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[SenjutsuSage]

Yeah the DOF works well in specific areas -and maybe this is part of the WIP or just a flaw with PBR/Lighting in shadow - but it looks really odd how his suit in the specular highlight is detailed and then the pouches below him and all around his vest/arm hole are almost not even textured. I think it's just because it's in shadow and there's no indirect lighting hitting the textures and not just DOF, because it's all the same general distance from the camera. Something I'm hoping they improved, but either way I'm gonna play it lol.

Honestly, I think this game is going to look fantastic. I just like the look of this game. I've even managed to find the beautiful in the original 8 minute gameplay demo, which is generally the kind of thing that happens when it's one of your most anticipated games. You look for the positive takeaways. I loved how far up the mountain I could clearly, towards and into parts of the crashed. To me it came off like a painting or piece of artwork of sorts in many parts, and I think that's what they're going for.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

When games like Apex move rapidly and fill much of the same movement and gunplay sandbox as Halo does the release a brilliant Arena mode that brings together the best of classic arena and tactical shooters 343 need a shit ton to hit the mark with Infinite. They're yet to reveal a ton of info but we're half way through 2021 and getting drip fed still. Fingers crossed they pull a Respawn and this game hits it out of the park right away.

The key art that dropped just before the reveal got everyone hyped and then the reveal deflated all that -

Ngl you lost me with that apex comparison, I don’t see the correlation at all. Very different games and I’d hope halo plays nothing like these hero shooters you mention because it isn’t a hero shooter

abilities are extrinsic in this game, it’s about what you pick up not what you spawn with. That’s why the grapple hook is a solid addition as a pick up because it suits the sandbox style focus of halo

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Love the art style, it's the execution and attention on detail that got me in the reveal e.g.

This is just great and I'm happy with Series X pushing this at 4K 60fps. Very happy.

Now compare the reveal, the first time you see the bad guy it gave such a low low poly and textures YT video impression, even at 4K -

But if you look at the later models in that same video (left) and some subtle artist changes (right) 343 can get there without too much worry.

For me it was never the art style or the graphics really. It's the level of attention to detail and polish of the game and engine system from the reveal that appeared "last gen" and lacklustre.

Here's what I put on HaloWaypoint in July of last year, it's just as relevant to this thread and the current state of Infinite information released so far. I'm expecting a hell of a lot out of 343 with E3.



When games like Apex move rapidly and fill much of the same movement and gunplay sandbox as Halo does the release a brilliant Arena mode that brings together the best of classic arena and tactical shooters 343 need a shit ton to hit the mark with Infinite. They're yet to reveal a ton of info but we're half way through 2021 and getting drip fed still. Fingers crossed they pull a Respawn and this game hits it out of the park right away.

The key art that dropped just before the reveal got everyone hyped and then the reveal deflated all that -

Dude, get out of my head!!!

I was just pulling this art to show you AND I was about to show you a different lighting environment for the Brute War Chief's face. Love the artistic adjustment there also.

I think they will achieve that visual look in that art, and in many ways already are. Just those final little adjustments are needed. This is what he looks like when more light directly hits his face as it did in the gameplay.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Ngl you lost me with that apex comparison, I don’t see the correlation at all. Very different games and I’d hope halo plays nothing like these hero shooters you mention because it isn’t a hero shooter

abilities are extrinsic in this game, it’s about what you pick up not what you spawn with. That’s why the grapple hook is a solid addition as a pick up because it suits the sandbox style focus of halo

Not so much the abilities etc, although I'd really enjoy that for social and a more even classic experience for arena/HCS modes with Halo. Differing Spartans/races and abilities would go a long way if implemented "right" like Apex or Destiny PvP. Back to classic there is a gamut of comparisons to be made between Apex and Halo. Health, armour, 2 weapons, ammo, grenades, melee all in a sandbox style environment without vehicles (that do damage, the Apex Trident doesn't count). The movement and gunplay is so very close to Halo and literally outdoes what 343 did with Halo 5 in many ways. Even the variety of weapons, ranges of combat, indoors/outdoors, CQC vs open battleground and more correlate between the two games.

