well, I guess I have to make the Halo 4 thread...

Technology and Gaming
#201

I’m gonna have to stop you right there.

There’s no “supposed” in the Halo world. It’s all a moving target. Shit changes depending on whose in charge. Spartan IIIs were supposed to be the much weaker and cheaper solution to the Spartan IIs with low priorities, and here we have a whole team of them wearing Mark V armor and one of them could even fly a top secret spacecraft. Brutes were supposed to be big lumbering powerful bullet sponges with heavy use of sadistic torture and brutality on the field, and from Halo 3+ they just sorta floated from situation to situation completely mellow and damn near harmless. Especially in reach.

I mean Halo’s no MGS in terms of inconsistencies, but between a complete re purposing of a class and the addition of a pelican throat pouch and a lower jaw, the latter is much less severe.

#202

I dunno, I liked the old bird look.

I understand why they changed it though. They look much more menacing with thicker and more meaty muscles in the throat/jaw area. Seems to be in line with the other changes they made, first with the Elites, then the Grunts. Meant to look more monster-like. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Oh god I can’t imagine what they did with the Hunters… :fffuuu:

#203

Someone photoshop a hunter with Cthulhu’s face.

#204

Although these jackals look very cool and intimidating, I thought the bird look suited them more, it seems as if 343 is trying to transform every species into a form of reptile, which does look very cool and mature, but makes them all look very similar and more like a bunch of aliens which are all breeds of the same species, fighting for their races superiority and less like a bunch of different alien species brought together by religious and in the jackals case profitable reasons.

#205

So, Xen?

#206

I liked them better when the had the long snout. They looked fierce and animalistic, as if they’d devour you in a second if you were left in a room with them (as is alluded to in Halo 2 in reference to the Arbiter). Now they look generic and slow.

EDIT: Come to think of it, the Jackals have really evolved in general since Halo:CE. There have been several iterations, leading to this thing.

#207

Exactly. Nothing in Halo has ever stayed looking the same. Even when Bungie re-used models they edited the fuck out of them.

If anything, these Jackals remind me a lot more of the CE jackals than what they’ve been from 2-Reach. More worthy of being called “Jackal”.

#208

I can see what you mean.

#209

I liked the CE Jackals best, actually. They were pretty cool.

#210

I loved their reflective featureless eyeballs.

And those tattoos. God damn, they were awesome.

#211

I thought the Skirmisher variant was pretty awesome.

#212

These new jackals are great. It’s like they come from a lineage of snub-nosed jackal variants from Halo 1 with some skirmisher blood in them.

#213

plus, anything is better than Halo 2’s teddy bear Jackal.

OMG SO KAWAII U GUIZ

#214

Honestly? I actually dislike a lot of Halo 2’s art direction the most out of the series. Dunno why. Maybe it’s just me.

#215

No, I agree. imo the sound design more than makes up for it though. I still miss the secondary explosions that happen when you destroy a banshee/ ghost. And those fucking sounds <3

#216

I actually preferred Halo 2/Halo3’s take on them.

When I look at the picture above, traits that come to mind include feral, unpredictable, agile, calculating, fragile. They were a foil to the tall strong warrior Elites and the burly savage build of the Brutes. They were generally…unpleasant looking. The Elites looked tough and skilled and the Brutes were imposing. But the Jackals just looked…nasty. I could call them almost iconic.

Now they are generic alien monsters with sharp teeth and a huge head. Yawn. Not to mention the head does not fit the rest of the body. Hell, why does it need that shield anymore? Just run on ahead, chomp chomp chomp

#217

Fuck Halo 2 and 3’s seagulls. Halo 1 and 4’s JACKALS are what needs to stay.

There’s nothing unpredictable, agile, calculating about the Halo twee (two and three)'s deign aesthetic as a whole. Halo 1 looked awesome with it’s simple strokes of geometry creating an abundance of atmosphere with the fewest words possible. Twee totally fucked that when they went bat-shit-crazy with current gen graphic power and started doing what everyone else was doing; slimming everyone down and slapping extraneous panels on everything.Where Twee’s aesthetic would be composed of “Fuck… we have this huge blank space. Cover it in horizontal grooves! FUCK FLOW!”, Halo 1 was “We have this huge blank space. That’s all it needs to be”.

The Jackal was one of the worst parts for me, because it actually had a stalky and thick frame in the first game. They looked like alien versions of classic Spartans. The Mohawk of spines, the bare arms, the ribbed body armor… Fuck, the next gen of Jackal is more of a throwback than anything. The thick neck and beefy jaw, the shorter snout, the thicker teeth (still canines, but more reminiscent of the original donkey teeth than the Twee toothpicks), the torso to leg ratio favoring the legs again.

The only thing this is missing is the alien tribal tattoos. Those were awesome.

Plus take into account that they’ve (I believe) cut the skirmisher, meaning they’re probably combining the functionality of the two classes.

On topic, new Forward Unto Dawn clip.[/SIZE]

#218

More importantly,

https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/31/halo-4-new-capture-the-flag-tweaks-send-wargames-into-exile

Looks intense. :slight_smile:

#219

Shield regen power up and more exile footage

This game is looking great imo.

lol’d at “SNIPERS CONFIRMED”

Ugh, the banshee still has that loopdeloop Reach flip. At least it’s slower.

#220

Little known fact: Lead designer on Halo 4 was one of the Planescape: Torment leads.

Which is fucking weird, but awesome.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.