Halo MCC/Infinite/general Griefing thread - Six months, two maps, no refunds

[Miller]

Sucks for you, nerd.

I guess. I might come back once they add all those missing basic PC features.

They should've implemented a Battle Pass system for Infinite's monetization.

Isn't that what they're going to do? Perhaps it's the MW 2019 system where there's the Battle Pass and the microtransactions (bundles of weapon skins, emblems, playercards).

 

[Pulpanator]

Can't wait for infinite to be a bare bones open world shooter, I wonder why they delayed it what the fuck were they doing for the past 5 years? Smoking crack and eating pizza?

 

[Endu]

I wonder why they delayed it what the fuck were they doing for the past 5 years? Smoking crack and eating pizza?

My simple answer is to just look at the dev team for 343:

I can't find a picture of the old Bungie dev team, but you can imagine who they were - just a bunch of nerds who wanted to make fun games. As much of a meme answer as this is, 343 is more focused on hiring a diverse cast of people and getting as many unique "voices" as possible, at the cost of hiring people that know what the hell they're doing.
Just think about the marketing department they have, if one even exists. The only news we've gotten on the game post-demo is through grocery stores and leaked toys, which is a tremendous failure on their part. Bungie would have a shit ton of ViDocs, weekly updates and most likely a multiplayer demo in the works by now, and their games were never delayed afaik. It would be so easy to just throw the community a bone once and awhile and explain a new weapon or piece of equipment but they're completely radio silent.

I also talked to someone who apparently knows some inside information on 343 and allegedly the first few years of Infinite's development were totally fucked.

As in, apparently for the first few years the game was developed as a hero shooter ala Overwatch, due to the popularity of the genre at the time. This was until one of their developers (I forgot his name) was fired and they had to basically start from the ground-up. I don't believe this 100%, but it falls inline with 343's recent fascination with chasing trends, and why the game looked half-baked for the demo.

 

[Pulpanator]

Thanks for the heads up, don't really bother keeping up with 343 after I saw that shitty making of halo 4 video and other stupid shit they have said/done over the years.

 

[heyitsmike]

Halo is like The Simpsons: it was revolutionary in its prime, but by now its been meh for longer than it was good.

 

[JongleJingle]

...

Marathon was better.

 

[Gravemind]

...

Marathon was better.

I miss Marathon.

 

[Endu]

...

Marathon was better.

That's why I'll always wear the Security helmets in 3 and Reach, you gotta represent.

 

[Gravemind]

That's why I'll always wear the Security helmets in 3 and Reach, you gotta represent.

Security helmet + Eternal armor effect is the real representing, I feel.

 

[Miller]

I wonder why they delayed it what the fuck were they doing for the past 5 years?

343i and Halo is like Disney/LF with Star Wars. The people in charge have other priorities than making what people want to watch or play.

What I don't understand is why did they bring the enemies from Halo Wars 2? Couldn't they let Halo Wars become its own franchise within the Halo brand?
I know they (and most players) want to forget that Halo 5 happened but come on, when your game ends on a cliffhanger with the Infinity on the run as Cortana and her AI Guardians are taking over the galaxy, YOU HAVE TO FINISH THE STORY. It was a shitty story but they have to finish it. No audio files to pick up on the open world map, no collectible data pad shit either. Doing a time jump while acting like it's a soft reboot is really disgusting.
I liked Halo 4, the setting, the Infinity, the new characters, but 343i has no vision for Halo and refuse to stick with what they have. They remind me of Bioware with Mass Effect, where instead of fixing the gameplay and features based on the players/fans feedback, they just scrap everything and make something else for the next game.
Like I said in a previous post, I really hope that Joe Staten can save that shit show.

 

[The Doom Slayer]

They're bringing in the Banished because they dealt with the Covenant remnant leader, Jul 'Mdama, in the absolute shittiest and most anticlimactic way possible - killing him in the first mission of Halo 5... and in a fucking cutscene, just to add insult to injury. We also defeated the Covenant (again) in Halo 5.

