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Re: My high horse's name is Butt-Stallion
Posted By: Gravemind <kuukan_no_kage@yahoo.com>Date: 10/19/12 12:08 a.m.

In Response To: My high horse's name is Butt-Stallion (Bryan Newman)


: That is what has me most excited about the game. The story is being pushed
: farther than Bungie ever did. Its rather excellent gameplay is definitely
: a strong factor in enjoyment (Perhaps number 2?) but not top priority for
: me (I love MP but single player is the most important part after all).
: Godzilla Jackals, Chief's Armor or cave troll grunts are the least of my
: concerns. It does nothing to harm the story/plot/narrative, it is merely
: and Aesthetic and nothing more.

Gameplay is the most important aspect, but aesthetics are important for the storytelling aspect. Lack of visual consistency helps to break immersion. Making sure things stay looking the same helps ground the universe and tie it together instead of letting it look like a mishmash of loosely-connected but otherwise separate continuities. Changes to the design of something — a character, species, ship, weapon — need a damn good explanation. Star Wars and Star Trek do a much better job of maintaining visual consistency than Halo has typically done.

For Star Wars, compare Boba Fett's armor with Jango Fett's; when Jango was introduced in Episode II, it was obvious that it was the same armor as Boba's, just newer and not all beat up and with a different paint job (IIRC, it's the same suit of armor, and Boba just modified it after inheriting it from his father). Or compare their ship the Slave I as it appears in Empire with how it appears in AotC: exact same design aside from a new paint job (Boba repainted the blue parts red-brown). RotS-era Clone Trooper armor looks the same in both said movie and in the Clone Wars CGI cartoon, as do their gunships. Your basic Storm Trooper, the Millennium Falcon, X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings, B-wings, TIE fighters, TIE interceptors, Imperial-class Star Destroyers, AT-ATs, AT-STs, and other iconic vehicles and armors look the same in most of their non-film appearances as they do in the movies.

On to Star Trek. Here's the USS Defiant as it appeared in the TOS episode The Tholian Web:

Now here's how it appears in the Enterprise episode In a Mirror Darkly:

Likewise, the CGI model of the Enterprise in the updated effects version of TOS is indistinguishable in terms of design from the physical model used back in the 60s. Now, here's the bridge of the Defiant, as portrayed in the same episode of ENT:

It's indistinguishable from the bridge of the Enterprise (both are Constitution-class ships). When the Enterprise was redesigned for The Motion Picture:

It had a good explanation. Starfleet was refitting the now 20-something-odd-year-old ship. While the differences are obvious, it wasn't too radical of a departure.

As you can see, despite being sprawling franchises that predate Halo by decades, they have a much higher degree of visual consistency.

Now, Halo has maintained consistency on many occasions as well. For example, despite being on different engines on two different generations of hardware, the Chief looks nearly identical in both Halo 2 & 3. There are numerous other examples of weapon, vehicle, and creature designs that remained unchanged from game to game. That this consistency was applied, well, inconsistently has been rather frustrating as it serves to break suspension of disbelief. It was bad enough at times under Bungie, but has gotten worse under 343I. The Chief's armor, the Forward Unto Dawn, and the physiology of Grunts and Jackals (and Elites to a lesser extent) has changed to such a radical degree. The explanations have been lame at best, basically using magitech to explain these changes, but basically it's all just an excuse to let their art department go wild. The fact that they easily could have made things consistent and had any changes make logical sense but chose not to is one of the biggest issues I have with 343I.

Fortunately I rate games heavily on the merits of their gameplay, and from the looks of it Halo 4 will play very well, but a compelling fiction universe, which Halo has in spades, certainly helps increase the enjoyment factor even further. Radical changes to the aesthetic — changes that exist for no good reason and have no satisfactory explanation — serve to detract from that enjoyment.

http://shadowofthevoid.wordpress.com


Message Index



Replies:

