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Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

TheGreySpectre posted:

The art style of Halo is good. If they were to drastically change the style it wouldn't feel much like Halo anymore. Look at how there complaints over the Halo 4/5 suit designs which aren't even big departures from the bungie designs. The community would be in an uproar if you did a large art style change. There are even issues with engines, You could take Halo and put it ID tech, Unreal engine or cryengine and it wouldn't feel like Halo, because each of those engines has a unique look that deviates from how all prior halo games look.

I wasn't saying the art style is bad. Agh, context. Agh!

To recap the last page's conversation: The fact is the vast majority of people reacted to the new Infinity trailer with "Hm, that doesn't look next gen". Some people are saying it looks fine. I said that you can compare it to Doom Eternal which looks way better, which explains why even though it looks okay, people are disappointed. Then a goon said that doom eternal has a great engine and great art style. And my point with THAT comment you responded to was that there is no good reason why we shouldn't hold Halo to the same standard.

Halo should look impressive. That's all I was saying. Lmao I am not loving saying they should use Unreal, and I've made several comments saying I'm glad it looks more like Halo 1 and is more colorful. Jesus. I'm saying they should improve the Halo engine so it isn't a joke. You gotta follow the conversation.

I hate feeling like any games conversation has to constantly involve you saying "look, I am a fan of this, I like X and Y" before you're allowed to criticize something else, or people get the wrong idea and think you just hate it.

I seriously don't know how to communicate with goons. If you post a paragraph, everybody just TLDRs. If you post a single line, everybody ignores the conversation you're having and takes it out of context and snipes something. I just... I'm at a loss.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jul 31, 2020

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FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido

Arcsquad12 posted:

Because he spent the whole time Reach was happening training for a false flag operation, suddenly the rest of the UNSC realized Reach hsd been under siege for a month, and he and Blue Team deployed to a ship that hadn't wiped its navigational drives before getting boarded by the Covenant. The other 23 Spartan IIs at the meeting deployed to the surface and all died.

lol oops

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

FPzero posted:

lol oops

A lot of Halo's military decisions end up like this.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

A line I missed the first time btw is that at the start of Tip of the Spear Dot offhandedly mentions that 60% of all remaining UNSC ships were hauling rear end to Reach to stop the invasion, so the Arbiter blew up a whole fuckton of dudes, planets aside, like a week before the Covenant civil war and all the marines become really happy to see him lol

TheGreySpectre
Sep 18, 2012

You let the wolves in. Why would you do that?
I don't feel like I'm holding Halo to a different standard. I legitimately think it looks good and like a next generation version of Halo. To me Halo Infinite in comparison to other upcoming titles looks how Halo 5 looked to other 2015 titles.

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

RBA Starblade posted:

It retroactively bugs me that the Pillar of Autumn isn't taking potshots at anything in that level in Reach. Thanks for the help assholes

It retroactively bugs me that they retroactively put the Pillar of Autumn there at all.

FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido

I think infinite would look fine/better if it addressed the various things mentioned in the digital foundry analysis, such as the odd lighting and material choices and the really visible pop-in/draw distance/LoDs.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

jokes posted:

A lot of Halo's military decisions end up like this.

Like the Cole Protocol makes sense in a fatalistic way. (wipe a ship's navigational system if boarded, self destruct in a worst case scenario, or plot blind jumps when retreating to keep the location of human planets secret).

But the Winter Contingency protocols are loving insane. You put a planet under martial law, and then compartmentalize everything so there's no chance of information leaks, with the side effect of nobody except for ONI (who are evil and incompetent) knowing what the hell is going on until its too late.

Like, the battle of Reach lasted a month, the navy top brass was aware of it, and let the northern territories respond basically without support for weeks because tipping off the rest of the armed forces that the planet was under attack would jeopardize Operation Red Flag, which itself was an insane boondoggle.

Red Flag was supposed to be a mission where 27 Spartan IIs would hijack a Covenant Cruiser, find their homework and hold the Covenant leadership hostage to force a ceasefire. What the Spartans werent told was that Reach was being set up as bait to draw in a covenant fleet so they could get their chance to hijack a ship. They were going to sacrifice the second most heavily defended planet in human territory for a mission with zero chance of success because human intelligence on the Covenant is abysmal. They didn't know about High Charity, they were looking for a covenant "homeworld" and were hoping that a covenant ship would be dumb enough to keep their astrogation charts open for anybody.

