Halo Reach

dcdelgado

Since 6866 Days

I think the Reach setting lends itself very well to a gritty look and feel also.

In reply to

** Yes We CAN!! **

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Posted by Viginti_Tres

Spartan IIIs are supposed to overcome their enemy with superior tactics and team effort rather than technology (the concept of S-IIs). The downside is that we won't be wearing MJOLNIR armor, maybe a return for fall damage, but hopefully not a slower pace. And I already miss Cortana. :(

Thanks for the link DC. ery interesting, and hopefully true. I wonder whenever this AA technique has anything to do with the VSIR in ODST (originating from the Sniper in H3). When switched on the jaggies weren't visible.

You used the right word when you said supposed to, because there were some truly talented among the Spartan IIIs, like Tom and Lucy, and I believe Ash from Team Wolverine but what it all boils down to is that they can't hold a candle to the Spartan IIs. Many of the Spartan IIIs wouldn't even be able to cut it in the Spartan II program, because many of them simply wouldn't have even met the very strict requirements for being placed into the program in the first place.

The Spartan IIIs operate on a much tighter budget with far looser guidelines and if it weren't for chief mendez and Kurt, aka Spartan-051, aka Commander Kurt Ambrose, a spartan II originally from Master Chief's very own blue team's leadership, the program may not have produced the few gems that it did. I still remember from Ghosts of the Onyx when one of the better Spartan III females attempted to fight Kelly the Spartan II who was with Dr. Halsey and Kelly damn near came close to killing her. Were it not for Kurt arriving just in time to stop what was about to be a certain massacre, and Kelly recognizing the voice that yelled for her to stop, a Spartan III would've met a very unfortunate demise :)

In reply to

[quote=Viginti_Tres]Spartan IIIs are supposed to overcome their enemy with superior tactics and team effort rather than technology (the concept of S-IIs). The downside is that we won't be wearing MJOLNIR armor, maybe a return for fall damage, but hopefully not a slower pace. And I already miss Cortana. :(

Thanks for the link DC. ery interesting, and hopefully true. I wonder whenever this AA technique has anything to do with the VSIR in ODST (originating from the Sniper in H3). When switched on the jaggies weren't visible.[/quote]

You used the right word when you said [b]supposed to[/b], because there were some truly talented among the Spartan IIIs, like Tom and Lucy, and I believe Ash from Team Wolverine but what it all boils down to is that they can't hold a candle to the Spartan IIs. Many of the Spartan IIIs wouldn't even be able to cut it in the Spartan II program, because many of them simply wouldn't have even met the very strict requirements for being placed into the program in the first place.

The Spartan IIIs operate on a much tighter budget with far looser guidelines and if it weren't for chief mendez and Kurt, aka Spartan-051, aka Commander Kurt Ambrose, a spartan II originally from Master Chief's very own blue team's leadership, the program may not have produced the few gems that it did. I still remember from Ghosts of the Onyx when one of the better Spartan III females attempted to fight Kelly the Spartan II who was with Dr. Halsey and Kelly damn near came close to killing her. Were it not for Kurt arriving just in time to stop what was about to be a certain massacre, and Kelly recognizing the voice that yelled for her to stop, a Spartan III would've met a very unfortunate demise :)

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

dcdelgado

Since 6866 Days

one of the Bungie forum mods, thinks there spartan II?

* odmichael
* |
* Forum Ninja
*
*

The website is a Microsoft website. However, my guess is this is a mistake. Spartan III's were developed on Onyx and had no involvement on Reach. ONI kept the project a secret. These spartans look like Spartan II's to me.

In reply to

** Yes We CAN!! **

Acert93

Since 6977 Days

Having watched the HD footage here are some of my thoughts:

First, the Reach reveal is clearly not CGI but based on a game engine.

Second, this engine is very similar to Halo 3’s—this is not too dissimilar to the Forza Motorsport 3 “photomode” based videos. Strip the game of the uber-AA and the uber texture fidelity, go sub-HD, and scale back the shadow filtering and you have a game eerily similar to Halo 3. Indeed, look at the Halo 3 cut scenes where shadowing and lighting are amped up, LOD is maxed, and cinematic angles are chosen to show off the quite good Halo 3 material systems and emphasizing contrasting lighting situations and tada! Example you ask:

http://ui27.gamefaqs.com/986/gfs_63166_2_18.jpg

The Halo 3 reveal was in a real-time engine, too, and if you go back and look at it you can see how it is the Halo 3 engine but very selective, photo-esque angles were shown to emphasize the setting.

Side-by-side the Halo 3 and Reach videos have a bit in common to my eyes although you can see some progress.

So, in my opinion, this looks like an evolution of the Halo 3 engine and, based on how the Halo 3 reveal covered up certain deficiencies as well as how Microsoft has been using super-sampled rendering to show off their games, I think we can piece some stuff together as this does indeed seem to be generated from their engine.

Obviously, unless Bungie has sold out to 4xMSAA or a screen space AA trick, we can assume there will be a bit of jaggies. The art shown thus far is very dark and low contrast so aliasing will be minimal, mainly seen in areas with illumination. Going sub-HD will increase aliasing and lower image quality. No/little AF will destroy a lot of image quality again, especially the ground or objects at sharp angles; they may use a negative LOD which could cause swimming.

These things, right here, will really close the gap between Halo 3 and what we saw in Reach.

The video shows more foliage than seen in Halo 3; what was seen was pretty Spartan though. It looked clumsy in the wind (really fast moving, generic, and cloned repeatedly). Not too dissimilar to CoD4; alone it looks weak, but in the grand scheme it works. There were a lot of nice atmospheric effects. A bit of dust, but if you focus on the dust it isn’t atypical of other games.

Shadows looked really, really nice (dynamic shadows cast and received by dynamic objects) with great filtering. Bungie has done a lot of research on lighting and shadowing based on recent trade shows and it really shows. But I doubt what we saw makes it into the gameplay engine (see: Halo 3). We can hope that we don’t end up with disappearing shadows 10 feet away, but I am not sold on what we saw makes it into the retail product during gameplay. I am guessing they tweaked their renderer some as they had a lot of lights in the video. Even though the setting was dark ambient lighting seemed decent and the number of lights was quite good.

Human models were generic, but a LOT better than Halo 3. Faces looked kind of glossy and not the highest resolution textures I have ever seen, but they worked. The material systems on the armor actually look similar (in a very good) to Halo 3 and were some of the best parts of the video. Very detailed (in a Gears of War way) and reacted well to environmental lighting. Didn’t notice a reflection of the player in the Spartan visor at the beginning (something that saw a big downgrade in Halo 3 from video presentation to gameplay).

