Halo Infinite's First Drop Pod Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Disgusting that Halo Infinite still doesn't have a genuine local splitscreen multiplayer mode (and no, having each player sign in through a separate account DOESN'T COUNT; not everyone has an XBOX or a Microsoft account). We have the most powerful consoles and the biggest displays in the history of the hobby, and yet your OG XBOX and that 27" screen you used to huddle around with your friends provided a better and far more readily accessible local multi-player experience. It's NOT about "technical limitations"; it's about PRIORITIES and using online functionality to gate, control, and further gouge users after the original point-of-sale (example: those thousands of $$$ worth of skins that came before so many basic features that fans had previously been accustomed to expecting from the Halo franchise).

If you've reading this, 343, we're waiting, and folks like me are NOT going to stop reminding you about it.

@AtlanteanMan your friends can sign in as guests from your main account, no need to create new accounts, they'll appear as your gamer tag plus a number to differentiate therm, it has been this way since the launch of the Xbox One. Heck, even the 360 had the same option.

I've tried this, believe me. Multiple times. It's not possible anymore. I know what you're referring to, by the way; it used to be how local splitscreen was handled on the 360. I used to play Halo 2, 3, Reach, etc. with friends that way. 343/Microsoft removed that capability in Infinite, and the only reason that makes sense is that they want to force every player to have their own hardware and copy of the game.

But don't take my word alone for it; this is very well documented online, and most of the posters feel the same way I do regarding the situation: it's another case of the industry shafting gamers for greed and control.

A modest selection of changes. I know future drop pods could be bigger or smaller than this.

I’m not sure what were they were thinking increasing wasp and ghost health. They’re strong enough!

@AtlanteanMan Welcome to a huge comment but worth it because of what it containsz it's gonna need to be broken up into a couple comments but everything is written I just need to chop it up. I understand your frustration, I really do... But 343 deserves the extra time. They had 5 major things working against them during the most important period of development.

Issues 1, 2 & 3, the entire team(1) needed to learn the new engines ins and outs as well as it's toolset. Then covid(2) hits and a very large development team is now working from home which is not conducive to well paced development or collaboration.

(3)Essentially not being able to walk over to a desk to pitch something and have them go hands on right then and there they would now have to contact them via video calls and they would need to compile because the people they are getting opinions from are probably working on something completely different so their builds won't necessarily be compatible which means can't just run it instantly off the development kit. (2 & 3) Just that alone waste massive amounts of time. After compilation which could take 20 min or 10 hours they need to upload whatever the idea, tweak or general change to a server and then other need to download it. They would be doing this many times per day so they are essentially forced to work at 1/4 the speed and they worked like this for nearly 3 years.

Issue 4. There were 2 team leads that didn't do their jobs. Microsoft gave them all the resources needed. That's money & people. However 2 of the most important leads didn't handle the resources properly which is what led to the content issues, that's maps, modes, forge, coop etc. If they didn't squander resources and properly led the team they would have had more than enough content for the first year of 4 seasons.

@d0x3601 Those leads and some others "left the company" and that really means they were given the option to quit and get their severance pay or be fired. Obviously they would pick door #1. They royally screwed up the project due to mismanagement which is why Phil Spencer has been working on restructuring project managers and also changing how some teams are run. Meaning some studios need high level supervision more then others. Turn10 is essentially autonomous and they always get the job done and get it done very well. Then there's Obsidian and Double Fine who both admitted they needed that extra structure. It's not a good or bad thing it's just how development works but they gobbled up so many studios of different sizes and styles that it's taken a while to get every team sorted out. COVID certainly didn't help matters.

Issue #5 is another massive one. The engine was designed for the series x and decent gaming PC's but it scales well enough to run on the base Xbox one and that's a massive hurdle.

That console was significantly under powered from day 1. The Xbox one x is what should have launched but even that has an incredibly poor CPU and slow IO.

Ensuring everything also would run on the base Xbox one probably took around 100 people and those people could have been working on next gen. The other massive issue the base Xbox caused was the campaign itself, coop and forge.

The campaign was supposed to be larger.. much larger and you would have been able to travel to most of the Halo ring with different biomes like previous games but this time it would have been seamless. It also meant visuals had to be made in a way that they would work on base too. That limits the potential visual quality on the other platforms significantly.

That original slipstream demo was legit and we would have gotten that level of quality if they cancelled the campaign on the last gen consoles. They could still do mp because the maps aren't "infinite" like a mostly open world Halo would feel like.

The CPU, ram and hard drive speed not only effects visuals but it is also why coop and forge aren't done. They need to optimize to an absurd degree due to that hardware and that takes time. Forge is especially an issue because it's going to be mind-blowing. Forge will be a game changer that is so good and beneficial to the game that it will bring players in and they will stay because it's going to essentially allow people to make anything and I mean anything.

Thankfully the core of the game, the gameplay, the way it feels like Halo while also feeling new & modern. It's an incredibly fun game. It's got what it takes to be the best Halo ever made. They have all the right people in the right places and they are back in the studio. The only negative now is the base console and honestly I think that they should continue to bring new content to it but they should stop when season 3 ends. After that it's up to the community and forge for them until they upgrade.

