Halo: Infinite

[Dankster Morgan]

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.

Im trying to keep optimistic but like wtf why?

 

[Juxtapose]

Im trying to keep optimistic but like wtf why?

No idea. It will be interesting to see where they take things. I'm still excited for it myself.

 

[Plays2_MX]

I think I found a way to get out of this game's horrible TAA application and blurring. Tried to run the game on DL DSR (2880x1620p) and scaled down the game's resolution to 67% or 68%. The game runs the same as 1080p but the blurring is gone and the aliasing is better than native 1080p.

 

[Juxtapose]

I'll be starting up my third playthrough as early as today. I'm excited to jump back in.

 

[Plays2_MX]

I'll be starting up my third playthrough as early as today. I'm excited to jump back in.

I'll wait until they add FSR/DLSS + performance improvements so I can start my Legendary 100% run. I see that they improved the first person animations that looked choppy. I trust that 343i will improve this game over time.

 

[Juxtapose]

I'll wait until they add FSR/DLSS + performance improvements so I can start my Legendary 100% run. I see that they improved the first person animations that looked choppy. I trust that 343i will improve this game over time.

I'm still playing on my Xbox One X. The first-person animations are smoother and at a proper 60 FPS.

I think they'll improve it over time as well, and as someone who's played it twice before to 100%, I can say it's more than fully playable now, at least on console. It is a very, very good game.

 

[Juxtapose]

A new trailer I missed last week. This looks really good:

 

[Marinjuana]

Ugh, why is this on the 27th best streaming service

 

[Juxtapose]

Ugh, why is this on the 27th best streaming service

I had frustrating technical issues. The Paramount Plus App does not appear to be available in Canada. It shows in the Microsoft Store on my Xbox One X, but is "unavailable." Several reviews are from fellow Canadians saying the App is a no-go.

So my only option as best as I could tell was streaming it on my PC from the Paramount Plus website, which I did.

I could not believe how awful the image quality was. It looked like a lower resolution than standard definition! The audio mix was poorly balanced as well, and I found dialogue was often too quite.

It's such a shame, as the episode itself I did enjoy. I'm going to email them today to see if there's a resolution or other options.

Thankfully, I have four Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Codes I got for from a Pringles promo, so I redeemed one of those and got the Perk that gave me 30 days free of Paramount Plus, so watching this cost me nothing. If I can't get this resolved, I won't subscribe in a month and will wait to watch the series on another service or on Blu-ray Disc.

 

[Juxtapose]

For the episode itself, I thought it was good. They obviously are doing things very differently than the core canon, which is fine since I was expecting that. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from here, as it could be very good, or become very poor.

I am now very curious as to who that human is with Mercy, as she's not an AI as I speculated but appears to be an actual human.

The costume design, art direction, and props are fantastic though; it absolutely looks like Halo.

I was surprised to see Admiral Parangoski; I didn't expect her charatcer for the show.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I think the show is pretty bad after the first 2 episodes, just generic sci fi.

 

[Juxtapose]

I think the show is pretty bad after the first 2 episodes, just generic sci fi.

Fair enough. I'm enjoying it for what it is. There's a lot of deviation from the core canon, but again, I expected that.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Fair enough. I'm enjoying it for what it is. There's a lot of deviation from the core canon, but again, I expected that.

To me John learning that Halo is a weapon so early is inexcusable. Never mind the fact that he spent the majority of the second episode outside of his armor, it’s just been so disappointing running out of copium and realizing they just aren’t going to do a story about Halo.

 

[Juxtapose]

To me John learning that Halo is a weapon so early is inexcusable. Never mind the fact that he spent the majority of the second episode outside of his armor, it’s just been so disappointing running out of copium and realizing they just aren’t going to do a story about Halo.

But they are doing a story about Halo, it's simply a very different telling of it.

Him learning it's a "weapon" is very vague. He know's nothing about it, not even it's name. Also him being out of armour makes sense as they're trying to humanize the character more and show the emotional struggle he deals with. It allows for facial expression and body language with other characters that would not be possible otherwise.

This does not work in a game for a combat situation since in the games, that's what they are, but it does work for a narrative where he's not in combat and in UNSC bases or in a former colleague's home and spending the night.

 

[ErmacMKX]

But they are doing a story about Halo, it's simply a very different telling of it.

Him learning it's a "weapon" is very vague. He know's nothing about it, not even it's name. Also him being out of armour makes sense as they're trying to humanize the character more and show the emotional struggle he deals with. It allows for facial expression and body language with other characters that would not be possible otherwise.

This does not work in a game for a combat situation since in the games, that's what they are, but it does work for a narrative where he's not in combat and in UNSC bases or in a former colleague's home and spending the night.

