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Halo Infinite & Its Disappointing Reveal & Overall Graphical Quality

Grinchy

Banned
Just a few weeks ago, some were believing a rumor about how it'd be 4K/120fps. Kinda funny to read through now.

The thread was so hopeful. I never could have believed that MS could be screwing up the flagship product so badly. I didn't think it'd be 120fps, but I assumed they had actually spent years making it as much of a next-gen game as they could. Instead, it looks like they started over from scratch not too long ago.
 

aries_71

Junior Member
you've got to be joking with valhalla is looking bad or watch dogs legion. Not only did both games look quite good(not exactly next gen, but current gen visuals polished to the brim) both games had solid gameplay reveals. So please stahp!
You miss the whole point of the post. For next gen, they really don’t look too hot. That is until you see Halo Infinity...
 

Starfield

Member
You're right, high-profile multi-million dollars projects can often shift to fix several graphical issues in a few months, under tight deadlines, during a pandemic. It's especially easy when you're shipping on 5 SKUs + PC.
Enhancing visuals isn't a magical tricky and overly complicated system like you may believe so. Creating the world's, art, assets, code and bugfixing is.
 
I think people are jumping too early to conclusions. It's still months away and games do improve overall until release
Maybe but the gam is coming out in 4 month, including time for it become gold and printed. Honestly right now Anthem looked better. Gameplay is probably perfect but as a head showpiece it need to be impressive.
 

Tulipanzo

Member
Enhancing visuals isn't a magical tricky and overly complicated system like you may believe so. Creating the world's, art, assets, code and bugfixing is.
Yeah, and they still need to finish art, assets, code, bugfixing and world, ON TOP of fixing obvious graphical shortcomings.

You can choose to ignore speculation you don't like, but notice how people had correctly predicted cross-gen games would look disappointing long before this show.
Sure, Infinite could be massively reworked and fixed in a few short months, but it's much more likely this is very close to final product, just looking at the timeline.
 

Riven326

Banned
So... that's it? I mean, I just expected it to look like a true generational leap. This looks like Halo 5 with the CE art style. I understand it's a work in progress, but damn. I'm more impressed with a few of the PS4 games.

I've been a Halo fan since 2002. It was the reason I got the Xbox over the PS2. I just expected more from Infinite, given the amount of time it's been in development and because of that in-engine tech demo they released a while back. That was very impressive. But this? This looks like it's been downgraded Ubisoft style.
 
So... that's it? I mean, I just expected it to look like a true generational leap. This looks like Halo 5 with the CE art style. I understand it's a work in progress, but damn. I'm more impressed with a few of the PS4 games.

I've been a Halo fan since 2002. It was the reason I got the Xbox over the PS2. I just expected more from Infinite, given the amount of time it's been in development and because of that in-engine tech demo they released a while back. That was very impressive. But this? This looks like it's been downgraded Ubisoft style.
As bad as original watchdog and dark souls 2 lol?
 

Riven326

Banned
As bad as original watchdog and dark souls 2 lol?
No, not that bad. But This is still pretty bad. That tech demo was beautiful. This is so far away from that. And this is their flagship IP. I just want to know what's going on with 343. Infinite has been in dev for years now.
 

Starfield

Member
Yeah, and they still need to finish art, assets, code, bugfixing and world, ON TOP of fixing obvious graphical shortcomings.

You can choose to ignore speculation you don't like, but notice how people had correctly predicted cross-gen games would look disappointing long before this show.
Sure, Infinite could be massively reworked and fixed in a few short months, but it's much more likely this is very close to final product, just looking at the timeline.
Source on that?
 
Stuff I noticed. Kinda being a bit more picky mainly because I Love Halo and I'm tired of half assed games from 343

- (removed as it was false)

- Warthog at one point hits a suicidal grunt and does not do shit to the warthog. (Older Halo games that warthog would have blown up or went flying with damage)

- Pop in, pop in, pop in, pop in, pop in, pop in

- Same adaptive resolution that halo 4 and 5 had. (I cant remember what 343 called this but I have always hated it since it was implemented to improve performance. (I mainly noticed this on distance stuff and compared to other gameplay of next gen IE Ratchet and Clank which as a stand alone game even on the PS4 is ripping Halo Infine a new one right now. Killzone and Crysis look better. Those were the games I expected this to compete with. Hell Halo Reach looks better in the long run.

- Low quality textures (Plastic looking textures both at distant and close up) I can point out three trees within a close to far distance and not one looks remotely good unless viewed from like 10 Feet away. Trees at a distance being looked at with a DMR on Forge World look a million times better than a tree 30 - feet away.

- The shadows (this depended on ground texture but for the most part despite the sun being lowish representing like dusk or dawn the shadows from objects and enemies were really either faint or non existent) I saw maybe 3 really good shadow implementations. Since everything is plastic and washed out looking I could not really tell.

- (removed after seeing the 4k trailer)

- Very scripted AI (Definitely open world loke AI behavior) But thank god they brought back the OG voices. grunts sound like grunts again. Things move oddly too.

- Plasma batteries once exploded leave shrapnel everywhere....... It floats.

- World is extremely bland and washed out (open world issue I suppose but a poor excuse)

- Volumetric clouds? . That shit in the distance seemed like a plain background even. What could have been clouds on or around the vistas were so low quality that I mistook them for being blurry distant ground textures.

- Upon starting the demo you can see a clear transistion from when game goes from CGI to the actual game.

- In general explosion effects are not very detailed or life like.

- No blood on the ground

- One occurrence of an enemy phasing in a rock.

