Halo Infinite

How is this PC version for a fun single player game?

Last Halo game I played was the original on the X-Flop console, and hated playing a shooter with some kiddy controller, to me shooters are mouse + keyboard only. I sold that Xbox a month later, haven't had a console since. Consoles seem pointless when there's PC gaming rigs.

I never understood the love fest Halo gets, where better classic shooters like Doom and Quake are far more important and classic in the genre.

Saying all that, I'm bored and in need of a new fun single player game to play with my RTX-3080 and 34" Ultrawide. Is this new Halo game worth the buy?

I already stopped playing BF2042 until it's patched

The thing is, even the new developers don't understand why Halo was so big. Halo 4 and 5 were mediocre and forgettable and nearly killed the series.

Halo was always about the slow, strategic aspect of the gameplay. You move slowly, you only carry two weapons. That sounds like a living hell for psycho-twitch quake-pros, but it fosters this strategic mindset: It's not about who can click on heads faster, its about your positioning, what weaknesses you currently have due to your held weapons, underlying health level... you'll always have a small amount of shield, but you have health under that which does not regenerate.

You have to weigh your options when encountering an enemy, they will have shields too, so unless you have a dedicated sniper-weapon, head-clicking is not a viable strategy. You need to use plasma weapons to drain shields, bullet weapons to kill health. If you only have plasma, but your teammate has a bullet weapon, you can make a VERY powerful play to control the map, but there's always someone with a power-weapon somewhere.

Weapon spawns in Halo are like control points. Power weapons will not spawn if a player is holding one on the field. This is once again emphasizes strategy. Only one rocket launcher may be in the map, so if you have it, you can spam the hell out of it, but then once it's out of ammo and you drop it for another weapon, another one will eventually spawn in, whereas if you hold onto it, keep at least one rocket unfired, you're keeping it off the map and out of enemy hands, which makes your vehicles MUCH safer, but if you get killed, then that power is in the enemies' hands.

Halo is about strategy first, reflex and aim second. It's 100% fine if that's not your thing. I love me some Doom 2016 and Eternal, where it's just playing Chopin on your keyboard and clicking on every head you can: Halo is NOT that.
 
The games not out yet? I thought Halo Infinite was just released?

Tomorrow's the official release date; Mainstream reviews have been coming out recently (mostly positive).

Funny enough... there's no preload (even though the Windows Xbox app has been claiming there is a way to). The time you can start to download it is tomorrow at 18:00 GMT (1 PM East Coast, 10 AM West Coast).
 
The thing is, even the new developers don't understand why Halo was so big. Halo 4 and 5 were mediocre and forgettable and nearly killed the series.

Halo was always about the slow, strategic aspect of the gameplay. You move slowly, you only carry two weapons. That sounds like a living hell for psycho-twitch quake-pros, but it fosters this strategic mindset: It's not about who can click on heads faster, its about your positioning, what weaknesses you currently have due to your held weapons, underlying health level... you'll always have a small amount of shield, but you have health under that which does not regenerate.

You have to weigh your options when encountering an enemy, they will have shields too, so unless you have a dedicated sniper-weapon, head-clicking is not a viable strategy. You need to use plasma weapons to drain shields, bullet weapons to kill health. If you only have plasma, but your teammate has a bullet weapon, you can make a VERY powerful play to control the map, but there's always someone with a power-weapon somewhere.

Weapon spawns in Halo are like control points. Power weapons will not spawn if a player is holding one on the field. This is once again emphasizes strategy. Only one rocket launcher may be in the map, so if you have it, you can spam the hell out of it, but then once it's out of ammo and you drop it for another weapon, another one will eventually spawn in, whereas if you hold onto it, keep at least one rocket unfired, you're keeping it off the map and out of enemy hands, which makes your vehicles MUCH safer, but if you get killed, then that power is in the enemies' hands.

Halo is about strategy first, reflex and aim second. It's 100% fine if that's not your thing. I love me some Doom 2016 and Eternal, where it's just playing Chopin on your keyboard and clicking on every head you can: Halo is NOT that.


Thanks for the reply.

Your talking deathmatch multiplayer I believe? Thanks, but hard pass on that. Isn't this a single-player game too? That's the only thing I would be interested in, just a fun story driven game going against monsters and stuff and getting better weapons as the game progresses. I hate deathmatch games with a passion, I mean sure Quake 2 CTF back in 1997 was the best, but I'm passed that now.

