Halo 5: Guardians [XO]

[iroboto]

I'm not good at looking at screenshots and knowing what to look for, but beside the lowered resolution, I'm a little surprised at the generic lack of artifacts when I zoom into each picture. Is this because the source picture is bad? Or because there are just few artifacts?

 

[AlNom]

I'm not good at looking at screenshots and knowing what to look for, but beside the lowered resolution, I'm a little surprised at the generic lack of artifacts when I zoom into each picture. Is this because the source picture is bad? Or because there are just few artifacts?

Which shots are you looking at? I hadn't really bothered to look too closely at the Game Informer-labeled shots because they generally seem super sampled. The compression is pretty bad though because I think folks are grabbing a bunch of shots from video (apparently).


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The grunt must have riding on the back of the elite at some point...

Right?

 

[iroboto]

Which shots are you looking at? I hadn't really bothered to look too closely at the Game Informer-labeled shots because they generally seem super sampled. The compression is pretty bad though because I think folks are grabbing a bunch of shots from video (apparently).

Yea I'm not sure if this counts as artifacts, or perhaps they are jpeg compression artifacts, but when I look at games zoomed in, so take any game, COD, or KZ for instance. When I look at the edges of things, I see these weird artifacts just on the outside of the edges. It's like this pixelated stuff, but I don't see it here, and I don't see it in these screen shots posted above.

For instance:

Zoom into the gun, and it's got that weird pixilation around it. I'm used to seeing that in the screen shots.

 

[AlNom]

Yea I'm not sure if this counts as artifacts, or perhaps they are jpeg compression artifacts, but when I look at games zoomed in, so take any game, COD, or KZ for instance. When I look at the edges of things, I see these weird artifacts just on the outside of the edges. It's like this pixelated stuff, but I don't see it here, and I don't see it in these screen shots posted above.

For instance:
http://s.pro-gmedia.com/videogamer/.../screens/call_of_duty_advanced_warfare_40.jpg

Zoom into the gun, and it's got that weird pixilation around it. I'm used to seeing that in the screen shots.

Yeah, those look like typical JPEG compression artefacts (high compression). edit: that screenshot has the artefacts all over, especially by the fences. the shot I posted above was at "100%" jpeg quality in IrfanView, so it's not so bad.

The shots that I've seen linked on neogaf seem to be PNG (only checked a couple).

 

[AlNom]

Actually, what bugs me as far as rendering artefacts go in some of the H5 shots - light bleeding through characters.

 

[(((interference)))]

Wow, no splitscreen co-op either - and that probably means no 4 player split-screen multiplayer too.

If so, there goes my interest in the game - as playing system link/split screen MP with my friends is a big reason why I play Halo.

They really don't seem to know what they're doing, 60 fps isn't important for the Halo style of gameplay. A rock solid 30 fps and good motion blur coupled with excellent controller response rate (which Bungie was all doing in Reach) is all you need. They could even look to how Criterion managed to get a 83 ms response rate in the 30 fps NFS:HP and implement something similar.

Complete waste of resources getting the game to run at 60 fps and sacrificing graphics and core gameplay features (i.e. splitscreen) to get there - when the fanbase has never demanded it either.

 

[AlNom]

Wow, no splitscreen co-op either - and that probably means no 4 player split-screen multiplayer too.

Yeah. They confirmed on twitter just after the MP beta that it would only be 2P splitscreen for MP. Don't know about bigger MP modes either.

I'm not sure exactly what they could be doing that would break in the engine even if they allowed 2p splitscreen co-op under the condition that it be 30fps and offline only (split-screen disables p3 & p4 from joining).

 

[Cyan]

It's less powerful hardware and also targeting 60fps and 4 player co-op.

That said, it probably was not a good idea to unveil anything SP until E3. I don't see how PR could have thought it would have been a good idea at all. A corridor that looks like it's taken from Halo 4? Umm.... did the PR guy even play Halo 4 to make the connection?

Highly unlikely. They stated this clearly; "Campaign levels will have many alternative paths".

 

[iroboto]

Actually, what bugs me as far as rendering artefacts go in some of the H5 shots - light bleeding through characters.

Yup. Reminds me of the beta where the HDR bloom was just everywhere, and the problem was exasperated with the light sword.

 

[AlNom]

Highly unlikely. They stated this clearly; "Campaign levels will have many alternative paths".

I'm talking about the screenshots released in the last couple days being corridors. It's not a good first impression. Their PR shots are poorly chosen.

Besides, "alternative paths" also exist in a maze. I'm not making judgments, but there's no logical conclusion to be made about level size based on that statement.

 

[Cyan]

Which shots are you looking at? I hadn't really bothered to look too closely at the Game Informer-labeled shots because they generally seem super sampled. The compression is pretty bad though because I think folks are grabbing a bunch of shots from video (apparently).


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The grunt must have riding on the back of the elite at some point...

Right?

