Halo: Infinite | 2021

[Mister Pink]

 

I can't find any Halo: Infinite thread, so here it is. If someone finds one, obviously let me know. 

 

Halo is now confirmed for Autumn 2021. This will coincide with the 20th anniversary of Halo. Interesting information that came out from the Halo gameplay reveal. 

Full official blog here. It's a nice juicy update with a few heads from the development team. 

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/inside-infinite-december-2020

 

Craig  

Joseph Staten: "Firstly, I can confirm that the facial animation on NPCs was not fully implemented in that build, which resulted in Craig’s incredibly deadpan/lifeless look. All characters are modelled in a neutral pose, prior to blendshapes & animation being applied. So, poor old Craig was never intended to be seen in that condition which is not something that was evident during the gameplay. It was only later, in the close-up freeze frame of his one bad moment, where it came to light and the legend of Craig was born.

 

There’s been further work done on the material fidelity and more variety added for Brute faces, we’re also working to add some hairdos and beards which was something we hadn’t gotten to in July. So, whilst we have come to love our dear old Craig, he’s certainly undergoing a significant makeover. Craig isn’t the only model to see improvements though, there have been significant changes to other characters & 3D models as we continue to evolve and polish our content, some of which can be seen in the Spartan and weapon renders being shared today."

 

 Neill Harrison "Much of the feedback we heard from the community aligned with our own views and work we were already committed to doing around things like indirect lighting, material response, foliage and tree rendering, clouds, level-of-detail transitions, and character fidelity. Still, the feedback was humbling, and it also pushed us to look at additional opportunities for improvement."

 

New screenshots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would advise anyone interested in how this is coming along behind the scenes to check out the article linked above. There's great information in it. It's all ready shaping up nice and the gameplay reveal didn't have basic animations activated. If it's looking nice by these screenshots, they still have 9 months or so for real polish. Nice! And it's better it releases on the 20th anniversary or thereabouts. 

[MrBreak16]

If they release it on Nov. 15 the game would have come out exactly 20 years after Halo: Combat Evolved

[Mister Pink]

On 12/10/2020 at 1:17 PM, Cameron Star said:

I hope they keep Craig in the game somewhere as an easter egg.

Yeah like some kind of Bigfoot-esque hermit living in a obtuse part of the map. Seems really hostile at first and you go to kill him but deep down he's just a sensitive soul. 

 

I think it's hilarious that senior developers just call him Craig. Like that's his name now. 

 

On 12/10/2020 at 1:23 PM, MrBreak16 said:

If they release it on Nov. 15 the game would have come out exactly 20 years after Halo: Combat Evolved

Yeah, that's pretty sweet. I'm almost just as excited for Autumn '21 as I was for the console release because this time we'll finally see some games use the power of the new consoles. 

 

 

New screens... 

 

 

 

 

Day/night cycle gif

 

 

[Mister Pink]

Mostly screens with some concept art and some examples of 32:9 aspect ratio for PC. 

 

 

 

 

(Concept art)

 

 

(concept art)

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Mister Pink

[DEADWOODZ]

Those look stunning, can't wait to try it on this ultrawide

[Mister Pink]

4 minutes ago, DEADWOODZ said:

Those look stunning, can't wait to try it on this ultrawide

Yeah, I'm getting an atmospheric vibe off some of these screens - something I never got from Halo games at all. All the environments never felt really lived in, with the exception of ODST which was the first Halo that make me start liking the series. I've yet to play Reach. Just coming to the end of Halo 3 for the first time. 

 

Really looking forward to this because if Game Pass now has 23m subscribers, it could be easily 25m or even 30m by launch of Infinite - It just means there will be so many people playing this game at launch. There should be a great buzz about it when it does launch. I reckon a lot of people with previously no interest in Halo will try it out so plenty of new players and some new hype.  

[DEADWOODZ]

4 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

 All the environments never felt really lived in, with the exception of ODST which was the first Halo that make me start liking the series. I've yet to play Reach. Just coming to the end of Halo 3 for the first time. 

 

 

Yeah, Reach's environments felt fairly alive. Infact it's up there with Halo 3 as one of my favs out of all the games, ah man 2010 was such a good year for gaming.

 

Check out these, you can find them on the first mission i think.

 

I should maybe have a run through of the Halo's again, seems to be more fitting doing it closer to release of Infinite lol. Also i reeeeeally hope 343 can deliver on Infinite, give that feeling as if you were starting Combat Evolved for the first time. Nostalgia pretty much plays a critical part in the Halo series for me lol. I started playing Halo CE on a very old pc years back.

