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Megillah Gorilla posted:Yeah, I learned inverted control for flight games before mouselook was even a thing. Kept it up when it was the default for 20 years.
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Dec 2, 2023 19:05
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Carbon dioxide posted:Wow instead of it just being you and having only regular military mooks helping you, in this team they give you a whole squad of Halos. What a luxury! Gee Six! How come your mom lets you have a whole squad of Halos?
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Dec 2, 2023 19:05
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Jorge and his minigun are unironically wonderful to have along.
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Dec 2, 2023 19:15
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One thing I do find interesting about Jorge is despite all of the Spartan II procedures, he still has the capacity to show empathy and compassion, despite the rest of the Spartan IIs never reaching (or, more accurately, gaining) that degree of human emotion. Admittedly, it was probably done on purpose to create a direct contrast to John's lack of anything, but the effort is appreciated.
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Dec 2, 2023 22:03
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BlazetheInferno posted:Jorge and his minigun are unironically wonderful to have along. AradoBalanga posted:One thing I do find interesting about Jorge is despite all of the Spartan II procedures, he still has the capacity to show empathy and compassion, despite the rest of the Spartan IIs never reaching (or, more accurately, gaining) that degree of human emotion. Admittedly, it was probably done on purpose to create a direct contrast to John's lack of anything, but the effort is appreciated. Jorge is absolutely the best boy, but the way they handle him is a little strange. For one thing, Jorge knows his birth planet is Reach, which is why he speaks Hungarian and has the whole conversation about accents. Most Spartan IIs consider Reach their homeworld, but because that's where they were raised and trained. They are generally described as not remembering their life before they were "recruited". I suppose Jorge specifically may have recognized that the moons and clocks and seasons never changed, so he never forgot where he was born. Making him the empathetic, emotional heart of the team is also a little weird because, again, the Spartan IIs are described and portrayed as almost machine-like in their focus and lack of visible emotion. Not that I really want to complain too much. He's great, and the whole gentle giant thing works really well. This is getting a little more lore-nerdy than I intended the thread to be, but we're more than halfway through the "saga" so maybe it's okay to open it up a bit. Plus, it's hard to talk about a lot of things in Reach without referencing the books and other material.
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Dec 3, 2023 04:41
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Ablative posted:The rings of Csodaszarvas, one of those moons Frenzy didn't want to try pronouncing. The other one's Turul. Thanks. But it also doesn't make sense that a moon would have rings. They'd get torn apart by tidal forces insanely quickly - especially for a moon that's obviously so close to its planet. edit to add Jorge is a big gentle bear. With a minigun. Megillah Gorilla fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Dec 3, 2023 |
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Dec 3, 2023 04:57
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Jorge: "Hey new guy, you remind me of this guy I used to know, John. He didn't talk much either."
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Dec 3, 2023 05:06
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"Can't see a thing. Six, turn on your night vision" Carter, open up your eyes
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Dec 4, 2023 05:59
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AradoBalanga posted:One thing I do find interesting about Jorge is despite all of the Spartan II procedures, he still has the capacity to show empathy and compassion, despite the rest of the Spartan IIs never reaching (or, more accurately, gaining) that degree of human emotion. Admittedly, it was probably done on purpose to create a direct contrast to John's lack of anything, but the effort is appreciated. Several of the other Spartan-IIs are described as various degrees of friendly and sociable, including both Sam and Kelly, John's best friends. Maria is also pretty chipper in the comic she appears in, and says that she retired to start a family. I think the hope was that all the training and augmentation would render them emotionless, but humans will human, and with John it's mostly just that that's his personality anyway. In Jorge's case as well, he's been probably been with Noble long enough for them to have rubbed off on him some.
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Dec 4, 2023 13:53
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 02 - ONI: Sword Base The Covenant are attacking a sensitive ONI facility and it's up to Noble Team to stop them.
