tl;dr: dont watch the movie, its not worth it, read my review instead L:

Recently I watched "RRR" / "Roudram Ranam Rudhiram" / "Rise Roar Revolt" / "Redeem Redeem Redeem"
because I misidentified it as "Baahubali: *" which contains an infamous human catapult scene.
Well, no use crying over spilled milk, I better cope with this by pretending
it was mentally stimulating, within the confines of a supposed-to-be pseudo-intellectual schitzo rant.

As a reminder,
the rule-of-cool, as I know it, originates from tabletop-rpgs. It simply states:
> Fun is preferable over realism.
And it is a guiding-light to newbie GMs, pulling them away from the darkness of power-tripping.
However, it is a well known concept in fiction too, and a sign to tap in critique-criticism.
Remember this, dear reader.

I am a man, I love the sign of the stronger expressing his supremacy.
I like powerful cold'n'calculating villains and I like John Wick murdering without end.
Women love convoluted human relations.
They like conflict and drama as a whole.
Both of these, simply by their nature, involve suffering.
Emotional or physical; the point being that it relies on harm, but as a side effect.

Indians love physical harm.
They don't like extended suffering, they don't care about the context,
they don't like the consequences of harm, they like the physical harm as an end.
I've heard this, I have seen a few example and this movie is final conformation.
You will see.

The movie is supposedly centered around the rivalry of the two protagonists.
I would prefer to not use their names
-because I don't remember them, and I don't expect you to do either-,
instead I'll opt for titles.
The movie actually calls them "The Dog" and "The Tiger" at one point.
I could call them that...

Anyways, meet The Dragon,
unwilling to bend the knee to le hecking evil English colonizers of circa 1900.
His counter-part is The Mad Dog, who works for the aforementioned racists.
Both of them are brave and fierce warriors and...
Ugh, The Dragon sobs sometimes while The Mad Dog is cold on the surface?
I would like to characterize them further,
but I'm not exactly getting much help from the movie.

In fact, that warrior part, right? Ugh.
So if you were to ask me what type of warrior Rambo is,
I would answer guerilla.
If you were to ask about Jack sparrow,
I would tell you his weaselly ways.
Wick? Well trained, precise and relentless.
Heavy from tf2? Brute force.
Etc, etc, etc.

These two however,
are extremely in hand to hand, bow/arrow and firearm combat,
have inhuman strength, speed, movement, resilience,
etc, etc, etc.
They are amazing at everything,
but only to the degree the plot needs them.

Now lets be clear here,
the writers are not making a power-fantasy,
no, not in a conventional sense.
It, with some generosity, a power-fantasy such
that a five year-old hitting together his lead soldiers is.
And, that's an important point,
because everything else is just as primitive.
The reason why this is crucial,
is that it reflects on indian society as a whole.

Allow me to elaborate on the inhuman movement part too.
Its acrobatics nor parkour.
You know how in chinese martial art movies people are basically flying?
But there is integral to the universe. Its simply a thing that happens.
Here, these two are simple exempt from the laws of physics.
Have you played AC Unity?
Me neither, partially because the climbing animations are uncanny.
That, but with shitskins.

Anyways,
the story starts with the sister of The Dragon being kidnapped
by Ze Dominatrix and her husband, Fat Hunter Guy.
This scene gives us the single best clip of the movie,
one that I'm unsure of how to link here. (Emil?)

This is followed by The Mad dog shown in law-enforcement service.
He then proceeds to beat up his völkmates,
in the most terrifying creepy-crawly-horror scene:
being rushed by hordes of indianmen.

10 minutes in, we have already seen the head of a young mother being bashed in
and people rolling down a hill in slow-mo with stunningly
detailed cracking and snapping sound-effects.
I will refrain from detailing everything like that,
but trust me, its constant.