The storm in the background was amazing, but probably a skybox ala Halo 3 and ODST. Looks amazing but you can never get “into” the storm and keep the graphics. So a nice atmospheric background effect, something Halo 3 already did and did well.

Normal maps seemed higher resolution and used more frequently; Resolution of textures in the distance is also a lot better than Halo 3.

Vehicles were all detailed (e.g. the warthog had better texture resolution than Halo 3 by memory) but it wasn’t jaw dropping amazing. It moved kind of stiff, too. Overall they looked quite nice though and fit the Haloverse. Lights and rotor wash dust all add nice detail to the world.

The highlights were really “metallic” objects. The aircraft at the beginning look very detailed and lighting worked well (a great contrast between lit and unlit angles as well as self shadows) and the Spartan armor was amazing—especially the Spartan with the huge knife and flaming skull scratched paint visor. The scope was large and open with a great backdrop.

But… Halo 3 also had nice texture work (e.g. go to high ground and look directly down at the ground—very, very detailed!) but the real-time game play rendering kills IQ. Materials were also quite good on armor in Halo 3. Halo 3 could also support large vistas with great atmospherics.

The problem with Halo 3, besides IQ, is a lot of their tech choices weren’t maximized. The spent a lot of time with HDR and how the Spartan armor interacted with the environment and then they spent most of their time outdoors with a single light. So you get some amazing sequences (like the bridge where the flood help MC to get to the Prophet of Truth where the lighting and contrast is excellent) but a lot of ho-hum sequences as well.

I REALLY dig the grittier look (ala the commercials) and if Halo Reach has large firefights in open expanses I think the engine makes a lot of sense. But if we are back to medium sized skirmishes linked by linear gateways connecting segments I don’t see what is being shown is a lot different from Halo 3. Sure, maybe we will see a lot more darkened environments that put the lights to great use and maybe with Bungie familiar with their tool chains we will get overall better quality assets and better presentation. Halo 3 was a mess (no filtering or AA on open environments and large flat forerunner objects make a big ????!!) in terms of how the gameplay matched with their tech decisions. Games like BFBC and Far Cry 2 really make you pause in regards to what is possible.

But it doesn’t really matter. Halo gunplay is excellent, Halo 3 had some great AI, and Halo 3 is one of the richest featured games ever with 4 player coop from start to finish, amazing MP options and features, and have now branched out with FireFight. If Reach is large battles with a lot of kick @#$@# Spartans saving the day and Bungie continues progressing the features while keeping solid “30 seconds of fun” in the Haloverse I think consumers will be happy.

In reply to

Having watched the HD footage here are some of my thoughts:

First, the Reach reveal is clearly not CGI but based on a game engine.

Second, this engine is very similar to Halo 3’s—this is not too dissimilar to the Forza Motorsport 3 “photomode” based videos. Strip the game of the uber-AA and the uber texture fidelity, go sub-HD, and scale back the shadow filtering and you have a game eerily similar to Halo 3. Indeed, look at the Halo 3 cut scenes where shadowing and lighting are amped up, LOD is maxed, and cinematic angles are chosen to show off the quite good Halo 3 material systems and emphasizing contrasting lighting situations and tada! Example you ask:

http://ui27.gamefaqs.com/986/gfs_63166_2_18.jpg

The Halo 3 reveal was in a real-time engine, too, and if you go back and look at it you can see how it is the Halo 3 engine but very selective, photo-esque angles were shown to emphasize the setting.

Side-by-side the Halo 3 and Reach videos have a bit in common to my eyes although you can see some progress.

So, in my opinion, this looks like an evolution of the Halo 3 engine and, based on how the Halo 3 reveal covered up certain deficiencies as well as how Microsoft has been using super-sampled rendering to show off their games, I think we can piece some stuff together as this does indeed seem to be generated from their engine.

Obviously, unless Bungie has sold out to 4xMSAA or a screen space AA trick, we can assume there will be a bit of jaggies. The art shown thus far is very dark and low contrast so aliasing will be minimal, mainly seen in areas with illumination. Going sub-HD will increase aliasing and lower image quality. No/little AF will destroy a lot of image quality again, especially the ground or objects at sharp angles; they may use a negative LOD which could cause swimming.

These things, right here, will really close the gap between Halo 3 and what we saw in Reach.

The video shows more foliage than seen in Halo 3; what was seen was pretty Spartan though. It looked clumsy in the wind (really fast moving, generic, and cloned repeatedly). Not too dissimilar to CoD4; alone it looks weak, but in the grand scheme it works. There were a lot of nice atmospheric effects. A bit of dust, but if you focus on the dust it isn’t atypical of other games.

Shadows looked really, really nice (dynamic shadows cast and received by dynamic objects) with great filtering. Bungie has done a lot of research on lighting and shadowing based on recent trade shows and it really shows. But I doubt what we saw makes it into the gameplay engine (see: Halo 3). We can hope that we don’t end up with disappearing shadows 10 feet away, but I am not sold on what we saw makes it into the retail product during gameplay. I am guessing they tweaked their renderer some as they had a lot of lights in the video. Even though the setting was dark ambient lighting seemed decent and the number of lights was quite good.

Human models were generic, but a LOT better than Halo 3. Faces looked kind of glossy and not the highest resolution textures I have ever seen, but they worked. The material systems on the armor actually look similar (in a very good) to Halo 3 and were some of the best parts of the video. Very detailed (in a Gears of War way) and reacted well to environmental lighting. Didn’t notice a reflection of the player in the Spartan visor at the beginning (something that saw a big downgrade in Halo 3 from video presentation to gameplay).

The storm in the background was amazing, but probably a skybox ala Halo 3 and ODST. Looks amazing but you can never get “into” the storm and keep the graphics. So a nice atmospheric background effect, something Halo 3 already did and did well.

Normal maps seemed higher resolution and used more frequently; Resolution of textures in the distance is also a lot better than Halo 3.

Vehicles were all detailed (e.g. the warthog had better texture resolution than Halo 3 by memory) but it wasn’t jaw dropping amazing. It moved kind of stiff, too. Overall they looked quite nice though and fit the Haloverse. Lights and rotor wash dust all add nice detail to the world.

The highlights were really “metallic” objects. The aircraft at the beginning look very detailed and lighting worked well (a great contrast between lit and unlit angles as well as self shadows) and the Spartan armor was amazing—especially the Spartan with the huge knife and flaming skull scratched paint visor. The scope was large and open with a great backdrop.

But… Halo 3 also had nice texture work (e.g. go to high ground and look directly down at the ground—very, very detailed!) but the real-time game play rendering kills IQ. Materials were also quite good on armor in Halo 3. Halo 3 could also support large vistas with great atmospherics.

