: It sounds like you're with Masterz1337 on the notion that there were Elite
: changes for playability. Maybe you're right, but I could do with some
: explanation about why certain changes were desirable for that - i.e. how
: they'd aid playability.

Speaking from experience, there really wasn't any reason that the animations "had" to be redone for all the characters. But when it comes to the spartans and elites, they did need to add the ability for the fingers to move and I believe in the elites case, more fine tun control over the mandibles and eyes for the cutscenes.

In fact if you go back to the e3 2003 demo I am pretty sure you'd see plenty of legacy 3p animations used, but it's been a while since I've watched it.