| Shadow1980 said: Also, should anyone have really expected a Halo game to be on the cutting edge of game graphics, especially one that's a launch title that also has to run on the XBO and at the scale, resolution, and frame rate 343i is aiming for? |
We haven't had a cross-generation Halo game release before. - But that's just an excuse, game engines and effects are scalable, Battlefield 3 used an engine that did just that where it scaled from 24 players on Xbox 360 in multiplayer to 64 players on PC.
Levels sizes, effects and more were all reduced.. In that instance the PC was the lead platform and it looked and played like an early 8th gen title, but scaled downwards to 7th gen devices.
| Shadow1980 said: Halo CE wasn't exactly the best-looking game of its system or its general time back in 2001, at least from a purely technical perspective. Halo 2 pushed the graphics forward in some ways, but had many sacrifices made to its visuals as well (some environments looked ugly even back then, and the pop-in was atrocious in many parts). Halo 3 wasn't the most impressive-looking game around in 2007, and its character models were terrible (the lighting was solid, though). Reach and Halo 4 looked better (but still not close to the best of their generation), but they came out years after Halo 3, and in Halo 4's case it had a lot of bad textures as well as the most linear and constrained levels in the series to achieve what it did in other areas. And Halo 5 was not even remotely in the same league as a lot of other games from earlier in this generation. |
I do have to disagree that Halo wasn't a technical showpiece, it most certainly was, the Pixel Shader 2.0 effects on PC in combination with the Parrallax mapping was impressive stuff back in the day, plus the open environments with vehicles was new and novel.
On Xbox, obviously the console didn't have hardware support for Pixel Shader 2.0 effects, but it did have support for 1.0 - 1.4 shader effects and it leveraged them extensively for material assets like metal surfaces, it looked great... And that game was doing things that just wasn't possible or being showcased on Gamecube or Playstation 2, it was leading the industry.
Halo: Combat Evolved was also a title that was frequently used in benchmarking on the PC due to how intensive and impressive it's technicals were back in the day.
For example: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1174/18
| Shadow1980 said: But art design is arguably as important if not more so than graphical bells & whistles. Artistically, I think Infinite looks great. It looks nice and uncluttered, without that typical overwrought 343i art style from 4/5. I also love how they're moving back to designs inspired by Bungie's art style. We've already seen that the Chief's armor is 95% identical to the Halo 3 design (the shoulders are the biggest difference). The Elites look just like Reach-style Elites. The Grunts are inspired by their Reach designs. The Jackals are back to being vultures instead of lizards. Even some of the Brute designs hearken back to Halo 3. So, while the demo wasn't exactly the most graphically advanced, it showed a game that looked like a blast to play, and it's still my most anticipated game of the fall. |
I agree, art design is extremely important, but great art design does NOT need to come at the cost of "graphical bells and whistles". - You can actually have both, many games do have both.
A game with good Art direction though can punch above it's technical underpinnings, case in point: Breath of the Wild... But that is more out of need on Nintendo's behalf due to their low-end hardware choices for their devices. It is what it is.
Infinites Art isn't the issue in this instance though, the assets are actually of good quality for the most part, it's the lighting and some of the material shader work that is letting it down... Plus missing some alpha effects that we have grown accustomed to on various assets from the Halo franchise in order to conserve bandwidth.
So whilst yes, it looks like a good game, it's overall presentation still leaves more to be desired... It's constructive criticism and 343i seems to be taking note and making moves to improve and rectify that... Basically we are going to get a better game due to constructive criticism.
Case in point: https://www.vgchartz.com/article/444668/halo-infinite-dev-your-voice-matters-and-is-heard-following-criticism/
The issue I have is people taking an "apologetic" perspective on this and giving it a free pass for whatever reason, that doesn't result in a net benefit for the consumer, if we hold developers to a higher standard and demand higher quality products, then us consumers end up winning in the long run and the developer keeps evolving and improving as a result.
| Mr Puggsly said: Many other games are cross gen, so is Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite isn't a Series X exclusive. Halo isn't going to really showcase what Series X is really capable of. I think criticism is fine, but its kinda like people are pretending they have great expectations when the writing was already on the wall. Either way, hope it's good. PS5 might feel next gen sooner. That wouldn't surprise me unless multiplats really impress early. Halo Infinite will certainly be affected negatively for being slim in content at launch. But we now see users may come post updates in this era. Xbox is not dependent on a single game or IP. They don't even care to give it true exclusives and every MS game is on PC. I don't know if this is a great strategy but I like it. A Series S console could also help them thrive. Same 9th gen games on cheaper hardware could do well. |
Those other games aren't Halo.
And I never said that Halo was a Series X exclusive either... It's a Platform exclusive. I.E. Microsoft Platforms.
But in saying that, it really should be Series X exclusive.
| Mr Puggsly said: Next gen consoles aren't launching with a ton of notable content. So I guarantee last gen enhanced games will be getting attention as well. Cyberpunk is launching on 8th gen only I believe, but I imagine its still best on 9th gen. |
Cyberpunk 2077 is launching on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X in 2021.
If a game launches without a ton of notable content, then they deserve criticism, just like Halo Infinite, not point defending THAT practice as that comes at the detriment of the consumer.
--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--
