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Kanluwen wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Depends on what difficulty you play on
No, I mean even if alive he was retired by Bungie.

Yes and no.

The reason he was 'retired' was because he really didn't play too big of a role on Reach and they wanted to try something new.

Chief is by all definition 'a lone wolf'. He doesn't play well with others, and fitting him into Reach would have required more of a retcon than the idea of a S-III black ops team operating on the surface.

No he's not, Master Chief has been noted to be the jack of all trades Spartan from the SpartanII project, and was their leader. He had direct control of the squads and wasn't a lone wolf at all.

That said, the S-III's did make more sense for making the game.

As for the second trilogy, we knew this was coming for years. They always said, halo 3 will be the end of the FIRST trilogy. IE, the Covenant war, we'r probably going to delve more into forerunner business now. The recent release of cryptum only adds to this point for me

Personally, I would prefer if we played as Spartan III, Designation Jager, 359. We are sent to go find Cheif, eventually do, and just when we are getting over run, Cheif wakes up and BAM! Suddenly everyone around him, who we are having a hard time killing, is just dead.

That's the route I would ahve taken, personally.

streamdragon wrote:
Only sad part is that there's no Johnson :(

I know. Johnson is the absolute best character in the Halo series and definitely the toughest with all things considered. He's not a spartan and doesn't have mjolnir armour like the chief yet he survived through the invasion of Reach (admittedly he didn't actually do much fighting there), then he survived through a halo ring and it's destruction, then the invasion of Earth, then another halo ring, and almost through the ark. Also, without him the chief might have been killed by guilty spark and he definitely wouldn't have had a way off the ark as it exploded if he did survive. I want Johnson back, actually no. I want a game based on Johnson! it could follow up the ODST story and what happens with the purple floaty alien engineer they save and the info. it gives them. Who wouldn't play that?

Back on topic, can't wait for Halo 4; there are a few series that are very good but the main reason I actually buy them is because of the story: Fallout, Assassins Creed and now Halo. Also hope we see Arbiter again, I love that giraffe necked ugly

Well technically Johnson was a spartan, kind of, but lets not go there.

Technically? He was part of the Spartan I project, He is a spartan xD

Soladrin wrote:Technically? He was part of the Spartan I project, He is a spartan xD

Shush, you're making him sound less awesome!

The abilities of the SPARTAN I project aren't noted, or even hinted at. I always thought they were called IIs because they were the successors of the original Spartans from Greece. Johnson had extensive regenerative capabilities though, not because of a possible SPARTAN I connection.

Saying that John was a Lone Wolf is so very wrong but that's been covered.

The only niggle with it so far. I hope they don't keep the same proportions with the Chief in the final game, his arms are too long, feet and arms too big. Keep the Halo 3 proportions please 343, you've done a sterling job so far with the Halo work they've done, the anniversary edition looks spectacular.

I thought this was gonna be about Bungie green-lighting Oni 2.

IMO they should make a "super multiplayer game" were you get every map from every halo, forge world MK2, the ability to make firefight maps and all the best bits of the multiplayer from each game put together.

That would be great. Essentially, Reach, with all the maps, and no sword block, equipment back in, and less powerful grenades.

I think there should be a water level with boats and the like.

Boats would be all magical and shiny... a submarine would be fun...
I would like a few more flying vehicles as well come to think of it...

Spartan 1 is non-canon (It was part of a 3rd Party marketing gimmick called Killer Bee's and is largely discounted as not being canonical as there is no other information to support it). EDIT: Correction. Johnson was part of the Orion program, the outcome of which is seen in Contact Harvest, and it was the spiritual predecessor to SII, but the entire project was drastically different and nothing like the SII program. But Reach threw all canon out the window anyway, so who cares?

Oh, so he had a jetpack the whole time...

iproxtaco wrote:The abilities of the SPARTAN I project aren't noted, or even hinted at. I always thought they were called IIs because they were the successors of the original Spartans from Greece. Johnson had extensive regenerative capabilities though, not because of a possible SPARTAN I connection.

The fact that he's a Spartan I is quite clearly stated, his resistence to the flood is caused by "boren's syndrome". Boren's syndrome was the official name they used to mask all the after effects of the Spartan I augmentations.

Soladrin wrote:The fact that he's a Spartan I is quite clearly stated, his resistence to the flood is caused by "boren's syndrome". Boren's syndrome was the official name they used to mask all the after effects of the Spartan I augmentations.

This information is non-canon.

No where in canon is "Spartan I" ever mentioned.

Halo encyclopedia.

Soladrin wrote:Halo encyclopedia.

Lesson 1: Never trust Halopedia. Lots their info is made up (or conjecture).

They do source their Spartan 1 article, but follow the source. It was part of a 3rd party viral marketing campaign and was denounced as non-canon by Bungie (Something Halopedia willfully ignores because the Spartan 1 program is such a popular myth in the Halo fandom). People have taken a single page from The Flood and blown it horribly out of proportion.

Yeah we all saw it coming. In fact as long as people buy this game, I see a Halo 5 in the future as well.

LordofHats wrote:

Soladrin wrote:Halo encyclopedia.

Lesson 1: Never trust Halopedia. Lots their info is made up (or conjecture).

They do source their Spartan 1 article, but follow the source. It was part of a 3rd party viral marketing campaign and was denounced as non-canon by Bungie (Something Halopedia willfully ignores because the Spartan 1 program is such a popular myth in the Halo fandom). People have taken a single page from The Flood and blown it horribly out of proportion.

Doesn't it say in First Strike (Possibly still the Flood actually it's been a while since i read it) that he gets the syndrome from the radiation from using an entire crate of plasma grenades whilst unprotected?

