: I like the random marine, personally. One thing I very much want Halo to stay
: away from is going the way of Star Wars and feeling like a tiny universe
: with only a few characters. Even if this is the extent of the significant
: portion of the pilot's role and he's basically just Foehammer or Hocus for
: gameplay purposes, I'd still care a lot more. Chief's obviously always
: trying to save humanity, but there's this guy who just has been marooned
: for weeks and wants to get back to his kid. It's nice to have smalls
: stakes amidst big ones.

Yeah, I'm with you here. I think that Halo needs more of the small stakes, because the big stakes just aren't doing it anymore. And besides, Halo needs to grow out its stable of characters that the fans love and adore. Maybe Osiris fell flat, but that's no reason to quit trying.

One of these days, Steve Downes is going to get too old for the job. If 343i isn't in a position to retire the character... I guess they could just recast the character, but that would still be a sad state of affairs.