Jasper

The "out of nowhere" was meant to be a figure of speech lol. But seriously? When did telekinesis ever make sense in the history of the world? Why and how were these "brevet mutations" put in place? Was it some sort of technology? I am baffled.

So you want to fight Godzilla? I love the idea of boss fights, but maybe not at the scale you are imagining. I for one thought the boss fights in Halo 2 were phenomenally constructed. You had the Heretic with his illusions whose dual plasma fire you had to evade and maneuver while counter-attacking at the correct opportune moment. And then you had Tartarus who made you work on your strafing, jumping, and distraction skills as well as quick burst attacking. Basically they required Halo skills that didn't involve the biggest gun, which was refreshing. Halo 2 was the only game that had this. If Spartan Ops could revive this type of gameplay, I would be ecstatic! But it would have to be well done of course, and I believe that requires the correct implementation of Armor abilities this time. For instance, Hard Light shield would actually prove useful for once and be required in order to defend your team from a specific enemy's attack (preferably not a gargantuan Godzilla Elite, maybe something within reason, no offense) while your teammates implemented different armor abilities to stage an offensive, such as thrust for getting behind the boss or promethean vision to counter invisibility. Things that require team strategy. That would be amazing.

Halo 4 is like a movie. Watch it again if you don't understand, but be inquisitive and open-minded about it this time. Also, this might help: http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/halo-3/the-terminals/ Halo 3 Terminals ftw

So.... what was up with all of that Force pushing that the Didact knew how to do? I have enough imagination for levitating architecture, but spontaneous invisible forces at will? That's pushing it, even in the Halo universe. I mean, the Forerunners are enigmatic, I understand that, but inherent telekinetic powers seem a little too high up on the Overpowered scale. I can understand massive tentacles, a huge hammer, and religious propaganda, now those are a little more reasonable. The Didact literally comes out of nowhere and spontaneously uses this power to make Chief look like a little girl (no sexism intended). Also, you'd think that if you really wanted to imprison someone, you'd make sure it was unable to be open by anyone, let alone be able to transmit radio frequencies freely through the cage. I would just like to know where the heck this came from. Any explanations in Halo novels that I have not explored?

Fun Fact: Halo 4 is not the first game in the series to go in-depth with the story of the Forerunners. Halo 3 was. You just had to look for it, and decipher it, in the terminals. It's not as easy of a task as defeating the Covenant, but for an avid Halo fan who is curious to know more, it is worth it. Luckily for you, the Halo fan who is still unfamiliar with Halo Lore, you can go to the link provided below and READ. It covers the story of the Forerunners in a brief enough format to digest properly: http://blog.ascendan.../the-terminals/ Also, the actual Halo 3 Terminal transcripts are here, just click on the picture for the one you want to read: http://halo3archives.com/terminals/ The funny thing is, people complain about how the games don't provide enough background information and leave too many holes, and how they don't have time to read the Halo novels (when the real reason is probably they hate reading), when in fact the story has been left for us to uncover. People just need to put a little more effort into it.

I've heard mention from a reasonably reliable source that humans actually had devised a way of containing the flood, but the flood were still putting up a good fight, infecting worlds and such. The humans were losing land because they had to totally destroy that which was infected. And i'm sure you know how overpopulation works. I'm sure it's not as simple as overpopulation, but you get the idea, logistics. Humans required more land and eventually were a bit rude to the Forerunner's lands and so war ensued. A hypothesis as to why it took so long could be that both the humans and Forerunners saw the other side as non-negotiable and since the humans technically had the Flood under relative control, their wasn't much to be informed about to the Forerunners. Once the humans were outlasted in a war against two species, the Forerunners lacked a device to impede the Flood, thus forming the Halo legacy.

Creating great new characters is always welcome, but I feel like Bungie butchered the great potential of the Arbiter with Halo 3 (because some whiny fans didn't like to play as anyone but the Chief in H2 campaign, he became a mere sidekick). His introduction in Halo 2 offered an entirely new perspective to your relentless alien enemies in the first game and changed the dynamic of the franchise altogether. They created a REAL hero, who sacrificed everything for what he believed in and dedicated his life for the good of not only his people but others as well. And as the player you witness ALL of this, so there is a special connection there. Sorry to say this, but Master Chief is not as heroic as the Arbiter. He's too smart to sacrifice as much as the Arbiter did, but I guess that's starting to change. Even though I would love for his return, I find a hard time finding an appropriate story outlet for it. He returned to his homeworld to a life of peace for a reason. There would have to be an apocalyptic threat of a galactic scale to get him off the couch and back into his profession. On that note, I agree with RisingPh3onix about how the Flood have been stopped and it should be kept that way because that was the point of the Halo trilogy and it would be counter-intuitive to ruin a narrative like that. BUT, I do not see the return of the flood all that unreasonable. Remember that the Flood have been successfully contained by the Forerunners for many milennia. You could eventually encounter the flood at such containment sites as the one that the Heretics in Halo 2 were housed in. That apparently was a planet hostile enough to prevent the Flood from escaping its atmosphere. ALSO, if encountering the Flood in gameplay is still too much for you, than the looming threat of their return can be a great driving force in the plotline. There is definitely some Flood remaining in the galaxy, definitely on the remaining Halo rings, and MAYBE someone wants to release it?

At the end of Halo 3, the Arbiter and Rtas (the half-jawed white elite) make plans to travel back to their homeworld to live a life of peace with the rest of their kind. It is not directly stated, but it is inferred. The Arbiter was definitely my favorite character as well and I really wish for his return, but with that kind of exit in Halo 3, it seems really hard to be done, unless some apocalyptic force rises once again in the galaxy that threatens the Elites' home planet. I really wish the fleshed out his relationship with Master Chief better in Halo 3, but due to fans disapproving of the lack of Master Chief face time in the Halo 2 campaign, they removed all sense of story depth from the Arbiter and just made him a sidekick in H3. I guess that's what happens when the oversensitive, cant-handle-good-change fanbase gets their way. A lull in great storytelling.