I've started treating the games story as the official one as it is obviously a game first, so I've discounted the First Strike book completely since it doesn't match up with the games at all. All the other's work so I consider them as linked but I think of First Strike as a sort of spin-off.

tantan628 wrote:I've started treating the games story as the official one as it is obviously a game first, so I've discounted the First Strike book completely since it doesn't match up with the games at all. All the other's work so I consider them as linked but I think of First Strike as a sort of spin-off.

How so?

Soladrin wrote:

iproxtaco wrote:The abilities of the SPARTAN I project aren't noted, or even hinted at. I always thought they were called IIs because they were the successors of the original Spartans from Greece. Johnson had extensive regenerative capabilities though, not because of a possible SPARTAN I connection.

The fact that he's a Spartan I is quite clearly stated, his resistence to the flood is caused by "boren's syndrome". Boren's syndrome was the official name they used to mask all the after effects of the Spartan I augmentations.

Wrong. Boren Syndrome is a condition that screwed with Johnson's nervous system, which caused an immunity to Flood infection. This Flood infection caused an unusual regeneration effect as elements of the parasites attempts to overcome Johnson remained. He contracted the condition due to an overdose in radiation from Covenant Plasma Grenades, a whole crate of which he used to hold a position during a Covenant attack. It is curable, but like the almighty badass that Johnson is, he refused any treatments which could effectively cure him, and instead returned to the front lines after a few weeks.

tantan628 wrote:I've started treating the games story as the official one as it is obviously a game first, so I've discounted the First Strike book completely since it doesn't match up with the games at all. All the other's work so I consider them as linked but I think of First Strike as a sort of spin-off.

Kindly explain how First Strike, a book which links both CE and Halo 2, doesn't match up.

iproxtaco wrote:

tantan628 wrote:I've started treating the games story as the official one as it is obviously a game first, so I've discounted the First Strike book completely since it doesn't match up with the games at all. All the other's work so I consider them as linked but I think of First Strike as a sort of spin-off.

Kindly explain how First Strike, a book which links both CE and Halo 2, doesn't match up.

I was confused by this as well.
It doesn't alter anything, it reveals a few things and disproves an assumption that MC was the last spartan about, other than that it doesn't change anything from the game.

Boren's Syndrome as a cover-up for S-1/ORION modification was first mentioned in the Halo Graphic Novel, in one of the art pages in the back. A conversation is presented between two ONI agents discussing an attempt at accessing data on Johnson, in which the "paris/bs spoof" is mentioned - IE, boren's syndrome is a cover-up. I'm pretty sure other sources (official sources, keep your heads in the sand if you want) have since confirmed the whole thing.

As an aside, the graphic novel also shows how johnson escaped the flood on Alpha Halo - by being a genetically/biochemically augmented badass.

I Love Bees and the Spartan 1 program may have been unofficial fan conjecture once, but the ORION project is a canonical part of the Halo universe.

The Dreadnote wrote:Boren's Syndrome as a cover-up for S-1/ORION modification was first mentioned in the Halo Graphic Novel, in one of the art pages in the back. A conversation is presented between two ONI agents discussing an attempt at accessing data on Johnson, in which the "paris/bs spoof" is mentioned - IE, boren's syndrome is a cover-up. I'm pretty sure other sources (official sources, keep your heads in the sand if you want) have since confirmed the whole thing.

As an aside, the graphic novel also shows how johnson escaped the flood on Alpha Halo - by being a genetically/biochemically augmented badass.

I Love Bees and the Spartan 1 program may have been unofficial fan conjecture once, but the ORION project is a canonical part of the Halo universe.

You know...
I think i preferred it when Johnson was the dying-from-radiation-sickness badass marine sergeant... unaltered and unchanged from humanity.

I prefer to think that Cortana has his DNA stored somewhere, and that in Halo 4 all the marines/friendly AI will just be replaced with Johnson clones. They could teleport them in, Marathon-style. It's the perfect extension of his whole "I keep coming back from the dead" thing.

The Dreadnote wrote:I prefer to think that Cortana has his DNA stored somewhere, and that in Halo 4 all the marines/friendly AI will just be replaced with Johnson clones. They could teleport them in, Marathon-style. It's the perfect extension of his whole "I keep coming back from the dead" thing.

Now that would be pretty damn funny...
Absurd but hilarious.

The Dreadnote wrote:I Love Bees and the Spartan 1 program may have been unofficial fan conjecture once, but the ORION project is a canonical part of the Halo universe.

Orion is. It was confirmed and supported in the beginning of Contact Harvest. Contact Harvest also failed to refer to any of the soldiers in the project as "Spartans" as described in The Flood and depicted the project as a failure that led to Spartan II being approved (Effectively retconning page 16 of the Flood which was always ambiguous to begin with).

Orion is true but it's nothing like the Spartan Program, and only one canonical source even hints that the Orion members were called "Spartans" and that source got retconned in Contact Harvest (Which should carry more weight anyway because it was written by a Bungie employee, while the Flood was written third party).

purplefood wrote:Doesn't it say in First Strike (Possibly still the Flood actually it's been a while since i read it) that he gets the syndrome from the radiation from using an entire crate of plasma grenades whilst unprotected?

That's what it says, but supposedly that's part of the cover up (I'll ned to go back to the GN. Other than I love Bee's no source has ever confirmed that it was a cover up to my knowledge).

Can't see why anyone has a problem with First Strike. If anything, Halo Reach destroyed the canon because it's sequence of events doesn't at all fit into the Battle of Reach as described in Halo The Fall of Reach. That, and the members of Noble Team and their SIII classes are confusing and don't mesh well after reading Ghost of Onyx.

Why Bungie decided to make another game with a completely new, and in my opinion, wrong, story-line I will never know. What the feth was wrong with The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund? I would have thoroughly enjoyed a game centering around that book, my favorite sci-fi book.