Halo |OT| She's Gone, Sir

[jem]

I think one aspect which gets forgotten somewhat with the whole "competition" discussion is that gamer's tastes change over time as well.

Whole genres fade in and out of fashion. Niches with genres even more so. There's no doubt that the arena style shooter genre is far more smaller now than when Halo 3 released. That's not just because the titles releasing now are perceived to be of lower quality. There just isn't as much appetite for the style of game.

Halo 3 was obviously a good game. The fact that it was the most played title for three years running is a testament to that. The perceived drop in quality for the series since then has absolutely had a impact on its popularity. However, that's definitely not the only reason Halo's popularity has decreased.

 

[Trup1aya]

The decline of Arena Shooters is directly tied to output. When the PC market was contracting, none of the arena shooter developers really did the work to make a timely successful transition to console. Bungie on the other hand built a franchise from the ground up to excel on console, and they were rewarded with massive growth at a time when other arena shooters were losing relevancy due to inaction. The same thing happened for COD and Battlefield, though not as quickly as for Halo.

The Modern Military shooter concept is still strong despite its age, and thats due to developers doing what it takes to keep the genres mindshare healthy.

It's sorta like how Mario games still do really well despite platformers falling off. They just keep making excellent platformers and people keep buying.

Moving further away from the Arena Shooter concept didn't do Halo mindshare any favors. Neither did shunning PC when Steam started revitalizing that market. Neither did shunning esports when that was taking off. Or shunning firefight when horde modes were were still huge. Drastic moves were being made to stay ahead of the curve, they just weren't the right moves

 

[Kendall]

There was also the allure of our beautiful national parks to deal with!

Halo 3 was overall incredible in terms of ranking system, general updates, DLC, maps, community gametypes, and just overall matchmaking experience. Pretty much everything but the basic feel of running around shooting people was great compared to subsequent Halo games. However, you can't ignore that part of its relative success is borne out of the context in which it was released. Similarly, I'm not saying Halo 5 is the bestest-best game ever, but there are a lot of reasons why it didn't take over Xbox Live that have nothing to do with the gameplay.

There are huge differences in the market segment Halo occupies between when Halo 3 came out and when 5 came out. Most Xbox players play shooters more often than other games, which has been the case basically from the beginning. Other genres just aren't that important of a factor. For example, only 3/20 of the top-five games on Live between 2007-2010 are non-shooters by my count (see below).

So, back in the day, the choice for Xbox players was Halo 3, COD (4 specifically), Gears, or some non-shooter. Halo 3 was obviously a superior choice for most people.

That's way different compared to the competition we see today. Some franchises didn't exist yet, like Titanfall or Destiny, or hadn't made a dent yet on consoles like Battlefield. There were no free to play shooters of note and Battle Royale was a manga. COD was only just starting to develop the relentless release schedule we see today (also, see below). How many COD games have been released since Halo 5 came out? You can't ignore the shear marketing power of having a franchise headlining every few months. In sum, Halo's relative niche is much, much more competitive than it used to be.

We're also at the moment coming at this at a unique gap in Halo history. If we transformed Halo 5's post-release timeline into Halo 3's, we would be playing Reach right now. ODST would have been in 2017.

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Most played Live games 2007-2010

2007 (https://majornelson.com/2008/01/04/top-xbox-live-games-of-2007/ )
1. Halo 3
2. Gears of War
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
5. Call Of Duty 3

2008 (https://majornelson.com/2009/01/04/the-top-20-live-games-of-2008/ )
1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty 4
3. GTA IV
4. Gears of War 2
5. Gears of War

2009 (https://majornelson.com/2010/01/11/the-top-20-live-games-of-2009/ )
1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty 4
3. Modern Warfare 2
4. Call of Duty: WaW
5. Gears of War 2

2010 ( https://majornelson.com/2011/02/03/top-xbox-live-games-of-2010/ )
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
2. Halo: Reach
3. Red Dead Redemption
4. Fable III
5. Battlefield: Bad Co. 2

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I think the gimmicks of Halo Reach like Armor Lock and the fact it wasn't a Master Chief game really turned a lot of people away. I loved it, but i can see why people might not have cared after the fight was finished. It might have seemed like bonus epilogue you could push to the sideline.

Then Halo 4 comes along and it borrows so many elements from Call of Duty and modern shooters that its barely recognizable.

 

[jem]

It doesn't really matter how it happened, fact is that the arena shooter is not a big genre anymore. Even names like Unreal Tournament and Quake basically completely failed to gain any traction. Then there have been quite a few supposedly very good indie arena shooters and none of them have done particularly well either.

