• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Another development lead is leaving 343i. David Burger, veteran since Halo 4.

Salz01

Member
I’m personally not really sure what would help Halo at this point. It will probably take another few years and several millions to turn sentiment towards the Halo brand positive. It seems they have core gameplay, graphics and mechanics in a good shape. Just needs way more content. They need to ditch that show, probably make some anime, get that French studio that made Arcane a shot at making some TV content, and get more scope and content in the actual game.
 

ZehDon

Member
If the lead on their brand new proprietary engine is out, then I'm guessing the engine isn't pulling its weight. Infinite doesn't run particularly well, it's not doing anything particularly impressive, and it's certainly not top-shelf visually - what their new engine was supposed to bring to the party, I'm not sure. They recently brought in another ex-Bungie vet as their CTO, so hopefully this means they're getting their tech and tools inline.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Wait, why are people having a hard time believing that Bonnie Ross and friends are actually being fired, and not just leaving for family health reasons, or whatever?

It seems like this is a "hot take" around the internet and I do not understand why. There is every reason to believe these people are being fired and it's common practice to give someone an excuse, or allow themselves to "step down", when, uh, "letting them go".
Oh yeah - 100% she’s been forced, firmly guided, advised (however you want to frame it) to walk away before they pull the trigger. 100%. She’s been allowed to save face. Happens all the time.

The statement she made is pure word salad:

I am letting you know I will be leaving 343 and attending to a family medical issue.

So she’s not leaving because she has to attend to a family medical issue, she is leaving and will be attending to a family medical issue.

If anyone is in denial about this then they’re probably NEET.
 
343i hasn't shipped a single bad or okay game their entire time on Halo.

What the fuck am I reading. Launch MCC was literally unplayable for years. You could not run a party of 3 or more people in Australia for years, literal crashes of games and parties only to reboot for hours/days to have the same shit happen patch after patch. MCC stands as one of the worst release titles I have ever seen in 30-35+ years of gaming. It's in a pretty solid state these days technically but there's some matchmaking and player based QoL sorely missing.

At any rate you really cannot shine the giant turd 343 took on Halo for the better part of a decade. The wave of studio change in the upper decision making levels is long overdue, it should have happened with MCC.
 
Last edited:

Banjo64

cumsessed
What the fuck am I reading. Launch MCC was literally unplayable for years. You could not run a party of 3 or more people in Australia for years, literal crashes of games and parties only to reboot for hours/days to have the same shit happen patch after patch. MCC stands as one of the worst release titles I have ever seen in 30-35+ years of gaming. It's in a pretty solid state these days technically but there's some matchmaking and player based QoL sorely missing.

At any rate you really cannot shine the giant turd 343 took on Halo for the better part of a decade. The wave of studio change in the upper decision making levels is long overdue, it should have happened with MCC.
I’m convinced SenjutsuSage SenjutsuSage doesn’t play online, just campaign on beginner difficulty. His posts about Halo, despite presenting himself as a super fan, are downright bizarre and don’t make the slightest bit of sense.
 
Oh yeah - 100% she’s been forced, firmly guided, advised (however you want to frame it) to walk away before they pull the trigger. 100%. She’s been allowed to save face. Happens all the time.

The statement she made is pure word salad:

I am letting you know I will be leaving 343 and attending to a family medical issue.

So she’s not leaving because she has to attend to a family medical issue, she is leaving and will be attending to a family medical issue.

If anyone is in denial about this then they’re probably NEET.
Yeah, her story makes zero sense. People don't quit career jobs because a family member has health concerns. Maybe a leave of absence, but not a full career change.

Also, the second she leaves, 343/Microsoft announce a complete overhaul in how the company is run. What was once a single job changes to three seperate positions. Sure, they just happened to decide all that and had the positions ready to go and filled the second she had to quit for this family medical issue.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Your Xbox concern "oh no what will happen next" threads would be much better if you didn't add your poorly reasoned conclusions to them.

Could she be lying to save face? Of course, anything is possible, but this hot take stinks of piss.
You simply can't post a thread without starting drama.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
the fact we now have more people leaving not only shows that the reason given by Bonnie for leaving Microsoft and 343i is likely false
More people leaving does not mean that this is likely false. Whether she's telling the truth about her departure isn't relevant at all. Whether she left on her own or she was fired, the people who were promoted probably knew about it weeks before it happened because she was going to be just as gone.

What is likely happening is that people who wanted leadership positions in the change of guard were probably passed over so they're leaving to further their careers. Turnover is natural after a leadership change.
 
More people leaving does not mean that this is likely false. Whether she's telling the truth about her departure isn't relevant at all. Whether she left on her own or she was fired, the people who were promoted probably knew about it weeks before it happened because she was going to be just as gone.

What is likely happening is that people who wanted leadership positions in the change of guard were probably passed over so they're leaving to further their careers. Turnover is natural after a leadership change.

Except that not even 24 hours later other people were changed, articles about Microsoft restructuring leadership happened, and then this happened. It hasn't even been 4 days yet.

This isn't a normal turnover, and even then if it was there wouldn't be people just up and leaving in unrelated positions with the head authority involved. I don't know why some keep thinking that this is normal.

Also, the second she leaves, 343/Microsoft announce a complete overhaul in how the company is run. What was once a single job changes to three seperate positions. Sure, they just happened to decide all that and had the positions ready to go and filled the second she had to quit for this family medical issue.

5 positions actually, after she left, I think the guy who broke it on twitter made another post or someone under him that showed two more left, some other person was said to be leaving after, and now this. This isn't a normal thing.
 

HoodWinked

Member
Halo 4 wasn't all bad.

3EBC0E5E75A44AF2B5C246DBEE3F7A52301A9ACD


But ya I think when the studio started there was a optimistic outlook and they pulled some of the best talent from all over. Absolutely based Cortana design, but slowly but surely seemed like those kinds of people were pushed out and it has just been on a steady decline.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yeah, her story makes zero sense. People don't quit career jobs because a family member has health concerns. Maybe a leave of absence, but not a full career change.

Also, the second she leaves, 343/Microsoft announce a complete overhaul in how the company is run. What was once a single job changes to three seperate positions. Sure, they just happened to decide all that and had the positions ready to go and filled the second she had to quit for this family medical issue.

You know these things aren't all decided on a whim right ? these were probably planned weeks ago and they're announcing everything on a schedule.
 
