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[NXG] Halo Infinite : E3 2019 & 2020 Reveal vs Retail

Iced Arcade

Member
Its true. Someone from Sony's Liverpool HQ even updated the Halo wikipedia page. It probably was one employee who spent too much time on internet forums, and has nothing to do with the Liverpool HQ. But for those wondering here is the edit and here is another one from the same IP.
Regardless it was a gamefaqs tier "meme" back then. Even though it was not a graphical showcase unlike Gears of War, Halo 3 became a cultural phenomenon.
Forgot about that. Lol so cringe
 

BlackM1st

Banned
apparently up to 2/3 of the game was cut
Despicable Me Reaction GIF
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


$500.000.000 budget. 6 years of development. When Halo Infinite was announced at E3 2018, 343 and Microsoft showcased a very impressive tech demo. Since then the development of Halo Infinite's campaign was troubling. As the campaign finally released, it became obvious that the content was cut, the graphics was downgraded and the project was downscaled. This video is aiming to demonstrate the lack of variety in enviroments of Halo Infinite, comparing it to the tech demo as well as other Halo games.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Yyup the original plan was to make the entire ring explorable
Yeah, sounds amazing if true. Fully explorable ring should be their next goal for the current gen only game. Unfortunately it's probably many years away. Dang, Xgen curse strikes again...
Halo's are fuckin big in the games idk what you guys are talking about. The diameter is 6,200 miles lmao would literally take days to travel around it.
 
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Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
These ring worlds are huge.
 

sendit

Member
They really need to provide a source on this 500 million thing. It was denied by franchise director S Stinkles in early 2019. If you try to look up the source you will realise it came from Xbox Dynasty
This and the "Fable is a MMO" rumour.
Regardless of the exact number. It had a massive budget behind it. However, the results do not show.
 
6 years of development. When Halo Infinite was announced at E3 2018, 343 and Microsoft showcased a very impressive tech demo. Since then the development of Halo Infinite's campaign was troubling. As the campaign finally released, it became obvious that the content was cut, the graphics was downgraded and the project was downscaled. This video is aiming to demonstrate the lack of variety in enviroments of Halo Infinite, comparing it to the tech demo as well as other Halo games.

Yep. I posted some of these in the HaloGAF community thread but just as relevant here in a single post -

I think this is like most of us. The gameplay just made it a fun and solid game. Most of the other elements fall to average TBH. A quick checklist of how I feel after having a month with the game -
  • Gameplay 9.5/10, doesn't even need to be talked about. It's that good from weapons to enemies and equipment combined with lite-RPG. NAILED IT. Vehicles combined with cluttered maps in PvP/campaign suck though.
  • Bosses 7.5/10. They were solid and had some variety but not to the levels of Halo 2 boss encounters where mechanics and environments were fleshed out as part of the boss battle. 343 miss everything around the boss being part of that "boss sandbox".
  • Audio 8.5/10, to me multiplayer isn't aware enough, APEX does it better. The OST and campaign immersion with audio is amazing though.
  • Graphics 8.5/10, there is still that washed out look to campaign, multiplayer looks great. PvP visuals are a too "noisy" e.g. shield flares and outlines etc.
  • Story 4/10, handwaving snooze fest with little creativity TBH. In mere days I could write far more interesting Halo events for the mainline games. Party chats with mates have ideas better than the last 2 out of 343.
  • Campaign environments 5/10, the bases were interesting and enable lots of ways to play but capture FOB, fast travel, kill something, push too many buttons and repeat doesn't really have me wanting to playthrough the campaign again. I will load up the world but it would be nice if they had kill missions and areas being taken back after the end game, so you don't have to restart a new save. Destiny does this better, I'm surprised how they've handled the end game. There was no variation to the biomes or structures really, the main story bases changed configuration enough and are clearly curated quite well in terms of enemies and engagement etc but there isn't time spent with new assets, weather, terrain, vehicles skins to suit differing environments etc. They really should have looked to CE/2 far more for that lovely traversal of Halo rings and environments.
  • Coop, 0/10. No splitscreen, no online coop and generally unless they release a massive unseen portion of the game e.g. PvE strikes/raids/campaign DLC there isn't much that has me wanting to go back and play campaign. I have zero interesting in seeing and doing exactly what I did solo and listening to speeches in cutscenes with friends that want to skip them too. I hope 343 have an ace in the hole for coop in the months to come. I fear it's just coop on the exact campaign we played already and it's really not going to breathe any new life into replays if that's the case.
  • AI 8/10, solid but really goes to gameplay. There isn't any innovation here. 343/MS/Azure could have really built a single universe type system for campaign or had a "living world" where the AI is moving bases and reacting to what you're doing e.g. you choose to go to A they retake B or build a new base at C or found a new tech while you captured a base etc. The AI engagements are rewarding and very solid work there but no innovation in terms of a campaign. Firefight is also missing or say a new mode where AI is present during PvP e.g. Titanfall marines.
  • Characters 5/10, 343 wiped the deck in the worst way possible. It's pretty cheap and while The Weapon was very well done, so was Cortana as always. The Pilot got annoying by the end of the campaign and the enemy bosses really didn't have any presence like say the Prophets or Gravemind. Having the Banished again was not to my tastes, why they didn't just deliver the Endless in game in the last act or Atriox is beyond me. The progress of character's stories was quite little outside of the 2 sidekicks. The game equates to fuck blue team, fuck Cortana, fuck you for investing in Halo 20 years and we talked about a bunch of stuff you never got to play during this campaign.
  • Game engine 5/10, given what next gen engines are capable of and the hype around Series X power at launch there should be a higher bar. Especially when you talk about PC releases as well, this game should push into the realms of Star Citizen systems, Destiny 2 art and Spidey/Ratchet & Clank image quality. It doesn't. There's missing elements from interactive environments to in engine systems e.g. what happened to a warthog reacting to a surface like CE's ice slide. It's the simple things that go so far in game which the engine enables developers to deliver. The scale appears to be what they were driving and 60 fps @ 4K. Given the in engine reveal 343 dished out I don't think the final game release engine lives up expectations. There's also little innovation in terms of what we see in game or mechanics.
  • Forge, custom games & games browser 0/10. It ain't there and we haven't seen anything.
  • Roadmap 3/10, most games such as Fortnite or APEX or Warzone or Destiny 2 have clear roadmaps for changes, upgrades, news, content drops, seasons etc. Having a 6 months wait post launch for a lacklustre season is painful and points to the rushed/troubled development of Infinite. 343 not having this planned to sustain a launch run of say 3 monthly drops and the first 12 months pretty well communicated about what's new dropping is poor form. Instead they're still playing catch up across Forge, coop, tweaks/fixes etc. This should be planned and executed better, they should be pushing content that is mature to the levels of 2nd or 3rd year seen from Sea of Thieves or Apex Legends for example. 343 have been around the block enough to know what AAA takes to deliver at launch and what is successful post launch. The roadmap should have been forward thinking and built out as part of the launch year, not catch up on standard release features.
  • Multiplayer 5.5/10, I just cannot see past fuck ups like no region/server filters, esports maps or chaotic BTB split and overall an incomplete Halo experience. It can become a 9/10 but it has massive changes to matchmaking, maps and decision making at 343 within the next 1-2 years. We'll see what becomes of it, but as it stands right now it's not a multiplayer I'll invest my time into heavily. I'm already back playing Apex instead, so are my friends.
  • UI 6/10, the campaign interactive world map is good to great. The PvE menus, customisations, battle pass and stability are all shit, this side of it is utter garbage. Menus aren't contextual, you're constantly backing out of things you want to do, feel like you're searching for this, menus crash/load poorly, the post game stats are fucking shit...massive step backwards.
After today's quick update from 343 on Waypoint -
Cheaters rampant for another month at least. PC optimisation given the middle finger. No mention of desync. No mention of region/server selection, fucking joke still. Didn't even take out BTB challenges, why they haven't developed their slipspace engine/system so sustain staff literally have app controls to just tick box such trivial things as challenges is beyond me. The next season is going to be an interesting one. Is it just actually the polish the game needed or will they deliver new content such as maps, modes, coop more than just the existing campaign etc? My gut tells me this thing is a hot mess and they're struggling post launch.

