Tag: 343 Industries

You can’t play Halo Infinite’s campaign off the disk

Downloading patches is a must even for disk owners.

Halo Infinite’s  campaign isn’t playable directly off the disk, meaning updates must be downloaded before you’re able to play it.

Typically, if someone buys a physical disk of a video game, they can play it before downloading any patches. That’s not the case with  Halo Infinite. Anyone that picks up a retail copy of the game will have to download updates before playing. John Linneman, a video producer at Digital Foundry, isn’t keen on this practice.

“My biggest complaint regarding Halo Infinite  really is that the disc doesn’t contain a playable game,” Linneman said  on Twitter. “This’ll be the first Halo  game you can’t really own as a standalone copy. This is not a good trend and I hope [Microsoft] reconsiders things like this.”

It might not sound like a big issue, though when you consider that many households still don’t have access to high-speed connections, the downsides become all the more apparent. Loads of Halo  fans are expressing similar disappointment over 343 Industries and Microsoft’s decision to ship Halo Infinite  like this. 

“I think more games have done this but it is a [expletive] trend,” DrVagax said  on Reddit. “My internet connection is slow so if I could at least get like 80% of the game on disc it would save me tons of time.”

Even though we’re on the cusp of 2022, tons of people still don’t have solid network connections. So hopefully game publishers take that sort of thing into consideration going forward.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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How long does it take to beat Halo Infinite?

Halo Infinite is quite different from the previous Halo games, but is it really much longer?

Halo Infinite is quite different from the previous Halo entries, as it’s a semi-open world title for the first time in the series. This means that the Xbox and PC first-person shooter, developed by 343 Industries, is way bigger now. But just how much? Fans have been in the dark for so long when it comes to Halo Infinite solo campaign, but they’ve come to expect it would be longer than previous campaigns due to Zeta Halo being freely explorable as a typical open-world setting, a first for Halo. So, if you’ve been wondering how long it takes to beat the Halo Infinite campaign, we’ve been playing through it for a while now, so here you have all the answers and details.

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Halo Infinite developer ‘feels everyone’s pain’ on battle pass progression

Head of design on Halo Infinite shares our concerns.

Jerry Hook, head of design at 343 Industries, is among the many not having a good time with Halo Infinite’s  battle pass.

Most everyone agrees that  the multiplayer itself is a beautiful dance, though there’s a lot of anger over how  stingy battle pass progression is. The good thing is 343 Industries are  already making tweaks to the existing battle pass. Hook, however, took the fan critique one step further.

“Yes I am still playing Halo  and feeling everyone’s pain on progression,” Hook said  on Twitter. “We are back at it next week and this will be top of my list with the team.”

It’s important to remember that Halo Infinite  is still in beta, so raising concerns is vital to  343 Industries fixing the game. Even the tiny  Fracture: Tenrai event  has shown that growing pains were inevitable. 

It’s unclear exactly how Hook and the rest of the team will fix Halo Infinite’s   battle pass, as it’s looking more like  the entire system might get ripped out eventually. For now, we will just have to endure those ridiculous “get five kills with the needler while doing the hokey pokey” style of challenges. Maybe progression will be better by the time  Halo Infinite  comes out on Dec. 8.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Halo Infinite fan hilariously bows post-sword fight to honor fallen opponent

Finish the fight, honorably.

They say respect is earned, not given, which is certainly true of this Halo Infinite  sword duel that ends in a bow.

Amid the slew of Reddit threads  complaining about Halo Infinite’s Tenrai event, user KnifeyMcEdgey shared a clip of something special. In the video, the player gets into an energy sword duel with someone on the other team. The two combatants plasma-clash not once but twice before a victor emerges.

At this moment, any seasoned Halo  fan is probably expecting, well, an inevitable crouching desecration to take place — but no. Instead, the winner, hilariously donning samurai garb, bows out of respect for their fallen opponent.

Check out the hilarious clip in question for yourself below — massive Anderson Silva-like respect vibes emanating from this one.

Respectful Samurai from halo

Players act like jerks in online multiplayer games that those rare, blissful moments of good sportsmanship like this linger long after a match ends. If only this were a regular thing!

