343I can only make halo games under Microsoft. If there was a way to be independent and still make halo games bungie would have done so. Which i would have loved. Halo 2 was so amazing and it [b]wasn't even half way done[/b] If MS Didn't rush everybody the games would be a new level of epic. 343I has commented on the MP and that was them alone. The Guy that oversaw development claimed full responsibility for that over twitter. I might add that MP is focused on after the campaign in which they didn't have enough time to flesh out. In addition to it being their first game. Spartan ops was good plot wise. Episode wise there should have been more diversity in what was being done, i agree. The appearance differences are just common sense which actually had to be explained in the Art guide as people couldn't wrap their heads around it. [b]not all humans look the same. not all aliens are going to look the same[/b]. We assume The Storm elites primarily come from the outer colony Hesduros due to the Kilo 5 novels. That gets messed up with Elites known to be From Sanghelios getting this "update" as well. So i cannot reason that. The Jackals will have the most varied appearances aside from the hunters, due to the varied environments they live in. Jackals seen in halo 4 are noted to be from a isolated continent in which it's occupations keep their ancient appearance. There are dozens of explanations for the grunts; over-breeding,experimentation,colony world, sub continent,etc. The most reasonable being that the grunts we are use to fighting were bred on high charity and these may be the "actual" grunts. They breed ridiculously fast so they are more prone to quick changes and adaptations.