- Transistion from gameplay to cutscene at the end that actually looks worse somehow.

- The good ol press da button animation to load a sequence 343 has been doing since halo 4.

Biggest budget ever? Mediocre game coming. Its going to go the game as a service route I guarantee it. There is something more tied into this that they have been focusing on. There is no reason for a game with this budget to look this bad. The gameplay is good, but boring. Halo 1, 2, 3, ODST and even Reach can be replayed endlessly and still feel fresh. Halo Infinite was over within the first minute they started shooting.

Then the ending rundown with Chris Lee I swear paints the picture of 'Hi we are 343 Industries and we don't want to do this anymore' It literally compiled the graphically worse parts of the demo... Like right in your face the pop in, the map cut off, the low quality textures. At the same time Chris Lee is elevating the game clear up to Everest standards.

All I can say is that the game comes out in November so good luck.
 
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iconmaster

Banned
Now that I'm over the letdown and no longer expecting Infinite to be the big graphical showcase for Microsoft's "most powerful console ever," I'm better able to see the game for what I think it's trying to be: a return to older Halo art direction and gameplay, with some spit polish applied for the 4K era. Watching the campaign footage again with those expectations, it seems like it's probably enough to satisfy franchise fans. It definitely looks like Halo; just not a strikingly next-gen Halo.
 

jakinov

Member
Have to disagree here. We are talking about Microsofts biggest IP and system seller. The whole marketing is focused on the technological jump and how it is the most powerful console ever.

You can´t stress these talking points over and over, hype people up with ridiculous claims (Phil after Sonys event), and then only show ONE!!! fucking gameplay demo that is so underwhelming as yesterday's Halo presentation.

Hell, even Ghost of Tsushima looks and feels more alive than the world they showed yesterday! Bad character models, flat-looking textures, no particle effects, no wind or any kind of movement in the vegetation, etc. This is supposed to be the jaw-dropper that makes Phil Spencer comfortable? Come on...

Just from a marketing perspective this feels like a nightmare scenario. Sony is laughing.
Of the actual console. Not that every game is going to be both artistically amazing and break boundaries. It's their biggest IP not their best looker and never was. It's also ultimately an Xbox One game that's also coming to Xbox Series X (with upgrades); and not an Xbox Series X game downgraded to work on Xbox One. The badge they plan on shoving on all these games have a big emphasis on frame rates, resolution, load times, etc. Not that you should expect a completely different game between the Xbox One and Xbox Series X version that really shows the hardware.

Companies say positive things about their products and hype up their announcements and events. Nothing new. They also don't go out of their way to do it. You and I are gaming enthusiasts so we see most of the headlines and whenever Phil or whoever does an interview what people do is they create sensationalized articles as if sentences that people said is some big talking point or messaging for all fans. Saying how proud and how great what you have is, is just regular business talk.

From an artistic level, Ghosts of Tsushima looks better IMO too. I think the game looks fine for a current gen game that's basically just going to be 4k 60fps on next-gen with other improvements. They even said they won't plan on supporting extra things like RT til after launch.

I don't think it's a nightmare. Not everyone is thinking of the next Halo game and expecting it to break graphics boundaries for all games (especially as essentially an upgraded current-gen game) . Most people probably aren't expecting them to be better than Naughty Dog or Rockstar in terms of perceptible visual quality. They just want a better Halo game and expect graphical improvement. They are much better than Halo 5 IMO
 

Riven326

Banned
All of that looks in-engine too. So... Something went really wrong with the gameplay.
Yeah, it was supposed to be an in-engine demo of the capabilities of this new engine and a glimpse into what Infinite was going to look like on Series X.

Maybe it was just another bullshit re h demo. Wouldn't be the first time. 4k/60Hz is a very tall order for anything other than indie titles.
 
Yeah, it was supposed to be an in-engine demo of the capabilities of this new engine and a glimpse into what Infinite was going to look like on Series X.

Maybe it was just another bullshit re h demo. Wouldn't be the first time. 4k/60Hz is a very tall order for anything other than indie titles.
Forza 7 is 4k/60 fps
 

Riven326

Banned
Forza 7 is 4k/60 fps
I have no doubt. But it's a racing game. It's not exactly pushing the envelope in anyway. That being said, Gears 4 and 5 are also 4k/60. All the Halo games are now as well. It's great for gameplay. Poor for pushing high end graphics.

If you're trying to downplay just how hard it is to run games at 4k/60Hz, you're wasting your time. Go build a pc that can do that. It costs a hell of a lot. No console is going to be able to do that while also delivering graphics on par with Sony's 30Hz heavy hitters. It's not going to happen.
 

Romulus

Member
So... that's it? I mean, I just expected it to look like a true generational leap. This looks like Halo 5 with the CE art style. I understand it's a work in progress, but damn. I'm more impressed with a few of the PS4 games.

I've been a Halo fan since 2002. It was the reason I got the Xbox over the PS2. I just expected more from Infinite, given the amount of time it's been in development and because of that in-engine tech demo they released a while back. That was very impressive. But this? This looks like it's been downgraded Ubisoft style.

I remember too. The OG Xbox type leap is just a thing of the past. It was a weird console with lots of power over the competition and the games backed it up. Doubt we'll ever see things like that again. Halo's bump mapping, huge scale worlds, intelligent AI, all in split-screen coming from Ps2 felt like a new generation within a generation.
 

RPS37

Member
Was that video that everyone is posting even supposed to be a Series X game?
At that point, was it just an Xbox One game.
I maybe misremembering.
 
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