And on top of all that, Halsey and Cortana also hosed up the Operation Red Flag mission by rigging it to steal the Pillar of Autumn and send it off to find Forerunner tech instead of prepping it for the boarding action. So not only would Red Flag not work, Cortana had other plans and the "blind jump" that found Halo was actually her gaslighting Keyes so she could follow up o Halsey's research.

So, you have troops fighting without support for a month., a badly planned kidnapping mission, a ruthless doctor and her manipulative AI stealing resources for their own ends, and the Office of Naval Intelligence sacrificing an entire planet for no good reason and then getting desperate when nearly two dozen Spartan II supersoldiers and God knows how many Spartan IIIs died in a single day.

Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jul 31, 2020

TheGreySpectre
Sep 18, 2012

You let the wolves in. Why would you do that?

Arcsquad12 posted:

Like the Cole Protocol makes sense in a fatalistic way. (wipe a ship's navigational system if boarded, self destruct in a worst case scenario, or plot blind jumps when retreating to keep the location of human planets secret).

But the Winter Contingency protocols are loving insane. You put a planet under martial law, and then compartmentalize everything so there's no chance of information leaks, with the side effect of nobody except for ONI (who are evil and incompetent) knowing what the hell is going on until its too late.

{..stuff..}

So, you have troops fighting without support for a month., a badly planned kidnapping mission, a ruthless doctor and her manipulative AI stealing resources for their own ends, and the Office of Naval Intelligence sacrificing an entire planet for no good reason and then getting desperate when nearly two dozen Spartan II supersoldiers and God knows how many Spartan IIIs died in a single day.

Is this explained in the game or is this all novel/extended universe stuff? I'm a decent way through reach the game (I think like 75% ish) and none of this stuff has come through.

Pursued by bees
Jan 1, 2013

heartful of fire
with no one left to tell

TheGreySpectre posted:

Is this explained in the game or is this all novel/extended universe stuff? I'm a decent way through reach the game (I think like 75% ish) and none of this stuff has come through.

It's all outside of the games, and they are better for it. It's mostly just fun space opera action if you stick to the games.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

TheGreySpectre posted:

Is this explained in the game or is this all novel/extended universe stuff? I'm a decent way through reach the game (I think like 75% ish) and none of this stuff has come through.

The stuff about Red Flag is from The Fall of Reach. Halo Reach mostly ignores the novel events (with the exception of Halsey's parts in the game which kinda tie into Fall of Reach), which are focused on Chief's exploits during the battle, but 343 insists on having all lore ever written be connected and relevant. So it paints a picture of the frankly insane nonsense that happened at Reach.

That being said in the realm of video game tie in novels, Halo is far from the worst. At the very least I can say there's no equivalent in the Halo books to the time tryhard ninja badass wannabe Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3 broke into Captain Anderson's apartment for the sole purpose of literally pissing in his cornflakes.

Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jul 31, 2020

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Arcsquad12 posted:

Cortana had other plans and the "blind jump" that found Halo was actually her gaslighting Keyes so she could follow up o Halsey's research.

I really hate all these retcons :smith:

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

What

I thought the Winter Contingency meant slash and burn the hq of Intel and gtfo lol

RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jul 31, 2020

TheGreySpectre
Sep 18, 2012

You let the wolves in. Why would you do that?

Zaphod42 posted:

I really hate all these retcons :smith:

The one retcon I really want is for Cortana to be retconned in such a fashion that we can have another game where she has the same lighthearted relationship she does with MC as she does in Halo:CE.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

RBA Starblade posted:

What

I thought the Winter Contingency meant slash and burn the hq of Intel and gtfo lol

Thats Cole Protocol. Winter Contingency is the emergency response to the presence of Covenant forces in human territory (usually if the Cole Protocol slash and burn method fails).

It calls for martial law and immediate response to counter Covenant threats. Reach is where it gets really stupid because so many plans by Navy top brass were butting heads over Red Flag while the army and naval forces over the Viery Territory were stuck fighting on their own.

Cole Protocol is still in play since Intel lost in ground engagements can still compromise future operations, which is why half the planet didn't realize they were under attack per a communicstions blackout to keep covenant from intercepting open band transmissions

Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jul 31, 2020

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

I don't know how the aliens could possibly have zero idea that Earth exists, considering they can capture and torture prisoners and have full-fledged prison districts in High Charity. At some point someone will break.

Thom12255
Feb 23, 2013
WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

jokes posted:

I don't know how the aliens could possibly have zero idea that Earth exists, considering they can capture and torture prisoners and have full-fledged prison districts in High Charity. At some point someone will break.

