I see a lot of people shit on Two Betryals for muh reuse of AotCR's map, but it's the most underrated level in the game, and one of the best. It combines everything that makes CE great.>level starts and you're immediately placed into combat, no waiting room bullshit like Halo or Silent Cartographer>get to explore a cool, moody snowfallen valley (at night this time)>get to fight almost every enemy in the game, with just the right amount of Flood to add some variety (instead of the household chore known as The Library on Legendary)>get to see the Covenant and Flood fighting huge battles, and you can use them to strategically against one another>features every weapon in the game with ample but well-balanced ammunition>incorporates opportunities for stealth, crafty resource management, arena fights, flying around in the Banshee, and all-out war between three (four if you count the Sentinels) factionsGenuinely a joy to play every time, and the petty criticisms don't add up compared to everything they did right with this one. Even the reuse of assets is barely a knock against it, since the level has a totally different atmosphere, includes several new areas, and is just a beautiful map to begin with. I love this level man, fuck the haters.
>>12925904I've always wondered what the 2 betrayals in question were.
>>12925915Funny enough, when I made this thread I was thinking about how some anon a year or two ago brought that up and I had never considered it before. It was probably you, kek. Only thing I can figure is Guilty Spark obviously betraying you, and then maybe the "betrayal" of Cortana staying behind while you dick around (which is honestly another point in favor of TB since you don't have a dumb cunt yapping in your ear the entire level, a true relief).
Halo Fun Facts>Halo was first shown at MacWorld July 21st, 1999, and was a demonstration of Mac's new implementation of OpenGL. But then Microsoft picked up Halo and decided to make it semi-exclusive to the Xbox and DX8/d3d8 >Chief in 1998 version, now called Orion, was based on Shiek’s concept, and perhaps there was Gundam inspiration there. When Lehto redesigned the Chief in 1999, the M1 Abrams and Apache Attack helicopter were big influences>Microsoft acquired Bungie and Halo on June 19, 2000 as a business division within Microsoft https://news.microsoft.com/source/2000/06/19/microsoft-to-acquire-bungie-software/>Microsoft was really eager to make Halo a killer app for the Xbox at launch and asked Eric Trautmann, who approached Eric Nylund to write The Fall of Reach as they previously worked together>Brannon Boren created the character Dr. Halsey. Eric Trautmann created the Spartan I and II detail, Eric Nylund filled in most of the blanks via the first chapter of the Fall of Reach, to First Strike, to Ghosts of Onyx, and Nylund's final Halo work, "Dr. Halsey's personal journal", Nylund may as well be the one who invented Halsey>Cortana was originally due to be just a simple guide in helping get Chief from A to B among some things. The less players knew about the Chief, Staten believed, the more they would feel like the Chief>"Halo" (level 2) was inspired by Snoqualmie Falls Seattle>"Two Betrayals" is two betrayals because Master Chief thought that Guilty Spark lied and tricked him into almost firing the rings, acting as an ally the entire way (betrayal one), while Guilty Spark allied with a Reclaimer to do his job only to have this Reclaimer backstab him last minute with this construct that was illegally input into the core (betrayal two)>Marcus Lehto joined Bungie while working on Myth TFL and designed Chief, Warthog, Pelican, and Scorpion and was heavily influenced by Aliens but kept designing the vehicles for what gameplay demanded/inspired
>>12925980>Covenant being so purple and colorful was Jason Jones idea, where the art guy wanted them to be grey and more serious looking>Jeffrey Steitzer was supposed to voice Master Chief before Steve Downes stepped in so they had him be the multiplayer announcer >Crewmen was from a scan of the face of Matt Segur. He also programmed the audio engine>They basically gave Tim Dadabo a script and said, "Ok. This is 343 Guilty Spark. He’s called the monitor. He is a flying orb and he incredibly intelligent. He is an A.I. You are basically a very nice C3P0 with a maniacal mission. You don’t know this yet but he’s going to get very very dark.">Shi Kai Wang animated the holographic Halo ring breaking