Simple: Vic Deleon and Kynan Pearson stepped in post-launch to correct 343's mistakes. Those mistakes were in the original conceptualizing of the 3 Forge canvases and in outsourcing their creation to Certain Affinity. Forge Island is the result of the work of those two individuals.

The launch Forge maps were blunderous at best. I could easily rant, but I won't. It's too bad we didn't have Vic and Kynan on the job to begin with, but they've demonstrated a complete and necessary reversal of the direction 343 Industries was taking Forge.

It goes beyond the clean canvas of Forge Island (something even Bungie never gave us). When you stop at look at the textures of pieces like the Coliseum Wall and the Bridge--they're cleaning up the unnecessary visual clutter that is obnoxiously plastered all over nearly every single Forge object. These guys get it--and I look forward to what they're capable of doing for Halo 5.