Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn

[The_Blade]

I love halo because most of the stuff we see there is physically possible

[Hawki]

Actually, it was a bit of a revelation in that I thought that 343i was moving away from the idea that (X)=(Y) (we are talking about the same (X) and (Y), right? ) that Bungie established.

I'll plunge deep into spoiler territory in that X and Y are the Flood and Precursors respectively.

[Quirel]

I'll plunge deep into spoiler territory in that X and Y are the Flood and Precursors respectively.

Oh.
I thought that X was Humanity, and Y was Forerunners. I was totally off base there.

[Hawki]

Oh.
I thought that X was Humanity, and Y was Forerunners. I was totally off base there.

Better to be off-base than outside the diamond completely.

(Yeah, this is a brief "vent my spleen" moment at 343 in light of Halo 4. Go figure.)

[Pr0nogo]

Have you guys seen the ending yet? How retarded was it? Jesus.

To be honest, I don't care that Cortana ended up dying. I feel that her death was handled respectfully for her character, and even though it's likely that 343i is going to resurrect her in some manner or another, I'd be fine with her staying dead. She went out saving Master Chief, which is, in the end, what she was supposed to do. The real retardation sets in when you realise that Cortana and all of her rampant personality spikes somehow managed to restrain the Didact long enough for Chief to get off his ass and stick him with a Pulse Grenade, AND that he basically took a shit all over a HAVOK nuke and survived the following explosion. Not only did he survive the nuclear detonation, he was completely unharmed, suit-wise, and was able to float through space without suffocating or being crushed by pressure (meaning that his suit was completely fine and didn't have any breaks from a nuclear detonation).

/e

Actually, it was a bit of a revelation in that I thought that 343i was moving away from the idea that (X)=(Y) (we are talking about the same (X) and (Y), right? ) that Bungie established.

Prometheans are ancient humans.

[DemolitionSquid]

I still need to go buy this. Oi Vei.

[Hawki]

Hidden Content:

To be honest, I don't care that Cortana ended up dying. I feel that her death was handled respectfully for her character, and even though it's likely that 343i is going to resurrect her in some manner or another, I'd be fine with her staying dead. She went out saving Master Chief, which is, in the end, what she was supposed to do. The real retardation sets in when you realise that Cortana and all of her rampant personality spikes somehow managed to restrain the Didact long enough for Chief to get off his ass and stick him with a Pulse Grenade, AND that he basically took a shit all over a HAVOK nuke and survived the following explosion. Not only did he survive the nuclear detonation, he was completely unharmed, suit-wise, and was able to float through space without suffocating or being crushed by pressure (meaning that his suit was completely fine and didn't have any breaks from a nuclear detonation).

Meh, didn't really have a problem with the ending. It's soured by the knowledge that (spoiler) will almost certainly return, but by this stage in the game, we've had our share of idiosyncracies. What's one more going to do?

[Pr0nogo]

Who do you mean by (spoiler)? Cortana or the Didact? I think they're both going to, considering we hear the latter's voice in the epilogue and the other one is basically a given.

[Quirel]

Better to be off-base than outside the diamond completely.

(Yeah, this is a brief "vent my spleen" moment at 343 in light of Halo 4. Go figure.)

"You know what Halo has always needed? Quicktime Events! More on-the-rails sections! A villain that is the unholy offspring of Voldemort and Shinzon!"

Have you guys seen the ending yet? How retarded was it? Jesus.

"It all started with this one scene," Frank O'Conner, Franchise Director at 343i explained. "We had this really cool scene in mind, but we couldn't really get it to stick. You can drop the Chief from orbit, you can make him run through a Flood-infested labyrinth, and he'd come out alright. But what we had in mind? Not to get too spoilery, but we didn't have a fridge for him to take cover in."

"You should have seen the looks on our faces when an intern finally came up with a way out. Hardlight."

You've seen Hardlight before, right in the first game. Despite what it's humble appearance may indicate, Hardlight is actually one of the foundational aspects of Forerunner technology.

"Don't let appearances fool you," Kevin Grace, Franchise Manager at 343 Industries piped in. "The Forerunner aren't limited to simple geometric shapes. And those massive projectors? Just for show. Cortana could have surrounded the Chief in a skin-tight (well, armor-tight, ya know?) shell of Hardlight, strong enough to survive a point blank nuclear explosion, in the few nanoseconds it takes to detonate a nuke."

"Yeah. That was spoilery, wasn't it? Eh, just print it after we release Halo 4."

Well, once news got around of our Hardlight solution, other departments realized that it was a solution to their problems as well. Among them were the gameplay people, headed by Jesse Snyder.

"Forerunner weapons. How do they work? Well, obviously, they're going to be mechanically identical to the Human weapons, because Forerunner are basically just advanced humans. But they can't shoot bullets, because that's what Human weapons do."

The answer was Hardlight. Hardlight bullets for the Forerunner battle rifle, bouncy hardlight bullets for the break-open shotgun, and balls of hardlight that convert enemies into raw hardlight on impact.

"We had to show ranks within the Promethean enemies. Using different colors was what Bungie would have done, but it's a pretty hokey way to do it. So, we went with Hardlight spikes and Hardlight skulls under those helmets, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a civilized race to have."

"The real gamechanger was applying the Hardlight to an armor ability. Players have wanted to pick up Jackal energy shields since the first game. We were looking at that as a way to replace Armor Lock, but it wasn't exactly OUR way of doing things. If we had more time, we probably would have redesigned the JES entirely, but we devoted those resources towards the Hardlight Shield."

"It's not very durable, because you're using Hardlight to emulate energy shields. And an Energy Sword will go right through it because it's made of razor-sharp Hardlight."

"Storywise," Frank O'Conner stated. "We're very lucky to be working in a universe with a powerful force like Hardlight, because it opens up so many opportunities. We were in a bind because the Didact's personality, demeanor, even his appearance was different from the way he was in Greg Bear's books. Then someone who worked on the Metroid Prime series suggested Hardlight corruption. He's pure evil now, more evil than the Covenant have ever been, and he's got new powers from the Hardlight corruption."

The new powers are readily apparent when you first meet the Didact, where he throws the Chief around with the power of his mind. Telekinesis? Nope. He has subliminal control of Ultraviolet Hardlight. Same as the other stuff, just invisible.

"Of course, he's not the only one with Hardlight powers. The Librarian, who some fans might almost recognize from the terminals, does some funky stuff to the Chief with precise use of Hardlight. And then there's the composer. Frankly, Tron ain't got nothing on us. Can you say 'Digitized Hardlight'?"

Astute Halo fans might surmise that the Master Chief's new armor, decidedly different from the iconic Mark VI, might have origins in Hardlight. Surprisingly, this is not the case.

"We thought about it," O'Conner said with a twinkle in his eye. "That'd be totally cool, right? But his armor is actually Mark VI, just like the previous games. It's definitely changed, but having Hardlight as the cause just didn't seem realistic."

"So, the official explanation is that Cortana modified the suit with nanotechnology."

[Pr0nogo]

If that had been explained in the fucking epilogue, maybe I'd be a bit more tolerant and understanding.