Digital Foundry Calls Halo Infinite 'A Brilliant Game', But With Numerous Tech Issues

I don't know if there's a lot of people concerned about the 120fps thing, in general...

I think for the time being, the games should focus on giving us the maximum quality possible with a 60 frame refresh rate.

I'm still torn apart on Forza, for example. I really, really like the picture of the quality mode, but the 30 fps just makes the game more difficult to control.

A completely separate note, I'm so looking forward to December Holidays, can't wait to play Halo Infinite and The Gunk. Very excited

@Bobobiwan once you play a specific game at 60fps, it's hard to play it at 30fps.

@Medic_Alert I don't judge games just on tech, but I feel fortunate that there are companies like DF using the microscope and cutting through marketing g hype or potential false claims by game makers.

Loved the DF analysis. It's ok to point out these deficiencies because they won't be fixed unless acknowledged (at the end of the day, dev team won't feel like there is a perceived issue to fix). And I completely expected them to be there.
However, main takeaway from that analysis is that 343 got it right when it comes to gameplay, which is great news and one that matters. That would have been way harder to polish in post-release patch. All around, I'm happy with how it turned out.

By the time I can afford an Xbox Series X, and a new OLED TV (with 120fps capability), I expect the Performance Mode will be patched into a much better state!

While I do like how in depth these DF write ups are, as others have said it makes little difference to the average gamer. The strong take for me from most of the reviews is that the game is fun and the most Halo a game can be.

I do like the nit picking that these for videos do for developer feedback though. Like how they've noted the slight "stuttering" in cut scenes and 343 is already looking into it. This sort of feedback is generally not something the gaming community as a whole would cry about and is definitely useful.

All in all, I've had a blast with MP so far and can't wait to dive back in as Chief for what seems a unanimous improvement on 4 and 5.

Your not a real gamer if you can't play with a choppy frame rate 😂

@themightyant One could say that the facial animations issue is a legit complaint since it seems to not be on purpose. They said they are working to fix it, so that was definitely not by choice like Ember Labs with Kena having the cutscenes be at a different framerate completely. I can't say for sure since I haven't seen it in action, but that could be something that would be legitimately annoying. The freezing issue that you mentioned is definitely the biggest issue though.

In a way, after reading this article, it makes me somewhat glad I'm not playing Infinite's campaign until sometime next year. I have other games to play and never got around to play Halo 5, which is essential for the story, so the plan for a while has been to wait. By then, it should be smoother technically and even more enjoyable.

Digital foundry the king of making mountains out of mole hills

It seems that most are 'relatively' minor - things like some animations not updating at the correct frame rate and the way lighting is implemented in the 'open' world areas particularly. Nothing that really 'impacts' the game-play. It seems that 343 are already working on a fix for some issues.

It also wouldn't be the 'first' game to look technically worse on release than the initial trailers (2018 & 19) implied as the 'scope' of the game grows, so do the 'demands' on resources so may need to reduce certain elements to remain within budget and 'consistent' to the end.

To me, 60fps is the perfect balance between 'high-framerate' game-play and allowing enough time for impressive visual clarity - especially in a Single Player game. Even if my older 4k HDR TV could offer 120fps, I'd still opt to play in 'Quality' mode. If the Quality was 30fps and Performance '60fps', I'd be more torn.

The lock-ups are a concern, but overall I don't really see a lot that really concerns me. Yes it could be 'better', but the majority of 'issues' seem 'minor' and fixable with a patch. Its still perfectly playable on release - something that can't be said for MANY games these days!

It's somewhat puzzling that they need to fix those technical issues after one year polishing the game but Breath of the Wild was the same and it was delayed one year to make the Switch port. The difference is that frame rate dropped to 10fps in BotW! I appreciate Digital Foundry finding all these glitches so they will be fixed 👍.

@Cikajovazmaj I agree, good that the 120fps mode flaws are spoken by Digital Foundry so they'll get fixed but I'm very happy about the final result because the developer focused on the gameplay (both campaign and multiplayer) and graphics quality. Actually, the game looks so much better than the first time it was shown. Infinitely better. The grass, trees and lighting is a generation ahead from the first trailer. It looks great now and it's a cross-gen game!

Was going to get an OLED next year for 4K /120fps gaming, but what's the point when next gen games don't run at this resolution anyway? Think i'll stick to my Philips Ambilight.
As for Halo Infinite, looking forward to playing it over Christmas.

