: Let's not forget that Bungie did the same thing 343i has done. The Master
: Chief's armor changed between every game, and we got the same lazy
: explanations ("Oh, it's a new model."), but people didn't
: complain about it then. They completely changed the design of the Banshee
: for Reach (which admittedly did get quite a bit of flak, if I remember
: correctly).

Yes, Bungie did redesign things themselves, but generally they were subtle about it, and in many cases they reused the same designs, even when crossing over generations. The biggest change going from Halo 1 to Halo 2 was the Chief's armor, but at least the change was made to seem plausible. His old Mark V was busted up after his exploits on Reach and Alpha Halo, and he was fitted for the new Mark VI on Cairo Station just before Halo 2 begins. The bottom "arm" of the Needler was shortened and the stock of the sniper rifle was altered, and the pistol had a shortened grip, no scope, and a different finish, but otherwise they were unchanged. The Jackals had slightly redesigned heads but still looked like the same bug-eyed humanoid vultures. But the Grunts, Elites, Hunters, Warthog, Scorpion, Wraith, Ghost, Banshee, rocket launcher, shotgun, plasma pistol, and plasma rifle all were identical or nearly so to their HCE versions.

When Halo 3 came out, even though they had to rebuild everything from the ground up to meet the higher graphical capabilities of the 360, a great number of things returned largely unchanged. The Chief's armor was the same (excepting the number of bolts on the hands and feet), and most returning weapons and vehicles were virtually unchanged. The Grunts had more distinctively chitinous exoskeletons, but that was in keeping with older descriptions in the canon and likely wasn't possible to render well on the OXbox, and their armor was pretty much the same as in previous games. The Jackals had more curved beaks but still looked like big ugly birds. Elites had more noticeable changes, with obvious alterations to the armor. The only really notable changes were the Elites and Brutes, which were given new armor designs, plus the Brutes had some noticeable changes to their facial structure.

Reach was the first time Bungie really went around redesigning a lot of things, and they did deserve whatever flak they got for it, but even then they didn't go overboard. While a lot of redesigns were obvious (and in the AR's case, it was really ugly), some of them you really had to strain to notice the differences, and most of the designs were by and large not really radical departures from what came before. Also, some assets weren't changed at all. Overall, it still felt like it could still be in the same universe.

: I guess I just take it for what it is: a combination of improved technology
: and 343i wanting to put their personal stamp on Halo.

Mostly the latter, because as Halo 3 clearly demonstrated even generational leaps in graphics don't necessitate radical changes in designs.

: I agree with your Star Wars points. For all it's flaws, the prequel trilogy
: did an amazing job from a design standpoint of making all the technology
: look like it predated the original trilogy and keeping a coherent design
: language. I'm just not sure it's fair to compare a movie to a video game
: in that regard.

I think it is a fair comparison. Video games are just as much a visual medium as film & TV. The interactive element is the key difference. When you have a "serious" series like Halo that is supposed to have an internally consistent continuity, the visuals can matter just as much as the narrative itself.

: Lots of games change designs of things between iterations.

And a lot don't. As cartoony and unrealistic as the series is, Mario manages to be very consistent. Ever since they had the graphical capability to make Mario, Luigi, and the other characters look like they always have in the official art for the series, Nintendo hasn't really altered their designs any, only made them higher-res. Surely a series more grounded in reality like Halo can manage the same level of consistency, especially since visual consistency helps ground the series and give it a sense of continuity.