Halo Thread

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Halo Thread

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Halo Thread

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Halo Thread

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Massive Halo fans Alex Battaglia and Adam Taylor - aka EposVox - sit down to discuss the recent campaign re-reveal for Halo Infinite. What's improved since the game's showing last year and what are their concerns for the final single-player game?
-Talk a bit about the open world, RPG skill tree and "resource management" aspects. "Grinding to level up". Alex says he is "worried" about the campaign because he wants more classic Halo level designs.
-Beach blonde dude is "cautiously optimistic". 343 only shown off one area. Wants to see more of other areas.
-Open world graphical ramifications. "Less artist driven game". Concern over night-day diminishing artistic aspects.
-More realistic looking than last year's reveal. Less "plastic" looking.
-No pop-in like previous version
-Better cloud rendering
-Improved lighting, especially reflective lighting on structures
-Characters in shadow are fully lit
-Some animations are 30fps
-Complains about sparks when ship falls on platform
-Missing ambient occlusion in areas
-Shadow-casting on foliage/trees is off
-No motion blur, depth of field
-Alex says this is a better showing than it was before, but still skeptical of campaign gameplay

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Halo Thread

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Re: Halo Thread

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Re: Halo Thread

Post by pixel »

I'm excited for it, the multiplayer has been great aside from some issues (gameplay modes are shuffled, goofy scheme for cosmetics). Plus I'm a Game Pass subscriber, so I'd probably try it even if it was a warmed-over rehash of the last few games.
Giantbomb wrote:It is the opinion of this publication that if you own a recent Xbox console you should subscribe to Game Pass and if you also have a reasonably modern PC you should probably subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate. It's been a great collection of games both big and small. Even if Halo Infinite didn't exist, I'd still be typing this part right now to tell you to go play Forza Horizon 5. Or to check out Back 4 Blood for an hour or so before deleting it. The PC end of Game Pass has been a somewhat dicier proposition than its console counterpart, but that side of things has picked up the pace quite a bit over the last year or so, making Game Pass Ultimate a much more interesting tier of service. Oh, also you can play Halo Infinite's campaign via a Game Pass subscription. And there will be some multiplayer skins and stuff that come via the "Game Pass Perks" program.

With all of that said... yes, you should play the Halo campaign, it has some interesting ideas that blow out the traditional Halo campaign concept with some open-world-like designs without falling into the trap of just littering your map with a bunch of bad, repetitive activities. It brings that Halo toolset to a wider arena, letting you take on some of those outdoor challenges in fun, new ways. It also brings you indoors for some extremely Halo-ass Halo levels, which look great and give you that traditional Halo experience.

It also has an extremely satisfying grappling hook that makes you feel like the Master Chief has been playing a bit of Just Cause in his downtime.

So what the heck am I actually reviewing here, anyway? The $60 package, the "pay money for the campaign" package is probably the worst way to play Halo. You'd even be better off buying a month of Game Pass, playing the campaign, and letting that lapse. So thumbs down to that full, retail-style version of the game unless you are somehow locked in a world where you refuse to play anything unless it's on Steam. I don't know why you'd live that way, but you know what? People are weird. Did I say weird? I meant extremely particular. Hey, it's your money.

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Re: Halo Thread

Post by pixel »

I played the campaign for about 2 hours, it's really good. A prerequisite is that you need to like Halo's gameplay, so if you do, this is a great time. I won't spoil too much ...

But the first hour or so is a typical Halo adventure through these long Forerunner hallways and an enemy ship. Big explosions, dramatic last-second plot points, Little set-piece battles pop up along the way, yadda yadda yadda, until you get to an actual boss encounter with a health bar and everything.

That's when you end up on the surface of a Halo and get a handful of objectives on a small map. So instead of walking in a straight line for 20 hours, now Halo Infinite breaks up the major plot lines with some breezy open-world action. If this is the formula for the rest of the game, it's a bit of revelatory genre bending.

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Skynet
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Re: Halo Thread

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I'm debating whether or not I play the campaign now or wait until coop. I really want to play it, but me and a mate play coop on legendary and I'm not good enough to play legendary by myself :olol: I should just play it and then coop it with him once it's out.

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Re: Halo Thread

Post by pixel »

Oh I'd definitely wait for co-op then, I think this game will be especially fun with multiple people

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Halo Thread

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Halo Infinite's campaign co-op is now available for preview testing for insiders - and we've had the chance to give it a thorough testing. How does it work? What are the limitations for co-op play in an open world? How does person-to-person latency work out? And crucially... can you run Halo Infinite on Steam Deck and how well does it play? You've got questions and Alex Battaglia has some answers.

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Re: Halo Thread

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343 Industries promised us split-screen campaign co-op for all Halo games going forward, but recently made the painful decision to cancel it for Halo Infinite in favour of deploying resources elsewhere. We think that's a big shame, especially as it's rather excellent. We know this because an exploit allows you to access the functionality on today's game. Yes, there are bugs and glitches, but it works - so how does it look and how does it run on Xbox Series X and Xbox One, the most powerful and weakest Xbox consoles? John and Alex discuss.

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