The fact that the story is basically just a string of one liners connected via cool visuals and fun environments makes me realize what Halo infinite is really missing
@@julianreviews8102 Can you remember a single interesting/memorable line from Infinite? I played it less than a month ago and I can't. I'd also say the environments are bland/mind numbingly repetitive and it has some of the worst effects work of any Halo game after CE.
@@julianreviews8102 I'd say it's lacking a bit in the cool environments area, like think if they added a snow level, or a desert level, or if they generally deviated from the underground forerunner architecture a bit more since that is everywhere for whatever reason.
I love how these three can riff on each other, as well as on their own games. I wish I could see these three work together again. You don't see chemistry like this in the games industry often.
@@julianreviews8102 I mean, even in this documentary you can hear how he's much more cold and serious than the other two. He was always more business focused - he even went on sabbatical mid-way through Halo 3's development for some reason. He just never seemed as passionate and fun as the other two - I wasn't surprised he turned into a cold ruthless businessman.
@@anusmcgee4150 Eh, at least they still make quality games despite their flaws. 343 on the other hands only finally made a good game ten years later because they went back to Halo's roots. Completely incompetent and for years and years they refused to self-reflect and keep their ego in check. I can only imagine if 343 did one of these documentaries they'd only talk about how great the games were and refuse to acknowledge the massive mistakes they made. The only thing they'd point out is the decisions they already backtracked on, like H5's story and their art style.
@@brup123 if 343 did a video like this joe Staten would be in it. Also alot of people loved h5's multiplayer and it sounds like 343 has been listening to the community and making changes for years
they never made another halo after reach, they never made another halo after reach, they never made another halo after reach, they never made another halo after reach....
So crazy to hear Joe say the Arbiter intro could have been better executed... I don't think I've witnessed a better video game moment than seeing Thel' Vadumee don his sword and you actually get to play as him
Yeah, I was blown away by that. I literally still have the video I recorded right afterwards of my screen because I was so blown away that I got out my camera and started filming it and started gushing about "Omg, I can play as an elite!"
In hindsight it was good story telling but at the time I hated it no just being Master Chiefs story of defending Earth. I still wish there were more missions as Chief on Earth.
*'Vadam, Sangheili don't use -ee post-war, as it's a Sangheili Covenant Council honorific, same with like Jega 'Rdomnee and Rtas 'Vadumee. I'm honestly always happy when I see people use his actual name though :)
The entire exchange between the three of them at 11:45 is hilarious. Marty: "So Cortana must have radioed offscreen to those bombers to bomb the covenant ship so Chief could get inside?" Joe: "Yep." Marty: "But we couldn't hear that because the music was playing too loud." Joe: "Yeah the music is *DEFINITELY* too loud."
They actually mentioned in the Halo 1 dev speed-run that they cut important dialogue because Marty wanted the music to be the most important part of certain scenes, so it wouldn't surprise me AT ALL if that was actually planned dialogue that was cut because Marty said "No, this is important. No voice, all music."
@@sneakycactus8815It's not that he didn't care - Remember, he is the founder of Bungie. He had other things to manage than the development of Halo 2, including their other (now cancelled) project, Phoenix. He doesn't entirely like working on sequels, so he put Joe in charge of Halo 2 and went to work on project phoenix, before development was cancelled and it was pushed all to Halo 2.
@@TheYoshi115basically halo 3 but shorter and with some other differences. Theres a video called “we were forerunners” go through that guys channel and he has the full 3rd act in storyboard form. And also watch his forerunner video while you’re at it
Halo 2 voice acting was the best out of all Halos. Not only was the choice of actors / actresses perfect, but the direction they were given was spot on. Keith David as Arbiter sounded way better in H2 than he did in H3
These “remastered” developers commentary are keeping the memory of halo alive. I really appreciate your work, I’ve watched these old commentaries countless times.
Halo 2 is my favorite Halo story in the franchise. I love how they went all in with the Space Opera aspects. It breaks my heart that a lot of fans and even many of the devs look back at this game and cringe.
Same here. My favorite Halo storyline is Halo 2 without a doubt. It's always grabbed and held my attention all the way through. Fantastic game and I feel like you could always feel Bungie's love for Halo & the Halo Universe.
For me, the first 3 halo are on the same step of the pedestal: they are all masterpieces in their own way. I just cannot rate one higher than the other two. What a great era video game era we lived in
Halo 2 is still the best halo game, followed by ce. Story and just structure wise halo 2 still stands tall over the rest. It doesn't have filler levels like halo 3 does. Makes the game more fun to replay for me.
That’s kind of sad to see how many things that were cut out. Especially the end of halo 2 that were super frustrating. If you watch the halo 2 original story boards the ending is different as they said. Both chief and arbiter were going back to earth which was in fact the ark (not a portal) there was a big battle there to take over the control room of the ark and finish the fight. At one point the arbiter found a forerunner mausoleum of an ancient forerunner (the librarian) who supervised the firing of the halos back in time against the flood and she also managed the « storage » of all species of the universe into the ark database (like Noah’s ark). She eventually ended up dying there. Her squeleton found by the Arbiter was in fact human ! The big reveal were that the forerunners were ancient humans paying off what was foreshadowed all along. This would have been soooo much better than the fact that the forerunners are another race which doesn’t make any sense. I would love to see halos remakes with the real canon story be respected that way.
Real canon? The story as is IS the canon. This was a concept. Another idea they had is that Johnson and Ms Keyes were banging, and that they wanted the series to end after this game. I'm happy it wound up being different.
