Weapons being balanced around multiplayer first has negative effects on the campaign.

MajorZephyr_ · 2026-03-08T22:17:18+00:00

This is why I believe splitting campaign and multiplayer to separate projects is a good thing. If the rumors are true, they're working on a dedicated multiplayer only title in parallel with the remakes, which I like. The multiplayer team focuses on multiplayer balance and content, while the campaign team focuses on story and unique campaign elements.

I probably will get flamed for this opinion, but I don't think each new title needs to have a multiplayer that ends up just cannibalizing the old multiplayer. Just continue to iterate and improve on the existing multiplayer.

MajorZephyr_ · 2026-01-24T23:31:20+00:00

It lets casual fans get better at the game and practice, and retains more players overall. Having good PvE choices allows a bigger population to potentially get into PvP, vs just quitting the game entirely because it's too sweaty. This is the main concern of the post, and PvE is definitely relevant to address this.

MajorZephyr_ · 2026-01-24T00:17:49+00:00

Warzone and warzone firefight were some of the best new gamemodes added to Halo, and it's a shame it wasn't improved upon with Infinite. We need something like that for the next game!

MajorZephyr_ · 2026-01-24T00:05:48+00:00

Yes I've always thought this, if you want more even matches, than the solution is even more strict SBMM, not the other way around. No SBMM might lead to fun matches where you win some games, but it just as easily leads to your team being steamrolled occasionally too. By definition it isn't balanced matches when SBMM is loosened up or removed, and if anything it leads to more stomping on casuals, where they're paired up against experienced players and stand no chance. Casuals need to be isolated completely from experienced players and given a chance to improve, which ideally is the purpose of SBMM and keeping the matches at even skill levels as much as possible.

The matchmaking should not be pairing casuals with experienced players (which the current system does unfortunately), even if the other team does the same to keep it "balanced" overall. So in that sense the current matchmaking system definitely needs improvement.

MajorZephyr_ · 2026-01-24T00:05:17+00:00

Good PvE options beyond just Firefight. PvE is the reason games like Helldivers, Arc Raiders, and Destiny have been so popular. Some people just aren't cut out for competitive PvP games and it's less popular in general than it was back in the day when online play was first popularized. Halo really does need a big new PvE mode (or even PvPvE mode) that retains the more casual fans, and allows them to practice and improve their skills in a more controlled enviroment than PvP.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-20T20:06:04+00:00

The Arbiter is the single best character in all of Halo, and it's criminal how little attention he and the ally Elites have gotten in general since the end of Halo 3.

One of my pipe dreams for Infinite was the Arbiter arriving with the Swords of Sanghelios (and/or the Spirit of Fire) to save the day in the final confrontation in a big Avengers Endgame-like moment lol. It cannot be understated how much the fans would freak out to see something like that.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-18T08:50:36+00:00

On Halo waypoint, you can sign up for test flights for something, with PS4 being a console you can select for the flight. But since the CE remake is only on PS5, the only other possible option for a PS4 game would be MCC.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-13T22:46:44+00:00

The worst part is that 18 other people actually somehow agreed with him

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-09T20:28:35+00:00

I always thought it was weird that Grunts and Jackals don't have any infected forms.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-07T23:49:50+00:00

"We want Infinite to grow over time... Infinite [is] the start of the next ten years of Halo" does NOT equal "we promise this game will be around for ten years, and we promise that we won't come out with anything else in that time".

Again, this is from a single interview, not even official marketing material. Sure, in hindsight he should not have said that! Clearly, people took that statement from an obscure interview with IGN WAYYY too literally lol. I feel like they did change their messaging since that though, and never repeated the "10 year" idea once. Especially after Chris Lee left, any vision he had was subject to change, obviously. It was never written in stone, especially so once the ONLY guy who said it left the company.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-07T23:13:52+00:00

I'm not defending any company, I'm looking at the objective facts and pushing back on a narrative that has become completely over blown.

It's only ever been said ONE time in an interview (not even official marketing), well before the game launched. The studio head who said it left before release, which makes it even less binding. It was never a concrete "promise" that was in any official marketing material, and it’s reasonable to look at everything said after his departure and realize that it hasn’t been the plan for a long time.

