medcsu

I like her actually, didn't originally but she has grown on me.

If these new challenges get you mad you must have been furious when the original Skull Legendary challenges only netted like 5k EXP. Now that was irritating.

I will say that my tactics had to be overhauled on some parts (when first starting the campaign and not knowing the capabilities of the Prometheans). I personally think Watchers are a great addition to gameplay by 343. As far as the game difficulty on Legendary. Well I beat it on Legendary the first day and I am far from some pro gamer so I cannot consider it ridiculously hard but it wasn't simple either. I'd be content to say the Legendary gameplay was quite fair all around. I will say, however, I was hoping for a insanely difficult Legendary mode and hope H5 and beyond offer something (without Skulls) that is truly dastardly.

A considerable amount.....months ago.

Mechanized additions I reckon.

Halo 4 was an outstanding campaign. The MC finally has a worthy adversary to go head to head with and that he is (basically) overmatched against. On top of that the writing is so superb that we are dealing with an enemy that, many years in the past, devolved humanities ancestors even further showing what type of enemy we are facing. I feel this series will be outstanding and answer many questions about humanity and it's roots and the Forerunners and their history. For three games (and more actually) we read/saw this/that about the Forerunners and now we finally have a chance to see them in action. This game was an A+ in my book.

Ah ok thank you. I was confused there because it didn't really seem necesarry for the Didact to even have an active portal up. This does raise another question, how did the Didact survive falling into that portal. His armor must be astounding to say the least and be rated for (as MC would say) slipspace travel. Begs the question (off topic) if he would next go to a non inhabited Halo ring and attempt to set them all off. I say this because you really wouldnt think he would have many military pieces at his disposal.

That doesnt really make much sense. Why would a slipspace portal even be open at that time considering his ship/Composer was stationed over and attempting to compose Earth. There really would be no reason for a portal to be open. Did I miss something in the game where they said he fell into one or are you assuming?

This does raise a good point. He basically was kicked off the ship and drifted into Earths orbit. It wouldnt be beyond reason he was captured by the UNSC.

Which is exactly what I thought too. However I read this: http://www.halopedia...Halo:_Silentium It appears he was simply abandoned by the Master Builder. I found this quote most interesting: "But the roots of the Flood may be found in an act of enormous barbarity, carried out beyond our galaxy ten million years before... Because of that barbarism, a greater evil looms. Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian -- husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict -- hold the keys to a solution. Facing the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time — to prevent an insane evil from dominating the entire universe" I assume this "act of barbarity" that took place ten million years prior is the Forerunner Empire crushing the Precursors which led to their own weapon of last resort (much like the Halos) in the form of the Flood. Now the "greatest atrocity of all time" is going to obviously be why the Ur Didact was imprisoned due to his conscription of Humanity by way of the Composer. This is all speculation on my part but I feel confident about it.

From Waypoint: With more than 30 years of naval experience under his belt and a reputation for bringing his ships home in one piece, Andrew Del Rio was a relatively easy choice for the UNSC’s captain seat on Infinity Halopedia has a good amount on him, as well. Seems he was indeed assigned to the Infinity by Paragonsky but wasn't here "first choice".

Ive been able to pull LASO on the first 2 mission (Requiem is the easier of the two) but the fact is it is ridiculously annoying. I think I've had to assassinate every single elite that crossed my path because I sure as hell can't kill them with gunfire before they own me with theirs.

Mendicant Bias was able to single handedly shut down the Forerunner capital, destroy them with a Halo Ring, shut down their ancillas and take control of their armor. Rampent AIs are no joke.

Another great post. There is something else I believe we are all forgetting here though. Cortana. Cortana was exibiting rampent tendancies and ever went berserk on the bridge of the Infinity. Why does this matter? Cortana is, literally, plugged into the MC suit and in Del Rio's eyes this could have utterly corrupted him (MC) as well. All Del Rio (most likely) knew about the original S2s is that they were conscipted as children but considering how poorly they were treating Halsey (calling her a Mad Scientist, etc) he may have believed that Cortana could have somehow corrupted the MC as well and wasn't going to take any chances. Hence him saying to the MC he wouldn't "take the word of an aging Spartan and his manfunctioning AI".