Well I'm sure they know Earth is a thing but that doesn't help them find it, don't the ships AI handle all the calculations for FTL?

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

jokes posted:

I don't know how the aliens could possibly have zero idea that Earth exists, considering they can capture and torture prisoners and have full-fledged prison districts in High Charity. At some point someone will break.

I'm sure they know that the aliens have a homeworld, but John Halomarine isn't going to know the directions to it from the teleporting space planet

Improbable Lobster
Jan 6, 2012

What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.


Buglord
Halo's novels were bad when I read them in high school and it's hilarious to me that 343 is taking them into account for new games

TheGreySpectre
Sep 18, 2012

You let the wolves in. Why would you do that?

jokes posted:

I don't know how the aliens could possibly have zero idea that Earth exists, considering they can capture and torture prisoners and have full-fledged prison districts in High Charity. At some point someone will break.

I thought it was less that they didn't know it existed and more that they didn't know where it is? That seems reasonable to me or at least well within the realm of suspense of disbelief. If I lived in a universe where people lived in multiple star systems, I have no idea how I would explain where earth was. I mean you would know it was in a system with 8 planets (or 9 depending on who you talk to) and a yellow sun, but past that? I doubt people are going to know distances very well and definitely not coordinates. It's not even like you can say "it's on the north side of the street" since it's 3d space without a good reference point. Hell, with GPS some people struggle to give directions to place they go on a regular basis in the same city.

Then again maybe I didn't pay close enough attention. If they actually don't have any idea that earth exists that is pretty laughable.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
They knew it existed. They didn't know it was also the location of the Ark portal which is why Regret panicked when he reached earth and found humans there

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010


If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER


Ultra Carp

TheGreySpectre posted:

It also kind of bugs me that they show a warthog with only chief driving as part of the demo. One of the cool things about the bungie halo games was you were always part of something big. Pretty much anytime they gave you a warthog they gave you some dudes with it. It made the game feel more alive. I feel like they didn't capture that feeling very well with Halo 4, and it looks like they aren't going to capture that feeling again in infinite.

I posted about this a few days ago but I completely agree. It's telling that the second level of Halo 4 is only the second time across the entire franchise that the Chief jumps into a Warthog by himself, the only other time being the Warthog Run on the Maw.

i vomit kittens
Apr 25, 2019


The guy that made those Cursed Halo mod videos has something new out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re4VWoTrAuQ

Gobblecoque
Sep 6, 2011

TheGreySpectre posted:

I don't feel like I'm holding Halo to a different standard. I legitimately think it looks good and like a next generation version of Halo. To me Halo Infinite in comparison to other upcoming titles looks how Halo 5 looked to other 2015 titles.

5 is the game that was so bad they didn't even bother including it in the MCC right?

Mazerunner
Apr 22, 2010

Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

i vomit kittens posted:

The guy that made those Cursed Halo mod videos has something new out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re4VWoTrAuQ

the morthog and hover hog are pretty cool actually

Thom12255
Feb 23, 2013
WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY
https://twitter.com/Halo/status/1289298976550731776

TheGreySpectre
Sep 18, 2012

You let the wolves in. Why would you do that?

Acebuckeye13 posted:

I posted about this a few days ago but I completely agree. It's telling that the second level of Halo 4 is only the second time across the entire franchise that the Chief jumps into a Warthog by himself, the only other time being the Warthog Run on the Maw.

And the maw was it's own thing and really cool in it's own right. I don't know if people new to the series get the same feeling I did back in 2001 playing that level, but it was so awesome at the time. I was so used to boss fights or being forced to kill lots of super hard dudes, that having to just blitz through dudes in a race against the clock felt epic and different. Even different (in a good way) from other parts of the game with a warthog.

The stuff in the gameplay footage looks just like trying to cruise around the Halo level with no gunner and that would have stunk.

Gobblecoque posted:

5 is the game that was so bad they didn't even bother including it in the MCC right?

I mean yeah I heard terrible things about it so I never bought it. But I still watched so videos of it. I mean at the point I feel like the only good game 343 has released is a collection of bungies games, and even that took them a few years to get right. Wasn't MCC plagued by a huge amount of problems when it first came out on Xbox One? I had a lot of friends who were really interested in it than kind of fizzled by off how many bugs they ran into.





That's going to really depend on how they implement it. It could be fine, it could also be awful. So long as there is nothing that changes gameplay at all in what you buy and it's all cosmetic I'm fine with it. Then again I'm pretty casual about multiplayer. I enjoy it but don't get super sweaty and don't care too much about unlocks.