Much of the following scenes can be summed up with single sentences:
> The Dragon is introduced as a bit of a nature's man
> he wants his sister back
> The Mad Dog must apprehend a rumored threat to authority to gain his dream promotion (you have to guesses to figure out who that would be)
> the two meet by accident and their friendship is established (using a montage)
> The Dragon lusts after a whitewoman
> she, as it is clearly true for all whitewomen, is unable to resist the call of the 5 inch shit colored (and soaked) D
> ugh, dance?

This is apparently a musical. Sort of?
There is music involved, specifically written for this piece.
People do sing. People do dance.
Yet, its sparsely spread out and neither all in-universe or all dramatic.
Clearly, this is a bit of culture shock, however there is a parallel that explains it all for me.
Consider this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lFx_eAoOGU&list=PLxS5KZTYL0NpjPEkYp42hNyxZpXSHisA2
And this: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

At this point the viewer is also made familiar with their use of CGI,
To be fair, it looks decent, for 2007 that is.
Which, I would honestly not mind, if it wasn't overused in scenes running for way too long.
Oh, wait, I have a right arrow key, I sincerely don't mind then.
But, the reason I need to skip ahead is because the misapply the rule of cool.
Capturing a computer tiger for 5 minutes is not cool.
Random train crashes being solved with random rope tricks is not cool.

I assume, the way it was written is constructing the general story arch and the action,
then filling it in with dialog under 15 mins before shooting.
It does feel like that atleast.
No one ever says anything actually interesting.
At best, you get a short explanation of what the next action scene will be.

Then, The Mad Dog is paralyzed by venom while The Dragon reveals his identity
and hurries away to an attempt to free her sister.
His plan involves freeing numerous wild and dangerous beasts
within the confines of the br*tish headquarters during a night party.
The same headquarters which was just established to be the home of musicians,
good hearted servants and many generic civilians, including the crush of Mr. Dragon.
Many die in the chaos.
The morality of his actions is never brought up.
Anyways, The Mad Dog catches up and reveals his real identity as a police officer
as he attempts to arrest Mr. Dragon.

I have heard this advice from Crimson Rogue,
where if you want a character to be badass, make him get beaten up so he can stand up.
This is good advice; to a degree that is.
Then again, we know why they are doing it.

The Dragon protests by stabbing The Mad Dog clean through the heart,
from which he promptly stands up and accomplishes his mission.

He finally gets his dream position, but its not what it appears.
You see, he wasn't actually a race-traitor of the poo-nation,
no stalker child, he is actually plotting a revolution by leaking guns to the public.
His plan was all along to scam his way into the ranks of the white people,
only to redistribute their wealth among his own!
Wait. Wow, wait...

Carrying on, now its time for Mister Dragon to be publicly tortured by none other,
but his good friend.
When Ze Dominatrix, decides that normal whipping is not severe enough of a punishment,
she lends her special barbed-wire-whip that she always has by her side,
with a 15 meter effortless throw.
And there is singing again for some reason?

After the ordeal, The Mad Dog has a change of heart,
where his life goal must be overwritten now, by friendship,
because Mister Dragon is a revolutionary symbol now, I guess.
This is followed with concern, by his uncle,
who also works for the police, is just now introduced,
does that annoying indian head wobbling thing
and is complete irrelevant going forward.

Therefor, he manipulates his way into an arrangement,
where Mister Dragon is to be executed at an abandoned place,
along with her sister.
This is of course a plot for the perfect rescue mission,
which involves The Mad Dog getting impaled on a tree,
then severely beaten, captured, imprisoned and starved.
Regardless, the execution candidates run free into the wild.

Months pass and we see what the English have been up to:
They are searching the city from house to house as that will surely yield results,
as "there was nowhere else to go".
Lol, don't they know my man The Dragon is a nature's man?
He run into the wild never to be seen again!
Fucking retards.

Mister Dragon is hiding out in some random house.

Wait, what?

He is just chilling. No need for cellars or attics.

Wait, what?

He and his sister are starving.

Wait, what?

Then the br*tish come, but they pretend to have cholera so the intruders run away.

