Well to be honest, they probably stopped giving a shit and said it will probably be fine and focused way too much of getting new studios like Bethesda and Activision. I think what happened is that Microsoft bit off more than they can chew, bought way too many new studios at once, and thought they could fix every studios problems all at once. It genuinely makes me scared for what they will put out next it they give this little of a fuck, put out zero quality control and try to be superman and fix everything at once.
Oh this is absolutely all true. I'm not saying MS is not at fault (the short contracts thing is still simply baffling to me) just that Halo Infinite's post-launch support as a live service is still largely due to 343i just not delivering. They've had so much time and still haven't even brought the game up to the standards set by its predecessors. Yet they have plenty of time and effort to devote to that in-game store. Notice updates on that never slack.
Yeah. Personally, I think if nothing else, this whole debacle has shown that some games just aren't meant to be live service, seasonal, "forever" games. I still would've preferred traditional levels vs an open world too, but I suspect I'm in the minority on that.
Here is some more fuel to the fire, apparently the groundworks for splitscreen is there as people have managed to glitch the game and it works to a point. Wow holy shit. How much mismanagement has happened to 343, like seriously what in the living fuck is going on though their heads right now. Fans have to do 343s job just to make the game playable
Aaaand there goes another of my favorite franchises down the toilet. Welp guess we're never going to find out what happened to Anders or the Spirit of Fire crew now. Fucking perfect, I'd say more but I'm just too irritated right now.
I dunno, I think people who have experienced Infinite's shallow and monotonous open world have come around to preferring traditional levels like you and me. Thing is there's nothing stopping the developers from having nice, huge open areas with non-linear progression so you could still have varied vehicle and grapple encounters just in level format. The open world we have is easily 50% if not more wasted space with paltry dots of hidden loot and half the campaign is spent in linear, repetitive Forerunner constructs or Banished strongholds anyway. They should've structured the missions like the Silent Cartographer where it's one large open area with objectives that move around it along with enemy and maps changes over time only cranked up. Same open free-roam aspect without the lack of personal touch and craft Halo's campaign missions have been known for. I can't honestly remember a single notable open world encounter form Infinite. Infinite's open world is especially laughable after playing something like Elden Ring. God damn if Infinite had been delayed till after that it would've gotten destroyed by critics. Infinite is the video game equivalent of a generic big budget Hollywood movie where you have to wonder where the millions of dollars actually went. The story is nothing, beginning and ending off-screen, the world and level design feels almost auto-generated it's so generic and samey, and the combat loop (while easily the strongest part) is still just slightly above-average. That's not even touching the multiplayer. I certainly don't hate Infinite like I do Halo 5, but God damn what happened with this franchise? How did it lose its entire identity and devolve from trendsetter to trend-chaser?
Between the opening cinematic and the propaganda grunt(which reminds me I still need to get a MC grunt to make one), I can't really think of anything else Infinite really has going for it. B-but it's okay because their working hard on making............Banished weapons......... For those that actually play multiplayer how is it?
As a former Halo fan I too dropped out when 343 took over. I saw the writing on the wall. I already wrote off Halo 4 before I ever saw it. I didn't need to. I remember the advertising for Halo 3. I remember Landfall. I remember the campaign for Reach. Reach is my no.1 Halo game. I remember how these games made me feel, from the standpoint of someone who loves military epics. I remember playing Halo 2 with my USMC friend and going "OORAH" whenever Marines said it and did good shit and when Gunny Johnson said awesome Marine shit. And then it was clear once Halo 4 came out that 343 just didn't understand Halo and I got out. I'm not surprised Halo is in the dumps and it's depressing to hear the news. I was gonna get a new X Box to play Infinite on Splitscreen with my bro once the feature came out but now I'm just disappointed.
