halo 3, but I'm already bored of Halo 3 =\

[Arteen]

I just liked Halo 2 because it was alot of fun =\
Like, there were levels I wanted to go back and play, like Cairo to Regret were great. And I loved Uprising, Gravemind and the last level.
I mean, it kept me occupied until Halo 3, but I'm already bored of Halo 3 =\
I think part of the problem was that there weren't many levels in Halo 3, and a few just weren't very good. Floodgate is meh, Cortana is the worst level in all 3 games, and Halo is meh. Elites are much more fun to fight, too.

[Ki11a_FTW]

@ Robs post

The elites aren't suddenly on your side for no reason

The first reason is because the Chief killed the prophet of Regret and the Prophet of Truth thinks the elites aren't good enough to Protect the prophets (since they failed to protect Regret), so they put the brutes in charge. The elites begin getting attacked by the brutes in the level "The Gravemind". If you listen, you can hear truth from the distance say: " The Elites have failed to protect the Prophets, and therefore, they must be punished".
At The end of Halo 2, The Arbiter helps Johnson and the other marines because the both believe the same things when it comes to Halo, and they are both after the same target,...And because Johnson has a scarab pointing at him :-3.

-----------------------------------------
On topic: This game sounds pretty cool, i like the fact that they want to brutal it up, with the blood and shit, hopefully we can have some pretty nasty things with the flood.

[TeeKup]

I think part of the problem was that there weren't many levels in Halo 3, and a few just weren't very good. Floodgate is meh, Cortana is the worst level in all 3 games, and Halo is meh. Elites are much more fun to fight, too.

Exactly.

Getting into a fight with elites, hearing one take cover and yell "MISERABLE VERMIN" or "WELL MET THEN DEMON" While this was going on you had the fear of those bastards coming around a corner and bashing your face in. The Brutes just didn't appear or play that awesome. Halo 3 should have at least had 4 more levels or the earth levels should have been limited to the first 3 levels, and the rest of the game should have been spent on The Ark and Halo.

[JunkfoodMan]

I think part of the problem was that there weren't many levels in Halo 3, and a few just weren't very good. Floodgate is meh, Cortana is the worst level in all 3 games, and Halo is meh. Elites are much more fun to fight, too.

Yeah, And the fact that each level had so many different things was just...meh.
I mean, outskirts was all on foot until the last warthog bit, which is about 2 different things in a level. The Covenant, however, had:

On-foot
Vehicle
then on foot again
going back to vehicle
air-battle
on foot
vehicle
On foot again fighting with the flood

I mean, couldn't they have levels with specific styles (Like On-foot, Vehicles, basically all of the above =\)?

[Hotrod]

One thing that I disliked about Halo 3, was that it wasn't what they claimed it would be. In the Et Tu Brute ViDoc, you saw animations of them ripping off marine's arms, punching them while they where on the group, and flipping over Warthogs. You also saw Elites with Dual Swords cutting off their legs, them stabbing them in the chest. I'm sure there's a lot more that they didn't show us as well. Where did that all go? I hope they bring that all back in the next game, because it's really what Halo is missing.

[ICEE]

One thing that I disliked about Halo 3, was that it wasn't what they claimed it would be. In the Et Tu Brute ViDoc, you saw animations of them ripping off marine's arms, punching them while they where on the group, and flipping over Warthogs. You also saw Elites with Dual Swords cutting off their legs, them stabbing them in the chest. I'm sure there's a lot more that they didn't show us as well. Where did that all go? I hope they bring that all back in the next game, because it's really what Halo is missing.


