Seeker of Truth

Hmm...I'm not sure. That would be very difficult

Does anyone have any feedback?

I have now made an updated list of what I want for Halo 5. NOTE: The size of the font indicates how important I think it is to the story. Please reply, provide feedback, and add any suggestions if you want Weapons Sentinel beam- One of my favorite weapons from Halo 2 and 3. With Sentinels back for Halo 4, and probably Halo 5 as well, it would be nice to have the sentinel beam back as well. Brute shot- This was my weapon of choice against both Ghosts and those annoying campers in Halo 3. If the Brutes return, and I certainly hope that they do, then their primary weapon will have to make a comeback as well. Incendiary grenade- This was one of those weapons that was sort of overlooked in Halo 3, and that I find myself kind of missing now that it's gone. The incendiary grenade had its use, but bringing it back would really be more of a nice touch than anything. Plasma rifle- While it is identical in function to the Storm rifle, bringing back the plasma rifle would make the game feel more like Halo and give some nostalgic value. Perhaps it could be used by the Arbiter and his followers while the Covenant Remnant use the storm rifle. Needle rifle- Now, I know it was the equivalent of the carbine in Halo: Reach, and it shouldn't be identical in Halo 5, but rather a counterpart to the battle rifle in the same way that the carbine is a counterpart to the DMR. Armor abilities Evade- Evade was not the most popular armor ability in Halo: Reach, but it was certainly better than Halo 4's Thruster Pack. I know that Thruster Pack makes the game feel more high-tech and futuristic, but come on, it barely works. Evade wasn't broken, so why did 343 try to fix it? Drop shield- Another armor ability that should make a comeback from Halo: Reach. Unlike armor lock, I didn't feel that the drop shield was broken, particularly as it didn't draw out the action. It had its use, and now that it's gone, that use is left vacant. Flare- Going back to Halo 3 this time, flares were one of my favorite armor abilities. They could give you some temporary respite from attacks when used right, but unlike armor lock they actually required skill to use, mostly because they blinded the user as well as the target. Having the ability to blind the enemy for a couple of seconds has some interesting applications, as long as 343i doesn't make it too easy. No armor lock- Armor lock, above anything else, was what broke Halo: Reach's matchmaking. It made the user completely invincible, but as they couldn't move or fire while using it, it didn't give the team any sort of advantage and just drew out the action. It also broke the splatter system almost beyond repair. If they bring armor lock back for Halo 5, I'm probably not even going to bother with matchmaking. Vehicles Spectre/Revenant- The concept of a medium-grade Covenant vehicle was interesting, and I think both the Spectre and the Revenant did it right. They were both a well-balanced counterpart to the Warthog, and made the game more even. Having one or both of them back for Halo 5 would be fantastic. Falcon- UNSC aerial vehicles were counterparts to the Banshee in the same way that the Spectre and Revenant were counterparts to the Warthog: they helped the game balance out, but they weren't identical in function and so it wasn't really down to who shot first. In any case, the Hornet was quite overpowered in my opinion, but the Falcon did its job well: it required skill and teamwork to use correctly, and could carry the whole team around in a pinch. Scarab- No, I'm not talking about in Matchmaking. The game would be incredibly broken if the Scarab was usable in MM. I just miss having Scarabs as bosses in Campaign. Halo 4's Lich didn't cut it for me because the movement was scripted and it didn't attack you directly. Of course, changing up the Lich a bit would work fine as well. Large aerial vehicle- I think at least available in Forge, but possibly in default maps as well, there should be a large aerial vehicle with seating for the entire team, like a Phantom or something along those lines. If it is used, a good way of balancing would be to have the vehicle not respawn once it's destroyed. Allies Marines/ODSTs- Self-explanatory. The base allies of the Halo series. The return of large squads, like in Halo: CE and Halo 3 would be preferable. Spartans- I don't mean random unnamed S-IVs, although they should probably be around as well. I'm talking about known, established S-IIs and S-IIIs from the books; they've been too long coming. Elites- The Arbiter and his forces will need to return. In Halo 2 and 3, they felt like highly honorable people, not the bloodthirsty monsters they were portrayed as in Halo: CE, and Halo 4. Friendly elites must return; they are an important part of the story, and