u/AlcatrazGears

Do I have to download Games for Windows Live? Can i still get the achievements?

I wanted to bring up something small, but meaningful, about the first mission of Halo CE.

In the Anniversary version, Thom Shephard’s face was changed to resemble a Make-A-Wish kid who was terminally ill and a huge Halo fan. He wanted to live forever inside Halo.

From what I understand, it was meant as a tribute and a really touching one made by Saber or 343I at the time.

With Halo: Campaign Evolved coming up in 2026, I’d like to respectfully ask: please keep that version of Thom.

It might seem like just a character model, but it represents something bigger, the connection between Halo Studios and the community, and how much Halo has meant to people over the years. It’s also a way of honoring a Spartan who is MIA and would surely have loved to play the game.

Preserving details like this helps keep his legacy alive. It’s one of those quiet, human moments in a game full of explosions, Grunts and plasma.

I understand there are always technical and creative decisions involved in remakes, and i don't pretend to know how easy or hard is to make a character model, but I hope this is something that can remain.

I also understand that Halo CEA has its flaws, but this feels like something good to take from that remaster.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for the attention.

One of the biggest issues with Halo 5 is that it had more than 25 characters and not nearly enough time to properly explore or develop many of them. To make things worse, the game introduced Fireteam Osiris, which included three new characters: Vale, Tanaka, and Locke. Locke had technically been introduced before, but only in a live action series (Nightfall) that most players probably weren’t interested in. This left Halo 5 with the difficult task of introducing these new characters while also not having enough time to do so properly.

The fourth member of Osiris was Buck, a former member of Alpha 9, and he ended up being one of the most charismatic parts of the game, fans loved having him back.

That makes me think Alpha 9 should’ve been the focus instead. They were all already established in Halo 3: ODST, with defined personalities, and it might have helped Halo 5 feel more like a continuation of the original story.

Do you think that would have made a difference? Would it have landed better with fans?

At the beginning of Halo 3, before Chief knows the Arbiter is now an ally, there's that tense moment where he holds a pistol right under the Arbiter’s chin.

If Chief had actually pulled the trigger there, would it have killed him? Or would the Arbiter’s shields/armor have stopped it?