HALO-COMBAT REMADE & MORE!

Jun 10, 2011

By Gagnon30

Note: Gagnon 30 is the resident PCP Halo nut.

This last week at E3 we were introduced to the start of a new era in Halo. Whether you are excited about it or not will be discussed and debated till the cows come home. But the discussion on “Will there be a new Halo” is over. Yes there will be in fact 4 more Halos starting with the CE remake this fall, these 4 will almost double the franchise total, which prior to last week stood at 6. (That’s including the non FPS ‘Halo Wars’.)

Now there has been for a few years solid (and sometimes silly) debates on Halos direction, future and timeline. I am going to take a few minutes to jot down a few of my own thoughts. Some things I won’t tackle, because at this point, I’ll be waiting for more information form 343.

QUESTION: WILL 343 STUDIOS BE ABLE TO MAKE QUALITY HALO GAMES?

First of all, and its paramount, we deal with the developers of the game. Bungie as most people in the gaming community know, was the creator of Halo and no longer will be making Halo titles following their release of Reach. 343 Studios has been given the baton. There has been IMHO too much bashing of 343. Right now 343’s only stand alone Halo product is the Defiant map pack. While each map is geared towards certain game play, and then ones opinion may be influenced if they prefer that game play, the quality of the maps is extremely good in its niche game play and aesthetically. But you can’t really sell the farm by the look of one cow. The second guessing of 343s capability to produce quality Halo products to me ends with one simple fact. Most of 343s employees are former Bungie employees who worked on Halo. That’s right, Halo will continue to be made by… many quality people who worked on it before!

The reality is, 343 is still partnered with Bungie and will be essentially a cash cow while Bungies remaining staff will tackle new releases under its established banner. It’s a smart business move IMHO.

QUESTION: WHY REMAKE CE? WHAT WILL IT HAVE?

Now, a lot of this boils down to opinion. I will try to sell you what I think, but I won’t lose sleep over it! Facts we know: It will be released Nov 15 2011. It will be priced at $39.99. It will feature 2 disks. One being the CE game, where there is a graphics update for the 2011 market. Interestingly you will be able to switch back and forth between the original and the remade graphics, apparently with the tap of a button. The second disk will be run off the reach engine and feature 9 remade maps they have labeled “Classic”.

Okay, sounds a lot like ODST? Disk 1 was the ODST game, basically a mod of Halo 3. Now this new Disk 1 will be a graphically modded version of CE. Like ODST there is a second disk with maps on it. In fact I’d bet by its release, this 2nd disk will feature all existing Reach map packs like ODST did for Halo 3 maps. Disk 2 for ODST was called “Multiplayer”, my left nut as collateral, same thing with Disk 2 of CE remake. ODST also sold for a lower price similar to the $39.99 noted for CE remake.

Another currently confirmed addition to Disk 1, is the addition of easier to find ‘terminals’. (A bitch to find without YouTube in Halo 3) These terminals will give you hints/insight ion Halo 4.

Now why do this? It IS the 10th anniversary of Halo CE this year. (The first Halo game for those who didn’t know) Even just a graphical change will be welcome. There is a huge part of the currently active Halo community who never played CE 10 years ago. Hell, I only played it when I bought the original disk in discount bin this past Christmas! So there is market right there. Also in a very busy last few nights chatting and typing away with easily a couple of dozen hardcore Halo players who played CE before, I got nearly unanimous thumbs up on remake. One noted reason that’s came up a lot was the 2nd disk and the lower cost than standard games.

If you look business wise, Halo does have a rival in Call of Duty which effectively has an annual release, bridging the gap between Reach and Halo 4 with this remake is going to keep the Halo community interested, and keep the dollars rolling in parallel to CODs upcoming MW3. (MW3 will likely outsell CE by a wide margin without question. But likely a tiny portion of that bit will be taken away with CE. I suppose hardcore gamers that take time to read a blog like this will probably buy both anyhow.)

Here are a few speculative/yet to be confirmed things that fans would love to have on Disk 2.

-New playlists on multiplayer.

-Enhanced forge, in particular new objects and textures.

-More customizable emblems to compete directly with COD Black Ops outstanding version.

-Since there seems to be a lot of ODST and CS Remake similarities, you had to own ODST to be able to beta test Reach. One can believe to beta test Halo 4, you probably will have to own CE Remake.

WHATS THE STORYLINE FOR HALO 4, 5 and 6?

Here is where I can probably go on forever. I was going to be a history teacher, I love details. True to form I have had the pleasure to read all the Halo books, watch quite a few times Halo Legends and immerse myself in the many videos Halo Waypoint offers. So when the community asks where Halo 4 will go with the story of Master Chief.. well! Where do I begin?

FORERUNNERS:The Forerunners are the mysterious ancient humanoids whose technology was harnessed and misinterpreted as a religion by the Covenant. Greg Bears recent novel, Cryptum, is the first in a trilogy (Hmmm.. Halo trilogies?) based around the Forerunners. Consider that most of the unanswered questions after Halo 3 were based around the Forerunners, it’s only logical to think that they could likely be a (if not THE) big part of the new games. With 2 new books coming out as the new games begin to be released; logic could lead one to say easily that the game can use facts from the books to weave their way.

If you look at the last 5 seconds of the Halo 4 E3 Trailer you’ll see the massive round space ship/structure. It doesn’t have that covenant purple to it. Although tough to judge, could be Forerunner? That’s what I think!

In the novel “Ghosts of Onyx”, Dr Halsey (The Spartan Projects mother) was trapped in a Forerunner shield world along with some Spartan 2 and 3s. The shield world is another mystery, although it apparently should have protected the Forerunners when the Halo rings were fired in the last effort to rid the universe of the Flood. Where she is now and what the shield world is capable of is an easy tie in to new Halo releases.

CORTANA:the lifespan of an AI is 7 years. In Halo Legends, Cortana in speaking to the Master Chief in Cryo sleep mentions she’s close to being 7. Now AIs don’t turn off when they are 7, they are closed down because otherwise they go rampant, crazy. They are no longer trusted to properly perform their duties. They effectively become too smart and think themselves to insanity. In two novels, Contact Harvest, and the Cole Protocol, you have rampant AIs at work. Now there has always been references and notes that Cortana is a different type of AI, and considering how literally beloved she is by much of the Halo community, if she in fact went into rampancy, it would make quite a storyline.

THE FLOOD:Although Cryptum lets you know a lot more about where the Flood came from. It’s not been let known it they are not still out there. They are badass, and it’s really a key part of the original trilogy having a second enemy join the fray.

THE FORMER COVENENT SPECIES: Will the Elites even stay allies with the humans to start with? They are at war still with the Brutes in particular who are quite a foe. There was noted great tension with the Jackals’ as well. You could have many more groups of self serving enemies in a splintering of the former Covenant. In “The Cole Protocol” the Jackals were mass breeding grunts to rebel against the other Covenant species, so there is a precedent of rebellion.

SOMETHING NEW: When people say “new” about a games franchise, people normally think game play. But a new enemy would be just as welcome!

Hey, these important Halo community announcements only happened last week. Who knows what route we take to get to Halo 4, but looks like Master Chiefs last words in Halo 3, “Wake me… when you need me” were prophetic.  We need him now but I guess we can wait a little longer!