Well, the leaked listings for Halo: Spartan Assault came true. It’s a twin stick shooter starring Sarah Palmer (hopefully giving her more development than her rote characterization in Halo 4) and another Spartan named Davis. It’s designed for Windows 8 devices and is set between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4. It looks like it may be using some assets from Halo Wars, but I haven’t had time to study the differences. It’s a pretty sharp looking little game all around, though.
Now all MS has to do is tell us more about their secretive Halo: Bootcamp project for PC. If Microsoft/343 also has anything to say about Halo 5, that will make three games in the pipeline that we know of…which is the exact opposite of what I think 343 should be doing right now. Thankfully, Spartan Assault was confirmed as being developed by an outside party (Vanguard Games, who are made up of alumni from the “Halo killer” Killzone developer Guerrilla Games — small world, eh?) with oversight from 343, and Frankie’s/the MS rep’s wording on Bootcamp makes it seem completely distinct from their Reclaimer/console efforts, which would pretty much all but confirm another developer at play. Still, I have to wonder if Microsoft is spreading the Halo IP way too thin, especially after the rapid player decline of the multiplayer population in Halo 4.
the cortana i love and adore isn’t the cortana most fanart/fanfic/etc makes her out to be. the cortana i am loyal to is the AI i read about when I delved into my first Halo novel, First Strike. The AI that had the unprecedented idea of putting a UNSC and Covenant ship together, who fought with and defeated a Covenant AI, who had the genius to successfully execute an in-atmosphere slipspace transition. My Cortana doesn’t require the Master Chief to stand alone as her own character, as somebody I can appreciate and admire. She’s not a fetch quest or a token sexy chick, she’s an incredible example of human engineering at its finest and consciously made the decision to protect John-117. Her feelings toward him are directly influenced by her “mother’s” past sins, what was done to John when he was a child, and in a way she’s atoning for all of that by giving her all to keep him safe. That is why I will always defend Cortana and why I can’t imagine Halo without her. She’s not Chief’s girlfriend. She’s not a useless piece of poor character development or bad writing. She’s simply the victim of a fandom that focuses on her vulnerability and sexual appeal without remembering that despite her appearance, DESPITE her rampancy and shortcomings, she is pretty much THE most powerful artificial intelligence humanity has ever made and has accomplished feats no AI had ever done.
so while I’m not really mad when I see “Halo would be better without Cortana” and “oh god Cortana sucks” I must say I am disappointed because it’s obvious the character really is a victim of overzealous fandom/poor development in-game and it’s unfair. I wish Bungie had handled her better in H3. I wish H4 had done more to show us her true capability besides opening doors and gathering information. I wish the fact that she’s p much the most-shipped character with the Chief wasn’t something that actually makes people hate her. because she’s so much more than that.
tl;dr Cortana was one of the first things I liked about Halo and I am attempting to defend her nicely
Don’t worry about. You’re right to defend a character you like, and you’ve provided solid rationale for why. I see things a little differently, but I also agree with many of your points (then again, I’m not really in the Cortana hate bandwagon— she’s always been a cornerstone character, so hating her outright is kind of like hating the blood of Halo). I try to critique rationally and maybe I’m a little too analytical or critical at times, but that’s me. Don’t feel like an apologist because of your opinion. You simply like an apparently divisive (I was never aware that people really hated Cortana, either) character and you have your reasons. Nothing wrong with that. Don’t let haters get to you…unless you like debate. I do. But that’s me.
Alya-B312. Noble Six. Two and a half years of service. 94225 confirmed Covenant casualties. 57053 simulation kills. Hyper-lethal.
A lot of good memories here. And a lot more to come as I crawl my way from Forerunner to Inheritor, probably over the summer.
They let me pick, did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted.
You know me. I did my research. Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader.
But you had something they didn’t. Something no one saw… but me. Can you guess?
Luck.
Was I wrong?
1. Put your username in image search.
2. Select “animated” under search tools.
3. Post result.
AHahahhahahaha its the truth tho
Hey it’s the gif I made!
HAHAHA GOOD
Oh…
Welp.