into pieces when the Cartographer is accessed>JAIME GRIESEMER fought to keep the sniper rifle and shotgun, which were supposed to be cut>Marty was responsible for designing the sound for original Xbox's support discrete 6-channel digital surround sound via Dolby 5.1 and DTS through TOSLINK>Pillar of Autumn was designed by Jaime Griesemer >Halo was designed by Marcus Lehto>Truth and Reconciliation was designed by Paul Bertone>Silent Cartographer was designed by Jaime Griesemer, Marcus Lehto and Paul Russel. Shi Kai Wang animated the The Cartographer hologram>Assault on the Control Room was designed by Paul Bertone. Chris Barrett designed the ziggurat structure >343 Guilty Spark (c20) was designed by Paul Bertone and Jaime Griesemer>The Library was designed by Tyson Green and wanted to create a level that had a feeling of "It's just you, your shotgun, and a the need to keep on moving.". The Library's initial level design was "a giant vault", that would have had the player descend a "corkscrewing" staircase, with the activation index hovering and pulsating in the center>Two Betrayals was designed by Dan Orzulak>The Maw was designed by Tyson Green. Steve Abeyta animated the cutscenes
>>12925982>Robt McLees designed The Floodhttps://web.archive.org/web/20141013230927/http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Feast_of_Bones>Hardy LeBel had to learn 3ds Max for the multiplayer portion of the game, and having never modelled in the program before>Marcus Lehto designed The Ark back in Halo CEhttps://x.com/game_fabricator/status/1088274744456159232#m>Mangaka behind Blame! and Knights of Cydonia is a huge Halo fan and actually made an official full color manga for the Halo Graphic Novel anthology which shows how Johnson escaped the Flood in CE>Marty loves The Legend of Zelda, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus >Bungie were negotiating to leave Microsoft since 2003 because they didn't like the profit sharing of Halo and were told "Microsoft doesn't negotiate with its employees". Devs were considering leaving Bungie to start their own company if they didn't have better profit sharing for Halo 2, with Halo 2 being the last Halo game by Bungie>Phil Spencer: “At the time they had big ambitions. They had sold their business for a certain amount of money. They saw what Halo turned into. And it's like, ‘OK, Microsoft benefited more than Bungie did from the success of Halo.’ There's no other story that can be written there.”>Jason Jones and Marcus Lehto were threatening to quit if Microsoft didn't make good on sharing Halo 2's profits>Halo 2 had 160 pages worth of cinematics and was going to be 15 levels long (retail is 7 levels long: Cairo Station, Outskirts/Metropolis, The Arbiter/The Oracle, DeltaHalo/Regret, SacredIcon/QuarantineZone, HighCharity, Delta Halo Control Room)>Stencil shadows on everything, real-time reflections in the Master Chief's visor—were planned for Halo 2, but Xbox couldn't handle it>Eddie Smith reworked the concept for the Mark VI and Eric Arroyo built and textured the model for Halo 2
>>12925982>Shi Kai Wang animated the holographic Halo ring breaking into pieces when the Cartographer is accessedThat's cool
Joe Staten wishes that Bungie never left Microsoft
>>12925915Common thought comes from the comments from the developer commentary, Cortana in an earlier concept of the story was meant to betray you after she went mad with power. Alternatively if you take Halo 1 as part of the Marathon universe you can say Spark is a reincarnation of one of the AI's and is now betraying you in the present and past universes.
>>12925936>>12925915I always took the 2nd betrayal as MC and Cortana "betraying" guilty spark, which would be the case from his perspective. Basically both parties are being betrayed by the other at the same time.
>>12925936Cortana doesn't stay behind in Two Betrayals, Master Chief puts her back in his helmet in the opening cutscene.
>>12925982Who designed the mission Keyes?
>>12925904I never had a issue with that level, I blame parrots on the interner, my friend and I beat it this level in co-op in a single afternoon, there were several tries in checkpoint, but is not that hard.
>>12926998Huh, you're right, I must've been thinking of another level and I haven't watched the cinematics in ages. IIRC though she doesnt speak the entire level so I kind of forget she was even supposed to be with you (and it's still another good quality of TB).
