Maybe all the Elites in the city died because of the slipstream jump/explosion. Regret had to get away fast and didn't really care if some Elites died, as long as he would survive. I'm also dissapointed the Elites aren't in the game, but it would make sense according to the story bible. And only a few people are making this game. They don't have the time and budget to make new AI for the Elites. They already have it for the Brutes.

I'm not entirely sure that I understand how this time line works, for a couple of reasons. If it took 13 days for Regret to jump from one system to another, I'm not clear on how Truth could manage to redeploy forces in that period of time. The only options I can see are either that the brutes were already with the fleet that came to Earth, or Delta Halo was much further away than wherever they did come from. I suppose there are actually several ways to explain this, but a clarification on why exactly Truth was able to accomplish so much in the span of one jump would ease the mind a bit. The other thing I don't quite understand is why the Forerunner ship took such a long trip to Earth. Covenant ships seem to jump in wherever they please, just minutes from their destinations sometimes. What's up with that?

If you know Elites are fan faves to fight then we can we expect the Halo game where we fight more Elites?

Nice, nice :) But I miss Elites... [Edited on 01.23.2009 11:44 PM PST]

I don't care if the elites aren't in there. However the time line explanation was awkward. The Cut-scenes in halo 2 suggest that the ships arrived in a most instantaneous manner. However, the explanation in this update suggests it took days to travel...

No elites?!? Man. What a waste of an iconic enemy, only to be replaced by horrible, unimaginative brutes! I gotta say Bungie, Your Multi-Player is phenomenol, but your campaign has really gone to the dogs. I sure do miss halo 1 and halo 2...

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] NightHawk16 so..it's the same bland game play that made halo 3 such a bore? so you added a sight and are (once again) making it LOOK like your moving towards a step up from halo 3 and instead..your just throwing it on there to fool people into thinking your trying to learn from your past mistakes? and we're just focusing on brutes...again..already proven by most unbiased players/reviewers as not as fun as the elites from halo? i said this a few months back and i'm ganna say it again..what are you trying to do to actually make us real gamers come back from halo 1? why should i play this over Gears of War 2? Call of Duty 4/5? Grand Theft Auto 4 and it's soon add on? FEAR 2? The answer is nothing, your doing the same failed crap from Halo 3. and i'm not really sure why your making it short..considering halo 3 was short and boring as hell, are we suppose to assume the same for ODST? I'm not going to look for a response to this, so you halo fanboys can hold your blind bungie loving tongues. A true halo fan doesn't accept what halo 3 was and expect to think they're doing any better with this. Maybe some of you will wake up and see what halo 3 truely is, garbage, mediocre, and unmemorable. and if they're not going to learn from that, they're not going to make halo ODST any better. Not until they admit to their mistakes for what halo 3 is. I know it has topped the xbox live lists more than once..but one has to remember, most of you people would have bought this if bungie had take'n three year's to collect all the crap from their toilets, and molded it together and stamped Halo 3 on it. My hope, you people will wake up and join the rest of us gamers, the sad reality though, to many of you will settle for this.[/quote] And they call you noble?

Very pimpin achievements, and a good update

so..it's the same bland game play that made halo 3 such a bore? so you added a sight and are (once again) making it LOOK like your moving towards a step up from halo 3 and instead..your just throwing it on there to fool people into thinking your trying to learn from your past mistakes? and we're just focusing on brutes...again..already proven by most unbiased players/reviewers as not as fun as the elites from halo? i said this a few months back and i'm ganna say it again..what are you trying to do to actually make us real gamers come back from halo 1? why should i play this over Gears of War 2? Call of Duty 4/5? Grand Theft Auto 4 and it's soon add on? FEAR 2? The answer is nothing, your doing the same failed crap from Halo 3. and i'm not really sure why your making it short..considering halo 3 was short and boring as hell, are we suppose to assume the same for ODST? I'm not going to look for a response to this, so you halo fanboys can hold your blind bungie loving tongues. A true halo fan doesn't accept what halo 3 was and expect to think they're doing any better with this. Maybe some of you will wake up and see what halo 3 truely is, garbage, mediocre, and unmemorable. and if they're not going to learn from that, they're not going to make halo ODST any better. Not until they admit to their mistakes for what halo 3 is. I know it has topped the xbox live lists more than once..but one has to remember, most of you people would have bought this if bungie had take'n three year's to collect all the crap from their toilets, and molded it together and stamped Halo 3 on it. My hope, you people will wake up and join the rest of us gamers, the sad reality though, to many of you will settle for this.

