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I don't really understand the posts about not being able to aim at things... I think that might be user error.

Still playing it pretty frequently. I read the books, enjoy the campaigns, etc. Its is 2nd to my enjoyment of the 40k franchise.

Some gameplay in 4's campaign wasn't my favorite, Promethean Knights are pretty much a chore to fight. It sure was pretty though, can't wait for XB1 version. Halo 3 had my favorite gameplay/sandbox of the campaigns.

How are the books going by the way? I haven't read any past the prelude to Halo 2. Is Eric Nylund still writing any of them?

No. His last contributions were in 09, before they brought in Karen Travis who promptly began subtly retconning his work so she could recreate the Mandelorians in the Halo universe *insert rage here*

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
How are the books going by the way? I haven't read any past the prelude to Halo 2. Is Eric Nylund still writing any of them?

Fall of Reach is one of my favorites, but the latest entries I have been pretty happy with.

The Forerunner books can be pretty impenetrable, but usually pay off near the end; the trilogy just wrapped up not too long ago. There is also a hidden chapter online that you get by doing some crazy things with the symbols printed in the book. It retells the Didact meeting with Mendicant Bias before it is sealed away on the Ark.

Karen Traviss' books have been pretty good, imo; but a lot of people really get caught up in the Halsey persecution, which seems really odd to do for a fictional character. The 3rd book in that trilogy won't be out until early next year, and it really should have been out before Halo 4.

 daedalus-templarius wrote:

Karen Traviss' books have been pretty good, imo;...

 Tyran wrote:

 daedalus-templarius wrote:

Karen Traviss' books have been pretty good, imo;...

Wow, excellent point.

 daedalus-templarius wrote:

 Tyran wrote:

 daedalus-templarius wrote:

Karen Traviss' books have been pretty good, imo;...

Wow, excellent point.

1)Traviss has a unreasonable problem with Halsey, half of the book is about hating Halsey. The worst example is Parangosky, goddammit that woman knew and approved the Spartan 2 program, and also she approved the Spartan 3 program, which is far worse than the 2.

2)The other plot aside "hating Halsey" is "lets give religious fanatics weapons". Really? look what happened in Afghanistan, and in that moment the US did have the excuse that "commies are attacking", and see how it backfired. And this time just to feth the only ally Humanity has, and guess what? it backfired again!!!

3)Her characters are unlikable, specially Osman, who is a Kerrigan wannabe. The only likable character she introduced is Jul, who is the "bad guy".

And lets not forget errors that make one think that Traviss knows nothing about Halo.

Traviss' work would be excellent if it were to stand in a void, internally is well written. But it isn't in a void, it doesn't fit with previous canon.

Halo 1 was fun and awesome for its time.

Halo 2 is one of my favorite games ever. I can play Outskirts over and over and over... I like impressing friends with my complete and utter mastery of timing and placement in that map.

Halo 3 was fine but too "cluttered" with detail. I had a hard time moving about the levels because of all the trees and stuff.

ODST was fun but not very thrilling. I spent most of the time playing waves with friends.

Reach... Never played it.

Halo 4 I felt was a nice addition to the story. I enjoyed it but it felt limited. I would have liked a few more levels to use the big suit in.

Imo Reach has a mediocre campaign but a very good multiplayer.

Halo 1: Loved it. Was introduced into it by my oldest friend, who I watched him play Two Betrayals before I got hooked. Was scared out of my mind by the Flood, but it was a solid game at the time.

Halo 2: Again, I enjoyed the more diverse storyline. While it wasn't as gritty as Halo 1 IMO it was still enjoyable despite the open ending.

Halo 3: Less of a fan I'm afraid. While it was nice to see the story concluded in a memorable manner, I feel that certain aspects of the plot were a bit silly such as allying with Flood for some reason.

Halo Wars: Despite the fact it wasn't a Bungie game, I thought they had done a good job in a different format, as an RPG rather than an FPS. Cinematics were very impressive I must add.

ODST: Couldn't stand it I'm afraid. I think Bungie aimed a bit too high when it came to this one. Certain aspects were very well done, but other such as the gameplay (Wait for Phantom to drop off troops, kill troops, wait for next Phantom) were so repetitive or just silly (ridiculous bouncy-ness of the characters during cutscenes). Wasn't a fan of the actual plot though with the Engineer, and that silly Sadie's Story that I lost interest in so quickly.

Reach: Favourite one of the series by far. Was nice to see a prequel, as well as some pretty well-developed characters and plot ides. The customisation of armour during campaign was good, as well as major changes such as Armour Abilities, and Forge World which was a particular favourite of mine.

