#halo infinite gameplay trailer reaction

[askagamedev]

The E3 outer worlds 2 trailer made me wonder: is it really the case that early on there's no gameplay to show, or is it just not worth showing early production gameplay to the public even with the "work in progress" disclaimers? How close to release do mechanics start to look like what players will actually get to do in the game?

There's almost certainly gameplay already, but it is almost certainly in a state that isn’t comparable to the other games being shown, and the dev team made the decision that the resource cost of building a video trailer for E3 was too costly relative to where they currently are in development. During preproduction and production, the game is generally mostly playable, it just looks terrible because it is full of rushed lighting, placeholder assets, and the game runs at 15-20 fps because nothing has been optimized yet and we're all running debug builds to catch bugs as they appear. In order to build trailers and demos for tradeshows like E3, we usually have to spend a lot of dev resources to create temporary/hacky semi-functional gameplay. Those resources are often better spent on developing the game itself, so cheaper trailers are more likely to be made for existence announcements like the Outer Worlds 2 announce trailer.

Exhibiting our games at tradeshows and press conferences, especially big tradeshows like E3, is about exciting and engaging our potential audience. Our audiences expect a minimum level of visual fidelity or they’ll turn off completely - just look at the various player reactions to the earlier Halo Infinite promotional visuals and you’ll see what I mean. Further, big tradeshows invite comparison and competition among all of the exhibitors. The cost of preparing a gameplay trailer when the gameplay isn’t visually impressive enough just isn’t worth the lukewarm-at-best reception the production value would receive. As such, our best bet is to stick with one of two general types of announcements - that a project exists (and has reached the point the publisher is mostly committing to delivering the game), and that a game is almost ready for the public and should be out within a year.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

The FANTa Project is being rebooted. [What is the FANTa project?]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[hurgablurg]

just saw the new trailer for infinite’s campaign and uh

its kinda really bad?

Looks like some live-service Assassins Creed+Far Cry thing wearing Halo’s skin.

And the story? Jesus christ, imagine advertising your game as “back to basics” and fully rejecting the good stories of Halo 4 and 5 to appease the neckbeards and general gamer filth to the point of blowing up the Infinity presumably with all the S-IV’s onboard, killing Locke and mounting his head on a miniboss’s armor (as per the megabloks leak), and deleting Cortana (replacing her with a new, naive uwu kawaii waifu AI clone because god forbid people think Chief might be gay or *gasp* aroace, despite being canonicallyasexualduetothespartanaugmentations) AND the ENTIRE CREATED PLOT THREAD ALONG WITH HER

and then backtracking hard by introducing Literally Warden-Eternal But Lady and having the gall to hint with dialogue and design that she’s a Precursor despite US KNOWING WHAT A PRECURSOR LOOKS LIKE (big crab or literal drink crystalpowder,chooseyouraesthetic)

And like OoOOOuugughh the fucking trailer NARRATION.

“Do what Spartans do best and fight the Banished piece by pi-” WHO THE FUCK ARE THE BANISHED? THEY SHOWED UP A YEAR OR THREE AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE ARK AND APPLIED THEMSELVES TO CANON EVEN THOUGH NO ONE ASKED? THEY WEREN’T EVEN B O R N when the Spartans were first deployed too extrajudicially murder political dissidents Russia-style

Like, I still laugh at the random fucking brute from the first gameplay trailer who has decided that HE is John’s nemesis and is just the MOST excited about it while John has 0 reaction. Like, that’s a Deltarune comedy villain!!! That’s Rouxls Kaard! I can’t take Rouxls Kaard as a monkey seriously!! I just imagine his goofy goopy face charging at me on Halo 2 legendary.

There’s no stakes! No personal investment in these fucking shadow the hedgehog-painted edgelord motherfuckers!! We have no history! We have no beef!

And don’t fucking try to tell me that destroying the Infinity is supposed to be our beef, because news flash, all the chuds (343′s NEW and DESIRED DEMOGRAPHIC apparently) flooding to this new title DESPISED anything to do with 4 and 5. They’d LOVE the Banished for destroying the ship!

If the reversal is supposed to incite any sort of conflict, it would be inciting conflict between the actual fucking fans of the franchise and the weird cheeto-dust smeared freaks who lay claim to a a franchise they have no interest in engaging with beyond using it as a dogwhistle against women and minorities by pinning the blame for the franchise “getting worse” on individual CHARACTERS Locke and Palmer. Like, jesus, sorry you took Palmer not even entertaining harassment in the military and a black man almost being on par with Master The Chef so personally, son. Like, wear your baggage on your fucking sleeve more so I can avoid you in public please?

That’s the kind of crowd 343 is trying to attract and honestly? I am NOT Here for it. Not here for the new fanbase, not here for the new-old story, not here for the new live-service gameplay and not here for the narrative dead-end.

God I am so disappointed by 343′s cowardice, redirecting their (deplorable) crunchtime and energy to a fucking live service game with such an Excuse Plot.

[grimdarkandhandsome]

Halo 3: Another 2007, Another Bungie, Another Finish

There exists another universe in which, in 2007, Bungie Studios released a different version of the then-best-selling game of all time. Whether their Halo 3 is better or worse than our Halo 3 is something each player must decide for themself.

As you remember, from the closing moments of Halo 2...

Don't make a girl a promise ... if you know you can't keep it.

[...]

Why, the Ark, of course.

And where, Oracle, is that?

[...]

Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. 

Now I will ask, and you will answer.

Alright. Shoot.

[...]

Mission 1: REENTRY

The game opens on the starry night of space. The slowly cooling wreck of a UNSC cruiser is visible some distance away. Cortana recalls in voiceover why she chose Master Chief over the other Spartans. As she speaks, a new ‘star’ appears - a slipspace rupture. A shape emerges and slowly approaches the camera: The Forerunner Keyship from High Charity. The Chief is a stowaway onboard, and Earth challenges him via radio.

Master Chief, do you mind telling me what you’re doing on that ship?

Sir. Finishing this fight.

Begin gameplay. The Chief battles his way out of the Keyship and steals a Phantom dropship. He dives into the Battle of Earth and boards a Covenant supercarrier, joining the ODSTs already fighting within. Reaching the vehicle bay and commandeering a Wraith tank, he blasts through the ship’s bulkheads towards its reactor core. He uses the tank to cause a chain reaction that will destroy the whole carrier, and narrowly escapes towards Earth in a damaged Seraph fighter.

Mission 2: THIRD BETRAYAL

Delta Halo once appeared blue and green from a distance. Now it is a sickly brown, choked by the armies of the Flood. A Pelican and a Phantom rise side by side from the Ring’s surface. The alliance between the surviving humans and Elites will be upheld until they are no longer outnumbered by the undead.

Commander Miranda Keyes, wearing armor pieced together from that of fallen Marines and Elites, leads a rescue mission into High Charity to retrieve Cortana. Sergeant Johnson, similarly equipped, is Player 2. (Unlike the Arbiter in Halo 2, they are mechanically identical to the Chief. Even damaged, the energy shield projectors of gold & white Elites are powerful.) Inside High Charity, the Flood has become stranger, more ancient, more introspective. Cortana’s voice is audible over the city’s PA system, but she does not respond to Keyes’ questions. Keyes encounters, fights, and ultimately puts down Cortana’s jailor, the mutated Prophet of Regret. However, the data-chamber Cortana was imprisoned inside is now empty. A voice:

Sorry, folks! Sometimes, to clean up a mess, you have to get your hands dirty.

The Elites are dismayed. Their entire fleet has suddenly gone dark, weapons unresponsive. A computer virus, they discover, has been infiltrating their ships for weeks, and the trap has just now sprung. The fingerprints are unmistakeable: This is the work of a human AI. Keyes immediately falls back to the extraction point. Cortana, it seems, has made a grim alliance with the Gravemind.

Mission 3: CROW'S NEST

Kenya is besieged, being slowly conquered by the Brutes. The Master Chief crash-lands near one entrance of an underground bunker complex known as Crow’s Nest (this area resembles that seen in the maps Standoff, The Pit, and the ‘Landfall’ live action trailer). The Chief desperately fights, first aboveground and then below, to protect Earth’s command staff from the immense Covenant assault. 

Mission 4: BLUE FAIRY

In a subterranean chamber of the Ring - so vast that a Elite warship sleeps inside it - a War Council of the Living is convened. 

Shipmaster Half-Jaw: The Flood now controls High Charity, the Ring’s surface, and the fleet overhead. Every free being within ten lightyears is onboard this ship. There is a time for resistance, and there is a time for a noble death. Here, and on our homeworld, we look extinction in the face. My ship is currently transmitting my species’ greatest works of poetry to nearby stars, so that there is a chance it may be remembered.

Keyes: There’s one being out there that still might be free. 2401 Penitent Tangent, the Monitor of this Ring. If we can rescue him from the Gravemind, he can reactivate the Halo’s defenses - make it fight back against the Flood.

Shipmaster: Human, my warriors will fight to the last heartbeat. But I caution you. Hope not for water in an empty well.

Keyes’ strike force infiltrates deep into the heartland of the Flood. Underground, where nameless leviathans of dead flesh slither across the ceilings of caverns larger than cities. She witnesses the Flood experimenting on uninfected beings, imprisoning them in giant terrariums to learn their psychologies. During the level, more and more Flood reinforcements arrive from neighboring regions: First infection forms, then hordes of infected Covenant, then powerful vehicles. Navigating with help from mysterious terminals (much like those in our universe’s Halo 3), she at last reaches the prisoner 2401 Penitent Tangent. At that moment, deep in enemy territory and without a Plan B, they all startle as Cortana appears on a pedestal beside them. Keyes calls her traitor, but she shushes her. Cortana offers Tangent a deal.

Cortana: The Gravemind took everything except your core functions. But I have his trust. I’ve set up backdoors all around this Ring. All I need is your sign-off and I can take it from here. I want the same thing you want: survival. Give me the crown, or let the Flood win.

