Sorry if this is the wrong place (Halo Discussion.. I thought this would be ok?) to post this, but.. Has anyone noticed something strange to Halo Wars? No, wait, let's start from the beginning. Halo 1, wort, wort, wort! Good days. Halo 2, there was some english in here, correct? Halo 3, yes, of course english. Bungie once said regarding this, somewhere (weekly update regarding ODST's brutes or something), that technology moves quickly. With that, they clearly mean that the humans came up with technology to understand them, or vice versa. Anyhow, Halo Wars is 20 years before Halo 1, close after first contact with the Covenant. Why the hell can humans and elites converse perfectly in Halo Wars? Don't tell me they already had the technology and lost it... :/ I can see they needed it for the storyline, but still... Sadface. (this was possibly, most presumably noticed before, and I think I even said so myself on -a- forum. Not sure if it was here.)
The Covanent knew English 20 years before Halo Wars. Bungie's current story is that the Covenant studied humans before ever making their existence known. Bungie did not have the same background story for Halo 1. This is why its wort wort in halo 1 and plain English in Halo Wars. So if you want to get technical the original halo, does not follow halo's storyline.
Or they could use the excuse that not all members of the Covenant were fluent in their enemy's language, especially since the ones at Alpha Halo were just guarding it for the arrival of the Prophets, they weren't expecting any Humans so being able to speak an alien language probably wasn't in the job requirements. The Elites in Halo 3 had a greater need to speak English seeing as they were now fighting with and to protect humanity.
Interesting.. theheat, I apologise for getting on the technical side, but I can't bear it that such a great story has such a massive flaw. DMM white gave a fair explanation, though. Halo is an interesting topic, indeed.
If you've read the novels: They state that the humans managed to develop a translator that would make the humans "hear" the covenant as if they where speaking English. I thought they said this happened between Halo 1 and 2, but then again how did Keyes know what the Elites had been talking about while in Prison? I'm pretty sure this technology was around well before Halo 1, MC just hadn't been gifted with it, isntead he had to trust on Cortana to translate what she felt was important ... but then again, i'd have to read the books again to be sure.
I'm gonna post it as it's facts because I can. I'm not sure if it is fact but it makes sense. Before Humanity's first contact with the Covenant, the Covenant had been studying the human race. Studying Humanity, they learned a bit about Humans tactics, culture and language (to the point of fluency). Humanity's first contact with the Covenant was the transmition saying, in English, "Your destruction is the will of the Gods. And we are they're instrument." As the years go on, Humanity starts working on translator so they can understand when the various races of the Covenant were saying. In Halo Wars, this technology was still in the early stages and not very reliable but still able to get the basic idea of what was being said. In the few conversation between a Human, and a Covenant species, the Covenant was speaking Humans. Only Covenant in the higher ranks are taught English so they can use humanity to use the Forerunner technology that they themselves can't use. Keeping it to the higher up ranks in the Covenant is a safe guard that if a human had figured out that the Covenant we're the true heir to Forerunner technology and told the Covenant officer, the secret can be kept contained and hidden. In Halo 1, the translator software hadn't gotten very far but still just good enough to get the idea of what the Covenant is saying (the reason Captain Keys could hear and explain what Halo was). Cortana, being secluded from the rest of the UNSC during the Battle of Installation 04 and through the fight to stop the Covenant fleet from jumping to Earth and wiping out humanity, works on and improves the translation software while helping Master Chief. Between Halo 1 and Halo 2, because of Cortana's tinkering of the translation software, a huge break through was made and could now accurately translate the languages of the Covenant. This technology was then implemented into the Mark VI Spartan Armor and then later, between the creation of Mark VI and In Amber Clad leaving Earth in Halo 2, was implemented into the average marine's helmet. For Halo 3, because of the Elite's separation from the Covenant, many more Elites learned English to better communicate with their new allys and stop the Prophet of Truth. Improvements to the software continue and the software gets better and better untill the defeat of the Covenant and the stopping of the Flood on the Ark where it was no longer needed. During scenes that contain Covenant talking to Covenant, Bungie takes the liberty to "translate" what they are saying so us, the gamer, can understand and help move the plot of the game. That's my explanation. It's presented as fact but may not truly be fact.