Halo Infinite is out.

Dirty Hipsters

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Not surprising.

Very limited content in terms of maps and game modes. The ranked mode is totally borked. The challenge system is still bad (though improved), and the cosmetics shop is a massive rip-off even by free-to-play game standards.

343 rolled the game out in a really bad state despite the game having fundamentally good gameplay and mechanics, and with the rate at which content is [not] coming out it's no wonder most people have already dropped it. I've been playing it once every couple of weeks.

The game needs new maps, game modes, and some weapon balancing really badly. All of these issues will be fixed if they just release forge and let the community make content for them.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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Not surprising.

Very limited content in terms of maps and game modes. The ranked mode is totally borked. The challenge system is still bad (though improved), and the cosmetics shop is a massive rip-off even by free-to-play game standards.

343 rolled the game out in a really bad state despite the game having fundamentally good gameplay and mechanics, and with the rate at which content is [not] coming out it's no wonder most people have already dropped it. I've been playing it once every couple of weeks.

The game needs new maps, game modes, and some weapon balancing really badly. All of these issues will be fixed if they just release forge and let the community make content for them.
What? Another company released a half-finished game thinking that players would stick around for live-service bullshit, only to find those players wandering off in droves?

I'm shocked. Almost too shocked for words.
 

laggyteabag

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Not surprising.

Very limited content in terms of maps and game modes. The ranked mode is totally borked. The challenge system is still bad (though improved), and the cosmetics shop is a massive rip-off even by free-to-play game standards.

343 rolled the game out in a really bad state despite the game having fundamentally good gameplay and mechanics, and with the rate at which content is [not] coming out it's no wonder most people have already dropped it. I've been playing it once every couple of weeks.

The game needs new maps, game modes, and some weapon balancing really badly. All of these issues will be fixed if they just release forge and let the community make content for them.
I haven't touched Infinite since after I completed the campaign.

The mechanics are definitely solid, but the variety leaves a lot to be desired - especially in the maps department.

Halo 3 released its first map pack 77 days after the game came out.

Coincidentally, today marks 77 days since Halo Infinite's multiplayer launched, and there are no maps in sight.

Instead, 343 spent 2 months fixing its broken BTB mode.

Live service games are promised to be supported for years, but their support is glacial - if it even happens at all.

But hey, it cant be as bad as Battlefield 2042's first content drop being delayed to the summer, right?
 

Dirty Hipsters

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I haven't touched Infinite since after I completed the campaign.

The mechanics are definitely solid, but the variety leaves a lot to be desired - especially in the maps department.

Halo 3 released its first map pack 77 days after the game came out.

Coincidentally, today marks 77 days since Halo Infinite's multiplayer launched, and there are no maps in sight.

Instead, 343 spent 2 months fixing its broken BTB mode.

Live service games are promised to be supported for years, but their support is glacial - if it even happens at all.

But hey, it cant be as bad as Battlefield 2042's first content drop being delayed to the summer, right?
There's some games that do live service right and some that don't.

Say what you want about Call of Duty, but they've got the whole live service thing down. They have a new season every 2 months and release 2-3 new maps, weapons and game modes every season, all for free. It's way better than having to spend $15 on a map pack with 3 maps like we used to in the Xbox 360 era.

And the reason that they can do that is because they have the resources of like 5 studios working on Call of Duty at any one time. That's what it takes to churn out the amount of content that a live service game actually requires. Meanwhile 343 still haven't even figured out their cosmetics shop and it took them 3 months to add a simple feature like playlists.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Say what you want about Call of Duty, but they've got the whole live service thing down. They have a new season every 2 months and release 2-3 new maps, weapons and game modes every season, all for free. It's way better than having to spend $15 on a map pack with 3 maps like we used to in the Xbox 360 era.
It's easier for CoD to do a live service than say Battlefield, since the franchise has long abandoned any attempts at being realistic or at least grounded. Which means they can have Rambo and Jigsaw running around the map. I hate those kinds of cosmetics, if they had put that in a Battlefield game I'd feel genuine disgust.

Which is why I find what's happening to Infinite a little sad. I thought a live service would suit Halo well. It's graphics don't seem very complex so adding new cosmetic content should have been easy, and the goofy sci-fi setting gave them plenty of themes.
 
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laggyteabag

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It's easier for CoD to do a live service than say Battlefield, since the franchise has long abandoned any attempts at being realistic or at least grounded. Which means they can have Rambo and Jigsaw running around the map. I hate those kinds of cosmetics, if they had put that in a Battlefield game I'd feel genuine disgust.

Which is why I find what's happening to Infinite a little sad. I thought a live service would suit Halo well. It's graphics don't seem very complex so adding new cosmetic content should have been easy, and the goofy sci-fi setting gave them plenty of themes.
I generally hate a lot of cosmetics in games.

Sure, in all of the ways that a game can be monetised, a cosmetic is definitely the lesser of the evils, but they almost always sacrifice the game's art style along the way.

At the launch of a game, everything will be mostly normal: A different outfit here, a different weapon skin there, but after a few months, the never-ending quest to constantly one-up themselves into pure absurdity begins. And before you know it, everything seems to devolve into artistic chaos, as the once-artistically consistent shooter is now full of players running around with bright-pink anime laser guns, whilst dressed as their favourite 80's action hero, and the game will never look like it used to, ever again.

Maybe it is very Old Man Yells at Cloud of me, but I just think it is very sad.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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I generally hate a lot of cosmetics in games.

