What's new

Halo: Infinite

@Plays2_MX Ha nice! Good screenshot quality too. What graphic settings are you running?
Thanks! I'm running at 1080p at mostly High settings except shadows just to keep a steady 100-120 fps. The only thing that I don't like is this game's TAA implementation which makes eeeeverything blurring when you're in motion. This needs DLSS to address that.
 
Thanks! I'm running at 1080p at mostly High settings except shadows just to keep a steady 100-120 fps. The only thing that I don't like is this game's TAA implementation which makes eeeeverything blurring when you're in motion. This needs DLSS to address that.
Ah, nice. The Xbox One X version is generally around Medium Settings, I believe. I can see the difference.
 
I finished up my Heroic playthrough last night. Took me just over 24 hours and this time I found all the Skulls. I have roughly a dozen Propaganda Towers to find and destroy, and then I need to listen to all the Spartan Audio Logs, and the playthrough will be properly 100% finished.

Overall, a very good game. The story is very well done and satisfying as a longtime franchise fan. The musical score, both new and remixed tracks, are fantastic, and the open world concept really works well for the game. Despite the criticisms it drew for visuals as well, the game really does look very, very good. Not next-gen, but it doesn't look bad at all.

I most enjoyed just exploring and screwing around in the open world itself, though I also found the majority of the main linear missions well designed and paced.

On to my criticisms.

- The higher difficulty (since I played on Normal the first time) really shows how badly the mark was missed on the game's vehicles. Only the Ghost feels right, every other returning vehicle in the game just feels wrong.

- I used the Grappleshot a lot more and of course under more challenging conditions, and I estimate between 25 to 30% of the time, it just doesn't work. It will not grab onto a surface and get you killed. It'll grab a weapon on the ground and pull that to you instead, getting you killed. I also swear it's effective range is not a constant and changes. So very frustrating. In most combat situations, especially against Melee enemies, Thrust is 100% the way to go since it always does work. I still maintain that Equipment switching on a Controller is cumbersome and also frustrating in a pinch.

- Balance. I do feel the game needs further balancing. Ironically, I feel the open world suffers the most from balancing issues and the linear levels are much better/tighter. There are just some encounters where it seems you need to get that Razorback full of Rocket Launcher Marines to succeed, which takes away from the classic Halo sandbox feel of approaching situations as you want.

Boss Battles, some are really well done, others less so. When I was getting frustrated by the game, I found myself thinking about Hugo Martin's talk about frustration in game design and how there's good frustration and bad frustration. Good frustration forces the player to learn their tool kit and to actually play the game, rewarding them when they master this. Bad frustration forces the player to look for exploits or means to circumvent challenges.

When I'm trying to have a boss get stuck on geo or abuse pathing issues, that's bad frustration. When I all out attack a boss and he despawns from the map by design and is completely unkillable in the opening phase of the battle (but can kill you), that's bad frustration (this is Jega, by the way). When a simple Grunt can survive four direct hits from the Variant Sniper Rifle, that's bad frustration. When I'm flying in the open world and racing to the next "zone" so the Banshee's killing me will despawn and let me live, that's bad gameplay design.

The Harbinger fight really, really angered me as well on this difficulty, but I have yet to determine if it's me or bad design/frustration.

Overall, I think the game's overall presentation is exceptional, and the overall gameplay is good, but in need of further polish/refinement. In this respect, I actually find Halo Infinite very much like Mortal Kombat 11, and fantastic production value game that shakes up many core mechanics with really good ideas, but sadly the ideas were not implemented well.

Overall, for the native Xbox One Halo shooters, Halo 5: Guardians has the more refined, traditional, and consistent gameplay (despite the inclusion of basic squad elements); it just feels better and more natural to play. Halo Infinite provides a more robust and open experience, but one that just isn't finished and needs more attention and fine tuning.