The show sucks, him not wearing his armor when he's surrounded in a hostile environment with people that hate him is legit stupid. I still can't get over how there's a human in the Covenant and the fact they made Keyes black but chose not to include Sergeant Johnson. This is what happens when you have people who didn't even play the game make a series about it.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

The show sucks, him not wearing his armor when he's surrounded in a hostile environment with people that hate him is legit stupid. I still can't get over how there's a human in the Covenant and the fact they made Keyes black but chose not to include Sergeant Johnson. This is what happens when you have people who didn't even play the game make a series about it.

I think this show is pretty disrespectful to the Bungie games that made the series as popular as it is, and puts us back decades from getting another shot at faithful halo content.

 

[Juxtapose]

I think this show is pretty disrespectful to the Bungie games that made the series as popular as it is, and puts us back decades from getting another shot at faithful halo content.

Check out the Silver Debriefs on halowaypoint.com . They summarize the episodes and break down some of the reasoning behind decision making (i.e. why John has been out of armour a lot).

 

[Trustful_Whale]

I only played the first campaign back in the day and don't remember a shred of the storyline. Judging the show by its own merits of what is being presented to me, I think it's so far pretty well executed and acted.
If it's completely ignoring the game's lore to do that, I can totally understand being upset as a fan, but I don't see what is so generic sci fi about this show if Halo itself also isn't. This isn't meant to be a dig at Halo franchise, just would like to know what makes the show so bad by that metric, because what I'm watching seems pretty cool atm.

I was far more interested in Moon Knight as an IP, but after watching the 2nd episode of both shows I much am preferring Halo right now.

As for John being out of armor, it would be pretty weird to just have him fully suited up all the time just to feel like the video game. Even when the main gimmick to The Mandalorian was the main character refusing to take off his helmet in front of others, this was a deep part of his character that he grows out of because having your lead character hidden 100% of the time makes for bad TV.
Under the context of the two episodes I think the only explanation for feeling uneasy about seeing John's face is because it wasn't the face you wanted, whatever that might be.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I don't mind his face being shown, but I do think his helmet should be on the majority of the time. John's personality and values breaking through the machine of Master Chief is subtle and takes several games for the cracks to form when he undergoes tremendous amounts of pressure. He's already there now. I don't like the Spartans already wearing MKVI armor but that's a minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

I do think the show still has a ton of potential because nothing has been done that is irreversibly terrible. It just seems like they aren't even going to do the games. The show runner said verbatim that they didn't look at or even talk about the games. Halo CE is such an awesome story with so many mysteries to be solved as you play through it - what is halo? what is it's purpose? what do the covenant want with it? what happens if it is fired? is guilty spark an ally? etc. The ideas that the humans are not only going to know what the ring was before finding it after the fall of reach, but maybe even having an idea of the covenant's need for it??? What are they going to do now just fly down there and fuckin blow it up and that's it? The covenant have a human that is ready, willing, and able to fire the ring for them? Guess there's no need or chance for drama and tension with scenes like Johnson being taken and them trying to force him to fire the ring.

I'm going to give it this entire first season to win me over. But come on

 

[Juxtapose]

... because having your lead character hidden 100% of the time makes for bad TV.

Bingo. It's a different media with a different presentation. Having a character you want your audience emotionally invested in be faceless for extended periods of time doesn't work in television, especially for new viewers who are not overly familiar with the franchise. It also does seem most people are upset simply because John doesn't look like how they envisioned, when in the expanded universe, much of which is official, he does spend a good bit of time out-of-armour and his face is very much just a normal guy's.

It just seems like they aren't even going to do the games.

They're not. They've said this. They're taking elements of the game's overall lore, but doing their own thing with it. So many things will be different. As a huge Halo fan who has been enjoying the games, novels, etc. since 2003, I don't have an issue with this since they've been upfront about this. In fact I'm interested to see what they do and where they take things, how things are different, and what surprises me. So far the show is pretty good on it's own merits (and Cortana has been great in her first episode, and looks really good).

It sounds to me like you're more looking for a nostalgia trip and a complete re-hash of the first game's story, and while there's nothing wrong with that, that's not what they're doing here. It's their own story set around Halo story elements, and it'll have it's own drama and twists.

 

[Juxtapose]

I finished my third playthrough of Halo Infinite and really enjoyed myself. I was actually nearly done "The Sequence" when I was able to buy an Xbox Series X! It was neat finishing my playthrough on the new console, as the texture quality improvements, lighting, shadow, particle effect, and frame rate improvements were all noticeable and really boosted the visual presentation.

For the whole playthrough, I played better than I did last time around, overall playing slower and smarter. I still feel the game's balance needs some tweaking, and vehicles need another look at (the Scorpion seems made out of tissue paper at times), but this is a really great game.

I had some frustrations with the checkpoint system though where sometimes, after saving and exiting the game and coming back to it later, I'd load up with an early weapon loadout. This happened right before the Hyperius and Tovarus fight. I was going in with a Battle Rifle and fully loaded Rocket Launcher and saved the game. Came back that evening to find myself with a Battle Rifle lower on ammo and a Shock Rifle. Not fun. At all.