Last edited:
Halo 4 was a good game. Halo 5 multiplayer was rock solid. I can't help but wonder what could have been if 343 had avoided abilities altogether after Reach. I think 343 would have struck gold with a sprint-less, simplified Halo game. It seems like in the end the balancing act was too much. Then again, Halo Infinite actually did a fantastic job with balance and not making sprint too obnoxious.
How did the last Halo game do?

Doesn't seem like the IP is top tier at Xbox anymore.

Halo Infinite's player retention is sharply declining, but why?


a7b9eca631101d2561401a61afa6e2df.gif
Regarding the current player population, I think it boils down to a lack of new maps more than anything else. Bungie was very good about having map packs added to their games regularly to keep players engaged. Halo Infinite is fun to play, but 343 kind of forgot about the maps. People can make all sorts of hyperbolic statements about how halo is finished, over, the damage has been done, and that fans will never come back, but there will always be a base that loves to play Halo. There's still really nothing like it, surprisingly. I'm not going to say the november update with forge will save the game, but just getting a steady supply of fan made maps will certainly reinvigorate the population.
 
Last edited:

Chronicle

Member
With Peter Hintz replacing Bonnie immediately as the new studio head, and several other positions were changed at the same time, the fact we now have more people leaving not only shows that the reason given by Bonnie for leaving Microsoft and 343i is likely false and is a cover for Phil and possibly Matt Booty under influence from Phil giving them the boot, but we are also seeing pre 343i gaming developers in leadership positions.

Ladies and Gentlemen that is one sentence.

You're reaching hard. Just like your other thread. Take a breath when you spew heresay and gibberish.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Except that not even 24 hours later other people were changed, articles about Microsoft restructuring leadership happened, and then this happened. It hasn't even been 4 days yet.

This isn't a normal turnover, and even then if it was there wouldn't be people just up and leaving in unrelated positions with the head authority involved. I don't know why some keep thinking that this is normal.
Of course. I doubt she suddenly quit and Microsoft was left scrambling. She probably resigned, or was put on notice, weeks ago. In that time Microsoft restructured the team, promoted people, and prepared for a coordinated set of announcements. She announces she's leaving and Microsoft announced their already-done promotions. People leaving now probably started looking for work weeks ago as all of this firmed up and they realized they were either not going to advance their careers at 343i or they didn't agree with the new direction after leadership changes.

You're reading too much into this. The pattern here is no different than it is in other situations where leadership turns over. I've worked in dev shops for nearly 30 years. This attrition is normal.
 

jigglet

Banned
I knew a guy from Norway once named "Burger" (first name). It's not pronounced like the English "burger" but I thought it was cool nonetheless.
 
Halo 4 was a good game. Halo 5 multiplayer was rock solid. I can't help but wonder what could have been if 343 had avoided abilities altogether after Reach. I think 343 would have struck gold with a sprint-less, simplified Halo game. It seems like in the end the balancing act was too much. Then again, Halo Infinite actually did a fantastic job with balance and not making sprint too obnoxious.

Regarding the current player population, I think it boils down to a lack of new maps more than anything else. Bungie was very good about having map packs added to their games regularly to keep players engaged. Halo Infinite is fun to play, but 343 kind of forgot about the maps. People can make all sorts of hyperbolic statements about how halo is finished, over, the damage has been done, and that fans will never come back, but there will always be a base that loves to play Halo. There's still really nothing like it, surprisingly. I'm not going to say the november update with forge will save the game, but just getting a steady supply of fan made maps will certainly reinvigorate the population.

Its down to how it is handled by 343. The leadership needs a shakeup. I did play Infinite for a bit but got bored of it really quickly. Its just me though and I'm not speaking for anyone else.
I hope they get the series back to the highs of Halo 3. That was a fun fucking ride.
 
Of course. I doubt she suddenly quit and Microsoft was left scrambling. She probably resigned, or was put on notice, weeks ago. In that time Microsoft restructured the team, promoted people, and prepared for a coordinated set of announcements. She announces she's leaving and Microsoft announced their already-done promotions. People leaving now probably started looking for work weeks ago as all of this firmed up and they realized they were either not going to advance their careers at 343i or they didn't agree with the new direction after leadership changes.

You're reading too much into this. The pattern here is no different than it is in other situations where leadership turns over. I've worked in dev shops for nearly 30 years. This attrition is normal.

There's also much news going in the opposite direction of what you said which you are acting like doesn't happen. The issue here is for Xbox studios, the way this has been handled and occurred stands out.

Like I said this isn't your normal every day corporate soda. You could be right this is status quo, but it's also silly to pretend this isn't unusual for an Xbox studio with the way it's been unfolding.

Ladies and Gentlemen that is one sentence.

You're reaching hard. Just like your other thread. Take a breath when you spew heresay and gibberish.

You don't seem to know what Hearsay is. It's speculation but it's also not uncommon in the industry as has been pointed out by others.
 
No this doesn't fly, the Halo that was going to release in 2020 was what was shown at the showcase in 2020. Halo Infinite was already developed over 5 years prior to the pandemic starting. They then got an extra year way after the pandemic panic was gone and way after the lockdowns and the gradual opening period.

You're demonstrating an incredible degree of obliviousness about the game development process. You think simply because Halo 5 launched in 2015 that it means 343i were somehow in full scale production for Halo Infinite the entire 5 years leading up to 2020? First of all 5 years before the pandemic makes no sense. The 5th year is 2020, which is when the pandemic hit early in the year around March/April. 4 years of work prior to the year 2020, but zero evidence that all 4 were full scale Halo Infinite production. I'm certain each of those years involved heavy planning, proto-typing and pre-production work, true, but none of that implies full scale production yet.

But to put your bizarre pandemic and lockdown comments into perspective, I'll just use Rocksteady as an example, another studio whose last major game, Arkham Knight, was launched in 2015, just like Halo 5. Rocksteady's next big game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, isn't releasing till 2023. That's an even longer period of time than it took 343i to make Halo Infinite, which needs to also include a fully dedicated multiplayer component, that we now know is a free to play live service title. Suicide Squad new IP? Sure, new kind of gameplay compared to their past games, but Rocksteady was already intimately familiar with open world games. Halo Infinite's open world structure was a new challenge for 343i, and it similarly included vastly more new gameplay features than what had ever been in a past Halo.

