Why did they change Keyes in the Anniversary Jenkins' cam? He looked really cool in the marine body armor and it matched with the original CE cutscene.
A practical reason they might do this is because when you’re trying to escort the marines and Keyes off the ship, it would be difficult to tell which marine was the captain if all their armor was the same. The checkpoint resets if he dies. Would be annoying if you could t tell which was him. Now, why they didn’t just give him some white armbands, or have “Captain’s Armor” is beyond me.
@@_MaZTeR_ I get the feeling it wouldn't matter in the end. Since the devs needed to optimize Halo CEA, they had to make changes and cuts. They probably saw Keyes having two different models as redundant and scrapped his battle-fatigues variant in an effort to save more space. Makes me wonder what else was cut that we didn't see in this video.
@@ThisBirdHasFlowni thought anniversary being reach made sense logically seeing how halo 1 happens moments after reach anyway but i still get ppl wanting it to be faithful
In the alpha of the game dev they literally used the Mark V model of the Halo Reach multiplayer (except for the helmet, which is an even earlier version of the Mark V from Halo Reach and which can actually be seen in the art in the shared files menu of the original Halo Reach), it can be seen in the first Halo Anniversary development trailer in 2010.
It's worth noting that CEA cutscenes use different animations and camera angles. Besides the obvious asset-loading issue that comes with switching between 2 generations of graphics, being able to switch between classic and anniversary mid-cutscene would mean that the engine would have to load 2 different animations for a single biped in the same game-world and somehow being able to seamlessly switch between them. Probably not a fun time for the devs, especially with so little time. The reason you can do it in H2A is because the remastered cutscenes are just pre-rendered movies that play over the classic cutscene, which is still playing in the background.
@@theRok29 None of the cutscenes where the switching happened had any custom animation work. Just standard (and basic) CE animations. imo, General should've covered what happened if we switch graphics where the custom animations are in play.
@@theRok29 Having the capability and looking good/presentable are two completely different things. Also I'm sure it may sound simple to just swap animations on the fly, but when those animations are full cutscenes the files for them can get pretty big. Plus, loading those "on the fly" would be very resource intensive, especially if say the end user were to spam the switch graphics button.
@@CarlosGarcía-b9u Halo 2 Anniversary's cutscenes are movies that play over the original 2004 cutscenes happening in the background. They are not real-time nor even use the same assets or engine.
You know there’s actually is a reason to why Sabre changed Keys is outfit in the Flood introduction cutscene in the final version of CEA compared to when he actually wore a combat outfit in this version just like the classic cutscene. It was because of him in the Proto Gravemind on Keys because Sabre modeled him into the Gravemind still wearing his captain uniform even in the early CEA builds and so changed his outfit in the flood introduction cutscene to the captain uniform too. So it’s more like Sabre made a mistake when making the the Proto Gravemind for CEA
Actually that would kinda make sense. His body when it's connected to the Proto Gravemind is very clearly not covered in the more bulky armor present in the beta Flood intro cutscene. This was the case in the original as well, but in the original game the "armor" on his combat uniform was just textures and didn't actually impact the size of the model at all.
you can thank the annoying fans for saying it was so bad, that 343 ended up changing it to a way worse version. Sometimes I imagine an alternative timeline where the Halo community instead of being annoying and whiny, ACTUALLY gave good feedback to improve stuff
The classic/remastered switching was usually like 3 sec's. But i remember it sometimes took like 7 sec's when there was lots of action going on in the game.
4:34 In H2A's case, it helps that the remastered cutscenes are entirely pre-rendered, instead of running in-engine. So the game doesn't have to do as much to switch graphics mid-cutscene. 9:00 The beta design is definitely far more gruesome. Looks like something you'd see in The Mona Lisa comic. 14:50 I can't imagine a scrolling texture like that would have too much performance impact, but I don't know for sure. As for the deployable shields, they are a bit harder to see through in the beta version, so that's probably why they changed it.
@@chiquikris171I'm a halo 1/A and halo 2 modder, you can in fact mod Halo anniv exactly how you would halo 1, having built my own maps/scripts and story missions for myself, they're completely identical save a few broken tags and textures that are easy to fix if you know how they work.
@@darthbane2669 When Cursed Halo initially released, Inferno didn't have tools that were as robust as we have them now. Additionally, you need to take into account the graphics, these are some higher definition models in CEA, it would not be surprising that it would be a herculean effort just to recreate all of the cursed objects again.
Maybe the Keyes model was changed because they made the proto gravemind with the captains uniform on accident and they didn’t want to have to redo the complex model
9:40 Gotta correct you here: The CE Proto-Gravemind _was_ indeed a shade of yellowish-green, though with considerably less random giant spinal columns.
@@Janx14 The only thing that would make sense at all might be a thornbeast, wildlife cut from the original game. Though, I doubt 343 had any intention to restore them.
Same goes with Halo 4. The textures look like mud compared to Reach that released 2 years before and only because it released at the tail end of Xbox 360.
@@_MaZTeR_ I always felt that H4 should've been pushed back as a launch title for the Xone, while it amuses me how it pushed the 360 to its limits, it felt as though we were getting to much halo in so few time, Odst and wars in 2009, Reach on 2010, CEA on 2011, H4 in 2012
@@_MaZTeR_ the main reason the textures look crappy is not because of the release being at the end of the 360's life span as that would allow devs to have a full understanding of the 360 capability. The real cause for the textures looking so bad is due to 343's lack of familiarity with the Halo engine as very few Bungie-era staff members joined 343 (unfortunately Frank O'Connor joined) and none of those guys were programmers.
@@adriclonmx930 According to Bonnie Ross, Halo 4 was originally pitched as an xbox one launch title, but was turned into a 360 game by microsoft; on the orders of Don Matrick
@@tomtheconqerur That's actually not even close to a possibility. Textures by that point were trivial, and engines did not decide what types of texture workflows/pipelines devs would be using. The reason the textures look so poor is solely because they just used a really cheap method for compressing/downscaling them. That combined with the fact they were going for massively more detailed textures, and also trying to get that to work properly on a 7 year old console, made for a terrible overall look. As @Nezlik0 said, this game was targeting Xbox One from the start and they had to massively downgrade a lot of things to get them to work properly on the 360. If you look at the difference between Halo Online(Eldewrito), and compare some of the assets that use the same models as Halo 4, you can see just how good these textures were meant to be.
I think you're right in that they "just did too much". The game looks more like a Reach Reskin more than a Remaster. They just should have just upgraded the detail in the models and textures/ lighting etc. To me H2A is the best example of this.
A lot of the artistic visual style and tone is so much better in the unreleased beta and more closely resembles the original while still looking like a nice upgrade. For example in the main menu, the skybox is very "busy" and the colours are oversaturated in the final version. The elite shields is a subtle difference but looks better in the unreleased version. I used to like H:CE:A but now I think it looks like a blurry watercolour painting. H2:A is leagues better.
Yeah. The only exceptions are that the AR and Pistol are the Reach versions. In the retail version, it’s the Halo 3 models which remember the originals more. They should’ve just used the Halo 3 shotgun model instead of the Reach one.
@@TheN7Spartan I agree with your point about the weapons. I believe at one point they were even going to give Chief the armour from Reach. That's one change I am glad they made.