A casual player just isn't interested in those games anymore. They're playing Fortnite or FIFA. It's a testament to the Halo brand that despite being in a fairly niche genre it still pulls big numbers. Although I guess the likes of Warzone are an attempt to differentiate itself from the arena shooter niche.


One anecdotal thing I've noticed is that a lot of the casual players who only play CoD or FIFA always seem to comment that "Halo looks weird and unrealistic". These are the type of players who, has they been playing in 2007, would be playing Halo 3. I don't think the Halo style of big red and blue side marines is particularly cool in the eyes of the wider market anymore.


I imagine the Xbox One itself has fairly significantly damaged all the Xbox brands. Gears 4 didn't exactly set the world on fire despite being by most accounts a very good and faithful sequel. When the casual console of choice is the PS4, discussion around games inevitably will heavily lean towards titles available for that platform. That has a knock on effect in that multiplatform titles will get significantly more exposure from the likes of Youtube, Twitch and social media in general relative to Xbox exclusives. That's pretty important considering in the current climate those are some of the primary avenues for promoting titles.

The only game which has managed to escape the Xbox one effect seems to be the Horizon series, however, open world racers aren't exactly a saturated genre.


I should point out that again, I'm not saying Halo's decline was inevitable. There is certainly more to it than just a perceived decline in quality though.

 

[Trup1aya]

It doesn't really matter how it happened, fact is that the arena shooter is not a big genre anymore. Even names like Unreal Tournament and Quake basically completely failed to gain any traction. Then there have been quite a few supposedly very good indie arena shooters and none of them have done particularly well either.

A casual player just isn't interested in those games anymore. They're playing Fortnite or FIFA. It's a testament to the Halo brand that despite being in a fairly niche genre it still pulls big numbers. Although I guess the likes of Warzone are an attempt to differentiate itself from the arena shooter niche.


One anecdotal thing I've noticed is that a lot of the casual players who only play CoD or FIFA always seem to comment that "Halo looks weird and unrealistic". These are the type of players who, has they been playing in 2007, would be playing Halo 3. I don't think the Halo style of big red and blue side marines is particularly cool in the eyes of the wider market anymore.


I imagine the Xbox One itself has fairly significantly damaged all the Xbox brands. Gears 4 didn't exactly set the world on fire despite being by most accounts a very good and faithful sequel. When the casual console of choice is the PS4, discussion around games inevitably will heavily lean towards titles available for that platform. That has a knock on effect in that multiplatform titles will get significantly more exposure from the likes of Youtube, Twitch and social media in general relative to Xbox exclusives. That's pretty important considering in the current climate those are some of the primary avenues for promoting titles.

The only game which has managed to escape the Xbox one effect seems to be the Horizon series, however, open world racers aren't exactly a saturated genre.


I should point out that again, I'm not saying Halo's decline was inevitable. There is certainly more to it than just a perceived decline in quality though.

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I mean this is true, but my point is we reached this point where Arena shooters are foreign to people because the ambassadors of the genre weren't representing it well. It's not something that just happened.

When you look at how Mario caries platformers. Or how Forza is performing in a world where Racers aren't popular - they are holding the door open for others. Those games are in exact same position Halo was in during its biggest growth years. But UT and Quake weren't producing console titles that could compete with anything else in the market. They weren't good enough ports, and they lacked the feature set Halo and modern shooters were delivering.

The unimpressive Xbox One definitely hurt Halo's upper limit - but that doesn't really explain Halo muted reception amongst Xbox users.

Anecdotally, I don't think it's the casual players who would have been playing H3 take issue with Halo's presentation. It's the ones who would have been playing Reach or 4. H3 stood tall against the growing popularity of the modern shooter. Now people are playing Overwatch, Fortnite, and Apex Legends so I think Sci-Fi, color, and stylistic liberty are cool again.

But no, I don't think Halo's decline can be solely attributed to quality. I think Halo 5, for example is a quality game. But I think it's the result of consecutive decisions that were ultimately bad for franchise mindshare + some serious quality control issues in the midst of it all. Those decisions and issues weigh more than any circumstance - and in several instances helped create the circumstances we often sight as the cause of decline.

 

[Dokkaebi G0SU]

atleast they know the hardcore halo fans enjoyed MP the most. so curious on what they do for infinite. this is going to be tough and i hope they knock it out the park!