The problem with Halo 3, besides IQ, is a lot of their tech choices weren’t maximized. The spent a lot of time with HDR and how the Spartan armor interacted with the environment and then they spent most of their time outdoors with a single light. So you get some amazing sequences (like the bridge where the flood help MC to get to the Prophet of Truth where the lighting and contrast is excellent) but a lot of ho-hum sequences as well.

I REALLY dig the grittier look (ala the commercials) and if Halo Reach has large firefights in open expanses I think the engine makes a lot of sense. But if we are back to medium sized skirmishes linked by linear gateways connecting segments I don’t see what is being shown is a lot different from Halo 3. Sure, maybe we will see a lot more darkened environments that put the lights to great use and maybe with Bungie familiar with their tool chains we will get overall better quality assets and better presentation. Halo 3 was a mess (no filtering or AA on open environments and large flat forerunner objects make a big ????!!) in terms of how the gameplay matched with their tech decisions. Games like BFBC and Far Cry 2 really make you pause in regards to what is possible.

But it doesn’t really matter. Halo gunplay is excellent, Halo 3 had some great AI, and Halo 3 is one of the richest featured games ever with 4 player coop from start to finish, amazing MP options and features, and have now branched out with FireFight. If Reach is large battles with a lot of kick @#$@# Spartans saving the day and Bungie continues progressing the features while keeping solid “30 seconds of fun” in the Haloverse I think consumers will be happy.

Pwn'd by Phaethon360.

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Pegasi DEFINITELY refers to a mission undertaken by the Spartan IIIs, and every last one of them were wiped out except for two, Tom and Lucy, but it's possible that there may have been a third survivor that was kept further top secret.

Then again, the year for that Pegasi mission was July 3rd, 2545. On what year do the events of Reach take place, I believe the year is 2517?

If that's the case, then the Pegasi reference must truly not refer to the Spartan III mission at all. Hmm, now I'm confused. Well, I suppose it isn't impossible that other missions could have taken place in the Pegasi System. I guess if he had mentioned Pegasi Delta, which is the actual planet the mission took place on, then that would be a different story entirely and would surely refer to the Spartan III mission.

In regards to Reach's graphics, I guess we can probably safely assume that there will obviously be things in the cutscenes that we won't see during actual gameplay. Once we accept that much, everything becomes easier.

It's so funny the best indication we have of how good this game may look is actually those really bad quality leaked pictures we got from that 'Tom Morello' fella awhile back lol.

We know that the weapon models are greatly improved with a lot of really nice details. The more realistic tone given off by the trailer is clearly present in these leaked images.

The atmospherics seem pretty damn good here too. so despite what may or may not be making it into actual gameplay, the actual gameplay isn't doing so bad for itself based on the leaked images we've seen.

In reply to

Pegasi DEFINITELY refers to a mission undertaken by the Spartan IIIs, and every last one of them were wiped out except for two, Tom and Lucy, but it's possible that there may have been a third survivor that was kept further top secret.

Then again, the year for that Pegasi mission was July 3rd, 2545. On what year do the events of Reach take place, I believe the year is 2517?

If that's the case, then the Pegasi reference must truly not refer to the Spartan III mission at all. Hmm, now I'm confused. Well, I suppose it isn't impossible that other missions could have taken place in the Pegasi System. I guess if he had mentioned Pegasi Delta, which is the actual planet the mission took place on, then that would be a different story entirely and would surely refer to the Spartan III mission.

In regards to Reach's graphics, I guess we can probably safely assume that there will obviously be things in the cutscenes that we won't see during actual gameplay. Once we accept that much, everything becomes easier.

It's so funny the best indication we have of how good this game may look is actually those really bad quality leaked pictures we got from that 'Tom Morello' fella awhile back lol.

We know that the weapon models are greatly improved with a lot of really nice details. The more realistic tone given off by the trailer is clearly present in these leaked images.

[img]http://media.1up.com/media/03/7/6/8/lg/839.jpg[/img]

[img]http://media.1up.com/media/03/7/6/8/lg/840.jpg[/img]

The atmospherics seem pretty damn good here too. so despite what may or may not be making it into actual gameplay, the actual gameplay isn't doing so bad for itself based on the leaked images we've seen.

[img]http://media.1up.com/media/03/7/6/8/lg/843.jpg[/img]

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

Viginti_Tres

Since 6508 Days

The Pegasi assault took place 7 years prior to the events on Reach. It has to be a Spartan-III, Spartan-IIs weren't involved, they didn't even know of their existence.

Acert, that's one huge ass post. I agree with your sentiment, we probably won't know how the game will look like until we put it in the tray.

In reply to

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Posted by Viginti_Tres

The Pegasi assault took place 7 years prior to the events on Reach. It has to be a Spartan-III, Spartan-IIs weren't involved, they didn't even know of their existence.

Acert, that's one huge ass post. I agree with your sentiment, we probably won't know how the game will look like until we put it in the tray.

Awesome! It seems the assault on Reach took place 2552 and the mission on Pegasi took place 2545!! Which means Spartan IIIs absolutely exist as of the events of Reach.

It's confirmed then, that is absolutely a Spartan III and he's probably around 18-20 years old right now, since I believe all the Spartan IIIs that took part in Operation Torpedo were around the ages of 11 and 12.

Also, one of the Spartans in there were referred to as Commander. I wonder if it's at all possible that that Commander is Commander Kurt Ambrose aka Spartan-051 under a different name? Could that be the Spartan II Kurt that was even better than the Chief himself?

What I hope Reach does is bring in the sort of cinematic stuff that has become a staple of Modern Warfare. I want to see some pretty cool stuff taking place amongst those other Spartans. For one, I wouldn't mind seeing that Spartan have a chance to actually use that knife he was sharpening on a covenant.

I also wonder if that Spartan placing her hand in front of Lone Wolf could be a sign of distrust amongst the ranks. Especially since he's one of few survivors from that suicide mission on Pegasi.

In reply to

[quote=Viginti_Tres]The Pegasi assault took place 7 years prior to the events on Reach. It has to be a Spartan-III, Spartan-IIs weren't involved, they didn't even know of their existence.

Acert, that's one huge ass post. I agree with your sentiment, we probably won't know how the game will look like until we put it in the tray.[/quote]

Awesome! It seems the assault on Reach took place 2552 and the mission on Pegasi took place 2545!! Which means Spartan IIIs absolutely exist as of the events of Reach.

It's confirmed then, that is absolutely a Spartan III and he's probably around 18-20 years old right now, since I believe all the Spartan IIIs that took part in Operation Torpedo were around the ages of 11 and 12.

Also, one of the Spartans in there were referred to as Commander. I wonder if it's at all possible that that Commander is Commander Kurt Ambrose aka Spartan-051 under a different name? Could that be the Spartan II Kurt that was even better than the Chief himself?