I was about to watch the whole video as I enjoy watching DF videos but at the beginning where he said he’s going to walkthrough the very start of the campaign, I shut the video down. I’ve went this long to avoid spoilers and I’m not about to ruin that when we are only 2 days away from playing it ourselves. I’ll give it a watch after I’m a few missions in.

@MaccaMUFC I love Digital Foundry but I haven't watched this particular video for the same reason. You have to wait two days. I should play 3 ODST, 4, Reach and 5 first 😂.

I guess there's some people into the whole 120hz on consoles thing, but I doubt there's more than scant few who care considering only PC gaming monitors (usually TN panels that sacrifice everything except speed) and top top top tier TVs even offer that. Since these consoles can't even rely on 60fps and always default to 30fps quality modes requiring manually "reducing" settings to 60fps performance, 120hz seems like a dream for a generation from now at best. On these consoles I can't imagine any mount of people trying to use 120hz for anything but competitive multiplayer, so that would matter a lot more for the multiplayer part of Infinite than the campaign.

@BlueOcean The real question is how Halo Grass(TM) and Halo Trees(TM) perform

@NEStalgia I was surprised to see how much better the HaloGrass(TM) and HaloTrees(TM) look now and the screenshots chosen by PX reviewer aren't the best to show. 120fp is a bit pointless, it sacrifices quality and the difference between 60 and 120fps is not worth it, it has nothing to do with the difference between 30 and 60 fps. I played New Super Lucky's Tale in 120 fps because nothing was sacrificed and it's a nice bonus (most responsive platformer ever now) but not something to make sacrifices for, unless you're a competitive player.

@BlueOcean I haven't seen 120fps in person, personally, so I don't know how much of a difference it makes. I know some PC players are insistent that just like 30 to 60fps you just can't go back when you get used to it. But I think consoles should really be able to do 60fps with it's high quality modes before worrying about 120 is even a consideration. The focus this gen has been on 60 mostly....and even then every game greets us with a quality/performance slider. At least in Infinite's case that means 60/120 instead of 30/60

@NEStalgia Digital Foundry said that the (delayed) PS5 exclusives are concentrating on 30fps. I was disappointed to hear that. The best thing about the current generation is that we're able to get consistent 60fps, finally! It was an elusive dream last generation. Microsoft are doing the right thing focusing on 60fps and adding 120fps as a bonus.

Irrelevant to me. I'll be thoroughly enjoying it either way. And besides... Consistent 60 fps as a standard with quality mode is more than enough for me. 120fps is icing on the cake. DF is being bit picky at this point. Download the game yourself when it drops and come to your own conclusions.

@BlueOcean I'm hoping they're going to still have the 30/60 slider at least. It honestly makes their PS4 games so much nicer with the 60 option on a 5. GoT, HzD feel so much more alive at 60, and GoW...well..it's smooth.... Spiderman, at first I preferrend 30 but I just can't swing at 30 anymore. It gets headache inducing at 30. Since most of their studios (Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, Polyphony) are now used to releasing 60fps modes, I'm hoping they'll carry that through. I THINK even Naughty Dog did it eventually? I'm not sure about that one.

I know they'd target that because high detail makes better stills, and they're all about the marketing. Better raw gfx is a much better marketing tool. That's why we had the "bullshots" back in the day on PC. The back of the box had all these amazing pictures of the game that looked so far in the future. Because most of them were static renders from some render station that took like 2 hours to render the scene at that spec. The actual hardware you'd run it on would look nothing like that. Now it's "actual console footage" but run at low fps. If they have the option, cool, I'll ignore the 30 mode. If it's forced it's like going back in time.

They know what they're doing for marketing. 60fps games, in motion, look much better, really. But most people will see it on Youtube and Facebook where the visuals of theirs will stand out and the fps won't be clear.

@NEStalgia I agree but if they're concentrating on the 30fps mode for marketing reasons then the performance mode will be secondary and visually downgraded. It might be good enough for you but just something to reflect on.

The 120fps issue is obvious even in multiplayer. Seeing someone in the distance going from clearly visible to super grainy from the resolution drop is super jarring.

All these dynamic settings are getting tiresome. You know what I also don't use on my PC when running 144fps? Dynamic settings. I set everything until it is stable with no changes being made.

I wish more developers would just do this for consistency's sake.

Some people are giving Digital Foundry lot criticism. I understand why. But I HIGHLY appreciate what they do.

Why? Very simple answer.

If you EXPECT quality, then you have to DEMAND quality.

