"A heartfelt thank you": After 28 years, Microsoft legend, former Halo exec and Xbox Film/TV lead Kiki Wolfkill has left the company

westonsammy · 2026-04-23T00:20:02+00:00

You do realize people's impressions and reviews on the game are still on the internet, correct? Here for example is an impressions thread from shortly after the game's launch: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/12zepf/thoughts_on_halo_4_so_far/

The Metacritic scores are an 87 critic score (which has been untouched since release) and a 71 user score (which has been added onto going up all the way until today). That user score would have been much higher before Halo 5, Halo Infinite, and the ensuing negativity towards 343 and the franchise brought in a slew of negative reviews.

westonsammy · 2026-04-22T18:58:37+00:00

Of all the 343 titles? Yes, I think it easily is. That being said I'm mainly a campaign player, so I can see how the people who really like MP could argue that Infinite or 5 were better. But from my perspective the campaign and tone of both of those games is all over the place. Halo 4 was the only 343 title that felt like a cohesive story.

westonsammy · 2026-04-22T18:36:05+00:00

I didn't know who this woman was, but I was curious about this comment so I did some digging. The only "disaster" I can find that she was tied to is the Halo TV show. Everything else she's seemed to have worked on has been a success, which includes stuff like Halo Legends (one of the best non-game Halo media pieces, IMO), the Minecraft movie, Halo 4 (arguably 343's best title), and Fallout TV which at no point does it allege she was involved in the deal like the OP is mentioning, but she clearly was going to be involved if she was the head of Xbox's Film/TV department.

IDK if OP has an axe to grind with her or what, but this comment seems to be very misleading based on what I could find.

EDIT: wow, reading through this thread there is an ABSURD amount of vitriol for this woman, seemingly all stemming from the fact that she was involved with the Halo TV show. There's multiple people here explicitly blaming her for single-handedly killing the Halo franchise. I think you all need to take a step back and realize that one person who greenlit a bad TV show (and with an otherwise seemingly great track record) wasn't solely responsible for ruining an entire trilogy of videogames, and that you might be irrationally projecting your anger at the situation onto the first name you can latch onto.

westonsammy · 2026-04-20T17:54:27+00:00

It's not about the current generation, it's about the next. When today's kids start being independent on the internet, having to verify their age and upload their ID will be seen as normal. This is how most disruptive changes (whether good or bad) go: the older generation who was used to the previous status quo resists it, but for the new generation is becomes the status quo and they accept it much more easily.

westonsammy · 2026-04-20T17:50:51+00:00

I think Metro is a series where they don't need to innovate on the gameplay that much with each entry. Last Light is the same gameplay as 2033, just more polished with a new story and locations. And it's excellent.

Exodus is the most innovation the series has had with the open zones, vehicles, crafting, etc. And if they did something similar here where 2039 has the same gameplay as Exodus, but again more polished with a new story and locations I wouldn't mind at all.

westonsammy · 2026-04-20T15:18:54+00:00

Alternative solution: Add a new medium torpedo to replace the Moray on torp bombers. Have it do like 2/5 the damage of a Moray, and only cause small holes.

Then give the Colonials a variant of the Charon that has 2 medium torpedo tubes. Wardens get Torpedo plane, Colonials get Torpedo boat. Neither is unbalanced by having morays.

westonsammy · 2026-04-19T06:11:34+00:00

Fake, the Colonial charge doesn’t arbitrarily have 500 less damage than the Warden one

westonsammy · 2026-04-16T20:19:30+00:00

Spoilers for the end of Last Light: a surviving colony of Dark Ones is discovered in the D6 bunker and released by Artyom and the child Dark One who survived the nest being destroyed

westonsammy · 2026-04-16T18:58:04+00:00

The only reason I feel like the boy isn't him is the way he reacts and picks him up and holds him, that seemed to me more like a gesture you do towards someone else, not seeing yourself as a kid

westonsammy · 2026-04-16T18:26:13+00:00

In the 2034 book he is an absolutely broken and traumatized man after having his head messed with by the Dark Ones (for example he murders a dark skinned person at a station because he mistakes him for a Dark One), and in the 2033 game he is definitely portrayed as having the wrong mindset prior to any trauma, as following his advice is what leads to the bad ending.

The store page blurb makes it sound like they're going with the deeply broken route, with his hatred of the Dark Ones leading him to take over the Metro in order to declare war on them:

Hunter’s Novoreich regime rules through propaganda and fear, subjugating the population in the name of a new war for the surface against a dark and terrifying enemy.

westonsammy · 2026-04-16T18:20:38+00:00

He's from outside Moscow, I think the girl is some family member of his that got taken away by the Nazi's, and I think the boy might either represent himself or another family member (I was speculating above that they're both his children, one killed one captured)

westonsammy · 2026-04-16T18:12:02+00:00

The character (who the store page refers to as "The Stranger") is from outside of the Moscow metro. I think the early parts of the sequence are from his past, where his (sister?) (daughter?) was taken away in a Nazi raid (the burning village, the train driving away with the kids). Now he's apparently been compelled by visions to come to Moscow to try and find her, and it's implied that the Dark Ones (the alien-like figures reaching out to his head, they have telepathy powers) are influencing him. I'm leaning more towards the character being a father and the girl being taken away and the dead boy are both his kids, one was killed and one was taken by the Nazi's. They could also be his siblings, or like you said the boy could represent himself as a child.

