Youre spot on here. From what Architect404 stated in the reddit AMA Bungie holds a huge role in what happened. Its easy to blame Activision but from what was stated all Activision did was hold Bungies feet to the fire after Bungie's own management dropped the ball.

In my paragraph I don't mention Activision! What does coding have to do with this? We are discussing the narrative! I'm discussing what I read in a couple of articles written and published online by professional gaming journalists. Are you on serious drugs? Explain why the main writer would leave before a 500 million dollar project was complete?

Oh where do I even start with this...How about here: [quote] Bungie owns this game, they design this game and Activision has no say. Learn what a publisher is, then you may come back and have an opinion.[/quote] Read this article on the fall of the UK dev's Free Radical and the hand publishers had in wrecking thier games. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters Specifically this: [quote] Meanwhile, Second Sight had finally entered full production. The project had changed hands from Eidos to Activision, and Free Radical were about to taste business Bobby Kotick style. "We got some way through it with Activision," says Ellis. "Then they had a day in November 2003 where they made big changes. They decided they didn't like UK development anymore, they didn't like external development anymore, and they didn't like developer-owned IP anymore. Bad for us, because we ticked every box! On that day I think they canned ten projects and in the process put some companies out of business It was a troubled development," says Doak. "Because that's when we found out how Activision worked. Bobby Kotick really loves developers! He wouldn't even speak to us, and we never spoke to him. He's quite happy to have some people put us out of business, but only does calls with investors. That was like the night of the long knives. We stood up to Activision, we had good legal counsel and they told us the right things to say. It looked like it was going to put us under for a bit, but didn't. [/quote] ...this on working with EA... [quote] "It was a bit like being groomed, you know. Here's all these friendly avuncular people that will give you all the love and attention you need to get your game out, and then after a while they go away and all the bad guys come around and it's like you're in borstal. Getting held down, beaten around the head with a cue ball in a sock." [quote]In retrospect, what happened after TimeSplitters 2 was that EA saw the Metacritic and came to us," says Ellis. "I don't actually think they'd looked at the game very much." The publisher demanded Future Perfect have a strong lead character in order that it appeal to the US market. "EA turned up with this stuff that was supposed to help us," says Doak. "And it was just big boards with pictures of Vin Diesel on them. Wesley Snipes was on one in his Blade outfit." Future Perfect ended up with Cortez, a cowardly and dumb marine whose catchphrase falls flat every time: "It's time to split" [/quote] ...and this [quote]The amount of money you were asking for to make a game was so much more than when TimeSplitters got started," says Karl Hilton. "Publishers just weren't prepared to invest seven or eight figures in something they didn't own a big part of.[/quote] So clearly publishers DO have a massive say in what dev's do it turns out. [quote]None of you know any bit of coding[/quote] Without personally knowing everyone here, how is there any possible way you could know that? Really? No, you tell me, I can wait... [quote]Wait for the dlc [/quote] What, you mean the rest of the game I've already bought, the stuff I have to pay for agian that should've been in at release, but got left on the cutting-room floor? [quote]play your other bad rewritten titles. [/quote] I could've let you off with that because it made me chuckle but I gonna mention I just fired up Planscape Torment - and you'd call that a bad rewritten title? Get the -blam!- out kid, come back when you've grasped basic comprehension. Then [i]you[/i] may have an opinion.

[quote]It is also insulting that Bungie think every FPS gamer is a brainless teen who lack the concentration span for a decent story.[/quote]I think you just described the modern CoD fan.

Why would the chief writer walk before a project that cost 500 million was completed? Wish I could remember the links but if you spent time googling you would find the stories that I have read. If true its a shame because I believe this game could have been epic.