I also found Harbinger most frustrating, but I believe my problem there is I have yet to properly experiment with many of the newer weapons. I've never used the Cindershot, Mangler, or Sidekick, for example. I did gain a better appreciation for the Skewer this time though, and found Chieftains easier to deal with.

Many of the bugs I encountered last playthrough did not occur either. There weren't a surplus of Spartan Cores, the Bassus intro cutscene played, and a few other odd bugs didn't repeat.

I'm looking forward to a fourth playthrough, and fully on my Xbox Series X.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I finished my third playthrough of Halo Infinite and really enjoyed myself. I was actually nearly done "The Sequence" when I was able to buy an Xbox Series X! It was neat finishing my playthrough on the new console, as the texture quality improvements, lighting, shadow, particle effect, and frame rate improvements were all noticeable and really boosted the visual presentation.

For the whole playthrough, I played better than I did last time around, overall playing slower and smarter. I still feel the game's balance needs some tweaking, and vehicles need another look at (the Scorpion seems made out of tissue paper at times), but this is a really great game.

I had some frustrations with the checkpoint system though where sometimes, after saving and exiting the game and coming back to it later, I'd load up with an early weapon loadout. This happened right before the Hyperius and Tovarus fight. I was going in with a Battle Rifle and fully loaded Rocket Launcher and saved the game. Came back that evening to find myself with a Battle Rifle lower on ammo and a Shock Rifle. Not fun. At all.

I also found Harbinger most frustrating, but I believe my problem there is I have yet to properly experiment with many of the newer weapons. I've never used the Cindershot, Mangler, or Sidekick, for example. I did gain a better appreciation for the Skewer this time though, and found Chieftains easier to deal with.

Many of the bugs I encountered last playthrough did not occur either. There weren't a surplus of Spartan Cores, the Bassus intro cutscene played, and a few other odd bugs didn't repeat.

I'm looking forward to a fourth playthrough, and fully on my Xbox Series X.

Gotta rush down the harbinger, constant pressure, for whatever reason the AI won’t teleport as much and hit you with the orbs. The hardest sections on legendary for me was Hyperius / Tovarus, banished hunters in the silent auditorium, and the road which you basically just have to cheese lol. And congrats on the XSX, I love the console. Itching to do another playthrough of infinite as well!

I wish the would drop season 2 though, the multiplayer is dry as fuck, they just killed their player base :/
Can win the player base back but fuck man we need more content.

 

[Juxtapose]

Gotta rush down the harbinger, constant pressure, for whatever reason the AI won’t teleport as much and hit you with the orbs. The hardest sections on legendary for me was Hyperius / Tovarus, banished hunters in the silent auditorium, and the road which you basically just have to cheese lol. And congrats on the XSX, I love the console. Itching to do another playthrough of infinite as well!

I wish the would drop season 2 though, the multiplayer is dry as fuck, they just killed their player base :/
Can win the player base back but fuck man we need more content.

Thanks, I'm really enjoying the console. Auto HDR is pretty neat for the games that don't have it natively. The colours do pop more! The much faster boot up and load times overall are also really nice.

For Harbinger, yeah, when I fight her again, I'm going to try a different tactic and also different positioning for her waves of Banishes. Apparently using the Cindershot, you can nix the Brute Chieftain Ultra very fast!

I don't play the game's multiplayer so I can't comment there.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Thanks, I'm really enjoying the console. Auto HDR is pretty neat for the games that don't have it natively. The colours do pop more! The much faster boot up and load times overall are also really nice.

For Harbinger, yeah, when I fight her again, I'm going to try a different tactic and also different positioning for her waves of Banishes. Apparently using the Cindershot, you can nix the Brute Chieftain Ultra very fast!

I don't play the game's multiplayer so I can't comment there.

I kept an arcane sentinal beam on me for the last several levels. Melted the chieftain, still a pain in the ass though. I waited outside one of the doors where the wave spawns, once it opened I threw grenades and killed everyone in there, lured the cheiftain in there with me (it wont close if you're in there, used the upgraded dash with camo to juke him and fucked him up. And since it wont close if youre in there I used the drop wall from the inside as cover to kill everyone else.

Otherwise you're kind of hoping for the best on Legendary, trial and error and hoping the AI doesn't fuck you randomly lol

 

[Juxtapose]

I kept an arcane sentinal beam on me for the last several levels. Melted the chieftain, still a pain in the ass though. I waited outside one of the doors where the wave spawns, once it opened I threw grenades and killed everyone in there, lured the cheiftain in there with me (it wont close if you're in there, used the upgraded dash with camo to juke him and fucked him up. And since it wont close if youre in there I used the drop wall from the inside as cover to kill everyone else.

Otherwise you're kind of hoping for the best on Legendary, trial and error and hoping the AI doesn't fuck you randomly lol

Can you fill up the Arcane Sentinel Beam at Hardlight Ammo Caches?