TheGreySpectre fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jul 31, 2020

Oxyclean
Sep 23, 2007


i vomit kittens posted:

The guy that made those Cursed Halo mod videos has something new out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re4VWoTrAuQ

Little sad there's no double decker hog, but holy, this was a good watch.

Okan170
Nov 14, 2007

Torpedoes away!

Zaphod42 posted:

This all comes across as last minute excuses. "oh its an old build, and we really appreciate the feedback so we can incorporate it!"
Corporate Translation: "Oh gently caress oh gently caress, we thought you guys would love that, UHHHHHHH don't panic, uhhhhhhhh we'll make it better we promise! Okay employees its crunch time we gotta redesign everything."

Honestly, like, of course its an old build, you polish an old build for a demo. That's how demos work. But the game COMES OUT IN LIKE 4 MONTHS? No loving way.


Sounds pretty on-point, all the press from Microsoft about the trailer was that it was the usual graphical cutting edge buzzwords, and there wasn't any acknowledgement of it being anything other than stunning for a few days. Its been going around the community all week that "the build was from January" or "from 2019" as a reason why it looked that way. And the switch from that to having it be confirmed as "several weeks ago" is pretty much worst case there.


Zaphod42 posted:

You have to remember the context that this is the first we're seeing of Xbox Series X and MS is using Halo Infinite to tout its new graphics powerhouse.
This isn't just a current gen game, this is their flagship next-gen game. But it looks last-gen. That's the thing.
Its not like, completely hideous. Its just not anything we haven't seen before in ANY way.

The big thing is that they want this to sell the $500 new Xbox, Infinite is coming out on PC already so theres got to be a really good reason to drop that kind of cash on a totally new machine that has... dubious benefits? Its so weird because if the stunning feature that is expensive to get on PC is something like raytracing, then why not show that off if your game was visually designed around it? That would turn heads and then people would want to weigh if they wanted an expensive graphics card or an expensive console that supported it. If it looked a lot like the engine reveal trailer, it would absolutly tick that box. But its apparently not going to even be in at launch.

The raytracing thing though is confusing coming at it from the computer graphics angle- if its something they're relying on to bring the lighting to life then they're going to be talking about doing things like raytraced shadows, reflections, maybe global illumination. But those alone aren't enough to make the whole thing look stunning. The only other thing I can think of is that they're thinking of raytracing as full path-tracing like Quake 2 and Minecraft RTX. But those games both run at the limit of current hardware even on the RTX cards, with Minecraft only reaching 60fps 1440p regularly when using DLSS to upscale, and both games relying heavily on the hardware denoising algorithms to make the lighting not grainy. IF they were doing full path tracing on the Xbox hardware that would actually be an incredible achievement, especially since they would've had to tackle upscaling and denoising on their own standards independent of anything NVIDIA. To say nothing of hitting 4k 60fps with such a setup.

It kind of makes me even more dubious because it sounds like its a thing that people are pinning their hopes on to rescue the visuals of the game, but I don't think its something they can execute to the level that people are picturing in their heads. But at the same time, if it WASN'T built around raytracing solving everything, then why would they go for a lighting system that is dynamic and unable to achieve the kind of look that current generation games are able to already surpass?

Okan170 fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jul 31, 2020

Abroham Lincoln
Sep 19, 2011

Note to self: This one's the good one



TheGreySpectre posted:

That's going to really depend on how they implement it. It could be fine, it could also be awful. So long as there is nothing that changes gameplay at all in what you buy and it's all cosmetic I'm fine with it. Then again I'm pretty casual about multiplayer. I enjoy it but don't get super sweaty and don't care too much about unlocks.

Pay $343 in lootboxes to unlock Recon armor!

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

Mazerunner posted:

the morthog and hover hog are pretty cool actually

I like the Wort Wort and the Short Hog.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

TheGreySpectre posted:

The one retcon I really want is for Cortana to be retconned in such a fashion that we can have another game where she has the same lighthearted relationship she does with MC as she does in Halo:CE.

Yeah retconning 4 and 5 would be ideal IMO.

Cortana was the one character with depth in the series, and they really hosed up by ever taking her outside your helmet. Cortana NEEDS to be there with you the entire game.

Memorable characters in the halo series, in order, are: Cortana, Johnson, Arbiter, Guilty Spark, Keyes (both)

Nobody even comes close to Cortana though and that's a big issue.