Wait, what?

The city lockdown is never mentioned again.

Wait, what?

Not a single happening makes sense here.
Things are established in a rush, then defused even quicker with no consequences,
or even key frames the writers could have wanted to force in.

Ugh, regardless, Mister Dragon meets the fiancee of The Mad Dog
and his full backstory is finally elaborated on.

In a flashback, it is established that in the indian dining ethic,
it is quite important which one of your bare hands you use to eat from the ground,
but also,
he was raised under his fathers paramilitary regime.
Mr. Father used to be a soldier,
but went rogue after he witnessed the English carry out a brutal execution with a hammer,
just to save a bullet.
How the English say that a bullet is worth more than an indian life is one of his main talking points.
Comedically enough, he doesn't refute it, he just seethes endlessly.
The Mad dog, behind his fathers back steals his rifle -the only one they have-
and practices shooting.
This is something he apparently was born for with, super human abilities.
Not to mention that he is like 9 and shoots standing.
When his father learns this, he wants to severely punish him until he realizes his skill.
This is an express of the ancient indian wisdom
that discipline is unimportant if the consequences of your actions so happen to turn out well.

Their happiness is short-lived however.
They are attacked by vicious Englishman.
A smaller army which The Mad Dog manages to wipe,
with the help of his fathers sacrifice,
who makes him promise to become a revolutionary.

And there is the fiancee.
Mostly just to deliver trivial dialog in this scene,
educate The Dragon on the good-heart of his man
and to compel him to launch a rescue mission.
In that exact instant of the night, and all alone, of course.

That's the other thing.
These two are showcased as mythical heroes,
and your common indian as cowardly, weak and submissive to the whiteman's yoke.
Named characters are slightly better,
but by the virtue of taking place in india,
every scene has thousands of insect people refusing to act like men.
This, sounds about right to me.

Anyways, we reached our conclusion within the confines of a 25 minute long action scene.

Mister Dragon breaks into the prison yard,
where his friend is kept in an undergound cage.
They find each other with TCP/groundpounding and the power of brotherhood,
which is significantly more retarded then The Mad Dog simply extending his hand from the cage.
They begin to flee, but on no, he can't walk on his tortured legs so The Mad Dog pigibacks.
They proceed to beat up, then shoot half a battalion while exhibiting this image of Kali.
To be fair, this is fun enough that it is a correct application of the rule of cool.
They drop their looted weapons, climb a tower,
they look so cool that the guns spawn back at their hands,
they jump off and flee into the jungle.

But, oh no, they are spending the special forces!

Doctor Dragon rubs cow dung on Mister Mad Dog's broken knees and that makes it all better.
Good thing too, because they are surrender by silent and deadly assassins,
and their 400 pound lamps.
The leader of the special forces then has a meaningless conversation
with the headquarters on his mobile phone | ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ | mid-mission .

They proceed to kill everyone. By they I mean the protagonists of course.

The scene has been dragging on for so long now that its day break.

They, go on to attack the headquarters head on.
They kill everyone there too.
The Mad Dog finally gets to chance to recite his father's wisdom
about a bullet being more expensive than an indian life,
while executing The Fat Hunter Guy.

Oh, there is one (1, singular) survivor,
romance-interest lady;
who, now must live in a society that does not recognize the concept of consent.

This board is set to just use HTML by default.
Allowed tags: a (href), b, blockquote, br, code, dd, dl, dt, em, i, li, ol, p, pre, strong, sub, sup, u, ul.
You can see these via More Options -> formatting: HTML. I should probably just hardcode that to always be visible.

for example, the most based website to ever be created by mankind.

--

for example, the most based website to ever be created by mankind.

for some reason pre refuses to just work, whatever...

