Halo Ce - Tumblr Posts

do NOT mess with freelancer Tex I repeat DO NOT mess with freelancer Tex!!!!!! Another trend ı did:) It literally is the first season of RvB loll

Linda, spartan -058

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I'm sorry for posting something other than D&D or BG3 ... but i finished reading Halo, The Fall of Reach the other day, and. Listen. I knew the ending. I've been playing halo since it came out (I mean come on. My blog doesn't have 117 in it for nothing) I know the games better than I know my times-tables and i knew the context of the fall of reach. But I tried to read the books when I was a little kid and the reading level was WAY too advanced for me. So my sister summed them up for me and i called it good. Flash forward to today. And wow. I was not ready for the emotional weight that cliffhanger ending gave me.

I need to play them all again (for like the 3rd time this year lol)

AAaanywhosies. . . Enjoy this picture of Linda. If i ever become wealthy, im cosplaying her. Simple as that.

Miss the design they had for Cortana in CE…. Babygirl was lowkey built like a color changing keyboard 💔 (still love her in all the other games afterwards tho)

Now I’ll be the first to say that I’ve never fully watched the halo tv show but I know a lot of how it differs from the games and the thing that I think that was important about master chiefs character that the show doesn’t get is that chief is hardly a person. Now please don’t get me wrong, he is a person by all means, but it’s no secret that chief was never meant to be a deep or interesting character originally, he was originally written to be a near-silent blank slate protagonist just for the sole purpose of having someone for the player to project themselves onto, but there’s still a reason he’s so personality-less, he never had the chance to develop one. From age 6 he was raised by the UNSC to be a soldier and nothing else, he had an extremely sheltered and doctored upbringing, he never experienced any typical coming of age problems or experienced art and culture, he only ever knew his purpose was to protect those who could experience those things. the man is fucking EMPTY, he isn’t personable because he almost doesn’t believe he is a person, to himself he’s nothing but a soldier, something separate from a person, and it’s not until halo 4 that he’s introduced to the POSSIBILITY that this mindset is toxic. To me what’s so fascinating about him (and is what I think a good direction for 343 to take his character) is that you take this man who never had a problem in his life that couldn’t be solved by putting a bullet in it, and suddenly give him a problem that isn’t so simple, that challenges who he is and what he should do, and then see what he does, and slowly but surely you see this man recognize that he is in fact human, not just a soldier. You get to see how he deals with regret, grief, and his sense of identity, and hopefully we get to see more of that cause it’s so powerful and I can’t think of any other media to my knowledge that really attempts that kind of unique character arc. Literally halo infinite made me cry because I got to see chief more embrace that he is human, that no matter how unstoppable and perfect he is, he has to recognize the fact that he has problems, and he needs more than just himself to fix them.

and then you got tv master chief who’s an amnesiac who had a former life who goes on to have a SEX SCENE WITH AN ALIEN DIPLOMAT

Edit: also for clarification, chief has sex with a HUMAN woman who works for the covenant, not like he had sex with an elite or some shit lmao