Halo 4: I know this was 343's first plunge, and they had a lot to live up to, but I think they missed the ball here. The plot was boring like ODST (go places, press a switch. Go to another place and press another switch, etc) Prometheans, while impressive to look at, didn't really seem to fit the Halo aesthetic IMO. Good, but it wasn't something I was particularly impressed about.

Halo 5: Not much seen from the trailer, but I've yet to be impressed. The only reason I will buy this is if it's on the 360 rather than X1, otherwise I'm fine leaving it on the shelf.

Despite my negative views on some of them, it hasn't stopped me getting the Legendary edition on every single game in the series. I might have a bit of a problem in this sense.

 Tyran wrote:
1)Traviss has a unreasonable problem with Halsey, half of the book is about hating Halsey. The worst example is Parangosky, goddammit that woman knew and approved the Spartan 2 program, and also she approved the Spartan 3 program, which is far worse than the 2.

2)The other plot aside "hating Halsey" is "lets give religious fanatics weapons". Really? look what happened in Afghanistan, and in that moment the US did have the excuse that "commies are attacking", and see how it backfired. And this time just to feth the only ally Humanity has, and guess what? it backfired again!!!

3)Her characters are unlikable, specially Osman, who is a Kerrigan wannabe. The only likable character she introduced is Jul, who is the "bad guy".

And lets not forget errors that make one think that Traviss knows nothing about Halo.

Traviss' work would be excellent if it were to stand in a void, internally is well written. But it isn't in a void, it doesn't fit with previous canon.

This sums up my feels on Travis. And may I add;

4) For someone who threw a hissy fit and quit Star Wars because someone else messed up what she was writing, she seems to love messing up what people other than her are writing and not caring... Until someone messes her up. Then she cares and integrity matters suddenly to her.

daedalus-templarius wrote:
Karen Traviss' books have been pretty good, imo; but a lot of people really get caught up in the Halsey persecution, which seems really odd to do for a fictional character. The 3rd book in that trilogy won't be out until early next year, and it really should have been out before Halo 4.

Tyran wrote:
1)Traviss has a unreasonable problem with Halsey, half of the book is about hating Halsey. The worst example is Parangosky, goddammit that woman knew and approved the Spartan 2 program, and also she approved the Spartan 3 program, which is far worse than the 2.

2)The other plot aside "hating Halsey" is "lets give religious fanatics weapons". Really? look what happened in Afghanistan, and in that moment the US did have the excuse that "commies are attacking", and see how it backfired. And this time just to feth the only ally Humanity has, and guess what? it backfired again!!!

3)Her characters are unlikable, specially Osman, who is a Kerrigan wannabe. The only likable character she introduced is Jul, who is the "bad guy".

And lets not forget errors that make one think that Traviss knows nothing about Halo.

Traviss' work would be excellent if it were to stand in a void, internally is well written. But it isn't in a void, it doesn't fit with previous canon.

Welp.

 LordofHats wrote:
No. His last contributions were in 09, before they brought in Karen Travis who promptly began subtly retconning his work so she could recreate the Mandelorians in the Halo universe *insert rage here*

What? I just dont see where this is in the books.


I actually like Karen Travis

1)Traviss has a unreasonable problem with Halsey, half of the book is about hating Halsey. The worst example is Parangosky, goddammit that woman knew and approved the Spartan 2 program, and also she approved the Spartan 3 program, which is far worse than the 2.

I got to disagree, I LOVE the hate for Halsey bcause I HATE Halsey. There are 2 directions of hating going towards her: That she is a horrible human for creating Spartans (this doesnt bother me though her lack of interest in Miranda bugged me) and the fact she is simply put a traitor to humanity which I think is completely justified. I HATE her for her actions in Ghost of Onyx (ie. Taking Spartan assets away from the front lines for her own personal use)

2)The other plot aside "hating Halsey" is "lets give religious fanatics weapons". Really? look what happened in Afghanistan, and in that moment the US did have the excuse that "commies are attacking", and see how it backfired. And this time just to feth the only ally Humanity has, and guess what? it backfired again!!

This plot also made sense to me. It's not give 1 side guns, it is give both sides guns and watch closely so whenever one side gets the other hand you turn around and help the other side. You use them to destroy each other. The reason also makes sense to me, Humanity SHOULD HATE the Elites, ya not all of them would. Any marine who fought with them around Halo 3 would like the elites (like Lord Hood) but I would expect most of humanity to want to see the elites suffer a genocide.

I'm with Galdos, I don't get the reference to Travis making Mandelorians...

mega_bassis wrote:I'm with Galdos, I don't get the reference to Travis making Mandelorians...

