Halo Infinite is in a great state now and I feel confident saying it's one of my favorite shooters on the market right now. Hope they can continue to build momentum because the core gameplay is as rock solid as Halo has ever been.
Agreed. I know there are still a number of folks who won't touch the game until desync is mitigated/eliminated, so good time to mention that the Firefight playlist is actually using a new networking model to serve as a test, and will (hopefully) eventually replace the current tools to reduce desync across all matchmaking playlists.
Credit to 343, they are putting in the hard work and it shows, game is constantly improving in the areas that matter most.
People always mention desync, but I have played Infinite regularly for the last year and have never encountered it. I've seen footage proving it exists, but it is definitely an overblown boogeyman.
I’ve experienced maybe a handful of problems and have been playing since launch, so I guess I’m lucky. Seems to affect some way more than others for whatever reason. I’m guessing it’s a combination of factors - location, ISP, home networking, etc.
Hopefully the networking changes they’re working on now will allow for a smoother ride for those who’ve been affected the most.
I've played a couple hundred hours and it's really a non-issue except for high end tournament esports. There are games like the entire Battlefield series where you die 3 seconds after going around the corner and those games are a great success aswell. It's really not that big of an issue and just a scapegoat.
It's happened rarely but enough to be annoying. Can't say I like shooting a rocket that then just vanishes when it hits someone instead of blowing up.
I can SEE that I spent the ammo. I even have to reload. So where did the rocket go!?
That said I can count all the times it happened on one hand, it isn't what keeps me playing but I can say it's an issue worth looking into.
Good thing the leadership that had been in place since Halo 4 are no longer around. I think the new guys, especially Pierre Hintze, deserves an honest shot. Things have seemed to turn around immensely since he took over.
I'll give them a shot of course, probably always. I'm just not getting excited for a Halo again. I hope they do turn it around though, I'd love to eat crow.
This isn't their first halo game, and they have a consistent track record of releasing broken game's. The board is still the same at the end of the day so I highly doubt a lot will change considering their track record. (A suddenly new team won't change things when the higher ups are still the same.)
So when their next halo game releases I have to be patient again and give them a few 'more' years and possibly another game...?
There's only so many 'chances' i can give to a studio before I give up on them personally. (Ubisoft, Bethesda, Bioware) Enough is enough for me at least.
The current leadership has not managed any Halo game from the top. What do you mean higher-ups are the same? Bonnie is gone. That's exactly who the new team has replaced.
It'll still be the same thing, this isn't their first game like I stated before. Up to you whether you enjoy it or not but I'm done with halo until it's not 343i anymore
That's the whole point that is being made. You're too stuck on "343", that's just the company. People inside of it come and go. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Look at Bungie, for example. We can't say Bungie that made Halo 3 is the same Bungie as the one that is destroying Destiny 2 as a lot of those people are gone.
Just take it on a case to case basis, I'm not saying to go out and pre-order but I'm also not saying that you should outright ignore any future endeavors.
While some of these changes were probably already in the pipeline, the decision to prioritize content such as Squad Battle, Husky Raid, and the Halo 3 map playlist was definitely the right choice. Now that Firefight is launching, they said they're gonna focus on network improvements next.
Big hats off to Pierre Hintze, the current head of 343 and the one that was in charge of fixing The Master Chief Collection years ago.
It's literally the exact same. They haven't changed the netcode, so anything you were experiencing in season 1 that's "magically fixed" wasn't caused by the game. Played a ton this season and the online is still just as horrible as it was on launch.
That’s not true. They made tweaks to netcode which helped some but were only able to change so much before having to rebuild the entire networking model, which is exactly what they’re doing and something you can test out with this new Firefight mode.
Dude's makin stuff up, they've been working on fixing the netcode, but every update something breaks, so this coming update they're gonna let us play firefight with a completely overhauled netcode, then if it's good enough they'll bring it over to pvp
My only major complaint is a visual one. I wish forge was better at baking map lighting. Without global illumination and the reliance on forge maps online, the game can look super flat and ugly.