@@frederalbacon yeah but you can see in the story how they had to amend it to get the same result. For example, the covenant were exterminating humans because finding that out would mean the whole religion is a lie. I'm not 100% sure anymore why the books say they are out to get humans (because they inherited the mantle or something maybe?) But it's a helluva lot more convoluted than if they went with their original idea. Also the fact that 343 in halo 1 alluded to their lost history, and I think the librarian thing would have been a lot better in the long run so halo 4 didn't have to happen the way it did
@@letsgobrandon8101 Don't forget guilty spark basically yelling you at every point 1: Hello reclaimer! 2: Humans are reclaimers! 3: 343: YOU ARE RECLAIMER, look you want a fanfair? you want me to spell it out!? YOU DID ALL THIS! Truth: Oh its true, and we need your human DNA to fire the rings which is a plot point neglected in all the new halos after this, but pay no attention to that human! Here is arrogant mutant fish people consieved in five minutes! I would have prefered the old story too, that way halo 3 would have revolved around THAT info and more of the flood. The original FINAL ending to the game was almost the same too, it just left you with a slight cliff hanger earlier on thinking cortana was dead but would then after the credits show her being interigated by the gravemind.
Yeah Joe Staten went to New Zealand during the initial halo 3 development that's why the story changed so much. I prefer the cut halo 2 ending myself...more relatable.
@@ginandcreme not really outside of “I don’t like this guy, let me play as Chief again” it was just a knee jerk reaction. I think it probably stemmed from the fact that playing as the arbiter was very different from playing as Chief. He was a character with more of an in-game backstory and persona, not to mention the levels were more linear and had light stealth mechanics thrown in
I wonder if they truly know how much Halo 2 is loved, adored and held as the greatest in the series by many fans in the franchise. As much as they had to go through, how much of the game was cut, the difficulty, the final product that was presented to us was perfection in my eyes. The dialogue, the cutscenes, the story, the impact it left on everyone has been unmatched possibly in the gaming industry. It set a bar in story telling and dialogue that no other game in the franchise can touch. Marty's work on the soundtrack was absolute perfection and my favorite in the series. Every score and the dialogue was so memorable that we can recite it verbatim, we don't really see that with the others. Forever giving Halo 2 it's flowers 💯💐. My favorite game of all time
Legitimately, the first mission that you got to play as the arbiter going after the heretic- was one of my all time favourite missions. The sound effect or theme during that mission was super weird but amazing as you were playing with an elite for the first time. Truly one of the best things that’s ever happened in halo ever.
Hearing them describe how the 'Give the covenant back their bomb' cutscene was not even meant to be there... wow. I can't tell whether I would have preferred the mission on the covenant ship, because the cutscene is one of the most memorable ones in gaming
Me too. With the storyboards for the original script came out I really wish they could've delayed the game. Seeing what the last third of the game would be like would be amazing to see in-game; more of the civil war where the elite cruisers come in and glass the army of brutes about to rush/kill the humans could've been the coolest scene ever.
Exactly, but this time they can add everything they wanted to in so despite the plot being relatively similar. I feel they can still do different things with it
@@beatoid1006 There’s an Interview with Joe Staten talking about the original ending of Halo 2, and there was gonna be a scene where the Arbiter finds an ancient Forerunner tomb and learns that they were actually humans (which, in my opinion, would have been better than what they ended up doing to the Forerunners later on)
Halo 3 really perfected the sandbox, though. I might be biased since I grew up with 3, but it just feels _right._ I don't think I'll touch another sandbox in my life as good as 3's.
@@caramelldansen2204 eh most of the weapons don’t feel all that good to use since they lack so much punch and feedback which is something halo 1 and 2 did waaaaaaay better.
Who else never noticed before that the classic graphics version of the cutscene for the mission Gravemind shows brute ships and elite ships fighting each other?
A tree falls in the forest. ●Jason says "You chose wrong trail. Falling trees dangerous. Putting on helmet, buttoning coat, heading back to the car to choose a safer hike". ●Marty says "the sound of that tree falling reminds me of that one song i composed for Halo that won a bunch awards. Remember guys...remember?" ●Joesph says "i wonder if the tree fell because it was hit by 2 bears who were fighting over the last salmon that had just made her 200-mile journey upstream to lay her eggs despite having only 1 fin since she had a birth deformity from a mother who was kept in a chinese restaurant aquarium for 7 years but survived thanks to her taboo relationship with the resident lobster".
This was a really faithful recreation of the original gameplay, right down to the plasma grenade landing on the Elite's crotch. Kudos to you for that attention to detail.
The devs are so passionate, you can tell how sad they were when they had to cut so much of the game. Although I'm glad the games turned out the way they did, you can't help but think: what if they had more time?
I just don't understand how with today's technology, money and time, they can't make a game like Halo 2 was. Sure, it was butchered here and there to meet the deadline, but it came on with soooo many new ideas, 1 hour of cutscenes, and an incredible story. I don't understand how Infinite didn't manage to bring that feeling back, maybe I changed too much in the meantime :'(
Because they dont have the spirit and passion of the original creators. Halo was once made by people who didnt care about making a great game, just making art and being part of a community and telling a story that was fun! Now the license is run by Microsoft employees under the guise of a company with a different name, with people who arent even fans of the game, were hired to make "a great game" and to attempt to cater to A an audience who hates them and B an audience that is 12 years old and will gladly annoy their parents to buy them the newest halo. When you have a company whose entire goal is to make as much money as possible, it doesnt matter who is on the team, it just wont work. Art does not have a price, and to put a price on it is to doom its existence. Thats why the Bungie Halo's are priceless, and the rest (not including the original Halo Wars) is a bunch of wanna be garbage. People get annoyed with me that i say infinite is subpar, and it baffles me. The lengths these brainwashed people will go to defend a mediocre game is mind boggling. Sure, its an alright game, but dont say its great.
