Halo Infinite is out.
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GG Man pointed out the same issue. A lot of (Western) games are starting to do the whole MCU dialogue, and it's not stopping anytime soon.
I've heard people try and praise the dialogue. Claiming that it makes Master Chief more human, but if the other two chat this much, that just makes them all the more annoying and I would have preferred to just Master Chief going solo.
Seraphim17's Legendary Gameplay.
Don’t Use Quick Resume With Halo Infinite, Devs Warn
The highly touted Xbox Series X/S feature still doesn’t gel with online games
kotaku.com
Don't use the quick resume feature on your Xbox or you are gonna have a bad time.
I always close application whenever playing anything online even on PS4 since it works better for the next session starting fresh.Don’t Use Quick Resume With Halo Infinite, Devs Warn
The highly touted Xbox Series X/S feature still doesn’t gel with online games
Don't use the quick resume feature on your Xbox or you are gonna have a bad time.
That has never been my experience. I've never had a problem resuming on PS4 or PS5. I seem to be the outlyer though, because I have never had any playstation give me problems. But other people seem to have them all the time so I dunno about it. I have had an xbox 360 red ring on me.....twice.
While they didn’t happen too often the disconnects I’ve had in MGSV, RDO, even Sekiro have happened almost always if I used sleep mode while logged in and then go back into the game. Then I’ll have to close app anyways to reconnect so I just got into the habit of doing it preemptively because getting disconnected while playing is always far more annoying.
I don't really mind the dialogue so far.
Anyway having heaps of fun in the campaign. Loading a Razorback with power weapons is so delightfully filthy.
I am finding the game somewhat easy on Heroic, but honestly it can only be so hard when you have the grappleshot. Your ability to dictate the engagement is supreme. You're just so damn mobile and can acquire weapons/tools from a distance with it.
Some of the bosses do whip me though, but eventually I figure it out.
Anyway having heaps of fun in the campaign. Loading a Razorback with power weapons is so delightfully filthy.
I am finding the game somewhat easy on Heroic, but honestly it can only be so hard when you have the grappleshot. Your ability to dictate the engagement is supreme. You're just so damn mobile and can acquire weapons/tools from a distance with it.
Some of the bosses do whip me though, but eventually I figure it out.
This is delicious!
www.escapistmagazine.com
The Halo Infinite Physical Edition Is Worthless, and Microsoft Must Own It
Xbox Game Studios' Halo Infinite physical edition disc sold by Microsoft is useless, as it can't be used to play the game without download.
www.escapistmagazine.com
"What happened to the days of physical disks?! Nowadays all you get in the box is a download code!"This is delicious!
The Halo Infinite Physical Edition Is Worthless, and Microsoft Must Own It
Xbox Game Studios' Halo Infinite physical edition disc sold by Microsoft is useless, as it can't be used to play the game without download.
"We hear you! Here's the physical disk again."
"...this only has half the game. I still have to download."
"You didn't say anything about that."
Finished the game on Legendary yesterday evening.
I thought it was a lot of fun. The open world absolutely is not treading any new ground at all, at least compared to the likes Far Cry. But, it is new for Halo, and I have enjoyed exploring this series in a new dimension.
I did really enjoy that a lot of story missions were in their own separate areas, so you weren't constantly on the surface of the ring. I would have enjoyed a bit more variety from the interior areas, though, because most of them were either your normal grey/blue Forerunner structure, or your normal grey/red Banished structure.
To be fair, I could have done with a bit more variety from the open-world, too. The entire explorable area is basically just green grass, pine trees, and grey mountains.
The combat is a lot of fun, though! I found a use for pretty much every weapon, which is something that I could never really say about the Halo games of old, where your best bet was to pretty much carry a plasma pistol, and some kind of precision weapon at all times. Equipment adds a great new layer to the sandbox, that I honestly feel like I will miss, when revisiting past entries.
The difficulty was also really well tuned - with a couple of exceptions. Most encounters felt really fair, especially when fighting your normal enemy roster. They were always tough, but rewarding. Hunters sadly don't feel as fun to fight as they used to, because they play defensive far to effectively, which means that your only method of success are armour-piercing weapons, explosives, or throwing crates at their heads. Chieftains with Scrap Cannons can eat my ass though.