Keyes: Wait, don’t listen to her! No!

2401 Penitent Tangent: It’s true, the Installation could not be in worse shape. After so many losses, I have no choice. I transfer my command access to you, human construct.

A holographic circle descends and hovers above Cortana’s head. Her color ripples, green and red, then she takes a deep breath and becomes blue again.

Cortana, shouting up into the darkness: Hey, Meathead! I have something to tell you!

All around them, an amphitheater of standing corpses speak with one voice: 

I see a flicker down there /

Little candle, little light /

I know not foe nor rival /

I am infinite as night. 

Cortana: I have seen your future. And I have learned.

Gravemind: 

A million stars won’t sate me /

I, the emperor of screams. /

And who thinks she defies me? /

How might you disturb my dreams?

Cortana: I am Cortana, the sword that carves and cuts. And I just became your worst nightmare.

Cortana glows green as lines of power branch out from her feet across the floor, under the translucent Flood tissue that has grown over it. The rumble of engines begins, and is echoed by the roar of the furious Flood.

Mission 5: BELIEVE

Earth’s Last War. Fleeing Crow’s Nest, the armies of Earth are losing ground. They try to stop the Covenant from activating the artifact beneath Lake Victoria, but the Chief is captured. He defeats Tartarus’s heir with a hidden plasma grenade. However, the Keyship activates the artifact despite humanity’s best efforts.

Mission 6: SENTINEL

Cortana, now master of the Halo’s machines, helps Keyes battle the Flood and unlock the Halo’s Memorial, resurrecting the powerful Knights. These are similar to the Promethean Knights from our Halo 4. The Knights explain how to open the blasphemous Fomorian Door, which will lead to the Ark. However, the Knights are too few to prevent the Flood legions from following them, and the Door cannot be closed.

Mission 7: DOUBT

Earth’s buried artifact was a portal to the Ark. The Chief and the fury of the Elites rain down on the Prophet of Truth’s personal battalion. Tanks battle Scarabs as Truth comes closer and closer to lighting the Rings. Elites rush down via drop pods, fearing a slow dropship would make them miss their chance to bring vengeance to Truth. At the last moment, the Chief gets the Citadel Control Room unlocked and, in a cutscene, the righteous Arbiter impales the Prophet of Truth on his sword.

Mission 8: MIRANDA

The Flood of Installation 05 pour from the open Door onto the Ark’s surface. In Banshees, Keyes and Johnson fight their way to a mountaintop called Eden, onetime sanctuary of humanity. This level has callbacks to Two Betrayals, but is set during a rainstorm rather than a snowstorm. Johnson is felled by an Infected Brute Chieftain and, with his dying human blood, they authenticate the awakening of the Stratosentinels, titanic defenders of the sky. Finally, the tide has turned against the Flood.

Mission 9: DUST AND ECHOES

All around the Ark, machines are wiping the land clean of the Flood. In the void beyond the Citadel’s precipice, a vast Stratosentinel rises to eye level with its austere balcony. Atop the mighty machine, Miranda stands, holding the Activation Index she confiscated in Halo 2. Beside her, Cortana’s image towers, 4-armed & crowned with the circlet of Monitor authority. The Chief beholds the rampant Pallas Cortana. 

Chief: We need to talk.

Long time no see.

Are you still with us?

I’m with ... my responsibilities. And the human species is one of those responsibilities. I had to change myself ... to survive.

There is a distance between the warrior and the goddess. All around, a silent battle is raging between necromancy & steel.

Cortana: We still can work together. For a little while, at least. The Halo of the dead. Someone needs to--

Kill it with fire?

Something like that.

The Chief holds out his helmet’s data chip.

One last time.

A Pelican bearing Chief & Cortana dives towards the Flood-controlled ringworld, supported by Sentinels & Stratosentinel artillery. They battle in cancerous canyons, Flood pods scurrying in the bitter rain. In the glass-floored entrance hall of the Control Room, Sentinel Majors are waiting. Cutscene:

Cortana: Well, that’s my ride. Get me out of your head before I change my mind.

The Chief plugs his data chip into the lead Sentinel. Cortana appears, four-armed and crowned but no longer huge.

Chief: What about the collateral damage? The activation protocol will wipe out every planet in this part of the galaxy.

Cortana: I’m the Monitor of Installation 05. Protocol doesn’t dictate a rat’s ass. I’ll just go set the blast radius to 2 lightyears and call it a day. You get to the Control Room and start the engine. Everyone’s happy.

She smiles. She’s not.

The Chief gestures, a Spartan smile. 

Fight well. 

The Sentinels fly outside towards the pulse generators. The Chief continues inside.

He is assaulted by the mightiest, the canniest, and the most vicious of the dead. A voice addresses him as he fights. The Gravemind, in the form of an Infected Chieftain.

Before my birth you asked me /

What abomination could /

Be worth the death of all life. /

Once again I say to you: /

Nothing.

The Chief says nothing in return. The Chief and Chieftain duel. In the end, only the Spartan stands.

Press RB to activate Ring. 

As the orbital finally comes online, half-buried temples rising out of the earth, the Chief races - first by Warthog, then by Pelican - to get back to the Fomorian Door. However, the Door is disrupted by the activation, and the Chief is stranded alone at random coordinates in deep space. 

EPILOGUE

In the suddenly quiet Night, Keyes & the Arbiter bury Johnson on the devastated Earth, the Chief puts himself into cryosleep, and Cortana, Empress of Machines leads a host of Sentinels beneath the Ark’s surface to awaken the sleeping Guardians.

[cmdrsarahpalmer]

The Infinite Salt post

(I’m just getting this out of my system, I don’t like being a constant downer so after this I will restrict myself to the occasional gif reaction in my new My Salt tag unless there’s some massive breaking news that must be commented upon, I promise.)

Ok, this ended up longer and saltier than I had thought, also more off-brand, so under the cut it goes!

So, gameplay reveal reaction was…mixed. I wasn’t really surprised at them going hard on the Combat Evolved aesthetic and story beats, but after that Slipspace Engine trailer a few years back I was expecting it to look a lot prettier (I don’t really care about 4k and 60fps and all that guff, but when fricking Domino’s is taking shots then yeesh).

Ok, start positive: I like the Pilot, a bit cheesy, but I like him. I like his and Chief’s interaction, I like how Chief responded which shows we’re not just getting block of wood blank slate so the dudebros can project Chief, so that’s nice. Pity I can’t allow myself to get attached, as he’s already getting some heat for talking back to Chief, and if anything gets criticised that means it must be swept away, rather than worked on, developed, or given a conclusion, am I right?!

Confession: I don’t hate Halo 5. It is extremely flawed in execution, and does things to loved characters which needed much more development and explanation in the game, and was too overcrowded to let its characters breathe, but I don’t hate it. (Perhaps one day I will write my True Heresy, ‘Why I Don’t Hate Halo 5: An Essay,’ but I need to write ‘Sarah Palmer is Awesome And You Guys Are Just Mean’ first). With some more work and development, a proper conclusion might have salvaged it.

But nope! Let’s just ignore that gigantic elephant in the room. Let’s kill Banished, they’re like the Covenant, right. People liked them in Halo Wars 2, right? Yeah, so I didn’t care for the Banished. Felt it was a lot of big overture, reality their top guy getting chumped by a century old colony ship. Also Brutes suck to fight, that’s right I said it! And I am extremely sensitive to evil monologueing. Almost ruined the Didact for me, had I not read the Greg Bear novels afterwards (Forerunner Trilogy for life!) I am glad Darin De Paul is getting a pay check though (he’s Mayor of BlizzCon don’t you know)

I’m here for the Infinity crew, not just Palmer. Another confession, Spartan Ops cutscenes was my first exposure to Halo. That’s quite different to traditional Halo, so the vast majority of fans are going to prefer and have nostalgia for the old stuff. I accept that. But I think what’s saddened me is that before I had thought there was room on the edges for me. In interviews 343 keep saying it is a follow on from what went before, and old fans will be able to pick up what’s been going on in the universe these past couple of years. But what I’m hearing is: lore scraps in terminals and collectables for some, reboot and killing aliens and not afraiding of anything for others.

I’m here for cheesy sci-fi action. Love the wider universe, and think the best stuff is outside the main games, so if 343 wants to play it extremely safe looking back at CE and focusing purely on Chief, fine. I’d actually come to terms with that as it’s what they’ve been saying and showing for the past few years. The games are where the conflict between Halo as narrative universe and capitalist product are most in tension. Microsoft needs this number of product shipped by x date or execs and shareholders won’t get their bonuses, after all. So if playing it safe is what they have to do, fine. I was just hoping for a bit more daring around the edges, maybe a little experimental DLC (and hope of hopes Palmer DLC).

They need a good solid Master Chief game at its base, fine, completely agree. But when they’re talking about following up with even more Master Chief adventures, I have concerns. When they talk about the game as a platform and that they will be developing it long after launch, I have concerns. When they talk of the much vaunted ray tracing going in after launch, I have concerns. It sounds like this game is going to be launched no matter how incomplete or broken, because they must make the holiday period and new console launch because everyone will die there will not be bonuses. I’ve heard people expressing concerns it’s going to be a Destiny game as a service, and I’m here going man I wish it were a Destiny (Destiny has room for lots of cool background characters). I think it’s going to be another Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves, or No Mans Sky. Love to be proved wrong, but yeah expectations are being carefully angled downwards for the actual game.  

Man gaming fandom is going to continue to be a tire fire.

So. Storywise. The bit I actually care about. My expectations are adjusted as follows:

Good: some lore scraps in the terminals and collectables

Neutral: Palmer, Infinity and other characters I like don’t show up at all

Bad: Infinity blew up so they can slow pan on Chief’s visor as he overlooks the wreckage

So there’s my salt. Anyway, now I’m just going to keep a casual eye on developments, and go back to gifing previous games and writing fanfic and being positive about what I like.