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Dec 9, 2023 00:03
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*Six leaning in* "Dude, Jorge, your mom suuucks"
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Dec 9, 2023 01:44
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I think the thing that gives Halsey's introduction such a weird whiplash feeling is because for the more casual/game-centric Halo fans, this is their first introduction to this important background character that was only briefly mentioned in bylines or throwaway dialogue. And like it was mentioned in the video, I do feel that Bungie wrote Halsey's introduction with the expectation that people going into the game were familiar with the Halo expanded universe and thus would understand why she's so abrasive to everyone but Jorge. Except...that was not the case and thus this big important character's grand reveal comes off as "This is the creator of the Spartan II program? What the hell is wrong with her?" because of the lack of the added context of the novels. Like, if they threw in a line from a random UNSC soldier who doesn't know everything about the history of the Spartan program asking why Halsey is acting this way, Halsey's introduction would have still been rough, but would help to explain things better to people who don't know her backstory.
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Dec 9, 2023 01:49
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This was around the time that it was decided that Halsey was just an evil bitch, that everything got kinda soft retconned that she'd acted mostly alone rather than everything having been fully signed off on, and that she viewed the Spartan-IIs more as pets than as children. This also (I'm pretty sure, I can't find my Ghosts of Onyx to check) retcons when she find out about the S-III programme, it's originally after the Alpha Halo.
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Dec 9, 2023 01:49
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the start of the level is actually a map, for firefight 
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Dec 9, 2023 02:08
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The books went back and forth on Halsey a lot. I think it was Karen Traviss who really went ham on her being completely evil.
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Dec 9, 2023 03:00
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biosterous posted:the start of the level is actually a map, for firefight I'm pretty sure every base Firefight and multiplayer map is used in the campaign, with obvious changes to account for being part of a wider mission. I remember back in the days of the multiplayer beta, people made fun of the map Sword Base, because it was a base that had a sword in it (this was before basically anything about the campaign had come out, I think maybe there was a clip of the opening for this level floating around but nothing calling it SWORD Base or connecting it to the multiplayer map). I don't know why that, of all things, has stuck in my head all these years, but there you go.
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Dec 9, 2023 05:23
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Cythereal posted:The books went back and forth on Halsey a lot. I just remember that in the first Traviss book, literally everyone else dogpiled on Halsey for kidnapping kids… including people who were arguably just as morally culpable (the Spartans’ CO), or had been the one who gave the final go ahead on the whole project. Oh, and how she pissed off one Spartan-III who had gone mute from PTSD so much that she regained her voice just to tell her to shut the gently caress up.
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Dec 9, 2023 05:38
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Halsey: You buffoons, you idiots! The information at that facility was infinitely more important than any mission you could have been given. Also Halsay: How dare you remove the information from the facility and bring it to me. I could have you thrown into the brig! drat lady, pick a lane.
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Dec 9, 2023 13:08
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AradoBalanga posted:I think the thing that gives Halsey's introduction such a weird whiplash feeling is because for the more casual/game-centric Halo fans, this is their first introduction to this important background character that was only briefly mentioned in bylines or throwaway dialogue. And like it was mentioned in the video, I do feel that Bungie wrote Halsey's introduction with the expectation that people going into the game were familiar with the Halo expanded universe and thus would understand why she's so abrasive to everyone but Jorge. It's very awkward, because we're playing as a Spartan III and we, as the good guys, just get poo poo on by this person the first time we meet them. Even knowing who she is and why she has a dislike for the new Spartans, it's just such a bad first impression of a person. Thinking about it for a bit, I wonder if the better approach would have been if Jorge was already talking to her when the rest of Noble Team shows up. And actually show her being reasonable and at least somewhat "pleasant" before switching gears. Or some kind of comment about how her Spartans would have done a better job or something. Cradok posted:This was around the time that it was decided that Halsey was just an evil bitch, that everything got kinda soft retconned that she'd acted mostly alone rather than everything having been fully signed off on, and that she viewed the Spartan-IIs more as pets than as children. Regalingualius posted:I just remember that in the first Traviss book, literally everyone else dogpiled on Halsey for kidnapping kids… including people who were arguably just as morally culpable (the Spartans’ CO), or had been the one who gave the final go ahead on the whole project. I never actually read anything past The Cole Protocol, so I'm not 100% sure on the subject. But based on my Halopedia reading, they don't exactly retcon how much various higher-ups knew about the Spartan II program, but they all claim they didn't know anything as a means of throwing her under the bus. And even that was mostly a means of punishing her for her other insubordination and rogue activities (like kidnapping Kelly-087). Being able to claim she was solely responsible for all the human rights violations and publicly washing their hands of it is a bonus. But yeah, overall trying to pin down Dr. Halsey's motivations and thoughts and feelings is such a moving target as it changes all the time depending on what the story needs from her.
