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[Men_in_Boxes]

That's it. I now realize that NeoGAF has way more low information gamers than initially thought.

Halo Infinite got delayed roughly 3 months before release. When games are delayed so close to release, they are almost never delayed for very long. Lengthy delays happen 6-12 months before release.

Halo Infinite will be delayed to Q1 2021. It'll launch with ray tracing implemented along with a few other minor visual enhancements. Very minor.

There is no chance it's a Q4 2021 release. There won't be any major graphical overhauls. Stop this nonsense.

 

[cormack12]

I'd say so, I think a lot of people will need to keep their expectations in check though regarding art style

I wouldn't be expecting this mineral based structure

Spoiler: image of cliffside

to change into something darker and realistic like this

Spoiler: Gears V screenie

 

[jigglet]

A year? It'll release in March of 2021.

Exactly. 343i is going from working 18 hours a day to 18 hours a day. This changes nothing as far as crunch goes.

 

[iorek21]

I doubt this will be delayed for a whole year. And even then, didn’t they have at least 5 years of production and millions of budget already?

They may improve in the graphics department, but probably nothing more.

 

[Tesseract]

it could be done with the right leadership and work ethic

i'm not sure that exists at 343, i've seen their best and i ain't that impressed

 

[Ten_Fold]

Visually it wouldn’t take them that long maybe 3-4 months, but everything else could suck. It seems 343 is pretty meh as far as a studio, they probably better off just copying halo 3’s multiplayer, and adding a few new weapons/power up an call it a day because I have zero faith it will be good.

 

[Dane]

That's it. I now realize that NeoGAF has way more low information gamers than initially thought.

Halo Infinite got delayed roughly 3 months before release. When games are delayed so close to release, they are almost never delayed for very long. Lengthy delays happen 6-12 months before release.

Halo Infinite will be delayed to Q1 2021. It'll launch with ray tracing implemented along with a few other minor visual enhancements. Very minor.

There is no chance it's a Q4 2021 release. There won't be any major graphical overhauls. Stop this nonsense.

They didn't specify Q1 2021, it was just 2021, Halo main release calendar is always on the fall, almost always on November.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

They didn't specify Q1 2021, it was just 2021, Halo main release calendar is always on the fall, almost always on November.

I think it's safe to say Halo Infinite is launching under very different circumstances. No way this is not a Q1 2021 game.

 

[Ellery]

Not a chance in hell. They would need to drop the Xbox One version and start over and given what we have seen so far I don't know if 343 has what it takes to make a game that looks great in 2021.

They are working against the clock and so much pressure. I wouldn't want to be in the situation they are in right now. They can't win.

 

[Entroyp]

How much they can fix a game that needs to run on a machine with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM?

If this game is coming out a year from
now I’m sure they will improve it by quite a lot. Gameplay is already sound so 343i doesn’t need to fix that fortunately.

If it’s Q1 or Q2 next year... and knowing how inefficient the dev is.. well..

 

[Kuranghi]

They need to bring in top men to polish it.

Top men.

Oh ffs I just shouted "TOP. MEN" in my house because of you and forgot my flatmate was on night shift lol

Genuine question, no console warrior BS, please.

This seems like an interesting sub-discussion that's lost in all the furor about the Xbox brand and wider delay talk right now.

As someone that really liked what was shown in terms of gameplay...

- Is it possible that Microsoft could, by November 2021 or earlier, really turn things around?

- Do you think a substantial improvement is on the table, and what do you expect?

- Is there any sort of precedent for a radical overhaul like this?

- Are visuals on the order of what we saw in the earlier trailers within reach?

I'm no expert, and I've never shot myself in the foot, so I feel genuinely inquisitive about what to expect when a game five years in dev, gets a possible one year delay, with a visual overhaul specifically in mind.

I don't think its possible because there are too many fundamental "problems" with it, its a lost cause probably, as much as I'd like it to be good. People thought this game was open world but it isn't, its maps connected together like Destiny or the like. That was actually the biggest let down for me that I don't think they communicated very well in the initial teaser, they showed so many different environments and large vistas that implied it would be an open world imo (I should've read the blog posts...).

If it had been open world then I would've forgiven the lower quality graphics if there was a tremendous scale of battle or massive amounts of physics happening. Doesn't look like it though...

 

[Chiggs]

Depends on how quickly it can be ported to the Halo 5 engine?

