With starwars, the fanmade books were revoked by lucas himself saying "luke doesn't get married, vader doesnt come back to life, and the emperor doesnt get cloned. the story of starwars is the tragedy of darth vader"
The halo books, when they first came out, were commisioned BY bungie to explain what was going on, so that those who played the first game and wanted to find out what happened previously could go back a read a book about it. They used the devices in the books to help form the story and tragedy of the spartans and humanities fight against humanity. Unfortunatley, Bungie decides to leave us for other things, and in my mind abandoned their chance at "world domination." 343 comes into the fray. Named an created because of Halo, they give the impression they will stay true to halo and make better what bungie left behind. What they failed to realise is that what bungie showed as vagueness was really opertunities for writings to create epic stories in gaps in time and new armor (if nobody noticed the mark v {b] armor appeared first in halo: the Cole protocol) so that they could build astanding relationship between the two: Kickass games with great visuals and fun to use controls and fantastic story and characters, which can be carried into the thrilling, edge-of-your-seat, page turning books that we have today, curtesy of Eric Nylund, Tobias S. Buckel, Karen Travis, and many more. 343 couldn't see this, and mistaken it as a way to make it THEIR franchise by changing things to match THEIR vision. They had people wright books to help with their games (Greg bear and Karen Travis) but in essence changed halo.
The one thing I loved about halo is its ability to always feel like halo, no matter what game. Halo CE gave us a whole new world to explore and play around in, from the rivetingg thick story to the wonderful splitscreen multiplayer. Halo 2 intreduced a new action packed sequal with tons of new content an characters. Halo 3 combined the old and new with a nice tie up to the trilogy, with games like ODST and reach as cool side stories to the amazing series (though in my opinion reach was kinda rushed)
Some of you may not know this, but unlike most of you, I was only 6 when i first played halo right when it came out. My father, being a gamer, let me play co-op with him. Halo became an essential part of my childhood. I remember yellping like a little girl when my dad opened up his halo 2 limited edition and being able to play as the arbiter. I remember the look of awe i must of had on my face watching the into to halo 3, the nastalgia and excitment I had from the final level, and the lovley little cliff hanger bungie left after the credits. Through out those 6 years I played, replayed, and rereplayed those games. I developed a habit of always trying to match the weapons a positions that would appear in the cutscene. I also started watching my ammo counts, making sure my ma5b nly had theirteen rounds in it at the end of halo CE. It is safe to say Reach brumbled up my head with plot errors. took me about a week to come up with excuses for em (Karen Travis is my hero for fixing it in grasslands) and so i sat waiting for the next installment.
Halo 4 comes out, i got the limited edition, it reminding me of the halo 4 LE with the silver case. I throw it in, and strap in for a ride. The rest of my first impression you can see on the first page. obviously i have settled down since nov. and quite enjoy the game, but those changes, to someone like me who spent hours in their childhood adjusting a character just to match a cutscene seemed like a slap to the face. 343 is making this game now, and that is painfully obvious. I alone do not have the power to effect it, to keep something like this from happening, though I wish I did. That is why i made this thread, not because I hate 343 or condem the new halo and say that books > games, but because as a deep fan of the series I was hurt by some of the things they changed. Halo 4 lost that familiar halo playfeel that kept me buying. I now have to adjust years of habit to match this new feeling. It will be a...fascinating ride.
and to demos point, I AGREE, one helmet looks like they took issac clarkes health cord and put it on the front of a helmet! it doesnt even look that cool, just weird. atleast they brought back the classic scout helmet.