I get a strong feeling with this new trailer that the pilot guy who "rescued" chief is supposed to be the new Cortana, constantly making quips over the radio to you. But man I really don't like his writing at ALL right now. Bring back Cortana.

The moments where she was playfully giving Chief a hard time (while he's fighting an alien war) were the most fun the series has ever been.

i vomit kittens posted:

The guy that made those Cursed Halo mod videos has something new out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re4VWoTrAuQ

this is amazing

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Aug 1, 2020

Fuzzy McDoom
Oct 9, 2007

-MORE MONEY FOR US

-FUCK...YOU KNOW, THE THING

Been playing through 4, which everyone hates and they are right, but I will die on the hill that Composer is a good rear end level

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Okan170 posted:

The big thing is that they want this to sell the $500 new Xbox, Infinite is coming out on PC already so theres got to be a really good reason to drop that kind of cash on a totally new machine that has... dubious benefits? Its so weird because if the stunning feature that is expensive to get on PC is something like raytracing, then why not show that off if your game was visually designed around it? That would turn heads and then people would want to weigh if they wanted an expensive graphics card or an expensive console that supported it. If it looked a lot like the engine reveal trailer, it would absolutly tick that box. But its apparently not going to even be in at launch.

The raytracing thing though is confusing coming at it from the computer graphics angle- if its something they're relying on to bring the lighting to life then they're going to be talking about doing things like raytraced shadows, reflections, maybe global illumination. But those alone aren't enough to make the whole thing look stunning. The only other thing I can think of is that they're thinking of raytracing as full path-tracing like Quake 2 and Minecraft RTX. But those games both run at the limit of current hardware even on the RTX cards, with Minecraft only reaching 60fps 1440p regularly when using DLSS to upscale, and both games relying heavily on the hardware denoising algorithms to make the lighting not grainy. IF they were doing full path tracing on the Xbox hardware that would actually be an incredible achievement, especially since they would've had to tackle upscaling and denoising on their own standards independent of anything NVIDIA. To say nothing of hitting 4k 60fps with such a setup.

It kind of makes me even more dubious because it sounds like its a thing that people are pinning their hopes on to rescue the visuals of the game, but I don't think its something they can execute to the level that people are picturing in their heads. But at the same time, if it WASN'T built around raytracing solving everything, then why would they go for a lighting system that is dynamic and unable to achieve the kind of look that current generation games are able to already surpass?

Yeah... I'm a huge graphics nerd myself and I have a 2080ti and I'm the first who will tell you that ray-tracing isn't going to sell boxes. It just won't. Its so minor. Most people don't even know enough about computer graphics to understand the difference. Ray-traced global illumination is super sexy but again, most people won't even NOTICE! Reflections are even less noticable.

And on top of that, they're talking about 4k60, but if they're doing ray-traced GI, that goes out the window. No way can they do both. So you end up having to downgrade the resolution and frame rate in order to get a very marginal improvement on graphical fidelity...

But then you add that ray-tracing isn't even gonna be ready by launch...

This whole thing just screams "rushed" to me. Its not done. Its not ready. But they're gonna launch Infinite as a half-finished game in early access and then try to patch/update it into a better state.

But doing that with your flagship new console launch title just ... that really doesn't work!

I mean don't get me wrong here, I am so happy that Microsoft is not being controlling and putting Halo and their other games on PC. But I can't see how this isn't all a huge failure if they're planning on actually selling xbox series x consoles this year.

Thom12255
Feb 23, 2013
WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY
The only thing I've been impressed with in regards to raytracing is Minecraft.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.
Metro Exodus is the best implementation of ray tracing I've seen yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms7d-3Dprio

But like I said, communicating why the shadows look better to someone who isn't a graphics nerd is really hard. "The shadows are where they should be" just doesn't really make sense because shadows in games look fine already.

And you can't really design gameplay around it because most people don't have the hardware and won't for years to come. So its just this real minor nice to have graphics thing...

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

Fuzzy McDoom posted:

Been playing through 4, which everyone hates and they are right, but I will die on the hill that Composer is a good rear end level

Halo 4 has beats that work well in parts but not as a cohesive whole. I hold that the stuff regarding Chief and Cortana is the best part of that game's narrative and Cortana completely losing it that level really helped set the mood. poo poo is in full blown chaos mode, people are dying, you've shown up out of nowhere on the station making everyone panic and your usually level-headed companion is having a psychotic breakdown.