their return would be very satisfying to the large portion of the community that has been alienated by Halo 4. Grunts- You can't have Elites around without Grunts. They aren't just comic relief; in Halo 2, they were actually decent allies, on Normal difficulty at least. I feel that the Grunts deserve more respect than they're getting. And, if he is still alive... IsoDidact- The IsoDidact's fate needs to be explained, at least. Is he still alive, or did he die of natural causes? If he is still alive, he will likely attempt to help humanity gain the Mantle of Responsibility, and confront the Ur-Didact. Seeing the Didact opposing himself would be interesting, to say the least, and probably crucial to the story. Enemies NOTE: I did not resize the font because I believe all of these opposing factions are critical to the storyline. Covenant Remnant- It has been announced that Jul 'Mdama will be a central character in future installments of the Halo series, so the Covenant Remnant will certainly be sticking around. It should probably also be explored what the Arbiter is doing about them, how far they're willing to go to follow the Ur-Didact, and how they react if and when the IsoDidact returns. Prometheans- Again, self-explanatory. It would make no sense for the Ur-Didact to die in such an anticlimactic way, and he will most likely be sore over his defeat at Earth. He and the IsoDidact should probably at least have a couple of interactions; perhaps in the face of a bigger threat, likely the Precursors/Flood, the Ur-Didact could redeem himself and provide friendly Prometheans, although that probably won't happen in Halo 5, at least not right off the bat. ONI (indirectly)- Their treatment of the former Covenant species and particularly the Sangheili needs to be explored. If and when John finds out what they're doing, something tells me he won't like it. It's hard to say what will happen to stop ONI, but they are doing exactly what the Forerunners did- taking the Mantle of Responsibility by deliberately weakening other species and gradually destroying them, rather than earning it for themselves. ONI would not make good guardians for the galaxy, and they probably won't just change their ways. Precursors/Flood- Although I previously was against the return of the Flood, after looking through some more media I feel that they will need to return. If the human species is going to attain the Mantle of Responsibility, they will need to find a way to defeat the Flood for good. I would like to see more powerful, threatening Flood forms, and see them at their most powerful, probably on the level that they were during the Forerunner-Flood war. It would be good to see the return of some familiar Flood forms too, like the three basic forms and the pure forms seen in Halo 3. Campaign Longer missions- Halo: Reach had long missions, and did well with them. Halo 4's missions, with the exeptions of Reclaimer, Infinity, and Shutdown, were quite short by comparison. Longer missions, please. More character development- Self-explanatory. Halo 4 had little character development, Chief and Cortana aside. Firefight The return of Firefight would be fantastic. It shouldn't replace Spartan Ops, but be a separate gametype. Forge Fine editing- Yet another feature that was taken for granted and is sorely missed now that it's gone. Please bring back fine editing! Destroyable features- I'm not referring to things like fusion coils so much as I am base systems like reactors etc. They should serve as targets in gametypes such as Fortress (see below). Forgeable NPCs- The ability to insert NPCs and control what team they're on is something that players have been asking for for quite a while. Their respawn time and weapons used should be controllable, too. Matchmaking Halo 3 Announcer sounds- I preferred the Announcer from Halo 3 and Reach. Let's face it, the "Betrayal" and "Suicide" sound effects were the most epic announcer voice-overs in any game, ever. Fortress- A new gametype; effectively BTB with an objective. Each team has a good-sized base. The objective is to get inside the enemy team's base and destroy its systems. When a player from the enemy team enters a base, the announcer gives a cue. Destroying a base system ends a round, and weakens the opposing team slightly. Once all three base systems are destroyed, the game ends. The systems could be something along the lines of a munitions dispenser, control computer and power core. Each destroyed system gives the opposing team an advantage (for instance, if one team's munitions dispenser is destroyed, ammunition capacity for that team is reduced). Playable elites- As I said before, playable elites are needed to satisfy a significant portion of the Halo community. If playable Elites do not return, then it will probably raise some doubt that 343i cares about their customers.