The reason you can't do graphic switching in CEA cutscenes is because the models used in CEA had much more dynamic elements allowing for more detailed animations which were used to update the rigid animation of the 2001 cutscenes. Problem is that CEA's cutscenes are all ingame so switching between graphics while the cutscenes play would completely break the animations. I imagine Halo 2 Anniversary would've also kept you from switching graphics if they did their cutscenes in game however the Anniversary cutscenes are entirely pre-rendered so there's no issues switching between them.
Yeah when you were watching H2A cutscenes, they actually were displayed on top of the originals, and the originals were muted. When you switch modes, the layers would switch and the H2A cutscenes would be muted.
Having seen Noodle's video on Halo CEA, I really wish they used the beta animations in the final release. In his video he mentions that some animations just look broken when you just paste new textures on them, notably in the Cortana cutscenes
As others pointed out, I definitely think the Keyes outfit switch is due to the Proto-Gravemind Keyes wearing his dress uniform and not combat fatigues. The combat gear doesn't look like it's simply armor on top of his dress uniform (which wouldn't really be a thing, anyway) so explaining it away as the Flood ripping off the armor doesn't really work. The Proto-Gravemind was probably handled by a different artist or something else in the pipeline. So when it was realized there was a consistency issue, the choice between spending a nonzero amount of time reworking a complex model or just swapping the model for the dress uniform was a pretty easy one to make. Also, the "toning down" of the Proto-Gravemind I think has a lot to do with how stark in contrast the faces are. Everything else is green and gray, but not the faces? I think it's just a stylistic decision.
The more I see these alternate versions, the more it makes me think of Lucas' Star Wars Special Editions. Coming back after many years with new technology and the wherewithal to actually implement some of the ideas you originally had, while on paper sounds great, but in practice and execution was underwhelming often and generally met with middling reactions. Some of the changes are interesting, even cool, but many of them were disappointing or confusing additions/changes that feel unnecessary and largely exist because they can, not that they should. Thanks for covering all these, though. Great breakdown!
Ahaha that cut out skull could have been good if they also replaced the voice of the covenant species with ridiculous over the top weird death sounds and gasps.
8:11 I can think og one. The rank on the armor is inconsistent with Keyes' actual rank. Assuming it was a shared body texture, I can see that as the only reason to go with the dress uniform rather than have that inconsistency.
But... they could have just made a duplicate unique entity of that model for Keyes' specifically and edited the rank insignia. It's not like they had no access to Photoshop. Just strange decisions.
You could argue his personal armour was lost during his capture or when the pillar of autumn crashed, so he’s forced to wear the standard issue marine armour. Making do with what’s available.
Keyes' beta armor is the exact same as Johnson has and even has the same rank, even though he's a Captain. I guess they didn't bother editing the textures to fit Captain's rank there just for that single cutscene and decided to just reuse the officer uniform?
And talking about the animations, let's just say the og animations on the Halo 3 Cortana look like absolute shit. They work much better in the original low poly Cortana model. Should've stuck with the mo-capped animations that match the other mo-capped animations. It currently looks even more uncanny than it should.
Honestly though, it does make story sense when you take a moment to think about it. Keyes was captured by the Covenant shortly after the crash-landing, so it's not like he had time to grab whatever armor was "his", or even bother asking any evacuating teams to grab it for him. So when he regroups with folk after being rescued by Chief, he likely approached one of the Sergeants like, "If you've got a spare set of gear, I'll take it," and there ya go.
It's more likely they put keyes in his dress uniform because they made a mistake with the proto gravemind (as he seems to be wearing his dress uniform in the beta model). It was probably just a lot easier to simply reuse keyes' PoA model than it was to fix the proto gravemind.
If I were to explain why Keyes was switched with his naval uniform instead of BDU, I think they thought him in armor wouldn't make sense for when he gets infected and absorbed into the proto-gravemind. I know this isn't exactly foolproof since the Flood would have overtaken Keyes regardless of armor, take it as food for thought. Regardless, Keyes should've had his armor and not his naval uniform
I see why not the models and textures, but the shaders and animations, I doubt without reverse-engineering the console build and I doubt anyone wants to do that. I see a Halo 3 engine remake of the game built sooner than the working parts of this beta built ported to PC.
Agreed though, I don't mind the darker green as it fits the aesthetics of what a supersoldier should probably look like. But it wasn't what Bungie intended.
It would be nice if they updated CEA on MCC and allowed you to switch graphics modes during cutscenes since now the freezing issues wouldn't be a problem on the Xbox One/Series Consoles.
I can forgive the other downgrades most dont really bother me. But I always hated that Keyes didnt have his armor after the first level. It never made sense.
11:07 it's another thing worth pointing out that the beta build Keyes's head sways a little bit like he's a rag doll, while the final version seems stiffer. I like that subtle motion, like he's a puppet
I could have sworn you could swap graphics mid-animation in the anniversary edition on the 360. Not the MCC version, but the original one. I could go pop it into the 360 and check for myself, but I think I'll just trust you guys if you tell me Generalkidd was right about that. I'm too busy playing Mount and Blade Warband at the moment to go wrestle the 360 from my kids. 😂
I agree. I also wish the original armor they first showed with the Reach assets was kept. I don't really like any version of Mark V outside of the original and the one we get from 4 and Infinite, but that one set was just so cool.
@@halo2warfare There just was a huge Twitter post of some insider news that they're still hiring contractors. They have learned NADA-0-absolutely nothing from Infinite.
i guess the captain keyes change was for lore reasons, as he would’ve rushed off the pillar of autumn before it crashed without time to change his uniform. technically he probably could’ve swapped into a dead marine’s uniform after landing on halo but realistically he probably wouldn’t. makes him stand out more in cutscenes too i guess
I think the most disappointing one you showed was them reverting to old camera angles and animations. Seeing Cortana move more expressively and the camera angles looking more cinematic is such a tug of the balls lmao. I started off halo on reach back in 2010 and have played them all and CE is one of my least favorite. Anytime I play it I have to play on the old graphics too cause the animations and everything just look way too clunky with new graphics. The updated animations actually made it look smooth, too bad they were never inserted in the release version..
@ThisBirdHasFlown newer animations in cutscenes looked a lot more emotive? and as another comment said, was probably hard to have the bipeds run 2 diff animations.
I appreciate you looking at it with an analytic lens as to why some of these changes probably happened. It would have been very easy to just be excessively negative for the sake of clickbait.
I wonder if the loss of those improved animations was due to it causing some kind of issue switching between versions of the game. Since they weren't running the same animation they might have had issues syncing the animations between old and new graphics in a way that was causing bugs. I do think it sucks that they didn't restore these for the MCC version given the hardware was superior. Whatever the issue might have been solvable on the XBone and later hardware.
I like how on the betas main menu you can actually see some cloud coverage and more details of the ring versus the final build where it’s just flat and has that 2D feel to it. Just something I liked on that part.
I am not a fan of the blur cutscenes in halo 2a. They are great but they miss too many of the smaller details like regret landing in new mombasa while chief destroys the second carrier or the in amber clad being next to regrets carrier while going into slipspace. Its ok to add more stuff but dont change what has already been established. Its a remaster, not a remake or a reboot. Its supposed to fill the spaces left empty due to limitations, not change the mold. This is the same logic as with keyes outfit during the jenkins cutscene.
