I’m talking about reality. When Halo 3 launched, it was heavily criticized for it’s visuals; this was a common theme among professional reviewers as well as fans.
The generalized comments was that it looked like Halo 2 simply with HDR lighting plastered everywhere. While that was an exaggeration, it did not look “next gen” for it’s time. Character models were especially ugly (that opening scene when Johnson leans in to look at John in first person, ugh!).
Keep in mind, 15 years later, while it has not been remastered it has seen some enhancements, and even today, it’s regularly regarded as the lesser visual title in the entire Master Chief Collection.
And yet delays and issues happened with id Software, Bethesda, NetherRealm Studios, and a host of other triple A companies. Digital Foundry has regularly talked about titles being delayed and pushed, and also about the pandemic impact that occurred. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don’t work in game design, as it was indeed impacted.
Is it a be all end all reason? No, there’s obviously more that when into the challenges Halo Infinite had beyond the pandemic, but it absolutely is a factor.
Alright, you certainly have… interesting opinions.
I think the biggest question for you then is: if you hate the game so much, why are you still playing it as you’ve said in an earlier post? Move on and play something you actually enjoy.
i dont think i claimed to still be playing it. i stopped playing like a week after it came out, i did go back to play a match after the winter update but still nothing to hook me back in. it just still frustrates me how really awful infinite is.
Ah, very good. It’s really not worth playing a game if you don’t enjoy it.
I’m a huge fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise, love the modern trilogy and the original trilogy, can’t stand the 3D era trilogy. Won’t touch them.
Even though that was the low point for that franchise, they really came back with the modern trilogy and MK is great again. I hope the same happens for you with Halo.
I am sorry, this does not match with my memories of reviews at the time. On the contrary, I quite distinctly remember all the flak Halo 2 got for its graphics - texture pop-in, lack of AA, washed-out colors, etc. - and how Halo 3 was lauded as a significant step up from that (although still just “average” compared to, say, Bioshock).
Do you have links to any such reviews?
Obviously. It’s the oldest game in the collection that didn’t get a full graphics overhaul like its two predecessors did. However, the issue here is not the overall graphical fidelity of the game - naturally later games look better - but the graphics quality compared to other contemporary games at the time of their respective releases. And in that regard, while Halo 3 was never praised for its graphics, it also wasn’t criticised as much as other titles within the franchise, both before and after. (Again, at least not to my memory.)
EDIT: Looked up some reviews from when the game released:
Pretty much exactly how I remembered it: Good but not great.
Bethesda is already known for delays and releasing broken and unfinished products even without a global pandemic, so that isn’t a reliable source in that regard.
NetherRealm hasn’t released any games since MK11 in 2019, their only game post-Covid is a Mortal Kombat mobile game that had only been announced in late 2022, so I don’t know which delay you are talking about.
You might be right about id Software, I haven’t followed any development news on Doom Eternal.
Well, as I said, Covid is a very convenient scapegoat to blame for any mismanagement and other shortcomings, even if they would have happened without it. It’s quite understandable that any companies would blame a global pandemic that’s out of their control instead of owning up to any mistakes if they don’t have to; neither would I.
It cannot be completely discarded as a factor, since even software development has some need for physical components, new hardware, repairs, etc. But it is significantly less than in industries that solely rely on in-person-work. The overall workflow does not change depending on whether you’re writing code from home or from an office cubicle; it might even be argued that it’s beneficial to work from home as you don’t lose time for needless commuting, but that’s neither here nor there.
Either way, the impact Covid had on the software industry - including game development - is pretty negligible and tends to be completely overexaggerated, in part because it’s in most companies’ best interest to do so.
I remember Halo 2 as well, especially the criticism for all the texture pop-in.
For Halo 3, I know this was a very common conversation topic (the criticism of its visuals and comments that it looked like a last gen game), and was regularly being discussed on the Xbox forums and the Bungie forums. I know this was the case because I was part of those discussions, and while I was not impressed with the game visually and didn’t think it looked very good, I also didn’t think it looked as bad as everyone said and would constantly go back and forth with people on that. (Except for human character models. They were really bad).
I do not. Again, this was, what, about 15-16 years ago. Kudos to you for looking up some reviews from the larger publications of the time.
I do want to say ActionTrip, a smaller site that I followed regularly as they were always honest in their reviews and you never had to worry about publisher pressure on them, was one of the sites that brought up such criticism, but they went under roughly half a decade ago and all their stuff is gone.
Again, I not only remember differently but was actively involved in discussions around this criticism. I also remember comments about mild improvements to the graphics in Halo 3: ODST, and massive improvements for Halo: Reach (which I agree with re: Halo: Reach).
I also don’t remember Halo 4 being panned for it’s graphics, quite the opposite. I do recall it being criticized heavily for it’s change in art direction.
And yet it still occurred.
Support was expected far longer for Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, especially given the sorry state of the Kombat Pack 2 characters. More character slots were data mined from the game, as well as a possible continuation of story mode.
It’s widely believed WB Games had them pull support early to focus on their next title. And not Mortal Kombat Onslaught, the mobile game you mentioned, which is handled by their mobile division. Since Injustice 3 has been soft deconfirmed, it’s expected Mortal Kombat 12 is their next game.
id had issues with post-launch support and the DLC expansions for DOOM Eternal. They were still able to churn them out more or less on time, but the studio head did discuss in a letter how much more challenging it was with pandemic-working conditions. You can also tell their post-COVID content isn’t up to the same level of polish (neither was the pandemic content released by NetherRealm, for that matter) either.
And to clarify, I’m not saying COVID is the sole factor, we know Halo Infinite had troubled development prior to the pandemic, but pretending the pandemic had no to minimal impact on game development and the games industry is just not reality.
Again, this is not correct, as you’re completely disregarding the fact that game development is more than just writing code. There’s mo-cap, voice acting, music and orchestral, and other performance and acting requirements, etc.
I work in film and television production. Creating a motion picture is different than creating a movie of the week, which is a different process from creating a factual entertainment show, which is different than creating a home renovation show.
All are the same overall media, but the process and components (and requirements and union policies) around them vary, and there were different levels of impact from the pandemic as a result.
It’d be the same with software. If it’s only code you’re doing, the impact will be far less than something like game development which is multi-disciplinary beyond just code.