The bosses were always a challenge, but felt rewarding once you beat them. Most bosses took me about a dozen or so attempts to finally win, but only one felt like they were a bit overtuned, and that was because you had to fight two of them at once. This fight took me about an hour.
Otherwise, as to the dialogue and the story, I didn't really click with the Pilot to begin with, because he was basically always screaming about how this was a pointless fight, and how we wouldn't win, and how it was Chief's fault if things went wrong, etc, and he was basically like this for half of the game, until Chief (thankfully) told him to shut up, and calm down, and he was alright from then on.
I do like The Weapon. Yes, she is written a bit like an MCU character, but I enjoyed her dialogue, and I actually really liked her at the end.
The big bad Brute guy didn't really land for me, though. He spends the entire game gloating about how cool and dangerous he is, and how your battle will "enter the songs of legend", or whatever, and its like - Dude, I don't even know how to spell your name, and I can't even be bothered to Google it, so I doubt that. Then he sends more goons after you (which you obviously beat), and you foil more of his dastardly plans, and then he does the same thing again and again, until his inevitable boss fight at the end of the game. You're constantly told that he is a big evil bad guy by basically ever character in the game, but you never actually see him do anything, which just makes him feel a bit detached from the experience. In the audio logs, you're told that he killed an entire team of Spartans, which I think would have been a great opportunity to show his capabilities, like they did with Atriox in Halo Wars 2. But no, nothing.
As for how the game continues on the story from Halo 5, they basically swept the entire thing under the rug, which I think is a shame. 6 months before the events of the game, Cortana arrives at Zeta Halo, by herself, and apparently just waits for someone to come and get her, I guess? She is seemingly completely defenceless, with no army, no guardians, and not even any kind of backup plan for if someone did actually come and get her, and someone does, The Banished.
The Banished arrive, Cortana suspects that they want to take control of the Halo ring, so she blows herself up to damage the ring. Cortana is now dead.
Throughout the game, you are shown the memories of Cortana, because her code is in the air, or whatever. You see all of the horrible stuff that she has done since the end of Halo 5, like how she apparently completely melted Australia, and how she blew up the entire Brute home world - Death Star style.
Then, at the end of the game, you come across a final Cortana memory, where she looks like she did before she went all galactic dictator mode, and she tells you how she was wrong to do what she did, and how she forgot that her purpose was to be the perfect team with the Master Chief, and she hopes that the Master Chief and The Weapon can be best friends forever, and they can both from her mistakes. And I just... what?
It doesn't feel like she actually regrets her actions, it just feels like she lost, and is now trying to retroactively save-face in the eyes of the Chief, and the game plays it off like that actually works. She took over the galaxy, killed millions/billions, but she said sorry now, and now we're good? If you say so! The Weapon also hints that she is probably going to call herself Cortana, and I just find the whole situation to be a bit baffling, to be honest.
The game doesn't elaborate as to the state of the rest of the galaxy, like if the rest of the Guardians are still flying around, or if the rest of the Created-aligned AIs are still active, but Cortana is gone, and I think the conflict is now over, which I think was a little bit too easy, seeing as she had a fleet of giant ancient planet-destroying space robots.
Also to note, Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris dont appear at all. Locke is mentioned once in an audio log, and there is a Boss with what looks like Locke's helmet attached to his shoulder as a trophy, but this is never mentioned or elaborated on, and is very much so a blink-and-you-miss-it detail
Overall, I had a good time. The answers to some questions were a bit unsatisfying, but I enjoyed the mystery, and I am excited to see how the sequel-setup pans out.
I thought it was a lot of fun. The open world absolutely is not treading any new ground at all, at least compared to the likes Far Cry. But, it is new for Halo, and I have enjoyed exploring this series in a new dimension.
I did really enjoy that a lot of story missions were in their own separate areas, so you weren't constantly on the surface of the ring. I would have enjoyed a bit more variety from the interior areas, though, because most of them were either your normal grey/blue Forerunner structure, or your normal grey/red Banished structure.
To be fair, I could have done with a bit more variety from the open-world, too. The entire explorable area is basically just green grass, pine trees, and grey mountains.