I absolutely recommend the Campaign at full price, there's enough gameplay, content, and good times there, but overall I'd have to place the game as "middle of the road" in terms of rankings compared to all the other Halo game's Campaigns.

If 343 Industries addresses bugs, makes the Grappleshot actually reliable in a pinch, adjusts vehicles to not feel sluggish, and tweaks the balance a bit, I would rank the Campaign upper echelons of Halo shooters.
 
@Dankster Morgan I was toying around with Escherum's Gravity Axe last night, and I found it makes short work of the Hunter Captains. I was surprised by how effective this was, worked on my first try!

The actual battle starts at 1:46 if you want to jump ahead:


Again, this is on Heroic so you'd need to be more cautious on Legendary, but it still may be quite effective.
 
I made up my list of best to least Campaigns for the franchise, first person shooters only. This takes into account the Campaigns as a whole, production values, story, gameplay, mechanics, music, etc.

  • Halo 2 Anniversary
  • Halo 4
  • Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
  • Halo Infinite
  • Halo 3: ODST
  • Halo: Reach
  • Halo 5: Guardians
  • Halo 3
  • Halo 4: Spartan Ops
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
I made up my list of best to least Campaigns for the franchise, first person shooters only. This takes into account the Campaigns as a whole, production values, story, gameplay, mechanics, music, etc.

  • Halo 2 Anniversary
  • Halo 4
  • Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
  • Halo Infinite
  • Halo 3: ODST
  • Halo: Reach
  • Halo 5: Guardians
  • Halo 3
  • Halo 4: Spartan Ops
Good list, definitely disagree with Halo 3's placement, but I like the appreciation for 4. At this point, my ranking is dependent on my mood so I'll do a tier list.
The "lower tier" games are only lower in terms of being ranked against other halo games, except 5, which I think is genuinely a very mediocre campaign.

S: CE, Reach, 3
A: Infinite, 2
B: ODST, 4
C: 5

ODST, 4, and 2 all are way more liner with the level design, and 2 has horrific difficulty balancing, and a very limited viable sandbox on higher difficulty. Is propped up by the story BIG TIME. Still an incredible game.

Straight up, Infinite has the best combat though, I just have some gripes with repetitive environments, and minor story issues. If it had another 6 months to bake, I think it would be number 1, but understandably MS wanted 343 to get it out for the holiday.
 
Nice list!

Some elaboration on mine:

As I've mentioned before, Halo 3 is to me what Halo 5: Guardians is to you, more or less, though I don't think it's a bad game. It's story is the worst in the franchise by far, save for Halo 4: Spartan Ops (which is designed as a Co-Op Campaign) completely walking back from the complexity of Halo 2's narrative, the quality of said narrative, and was a very unsatisfactory ending to the trilogy. Gameplay-wise, it wasn't bad, but there was nothing special about it that made it stand out from what had come before. It's gameplay, as far as Halo goes, is very bland (this is Campaign, Multiplayer is a different story). The game also didn't properly leverage the Xbox 360 hardware and was (rightly) heavily criticized on it's visuals. The game even had longer load times when installed to the HDD! It was faster for it to read off-disc!

For Halo 2, I never had an issue with it's balancing on Heroic or lower. Legendary was beyond my skill and Bungie made it stupid hard because people complained Halo: Combat Evolved on Legendary was far too easy. In terms of gameplay, Halo 2 has, to date, the most varied gameplay options available in any encounter out of any game in the franchise save for Halo Infinite (and that's due to the open world and ability to requisition vehicles and weapons). I had to play through Halo 2 over seven or eight times before I was no longer able to find new ways to approach encounters. This was something that also felt much more restricted in Halo 3.

Halo 4, while having lesser enemy AI than the Bungie titles, still has excellent, varied gameplay with challenging yet fun encounters. A nice mix of weapons and Armour Abilities, and it's the first game that allowed you to have Sprint as a standard ability. That was game changing! The Story was also far better than it got credit for, not only for incorporating more of the EU, but for actually making John a real character instead of a vessel for the player to inhabit. His story with Cortana was also very touching, and something I've found I appreciate more as I've gotten older.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Nice list!