I'm male and I play as the male Noble Six most of the time. However I really don't have a preference. Six's role in the story is pretty much gender-neutral. This. Kat had no character development, terrible in-game AI, and was just generally boring. Palmer is egotistical, treats non-Spartans like scum, has zero respect for the enemy, and is incapable of thinking for herself. I think a better female character would be one that we're familiar with, from the books, and which more effort is put into, not one that they pull from a hat like they seem to have done with Palmer.

My interpretation before I read the thread was that it was some sort of expression for "cancel", lol. A boat/other sort of aquatic vehicle would be an interesting idea. As would be a large aerial vehicle like a Phantom, or something along those lines. I have a bad feeling that that isn't going to happen, though. Who knows, if 343 ever establishes a way for us to contact them, maybe we could send them our suggestions?

I don't understand why people have such little tolerance for 343i. They've only just started working on new games. How many do they have, 3? One of them is quite good, not the best Halo game but still good, one of them doesn't appeal to me but that's because I don't like RTS, and the third is just graphical improvements of a game that they didn't make. Yet people assume already that the Halo series is "dead". I'll admit being uncomfortable with some of the changes that 343i are making, including changing the Reclaimer trilogy to a saga, which seems to indicate that they'll be favoring quantity over quality. Who knows, though; maybe they just want to release it in smaller increments so they can get more feedback? The people who haven't lost faith in the future of the Halo series yet seem to be in the minority, and I feel everyone else is being very intolerant. --- Back OT, this does kinda suck. I was hoping for the appearance of a major character for the season finale. I see why they pulled the plug for the time being, though. It would have been tricky to continue Spartan Ops without making it into a completely new game. It's certainly helped to bridge the gap between Halo 4 and the next installment (which I hope will be continuing the main storyline and not a simple spin-off).

I'm not sure. There seems to be a bit of argument regarding this, and I'll just offer my opinion. While the incineration cannon is probably the most powerful weapon in the game (I mean, what other weapon lets you get a Killtacular medal with one shot if used right?) and very satisfying to use if it's used correctly, I feel that it's balanced enough. It obscures the user's view of their surroundings, it fires very slowly and the round is easily dodged (at long range, anyway). Probably many players will disagree with me, but I feel the incineration cannon is not overpowered at all. Also people seem to be complaining that the Ghost is underpowered. I don't feel that the Ghost itself is underpowered, but the problem is splattering. It's almost ridiculous how stiff the Ghost's movement becomes once you hit the boost, and unless your enemy has no idea you were coming, or is a complete idiot, it's very difficult to hit a head-on splatter. I use the (apparently common, if YouTube videos are anything to go by) strategy of a "surprise boost" if I want to go for the splatter, but mostly I just use the main weapons. In Halo 3, splattering was too easy. The control was still quite fluent, and your victims had no sprint, evade, jetpack, or armor lock. In Halo: Reach, the problem got a little better with evade, sprint and so on, but armor lock broke the system again. In Halo 4, thankfully, armor lock is gone, but the Ghost's controls are crippled. If I were 343 I would make the Ghost's maneuverability a little better than Halo 4 for future installments, but not quite as good as Halo 3, and probably bring back evade for a little more balance. Thruster pack doesn't seem to work as well as Evade did. /Review. Any feedback?

Halo: CE's soundtrack was mixed in my opinion, not exceptional in terms of the aesthetic value, but fantastic when it came to mood-setting. As much as I loved Halo 2's gameplay, the music, I think, was too serene, particularly at the climax. The music that played in the control room antechamber while you fought a large group of Brutes was gentle and peaceful. The music that played during the battle with Tartarus was more mood-setting with the "pounding heartbeat" effects, but still felt too sedate for me. Halo 3's soundtrack was excellent. It set the mood perfectly while more like a movie soundtrack than Halo 2's soundtrack did and was therefore more thrilling. Halo 4's soundtrack, I think, was not quite as good at mood-setting as Halo 3's, but still very good. In terms of how thrilling it was, I think it's on par with Halo 3 at the top.