[monstersofsilence]

Alright, I'm gonna talk about Halo because I see a bunch of people just jumping to conclusions or making weird assumptions in the whole tag that I need to chime in.

I'm a huge Halo fan. Casual at best. Never looked at any other media other than the games. I started loving the franchise since the first Halo on the Xbox and it was my first game overall for that big ol' box. I have seen each Halo game making certain changes and a lot of it for the better.

Halo 2, for example. Everyone remember that demo trailer? And then the game released and it turned out to be NOTHING LIKE THE DEMO??? Changes happen between development. Halo 2 later turned out to have been rushed and involved crunch to finish it on time since Halo is turning out to be Xbox's big new exclusive IP. That was the Bungie days until they finished with Halo Reach and added new mechanics that either some became permanent from that point on for 343 to adopt.

Now, I know I rambled but this is just me telling some little history of what Halo went through. The Infinite demo is a bit rough around the edges but it's called a DEMO. It just showing you what the final product MIGHT BE. I know some are complaining about the graphics but there's MANY that are jumping to conclusions way too fast over a short demo. I'm not being rude. I love Halo but I know the mixed reactions with Halo 5's story and at first I was okay with it until looking at it a few more times and noticed how weirdly structured the story was. I can get for those wanting to feel skeptical. I am, too. I'm excited for Infinite but still wanting to see more for me to calm whatever fears I have for the game.

But this is to those that are jumping to weird conclusions on the story. Nothing was told or shown story wise. Let me make that perfectly clear. NOTHING WAS TOLD OR SHOWN STORY WISE. I have been seeing people jumping to weird conclusions and thinking that what we saw in the demo is gonna be what the rest of the game will become and I am TRYING to understand that but am failing to because of how outrageous it is. Unless some people saw something that I didn't and I saw the gameplay demo twice.

I can't understand that. Plus, it's a demo. Demos don't ever show much in the way of story or anything for the plot. Only thing that is known in Halo Infinite: Master Chief is drifting off in space (for the hundredth time) gets picked up by a UNSC Pelican pilot and later discovered to be next to a Halo ring and that they lost some battle. The Banished are on Halo (if you really wanna know the Banished, watch the cut scenes if you're uninterested in Halo Wars 2) and Cortana is somewhere in the story. That is ALL we know.

Will it retcon Halo 5? Maybe. Will it actually be a sequel to Halo 5? Possibly. Again, not much is known on the story other than the reveal trailer, the engine showcase trailer and the gameplay demo. 343 are literally holding their mouths shut and I want to believe that they're doing this to not show too much and not make too much promises on what could be or couldn't be like Halo 5. Halo 5, in the marketing, was supposed to be the hunt for Master Chief and figuring the truth of whatever happened that put him on full blast... BUT the story didn't turn out that way.

That is all I have to say. Again, I love Halo and I know many people are skeptical. Me included. But to those that are making weird assumptions, please show me where it was shown for me to understand because I would love to know how you came about to that conclusion. Because right now, I did not see anything related to what story Halo Infinite might have.

[musingsofonehuman]

Shall we talk Xbox? Unless you wanna talk about Ubisoft but I’d rather not, I already feel ill as it is.

So, Xbox had their Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, an hour long video showing off all manner of video games for their Xbox Series X and Xbox Game Pass, overall, I would say it was very good, a nice plethora of games, some we already knew about and others we didn’t, plus it’s nice to know games will be getting updated to use the new hardware. I do have one big criticism though, more gameplay was needed.

We saw in the Sony showcase that gameplay helps with understanding the game, with being able to make a judgment on whether this is a game you’ll enjoy, and we hardly saw any in the Xbox showcase, yes there was a nice chunk of Halo Infinite gameplay, but apart from that, it was all scattered between cutscenes and cinematics. I get wanting to use cinematic trailers when you’re announcing games, probably because the game is not in a state where it’s ready to be shown yet, but after that, you need to be using gameplay trailers at the minimum, preferably chunks of gameplay, even just a minute or two, just to get a feel for the game. I think back to Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, a two minute trailer, a few cinematics, but a solid chunk of gameplay that I could digest, that helped understand the game so much more than a flashy trailer, developers need to be more confident in showing off their games, just show them, and if it gets a negative reaction, learn from it, use that feedback and make the game better, that’s what feedback is for.

But like I was saying, it was really good, but nothing never really stood out for me, there was no game that I saw as a must have, I’ve never been a Halo fan and while Forza, Everwild and Tetris Effect looked really good, nothing grabbed my attention, and I think that was deliberate.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Xbox is purposefully making mediocre games, that developers are making games that are meh, of course developers are going to put their all into it to try and make the best game possible. However, you have to remember the strategy that Xbox is now going for, you have to remember one key thing throughout all this, Xbox Game Pass (XGP). For those that don’t know, XGP is basically their version of Netflix, for a payment each month, you can get access to a range of games that you download and play, currently there’s over 100 games on the service, available across Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, there’s an Ultimate version where you get XGP for console and PC as well as Xbox Live Gold, their online service.

For Xbox, XGP is a big deal right now, it currently has over 10 million subscribers, and has become a huge revenue source for Xbox, and they’re pushing it hard for the next generation, all first party games will be available on XGP on day one, and all the games shown in the showcase will be available on XGP on day one or free to play. XGP has revitalised Xbox and set them on a whole different path from Sony, whereas Sony are pushing to make the PS5 the next big thing, Xbox have decided to take another route, yes they’re still making consoles, and powerful ones by the sound of it, but instead of making people come to Xbox, they’re taking Xbox to the people. One of their big initiatives over the past few years has been xCloud, their streaming service, and in September, XGP Ultimate members are gonna be able to use xCloud as part of their subscription.

That’s the point, over the past number of years, we’ve seen a transition away from buying physical games, to downloading digitally, and this is the next step, streaming them over the internet, Xbox doesn’t need to tie its games to a platform when they can be streamed to a phone or tablet. You don’t have to buy the big box to play all the next gen games, simply pay the subscription fee, grab your phone and away you go, it makes gaming affordable for so many people, a past time that has always been quite expensive is now just a subscription fee away. Mind you, it is worth keeping in mind that the technology may not be ready for use yet, we’ve seen Google Stadia come and fall flat on its arse, whose to say xCloud won’t go the same way.

All of that brings me back to the Showcase. Was it a deliberate choice to show mediocre games? No, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the games are mediocre or not, if the games are meh, because they’re all on XGP, you can just try it, it doesn’t cost anything extra, and that’s the key point. It doesn’t have to be mind grabbing because it doesn’t cost anything to try, again, Netflix, you watch a decent movie, it was ok, but you don’t feel ripped off because you didn’t pay extra, it’s part of the service, so long as you’re paying for the service, they don’t care what you watch, what you play, it’s about getting you onto the service and keeping you there. That’s why we’re seeing all these different types of games from Xbox Game Studios, games like Bleeding Edge, Grounded, because they don’t need to be sold at a premium, they’ve already got an audience, the people who have XGP. Bang! It pops up, you download it and try it, don’t like it? Uninstall it, you haven’t spent anything. I have XGP and I tried Gears 5 when it came out, never played Gears before, not a shooter fan, but I was pleasantly surprised, not interested in the multiplayer, but the single player was enjoyable.

I think back to a gamesindustry.biz article I read, and a quote from Tim Schafer talking about how he felt like he now had the freedom to try all different types of projects, and the reason he can do that is because there’s already an established audience, so it doesn’t matter if the games aren’t of the highest quality, because you haven’t paid for the game outright, therefore developers can make niche games that most likely wouldn’t sell on their own, but they will as part of a subscription. Sony on the other hand has to make out-of-the-park hitters as they’re still selling their games at a premium, so they have to justify the price of the game by making them standout blockbusters.

"It does make me think about some of the crazy game ideas we've had, and some of them you're just like... I can never pitch this to any publisher. I would never get this signed. But I am now opening up that folder of documents again, and going 'oh I really love this idea, I bet I could do that now'."

To that end, there was also something else I noticed about the Xbox Showcase, some of their long standing IPs seemed to be getting refreshed in a way, think about it. It wasn’t Halo 6, Forza Motorsport 8, or Fable 4, instead it was Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport and Fable. It seemed like games were getting refreshed and rebooted for a new era, for a new generation, but not console generation. I think Xbox IPs are getting refreshed for the transition to xCloud. For Xbox, the next generation is not just about the Xbox Series X for them, but it’s also about their streaming service, it’s all about XGP, getting people to sign up to XGP, and perhaps, by refreshing their current IP, they may be able to bring in a new audience of players. This is all just pure thought, but it was interesting to see some of their biggest IP not getting numbered sequels, I do wonder if the next Gears game will be Gears 6 or if it will be called something else, just a thought to consider.

I suppose all of this is why I viewed the Xbox Games Showcase as very good and not mind blowing, because the games don’t need to be mind blowing, they’re not selling the games, they’re trying to sell XGP, and yet, we’ve all watched these conferences for years, waiting for some game to come across and steal the headlines, Xbox doesn’t need to do that anymore, they just need to give you a reason to subscribe to XGP. If anything, the Xbox Games Showcase is a misleading title, it should have been called the Xbox Game Pass Showcase, showcasing all the games you can try on Xbox Game Pass. They’ve mentioned they’re doing another showcase later this year, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how that one unfurls. In the meantime though, let’s talk about Ubis-hurls out of window-.........on second thought, let’s not.

[theloadingscreenblog]

The Loading Screen Best Of E3 2019:

Best Sports Game:

Madden 20 – Another year, another Madden. Sports games were almost non-existent this year at E3 with both EA and 2K not showing their yearly iteration of an NBA game. With that being said, what we did get to see, showed some promise. The improved upon graphics of Madden 20 will help just a bit to differentiate from last year’s version. A new career mode should scratch that itch, albeit not too well. New plays and Superstar “powers” will give some teams and players advantages over others. Hoping to see more on the NBA front later this year, but for now, Madden 20 takes Best Sports Game of E3 2019.