Some elaboration on mine:

As I've mentioned before, Halo 3 is to me what Halo 5: Guardians is to you, more or less, though I don't think it's a bad game. It's story is the worst in the franchise by far, save for Halo 4: Spartan Ops (which is designed as a Co-Op Campaign) completely walking back from the complexity of Halo 2's narrative, the quality of said narrative, and was a very unsatisfactory ending to the trilogy. Gameplay-wise, it wasn't bad, but there was nothing special about it that made it stand out from what had come before. It's gameplay, as far as Halo goes, is very bland (this is Campaign, Multiplayer is a different story). The game also didn't properly leverage the Xbox 360 hardware and was (rightly) heavily criticized on it's visuals. The game even had longer load times when installed to the HDD! It was faster for it to read off-disc!

For Halo 2, I never had an issue with it's balancing on Heroic or lower. Legendary was beyond my skill and Bungie made it stupid hard because people complained Halo: Combat Evolved on Legendary was far too easy. In terms of gameplay, Halo 2 has, to date, the most varied gameplay options available in any encounter out of any game in the franchise save for Halo Infinite (and that's due to the open world and ability to requisition vehicles and weapons). I had to play through Halo 2 over seven or eight times before I was no longer able to find new ways to approach encounters. This was something that also felt much more restricted in Halo 3.

Halo 4, while having lesser enemy AI than the Bungie titles, still has excellent, varied gameplay with challenging yet fun encounters. A nice mix of weapons and Armour Abilities, and it's the first game that allowed you to have Sprint as a standard ability. That was game changing! The Story was also far better than it got credit for, not only for incorporating more of the EU, but for actually making John a real character instead of a vessel for the player to inhabit. His story with Cortana was also very touching, and something I've found I appreciate more as I've gotten older.
I agree with a lot of your halo 4 thoughts, it has grown on me a lot, I just hate fighting Prometheans. I think Infinite is the best version of MC. Because he is a real character, but still stoic enough that it is consistent with Bungie games so it doesn’t feel as jarrin
For me, Reach and Infinite have the best encounters.
For me, 3 has some of the most epic encounters. The scarab battles are so awesome. The variety in locations, the sandbox, and everything was so cool. The mission The Covenant is probably the best level in the series. Storming the beach, flying the hornets, double scarab fight, a scorpion run, fighting alongside the flood, and Arbiter taking out truth is so much packed into one level. For me, the narrow corridors of 2, the bad difficulty balancing, and dominance of precision weapons slightly harmed it. Still an amazing game. Also I hate dual wielding so much, it ruins a lot of the sandbox imo.
 
I agree with a lot of your halo 4 thoughts, it has grown on me a lot, I just hate fighting Prometheans. I think Infinite is the best version of MC. Because he is a real character, but still stoic enough that it is consistent with Bungie games so it doesn’t feel as jarrin
For me, Reach and Infinite have the best encounters.
For me, 3 has some of the most epic encounters. The scarab battles are so awesome. The variety in locations, the sandbox, and everything was so cool. The mission The Covenant is probably the best level in the series. Storming the beach, flying the hornets, double scarab fight, a scorpion run, fighting alongside the flood, and Arbiter taking out truth is so much packed into one level. For me, the narrow corridors of 2, the bad difficulty balancing, and dominance of precision weapons slightly harmed it. Still an amazing game. Also I hate dual wielding so much, it ruins a lot of the sandbox imo.
I agree with you on John in Halo Infinite, though everyone else's reaction to him... the messiah take everyone seems to have of him, it takes your Spartan superhero criticism to another level!

For Halo 4 Promethean Knights don't bother me. I know we disagree here, but from my first hand experience of still regularly playing the game, the Suppressor works wonders.