Halo Infinite’s  multiplayer is a beautiful dance, even though issues with its battle pass persist. 343 Industries are  taking the fan feedback to heart, at least.

If you’re having a tough time getting those oh-so-important sticky grenades medals, take a look at our guide. Additionally, we have guides explaining  offset weapon settings.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Halo Infinite fans are pretty upset about its Fracture: Tenrai event

Bizarre progression gating is leading to a lot of frustration.

Halo Infinite  fans are not happy about progression in its new Fractures: Tenrai event.

While the multiplayer itself for Halo Infinite  is brilliant, Fractures: Tenrai’s progression is remarkably stingy. Unlocking rewards during the event requires players to complete specific challenges by hopping into the limited-time Fiesta playlist. Fiesta is fun enough, where the game’s  ridiculously fun combat sandbox is on full display  thanks to everyone spawning with random weapons.

The issues stem (yet again) from Halo Infinite’s  bizarre progression system. There’s an event tracker that’s separate from the standard battle pass and you can’t finish it during the week-long period that Fractures: Tenrai is running. As in like, it’s impossible. So the few high-tier cosmetic items tied to the event are pretty much unattainable this week.

343 Industries promise that the  progression system will be less grind-intensive soon. However, the time limit on Fractures: Tenrai is baffling a lot of fans. The event will return several more times over Season 1 of Halo Infinite  but that doesn’t change the fact that this whole mess suggests that some aspects of the multiplayer feel rushed.

As always, fans took to social media to vent their frustrations. It’s safe to say that 343 Industries have, frankly, a lot of feedback to sort through! Take a look at some of the backlash for yourself below.

Halo Infinite has gone gold

Lock and load, Spartans.

It’s time to gas up that warthog because Halo Infinite  officially went gold Friday.

“Going gold” means that a video game’s initial development is complete and will meet its release date — so Halo Infinite  is in next to no danger of being delayed again. Not sure  fans would be able to stomach another delay, frankly, even if the  surprise launch of the multiplayer  would still likely tie them over.

There’s not been a mainline game in the series since  2015’s Halo 5. Hard to believe Halo Infinite  is the first mainline series entry in over half a decade but here we are.

“We are mean and very, very green for December 8th,” Joseph Staten, head of creative at 343 Industries, said  on Twitter. “Huge moment for the team and Halo fans. Even better, we’re just getting started.” 

Staten worked on the series way back in the day when he was still at Bungie. For Halo’s  20th anniversary on Monday, Staten shared a story from the original game’s launch.

“Exactly 20 years ago, I was standing inside my local video game store, watching the first person in a long line of happy fans purchase their copy of Halo: Combat Evolved,” Staten said  on Twitter. “And what a ride it’s been since then.”

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer has  everyone singing its praises, even if  the battle pass still needs more work. So hopefully, the single-player campaign mode stacks up too. We certainly enjoyed it.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Halo Infinite’s animations run at a lower frame rate than the game, according to previews

People with choppy gameplay allergies take heed.

It seems Halo Infinite’s  animations are not syncing up with the game’s frame rate well.

In a technical impressions video by Digital Foundry, they note that cutscene playback in Halo Infinite  isn’t looking good on the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X. On those consoles, Halo Infinite  is targeting 60 frames per second (FPS) — yet the animations for characters are running at a much lower framerate in certain instances. So there’s a jittery, jarring effect while watching cutscenes. At one point, they even compare facial animations to old-school stop motion. Ouch.

It gets worse from there, too. A lot of gameplay animations don’t hit 60 FPS or beyond either. Actions like throwing grenades, mantling via grappling hook and straight-up crouching look choppy. It might not sound like a big deal but stuff like this can lead to frustration during combat.

Check out Digital Foundry’s  Halo Infinite  impressions for yourself below to see these problems in motion.

Despite how much of a bummer graphical hiccups like these are, 343 Industries has a history of listening to feedback. Halo: The Master Chief Collection  had countless problems at launch in 2014. These days though? It’s a technical marvel that  still gets updates. Similarly, Halo Infinite  caught a lot of heat for its progression, which led to 343 Industries taking the  battle pass back to the drawing board. 