So since my last post about master chiefs characterization did pretty well I felt it wouldn’t hurt to make a follow up just to further emphasize and appreciate the character. The point that maybe I didn’t express well enough last time is that chief is definitely a character where “less is more” with all of his backstory being established, it makes too much for sense for his character to be quiet and emotionally stunted, he was raised in an environment where he wasn’t given much freedom to speak and where any emotional turmoil he was experiencing would not be catered or supported(at least not substantially) Also despite being heavily sheltered and only being told what the UNSC wants him to know, he is by no means ignorant, he still knows about life outside of being a soldier, and he’s aware of himself well enough to know just how much being a soldier has dominated his life, enough to joke about it and acknowledge it. “thought I’d try shooting my way out, mix it up a little”, “asking is not my strong suit” When the pilot asks him why he continues to do what he does despite not having much to care about, he replies “it’s all I know” the man is aware of how limited his skillset is, but also how gifted it is too. When Cortana or the weapon tells him the deathly odds of facing whatever baddie he’s going up against he always shows unshakable conviction that he’s going to come out on top, in a completely unbragging way like it’s just a matter of fact, another symptom of his carefully constructed upbringing. Things like pessimism and doubt would be hinderances to his battlefield performance so he was trained to not give into those concepts, also his confidence is undoubtedly a side affect of his incredible history, defying odds and succeeding in places where no other soldier could (also being told by the librarian that he was basically engineered over the course of thousands of years to be perfect probably helped too lol) so the man really believes in himself, not to mention, his allies. He believes in himself just as much as the people around him, he believes in Cortana undoubtedly, half of the things he’s lived through would’ve ended differently if not for her, and also by the end of halo 3, he trusts arbiter to the point that they’re in sync with each other as they’re escaping the ark. Also I know I briefly touched on this already but he has a good sense of humor, and one that seems to be most present whenever he’s around Cortana which I love. literally the first thing he ever says to her in halo ce is a joke at her expense, and so many of their interactions are brimming with friendly banter (which again I think 343 did well with in halo 4) which just goes to highlight that chief clearly trusted Cortana the most and felt the most comfortable around her. And that gets us to his grief, something that’s present throughout all the halo games is chief’s deeps sense of regret and loss, even towards marines and Spartans he probably hardly knew, in his body language he is so visibly distraught, you can see this when he inspects private Jenkins helmet in halo ce, to when he sees dead Spartans in halo infinite. Also the fact that when sgt johnson died Cortana felt the need to console him because she knew him well enough to know that Johnson meant a lot to him :’) Every life that chief loses weighs on him so heavily, and what hurts him most is that he feels he could’ve easily saved everyone he lost if he had just done something different, it’s clearly how he felt about Cortana’s death (and subsequent resurrection and all that shit lol don’t get me started) Taking that all into account it’s again so easy to see why this guy is the way he is, you have what was intended to be just your run of the mill video game protagonist become this haunting tale of man with decades of trauma behind him, whose few sources of solace and comfort were taken away from him, yet in spite of all his suffering has the most truly indomitable and unyielding spirit of anyone, because to keep going is not just the best, but the ONLY thing he knows how to do.

the man I just described is not present in halo the series, he’s simply been replaced with someone who was deemed more fit for television audiences, and if you like his character and the show in general, absolutely no hate here, power to you, but its one of the reasons why most halo fans just don’t connect with this show.

also again he fucking had sex like what

I’ve always loved this too, like how forerunner ais are always named using an adjective synonymous with “regretful” followed by a noun, driving home the theme of the forerunners being a civilization of powerful people overcome by regret of how they’ve led the galaxy astray with their leadership, with probably the best of these names being “mendicant bias”. Not to mention how the names of actual forerunners are pretty much short poems, like “Shadow of sundered star” and “born stellar makes eternal lasting” which reflects them being a very philosophic people (also a very egotistical people, especially at the peak of their civilization but I digress lol)

or like how the covenant is a fascist theocracy, so the names of its ships are always themed around faith, servitude, and the destruction of any and all who challenge them, like “enduring conviction”, “ascendant justice” and “breath of annihilation”.

and then the names of lots of human UNSC ships are named with the theme of strength, determination, and perseverance in mind, like “forward unto dawn”, “in amber clad”, and “spirit of fire”. This was probably done to drive home the hopeful theme of humanity having an unshakable spirit in the face of almost certain annihilation, and it’s a fitting contrast to how the names of covenant ships frame themselves AS the annihilation that humanity is persevering against.

I could go on and on but YES, the names of halo are very well written and decided upon, and they live in my mind rent free (especially when It comes to naming things myself lol)

all the names in halo are so good. from the ships to the planets to the characters… naming sci fi stuff is the worst but the halo writers really knocked it out of the park. everything feels distinct to the unique cultures. every once in a while i think about how most people’s idea of the halo franchise is just ‘green guy shoots aliens in vidya game’ and i want to make that ‘they don’t know about (x)’ meme but with ‘they don’t know about the rich world-building of the halo universe’.