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Dec 10, 2023 00:02
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A bad first impression is probably what they're going for at least, though the nuances obviously get lost in the background ~lore~. You're certainly not supposed to like Halsey. Not only does this scientist qualify for a panic room but they get personal command of an entire Spartan team, get to be an rear end in a top hat about it, and brushes off any threats made back at her.
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Dec 14, 2023 03:52
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 03 - Nightfall Noble Six and Jun go behind enemy lines to figure out what the Covenant is up to.
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Dec 15, 2023 23:53
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Yeah normally I frown upon the idea of an unregulated militias but if I lived in a world where genocidal aliens are a known threat, I would be loaded up like the loving Punisher. edit: oh since I mentioned Punisher, another story of insurrectionists having hollowed-out asteroids is Asteroid M, an asteroid converted into a space station by Magneto as a base/hideout for the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
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Dec 16, 2023 03:57
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I thought moons could not have rings, it made no sense to me. But Astronomy.com says otherwise quote:Yes, it is possible for a moon to itself have moons and/or rings, and there are a few places where scientists have suggested that this is (or was) the case. But, it's almost impossible for them to be stable, so I'm taking it as a moral victory. e: Opinions on Battlestar Galactica depend on two things: - Do you like religion in your sci fi? - Do you like a show to have absolutely no loving idea where it's going? Megillah Gorilla fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Dec 16, 2023 |
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Dec 16, 2023 14:55
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I can't remember if anyone brought this up during ODST, but while this game noticeably retcons the length and events of the Fall of Reach, ODST had already effectively done so in the ONI Alpha Site. The right-hand memorial plaque is for ONI personnel who died there, and dates it as "25/07/2552 - 30/08/2552".
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Dec 16, 2023 15:46
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I'm having a good chuckle at the first Halo book, The Fall of Reach, putting the battle of Reach as the first time humanity had ever encountered an Elite, and the Elites were portrayed as dead even matches for Spartans in strength, speed, and skill.
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Dec 16, 2023 16:35
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And something like half of all of the active duty Spartan deaths/casualties in that entire book happened because someone in the future did the equivalent of leaving their thumb drive back at work, IIRC?
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Dec 16, 2023 16:56
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I remember the fall of reach book being surprisingly good ...for something that was written in like 6 months - i wasn't surprised when bungie pretty liberally went their own way for the game super cool to see this LP back from
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Dec 16, 2023 17:54
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Megillah Gorilla posted:e: Opinions on Battlestar Galactica depend on two things: I just finished the miniseries and I'm loving it. I'm enjoying the contrast of ending the human/machine war with an armistice vs in The Matrix (they start their own country) and Dune (humans win and machines are banned).
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Dec 16, 2023 20:35
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Regalingualius posted:And something like half of all of the active duty Spartan deaths/casualties in that entire book happened because someone in the future did the equivalent of leaving their thumb drive back at work, IIRC? Stranger than that. Colonel Ackerson tried to kill Chief and Cortana during a Mk5 test and Cortana went for some revenge and decoupled one of his section's ships to gently caress with him. This is why Chief, Linda and James had to go to the space dock, to clear the data that the station's AI couldn't reach because it'd been pulled from the network. Granted this ended up saving the Chief and Linda (and Johnson's team too) in the end but boy was that a gently caress-up at the time.
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Dec 16, 2023 22:17
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Megillah Gorilla posted:Opinions on Battlestar Galactica depend on two things:
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Dec 17, 2023 14:23
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Megillah Gorilla posted:I thought moons could not have rings, it made no sense to me. Yeah, this is also what I meant with the BSG comparison. The star systems described in that show are mathematically possible, but would never realistically exist due to instability.
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Dec 17, 2023 16:49
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 04 - Tip of the Spear It's all out war as the UNSC goes on the offensive against the invading Covenant army.
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Dec 23, 2023 00:26
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Whoa, I just noticed in the first cutscene, does Kat have a bionic arm?