Because FPS games have pretty much hit their post modern staged. Halo itself was the modernizing FPS game and so any game that came after the refinements of 2's combat had less room for experimentation without sacrificing fun factor and balance
Because today's corporate models avoid risk as much as possible: do what works and keep doing it until too few people buy your stuff and then look for the new thing that people want to buy. Look at Assassin's Creed: in the beginning, it was new and each game up to AC Brotherhood (nothing but a glorified expansion pack in my opinion) was ambitious and well-developed. But, eventually, consumers became less picky and kept buying whatever Ubisoft churned out, which eventually incentivized making half-done games, because people would pay the full price anyway for entertainment. The same can be likened to Halo's case; Bungie stopped once they felt like they couldn't give anymore to the series, but Microsoft wanted to keep selling the same thing over and over as long as people were willing to buy it. Hence, the best thing to do is to stop buying unfinished games that don't have what we want, but most people aren't picky enough.
@@TheSocratesofAthens Amen. Halo Infinite in stride. No co-op, no forge, no color customization. Not even campaign released before the multiplayer. Kids still buying it though.
Honestly, they're down on Halo 2 a lot and the levels they cut probably would've been quite good, but honestly this remains my favourite game in the franchise. And if we'd had the Covenant Ship mission we wouldn't have had Chief venting the space pickle and blowing up the ship that way. Which was kind of absurd in some ways, I guess. But absurd in a way that was epic, awesome and extremely memorable. To this day I remember that cutscene very fondly. I'm glad we got that, tbh. And the ending cliffhangers just made me even more excited for Halo 3. Yes, they were slightly frustrating, having to wait for years for Halo 3 was hard, but I also think that really contributed to my excitement for it in the end in a great way. And overall, storywise, I just don't really have many criticisms of this game. It was phenominal. It just hit me in the feels in a way that games rarely do. Idk, maybe this game could've been EVEN better. But honestly, I love the game so much as it is that I already think it's nearly perfect as it is.
It's funny that you may find your art not as good, but is amazing to a large group of people. The devs had mixed feelings about the Arbiter, but his character became loved. Even now more than 10 years later, people (including me) are hoping for him to make an appearance in Halo Infinite. They start talking about it @ 25:50
Why would you want 343i to ruin Arby further? Halo Infinite, as well as 343's other crimes against the Halo franchise, need never be forgotten; *remember what they took from you.*
You know how Portal 1 and every Valve game after has developer commentary nodes around the game to talk about the dev’s insight into how they built that area? I wish every game had that
God, now that would be a cool game. Imagine a game taking place during the High Charity outbreak. Getting to play as an elite fighting through the Great Schism while also fending off the flood.
It's cool hearing them talk about how they wanted to put windows on the ODST pods so you could see some crazy stuff happen as you fell, and this was pre-Halo 3 ODST.
God I would love to see the three of them looking at H2 Annniversary, what they like about it and what they would have done differently (also I love how the scrapped plot point of Miranda welding a Nuke to Chief's back became inspiration for 343 making the ending setpiece of Halo 4 Chief carrying a nuke)
So grateful to you for uploading these two commentaries. As a kid playing the games, you don’t really care about this stuff but as an adult it’s really terrific to listen to.
Man, I really hope these guys know that a lot of us fans have gone back and dissected the crap out of these games and have seen these little details they thought no one would see. Hearing them say "oh yeah, that carrier nobody saw" sucks, but I hope they know there were people paying attention.
Definitely seeing that supercarrier at 9:54 for the first time ever. 16:33 never missed this though, can remember doing this level over and over as a kid. Joe Staten is instrumental to Halo, but jeez that dude can speak a lot.
What he mentions at the beginning about the graphical difference between Halo 1 & 2 is the quality of game development that you see 3-5 years after a consoles release and devs are comfortable with the skit kit... this can be traced in video game history back to the nes... a great example of these changes would be donkey kong country for the snes, the quality of PSx games was wild before console end from battle arena tosinden to activisions Spiderman games. Halo infinite from halo 5 for the current gen change we are seeing now.... my point is xbox 1/s or PS5 won't be producing games of the hardware's fuller potential until they understand what it can do from some companies. FF 7 remake is fantastic example what he PS4 is capable of, but clearly not everything for the console is as beautifully refined. the difference in graphical quality can be small until big things happen.
I feel like something has to change gameplay-wise to make the graphical improvements seem worthwhile. To my eye, the newest FPSs are generally slick and polished, but also sterilized, lacking a certain character or charm these standard 3D ones had
@@roddydykes7053 Sad as hell to say but leaving the last console generation behind is how developers could really utilize the full tools/upgraded engine
Nice to see how many ideas they had but couldn’t include due to performance isssues or time that made it it into later games, such as at 36:25 when they talk about the ODST pods
there s another universe where these guys never separated and they never went to activision and microsoft never tried to control them and gave us a destiny that wouldve surpassed halo and every other game. i know it exists. it has to.
"Here's the scene that no one actually ever saw." Apparently a few game designers saw it, because "player looks out window to see huge friendly ship getting dramatically blown to bits" has only been ripped off in about 50 or 60 other games.
In my day we didn't have any fancy smancy tanks. We had sticks. Two sticks and a rock for a whole platoon, and we had to share the rock. So Buck up son. You're one very lucky marine.
