Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@NEStalgia
I agree with Flood. Main reason why I liked 4 and 5 was that there were no Flood in sight.
@DarthNocturnal
I remember the rage about Arbiter back in the day. And I kind of agree, I thought that they were weaker levels on Halo 2.

My own personal favourite is Reach. At the moment Reach and 4 is only ones I have completed legendary playing solo.

I dunno if I buy that. They've had like over 5 years to get this ready for the new console launch, which they've known the launch date for quite a while.

Seems far more likely they're just worried about the response to the mediocre graphics, given that it's pretty much the main selling point of the new console, but don't wanna admit it's for something as dumb as that.

@DarthNocturnal 1 was amazing, but the funny thing with 1 is it was only the beginning that was amazing. It peaked at Silent Cartographer that remains one of the highlights in all of gaming history, even today. However right after that it all kid of fell apart. 343 Guilty Spark was a fun and suspenseful moment....and then you hit The Library and the entire game grinds to a halt. Some people love that area, some don't, but it broke everything that made Halo Halo and turned it into a Doom clone which is exactly what Halo was giving a finger to at the start. And then after that the entire game is just playing the whole game in reverse, but replacing the interesting, tactical enemies with Flood and zombies. So it's like the game ends at 343GS, and then you just get the Doom mod for the rest of the game. The lengthy copy paste rooms like in the Convenant ship, prior to that (and again later!!) show their age though.

2....it was a game about Flood...'nuff said. The rest of Bungie's work was great though.

@Dezzy At this point someone has to admit 343 is a terrible studio that has no idea what they're doing with Bungie's classic. 4 and 5 were kind of messes entirely, especially 5. They did great work with MCC, but that was just tweaking Bungie's work, not remaking their own, and I suspect the whole project wasn't about selling classic Halo but was about "Ok guys, we need to figure out WTF makes Halo actually popular.....let's just remake everything Bungie did until we "get it"" Infinite looks like they finally "get it" well enough to just copy/past Bungie games and add on in ways that make it better, which is cool (still better than Destiny...) but in 5 years they were still planning a piecemeal release of a game. If it takes them any longer to make a piecemeal game they should just be sold to Square-Enix where they belong.

@NEStalgia

Makes me wonder how much of Xbox's decline this generation was simply down to the fact that they gave their 2 biggest franchises to completely new developers. Ok so 343 technically took over during the previous gen, but they already had huge momentum at that point, and Halo 4 reviewed fairly well.
Seems like a bad idea to do with 2 franchises around a similar time. Halo 5 and Gears 4 are generally regarded as the worst in their respective series.

@Dezzy I think that's part of it, but a bigger part is you can't just take a series that was developed by one studio and represents the ideas and thoughts of that team and just transfer it to an entirely new team. I can't think of a single game in history that's actually been successful with. Halo was Bungie. Gears was Epic.....you can't really have the same games with a totally different team and none of the original people. That's Metroid Prime 4's problem as well, and why it went back to Retro, but most of the people aren't still there anyway. Same for Darksiders and many other games.

Halo was a trilogy, Gears was a trilogy, and you can't just uproot it unless you totally reinvent it and move it to a new studio. But instead of new IP they just tried to keep the momentum with the old ones and a new team. But that was a problem baked 20 years ago. When your big first party games aren't internal studios but are contracts with major existing studios....you're going to run into this problem. MS's early solution was to have a LOT of such contracts (Bioware, etc.) Then they kind of messed it up. Their 2 biggest franchises were just contract work for major studios. When that contract ended, they had no other studios or brands to fall back on, because all of it was contract and they gutted their internal studios.

343 and Coalition were great attempts....but that was never going to bear fruit quickly. And 343......really they're not very good at this still, apparently. I do believe they've finally nailed gameplay, but it took 5 years to basically rebuild a bigger Halo 3....and even then only have enough to release installments.

It's definitely been done. Donkey Kong from Rare to Retro. Zelda from Nintendo to Capcom. Tomb Raider from Core to Crystal Dynamics. Deus Ex from Ion Storm to Eidos Montreal. All very successful transitions.
It's definitely a risky move though when you're dealing with the very peak of franchises, and you probably shouldn't do multiple series at the same time.

Ultimate Summer Sale started today on the MS Store. I am looking into a few games myself, stuff that I was mostly waiting for a price cut on.

@Dezzy Phil Spencer said it in the Animal Crossing podcast.

@Grumblevolcano

He's a PR man. It's his job not to tell the truth. Why would they only just realize multiplayer wouldn't be ready at this point, literally a few weeks after saying it'd be a launch title.
That makes no sense. But the graphics thing absolutely makes sense, given that it's literally the main selling point of the console.