Sure, in all of the ways that a game can be monetised, a cosmetic is definitely the lesser of the evils, but they almost always sacrifice the game's art style along the way.

At the launch of a game, everything will be mostly normal: A different outfit here, a different weapon skin there, but after a few months, the never-ending quest to constantly one-up themselves into pure absurdity begins. And before you know it, everything seems to devolve into artistic chaos, as the once-artistically consistent shooter is now full of players running around with bright-pink anime laser guns, whilst dressed as their favourite 80's action hero, and the game will never look like it used to, ever again.

Maybe it is very Old Man Yells at Cloud of me, but I just think it is very sad.
No, I totally agree with you. I find majority of skins, even in singeplayer games, pretty damn ugly. And in multiplayer games, I don't think any of them are really sold on a basis of looking good, but more of so you can show off that you have an expensive or hard to get cosmetic.

If I had my way, every multiplayer game would have a setting that would allow me to disable alternative cosmetics. But then that would discourage anyone from getting them, because 9 times out of 10, it's not about you seeing yourself with the skin, it's about other players seeing it. So yes, very pathetic and sad indeed.

But if the presence of these skins enables more quality content for free, then I'm willing to tolerate it. Within reason at least.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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It’s insane that out the top five played Xbox games, the only one that isn’t F2P is a nine year old game that’s been rereleased across three console generations. Also the only other one of them that looks to be MS exclusive is an even older game, and all of these games are basically competitive shooters.



It keeps getting worse...

Their flagship title is already failing. So other than what, Forza and…I guess Gears?…Game Pass is pretty much the only thing saving them in the industry right now. Kinda sad. At least they spent nearly 70 billion to perhaps get a bigger cut of those CoD monies.
 
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laggyteabag

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Im not really interested in putting much more time in Halo Infinite until the game sees some more maps, honestly.

But 343 have confirmed that we wont be getting any more maps until Season 2 (May), and it looks like there will only be two of them.


In the same timeframe, Halo 2 released four, Halo 3 and Halo Reach released six, Halo 5 released seven maps (though some are remixes of existing maps) and its entire Forge mode, and Halo 4 released nine maps, plus an extra Forge map.

This game doesn't appear to be very "live" nor is it being much of a "service".

As it stands, I still haven't played any Halo Infinite this year.
 
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laggyteabag

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I am genuinely surprised by how spectacularly Halo Infinite fumbled. The game released to zero noteworthy competition - it was an empty field, with a wide-open goal.

CoD Vanguard was generally uninspiring, and the company who made it caused such a stink, that nobody who I follow even bothered to cover it.

Battlefield 2042 was a broken and buggy mess, that seemed to be at war with it's own franchise's identity, and it is so bad that it is probably one step away from killing the entire franchise.

All Halo needed to do, was just be normal.
67v7b9.jpg

It didn't need to anything exceptional, it just needed to do enough to keep people's eyes on it for more than about 5 seconds. And in response to zero competition, in response to a wide-open goal, Halo Infinite decided to do nothing for six months.

Im no longer bothered. Im no longer invested. When it comes to Halo Infinite now, honestly, the only thing that I am looking forward to, is the eventual post-mortem from a developer standpoint. I would love to know what went so wrong with this game.

This game is the culmination of six years of development. Incredible.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I am genuinely surprised by how spectacularly Halo Infinite fumbled. The game released to zero noteworthy competition - it was an empty field, with a wide-open goal.

CoD Vanguard was generally uninspiring, and the company who made it caused such a stink, that nobody who I follow even bothered to cover it.

Battlefield 2042 was a broken and buggy mess, that seemed to be at war with it's own franchise's identity, and it is so bad that it is probably one step away from killing the entire franchise.

All Halo needed to do, was just be normal.

It didn't need to anything exceptional, it just needed to do enough to keep people's eyes on it for more than about 5 seconds. And in response to zero competition, in response to a wide-open goal, Halo Infinite decided to do nothing for six months.

Im no longer bothered. Im no longer invested. When it comes to Halo Infinite now, honestly, the only thing that I am looking forward to, is the eventual post-mortem from a developer standpoint. I would love to know what went so wrong with this game.

This game is the culmination of six years of development. Incredible.
Hint: Microsoft went wrong with it. It’s almost a given seeing as how they can barely hang on to any talent. They can only seem to rely on a near infinite vault of money to keep them relevant, and a rental service.
 
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Dalisclock

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I am genuinely surprised by how spectacularly Halo Infinite fumbled. The game released to zero noteworthy competition - it was an empty field, with a wide-open goal.

CoD Vanguard was generally uninspiring, and the company who made it caused such a stink, that nobody who I follow even bothered to cover it.

Battlefield 2042 was a broken and buggy mess, that seemed to be at war with it's own franchise's identity, and it is so bad that it is probably one step away from killing the entire franchise.

All Halo needed to do, was just be normal.

It didn't need to anything exceptional, it just needed to do enough to keep people's eyes on it for more than about 5 seconds. And in response to zero competition, in response to a wide-open goal, Halo Infinite decided to do nothing for six months.

Im no longer bothered. Im no longer invested. When it comes to Halo Infinite now, honestly, the only thing that I am looking forward to, is the eventual post-mortem from a developer standpoint. I would love to know what went so wrong with this game.

This game is the culmination of six years of development. Incredible.

Don't worry. They'll blame Elden Ring for the lack of player interest. In spite of the fact Elden Ring is nothing like Halo Infinite.
 
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