343 promises the return of a long forgotten feature (splitscreen coop) and then when said feature is nearly complete, they cancel implementing it all together for god knows why

only for the community to show them up and get the feature working themselves through modding

as much as I like to throw 343 a bone when it comes to various things that I believe they get right (especially when it comes to narrative elements) it’s undeniable that they have one of the worst track records as a game studio and halo will probably never again be as big as it used to be or fully recapture the charm of previous games because of it, and believe me I’m not eager or happy to say that, like I’ve said I think they’ve done some things right, and I’ve definitely had fantastic experiences with the games they’ve made, but 343 still has yet to prove that they can make a halo game that lives up to the success of the original games, for halo 4 the story went in a more emotional direction that not everyone was onboard for, they drastically changed the art style and redesigned everything to look far more cluttered and less iconographic, and they changed and dumbed down the gameplay to appeal to fans of other shooters, thereby making a game that doesn’t really resemble halo. the mcc is a perfectly good collection of halo titles, with good content added to it in post, but for the majority of its lifespan, it was an unplayable half assed mess that infuriated many, and from what I see not all of its quirks have been ironed out. And then there’s halo 5, the colloquial rock bottom of the series, featuring a narrative that, while full of interesting ideas (and some absolutely abysmal ones) had the most bland and uninteresting execution, resulting in something that disappointed all fans, and then the multiplayer side of things fully dipped into cash grabbing with loot boxes and redesigning the gameplay to appeal to the hyper competitive esports scene, alienating so many players.

halo infinite is a huge step in the right direction, the return of the old art style, gameplay that returns to the old while incorporating new modern elements that nearly everyone can agree is the most fun gameplay 343’s made to date, and a great narrative that is both emotional and harkens back to the more action-y and adventurous tone of previous games. it has these great things going for it, but it’s still held back by things that have since become pretty much staples of the modern gaming industry, a free to play experience riddled with micro-transactions, making the cosmetic side of the game no fun to take part in due to so much of it being behind a paywall, half of the games content which was promised to be there from the beginning slowly being drip fed to us over the course of months and years (and what makes it especially worse is that previous titles were able to provide the exact same content on day one with even less time to work on it), various technical problems, and an overall lack of variety when it comes to gameplay.

I love this series of games so much and for awhile I’ve just been trying to enjoy what’s being provided in spite of all its shortcomings, because 1. There’s still a lot to enjoy and 2. Complaining about these games so much really bums me out, and I was able to do so for quite some time, but after so much criticism from the community for so long, 343’s faults have really started to weigh on me, they’re undeniable and at this point their shortcomings are starting to affect my enjoyment of the games. so yeah, I don’t want to say it, but I have to admit, halo isn’t doing too hot right now, and idk what it’ll look like in the future, and please understand I HATE being this pessimistic about it, but it clearly isn’t without reason.

*it’s just a burning memory plays*

This is my blog - I’ve never really used social media so pardon my incompetence of the etiquette.

I really like games made in the source engine; something about them makes them stand out. I’ll post about that for the most part. Not all of them, of course.

I’ll also occasionally talk about the other things I think are cool or aesthetically pleasing or interesting.

All followers are welcome, even if I personally wouldn’t particularly like you in real life. This blog is just for myself anyways, so if you like this blog you like me. that surely is a compliment.

My favourite games are (subject to change):

- Half-Life

- Portal

- Entropy: Zero

- Cry of Fear

- The Stanley Parable

- Halo

- Counter Strike: Global Offensive/ Counter Strike: 2

- Team Fortress

- Doom

- Team Fortress 2

I also like

- ambient music, experimental music/art, early internet inspired cyber aesthetics.

- Game development, graphic design, creative writing, fanfiction.

And more things I’ve failed to mention but will come up.

Yesterday I finally made this pepakura pelican