Yes, I didn't mention the trailer because it was assumed. And, "start of a new trilogy" is hardly official word of no covenant. I doubt there will be but there is no official word on it.
Like in Marathon 2: Durandal AI don't last very long, but i'm hoping your right about that, or a not so dormant, rampant forerunner AI
At 40-44 you see two creatures flying in the background. They almost look like a "flying flood" or a Reaper from Gears of War.
I did read the first Greg Bear book and the Forerunner are kind of dickish. (They de-evolve earth for some f'ed up reason)
I don't know if you guys have seen the concept art video over at 343, but at the very end of the video they flash some images with some menacing music... perhaps a new enemy... anyways, someone mashed the quick glimpse images together and got this: IMAGE
Yeah the video is on the previous page. Also I stopped the video at that too Sorta looks like a Mass Effect reaper. OMG EPIC CROSSOVER. lol.
They could possibly be flood-engineers or just a different type of engineer. As to my guess what the plot line might be, I wanna say it's gonna be 343 Guilty Spark's psycho cousins from the other rings come home to Forerunner-land (like Chuck E. Cheese, but no ball pit) to obliterate the universe for good.
Well going back to my previous statement about cortana going rampant, it would help push a story out of pretty much anywhere he wakes up. Also she could start reprogramminng forerunner tech to go after John, or I vaguely remember her acting like he was hers and she loved him or something at the end of H3, something along the lines of her already been corrupted by the gravemind and then further isolation could have caused full on rampancy. (like someone mentioned, this would be like marathon) I just think that this is the best move for them, they already destroyed the ark, so any extra means to ire the halo rings would just be a deus ex machina. This gives us a story, without it being a complete break from the previous storyline. With that said, I think that they (if they went this route with story) would put ALOT more focus onto what actually happened to the forerunners, not the robots, the actual race. Just my two cents, but maybe I've been watching too much anime lately.
...if cortana went rogue she wouldn't have woken up MC in the trailer. Plus various publications that have talked with Frank and 343 have hinted that Cortana and John will be working closely together.
Nonono pac, they way I figure (or at least remember) is that she LOVED him, so yeah... and they could still be working together, in marathon you work closely with the antagonist who is also a rampant AI. Her reasoning could go anywhere from she wanted him to be awake to talk to her, to the fact she want him awake when she kills him, you really can't explain a rampant AI's actions with generic human logic. (meaning she could have woken him for any reason)
That's some grade A assumption you got there. They have a working relationship but not love. This isn't an anime, she's essentially a program and he's a dude. You keep mentioning Marathon. 343i has nothing to do with Marathon nor does anything from that game have any bearing on what will be in Halo 4. Again, your free to speculate on any plot you want, and any AI as an enemy would be interesting but from things I've read Cortana being an enemy seems very doubtful.
I'm fairly certain that it was in the legendary ending or a trailer that Cortana had signs of rampancy. The love thing I'm less certain of, but I distinctly remember her not being completely sane. Also, don't assume that marathon won't have anything to do with halo 4. The entire halo series has references back to the original marathon games, and I'm willing to say that 343 isn't about to stop that trend. If Cortana isn't the enemy, or a semblance of one, they're going to have a hard time making up a frigging trilogy of crap we've already gone through. Let's face it, the only real options other than her for an enemy are all things that we've been through before (covenant, forerunner, etc.) apart from introducing a completely new race/faction to the game, she is the only thing we haven't fought. (I exclude the insurrectionists because they won't be in a random bit of space in another galaxy or wherever the hell they ended up) EDIT: now I remember where I got that bit of her going rampant from, it was in an episode of Halo Legends. It was close to the begining of the episode called Origins. Also, I hope you remember that 343 was in charge of making Halo Legends.
