Halo Infinite

[Rare White Ape]

I hope you guys are looking forward to this. The single player game is coming to Game Pass on PC and Xbox on day 1 and the multiplayer is free-to-play for anyone regardless of subscription status.

It’s a bit late to alert everyone but there was an open beta for Xbox players this weekend in specific timeslots. I managed to download it and play offline matches against bots late this evening, so if you want a go you’ll need to grab the Xbox Insider app and add it to your library from there.

I think this will feel exactly like classic Halo. The weapons are so meaty and the action is as frenetic as you remember it. Some maps are designed around a new gadget that works a bit like the grappling hook in Doom Eternal so you have wonderful opportunities to quickly scale balconies or sling yourself towards enemies for a quick shotgun to the face.

I played on my trusty old Xbox One S and it runs very well at 30 fps. This is the 2nd-lowest device in terms of horsepower that it will run on so having a stable frame rate is great, although obviously not as good as 60 or above. And as far as I can tell, it is rock solid. When it finally releases on pc it may be different with a varying array of specs, but I’ll easily be able to play at 120 fps and truly enjoy it.

I wonder how driving the Warthog will go with a mouse and KB though. I’ve not spent too much time playing any Halo on a pc. Via a controller I can quickly tell that the two vehicles I tried, the Warthog and the Banshee, feel slightly different to Halos past. The ‘Hog is tighter and the Banshee is looser. This could take some getting used to as we rewrite our muscle memories.

But all in all this could be a return to the glory days of getting 16 players on large maps and engaging in a whole load of nonsense.

[GreatScawt]

I played some both weekends of the recent flight on PC. I *really* enjoyed the Big Team Battle mode. Just fun, Halo chaos. It played really well and smooth at 1440p/max settings. No real standout issues for me. Just the menu was a bit of a clunker, but that's whatever.

There's a ton of hilarious clips from the beta going around, like this:
https://twitter.com/MintBlitz/status...VI-hQkWtg&s=19

[Rare White Ape]

Halo Infinite Multiplayer mode OUT NOW for all users for free on any platform except Sony and Nintendo ones.

[Blerpa]

Tried it for 5 minutes in tutorial mode: 21:9 1080p 75Hz with everything at Ultra. Rock solid and pleasant graphics.
My system is not a speed thunder (Ryzen 5 3600 and 2070 Super) but it ran well.
Also... I dunno about Halo 5 (haven't tried it ever) but finally you can zoom and shoot while still zooming with all the weapons in the game compared to older Halos.
I could not stand that if you zoomed and then shoot it would exit instantly zoom and you were for a millisecond a stupid sitting duck on the field... finally they changed that!

[Rare White Ape]

Good to hear Blerps. I’ve had the download running while I slept so I’ll try it today.

I remember the zoom being weapon-dependent. The assault rifle, scoped pistol and sniper rifle let you shoot while zoomed, but the battle rifle, regular pistol, and shotgun didn’t. I think the suit had its own binoculars for reconnaissance purposes.

[Blerpa]

Oh god, I hope I've tried the right weapons then! LOL

[Rare White Ape]

I've now played a nice little chunk of the Halo Infinite campaign and I really like it!

It takes about 2-3 hours of gameplay to finally get onto Zeta Halo and enjoy the open-worldyness, but those 2-3 hours are spot-on. The combat is great and each enemy behaves exactly as they did before, even down to classic grunt one-liners about being brave then instantly running away when you fire a few rounds at them. However there's a different vibe with the background music and cutscenes. It seems a little more serious, and a little less chill than the Bungie Halos.

But even so, the pacing, where the combat intensifies and where it slows down and lets you catch your breath for a few minutes, is just like classic Halo. Nothing better than to clear the last enemy, their weapon clatters to the ground and suddenly the room is quiet, and you realise your shield alarm has been beeping for 20 seconds when it goes 'bwoooooop' and fills up again.

I've only done the first open world bit, a sunlit valley with wrecked hulk of a crashed UNSC frigate looming on a high clifftop just above you. It's like your usual arena-sized Halo combat zone with enemy placement and trodden paths asking you to move forward and up onto a landing platform. It is worth exploring here, even before you take on the obvious enemies in front of you. One might even find a plasma sword right there in the opening throes of the game if their ears are peeled enough to find the breadcrumb trail that leads to it. But this isn't as open or vast as the very first introduction to a Halo landscape back when Halo: CE launched. Instead of being given a Warthog to fang off to the next bit with a group of dudes you will be asked to climb into a Pelican and be whisked away by air to the next waypoint. That's a slight disappointment but one I am sure will allow players to get to grips with things before being too overwhelmed.

