Game News 2.0

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128797#Comment_120128797

My expectations for Halo were low after the previous few entries and I still found it bland and disappointing. It was fun messing around in the open world but anytime you had to go into a building it became a chore. Also I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the story and I had played all the games before it. I literally had no idea who I was fighting as the final boss.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128846#Comment_120128846

I played it on GamePass, and got maybe half way through and got bored. I can't understand the positive reviews it received. It's like the Emperor's New Clothes. As a "free" game on GamePass it's absolutely fine. But outside of that .. meh ... It was 15 quid recently.

But really I'm just annoyed with MS based on how much money they waste.

I'd say 200 Ori / better / smaller games ( finger in the air anglo Irish bank estimate 🤣 ) could have been developed for the cost of Halo infinite.

Nintendo keep quiet and produce the quality games mostly. Sony similar to be honest.

But Microsoft is throwing billions at stuff and it's not sticking. Starfield could be a big problem for them if it's not critically well received. The SX and SS are excellent pieces of hardware ...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128846#Comment_120128846

Funny, I found the opposite to be true. I found the open world empty and lifeless. I just about managed to get through the open world bits to the more linear indoor parts. Much more fun. Don't get me started on the whole your next target is across the ravine bu!!****. An open world needs to be bustling, yes there's the travel between towns that is to be expected but Halo was just empty and lonely.

sniper_samurai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128846#Comment_120128846

That's because Halo has a massive story problem, since 343 took over there has been an expectation that you have read the books set between the games. There is an extremely large disconnect between the end of Halo 5 and the start of Infinite.

Retr0gamer

Halo has a very simplistic story with an massive air of pretention and 343 mistook it for a sci-fi epic that people loved so much that they wanted to be bukkaked with lore.

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120129115#Comment_120129115

Yea I was just about hanging in there with the story up to Halo 5 even though I didn't like it. Then Halo Infinite starts and straight away it is hitting me with very upfront references to events and characters I have no idea about. Imagine a story being so inaccessible that even playing the previous 7 games wasn't enough to prepare you for it.

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120129287#Comment_120129287

I wasn't as mad about the first game as everyone else was (ODST is the highlight of the series IMO), but I loved the backstory and setup of the universe. They then proceeded to make it worse with every subsequent entry.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120129287#Comment_120129287

Great, I read that over work VPN.

😳

Zero-Cool

Argos is closing all stores in Ireland later this year. 1 less games retailer now. They used to be quite good for games but took a bit hit since Brexit, stock was lacking and prices not as good as they were. Still, that leaves us with Gamestop and Smyths for new releases, bit mad. Hopefully Smyths doesn't go anywhere as they have the best b&m prices, especially on launch.

sniper_samurai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120129695#Comment_120129695

And if GameStop go, which is looking likely it will make it nearly impossible to get Collector's Edition sets for anyone who wants overpriced, cheaply made plastic rubbish.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120129742#Comment_120129742

There are silver linings to every bad news story.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128876#Comment_120128876

There's definitely a whiff of late 90s Electronic Arts about Microsoft at the moment. They had almost no internal studios producing anything of quality so went on a buying spree of other independent developers without any appreciation for differences in culture, many of whom seem to have ended up in a mix of development hell and underperformance since. In the two years since their new console launched, Playground are really the only first party studio who have put any kind of worthwhile AAA game out, and the key people there have now decided to move on to form their own studio to do something new. They really need Bethesda and Arkane to deliver this year.

At least they've done a very good job in approaching third parties and indie devs to get them on gamepass, because they've been carrying the platform these last couple of years.

CatInABox

I don't know, I think that they're doing alright to be honest. A lot of people think that they're doing badly just because they don't like their games, but they've had some massive successes over the years.

People are still discounting stuff like Sea of Thieves, or Flight Sim, despite them being massive successes. There's a reason MS got metacritic's publisher of the year award in 2021.

That said 2022 was an exceptionally slow year, really painful.

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120129069#Comment_120129069

I literally got to the open world, saw the state of the map and the look of it and went meh. Haven’t turned it on since.

