This may be a small thing, but the small things are what made Halo great. The reticle in Halo infinite (and Halo 5) is in the center of the screen.

Glad you brought this up. It's pretty important to how Halo games feel, and it just feels way better with a controller.

That's why so many other shooters are lowering the crosshair these days (Far Cry, Borderlands, Prey, The Outer Worlds, Hunt: Showdown, etc). Studios are finally figuring out things that Bungie nailed in 2004.

In Halo 2 and 3, you'll notice the reticle is lower than center by a good amount. This will tend to make you look 'up'. This has the benefit of emphasizing the world around you, since with a center reticle the ground take up more of your view. But the ground is boring. We want to see the environment. And in an open world game, how could you not implement that? I see a video where mountains and buildings tower over you, yet when playing you don't see them because the ground takes up half your screen when fighting dudes.

So much of this wisdom simply didn't carry over to 343 when they received Halo from Bungie. It's the kind of wisdom that made Halo and Bungie great. It's the kind of stuff we need to see rediscovered and expanded upon.

H4 Actually retained the lowered crosshair. Of course, it was essentially a Reach reskin, but still.

Good luck to the team, and I hope they create something great this time around.

They didn't, and I firmly believe they never will.

I’m mixed on the art style. It’s very original Halo, and it looks fantastic, I still just hate that 343i felt that was necessary because of internet crybabies. Their art style for 4 and 5 was a really good take on the universe, outside of some of the more ridiculous armor designs.

The 343 games kind of suffered from overload. It was like Michael Bay's transformers, just assaulting you with complexity that overwhelms you visually. In that regard, I think the art design was actually poor.

I must admit, I’m a little disappointed in the technical aspect. Nothing in that demo wowed me, as far as graphics. It looks good, but it almost looks unfinished, like they forgot to turn some shaders on or something. Lots of it looks really flat.

I would agree with that. The person in the cockpit looks less real than anyone in say, Death Stranding. His skin did not really look right.

The lighting and particle effects are similarly disappointing. Nothing looks bad. Maybe this is the cost of 4K 60, but that doesn’t make the Series X seem all that good if that’s the case.

Gee maybe if they ran at 1080p60 it could have looked better :-p

According to my memory, it was when CE came out and many people who are averse to saturated colors poo poo'd it for not being entirely made of shades of brown and not featuring ANY desert warfare.

The warthog sound and Master Chief name tag make me irrationally angry. Haha

They’re continuing to push the boundaries and that isn’t easy to balance against old school fans like me. But throwing fusion cores?....

On the plus side, it looks like a big world to explore and the music is already miles better than 4 and 5.

I’ll pick it up and probably have fun with it, but I’m not sure what to think at this point.

Here’s to hoping the MP will be fun.

- CC

This does not look like next gen.

Right?! I don't know why, but something about this just screams "mid-2000s CD-ROM."

I'm definitely going to play this, but I'm not super-jazzed about the more cartoony look and feel of the game.

-Disciple

It definitely has a simplified aesthetic. I'm OK with that, but it didn't WOW me like I thought it would.

Chief's armor aesthetic is great! Everything else looks like cheap plastic (is Halo Infinite just a commercial for their Mega Blox toyline?). And the lighting in 343's Halos is just straight up gross.

I've enjoyed Halo 4 and 5 despite their flaws, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one to some degree as well.

A few of us are having "fun" playing through Halo 5. The game series just delivers on sandbox fun, even when we're just blowing each other up.

Halo doesn't sit on some untouchable pedestal for me, I get why it does for so many people (don't @ me). But just like other forms of media, I'm OK with it evolving and changing.

Aside from being vocal about Halo 4 and 5's absolutely garbage art direction, writing, dialogue, technical issues, and characters, I do like them enough. Halo is ever-changing, and though it adapts to the gaming zeitgeist at a slow (and occasionally sad) pace, I'm all for it pushing itself forward. Sprint? Perfect! Clambering and dodging? Let's go! Grappling hook? Yipee-zippy!

I'll be there day one if anyone wants to co-op or form a fireteam for MP!

Because I don't have to pay for it (Have I mentioned Warframe Gamepass around here yet?), I'll be there Day 1 as well.