 

[RedSparrows]

Arena shooters are inherently (or should be, says I) different to the more recent trends popular in gaming: loot, XP, levelling etc i.e. systems from RPGs plonked into other genres. Halo, at heart, is still really about 'this is fun to play', whereas lots of newer gamers seem to be 'I need a carrot in the form of X'. These things aren't mutually exclusive, but they don't gel together super well imo.

 

[jem]

Arena shooters are inherently (or should be, says I) different to the more recent trends popular in gaming: loot, XP, levelling etc i.e. systems from RPGs plonked into other genres. Halo, at heart, is still really about 'this is fun to play', whereas lots of newer gamers seem to be 'I need a carrot in the form of X'. These things aren't mutually exclusive, but they don't gel together super well imo.

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The requirement for everything to have some sort of progression system is a trend I just do not understand.

The number of comments I've seen which basically say "if it doesn't have a progression system, I'm not playing it" is straight up crazy.

Do these people not understand the concept of playing because something is fun? Why does everything now have to be orientated towards acquiring some digital gun or skin.

Then you have the people who grind. That's even more bizarre to me. Why would you willingly put yourself through hours of unenjoyable grinding just to get a fake digital reward so you can grind some more...?


The lack of a full progression system is one of the reasons why SoT is so refreshing. It's a game more focused on enjoying the moment. Rather than always pushing the player towards the next stat buff or new gun.

 

[Defect]

They should definitely keep seasonal ranks. However, they should make seasons an actual event.

I wrote a big post about this back on GAF about all the various things they could do.

First of all there should be rewards based on well you ranked during the season. Not just an emblem for qualifying for any rank. Take the Rocket League setup where you have to win 'x' number of times at a given rank to receive that rank's award at the end of the season. You could also have season specific commendations. For example: win 50 CTF matches this season to receive a special helmet.

They could tie in major balance patches and new content updates to the start of a new season. Each season could then start with a big landing page which details any new additions and changes made to the game. It could also showcase the various awards you could win and the commendations etc.

At the end of each season each player should be provided with an in game personal stats sheet showing how they performed throughout the season relative to their friends and leaderboards. It could also show how well they performed relative to the previous season.

There could be some AI driven system which automatically clips and stores cool plays during the season (stuff like multikills, noscopes etc) and then at the end makes a personal montage of each player's season highlights.

There should also be a big countdown on the main menu displaying how much time is left during the season. Then they could have events to finish each season. For example in the last day they could have a "double or nothing" event where wins net you double the ranking points but you also lose double the points if you don't win.


If they put some solid work into making seasons interesting it could be awesome.

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If they can manage to pull something like this off, sure. If it's a repeat of Reach and 5 then no thanks.

I still do like and prefer permanent skill ranks.

There's one super important thing 343. Implement MMR drain or something because after the first year of being high onyx/champ in most playlists, the game would stop finding us matches. Even after months of not playing you'd think I'd be able to find matches in the most popular playlists but no, it still takes forever even when searching expanded. It's what ultimately made me play the game less than I wanted to.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

The requirement for everything to have some sort of progression system is a trend I just do not understand.

The number of comments I've seen which basically say "if it doesn't have a progression system, I'm not playing it" is straight up crazy.

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The obsession with unlocks nowadays is fucking weird. And frankly annoying, games that could be better without progression system have those and thus limit them. Why not just have all abilities available from start (or introduced quickly in tutorials at worst) to allow full freedom from the moment you start the game?

Also, what's that "SoT" you mentioned?

 

[jem]

The obsession with unlocks nowadays is fucking weird. And frankly annoying, games that could be better without progression system have those and thus limit them. Why not just have all abilities available from start (or introduced quickly in tutorials at worst) to allow full freedom from the moment you start the game?

Also, what's that "SoT" you mentioned?

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Yup, I've played so many games which shoehorn in ability unlocks just so they can have some sort of progression...

SoT is Sea of Thieves. It has a progression system in the sense that as you level up you can undertake more complex quests, however, nothing you can unlock or buy will give you any sort of gameplay boost. The only stuff you can buy are different cosmetics. Every player is on the exact same level playing field no matter how long they've been playing for. It's so refreshing.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

SoT is Sea of Thieves.

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/facepalm of course. I was trying to figure out what shooter is abbreviated to SoT, didn't think outside the genre...

That does sounds like reasonable progression. Level playing field... damn, at times i feel like i forget what's that like.

 

[Terin]

I was pretty happy with Halo 5's approach to having gameplay-affecting progression relegated to Warzone, while keeping the competitive multiplayer free of any of that. I skipped over Halo 4 pretty much until 2014, where I went back and read up on everything they did for that, and god damn, glad I skipped it.