Not only was 343i building a new game engine, the slipspace engine, they weren't just making the same old Halo Campaign like in years past. They were building a spiritual reboot to the Halo franchise, not too different from the way Sony Santa Monica Studio needed a whole 5 years to successfully reboot God of War and release it in 2018 (no pandemic and with no need for a full multiplayer, live service component).

So how exactly is 343i getting shit for doing all of this in just 6 years where the 5th year was 2020 when most of the country and world was locked down by a global pandemic for like 9 months out the year, forcing many to adjust to work at home situations, which literally meant many just stopped working altogether for months?

1 - rebooting Halo on a new engine
2 - across 4 different consoles (5 if you consider the slight differences between the original Xbox One and Xbox One S)
3 - simultaneously launching for PC at the exact same time as the console launch (a first for the Halo franchise)
4 - while having to also launch a dedicated live service multiplayer, which also must cater to casuals as well as a dedicated pro gaming scene.
5 - while also supporting creative assembly on the development and release of Halo Wars 2 in 2017.. (yes, really) the game that's pretty much the intro/backstory for the main antagonist and enemy faction you fight in Halo Infinite.
6 - while also simultaneously still supporting Halo: The Master Chief Collection with 8 seasons of amazing content and updates beginning Dec 2019 and ending Oct, 2021. Where only one season was longer than 2-4 months.
7 - they also did something else Dec of 2019 - they launched Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC.

If anything, looking at this list, 343i deserves the utmost fucking respect. So the first gameplay reveal of Infinite wasn't universally well received, though the potential was clear. Big deal. And to meet their new deadline after the delay they had to focus on the highest priorities to launch the best possible game day one, and they succeeded. Who cares if they had to delay specific features until they were ready and slow down a bit to take their time working on getting up to speed with new content? In the interim they issued much needed updates and fixes to their underlying game's foundation, which they have done without fail every single month since Halo Infinite's release with the exception of May. Care to take a look at all the other games that needed to be delayed? And very few had the kind of pressure and responsibility Halo Infinite had to Xbox Series X|S launch and to push Game Pass subs, both of which Halo Infinite helped with tremendously.

I see this studio as far less a case of bad studio management (though they have made mistakes, who hasn't), and more of an example of Matt Booty and Phil not adequately checking in properly on their most famous and most successful first party videogame franchise to ensure it was where it needed to be BEFORE that first gameplay reveal. The delay should have been announced well before that point. 343i was put in a bad position, and that is more to do with Xbox leadership as a whole. 343i has been busting their ass impressively across a multitude of game related responsibilities since 2015.

Games are built more often nowadays utilizing multiple studios and development partners. Even a current Sony First Party studio that assisted with God of War 2018 and now God of War: Ragnarok were also heavily involved in the development of Halo Infinite, Valkyrie Entertainment. https://www.vg247.com/sony-acquires-valkyrie-entertainment Sony acquired the studio last year. Even a minor disruption at different stages along the development chain, much less a global work disruption such as a damn pandemic right in the middle of full production involving multiple teams and partners (who often are also attending to separate contracts for different games), are not so simply snapped back into place in a fashion that can keep specific games - or specific features for games - on schedule for their originally expected launch.

I don't claim to be some expert on game development either, but I work in a field where we are heavily involved in supporting lots of game development studios as just one part of our many responsibilities, so that at least gives me a better respect for what the overall process entails and helps me know enough to realize you just have no clue at all.

God of War was announced 2016 and launched 2018 - 2 years later - studio's prior game released 2013.
Halo Infinite was announced 2018 and launched 2021 - 3 years later - studio's prior game released 2015, co-developed Halo Wars 2 2017, supported Halo: MCC with 8 seasons of content beginning Dec 2019 while launching Halo MCC on PC
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League announced 2020 - planned release in 2023.

When you take a step back it becomes crystal clear all the negativity over 343i is exaggerated bs. There simply aren't many studios out there that have had to wear as many hats as 343i has while assisting with development of another major release like Halo Wars 2, while also still supporting on a rapid turn around seasonal basis Halo MCC across both PC and Xbox consoles, in addition to launching MCC on PC while at the same time building a rebooted Halo campaign with an ambitious multiplayer right alongside it on a brand new game engine.

When you factor in how ambitious forge is looking to be then it becomes even more dumb to throw dirt on 343i as some average studio. They're one of the best studios in the business judging them by their production results, the critical reception of their games, how complex their games often are, their demonstrated versatility, and the fact they didn't take the easy way out, but just pushed ambition even further.


TLDR VERSION: 343i gave us Halo Infinite 6 years after Halo 5 while fully developing and supporting Halo MCC still at the height of production (8 seasons), launching MCC on PC, helping creative assembly co-develop Halo Wars 2. Other top tier studios have eerily similar production time for their big projects, but without all the moving pieces that 343i has to cater to such as a professional gaming scene, dedicated multiplayer that caters to both casual and pro, a live service game etc. 343i didn't make the same Halo, they rebooted Halo adding tons of new gameplay and features.
 
Last edited:

Chronicle

Member
There's also much news going in the opposite direction of what you said which you are acting like doesn't happen. The issue here is for Xbox studios, the way this has been handled and occurred stands out.

Like I said this isn't your normal every day corporate soda. You could be right this is status quo, but it's also silly to pretend this isn't unusual for an Xbox studio with the way it's been unfolding.



You don't seem to know what Hearsay is. It's speculation but it's also not uncommon in the industry as has been pointed out by others.
Ah Touche.
 
You're demonstrating an incredible degree of obliviousness about the game development process. You think simply because Halo 5 launched in 2015 that it means 343i were somehow in full scale production for Halo Infinite the entire 5 years leading up to 2020? First of all 5 years before the pandemic makes no sense. The 5th year is 2020, which is when the pandemic hit early in the year around March/April. 4 years of work prior to the year 2020, but zero evidence that all 4 were full scale Halo Infinite production. I'm certain each of those years involved heavy planning, proto-typing and pre-production work, true, but none of that implies full scale production yet.

But to put your bizarre pandemic and lockdown comments into perspective, I'll just use Rocksteady as an example, another studio whose last major game, Arkham Knight, was launched in 2015, just like Halo 5. Rocksteady's next big game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, isn't releasing till 2023. That's an even longer period of time than it took 343i to make Halo Infinite, which needs to also include a fully dedicated multiplayer component, that we now know is a free to play live service title. Suicide Squad new IP? Sure, new kind of gameplay compared to their past games, but Rocksteady was already intimately familiar with open world games. Halo Infinite's open world structure was a new challenge for 343i, and it similarly included vastly more new gameplay features than what had ever been in a past Halo.