The combat is a lot of fun, though! I found a use for pretty much every weapon, which is something that I could never really say about the Halo games of old, where your best bet was to pretty much carry a plasma pistol, and some kind of precision weapon at all times. Equipment adds a great new layer to the sandbox, that I honestly feel like I will miss, when revisiting past entries.
The difficulty was also really well tuned - with a couple of exceptions. Most encounters felt really fair, especially when fighting your normal enemy roster. They were always tough, but rewarding. Hunters sadly don't feel as fun to fight as they used to, because they play defensive far to effectively, which means that your only method of success are armour-piercing weapons, explosives, or throwing crates at their heads. Chieftains with Scrap Cannons can eat my ass though.
The bosses were always a challenge, but felt rewarding once you beat them. Most bosses took me about a dozen or so attempts to finally win, but only one felt like they were a bit overtuned, and that was because you had to fight two of them at once. This fight took me about an hour.
Otherwise, as to the dialogue and the story, I didn't really click with the Pilot to begin with, because he was basically always screaming about how this was a pointless fight, and how we wouldn't win, and how it was Chief's fault if things went wrong, etc, and he was basically like this for half of the game, until Chief (thankfully) told him to shut up, and calm down, and he was alright from then on.
I do like The Weapon. Yes, she is written a bit like an MCU character, but I enjoyed her dialogue, and I actually really liked her at the end.
The big bad Brute guy didn't really land for me, though. He spends the entire game gloating about how cool and dangerous he is, and how your battle will "enter the songs of legend", or whatever, and its like - Dude, I don't even know how to spell your name, and I can't even be bothered to Google it, so I doubt that. Then he sends more goons after you (which you obviously beat), and you foil more of his dastardly plans, and then he does the same thing again and again, until his inevitable boss fight at the end of the game. You're constantly told that he is a big evil bad guy by basically ever character in the game, but you never actually see him do anything, which just makes him feel a bit detached from the experience. In the audio logs, you're told that he killed an entire team of Spartans, which I think would have been a great opportunity to show his capabilities, like they did with Atriox in Halo Wars 2. But no, nothing.
As for how the game continues on the story from Halo 5, they basically swept the entire thing under the rug, which I think is a shame. 6 months before the events of the game, Cortana arrives at Zeta Halo, by herself, and apparently just waits for someone to come and get her, I guess? She is seemingly completely defenceless, with no army, no guardians, and not even any kind of backup plan for if someone did actually come and get her, and someone does, The Banished.
The Banished arrive, Cortana suspects that they want to take control of the Halo ring, so she blows herself up to damage the ring. Cortana is now dead.
Throughout the game, you are shown the memories of Cortana, because her code is in the air, or whatever. You see all of the horrible stuff that she has done since the end of Halo 5, like how she apparently completely melted Australia, and how she blew up the entire Brute home world - Death Star style.
Then, at the end of the game, you come across a final Cortana memory, where she looks like she did before she went all galactic dictator mode, and she tells you how she was wrong to do what she did, and how she forgot that her purpose was to be the perfect team with the Master Chief, and she hopes that the Master Chief and The Weapon can be best friends forever, and they can both from her mistakes. And I just... what?
It doesn't feel like she actually regrets her actions, it just feels like she lost, and is now trying to retroactively save-face in the eyes of the Chief, and the game plays it off like that actually works. She took over the galaxy, killed millions/billions, but she said sorry now, and now we're good? If you say so! The Weapon also hints that she is probably going to call herself Cortana, and I just find the whole situation to be a bit baffling, to be honest.
The game doesn't elaborate as to the state of the rest of the galaxy, like if the rest of the Guardians are still flying around, or if the rest of the Created-aligned AIs are still active, but Cortana is gone, and I think the conflict is now over, which I think was a little bit too easy, seeing as she had a fleet of giant ancient planet-destroying space robots.
Also to note, Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris dont appear at all. Locke is mentioned once in an audio log, and there is a Boss with what looks like Locke's helmet attached to his shoulder as a trophy, but this is never mentioned or elaborated on, and is very much so a blink-and-you-miss-it detail
Overall, I had a good time. The answers to some questions were a bit unsatisfying, but I enjoyed the mystery, and I am excited to see how the sequel-setup pans out.