For Halo 3, I found it's encounters entirely "meh." The Scarab battles were annoying and tedious, since so often you get the Scarab "down," but it doesn't go low enough for you to board the darn thing! Even when Crouch jumping. The general locations and sandbox were good, but was overshadows (at least the first half of the game) by the fact that those levels were supposed to be in the last game. This perception difference between us I suspect has the age-gap in play. The Covenant was a nice level overall, though I never liked the feel of the Hornet, and while fighting with the Flood was an interesting encounter, the story telling here hit rock bottom and was just, well, bad to be honest. Arbiter killing Truth was great, though the rest of the game had him as a bumbling sidekick and no where near what he was in Halo 2. Duel Wielding is also in Halo 3.

Again, no Halo game is a bad game, but coming off the heals of Halo 2, Halo 3 wasn't what everyone was waiting for Campaign-wise. The Multiplayer was amazing though.
 
You guys see the new trailer for the show? It looks pretty decent, cautiously optimistic. Not sure about not blue cortana, or about the human raised by the covenant, but I like the Elites.
Cortana gave me those Sonic movie 1st design vibes :laughing:. Other than that it looks pretty decent and they got Cortana's voice actor for this.
 
You guys see the new trailer for the show? It looks pretty decent, cautiously optimistic. Not sure about not blue cortana, or about the human raised by the covenant, but I like the Elites.
No, link please!

Update: Found it:

I think this looks really good, and I'm excited for it.

Update 2: With respect to Cortana, I don't mind her looking more like Isabel. Keep in mind, originally, Cortana was purple (and occassionally green). She wasn't blue until Halo 2.

Update 3: I'm hoping I'll be able to watch it here, as I don't think Paramount + is available in Canada. I'm hoping it comes to Crave TV.
 
Last edited:

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
No, link please!

Update: Found it:

I think this looks really good, and I'm excited for it.

Update 2: With respect to Cortana, I don't mind her looking more like Isabel. Keep in mind, originally, Cortana was purple (and occassionally green). She wasn't blue until Halo 2.

Update 3: I'm hoping I'll be able to watch it here, as I don't think Paramount + is available in Canada. I'm hoping it comes to Crave TV.
Blue, purple, either way, I think that it’s a pretty important part of her design and the new one just looks worse. There was the green / purple in CE. But then in 2, 3, reach, 4, and 5 she was blue, so that’s mostly how I think of Cortana. In Infinite she was purple but probably just to make an easy distinction between her and Weapon.
 
Blue, purple, either way, I think that it’s a pretty important part of her design and the new one just looks worse. There was the green / purple in CE. But then in 2, 3, reach, 4, and 5 she was blue, so that’s mostly how I think of Cortana. In Infinite she was purple but probably just to make an easy distinction between her and Weapon.
Actually in Halo Infinite she was blue. She was only purple when her avatar was reflecting pre-Rampant/Forerunner Cortana. I'm guessing a nod back to Halo: Combat Evolved.

I also wouldn't say it looks worse, but it does look different. Let's wait to see how it ends up and how it works in the actual series when it streams.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
I’m slowly getting less excited for the show. The show runners just made this big deal about how it’s going to be female centric over MC (maybe not a direct quote), and changing things for diversity sake, and how they have a female villain that easily defeats MC. Which diversity is no problem, but did they play the fucking games? Halo is already incredibly diverse in a ton of ways without being tampered with.

They have plenty of strong female characters like Miranda Keyes, Kelly, Linda, Kat, Veronica Dare, Dr. Halsey, and even Cortana if you want to include her. And Johnson, a black man who is also a fan favorite seems to be completely absent thus far. Like they could just use the actual source material which is incredibly diverse, and not need to cuck and emasculate MC to achieve it. Like from how they’re describing their own show, it sounds like they have to make MC worse to make their new characters better. Why not just do Halo: CE verbatim what the fuck….
 
