I would've bought this even if they didn't have Eric Nylund contributing. But since they do, I'm going to buy an extra copy for the bathroom now. :P #haloevolutions
Essential Christmas present for me! I adore anything with Karen Traviss' name on it, and as a big fan of the whole universe of lore the Halo novels have created, this sounds really good.
I can't wait to read that story about the Elites post Halo 3... ooh ooh ooh! And more of the ship to ship combat! I loved that in the Halo novels, it always reminded me of a sort of Star Trek-esque/Old naval battle sort of fighting. *squees*
.. I think i'll stop gushing my halo-fanboyishness now.
Haha, "green suit of armor with a guy inside of it". It's funny because that's pretty much the most effective way to talk about Master Chief in the first place; in the games at least, that dude barely even registers as a person.
As for this book, it seems like it's essentially "Tales from the Empire" or "Tales of the Jedi" from back in the '90s when people actually bought Star Wars short story collections. #haloevolutions
@Archaotic: Ah ha, I remember when i was a kid, and every time I went to the local library i'd take out Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales of the Bounty Hunters. I loved those books!
They tried to do it more recently with Death Star, but although I really like it, it just doesn't compare to the nostalgia factor of the Tales anthologies. #haloevolutions
@Archaotic:
"in the games at least, that dude barely even registers as a person."
There is a little humanity. Chief jokes with Cortana on multiple occassions in the games. Given the process that it took to make him a Spartan, it's no wonder he is the way he is.
Less time talking is more time for ass whooping. #haloevolutions
I just can't understand that Mike Resnick did novelisation for Tomb raider (!) and was not part of this... Such a waste. I don't know if covenants get married, but the masterchief would definitely make a great widowmaker. #haloevolutions
Please do we have to?
Karen Traviss is the most overrated nerd theme writer on the market today.
Frankly I wouldn't mind reading some more books from the guys who did those Mass Effect novels.
@Drogmir: You are quite simply one of the star trek nerds where no matter how faithful the movie is to the source material you will always bitch.
Your comment is unfounded and quite frankly offensive.
Karen Traviss is one of the best scifi writers in recent memory.
Have you even read Gears of War: Aspho Fields?
After reading Aspho Fields and Jacinto's Remnant (im actually only 1/2 way through jacinto)
i personally feel that the books were richer in back story and character depth than either of the 2 Gears of War Games. (i played both)
I for one am THRILLED that she is writing this because in my opinion she is a very talented writer.
Think before you speak Drognir.
It's too bad Traviss won't be making much more Star Wars stuff, it was my favorite of the series. I was pushing for her to write for the Live Action show. [karentraviss.typepad.com]
@DredPriest: She announced after the Imperial Commando novels, she's moving on from Star Wars. It's rather sad, but now we get to see her work her magic with the Chief - I can't wait!
I'll probably pick this up, I enjoy KarenTraviss's books, as the article says she writes some of the best game fiction around.
On another unrelated note, I'll never understand what it is about Halo that raises such hate in people, some people get so pissed when they announce more Halo stuff and it seems so silly to me.
@Kyosuke_Nanbu: It's just a reaction to years of Halo fanboyism that is generally perceived to be tunnel-visioned and over the top.
For example, I recall watching a video of when Bungee demoed an early version of Halo 2 at some convention. People were literally screaming when Master Chief was dual-wielding sub-machine guns.
I had played Halo 1 and thought it was a enjoyable and well made game, but I felt completely disconnected from the extreme fervor people were displaying... turned me off a quite a bit to be honest.
@Dayvan Cowboy: On the same page as you. I found Halo to be fairly unremarkable and never really got into it. Halo 2 came out when I was in college, which gave it automatic "awesome, brah!" status, but after graduation that sorta went away along with my (nonexistant) cans of skoal and faded abercrombie hats. the games are fun, but they're really only fun for a little while, say between chapters of Kant or econ problems.
@Dayvan Cowboy:
I was definitely one of those screaming fanboys. I didn't even own an xbox at the time, but I was in high school and Halo for me was an awesome multiplayer experience that had led to some really great/exciting bonding stuff with me and my buddies.
It wasn't so much "OMG DUAL WEELDZ" as having something new and fresh and obviously different to experience that thrill all over again.