From what I gather, you seem to be noob that simply rages because he/she sucks. But in a more respectful fashion.... This is an entirely new game. There are some similarities to Halo 3, but generally, the feel is quite different. I had difficulties at first playing and admittedly got very frustrated, but alas that has passed and I've grown accustomed to the playstyle. Unlike what you've inferred, I have observed that any gun works if you know how to use it. The loadout guns are balanced by the perks and loadouts. For instance, I use an AR with Active Camo because i think that is some really fun ****. I"ve had people rage over the fact that I use the "nooby" AR and still win, but really I just know how to use the Camo well enough to get close enough while they panic with their BRs and such. With power weapons, you have to earn them by placement or ordnance and the other team can still steal them so it's more balanced than you think. Plus the power weapons in Halo are VERY situational. Rockets have long reloads and limited clips while shotguns are very close quarters. And what it all comes down to is that you're only one guy on a battlefield after all and can die quite easily. Teamwork > everything else. The more variables there are in a game, the more strategy it takes. Now people who have more coordination are at a lesser advantage, although it is still a useful skill to have. Learn to adapt. He was definitely trolling. It's funny because that's probably what everyone is thinking when your original post was made.

I think the point being made with this topic is that there is a lot of unnecessary hate being made about Halo 4 for no reason. Sure, you are entitled to your opinion about the game, but there is no reason to shun its existence simply because it was different from your past experiences. That's kind of a thing about life that you have to get used to eventually: things CHANGE. If they didn't, they would be dead. And i'm sure most people don't want Halo to die. This is what you sound like when you hate on a perfectly good work of art that 343 put much good effort and time into: http://www.quickmeme.com/First-World-Problems/ Go through this. You will understand, or maybe you won't, in which case me saying this is futile.

For those of you discrediting the complete grandeur that is the Halo 4 OST, I will argue that it is simply perfect given the game's circumstances. Just like people do, Halo is growing up. It's getting more serious than the walk-in-the-park superhero feel that the first trilogy had. The Halo 4 OST has become a real film score (Halo 4 is even on iMDB!) and portrays the emotions felt in the storyline quite perfectly. The original feel was great and I loved going back to it when I wanted to feel badass, but for the darkness in Halo 4, there is nothing to jump around, hum randomly, or feel badass for. Melody is only for those who do not understand everything else about music. Not to seem elitist or anything =P

So I don't know if this a marketing strategy by 343 or something, but not all of the audio from the game is on the Soundtrack, which kind of bugs me because I like to have the whole experience. For instance, not even the opening Menu music with the foreboding vocals that contrast the original Halo monks is on the CD, along with the rest of the 10+ minutes of song after that. And I know I'm not alone when I say that I sometime leave the menu on just listen to the beautiful ambiance being played while gazing at the mysterious shadowed planet before me with half a star's light peeking over its horizon, illuminating just enough of the world's surface to offer a dark sense of beckoning. My description may be overdone, but that's the point. The music is that good! Hopefully they will release a second CD like they did with Halo 2, which was IMO the next best soundtrack for the series. Halo 4 has reached the franchise's pinnacle of cinematic-gaming scoring!

Like most of you, I am a fan of Halo. I grew up with it and have loved it since the beginning until its Reach lull. Not saying it was a bad game, but it just didn't feel like Halo should have, I think. Anyway, Halo 4 got me so pumped for the franchise again that I bought a new system just for its release. Reigniting the Halo spark even more by joining this community also seemed fun, so here I am. Also, I am going to just advertise my gamertag in case anyone loves a good custom game and needs people, because I know how annoying it can be to find players. Gamertag is "Jasper Tango". Friends are nice.

The idea of Spartan Ops is fantastic, but it needs to be more full. I don't feel like I'm getting enough with the short CG clips and 5 small chapters mainly because so far it doesn't seem like everything is tied together yet (maybe in future episodes things will fall in place) and the missions seem very stale. All you do is visit a place you have already been to in campaign and kill a bunch of enemies that are thrown at you repetitively while you are directed toward different buttons to push. Relevant purpose is lacking. The clips are cool though!

Your impressively robust post seems to conclude that you are more passionate about this topic than anyone else here, yet you seem to reject that notion on multiple occasions. Very odd. The campaign is not incomplete and you really don't have to read the books to know the story. The directors of the Halo franchise know that not everyone will read the books. The Halo games tell one story, while the books tell others, but they're all within the same universe. And I guess that's the main point here. Clearly, you feel that there are holes in the Halo 4's campaign story, but that depends on how you look at it. A story can be as long as you want it to be. The focus of Halo 4, as I believe it is intended by 343, is Cortana. By the end, you know everything you need to know about that story. The secondary details of that story are left to the books for those fans who wish to expand their knowledge of the Halo universe, not this particular story. The chapter that is Halo 4 does not consist of a complete history of the Halo universe that explains everything about the Forerunners. Not only would that be impossible, but that would also be unrealistic. History is an elusive thing. So the verdict is, if someone is telling you to go read a book to fulfill your Halo curiosity needs, it is because you are asking for details that are not entirely necessary for an understanding of the games and Master Chief's legacy. Plus, the Reclaimer series (Halo 4, 5, and 6) is a pre-planned story. There is much storytelling to be done. If I have not convinced you in any way with this post, just think of Halo 4 as one segment of a larger storyline.