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Isn't the whole shtick of the new (what I assume is a) trilogy time travel? So we're almost definitely seeing Cortana again, just as we saw Atriox. I have no idea how they're going to bring Cortana back without making the whole first game feel redundant. I do like how they are setting up Atriox as basically the Chief of the Banished. He seems much more impressive than the middle manager Brute who's supposed to be the big bad. I thought the moment where Chief gives him respect after his death was pretty damn silly.
Also I heard about that little Locke easter egg as well, but as many have pointed out, his helmet wasn't exactly unique.
Also I heard about that little Locke easter egg as well, but as many have pointed out, his helmet wasn't exactly unique.
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God, I hope not.
Look, time travel is almost always fun, and it would be cool to visit/revist key points in the franchise's history, but from a storytelling perspective, if it isn't done perfectly, it can just ruin the whole experience. It is also almost always really cheesy.
And if the time travel invalidates literally any of the major storylines of the last 20 years, that will be a bit disappointing.
343 have said that they initially didn't want to create a slayer-only playlist, because traditionally, slayer-only playlists completely kill the population of objective-only playlists. They also wanted to make the slayer playlist a little more diverse, with different Slayer modes included - which I think is a bad idea - but this is an idea that they have ditched for this release, but is apparently something that they want to revisit.
343 are also apparently saying that the game's UI makes it difficult to add new playlists, which I think is hilarious, because the game is built on an engine built internally by 343, specifically for Halo, so this is a pretty significant oversight if true... not that 343's menu UIs have ever been any good, so it wouldn't be that surprising.
Well it's no certainty, I think the theory came about mainly because of the cutscene you get for the Legendary ending. For me, that Cortana died not in Chief's presence is probably the biggest indicator that the time travel shizz might be legit. I find it hard to believe that our goodbye to such a character is done through a handful of pre-recorded messages.
So I've played some of Halo Infinite. Between 2-3 hours, which got me to the end of Outpost Tremonius. Overall, I'd say a net positive, but I'm still mixed. And in case you're wondering, most of the plot has been spoiled for me at this point, but regardless:
THE GOOD
-I'm not sure what people mean by "MCU dialogue" (short, snappy?), but whatever the case, the Weapon is adorable. Found myself smirking at almost every one of her lines, and it's also great characterization. A younger, more naieve Cortana.
-Speaking of dialogue, the Grunts are absolutely hilarious in this game. Heck, even the Brutes know it, as I've had at least one of them basically telling them to just shut the hell up. I honestly think this is the funniest the Grunts have ever been.
-I think the gunplay is pretty decent. The new weapons all serve some purpose, and while a minor addition, I like the addition of the cooling system to the plasma weapons. It's minor, but it does add a layer of depth to the gunplay - keep shooting at the cost of more plasma, or vent heat at the cost of a reduced rate of fire? Also, maybe it's been awhile, but the Jackal shields seem to be a lot tougher.
THE BAD
-I really don't like the grapple hook. Maybe it's just me, but its range seems a lot shorter than it should be, and more than once, I've died because I've jumped over a gap, misjudged its range, and plummetted. It feels like it was inspired by the shotgun grapple in Doom Eternal, only it's far less entertaining to use. Maybe I just need to 'git gud,' but as it stands...well, the button for the grapple is the same button that was used for the Spartan slam in Halo 5, and I'd rather have that back, thanks.
-Speaking of stuff from H5, John seems much slower now, even while sprinting. And while I haven't played multiplayer yet, I can't see any option for the Spartan charge. It's like they took the mobility of H5, nerfed it, and gave us a grapple as compensation. And TBH, it's not a trade I think was worth it.
-The plot so far is lacklustre. Again, early days, but, well, we go from H5's cliffhanger to suddenly being at Zeta Halo (for unexplained reasons), being attacked by the Banished (who, if you haven't played Halo Wars 2, come out of nowhere unless you've browsed Halopedia or read the novels), in what's effectively a re-tread of Halo 1 (ship above Halo, ship crashes, resistance formed on ring, John helped by Pelican pilot and AI...am I missing anything?) The entire setup is bizzare, in that it feels like there should be a game between H5 and this one. I know H5 was poorly received, and I know the generalities of what happened to Cortana and the Created, but I can't say I approve of the left turn. Even if I hated H5, even if I detested the Created and Cortana, the Banished are basically the Covenant again, in both gameplay, and so far, lore (why do the Banished want to activate this ring? I thought Atriox saw through their BS). It's, well, pandering.