What I hope Reach does is bring in the sort of cinematic stuff that has become a staple of Modern Warfare. I want to see some pretty cool stuff taking place amongst those other Spartans. For one, I wouldn't mind seeing that Spartan have a chance to actually use that knife he was sharpening on a covenant.

I also wonder if that Spartan placing her hand in front of Lone Wolf could be a sign of distrust amongst the ranks. Especially since he's one of few survivors from that suicide mission on Pegasi.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

I totally forgot about an ability that was implanted into the later Spartan IIIs. It was like a berserk ability where their brains would become as primitive as humanely possible, allowing them to fight on even with the most vicious of injuries.

They would potentially lose all ability to discern who was friend and who was foe.

It was a completely illegal procedure that was outlawed, and someone had allowed it to proceed. If i'm not mistaken, Kurt may have allowed it because he had grown so attached to the Spartan IIIs that he no longer wanted to see any of them die, and so he put in place this extra protection for them.

If Lone Wolf participated in the Pegasi Delta mission, then there's no way that such a thing exists inside of him, but who knows about the rest of your team :)

There is also a gap in the events between Febrary 2551 and October 2552 in the book. I think the events of Reach started in September, so it's potentially possible that Spartan IIIs, including Kurt himself could have been involved on the ground on Reach.

Kurt in essence became a Spartan III, but he was truly a Spartan II. He simply elected to wear the same armor as the rest of the Spartan IIIs because he felt it would be dishonorable for him to do otherwise. If he had actually put on his Spartan II armor during the events on the Onyx Planet, he would likely still be alive.

I have a strange feeling that the one that was called Commander in the Reach Trailer, could be Commander Kurt Ambrose. Meaning he's truly a Spartan II who simply isn't wearing his armor. Also, Kurt, more than any other Spartan displayed more normal human like behavior than all the rest. He seemed like any regular old guy as far as personality was concerned.

In reply to

I totally forgot about an ability that was implanted into the later Spartan IIIs. It was like a berserk ability where their brains would become as primitive as humanely possible, allowing them to fight on even with the most vicious of injuries.

They would potentially lose all ability to discern who was friend and who was foe.

It was a completely illegal procedure that was outlawed, and someone had allowed it to proceed. If i'm not mistaken, Kurt may have allowed it because he had grown so attached to the Spartan IIIs that he no longer wanted to see any of them die, and so he put in place this extra protection for them.

If Lone Wolf participated in the Pegasi Delta mission, then there's no way that such a thing exists inside of him, but who knows about the rest of your team :)

There is also a gap in the events between Febrary 2551 and October 2552 in the book. I think the events of Reach started in September, so it's potentially possible that Spartan IIIs, including Kurt himself could have been involved on the ground on Reach.

Kurt in essence became a Spartan III, but he was truly a Spartan II. He simply elected to wear the same armor as the rest of the Spartan IIIs because he felt it would be dishonorable for him to do otherwise. If he had actually put on his Spartan II armor during the events on the Onyx Planet, he would likely still be alive.

I have a strange feeling that the one that was called Commander in the Reach Trailer, could be Commander Kurt Ambrose. Meaning he's truly a Spartan II who simply isn't wearing his armor. Also, Kurt, more than any other Spartan displayed more normal human like behavior than all the rest. He seemed like any regular old guy as far as personality was concerned.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

Viginti_Tres

Since 6508 Days

Kurt died on Onyx.

*awaits the inevitable*

In reply to

dcdelgado

Since 6866 Days

You all forget Bungie may not play strictly by the Canon, Spartan II FTW!! :)

In reply to

** Yes We CAN!! **

GrimThorne

Since 6878 Days

Ace, thanx for bringing up once again the differences between IN-Engine and IN-Game. At least you weren't referred to as cpt. obvious for pointing it out either ;)

It really seems to me that memory no longer serves whenever a shiny new Halo trailer from Bungie comes on the scene. Everyone is really excited right now and it's very hard for them to keep a proper perspective, and they don't want to hear individuals like myself reminding them that Bungie has done this sort of thing before.

I'm really unimpressed with this trailer. A guy walks in a room and then the commander just starts talking up Spartans. Then they all walk out and jump on a transport? That's it? That's what has everybody gassed up? It's was very very boring. As I already stated earlier the only thing I was impressed with was the music.

Now I understand that Bungie does this because the Halo fan base loves deconstructing these things and finding clues and deeper meaning in them. But I'm surprised that it didn't bother the fan base that "Lone Wolf" didn't say anything when he walked in that barrack. Not a single word, not even during the walk towards the transport. I guess this means that we're going to have to deal with yet another faceless, silent protagonist who won't interact with his teammates. He's just there and everyone will be talking around him. With that realization we can only hope that at least our squad mates have real personalities, especially if we're not going to be able to relate with them in any way. And when I saw the spartan with the painted skull sharpening his blade and cutting himself into his own armor I thought, "not a good start for personalities". I had to laugh.

And if Bungie is keeping the no face- no talking protagonist formula, (even the ODST Rookie was silent accept for cutscenes) then we shouldn't at all be surprised if they continue with other Halo formulas that don't seem to change from game to game. Like the the tightly choreographed levels, the scripted battles and the paint by numbers approach to combat. All I'm saying is that until we see some game footage I'm not giving Bungie credit for do anything different.

I think that's fair.

In reply to

Ace, thanx for bringing up once again the differences between IN-Engine and IN-Game.  At least you weren't referred to as cpt. obvious for pointing it out either  ;)

It really seems to me that memory no longer serves whenever a shiny new Halo trailer from Bungie comes on the scene.   Everyone is really excited right now and it's very hard for them to keep a proper perspective, and they don't want to hear individuals like myself reminding them that Bungie has done this sort of thing before.

I'm really unimpressed with this trailer.  A guy walks in a room and then the commander just starts talking up Spartans.  Then they all walk out and jump on a transport?  That's it?  That's what has everybody gassed up?  It's was very very boring. As I already stated earlier the only thing I was impressed with was the music.

Now I understand that Bungie does this because the Halo fan base loves deconstructing these things and finding clues and deeper meaning in them.   But I'm surprised that it didn't bother the fan base that  [i]"Lone Wolf"[/i] didn't say anything when he walked in that barrack.   Not a single word, not even during the walk towards the transport.   I guess this means that we're going to have to deal with yet another faceless, silent protagonist who won't interact with his teammates.  He's just there and everyone will be talking around him.  With that realization we can only hope that at least our squad mates have real personalities, especially if we're not going to be able to relate with them in any way.  And when I saw the spartan with the painted skull sharpening his blade and cutting himself into his own armor I thought, [i]"not a good start for personalities"[/i].    I had to laugh.

