Halo Infinite - Campaign Overview

[Ambrose Burnside]

Keep forgetting Game Pass lets you preload games.

Downloaded it on Series X, then remembered it's also being released on PC, so now I have two copies.

Always prefer FPS on PC, but I'm at that stage of my PC's lifestyle where it will look better on Series X. Will give both a bash and see which one I prefer.

Microsoft has won this year.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Also, after seeing that Stalker 2 will be an insane 180GB, to see that this is less than 40GB is nice.

[Rorschach]

I need to get more storage all round. Thinking a 1TB NVMe drive for the PC just for Game Pass games (due to MS' shitty encryption) and that expansion drive for the Xbox. Agree MS has won this year. Been playing the hell out of Horizon 5. Gone off Halo MP as playing with randoms is the most fun but matches I have played were awesome. Excited the campaign is out this week.

[lestat]

Looks like a banger, going to be a good day tomorrow.

[Rorschach]

Isn't it the 9th for Australia because of the timezone difference?

Edit - 5am AET apparently if Google is to be believed.

[lestat]

PC benchmarks are out.








Plays best on team Red. *hugs* 6900xt.

[lestat]

Good tweak guide here from DF.

Strange with the latest AMD drivers and using vsync now I don't get the stutter Alex talks about in the video it's really smooth. It was an issue on older drivers, so I think it might be something NVidia need to fix in their driver.

[Peppermint Lounge]

It seems in a pretty poor state on PC right now. That's some crazy heavy performance given what the game looks like.

[flipswitch]

Those who played Halo 5 on PC, was it any different ?

[Peppermint Lounge]

Halo 5 unfortunately hasn't been ported to PC to date.

[flipswitch]

Oh, my bad. Thought it was!

[Rorschach]

I didn't mind Halo 5, just completely forgettable story. Looking forward to this launching tomorrow

[Ambrose Burnside]

It seems in a pretty poor state on PC right now. That's some crazy heavy performance given what the game looks like.

Sounds like all Xbox versions run great (including base Xbox One!) but the PC version needs a lot of work.

Consensus also seems to be average story (especially if you're new to the series (or behind the times like me)) but in gameplay terms it's one of the best fps of the last decade.

Might test out keyboard and mouse on my Series X for the first time here.

[t0mby]

Bit of a cluster fuck on the preloading side. Kept getting told to preload to play on launch Day but there was no where to initiate preload. Just a fluke this morning after work I checked for Halo updates and there was a 3.97gb one. After downloading you could load up the game and download the files through the Campaign option, which was slow in itself because everyone was doing it.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I'll hold off a while. Infinite's impending launch has got me back on MCC. I'd like to play at least up to Halo 3 before tackling Infinte. Finishing off Halo 2 Anniversary now which has been a bitter-sweet experience. Amazing remaster, still a disappointing game. Will write a review when I'm done. I've not played a minute of the revered Halo 3 so under these current Halo-hype conditions I'm again keen to see how it fares after the plot and tone directions set by Halo 2. By the time I'm done Infinte on PC should be in a better state.

[lestat]

Oh man, this game is incredible. It's far better than I was expecting. The open world rocks. Heaps to do and the gameplay and grappling hook is lit.

One tip for PC players, there is something funky going with the games frame limiter. If you have a freesync/gsync display, turn vsync off and set the max fps to a value your system can deliver 99% of the time, it will be butter smooth.

For me I set it to 100fps, game never dips below that and is smooth as, but if I used the default 144 setting, drops to 120fps felt stuttery, it's weird.

I fucking love this, sooo good.

[lestat]

The BR with M/K on these wide open world locations is too strong, I'm shredding dudes with headshots at range, I've been mostly keeping the BR on me and then picking up what ever other power weapon I can find.

The boss fights in this so far are also way better than previous games, the grapple hook gives you a lot of mobility, so you get these cool exciting fights where the boss is moving around quickly, you're flying around like spiderman, lobbing explosive barrels, picking new angles. great stuff.

This game gives me a lot of doom eternal vibes with the combat when you get the chained double barrel shotgun. Even the armor upgrade system and cores is very doom eternal.

[Rorschach]

I feel this is the Halo Bungie wanted to make on the Xbox OG long ago but were limited by the tech at the time. It basically feels like a reimaging of the first game - right down to the opening sequence on a space ship that then opens onto the Halo itself. Humans are weak again, having minimal support and technology, MC is on his own as the last Spartan, there is an interesting enemy in the Banished, the enemy AI is much improved and they've ditched the bloated Rampant Cortana/AI story beat (for the moment).

In creating an open world the way they have they've effectively created a superior Farcry experience - with coop eventually enabled, this will be incredible. I didn't mind Halo 4 and where the story was headed then but Halo 5 was a bloated snoozefest - I feel the extra time in development has really paid off. I have this downloaded on Xbox but finishing the campaign update on PC - feel it will really shine on a high refresh monitor.

[t0mby]

The enemy AI definitely improved once on Zeta but those first couple of levels I was tempted to switch from Heroic to Legendary as I found it a walk in the park. Feels more balanced now.

[Twiztid Elf]

Normal is laughably easy.

[unfnknblvbl]

there is an interesting enemy in the Banished

I could not disagree more. The Brutes were always the 'weakest' part of the Covenant lineup. Boring generic primates that are an obvious stand-in for human enemies.

I'm finding the game enjoyable enough to play. It's nice that the human AI is decent this time around.

But I'm struggling to give a shit about the story, and for me, the story is a huge reason to play Halo. 343 simply can't hold a candle to Bungie in that regard.

[Rorschach]

I don't know, coming from the Forerunners and hard light weapons of Halo 4 and 5, the Banished are orders of magnitude more interesting to fight. Brutes are just bullet sponges but good to see Elites are back and are a lot more difficult to dispatch. The story always revolved around MC and Cortana and not having finished the story yet can't judge it as yet. This is the best Halo since Reach, easily.

[t0mby]

I forgot to check after the campaign installed if there's a graphical/performance option as it was greyed out in the MP beta from memory. I'll check when I get home.

Edit: Nup, must be some PC setting in the menu, still greyed out.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I searched for a Halo 3 thread and there are a million of them. Made for some nostalgic reading. So much bitching and trolling back then.

Anyway I've started Halo 3 and it's awesome so far. Truth sounds like a growly bastard villian in this one vs Halo 2 where the great Michael Wincott gave us his best Wilfrid Hyde-White impression. The Arbiter is a good presence. Heroic difficulty is back to being a decent challenge that's fun rather than a slog. And it is good fun. Original assault rifle a welcome return and it feels a little buffed since CE, especially at range. Digging the Cortana flash interruptions. Can feel myself reengaging with the story which will help with the newer games including Infinte.

[unfnknblvbl]

I've not played a minute of the revered Halo 3

Are you serious?? We should play co-op!