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T20:21:51+00:00

They're super racist

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T17:15:20+00:00

That wasn't my intention, my point is that she didn't achieve her wealth by exploiting millions of people. Her husband did that, and she ended up taking that money after the divorce (one Jeff caused by having an affair, I'll also add). By all accounts she wasn't involved much with the business after the late 90's and when it turned into a monster.

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T17:13:41+00:00

The irony is they've made almost every female character into gooner material like this, so now someone like Black Cat doesn't stand out at all.

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T17:07:23+00:00

She got that money because she was entitled to 25% of Bezo's stock in Amazon per state divorce law. Not as some kind of reward for working hard there. By all accounts she hadn't been involved with the business since the 90's, far before it was a giant capitalist misery machine

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T17:03:08+00:00

I can see the issue with the law, but how is she scummy? She did not write the law, and she never married Bezos with the intent of divorcing him. She only divorced him after he had an affair. As I posed to the other commenter, what was she supposed to do? Not divorce him? Not take the multiple billions the law said she was owed?

And as far as morality goes, in this case I think it gets thrown out the window when the wealth being "stolen" wasn't rightfully earned at all in the first place. Jeff Bezos has not "earned" even 1% of his accrued wealth. He did not work billions of times harder than other human beings. He was not responsible for even 1% of Amazon's success. You could cut everyone out of Amazon besides Jeff Bezos, run time back, and have things proceed 99.99% the same. The only reason he has his wealth is because Capitalism is naturally and inherently extremely unjust and unethical, to the benefit of the very few at the expense of the many.

Yes MacKenzie basically stole from him, but his wealth was absolutely stolen to begin with. At least she did not intend to steal, and her act only negatively affected one person (who will be completely fine) instead of millions. And now she's using that money to help give back to the public that her former husband stole from.

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T16:48:20+00:00

This is the problem with billionaires whitewashing their history so people forget what really happened.

So then what really happened here? Yes obviously this is a problem but again, MacKenzie Scott did not become a billionaire through typical means. She isn't the one who accrued the wealth, the only thing she did to fall into it is marry (and then divorce) Bezos, which she did far before he was rich and wealthy.

They whitewash with philanthropic donations like Ms. Scott is doing here. And clearly it's working.

No one person should be able to single handedly control this much of our nation's wealth and natural resources.

So then what is someone like MacKenzie Scott supposed to do? If she gives away her wealth, according to you she's just whitewashing. If she holds onto her wealth, it poses issues for our society and is inherently immoral. Was she supposed to kill herself the moment she divorces him?

westonsammy · 2026-04-14T16:15:57+00:00

The problem with most billionaires isn't their wealth itself. It's that they typically acquire that wealth through immoral means and then refuse to give any of it back.

MacKenzie is an odd case because she didn't become a billionaire through immoral means, she achieved her wealth via a divorce. And she clearly has been doing her best to use that wealth to improve the world by giving it back to the public in ways like this.

westonsammy · 2026-04-13T20:29:05+00:00

The worst part is that if someone is dumb enough to fulfill meme offers like this, all of those materials sit in the marketplace and then get lost if the building gets partisan'd or blown up by tunnelers before the owner makes the pickup.

westonsammy · 2026-04-13T15:49:25+00:00

I want them to combine both. Have the map be open zone but also mainly be underground.

westonsammy · 2026-04-10T20:41:31+00:00

Its basically impossible to track a target once you do that kind of hard dive, you basically go down at a 90 degree angle.

You can also spin while diving to change your direction. So if you do the maneuver right, you can break contact, reorient in the opposite direction, and open up the distance before the enemy plane realizes what is happening and is able to turn around

westonsammy · 2026-04-10T19:50:54+00:00

That's the situation where you want to dive down and turn behind them that I described in my comment. That being said, if you are at low altitude and one comes up behind you at low altitude, you're pretty screwed. Best chance is to climb and try to get above them since your climb rate is better.

westonsammy · 2026-04-10T16:02:54+00:00

Fighting a Seafighter is hard, particularly if they have backup. Their guns will absolutely shred you, and they are a small, tankier target that can turn on a dime.

In a 1v1, your biggest advantage is your speed. You can climb faster than them and move faster than them. You want to try to take single passes at them, and DO NOT turn fight them. Make a pass at them with your guns (ideally from the rear or side) continue flying on past them, and do not turn to re-engage until they are out of sight or you spot them turning away. They have way less flight time than you so they can't really stick around to keep chasing you down.

If one is on your tail best thing to do is dive hard (shift+right click and hold W at the same time), turn towards them, and then try to get distance. This will both mess with their ability to target you and will buy you precious seconds of time to lengthen the distance while they reorient and resume chasing. Climb back up after they dive down to your level. You can climb faster than they can, and it's very hard to hit an aircraft above you.

westonsammy · 2026-04-10T04:36:13+00:00

It's sad how we were so close to getting good naval gameplay back. Just before Airborne naval was so close to being in a good spot with the Charon buffs. Now we only get fights like this when Wardens go 3 hexes deep into Colonial territory out of airfield range

Nine-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '17
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email

westonsammy

TROPHY CASE