The biggest thing with the mod for me is the added environmental storytelling. Like this scene of sentinels burning Flood bodies in The Library. The addition of more competent and present friendly forces adds much to the feeling that you're part of a broader effort.

I use "NHK news reels" as shorthand for where one can find them archived online, but I honestly don't know much about their original origin. I believe you're correct that they were produced by Nihon Eigasha.

"The enemy's invasion, relying on sheer numbers, is rapidly becoming more intense with each passing day."

I wish I'd kept a tally on the number of times NHK news reels mention a setback/defeat and characterize it solely as a result of American zerglings.

They're really keen on features about Imphal-Kohima until they suddenly aren't.

They received them from the British, yes, under a promise from Churchill after some lobbying. Three squadrons from Europe were sent to fly them, two RAAF and one RAF. They were Spitfire Mk VCs if memory serves.

Australian spitfires matched up against Japanese zeros, implying the Darwin air campaign, is a surprisingly interesting choice for the bit.

Still my favourite coverage of the end of the Asia-Pacific War.

Halo 2 was lightning in a bottle - compelling plot, excellent dialogue, top-tier voice acting, excellent direction of cutscenes, remarkable score. Halo 2's opening is a masterclass in how to do a story recap while expanding the universe and making it all feel epic and compelling.

That's a fair take. Halo 2 is my personal favourite as well. I think CE's gameplay is incredible for 2001 and it handled the story well, but narratively Halo 2 is far above anything else in the whole franchise. I like Halo 3 a lot, but narratively it was notable step back from Halo 2.

I suppose it's the least surprising thing in the world that so many of these techno-grifters fit into the classic Wehraboo stereotype. This kind of stuff makes it difficult to teach any complexity in the military technology of the period. The detailed answers aren't simple.

In other words, I haven't seen anything that screams "justified remake" yet, but The Silent Cartographer didn't call for any substantive changes. The meat-and-potatoes of the remake will be elsewhere. I'm a bit sad they didn't remaster the score like they did for Halo 2 Anniversary, to be honest.

I think a sizeable part of my lukewarm reception thus far is I never liked The Silent Cartographer that much. I'm aware that what I speak is heresy, but I'm more interested in what they've done with the back half of the game, where the time and budgetary restrictions began to show in the original.

Despite being a Halo fan most of my life, I don't have quite the same possessive nostalgia over every detail some fans of a similar vintage have. I haven't seen any gameplay changes that cross a line for me so far. I'm more protective of the story and tone than the gameplay, within reason.

I almost never buy AAA games on release, but got BF6 b/c it's remarkably good and stable up front and even at 90 CAD the return on investment will be crazy. I'll probably play it for several hundred hours. I picked up Ghost of Tsushima on Steam sale and played it for 46 hours. I didn't even 100% it!