I don't know if I could go as far as calling them the worst developer in the industry. That's a touch hyperbolic IMO. I've played some truly, utterly broken games that remain so even after multiple supposedly major updates and years later. The scale and degree of dysfunction in some games from design to systems to UX to just everything is outright abysmal. Like, "I want to die before ever even looking at this game again" broken. Whereas Halo Infinite is merely depressingly disappointing to me. There's also the fact that unlike some here, I actually quite liked Halo 4, and it had quite a bit of PvE content and progression for non-competitive players with Spartan Ops and the like. And the fact that, unlike a lot of Halo fans, I never cared much for Halo 2. It was a massive disappointment to me when it came out, and it was only years later that I warmed up to it. Consequently, I never saw Bungie as the perfect sacrosanct devs many view them as (especially after they left and made Destiny, a series I can't stand personally for its sole online focus.) There's a spectrum of "bad" and 343, for me, is nowhere near the bottom of it. YMMV of course. What they - and Microsoft Games Studios - are for me though, are two of perhaps the most wasteful components of the first party side of the industry I've ever seen. They have more resources than some countries have, and a stable of beloved IPs, one of which (the one we're talking about here) has historically been inextricably tied to the success of their Xbox brand and hardware for multiple generations running, and yet they're just like... eh... whatever happens happens, you win some ya lose some. Let it ride. We'll get to it eventually. Whatever. I just... it beggars belief. That's my general sentiment. Puzzlement, astonishment, disappointment. Not, "This is technically the worst software dev in the industry." Two different things IMO. It's because they're not that bad IMO that makes it so indefensible. They have every ingredient necessary to execute better and in a more timely manner. They just... don't. Like I said, wasteful. Wasteful of time, of resources, of goodwill, of momentum, of potential, and of creativity.
Bonnie Ross peaced out I am calling now, Halo is going to die. Apparently she was a huge reason why Halo is still a thing today as she fought to keep it going, but after three botched games and permanent distrust in 343 and Halo, I think this truly is the end of this franchise. All the devs are probably fed up dealing with fan hate, Microsoft clearly doesn't give a fuck about its flagship IP, and the fans are tired of getting fucked over. Now it's too early to point fingers right now at who's fault it is exactly, but I got a feeling someone like Jason Schreier will make the full story public in the near future. Rest in peace Halo, you will be pissed as another mismanaged beloved IP. May God grant us the mercy of this franchise not getting terrible reboots.
Maybe I'm being too nerdy ragey but Halo was done after 3. It was a story that didn't need to continue. Ruin the emotional pay off at the end of 3 by needlessly continuing Chief's story. The product of and result of yearly game franchises.
Yeah she's apparently stepping down due to a family members health. Really don't see it making a difference. The current state of the game is a trainwreck and one person leaving isn't suddenly going to make things better or worse.
They shoulda ended at Reach or continued the Reach formula, i.e. follow various other badass spartans that fought alongside Chief as he wasn't the only Spartan, just the most badass out of the bunch. 4 was... weird to say the least, 5 was a straight up dumpster fire MP was an acquired taste, and the MCC was so broken for so many years, it really doesn't bring back all the good will for their Staple franchise. And then we go back to the age old question, is it really worth parading the corpse of a franchise we still love just for the fact of money, instead of just letting it die and enjoy the memories we had? I don't doubt it, but it seems very... convenient, which I don't blame her. The fans, Microsoft and probably the people at 343 are probably lighting her up more than a 4th of a July BBQ, so I don't Blame her that she just leaves post catastrophe. We all know how passionate fans can get... we are a... needy, picky, and aggressive bunch.
If you want to know what the current state of Halo is It's this. Whatever the hell this is. I'm not even fucking questioning this shit no more
So, finally, nearly a year later, I got to experience some co-op campaign with my friend with whom I've played every Halo game since 3. And it's... not bad so far? No lag. He played on Xbox, I played on PC, we both have Gamepass. Definitely a more enjoyable experience with someone. Grabbing skulls we missed way back in the first two missions now that we can replay them is seamless and loads quickly. It... works? I just wish we could've done this at launch. This is the main reason I play Halo.
Oh yeah, I forgot Infinite was still a thing. Man, how is this game still a thing. People are so desperate for a decent game that they are flooding back to older titles just like Battlefield. This entire game is too little too late.
