In the most recent community update, unyshek addressed several of the major questions and concerns from the halo community. Importantly, he touched on graphics, mentioning that the demo was several weeks old, not the 6+ months rumor that has been floating around. He also admitted that they have work to do in the areas of visual fidelity, plasticky textures, dull lighting, and pop-in, saying that while some criticisms were expected, others were ones they had not previously considered. Overall, I’m happy that 343 has responded to fan feedback and criticism, and it is reassuring to know they they are aware of and are working on these issues.
Quote from update:
“The second theme being discussed involves visual fidelity. Negative feedback in this area includes comments around characters and objects appearing flat, simplistic and plastic-like, lighting feeling dull and flat, and object pop-in. We’ve read your comments, we’ve seen the homemade examples of retouched content, and yes we’ve heard the Digital Foundry assessments. In many ways we are in agreement here – we do have work to do to address some of these areas and raise the level of fidelity and overall presentation for the final game. The build used to run the campaign demo was work-in-progress from several weeks ago with a variety of graphical elements and game systems still being finished and polished. While some of the feedback was expected and speaks to areas already in progress, other aspects of the feedback have brought new opportunities and considerations to light that the team is taking very seriously and working to assess. We don’t have firm answers or outcomes to share yet but the team is working as quickly as possible on plans to address some of the feedback around detail, clarity, and overall fidelity. The team is committed and focused on making sure we have a beautiful world for players to explore when we launch.”
You don’t spend 5 years working on a game and show a 6-month old build in that state as your first gameplay reveal, pandemic or no pandemic.
The demo build being from January was never verified, it was pure speculation. This news tells me that if 343i don’t delay the game, it is going to look very underwhelming from a visual standpoint.
I don’t even understand why we need a Halo at launch. Halo 3 came out almost 2 years after the Xbox 360 launched and broke entertainment records at the time. Halo 5 launched 2 years after Xbox One released. Would a 2021 launch be so bad? Especially given the current conditions employees are working in?
“While we appreciate this may not be everyone’s personal preference, we stand by this decision and are happy to see it resonating with so many fans around the world.” (quote from here).
My reaction: “Are you sure?” - Tartarus to the Arbiter in The Heretic cutscene from Halo 2.
Is it concerning? Yes. Am I gonna bury my head in the sand and act like there’s nothing to worry about? No. However, I’m not gonna get all over dramatic and act like this is the end. They’ve seen the criticism and concerns and are gonna work their best to fix this as soon as possible. Not trying to start finger pointing, but honesty it seems like some of the people here wanna act like it’s all over and the worst thing ever. Let’s all calm down and wait, we’ll see the game in a newer build in the next few weeks. Let’s just wait, patience.
> “but usually if you can see it, you should be able to go there”.
So I guess I can do a Halo ring world tour, because I look up and I see the other side of the ring? I hope I can go there, if not it is a missed opportunity.
Other than that, I’m glad they aknowledged the existence of Craig.
I like the art style they are going for. It’s nostalgic. It’s achievable for an open world at 4K / 60fps (a grittier hyper detailed style may not), and it’s scale-able across the X-box family (which is a reality for Infinite).
I found a lot of comfort from Digital Foundry and their opinion that the lighting will make a lot of difference.
There is still plenty of time to tidy up the graphics - and if the engine is indeed purpose built to treat Halo Infinite as an evolving platform/service - it will evolve as everyone gets more comfortable with the new consoles.
Importantly the game play looked solid. If they can back up with multi-player and Forge - we can still yet have a launch to be proud of.
While it’s worrying it’s not the end of Halo, they still have 4 months of crunch work to smooth things out, look at H3’s demo it looked like H2 but when it launched the graphics were beautiful and to this day hold up amazingly. Even when the demo showed I was thinking this game looks fun I really want to play this but that’s my opinion since I don’t really care about graphics for Halo since it’s supposed to be stylized not photorealistic. I’m just hoping for a good sandbox, smooth and good gameplay and a great story which is what Halo used to be known for.
At this point, they know everything that needs to be fixed. Especially from the visual standpoint.
If they choose to not delay the game, increase crunch time, and rush it out, then they will most likely receive backlash.