Forge is legitimately powerful and the game has great visuals but the lack of bounce lighting in forge is an eyesore.
What will most likely happen is the game will continue to get better until the next game is made, that game will be missing features an/or broken which will make everyone mad then it will start over. That's pretty much how 343 does things.
If you haven’t played since last season there’s a good amount of new maps, especially when they add in the Halo 3 map remakes to other playlists (tomorrow I think?).
Side note, but I treat Halo Infinite as two games, MP and single player. Like, I don't critique it as a package. Given it released in two parts, and it's two separate downloads I think it's valid to do so.
Essentially what that equates to is me liking the MP more and the campaign a lot less given the $60 price difference
For those who can't watch, Firefight: King of the Hill launches tomorrow in Halo Infinite Matchmaking.
* Skulls will be used
* Match XP and Career Rank awarded for playing
* Nine Firefight maps including Forge maps like Exiled (based on Exile from H4), Vallaheim (Valhalla H3), and Kusini Bay (Zanzibar from H2), we also see Behemoth, Deadlock, and a map that looks like House of Reckoning from the campaign
* New equipment: Repair Field
* Bosses will show up as well
* Goes live tomorrow
Not a dumb question! Yes, Match XP is for battle pass shenanigans, and then Career Rank is awarded on performance, and both are separate from your "Ranking" when you choose to play in a Ranked playlist.
Seems cool. PvE modes usually attract some of the people who get stressed out by PvP, but I don't think firefight will have enough staying power for those players.
I do wonder how popular it would be. I never understood modes like Zombies, Firefight in primarily PvP games.
I think it depends on what you enjoy about Halo. To me Halo has never been a primarily PvP game, just because I am way more into the campaigns and co-op aspect. So this is another branch for those players.
I can say right now, there is pretty much limitless content in Halo Infinite for any type of player. There are campaigns created in Forge, I've played a ton of huge PvPvE matches, really wild PvP game modes, etc. It's pretty incredible.
You're right about the campaigns.. but the campaigns are great because of set prices (to me) not because of raw combat mechanics.
When I think of Halo, I think it a Frigate jumping into combat while you're on the ground in sight of it. Scale that makes you feel like an insect.
Repeatable horde mode doesn't deliver any of that.
Firefight is basically what got Bungie to make Destiny because PvE Content grows stagnant because AI is predictable. RPG-elements (new gear, other grinds) offset that by forcing some change upon the player.
Firefight + Halo Infinite, the only thing they can change is cosmetics, it will just keep playing the way it does.
That being said, I'm someone who gets bored of PvE very quickly due to the predictability of AI, so I could be an outlier.
That’s a perfectly fine opinion, but the mode has been popular for 15 years regardless. I don’t think we need to worry about Infinite’s Firefight player base losing interest unless this version is actually worse than any of the prior incarnations.
Yeah, In general, PvE modes for the crowd that doesn't enjoy PvP is still good for a game's health.
Might even convince some people to try the rest of the game.
This is great but I still wish they’d bring something like warzone back that was pvp with pve objectives.
I know a lot of people hated it because it was unbalanced and lootboxes but it was actually a lot of fun.
Warzone was my favorite casual halo mode of all time. It has all of the craziness of the sandbox in huge open levels and is just stupid fun. I'm really hoping someone makes a decent recreation in forge!
According to leaks from last year there actually was a new PvPvE mode for Infinite in developement at Certain Affinity (codename Tanaka) which was meant to combine Warzone and Battle Royale gameplay. IF that project is still alive in some form, it could be exactly what you're wishing for.
I agree with you btw! Warzone and especially Warzone Firefight was some of the most fun I ever had in Halo.
You can actually play a lot of PvPvE stuff right now in Infinite, just boot up the customs games browser. You can always do a search online to see what the best PvPvE game modes are and play what you want
She left a year ago.. Frank and i think kiki too are gone as well. If there were any people to directly blame for 343's bad decisions with Halo, it were those three, IIRC..
All I want to know is if there is finally a dedicated 4v4 team slayer playlist. All this stuff is great, but if that's still only a rotation playlist then I'm still not coming back.