Just looking for a fun single-player to get lost in. Is Halo Infinite that?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Your talking deathmatch multiplayer I believe? Thanks, but hard pass on that. Isn't this a single-player game too? That's the only thing I would be interested in, just a fun story driven game going against monsters and stuff and getting better weapons as the game progresses. I hate deathmatch games with a passion, I mean sure Quake 2 CTF back in 1997 was the best, but I'm passed that now.

Just looking for a fun single-player to get lost in. Is Halo Infinite that?

I personally love Halo 1-3 but who knows if Infinite will be good. If it leans more on the early Halo games for inspiration, it should be a story-driven campaign with emphasis on sandbox-style gameplay. In Halo 1, 2, and 3, every encounter of enemies is a puzzle to solve: Which one to take out first, what angle to approach from, what weapons to pick up beforehand.

In the past, I was more concerned with the story: as it had a wonderful mix of oldschool high-concept sci-fi with military bro-talk, and the music was always amazing. But everyone who writes the story and music have moved on from the franchise.

So if this game is faithful to old Bungie-era Halo: It will be an absolute must-play. If its just another "meh" retread of Halo 4 and 5, I'd wait for a sale.
 
I respect this reviewer, he's always straight forward and honest in his reviews, and he LOVES the single-player game. He also mentioned a Co-Op mode is coming out later. WHAT? A single-player Co-Op story driven game you can play together with a friend? Uh sign me the F up on that, Co-Op PC games are so rare nowadays.

 
I respect this reviewer, he's always straight forward and honest in his reviews, and he LOVES the single-player game. He also mentioned a Co-Op mode is coming out later. WHAT? A single-player Co-Op story driven game you can play together with a friend? Uh sign me the F up on that, Co-Op PC games are so rare nowadays.



Though I've never heard of this reviewer, what I find is that medium-sized Youtube channels make the best reviewers as they aren't afraid to give it to the viewer honestly. One of my favourites is GManLives and Civie11, I don't agree with everything they say but I absolutely respect their opinion.
 
Im enjoying MP but I definitely don’t like the matchmaking system. You basically have only two options, either small or large scale random objective matches. I really hope they make significant changes down the line here.

Also not sure if the weapons are hugely imbalanced or if I just don’t know how to use them. I’m terrible with just about everything but the pistol and BR. I tried to get 3 kills with a pulse carbine for a challenge all day and could only get 2 lol.

Definitely looking forward to the campaign though, will probably play a good 4-5 hours of it tomorrow if not more.
 
XP progression system has improved, but the battle pass system for unlocks is still pretty scummy.

Considering that the MP is going to be dependent on keep F2P coming back to populate servers for the battle pass players, they really should have created a three tiered system for cosmetics. Give the F2P players something for their time, just not the most interesting cosmetics reserved for people who buy the retail game and battle passes. It also looks like people who buy the game are in no better position to those who are F2P, which really doesn't make sense....there should be second tier of cosmetics available to them, but again with certain cosmetics reserved for the battle pass.
 
Halo is a First Person Shooter game right? Why does it seem like when in vehicles yuor camera shoots up like a ghost looking down at your vehicle? When driving a jeep or tank it should be first person, just like when running and gunning on foot.
 
Halo is a First Person Shooter game right? Why does it seem like when in vehicles yuor camera shoots up like a ghost looking down at your vehicle? When driving a jeep or tank it should be first person, just like when running and gunning on foot.
It's always been like that.

Steering is done with the camera (i.e. you go where you look, not by using left/right inputs).
 
It's always been like that.

Steering is done with the camera (i.e. you go where you look, not by using left/right inputs).


Ugh, really? That seems so outdated and poor design. In a first person shooter, you should always be in first person view, even when jumping in a vehicle. Why would you somehow become a ghost and view your vehicle from far away above it?

Now I remember why I always thought Halo was a generic lame shooter game, that was way over-hyped for zero reason. I'm a PC gamer, and shooters are Doom, or Quake or Unreal, or BattleField games, I just never understood why or how Halo got so popular? It was nothing special back twenty years ago, and watching the reviews this week of Infinite, it still looks the same.
 
Ugh, really? That seems so outdated and poor design. In a first person shooter, you should always be in first person view, even when jumping in a vehicle. Why would you somehow become a ghost and view your vehicle from far away above it?