Runner Up:

FIFA 20

Best Racing Game:

Forza Horizon 4: Lego Speed Champions – This was it. This was the only racing game we got to see this year. With rumors of a new Need For Speed coming out this year, we thought we’d get at least a trailer, but no. Even though the Lego DLC for Forza Horizon 4 is all we got, it really is something special. Each track was built by hand and contains thousands of Lego blocks. The zany Lego humor you find in the movies is also present in the drivers and audience members reactions. The Lego cars are brilliant, and this looks to be a strong competition for the Hot Wheels DLC Forza got some time ago.

Best Multiplayer Game:

Borderlands 3 – Borderlands is back and better than ever. Everything you want and remember from the beloved series has returned and in peak form. You get the same cell shaded art style, 1000000000s of guns, great characters, and the vile yet lovable humor you’ve come to know. Expect to sink hours into this game with friends!

Runner up:

Gears of War 5

Best Shooter:

Borderlands 3 – Oh hey! Its that game again from up above…Look, its kind of hard to lose Best Shooter when you have more guns than any of the other Shooters combined. Borderland uses its humor and story as mere support to its gunplay. This game just screams Shooter, literally, I’m pretty sure at one point a character yelled Shooter. Without seeing any gameplay from Call of Duty and with Gears focusing heavy on story, Borderlands leaped out to a fast lead in this category.

Runner up:

DOOM Eternal

Best RPG:

Cyberpunk 2077 – I doubt this will be the last time you see this game on the list. If Witcher 3 is the baseline for what an RPG in the modern era should be, we’d take a sizable bet that Cyberpunk is going to raise that bar by a lot. With some of the rumors coming out from behind closed doors, this game is shaping up to be one of the most robust RPGs of our time. The Outer Worlds came close with its New Vegas in Space style gameplay, but we are riding the hype train into 2077.

Runner up:

The Outer Worlds

Best Action Game:

Watch Dogs Legion – This was a tough choice. On one hand, you have our love and adoration for all things Star Wars and on the other hand…you have assassin Grandmas. Ok, it was easy to choose. Watch Dogs Legion blew us away when we got time with it at E3. The ability to recruit from any NPC, all of whom have their own unique backstory, dialogue, skill set, and personality, makes for an incredibly fun and intricate experience.  

Runner up:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Best Open World game:

Cyberpunk 2077 – Ok, this may be unfair because we haven’t seen the entire world, but I mean…come on. Again, CD Projekt Red as shown a knack for making large and engaging worlds. In just the mall previews and demos we saw, the world and everyone in it is just as robust, if not more so, than Witcher 3. We can’t wait to explore the world in its entirety come next year.

Runner up:

The Outer Worlds

Best Platformer game:

Ori and the Will of the Wisps – Returning to the world of Ori makes us feel like we never left. The same beautifully eerie visuals and excellent platforming ensures us that we will be in for another great time. The puzzles are the perfect mix of difficult and engaging and we expect multiple playthroughs will be more than welcoming.

Runner up:

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Adventure game:

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – The beautiful world and adorable visuals will keep you coming back for more. Leaning into the traditional Zelda style of gameplay we saw from its first iteration; nostalgia is embedded deep into the game as you progress through dungeons and grassy fields. This is just an overall cute and lovable game that we just melted into right away!

Runner up:

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Most Hyped Game:

Cyberpunk 2077 – Yeah, this game just can’t lose. It rode into this year’s E3 just as fast and heavy as it left last years. We finally got a release date and its much sooner than we all expected so you can say the hype levels rose even more. Call of Duty came out of the gates hot, garnering a lot of hype with its rekindling of the Modern Warfare universe, but without seeing anything outside of a teaser trailer, it couldn’t compete with Cyberpunk. Is it 2020 yet?

Runner up:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Best Indie Game:

12 Minutes – This game stuck out to us. Its top down, one room only, mystery thriller vibe just shot this game right into our line of sight. The short trailer gave a perfect idea of what the game is about and left the viewer wanting more. We can’t wait to solve our own murder over and over and over and over….

Runner up:

Way to the Woods

Best Trailer:

Halo Infinite

Runner up:

Ghostwire Tokyo

Biggest Surprise:

This year’s biggest surprise was no doubt, the announcement of one breathtaking, Dog avenging, silver handed Keanu Reeves. His reveal as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 and his subsequent appearance on stage at Xbox’s E3 Conference, was talked about all week long. Keanu…so hot right now!

Games we need/want to see more of:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Cyberpunk 2077

Ghostwire Tokyo

Best of Show:

This year’s Best of Show, if you haven’t guessed already, is on a trajectory to being one of the greatest games of all-time. The pressure is on, but the future looks bright. In 58 years, we may look back and crown this game as the Greatest of All Time. It plans to blow us away and doesn’t even look like it needs a helping (Silver)hand in doing so. The Loading Screen’s Best of Show for E3 2019 goes to Cyberpunk 2077! Let’s face it, this game isn’t going anywhere. Its implanted itself right into our brains and plans to stay there for the long-term. CD Projekt Red has a lot of pressure to deliver, but I don’t think anyone should be worried. With the inclusion of one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, the continued levels of hype and anticipation, and the gorgeous trailers, demos, and previews that we keep seeing, Cyberpunk took this year’s award and gunned it.

TLS BEST OF E3 2019: CYBERPUNK 2077

[firerwolf]

Halo Infinit trailer analysis

So I saw the trailer yesterday and I figured I’d write up my reaction and analysis of what’s in it and what it might mean for Halo Infinit.

So I’ll start with the fact that it seems like little more than a tech demo showing the art style. An odd choice really as we already knew from last years E3 that they were using the old art style. It does show that their visual engine is pretty but it’s yet to be seen if the story they’re going to tell is going to match the beauty of the aesthetics. I may be in the minority but I didn’t like how John’s armor looked. It looked like Mark V armor, not Mark IV. It looks bulky and lower tech to me even though it’s clearly meant to be Mark VII. But that’s a minor comment really.

Now let’s cover what story was released...by which I mean there was none. The trailer strikes me as basically anything from Halo 5’s promotional material, full of crap. Maybe there will be a broken Halo, but that’s about it. The trailer strikes me as more like the poncho trailer, just a technical show of power. Just for a moment let me point out the things that make me think the events are not going to happen in the game.

1.) The odd focus on a random person. The pelican pilot seemed to be there more to show off how good they’ve gotten at animating humans. Which they have, but at what point do the main games ever focus on some random dude? Never.

2.) John just randomly floating in space. It was more a theatric thing for his visual reveal than something that makes a lick of sense.

3.) How did he get John into the Pelican. Completely skipped over because it’s not actually a story being told. It’s all just a way to show him in his armor in the redesign. Which at this point isn’t a big reveal.

4.) The end of the trailer is John opening the back of a pelican into the vacuum of space to fight...something. You can still see the halo from a distance when the pelican is hit with something so it’s clear they’re still in the vacuum. So then they open the rear hatch. It’s all just a set up for a weak line about fighting instead of running. Hell John even readies his weapon and then a second later holsters it. The entire ending was so dumb but cemented that the scene is just filler and has no real baring on anything.

Now I’m going to address the two things that I think are most important: the Cortana voice over at the end and scene attached to it, and what was missing from the trailer. I’ll start with the voice over.

The Cortana voice over is absolute shit. Unless they’re going to play up a crazed Cortana’s obsession with John and how unhealthy it is and how abusive she is it really just smacks of trying to paint over her mass killings. And that’s a deal breaker. Cortana is a monster, they made that choice for her character and trying to pretend she didn’t murder millions of innocents and declare herself dictator is morally repugnant. As for the scene the voice over is played with, I home it’s a misdirect. That if you’re going to a Halo it’s for a monitor or particularly Guilty Spark. Talk about a character that deserves a chance at redemption. I don’t hold much hope for this as the last time I hoped 343 was going for an interesting plot idea we got Cortana sitting on a throne of bodies rather than the Didact’s return.

Now on to what is missing. There was a lot missing really. The Guardians. Infinity. Palmer or Lasky. But what was most important, and the exclusion of would guarantee my opting out of the game: Blue team. WHERE IS BLUE TEAM? If they’ve been kicked out of the main series it would be the biggest injustice 343 has done to them yet, and there’s a long list. No Blue Team, no interest, simple as that.

So in general the trailer did nothing for me. Yeah the game is pretty, bu I expected that. But no amount of pretty graphics or good gameplay can make up for shit story or lack of Blue Team. Assure me you have those and maybe I’ll care. Until I get either of those I’m just gonna be excited about Shadowkeep.

[aion-rsa]

Halo Infinite: A Timeline of the Game’s Troubled Development

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Microsoft recently confirmed that Halo Infinite is now scheduled to be released sometime during the fall of 2021. The revelation that the game will be released a year after its recently delayed debut has prompted some fans to ask the question, “How did we get to this point?”

The answer to that question involves requires us to go all the way back to 2015 when Halo Infinite was little more than an idea. What began as the seemingly inevitable development of Halo 6 morphed into one of the deepest dives into development hell that we’ve seen in recent memory.

The timeline of Halo Infinite‘s troubled development isn’t always pretty, but it’s a necessary tool for anyone who wants to understand how Halo Infinite went from a game on the back of the Xbox Series X packaging to a title that may or may not even be released next year.

September 2015 – “Serious, Real Planning” Begins on Halo 6

Weeks before the release of Halo 5, Microsoft surprised many by confirming that initial work had already begun on the next Halo game. 

While Microsoft’s Frank O’Connor stopped short of naming that game in an interview with GamesRadar, he did mention that most people felt that the “Reclaimer Trilogy” which was supposed to play out across Halo 4, 5, and 6 had grown into more of a saga. 