As a massive Halo fan Apex is the best Halo evolutionary game I've played in 10 years easy. I've only played a handful of Apex's new arena mode, since releasing last night) but it does more in that take/mash up of the FPS sub-genres than Halo/343 has done in 3 versions now. The level of tinkering with events and modes from Respawn in the last two years have been insane as well.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

The December update was also very key from the team I feel.

Inside Infinite – December 2020

<p>Hey everyone, I’m Joseph Staten. If you’ve been a longtime part of the Halo community, you may already know me. If you’re new to the community: Hello! It’s great to meet you. I was part of the Bungie team who made Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. I came […]</p>

www.halowaypoint.com

NB: From a player’s perspective, I absolutely must mention that I have been sort of a child of Bungie’s Marathon from 1994. It was the very first FPS game I got hooked on, and a lot of its original DNA prevailed in Halo several years later. All this to say, I have always been very attached to visual continuity, especially for such a large franchise. I felt that Halo 5, despite many successes, didn’t take player feedback enough into account, and many felt the game’s visuals were deviating off course. It was vital to embed Halo Infinite within very stable foundations that would borrow from the past as well as making sure that any new assets would convey a sense of legacy that would resonate with all players, old-timers and newcomers alike.

We knew it wouldn’t be trivial to combine the cleaner and simpler forms of classic games like Halo 1 or 2 with the next-gen requirements and expectations of Halo Infinite. Merging both was going to be a challenge, but we stood close to our visual principles and made it work in the best way, one day at a time. We managed to find a balance of modernized visuals combined with a classic aesthetic that will definitely speak to all, and we couldn’t be more proud of this.

There’s no denying that the return to a classic art style immediately evokes the unmistakable look and feel of Halo. When it comes to visual fidelity, the team has been making progress since July as we can see in some of the latest images we’re sharing here today. Can you talk about some of the specific areas the team has been working on?

AS: On the graphics technology front we have made improvements along with fixing bugs that were inherent to some of the techniques, as well as iterating and polishing the features that were still in development.

Some of the key areas of progress include better quality of global illumination, ambient occlusion, shadows, volumetric lighting, sky, and atmosphere. We have also addressed issues with our GPU-driven rendering and texture streaming solution that should mitigate the LOD popping and texture quality issues that were prevalent in the July demo.

There is more to be done, of course, and we are actively partnering with Neill’s and Sparth’s teams to drive the visual quality forward from both an engineering as well as an artistic front.

NH: In addition to the graphics tech changes, we have made a lot of improvements on the Art/Content side across all disciplines such as Environment, Lighting, Weapons, FX and more. There is too much to cover here but I’ll just talk through some of the more impactful changes in my mind….

Firstly, there’s been a lot of work done re-tuning our dynamic lighting values to add more punch and contrast to the image. These included adjustments to our sun intensity, fog/atmosphere, and the addition of color grading which did not make it into the July gameplay demo.

We’ve improved some of our materials to get more specular response, more wear-and-tear on weapons/vehicles, more fidelity in our characters, and more macro breakup on large surfaces like rocks, terrain, and the hex walls. We’re now also getting more of our textural detail coming through to the final frame thanks to a sharpening process that our graphics team have added. This helps offset some of the natural blurring of temporal anti-aliasing and it certainly helps our assets shine.

We're eager to show the progress the team has made in Campaign as soon we can, but we want to make sure we have all the right pieces coming together and this can be tricky with a lot of moving parts and an expansive world of this scope. We know everyone is keen to see more and we look forward to sharing more in future updates in the months ahead.

And in the campaign shots shown since, I do indeed see evidence of all this. Texture quality looks nicely bumped up, lighting looks better, they're countering some of the natural blur from their temporal anti-aliasing. We've yet to get another good look at enemies since, but I figure that's all coming.

Speaking of improvements on the art/content side, one big outcome from our demo was the emergence of the now world-renowned “Craig.” While we and the internet have come to love dear Craig, we know he wasn’t his “best self” back in July. Can you give us any updates on Craig as he stands today?