If they delay it, great. Making sure the game is at its best will help Halo and Xbox far more than rushing it.
I honestly do not understand why MS and 343 are so concerned about releasing the game with the XSX. Rather than making sure the game is delayed if the best outcome calls for it. Do they not know the basic concept of long term > short term?
I also don’t understand the choice of having the game being held back by Xbox One just to satisfy player base. Having the game be exclusively on next gen and taking "full" advantage of the XSX will get more people to buy the XSX and with it, Gamepass. Since MS is more concerned about selling Gamepass than XSX.
> 2533274949216347;13:
> At this point, they know everything that needs to be fixed. Especially from the visual standpoint.
>
> If they choose to not delay the game, increase crunch time, and rush it out, then they will most likely receive backlash.
>
> If they delay it, great. Making sure the game is at its best will help Halo and Xbox far more than rushing it.
>
> I honestly do not understand why MS and 343 are so concerned about releasing the game with the XSX. Rather than making sure the game is delayed if the best outcome calls for it. Do they not know the basic concept of long term > short term?
>
> I also don’t understand the choice of having the game being held back by Xbox One just to satisfy player base. Having the game be exclusively on next gen and taking "full" advantage of the XSX will get more people to buy the XSX and with it, Gamepass. Since MS is more concerned about selling Gamepass than XSX.
After this I can’t see another solution to prevent crunch by developers if they don’t delay Halo Infinite. It clearly showed the game is far from complete and most of the feedback around the graphics were not expected.
If they have something groundbreaking on hold waiting to show, I don’t understand why took them so long to craft this game and it looks so unpolished. This is concerning and I truly hope they take their time to deliver the best Halo it can be without sacrificing the health of the developers.
Adding scratches and textures to the weapons so they don’t look like squeaky-clean-plastic will be a huge game changer for visuals. I believe that they could drastically improve the game with a few fixes and lighting, though I’d rather they delay the game to make it better…
The whole 6 months old narrative was totally unbelievable anyway, glad to see that’s out of the way. Who would not show the best they got on an event so important as this one was (or should have been anyway). The language both Microsoft and 343i used also told me that they were convinced this was their best and that it was going to blow people away.
Between this, the employee reviews on glassdoor, the marketingspeak about going back to ‘classic’ halo while we haven’t really seen anything classic about this game apart from its setting on a halo ring…Something went really wrong in the development cycle for this game. Looking forward to the articles detailing that, it’ll be interesting.
Also starting to get really curious about how this game is going to sell. Being part of gamepass they can boast big numbers but will the playerbase reflect that? There has been so much negativity already and I’m afraid the inquiries update will not improve that. The upcoming months are going to be really damn interesting.
This is extremely concerning… and this game will be ready in a few months? I don’t even think a massive crunch will help. Maybe they should delay it and save the devs the pain of a crunch that may not even help.
> 2533274949216347;13:
> At this point, they know everything that needs to be fixed. Especially from the visual standpoint.
>
> If they choose to not delay the game, increase crunch time, and rush it out, then they will most likely receive backlash.
>
> If they delay it, great. Making sure the game is at its best will help Halo and Xbox far more than rushing it.
>
> I honestly do not understand why MS and 343 are so concerned about releasing the game with the XSX. Rather than making sure the game is delayed if the best outcome calls for it. Do they not know the basic concept of long term > short term?
>
> I also don’t understand the choice of having the game being held back by Xbox One just to satisfy player base. Having the game be exclusively on next gen and taking "full" advantage of the XSX will get more people to buy the XSX and with it, Gamepass. Since MS is more concerned about selling Gamepass than XSX.
Well, I think we know what 343I/MS will do here…they will release pretty much an unfinished product. It was bad enough that we have to wait months or more to get certain features or modes, but now they’ll be saying things like “More textures and better lighting will be coming in future updates, don’t worry”
Still on the delay train. It looks fun! Unlike some, I am excited for the new additions and features and many things had me cheering at the reveal. But my god, I just kept thinking “this looks oddly really smooth and clean, but just…too clean”
I’m still excited for launch, I’d just be okay if that launch was a little later than Holiday 2020.