Not only was 343i building a new game engine, the slipspace engine, they weren't just making the same old Halo Campaign like in years past. They were building a spiritual reboot to the Halo franchise, not too different from the way Sony Santa Monica Studio needed a whole 5 years to successfully reboot God of War and release it in 2018 (no pandemic and with no need for a full multiplayer, live service component).

So how exactly is 343i getting shit for doing all of this in just 6 years where the 5th year was 2020 when most of the country and world was locked down by a global pandemic for like 9 months out the year, forcing many to adjust to work at home situations, which literally meant many just stopped working altogether for months?

1 - rebooting Halo on a new engine
2 - across 4 different consoles (5 if you consider the slight differences between the original Xbox One and Xbox One S)
3 - simultaneously launching for PC at the exact same time as the console launch (a first for the Halo franchise)
4 - while having to also launch a dedicated live service multiplayer, which also must cater to casuals as well as a dedicated pro gaming scene.
5 - while also supporting creative assembly on the development and release of Halo Wars 2 in 2017.. (yes, really) the game that's pretty much the intro/backstory for the main antagonist and enemy faction you fight in Halo Infinite.
6 - while also simultaneously still supporting Halo: The Master Chief Collection with 8 seasons of amazing content and updates beginning Dec 2019 and ending Oct, 2021. Where only one season was longer than 2-4 months.
7 - they also did something else Dec of 2019 - they launched Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC.

If anything, looking at this list, 343i deserves the utmost fucking respect. So the first gameplay reveal of Infinite wasn't universally well received, though the potential was clear. Big deal. And to meet their new deadline after the delay they had to focus on the highest priorities to launch the best possible game day one, and they succeeded. Who cares if they had to delay specific features until they were ready and slow down a bit to take their time working on getting up to speed with new content? In the interim they issued much needed updates and fixes to their underlying game's foundation, which they have done without fail every single month since Halo Infinite's release with the exception of May. Care to take a look at all the other games that needed to be delayed? And very few had the kind of pressure and responsibility Halo Infinite had to Xbox Series X|S launch and to push Game Pass subs, both of which Halo Infinite helped with tremendously.

I see this studio as far less a case of bad studio management (though they have made mistakes, who hasn't), and more of an example of Matt Booty and Phil not adequately checking in properly on their most famous and most successful first party videogame franchise to ensure it was where it needed to be BEFORE that first gameplay reveal. The delay should have been announced well before that point. 343i was put in a bad position, and that is more to do with Xbox leadership as a whole. 343i has been busting their ass impressively across a multitude of game related responsibilities since 2015.

Games are built more often nowadays utilizing multiple studios and development partners. Even a current Sony First Party studio that assisted with God of War 2018 and now God of War: Ragnarok were also heavily involved in the development of Halo Infinite, Valkyrie Entertainment. https://www.vg247.com/sony-acquires-valkyrie-entertainment Sony acquired the studio last year. Even a minor disruption at different stages along the development chain, much less a global work disruption such as a damn pandemic right in the middle of full production involving multiple teams and partners (who often are also attending to separate contracts for different games), are not so simply snapped back into place in a fashion that can keep specific games - or specific features for games - on schedule for their originally expected launch.

I don't claim to be some expert on game development either, but I work in a field where we are heavily involved in supporting lots of game development studios as just one part of our many responsibilities, so that at least gives me a better respect for what the overall process entails and helps me know enough to realize you just have no clue at all.

God of War was announced 2016 and launched 2018 - 2 years later - studio's prior game released 2013.
Halo Infinite was announced 2018 and launched 2021 - 3 years later - studio's prior game released 2015, co-developed Halo Wars 2 2017, supported Halo: MCC with 8 seasons of content beginning Dec 2019 while launching Halo MCC on PC
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League announced 2020 - planned release in 2023.

When you take a step back it becomes crystal clear all the negativity over 343i is exaggerated bs. There simply aren't many studios out there that have had to wear as many hats as 343i has while assisting with development of another major release like Halo Wars 2, while also still supporting on a rapid turn around seasonal basis Halo MCC across both PC and Xbox consoles, in addition to launching MCC on PC while at the same time building a rebooted Halo campaign with an ambitious multiplayer right alongside it on a brand new game engine.

When you factor in how ambitious forge is looking to be then it becomes even more dumb to throw dirt on 343i as some average studio. They're one of the best studios in the business judging them by their production results, the critical reception of their games, how complex their games often are, their demonstrated versatility, and the fact they didn't take the easy way out, but just pushed ambition even further.


TLDR VERSION: 343i gave us Halo Infinite 6 years after Halo 5 while fully developing and supporting Halo MCC still at the height of production (8 seasons), launching MCC on PC, helping creative assembly co-develop Halo Wars 2. Other top tier studios have eerily similar production time for their big projects, but without all the moving pieces that 343i has to cater to such as a professional gaming scene, dedicated multiplayer that caters to both casual and pro, a live service game etc. 343i didn't make the same Halo, they rebooted Halo adding tons of new gameplay and features.

All of this is exactly the sort of attitude that lets poorly released games/IP and GaaS services continue to expand and be sold. Not only do you take being spoon-fed shit, but you also smile and ask for more.

Alright, let us play your silly biased scheduling game.

Respawn in the same amount of time developed, published and supported Jedi Fallen Order and Apex Legends with far less resources, budget, backing and being a newer studio. I know which games I'm still playing and happier with.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
All of this is exactly the sort of attitude that lets poorly released games/IP and GaaS services continue to expand and be sold. Not only do you take being spoon-fed shit, but you also smile and ask for more.

Alright, let us play your silly biased scheduling game.

Respawn in the same amount of time developed, published and supported Jedi Fallen Order and Apex Legends with far less resources, budget, backing and being a newer studio. I know which games I'm still playing and happier with.
Lol , you literally don't have a decent replies to most of SenjutsuSage SenjutsuSage points.

And so what if respawn did a better job...
In what psychotic land does that make any sense of giving shit just because a different team took longer?
You're still happier playing respawn games, that's great but it's not a compelling argument against SenjutsuSage SenjutsuSage points.
 

Apocryphon

Member

siTZLq6.jpg

...the "utmost respect" eh? 😂

They gave us Halo 4, Guardians, and Infinite and none of them were even as good as ODST.