Edited May 23, 2021 by DEADWOODZ

[Testarossa]

Very cautiously optimistic about this. i've been playing the original Bungie titles recently and they're so good, and i'm hoping 343 can finally deliver something truly great after 4 and 5 had a not so warm reception.

 

Also this being released literally on the 20th anniversary of both Xbox and Halo would be incredibly cool, like a full circle type deal.

[Mister Pink]

20 hours ago, DEADWOODZ said:

Yeah, Reach's environments felt fairly alive. Infact it's up there with Halo 3 as one of my favs out of all the games, ah man 2010 was such a good year for gaming.

Nice. I'm actually dying to play Reach. I originally was playing through the series before I graduate on to Destiny. Halo 3 has been one of my favourite experiences so far and some missions in Halo 2. The last mission I completed was this one. 

 

 

9 hours ago, Testarossa said:

Also this being released literally on the 20th anniversary of both Xbox and Halo would be incredibly cool, like a full circle type deal.

 

Yeah I love this. There will be a lot of nostalgia but hopefully new experiences and a new generation. I actively disliked Halo when it came out. At times, I still think it's a bit dull or lacking in some respects. However it is so much fun. So, I was a bit late to the party. Got interested in Halo when I picked up ODST. I really liked it so I finally got the MCC on Game Pass but ended up buying it for a good discount price as I think it should be worth it to own. Slowly getting through it. Really looking forward to Reach. 

[Testarossa]

okay the mutliplayer looks really fun, i like the look of the armors as well, very similar to H3 instead of whatever mess H4 and H5 had going on. hopefully the campaign is good this time round.

 

 

[DEADWOODZ]

Really can't wait for this, check The Banished vehicles.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by DEADWOODZ

[Jason]

As someone who is VERY tired of battle passes, the one(s) in Infinite sound solid. They never expire, you can purchase old ones, can't pay real money to skip them and they are 100% cosmetic.

 

The amount devs/pubs exploit the fear of missing out through monetisation in games these days is frankly pretty sick at this point, so it's nice to see a game actually do something about that.

[Testarossa]

The MCC has pretty much the same system for battle passes and i'm glad they're integrating it here as well. More games should follow suit with a similar model honestly, it sucks not being able to get cool cosmetics and stuff because it was time limited.

[Mister Pink]

Yeah just reading about Battle Pass for Halo: Infinite and I love the way they are really thinking player-first. In fact, I think there is this synergy between Xbox's whole mantra this gen and the player focus Halo is making. 

 

Ryan Paradis: First and foremost, we’re working hard to ensure that the Battle Pass isn’t a ‘grind’ for players. We want it to be a supplemental reward stream for the time you were already putting into the game. I for one can’t stand it when I’m playing a game JUST to complete the Battle Pass – it feels like a chore to me.

 

On how we’re going to be different... We’re going player-first with our Battle Passes: All Battle Passes will be permanent. This means that the Season 1 Battle Pass will be around forever; you can always go back, select that as your active Battle Pass and continue to earn progress in it. If you decided to take a Season off, or you simply didn’t have time to play, that’s fine. You can always go back and purchase any prior Battle Pass as well. Additionally, our passes will always include various free rewards in addition to the premium track. This goes back to a few pillars of ours: Provide unambiguous value and maintain that player-first focus.

We looked at other titles, where you buy something that provides time-limited access to the pass, and now you feel obligated to play… That’s not fun, and it’s not player-first. If you put the trust in us, and purchase something from us, it’s yours. No strings attached.

 

Also, I love this feudal-times Japanese warrior inspired armour/outfit. 

 

 

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/inside-infinite-june-2021

[DEADWOODZ]

On 7/6/2021 at 12:19 PM, Mister Pink said:

 

 

 

 

Noice, reminds me of Halo 3's Hyabusa armour.

 

Still remember getting all the skulls for this lool, that and the recon set were some of my favourite armor in the game

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by DEADWOODZ

[DEADWOODZ]

Been invited to the multiplayer technical preview starting from tommorow until August 1st.

 

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/inside-infinite-july-2021

[Testarossa]

was really looking forward to installing the preview today but apparently they've had issues with the servers launch, so much that they had to "rebuild" them apparently. i'm hoping we get to play it soon, i'm really hyped for it.