> Captcha: souckish

Pro tip: Never watch Indian movies.
Con tip: Captcha is fucking me...

captcha has been cucked for the mentally immoral and physically crippled

xolatile: We can't play here, 3 of us, servers are retarded...
xolatile: It's either 1v1 or 2v2, can't set up 1v2.
emil: I'll just open up another client...
xolatile: Holy fuck. L:
anon: He can play with his other pinky finger.
emil: Yeah, with my mighty pinky finger.
* xolatile dies...
* xolatile respawns after 3 minutes...

> tripfagging
ew

yesterday i have binge-watched the Evil Dead trilogy.
first watch, but i was well aware of the series.
1) when i was a child young enough to feel true, petrifying fear, i saw roughly 10 seconds from episode II, which utterly terrified me. good shit. really makes one wonder about the times that are not coming back, etc.
2) back in the day when top 10 lists were not... erm, when the world has yet to realize that top 10 lists are cringe and gay, watch-mojo was bringing it up fucking constantly

if i had to describe it with one word, i would say BOLD.
the story barely makes any sense, random things keep happening, each film retcons the previous one, the tone and the pacing is all over the place...
but no one gives a fuck, because the end product is entertaining with its non-compromising, firm creativity.

it is a very nice contrast to the slop we have nowadays.

it has long and inventive shots, instead of sub-second close-ups.

you always get a good idea at how the practical effects were filmed, but its still more immersive than the cartoon style called CGI.

a critique might ask "but what is the motivation of the antagonist?" or "what is the origin of this 'curse' of yours?".
a poser-NPC-critique will regurgitate these questions without considering context.
then, a poser-NPC-writer will feel like a cornered animal so next time he incorporates "they are a biblical evil" and "the indian tribe of Buffalobuttfuckers created it as a weapon of mass destruction, 100 BC". what he does not realize that it still doesnt make any fucking sense and no actually fucking cares.
in Evil Dead, the wall will bleed randomly. i do not know why and i do not care why, i simply like the aesthetic.

stunts clearly took dedication, nowadays we have CGI muscles because working out for a few weeks is too much to ask from a 'professional'.

the characters in episode I get barely any screentime to express themselves, yet they are more human than most anyone you get normally.
the state of stereotyping is pathetic. allow me to go on a tangent before i expand on that.

regarding art, the importance of subverting expectations is rightfully stressed.
the problem is that the braindead will take it literally.
presenting me with any information which i could not predict is subverting my expectations.
examples from the movie:
> the timing of people turning into deadites
> chainsaw hand
> zombie ballerina logistics
> the hero falling on the stares (without being chased!)
all the above subverted my expectations by deploying constructive creativity.
a few years back some hungarian theatre had this program where an hour into the show,
a woman would sit on a stool, completely naked except for dripping honey and feathers,
reciting a poem while masturbating with the microphone.
that also subverts one's expectations, but how?
"oh its a powerful statement breaking down social norms!"
exactly, its destructive. the only reason its more rememberable than coating ants in nailpolist,
is because feasts upon civilization.
leaving moralfagging out of the debate; that is plain lazy.

stereotypical characters are boring. every writer knows that.
the problem is when that statement is -again- taken too literally.
a black, queer, wheelchair bound superhero is not technically stereotypical.
however, if xhe continuously takes the most trivial path, congratulation, you still managed to write a stereotype.
call it the rat in the maze stereotype or dont, because its besides the point.
beyond the labels attached which -Lord save me- only come up as pointless smalltalk, there is no character.
Evil Dead I, however has Ash and Scott.
having seen the entire movie, i can tell that Scott technically falls into a selfish alpha stereotype
while Ash is technically the beta who becomes a chad under pressure.
however, they do not feel as such, because its not easy to predict.
how? simple, its not spoiled up front.
> less is more.
> the left cant meme.
> born to process visual information
> 3'523'847 words and still counting

ugh, so the movies; remember? this is still about Evil Dead

each film has a wildly different tone.
i fucking love that shit.
it also prevents sloppification from chasing the same high, resulting in either dullness or power scaling issues.
this statement also applies to music.
other examples would include Alien, Pirates of the Caribbean or the John Wick series.
and guess what, episode III was not my cup of the, but i still appreciate that it is unapologetically itself.