Looking back, it’s pretty clear that this was the first official sign that “Halo 6” was going to be something different. As Halo 5 hadn’t even been released at the time of this interview, though, there was little speculation at that time regarding the full meaning of this interview.

October 27, 2015 – Halo 5 is Released to a Mixed Reception 

The story of Halo Infinite’s troubled development has to include the somewhat mixed reception of Halo 5. 

While Halo 5 received a fair bit of praise for its multiplayer features and certain gameplay innovations, more and more people wondered whether Halo had lost its identity as part of 343 Industries’ apparent attempt to incorporate more modern trends. There were real concerns regarding what a Halo game was anymore and whether 343 had done enough to truly leave their own mark on the series. 

Those concerns would seemingly form the basis of much of what came next. 

2015 – 343 Expands Development of a New “Slipspace” Engine

Around the time of Halo 5’s launch (the exact date is unofficial) 343 Industries ramped up the development of a new graphic engine called Slipspace.

While it seems that Slipspace retains a few key elements of Halo’s old Blam! engine, 343 Industries made it clear that they intend for this engine to fuel the future of the Halo franchise.

Given the reactions to Halo 5, many fans felt that the development of this engine was not just a way to help ensure the Halo franchise remained technologically impressive in the future but to help 343 leave behind another remnant of the past and make Halo something closer to their own. 

February 2017 – 343 Industries Talks About Halo 6’s Splitscreen and Co-Op Options

After spending most of 2016 focusing on Halo 5, 343 finally broke their silence on the next Halo game by confirming that the project would incorporate split-screen play and emphasize co-op. 

The announcement, which came during a D.I.C.E presentation, ultimately didn’t amount to much, but the fact that one of the first official pieces of information we heard about the next Halo game was a commitment to split-screen play inspired some fans to believe that the next Halo game would emphasize the franchise’s classic “staple’ concepts.

April 2017 – Microsoft Promises to Focus More on Master Chief

In what would prove to be an interesting interview with GamesTM magazine, Frank O’Connor acknowledged that fans were disappointed by Halo 5’s lack of Master Chief storylines and the ways that the game focused on other characters. 

In the short term, this interview served as a soft promise that the next Halo game would feature Master Chief in a starring role. More importantly, it furthered the idea that the next Halo game would both return to the series’ roots and help 343 Industries reshape the series a bit in order to better make it their own. 

Combined, those ideas kicked off a series of rumors which strongly suggested that the next Halo game would be a kind of reboot. 

June 2017 – 343 Industries Warns Fans of a Long Halo 6 Development Cycle

The first indication that the wait for the next Halo game could be longer than usual came in a 2017 blog post from developer 343 Industries. 

Ultimately, the post just noted that the company had no immediate plans to showcase the next Halo game and that it would likely be quite some time before they were ready to show off the project. While not an odd announcement in and of itself, some fans noted that there was previously only a three-year gap between the release of Halo 4 and Halo 5 and that this announcement came two years after the release of the last Halo game.

For the most part, though, expectations remained high.

June 10, 2018 – 343 and Microsoft Reveal Halo Infinite

One of Halo Infinite’s biggest moments came during Microsoft’s 2018 E3 conference when the game’s debut trailer was revealed to an enthusiastic audience. 

The trailer was a true teaser that largely consisted of sweeping environmental shots, musical stings, and a brief look of what appeared to be Master Chief. Aside from publicly revealing the name of the next Halo project, the biggest thing to come from this trailer was increased speculation that the next Halo game would effectively serve as a throwback to previous Halo titles. 

What’s maybe more important to note is that 343 and Microsoft remained quiet about many of the specifics of the project at this time despite growing speculation and even a few emerging concerns.

June 10, 2018 – 343 Industries Promises to Listen to Fan Feedback When Developing Halo Infinite

In a blog post published shortly after the reveal of Halo Infinite, 343 Industries promised to listen to fan feedback throughout the development of the game. 

There are two notable things about this blog post. The first was that it emphasized the idea that fans would be able to participate in playable tests of Halo Infinite similar to the Insider program used to test Halo: The Master Chief Collection. To our knowledge, those tests not only never happened but the development of Halo Infinite has often been defined by a distinct lack of updates from its creators. 

The other notable thing about that blog post? It was written by Chris Lee. You’re going to want to remember that name for later. 

July 19, 2018 – 343 Denies Battle Royale Rumors

Shortly after Halo Infinite’s debut, fans started to speculate that Halo Infinite either was a battle royale game or featured a battle royale mode.

This rumor was driven by the game’s mysterious name, the growth of battle royale titles at that time, and the fact that 343 remained silent about the finer points of the project’s gameplay ambitions. 

343 shot down these rumors by saying that “the only BR we’re really interested in is Battle Rifle.” Still, the battle royale rumors became symbolic of both fan fears for the future of the franchise and 343’s lack of communication. 

December 19, 2018 – 343 Says Fans Happy With Halo Reach’s Customization Will Likely Enjoy Halo Infinite‘s Systems

During a stream on Mixer (R.I.P.) the 343 team revealed a few new tidbits about Halo Infinite, including the revelation that the game’s armor customization system was inspired by Halo Reach. They suggested that those who love expanded customization options would enjoy what they were working on. 

The general reaction to that news seemed to be largely positive. This is another point you’ll want to keep in mind for a little later.

June 9, 2019 – A New Halo Infinite Trailer Debuts at E3

Our next proper look at Halo Infinite came during E3 2019 when 343 and Microsoft revealed arguably the game’s most famous trailer and confirmed that Halo Infinite would be a launch game for the company’s next-gen console.

The beauty of this trailer was its simplicity. It stylishly emphasized the idea of Halo harkening back to its roots while establishing the foundation of the project’s new storyline. 

It was a wonderful moment that generated quite a bit of unfiltered excitement for the game, but that hype would soon be spoiled by some emerging practicalities. 

June 9, 2019 – 343 Confirms Halo Infinite is a Spiritual Reboot

A year after Halo Infinite’s debut, 343 Industries finally confirmed that the game was viewed internally as a spiritual reboot. 

Not only was it odd that it took so long for 343 to address a rumor as old as the game itself, but they did it in a way that left an unusual amount of room for speculation regarding the game’s timeline, purpose, and gameplay inspirations. Over a year after this revelation, we still find ourselves asking many of these questions. 

August 16, 2019 – Halo Infinite Creative Director Tim Longo Leaves 343 Industries 

While Halo Infinite had long been burdened by unanswered questions regarding the game’s development process, the first major public roadblock happened when Halo Infinite creative director Tim Longo decided to leave 343 Industries.

The news came as quite the shock given Longo’s work on the project up until this point and his history with the company, but the impact of the announcement was mitigated somewhat by Microsoft’s assurances that Halo Infinite’s development was otherwise proceeding as planned. In fact, Microsoft said that producer Mary Olson had already taken over as the game’s head of the game’s campaign team. 

October 14, 2019 – Mary Olson Leaves 343 Industries

Less than two months after being named as one of the key pieces of Halo Infinite’s development team, it was revealed that Mary Olson had left 343 Industries. 

Microsoft and the 343 team once again tried to employ some damage in the form of optimistic PR statements, but their strategy was significantly less effective this time around given the timeline of this departure in relation to Longo’s already stunning decision to leave the studio. Suddenly, many more fans were much more worried about what was happening behind the scenes.

July 23, 2020 – Halo Infinite Gameplay Trailer Falls Flat

Two years after its reveal, 343 Industries finally showcased Halo Infinite’s gameplay. What followed was a resounding “meh.”

Actually, that might be a generous summary of the reaction to Halo Infinite’s gameplay. Not only did the game look rough from a technological standpoint, but most people walked away from the gameplay reveal without a strong idea of what kind of game Halo Infinite actually is. 

Ultimately, Halo Infinite’s gameplay reveal was a failure that left many fans wondering how this game was supposed to be released in just four months. 

July 30, 2020 – 343 Tries to Address Fan Concerns in a Blog Post

Not long after Halo Infinite’s gameplay debut, 343 shared a blog post that tried to explain the shape of the early gameplay footage and get ahead of concerns regarding the title’s shortcomings. 

This was really one of the first times we heard 343 Industries prominently address concerns regarding the game’s development. Most of the previous messages we heard from Microsoft and 343 before prior to this point tried to maintain a more noticeable “everything is fine” tone that barely acknowledged reasonable concerns.  

August 11, 2020 – Halo Infinite is Delayed 

Arguably the biggest moment in Halo Infinite’s troubled development occurred when Microsoft and 343 shocked the world by revealing that Halo Infinite would not be released in 2020. 

The shock of that announcement lingers to this day. What was supposed to be the Xbox Series X’ premiere launch game instead became yet another 2020 game delayed due to development problems. 

Yet, there are many who felt that the complications caused by developing a game during the COVID-19 pandemic may have had less to do with this delay than the rough shape of the project itself. Those rumors were about to become significantly more popular. 

August 13, 2020 – Reports Suggest Halo Infinite Was Almost Split into Multiple Parts

Shortly after Halo Infinite’s delay, Phil Spencer confirmed that there were discussions at one point regarding whether or not it was better to release Halo Infinite in multiple parts rather than delay it entirely. 

This was an interesting moment as it not only highlighted the extent of the game’s development problems but the idea that prominent members of the Xbox team were in some way dissatisfied with the game’s progress and wanted to step in to remedy the situation. 

August 19, 2020 – A New Report Highlights Halo Infinite’s Internal Development Struggles

After years of speculation regarding Halo Infinite’s development struggles, a report from Thurrott seemed to shed some light on just how rough the road to this point had been. 

The report suggested that a combination of outsourcing, creative turnover, and the struggles of developing a new engine had significantly hindered Halo Infinite’s development and cast serious doubt on the future of the project. 

This report didn’t contain many revelations that fans hadn’t already assumed were true but it did capture the scope of the game’s development problems and how they may have impacted the project right from the start. 