As cool as the light ridge looks in the beta, it was better to have them in the same asthetic as the original. I’m a sucker for hex patterns in sci-fi but they don’t belong in certain areas
Personally I feel like many of these preferences come down to opinion. However, I did like the new camera angles and the that the characters movements in cutscenes feels more real and fluid, instead of being slow and clunky like the original. I've always thought that with game remakes the developers involved should make a 1:1 remake version of the game and then have an optional enhanced version where they for example show new camera angles, animations, make levels more detailed, add in more stuff in general. However this is probably not viable or realistic for most companies as they do operate under strict deadlines a lot of the time and there is ALWAYS cut content for games.
10:06 Changing it for age rating reasons is less odd when you consider in most European countries uses PEGI. Which has rated every single Halo game as 16. So it's very much possible it was changed to keep the PEGI age rating at 16 rather than an 18.
One of my biggest issues with H2A is the cutscenes having changed shots and art direction. One of the few things CEA did right in my opinion was keeping everything true to the original shot wise.
Funny, I'm playing through the MCC right now and though it was odd Keys would wear his Dress Uniform into battle, but thought it was a leftover from the original. Knowing that the Original changed his gear makes this choice really baffling in the Anniversary edition.
Anniversary has completely new in engine cut scene animations so switching between graphics mid cutscene would probably disrupt that way too much. H2A anniversary cutscenes are not in engine renders so the classic cut scene can just be rendered in the background no problem while you’re watching the pre rendered anniversary cut scene video.
4:50 The version swap during cutscenes wasn't something they just decided to enable after CEA was done. The gamedevs that worked on H2A weren't the same ones that did CEA.
For the bang bang skull, I'm aware that audio files are usually pretty large so they prob cut it bc they realized the sounds might have added too much to the file size
What if for Keyes' suit change was because the team had already created the Proto Gravemind model? In the model, Keyes is clearly seen in his dress uniform. This wasn't the case in the original CE, as it looks like his clothes had been absorbed away or something. Could this possibly be the reason?
I disagree that 343 overuses hexagons, in fact hexagons are commonly found in Covenant designs in Halo 2, 3, and Reach. If anything, I'm glad they didn't go with the hexagons because it makes the light bridge look more like Covenant tech than Forerunner tech.
How cool would it have been if the odst redesign came 3 years earlier, and, like he had on in cole protocol, instead of marine fatigues, keyes donned the odst uniform
One issue with Keyes' Beta outfit is the Rank insignia. It's the same as Johnson's, portraying the rank of Sergeant. In fact all of the Marine's armor has the Rank of Sergeant...
I think the issue with hexagons on the light bridge was that it looked to much like covenant architecture. Fortress worlds like installation 04 had a very simplistic, almost brutalist design since by that point the forerunners were losing badly against the flood. And it was the covenant that liked using triangles and hexagons. Also the maw takes place in the morning, not the afternoon. Even if it looks great they had to remove the sunset to be accurate.
Most of the changes would have been due to the 360 hardware. Keep in mind they had to also fit all the new stuff on a single disc with the original game's assets. The 360 was a beast at the time but CEA, Reach and H4 were already pushing the limits of the hardware, 2 years out from the Xbox One release. I would love a mod or port to add the cut stuff to MCC though, it's beautiful what they made
For Keyes outfit I wonder if it would also be to hardware limitations. His armor probably had more polygons and coding that took up lots of storage compared to his captains outfit and thus were forced to alter it back. As for Proto-Gravemind Keyes it might be because MS, and Sabre felt ESRB might've forced them to change from a M rating to a 18A rating and neither wanted that to happen and rather than taking the chance chose to downgrade it a little.
I think I can explain why it's disabled as it's a bug that annoys the hell out of me in 2. If you switch between graphics a few times, OR while in a cutscene? It bugs the sound engine out. Tons of stuff doesn't play like ambient sounds, explosions etc and you get left with a weird, eerie silence where you can only hear certain weapon sounds and your footsteps. It also happens in 1 while changing between graphics only not as much, but in 2? I noticed it does it way more and it will INSTANTLY do it while changing in a cutscene. They didn't fix anything, they just shrugged and went "eh, good enough".
I think 'they tried adding way too much to it' is a good summary of CEA in general. The Proto Gravemind in classic graphics is definitely green with black/dark brown-green tendrils. The green-ness is considerably from the biolumnescence of the Flood goo, and it's a sickly pale, not like the muddy cowpat green of CEA's final build. It looks like someone was like 'shit we forgot to make it green, make it look like mud'. Also, see how Keyes is kinda squirming in the Beta build, and in the final release he is just static. Shame, even though I still find the design in general too much to not be silly-looking. I'd argue that New And Improved cutscenes is extremely debatable. The mocap is comical in most situations, imo - Cortana just reusing the CE Classic animations is especially just kind of insane in context, really makes you wonder what happened. It's such a bizarre game. Downgrades or not, the vision for the remaster obviously suffered badly from whatever dev difficulties they ran into.
Keyes was definitely changed for clarity and continuity. A lot of halo players are casual, and the story is something they vaguely hold onto. It's easier to match keyes in your head (if you're a more casual player) if he never changes clothes / gear. Hence keeping the exact same clothes throughout the game.
I’ve said it a lot and I’ll say it again I loved halo CEA on Xbox 360 and I don’t like the fact they are remaking it again since it’ll most likely just be a waste of time
I still prefer some choices from the OG CE that were cut like a few floating ar rifles (not all of them returning) and mysterious gunfire coming from the door with it closing and flood breaking down doors in 343 guilty spark and the cut open elites. Flood had ai problems so that is why they cut the door breaking. The others should've stayed Oh and few from bigfoot sightings on the motion sensor. Those ones come to mind. Since the anniversary was based off the release version I care a bit less for it. Sometimes betas and cut content are just better than the release version.
It's interesting to see some of this. I haven't finished my playthrough yet, we were trying to get system link working, a lot of trial and error but got it working. Need to smash through just for the run at this point.
Wasn't Keyes in his dress uniform in the flood form? Original CE would have been the incorrect one by having the flood change his clothes for no reason.
I bet the Keys model swap was because some 3d modeler used the one of him in his dress suit to build the flood model and they didn’t have time to add the armor before release
Kidd on the show out with a banger release! Can’t believe you beat UnseenHalo to this idea lol. ( Corbin’s cool tho ). All the same my dude big ups for the video!
With the proto gravemind, I wonder why they didn't add any sangheili bodies, it would have been logical, because earlier in the truth and reconciliation, as the master chief you actually kill the shipmaster in that very room. Edited: spelling
Something you should’ve pointed out was the lighting, it resembled the original more and had such a better atmosphere rather than the bright lighting in the release
I love Keyes' batlearmor... but I am currently reading the novel I don't remember him having had time to change clothes. be was on the bridge of the ship with his crew until the last possible seconds, and later crashlanded and ran away from the Covenant until they were captured. but he may have had time to change clothes after Chief freed him.