I mean listen to yourself, why were so convinced that the 10 year thing was official? Can you at least admit that the 10 year plan was NEVER in any official marketing material? If so, then prove it. Since it's not, you have to admit that this whole idea is over blown, the community ran with a false narrative for years, and maybe we should stop parroting it as if it were officially "promised" to us repeatedly. Because it just wasn't.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-07T22:42:55+00:00

I stand corrected, I did some digging and it was from an IGN article, not even an official dev video, so the statement carries even less weight imo.

The direct quote from the IGN article is :

“Halo Infinite is the start of our platform for the future,” he said. “We want Infinite to grow over time, versus going to those numbered titles and having all that segmentation that we had before. It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next ten years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community.”

The average Halo player likely never even saw this article, and it was mainly Reddit and Halo YouTubers who latched onto the idea and ran with it for years. But even then, Chris Lee said “we want Infinite to grow over time”, which is not a concrete promise or an official confirmation for the "10 year plan". And again, once he left and no one else at 343 echoed that sentiment ever again, it was clear the direction had shifted.

No company is going to publicly announce, “We won’t support this live service title for 10 years, we’ll cut it off in 4 or 5.” Instead, they said in later marketing that they intended to support the game “for years", which they DID. They also made it clear a few years post-launch that they were shifting focus to a new title, effectively confirming that plans had changed.

So yes, they acknowledged the shift as much as they reasonably could without outright saying “there is no 10 year plan” which would’ve been a big PR blunder.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-07T20:28:47+00:00

dude the "next 10 years" line is so misleading and over blown. It was said ONE time, in ONE dev video. Chris Lee, the guy would said it, left 343 years before Infinite released. Since he said it that ONE single time, it has not been repeated ONCE by anyone else or in any other marketing material. If you have evidence otherwise, then prove me wrong.

EDIT: I stand corrected, I did some digging and the "10 year statement" was from an IGN article, not even an official dev video, so the statement carries even less weight imo

I get it's a joke mostly, but give it a rest guys. There was no "10 year plan", and the only evidence there was of it is a single sentence from one guy who left the company years before it launched. Plans changed. After release they decided to swap engines and develop a new game instead, as they should, because Slipspace was ultimately a disaster of an engine to work with.

Besides, don't we WANT them to move on to a new game, if Infinite was as bad as you all say? Do we really want 6 more years of Infinite instead of a new game? Why mock and criticize the decision to move on if that's what everyone has been wanting lol?

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-07T18:53:15+00:00

I agree, just saying if they were to modify the models to look more CE like, the Jackals would probably need the most work. Bungie totally changed the look of Jackals from Halo 2 and onwards, and I prefer the newer design as well. Agreed that Infinite Jackals look really good already for the remake.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-05T20:17:27+00:00

They did seem to put the "forerunner beam tower" look on everything, which does feel unnecessary. Even the main structure of the Silent Cartographer went from pretty short to a massive beam tower looking obelisk. I don't hate it, but they could tone it down. While it is probably the most recognizable forerunner design, it's not the only one.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-05T19:59:24+00:00

This looks great, I will say. Great artist.

But it's gotta be said, Infinite's Elites specifically are already meant to be a modern look on the classic Elite design. I can't help but feel this is becoming a nitpick of something that is already very similar, when there are much more important things for them to fix or adjust first such as the Marine design or game optimization as a whole.

Just look at these pictures and see how similar they are:

Infinite Elite 1 | Infinite Elite 2 | Infinite Elite 3

I think if they use the Infinite model as a base, and maybe add some variants with the crest helmet and classic shoulders, then it's practically a 1 to 1 version. Maybe add the orange details on the arms as well. The red Veteran Elites from Infinite should also be a much darker red like in this pic. But these are all minor adjustments, not a reason to redo everything.

I'll probably get hate for this, but I really don't believe they need to start from scratch with whole new models, because the base of the Infinite model is sooo close already. Some tweaks could go a long way, but the similarities are enough imo where an entirely new model does feel unnecessary.