Considering the launch of just campaign, esports 4v4 and BTB with so much left out it's pretty damning against 343 and their development woes with each game release. It's not unreasonable from the player perspective to assume little has been learned or planned well going forward around the new engine/pipeline. Factually less has been delivered. After MCC how this studio bombs another 6 years development is just infuriating to think about. To have a brilliant underlying game not realised to its full potential and not looking like it will be for another 6-18 months is even more infuriating.

I've said the studio decision makers needed a shake up before, when I ask myself that question now with Infinite post launch I find myself still answering yes they need a restructure. The story, the engine, the missing elements, the cheaters, the Q&A etc. Honestly I really thought they'd pull through after the last 10+ years of 343. I'm not sure I really have it in me to stick around for things to develop with Halo. They've abandoned classic Halo for 2 major releases in a row now. I have no interest in the story they're telling, the multiplayer is reminiscent of going for your 50 on USA servers from 15 years ago and the MCC flash backs of parties and lobbies not working forcing game restarts is PTSD inducing.

Probably a little harsh but the more I look at Infinite or try to play it the more I just play Apex with friends or MCC solo instead.

Man called the Warthog a jeep. A JEEP.

Who cares. It's a PUMA anyhow.
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
I absolutely loved halo infinite and thought the game was incredible myself, genuinely the game was I have had the most enjoyment with in many years.

I also read the interview with Staten & Ross and apparently up to 2/3 of the game was cut, it's makes me wonder what their vision could've been, if fully realised.

Hopefully with the upcoming expansions, they can hit what they were aiming for.

I also wonder if infinite will abandon Xbox one in the upcoming years.

Nothing to stop them adding more content as it moves on.
 
Yyup the original plan was to make the entire ring explorable
I think that with the amount of content in game, the size of the world is fine. I don’t personally believe it would have been a good idea to spread that kind of content over a world that is much larger than that. It for sure would have felt repetitive and padded for no reason.

The beauty of Infinite in my opinion is that there’s just enough content in the open world for it to be a fun time but not overwhelming.

Going forward it would be cool to see some more dynamic events in the world but I think for what it is, it’s an awesome time.
 
oh and half a billion to make is complete shite, stop posting that, no way would ms allow that, it would never get that money back in sales and more.
 
One of the main problems - across the industry - is that games are revealed too early, and then trailers will have descriptors like:
  • Game engine demonstration
  • Captured in-engine
  • Target render
  • Tech demo
Then people get excited thinking the finished product will look as good as the early reveal, but in the end feel like they've been misled.
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Direct visual and gameplay comparison of "Halo Infinite" and the gameplay premiere from E3 2020.

This video covers how the mission from the E3 2020 demonstration has changed from a graphical standpoint, along with a look at how various gameplay features, UI elements, and other aspects of the game that have been modified.

This game is being played on the PC at its highest graphical settings using the most recent patch as of May 2022. No dynamic scaling has been enabled to ensure the highest possible fidelity.
 
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