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Dec 23, 2023 01:39
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One other thing that going into this game with knowledge of the expanded universe is that the player knows who is in charge of the Covenant forces attacking Reach: Thel'Vadamee, aka, the Arbiter. So, the Covenant carrier appearing at the end and sinking the Grafton (and to a lesser extent, the steady escalation of things over the course of the game) has this extra layer to it beyond the immediate jumpscare/raising of the stakes. The game is slowly letting the player know just how the Arbiter behaved and commanded his forces prior to his fall from grace, and also why Thel and the Fleet of Ascendant Justice was able to put the fear of God into the UNSC as seen in the EU novels.
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Dec 23, 2023 02:26
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So, it was pointed out by someone else on YTube but... that opening scene with the jeep assault is... kinda silly looking? Why are they driving in such an incredibly tight formation? Also, I liked the bridge-dropping Pelican clipping through the Covenant dropship, resulting in the missile-launcher AI not knowing what to do.
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Dec 23, 2023 08:58
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Yeah, that opening scene is definitely a Hollywood style military advance. Close together, all small units, flying units acting like they're WWI biplanes having to rub themselves on the enemy to fight them. Also, I agree with what you guys were saying about videos on reddit. Holy poo poo, so many untagged death videos. Even the worst old-school shock sites weren't as bad as what you can see in between posts about sports and creepy anime mobile games. Like any video that's not about cats has a decent chance of someone being horribly mutilated and dying. I remember one about a year ago that was just labelled "Ex boyfriend mad at girlfriend for moving on" and I'm still loving traumatised by what I saw because I didn't pause it fast enough.
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Dec 23, 2023 14:30
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Same on Twitter; in the year since the South African poo poo for Brains took over, I've seen more hideous deaths on Twitter than I had hoped to see in my entire life. I guess it's just the 'big thing' that the internet in interested in now. I preferred it when it was cats.
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Dec 23, 2023 23:35
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Outpost22 posted:Whoa, I just noticed in the first cutscene, does Kat have a bionic arm? She does, and actually the "Deliver Hope" trailer in the Links section shows how she ended up with it. Samovar posted:So, it was pointed out by someone else on YTube but... that opening scene with the jeep assault is... kinda silly looking? Why are they driving in such an incredibly tight formation? Megillah Gorilla posted:Yeah, that opening scene is definitely a Hollywood style military advance. Close together, all small units, flying units acting like they're WWI biplanes having to rub themselves on the enemy to fight them. Yeah, I mean, they were just trying to make something that looked cool (and I personally think they succeeded). But they're also trying to use the vehicle assets that the player is familiar with, and due to the nature of Halo games it's all scout type vehicles intended for 2-3 people. We've never seen anything from the UNSC that would actually be useful in a full-scale ground offensive, because in the entire Human-Covenant war they haven't needed them. Although now that I type that, it would have been awesome to see some ODST drop pods coming down from the sky. Megillah Gorilla posted:Also, I agree with what you guys were saying about videos on reddit. Holy poo poo, so many untagged death videos. Even the worst old-school shock sites weren't as bad as what you can see in between posts about sports and creepy anime mobile games. Cradok posted:Same on Twitter; in the year since the South African poo poo for Brains took over, I've seen more hideous deaths on Twitter than I had hoped to see in my entire life. I guess it's just the 'big thing' that the internet in interested in now. I preferred it when it was cats. I can't remember when it first struck me as getting bad, but I wonder if it really kicked off with the most recent Ukraine stuff. Once HD videos of drones dropping grenades on people starts being allowed as "current events", I wonder if that really screws up moderation policies. Of course the real answer is "what moderation policies?"
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Dec 24, 2023 04:05
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FrenzyTheKillbot posted:We've never seen anything from the UNSC that would actually be useful in a full-scale ground offensive, because in the entire Human-Covenant war they haven't needed them. You can see quite a few tanks in the cutscene. And then, well, there's Halo Wars, which flavors the Warthog as something more like a Humvee as a light transport/fire unit, leaving the dedicated scouting job to Mongooses and Jackrabbits (which I *think* are an invention of Halo Wars, they're fancy motorcycles). Still, leaving Halo Wars aside, yeah this is something to bear in mind: the Covenant very, very rarely does big ground invasions like this. Normally they effortlessly win the battle in space, glass the planet, and move on. Like on Earth and the Halos, when the Covenant lands an army like this in force, it's because they want something, and they want it intact.
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Dec 24, 2023 14:29
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The marines making the second jump were so cute, they think they're protagonists!
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Dec 29, 2023 05:21
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