Its been said multiple times now about how 343 doesn't get that Halo is at its best when Chief or Noble 6 or whoever is part of a larger force, being one piece among many, and I tend to agree with that statement. However the levels with human allies in Halo 4 also tend to suck and despite me liking Lasky well enough, he's not enough to make up for crap like the on-rails mammoth level.

If Halo 4 wasn't billed as Halo 4 and instead went all in on being a personal story between chief and cortana, alone and exploring an alien world trying to get home before she dies, you could make a really good narrative shooter. The cortana bits are the best part of 4 but the game suffers from the impossibility of expectations as a main series halo game. Any time it tries to be a Halo game in the traditional sense it comes up short, while it succeeds in fits and starts when it tries to be different.

We didn't need a super battleship Infinity with hundreds of Spartans. We didn't need a Forerunner trying to turn humans into digitized skellymans. We didnt need a floating exposition dump to tell us that Chief's genetic superiority and his battle armor were preordained because he's the Chosen One. All we needed was Chief, Cortana, a focus on exploration and maybe throw some Covenant scavengers in there to make it interesting.

But we couldn't have that because Microsoft needs a Halo game and 343 was custom made to develop halo games. A narrative focused experience for a series primarily known for Multiplayer would not be a killer app Microsoft invested in.

Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Aug 1, 2020

Solaris 2.0
May 14, 2008

Arcsquad12 posted:



We didn't need a super battleship Infinity with hundreds of Spartans. We didn't need a Forerunner trying to turn humans into digitized skellymans. We didnt need a floating exposition dump to tell us that Chief's genetic superiority and his battle armor were preordained because he's the Chosen One. All we needed was Chief, Cortana, a focus on exploration and maybe throw some Covenant scavengers in there to make it interesting.



This 1000%. I memory holed most of Halo 4 (guess I get to replay it when it comes out on MCC) but I remember it felt disjointed as gently caress.

Halo 4 was the perfect opportunity for 343 to do a soft reboot and they hosed it up. It should have been about Chief and Cortana crashing onto this strange as gently caress shield planet. Maybe have an entire opening level where it is just Chief and Cortana, alone, on the planet, exploring, talking to each other, uncovering it's secrets,ect. Maybe have Chief activate a distress beacon which attracts the Covenant Remnant who arrive and wonder wtf this thing is, then the UNSC show up, something goes haywire and the fragile truce between the Covenant and UNSC breaks and oh poo poo we might actually restart a war on this planet.

That would have been far more interesting than egg-man wanting to enslave Humanity for "reasons" and Chief turning into Space Jesus.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Solaris 2.0 posted:

This 1000%. I memory holed most of Halo 4 (guess I get to replay it when it comes out on MCC) but I remember it felt disjointed as gently caress.

Halo 4 was the perfect opportunity for 343 to do a soft reboot and they hosed it up. It should have been about Chief and Cortana crashing onto this strange as gently caress shield planet. Maybe have an entire opening level where it is just Chief and Cortana, alone, on the planet, exploring, talking to each other, uncovering it's secrets,ect. Maybe have Chief activate a distress beacon which attracts the Covenant Remnant who arrive and wonder wtf this thing is, then the UNSC show up, something goes haywire and the fragile truce between the Covenant and UNSC breaks and oh poo poo we might actually restart a war on this planet.

That would have been far more interesting than egg-man wanting to enslave Humanity for "reasons" and Chief turning into Space Jesus.

Yeah. Or maybe the shield planet has some flood on it, and by crashing into it and activating the beacon, Chief may have risked infecting the galaxy with flood again. Now its a race against time to eradicate them before the UNSC shows up and gets infected.

There's a lot of angles to go but it just needs to be chief & cortana rushing to stop some threat to humanity.

The last thing we needed was Didact & Librarian.

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Okan170
Nov 14, 2007

Torpedoes away!

Zaphod42 posted:

Metro Exodus is the best implementation of ray tracing I've seen yet

But like I said, communicating why the shadows look better to someone who isn't a graphics nerd is really hard. "The shadows are where they should be" just doesn't really make sense because shadows in games look fine already.

And you can't really design gameplay around it because most people don't have the hardware and won't for years to come. So its just this real minor nice to have graphics thing...

I think people are imagining the difference like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSfCMtbzotQ

But yeah, thats so far beyond what could be done anytime soon on something Halo at full size and fps. And even then, if you had the game built properly you could get most of that with existing tech. Which brings us back around to whats the reason this is going to sell the Xbox- if its focused on the 4k 60fps thing then the whole pitch seems kind of badly-considered.

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