NH: Firstly, I can confirm that the facial animation on NPCs was not fully implemented in that build, which resulted in Craig’s incredibly deadpan/lifeless look. All characters are modelled in a neutral pose, prior to blendshapes & animation being applied. So, poor old Craig was never intended to be seen in that condition which is not something that was evident during the gameplay. It was only later, in the close-up freeze frame of his one bad moment, where it came to light and the legend of Craig was born.

There’s been further work done on the material fidelity and more variety added for Brute faces, we’re also working to add some hairdos and beards which was something we hadn’t gotten to in July. So, whilst we have come to love our dear old Craig, he’s certainly undergoing a significant makeover.

Craig isn’t the only model to see improvements though, there have been significant changes to other characters & 3D models as we continue to evolve and polish our content, some of which can be seen in the Spartan and weapon renders being shared today.

he extra time has already yielded progress on the visual fidelity front, but we’re still not done. Can you talk some about remaining priorities and work the team is focused on?

AS: On the graphics engineering side, we have a team that is continuing to polish up the last bits of feature work on lighting, global illumination, and atmospherics. We are also iterating very closely with Neill’s teams on making sure our content creators can take full advantage of all the cool technologies we have built over the last couple of years. Another group of graphics developers is staying heads-down on optimizing the end-to-end rendering pipeline so that we can deliver a great experience on resolution and performance, across all our target platforms, to our players.

NH: On the Art side it’s mostly further polish and bringing it all together, we have a concept of “Content Complete”, where we get all of our content into the build and then we have time after that to assess holistically and further polish areas that would benefit the most. Often times, significant improvements are made after our Content Complete milestones. Set dressing, mask painting, texture/material improvements, FX/Lighting tweaking and animation polish/variety are all still being worked on.

We’ve made significant improvements on our foliage, trees and grass, both in terms of rendering, fidelity and how we maintain that over distance, but this is another area still being worked on and fidelity will further improve. We’re excited to show you as soon as we’re able to bring things together and showcase the work in the best light.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Always puzzled by these kinds of comparisons because it doesn't make sense. I've been guilty of the same, but it's mostly tongue in cheek if I do a comparison like this. Red Dead Redemption two doesn't exactly have the sky itself as part of its gameplay sandbox. Halo on the other hand, due to its flying vehicles and the types of stuff you might be able to do in the game, does. And then it just plays drastically different and in a less realistic manner than either Far Cry or Red Dead. 343 must stick to their style.

What 343 has chosen to do here is, for gameplay sandbox and combat situations, go with a more classic Halo CE/3 art direction in terms of clean and simple designs. To support that vision they couldn't go for photo-realism because it would simply be out of place with such Halo CE/Halo 3 inspired designs. So they instead came up with their vision of what an artistically beautiful environment would otherwise look like with more modern graphics while trying to strike that balance. They are clearly choosing to pour it on and go big in their cutscenes because that's mostly where you can get away with some things. But for gameplay they've settled on their graphics style. People are reacting more to art direction rather than raw graphical quality is my thinking, and I firmly believe this fact will be borne out in the final game, which I think will look incredible in action when it all comes together.

And if nothing else, the thing that most pleases me about what 343 has done here is that they stuck with their vision and didn't allow themselves to be sucked into the "next-gen" trap. They're building a more ambitious, and I think, better game first and foremost because they focused on what matters the most in their vision and stuck with it. Halo Infinite will be all the better for it is my assumption.

They make pretty clear what their goal is here.

INSIDE INFINITE – FEBRUARY 2021

<p>Welcome to the latest Inside Infinite! In this monthly series, we aim to bring you closer to our development process by sharing our vision for Halo Infinite and speaking to key areas of the game. Our last two posts featured the Art, Graphics, and Live Teams in December and the Sandbox Team in...

www.halowaypoint.com

Well, there is a difference between making people feeling nostalgic and making a bad looking game. I have already played the first Halo a long time ago, and we have the MCC as a re-release.

What we have here is a lack of talent (or bad art direction), they could have captured "the essence" of the early models without making the game look dated, that they reached their goal only shows us that they were too literal in checking all the boxes of their early development targets... Maybe because 343 is feeling the heat after a couple of games that had lukewarm reception? (For what was a top tier franchise over two console generations).