 

 

 

UPDATE: apparently people are starting to get their codes through Halo Waypoint rn, it's super slow though, will report back in a bit.

 

UPDATE 2: it's happening! got prompted an 11 GB update from the insider hub

Edited July 30, 2021 by Testarossa

[DEADWOODZ]

Downloading as we speak!

 

[Mister Pink]

Looks kind of fun but multiplayer PVP fps shooters are a bit repetitive for me. That and I'm sh*t at them. I'm more interested in co-op.

 

 

[Testarossa]

been playing it for a bit, and i'm really liking how it feels. it feels like a mix of Halo 5, 3 and Reach and it doesn't feel like i'm juggling too much stuff at once which is really great as i feel that was my biggest complain with Halo 5.

 

there are still a ton of improvements to make and that's fine considering we're playing a really early build of the game, i'm not particularly fond of the enemy bots being a single blue color with a red outline because it just confuses me a lot as i'm too used to the old RvB system.

 

but overall, this is shaping up to be a really great game, and it makes me incredibly excited for what's next. i'm glad 343 have found the right path for a Halo game.

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by Testarossa

[Failed Again]

Careful of campaign spoilers, data miners got some info during the beta release

[Mister Pink]

I heard that enemy bots actually teabag you. That's hilarious!

[Failed Again]

3 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

I heard that enemy bots actually teabag you. That's hilarious!

 

I can confirm this ( it wasn't me.)..lol

[Be-Deliver]

I did play four or five matches of player versus bots when the preview went live. 

 

First game ended my team losing 42 - 50 because two of my teammates left the moment the game started, and the third AFKing throughout the whole match. The rest went as usual, and I find the bots to be a nice addition (especially in higher difficulties) in the event I want to mess around and not sweat on PvP. Though, the game felt clunky to play, I'm pretty sure the game is rendered at 30 fps on the base Xbox One. Guess I'm too used to playing 60+ fps on PC and other shooters.

 

Tried booting the preview on my PC, and it gave me this

I could upgrade my GTX 1060 3 GB to an RTX 3070 or 3080, but the what's going on currently makes it too expensive to do so.

 

[Failed Again]

P:laying at 30 is hard.

I never realized it till recently

Playing Fallout 76 in FPS boost, Makes a Big difference

Be-Deliver

Hope you can work it out.

 

 

[Tacymist]

I feel 16 again being super hyped for the next Halo game, what has me stoked is the change to a more classic art style. I haven't cared about customization since Reach, now that 343 seems to be pumping out cool designs I can't wait to take to the field as a Spartan Samurai. 

[DEADWOODZ]

Meh...

 

"343 Industries has announced that it is delaying campaign co-op and Forge for Halo Infinite until after launch as the developers focus on getting the single-player campaign and multiplayer done in time for its holiday release".

 

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-infinite-no-co-op-forge-at-launch?utm_source=twitter

Edited August 20, 2021 by DEADWOODZ

[Testarossa]

Gonna be honest but I'm not too fussed about forge and co-op not being at launch, but man, this is gonna be disappointing for A LOT of people. Co-op has always been a staple of the series and launching the game without it is almost heresy. If the game's not finished yet then I can't even imagine how bad it must have been when it was supposed to come out a year ago.

 

At least 343 was reasonable and transparent enough to tell us beforehand, and hopefully this is the last bit of bad news we get before launch, because it's looking to be a great game. 

[Jason]

Embarrassing for Xbox and for 343 especially. They've not once been able to make a stand out game in their entire time with the Halo IP, and now they've well and truly sh*t the bed with Infinite despite 5-6 years of development.

 

What made Halo so good in the Bungie era was the value for money, the complete package, of which the co-op campaign and forge were essential parts of, Halo doesn't work anywhere near as well as a simply single player story + MP package. You can't launch a new Halo game without it's essential pillars.

 

Why on Earth they thought this was a good idea instead of delaying the entire thing to next year is beyond me, but I imagine they'll do it now after the backlash to this news. There's no reasons to force this out undercooked this holiday when there's the annual Call of Duty game and a much hyped new Battlefield on the horizon, if they launch Infinite in that state with those two looming it'll get devoured.

 

I'm hoping MS ring the changes after Infinite launches cause 343i in it's current state aren't a good fit of the Halo franchise.

[TheGodDamnMaster]

I don't understand why they don't just delay it to next year sometime. I mean, I get that they have obligations to their shareholders and all that sh*t, but this is just dumb.