The novel blows, it contradicts stuff from the game (like the UNSC using a command shuttle as their base, not Alpha Base that's never mentioned) and reads like the most fanfic shit imaginable (like the ODSTs trying to take the Flood-infested Truth and Reconciliation directly straight to Earth). I wouldn't put too much faith into that version of the story.
@@nagger8216 more like the game contradicts the novel. novels are almost always on top of the lore pyramids. specially when the game hardly had much detail when it came to characters and events. though the older a franchise gets and the more people are allow to write stuff for novels and games, the continuity gets more and more fragmented. is its a hard path to follow, that of we, the Lorekeepers. almost nothing is absolutely true, and in the end almost everything is permitted. retcons and abandoned/forgotten characters, places and storylines are way too common.
@@elessal "more like the game contradicts the novel. novels are almost always on top of the lore pyramids. " That's just... blatantly incorrect. Combat Evolved was Joe Staten's story, not William Dietz's. And while it was an extremely simple story with simple characters, adding in a bunch of stupid, contradictory information doesn't suddenly make it the "definitive version" of the story. It's some guy's fanfic of CE that Microsoft commissioned, that's pretty much it. Besides, the games always triumph over novels and any other background lore stuff. Example, Chief is meant to be the last Spartan, there should not be a bunch of his OC Spartan bros hanging out on Earth in Halo 2, that just doesn't fit into the story Bungie was telling at all. I do agree in general though, I think headcanon is the best way to approach lore and canon, especially with franchises like Halo and Star Wars that have become a horrific nightmare of contradictory information. You almost have to pick and choose what to accept and what to ignore, because if you don't it'll probably melt your brain. That's why, personally, I don't view much of the Halo books as canon. There's the Fall of Reach and Contact Harvest, that's it for me. To me Chief and everyone else thinks Blue Team and all the other Spartans died, with him being the sole survivor. I just refuse to accept First Strike as canon, Chief going back to rescue his friends, like he didn't just blow up the ring an hour ago, is just awful. So was the time travel bullshit, all nonsense. Plus, that's why I think the command shuttle Cortana mentions in CE is important, because I always figured it was probably a stealth Prowler and that's how Chief and the other survivors not only made it back to Earth, but avoided the Covenant from using overwhelming force to kill them all. Like, there is no reason that the Covenant shouldn't just storm Alpha Base and slaughter everybody when there's 300 ships parked in orbit. I can't suspend my disbelief that the Covenant knew where they were and didn't completely wipe them out immediately.
@@nagger8216 the more detailed version is always the most canonical. in no way shape or form would anyone think that the internal layout of the Pillar of Autum in the game is the canon version. each corridor and corner was designed to fit a shooter from the early 2000s. every character says just a few lines and we know not what they are thinking nor what they are perceiving. the first game would be completely disregarded if it had come this year because it would be nothing special and the player would be able to see with unclouded eyes how uninteresting it is without a lore background. 99% of all lore and canon from Halo comes from the books, due to the developers being absolutely incompetent in giving us something like the Mass Effect codexes. you can play the entire game series and know less about the universe than you would if you just read the 1/5 of Fall of Reach. a game's conflicting lore can only be considered canon if it is recent (and thus doing most likely unnecessary yet intentional retconning) and/if its contradicting lore is reinforced by other contemporary and or future pieces of media.
I think that the biggest problem was the fact that Halo CE Anniversary had to be released on the Xbox 360 with its limited graphical capabilities. I doubt 343 wanted to release an extremely laggy game as its first, so they prioritized making sure the game ran smoothly.
Why did they change Keyes in the Anniversary Jenkins' cam? He looked really cool in the marine body armor and it matched with the original CE cutscene.
Honestly it makes sense for a captain to be in fatigues like that. It's practical
A practical reason they might do this is because when you’re trying to escort the marines and Keyes off the ship, it would be difficult to tell which marine was the captain if all their armor was the same. The checkpoint resets if he dies. Would be annoying if you could t tell which was him.
Now, why they didn’t just give him some white armbands, or have “Captain’s Armor” is beyond me.
@@bvowels Thats the Truth and Reconciliation mission. They're talking about the 343 Guilty Spark mission.
Keyes has sergenat's rank on his armor (it's just reused from Johnson). But couldn't they have just edited the texture to add Captain's patch there?
@@_MaZTeR_ I get the feeling it wouldn't matter in the end. Since the devs needed to optimize Halo CEA, they had to make changes and cuts.
They probably saw Keyes having two different models as redundant and scrapped his battle-fatigues variant in an effort to save more space.
Makes me wonder what else was cut that we didn't see in this video.
The Beta Chief armor looks more Reachy
It certainly beats smooth buttery plastic. Even the original game had a little bit of wear on it.
you mean better?
Funny how most people complain that Anniversary looks too similar to Reach, and then you have these three jackasses saying it's a downgrade.
Pick one.
@@ThisBirdHasFlowni thought anniversary being reach made sense logically seeing how halo 1 happens moments after reach anyway but i still get ppl wanting it to be faithful
In the alpha of the game dev they literally used the Mark V model of the Halo Reach multiplayer (except for the helmet, which is an even earlier version of the Mark V from Halo Reach and which can actually be seen in the art in the shared files menu of the original Halo Reach), it can be seen in the first Halo Anniversary development trailer in 2010.
It's worth noting that CEA cutscenes use different animations and camera angles. Besides the obvious asset-loading issue that comes with switching between 2 generations of graphics, being able to switch between classic and anniversary mid-cutscene would mean that the engine would have to load 2 different animations for a single biped in the same game-world and somehow being able to seamlessly switch between them. Probably not a fun time for the devs, especially with so little time.
The reason you can do it in H2A is because the remastered cutscenes are just pre-rendered movies that play over the classic cutscene, which is still playing in the background.
this video shows that CEA still had the capability of switching graphics within cutscenes even though the animations and such differed
@@theRok29 None of the cutscenes where the switching happened had any custom animation work. Just standard (and basic) CE animations. imo, General should've covered what happened if we switch graphics where the custom animations are in play.
@@theRok29 Having the capability and looking good/presentable are two completely different things. Also I'm sure it may sound simple to just swap animations on the fly, but when those animations are full cutscenes the files for them can get pretty big. Plus, loading those "on the fly" would be very resource intensive, especially if say the end user were to spam the switch graphics button.
They would have used a separately made animation like the ones they used in Halo 2 Anniversary
@@CarlosGarcía-b9u Halo 2 Anniversary's cutscenes are movies that play over the original 2004 cutscenes happening in the background. They are not real-time nor even use the same assets or engine.
You know there’s actually is a reason to why Sabre changed Keys is outfit in the Flood introduction cutscene in the final version of CEA compared to when he actually wore a combat outfit in this version just like the classic cutscene. It was because of him in the Proto Gravemind on Keys because Sabre modeled him into the Gravemind still wearing his captain uniform even in the early CEA builds and so changed his outfit in the flood introduction cutscene to the captain uniform too. So it’s more like Sabre made a mistake when making the the Proto Gravemind for CEA
to be fair, the original keys didn't wear an outfit when molested by the flood as the proto-gravemind, he was sorta just a green blob.