One of my favorite things to do in the Tartarus fight is get as many Elites as possible to survive on the middle level so they show up during the Miranda and Spark cutscene. Just standing around in their idle animations So great
One thing to notice here is that they sure as hell had a lot of fun making the game, I think that is key when you're trying to deliver a good experience to the player, not thinking in over monetize the project, just have fun and people will feel it in the final product.
Not sure about that. They're all joking in the commentary, but the game had a famously troubled development and the studio was definitely under immense pressure to deliver both from their audience and from Microsoft.
I don’t know if someone else saw it but on the outskirts cutscene when the scarab shoots the pelican, for a brief moment you can see a pilot pop out of the cabinet return to his original positions. As if they didn’t make him sync with the movement of the pelican as it gets shot.
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The fact that the story is basically just a string of one liners connected via cool visuals and fun environments makes me realize what Halo infinite is really missing
Halo infinite has one liners, fun environments, and cool visuals
@@julianreviews8102 Can you remember a single interesting/memorable line from Infinite? I played it less than a month ago and I can't. I'd also say the environments are bland/mind numbingly repetitive and it has some of the worst effects work of any Halo game after CE.
@@tobsmonster2 I can remember several! Do you want ambient combat dialogue or scripted cutscene quotes lol
@@julianreviews8102 I'd say it's lacking a bit in the cool environments area, like think if they added a snow level, or a desert level, or if they generally deviated from the underground forerunner architecture a bit more since that is everywhere for whatever reason.
@@gavin_1973 I would like more variety too that’s fair, but hey I think what we got was fun too
That’s dope that Marty’s dad was the one yelling “this is heresy!!”
"nay it is heresy"
And apparently they wanted to make him the prophet of denial which is really ironic lol
@@807D14M0ND5 "nay, it was heresy"
@@crainur darn!
Where did you hear that?
I love how these three can riff on each other, as well as on their own games.
I wish I could see these three work together again. You don't see chemistry like this in the games industry often.
And now look at Bungie.
Damn shame.
@@anusmcgee4150 yeah. It was jones himself that ended up ostracizing Staten from the team during the development of destiny
@@julianreviews8102 I mean, even in this documentary you can hear how he's much more cold and serious than the other two. He was always more business focused - he even went on sabbatical mid-way through Halo 3's development for some reason. He just never seemed as passionate and fun as the other two - I wasn't surprised he turned into a cold ruthless businessman.
@@anusmcgee4150 Eh, at least they still make quality games despite their flaws. 343 on the other hands only finally made a good game ten years later because they went back to Halo's roots. Completely incompetent and for years and years they refused to self-reflect and keep their ego in check. I can only imagine if 343 did one of these documentaries they'd only talk about how great the games were and refuse to acknowledge the massive mistakes they made. The only thing they'd point out is the decisions they already backtracked on, like H5's story and their art style.
@@brup123 if 343 did a video like this joe Staten would be in it. Also alot of people loved h5's multiplayer and it sounds like 343 has been listening to the community and making changes for years
God i miss old Bungie. Really wanted to see what Destiny would have turned out like under the old guard.
Seriously bro
To put it simply, it would’ve been good.
Joseph Staten’s Destiny, make it happen.
The old guard would have never made a scam like Destiny.
@@keshonhend2047 Yup. Still a fun game i play, but i constantly just sit there wondering what could've been.
Halo 2 Cortana: “If I were a megalomaniac - and I’m not…”
Halo 5 Cortana: “You need me to rule the galaxy, for your own good”
they never made another halo after reach, they never made another halo after reach, they never made another halo after reach, they never made another halo after reach....
@@MenachemSchmuel until infinite ;)
Bungee:
343:
FTFY
Communist Cortana??????
@@MenachemSchmuel Halo Wars 2 and Infinite?
So crazy to hear Joe say the Arbiter intro could have been better executed... I don't think I've witnessed a better video game moment than seeing Thel' Vadumee don his sword and you actually get to play as him
Yeah, I was blown away by that. I literally still have the video I recorded right afterwards of my screen because I was so blown away that I got out my camera and started filming it and started gushing about "Omg, I can play as an elite!"
In hindsight it was good story telling but at the time I hated it no just being Master Chiefs story of defending Earth. I still wish there were more missions as Chief on Earth.
@@tiddybagel people complained about earth missions then we ended up with halo 3 odst
*'Vadam, Sangheili don't use -ee post-war, as it's a Sangheili Covenant Council honorific, same with like Jega 'Rdomnee and Rtas 'Vadumee. I'm honestly always happy when I see people use his actual name though :)
@@chrisbeach423 odst made me fall asleep
The entire exchange between the three of them at 11:45 is hilarious.
Marty: "So Cortana must have radioed offscreen to those bombers to bomb the covenant ship so Chief could get inside?"
Joe: "Yep."
Marty: "But we couldn't hear that because the music was playing too loud."
Joe: "Yeah the music is *DEFINITELY* too loud."
They actually mentioned in the Halo 1 dev speed-run that they cut important dialogue because Marty wanted the music to be the most important part of certain scenes, so it wouldn't surprise me AT ALL if that was actually planned dialogue that was cut because Marty said "No, this is important. No voice, all music."
I always thought that Lord Hood, understanding what the Chief was thinking, went and coordinated the support for him.
I mean, it's probably cortana coordinating with him, but on a seperate channel or something
Jason Jones' energy is just the best.
"so walk us through this part Jason"
"uh you shoot some guys, it's really fun"
@Nick Siegfried: Well, it’s kind of better than him saying “I don’t remember” all the time. Check out the Halo 1 commentary. LOL!