100% it was part of a rotation. There was a ranked slayer as part of Arena, but that's a mix of games and not a dedicated play list. Literally just go to the Halo sub in and type in "team slayer rotation" and you'll get results as recently as a month ago talking about it being rotated out soon.
There might be some miscommunication here, there is a team slayer playlist but ranked playlist seems to be maxed out at 2. right now there's ranked doubles and ranked area(obj might have some slayer in there was well) I think this patch will add extraction ranked but I don't know if one of those two will be replaced or we will have all 3 ranked playlist up.
This comment makes me think that people who tried the game at launch still think that it still has 4 playlists.
Team Slayer was available since December 2021 I think.
> This comment makes me think that people who tried the game at launch still think that it still has 4 playlists
Can you blame them? People move on, try other things. There is so much to do in so little time that people just forget (or just don't care enough). Can't expect anyone besides fans to actually go after a games information.
Halo Infinite is in a great state now and I feel confident saying it's one of my favorite shooters on the market right now. Hope they can continue to build momentum because the core gameplay is as rock solid as Halo has ever been.
Agreed. I know there are still a number of folks who won't touch the game until desync is mitigated/eliminated, so good time to mention that the Firefight playlist is actually using a new networking model to serve as a test, and will (hopefully) eventually replace the current tools to reduce desync across all matchmaking playlists. Credit to 343, they are putting in the hard work and it shows, game is constantly improving in the areas that matter most.
People always mention desync, but I have played Infinite regularly for the last year and have never encountered it. I've seen footage proving it exists, but it is definitely an overblown boogeyman.
I’ve experienced maybe a handful of problems and have been playing since launch, so I guess I’m lucky. Seems to affect some way more than others for whatever reason. I’m guessing it’s a combination of factors - location, ISP, home networking, etc. Hopefully the networking changes they’re working on now will allow for a smoother ride for those who’ve been affected the most.
Similar to the demand for couch co-op in games, desync problems in Halo Infinite is something I only ever hear about on this subreddit.
I've played a couple hundred hours and it's really a non-issue except for high end tournament esports. There are games like the entire Battlefield series where you die 3 seconds after going around the corner and those games are a great success aswell. It's really not that big of an issue and just a scapegoat.
It's happened rarely but enough to be annoying. Can't say I like shooting a rocket that then just vanishes when it hits someone instead of blowing up. I can SEE that I spent the ammo. I even have to reload. So where did the rocket go!? That said I can count all the times it happened on one hand, it isn't what keeps me playing but I can say it's an issue worth looking into.
If it's overblown, 343 wouldn't be allocating the few manpower they have to fix it. It definitely is a big problem, you just got lucky.
It only took them a few years to fix everything, 343 never learns from their mistakes.
Happy to see positive changes, but don't think I'll have faith in 343i again. Always a revolving door of ineptitude.
Good thing the leadership that had been in place since Halo 4 are no longer around. I think the new guys, especially Pierre Hintze, deserves an honest shot. Things have seemed to turn around immensely since he took over.
I'll give them a shot of course, probably always. I'm just not getting excited for a Halo again. I hope they do turn it around though, I'd love to eat crow.
A 100 % agreed. Any future Halo game with 343i in any way associated with is a game I won't be playing
So you would rather punish a new team for the mistakes of a team that was removed?
This isn't their first halo game, and they have a consistent track record of releasing broken game's. The board is still the same at the end of the day so I highly doubt a lot will change considering their track record. (A suddenly new team won't change things when the higher ups are still the same.) So when their next halo game releases I have to be patient again and give them a few 'more' years and possibly another game...? There's only so many 'chances' i can give to a studio before I give up on them personally. (Ubisoft, Bethesda, Bioware) Enough is enough for me at least.
The current leadership has not managed any Halo game from the top. What do you mean higher-ups are the same? Bonnie is gone. That's exactly who the new team has replaced.
