I always knew it was a bad idea that 343 deliberately made sure that you couldn’t play Halo 5 “unless” you are online. Unlike most games, including the rest of the Halo series which can be played without an Internet connection, Halo 5 is very dependant that it’s players are online. Local play, local forging, and internal storage has been obliterated.
How is this so bad? This is why. My regular internet has run out apparently, and I’ll need to top it up again. If I want to play with friends online. In the meantime however I should be able to play offline. Play custom games. Continue forging my Forerunner creature.
“You’re not allowed to play offline sir” - 343i
Wait, what? The only thing I can play offline is the campaign. (Lucky that)
“Okay K27R, so what if you can’t play offline, big deal man”
Guess what. Not only can I NOT play it offline, but it’s not healthy for the game itself. Which means in a few years, who knows let’s say ten, 343 can easily -Yoink- down everything. That includes all forge creations. Nothing is saved on your local Xbox. All forged creations are at risk.
I played the Witcher 3 just fine without an Internet connection. No need to play it online. So why shouldn’t Halo 5 be local playable as well? It’s one of the most foolish decisions 343 have made in my opinion, because I view it as highly risky for my own personal enjoyment, for forgers, and just common sense that games should be playable while offline.
It’s not just halo though, many of the Xbox one games require Internet, some even for campaigns that can be played single player. I don’t know if 343 has a say, but something to think abouve is the head of 343 is also in a very high position within Microsoft. And if we learned anything right before the Xbox one launched is that they intended games to all be internet required, at least logging in once a day or your console would lock, couldn’t share games, ect ect. We know that failed cuz it pissed a lot of people off if we were going that route. My theory is since that plan failed, they’re taking the long term approach of slowly making games over time online only rather than forcing every game to do so. Do I support? Hell no! But we can only stop it if the voices are heard, Microsoft is very smart with business tactics so not everyone will catch on right away at what they’re trying to do.
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> It’s not just halo though, many of the Xbox one games require Internet, some even for campaigns that can be played single player. I don’t know if 343 has a say, but something to think abouve is the head of 343 is also in a very high position within Microsoft. And if we learned anything right before the Xbox one launched is that they intended games to all be internet required, at least logging in once a day or your console would lock, couldn’t share games, ect ect. We know that failed cuz it pissed a lot of people off if we were going that route. My theory is since that plan failed, they’re taking the long term approach of slowly making games over time online only rather than forcing every game to do so. Do I support? Hell no! But we can only stop it if the voices are heard, Microsoft is very smart with business tactics so not everyone will catch on right away at what they’re trying to do.
I hate the supposedly fancy schmancy “dedicated servers”, too. No video game should require internet, ever. Not only that, but even a lot of the time when I AM connected to the internet, their servers fail and I simply can’t play Halo 5. We should always be able to play customs and Forge without having to have some internet connection to their servers, and the point you brought up about our save files being on their servers is a very good–and terrifying–point.
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> It’s not just halo though, many of the Xbox one games require Internet, some even for campaigns that can be played single player. I don’t know if 343 has a say, but something to think abouve is the head of 343 is also in a very high position within Microsoft. And if we learned anything right before the Xbox one launched is that they intended games to all be internet required, at least logging in once a day or your console would lock, couldn’t share games, ect ect. We know that failed cuz it pissed a lot of people off if we were going that route. My theory is since that plan failed, they’re taking the long term approach of slowly making games over time online only rather than forcing every game to do so. Do I support? Hell no! But we can only stop it if the voices are heard, Microsoft is very smart with business tactics so not everyone will catch on right away at what they’re trying to do.
I hear what your saying OP and I don’t disagree. This whole generation of “games require an online connection” is garbage! Only time a game should require it is if your playing…wait for it…Online!!!
I think it’s sad that so many games have got ride of LAN play too. LAN is still the best way to play with a bunch of friends. I don’t know who calls the shots on things like LAN/Online required, MS or the publisher, but if it’s MS, I think it’s a really bad call. Look how much backlash they got the way they were going to have Xbox one. They are already getting killed this generation in the system war (sorry but it’s true people, just look it up) in every area (Sales, popularity, exclusive content etc.)
If anything, I think MS should have the mentality that they did for 360 lifespan. Focus on games, games and more games! Playing offline, online, LAN etc. just as long as the person is buying your product, that’s all that matters IMO.
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> It’s not just halo though, many of the Xbox one games require Internet, some even for campaigns that can be played single player. I don’t know if 343 has a say, but something to think abouve is the head of 343 is also in a very high position within Microsoft. And if we learned anything right before the Xbox one launched is that they intended games to all be internet required, at least logging in once a day or your console would lock, couldn’t share games, ect ect. We know that failed cuz it pissed a lot of people off if we were going that route. My theory is since that plan failed, they’re taking the long term approach of slowly making games over time online only rather than forcing every game to do so. Do I support? Hell no! But we can only stop it if the voices are heard, Microsoft is very smart with business tactics so not everyone will catch on right away at what they’re trying to do.
I wouldn’t call them smart for pulling a move like this because its having a negative effect on the XB brand. With more games being online, people will turn to other consoles and the XB sales will suffer as a result. MS is already getting hammered in the current generation console war and moves like this are likely contributing towards the problem. MS needs to backtrack and have more content accessible without internet connections.
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> I hate the supposedly fancy schmancy “dedicated servers”, too. No video game should require internet, ever. Not only that, but even a lot of the time when I AM connected to the internet, their servers fail and I simply can’t play Halo 5. We should always be able to play customs and Forge without having to have some internet connection to their servers, and the point you brought up about our save files being on their servers is a very good–and terrifying–point.
The thing about MS servers is the type of servers they use are not ideal for gaming to begin with. And really H5 is on very shaky ground as for being stable. So it is very terrifying that so much of our own things (saved files, games and what not) are relied on there servers. Ive comb these threads and see a variety of problems people are having with this game and it all points to server problems. Even if one doesn’t know it… The root of this problem is the servers!
With that said I feel bad for the OP. because one should be able to play offline and not rely on servers or internet connection. The sad thing is when the next update comes that will probably really eat up his data cap! :-/
I honestly didn’t even realize Halo 5 required me to be online at all times until a couple months ago when I went to forge during an internet crash and realized I couldn’t. There is zero reason for us to be required to be connected to anything online when we’re not doing anything online.
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> > 2533274923562209;3:
> > It’s not just halo though, many of the Xbox one games require Internet, some even for campaigns that can be played single player. I don’t know if 343 has a say, but something to think abouve is the head of 343 is also in a very high position within Microsoft. And if we learned anything right before the Xbox one launched is that they intended games to all be internet required, at least logging in once a day or your console would lock, couldn’t share games, ect ect. We know that failed cuz it pissed a lot of people off if we were going that route. My theory is since that plan failed, they’re taking the long term approach of slowly making games over time online only rather than forcing every game to do so. Do I support? Hell no! But we can only stop it if the voices are heard, Microsoft is very smart with business tactics so not everyone will catch on right away at what they’re trying to do.
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> I wouldn’t call them smart for pulling a move like this because its having a negative effect on the XB brand. With more games being online, people will turn to other consoles and the XB sales will suffer as a result. MS is already getting hammered in the current generation console war and moves like this are likely contributing towards the problem. MS needs to backtrack and have more content accessible without internet connections.
He’s calling them smart because they’re doing what they want without making a big deal out of it. Flying below the radar. It’s been said a couple of times on this site, don’t put the frog right into boiling water, raise the temperature over time with the frog already in the water. It is also standard politics, fly what you want under the radar, if possible you can also raise hell somewhere else to divert attention from it.
