Yesterday provided us with a fresh look at Halo Infinite's campaign ahead of the game's release on December 8th, and unlike last year's trailer which drew considerable criticism, this year's version has gone down very well.
It's clear the team at 343 Industries has made considerable improvements to the campaign from a visual standpoint over the past couple of years, and this is demonstrated in the video above and screenshots below:
Our original look at gameplay for Halo Infinite's campaign arrived back in July 2020, but 343 ultimately admitted that "the reality is that the art and visuals weren’t at the bar we hold for Halo – even in a work-in-progress state."
The announcement of Halo Infinite's delay in August of 2020 was one of the most disappointing aspects of an otherwise exciting year for Xbox, but it's clear it was for the best. Let's hope Halo Infinite can live up to the hype!
What are your thoughts on these comparison shots? Let us know down in the comments below.
Comments 16
Night and day difference! I get people hate delays, but I wish people were more understanding of developer crunch times and how much we can benefit from waiting for a game to cook for a little bit longer
It's a fantastic improvement. I'd love to get an insight of what conversations were going on when it was decided to delay the game.
The improvements to the visual quality show that they were justified in taking a year out, and considering the upheaval the last few years have had, put that time to 'good' use.
My one concern right now though is the hardware they used for that trailer. If its running on a 'very high' spec PC to push the level of detail out, not just objects themselves, but their shadows and material properties and eliminate pop-in, then how many cutbacks are needed for the various console specs? If they scale back LoDs and Shadows, especially at 'distance', you end up with a world that looks 'flat' (the contrast of shadows missing, scene complexity is lower etc) and introduce visual 'pop-in' (Objects, shadows, textures etc) which brings us back to the '2020' trailer.
I am not saying it could be 'that' bad on a Series X, but could be that bad on an XB1S if that's the 'best' they can get it looking on a 'top spec' PC with all the tricks modern hardware can do like Variable Rate Shading, DLSS etc.
The fact its on Game Pass means I will give it a go thanks to the improvements I can see in the trailer. The 2020 trailer was enough to put me off so its been successful in changing my mind on whether to try it or not. At least I can make up my own mind about whether 343 have 'saved' Halo or not without the risk of purchase...
Unpopular opinion? I kinda prefer the old graphics! They look more natural and realistic to my eyes, the lighting in particular. The close up of the face for example just looks like they decided to shine a torch at him to make it look more dramatic and contrasty. Similarly the metal ramp in the final comparison looks more naturally lit and not so shiny in the original screenshot - much more like I would expect a military grade metal material to look. I think the new graphics still look fantastic, don't get me wrong, and some of the texture work is obviously improved, but I was never in the camp that hated how it looked last year if I'm honest.
It's transformative and great looking for sure. Time was definitely well spent on polishing the visuals. However, shame on them for wanting to release this game in a state it was in a year ago (will never let that go).
Looking much better. Glad they took the extra development time.
Visually the game looks beautiful now and they’ve clearly used the time wisely.
I just hope the semi open world nature doesn’t ruin it for me.
Halo single player has always been an on rails shooter and that’s the way I like it.
Keeping everything crossed 🤞 but either way the multiplayer is amazing so can’t wait for that.
Night and day difference? Are people just being super fanboys here? Lol....looks more light and made master chief armour dirty..minimal difference that I wouldn't notice unless I'm looking hard for it....but then again I didn't think it looked bad in the first place
@StylesT https://www.specsavers.co.uk/book/location
I would take Halo Infinite one year ago over slightly prettier graphics. It wasn't that bad to begin with.
The expression "Night and Day" is frequently over used. However, in this instance, the differences between 2020 and 2021 genuinely warrant that description. Kudos to the 343 for making such significant changes.
I'll be honest and say that I didn't think the 2020 version was particularly bad, it was basically more of what had come before (in terms of visuals). However, now that we can view the images side by side, it is clear that the overhaul was needed. Just looking at John's armour makes you realise that the 2020 version had very little scuffing or detail, and when you consider what he had been through up until that point (particularly what I had put him through!) you would have expected a touch more damage to his suit. It now looks battle weary, and all the better for it.
Really cannot wait to dive into this game...
Genuinely made me laugh very loudly indeed, @Kloppo...!
@BAMozzy
Well, the promo stuff they've done for Forza Horizon 5 has all been on Series X.
Considering the PC performance for the Halo Infinite flight test left a lot to be desired, I'd say this trailer is probably running on Series X as well, since the performance on that was rock solid during the last flight.
When the trailer was shown a year ago I couldn't find anything other than a 1080p highly compressed version which is why I originally thought it looked underwhelming, the most recent footage is all available at 4K so just from that alone it'll look better.
I do prefer the new textures and lighting in the new trailer, it looks more like a series x game now.
@JohannVanDerSmut That's a very relative statement. Yes Last Gen Graphics are 'great' compared to 360 era and if you are 'used' to XB1 visual standards, then it may well be 'good' enough, but compared to next gen, the XB1 has the 'worst' visual quality.
Its not surprising as it has the weakest Graphics Processing Unit so cannot process as much data per frame. Therefore, they opt to reduce the 'size' of the image and reduce the Visual Quality settings to reduce the amount of work the GPU has to do to try and get a frame out. If that's not enough, then they cap the frame rate to 30fps to reduce the number of frames the GPU has to produce - essentially giving it more time to try and produce a 'better' looking image.
Halo Infinite could look 'OK' on XB1 and certainly in keeping with the visual quality XB1 owners are accustomed too, but that doesn't mean that the compromises needed to get the game running on the 'weakest' hardware are not 'obvious' when compared to the most 'powerful' hardware.
Even a couple of years ago, the XB1 was the 'worst' visually and often in performance too. Compared to PS4, PS4 Pro, XB1X, Series S, PS5 and Series X, the visual presentation and/or performance is the 'worst'. It was the 'worst' back in 2013 too - or have you forgotten all that 'controversy' - when PS4 had the 'better' visual quality in virtually every game. A few years ago, we also had PS4 Pro XB1X with significantly more GPU processing power - hence Gears 5 is limited to just '30fps' on XB1 but can play at 60fps on XB1X and with a 'higher' visual quality.
That doesn't mean the XB1S is absolutely terrible for graphics in games. Its still offering 'better' Visual Quality than any of the 'Switch' versions of the same games. However the XB1S vs Switch comparison is similar to the XsX vs XB1s comparison. Reduced image size, detail, visual settings, frame rates etc to get the game to run at all on much more limited spec hardware...
Point is, its all relative. If your 'reference' is XB360/PS3/Switch for 'visual' quality/performance, then the XB1S is delivering the better standards - however, when compared to PS4, PS4 Pro, XB1X, PS5, Series S/X, then the 'compromises' necessary become more obvious. Often its a testament to the developers on how they manage to make some 'drastic' compromises that have minimal impact at a 'quick' glance in side by sides.
Its NOT a criticism of XB1S (and certainly not a criticism of those with an XB1S either) - its just a basic understanding of hardware and its impact. If you have a GPU with '2x' the power, you can use that 'extra' to add more graphical flourishes, make the image bigger to keep finer details, etc or maybe 'double' the frame rate. If you have a GPU 'half' as powerful, you need to 'compromise', reduce image quality and/or frame rate to render that frame in time and the XB1S has the 'smallest' GPU so it stands to reason that it will produce that 'weakest' visual quality.
Looks good, to me.
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