Gameplay-wise,  Halo Infinite looks mint. Its multiplayer  is a blast too.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Halo Infinite’s campaign co-op delayed to May 2022

Don’t expect Forge until near year either.

Campaign co-op for Halo Infinite  likely isn’t coming until next spring.

During an interview with  Eurogamer, 343 Industries head of creative Joseph Staten said that the extension of Halo Infinite’s  first season means other features will release later.

“At the time that we talked about campaign co-op and Forge I said our goal is to ship campaign co-op in Season 2 and our goal is to ship Forge with Season 3,” Staten said via  Eurogamer. “Yes, we are extending Season 1. So our goal still remains what I said before, which is to ship campaign co-op with Season 2 and Forge with Season 3. But those remain goals.”

Staten wouldn’t commit to any release date for season 2. However, 343 Industries recently stated that  season 1 will last until spring 2022.

It’s unfortunate that co-op and Forge are that far away. However, Staten did reaffirm the team’s commitment to  improving the much-maligned battle pass. Though he insists that despite any challenges that arise from Halo Infinite’s  launch, 343 Industries are committed to delivering on features they’ve promised.

“It’s going to be a constant challenge to address some of those bigger rocks that I know players have completely legitimate feedback about,” Staten said via  Eurogamer. “But we’ve got a couple big things that we still have to deliver to fans: campaign co-op and our Forge toolset are really big promises that we’ve made that we need to make good on.”

We think  Halo Infinite’s  multiplayer is brilliant  and the  campaign is shaping up to be something great too.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Halo Infinite’s battle pass will be less of a grind soon

343 Industries is addressing fan concerns.

While Halo Infinite’s  multiplayer rules, its battle pass most certainly does not — thankfully, 343 Industries is making some helpful tweaks.

Fans have been  quite vocal about how much Halo Infinite’s  battle pass stinks. Mainly due to objectives and tasks on the pass being incredibly situational, easy to miss or go against game mode objectives. 343 Industries are listening to everyone’s concerns, though. 

“To address the feedback on Battle Pass progression we will be making targeted tunings to our model later this week,” John Junyszek, community manager at 343 Industries, said  on Twitter. “To start, we’ll be adding ‘Play 1 Game’ challenges to help make sure you consistently progress through the Battle Pass by playing matches the way you want.”

Junyszek then went on to say the team is removing particular challenges to speed up battle pass progression. No specifics on that yet, unfortunately. 

343 Industries will reset weekly challenges to implement these changes but is giving away this week’s Ultimate Reward, the Sigil Mark VII Visor, free. So long as you log in between Nov. 23 to Nov. 30, that is. 

Halo Infinite  only came out Monday  and is still in beta, so progression kinks are bound to get ironed out sooner or later. Hopefully,  343 Industries will continue to communicate with fans over stuff like this. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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343 Industries is looking at Halo Infinite’s battle pass

Fan feedback is important to the development team.

The battle pass for Halo Infinite  has a bad reputation already and 343 Industries is well aware of it.

While Halo Infinite’s  multiplayer reception has been positive,  loads of people despise the battle pass progression. Specifically, the emphasis on challenges that encourage weird scenarios, like nailing a triple kill while doing The Macarena. Ok, that’s not one of them but you get the idea. Brian Jarrard, community director at 343 Industries, reassures players that the team is listening to the critique.

“Thank you to everyone who has jumped into the Halo Infinite beta so far,” Jarrad said on Twitter. “FYI the team is looking at battle pass progression and gathering data from yesterday’s sessions and we’ll share updates as we have them. Please continue to share feedback and raise flags as you see them.”

It’s good to hear that 343 Industries isn’t shy about feedback on the battle pass. Halo Infinite’s  surprise multiplayer launch on Monday caught a lot of us off guard, but thus far, everyone seems to be loving it  aside from the battle pass. Hopefully, the team will take this criticism to heart and fix things before Halo Infinite  releases in full next month.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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