The #huntthetruth markething campaign began and gave us the #HUNTtheTRUTH soundcloud series, basically an awesome radio play. Week by week we listen to journalist Benjamin Giraud, a Journalist. War photographer.

For decades, I’ve served the galaxy as a journalist and war photographer. I’ve covered human-interest stories on Earth and in the Inner and Outer Colonies. I’ve also contracted for the government, covering military affairs. I was at New Mombasa when the Master Chief first appeared to combat the Covenant attack.

Season 1 Supercut

Season 2

Listen to the rest of the episodes here. (PS: They are awesome)

https://soundcloud.com/huntthetruth/sets/hunt-the-truth

They are also on iTunes as Podcast

Holy shit! I didn't see the second one, that is freaking sweet!

Holy Mother of God, that was fantastic!

I wonder if this game will really come out on October 27th. Sorry to be skeptical but this has been the generation of delays after all.

This seems like the time Raiden hunted Solid Snake, the leader of the Sons of Liberty.

They've changed MC's suit so much, he was hardly even recognizable to me at first

Chief's gone rogue fuck fuck fuck yes yes yes

Wait in Ep1, if they went to such lengths to conceal the fact that john was kidnapped by creating a clone so no one would notice why would they also create false paperwork to directly contradict their own efforts also the fact a piece of paper work was recovered from a plant that was wiped out seem super contrived

Eh, this is some fun cryptic stuff but on the other hand Halo 4's story was a pile of trash. Are they retkoning halo 1 through 4? Is this paving the way for another game where you won't know what the fuck is going on unless you've read a book or listened to their Serial knock off? More importantly, are they sticking with those terrible orange dudes? Those things were miles away from the covenant in term of enemy design.

STOP TOYING WITH MY EMOOOOOOOTIONS.

( I originally had some stuff said in the previous post above, but then decided to change my mind, so I'll collect all my thoughts here)

Well, might as well give my two cents on the fan-fucking-tastic trailers we got here.

Honestly, It's very rare for a company to be so misleading about their story. By now, with most games we usually know what the hell is going on on a conceptual level at least, but the guys at 343industries are keeping their cards as close to their chests as possible. I mean, sure we can get a vague idea on what might go down, but essential what I'm about to say,and this goes for everyone, has no bearing on what may or may not happen within the game itself, simply because these trailers are mostly symbolic. In fact, no theory may even come close.

Anyways, it obvious that something catastrophically big goes down during the campaign, for which both Chief and Locke blame each other. To me, it seems as if either both are responsible for the tragedy or neither are really at fault. Either ways, that a conflict ensues isn't hard to figure out. At first glance that the most I got out from this, but the more I thought about the whole setting it seemed to add up in a really weird way. Hear me out on this one. In Lockes trailer, it's still morning and Locke seems to be at an advantage. The sinister tone in Locke's voice suggests that he was indeed responsible for something horrible and that Master Chief is or is going to take the fall for it. The daytime may suggest an earlier stage in the campaign. The Master Chiefs statue also seems undamaged, so his reputation may still be intact

However, when we move on to MCs segment, we see that the statue is much more damaged and ruined, which may imply that Locke managed to label Chief as a traitor and a villain. The fact that it's dawn may suggest that we have already progressed further into the story. Normally I'd say that the state of the statue may imply that Chief has been corrupted, but given his tone, fanbase, and general characterization in the previous game, I'd doubt that's a valid possibility. All hints have been leading me towards believing that while MCs reputation will be tarnished, he'll still valiantly go on with his crusade. If anything, from a symbolic perspective, things aren't looking good for Locke.

As for the HuntTheTruth# episode, there were a few things I found particularly interesting. Benjamin says that MC went to a boxing ring at the age of 12, which seemed odd since we know that John was abducted at the age of 6. Later, however, according to the document he received, he confirms that John indeed "die" when he was six years old, meaning that the 12 year old kid who floored the brutish boxer was actually, or most likely, a flash clone. This is all pretty cool, but the most intriguing part is thinking about what this clone was apparently capable of. I mean, flooring a good fighter at the age of 12 with no formal training? That's pretty damn impressive given these clones are generally weaker than the genuine articles. So, did the clone survive for 6 more years before dying? Did it maintain Johns unique and amazing abilities? Or, did the clone die at all? This seems to be taking a similar route as the whole IsoDidact and UrDidact ordeal. Is is possible that there are two Johns, one a Hero, and the other an insurrectionist? I mean, if they could pull something like that off, it would be fucking fantastic, though they'll need to contextualize and incorporate a lot of lore into Halo 5's campaign, first.