Seriously, yes, it's enough time.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Oh ffs I just shouted "TOP. MEN" in my house because of you and forgot my flatmate was on night shift lol



I don't think its possible because there are too many fundamental "problems" with it, its a lost cause probably, as much as I'd like it to be good. People thought this game was open world but it isn't, its maps connected together like Destiny or the like. That was actually the biggest let down for me that I don't think they communicated very well in the initial teaser, they showed so many different environments and large vistas that implied it would be an open world imo (I should've read the blog posts...).

If it had been open world then I would've forgiven the lower quality graphics if there was a tremendous scale of battle or massive amounts of physics happening. Doesn't look like it though...

It's supposed to be very much in that vein, though. If you can see it, you can go there, and such. We definitely will be switching areas, but from what I understand, those areas should be satisfying little worlds unto themselves.

Assuming 343 isn't misleading in any way, of course.

 

[Jigsaah]

Genuine question, no console warrior BS, please.

This seems like an interesting sub-discussion that's lost in all the furor about the Xbox brand and wider delay talk right now.

As someone that really liked what was shown in terms of gameplay...

- Is it possible that Microsoft could, by November 2021 or earlier, really turn things around?

- Do you think a substantial improvement is on the table, and what do you expect?

- Is there any sort of precedent for a radical overhaul like this?

- Are visuals on the order of what we saw in the earlier trailers within reach?

I'm no expert, and I've never shot myself in the foot, so I feel genuinely inquisitive about what to expect when a game five years in dev, gets a possible one year delay, with a visual overhaul specifically in mind.

I don't think this is their goal. I think they are more trying to finalize the other features like RTX and Multiplayer rather than overhauling the graphics that are in place.

 

[Kuranghi]

It's supposed to be very much in that vein, though. If you can see it, you can go there, and such. We definitely will be switching areas, but from what I understand, those areas should be satisfying little worlds unto themselves.

Assuming 343 isn't misleading in any way, of course.

Well I'd hope its like that but I think its gonna be more like (I know these are weird pulls but very relevant lol) Super Mario Sunshine & Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom, where you can see the landmarks from other levels in the distance within each level but you can't go to the spaces in between said levels.

I dunno if its even going to be skyrim level of "you can go there" at this point .

 

[skneogaf]

I honestly thought we'd see graphics as good as the cut scenes from halo 5 which are absolutely amazing so unless that happens then not for me.

They've changed the style of the graphics too so even if a year is enough for them to polish a turd, I won't be happy graphics wise when it is released.

 

[GamerEDM]

if digital foundry is correct the only thing they need to do is fix the lighting and include ray tracing on the next gen version which should be possible within a 1 year time frame. it's still not gonna be a huge leap since it is a cross gen title.

 

[MiguelItUp]

I definitely think so. Now, the engine is already in place, so only so much can be done there. But I think in the extra time they have, they'll tighten up and optimize what they can, as well as get ray tracing in by launch. Will it make a gigantic difference? Only time will tell. But I'd like to think the end result will certainly look and be better. This of course coming from someone that didn't think it looked THAT bad at all in the first place.

 

[Mr.ODST]

If they get rid of the Xbox One versions I can see them adding a ton of stuff to it to make it look nicer.

 

[killatopak]

if digital foundry is correct the only thing they need to do is fix the lighting and include ray tracing on the next gen version which should be possible within a 1 year time frame. it's still not gonna be a huge leap since it is a cross gen title.

They aren’t correct.

RT won’t magically fix clipping and pop in.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I expect them to delay it further.

5 years of delay should make it presentable and comfortably out of Craig nightmares.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Not completely but its enough time to rework some models and add raytraced lighting like this:

 

[Lone Wolf]

I expect a delay to November 2021. 20 year anniversary of Halo. And they will drop the Xbox One version as well.

 

[LSWilson]

They gotta cancel base Xbox One and focus on Series X tbh

this

 

[Enjay]

No. Not for this studio. It took them several years just to fix a port.

 

[Andodalf]

In a year they could completely change their lighting model, If they were able to make it work with their existing texture work. It's a big ask but possible.

 

[Jadsey]

The thing that genuine fascinates me....What do they do with Craig?

Do they lean into the meme and leave him as a Brute Force body double?

or

Do they airbrush him from history and hope people forget in time?