In terms of completely vestigial "progression", though, it's hard to beat Mirror's Edge Catalyst. I can kinda see the rationale behind having you unlock a basic movement option early on to get people to pay attention to it... but when you have 19 "upgrades" and 7 of them already unlocked from the very beginning, I don't think that's a system that game needs.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Halo 5 fucked over BTB with its system though (especially by not having maps for that). Warzone is no replacement, it is far too different. Also Warzone is rather casual unfriendly, because you get fucked if you don't have good unlocks when the enemy uses tanks and the like.

I find it ironic that competitive modes are far more casual friendly, especially if there's proper skill matching. Level playing field.

 

[jem]

In terms of completely vestigial "progression", though, it's hard to beat Mirror's Edge Catalyst. I can kinda see the rationale behind having you unlock a basic movement option early on to get people to pay attention to it... but when you have 19 "upgrades" and 7 of them already unlocked from the very beginning, I don't think that's a system that game needs.

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That's exactly the game I was thinking of. I don't think the unlock system particularly hurt the game all that much but it just seemed so pointless and annoying.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

Progression in Halo was perfect in Reach, base it around ranking up and then tie that to unlocking good looking armor and other customization options.

 

[Forerunner]

Progression in Halo was perfect in Reach, base it around ranking up and then tie that to unlocking good looking armor and other customization options.

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Yes, when it comes to progression Reach was easily the best. Now when it come to skill based progression, Reach was garbage.

Infinite should just take the Reach progression system and also add H5 skilled based ranks. Players can grind away for cool ranks and cosmetics, while still having a robust MMR system.

 

[Dokkaebi G0SU]

unlocks and progression have been part of gaming since i can remember. i unlocked new weapons in zelda, unlocked skills in diablo, unlocked the ability to equip better amor, unlocked new skills with farming leather patches and the list goes on ... etc etc etc. it just changed form for what's more popular; multiplayer gaming.

can it be better? of course, it can. but i wont dismiss it and think its stupid because its not my flavor of "fun".
action adventure games have progression and unlocks
rpgs have progression and unlocks
racing games have progression and unlocks
now shooters have progression and unlocks

halo will have more progression and unlocks in infinite, bet your ass on it.

 

[Deleted member 2171]

Yes, when it comes to progression Reach was easily the best. Now when it come to skill based progression, Reach was garbage.

Infinite should just take the Reach progression system and also add H5 skilled based ranks. Players can grind away for cool ranks and cosmetics, while still having a robust MMR system.

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They really should have just had Reach's ranked be FFA only.

People were put off at the time by forced placement and zero carrying being possible.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Discord link updated on threadmark, seems it had issues?
No idea what i did wrong in Discord...

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Obligatory Reach progression was a sluggish mess and I hope they don't make that mistake again. It took too long to earn credits and everything was too expensive; that's a bad mix.

 

[jem]

unlocks and progression have been part of gaming since i can remember. i unlocked new weapons in zelda, unlocked skills in diablo, unlocked the ability to equip better amor, unlocked new skills with farming leather patches and the list goes on ... etc etc etc. it just changed form for what's more popular; multiplayer gaming.

can it be better? of course, it can. but i wont dismiss it and think its stupid because its not my flavor of "fun".
action adventure games have progression and unlocks
rpgs have progression and unlocks
racing games have progression and unlocks
now shooters have progression and unlocks

halo will have more progression and unlocks in infinite, bet your ass on it.

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Of course Infinite will have unlocks.

The problem is when progression systems are forced in unnecessarily, eg: with Halo 4.

Pretty much every game in existence now seems to be trying to force some sort of progression system into the gameplay and it's so unnecessary. In a lot of ways it actively hurts the game. Thankfully Halo 5 somewhat rectified the issue by making arena cosmetic only.

Obligatory Reach progression was a sluggish mess and I hope they don't make that mistake again. It took too long to earn credits and everything was too expensive; that's a bad mix.

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Yeah, I liked the general idea behind Reach's progression but I don't think it was balanced very well.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

Obligatory Reach progression was a sluggish mess and I hope they don't make that mistake again. It took too long to earn credits and everything was too expensive; that's a bad mix.

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I think ranking up won't be nearly as sluggish, however I'm pretty sure certain cosmetics will remain pretty expensive so that direct microtransactions can be implemented. Not sure if the two will be intertwined anymore, I doubt 343i wants to put any barriers on monetized areas of the game.