And if Bungie is keeping the no face- no talking protagonist formula, (even the ODST Rookie was silent accept for cutscenes) then we shouldn't at all be surprised if they continue with other Halo formulas that don't seem to change from game to game.  Like the the tightly choreographed levels, the scripted battles and the paint by numbers approach to combat.   All I'm saying is that until we see some game footage I'm not giving Bungie credit for do anything different.

I think that's fair.

Optimusv2

Since 6898 Days

Posted by Viginti_Tres

Kurt died on Onyx.

*awaits the inevitable*

Kurt died after the events of Reach. He was alive and well monitoring the administering of stimulants to the new set of Spartan IIIs a month after Reach. He died in the core room of the Onyx Planet on November 3rd, 2552. Kurt was still alive well into Halo 2 and was even alive for parts of Halo 3. If I'm not mistaken, he may have even survived to the very end of Halo 3.

I believe when Halo 4 eventually gets made, and it will, it will take place on the Onyx Planet where Chief will meet back up with the remaining members of Blue Team, Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez, and of course the surviving Spartan III members. Halo fans are being prepped for a form of Spartan team combat with Reach and then it will get expanded on in Halo 4. Just my guess.

Grim, well, visually the cutscene looked fantastic, and there is plenty to be excited about just from the mere mention of Pegasi and the thought that there were no survivors. It's even further exciting when the leader in the room wasn't directly called by any sort of name besides Commander, the very title that Kurt, a Spartan II from Blue Team that was seemingly even better than Master Chief himself, eventually received when he was kidnapped and made a major participant in the Spartan III training program.

That's nothing to be excited about? It might not end up being Kurt Ambrose aka Spartan-052, but with the mention of Pegasi, the Spartan III program has been directly linked with Reach. The main character that we play with is ssemingly a survivor of that suicide mission Operation Torpedo that took place on Pegasi Delta. It was previously believed that only Tom and Lucy survived.

How this one Spartan III, who should've been around like 12 at the time, managed to survive for very long on that mission all by himself is something that I find particularly interesting. There's nothing wrong with not being impressed, if that's how you truly feel about it, but there surely isn't anything wrong with being extremely excited about what they showed.

I even see people complaining about the dialogue. Just what the hell did people expect. Did they expect to hear a long philosophical debate from the Spartans? Did people expect to hear some poetry or a bit of shakespeare? Perhaps some Friedrich Nietzsche or a speech in the same vein as what Russell Crowe gave at the start of Gladiator? We may get something like that at some point in the game, but I'm sure not disappointed it didn't show up in that particular scene.

Even if the final game ends up looking nowhere quite as amazing as that cutscene looked, we at least got a small sense for the kind of mood that Bungie may be going for with the game. It also has a more gritty and realistic look. The Elite has never looked so vicious as the one I saw in that cutscene.

In the book, Spartan IIIs were also capable of using Jackal arm shields, which I suspect this Spartan III may be able to do as well. The infiltration suit had camo properties to it. We practically got a confirmation that the stuff leaked earlier was in fact legit. You can see the same bluish light or lcd interface inside the warthog that briefly shows up in those leaked screens from much earlier.

It also gives a good sense of the type of animation quality we may end up seeing in the game, which is a massive MASSIVE plus for anybody tired of the ridiculous looking animation in a franchise that has made more money than most ever will, but yet can't seem to match the animation quality of games that make far less mone or have much smaller budgets.

That one cutscene alone, even if the graphics won't end up being that good, when you factor in presentation, camera work, the modeling of the character faces and the animation quality, it singlehandidly puts every single cutscene in the entirety of Halo 3 to shame, and that's something to be very impressed/excited about in my eyes.

People may disagree with that Halo 3 cutscene statement, but every last cutscene in that game was hurt because it didn't contain the same attention to detail and level of presentation as what I saw in that single admittedly not very action-packed cutscene.

In reply to

[quote=Viginti_Tres]Kurt died on Onyx.

[spoiler]*awaits the inevitable*[/spoiler][/quote]

Kurt died after the events of Reach. He was alive and well monitoring the administering of stimulants to the new set of Spartan IIIs a month after Reach. He died in the core room of the Onyx Planet on November 3rd, 2552. Kurt was still alive well into Halo 2 and was even alive for parts of Halo 3. If I'm not mistaken, he may have even survived to the very end of Halo 3.

I believe when Halo 4 eventually gets made, and it will, it will take place on the Onyx Planet where Chief will meet back up with the remaining members of Blue Team, Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez, and of course the surviving Spartan III members. Halo fans are being prepped for a form of Spartan team combat with Reach and then it will get expanded on in Halo 4. Just my guess.

Grim, well, visually the cutscene looked fantastic, and there is plenty to be excited about just from the mere mention of Pegasi and the thought that there were no survivors. It's even further exciting when the leader in the room wasn't directly called by any sort of name besides Commander, the very title that Kurt, a Spartan II from Blue Team that was seemingly even better than Master Chief himself, eventually received when he was kidnapped and made a major participant in the Spartan III training program.

That's nothing to be excited about? It might not end up being Kurt Ambrose aka Spartan-052, but with the mention of Pegasi, the Spartan III program has been directly linked with Reach. The main character that we play with is ssemingly a survivor of that suicide mission Operation Torpedo that took place on Pegasi Delta. It was previously believed that only Tom and Lucy survived.

How this one Spartan III, who should've been around like 12 at the time, managed to survive for very long on that mission all by himself is something that I find particularly interesting. There's nothing wrong with not being impressed, if that's how you truly feel about it, but there surely isn't anything wrong with being extremely excited about what they showed.

I even see people complaining about the dialogue. Just what the hell did people expect. Did they expect to hear a long philosophical debate from the Spartans? Did people expect to hear some poetry or a bit of shakespeare? Perhaps some Friedrich Nietzsche or a speech in the same vein as what Russell Crowe gave at the start of Gladiator? We may get something like that at some point in the game, but I'm sure not disappointed it didn't show up in that particular scene.

Even if the final game ends up looking nowhere quite as amazing as that cutscene looked, we at least got a small sense for the kind of mood that Bungie may be going for with the game. It also has a more gritty and realistic look. The Elite has never looked so vicious as the one I saw in that cutscene.

In the book, Spartan IIIs were also capable of using Jackal arm shields, which I suspect this Spartan III may be able to do as well. The infiltration suit had camo properties to it. We practically got a confirmation that the stuff leaked earlier was in fact legit. You can see the same bluish light or lcd interface inside the warthog that briefly shows up in those leaked screens from much earlier.