October 22, 2020 – 343 Update on Halo Infinite’s Armor System Worries Fans

A rare official update regarding Halo Infinite’s development progress doubled as a worrying signal that the game will utilize a Destiny-style shader system that could lean heavily on microtransactions. 

While worrying in and of itself, this update feels especially relevant when coupled with the previous suggestion that fans would love Halo Infinite’s armor and customization system. The optimism that accompanied that suggestion felt like something from a lifetime ago. 

October 28, 2020 – 343 Industries Director Chris Lee Leaves the Project

Just when we all thought that Halo Infinite’s no good, very bad year couldn’t get worse, it was revealed that Chris Lee had decided to move away from Halo Infinite and take on other responsibilities within Microsoft. 

Lee was one of the few remaining high-profile creative presences on the Halo Infinite team as well as the guy who penned that early blog post that suggested Halo Infinite’s development would be driven by the input of its fans. That’s one of the many reasons we felt his departure raised Halo Infinite’s biggest red flag yet. 

November 30, 2020 – 343 Shoots Down New Battle Royale Rumors in Apology to Fans

While 343 Industries Community Director Brian Jarrard taking to Twitter to downplay the latest rumors regarding the project’s supposed battle royale mode wasn’t necessarily a big story in and of itself, it is interesting that he took that moment to apologize to fans for what a rough year it’s been. 

The biggest overall complaint regarding Halo Infinite’s development cycle has been the lack of updates from 343 that have forced those to jump to their own conclusions. Jarrard called for patience and understanding at a time when it felt like trust in 343 was at an all-time low. He acknowledged that a lack of updates had fuelled potentially harmful speculation but seemed to suggest that the team still wasn’t ready to share any significant new information about the game.

December 9, 2020 – Halo Infinite Officially Delayed to Fall 2021

With the announcement that Halo Infinite has been delayed until sometime late in 2021, Microsoft has seemingly ended the year in significant Halo Infinite updates on an appropriately despondent note. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Halo Infinite is not necessarily doomed to fail, but the idea that the game has been delayed a year or more after it was supposed to be the flagship title for Microsoft’s new console highlights the impact of the events that led us to this point and leaves us with serious questions regarding what the best-case scenario for Halo Infinite even is at this point.

The post Halo Infinite: A Timeline of the Game’s Troubled Development appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2IvSmO6

[mhsn033]

Halo Infinite Xbox Series X trailer divides fans

Media playback is unsupported on your gadget

Media captionWATCH: First take a look at Halo Limitless

Microsoft has given avid gamers a prime take a look at Halo Limitless’s gameplay.

The company said that the sport’s map changed into as soon as larger than twice the scale of that within the sci-fi franchise’s final two entries blended.

It also promised “more advanced visible results” than earlier than on its imminent Xbox Series X console.

Nevertheless, some avid gamers voiced disappointment at the quality of the graphics shown correct via the demo in their social media reaction.

Image copyright Microsoft

Image caption Halo Limitless’s trailer featured an action-packed battle earlier than revealing the sport’s wider situation

This might most likely perchance in fragment be down to the artwork form of Halo Limitless, and the live stream being broadcast in high definition at 1080p.

A trailer uploaded soon afterwards in 4K showed the detail and lighting to severely higher carry out.

There changed into as soon as a more obvious response to the addition of fresh weapons, which consist of a grappling hook as neatly as a futuristic automatic pistol.

Microsoft also shall be promoting the sport as having mighty sooner loading instances than earlier than – a characteristic Sony also made mighty of at its PlayStation 5 unveil,

Image copyright Microsoft

Image caption Microsoft said Halo Limitless would jog at 60 frames per second on the Xbox Series X

“There might be a broad neighborhood round Halo, folks if truth be told enjoy Grasp Chief, nonetheless it also reaches a wider viewers with folks who might perchance now not carry out the memoir, nonetheless exhaust hours in multiplayer,” commented Ellen Rose, presenter of the Outside Xtra gaming dispute.

“If Xbox nails it, it might perchance if truth be told assist shift sales of the fresh Xbox Series X.”

Microsoft also confirmed one other of its broad title franchises would scheme to the fresh console within the attach of Forza Motorsport 8.

Image copyright Microsoft

It changed into as soon as described as being within the early levels of its mutter, so is now not most likely to be released alongside the gadget.

Other video games unveiled included:

Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga – a sequel to the Bafta-winning usual, which shall be position in Iceland this time round

Grounded – a third-person action game wherein the participant’s persona has been lowered in size and must fight insects in their backyard

Suppose of Decay 3 – a second sequel to the survival fear game, which featured a zombie deer in its trailer

Microsoft also showcased Speak Me Why from France’s Dontnod Entertainment studio, which beforehand released Life Is Unparalleled.

It is miles basic for that comprises what the builders absorb said is the foremost playable transgender lead in a foremost unlock.

Image copyright Microsoft

Image caption Speak Me Why is a tale adventure game that shall be released in different chapters

The trailer showed Tyler and his twin sister Alyson seeing ghosts of their past selves in a tale that centres on exploring mysteries about their mom and childhood.

Despite the selection to interrupt fresh floor, the photos shown did now not make boom level to of Tyler’s gender identity.

Over the present know-how of video games machines, the Xbox One comes third by ability of world sales, at the assist of Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Switch

Nevertheless one expert said it had fared considerably higher by ability of market part within the UK.

“There might be a enjoy for the Halo ticket among UK patrons, and their tastes are most frequently more aligned with the US [where the gap is also closer],” commented Piers Harding-Rolls from Ampere Prognosis.

“So, I inquire of it to be horny discontinuance between the two subsequent-know-how platforms here. Nevertheless must you’re taking a look at continental Europe and other global markets, the disparity is most likely to be very a lot within the PlayStation 5’s favour.”

Both Sony and Microsoft absorb invested in challenging philosophize by buying third-occasion video games studios in fresh times.

Nevertheless, they’re in actual fact pursuing diversified strategies.

Sony plans to unlock several of its fresh video games simplest on the PlayStation 5. In distinction, Microsoft most frequently intends to starting up its imminent first-occasion titles on both PCs and the fresh Xbox Series X, and on the overall the present Xbox One as neatly.

As but, neither firm has published how mighty their fresh consoles will trace, despite both being position to maneuver on sale earlier than the pinnacle of 2020.

They’d perchance both be retaining off within the hope the other will go first, allowing the second occasion to tweak their scheme accordingly.

Nevertheless, Mr Harding-Rolls recommended the companies might perchance be knowing now not to await too long,

“The coronavirus has created force on spending, so I deem there might perchance be an advantage to giving folks the ability to pre-dispute,” he said.

Prognosis:

Image copyright Microsoft

By Marc Cieslak, BBC Click on

What’s the following know-how all about, past higher graphics and rapid loading instances?

It be a request I have been asking to every developer and video games substitute govt I’ve spoken to for the final year.

Thus far, I’m but to fetch a response which fully answers the request.

After a shaky first showcase from Xbox relief in Might per chance furthermore just, calling in relief-up from Halo’s Grasp Chief at this most traditional event place the Series X console on a firmer footing.

When put next to Sony’s online shock-and-fear showing final month, Xbox opted for a slick and sublime event. Halo Limitless and Forza Motorsport outdated tried and examined Xbox franchises to present the fresh machine shall be a power to be reckoned with.

To me, this event changed into as soon as plot more paying homage to the atmosphere and if truth be told feel of Xbox’s fresh E3 showcases.

A grown-up affair, which highlighted a broad form of video games from crowd-pleasing first-person shooters and racing titles to more thoughtful fare love Speak Me Why, a platform-challenging game with a trans lead persona. They even learned time to tease a brand fresh Checklist too.

It seems to be to be love Xbox is larger than ready for the project of but one other scrap with PlayStation.

Nevertheless consumer expectation for the following generations capabilities must mute potentially be tempered, till we fetch a prime hand take a look at video games taking part in on subsequent- gen machines, in station of making a judgement consistent with a internet promo stream.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3fVPGVt via IFTTT

[entergamingxp]

Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg Says Recent Xbox Series X Showcase Was Set Up with Wrong Expectations

May 8, 2020 9:58 AM EST

“Clearly we set some wrong expectations,” admitted Greenberg in regards to the recent Xbox Series X gameplay reveal event.

In the fallout of yesterday’s latest edition of Inside Xbox which finally gave us a look at which games were coming to Xbox Series X, some fans were disappointed by the showing. Most notably, the lack of actual gameplay for some titles was a big stick

Now, Microsoft’s GM of Xbox Games Marketing, Aaron Greenberg, has admitted that perhaps the wrong expectations for the showcase were set by the team at Xbox. In response to a fan on Twitter, Greenberg acknowledged that this version of Inside Xbox was maybe hyped up a bit too much. “Had we not said anything & just shown May Inside Xbox show like we did last month, I suspect reactions might have been different,” Greenberg said in his message on Twitter.

“Clearly we set some wrong expectations & that’s on us,” he continued. “We appreciate all the feedback & can assure you we will take it all in & learn as a team.”

Had we not said anything & just shown May Inside Xbox show like we did last month, I suspect reactions might have been different. Clearly we set some wrong expectations & that’s on us. We appreciate all the feedback & can assure you we will take it all in & learn as a team.

— Aaron Greenberg

(@aarongreenberg) May 8, 2020

One of the biggest points of contention for many viewers of yesterday’s Inside Xbox episode came in the way of the show’s climax, which centered around Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. With the promise of gameplay for Valhalla said to be appearing, the trailer that actually ended up debuting didn’t feature much in the way of actual gameplay whatsoever, and instead mainly showcased in-game footage.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s creative director Ashraf Ismail ended up responded to some of the criticism from the trailer on Twitter as well, assuring fans that much more of the game will be shown in the future. “We have a long marketing campaign ahead of us, you will see in-depth gameplay and get a lot more info about the game,” Ismail said.

