@Warsaw: That makes sense. I've always wondered about that when it comes to map designs. A lot of us don't like BG because we've grown extremely fond of it and are sick of it in a lot of ways. Valhalla can be seen as the same, but we've only had half as long to get sick of it eh?

Mechs can work in Halo, they just need to be exclusive to certain operations. In other words, context has to be perfect, otherwise it'll be an ugly design implementation. I believe they got their heads straight for it right now though.

Every modern Sci-Fi we know takes from Star Trek/Wars and Alien/s. At least, most common themes do. It IS Sci-Fi though and you can only go so far without blending with other sci-fis. I guess what makes Halo so different than other Sci-Fi is that it's a futuristic shooter which utilizes very non-Sci-Fi-like protagonists against incredibly Sci-Fi antagonists. Most Halo weapons have that sci-fi-ness to them, but it's a lot less than some other pieces of sci-fi. Halo 4 makes everything very sci-fi-like, so it shows a lot, lot more.

Fuck you guys, I like Gamer Fuel. It's the only Mountain Dew I can drink without feeling utterly sick 10 minutes later.