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I've tried googling this and trying to get youtube videos but can't get a ready or reliable ansawr.

-Is Spartan Ops just objective based firefight where you kill enemies or is there a story with actual voice acting in it? A sort of mini-Reach team in terms of story and such?

-Is the main campaign with the Master Chief single player only; possibly as a consequence of the above? If not, who do the other players play as and is this going to be acknowledged or will their presence be glossed over like in other Halo titles?

-How much is the Collectors edition going to cost? I even asked in the store and they said they don't know.


I'am actually really hopeful about this one. ODST and Reach were big disappointments. But, I liked what 343 did with the Anniversary edition and I like how they've finally decided to introduce new elements into the story like this new enemy (IMO necron forerunners); instead of just mixing up what was done in the first game.

From my understanding, Spartan Ops is going to be "episodic" content, complete with cinematic trailers and a series of missions released each week ending up as a "season".

The Limited Edition is purportedly sold out in most venues. It was $100 USD.

First of, how the hell was ODST a dissapointment? It was way better then Halo 2 and 3.

Spartan op's is episodic content, it will feature a full story and cinimatics. Like kan said.

Campaign, most likely MC only but it hasn't really but touched on. I doubt we'd have others since the arbiter is having fun with a giant rebellion on his home planet.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
I've tried googling this and trying to get youtube videos but can't get a ready or reliable ansawr.

-Is Spartan Ops just objective based firefight where you kill enemies or is there a story with actual voice acting in it? A sort of mini-Reach team in terms of story and such?

-Is the main campaign with the Master Chief single player only; possibly as a consequence of the above? If not, who do the other players play as and is this going to be acknowledged or will their presence be glossed over like in other Halo titles?

-How much is the Collectors edition going to cost? I even asked in the store and they said they don't know.

Spartan ops is a 50 mission (5 a week) co-op campaign set 6 months after the story with it's own cutscenes and Voice acting.

youtube vid of cutscene quality

the main campaign is still 4 player co-op. (4 master chiefs like in 1&2)

£70, but it's sold out almost everywhere

and ODST was a great story story and possibly best soundtrack plus it was H3 graphics, which are my favorite. I'll give you reach though

necron forerunners

Ha, I'd say more bionicle though, but if you've read primordium/cryptum it makes more sense

 Soladrin wrote:
First of, how the hell was ODST a dissapointment? It was way better then Halo 2 and 3.

Spartan op's is episodic content, it will feature a full story and cinimatics. Like kan said.

Campaign, most likely MC only but it hasn't really but touched on. I doubt we'd have others since the arbiter is having fun with a giant rebellion on his home planet.

If you ask me fomenting a civil war as an ONI operative would be a bucket of shiggles a second...
Like a kind of ODST 2 but more evil...

 Soladrin wrote:
First of, how the hell was ODST a dissapointment? It was way better then Halo 2 and 3.

Spartan op's is episodic content, it will feature a full story and cinimatics. Like kan said.

Campaign, most likely MC only but it hasn't really but touched on. I doubt we'd have others since the arbiter is having fun with a giant rebellion on his home planet.

I did not like ODST.

My big problem was the fact that it didnt fee like Halo, it felt like someone watched a person play Halo and made a game from what he saw.

It was a bunch of small problems ya but I found it hard to play because of those small problems. Really small things like the Warthog drove nothing like a Warthog (went from 0 to 60 in .4 seconds and couldnt turn worth gak) or how hard it was to kill a single Brute (It took a min of MORE than 1 clip of MA5C Rounds to bring a Brute down, ultimately this meant Im running around with human weapons weapons constantly worrying about ammo)

I play to try it again later but it just felt off to me.


Yes I know the reason seem dumb, hence why i plan to give it another try later

I thought ODST was a great idea, y'know? See it from the grunt's perspective, not a super-soldier badass who punches flood in the face.

But, it was just more of the same Halo. Not a bad thing, and it WAS a great story and had great graphics, as always. I was looking forward to it being thematically different, sort of more like a Republic Commando style of fps.

As for 4? I'm stoked. Loved the other games, save Reach, and I can't wait to see a Forerunner. Or kill one, either.

 Frankenberry wrote:
I thought ODST was a great idea, y'know? See it from the grunt's perspective, not a super-soldier badass who punches flood in the face.

But, it was just more of the same Halo. Not a bad thing, and it WAS a great story and had great graphics, as always. I was looking forward to it being thematically different, sort of more like a Republic Commando style of fps.