Last edited:
I’m slowly getting less excited for the show. The show runners just made this big deal about how it’s going to be female centric over MC (maybe not a direct quote), and changing things for diversity sake, and how they have a female villain that easily defeats MC. Which diversity is no problem, but did they play the fucking games? Halo is already incredibly diverse in a ton of ways without being tampered with.

They have plenty of strong female characters like Miranda Keyes, Kelly, Linda, Kat, Veronica Dare, Dr. Halsey, and even Cortana if you want to include her. And Johnson, a black man who is also a fan favorite seems to be completely absent thus far. Like they could just use the actual source material which is incredibly diverse, and not need to cuck and emasculate MC to achieve it. Like from how they’re describing their own show, it sounds like they have to make MC worse to make their new characters better. Why not just do Halo: CE verbatim what the fuck….
Again, let's wait and see the final product. The series is an adaptation of the source material, not a translation. Changes are inevitable sine they're telling a different story, and modern trends will be a thing. As someone who works in television production, I can tell you that diversity and inclusion is massive now, and companies are specifically focusing on making shows with this in mind.

In the most recent trailer, it also looks like they've changed Fred's cultural background from Caucasian to African, which doesn't surprise me (or bother me) with the trends of the industry.

At the end of the day, I'm curious to see how it all plays out and if the overall feel is right.

In terms of John being toned down, to that I say go for it. He's not superman, and one of your larger criticisms of the franchise is that Spartans are too often displayed as superheroes. John may be the primary protagonist of the franchise, but being a game, he gets away with far too much and it is, honestly, quite unrealistic. So unrealistic that Bungie had to come up with the character trait of "luck" to vaguely justify it, and 343 Industries continues to run with this weak reasoning because, well, it's a game.

John is the best Spartan, but he's not invincible. If he immediately dominates every challenge in the series, that takes away from the conflict and suspension of disbelief inherent in the medium.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Again, let's wait and see the final product. The series is an adaptation of the source material, not a translation. Changes are inevitable sine they're telling a different story, and modern trends will be a thing. As someone who works in television production, I can tell you that diversity and inclusion is massive now, and companies are specifically focusing on making shows with this in mind.

In the most recent trailer, it also looks like they've changed Fred's cultural background from Caucasian to African, which doesn't surprise me (or bother me) with the trends of the industry.

At the end of the day, I'm curious to see how it all plays out and if the overall feel is right.

In terms of John being toned down, to that I say go for it. He's not superman, and one of your larger criticisms of the franchise is that Spartans are too often displayed as superheroes. John may be the primary protagonist of the franchise, but being a game, he gets away with far too much and it is, honestly, quite unrealistic. So unrealistic that Bungie had to come up with the character trait of "luck" to vaguely justify it, and 343 Industries continues to run with this weak reasoning because, well, it's a game.

John is the best Spartan, but he's not invincible. If he immediately dominates every challenge in the series, that takes away from the conflict and suspension of disbelief inherent in the medium.
I don’t think he should dominate every challenge, and he should lose fights when he services the plot, but they’re coming straight out with it like “Master Chief gets his ass beat by a new female villain”. Makes it hard to not question their intentions. Do they actually care about halo or do they care about their message? I get that it’s an adaptation and not a translation, but seeing a Chevy Tahoe and AK-47 in the 2500s is fucking stupid. It looks like Halo I guess, but it doesn’t feel like it in the trailer. The concept of a human member of the Covenant bugs me big time. Not just because they hate humans, but because it takes away that whole potential plot of them needing to get a human to force them to fire the ring. They just have one now.

Race swaps don’t bother me either, but like where is Johnson? Why not take advantage of the already existing beloved diverse characters in your universe BEFORE doing anything else? I also couldn’t tell that was Fred, good eye. I thought it was Captain Keyes.

I do agree though, I will wait until I watch it. But I don’t have faith in anyone handling any beloved franchise now.
 