Without actually having read any of the Halo novels, as a reader of Traviss' Republic Commando books (which got progressively worse after the first one), I have to say a lot of the details mentioned in the past couple posts feel very familiar.

 mega_bassist wrote:
I'm with Galdos, I don't get the reference to Travis making Mandelorians...

I'm referring to the changes to the depictions of the Spartans in general and to the Spartan IV's, which are (imo) essentially Travis' proxy for no longer writing about Mandelorians (not to mention the predictable Travis shadow games).

I do however openly admit: I just don't like Karen Travis. Haven't liked her for a long time. Bias is present

 LordofHats wrote:

 mega_bassist wrote:
I'm with Galdos, I don't get the reference to Travis making Mandelorians...

I'm referring to the changes to the depictions of the Spartans in general and to the Spartan IV's, which are (imo) essentially Travis' proxy for no longer writing about Mandelorians (not to mention the predictable Travis shadow games).

I do however openly admit: I just don't like Karen Travis. Haven't liked her for a long time. Bias is present

No problem, everyone is biased about some things lol

 LordofHats wrote:

 mega_bassist wrote:
I'm with Galdos, I don't get the reference to Travis making Mandelorians...

I'm referring to the changes to the depictions of the Spartans in general and to the Spartan IV's, which are (imo) essentially Travis' proxy for no longer writing about Mandelorians (not to mention the predictable Travis shadow games).

I do however openly admit: I just don't like Karen Travis. Haven't liked her for a long time. Bias is present

Ah, I getcha. I'll agree that the earlier novels were better for sure, but I've enjoyed the later ones...but I still haven't read Thursday War. The local book store didn't have it, so I started Cryptum. I'm about 3/4 through it, and it's been good so far.

I lost interest after the third game, personally.

I've enjoyed all the Halo games made to date, even Reach (not reading any background novels probably helped here by the looks of it).

In order of preference:
(1)Halo 1 - Bought my first X-Box for this game. Riding around in the (invulnerable) Warthog and Scorpion blew me away. Loved zooming into the grunts faces and looking at the animation of the eye piece HUD thing and seeing actual blades of grass. The enemies were incredibly difficult to put down on Legendary, not relying on AI spam like CoD but actual well thought out programming.

(2)Halo 2 - Much like a previous poster, can still do Outskirts with my eyes closed. The story was expanded and the Covenant fleshed out. Playing as the Arbiter didn't bother me all that much, but would of felt better if there was a greater game play distinction between him and the MC. And I love cliffhanger endings.

(3)Reach- I honestly went into playing this one to tick the boxes, hoping that Reach still ended up being a radioactive cinder and not retconned for the lulz. Imagine my surprise when I actually ended up enjoying it. Armour customization, my new favorite weapon (DMR) and no Flood! I was sick of the repetitive nature of the Flood by this point. Plus the depressing soundtrack gave it the right ambiance. Better NPC AI would of helped, for example Emile using something besides a shotgun on Pillar of Autumn. To answer a poster above, the initial invasion probably took the Covenant by surprise. They probably were expecting a colony to glass, but found the home world (or so they thought, refer Halo 3) of humanity. It takes time to assemble a fleet of that magnitude to utterly crush humanity without mercy.

(4)Halo 3- Was super excited by this one, but felt let down at the end. This title seemed to lack the urgency of the previous games, for example the first level. Halo 1 - ZOMG aliens blowing up our ship and kicking my butt, must get out of here ASAP! Halo 2- ZOMG, alien fleet wants to blow up my space station, need to kill them! Halo 3 - Lets go for a stroll through the jungle Chief... But the story ended in the expected way, the Terminals were quite interesting on their own and a new vehicle to massacre Covenant scrubs was available. Also, NO MORE FLOOD EVER AGAIN!

(4)ODST- Tied with Halo 3. Short, too the point and not playing the Chief made for a refreshing change. Nothing terribly noteworthy about this game, Halo 3 in New Mombasa. Except trying to finish the last level on Legendary solo. Nothing has russled my jimmies that much ever. I eventually spent most of the Warthog parts out of my ride sniping enemies so Captain Ding Dong on the turret didn't ignore the Ghost frying my behind to pump some more lead into the dead Grunt. First play through, my video replay told me it took me over 2 hours to do that piece.

(5) Halo 4 - Passable shooter. Not enough new stuff to get all excited about, some character development for a change. The Promethean's were a little disappointing, was expecting a new challenge but alas, poor AI made for a game by numbers. Also, switches, switches EVERYWHERE!

My 2c on the subject.

 Evil_Toast wrote:
I've enjoyed all the Halo games made to date, even Reach (not reading any background novels probably helped here by the looks of it).