HHAHAHAHA OMG
well, you know me… I love Shenko angst LOL
…This is actually incredibly appropriate. :O
I agree with this result
This is uh, relevant to my feelings with Halo right now…so there’s that.
Cortana as I imagined her when I first read the Halo novels
All I had to go on was a pic of her from CE at the time… hadn’t really ever drawn her as I saw her then, so decided to
Wow, really cute. Much closer to how I envision the character in my head, actually. She was a little too buxom and had a lot of “deer in the headlights” (I understand she was supposed to be a little more innocent looking due to her impending doom, but still) stares in Halo 4, and was a little too…sexy? in Halo 2-3. I like the somewhat slender, short haired Cortana in Halo: CE a lot more. It went with her snark a lot better. One of Bungie’s initial visual inspirations for the character was Queen Nefertiti, who had pronounced cheek bones (that carries over to CE, poly counts be damned). I was really disappointed as that was slowly phased out of her character since it helped with her proud, assertive personality, in my opinion. Something of a nearly royal pride in of itself, which fit her station entirely.
if you don’t like something
you don’t have to spend money on it
nobody is going to force you to buy a product you dislike
the new creative direction of a franchise means nothing unless you’re compulsively driven to purchase every new thing the franchise puts out
which… isn’t healthy??
tl;dr, the Xbox One/Halo TV series/CoD: Ghosts isn’t for everyone but nobody is gonna make you have them, just be happy with whatever makes you happy
I dunno I just view all of these new directions with a sorta “let it be” attitude and seeing all the fuss is puzzling
In the case of Halo and other such fandoms, I agree wholeheartedly. I will be the first to say that I’m not a big fan of the direction of the newer material and I discuss those issues — with people who are interested in hearing them. I know that Tumblr gravitates to a generally more positive tone when it comes to the fandoms, so I try to be productive in the areas I enjoy rather than debate the areas I don’t (though I really enjoy debate). Why put a damper on such enjoyment?
In the case of the Xbox One, I feel the distinctly anti-consumer designs of the system (such as the reactivation price for used games being the cost of the game itself, Internet connection requirement, etc., etc.) warrants discussion and even outrage. I don’t like my rights as a consumer and user of a product be trampled on by such corporate machinations. Again, I tend to mute my opinion here because the fandoms prefer positive stuff, but I’m not gonna be quiet about my dislike of the Xbox One because I feel that anyone who might be interested in the system should know its dark side. If MS loses potential customers, maybe they’ll look at changing their plans. Probably not, but I’d rather be outspoken in this case because it’s a pretty ugly situation overall that needs revision one way or another.
That said, I won’t discuss it with people who aren’t interested in talking about it…but I guess I kind of am. I’m bored.
At first I was like “eh, no…” but somehow knowing Spielberg will be involved makes me feel better? Might just be blind optimism, though… *flails*
It’s more or less the same for me. I need to know who’s writing, who’s producing, what kind of budget there is, blah, blah, blah but there aren’t many names that I could say would reassure me about the ambition and commitment of the project over Steven Spielberg (aside from Halo by Joss Whedon, maybe…that’d be an awesome show.) I just don’t want to see the continued fragmentation of 343. They bloated up too fast and weren’t given enough time to crank our their first full product (to the point where a huge portion of Halo 4 was actually created by external developers) and this TV show might dilute their focus further. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I’d prefer to see 343 consolidate and really focus on their next game rather than branch out at this moment.
Oh boy. Just am I’m convinced that 343 Industries is plagued with mismanagement and a disjointed focus that panders to big names and not actually solving the issues inherent to the core of the company, they announce a project that shows a disjointed focus that panders to a (very) big name.
I’m not excited. 343 is on a tight leash as I’m concerned. Still, Spielberg is quite the grab.
For my 7777th, I figured some Bungie fan art from TDSpiral was in order. From Gnop! to Halo to Destiny, this piece covers a ton of history with some cool composition.
You know, I was hoping beyond all rational levels that the Master Chief would find Jorge on Requiem. I even thought about writing a story for it…but that’d be ridiculous.I wanted that too, and it wouldn’t be ridiculous. You should write it and show it to me when you’re done.
Hm. I do need something to kick off my creative juices what with a bunch of writing based assignments being due soon. Perhaps I will.