I think that's just animators getting bored and hopeful

[Hotrod]

Still, if they would have put those animations that I mentioned in, it would have really made the game much better. I mean, imagine plowing through some Covenant, when all of a sudden, a Brute rams into your Warthog from the side, then flips it over. You, and your two Marine passengers fall out, and get surrounded by 20 Brutes. Your gunner gets grabs by the arms by a Brute in behind him, and proceeds to getting them ripped off, and lets out a yell of pain. Your passenger, on the other hand, still on the floor, gets the life punched out of him by another Brute. You start hopelessly fighting the Brutes, dodging their shots, and taking careful shots, to save ammunition. Your shields are empty, and you run behind cover, though you see red dots on your Motion Sensor coming towards you. Right as they're about to appear about to die, when 5 Elites come around the corner, all wielding dual swords, then proceed to dismember all the Brutes, and help you win.

Now that, is what I was expecting to see in Halo 3, not what we have right now. Not that Halo 3 is a bad game, it's actually quite good, but not what I was hoping for.

[Ki11a_FTW]

It was bad the way they first introduced the elites in halo 3, they came down in the droppods to kill the flood, but when i get over there, they are all dead except like 1, that ends up falling off the ledge

[p0lar_bear]

Thank god, a change of pace. Playing Halo as Master Chief is like playing any other game with god mode on; fun for a while, but then it gets boring as hell.

The games need a more vulnerable protagonist or set of protagonists. Yeah, having a 7-foot clunker of a juggernaut on your side is a good thing, but it really kills the atmosphere. You're facing a collection of alien races hell-bent on your destruction, but really, all you have to do is walk up to one, slap it, and tell it to get the fuck back in the kitchen.

[Rob Oplawar]

The elites aren't suddenly on your side for no reason

I said "for no clear reason" but I meant "for no good reason". It's was a flimsy pretext, imo. It cconnects back to what I said about an apparent lack of motivation on their part. Oh gee, the prophet is dead, and we got demoted, so now we're gonna be all chummy with humans.
And yeah, I know it isn't that, and that it's an uneasy truce, and the Elites are only at earth because they're chasing Truth, and aren't "on our side" but merely refraining from killing us, but that was poorly communicated in the game. I mean, the way it plays, they're your allies and that's that.


You're facing a collection of alien races hell-bent on your destruction, but really, all you have to do is walk up to one, slap it, and tell it to get the fuck back in the kitchen.
My point exactly. It's more fun, but it's less awesome.

[Mass]

When you first boot up the halo 1 menu screen you get this really low, ominous and massively impressive low bass singing, and you look at this ring and you're thinking: "holy shit." There's this pants-shitting awe to the forerunner in Halo 1, it's sort of like: we're gonna use this the best we can and stumble about on this huge ring not being able to comprehend the sheer power of this structure.

And then in halo 2, we found out that only humans could activate certain forerunner things, and that the forerunner had to build mines and spaceships and practical things, which partially killed the interest.

And in Halo 3 you come to what should be the most impressive forerunner structure of them all, but you're not a puny pathetic person trying to find their way amongst a sea of ancient mysteries anymore. No, you're the Reclaimer, you're badass, and you're here to fucking finish the fucking fight, and the forerunner were so fucking smart that they knew only you would be capable of doing the job, because your fucking badass wave is so powerful that they can feel it back in time a hundred thousand years, and you have the elites on your side and they literally destroy the whole brute fleet and tell you about it later on, but that's not really important, because while they were doing that you were out being badass, and they're also on your side because you're so fucking amazingly correct and intelligent that the only people left dumb enough to disagree with you are fucking gorillas. And then you save the fucking universe and pull a intergalactic Indiana Jones escape.

There is no wonder, everything is transparent and grotesquely glorified.
For fucks sake, even the flood level had like bright little rays of sunshine peaking through the walls.

[TeeKup]

Still, if they would have put those animations that I mentioned in, it would have really made the game much better. I mean, imagine plowing through some Covenant, when all of a sudden, a Brute rams into your Warthog from the side, then flips it over. You, and your two Marine passengers fall out, and get surrounded by 20 Brutes. Your gunner gets grabs by the arms by a Brute in behind him, and proceeds to getting them ripped off, and lets out a yell of pain. Your passenger, on the other hand, still on the floor, gets the life punched out of him by another Brute. You start hopelessly fighting the Brutes, dodging their shots, and taking careful shots, to save ammunition. Your shields are empty, and you run behind cover, though you see red dots on your Motion Sensor coming towards you. Right as they're about to appear about to die, when 5 Elites come around the corner, all wielding dual swords, then proceed to dismember all the Brutes, and help you win.

