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343 The Halo Infinite technical test is still ongoing, as players get their hands on the game for the first time. As expected, it is full of a ton of technical issues that will have to be sorted before launch, the point of a test like this in the first place, including poor PC performance in particular, which will require optimization.

But when you get past all the technical hiccups, and try to get an overall sense of how testers feel about the game, the temperature is…overwhelmingly warm. Scalding, practically.

Nearly all the impressions I’m seeing from players in the technical flight have been positive. You can head to Twitter, reddit, wherever, and the reaction is generally the same, this potentially feels like 343’s best Halo multiplayer outing to date, and has echoes of the “golden age” of Halo 3 or Halo CE.

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The game is supposed to be less “modernized” than Halo 5 was, with reductions in things like sprint, while retaining the “feel” of the original games. Even in these early bot matches, the vibe is that 343 has really gotten things right this time, and the extra year to get this game in fighting shape was well worth the delay.

Halo Infinite is a massively important project for Microsoft and Xbox, as it’s supposed to be the “platform” to launch all future Halo content for at least the next generation. Whether that means an “evolving world” type deal or true sequels, that’s unclear, but whatever is added in time will no doubt all be on Game Pass, while Halo multiplayer remains free this time, even without Game Pass.

Halo Infinite enters a very crowded shooter market that has moved far, far away from traditional Halo gameplay over the years, toward battle royales or tactical shooters or hero arenas. It will have to reestablish itself as a top player, and Microsoft has its sights set on a return to esports. From the looks of Infinite, it seems like it’s definitely on that track.

We still do not have a finalized release date for Halo Infinite, which everyone more or less assumes will be in late November. The longer this goes, the more the thought might creep to mind that perhaps we could be facing another delay out of this year, but Microsoft has maintained that’s not going to happen again. So we’re just waiting until we get an announcement to confirm that. With Sony delaying Horizon Forbidden West to next year, Xbox has quite an empty stage all to itself, and if Halo Infinite shines? This will be one of the biggest success stories for the Xbox brand in a number of years.

There will be more tests and alphas and betas no doubt before launch so more players can get in. I will say that yes, it’s possible that the die-hard fans who managed to sign up for Waypoint and get into this test are more likely to love a Halo game than general audiences, so perhaps there’s some bias here. And yet if hardcore Halo fans are loving this new Halo game…that also seems like it’s own kind of good sign to me.

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