 

[DrumNBassDanTTV]

They should scrap this game. It looks meh.

They thought it was about graphics textures, it was about general design. You can give me the same game at 8k and I couldn't give a fuck. The game looked like halo 1 with better res.

Most Halo fans want that.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Therein lies the dilemma 343 has. It's very unique compared to what Rare and Insomniac have to deal with. Halo is a game that, if they're trying to stick close to the original Halo CE aesthetic and be true to their vision of a spiritual reboot, which means moving away from their more complex, non-legacy designs of Halo 4 and Halo 5, there's no simple way to do that because Halo can't go as full cartoon as Rare and Insomniac does. Personally, I think that shit would look badass if they tried it, particularly if they went full blown comic book with Halo, but I fear the Halo community/fanbase isn't ready for that just yet, and it would negatively impact the franchise and the game's release even if they successfully pulled it off because there would always be that part of the gaming community who felt it looks too cartoony, hence can't be taken serious.

So Halo has this amazing balancing act of both trying to come off realistic, while at the same time ignoring traditional rules of photo-realism and going for something that fits their artistic vision and their world. The cutscenes are going big with stuff like this.

The level of detail is badass, the look is incredible. It's impressive, but not exactly "photo-real" if that makes sense. I've always felt Halo Infinite had a stylized look that almost came off to me as cel shaded without actually being cell shaded or whatever way it could be described. It just always struck me as more "gamey" in appearance. It's going for its own unique version of realism, but at the same time is going for pretty damn convincing human like characters with a heavy military/war tone. This automatically puts Halo in a box different from anything Insomniac or Rare do. Halo has unrealistic/sci-fi weapons and effects, but they can't exactly go sunset overdrive or ratchet with those weapons in terms of the effects. They can't be "realistic" versions of themselves, they also need to remind people of classic Halo at the same time in all things, so that automatically also means recognizable visual elements. Hell, they even gave us the original Halo CE shield regen noise.

But then for gameplay, they need to be this. It's not photo-realistic, it's not using the level of post processing other games use to hide more clean looks at their textures and other visual elements. Halo Infinite is very much giving us a straight look without all that extra post process work.

So not photo real, ESPECIALLY looking at in-game enemy characters, but this game looks damn good. If Halo 4 and 5 were trying to be Batman Begins and Dark Knight in terms of a particular vision, Halo Infinite is back to trying to be Tim Burton's Batman with the first Keaton movie and then again with Batman Returns.

Picture overload, but it helps send the message better I think.

Edit: Recommendation is don't double zoom these pictures unless of course you want to see a whole ton of extra visual annoyances you generally will never see as clearly when just playing the game. A single click is a better representation of what to expect I think.

I agree with you, but let's take into consideration that both Halo 3 and Halo 2 Anniversary exist. If you isolated Halo 3 and actually took some time to look at what Bungie did there and the little nuances that made a game from that long ago still look good today, it's somewhat incredible. The texture work alone was fantastic as they used high-res detail mapping to add additional detail to weapons, armor, and the environment and that killer lighting system that had pre-computed global illumination on top of being very natural in some cases but stylized when it came to explosions and brightness. . Halo 3's double buffered lighting system alone is something to marvel at and would look amazing in HDR. Honestly, 343 should have taken notes as to what was done with Halo 3 and brought it forward to next-gen.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Most Halo fans want that.

This is such a weird take on a game we haven't seen more than a fraction of so far. If nothing else E3 is going to be interesting with a lot of different opinions on the full reveal of Infinite. I'm still eager for some flighting of the matchmaking to take place, hopefully this summer.

I agree with you, but let's take into consideration that both Halo 3 and Halo 2 Anniversary exist. If you isolated Halo 3 and actually took some time to look at what Bungie did there and the little nuances that made a game from that long ago still look good today, it's somewhat incredible. The texture work alone was fantastic as they used high-res detail mapping to add additional detail to weapons, armor, and the environment and that killer lighting system that had pre-computed global illumination on top of being very natural in some cases but stylized when it came to explosions and brightness. . Halo 3's double buffered lighting system alone is something to marvel at and would look amazing in HDR. Honestly, 343 should have taken notes as to what was done with Halo 3 and brought it forward to next-gen.

