http://www.gamespot.com/halo-4/videos/halo-4-a-hero-awakens-6394457/

(Source: Gamespot)

(THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN THIS VIDEO)

This is the ViDoc from PAX this year, talking about motion capture and voice over mainly.

I have a question that is sort of hard to answer... Who do you think has done a better job on ViDOCS?? Bungie or 343?

It's hard to seperate from the fact that 343's are newer, but in your opinion who did (or has done) a better overall job and why?

I was about to post this, I really am loving this stuff right now.

Bungie Vidocs were more revealing, and often more rewarding in quantity of content, but 343 is talking Halo's story in some really interesting directions, Halo 4 could be an amazing start for a new trilogy, Master Chief has never had the kind of challenges that they are eluding to, this games sounds like it will have an amazing story if it is headed where I think it is headed.

Chief and Cortana have always had interesting chemistry, but they never took it far enough to explore what it means to have a relationship with an AI. Hopefully 343 can make good on this concept.

Some would also argue that Bungie played it too safe in recycling the same sandbox elements and basic level design ever since Halo 1. But I think 343 comes across as an ensemble crew of talent, genuinely eager mix things up and prove themselves. Maybe a fresh set of young minds is just what the franchise needed. The pressure they're under to live up to the Bungie legacy should help the final product.

Bungie's ViDocs proved that you can make anything look good with proper editing. But it's perhaps too easy to look back on pre-release marketing critically, because let's face it, they're all just designed to build as much hype as possible. I'll never forget how fucking cool The Pit looked in alpha, what my expectations were going in, and then knowing now how different the final game ended up being...

Might as well post the PAX panel here - concept art shown off, plus a Twin Peaks reference:

I don't know why but i get so damn excited whenever i see a new Halo Vidoc is posted.

Definitely my favorite form of advertisements for video games.

@DharmaBum said:

Bungie's ViDocs proved that you can make anything look good with proper editing.

Nothing embodies that more than this ViDoc:

@Fosssil: oh man, why would you... I can't even watch that. It's funny how Luke Smith got hired by Bungie for an article he wrote critiquing Halo 2's flaws, and then as soon as he's on board everything multiplayer-wise pretty much went downhill.

@DharmaBum: Ha, I'd totally forgotten about that article. He was up in arms about the weapons no longer spawning on static timers. That's a pretty radical transformation to go from a timing H1 kid to "I love Armor Lock."

@Fosssil: http://www.1up.com/features/broken-halo

Indeed, also somewhat responsible for the removal of 1-50 in favor of some convoluted Arena ranking that doesn't encourage teamwork.

They really are pulling out all the stops on this one. I hope 343i hits this one out of the park and continues on to make great games in the future. With all the talent at that studio, I'd be very interested to see them make something non-Halo related.