The only game Canon showing Cortana not in control of her complete faculties is in halo 3 when gravemind had control of her. Now I suppose its completely possible gravemind could of introduced a virus into her or left some of his personality with her. ...Right, all the games made by Bungie. 343i is not Bungie and only a handful of employees in 343 were from Bungie. Saying Marathon will affect halo 4 is like saying any random older game will affect Halo 4. My point is don't assume anything, especially based off of a old game that the new studio has nothing to do with. If you think Cortana can be the only enemy for the game you are reaaaaally thinking inside the box. So far all we've fought that was.forerunner related were the monitors and the sentinels. There is still loads of mystery with that and a forerunner enemy on a giant forerunner looking planet is very likely and could be very good. Or maybe it is an ancient enemy to the forerunner that rivaled them. So again, if you think Cortana can be the only interesting enemy, you aren't thinking very creatively. Only the games are official cannon.
But how could she physically fight chief? Shes an AI. the only way i can think of is her taking control of some forerunner tech and robots and fighting chief with those, which is effectively the same thing as the forerunners just being the enemy without cortana.
And when was the last time we got to talk to cortana? Oh yeah, thats right, after she had been in the control of the gravemind and already had been showing signs of instability. It is a known fact that smart AI in the halo universe have a 7 year lifespan before they get "too smart" and die from overthinking. The only way to overcome that is by getting hold of a larger computing system to house the AI, guess what that forerunner structure is? Yep, a bunch of computers. I'm sorry but you saying that just made you sound ignorant to me, you fail to understand it is 343 that is now in control of where the series goes, it is 343 that made Halo Legends, it is 343 that has a handful of members from bungie, see where i'm going with this? I underlined what i'm focusing on. So I have two problems with this; 1. All sentient life was wiped out a LONG ass time ago when the forerunner were around (this means that so called rival is either dead or we go on to #2), 2. How would a Non-sentient life form be a rival to a species that could build weapons and decorate them like planets? This again is an ignorant statement, both the books and Halo legends are official canon as well. If you watched Halo Legends (yes, I know, I fall back on this far too much) then in the episode I referenced, she actually tried to touch the chief while he was in cryosleep. Now, she couldn't actually touch him (I don't think) so essentially, yes, what it would come down to would be her assimilating the technology and probably reprograming/rebuilding it to fit her need better. I don't know how much this would differ from the normal robot **** we fight, but it sure as hell brings reasoning to making new enemies that are robotic. (instead of a random new type of forerunner robot that just so happened to not be on the rings or ark that we destroyed.) I imagine that she would start the game as allied but slowly, as she begins getting closer to either death or full blown rampancy, she would start to become slightly hostile to John and possibly just organic life in general. Now, Pac. Try to understand, I am simply saying that logically this is the best way to continue the series. If you still have a problem, then whatever, I don't understand why you are so vehemently opposed to having Cortana as an enemy.
I don't understand why you so vehemently believe cortana as an enemy is the only possible option that could be good. The games as the official cannon comes straight from Bungie. You know the whole Reach debacle after they changed the story a little from the book. The books are cannon, not official cannon. The last thing you hear from Cortana is when Chief is about to go into cyro sleep and she seems pretty normal then. Also she seemed pretty in control when you rescue her from gravemind. And again, your thinking so inside the box. You're using what has been written or said in one off stories as justification for your opinion. If you want to go that route, the forerunner built "shield" worlds described in ghosts of onyx. Maybe an enemy or evil forerunner hid in these. Maybe the halo rings did not cover the whole universe when they were activated. Maybe another race was shielded by technology they made. Again, the possibilities are endless and new cannon can easily be written to justify it. There is no "logical" reason, Spock, to assume 1 possible scenario based on some major assumptions made during events that didn't happen in the game. And as far as the marathon thing goes. Why do you think it must have ANY relationship to that. They are completely different games made by two completely different studios. Any game can have a mild influence on any other game if you look hard enough and force there to be something. Do you think the story will suck unless it has something from Marathon in it? So, big picture here. Yes, it is entirely possible Cortana could be an enemy and I'm sure enough of a story can be written around that and it would be good. Is that the only possible choice, no and it would be ignorant to think that way as just as much could be written for any other alternative and I'm sure it would also be good.