| Azzanation said: I didn't get any Ubisoft vibes playing Halo. Infact most open world games operate in very similar ways. Horizon Zero Dawn, GoT, Spiderman, Zelda BOTW etc. They all require you to either climb a tower or capture bases. That's not just a Ubisoft style, that's just a style. What i liked about Halo was how fast it was. It doesn't require you to capture the bases yet if you did, wont take you long. It doesn't feel like a chore. Halo Infinite awards the players quite quickly. Maybe that's just in our difference in tastes. I enjoyed the wonder the Halo ring offered. Everything looked great and always made me wonder whats over there, i also enjoyed the size of the map. I know that's a little out of left field but hear me out. Big maps don't mean better games. Halo felt like a suitable size for what it was trying to do. It felt big enough yet easy to explore if you decided to go off course. Maybe its my age and i don't have the patience for massive open worlds anymore as it just takes too long to get to point A to point B to achieve the same objective you did 15mins ago. Halo might have had similar objectives like the FOB bases but they were easy to get to, quick to claim and the benefits of accessing Fast Travel (Don't need to unlock it) made the game flow. I don't agree with the service models being blamed for predatory actions. As mentioned before, these predatory actions are not new. They have been happening way before these services. I feel its just an easy target for those that just want to blame something. What about all the Sport games? EA Battlefronts? Was that GamePass's fault? No, it didn't exist. Predatory actions will always exists because that's dependent on the companies not the services. Games are not built with GamePass in mind, they are built the same as all the other games. Weather it ends up on GP during development or after release is any ones guess and depends if MS want it day one. |
I'm 47 lol, with age comes patience, I'm far more patient than I used to be. And maybe that's why Halo objectives felt undercooked to me. All the FOBs, Squads, Cores, Targets feel like fodder because they're over so quick. That makes it feel like a check mark on a to do list instead of anything meaningful adding to the game. The purple colored objectives were fun extras, since they take you a lot longer to complete, require a little bit of strategy and exploring. (The objectives were a bit unimaginative, but at least it felt substantial)
I like exploring and while Infinite's open world chunk was fun to explore, it did feel cramped. Everything could have been spread out quite a lot, these rings are supposed to be massive in scale. And the invisible walls stopping further exploration were a bit disappointing.
I didn't enjoy the icon mess in Ghost of Tsushima either btw. Far far too much repetitive fodder. (Thanks GoT I can't stand Haikus now) I played the PS5 version and ran away from the extra content when I was allowed off the island again. Didn't complete that part, just too much. I rather explore and find something without icons all over the place. (The wind directing you mechanic was good though, brilliant alternative to HUD clutter)
The best to explore openworld imo is Death Stranding's chapter 3. So rewarding just to set out and explore the environment, building routes along the way (And yep, that game requires a lot of patience and time lol)
As for predatory actions, no service models are not the be blamed for them. If anything, it's more the other way around. Predatory actions fit better with service models. As I said before, on one end of the spectrum you have f2p that needs to survive on 'predatory actions', on the other end you have the now endangered, full price complete game at release. Service models sit in between. Sure complete games without extras are on these services, yet the cash cows are those with ongoing DLC and predatory actions.
If you want to launch NFTs in a game, day 1 on gamepass like service, is the way to sneak them in. You saw it here already. NFTs are bad in Stalker. "Well I'll get it on Gamepass anyway, won't affect me" Service models lower the resistance to introducing more predatory actions, that's my view.