!!!!!LOOK HERE!!!!! To try and stop some of the people complaining about the elites not being there, here is the explanation. BEFORE the slipspace event the elites did inhabit New Mombasa. DURING: The elites/everything in N.M. was killed from the force of the slipspace jump. AFTER: Brute reinforcements were brought into NM. That's how the brutes were quickly introduced. The Elites were all killed in the slipspace event and I think the update tried to explain that, either you people didn't understand or didn't even bother to read it but it makes complete sense. Get over it.

Those achievements look pretty nice. Great update.

That was an information filled, larger than normal update. Good job on making me unable to contain my excitement for ODST even more.

No Elite Enemies is quiet a sad face. However, we may still meet Elites in the campaign right? Right? Please? And from the looks of it, the effects of the Visual Mode have been toned down? Because it sounded like it was pretty awesome and the definition of subtle used seems more like non-existant. I hope its not as stagnant as it sounds. However, besides that, ODST seems to be shaping up to be an excellent Halo Game. And I can't wait for Halo Wars to come out. Its gonna be an awesome game and I will get to play the Mythic Map pack as well! Oh and you guys are coming back Monday? Hmm, the fact that you know, you told us that you're coming back on Monday with more Bungie News, mean anything. Maybe...Sandy? Maybe I'm thinking too much. Could we get an impression next week on how you guys feel about Halo Wars? I'm sure you've seen a lot more than us. Btw, did anyone else see 'Changing of the Guard' and think that Luke was leaving, being replaced with urk? I don't know, but I almost cried just from hearing that line. Not that I don't like you, Urk, its just that I love both of you. :D

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Shishka First. Same as before. "First" nonsense results in a ban.[/quote] Do you get to answer earlier than everyone else? I want my first "first". Oh well, one day... Great update though.

Great update! I loled at the heavenly hog pm. =P

Great Update! As always!

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Alec9224 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] SD2522 [quote]And guess what? We're not only not going to remove the portion of the guide that covers the "heavenly hog" effect, we're going to eventually add the guide, in its entirety, to our Halo 3 How-To section on the official Project Page.[/quote] Awesomesauce. People need to not worry about things like this. Just because we know how to do it it doesn't mean it'll produce fantastic results.[/quote] Lol, that's exactly what i thought when i read it. I cAn Haz My GuId3 0n 7he ProJ3cT pAg3! I must be so 1337. lol, jk. Anyway, thanks again Urk, it was fun. Oh, and if you think i'm done with screenshots and the Bungie Blog, think again. A peek at the up coming project: Predator5791, enough said. lol. [/quote]Didn't he already give the effect away? Or are you just creating a more extensive guide? And btw, you better watch behind your shoulder for some other Halo 3 Screenshot guide creators *cough* ;D

Excellent update BUNGIE, it was packed with info. I spent some time on the link to the picture effects, truly great stuff. Its amazing how creative this community is and the screenshots that result from all the experiments. Keep up the good work guys! off to play 3 ball :)

I totally agree with snoozy9420. I mean, I remember playing High Charity at 3 a.m. and nearly -blam!-ing myself whenever a Brute went beserk. Gods, I even remember the time when I actually feared the Elites, back in Combat Evolded. They were strong and fast and just freaking [i][b]FERAL[/b][/i]. To actually feel like you´re fighting a honest-to-gods zealot makes the player/gameplay immersion so much easier and convincing and [i]true[/i]. Elites in Halo 3, and even in Halo 2, look like simple soldiers, merely carrying out their duties (very well, because they ARE good, but not as if they were actual zealots). If you take out the Elites (which I consider a mistake, but it´s your call anyway), at least try turning the Brutes back into, well, brutes.

I'm actually pretty disappointed that elites won't be in the game. It seems like you're pushing the halo canon excuse to cover "we didn't have time to add elites" or something to that extent. How does the entire covenant, comprised of many elites all of a sudden vanish and is replaced by brutes? Did the prophets just go down to earth and zap them all and put brutes in its place over such a small amount of time? It would have been a lot better seeing the shift in power between elites and brutes while playing Halo 3: ODST. Disappointing. [Edited on 01.23.2009 6:56 PM PST]