The legendary Beyond3D little lines -not vertical or horizontal straight lines this time though- made with Paint are back! Some things never change. I'd be disappoint if those lines didn't appear in the Beyond3D forum.

As for the 30 fps thing.., 60 fps is the future.

 

[AlNom]

Yup. Reminds me of the beta where the HDR bloom was just everywhere, and the problem was exasperated with the light sword.

Hopefully they're just polishing everything else other than the helmet visors in the coming months. Although, it's a bit of a headscratcher that the excessive bloom was even there in the first place, especially after Halo 4.

The light bleeding - I don't know if it's just a performance trade-off and/or it's just a pain in the ass to fix, but even the character lighting was borked in the beta. So at best, it's just a lack of that final polish, but at worst... well. ThereItIs.jpg

The legendary Beyond3D little lines -not vertical or horizontal straight lines this time though- made with Paint are back! Some things never change. I'd be disappoint if those lines didn't appear in the Beyond3D forum.

I hope they never get rid of MS Paint.

 

[orangpelupa]

agh no local cooooooooooooooooooooooop.

 

[Cyan]

Hopefully they're just polishing everything else other than the helmet visors in the coming months. Although, it's a bit of a headscratcher that the excessive bloom was even there in the first place, especially after Halo 4.

The light bleeding - I don't know if it's just a performance trade-off and/or it's just a pain in the ass to fix, but even the character lighting was borked in the beta. So at best, it's just a lack of that final polish, but at worst... well. ThereItIs.jpg



I hope they never get rid of MS Paint.

Well, it's obvious you use it a lot.

 

[AzBat]

60fps has basically been the narrative since the start of this gen. Couple that with more emphasis on online multiplayer & it's no wonder they sacrificed local co-op for a speed boost. No matter which way they invested performance budget it was damned if they do, damned if they don't. I think with 60fps they stand to get those players who might not have been the super-Halo-fanboy who buys it at midnight launch regardless if it was good or not.

Tommy McClain

 

[Zane]

overdesigned sound effects, corridors, bloom,.

Oh my God in heaven the sound design in that game was atrocious. I read a good comment calling it "caps lock" sound design. Which is a perfect description. Same with the bloom and lighting. Seemed like they were trying way too hard to make it look "good" and have it sound "cool".

 

[Cyan]

Oh my God in heaven the sound design in that game was atrocious. I read a good comment calling it "caps lock" sound design. Which is a perfect description. Same with the bloom and lighting. Seemed like they were trying way too hard to make it look "good" and have it sound "cool".

In that sense, I rather prefer the "overdesigned" sound than the totally mediocre sound of Halo 3, a game which sounds like a 64Kbps MP3 file. I can understand it, they were maxing the X360 out and the sound of the console was done on the CPU, but let's call a spade a spade. The sound in Halo 3 was dull, sounded dimmed and it wasn't vibrant at all. I noticed that back in the day.

 

[FarticusMaximus]

60 fps isn't important for the Halo style of gameplay.

After playing the MCC at 60fps I could not disagree more. Halo at 60fps is right where it should be.

So H5 might not fare well in the screenshot warz. Who gives a damn?

For a fast paced game like this the visual clarity and gameplay smoothness a 60fps framerate gives vastly outweighs a little bit of extra shine on the pixels, which when in the middle of a firefight nobody will notice.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Complete waste of resources getting the game to run at 60 fps and sacrificing graphics and core gameplay features (i.e. splitscreen) to get there - when the fanbase has never demanded it either.

60 FPS will allow it to look significantly better when in motion at the sacrifice of potentially lower IQ in still shots. Not to mention the benefit to control response and aiming.

I used to discount the effect of 60 FPS like many console gamers as well until I started playing all my action games at 60 FPS. There's just no going back now. It's absolutely agonizing to play action games at 30 FPS. Both graphically (yuck) and from a control point of view.

Regards,
SB

 

[Zane]

In that sense, I rather prefer the "overdesigned" sound than the totally mediocre sound of Halo 3, a game which sounds like a 64Kbps MP3 file. I can understand it, they were maxing the X360 out and the sound of the console was done on the CPU, but let's call a spade a spade. The sound in Halo 3 was dull, sounded dimmed and it wasn't vibrant at all. I noticed that back in the day.

Cove - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5SWD6epuZk

UNSC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U3jZHNBQrI

A good comparison of weapons sounds from 1-4. I can get behind Halo 3's weapons sounding a bit dull. But I would take a bit dull over the comically insane weapon sounds of 4. Reach, well, reached a level where things sounded really good. Then Halo 4 pops up.

The human pistol ... I burst out laughing every time I hear it being fired in Halo 4. What were they thinking?!? Same with the Battle Rifle. Whoever designed and OK'ed them needs a fish to the face. Yes, fish.

So far, Halo 5 has toned it down significantly. Especially the pistol. It's so much better now. And the Battle Rifle. It all sounds really good. Thank God they listened. I hope they listen to the complaints about the rocket launcher looking like a standard US army bore fest, too.

Some Halo 5 weapon sounds -