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I'm in Indiana. Check your messages.

I know you're not talking to me, but I too, am in Indiana.

Bones, I'll send you a friend request.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw1IeMhJI3E

That sure looks like New Mombasa at the end, with the ODST saxophone.

And the music starts at 1:17 in the video. Many a streamer are all about the ODST integration, but it also seems that Arrowhead is very obvious with their "homages", of which there are many Halo nods.

Slight deviation from the topic, but indirectly related. I'm finding it interesting how, in the past couple of years, Playstation is suddenly playing nice with everyone. They used to be the big holdouts when it came to crossplay and sharing IPs. Lately, as talks of hardware becoming potentially unnecessary and games being purely cloud based, Sony is loosening the reins.

Money and data collection would be the obvious reason. Online PC ports have been hugely successful (though their single-player releases have been pretty hit-or-miss).
Wish there was a more altruistic reason, but nah. The whole “required Sony account” debacle for single-player games on Steam made their motives pretty clear.

Helldivers even coming to Xbox surprised me, but then it also getting and ODST theme? That's interesting. There's also talks of Halo: MCC going to Playstation, which I think is pretty rad. It's time we break down these barriers of console exclusivity! Share the love of games!

Helldivers was a massive success at launch, and the community was very vocal about needing more bodies to send into the Major Order grinder wanting the game to release on Xbox as well. It was a near-universal request that I’m certain made it into Sony’s boardrooms. I imagine Sony’s Steam screwup that cratered the population numbers (and reviews) played a role in them talking about it with more seriousness. It being one of their only Live-service successes while their other investments have been largely DOA has made this one game they do not want to fail.

Combine that with Arrowhead being very obvious with their Halo references (there’s already a legally-distinct Master Chief armor in the game), and stating that they were open to crossover content as long as it fit the aesthetic of the game (as an explanation for the Killzone armor, but also as a response to the ODST requests that have been around since the first game, but which exploded after the Killzone announcement), and the ingredients were all on the table begging to be used.

With Gears coming out on PS5 soon, it’s nigh inevitable that we’ll be seeing Halo make the jump too, which makes me happy. Infinite got dealt a crummy hand, and the MCC deserves continued success and love. Plus, ODST will be back on people’s minds thanks to Helldivers, sooooo…

On a similar note, Fortnite offering both their Halo and Destiny bundles as a weekly special the day after the Bungie/Sony news broke was an oddly humorous bit of timing. I remember loading up the PlayStation way back when only to be greeted by a giant Master Chief on the screen and shaking my head as I chuckled sensibly. How far we’ve come…

A year ago, I would never have believed that Arrowhead would introduce stealth gameplay and suppressors with an ODST cross-over. Truly amazing times we're living in...

This game has been so fun. I've not had new game excitement like this since Halo 2. There's so much about this game that I wish Destiny would have been from the beginning.

And again...this is all relative to my play style. I just don't have time anymore to dedicate towards a pinnacle activity. And in Destiny, you can only get pinnacle gear from pinnacle activities. And even then, there's a roll of the dice if you actually get it.

One neat thing is the way even fresh players can try out most things that they are curious about. My brother made the official jump into the game in Sunday (he’d played a few times when he came over, but has no PS5). He was curious about several weapons and stratagems, so Sammy and I jumped into a bug -> bot -> squid mission with the gadgets and weapons to let him get a feel for a bunch of different gadgets in ideal/less-than-ideal scenarios. It helped him decide what Warbond he was going to grab with his token, what weapons and stratagems he was going to skip (he didn’t like the mechs, whaaaa?), and convinced him that paying $15 for the ODST bond was a no-brainer (MA5C, M90A, you’re as beautiful as the day I lost you).

In Helldivers, I can hop into a game by myself, on easy difficult. Do a mission, collect loot, gain my exp and eventually....I too will get that pinnacle gear.

Yes, there are items that require currency only acquired in pinnacle difficulty missions, but not so many that I'm riddled with FOMO, or are powerless without said item.

I’d argue that with a seasoned veteran, the difficulty 6 missions where you find the Super samples are totally doable. The enemies don’t get more health, and the big difference is mission length, enemy variety, and numbers in a wave. The only snag right now is the Predator strain that has dominated the bug front. They are relentless in their numbers, but that may have ended with today’s update… speaking of which…

The community aspect of, all players are working towards an ever changing goal, that has consequence keeps things fresh and fun.

When my brother got on, I gave him the “story so far” about the last couple of weeks, with the in-game-lore explanation of the Xbox launch, the multi-front assault from all three factions, and the reason we were establishing a FOB on the bugs this week. It was neat to have a sense that there was a cause and effect to the world, and it felt pretty impactful that the first world we were jumping into, Hellmire, was the same world he first jumped into back when he first tried the game, though that world looked VERY different than it did back then- before the Meridia incident…

The game is so neat. Sammy and I have fully jumped back in. My only complaint is that the two-minute-long friend codes make adding people on other platforms really awkward, but it’s a nitpick, ultimately.

Glad you’re enjoying it!

This guy's great, he just makes space battle animations that look good enough to be in the game and posts them every month or so.