Oh, and Escharum is lacklustre. He's set up as some kind of nemesis to John, but so far, all he's done is appear in holograms and given speeches. This has been pointed out on the thread aleady, but compare this to how Atriox first appears in Halo Wars 2 - show, don't tell, and all that. I don't even get why Escharum is the enemy instead of Atriox, in that he's the one who appears in the intro cutscene and kicks John's arse, but instead, he's dead, and we get this poser instead. Christ, even the Didact was a better villain than this twat.
So, overall, mixed.
THE GOOD
-I'm not sure what people mean by "MCU dialogue" (short, snappy?), but whatever the case, the Weapon is adorable. Found myself smirking at almost every one of her lines, and it's also great characterization. A younger, more naieve Cortana.
-Speaking of dialogue, the Grunts are absolutely hilarious in this game. Heck, even the Brutes know it, as I've had at least one of them basically telling them to just shut the hell up. I honestly think this is the funniest the Grunts have ever been.
-I think the gunplay is pretty decent. The new weapons all serve some purpose, and while a minor addition, I like the addition of the cooling system to the plasma weapons. It's minor, but it does add a layer of depth to the gunplay - keep shooting at the cost of more plasma, or vent heat at the cost of a reduced rate of fire? Also, maybe it's been awhile, but the Jackal shields seem to be a lot tougher.
THE BAD
-I really don't like the grapple hook. Maybe it's just me, but its range seems a lot shorter than it should be, and more than once, I've died because I've jumped over a gap, misjudged its range, and plummetted. It feels like it was inspired by the shotgun grapple in Doom Eternal, only it's far less entertaining to use. Maybe I just need to 'git gud,' but as it stands...well, the button for the grapple is the same button that was used for the Spartan slam in Halo 5, and I'd rather have that back, thanks.
-Speaking of stuff from H5, John seems much slower now, even while sprinting. And while I haven't played multiplayer yet, I can't see any option for the Spartan charge. It's like they took the mobility of H5, nerfed it, and gave us a grapple as compensation. And TBH, it's not a trade I think was worth it.
-The plot so far is lacklustre. Again, early days, but, well, we go from H5's cliffhanger to suddenly being at Zeta Halo (for unexplained reasons), being attacked by the Banished (who, if you haven't played Halo Wars 2, come out of nowhere unless you've browsed Halopedia or read the novels), in what's effectively a re-tread of Halo 1 (ship above Halo, ship crashes, resistance formed on ring, John helped by Pelican pilot and AI...am I missing anything?) The entire setup is bizzare, in that it feels like there should be a game between H5 and this one. I know H5 was poorly received, and I know the generalities of what happened to Cortana and the Created, but I can't say I approve of the left turn. Even if I hated H5, even if I detested the Created and Cortana, the Banished are basically the Covenant again, in both gameplay, and so far, lore (why do the Banished want to activate this ring? I thought Atriox saw through their BS). It's, well, pandering.
Oh, and Escharum is lacklustre. He's set up as some kind of nemesis to John, but so far, all he's done is appear in holograms and given speeches. This has been pointed out on the thread aleady, but compare this to how Atriox first appears in Halo Wars 2 - show, don't tell, and all that. I don't even get why Escharum is the enemy instead of Atriox, in that he's the one who appears in the intro cutscene and kicks John's arse, but instead, he's dead, and we get this poser instead. Christ, even the Didact was a better villain than this twat.
So, overall, mixed.
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Well, yes, the slayer playlist does cannibalize all of the objective playlists BECAUSE PEOPLE WANT TO PLAY SLAYER. If 80% of your population wants to play a specific game mode it's really stupid to prevent them from doing that.
Also, if people want to play slayer and get thrown into an objective game that they don't want to play then they just aren't going to play the objective either way, which isn't any fun for the people actually wanting to play the objective game modes.
This is a solution to a problem that doesn't make anyone happy, even the people that were meant to be helped by this change. It was an incredibly dimwitted decision on their part.