 

[rob305]

People need to watch this, the main issue with the game is the lighting. If they can get RT in the game at launch it will do wonders:

 

[bitbydeath]

I personally think they should pull the plug and change engines to Unreal.

But that aside I’d like to remind that a week before the delay a third party came on board who likely assessed the situation and initiated the delay with a plan to turn things around. Whether that pertains to graphics though is yet to be seen.

Halo Infinite development is being aided by support studio Sperasoft

Plenty of hands to go around.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[lock2k]

So, just buy Bungie MS.

Only logical answer.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

People need to watch this, the main issue with the game is the lighting. If they can get RT in the game at launch it will do wonders:

Do all games without ray tracing look like this?

 

[Mister Wolf]

Do all games without ray tracing look like this?

A lot of them especially open world games.

 

[MrS]

They need it out ASAP because it's a system seller. Gonna go for Q2 2021. Gives them 9 months to sort it out. Not expecting gigantic changes but the game will undoubtedly benefit by the delay.

 

[Greeno]

I'd say so, I think a lot of people will need to keep their expectations in check though regarding art style

I wouldn't be expecting this mineral based structure

Spoiler: image of cliffside

to change into something darker and realistic like this

Spoiler: Gears V screenie

If they only delayed Gears 5 a bit and released it with the launch of Xbox Series X.

 

[GustavoLT]

It´ll be canceled

 

[NahaNago]

Well, it will have ray tracing when it launches so that will be one major upgrade.

 

[Romulus]

They gotta cancel base Xbox One and focus on Series X tbh

This would legitimately be exciting. As soon as I knew the Xbox one was part if the development process, hype was lost. And it turned out to look exactly like a shinier xbox one game.

 

[Bankai]

I personally think they should pull the plug and change engines to Unreal.

That would take way to long and what could it offer over the current engine, considering the fact that the game is ALSO current-gen? You can only make a claim like that if you can back it up with something. Don't just say UE4 because it the hot new thing.

 

[ZywyPL]

Adding just the PBR and RT on top of that would make quite a difference, but hearing how they desperately aim for that Halo CE/3 artstyle, I doubt we will see a significant upgrade in the visuals that will make the game look more modern/realistic. The initial trailer looked really good, if they could step up the graphics to that level, that would be more than enough:

 

[Chairman]

Assets are usually created at high res; it will be their streaming in the tech to realize it. A year is enough.

 

[FMX]

What is confusing to me is why not have a dedicated team working on the next gen version and one on the current gen version--each making the very best version they can make. I got attacked by the Sony fanboys when I asked why can't Sony just have 2 versions of Miles Morales--one current gen one next being developed at the same time instead of screwing over the Ps4 owners. Microsoft and Sony are large enough to have 2 versions of the game being worked on at the same time with the superior version being the next gen one.

 

[Sakura]

I'm sure it will look better with ray tracing and all that, but there is a limit to how much you can do when it has to be on the XBO as well.

 

[Riven326]

One thing to note that's not being talked about. XSX performance is not on par with RTX 2080 ti. That card cannot do 4k/60hz sustained with max settings in today's games. Usually without RT enabled.

 

[Camreezie]

Theyve has 5 years since Halo 5 , I doubt another full year (it will release before August 2021) would change it that drastically. What was shown is largely how it will ship , the changes will be minimal as the Xbox One version will likely hold it back

 

[rob305]

Do all games without ray tracing look like this?

Also, this is Halo 3 with a raytracing mod. This is an old game and the difference is huge, especially in darker scenarios in shadowed areas like the one in the infinite demo:

 

[trufflepigg]

this game is going to suck like every other 343i product, likely it will be their worst product yet after 9 Halo games on their resume, all of them are superbly average. I have no doubt this game will be another 343i pile of crap, but that got me thinking about someone else was saying above, about Bungie getting friendly with MS again based on the Destiny 2 deal.

What if...just what if...MS did the smartest move ever and canned 343i completely and announced they have been dissatisfied with the Halo franchise by 343i for many years, and announced they had re-hired Bungie to once again helm the series and they have begun working on a Halo REBOOT. Hype would be insane, I get wet just thinking about it.

 

[CamHostage]

It worked for the Sonic movie

...A rather optimistic viewpoint, I know but there's enough crap that's talked about game development by people with no idea how it really works, that I really hope 343 can turn this around and shut some of those dissenting voices up.