@@BMM44KalmarHufflepuff yeah jones ended up being the corporate bozo among these legends. I don't think he cared as much as Staten or O'Donnell
@@sneakycactus8815 just because you don’t remember doesn’t mean you don’t care, this was 20 years ago
@@sneakycactus8815It's not that he didn't care - Remember, he is the founder of Bungie. He had other things to manage than the development of Halo 2, including their other (now cancelled) project, Phoenix. He doesn't entirely like working on sequels, so he put Joe in charge of Halo 2 and went to work on project phoenix, before development was cancelled and it was pushed all to Halo 2.
@@sneakycactus8815 ye
The way they kept teasing the original third act of Halo 2 and now we all know how it went thanks to the recovered storyboards.
Clue us in?
@@TheYoshi115basically halo 3 but shorter and with some other differences. Theres a video called “we were forerunners” go through that guys channel and he has the full 3rd act in storyboard form. And also watch his forerunner video while you’re at it
@@TheYoshi115it’s halo 3 and then the reveal that humans are forerunners.
The entirety of halo 3 was meant to take place in halo 2.
Halo 2 voice acting was the best out of all Halos. Not only was the choice of actors / actresses perfect, but the direction they were given was spot on. Keith David as Arbiter sounded way better in H2 than he did in H3
Were it so easy
agree
These “remastered” developers commentary are keeping the memory of halo alive. I really appreciate your work, I’ve watched these old commentaries countless times.
"Do you remember, Jason, when we were talking about making the heretics all hunters?"
"Yeaaaah.... no, what?!"
fucking lol
Halo 2 is my favorite Halo story in the franchise. I love how they went all in with the Space Opera aspects. It breaks my heart that a lot of fans and even many of the devs look back at this game and cringe.
Same here. My favorite Halo storyline is Halo 2 without a doubt. It's always grabbed and held my attention all the way through. Fantastic game and I feel like you could always feel Bungie's love for Halo & the Halo Universe.
For me, the first 3 halo are on the same step of the pedestal: they are all masterpieces in their own way. I just cannot rate one higher than the other two. What a great era video game era we lived in
Halo 2 is still the best halo game, followed by ce. Story and just structure wise halo 2 still stands tall over the rest. It doesn't have filler levels like halo 3 does. Makes the game more fun to replay for me.
That’s kind of sad to see how many things that were cut out. Especially the end of halo 2 that were super frustrating. If you watch the halo 2 original story boards the ending is different as they said. Both chief and arbiter were going back to earth which was in fact the ark (not a portal) there was a big battle there to take over the control room of the ark and finish the fight. At one point the arbiter found a forerunner mausoleum of an ancient forerunner (the librarian) who supervised the firing of the halos back in time against the flood and she also managed the « storage » of all species of the universe into the ark database (like Noah’s ark). She eventually ended up dying there. Her squeleton found by the Arbiter was in fact human ! The big reveal were that the forerunners were ancient humans paying off what was foreshadowed all along.
This would have been soooo much better than the fact that the forerunners are another race which doesn’t make any sense.
I would love to see halos remakes with the real canon story be respected that way.
Real canon? The story as is IS the canon. This was a concept. Another idea they had is that Johnson and Ms Keyes were banging, and that they wanted the series to end after this game. I'm happy it wound up being different.
@@frederalbacon yeah but you can see in the story how they had to amend it to get the same result. For example, the covenant were exterminating humans because finding that out would mean the whole religion is a lie. I'm not 100% sure anymore why the books say they are out to get humans (because they inherited the mantle or something maybe?) But it's a helluva lot more convoluted than if they went with their original idea. Also the fact that 343 in halo 1 alluded to their lost history, and I think the librarian thing would have been a lot better in the long run so halo 4 didn't have to happen the way it did
@@letsgobrandon8101 Don't forget guilty spark basically yelling you at every point
1: Hello reclaimer!
2: Humans are reclaimers!
3: 343: YOU ARE RECLAIMER, look you want a fanfair? you want me to spell it out!? YOU DID ALL THIS!
Truth: Oh its true, and we need your human DNA to fire the rings which is a plot point neglected in all the new halos after this, but pay no attention to that human! Here is arrogant mutant fish people consieved in five minutes!
I would have prefered the old story too, that way halo 3 would have revolved around THAT info and more of the flood. The original FINAL ending to the game was almost the same too, it just left you with a slight cliff hanger earlier on thinking cortana was dead but would then after the credits show her being interigated by the gravemind.
@@CrashHeadroom that sounds super badazz
Yeah Joe Staten went to New Zealand during the initial halo 3 development that's why the story changed so much. I prefer the cut halo 2 ending myself...more relatable.
I really liked the arbiter missions. Put a fresh perspective on the halo story
Believe it or not they divided the fan base in 2004, many didn’t like that you switched perspectives away from Chief
I hated those missions when it came out, but nearly 20 years later I finally appreciate it
@@julianreviews8102 is there a specific reason(s) you recollect?
@@ginandcreme not really outside of “I don’t like this guy, let me play as Chief again” it was just a knee jerk reaction. I think it probably stemmed from the fact that playing as the arbiter was very different from playing as Chief. He was a character with more of an in-game backstory and persona, not to mention the levels were more linear and had light stealth mechanics thrown in
I LOVED Arbiter missions too and STILL LOVE!!!
I love Joe's affinity for the Grunts. Every time one of them gets blown up he goes "Aww" or he always points out when a Grunt is doing something cute.
He voiced some Grunts at some point didn't he?
@@jamesdulak3108 He did!
Didn’t he voice like 99% of grunt lines?
Joe rules, classic type of geek, I hope he comes back to Halo some day, if only to voice grunts
these guys had me laughing the whole time i love them
Hi
@@lefty8674 omg LEFtURD?!