Lord Hood helped the Arbiter quell an uprising on Sanghelios which is now unstable. We may just see him in H5.

The Flood and the Necromorphs remind me of The Thing. Which leads me to my, albeit random, question. Who wins in a straight up fight (and why), the Flood or the Necromorphs. In this question the parameters are that the Flood have reached critical mass and have a Gravemind and the Necromorphs have a massive colony as well (for sake of argument the size of the colony on the Sprawl).

He isn't Bornstellar. He is Ur. At this time we have no idea what happened to Bornstellar except: 1) He fired the Halo array at the end of the Forerunner/Flood war. 2) We will learn his fate in Halo Silentium. However, it was confirmed that the Didact in H4 was the original, and his actual name is/was "Ur".

He was removed from his command based on "abandoning" the MC on Requiem. That is far from Cowardice and far from conduct unbecoming an officer. If anything, he was replaced for deriliction of duty but cowardice? I have never heard of such a removal of command for this in the service. I guess none of us could really know as we are all simply applying what happened to modern day military service and we do not have the UNSC UCMJ (equiv).

Exactly. The humans also had to sacrifice 1/3 of their population to combat the flood with the anti-infection. So when the Forerunners began to advance the ancient humans were already down 1/3 their numbers. Despite this, ancient humanity/San'Shyuum went toe to toe with the Forerunners but eventually just lost.

Great post, good thoughts. However (and there is no reason you would know this), as a military man let me tell you that special forces members (ie: MC) not only have no prong in any normal chain of command (ie: in a battle situation he actually holds discretion over Del Rio, though he cannot commandeer his vessel) but their (special forces) chain comes directly from their respected squadron and that squadron alone. In this case, Lord Hood would be the (only one we know of at this time) commanding officer over the MC. That being said, I see how it looks as Del Rio was disobeyed but trust me when I say that even in actual wars/real battles, special force members (especially Delta) have discretion on priority missions. Chief is kind of like a super Delta member with the same discretion. He cannot be brought up on charges for disobeying Del Rio, however, Del Rio should also not be brought up on charges for not aiding the MC as his priority is to safeguard his crew and vessel. However, Lasky would absolutely be brought up on charges for servicing and allowing the MC to take military UNSC hardware from the hanger with that bird he "accidently" let him use (how Del Rio didn't know this is beyond me). Obviously we are all (myself included) looking way too much into this but the fact remains that from a battle standpoint, MC has total OPCOM discretion where as Del Rio has total discretion on his vessel and crew. It was simply a matter of an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force. I really hope Del Rio doesnt lose everything for being put into an impossible situation.

Exactly. The Flood are apart of the Halo universe and have been around for ages. That being said there is a very high propensity we see them again. I believe we will know for certain when Silentium comes out and we find out their true purpose and origins.

I actually see your point on this. However, as I said many times (and won't bore anyone with repeating), from a military doctrine point, Del Rio made the correct call. The Didacts terrorist attacks could not be placed on Del Rio. Let's be honest, the Didact's attack(s) were nothing short of that either.

There is no doubt in my mind at all that the Flood will live on. The chances of the parasite being gone in every corner of the galaxy is small.

It is nice to see another military member adding input that is right on the same lines as mine. Do you have a chance to go back over to that shizhole (Afghanistan)? When I was in it was Bosnia but I have heard nothing but displeasure about tours in Afghanistan thus I hope you remain safe.

He didnt leave anyone anywhere, MC went AWOL and stole a decked out Pelican in the process. When the MC was absorbed into Del Rio's command he was obligated to follow his command of the Infinity. MC did not and, on his own, made the choice to bail and go after the Didact. Being a War Criminal is a totally different issue with a totally different meaning.