Most of us say "Ghost" and "Banshee" like we would say "Stryker" or "F-16". Sure, there's probably other aircraft in the Covenant arsenal, more "Fighter Jets" and "Utility Helicopters". The difference between the Trilogy Banshees and the Reach Banshee is probably the difference between the F-16 and the F/A-18. But that's not the problem.

: Something I always think (again, just personally) Halo can use
: more of is a sense of... galactic biodiversity we'll call it.

It's not about galactic biodiversity either.

: Variations
: and permutations that really actually make the world feel diverse and
: "alive" so to speak. So when the opportunity comes along where
: we have a new model of rocket launcher, or Warthog, or Wraith, or
: whatever, you better believe we'll try and best find a way to fictionally
: "fit" it into the fabric of the universe.

This is the problem. These aren't variations. These aren't permutations. 343i's art assets are replacements. There's nothing left from the Bungie games. Even the stuff that should be the same from the Bungie-era is replaced and retconned.

The Forward Unto Dawn has a clear, previously-established design. We knew what it looked like. 343i'S artists "reinterpreted" the design, and I use quotation marks because the only person who can see the lines of inspiration between the old design and the new is Sparth.

Same with the Master Chief's armor. It's not intended to be a new model, because nothing in the game itself indicates that it's a new model. The Chief doesn't comment on the changes at all. From the moment he emerges from the cryotube, his armor still has scars from previous battles. For what reason would Cortana leave battle damage intact? If she did, why wouldn't the Chief notice that?

Tangent: A few months ago, Frankie complained in an interview that people referred to the MJOLNIR nanomachines as "magic". He argued that nanotechnology, when mature, will be used for everything and be indistinguishable from magic. But nanomachines that operate in cryogenic environments and rebuild macro-scale structures aren't indistinguishable at all. They're just pure frickin' magic.

So it's come to pass that everything has been replaced. All of Bungie's design legacy has been wiped away, replaced by new stuff. Even the art style has been completely revamped. Bungie's designs were clean, simple, and distinctive. 343i designs are cramped, crowded, and overly detailed. Bungie's designs do not look like they could ever have existed in 343i's version of Halo.

We're Halo fans from the era of Bungie. We fell in love with the universe that Bungie designed. How are we supposed to feel when a Halo game contains none of those old designs? How are we supposed to feel when the common Jackal that populated the old games only ever shows up in the comics, where 343i's stable of artists don't have to look at them? How are we supposed to feel when MJOLNIR has always looked like Gen II, except for a few aberrations in 2552? How are we supposed to feel when we're told that Bungie's design for MJOLNIR doesn't look good with modern graphics, and if Bungie had designed it with current-gen hardware the result would look completely different?

: It's much more fun
: IMO to imagine squadrons of Banshees or Seraphs made up of various models
: flying through the air during a battle than to just assume "whatever
: is the newest look is the 'real' look and the 'only' look it's ever been)

Without those designs cropping up in primary media, the new models are effectively the only models.

: On asset reuse, that's oftentimes just a reality of the process. Take the SOS
: Elites. The H2A versions and the H4/5 versions simply don't use the the
: same underpinnings (tech wise); it's not like simply reskinning one to
: look like the other. So in order to be more efficient with resources, it
: makes sense to utilize one over the other. Now, "canonically" if
: you were to observe the SOS faction in "real life", you would
: see Elites in H2A-style combat harnesses, you would see Storm-class
: harnesses, you would likely see Ranger harnesses, Spec-ops, etc as well.
: Since that's not exactly simple to do within the realm of the game, when
: you watch an H2A cutscene you can think of it as getting one slice of
: "reality", and H5 as another. And again, for those who just
: prefer to go on thinking that you would rather just see it as artistic
: license, please feel free to do so! lol No one is stopping you, and
: fictional justification isn't hurting that mindset.

: On species variation , again, I think it would be absurd to imagine that ALL
: Elites look like they did in H2A, or H4/5, or HW. Same with Grunts,
: Jackals, etc (yes I know Jackals are a bigger stretch; please, it's sci-fi
: lol).

If most everything else looked on the mark, the Jackals would probably get a pass. There was plenty of bitching about the Pillar of Autumn and the new UNSC weapons in Halo: Reach, but there was enough of the old that people could feel some sense of continuity.

Bungie-era designs are dead. They aren't here, and they aren't coming back. That is why 343i's Halo is a reboot.

: On a fun side note, my wonderful and lovely significant other is
: currently finishing up her phD in Biology, with a specialization in
: Functional Morphology. So trust me when I say I have some pretty decent
: access to a wealth of rational scientific hooks on which to try and build
: relatively plausible justifications for regarding phenotypic variation.

On the other hand, the analyses by Gravemind and Scarab sound like they're on the mark.

: So are all changes/justifications 100% optimal? Of course not, but I'll be
: damned if there aren't passionate and talented folks tirelessly trying
: their hardest to try and get it to all work together, make as much sense
: as possible, and maybe most importantly, continue giving folks a universe
: they enjoy exploring and questioning.

Well, they're clearly passionate about something.

My barometer of success is that the version of Halo that Bungie and Nylund delivered inspired me to write a 220,000-word novel. Their story and the visual presentation of that story grabbed my attention and made hunting down all the bits of lore satisfying. Without that Bungie magic, I wouldn't have spent years arguing and theorizing and critiquing with fellow fans.

343i's vision can barely inspire a 500-word essay on what you guys are doing wrong.

You guys are passionate about something, but are you Halo fans? I hate to pull that card. I loathe this trufan bullshit, but I can't imagine working on a Halo project and throwing out all the Bungie-era designs. I can't imagine sitting on the design team and saying "The Scorpion doesn't have enough greebles. Let's redesign the whole thing."

Look at the Legendary CE pistol. It looks comically out of place in the hands of a Spartan IV because it's a gun designed by a different company with a completely different design philosophy.

In short, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with cheapLEY. I wish you all would stop with the half-assed fictional justifications and admit that this is a reboot.