@Medic_Alert @themightyant That's been my assumption about how I expect to receive it. I don't expect I'll even see it in person for some years. Small display tech still requires a tradeoff of performance or speed and I don't see that changing soon. Obviously I've seen higher with PSVR, but that's a wholly different perspective.

I get it's importance in competitive play though. It's less about the visual presentation, and more about doubling the input updates and animation updates I assume making response times far more pinpoint.

I know the eye can technically see infinite fps, and there's a lot of perceptual detail seen at speeds up past 1000 RPS with real world movement.

Why do I get the idea that that monitor with >300 fps doesn't really do that, is a TN with horrible viewing angles, has terrible blur or flicker when trying to do that via some extreme overdriving and generally looks terrible? Everything goes full circle. Eventually we'll be back on CRTs with "green ROhS cathode tubes"

@BlueOcean HZD: FW is confirmed and GOW:R more the likely being both cross gen have 60fps modes on the PS5. In the same way as the quality mode and performance mode exists on FH:5. Halo Infinite is 30 on the base consoles much like the PS exclusives will be 30 on the PS4. Halo adds the option performance option of 120fps for the enthusiast and no separate quality option mode at 30fps.

@themightyant and @BlueOcean

Interesting to hear opinions on 120fps. I still have a 1080p60 plasma, so I haven't experienced 120, even though I'll be getting an OLED soon.

But yeah it's pretty much as I thought. Even though I find 30fps very hard to tolerate now - a headache inducing eyesore - and is a big reason why I was mainly a PC gamer throughout the PS4/XboxOne gen, I had a feeling that the difference between 60 and 120 would be much, much less.

At 30 there is such obvious judder and ghosting, and in contrast 60 looks almost perfectly smooth, like, how it be much smoother? Especially a very locked 60. So naturally it's a law of diminishing returns, it doesn't seem possible for something to be THAT much smoother than a locked 60. It's why I was shocked there are even 240hz+ displays now. I mean is that just for competitive gaming? To have 1ms faster inputs

Incidentally I am very surprised at some of the negativity/hostility directed towards Digital Foundry.

DF are awesome, and the thing is, it's literally their job to go through these games with a technical fine toothed comb. Does it require zooming in, slowing down at times, and pointing out flaws most people wouldn't notice? Of course, but again it's their job and they do it well, you can't blame them for being very thorough.

@Raffles "I still have a 1080p60 plasma, so I haven't experienced 120, even though I'll be getting an OLED soon".

The reasons to get an OLED TV are many and the 120Hz support is just a bonus. You'll get 4K, infinite contrast, more natural/real colours than on any LCD/QLED, more balanced HDR, low input lag... The difference between 60 and 120fps is subtle. If 60fps is locked, it's absolutely fine. The difference between 30 and 60 fps is huge and it also gives me headaches. Unlike PS5, Series X/S support VRR over 40fps so that helps, too.

"DF are awesome, and the thing is, it's literally their job to go through these games with a technical fine toothed comb. Does it require zooming in, slowing down at times, and pointing out flaws most people wouldn't notice? Of course, but again it's their job and they do it well, you can't blame them for being very thorough".

Exactly, it's their job and their job is beneficial for the industry. People is free to care more or less about technical aspects but they're wrong to blame Digital Foundry. That nonsense happens on NL the most where some hate Digital Foundry just because Switch is not able to do 1080p60fps (Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Doom, etc.). Some of them even say that 360p25fps is all right so let's make N64 ports of current-gen games! 😂

@BlueOcean I expect nearly all AAA games will "focus" on 30fps quality mode but allow 60fps performance modes. Even FH5 defaults to 30fps quality mode (and annoyingly your save doesn't retain the settings so if you launch on a new console, PC, or streaming for the first time, it'll default to 30fps every time.) My worry with Sony is that they mean it won't be an option, they'll just have one size fits all so everyone gets the experience "as the director intended." Since most of their main studios now have experience adding the mode selection, I'm hoping that won't be the case. Insomniac spent a lot of time adding RT to the Performance mode, so I think they understand it's important to a lot of players, but who knows.

@NEStalgia That's what I mean earlier. Sony focus on cinematic experiences with pseudo-open worlds and flashy visuals. Even their main and only platformer focus on graphics and 30fps! They will probably add 60fps modes but it's not their priority, sadly.

I've been using the 120FPS mode for the Halo Infinite multiplayer and it's been super responsive.
However, for campaign, I'll be sticking to 60FPS as I don't think you need higher than that for non-competitive play.

