I really wanted gunslingers with the Blood dragon dual pack offered on PSN. I really enjoyed the demo where I went "Yosimettie Sam" (sorry bad spelling) on some ruffians with some six shooter dual weilding. Once I enjoy Blood Dragon I'll ssee about Gunslinger soon.
Oh boy more halo 4! *rubs hands with glee*
I fear you are correct when it comes to Halo 4 and what it's "becoming". It's bad enough that 343 has corrected themsleves that now Halo 4 is part of the "forerunner saga" than "trilogy", thus freeing them up to make the next halo game on Xbox One. Personally I wish they'd finish a trilogy on the same console than repeat the same mistakes of having Halo and Halo 2 on Xbox while the rest are on Xbox 360 but I digress...
The "COD"ing of halo has not been helpful for the franchise because despite all they do, when the next COD comes out people will just move on. halo 4's servers have already seen a huge drop off in matches thanks to the release of the subpar COD:Ghosts.
but at the same time I actually like where 343 is taking the story with Halo. I was originally afraid that with the COD'ing of Halo4 would also bring about the sub par wiriting of the stories with the games. That's one of the reasons why I loved the Halo series to begin with: A compelling, interesting sci-fi story. Sure it had it's usual mindless killikillkill moments like any usual FPS but at the same time it had enough heart, character development, story world and plot that you normally never see in an FPS these days. Though most have tried, very few are able to meet the high standards of the Halo Universe that teh limited games have been able to telling. By limiting I mean the cold openings and endings to teh games themselves of course.
I just think of what's become of Halo is that the World that was created out of Halo has gotten to the point where the games simply can't contain them anymore. Part of this was Bungie's fault when they left portions of the story out of the games (either on accident, time constraings or on purpose) so that they could either be explored thru otehr games (halo wars/Halo Reach/Halo 3: ODST) or thru other forms of media (the books, comics, live action shorts/movies). though the games have had limited success in telling the Halo Saga, sadly the books/comics/live action shorts/movies have been better in continuing to allow the series to grow more organically to the point where halo 4 is teh beast that it is when it comes to the story and plot.
though I'm still sore over what was done with Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: Reach the video game...
I guess what I'm saying is, I was expecting Halo 4's story to be Halo 4's story because if it was the same old, samole old of what we epected from other Halo games in the past, it would easily being to fall into the same category of the other sequalized FPS's we've seen over the course of the gaming generation. Don't get me wrong though, 343 still played it safe by keeping what made Halo thus why we can still recongize it as a Halo title. But at the same time we are seeing other aspects of the series slowlying "evoling" into other things that of course might nto be welcome to some. The addition of COD'ed elements of gameplay and the more deeper plot being among them.
I honestly didn't see the addtions of Sarah Palmer and Lanskey as being meant to slowly replace MC. If anything it helped to show that despite all the MC had done in Halos 1 thru 3, he is indeed the "odd spartan out" given how much the universe has changed since he came out of cryo. He now has to contend with a UNSC on the offensive with a massive new flagship along with newer spartans that may or may not cut the mustard when it comes to what he went thru. Is it any wonder that Del Rio doesn't give the MC any respect. As far as humanity is concerned, they are now moving forward and everything else is now history: something they thought the MC was when they had a memorial for him at the end of Halo 3. I'd find it very hard to accept that the MC was back if I was told offically he was dead if I were a trooper in the game. Plus I'm glad when no one thought to say the usual sci-fi cliche in asking the MC "I thought you were dead".
As for the drama, again I point to the "orginaic" parts of the other ways the halo franchise has grown. It had such in the books so it would be natural for them to flow into the game that way. Thankfully we haven't seen it grow to the point of other media that likes to over dramatise. Halo 4's drama was more subtle when they decided to explore teh relationship between Cortana and the MC. If the most "drama" wel'll get to see out of the chief over Cortana's passing is his "please" request during their physical encounter, to his coming to terms with her loss at the end of the game, I'm content with that. Better that than having him fall to his knees and burst out into tears. I'll take the subtle take on drama than the overblown. the MC may look more machine than man but he is still human despite what Halsey did to him to make him a Spartan II.