I wonder if they truly know how much Halo 2 is loved, adored and held as the greatest in the series by many fans in the franchise. As much as they had to go through, how much of the game was cut, the difficulty, the final product that was presented to us was perfection in my eyes. The dialogue, the cutscenes, the story, the impact it left on everyone has been unmatched possibly in the gaming industry. It set a bar in story telling and dialogue that no other game in the franchise can touch. Marty's work on the soundtrack was absolute perfection and my favorite in the series. Every score and the dialogue was so memorable that we can recite it verbatim, we don't really see that with the others. Forever giving Halo 2 it's flowers 💯💐. My favorite game of all time
Thwt cared more about solid gameplay and captivating story than graphics and perfect textures back then
@@silkyjohnston7043 its mostly flipped nowadays 🤕
"Okay Ladies and gentlemen, Jason Jones!"
"...I'm sorry I didn't hear what you said, Marty"
41:20 lol, you can really feel the "frenemies" energy in this little moment
Legitimately, the first mission that you got to play as the arbiter going after the heretic- was one of my all time favourite missions. The sound effect or theme during that mission was super weird but amazing as you were playing with an elite for the first time. Truly one of the best things that’s ever happened in halo ever.
the title should be forerunner tank developer commentary
Just realizing that the first Arbiter mission is pretty much Apocalypse Now
Great catch!
I just realized how much Halo 2 draws from it 😱
The ODST pod part sounds like they finally did it in halo 3 ODST instead of halo 2 which is cool to think about
yeah with the windows in the odst pods
1:04:05 This shot alone has no right to look as good as it does. The pelican crash, chief's armor, the explosions, Cortana, it all just looks so good.
Damn, just like your Halo CE Remake. Another one of those, ya didn't know ya needed/appreciated, until you see it. Thank you for this updated version!
Halo Developer Commentary in six words: And then we cut another level
So many levels cut that DJ Khaled should have narrated this commentary. Another one.
@@brup123 anotha one
Hearing them describe how the 'Give the covenant back their bomb' cutscene was not even meant to be there... wow. I can't tell whether I would have preferred the mission on the covenant ship, because the cutscene is one of the most memorable ones in gaming
The actual title should be "Forerunner Tank" commentary. lol
Forerunner Tank: Awesomeness Would Ensue - The Movie
It's entertaining to losten to them dance on the the line between friendly riffing and genuine passive aggressiveness for an hour
I want halo 2 2 where they fully redo halo 2 and make it as great as they once set out for it to be
Me too. With the storyboards for the original script came out I really wish they could've delayed the game. Seeing what the last third of the game would be like would be amazing to see in-game; more of the civil war where the elite cruisers come in and glass the army of brutes about to rush/kill the humans could've been the coolest scene ever.
good idea, but the original ending of halo 2 was just halo 3 shortened down
Exactly, but this time they can add everything they wanted to in so despite the plot being relatively similar. I feel they can still do different things with it
Blame Microsoft
@@beatoid1006 There’s an Interview with Joe Staten talking about the original ending of Halo 2, and there was gonna be a scene where the Arbiter finds an ancient Forerunner tomb and learns that they were actually humans (which, in my opinion, would have been better than what they ended up doing to the Forerunners later on)
Literally the best game in the series no matter how much they wanna deny it
For me it was halo 2’s story that was the best and halo 3 for the multiplayer.
Halo 3 really perfected the sandbox, though. I might be biased since I grew up with 3, but it just feels _right._ I don't think I'll touch another sandbox in my life as good as 3's.
Halo 2 is unbalanced as fuck. It's fun in easy tho
@@caramelldansen2204 eh most of the weapons don’t feel all that good to use since they lack so much punch and feedback which is something halo 1 and 2 did waaaaaaay better.
@@sturm9087 Counterpoint: Halo 3 sniper rifle.
Who else never noticed before that the classic graphics version of the cutscene for the mission Gravemind shows brute ships and elite ships fighting each other?
Never noticed it but since Gravemind is solidly during the begin of the Schism it would make sense.
A tree falls in the forest.
●Jason says "You chose wrong trail. Falling trees dangerous. Putting on helmet, buttoning coat, heading back to the car to choose a safer hike".
●Marty says "the sound of that tree falling reminds me of that one song i composed for Halo that won a bunch awards. Remember guys...remember?"
●Joesph says "i wonder if the tree fell because it was hit by 2 bears who were fighting over the last salmon that had just made her 200-mile journey upstream to lay her eggs despite having only 1 fin since she had a birth deformity from a mother who was kept in a chinese restaurant aquarium for 7 years but survived thanks to her taboo relationship with the resident lobster".
This was a really faithful recreation of the original gameplay, right down to the plasma grenade landing on the Elite's crotch. Kudos to you for that attention to detail.
The devs are so passionate, you can tell how sad they were when they had to cut so much of the game. Although I'm glad the games turned out the way they did, you can't help but think: what if they had more time?
Limitations are the essence of creativity, what we got was pretty great. Scope creep is real
I liked hearing them talk about features that they would insert into future games. Makes me happy that they got to see the ideas happening
Excellent commentary, unfortunate that we never got to experience the watershed moment of Forerunner Tank though!