Which brings me to my next point, this clone theory seems way to far fetched and the writers would have to probably alter a lot of things within the lore, which would only cause further problems such as inconsistency and plot-holes. I wager the guy who Benjamin interviews is either hired by ONI, or is an ONI agent in general, which means that the whole story about John entering the boxing ring and him being in the sixth grade was all fabricated.

Cannot wait for more news!

He is hired by ONI, so my guess that ONI would try to paint 117 as a traitor seems pretty likely. Why is still unknown. My guess is that Doctor Halsey and her alliance with Jul'Mdama will play into it.

Super excited for Halo 5. I bet these trailers are super misleading and the game will be a Master Chief/ Locke buddy cop kinda thing.

I think the trailer is supposed to symbolic of what ONI is setting up for, though man, this is probably the best marketing in a Halo game ever, I'm really hoping that this manhunt for Chief, and trailing him around the galaxy turns out well.

Will be interesting to see if they make that release date... and if they do, how polished the game will be. 343 can't afford any more screw ups like with the MCC. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be very solid. Hopefully, Microsoft will allow the release date to be pushed back if needed.

@esuing: Considering how solid the beta felt last year, I'm pretty confident with them making that release date.

@isomeri: @esuing: I was about to say the same thing, the Beta felt really smooth, I'm hopeful that the full game will too.

@big_jon: @isomeri: So, I played some of the beta as well. Gameplay-wise, I thought it was very tight... farther along than I expected, however, I still felt the connections into the games were sporadic, even dumping me back to the lobby occasionally. Obviously, I'm not expecting it to be perfect because it's a beta and I'm reasonable. I also admit that I only really played the beta one night, so my opinion may be off from people that played it constantly.... from MY experience, there are two things I was forced to consider:

1) The net code could be (or could HAVE been) very similar to the net code from the MCC, which I think was inherently flawed. That's why they could never just tweak the MCC in the first 5 months and fix it. it was poorly designed and needed to be overhauled. If they're still working with that as a base for Halo 5, that could be an issue.

2) The beta wouldn't stress test the net code like a full blown release, so although it didn't seem quite as bad as the MCC issues, it may not have been tested as harshly due to having less users hitting the servers. So if you're thinking, "Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as MCC," that may be a reason.

Either way, I don't want to come off negative... just that it's a small concern coming out of the beta for me. Like I said, it was a beta, so I'm not running around the internet in a panic. Would love to see another open beta test with the public, but I think they already said that wasn't happening.

I dunno, both of those trailers seem corny as shit to me. I hope they don't lean into the rogue protagonist cliché so much in the actual game. I guess they could end up subverting it, but that might be giving them too much credit. Maybe my expectations are just out whack. It’s not like Halo has a history of great storytelling. Which is a shame, really. Halo has a rich universe, but the games almost never tell a fresh, coherent story.

John? Locke? DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T DO!

Well, I guess you're in the minority on that one. I consider Halo to have one of the best FPS campaigns.

@theacidskull said:

Don't get me wrong, I think Halo campaigns are often terrific for a variety of reasons. The plot just isn't one of them.

Well they are pretty straight-forward, I'll give you that.

I feel like there is some misdirection happening with 343 and that's where the whole hunt the truth thing is coming into play.

I don't know much about halo lore but those two trailers sure seemed pretty damn cool.

Also, something to be considered in the second trailer, is Master Chief talking to the statue? Is the damaged statue supposed to represent his damaged state? The more I think about this the more I think these trailers are purely symbolic. Especially when you consider that the statue in Lockes trailer is pristine.

I think this is all leading up to a game where you mainly play as Locke trailing the now AWOL Chief, I also think this is leading up to the Mass Effect style hub world thing where you choose the order of you missions.

Seriously the potential for better story telling and character interaction here is huge, I can only hope that 343 can pull it off.

That "Starry Night" trailer is seriously one of my favourite video game trailers. I still check it out every once in a while. Never really cared if it was canon or not, but it's cool to see it is. Judging by those trailers they seem to be doing some much more interesting stuff with the story here, compared to the whole precursor whatsits from Halo 4. I really love stories that pit "protagonists" against each other.