As for 4? I'm stoked. Loved the other games, save Reach, and I can't wait to see a Forerunner. Or kill one, either.

I also had trouble liking the story. Maybe it kicks up a lot more later on but so far nothing is happening....

I felt like I was just walking around to walk around. I actually thought the idea of ODST was great but its missing what I was hoping for, you working with your fellow grunts relying on them


Im growing more and more interested in Halo 4 after the miniseries going on and the book "Glasslands"

Just as well I preordered it months ago then.

So if its set after the events and has story content..should I steer clear of it for spoilers? At least until I've finished the campaign?

ODST was a pointless game that wasn't about anything. You see them all surviving the landing then theres something with the engineers tacked on. Most of the characters are apart for most of the game and don't meaningfully interact with eachother save for the occasional witty one-liner. Then you have the whole Halo thing where the main character is mute for all the game and so theres no effort to personalise him at all. Even if he is hilariously dumb at times, bringing a metal pole to a live wire, trying to bend a sniper rifle back into shape and skimming a demo charge. "Rookie so dumb; he like make player laugh." Funniest character in the game. But for something that, like Reach, they said would try to personalise the characters and emphasise the team aspect; I was just disappointed. That was then. Games like Gears of War 3 really impressed me with how they managed to put a decent story and with a large cast of characters; who genuinely interacted with eachother. So I hope Halo 4 they finally raise the bar. Even Call of Duty has made far more moves towards adding character to the player character rather than him being "YOU" and mute for the whole game.

Totalwar... did you just power through ODST and then left it? Cause if you did, you missed out on a lot of stuff.

Yeah man you would have missed those redonkulous MP3s!

 Soladrin wrote:
Totalwar... did you just power through ODST and then left it? Cause if you did, you missed out on a lot of stuff.

Completed it on legendary on the first day. Did a couple of playthroughs to get achievements. Didn't improve my opinion of the campaign. The Firefight was really fun and it irritated me that Reach ruined such a good game mode by making it too easy and adding rocket launchers. I only remember the chick, the rookie and buck; not saying much. The rest are entirely forgetful and didn't have anything else to them.

To each their own I guess.
And I only have one reason for somewhat disliking reach, canon rape.

 Soladrin wrote:
To each their own I guess.
And I only have one reason for somewhat disliking reach, canon rape.

OH GOD YES


I love the book "Fall of Reach", enjoyed the Marine sections of "The Flood", and enjoyed "First Strike"

"Reach" ruins those stories. I actually thought the game was fun and it would have been a good addition to the Halo series had it been about anything else but Reach. "Reach" does not have a place in my Halo collection because of that

Pretty much same, if viewed on it's own merits it's a great game, but it just tramples over previously established canon.

To me, Fall of Reach will always be the canon story, not this crap.

Why do people consider a book written a decade ago; licensed tie-in fiction at that, takes precedence over a game written and developed by the actual game series developer? I liked Fall of Reach a lot when I read it, but going "GUH MY CANON QQ" over it when it's been essentially rewritten doesn't make sense to me. It's a remake of the story done with more gameplay in mind, I never saw the issue.

Because Eric Nylund Basically created the entire backstory of the series in that one book

Insurrection, feshed out in FoR
Harvest, FoR again
Spartan Project, Ohh look, FoR
Reach itself, You guessed it FoR

they fracked up so badly when changing a few minor things would of had it fit

Saying that Fall of Reach "fleshed out" those events is kinda silly.

Especially considering that it took First Strike to really flesh out the events of the Fall of Reach....and guess what?

Personally I liked Reach far better than the novel. You can tell that the novel was basically justification for what happened in the original game, while Reach went back and looked at it as "Okay, so we know what we did then. But how do we make it more appropriate to the universe we've built since?".

Halo: CE was not expected to be the huge hit it was. The Halo universe was not expected to be fluffed out as much as it has been. It's the same thing that happened with 40k.

That doesn't change the fact that the story in FoR is just simply better.

(IE I prefer that version and thus I see that as canon, it's my approach to cannon in everything )

The story in Fall of Reach is "better" in that it ties in directly to Halo: CE.

Halo: Reach is, however, a far more sensible plot line.

 Kanluwen wrote:
The story in Fall of Reach is "better" in that it ties in directly to Halo: CE.

Halo: Reach is, however, a far more sensible plot line.