Saber Interactive, Certain Affinity, Ruffian Games, and United Front games all assisted on MCC and Halo 2's cutscenes were produced by Blur. It's a good collection now but the multiplayer was still broken 3 years after release...


But they deserve the utmost respect. After effectively running the franchise into the ground. Good one.
 
Lol , you literally don't have a decent replies to most of SenjutsuSage SenjutsuSage points.

And so what if respawn did a better job...
In what psychotic land does that make any sense of giving shit just because a different team took longer?
You're still happier playing respawn games, that's great but it's not a compelling argument against SenjutsuSage SenjutsuSage points.
I don't argue with crazy. If they're happy with Halo over the last 10 years good luck to them. My post history has more than enough about what was bad, why and what to do going forward.

If you assimilated their points, you'd see my Respawn take is a far better comparison than Rocksteady vs 343. Respawn hits all the points listed -

You're demonstrating an incredible degree of obliviousness about the game development process. You think simply because Halo 5 launched in 2015 that it means 343i were somehow in full scale production for Halo Infinite the entire 5 years leading up to 2020? First of all 5 years before the pandemic makes no sense. The 5th year is 2020, which is when the pandemic hit early in the year around March/April. 4 years of work prior to the year 2020, but zero evidence that all 4 were full scale Halo Infinite production. I'm certain each of those years involved heavy planning, proto-typing and pre-production work, true, but none of that implies full scale production yet.

Moot point, same goes for any other studio or game, far fewer games get afforded such a long development cycle or level. A streamlined, well-oiled and vision driven studio produces far better quality over quantity. It's reasonable to argue 343 with Infinite did not even meet the bar of previous franchise releases, let alone what industry competitors are pumping out these days. 343 management also chose to build a game engine, take on PC/cloud, new hardware platform and more. It's not like they found themselves in a bad position years later, 343 actively mismanaged themselves to this point.

But to put your bizarre pandemic and lockdown comments into perspective, I'll just use Rocksteady as an example, another studio whose last major game, Arkham Knight, was launched in 2015, just like Halo 5. Rocksteady's next big game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, isn't releasing till 2023. That's an even longer period of time than it took 343i to make Halo Infinite, which needs to also include a fully dedicated multiplayer component, that we now know is a free to play live service title. Suicide Squad new IP? Sure, new kind of gameplay compared to their past games, but Rocksteady was already intimately familiar with open world games. Halo Infinite's open world structure was a new challenge for 343i, and it similarly included vastly more new gameplay features than what had ever been in a past Halo.

What I saw in Infinite isn't exactly Earth-shattering open world goodness. How about we don't put 343's version of open world on some pedestal that no other developer has worked on or produce better engines and game experiences with. As for experience 343 had the end of Reach, H4, Halo Wars 2, H5, MCC and then Infinite. Why exactly are we deciding to claim that 343 is some sort of skills or resources limited studio? Over a lifecycle of 5-6 years there is more than enough to hire, train, explore, iterate and focus test the shit out any Halo idea or game concept.

Not only was 343i building a new game engine, the slipspace engine, they weren't just making the same old Halo Campaign like in years past. They were building a spiritual reboot to the Halo franchise, not too different from the way Sony Santa Monica Studio needed a whole 5 years to successfully reboot God of War and release it in 2018 (no pandemic and with no need for a full multiplayer, live service component).

Points exactly to why management made poor choices with MCC and Infinite. They didn't learn from biting off more than they could chew with MCC, they doubled down with Infinite for all the reasons you list, new engine, new game, new platforms, new F2P etc. They should have had a rock solid foundation early-mid of that lifecyle, not having to build out late cycle and post launch support.

So how exactly is 343i getting shit for doing all of this in just 6 years where the 5th year was 2020 when most of the country and world was locked down by a global pandemic for like 9 months out the year, forcing many to adjust to work at home situations, which literally meant many just stopped working altogether for months?

1 - rebooting Halo on a new engine
2 - across 4 different consoles (5 if you consider the slight differences between the original Xbox One and Xbox One S)
3 - simultaneously launching for PC at the exact same time as the console launch (a first for the Halo franchise)
4 - while having to also launch a dedicated live service multiplayer, which also must cater to casuals as well as a dedicated pro gaming scene.
5 - while also supporting creative assembly on the development and release of Halo Wars 2 in 2017.. (yes, really) the game that's pretty much the intro/backstory for the main antagonist and enemy faction you fight in Halo Infinite.
6 - while also simultaneously still supporting Halo: The Master Chief Collection with 8 seasons of amazing content and updates beginning Dec 2019 and ending Oct, 2021. Where only one season was longer than 2-4 months.
7 - they also did something else Dec of 2019 - they launched Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC.

All reasons why Respawn is a better comparison against Studio and in-game experience.

If anything, looking at this list, 343i deserves the utmost fucking respect. So the first gameplay reveal of Infinite wasn't universally well received, though the potential was clear. Big deal. And to meet their new deadline after the delay they had to focus on the highest priorities to launch the best possible game day one, and they succeeded. Who cares if they had to delay specific features until they were ready and slow down a bit to take their time working on getting up to speed with new content? In the interim they issued much needed updates and fixes to their underlying game's foundation, which they have done without fail every single month since Halo Infinite's release with the exception of May. Care to take a look at all the other games that needed to be delayed? And very few had the kind of pressure and responsibility Halo Infinite had to Xbox Series X|S launch and to push Game Pass subs, both of which Halo Infinite helped with tremendously.

Everyone deserves respect. I'm sure there are many talented people in and our of 343 on outsourcing partnerships and contracts. It doesn't excuse management from steering such talents off course or having one building block let others down internally.

I see this studio as far less a case of bad studio management (though they have made mistakes, who hasn't), and more of an example of Matt Booty and Phil not adequately checking in properly on their most famous and most successful first party videogame franchise to ensure it was where it needed to be BEFORE that first gameplay reveal. The delay should have been announced well before that point. 343i was put in a bad position, and that is more to do with Xbox leadership as a whole. 343i has been busting their ass impressively across a multitude of game related responsibilities since 2015.

Working hard vs working smart. Congrats people worked hard and have passion. Those traits alone are not enough to be the best of the best, to produce a game that exceeds what came before and deliver pinnacle gaming experiences. Take MCC for example, wonderful passion, marketing, concept etc. The delivery? A blackmark on Halo forever. So 343 decided to take on more with Infinite? Xbox/MS management let them? Here I can agree that Xbox/MS heads didn't do enough to remain on track or what exactly was being delivered. It's not easy when you cannot see the thing to shape. Likely they really don't see a mature polihsed game most of the time. They're really taking each studio/lead at face value most of the time.