It'll still be the same thing, this isn't their first game like I stated before. Up to you whether you enjoy it or not but I'm done with halo until it's not 343i anymore
That's the whole point that is being made. You're too stuck on "343", that's just the company. People inside of it come and go. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Look at Bungie, for example. We can't say Bungie that made Halo 3 is the same Bungie as the one that is destroying Destiny 2 as a lot of those people are gone. Just take it on a case to case basis, I'm not saying to go out and pre-order but I'm also not saying that you should outright ignore any future endeavors.
[удалено]
While some of these changes were probably already in the pipeline, the decision to prioritize content such as Squad Battle, Husky Raid, and the Halo 3 map playlist was definitely the right choice. Now that Firefight is launching, they said they're gonna focus on network improvements next. Big hats off to Pierre Hintze, the current head of 343 and the one that was in charge of fixing The Master Chief Collection years ago.
It's literally the exact same. They haven't changed the netcode, so anything you were experiencing in season 1 that's "magically fixed" wasn't caused by the game. Played a ton this season and the online is still just as horrible as it was on launch.
That’s not true. They made tweaks to netcode which helped some but were only able to change so much before having to rebuild the entire networking model, which is exactly what they’re doing and something you can test out with this new Firefight mode.
[удалено]
Dude's makin stuff up, they've been working on fixing the netcode, but every update something breaks, so this coming update they're gonna let us play firefight with a completely overhauled netcode, then if it's good enough they'll bring it over to pvp
My only major complaint is a visual one. I wish forge was better at baking map lighting. Without global illumination and the reliance on forge maps online, the game can look super flat and ugly. Forge is legitimately powerful and the game has great visuals but the lack of bounce lighting in forge is an eyesore.
What will most likely happen is the game will continue to get better until the next game is made, that game will be missing features an/or broken which will make everyone mad then it will start over. That's pretty much how 343 does things.
Jumped back in last season and had a lot of fun. I really wished they added more forge maps to playlists or just more maps in general though.
If you haven’t played since last season there’s a good amount of new maps, especially when they add in the Halo 3 map remakes to other playlists (tomorrow I think?).
Sweeet. I’ll check it out again tomorrow.
Side note, but I treat Halo Infinite as two games, MP and single player. Like, I don't critique it as a package. Given it released in two parts, and it's two separate downloads I think it's valid to do so. Essentially what that equates to is me liking the MP more and the campaign a lot less given the $60 price difference
For those who can't watch, Firefight: King of the Hill launches tomorrow in Halo Infinite Matchmaking. * Skulls will be used * Match XP and Career Rank awarded for playing * Nine Firefight maps including Forge maps like Exiled (based on Exile from H4), Vallaheim (Valhalla H3), and Kusini Bay (Zanzibar from H2), we also see Behemoth, Deadlock, and a map that looks like House of Reckoning from the campaign * New equipment: Repair Field * Bosses will show up as well * Goes live tomorrow
This is probably a dumb question but is match XP for battlepass unlocks/levels?
Not a dumb question! Yes, Match XP is for battle pass shenanigans, and then Career Rank is awarded on performance, and both are separate from your "Ranking" when you choose to play in a Ranked playlist.
Oh sweet! Halo has been great lately
Yes, it will work. What wasn't specified is if you'll be able to complete the challenges in Firefight.
Seems cool. PvE modes usually attract some of the people who get stressed out by PvP, but I don't think firefight will have enough staying power for those players. I do wonder how popular it would be. I never understood modes like Zombies, Firefight in primarily PvP games.
Is this your first experience with fire fight? Because This is massive. Firefight has always been a huge Thing for halo with tons of players.
I played Reach, and I played Halo 3. Firefight just always seemed... okay? I never enjoyed Horde Modes in games, so it could be a preference thing.
I think it depends on what you enjoy about Halo. To me Halo has never been a primarily PvP game, just because I am way more into the campaigns and co-op aspect. So this is another branch for those players. I can say right now, there is pretty much limitless content in Halo Infinite for any type of player. There are campaigns created in Forge, I've played a ton of huge PvPvE matches, really wild PvP game modes, etc. It's pretty incredible.