It also gives a good sense of the type of animation quality we may end up seeing in the game, which is a massive MASSIVE plus for anybody tired of the ridiculous looking animation in a franchise that has made more money than most ever will, but yet can't seem to match the animation quality of games that make far less mone or have much smaller budgets.

[b]That one cutscene alone, even if the graphics won't end up being that good, when you factor in presentation, camera work, the modeling of the character faces and the animation quality, it singlehandidly puts every single cutscene in the entirety of Halo 3 to shame, and that's something to be very impressed/excited about in my eyes.[/b]

People may disagree with that Halo 3 cutscene statement, but every last cutscene in that game was hurt because it didn't contain the same attention to detail and level of presentation as what I saw in that single admittedly not very action-packed cutscene.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is coming back to reclaim the throne :)

Seeing it in motion on your HDTV, will blow your mind!!

Don't ask any questions just shut up and buy Halo : Ghosts of the Onyx one of the greatest books ever.

pssh! more like electronic g

Tomarru

Since 6078 Days

Posted by Acert93

Having watched the HD footage here are some of my thoughts:
....

Completely agree with you, your post contains everything i was trying to convey in the replies to the video. I think the engine is more an evolution of their past tech rather than a completely rewritten engine. H3 to me is a really mixed bag, in certain circumstances it looks great (cutscenes and set pieces) but most of the time its bordering on horrid. You get their emphasis on lighting, but when everything is saturated and uber colourful it totally negates any effort they put into the lighting engine, there is no subtlety left to it. Then the textures are sometimes nicely detailed but often times loose a lot of their quality over short distances. And so on and so forth over most visual features down to the sub hd resolution and lack of adequite AA.

If they can fix all of the issues that the H3 engine has then they may be onto something, but they need to be wholly more consistant. Another thing I was wondering about was the video record feature and how much it eats out of potential rendering performance, surely they should just axe it, it's a nice thing to have if you're so keen, but it's a feature used by a minority at a cost to everyone.

The leaked shots are great though, they offer more hope as to what the actual game will look like than some cutscene.

In reply to

[quote=Acert93]Having watched the HD footage here are some of my thoughts:
....[/quote]

Completely agree with you, your post contains everything i was trying to convey in the replies to the video. I think the engine is more an evolution of their past tech rather than a completely rewritten engine. H3 to me is a really mixed bag, in certain circumstances it looks great (cutscenes and set pieces) but most of the time its bordering on horrid. You get their emphasis on lighting, but when everything is saturated and uber colourful it totally negates any effort they put into the lighting engine, there is no subtlety left to it. Then the textures are sometimes nicely detailed but often times loose a lot of their quality over short distances. And so on and so forth over most visual features down to the sub hd resolution and lack of adequite AA.

If they can fix all of the issues that the H3 engine has then they may be onto something, but they need to be wholly more consistant. Another thing I was wondering about was the video record feature and how much it eats out of potential rendering performance, surely they should just axe it, it's a nice thing to have if you're so keen, but it's a feature used by a minority at a cost to everyone.

The leaked shots are great though, they offer more hope as to what the actual game will look like than some cutscene.

dcdelgado

Since 6866 Days

One, this is not really a trailer it just part of the opening cinematic to the Reach game, the first Halo 3 trailer they put together for E3 was NOT part of the Halo3 game but just something put together in-engine to show the e3 crowd, no one really gives a frack about the VGA's but as Bungie did not pay a penny for some screen time they gave the VGA's part of the games opening cinematic as it was ready and it was a win win situation for them, I do love the fact that people refuse to believe the games cinematic will look this good, makes a difference from them complaining about Halo's graphics not being up to scratch to begin with :)

In reply to

** Yes We CAN!! **

SimonM7

Since 7029 Days

Actually this cinematic wasn't ready, they busted their asses making it come together to have something realtime to show as the reveal.

A tremendous amount of work went into this two and a half minute first look. Creative Director Marcus Lehto, and his Halo: Reach team knew it was gonna be a challenge to get it into fighting shape in just two months time, but they didn’t want your first look to be CG footage.

In reply to

http://modeseven.blogspot.com | Dominic and Simon - dyanamic games blog duo!
Twitter: @simonlundmark

dcdelgado

Since 6866 Days

The cinematic was complete but the polishing phase was not as i remember it?.

In reply to

** Yes We CAN!! **

alimokrane

Since 6936 Days

Eurogamer has just posted a Tech Analysis of the Halo Reach trailer
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/halo-reach-trail...

In reply to

BLackHawkodst

Since 5892 Days

MS Press Release -

Stunning First Footage of “Halo: Reach” Now Available

EDITOR’S NOTE: The ESRB requires that all trailers with Mature ("M") or Adults Only ("AO") content MUST be behind an ESRB compliant age-gate with NO EXCEPTIONS.

Step into the boots of a Spartan III and prepare for the first look at “Halo: Reach,” the highly anticipated prequel to the “Halo” trilogy from acclaimed developer Bungie coming fall 2010. The very first “Halo: Reach” video had its worldwide debut last night during the Spike TV Video Game Awards by actress Tricia Helfer, offering gamers a taste of the story to come.

Taken from part of the game’s opening cinematic, the video provides the first look at the story of “Halo: Reach,” which introduces players to Noble Team, a squad of battle-hardened Spartan soldiers. “Halo: Reach” charts the story of Noble Team in their heroic stand to defend the planet Reach, its people and secrets against a ruthless assault by an alien collective known as the Covenant.

“Halo: Reach” is being published by Microsoft Game Studios and launches in the fall of 2010 exclusively on Xbox 360. The “Halo: Reach” multiplayer beta is coming spring 2010, which players can access exclusively through “Halo 3: ODST.”

The “Halo: Reach” video is available now on Xbox LIVE and Bungie.net. Press only (do not publish the URL): for .wmv files and a screen shot from the “Halo: Reach” video, go to: http://edelman.psni.com/public/Halo%20Reach/

http://gamerscoreblog.com/press/archive/2009/12/13...

In reply to

MS Press Release -

[quote]Stunning First Footage of “Halo: Reach” Now Available

EDITOR’S NOTE: The ESRB requires that all trailers with Mature ("M") or Adults Only ("AO") content MUST be behind an ESRB compliant age-gate with NO EXCEPTIONS.

Step into the boots of a Spartan III and prepare for the first look at “Halo: Reach,” the highly anticipated prequel to the “Halo” trilogy from acclaimed developer Bungie coming fall 2010. The very first “Halo: Reach” video had its worldwide debut last night during the Spike TV Video Game Awards by actress Tricia Helfer, offering gamers a taste of the story to come.

