: I agree with basically all of what you said. I just don't take issue with it
: like most seem to. In fact, I actually LIKE it. Now, I don't necessarily
: like the design of everything 343i has done, but I do like seeing a new
: take on classic Halo designs.

Well that changes the discussion from the beginning, doesn't it? If you like the designs then of course you don't mind as much. Out of curiosity, do you like any/all of the Bungie-era designs?

: I personally don't think continuity needs to be a priority (and it obviously
: isn't for 343i). In fact, I wish they would stop with the lore
: explanations for everything (the new Jackals come to mind). They are all
: hamfisted attempts to explain away things that don't really need an
: explanation. Expecting 343i to keep all of Bungie's designs the same is as
: ridiculous as people looking at Legends being all pissy that none of that
: looked the same as what we saw in game. If artistic interpretation bothers
: folks that much, I'd suggest those folks need to reevaluate how much they
: invest in Halo, as 343i has made it pretty clear that those changes are
: going to continue.

Clearly it does bother some people that much, and reevaluating how much they want to invest themselves has lead to many people leaving Halo behind-- usually not because of visuals, I think, but the changes as a whole I think are a real factor. That of course is bad for 343i and bad for those of us that want to play the games with people or discuss them.

: I guess I just don't understand why it bothers people so much. I mean, I
: guess I can understand people liking things to have continuity, but
: changing the design of things because "we think this looks
: cooler" is perfectly acceptable to me.

There are three fan problems and one for 343i themselves.

The internal problem was and is in selling remakes and reissues of the old games and having the differences intentionally put in front of people.

For the fan problems, firstly people are attached to what came before, and the rich story of the games and other media supports that, and the way the designs generally changed less and less with each successive game under Bungie let people get more attached and think things were stable.

Secondly there is a simple matter of continuity and its value, mostly separate from emotional ties-- I'd like to see you say story continuity doesn't matter.

Thirdly the new designs are just not that good in the eyes of many fans-- that can be tied to past experience, but I'm sure you could find a lot of new people and outsiders that like the old designs better.

I mean really, the new designs look like ass. The Chief's midsection looks horrible, it doesn't look protective or cool. The new jackal head design looks like a generic monster, like someone said "deep sea fish are spooky, let's copy one". The Promethean Knights are completely ridiculous monstrous things, it's like they stepped out of a bad heavy metal album cover, all top-heavy with little black extra arms and glowing skulls behind metal faceplates. The Grunts look like someone did a bad face lift on a cave troll with no chin. (Before you say I'm stuck in the past or just side with the Bungie designs, I don't care for several older designs, including the Halo: Reach Brutes, Halo 3 Brutes without their armor, Halo 1 Grunts to an extent, Halo 3 Grunts onward to a larger extent, Reach Elites in some ways, and some things about Hunters from Halo 3 and/or Reach and later; plus I think the Crawler designs are OK for what they're intended to be, the Promethean Soldier designs seem great aside from the pointless kneecaps and weird shoulders that I wouldn't have even noticed without a huge picture, and the new Covenant ship designs don't wow me and they seem kind of off, but they don't seem that bad.)

The real shame is that the same principle that's having them keep the Bungie-era designs means we can't be rid of these awful new designs even if 343i changes their mind.