I don’t think he should dominate every challenge, and he should lose fights when he services the plot, but they’re coming straight out with it like “Master Chief gets his ass beat by a new female villain”. Makes it hard to not question their intentions. Do they actually care about halo or do they care about their message? I get that it’s an adaptation and not a translation, but seeing a Chevy Tahoe and AK-47 in the 2500s is fucking stupid. It looks like Halo I guess, but it doesn’t feel like it in the trailer. The concept of a human member of the Covenant bugs me big time. Not just because they hate humans, but because it takes away that whole potential plot of them needing to get a human to force them to fire the ring. They just have one now.

Race swaps don’t bother me either, but like where is Johnson? Why not take advantage of the already existing beloved diverse characters in your universe BEFORE doing anything else? I also couldn’t tell that was Fred, good eye. I thought it was Captain Keyes.

I do agree though, I will wait until I watch it. But I don’t have faith in anyone handling any beloved franchise now.
Okay, but maybe this new female villain is really, really tough. John has already been defeated in-game by the Ur-Didact (believeable being a super powerful Forerunner), Cortana (believable since he himself didn't act accordingly and let her trap him), and Atriox (less believable since John eats Brutes for breakfast and he's killed God knows how many. And Atriox did sucker shot him, but Atriox is "cool" and it's an awesome sequence so...), so is it really a stretch that some other character, who happens to be female, can defeat him as well?

I'm sure they care about both.

Do we know that that character is indeed human? As far as I know her identity is a mystery and has yet to be revealed. My guess is an AI of some sort, which would make for an interesting antagonist for Cortana to face.

Have they said what year the series takes place? It looks like it's earlier, as Halsey is younger. If it's in the 2540's, for example, Johnson and John have yet to meet. It also looks like they're going to focus on Blue Team and that dynamic, so perhaps adding Johnson to the mix would take away from that/be too muddled.

We'll know in a little over a month if the series is good or not.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Okay, but maybe this new female villain is really, really tough. John has already been defeated in-game by the Ur-Didact (believeable being a super powerful Forerunner), Cortana (believable since he himself didn't act accordingly and let her trap him), and Atriox (less believable since John eats Brutes for breakfast and he's killed God knows how many. And Atriox did sucker shot him, but Atriox is "cool" and it's an awesome sequence so...), so is it really a stretch that some other character, who happens to be female, can defeat him as well?

I'm sure they care about both.

Do we know that that character is indeed human? As far as I know her identity is a mystery and has yet to be revealed. My guess is an AI of some sort, which would make for an interesting antagonist for Cortana to face.

Have they said what year the series takes place? It looks like it's earlier, as Halsey is younger. If it's in the 2540's, for example, Johnson and John have yet to meet. It also looks like they're going to focus on Blue Team and that dynamic, so perhaps adding Johnson to the mix would take away from that/be too muddled.

We'll know in a little over a month if the series is good or not.
Good thoughts honestly, very creative. I doubt the show runners are as smart as you is my problem lol.
Atriox winning was ok to me cause John was distracted, and Atriox uses spartan esque power armor so his strength would be modified. And it set the stakes that John isn’t invincible. Serviced the story, which is all I ask for.

I still don’t know what the AK and the Tahoe is doing there lol but whatever, I will give it a fair shot and try to judge it as it’s own thing.

I think the Witcher show is a good example of different but still good. Changes a lot from the books, (books are still better imo), and has familiar imagery for fans of the games. But that show wouldn’t work if Henry Cavill wasn’t absolutely nailing Geralt, and the fact that the show treats him with respect and dignity. As long as they get Chief right, the show will at its core work. I don’t mind him losing fights but he had better be the main character.
 
Good thoughts honestly, very creative. I doubt the show runners are as smart as you is my problem lol.
Atriox winning was ok to me cause John was distracted, and Atriox uses spartan esque power armor so his strength would be modified. And it set the stakes that John isn’t invincible. Serviced the story, which is all I ask for.

