Ask Salt The Fries - Halo 5 edition

Did your girlfriend allow you to wear that tie?

Besides dramatically changing SW is that nasty rumor that the game dramatically changes resolution to 360ish levels true?

Does the game reach 900p resolution?

Here's a few questions, how is variable resolution as a trade-off for performance? Does it sacrifice visual fidelity to improve framerate? Or is it not even noticeable? Does it set an example that other developers might want to follow, on Xbox One and/or on PS4 games too?

How long did it take to install? how big all up?

I haven't played the game myself but

http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/halo-5-guardians-early-impressions--the-shooter-to-beat-this-holiday-season

According to Game Revolution who've been playing the game, they said and I quote

"The dynamic resolution is unnoticeable to the untrained eye"

Very interesting read...

For all intents and purposes the game appears to be 1080p at all times. Technically speaking, it downscales the resolution during intense situations that push the hardware to its limits. However, during these moments the action is so intense that it was almost impossible to focus on resolution over the gameplay.

...cool, now I wonder how it compares to the use of motion blur. That's something I'll just have to see for myself, when I finally get my hands on this. Can't wait.

Well, guess you got plenty time to play through story-mode before we normal people get to play it at releaseday. Fun for you:P

i'm not complaining with the free cars i got with the forza 6 anniversary edition!

It had 45GB, but that is minus the 9GB multiplayer patch (out on Oct 22 for the press) and probably minus day one general patch. It took me literally 2 hours and 15 minutes to download it.

Anyway, a couple of loose impressions: the directing in the full-motion video cutscenes is top-notch, they are in 60fps as well. There are many undertones to them that hadn't been in the series.

Music is amazing, maybe the best in the series, as it's by far most subtly put together.

This seems the hardest Halo game by far, I have to emphasize this: Guardians is extremely skill-based and I highly urge you NOT TO PLAY on Legendary for the first time, unless you have 3 great friends to play with.

The amount of split-second reactions the game requires from you is insane - better get familiarized with all the new moves or you will die a lot.

The battle with the first boss is like a Dark Souls version of Halo. I'm kidding you not.

The graphics are most of the time 1080p which gives it a really crisp and sharp look that was missing in the previous games, and if the resolution drops for prolonged periods of time, it is still above 900p (or sometimes 1080p without AA - trust me, I can tell bare 900p), the game also possesses a very capable tesselation solution, it really scales everything smartly.

However, some sacrifices were made in order to achieve that: some effects (but not all) are really basic, like fog or certain kinds of individual, object-based lighting. Burning vehicle debris seems to be pre-baked. You really feel that they had squeeze every pixel of screen to achieve buttery smooth experience. However, some aspects of it look phenomenal, especially beam-based particles and plasma-like explosions.

The textures really enjoy that pristine sharpness stemming from the resolution, however the design geometry is sometimes too similar to Halo 4 for my liking, thus you might not perceive it as such a huge leap.

The frame-rate is rock-solid, however, it NEVER goes below 60fps. Reloading checkpoint is usually instant (although in some heavy set-piece driven areas, it might take 2-3 seconds). You really feel polish in every single aspect, from menus to cut-scenes.

I have a couple of criticisms, but I'm not going to give Cows the ammo :P

That being said, I'm not too sure what to truly think of it yet, I'm in Mission 6 now. Out of these 6 levels, only 2 of them gave me Halo 4 vibe. There were some kind of big battles already, but they didn't fall into a gigantic territory I was hoping for (yet), but maybe those will come up later on.

Oh and by the way, Locke and John PLAY A BIT DIFFERENTLY, the way they move and one visor capability is different.

I also can really feel that the campaign is truly built for 4 human players, there are so many side-areas that is impossible to fully take advantage of while playing with AI.

@Salt_The_Fries: Hey man, any story impressions? Honestly one of the things I am pumped for most with this one.

@charizard1605: I still don't know where the story is going - which is a good thing, I guess. It's nothing you could expect or anticipate. It has different elements and layers to it than the previous games, at times spooky/eerie undertones.

Btw Locke is really likeable, and Fillion is just frigging great. This guy CAN act.

@Salt_The_Fries: Nice. Actually, what you said reminded me a bit of ODST for some reason, which is good, I really liked ODST.

Are you by any chance looking forward to Halo: The fall of reach animated series?

@Salt_The_Fries: Overall from what you've played, how does this compare to Halo 4 and Reach? Better, worse?

After getting into 40K, modern "bald space marine" science fiction that isn't 40K is kind of boring and lame for me.

Granted, I still greatly enjoyed Halo 2, 3, ODST and Reach.

@Salt_The_Fries: I know people been comparing it to halo 4 but how does it compare to the original halo so far?

@Salt_The_Fries: Thanks for the impressions. Please let us know more as you play through it.

Thanks for the impressions!

I skipped 4 and am thinking about playing it first. At the same time I have $50 in Microsoft gift cards and really want something for my Xbox. Should I splurge on this game?

4 had a fantastic campaign and story, I'd play through it at least once, find the terminals and get caught up to speed. As much as I love Halo's story it is heavily dependent on you understand the basics to understand what the hell is going on.

@Salt_The_Fries: I'm jelly.

How is it? Is the story good?

Haha! Thanks man, it is people like you that make SW a better place!!!

Does the Master Chief have a very handsome face underneath that helmet?

My brother got his $249.99 versions today which means I got it too (digitally). He ordered one but Amazon gave him 2, but he got charge twice so he'll have to ship one back and get a refund on the extra one. It's installing, 15% right now. Come on 45mbps go faster! But I don't think we could play until the 27th though lol.

Firefly was so awesome. *sniff

It's a shame I'll never play Halo 5. I have no friends with an Xbone, and even if I did, Halo 5 doesn't have split-screen. A damn shame.

To the ones interested in story. This is the game in which finally Halo starts making some goddamn sense instead of throwing random bullshit at you. All main elements of lore starting from the first Halo start creating a one big coherent picture and all it took me to get the basics was just some timeline from Kotaku and a Halo 4 text recap. Not some goddamn books spanning hundreds of pages.

There are also totally new undertones to the story and the atmosphere, and consequently the music. By the way they toned down the infantile elements like Grunts' chatter which is now significantly different, not downright oddball/cheesy. If somebody was putt off by the tone of previous Halos, I urge you to give it a try. However, it has not approached the dudebro territory, everything is treated with sufficient esteem.

you can spoiler tag this but do you fight any brutes or any enemies besides standard covenant and prometheans?

@mems_1224: There is something totally new. That's all I can tell ;)

@Litchie: I loved that he dressed up as Mal in an episode of Castle for Halloween. So good.

No. Here's a screenshot from the fourth mission (where you first play as Chief)

Has the SP been right on target with..... HOAT?

@SecretPolice:

-_-

I think "HOAT" is the word you've used the most. It's almost in every sentence you've posted for the last......1-2 months.

@acp_45:

Hey, quit peeking. :P

Yeah, I've said before, I'm pretty invested in this being The One and if not, I'm gonna catch hell around here but that's okay. lol

Well, if it is the One.....it's gonna feel good. Really good.

And then you've got some heavy stuff to throw at haters...

The problem is that whilst I'm pretty confident it will garner a high meta score, GS scores count here and the confidence level is very low about that. We shall see.... soon.

So instead of having a dozen different Halo 5 topics, feel free to post in the Halo 5 sticky.