the story of Evil Dead?
its fucking retarded. i could explain it in a few sentences here.
when reviewing RRR, i went on and on and on about the story.
you should not watch RRR.
you should watch Evil Dead.
the difference is that the later put actual value into being a film
while the first is simply easier to digest that way (might as well be a novel read by AI with Subway Surfers gameplay (except for the Kali rifleman scene (that was creative (lisp is love lisp is life)))).

test

# Halo review

I *grew up* on Halo.
What this really means in reality of course,
is that I spent some medium amount of time
with Halo 3 as a young child and it happened to cement in my head.
Time pink washes memories, especially if they recorded through pink glasses to begin with.

But try explaining that to someone who is bragging about (long) past achievements...

Anyways, tho I invested time in later entries and Halo Legends,
still I have no fucking idea what the story is supposed to be.
So, I picked up the dusty Master Chief's Collection from my shelf,
and ended up with meditation on game design.

## Halo 1

### Enemies
Let me tell you about the obstacles before I explain the solutions.

There are 4 kinds of aliens belonging to the so called Covenant:

Grunts: 
Jackals: 
Elites: 
Hunters: 

**Grunts** will chip away at your health or cut your way of retreat
while you are busy with tougher enemies.

**Jackals** have shields that protects not only them, but their teammates too.

**Elites** are the real danger.
They are fast, tough and heavy hitting.
Some are able to cloak and or carry oneshotting energy swords.

**Hunters** are mini-boss type thugs.
Large health pool, small weak points, with multiple ways to one shot the player.

Then, in the second third of the game, the Flood is introduced.
They are:
these little-shits called infectors: [](little_shit.png)
Bursters: [](burster.png)
And zombies: [](zombie.png)

Infectors come in great numbers and will suicide headbutt you.
Bursters slowly limp in smaller numbers and attempt to Christmas festival you.
Zombies are zombies, but they carry guns and shoot at you *sometimes*.

Then, there is the occasional "Sentinel" which is a floating drone, trying to fry you.
[](sentinel.png)

It is polishing that makes a video game good.

Recently I played a "totally not asset flip" "extraction shooter" at a con type event.
Each component was OK on a surface level, but there was no holistic angle.

The Covenant enemies have just that.
Most of the time you will be fighting against groups of the first 3 species.
They are responsive and lively enough that the encounters never become boring.
For example:
* grenades freak them the fuck out
* Grunts will panic when Elites are killed next to them
* Jackals realistically feel safe behind their shields
* Elites try to dodge to the sides while you exchange fire
* Elites will retreat when their energy armour depletes, or -if they cant- they will run at you
* grenades and charged shots come unpredictably, but the attacks are well telegraphed

The point is, that combat is in the sweat spot: hard to predict, but not bullshit.
Screw the first one up and you are left with boring enemies that stand around waiting to be shot.
Screw the second one up and you get catmario.

May it not be lost on you that I'm basically explaining how it only feels good
to kill something that feels alive.

The zombies; they are zombies...
They come in hordes.
It feels good to kill them, for a while.
As implied, eventually they become boring.

The Sentinels barely contribute, but I guess I'm glad they are here.

### Tools
If, given this line up,
you were assigned an assault rifle,
to kill those alien bastards,
the game would be unplayable.
Thankfully, this game has something called *design*.

There are numerous weapons and each and every one of them is good.
Your preferred gun will constantly shift depending on the encounter ahead.
Different enemy compositions ask for different weapon combinations(!).
Deciding which weapons to take with you is a real decision.
You also have to manage your limited ammo.
There was one occasion where I was soft locked by my weapons and their lack of ammo.
Usually you can backtrack to get a more appropriate gun;
this happened at one of the few exceptions.

Grenades.
Grenades are the bread-and-butter of the game.
A well placed grenade is the difference between 8 enemies and none at all.
They are high risk, high reward toys.
And, the devs rightfully give you plenty enough.

