Both humans and elites have the nature of wanting to be the best, so it really isn't a good combination.

@ SentientSurfer - Very little is known about the forerunner, but with their technology it seems like a reasonable idea that they could allow themselves to live for long periods of time.

Also it is known that the graveminds use trickery like in Halo 2. So I think that the prisoner came to the milky way at some point and the precursor's trapped it, that would explain the holding thing. Then the only . thing confirming that it is a precursor is it saying so. So I wouldn't be surprised it was trying to trick the forerunner.

This link should cover what is going on with the game. http://www.gameinformer.com/p/halo4.aspx

Skeptical on how this will turn out. Halo 4 sounds like a very unappealing title to me, and when Halo 5 and Halo 6 comes out? Blasphemy.

Still wondering how the game itself will end. Seems like Halo 3 was a complete and utter waste of time, considering the Elites and Humans split up?

Only thing we got out of it really than was Chief destroying Halo again and splitting up from Earth.

And the at least temporary stop of the Flood. Not that they need to be in any future games but I doubt they are completely wiped out from the galaxy simply by destroying the large infestation of High Charity. They may have been tedious to fight in games (I didn't mind, they were a nice change of pace from the Covenant) but I think the idea of the Flood, and their origins is highly fascinating. I hope this Forerunner series expands on it!

It will be pretty boring without the Flood... So I hope they are in it as well

I just bought Halo Anny Edition.

Played Halo,got the Game of the Year edition,got 2 and 3.Out of all of them the original was my favorite..two was okay and three just seemed like the SP campaign was built around vehicle combat.

Read alot of the books that have been put out also.

I always hated FPS but this game hooked me and dragged me in.I haven't played ODST or Reach because of 3(and the fact ODST has only several hours worth of gameplay in the SP) but i love the universe that has been created.

It is probaly one of the best imagined and best thought out Science Fiction series,and universes,that utilizes multiple media platforms to tell its story.

Well except for the cartoon anthology.Why they gave it over to the Japanese to do..who knows?

Bad choice.

If the elites didn't team up with the humans, the covenant would have killed the humans, and the flood would have wiped out all sentient life, doesn't seem useless to me.

Well, the San 'Shyuum/Prophets live for centuries upon centuries (I believe at least 1000 years); all the Prophets in-game are the old of the old.... and they, even back during the time of the Forerunner, were technologically inferior to the latter. That being said, from what I remember (I read Cryptum a long time ago, and Primordium was more Flood- and Human-centric), a Forerunner goes through various stages of growth in their life, akin to a "metamorphosis" of sorts each time. Eventually, they reach a stage where an older Forerunner can "imprint" their caste upon the younger (i.e. a Forerunner imprinted with Warrior caste genes becomes taller, stronger, etc).

Anyhow, a Forerunner's lifespan is nigh limitless thanks to their tech-level. Imprinting basically turns the target into a slightly different copy of the original, a geas can let a Forerunner (or a human, or probably any other sentient, living thing) dwell in a specific set of genes for centuries, only to be "reborn" when certain conditions arise, and hell, even the Monitors/Oracles are Forerunner minds-turned-machine.

Now, about the Prisoner:

Ah-ha. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

I think I will pick up one of the new books.

Maybe we should have had a Mass Effect 3 ending then

Well due to Halo 3 being 5 years older it would be quite impossible to have an ending from something in the future.

Yeah, I'd definitely check out the Forerunner trilogy. Bear's writing just gives a feeling of being completely alien; it's very "Forerunnery," in my opinion. The books, especially Cryptum, tend to have those "Ohh" moments about Forerunner technology (especially some stuff about the Halo Array). Oh, another thing about a Forerunner's lifespan: they can enter slipspace tubes, and in some cases, time locks, which essentially freeze them in time (like a higher-tech cryo tube)... so yeah, they can live for very, very long times.

If I was too read any of Halo books where should I start? Is there a chronological order to them? I think I read one(Obsidian?) and found it surprisingly good. It dealt with master chief when he was in training to when most of his team got killed or something like that. Cortana also fought with a covenant AI and tgey took over a covenant ship. Been several years since reading it. Ideas?

The first ones aren't too important, just tells the story of master chief up to halo CE. Glasslands is probably important and then the forerunner ones.

I seemed to have lost complete interest in the Halo universe and backstory. The games them selves have become stale to me in alot of ways. They really need to come up with ways to hold fans interests. Like side missions and the game and game world not being so linear as it always is still. I hated ODST with a passion and liked Reach much more. ODST looked and felt like a poser cartoon of the original games and the gameplay felt horrid.

They took the Covenant ship in First Strike I believe, which takes place immediately after the events of Halo 1 (and the book The Flood, which basically covers what happens on Alpha Halo), as they are on their way home.

