: I think that if halo's storytelling had relied on terminals instead of
: cinematics, it wouldn't have reached the popularity it has now. Usually,
: people around the globe prefer visual and oral information than
: grapholectic -although this is a generalization-
yes if Bungie go ahead now and do a Marathon remake, it's hard to imagine them getting away with using terminals
however, terminals could certainly be used to augment the storytelling, with the main story events handled by cutscenes (all the halo cutscenes ever did anyway was show the obvious events... and left tons of details unexplained. you had to read the books if you wanted actual depth, or in halo 3, the terminals)
casual gamers could skip the terminals if they wanted
consider though, one of the most popular series of recent time - Metroid Prime - contained loads of text (though there was zero flair in the writing)
i think the main problem would be how could you give someone like Durandal a voice... wouldn't that sort of spoil it somewhat.