@@KeyboardTarantula Ye that's the case for him in classic but I'mtalking about him in Anniversary
@@RedthegamingZoroark yeah, they made an error, and instead of fixing it, they just do a simple asset swap.
Actually that would kinda make sense.
His body when it's connected to the Proto Gravemind is very clearly not covered in the more bulky armor present in the beta Flood intro cutscene. This was the case in the original as well, but in the original game the "armor" on his combat uniform was just textures and didn't actually impact the size of the model at all.
it would make sense for the combat gear to be ripped off by the flood
I feel like the beta chief looks less chubby, compared to the release version.
you can thank the annoying fans for saying it was so bad, that 343 ended up changing it to a way worse version.
Sometimes I imagine an alternative timeline where the Halo community instead of being annoying and whiny, ACTUALLY gave good feedback to improve stuff
@@spartanshadow90oficialsince 343 is the developer it would go right over their head
@@spartanshadow90oficialI don't remember people complaining that Chief looked too skinny before release.
@@randeli7785 Oh they did, that I assure you
@@spartanshadow90oficial I really can't find anything like that online so I don't really believe that was the reason for a slightly chubby Chief.
The classic/remastered switching was usually like 3 sec's. But i remember it sometimes took like 7 sec's when there was lots of action going on in the game.
4:34 In H2A's case, it helps that the remastered cutscenes are entirely pre-rendered, instead of running in-engine. So the game doesn't have to do as much to switch graphics mid-cutscene.
9:00 The beta design is definitely far more gruesome. Looks like something you'd see in The Mona Lisa comic.
14:50 I can't imagine a scrolling texture like that would have too much performance impact, but I don't know for sure. As for the deployable shields, they are a bit harder to see through in the beta version, so that's probably why they changed it.
Deployable shields look a lot more like a Reach asset in the beta imo.
Hopefully modders will be willing to bring these changes forward and into pc
Cant really mod anniversary though
@@chiquikris171I'm a halo 1/A and halo 2 modder, you can in fact mod Halo anniv exactly how you would halo 1, having built my own maps/scripts and story missions for myself, they're completely identical save a few broken tags and textures that are easy to fix if you know how they work.
@@CookxieGOWHey we're can i download your mods
@@CookxieGOW well didn't the guy that made the curse mod for halo1 say he couldn't mod that into the anniversary?
@@darthbane2669 When Cursed Halo initially released, Inferno didn't have tools that were as robust as we have them now. Additionally, you need to take into account the graphics, these are some higher definition models in CEA, it would not be surprising that it would be a herculean effort just to recreate all of the cursed objects again.
Maybe the Keyes model was changed because they made the proto gravemind with the captains uniform on accident and they didn’t want to have to redo the complex model
9:40 Gotta correct you here: The CE Proto-Gravemind _was_ indeed a shade of yellowish-green, though with considerably less random giant spinal columns.
Yeah the spinal column is 'cool' in a gory sense but..what even is that from. Doesn't look right for an elite or a brute even.
@@Janx14 The only thing that would make sense at all might be a thornbeast, wildlife cut from the original game. Though, I doubt 343 had any intention to restore them.
Its really sad this enhanced port was held back by porting the PC edition and releasing on an aging console.
Same goes with Halo 4. The textures look like mud compared to Reach that released 2 years before and only because it released at the tail end of Xbox 360.
@@_MaZTeR_ I always felt that H4 should've been pushed back as a launch title for the Xone, while it amuses me how it pushed the 360 to its limits, it felt as though we were getting to much halo in so few time, Odst and wars in 2009, Reach on 2010, CEA on 2011, H4 in 2012
@@_MaZTeR_ the main reason the textures look crappy is not because of the release being at the end of the 360's life span as that would allow devs to have a full understanding of the 360 capability. The real cause for the textures looking so bad is due to 343's lack of familiarity with the Halo engine as very few Bungie-era staff members joined 343 (unfortunately Frank O'Connor joined) and none of those guys were programmers.
@@adriclonmx930 According to Bonnie Ross, Halo 4 was originally pitched as an xbox one launch title, but was turned into a 360 game by microsoft; on the orders of Don Matrick
@@tomtheconqerur That's actually not even close to a possibility. Textures by that point were trivial, and engines did not decide what types of texture workflows/pipelines devs would be using. The reason the textures look so poor is solely because they just used a really cheap method for compressing/downscaling them. That combined with the fact they were going for massively more detailed textures, and also trying to get that to work properly on a 7 year old console, made for a terrible overall look.
As @Nezlik0 said, this game was targeting Xbox One from the start and they had to massively downgrade a lot of things to get them to work properly on the 360. If you look at the difference between Halo Online(Eldewrito), and compare some of the assets that use the same models as Halo 4, you can see just how good these textures were meant to be.
I think you're right in that they "just did too much". The game looks more like a Reach Reskin more than a Remaster. They just should have just upgraded the detail in the models and textures/ lighting etc. To me H2A is the best example of this.
A lot of the artistic visual style and tone is so much better in the unreleased beta and more closely resembles the original while still looking like a nice upgrade. For example in the main menu, the skybox is very "busy" and the colours are oversaturated in the final version. The elite shields is a subtle difference but looks better in the unreleased version.
I used to like H:CE:A but now I think it looks like a blurry watercolour painting. H2:A is leagues better.
I agree, the main menu looks miles better in the beta build. The final really looks lame.
Yeah. The only exceptions are that the AR and Pistol are the Reach versions. In the retail version, it’s the Halo 3 models which remember the originals more. They should’ve just used the Halo 3 shotgun model instead of the Reach one.
@@TheN7Spartan I agree with your point about the weapons. I believe at one point they were even going to give Chief the armour from Reach. That's one change I am glad they made.
*which resemble the originals more.
Sorry for that typo
What? The skybox in the beta clearly has a lot more happening in it.
The reason you can't do graphic switching in CEA cutscenes is because the models used in CEA had much more dynamic elements allowing for more detailed animations which were used to update the rigid animation of the 2001 cutscenes. Problem is that CEA's cutscenes are all ingame so switching between graphics while the cutscenes play would completely break the animations.
I imagine Halo 2 Anniversary would've also kept you from switching graphics if they did their cutscenes in game however the Anniversary cutscenes are entirely pre-rendered so there's no issues switching between them.
Yeah when you were watching H2A cutscenes, they actually were displayed on top of the originals, and the originals were muted.
When you switch modes, the layers would switch and the H2A cutscenes would be muted.
Having seen Noodle's video on Halo CEA, I really wish they used the beta animations in the final release. In his video he mentions that some animations just look broken when you just paste new textures on them, notably in the Cortana cutscenes
He also mentioned that the anniversary animations were gratuitously overacted. I'm pretty sure he would have hated the beta animations just as much.
As others pointed out, I definitely think the Keyes outfit switch is due to the Proto-Gravemind Keyes wearing his dress uniform and not combat fatigues. The combat gear doesn't look like it's simply armor on top of his dress uniform (which wouldn't really be a thing, anyway) so explaining it away as the Flood ripping off the armor doesn't really work. The Proto-Gravemind was probably handled by a different artist or something else in the pipeline. So when it was realized there was a consistency issue, the choice between spending a nonzero amount of time reworking a complex model or just swapping the model for the dress uniform was a pretty easy one to make.