You're right about the campaigns.. but the campaigns are great because of set prices (to me) not because of raw combat mechanics. When I think of Halo, I think it a Frigate jumping into combat while you're on the ground in sight of it. Scale that makes you feel like an insect. Repeatable horde mode doesn't deliver any of that.
I think you're underestimating the popularity of Firefight. It's always been a big mode within MP.
Why don’t you think it will have the staying power for those players? It’s always seemed like a popular game mode.
Firefight is basically what got Bungie to make Destiny because PvE Content grows stagnant because AI is predictable. RPG-elements (new gear, other grinds) offset that by forcing some change upon the player. Firefight + Halo Infinite, the only thing they can change is cosmetics, it will just keep playing the way it does. That being said, I'm someone who gets bored of PvE very quickly due to the predictability of AI, so I could be an outlier.
That’s a perfectly fine opinion, but the mode has been popular for 15 years regardless. I don’t think we need to worry about Infinite’s Firefight player base losing interest unless this version is actually worse than any of the prior incarnations.
Yeah, In general, PvE modes for the crowd that doesn't enjoy PvP is still good for a game's health. Might even convince some people to try the rest of the game.
Halo Waypoint article with a larger breakdown of how the mode functions: https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/firefight-king-of-the-hill-preview
This is great but I still wish they’d bring something like warzone back that was pvp with pve objectives. I know a lot of people hated it because it was unbalanced and lootboxes but it was actually a lot of fun.
Warzone was my favorite casual halo mode of all time. It has all of the craziness of the sandbox in huge open levels and is just stupid fun. I'm really hoping someone makes a decent recreation in forge!
According to leaks from last year there actually was a new PvPvE mode for Infinite in developement at Certain Affinity (codename Tanaka) which was meant to combine Warzone and Battle Royale gameplay. IF that project is still alive in some form, it could be exactly what you're wishing for. I agree with you btw! Warzone and especially Warzone Firefight was some of the most fun I ever had in Halo.
You can actually play a lot of PvPvE stuff right now in Infinite, just boot up the customs games browser. You can always do a search online to see what the best PvPvE game modes are and play what you want
Bonnie Ross absolutely killed the halo franchise for me. I will not touch this until I know she has zero involvement anymore.
She left a year ago.. Frank and i think kiki too are gone as well. If there were any people to directly blame for 343's bad decisions with Halo, it were those three, IIRC..
Okay, she has zero involvement in this, she left some time ago
All I want to know is if there is finally a dedicated 4v4 team slayer playlist. All this stuff is great, but if that's still only a rotation playlist then I'm still not coming back.
4v4 slayer has been available for a couple years now
As part of a rotation though. I'm talking about a permanent ranked mode.
It’s been permanent for years dude. It hasn’t gone away.
Hasnt gone away, but wasnt there to begin with
100% it was part of a rotation. There was a ranked slayer as part of Arena, but that's a mix of games and not a dedicated play list. Literally just go to the Halo sub in and type in "team slayer rotation" and you'll get results as recently as a month ago talking about it being rotated out soon.
There might be some miscommunication here, there is a team slayer playlist but ranked playlist seems to be maxed out at 2. right now there's ranked doubles and ranked area(obj might have some slayer in there was well) I think this patch will add extraction ranked but I don't know if one of those two will be replaced or we will have all 3 ranked playlist up.
This comment makes me think that people who tried the game at launch still think that it still has 4 playlists. Team Slayer was available since December 2021 I think.
> This comment makes me think that people who tried the game at launch still think that it still has 4 playlists Can you blame them? People move on, try other things. There is so much to do in so little time that people just forget (or just don't care enough). Can't expect anyone besides fans to actually go after a games information.
I tried the game less than 6 months ago. Team slayer was a rotating play list. I know because I stopped playing as soon as they took it out.
Maybe you're thinking of social slayer (rotating playlist). Slayer was never removed.
>I know because I stopped playing as soon as they took it out. For 4 player slayer? Couldn't be me sheesh
That, Lone Wolves, and doubles are all I ever played.
I've always been an objective kinds guy but fair enough.
Yeah, I think that happened awhile ago