: That's a really plausible story explanation. I sort of doubt 343 thought of
: this, though, because no matter how I simplify things, the fact remains
: that the Didact was just about to destroy Chief until Cortana beat him
: down.

What's the problem with that? Someone interfered with the villain before they could kill the hero. Not exactly the most original plot device, but I don't see the big problem with it.

: And that part with the nuke still nuked my suspension of disbelief.

Yeah, that's really the biggest problem I have with the campaign. If only the Chief hadn't been holding it...

: It's not my fault that Master Chief used a GameShark and cheated his way out
: of everything. Bungie gave the Chief luck, but 343 gave him chetz.

How did he "cheat?" Seriously, I don't see a difference between the Chief's luck in the original trilogy and Halo 4.

: The Earth isn't in the middle of anything. Until that last cinematic, for all
: I knew he was Composing a bunch of desert. Did he just fire at random?
: Does that beam ever spread out? Does he have to spend the next few years
: circling the planet slowly and blasting everywhere to make sure he got
: everyone?

Do you really need to know that though? I mean, I like detail as much as the next person, but does it matter HOW it fires in that instance? He's above Earth, no ship can stop him, so he can really just do any of the above and wipe Earth clean. I mean, we never knew the specifics of how Halo worked during Halo 1.

: For the record, there's no indication the Ark in Halo 3 was ever destroyed.
: Sure, replacement Alpha Halo might have exploded, or potentially just
: fallen apart all over the Ark, but there's no guarantee that the threat is
: fully or truly neutralized or that the Gravemind is actually dead. As for
: Truth, I can't defend Bungie on this one. Truth seemed to be getting Flood
: infected just as Chief and Arbiter were dealing with him, so he did seem
: to have a lot going against him. Also, it took a few games to deal with
: Truth. Regardless, I feel that Bungie failed pretty hardcore with Truth's
: handling in Halo 3 (from voice actor to writing). Not as bad as how I feel
: 343 has handled the Didact in H4, but I'm not going to even try and defend
: how Truth was written in Halo 3 (though it was nifty how he turned Miranda
: into a stegosaurus, just saying :P).

Huh. Going back and watching the cutscene, you really don't see the Ark destroyed. Hm. Well, personally I think it's destroyed. Would be cool to go back and explore it more though. As for the Flood, I know they can survive for a long time, but wouldn't they starve to death with no food available, no ships, and stuck outside the galactic rim?

Granted, when the Flood return (though I don't think it'll be the Flood from Halo 2/3 specifically), I expect a different Gravemind to be in charge.