BBC News had this to say on the case: US bank customer Dalton Chiscolm could learn on Friday if he is one step closer to becoming the world's first ever billion-trillionaire. Mr Chiscolm sued Bank of America in Manhattan's federal court in August for "$1,784 billion trillion", in a complaint that boiled down to poor customer service. But US District Judge Denny Chin asked Mr Chiscolm to provide further evidence to support his claims by 23 October, or find them dismissed. Judge Chin is familiar with large sums of money, having just sentenced financier Bernard Madoff to a 150-year prison term. But Madoff's $65bn (£40bn) Ponzi scheme pales in comparison to the amount Mr Chiscolm expects from the bank. Judge Chin called the complaint "incomprehensible", in an order released in court. Many zeroes The actual number, 1,784 billion trillion, is equal to 1.784 multiplied by 10 to the 24th power, or 1,784 followed by 21 zeroes. Using the International System of Units, this number is called a Yotta. Which is how much exactly? "The Sun has the power of a Yotta microwave ovens," says Chris Budd, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath, by way of explanation. This unfathomable number is used mainly by scientists to measure the very small or the very large, said Dr Kevin Houston, senior lecturer at the the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds. But people are not meant to actually comprehend a number this size. "I don't think the human brain is set to deal with those numbers," he said. 'Completely silly' The specificity of Mr Chiscolm's requested amount - $1,784 billion trillion - is even more curious. "It could be that if they did say just one billion it would seem just plucked out of the air," Dr Houston said. "Is it something to do with a date? What happened in 1784?" Following up Dr Houston's suggestion, we found a few events in 1784 that could offer insight into the inspiration behind the number. Is Mr Chiscolm an American nationalist? On 14 January, the American Revolutionary War ended and Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris. Or perhaps he is a classical music aficionado, for Mozart's Sonata in B flat, K454, premiered in Vienna on 29 April. Maybe he is a newspaper fan, because America's first daily newspaper, Penns Packet and General Advertiser, was published on 21 September. Regardless of the reasoning, the monetary amount is beyond financial recognition. "The guy wants more money than there is in the world," Dr Houston said. "It's completely silly." ************************ ^I wonder if this guy realizes how much one trillion dollars is, let alone over a thousand billion of those.

Having reread Glasslands and The Thursday War over the past week, I just noticed some potential symbolism. I think the Servants of Abiding Truth and Covenant Remnant represent al-Qaeda. The Arbiter and his forces represent the Soviet Union, and ONI the United States. Think of it this way- we have one group that was very recently at war with another in Glasslands, while in the Soviet war the United States and Russia were not directly at war with each other but at each other's throats. The United States helped a resistance movement that wasn't friendly to them, but would help to eliminate the threat of the Soviets anyway. Sound familiar? However, in my opinion, ONI are significantly worse than the US, because while the Soviets actually were a threat, the Arbiter's followers (which really need a better name than that; it makes Thel Vadam sound like a tyrant) actually want an alliance with the humans, while the Covenant as always is trying to eradicate the human race. So they made what would have been a relatively minor threat to the human race a major one, killed a lot of their allies, denied the UNSC a lot of extra support, and are in the end responsible for all of the deaths the Remnant caused. Thoughts?

No, it's a very very very good and interesting idea.

I'm sorry to laugh at your frustration, but LOL. I'm excited for the PS4, too, but blaming 343i for minor faults in a game that they didn't create? Granted Halo: Reach isn't my favorite Halo game. Armor lock is overpowered, the quit ban doesn't distinguish between deliberate quitting and lagging out or losing power, and the booting system is finicky at best. However, it's still far from a bad game, and it was made by Bungie, not 343i. For a game to be balanced, it needs to walk a very delicate tightrope, and I've yet to encounter a game that doesn't have those little quirks.

Read Halo: Glasslands and The Thursday War and that question will be answered. Effectively these are Sangheili rebels that still oppose the Arbiter's forces and the humans. ONI is apparently helping them as well because they don't want peace with the Sangheili, or something along those lines.

