HALO

[JAGzilla]

Just watched my brother play through the first level of the campaign. Yep, Halo is back. It's been years since I've played any of the campaigns, and I didn't realize how much I missed the Covenant aliens. I absolutely love how full of personality the Banished troops are. Their dialogue is hilarious, all the threats and interspecies bickering. They die very satisfyingly, too, with the bullets really looking like they hit hard. The Grappleshot is a little too spammable for my liking, but cool all the same. Looks like this game should be a fun ride.

[EdGojira]

Anyone have some book recommendations? Back in high school, I read every Halo book they had... which wasn't much, just Contact Harvest, Fall of Reach and First Strike. Enjoyed them all. Like the lore of it all. Considering reading The Flood because I know it's an adaptation of first game but I know a lot of stuff has gone down leading up to Infinite and Halo 5 had a pretty crazy character turn, so I want to I go there if there's anything good. I know this is about the games but it's closely related enough (I hope.)

[CrimsonBloodX]

Anyone have some book recommendations? Back in high school, I read every Halo book they had... which wasn't much, just Contact Harvest, Fall of Reach and First Strike. Enjoyed them all. Like the lore of it all. Considering reading The Flood because I know it's an adaptation of first game but I know a lot of stuff has gone down leading up to Infinite and Halo 5 had a pretty crazy character turn, so I want to I go there if there's anything good. I know this is about the games but it's closely related enough (I hope.)

I'm currently reading Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. It's a pretty good book so far. I need to read more Halo novels, though. I've been wanting to read The Fall of Reach, First Strike and Contact Harvest for some time.

[JAGzilla]

The Flood suffers from too much action. It's a novelization of a shooter game, and that's what it reads like: just cover to cover action, which quickly loses its appeal and becomes monotonous.

And despite its cool premise, Hunters in the Dark is not one you want to waste money on. It's atrocious, frankly. I don't blame the author; he seemed to have a decent story in mind at some point during the creative process, but then 343 stepped on him and shoehorned in some H5 buildup. Olympia Vale literally walks in halfway through the story and takes over the role that was obviously supposed to belong to the dude that had been the main character, leaving him with nothing to do. With that having been dumped on him, the author just filled up the rest of the pages with words and called it a day.

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

The Nylund Trilogy (Fall of Reach, First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx) are essentials.

However, I wasn't a fan of many subsequent novels. They felt more like convoluted fan fiction. The only other novel I enjoyed was Silent Storm by Troy Denning, since it was closest to the "hard sci-fi" tone and style to Fall of Reach.

[EdGojira]

Alright, sounds like Ghosts of Onyx and Silent Storm are the ways to go. Kind of a shame it sounds like the ones I've already read are some of the only ones not sloppy. I should maybe reread those ones I read in school, though, given it's been six years since I graduated and I plowed through them in sophomore year.

[Breakdown]

Ghosts of Onyx, Silent Storm and The Flood are my personal favorites. It's been a long time since I've read Fall of Reach, and I don't think I've ever read First Strike. If you're interested in picking up Fall of Reach, there's the original version and the "revised" version released after Halo: Reach to reconcile some inconsistences in the story. Kind of a retcon in a way.

[Noble Saber]

I second everyone's recommendations for the Nylund trilogy. They essentially fill in the gap between the original Bungie games (Fall of Reach -> Combat Evolved -> First Strike -> Halo 2 -> Halo 3 while Ghosts of Onyx takes place throughout all of the aforementioned media). I also enjoyed Broken Circle by John Shirley, which focuses entirely on the Covenant.

[CrimsonBloodX]

The online servers for the Halo games on Xbox 360 have shut down. This is a depressing day for Halo fans.

[JAGzilla]

The Paramount Plus series has a trailer, now:



I'm optimistic! The action looks kickass, the effects good enough by TV standards, and even the story looks interesting. People seem to be griping about the Chief and Cortana not being 100% game accurate, but I don't care. What's the point of an adaptation if it's a carbon copy of the original work?

[UltramanGoji]

Looks bad and lines up with some pretty terrible leaks, mainly the human in league with the Covenant which already displays a fundamental misunderstanding of one of the series' most core conflicts. Absolutely no excuse for this.

I don't even care about Cortana's new look but it's kind of sad they brought Jen Taylor back but no Steve Downes. Recast both or keep the originals, none of this mix-n-match nonsense.

Not interested.

[CrimsonBloodX]

It looks fine, but I'm kind of underwhelmed by it. Still, it's great that this show is finally being released after almost ten years since it was first announced by Steven Spielberg during E3 2013.

[Greyshot151]

I'm a bit mixed by the trailer.

On the negative end of the spectrum, I really do hope that they don't focus on Chief as the hero of humanity. Chief wasn't the best spartan, he was the one that "never went missing" so heres hoping its just marketing. Nothing especially grabbed me either, and the evil human is a bit dumb when there is so much GOT level political intrigue on the covenant's end. If she is just a method to introduce the audience to that political intrigue, then I'm 100% onboard.

On the positive side, I do like the effects. Everything looks on brand for the most part. Also, them changing the story I'm not too opposed so long as the main worldbuilding and lore remains mostly unchanged. Action also looks good.

So we'll have to see.

[Voyager]

The Elites were my favourite thing about that trailer.

[UltramanGoji]

If she is just a method to introduce the audience to that political intrigue, then I'm 100% onboard.

I'd argue that's even worse as it implies that the audience couldn't gel with the fact that the Covenant are actual beings with personality who might feel conflicted about the Great Journey. They managed to pull it off in Halo 2 and other media, there's no reason it couldn't work here either.

[_JNavs_]

Didn't work for me at all, very cheap looking. Cortana looked atrocious (the og actress is fine, but they should've went CG A.I., not ERB tier uncanny valley, it just feels like such a parody)

The Spartans look way too clean and baby-faced for war-torn humans pushed beyond the brink of physical limits through torturous medical procedures and training. Why didn't they give the woman spartan a buzzcut? Instead she's found time to dye her hair pink.

All of the Spartans have ridiculously dark armor, why? For "realism"? Halo is hard sci-fi as is. It muddies the designs a ton.

They seem to have no faith in the alien elements of the franchise which.... is the literal core of said franchise, so big yikes there. I'm calling it, the woman at the end is a human Gravemind and that is a TERRIBLE decision if that's the case.

The politics might be interesting but most of it seems like it'll be skimmed over so, not much faith there either.

Forward Unto Dawn looks superior in every way.

[Cryptid_Liker]

As someone who has only the most basic knowledge of Halo, I think it looks pretty good. Cortana looks really weird, though.

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

Why is Chief wearing Mk VI armor when the series clearly takes place before Combat Evolved?

[Cryptid_Liker]

Why is Chief wearing Mk VI armor when the series clearly takes place before Combat Evolved?

This series is in its own canon, not the game universe.

[CrimsonBloodX]

Yeah, this TV show takes place in its own alternate timeline, its own canon. To tell you guys the truth, I kind of like that. It should give the writers a chance to to do something different with Halo without ruining the continuity already established in the games, novels, etc. With that being said, though, having a human work for the Covenant has got to be the dumbest idea ever.