Indeed. This can be absolutely awesome. I do think that the arena MP is not the best focus though, and I hope they lean hard af into the PvE going forward. Halo is perfect for that, just perfect.
With the TV-series, how many are going to watch that and say: “oh man I have to play some arena MP!” vs. “that is a world I’d want to immerse myself in”.
Bazzar has a 1/15 chance of being played. Aquarius had a 2/15 chance of being played. Leaving a 80% to play on only 3 of the maps.
Sometimes I can play 40 matches and not get bazzar once. That’s why I say essentially 4 since that’s what it feels like. The combined odds of bazzar and Aquarius are still less than one of the other 3.
Co-op and new campaigns should help this PvE side a bit.
But a mode with a big map or multiple big hubs for PvE combat using your spartan would be genius.
Really hope Forge comes with some PvE stuff as well. With the rumored scripting abilities people could create some interesting scenarios
Well, maybe Halo Infinite will have Sea of Thieves comeback story.
Though, I hope eventually GaaS games that Microsoft launches, will be complete.
Wait, do people think that Infinite is at a place right now comparable to where SoT was a few months after release?
Really?
I don’t think expecting 4 maps, and a couple basic modes like infection, griffball and doubles is an unreasonable ask when season one was 5.5 months long.
It is what it is though. Still support 343 and hope for the best. I know at some point they will get things rolling.
I think we’ll eventually see maps for certain game types release. Infection for example could have variant maps, such as the leaked night time Bazar we saw earlier.
Either way though, with Forge releasing possibly August, that solves a fair bit of the content problems imo.
What if Last Man Standing is Infection with a name change?
Well it’s more info than the Avengers team has given out in like a year, so… 
Oh wow. Great find.
Maybe their flood stuff isn’t ready to be shown, so they went with just Spartans? That MegaConstrux sure looks like infection.
Yeah, it seems like it. We shall find out more in April…
Agreed.
To expand on your point, I think we have to be honest with ourselves and realize that 343 has made some tough decisions and some of them were not the best decisions. The team is talented and passionate, no doubt, but it’s fair to say that development has been rocky and it’s not due to the lack of talent or passion (or time/crunch) but rather to do with decisions in many areas.
I, myself, have made some bad decisions when it comes to software development and COVID has multiplied the negative effects of these decisions. So I won’t pretend that I’m better. And we’ve seen how other products from Cyberpunk to Battlefield, again with highly talented teams, make some poor decisions as well.
I don’t want to harp on this because I don’t want to beat up on 343. But the poor design and roll out of season pass progression has nothing to do with crunch or development time. It was just poorly conceived. It’s completely fair to be disappointed by those decisions. And now they have to reinvent that wheel and it’s led to added development time. Which sucks because that’s resources that could be working on brand new things.
Many of the decisions in regards to gameplay and level design are pretty great, so there’s a lot to be happy about as well, don’t get me wrong. They nailed the core aspects of the game.
Despite my disappointment I’m ultimately hopeful. It’s still a talented and passionate team and I think some of the direction is now dictated by players and it will result in something great. It’s just going to take a while.
Being willing to have critical views of companies and games I like doesn’t make me a contrarian. Different opinions shouldn’t be an issue and certainly not something to try and make things personal over. So how you stop because there shouldn’t ever be a need to make things personal, especially video games.
They should have delayed beyond December 2022, and positioned Horizon 5 as the big game for last year. MS never learn really.
No, the main issue was a playlist update that broke things for too long around the holidays. I see so many people talk about not wanting crunch. Well, this is a reality of that and I’m fine with it.
Not wanting crunch would have been to release the game content complete with Forge and Co op ready at launch, even if this meant the game not coming out until late this year.
Edit. Lets hope MS and 343 learn this time
Waiting a year for co-op and forge is not worth it with a live service game.
I’m glad they released it when they did and I don’t have a problem playing other games while they work on content. I’d be much more annoyed if it dropped right on top of Starfield.
I just think theyd have been able to work on the pipeline more and have had things more planned out then now. Co Op at launch offers more user engagement as well same with Forge. People stay around longer because at the moment, they are not