You do realize that making a half-assed explanation as to why Elites don't appear in-game doesn't fix things, right? The fact that there were Elites covering the city one day and then nowhere to be found the next makes no sense according to what you wrote. The Prophet of Truth not seeing any true purpose with them doesn't tell why they should all evacuate as fast as they can, and much less how it was done in a day. I mean, come on. Elites were the only real tough AI in the games. Putting them back in a place where Elites were the top power only makes sense. Did you not want to fix their unbelievably stupid behavior in Halo 3? Is it really that hard to program them to move around when being shot, and not throw grenades every three seconds? You did it in Halo 1 and 2.. with all the money you have now, there is just no way you couldn't bring back from old ideas that clearly worked and improve on them a little. I guess if you're going to remove them with just a lack of caring to back you up, [i]PLEASE[/i] make the Brutes tough again. When you killed all their allies in Halo 2, they would just drop their gun and [u]tear you apart[/u]. It was the kind of thing that really got the aldrenaline rushing. When I first encountered them, I nearly -blam!- a brick. :D. When I heard they would be the new Squad leaders in Halo 3, I couldn't stop thinking about how awesome it would be. I was waiting to play the most action-packed fun-filled campaign in a video game. But then I shoot up my first few Brutes, and what do they do? They stumble around like retards, and when they finally found me they couldn't hit me, and I simply beat them down. At first I just laughed, and then I realized they were [i]all[/i] that stupid. I thought you said you were improving them! Not to mention I could shoot them down with half a clip. With their armor on. That's improvement? You said yourselves they were violent savages with hides like rhinos, and they are tougher than Spartans. Yes, Spartans. The Halo 3 Brutes form of a Beatdown is like a slap; contact is barely ever made. The eight to nine foot beasts go down with less than one SMG clip. When they go berserk, it's like they just finished six beers and are trying really hard to hit you without running into anything. Was any of this in Halo 2? No, in fact it was quite the opposite. The AI wasn't as good obviously, but damn. You had so much money to work with in Halo 3.. you didn't invest it in the AI or the campaign clearly, I assume it wasn't the MP maps since they were so few and so poor, and allowing poeple to move boxes around in Forge couldn't have been the big expensive project. Where did it all go? Anyway, I know for a fact I'm not the only fan that feels this way. You are continuously straying from the storyline throughout the books and games, and it's really getting old. I just hope that with ODST you give some kind of explaniation IN GAME as to why there are no Elites. Not everyone goes on this website, or let alone reads the weekly update. And to make up for it, I really hope you make the Brutes the tough creatures they were in the good old days. I know a LOT of people can back me on that one. If you don't, I can honestly assure you I will not buy the game. Video games aren't the kind of thing I like to waste my money on. But then again, who am I, just one fan? Most of you probably couldn't care less. I'm just saying.. if you don't care, I won't either. I'm a long time fan. Your games have been with me from my childhood to now, and I'm really trying to continue liking your stuff. But you're just making it harder and harder. Some companies make fixes to little bugs every day, and now you're limiting yourselves to twice a year. Anyway, other than that, great update. :). P.S. Apologies for any gramatical errors and lack of sentence or paragraph stucture. It's late and I just wanted to get my points written. I sincerely hope you guys hear me out. [Edited on 01.23.2009 8:04 PM PST]

Your report is both concise and conclusive. Return to Grand Base immediately for full debriefing, diagnostics, and repairing of damaged apparatus.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] urk Changing of the Guard. [url=/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=16989] click for full story [/url][/quote]This was a great week, and that was a greatly informative weekly update. But, will the game have some sort of aim mode like previous Halo titles?

Well, this will be a rental to see whether or not it's worth a buy.

Sweet update

You know, I don't normally post on updates, but this one really got my knickers in a knot. Not having elites in ODST is patently stupid. What, one day Mombasa is crawling with hundreds/thousands of Elites, and then 24 hours later they all magically disappear and are replaced with Brutes? Please. The explanation does not make any sense. You may as well have said "You know all those elites you fought in Mombasa? Well they were ACTUALLY Brutes!" and achieved about the same suspension of disbelief. Quite simply this is a gameplay decision being made in spite of, and in detriment to, the halo story as we played and know it. I still don't quite understand why, though. It smacks of Bungie not willing to put the effort into fleshing out the elites. I know there are deadlines, but if you can put grunts/jackals/hunters into the game, why are elites such a problem? Maybe there were so many Halo 3 players that never touched the previous games and consider Elites as allies? In which case, goddamn is this ever a lame design decision. Players can re-learn who the enemies are, they aren't stupid. Next you'll be telling us that the lesser Covenant enemies have also been removed, so we're left fighting ONLY brutes. I lost a bit of respect for Bungie today. I thought you guys took the story more seriously than this.