People fucking hate the Prometheans and the Created so they wouldn't be able to carry an entire game.

Enter Halo Wars 2 and the Banished. People actually reacted to them pretty well, so it seems 343 decided to sideline whatever they were doing and bring them in instead. Except 343 did what 343 does best - they're already in the process of ruining them, with those laughable new graphics/designs and that baffling speech that Brute leader guy screamed into the camera at the end of Infinite's demo. So I have no doubt the Banished will also get sidelined in favor of some other villain in the next game... if there even is a next game.

 

[Gravemind]

I personally like the idea of the Banished sweeping in and scooping up the remnants of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant while giving the biggest middle finger they can to the Created/Prometheans if just because that falls perfectly in line with Atriox's MO.

I also like the idea of there being this three-way conflict between the remnants of the UNSC (united in the Infinity), the Created, and the Banished.

But what I would've REALLY liked is to have been there right in the middle of the chaos while it's happening instead of being flung into some far future/timeline where the Banished seems to have already won or whatever the hell the premise of Infinite is supposed to be. Because Lord forbid 343 writes a halfway competent story.

 

[The Doom Slayer]

It reminds me of how Bioware shat the bed so hard with the ME3 ending that they proceeded to run as far away as possible from it by setting Andromeda hundreds of years in the future and in a whole other galaxy. And look how THAT turned out.

A lot of it is because, like I said, people reacted to the Created even more negatively than they did with the Didact. The concept had some potential, but it was executed in the absolute worst way possible in Halo 5. Cortana just turned evil for basically no reason - and they COULD have used the obvious explanation that it was due to rampancy and the Gravemind fucking with her between Halo 2 and 3, but instead they quadrupled down on her being completely normal in interviews. Plus there's the fact that yet another AI uprising story just isn't that interesting when there's so much more you could be doing in the Halo universe. From what I've heard they do a few cool things with the Created in the new Master Chief book, but by now it's far too late to get people interested in them.

But there's rumors Halo 5 had story rewrites itself, and that the original plan was for Halsey to be the main villain with the Librarian and a revived Didact as her lackeys - not that it would have been any better, as Halsey turning evil is just as fucking retarded as Cortana doing it, if not more so.

 

[heyitsmike]

I kinda think the obsession with Halo lore and the story is overblown. Actually, I think the obsession with all game stories is overblown.

But maybe that's because I don't really care about the stories and like my action and shooting games gonzo: you are the good guys, those are the bad guys, you kill them. I don't really care how we got to this moment or where we're going after, just tell me who to kill and let me do it as creatively as my depravity will lead me.

 

[JongleJingle]

Man, Cortana turning evil was such a gut punch for me. Here it was, one of my favorite "voices in my head" type characters in gaming, turned into SkyNet-Lite because reasons. They could have linked it to Rampancy and the time with the Gravemind like @The Doom Slayer said, but in the end it's because "why not lol".

That seems to be a recurring theme with 343 really; they do things because why not lol. Prometheans? Sure why not lol. The whole deal with Jul'Mdama getting killed in the first fucking cutscene of Halo 5? Why not lol. The Created? Why not lol. They just DO stuff without thinking it through, like a 5 year old putting dinosaurs in the wild west or cyborgs in the medieval age because THAT'S COOL.

Thing is, none of those things I just listed were cool (The dinosaurs and cyborgs thing is cool tho, who wouldn't like that). It's all lazy, heat of the moment, rushed bullshit that just doesn't fit with how Halo works. If it were up to me, make Halo 4 about trying to find the Chief after a new threat (NOT PROMETHEANS) starts wrecking the Human/Covie alliances shit. Then with Halo 5 they finally find the big boy, and start working on a way to stop the New Baddies TM. By Halo Infinite/6, get the crew to make the big push against the enemy, maybe have a character death or two here and there, and end the new trilogy with a good mixture of old and new; none of this Star Warsy "KILL ALL THE OLD CHARACTERS AND REPLACE THEM WITH WOKE/TRASH ALTERNATIVES" shit they seem to be going for.