Taken from part of the game’s opening cinematic, the video provides the first look at the story of “Halo: Reach,” which introduces players to Noble Team, a squad of battle-hardened Spartan soldiers. “Halo: Reach” charts the story of Noble Team in their heroic stand to defend the planet Reach, its people and secrets against a ruthless assault by an alien collective known as the Covenant.

“Halo: Reach” is being published by Microsoft Game Studios and launches in the fall of 2010 exclusively on Xbox 360. The “Halo: Reach” multiplayer beta is coming spring 2010, which players can access exclusively through “Halo 3: ODST.”

The “Halo: Reach” video is available now on Xbox LIVE and Bungie.net. Press only (do not publish the URL): for .wmv files and a screen shot from the “Halo: Reach” video, go to: http://edelman.psni.com/public/Halo%20Reach/[/quote]

http://gamerscoreblog.com/press/archive/2009/12/13/kz123.aspx

Prepare To Drop!!

Ronsauce

Since 6991 Days

Posted by GrimThorne

Ace, thanx for bringing up once again the differences between IN-Engine and IN-Game. At least you weren't referred to as cpt. obvious for pointing it out either ;)

Ace said "First, the Reach reveal is clearly not CGI but based on a game engine" whereas you said "IT'S NOT GAMEPLAY!!!." His intentions seemed more on the informative side; yours seemed...I dunno...petty?

It really seems to me that memory no longer serves whenever a shiny new Halo trailer from Bungie comes on the scene. Everyone is really excited right now and it's very hard for them to keep a proper perspective, and they don't want to hear individuals like myself reminding them that Bungie has done this sort of thing before.

Maybe us Halo fans are just excited to be seeing something new for an upcoming Halo game. Don't act like everyone is some kind of fanboy simply because we had a positive reaction to the video.

Like the the tightly choreographed levels, the scripted battles and the paint by numbers approach to combat.

The hell? What you mentioned, or the lackthereof, is exactly why I've been able to replay Halo games and not get bored with the gameplay. The battles don't feel scripted or paint by numbers at all to me. That's more of a CoD4 element.

In reply to

[quote=GrimThorne]Ace, thanx for bringing up once again the differences between IN-Engine and IN-Game.  At least you weren't referred to as cpt. obvious for pointing it out either  ;)[/quote]
Ace said "First, the Reach reveal is clearly not CGI but based on a game engine" whereas you said "[b]IT'S NOT GAMEPLAY!!![/b]." His intentions seemed more on the informative side; yours seemed...I dunno...petty?

[quote]It really seems to me that memory no longer serves whenever a shiny new Halo trailer from Bungie comes on the scene.   Everyone is really excited right now and it's very hard for them to keep a proper perspective, and they don't want to hear individuals like myself reminding them that Bungie has done this sort of thing before.[/quote]
Maybe us Halo fans are just excited to be seeing something new for an upcoming Halo game. Don't act like everyone is some kind of fanboy simply because we had a positive reaction to the video.
[quote] Like the the tightly choreographed levels, the scripted battles and the paint by numbers approach to combat.[/quote]
The hell? What you mentioned, or the lackthereof, is exactly [i]why[/i] I've been able to replay Halo games and not get bored with the gameplay. The battles don't feel scripted or paint by numbers at all to me. That's more of a CoD4 element.

Zapp Brannigan: If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards...Checkmate.

ManThatYouFear

Since 6949 Days

Why dont they for once leak a screen thats Hires none blur...

In reply to

I think i have stood in poo

GrimThorne

Since 6878 Days

Posted by dcdelgado

O I do love the fact that people refuse to believe the games cinematic will look this good, makes a difference from them complaining about Halo's graphics not being up to scratch to begin with :)

Well....that is true. And don't you or anyone else here misunderstand me, I'm not a hater. I WANT to believe it's all real. But I'm not going to set my self up for disappointment, Bungie's got to show it to me.

Posted by Optimusv2

Grim, well, visually the cutscene looked fantastic, and there is plenty to be excited about just from the mere mention of Pegasi and the thought that there were no survivors. It's even further exciting when the leader in the room wasn't directly called by any sort of name besides Commander, the very title that Kurt, a Spartan II from Blue Team that was seemingly even better than Master Chief himself, eventually received when he was kidnapped and made a major participant in the Spartan III training program.

That's nothing to be excited about? It might not end up being Kurt Ambrose aka Spartan-052, but with the mention of Pegasi, the Spartan III program has been directly linked with Reach. The main character that we play with is ssemingly a survivor of that suicide mission Operation Torpedo that took place on Pegasi Delta. It was previously believed that only Tom and Lucy survived.

How this one Spartan III, who should've been around like 12 at the time, managed to survive for very long on that mission all by himself is something that I find particularly interesting. There's nothing wrong with not being impressed, if that's how you truly feel about it, but there surely isn't anything wrong with being extremely excited about what they showed.

Optimus I really don't think Lt Lone Wolf is a Spartan III at all. I think Lone Wolf is a Spartan II from Grey Team. ONI has always kept them separate and isolated from the other Spartan teams, and that was alluded to by the commander when he mentioned looking into the Lt's records and missions. This would also indicate that he's had his LT rank for some time and he wouldn't have earned it with the Spartan IIIs.

This also is the reason why I don't think the commander is Kurt, the commander didn't know who this Spartan was at all. He had to read up on him. If it was Kurt and Lone Wolf was a Spartan III, he would have gotten a different greeting. It's possible ONI had Grey Team shadowing the Pegasi operation when something went wrong or the mission changed.

Posted by Optimusv2

I even see people complaining about the dialogue. Just what the hell did people expect. Did they expect to hear a long philosophical debate from the Spartans? Did people expect to hear some poetry or a bit of shakespeare?

No. lol But we're going to BE Team Noble for several hours. It would have been nice to know they have more than a pulse under their armor, but I'll settle for some gameplay footage.

Posted by alimokrane

Eurogamer has just posted a Tech Analysis of the Halo Reach trailer
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/halo-reach-trail...

Alimo I can't believe I didn't think of that myself. Depth of Field techniques would explain the reason why the trailer looks like it has high AA turned on. That would also explain SimonM7's posting about the Reach team spending two months to get this cinematic together. They would need to spend considerable time applying DOF techniques to a game that doesn't have all of it's post processing applied.

In reply to

[quote=dcdelgado]O I do love the fact that people refuse to believe the games cinematic will look this good, makes a difference from them complaining about Halo's graphics not being up to scratch to begin with :)[/quote]

Well....that is true.  And don't you or anyone else here misunderstand me, I'm not a hater.  I WANT to believe it's all real.   But I'm not going to set my self up for disappointment, Bungie's got to show it to me.