I don't get nearly as excited about games now, not that heart-pounding gut-wrenching anticipation that I used to get. I'm quite content picking up a game after work, or getting release date shipping from Amazon, rather than showing up at 10pm for the midnight release.
Some might say that this is a more mature outlook. I certainly love games just as much. But sometimes I miss that fervor.
I'm getting tired of the Halo novels. I enjoyed the Eric Nylund ones, but the universe is getting too big now.
I really they decide to make a sequel to Ghost's of Onyx instead of going off in all these other directions.
@octalass:
Just treat it like the Star Wars universe. Its just there, as a universe. Try not to think about all of it, just pick and choose the stories you care about.
Personally, I was done with the Chief after Halo 1. Couldn't care less about the equivalent of a 'Superman'. I'm fine with him as a background character, but a supersoldier who doesn't die is kinda anti-dramatic. I'm more excited for those Marines. They give me the Aliens vibe.
Did anyone notice that companies today are opting not to leave in stories in games and more relying on outside material for it, it really ruins the games plot sometimes for me =/
One of the coolest things about Halo Wars was that timeline that you could unlock, which spanned a good 200 years or so of Halo-history. I loved finding the black boxes just to unlock more of it.
To me, the best thing about a lot of the Halo story and background is how subtle it is. You're not forced to read pages upon pages to understand whats going on here. You actively have to look for it. The ilovebees website was brilliant. All the little offhand comments in the game referring to ancient history, as well as finding all those terminals in the third game were well done.
Plus, I never get tired of the tiniest of nods to Marathon that keep popping up.
I love it when some knucklehead goes 'lolz halo what story what a dumb game'. Makes it quite obvious they've never played it, or didn't care to look enough for it. A story doesn't necessarily have to be thrown in your face to be good, it just has to exist.
And it does. In the games as well, you chowderheads, before you go 'Well if its in the books it doesnt count because they were made after the fact'.
/endrant, patiently awaiting a tard to show up in these comments going what halo story, never fails
@(Zombie) Komrade Kayce:
Looks like I was beat already. Halo-hate must be some sort of soothing lotion that helps people sleep at night, so they enjoy giving it out free of charge to others (who undoubtedly asked for it).
@(Zombie) Komrade Kayce: See, I knew it was there, I know most of the story from the little snippets I've heard and my amazing ability to remember useless things. I got very little story out of the games, most of it I've pieced together from other sources, which I guess would be how the soldier on the battlefield feel. They don't have the epic story, their's is TAKE THAT HILL! and OH SHIT BANSHEE! I'm fine with that, my problems with Halo aren't that big, I know most of the background lore, the epic war between Earth and the Covenant, but I never really had any idea what was going on in the story while I was playing.
@ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.:
Its in the instruction booklet for the first game. The fact that Reach got pummled, that nobody is allowed to find earth, etc etc.
The thing about the story was, it was there if you wanted it, it wasn't if you just wanted to blast aliens. No forced cutscenes that you couldnt just skip without going wtf is going on, no times you had to stop to read things (until the third game, and even then, the terminals were optional) etc. The magic of what makes Halo 'good' is the same magic that made the first three Star Wars' good (and i'm not talking about those three crummy movies).
@CarlMarssilas:
I wonder if anyone yelled 'For fucks sake Paramount, do we really need more Star Trek?' or 'For fucks sake Lucasfilms, do we really need more Star Wars?'. What about Transformers? Or Megaman? Or holy bejesus, Mario.
Calm yourself and think about how angry you're getting over this 'unprecedented' and anger-ifying move by Microsoft to produce more of the same IP.
@CarlMarssilas: You know what's a lot more tiring then Halo? You and the other fifty-thousand comments just like yours. There's at least one comment JUST like this on every Halo article here.
If you don't like Halo, DON'T buy it. It's not rocket science.
Seriously, SHUT THE FUCK UP already.
@(Zombie) Komrade Kayce:
You know, it's not like the market has seen all that much Halo in the first place, certainly not when compared to Mario, Sonic, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Star Wars, etc. Count the games and the years. Not often is a company accused of milking a franchise for releasing a game every 2-3 years.
As for novels, StarCraft and WarCraft each have spawned more novels than Halo has.
Besides, every Halo game that has been released so far has ranged from very good to great according to the most objective standards available.
It's not that Halo has been milked. It's that some people don't like Microsoft and resent its star franchise. You watch--the same thing will happen with the Gears of War series. You can see the signs already.