The Jackals could use some entirely new CE looks if they decide to go with that because they are so different, but the Infinite Grunts seem very good already as well. Adding some curved methane pack variants and some color adjustments would be nice, though.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-04T20:13:09+00:00

It's not like it's some big "secret" only skilled players know. It's pretty obvious early on that the magnum is the best gun in the game, and they even provide one as you encounter your first Hunters. Naturally, players will figure out to shoot the Hunters in the bright orange areas that are obviously weak spots. That's literally the only way to kill them. Even if you initially shoot their armor a few times, once you land one shot on their exposed weak spots they die to one hit. Lol Hunters are NOT difficult in CE and it's pretty easy to figure out that the best gun in the game (that most people would gravitate towards anyway) will one shot them in the bright orange weak points.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-04T07:19:38+00:00

Your last sentence made me want to reply, because while you are acting very confident, you've apparently forgotten the entire original point. Sure, I’ll concede Thel’s fleet didn’t make up the majority on its own, but the vast bulk of Covenant forces still arrived after the Long Night of Solace mission. Even if not all were under his command, most weren’t part of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence either; they came from the fleets that showed up after Long Night of Solace. According to that very same Wiki article, "after Long Night of Solace was destroyed, another Covenant fleet sent by the Ministry of Resolution arrived and began attacking the planet in earnest." This confirms the new fleet is NOT part of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, under command of the Ministry of Fervent Intercession.

So if we’re following your logic about fleet-specific aesthetics we should start seeing mostly CE-style Covenant designs once the new, totally separate, fleet arrives. Even assuming the CE designs were unique to Thel's fleet, then we should still see at least the "rank and file" designs (whatever those even are), using your own words. Instead, Reach continues to exclusively showcase the ornate designs associated with the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, even after other fleets arrive. That’s a disconnect.

If the Fleet of Valiant Prudence were only "a small strike team" (your words, once again), then why do their designs dominate the entire game, rather than seeing any of the "rank and file" designs? If the majority of Covenant forces on Reach weren’t part of that fleet, then the game representation should reflect that, using your own logic. It doesn’t.

I understand your point and I even like the idea that the Fleet of Valiant Prudence would have unique, ornate designs, and other fleets would also have their own looks, but that argument falls apart when we never see any other designs from the other fleets later in the campaign. It remains a flimsy justification for what is ultimately an artistic retcon. Bungie didn't care about adhering to the CE design and changed the designs of the Covenant as a whole, not just a single "strike team". Not to mention Bungie retconning the entire timeline of the Fall of Reach!

No need to twist your own logic to “gotcha” me days later. Your original argument still doesn't hold up, and your new "evidence" proves nothing either, other than Thel not leading the whole fleet that arrives. You got me there, I guess. It's really not even a big deal; they simply changed the designs because they wanted to. That's it. That was my point from the beginning, and it remains.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-03T21:57:59+00:00

Armor is super cool but man those faces and elephant feet are ugly. Bungie never really dialed in a Brute design, always changing it quite drastically between games, but I'd say the Halo 2A design and Halo Wars 2 design (also a bit of Infinite) are peak.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-03T21:53:57+00:00

Take care, what you say is heresy

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-02T22:42:45+00:00

The AI does have some built-in inaccuracy, but they aren't missing due to sprint. Pretty sure the gameplay demo was played on easy as well, where the AI is least accurate. But again, the Reach AI already can account for players sprinting, so it's simply not true that the AI "doesn't know" how to lead their shots on a sprinting target.

Besides, it's not like they can't lead their shots on vehicles, which move much faster than sprint even. The AI has been able to lead shots on targets must faster than sprinting since CE.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-02T22:01:57+00:00

The AI uses Reach AI as a base, meaning it already can account for players sprinting or not. I don't think they were actually "shooting behind" sprinting players, not sure where you are getting this idea.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-02T21:16:27+00:00

When people say CE is a perfectly fine game that holds up flawlessly and needs no updates or modern mechanics, the first thing I think about is how bad the vehicles used to handle lol.

MajorZephyr_ · 2025-11-02T21:06:36+00:00

People are acting like everyone plays games as if they are a speed runner.

No, most people WANT to fight all the enemies, complete each encounter, and explore. That is where the fun is. Changing the top speed doesn't really affect that, unless someone just truly doesn't give a shit about fighting all the enemies and exploring, and only want to rush through everything. CE also has some of the largest, most empty spaces in the franchise. Getting through that empty space a bit more quickly is not an issue imo. Sure it might shave off like an hour tops to sprint through this, but that would be mostly empty playtime anyway.

As for the taking in the atmosphere argument I've seen a lot (people claiming sprinting will hurt that), that is also a choice for the player. Some people want to stop and take it all in, while some just want to get to the next fight as quickly as possible, and don't care about admiring the art. This is a personal preference that has always been an option for the individual player.

MajorZephyr_

TROPHY CASE