Master Chief looks great, the control room looks great, and they’re using proper sound effects again. But it didn’t show much of anything, the Oni guy and his ship don’t look all that great graphically, and then there’s the most important thing to remember whenever dealing with 343, their words, and their marketing: It might look or sound good, but let's not forget playing good is the important thing.

But from that showing alone, no way I’d buy it. Not hyped. Can’t wait for Reach to get added to MCC.

I'll smack this dead horse a bit more . . .

I liked Halo 5 a lot. Most of the hate is completely undeserved. It's the best-feeling Halo yet. I'm excited for more Halo on that premise alone. I hope they don't abandon the movement abilities or general gameplay style in favor of chasing the old Halo feel, as I think Halo 5 was damn near perfect in still feeling absolutely like Halo, but also having the faster pace of a modern first person shooter.

While I'm totally okay with a move to a more nostalgic art style, 343i's armor for the Master Chief has always looked really fucking cool in my book, and I miss it already. It looked tanky in a really great way.

That said, I'm totally stoked for Halo Infinite. I still love Halo and I'm ready for more.

I wish there had been more of a gameplay pitch there, although it's interested that there's been a pretty large time skip. The "boot up" screen says that his armor BIOS was last updated by Halsey in 2561. Halo 5 took place in 2558, so it's been a few years.

Also, I wonder what the Xbox LIVE code was for in that screen. I tried to redeemed, but of course it was already used. I thought maybe it'd be a universal code for a theme or something, but apparently not.

The Master Chief himself looks properly bulked up and fully inhabits that armor. I suspect it has a whole lot to do with this stellar lighting on Slipspace Engine. That light olive green color is just so pretty. Then that old Mark V energy shield boot up/recharge brought me back to some delightful childhood memories. Feels like we’re in for a good time on the simple fact that John’s wearing a dapper new armor from Dr. Halsey herself.

Halo 5 had excellent gameplay, but a terrible story. Here's hoping Halo Infinite delivers on both counts.

Also, hi.

And my man crush is re-ignited.

I really hope this game comes out well. Halo 4 was the last release I played and have stopped caring about the franchise.

For me, this trailer really misses the mark. It's good... everything in it looks good. But for me, this is the kind of trailer that would have made more sense last year, as a sort of announcement teaser. At this point however, I want to see the game. Not a cutscene or mood piece or anything like that. I want to see what makes this game worth playing. Because at this point, "more Halo" just isn't enough to get me excited.

Now, the game is still a long way from launching, so I could totally understand the argument that its too early to show the game. Cool. I can wait. But this... it was just such a non-event of a trailer, yet it was given the closing slot in the press conference as if it were a huge deal. I'd have rather they just didn't mention it at all this year, if they aren't ready to show more.

I think that Halo has hit the point where its relevance should no longer be taken for granted. Microsoft and 343 need to earn the public's enthusiasm back. And I'm rooting for them. I would absolutely love to be thrilled about a new Halo game again. I just need them to show me why I should be :)

There are only 4 shots in this trailer.

There seems to be a trend going around do do cinematics in long takes or oners. Kojima's been doing it with Death Stranding and MGS V, Naughty Dog's last Last of Trailer was all one shot, and this trailer uses them too.

I don't know what to make of this just yet, but it worked better here than in the previously mentioned. I wonder if the idea is to bridge the continuity of the visual experience of playing. Or maybe it's just to show off. Who knows.

I came across a video recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6nZPrMSu0w

Not having played the PC version of Halo 1, I did always wonder why the game seemed flat on MCC, and remember reading it was a shader issue because the Xbox's GPU was custom and couldn't be duplicated. But it's apparently not. It's just a flat out mistake. Look at all of the graphical issues in the game that make the MCC version look worse than the original.

Remakes and remasters are supposed to improve or at least match the visual fidelity of the originals. I guess the MCC actually makes the original look worse. That's… very upsetting. I can see a generation of folks who go back to play Halo, only to see a version that is worse than what they would have had if they had played the original.

This is not something I expected from a company who loves Halo and holds Bungie in high regard. The MCC is how many people will experience Halo for the first time. It is most definitely tarnishing the legacy of the original game.

Part of me wonders if they don't care to fix these issues because the new games will look so much better by comparison, benefiting them.

Gameplay was ok, but the writing became too generic sci-fi and lost the unique hallmarks of military sci-fi that dominated the Bungie made ones. To many human characters picked up idiot balls, too many AI characters did the same. I hated the Forrunner lore and how the characters were portrayed in 4, and Cortana's heel turn in 5. Greg Bear may be a good writer, but his Forrrunner series were too random and illogical, and felt to divergent from the initial concepts.

It seemed to me little different from Gears of War, which before had always struggled to be "Halo but totally cooler and not that nerd garbage".

A return to what made the series great requires a return to the tone and writing of the "Deliver Hope" style adds that showed the ODST marines and the diorama and Museum of Humanity. This, while giving some clue to story doesn't really do much for me.