Cross-posting from HBO

I watched the campaign reveal and came away feeling basically nothing. Nothing got me excited but by the same token, nothing really upset or disappointed me. I thought about why that might be and the obvious explanation came up first: it's been a long time since the franchise offered me anything compelling and I've become apathetic/disinterested.

But that's not the whole story. There is something else at play, and it explains both my personal apathy and so much that was shown in the trailer: Halo has gone from being a video game franchise with toys to being a toy franchise with video games.

This metamorphosis was well underway by the time of Halo 4 but it's taken a huge step with H:I

Point 1: The Minecraft Aesthetic

A lot of people see the flat polygons and make jokes about "is this next-gen??" as though a Triple-A developer forgot how to do graphics. No, it's intentional: the blocky aesthetic will work very nicely with toys and other plastic playsets.

Point 2: The Open World, Under Construction

This point is less obvious but I feel is still worth considering. Think back to when you were playing with GI Joe or other action figures as a kid. The whole narrative and setup of the characters and structures was an ad-hoc, random composition. You get out the Command Tower and decide to place a couple of Gun Turrets and a Wall to prevent your sister's Rainbow Brite Army from taking the nearby village, slaughtering thousands. And there's a submarine base, why not.

This concept works better, more naturally, if the source video game behaves like this from the start. You can obviously have toys of characters, vehicles, and structures from a more linear and narratively driven game, but things are more in harmony if the game is already setup in an open world format. And even better, it appears from the media we've seen that the ring itself is constantly under construction, where its layout is constantly changing.

Point 3: The Big Bad

Characters sell toys. Important characters sell more. Both the Didact and Pvt Chips Dubbo are characters in the Halo franchise, but one of them will sell a lot more toys than the other. This should be in your mind when the Big Bad Brute is front and center in the marketing. Halo 1 technically had a main villain, but it was a gradual revelation (343GS didn't appear until halfway in) aided by a plot twist. The game's story was still more about your desperate attempts to survive in an unknown world: part fact-finding, part shooting, and part surviving.

Halo 2 had the Prophets, Gravemind, and Tartarus. But again, these enemies were revealed organically as the story unfolded.

Halo Infinite puts the Big Bad front and center. This is not "helpful floating orb on mysterious ring eventually turns out to be a very big threat." This is He-Man and Skeletor, Lion-O and Mumra, red panda and pumpkin. It's cheesy and low-effort but it's going to sell action figures from Day 0.

Point 4: That Stupid 117 Decal

This is my weakest point but it bugs me enough to mention it. I'm sure you can think of three or four explanations for why "117" should be awkwardly slapped on his breast but it sure does feel like it's there mostly to allow for easy identification during the War of Rainbowland Aggression.

Anyway. This is not a "I HATE GAME" post, since again I'm mostly feeling apathetic. But I thought I'd share my thoughts here in case you felt the same way and were wondering why. Rather than being a disappointing entry in the franchise as you knew it, it's a competent entry in some other franchise which doesn't interest you.

Side note: I'm thinking about getting a weekly MCC night going between now and H:I launch. 343 has done very well to make the PC offering playable. I'm leaning towards Thursday or Sunday nights but you can chime in with your thoughts.

But that is a damn compelling analysis of some of the approaches here.

Point 1: The Minecraft Aesthetic

A lot of people see the flat polygons and make jokes about "is this next-gen??" as though a Triple-A developer forgot how to do graphics. No, it's intentional: the blocky aesthetic will work very nicely with toys and other plastic playsets.

I think this is too conspiracy oriented. It's probably because of the dumb ass 4K60 target. When you have to render 8x as many pixels as 1080p30, you're going to have to cut down on complexity.

Point 2: The Open World, Under Construction

This concept works better, more naturally, if the source video game behaves like this from the start. You can obviously have toys of characters, vehicles, and structures from a more linear and narratively driven game, but things are more in harmony if the game is already setup in an open world format. And even better, it appears from the media we've seen that the ring itself is constantly under construction, where its layout is constantly changing.

Or maybe this is the reason. The geometry may be simpler because it can be moved around in real time.