CatInABox

Man, this is a bad look, very strong "let them eat cake" vibes

https://twitter.com/EmilyStewartM/status/1616065024589729792

Rumours going around that Halo Infinite is dead, with 343 turned into a kind of Halo overseer, only doing work on Infinites multiplayer. The Halo IP is going to be available to any developer that wants a crack at it with an interesting idea. Kinda weird, but then that's what Warhammer has been doing and that's resulted in some amazing games.

Grumpypants

Halo is a weird one, it's never been a good shooter. It sold more than it should due to being a console exclusive (similar with gears of war, but at least the latter is enjoyable action).

Zero-Cool

Man, imagine being called into a room and being told the devastating news that you'd have to sit their for the evening and listen to Sting.

Penn

I always kind of saw Halo's success being down to just being the right game at the right time; when console online multiplayer really started to take off. I'm sure the games were great by themselves, but the huge success was down to being the big Xbox game and the online play.

I wonder would Activision Blizzard take it on if the Microsoft deal goes through. Instead of pumping out different Call of Duty games every year, do alternating years with Halo and CoD.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132724#Comment_120132724

Personally, I'd love to see Id take a crack at it.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132724#Comment_120132724

Yeah; I don't begrudge Halo's success but I've never looked at or played it and thought it especially Best in Class. Though I do have a bee in my bonnet about what an awful design Master Chief is and remains.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132778#Comment_120132778

That's the thing with multiplayer games; even the worst of them can be great if you're playing with friends and having a good time.

johnny_ultimate

I would've been dismissive towards Halo at one point, as I initially played the first two games a bit late and didn't really get the big deal - especially since both those games have major issues like the infamously shite, momentum-stalling Flood levels and the second game being clearly unfinished. But I do have to admit Bungie won me over with their 360 games, especially Halo 3 and Reach. The multiplayer was great, but those also felt like the games where the campaign delivery matched the ambition. Some of the large-scale battles in 3 particularly really show the series at its best. And credit to Bungie, who opted to step away when they felt like they'd done all they could do within the confines of the series.

It's clear though that 343, through no fault of individual developers, has just struggled massively at bringing the series forward - immediately smacking into the same issues that caused Bungie to walk away. The story in Halo was always shite, and they've doubled down on the bits that were shite. And they've spent several games trying to make their games feel the same as Bungies and capture that same particular magic, which is a creative dead end. Given some of the very sharp criticism being levelled at both 343 and Microsoft management over the last few days, it'd seem there are definitely a lot of behind-the-scenes issues with the development of the games and the direction of the series - although that was obvious from the infamous Infinite gameplay demo.

In an ideal world, the series would be given a good long rest or full retirement... but given it's so lucrative, letting other teams have a crack at it seems like the sensible option from Microsoft's side.

Retr0gamer

Honestly Halo was a pretty great fps on console when it did come out. I think there was better on pc at the time but Halo was the first time console games could match pc and it did bring some new ideas to the table.

Multiplayer was great, it played like a slightly slower unreal tournament and the ability to link up 4 consoles for 16 player was a lot of people's first experience of a lan. I mean up to that point all we had was 4 player goldeneye, perfect dark and timesplitters which I find incredibly over rated experiences. Halo was way better.

Halo 2 single player is a steaming pile of shite but the multiplayer again was great and it was far and way the best multiplayer console experience online although there were people thay preferred rainbow six 3 on Xbox. And on PS2 you had piss poor Socom.

Halo 3 is a fantastic single player game. Playing it again on pc it's surprising how well it's held up and I had an absolute blast playing it. Multiplayer is great as well but the issue was that Sony had kind of caught up so being a platform exclusive stifled it's reach. And then call of duty 4 released around the same time and completely took it's thunder.

Reach and odst are great as well but the series got real bad when 343 took over. Bungie understood the strengths of the series being in the fun gameplay. The story was pretty bog standard space opera but they did it in a show don't tell way with an air of pretention that made it seem far more important.