@BlueOcean I'm not too worried about "priority" as long as the 60fps mode both exists works well. I assume 30fps mode was the priority on FH5 and the next gen TES:O patch, since it's the default on both of them (even though few sane people even consider the 30fps mode on TES:O.)) I think the 60fps mode looks noticeably worse, but the tradeoff is worth it, but people with big high end TVs notice how much worse it looks a lot more. That game doesn't even have blur when you turn so IMO 30fps mode is kind of a waste, sharp as it is. But I think priority is definitely visual perfection at 30fps.

Games like Halo seem rare in that they target 60 by default. Though even on the Sony side, the PS4 games with a 60fps patch just default to it now without a quality mode on PS5. As long as I have a good looking 60fps mode available, they can prioritize whatever they'd like

@Medic_Alert @Raffles @themightyant One other thing I did forget about with high refresh is that I've heard that panels with a native high refresh, especially *VA panels, can show tremendous ghosting if you underdrive the refresh. So sometimes high refresh support might be less about actually needing high refresh and more about having a display that if not fed a high refresh will turn things into a smeary mess because it's designed for the fast signal.

@Medic_Alert Depends on the panel tech. A TN wouldn't have that problem but would have terrible viewing angles and mediocre color. A VA would probably suffer from that. IPS.....I'm not sure you can do a high refresh IPS yet? It's a slower tech by nature. Maybe, but getting a good GtG speed at 60 is rare enough on them.

@NEStalgia I'm not so sure that Forza Horizon 5 focused on the quality mode even though it's the default more. Both modes are rock-solid so I guess they were designed and balanced at the same time in order to achieve perfect 30/60 fps performance. Halo Infinite, because of the genre, had to focus on 60fps and the 120fps was a bonus that has to be ironed out according to Digital Foundry. The 30fps is reserved for Xbox One but who cares about Xbox One in 2022. I don't intend to offend anyone, just that it's too late for Xbox One to be in the limelight. Even Xbox One X runs the game at 30fps. This is Xbox One's swansong, isn't it? The Xbox version of The Legend of Zelda.

@BlueOcean I think you'd have to focus on the quality mode if including it, because that one will take the most resources and graphics work. 60fps mode dials it back from there. Obviously more work might be involved in performance tuning to get max quality out of the 60fps setting, but more actual artwork, shading, lighting etc has to go into whatever the highest quality version is.

Still, I question their focus on top visuals. In my heart I know the market is generally stupid and easily sold on "ooh pretty", especially if you don't see it in motion. It's always been that wa y. But OTOH, in motion, I feel both new consoles really are at their optimum with smooth animation. Spidermiles is a great example. The world looks great in high quality and the traffic is so much denser and more lifelike. Great for stills. Great for trailers. Great for youtube. But what makes the console feel "fast" is seeing that smooth 60 while swinging around. If they really don't push 60fps I think they're really selling their hardware short in favor of marketing potential. It's like "blast processing" all over again. The Genesis/Megadrive was slower overall than the SNES, but darned if it didn't feel faster with that fast redraw that Sonic demonstrated so well. Fast feels like power, and 60fps feels like fast.

PERSONALLY I feel 60fps should be the default for everything on 9th gen consoles but quality should be an option for those that want screenshots, or get nauseated by fast refresh. No matter how pretty the vistas are, in motion, and it's a game, even Sony games, even Naughty Dog games are always in motion, the camera alone means fast motion is constant, and it all looks so much more "solid" and showcases power vs what streaming tends to offer on local hardware when it's fast refresh.

It doesn't work if the graphics take too big a hit, but that's the point of the new consoles, they don't.

@NEStalgia That's why I think this is the best generation since 3D games started! 😁 You're probably right and perhaps they created the quality mode first.

@themightyant True, in the end this is in better shape than most games have been this year. So, I will give 343 credit for that.

If I was going to play Infinite this week, either issue wouldn't be gamebreaking for me. I'd still enjoy it, but knowing that the minor(ish) issues are there and that they are going to work to fix them makes it easy to stick to my plan of waiting a little while before I play the campaign.

@KilloWertz Agreed. With this information about how 120hz mode is handled, and the seeing how it works in multiplayer, definitely going to wait for the first patch minimum at this point.

Definitely a shame. It seems like Microsoft is supporting things half heartedly. Forza Horizon 5 doesn't support my G923 steering wheel fully, as an example, but Forza Motorsport 6, from forever ago, does somehow.