Games are built more often nowadays utilizing multiple studios and development partners. Even a current Sony First Party studio that assisted with God of War 2018 and now God of War: Ragnarok were also heavily involved in the development of Halo Infinite, Valkyrie Entertainment. https://www.vg247.com/sony-acquires-valkyrie-entertainment Sony acquired the studio last year. Even a minor disruption at different stages along the development chain, much less a global work disruption such as a damn pandemic right in the middle of full production involving multiple teams and partners (who often are also attending to separate contracts for different games), are not so simply snapped back into place in a fashion that can keep specific games - or specific features for games - on schedule for their originally expected launch.

Irrelevant rambling. Any sufficiently sized studio is going to have outsourcing variations etc. From the software they use and licence through to the hiring/firing and acquisitions.

I don't claim to be some expert on game development either, but I work in a field where we are heavily involved in supporting lots of game development studios as just one part of our many responsibilities, so that at least gives me a better respect for what the overall process entails and helps me know enough to realize you just have no clue at all.

Cool. You ain't the only one with experience running teams or software dev or a start-up etc.

God of War was announced 2016 and launched 2018 - 2 years later - studio's prior game released 2013.
Halo Infinite was announced 2018 and launched 2021 - 3 years later - studio's prior game released 2015, co-developed Halo Wars 2 2017, supported Halo: MCC with 8 seasons of content beginning Dec 2019 while launching Halo MCC on PC
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League announced 2020 - planned release in 2023.

When you take a step back it becomes crystal clear all the negativity over 343i is exaggerated bs. There simply aren't many studios out there that have had to wear as many hats as 343i has while assisting with development of another major release like Halo Wars 2, while also still supporting on a rapid turn around seasonal basis Halo MCC across both PC and Xbox consoles, in addition to launching MCC on PC while at the same time building a rebooted Halo campaign with an ambitious multiplayer right alongside it on a brand new game engine.

Bullshit. When you factor in the resources and partnerships 343 enjoyed/enjoy it's a far sight better than most studios out there. Staff specifically for merchandising, staff for books, staff for liasing, support staff, teams, buildings, next to MS etc etc. It's a balanced equation, 343 has more to handle but more resources and time to go with it.

When you factor in how ambitious forge is looking to be then it becomes even more dumb to throw dirt on 343i as some average studio. They're one of the best studios in the business judging them by their production results, the critical reception of their games, how complex their games often are, their demonstrated versatility, and the fact they didn't take the easy way out, but just pushed ambition even further.

Forge isn't going to save Halo. This idea that you can walk a game back 1 to 2 generations in visual quality, less iterated and tested systems/maps/modes and produce something with mass appeal is a farce. It may return some casual or hardcore fans and give the game legs with community-based content but it is not going to be a slipspace ride to aftermarket success. In reality a PvE mode, had management had the vision to do so, would have provided far more ambition, game experience and overall a predictable pipleine from studio curation to delivery and matchmaking systems as well.

By comparison Forge isn't ambitious in the wider scheme, as you state supporting PC from MCC and Infinite is such a massive undertaking then why haven't we seen 343 pushing into full blown mods (hello Garry's mod or Minecraft) or open source engine or server leasing (hello Minecraft)
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
argue 343 with Infinite did not even meet the bar of previous franchise releases,
Infinite scored better then all there halo games.
What I saw in Infinite isn't exactly Earth-shattering open world goodness
What shooter has a better open world? They pretty much cracked the open world for a Halo game with infinite, it really does feel like its being occupied by the aliens, it has that sandbox feel of the original but expands apon that concept for a far grander experience, also a nice thing about the world is that you navigate almost anywhere, a major gripe with other open worlds is that significant portions of them are not traversable.
 
Infinite scored better then all there halo games.

And yet none retained an audience or similar sales numbers as Halo 3, even going F2P and cross-platform with Infinite.

What shooter has a better open world? They pretty much cracked the open world for a Halo game with infinite, it really does feel like its being occupied by the aliens, it has that sandbox feel of the original but expands apon that concept for a far grander experience, also a nice thing about the world is that you navigate almost anywhere, a major gripe with other open worlds is that significant portions of them are not traversable.

I enjoyed some aspects of the open world stuff with Infinite. It really needed more biomes for diversity, not just visually but gameplay wise too. For me it's not about having another game that does it better. I prefer what did we get vs what could they have done with Infinite.

When I think of CE/2 and their pretty diverse mission environments Infinite really could have been far more than it was. Take even the cover art shot vs the in-game shot. It really loses that something special quality.

If I think of games like Apex Legends I wonder was Infinite so much bigger between loading sections?

If I think of games like Destiny 2 or Jedi Fallen Order I see plenty of choice of where to go, when to go and then missions having linear aspects but ultimately result in more curated combat engagements or mission design. I'm all for the beloved Halo sandbox fun but playing Infinite I was pretty worn out quickly. Apex or Destiny 2 I can go back to more often for longer.

Again all that said and done, for me, it firmly places management in the crosshairs of storm trooper like aim in terms of hitting that "best Halo ever" discussion. I view the TV show under a similar microscope. What could have been vs what we got.
 
siTZLq6.jpg

...the "utmost respect" eh? 😂

They gave us Halo 4, Guardians, and Infinite and none of them were even as good as ODST.

Saber Interactive, Certain Affinity, Ruffian Games, and United Front games all assisted on MCC and Halo 2's cutscenes were produced by Blur. It's a good collection now but the multiplayer was still broken 3 years after release...

[/URL]

But they deserve the utmost respect. After effectively running the franchise into the ground. Good one.

Never seen that one before. You're so creative! You have no counter to my arguments, but then I never expected you or anyone else to. 343i has developed some of the best Halo games in the entire franchise. That's not a wild claim, but a simple fact. Call it just my view, don't really care who agrees, but I'm a big Halo fan that knows this universe and understands when a game is doing both the universe and its characters justice. Most important, I know when a game feels amazing to play and is gripping and keeping my interest the whole way through. Apparently I'm not crazy or alone in that opinion since most of 343's work in the Halo Universe have all reviewed so damn well.