@d0x3601 Wow, very precise and informative comments ! Thanks, pal !
As for the campaign, I'm glad they finally fixed the lag in the cutscenes. It may seems to be a detail for some, but for me, it was everything.
I'm still hoping for big campaign extensions, in the near future, with other biomes. And I'll be there to play them, for sure.

@Bobobiwan oh me too. Things running at different frame rates bugs me. I was just playing assassin's creed odyssey and it looks great and runs great but all the clothing and cloth tents run at half animation and it looks so bad lol..

I think they will expand the ring. They said it was going to be the Halo platform for 10 years and 10 years of just multiplayer is fine but getting new biomes and going to crazy parts of the Halo would be fantastic. Fingers crossed.

@d0x3601 Thanks for the insightful comments. I will say that, based upon everything you said, Halo Infinite frankly should have been delayed until the studio had time to get it RIGHT AND COMPLETE as opposed to having to leave the majority of the campaign and so many features on the cutting room floor in order to make a holiday release window. It also seems obvious that it should have been released as a NEXT-GEN-ONLY title (either that or toss out cross-gen online play). This sort of thing isn't just an issue with 343; it's become disturbingly common among a LOT of manufacturers. The end consumer keeps getting less content (and less overall quality) at launch and end up playing glorified betas simply because online functionality allows developers to "cheat", and in some cases even end up having to pay additional money to access basic features that should have been in the game to begin with.

I won't argue that what's there in Halo Infinite is excellent, but COVID or no, the game was handled the WRONG WAY, with priorities that didn't match up with the expectations of fans. Case in point: thousands of $$$ worth of Fortnite wannabe skins that could have gone toward further refining the campaign, implementing co-op and local multiplayer, etc.. I get it; 343 and Microsoft wanted another revenue stream for Halo Infinite (another SERIOUS issue with too many modern games and publishers anymore, from loot crates and NFTs to anything else they can come up with), but it came at the cost of what mattered to the end consumer: THE PRODUCT ITSELF. I'd happily trade the ability to buy cat ears for my Spartan for the ability to play around the living room with friends on the same screen.

As it stands, Halo Infinite may one day become the game that fans hoped to see, but that day seems to be a long way off. And sadly, some things, like those seamless biomes you mentioned, will likely never get implemented. It's pretty bad when Halo: Combat Evolved on the original XBox was able to implement varied weather, environments, and local multiplayer and the current-gen iteration of the series can't even manage that. As I said, what's there may be excellent, but Halo Infinite simply WASN'T DONE at release. Not even close.

And be assured, the fans will remember this. 343/Microsoft would have been immensely better off had they taken Nintendo's approach with BotW 2; nobody was happy about that delay, but fans are far more understanding when they know the extra time is being taken to make a game the absolute best it can be.

@AtlanteanMan Microsoft would have had to delay it at least 2-3 years to finish everything that was intended. I used to work for Sega and then epic and when people aren't working in the same place it hurts development significantly.

They also couldn't just release it for the new Gen just like Sony released their games for last gen. There won't be enough consoles in the wild until Holiday 2023 and there companies have to answer to investors and justify the massive expenses of development..

Nintendo games don't cost 1/4 the money to make even compared to last gen. Comparison with Nintendo also doesn't fit. COVID was a big deal for a company as big as Microsoft.

Fans can remember whatever they want but without comprehension of the why... What they remember doesn't matter because they are wrong.

If Microsoft had delayed the game 2 year fans would be even more angry than they are now. Yeah nobody likes to wait but the game is fun and one of the best shooters I've played in many years even with the mp content issues...

The game is free so 343 isn't nickel & diming anyone. Also it's not nearly as bad as cod is. Cod has pay to win mechanics in those $20 bundles and they haven't changed the way it plays since... The original modern warfare.

All your remarks are valid and insightful. Believe me, my intention is NOT in any way to be toxic or to attack you or anyone at 343, Microsoft, or any other developer on a personal level. I respect your viewpoint as a developer, and I understand (at least the basics of) the corporate angle. As someone who's an aspiring creator (writer) myself, I know all too well how being intimately close to something can make you bristle when it comes under criticism, even of a constructive nature.

That said, going as far as to say the fans are wrong is a bit unfair. They see the priorities of developers pushing more and more into directions that are in direct conflict with their own interests (example: NFTs), and that pattern predates COVID by a LONG TIME. Yes, Halo Infinite's multiplayer is technically free, but would the game have benefited more from it simply being included as a package deal with the campaign, as with previous iterations? Might we have gotten at least one or two more maps and perhaps local splitscreen multiplayer had 343 not gone the route of focusing so much energy around skins? I guess what's still rubbing fans like myself the wrong way is that, even with the year's delay and learning so much had been cut or delayed to make the launch date, we found that so much time, effort, and emphasis had gone into something nobody (at least certainly not me or anyone else I personally know) even asked for.

Anyway. I've said all I can on the matter here. I do respect your viewpoint and you absolutely make some great points (I have no intention of dismissing the effects of the difficulties that working from isolation have had on development teams, either); the disconnect between fans and the industry over the direction of the hobby and what's best for the games they love will probably always be there, sadly.

Thanks for your responses, by the way, as well as your patience. No hard feelings, I hope.