You have two life lines: an energy armour and a health bar.
Shield regenerates, health requires pickups, shrimple as.
Health not so much a safety-net, more like a resource:
something I am rationing between rooms.
It allows me to get into better positions
or finish of enemies running for the backline,
thereby saving ammo.

Maps and arenas are spacious and you are given room to maneuver.
Given that enemies do not always agro you
-they could be unaware of your position or fighting other foes-,
you will often be flanking.
Conflict is also not always the solution:
Sometimes you have to clutch your teeth and run for the objective.
Its also worth mentioning that there are rewards hidden away:
health, ammo, rare guns, even power ups.

### Difficulty
Since I'm a masochistic bastard, I went with Legendary difficulty,
which is the hardest from the 4 provided options.
This proved to be the correct call.
The game was hard, but far from impossible or frustrating.
This is all thanks to the rest of the game design:
I was always given the tools and space to find a working solution.

I could always find a combination of guns,
good grenade throws and movement that would eventually allow me to progress.
I was coming up with my own solutions.

---

Now going back to that extraction-shooter.
Since it was a tech demo and I had limited time with it,
i wanted to progress as fast as possible.

During the tutorial, I'm presented with a barricade of bookshelves that I'm told to shoot.
Since that's retarded, I melee it and instead of the intended breaking into a million pieces,
it floats as a low gravity object.
It featured SCP-173 which, unless observed, its running at you at mach 3 to snap your neck.
So, I was trying to look back occasionally trying to limit its movement.
For 3 peaks it was not even in the same corridor,
but before the fourth I was face down on the floor.
Then, you progress into an office space with generic zombies that you can slalom in between,
but then you will have trouble picking up the required fuses
because the hitbox of their interaction is too small.
For all of the above choices, the devs -who were watching over my shoulder- though I was retarded.

> Why aren't you following the clear instructions?
Because I'm not a puppet and you are most definitely not my master.
I'm here to experience something, not to follow your motions.

Art requires interpretation and people differ.

Should be self evident, but there is always a bigger retard retarding around.

---

The difficulty is flat.
Over all each part is similarly hard
(with the notable exception that the Flood missions are easy as hell).
More on that a bit later.

### Verdict
Its fun, go play it.
It also contains many examples of good game design.
However, let it be known,
tho I abstained from mentioning the flaws its not a perfect master piece.

## Halo 2
Just about anything that Halo 1 did right Halo 2 fucks up.

I have to start with the difficulty for the rest to make sense.
Again, I went with Legendary assuming the game knowns the definition of insanity.
I quickly learn that 1v1-ing an Elite face-to-face always kills me
and even a single Grunt is a serious threat to my life.
Then, in the very first map, I am locked in a room with waves of enemies;
the real problem being that I'm missing all my tools.

I have no ammo.
The cap has been brought lower on human guns and I'm not allowed to backtrack.
Even if I were to bring a different gun here, I would be fucked.

I have no space to maneuver.
I am physically locked in a room the size of something
that you would expect from a Call of Dáty campaign.

I am given heaps of grenades,
with the asterisk that the blast radius is smaller
and not even a direct hit can kill an Elite.

So, I swallowed hard and lowered the difficulty to Normal.

---

What followed was laughable.

I performed the w+M1 equivalent of a controller.
The new SMG in particular has the dps of an orbital cannon.
You can just run head-first into gunfire and your gun
that requires no aiming will mown EVERYONE down.

There are vehicle sections that go on for way too long.

I am constantly waiting for some shitty ship to land, or a door to open.

I am running from meaningless-short-cutscene to short-meaningless-cutscene.

I can not tell where I'm going.
Often times I walk into what seems to be a dead-end,
only to find it has a narrow passage on a random side
that loops back to the general direction I came from.
Other times I cover so much empty ground forwards
that I start to wonder whether I broke the game somehow.

---

Then, I am given as a mission as an Elite.
It looked actually exciting.
Look, I am even given a plasma sword and the cloak ability!