Honest to god I need a new Marathon game that shit would just be so fuckin' cash

 

[Endu]

I kinda think the obsession with Halo lore and the story is overblown. Actually, I think the obsession with all game stories is overblown.

But maybe that's because I don't really care about the stories and like my action and shooting games gonzo: you are the good guys, those are the bad guys, you kill them. I don't really care how we got to this moment or where we're going after, just tell me who to kill and let me do it as creatively as my depravity will lead me.

I completely agree. I think a lot of new Halo fans try to extend these feelings to the Chief, too.

Master Chief was never supposed to be a deep character (Limited dialogue in cutscenes, never speaking in-game, etc.) so the player can more easily identify with him. The Halo series wasn't about his character development or a crazy deep story that blows your mind, it's the sandbox and the tools the devs give you to get from Point A to Point B.

Halo 4 just doesn't have that Halo "feeling" to it. Exploring the relationship between Chief and Cortana during her rampancy is an interesting concept on paper, but they completely ruined Cortana and made Chief all depressed and mopey. Not to mention that none of the new characters even come close to what we had before (Not even Lasky, fuck Lasky for giving Chief a platform to be a little bitch at the end of Halo 4).

 

[The Doom Slayer]

one of this Star Warsy "KILL ALL THE OLD CHARACTERS AND REPLACE THEM WITH WOKE/TRASH ALTERNATIVES" shit they seem to be going for.

Thing is though that unlike the petulant shitbags at nu-Lucasfilm, 343 actually does appear to be pulling back on that somewhat. Like, Osiris hasn't even been mentioned once in relation to Infinite; the most we've had is one of the Brute baddies having what appears to be Locke's helmet mounted on his arm (which implies he got his ass kicked or even outright killed) and Dare mentioning her husband (Buck) working in Orisis once in the aforementioned new Master Chief book. That's really about it. The rest of their marketing has been about how amazing it'll be to play as the Chief in this game... even though we've done that multiple times over already, but whatever.

It's just another example of 343's flagrant flip-flopping. I've noticed they tend to just axe stuff without much thought when people are negative towards it. People didn't like Didact? Gone. People didn't care about Jul 'Mdama because of how shit Spartan Ops was? Gone. People don't like the Prometheans and Skynet Cortana plot? Gone. People didn't like Osiris? Gone. And I've always thought Osiris had potential, but like pretty much everything else in Halo 5 all that potential was flushed down the toilet and they were presented as being little more than just generic soldiers.

 

[Snekposter]

Master Chief was never supposed to be a deep character (Limited dialogue in cutscenes, never speaking in-game, etc.) so the player can more easily identify with him. The Halo series wasn't about his character development or a crazy deep story that blows your mind, it's the sandbox and the tools the devs give you to get from Point A to Point B.

That's true, but he does grow and develop over the games. In Halo 1 he's pure business at the start, then later on as Cortana starts babbling about algorithms he hits his helmet to make her shut up, then at the start of Halo 2 he's making semi-jokes about cameras and Covenant bombs., and he really does change and develop over the story. Him going after Cortana in Gravemind only makes sense if he sees her as a fellow soldier-in-arms and not just an AI that's spent time inside his head, and other small things like Johnson show that he's definitely humanized over the course of events. Especially when you compare Johnson to Captain Keyes.

 

[Gravemind]

In Halo 1 he's pure business at the start, then later on as Cortana starts babbling about algorithms he hits his helmet to make her shut up

I do believe that was mostly because she teleported him upside-down into the Truth & Reconciliation. Kinda one of those "Get your shit together" type moments.

 

[Snekposter]

She did, and then she started thinking out loud about how to not do that next time.