[quote=Optimusv2]

Grim, well, visually the cutscene looked fantastic, and there is plenty to be excited about just from the mere mention of Pegasi and the thought that there were no survivors. It's even further exciting when the leader in the room wasn't directly called by any sort of name besides Commander, the very title that Kurt, a Spartan II from Blue Team that was seemingly even better than Master Chief himself, eventually received when he was kidnapped and made a major participant in the Spartan III training program.

That's nothing to be excited about? It might not end up being Kurt Ambrose aka Spartan-052, but with the mention of Pegasi, the Spartan III program has been directly linked with Reach. The main character that we play with is ssemingly a survivor of that suicide mission Operation Torpedo that took place on Pegasi Delta. It was previously believed that only Tom and Lucy survived.

How this one Spartan III, who should've been around like 12 at the time, managed to survive for very long on that mission all by himself is something that I find particularly interesting. There's nothing wrong with not being impressed, if that's how you truly feel about it, but there surely isn't anything wrong with being extremely excited about what they showed. [/quote]

Optimus I really don't think Lt Lone Wolf is a Spartan III at all.  I think Lone Wolf is a Spartan II from Grey Team.   ONI has always kept them separate and isolated from the other Spartan teams, and that was alluded to by the commander when he mentioned looking into the Lt's records and missions.  This would also indicate that he's had his LT rank for some time and he wouldn't have earned it with the Spartan IIIs.

This also is the reason why I don't think the commander is Kurt, the commander didn't know who this Spartan was at all.  He had to read up on him.  If it was Kurt and Lone Wolf was a Spartan III, he would have gotten a different greeting.   It's possible ONI had Grey Team shadowing the Pegasi operation when something went wrong or the mission changed.

[quote=Optimusv2]I even see people complaining about the dialogue. Just what the hell did people expect. Did they expect to hear a long philosophical debate from the Spartans? Did people expect to hear some poetry or a bit of shakespeare? [/quote]

No. lol  But we're going to BE Team Noble for several hours.  It would have been nice to know they have more than a pulse under their armor, but I'll settle for some gameplay footage.

[quote=alimokrane]Eurogamer has just posted a Tech Analysis of the Halo Reach trailer
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/halo-reach-trailer-analysis-blog-entry[/quote]

Alimo I can't believe I didn't think of that myself.  Depth of Field techniques would explain the reason why the trailer looks like it has high AA turned on.  That would also explain SimonM7's posting about the Reach team spending two months to get this cinematic together.    They would need to spend considerable time applying DOF techniques to a game that doesn't have all of it's post processing applied.

szaromir

Since 6762 Days

The fiction stuff got a bit ridiculous in this game. I find it hard to think of a non-bullshit reason why Spartan-IIIs are on Reach, not to mention that they should be 13-15 years old.

In reply to

"That just happened 'cause that was awesome" - Randy Pitchford, Gearbox

RC_Master

Since 6908 Days

Posted by szaromir

The fiction stuff got a bit ridiculous in this game. I find it hard to think of a non-bullshit reason why Spartan-IIIs are on Reach, not to mention that they should be 13-15 years old.

Thats how old they were when they completed their training. Check the dates, the earliest spartan IIIs would be at least in their 20s. Plus, they would look fully grown anyway.

In reply to

Ignorance is the true enemy of all things.

Suhweet!

szaromir

Since 6762 Days

Posted by RC_Master

Thats how old they were when they completed their training. Check the dates, the earliest spartan IIIs would be at least in their 20s.

But they were all dead at that point. :P
1st generation Spartan-IIIs (Alpha) - all dead
2nd generation Spartan-IIIs (Beta) - 2 or 3 survived (the "lone wolf" Spartan is apparently an unknown survivor)
3rd generation Spartan-IIIs (Gamma) should be on average 13 years old and those were the ones that were scattered across various missions during the events of the games/Ghost of Onix.

In reply to

"That just happened 'cause that was awesome" - Randy Pitchford, Gearbox

blmbox

Since 6337 Days

So, just for me to wrap my head around things (seeing as I've never read:

- This 'Lone Wolf' guy is supposedly a Spartan-III, a 'type' of Spartan that were considered expendible and used in very high-risk operations
- He was seemingly part of the operation on Pegasi
- This mission was essentially a suicide mission, so his apparent survival is a remarkable achievement (but also indicates that he may have gone against protocol to an extent); in other words, he is a bad ass
- The rest of the squad may be Spartan-IIs, a superior version of Spartans? I'm guessing it goes Spartan-III, Spartan-II and Spartan-III (the most superior version of the Spartans)?
- The events of Reach refer to the planet being invaded (and eventually 'frozen') by the Convenent, the main antagonist force in the Halo series
- Why was Reach attacked? What were the Convenent's motives for doing so?
- The Spartans were sent to Reach to put its inhabitants from the ongoing onslaught, but were eventually killed
- Only the Master Chief remains after the events of Reach, as he discovers the first Halo (which triggers the line of events that occur in the main series)

If anyone could correct or clarify the stuff I've said above, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've never really paid attention to the story and lore of Halo; I've only really just played the games for purely enjoyment purposes, without ever paying attention to what was going on! That now seems like a shame, because I've recently taken considerable interest in the characters and species of Halo - as well as the main plot itself.

Therefore, I really want to make an effort to understand and appreciate the events of this upcoming game. I'm sure I'd appreciate the game even more as a result.

In reply to

So, just for me to wrap my head around things (seeing as I've never read:

- This 'Lone Wolf' guy is supposedly a Spartan-III, a 'type' of Spartan that were considered expendible and used in very high-risk operations
- He was seemingly part of the operation on Pegasi
- This mission was essentially a suicide mission, so his apparent survival is a remarkable achievement (but also indicates that he may have gone against protocol to an extent); in other words, he is a bad ass
- The rest of the squad may be Spartan-IIs, a superior version of Spartans? I'm guessing it goes Spartan-III, Spartan-II and Spartan-III (the most superior version of the Spartans)?
- The events of Reach refer to the planet being invaded (and eventually 'frozen') by the Convenent, the main antagonist force in the Halo series
- Why was Reach attacked? What were the Convenent's motives for doing so? 
- The Spartans were sent to Reach to put its inhabitants from the ongoing onslaught, but were eventually killed
- Only the Master Chief remains after the events of Reach, as he discovers the first Halo (which triggers the line of events that occur in the main series)

If anyone could correct or clarify the stuff I've said above, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've never really paid attention to the story and lore of Halo; I've only really just played the games for purely enjoyment purposes, without ever paying attention to what was going on! That now seems like a shame, because I've recently taken considerable interest in the characters and species of Halo - as well as the main plot itself.

Therefore, I really want to make an effort to understand and appreciate the events of this upcoming game. I'm sure I'd appreciate the game even more as a result.

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