I hate Windows 8 and have no intention of crippling my computer with it, so no. By the way, RTS halo games just feel forced and awkward. Halo Wars felt slippery, rushed and patched together, and the plot was boring. I see no evidence to suggest that Spartan Assault will be any different.

Ditto. Halo 2 felt more complicated. It made the Covenant (well, at least the Elites and Grunts) feel like people rather than vicious monsters. Halo 3, to a slightly lesser extent, did the same thing. And that was one of the many features of those games that made them so good- it wasn't a simple good vs. evil conflict; it was more complicated than that. Halo 4 has a more cliche "KILL ALL TEH BAD GUYZ!!!!!!!11one1eleven" feel to it. One good faction, one evil faction. I want that more complicated conflict atmosphere back. And I do feel that the Flood will have to return in some way now, after doing more research.

I'm not upgrading to Windows 8 to play Spartan Assault, either. IMO Vista > Windows 8. Yes, I said it.

I'm getting concerned that Halo will indeed become more CoD-like, and used only for sales rather than to please the fans. Unlike some people, however, I'm going to give the rest of the series a chance.

Oh, for... Having Cortana return at this point would be the biggest possible insult to her character that 343 could come up with. The fact that she sacrificed herself to save both John and the rest of the human race was the best outcome in my opinion. If she hadn't died on the Mantle's Approach then she would have either died from rampancy, become even more unstable due to the fact that she split herself, or had her personality replaced when her rampancy was "treated". Any one of those outcomes would have been far more anticlimactic than what happened. Think of it this way: if she were to sacrifice herself, and then somehow return, then that sacrifice would have had no meaning of any kind, and she would lose a lot of the respect that she earned. Add that to the fact that the Reclaimer saga, as they're calling it now, is about John finding his human self. He could never have done that if Cortana had lived. If people are going to stop playing Halo because of this then that's their own choice, but I think it's a badly informed one. It would be like complaining about Anakin turning to the dark side in the prequel trilogy. If that hadn't happened, there would be no original trilogy. Because the series went in a slightly different direction, people are claiming it to be "dead", when they've barely even given 343 Industries a chance.

Thanks for the help. I see it now

I am stuck on Mombasa Streets after ONI Alpha Site. I'm supposed to find the beacon at NMPD HQ but the game keeps trying to guide me to Tayari Plaza where there appears to be nothing. Where do I go to find the beacon? Thanks for replies. I must say I hate Mombasa Streets >:^(

If it's released in 2014 then it will have been 2 years.

Why do so many people rate Halo 2 so low? In terms of storyline it was among the most interesting. In order: 2 and 3 (tied) 4 Reach CE ODST Wars

Agreed. He could still be alive, or he might have died of natural causes like the Librarian did.

John wouldn't be able to find his human side if Cortana had survived. On top of that if she hadn't died on Mantle's Approach she would have died a far more anticlimactic and far less...what's the word...noble death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qSTpClAybI I'm sure a few of us if not all of us have seen Halo 5's announcement trailer. Basically it shows John walking through a desert, wearing clothing for some reason (I suppose the blowing sand might not be too good for the suit, but wouldn't the shields just protect it? Oh, forget it, not important.), and encountering a sort of Forerunner device. They put some emphasis on Cortana's empty data chip, so it looks like she won't be returning, but who knows? Also, the Forerunner construct featured looks Promethean, but, again, who knows? No indication of what characters, locations or species will be featured. However, the trailer does seem to indicate that the Forerunners will play a major role in Halo 5. I hope that includes the Didact, either in his Bornstellar form or his original form. Personally I hope very much that the gameplay isn't too much like what's featured in the trailer. If I wanted to arbitrarily wander around the desert by myself, I'd go visit the Mojave, not sit down in front of my Xbox ( ). They did say that Halo 5 would be the darkest game in the new trilogy, but if it plays in the same sort of way as shown in the trailer then it'll just feel awkward and random. I don't like awkward and random. That being said, it probably won't be exactly like that. Halo 4's announcement trailer featuring the level Dawn was very different from the final level, so I'm still hopeful the game will run smoothly.