I also enjoyed the clean look from last year. When it gets too busy I have a hard time spotting important points and enemies. I also don't understand why some of the equipment can't appear new, why does it all have to be damaged, scuffed, dented, dirty and muddy? Can't it be newly delivered? I don't follow the lore real close, but did they suddenly stop making new equipment and can only recycle old stuff?

That makes sense.  Thanks for the background, I still have yet to play Halo 5's campaign and I sometimes lose track of what is going on in the larger scheme of things.  

While I agree, it is also well known that the UNSC keeps a comprehensive record of all MJOLNIR armor including all versions and upgrades from the time it's built and those records include data showing that a spartan wearing the latest upgraded armor in pristine condition will see its status go from pristine to slight battle damaged around 20 minutes after being dropped into combat but in John's case there is no corresponding data because even when Johns circumstances are exactly the same as the other spartans involved. John being John means his armor no matter the circumstance has never ever been pristine at the start of a combat situation.

We do however have data involving spartans and John regarding significant damage, those records show that while it is heavily dependent on the type and amount of combat involved we do know that the average time spent in the field before the onboard sensors register significant battle damage status is around the 24 hr mark and in Johns case that mark also comes in around the 24 mark just that it's in minutes not hours.

Regarding DroidKnight's clean look, With the impact on equipment closely mirroring the differences seen between John and the other spartans in regard to armor damage in the UNSC data, and the lack of new equipment combined with the sheer amount of damaged and scuffed equipment in Infinite leads me to the conclusion that what we have here is the end result of all the equipment that the Chief used/misused over the years becoming the arsenal of humanity.

That's a bit of a stretch; it never looked like an Xbox 360 game. More like it's gone from looking like an Xbox One game to what it is; a crossgen title.

It appears to me that he posted the comment after a good days God killing and was in a magnanimous mood, otherwise terms like it looked like an original Xbox game in early development may have been bandied about,so lets pray for small mercies and not harass the ghost of sparta.

This is much better, at least as much as it can be without actual new campaign footage. Lighting is much punchier and less washed out, (the 2020 build almost seems to lack any ambient occlusion) and the weapons are clearly more detailed.

While this shows improvement, looking at the weapons side by side shot shown in the post , the back end of the 2021 gun seems to be out of alignment with the rest of the gun and the  way the hand  is gripping the 2020 gun looks strange compared to the angle of the gun now I know this isn't about graphical improvement but I usually don't notice stuff like this.

I'm referring to the side by side pics at the beginning of the last embedded video in the thread, it might just be me but in the 2020 pic it's not the gun but the hand positioning in relation to the gun that looks off its no biggy may just be a small error or not just felt strange. the 2021 the perspective in relation to the whole gun looks of when looking at the very rear end near the cuff in the still frame in the animation the slide is open like the still and it looks ok but then again I may be hallucinating.