Microsoft Xbox digital events [E3 2020 Replacements]

Kinda underwhelming for me. Halo Infinite was was the only thing that really interested me. It looks pretty much what I expected...not mindblowing graphically but a really well-polished Xbox One game. Forza Motorsport didn't even have a release date as far as I can tell. Fable announcement was just that...barely showed anything.

They said at the beginning that a lot of the titles would be available on GamePass and this event felt more of an advertisement for that than XSX..

 

i doubt it, was not even specified in engine like others.

 

Halo Infinite in 4K looks pretty good. The good is how large it is, there's never been a Halo game, or many games for that matter this detailed this large with this density. I haven't seen it. Not like this. The world is full. Compact, quite open world.

video here.


The bad:
Asset Quality, Shadows, Pop-in is super apparent. If I had to think of fixing anything, it would be shadows and pop-in. Pop-in first, then shadows.

Grounded and Everwild looks great. These are the types of games I've been gravitating towards.
The graphical hitters, look too far out there to judge.

 

Halo suffers because of its scale.

In Halo 3 you could have up to four players, a dozen marines, two tanks, a hog, a mongoose, two scarabs, two banshees, two ... human flying things ... all in the same scene. All at once.

When you just show one dude squaring off against four enemies it really under-sells the game. That wasn't a great slice of gameplay to show off anything beyond the very significant map scale.

 

Yeah, the pop-in (an engine issue) is going to have forum warriors foolishly targetting the XSX SSD.

 

I was waiting for at least a bit of next gen experience. What I get is cross gen experience with one next gen experience and that is because the narrator told me that it was using RT and unfortunately still in development and looks like wont be coming out soon.
The good thing about that is my newly purchased 2nd hand RX580 should still be able to play those games

 

Its clear the engine has support for _everything_ as evidenced by the Moljnir armor sequence, but they'll need to figure out how to reign it all in for the gameplay.

I'm not sure what to say, this looks much better than Halo 4/5 imo. Definitely a return to form as to what Halo is.

 

It's a MP game to boot.... No way do we get Fable or HB2 graphics in a large scale multiplayer game, and that at launch. I think Infinite perfectly is there it belongs.

 

There is one thing that will sell these next gen consoles regardless of whether the launch games are "next gen" enough or not though....and that is the virtual elimination of loading times. That feature itself may be worth it...

 

Honestly, they should have waited a little longer on showing Halo Infinite, or at least clearing up the obvious LOD and frame-hitching issues.

 

Yea it doesn't seem like it's baked right

 

Yeah, that's really what I meant - I should have said "an issue of how they're using their engine". It's a very ambitious game they're trying to make, and scaling across such a large range of systems (and the PC) is no small task.

Big maps, large amounts of movement freedom (there will be aircraft too) and fast vehicles. And 60 fps. And 4K. [Edit: And it's not finished yet!] It's very easy to unfairly compare it to slow paced, far more limited foot-speed only games.

I think the game looks great and I'll be there day one. And for me this is the best I've felt about an upcoming Halo game since 3 / ODST. So bring it on!

 

I noticed a bit of geometry culling on the grass. I figure they'll fix it before launch.

 

Yea I would say this is the one thing you shouldn't see with Next Gen games. Normally for 4K gaming, I expect to see high level of detail further out than you would with 1080p for instance, but I wasn't seeing that. I was seeing a lot of last minute pop in, in all the wrong areas of vision. Not to mention the obvious issue when ADS with rifle, as noted, the cat tails disappearing before they were supposed to.

 

yea it's all over, grass, rocks, trees, etc. All sorts of streaming issues here.

Not a good first impression for a console designed to be a streaming monster. I would be surprised if this game will be ready by March 2021.

 

Should there be a 4K/30fps campaign eye-candy mode for assholes like me? You know, eye-candy over everything else crowd....

 

lol. I think it's sticking as 60.

 

Why did Phil say Forza Motorsport is early in production? Is he trying to make a grown man cry?

 

Halo for me was impressive just because it seems like it might be a return to form. Basically discarding most of the ideas from 4/5 and going back to the core of what made the Bungie Halos good. And unlike 4/5, Halo Infinite looks like it'll actually have an interesting Antagonist to oppose Master Chief.

Then they throw in the "open Halo" or was it "open stripe" something like that wording as opposed to "open world." If they manage to make the entire Halo ring seamlessly "open" I'll be gobsmacked impressed.

Also, interesting that they managed to both make MC come across as more "human" without making him less Master Chief. Something they never managed to pull off in 4/5.

Obsidian's new RPG is set in the PIllars of Eternity world but this time in first person action adventure view. This is their first fully MS backed titled. The other two started prior to the MS acquisition. I'm extremely excited to see what Obsidian can pull off with full AAA funding and a hands-off approach by the publisher. Basically two things they've never had simultaneously in a game before.

Incredibly surprised that MS managed to snag console launch exclusivity of Stalker 2. A lot of people I know of are hugely looking forward to this one.

Other things were interesting, but not much time to post.

Regards,
SB

 

What they been doing all these years. Haha

But to be honest my biggest disappointment was that the forza trailer was 4k30, when you consider their commitment to 60fps, this was just odd, even for just an announce trailer. Oh well.

I actually liked that they put out there games that are far off, just a shame didn't even get a year on them though.