I still don’t know what the AK and the Tahoe is doing there lol but whatever, I will give it a fair shot and try to judge it as it’s own thing.

I think the Witcher show is a good example of different but still good. Changes a lot from the books, (books are still better imo), and has familiar imagery for fans of the games. But that show wouldn’t work if Henry Cavill wasn’t absolutely nailing Geralt, and the fact that the show treats him with respect and dignity. As long as they get Chief right, the show will at its core work. I don’t mind him losing fights but he had better be the main character.
Ha, hey, thanks! I do love my Halo lore!

I did say Atriox sucker-hit him :). I had no issue with that fight myself either. I really like Atriox, I think he's a fantastic character and a great direction for the Brutes. Did you notice in the post-credits
he no longer has his face paint (I always thought they were tatoos) on? It's the first time we've seen him without it, and I wonder if that symbolizes something? i.e. that is Atriox, but from the past since it seems the Endless have time warping abilities of a sort.

For the Tahoe and AK, that I can't say, but I'll wait to see. For me, with first-hand knoweldge of how hard production is in COVID times, I'd give a pass if it's simply a production/supply issue.

For the Covenant "AI," we know in the main lore that the Covenant do indeed have AI's but it was never revealed how they created them. The Covenant doesn't invent, they imitate. ONI theorized that they took AI's from captured/destroyed human vessels and re-programmed them, which would explain how they know our language, and why their AI's have errors and degradation. The Cole Protocal, where AI's and ship data is whipped when engaging the Covenant, didn't come into play until about a decade into the war after the Outer Colonies were destroyed. The world with the Tahoe seems not advanced, but very space-cowboy to me, which suggests Outer Colony.

So my bet is she is an AI. She looks very human, as does Cortana in the show.

For The Witcher, I regret I know nothing about it save it's dark fantasy and the game apparently has female nudity.
 

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Ha, hey, thanks! I do love my Halo lore!

I did say Atriox sucker-hit him :). I had no issue with that fight myself either. I really like Atriox, I think he's a fantastic character and a great direction for the Brutes. Did you notice in the post-credits
he no longer has his face paint (I always thought they were tatoos) on? It's the first time we've seen him without it, and I wonder if that symbolizes something? i.e. that is Atriox, but from the past since it seems the Endless have time warping abilities of a sort.

For the Tahoe and AK, that I can't say, but I'll wait to see. For me, with first-hand knoweldge of how hard production is in COVID times, I'd give a pass if it's simply a production/supply issue.

For the Covenant "AI," we know in the main lore that the Covenant do indeed have AI's but it was never revealed how they created them. The Covenant doesn't invent, they imitate. ONI theorized that they took AI's from captured/destroyed human vessels and re-programmed them, which would explain how they know our language, and why their AI's have errors and degradation. The Cole Protocal, where AI's and ship data is whipped when engaging the Covenant, didn't come into play until about a decade into the war after the Outer Colonies were destroyed. The world with the Tahoe seems not advanced, but very space-cowboy to me, which suggests Outer Colony.

So my bet is she is an AI. She looks very human, as does Cortana in the show.

For The Witcher, I regret I know nothing about it save it's dark fantasy and the game apparently has female nudity.
I think you would very much get into the story of TW3 just from our other conversations about games. Definitely give it a go, it’s my favorite game of all time, and I’m not an RPG fan really. And since you have a long commute for work like me, I’d highly recommend all the Witcher audio books!
 
I think you would very much get into the story of TW3 just from our other conversations about games. Definitely give it a go, it’s my favorite game of all time, and I’m not an RPG fan really. And since you have a long commute for work like me, I’d highly recommend all the Witcher audio books!
Perhaps I shall check it out at some point! RPG-wise, I'm currently doing a playthrough of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and The Elder Scrolls Online. That'll take a while.
 
FYI the Halo series does not have Blue Team, the three other spartans John is with are entirely new characters.

I suspect they'll essentially fill the same roles as Fred, Linda, and Kelly.