Please, Winter Contingency takes place on July 24th, Sword Base on July 26th, Nightfall on August 11th, Tip of the spear on August 12th

you're telling me that the UNSC were just like "Ohh, A corvette just appeared above a top secret ONI base, lets sit about for a month and not do anything"

so all the millitary assets on/above reach didn't find the one spot none of the planes returned from in a couple of days, then just MAC the frack out of it. I mean they did start looking, right, a corvette doesn't just appear out of nowhere.

And even if Long Night of Solace had a cloak, nobody detected it in slipspace or as it entered the system...

Halo: Reach wasn't bad. In terms of energy, I think they had it full blown on par with an action movie.

Unfortunately like many action movies certain aspects falls apart when one applies... Common sense...

 Soladrin wrote:
That doesn't change the fact that the story in FoR is just simply better.

(IE I prefer that version and thus I see that as canon, it's my approach to cannon in everything )

Totally agree



We arnt saying "Reach" is a bad game. I actually think it is very good. We are just frustated that it over writes almost all of the books which is disappointing if we really enjoy the books.


I actually dont hate Bungie for its decision, im okay with it, I just wish they decided to either work with what they had or just make in a different planet this way we can enjoy all of it instead of being forced to choose one or the other. Hence why I dont own Reach, even though I enjoyed playing in, (Friend's house) it doesnt fit in my universe

It wasn't just that it messed up what canon they had established (never liked those books anyway). What really got me was how they seemed to be referencing certain elements of what had been in the books, then contradicting what had been in those books, not adding any substance to them or making even the slightest effort to explain what was going on to people who haven't read the books.

Who is Halsey?

What is ONI?

What is the difference between a Spartan 3 and 2 and why is the creator of the Spartans treating the former with such hostility? Aren't they on the same side? In fact they could have been Spartan 2's and it wouldn't have made any difference. Plus, S3's are meant to be a secret from Halsey. There inclusion seemed pointless as they don't bother putting the story behind this distinction into the game. Its only a weak excuse for why Halsey keeps you in the dark for the big reveal and maybe to justify not being able to dual wield anymore.

The really odd decision to depict Halsey as a dark character when she is introduced. Not in keeping with the books from a character perspective; even if it matches what she condoned; (though I hear they retconned this in recent books to make her a personally disgusting person as well). But more to the point, the games have never been dark and this just seemed weird to suddenly force this down the players throats without explaining about the darker side of the Spartan program.

 Galdos wrote:
It took a min of MORE than 1 clip of MA5C Rounds to bring a Brute down

The entire MA5 Assault Rifle range uses magazines, not clips, as do all assault rifles. Not sure why this irks me so much, but it does.

I thought Reach and ODST were both good. Where I live ODST gets a ton of hate, not sure why. I thought it was a fun game with an interesting plot.

Halsey has pretty much always been depicted as a "dark" character.

She's a horrible, horrible person doing horrible things for what she believes to be a good cause.

And she gets horribly slapped down for.

I love Parangosky.

I enjoyed Reach and ODST. The worst thing about ODST was lack of multiplayer matchmaking and support after the game came out - the rest of the game was pretty good.

I enjoyed Reach - had an interesting story and decent characters.

I have had the limited Halo 4 pre-ordered for a couple of months now

Although the link to the item from my pre-order status on the website I ordered it from is not showing any item any more...

 Kanluwen wrote:
Halsey has pretty much always been depicted as a "dark" character.

She's a horrible, horrible person doing horrible things for what she believes to be a good cause.

They tried to make it seem like she had some sort of affection for the Spartans and made out like this was a neccessary evil (what Atkinson (ODST colonel) did was since they were fighting a war of annialation n the kids were war orphans). From what I understand they retconned the series so that, actually, thats just an act and the Spartans were deliberately brain-washed to think of her as their mother. I suppose that is why George doesn't seem phased by Halsey being such a bitch when they first meet.

But my main point was that, Halo has never been a dark series in the video games. UNSC good, Covenant and Flood bad. Suddenly and without any explanation hinting at a dark past to do with the Spartans didn't make a lot of sense.

I've heard Halo 4 might try to address some of this and that might work because the chief, like the player, is largely unaware of how horrible the Spartan program was and what was done to him. So it would be like the wool being pulled from over their eyes.

I'm more concerned how the UNSC is going to fight the Didact and his forces. The UNSC simply does not have the technology to fight the Forerunners - the Human-Covenant War was won by luck. If the Arbiter had not rebelled against the Prophets, Humanity would have lost the war.