 

[Dokkaebi G0SU]

Of course Infinite will have unlocks.

The problem is when progression systems are forced in unnecessarily, eg: with Halo 4.

Pretty much every game in existence now seems to be trying to force some sort of progression system into the gameplay and it's so unnecessary. In a lot of ways it actively hurts the game. Thankfully Halo 5 somewhat rectified the issue by making arena cosmetic only.

Yeah, I liked the general idea behind Reach's progression but I don't think it was balanced very well.

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youre right about h5. if we had anything other than cosmetic unlocks, oh boy. haha
hopefully they make the req system better. I'm still really excited to see what's next.

 

[Sargerus]

Surely today they are going to announce the Reach flighting right guys?

 

[leenbzoold]

Surely today they are going to announce the Reach flighting right guys?

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Maybe they already sent out e-mails, but none of us got in...

 

[Akai]

Small update:

 

[Forerunner]

I figured it would get delayed. It's a fairly complex project. We get it when we get it, I'm in no rush.

 

[Prinz Eugn]

For something totally different, I finally finished some art to celebrate the end of the semester. Behold, my Super Special Spartan Magnum (SSSM).

Click here for full size download from deviantart

Basically, the reasoning is that Halo 5 magnum is visually less thrilling than it should be for such an important weapon, and a special magnum for Spartans makes sense since they can reasonably use much more powerful weapons than a normie marine. It's hard to see without a standard magnum next to it, but it's supposed to be chonk

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

For something totally different, I finally finished some art to celebrate the end of the semester. Behold, my Super Special Spartan Magnum (SSSM).


Click here for full size download from deviantart

Basically, the reasoning is that Halo 5 magnum is visually less thrilling than it should be for such an important weapon, and a special magnum for Spartans makes sense since they can reasonably use much more powerful weapons than a normie marine. It's hard to see without a standard magnum next to it, but it's supposed to be chonk

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Looks sick. Does the back of it resemble the classics too? I love those old iron sights.

 

[nillapuddin]

for fun I added a working scoreboard to Smashketball



first time I changed something on the map since 2016 O.o

Also found my old old old Football prototype that I ended up never finishing, different pace, much longer field, higher score to win ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



5 for field goals, 10 for touchdowns, 50 to win.

there are super thin kill zones surrounding the endzone so you cannot throw in a touchdown, it will reset the ball like an incomplete pass, also all the sidelines are soft kill so if you throw it out of bounds it will reset also. You can "throw in a field goal" starting at about the 30 yard line, any further and it wont go in

 

[darthbob]

Small update:

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Big update:

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/mcc-development-update-april-2019

Look at that FOV!

 

[wwm0nkey]

I

Big update:

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/mcc-development-update-april-2019

Look at that FOV!

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I do hope later down the line we can adjust the viewmode so the gun isn't taking up too much screenspace

 

[darthbob]

I
I do hope later down the line we can adjust the viewmode so the gun isn't taking up too much screenspace

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Yeah it's huuuuuge. Reminds me of ODST's FOV in a way, the fuel rod gun and splaser took up like half the screen!

 

[Mido]

Is there anywhere in Halo 5 you can see the list of available maps when social matchmaking? I love that feature in MCC.

 

[Moose]

I
I do hope later down the line we can adjust the viewmode so the gun isn't taking up too much screenspace

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Weapon models are the thing limiting FoV per title. I wouldn't expect much of a bump with Halo 3, most guns have clipping beyond the default FoV at their vanilla position as was evident from ElDewRito.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Could gun positions be adjusted to be lower (and probably slightly pointing higher) to reduce their limits on FOV? Or would that require too much work?

 

[Moose]

Could gun positions be adjusted to be lower (and probably slightly pointing higher) to reduce their limits on FOV? Or would that require too much work?

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They would have ot make individual adjustments per range of the FoV so it would definitely be extra work, whether it's too much work would ultimately be up to them.

 

[SuperKnux64]

The obsession with unlocks nowadays is fucking weird. And frankly annoying, games that could be better without progression system have those and thus limit them. Why not just have all abilities available from start (or introduced quickly in tutorials at worst) to allow full freedom from the moment you start the game?

Also, what's that "SoT" you mentioned?

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Longevity is important in this age of video games. Arena shooters don't have a lot of them, making player engagement lacking. You release everything on day one, players will get tired of it within a few weeks, then wait 2-4 years for a new game. The "Do the story, then PVP for the rest of the game duration" model is no longer keeping players engaged. You need some sort of a progression system to extend the game's playtime.