I remember first playing Halo 3 and being completely underwhelmed by the way it looked. I'm still not a huge fan to be honest. I was an angry, snarky critic of the game on neogaf and got into a lot of trouble with many of my posts for being an idiot. With Halo 4 I don't recall anyone being disappointed with the way the game looked graphically. 343 made some really bad decisions with some of the abilities and perks, but the base game was excellent. They were kind of forced to continue off of Reach's success. Halo 5 is where we saw 343 try some of their own new things and, like it or hate it, the combat worked pretty well. Halo 5 has a massive cloud over it for many other reasons (campaign, btb an after-thought, not enough good matchmkaing maps, etc) which mar how well other parts of the game turned out. If Infinite bombs, then I'll be more than okay with criticizing 343, but I'm reserving final judgement. I see a lot of the good things 343 has done, which many do not.

 

[ResilientBanana]

This is such a weird take on a game we haven't seen more than a fraction of so far. If nothing else E3 is going to be interesting with a lot of different opinions on the full reveal of Infinite. I'm still eager for some flighting of the matchmaking to take place, hopefully this summer.


I remember first playing Halo 3 and being completely underwhelmed by the way it looked. I'm still not a huge fan to be honest. I was an angry, snarky critic of the game on neogaf and got into a lot of trouble with many of my posts for being an idiot. With Halo 4 I don't recall anyone being disappointed with the way the game looked graphically. 343 made some really bad decisions with some of the abilities and perks, but the base game was excellent. They were kind of forced to continue off of Reach's success. Halo 5 is where we saw 343 try some of their own new things and, like it or hate it, the combat worked pretty well. Halo 5 has a massive cloud over it for many other reasons (campaign, btb an after-thought, not enough good matchmkaing maps, etc) which mar how well other parts of the game turned out. If Infinite bombs, then I'll be more than okay with criticizing 343, but I'm reserving final judgement. I see a lot of the good things 343 has done, which many do not.

I agree and disagree. Some of the issues with Halo 4 and Halo 5 lies within the texture work. The textures were low-res, compressed and very grainy. Where as Halo 2 Anniversary looked great and I was hoping they would replicate the look for Halo 5, which the sadly did not. Halo 3 looked very solid, albeit a bit plain at times. But the lighting really did most of the work.

 

[sandbood]

This game artistically unpleasant

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I agree and disagree. Some of the issues with Halo 4 and Halo 5 lies within the texture work. The textures were low-res, compressed and very grainy. Where as Halo 2 Anniversary looked great and I was hoping they would replicate the look for Halo 5, which the sadly did not. Halo 3 looked very solid, albeit a bit plain at times. But the lighting really did most of the work.

I can agree with that. I don't know why but when you said anniversary all I kept thinking about was CEA and not Halo 2 Anniversary haha. H2A looked awesome and it is a shame 343 didn't continue with that look and feel.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I really hope it will return to the glory of the first Halo's but my expectations are low. Very low and I doubt it will return to be a premium Xbox franchise. I hope it at least reach 85 score.

This game artistically unpleasant

I disagree

 

[reksveks]

Not saying its a bad thing but interested to read his article on the Halo Infinite development

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I agree with you, but let's take into consideration that both Halo 3 and Halo 2 Anniversary exist. If you isolated Halo 3 and actually took some time to look at what Bungie did there and the little nuances that made a game from that long ago still look good today, it's somewhat incredible. The texture work alone was fantastic as they used high-res detail mapping to add additional detail to weapons, armor, and the environment and that killer lighting system that had pre-computed global illumination on top of being very natural in some cases but stylized when it came to explosions and brightness. . Halo 3's double buffered lighting system alone is something to marvel at and would look amazing in HDR. Honestly, 343 should have taken notes as to what was done with Halo 3 and brought it forward to next-gen.

Ehh disagree on this one. I played Halo 3 at launch and remember what it looks like. The best looking level was the flood high charity level. All else was rough even back then.

