Speculative suggestion

Wild, speculative theories born from the communications with AdjutantReflex.

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Frogwart
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Speculative suggestion

Unread post by Frogwart »

This post contains information about the Halo 3 achievements, now available at xbox.com: http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/Achi ... %18*iAr%07

One in particular gives me reason to think we may be limiting ourselves somewhat in our speculation about this ARG. Before I go there, permit me to speculate a bit...

The ARG is being written by many hands at Bungie and Microsoft, designed to give us a deeper understanding of the Halo universe before we receive and play the ending of this particular trilogy about the Halo universe (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=77905).

Bungie at various times has commented on the possible connections between its Marathon and Halo series, evident in the way the stories unfold, the architecture of the games, and the characters and their words and actions. See the Halo Story pages at halo.bungie.org for more information (I'd like to keep this post short, since the idea is).

For these reasons, when I saw the achievement called "Marathon Man: Locate and access all Terminals in the Campaign," I started thinking. I haven't played Marathon, but I've heard about it and read about it, and if memory serves, there are Terminals throughout the game, if not its sequels, too, which provide background and information about the game's story.

If Halo 3 shares this feature with Marathon, it's very possible the authors of the ARG will draw clues from many different places--even those that weren't originally planned for use in the ARG when they originally created those games.
After all, who better to use previously made, "found" clues and evidence that's been in past games but the creators of those games, the people who know the material very, very well? And, it takes some of the pressure off the folks crunching to get the game done...
"How 'bout that Marathon symbol over on Lorraine's desk?"
"Has it been in one of the games?"
"Well, yeah, on a multiplayer ceiling--who'll think to look for it there?"
"Yeah, who'll even recognize it?"
"Use it!"

Thanks for indulging my speculation.
Echelon Three
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by Echelon Three »

Ooh, good thought. :)

I played some Marathon a while back, and the terminals did unfold the story, since there were no cutscenes or ingame story progressions. Halo has the advantage of those things, but perhaps they will help elucidate things a bit better for the hardcore story nerds. At the very least they're going to function as the COG tags did in Gears of War--stuff to find for Gamerscore purposes.
rewind
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by rewind »

This is definitely where I am thinking. In-game vid (whether rendered or engine produced) is nice to some extent, but the terminals were particularly fun...especially when playing the first time, w/o any knowledge of anything else in the Bungie-verse. You can display things in a terminal that don't translate to the a vid that well...confusion through missing dictionary references for example, just adds a different layer of "game" to the game (i.e.: "If a large bomb is allowed to detonate in the Engineering Section, the Marathon would be ^&2``~<Colloquialism Search Error #F9C>.", M1 - Bob-B-Q (Terminal 1: 'Success' message))

It does lead to the possibility of more AI interaction, and maybe even decision trees (too hopefull maybe?), especially considering the "meta-game points", revealed through the achievements.



***END MESSAGE***

***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START***
***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***
sharpsniper99
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by sharpsniper99 »

my theory on the terminals is this...

do you remember in halo 1 when chief put mendez's chip in his head and saw the flood attack - i think its going to be like that, these terminals will be well hidden away (meaning the game cant be as linear as halo 1 and 2 was!) but once you find one, you press a button and a cutscene happens where you see chief connecting to the terminal in some way, and then you see the movie in chiefs helmet, just as the flood video in halo 1 was displayed
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Sir Topham Hat
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by Sir Topham Hat »

We know the levels are big, very very big. And we know there will be things off the beaten path to accomplish. Going off and saving marines or something. These terminals are probably like the skulls, hidden away in specific places.
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Frogwart
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by Frogwart »

*MORE SPOILERS* (If anyone who's read this thread hasn't visited the Achievements page, avert your eyes...NOW!)







And we know there will be (at least?) nine Skulls to be found after we "Finish the Campaign on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary, then find and claim this skull."


Gillian Anderson sweetness... :D

Oh! Wrong Skully. :cry:

Edit: Spoilers are still there, you need to highlight them as they are now in white text. Menelven
sharpsniper99
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by sharpsniper99 »

SPOILERS! although i doubt anyone who would avert theyre eyes would be reading this far down in this thread anyway...





the achivment that interests me most is the achivments for getting a certain amount f points in each level - could this mean minigames? - a rank that shows how many enemies you killed?


i hope not - would be very unhaloish

Edit: Same as above.
ATF Goose
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by ATF Goose »

sharpsniper99 wrote:SPOILERS! although i doubt anyone who would avert theyre eyes would be reading this far down in this thread anyway...





the achivment that interests me most is the achivments for getting a certain amount f points in each level - could this mean minigames? - a rank that shows how many enemies you killed?


i hope not - would be very unhaloish

Edit: Same as above.
Continuing the Achivement spoilers



Are you talking about those "meta game" things? To my knowledge, metagaming is using the game engine for what it wasnt built to be used for, or something like that. For example, Launching warthogs over the arc in HaloCE. So if that was these metagames they speak off, bungie has designed little quirks in each level that let you kill those grunts a different, special way in each level. Like maybe blowing up trees in the jungle level, making a giant frag grenade!
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Frogwart
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Re: Speculative suggestion

Unread post by Frogwart »

Goose, if you're right about that idea, that will be a hoot! Great thoughts.
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