 

[Rickenslacker]

Big update:

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/mcc-development-update-april-2019

Look at that FOV!

Click to shrink...

LOOK AT THAT C E N T E R C R O S S H A I R

hype

 

[Trup1aya]

The requirement for everything to have some sort of progression system is a trend I just do not understand.

The number of comments I've seen which basically say "if it doesn't have a progression system, I'm not playing it" is straight up crazy.

Do these people not understand the concept of playing because something is fun? Why does everything now have to be orientated towards acquiring some digital gun or skin.

Then you have the people who grind. That's even more bizarre to me. Why would you willingly put yourself through hours of unenjoyable grinding just to get a fake digital reward so you can grind some more...?


The lack of a full progression system is one of the reasons why SoT is so refreshing. It's a game more focused on enjoying the moment. Rather than always pushing the player towards the next stat buff or new gun.

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I'm with you on this boat.

I do understand the monetary insentive to have progression systems- especially ones that speed access to items to be used in gameplay. But what I don't understand is the gamer expectation for such systems.

Every time I hear a gamer complain about a game "not giving me a reason to play" in reference to the lack of a system that arbitrarily gates content behind obscene time investments, I want to cry for them. Then the first thing they do is scour YouTube for the best way to farm- eschewing the core gameplay in favor of boring repetitious exploits. It's insane.

At the height of the hunt for Achilles- people were doing the most boring shit ever. Shit like Two groups of players in the same Company meeting in Matchmaking then all 24 players would take turns assassinating each other for the whole match.

It should be enough to design a game around its core loop being the carrot on the stick. The gamer comes back because they want more of that gameplay.

 

[Trup1aya]

Longevity is important in this age of video games. Arena shooters don't have a lot of them, making player engagement lacking. You release everything on day one, players will get tired of it within a few weeks, then wait 2-4 years for a new game. The "Do the story, then PVP for the rest of the game duration" model is no longer keeping players engaged. You need some sort of a progression system to extend the game's playtime.

Click to shrink...

Adding content isn't the same as locking said content behind a massive grind wall - which is the modern approach to creating longevity.

People would still comeback to play Fortnite if players didn't have grind for the new cosmetics. It's the gameplay tweaks and additions that do most of the work pulling players back in.

There's nothing inherent to arena shooters that would prevent grind-free updates from being used to add longevity.

In the case of Halo, i think it would mean adding modes adding maps and adding weapons that have viability as Tier 1 weapons, but also have substantial impact on the meta rather than focusing on DPS.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Longevity via unlocks is nonsense. It is part of that obsession i mentioned. If a game needs unlocks to keep people around, i question if the game's that good or fun in the first place.
Don't know about others but i stuck with Halo 3 for years because it was fun (unlocks i got done in a couple months if it even took that long), despite its flaws. And the same applies to other games i play, unlocks have never extended life of game for me (indeed, come to think of this, those are the kind i've mostly abandoned sooner).
One issue nowadays is the number of games. People go to try other things, i suppose that were H3 today's game with only as many maps and updates it got, i wouldn't stick with it. To keep people engaged, there needs to be constant stream of content, maps, balancing, new stuff, events. Do it well enough and there is no need for "unlocks" or "progression". (Quotation marks because most of those are nonsensical grinding rather than having a true purpose.)

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Borderlands 3 has clamber, Doom Eternal has thrusters and a grappling hook, it's all over boys.

Will Halo recover?

 

[Dokkaebi G0SU]

whats halo?

 

[Witness]

Maybe I was out of the loop but I just found out about that traveling Halo tour this summer and luckily they are coming here to Orlando. I already told my wife this is what I'm doing for my birthday, also in July. I'm really excited for this and to try out the VR experiences.

 

[SlightlyLive]

You guys see this? Looks like Halo meets Portal.

 

[Deleted member 20284]

Looks a little Quake like, I'll give it a run. I'm still mega rusty on kb+m so I stick an xbox controller in. TBH I have to get used to that wider FOV in FPS, still throws me off with the skewing, feels unnatural looking.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

What terrible weapon models, and far worse music (though i suppose that's the trailer only).
Mobility stuff's kinda neat except it has sprinting, and the maps have interesting aesthetic, but jumping and teleporting seems to remove all point of map design!
Overall, doesn't look terribly compelling.

EDIT Points for discoball (odd-ball like gametype presumably).

 

[jem]

It looks quite cool but it also looks like it'd be an absolute clusterfuck. Good luck trying to track enemy movements.