I don't know why the same thing doesn't happen to Sony games, but I imagine it's simply because at this point Sony's flagship franchises just aren't as recognizeable. God of War doesn't quite have the same mass appeal yet, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear don't exactly belong to Sony, and the rest of the heavy hitters are just too new.
(Zombie) Komrade Kayce promoted this comment
Edited by CitizenErased115 at 08/12/09 3:47 PM
CitizenErased115 was starred
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I liked Fall of Reach. As a matter of fact, I liked it better than the games. plus, being a prequel, it's not exactly ESSENTAIL to the plot to know what happens afterward, because if there was a story in the Halo games, they hid it pretty damn well from me.
lol, I love how two of the shallowest dude-f'em-up fests(Halo and Gears of War) are 'novelized'. It is just so hilarious and odd to me.
And I know, I know "the Halo universe and ethos is so rich!", ok, perhaps the graphic novel is, but the fact that anyone would search this out or think to themselves that they wanted more of the story from either game is just ridiculous.
Those games are fun, sure, and the story in Halo has more to it than Gears. But still, I can't be the only one who thinks this is at least a little silly.
@jasoncourt: I'm with you. This makes no sense, unless you're like 14 and just have no idea what to read yet. But, to be fair, those people need books too I guess?
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
I can't wait to read that story about the Elites post Halo 3... ooh ooh ooh! And more of the ship to ship combat! I loved that in the Halo novels, it always reminded me of a sort of Star Trek-esque/Old naval battle sort of fighting. *squees*
.. I think i'll stop gushing my halo-fanboyishness now.
10/27/09
As for this book, it seems like it's essentially "Tales from the Empire" or "Tales of the Jedi" from back in the '90s when people actually bought Star Wars short story collections. #haloevolutions
10/27/09
They tried to do it more recently with Death Star, but although I really like it, it just doesn't compare to the nostalgia factor of the Tales anthologies. #haloevolutions
10/27/09
"in the games at least, that dude barely even registers as a person."
There is a little humanity. Chief jokes with Cortana on multiple occassions in the games. Given the process that it took to make him a Spartan, it's no wonder he is the way he is.
Less time talking is more time for ass whooping. #haloevolutions
10/27/09
08/12/09
Karen Traviss is the most overrated nerd theme writer on the market today.
Frankly I wouldn't mind reading some more books from the guys who did those Mass Effect novels.
08/12/09
Your comment is unfounded and quite frankly offensive.
Karen Traviss is one of the best scifi writers in recent memory.
Have you even read Gears of War: Aspho Fields?
After reading Aspho Fields and Jacinto's Remnant (im actually only 1/2 way through jacinto)
i personally feel that the books were richer in back story and character depth than either of the 2 Gears of War Games. (i played both)
I for one am THRILLED that she is writing this because in my opinion she is a very talented writer.
Think before you speak Drognir.
08/12/09
Approved not because I agree, but because differing opinions articulated well deserve to be heard.
08/12/09
[karentraviss.typepad.com]
08/12/09
I dont know we still have the empire commando novels... plus any Mandolorian novels usually go to her...
08/12/09
08/12/09
On another unrelated note, I'll never understand what it is about Halo that raises such hate in people, some people get so pissed when they announce more Halo stuff and it seems so silly to me.
08/12/09
For example, I recall watching a video of when Bungee demoed an early version of Halo 2 at some convention. People were literally screaming when Master Chief was dual-wielding sub-machine guns.
I had played Halo 1 and thought it was a enjoyable and well made game, but I felt completely disconnected from the extreme fervor people were displaying... turned me off a quite a bit to be honest.
08/12/09
08/12/09
I was definitely one of those screaming fanboys. I didn't even own an xbox at the time, but I was in high school and Halo for me was an awesome multiplayer experience that had led to some really great/exciting bonding stuff with me and my buddies.
It wasn't so much "OMG DUAL WEELDZ" as having something new and fresh and obviously different to experience that thrill all over again.
I don't get nearly as excited about games now, not that heart-pounding gut-wrenching anticipation that I used to get. I'm quite content picking up a game after work, or getting release date shipping from Amazon, rather than showing up at 10pm for the midnight release.
Some might say that this is a more mature outlook. I certainly love games just as much. But sometimes I miss that fervor.