Phil Spencer is a filthy liar, I suppose. Poor guy can't get a break. He gets viscously ripped apart by 12 and 30-year-old fanboys on twitter. He gets mocked at every step he takes; his brand can't make any mistakes. Or it's practically over. The man has thick skin, cause if it were me I would've quit a long time ago.

@Dezzy There were lots of rumours surrounding Infinite not being a complete package at launch and 343 already said that some things like Ray Tracing were post-launch so I think Phil Spencer's comment is believable. The graphics I don't think will change unless the XB1 version gets cancelled.

The more i hear gamers go on about wanting to cancel the xb1 version, next gen doing be about showcasing power for the sake of it, cut loose the old stuff and just steamroll power at any price the less I understand gamers, and the less I really want to be at all associated with them. It's become the most shallow, insecure group of people possible... I'm really beginning to question how much I actually feel comfortable being considered part of it. No wonder it's stigmatized.

@MsJubilee if i made the kind of money he makes, I'd have thick skin too

Watching Halo Infinite demo at 4K, I can see that it couldn't run on current gen consoles considering scope, frame rate and resolution. The demo doesn't have proper lighting and that makes the textures look flat, e.g., there is a moment when the weapon is under direct light and it looks much better. That said, it looked like a next-gen beta, with pop-in and basically no lighting. The artistic style has also been criticised but I see it more similar to Bungie's Halo games, which is what Halo fans wanted.

The developer needs to polish and remaster the game and they know that they have to add ray tracing. To delay the game it's absolutely the best option, otherwise reviews would be harsh and the game would be fixed by weekly 50 GB updates. The gameplay looks fun and it's bigger than 4 and 5 combined so this will be the first great Halo game made by 343 Industries. If it isn't, there's something absolutely wrong about the studio. Not that Bungie are making better games, anyway.

The next generation will have a soft first-party launch line-up. Series X will perhaps get Gears Tactics, Fight Simulator or whatever is ready while PS5 only has Spider-Man standalone PS4 DLC with PS5 make-up and Astro's tech demo. Okay, there might be additional first-party games for Series X and PS5 launch but nothing else confirmed this far. The good thing is that there are third-party heavyweights like Cyberpunk and Assassin's Creed Valhalla to boost hardware sales, plus the free remasters (on Series X): Ori and the Will of Wisps, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5... Okay, those aren't new but since they're free I really can't wait to get them. I still haven't play Ori nor Gears 5 and Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4 are basically endless. The Medium would be interesting to have at launch.

Cancelling Halo Infinite at this point makes no sense. It would go against their commitment to support the Xbox One into next gen.

Halo is a tentpole title. It should have always been developed as a Series X/S exclusive. Saddling your biggest property to hardware that was weak six years ago was just never going to end well.

With that said, they've already developed the core game at this point, so canceling the Xbone version makes no sense. They just need to start development of the next Halo sooner, and develop it with the intention of taking full advantage of the powerful next-gen hardware.

@BlueOcean The Medium is supposed to release in December, so it's not far off from launch.

Yeah that could be it. They could just be waiting for the ray tracing thing to be ready, that way it's the first impression people get of the graphics and it works as a much better selling point for the console.

There's definitely a benefit to having that be seen as the main version of the game, rather than just a later patch.

To release a beta game, even if they fix it later and becomes a great game, has consequences, starting by receiving harsh reviews: Master Chief Collection, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, Street Fighter V... They should know by now that the right thing to do is to polish and remaster Halo Infinite for Series X before releasing it. Let other games take its place until then.

@Ralizah That would be one month after launch, so good.

@BlueOcean While I've been fairly critical of Xbox's next-gen plans so far, it's the most interesting looking launch window game at this point, IMO. Looking at how it renders two different world to explore simultaneously, I can still see how it would have worked well on the Wii U conceptually. And, visually, it actually looks quite 'next gen' to me. It's very cool.

If I was going to get a Series X, that and Cyberpunk would keep me occupied for a good while, I think.

@Ralizah Yep, those games and Assassin's Creed look great. I want to see the HDR solution for Xbox One and backwards compatible games
(that's just incredible) and how Series X handles games like The Witcher 3 and Monster Hunter World, the latter doesn't run at 60 FPS on any console. I can't wait for Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4 in quality mode at 60 FPS and I'm curious about Gears 5 remaster and playing Ori at 120 FPS (wt... Ha ha). I'm also excited about the brief loading times and that new D-pad that looks like Mega Drive evolved 😁.

@BlueOcean Series X runs TW3 and MHW at 60fps?

The D-Pad I'm iffy on. I love the Saturn/Genesis D-Pads, but the comfort of that design is contingent on how large they are and how far they protrude from the controller.