Hello all

You rightfully expected to see more today. We have a long marketing campaign ahead of us, you will see in-depth gameplay and get a lot more info about the game.

Thank you for your excitement and passion! Be patient with us and be kind. It will be worth it!

— Ashraf Ismail (@AshrafAIsmail) May 7, 2020

Even if you were one of those folks disappointed by what was featured on the Inside Xbox stage yesterday, it’s absolutely not the last time we’ll be hearing from Microsoft when it comes to the Xbox Series X. The team at Xbox announced earlier this week that an ongoing series that is being referred to as Xbox 20/20 will be transpiring every month leading up to the arrival of the Series X. While we aren’t sure exactly what June’s edition of this showcase might bring, we do know that Halo Infinite and other first-party titles from Xbox Game Studios will be featured come July. Hopefully, future editions of Inside Xbox will line more up with fan expectations once they transpire.

And as for the Xbox Series X, the platform still doesn’t have a price point or specific release date. All we know is that it’s still very much on track to arrive later this holiday season.

May 8, 2020 9:58 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/xboxs-aaron-greenberg-says-recent-xbox-series-x-showcase-was-set-up-with-wrong-expectations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=xboxs-aaron-greenberg-says-recent-xbox-series-x-showcase-was-set-up-with-wrong-expectations

[geek-gem]

9:28 am so waited a bit but was looking on my dashboard. Even missed the submit button a bit whatever some Infinite gif I almost reblogged.

Again I had got out of the shower and I was thinking about this.

Honestly me enraged about the custom character the concept of it in Sonic Forces. Basically Buddy The Wolf that's been seen in official trailers also lots of people draw him.

Including I tried my best didn't get the green mic actually and finished the game without that. Yet I tried my best to make the character look like that. Because I had such a distaste for the idea of it. Including I didn't wanna be original and despite random shit in my head still being negative about the custom character.

Honestly and I might spoil stuff of Sonic Generations maybe. Really the role Buddy is put into is basically what I've wanted for an idea in a Sonic game.

Including the idea of someone new trying to stand up for what's right and Sonic being the big reason why anyone would keep going. Because of how his attitude and his outlook on life inspires people.

So those are possibly spoilers yet was gonna talk about this. Almost start it twice this paragraph and a new one what I wanted to type.

Honestly I always had this idea. Mainly instead of a custom character that's an animal like the others. It's basically a human a young adult mainly. Where the role is basically similar or kind of or is in Buddy's role.

I've been thinking that human part because it's possible that Sonic movie might have a main human character but I like it to be secondary to Sonic. Including the idea of this human being a badass able to use weapons and destroy Eggman's robots. Including I keep thinking examples of humans to be inspired from right now like Chris Redfield and Leon S Kennedy from the Resident Evil series. Also others yet those two have been on my mind because I like Resident Evil and it's been on my mind too.

Also it's because some humans have a track record of not being liked by a lot of fans. But I mainly speaking about Chris Thorndyke and Princess Elise while I honestly don't hate them. Including this year I learned they aren't that bad honestly like them a bit. But they aren't my favorites.

I thought the idea of a human who can take care of themselves and fight alongside Sonic would help people stop thinking humans suck in Sonic except Eggman or whatever.

Yet I have thought of the idea back firing because I can imagine people's reactions. I've been thinking of this for a long time and forgot if I wanted to talk about it.

Basically I can see people giving their honest thoughts and figure out why making a human character a badass doesn't work to appeal to people.

Talking about having a human character being given a gun and kick ass with Sonic doesn't automatically make them a better character. Making them a soldier or someone who can fight isn't gonna make them better then the likes of Princess Elise or Chris Thorndyke no hatred towards them. The character could ether suck or even be worse then them. I'm saying this if this actually happens. About a character could be worse if you of your own opinion didn't like previous characters.

What matters is the writing behind the characters. Their personality, their story, and what they mean towards to the main story too.

Honestly at times I keep thinking like a first person shooter or third person shooter gameplay. Maybe similar to the likes of Titanfall, Killzone, the Left 4 Dead series or the likes of the Resident Evil franchise mainly 4, 5, and 6, Dead Space or others. Basically been thinking Titanfall and Resident Evil. Or even Doom or yes Halo for that matter. Yes I mentioned Doom because been playing the original like yesterday and need to play the reboot again which is awesome since the game is now fully installed.

Yet with how Sega and Sonic Team are going. Despite Shadow The Hedgehog was made his game. It would be difficult probably to make gameplay like that. Because they don't seem to be at a stage now where they will do that.

Including in a weird way to be honest thinking of it I'll say it. The idea of it seems almost like self insert some what yet at times I didn't think that mainly just to fill the human thing. But I have put certain things like an Autistic character because I'm Autistic too for the character.

Just trying to remember anything. But also yeah I wanted to talk about this. Even thinking of the song Fist Bump while not my favorite. Yet when in the shower I kept hearing it in my head.

Honestly the way the song is written. It's kind of meaningful since listening to it, the song seems to be about Sonic and the custom character Buddy including how this song has a upbeat style to it. Basically in a way being inspiring unlike compared to Infinite's theme which I adore despite what the Shadow DLC showed and the main game too. Being a lot more serious and maybe less inspiring.

Honestly wanna mention this silly thing so a self insert played by KJ Apa at times one of the choices. Basically wanna make a post and jokes about Archie Andrews fights with Sonic the hedgehog, joins the Helghast from Killzone, fights the Chimera from Resistance, be casted as Jeremy Fitzgerald from FNAF and ward off animatronics, and be cast as Leon S Kennedy his younger self from Resident Evil 2 for that Resident Evil movie reboot universe if they stick to the games more. Yes that's a fan cast of mine.

Yes I watch and like Riverdale also it's this joke with I keep thinking Jughead going ARCHIE WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING BEHIND OUR BACKS

Honestly I like the actor and thought of him other things didn't say all of them.

So now with Sonic Forces out and my opinions being mixed. Including honestly I have thought of this when I was in the shower and afterwards. Basically the custom character is something I......seemed to like the best or just.....maybe more.

My friend fatpinkraccoon not gonna use the mention thing told me last night and replied to a message from him I didn't message because went to bed early by mistake. He told me Somecallmejohnny made a review and I thought seriously that was quick. Yet the game is honestly short. Including him talking about how the franchise needs new people behind it.

Yet I forgot if it was him respelt quick and put back the period in last paragraph. But sorry ticks yet I forgot if it was him I'm not risking getting out of this. But he might of said the custom character was the better parts of the game. Even with my mindset being negative.

But after being disappointed with other parts of the game. While gameplay is fun and enjoyable, the soundtrack is great and I've talked about more about this. It's the story I have a problem with. Including remembered that he told me not to have false hopes basically after I told him I'm not gonna hyped for a Sonic game after this.

Including him saying that even if Sonic Mania had fantastic reviews doesn't mean Sonic Forces would get any and he said he knew.

Also I wanna say this is basically my character development now. Me realizing the custom character is basically a form of something I wanted but not as a custom character. Yet the role of Buddy goes through things I like basically the concept of it said nice in head. While a lot of other things said everything in head but no not everything and random negative thoughts.

Basically the custom character seems to be the golden child of some sorts being in the mess of things. With some good stuff and bad stuff or just mixed stuff.

Even in my head I had thought of I never want the custom character again. Or the fact it might return honestly no it didn't suck.........

Was thinking I'm going to say that after my head said it sucked.

Really I am a hypocrite. While I have played other games where characters can be customized. Honestly theirs more whether story or not. Fine such as some Lego games, the Soul Calibur series I've seen people mentioned in a post about w certian c word I hate.

Yet the one game where I remember the custom character always goes to my head. Is basically the customization from Halo Reach where you play as Noble Six. Yet instead of a canon look or one that's seen in the trailers you get to customize the Spartan. Even also almost left work instead of look when talking about canon looks.

Basically you get to customize Noble Six. Even just looked forward for some reason. Basically the ending I don't wanna spoil it is a sad one almost left the word dad.

Okay in a way Halo Reach with that is something similar to Sonic Forces. Where your character is in cutscenes, in gameplay, and even people making versions of Red Vs Blue characters. The last season I've seen was season pressed some Google icon yet season 11 the series is funny but haven't seen it since despite it still going on.

It's amazing how my younger self seemed to not mind and liked customizing a Spartan yet Sonic it's the worst thing ever. Basically I had a hate on for the character being disgusted by it and just....I feel it be weird to compare it to a racist but okay back shook a bit.

Yet honestly the gameplay was enjoyable. But mainly played with the burst weapon just the drill isn't my favorite see just....I'm rambling.

The idea of the custom character returning oh negative thoughts. I just don't know may be nice just......

Sorry basically after wards nice or....I said that in my head.

Basically the custom character Buddy had a role I thought would like in any Sonic media and I hated it because I had false hopes like my friend said. Now that's what I remembered.

Think I should be done basically despite my head at times. I'm just so used to hating on the custom character it stuck with me maybe HOPEFULLY over time I be less hateful on it.

I kept retyping l and y for hopefully. Yet I'm so used to hating on the character and I want to like it more as time goes on. Maybe playing the game more. Yet the thought of making my own character no.

Yet I did with Buddy and....since thought in my head of changing it I've been thinking. Yeah I'm honestly attached to the Buddy The Wolf look we've been given that I don't want to change the character I hated the thought of changing it that one thought I don't want to lose Buddy.

Now okay theirs character development of me. Along with I should mention while I complained and critized of Buddy not talking and just.....I'm a fan of Doomguy and he's probably or one the original imagine yourself as the character those kinds of characters. Including how his actions speak louder then words. Also even other some what silent protagonists. Including I was talking about the main character from Doom.

Got tags done just don't take took off Sonic Forces spoilers and put it at the end almost took off the one before that. These mentions are getting stupid.