Also, the "toning down" of the Proto-Gravemind I think has a lot to do with how stark in contrast the faces are. Everything else is green and gray, but not the faces? I think it's just a stylistic decision.
The more I see these alternate versions, the more it makes me think of Lucas' Star Wars Special Editions. Coming back after many years with new technology and the wherewithal to actually implement some of the ideas you originally had, while on paper sounds great, but in practice and execution was underwhelming often and generally met with middling reactions. Some of the changes are interesting, even cool, but many of them were disappointing or confusing additions/changes that feel unnecessary and largely exist because they can, not that they should.
Thanks for covering all these, though. Great breakdown!
Ahaha that cut out skull could have been good if they also replaced the voice of the covenant species with ridiculous over the top weird death sounds and gasps.
damn pre release halo(the mission not the game) had a cool look, like gears 2 vibes
8:11
I can think og one. The rank on the armor is inconsistent with Keyes' actual rank. Assuming it was a shared body texture, I can see that as the only reason to go with the dress uniform rather than have that inconsistency.
But... they could have just made a duplicate unique entity of that model for Keyes' specifically and edited the rank insignia. It's not like they had no access to Photoshop. Just strange decisions.
You could argue his personal armour was lost during his capture or when the pillar of autumn crashed, so he’s forced to wear the standard issue marine armour. Making do with what’s available.
@@samz9121 if that was the reason then Anniversary should have resembled CE in art style.
As someone pointed out elsewhere. Its likely due to the Proto-gravemind being modeled with the uniform not the armor, so was changed for consistency.
Can you tell me where in the lore it states those markings signify rank? Halo Reach was full of sergeants if that was the case.
Keyes' beta armor is the exact same as Johnson has and even has the same rank, even though he's a Captain. I guess they didn't bother editing the textures to fit Captain's rank there just for that single cutscene and decided to just reuse the officer uniform?
And talking about the animations, let's just say the og animations on the Halo 3 Cortana look like absolute shit. They work much better in the original low poly Cortana model. Should've stuck with the mo-capped animations that match the other mo-capped animations. It currently looks even more uncanny than it should.
It’s very lazy. Very dissapointing.
Honestly though, it does make story sense when you take a moment to think about it. Keyes was captured by the Covenant shortly after the crash-landing, so it's not like he had time to grab whatever armor was "his", or even bother asking any evacuating teams to grab it for him. So when he regroups with folk after being rescued by Chief, he likely approached one of the Sergeants like, "If you've got a spare set of gear, I'll take it," and there ya go.
It's more likely they put keyes in his dress uniform because they made a mistake with the proto gravemind (as he seems to be wearing his dress uniform in the beta model). It was probably just a lot easier to simply reuse keyes' PoA model than it was to fix the proto gravemind.
If I were to explain why Keyes was switched with his naval uniform instead of BDU, I think they thought him in armor wouldn't make sense for when he gets infected and absorbed into the proto-gravemind. I know this isn't exactly foolproof since the Flood would have overtaken Keyes regardless of armor, take it as food for thought. Regardless, Keyes should've had his armor and not his naval uniform
Could modders port these Beta features and models to MCC?
I see why not the models and textures, but the shaders and animations, I doubt without reverse-engineering the console build and I doubt anyone wants to do that. I see a Halo 3 engine remake of the game built sooner than the working parts of this beta built ported to PC.
@@_MaZTeR_ Our best bet is to leave our pleas with team Digsite
14:44 i prefer the final build’s version but i do love the effect. If it was a covenant shield floor it would absolutely work. That’s beautiful effect
1:17 Final Build Chief honestly looks closer to the original CE armor anyway.
Agreed though, I don't mind the darker green as it fits the aesthetics of what a supersoldier should probably look like. But it wasn't what Bungie intended.
It would be nice if they updated CEA on MCC and allowed you to switch graphics modes during cutscenes since now the freezing issues wouldn't be a problem on the Xbox One/Series Consoles.
I can forgive the other downgrades most dont really bother me. But I always hated that Keyes didnt have his armor after the first level. It never made sense.
11:07 it's another thing worth pointing out that the beta build Keyes's head sways a little bit like he's a rag doll, while the final version seems stiffer. I like that subtle motion, like he's a puppet
I can only assume maybe Saber thought people wouldn't recognize Keyes?
I could have sworn you could swap graphics mid-animation in the anniversary edition on the 360. Not the MCC version, but the original one. I could go pop it into the 360 and check for myself, but I think I'll just trust you guys if you tell me Generalkidd was right about that. I'm too busy playing Mount and Blade Warband at the moment to go wrestle the 360 from my kids. 😂
I agree. I also wish the original armor they first showed with the Reach assets was kept. I don't really like any version of Mark V outside of the original and the one we get from 4 and Infinite, but that one set was just so cool.
flmaethrowner
Maybe all of this will be fixed with the upcoming Halo CE Remake!
I would hope a CE Remake would look nothing like CEA
@@JJAB91 It would be nice to see all of the cut content from CEA in that new upcoming Halo CE Remake, also some more new multiplayer maps!
I honestly have no faith in 343i at all.
@@theInsaneCashew Who knowns they might change under new management!
@@halo2warfare There just was a huge Twitter post of some insider news that they're still hiring contractors. They have learned NADA-0-absolutely nothing from Infinite.
i guess the captain keyes change was for lore reasons, as he would’ve rushed off the pillar of autumn before it crashed without time to change his uniform. technically he probably could’ve swapped into a dead marine’s uniform after landing on halo but realistically he probably wouldn’t. makes him stand out more in cutscenes too i guess
I think the most disappointing one you showed was them reverting to old camera angles and animations. Seeing Cortana move more expressively and the camera angles looking more cinematic is such a tug of the balls lmao. I started off halo on reach back in 2010 and have played them all and CE is one of my least favorite. Anytime I play it I have to play on the old graphics too cause the animations and everything just look way too clunky with new graphics. The updated animations actually made it look smooth, too bad they were never inserted in the release version..
Anniversary was just nothing but a downgrade.
true. i hope this leaked/rumored remake does CE justice.
@@AwesomeMutationI also hope they make it available on ps5
@@lostvayne104let our playstation cousins taste the great journey
The so called remaster did have some good sceneries
Exactly I hope the remake does better
I remembered being confused as to why the AR in the final version didn't match the preview footage which was similar to Reach's.
So basically, if CEA didn't have the graphics swap, it probably would have been way better.
I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion after this video.
@ThisBirdHasFlown newer animations in cutscenes looked a lot more emotive? and as another comment said, was probably hard to have the bipeds run 2 diff animations.
Ah Generalkidd. I havent heard that name in years
Glad you still post videos, made my childhood
I appreciate you looking at it with an analytic lens as to why some of these changes probably happened.
It would have been very easy to just be excessively negative for the sake of clickbait.
Johnsen's face slowly distorting through the flood cutscene is kinda funny to watch
My God I never noticed that Chief's hands don't even meet the MA5C's grip in the final build augh.
We NEED the Bang Bang Skull to be added to MCC.
I disagree. I'm glad it was cut from CE:A
what does it even do?
@@KeyboardTarantula It replaces gun sounds with a human mimicking said sounds but in the beta only AR has the sounds change when skull is activated.