Now I remember why I always thought Halo was a generic lame shooter game, that was way over-hyped for zero reason. I'm a PC gamer, and shooters are Doom, or Quake or Unreal, or BattleField games, I just never understood why or how Halo got so popular? It was nothing special back twenty years ago, and watching the reviews this week of Infinite, it still looks the same.
I mean, my view is perhaps not as harsh- Halo did introduce quite a few concepts that (for better or worse) became embedded in first-person shooter design. But it is quite shit in many ways.

It is worth noting that it has always been a console shooter, with a controller as its primary control mechanism. I think it's worth remembering why those design considerations resulted in the kind of game it is- and to note what it has absorbed from other FPS games over the years.

For some interesting context, it's fun to look at the FPS game landscape from the late 90's to early 2000's.
 
Best shooter of the late 90's era was Quake 2 CTF, my goodness I was addicted to that game. And then Unreal 1 being so cool

Halo? No. Doesn't even fit in top historical shooters, to me it's just a lame console shooter.

You can't play a fps with a controller, it's keyboard+mouse

To me consoles are meant for games like Super Mario Bros or Ratchet and Clank. But shooters are PC.
 
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Best shooter of the late 90's era was Quake 2 CTF, my goodness I was addicted to that game. And then Unreal 1 being so cool

Halo? No. Doesn't even fit in top historical shooters, to me it's just a lame console shooter.

You can't play a fps with a controller, it's keyboard+mouse
Halo came out in 2003 on PC.
 
I fired up the GamePass game and tried to run the tutorial. It crashed in the first room. My PC is pretty stable, so that isn't the best sign for me. I'll probably try again once the SP stuff unlocks later.
 
Best shooter of the late 90's era was Quake 2 CTF, my goodness I was addicted to that game. And then Unreal 1 being so cool

Halo? No. Doesn't even fit in top historical shooters, to me it's just a lame console shooter.

You can't play a fps with a controller, it's keyboard+mouse

To me consoles are meant for games like Super Mario Bros or Ratchet and Clank. But shooters are PC.
Then don't play it or get over yourself.
 
Halo came out in 2003 on PC.

I tried it at launch in 2001, bought an Xbox just to play Halo. Returned a month later, the console was no better then my PC gaming rig at the time and Halo felt very generic.

I did try Halo PC when it came out, but from what I recall was missing features from the Xbox version, like no CoOp and seemed like a watered down version of the game.
 
Then don't play it or get over yourself.

I'm interested in the single player campaign, looking for a fresh new story driven shooter to play.

The multiplayer, LOL no way. That deathmatch stuff is outdated kiddy crap to me. I prefer Battlefield type multiplayer, but not BF2042 garbage.

The CoOp sounds really good to play through the story together with a friend, very much looking forward to that. PC games need more of this.
 
I'm not going to be hitting much MP but I know I will enjoy the campaign. I'll get what I want out of this without a doubt.
 
I'm interested in the single player campaign, looking for a fresh new story driven shooter to play.

The multiplayer, LOL no way. That deathmatch stuff is outdated kiddy crap to me. I prefer Battlefield type multiplayer, but not BF2042 garbage.

The CoOp sounds really good to play through the story together with a friend, very much looking forward to that. PC games need more of this.
Co-op for Halo Infinite is months away (or more, who knows). Given what you've said, maybe this game isn't for you? All of the recent-ish Far Cry games have co-op (with some limitations, like you have to do some intro missions first before it is "unlocked") so maybe give that a shot- I'd start with Far Cry 5 (even though I do enjoy 4 more, I think 5 fixes some of the annoyances with co-op a bit).
 
Ugh, really? That seems so outdated and poor design. In a first person shooter, you should always be in first person view, even when jumping in a vehicle. Why would you somehow become a ghost and view your vehicle from far away above it?
This is a weird complaint. There's a ton of games that switch from 1st to 3rd person when you enter a vehicle. Vehicles are just easier to drive in 3rd person and you're much more aware of your surroundings without the vehicle's interior taking up the majority of your view.
 
The Far Cry games retain first-person perspective in vehicles and it makes driving a nightmare of not being able to tell where anything is.
 
The Far Cry games retain first-person perspective in vehicles and it makes driving a nightmare of not being able to tell where anything is.
Not only that, their "in-vehicle" FOV ignores your setting and puts it at the console default (somewhere in the 60s or 70s).