Bulletin! (10.17.12)INSANEdrive 10/18/12 12:57 a.m.
     More Super Secret CodeINSANEdrive 10/18/12 1:02 a.m.
           Re: More Super Secret CodeDHalo 10/18/12 1:14 a.m.
                 Re: More Super Secret CodeRice 10/18/12 1:15 a.m.
                       Re: More Super Secret CodeNotTheVacuum 10/18/12 6:32 a.m.
                             Re: More Super Secret CodeMr Daax 10/18/12 12:33 p.m.
                 Re: More Super Secret CodeNotTheVacuum 10/18/12 6:31 a.m.
                       That's exactly what I was thinking.Gravemind 10/18/12 2:32 p.m.
           Re: More Super Secret Codethebruce0 10/18/12 9:40 a.m.
                 Re: More Super Secret CodeBeorn 10/18/12 12:23 p.m.
                       Re: More Super Secret Codethebruce0 10/18/12 1:10 p.m.
                             Re: More Super Secret CodeGeneral Vagueness 10/19/12 2:08 p.m.
     No new Skulls?Rice 10/18/12 1:14 a.m.
           Re: No new Skulls?TDSpiral 10/18/12 1:18 a.m.
                 Re: No new Skulls?davidfuchs 10/18/12 6:38 a.m.
           That's MESSED Up! *NM*Morpheus 10/18/12 1:33 a.m.
           Blind still the same.bluerunner 10/18/12 8:18 a.m.
                 Re: Blind still the same.Postmortem 10/18/12 11:16 a.m.
     No searching for skulls? Aw, man. :(Gravemind 10/18/12 1:21 a.m.
           Nothing like clubbing covies to death with a skull *NM*Rice 10/18/12 1:35 a.m.
     Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Phoenix_9286 10/18/12 1:45 a.m.
           Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)uberfoop 10/18/12 2:24 a.m.
           Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Archilen 10/18/12 4:59 a.m.
                 Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Bryan Newman 10/18/12 5:06 a.m.
                       Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Mid7night 10/18/12 11:07 a.m.
     Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/18/12 3:37 a.m.
           Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Chewbaccawakka 10/18/12 4:05 a.m.
                 Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Rice 10/18/12 5:40 a.m.
                       Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Bryan Newman 10/18/12 5:48 a.m.
                             Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/18/12 10:36 a.m.
                                   Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Louis Wu 10/18/12 11:13 a.m.
                                         Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/18/12 12:01 p.m.
                                   Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Cody Miller 10/18/12 11:44 a.m.
                                         Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/18/12 12:01 p.m.
                                               Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Revenant1988 10/18/12 12:30 p.m.
                                                     Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/19/12 9:25 a.m.
                                                           Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)General Vagueness 10/19/12 3:15 p.m.
                                   Negative Opinions are Such a DownerMacGyver10 10/18/12 12:48 p.m.
                                   My high horse's name is Butt-StallionBryan Newman 10/18/12 6:13 p.m.
                                         Re: My high horse's name is Butt-StallionChewbaccawakka 10/18/12 7:34 p.m.
                                         Re: My high horse's name is Butt-StallionGravemind 10/19/12 12:08 a.m.
                                               Excellent post. *NM*NsU Soldier 10/21/12 9:31 a.m.
                                               Well said. *NM*GrimBrother One 10/21/12 10:15 a.m.
                                   Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)padraig08 10/18/12 6:44 p.m.
                                         Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/19/12 9:46 a.m.
                             Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Rice 10/18/12 11:41 p.m.
                                   Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)TDSpiral 10/19/12 4:35 a.m.
                                         Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)General Vagueness 10/19/12 3:03 p.m.
           Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)General Vagueness 10/19/12 12:56 a.m.
           Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Train Dodger 10/19/12 2:02 a.m.
                 Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)Quirel 10/19/12 9:44 a.m.
                 Re: Bulletin! (10.17.12)General Vagueness 10/19/12 2:54 p.m.
     Skulls, Terminals, etc.(Long)Hyokin 10/18/12 10:58 a.m.
           Re: Skulls, Terminals, etc.(Long)MacGyver10 10/18/12 12:56 p.m.
           Super long replyKermit 10/18/12 8:32 p.m.
                 Re: Super long replyPhoenix_9286 10/18/12 8:54 p.m.
                 Holy moley.Louis Wu 10/19/12 6:12 a.m.
                       Re: Holy moley.NotTheVacuum 10/19/12 8:32 a.m.
                 Yep. That's it.thebruce0 10/19/12 8:53 a.m.
                 Re: Super long replyBeckx 10/19/12 9:20 a.m.
                       Ugh. *NM*Kermit 10/19/12 11:36 a.m.
                       Re: Super long replyGeneral Vagueness 10/19/12 3:14 p.m.
                             Re: Super long replyBeckx 10/19/12 4:08 p.m.
                                   Maybe it's for the bestscarab 10/19/12 5:33 p.m.
                                   Re: Super long replyGeneral Vagueness 10/20/12 11:24 a.m.
                                         Re: Super long replyLouis Wu 10/20/12 12:01 p.m.
                                               Re: Super long replyHyokin 10/20/12 2:51 p.m.
                                                     Re: Super long replyLouis Wu 10/20/12 5:48 p.m.
                                                           Re: Super long replyGeneral Vagueness 10/20/12 7:50 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Super long replyuberfoop 10/20/12 8:08 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Super long replyHedgemony 10/20/12 8:26 p.m.
                                                           Re: Super long replyCody Miller 10/21/12 12:25 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Super long replyQuirel 10/21/12 1:23 a.m.
                                                                       Re: Super long replyGeneral Vagueness 10/22/12 12:15 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Super long replyGeneral Vagueness 10/22/12 12:12 p.m.
                                                     Re: Super long replymunky-058 10/20/12 5:50 p.m.
                                                           Re: Super long replyLouis Wu 10/20/12 10:01 p.m.
                                                     Re: Super long replyDHalo 10/20/12 6:00 p.m.
                 Kinda long reply (with Covenant speech sidetrack)Hyokin 10/19/12 10:24 a.m.
                 Good articulation.uberfoop 10/19/12 12:29 p.m.
                       Re: Good articulation.Kermit 10/19/12 1:38 p.m.
                             Re: Good articulation.uberfoop 10/19/12 2:25 p.m.
     I'm going to be honest.Jaydee 10/18/12 1:47 p.m.
           Re: I'm going to be honest.thebruce0 10/18/12 3:12 p.m.
                 Re: I'm going to be honest.TDSpiral 10/18/12 3:19 p.m.
                       Re: I'm going to be honest.Jaydee 10/18/12 3:39 p.m.
                             Re: I'm going to be honest.General Vagueness 10/19/12 2:25 p.m.



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