@BlueOcean NL is a funny one, I actually discovered NL before here, and I have noticed there's a decent amount of hostility and bickering there, ie more than here, which surprises me. I thought the Nintendo crowd would be more friendly and easy going, but I guess that's just the internet in general

Oh and regarding OLEDs, agreed, all the things you listed are what I imagine I'll notice the most for sure. The 4k will be good obviously, but I am actually less resolution obsessed than most, so I'm looking forward to the perfect black levels and low input lag more than anything, plus VRR and HDR.

Having said all that, given how much I appreciate 60fps, I am very much looking forward to trying 120fps for myself, just to see if there is any significant difference, if it's perceivably better.

On that note @BlueOcean @themightyant @NEStalgia - is there a 120hz title in particular that seems like a good showcase, that you noticed more than others?

@NEStalgia I agree with everything you just said. Tbh the focus on high framerates and even the retroactive FPS boost is the main reason I'm over the moon with my Series X, it's made me love console gaming again, after skipping the entire PS4 generation.

You know as I said earlier in this thread, I do find 30fps a bit of an eyesore plain and simple, and sometimes headache inducing, ie with big steps between frames, fast movement or panning, with no motion blur. I find it just about tolerable if it's a locked 30fps with motion blur to smooth the judder, and I also find a small handheld makes the judder less pronounced, but overall the difference between 30 and 60 is night and day.

I very much agree with you about the "feel". Even if 30 didn't hurt my eyes or give me headaches, 60 just feels so much better, more fluid and lifelike. I think if there was one word to decribe 60 over 30 it would be "engaging".

A locked 60fps simply makes me feel more part of the action, and makes the game FAR more immersive than 30 ever could.

@Raffles PXB is the exception to the rule for gaming sites because it's newer and the XB community is smallish after it retracted during the X1 years. It'll get wore as XSXS gets popular again, unfortunately. The Nintendo community was nice like this during the WiiU & 3DS years. Switch's success turned it into a monster.

I find the same thing with 30fps. Even FH5 which has a very stable frame pacing with 30fps, the fast movement just makes it hard to look at. Elder Scrolls Online has no blur when moving the camera and I too find it headache inducing in 30fps mode. Something like Spiderman PS4/5 where there's a really good motion blur when turning is less problematic to play, but after I got used to smooth motion, I still find it hard to go back to the (admittedly much better looking and populated city) of 30. It messes with my eyes too much. There's a reason cinematographers pan SLOWLY rather than quickly as we do in games...

Pretty visuals are nice, but any time you see a live game and one moves smooth, even back in the arcades....the smooth moving game always is the most attractive one to play with!

@Raffles @NEStalgia You both explained very well what 60fps entails. It makes games more real, more life-life, more 3D. 30fps games produce a similar effect on me than on Raffles, especially for fast movement or panning without motion blur. I used the cinema mode on my old LCD TV and it was a relief, almost like fake 60fps, but it introduces a great amount of input lag. Now with OLED and Series X, all these problems are in the past. Frame Boost is something to be grateful for and those games that don't support them, at least run in solid 30fps now. Not everything is perfect now but most issues have disappeared. A game that I still play and it's not quite okay in this regard is Forza Horizon 3.

@Raffles Definitely, the perfect contrast, natural colours, balanced HDR and VRR are the things to look forward to!

The only game I played 100% at 120fps is New Super Lucky's Tale. Lucky's games on Xbox are very responsive but the 120fps make them smoother and the input lag is reduced to almost zero, which is something I enjoy more than the slightly smoother frame rate because 60fps is smooth enough.

Dirt 5 also has a 120fps mode and, because it's a racing game, it would be a good title for testing but I haven't played it yet. I watched Digital Foundry's video and when turning, which produces the stuttering that make us dizzy playing 30fps racing games, the smoothness of the camera is just perfect while in 60fps you can see that turning still produces a little amount of stuttering, more obvious in slow motion. My takeaway is that the reduction of input lag is the most important benefit of 120fps and it's a joy in genres like platforming and racing and it's optimised by Xbox Velocity Architecture.

@Raffles"NL is a funny one, I actually discovered NL before here, and I have noticed there's a decent amount of hostility and bickering there, ie more than here, which surprises me. I thought the Nintendo crowd would be more friendly and easy going".

Exactly, the same people that play cartoony games are surprisingly hostile and rude. Of course, not all of them but on the thread "Disappointed by the lack of new exclusives" where people complained about the fact that Nintendo's output as developer has been very poor for years, you can see that. Those people are extremely active and warring and, unfortunately, the mods don't ban them.