The interesting thing is, delays with massive overhauls are not unfamiliar for the Halo Franchise.



(Various versions from 1999 and 2000, including the 3rd Person play; final game shipped Nov 2001)


(May 2003 unveiling, using the PSTENCIL graphics system and a level that essentially became 2 or 3 levels in the final; game shipped November 2004)

Granted, this was back before games took half a decade to make (and Halo 2 clearly showed the compromises of its evolution,) but the series has gone through changes and come out alright on the other side at times. So, cross your fingers...

The initial trailer looked really good, if they could step up the graphics to that level, that would be more than enough:

Hmm, I don't think the current game is really too far off (if not actually the same, just bad circumstances?) from what was shown in the 2020 Showcase?

There are some flukes of choices going on with the visuals in the 2020 Demo clip (and some of that gets cleared up in the 2020 Trailer clip, though not nearly enough to save it,) but the 2019 Discover Hope trailer doesn't seem to show a drop in detail (I'm not an expert, somebody correct me if wrong, but I haven't seen "DOWNGRADE!" rage exploding about the various reveals,) just more conducive lighting conditions to show it off.

That said, I was nonplussed by Beardguy Pilot or even the more detailed MC armor myself when everybody was wowed by what seemed to be the first next-gen game footage in Discover Hope, so I was bracing myself for it being just that level of impressiveness (and then the unveiling came...)

The Slipspace Engine unveiling of 2018 (which has kind of gallingly been named "Halo Infinite - E3 2018 - Announcement Trailer" on the official Halo YT, despite not seeming to be a demo of the actual game or maybe even the engine) caught my eye a lot better. Granted, there was some past-gen tech in it (that Warthog cruise seemed to be about what I actually expected of the game reveal quality,) but the world variety and some of the extreme-condition effects (the bloomed-out desert, the haunting glow of twilight) are what I have in my mind as the target even after seeing the Halo Infinite reveal show relatively little of that promise. (Surely the world variety will be a big feature in the final game and maybe it will have stampeding beasts or rolling beaches, but did they show the Unveiling stage to highlight classic Halo looks and save getting into some of the more interesting new biomes for future shows, or do all of the Halo Infinite areas suffer from the flat look of what we've seen so far?) If Halo Infinite ends up looking more like the 2018 trailer then it'll still be somewhat dated but otherwise IMO a good-looking Halo experience.

 

[truth411]

IMO the issues with Halo Infinite comes down to design decisions because its a cross gen game. At the end of the day it has to be able to run on the Xbox One S 5400rpm HDD, DDR3 ram and Jaguar cores.

Yes they can make it look better, but im not convinced it will look "Next Gen" better.

 

[INC]

If it was a colour, its would be beige

 

[Cutty Flam]

Truly doubt it will amount to anything impressive. I think it will work upon release, and that’s as far as it will go

There was a wall in the background, during the campaign gameplay reveal and this wall was that of a canyon in the background. It consisted of four smooth rectangles. No texture, no anything. Looking at it right now. It’s even worse than I remember, have a look at the ‘canyon’

Whoever was in charge of the that particular background should be fired on the spot. I’m looking at the ground too, it honestly reminds me of original Xbox graphics way back in the day. it’s only slightly better. They royally fucked up imo, they clearly weren’t making decent strides all this time and now time is really against them

The classic Halo look they say they’re going for is merely an excuse if you ask me. I don’t sympathize with 343i at all. I think they’re disgraceful to the franchise. I vehemently think they’ve done little to nothing good for the name of Halo. The best thing they’ve contributed to the series is their forge mode in Halo 4. That was impressive. Everything else, isn’t

They deserve to be boycotted for such abysmal efforts tbh but that is not likely. They’re selling strictly off the name of Halo alone, we all know for fact 343i is trash

They’re the equivalent of Disney to Star Wars in the way they’re handling Halo. Far worse actually, because at least the Disney Star Wars films play on screen and you may experience what was promised to you as a paying customer. That much is not guaranteed with 343i products. See: MCC launch. Who could have guessed they wouldn’t even be able to make that project go smoothly? The games were already done and ready to go lmao, only needed some tough ups, but they couldn’t even get that right....

I love Halo, but I detest 343i and their mockery of the games I love. I hate the way they operate and consequently, repeatedly let down the fans