And while some people might think it's cool thing to do to deny that Halo 4 is literally one of the best games ever made, to hardcore Halo fans, especially fans of the novels like myself, it's quite easily one of the strongest games in the entire franchise. A beginning to end beast of a game. A game that in my eyes saved the Halo franchise from becoming irrelevant in modern gaming. Those who don't see it, at the bare minimum, as at least a great game simply wouldn't know a great game even when it's slapping them in the face, or they're just being dishonest to troll. I lean towards it being the latter.

For me especially it was personally the best Halo game for me up to that point. It fully understood the assignment of doing what it took to make the player truly believe they were a Spartan, a Super Soldier, the most legendary one of all, Master Chief. It addressed every complaint I had about where Halo had been going since the 360 generation. It also elevated Halo storytelling and production value to the level I feel it should have been at many years sooner. Halo 4 has the most thoroughly impressive version of Master Chief in all the games. No halo title makes him look more heroic, more legendary or more like a badass. And it was the first Halo game to dig deeper into the human side of the Master Chief, the side of Master Chief that was more or less mostly isolated to the best books up to that point. It was the Halo that finally gave us Master Chief from Halo: First Strike, or basically the version of him as depicted in Eric Nylund's writing about Halo. What I feel 343i does better than Bungie is they're a lot more willing to dig into the deeper depths of the universe's storytelling potential, to take more chances and not play it as safe. That's very welcome even if they don't nail everything.

No Halo title handles Cortana's character better, or the relationship dynamic between Master Chief and Cortana better than Halo 4 does it. Halo Infinite was especially strong in these areas.

Halo Infinite took serious inspiration from the parts of Halo 4 I enjoyed so much and combined it with hands down the most pure fun and best playing Halo Campaigns in franchise history. It has the series' best ever antagonist in Escharum by far, and not a thing will ever convince me different.

And the best way I know to ignore some of the criticisms thrown 343's way is how quick some are, you included, to give all credit to studios and partners that help and assist 343i, but conveniently try to give none of the credit to 343 who happens to be the lead developer calling the shots and making all the big design decisions. Every major studio these days has another studio or a development partner, usually more than one, helping them, but somehow only 343 isn't allowed to claim credit for the amazing work that they do, like they aren't coordinating and telling the studios what they need them to do and are checking their work, same as they would for their own internal developers. This is like giving support studio Valkyrie Entertainment more credit for God of War 2018 and Ragnarok than Sony Santa Monica studio. This is why such comments about 343i lack all credibility.

I make zero apologies for being a big ass Halo fan. The franchise is impressive and it hasn't fallen off in the slightest contrary to what people want to claim these days. Maybe I see it this way because I'm far more of a campaign person than a multiplayer person, but I've played more than enough Halo MP to know that shit's amazing as well, and one of the best feeling multiplayer first person shooters I've played in a long ass time. Does that make me more understanding of things I think people are unreasonable or overreacting about? Hell yes. I don't ever say they've made no mistakes, but no mistake I've seen has come close to justifying the kinds of criticisms I've seen them get as a studio when the game they launched is strong GOTY material.

Anyway, I'm done with the thread. Just wanted to say my piece. I fully expect with the big Winter Update coming November followed by Season 3's launch in 2023. I see it all coming together very strongly for Halo Infinite 2023, and 343i will prove everybody wrong again just like when they launched Halo Infinite last year and everybody doubting the studio up to that point looked foolish because the game genuinely turned out fantastic.
 
All of this is exactly the sort of attitude that lets poorly released games/IP and GaaS services continue to expand and be sold. Not only do you take being spoon-fed shit, but you also smile and ask for more.

Alright, let us play your silly biased scheduling game.

Respawn in the same amount of time developed, published and supported Jedi Fallen Order and Apex Legends with far less resources, budget, backing and being a newer studio. I know which games I'm still playing and happier with.

Apex Legends doesn't have to contend with a full fledged ambitious story campaign at the same time as that live service. Neither do many other live service games like Fortnite. Was that really and truly the best you had?
And Apex Legends has had over 3 years to develop and become even better than what it launched as. Let's not play clueless now. Jedi: Fallen Order also doesn't need to concern itself with a multi-player component. It's a less complex project or undertaking than Halo Infinite, just so you know.

Are you also forgetting the far more embarrassing fiasco where Respawn just left Titanfall 2 broken for god knows how long as fans were begging them to do something? You remember what happened? Remember when it was hacked and taken over? You really didn't think about the example you just chose, did you?

Did you forget about this? You think Respawn is the best example to criticize 343 with? Really?



https://www.ign.com/articles/titanfall-2-hack-saga-feature

Was it your intent to make it that easy for me? 343i fully intends on supporting Halo Infinite for quite some time, and they did just that with Halo MCC, keeping all promises made and then some. I don't know if the same can be said about Respawn with Titanfall 2.

So I've killed your Respawn example, and I can now move on.
 
Last edited:
Apex Legends doesn't have to contend with a full fledged ambitious story campaign at the same time as that live service. Neither do many other live service games like Fortnite. Was that really and truly the best you had?
And Apex Legends has had over 3 years to develop and become even better than what it launched as. Let's not play clueless now.

Are you forgetting the far more embarrassing fiasco where Respawn just left Titanfall 2 broken for god knows how long as fans were begging them to do something? You remember what happened? Remember when it was hacked and taken over? You really didn't think about the example you just chose, did you?

Did you forget about this? You think Respawn is the best example to criticize 343 with? Really?



https://www.ign.com/articles/titanfall-2-hack-saga-feature

Was it your intent to make it that easy for me? 343i fully intends on supporting Halo Infinite for quite some time, and they did just that with Halo MCC, keeping all promises made and then some. I don't know if the same can be said about Respawn with Titanfall 2.


And despite your point two stellar games that have not only taken off like rockets but sustained as well. It's a far more reasonable comparison e.g. perception between TF2 and MCC. Infinite campaign as well received as TF2 or Jedi FO? Infinite multiplayer as well received as Apex Legends?

Jedi Fallen Order is the campaign equivalent, thought it was pretty clear. Also has to appease a hardcore vs casual crowd vs mass appeal while ensure a larger world remains persistent too.

I'm quite well aware of where Apex Legends was 1, 2 or 3 years post launch. I'd be a happy Halo fan if Infinite received as many wins over losses for the same 3 year period. This first year post launch for Infinite isn't anywhere near the first year of Apex Legends. Years 2 and 3 have some high bars to hit if 343 want to be held in the same live service esteem as Respawn.
 