I just don't understand how with today's technology, money and time, they can't make a game like Halo 2 was. Sure, it was butchered here and there to meet the deadline, but it came on with soooo many new ideas, 1 hour of cutscenes, and an incredible story. I don't understand how Infinite didn't manage to bring that feeling back, maybe I changed too much in the meantime :'(
Because they dont have the spirit and passion of the original creators. Halo was once made by people who didnt care about making a great game, just making art and being part of a community and telling a story that was fun! Now the license is run by Microsoft employees under the guise of a company with a different name, with people who arent even fans of the game, were hired to make "a great game" and to attempt to cater to A an audience who hates them and B an audience that is 12 years old and will gladly annoy their parents to buy them the newest halo. When you have a company whose entire goal is to make as much money as possible, it doesnt matter who is on the team, it just wont work. Art does not have a price, and to put a price on it is to doom its existence. Thats why the Bungie Halo's are priceless, and the rest (not including the original Halo Wars) is a bunch of wanna be garbage. People get annoyed with me that i say infinite is subpar, and it baffles me. The lengths these brainwashed people will go to defend a mediocre game is mind boggling. Sure, its an alright game, but dont say its great.
Because FPS games have pretty much hit their post modern staged. Halo itself was the modernizing FPS game and so any game that came after the refinements of 2's combat had less room for experimentation without sacrificing fun factor and balance
It's the people, not the money or technology, that matter.
Because today's corporate models avoid risk as much as possible: do what works and keep doing it until too few people buy your stuff and then look for the new thing that people want to buy. Look at Assassin's Creed: in the beginning, it was new and each game up to AC Brotherhood (nothing but a glorified expansion pack in my opinion) was ambitious and well-developed. But, eventually, consumers became less picky and kept buying whatever Ubisoft churned out, which eventually incentivized making half-done games, because people would pay the full price anyway for entertainment. The same can be likened to Halo's case; Bungie stopped once they felt like they couldn't give anymore to the series, but Microsoft wanted to keep selling the same thing over and over as long as people were willing to buy it. Hence, the best thing to do is to stop buying unfinished games that don't have what we want, but most people aren't picky enough.
@@TheSocratesofAthens Amen. Halo Infinite in stride. No co-op, no forge, no color customization. Not even campaign released before the multiplayer. Kids still buying it though.
totally agree with the creators, this was the best halo
57:02 that grenade bounce was epic
ikr the plasma grenade got launched by the explosion and sticks on a brute
Stuff like this makes me wanna jump into C++ and start my own game.
It's incredibly inspiring.
Funny, them talking about all the struggles with bugs makes me absolutely NOT lol
@@fatpad00 who talked about bugs, where?
@@Savoritas they talked about various development bugs through the whole video
Now I can listen to the cut forerunner tank mission discussion in 4k 60fps. thank you my friend
Thank you for doing this, pal.
Fun fact: Jason Jones is actually responsible for Joe Staten exiting Bungie and also responsible for the tragedy that is Destiny 1
Destiny was an absolute failure..
@@enterbalak is*
“Four runner tank” would’ve been sick
This game was my childhood. Thank you guys for making it truly amazing
Its always has been
Honestly, they're down on Halo 2 a lot and the levels they cut probably would've been quite good, but honestly this remains my favourite game in the franchise. And if we'd had the Covenant Ship mission we wouldn't have had Chief venting the space pickle and blowing up the ship that way. Which was kind of absurd in some ways, I guess. But absurd in a way that was epic, awesome and extremely memorable. To this day I remember that cutscene very fondly. I'm glad we got that, tbh. And the ending cliffhangers just made me even more excited for Halo 3. Yes, they were slightly frustrating, having to wait for years for Halo 3 was hard, but I also think that really contributed to my excitement for it in the end in a great way. And overall, storywise, I just don't really have many criticisms of this game. It was phenominal. It just hit me in the feels in a way that games rarely do.
Idk, maybe this game could've been EVEN better. But honestly, I love the game so much as it is that I already think it's nearly perfect as it is.
2:54 wait what that's actually one of the coolest match-cuts i've ever seen. how did i not notice this
It's funny that you may find your art not as good, but is amazing to a large group of people. The devs had mixed feelings about the Arbiter, but his character became loved. Even now more than 10 years later, people (including me) are hoping for him to make an appearance in Halo Infinite.
They start talking about it @ 25:50
Idk how the heck they ever thought of doing the arbiter. Seemed like a left field thing they took a risk on and paid off tremendously.
Why would you want 343i to ruin Arby further?
Halo Infinite, as well as 343's other crimes against the Halo franchise, need never be forgotten; *remember what they took from you.*
You know how Portal 1 and every Valve game after has developer commentary nodes around the game to talk about the dev’s insight into how they built that area? I wish every game had that
God, now that would be a cool game. Imagine a game taking place during the High Charity outbreak. Getting to play as an elite fighting through the Great Schism while also fending off the flood.
It’s a shame that their relationships sizzled later on. I’m sure Marty and Joseph are still friends.
Sizzled? Lol
@@Mickyfitz96 idk what word else to use lol
@@smorgington I would suggest fizzled
They actually always saw each other as frenemies. Two rival geniuses always butting heads!
What happened with Marty and Bungie happened long after the old Halo staff either left Bungie or were relegated to supporting roles on Destiny.
It feels so wrong to see today's Bungie still having the same name as the company who made these games
A wolf wearing sheep's clothing
It's cool hearing them talk about how they wanted to put windows on the ODST pods so you could see some crazy stuff happen as you fell, and this was pre-Halo 3 ODST.
Just a bunch of cool dudes who defined our childhoods.
God I would love to see the three of them looking at H2 Annniversary, what they like about it and what they would have done differently (also I love how the scrapped plot point of Miranda welding a Nuke to Chief's back became inspiration for 343 making the ending setpiece of Halo 4 Chief carrying a nuke)
So grateful to you for uploading these two commentaries. As a kid playing the games, you don’t really care about this stuff but as an adult it’s really terrific to listen to.