 

[Stephen Curry]

I really hope it will return to the glory of the first Halo's but my expectations are low. Very low and I doubt it will return to be a premium Xbox franchise. I hope it at least reach 85 score.

Halo 5 has the worst campaign in the series, launched with just a few maps, missing game modes, features, and had NO FORGE for the first month of release. It was a complete disaster when it came out and yet...

Halo Infinite is at least trying to push the series in a new and interesting direction, and the Pilot in the trailers is already more interesting than anyone in Halo 5...

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Well, there is a difference between making people feeling nostalgic and making a bad looking game. I have already played the first Halo a long time ago, and we have the MCC as a re-release.

What we have here is a lack of talent (or bad art direction), they could have captured "the essence" of the early models without making the game look dated, that they reached their goal only shows us that they were too literal in checking all the boxes of their early development targets... Maybe because 343 is feeling the heat after a couple of games that had lukewarm reception? (For what was a top tier franchise over two console generations).

Can't be a lack of talent since the same top people who were responsible for Halo going back as far as Halo 2, and who also worked on Halo 4 and 5 are still at 343 and still in their same positions. The biggest misconception about 343 is that somehow all of Bungie left to go to Activision. That's not the case at all. Plenty of Bungie Halo vets are STILL with Microsoft and in 343. So when you talk about talent you're not just dissing 343 devs, but some of the original folks who worked on Halo CE, Halo 2 and Halo 3/ODST.

They admitted that much of what they were working on wasn't completed for their engine yet. The reason I don't buy that random source today is because it's literally a copy and paste of most everything 343 themselves have already told us in their inside infinite updates. They just tossed in that they don't believe the game will be some masterpiece or anything.

 

[FireFly]

Can't be a lack of talent since the same top people who were responsible for Halo going back as far as Halo 2, and who also worked on Halo 4 and 5 are still at 343 and still in their same positions. The biggest misconception about 343 is that somehow all of Bungie left to go to Activision. That's not the case at all. Plenty of Bungie Halo vets are STILL with Microsoft and in 343. So when you talk about talent you're not just dissing 343 devs, but some of the original folks who worked on Halo CE, Halo 2 and Halo 3/ODST.

Which Halo vets?

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Which Halo vets?

Quite a few as confirmed in all the Halo 4 and Halo 5 Halo MCC related interviews since then. I'll dig later, but working currently.

 

[NickFire]

Not saying its a bad thing but interested to read his article on the Halo Infinite development

I will undoubtedly read the synopsis. My guess is the theme will include some or all of the following (none of which I would believe):

1) development was made difficult because people were over-worked and that made them work slower or less efficiently;
2) development was made difficult because of toxic people on internet who made devs question their entire career and leave the project; and/or
3) development was made difficult because the company has a toxic culture.

 

[Diddy X]

Wouldn't that be MEGAwide?

 

[3liteDragon]

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Peek Design

<p>ISSUE 113 Aaaaand we’re back! Another month has passed in 2021(!) and we always appreciate you stopping by your friendly neighborhood Waypoint to say hello. And hey, since we’re both already here, might as well make the trip worth your while, right? How about a little tiny bit of Halo...

www.halowaypoint.com

 

[Negotiator101]

This game just keeps sounding better and better. I'm really excited to see the new and improved Infinite at E3 next month.

 

[Audiophile]

I don't get how you take the flagship franchise for a console platform and don't try to blow people away with it as you enter a new gen. Even cross-gen should look better than this. MS and/or 343i; their intention from the beginning should be to raise the bar and invest accordingly, I just can't fathom it, it looks so average. After the recent screenshots it now looks like a competent exclusive running on X1X, that's about it.

Even as someone who's not a big Halo fan from a gameplay perspective I can appreciate many things about the franchise, it's history of innovation in the FPS space and that a lot of people have a great connection to it. So I don't criticise it lightly or mean to be harsh, I just can't muster anything up for what I'm seeing. I mean, they've had 6 years and counting; and would've had plenty of foreknowledge on XSX/XSS. MS and 343 should've gone next-gen only, it would sell systems and would've been far better for the game itself..