In order of preference:
(1)Halo 1 - Bought my first X-Box for this game. Riding around in the (invulnerable) Warthog and Scorpion blew me away. Loved zooming into the grunts faces and looking at the animation of the eye piece HUD thing and seeing actual blades of grass. The enemies were incredibly difficult to put down on Legendary, not relying on AI spam like CoD but actual well thought out programming.

(2)Halo 2 - Much like a previous poster, can still do Outskirts with my eyes closed. The story was expanded and the Covenant fleshed out. Playing as the Arbiter didn't bother me all that much, but would of felt better if there was a greater game play distinction between him and the MC. And I love cliffhanger endings.

(3)Reach- I honestly went into playing this one to tick the boxes, hoping that Reach still ended up being a radioactive cinder and not retconned for the lulz. Imagine my surprise when I actually ended up enjoying it. Armour customization, my new favorite weapon (DMR) and no Flood! I was sick of the repetitive nature of the Flood by this point. Plus the depressing soundtrack gave it the right ambiance. Better NPC AI would of helped, for example Emile using something besides a shotgun on Pillar of Autumn. To answer a poster above, the initial invasion probably took the Covenant by surprise. They probably were expecting a colony to glass, but found the home world (or so they thought, refer Halo 3) of humanity. It takes time to assemble a fleet of that magnitude to utterly crush humanity without mercy.

(4)Halo 3- Was super excited by this one, but felt let down at the end. This title seemed to lack the urgency of the previous games, for example the first level. Halo 1 - ZOMG aliens blowing up our ship and kicking my butt, must get out of here ASAP! Halo 2- ZOMG, alien fleet wants to blow up my space station, need to kill them! Halo 3 - Lets go for a stroll through the jungle Chief... But the story ended in the expected way, the Terminals were quite interesting on their own and a new vehicle to massacre Covenant scrubs was available. Also, NO MORE FLOOD EVER AGAIN!

(4)ODST- Tied with Halo 3. Short, too the point and not playing the Chief made for a refreshing change. Nothing terribly noteworthy about this game, Halo 3 in New Mombasa. Except trying to finish the last level on Legendary solo. Nothing has russled my jimmies that much ever. I eventually spent most of the Warthog parts out of my ride sniping enemies so Captain Ding Dong on the turret didn't ignore the Ghost frying my behind to pump some more lead into the dead Grunt. First play through, my video replay told me it took me over 2 hours to do that piece.

(5) Halo 4 - Passable shooter. Not enough new stuff to get all excited about, some character development for a change. The Promethean's were a little disappointing, was expecting a new challenge but alas, poor AI made for a game by numbers. Also, switches, switches EVERYWHERE!

My 2c on the subject.

Don't worry, I'm sure the Flood will have a comeback.

I haven't heard much about the fanbase. What's it like?

 sing your life wrote:
I haven't heard much about the fanbase. What's it like?

Welcome to the internet, you appear to be in need of a guide.

 Lynata wrote:

mega_bassis wrote:I'm with Galdos, I don't get the reference to Travis making Mandelorians...

Without actually having read any of the Halo novels, as a reader of Traviss' Republic Commando books (which got progressively worse after the first one), I have to say a lot of the details mentioned in the past couple posts feel very familiar.

Glad it wasn't just me. I do not enjoy Travis's writings at all. I would go so far as to call her a hack, but I know there is a large fanbase for her.

Eh. It's okay.

Would be better if the later games were released on PC, IMO, since I like keyboard+nouse better than xbox controllers. But that's minor nitpicking. It's a good series. wish its single player campaigns were longer though.

I've played all the halo games (except 4.... still only on the 3rd mission).

They are okay. For FPS I still prefer a battlefield 3 style of game, it feels more realistic. It too bad because I really like the halo universe.

I actually gained a large amount of entertainment from reading various threads about this "Travis" person that I heard from you guys.

Thank you, it was about two hours worth. I'm not going to pay.

I loved how reach looked and really liked how it played, but I ended up selling it and haven't bought it again, but we'll see, maybe one day.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
How are the books going by the way? I haven't read any past the prelude to Halo 2. Is Eric Nylund still writing any of them?

His books were the best. The only real reason I like halo is the background of it and the lore.

 MrDwhitey wrote:
I actually gained a large amount of entertainment from reading various threads about this "Travis" person that I heard from you guys.

Thank you, it was about two hours worth. I'm not going to pay.

As someone who participated in such spats, I freely admit they are frequently hilariously ridiculous XD

But I liked Mara Jade damnit! No forgiveness will be offered


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 migs6357 wrote:


His books were the best. The only real reason I like halo is the background of it and the lore.

imo The Fall of Reach was one of the best pieces of pulp literature written in the past decade.