This is awesome!
Thank you Halo 2 Bungie team you guys will dominate the world one day
Man, I really hope these guys know that a lot of us fans have gone back and dissected the crap out of these games and have seen these little details they thought no one would see.
Hearing them say "oh yeah, that carrier nobody saw" sucks, but I hope they know there were people paying attention.
Always loved the marine voice work, david cross and scully are my 2 favourites
Scully also voiced Dimitri Lousteau in the Sly Cooper sequels.
Definitely seeing that supercarrier at 9:54 for the first time ever. 16:33 never missed this though, can remember doing this level over and over as a kid. Joe Staten is instrumental to Halo, but jeez that dude can speak a lot.
"The heretics were going to be hunters"
...Could you image that with halo 2 legendary difficulty...?
my brain hurts thinking about that
What he mentions at the beginning about the graphical difference between Halo 1 & 2 is the quality of game development that you see 3-5 years after a consoles release and devs are comfortable with the skit kit... this can be traced in video game history back to the nes... a great example of these changes would be donkey kong country for the snes, the quality of PSx games was wild before console end from battle arena tosinden to activisions Spiderman games. Halo infinite from halo 5 for the current gen change we are seeing now.... my point is xbox 1/s or PS5 won't be producing games of the hardware's fuller potential until they understand what it can do from some companies. FF 7 remake is fantastic example what he PS4 is capable of, but clearly not everything for the console is as beautifully refined. the difference in graphical quality can be small until big things happen.
I feel like something has to change gameplay-wise to make the graphical improvements seem worthwhile. To my eye, the newest FPSs are generally slick and polished, but also sterilized, lacking a certain character or charm these standard 3D ones had
@@roddydykes7053 Sad as hell to say but leaving the last console generation behind is how developers could really utilize the full tools/upgraded engine
13:59 you can see the plasmarifle inside the scrab gun, 14:02 the pilots dont stay in the cockpit
holy shit I never noticed that until now
The pilots had me cracking up XD
What the litteral fuck! Legendery eye sight on you dude
good eyes
What the fuck that's crazy. Were these always present in the game and no one else ever realized?
2:55 How did I never notice that Truth's crown badge fades into the Moon?
I don’t think developers would end a commentary nowadays with a “oh, I just thought of a bunch of thing so wanna say when we’re done recording” 😂
i love how they poke fun at their own writing
That bungie logo blew ma back about 18 years into the past
Nice to see how many ideas they had but couldn’t include due to performance isssues or time that made it it into later games, such as at 36:25 when they talk about the ODST pods
there s another universe where these guys never separated and they never went to activision and microsoft never tried to control them and gave us a destiny that wouldve surpassed halo and every other game. i know it exists. it has to.
It's pretty therapeutic hearing them talk about how there was supposed to be more to the ending. I was so furious the first time I played this.
"Here's the scene that no one actually ever saw."
Apparently a few game designers saw it, because "player looks out window to see huge friendly ship getting dramatically blown to bits" has only been ripped off in about 50 or 60 other games.
such a great game. im having a halo 2 lan party this weekend. with people in their 50s all the way to 12 year old kids. keeping the tradition alive
These three made Halo what it is. They deserve all the credit in the world for Halo.
In my day we didn't have any fancy smancy tanks. We had sticks. Two sticks and a rock for a whole platoon, and we had to share the rock. So Buck up son. You're one very lucky marine.
One of my favorite things to do in the Tartarus fight is get as many Elites as possible to survive on the middle level so they show up during the Miranda and Spark cutscene.
Just standing around in their idle animations
So great
The cable…. I’m going to cut it
One thing to notice here is that they sure as hell had a lot of fun making the game, I think that is key when you're trying to deliver a good experience to the player, not thinking in over monetize the project, just have fun and people will feel it in the final product.
Not sure about that. They're all joking in the commentary, but the game had a famously troubled development and the studio was definitely under immense pressure to deliver both from their audience and from Microsoft.
The warthog is still on the station you can find it
This is GOLD
when i pass away, i can only pray that these dudes are the ones commentating my existence to me as im transcending into the infinite
I would LOVE to have had the heretic leader be a hunter- that sounds incredible
I don’t know if someone else saw it but on the outskirts cutscene when the scarab shoots the pelican, for a brief moment you can see a pilot pop out of the cabinet return to his original positions. As if they didn’t make him sync with the movement of the pelican as it gets shot.
Little did Marty know that he'd be running for congress in 2024
2/3 of the voices you’re hearing were fired. Such a shame what happened to this company a decade after they left halo.
These videos are really on my recommendation before the servers for Halo on the Xbox 360 go down. ;-;
Been watching this damn commentary for almost 20 years now. Still waiting for more details on that forerunner tank
13:45 "What you have there is not clips. These are mags. THEY'RE MAGS, NOT CLIPS.😐" -Charles White.
i for one, did not know that that was a sentinel factory
Watched to entirety for old time sake. Thank you 🙏
I seriously wish we got this Forerunner Tank mission. 🥺
I just wish they did this for Halo 3 and the other ones
They didn't?
55:08 why is there a seagull on high charity?
I never noticed on the Delta Halo cutscene the drop pods are already on the ground in the cutscene while they’re still dropping
Thank you very much!
At least Jason did fairly better here than in the Halo 1 commentary in terms of talking about the game.
"What did Marty do, Joe?
"Marty do you just turn into a big whiner after 10pm, instead of a pumpkin" fuckin lol, these are the best genre of commentary
20 years of playing this game i dont think i ever once realized keith david voices the arbiter.
Spawn, Psycho Delic, Dr. Facilier, Goliath.