@@GokhanAras-pj1mm that sounds hilarious if done right, annoying if wrong. would love to see it in a cursed halo mod.
Honestly I wish they remastered Halo Reach assets, mixing the with og CE assets. Lore wise it would make sense, and if done right, it could look good
At one point, the Reach model for the Mark 5 was used. Honestly, they should have kept that, imo.
Can we get more missions and maps with water removed?
I wonder if the loss of those improved animations was due to it causing some kind of issue switching between versions of the game. Since they weren't running the same animation they might have had issues syncing the animations between old and new graphics in a way that was causing bugs. I do think it sucks that they didn't restore these for the MCC version given the hardware was superior. Whatever the issue might have been solvable on the XBone and later hardware.
I like how on the betas main menu you can actually see some cloud coverage and more details of the ring versus the final build where it’s just flat and has that 2D feel to it. Just something I liked on that part.
I am not a fan of the blur cutscenes in halo 2a. They are great but they miss too many of the smaller details like regret landing in new mombasa while chief destroys the second carrier or the in amber clad being next to regrets carrier while going into slipspace.
Its ok to add more stuff but dont change what has already been established. Its a remaster, not a remake or a reboot. Its supposed to fill the spaces left empty due to limitations, not change the mold. This is the same logic as with keyes outfit during the jenkins cutscene.
As cool as the light ridge looks in the beta, it was better to have them in the same asthetic as the original. I’m a sucker for hex patterns in sci-fi but they don’t belong in certain areas
14:30 that effect is from covenant shields, so they would have to remove it from there
Personally I feel like many of these preferences come down to opinion.
However, I did like the new camera angles and the that the characters movements in cutscenes feels more real and fluid, instead of being slow and clunky like the original.
I've always thought that with game remakes the developers involved should make a 1:1 remake version of the game and then have an optional enhanced version where they for example show new camera angles, animations, make levels more detailed, add in more stuff in general.
However this is probably not viable or realistic for most companies as they do operate under strict deadlines a lot of the time and there is ALWAYS cut content for games.
10:06
Changing it for age rating reasons is less odd when you consider in most European countries uses PEGI.
Which has rated every single Halo game as 16.
So it's very much possible it was changed to keep the PEGI age rating at 16 rather than an 18.
One of my biggest issues with H2A is the cutscenes having changed shots and art direction. One of the few things CEA did right in my opinion was keeping everything true to the original shot wise.
The cutscenes in H2A are abysmal and I have no idea why people like them so much
Funny, I'm playing through the MCC right now and though it was odd Keys would wear his Dress Uniform into battle, but thought it was a leftover from the original.
Knowing that the Original changed his gear makes this choice really baffling in the Anniversary edition.
Anniversary has completely new in engine cut scene animations so switching between graphics mid cutscene would probably disrupt that way too much. H2A anniversary cutscenes are not in engine renders so the classic cut scene can just be rendered in the background no problem while you’re watching the pre rendered anniversary cut scene video.
4:50 The version swap during cutscenes wasn't something they just decided to enable after CEA was done. The gamedevs that worked on H2A weren't the same ones that did CEA.
For the bang bang skull, I'm aware that audio files are usually pretty large so they prob cut it bc they realized the sounds might have added too much to the file size
So we're modding the beta build textures back into mcc pc right?
What if for Keyes' suit change was because the team had already created the Proto Gravemind model? In the model, Keyes is clearly seen in his dress uniform. This wasn't the case in the original CE, as it looks like his clothes had been absorbed away or something. Could this possibly be the reason?
14:40 Yes that would be controversial. 343i's obsession with hexagons needs to be stopped.
I'd argue with you about it but all my hecks r gone
I disagree that 343 overuses hexagons, in fact hexagons are commonly found in Covenant designs in Halo 2, 3, and Reach. If anything, I'm glad they didn't go with the hexagons because it makes the light bridge look more like Covenant tech than Forerunner tech.
Chiefs armor change reminds me of Spartan armor getting less detail on retail halo 3 vs the beta
Get @Noodle on this!!! Hed love to see these early versions of the cutscenes
They should of kept in the halo reach assault rifle because it makes sense considering the Pillar of autumn came directly from reach
Is there a beta graphics mod for MCC that restores those?
How cool would it have been if the odst redesign came 3 years earlier, and, like he had on in cole protocol, instead of marine fatigues, keyes donned the odst uniform
They really said "take out all the detail and just put the juicey FX filter from Reach's forge on EVERYTHING"
Age of Empires remakes removed decaying corpses/skeletons too prob to appease Chinese govt.
CEA was spoiled with too much when less would have been more. I'm also not a fan of it's bright, cartoonish looking visuals.
One issue with Keyes' Beta outfit is the Rank insignia. It's the same as Johnson's, portraying the rank of Sergeant. In fact all of the Marine's armor has the Rank of Sergeant...
Do you not have shirts for sale anymore? The link is dead.
I seriously hope these cut features find their way into the digsite tools, I ESPECIALLY want to see these animations reintroduced!
Imho they were going for a reach artsyle they should have kept reach style chief, pistol and assault rifle.
Agreed, the Mark V from Reach looks so fucking sexy and it'd be cathartic to see Chief in that. Infinitely more preferable than this version.
I think the issue with hexagons on the light bridge was that it looked to much like covenant architecture. Fortress worlds like installation 04 had a very simplistic, almost brutalist design since by that point the forerunners were losing badly against the flood. And it was the covenant that liked using triangles and hexagons.
Also the maw takes place in the morning, not the afternoon. Even if it looks great they had to remove the sunset to be accurate.
Bro we need the Bang Bang skull for all the games, that would be so fun. Would add some meme comedy to LASO
Most of the changes would have been due to the 360 hardware. Keep in mind they had to also fit all the new stuff on a single disc with the original game's assets. The 360 was a beast at the time but CEA, Reach and H4 were already pushing the limits of the hardware, 2 years out from the Xbox One release.
I would love a mod or port to add the cut stuff to MCC though, it's beautiful what they made
For Keyes outfit I wonder if it would also be to hardware limitations. His armor probably had more polygons and coding that took up lots of storage compared to his captains outfit and thus were forced to alter it back.
As for Proto-Gravemind Keyes it might be because MS, and Sabre felt ESRB might've forced them to change from a M rating to a 18A rating and neither wanted that to happen and rather than taking the chance chose to downgrade it a little.
Keys in uniform during the cut scene was probably so players could identify it was him. They should just had added a different helmet or something.
I think I can explain why it's disabled as it's a bug that annoys the hell out of me in 2. If you switch between graphics a few times, OR while in a cutscene? It bugs the sound engine out. Tons of stuff doesn't play like ambient sounds, explosions etc and you get left with a weird, eerie silence where you can only hear certain weapon sounds and your footsteps. It also happens in 1 while changing between graphics only not as much, but in 2? I noticed it does it way more and it will INSTANTLY do it while changing in a cutscene. They didn't fix anything, they just shrugged and went "eh, good enough".
I think 'they tried adding way too much to it' is a good summary of CEA in general.