5 minutes later I find myself with a broken sword,
thinking about that I am not given the opportunity to use my poorly polished cloak,
while I am casually shooting at my teammates because there is
no visual distinction between them and us.

Aaand there are bossfights now?
Except it takes longer to kill a Hunter than this flying nigger.
For the next one,
you have to beat up the elderly,
which is fine, except he bleeds if you stab him.
Therefor, it takes me 10 minutes to realize that I should be
jumping onto his space-wheelchair with X to start dealing damage.

---

I just sort of zoned out during the mid section.
The combat became harder,
however, most of the time I can just skip encounters.
I have no inceptive to fight -its not fun and there is no reward-,
so I'm just running forward.

### The Gravemind
Then comes The Gravemind and the last 3 levels following it
and gameplay takes a 180.

The level design returns to its roots;
now my positioning actually matters.
I catch myself paying attention to my ammo.
The new Covenant enemies, Brutes, mean business.
Their reaction to getting shot is comparable to that of a brick wall;
yes, like the rest of the enemy AI,
but their large health pool and general demeanor justifies it,
making it a non-issue.
They also go berserk from time to type, caving your skull in with their fists.
This alone makes the game feel much more responsive.
Plus, Elites that I'm killing are visually distinct:

### Difficulty
And, as implied, the difficulty goes up.
I would say that the last 3th on Normal is slightly below of what was Legendary in Halo 1.
Which -as established- is my preferred difficulty.

Now, without sperging about difficulty curves (as that deserves its own schitzo rant),
Halo 1 has flat difficulty, while Halo 2 is increasing.
The problem is, that this is a game where I choose my difficulty.
I was asked to input my expectation and I did.
Then, the first game provided with just that while keeping the encounters diverse,
while the second spit in my face and provided me with easy-normal-hard regardless.
That also means that I would have had the most fun with Halo 2
if I had been increasingly lowering my difficulty setting.
Do you see how that's a problem?
I honestly think this roots from the designers misinterpreting what a difficulty curve is.

### Verdict
I would say play it from The Gravemind onwards,
but funnily enough you only get access to the mission select after beating the game.
I think you should pass.

## Halo 1 && Halo 2 Looks
It is of note that Master Chief's Collection provides you
with the so called anniversary editions of 1 and 2.
As far as I know, these are functionally identical to the originals.
The difference being that you can dynamically toggle between the original looks
and remake looks based on Halo 3.
Plus there are "terminals" you can activate for extra cutscenes.

So, as mentioned, there is a dedicated button for changing between
the old and the remake rendering.

The original is ugly for starters,
but it also has things the new is missing.

The atmosphere is different.
The game is dark, appropriately so for a survival experience.
You have a flashlight, one that is a serious resource,
but completely useless with the new looks.

The higher contrast colors are much easier to read too.
When fighting Jackals, I would switch so
I could 1) aim easier, 2) time my charged shots better.
It also helped me finding the way forwards.
On one occasion, I was lost in a large room.
Switching to the old looks, everything was dark,
except for a light blinking next to a door.
Switching back, I realized that the light was still there,
except its small and emits no light, rather just blinks to itself.
This clearly shows that whoever reworked that room had no idea of basic level design.

## Halo 1 && Halo 2 Checkpoints
Checkpoint triggers are very volatile
and the bigger problem is that they cascade.

What I mean by that is that checkpoint A would simply not activate sometimes,
but then checkpoint B would have a lower chance of activating.

I would progressed 3 rooms and be set back,
only to activate a checkpoint after the first room on my next life.

Backtracking would grant me extra checkpoints sometimes,
but only once for a specific area.

Still,
this is much preferable to the checkpoint trigger being assigned to the last enemy in the room.
Mostly the Halo 2 is guilty of this,
where 1) I would not get a checkpoint unless I found the Grunt covering in the corner,
or 2) even worse, I would not be allowed to progress until I did.