There are a lot of "filler" books out there as well. Like The Cole Protocol and Contact Harvest, which aren't super essential, but both definitely add to the story, especially the latter as it explains the first official contact between human and Covenant.

As said above, Glasslands is probably a must, especially if you plan on playing Halo 4. The Forerunner Series is probably another filler one, but I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

You should also check out Halo: Evolutions. A bunch of short stories by various Halo authors that I found pretty neat. The one including the Flood actually had me a little on edge as I read it around mid-night and they always freaked me out anyways

Cole Protocol also fleshes out the arbiter, so if you like him read it. Just wanted to add that.

Is that Cole Protocol? Good call, I completely forgot about that.

Yeah, its the only one I actually finished.

Also AlbinoDunmer if you really like brutes and think they are a cool species DO NOT read Halo evolutions. Well at least the story about the brutes.

Alright thanks guys, I was never that big a fan I the Brutes. Just felt like a reskinned less interesting Elite in terms of gameplay. Their lore is interesting though but so long as the book is a good read I'll check it out. I'll do a fly by Barnes and Nobles one day and see what's available. Currently reading the Twilight Reign series so not just yet though lol.

Out of curiosity what are elites and brutes called amongst the covenant? I assume those are just the names humans call them?

Ahhhhh, Halo's still one of my favorite FPS series. Playing Halo CE multiplayer was the best. Shotgun servers on beaver creek with no shields. Could play that for hours on end . Then of course there was my Halo 3 addiction, but Halo Reach didn't really catch me the same way. I've actually started playing Reach again and I'm loving it. No more FPS fatigue for me .

Elites - Sangheli
Brutes - Jiralhnae

That is me spelling it without looking so it may be wrong, anyways those are the species names. In game dialogue just has grunts call the elites '"leader".

Reference for the books (chronologically):

Contact Harvest - Deals with "first contact" between humanity and the Covenant.
Fall of Reach - Part I deals with the creation of the Spartan-IIs, while the latter half leads into the first game.
The Cole Protocol - This is after the creation of the S-IIs, but before the ending of Fall of Reach.
The Flood - Basically a re-telling of the first game with extra details about what exactly the survivors of the Pillar of Autumn were doing during Chief's adventures.
First Strike - How Chief managed to get back to Earh after Halo: CE; leads into Halo 2 and....
Ghosts of Onyx (GoO) - During the events of Halo 2 (and partially Halo 3), this book deals with the remaining S-IIs who were part of Fall of Reach and First Strike (also introduces the S-IIIs).

Those were the original six. Now, there is also Evolutions, which comes in Volume I and Volume II (each is basically the same, but I believe they both have a story not found in the other). Evolutions can't really be placed firmly in the timeline, as it's composed of short stories that go from as early as Cole's life to as late as after Halo 3. After that, there is Glasslands, which continues off from where GoO ends, and theForerunner Trilogy, which consists of two novels, currently: Cryptum and Primordium.

Now, if I had to recommend any of these to you, I'd say Fall of Reach, First Strike, and Ghosts of Onyx are the best "trilogy;" by the time GoO comes around, the author of those three, Nylund, really knows what he's doing. Contact Harvest is a great stand-alone book; you don't really need to know anything about the games, or even the other books, to enjoy it. Evolutions is a real mixed-bag, but prospers from it; to name a few, the short story about Cole (by Nylund) posed some interesting questions, the story about the Flood was creepy as hell, and I greatly enjoyed Buckell's story about the ODST.

On the other hand: I'd stay away from The Flood, The Cole Protocol, and Glasslands. The Flood was basically a re-telling of the first game; if you haven't played that, then I guess you should read The Flood. It didn't really contribute much to the canon, but that's just my opinion. The Cole Protocol did contribute more than The Flood, but I didn't think the writing was that great (Buckell did a terrific job in Evolutions, though).

As I've mentioned numerous times, I really didn't care for Glasslands; it had inconsistent characterization, the author clearly didn't know much about the lore of the Halo-verse, and the message of it was very disappointing. However, given that Glasslands and the upcoming Thursday War tie into Halo 4, if you plan on getting that, you might want to read those (sadly, I'm planning on reading Thursday War as well....).

The Forerunner books, while good, are only necessary to read if you're really interested in their content (the Forerunner/how things were pre-game-timeline), or just want to know everything about everything. They don't "connect" like the other books do.


Whew, that was a lot of explaining!

More art was released http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/04/23/the-world-of-halo-4.aspx

The second page is cooler.

So if I am understanding this right there is a really religious elite who wants to kill humans or whatever. He was featured in glasslands. So it seems to me he took his followers which explains the fleet described in the first level of halo 4. Maybe we will have to fight him. It also explains the non military version of the covenant armor.

Also grunts have new technology to breath methane so there scraggy faces are always showing now.

I am soooo looking forward to Halo 4, I glad that this time next week I'll be playing Halo 1 remake and Halo 3 on my new 360----can't wait .