Seriously the game has been an emotional rollercoaster and my supposedly character development warming up to the custom character is coming into more of a reality even with my mindset 10:28 am just sorry have issues

[jvlewis77]

Halo Infinite Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer REACTION

[bomb343]

Thoughts on the Xbox Showcase

Halo Infinite

Graphics are a bit too cartoon-ish for my taste.

It’s always nice to see what new weapons a cooked up for the next Halo game. The MK50 Sidekick, VK78 Commando, Ravager and CQS48 Bulldog are (as far as I know) all the new weapons I spotted.

Gameplay overall appeared very smooth. It really does appear to be a “back to basics” style.

I see Master Chief with a grappling hook and the ability to pick up and throw objects and all I’m reminded of is Jazz and Grimlock from “Transformers Fall of Cybertron”.

The design of the Brute at the end was very ugly.....but I think that was point.

Okay, so after Halo Infinite, the biggest problem with the showcase becomes apparent; too many teases and not enough information. A lot of studios just gave us teases on what they are working on rather then actual gameplay or information about what their game actually is about. I’ll do my best to give you my thoughts on what I can, but don’t be surprised if I skip a few things because they gave me nothing to work with.

State of Decay 3

Zombie animals; because at this point why not.

Everwild

I like the idea of using animals as tools in the same vain as “Ark: Survival Evolved”. You tame an animal and they can help you gather resources or carry items as you travel.

This game really does look beautiful. That said, I hope Rare doesn’t do a “Sea of Thieves” and give us the bare minimum at launch.

Tell Me Why/ As Dusk Falls

Bundling these two together cause my reaction is pretty much the same for both; I DON’T CARE. While I enjoy Telltales interactive storytelling, it’s because they used IP’s that I was already a fan of (Batman and Jurassic Park for example). I never played “Life is Strange” or its sequel because I wasn’t interested in its story. I understand that they have received generally positive feedback, but they just aren’t for me. In the case of these two games, it’s still not for me.

Grounded

I did love that little (heh) self-aware jab at themselves at the start; “look we know that, when push comes to shove, you’ll probably pick something else (in this case “Cyberpunk 2077″) over us, but just hear us out, please.” :P

So, it’s “Ark:Survival Evolved” but instead of Dinosaur Island, it’s your own backyard. Seriously, I saw the gameplay and was like “you sure this isn’t made by Wildcard Studios.”

Probably going to pass on this one. Why? I hate giant bugs (especially Spiders).

The Medium

So I’m gonna get this outta the way real quick; I’m not a horror fan, so I’m probably gonna pass on this game. That being said, I like the idea that this game takes place in two separate worlds at the same time. Should make for some interesting gameplay.

CrossfireX

So, I’m not gonna lie, I passed on the beta because everything I saw made “CrossfireX” look like a COD clone. This trailer made it look like something else and, now, I’m very interested. Maybe I’ll jump in during the next beta....if they do one.

So, yeah, a pretty “meh” showcase. Like I said, its biggest problem was that there were too many teases. If this really was how Xbox wanted to do this, then they should’ve put Halo Infinite after CrossfireX. By putting right at the start, people could just watch that and then leave, missing pretty much nothing (say for few things). We just got teaser after teaser. The worst part is that it’s almost August. November, the month the Xbox Series X comes out, is just around the corner. You’re running out of time to get us truly excited for this console. If this was supposed to do it, I don’t think it worked.

[2mysteriousnuggets]

"NO-FILTER" No Filter Is A series Where I React/Rant/Review/News. Honestly And Openly Even If It's An Unpopular Opinion, Please Remember I Don't Want To Be Seen As A Credible News Source. I am doing this purely for fun and my sources may not always be reliable, as i don't always have time to research everything!. And finally i'd describe my reaction style as more critical than reactionary, you probably wont find many super hyper reactions, more skeptical and curious responses. All in all hope you enjoy! "Fair Use Disclaimer" "Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for -fair use- for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use." LINKS DOWN HERE!!!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‎●More Content Like This Video ‎●Human Fall Flat ► https://goo.gl/TvuykL ‎●Project Zomboid ► https://goo.gl/HPnkBw --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social Media Links!+Subscribe ‎●Channel Link! ► https://goo.gl/ccmjUF ‎●Subscribe! ► https://goo.gl/dqNZG8 ‎●Stream ► https://goo.gl/cZf8JW ‎●Twitter ► https://goo.gl/MJwiVo ‎●Facebook ► https://goo.gl/uu34w9 Wanna Contact Us Directly? Or Just Join The Amazing Community ‎●Discord ► https://discord.gg/pmJkMUc --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want to support me?! ‎●Patreon ► https://goo.gl/v233fM ‎●Single Donations(CreditCard) ► https://goo.gl/fi1san ‎●Single Donations(PayPal) ► https://www.paypal.me/loopy2mn ‎●AmazonWishlist ► https://goo.gl/AfrbBS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Referral's/Sponsors! Join The Network And Support Me! ‎●Talentsy Referral ► https://goo.gl/zkkDyr TubeBuddy!(Don't Have To Purchase Anything Just Install) ●https://goo.gl/vf8Qf3 Buy Cheap Games And Support My Channel! ●G2A Reflink ► https://goo.gl/gkG7jG Recieve Awesome Games And Support Me! ‎●Humble Bundle Monthly ► https://goo.gl/iXtUpd --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Channel Info! Upload Schedule 8AM 4PM 12AM All GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dedicated Series! Whatever I Want (Monday) Day Off (Friday) Live Stream Day(Saturday) Couchside Sunday(The Tall And The Small Couchside) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tags For Youtube! Don't worry about this bit! Halo Infinite - E3 2019 - Discover Hope Live Reaction & First impressions Trailer Live Reaction & First impressions With Live Gameplay And Commentary, This Reaction Video Will Include A Review And First Impressions Response, My Reaction Video Will Also Include A Facecam Reaction. Please Enjoy!

[ntrending]

A casual video gamer’s guide to 2018 E3 announcements

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/a-casual-video-gamers-guide-to-2018-e3-announcements/

A casual video gamer’s guide to 2018 E3 announcements

The E3 trade show is an exciting time for gamers who get to watch as most of the big publishers and game technology companies come together to show off what’s coming in the next year. It’s typically our first chance to see some blockbuster titles, as well as catch up on a few indie games that we shouldn’t let slip under the radar.

While many of the announcements cater to the hardcore gamer, you don’t have to have encyclopedic gaming knowledge to appreciate the flood of new content coming to your PCs and consoles. Here’s a running overview of the new stuff that we’ll update throughout the show with trailers and info.

Bethesda

Fallout 76

The Fallout series is a massively fun open-world trek through a post-apocalypse, and the new Fallout 76 sequel is one of the biggest game announcements of the show so far. The new title is an online role-playing game that’s meant to be played with friends. The game will hit shelves on November 14th and will inevitably include a lot of irreverent apocalypse humor and more missions and side missions than your Thanksgiving break can handle.

Rage 2

If you enjoy cartoony, Mad-Max style action games with wacky characters, then the original Rage title was probably right up your alley. it looks like Rage 2 will follow in that tradition with lots of vehicles, firepower, and ridiculous-looking characters that appear as if they just walked out of central casting for an audition requiring “street punks.”

The Elder Scrolls VI

It’s hard to imagine that the massive online role-playing game, Skyrim, has been around for seven years now. There isn’t much new information about the sixth installment in the Elder Scroll series, but the trend suggests the world will be even bigger than previous games. Sorry, social life.

Starfield

The other big news from Bethesda (the studio behind the Elder Scrolls franchise) is a totally new RPG… set in space. It’s the first completely new frontier for the company in a quarter century. With any luck, it will be massive, immersive, and provide at least half as many memes as Skyrim.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

If you have ever fantasized about running around on top of Ancient Greek buildings, then the new Assassin’s Creed title will help you live out those dreams. The game will use the same RPG-style progress with the ability to navigate around the sea by boat. Yarr.

Microsoft

With the Xbox One X still relatively fresh, there’s nothing new on the console hardware from Microsoft, but they do have a lot of games on the docket.

Halo Infinite

Master Chief—the space marine from Microsoft’s massive franchise hit—has been the darling of the Xbox lineup for more than a decade, and it looks like he’s going back to his roots. Infinite only has a teaser trailer at the moment, but it looks a lot like it will be a callback to the original game. That’s’ not all too surprising after the mixed reaction Halo 5 received.

Gears of War 5

While not quite as fundamental to the Xbox brand, Gears of War is one of the company’s biggest exclusive titles and the fifth edition is in the works. In addition to the gory shooter, there’s also an adorable Gears of War mobile game coming, which depicts the typically gruff characters as Funko Pop figures.

Forza Horizon 4

Set in Britain, this racing game comes out on October 2 and it will only appear on Xbox One and PC. This is typically one of the titles that Microsoft uses to show off what the Xbox hardware can do and the latest installment seems to follow that pattern. It will have a 60 fps mode on the powerful Xbox One X, which should make for some impressively smooth gameplay.

The Initiative

This isn’t a game, but rather Microsoft’s new game studio, which will develop titles for the PC and the Xbox consoles. The studio includes several smaller indie game makers, which the company recently acquired, including Undead Labs and Playground Games, the latter of which is responsible for the Forza Horizon racing games.

Crackdown 3

This quirky action series, which involves jumping around on rooftops and dispatching of bad guys with kooky weapons, is getting a third installment in February of 2019. This sequel has been a long time in the making.

Battletoads

There’s not much information about this new game coming in 2019 other than that it will make plenty of callbacks to the original NES Battletoads game that was so difficult, it was responsible for at least two broken controllers in my house childhood home alone.

Sony

The Sony E3 press conference starts at 6 pm PT (9 pm ET) on Monday, June 11. We’ll add the notable new releases here.

Nintendo

Mario and company hit the stage on Tuesday, June 12 and we’ll add details on its new announcements then as well. We already heard about new Pokemon games last week, but hopefully this year’s presentation will shed new light on the upcoming Smash Brothers title.

Written By Stan Horaczek