FireFly

Member
Apex Legends doesn't have to contend with a full fledged ambitious story campaign at the same time as that live service. Neither do many other live service games like Fortnite. Was that really and truly the best you had?
And Apex Legends has had over 3 years to develop and become even better than what it launched as. Let's not play clueless now. Jedi: Fallen Order also doesn't need to concern itself with a multi-player component. It's a less complex project or undertaking than Halo Infinite, just so you know.
343 released more content for Halo 5 in the first 1.5 months than they plan to release for Infinite in the first 15 months.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Never seen that one before. You're so creative! You have no counter to my arguments, but then I never expected you or anyone else to. 343i has developed some of the best Halo games in the entire franchise. That's not a wild claim, but a simple fact. Call it just my view, don't really care who agrees, but I'm a big Halo fan that knows this universe and understands when a game is doing both the universe and its characters justice. Most important, I know when a game feels amazing to play and is gripping and keeping my interest the whole way through. Apparently I'm not crazy or alone in that opinion since most of 343's work in the Halo Universe have all reviewed so damn well.

And while some people might think it's cool thing to do to deny that Halo 4 is literally one of the best games ever made, to hardcore Halo fans, especially fans of the novels like myself, it's quite easily one of the strongest games in the entire franchise. A beginning to end beast of a game. A game that in my eyes saved the Halo franchise from becoming irrelevant in modern gaming. Those who don't see it, at the bare minimum, as at least a great game simply wouldn't know a great game even when it's slapping them in the face, or they're just being dishonest to troll. I lean towards it being the latter.

For me especially it was personally the best Halo game for me up to that point. It fully understood the assignment of doing what it took to make the player truly believe they were a Spartan, a Super Soldier, the most legendary one of all, Master Chief. It addressed every complaint I had about where Halo had been going since the 360 generation. It also elevated Halo storytelling and production value to the level I feel it should have been at many years sooner. Halo 4 has the most thoroughly impressive version of Master Chief in all the games. No halo title makes him look more heroic, more legendary or more like a badass. And it was the first Halo game to dig deeper into the human side of the Master Chief, the side of Master Chief that was more or less mostly isolated to the best books up to that point. It was the Halo that finally gave us Master Chief from Halo: First Strike, or basically the version of him as depicted in Eric Nylund's writing about Halo. What I feel 343i does better than Bungie is they're a lot more willing to dig into the deeper depths of the universe's storytelling potential, to take more chances and not play it as safe. That's very welcome even if they don't nail everything.

No Halo title handles Cortana's character better, or the relationship dynamic between Master Chief and Cortana better than Halo 4 does it. Halo Infinite was especially strong in these areas.

Halo Infinite took serious inspiration from the parts of Halo 4 I enjoyed so much and combined it with hands down the most pure fun and best playing Halo Campaigns in franchise history. It has the series' best ever antagonist in Escharum by far, and not a thing will ever convince me different.

And the best way I know to ignore some of the criticisms thrown 343's way is how quick some are, you included, to give all credit to studios and partners that help and assist 343i, but conveniently try to give none of the credit to 343 who happens to be the lead developer calling the shots and making all the big design decisions. Every major studio these days has another studio or a development partner, usually more than one, helping them, but somehow only 343 isn't allowed to claim credit for the amazing work that they do, like they aren't coordinating and telling the studios what they need them to do and are checking their work, same as they would for their own internal developers. This is like giving support studio Valkyrie Entertainment more credit for God of War 2018 and Ragnarok than Sony Santa Monica studio. This is why such comments about 343i lack all credibility.

I make zero apologies for being a big ass Halo fan. The franchise is impressive and it hasn't fallen off in the slightest contrary to what people want to claim these days. Maybe I see it this way because I'm far more of a campaign person than a multiplayer person, but I've played more than enough Halo MP to know that shit's amazing as well, and one of the best feeling multiplayer first person shooters I've played in a long ass time. Does that make me more understanding of things I think people are unreasonable or overreacting about? Hell yes. I don't ever say they've made no mistakes, but no mistake I've seen has come close to justifying the kinds of criticisms I've seen them get as a studio when the game they launched is strong GOTY material.

Anyway, I'm done with the thread. Just wanted to say my piece. I fully expect with the big Winter Update coming November followed by Season 3's launch in 2023. I see it all coming together very strongly for Halo Infinite 2023, and 343i will prove everybody wrong again just like when they launched Halo Infinite last year and everybody doubting the studio up to that point looked foolish because the game genuinely turned out fantastic.
Laughable.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Am I being thick here or completely mis-reading your comment?

Halo CE 97 Metacritic
Halo 2 95 Metacritic
Halo 3 94 Metacritic
Reach 91 Metacritic



Infinite 87 Metacritic

Or do you mean it scored better than 343i’s previous attempts? In which case no, it scored the same as Halo 4.
"There" halo games.

Not bungies.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
And yet none retained an audience or similar sales numbers as Halo 3, even going F2P and cross-platform with Infinite.
Yeah I don't think anyone is denying that they have not done well on MP side, but despite that it's still a very good game. It's odd because I was never into to halo when it was popular, I tried to complete halo1 in the 360 days but I got bored with the rather primitive encounters, liner levels and obsolete tech. Halo 3 did not help much, it just felt pretty simplistic, the fact it was 30fps probably didn't help to. Reach I thought was not the great visually and the set pieces felt kinda primitive (but that was the reach demo, I've since played it on the MCC and it's actually rather good for an old game).
Halo infinite is legitimately good, the visual design is very good and despite its lighting issues and lack of the finer details it's still a very good looking game on the XSX.its the first time that halo is a game which I genuinely having fun with, really like the upgrades and the many different combinations of playstyle you can have with all of chiefs abilities.
needed more biomes for diversity
Yes more biomes would be better. But again that does not make the game we got not a very good game. I mean every dam game needs improvements even ones with the highest scores.

I don't know what people's expectations are so weirdly high for halo. Because as it is halo infinites single player is the best out of all of them,the better tech helps but also the open world and the new abilities.

I guess it would of been better with a sand and snow biome, realtime global illumination, more detailed graphics, but not that much better.
I mean if rdr2 or tlou2 was a 1/4 of the size had inferior visuals they would still be very good.

But bottom line is yes I would of loved a 95+ metacritic infinite but a 87 metacritic infinite is still Hella good. Some folks act like it's a 60 😂
 
Top Bottom