Halo Infinite puts the Big Bad front and center. This is not "helpful floating orb on mysterious ring eventually turns out to be a very big threat." This is He-Man and Skeletor, Lion-O and Mumra, red panda and pumpkin. It's cheesy and low-effort but it's going to sell action figures from Day 0.

I think it's just simplistic writing, not a conspiracy to sell toys.

Side note: I'm thinking about getting a weekly MCC night going between now and H:I launch. 343 has done very well to make the PC offering playable. I'm leaning towards Thursday or Sunday nights but you can chime in with your thoughts.

I'd be down, but it would have to be thurs or fri since I'm east coast time and would be later for me than most of you guys.

I just got a new laptop to game on (I don't plan to be a day-one Xbox or PS5 buyer this go-round). Also, I'm a Steam virgin and have no friends there yet. That said,

I'm having a freakin' ball!

I'll admit I was a bit concerned to try out MP (it's been ages since I gamed with mouse and keyboard) but I tried out an xbox controller and to my surprise, I didn't get stomped on.

It was.... fair!

And the campaigns are just, GORGEOUS at 60 fps. Holy moley!

- No text -

Cross-posting from HBO

I watched the campaign reveal and came away feeling basically nothing. Nothing got me excited but by the same token, nothing really upset or disappointed me. I thought about why that might be and the obvious explanation came up first: it's been a long time since the franchise offered me anything compelling and I've become apathetic/disinterested.

But that's not the whole story. There is something else at play, and it explains both my personal apathy and so much that was shown in the trailer: Halo has gone from being a video game franchise with toys to being a toy franchise with video games.

This metamorphosis was well underway by the time of Halo 4 but it's taken a huge step with H:I

Point 1: The Minecraft Aesthetic

A lot of people see the flat polygons and make jokes about "is this next-gen??" as though a Triple-A developer forgot how to do graphics. No, it's intentional: the blocky aesthetic will work very nicely with toys and other plastic playsets.

Point 2: The Open World, Under Construction

This point is less obvious but I feel is still worth considering. Think back to when you were playing with GI Joe or other action figures as a kid. The whole narrative and setup of the characters and structures was an ad-hoc, random composition. You get out the Command Tower and decide to place a couple of Gun Turrets and a Wall to prevent your sister's Rainbow Brite Army from taking the nearby village, slaughtering thousands. And there's a submarine base, why not.

This concept works better, more naturally, if the source video game behaves like this from the start. You can obviously have toys of characters, vehicles, and structures from a more linear and narratively driven game, but things are more in harmony if the game is already setup in an open world format. And even better, it appears from the media we've seen that the ring itself is constantly under construction, where its layout is constantly changing.

Point 3: The Big Bad

Characters sell toys. Important characters sell more. Both the Didact and Pvt Chips Dubbo are characters in the Halo franchise, but one of them will sell a lot more toys than the other. This should be in your mind when the Big Bad Brute is front and center in the marketing. Halo 1 technically had a main villain, but it was a gradual revelation (343GS didn't appear until halfway in) aided by a plot twist. The game's story was still more about your desperate attempts to survive in an unknown world: part fact-finding, part shooting, and part surviving.

Halo 2 had the Prophets, Gravemind, and Tartarus. But again, these enemies were revealed organically as the story unfolded.

Halo Infinite puts the Big Bad front and center. This is not "helpful floating orb on mysterious ring eventually turns out to be a very big threat." This is He-Man and Skeletor, Lion-O and Mumra, red panda and pumpkin. It's cheesy and low-effort but it's going to sell action figures from Day 0.

Point 4: That Stupid 117 Decal

This is my weakest point but it bugs me enough to mention it. I'm sure you can think of three or four explanations for why "117" should be awkwardly slapped on his breast but it sure does feel like it's there mostly to allow for easy identification during the War of Rainbowland Aggression.

Anyway. This is not a "I HATE GAME" post, since again I'm mostly feeling apathetic. But I thought I'd share my thoughts here in case you felt the same way and were wondering why. Rather than being a disappointing entry in the franchise as you knew it, it's a competent entry in some other franchise which doesn't interest you.

Side note: I'm thinking about getting a weekly MCC night going between now and H:I launch. 343 has done very well to make the PC offering playable. I'm leaning towards Thursday or Sunday nights but you can chime in with your thoughts.

NERF AR