: It wasn't so lazy. The new suit actually performed differently than the old
: suit in gameplay, faster shields and all. Plus we actually saw him
: swapping it out. The only difference between the H2 and H3 suits were a
: slightly different color and slightly different gloves. But the 343 suit
: just appeared, and the H4's opening flashbacks shows that
: "nanomachines" are just a cover for them wanting the armor to
: have always looked like this.

You're not wrong, but you're making my point. I wish that 343i would stop with the stupid explanations that don't really work. They need to just come out an say, "This is what this thing looks like now, deal with it."

Oh, so those new Jackals are some separate related species? Well, now there's the expectation that maybe we'll see the original Jackals again at some point, but we probably won't. Butt 343i has set themselves up and saddled themselves with that expectation by saying that the original Jackals are still around. If they had just said, "This is what Jackals look like now," people wouldn't have been any more upset than they already are, but they wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of their in-universe explanation. Same with the nanomachines for the Master Chief's armor. There doesn't need to be an explanation other than, "we thought this looked cool and we're separating ourselves from Bungie Halo."