 

[systemr123]

I don't get how you take the flagship franchise for a console platform and don't try to blow people away with it as you enter a new gen. Even cross-gen should look better than this. MS and/or 343i; their intention from the beginning should be to raise the bar and invest accordingly, I just can't fathom it, it looks so average. After the recent screenshots it now looks like a competent exclusive running on X1X, that's about it.

Even as someone who's not a big Halo fan from a gameplay perspective I can appreciate many things about the franchise, it's history of innovation in the FPS space and that a lot of people have a great connection to it. So I don't criticise it lightly or mean to be harsh, I just can't muster anything up for what I'm seeing. I mean, they've had 6 years and counting; and would've had plenty of foreknowledge on XSX/XSS. MS and 343 should've gone next-gen only, it would sell systems and would've been far better for the game itself..

Agreed, and don’t forget about the story itself. While the game’s story might be ok game wide, I saw so many things in the demo that just didn’t make sense. E.g. They got shot down and crash land, yet immediately after master chief leaves the plane it takes off and flies away without any visible damage. Then there is the thing like, you crash land and after 10m walking there is a perfectly working warthog available. How did it get there? How is it in perfect condition? And then with the fights as well, enemies beam down in a pod right before master chief as if they have people waiting in those pods 24/7 because just maybe a mc comes along. Those are my real worries besides that the game looks absolutely basic. Loved Halo before 343.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Agreed, and don’t forget about the story itself. While the game’s story might be ok game wide, I saw so many things in the demo that just didn’t make sense. E.g. They got shot down and crash land, yet immediately after master chief leaves the plane it takes off and flies away without any visible damage. Then there is the thing like, you crash land and after 10m walking there is a perfectly working warthog available. How did it get there? How is it in perfect condition? And then with the fights as well, enemies beam down in a pod right before master chief as if they have people waiting in those pods 24/7 because just maybe a mc comes along. Those are my real worries besides that the game looks absolutely basic. Loved Halo before 343.

Jeez... where do I start lmao. The pelican dropship that was shot down is NOT what you saw flying? That was a banished ship. The Pelican never took off again. It's downed on the ground. It can't take off due to the anti-aircraft guns, which is why Chief needs to get rid of them.

As to the warthog in perfect condition, It was likely abandoned by UNSC who are still alive on Zeta Halo or dead. There are UNSC forces on that Halo. There are crashed ships all over the place. Do not forget there was a major war on this planet which the UNSC lost. There is bound to be plenty of UNSC as well as banished scattered all over that are seen as insignificant to the Banished at this stage.

The beaming down of the pods are simple to understand and easy. They have 3 very obviously strategically important anti-aircraft guns that are almost certainly going to be well guarded. What makes you think they wouldn't have drop pod reinforcements ready to go at the very hint that there's trouble? Chief literally drove a warthog right into the heart of the banished defenses, obviously they knew from that point on trouble was approaching. This all fits perfectly within the accepted Halo lore of how these things work.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Looks a lot like the gameplay demo. 32:9 is nice but out of reach to the majority of players, but this alone make it a must-have for people that invested in multi-monitors or an actual 32:9 aspect ratio monitor.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Peek Design

<p>ISSUE 113 Aaaaand we’re back! Another month has passed in 2021(!) and we always appreciate you stopping by your friendly neighborhood Waypoint to say hello. And hey, since we’re both already here, might as well make the trip worth your while, right? How about a little tiny bit of Halo...

www.halowaypoint.com

Those are some great Brute designs.

 

[systemr123]

Jeez... where do I start lmao. The pelican dropship that was shot down is NOT what you saw flying? That was a banished ship. The Pelican never took off again. It's downed on the ground. It can't take off due to the anti-aircraft guns, which is why Chief needs to get rid of them.

Wow that pilot sure crash landed right next to a perfectly working other airship, that he could run to and get into the air in 30 seconds... .

 

[ZywyPL]

Looks like a quad with added booth. I like it. A LOT.

 

[FireFly]

Wow that pilot sure crash landed right next to a perfectly working other airship, that he could run to and get into the air in 30 seconds... .

That looks like a wreck, not a working ship. Probably it's not surprising to have a bunch of wrecked craft near anti-aircraft guns.