08/12/09
I really they decide to make a sequel to Ghost's of Onyx instead of going off in all these other directions.
08/12/09
Just treat it like the Star Wars universe. Its just there, as a universe. Try not to think about all of it, just pick and choose the stories you care about.
Personally, I was done with the Chief after Halo 1. Couldn't care less about the equivalent of a 'Superman'. I'm fine with him as a background character, but a supersoldier who doesn't die is kinda anti-dramatic. I'm more excited for those Marines. They give me the Aliens vibe.
08/12/09
08/12/09
To me, the best thing about a lot of the Halo story and background is how subtle it is. You're not forced to read pages upon pages to understand whats going on here. You actively have to look for it. The ilovebees website was brilliant. All the little offhand comments in the game referring to ancient history, as well as finding all those terminals in the third game were well done.
Plus, I never get tired of the tiniest of nods to Marathon that keep popping up.
I love it when some knucklehead goes 'lolz halo what story what a dumb game'. Makes it quite obvious they've never played it, or didn't care to look enough for it. A story doesn't necessarily have to be thrown in your face to be good, it just has to exist.
And it does. In the games as well, you chowderheads, before you go 'Well if its in the books it doesnt count because they were made after the fact'.
/endrant, patiently awaiting a tard to show up in these comments going what halo story, never fails
08/12/09
Looks like I was beat already. Halo-hate must be some sort of soothing lotion that helps people sleep at night, so they enjoy giving it out free of charge to others (who undoubtedly asked for it).
08/12/09
08/12/09
Its in the instruction booklet for the first game. The fact that Reach got pummled, that nobody is allowed to find earth, etc etc.
The thing about the story was, it was there if you wanted it, it wasn't if you just wanted to blast aliens. No forced cutscenes that you couldnt just skip without going wtf is going on, no times you had to stop to read things (until the third game, and even then, the terminals were optional) etc. The magic of what makes Halo 'good' is the same magic that made the first three Star Wars' good (and i'm not talking about those three crummy movies).
"Keep It Simple, Stupid."
08/12/09
08/12/09
I wonder if anyone yelled 'For fucks sake Paramount, do we really need more Star Trek?' or 'For fucks sake Lucasfilms, do we really need more Star Wars?'. What about Transformers? Or Megaman? Or holy bejesus, Mario.
Calm yourself and think about how angry you're getting over this 'unprecedented' and anger-ifying move by Microsoft to produce more of the same IP.
08/12/09
08/12/09
If you don't like Halo, DON'T buy it. It's not rocket science.
Seriously, SHUT THE FUCK UP already.
08/12/09
Don't hate on the man who cleans your toilet clogs.
08/12/09
08/12/09
"Wtf do I need someone to save Earth for? Thats stupid. Earth wont get attacked. What a stupid character. What a dumb game."
As opposed to
"Damn. My toilet DOES get clogged. And I love to jump on things smaller than me! This guy gets it, he really understands!"
08/12/09
08/12/09
Like you were going to read it anyway.
08/12/09
You know, it's not like the market has seen all that much Halo in the first place, certainly not when compared to Mario, Sonic, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Star Wars, etc. Count the games and the years. Not often is a company accused of milking a franchise for releasing a game every 2-3 years.
As for novels, StarCraft and WarCraft each have spawned more novels than Halo has.
Besides, every Halo game that has been released so far has ranged from very good to great according to the most objective standards available.
It's not that Halo has been milked. It's that some people don't like Microsoft and resent its star franchise. You watch--the same thing will happen with the Gears of War series. You can see the signs already.
I don't know why the same thing doesn't happen to Sony games, but I imagine it's simply because at this point Sony's flagship franchises just aren't as recognizeable. God of War doesn't quite have the same mass appeal yet, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear don't exactly belong to Sony, and the rest of the heavy hitters are just too new.
08/12/09
08/12/09
08/12/09
Those same pieces probably also had more weight to them than your comment does.
HEYO
08/12/09
06/30/09
And I know, I know "the Halo universe and ethos is so rich!", ok, perhaps the graphic novel is, but the fact that anyone would search this out or think to themselves that they wanted more of the story from either game is just ridiculous.
Those games are fun, sure, and the story in Halo has more to it than Gears. But still, I can't be the only one who thinks this is at least a little silly.
06/30/09
06/30/09
06/30/09