You have no idea how much I would have came if that had happened.

[MithosK]

As much as it pains me to say this, Tartarus (sp?) and the Arbiter are my favorite Covenant guys because they're the only ones that seem to fit in with the idea of religious fanatacism, and the rest of them just seem to be along for the ride. The prophets don't do it for me. As they are portrayed in Halo 2 and Halo 3, they're all you really have to worry about- once they're gone, you don't have to worry about the other aliens anymore. I don't like that. I think the other aliens have their own motivation, even if it was originally imparted to them by the prophets. IMO, killing the prophets would only exacerbate the war, because the other aliens aren't just blindly following their orders for no reason, they're blindly following their orders because they have been trained to worship the Forerunner and hate humans.

Just want to point this out. At the end of Halo 2, the Covenant home world/capital is pretty much destroyed/infected, all but one of the Covenant leaders is dead, and he has taken the majority of their fleet to Earth. In Halo 3, that entire fleet enters the portal to the Ark.

The level "The Covenant" doesn’t mark just the end of the Covenant leader, but the death/destruction of a vast majority of the Covenants remaining troops and ships. No one said that the Brutes, Jackals, etc have stopped fighting the humans, but at this point they are so few in numbers that they can be considered no more than a resistance then an all-out army.

[TeeKup]

Resistance? Keep in mind that at the beginning of Halo 3, truths fleet destroyed what was left of the Home Fleet leaving only the 3 frigates we saw in The Storm cutscene. Forward Unto Dawn was cut in half leaving only 2 ships to protect Earth. I don't know about any other UNSC installations that have fleets but the Earth fleet is GONE.

[Warsaw]

Earth has the Elite's ships to help out until it can rebuild.

Also, well put Rob. Can't +rep though...:(

[MithosK]

Resistance? Keep in mind that at the beginning of Halo 3, truths fleet destroyed what was left of the Home Fleet leaving only the 3 frigates we saw in The Storm cutscene. Forward Unto Dawn was cut in half leaving only 2 ships to protect Earth. I don't know about any other UNSC installations that have fleets but the Earth fleet is GONE.
Is it said ingame that they only have three left? I can't remember.
If we go by what was seen in the Cutscene, then yes, I suppose they do only have two ships left stationed at Earth, but you have to remember, just because they sent their frigates to take down Truth's ship, doesn't mean they didn't keep some of their weaker ships or ONI's spy ships held back. As it stands Earth is in neaerly as bad a state as the Covenant Loyalists, who are now without a capital, and have no idea that their leadership has been completly destroyed.

Even if the Covenant still had a strong fleet, they wouldn't pose much of a threat, lets look at their member species:

Prophets: (Political Leaders) It is implied in Contact Harvest that all remaining Prophets lived on High Charity, we can pretty much consider this race to be extinct.

Elites: (Military Leaders) Left the Covenant after the slaughter of the High Council, more interested in returning to their home world and consider the Humans to be worthy wariors.

Brutes: (Military Leaders) While loyal to the Prophets, history has shown that due to the ensuing power struggle from the loss of the prophets, that the Brutes will blow each-other back to the stone age (see Halo Beastarium)

Hunters: Forced into joining the Covenant, have no real beef with mankind

Jackals: Pirates hired by the Covenant, largest threat to humanity

Grunts: Forced into joining the Covenant, just want to return home

Drones: I honestly don't remeber their motivation, likly no threat

[343guiltymc]

I didn't know Jackals were "hired", they were forced into the covenant just like the grunts and drones.