The Proto Gravemind in classic graphics is definitely green with black/dark brown-green tendrils. The green-ness is considerably from the biolumnescence of the Flood goo, and it's a sickly pale, not like the muddy cowpat green of CEA's final build. It looks like someone was like 'shit we forgot to make it green, make it look like mud'.
Also, see how Keyes is kinda squirming in the Beta build, and in the final release he is just static. Shame, even though I still find the design in general too much to not be silly-looking.
I'd argue that New And Improved cutscenes is extremely debatable. The mocap is comical in most situations, imo - Cortana just reusing the CE Classic animations is especially just kind of insane in context, really makes you wonder what happened. It's such a bizarre game.
Downgrades or not, the vision for the remaster obviously suffered badly from whatever dev difficulties they ran into.
Man i wish the bang bang skull was finished, gears of war 5 had a mutator for its new game plus that did the same thing and i loved it
Keyes was definitely changed for clarity and continuity. A lot of halo players are casual, and the story is something they vaguely hold onto. It's easier to match keyes in your head (if you're a more casual player) if he never changes clothes / gear. Hence keeping the exact same clothes throughout the game.
I’ve said it a lot and I’ll say it again I loved halo CEA on Xbox 360 and I don’t like the fact they are remaking it again since it’ll most likely just be a waste of time
I still prefer some choices from the OG CE that were cut like a few floating ar rifles (not all of them returning) and mysterious gunfire coming from the door with it closing and flood breaking down doors in 343 guilty spark and the cut open elites. Flood had ai problems so that is why they cut the door breaking. The others should've stayed Oh and few from bigfoot sightings on the motion sensor. Those ones come to mind. Since the anniversary was based off the release version I care a bit less for it. Sometimes betas and cut content are just better than the release version.
The grunt blood was also a lot more vibrant and fluorescent-looking in the beta version. Makes them seem more alien.
I'm willing to bet that someone at 343 was inspired by the Human Gun Sounds cheat from TimeSplitters Future Perfect for the Bang Bang Skull.
you forgot the biggest downgrade from the beta builds
the anniversary game itself.
@user-fm4ux1gg1x but it's truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeee. I'll take true over humorous here
I think the clearest answer for Keys' change is that he isn't as recognizable in his marine garb. Especially when in 2001 his marine garb is unique.
16:40 “less is More” is correct
StarWars Ep.1 “Every Shot is SO Detailed, There’s SO Much Going on” 😅
Counterpoint: Beta CEA magnum looks malnourished, and the Assault rifle is just the Reach Assault rifle.
It's interesting to see some of this. I haven't finished my playthrough yet, we were trying to get system link working, a lot of trial and error but got it working. Need to smash through just for the run at this point.
Wasn't Keyes in his dress uniform in the flood form? Original CE would have been the incorrect one by having the flood change his clothes for no reason.
I bet the Keys model swap was because some 3d modeler used the one of him in his dress suit to build the flood model and they didn’t have time to add the armor before release
Kidd on the show out with a banger release! Can’t believe you beat UnseenHalo to this idea lol. ( Corbin’s cool tho ). All the same my dude big ups for the video!
With the proto gravemind, I wonder why they didn't add any sangheili bodies, it would have been logical, because earlier in the truth and reconciliation, as the master chief you actually kill the shipmaster in that very room.
Edited: spelling
It’s been a minute since I’ve watched one of your videos you sound so much more confident now! Love the improvement!!
Something you should’ve pointed out was the lighting, it resembled the original more and had such a better atmosphere rather than the bright lighting in the release
I love Keyes' batlearmor... but I am currently reading the novel I don't remember him having had time to change clothes. be was on the bridge of the ship with his crew until the last possible seconds, and later crashlanded and ran away from the Covenant until they were captured. but he may have had time to change clothes after Chief freed him.
The novel blows, it contradicts stuff from the game (like the UNSC using a command shuttle as their base, not Alpha Base that's never mentioned) and reads like the most fanfic shit imaginable (like the ODSTs trying to take the Flood-infested Truth and Reconciliation directly straight to Earth). I wouldn't put too much faith into that version of the story.
@@nagger8216 more like the game contradicts the novel. novels are almost always on top of the lore pyramids. specially when the game hardly had much detail when it came to characters and events.
though the older a franchise gets and the more people are allow to write stuff for novels and games, the continuity gets more and more fragmented.
is its a hard path to follow, that of we, the Lorekeepers. almost nothing is absolutely true, and in the end almost everything is permitted. retcons and abandoned/forgotten characters, places and storylines are way too common.
@@elessal "more like the game contradicts the novel. novels are almost always on top of the lore pyramids. " That's just... blatantly incorrect. Combat Evolved was Joe Staten's story, not William Dietz's. And while it was an extremely simple story with simple characters, adding in a bunch of stupid, contradictory information doesn't suddenly make it the "definitive version" of the story. It's some guy's fanfic of CE that Microsoft commissioned, that's pretty much it. Besides, the games always triumph over novels and any other background lore stuff. Example, Chief is meant to be the last Spartan, there should not be a bunch of his OC Spartan bros hanging out on Earth in Halo 2, that just doesn't fit into the story Bungie was telling at all.
I do agree in general though, I think headcanon is the best way to approach lore and canon, especially with franchises like Halo and Star Wars that have become a horrific nightmare of contradictory information. You almost have to pick and choose what to accept and what to ignore, because if you don't it'll probably melt your brain. That's why, personally, I don't view much of the Halo books as canon. There's the Fall of Reach and Contact Harvest, that's it for me. To me Chief and everyone else thinks Blue Team and all the other Spartans died, with him being the sole survivor. I just refuse to accept First Strike as canon, Chief going back to rescue his friends, like he didn't just blow up the ring an hour ago, is just awful. So was the time travel bullshit, all nonsense. Plus, that's why I think the command shuttle Cortana mentions in CE is important, because I always figured it was probably a stealth Prowler and that's how Chief and the other survivors not only made it back to Earth, but avoided the Covenant from using overwhelming force to kill them all. Like, there is no reason that the Covenant shouldn't just storm Alpha Base and slaughter everybody when there's 300 ships parked in orbit. I can't suspend my disbelief that the Covenant knew where they were and didn't completely wipe them out immediately.
@@nagger8216 the more detailed version is always the most canonical. in no way shape or form would anyone think that the internal layout of the Pillar of Autum in the game is the canon version. each corridor and corner was designed to fit a shooter from the early 2000s. every character says just a few lines and we know not what they are thinking nor what they are perceiving. the first game would be completely disregarded if it had come this year because it would be nothing special and the player would be able to see with unclouded eyes how uninteresting it is without a lore background.
99% of all lore and canon from Halo comes from the books, due to the developers being absolutely incompetent in giving us something like the Mass Effect codexes. you can play the entire game series and know less about the universe than you would if you just read the 1/5 of Fall of Reach.
a game's conflicting lore can only be considered canon if it is recent (and thus doing most likely unnecessary yet intentional retconning) and/if its contradicting lore is reinforced by other contemporary and or future pieces of media.
Not doing the original Cortana animations is criminal.
They look terrible lol
I think that the biggest problem was the fact that Halo CE Anniversary had to be released on the Xbox 360 with its limited graphical capabilities. I doubt 343 wanted to release an extremely laggy game as its first, so they prioritized making sure the game ran smoothly.