343 seemed to want to pander to the baying halo fans and gave them what they thought they wanted, a story with lore up the wazoo only to discover that nobody wanted that and it was boring. All anyone wanted to do was have fun shooting the covenant but they even ruined that by introducing that new robotic faction that are just annoying to deal with.

I can be pretty down on the Bungie halo series at times but it's more being aghast at the hyperbole that came out of people about how it changed gaming forever but they are undeniably fun games with a good gameplay loop. They take a massive dump over the likes of killzone or recent call of duties.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120132941#Comment_120132941

Yeah, I'd agree with almost all that, just some foolish assumptions all around. It was like they didn't learn anything from the experience that Bungie had with Halo. Bungie realised that some of flood enemies were annoying in that they jumped airbourne around a bit, so they toned that down, 343 introduce flying enemies that are able to strafe perfectly, incredibly annoying. Bungie did the two protagonists thing in Halo 2, that most hated, so they got rid of that for 3, 343 decide to do two protagonists for Halo 5, just weird.

At least Infinite was a back to basics, but in an "open world"y way. If it didn't suffer from mismanagement and dev hell, then it may have rescued the series. Imagine not wanting to add headcount to the dev team, so you then rely on contractors, but because game development takes so long, all contractors are let go after 18 months so that they don't earn extra employment rights, meaning you're starting again with new contractors that need to get up to speed on a weird custom engine. The mind boggles.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133060#Comment_120133060

Going through the same **** in my own industry. It's all about contractors now and the absolute worst thing a manager can do is add permanent headcount to their team. They would have no trouble putting in an order for instrumentation that costs millions but add a permanent employee on 40K a year and you are the worst in the world. And then the contractors we get in all have to be trained up which takes weeks and then it really takes them 6 months until they are up to speed with everyone else and a few months later they are gone and you do it again.

It's all mandated by sociopathic idiots in a head office far removed from what is actually going on and all they are interested in is short sighted gains that show they saved money so they can get a bigger bonus and share options while they are in reality negatively affecting production for years to come.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130128#Comment_120130128

Flight Sim is made by Asobo who are an independent developer. I'm surprised MS haven't bought them yet considering they've worked so closely together, but maybe it's a good thing that they've retained their independence because they've gone from strength to strength with the Plague Tale games.

I tried Sea of Thieves and it isn't my cup of tea though I know it's popular in its niche. But they did buy Rare, once one of the most highly regarded and prolific developers in the industry, over 20 years ago and that is the best they have to show for it. I don't think it's ever been controversial to say that acquisition did not work out well - in the words of Martin Hollis, who led the development of some of their most iconic games, "Microsoft and Rare was a bad marriage from the beginning. The groom was rich. The bride was beautiful. But they wanted to make different games and they wanted to make them in different ways."

343 taken off Halo development. They will continue to work on the engine and oversee work on the franchise but development will now be outsourced to 3rd party studios.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/343-industries-will-no-longer-make-halo-games-but-will-oversee-outside-development-report/1100-651072

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P.s I don't know what's up with hyper links. The comment box is competely borked on Android 13.

Penn

https://twitter.com/GameOverGreggy/status/1616518956071936000?t=NKs2FpMKE0BJAGi3mmrpUA&s=19

Sunsetting of the Avengers game likely to be announced in the next week or so. Only surprise is how long it took.

I actually did enjoy the game when I played it. It was one of the okayest games I've ever played. Everything about it was just okay, but they did a decent enough job of having a reasonably good upgrade system and making all character feel different but with the same control scheme. I had to stick to flying characters because the traversal was so awful otherwise.

But once you got into endgame content, the game absolutely collapsed. Repetitive content which was incredibly bland. Awful upgrading system for "live service" bullsh*t. And when the game landed to mediocre reviews, the "roadmap" became absolutely f*cked, which just prolonged the repetitive content because new content got so delayed.

Could have been such a good Tony Stark quote if they hadn't put it backwards.

"The end is part of the journey" would have been better.