I mean, I love Death Stranding. I love how active just walking through the world is. But it’s also completely empty. With very rare exception, there is no reason to deviate from the ideal path. There’s nothing to discover. That’s not a knock on Death Stranding. The reason to explore is because it’s often necessary to overcome obstacles in making deliveries. Halo cannot mimic that, though.

I'm not sure I agree. I explored a lot… because it was fun for its own sake. That was because just moving around in the world was engaging. There was nothing here in terms of story or powerups:

But I was very satisfied and happy just getting there and finding it. That's what I mean when I say it's exposed the flaw in many open world games. For them, there is no joy in mere traversal.

Halo always kind of had this in a roundabout way: tricking. Maybe we can get Rockslider playing Halo Infinite for the next 20 years.

I think it looks fine. The most recent flight sold me in the gameplay. They nailed it.

I’m more hesitant about the open world aspect of the campaign. I’m totally here for Far Cry Halo, but what I saw in that overview didn’t sell me on it. Open world games have always had the issue of actually filling the world with fun things to do, and with pacing those things. That trailer made it look like there were big stretches of nothing. I keep thinking about the open sections of Gears 5, which were bad. They served nothing, and I hope this doesn’t make the same mistake. This isn’t The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2, where one could just sort of luxuriate in inhabiting such a detailed, immersive world. If the open world is just big for the sake of it, where we end up driving a Warthog for three minutes to the next thing, I don’t think that’s very good. I hope it’s not that, but that’s honestly the impression I got from that video.

That's very much a "balance" thing where if they hit the sweet spot it'll be pretty awesome. I for one hope it's a pretty big space but not massive.

I'd like there to be pockets of calm that allow the game to breath that make the ring feel like a location instead of a stage. It reminds me.... ok I'm having a terrible time finding a solid source/interview where Hayao Miyazaki talks about injecting moments of calm in his films to, ok I found it (@movierdo - I'm not familiar with the site, so take with a grain of salt)

“We have a word for that in Japanese. It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally… if you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busy-ness. but if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension.”

So I'd counter "big for the sake of it" with "big for the sake of pacing". Of course it could end up being too big, but I hope not.

Honestly I thought Assassin's creed valhalla struck a very good balance between the two. And if it's the same realm as that then I'm perfectly okay with it. Of course that game came off the previous Assassin's Creed which was waaaaay too big so maybe it was recovering from AC PTSD. I also wonder if and how they do checkpoints/teleporting points to move around the map if it's really that big.

You can see a "Fast Travel not enabled" message on the map. So there'll be some form of teleportation.

Kind of agree. Trailer doesn't change anything for me. One thing that makes it a day one, or week one, play for me is that I really liked the feel of the multiplayer, which gives me hope for the campaign.Part of what made Halo Halo was the "gamefeel."

I miss when multiplayer was a selling point for me. Then again, I would get all worked up for ostensibly no reason on something that was supposed to be a opt-in past time. So kinda not too.

But yeah... that's the nail on the head. "Gamefeel".

Don't get me wrong--I'm a campaign guy, even though I played more Halo multiplayer than any other multiplayer. Just saying that since the multiplayer felt right, maybe the campaign will, too, and that's no small thing.

I did not use the grappling hook once during the flights. I kept forgetting but still.

I specifically sought it out (and had ample opportunity during the BTB matches) and it was a lot of fun. Felt like it expanded the scope of the sandbox while playing well with the aspects of it (e.g. Movement? Zip over there, Vehicles? Zip to them, Weapons? Zip it to you, Melee? Zip to your target). I got myself killed more often than not but hot damn I was having fun.

- No text -

I get the point and half agree.

The other half of me sees that as the developers saying: YOU figure out the rules / limitations that make the game most fun, and not our designers.

I think the key thing here is there is no one true way to wring the most fun out of a game that applies to every single person.

First of all "then don't use it" is just a gosh darned lazy bullshit answer, I really don't want to go into why. Please don't make me.

Oh, when used seriously, it is, but in context it's tongue-in-cheek, not a serious answer. The CM was definitely taking a piss at the really-badly-worded question.

Second, I'm not hate'n on the Grappling Hook. I'm hating on the sell. As I did in the linked post therein, I do so now. Seen shit before, and calling out with my 2¢. All of which might I add is very warranted. Compared to where this Halo appeared about year ago, it's obviously had time to improve, but I do not know how much. It's probably no longer a Cyberpunk 2077 debacle anyway.

That's where the sell comes in. And I'm not seeing it... yet. Yet.

Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I guess it's a way to introduce verticality with clear limits, unlike jetpacks.

I agree with Cody when it comes to story. It’s going to be a huge lift to get me invested again. That said, if they can invoke the large-level fun of halo 3 or Reach, I’m in regardless. The multiplayer was good, and that’s a good sign.

P.S. nothing is funny any more. Everyone knows it.

Why is Seinfeld unfunny?

Now you done did it

Lol. I'm referencing the trope, not making a judgment of the show.

But the things it created were so brilliant and popular, they became woven into the fabric of that show's genre. They ended up being taken for granted, copied and endlessly repeated. Although they often began by saying something new, they in turn became the new status quo.