(This affects ladders, swimming, and other mini-cutscene things. You can hack/disable this via hex editing a very specific string.)
 
Are they for sure adding co-op play later on? I’m stoked for what, based on the reviews, looks like a solid first person campaign.

I hope this game pushes on the hardware a bit. Lately I feel like I got this 3090 for nothing…
 
Are they for sure adding co-op play later on? I’m stoked for what, based on the reviews, looks like a solid first person campaign.

I hope this game pushes on the hardware a bit. Lately I feel like I got this 3090 for nothing…

I did some Google searching and sounds like CoOp coming in some Season 3 update in May 2022. I would buy this right now if CoOp was built into the campaign at launch, my Son and I would play together. Yes CoOp is coming to Halo Infinite, but not till Spring / Summer.

Sorry, I didn't mean to bag on the Halo franchise, I understand it has its core fans, that's cool, and respectable. My bad.

I will say the single-player game does intrigue me, just for a fun, get lost in a video game for an hour or so each time, blasting away at bad guys, and going through the story type game. Is the campaign live yet? What are your impressions?
 
I did some Google searching and sounds like CoOp coming in some Season 3 update in May 2022. I would buy this right now if CoOp was built into the campaign at launch, my Son and I would play together. Yes CoOp is coming to Halo Infinite, but not till Spring / Summer.

Sorry, I didn't mean to bag on the Halo franchise, I understand it has its core fans, that's cool, and respectable. My bad.

I will say the single-player game does intrigue me, just for a fun, get lost in a video game for an hour or so each time, blasting away at bad guys, and going through the story type game. Is the campaign live yet? What are your impressions?
Halo is a lot more fun to play through with others. I don't think I would have ever gotten through Halo 3 if I didn't play through it with my roommate at the time.
 
I did some Google searching and sounds like CoOp coming in some Season 3 update in May 2022. I would buy this right now if CoOp was built into the campaign at launch, my Son and I would play together. Yes CoOp is coming to Halo Infinite, but not till Spring / Summer.

Sorry, I didn't mean to bag on the Halo franchise, I understand it has its core fans, that's cool, and respectable. My bad.

I will say the single-player game does intrigue me, just for a fun, get lost in a video game for an hour or so each time, blasting away at bad guys, and going through the story type game. Is the campaign live yet? What are your impressions?

I'm not sure it's available yet, it's today, but mine shows 11am
 
I'm not able to download the campaign on steam yet for some reason?

Edit: It finally started, had to restart Steam a couple times.
 
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I'm not able to download the campaign on steam yet for some reason?

Edit: It finally started, had to restart Steam a couple times.
It ain't any better on the combination Windows-Store/Xbox-App.

After a reboot (yes, I am serious), I am able to get a 3.92GB "update" to appear and begin in the Microsoft Store.

Edit: I then had to launch the game (i.e. the Multiplayer Beta) and select the campaign. It then took me to a "Manage Game" menu which I had to select the campaign which initiated another 20.09GB download.
 
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It ain't any better on the combination Windows-Store/Xbox-App.

After a reboot (yes, I am serious), I am able to get a 3.92GB "update" to appear and begin in the Microsoft Store.

I had to reinstall mine... That will take half the day, lol...... (windows xbox app, I have pc gamepass)
 
Yeah, took forever for this thing to un-fuck itself and install the campaign. Not sure why they didn't let us pre-load it.
 
I had to reinstall mine... That will take half the day, lol...... (windows xbox app, I have pc gamepass)
Yeah, microsoft's download servers are slow. Rarely get more than 30-40% of the download speed I get from other services.
 
Yeah, microsoft's download servers are slow. Rarely get more than 30-40% of the download speed I get from other services.
Or now, when they didn't let anyone pre-load the 20GB campaign, and every person in the universe is hammering their servers.
 
Or now, when they didn't let anyone pre-load the 20GB campaign, and every person in the universe is hammering their servers.
I rarely get more than 25-30MB/s from MS servers while steam is often running at 75MB/s.
 
I rarely get more than 25-30MB/s from MS servers while steam is often running at 75MB/s.
That has been my experience, too. 150-200 Mbps on Steam versus 60-80 Mbps on Microsoft Store, or 40% of my available bandwidth.
 
Yeah, I get only about 50% as well. Of course, that's half of 1gbps, so it's still not bad. Of course, right now, i'm getting almost nothing.
 
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