Also, what's this about something called ONI being in the game? Goddamnit, I wish Bungie would make another Oni game. I played the fuck outta that thing. I know it's 343 here, but still.

A good analysis

Another thing to look at is, how the MC is viewed. Locke sees him as some great " hero " that has fallen. He came to the statue of himself because he thinks that the MC sees himself as a God that can do whatever he wants. But it is Locke's duty to bring him down.

It is what whoever is in control of ONI / the spartan program has been telling everyone so that they turn their backs on halsey.

The other is how MC views everything. He is on a mission, everyone worships him, but he views himself as broken, unsure. He just knows that he has to complete his mission, to save humanity. It is how he was trained. All during his training he was unsure of things, but he had his CO to help guide him. Then he had Cortana to help guide him, and now he has no one.

Neither are Truth, Neither are a lie.

They are both half truths.

We all know that MC would never do that to another spartan. Not even as an enemy. He defeated his enemy and removed them as an obstacle, knows that the UNSC will need soldiers like him to fight in the coming battles.

Also what he says in the beginning is him talking to himself, not to locke.From Here

Okay, okay, this is awesome.

If this is the angle they're going toward with the new Halo, and not going deeper into the "ancient evil / chosen one" bullshit, I am super excited.

Or rather, they are going into the "chosen one" bullshit-- but in the sense that it's the humans who think Master Chief is the chosen one, and he's the one who knows that it's bullshit.

Great trailers, either way!

Only just seen those two trailers now and really like what's being set up here. Colour me intrigued!

I'm playing through Halo 4 right now. I am having a lot of fun with it. I am so stoked for Halo 5 later this year. This is why I own an Xbox One.

Uuuuuugh. Boring. Even Halo 4 had better trailers and that game was garbage from top to bottom. Does no one recall the phenomenal Halo 3 trailers/ads? The Believe diorama still gives me chills. And Starry Night? C'mon son.

343i putting out cryptic story trailers and ad campaigns after the disaster that was H4's story makes it seem like they're trying too hard. Just give me my "YO THIS IS HALO AS FUCK, GET HYPE" trailer and I'll give you my money.

You're comparing television advertisements to online teasers.

Not much is known about the story, MS hasn't started the mass marketing for this game yet. They won't until probably September, that's when you'll see the polished made for TV hype ads.

@falconer: I think this is the most interesting Halo tv trailer ever, this is seriously awesome, it's genius marketing too. This is more interesting than Starry night.

Yea these trailers are a cool idea, the Beta was really good I already just want the singleplayer to feel like that and if they actually pull off something cool with the story, bonus.

Starry Night was, like, 10 seconds of cool followed by cheap pseudo-gameplay.

Hunt the truth UPDATE

Here is the Document from the first Audio Episode.

Wait..something just occurred to me. Who is Chief really talking to in the trailer? Locke or himself?

Maybe a little bit of both.

Site was updated, lol, this is pretty dumb.

The dude talking actually took the photo, WUT.

I don't know. Feel like this kinda really cryptic stuff only works if your track record shows you will be able to deliver on it. Halo 4 gave me the exact opposite impression.

ONI's always been around in Halo lore. Office of Naval Intelligence.

Sorry, no Konoko here.

@bigjeffrey:

Oh wooooow I didn't expect them to go this crazy with it

Well. The end of that Part 1 audio log was...something.

This is definitely the most interested in the Halo story I have been so far (and I have read a couple of the books and do buy the comic every month).

The Halo guys were always extraordinarily good at this meta-media narrative stuff.

Hope the game lives up to that standard.

Are they posting these on Halo Waypoint? I let my xbox live sub lapse but if theres a reason to resub...

Seeing '#huntthetruth' makes me want to have absolutely nothing to do with this game. Good Lord.

I know some of it is on the Halo Channel on Xbone, not sure about other locations.

How so, if I may ask?

@theacidskull:

Any type of hashtag marketing is gross to me. It feels opportunistic and placating I guess. It just grosses me out. Plus when things are over-marketed it makes me wonder if they are trying to goose sales because they feel they have to. So marketing that is persistent and constant does the opposite for me the I imagine marketers would hope.