One thing that will definitely be a game changer is the grapple shot. Unlike multiplayer, you get unlimited uses of this device but you just have to wait for it to recharge, which is thankfully quite quick. I can predict that this will open up the possibility of skilled players to do some amazing stuff in speedruns and with tricks (assuming the developer is worthy enough to build such things into their game) and for the more humble players among us to just have fun exploring hard-to-reach areas now that we can launch ourselves onto higher platforms. It also makes some parts of combat so satisfying. You can rip yourself towards enemies and finish them with a brutal melee attack, or fly from cover to cover, or retrieve objects like weapons and explosive barrels, and the one-two takedown of jackals where you knock their shield back and follow up with a quick burst of rifle kinda makes you feel sorry for them!

This is good so far. Really good. I can't wait to be pulled deeper into it.

[Yobbo NZ]

Try it on legendary, took around 2 hours to finally beat Tremonius his armour was insane.
The next one in "The Tower" didn't take long at all.
I'm really liking the open world, go explore wherever you want, then go do a story mission thing.

[Blerpa]

I've now played a nice little chunk of the Halo Infinite campaign and I really like it!

It takes about 2-3 hours of gameplay to finally get onto Zeta Halo and enjoy the open-worldyness, but those 2-3 hours are spot-on. The combat is great and each enemy behaves exactly as they did before, even down to classic grunt one-liners about being brave then instantly running away when you fire a few rounds at them. However there's a different vibe with the background music and cutscenes. It seems a little more serious, and a little less chill than the Bungie Halos.

But even so, the pacing, where the combat intensifies and where it slows down and lets you catch your breath for a few minutes, is just like classic Halo. Nothing better than to clear the last enemy, their weapon clatters to the ground and suddenly the room is quiet, and you realise your shield alarm has been beeping for 20 seconds when it goes 'bwoooooop' and fills up again.

I've only done the first open world bit, a sunlit valley with wrecked hulk of a crashed UNSC frigate looming on a high clifftop just above you. It's like your usual arena-sized Halo combat zone with enemy placement and trodden paths asking you to move forward and up onto a landing platform. It is worth exploring here, even before you take on the obvious enemies in front of you. One might even find a plasma sword right there in the opening throes of the game if their ears are peeled enough to find the breadcrumb trail that leads to it. But this isn't as open or vast as the very first introduction to a Halo landscape back when Halo: CE launched. Instead of being given a Warthog to fang off to the next bit with a group of dudes you will be asked to climb into a Pelican and be whisked away by air to the next waypoint. That's a slight disappointment but one I am sure will allow players to get to grips with things before being too overwhelmed.

One thing that will definitely be a game changer is the grapple shot. Unlike multiplayer, you get unlimited uses of this device but you just have to wait for it to recharge, which is thankfully quite quick. I can predict that this will open up the possibility of skilled players to do some amazing stuff in speedruns and with tricks (assuming the developer is worthy enough to build such things into their game) and for the more humble players among us to just have fun exploring hard-to-reach areas now that we can launch ourselves onto higher platforms. It also makes some parts of combat so satisfying. You can rip yourself towards enemies and finish them with a brutal melee attack, or fly from cover to cover, or retrieve objects like weapons and explosive barrels, and the one-two takedown of jackals where you knock their shield back and follow up with a quick burst of rifle kinda makes you feel sorry for them!

This is good so far. Really good. I can't wait to be pulled deeper into it.

I played the original Halo CE on PC and loved it. Finished two times in a row.
I installed Halo Infinite by Gamepass on my PC and it seems smooth as hell: just watched the intro and set the options, seems rock solid at 75 fps (my monitor is a 75Hz freesync one) with everything at max.
The 3D engine and textures look very concrete, essential and functional, a bit like IDsoftware engines, I like it a lot.
It has been quite a long time (Terminator Resistance) since I played a proper single player FPS campaign... I'm pumped about it!

[Rare White Ape]

"Step aside soldier."

"What's up Chief?"

"This:"