 

[Negotiator101]

I don't get how you take the flagship franchise for a console platform and don't try to blow people away with it as you enter a new gen. Even cross-gen should look better than this. MS and/or 343i; their intention from the beginning should be to raise the bar and invest accordingly, I just can't fathom it, it looks so average. After the recent screenshots it now looks like a competent exclusive running on X1X, that's about it.

Even as someone who's not a big Halo fan from a gameplay perspective I can appreciate many things about the franchise, it's history of innovation in the FPS space and that a lot of people have a great connection to it. So I don't criticise it lightly or mean to be harsh, I just can't muster anything up for what I'm seeing. I mean, they've had 6 years and counting; and would've had plenty of foreknowledge on XSX/XSS. MS and 343 should've gone next-gen only, it would sell systems and would've been far better for the game itself..

We got a month to see the game in action, if at that point it looks underwhelming I'll be the first to complain. I believe we'll see a huge improvement over last year and a much more exciting slice of gameplay.

 

[BigLee74]

Agreed, and don’t forget about the story itself. While the game’s story might be ok game wide, I saw so many things in the demo that just didn’t make sense. E.g. They got shot down and crash land, yet immediately after master chief leaves the plane it takes off and flies away without any visible damage. Then there is the thing like, you crash land and after 10m walking there is a perfectly working warthog available. How did it get there? How is it in perfect condition? And then with the fights as well, enemies beam down in a pod right before master chief as if they have people waiting in those pods 24/7 because just maybe a mc comes along. Those are my real worries besides that the game looks absolutely basic. Loved Halo before 343.

Reads like you’ve never played a game before!

Coming to all stores near you soon. Halo: Real Life. Take control of Master Chief as you crash on a planet and trek for 10 hours straight across barren, unoccupied land. New features to pass the time include scratching your balls, a good arse claw, and nose pick.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Reads like you’ve never played a game before!

Seriously, I was wondering the same exact thing. Does posts like that not qualify as blatant trolling? Did you see the guy's other response to me? He thinks the pilot got into the banished ship and flew off. Guy has quite literally never played the games by the sounds of what he's posting.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Wow that pilot sure crash landed right next to a perfectly working other airship, that he could run to and get into the air in 30 seconds... .

Jesus.. where is a mod when you need one?

 

[Riky]

Halo Infinite may be one of the first Xbox Series X games to get dynamic HDR

Get ready for spatial audio, Spartans

www.techradar.com

My TV supports Dolby Vision so hopefully this will be a decent showcase for this.

 

[BigTnaples]

I just want the game to look as good as the engine demo they showed off a few years ago. That level of fidelity and I'd be happy.

 

[Team Andromeda]

I just want the game to look as good as the engine demo they showed off a few years ago. That level of fidelity and I'd be happy.

It does, the trouble was it mainly for cut scenes. Not that the ingame gameplay ever looked as bad as people made out

 

[Tschumi]

It just occurs to me how much of an unwieldy, inefficient and pricey stand in for VR these giant horizontal setups seem to be...

 

[coffinbirth]

release daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate

November 12th.

 

[Negotiator101]

Halo Infinite may be one of the first Xbox Series X games to get dynamic HDR

Get ready for spatial audio, Spartans

www.techradar.com

My TV supports Dolby Vision so hopefully this will be a decent showcase for this.

What TV you got Riky? Am looking at getting a new TV around October.

 

[Riky]

What TV you got Riky? Am looking at getting a new TV around October.

LG Nano86, it's literally just for games but it has everything I needed. 2 HDMI 2.1, 120hz, 4K HDR, VRR, ALLM and I couldn't have OLED as my son plays a lot of strategy games on Steam so burn in would have been an issue.
Does what I need it to do and wasn't expensive.

 

[AnotherOne]

LG Nano86, it's literally just for games but it has everything I needed. 2 HDMI 2.1, 120hz, 4K HDR, VRR, ALLM and I couldn't have OLED as my son plays a lot of strategy games on Steam so burn in would have been an issue.
Does what I need it to do and wasn't expensive.

Buy an oled for yourself and give the nano ips to your son