[MithosK]

I didn't know Jackals were "hired", they were forced into the covenant just like the grunts and drones.
Read Contact Harvest or the Beastery

[Hotrod]

Actually, the Grunts don't really want to go back home, since of the lack of heat. In Ghosts of Onyx, it's mentioned that the Grunts like being in the Covenant (well, in a way), since of their wealth of heat. I'm sure they won't be all too happy to go back to their cold homeworld.

[MithosK]

Actually, the Grunts don't really want to go back home, since of the lack of heat. In Ghosts of Onyx, it's mentioned that the Grunts like being in the Covenant (well, in a way), since of their wealth of heat. I'm sure they won't be all too happy to go back to their cold homeworld.
Ah, my bad from getting my facts from The Flood, either way, Grunts were never trained to use Starships

[TeeKup]

Well then can we safely say that the Jackals should be the primary enemy of this Mystery Halo Project by Bungie. If thats the case the protagonist cannot be a spartan so the jackals seem more formidable. This idea has a lot of potential. Should this project go this way hopefully we can also see more Jackal variants among their own private ranks.

[Bodzilla]

look i havnt played the other halo games, but the way i see it..

Halo 1 was the creation of the idea, it incorporated many things with a very very expansive universe with mystery's and a threat that could destroy everything.
Multiplayer is very successful and MLG and other leagues are formed.

Halo 2 formed around balance for the multiplayer aspect, tone down the pistol, bring in the battle riffle, every weapon has an opposite counter. Multiplayer exceeds yet the story and game suffer because the game gets pushed out the door way to fast. The amount of time and polish needed to tweek the game into a better campaign is abandoned for sales.

Halo 3, more time taken to tweek with multi-player after what happened in Halo 2. The visuals while stunning are Cliche and made specifically to appeal to a wide range of audiences with the intention of not offending anyone. Even though graphical power has improoved exponentiallty, the cartoon and kid friendly aspect of the game remains.
Gameplay is worked on, multiplayer is worked on
the story suffers.

[p0lar_bear]

Drones: I honestly don't remeber their motivation, likly no threat

Drones were also a hired gun, I think. The Halo 3 manual says "These flying, insectile warriors serve almost exclusively as professional soldiers rather than conforming to Covenant societal norms."

[Rob Oplawar]

hm, that's interesting. in contact harvest they were basically mindless slaves, with no discipline and a hive mentality that caused them to impulsively act for the well being of their own species, ignoring the damage they did to the brutes. or something. idk, tbh that book wasn't all that great and i wasn't really paying attention.

[Ifafudafi]

You know, this could take place during/before the Halo games. http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/337/ninjaws7.gif

[Mr Buckshot]

I wonder how the health system for these squads of marines will work. Obviously, they won't have the Mjolnir armor's recharging energy shields, but in keeping with the Halo tradition, I suspect that the health will "recharge" in a fashion similar to that of Call of Duty 4.

I'm interested in playing it, of course. I had hoped that Halo 3's co-op mode would let secondary players play as marines, but it turns out that the other players simply play as Elites. After all, the marines are still a force to be reckoned with - a smart, well-equipped marine can kick the asses of an entire group of Covenant, including Elites.

Hopefully, the storyline won't be like those Half-Life 1 expansion packs, where you simply tread through the same areas but as a different character...

[Boba]

This is kind of going back to a previous topic somewhat, but I agree with you Rob. Halo made a certain feeling arise with in me, which I didn't feel for years afterwards.. until I played Mass Effect. It still felt like you were at the beginning of some epic adventure, and in this case, an adventure I wanted to go on. Mass Effect has to have one of, if not the greatest story of any video game of all time.

[samnwck]

This is kind of going back to a previous topic somewhat, but I agree with you Rob. Halo made a certain feeling arise with in me, which I didn't feel for years afterwards.. until I played Mass Effect. It still felt like you were at the beginning of some epic adventure, and in this case, an adventure I wanted to go on. Mass Effect has to have one of, if not the greatest story of any video game of all time.

Totally agreed, but then again if you have ever played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 you'd definitely see where they got all there practice from. I definitely am waiting for the next installment to the Mass Effect franchise.